I'm intrigued. Does the name of the game relate to any particular element within it (my apologies if there is a direct reference. My books are still travelling through the mail!), was it picked for a particular reason, or just because it sounded right?
For instance, is there a John Pathfinder, King of Somewhere and Ruler of That Place character or something along those lines? Or is an adventurer refered as "Pathfinder" in the game? Or maybe the NASA martian probe took a wrong turn when comming back from the Red Planet and ended up fighting dragons and wizards?
there is the Pathfinder Society in the Golarion world, they are sort of like the Harpers used to be in the Forgotten Realms. Kind of
Might have something to do with the pre-Pathfinder days before WotC yanked Dungeon magazine and Dragon Magazines from Paizo.
Back then, the monthly Dungeon linked adventures (like Savage Tide, Shackled City, and Age of Worms) were called Adventure PATHS (much as they are today...) They were often well supported in Dragon Magazine with supplemental Articles. Pretty much, it looks like the present APs are simply a combination of a Dungeon Adventure with Dragon support...hence...Adventure Path = Pathfinder. and now the Pathfinder Society...
and it just sounds cool.
I'm sure someone at Paizo has the full story (its probably here somewhere...)
From what i've read of pathfinder rpg so far (core books and campaign setting)a pathfinder is like an explorer. In our time this would be such explorers such as Christopher Columbus, Hernando Cortez, Ferdinand Magellan, and the like. Explorers of a new and unfound place. I could be wrong in this matter but im fairly confident im correct
Yes, Pathfinders are professional adventurer/archaologist/explorers.
Seeker of Secrets has some great info on Pathfinders and their society and how to join. And the Pathfinder Society Adventures (Paizo's excellent replacement for RPGA Adventures...) often have the heroes working for the Pathfinder Society.
And the Pathfinders are an excellent GM hook to get players where he wants them to go. (I'm using the PF Society to get my players into Crypt of the Everflame and Carrion Hill in the middle of my ROTR campaign).
There is a Pathfinder Trait that starts the character with a Pathfinder Compass and as an apprentice memeber of the Society...(The Ranger in my Into the Haunted Woods adventure was a Pathfinder...)
Finally, the Adventure Paths always have some sort of fiction using the journal of a Pathfinder to explore the color and culture of various areas around the adventure path (we got our first look at Kaer Maga and the traditions of the Cinderland Shoanti in these fictions.)
Creative Director
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More or less all of the above. The thing Paizo was doing the best at that point were Adventure Paths, and we certainly HOPED folks would still find our products once we no longer had the D&D brand to lean on...
And so we came up with the name "Pathfinder" and built up the Pathfinder Society to give it some weight in-world.
The fact that the Vikings Vs. Indians movie "Pathfinder" (which had been delayed from its release for a year or more) ended up coming out only a month or two before Pathfinder's first volume did caused us no end of distress and worry, though! :P
Pathfinder is a Passable movie. I have the unrated version and even in that I can;t understand why there was such an outrage over the (mild) violence in the movie...
Besides Rise of the Runelords has a MUCH better plot.
And singing goblins.
And I'm glad you started this thread. I just remembered that one of the characters who died in Into the Haunted Woods (not the Ranger, a Tiefling Bard) also had the Pathfinder Trait. When he died (after wandering off, at night, into the woods, with a 7 Wisdom) fighting giant rats, the party looted his corpse (nobody, including the player's wife, liked him enough to think he was worth Raising, or even burying). they got his Pathfinder Compass and Journal. Three of the characters (the Wizard, Rogue, and Estle the Witch) are in ROTR and still have the stuff.
Now I have a reason to get them involved with the PF Society...
Cool...
Ah no worries James Jacobs. Though the term "Pathfinder" was thought (i'm sure) to be original in its' intent and name, there is only so many words in the English library. And even if it was 1st or 2nd who's to really say who came 1st or even if it is relevant, except in the case were someone decides to actually copyright a word-which just seems silly to me. Plus if you know english well enough,even if it is not an official word, you can usually decipher it's meaning if it's derived from an existing word. For example i could easily create a class called the "cosmodeon" and though not officially a word could probably be deciphered as a profession pertaining to the stars or universe by most. I think most companies should be thankful in the fact that others have adopted a new term. For instance, have you actually considered how many "pathfinder" movie buffs came across "pathfinder" rpg and been curious and now play? Or vice versa how many "pathfinder" rpg gamers have discovered the movie? Luckily in this case they both pertain to fantasy ;)
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A quick Google search puts Paizo in sixth place, based on the single word 'pathfinder', behind;
The movie, starring Karl Urban,
A file browser for the Mac,
A charter train operator,
Ex-military job-finder (2 addresses).
And followed by;
Energy-efficient lodges,
NASA's Mars probe,
An 1840 novel by James Fenimore Cooper,
A sports page.
Obviously, if you make your search more specific, with terms like 'fantasy' or 'game', they'd rate much higher.
Good points, all.
That, and "Huge Underground Labrynths and Large, Deadly Winged Reptiles" just sounds clunky to me.