When exactly will the Playtest be released?


Prerelease Discussion


We know it's being released on August 2nd but do we know the time? Will it be available at midnight? Noon? 2pm?

I want to make sure I'm able to get a copy of it in the event that the website goes down again.


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Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Accorting to Paizo CTO Vic Wertz, when Gen Con opens it doors on Thursday, 9:00 am EST, 6:00 am PST.


I can't find the thread now, but a reply from either Vic Wertz or Jason Buhlman (can't remember which) said that the Playtest PDF will go live at 9am Eastern time, 6am Pacific time, to coincide with the opening of Gencon. again, take it with a grain of salt, as I can't find the thread, I thought it was the "It's Shipped" thread, but skimming that doesn't reveal it. I know it was a thread with a similar topic to this one ('when's the playtest?')

EDIT 1:Found it!

EDIT 2: Ninja'ed by Zaister!


Wonderful, 1PM GMT isn't too bad.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

3 pm Central European Time. Not the best, not the worst. Guess I should get my groceries early that day.


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magnuskn wrote:
3 pm Central European Time. Not the best, not the worst. Guess I should get my groceries early that day.

Nitpick: Central European Summer Time. Central European Time doesn't currently exist. :)


I wonder how it will be distribtued that day. The usual Paizo store method of Store Page -> Add to Cart -> Buy for $0.00 -> Go to My Downloads -> Get PDF watermarked -> Download is awfully slow for what is gonna be a very frantic hour.

I heard there would be other channels too? Perhaps direct link to the PDF on CDNs or something? Where would we find this?


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I'm fairly certain there will not be any other channels. Paizo will want to track how many of these were downloaded.

If you see any other channels distributing the PDFs, they will not actually have the right to do so.

Silver Crusade

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Zaister wrote:

I'm fairly certain there will not be any other channels. Paizo will want to track how many of these were downloaded.

If you see any other channels distributing the PDFs, they will not actually have the right to do so.

You might say that they'll have taken the pirate archetype.

Looney Toons exit music

Dark Archive

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ChibiNyan wrote:

I wonder how it will be distribtued that day. The usual Paizo store method of Store Page -> Add to Cart -> Buy for $0.00 -> Go to My Downloads -> Get PDF watermarked -> Download is awfully slow for what is gonna be a very frantic hour.

I heard there would be other channels too? Perhaps direct link to the PDF on CDNs or something? Where would we find this?

For free pdf products you eliminate the add to cart and buy for $0.00 steps


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Zaister wrote:
magnuskn wrote:
3 pm Central European Time. Not the best, not the worst. Guess I should get my groceries early that day.
Nitpick: Central European Summer Time. Central European Time doesn't currently exist. :)

Also, note that Indiana and indeed most of the U.S. are currently on Daylight Savings Time, so if you are on something similar in Europe, the time adjustment is a wash.


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How about the physical copies? Are they expected to arrive the 2nd or ship then? I know my account says mine shipped last month so I have no idea what's going on.


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Joe Hex wrote:
How about the physical copies? Are they expected to arrive the 2nd or ship then? I know my account says mine shipped last month so I have no idea what's going on.

The physical copies are intended to arrive as close to August 2nd as possible. For some people that'll mean it arrives early, and for some people it will arrive late (and if you're located outside the US you're more likely to be in the "early" or "late" buckets) but for most people it should be close to the 2nd.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Enlight_Bystand wrote:
ChibiNyan wrote:

I wonder how it will be distribtued that day. The usual Paizo store method of Store Page -> Add to Cart -> Buy for $0.00 -> Go to My Downloads -> Get PDF watermarked -> Download is awfully slow for what is gonna be a very frantic hour.

I heard there would be other channels too? Perhaps direct link to the PDF on CDNs or something? Where would we find this?

For free pdf products you eliminate the add to cart and buy for $0.00 steps

We will also be providing an even more streamlined process for what we expect to be the two most popular options: "I just want the Rulebook" and "I want all the playtest stuff."

Silver Crusade

Vic Wertz wrote:
Enlight_Bystand wrote:
ChibiNyan wrote:

I wonder how it will be distribtued that day. The usual Paizo store method of Store Page -> Add to Cart -> Buy for $0.00 -> Go to My Downloads -> Get PDF watermarked -> Download is awfully slow for what is gonna be a very frantic hour.

I heard there would be other channels too? Perhaps direct link to the PDF on CDNs or something? Where would we find this?

For free pdf products you eliminate the add to cart and buy for $0.00 steps
We will also be providing an even more streamlined process for what we expect to be the two most popular options: "I just want the Rulebook" and "I want all the playtest stuff"

Do you think you can get the website not to melt?

