Paizo Ends Pathfinder Adventure Path Softcovers, Switching to Quarterly Model

Paizo is ending its line of monthly Pathfinder Adventure Paths, with a new quarterly hardcover replacing the long-running product. Paizo announced the change yesterday on its blog, with the shift beginning next year. The new hardcover Adventure Paths will be a minimum of 256 pages and will have a retail price of $79.99, which is cheaper than the cost of purchasing four softcover adventure paths. Paizo also stated that they'll release one Adventure Path starting at Level 1, another ending at Level 20, with the remaining two falling somewhere in between. Each Adventure Path will cover 9-10 levels of play.

The first two Adventure Paths announced for this format are Hellbreakers and Hell's Destiny, which both cover the upcoming war between Andoran and Cheliax.

The Pathfinder Adventure Paths series started as an evolution of Paizo's monthly Pathfinder magazine series. To date, Paizo has released 222 Pathfinder Adventure Paths. Early Pathfinder Adventure Paths were for campaigns that lasted six issues and typically encompassed Level 1-Level 20 play. However, more recently, the Adventure Path structure has shortened and grown more flexible, with shorter length campaigns with more variable levels of play.

 

[James Jacobs]

I've been struggling to find a negative take for several days. The best one I've found:
Paizo has acknowledged that compiling the single issue APs into a hardcover also gives them the chance to update to take into account player experience shared on their website and social media channels.
Releasing a single big hardcover adventure all at once prevents this play test experience. Also, they are largely untested in producing big, original adventures of this scale (most are reprints).
They had, what, the Emerald Spire in 1e and the Seven Dooms for Sandpoint more recently? It's a big jump.

It's not as big a jump as you might think. In fact, having an Adventure Path all in one volume will make things easier in some regards, since this allows the developers and editors to work on the campaign as a single unit rather than 3 seperate ones. While the way we have authors create them won't change (we hare all the authors at once and they write simultaneously, with a private discord to chat and share ides), breaking free from the monthly schedule gives us developers and editors a lot more time to finesse the whole into a single story. Furthermore, we won't have to "strand" elements in volumes. NPCs statted up at the start of the adventure won't have to recede into the background in later chapters becasue their information and stats are all still in the same book, for example, and new rules elements like monsters or the like don't have to be limited to the single 3 to 4 chapters of the book they appear in.

Adventure Paths work best in this format, and to me, this is a change that's been a long time coming, but one we didn't enter into lightly.

 

[James Jacobs]

Their costs are more balanced in publishing a single book rather than estimating how many of the later volumes to produce, given they sell worse than the first. Paizo still has their subscriptions, which make them more on each sale at full price than a sale to a distributor (paying around 40% or so). Its my understanding that a single 220 page hardback book is cheaper to produce than three 70 page softcovers. Anyone in publishing please correct me if I'm wrong.

This is correct. Not only is it easier to produce, but it's also less expensive to ship—both from the printer and to the customer. Folks who buy Adventure Paths online will not only save money on the MSRP (about 10 bucks), but won't have to pay shipping for three shipments, which could be a much larger and more significant savings point. And stores won't have to restock multiple books—if one sells out, often a store simply wouldn't restock it, and that left them stranded with copies of later volumes that sold less because folks are less likely to buy a part 2 or 3 if they don't have part 1.

 

[James Jacobs]

That's my biggest hope! That and ending filler in each monthly volume. You could cut out about 1/3 of any given AP and it would be an improvement.

We've never really had multiple developers on a single Adventure Path, with exceptions existing when a developer gets behind and needs some help, or when a developer leaves the company mid-Adventure Path and another one has to step in to take over. That said, and as I've mentioned elsewhere, giving the devleoper (and the editors) the chance to go through the entire campaign at once, rather than splitting it into thirds that are always interspersed with other tasks and distractions, will allow the developer (and editors) to go through the entire thing as a single book and make it much more efficient in stitching things together to be more cohesive. Also, without the monthly grind, we can adjust times to give development and editing more room when it comes to particularly challenging Adventure Paths that could benefit from more time in development or editing—a luxury that was never really that feasible when we had to stick to a monthly cadence.

