Pathfinder 1E What's after Golarion? (and what's the future of Pathfinder?)

[Jester David]

I hear what you are saying. OTOH I think a lot of people DID buy material for more than one setting, and you do broaden your offerings. There are people that might not buy WoG no matter what, but they might buy DS. Obviously there's a point where one product is just cannibalizing others, but its not clear exactly where that point is. Its a matter of doing the market research, and I think we can conclude that TSR in the 90's was not really doing that very well.

One of the reasons we know the division of the audience hurt TSR was because someone at WotC sat down and did the numbers and research and looked at the sales figures and found that people weren't buying multiple lines. Or they'd buy bits of two but nothing from others.
And there'd be people that bought no setting books and just generic products.

We can look at recent WotC and see that multiple settings can be worthwhile, 4e has FR, DS, and Eberron, which are all pretty distinct and one would presume they determined that it was worth providing some support to each one, with 'PoL' providing a fairly generic default. One could question whether FR and PoL were really significantly different, but I think WotC clearly felt that a 'classic' setting was a necessity. Clearly they also weren't interested in large overlap which might have existed with say also republishing WoG or even DL. It seems to me the lesson is you need to do your homework, but there's room in a large product line for 3-4 settings.

WotC most recent attempt was a little different in that it gave each setting very minimal support beyond an updated book, so it would be harder for the division to really hurt the game. At worst they would have one or two books that didn't sell as well.
But it should be noted that after the first couple years, they swapped from a DM book and Player book to a single large DM/player book for Dark Sun and Neverwinter. Possibly because they hoped making half the book mechanics that could be used in almost any setting might help sales. And they very quickly returned to the Forgotten Realms.
We don't know how well Eberron and Dark Sun did, especially compared to generic books. So it's unfounded to say there's room for 3-4 settings.

Plus, WotC has the advantage of their settings having an established audience and much of the work writing and designing the settings having already been done. The 4e books had fans waiting for the products and willing to buy because they'd been waiting for more Dark Sun for years, while the writers just had to compile information from past books. This is very different than having to make a brand new setting that takes time and does not have a built in audience, like Paizo would need to have.

There's also numerous 3rd Party Publishers making campaign settings and worlds. So anyone who doesn't want Golarion isn't lacking for options, either PF specific or old 3e worlds.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

Of course they can stretch beyond the borders of the Inner Sea map, but that gets into non-European analogues, which have limited appeal

I suggest that Pathfinder expand in three ways:

1) Make an Oriental Adventures-style 'culture book' for every major real world culture, though using Golarion names; for example 'Tian Xia Adventures' and 'Osirion Adventures' (Egyptian). Like this: https://sites.google.com/site/dndphilmont/culture-books

2) Make each planet in the solar system into a setting, such as a pulp sci-fi Pathfinder Red Planet sourcebook for Akiton.

3) Make 'genre books' which expand into every genre of RPG, by using using time travel and 'elseworld' realities of Golarion (Golarion Modern, Golarion Supers, Golarion Future). Make it all 100% compatible and multi-classable with the medieval fantasy classes. Like this: https://sites.google.com/site/dndphilmont/genre-books

 

[Mercurius]

That's absolutely possible! (And yeah... I assumed you were asking for a 64 page GM-focused book...)

Good to hear, although I won't take it as a promise! I actually think you could pull off a detailed hardcover on Varisia alone, but it would probably have to include material from other supplements - Magnimar, etc.

As an aside, I'm an example of someone who buys Golarion books because I like the setting and enjoy good setting books, even though I don't play i it and prefer homebrewing. Have you done any market research about how many setting books are sold to people that don't actually play in the setting? I assume its a minority but is it a significant number?

 

[James Jacobs]

Good to hear, although I won't take it as a promise! I actually think you could pull off a detailed hardcover on Varisia alone, but it would probably have to include material from other supplements - Magnimar, etc.

As an aside, I'm an example of someone who buys Golarion books because I like the setting and enjoy good setting books, even though I don't play i it and prefer homebrewing. Have you done any market research about how many setting books are sold to people that don't actually play in the setting? I assume its a minority but is it a significant number?

I haven't done any market research other than talking to folks on messageboards and at conventions. I do know that some of my friends used Golarion for their non-Pathfinder campaigns, though. And it would be ridiculous to not heartily endorse that, frankly. Golarion assumes the Pathfinder rules, but it works fine for any fantasy-based RPG! Further, I've long been of the opinion that RPG material is worth its price for simply inspiration and entertainment as nothing more than reading material–so even if you never use a book in your game, if you read it and are inspired/entertained by it, excellent!

And yes... there's at LEAST a hardcover's worth of information about Varisia possible. MORE than one, frankly... we've done 3 64 page books on three cities in the region, after all, and that's still barely scratching the surface of what we could discuss.

 

[GreyLord]

I haven't done any market research other than talking to folks on messageboards and at conventions. I do know that some of my friends used Golarion for their non-Pathfinder campaigns, though. And it would be ridiculous to not heartily endorse that, frankly. Golarion assumes the Pathfinder rules, but it works fine for any fantasy-based RPG! Further, I've long been of the opinion that RPG material is worth its price for simply inspiration and entertainment as nothing more than reading material–so even if you never use a book in your game, if you read it and are inspired/entertained by it, excellent!

And yes... there's at LEAST a hardcover's worth of information about Varisia possible. MORE than one, frankly... we've done 3 64 page books on three cities in the region, after all, and that's still barely scratching the surface of what we could discuss.

I want the entire group of RuneLords stated and brought back in one big massive 20 book AP where you end up saving the world against their combined might (and yes, you may have to resurrect one or two of them)...

Of course...that's a waaaay off massive wish, and if wishes were fishes....

 

[Matthias]

It just struck me: Golarion, as far as I can tell, is running out of corners to detail. Of course they can stretch beyond the borders of the Inner Sea map, but that gets into non-European analogues, which have limited appeal for most D&D players (uh, I mean, Pathfinder).

So I started wondering: Does Paizo have plans for another campaign setting? Or will they just keep Golarion as is and continue to create Adventure Paths set in it? At some point they'll have to come out with a new setting, right? Or now?

While I'm at it, what is the future of Pathfinder? Will Paizo release a 2nd edition at some point? If so, when?

And so on. Basically, what are Paizo's plans for Pathfinder and Golarion going forward?

Even when Golarion gets "used up" as a campaign setting and adventure paths, there is still room for expansion with the other planets in the solar system via Distant Worlds. The other ten planets, the Diaspora, the space between the planets (e.g. spelljammer)...there's many possible APs to be had in the inner worlds alone. Primarily Castrovel and Akhiton, but you could do a lot with Verces and Triaxus. The outer planets have plenty of room too: The Diaspora of course, and the moons of the gas giants. Aballon, Eox, and Aucturn could each get their own "showcase" APs. Apostae practically screams AP and novel tie in...