What Are Pathfinder Adventure Path Player's Guides Anyway?

[Theliah Strongarm]

Well, my real question is whether or not the material presented in the actual Adventure Paths are in the Player Guides.

For example, in the Reign of Winter Adventure Path, is the Winter Witch Prestige class presented in the softcover Adventure Path books?

Thanks for y'all's responses.

[Andre Roy]

Some of it is, some of it isn't.

The player Guides give the player what they need to have a general feel of the AP and provide guidelines for character creation and a Gazetteer of the region or main city. Sometime you will have a prestige class, spells or actual rules, but not always.

The Gazetteer will find it's way into the AP, the rules not always as usually they are already found in other books (for example the Winter Witches found in the Book of Prestige and I think in the Irrisen campain setting book). New mechanic usually do though.

[Joana]

Player's Guides are free downloads (with the exception of Second Darkness and Legacy of Fire). You can download the PDF and see exactly what's in them.

Or do you mean, is the material in the Player's Guide reprinted in the AP books?

[Scythia]

They basically give the player an idea of the overall theme of the AP, and suggest things that might be particularly appropriate or helpful.

Sometimes they'll have a few campaign traits or other specific mechanics.

[Adam Daigle]

The main point of the Player's Guides is to provide a player with a good (but not too spoilery) idea of what the campaign is about and to present campaign traits. The bulk of the Player's Guides are suggestions and advice for thematic character creation, and then we usually present between 6 and 10 campaign-specific traits (which are typically a bit higher powered than normal traits). The remainder of the guide usually includes mechanics or campaign setting information relevant to the Adventure Path. We added the winter witch prestige class and similar mechanics to the Reign of Winter Player's Guide because that material was in other softcover books (thus, not on the PRD) and we didn't want to assume that everyone playing the Adventure Path had those sources. In the past I've also reprinted rules for specific situations that might be relevant to the AP. For example, I added the rules for heat dangers and desert adventuring from the Core Rulebook to the back of the Mummy's Mask Player's Guide for ease of use.

[Yakman]

Adam Daigle wrote:

The main point of the Player's Guides is to provide a player with a good (but not too spoilery) idea of what the campaign is about and to present campaign traits. The bulk of the Player's Guides are suggestions and advice for thematic character creation, and then we usually present between 6 and 10 campaign-specific traits (which are typically a bit higher powered than normal traits). The remainder of the guide usually includes mechanics or campaign setting information relevant to the Adventure Path. We added the winter witch prestige class and similar mechanics to the Reign of Winter Player's Guide because that material was in other softcover books (thus, not on the PRD) and we didn't want to assume that everyone playing the Adventure Path had those sources. In the past I've also reprinted rules for specific situations that might be relevant to the AP. For example, I added the rules for heat dangers and desert adventuring from the Core Rulebook to the back of the Mummy's Mask Player's Guide for ease of use.

thanks for doing those by the way.

[Adam Daigle]

Yakman wrote:

thanks for doing those by the way.

Gladly!