Gear Up and Throw Down! When sword and spell just won't be enough to win the day, it's time to power up your game with clockwork gears, lightning coils, and black powder! Guns & Gears, the latest hardcover rulebook for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game (Second Edition), brings the excitement of firearms and fantasy technology to your tabletop!
Unravel the secrets of clockworks with the new inventor class or blow away your opposition as a firearm-wielding gunslinger! In addition to new classes, a plethora of archetypes, backgrounds, vehicles, siege engines, gadgets, and the new automaton ancestry are all ready to expand your game with options for battlefields large and small.
Guns & Gears features:
Two new classes: the clever inventor and the sharpshooting gunslinger
Automaton ancestry for players who want to play a customizable construct
Firearms of all stripes, from the simple and effective flintlock pistol to versatile gunblades
More than a dozen new archetypes
Scores of new gadgets and vehicles
Siege engines and accompanying rules
A gazetteer of Golarion revealing how firearms and technology fit into the Age of Lost Omens, including a look at the technology of the continents of Arcadia and Tian Xia and never-before-revealed secrets of the rough-and-tumble, gritty city of Alkenstar
Written by: Michael Sayre, Mark Seifter, and Logan Bonner, Jessica Catalan, John Compton, Andrew D. Geels, Steven Hammond, Sen H.H.S., Brent Holtsberry, Jason Keeley, Dustin Knight, Luis Loza, Ron Lundeen, Chris Mastey, Will McCardell, Liane Merciel, Jacob W. Michaels, Dave Nelson, Samantha Phelan, Mikhail Rekun, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Sydney Meeker, Kendra Leigh Speedling, Andrew Stoeckle, Calliope Lee Taylor, Sara Thompson, Andrew White, and Scott D. Young
Price- $14.99 here https://paizo.com/products/btq029xk?Pathfinder-Guns-Gears
TL; DR- Solid new Pathfinder toys and toy based characters! 95%
Basics- BRING THE BOOM! Guns and Gears brings solid steampunk and introductory industrialization to the Pathfinder setting with new technology and themes, two new classes, a new race, and countless new character options and items.
Mechanics or Crunch- Paizo knows their system the best and they bring the best new materials for their toys. The new classes are fun parts of an ever expanding world. The Inventor is the steampunk inventor you may be searching for, with no magical background or ties like the alchemist. The Gunslinger brings pure boom to any encounter. The new race the Automaton is an interesting, but well supported addition to the world of Golarion. There is just a TON of materials with all kinds of new toys such as new guns, tools, and magic items that can help turn the tide of battle. My only complaints are that the Gunslinger feels a bit under-powered. It is an absolute crit machine, but guns can fall flat if a character spends a day hitting but not critting. That said, what Paizo has here is a FANTASTIC addition to the crunch of Pathfinder. 4.75/5
Theme or Fluff- Guns and Gears is not a small book and there is just an absolute TON of new stuff here. Now in a tool book you would think its just item lists, and there is that, but there is also a bunch of fluff to bring the new stuff into the old game. Pathfinder 1st ed is about 10 years ago in the world of Golarion, so this helps advance the world as the fantasy world gets a bit more pre-industrial. All that said, one thing sticks out and this may just be a me-problem: automatons. I always hate new races in old parts of the world as if we just magically found them in the same places we were. That and they feel out of place and honestly more like a warforged in PF2. Not a game breaker, but something I don’t think I would have wanted in my game. Another nitpick is there are no new spells here, and I feel that's a reasonable, but somewhat annoying choice. If you want some gun spells, look elsewhere. The writers wanted to focus more on mechanics and less on magic, so while I might want some spells, it's ok they are not here. 4.5/5
Execution- It’s Paizo- they know solid book production. Good layout, art, font, hyperlinking, and all the pieces I expect from a AAA RPG company. It's a 50 buck book, but as an evil millennial, I mostly like PDFs, so the 14 bucks for a digital file is extremely worth it. 5/5
Summary-I honestly love Pathfinder 2nd Ed. It's all the pieces of 4th, 3rd, and 5th Edition DnD I want. And differentiating itself from DnD by moving to a more steampunk and pre-industrial culture will help it grow by further making its own path. Guns and Gears is a solid step in that direction with amazing classes, items, and class options. The missteps I see are maybe more opinion; even if they are not my favorite things, they are done well. If you want less magic and more mechanics mayhem in your Pathfinder 2nd Ed, you need this book now! 95%
Many elements underwhelming but what is good is exceptional.
