Pathfinder 1E Is PAIZO becoming the next Wizards?

[DaveMage]

I'm the opposite. If Paizo were to leave the D&D-based system, I would not be interested.

I imagine that those who like to play different systems would love to see Paizo tackle a new RPG, but folks who may be like me, who really only like D&D-style fantasy RPGs, might be significantly less interested.

I've tried other fantasy RPGs, but they've never held a candle to D&D, IMO. Of course, thanks to the OGL, D&D is available to any publisher (and the public)....forever.

 

[Hussar]

Davemage - just as a niggling point, you might want to change all of your "D&D"s to "3e D&D". It could be taken the wrong way.

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

why should he change it. Not to start a war here but I think he means any pre 4e style D&D game not just 3e. Not picking on 4e but mechanic* wise it was a much larger brake from anything that came before then any other version

As I said not slamming 4e but I totally see where he is coming from.

*casting system, classes, how things inter act, how the races work and so on.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Davemage - just as a niggling point, you might want to change all of your "D&D"s to "3e D&D". It could be taken the wrong way.

Assuming he "meant" 3E. Lotta D&D editions out there.

 

[Hussar]

Claiming that 4e is not D&D is how edition war threads start. It's hot buttoning and does not add anything to the conversation.

If that's the goal, then fine, but, I was just trying to keep things from devolving too much.

 

[DaveMage]

Davemage - just as a niggling point, you might want to change all of your "D&D"s to "3e D&D". It could be taken the wrong way.

Oh, I don't want it to be taken the wrong way.

By "D&D" I mean, all versions of D&D except 4E.

(For *me*, of course.)

And to be clear - 4E *is* Dungeons and Dragons - it says so on the cover. But to me it might as well be an entirely different fantasy RPG.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

Hmm, let´s try that:

"4e is D&D in cover only."

Nah, doesn´t have the same ring. I think we should stay with the old one.

 

[Jhaelen]

By "D&D" I mean, all versions of D&D except 4E.

Quite odd. I don't think 4e is any more different from (O)D&D than 3e. 3e already was a completely different game, imho.

Anyway, I'm not sure if Paizo is a company I'd trust to develop a good rpg system. I believe their real strength lies in creating good adventures and settings, not game mechanics.

 

[bouncyhead]

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

I think this is spot-on. Their new core customer is, since PFRPG, a D&Der who didn't like 4E. In fact, my guess is that the reason they hit a home run (in their terms) with PFRPG is they offered a conservative edition change to a bunch of people who had been eagerly awaiting the 'real' edition change but were disappointed with the result. People who were primed for a 'newness' in D&D but just not that newness.

But that new core come with baggage. Steering that crowd through their own edition change is going to require some very deft helmsmanship. These people have demonstrated that they are prepared to shun, or walk away from edition change. In fact I would guess a significant proportion are only with Paizo because they actively disapprove of edition change.

They've demonstrated through the PFRPG dev process that they can use playtest to keep people with them, but PFRPG2 would be a whole new order of things.

Edit: Reading that back it sounds like I might be Paizo bashing. I should be clear: I am one of this crowd of Pathfinderers and much of my sloppy guesswork above stems from a quick tour around my own ill-formed feelings on the subject.

 

[Wicht]

These people have demonstrated that they are prepared to shun, or walk away from edition change.

I don't think that's quite right.

Pathfinder is an edition change. Or at least an edition update. Therefore all of us who switched are prepared to accept changes. Many of us though, are not agreeable to certain changes. 4e was the first official edition I did not buy. I have made every edition change before that so I'm not averse to change itself. Furthermore, I know from word of mouth that there are those who are adopting Pathfinder who did buy into 4e but did not like it well enough to stick with it. Therefore that group is also not averse to edition change per se.