Interview with Aaron Shanks, Paizo's Director of Marketing

Aaron Shanks, Paizo’s Director of Marketing, discusses how the impact of recent events has shaped the company.

During Gen Con, we got a chance to talk to Aaron Shanks, Paizo’s Director of Marketing, about how the impact of recent events has shaped the company.

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A huge amount of talk during the convention was the announcement of Starfinder 2nd Edition, which we covered here, but we did get a chance to discuss the impact of the pandemic and January’s OGL news had on the company as well as the myriad of partnerships they have been announcing.

Post-Pandemic

How did the pandemic change the landscape of the gaming industry? There has been a long-term positive surge in virtual tabletops. Most gaming groups made the leap to gaming online to keep their games going when they couldn’t meet in person.

In addition to the rise in virtual tabletops, the pandemic also impacted the global supply chain, making it hard to predict when products would show up to the warehouse and be for sale. Pretty much a marketer’s nightmare, but now, it is becoming more consistent and easier to get the products into the hands of their customers.

The Impact of the OGL

January’s kerfuffle shocked the entire industry and felt like an attack to many, but it has also brought a breath of fresh air. It motivated Paizo to create an intellectual property separation from its origins. This allowed the Design and Development team the space to create new ideas and fill in some missing lore in their games.

This separation is not without its own growing pains. Books like Starfinder’s Scoured Stars were pushed back and other books were pushed to the forefront to herald in the new ORC license. Pathfinder Rage of Elements was the first book to be published under the new licensing with the Remaster project to follow.

A byproduct of Paizo’s response to the OGL debacle is in the huge amount of partnerships they have been entering into. From comics to video games, the spotlight is on Paizo.

VTTs

With the huge amount of partnerships Paizo has entered into with VTTs, one of the questions people have been asking is if Paizo will build one of their own? Aaron’s response is “No, not at this time. We want to be where the players are. So we are prioritizing the VTTs that our fans choose. Paizo focuses on creating great TTRPGs and board games and we let out digital partners do what they do best.”

The one technological element they are focusing on is their new website. Aaron is hoping that they will be able to better customize the benefits of being a Paizo subscriber, allowing people to opt in and out of different elements of the subscription.

One of the VTTs, Demiplane, is supporting the playtest of the two new Pathfinder 2nd Edition classes for free. This time next year, we should also be seeing the same process for Starfinder 2nd Edition when the formal playtest opens up.

Organized Play

“We’re always going to be welcoming new players.” Aaron wants people to be able to come in to organized play and feel welcome. This includes players who are not giving up on first edition Pathfinder and Starfinder. There will still be legacy play for both games even though Paizo will not be printing any new material for them. We’ll also find out closer to the launch of Starfinder 2nd Edition what the conversion process will be for characters moving from first to second edition.

PaizoCon’s attendance was in the thousands this year. It’s always been a modest convention, but this year’s digital stats were the best they’ve ever been. Aaron promises that next year will be even better now that he has a full marketing team. It will continue to be digital for the foreseeable future as it allows them to reach more people all over the world without them needing to book a hotel to play.

With Paizo’s staff going fully remote, their attendance at conventions is completely opt in. There will be a small contingent at Pax Unplugged. So if you’re going, be sure to stop by and say hi.
 

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Dawn Dalton

Dawn Dalton

Vincent55

Adventurer
Paizo always put out quality stuff, lots of crunchy bits not just fluff, unlike D&D the products just seem to be getting worse and seem to be just all flash and using the name to sell things. As big as D&D is, the amount of materials being put out is a drop compared to others, i mean books and such not ear rings and crap like that.
 

Erdric Dragin

Adventurer
There will still be legacy play for both games even though Paizo will not be printing any new material for them.
Which I think is a stupid mistake. Even a little support would suffice. There's so much in PF2e I want to use in my PF1e games and I can't because converting them doesn't exactly work properly. The systems are too different.

Yet they have the resources to convert all of Abomination Vaults for 5th Edition!? Their rivals!? The BS I smell on Paizo. Them and WotC is why I'm done supporting TTRPG companies.
 



NerdyBird

Explorer
Shouldn't an article titled "Interview with..." actually be an interview rather than a summary of recent developments and two minor quotes from the interviewee?
 


ShinHakkaider

Adventurer
Money. That's what drive business. They see more profit in 5e D&D than 1e Pathfinder. They allocate resources to the projects they think will generate the most profit.
EXACTLY. Since they have their own warehouse and thus able to look at their remaining 1e inventory they're able to make a decision as to what they support. If their remaining 1e stuff were still flying off of the shelves I'm sure they'd be supporting it because, you know...MONEY. But you're 100% correct they want some of that 5e money and the exposure helps them as well as 5e players gets to see what the Paizo adventures are like. It's a win-win either way.
 

EXACTLY. Since they have their own warehouse and thus able to look at their remaining 1e inventory they're able to make a decision as to what they support. If their remaining 1e stuff were still flying off of the shelves I'm sure they'd be supporting it because, you know...MONEY. But you're 100% correct they want some of that 5e money and the exposure helps them as well as 5e players gets to see what the Paizo adventures are like. It's a win-win either way.
And considering they just made the decision to double down on PF2e by making SF2e completely compatible with it's rules, I'm going to guess sales are pretty good for their current system.
 

I’m torn about either pf2, levelup, or tales of the valiant. Tales looks like the best alt to d&d, while pf2 seems to be ready sooner. Levelup I’m not sure about.
 

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