Very disappointed with the absence of support for much of my pf1 gunslinger weapons; this has created extremely problematic continuity issues in two of my campaigns—both currently put on hiatus due to player disappointment.
Should be noted, *none* of the disappointment is toward the loss of touch ac; this actually made my players relieved so they don't have to choose to "be less optimal" to not trivialize encounters and I don't have to over compensate for it in encounter strength.
Some great stuff in here. I like the art, I was pleased to see some mentions of Arcadia. Everything with the Gunslinger was great -- I'm not much of an inventor type so didn't really look into that.
The tie-in between Alkenstar and Vidrian is somewhat silly though. The idea that two nations separated by an entire continent and sharing no waterway to each other would be besties (despite all the pirates and Cheliaxians standing in their way) is pretty dumb.
Ditto with the "Stasian Coils" thing -- why does electricity have to be imported from Earth? Couldn't someone from Ustalav have just figured out the principles based on speaking with Anastasia Romanov? Someone wanted to name them Tesla Coils but couldn't, so went with the next closest Earth-analog. Silly.
Where did you learn that? I would like to read it, too.
I believe it was from Born by the Sun's Grace, which takes place in Arcadia and has one of the nations in the gazetteer.
I think you might be mixing it up with Luis Loza's podcast in Arcadia - just went through the PDF and I don't see any mention of trains or rail, unless I super missed it.
crud.
Darn you Luis and your awesomeness!
(Though I sadly haven’t gotten to listen to his podcast yet)
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
I was just flipping through my PF1 book, Distant Shores, which has an entry for the city of Segada in Arcadia, known as the City of Keys. I haven't read the whole chapter for the city, but I did come across the description of "Climbers", which states, "These metal and wood structures, called "climbers" by Segadans, run on geared tracks attached to the sheer face of the ridges and work like giant elevators."
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
I'm really hoping for:
* Customizable Airships, Wagons, and other Vehicles.
* Repeating Crossbows.
* Construct Creation Rules.
* Crafting Feats and Actions and expansion of what characters can invent.
Not gonna lie, I've a homebrew setting that I've been working off and on in for over a year now and I came up with my own living construct ancestry. Though I haven't really tested it out yet to see how viable it is, I'm curious to see just how close I got to what Paizo comes up with.
I did Orcs as well for my setting and I was surprisingly close to Paizo when they came out with their 2E Orcs, the only thing I was off with was the Ability Boosts. To be fair, even though the rules from the Guns and Gears are still subject to change, my concept of Firearms is radically different so we'll see.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Fallen_Mage wrote:
I'm also really curious as to the Heritages of the Construct Ancestry.
Yeah, I can imagine a couple like Clockwork or Soulbound or they could create heritages based on what task the automaton was crafted for, such as crafting, guarding, etc. Many heritages for the other ancestries so far seem more about physical features, aptitudes, and capabilities learned from their environment that make them different from the norm for their ancestry.
So, we end up with a lot of types that repeat across ancestries, like Deep/Cavern (Darkvision), Winter/Snowy, Desert/Hot, Wetland/Aquatic, Clawed/Jawed/Tailed/Taloned, Camouflage/Stealthy, Terrain (Stone, Forest, Jungle, etc.) -Traversing, Venomous, Anti-Poison, Anti-Magic, Innate Spell/Cantrip, Lucky/Jinxed, Climber, Flier, or Strong Sense (usually smell). Every now and then we get a unique one, though, like Ancient Elf, Elemental Heart Dwarf, or Runtboss Hobgoblin. I imagine Automaton will be similar in that respect. So, we may see something like Bladed or Drill instead of claws and the like.
I suppose they could include other types of constructs, like Golems, Humonculous, and Animated Objects/Armors/Statues; but, I think it less likely since these are specifically called out as Automatons.
