Pocket Pathfinder


Lost Omens Campaign Setting General Discussion


Recently listened to a podcast FTB where they talked about doing pocket sized rulebooks for RPG's. (One that actually fits in your pocket.) Say 8"x4"x1"?

I would be all for this, especially since you are required to carry your rulebooks with you at conventions in order to use material from them for Pathfinder Society and RPGA. Would drastically cut down on the total weight of materials I would be carrying. And if done right, would be great even at home, where you could have a copy that floats around the table that doesn't take up your dice rolling or map space.

Take out the pictures and simplify tables. Could even break up rulebooks. For example, if you were to do the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, you could separate out the things needed for making a character. Pages 1-157. And then have a second one with additional rules, combat, spells, magic items, prestige classes and the like. The only problem I see right away is that that if you want to play a spellcaster, you would have to buy both books.

You could even do an annual Pathfinder Companion pocket book. Or Pathfinder Chronicles pocket book. Or how about a Bestiary pocket book?

I know that there are many costs to this, and people will bring out the negatives about it, but it is not something I would buy in place of the actual books, but rather something I would buy as a supplement to them.

Just my thought. I would buy them if they were done well.

Contributor

Hum. If there were only some kind of portable electronic device that millions of people already owned that might be able to host such content in an easily searchable format along with other gaming related utilities. Someone should really get on that. ^_~

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Whatever are you implying Wes?

Contributor

Nothing. Nothing to see here.


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

That's so awesome. When will we have Verizon iphones?!?!

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Not for another three years when the exclusivity agreement with AT&T ends, AFAIK.


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
TriOmegaZero wrote:
Not for another three years when the exclusivity agreement with AT&T ends, AFAIK.

Aw crud..

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
TriOmegaZero wrote:
Not for another three years when the exclusivity agreement with AT&T ends, AFAIK.

That could be sooner, just read an article that Apple and AT&T have never actually announced how long thier contracts are for, and that lengths given out have been just speculation. And Now there are Rumors that Apple is thinking about opening IPhone open to other providers.

Article Here.


well if they do go for an adobe air deployment after the iphone, which I hope they do, then its quite possible you could see a version of it for whatever phone you got that has apps.

I can tell you now, that any internet base program that can count rounds and manage modifiers would be hugely successful. Our group currently games with Maptool because half the gaming group lives in other states. ToyRobots, our DM, diligently developed tools in maptool that count modifiers, help us roll attacks and skillchecks, count down durations, show remaining HP as a health bar, etc. It is the Shiz. Even when we get together for one week in the middle of the summer, we still use Maptool on a projector. Not to sound too obvious here, but computers handle minutia like nothing else


F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
Hum. If there were only some kind of portable electronic device that millions of people already owned that might be able to host such content in an easily searchable format along with other gaming related utilities. Someone should really get on that. ^_~

A talking Golarion Microgoblinbot? I have three. I can spare one if anyone wants it. The one remaining is post on Wes's house as a spy.

did I say that out loud?


F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
Hum. If there were only some kind of portable electronic device that millions of people already owned that might be able to host such content in an easily searchable format along with other gaming related utilities. Someone should really get on that. ^_~

Mock me if you like (especially disapointing coming from an editor), but some of us don't have hundreds of dollars to waste on a fancy phone that doesn't work where we live. AT&T is NOT an option, and thus, neither is the iPhone. Not including the outrageous money I would have to spend monthly for the service plan, compared to the small amount I spend now.

Not all of us use the latest in Apple gear, nor want to. The pocket rulebook would be for those of us without an iwhatever, and still want something weighing less than the 50lbs worth of core rulebooks we have to carry around.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

So are you wanting a Cliff's Notes book? Because that's the only thing I can think of. And the iTouch does everything the iPhone does, without the phone part. It's what I'm thinking of going to when the Pathfinder app is finished. And for the record, we were mocking you in good fun, not spite.

Grand Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

This makes me wonder if it would be possible to copy the text out of the pdf, pop it into MS Word or something similar, save it off as a text-only pdf (no graphics or links or other fancy stuff) and open that on an Amazon Kindle....

-Skeld

Contributor

Honestly, as much as iPhones are neato button-candy kewl, and some of my players even have them, they're overpriced for many circumstances, and the marriage to AT&T means that they're useless in all sorts of zones, including ones I visit regularly. And we have enough trouble at games with everyone plugging in their laptops without having to dig up a second power strip for everyone to plug in their iPhone chargers.

