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Hi there! Rachael here from Trapdoor Technologies, makers of Playbook for Pathfinder! Stopping in to say that we're currently kickstarting to bring Playbook Essentials to Android! At Gen Con and PaizoCon this year, we spoke to MANY of you who wanted us to bring Playbook to Android. This is it! Check out the campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/trapdoortech/playbook-essentials-for-a ndroid-paper-rpgs-go-digi/description Thank you! Rachael aka Hobo the Delightful
Hi there! Rachael here from Trapdoor Technologies, makers of Playbook for Pathfinder! Stopping in to say that we're currently kickstarting to bring Playbook Essentials to Android! At Gen Con and PaizoCon this year, we spoke to MANY of you who wanted us to bring Playbook to Android. This is it! Check out the campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/trapdoortech/playbook-essentials-for-a ndroid-paper-rpgs-go-digi/description Thank you! Rachael aka Hobo the Delightful
Hi there! Rachael here from Trapdoor Technologies, makers of Playbook for Pathfinder! Stopping in to say that we're currently kickstarting to bring Playbook Essentials to Android! At Gen Con and PaizoCon this year, we spoke to MANY of you who wanted us to bring Playbook to Android. This is it! Check out the campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/trapdoortech/playbook-essentials-for-a ndroid-paper-rpgs-go-digi/description Thank you! Rachael aka Hobo the Delightful
We're planning a Google hangout to demo the app - we'll record it and post it for others to watch.
Not yet but there will be. I'll post it here when it's ready to go :)
Hey Hmm The app is free to download and yes, you're right, you can't do much until you make an account and start the free trial. Once the free trial is over, you'll be billed either $1.99/month or $19.99 for the whole year. You can cancel your subscription after the free 30 day trial if you want. Or you could check out the app during the free trial, cancel and subscribe once we've got more content in there to use. We will be giving demos :) We did about 150 at PaizoCon and will be doing them all weekend at GenCon! We're also going to release a demo video for folks who can't make it to the con or don't have iPads to check it out. In another post, I mentioned that Playbook is a live, mobile app. Meaning that it will continue to change and grow, include more features, incorporate feedback and bug fixes. It is not finished and certainly won't be until we've converted all of Pathfinder's content into the app. We're certainly not trying to dupe people into downloading our product, I'm sorry if you felt that way. If you do subscribe, all of the content you create will be available to you if you cancel your subscription.
Is there a way to search through the books you have? Like, say I want to look up the grapple rules: How do I do that? Yeah you can search books that you have. Tap the gear icon in the top right corner and tap search. Once you're there you can filter as you want or just search everything :) Right now, it will prioritize the big ticket terms like grappling will go to the grappling section in the rule book. If you search for a more ambiguous term like "fly" then it would be in the top search results. We're continuing to tweak the search function including bringing it out of the settings menu! Any feedback would be great !
Sry. TLDR? Both GMs and Players can run a Pathfinder game from the same app. The tools are made to decrease prep time, rules lookup time and increase play time. The app is designed to be used at the game table, virtually or in person.
Hey JCG. Thanks for the feedback on the website - one of the challenges that we've had is describing what the app does to non-gamers. Maybe what we've done in keeping it light is not get enough info for our core audience. I'll send that feedback up the small chain and see if we can get some more details put in. Onto your questions! What is your distinguishing feature that gives you a competitive advantage over existing character apps like HeroLab or a full VTT like Roll20? GREAT question. Playbook is a tool meant to be used specifically AT the game table (virtually or in person). Eventually, it will have full, programatic integration with ALL Pathfinder rules and rulebooks. I say eventually because there is a TON of content to convert into the platform and it will take time to do so. 21 Rulebooks, I think?! So essentially, it's an eBook platform with a toolset built around it. We are not just a character generator or a stat/map/character management tool. For instance, there are tools for the GM that allow her/him to track combat encounters including monster stats, add or subtract monsters on the fly depending on the skill level of the party, reference your players character sheets and print them out as necessary. GMs can also create adventuring parties and pass secret messages to individuals or share map/adventure info with the whole group. I'm a player, I've never GMed nor do I have the desire to. I'm also not a role-player. I'm a console gamer :D What I really like about using Playbook at the table is ALL of the information that I don't know or care to know about my character is available for me to brush up on, right from my character sheet. I usually play rogues or rangers and when I forget what Sneak Attack or Trapfinding does for my character, I can simply tap those words: Sneak Attack, and read the full description from the core rulebook. When I level up, Playbook walks me through all the choices I have. It adds chosen skill ranks, hit points and Talents. It even allows me to multi-class if I want to. This is one example of what I mean when I type that Playbook is fully, programmatically integrated with the rules and rulebooks. For those of