Pathfinder 2E Is it time for a new Pathfinder Setting?

[Retreater]

You know what I would buy? An awesome 3PP Pathfinder 2e mega-adventure (similar to Curse of Strahd), divorced from Golarian (which I don't especially care about). Something that actually is built from the ground-up to support PF2, to reflect the rules in the world. Not a vanilla kitchen sink setting that was written for a system that came out 20 years ago.
Something like how Ptolus or Eberron came out in 3rd edition. Or Points of Light/Nentir Vale in 4E.

 

[dave2008]

Yeah, WOTC has basically settled on FR as their setting, with a little bit of extra with Theros and Eberron.

And now Ravenloft. Of course FR is not a default setting like Golarion is for PF

 

[dave2008]

I’d be very surprised if they did that. One of the things that Lisa Stevens has cited in her review of the death of TSR and its influence on Paizo’s business model is that they fragmented their audience by releasing lots of setting books. For a game with a small audience (e.g., Pathfinder), having two books with fewer sales individually but more total than one can be worse financially due to higher unit costs for smaller print runs.

How can 5e do it but not Paizo? 5e has an extremely large audience. WotC can do things that smaller publishers cannot. WotC has also avoided flooding the market with setting books. They haven’t created separate lines for them. They have so far released one book for a setting and then moving onto the next thing while leaving GM’s Guild to fill in the gaps.

I guess since I always here people clamoring for more settings for D&D, I think there might be a market for it in PF. I think they could make a new setting(s) and avoid the fragmentation to plagued TSR.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't know if I'd go that far; Ravenloft is going to be their 6th setting book. (FR, Ravnica, Wildemount, Theros, Eberron.)

WotC releases a new setting and then, that's it. There's no new Theros content coming outside of DMs Guild. Ravenloft and Eberron getting two whole products is the anomaly. Everything else is set in the Realms or easily could be (Ghosts of Saltmarsh).

In contrast, even TSR's limited run settings ran three or more releases. Jakandor may have been the only setting to have gotten so few, in fact.

Having six settings, each with five to 10 books on bookstore shelves, is a lot more cannibalization of the buying audience.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

WotC releases a new setting and then, that's it. There's no new Theros content coming outside of DMs Guild. Ravenloft and Eberron getting two whole products is the anomaly. Everything else is set in the Realms or easily could be (Ghosts of Saltmarsh).

In contrast, even TSR's limited run settings ran three or more releases. Jakandor may have been the only setting to have gotten so few, in fact.

Having six settings, each with five to 10 books on bookstore shelves, is a lot more cannibalization of the buying audience.

I wonder if that is a model pathfinder could follow? If it works for Ravnica and Theros, cold Paizo come up with something new for PF2?

 

[Zardnaar]

I wonder if that is a model pathfinder could follow? If it works for Ravnica and Theros, cold Paizo come up with something new for PF2?

Probably not they don't have a back catalog of TSR world's or MtG world's or Critical Role.

 

[dave2008]

Probably not they don't have a back catalog of TSR world's or MtG world's or Critical Role.

But neither did D&D at first. We have had 12 years of just Golarion for PF so far. Maybe time for something new?

 

[dave2008]

WotC releases a new setting and then, that's it. There's no new Theros content coming outside of DMs Guild.

Maybe that is the something they need to look at - a community content market like DMsGuild. Honestly I think the WotC model of a single setting book with DMsGuild handling the rest is a great way to get a lot of settings out without cannibalizing your book line. Maybe Paizo should think about doing something similar.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Maybe that is the something they need to look at - a community content market like DMsGuild. Honestly I think the WotC model of a single setting book with DMsGuild handling the rest is a great way to get a lot of settings out without cannibalizing your book line. Maybe Paizo should think about doing something similar.

There's certainly enough passion among Pathfinder devotees. White Wolf has a similar system to the DMs Guild and it seems to have produced a ton of content for fans.

 

[Staffan]

Maybe that is the something they need to look at - a community content market like DMsGuild. Honestly I think the WotC model of a single setting book with DMsGuild handling the rest is a great way to get a lot of settings out without cannibalizing your book line. Maybe Paizo should think about doing something similar.

I mean, they already release everything mechanical under the OGL. They just don't have a convenient community showcase like the DM's Guild. And I'm not sure how much that aspect of the Guild helps (compared to just being able to do D&D stuff without having to concern yourself with the legalities of the OGL).

A bigger issue when it comes to third-party stuff for Pathfinder 2 is that most of the stuff you could do for Pathfinder, you could probably do for D&D instead, and the potential D&D audience is at least an order of magnitude larger than the one for Pathfinder 2.