Paizo Paizo Price Increases and Sustainability Efforts

Paizo announced a new pricing structure for their entire product line. The changes will go into effect for PDF products (Bounties, Quests, and Scenarios) effective October 25, 2023, and will apply to all PDF products. No other PDF prices will be changed. The new MSRP changes go into effect in April 2024 for all print products.

The first printing of the new Pathfinder core rulebooks – Player Core, GM Core, Monster Core, and Player Core 2 – will maintain the current $59.99 MSRP for at least the first printing as “We feel these books are essential first purchases for Pathfinder players and want to hold the line on price increases as long as possible to reduce the barrier of entry for new players.”

The new pricing structure:

• Bounties/Quests1 from $4.99 to $5.99
• Scenarios2 from $5.99/$7.99 to $8.99
• Special Interactive Scenarios from $14.99 to $19.99
• Flip-Mats from $16.99 to $19.99
• Flip-Mat Multi-Pack from $24.99 to $29.99
• 96-page Adventure Paths from $26.99 to $29.99
• Pocket Editions will range from $24.99-$29.99 to $26.99-$34.99 (varies by page count)
• Hardcover Prices will vary by page count:
  • 128 Page: $44.99
  • 192 Page: $59.99
  • 256 Page: $69.99
  • 304 Page with map: $79.99
  • Special Edition covers add $20 to the retail price

1: Bounties and Quests are short, stand-alone digital adventures designed for 2-hour sessions

2: Scenarios are Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society adventures previously priced based on play tier with higher-level adventures costing more. The prices will now be the same regardless of the level of the adventure.

Paizo also updated its current environmental and sustainability actions. The company already printed using soy-based ink that requires less ink per page with no toxic chemicals. Paizo is changing to FSC-Certified paper coming from ecologically sourced forests that prohibit deforestation and require protection of old-growth forests and biodiversity as well as protections for the rights of Indigenous peoples. Changes have also been made to shipping from the Paizo warehouse by changing shipping product partners and moving from foam packing materials to starch and cardboard. Full details are available on the Paizo Blog.

 

[SteveC]

Yeah, there's definitely an anti-WotC bias in the hobby.

I definitely see this. I haven't been pleased by what WotC has done (and I'm including the price increases here) and have said I'm unlikely to buy the new books. While Paizo had a lot of good will from me, the remaster has lost a lot of it: I don't like many of the changes they're making, and the price increases are pretty much sealing the deal on my getting the new books. I guess the difference is that in Paizo's case, it makes me a lot sadder.

It's a difficult thing to design a game of the complexity that PF2 has, so I don't expect anyone to pick up the torch at this point, but I'd be interested. Just like I'm interested and have backed the 5E alternatives that are out there. Honestly 2023/2024 has not been a particularly good year in terms of my gaming interests. Someone just needs to convince the Fabula Ultima team to fully integrate with Foundry and I'd be willing to pitch moving to it.

And I just came back from a Con where I played four PF2 sessions, so I am actually amped to play the game as it currently exists.

 

[payn]

I definitely see this. I haven't been pleased by what WotC has done (and I'm including the price increases here) and have said I'm unlikely to buy the new books. While Paizo had a lot of good will from me, the remaster has lost a lot of it: I don't like many of the changes they're making, and the price increases are pretty much sealing the deal on my getting the new books. I guess the difference is that in Paizo's case, it makes me a lot sadder.

It's a difficult thing to design a game of the complexity that PF2 has, so I don't expect anyone to pick up the torch at this point, but I'd be interested. Just like I'm interested and have backed the 5E alternatives that are out there. Honestly 2023/2024 has not been a particularly good year in terms of my gaming interests. Someone just needs to convince the Fabula Ultima team to fully integrate with Foundry and I'd be willing to pitch moving to it.

And I just came back from a Con where I played four PF2 sessions, so I am actually amped to play the game as it currently exists.

You really see the changes as that radical in the remaster?

 

[Velderan]

Oh man this is going to be hard to keep up with PF now. That is a pretty big price increase. I appreciate that they have AoN, but I dont particularly like using it. I like the feel of the book, the extra flavour and the artwork. Im glad that AoN exists though for those who use it!

I also find it funny that when WotC announced a price increase on their books earlier this year, they were met with vitriol and criticism. Now Paizo is doing the same and it looks like even more of an increase, and a lot more understanding. Perhaps a side effect of the OGL nonsense earlier this year. However that said we have to understand, despite Paizo & PF being the smaller company/game by comparison, they are still a business just the same as WotC, and largely have the same goals and needs re: profit. When I see the digital prices going up too, and the recent PF Trivia app that is a microtransaction system, and I expect Gallowspire Survivors to be a microtransaction filled game when it reaches final, they are very much cut from the same cloth - it is just business. It is just unfortunate across the board that we see prices rising across the board in everything (not just gaming), but we don't see wages going up.

In the case of Paizo, their worker wages are going up which is part of the reason for the price increases (even if Paizo isn’t mentioning it). It is a problem that wages aren’t going up enough for all of their customers though, which will end up pricing some people out. I guess the positive side is there are options (AoN, pocket edition) for getting the material if hardcover is too pricey.

Yeah, there's definitely an anti-WotC bias in the hobby.

