It said "Playtest" on the cover. It was very clear what it was. If you were under the impression you were sneakily getting the finished product a year before everybody else, I think that's on you, not Paizo.
Pathfinder 2E Pathfinder Second Edition: I hear it's bad - Why Bad, How Bad?
- Thread starter ParanoydStyle
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It said "Playtest" on the cover. It was very clear what it was. If you were under the impression you were sneakily getting the finished product a year before everybody else, I think that's on you, not Paizo.
Arilyn
Hero
The pdfs for the playtest were all available for free. The standard printed copy was an economical option for players wanting a physical book, but not wanting to go through the expense and bother of printing it from home. The deluxe edition was there for the collectors. I don't think there are many missed options in that list.
It's very common for subsequent editions of games to be criticized before they are even released, due usually to fears that a beloved game will be ruined, or, unfortunately, to people taking glee in tearing things down. We will have to wait and see how PF2 fares. Gen Con will be it's first big moment in the spot light, and will give plenty of people a chance to try it out. I hope the game does well. It could be a great alternative for players wanting more options. Paizo is also a fantastic company, made up of people who genuinely love the hobby.
I'm feeling pretty excited and optimistic.
ParanoydStyle
Peace Among Worlds
I don't. Feel anything about it. I didn't see it.
ParanoydStyle
Peace Among Worlds
I absolutely and pointedly ignored D&D 5E until last year when I realized it was the only thing anyone in my area was playing. So I actually checked it out and turns out, it's pretty darn good! I mean, I also absolutely and pointedly ignored Pathfinder 1E for the same reason right up until 2017--D&D 3.5 was scratching that itch for me perfectly--then in 2017 I started seriously thinking about developing content for PF for the first time since it was/is so popular, and then later in 2017 my circumstances changed, the only game that any of my friends were running was Pathfinder, so I finally took a good look at Pathfinder 1E and hey, what do you know, this is pretty good? I didn't necessarily assume that D&D 5E was bad, but I was sufficiently "afraid" that was the case to stay away from it for about half a decade. I stayed away from Pathfinder 1E for almost a decade. Again, I didn't necessarily assume it was bad, it just wasn't necessary when I had D&D 3.5 and people to play D&D 3.5 with.
I WAS aware that the opinions I'm soliciting are those formed from the playtest. Having participated in the playtesting of a (smaller) AAA tabletop game (Shadowrun 5E) it's my experience that the final manuscript won't differ DRAMATICALLY from the playtest document. Example: I was one of like 60 people that told Jason Hardy like 60 times that dwarves were missing their thermographic vision which they had always had as a racial ability since the first edition of the game. Shadowrun 5E went to print with dwarves that did not have thermographic vision.
I could be wrong of course. It could be wildly different from the playtest doc in this case. I do know that a) I saw the "playtest document" laid out, bound and for sale in a Barnes & Noble--which I don't like, at all, like, particularly if you are a large company, you can charge for something you've perfected to the best of your ability but it's hella wrong to charge people to help you perfect something-- and b) flipping through it casually, I saw much I did not like and little to nothing I liked, but that was last year and I do forget the specifics. I do know that I was being exposed to PF1E and D&D 5th for the first time and falling in love with both of them around that point and I felt the opposite way about the PF2E playtest document.
Also, forgive me for thinking that the game was already out. For one, to Morrus' point, I have heard a great deal of opining on its quality for a game that's not actually out. In my own defense, to me it seemed to follow that if they had the playtest document laid out, printed, bound, and for sale on store shelves LAST YEAR, they would have the actual game out by now.
I did NOT know that everyone who had bought the playtest document from Barnes & Noble was under NDA. How's that even work?
Holy
ing smiley face smiley face smiley face smiley face. I didn't know that. That is utterly REPUGNANT. This should literally be against the law.
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billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him) 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️⚧️
Holy
People know exactly what they're buying with these products. There nothing either deceptive or repugnant. Get a grip.
Kurviak
Explorer
The playtest PDFs were available for free since day one, and were updated frequently during the playtest period. There were 6 versions/updates as far as I remember not including an experimental take on resonance that was then completely ditched out. So yes the play test was free of charge unless you want to pay for a copy of the first version of it, and the game changed a lot during the play test and last but not least we know from the developers that they keept changing a lot of things the weeks after the play test finished
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darjr
I crit!
I do notice a marked difference during the "playtest" period of pf2 vs Next. At least anecdotally and from what I can see from others. I for one was excited for the next playtest and anticipated every drop. There was a TON more traffic, mostly positive or hopeful or constructive in it's criticism. Sure there were a lot of things I didn't like and things I loved that were nixed or modified to far for my taste. I even stopped for a short while, but I downloaded and devoured every update and playtest and by the end of it was very exited along with, what seemed to me, most people I talked to. Things don't seem quite the same with PF2. Actually quite the opposite. Many of the folks that are looking forward to it seem to be holding their breath and are even a bit wary.
I know, that's just me and the folks I talk to. But I was VERY enthusiastic about pathfinder at the time of the Next playtest. And the Next playtest, THE PLAYTEST, won me over. How WotC handled it won me over. Not ot mention I had a LOT of folks asking if i was going to run it, when I was going to start, and when they could get in on one of my tables.
This time I'm enthusiastic about 5e, VERY much so. I HOPE Paizo hits it out of the park with 2e but I don't intend to look at it or buy the PDF unless I have a bunch of folks clamoring for me to run it. And as of now not a single person has asked if I'd even consider doing so.
For whatever it's worth. I know things might be very different for others.
I know, that's just me and the folks I talk to. But I was VERY enthusiastic about pathfinder at the time of the Next playtest. And the Next playtest, THE PLAYTEST, won me over. How WotC handled it won me over. Not ot mention I had a LOT of folks asking if i was going to run it, when I was going to start, and when they could get in on one of my tables.
This time I'm enthusiastic about 5e, VERY much so. I HOPE Paizo hits it out of the park with 2e but I don't intend to look at it or buy the PDF unless I have a bunch of folks clamoring for me to run it. And as of now not a single person has asked if I'd even consider doing so.
For whatever it's worth. I know things might be very different for others.
They aren't. Anybody who has access to the final book die for release in August is.
Holy
Well, that's just silly, isn't it?
I did participate in the D&D 5e playtest, but did not play the final 5e until recently. It was simply a matter that my local games were entrenched in PF1 and didn't see a reason to change. In the after-effects of the PF2 playtest, one of those games decided to try D&D 5e and a number of folks at the table liked it.
Selling printed copies as a convenience for folks who wanted a printed copy should be against the law? Why?
The playtest documents were available for free on their website as a PDF. If you wanted to print them on your own computer you could. If you wanted a printed copy it would probably be cheaper to just buy one of the printed books Paizo was selling though - once you calculate how much ink and wear on your printer printing them out would cost.
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