Pathfinder Way's page

[Note: The contents of this post are hereby released to the Public Domain, via Creative Commons 0: https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/cc0/ ]

To Chris Cocks:

D&D is no longer cool. Your leadership killed the golden goose. Several attempts were made to firmly monetize, 'digitally enclose', and corporatize a vibrant 50-year cultural community. Which resulted in cultural destruction, and a flight of refuge into other communities, more nourishing.

I speak as a D&D refugee myself. DMing since 1983, I thought nothing would quench my love for Dungeons & Dragons. When, just before the OGL debacle broke, I watched the One D&D celebration with Ginny Di--even though I hadn't even planned on switching to the new edition--I was on board.

Yet the brutish OGL debacle, the myopic push toward an AI micro-transactional enclosure, the unapologetic corporate-toned half-measures...these have turned me to a staunch opponent and lifetime boycotter of D&D and Hasbro. On rare occasion, I will still purchase a used/second-hand D&D branded item. For new RPG products, I only buy from Paizo and other companies with integrity.

Yet, I truly believe in amends. You still could turn it around. You could be remembered as a D&D hero, on par with Ryan Dancey, Lisa Stevens, Eric Mona, Peter Adkison...and even in the circle of Gary and Dave.

Here is the main suggestion:

-Separate the D&D RPG from Hasbro. The association with Hasbro is inherently tainted and toxic within the cultural legacy of D&D.
-But, at the same time...retain for Hasbro the perpetual rights to produce D&D-branded hardware and media products: including film/tv rights, toys (action figures, plushies), merch/swag, video games, and animated digital products. That is actually what Hasbro is good at: making cool stuff. Cool hardware/toys and big media tie-ins. Do that.

As for how to separate the D&D RPG from Hasbro, I offer a few different ways:

A) Certify the D&D RPG Studio as a Certified B Corp whose mission is truly devoted to fostering the long-term culture of D&D, in palpable ways, laid out in a public mission statement. It is possible to certify just one branch of a corporation. This is the only option I can see for keeping the D&D RPG within Hasbro/WotC's fold, and still sharing the same office space. Though it's the least drastic of my offerings, I personally would consider ending my boycott if the D&D RPG Studio were explicitly bound to be devoted to something other than "corporate shareholder profit above all."

B) Sell the D&D RPG rights, in full, to Paizo and Paizo Workers United.

Please note that I suggest an innovative arrangement whereby Hasbro (D&D Media Properties) retains a perpetual (forever) right to use the contents of any D&D RPG book (past, present, future) as a source for their toys, hardware, and media productions. And vice versa: Paizo D&D RPG Studio would retain a perpetual right to make RPG products (books, PDFs, cardstock play-aids and pawns, and non-animated digital tools) based on any Hasbro D&D media/toy product. There would be a perpetual profit-sharing agreement between the two D&D entities, negotiated up front. Not even requiring future "approvals" for using each other's D&D IP.

C) Fully divest the D&D RPG Studio as a distinct (non-Hasbro/non-WotC) B Corp. With the existing D&D RPG staff as the basis. No longer based in the WotC's office. Unless significant business/support staff were brought in, it might not be viable.

D) Keep the hardware/media rights with Hasbro...and keep the Hasbro D&D trademark registered for use in film, tv, video games, and toys...but open the D&D RPG trademark to the Public Domain, within the fields of paper books, PDFs, cardstock play-aids, and non-animated digital tools. This could even include the truly magnanimous gesture of releasing all of the pre-5.2E D&D PDFs, artwork, and logos to the Public Domain, via Creative Commons Zero.

Mr. Cocks, you would become a D&D hero.

Sionainn T. Mac Innéirghe
Twelvefold Works Publishing

You are welcome to contact me at: twelvefoldworks@pm.me

I would love to have the fruits of such an agreement

Well said -- agreed! Thank you.

I mean, if you want to get down to it, presenting a proposal for a company you are not directly in a business relationship with on their customer forums is a misguided plan at best.

If you'd read the proposal, I would gladly respond to any substantive thoughts you had about the actual content.

Other than that--one customer telling another customer what is "misguided" about another customer creatively expressing what he would like to see in the future product line, is misguided, at best.

So, I'm just going off bog-standard corporate anti-trust training videos, but this has a lot of buzzwords that'd get it shut down elsewhere.

Happily, you're not a lawyer. And I can pretty well assure you that an anti-trust suit would never be initiated by the U.S. govt. versus any segment of the tabletop roleplaying industry! This is not an essential infrastructure to the U.S. economy.

Nor that Hasbro would ever attempt to initiate such a thing--talk about negative publicity!

Paizo have stated before that their main priority as a business is to be successful enough to continue telling the kinds of stories that they want to tell. Paizo only come considers themselves to be in competition with themselves to make Pathfinder the best TTRPG it can be.

Nothing in my strategic proposal is at odds with those good goals.

Paizo being a positive force in the industry and a part of a rising tide that lifts all boats is a part of that priority and in my opinion the part that makes them successful.

As I describe points #3 through #11, it would be even more of a big lift for all boats if Paizo were to open all of their Adventure Paths for conversion into all allied systems, with all established non-Hasbro publishers' house systems: Savage Worlds, Tales of the Valiant, Draw Steel, DC20, Year Zero Engine, Cypher, BRP, OSE, etc.

Which would mutually benefit Paizo, by elevating sustained interest in the World of Golarion. And via a simple royalties received by Paizo for these conversions.

But that's only part of the way. Please see all 33 points.

A proposed tactical pathway for Paizo and allies to supplant D&D

---------------------

I'm curious about why you think that Paizo would want to supplant D&D. So far there's been no indication that they want to do that.

Where did you get the idea that that is one of their corporate goals?

Oh right, I missed the part in their Mission Statement where it said: "Our goal at Paizo is to forever sell less than the World's Most Popular Roleplaying Game"!

