How Did You Find Out About Pathfinder?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

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Scarab Sages

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I had played AD&D before, with the group of my ex-boyfriend. But when we broke up, I mainly stuck to GURPS and Vampire.

Eventually my new boyfriend (now husband), wanted to try Rise of the Runelords, but that fizzled. I really like pathfinder but we didnt have the time to start a new campaign.

Then a friend introduced us to Pathfinder Society. Suddenly there was something that could fit in our scedule! This was about... season 5 I think?

Ive been hugely involved in org play ever since and met so many wonderfull people all around the globe because of it <3

Developer

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It was 2008 or 09. Similar to Erpa, I had just bought the entire 3.5 library when 4th edition was announced. Having no interest in abandoning my collection, my friends and I continued playing 3.5, and that winter my hometown GM (a D&D veteran of some 20 years) showed me some Rise of the Runelords volumes and mentioned that the same folks who wrote the D&D magazines were making their own 3.5-compatible game. I loved the AP volumes I saw and immediately jumped aboard the Pathfinder train. Been enjoying the ride ever since. Choo choo!


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Woran wrote:
Then a friend introduced us to Pathfinder Society. Suddenly there was something that could fit in our scedule!

If anyone from the Organized Play power structure is reading this thread, I wanted to emphasize this point.

For those of us past the "get friends together and play a 36-hour session with homebrew rules on 1-hour notice" stage in our lives, PFS is super key. If there's a group of 15 people spread across a geographic area, 5 of whom can make it 60-80% of weeks and 10 of whom can make it 10-20% of weeks, you've got a weekly game (even though neither group on their own could survive). Those of us in the latter group can even GM without knowing what characters will be there, and without fearing that the previous GM allowed some weird gamebreaking house rule.


Woran wrote:

I had played AD&D before, with the group of my ex-boyfriend. But when we broke up, I mainly stuck to GURPS and Vampire.

I've lost so many good players to breakups. For some reason it's always the half of the couple I'd like to stay that chooses to leave.


ErichAD wrote:
Woran wrote:

I had played AD&D before, with the group of my ex-boyfriend. But when we broke up, I mainly stuck to GURPS and Vampire.

I've lost so many good players to breakups. For some reason it's always the half of the couple I'd like to stay that chooses to leave.

I'd hoped our group was immune to this seeing as how everybody in it was either single or very, very closely partnered.

I was wrong. : (


Gonna preface this with a bit of backstory: I've been a D&D player since 1981, AD&D 1e through 2e, though after trying some Player's Option: Skills and Powers stuff, I realized that not all changes were good ideas (PO: S&P was NOT good as far as I was concerned). So I was wary of announcements about 3e in the works at D&D's new home at WotC.

Fortunately, most news about 3e (particularly as reported by Eric Noah's 3e news site) was positive and increased my interest in the edition. We gave it a try by running through converted 1e/2e modules and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I picked up my subscription to Dungeon Magazine at a Gen Con right around that time and had my first introduction to Paizo, their willingness to listen to their readers, and their commitment to quality products/customer services. I was impressed by Paizo's efforts to improve the magazines and enjoyed the various module lines that were soon to follow, particularly because they often had sidebars about how the adventure was designed and why some decisions were made.

Then the first shoe dropped with WotC's decision to not renew the magazine licenses. That was worrying - but Paizo made good with the new AP line and offering to extend subscriptions to that format. And while the typography of the first AP was kind of hard to read, the content was AMAZING. I was sold on Paizo again.

Then the second shoe dropped with the 4e announcement. I was actually excited about this. WotC had delivered a great game with 3e, I hoped 4e would be even better. But this time, the more I learned about it, the less I liked. And then the word came (third shoe dropped?) that there were issues with the 3PP license - OGL was not going to apply, Paizo was reporting that the upcoming GSL was late and there would be problems about getting new products out in time for 4e's release. So I followed the news here on the Paizo boards closely.

That's how I learned about Pathfinder, the RPG. Right here, watching the company grapple with what it was going to do after being hit with more than one existentially threatening decisions from WotC. I don't feel the game designers/developers at WotC ever had any ill will toward Paizo, I'm not so sure about managers higher up the chain.

