The Last Pathfinder's Journal

Finally! :))))

I would still like to see a compilation or two collecting all the Pathfinder journals from the APs and the Wednesday web series shorts.

;_;

The stories...

I'm with Rysky. I understand the removal, but I really loved the fiction.

This, along with the death of the web fiction, makes me sad. I thought the short fiction was a great place to explore niche areas of the setting, not to mention give budding authors a chance to spread their wings.

I know TOR is going strong with the Tales line, I just hope a place for short stories in Golarion (and/or a Starfinder tales type venture) develops to fill the gap.

Very disapointing

... Starfinder's Journal?

I look forward to seeing what comes next.

As long as it isn't Downer.

Add me to the list bemoaning the death of this and the web fiction. Understand the stated reasoning, but think it is a large loss to the product.

This, along with the death of the web fiction, makes me sad. I thought the short fiction was a great place to explore niche areas of the setting, not to mention give budding authors a chance to spread their wings.

The short story collection books for Warhammer and the Forgotten Realms were some of my favorites. I just don't want to collect all the old AP's or a bunch of ebooks to get them all. A nice annual of short stories mixed into the Tales line would be awesome.

I agree a fond farewell, but acknowledgement that the need in the APs isn't there now that the novel lines are so well established.

I think my favourite are the ones in Giantslayer, but there a lot of good ones over the years. Good call on keeping it until the end of Strange Aeons, I figure if you didn't you probably wouldn't hear the end of it from your authors who you didn't let write a Mythos story.

I agree it was time...but what about ePubs of the previous Journals?

Finally! :))))

Indeed! I'm honestly quite surprised that they lasted as long as they did. I loved the journals in the early years, but I looked at them less and less as time has passed. Now, I don't even glance at them.

I think this is good news, and I can't wait to see what Paizo does with the extra pages.

That is a great article so don't take this the wrong way, but I'm glad the fiction is out. I will always vote for more game material.

Sad.

Note that you can find some fan-written short fiction at Pathfinder Chronicler. Their website has a TERRIBLE color scheme -- dark grey on black. I've pointed some people to stories there, and those people have immediately rejected the site because the color choices make it unreadable.

But, if you buy the compilations (strictly speaking, give a donation in exchange for the compilations), which in years past you could do at PaizoCon, or if you can (somehow) stomach the dark-grey-on-black website, or if you're savvy enough to replace the CSS into a reasonable color scheme, some of the stories there are pretty good.

(I've also told the folks running the desk at PaizoCon every year they've been there how troublesome their color scheme is, but alas nothing ever happened from my feedback.)

I too am sad to see the fiction go, both because it means 6 pages of extra work for me to do on a monthly basis, but also because it was one of the elements of Pathfinder that first hooked me as a fan. Back when I was just "superfan" Yoda8myhead, I even made my own lulu.com compilation of all of Eando Kline's adventures so I could more easily read them on my daily commute (see this blog post from 2009 for pictures)—my first foray into publishing.

I would still like to see a compilation or two collecting all the Pathfinder journals from the APs and the Wednesday web series shorts.

Same, I'm not gonna go and grab all of the adventure paths just for the stories, but a collection of the journals would be badass.

End of an era.

It is sad that I will never again experience an adventure and realize I read about the events being referenced in it back in AP #X.

;_;

The stories...

*pats Rysky on the shoulder* I know. But we'll still have the memories...

Lots of the earlier ones did get collected, and you can buy them as epubs. I think they stopped doing it after Shattered Star, however. (At least, last time I checked.)

See http://paizo.com/pathfinder/tales/shorts

Eando Kline was what sold me on Pathfinder. I dug the adventures, but reading about Eando and his adventures really cemented the world as a real place in my imagination. I will miss this section, but I completely understand the need for the additional space.

Plus, I can now look forward to Starfinder's Eando Kline in SPAAAACE stories!

Sad to hear it go.

I remember being so bummed when Dungeon and Dragon were being cancelled, especially after the awesomeness of the Age of Worms and Savage Tide. When Paizo went on their own, I thought it would go the way of all the OGL spinoffs. Instead they made something great and it kept getting better.

I've never been so pleased to have been wrong.

I too am sad to see the fiction go, both because it means 6 pages of extra work for me to do on a monthly basis, but also because it was one of the elements of Pathfinder that first hooked me as a fan. Back when I was just "superfan" Yoda8myhead, I even made my own lulu.com compilation of all of Eando Kline's adventures so I could more easily read them on my daily commute (see this blog post from 2009 for pictures)—my first foray into publishing.

