Pathfinder 1E Paizo Annoucement!

[haakon1]

I like this. Go Paizo.

I think the divide between 3.5/Pathfinder and 4.0/WOTC gamers will be an interesting one.

At first, 4.0 will be for the ubergamers, who play every weekend. Then after a year or two, they will get bored of this simpler system after they've found every loophole and maxed every min. If WOTC is lucky, they will also attract some "kids" -- new gamers who are trying the offline version of WoW/simpler version of D&D that 4.0 aims to be. The trick is, WOTC will want to add rules bloat ("The Complete Book of Headgear-related Feats", "Return of the Gnome") to keep the ubergamers, but this will intimidate the newbs. Looking at sales figures, WOTC will go with gumming up the works, as they always do, because they are a rules-sales company dominated by ubergamer types.

Meanwhile, occassional gamers such as myself, who play one a month or a few times a year but buy numbers of books unrelated to frequency of play, will be sticking with 3.5 so they don't have to learn new stuff and start new campaigns. Paizo's vig is primarily about selling adventures and setting materials, not rules, so there's no incentive to break the rules/destroy the feel with complexity/gamism.

I suspect there's enough money out there to support both companies, but that as long as Paizo stays lean and mean, it will do better.

I also expect a lawsuit . . .

 

[Novem5er]

I was reading the paizo alpha stuff, it's more like a 3.99 version.
I wonder what the anti-4e players with their tons of 3.5 material will think of that...

How much can they tweak 3.5 until it's just like 4E?

This is what I was saying earlier. It's not that they are sticking with 3.5, otherwise they wouldn't be holding a year-long public alpha test, would they?

3..5 is done. Just print the SRD and add a few minor house rules to call it you own.

Looking at the Pathfinder alpha PDF and then reading about the year-long open alpha, it seems to me that Paizo is attempting to "re-do" Fourth Edition. They recognize a need to improve 3.5, but so far haven't been happy with the way 4e has made those changes. Alternately, it could be said that Paizo didn't get access to the full 4e rules quick enough to meet their publishing schedule, thus had no choice.

But then why the year-long open alpha? They won't be publishing new material for the Pathfinder system until mid/late '09.

No, it seems like Paizo wants to make their own edition and advertise it as being backwards compatible to all the old 3.5 stuff sitting on everyone's shelves. Not a bad plan, perhaps.

In short:

You'll either have a choice of 4e or 4p.

 

[Wolfspider]

Not to mention the fact the undead just won't stand a chance. Do damage to them and heal your party at the same time? Gee, that's a good option.

Good enough for 4e!

Barbarians get... wait what? No barbarians? So, the cleric gets like 6x more healing, and the barbarians get nothing? Same for ranger, druid, monk, bard...

You do realize that the Pathfinder game is incomplete and that this document is just the first of many revisions...right? The other classes will be detailed later. This is a work in progress.[/QUOTE]

 

[Wolfspider]

I was reading the paizo alpha stuff, it's more like a 3.99 version.
I wonder what the anti-4e players with their tons of 3.5 material will think of that...

How much can they tweak 3.5 until it's just like 4E?

I hope that WOTC hounds are looking Paizo closely.

EDIT: OMG the elf in the races chapter is so anime!

Amusing.

 

[Wolfspider]

If I was a 3.5 supporter I would ask:
PLEASE PAIZO, KEEP IT 3.5!!! IF I WANTED A REPLACEMENT FOR 3.5 RULES I'D GO 4E.

They are not only betraying 4E but 3.5 too!!

Even more amusing.

 

[Zinegata]

I think Paizo just reduced 4E's initial sales by at least a quarter. Possibly as much as by half.

Backwards compatability is a pretty major issue for most ongoing campaigns. If an alternative appears that improves the current system but makes it possible to retain existing characters with minimal busywork, then it's easy to forsee people putting off buying 4E.

Very gutsy move, and I think it'll pay off. The fact that they're now moving to own the entire system, rather than just adding supplements to the old 3.X engine, really gives Paizo a shot at long-term success.

 

[Remathilis]

Does anyone have a mirror to the Pathfinder Alpha rules? Paizo's site is spinning its wheels and I can't get to the download page... :\

 

[DaveMage]

As long as the mantra of backwards compatibility is maintained, I'm so on board with this.

However, if that mantra is dumped, then ainatan will be correct.

I do not want a new version of D&D that greatly invalidates easily using my 3.5 collection. (If I didn't care about this, then I would probably go 4E.)

 

[Emirikol]

Good for them. With the us economy in the turd trap, the f-4-e movement holds solid ground.

Go Paizo!

jh

 

[Spatula]

Second, I wonder how a company can be upset that WotC is "abandoning" a ruleset,

They're upset?

but think they can sell us a "houseruled" version 18 months from now. Why buy it? We already have the rules. How can this be smart?

The 3e books are going out of print. If Pazio is going to keep publishing 3e material, they need to put a rulebook on shelves, because WotC sure isn't going to do it for them.

All the "Pazio will rue this day!" talk is pretty silly. There's going to be a market for 3e stuff at least for a little while after 4e comes out. If the 3e market eventually dries up once 4e gets around to giving us what were core features in previous editions, Pazio can always move to 4e along with the bulk of their customers. Or they can continue to serve the 3e grognard niche market, ala the pseudo-OD&D/AD&D RPGs that are out there.