Gimme a minute to get the linky to the Advantage thread, but it's automatic.
Ross is correct.. as his link will no doubt show.
So, if I subscribe to them NOW, do I get the first free as well?!
Damn, I start wondering if I only go to work to send my earned money to Paizo... :(
If you subscribe to both Pathfinder and Pathfinder Companion, you will still be sent only one copy of Companion #1, and it will be free.
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Subscribed! Now where's my tag!? Actually it's getting kind of long...perhaps a new tag like "Pathfinder Elite" for people who have everything, or "Pathfinder Charter Elite" for Charters who have everything =p
Actually I don't like the term elite. Lets use "Pathfinder Sage" for the complete Charter members. :)
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Should I be worried that it says cancelled? I just went ahead and did the usual subscription procedure as normal.
Probably still working bugs out of the system.. or don't have a system yet. They're not doing player's guides anymore. Pathfinder AP subscribers will get the related Companion for free in place of the player's guides.
They probably canceled it because they charged you for the first one, which is free. :)
Are you going to alternate months for Pathfinder Modules and Companions? Like August get a Companion, September a Module, October a Companion etc etc?Yes.
Cool, I'm a subscriber now - that way I'm not spending too much each month, but on the off months I get more content.
I don't see a Companion tag yet. :P
Pathfinder AP subscribers will get the related Companion for free in place of the player's guides.
Well, for Second Darkness anyway. We don't know about AP 4 and later.
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Chronicles involves maps and the bigger more general books... it looks like each companion is on one topic (like how the gazeteer is the whole contenant or two, these will be more regional based- or how the campaign setting will talk about all the races the elves compainion will have more detailed information on just elves.)And where will be the difference between the companions and the gazetteer books?
Okay, the gazetteers have more pages, but is there any thematic difference?
The products that have been announced until now seem to fit into both lines (like books that focus on certain regions in both lines for example).
I don't really care as long as the content is good (I have no doubts about this), but there must be a reason for making these differences and I'd really like to know.
Are the companions aimed at players in the first place (and the gazetteers at DMS)?
Hmm, some of the chronicles books are quite regional themselves (like the Guide To Korvosa or Guide To Darkmoon Vale) and I can't see any difference to the announced companion-products like the guide to Osirion.
Hopefully one of the staff will shed some light on this soon...Right now it would only make sense (to me) if the companions were aimed mainly at players (but the description of the Osirion-book doesn't sound like it will be...).
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So, if I subscribe to them NOW, do I get the first free as well?!
Damn, I start wondering if I only go to work to send my earned money to Paizo... :(
If you subscribe to both Pathfinder and Pathfinder Companion, you will still be sent only one copy of Companion #1, and it will be free.
D'oh! If you're able to read you have a huge advantage!
Thanx for pointing it out, Ross!
I just want to make sure I understand things correctly:
Is Pathfinder going purely to an adventure format, with the articles portion being transferred to this separate line of books and the free Players' Guides ending with CotCT?
Or, is Pathfinder remaining part adventure, part articles, and Companion simply offers an expanded and more detailed version of material covered in the Pathfinder adventure and articles?
Thanks for your time and clarifications...
Or, is Pathfinder remaining part adventure, part articles, and Companion simply offers an expanded and more detailed version of material covered in the Pathfinder adventure and articles?
I am fairly sure that it is this option.
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I just want to make sure I understand things correctly:
Is Pathfinder going purely to an adventure format, with the articles portion being transferred to this separate line of books and the free Players' Guides ending with CotCT?
Or, is Pathfinder remaining part adventure, part articles, and Companion simply offers an expanded and more detailed version of material covered in the Pathfinder adventure and articles?
Thanks for your time and clarifications...
Yes. These are questions I would like an answer to as well. I am hoping Pathfinder will continue to have articles as well as adventures with Companion having expansion to these.
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Yes. These are questions I would like an answer to as well. I am hoping Pathfinder will continue to have articles as well as adventures with Companion having expansion to these.
From what I understand Pathfinder will still pretty much have the same setup with the exception that the AP adventures will only be roughly 40 pages and the other 10 pages will be a short side quest thematically tied to the AP adventure. Pathfinder will still have the types of articles we have currently seen and the Companion will have player focused articles detailing races, feats, classes and small gazetteers.
Creative Director
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Yes, I would like some input from staff. I had thought the gazeteers were mostly player-friendly. Now they release these. Seems like far too much overlap, especially when you consider they still plan on releasing a setting book.
Please Paizo, I'd hate to see Golarion become another Scarred Lands.
