Pathfinder Review
This post is a bit time delayed. I wrote it a while back, but it sat in drafts. Then I ended up out of town for a week... Anyway, here it is. More to come on D&D 4E and a campaign update.
I mentioned briefly in my last post that I had recently started running a new D&D campaign set in Paizo’s Pathfinder setting. I’m running the Rise of the Runelords adventure path, their first in the Pathfinder Adventures series. We play weekly, but because of work and family obligations we can usually only get two-and-a-half to three-hour sessions in. We also play a roleplaying-heavy game, so we tend to take a lot longer to move through the content than a hack-and-slash group might.
I can already feel you cringing –“Oh, god no. He’s going to tell us about his game.” Don’t worry, I’m not – although if you are interested, you can see a transcript of our first few sessions here. Instead, I am going to talk a lot about Pathfinder books and our impressions of the campaign so far.
First off, if you haven’t had any exposure to the Pathfinder Adventures, they work like this: They are organized into “adventure paths” and published in monthly installments (you can even subscribe and have them mailed directly to you). Each adventure path spans six issues, and they take your characters from first level to somewhere between 12th and 15th level. They are all set in Paizo’s own campaign world of Golarion, which is slowly getting built out into it’s own campaign setting. Each installment runs around 98 pages, and typically contains a roughly sixty page long adventure, some new background material that expands the campaign setting, a “Pathfinder’s Journal" entry, which tends to be a piece of short fiction that add color and flavor, and a bestiary with five or six new setting-specific nasties to through at your party.
The first thing you will noticed about Pathinder is the depth that went into developing both the story and the characters. The starter town fills fourteen pages and details fifty different locations. There are 56 different NPCs, each with their own back stories and motivations. For the group that likes a strong RP game and a sort of sandbox game, it’s a goldmine. While we are only in the first adventure, I have been very impressed with how well connected they all are. The authors do an amazing job foreshadowing events and characters that at first seem insignificant, but return in later installments to play a significant role in the campaign. Having the extra pages (compared to the standard 32-page module) really pays off, giving the authors "room to work" and giving you a very detailed and complete adventure.
I’m not a huge fan of the direction WotC started going with their modules starting with Eyes of the Lich Queen. Their new "tactical encounter" format puts a lot of emphasis on the combat scenes, spending the bulk of their text on encounter descriptions, almost scripting them blow by blow. To me, D&D needs to be so much more than that. If I just wanted combat, I’d spend my nights running instances in World of Warcraft. Pathfinder takes almost the exact opposite approach, spending most of their space on story background and character descriptions, and trusting that armed with that a good DM will have the skills to run a good game. It’s definitely the approach I prefer.
I mentioned briefly in my last post that I had recently started running a new D&D campaign set in Paizo’s Pathfinder setting. I’m running the Rise of the Runelords adventure path, their first in the Pathfinder Adventures series. We play weekly, but because of work and family obligations we can usually only get two-and-a-half to three-hour sessions in. We also play a roleplaying-heavy game, so we tend to take a lot longer to move through the content than a hack-and-slash group might.I can already feel you cringing –“Oh, god no. He’s going to tell us about his game.” Don’t worry, I’m not – although if you are interested, you can see a transcript of our first few sessions here. Instead, I am going to talk a lot about Pathfinder books and our impressions of the campaign so far.
First off, if you haven’t had any exposure to the Pathfinder Adventures, they work like this: They are organized into “adventure paths” and published in monthly installments (you can even subscribe and have them mailed directly to you). Each adventure path spans six issues, and they take your characters from first level to somewhere between 12th and 15th level. They are all set in Paizo’s own campaign world of Golarion, which is slowly getting built out into it’s own campaign setting. Each installment runs around 98 pages, and typically contains a roughly sixty page long adventure, some new background material that expands the campaign setting, a “Pathfinder’s Journal" entry, which tends to be a piece of short fiction that add color and flavor, and a bestiary with five or six new setting-specific nasties to through at your party.
The first thing you will noticed about Pathinder is the depth that went into developing both the story and the characters. The starter town fills fourteen pages and details fifty different locations. There are 56 different NPCs, each with their own back stories and motivations. For the group that likes a strong RP game and a sort of sandbox game, it’s a goldmine. While we are only in the first adventure, I have been very impressed with how well connected they all are. The authors do an amazing job foreshadowing events and characters that at first seem insignificant, but return in later installments to play a significant role in the campaign. Having the extra pages (compared to the standard 32-page module) really pays off, giving the authors "room to work" and giving you a very detailed and complete adventure.
The folks at Paizo seem to take great pleasure in revitalizing and reimagining parts of the classic D&D experience that may otherwise feel worn out. For example, the first installment of Runelords (Burnt Offerings), deals heavily with goblins, but does so in a way that breathes new life into the little knee-biters. (The "Top 10 things you should know about goblins" in the foreword made me laugh outloud.) They did such a good job in fact that they ended up putting out a supplement called Classic Monsters Revisited by popular demand, which is as much fun to read as it is to use.
I’m not a huge fan of the direction WotC started going with their modules starting with Eyes of the Lich Queen. Their new "tactical encounter" format puts a lot of emphasis on the combat scenes, spending the bulk of their text on encounter descriptions, almost scripting them blow by blow. To me, D&D needs to be so much more than that. If I just wanted combat, I’d spend my nights running instances in World of Warcraft. Pathfinder takes almost the exact opposite approach, spending most of their space on story background and character descriptions, and trusting that armed with that a good DM will have the skills to run a good game. It’s definitely the approach I prefer.
On a related topic, Fourth Edition D&D launched this week. I’ve ordered my core books from Amazon, but they haven’t shown up yet. Once I get a chance to look at them I’ll post some opinions. Until then, you can check out the guys from Penny Arcade playing a session of 4E ran by one of the WotC guys. It’s pretty entertaining listening. Here are links to Part One and Part Two. There are some classic moments, and an uncanny amount of 20s rolled.
Labels: Dungeons and Dragons, podcasts, RPGs
| Permalink | 
