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I'm familiar with Paizo mainly from Dungeon and Dragon, but I don't know very much about Pathfinder. I noticed the RPG Superstar contest and today's announcement on ENWorld, and it seems interesting enough to check out. Looking at prouducts, I see adventures, modules, chronicles, subscriptions.... so where does one start? ^_^
Thanks.
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I'm familiar with Paizo mainly from Dungeon and Dragon, but I don't know very much about Pathfinder. I noticed the RPG Superstar contest and today's announcement on ENWorld, and it seems interesting enough to check out. Looking at prouducts, I see adventures, modules, chronicles, subscriptions.... so where does one start? ^_^
Thanks.
I personally advise picking up the free player's guides first and foremost; they'll give you the first taste of Pathfinder that pretty much everyone got.
The Pathfinders are the Adventure Paths, and each issue is roughly half adventure and half world material, including the journals of a member of the Pathfinder Society. The Pathfinder Modules are stand-alones set in various points of the world, some of which we know very little about right now (but they're working on that!); if you just want to jump straight in and get a taste of the world, I'd recommend a module or two - Hollow's Last Hope, Crown of the Kobold King, and Carnival of Tears are, as far as I'm aware, the longest sequential set of modules so far. The Pathfinder Chronicles are pretty much the catch-all section; support material, which includes the Guide to Korvosa (the city where the just-started Curse of the Crimson Throne AP is set), the Harrow deck (which may be the most awesome 'flavor' item I've laid eyes on), and other cool little bits. Pathfinder Companion hasn't begun yet, but when it does it'll alternate monthly with the modules, and each one will be completely player-friendly and full of more support material for the world as a whole.
If you're a player, I'd advise getting the PDFs of the Player's Guides and reading those, then getting yourself the Guide to Korvosa and either harassing the DM to buy either Burnt Offerings (Pathfinder #1) or Edge of Anarchy (Pathfinder #7), or buying them for him, so as to get started. If you're a DM, I'd suggest the player's guides, and either a Pathfinder as above, or a couple of modules (such as the three mentioned before) to let you get started. Of the Pathfinders, I recommend the first AP to begin with, though, just for the goblins. Ugly, stupid, freakish, loathsome little goblins... Who are somehow absolutely hilarious in the process.
The Alpha Test Rules:
When 4E comes out, the 3.5 rules will officially be out of print. Paizo is sticking with the basic 3.5 engine. Unless they have some way of keeping the rules in print, that is the kiss of death of the game. And just taking the SRD and PDFing and releasing it on DriveThruRPG won't solve that problem either. If its going to sell well enough to support a company the size of Paizo, they have to have a physical book they can have in game stores.
The Alpha test is the first step in a solution to that problem. The Beta test (released in august of this year) is step 2. The final product (released in Aug of next year) is step 3.