One of my first reviews was of the Pathfinder RPG Beta. It is probably a testament to Pathfinder’s growing popularity that it is, to date, my most read review. So with the release of the final game, I felt I should contribute my thoughts on the official product.

First a little background. When Wizard’s of the Coast released the 3^rd edition of Dungeons and Dragons back in 2000 they did something remarkable. They released the core of the rules under a license known as the OGL. This license, which is irrevocable, allows other publishers to create works that are compatible with the d20 system that was the basis of that edition of D&D. The idea was to make it easier for more material to be released for the system. This would in turn drive up sales of the core books and other supplements by WotC. A number of publishing companies were created specifically to take advantage of this opportunity, and a new era of gaming was born.

One unintended consequence of this open license was the possibility for other publishers to rewrite the rules of the game. There are now quite a few variant rule systems out there, from Arcana Evolved to True20. Some companies created even more drastic changes, creating totally different game systems from the d20 system. When Wizards released the 4^th edition of Dungeons and Dragons, they did so under a much tighter license. There will be no games like Mutants and Masterminds based on 4^th edition. Which is really too bad, because I think it would be a great system for a superhero game. But that is a discussion for another time.

With 3^rd edition retired, but still available under the OGL, Paizo stepped up to carry the torch. Pathfinder is the d20 revision that is most like 3^rd edition. It doesn’t chance the fundamentals of the game the way that Conan or Iron Heroes did. Instead the goal was to create a game that was mostly compatible with the old material. Paizo wanted to continue making 3^rd edition adventures and supplements, but wanted the rules to still be available in print. So they took the opportunity to tweak the system and clean it up along the way. The Pathfinder RPG was born.

Unlike most role-playing games, Pathfinder underwent a yearlong public beta. Anyone could download the beta version for free and provide feedback on the forums. 3^rd edition had already undergone one major revision in its lifetime, so the fundamental game is really quite refined. If you are looking for a drastically new system, Pathfinder isn’t it. It is more like a distillation of everything that made the d20 system great.

The book itself is physically quite impressive. It weighs in near 5 lbs and has 575 pages. It is in full color, and is beautifully illustrated throughout. It contains all the rules that used to be in the old Player’s Handbook and Game Master’s Guide. The book may have a hefty retail price, but the PDF is less than $10. There is also a rules reference document provided online for free. Paizo wants everyone to have access to the rules and give them a try. It is probably a little daunting for newcomers though.

I’m not going to go through a detailed list of how it is different from the old rules. The key changes I will point out are an easier skill system, a streamlined maneuver resolution system, and generally more options for character classes. Similar skills have been consolidated together and skill ranks now match levels directly. This is something I will port into any d20 game I use in the future. Special moves like grapple, trip, and bull rush all use a fairly simple combat maneuver system. Most classes now have more options to choose from. For example, sorcerers now can pick from several bloodlines which give them different bonus powers as they level.

I think the biggest strength of the system is also its greatest weakness. The d20 system has always been a very customizable rules set. Characters can mix and match classes at each level. There are a wide variety of feats a character can use to add variety to abilities. So while building a first level character is fairly easy, a new player joining a high level game for the first time can be overwhelmed with choices. If you want a game that has the potential for a lot of complex customization, this is it. If you are looking for a light rules system there are plenty of other good choices out there.

Paizo put a lot work into making this an amazing book and a great system. If you are interested in fantasy role-playing games, you should definitely check it out. It may not suit everyone’s taste, but the OGL will ensure that the d20 family will continue to evolve. The Pathfinder RPG another step forward in the evolution of the game.

Apathy Rating: 4/5.

After getting a taste of Behind the Spells from the free articles at Kobold Quarterly, I went ahead and acquired the PDF of the compendium. Behind the Spells: Compendium is a collection of the first 36 articles in the series. Each article examines one of the spells that have been in Dungeons and Dragons since the earliest of editions.

An article is divided into two parts. The first part discusses the in-character history of the spell’s creation. The author  explains the evolution of a spell from 1st edition to 3rd edition through the perspective of a dragon. Most of this lore is easily added to any fantasy setting, although at times it may directly contradict existing information. In particular he created a reason why the system reference document does not list the names of spell’s creators which are part of Wizard’s of the Coast’s trademarks. The spell histories he provides are entertaining to read. They also contain plenty of hooks and ideas a GM may wish to use in their game.

The second half of an article is a section on spell variants and tricks. Occasionally he gives a new monster or magic item, but most of the information is spell related. Spell tricks are ways to modify a spell at casting time. They usually require a spellcraft check to perform. Some people might think it gives too much power to spellcasters, but I believe it is the type of creative spellcasting that makes problem solving interesting. None of the tricks are particularly powerful; allowing a wizard to use cone of cold to create an ice bridge for example isn’t going to break your game. Also included are quite a few new spells which are creative variants of existing spells.