us who use technology at the table, there are about four or five apps that folks use in tandem to run games. Playbook incorporates all of those apps into one interface to be used at the table. Also worth mentioning that Playbook for Pathfinder is an app...on a mobile platform. Meaning that it will continue to grow and expand - new features are already planned and will be tested and added into the app when they're ready. We aren't saying that Playbook is 100% feature complete NOW. And really, it may never be 100% feature complete because we intend to continue improving and supporting it UNTIL THE END OF TIME!!! Our founder, Chris Matney, says: Playbook won't be complete until I have my five boxes full of homebrew adventure content converted into Playbook. We have development milestones planned for the next 12 months and we'll start on another planning cycle after GenCon. Android, Web, PC and maybe even Mac Native....muahahaha. Okay! Onwards! Explictly what Paizo content does the subscription to the app give you access to? If you wanted to use a feat in splat book XYZ do you have to purchase access to that splat book in top of the sub? Personally I'm not a fan of subscription apps. Hokay. Another good questions. Subscription basically unlocks all the programmatic features of the app - rulebook-integrated character creation and management, unlimited characters (make as many as your heart desires), GM tools like combat tracking, map/info sharing, secret messaging, adventure party management, note taking etc. More features are going to be added in short order that make the subscription even better :) So getting back to your explicit question, subscriptions allows you access to all those tools AND reader access to the core rulebooks. If you want to use a feat in splat book XYZ, yes, you would need to purchase access to that splat book on top of the subscription. BUT - if you have already purchased a bunch of splat books, adventures, etc from Paizo, as we convert that content into Playbook, YOU WILL HAVE FREE ACCESS TO IT! We hate buying stuff twice as much as the next guy. It is going to take us some time to get all the Pathfinder content into the app but we will!! Because of what I mentioned earlier -- the fact that Playbook will be a continually updated, LIVE application -- we're not able to easily peg down a "one off" cost for the app. We surveyed a lot of GMs and Players. We know how many pain points and bad experiences the community as a whole have had and we're not trying to create a walled garden, so to speak. Any content you purchase through Playbook will be accessible without a subscription - we'll never take away access to what you've spent money on. Subscription grants access to the integrated toolsets which we have 'blood/sweat/tears' created. No subscription simply means you can't use those tools. I hope that makes sense! Although we do have some really cool plans for neat, 100% non-critical in-app purchases in the future, most IAPs will be Pathfinder adventure/splat/rulebook content. The difference between a PDF version of Rise of the Runelords and a Playbook version of same adventure is that the latter will be fully integrated into the toolset. So it will be searchable, linked, shareable (by the GM like I mentioned before), I feel like I should really end this rant and answer the next question. Is this the same app WotC severed ties with recently? If so, using the subscription model what happens if Paizo decides to end the relationship? What are users left with? Hah. Yes, tis us! We're like phoenix's or...butterflies...or perhaps cockroaches?! We SURVIVE! I digress. The circumstances of our partnership with Paizo are VERY different than our previous partnership with WotC. Paizo has been incredibly wonderful to work with because they understand the role that technology has to play in the future of table top gaming. They get it - they get that we're forging a new path and heading into uncharted territory. I don't really know how to answer your question specifically in terms of what would happen if Paizo decided to end the relationship but I can tell you that we would take care of our users. For instance, when we changed to the subscription model, all users who had previously purchased level packs were sent iTunes gift cards, reimbursing them for those purchases. Knowing Paizo, they wouldn't leave you in the lurch either. If the partnership became unworkable, I'm sure we would figure out a way to honor our collective users. Someone mentioned PFS scenarios in the thread? Are there plans for making PFS scenarios available though the app? If so in what type of format? Just a readable PDF-like experience or actually have all the encounters built into an VTT like interface? Yea. PFS. There are MANY plans for PFS! And we're really excited about them. So yes, PFS scenarios will be available through the app. The format will be as Playbook-integrated content, just like other content in the app. The only PDF-like thing about it will be the reader view. The scenarios will be linked to relevant rulebook info, have images, maps, etc. They'll all be "built in" as you say but into the Playbook interface...hope that's clear! Woooooo! Keep em coming!
Thanks Matthew! Had to take the weekend off but I'm back :D
Hmmmm this is really weird. You should be getting the text that talks about the free month trial. Would you be willing to screenshot what you see when you get the "choose the sub and we'll get started" and send it to rachael.bowen@trapdoortechnologies.com ? That way we can figure out if there's an issue. :)
Rachael, will you have a booth or a table in the PFS room at GenCon? I'd like to check it out. We will have a ... SOMETHING ... in the PFS room at GenCon :D We're scheming big time now. I will keep you posted on where we land. Would love to meet you there!
