Hello all here at Paizo messageboards,
As the subject of this post states: I'm confused.
I started playing AD&D (for a few years) and moved on to 3.x (also a few years). No problems there.
Then (when I was about to enter the life of the paid (aka post-university aka got-money-for-magazines-like-Dragon-and-Dungeon-which-I-like-a-lot) the game changed:
- No more Dungeon magazine and Dragon magazine
- The WotC forums changed (Gleemax wot?)
- I read about a Digital Initiative thingymajingy which I still don't understand fully
- A company that made the magazines wanted to carry on doing something comparable (sounded cool, they offered a free download so I registered) and they release a nice newsletter in which they started to mention Pathfinder which has a few other options (companion, etc) which aren't entirely clear to me.
- I don't like 4e
- On a blog I saw a post on "LAST POSSIBILITY TO DOWNLOAD", I followed the link, noticed there were all kinds of cool pdf's to download and noticed they weren't there anymore to download... I was late in several ways. Only (mostly) got myself to blame there. Anyway I'm kind of convinced that I have to switch (SWITCH!) but I don't know where to.
I understand asking here (3.5 forum on Paizo) at least should give some different opinions, hopefull it's okay I ask them here. I like the 3.5 system and I like Paizo. What has been released so far isn't the new Pathfinder RPG (this I understand)but what is it? And when will the new released stuff be non-3.5 (but still compatible?).
What will I be playing?
I hope I'm not asking for too much information, I've just been hoarding these questions and think it's about time I ask them. Hopefully some of you can help me out.
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Welcome Brass Pigeon - Lilith will come by and bring you cookies in a little while. Please make yourself at home. Your question is complex, but many of us will try to provide the insight you need. Much has changed, and is changing.
900 of us have posed this week in the following LINK. Literally, you picked the one day to buy legacy products when the owners of the intellectually property made a decision to pull the license to do so. Sorry you are having this bad experience.
I will follow up with a concise summary for you.
Again, Welcome to the PAIZO messageboards! In short, Pathfinder is the rpg created and supported here that does continue the traditions and 30+ year history of our game.
...more to follow.
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In short:
If you moved from AD&D to 3.x (3.0 then v.3.5) then you understand that Monte Cook and some excellent game designers incorporated the d20 system, creating coherency in the system mechanics, and Ryan Dancey provided the SRD (system reference document) to everyone free as a way for third-party-publishers, and the world at large, to be able to enjoy use of much, but not all, of the dungeons and dragons intellectual property. The OGL is a short licence at the back of compatible products.
Next, If you enjoyed Dungeon and Dragon magazines, so did we all! But that's where attitudes really changed. PAIZO created the most incredible, high-quality d&d magazines ever. And, during those years really attracted a lot of people to PAIZO for their quality and superior customer service. But, then in 2007, wotc pulled the license from them, forcing PAIZO to do some re-inventing of their company and the results have been amazing!
This past year, we received the FREE alpha and beta copies of a new rpg that will arrive this August, making its debut at Gen Con. If you are already familair with and like 3.x (and other such games including Monte Cooks Ptolus, Arcana Unearthed, etc., or materials published by Necromancer Games) then you will enjoy the tweaks and changes that Erik Mona (a famous Greyhawk writer, and former editor of Dungeon and Dragon) and his team have made to the game. Erik has concepted a world of "Golarion" and Jason Bulmahn started collecting a new set of refined rules that will improve the 3.x gaming experience.
The Twist:
During the past few years, WOTC tightened its grasp and tried to really own the industry, and in my opinion has been taking actions to really squeeze third party publishers out (this part is just opinion). Wizards created a new edition of the game, which you are familiar with called 4e, but many of us see this as a different game and d&d in name only (but this is a contested point that has resulted in a million Web pages of debate across blogosphere and internets over the past year, so I will leave that alone.) In short, the GSL (game system licence) is very rigid, and offers such restrictions that many 3PPs cannot abide. Having to go their own way, they are banding together in many ways, and this community is ralleying around Pathfinder Role-playing Game under the direction of James Jacobs.
In short - if you play 3.x, there simply are no dungeon and dragon magazine anymore, and 4e stuff is highly restricted to a pay-service members only club at wotc.
Again, welcome to the PAIZO messageboards. Welcome to PAIZO. Though I am just one of their customers, I hope I speak for the community in welcoming you here. I hope I have provided some quick insight to your question. Does that help?
