Pathfinder 1E Stop thinking of Pathfinder as magazine issues

[kenobi65]

1-15, at least the first one.

Ah, thanks for the clarification; I missed that bit.

 

[kenobi65]

The Shackled City HC was, what, $59.99? And that was for 1-20.

That may not be an entirely fair comparison. While Paizo certainly had to do some work to adapt Shackled City from a series of Dungeon adventures into a hardcover (including adapting the early adventures from 3E to 3.5), they didn't have to create it from scratch, which may have made it particularly cost-effective.

And, there are certain per-unit costs involved in printing books. 6 softcovers versus one hardcover may or may not be a wash on price.

I think the gist is that the Shackled City HC is an incredibly good value at $60.

Why are people thinking this is such a good value?

Look at some of the other price comparisons, on a "per-book" basis, to other large adventures. On that basis, it's not a particularly bad value.

 

[Krolik]

Why are people thinking this is such a good value?

Probably because we purchase $12.00-$15.00 black and white modules all the time. Those modules don't give us a free pdf, if we buy them from the publisher, and are seldom interlinked with additional modules so that we can use them as a series. If you think about it as a $20.00 magazine then it is expensive. If you think about it as a $20.00 sourcebook then it's really cheap based on the full-color format and size.

I used to buy Dragon and Dungeon in my FLGS. That was $16.00 a month. I'm getting Pathfinder mailed to me each month for $2.00 more and getting the free pdf. For me it's really breaking even.

As far as subscription, both Goodman Games and EnWolrd has a subscription service for their adventures. I seem to remember Harn offering a subscription service as well a few years ago. They're not as uncommon as you would like to believe.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I keep hearing people complaining about how expensive Pathfinder is, "who is going to pay $20 bucks for a magazine?", guys, it's not a magazine it's an adventure book, much like: Red Hand of Doom (128 pages / $24.95), or Shattered Gates of Slaughterdale (160 pages / $19.95), Night of Disolution (96 pages / $19.99), Crypt of the Devil Lich (96 pages / $24.95), The Scaly God (80 pages at $18.99). The prices are in the same ballpark as other publishers, and people don't complain about them.

I wasnt buying those products though. I WAS buying Dungeon. Its perfectly fair to compare the product I was getting and enjoying to its replacement.

Why is Pathfinder an even better value than those mentioned above? well, if you buy it, it means you're probably interested in whole adventure path, and if that is the case, you should be able to recognize that subscribing is even a better idea, not only you would get the products at a discounted rate ($13.99)

Its really 17.99 for subsciptions though. If they can work out some kind of better shipping, the value discrepency between what I was getting and Pathfinder is less. The free pdf doesnt really mean anything to me either.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

For the most part, I prefer running a homebrew game, and using modules to flesh things out. Dungeon was an extremely good product for that because the adventures were (usually) intentionally generic, easily scalable (with sidebar, even), and modular.

Bingo. I've been subscribing to dungeon for quite some time, and havent used the AP's yet. I still got a lot out of my subscription due to the variety of adventures in each issue.

 

[Krolik]

Bingo. I've been subscribing to dungeon for quite some time, and havent used the AP's yet. I still got a lot out of my subscription due to the variety of adventures in each issue.

Sure, but the overall point is that soon Dungeon will be gone. The only adventures you are going to get after that will need to be individually paid for. It's not about comparing Pathfinder to Dungeon because it's gone. It's about comparing it to other adventures you might be picking up later. So you can choose to buy adventures in Pathfinder or you can choose to buy them from 10 other companies but either way you'll have to spend money for them.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

OK, so I'll also make the assumption that Dragon would have a similiar page count. Doing that the two mags provided 122 pages of content per month. So thats what you got if you happened to buy both (which I have been doing for the last 5 months).

Retail is what? $7 per issue? $8.00? Since I am guessing I'll go with the lower value. So 122 pages of content on magazine grade paper for $14.00 per month at retail.

So Pathfinder is going with a high grade paper in book format with 26 fewer pages of content with no ads. At $6.00 more.

Except if you subscribe. I think it was 76 dollars for both magazines. Then you're paying 140 dollars more for 312 less pages. And if you mainly wanted adventures, you're really SOL.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Sure, but the overall point is that soon Dungeon will be gone. The only adventures you are going to get after that will need to be individually paid for.

The fact that other companies offer even less for my money isnt much of a consolation.

 

[Krolik]

The fact that other companies offer even less for my money isnt much of a consolation.

I understand that and agree with you but, no matter how much we might wish otherwise, it doesn't change anything. Dungeon is lost to us. We can spend the next year saying "I wish we still had Dungeon" or we can move forward. Pathfinder is just one of many possible avenues for moving forward and getting adventures.

 

[Croesus]

My main concern is that it is going to be difficult to get people to continue to subscribe to Pathfinder when the issues will likely come out quicker than most groups can play through them.

Sums it up for me. I *really* want to get Pathfinder, but how can I justify spending $200+ in one year for something I'll get very little use out of? Maybe if I win the lottery...

The more I think about it, I wonder why they didn't make Pathfinder a bi-monthly product. That would certainly make it easier for groups to absorb the material. Maybe I'm the exception, but I liked Dungeon when it came out every other month.