First Look at Pathfinder Remastered Covers

I've already talked to two of my local stores so that they are aware that these collectors' items* are in the works.

One of them was staffed by a clueless kid who only knew about Magic cards, but the other was able to show me their distributor's web page. Can't actually order them yet, but at least the staff there is knowledgeable now. They suggested July as a time to return to order them.

*Collectors' items" and "only available through brick-and-mortar gaming stores" seemed to light up their eyes.

I've done the same. my FLGS(s) are aware of their existence, and are seeing "a lot of interest" in them, but are so far not doing pre-orders for them as they've not received any information from their suppliers//Paizo Distributers. So I've been stuck with just checking their sites every week or so to see if they're listed yet.

Any word officially when Paizo will release the pre-order information (to Canada)?

Me, I'm still holding out hope for an AP set in Golarion's past someday. I know that's been firmly nixed on at least one occasion, but it would be so cool.

Which ways has it been nixed?

Like, they may have nixed the idea of just having an AP set in the past. Sure.

Have they nixed the idea of having an AP where you ricochet back and forth through time, unable to really change any major events but possibly able to retroactively rescue some group from extinction by pulling them back into the future/present with you? (...or finding critically important information, or leaving a vulnerability in what will become a terrible for or....)

Have they nixed the idea of a powerful postcognition effect that... no, wait. That's just Assassin's Creed: Golarion. Nevermind. Next!

Have they nixed the idea of a planar shard that emulates a little slice of history, where everyone thinks they're in whatever place in the past it is, and you kind of need to humor them in order to complete your quest?

Have they nixed the idea of an adventure where you wind up inside the living memory of a powerful and long-lived aberrant or similar creature and need to seek out information in that place while not falling prey to the various dangers and defense, until you can finally start to stage an assault (or an intervention!) from inside of their mind, hopefully both escaping and affecting them in whatever way you'd hoped to affect them?

Actually, it sounds like Season Of Ghosts is set in the past, which is cool, and I didn't know it at the time. I think it's probably about as far as they're going to go into that concept.

Actually, it sounds like Season Of Ghosts is set in the past, which is cool, and I didn't know it at the time. I think it's probably about as far as they're going to go into that concept.

Season of Ghosts begins on the first day of summer in the year 7108 IC (which converts to 4608 AR), so 2 years or so after the Age of Lost Omens begins.

This is sort of an experiment in that regard to see how folks react to something like this, but also, the entire adventure path is pretty tightly constrained to a small region in Willowshore. There's not going to be a chance for your PCs to swoop around the world and take part in historical events in other words.

We'll see if we want to do something like that again in the future after these tentative first steps.

Kobold Catgirl wrote:

Actually, it sounds like Season Of Ghosts is set in the past, which is cool, and I didn't know it at the time. I think it's probably about as far as they're going to go into that concept.

Season of Ghosts begins on the first day of summer in the year 7108 IC (which converts to 4608 AR), so 2 years or so after the Age of Lost Omens begins.

This is sort of an experiment in that regard to see how folks react to something like this, but also, the entire adventure path is pretty tightly constrained to a small region in Willowshore. There's not going to be a chance for your PCs to swoop around the world and take part in historical events in other words.

We'll see if we want to do something like that again in the future after these tentative first steps.

Oh. OH. That is very intersting!

Kobold Catgirl wrote:

Actually, it sounds like Season Of Ghosts is set in the past, which is cool, and I didn't know it at the time. I think it's probably about as far as they're going to go into that concept.

Season of Ghosts begins on the first day of summer in the year 7108 IC (which converts to 4608 AR), so 2 years or so after the Age of Lost Omens begins.

This is sort of an experiment in that regard to see how folks react to something like this, but also, the entire adventure path is pretty tightly constrained to a small region in Willowshore. There's not going to be a chance for your PCs to swoop around the world and take part in historical events in other words.

We'll see if we want to do something like that again in the future after these tentative first steps.

