Pathfinder Roleplaying Game

The "Pathfinder Roleplaying Game" (PRPG) is a role-playing game announced by Paizo Publishing that extends and modifies the "Dungeons & Dragons" rules from the 3.5 Edition of the game as published under the Open Game License. The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game would remain backward-compatible with the 3.5 edition, while addressing some issues of that edition.

Announced in March 2008, the "Pathfinder Roleplaying Game" is scheduled to be released in August 2009. A beta-test release of the game is currently available from Paizo Publishing.

The "Pathfinder Roleplaying Game" will support the "Pathfinder" adventure paths as well as other works set in the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting. These products are scheduled to begin to use the "Pathfinder Roleplaying Game" in August 2009, alongside the final release of the PRPG at Gen Con Indy 2009.cite web |url=http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG |title=Paizo Publishing Announces the Pathfinder RPG |accessdate=2008-07-10]

Goals

Lead Designer Jason Buhlman described the following as the primary design goals of the Pathfinder RPG:

; Add Options: Buhlman feels that the basic classes are lackluster, and don't provide incentive to stay with a single class for 20 levels of play. Pathfinder will add options to the classes.

; Compatibility: Pathfinder RPG is intended to be compatible with the extensive body of expansion materials available for D&D 3.5. In most cases this means adding rules instead of subtracting. This compatibility is not perfect, minimal conversion work may be necessary, and sometimes this goal was broken to meet other goals. [http://sob.apotheon.org/?p=461 What does "compatibility" mean for Pathfinder?] ]

; Improve the Game: The game is modified to clean up and streamline problematic parts of the game. New options were added. Changes were made to improve balance between different game elements.

Development/Release Schedule

October 2007: Jason Bulmahn began development of an updated system based on D&D 3.5, in part as a reaction to the waning support for the system in the wake of WotC's announcement of the upcoming 4E and in part as a reaction to the desire to improve on weaknesses in the D&D 3.5 game mechanics.

March 2008: Alpha Playtest release 1 was made available as a free PDF download through the Paizo Website.

April 2008: Alpha Playtest release 2 was made available as a free PDF download through the Paizo Website, adding additional updated material and incorporating changes in response to playtest feedback.

May 2008: Alpha Playtest release 3 was made available as a free PDF download through the Paizo Website, adding more updated material and incorporating further changes in response to playtest feedback.

August 2008: Beta Playtest release will be made available as both a free PDF download through the Paizo Website and a $25 softcover book whose first appearance will be at the GenCon gaming convention. This will begin the year-long beta test process, during which time updates to the Beta rules are promised to appear, but the eventual availability of updated reprints is not clear.

August 2009: Like the Beta Playtest, the final Pathfinder RPG release will make its appearance during the GenCon gaming convention. It is expected to be a 420 page hardcover, and will serve as the basis for future Paizo Adventure Path publications and an OGL stand-alone replacement for the out of print D&D 3.x books published by Wizards of the Coast.

External Links

* [http://www.pathfinderwiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page Pathfinder Wiki]
* [http://sob.apotheon.org/?p=438 How Paizo Fixed D&D]
* [http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/13/13695.phtml Pathfinder RPG Alpha] - a review at RPGnet

References