Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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My players are really digging Kingmaker and Pathfinder in general. Every time we game, I have a stack of books from my various subscriptions and talk about all the great products Paizo makes. I'd like to point them to a subscription that would be appropriate for them, but I don't think the Companion line is quite on point - a lot of it is campaign specific, and most of that doesn't relate to the area where the campaign is set. Any suggestions?
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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One thing that I was wishing Paizo had was some type of concise reference volume for certain issues that come up a lot in regards to players. A good example would be mounted combat, or wildshaping. A book that had all the mounted combat rules, a mounted combat FAQ, mount stats, mounted combat feats, mount equipment, etc. would be very useful.
This points to another issue, and it may be that I'm unique in this regard. It seems like reprinting of material (or reprinting of material with a small amount of new material) is something that makes most people unhappy. Personally, I see a lot of virtue in such a product. It'd be nice to have a concise reference volume for a particular topic, especially something I could recommend for players who may not have the vast trove of resources that I do as a subscriber.
A racial book would be another good example. I'd love to have a short volume on elves that includes much of the material from Elves of Golarion and reprints the elven specific feats/abilities from APG, any elven specific equipment from AA or other books, etc. I'd also love to have such a book for each class. That way, when I have a new player, I can say "Here's the elf book and the druid book, they have all the rules you need. Buy a copy or borrow mine."
If those books were $10-$20 a pop, I think they'd be snapped up by my players in a heartbeat. I know everyone fears rules bloat, which is why I would lean towards more reprinting and less new material.
The best book ever to come out for D&D 3.5 was the Rules Compendium. No more hunting for rules across several volumes. As the range expands a similar product for Pathfinder would be a real boon.
With the increasing proliferation of electronic products, I think reprinting/compiling products will get more valueless as time goes on.
A whole "mounted combat" guide would be something very easy to copy/paste and create an instant document for, with all the rules (including errata and house rules) that your specific group finds most useful. Print, and voila - you have exactly what you need.
You could do the same thing with an "elf" guide, or whatever... a regional guide built specifically for your players and campaign, etc.
I definitely prefer limited resources go to new stuff - no reprints. (Of course, I admit I care very little for Pathfinder rules - I'd like all their resources go to adventures... the AP and modules line specifically.)
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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I think you are generally right Arnwyn. One thought I had was something as simple as a single compiled pdf of existing material. That could be priced pretty low (say $4.00 or so), I would think, and yet provide players the option of having ready access to the latest and greatest material.
Granted, I could assemble such a pdf myself out of my library, but I would prefer if my players had access to something that met their needs, didn't require them to buy all the underlying products, and didn't make me feel like an IP thief.
but I would prefer if my players had access to something that met their needs, didn't require them to buy all the underlying products, and didn't make me feel like an IP thief.
Hmmmm. I can see the dilemma.
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Of course, I admit I care very little for Pathfinder rules
This is off topic a bit, and I apologize but I've seen you bring this up a few times ... would you mind elaborating on why this is? I'm not criticizing, I'm just curious. All the 3.5 players I know have happily made the switch to Pathfinder and most of the people I see on these boards that are still with 3.5 seem to have more of a "we are planning to switch to Pathfinder once our current campaign is finisher" or something like that.
Like I said, I am in NO way criticizing or even questioning you - I'm just curious what your reasons are, if you would care to elaborate.
Sorry again for going off topic!
This is off topic a bit, and I apologize but I've seen you bring this up a few times ... would you mind elaborating on why this is? I'm not criticizing, I'm just curious. All the 3.5 players I know have happily made the switch to Pathfinder and most of the people I see on these boards that are still with 3.5 seem to have more of a "we are planning to switch to Pathfinder once our current campaign is finisher" or something like that.
Like I said, I am in NO way criticizing or even questioning you - I'm just curious what your reasons are, if you would care to elaborate.
Sorry again for going off topic!
[I apologize to Sebastian for even responding to this in his thread. Sorry!]
Hrrmmm... I certainly hope you're not criticizing in any way. Really, I just think 3.5 is better than PF. Any changes that I thought 3.5 required I've long since house-ruled, and from the playtests of PFRPG I've discovered it's really not that great nor different from 3.5 (but it's missing loads of stuff due to it being so new) and what is different often isn't improved... just different. Anything that is improved ([some]nerfed magic! woo!) I've already long since made those improvements in 3.5. (I've never been one to struggle with grappling or other combat maneuvers in any way/shape/form, for example, so that whole CMB nonsense is just silly to me. I'm glad others like it for whatever reason, though.) I'm sure you can understand I'm not buying (and learning) a semi-new ruleset just for 'different'.
I could go all analytical and even more lengthy, but I've already gone too far in Sebastian's thread as it is so I'm not going to here, and I'm certainly not going to on this website (while you might be rational and understanding, Marc Radle, I'm afraid I'm not all that trusting of certain others here at Paizo to be that way).
In the end, I'm just thankful that the system is backwards compatible enough that I can happily buy the APs and modules and have pretty much no problems running them.
Sorry for the hijack!
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Fair enough - thanks for the explanation Arnwyn. I certainly like to think I'm fairly rational and understanding:) I was just curious since, as I said, everyone I know of made the switch to Pathfinder pretty quickly and have never looked back.
Anyway, I agree we have threadjacked long enough ... back on topic.
Sebastian, I agree such products would be useful, but I tend to also agree that Paizo doesn't really have the time or other resources to make it happen anytime soon. I could eventually see some sort of Pathfinder RPG version of the Rules Compendium happening some day though.