Whoa, I missed that! Another cool element to an already intriguing campaign.

Kobold Catgirl wrote:

Actually, it sounds like Season Of Ghosts is set in the past, which is cool, and I didn't know it at the time. I think it's probably about as far as they're going to go into that concept.

Season of Ghosts begins on the first day of summer in the year 7108 IC (which converts to 4608 AR), so 2 years or so after the Age of Lost Omens begins.

This is sort of an experiment in that regard to see how folks react to something like this, but also, the entire adventure path is pretty tightly constrained to a small region in Willowshore. There's not going to be a chance for your PCs to swoop around the world and take part in historical events in other words.

We'll see if we want to do something like that again in the future after these tentative first steps.

..... expletive, my hype is unbound now.

Kobold Catgirl wrote:

Actually, it sounds like Season Of Ghosts is set in the past, which is cool, and I didn't know it at the time. I think it's probably about as far as they're going to go into that concept.

Season of Ghosts begins on the first day of summer in the year 7108 IC (which converts to 4608 AR), so 2 years or so after the Age of Lost Omens begins.

This is sort of an experiment in that regard to see how folks react to something like this, but also, the entire adventure path is pretty tightly constrained to a small region in Willowshore. There's not going to be a chance for your PCs to swoop around the world and take part in historical events in other words.

We'll see if we want to do something like that again in the future after these tentative first steps.

That kinda makes me wish legacy background concept from age of ashes' final volume came back for it x'D

Its much easier to have "oh hey your pcs are your previous characters' children" when you don't need to "and suddenly setting jumps 18 years to future beyond real life ap releases" x'D

When can our local hobby shop expect to order these editions?

When can our local hobby shop expect to order these editions?

Now. The products have been solicited to distributors.

Nalis wrote:

When can our local hobby shop expect to order these editions?

Now. The products have been solicited to distributors.

My FLGS told me we last week that we could pre-order them today through him. He just wasn’t set up to take the pre-orders the last society night.

So here we go!

For those wondering, that's the new diabolic dragon on the Player Core and the new mirage dragon on the GM Core. :)

Shout outs to the ever amazing Kent Hamilton for concepting those dragons in-house and, of course, to the inimitable Wayne Reynolds for making them look absolutely killer on these covers!

Are there plans to make the Monster Core and Player Core 2 etc in the same style? They look so good and unique!

Luis Loza wrote:

For those wondering, that's the new diabolic dragon on the Player Core and the new mirage dragon on the GM Core. :)

Shout outs to the ever amazing Kent Hamilton for concepting those dragons in-house and, of course, to the inimitable Wayne Reynolds for making them look absolutely killer on these covers!

Are there plans to make the Monster Core and Player Core 2 etc in the same style? They look so good and unique!

I'm wondering this too, as I really want the four core books to look good together

I have mixed feelings about uncolored rulebook covers, but Xanderghul as the cover of the game's most important book has my eternal approval!

Luis Loza wrote:

For those wondering, that's the new diabolic dragon on the Player Core and the new mirage dragon on the GM Core. :)

Shout outs to the ever amazing Kent Hamilton for concepting those dragons in-house and, of course, to the inimitable Wayne Reynolds for making them look absolutely killer on these covers!

Are there plans to make the Monster Core and Player Core 2 etc in the same style? They look so good and unique!

Yes! Howl of the Wild too.

RogueWraith909 wrote:

Luis Loza wrote:

For those wondering, that's the new diabolic dragon on the Player Core and the new mirage dragon on the GM Core. :)

Shout outs to the ever amazing Kent Hamilton for concepting those dragons in-house and, of course, to the inimitable Wayne Reynolds for making them look absolutely killer on these covers!

Are there plans to make the Monster Core and Player Core 2 etc in the same style? They look so good and unique!

Yes! Howl of the Wild too.

Hmm, not keen on anything out of the core four. It ruins the uniqueness of it for me.