Excellent!
It looks interesting. I'm downloading it now, I've got a couple of ongoing campaigns, maybe this will make running them easier. That's the general idea! Also, worth mentioning that although we *will* have the entire Pathfinder library made available in Playbook, we're not there yet. We have built it, they will come kinda thing. So - if you find that the adventures we've got in there now aren't ones you're running or care to start, give us a bit of time and we'll have more content in there soon. Looking forward to your feedback!
I'm also an android user although I try to stay away from subscription services, so maybe I'm not your target market anyway? But the idea sounds interesting. We do plan on expanding to android and web so perhaps you *might* be our target market...soon...ish?! Pricing the app was a really tough task. We know that subscription services tend to be a little less desirable than other models but it really did make the most sense for us all things considered. When we do get up and running on Android, I'd love to hear your thoughts - and I'd be happy to extend our 1 month free trail if you needed some more time to mull it over :)
I will take a look at it this weekend and get back to you. Sadly I don't have any games going on currently other the Pathfinder Society so I will not be able to give an in use feedback until my house is done and I have a place to run a Home game in a few months. 10-4. Thanks for taking the time to chime in! Looking forward to any feedback you're willing to provide!
Hey Thomas! Thanks for taking the time to write up some comments. You're the second person to mention goodreads so we'll be looking into that in terms of functionality and usability for reading in Playbook. I appreciate your subscription, especially given the fact you're not a fan. If you *ever* have issues with the app or concerns about continuing your subscription, please let me know. Reach out personally or through the forums and we'll do our best to either make it right or change what needs to be improved! Web client is likely what will come before PC/Mac native but it is definitely something we want to do. When we were developing the toolset for WoTC, we had iOS, Android and Web all being developed in tandem. Needless to say, it was a $*^!Show! Our team is smaller now than before but we absolutely recognize the need to expand to Android (and web). If you'd like to be a part of our test group, let me know :) We'd love to have you.
Hey Keith! Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, we are changing the point buy to 20 shortly. We got that loud and clear from everyone at the con! I like your thoughts on flipping through pages and we'd love to get more specific feedback from you. I've got your email address and I'll be reaching out this coming week. We'd love to have you join the testing group if you're up for it ;)
I am a player and a GM in weekly games. Seen Playbook at Paziocon and will be trying it out as a player and GM. I would help in anyway i can. Awesome! Good to "see" you again Mel :) If you'd like to join our testing group, send me a message or an email with your info and we'll get you added!
Fair enough. We do have plans for Android and web. For a small team with limited resources, developing first on iOS was really our best option. Cheers!
Product looks interesting, but I'm a part of the 'no apple products' crowd here. I do have a regular PFS group though and if it becomes available for PC or Android I'd consider trying it. Cool! We do have plans for both Android and Web in the future :)
I am also an android user, and am curious as to what this is (being that I'm not able to make PaizoCon)? :) Hey there! Playbook for Pathfinder is a companion app to help GMs and players ... play Pathfinder :) We've got tools for GMs like combat tracking, initiative tracking for players and monsters, map panels, stat blocks and linked adventures. So for instance in Rise of the Runelords, you could tap a link that takes you to a specific monsters stat block or you could add more of said monster to a combat encounter. We've also got a secret message system where you can send certain players messages and gather initiative rolls, perception checks etc. For players, you can roll up and manage as many characters as your heart desires. Our integrated rule system will help you level up, multi class, keep track of feats, track bonuses, hit points, spells and is printable and shareable. We will be converting ALL Pathfinder books to the app. All 21 rule books, all new rulebooks, all adventures - you get the idea. Once content that you've already purchased from Paizo.com becomes available in Playbook, you'll be able to download and use it for free. That's a little intro!! Any more questions, shoot!
I have to say the app sounded appealing on the know direction interview. Its not enough to make me go out and buy an iPad though. I'd be up for helping test android whenever you need it Understandable :) We do have plans for Android and web in the future. If you're still interested in seeing the app, we're thinking about doing a live stream demo. I'll keep everyone in the thread posted and we'll record it for posterity!
Ahhhh ladies and gentleman, I misspoke - please forgive me! As a player, if you do not have a subscription, you can no longer make edits to your character sheet. This is because editing your character sheet ties into the rules system and that's kinda what you're paying for. For instance, if you're a rogue and you level up, you do that in your character sheet with the app - it automatically gives you all of your skill point options, all of your multi-classing options, knows what you get when you level up to 2 and knows all the options. So this is a huge part of what makes Playbook so convenient. I'm so sorry for that slip up! You can, however, in theory...although it seems quite clunky...make a ton of characters, each at a certain level and roll it that way...there are options! My apologies again!
