. . . (remember the Jesse episode "The Mischevious Elf"?). .. ..
No, what is that?
Chief Technical Officer
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. . . (remember the Jesse episode "The Mischevious Elf"?). .. ..No, what is that?
Jesse was a sitcom starring Christina Applegate. She goes on a date with a math teacher who takes her to his gaming group filled with stereotypes. (I think I recall pointy wizard hats and people saying things like "Hail, Dungeon Master!") Jesse decides the guy is a loser and ditches him.
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Out now:
•French (Black Book Editions)
•German (Ulisses Spiele)
•Italian (Giochi Uniti)
•Portuguese (Devir)
•Spanish (Devir)
Coming Soon:
•Chinese
•Hebrew
•TBA (and this isn't just a "someday there will hopefully be more" thing, it's a "contracts are currently in process" thing).
Sorry Mr. Wertz, Spanish's Devir and Portuguese's Devir are completely different monsters. We still are waiting for any Pathfinder RPG product to be lauched.
Very Nice! Any plans of release of the APG in Spanish?We have a Spanish-language license with Devir, and the Core Rulebook is available right here on paizo.com.
I’m really surprised and a bit sad that Paizo is ignoring the Spanish speaking public.
There are a LOT of Spanish speaking countries out there and a lot of Spanish speaking people in the US. Surely there must be a marked for a Spanish translation.
According to the translator:
en 2015 saldrán (por este orden) el Bestiario 2, la Guía del jugador avanzada, Magia definitiva y Combate definitivo, uno en cada trimestre.
[2015 will (in this order) the Bestiary 2 Advanced Player's Guide, UM and UC, one in each quarter.]
Great!!
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How long after Pathfinder was released did it take to get a stable of non-English versions on the shelf? 5e is six months old or so, if it was in that time frame, I think it would fair to bring up their lack of foreign language editions. Otherwise, not so much.Tracking down the exact answer would take a bit, but I know that we had announced French and German even before we released the English version and I believe both of those languages had their versions of the Core Rulebook out quickly. We released in August 2009, and I'm pretty sure French was out before year end, and German was pretty close to French.
(Also, I've learned that Lisa has already revealed that Chinese and Hebrew translations are in progress, and there are still others to be announced.)
I’m really surprised and a bit sad that Paizo is ignoring the Spanish speaking public. ...
A couple things:
As Erik has already mentioned, we do have a Spanish publishing partner. The bit you quoted wasn't a complete list of our translation partners—the first paragraph of mine that you quoted was answering houstonderek's question, so I listed only the ones that released Core Rulebooks within six months of the English release. And the second paragraph you quoted was me updating the list that I'd given out earlier in the thread, which, for easy reference, is this:
Out now:
•French (Black Book Editions)
•German (Ulisses Spiele)
•Italian (Giochi Uniti)
•Portuguese (Devir)
•Spanish (Devir)
Coming Soon:
•Chinese
•Hebrew
•TBA (and this isn't just a "someday there will hopefully be more" thing, it's a "contracts are currently in process" thing).Also, it's important to note that the absence of any given language on the list does not mean that Paizo is ignoring that language. We are not in the business of publishing and selling in other languages; instead, we are looking to partner with experienced local publishers who already know how to sell and...
I'm really happy to see so much of the Pathfinder books available in Spanish and more being release in Spanish this year.
That said, I don’t understand my you don’t promote it more on your webpage.If you head to the Core Rulebook product page the only information available under Product Availability is Hardcover, PDF and Non-Mint. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could mention that the product is available in other languages and link to those pages? What about the FAQ in other languages?
Sorry for derailing this thread.
Thanks for the info and please try to highlight that products are available in other languages, and where those can be found.
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I don't know for sure, but I like to think that the increasing dominance of "nerd culture" and the decline of groups putting forth the "D&D is evil" message have improved things since then, but I can tell you that over the years, Pathfinder has certainly reaped some benefits from *not* being D&D.