I did note in a recent interview where Eric Mona noted that a leaked sales report of post-OGL 2024 D&D sales were (my paraphrase): "perilously to Pathfinder sales numbers."

It seems to be not too great a leap to suggest that Paizo holds an awareness of and interest in the standing of Pf vis-a-vis D&D...the World's Premier RPG and the World's Most Popular RPG.

My strategic pitch is to see PF (and its allies) become both.

A Paizo-related question recently asked on Ben Riggs' "Reading D&D Aloud" Patreon Discord channel:

Hi, my name is Sionainn (formerly known as Travis Henry). I’m the CEO of Twelvefold Works Publishing. One thing I’m proud of is that I provided detailed feedback on drafts of the ORC license via conversations with Eric Mona on Discord, pointing out several things which apparently everyone else missed, which resulted in several specific revisions and improvements. (If you don’t believe me, I could show you the conversation screenshots and the resulting changes.)

I’m writing because I watched an Indestructoboy video recently where he jadedly opined that there’s no magic sword which will overcome D&D/WotC/Ha$bro.

I’d like offer my vision of a magic sword. [BTW, I hereby release all original content within this post to the Public Domain, via the Creative Commons Zero license.]

Is it doable? If Ben Riggs proposed this idea to Eric Mona and others, could it become a reality?

Here are the features:

1) For a provisional name, let’s call this: “The TRPG Alliance,” or the “Alliance” for short.

2) This Alliance would be a tactical, practical, visionary cross-publisher alliance of Paizo and potentially all of the other established “non-Hasbro” TRPG publishers. Let’s say for example, including the likes of Kobold Press, MCDM, Goodman Games, Monte Cook Games, Green Ronin, Pelgrane Press, Free League, Modiphius, KenzerCo, Necrotic Gnome, Chaosium, and Pinnacle Entertainment Group.

3) Unlike, say the totally open ORC license, and the DTRPG Community Content Programs (e.g. Pathfinder Infinite), this would be an invitation-only business alliance. Paizo would be central, and would only invite participants who bring a commensurate backlist of stored value and proven track record of quality and reliability.

4) One goal would be for any and all of each company’s (wholly-owned) adventures and worldbooks/setting sourcebooks, monster books, etc. to become available in all of the house systems of the Alliance.

5) “Available” could mean anything from a simple (but official) bare-bones conversion doc, a full-blown PDF conversion, print-on-demand, hard copy retail publication, and/or crowdfunded products.

6) There would be a private inter-company file sharing cloud where all of the member companies would upload and share the original design files of all of their backlist adventures and sourcebooks.

7) Trust and goodwill. It would be an unprecedented agreement which would spell out from the start that member companies wouldn’t even have to ask permission to convert any of those products, and could even use the original art, fonts, and graphic design! And just add their own house system stats, and other necessary modifications and adaptations—whatever revisions are considered essential to that rules system.

8) Mutually lucrative. The Alliance agreement would feature a no-hassle royalty laid out up front, with no further permissions or pre-review required. That is one reason why only trusted companies would be invited.

9) However, as a trial experiment, this agreement could have a limited timeframe (e.g. 3 years? 5 years? 10 years?) and a limited number of titles shared per company. With the option of renewal and expansion, if the parties found the Alliance beneficial.

10) This could mean for example, that the 40+ Pathfinder Adventure Paths would eventually become available in all of the other rules systems: Tales of the Valiant, Draw Steel, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Cypher System, Adventure Game Engine, 13th Age, Year Zero Engine and Mörk Borg, 2d20, Hackmaster 5E, Old School Essentials, and Savage Worlds.

11) The existing Savage Pathfinder sourcebooks and adventure paths (Savaged! Rise of the Runelords and Curse of the Crimson Throne) are great examples of what can be done.

12) And vice versa, the Dragon Empire, Ptolus, Old Gods of Appalachia, Deadlands, Freeport, etc. could become available in Pf2 and all of the other Alliance rules systems as well.

13) Smaller stalwarts or up-and-coming companies with a proven presence in the TRPG space could be invited to join the Alliance eventually, such as Dungeon Coach (DC20), Nimble 5E, 9th Level Games (MAZES), Evil Hat (FATE), Lumpley Press (Powered by the Apocalypse), Square Hex (The Black Hack), The Questing Beast (Knave), Troll Lord (C&C), Rebellion (Tunnels & Trolls), etc.

14) It would be an especial coup for Renegade Games to join the Alliance, with their Essence 20 system, since they are close IP partners with Ha$bro. Though their wholly-owned IPs are relatively few (e.g. Kids on Bikes).

15) Since any sale of a converted product would provide a royalty to the original publisher, there could even be interlinked pages at Drive Thru RPG…and even on their own website storefronts. So that the consumer can find whichever rules adaptation fits their table.

16) The Alliance would make a webpage which showed which products are available in which Alliance house systems.

17) There’d also be an Alliance quality mark/logo, which could be displayed on books to build awareness of this shared pluri-centric Alliance culture.

18) Another goal of the Alliance is to instill a culture of pluri-system familiarity, respect, and usage among consumers. So that’s more and more gamers are used to nonchalantly trying out many different systems. For example, in this culture, it would become common for players to convert their PC from one system to another, with different GMs playing in a shared world, but using different Alliance rules systems.

19) In other words: a pluri-centric but intentional and formative culture. In contrast to the monolithic/monocrop culture of D&D/Ha$bro.

20) To foster this culture, there ought to eventually be a robust, official conversion app between all of the Alliance rules systems.

21) Another goal: The Alliance intentionally produces Public Domain (Creative Commons Zero) SRDs for all editions of the traditional fantasy game. *Exact* clones ruleswise, except for using a completely different terminology (synonymy), and a different presentation (i.e. completely different explanatory text and chapter order).

