Pathfinder 1E Is PAIZO becoming the next Wizards?

[billd91]

If WotC had never got the license to do the Pokemon TCG, wonder if Hasbro would have ever been interested in WotC in the first place.

Magic may have been enough to generate that interest. Hasbro was also interested enough to pick up Avalon Hill and that can't have been viewed as a hotter property than WotC. Of course, AH may have been going dirt cheap too so it may have been hard to pass that chance up... not that they've done all that much of value with it.

 

[Zil]

Magic may have been enough to generate that interest. Hasbro was also interested enough to pick up Avalon Hill and that can't have been viewed as a hotter property than WotC. Of course, AH may have been going dirt cheap too so it may have been hard to pass that chance up... not that they've done all that much of value with it.

Oh man, now you reminded me how much I miss Avalon Hill. Still have my old well worn games of theirs. Nothing like those multi-week Third Reich games.

 

[Mark]

Oh man, now you reminded me how much I miss Avalon Hill. Still have my old well worn games of theirs. Nothing like those multi-week Third Reich games.

Indeed! That's one of the AH games I most often played back in the day.

 

[Zil]

I also agree with a lot of posters that Paizo needs to develop their own fantasy game, to become a signature company. They are diversifying, and that is good for them and the hobby, but I's like them to do a totally new game, still fantasy, but not a derivitive of 3.5. In my opinion, doing Pathfinder makes them too close to WOTC, just like when they were doing the magazines and Dungeon APs, to be a true industry leader.

I would like to see them as an industry leader.

Nah, I see what Paizo has done as being analogous to a forked open source software project. WoTC converted the main project to closed source plus they made many significant and controversial (to many) changes, so Paizo forked the 3.5 OGL version to keep the original project alive. Why should they move away their own fork if their goal was to keep the OGL alive so they could keep producing the kinds of adventures they like for the system that they like? It would be like the openSSH software project deciding to abandon their version of ssh just because they were not the original creators/owners of ssh. Why should they? Openssh is an extremely successful project. Pathfinder also seems to be very successful for Paizo so why should they change that winning formula?

Does this mean they are destined to be as large as Wizards of the Coast? Who knows? I suspect probably not, but lots of things can change over time. I'm amazed with how much Paizo's footprint in the hobby has grown in a very short amount of time.

 

[dm4hire]

Jason Buhlman over on Paizo's board, unfortunately don't remember the thread, stated that if they do another RPG (not Pathfinder) they wouldn't follow the OGL design. He stated there were a lot of ideas they couldn't go with for Pathfinder because it would have change the game too much and they wanted to keep their 3.5 followers. I'm hoping they eventually create another system if only to see what kind of ideas they had brewing in their minds.

I've often wondered why no one just doesn't use the open aspects of copyright and mesh the best mechanics from different systems into something completely new.

As for the idea of D&D being shelved I've had that similar thought myself. What I saw happening was more of Hasbro forcing WotC to cancel the RPG, but keep the IP going via videogames and such. Then in about five years or so, perhaps around a key anniversary, they suddenly announce a relaunch of the system and have WotC kick out something different, playing off of the nostalgia of the game.

 

[wedgeski]

Speaking for myself only, I'll have a much keener interest in Paizo if they ever put together a new RPG, from scratch, without any of the OGL baggage, and with all of the sublime presentation of their current output. That would be very interesting indeed.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Speaking for myself only, I'll have a much keener interest in Paizo if they ever put together a new RPG, from scratch, without any of the OGL baggage, and with all of the sublime presentation of their current output. That would be very interesting indeed.

I wouldn't mind if it was still licensed under an open gaming license, but I wouldn't want them to feel "shackled" to the D&D 3E design concepts and elements.

I wonder if Bioware plans to offer a Mass Effect RPG license at some point...

 

[wedgeski]

I wonder if Bioware plans to offer a Mass Effect RPG license at some point...

Speaking as someone who is drinking in every single pixel of that game just at the moment (25 hours and counting...), I'd be right there in line for that. It's a wonderfully-realised universe, and the RPG elements are probably the best I've ever seen on a CPU.

 

[ggroy]

Jason Buhlman over on Paizo's board, unfortunately don't remember the thread, stated that if they do another RPG (not Pathfinder) they wouldn't follow the OGL design.

Was this with respect to a fantasy or a non-fantasy rpg?

I wouldn't be surprised if after a few years of a dozen or two released hardcover splatbooks for Pathfinder, the ruleset becomes very unwieldy and messy. By that time, the hardcover splatbook product line will probably be beyond its point of diminishing returns anyways. This year, there's already four new hardcover Pathfinder splatbooks scheduled for release in 2010. They haven't officially mentioned anything about 2011 so far, but I wouldn't be surprised if they released another Bestiary, another "Advanced Player's Guide", and another Golarion setting book at minimum during 2011.

Perhaps right now they're already working on a new ruleset for a hypothetical second edition of Pathfinder, free from the structure of the straitjacket of the 3.5E/OGL mechanics. If I had to guess for a starting point, it will probably still have most of the traditional D&D fantasy tropes such as:

- rolling a d20 to attack, and rolling for damage after a hit
- classes: fighter, cleric, wizard, rogue, etc ...
- races: elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, humans, etc ...
- monsters: kobolds, goblins, orcs, etc ...
- Vancian magic

Too much deviation away from traditional D&D fantasy tropes may possibly drive away too many of their existing customers, for a hypothetical 2E Pathfinder rpg.

He stated there were a lot of ideas they couldn't go with for Pathfinder because it would have change the game too much and they wanted to keep their 3.5 followers.

That was probably "marketing" or "PR" speak for the most part by Buhlman and others at Paizo.

At that time (ie. 2007-2008), 3.5/OGL was probably the safest option to pursue. If they had made a completely different ruleset for Pathfinder at the time, most likely it would have ended up as another "fantasy heartbreaker". 3.5 followers may not have latched onto it.

I'm hoping they eventually create another system if only to see what kind of ideas they had brewing in their minds.

Same here.

 

[Turtlejay]

Speaking for myself only, I'll have a much keener interest in Paizo if they ever put together a new RPG, from scratch, without any of the OGL baggage, and with all of the sublime presentation of their current output. That would be very interesting indeed.

The most well said thing I've read all day. You pinpoint my feelings exactly. Even your word choice is excellent. Bravo.

Jay