D&D 5E Wizards Should Hire Paizo

Wolfskin · Jan 23, 2015

I think Paizo should do PF and WotC D&D. Competition is a good thing. Just sayin'!

Ravenheart87 · Jan 23, 2015

Wolfskin said:
I think Paizo should do PF and WotC D&D. Competition is a good thing. Just sayin'!

Plus it's not that hard to convert from Pf to D&D, and vice versa.

Morrus · Jan 23, 2015

WotC would benefit from that. So yeah, they should hire Paizo. However, Paizo should not work for WotC, and why would they? They're already the #1 RPG in the world. Encouraging people to play D&D instead of their own competing game? That's not a good fit with their brandgrowing strategy.

Maybe Paizo should hire WotC!

delericho · Jan 23, 2015

ren1999 said:
Paizo publishes very nice adventures. Very high quality art and organization.

Wizards of the Coast should hire them to do all the publishing.

Can't see it happening. I don't think Paizo have the bandwidth to do 5e materials as well as Pathfinder, so this would involve dropping their own game for someone else's. But if they did that, they would be back in a position where the entire survival of their company was in someone else's hands - if, five years down the line, WotC decided to take the license back, Paizo would have nowhere left to go.

There is one thing that both Paizo and Wizards can do before publishing any book. All the adventure modules and accessories should be play tested once by fans who actually play Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition now as a hobby.

As I understand it, "Tyranny of Dragons" was playtested fairly extensively by people outside the WotC/Kobold Press teams. And Paizo do send out most of their 'big' books for testing - with their huge monthly schedule it's not practical for them to do the same for everything.

But what Wizards has done is spent a few years with the fans and have come up with a very workable game system. It is better and more functional than 3.5. It allows for manageable high level play.

This remains to be seen. A lot of the big problems with 3.5e took some considerably time to come to light. 5e hasn't had that time, nor indeed anything close to it. That's not to say 5e isn't better - just that we can't actually make that judgement yet.

I think that Paizo should offer free conversions to 5E of all of its books and modules...

Again, I don't think they have the bandwidth. What they can do, though, is give their blessing to fan-made conversions on their messageboards.

SirAntoine · Jan 23, 2015

I think they should try to publish themselves. Let them play the game they publish and get better at writing adventures.

Dausuul · Jan 23, 2015

was said:
...First, let me state that I am not commenting on the quality of any edition or upon print vs. digital format. I am also not commenting on the quality of any business decision made by either company.

...I doubt that Paizo would be willing to work for Wizards again. They did a good job turning out quality Dungeon and Dragon magazines during 3rd edition. When 4th edition came out, Wizards took back both magazines and went digital with them.

...Pathfinder was, in large part, the result of Wizards leaving Paizo without much in the terms of marketable products. I just don't think that Paizo would be willing to hitch the future of their company to a Wizards project again.

Exactly. I just don't see the upside for Paizo in a deal like this. Paizo has limited resources. Anything it invests in making 5E adventures has to be taken away from building the Pathfinder brand, and that investment is then dependent on Wizards. Paizo remains friendly to WotC, but just because you're friends with somebody doesn't mean you're going to entrust them with your finances--especially after they've burned you once already.

I think it's more likely that some enterprising third company makes a deal with both WotC and Paizo to convert Paizo APs to 5E format.

Mark CMG · Jan 23, 2015

ren1999 said:
This is not an edition war. Don't delete this thread.

I'm listening . . .

ren1999 said:
All the adventure modules and accessories should be play tested once by fans who actually play Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition now as a hobby. Just once, and the fans can submit their corrections to the authors.

If all the fans playtest the adventures, even just once, who would be left to sell them to?

Sigbjorn_86 · Jan 23, 2015

This is kind of like when people tell Nintendo to publish games for Xbox.

TerraDave · Jan 23, 2015

GMforPowergamers said:
More like pixar and Disney teaming up

Actually Pixar and Disney teamed up early on....

oh wait....

TerraDave · Jan 23, 2015

Morrus said:
WotC would benefit from that. So yeah, they should hire Paizo. However, Paizo should not work for WotC, and why would they? They're already the #1 RPG in the world. Encouraging people to play D&D instead of their own competing game? That's not a good fit with their brandgrowing strategy.

Maybe Paizo should hire WotC!

There is lots of stuff that Paizo could do for WotC. Eric Mona is a huge Greyhawk fan, for example. But ya, doesn't make a ton of sense right now for Paizo.

In a few years, it could be a different story.