Living Pathfinder???

[Tomovasky]

Just a thought, Have you put any thought into a Living world. Kinda like what the RPGA has done with so may worlds.

[Bocklin]

Erik said on one of the many threads here that they were considering reserving another continent of the planet Varisia is set for a Living Campaign.

(and another continent for home-developpement by players)

Bocklin

[Erik Mona]

Yeah, we've put considerable thought into it, actually. We're not staffed appropriately for something like this (yet), but it's definitely on the drawing table.

--Erik

[Stebehil]

Actually, this might interest me. I´m not a fan of Living Campaigns otherwise, but to take part in something completely new...

Stefan

[RogueMonkeyChief]

Stebehil wrote:

Actually, this might interest me. I´m not a fan of Living Campaigns otherwise, but to take part in something completely new...

I concur.

[Potantsuem]

As I was looking over Pathfinder, I was starting to think of a Living Campaign as well. As the only Living Campaign I've shown intrest in has been Living Spycraft, I don't have much knowledge in the area. However, I did come across a few problems (though they can in a way be remedied).

Pathfinder are Adventure Paths taking PCs from 1 to 15+. Which is just no good for a living campaign. You don't want your characters to be level 20 in only around 6 months of game play. Assuming that it takes you one month per book to complete.

And if Paizo does create a Living Campaign, which I still find interesting, will you permit online game play or only in authorized vendors like other Living Campaigns.

There are many questions dealing with this topic, as well as problems, and hopes. Paizo please keep us informed on this subject.

Oh. On a side note. Perhapse Paizo could create a nice friendly site for Pathfinder with an message board for ingame dealings. Just an idea. Keep up the great work.

[Fletch]

I'm all for another Living campaign. Sure I expect Paizo to do a great job at it as always, but my real reason is that I'm hoping for a living campaign to come along that matches what I'm looking for in one.

My wish list:

Limited availibility of extra feats, races, equipment and prestige classes. The living campaigns I've played in have quickly turned from roleplaying characters to exercises in stat assembly. With just the basic SRD, the difference between a knight and a swashbuckler is how the player plays him, not what feats and PrCs he's unlocked through a variety of meta-organizations.

Low-magic / item certs. The early days of Living Greyhawk used item certs to represent magic items found, making even the smallest +1 dagger a real treasure. If you wanted a special magic item, you'd either have to make it yourself or find another player to do it at an interactive convention. Now, magic items are treated as "the orc boss had a +1 scimitar so now everyone can have one." Magic stopped being special somewhere around year 2.

Developing story-line. I'm still kicking myself in the pants for missing out on so much of the Living Force story line. Even though I regret that, I found the end-game of the story line to be so many levels of awesome after missing the middle few years that I can only imagine how cool it was to be a player experiencing all of it. I want another chance to experience something like that. (I'm still hoping for a release of the LF mods so I can see everything that I missed).

That's what I'd like, anyways.

[Potantsuem]

I agree so much with Fetch. One of the biggest draw backs, in my opinion, with Dungeons & Dragon is the insane amount of content that is out there. Much of which is crap. Now I know WoTC is just trying to appeal to everyone (yeah yeah I know in reality they just want money), but lets face it. When someone is having to go out and buy books every other day just to get some new info you start to hate the game and well your wallet.

One reason why I feel Paizo is on the right path, something that CRAFTY GAMES is doing. Instead of publishing tons of books, use the KISS rule (keep it simple stupid).

By publishing everythign the players and Dungeon Master needs in their monthly book, they are ensuring their players that they will have what they need to play, when they need it, without having to go spend tons of money on books that in the end they may only be using once.

And if a company does want / need to publish some small rule changes, or updates, or just minor new information. Instead of throwning together a stupid looking book with no real information, just toss it out on the internet for free download.

[Fletch]

Potantsuem wrote:

When someone is having to go out and buy books every other day just to get some new info you start to hate the game and well your wallet.

Totally. I still subscribe to my local Living Greyhawk discussion groups because I like to keep tabs on the developing story (I love me some developing story), and the number of times people need to post request for rulings on how to combine this feat with that prestige class to best min/max such-and-such new magic item is boggling.

I've no conceit that Paizo is THE company to do the perfect Living campaign (mostly 'cause of what he said about manpower), but I trust them like no other to emphasize the roleplaying aspect over the mix-n-match uber-character assembly exercises I've seen some other Living Campaigns release on their players.

Seriously, if manpower is the only problem to seeing how the Paizo team develops a Living Campaign, please tell me how I can help out.

[Potantsuem]

Now that we are on a Living Campaign rant. heh. One of the other things that does bug me about Living Campaigns, though I know will not change, is that every party goes through the same adventure. So in the end their is no real "uniqueness" to your party, they might have gone through it differently and done some different things, but in the end it was the same adventure every other member had gone through.

Okay so their are pro's and con's to that.

Now of course players and dungeon masters must register for a Living Campaign. Not a problem. However, will Paizo be requireing monthly membership fees like RPGA?

[Fletch]

I don't think that's anything that can be changed, there's just an unspoken rule that nobody makes specific mention of events in the past. Not only does it cause conflicts in suspension of disbelief, but it can even spoil adventures for players who haven't played them yet. The only time that's ever been a show-stopper for me, though, is when two people show up at a table with duplicate, unique magic items. By the rules, suddenly one of them doesn't have access to it any more. Bing!

As for paying to be in the RPGA, you don't. For reals, membership and participation are free and for life now. Groups may charge a few bucks for game days and the like, but since that usually pays for printing costs of the downloaded adventures (and maybe even prizes for the volunteer GMs) I'm okay with that.