What I think people are talking about is traditional duodecimo size books, as opposed to to the folio size that's standard for game books, with hardback or reinforced softback covers. Do them as a set, one for each class with the spells or other common stuff broken out, and box set the whole reference so GMs could get the whole mess if they needed them.


shieldknight01 wrote:


Mock me if you like

I'm not the editor. But I won't mock you, either.

shieldknight01 wrote:


Some of us don't have hundreds of dollars to waste on a fancy phone that doesn't work where we live. AT&T is NOT an option, and thus, neither is the iPhone. Not including the outrageous money I would have to spend monthly for the service plan, compared to the small amount I spend now.

Well, my cell phone did cost more than small change (and I could probably afford paying the extra money for the iphone), and as far as I know, the iphone is not locked around here.

But I'm still not getting an iphone. Not ever.

Well, maybe when they start putting card slots (Micro SDHC) in there, have digital cameras with resolutions from somewhere this century built in, don't expect me to pay three-digit sums for that little apple logo alone, and, most importantly, get rid of their arrogant attitude.

Like I said: Not ever. I wouldn't buy their stuff if the alternative were not using computers, phones, music players and oxygen.

shieldknight01 wrote:


Not all of us use the latest in Apple gear, nor want to. The pocket rulebook would be for those of us without an iwhatever, and still want something weighing less than the 50lbs worth of core rulebooks we have to carry around.

It doesn't have to have an i at the beginning of its name. There's great equipment from other companies.

Scarab Sages

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Maps Subscriber

For a long time now, I have cut and pasted everything from the SRD I need for each character into a document for easy reference, like the feats they have, spell decriptions etc.

I have just created a "Player's Book" for PF by using the PRD, cutting, pasting, formatting and printing. It ended up being about 150 pages for the character generation stuff.

Although all my players have ordered the Book, we still haven't got it yet (Stupid distributors), but we have now made some characters at least.

All that said, it would be nice to have a pocket book. We would use it as the second household book...main book for the DM (currently my husband) and pocket book for the player (currently me).


iGnore all this lack of iLove. This iPhone user demands iPathfinder products. i thank you iN advance.

Dark Archive

You know if Crafty Games can do a pocket version then I think Paizo could do it also. It might take a few months and a lot of whining on our part, but they could do it.

<whine>Please! Pretty Please, with Asmodeus on top?</whine>


Is there a thread dedicated to the iPhone app and all its future awesome glory yet?

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Mairkurion {tm} wrote:
Is there a thread dedicated to the iPhone app and all its future awesome glory yet?

Start one

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Ask shieldknight if you can have this one when he's done using it. ^^


TriOmegaZero wrote:
Ask shieldknight if you can have this one when he's done using it. ^^

I'm not done yet.

While there is the future option of an app on the iPhone and iTouch. There may still be a market for a pocket rulebook. Something I believe Paizo should at least consider and look into. It's another product that could be marketed. And you already have the material to go into it. The main cost would be the printing, not the creation of material.

Where's the marketing manager? It's just an idea, and I thought I would post it here to see if there was anyone else who would be interested.

If you have an iWhatever and get the app, great, good for you. But for the rest of us, a pocket rulebook/s would go a long way. You could even eventually put together compilations. The Pathfinder Companion Compilation, or Chronicles, or whatever else may be needed. It would definitely have to be small enough to fit in my pocket though.

Thanks for the feedback.

And I believe there already is a thread dedicated to the iPhone app. At least I believe there is one on the Yahoo Group page.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Yes, there is. I mocked them too, just to be fair. ^^

But I do agree with you, a pocket reference would be a handy tool. And I'm sure they will consider it if they can find a spot in their schedule.


It would be nice to have a website with the Pathfinder RPG Rules on it like they have for 3.5. This would also make life easier. It wouldn't hurt book sales since gamers lover their books.

System Ref. Doc v3.5

Hypertext d20

Liberty's Edge

Russell Akred wrote:

It would be nice to have a website with the Pathfinder RPG Rules on it like they have for 3.5. This would also make life easier. It wouldn't hurt book sales since gamers lover their books.

System Ref. Doc v3.5

Hypertext d20

Check out the Pathfinder SRD


Gene wrote:
Russell Akred wrote:

It would be nice to have a website with the Pathfinder RPG Rules on it like they have for 3.5. This would also make life easier. It wouldn't hurt book sales since gamers lover their books.

