Pathfinder 2E At Gary Con

Paizo is at the Gary Con convention this week, and is demoing Pathfinder 2nd Edition there. Here's a couple of photos! No juicy tidbits yet, unfortunately, but hopefully some will emerge over the next couple of days.

In the first photo, Stephen Radney-MacFarland demos Pathfinder 2nd Edition in this awesome photo from Beth Damis on Twitter.

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Paizo's Jason Bulmahn took a photo of his copy of the Pathfinder 2nd Edition playtest rules.

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[Morrus]

Anyone played in the Demo at Gary Con? Or are NDAs being signed?

There's stuff appearing on the web. Keep an eye on the news page for playtest reports from Gary Con -- there's at least two mentioned there, one on Reddit and one on the Paizo forums.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/conten...-Big-Should-The-Bestiary-Be-And-Other-Stories

 

[jmucchiello]

If it's ready to demo at a con, I wonder why they're holding back the rules PDF for five more months.
Shouldn't they get a rough document out sooner so they can playtest for longer?

I mentioned that on the Paizo page and got no reply.

 

[jmucchiello]

Comic book stores loved you in the 90s I bet

What do you mean? Today, just about every single issue of every single comic has 2 or more limited covers. Pre-orders for every book in cover-A, cover-B, cover-C, etc.

 

[Jester David]

I mentioned that on the Paizo page and got no reply.

I asked it there too.

The answer was "because licence partners" and then they locked the thread.

 

[Adso]

Demos PF 2e... wears a D&D t-shirt....

What can I say? I feel in love with D&D when I was 11 and have had the opportunity to work on it and Pathfinder for nearly 20 years.

I have lots of D&D, Pathfinder, Rock n' Roll, and Satanic T-Shirts. Those are my jams.

Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Senior Game Designer
Paizo

 

[Adso]

If it's ready to demo at a con, I wonder why they're holding back the rules PDF for five more months.
Shouldn't they get a rough document out sooner so they can playtest for longer?

It doesn't need to be pretty. And they can still release an updated version at GenCon in August. Or even a more limited document with just five levels or play or pregens...

Much like the difference between the notes you run a game with and published adventures, there are varying degrees of "ready." The draft we are using for playtests has only had a partial development pass and no hardcore editorial scrubbing. Then there is a layout, sending it to the printer, distribution, and all that rigamarole.

All of that is going to take roughly five more months.

And now you know.

Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Senior Game Designer
Paizo

 

[darjr]

But surely the pdf can come out earlier thank the book. That way you might catch some errors before it’s sent to the printer.

And I do see stuff like the fighter release so that’s cool.

 

[Adso]

It could. But we don't do that when physical product is involved. It tends to make retailers and distributors grumpy (rightly or wrongly). In other words, the hinderances outway any gains.

I'm glad you liked the fighter blog. You'll be seeing more like that as we wind our way to the playtest release.

 

[Jester David]

Much like the difference between the notes you run a game with and published adventures, there are varying degrees of "ready." The draft we are using for playtests has only had a partial development pass and no hardcore editorial scrubbing. Then there is a layout, sending it to the printer, distribution, and all that rigamarole.

All of that is going to take roughly five more months.

And now you know.

Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Senior Game Designer
Paizo

I’m aware. I know February to April in GenCon crunch, when the books get sent to the printer. Which, at that point, means the layout and content have been done. That’s a long period (serveral months) where the PDFs are effectively “ready” but the books are still being printed or en route where nothing is being publically playtested.

Which was my concern. Playtesters don’t NEED a fully laid out and formatted playtest document with art and pretty formatting. Really, a basic Word doc turned into a PDF works just fine, being easier to print out and use at the game table.

The thing is...by the time we get the playtest books, we’re not really testing the current game. We’re testing the PRIOR iteration. Because there’s no way ya’ll at Paizo are just going to sit and chill after finishing the Playtest book. You’re going to test and revise and fix in the meantime.
The problems we catch in the Playtest book will often be the solved problems. The known errors. The stuff that’s already been changed internally. Which are only going to be a distraction away from the less obvious problems.

Plus, by holding off the playtest PDF until the physical books are in stores is effectively halving the playtest period. (Which will likely run August to December.) And that’s a lot of time people could be spending really hammering into the system, and working to get an understanding of higher level play to really give that an accurate test.

 

[Adso]

I’m aware. I know February to April in GenCon crunch, when the books get sent to the printer. Which, at that point, means the layout and content have been done. That’s a long period (serveral months) where the PDFs are effectively “ready” but the books are still being printed or en route where nothing is being publically playtested...

While that is true to a certain extent, we have decided to hold off for a variety of reasons that you may or may not agree with. Some of which I have detailed.