I suspect PF2e has some internal design goals that aren't intended to be made public.
Their business model really requires addiction level subscribers to commit to the year-plus subscription model and the predictable revenue of 5000-15,000 gamers parting with $50 a month or ~$600-1000 of annual spend to sustain the business.
So really Paizo's design goal would be to lock down their 5,000 most loyal customers who are heavily vested in the game world and community (particularly VLs/VCs of Organized Play) to commit to at least invest in the new system for 2-3 years out at $1000/year - there's a guarantee of $5M in revenue to cover the administrative expenses and core team expenses. Then hopefully your core 5K can attract an outer ring of another 5K-10K gamers who are good for $300-$600 a piece.
Paizo's hardcore gamer, the ones who are still showing up to game store game days are the ones who like to play with rules "away from the game" for hours per week, building complex characters from an assortment of rules from esoteric sources. They're almost puzzle-solvers to a certain extent, trying to maximize character builds. The whole 3-action round gives another puzzle to solve where theorycrafting away from the game lets folks figure out the right combination of their open, press, flourish, etc. The whole tiered crit systems presents another dimension of theorycrafting where you need to understand conditions and the right pivot point of whether you attack an extra time or attempt a Power Attack. PF2e is meant to be enjoyed in Excel and spreadsheets for the next several years as mix/max theorycrafting can take place and continue to absorb supplement subscriptions.
It's not intended to be an accessible game for the casual gamer. You won't be bringing a casual friend/spouse/date to the game as there's way too much of a learning curve here to get in the way of the story or non-combat aspects of the game. This game is again about character building away from the social group, and then at the table it's about puzzle-solving your combat turns kind of like playing Tetris and trying to fit things into each turn. Whereas modern RPGs became more permissive to get folks to pay more attention to the scene and events going on (i.e. 5e lets you move and interact with things freely outside of an action economy budget then make a quick decision among many equal cost single actions), PF2e is about looking at your character sheet and trying to puzzle out the best way to spend 3 action points every time it gets around to your turn where competence is determined by how well you've memorized all the variable point costs of available actions.
It's actually kind of like Advanced 4E - take 4e and expand it into a variable cost action system and add the -10/+10 math for another dimension of variability in action results and you have PF2e.
Their business model really requires addiction level subscribers to commit to the year-plus subscription model and the predictable revenue of 5000-15,000 gamers parting with $50 a month or ~$600-1000 of annual spend to sustain the business.
So really Paizo's design goal would be to lock down their 5,000 most loyal customers who are heavily vested in the game world and community (particularly VLs/VCs of Organized Play) to commit to at least invest in the new system for 2-3 years out at $1000/year - there's a guarantee of $5M in revenue to cover the administrative expenses and core team expenses. Then hopefully your core 5K can attract an outer ring of another 5K-10K gamers who are good for $300-$600 a piece.
Paizo's hardcore gamer, the ones who are still showing up to game store game days are the ones who like to play with rules "away from the game" for hours per week, building complex characters from an assortment of rules from esoteric sources. They're almost puzzle-solvers to a certain extent, trying to maximize character builds. The whole 3-action round gives another puzzle to solve where theorycrafting away from the game lets folks figure out the right combination of their open, press, flourish, etc. The whole tiered crit systems presents another dimension of theorycrafting where you need to understand conditions and the right pivot point of whether you attack an extra time or attempt a Power Attack. PF2e is meant to be enjoyed in Excel and spreadsheets for the next several years as mix/max theorycrafting can take place and continue to absorb supplement subscriptions.
It's not intended to be an accessible game for the casual gamer. You won't be bringing a casual friend/spouse/date to the game as there's way too much of a learning curve here to get in the way of the story or non-combat aspects of the game. This game is again about character building away from the social group, and then at the table it's about puzzle-solving your combat turns kind of like playing Tetris and trying to fit things into each turn. Whereas modern RPGs became more permissive to get folks to pay more attention to the scene and events going on (i.e. 5e lets you move and interact with things freely outside of an action economy budget then make a quick decision among many equal cost single actions), PF2e is about looking at your character sheet and trying to puzzle out the best way to spend 3 action points every time it gets around to your turn where competence is determined by how well you've memorized all the variable point costs of available actions.
It's actually kind of like Advanced 4E - take 4e and expand it into a variable cost action system and add the -10/+10 math for another dimension of variability in action results and you have PF2e.
