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I was at my FLGS the other day talking with one of the regular gamers there about the new PFRPG Core Rules, and pitching the product to him, and I also pointed out the other Pathfinder products available, and trying to ask his questions about what the different lines were.
And then I said it to him. "To be honest, it's all this stuff [The Campaign Setting and supporting products.] that makes me want to play the game, not the rulebook itself."
And it is true. Don't get me wrong, I like the PFRPG for several reasons of its own merit, but for me the sale happened with the other material first, not the rules themselves.
What about everyone else?
I was at my FLGS the other day talking with one of the regular gamers there about the new PFRPG Core Rules, and pitching the product to him, and I also pointed out the other Pathfinder products available, and trying to ask his questions about what the different lines were.
And then I said it to him. "To be honest, it's all this stuff [The Campaign Setting and supporting products.] that makes me want to play the game, not the rulebook itself."
And it is true. Don't get me wrong, I like the PFRPG for several reasons of its own merit, but for me the sale happened with the other material first, not the rules themselves.
What about everyone else?
I have to say, for me, it was like getting hit with two swords at once. I didn't really like the direction of 4E, so I went looking for an alternative. The alpha rules had just come out and when I saw the angle they were going for, I really got interested. Then I took a chance and bought 1 module just to see the interior quality. From there, I was hooked. The quality of the product spoke for itself and I can easily say that the Burnt Offerings adventure really had my inner DM salivating.
The Rules. I kinda missed out on 3.x, and this looks like the definative way to check it out now, that will go on strong for some time yet!
That being said, I did order the Campaign Setting because the world looks very interesting and while my group's been enjoying our 4e campaign that's pretty much my own more defined setting up top of the default Points of Light, I thought Golarion would be "the" setting to do our Pathfinder campaign in!
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I have to say, for me, it was like getting hit with two swords at once. I didn't really like the direction of 4E, so I went looking for an alternative. The alpha rules had just come out and when I saw the angle they were going for, I really got interested. Then I took a chance and bought 1 module just to see the interior quality. From there, I was hooked. The quality of the product spoke for itself and I can easily say that the Burnt Offerings adventure really had my inner DM salivating.
I had an almost identical experience - the guys at my FLGS pointed me in Paizo's direction when I voiced my displeasure about 4e, and I had a friend from out-of-state telling me about this awesome Rise of the Runelords campaign that he'd been running with his group for the last several months, and that he'd send me the first few books if I wanted to look at them.
I did, and he did, and I was immediately hooked by the quality of the adventure path. I downloaded the Alpha and was equally blown away by everything I saw in there...and now I'm an unabashed Paizo fanboy.
What are you going to make me choose between next? Air and water?!?
You get the idea. ;)
For me, personally, it's the rules -- I've worked too hard on my homebrew to run in another campaign world now, and I've always written my own adventures (as poor as they might be). The rules changes just happen to be wonderfully in line with my own GM/play style.
But that's not to diss Golarion--it looks like a fantastic setting. Just at the moment, I'm just not willing to set aside 5 years of my own work to learn something else. Some day I may well, or if someone in my gaming group wants to step up and GM a game in Golarion, I won't complain.
setting since I got hooked before the new Rule book came out. Thats not to say I am not hooked on the core rules
Setting.
The rules and playtest for me.
Setting.
If my interest in Pathfinder were a cheeseburger, then the meat, cheese, bun, lettuce, and tomato would be the setting.
The ketchup would be the rules.
I use a homebrew setting, so the rules are what got me to buy the Pathfinder RPG. That said, I have bought several modules and Companion products that are easily converted over to my home campaign. And, had it not been for the super-high quality of the Golarion-specific products, I probably would have ignored the Pathfinder RPG entirely.
I believe they used to call it a "synergy bonus."
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Ooh ooh! Food analogies! Okay, I'm thinking of Paizo products as a pizza. 3.5 was always pretty good as the crust, but PFRPG introduced a new level of quality as a foundation for the finest and most luxurious toppings (setting) you can buy. In short, I love the rules, but the setting really gets my "inner DM salivating".
