Paizo To Make Kingmaker Bestiary... For D&D 5E!

Kingmaker's 10th anniversary is approaching. Paizo has announced on their blog that, along with a Pathfinder 2E hardcover Kingmaker compilation, they will be creating a hardcover Kingmaker Bestiary for D&D 5E.

The blog announcement says "[FONT=&amp]Finally, we'll add a hardcover Kingmaker Bestiary for 5E, developed in conjunction with industry leaders in third-party 5E publishing, allowing players of the current edition of the world's oldest RPG the chance to experience the rich and detailed storylines that have made the Kingmaker Adventure Path a fan favorite for a decade."[/FONT]

It is being produced "with industry leaders in third-party 5E publishing" and refers to "add-ons and unlocks" which "will be revealed as the campaign progresses". They're partnering with crowdfunding site Game On Tabletop.

They'll be revealing the details on Tuesday May 7th at noon Pacific time over at KingmakerCampaign.com.

Also in line is a Companion Guide for the PF2 Kingmaker campaign.

 

[Morrus]

I’m pretty sure Morrus agrees. He’s been dismissing my Paizo 5e pivot proposals for a while now

I am most certainly surprised!

 

[Aldarc]

I figured Pathfinder 2nd edition was a bad idea with D&D resurgent...

Already doomsaying PF2 before it has been released?

 

[EthanSental]

Paizo is around to make money from all channels. I enjoyed their APs and I would pick it 5eversions of it.

 

[Kramodlog]

Things aren't looking good for PF 2e. The pivot is a sign.

If Paizo starts making 5e AP and supplements, it'll make 5e suddenly interesting.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

Well this is a bold strategy. I can see that they kept a safe distance by hiring an outside company to be the experts of 5e material. And by providing just a bestiary rather than a full conversion, 5e fans would still need to purchase the main product which exposes them to PF2 system. Not a bad strategy. However...

What happens if the 5e supplement outsells the PF2 product?

One of the biggest appeals of 5e for new gamers is the relatively small library of rule books and supplements required to stay current with the system. A book of new monsters will appeal only to 5e DMs who are hungry for more usable materials to run games. They may see value in running the campaign, but without further conversions on specialized rules used in Kingmaker, its still a hard sell.

But lets say they buy it, run it, even convert to PF2 because they like what they tasted in there. How many happy 5e players are going to jump ship because the new system appeals to their DM? Why leave the system they are already comfortable with and spent money for when the DM can just use the 5e supplement and adapt instead? It could happen, and most likely will in more than a few cases.

So Paizo makes a few more dollars on a 5e product. Obviously this is not their goal with this strategy. Otherwise they would have gone whole hog and done a full conversion and appeal to the 5e market. But if what I described happens on a larger scale and shows them they have a better oppurtunity to sell for 5e rather than their own product...

I really had hoped PF2 would stand out on its own. Maybe the gamble will pay off. We shall see.

 

[darjr]

I am VERY interested in the bestiary. The campaign always seemed to mechanistic for me. I hope there is a tier for just the bestiary.

 

[Azzy]

Hopefully, Paizo does more of these 5e bestiaries/conversions. I'd be very tempted to run some of their APs in 5e (without having to do the conversions myself).

 

[kenmarable]

I think it'll help their market visibility, and if the 5e players like the content of what Paizo produces they might even start investing in Pathfinder 2.0, and Paizo could expand their sales that way.

I believe all along Paizo has tried to position themselves as the sort of Advanced D&D to D&D in terms of complexity (not quality or anything like that, it's not a jab at D&D). They know their RPG is more complex than 5e (and 4e before that) and lean into that as a selling feature for those who prefer a more complex RPG experience.

With 5e massively growing the number of gamers, some of them will eventually want games that are more involved with far more knobs and buttons for tweaking, and Paizo is smart to position themselves as that alternative. Their biggest problem, however, has probably been that they haven't had a lot of connection to the 5e community. They mostly (in my opinion) have relied on the massive momentum of gamers who loved 3.x but hated 4e to keep themselves going. With the crossover book as well as the new streaming game with Oblivion Oath, they can hopefully make some connections to the newer 5e fans.

 

[Jer]

What happens if the 5e supplement outsells the PF2 product?

If it's good, it's pretty much guaranteed to outsell the PF2 product. Because there are a lot more 5e players than PF players to start with, and not all of them will transition to PF2.

I admit I'm surprised - this is Paizo signalling that they're willing to give up on having their own game line and go back to being a D&D 3rd party publisher. If they're going to do that why bother with a major revision for second edition PF at all? Why not just clean up Pathfinder into a 1.5 edition and dual-stat their books for Pathfinder and 5e?

 

[robus]

I believe all along Paizo has tried to position themselves as the sort of Advanced D&D to D&D in terms of complexity (not quality or anything like that, it's not a jab at D&D). They know their RPG is more complex than 5e (and 4e before that) and lean into that as a selling feature for those who prefer a more complex RPG experience.

Agreed and that's kind of why I was surprised that PathFinder 2nd edition didn't pivot to be Advanced 5e. Lots of folks on here have decried the lack of chargen options and high level play support in 5e. Paizo could have gone after that market:

Bored with the standard D&D 5e options and tired of the sloppy adventures WotC produces? Introducing Pathfinder 2.0! This rules expansion takes your game to the next level, bringing all the things you love in 5e but giving you more power, control, flexibility and adventures from the most experienced RPG development team in the business!

Or something like that