22) And, with Azora Law Firm as consultant, the Alliance prepares from the start to fully defend the explicitly stated US copyright law that “game mechanics cannot be copyrighted.”

23) So that the Original Era, Blue Era, First Era, Magenta Era, Red Era, Second Era, 2.5 Era (Skillful Power Era), Karma Deck Era (card-based game mechanics), Cyclopean Era, 3.0 Era, 3.5 Era, Fourth Era, 5.0 Era…and even the 5.2 Era…game mechanics are fully entered into the Public Domain (not only the OGL, CC, or ORC). Including not only the Core rules, but even all of the published variant, optional, supplemental, and expanded game mechanics, seen for example in the splatbooks and magazines. Each and every detail of the game mechanics are released into the Public Domain.

24) In this way, all of the Alliance’s adventures and settings could now be published in all of the legacy rules editions. For example, all of the 40+ Pf APs, Old Gods of Appalachia, Dragon Empire, MCDM’s Strongholds & Followers, etc etc., could be purchased in OE, 1E, 2E, 3E, 4E, and 5E versions.

25) If there is still perceived value in other legacy systems (for example, the FASERIP system), these could be extracted for the Alliance’s Public Domain SRDs as well.

26) Yet another goal of the Alliance: The agreement would provide a means for testing the waters of a limited but “official” “megaverse” (polyverse/alloverse) which begins to slightly connect the setting IP of all the Alliance members. Basically, the agreement would be something like this: Any new product from an Alliance publisher can refer to one copyrighted proper name (e.g. world name, placename, person, or organization) from each of the Alliance members. The surrounding paragraph (up to say, 200 words) can make any claim to connection with that proper name, with no review or veto from the IP owner necessary. Again, this is where trust and goodwill come in.

27) Though this “one copyrighted name” experiment would end if or when the Agreement ended, the Agreement would stipulate that, once published, the name can be forever included in reprints of that particular product, without having to revise it if the Agreement ends.

28) Yet another goal of the Alliance: Bringing the wholly-owned worlds of TSR/WotC-credited authors into the Alliance Polyverse. Since the Alliance is aiming to supplant the D&D/Ha$bro culture as a whole, the Alliance seeks out luminaries (and their wholly-owned, non-Ha$bro worlds), such as Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman (World of Darksword, World of Sovereign Stone), R.A. Salvatore (World of Corona), Ed Greenwood (World of Falconfar), Elaine Cunningham (World of Changeling Detective Agency), Bruce Heard (chief designer of Mystara > now with his wholly-owned World of Callidar), Larry Elmore (World of SnarfQuest), Luke Gygax (World of Okkorim), Sean K. Reynolds (World of Five Moons), Rob Kuntz (World of Kahlibruhn), Jeff Grubb (World of Toricandra), Chris Pramas (World of Dragon Fist, formerly WotC-owned, now owned by Chris), the Estate of James Ward (World of Metamorphosis Alpha, World of Green Races and Dungeon World), Steve Sullivan (World of Illion, the implied setting of the 1982 D&D Comic Strips), Chris Holmes (World of Caladan, seen in J.E. Holmes Maze of Peril novel), etc.

29) So as to add those “TSR/WotC-adjacent”, non-Ha$bro worlds to the Polyverse and its Alliance house systems.

30) Same for Appendix N worlds. Jointly-negotiated, multi-rule-system Alliance agreements would be sought with those Literary Estates, where feasible.

31) “It’s all T×T.” ‘This last proposal is more tentative, but the Alliance could seek to develop a shared trademark which phonetically “evokes” the legacy editions. Perhaps through a shared agreement with the current owners of Tunnels & Trolls, the Alliance might be name itself the Table×Top Alliance…T×T…pronounced “tee ‘n tee.”

32) In these ways, perhaps Paizo and its Alliances would be in a position to supplant the hopelessly corporatist D&D with an ethical culture of T×T.

33) Lastly, to the extent that the T×T Alliance itself needed any sort of separate legal embodiment, it could be minimally incorporated as a certified B-Corp, with a unionized staff, affiliated with United Paizo Workers.

So that’s my question, Ben, would you help present this actionable vision to Paizo and other industry leaders?

***

Ben Riggs replied:

D&D is a language and a culture as much as it is a game and a product.
Asking how to supplant Hasbro is asking how to replace English as the common language of the world.
In both cases, I would point out that the dominance of D&D and the dominance of English are, in fact, side-effects and by-products of other circumstances.
If you want to supplant D&D as the dominant game, the way to do it is in fact simple. Make a game that's so good that old players stop playing D&D to play it instead, while simultaneously doing a better job at getting new players into your game.
This has happened in fits and starts across the history of the industry.
There was a time when White Wolf games were both better at bringing people in and people stopped playing D&D to play them.
The rise of Paizo was very much people stopping playing D&D to play Pathfinder.
So while I love the idea of cooperation in the TTRPG economy, and cooperation often benefits all, I am skeptical that it is a key to ending the dominance of D&D.

That ship has definitely sailed.

What do you mean?

Even as an experienced follower of Paizo, I often get Pf1 and Pf2 sources mixed up when I'm looking for stuff online. Because their logos are very similar.

And one of my new players accidentally shelled out a lot of money for a big Pf1 hardcover thinking that it was Pf2.

Thankfully, in today's announcement I see you've made the Starfinder 2E logo very visually distinct from the Sf1 logo. Awesome!

Could you please do the same for the PfRm logo?

Making an observation that they are an RP Heavy party who does not optimize and do not seem to get deep into the mechanics isn't a dig. It's a playstyle preference.

This leads me to the true, or potentially false, conclusion that they may bounce off the more mechanically complex PF2E. […]

Some people really don't want to dig in.