System Ref. Doc v3.5

Hypertext d20

Check out the Pathfinder SRD

Now that's what I call service. Already linked my warhorn site to it.

http://www.warhorn.org/cincinnati/

Contributor

shieldknight01 wrote:
Mock me if you like....

Whoa whoa whoa. That TOTALLY wasn't meant as mockery. Sorry if it came off like that - stupid impersonal internet, I guess sometimes the smiley face wink combo ascii (^_~) just doesn't cut it. In fact, it was meant as a sideway's way of saying that we're working on something that we really haven't officially announced yet.

If the iPhone idea doesn't do it for ya, here's more of our thinking of a pocket version of the PFRPG and why.

Ultimately, it's not something we have any plans to do. The amount of time it would take to find a printer to handle this in a medium we'd be happy with; have our art staff strip out the gorgeous art, reflow the text, and recreate an attractive layout that we'd put our name on; and the time it would take our editors to re-edit and review such a thing in a new layout would make this a project on par with any of our other monthly offerings, if not even more strenuous. Also, as much of our business and flexibility as a company is built on a subscription-based model, we can't throw a reprint of any size into our PF RPG subscription line - essentially forcing people to buy the same book twice - so it would have to be a stand alone effort, which comes with a host of other financial issues and expectations. And, at its current nearly 600 page size, it'd be hard for me to imagine a version of the book that retains all of the rules we need to fit in there in a way that's visually appealing (something that will ALWAYS remain important for any of our endeavors) and would still fit in the deepest of pockets.

All of that being said! Green Ronin did something very similar to this for the Player's Handbook and all several years back. Hypothetically I someone could do something similar with our SRD - not 100% on the legalese on all that, but I figure it's a similar proposition. It would just be a matter of finding a way to make such a thing both cost effective and marketable - which I suspect a small venture might be able to do. So the option is out there!

Again, sorry for any miscommunication man! MWAH!


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Gene wrote:
Russell Akred wrote:

It would be nice to have a website with the Pathfinder RPG Rules on it like they have for 3.5. This would also make life easier. It wouldn't hurt book sales since gamers lover their books.

System Ref. Doc v3.5

Hypertext d20

Check out the Pathfinder SRD

Tecnically the Paizo one is a "PRD" (pathfinder reference document) but if you want to try out a fan made/maintained site more similar in style to d20srd.org, you can try this site.

RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32

shieldknight01 wrote:
F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
Hum. If there were only some kind of portable electronic device that millions of people already owned that might be able to host such content in an easily searchable format along with other gaming related utilities. Someone should really get on that. ^_~

Mock me if you like (especially disapointing coming from an editor), but some of us don't have hundreds of dollars to waste on a fancy phone that doesn't work where we live. AT&T is NOT an option, and thus, neither is the iPhone. Not including the outrageous money I would have to spend monthly for the service plan, compared to the small amount I spend now.

Not all of us use the latest in Apple gear, nor want to. The pocket rulebook would be for those of us without an iwhatever, and still want something weighing less than the 50lbs worth of core rulebooks we have to carry around.

Actually, I thought first of a Computer -- desktop or laptop -- and a PDF. With a netbook or laptop, you can carry your entire Paizo library, it is searchable and easy to use :)


F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
shieldknight01 wrote:
Mock me if you like....
Whoa whoa whoa. That TOTALLY wasn't meant as mockery. Sorry if it came off like that - stupid impersonal internet, I guess sometimes the smiley face wink combo ascii (^_~) just doesn't cut it. In fact, it was meant as a sideway's way of saying that we're working on something that we really haven't officially announced yet.

Sorry, but yeah the internet is so impersonal and is one of the reasons I don't like communicating with it. Probably why I don't usually write on the messageboards. I'll back off and read for a while again.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

So for anyone who wants a stripped down version of the PRD, you can download a text-only version from d20pfsrd.com. Go to the downloads page and get prd-turbo.rar.

Extract the files to a directory, open index.html in a web browser then click through the various pages and print away.

You can print just what you want too. If you don't need the Combat section, don't print that section. Print the spells you want/need.

Hope that helps somewhat.


Impersonal?

I thought the internet was multi=personal!

Contributor

shieldknight01 wrote:
I'll back off and read for a while again.