The Pathfinder Companion will be spoiler-free, as far as our adventures go; it's main purpose is to be very player-friendly (while still retaining use for GMs). Stuff like what you find in the Runelords and Crimson Throne player's guides will be in the Companions, as will things like prestige classes, spells, gazetters of regions & cities not covered in Pathfinder as part of an Adventrue Path (such as Osirion), player versions of gazetteer locations that ARE (such as Riddleport), organizations, and various other Golarion-themed PC options (similar to the old class acts articles from Dragon).
The gazetters themselves will probably be shifting content to have more crunch and GM content... I'm not sure. The main reason the Darkmoon Vale and Korvosa gazetteers are so heavy on the flavor and light on the crunch is so that they'll remain more useful no matter what edition of the the game you end up using. Once things settle down for us and we know what edition of the game we're sticking with, you can expect more crunch to show up in those products. I suspect that the Darklands Gazetteer will have a LOT of GM-only info, for example.
Again, we're still figuring these guys out. But the Pathfinder Companion will absolutely be 100% player friendly all the time.
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Creative Director
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I just want to make sure I understand things correctly:
Is Pathfinder going purely to an adventure format, with the articles portion being transferred to this separate line of books and the free Players' Guides ending with CotCT?
Or, is Pathfinder remaining part adventure, part articles, and Companion simply offers an expanded and more detailed version of material covered in the Pathfinder adventure and articles?
Thanks for your time and clarifications...
Pathfinder is doing too well to tinker with TOO much. The only real change it'll be seeing with Second Darkness is that the adventures will be 10 pages shorter, and that space will go to giving us a little more room to present our support chapters and give us space to present a bonus side-quest type adventure to support the main adventure region. Gazettteers, deity articles, ecology articles, new monsters, and all the othter stuff we've been doing in Pathfinder will remain there.
The Companion will periodically offer player-friendly support for the adventure path, but sometimes that content will instead support a module or a Pathfinder Chronicles product.
Stuff like what you find in the Runelords and Crimson Throne player's guides will be in the Companions...
Thanks for answering my questions!
Am I to understand from the quote above that the free Players' Guides will no longer accompany the start of a new AP (beginning with Second Darkness and beyond) and instead, the content that would have been in the Guides will now be funneled into Companion?
Or will the Guides continue, and Companion serves as a more deluxe version for those looking for more depth?
Again, thanks for your time and clarifications...
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Creative Director
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Am I to understand from the quote above that the free Players' Guides will no longer accompany the start of a new AP (beginning with Second Darkness and beyond) and instead, the content that would have been in the Guides will now be funneled into Companion?
Or will the Guides continue, and Companion serves as a more deluxe version for those looking for more depth?
Again, thanks for your time and clarifications...
At this point, the plan is to offer a free copy of the first Pathfinder Companion to all subscribers to Second Darkness, since the first Pathfinder Companion will contain the content we'd originally had scheduled for the Second Darkness Player's Guide. The AP Player's Guides are not going to continue as separate 16-page products.
Subscribed as well!!
The AP Player's Guides are not going to continue as separate 16-page products.
I appreciate you taking the time to educate me (and others) on this.
While I find the discontinuation of the Guides disappointing, Companion certainly has me interested. The Guides were always invaluable tools in preparing for a new campaign, and since I'm always in the market for variant classes/class abilities, having both assets in a single book is most attractive...
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Creative Director
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The AP Player's Guides are not going to continue as separate 16-page products.I appreciate you taking the time to educate me (and others) on this.
While I find the discontinuation of the Guides disappointing, Companion certainly has me interested. The Guides were always invaluable tools in preparing for a new campaign, and since I'm always in the market for variant classes/class abilities, having both assets in a single book is most attractive...
The guides may be discontinued... but all the information that we were putting into those guides isn't going anywhere. It's going into the Companions and being expanded upon.
That said, with each product we put out, the need for a significant player's guide type product decreases. When we launched Pathfinder, no one but us knew about Golarion, it's people, its deities, and its history. We HAD to release the player's guide along with the first one, if only so that we could show cleric NPCs and PCs what gods to pick from and what domains they had access to.
By the time we get to launching Second Darkness, we'll have a hardcover campaign setting, a gazetteer of the world, hundreds of pages of support material, and over a year of blog posts and message board posts for people to go to to familiarize themselves with the world. At this point, the player's guide content shifts from being a "Welcome to Golarion" type product into something more interested in helping players create characters that'll fit into the new Adventure Path with ease.
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Chief Technical Officer
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James, don't forget, to help us fit into our own home run Golarion campaigns. :)
Excellent point. Indeed, one of our chief design goals for the Pathfinder Companion is to ensure that it's useful to people who aren't playing the Adventure Path or the Modules as well as those who are.