This is why I advocate that Paizo either develop their own ultra-lite RPG alongside Pf2, or purchase/heavily collaborate with an existing ultra-lite (e.g. The Black Hack, MAZES, Lost in the Fantasy World, Tiny Dungeons, Index Card RPG) and make an ultra-lite, super-slimmed version of Pathfinder and the APs, as a stand-alone robust RPG product line. Like Savage Pathfinder, but even lighter. And preferably uses at least a d20 for attack rolls so that it “looks like D&D.”

If there’s room for things like Savage Pathfinder, the Pf Adventure Card Game, Pf Battles minis game, and Pf board games, then there’s room for, say, Pathfinder UltraLite.

I know a person who won't play PF2E because it doesn't have a version of 5e's Warlock class. They are not interested in doing anything else outside of Eldritch Blast and nothing can convince them otherwise, and that's okay. Warlocks and Eldritch blast are literally fun.

That is why I also advocate that Paizo make a new presentation of Pf2 (The Pf2 x 5E Sourcebook) which more clearly includes all the 5e options (Warlock, drow, etc) which are extractable from the CC SRD or able to be modeled via other means, and which—in the text of the book itself—explains how each feature in Pf2 is different than “the other RPG”, along with an official conversion guide.

Thanks everyone. Okay yeah, we'll assume that almost everything is Worn, except for stuff like the bedroll. :o)

***

Some of you asked about why a PC was using rope in an Encounter. Well, the party was strung out between the webroom and the crypt-room, and Initiative was called due to actions of the vanguard entering the crypt.

But the rearguard started to do something zany with their rope -- I'm not sure exactly what they were aiming to do...they started to say they were going to tie the rope to a protrusion in the cave wall. (For what reason, I never found out.)

They changed their mind after I said it'd take two Interact actions to get it out of the backpack. Even when I said it was okay for their rope to be Worn, they still had decided to not use rope after all, so I never heard what sort of zany plan they had in mind.

***
RAW seems to say that that it does take yet another action to put a backpack back on after setting it down.

thanks for everyone’s responses.

why don’t players just say they are Wearing all of their equipment? covered in straps, pockets, pouches, and bandoliers of all sorts? only rules benefit to Stowing is the bonus Bulk a backpack offers.

it’s a huge benefit Action-wise, to be Wearing an item rather than Stowed.

just use Backpack for coins/treasure.

it already came up in our Beg Box sessions: player said they wanted to pull out rope, and i said it would take an Interact to pull off backpack, and then another Interact to take the rope in hand. (Then another Interact to put backpack back on?) Player says: “im wearing my coil of rope at my side.”

Really, rules-wise, every Pf2 PC ought to make sure all equipment that could conceivably be used in Encounter mode is Worn, not Stowed.

I’m new to Pf2. We are learning and enjoying the clarity of the Interact action. Whether an item is Worn or Stowed is important in this action economy.

I found some good info here:

Carrying and Using Items / Wielding Items:

https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=186

says: “Worn items are tucked into pockets, belt pouches, bandoliers, weapon sheaths, and so forth”

Given the importance of whether sonething is worn of stowed, i’m surprised there aren’t rules for how many pockets, belt pouches, and straps a character can fit on their body. And how much Bulk those containers carry.

Though sacks have an equipment listing, I don’t see any write-up for pouches (other than a spell component pouch), nor for bandoliers (other than a hand crossbow shootist bandolier ).

Merisiel is even depicted in the Beginner Box as having a back-mounted dagger bandolier, plus various strapped on daggers.

Is there a write-up which I’m missing?

Has anyone reverse-engineered how many pockets, pouches, straps, etc. are visible on illustrations of Pf iconics?

are there rules for a 1st-level character intentionally jumping down from a 10-foot height?

Hi, I'm new to Pf2, trying to sort through what is actually Pf2, and what is my muddled memory of features from playing previous editions (AD&D 2e Combat & Tactics, 3.5e, Pf1, 5e).

In Pf2, is there basically no trouble with shooting, for example, a shortbow while standing next to an enemy? (Besides the longbow Volley trait.)

Gods! One of the reason why our D&D refugee group is considering switching to Pf2 is because we thought and hoped that Pf2 was a more well-oiled and finely tuned rules system. (re: Stealth etc) So that we could skip arguments like this.

Dangit, why hasn’t this sort of question already been addressed by Paizo with an official clarification, or Pf Society ruling, or at least provisional examples from Paizo designers’ own home tables, as to how Temp HPs work?

Jeezus, I wish to skip this sort of community argument ad nauseum.

You could make a beastkin as a cowfolk.

My cowperson doesn’t shapechange. In my campaign setting, they are a distinct humanoid species.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I picked up 67 third-party PF2 pdfs in order to model our odd-ball gallery of PCs, of which these are only a few of many!:

Re: Leprechaun, I found just the thing: the Shamrock Gnome Heritage by Necromancers of the Northwest. Having some sort of "invisiblity" was key -- in this case, Dimension Door. Awesome.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/292953/Ancestral-Options--Gnomes

Besides the Leprechaun PC, we also have a "Half-Leprechaun" PC, which we'll be able to do with Human Ancestry + these homebrew rules by Xuldarinar: Half-Gnome Heritage + Gnome Atavism Feat (Shamrock Gnome):

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?594718-Pathfinder-2nd-Edition-Ha lf-Race-Heritages

Also:

https://thedarkelf007.home.blog/blog/pathfinder-and-pathfinder-2/pathfinder -2-converted-classes-2/#Half-Breeds

***
Re: Werebear. Yeah, the Beastkin will do it.
***
Re: Cowperson. Yeah, the Minotaur as a base. And I found 3 different 3pp versions, besides Battlezoo! We picked up all those pdfs. It will be great to draw feats from all of them!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/395393/Delioths-Dossier-Minotaur
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/422349/Minotaurs-Unleashed-A-Pathfinde r-2nd-Edition-Ancestry
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/296318/Exotic-Ancestries--Minotaur

But I'll need to plug in her Lactation power as an Ancestry Feat. During a one-hour rest, once per day, she can make 4 minor healing potions from being milked. :)

***
Re: Banshee, yeah I see we'll need to go with Elf + Ghost Archetype, and aim for sonic spells via a spellcasting class, e.g. Undead Bloodline Sorcerer.

