Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7356576" data-attributes="member: 37579">Pathfinder did take a hit when 5e started. And they lost games a couple times, only really having a big jump in Q1 2017. Which was big for them, but not for 5e. And it's hard to say how much is Pathfinder gaining new fans and how much is Pathfinder players moving to Roll20 (perhaps because meat space games moved to 5e). It doesn't say how sales are doing and how many people are buying the new shiny splatbook. Which is the catch with Pathfinder's model. Even if they have a huge surge in their audience, that group will just burn through the half-dozen big books already on the shelves and are unlikely to hit the newer just released options. Paizo's model right now is really focused on releasing content because it's expected and because Pathfinder fans just want the three big hardcovers every year. Which really burned them last year when the schedule focused on Starfinder and a less popular book. Funny thing... they're actually increasing the Starfinder AP to monthly, so it keeps pace with Pathfinder. Which is great now when you want a lot of adventures but bad in three years when new players suddenly have five or six APs to choose from. Which is the problem with RPGs: you need a LOT of content right at the start and people want a large minimum amount of crunch and options, but you can reach satiation super fast. At this point though, Paizo is selling new books to collectors. For people to look at and go "hey, that'd be a cool character concept" which they'll never use because they already have two-dozen potential character concepts in mind and the one they just saw will be replaced by one in six months when another book is released. Content that isn't actually ever going to be used in a game (ever) but exists for theory crafting and lonely fun.If I were in charge I'd go down to one hardcover a year (or 18 months, so every other year has two books). Focus more on lore and flavour. Perhaps a big campaign setting hardcover every second year with an annual theme book. Paizo has been doing theme books for a while, but so far they've been 3/4 crunch, and a good chunk of that being player options. Which is coming at the expense of the lore, which also doesn't add bloat. I'd probably also cancel the Player Companion line. That served its purpose and ran its course. Now it's just content for the sake of content.</blockquote>

Verification