The Pathfinder Campaign Setting is growing on me little by little. Initially I was underwhelmed by the two page spreads per region. I really didn't feel it was enough information to do anything with. My opinion has changed in large part because of the superb material included in the Chronicles, AP's and, to a lesser extent Companion supplements. Still, I'm holding back on buying any more in fear that the setting will see a second edition this or next year and incorporate much of this material.
I don't know that Paizo has decided what to do about the setting (continue as is, second edition, whatever) but I thought a nice compromise would be to publish a second volume that includes much of the previously published supplement material. Not a perfect solution by any means but no worse than a second edition IMO.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Alternatives? Or should I just bite the bullet and buy what's been published so far?
The Pathfinder Campaign Setting is growing on me little by little. Initially I was underwhelmed by the two page spreads per region. I really didn't feel it was enough information to do anything with. My opinion has changed in large part because of the superb material included in the Chronicles, AP's and, to a lesser extent Companion supplements. Still, I'm holding back on buying any more in fear that the setting will see a second edition this or next year and incorporate much of this material.
I don't know that Paizo has decided what to do about the setting (continue as is, second edition, whatever) but I thought a nice compromise would be to publish a second volume that includes much of the previously published supplement material. Not a perfect solution by any means but no worse than a second edition IMO.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Alternatives? Or should I just bite the bullet and buy what's been published so far?
Paizo has said that since PFRPG is designed to be compatible with 3.5, which is what all the old material was designed for, they do not at this time plan to republish the old works. If information needs to be updated (Domains, Prestige Classes and the like) the plan is to make that available as free PDFs on this site. :)
Lisa did add that if/when the old books go out of print, they may think about publishing a revised version, but at this time nothing is in the works for such.
So I would say purchase what interests you and visit these boards for any updates you need ... and never fear asking for anything specific, as the staff of Paizo is the most wonderful group of folks for answering questions I have ever seen in 30 years of gaming :)
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Honestly, if you look at it from a business model point of view, it makes a great deal of sense to split up the sources of the game world between the different lines.
If you cross publish your information, Prestige Classes in the Chronicles and Companions, and the PRPG, and world information in the Chronicles, Companions and Modules, Equipment in everything, you ensure that there is a demand for all of your product lines.
IF, for example, they ONLY published information about the game world in Chronicles, ONLY published Feats and Spells in the PRPG and ONLY published Prestige Classes in Companions, then several lines would have less demand, there would be less appeal to a mass market, and ultimately sales would suffer.
I was not particularly interested in the Second Darkness AP, as I don't care much for Drow and elves (tree humpers are boring and elves are already essentially evil why do we need Drow?). Yet I bought them all for the world information and monsters and other tid bits that I find so useful.
IF they republish items, I would hope it is to update the mechanics and fix continuity problems that might arise. But otherwise I would not republish older material in a supplemental book just to consolidate material.
By not republishing the older material it creates a demand for that material. I would definitely encourage doing 2nd print runs with updates only to fix mechanics or continuity issues. Yet, even then I would think twice as the material is available in PDF format. Print runs are expensive.
Still, I'm holding back on buying any more in fear that the setting will see a second edition this or next year and incorporate much of this material.
Never fear. I haven't heard anything about a second edition or even plans to a second edition. And Paizo isn't the kind of company who pulls off sneak attacks like that, so if they do something like that, you'll probably get ample warning.
but I thought a nice compromise would be to publish a second volume that includes much of the previously published supplement material.
There were already many requests for hardcover editions of whole adventure paths (i.e. a book that contains everything Rise of the Runelords and so on), and they said that they won't do anything like that, because you cannibalise your own sales with it.
I doubt they'd do it for supplemental material.
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Still, I'm holding back on buying any more in fear that the setting will see a second edition this or next year and incorporate much of this material.Never fear. I haven't heard anything about a second edition or even plans to a second edition. And Paizo isn't the kind of company who pulls off sneak attacks like that, so if they do something like that, you'll probably get ample warning.
You most likely won't get an official update until monday, as the staff is at PaizoCon this weekend. James has mentioned that they don't plan on reprinting anything to the new rules, as the old rules are compatible, multiple times. Specifically for the CS James and Voc both said that they have plenty of stock, and don't foresee a reorder any time soon, Plus they don't have the editing staff for all the new books plus converting crunch from the old books to PFRPG IIRC.
Very well then. I guess it makes sense. Time to visit my FLGS. Looks like I'll be picking up piles of supplements this weekend.
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Paizo tends to update things if they need to go into a second printing. The Crit Hit/Miss decks being upgraded to pathfinder editions are good examples, and those weren't updates that you couldn't figure out yourself (spot changed to perception, etc).
If they do it for a PFCS2 I'd imagine we'd get all the upgraded feats/PrC changes as a free web enhancement and/or people who have access to the PDF version would automagically get access to the upgraded version.