NOTE: The fact that I saw the pizza episode of "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" on Food Network last night has had no bearing on my use of pizza in the foregoing analogy. ;-)
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Ooh ooh! Food analogies! Okay, I'm thinking of Paizo products as a pizza. 3.5 was always pretty good as the crust, but PFRPG introduced a new level of quality as a foundation for the finest and most luxurious toppings (setting) you can buy. In short, I love the rules, but the setting really gets my "inner DM salivating".
NOTE: The fact that I saw the pizza episode of "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" on Food Network last night has had no bearing on my use of pizza in the foregoing analogy. ;-)
ditto with the burger king i passed this morning on my way to work.... ;-)
Rules.
I've always prefered home-brewed settings, as I can really tap into my players' preferences and styles and avoid canon-lawyers. I also like the way it permits players to contribute to the world by their backgrounds ideas. And getting to know a published setting is - by experience - as long as developping a solid basis for a home-brewed one. (Just think about the hours of reading!) It's also fairly cheaper...
I do tend to prefer generic stuff (unmarked maps, monsters ideas, traps or encouters) to campaign specific stuff - those are reals time savers.
For me, personally, it's the rules -- I've worked too hard on my homebrew to run in another campaign world now, and I've always written my own adventures (as poor as they might be). The rules changes just happen to be wonderfully in line with my own GM/play style.
But that's not to diss Golarion--it looks like a fantastic setting. Just at the moment, I'm just not willing to set aside 5 years of my own work to learn something else. Some day I may well, or if someone in my gaming group wants to step up and GM a game in Golarion, I won't complain.
@Deathquaker: Speaking as one of your players, your adventures are great. You've got several sneaky, scheming, conniving players at your table that are well-suited to driving any GM nuts (speaking as one of them). We keep coming back for more, and we'll keep coming back because we love what you do.
/threadjackFor me, it's rules. What I've read of Golarion is interesting, but I've been a long-time FR fan. I like some of what I saw for Eberron as well, and I loved Planescape in its day. I felt nostalgia every time I read a Greyhawk or Mystara book. While Golarion allows for a whole new world to explore, I like having the tools to do that exploring even more than the exploration itself. Now I've got the rules to go back and explore any number of other worlds, and I like what I find in the toolbox.
The setting. I'm sticking with 3.5 rules.
Same here. Giving continuity to the hamburguer metaphor, some of us prefer to buy the ingredients and cook at home with out own tools and methods.
Well, the rules just came out and I'm loving them.
The setting intrigues me and I'm strongly considering it for my Pathfinder game.
What really hooked me, though? The writing and design. I suppose you can lump it into setting, but Rise of the Runelords hooked me on day 1. After 20+ years of gaming, most of it in the fantasy genre, if you had told me that someone could bring a fresh take on goblins, I would've thought they were nuts.
The goblins hooked me. And then they did it again with Ogres.
The locations hooked me. I found a worthy house-of-horror successor to Castle Ravenloft
The plotlines hooked me.
Everything screamed to my GM-fu and said "This is what you've been trying to do!"
Even if I only ever mine them for maps, NPCs, locations, and ideas - I'd be hooked on Paizo.
I want the main setting book, but I mostly bought Pathfinder for the rules.
Rules.
That said, I'm not dismissing the setting by any means. I've been running homebrewed campaigns for...well, always. I used to run Greyhawk, I've done a little Planescape, and I dabbled in the Realms, but all my long-term stuff has been in worlds of my own creation. Golarion is the first setting I've been interested in running long-term games in for quite some time.
Setting ¡I want more setting! About the rules i'm don't sure about use PFRPG.
The rules.
I set all my campaigns in my own homebrew world. As such, setting material that is of a scope larger than something "modular" like a city or adventure path isn't particularly useful to me.
Both.
The setting is fresh, creative, edgy and just downright cool. The rules are solid, well-done, and inspired.
Love it.
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Setting is number one with a gun.
If all I wanted was to jazz up the rules, I'd tap into Unearthed Arcana, Arcane Unearthed and Monte's Books of Experimental Might I & II until I had the rules balance that my players found acceptable.
I have, and might even play at home, the PFRPG, that's just company loyalty talking. (I could have converted my PBP characters using the online SRD, after all.)
