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.

 

[TheSword]

Auto fo

I don't think I ever heard of Shattered City.

I thought I had all the Hardback AP groups, including one mini-AP (Crown of the Kobold King hardback). (ah yes, can't forget abomination vaults hardcover either, haven't gotten gatekeepers though).

I even have Shackled City (the 3.X conglomeration of Dungeon Adventures that was published in Hardback, wish they had done the same with the other two [ex: Age of Worms] as they did with that one).

I even have the Starfinder AP Hardback that they collected together and sort of expanded.

Not sure how I missed Shattered City. I did a google search and can't even find it

Auto correct… It’s Shackled City

Though it could probably be renamed Shattered City. I was pretty exhausted after running so many part. Like many Paizo APs it dragged towards the end and the combats become a slog.

 

[Anthro78]

The Shackled City Adventure Path - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The proto-AP, created while they were creating 3.x materials as Dungeon. It was a fun adventure path. Set in a city in the caldera of a "dormant" volcano.

 

[carmachu]

No real surprise. Softcover monthly wasnt worth the price they were charging( to me, obviously). And frankly I’m not sure the $80 price tag is worth it either vs $50 for 5th edition hardcover campaigns

 

[payn]

No real surprise. Softcover monthly wasnt worth the price they were charging( to me, obviously). And frankly I’m not sure the $80 price tag is worth it either vs $50 for 5th edition hardcover campaigns

Like most things in life, you get what you pay for.

 

[carmachu]

Like most things in life, you get what you pay for.

Not here unfortunately. Again for my tastes.

 

[Belen]

I am pretty sure the monthlies are $30 currently, so you are saving $10.

They used to be 19.99. This is just the same as the old price.

$80 for a single HC is crazy town. Of course, $30 for a softcover was also to high.

 

[Staffan]

They used to be 19.99. This is just the same as the old price.

$80 for a single HC is crazy town. Of course, $30 for a softcover was also to high.

They haven't been $20 for a very long time. I'm not sure when they changed it, but I did find a thread from 2015 where someone was complaining about a price increase to $30, and they were told it was a special price increase just for #100 (which was also bigger) and after that it would go back to the regular $25 – so it's been more than 10 years. I think they increased it to $30 in 2023 and that there was an intermediate increase to $27 or $28 somewhere in between.

 

[Belen]

They haven't been $20 for a very long time. I'm not sure when they changed it, but I did find a thread from 2015 where someone was complaining about a price increase to $30, and they were told it was a special price increase just for #100 (which was also bigger) and after that it would go back to the regular $25 – so it's been more than 10 years. I think they increased it to $30 in 2023 and that there was an intermediate increase to $27 or $28 somewhere in between.

If other people are willing to pay, then they can go for it. Paizo lost me with the continued need to sub to get the PDF. For 80, that PDF better be free.

In general, $80 dollar 256 page books will price me out of the hobby. Most of the material I buy barely gets touched as is.

 

[Staffan]

In general, $80 dollar 256 page books will price me out of the hobby. Most of the material I buy barely gets touched as is.

And that's perfectly fair. I was just pointing out that the prices have been going up gradually for quite a while now, and that it's unfair to compare the cost to what it was over a decade ago.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

For "recreational" books, the increase in price of Pathfinder APs is wildly outside the norm. (Recreational as opposed to college books). Books have actually decreased in price since 1997 by 1.38%.

Recreational books price inflation, 1997→2025

This calculator uses the official Consumer Price Index for Recreational books from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Recreational books costing $20 in 1997 would cost $19.72 in 2025.

www.in2013dollars.com