Pathfinder News From GAMA

News from the GAMA trade show, as reported by the (excellent) Know Direction podcast: Return to a classic Adventure Path with Curse of the Crimson Throne, one of Paizo’s most popular campaigns! The city of Korvosa is in chaos, and her new queen may well be the source–can a ragtag group of heroes stand before the might of one of Golarion’s most nefarious villains? This immense book has everything you need to run an entire full-length campaign covering months and months of play!

• Updates the classic Adventure Path to the Pathfinder RPG rules for the first time.
• Explore expanded adventures, including a brand new mission written by Paizo’s Creative Director, James Jacobs, that sends the heroes into a perilous dungeon run by the queen’s infamous Gray Maidens!
• Features dozens of evocative illustrations of classic characters.
• Updated rules for monsters, magic items, and character options, some old, some new.
• Retail Price: $49.99

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The two best-selling Pathfinder RPG hardcovers of all time come to paperback at least in brand-new “Pocket Editions” set for a Fall 2016 release!

• Affordable price significantly lowers Pathfinder’s cost barrier to entry.
• Perfect for use with Pathfinder Society Organized Play.
• Exactly the same content as the hardcover editions, at a new low price!
• Core Rulebook Retail Price: $24.99
• Bestiary Retail Price: $19.99

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Credit for the pictures goes to the Uncle’s Games Twitter page.

 

[Gundark]

I'm surprised at "Curse of the Crimson Throne" getting a compilation - I'd assumed RotRL was a one-off because they wouldn't want to compete with their own current APs. I wonder if they'll do "Second Darkness" and "Legacy of Fire" (thus bringing them all to the PF rules), and indeed if they'll stop there?

The pocket editions of the rulebooks are interesting, if a little odd - given the sheer size of the Core Rulebook, just how big do they think our pockets are?

I'm under the impression that the APs are always in print it does seem weird to update this I didn't think that PF and 3.5 were THAT different .

 

[Gundark]

Sadly, unless they worked out a special deal with Wizards, that is very unlikely to ever happen.

That and AoW was terrible...from a design standpoint anyways

 

[JeffB]

Geez. The print is small enough in the hardcovers.

I bought Mongoose's Pocket Traveller and couldn't even read it without strain.

Getting old sucks. Now where is my Miracle Ear????

 

[Starfox]

Getting old sucks. Now where is my Miracle Ear????

I'd quote you Order of the Stick's chapter on old people getting a Wisdom bonus, except I'm traveling and my old search-Fu over a phone line can't find it. Perhaps some whippersnapper who is not on a phone line can help?

 

[JeffB]

I'd quote you Order of the Stick's chapter on old people getting a Wisdom bonus, except I'm traveling and my old search-Fu over a phone line can't find it. Perhaps some whippersnapper who is not on a phone line can help?

WHAT??????

 

[Jester David]

I'm under the impression that the APs are always in print it does seem weird to update this I didn't think that PF and 3.5 were THAT different .

Nope. Single print run. When they're gone they're gone.
Only the hardcover RPG books get reprinted.

 

[EthanSental]

With Paizo being an LLC, any chance we can see what they are claiming on the taxes? I don't know anything about the LLC and tax records but it would be interesting if we could see the last couple of years.

Like Jester, odd choice. I liked RotRL and bought the hardback reprint when it came out. Our group at the time voted on what AP they wanted to do next a couple times in the past 5 years and Curse of the Crimson Throne, based on story concept alone, didn't get a vote of interest.

 

[Henry]

I'm under the impression that the APs are always in print it does seem weird to update this I didn't think that PF and 3.5 were THAT different .

They're different in a few key areas, one of which is skill inflation - unless you're playing with some really crazy corner cases, it's easy to get a +17 or 18 in several skills in 3.5 due to skill synergies, but they cut a lot of those in PF so that progression on those is way more toned down comparatively. In another instance, I think the deadliness of their APs has gone down since 2010 or so, for some reason most of their 3.5 adventures, when run with Pathfinder characters, have reputations as real meat grinders. They are compatible, mechanically speaking, but there has definitely been some tweaking of baselines in ten years of APs and bomus stacking. Compare a current PFS character to a 3.5 character with access to complete splatbooks, Player's Handbook 2 and the Spell Compendium, and even though PF characters are still pretty crazy powerful, I personally think the 3.5 characters were still more powerful, and it shows in the 3.5 adventure paths.

As for this conversion/compilation, it's a cool idea and one that seems frequently requested on their message boards. Even though this product may not be targeted to garner new players, i'm pretty sure it's going to generate very comfortable sales for Paizo, too. Honestly, they've got a great model - an audience that, as long as they listen to their them, and don't grow beyond their ability to support overhead, will stay quite profitable for a very long time.

 

[Starfox]

That and AoW was terrible...from a design standpoint anyways

Age of Worms was terrible? Care to explain? I've not played it, but on reading is seems good enough (if a bit long).

The weak AP to my mind was first one set in Cauldron (lost the name), that I have played. It was inflexible and confusing to my mind. Or maybe that was just me method-acting an Int 6 character.

 

[delericho]

The weak AP to my mind was first one set in Cauldron (lost the name), that I have played.

That was "Shackled City", the first one they did. It's also the one I've actually run, which proved to be one of my best campaigns ever.