Any news out of PAX East?

[Bedrockgames]

I dont know how much paizo makes with its storefront but would question how much that brings in compared with their products (there are lots of similar storefronts online). I could be wrong on that count, i dont know a whole lot about paizo. Even so at the very least, it is a threat to pathfinder.

But to answer the question, if wotc succeeds in winning back the pathfinder fans, i think that would be a big threat to paizo's profits.

 

[Mercutio01]

The point I was making, perhaps badly, was that I don't understand the point of announcing open play testing when you're not actually ready to start said play testing. That was my only point, period.

Fair enough, but they did not announce open playtesting. They did announce that they were in closed playtesting, and that open playtesting would be part of the design process, probably coming sometime in the spring.

As to the remarks you've made Mercutio01 - I was under the impression that WotC was working on a game originally developed by others, a game that had been around for many years before they got their hands on in, sort of like Pathfinder. As far as I know they are not completely remaking the game from scratch, but rather, re-working what's come before (apparently from all the editions that have come before), so for give me if I find your comment ridiculous.

I think either you or I have grossly misunderstood what's happening. I'd lean towards you misunderstanding because all indications are creating a from scratch game that calls back to previous editions and uses lessons learned from each of those. I do not believe they are simply taking a previous edition and shoehorning other elements onto it.

As far as using Pathfinder as a yard stick, don't you think that perhaps WotC is doing that. Don't you think they maybe should, to some degree? As far as I know D&D has never had an open play test before, but they are now, after Paizo did, with some degree of success.

No, I don't think they are doing so because Paizo did so, and I don't think the yardstick is in any way equivalent. I do think they are doing an open playtest specifically because the previous edition caused such a ruckus in the gaming industry that D&D effectively dropped out of sole possession of first place for the first time in TTRPG history. They want to capture the widest possible audience to ensure that doesn't happen again. Did Paizo's success influence the decision? It would be ridiculous to say no. But to suggest that D&D follow the exact path of the Pathfinder game (which really didn't change all that much from 3.5) while creating an entirely new game (no, not whole cloth, but certainly from a point closer to scratch than Pathfinder) is absurd.

Let's look at the development cycle of something like Dungeon Crawl Classics, which still isn't out yet and was announced in 2010. I'm not saying it's being done wrong at all, but as a point of comparison it is much closer to the development of a new D&D, and is probably way closer to the overall production cycle. Even Pathfinder had been worked for 6 months before the alpha release and it wasn't really until almost 6 months later that there was a full-scale "beta," which brings the scale closer to the DCC time frame, and therefore also closer to the current D&D cycle.

I stand by my earlier statement that 4 months is a comically short amount of time to be bitching about.

 

[BryonD]

But to answer the question, if wotc succeeds in winning back the pathfinder fans, i think that would be a big threat to paizo's profits.

This could be true.

And WotC could also hand an entire generation over to Paizo.


And Paizo can do all kinds of things to counter or expand the first or to groom or squander the latter.

I'm hoping this motivates them. IMO, Paizo's mechanical side has become more than a touch self-indulgent in the past 18 months or so and the quality on that side has shown it.

 

[Piratecat]

Paizo will be fine. Their products are superb, and worst case? I'd be freakin' shocked if I couldn't pick up most adventures right now and convert on the fly to D&D Next. One of the glorious things about Paizo is that they're small, nimble, and very very smart. I do not think this is going to be a case of people picking either/or between D&D and Pathfinder fans.

 

[Connorsrpg]

Why does every thread devolve into this Paizo v WotC thing? I read to here looking for NEWS out of PAX East! (Well, that is the thread title after all). Seems there is none other than the video.

For those that actually went, is there anything newsworthy, please?

 

[DMKastmaria]

Paizo will be fine. Their products are superb, and worst case? I'd be freakin' shocked if I couldn't pick up most adventures right now and convert on the fly to D&D Next. One of the glorious things about Paizo is that they're small, nimble, and very very smart. I do not think this is going to be a case of people picking either/or between D&D and Pathfinder fans.

I think once you go beyond the "hardcore" forum dwellers and online pundits, there's a ton of gamers out there, who play multiple systems. Many of them have never even heard of the "edition wars." They're too busy playing D&D and other RPG's, to care.

I run a twice-monthly Friday night game, under the aegis of the Birmingham RPG Meet-up group. Two games are hosted, each meet-up. Right now, I'm running OSRIC in one room and another guy is running a Star Wars game, using Chaosium's BRP.

Pathfinder, 4e, Swords & Wizardry, Dark Heresy and other games have seen rotational cycles at the meet-up. Sometime this year, I'll be running Dark Heresy, as a matter of fact.

No one tells anyone else that their game "Sucks." We just freakin' play.

 

[gyor]

Paizo will be fine. WOTC isn't releasing as many products as it used too even after 5e releases (which is why having lots of classes and races and choice in the PHB is so important), so if Pathfinder times it releases right, it can caught those empty moments.

Also if 5e works out well and they have a good OGL you may see some 5e pathfinder support.

 

[gyor]

Also note Pathfinder is coming out as an mmo so that will effect how things evolve as well.

 

[jeffh]

Didn't he say same version "but with some modifications"?

-YRUSirius

I think the exact words were closer to "a couple of changes", said so offhandedly as to imply they were quite minor. Certainly they didn't include whatever rework of Turning Undead is currently underway, for example! I got the impression they were minor changes along the lines of (this is strictly an example) "Magic Missile now does X damage instead of Y" - tweaks to details, not major changes to the core - though this is admittedly a subjective impression based on limited information.


On the Paizo vs WotC thread, I too don't understand the common assumption that one's success has to come at the expense of the other. Right now I run two games and am prepping a third. One uses 4E, one uses Pathfinder, and the new one will use an OSR game called Basic Fantasy Role-Playing, which resembles "red box" Basic D&D in most respects. To hear some people on all sides tell it - Paizo fans, WotC fans and OSR fans alike - this should have caused the world to explode. It has done no such thing. Really, I just checked out my window to be sure, the world is most assuredly still there.

 

[Connorsrpg]

So, again, ANY NEWS FROM PAX EAST? Couldn't the Paizo >WotC thing go to a new thread?

I have seen the video. Wasn't there another seminar mentioned regarding DMing or some such? Or was this the only seminar where info re the next iteration?