Paizo Paizo PDF rulebook price increases?

[Voadam]

Its been a while for me but I just went onto Paizo to pick up some later alien archive PDFs for Starfinder and the price on them has doubled from $10 to $20. I see this happened for the PF2e rulebooks going from $15 to $20 and for the 1e PF rule books all going from $10 to $20 as well.

When did this happen?

It was discouraging enough I didn't buy the alien archive PDFs I had planned to. I will just stick to the free online SRD/Nepthys archive stuff for now and the two volumes of the archives I have.

I thought the free SRD and cheap rules PDFs were a great combo, I bought a lot of PF1e big hardcover rulebooks as PDFs from Paizo.

I am running 5e now as my system, though I am doing a conversion of Iron Gods in 5e. I was mostly looking for some additional good flavor and inspiration stuff from Paizo stuff at this point as it is no longer the rules set I am running things in.

 

[Staffan]

Its been a while for me but I just went onto Paizo to pick up some later alien archive PDFs for Starfinder and the price on them has doubled from $10 to $20. I see this happened for the PF2e rulebooks going from $15 to $20 and for the 1e PF rule books all going from $10 to $20 as well.

When did this happen?

Pathfinder 2 rule books started at $15, and both they and Starfinder rule books went up to $20 on November 1st.

 

[Voadam]

Pathfinder 2 rule books started at $15, and both they and Starfinder rule books went up to $20 on November 1st.

Thanks.

Oh well.

 

[grankless]

It's hard to pay people when your primary seller is way cheaper than it should be given general book prices. Note that Staffan's link goes to a general restructuring of prices - several things got a little more expensive, yeah, but a lot got way cheaper - 30 bucks slashed off the bestiary abttle cards, for example.

But also that Starfinder rulebooks were ever 10 bucks is insane. I was just straight shocked to discover that.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

Since I've become an unashamed fanboy of Savage Worlds Pathfinder, I was thinking about picking up the Iron Gods AP for conversion. But Holy Macaroni those old Paizo PDFs are expensive! I can get a current popular system core book from DriveThru for the same price as one part of the old Paizo AP. So no conversion for me.

 

[Voadam]

Since I've become an unashamed fanboy of Savage Worlds Pathfinder, I was thinking about picking up the Iron Gods AP for conversion. But Holy Macaroni those old Paizo PDFs are expensive! I can get a current popular system core book from DriveThru for the same price as one part of the old Paizo AP. So no conversion for me.

Watch for Humble Bundle, Paizo sometimes do deals there (though now usually for Starfinder and PF2e) and I got all the Iron Gods PDFs plus a ton of core Pathfinder stuff (a lot of which I had already gotten from Paizo) and the Fantasy Grounds counterparts there in one of their Paizo Fantasy Grounds dual bundles for something like $25.

 

[Voadam]

It's hard to pay people when your primary seller is way cheaper than it should be given general book prices.

It worked for them for years and years since Pathfinder came out. I know I bought a lot of Pathfinder and Starfinder PDFs I would not have bought at higher prices.

They seemed to have a couple strategies going on at once. The core rule books content was out for free for use and the PDFs were cheap. This enticed a number of people to use the system and to buy convenient PDFs. Hardcovers in print were expensive but could be useful at the table, so there was a bigger payoff.

Adventure and setting PDFs were expensive, in part to drive people to buy the physical product. This was stuff that could not be replicated in large part under the OGL and legally just posted for free by fans with their own copy.

Paizo also made the expensive adventure/setting PDFs basically free bonuses if you signed up for their print subscription, which was a big consistent money maker for them, particularly with regular adventure path stuff coming out each month.

The adventure path money maker was supported by people having free and cheap access to electronic sets of rule and character and monster expansion materials.

It worked for me, I have a number of Pathfinder adventure paths that I got by subscription until I basically decided to stop buying new print stuff for myself.

Note that Staffan's link goes to a general restructuring of prices - several things got a little more expensive, yeah, but a lot got way cheaper - 30 bucks slashed off the bestiary abttle cards, for example.

But also that Starfinder rulebooks were ever 10 bucks is insane. I was just straight shocked to discover that.

Starfinder did a similar pattern to Pathfinder. Free and cheap rules material online, expensive hardcovers for rules and expensive electronic adventure stuff to drive towards a print subscription.

Now they still have the free srd material but the incentives to pick up a PDF of the big rulebooks is cut down by doubling the price.

 

[billd91]

It's hard to pay people when your primary seller is way cheaper than it should be given general book prices. Note that Staffan's link goes to a general restructuring of prices - several things got a little more expensive, yeah, but a lot got way cheaper - 30 bucks slashed off the bestiary abttle cards, for example.

But also that Starfinder rulebooks were ever 10 bucks is insane. I was just straight shocked to discover that.