No worries, and great question here and I'm glad to give a little insight into how things go around here and why we can and can't do certain things. So please keep posting and throwing out ideas. Also feel free to ignore that editor with the black dragon icon (he's kind of a dick). :P

Mairkurion {tm} wrote:
I thought the internet was multi=personal!

Only the sites YOU visit Mairkurion. You dirty girl. :P

Contributor

jreyst wrote:
So for anyone who wants a stripped down version of the PRD, you can download a text-only version from d20pfsrd.com. Go to the downloads page and get prd-turbo.rar.

Awesome! I know tons of folks will find this SUPER handy!


shieldknight01 wrote:
Sorry, but yeah the internet is so impersonal and is one of the reasons I don't like communicating with it. Probably why I don't usually write on the messageboards. I'll back off and read for a while again.

Dont' stress it, shieldknight01. Misreads happen all the time (I'm guilty of this from time to time). If you didn't know Wes' writing style enough to guage his intention, his winking emoticon was a good indicator that he was being playful. But even then, it can be hard to tell gentle from berating sarcasm sometimes. Wes ia beam of sunshine kind of guy though. You can trust him to be coming a well lit place. (Except when people criticize his brand of toothpaste - brother goes MAD!)

That said, forgetting to place a proper emoticon can get your sack chewed off. And lemme tell ya, sacklessness hurts! Why it was my mutilated nethers that inspired these!


F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
Mairkurion {tm} wrote:
I thought the internet was multi-personal!
Only the sites YOU visit Mairkurion. You dirty girl. :P

Which is, mostly, this one...


The Jade wrote:
excuses for the bad dragon and yet more pouch-gazing

Don't lie to new folks, Rone! Just look at the copious amounts of viscous acid dripping from his avatar's jows! Why, even the smiley he puts in his response to me above has a great big dollop of acid dangling from his maw, about to plash down upon me and burn his chauvinistic taunt forever on my fair, leafy (übermasculine) face.

(BTW, man, I'm beginning to think you have some kind of scrotal fixation. Too bad you weren't in my class today when we talked about covenant-making rites in Ancient Israel...)


Mairkurion {tm} wrote:
(BTW, man, I'm beginning to think you have some kind of scrotal fixation. Too bad you weren't in my class today when we talked about covenant-making rites in Ancient Israel...)

Hey, a coinpurse is a coinpurse.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
jreyst wrote:
So for anyone who wants a stripped down version of the PRD, you can download a text-only version from d20pfsrd.com. Go to the downloads page and get prd-turbo.rar.
Awesome! I know tons of folks will find this SUPER handy!

I should also have a printable pdf coming up shortly.


I personally love the idea of a pocket rulebook.

I don't need yet another electronic device in my life, at a cell phone, and iPod, and a stereo, I have enough (though I do want to get a laptop...)


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Turbo-PRD version 2 (the PDF edition) is now available on d20pfsrd.com.

This is a PDF copy of the Paizo PRD with all color and fancy formatting stripped out. Its plain text with no background colors or images. The page count is high because after I stripped out the css formatting the font was large. This (page count & general appearance) will be improved drastically in a future version but for now, this is what I have.

I added bookmarks and kept the links from the PRD.

Let me know if something doesn't work. I already know some of the links don't work, specifically, in the magic items area.

Oh, and you can get it on the Downloads page of d20pfsrd.com.

Come and git 'er folks!


F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
shieldknight01 wrote:
I'll back off and read for a while again.

No worries, and great question here and I'm glad to give a little insight into how things go around here and why we can and can't do certain things. So please keep posting and throwing out ideas. Also feel free to ignore that editor with the black dragon icon (he's kind of a dick). :P

Mairkurion {tm} wrote:
I thought the internet was multi=personal!
Only the sites YOU visit Mairkurion. You dirty girl. :P

Dirty GIRL?!?! I thought you were a boy... or is Wes mocking you as well? (^_~)


Hugo Solis wrote:
Dirty GIRL?!?! I thought you were a boy... or is Wes mocking you as well? (^_~)

Yeah, ol' drooly is mocking me. But only because he knows that it would take something more like a North Korean dictator's wish-fulfillment to put me back in lurking mode.


ChrisRevocateur wrote:


I don't need yet another electronic device in my life

Well, I do think you cannot have enough of these. As long as they're good.


Is it possible that not everyone has found this thread?

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