Paizo Ends Pathfinder Adventure Path Softcovers, Switching to Quarterly Model

Paizo is ending its line of monthly Pathfinder Adventure Paths, with a new quarterly hardcover replacing the long-running product. Paizo announced the change yesterday on its blog, with the shift beginning next year. The new hardcover Adventure Paths will be a minimum of 256 pages and will have a retail price of $79.99, which is cheaper than the cost of purchasing four softcover adventure paths. Paizo also stated that they'll release one Adventure Path starting at Level 1, another ending at Level 20, with the remaining two falling somewhere in between. Each Adventure Path will cover 9-10 levels of play.

The first two Adventure Paths announced for this format are Hellbreakers and Hell's Destiny, which both cover the upcoming war between Andoran and Cheliax.

The Pathfinder Adventure Paths series started as an evolution of Paizo's monthly Pathfinder magazine series. To date, Paizo has released 222 Pathfinder Adventure Paths. Early Pathfinder Adventure Paths were for campaigns that lasted six issues and typically encompassed Level 1-Level 20 play. However, more recently, the Adventure Path structure has shortened and grown more flexible, with shorter length campaigns with more variable levels of play.

 

[doctorhook]

Sad to see the end of an era, little products are fun impulse purchases. But overall this change makes sense, since I’m not sure how many people were using only pieces of the path vs the whole thing anyway.

 

[Nilbog]

It's a massive positive for me ( but not my wallet!) reading the blogs and message boards it looks likely it will lead to more cohesive adventures and narrative flow being a lot better and less jarring, as a lot of the APs had noticeable dips and went off in unexpected directions between volumes.

If it does produce an uptick in quality I'll definitely be buying more (I currently rarely buy APs, but have most of their standalone adventures and ap's that have already been condensed) and hey don't hardbacks just look way cooler on your shelf?

 

[Reynard]

I would think they'd mention that if that change was happening, since it would undoubtably piss off a lot of people. The thing with the free PDF being included with a subscription is it also gives you a discount on the Foundry VTT module and with so many people playing on Foundry, there would definitely be backlash over that.

I guess we'll see when they release finalized plans for their new webstore.

Not just Foundry. Fantasy Grounds offers a discount on their VTT implementation equal to the cost of the PDF for Paizo stuff.

Paizo wants you playing. I really wish I had not bounced off PF2.

 

[Parmandur]

They're $30 monthly, so $80 every 3 months saves you $10 off the existing price, saves you 2 shipping charges (~$15 for me), and you get a hardcover instead of a softcover. IMO that's a huge upgrade all around and something I asked for when they had a survey not too long ago asking for feedback.

I'm more comparing it to what else is on the market...

Even ignoring WotC economies of scale, Brotherwise Games is bringing out a large and lushly illustrated adventure book for the Stormlight RPG in October, for $49.99...

Prices do have to go up eventually, inflation is inevitable...but jumping straight to "60% more expensive than the industry standard when nobody else has gone up first" is...kind of shocking?

 

[Reynard]

I'm more comparing it to what else is on the market...

Even ignoring WotC economies of scale, Brotherwise Games is bringing out a large and lushly illustrated adventure book for the Stormlight RPG in October, for $49.99...

Prices do have to go up eventually, inflation is inevitable...but jumping straight to "60% more expensive than the industry standard when nobody else has gone up first" is...kind of shocking?

That book was paid for by a MASSIVE kickstarter. You really can't consider its cost as typical for the industry.

 

[Zaukrie]

Not just Foundry. Fantasy Grounds offers a discount on their VTT implementation equal to the cost of the PDF for Paizo stuff.

Paizo wants you playing. I really wish I had not bounced off PF2.

Same

 

[Parmandur]

That book was paid for by a MASSIVE kickstarter. You really can't consider its cost as typical for the industry.

I mean, I got through the Kickstarter, but the MSRP in the FLGS is $49.99, $59.99 each for the setting and rulebook. It’s a big jump up in price on the marketplace.

 

[Reynard]

I mean, I got through the Kickstarter, but the MSRP in the FLGS is $49.99, $59.99 each for the setting and rulebook. It’s a big jump up in price on the marketplace.

Maybe I was not clear: because of the massive amount of money that they raised, they are able to sell these books for lower than the market standard because they already know their costs have been recouped.

 

[Parmandur]

Maybe I was not clear: because of the massive amount of money that they raised, they are able to sell these books for lower than the market standard because they already know their costs have been recouped.

But, thst is the market standard...? D&D books are $50 a pop, or less (as high Eberron). Other companies are still hitting that number.

 

[Zaukrie]

I'm guessing they are beating the rush to raise prices......On a per hour basis, TTRPGs are still a bargain, IMO. But ya, I did blink hard at that price.