In my experience, having grown up on and around the hobby since the 80s, I can say that there has been an observable shift in perceptions towards roleplaying in general, and D&D specifically. Though I'm not terribly active these days beyond theorycrafting and forum interactions, I find it nevertheless surprising how many people I meet IRL who play D&D- and even more so, who are women. Which was just not the case when I was growing up, sadly.
I feel both elated and sad that it seems a bit more socially acceptable now than it was then (elated for everyone else, sad for my childhood), but I would definitely say there appears to be a shift. I think video gaming (and WoW) have also contributed in a big way.
I feel both elated and sad that it seems a bit more socially acceptable now than it was then (elated for everyone else, sad for my childhood), but I would definitely say there appears to be a shift. I think video gaming (and WoW) have also contributed in a big way.
Yes. This is definitely true. Its true for all of nerd culture. D&D is just a small part of that.
So...I think Pathfinder will once again pass D&D as of the next report. D&D's sparse release schedule -- as much as I personally love it -- almost guarantees that D&D won't hold the top spot.
Yup. And since D&D doesn't release PDFs for its current edition, Paizo will also dominate the digital market.
But I'm pretty sure D&D will dominate the boardgame market based on RPGS!
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I don't know for sure, but I like to think that the increasing dominance of "nerd culture" and the decline of groups putting forth the "D&D is evil" message have improved things since then, but I can tell you that over the years, Pathfinder has certainly reaped some benefits from *not* being D&D.In my experience, having grown up on and around the hobby since the 80s, I can say that there has been an observable shift in perceptions towards roleplaying in general, and D&D specifically. Though I'm not terribly active these days beyond theorycrafting and forum interactions, I find it nevertheless surprising how many people I meet IRL who play D&D- and even more so, who are women. Which was just not the case when I was growing up, sadly.
I feel both elated and sad that it seems a bit more socially acceptable now than it was then (elated for everyone else, sad for my childhood), but I would definitely say there appears to be a shift. I think video gaming (and WoW) have also contributed in a big way.
I give the credit to Lord of the Rings and to a lesser degree Harry Potter.
When my MOM can get excited about the new LotR movie coming out and they tie for the most Oscars ever? that is a pretty strong argument for fantasy going mainstream.
My mom used to give me grief about games with magic and monsters and elves... but I can just point to that epic and say THAT is what I have been doing on Saturdays... RIGHT there...
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I don't know about "Nerd" culture taking on, I think nerd culture has never caught on per se. In fact, I'd say Nerd culture is still avoided by most.
There's a difference between GEEKS and NERDS, and in this aspect, I think it's the GEEK culture that has become cool (I blame Bill Gates). It's great to be into something that's slightly geeky (such as video games...especially football or other video games, or some computers, especially texting...or superheroes...afterall we all grew up with Superfriends, Justice League, or Batman animated adventures when we were kids...just lets not buy the comic books and stuff that the nerds do).
I see it as the GEEK culture has gotten big...but ONLY the light touches of Geek culture, stuff that had already been utilized by childhood in cartoons, toys, or other aspects, or that has some connection to other cool aspects such as sports.
On the otherhand, even digging to deep in Geek culture isn't really smiled upon...and that nerdy stuff like D&D...that's far more in the gutter than it was in the early 80s.
In the early 80s it was cool back then...everyone from Jocks to math majors played. Then...the fad faded and it soon became more geeky, and then more nerdy (I blame the Simpsons and South Park for that change...just kidding...well...sorta).
So, I can see D&D as both being a boon or a bane...I think it depends on how it's marketed.
I don't know what definitions of GEEKS and NERDS you are working from, but this is relevant.<
There's a difference between GEEKS and NERDS>
Ouch! :D
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Ouch! :DI don't know what definitions of GEEKS and NERDS you are working from, but this is relevant.<
There's a difference between GEEKS and NERDS>
There's also this, which explains the difference between, nerd, dork, geek, and dweeb.
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Chief Technical Officer
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So...I think Pathfinder will once again pass D&D as of the next report. D&D's sparse release schedule -- as much as I personally love it -- almost guarantees that D&D won't hold the top spot.