I usually like to write longer reviews, but each article is only 3-4 pages in length. The quality of articles is fairly consistent throughout. Each article packs a lot of data inside. I can’t classify this as a must have, but it is a very solid supplement. I recommend it to any GM or spellcaster who wants to spice up their use of spells. I certainly plan on picking up a hard copy next time I place a lulu order.

Apathy Rating: 3/5.

The Zobeck Gazetteer is a 50 page setting guide from Open Design. Zobeck is an independent city that can be placed in any fantasy campaign world and features kobolds, gypsies, and clockwork creations. The Free City of Zobeck is also used in Kobold Quarterly articles, which is an excellent gaming magazine.

One of the most unique things about this product is how it was created. Open Design began as an experiment in RPG patronage. Instead of being contracted to write an adventure for a publisher, Wolfgang Baur decided to write an adventure for a group of patrons. If enough interested people put money toward a project, he would write it for them. But patronage is more than just pre-ordering a product. Being a patron means helping to shape the final product. Not only do patrons help select what the adventure will be about, but they get to provide feedback and ideas as the project is being developed. If you are interested in seeing the process of adventure writing, I definitely recommend taking a look at being a patron. As a result of the extra playtesting and review the final products tend to be very polished.

The most recent patronage project, Tales of Zobeck, has two parts. The first part is the Zobeck Gazetteer which is available for purchase by the public in either PDF or print form. The second part is an anthology of adventures set in Zobeck. This review looks at how the Zobeck Gazetteer stands on its own. I have actually (with difficulty) refrained from reading the adventures in Tales. My current campaign is too high of level to use them directly and I hold a faint hope that someday I can convince someone else to run one of these adventures for me. I came relatively late to the project as a patron so I mostly observed the process and did not take much part in its creation. If you are interested in seeing the process of adventure writing then I definitely recommend taking a look at being a patron. I really like what I’ve seen so far and I plan on being much more involved in the next project.

About two-thirds of the Gazetteer is information about the setting which could be used with any game system. The remaining materials are d20 rules that mainly deal with clockwork creatures and magic. There are details about the city, its inhabitants, and its gods. One of my favorite sections is the Kobold Ghetto. Much of the city’s wealth comes from the silver mines worked by kobolds. The cramped jumble of streets that make up the Ghetto is where they make their home. Visitors, who are allowed in only at night, should be wary of traps that are set throughout the area. Many are just annoying, but some of the traps prove to be deadly. I found their descriptions to be particularly entertaining.

There are six major gods of Zobeck, including Zobeck’s patron deity: Rava the Gear Goddess. Hers is the largest temple in the city and contains the Clockwork Oracle. The rest of the gods are a diverse pantheon that covers most of the usual divine portfolios. I found it interesting that the usual d20 information on gods was not present (domains and favored weapon.) Enough information is presented to easily allow appropriate selections to be made from whichever rules sources a cleric player may have access to.

It is due to the Gear Goddess’s devoted followers that clockwork creations are common in Zobeck. Clockwork soldiers patrol the streets and there is a race of Gearforged that allows players to be constructs themselves. An article on the magic of Zobeck adds a number of clockwork related spells for clerics and wizards. These plus the gear domain are great additions to any game that desires a little more of a steampunk feel.

Overall I think this is a great supplement by itself. It contains a lot of great adventure hook ideas. I’ve already decided that an upcoming villain in my game will be from here. It packs a lot in for its size and leaves you wanting even more. It may make you go out and buy back copies of Kobold Quarterly just for the extra Zobeck articles.

Apathy Rating: 5/5.

Edit: Now that the final version is released, here is my second look.

I’ve had a chance to look a little closer at the Pathfiner RPG Beta. I then proceeded to write a review that was over a thousand words long. After looking it over I decided to start all over again. I realized that while I was examining the differences between it and 3^rd edition Dungeons and Dragons, the resulting review would only be useful to those who have a nuanced familiarity with the 3.5 rules. The target of this review shouldn’t be nearly so narrow. If you are that interested in the minute rules differences, go read the Beta rules yourself. What I took away from the exercise is that I really care about the Pathfinder RPG product, and know that I will purchase the final rules when they are out next year.

So I can’t write a review of the Pathfinder RPG without looking at a little history. Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game that has been around since 1977. The game has evolved quite a lot since then, and in the year 2000 the 3^rd edition was created. On the one hand it changed the way a lot of things worked from the earlier editions. It added a much needed skill system. There was a new method for playing multiple classes, allowing a character to mix and match its skills and abilities from different careers. Other things remained much the same. The structure of wizard spell casting, having to memorize spells from a list, isn’t much different from the original version. As always, there was some grumbling from older players that it was no longer the game they wanted to play. But for the most part it brought a new group of people into the game, and many players back. I myself had skipped over the entirety of 2^nd edition, having many years before moved on to other games like Palladium Fantasy Roleplay or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. When 3^rd edition came out Dungeons and Dragons was great again and I, like many others, returned to it.

