
Arnwyn |

I don't mean to be a spoilsport, but how many people on these forums, or who are among the 15,000 downloads of Pathfinder Alpha 2 so far, plan on buying the release product?
Not me... my players and I like 3.5. Full stop. If I wanted new D&D rules, I'd buy 4e.
In fact, the main thing keeping me around is that the Pathfinder APs and modules will be fully playable with 3.5 characters and no changes on my part.

bubbagump |

theCimmerian wrote:I don't mean to be a spoilsport, but how many people on these forums, or who are among the 15,000 downloads of Pathfinder Alpha 2 so far, plan on buying the release product?Not me... my players and I like 3.5. Full stop. If I wanted new D&D rules, I'd buy 4e.
In fact, the main thing keeping me around is that the Pathfinder APs and modules will be fully playable with 3.5 characters and no changes on my part.
I'm with ya. But given the changes I've already seen in the Pathfinder RPG, I suspect Paizo may have forgotten the original reason we didn't want them to switch to 4e - that we don't want another game system.

KaeYoss |

changes I've already seen in the Pathfinder RPG, I suspect Paizo may have forgotten the original reason we didn't want them to switch to 4e - that we don't want another game system.
Nah. I still see what is definetly D&D 3e. Some details are tweaked. Maybe some big details. But it's still the same game system.
Plus, remember that some of the changes are intentionally made a bit extreme - just to see how far people want them to go. I'd guess that more than a few will be cut back in later alphas and/or the beta.
Just see what happened to skills.

anthony Valente |

I plan on buying the releases. I like the direction that Paizo is taking the game far better than WOTC's. To put it simply, their rendition still feels like I'm playing Dungeons & Dragons... the game I grew up playing, whearas 4E feels like something else... I'll bet that it will be a good game as well, but from what I've seen so far, it's not the D&D I know.

pres man |

Don't plan on buying it and in fact will probably end my subscription once they switch over. My wife already gives me a hard time about spending $20 a month on something I'm not running (though I do use bits and pieces). But $20 for something that I will have to convert back to 3.5, not for me sorry.

theCimmerian |
Well, I'm glad I was totally wrong with my impression. Go Paizo!
I had played Dungeons and Dragons 3, and used the SRD to update to 3.5 without buying any new books. I hadn't purchased any third party books, and only found Pathfinder through a link from RPG.net. I grossly underestimated the following the Paizo had in the industry.

Michael Miller 36 |

I'll be picking up at least one of each for me (already ordered) and Likely, I'll be picking up at least 2 more of the softcover for use by my gaming group until everyone gets their own books. My campaign will be officially PRPG once we start CotCT, for now we've been running a test game of 3-4 sessions with each update to test out the rules. Almost tempted to skip the rest of runelords and get on with it, but my players are really enjoying the current AP so far. Now if only i could get the OTHER DM to switch over to PFRPG.....(right now he's a 4e "goon" :) )

Patrick Curtin |

I'll be picking up all the Pathfinder books as well. Count me in. If I get ahead of my bills I am also pondering broadening my subscriptions to gain that coveted square around my avatar. I have about a $50-100 gaming allowance per month, so what once flowed into WotCs coffers will be directed Paizos way. 4e I have decided to buy used, not hating, just not starting another line of suppliments after eight years of buying a $30-40 book every month.

apotheon |

I'll watch the development of the game through Alpha releases, and after it goes into Beta I'll probably keep an eye on the forums here to get a second-hand view of how development decisions are being made.
Eventually, the final release version will become available. Hopefully, it will appear in a store near me. At that point, if the direction of development during Alpha and Beta releases hasn't turned me off the new product, I'll evaluate it in person.
If I like what I see, I'll buy the release version at that point. Judging by what I see so far of the direction of development, I'm optimistic.
Something I will not do is pay about $25 of my hard-earned cash just to be a Beta tester, unless doing so nets me a free "upgrade" to the final release version and I'm still optimistic about the direction of development.
Thus far, my only real hang-up on the new system is the skills. I at first balked at the new skills system in general, but after playing around with it during character creation, it grew on me. I really think it's superior to the D&D 3.5 skills system in pretty much every way. The only problem with it now is that the per-level skill advancement just screws certain classes (Wizards and Clerics come to mind), especially at first level. If that gets fixed, I think the new skills system will be essentially perfect. I still haven't really playtested in depth, though, so I can't be sure I won't run afoul of other problems.
Even if the lowest-rate skill advancement classes don't get their circumstances fixed, though, I don't think that alone would prevent me from buying PFRPG when it comes out. I've never been opposed to using house rules (quite the opposite). I just need PFRPG to be different -- and better -- enough to warrant buying it as a replacement for D&D 3.5. Thus far, it looks like that'll be the case.
In fact, judging by what I've seen of D&D 4 so far, PFRPG looks more like the logical successor to D&D 3.5 to me. That's not to say that 4E is bad, necessarily -- just that people who have liked and used D&D, AD&D, AD&D 2E, D&D Rules Cyclopedia, and D&D 3.5 rules (like me) may find PFRPG more to their liking as the natural fantasy RPG upgrade path (like me). 4E strikes me as being more for the World of Warcraft generation, just as the transition from 2nd Edition World of Darkness to Revised Edition World of Darkness struck me as being more for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer generation.
In fact, I'm already working on a more PFRPG-oriented direction to my house rules and gameworld development materials, based on the Alpha release. If further development goes in a direction I don't like, I'll just borrow some concepts I liked for my house rules and gameworlds, and ignore PFRPG -- but I don't see that as being terribly likely.
I found D&D 3.0 annoying and problematic. 3.5 fixed some of the most egregious problems that arose with 3.0, and the benefits of 3.x coupled with those fixes to make it generally advantageous for me to move up to 3.x at that point. 4E is entirely not a direction I want to go, at this point, judging by the preview materials I've encountered, and (as with 3.0) it started to put me off my interest in keeping up with the development of new D&D materials. PFRPG, however, has rekindled my excitement, and I'm itching to see more development. I'm so damned excited about it I don't know how to describe it. I just hope I don't get disappointed by new directions in development through the Alpha and Beta development process.
. . . but I really can't justify spending $25 to be a damned playtester.