But I was determined to at least give 4e a fair shake. The marketing was abysmal and alternated between clumsy and stupid. The gameplay was merely OK and not good enough for me to overlook the other problems. 3e had made substantial mechanical changes but emphasized a classic dungeon approach. 4e made even more substantial mechanical changes and threw all classic approaches out the window. In the end, because 2 of the players were really keen on 4e, we shook it out for about 9 months. Then even they were finding it kind of tedious and we shelved it for good. That group went back to 3e.

The other group I was in never even contemplated 4e. If we wanted cinematic action, we broke out Feng Shui. We went right to PF and have stayed there ever since.


Wow, I'd forgotten about Eric Noah's 3e site! I read that nearly every day for updates!


Never heard of that site.

Contributor

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I'll chime in late. My first TTRPG was D&D 3.5, but my introduction to Pathfinder was actually the Adventure Card Game! We got through the entire Rise of the Runelords box set in about a year. I played Amiri, Dennis played Seoni, and our friends played Kyra and Lini. Eventually, I decided to check out some of the other products from this Paizo company, and the rest is history.


So has anyone here that has played Pathfinder, have never played D&D 3.0/3.5?


Dragon78 wrote:
So has anyone here that has played Pathfinder, have never played D&D 3.0/3.5?

Me, for one.

I played as a kid, and then didn't play for 25 years. It had nothing to do with how good or bad the systems were, it was just life circumstances.


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My group was finishing up our 3.5 DemonWeb Pits campaign. That took us through the transition. We'd played all the D&D versions since the 80s. Most of us were not thrilled with 4E, however. Too much changed, and for most of us it was how they 'broke' the World setting to make it fit the new rules. We loved 3.x rules, so I picked up Pathfinder more because it was '3.75' and I figured I would use it as 'home rules' to spice up our next campaign (which was going to be City of the Spider Queen). But after play Crypt of the Everflame to learn the changes, we just stayed playing PF.


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Yeah, it wasn't just the rules that turned me off of 4th ed, it was the massive changes to the world and the creatures.


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I read one 4e FR book and just about threw up at the hamfisted attempt to make to world work differently than it had.


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Dragon78 wrote:
So has anyone here that has played Pathfinder, have never played D&D 3.0/3.5?

Almost never for me. During the 3.5 era, I collected several books but never actually got into the game until some time after 4th edition came out. Then I was talked into joining a D&D 3.5 campaign that unbeknownst to me was nearing its end. I think I got in 2-3 sessions before the DM concluded the campaign. I might have played more D&D 3.5 in the next campaign if the group hadn't decided to move over to Pathfinder at that point (which was shortly after the 1st edition Advanced Player's Guide came out).

One key point is that, in our 1st Pathfinder campaign, we relied heavily on D&D 3.5 material, both from WotC and from any 3rd party publisher that the GM would approve. By the 2nd Pathfinder campaign, while our GM never specifically outlawed the use of D&D 3.5 material, I lost interest in using any of it.

Grand Lodge

After spending tons of money with TSR/WoC on every edition of AD&D/D&D from 1st to 3.5 (including the Basic and Expert boxed sets) I was done switching systems. I had so much content still unused that I didn't need to change and didn't like what I was seeing about the upcoming 4th edition. Once I heard about Pathfinder and that it was based on the game I was already playing I thought I would give it a try. I converted my player's (then) current characters using the beta rules and never looked back. Eventually all we used was Pathfinder stuff as 3.5 fell by the wayside.

Honestly, other than PDF's I got from Humble Bundles, I haven't bought new Pathfinder content in years. I made a preemptive decision to stop rules bloat in my campaign one I bought and read the Advanced Race Guide. Since I play many other RPGs as well I don't need tons of content for each to play.


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Dragon78 wrote:

So how did you first fine out about Pathfinder?

How long have you been playing?

Starting in early 1978, the Pathfinder RPG lineage for me is...

D&D 1e > 2e > 3e > 3.5e > 4e > PF1 > PF2 > PF1 and D&D 5e.