Setting is king. It's what got me into the Scarred Lands. It's why a part of my heart is still hanging around Al-Qadim, a setting that's been dead for over a decade.
It's why I stopped being a rabid evangelical Forgotten Realms fanboi when the Time of Troubles happened. The 'rules' trumped the setting, and the setting was overturned for the sake of justifying rules changes. My friends, having the patience of saints, reintroduced me to the goodness that was Greyhawk. :)
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I just got my Golarion burger, and what did I find right in the middle of it all? A live Ravagug! And who knows how many other bugs I ate before noticing that one!
You should be glad that some proteins found their way into your fast food. There were times when this was the rule, not the exception. And the people were healthier for that.
For me, it's using both, but in combination with my own material.
Creating house rules for 3.5 is one thing, but when a team of professionals revamp the entire system while keeping it familiar and compatible, I can't turn that down. I'll still be adding house rules, but it's great that so many I had before are now core rules.
As for setting, Pathfinder has reinvigorated so much of what I love about fantasy roleplaying, and it just happens to coincide with my most ambitious world-building phase to date. I've always used homebrew worlds, but in building them I also draw inspiration from published products or even borrow whole elements and just tweak them a bit and maybe change some names. Having quality published material like Paizo's makes fleshing out homebrew worlds a whole lot easier.
For me it is neither: it is the sheer depth of the products (not just a skim of information, but stuff that a DM finds interesting even if the PCs never learn it) and the Staff (the personal feeling, replies in forums etc)
Setting.
My campaign uses material from Glorantha the setting for Runequest.
It takes a little work to cross things over but the detail is a dream. It knocks FR and Greyhawk into oblivion.
The other nice thing, at the time, is that it has areas where there will be absolutly no development. But since RQ has kind of died...
I think mostly the setting and the quality of the pathfinder scenarios.
Don't get me wrong I like PFRPG, but much like the previous poster, its the setting I like, and burnt offerings was an excellent taster. The cyclopean artwork was a big draw too (how about an art book guys ?!)
Ok, so its not Harn or Skyrealms (probably the two greatest fantasy settings ever IMO) but it has the right feel and gives a huge amount of scope to any sort of game the GM wants to play.
It also gives me ideas for scenarios...which is what a good campaign setting should do.
For me it is neither: it is the sheer depth of the products (not just a skim of information, but stuff that a DM finds interesting even if the PCs never learn it) and the Staff (the personal feeling, replies in forums etc)
Very true. Paizo's passion, attention to detail, and love of gaming certainly contribute to the high quality of their products, which in turn helps make those products such good sources of ideas and inspiration.
And it's awesome to be able to ask a rules or setting question and get responses not only from the community but from the person who wrote it!
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Both to be honest. I like the its still the D&D I love just tweaked. The setting is good, well written and has a great set of authors and volunteers/employees. The fluff and sand box style set to it is great. leaves things open, but has just enough to entice and bring you back to the table. It lets the setting become your own.
The rules are fun and different, yet the same. Its like playing some of the home brewed ones we have incorparated since AD&D. Thats right old school. Things we have used from the Complete handbook series to good old 3.5. I adore the fact that the chain weapon love is still out and about.
i still plan on playing my 3.5, but pathfinder has me stoked! I never thought about DMing at a con before, outside of Blackmoor. But you guys have me exicted enough about it that i am scouring the Jacksonville area to find a store to host a pathfinder game. I have two guys willing to DM, and thats excluding me. I have seven people who are already part of pathfinders of differing experience that would love to get a game started. My hopes are to get at least 3 tables up one for noobies to pathfinder another for the higher ups and a 3-4 level table going. My aims may be high, but four of us was at gen-con and we liked what we saw out of the staff, the volunteers, the DMs, and most of all out of the designers themselves. You may get arthritis sooner in life for the autographies and lose your voice, but thanks for being enthusastic about it the whole time. You made a lot of people happy.
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The publisher.
