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What was Paizo thinking? 3.75 the 4E clone?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ourph" data-source="post: 4120896" data-attributes="member: 20239"><p>I don't see the need to bring 4e into this, it's not significant to the point I'm making.</p><p></p><p>I honestly don't see how Pathfinder can compete with the 3.5 holdouts. Right now, every D&D player who's not playing some earlier version of D&D (a drop in the bucket) or testing 4e with the preview material (another drop in the bucket) is playing D&D 3.5. Paizo has the opportunity to sell adventure material and even game books (supplements based on the 3.5 RAW) to those people who continue to use D&D 3.5 (either alone or in conjunction with playing other games like 4e). People are already familiar with the 3.5 rules. They already own a lot of gaming material for use with that system. Based on the fact that they are currently playing it, they obviously enjoy it. By coming out with another game system and switching their adventures to that ruleset, Paizo is foregoing all of the advantages that go along with continuing to support 3.5 (ready made player base, brand recognition, etc.).</p><p></p><p>I agree, in general, with your thesis that people need to be able to spend money on their hobby in order for it to be said that they are actively engaged in the hobby (at least from the viewpoint of retailers). My point is, I think the number of people who are going to be willing to continue spending money on 3.5 material (if it is made available by retailers) is vastly larger than the number of people who will pick up the Pathfinder RPG and play it. If having rulebooks in print is a necessity, Paizo could easily reprint the 3.5 RAW as contained in the SRD and rebrand it as Pathfinder, while keeping all of their adventures 100% compatible with the 3.5 RAW (so that people who continue to use their 3.5 material have no conversion issues). By doing so, they would essentially be assuming the mantle of heir to the 3.5 D&D throne (with all the advantages that go along with it) and doing so in what amounts to a complete vacuum of competition (who else, that even comes close to the level of Paizo in terms of OGL publishers, is going to be sticking with 3.5?). Heck, they could print the standard (3.5 RAW) Pathfinder RPG, then print an alternate PHB (like Unearthed Arcana) with all of their 3.75 tweaks if they wanted and sell 2 rulebooks instead of one. But my main point is about their adventure paths. I think it's ridiculous to convert the APs to some ruleset other than 3.5 RAW. I can't even begin to understand how that helps them sell APs. By creating a derivative rulesystem that's "mostly compatible" they've just taken a bunch of the advantages that WotC has <u>handed</u> to them on a silver platter by switching to a new edition while leaving the guts of the old one available for 3rd party exploitation, and thrown them out the window.</p><p></p><p>I just don't see how any significant deviation from the 3.5 RAW with their products is going to be beneficial. If they aren't moving to 4e, then the next best thing, IMO, is to just keep making 3.5 material.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ourph, post: 4120896, member: 20239"] I don't see the need to bring 4e into this, it's not significant to the point I'm making. I honestly don't see how Pathfinder can compete with the 3.5 holdouts. Right now, every D&D player who's not playing some earlier version of D&D (a drop in the bucket) or testing 4e with the preview material (another drop in the bucket) is playing D&D 3.5. Paizo has the opportunity to sell adventure material and even game books (supplements based on the 3.5 RAW) to those people who continue to use D&D 3.5 (either alone or in conjunction with playing other games like 4e). People are already familiar with the 3.5 rules. They already own a lot of gaming material for use with that system. Based on the fact that they are currently playing it, they obviously enjoy it. By coming out with another game system and switching their adventures to that ruleset, Paizo is foregoing all of the advantages that go along with continuing to support 3.5 (ready made player base, brand recognition, etc.). I agree, in general, with your thesis that people need to be able to spend money on their hobby in order for it to be said that they are actively engaged in the hobby (at least from the viewpoint of retailers). My point is, I think the number of people who are going to be willing to continue spending money on 3.5 material (if it is made available by retailers) is vastly larger than the number of people who will pick up the Pathfinder RPG and play it. If having rulebooks in print is a necessity, Paizo could easily reprint the 3.5 RAW as contained in the SRD and rebrand it as Pathfinder, while keeping all of their adventures 100% compatible with the 3.5 RAW (so that people who continue to use their 3.5 material have no conversion issues). By doing so, they would essentially be assuming the mantle of heir to the 3.5 D&D throne (with all the advantages that go along with it) and doing so in what amounts to a complete vacuum of competition (who else, that even comes close to the level of Paizo in terms of OGL publishers, is going to be sticking with 3.5?). Heck, they could print the standard (3.5 RAW) Pathfinder RPG, then print an alternate PHB (like Unearthed Arcana) with all of their 3.75 tweaks if they wanted and sell 2 rulebooks instead of one. But my main point is about their adventure paths. I think it's ridiculous to convert the APs to some ruleset other than 3.5 RAW. I can't even begin to understand how that helps them sell APs. By creating a derivative rulesystem that's "mostly compatible" they've just taken a bunch of the advantages that WotC has [u]handed[/u] to them on a silver platter by switching to a new edition while leaving the guts of the old one available for 3rd party exploitation, and thrown them out the window. I just don't see how any significant deviation from the 3.5 RAW with their products is going to be beneficial. If they aren't moving to 4e, then the next best thing, IMO, is to just keep making 3.5 material. [/QUOTE]
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