Pathfinder 1E You're the CEO of PAIZO. Now What?

[Gorbacz]

3 Fill out the Dungeon and Dragon pdfs to cover the missing ones you have the rights to do so for, more than just the first Savage Tide Dungeon issue for example.

Not gonna happen. Being able to make new PDFs (or modify existing, or make AoW/ST hardcovers, or do Dragon Compendium 2) is not permitted by the deal Paizo has on the mags. We just all should be lucky that they weren't pulled down during The Great PDF Debacle...

 

[BryonD]

A couple of anecdotal good experiences don't invalidate his bad one. I realize it's typical for people to chime in with "nuh uh I've had godo experiences" whenever someone complains about a company, particularly about online ordering but it's absolutely meaningless. No one is saying they're universally bad, and there could be 100 good experiences for every 10 bad... it's still a problem. I don't know what the percentage of bad experiences is. What I do know is poor customer service occurred, resulting in a lost customer as well as someone very vocal passing his story on at a game store on two separate occasions.

Someone ed up, period. Whether it's a one time thing or not (unlikely unless he was someone singled out) it happened and is something I would be addressing.

It isn't a couple. Paizo has a well established rating of superb customer service. This does not remotely invalidate your claim that something went wrong.

But taking the 0.2% of instances that go wrong very seriously is one thing.
Claiming that someone needs to have "sense smacked into them" because of failure to meet 100% is absurd.
And, frankly, that kind of position makes me skeptical. Just as there always will be mistakes, there are also people who will never be happy, even when no mistake was made.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

If I were CEO of Paizo, I would keep on keeping on. Do exactly what you're doing and refine it.

Consider a digital character and monster builder. My gaming group just went 4E because in huge part of those two programs. I'm okay with it, but I like Pathfinder better.

Also consider the possibility of a Paizo Design Studio - kind of like The Authority line of comics. Pick a couple talented designers. Say "give us a new set of rules that does something Wicked Cool." Sit back and see what comes out of your Skunk Works in a year.

 

[bagger245]

If I were CEO of Paizo, I would keep on keeping on. Do exactly what you're doing and refine it.

Consider a digital character and monster builder. My gaming group just went 4E because in huge part of those two programs. I'm okay with it, but I like Pathfinder better.

Also consider the possibility of a Paizo Design Studio - kind of like The Authority line of comics. Pick a couple talented designers. Say "give us a new set of rules that does something Wicked Cool." Sit back and see what comes out of your Skunk Works in a year.

One thing why the CB and MB isn't essential to Pathfinder is that there isn't new crunch every month for the PC and monsters are not prone to be customized. Sure maybe a CR calculator but that's it.

 

[Festivus]

One thing why the CB and MB isn't essential to Pathfinder is that there isn't new crunch every month for the PC and monsters are not prone to be customized. Sure maybe a CR calculator but that's it.

I have to disagree. I would dread having to create a new Pathfinder character at this point in our campaign... it would take me hours. I know there are some tools out there, but I found every one I have looked at to be either very unfriendly to me as a user or flat out buggy. That is value I get in the CB, that I can build a level x character in about a half hour... well ok, epic might take a bit longer but it's still pretty freaking fast compared to making a level 20 pathfinder character.

In 3.5 days I loved Heroforge, I could quickly work on characters and everything for the most part was correct. If someone has a resource to something akin to Heroforge (not that I plan to have my current pathfinder character die or anything), I'd love a pointer.

Regarding the customer service thing, you are right, I just chimed in with a "Uh uh" experience... but honestly it really surprises me that someone did have a bad experience and they didn't bend over backwards to fix the problem. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't already trying to figure out who that is and why they had a bad experience.

 

[Mikaze]

On Customer Service:

Man wat. Not to beat a dead horse, but Paizo's customer service has a pretty widespread rep as being pirate-valkyries-with-jetpacks-and-chainsaws awesome.

When their Campaign Setting came out, a thread started up under their Service forum about how some folks wound up with copies with some of the pages coming unglued or otherwise dinged up in transit. I had noticed that my copy had a small chunk of pages sticking out further than the rest due to some glue troubles, but it was nothing to complain about. I mentioned the condition of my book just by way of confirming that there seemed to be a pattern of trouble with some of the print run and also trying to figure out exactly what happened(IIRC, it was shipped a bit differently from every other package I had gotten from them).

Damned if they went and said they were mailing me a new copy of the book along with the folks that actually needed them. I actually told them that I didn't need it. Got one anyway.

 

[howandwhy99]

If I were the CEO of Paizo...

I would attempt to increase the profitability of the adventure paths. I think that is where the bread and butter of profits come from, if only to support sales of the core books.

How? By attempting to make them modules.

Admittedly, I haven't read any since the Dragon Magazine paths, but I suspect they follow the same model. I also suspect the percentage of sales tapers off as the adventures increase in level. Basically, because of the belief that adventures P1-P5 are necessary for a path before P6 can be bought. And that means some groups never end up purchasing those adventures because the campaign ends early.

How would I do this? By promoting cross playability between adventure path modules. P1-E2-X3-P4-L5-N6. The easiest way is to promote this kind of relinking on the Paizo boards with the reward of having some potentially end up in a product or download. It has to get out to the customer base not online though, so a product may be best.

If you recall old modules in D&D, they were homebrewed and linked together in all sorts of ways. How do you convert a cold weather module to the jungle? How do you link different cities into one for two or more modules? How do I replace a BBEG Fighter general with a BBEG archwizard already in my campaign?

I understand much of the point of module sales is to save DM time during prep. Offering alternative linkings between all of the adventures already in print enables groups to not only choose their favorites, but also retains the usability and profitability of older products. A DM could link the current line with some others not yet used. I could even run similar level mods concurrently or as one intertwined module, if we use slower XP rates.

A story does not have to run only one way. By offering alternatives you pump the creative juices of those with time enough to build their own. And for those without such time, they can download or purchase a slew of alternate paths to link together already published materials to play in a new way. Then you no longer have N number of adventure paths, but ... some combinatorial math expression I don't quite understand.

 

[Thanael]

In 3.5 days I loved Heroforge, I could quickly work on characters and everything for the most part was correct. If someone has a resource to something akin to Heroforge (not that I plan to have my current pathfinder character die or anything), I'd love a pointer.

Pathforge: What Is Pathforge?

 

[Coldwyn]

If I´d be Paizo CEO, I´d:

- Rework the AP line. There should be a DM´s Guide. Maybe some additional Material for the case when the train leaves the rails, possibly as download-only material
- Slowly start working on an in-house rpg with the long-term goal to move away from d20 alltogether
- Raise hell to bring more new gamers to the hobby
- Co-op with WotC to run PF Society and WPN side by side at cons

 

[Festivus]

Pathforge: What Is Pathforge?

Thanks, I had seen that before and I believe it's for beta, but I'll take a closer look at it today at lunch.