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.

 

[Tom Miskey]

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.
From what I've seen of the reception on their own forums though, it doesn't look promising, there's a few Pathfinder 1.0 players on that same thread who won't even buy a Pathfinder 2.0 compilation but will buy a Pathfinder 1.0 compilation in a heartbeat. But that's also just the forums.

In the Pathfinder group I play in, I'm the only one who bought the preview book version for 2E. The rest of the group has no intention of changing to 2E even when the actual 2E core rulebooks are released. I may buy them if there is a massive group of PF players that review it positively, but right now, I don't think I'd ever get a chance to play it if I did... I may just wait till a later printing, since Paizo seems to incorporate errata and updates in later printings. I still have the 1st printings of all the 1E PF books, and sometimes we find out that a rule was changed in a newer printing.

 

[John R Davis]

Kingmaker was fantastic when we played it ten years ago. Having a full 5th ed version to bring it up to date with a streamlined rules set would get my money!

 

[CapnZapp]

too much of a sacred cow to completely cut (even if I think it would have made the game so much better).

That is my general fear too.

Actually that's a very succinct way of explaining why I would have wanted Paizo to use 5E as their base. And then add back the things we miss from there.

Because whatever you may think of that game 5E truly did cut those sacred cows that kept d20 from becoming great.

 

[CapnZapp]

I think the one place where Pathfinder 2.0 is going to fail as a crunchier upgrade from 5e is in it's bonus progression. At least in my experience that transition to bounded accuracy in 5e was kinda a revelation, its not something I would easily go back on even if the other elements of more complex crunch in Pathfinder 2.0 do appeal to me.

This is a brilliant illustration of my point - that there is a before 5E and an after 5E and that Paizo is not even realizing the market has shifted to a point where several of their mechanisms are not palatable any longer.

 

[CapnZapp]

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?

Or alternatively, why aren't they making a Pathfinder 2 that hews closely to 5E while not claiming exact compatibility; offering greater play crunch with only a small hurdle (since the game offers all the great improvements 5E brought to the table: fixed LFQW, easy monster prep, even a version of bounded accuracy that's just not as bounded, true tanks and damage dealers, magic item pricing, deeper tactical experience with high-level monsters built to withstand player abilities and do much more

 

[CapnZapp]

Kingmaker was fantastic when we played it ten years ago. Having a full 5th ed version to bring it up to date with a streamlined rules set would get my money!

Yes a complete product where all conversion is already completed!

 

[BMaC]

Now, if Paizo would have put out 5e material 3-4 years ago, I expect my shelves would be full of their material instead of Kobold Press and Frog God Games.

Same here. Harsh truth.

 

[Aldarc]

Hasn't it been released yet? I thought it had already sunk.

The playtest ended in Autumn 2018, but it will not be released until August 2019.

 

[Zarithar]

Excellent news. I love their products but gave up on PF a few years back. I'll definitely be picking this up.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Now I wonder about this book could be linked with the videogame.

Other matter is about if we really need nPCs when if we know the plot and we only need to add a "race+class" to create or update those characters.