Oh man, blast from the past! Mark handing me that little book was one of my most memorable fan interactions, as it was the closest I'd ever been at the time to holding a novel I'd written.

Fun fact: For several years after, my author photo was that picture with Death's Heretic photoshopped in over the cover. :D

I agree it was time...but what about ePubs of the previous Journals?

In the backlog, and hopefully moving up list of priorities soon :)

Also, thank you to everyone posting their fond memories of the journal! This sort of thing is always bittersweet, but I promise that it's helping make way for brand new awesomeness.

Ross Byers wrote:

I agree it was time...but what about ePubs of the previous Journals?

In the backlog, and hopefully moving up list of priorities soon :)

Yay!

I'm glad the fiction is gone. Without a metaplot I didn't care about it at all. I feelbthe same way about Golarion in general tbh

I'm with Rysky. I understand the removal, but I really loved the fiction.

This, along with the death of the web fiction, makes me sad. I thought the short fiction was a great place to explore niche areas of the setting, not to mention give budding authors a chance to spread their wings.

I know TOR is going strong with the Tales line, I just hope a place for short stories in Golarion (and/or a Starfinder tales type venture) develops to fill the gap.

This. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of more/longer/better backmatter articles! But the Journals and other works of short fiction really brought the APs to life.

Even the few paragraphs of in-world fiction at the beginning of the chapters in the hardcovers really get me stoked up for what's inside. For example, the interaction between Sajan and Seelah in Chapter 1 of Horror Adventures made me really keen to know What Happens Next?!?!?. The importance of even the shortest bits of fiction should never be undervalued.

I don't like it.
There is nothing to replace this, no place for new writers to get into Pathfinder.
The web fiction stories were great and i wish these stories and the Journals would be collected into physical books.

But i guess this is not possible with TOR Books having the exclusive rights now.

I hope this doesn't signal the end for the Pathfinder Tales.

Even the few paragraphs of in-world fiction at the beginning of the chapters in the hardcovers really get me stoked up for what's inside. For example, the interaction between Sajan and Seelah in Chapter 1 of Horror Adventures made me really keen to know What Happens Next?!?!?. The importance of even the shortest bits of fiction should never be undervalued.

Thank you! I've written those little chapter opener bits for almost all the hardcovers, and I've really enjoyed developing the iconics' personalities through them. So much good-natured snark. :D

Gorbacz wrote:

Finally! :))))

Indeed! I'm honestly quite surprised that they lasted as long as they did. I loved the journals in the early years, but I looked at them less and less as time has passed. Now, I don't even glance at them.

I think this is good news, and I can't wait to see what Paizo does with the extra pages.

Agreed on all counts.

Thank you! I've written those little chapter opener bits for almost all the hardcovers, and I've really enjoyed developing the iconics' personalities through them. So much good-natured snark. :D

Ah! Then it's your fault that I spewed tea out of my nose!

Great(ly twisted) minds think alike!

I think I read one, the one in the first part of Iron Gods, and a bit of one that had bloatmages. I read the odd story on the blog, maybe one had an eidolon in it? They were each ok, standard fantasy fare, at times quite good. But even when I bought Dragon back in the day, though some were quite interesting or diverting or intriguing, they weren't what I bought the magazine for.

The removal of short fiction to make way for more game-related content is a plus as far as I'm concerned. Much like Coridan, I'm not invested in Golarian in the slightest, so there is less of a wrench there.

Bring on the new format!

I am very sad. The journal from rise of the runelords was what inspired me to start Game Mastering, in 3.5, then shortly switched to pathfinder. of the aps I have, the journal was what invested me in the APs. it's hard to explain, but I saw the short fiction as a statement. I saw it as an example. "There might be game rules, but in the end, you can throw them out as long as they seem as cool as the stories." they also felt like a treat for the game master. "hey, you just spent the better part of your day reading headache inducing stat blocks and numbers and encounter areas. Here is a nice, rules-free fiction to allow your mind to rest."

not saying that pathfinder's rule system is bad, I just describe myself as chaotic in real life. so reading stat block after stat block leaves my mind tired.

the fiction gave me time to decompress all the numbers in my head.

For me this is sad news. I remember thumbing through Burnt offerings and the Skinsaw murders in my local game store and purchasing them. I didn't want to read the adventures because a friend was going to be running them. But I did read the installments of Eando Kline's journal and it made the setting come alive for me.