apotheon |

oops
I just read some more about the plans for PFRPG playtesting and noticed something that escaped my notice the first time through:
Apparently, the $25 is only for people who want a physical copy of the Beta test game -- and there will be PDF downloads for free. That makes me much happier about how things are going with the playtest period. I'll surely stick with it through the Beta test cycle, in that case. The only way I'm likely to spend money on the hardcopy Beta, though is if Paizo drops the project before getting to the final release version -- and then, of course, only if I feel it's good and polished enough to warrant purchasing it in its own right.
So . . . I guess most of my previous post could be replaced with one simple sentence:
I plan to buy the final release, assuming things keep going in the direction I already see them going.

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I plan on picking up the hardcopy at GenCon and following the playtest with close attention. It's easy for me to justify the cost since I won't be spending a frigging penny on Wizards of the Coast this year (even if they wind up showing, which isn't a certainty right now). Unless Paizo goes completely crazy and turns Pathfinder into "the new 4E", I'll definitely pick up the final product too.
Jeremy Puckett

BabbageUK |

I would like to add that, assuming no huge errors on Paizo's part (and current history suggests there won't be), I will in all likelihood buy the finished product.
I have played D&D all the way from it's Basic incarnations, 1e, 2e, 3e, 3.5e. I enjoyed 3e/3.5e at first, but I became disillusioned with it and went back to 2e. Pathfinder has me all fired up again - bizarrely, something that 4e has failed to do.
I do put one caveat out there though - Paizo's commitment to backwards compatibility is a deal breaker. No compatibility, no sale from me. And I'm glad to say that every comment I've seen from those in Paizo have stressed this very same argument.
I look forward to seeing where D&D's spiritual successor takes us.

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Something I will not do is pay about $25 of my hard-earned cash just to be a Beta tester, unless doing so nets me a free "upgrade" to the final release version and I'm still optimistic about the direction of development.
Apotheon:
One thing I want to point out is that the PDF of the Beta will be free for download on the website. We decided to do a print version of the Beta for sale because of the cost of printing off 300 pages of color printing would be pretty cost prohibitive if folks want print versions. At $25, the printed version of the Beta will be cheaper than printing it off yourself. If playtesters are happy with electronic versions only and don't feel the need for a printed playtest version, then they can do that without spending a dime. But if they want a printed version for playtesting, we figured that we would help them do that less expensively.
-Lisa

baldwin the merciful |

I will be purchasing at least one hardcover book. I can foresee purchasing a second book for the players use at the table. I have really been talking up the alpha versions to one of my friends who is hardcore gamer that purchases a lot of products.
I just started gaming again about a year and half ago and have purchased 28 books, 4 modules, dozens of FR novels, and an assortment of minis in that time. I have no intention whatsoever of continuing with WoWC once they switch to 4.0 since that version will not be compatible with my recent purchases. Paizo should be happy that my gaming dollars will need a new home courtesy of WoWC.

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I don't mean to be a spoilsport, but how many people on these forums, or who are among the 15,000 downloads of Pathfinder Alpha 2 so far, plan on buying the release product?
For the sake of the gaming industry in general, and the obvious hard work of the people at Paizo in particular, I hope my discussion is met with dozens or hundreds of pledges to purchase the finished product. I just want to be honest - I like it and I like it more than DnD 3/3.5/what I've seen of 4, but I don't like it enough to buy.
I will. i think I will also buy the print copy of the beta.

Eryops |

I'll be buying a beta and release copy, and one of my groups will most likely get the release (can't say if they're buying the beta or not). A week after printing up the first alpha copy, the second version was released, so I was a little bummed about that.
I can't stand reading .pdfs on the screen, and the $25 is more than worth it for someone to print up and bind a copy for me. Thanks to Paizo for making that an option.