James Todd's page

Owen K. C. Stephens wrote:

Heheh. I'm just glad someone got it! Sometimes being an aging geek is a lonely road... :)

I resemble that remark. :P

I got the reference as well- - great movie, but I hated that scientist who created the supercomputer and then cursed Catwoman so that she turned into a hawk every morning and couldn't marry the replicant that she loved. Luckily Matthew Broderick resolved that situation as well.

There...deal with THAT nerdity.

Count me in for at least $50...I dropped my KQ subscription so I have some money freed up.

Just as an fyi, keep in mind that Paizo does apparently have a system in place that let's them send you updates to your legally purchased PDFs. So most of those issues should be resolved once they get back from the Con.

Understood...just seems like quite a large screwup -- I get that they can post new versions like other publishers...it's just in the past when I've had a publisher send out new versions its for small adjustments, not because huge amounts of the functionality are hosed.

It looks to me, based on the nearly unusably wrong bookmarks, and the fact that an entire page has moved, as if Paizo allowed the deadline of GenCon to determine the launch, rather than launching when the thing (pdf) was actually ready.

Is the page in the right place in the book, or did GenCon trump editing of the physical product as well? (need to know if I should cancel a preorder until they get the books right)

Just wait when you get the book and the Amazon orders will be moved to November due to shortage of books at the big A. :)

That would be unpleasant, but I'm not sure it justifies a doubling of the price vs. Amazon.

Also...if you like bookmarked files, don't buy the PDF at all right now...they are completely loused up...so your +10 can wait.

Made the mistake of buying the pdf, THEN coming on here to find out what was up...yes, they are horribly broken, and I'm kind of shocked it was rushed out in this condition.

Since the FIRST bookmark I clicked on was broken (sorcerer bloodline), and the second AND third, I would have to imagine that Paizo could have caught this using the very clever method of actually clicking on a few and seeing what happens before putting it out there.

I like the $10 price point...but I'd rather have paid $15 for a finished product. PDFs without working bookmarks are worth $0 to me. I guess this is an appeal to them to fix it quickly, but as noted above it seems like something they won't fix quickly.

Realizing Paizo's been around for a while, this was still sort of a "Big First" type of product - a chance to make a first impression...color me unimpressed.

EDIT: It seems like they're equally bad in the 'one file per' version, so I can't workaround it that way. Time to just put this away for a while and check in again in a few days.

Not to derail things, but is 3.5 compatible with 3.5?

The number of just freakishly, horribly broken bits that arose from the sea of various books has caused me to be far less worried about PF. The number of times I've had a clever character grab a combination of WOTC-book feats and PRCs and end up with Galactus is staggering.

That's where for me the concern falls apart...it LOOKS like, at least, the closer to a vanilla/core book only 3.5 game you're running, the less jarring PFRPG will be....and the more splat books and expansions you add, sure you increase the risk of issues with PF, but you also increase the risk of issues with the core game.

I will stay in this area, rather than moving to Necromancer - Clark is a great guy, but if he insists on moving to 4E, that pretty much takes me out of their customer base. I had a set of 4E books on bn.com preorder, but when I saw how they are trying to force publishers to stop supporting the version that I had planned to play in addition to 4e...nah...no thank you.

I never had an intention of buying into Pathfinder, either, but now that it's tantamount to a vote against the new restrictive GSL, count me in.

...

I'll continue to purchase Paizo products regardless of edition. However if 4E proves to be an improvement mechanically from 3.5, I think Paizo should adopt it.

Of course, assuming they could do it without harming the customer, there is also a train of thought that says that Paizo should stick with 3.5 even if 4E is a moderate success, if only A) to show that a company which produces good products can survive without the overblown WOTC, to which too much power has been given, B) to provide a series of products using 3.5 that will allow other small companies to build upon without moving to 4E, and C) to basically just stick it to WOTC.

While C sounds petty, it might make them a bit more considerate when dealing with their trade partners.

James Todd wrote:

and then finding that they are incomplete unless I subscribe to an online service.

My understanding is is that it won't be "incomplete" but those that are online get certain content not available in the books, in the same way that Dragon has extra mystery trees for the Shadowcaster, additional vestigates for the binder, additional PrCs, etc.

Of course, that may change as time goes on.