So I'm told that in Wizards' Q&A session at the GAMA Trade Show this past week, they said that they won't be releasing any splatbooks for the current edition, just adventures. Has anybody seen a transcript of that anywhere?
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Wow, that's major news if that's the case.
Though from I've seen so far, what they seem to be doing is piggy backing some of their splat content with their module releases (new races, class options, etc).
Don't know if that is part of their master plan or that's just the way it turned out with their initial modules.
So I'm told that in Wizards' Q&A session at the GAMA Trade Show this past week, they said that they won't be releasing any splatbooks for the current edition, just adventures. Has anybody seen a transcript of that anywhere?
That sounds terrific, if true. Unfortunately, I don't have any transcript (and none of the "summations" I managed to find spelled that out).
It's only speculation, but hey - Internet...My guess would be that the "We'll never release a splat book..." is an extrapolation based on what they have in the pipeline now, rather than an explicit statement of long term intent from wotc. Spelling out strategy like that just doesn't seem their recent style - they got pretty badly burned during 4E by announcing things long/medium term that didn't happen. I dare say the corporate response has been "stop announcing things until we know they're happening".
As auxmaulous points out, the free PDFs seem to be fulfilling that role currently, anyhow (more's the pity).
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So...I think Pathfinder will once again pass D&D as of the next report. D&D's sparse release schedule -- as much as I personally love it -- almost guarantees that D&D won't hold the top spot.So I'm told that in Wizards' Q&A session at the GAMA Trade Show this past week, they said that they won't be releasing any splatbooks for the current edition, just adventures. Has anybody seen a transcript of that anywhere?
They've said in a few panels over the last couple years that they want to focus on story rather splatbooks.
That doesn't mean we'll never see accessories or supplemental content, just that it'll be focused on the adventure. Like the recent free PDF.|
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So I'm told that in Wizards' Q&A session at the GAMA Trade Show this past week, they said that they won't be releasing any splatbooks for the current edition, just adventures. Has anybody seen a transcript of that anywhere?
It's been mentioned on ENworld several times in the past few months in passing. I'm not sure of a transcript of the GAMMA Trade show.
Mike
So...I think Pathfinder will once again pass D&D as of the next report. D&D's sparse release schedule -- as much as I personally love it -- almost guarantees that D&D won't hold the top spot.So I'm told that in Wizards' Q&A session at the GAMA Trade Show this past week, they said that they won't be releasing any splatbooks for the current edition, just adventures. Has anybody seen a transcript of that anywhere?
Not a direct reply to Vic, just observing something here...
Paizo also tends to introduce new rules along with Adventure Paths. In some cases (Caravans and Ship Combat) these are wholly contained in the AP. Of course some of these end up in later rules products too. In other cases (Wrath of the Righteous) it coincides with a separate product (Mythic Adventures).
If Wizards is indeed going down this route, this seems like a direct response to or a direct result of the primary product line of Paizo. But the key here seems to be, you have to produce really good APs in order for this to work. I've been pretty unimpressed by the adventure writing efforts of WotC in the last decade. Can WotC flex some muscle by pushing their APs in computer games, apps, board games, card games, and MMOs all at once? Probably, but I'm not sure if it will result in more sales of the Core D&D products.
It's an interesting tack, and I honestly have no idea how well it will work for WotC. They may end up repeating the path of Paizo... focusing on one thing until the quality and consistency is there and then start opening up the product line to other things. Or it may be as others speculate and it's all just a process to keep the brand minimally alive with reduced risk to the core product.
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If Wizards is indeed going down this route, this seems like a direct response to or a direct result of the primary product line of Paizo.
Yeah, because never before in the history of D&D prior to Paizo's adventure paths did anyone ever put additional rules into adventures.
It's a revolutionary new concept that no other company has ever EVER done before. Certainly not as early as the 1970s.
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I would consider paying heed to Darkbridger's words. I don't believe that he is suggesting that there is anything particularly innovative about the practices of introducing new rules through adventure books.
