Pathfinder 2E Paizo Officially Supporting Foundry, Free Content Ending

[payn]

It was a nightmare on Roll20 (because it didn't have access to the NPC and monster stat blocks) - if you recall I put Abomination Vaults on there, and probably put in 80ish hours to get the first two books put in.
On Foundry, it wouldn't be as bad, because at least you have access to the monster stats from the compendia. I do think it's more time intensive to create tokens and maps on Foundry than Roll20, but at least you've got stat blocks.
But if it came down to that point, I would just write my own adventures.
Pathfinder is a different beast from Traveller. You have a lot more combat, with more detailed stat blocks, unique magic items that have to be entered, etc.

Gotcha, sounds about right.

How available and whats the timing like for the old free modules? I would guess folks might like this announcement because timing might be better even though it now has a cost.

 

[Retreater]

Gotcha, sounds about right.

How available and whats the timing like for the old free modules? I would guess folks might like this announcement because timing might be better even though it now has a cost.

It seems like every standalone adventure, AP, PFS adventure was available, and seemed like a quick turnaround too. However, the guy who was producing the content is retiring.
So this will be the only game in town on Foundry, it would seem.
If anything, I would assume the timing will be worse going through Paizo. For one thing, we'll be starting over from scratch with no content. (It's not like they're starting with their back catalog. It's one current thing at a time.) I'm sure there will be stuff they don't even touch - standalones and PFS adventures that don't make bank, for example.

 

[kenada]

You won’t be starting over from scratch because the maintainer of the importer will be keeping it working with new versions of Foundry and the PF2 community content. He just won’t be adding new content to it. You’ll have to pay for that going forward.

 

[Staffan]

Speaking of which, what sort of discount are we getting? I just bought Bestiary 2 , is it going to be $59.99 (discounted with the $15 I spent on the PDF)?

On Roll20, Paizo products (at least adventures and rulebooks) are usually sold for the same price as the physical product, and if you've bought the PDF you get a discount equal to the PDF's price. If you don't already have the PDF, you get a complementary one (so either way, you end up paying full MSRP for PDF + VTT implementation). It seems likely that the pricing will be similar on Foundry.

Some might think that paying $45 for having e.g. a Bestiary implemented on the VTT is a lot, when having an AP part costs $7. But that's because the rulebook PDFs are heavily discounted: $15 for a $60 book, while an AP part is $18 for a $25 book.

 

[Morrus]

As a side note, as somebody who has gotten a glimpse into the costs of producing VTT content, it's eye-wateringly expensive. Much more so than producing the original books in the first place. When you buy the VTT version of something, you're not buying the same product twice, you're paying for the incredible amount of hard work it takes to convert that.

 

[Staffan]

As a side note, as somebody who has gotten a glimpse into the costs of producing VTT content, it's eye-wateringly expensive. Much more so than producing the original books in the first place. When you buy the VTT version of something, you're not buying the same product twice, you're paying for the incredible amount of hard work it takes to convert that.

Yeah, I've expanded a bit on the Roll20 content in The Show Must Go On and Legacy of the Lost God – nothing fancy, just added an encounter map where one was missing, built some NPCs/monsters, and some side quest stuff, and it was a lot of work even when using prefab content. I can't imagine doing a whole module.

It would probably be more work in Foundry – I haven't dug too deep into it, but it seems to have a lot more functions than Roll20 (such as one-way walls, enabling you to have someone on a higher position see those in a lower without being seen back). That's cool, but probably also takes more work to set up.

 

[Retreater]

It would probably be more work in Foundry – I haven't dug too deep into it, but it seems to have a lot more functions than Roll20 (such as one-way walls, enabling you to have someone on a higher position see those in a lower without being seen back). That's cool, but probably also takes more work to set up.

Not dismissing the work it takes to set up modules on Foundry and Roll20 (because I've put in that work before), but these walls on Foundry are pretty easy. You just click on the wall tool, select that you want a one way wall, and draw it on the dynamic lighting layer. It's the same process to draw doors, windows, terrain walls (blocks movement and sight, but allows you to see what they are - like boulders/columns) or regular walls. Just click and drag where you want the wall.
I'm pretty proud of the stuff I put on VTTs. My players sometimes comment that the maps on purchased modules aren't as good as what I've done - Rime of the Frost Maiden on Roll20 had some glaring inaccuracies, for example (wrong map scale, unaligned grids).

 

[Myrdin Potter]

This is Fantasy Grounds, but click and add walls. And doors. And windows. Etc. Takes hours and hours for any decent sized adventure with a reasonable amount of maps. If a module with only one letter sized map then 30 minutes to an hour depending on all the features.

You also need player maps, so one with a DM key and one without.

it is not hard but it can be time consuming.

And that is just kind of sight. Lighting is another pass through the map.

 

[Justice and Rule]

Wow, I step away for a few months and a bunch of things happen.

I get both sides, but I think it's positive for a number of reasons.

Obviously it sucks to lose a very nice, very useful piece of free software. Like, I don't use APs, but I would likely compare it to something like OggDude's FFG Star Wars character creator: given no other alternative, having that character generator was fantastic for simple organizational stuff in a game I love. So if that were to suddenly disappear from the web, it'd be frustrating as all hell, since I'd have to manually do all the work and organization on my own.

(Off-topic: God, I'd pay so much money for FFG SW software support. I hope Edge Studios manages to pull off the impossible and works something out with Disney/LucasFilm.)

On the other hand, I think there are a number of positives here. While it does cost money, I do remember one of your (@Retreater ) critiques of playing Foundry was relying on fans to keep up modules and the possibility of having something no longer updated. It's something I myself said was unlikely in the case of rules, but for smaller modules was more of a possibility, and here we were confronted with it. But Paizo taking up the content themselves means it's much more likely to keep support going than an unpaid fan developer.

Along with that, the official developer getting into the game arguably helps with regard to exclusive official content. PDF import can do a lot, but it won't put in sounds and music, which it looks like Paizo is going to do, which is cool since Foundry has a bunch of unique things it does for sounds. Similarly, I'm not sure how much the PDF transfer can get for lighting, particularly unique lighting effects to create ambience.

More than that, I really hope this means more official support. It would be nice to see them help out on the rules side, maybe helping out with adding effects and such to spells and other things. The PF2 rules are already among the best-implemented and supported out there, but it's nice to see the company going to where it's fans are and putting real support out there. And with Paizo doing this, hopefully it'll inspire more companies to move in? Foundry is getting bigger and bigger and I think this is just great news for the VTT space to have something that is a bit more complex for the hobbyist compared to Roll20 (as well as not needing a subscription).

 

[payn]

With the prevalence of VTT now one positive of this is that its likely some combination of these products may be offered in the future at a reduced price for the combo. Kind of like the APs have with physical and PDF.