Aaron Shanks wrote:

RogueWraith909 wrote:

Luis Loza wrote:

For those wondering, that's the new diabolic dragon on the Player Core and the new mirage dragon on the GM Core. :)

Shout outs to the ever amazing Kent Hamilton for concepting those dragons in-house and, of course, to the inimitable Wayne Reynolds for making them look absolutely killer on these covers!

Are there plans to make the Monster Core and Player Core 2 etc in the same style? They look so good and unique!

Yes! Howl of the Wild too.

Hmm, not keen on anything out of the core four. It ruins the uniqueness of it for me.

If it helps local games stores we will have sketch covers for the foreseeable future.

Matthew Morris wrote:

Aaron Shanks wrote:

RogueWraith909 wrote:

Luis Loza wrote:

For those wondering, that's the new diabolic dragon on the Player Core and the new mirage dragon on the GM Core. :)

Shout outs to the ever amazing Kent Hamilton for concepting those dragons in-house and, of course, to the inimitable Wayne Reynolds for making them look absolutely killer on these covers!

Are there plans to make the Monster Core and Player Core 2 etc in the same style? They look so good and unique!

Yes! Howl of the Wild too.

Hmm, not keen on anything out of the core four. It ruins the uniqueness of it for me.

If it helps local games stores we will have sketch covers for the foreseeable future.

Oh, I'm all for helping the FLGS. Heck if I can wrap my brain around PF2R a lot of the changes have me interested enough to run something. Just voicing my 2 c-bills. :-)

Not sure where else to post this, but Peach State Hobby Distribution is not allowing my LGS to order sketch covers unless they also order 2 non-sketch covers per sketch cover order. This policy makes no sense because the entire point of the sketch covers is to incentivize people to buy from LGS, right? Peach State Hobby Distribution claims that this is a Paizo policy. Does anyone know anything about this?

Not sure where else to post this, but Peach State Hobby Distribution is not allowing my LGS to order sketch covers unless they also order 2 non-sketch covers per sketch cover order. This policy makes no sense because the entire point of the sketch covers is to incentivize people to buy from LGS, right? Peach State Hobby Distribution claims that this is a Paizo policy. Does anyone know anything about this?

I don't, and I don't know who at Paizo would be in charge of such a policy. So I'd be writing to customer service and asking them wtf.

Bryan H wrote:

Not sure where else to post this, but Peach State Hobby Distribution is not allowing my LGS to order sketch covers unless they also order 2 non-sketch covers per sketch cover order. This policy makes no sense because the entire point of the sketch covers is to incentivize people to buy from LGS, right? Peach State Hobby Distribution claims that this is a Paizo policy. Does anyone know anything about this?

I don't, and I don't know who at Paizo would be in charge of such a policy. So I'd be writing to customer service and asking them wtf.

Yeah, I've emailed customer support. I just hope we can figure this out before all the copies are gone. There's a few people at my LGS who really want the sketch covers but no one wants to pay $300 for two books they want and four they don't.

Also, small update: Southern Hobby told us that they received zero copies of the sketch covers. Huge bummer.

My local store had to order 10 copies of the regular cover in order to get 1 sketch cover. It would have nicer if the rarity of the sketch version could have been made more clear. The blog post above made it sound like anyone could special order a sketch cover. That is not the way it worked out at my local store. The number of people wanting a sketch cover exceeded the number of copies they will be getting. So there will be a raffle to see who gets to buy one of the few copies available.

Much as I might like to have one each of the standard issue, the sketch cover, and the special edition, that's a lot of money, and besides I'm almost out of room for books.

It does sound like the FLGS thing isn't working out the way Paizo suggested it would back when they announced the sketch covers.

Much as I might like to have one each of the standard issue, the sketch cover, and the special edition, that's a lot of money, and besides I'm almost out of room for books.

It does sound like the FLGS thing isn't working out the way Paizo suggested it would back when they announced the sketch covers.