So $1.99 per month gets you pretty much everything as a player or a GM. This includes access to the core rules and all of the integration that makes Playbook super cool (i.e., searching grappling and being able to pull it up in about 3.5 seconds). It also features fully linked information throughout the character sheet - so if you've forgotten what Fortitude means or what the Agile Maneuvers feat does for you, you can just tap those words in your character sheet and get the full description. Pretty, pretty good. Additional resources will be priced accordingly as per Paizo guidelines. BUT. What's really cool is that if you've purchased a rule book (PDF or Print) or adventure on the Paizo.com store, as those books become available in Playbook, we'll give you credit for them. No double purchasing.
Rachel, thank you so very much for your feedback in the thread. It's really positive and I appreciate it a lot (I know others do, too). My pleasure! Happy to be here :)
Hmmmm. If you can humor me, load up the app again and when you get dropped into the subscription screen, read the text from the very top. I know it's small and kinda doesn't really pop out....regardless, if you sign up for the subscription, it will automatically start your free trial - you won't get charged and if you do, just tell me and I'll kick some ASS.
As a Player, for $1.99 per month, you can roll up as many characters as your heart desires. You can take them all the way up to level 20 and print out your character sheet at any level, at any time. And yes, PC death spares totally possible! You can even duplicate characters to have more than one ready to go. As a player, for $1.99 per month, you also get access to the Party module. I personally really like this part. It allows me to join an adventuring party with my group and then I can message back and forth things like initiative rolls, secrets, the merits of stealing from corpses...you get the point. I'm also able to view stuff my GM sends me because I'm part of an adventuring party. This can be anything from a text description of the tower we're exploring or part of a map. As a player who uses their one month free trial to roll up as man characters as possible then cancels their subscription the day it starts, you'll STILL be able to access any character you've created. AND you can print, share and email that character. You just can't make any NEW characters or make changes to the character. Without a subscription, a player won't be able to use the Party module or be in an adventuring group through the app (meaning you won't see stuff the GM shares with other players who do have a subscription - you'd just do it the old fashioned way :) Basically, subscription allows users to enjoy all the perks and cool things about Playbook. It allows all of the sharing, messaging and access to programmatic features of the app - all the ones that took hundreds of hours of engineering time and the big bucks to develop ;) I hope this helps!! I'm here to answer questions, geek out and generally be available. We're in this for the long haul - no question is too obtuse or weird. HIT ME! But not really please....
As a play or a GM you can print anyone's character sheet for free - you don't need a subscription to do that. For instance, you're the GM - you've got access to each of your Player's character sheets through your subscription to the app (EVEN if your players just rolled up a bunch of characters during the free trial then never paid for a subscription after that - they can still edit and build those characters, they just can't make new ones) - you can print those character sheets, send them in an email, share them over AirDrop. As a player, the cool thing about subscription is that you can make as many characters you want and you can also use the Party module which allows you to send secret messages, receive secret messages from your friends or the GM and the GM can also share maps, text and treasure with you. So subscriptions aren't mandatory or necessary for players, it just allows them to use more of the features in the app. Also, like I said before, Apple wouldn't allow us to circumnavigate their subscription "policy". Other services like Spotify are able to do this because they're on multiple platforms. As we aren't yet, we sadly have to plow on through the red tape!!
There is a one month free trial with every new account! See post below :)
There is a one month free trial for everyone who signs up with a new account. When you launch the app an make an account, you'll see the "Choose an Adventure Key" window. Then it says: xyz@gmail.com to start your FREE one month trial, select a subscription from the options below. We went around in circles with Apple on this - we wanted everyone to just have a free trial right out of the gates but they force you to choose a subscription before you can actually start a free trial. Ahh the joys of app development!
Being that we can publish books pretty darn fast, eventually the odds are good. Also, with The Forge, you'll be able to add your own home brew adventures and campaigns, publish them *just* to your gaming group with the option (eventually) to publish to the world. Classes and abilities are a little bit more challenging because of "reasons" (like engineer burnout). That said, if you've got a specific publisher in mind that you really love and want to see in Playbook for Pathfinder, let us know and we can either contact them or re-contact them. We're open to working with whoever wants to work with us given that they're compatible with Pathfinder. Re: other game systems. We've got a few companies we're working with toward that already - and we would LOVE to get Savage Worlds, Numenera, 13th Age, etc. It's a matter of timing and patience. Things often move slowly, especially as con season starts ramping up. BUT! We're always working on it. And as Playbook becomes more widely known, things will get easier ;) END RANT!
