Pathfinder 1E Stop thinking of Pathfinder as magazine issues

[Erik Mona]

Well, if the magazine format is successful for you, and you can do a magazine, are you going too?

If not, why not?

We have no plans to launch a new magazine. Dragon and Dungeon had a combined 50 years of inertia behind them. Distributors and retailers knew the names and stocked accordingly. I'm not talking about game stores, here, but buyers for bookstores and supermarkets and armed forces PX's... right down the line to all the places Dragon and Dungeon have been available for decades.

Simply switching Dragon and Dungeon for "Labyrinth" and "Wyvern," as Monte suggests, wouldn't actually work, because the magazine distribution folks would view these as new titles, and we would be back to square one.

Making Pathfinder a durable book product with a theoretically infinite shelf life (as opposed to a model in which 45% of the print run is pulped a month after it comes out) seemed the best option. This way we can get rid of the ads that upset so many readers, save time in not having to track down all of the companies that buy ads and then go out of business before they pay, simplify distribution for our core retail partners by allowing them to order the product the same way they order all of their other books, and a whole host of other reasons that make the book option much more attractive to us.

We were making money on the magazines. We loved working on the magazines. But Pathfinder as a book product has considerable advantages over Pathfinder as a magazine.

--Erik Mona
Publisher
Paizo Publishing, LLC

 

[Erik Mona]

I should point out, incidentally, that I considered both "Labyrinth" and "Wyvern" for names for the product that ultimately became Pathfinder.

I decided it wasn't a great idea to give our flagship product a name few people know how to spell.

--Erik

 

[James Jacobs]

I should point out, incidentally, that I considered both "Labyrinth" and "Wyvern" for names for the product that ultimately became Pathfinder.

I decided it wasn't a great idea to give our flagship product a name few people know how to spell.

--Erik

Thank you for not making the title of the book an editor trap, boss!

(goes back to practicing his spelling of "Pathfindar.")

 

[Jdvn1]

(goes back to practicing his spelling of "Pathfindar.")

How long did it take you to get 'Dun-gin' down?

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I've Done Gin.

Before I subscribe, does anybody know if Wizards is going to challenge this legally?

I doubt it. I'd say that they can't. Plus, If they're smart, they'll avoid such bad publicity at all costs. They would come to be known as "The company that fights the competition in every way possible - except by making better products themselves."

Sums it up for me. I *really* want to get Pathfinder, but how can I justify spending $200+ in one year for something I'll get very little use out of?

I'd say that it's not that little use:

You get two big adventure paths, which should be enough to occupy your party for the whole year, and you also get new monsters, spells, feats, and stuff like that.

You'll get it in what I consider one of the best possible forms of distribution: You get both the print book and the PDF version, so you can do full text searches, or assemble your own monster compendium out of the stuff.

 

[DonTadow]

There seems to be a bit of a push that these are complete adventure paths. Will there be material to run them "ala carte".

Also, I stopped my subscription to dungeon because of three reasons

1. No official electronic version with cut and paste features
2. There was a serious lack of mystery/intrigue adventures. Out of the 2 years worth of subscriptions I could only find 3 adventures that did not end in a dungeon crawl.
3. The official WOTC format was just not informative enough for me, especially when concerning real NPCS.

With Pathfinder fix any of my gripes with dungeon.

 

[Nlogue]

Hey Erik, I'd love to continue to support you guys with my dollars, but I've become something of a slavish Eberron fan, and I'm having my doubts as to whether anything in Pathfinder is going to fit the bill without major revision. Any chance you can shed some light on whether there will be city based or otherwise suitable material in your upcoming products? Thanks.

I'm already working on converting Pathfinder to Eberron for my home campaign I plan to run of it, and so far, it's a pretty easy fit.

Sandpoint = Stormreach works very very nicely I have to say.

 

[Nlogue]

There seems to be a bit of a push that these are complete adventure paths. Will there be material to run them "ala carte".

Also, I stopped my subscription to dungeon because of three reasons

1. No official electronic version with cut and paste features
2. There was a serious lack of mystery/intrigue adventures. Out of the 2 years worth of subscriptions I could only find 3 adventures that did not end in a dungeon crawl.
3. The official WOTC format was just not informative enough for me, especially when concerning real NPCS.

With Pathfinder fix any of my gripes with dungeon.

Iron DM Dreads!

1. PDF!!! WOOT! You got it!
2. The second installment of Pathfinder is written Mr. Richard Pett, and I do believe it has an element of mystery to it. I could be wrong, maybe Pett can chime in here. Even though I hates him!
3. No more official WotC format!!!

Besides Dreads! I wrote the third one...so you have to pick them up! Iron DMs Unite!!!

 

[Kae'Yoss]

1. No official electronic version with cut and paste features

I think they'll sell Pathfinder in PDF format, and I know that if you subscribe to Pathfinder (which is a month-to-month subscription, meaning you pay once a month, not a year in advance, and get a flat 30% discount), you'll get the PDF thrown in for free. So you'll get both.

3. The official WOTC format was just not informative enough for me, especially when concerning real NPCS.

Which one? The new one, with the encounters at the end of the chapter?


Talking of which:

Nlogue, since you're here: What can you tell us about the format Pathfinder uses? Is it the same as in Shackled City (for example), or something new?

That would make a great blog entry!

 

[fafhrd]

I should also add that our new GameMastery Modules have specific alpha-numeric codes. Any adventure with a U designation (such as U1: Gallery of Evil) will be set in an urban environment.

--Erik

Thanks for the info, Erik. That coded system should be handy.

potential spoiler warning

I'm already working on converting Pathfinder to Eberron for my home campaign I plan to run of it, and so far, it's a pretty easy fit.

Sandpoint = Stormreach works very very nicely I have to say.

Nick, can you expand on your conversion plans a bit? The tricky thing with using Stormreach is that blog mentions visiting two cities. Are you planning on hopping back to Khorvaire or adding some other 'civilized' area to Xen'drik? Also, how do your goblins fit in, and more importantly what of the Rune Lords? Are you planning on mapping them onto the Giants(I admit that the emergence of the giants has been an idea I've toyed with for awhile) or the Qabalrin(and Xin-Shalast sounds like it'd make a nice feature for the Ring of Storms aka Moil IMC) or some other previously unmentioned group? I want to give this thing a fair shake, and I appreciate any comments you have regarding conversion.