Pathfinder 2E Pathfinder To Get New Core Rulebooks Soon

It's not just D&D that's getting a 'revised' set of core books--Pathfinder is also getting 'remastered' books! The core rulebooks are being replaced by a new set of books, with new names, but like D&D it is being reiterated that this is not a new edition--"With the exception of a few minor variations in terminology and a slightly different mix of monsters, spells, and magic items, the rules remain largely unchanged."

The existing Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Gamemastery Guide, Bestiary, and Advanced Player’s Guide are being replaced with Pathfinder Player Core, Pathfinder GM Core, Pathfinder Monster Core, and Pathfinder Player Core 2.

These books appear to focus on re-organization and consolidation of existing material rather than substantive changes. They also represent Paizo's move away from the Open Gaming License and towards the new Open RPG Creative (ORC) license. Paizo says "This transition will result in a few minor modifications to the Pathfinder Second Edition system, notably the removal of alignment and a small number of nostalgic creatures, spells, and magic items exclusive to the OGL. These elements remain a part of the corpus of Pathfinder Second Edition rules for those who still want them, and are fully compatible with the new remastered rules, but will not appear in future Pathfinder releases."

Pathfinder 2E - Paizo Reveals Wayne Reynolds' Pathfinder Remastered Cover Sketches

While the final colour pieces won't arrive for a few weeks, Paizo's Erik Mona revealed the cover sketches of the upcoming Pathfinder Remastered core rulebooks while at the GAMA industry trade show yesterday. In an unsual move, you will actually be able to buy special 'sketch' editions of the...

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[The-Magic-Sword]

I have to wonder: Does Paizo even want us to buy books anymore? I don't know if the system is even playable without using a VTT and AoN. It's legitimately the most complex system I have ever ran (not the most complicated - that is different.)

I think the reason is that while in theory Paizo is in the publishing business, the product we actually buy from them is crunchy, customizable, rules content. The more the playerbase accepts that digital is pragmatically a better way to deliver that content, due to errata and tool support, the less the physical products make sense to actually use, and since AON is free the books don't have actual utility as a physical product for most of us, but we all know that the actual content that makes AON valuable stops being produced if no one's buying the books because that's the only vector of monetization Paizo has available to them. So like, it is kind of getting to the point where a bunch of people are buying the books as a de-facto patronage system-- paying for the content to exist rather than to own the product, with the art and the layout being the best reasons to actually read them like a book.

In some ways, it's actually a great arrangement, some of us buy the books because we want the game to exist and enjoy playing it, people who can't afford to can still take part, the updates to the system aren't actually constrained to not invalidating the print because few people care about referencing their books instead of AON which makes the game intuitive to fix.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I don't know. Maybe reliance on the online tools have weakened my GMimg skills? Or perhaps it's that I've got too many systems rattling in my brain currently? It could be, perhaps my shoes are too tight. But I think that the most likely reason of all. May be that my heart is two sizes too small.

I'm not trying to be insulting, seriously. But I do think your first sentence may have some truth in it; I run exclusively online, but the only thing I do is use Maptool for maps and tokens; everything else I still handle the way I already have. And I'm at the point I get discounts at food places, so...

I mean, it may be you've simply reached a point where lighter systems are what you need. I'm just noting that PF2e is not exactly far out on the edge when it comes to crunchier systems, not the least because (unlike the tendency in the D&D-sphere) it tries to avoid boxes of special cases.

 

[ReshiIRE]

If it's any comfort, I hate the crafting rules and secretly wish they were optional as I also forget them every time.

They seem to be taking a third pass at the crafting rules.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I only run it in-person. I agree it has a steep learning curve. I just handwave a lot on the spot and look up the rules for the next session if I expect it to come up again, and outsource most of the class-specific rules to my players. I've added a few simple house rules for things the book doesn't cover.

I think it does what it intends to quite well for the most part, often in an elegant way other systems could learn from, but after having run 30 sessions with it, I can say I prefer a less rules-intensive game. I would probably have felt more at home with Castles & Crusades.

Though I will probably run another campaign with the system after my current one anyway, as it's the one my group is used to now, and I'm interested in seeing how it holds up at higher levels for myself.

And this is legit. If someone wants a lighter game, they just do. I just tend to take issue when people seem to think you can't run PF2e manually. I've run games with a lot more moving parts than PF2e that way, so...

 

[Thomas Shey]

I'm jealous. There are things that come up every session (crafting rules, for example) that I can't remember no matter how many times I look them up. A cheat sheet of things I have to stop and look up during a typical game would be about 15 pages long.

Well, I'll give you that the crafting rules are probably one of the most convoluted part of the system. The one virtue there is a lot of people never have to deal with them at all, or (like my old sword-and-board fighter) only need to know them enough to repair things and maybe move runes around.

 

[Thomas Shey]

They seem to be taking a third pass at the crafting rules.

Having engaged with them more lately, as I'm playing a Gunslinger who's also a semi-Alchemist because of feat choice, I can see why.

 

[glass]

Add me to the list of people who runs PF2 "manually". I do mostly play online these days, and I do make fairly extensive use of AoN, but there is not a VTT in sight - just Google Slides for the maps and Discord for voice and text chat (the closest we get to automation is DiceMaiden in Discord for die rolling).

 

[Retreater]

In some ways, it's actually a great arrangement, some of us buy the books because we want the game to exist and enjoy playing it, people who can't afford to can still take part, the updates to the system aren't actually constrained to not invalidating the print because few people care about referencing their books instead of AON which makes the game intuitive to fix.

So (and I'm not being facetious) I shouldn't have collector's guilt for buying physical books I don't use? Others do it that way?

 

[The-Magic-Sword]

So (and I'm not being facetious) I shouldn't have collector's guilt for buying physical books I don't use? Others do it that way?

Here's my collection of books from my Paizo subscriptions that I've only physically used once for a short-lived Malevolence game, to play we mostly use the complementary pdfs from the subs, Pathbuilder, Foundry, and AON depending on what's intuitive at the moment. I would absolutely drop it if my financial situation was worse, though, and I'd probably use them more if I had an IRL group. We play the system weekly and I love it, so I pay for Pathfinder 2e products, so that I don't have to go through losing it like I did 4e.

 

[Retreater]

@The-Magic-Sword that's an impressive collection you've got.
What do you think would be a good physical book for me to pick up for pleasure reading and inspiration? Any suggestions since I don't really need a lot of crunch (because I use Foundry and AoN)?