Along the way there were (and still are) lots and lots of other games. Honorable mentions: Dragon Quest, Champions, Thieve's Guild, Chivalry & Sorcery, Powers & Perils, Pendragon, Privateers and Gentlemen, Boot Hill, Justice Incorporated, Danger International, Traveller, the Everquest RPG, and more.


Chance Wyvernspur wrote:


Along the way there were (and still are) lots and lots of other games. Honorable mentions: Dragon Quest, Champions, Thieve's Guild, Chivalry & Sorcery, Powers & Perils, Pendragon, Privateers and Gentlemen, Boot Hill, Justice Incorporated, Danger International, Traveller, the Everquest RPG, and more.

Dragonquest? There are other people out there who played DQ? I thought I was the only one...


You mean a Dragon Quest D&D style game or the Dragon Quest video game series?


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Or a novel by Anne McCaffrey?

(Pretty sure they were talking about this, but I could be mistaken.)


Okay that makes more sense. Thanks for the info blahpers.


Wow, been more then year since I looked at this one. I am sure there are some (new or otherwise)people who haven't posted their start in Pathfinder.


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We had played 3.0 and 3.5 for years. Had tried a few short adventures of 4e and decided we hated it and were planning on going back to 3.5, when the girl I was dating at the time (now my wife) suggested we try Pathfinder (brand new at the time), since it was like 3.5. we've been playing Pathfinder ever since.

I started with the Red books (Basic D&D) back in 1982ish, then the blue books and the green books, in 85 I switched to 1e (AD&D back then) and then switched to 2e and 3e when they came out.


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I remember trying to get 4th edition going with some buddies of mine in my teen years, but no one was never interested enough. I had one buddy who I knew from school and we sometimes played around with the concept of DND online (there was a DND mmorpg that was popular at the time) before finally finding Roll20. I immediately searched for a group, finding one that played alternating weeks of Pathfinder and DnD 3.5. DND felt too clunky and prone to power-gaming for me (likely the fault of the 3.5 fanatic in our group), but Pathfinder seemed perfect!

That was 8 years ago, and I have now GMed dozens of online games, finished multiple of the official adventures and created hundreds of chars. I am now a forever GM and happy with it lol.

For anyone curious, my first character with a Druid. The game was set in the 1970s during the "devil scare" craze that gave DnD a "bad reputation". We were all kids in a mundane world who had power thrusted upon us and we had to secretly protect the world from invading Golarion creatures like goblins and lizardfolk. Had my trust dog sidekick with me and enjoyed myself, thoroughly.


Well if 4th edition didn't exist then Pathfinder more then likely wouldn't have happened.


I first encountered Pathfinder through the card game of Rise of the Runelords, filling in for someone else who'd lost interest. (Kyra in a 6-player run.) If not for that, then who knows; it might have been last year when our current campaign started, or not at all.

Before that, my only interactions with TTRPG had been AD&D - and let's just say that there were a couple of specific instances (my first two sessions, and some rough times in mid-'97) that almost turned me off to the hobby altogether. Also WEG Star Wars.

I did play a tiny amount of 3.0 though - but then didn't have any groups for the longest time.


Interesting to find someone that got into Pathfinder because of the card game.


Similar to Sandslice, I found Pathfinder through the card game as well. Was part of a board game club in college maybe 5 or 6 years ago. People would bring in different games they owned and we'd all play them. One person brought in the Skulls and Shackles version of the card game. I had zero experience with any RPG before. Really enjoyed it and ended up playing through all four versions of the card game with them.

The board game club also started to do some RPG stuff soon after. Got involved with that and tried several different games. Eventually, someone ran Pathfinder for a month and really enjoyed it! Played off and on for a year or two.

Eventually moved, found my local PFS lodge and played with them. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit soon after. Been mainly playing online since.


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I suspect my origin story is the same as a lot of folks here. I started off subscribed to Dungeon magazine by Paizo, and had just renewed when I got notice that most of my next year of renewals would be credit in their online store since they were not making the mag for WotC anymore.

So I used the cred to get the Core book and also bought Bestiary 1. I haven't looked back. I think Paizo has some of the best Customer Service I've ever dealt with in gaming! I also appreciate the dev's input here and elsewhere, freely helping us get into the game, develop FAQ rulings and the attention to getting the PFS up and running.