Every time I read a Paizo product, it feels as though I'm sitting at the table before the game starts, swapping notes with fellow gamers. Paizo isn't a corporation looking to diversify its product line by purchasing a RPG property to mine; it's a company of gamers who are trying to make a living creating products that they themselves enjoy. And that fact shows in all of the products Paizo makes, rulebooks and campaign settings alike.
Agreed. For me, it is this plus the open-ness of Paizo. Opening the rules development to the greater community and soliciting the largest amount of feedback for any game project is real win. Most games are developed internally or with limited input. Taking the OGL rule base and updating it, plus keeping it open, is a truly great feat.
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Agreed. For me, it is this plus the open-ness of Paizo. Opening the rules development to the greater community and soliciting the largest amount of feedback for any game project is real win. Most games are developed internally or with limited input. Taking the OGL rule base and updating it, plus keeping it open, is a truly great feat.The publisher.
Every time I read a Paizo product, it feels as though I'm sitting at the table before the game starts, swapping notes with fellow gamers. Paizo isn't a corporation looking to diversify its product line by purchasing a RPG property to mine; it's a company of gamers who are trying to make a living creating products that they themselves enjoy. And that fact shows in all of the products Paizo makes, rulebooks and campaign settings alike.
I'll third this one... As soon as Paizo took over Dungeon and Dragon magazines I remember thinking that they had started making the best version of both of them that I had ever subscribed to (and I was a looong time subscriber). When Dungeon and Dragon got yoinked from paizo I knew immeditately that Paizo was where my gaming would remain.
So now Golarion and the PFRPG are my bread and butter, my meat and potatoes!
--Vrocket Ismail
Rules and publisher for me. I was hooked at the beta, and the final product has me chomping at the bit to run it. Many things I didn't like about 3.5 are improved in Pathfinder, even some things I didn't realize irked me. Detail and flexibility has been added to all the core classes. Attacks of opportunity, grapples, and more are all much improved.
And although I didn't get to run the beta rules myself* I was floored by the fact that Paizo just put the playtest rules up there for anyone to download. No application, no NDA, just pdf awesomeness for the taking. That speaks a lot for publisher attitude for me. Plus I remember the Paizo run of Dungeon & Dragon magazines well. I kept reading even while I wasn't running D&D just to get more material.
Admittedly, I haven't looked at the setting yet, but I build my own worlds and borrow stuff from published material anyway.
*Forgive me, about the time the beta started, I was getting ready to become a father. Baby before game.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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Setting.
Although I was hooked when Paizo took over Dungeon and Dragon Magazines. I was awed by Shackled City, Age of Worms and Savage Tide. I only managed to run Shackled city before WotC pulled the magazines back in house and Paizo first introduced us to the Pathfinder AP.
Pathfinder gives me the feeling of what's old is new again (goblins anyone?) That has rekindled something I haven't felt with RPGs in ages. I'm running RotRl and loving it but I'm also running a "homebrew campaign" set in Golarion.
Paizo has top notch writing and development no matter the setting but they have really pulled out all of the stops with Golarion.
The publisher.
Every time I read a Paizo product, it feels as though I'm sitting at the table before the game starts, swapping notes with fellow gamers. Paizo isn't a corporation looking to diversify its product line by purchasing a RPG property to mine; it's a company of gamers who are trying to make a living creating products that they themselves enjoy. And that fact shows in all of the products Paizo makes, rulebooks and campaign settings alike.
This, though I don't actually know anything about the campaign setting really.
When I found out the publishers of Dragon and Dungeon magazine were gonna do a revamp of 3.5, I was on board immediately.
Then I saw the rules. When I downloaded the Beta rules (I was far too late to provide any playtesting input though, I only discovered it a little over a month ago), I was amazed. I loved it.
As for settings, I'm a hardcore FR addict, and I also play in Kara-tur, Al-Qadim, Dark Sun, Greyhawk, Ravenloft, Birthright, and my own homebrews. For me there's just too many stories to be told in the worlds I've already adopted for my own for me to adopt yet another one.
That being said, I'm gonna be playing in a Council of Thieves AP PbP game here on these boards, so I'm at least checking it out.
Nothing has me hooked. If Paizo makes a product I like, I'll buy it. If I don't like it, I won't buy it. Simple as that!