Another interesting experiment that Wizards of the Coast did was to create the Open Gaming License. The idea was to allow any company to produce material for Dungeons and Dragons. Anything that was created under this license could be reused in other products using the same license. This created a new industry of companies building supporting products. Quality of these products varied, but there are certainly some remarkable supplements and amazing adventures out there. When 4^th edition was released, and a much different licensing scheme was introduced, publishers of these products had a choice: Continue making products for the open version of Dungeons and Dragons, or try the new version with a more limited license. What I find interesting is that because of this license there will be some form of 3^rd edition available for as long as people are interested in playing it. So when Paizo decided that they would continue to produce content for the game they already love, they also decided to print a rulebook so that anyone interested in their products would have a source for those rules. The Pathfinder Role-playing Game was born.

Paizo has certainly put a lot of work into it. It weighs in at 410 pages, and is a complete fantasy adventure role-playing game system. It is an evolution of the d20 3.5 SRD, so I look at it as an off-shoot of Dungeons and Dragons. Many things are slightly different though, so the biggest difficulty existing players will have in learning it are the subtle changes. I will admit my players still surprise me sometimes with rules changes from 3.0 to 3.5, so there is no way I will find all the differences anytime soon. I do appreciate that all of the rules are in one book. It doesn’t include monsters, but you don’t have to hunt in another book for rules on traps, poison, magic items, creating monsters, or creating encounters.

First impression is that this is a well thought out product. This is written by people very familiar with original rules. They may not have made all the changes you were looking for, but the system they have created is designed to still be reasonably compatible with existing OGL 3.5 adventures and supplements. The first thing that stands out is that all of the basic classes and races have a little more power than they had before. The idea is that many of the existing supplements have made the base classes and races under-powered in comparison. This is probably the biggest change that might keep existing players using the original rules. I like the changes as they allow a little more freedom when creating new races. I am a fan of Planescape, and it would be relatively easy to convert many of the races from the planes into something more balanced with the new core races. I would move some of the more powerful abilities into racial specific feats, and build a set of playable races that way.

They also tried to make it more appealing to stay in the base classes longer. There is something new you get from each class at every level. Classes also have some very hefty abilities added at 20th. I’ve heard them described as ‘near epic’, but I can’t really judge as I’ve never played that high level. On the other hand, 20th level is fairly close to epic anyway, so I don’t think it really matters. One thing that is still being debated over at the Paizo boards is whether or not Fighters and Wizards are balanced. One of the common complaints about 3.5 is that at high levels, the wizard becomes extremely potent compared to the fighter. It is true that the fighter has always dominated at low levels, but eventually a wizard is able to use such powerful magic spells that the fighter becomes merely a bodyguard that gets in the way. So with all of the classes getting a little more power, the casters are no exception. The question of whether the casters still overshadow the melee characters is still debated.

I find myself liking the Pathfinder RPG. It isn’t a finished product yet, so I wouldn’t recommend it to beginners. If you are interested in being involved in the development of a game, or have ever liked the 3^rd edition of Dungeons and Dragons, I highly recommend you give it a look. Now is the perfect time as the rules are available for free. I realized that customizable characters is what I’m missing from 4^th edition. I expect I will continue to play both versions of the game for years to come. I definitely look forward to next year when I will likely be able to recommend the finished Pathfinder RPG to newcomers and old hands alike.

Apathy Rating: 3/5.

I know previously I promised a review of the Pathfinder RPG Beta. I still plan on reviewing it but it is a fairly large book (400 pages plus a 60 page web enhancement) and I want to do it justice. So instead I will start with another Paizo product: Pathfinder 13: Shadow in the Sky. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Paizo, they used to be the publishers of Dungeon and Dragon Magazines. When Wizards of the Coast decided to publish the magazines themselves in an online format, Paizo had to find a new direction for their business. They decided to continue doing what they do best: publish monthly material for Dungeons and Dragons. Every month they produce a 90+ page booklet that contains several adventures in a campaign series. Each campaign comes in 6 installments, and takes a party from level 1 to about 15. Shadows in the Sky marks the beginning of their third adventure path, Second Darkness. When 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons was announced Paizo decided to continue publishing adventures for 3.5 instead, and began developing Pathfinder RPG so that some form of 3rd edition would remain to allow anyone to play their adventures.