And/or maybe aim for the "Invoke the Banshee" spell via this 3pp Warlock class: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/283453/The-Faithful-Few

And aim for the high-level Wail of the Banshee spell in the far future!

I've always thought of them as just... symbols. A stylized token icon, not representing anything in particular but also being distinguished enough from a basic diamond shape that it's easy to recognize at a glance.

Well, since one responder thinks they're arrows, and another thinks they're just modified "distinguishable" diamonds, I feel relieved knowing that I'm not the only one who wonders this.

I can't recall what the symbol was during the playtest, and I don't have my playtest book handy, but if they were different then we might be able to tell intention based on the evolution.

Hmm, good idea!

I think they are arrows.

Oh, I see you might be right. They don't look as "arrow-y" as they could though. A 90-degree angle isn't very arrow-like; and they have no shaft. But yeah okay.

It makes it easy to describe turns over texts, among other things. Like Sudden Charge >> quick reversal > for example.

Oh, I hadn't thought of how Buhlman may have crafted them to have basic text equivalents. Good idea.

Hi, I’m new to Pf2, and I’m enjoying it.
My question is this: I understand what the action symbols “mean”…and yeah, the “arcing arrow” shape of the Reaction symbol is intuitive…yet I’m stumped on what those diamond shaped blobs—and the diamondy stuff inside them—is supposed to actually depict.

Yeah I realize that two diamondy blobs = two actions, and three diamondy blobs = three actions; and a hollow-ish diamondy blob = free action. But what “image” are the icons supposed to depict?

If they were simply diamonds (solid for Action, hollow for Free Action), I’d “get it”, but, artistically, what image is the diamondy stuff inside the diamonds supposed to evoke?

No official ones: that said, you can shoehorn Werebear and Cowfolk into the Versatile Heritage Beastkin, Leprechaun into Sprite and Banshee into the ghost archetype. These are far from perfect, but can give you a starting point.

As far as 3PP/homebrew, Battlezoo Ancestries has minotaurs.

Thank you!

Hi, could anyone point me to a PC ancestry (official, 3PP, or homebrew) for:

Leprechaun
Banshee
Werebear
Cowfolk

Glad for any help. We're converting from 5e homebrew.

So, the Nomadic Halfling heritage grants two bonus languages. Then it says: "Every time you take the Multilingual feat, you gain another [i.e. one] new language."

But the Multilingual Feat says: "You learn two new languages [...] "You can select this feat multiple times. Each time, you learn additional [two] languages."

The Nomadic Halfling heritage seems to be saying that if you have the Nomadic Halfling heritage, you only get one language when you take the Multilingual feat. Which seems to be the opposite of the intent!

Or does it mean to say:
"Every time you take the Multilingual feat, you gain a bonus language due to your heritage, in addition to the two languages you gain from the feat."

Considering how much the game deviates from it's 3.0 or 3.5 roots, and my own personal opinions, I second whoever was arguing for dnd 2.5.

Yeah but "(A)D&D 2.5" already exists...the Skills & Powers-era revision of AD&D2E (with the black hardcovers and red logo) is often called 2.5...even the WotC-approved product write-ups for those Classic PDFs on DMs Guild uses the term "2.5."

The base mechanics are still the same. The range is different but how the proficiency works is the same. It is not tiered approach like 3.0/3.5. It does not work like 4 e which centered on daily, encounter, and at will powers. The action economies are different but have more in common than the do with 3.0/3.5. So at it base it is similar to 5e. They are two different games though. Range and depth of character choice separate the two. I do think it has more in common at its base with how it works than 3.5/3.0 or 4th.

Sounds to me like you're saying...PF2 = 3.75E+5E = D&D 12.75 Edition

Yes, this is very important people! So far we have these proposals:

D&D 3.5.10
D&D 3.5.2
D&D 3.75.2
D&D 3.752
D&D 3.76
D&D 3.85
D&D 4.5
D&D 5.75
D&D 3.75^2 = D&D 14.0625
Advanced Dungeons & Magica 35.459

Good work! :-D

I mean, the '3.75' thing mostly stems from Pathfinder being a backwards compatible evolution of D&D 3.5, which was itself and evolution of D&D 3rd edition, while being distinctly not D&D 4th edition.

Since it's no longer derivative of D&D 3.X (or any other edition), it's just kind of... Pathfinder 2, now.

True, yet PF2 is definitely an evolution/iteration of PF1, and therefore an evolution/iteration of "D&D 3.75."

Since PF1 was sometimes called "D&D 3.75E", what does that make PF2?

D&D 3.752E?
D&D 3.76E?
D&D 3.85?
D&D 3.75^2E ("3.75 Edition Squared")...which comes to "D&D 14.0625E"!..."D&D Fourteen-Point-Zero-Six-Two-Five Edition" or "Fourteen and Six-Hundred Twenty-Five Ten-Thousandths Edition"!
D&D 5.75E

Any other possibilities? Which do you like best?

Of these, I'd go with 3.75^2 (with the 2 written as a superscript when formatting allows). Because the aim is to totally "leap frog" over WotC's iterative sequence of D&D. Squaring the number is a leap.

Pathfinder Way wrote:

Could Paizo open up the World of Golarion intellectual property for self-publishing via a dedicated venue at DriveThruRPG, à la DMs Guild?

We are certainly aware of the DM's Guild and recognize that it has been successful for WotC and OBS, but we don't have any current plans to replicate that business model ourselves. If we were to ever do something similar, it likely wouldn't be done in partnership with another online marketplace, however, as we have our own web store we can use to distribute such content.