Rather, I imagine that he is commenting on the potential shift in development away from such practices as 3rd edition's penchant for releasing thick rule ladden themed books like the class guides and so on.
It certainly seems to be a paradigm shift, and one that does have its parallels with Pathfinder's methodology. It isn't at all novel, but the implications do make one ponder.
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Chief Technical Officer
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So...I think Pathfinder will once again pass D&D as of the next report. D&D's sparse release schedule -- as much as I personally love it -- almost guarantees that D&D won't hold the top spot.So I'm told that in Wizards' Q&A session at the GAMA Trade Show this past week, they said that they won't be releasing any splatbooks for the current edition, just adventures. Has anybody seen a transcript of that anywhere?They've said in a few panels over the last couple years that they want to focus on story rather splatbooks.
That doesn't mean we'll never see accessories or supplemental content, just that it'll be focused on the adventure. Like the recent free PDF.
I've now heard that what they said was that the future product plan for printed 5E books is an adventure book released alongside an associated sourcebook, twice per year, for a total of 4 products per year. But I was really hoping for a transcript, because sometimes the things people hear and the things that were said aren't as equal as the listener might think.
I'm pretty sure they've already broken that mould. The current/upcoming release seems to be a two part adventure with the role of sourcebook filled by a couple of free PDFs. That was certainly the last release's format.
It seems a significant feature that they're outsourcing the adventure writing, too.
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Chief Technical Officer
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I'm pretty sure they've already broken that mould. The current/upcoming release seems to be a two part adventure with the role of sourcebook filled by a couple of free PDFs. That was certainly the last release's format.
It seems a significant feature that they're outsourcing the adventure writing, too.
What I heard is that the most recent release was a step on the path to this plan, which goes fully into effect starting with the next pair later this year.
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Rather, I imagine that he is commenting on the potential shift in development away from such practices as 3rd edition's penchant for releasing thick rule ladden themed books like the class guides and so on.Yeah, Paizo would NEVER do anything like that.
So what's the theme for the Advanced Class Guide?
As opposed to the Complete Fighter, Complete Scoundrel, The Complete Mage etc, which is what I think Lorathorn was referring to.
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If Wizards is indeed going down this route, this seems like a direct response to or a direct result of the primary product line of Paizo.Yeah, because never before in the history of D&D prior to Paizo's adventure paths did anyone ever put additional rules into adventures.
It's a revolutionary new concept that no other company has ever EVER done before. Certainly not as early as the 1970s.
I think you are missing the bigger picture. Paizo is different in that they started with APs -- that is 1 to 20 campaigns -- and then rules and supplements, even the core rules, were later developed to support them. There is no question that this was a different approach than D&D traditionally took.
I think its telling that Wizards now seems to be following the Paizo approach in leading with 1-20 adventures and then offering supplements to support them.
What I heard is that the most recent release was a step on the path to this plan, which goes fully into effect starting with the next pair later this year.I'm pretty sure they've already broken that mould. The current/upcoming release seems to be a two part adventure with the role of sourcebook filled by a couple of free PDFs. That was certainly the last release's format.
It seems a significant feature that they're outsourcing the adventure writing, too.
Ah, I see. Thanks. That would suit me down to the ground, as it happens. :)
Still no transcript for you, I'm afraid. Although, as I said, such frankness about business plans going forward doesnt really seem like WotC's style to me. I suspect it was in the ear of the beholder.
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I think its telling that Wizards now seems to be following the Paizo approach in leading with 1-20 adventures and then offering supplements to support them.
What I find most surprising is the shift to outsourcing production of the adventure content. Addressing 'bloat' was clearly an idea whose time had come - it seems to me that WotC are vying away from the OGL approach and are looking to utilise third party publishers through a more traditional licensee/collaborator model. I didnt expect that.
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What I find most surprising is the shift to outsourcing production of the adventure content. Addressing 'bloat' was clearly an idea whose time had come - it seems to me that WotC are vying away from the OGL approach and are looking to utilise third party publishers through a more traditional licensee/collaborator model. I didnt expect that.
