Being with Paizo since Dragon and Dungeon magazines I can identify with those that talk about how when the mags got cancelled they were with Paizo before PF even came out. I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the first issue of Rise of the Runelords and was a lifetime fan by the second page of it.
The open playtest was the main thing that bought not just my fandom, but my loyalty. Such involvement and participation with fans was just downright awesome.
So I was hooked long before the new rules were finalized or there was much information about the new setting.
But if I had to choose... I would say both equally.
If someone put a gun in my mouth and demanded a choice... I guess the setting. If I DM'ed a six hour game every day of the week, every week of the year for the next I still would not be able to fully explore the wonder of Golarion!
If someone put a gun in my mouth and demanded a choice... I guess the setting. If I DM'ed a six hour game every day of the week, every week of the year for the next I still would not be able to fully explore the wonder of Golarion!
Ah, my old high school days.......
Setting, I'd have kept the setting even if I said "Screw d20 I'm going Savage Worlds!" and while I like most of the rules I'd have kept up my subscriptions even if Paizo stuck with 3.5 and did nothing with the rules. The adventures and the setting have everything I don't have the time to make up on my own. That and I'm still getting over my disappointment with some of the rules changes.
I'm kidding actually. In fact, I've immediately called PETA because this abuse of poor Rovagugs has to be stopped NOW.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Aberrations?
The rules are the fork for getting the setting into the mouth. I want both, but if I have to choose one, I'll eat with my fingers!
the rules definately are what got me. The other stuff is gravy to me, but my group tends to write their own adventures and create their own settings. The first time i picked up the beta rules however i realized that a whole host of the house rules we had come up with were incorporated. I loved the direction they were going in, especially giving every class something to look for at each level. And to try to bring the classes in line with eachother without just making them the same. I was among those who were disallusioned with 4th edition, and pathfinder has presented my group with renewed hope for 3rd edition rules.
I'm going to be cheap and say both.
I was tired of 3.5 and found I was playing it less and less so the rules brought me back, if was while I working with beta I picked up pathfinder and loved the new setting, had I not encountered it I would have most likly just played Scarred Lands again.
I find they come as a very nice package.
65% Setting, 35% Rules for me.
I have and have owned just about every FR setting book up to the release of 4E (which I refuse to buy). Through the years the novels changed the setting too drastically, and I fell out of love with the setting entirely. I returned to Greyhawk for a time (using the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer as a main setting book) before Golarion was released. It felt like I came home after a long day at work.
Though there will probably never be such a Greyhawk again, I love Golarion. I just hope they dont follow the FR route and change everything with novels and RSEs.
That said, I never had a problem with 3.5s alledged clunkiness (YMMV), I do think the PF RPG rules are better with more interesting Races/Classes and more streamlined rules.
Paizo and Pathfinder are perfect the way they are so far. I just hope my wallet can handle it all. :)
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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!
There are so many subtle and wonderful ideas that inspire me to no end in them! And the general quality of writing has consistently stayed brilliant... I've bought some of the best books in my RPG collection from Paizo. :)
And I have to say that both the community and the Paizonians are amazing... the communication between the two is something I haven't seen yet anywhere!
I just wonder about one thing: why don't you guys already acknowledge the irrefutable fact that Cheliax is the most powerful empire that has ever existed on Golarion? ;P
Can I pick C: all of the above?
Fresh rules, fresh world made by people who love the game and care enough about our input to playtest it with thousands of people who also want it to be the best it can be.
I think I'm gonna cry!!!
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I just wonder about one thing: why don't you guys already acknowledge the irrefutable fact that Cheliax is the most powerful empire that has ever existed on Golarion?
It's because of your relatives. Like the Azlanti and the Taldans, you're destined to fail eventually. Not even the fact that you enslaved yourselves to Hell can change that.
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for me? it is neither. while I love many of the changes and additions made to 3.5 in the PFRPG rules, and Golarion is a solid published campign, detailed and large, none of them are worth 50$ as they are. it's the style I like. Im young and new to the game (it seems evreyone here has played for five thousand years and playtested the first edition of the game, while I can count only six years of mildly intensive D&D), and was used to the rather crappy products of WotC. when I was introduced to the wonderful, flavorful, grimmy world of PF in the form of the CotCT AP, I knew gaming will never be the same again. since than I am hooked to the mature, realistic style that PF excels in.
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I just wonder about one thing: why don't you guys already acknowledge the irrefutable fact that Cheliax is the most powerful empire that has ever existed on Golarion?It's because of your relatives. Like the Azlanti and the Taldans, you're destined to fail eventually. Not even the fact that you enslaved yourselves to Hell can change that.
We're not enslaved to Hell; Hell is enslaved to *us*! And didn't you know that the Azlanti bloodline is still strong in Cheliax? Why, even my own clan hails from there...
For me it's the rules. I like the setting. We've had fun playing in it. But we also have fun playing in several other settings. We now can have even more fun because the new rules open up more options to play with.
We're not enslaved to Hell; Hell is enslaved to *us*!
Do you hear the rumbling? That is my master laughing.
I love the rules and enjoyed seeing them develop, but ultimately the setting is what has me hooked and buying. I love that Golarion is both deep and flexible and gives me lots of room to flex my narrator's muscles :)
Makamu
The setting. I'm sticking with 3.5 rules.
+1
sticking with 3.5 Forgotten Crack and Ebberon
And didn't you know that the Azlanti bloodline is still strong in Cheliax? Why, even my own clan hails from there...
Pffff. I was constructed from someone hailing directly from Azlant who had relocated to Thassilon just a few hundred years after its founding. :-P
Rules or Setting? What has you hooked?
Neither. It's the APs and modules that have me hooked. I ignore the overall/macro setting itself (it just gets in the way as I adapt them for my long-running and long-long-since-chosen-why-the-hell-would-I-and-my-players-want-yet-another -when-we're-quite-happy-with-what-we've-already-got setting) and I am sticking with the 3.5 rules.
I love me my modules!
(Though I do like the micro-scale settings - Korvosa, Sandpoint, Riddleport, Katapesh, etc are easy to insert into my aforementioned long-running campaign setting.)
So scratch the above - if we're talking on the micro scale, it's the settings.
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There's no question that our group bought in on the strength of the stories. The trust I have in the Paizo staff to deliver a great story with interesting NPCs and ample opportunity for both role and roll playing made it worth changing rule systems (we can always tweak the rules if we need to) and changing settings (I can't imagine running out of things to do in Golarion for many years).
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And didn't you know that the Azlanti bloodline is still strong in Cheliax? Why, even my own clan hails from there...Pffff. I was constructed from someone hailing directly from Azlant who had relocated to Thassilon just a few hundred years after its founding. :-P
You're just a construct, so I doubt you knew my proud and noble ancestors, whose blood still runs thick in my veins! Where else on Golarion have the dreams, glory and legacy of Azlant survived so strongly, but in mighty Cheliax?
With Pathfinder, the rules serve the game.
In other words, it's all about the setting for me, but I'm glad they made improvements on an already excellent set of rules.