Yes, I think you are correct. Can I ask you about the Special Editions? (I see you are a subscriber). Do they have an image of the color cover on the inside (as an extra, not just the ghosted-out image on the title page)? I own two of Chaosium’s special editions: Rivers of London does include a color image of the regular cover as the last page, but Basic Roleplaying does not include a copy of the regular cover in the back. Since I probably won’t be getting a copy of the Sketch cover, I am considering buying the Special Edition instead. I have been unable to discover if the color cover is reproduced inside the Special Editions as an extra page.

Do they have an image of the color cover on the inside (as an extra, not just the ghosted-out image on the title page)?

I haven't received my Core books yet but none of the previous special editions had a reproduction of the full color cover inside. Early special editions had no image, and recent special editions had the ghost image on the title page.

Our local group was also just informed that every FLGS must purchase TWO SETS of the regular books in order to be able to order ONE SET of the sketch covers. That's really gross (and honestly some Wizards of the Coast behavior), especially when it was pitched that, and I quote:

"these special editions are intended to support our local game store partners who have been such a big part of Pathfinder’s success since the very beginning. We urge you to communicate your interest in these special books to your local store, so that they can be sure to stock appropriately."

How is forcing small/local game stores to overstock on the regular covers when you encouraged customers to buy the sketch cover supporting them? Now instead of selling a set of books, they have to eat the cost of four books. Like I said, WotC behavior that I did not expect from Paizo.

Instead of encouraging people to flood FLGS with requests for the sketch covers without knowing what they were asking, a simple: "As an incentive and celebration of the remaster, for every two sets of regular covers purchased, FLGS alone will be eligible to purchase one set of the sketch covers."

That would have cleared everything up. Customers would know what they were asking, burden on FLGS would be lessened, and you would have been in the fiscal/moral clear instead of looking shady.

edit: formatting

It is not clear that this situation is Paizo’s fault. It may be the distributors doing this without Paizo’s knowledge.

It is not clear that this situation is Paizo’s fault. It may be the distributors doing this without Paizo’s knowledge.

Maybe. This tactic would definitely be in a distributor's wheelhouse, but the silence on the issue is definitely also speaking a lot here. Even if it wasn't Paizo's decision, it's not cool. Without their knowledge is also a hard sell. Without their permission would be much more likely.

My FLGS (in Australia) hasn't communicated a minimum volume of regular covers to secure a sketch cover. I just order the sketch cover only.

However, with Australia being the bottom of the world, none of the physical books (regular or sketch) are getting shipped to my FLGS until February. It's a massive downer and isn't a once off. Rage of Elements only got stocked recently but came out in August, same with Highhelm.

The physical distribution network makes it difficult to keep up the enthusiasm for new products for PF2e. Especially compared to "the-game-who-shall-not-be-named" which has the books available in Australia at the exact same time as the rest of the world.

Ed Reppert wrote:

It is not clear that this situation is Paizo’s fault. It may be the distributors doing this without Paizo’s knowledge.

Maybe. This tactic would definitely be in a distributor's wheelhouse, but the silence on the issue is definitely also speaking a lot here. Even if it wasn't Paizo's decision, it's not cool. Without their knowledge is also a hard sell. Without their permission would be much more likely.

Considering I see different ratios reported... sounds like a distribution thing to me... >_>

JWhiteyGames wrote:

Ed Reppert wrote:

It is not clear that this situation is Paizo’s fault. It may be the distributors doing this without Paizo’s knowledge.

Maybe. This tactic would definitely be in a distributor's wheelhouse, but the silence on the issue is definitely also speaking a lot here. Even if it wasn't Paizo's decision, it's not cool. Without their knowledge is also a hard sell. Without their permission would be much more likely.

Considering I see different ratios reported... sounds like a distribution thing to me... >_>

I truly hope that is the case and that Paizo will release some kind of statement clarifying the issue... or at least blink twice if they are gagged/bound. It's just so unlike what I've come to expect from them.