Thanks for responding. Well, there ya have it, folks.

I acknowledge Paizo has its own pathway, and astute leadership. I'm looking forward to PF2!

I don't mean to be obtuse, but I don't get the upside of opening Golarion IP. What is the benefit, to Paizo and/or the customer base?

Growth in customer agency, in customer buy-in, and customer "investment"...because the customer base is literally empowered to become entrepreneurs in service of Pathfinder. If I'm getting a dollar stream from the bits and bobbles I've authored for GMs Guild, (even if it's a modest stream) then I'm likely to retain longer-term interest in Pathfinder vis-a-vis other gaming and entertainment options.

Long-term interest builds a cultural base and a consumer base.

Plus, it meshes with kit-bashing culture of TRPGs and, specifically with the Open Gaming culture upon which Pathfinder was founded.

I think it would upset a lot of the people working for Paizo if, say, a 3rd party publisher got ahead of them on making a Galt AP. And personally I think they'd be right to, they've put a lot of effort into cultivating this setting.

Don't know if this would help, but might provide conceptual space for this if, in the run-up to the launch of a Golarion GMs Guild, Paizo provided an in-world reason why many different timelines of Golarion are appearing. Some sort of shattering into "infinite Golarions."

The GMs Guild agreement might require each Guild-author to provide a name their timeline(s), so that they are conceptually distinct from the Paizo timeline.

Of course, the in-house offerings will usually be the most prestigious and well-crafted. But if someone does a top notch job on a Galt AP, and it sells well, Paizo still gets a 50% cut. And Paizo would be free to simply take elements of it (or all of it) for use in the Galt AP of their own timeline...or to go in a totally different direction.

I can see that Paizo's subscription model is pretty tight and honed, and would be affected by (or synergistically interact with) a GMs Guild differently than is WotC's business model, yet I still think it's something to consider.

it also leaves them open to liability if someone suggests something similar to what they've already got plans for. They can be accused of stealing the idea.

Point of clarity: the Community Content Agreement of DMs Guild grants WotC the right to re-use your User Generated Content in any context whatsoever, and for other DMs Guild users to use your IP in their DMs Guild works:

5(c): "Exclusive License to all User Generated Content in your Work. Effective as of the date we first make your Work available through the Program, you grant us the exclusive, irrevocable license for the full term of copyright protection available (including renewals), to all User Generated Content included in your Work. You agree that the User Generated Content is available for unrestricted use by us without any additional compensation, notification or attribution, including that we may allow other Program authors, the Owner and other third parties to use the User Generated Content."

Or, as explained in the FAQ:

"Wizards does not own any of the unique IP that you create in your publications. Wizards does own the IP that they contribute, plus the DMs Guild agreement will grant Wizards and other DMs Guild authors a license to use your IP."

No attribution is even necessary...thank goodness! So no OGL-style page of tiny-fonted legalese tracing each monster and magic item author; though "best practice" suggests a voluntary link to the previous creator's work.

DMs Guild is basically an enclosed, money-optional FR/Ravenloft/Eberron/Ravnica IP swap-and-kit-bashing venue.

Some good points have been made in regard to how Paizo and WotC are different contexts. Yet still, I'd guess a Golarion GMs Guild has been considered by Paizo, and possibly still is.

Could Paizo open up the World of Golarion intellectual property for self-publishing via a dedicated venue at DriveThruRPG, à la DMs Guild?

I was expecting something much more entertaining based on the title. Booooo.

I didn't write this post to win any popularity contests with the Paizo fan community.

from a real world point of view, drinking alcohol was usually safer than drinking water, as the water was usually filled with bacteria that would give you dysentery (and thus, you die). So wine or beer was not only a thing to do at taverns, but a thing to do in general so you wouldn't be sick.

What a crappy perspective. :)

In ancient or medieval times, the Nazirites and Essenes of the Levant, the Theraputae of Africa, the Jains and Buddhists of India, and the entire Muslim community, generally abstained from alcohol altogether. I suspect these human beings found something else to drink.

I'm looking forward to PF2. Three things I could do without though, are the implicit allusions to hard drinking, alchemical "drug" use, and "anarchist"-style bomb-lobbing.

As for alcohol: I understand that many RPGers are hard drinkers, yet it's a turn off for others. For example, awhile back I saw a PF2 advertisement with (IIRC) a big glass o' wine placed next the book. C'mon - it's not necessary. Anyway, I heard on the forums that soft drinks will be added to the equipment list. Nice.

I prefer that the Alchemist doesn't turn out to be a just a sort of veiled fantasy equivalent of a meth-lab producer. That desolate path doesn't need to be glorified.

Lastly, I heard the Alchemist class will have several other options besides the bomb-throwing, crazed, anarchistic sub-class. Good. More of that. How about an Alchemist who really lives up the original Hermetic archetype?

Wm John Wheeler, one of the authors in question, honored me with his close friendship for the past 12 years. He recently died from complications of diabetes.

I have a great deal of his source material on Islandia, as well as a good deal of material he worked on afterwards. I am in the process of completing a module he and Peter started called "The Black Riders".

I am in touch with Peter Rice occasionally, and will float to him the idea of publishing some of the material in pdf form. I'm not sure what the legalities are, though, as the older works were sold to various publishers.

-Scott Thompson

Hi Scott - I do interviews for the official Classic D&D / Known World of Mystara website. Awhile back, I interviewed "Lance", one of the original players in John Wheeler's Islandian Campaign. http://pandius.com/lance.html

(It's relevant to the Known World setting since TSR planned to publish Wheeler's Islandia as a new continent in the Known World setting - but BX1: The Islandia Campaign was canceled as TSR management changed its mind and decided to convert the Known World to AD&D 2E.)

