Pathfinder 1E Pathfinder "Complete" Books in the future?

[Tharen the Damned]

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I think that "Splatbooks" will be 1/3 crunch and 2/3 fluff. They will be generic enough that they can be used in every campaign but there will also be Golarion flavor.

 

[Obryn]

IMO, they're leaving money on the table if they don't. The folks who run Paizo are no dummies.

They might well be structured differently than WotC's were, but if you've got a fully functional game system of your own, it's kind of silly to encourage your players to rely on out-of-print materials (which you don't make a dollar on, by the by) for new PC options. If they do that, than it's just an in-print version of an out of print rules set, and not the full game system it could be. It's one thing to be compatible with the 3.5 splatbooks; it's another thing entirely to leave gaping holes in your product releases, despite consumer demand.

Just IMO. I'm not a Pathfinder player, so take that for what it's worth.

-O

 

[billd91]

IMO, they're leaving money on the table if they don't. The folks who run Paizo are no dummies.

Whether or not there's really money on that table depends on whether or not they have the resources to get it. In order to get this particular money, do they have to stop collecting money at another table? Which money do they prefer or are better geared toward getting?

It's true that the people running Paizo are no dummies. That's why I would expect them to not jump for the money on the table simply because it's potentially there.

 

[James Jacobs]

We'll have more to say on this subject in a few days at Gen Con... but I can say that no one at Paizo's particularly interested in putting out a legion of crunch-filled rules option books. We may do a few, more if fans demand more, I suppose, but our focus will for the most part remain on Adventure Paths and content for Golarion along the lines of what we've been doing so far.

Anyway, yeah. More news in a few days.

 

[ggroy]

We'll have more to say on this subject in a few days at Gen Con... but I can say that no one at Paizo's particularly interested in putting out a legion of crunch-filled rules option books. We may do a few, more if fans demand more, I suppose, but our focus will for the most part remain on Adventure Paths and content for Golarion along the lines of what we've been doing so far.

Along a similar tangent, will future Golarion setting books remain relatively crunch-lite? In particular, the regional and cities setting type books.

I can understand the monster etc ... related Golarion books having some crunch. But will the crunch portion remain more or less the same as previous monster type books?

Personally, I would be less inclined to buy Golarion books if they become too crunch-heavy. I'm using Golarion for my 4E game, and crunch-heavy books with 3.5E style rules are of very little use to me.

 

[James Jacobs]

Along a similar tangent, will future Golarion setting books remain relatively crunch-lite? In particular, the regional and cities setting type books.

I can understand the monster etc ... related Golarion books having some crunch. But will the crunch portion remain more or less the same as previous monster type books?

Personally, I would be less inclined to buy Golarion books if they become too crunch-heavy. I'm using Golarion for my 4E game, and crunch-heavy books with 3.5E style rules are of very little use to me.

I don't envision the Golarion setting books changing much. Some will be crunch light, like the city books and the Great Beyond. Others will be crunch-heavy, like the upcoming NPC Guide. I suspect most will fall somewhere in the middle, like Into the Darklands, and be a pretty good mix of crunch and flavor. It'll depend on the book's needs.

The full-on rules book supplements will be in their own line, and for the most part won't have much directly to do with Golarion since we want the rules books to be able to serve any campaign setting.

 

[DaveMage]

IMO, they're leaving money on the table if they don't. The folks who run Paizo are no dummies.

They might well be structured differently than WotC's were, but if you've got a fully functional game system of your own, it's kind of silly to encourage your players to rely on out-of-print materials (which you don't make a dollar on, by the by) for new PC options. If they do that, than it's just an in-print version of an out of print rules set, and not the full game system it could be. It's one thing to be compatible with the 3.5 splatbooks; it's another thing entirely to leave gaping holes in your product releases, despite consumer demand.

-O

I don't think they will rely on people to have out-of-print splat books. Quite the opposite. By limiting the number of classes (base and prestige), you limit what you have to account for when designing adventures. The more rules bloat, the harder it is to write adventures that are suitable for all possible classes. (Not to mention the likelihood that certain combos break the game increase.)

I want products that *use* the rules, not add to them.

The only "class bloat" that I don't really mind is a few that may be setting-specific (e.g. wu jen for oriental adventures). But even that should be limited, IMO.

I doubt they are worried about "leaving money on the table" in the short term if they can have a game that lasts for the long term.

 

[ggroy]

I don't envision the Golarion setting books changing much. Some will be crunch light, like the city books and the Great Beyond. Others will be crunch-heavy, like the upcoming NPC Guide. I suspect most will fall somewhere in the middle, like Into the Darklands, and be a pretty good mix of crunch and flavor. It'll depend on the book's needs.

The full-on rules book supplements will be in their own line, and for the most part won't have much directly to do with Golarion since we want the rules books to be able to serve any campaign setting.

Cool. This is good to know.

For the most part, I've been mainly using the Golarion books + Pathfinder AP's and modules as source of fluff and storylines for my "sandbox" style 4E campaign.

In terms of the actual crunch from the Golarion books and AP's, I don't bother with doing direct translations of the 3.5E/Pathfinder stats to equivalent 4E stats. I mainly use the Pathfinder AP/module encounter descriptions as guidelines, and take the stats from similar monsters/NPCs in the 4E monster manuals or simply using the monster construction guidelines from the 4E DMG. Using modified 4E style minions makes it very easy to reconstruct many of the encounters in the AP's and modules. My modified minions can do some significant damage to the players, and/or they take 2 or 3 hits to die instead of just 1 hit.

So far the way the Pathfinder AP's and modules have been written, I find that they have been written in a "general" enough or "almost-systemless" format, that it is relatively easy to translate to 4E. (I use the term "almost-systemless" due to lack of a better term). I don't know if the AP's and modules are intentionally written in this manner, but this has been my experience so far.

 

[Treebore]

James,

My guess would be that your going to do "Complete" books based on a theme, like an area of Golarian.

That way you give the rules/crunch lovers their crunch, while also giving us good fluff with which to detail Golarian, or whatever the theme is. Which can be a specific religion, mages guilds, thieves guilds, and other organizations.

That is one way in which I think WOTC seriously missed the boat with their 3E books. The "organizations" were foot note like entries in the back of the books, when they should have been an integral part of presenting all the Prestige classes, spells, and feats.

 

[Doodles]

I hope not.

I already have enough splats to last forever (not to mention the abundance of 3pp stuff).

They made the core book to have something in print.

I like the fact that they cleaned up some things, but I hope they use the AD&D model. Few rulebooks, lots of adventures.

This for me too.

I have all the "Complete..." crunchy stuff one would want. I don't need that kind of stuff. Adventures, however? Totally there.

A supplement specific to high level campaigns and adventures, with complete breakdown of game components affecting game play and how to handle them, practical advice on HL adventure building, or in other words, everything the Epic Level Handbook was most definitely not? I'd buy that.