Fangtasmagoria's page

My biggest question is of some of this price increase is going to increase the pay of artists and writers on these products?

MrVauxs wrote:

Leahcim wrote:

What I don't understand is the need to increase the prices of digital products already available. Could you explain that further?

"Paizo is not immune to economic factors like inflation, nor industry-wide fluctuations in cost-of-goods, labor, or shipping and logistics, and we must periodically adjust our prices to reflect rising costs"

That explains the increase in digital and print products going forward, which I completely understand.

What that doesn't explain is why the prices of digital products whose production was already completed, in many cases years ago, are also increasing. I'm a developer who works on programs that serve up newly created digital data and also supply old data to customers, which no longer has the production costs associated. I am aware of the difference in costs to support those two types of operations. There is more to that decision than what is being presented in this blog. That's what I am hoping to learn with my question.

I'd think at least in part it's because trying to maintain mutiple prices based on the age of products is a logistical nightmare. Doing so for the core books forna year is one think but having to enter and track various levels of price codes gets more complex than it may seem. It also means you lose sales as some (not all) people only buy the older and lower priced content.

On another note:
As an oldtimer who's been at this since 1977 I can recall buying whole TTRPG boxed sets for $10-$15 when I started. Price increases suck and they make it hard for lower income gamers but TTRPGs are still, for most, the best hour per dollar bang for my buck of almost any entertainment that has a price attached. I've spent more hours than I can count playing TTRPGS and even when I add up all the books and supplements and divide the cost across all those hours I'm still paying less than the cost of a movie on a cost per hour basis. Note, I inculde the time spent and enjoyment I get from just reading TTRPG products in that equation.

I don't like licorice.

It's nice you have an opinion, some will agree, some won't.

I agree with the general sentiment, if the class is not for you then it's not for you. My group is well into a PF2 campaign and in the beginning my caster didn't feel all that hot. Now at 8th level my Cleric who is geared to healing can out damage the melee characters when I cast an offensive spell. Additionally, in the three action economy any spell that costs some of the nastier enemies we have faced a single action have saved our bacon more times than I can count.

That said RPGs are very much about feel for some players and no amount of data or anecdotes will change some folks love or dislike of a class if they aren't feeling it.

Ah, the internet. I love how people proclaim their stance like it applies to everyone, rather than just saying "I don't like X" or "I find X unusable, can anyone offer any options?" When people make broad statements that sound they have decreed that their stance is the law of the land, whether that was their intent or not, I tune out and frankly ignore any followup points they may have (sadly in the Internet Age that means I spend a lot of time not listening to folks). Personally, I (see it's not that hard) find Herolab to be a decent tool, though it is far from perfect, but what is? My group plays every week and while I have my gripes it works for me.

Me:*in my best Chris Rock voice* "$60? Good Lord! that's a lot of money--- how much for just one?"

FLGS Employee: "One Box?"

Me "One card?" :P

Oh well, time to pony up.

I have not used alignments in any D&D variant for 25 years, other systems mange just fine without them, and while purely anecdotal IMO, so does PF. I also enjoy how I don't have to hear or endure what someone else should be doing because they are "X" alignment.
More importantly for me, as people making subjective judgements about an ostensibly objective topic we will usually essentially disagree on some point. Now granted, disagreements happen in many contexts in TTRPs but I don't see a reason, and have yet to see one (even here), that has convinced me alignments are worth it.

While I will use them for the sake of the playtest, once the full version of the game hits they will once again be expunged. In my setting that I have run for 15+ years they just don't fit, Paladins are just holy warriors and have a code based on their god's tenets (frankly, I can't wait to see the anathema my group and I will work out for some of the not so good two shoes deities). Dragons and so many other creatures cannot be assumed to be 'evil' based on their color or appearance, my setting has benevolent Red dragons, despotic gold dragons, and I prefer the nuance of a game where characters must stop to think that there might be somethings more to a band of Goblins robbing supply caravans and only taking food, rather than just declaring, "Well they are goblins so they are evil, let's just kill em all!" This is not to say they can't still make such assumptions, but even afterI had warned my players one session years ago where they assumed a silver dragon was good only to discover the depths of her malevolence was some of the most fun we have had in ages.

Therefore, I support any move to expunge alignments, I know many will disagree and it will likely not go anywhere, but as a player and GM of well over 5 dozen RPG systems since 1977 across many genres, most of which don't have alignments, I think that the time of trying to define moralistic issues with a structured (and oft debated) system is past. Let people just play their characters and let the consequences of their moralistic actions come from RP not systems. Having a code, like a cleric paldain is different because the PC chose to follow that code (or at least the player did in the case of PCs raised in a faith not fully knowing their were other options). To those that love them but the second the playtest ends they will vanish, once again, from my game.