RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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It occured to me at Origins that it also does come down to the fans. While we were waiting for Erik, and Jason, and Josh to arrive we talked about pathfinder and I told some of the curious but uninformed about the free down loads and the feedback. While the seminar did a much better detail than my caffiene infused ramblings, word of mouth is important. That's true for 3.x, true 20, Pathfinder or even (blech) Cortex.
Cam Banks said they might re-do Castlemourn as 4.x, to get it to a wider audience. Since making a Pathfinder 4e would defeat the purpose, it falls to the fans to help carry the weight of our support to make sure we reach that 'wider' audience.
Ok, maybe I'm still rambling, but what I'm hopefully getting across is that we don't want to 'beat' WotC at the RPG game, like Erik said. We just want to make sure that our game of choice is one that we can enjoy down the road because of the player base, while WotC makes 6th edition or what have you.
So please please.
1) Be polite. Common courtesy isn't on the net. Try acting like adults, and not resorting to insults.
2) Be constructive. "Losing concentration sucks" isn't polite. Asking what Concentration did to Jason as a child is funny, but not helpful. Offering alternate solutions (Will saves, folding spellcraft into knowlege instead) are helpful and constructive.
3) let others play their games. This kind of falls under 1, but needs to be restated. If a die hard 4e fan wants to know why you want to see X, or Pathfinder does Y instead, either politely answer him or don't reply. And don't say "Becasue X in 4e is for special ed 4th graders who ride the short bus," even if you saw a batch of special ed 4th graders playing 4e on the short bus yesterday. WotC alienated a goodly number of people with their '3.x is HARD and Stupid, look how smooth 4.x is!" Don't do the same thing.
All good advise, but the way GSL is going the biggest help your going to get in getting 3PP to forge a community around Pathfinder is Wizards itself.
As for fans I'm actually less worried. Lots of Publishers have lasted without ever going D20, D20 3PP will do fine, and so will Pathfinder. Moreover no one has to beat D&D, I still think it'll beat itself and 5th will be a computer game.