Save vs News - Everything Old is News Again

[Fowl Sorcerous]

Saving Throw plays catch up with this week's gaming announcements. Find out how Warhammer 40K is expanding, when Wizards of the Coast is bringing back D&D 3.5, what Paizo is doing with a box full of monsters and how Rolemaster is making its return to the gamer conciousness

in related news, the guys who make Rolemaster are still in business

[TG Barighm]

OMG! It's ALIVE!

Heh, just joking. Nice to see some news.

[Minneyar]

Wizards is re-releasing 3.5? The guys at Paizo must be eating this up. At this point the only thing that'd be better is if WotC updated their old splat books to be Pathfinder-compatible...

[TG Barighm]

No wonder. I don't know about the entire market, but everyone I know, upon finding a rule system they liked and learned, were very unwilling to switch to something else just because something newer was available. They were more than happy to buy an endless supply of 3.5 add-ons.

[Fowl Sorcerous]

this isn't going be a huge print run and it will be at higher production value (and price point) than the regular release of 3.5. more in line with those leather bound versions release at the tail end of the 3.5 lifespan.

[jcservant]

mwhhahahhahaha....3.5....mahahahahahah

(Can you tell I'm a Paizo fanboy?)

[TheAnimeMan]

The main reason their doing it was for the D&D Next stuff. Which Mike Mearls is currently really unhappy with the feedback from a recent article.

Honestly my DM's been looknig at 13th Age.

[Fowl Sorcerous]

the only thing that keeps me from cranking up the hype machine for 13th age is that about half of what John Wick is going for Santa vacca sounds hella cool.

[jcservant]

I've been having a ton of fun with Pathfinder. After a year, my online/maptools homebrew group is level 15, and our Carrion Crown group is up to level 6. (I had some other groups, including a Jade Regent group, which fizzled out for logistical reasons). And I'm starting a local "Rise of the Runelords" campaign (Yes, I have the new book on preorder, woot!) If you like 3.5, I can definately say that PF is a nice improvement on that formula, and is playing well even at the higher levels. If you weren't a fan of 3.5, there's not a lot here that's going to convert ya.

[TheAnimeMan]

Especially it's lack of Non Human races lacking culture :P

[jcservant]

Especially it's lack of Non Human races lacking culture :P

Well, I was praising the game system, not the game setting itself. My best campaign is a homebrew one, where I detail all of that stuff in my own setting. However, if you wish to talk about Golarion and the setting of the "Pathfinder Society", I can do that to some degree.


In regards to cuture... The creators have made it very clear that in their setting, humans are, by far, the most populous and dominating race of Golarion. Because of that, Paizo has many books detailing each of the nations, which provide numerous, rich backgrounds to start any character in. One of their goals was to make it to where players feel that the different 'races' of humans are as vast and varied as, let's say those found on Earth. While they fall short of that lofty goal, they did succeed in creating a setting where players have MANY different backgrounds to choose from in creating their character.

Now, notice that I said 'any' character in the second line of the paragraph above. That's because, while humans are definately the most populous, so most of the material seems squarely aimed at creating human characters, most cities do have a number of the non-human races. If you want to create a Chilax elf instead of a human, you can do so...and that elf will have as much material to work with (for creating a unique background) as any human. The emphesis of this setting is that, in creating a character, your cities/nations of origin play a much greater role in fleshing out your backstory than your race.

That's not to say that race itself does not have a role. There are individual books by Paizo, such as "Elves of Golarion," which provide more details about the various races, their native lands (with details on those customs, views, societies, etc), their view of other races, etc. However, while those details are available, and should be a part of the creation of any character set in the world a Golarion, the background (where you come from) should also play a huge role.

So, instead of being a "Wood Elf", "Dark Elf," "River Elf" etc...you're an "Elf from Andoria" (that's not to say that there aren't 'wood elves', par se, in Golarion, it's just that the flavor of Elf takes somewhat of a backseat to where they are from, in terms of fleshing them out). If you combine what information they do have from the individual race books with the information of the various nations, you have a LOT of material for making a unique and complex character, regardless of the race.

If you're looking for a setting that has numerous versions of the non-human races (e.g. cave dwarves, fortress dwarves, dark dwarves, etc) that was each completely fleshed out resulting in dozens of detailed 'sub races,' than, no, Golarion as a setting is not for you. But if you don't mind evaluating lands and ideas, places of origins, and using those details, instead, to make your character unique and interesting, you will find plenty of material to work with in the Pathfinder setting.

[TheAnimeMan]

I've been listening to the whole 3.5/PF thing from a guy who is being forced to creator a game setting outta the PF game design. So he owns all the books and rants about them off and on at our weekly gaming sessions.

If you wanna maybe add him to G+ JC, I'll get you his name (or you can add me and he'll pop up) cause he posts not just his comments on game engines but ideas he's working on. Like is Mass Effect hack.

[jcservant]

Sounds cool.

Admittedly, I know little of other gaming systems, aside from what i've played in video game versions here and there. I used to play AD&D 1st edition back in the late 80's, and when I decided to jump into pen and paper again a year ago, I knew that with my limited resources (mostly in the area of time), I could only commit to one pen and paper system. I read a lot of reviews, and talked to a number of friends who knew multiple systems, incuding our very own Fowl Sorcerous, who could give me more objective info. I chose the AD&D 3.5/PF because, first, it had plenty to hold my attention (I get bored quickly if a game system lacks depth), and second, the game rules and the such do a decent job, imho, of tying in generally accepted fantasy logic (rogues backstab, mages cast awesome spells, potions heal, etc) into a rules system that is somewhat balanced.

In actually playing the system in several campaigns for over a year, now, I am hapy to say that my own experiences at the table have supported the reports I received. IMHO, for anyone who likes deeper combat and character creation fantasy systems, I believe PF is really well done. I've also really enjoyed Paizo as a company. Their products are pretty well done (I would say 4/5 overall). The biggest gripe I have is with their adventure paths...they clearly aren't play tested (no surprise given how fast they pump them out), and some of the encounters can easily cause TPKs. Some of it feels awefully derivative at times. The rules books are almost all very well done (Ultimate magic was a little bit of a miss) and I love the campaign setting books. Getting free PDFs wtih my subscriptions (they rock on the iPad) is an awesome bonus, and their customer service is 2nd to none. There have been plenty of occasions where I wrote a tough rules question on their boards, and without asking, had someone from Paizo answer me directly.

Personally, I do enjoy Golarion. It's not my favorite setting at all. However, the low magic, down to earth feel rubs me the right way after spending years invested in higher magic environments. That's not to say that powerful magic and characters don't play a role, but that role is mostly left to the players. The settings, fiction books, etc, provide a low magic feel to it so that the party members (who may be investing in those products) really do feel like the stars of the show by comparison. When I read the fiction books, I feel that in addition to enjoying a decent narrative, I'm really learning more about the culture, world, faiths, etc that provide the foundations for when I'm building characters, running the table, etc...rather than outshine what is being done there.

Anyway, enough from me. As you can tell, I'm pretty well invested in Pathfinder, and can speak (and will) speak about it to great lengths. I think there are a lot of other great systems out there (My friends are trying to push me into a Mutants & Masterminds campaign...very interesting system there)... but for fantasy, this is where I'm parking my bus for some time