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To reiterate unanswerred questions:
1) I ordered a Pathfinder Companion subscription, but it doesn't show up yet in my subscriptions list -- is that normal?
2) If I now choose to have my products shipped with my Pathfinder Modules (or with my Pathfinder Companion, once that option is available), does that mean that I would be getting my orders bimonthly? And would that mean that I would be saving shipping costs, since I'm getting them sent here to Europe?
3) What exactly will be the difference between the Chronicles and Companion lines?
To reiterate unanswerred questions:
1) I ordered a Pathfinder Companion subscription, but it doesn't show up yet in my subscriptions list -- is that normal?
It's not normal, but it has happened to all of us that have subscribed, Lukas.
There's something that Gary Teter (the Paizo computer guy) has to straighten out. It'll probably be fixed today, since the subscriptions went live on Friday afternoon, and he's been off work since then.
I'll leave the other questions for Paizo or more well informed folks.
I will stress before attempting to answer that I do not work for Paizo. I am merely trying to be helpful and respond to questions with my best understanding.
2) If I now choose to have my products shipped with my Pathfinder Modules (or with my Pathfinder Companion, once that option is available), does that mean that I would be getting my orders bimonthly? And would that mean that I would be saving shipping costs, since I'm getting them sent here to Europe?
If a product comes out bimonthly, it would make sense that holding for it would result in a bimonthly shipment, saving on international shipping (if meaning waiting a bit longer).
3) What exactly will be the difference between the Chronicles and Companion lines?
Companion is a regular (bi-monthly) 32-page Player-safe softcover book, generally marketed toward players.
Chronicles is a catch-all for products in the Pathfinder Chronicles setting that do not fit into the other pathfinder lines, such as larger books (The Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting hardcover is a thick hardcover, for instance), items with limited player appeal (like Monsters Revisited), or items that are not books (like the map folios, item cards, and harrow deck).
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Can I summarize what I think I understand so far? And PLEASE correct me if I an mistaken.
Pathfinder - adventure path, maybe an occasional side trek, GM information, monthly, 6-month cycle
Pathfinder Companion - goes along with adventure path, background, prestige classes, feats, etc., stuff that used to be in the players' companions and articles like "Wormfood," lots of fluff, not too much crunch, no spoilers, player information, bi-monthly
Pathfinder Chronicles - information not associated with the adventure paths, general Golarion info, gazetteers, goodies like item cards and the Harrow deck, for players and GMs so potentially some spoilers, irregularly scheduled (they come out when they're ready)
Pathfinder Modules - adventures set in Golarion, not associated with the adventure paths, GM information, bi-monthy in months when Pathfinder Companion is not shipped out
How's that?
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Creative Director
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Can I summarize what I think I understand so far? And PLEASE correct me if I an mistaken.
Pathfinder - adventure path, maybe an occasional side trek, GM information, monthly, 6-month cycle
Pathfinder Companion - goes along with adventure path, background, prestige classes, feats, etc., stuff that used to be in the players' companions and articles like "Wormfood," lots of fluff, not too much crunch, no spoilers, player information, bi-monthly
Pathfinder Chronicles - information not associated with the adventure paths, general Golarion info, gazetteers, goodies like item cards and the Harrow deck, for players and GMs so potentially some spoilers, irregularly scheduled (they come out when they're ready)
Pathfinder Modules - adventures set in Golarion, not associated with the adventure paths, GM information, bi-monthy in months when Pathfinder Companion is not shipped out
How's that?
Sounds mostly right, except that the Pathfinder Companion also goes along with all of the Pathfinder Chronicles AND the Pathfinder Modules—the Companion is a companion to ALL our Pathfinder products, not just the Adventure Path. The crunch vs. flavor ratio will probably be something like 40% crunch, 60% flavor, although that's still up in the air. Could adjust either way.
Also, the Pathfinder Chronicles line will sometimes be associated with the Adventure Paths, just as the Guide to Korvosa (a Pathfinder Chronicles product) is tied to Curse of the Crimson Throne.
Subscribed!
I'm really excited about this product. Not least because, while I'll be a subscriber (and get my copy direct from Paizo), I can still support my local FLGS by convincing the members of my gaming group to order print copies of the Companion issues at the store.
Gimme a minute to get the linky to the Advantage thread, but it's automatic.
Haven't read about that. That rocks.
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Chief Technical Officer
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... If I now choose to have my products shipped with my Pathfinder Modules (or with my Pathfinder Companion, once that option is available), does that mean that I would be getting my orders bimonthly?...