So first I must touch on the production value of the book. Each page is glossy and full color. It is much nicer quality than most adventure books I’ve seen. The price is a little high for such a slim book, but if you get a subscription you get 30% off and a free pdf of each book. I definitely appreciate the pdf, as I always like to print out copies of maps for reference during games. An active subscription also gets you 15% off all other Paizo products, which is a nice bonus if you plan on buying any quantity of Paizo products. They certainly put their experience in the magazine industry to produce a very nice product (actually now they have other complementary product lines as well) every month.

The first half of the book is the adventures for the story arc. Being the first adventure of the path, it takes characters from first level and leaves them just getting to 4th level at the end. The book takes place in Riddleport, an old pirate town turned trade hub that contains a mysterious runed archway across the harbor mouth. These beginning adventures begin by pitting the players against the criminal underworld of Riddleport, and end with them facing what will become the villains of the overall campaign, drow. The outline of adventures to come sounds very promising, as any epic quest against the drow is always a favorite of players.

I have only the first part to judge though, but it is a well thought out beginning adventure. It is almost entirely urban in nature, which I’ve always found to be both challenging and rewarding to run and play. They do a good job of making suggestions for alternatives for when the players inevitably deviate from the primary path. By the end they will have a number of enemies and allies in the city. I also appreciated that the adventure is well suited for both good and evil parties, even though they of course are slanted toward at least a modestly good group. The climactic end battle looks very fun to run, and should feel rather cinematic for the players.

The second half of the book includes supplemental material that would be useful for any game. There is a description of Riddleport and key important figures. A number of key locations are well detailed and can be added to any city. Four gambling games are described which can add flavor to any tavern encounters of any game. Included is a stand alone adventure, to be used if the group needs a little extra experience in the campaign, or just something to add to any existing game. There are four new monsters to add to your DM’s toolkit as well.

Overall I was impressed with the product. Even though I don’t know when I might be able to run the adventure, I am certainly glad I decided to purchase it. My only regret is that it took me a year before I got a subscription. Even if you don’t like running a scripted campaign, I recommend checking out their other product lines. If you plan on continuing to use 3rd edition, Paizo is the company to watch.

Apathy Rating: 3/5

Last week I mentioned True20 as a possible alternative to 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. This week I took a closer look at True20, and I’m not certain if that really is the case. Not to say that True20 is a bad system, but it definitely doesn’t feel like D&D. I would say that it is a good system if you want a light rules set that is easily customizable to any setting. I will admit when I first glanced at it, I felt it didn’t have a lot of substance to it. I saw it as a set of rules that formed a solid basis, but needing a little more to make it feel complete. After closer examination however, I find that isn’t the case. It comes with four sample settings in the back of the book which help fill out the game. They are useful not only as settings in themselves, but as guidelines to help you tailor the rules to suit whichever setting you decide to use. Of course there are quite a few settings books also published for the system, so there is plenty of material to work with should you decide to invest in the system. I myself plan on examining Roma Imperious, an interesting alternate history setting which has also been published using the Iridium lite system.

One of the things that stands out about True20 are the Roles. The basic book has only three Roles, which take the place of the many classes of D&D. There are Adepts, which have a weak attack bonus progression, that can be customized to be any character that draws upon supernatural powers. If you want to be a psychic, wizard, alchemist, mad scientist, or shaman, Adept is the role for you. There are Experts, which have a moderate attack bonus progression, and can be anything from thieves, doctors, or priests. And of course there are Warriors, which have the best attack bonus, and are the soldiers, mercenaries, gladiators, or bounty hunters of the world. Each of these roles can be customized by different archetypes, which are usually setting specific, that open access to certain feats or skills. The intent is to have a simple core mechanic that can be styled for many different character types. It is a fairly elegant system, and keeps things rather balanced.

Combat is another thing that is quite a bit different from the game’s d20 roots. Instead of weapons doing a variable amount of dice worth of damage, everything is represented by a damage bonus. Characters don’t have a hit point total, they have a list of injury states. When someone is hit in combat, they roll a saving throw with the difficulty modified by the damage bonus. The amount they fail determines what injury state you receive. So if you just barely miss your save against a fist, you’ll just be bruised. If you fail by a lot against a laser pistol, you will be seriously injured. Since injury states have penalties attached to them, this can lead to a slow wearing down of a characters defenses. Extremely tough characters may be able to simply shrug of many light blows, coming away from a fight completely unscathed. I also noticed the removal of attacks of opportunity, which tends to make it easier to run combat without miniatures. This can be a pro or a con depending on your taste in gaming.

Overall, I like the system and think it holds a useful niche. If you want either a more gritty or a more cinematic game than D&D, True20 can work for you. If you are looking for a more skill based role-playing system, with a light rules set that emphasizes story over mechanics, this game is worth checking out. If you are mostly happy with 3rd edition Dungeons and Dragons and simply want a refinement but not the complete overhaul that is 4th edition, I’ll be looking at the new Pathfinder RPG from Paizo next which may be more your style.

Apathy Rating: 3/5