I understand that, but I also believe that based upon what appears to be their intense desire to hit us for cash at every turn (including no clear and absolute dismissal of the rumor about collectible vmini's! Yick), they will begin to make the books far less complete (evidence: $20 price tag on a hardcover book of hints on how to survive their own modules that they sell)....so yes, the stuff online will be 'extra', but the stuff in the base product - purchased at the old 30-40 prices, will be diminished to allow them to supply the web site without paying for truly additional material. Along the same lines of downloadable maps and content for videogames priced at a meager $10 that gets miraculously released a few hours after the base game hits stores for $60.

Just a quick one:

It's hard to give a lot of specifics, since so much is rumor, but things that keep me from going to 4E are:

1) Over-enthusiastic skill consolidation - Diplomacy does not require the same training as Bluffing or as Intimidation. The same goes for other consolidations.

2) Vancian magic seemingly out

3) Four 'roles' that appear to turn the game into City of Heroes - Hey, send the Tank Barbarian in to draw aggro from those zombies while my warlock hits them for 133t DoT!

and the one that's tough for me:

4) Incorporation of realm-specific items that should be in supplements into the core - for example: Warforged as a main race. Elves, wizards, fighters, thieves/rogues, are archetypes and can therefore fairly easily be placed in any campaign - WOTC seems to want to make things 'easier' by providing the whole world, which sadly makes it harder to run the game in a world the DM creates...sadly the same is true of much of Pathfinder.

For me the core books should be CORE - the basic building blocks of a campaign...in my opinion the gods provided in the 3.x PH were okay as examples, but as far as I want anyone to go in terms of putting Greyhawk/FR/Etc. material in the core. 'Named' spells are okay, because they're just names.

But 4E seems to want to put things in WOTC world, and DMs in WOTCs control.

It's untested waters. If Erik and a few other publishers decide to continue to mine 3.5, they become robust to 4E tanking. If they all jump ship to 4E and it fails...poof.

I will agree with the one poster that 2e was out so long that 3rd may have saved it...but how long has 3.5 been out? Does it need to be saved?

The big question will be: does the influx of new blood, who will likely have a large percentage of people who drop out quickly, be enough to offset those turned off by 4e? But we have to understand that WOTC, honestly, doesn't care if D&D dies if they can sell a few million $40 supplements right now..and they don't care if D&D as we currently understands it dies if they can convert a huge number of folks to a microtransactional subscription-based product.

Companies that produce 3e supplements will still get MY money. But I frankly think that WOTC is putting everyone's business on the table in a big gamble, and the best thing anyone can do is break that dependence, by either releasing their own nice 'core' rulebooks like Monte Cook and others have done, or some other mechanism.

Late to the party, and with a response that may or may not have merit.

I am currently subscribed to Pathfinder, but the flavor/nature of the adventures just doesn't fit with my campaign, so I'll likely let the subscription end. It's a great product, just doesn't help my campaign at all. People can say that's a limitation of my own creativity, and that's a fair accusation, but with Dungeon there was at least a module every issue or so that I could cannibalize.

Let me say that I have ZERO intention of starting with 4E, and buying not only all the books over again, finding they are completely incompatible with 3.0 and 3.5, and then finding that they are incomplete unless I subscribe to an online service. 4E is a non-starter with me.

So my response is kind of mixed.

IF Paizo sticks with 3.5 but only produces products in the 'Pathfinder world' or with that style that I cannot shoehorn into my campaign, they won't see much business from me - only if I see something I can use.

IF Paizo moves to 4E, they won't see ANY business from me.

IF Paizo stays with a line of 3.5 products that are more generally useful, I'll be a customer for a long time.

If I might make one suggestion, though, from an execution standpoint:

Could you try to use your artwork, but the existing coin sizing, denominations, and (perhaps most importantly) color coatings? Ideally, even the placement of the numbers should be close or the same, and all that changes is the style/nature of the non-numeric, non-color design.

As an existing owner of these coins, the last thing I want to start seeing is each campaign world with its own systems, so that I can't mix and match the coins on the tabletop. At sixty bucks a pop they are worth it, but FAR from a bargain, and if I have to own a set for each campaign world then suddenly it's just ludicrous. "Well, I have $300 dollars worth of campaign coins, but I can only use XX of them at a time, because these are Greyhawk coins, and these are Iron Heroes coins, and these are Forgotten Realms coins...etc" - - coins specific to your campaign world is a cool way to benefit the customer, but making them realm specific approaches gouging.