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For most of its lifespan, 1e Starfinder APs followed the same format as the Pathfinder ones, released as monthly (or bimonthly) volumes, 3/6 volumes per, though that's now shifted to the hardcover releases, starting next month with Scoured Stars and following up with Mechageddon! later in 2024.
(And I guess there's the hardcover re-release of Dead Suns too.)
...And then there's the question of whether SF2 will continue that single-release hardback format, or return to the softcover magazine style.
I don't think Paizo has said anything one way or another about this, and it does strike me as more of a business decision than a creative one, but there's pros and cons to both methods, and while I'm not really the target audience for Paizo AP subscriptions one way or another, I'm curious how the community might feel on this.
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I like the hardcover books it's 1/3 to 1/6th the cost of shipping That's also more friendly on the environment. The AP itself is also cheaper than buying them separately. Hardcovers are more durable. Everything is in one place. I like having all the new aliens in one place in the back makes them much easier to reference for homebrew.
The only downside I see is if you are playing organized play and need to buy something for a character option you have to buy the whole AP. This isn't a downside if those options are in a free player guide.
Going off the Dead Suns hardback, the only downside for me would be that ultimately, you're getting considerably less Toolbox material in the back. (Important to note: You're getting less Toolbox content but paying much less than you would for six volumes.)
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Going off the Dead Suns hardback, the only downside for me would be that ultimately, you're getting considerably less Toolbox material in the back. (Important to note: You're getting less Toolbox content but paying much less than you would for six volumes.)
Part of the issue with Dead Suns hardback is that the original AP came out before the first Alien Archive was released. What was cut out of the toolbox in the Dead Suns hardback, that wasn't already reprinted someplace else? That is not the typical situation for new APs printed in hardcover.
I don't really think that this is a Starfinder or Starfinder2e type of thing.
From what I have heard the business leaders say, the move to fewer, larger books each year is due to market pressures. How that impacts the books created is a mixed bag. There are some good points to going more in-depth into the Lost Omens books. But it misses out on the grazing of everything that could be done with more, smaller books.
So I expect that the trends that have been settled on in the last year or two for Pathfinder2e and the latest books of Starfinder are going to continue - regardless of the existence of Starfinder2e.
Part of the issue with Dead Suns hardback is that the original AP came out before the first Alien Archive was released. What was cut out of the toolbox in the Dead Suns hardback, that wasn't already reprinted someplace else? That is not the typical situation for new APs printed in hardcover.
A list of what was included in the hardback and what was omitted.
Honestly, I don't mind what format we get it in, as long it's at least vaguely regular. It's been over a year since we had any new Adventure Path content for Starfinder (And yes, I know, I know Scoured Stars, but I ran that AP back when it was just me stringing scenarios together, I don't need to run it again)
Mechageddon is somewhere off in the horizon, but we haven't had as much as a module since Drift Crisis Case files, which was itself 3 shortform adventures in a trench coat.
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Honestly, I don't mind what format we get it in, as long it's at least vaguely regular. It's been over a year since we had any new Adventure Path content for Starfinder (And yes, I know, I know Scoured Stars, but I ran that AP back when it was just me stringing scenarios together, I don't need to run it again)
Mechageddon is somewhere off in the horizon, but we haven't had as much as a module since Drift Crisis Case files, which was itself 3 shortform adventures in a trench coat.
Maybe this got in the way of the schedule:
A Message From WotC About OGL .Just 10 days away from the 1st anniversary of the OGL mess, thought that video would be a good reminder of what a messed up year it has been in the TTRPG world. I hope that video gets some award for the best mockery of WOTC.
It's tempting to blame all of paizo's scheduling woes on that, but the Starfinder AP schedule was borked long before that, this just made it worse.
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It's tempting to blame all of paizo's scheduling woes on that, but the Starfinder AP schedule was borked long before that, this just made it worse.
All the scheduling changes before the OGL mess were announced and explained in blog posts. Unless you expect Paizo's employees to go back to pre union work levels, I don't see that changing.
Then the OGL happened...
It's tempting to blame all of paizo's scheduling woes on that, but the Starfinder AP schedule was borked long before that, this just made it worse.All the scheduling changes before the OGL mess were announced and explained in blog posts. Unless you expect Paizo's employees to go back to pre union work levels, I don't see that changing.
Then the OGL happened...
The fact that it is understandable does not make it not true.
Hopefully the changeover to SF2 will be popular enough to pour enough additional money into the system to allow better answers for these sorts of issues.
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As others have said, there's advantages, and disadvantages, to one big volume vs six individual, smaller, chapters.
One thing that I'm curious about is - how do those two 'formats' impact (if at all) player knowledge, and as a corollary, player buy-in? In Paizo's traditional 6-volume AP format, players can (and often do) read the synopsis for each chapter before playing, so they have a broad idea of where the story's going, even before Session 0. Some AP synopses are more spoiler-y than others, but typically if the AP takes a real hard-turn in chapter 4 or 5 (which isn't uncommon)(and, to be clear, is not a bad thing! :D) into a very thematically or stylistically different chapter or two, players are, at least vaguely, aware. Like, if Volume 5 of an AP is a way-out-in-leftfield adventure that is a clear departure from the preceding four volumes, and the players don't have an inkling about it - are they more likely to get tonal whiplash and not enjoy that chapter? Or, maybe the novelty and not knowing what craziness is coming next are drawing people further in! I can really see it going any which way (although I imagine it's largely dependent on the players, the GM, the adventure and the 'Left Field' in specific, and so on. So lots of variation.)
But, in an all-in-one-volume AP, we have much less line of sight into where the story will go.
I'm not sure, for me personally, that either format is really better, or worse, and I can see both advantages and disadvantages to having 1 overarching AP synopsis vs six, smaller, more targeted, ones. I'm just curious on if "The Community" as a whole is going to come down on the side of one being better - and if so, which!
I won't need anything beyond the Foundry modules.
I will want, and probably get the PDFs.
I won't need physical copies of the APs at all.