I don’t know if the reaction to WotC’s price increases are a good comparison though. Personally, I was in favor of WotC raising prices because I’ve read enough about the state of the economy to know this was coming for other companies as well and noted a few examples where prices were already up. I think most of the negative reaction here to WotC raising prices was the usual “WotC does thing, so must condemn” response from people who weren’t buying their books to begin with so the increases don’t impact them. Can’t miss any opportunity to remind everyone you don’t approve of WotC after all.

 

[SteveC]

You really see the changes as that radical in the remaster?

I am one of the five people who actually like Alignment, so that's a thing. I also think the schools of magic are a good idea as a grouping mechanism for spells and make it much easier for people to understand what a spell does. And I think the name changes they've made are almost universally bad. And then the monster names that I recognize are being changed to new ones seemingly at random. I expect that I'll have to translate the names of monsters for my players (who all come from a D&D background) for a long time, along with having to adjust to them myself.

I really like Pathfinder and how it plays as a game. I vastly prefer it to 5E. But I'm having a tough time getting my groups to move to it, and with the changes they are making, it will make it much more difficult to bring in players who are at the lower skill levels of 5E. So I guess I don't really like the changes (but can live with them) don't like the new names, and find that it will be harder to teach to my D&D adjacent friends. None of that means I'm going to stop playing it, but the expense of new rulebooks is something I'm going to avoid initially.

 

[Velderan]

I am one of the five people who actually like Alignment, so that's a thing. I also think the schools of magic are a good idea as a grouping mechanism for spells and make it much easier for people to understand what a spell does. And I think the name changes they've made are almost universally bad. And then the monster names that I recognize are being changed to new ones seemingly at random. I expect that I'll have to translate the names of monsters for my players (who all come from a D&D background) for a long time, along with having to adjust to them myself.

I really like Pathfinder and how it plays as a game. I vastly prefer it to 5E. But I'm having a tough time getting my groups to move to it, and with the changes they are making, it will make it much more difficult to bring in players who are at the lower skill levels of 5E. So I guess I don't really like the changes (but can live with them) don't like the new names, and find that it will be harder to teach to my D&D adjacent friends. None of that means I'm going to stop playing it, but the expense of new rulebooks is something I'm going to avoid initially.

Do you play in-person or on a VTT? What do you see as being a barrier to just continuing to use the CRB and such to run the game the way you’ve done so far?

Edit: I mostly play on Foundry, so I’ll likely be switching over the remaster changes to simplify updating Foundry so I get how that could be a problem.

 

[SteveC]

Do you play in-person or on a VTT? What do you see as being a barrier to just continuing to use the CRB and such to run the game the way you’ve done so far?

Edit: I mostly play on Foundry, so I’ll likely be switching over the remaster changes to simplify updated Foundry so I get how that could be a problem.

I play on Foundry, so we already had the "where did Flat Footed go?" moment until I remembered the change. I keep my Foundry updated so when everything drops, I'll have the new rules. I find that it will be interesting that the adventure I'm running (Abomination Vaults) have a ton of Drow in them, which are gone after the remaster. I suspect that content will just stick around unchanged. I think it will require some adjustment from the spellcasting players, so that will be interesting.

 

[payn]

I play on Foundry, so we already had the "where did Flat Footed go?" moment until I remembered the change. I keep my Foundry updated so when everything drops, I'll have the new rules. I find that it will be interesting that the adventure I'm running (Abomination Vaults) have a ton of Drow in them, which are gone after the remaster. I suspect that content will just stick around unchanged. I think it will require some adjustment from the spellcasting players, so that will be interesting.

Are they gone? I thought Paizo simply said they are not including them in future material?

One of the nice things about PF is exactly how much good adventure material is out there. With Archives of Nethys, you can pretty much play anything thats been around since '09.

 

[Velderan]

I play on Foundry, so we already had the "where did Flat Footed go?" moment until I remembered the change. I keep my Foundry updated so when everything drops, I'll have the new rules. I find that it will be interesting that the adventure I'm running (Abomination Vaults) have a ton of Drow in them, which are gone after the remaster. I suspect that content will just stick around unchanged. I think it will require some adjustment from the spellcasting players, so that will be interesting.

Yeah, I’m running the same AP and we had a couple moments of “where did this spell go”? I forget which magic item the group just found had the old spell name, but the linked spell in the item description was for the new spell. Nothing big, but definitely makes you read what you’re looking at twice before it registers.

I’m sure the drow in it won’t be touched. Paizo has said they’re not changing old stat blocks since they’re already out there, my guess would be you just won’t see any further mentions of drow in future AP releases.

 

[Velderan]

Are they gone? I thought Paizo simply said they are not including them in future material?

One of the nice things about PF is exactly how much good adventure material is out there. With Archives of Nethys, you can pretty much play anything thats been around since '09.

They mentioned on a stream drow will be retconned to be lizard men (I think) in world lore. Pretty sure that was the same stream they said old stat blocks are out there and can be used and they’d be unlikely to update previously released material due to the level of effort that would require.

 

[SteveC]

Are they gone? I thought Paizo simply said they are not including them in future material?

That is a good question. I'm going to assume they are simply not going to have them in any adventures going forward, but when you have an electronic product, it's easy to make changes. I suspect there won't be changes applied to the APs, but that will be interesting since they will have elements in them that are no longer in the core rules. And if you have a PDF of an AP, this doesn't mean anything, but with Foundry integration, the Drow warrior points to the bestiary, which won't have that creature any more.