Razcar |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
For me, the adventure paths. Looking at Paizo's output you can really tell where they came from, for in making adventures is where they excel, in my opinion. Loads of fun, well written, inventive (especially with the inclusiveness), great storytelling, sometimes even a little risqué (which is a breath of fresh air after TSR's reign of soccer mom puritanism) and - especially lately - fantastic production values. The art and art direction is amazing, and Paizo's art team don't get a sliver of the praise they deserve. The books are beautiful.
The D&D system is a convoluted, slow, fuzzy mess (but the nostalgic, lovable kind of mess), has always been like that, and Pathfinder didn't change much with it's polishing. They're peddling tons of player options though, so if you like to tinker with complicated builds to then take for test drives, I understand Pathfinder is your choice.
Golarion is a Disney World kind of fantasy setting, and I don't mean that in a good way. Here's 1800's Transylvania! Don't like that? Well, just turn around and you have vikings from the 9th century! No? Then good sir, take a step down here and you'll find revolutionary North America! France under Robespierre? Russia? Caribbean pirates? Who doesn't like Jack Sparrow, come on! OK, Imperial Spain/renaissance Italy with some diablo-hot seasoning? And if you don't like all these historical Euro-cultures thrown out haphazardly on a map, well then how about some of Barker's Cenobites? I understand why they made this business decision though. Golarion is a flip mat for the APs, for the continuation of Dungeon Magazine - but with their own intellectual property - and they needed all kinds of "classic" types of settings readily available so they could continue to send out adventures to their monthly subscribers, and consistency, theme, and tone be damned.
I can almost hear Lisa Stevens calling down the hall ten years ago: "Everyone with a home campaign setting; meeting in my office, STAT! WotC's just shafted us and we need something for next week. OK Jacobs, I like your Greyhawk:ish Varisa, and Sutter, your Dark Sun:ish Kaer Maga. Even though they don't fit together thematically let's bunch them in the same region and go. And we'll fill the rest with RL historical pastiches as we need. Now, who's got some good gods?"
So it's the AP's, if that wasn't made clear by the tirade above... ;)
J-Bone |
3 people marked this as a favorite. |
1. My friends and I use this particular system to gather together and keep in touch. We started on 1E but been with this system from the start.
2. Amazing Adventure Paths. We love them and aim to play all of them.
3. Wonderful setting.
4. I love the buffet of options.
5. Great community with interactive members of the Paizo staff.
Not Doing RPG Anymore |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I don't know why I didn't think of this one sooner.
I think for me as someone who learned playing first and experienced positives and negative as well as the same for 3 and 3.5. My favorite thing is the character options that help me make the characters that I come up with and In a meaningful way let me feel that the character is different then what other people might create given the same class point buy and etc.
It makes less mistakes than D&D does.