Pathfinder 1E Pathfinder Setting as Selling Point?

[NiTessine]

I generally disagree.

Settings will mostly be used by those not creating their own. Of those groups they will be of most interest to the GM rather than players.

So you are talking about a fraction of a fraction of your player base interested in buying your product.

Its probably worth pointing out that it wasn't a strategy which worked very well for TSR.

No, the strategy that did not work out well for TSR was publishing five setting lines at the same time that were effectively competing with each other.

Paizo has one setting.

As for a major selling point... the key here is that it's a good setting.

Personally, I prefer Paizo's setting model to what WotC is doing with 4E, without even going to the issue of quality. Paizo produces a wealth of setting information but does not go into the deep detail level except in adventure modules that require it, leaving the DM room to tell his own stories in the setting.

As far as I can tell, there's also no metaplot.

 

[Dimitris]

I like very much the Pathfinder setting. I think is beyond comparison with any D&D campaign resource material we have read before.

My opinion is that the system and the world is tightly connected. I cannot use 4e for this setting. It seems that 4e is made for a band of superheroes and a series of encounters somehow connected. This tabletop-encounters-game-view goes deeply within the system of 4e. In Golarion, the baker in your neighborhood has got a stat block like you. He is not a minion or a DM monster.

Dimitris

 

[jensun]

I cannot use 4e for this setting. It seems that 4e is made for a band of superheroes and a series of encounters somehow connected. This tabletop-encounters-game-view goes deeply within the system of 4e. In Golarion, the baker in your neighborhood has got a stat block like you. He is not a minion or a DM monster.

This isn't how I run 4e or how any 4e AP I have read since it came out runs it.

 

[vagabundo]

I like very much the Pathfinder setting. I think is beyond comparison with any D&D campaign resource material we have read before.

My opinion is that the system and the world is tightly connected. I cannot use 4e for this setting. It seems that 4e is made for a band of superheroes and a series of encounters somehow connected. This tabletop-encounters-game-view goes deeply within the system of 4e. In Golarion, the baker in your neighborhood has got a stat block like you. He is not a minion or a DM monster.

Dimitris

4e is very flexible and a joy to create stuff for. Anyway 4e and 3e a similar enough, in concepts, that conversion between the two is a dream.

That baker would be a minion, most of the stat block ignored in my game, and I highly doubt it would impact much on the feel or fluff of the setting.

 

[DaveMage]

I am really surprised that 4E hasn't released a "signature" setting that is unique to that ruleset.

They do have the "points of light" theme, but that's not really a setting.

Eberron was (at the time of release) unique to 3.5. 2E has a bunch of settings unique to it, and, of course, 1E was mainly Greyhawk (until Dragonlance and FR came along).

 

[an_idol_mind]

Golarion is to the Pathfinder RPG what Greyhawk was to 3rd edition D&D: an implied setting but nothing more. (The difference being that Golarion, unlike Greyhawk, is actually getting some product The core books have traces of Golarion in it, such as the gods and a few concepts that originated in adventure paths (goblin dogs in the Bestiary, for example), but it doesn't seem like Paizo will be making a strong push to tie the RPG in with Golarion.

That said, I think that each of Paizo's product lines (the adventure paths, individual modules, the companions, and now the RPG line) do a fine job of stimulating interest in their other lines simple because of the level of quality they maintain. If Paizo didn't already have a reputation for solid products through their setting-specific stuff, I don't think there would be as much interest in the RPG as there is. Likewise, someone checking out the RPG for the first time will probably be more interested in their other lines because of that high quality.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

I am really surprised that 4E hasn't released a "signature" setting that is unique to that ruleset.

They do have the "points of light" theme, but that's not really a setting.

Eberron was (at the time of release) unique to 3.5. 2E has a bunch of settings unique to it, and, of course, 1E was mainly Greyhawk (until Dragonlance and FR came along).

Takes time, i think. If it were me, i´d bring out the new setting as 4th (heh), right after the more traditional 2010 one. The edition has to realize what it is, before it can tailor-make a setting for its needs.

 

[Agamon]

My opinion is that the system and the world is tightly connected. I cannot use 4e for this setting. It seems that 4e is made for a band of superheroes and a series of encounters somehow connected. This tabletop-encounters-game-view goes deeply within the system of 4e. In Golarion, the baker in your neighborhood has got a stat block like you. He is not a minion or a DM monster.

I like how the baker in 4e has no stat block, because he's not a minion or DM monster. Description and personlaity traits are far more important than stat blocks for non-combat NPCs.

I like Golarion, and neraly ran my new campaign in it, but went for FR instead, more for player recognition of the setting (none of whom are cannon lawyers).

And yes, 4e can be played as more than a tabletop miniatures game, or maybe I'm playing it wrong...

 

[Umbran]

Opinions?

Does campaign setting detail matter?

My guess (and it is only a guess) is no, it won't matter that much.

From watching these boards, the thing that seems to be driving folks to Paizo is the ruleset - these are people who are already playing some 3.x variant, and want to continue. They aren't motivated by the setting in particular.

 

[EATherrian]

I'm a setting junkie and I think that Golarion is easily in my 2nd or 3rd greatest setting slot. It's actually scary close to how my main home brew has turned out. As for it as a selling point, I don't run modules but I buy every Pathfinder AP just for the Golarion information that is held within. If I wasn't so obsessed with making my own perfect world (an impossibility I know) I would use Golarion in a heartbeat.