Any chance I could also chat with you about Islandia? I have a number of questions - the foremost of which is: is there a map of Islandia? My understanding is that the campaign map was based on a real-world topographic map of Maine, which Wheeler then modified by elevating the water level so that its hilly landscape became an array of islands. Is this right?

-Travis (traversetravis at protonmail dot com)

AnimatedPaper wrote:

World of Warcraft seems like an obvious addition.

You probably know, but there is a d20/3rd Ed version of it (I got a copy many years ago).

Yeah, two d20 versions: Warcraft 3.0 and Warcraft 3.5.

Apart from that, I'd love to see the Realms and Eberron to get the PF 2 treatment, because it's a lot of work to do it myself.

I thought you guys were joking when asking for FR and Eberron PF2. Okay, since I've heard the request from two posters, I'll add 'em in. Now that would be some surprising, constructive collaboration: WotC and Paizo cross-licensing their settings! You want Golarion 5E too?

So far we have a request for:

*Buffy PF2
*Codex Alera PF2 (novels by Jim Butcher)
*Counterpart PF2 (Starz television series)
*Cutey Bunny PF2 (funny animal superheroine)
*Discworld PF2
*Dune PF2
*Dynasty Warrriors PF2 (video game)
*Eberron PF2 (collaboration with WotC)
*Elfquest PF2
*Final Fantasy PF2
*Forgotten Realms PF2 (collaboration with WotC)
*G.I. Joe PF2
*Marvel PF2
*Mass Effect PF2
*Masters of the Universe/She-Ra, Princess of Power PF2
*Mechwarrior PF2
*Metroid PF2
*Pokemon PF2
*Ralph Bakshi's Wizards PF2
*Sailor Moon PF2
*Sam Raimi's Evil Dead PF2
*Star Fox PF2 (Nintendo game)
*Sterling E. Lanier's Hiero PF2 (post-apocalyptic novels)
*Stormlight Archive/Cosmere PF2 (novels by Branden Sanderson)
*Terminator PF2
*Transformers PF2
*Warcraft PF2
*Wheel of Time PF2
*Xenoblade PF2 (sci-fantasy video game)

Any others for the wish list?

That little thing where they published official D&D materials for years and then WotC yanked the licenses and launched fourth edition.

Oh yeah, well Paizo was basically an auxiliary service arm of WotC at the time - a semi-attached design studio of Hasbro. They had nearly all their eggs in one basket.

It's heroic how Paizo turned some bitter lemons into rivers of lemonade: "Forget you! We'll make our own D&D!"

The lost Star Wars license is closer to the concern. Well, in spite of the abrupt loss, was it a profitable experience? Paizo has a different and bigger footing now. And the Star War fanclub magazine wasn't tied into other Paizo products (even the RPG-related fanclub articles just supported WotC's own Star Wars RPG). Whereas a PF2 adaptation of some mega-popular IP (Star Wars, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Harry Potter) would be synergistically supporting their own core product (PF2), and building their own player network.

I'm not saying they *should* shift many or most of their eggs from Golarion into licensed adaptations, but it'd not be a huge stretch for Paizo to give it a shot. I mean, some studios are having success with multiple licenses: Green Ronin, Cubicle 7, FFG, and Modiphius. And Paizo could even make a deal whereby those studios themselves wrote the books. And unlike those studios (whose house systems aren't the second-most popular system after D&D), Paizo is in a position with PF2 to possibly evoke a cross-genre "second d20 rebirth".

Discworld- I wouldn't even hesitate to purchase a well done Discworld Campaign Setting, accompanying rules for how much non-sense Magic in particular, and ideas for running a humorous TTop Game.

So far we have a request for:

*Buffy PF2
*Codex Alera PF2 (novels by Jim Butcher)
*Counterpart PF2 (Starz television series)
*Cutey Bunny PF2 (funny animal superheroine)
*Discworld PF2
*Dune PF2
*Dynasty Warrriors PF2 (video game)
*Elfquest PF2
*Final Fantasy PF2
*G.I. Joe PF2
*Marvel PF2
*Mass Effect PF2
*Masters of the Universe/She-Ra, Princess of Power PF2
*Mechwarrior PF2
*Metroid PF2
*Pokemon PF2
*Ralph Bakshi's Wizards PF2
*Sailor Moon PF2
*Sam Raimi's Evil Dead PF2
*Star Fox PF2 (Nintendo game)
*Sterling E. Lanier's Hiero PF2 (post-apocalyptic novels)
*Stormlight Archive PF2 (novels by Branden Sanderson)
*Terminator PF2
*Transformers PF2
*Xenoblade PF2 (sci-fantasy video game)

Any others for the wish list?

Given Paizo's experiences with licensed content I wouldn't hold my breath for them doing anything that would entail the risk of having their rug pulled out from under their feet ever again.

I'm new to Pathfinder - what bad experience did Paizo have?

I really like the Terminator setting. If PF2 could accomodate that I would be seriously impressed.

So far we have a request for:

*Buffy PF2
*Codex Alera PF2 (novels by Jim Butcher)
*Counterpart PF2 (Starz television series)
*Cutey Bunny PF2 (funny animal superheroine)
*Dune PF2
*Dynasty Warrriors PF2 (video game)
*Elfquest PF2
*Final Fantasy PF2
*G.I. Joe PF2
*Marvel PF2
*Mass Effect PF2
*Masters of the Universe/She-Ra, Princess of Power PF2
*Mechwarrior PF2
*Metroid PF2
*Pokemon PF2
*Ralph Bakshi's Wizards PF2
*Sailor Moon PF2
*Sam Raimi's Evil Dead PF2
*Star Fox PF2 (Nintendo game)
*Sterling E. Lanier's Hiero PF2 (post-apocalyptic novels)
*Stormlight Archive PF2 (novels by Branden Sanderson)
*Terminator PF2
*Transformers PF2
*Xenoblade PF2 (sci-fantasy video game)

Any others for the wish list?