I didn't expect them to outsource, but it doesn't surprise me. I talked to a member of WotC back at GenCon 2012 and they said that they know they need to keep hiring new talent (at that point, they hadn't made a new high profile hire since Mearls, IIRC). And (yes, I was told this) that they need to have the OGL as a path to making new hires. Their opinion was that 90% of everything produced for the OGL was crap, but that they had to accept that for the 10% that was brilliant and make hire from that group.
So I am highly surprised that they have not released any kind of open license yet (OGL or otherwise), but I assume that their outsourcing of adventures is management's way of doing that without having the "90% crap" problem.
What does surprise me more than anything else though is that the two companies they hired from so far are run by former Wizards' employees. So if my guess about this being their audition for new hires method is correct, then they are not looking for new hires but are sticking with what they know. Especially considering that Sasquatch Games had not produced a single RPG book before the PotA was announced (and long since turned into Wizards). Mind you, they might have simply done that while the rules were being written/very early days after being published (since they know they can handle a dynamic set of circumstances like that) and will move forward using new companies for talent audition.
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Especially considering that Sasquatch Games had not produced a single RPG book before the PotA was announced (and long since turned into Wizards).
Except for Primeval Thule?
I wonder what is that Ultimate Scheme. Looks sci-fi.
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Especially considering that Sasquatch Games had not produced a single RPG book before the PotA was announced (and long since turned into Wizards).Except for Primeval Thule?
I wonder what is that Ultimate Scheme. Looks sci-fi.
We just got our Thule books from the Kickstarter relatively recently. The PotA was announced months ago, before Thule was available.
With the way they are going, I don't think they need the new talent pool anymore since the core books are done.
Farming it out when necessary solves the issue of needing to add talent.
Plus, if they are only doing 2 storylines/year (farmed out) and then maybe 1-2 other books (if that), they may be able to identify a more permanent partner or two and scrap the in-house RPG creative folks entirely. After all, it's about the brand, not the RPG now that the core books are done.
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Especially considering that Sasquatch Games had not produced a single RPG book before the PotA was announced (and long since turned into Wizards).Except for Primeval Thule?
My bad. It wasn't before. It was exactly the same day. Link 1 Link 2
There seems to have been a price drop on the PHB on Amazon.com and it is currently back up to #28 in all books. I guess that is good, but could it be a bad sign?
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According to a thread on another forum, reprints for all three books are arriving on the 16th, and that's supposedly the reason for the price reduction. No idea how reliable that is.
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Wait, do you mean the *list* price is going down?
It doesn't appear to be, it's still marked as $50 list price on Amazon.
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So I am highly surprised that they have not released any kind of open license yet (OGL or otherwise), but I assume that their outsourcing of adventures is management's way of doing that without having the "90% crap" problem.
My gut feeling is that Hasboro doesn't want to "give away" the farm with respect to 5e. Or maybe that their lawyers have it all tied up.
I just want them to license out Greyhawk and Dragonlance.
Mike
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The 3x OGL will never happen again, outside of Paizo keeping an iteration alive, since it would be a bad move not to, considering. Just be thankful that Dancey pushed for that the week the entire Hasbro legal team was in a coma, otherwise gaming would look a lot different right now.
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A more interesting test will be how well the updated WotC Ravenloft is received compared to the Paizo/FGG Borderland Provinces product suite.
I'm not sure what Paizo has to do with Frog God Games' Borderland Provinces, other than the fact that it's going to be released for the Pathfinder system (as well as for FGG's own Swords & Wizardry system AND WotC's D&D 5E).
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A more interesting test will be how well the updated WotC Ravenloft is received compared to the Paizo/FGG Borderland Provinces product suite.I'm not sure what Paizo has to do with Frog God Games' Borderland Provinces, other than the fact that it's going to be released for the Pathfinder system (as well as for FGG's own Swords & Wizardry system AND WotC's D&D 5E).
I think he was referring to this article on ICv2 which (erroneously, I believe) suggests the Borderlands is some kind of joint project.