Pathfinder 2E How is Pathfinder doing?

[Green Onceler]

By all accounts, Pathfinder 2e and Paizo are doing pretty well,

I am paying a lot less attention to the rpg world than I was a few years back, but I can see a lot of cancelled product lines since the new edition dropped.

Bestiaries, alien archives, Pathfinder/Starfinder pawns have all been cancelled just in the past couple of months. To me, this is not re-assuring that the current suite of games is performing that well.

I suspect the PF2 Adventure Path line is also not selling as well as it once did. None of the new edition adventures, with the possible exception of The Abomination Vaults, seems to have made much of a splash. And nothing like Paizo's early 3.5 classics.

 

[GrahamWills]

Looking at the event listings for Gen Con 2022 in a few weeks by system, we have Dungeons and Dragons at 1000 sessions, Pathfinder 220, Call of Cthulhu 190, and the next largest was I think Shadowrun at 100.

Pretty much supports the other sales numbers that say that PF and CoC are the #2 and #3; close enough that their order swaps around depending on a myriad of factors, and then after that there's a pretty big gap.

 

[The-Magic-Sword]

I am paying a lot less attention to the rpg world than I was a few years back, but I can see a lot of cancelled product lines since the new edition dropped.

Bestiaries, alien archives, Pathfinder/Starfinder pawns have all been cancelled just in the past couple of months. To me, this is not re-assuring that the current suite of games is performing that well.

I suspect the PF2 Adventure Path line is also not selling as well as it once did. None of the new edition adventures, with the possible exception of The Abomination Vaults, seems to have made much of a splash. And nothing like Paizo's early 3.5 classics.

Specifically, I think the issue with the pawns is the drop off of in person play appears not to have reverted. As for APs I'm not sure, Abomination Vaults is the most popular, but I don't know how many groups are playing the others-- some for sure since I see discussion of like Agents of Edgewatch sometimes, I know Phoenix Tournament is also getting a compilation volume and probably foundry VTT integration.

They haven't cancelled bestiaries at all, their plan after core was to switch to themed books that have focused bestiaries inside of them, we got Book of the Dead, the first of those just a couple of months ago. Couldn't really tell you about Starfinder.

 

[grankless]

Apparently the pawns were never a particularly good seller - the worldwide paper shortage and shipping crisis in addition to the reduction in in person play (and the fact people can just... print the pictures out) means that it just is not a good idea to produce them. They're also in no world required to play the game.

Starfinder is still getting rulebooks and AP releases. The Pathfinder bestiaries were, as TMS said, never intended to go past 3- they're just releasing more interesting themed books than "here's a big pile of stuff".

Paizo has made it clear on multiple occasions that 2e is already outperforming 1e when it was at its peak. Even Fists of the Ruby Phoenix, an adventure path that does not get talked about nearly as much as some other APs like Strength of Thousands or Abomination Vaults, is getting a hardcover release. This means that every physical copy of each book has sold out.

 

[Green Onceler]

Even Fists of the Ruby Phoenix, an adventure path that does not get talked about nearly as much as some other APs like Strength of Thousands or Abomination Vaults, is getting a hardcover release. This means that every physical copy of each book has sold out.

It used to mean every physical copy had sold out when they reprinted Runelords and Crimson Throne. However, all three instalments of Ruby Phoenix are available on Paizo's site in soft cover. It also seems the second and third books of Abomination Vaults are not sold out either.

 

[payn]

I loved the pawns when I ran the APs. I loved the pawn bestiary boxes and NPC codex Paizo released. Though, yeah I'm not playing face to face anymore so havent been buying them

 

[kenada]

What are the PDFs like? It seems like pawns would make great tokens for VTTs, but I was never willing to spend the money only to find out I had to rip the PDF and manipulate the results into something useful myself.

 

[Retreater]

I got the pawns in the first edition Beginner Box and purchased the Bestiary Box 1. I could never find a good way to organize them - same with other token sets such as the 4e Monster Vault and various 3rd party products. This is why I've been hesitant to also get "Skinny Minis" (I think is the name).
I do love actual miniatures - painting them is one of the few things that actually relax me. But for me, I just don't get enough use out of pawns.
(Also echoing @payn - I mostly play online these days anyway.)

 

[payn]

I got the pawns in the first edition Beginner Box and purchased the Bestiary Box 1. I could never find a good way to organize them - same with other token sets such as the 4e Monster Vault and various 3rd party products. This is why I've been hesitant to also get "Skinny Minis" (I think is the name).
I do love actual miniatures - painting them is one of the few things that actually relax me. But for me, I just don't get enough use out of pawns.
(Also echoing @payn - I mostly play online these days anyway.)

Yeah those bestiary boxes were a beast to manage. I know they numbered the pawns but good luck quick sorting that. I had much better luck with the AP pawns because they were about 60% named NPC encounters with about 40% random monster pawns.

 

[JThursby]

It used to mean every physical copy had sold out when they reprinted Runelords and Crimson Throne. However, all three instalments of Ruby Phoenix are available on Paizo's site in soft cover. It also seems the second and third books of Abomination Vaults are not sold out either.

That's not a fair comparison. Runelords and Crimson Throne were so old at the time they were still using 3.5 rules in their original versions. Abomination Vaults and Ruby Phoenix came out last year. As some of the first APs, Runelords and Crimson Throne were also made at a time when Paizo was much, much smaller than it is today and likely had much smaller print runs than their contemporaries in 2nd edition.