Hi hi! We're just getting back to "normal" after our awesome weekend at PaizoCon. We were able to meet a lot of you and give you a demo of Playbook for Pathfinder. Thanks to everyone who stopped by for their boon or just to see what we're up to! A huge part of our mission for Playbook is to gather and incorporate user feedback. We're making this app for you so we want to try and get it right or as close to right as we can. Each of you has a unique perspective into how you GM or play and we'd love to hear from you. We've got an open call to any and all Venture Captains and Lieutenants as well as GMs with a regular game and/or group of players. We'd love to set up a time to chat, meet, Skype, email, message, connect and discuss Playbook - how you're using it, if you're using it, if you'd like to use it - basically any feedback you'd be willing to share! We'd set you up with early access to new content on the staging build of the app to get feedback and thoughts before features go out to the world. If you're interested, please get in touch! Leave a comment below, send me a message, shoot me an email (rachael.bowen@trapdoortechnologies.com), smoke signals from the rooftop - I'm very observant ;)
Hi hi! We're just getting back to "normal" after our awesome weekend at PaizoCon. We were able to meet a lot of you and give you a demo of Playbook for Pathfinder. Thanks to everyone who stopped by for their boon or just to see what we're up to! A huge part of our mission for Playbook is to gather and incorporate user feedback. We're making this app for you so we want to try and get it right or as close to right as we can. Each of you has a unique perspective into how you GM or play and we'd love to hear from you. We've got an open call to any and all Venture Captains and Lieutenants as well as GMs with a regular game and/or group of players. We'd love to set up a time to chat, meet, Skype, email, message, connect and discuss Playbook - how you're using it, if you're using it, if you'd like to use it - basically any feedback you'd be willing to share! We'd set you up with early access to new content on the staging build of the app to get feedback and thoughts before features go out to the world. If you're interested, please get in touch! Leave a comment below, send me a message, shoot me an email (rachael.bowen@trapdoortechnologies.com), smoke signals from the rooftop - I'm very observant ;)
Hi hi! We'll be supporting home brew tweaks and some house rules with the release of The Forge which will allow GMs (and players if they want!) to create custom creatures, monsters, traps, treasure, encounters etc. The Forge is the final module of Playbook for Pathfinder and we're hoping to have it released later this year. That said, The Forge won't be able to completely replace the Pathfinder ruleset with your own home brew rules. You'll be able to tweak and customize but not fully replace. The reason for that is because the programmatic difficulty of doing a full swap is....daunting and our engineer has told us multiple times (perhaps with his voice raised...) that it isn't possible to do, OR (and maybe this is more important), to do well. If Playbook for Pathfinder launches into orbit in popularity and adoption, then we can get some more brilliant engineers on board to make it happen!
Thanks for stopping by to check out Playbook! See you at GenCon Steven :D
Hiya Jemstone. Thanks for the feedback and apologies on the delay in my response! We just released Playbook for Pathfinder last week to kick off PaizoCon and we've made a few changes to pricing. Namely that we've gotten rid of the level packs and have moved to a subscription model. It's $1.99 for a month and $19.99 for a year. We did a lot of research and talked to a lot of gamers about what they wanted and everyone agreed the level packs weren't ideal. You also get a 1 month free trial when you make a new account so you can check out the tools. All of the Pathfinder rule books are being converted and will be available in the app. Yep, all 21. And the new stuff, too. We'll be adding them over the course of the coming months. Soon, we'll be able to know which books you've *already* purchased from the Paizo store and as those books become available in Playbook, they'll be unlocked for you in the app. So no double purchasing! As for the dice roller calculating rolls, we didn't want to automate everything. We still really like rolling physical dice but wanted to put a dice roller in (to be quite frank, when we were working with WoTC, that was an absolute must have for them - we built it and left it in there). We have always been very aware of not turning the app into a video game and this dances the line for us! That said, we are looking into a few places to include rolls on your character sheet (mostly in combat scenarios). Also, we've got a few partners that make KILLER dice apps. We want it to be slick and sexy, physics, maybe even that satisfying sound bite of the clunk clunk on the table ;) For people that WANT to use it, we're going to make it a great experience. For those that want to roll physical dice, they can keep on doing that without any requirement to ever use a dice roller. I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions :D
Hi there, Can anyone point me in the direction of who to contact about Tacti-Con 2015? Any GM or Pathfinder Society folks that I could get in touch with? Thanks :) |