Ones not already on the list:

Sailor Moon
Buffy
Forgotten Realms
Eternia/Etheria

So far we have a request for:

*Buffy PF2
*Codex Alera PF2 (novels by Jim Butcher)
*Counterpart PF2 (Starz television series)
*Cutey Bunny PF2 (funny animal superheroine)
*Dune PF2
*Dynasty Warrriors PF2 (video game)
*Elfquest PF2
*Final Fantasy PF2
*G.I. Joe PF2
*Marvel PF2
*Mass Effect PF2
*Masters of the Universe/She-Ra, Princess of Power PF2
*Mechwarrior PF2
*Metroid PF2
*Pokemon PF2
*Ralph Bakshi's Wizards PF2
*Sailor Moon PF2
*Sam Raimi's Evil Dead PF2
*Star Fox PF2 (Nintendo game)
*Sterling E. Lanier's Hiero PF2 (post-apocalyptic novels)
*Stormlight Archive PF2 (novels by Branden Sanderson)
*Transformers PF2
*Xenoblade PF2 (sci-fantasy video game)

Any others for the wish list?

If you are asking for dream settings, I would love to see setting books for Sterling E. Lanier's Hiero books.

So far we have a request for:

*Codex Alera PF2 (novels by Jim Butcher)
*Counterpart PF2 (Starz television series)
*Cutey Bunny PF2 (funny animal superheroine)
*Dune PF2
*Dynasty Warrriors PF2 (video game)
*Elfquest PF2
*Final Fantasy PF2
*G.I. Joe PF2
*Marvel PF2
*Mass Effect PF2
*Mechwarrior PF2
*Metroid PF2
*Pokemon PF2
*Ralph Bakshi's Wizards PF2
*Sam Raimi's Evil Dead PF2
*Star Fox PF2 (Nintendo game)
*Sterling E. Lanier's Hiero PF2 (post-apocalyptic novels)
*Stormlight Archive PF2 (novels by Branden Sanderson)
*Transformers PF2
*Xenoblade PF2 (sci-fantasy video game)

Any others for the wish list?

While we're dropping sci-fantasy video games, I'm going to suggest Xenoblade. It's got too much magic for normal scifi, and too many mech armours for normal fantasy.

So far we have a request for:

*Codex Alera PF2 (novels by Jim Butcher)
*Counterpart PF2 (Starz television series)
*Cutey Bunny PF2 (funny animal superheroine)
*Dune PF2
*Dynasty Warrriors PF2 (video game)
*Elfquest PF2
*Final Fantasy PF2
*G.I. Joe PF2
*Marvel PF2
*Mass Effect PF2
*Mechwarrior PF2
*Metroid PF2
*Pokemon PF2
*Ralph Bakshi's Wizards PF2
*Sam Raimi's Evil Dead PF2
*Star Fox PF2 (Nintendo game)
*Stormlight Archive PF2 (novels by Branden Sanderson)
*Transformers PF2
*Xenoblade PF2 (sci-fantasy video game)

Any others for the wish list?

Final Fantasy, honestly.

So far we have a request for:

*Codex Alera PF2 (novels by Jim Butcher)
*Counterpart PF2 (Starz television series)
*Cutey Bunny PF2 (funny animal superheroine)
*Dune PF2
*Dynasty Warrriors PF2 (video game)
*Elfquest PF2
*Final Fantasy PF2
*G.I. Joe PF2
*Marvel PF2
*Mass Effect PF2
*Mechwarrior PF2
*Metroid PF2
*Pokemon PF2
*Ralph Bakshi's Wizards PF2
*Sam Raimi's Evil Dead PF2
*Starfox PF2
*Stormlight Archive PF2 (novels by Branden Sanderson)
*Transformers PF2

Any others for the wish list?

I might, might?, play Pathfinder 2 if there was an Elfquest crossover...

or QT Bunny

So far we have a request for:

*Codex Alera PF2 (novels by Jim Butcher)
*Counterpart PF2 (Starz television series)
*Cutey Bunny PF2 (funny animal superheroine)
*Dune PF2
*Dynasty Warrriors PF2 (video game)
*Elfquest PF2
*Marvel PF2
*Mass Effect PF2
*Mechwarrior PF2
*Pokemon PF2
*Ralph Bakshi's Wizards PF2
*Sam Raimi's Evil Dead PF2
*Stormlight Archive PF2 (novels by Branden Sanderson)

Any others for the wish list?

So far we have a request for:

*Codex Alera PF2 (novels by Jim Butcher)
*Counterpart PF2 (Starz television series)
*Dune PF2
*Dynasty Warrriors PF2 (video game)
*Marvel PF2
*Mass Effect PF2
*Mechwarrior PF2
*Pokemon PF2
*Ralph Bakshi's Wizards PF2
*Sam Raimi's Evil Dead PF2
*Stormlight Archive PF2 (novels by Branden Sanderson)

Any others for the wish list?

Pathfinder Way wrote:

*Pokemon PF2

Do you have any idea at all how you would go about this? I'm a huge pokenerd that's been thinking of converting various video game elements to PF since I picked it up, and I can't see how this would work well. Even ignoring the distinctiveness of pokemon's combat system, it's not something that easily fits into a class-based system. There are hundreds of distinct sets of abilities and stats.

There was Pokemon Junior adventure game produced by WotC. Ryan Dancey stated that it was a big mistake not to expand this into a full-blown RPG.

Some persons have conceived some sort of Pokemon d20 game:

http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/Pokemon_d20_(3.5e_Sourcebook)
https://pokemondd.wordpress.com
https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/2qxitn/pokemon_dnd/
http://pokemontabletop.wikidot.com
http://pokemond20.wikia.com/wiki/File:Pokedex.pdf

If these enthusiasts have taken a crack at, surely Paizo or some PF2 third-party design studio could do at least as well.