Elfteiroh wrote:

JWhiteyGames wrote:

Ed Reppert wrote:

It is not clear that this situation is Paizo’s fault. It may be the distributors doing this without Paizo’s knowledge.

Maybe. This tactic would definitely be in a distributor's wheelhouse, but the silence on the issue is definitely also speaking a lot here. Even if it wasn't Paizo's decision, it's not cool. Without their knowledge is also a hard sell. Without their permission would be much more likely.

Considering I see different ratios reported... sounds like a distribution thing to me... >_>

I truly hope that is the case and that Paizo will release some kind of statement clarifying the issue... or at least blink twice if they are gagged/bound. It's just so unlike what I've come to expect from them.

I think posting on the product's thread is more likely to be noticed by Paizo.

Just a wild guess, If the supply is limited this might just be a way to prevent stores from stocking piling the special edition cover, so smaller stores have a chance to get them too.

I'll bet there are better ways to do that.

Elfteiroh wrote:

[Snipped to prevent tunnel effect]

I truly hope that is the case and that Paizo will release some kind of statement clarifying the issue... or at least blink twice if they are gagged/bound. It's just so unlike what I've come to expect from them.

TBF, with business relations like that... they might actually be unable to comment on that publicly. :X

I’m standing in my FLGS right now in front of the following:
5x GM Core Special Edition
20x GM Core sketch cover
Zero standard GM Cores

4x Player Core Special Edition
12x Player Core sketch cover
Zero standard Player Cores

The owner only ordered the fancy ones. And received them as ordered. It is NOT a Paizo policy, it seems.

I’m standing in my FLGS right now in front of the following:

5x GM Core Special Edition
20x GM Core sketch cover
Zero standard GM Cores

4x Player Core Special Edition
12x Player Core sketch cover
Zero standard Player Cores

The owner only ordered the fancy ones. And received them as ordered. It is NOT a Paizo policy, it seems.

Seriously, I've heard these kind of stories of "FLGS" saying the distributors told them publishers gives weird limitations like that, that keep getting disproven... And I really wonder why this is so widespread. And WHO is lying there. OR WHAT KIND of misunderstanding can bring this. I could handwave it as random isolated misunderstanding. But I keep seeing these stories years after years, accross not only regions, but countries. O-o

Matthew Morris wrote:

Aaron Shanks wrote:

RogueWraith909 wrote:

Luis Loza wrote:

For those wondering, that's the new diabolic dragon on the Player Core and the new mirage dragon on the GM Core. :)

Shout outs to the ever amazing Kent Hamilton for concepting those dragons in-house and, of course, to the inimitable Wayne Reynolds for making them look absolutely killer on these covers!

Are there plans to make the Monster Core and Player Core 2 etc in the same style? They look so good and unique!

Yes! Howl of the Wild too.

Hmm, not keen on anything out of the core four. It ruins the uniqueness of it for me.

If it helps local games stores we will have sketch covers for the foreseeable future.

So I have to ask, since the books have officially released... Did we do a good job ordering through our FLGS to get more sketch covers coming? Would love the Player Core 2 book to go along with my Player Core book...

and from a small experience, half my weekly Society Group have ordered these two books...

My local store had to order 10 copies of the regular cover in order to get 1 sketch cover. It would have nicer if the rarity of the sketch version could have been made more clear. The blog post above made it sound like anyone could special order a sketch cover. That is not the way it worked out at my local store. The number of people wanting a sketch cover exceeded the number of copies they will be getting. So there will be a raffle to see who gets to buy one of the few copies available.

That's odd. My local store ordered just strictly the sketch covers for all the pre-orders. Everyone who pre-ordered from our Society Group got sketch covers.

From talking to the owner at my FLGS it sounds like he was definitely seeing different things from different distributors, so another anecdote on the pile I guess?

On a more positive note, they're absolutely gorgeous in person and I'll absolutely be getting sketch cover on PC2 if I can.