It was the same with the PF1 core books as well. It was part of their sales strategy. Not only would it help encourage people to get invested in the game and buy the APs, but it was also to deal with PDF piracy - make them cheap enough that it's easy to do the right thing and buy them rather than seek them out for free.

 

[Morrus]

$20 is a very reasonable price for a 600 page rule book.

 

[Retreater]

Costs are going up across the board.
Eggs have tripled since the previous time I went to the grocery.

 

[Voadam]

$20 is a very reasonable price for a 600 page rule book.

Sure.

Its just not one I am willing to pay right now for what they are offering while I was willing to pay $10 each for the next two of their 160 page(?) alien archives PDFs. Alien Archive 2 which I previously bought is 160 pages, I can't seem to find a page listing for 3 or 4.

Before they were a really great deal which I used to refer people to. That evaluation has changed with the doubling of the PDF prices.

 

[Morrus]

Sure.

Its just not one I am willing to pay right now for what they are offering while I was willing to pay $10 each for the next two of their 160 page(?) alien archives PDFs. Alien Archive 2 which I previously bought is 160 pages, I can't seem to find a page listing for 3 or 4.

Before they were a really great deal which I used to refer people to. That evaluation has changed with the doubling of the PDF prices.

 

[JThursby]

it was also to deal with PDF piracy - make them cheap enough that it's easy to do the right thing and buy them rather than seek them out for free.

Given the existence of things like AoN, there is basically no reason to pirate any of the Pathfinder rules.

Its just not one I am willing to pay right now for what they are offering while I was willing to pay $10 each for the next two of their 160 page(?) alien archives PDFs.

If you don't want to pay, just use AoN for Starfinder. They have all the Starfinder rules text from every release. Only thing they don't have is encounter and story text from the APs. The monsters even have their official illustrations. AoN is an official partner of Pazio, you have ways of using the rules even if you can't/won't pay.

 

[Voadam]

If you don't want to pay, just use AoN for Starfinder. They have all the Starfinder rules text from every release. Only thing they don't have is encounter and story text from the APs. The monsters even have their official illustrations. AoN is an official partner of Pazio, you have ways of using the rules even if you can't/won't pay.

That is what I have been doing.

Not quite the format I always want, but it is extremely useful and appreciated.

 

[dmccoy1693]

It's hard to pay people when your primary seller is way cheaper than it should be given general book prices.

It also made life damn near impossible for Pathfinder compatible publishers. We had to do full color art, similar length, and lower prices just to have 1/10 or 1/100 paizo's sales. Raising pdf prices to $20 is just a tiny bit of breathing room and hopes of making a profit.

 

[BigZebra]

Prices for RPG books are quite reasonable I find. $20? Given how many hours of play it supports it's a steal. If nothing else buy it to support the company. It's not like Paizo employees (or any other employees of an RPG company) are rolling in dough.
Paizo and WotC raising prices a bit might give room for other companies to live in.
In my country - Denmark - printed RPG books are quite expensive - if I am to buy a WotC hardback in my FLGS it's DKK 429 which is $61 - but I also want to support the FLGS.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

I have no problem paying 20-40 bucks for a good "full-length" book such as core, bestiaries etc in PDF format.

Paying 120-150 for a 10 year old AP and support book/s - yeah, I have problems with that. If I actually play it I will definitely have a low cost per hour of fun, but it will still be hard to fit in my rpg budget. And as in my earlier post, buying the AP for possible conversion to another system is just not doable to me.

 

[Retreater]

Paying 120-150 for a 10 year old AP and support book/s - yeah, I have problems with that. If I actually play it I will definitely have a low cost per hour of fun, but it will still be hard to fit in my rpg budget

My suggestions... Buy it once you're sure you're going to use it. Then buy it one or two books at a time to spread out the cost. Or perhaps check secondary markets/used books.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

My suggestions... Buy it once you're sure you're going to use it. Then buy it one or two books at a time to spread out the cost. Or perhaps check secondary markets/used books.

All good advice. But I specifically wanted to get the AP for evaluation, to see if it was worth trying to convert it to Savage Pathfinder, not to play with the original system. For lets say around 10 bucks a book I would have bought the AP and support books, and it could have been worth it even with no conversion, just for the joy and inspiration of reading new material.

I imagine the hardcore PF1e players have the APs they want by now, while a cheaper prize on the PF1e books could have sold pretty good to gamers like me, that never played Pathfinder but have the juices flowing for Savage Pathfinder.

But it is what it is.

 

[mikeawmids1]

Anything can be converted to Savage Worlds with enough time and effort, but as someone who has read Iron Gods in its entirety, it would be exceptionally well suited to conversion. I think it's the only AP Paizo have released where you can chop up robots with a magical chainsaw.