Pathfinder is like 3.75, but instead of being developed by WotC, it's being developed by Paizo. One of my groups has already switched to the Beta version of it.
Paizo was (is!) really cool and made the development of the Pathfinder system a community effort. It's basically 3.5 with some additional options added to the character classes and races, the consolidation of some skills (Hide and Move Silently is now Stealth; Listen, Search, and Spot are now Perception; etc.), the simplification and standardization of combat manuvers (like grapple), and some spells were altered and clarified (polymorph).
So there was an Alpha version that was playtested by the community, then a Beta version that was playtested (I bought the hardcopy), and relatively soon the final version will be released.
EDIT:
Ninja-ed by Pax Veritas!
Why should you think Pathfinder? Get yourself a copy of the Pathfinder Companion and just browse through it. Wow! Talk about a world rife with possibilities. I was always interested in Paizo products, but not a buyer for adventures because I write my own. Holy cow, the ideas that drip from every page! There's material in there to ignite your imagination. Now I'm hooked and interested and trying to finish it so I can figure out how to stick Zobeck in.
thanks for the explanations. I've already read large parts (first 12 pages and the last few) of the thread about "pdfgate". Although I'm not really blaming WotC (at least not until we hear some more about this, which will surely happen I guess) I do think it's time to get it all clear.
So what do the different Pathfinder products entail, how large are they and how often are they released?
Can you give an example of what kind of conversion is needed when you use 3.5 and Pathfinder? I know it's supposed to be little but I haven't read about any examples.
What about the Kobolt Quarterly?
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Hey, welcome to the Boards!
Many of us, when WotC announced that they were cancelling the mags (and not giving any explanation why), were quite upset. When they announced they were publishing 4E we became more upset.
Paizo, the company that had been producing the mags for the last few years had been doing an amazing job. Then all the sudden they had no product to sell.
Thank goodness they decided to stay in D&D by developing Pathfinder, a new campaign world and a revised 3.x d20 system.
The last several months have seen an "open to all" play-test of the new system where gamers could download (first the Alpha release then the Beta release) the new system, play it in their games, and give feedback here on the Boards where the designers at Paizo could see what works and what still needs developing.
-W. E. Ray
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Kobold Quarterly is the new Dragon magazine!
Wolfgang Baur is the mad genius behind it; it covers 3.5, Pathfinder, and the stuff WotC is putting out.
Awesome!
As far as Paizo products, browse the Paizo store and see what's here. The "Flagship" product is the Pathfinder Adventure Path: a nice softback book that comes out each month containing connecting adventures into a campaign. Each campaign lasts 6 issues so 2 campaigns are published a year. If you loved Dungeon magazine then you'll likely love this.
There's also the Pathfinder Modules, single adventures that Paizo publishes about once a month.
Then there's all the Pathfinder Campaign world material, everything from the Campaign guide to regional guides and a monster book to map folios, etc...
Also, there's Planet Stories. Paizo is intereted in publishing old, mostly out of print, fantasy and SciFi novels from Clark Ashton Smith, H P Lovecraft, Michael Moorcock, Gary Gygax, etc.
-W. E. Ray
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Welcome fellow Paizonian,
Check out these two free modules as well.
This is a free download for Curse of the Crimson Throne, a popular Pathfinder adventure path.
Also check out Shannan because she has a killer smile.
See you on the message boards.
The "Pathfinder Modules"-Line is producing adventure modules on a rate of now 1 module per 2 months.
The "Pathfinder Society" is kinda like the RPGA. The "Pathfinder Society Scenarios" are the official plays for them.
The "Pathfinder Chronicles" and "Pathfinder Companion"-Lines are supplements to the Campaign Setting. They expand knowledge of Golarion.
I'm not sure, why there is a distinction in those two lines, maybe someone else can adress that. Every month a new book should come out of one or the other line (IIRC).
The "Pathfinder Adventure Path"-Line features, as the name suggests, Adventure paths. At the moment the fourth AP is getting on the market, we are nearly halfway in. A new book should be out every Month.
All these products are written for D&D 3.5. They are set in the world of Golarion (the Pathfinder Campaign Setting).
The Pathfinder RPG is momentarily in works. The Beta-Playtest has concluded, and come August the final version should be available. Content is stated to include as much as both the 3.5 Players Handbook and Dungeon Master Guide.
Many thanks for your answers. Much is clearer now. I'll have a look at those free downloads (I think I might actually have downloaded something already... once).
Thanks again.