 

[Reynard]

@James Jacobs I am curious if the format is otherwise going to change. Will there be the same amount of "additional information" like new monsters, new items, location write ups, etc. as there were in 3 volumes?

 

[Retreater]

Oh, you're finding the third instalment a slog too? We quit just as we reached the titular flooded cathedral. I was disappointed we didn't reach the first aboleth, but it just wasn't flowing.

Gonna be completely honest, I think most APs I've played/run break down around book 2-3 (Kingmaker 1e and 2e, Quest for the Frozen Flame, Council of Thieves, Legacy of Fire, Mummy's Mask, Abomination Vaults.) So I don't know if I can blame it on Ruins of Azlant. I tend to get squirmy and bored in any long campaign.
We just had our first encounter in the flooded cathedral. I want to stick it out to finish this book because the GM is having a great time and has put in a lot of work. But this has been a year of endurance that has tested my connection to this hobby. I think it's ruined me on Pathfinder/Starfinder and similar games for many years.

 

[James Jacobs]

@James Jacobs I am curious if the format is otherwise going to change. Will there be the same amount of "additional information" like new monsters, new items, location write ups, etc. as there were in 3 volumes?

Not the same amount, but the same type. Every book will have an Adventure Toolbox that contains the new items and spells and other player options introduced in the adventure, a bestiary of several new monsters, and devoted NPC spreads for the key NPCs. Each Adventure Path will also feature some of the backmatter articles with topics like location gazetteers, deep dives on deities, continuing the campaign notes, and so on, as makes sense for the campaign.

In the 3 volume version, we pushed to make sure we had at least 6 new monsters per volume and at least 4 pages of Adventure Toolbox. In the hardcover version, the number of new monsters will usually be at least 6, sometimes more, but not 18 new monsters. Likewise, the Adventure Toolbox won't be a triplesized one every time. And the number of back matter articles will vary. They'll all still be there, but they'll be more tightly structured to support the adventure path itself.

Look at Seven Dooms for Sandpoint for an "early draft" example of the format (althoguh that one's 200 pages long, and these new ones will be a minimum of 256 pages each).

 

[carmachu]

But... it costs less.

What if they took the same amount as before monthly and then sent you the hardcover quarterly? Would you be more comfortable with that? Because I imagine they could do that if there was a demand for it. Continue to charge $90 per AP, charged monthly, rather than $80 charged quarterly. Or is the multiple softcover format important?

To you it costs less. To me and others who's shopping habits differ it does not.

I am not in the Piazo ecosystem. I don't need the newest hotness them moment it comes out.

That one shipping charge down from three? Doesn't apply to me, I look for spots that give me free shipping. That $90 three part you are telling me down to $80 that's a savings? What if I told you I bought it for about $70 free shipping?

Its a savings to some. Others not so much. Depends how much that $80 hardcover will be after 6 months or so

 

[Morrus]

To you it costs less. To me and others who's shopping habits differ it does not.

I am not in the Piazo ecosystem. I don't need the newest hotness them moment it comes out.

That one shipping charge down from three? Doesn't apply to me, I look for spots that give me free shipping. That $90 three part you are telling me down to $80 that's a savings? What if I told you I bought it for about $70 free shipping?

Its a savings to some. Others not so much. Depends how much that $80 hardcover will be after 6 months or so

This makes no sense. The price point is $10 less.

If we’re citing outlier purchase situations, then I can wait a year and get it for $50. Or buy it from a friend in a couple of years for $20. Or get it as a gift for free. The point is, the book costs less.

 

[Reynard]

To you it costs less. To me and others who's shopping habits differ it does not.

I am not in the Piazo ecosystem. I don't need the newest hotness them moment it comes out.

That one shipping charge down from three? Doesn't apply to me, I look for spots that give me free shipping. That $90 three part you are telling me down to $80 that's a savings? What if I told you I bought it for about $70 free shipping?

Its a savings to some. Others not so much. Depends how much that $80 hardcover will be after 6 months or so

You'll be able to buy it off Amazon. It's okay.

 

[Velderan]

I am not in the Piazo ecosystem.

So the price for you went from $0 to $0..?