We only allow holding for monthly products, so once the Pathfinder Modules line changes frequency, you'll have to choose a different option.
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We only allow holding for monthly products, so once the Pathfinder Modules line changes frequency, you'll have to choose a different option.
Is there any chance that by the time that the Chronicles come out this will be changed?
By then I'll be able to subscribe to both the Modules and the Chronicles, but would prefer to hold each for the Pathfinder that will ship that month. Otherwise I expect that the Pathfinder Advantage discount will be completely offset by the extra shipping.
Cheers
Ukos
We only allow holding for monthly products, so once the Pathfinder Modules line changes frequency, you'll have to choose a different option.Is there any chance that by the time that the Chronicles come out this will be changed?
By then I'll be able to subscribe to both the Modules and the Chronicles, but would prefer to hold each for the Pathfinder that will ship that month.
I can't speak for Paizo, but since the APs are monthly, I'd assume you could choose to wait for them. The module line is the one that is changing. Yes, I know it has become a bit confusing now that evreything has Pathfinder in the title...
But I think your option will still be available, since you have the AP subscription.
We only allow holding for monthly products, so once the Pathfinder Modules line changes frequency, you'll have to choose a different option.Is there any chance that by the time that the Chronicles come out this will be changed?
By then I'll be able to subscribe to both the Modules and the Chronicles, but would prefer to hold each for the Pathfinder that will ship that month. Otherwise I expect that the Pathfinder Advantage discount will be completely offset by the extra shipping.
I think what he means is that you surely can put Chronicles and Modules on hold to ship with Pathfinder, but you couldn't put stuff on hold to ship with the Modules. The stuff basically has to be shipped out once a month, whether it's just Pathfinder or Pathfinder plus Chronicles plus a Module plus a Planet Story.
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Chief Technical Officer
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I think what he means is that you surely can put Chronicles and Modules on hold to ship with Pathfinder, but you couldn't put stuff on hold to ship with the Modules. The stuff basically has to be shipped out once a month, whether it's just Pathfinder or Pathfinder plus Chronicles plus a Module plus a Planet Story.We only allow holding for monthly products, so once the Pathfinder Modules line changes frequency, you'll have to choose a different option.Is there any chance that by the time that the Chronicles come out this will be changed?
By then I'll be able to subscribe to both the Modules and the Chronicles, but would prefer to hold each for the Pathfinder that will ship that month. Otherwise I expect that the Pathfinder Advantage discount will be completely offset by the extra shipping.
Right—you can only hold shipments for monthly products (like Pathfinder and Planet Stories), and not bimonthly products (like the Pathfinder Companion or the Pathfinder Modules) or irregularly scheduled products (like the Pathfinder Chronicles).
(Although to be completely accurate, right now you *can* hold shipments for the Modules since they're still monthly, but you'll have to change that once they go bimonthly).
You can also choose "Hold for monthly shipment," which means that we'll ship it as soon as everything we're expecting in a given month has arrived.
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Chief Technical Officer
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I'm sorry if this has been covered. Will the Pathfinder Companions be mainly edition neutral? If so, I'll still continue my companion subscription even if the APs and Modules go 4th. I really enjoy the setting and so does my group from everything I've heard so far.
Some chunks of each volume will likely be largely edition-neutral; some chunks won't. When there is edition-specific text, it will be in the same edition as all of our other Pathfinder products. (Whatever edition that happens to be—we'll hopefully know real soon now.)
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snip useful answerRight—you can only hold shipments for monthly products (like Pathfinder and Planet Stories), and not bimonthly products (like the Pathfinder Companion or the Pathfinder Modules) or irregularly scheduled products (like the Pathfinder Chronicles).
(Although to be completely accurate, right now you *can* hold shipments for the Modules since they're still monthly, but you'll have to change that once they go bimonthly).
You can also choose "Hold for monthly shipment," which means that we'll ship it as soon as everything we're expecting in a given month has arrived.
Oh right, thanks guys. I understand now. I'll stop worrying about having no way to use that lovely discount :)
U
Pity. I don't know if I want to shell out money for books that are half-useless for me (i.e. filled with 4e stuff).
There are at least two such polls on the site already. :)
Official Place to Tell Paizo which Edition they should Go with.
I highly recommend expressing your feeings on both (regardless of which side of the debate you are on).
Subscribed!
The only thing left to do now is cut the Planet stories line down to bi-monthly and fill in the gaps with an on going Pathfinder novel series.
Don't get me wrong I love the Planet Stories line but having Planet Stories and Pathfinder Novels alternate months would be a little easier on the wallet.