I like Paizo, and I think you guys have been doing a better job with D&D in the last two years than Wizards has. They've really dropped the ball and have been printing a lot of gimped, boring, uninspired, underpowered junk, with rare diamonds in the rough like Book of Nine Swords. Most of the stuff I actually import or adapt into my campaign in some way comes from Dragon and Dungeon. So I am supporting you guys by converting to Pathfinder. That said, I have some comments and questions.
1) Your website does not work properly in Firefox; perhaps not in any browser except IE, although I haven't tried any others. It is impossible to set up a month to month subscription through Firefox; it just takes you to a Pathfinder page. I was confused as to why I was not listed as a charter subscriber when I had clearly chosen to roll my Dragon and Dungeon subscriptions over into the new magazine. A look at the forums determined that charter is only conferred on those who picked month-to-month... but wait, I picked that, didn't I? Nope. Nothing I did would "keep" and proceed through to the rest of the billing process until I opened up your site in IE. This should definitely be fixed, especially since IE is a buggy, useless, security-hole-ridden plague.
2) Why is Pathfinder so incredibly expensive? $14 a month AFTER the subscriber discount? It's a mere 96 pages per issue, unless you dropped a 1 somewhere and it's actually 196. This is equal to or less than the page count of a standard Dragon or Dungeon issue, yet it costs 3 times as much as one issue of either magazine. After the last issues of Dragon and Dungeon ship, my subscriptions will have 47 issues left between the two of them; these are rolling over into only 15 issues of Pathfinder. Are you printing each issue as a hardcover book? If so, please don't. Even if for some reason you will not deign to stoop to printing Pathfinder as an actual magazine (despite this honestly being what it is), at least print in softcover like the 3E splatbooks such as Tome And Blood, et cetera.
3) $4 shipping per issue - does the USPS no longer offer book rate?
4) And one lighter question so you don't think I'm all hostile (I'm just frustrated)... is there any opportunity for us players and readers to contribute to this new campaign setting you're developing? :)
Chief Technical Officer
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1) ...It is impossible to set up a month to month subscription through Firefox; it just takes you to a Pathfinder page....This should definitely be fixed, especially since IE is a buggy, useless, security-hole-ridden plague.
We're not sure that Firefox is the issue, but others are having similar problems from the transition page. (It should still work from the regular subscription page.) It's the first thing we'll take care of tomorrow. (The site actually looks best in Safari, the OS X default browser.)
2) Why is Pathfinder so incredibly expensive?
It really is a book, not a magazine. (And yes, it's softcover.) And just printing it in magazine form wouldn't be that much cheaper—the reasons that magazines can be so inexpensive is a combination of huge volume and paid advertising, and that opportunity isn't open to Pathfinder. I've written about it at length in other threads, including this one.
3) $4 shipping per issue - does the USPS no longer offer book rate?
We're going to look into adding that option.
4) ...is there any opportunity for us players and readers to contribute to this new campaign setting you're developing? :)
Keep an eye out for us to post submisison guidelines in the near future.
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For whatever it's worth I used Firefox and had absolutely no problems subscribing to Pathfinder month-to-month after converting my excess Dungeon and Dragon issues. The Charter Subscriber title came up without a hitch.
My older version of Firefox had all sorts of compatibility issues so it might be worth checking to see that you have the most up-to-date version of Firefox.
I agree it's a bit expensive. But, I'm going to go ahead anyway. Looking at what's listed it looks like a bi-monthly thing? Cool.
However, since it's an "adventure path" does this mean their maybe one big book at the end of it all for those who either a) want the whole thing in a complete volume or b) in case some issues just sell out.
I'm only asking because say you wrap it into one and perhaps cut a deal on that say... 30%, it's still $84 roughly BEFORE shipping. That's A LOT of money considering it's an adventure that only goes from 1st to 15th level.
For whatever it's worth I used Firefox and had absolutely no problems subscribing to Pathfinder month-to-month after converting my excess Dungeon and Dragon issues. The Charter Subscriber title came up without a hitch.
I use Firefox, and I didn't have any problems either.
It really is a book, not a magazine. (And yes, it's softcover.) And just printing it in magazine form wouldn't be that much cheaper—the reasons that magazines can be so inexpensive is a combination of huge volume and paid advertising, and that opportunity isn't open to Pathfinder. I've written about it at length in other threads, including this one.
Alright, it makes a lot more sense now. After all the advertising, mail, and cartoon pages are factored out, it is probably actually roughly the same amount of actual content as one issue of Dragon plus one issue of Dungeon. That makes the price easier to swallow. :)
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CEO
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...since it's an "adventure path" does this mean their maybe one big book at the end of it all for those who either a) want the whole thing in a complete volume or b) in case some issues just sell out.
Nope. It made sense to collect the Shackled City into a book, partly because magazine issues do go out of print, but also because those issues also contained non-adventure path material.
But Pathfinder is a series of books which contain just the adventure path, and we can reprint them if they sell out. No compliation product is planned.