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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That's always the goal!


Vic Wertz wrote:
That's always the goal!

Need an experienced Rails dev? Asking for a friend. /cough

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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No, but we are looking for a sysadmin...


Vic Wertz wrote:
We will also be providing an even more streamlined process for what we expect to be the two most popular options: "I just want the Rulebook" and "I want all the playtest stuff."

Can you clarify on this?

Is there going to be a button to add all of them at once to my account?


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

So 1am on Friday in New Zealand... I may have to set an alarm. Who needs sleep, anyway?


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I'm even more worried about thursday, with the servers going down earlier.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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willuwontu wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
We will also be providing an even more streamlined process for what we expect to be the two most popular options: "I just want the Rulebook" and "I want all the playtest stuff."

Can you clarify on this?

Is there going to be a button to add all of them at once to my account?

We're going to provide a button that gets you as close to "click here to download" as we can get. More steps are required if you are not logged in to your paizo.com account, and more still if you don't HAVE a paizo.com account... so if you don't have a paizo.com account yet, right now would be a really great time to set one up.


willuwontu wrote:
I'm even more worried about thursday, with the servers going down earlier.

I got the "scheduled maintenance" page and not the "error" page, so I assumed that was setup for the big day.

Edit: apparently so.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

willuwontu wrote:
I'm even more worried about thursday, with the servers going down earlier.

Today's brief downtime was related to improvements we're rolling out regarding this very issue.


Vic Wertz wrote:
willuwontu wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
We will also be providing an even more streamlined process for what we expect to be the two most popular options: "I just want the Rulebook" and "I want all the playtest stuff."

Can you clarify on this?

Is there going to be a button to add all of them at once to my account?

We're going to provide a button that gets you as close to "click here to download" as we can get. More steps are required if you are not logged in to your paizo.com account, and more still if you don't HAVE a paizo.com account... so if you don't *have* a paizo.com account yet, right now would be a really great time to set one up.

Ah, thanks for the info.


Amazon just BETRYED ME T_T

I was told my books, which I pre-ordered when the playtest was first announced, will arrive on August 15th-20th. Rekt...

I didn't want to order them directly from Paizo because they are usually slower than Amazon and their international shipping costs are through the roof. (I live in Mexico).

Seems I was damned either way...


Mine shipped today! <Homer>Woohoo!</Homer>


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ENHenry wrote:

Mine shipped today! <Homer>Woohoo!</Homer>

Wait, so there are actual shipping mails? I thought the mail from mid-July with "A package [...] is about to ship from Amazon Main Warehouse via Amazon Standard Delivery [...]" was supposed to be the only mail we got, as Vic said? If there are actual shipping emails, do I need to get concerned? I didn't get one yet, and, again by Vic's indication, shipments were supposed to arrive near August 2 even overseas, but if it hasn't shipped by now, that is certainly not going to happen.


ENHenry wrote:

Mine shipped today! <Homer>Woohoo!</Homer>

Mine's coming to NZ, so not worrying about the rush for getting a book, 40 working days maximum - and that's often correct! Hopefully the server will still be alive an kicking when I wake up in the morning :D

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

ENHenry must have ordered from somewhere other than Paizo.


A few more days now. Can't wait. :D


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Vic Wertz wrote:
ENHenry must have ordered from somewhere other than Paizo.

Thanks, that makes sense then.

Scarab Sages

The new blogpost talks about the timing of the playtest, but is still missing the two pieces of information I'm looking for. Namely:

(1)
What does it mean that the second part of the playtest «begins» on August 27? Are we not supposed to play it before then? We do have all the necessary information, right? Is that just when the polls open and the devs start paying attention to feedback on the second part?

(2)
How long do you expect such a part to last? One session, with experienced PF1 players? More?


Catharsis wrote:

The new blogpost talks about the timing of the playtest, but is still missing the two pieces of information I'm looking for. Namely:

(1)
What does it mean that the second part of the playtest «begins» on August 27? Are we not supposed to play it before then? We do have all the necessary information, right? Is that just when the polls open and the devs start paying attention to feedback on the second part?

(2)
How long do you expect such a part to last? One session, with experienced PF1 players? More?

The surveys for each section open on the dates given. The date ranges are "focus" times for each section. I have heard the surveys will be open through December.

Previously, it was stated each section of the playtest would be around 8 hours of playing. I'm working on the assumption that it will take two sessions for my group to get through each scenario, as we usually play around 4 hours per session.

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