One thing I didn't even notice in the product description when it came up is that this book will have dozens of archetypes!! I don't know how I missed it, but that is huuuge for me. I love archetypes so much, can only imagine what kind of archetypes you'd get in a steampunk setting.
I love the Steampunk vibe I'm getting here. The automaton ancestry, firearms, the new classes this is a book I didn't think Paizo would ever make but I am glad to be a subscriber to the core rule line none the less because of this. I hope there will be clockwork options for alchemists and wizards as well. This book can't come soon enough as far as I am concerned. Plus the Alkenstar material will be very welcome to me.
Thought of a cool thing today that, if the stars align, could be a character concept for me somewhere down the line. If the inventor retains the built in tools modification feat and another class can get it through multiclassing, and if we get the ability to get a weapon in place of an arm like megaman/samus/etc... I am totally making an alchemist with an arm that is a grenade launcher, since it could have alchemist tools built into it. It's mostly flavour but mechanically it makes no difference. So I hope I can make all that work!
I got the free preview for the two classes that will be included in the book and the one gunslinger feat makes me wonder if it will be available to rangers as well as the feat in question is firearm ace and rangers already get crossbow ace. My apologies in advance if this is the wrong place to ask this
I got the free preview for the two classes that will be included in the book and the one gunslinger feat makes me wonder if it will be available to rangers as well as the feat in question is firearm ace and rangers already get crossbow ace. My apologies in advance if this is the wrong place to ask this
It's actually a playtest, not a preview, so everything contained therein is subject to change. We talk a bit about what some of those changes might look like here: Guns & Gears Playtest Analysis.
So it's a bit early to say what other classes might get access to.
To Michael and Mark. Since this book is going to include siege engines I thought I would bring your attention to a really cool source. Here's an in-depth easy to follow interview about Ancient Naval Artillery from the Greek through Roman periods. The only problem with it is that the interviewee is clearly using his computer's default microphone over a Skype call and the resulting audio quality isn't the best. But everything else makes it worth it. Hope you find it useful.
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
It's the same pdf as the regular sized book, and available from that product page.
What are the odds this has an Alkenstar AP releasing alongside it? Secrets of Magic complements Strength of Thousands so well, it makes me wonder if there’s some black powder in the Adventure Path line’s near future.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
keftiu wrote:
What are the odds this has an Alkenstar AP releasing alongside it? Secrets of Magic complements Strength of Thousands so well, it makes me wonder if there’s some black powder in the Adventure Path line’s near future.
Given the timing (and some other factors), an Alkenstar/Mana Wastes AP is almost guaranteed for January.
1) Secrets of Magic comes out in July, and that seems like the kind of book that covers the mechanical effects of wild magic zones.
2) The inventor is the first brand new class for this system. Four months seems like enough amount time for those interested to give it a spin to prep for the January AP (the playtest wouldn't necessarily have been enough, because the class might have needed a massive overhaul).
3) From a sales point of view, having an AP that supports the latest project is only logical. If not for the need to have people get used to the inventor, G&G would have probably dropped in January. If they wait, they would step on the toes of the GenCon 2022 release.
4) Thematically speaking, going from magic to science works really well. It shows the range of what one can do with Golarion (and possibly work as a weather balloon to see if there's still interest in sci-fi for Pathfinder now that Starfinder is around).
5) We don't know if 3 part Pathfinder APs are successful yet, so the January AP release will almost certainly be a 6 month 1-20 AP. The Wastes are a region that could support a 1-20 AP without potentially changing the entire dynamic of the Impossible Lands going forward.
6) The last Garundi AP before Strength of Thousands is Mummy's Mask (2014! Seven real-life years!), and we have never had back-to-back Garundi APs. Frankly, that is long overdue for a change.
I’d be ecstatic over back-to-back Garund: I’ve come to realize I like every part of it other than Osirion (I think it having the actual Egyptian gods is cheesy!), so either something Alkenstar and Mana Wastes or something that just starts there both sound great.
...especially thinking about the lost technology of the Shory and the Jistka.
I know it was a wierd ap & it'd be controversial but for me personally I'd love if they included the ww1 tech & siege equipment from Rasputin must die i know its mainly gunna be black powder era stuff but being able to run a AU ww1 campaign would be cool as hell!