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Now perhaps this is even an unnecessary question. With 3.5 D&D you had the “core “ players handbook, the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and the Monster Manuel. All of the other books were in general considered “optional” or non-core.
Now that Pathfinder is growing, we have the Pathfinder Rule Book, the Bestiary, the Game Master guide, The Advanced Players Guide, and the Bestiary 2. Soon we will have the “Ultimate Magic” and the “Ultimate Combat”.
For Pathfinder, is the Pathfinder Rule Book, and Bestiary considered core, and the rest of the books “non core?”
I now that every GM will decide for himself what he will accept in his game.
What are people’s thoughts about what is “core” what isn’t “core”?
Should the distinction be kept? Should it be discarded?
What are your thoughts?
oh one other random question. Are the "Ultimate Magic" and the "ultimate Combat" going to be the "ultimate" or the last books Paizo publishes on those subjects?
Right now Core to me is Pathfinder ( 4 books )
Player Hand Book
Bestiary I & II
APG = was talked into it.
I think all of the Paizo hardbacks are core. Third party books and the campaign softback books are optional and outside of the core game.
(There are optional rules within core as well, but they are still a core rule and most players will be at least familiar with them.)
Core does not change by game of by company. No matter what line someone tries to sell you core rules means the same thing no matter the system. Be it pathfinder, shadowrun, d&d4e, earthdawn, GURPS, eclipse phase, star wars, dark Hersey or what have you.
Core is the books you must have in order to run a game. Not ones you think you might need or think might be cool to add. The ones you must have.
For pathfinder the is the core rule book and the bestiary. You can run games fine with no other book, but need those two.
Heh, well for most normal games you will need monsters.
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Core is an outdated concept that made sense back when you had a "core" of open content rules and the "nimbus" of closed content WotC material.
Nowadays, with Paizo going 100% open content, the whole "core" term is redunant.
Not necessarily. The term core is less important than before, since everybody has access to all the rules, but it still has some value.
The "Core" books are the books needed to start playing. Meaning the Core Rulebook and a Bestiary. Buying somebody an APG for christmas won't do them a lot of good if they don't have the CRB, after all.
It will, because he can go to paizo.com/prd and have all the rules there.
Including char creation and XP, absent from the WotC equivalent.|
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Thank you all for your thoughts. I see that the definition of the "core books" is different for different people.
Seeker for Shadowlight, your suggestion of core meaning "just the books needed to play the game", sounds like a reasonable one. So the Pathfinder Rule book, and the Bestiary seems like a good definition of Core.
While I do realize that things are changing, Gorbacz, and people can access their information through a variety of means, and conceivably people can have their rules on an App on their I-phone/ Android, or similar device. Conceivably with such an App, one doesn’t even need to bring books to a game anymore. In the beginning of January I went to a PFS game in the Complete Strategist on a Saturday afternoon, and I think one of the players, didn’t use a paper character sheet, he simply had his character on a spread sheet.
However, I don’t think the concept of having core and optional rules to be out of date and by extension core books and optional books.
I only brought this up because of the preview of the materiel in the upcoming Ultimate combat book. The Gunslinger and his guns have reared their ugly heads. While I know that in a home game, I can decide what I want in my game, and what I want out of my game, it just makes it easier to sweep the stuff into a corner and out of sight if it is optional.
Now I know that guns were always a part of Golaron, I was happy to keep them in the mana wastes.
Anyways I plan to try and play test the materiel and see how it works. Maybe the gunslinger isn’t as bad as I think, maybe he will be a “cool” class then again, maybe not.
"Core" to me:
Only the material included within the book(s) needed for running the most minimal version of the game system.
So,
PFRPG Strictest interpretation= Pathfinder Core Rulebook
PFRPG Less strict interpretation= Pathfinder Core Rulebook + Bestiary.
Other examples:
2ed AD&D= PHB, DMG, Monstrous Compendium, vol 1.
Ars Magica 5th Edition= Ars Magica 5th Edition Core Rulebook