I honestly will not miss it in the least. A long overdue change, IMO. I think it was easily the least beloved section of PF AP. It was very rare that I bothered to read it at all.

I know this will make some readers unhappy, but c'est la vie.

I haven't ever been a particularly avid reader of that section, and I think that the novel line offers better scope for fiction.

One suggestion, though- perhaps a Pathfinder Tales collection of short stories might be in order?

Whenever I DID read the fiction,I was gratified that I could keep pace without sinking my life into a full-length novel.

One suggestion, though- perhaps a Pathfinder Tales collection of short stories might be in order?

Whenever I DID read the fiction,I was gratified that I could keep pace without sinking my life into a full-length novel.

An anthology, perhaps?

Finally! :))))

I with Gorbacz here, I have been wanting this to happen for a long time. There is a place for the Short Stories but it was never the APs.

I'd buy an anthology of Pathfinder short stories in a heartbeat. You could title it, say, "Glaives Against Gloom" ;-)

My issue with the fiction was...each chapter of the multi-volume stories was so short that I seldom could ever remember and keep track of the characters in the wait for the next volume (especially if volumes were delayed as sometimes happened.

So I am actually kind of glad that we are losing the fiction for more backmatter, since it's more material I am likely to read. As long as designing those extra pages are not too much extra work for the folks developing stuff!

Honestly, the fiction was the first thing I read in each volume. I skipped right past the AP to avoid spoiling it for whenever I got to play it. Finding out what happened next in the fiction was a huge draw for the first couple years.

My issue with the fiction was...each chapter of the multi-volume stories was so short that I seldom could ever remember and keep track of the characters in the wait for the next volume (especially if volumes were delayed as sometimes happened.

For this reason, I would mostly wait until I had the whole AP before reading the whole thing in one go.

Of course, I'm a latecomer... I only started getting the APs with Shattered Star. (I now have picked up some of the earlier ones.) As such, I ended up reading the earlier AP stories from the $4.99 (or whatever) epubs that Paizo sells.

I'm not going to miss this at all; I haven't read the vast majority of the fiction, nor do I particularly care to. Having 6 extra pages of game-relevant material is a plus in my book, especially if it also helps expand the setting (like another gazetteer, or allowing existing support articles to be more in-depth).

I'm glad that the fiction is moving out of the AP product line, but that's solely because I think it's been a little too broad. It will be good to see more gaming material and that you'll have a little more flexibility in regard to adventure length.

Hopefully, the new-format PF Tales do really well and we can start to see them come out monthly so that we don't actually lose out on any fiction. :)

When RotRL first came out, I really liked the Eando Kline story. For the first 18 issues, it was the first thing I read whenever I got my copy. I was bummed when Eando's story arc came to a close. I think I only read the AP fiction in a couple issues after that. I just didn't care for the stories or characters.

At this point, it's time for the fiction to go. As others have said, I do kinda dislike the fact that the web fiction has also been discontinued. It's hard for me to dig into a novel these days (work, kids, adulting, etc.; I'm too tired to read much).

I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys do with a few extra pages!

-Skeld

While the end to the Pathfinder's Journal is somewhat bittersweet, I'm kinda happy that I get to close it out with the final fiction piece in the last volume of Strange Aeons (which I'm finishing up this very evening... which is already late. *Bad freelancer, bad!*).

Honestly, the fiction was the first thing I read in each volume. I skipped right past the AP to avoid spoiling it for whenever I got to play it. Finding out what happened next in the fiction was a huge draw for the first couple years.

This is pretty much my experience. I would wait until all 6 issues were out and then read them all at once.

I will miss these.

One thing no one's mentioned is that I found it appealing that the fiction, short as it may have been, helped flesh out a small piece of Golarion (obviously loosely tied to the AP's locales). It acted as a backdrop to get you interested in the corner of the world the AP played out in.

I always enjoyed the fiction.

I much prefer having the short fiction (web fiction and AP fiction) to Pathfinder Tales because it was a different scale of fiction that was fun to read in an evening.

The Tales line occupies a different headspace.

I would totally subscribe to a PF monthly/weekly short fiction line, even if it was online or pdf only (the kind of thing I see on some Patreon things).

I would totally subscribe to a PF monthly/weekly short fiction line, even if it was online or pdf only (the kind of thing I see on some Patreon things).

I also would subscribe to that.