I'd been out of con games at my local Con of the North for years since I got a bad taste of them back in the WotC days. When PFS started showing up I jumped in. The games were fun, interactive and the culture of the players and GMs around them was so positive and inviting I found a renewed passion for the hobby.

Thanks Paizo!


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(Started this post but fumbled on the keyboard and I think I erased it). I started with Basic in 1980 or so, and gradually moved on until 2003 when we went to 3.5. We stayed in Forgotten Realms/3.5 until around 2017, when we were on an Adventure-a-Week "adventure path" and suddenly the modules were only available for Pathfinder on FantasyGrounds (we've been playing virtually since 2001). So we did a bit of a hybrid until 2018 when we went full-pathfinder.

I thought for a while about trying to use the Forgotten Realms setting with Pathfinder (we'd been on FR since 1990), but we were trying to minimize DM prep time in FantasyGrounds by buying ready-made APs. So starting late last year when we started Wrath of the Righteous we went full-Pathfinder, including the Pathfinder setting.

Because we were on 3.5 for SO many years, and because we'd just started using Pathfinder 1 when 2 was announced, we're not moving to Pathfinder 2 anytime soon (if ever). I believe I have enough 1.0 material to run campaigns until...well, until the end. ;-)


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HighLordNiteshade wrote:

(Started this post but fumbled on the keyboard and I think I erased it). I started with Basic in 1980 or so, and gradually moved on until 2003 when we went to 3.5. We stayed in Forgotten Realms/3.5 until around 2017, when we were on an Adventure-a-Week "adventure path" and suddenly the modules were only available for Pathfinder on FantasyGrounds (we've been playing virtually since 2001). So we did a bit of a hybrid until 2018 when we went full-pathfinder.

I thought for a while about trying to use the Forgotten Realms setting with Pathfinder (we'd been on FR since 1990), but we were trying to minimize DM prep time in FantasyGrounds by buying ready-made APs. So starting late last year when we started Wrath of the Righteous we went full-Pathfinder, including the Pathfinder setting.

Because we were on 3.5 for SO many years, and because we'd just started using Pathfinder 1 when 2 was announced, we're not moving to Pathfinder 2 anytime soon (if ever). I believe I have enough 1.0 material to run campaigns until...well, until the end. ;-)

We still play in person, but like you we have no desire to switch to a new version anytime soon. We've done that before and hated it, and we have plenty of 3.0/3.5/PF1 material to play without repeats for 20-30 years.....


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We were already fans of all the Paizo Dungeon and Game Mastery products. I remember playing the PF1 playtest in Spring 2008. Moving to PF was completely logical. Have enjoyed PFS, and playing with my original group. The latter crew still gets together for PF1 over Zoom every Thursday night. Absent a TPK, we’ll keep going ad infinitum...


So when did this one get a "sticky"?

Grand Lodge

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I started playing D&D in 1979 at the age of 10 and continued playing & DMing religiously through the decades. I have a pretty big collection, btw.
Anyway, I preferred published adventures and am a huge fan of Dragon mag & Dungeon mag. I own every issue. I decided to get a subscription to Dungeon Mag in the late 90s. Later on, I was running a Shackled City campaign in early 2000s and ended up getting my final issue of Dungeon. I was heartbroken. I joined Paizo in 2005. In 2010 I discovered posts about Pathfinder and how it was going to fix and continue using the 3.5 rules. I have a huge collection of 3.5 and did not want to switch to another edition. I then discovered PFS on the boards and found out there were PFS games being played right down the street from where I worked. I jumped in on a game in August 2010 and had the most awesome time. Finally, playing a "campaign" that didn't fizzle due to people moving away, life, new jobs, etc...
I love it!


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I got pulled in through PFS in 2011.

yes, I have history with RPGs and have played many. My posts are out there. As an avatar of the elder god of chaos I've really tried to maintain my doe-eyed look over the years... whaaaaat?! ooooh!


Is this the same question that I saw recently on Reddit? If not, I believe there's a grad student asking the same thing on r/Pathfiner_RPG this week.


I found out about it when searching for homebrew D&D 3.5 stuff on Giant in the Playground... There were Homebrew versions of the Alchemist & Summoner and I eventually crossed over and didn't look back. I'm not exactly sure when I did that though, but pretty sure it was the early 2010's


So what was the homebrew version of the Alchemist like?

Liberty's Edge

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I first got introduced to Pathfinder on the small island of Ketchikan as a "Let's see what the new version of 3.5 is like" Hooked on 1st edition Pathfinder ever since

Scarab Sages

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I played a little AD&D back in the mid-eighties, junior high and early high school. It was plenty of fun even though the games never amounted to much as campaigns. I don't think we ever actually finished a module before moving on to another one.

I hadn't though about RPGs at all in decades afterward. But then I stumbled across an article in Slate Magazine: All I needed to know about life I learned from "Dungeons & Dragons"

It reminded me of the game, and it had been lots of fun. I sort of caught the bug again, but there was no way my schedule would allow for starting again. In any case I had no idea how to.

About a year later, 2015 I believe, I stumbled across a Pathfinder Society event at a game store down the street. When I realized what it was (a new version of D&D) I tried it out. PFS also worked with my schedule.

I switched to PbP games here later on for the story continuity of campaigns, which I prefer.


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It was fun to find out about 1e during the early stages, seeing Paizo's version of the core classes for the first time.


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Dragon78 wrote:

So how did you first fine out about Pathfinder?

How long have you been playing?

Found Pathfinder after 4th Ed DnD which NONE of our players enjoyed as it seemed to "video gamey"...Loved 3.5 and Pathfinder seemed to build on all the best parts of that.

Been playing since about 1977


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Chark the Shark, I got into D&D around 92 when I bought the 2e monster manual from Walden Books and I read that book so many times, got me interested in playing the game. So many people got into Pathfinder after D&D 4e came out.

Sovereign Court

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Been playing D&D since 1st Ed and the original Errol Otis box cover (79). Played 2nd, 3, 3.5. I walked into a game store, saw Pathfinder. 4th Edition was coming out and my group got into a discussion on if we wanted to stay 3.5, or move to PF. no way we wanted anything to do with 4. So 2 of us bought books, looked it over, and jumped. Not looked back. PF 1e all the way.

%e is OK, not played 2EPF. Still play 1PF


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Tale as old as time. Started with the red box in 1984, loved 2nd ed AD&D, loved 3rd edition, excitedly bought the three core 4e books, loved the art, hated everything else, jumped ship to Pathfinder, happy as a clam.


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I have played the game since 1994 my first game was in al-quadin, then it was dark sun, and ravenloft from 2e d & d, when I enter 3e my favorite world was forgotten realms which is a world in which I developed by looking a lot like ours only with a touch of fantasy, my idol at that time was drizz lo urdem and simbul, when going to 4e I never touched it because the story of mystra dying and it will change my world very drastically, I don't play after that until 2009 when some friends told me about Pathfinder And since then I play it. Before that I only played roll 20 or playbyweb


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After trying 4th edition, hating it, and finding out Paizo was keeping 3E alive with PF. My group still liked 3E. So we went to PF.

Found out about it on EN World where the edition wars took place.


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Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens Subscriber

Learned of the existence of D&D from the April 1977 fantasy issue of Battle for Wargamers. Think I got the blue cover basic set for Christmas that year. Bought the AD&D hardcovers as they come out. Played every since, Bought Dragon and Dungeon on and off through the years, got (re-)hooked on Dungeon shortly before Age of Worms. Wasn't a subscriber as postage to Australia didn't work, but harassed several FLGS to get every issue. Read about the coming changes here on the boards and signed up immediately.

Grand Lodge

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I started with D&D in the early 80's with the Basic and Expert boxed sets and moved onto 1E pretty quickly, followed by 2E, 3.0 and 3.5. I didn't like what I was seeing about thee upcoming D&D 4th ed so wasn't planning on converting to it. I think I may have first heard about Pathfinder online. I liked what I was reading about it so I downloaded the Beta rules and started running Rise of the Runelords.

Aside from one gaming session with D&D 5E as a player I haven't once gone back to D&D. That said, my group isn't moving on to Pathfinder 2E either.

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