Urgh...
Ok, so a project that was supposed to be due sometime in mid-November is now due by November 1st, which means blogging will be spotty until next month. Even my regular gaming has been thrown off schedule. This is what I get for boasting about how we play nearly every week. For those of you to whom I owe writing, yeah, might be a little late because of this. Basically, work is sucking all the oxygen out of the room.
Paizo's decided they wanted to get in on the box action, and they're launching their beginner box this month. It includes a 64 page player's book (nice traditional page-count there) that will get you all the way through 5th level. The pre-gen character sheets are done up to explain how to use the stuff on the sheet to minimize running back to the book. There's also a DM's book that's twice as long that includes an intro adventure that introduces different aspects one-per-room (the first room involves a skill check, the next room has a combat, etc.). It also includes 100+ monsters with a much more strealined statblock (still not old-school simple, but surprisingly sleek for 3.x game) and advice on building your own adventures. Plus other goodies:
Frankly, the neatest parts to me are the character sheets for the pre-gens that give you the basics right on the sheet. For a game as complex as 3.x, that seems pretty vital to me. I'm also intrigued by the implication made towards solo play out of the box (though no details, so possibly I misunderstood that part).
The box comes out in late October and retails for $35. That's probably still in the impulse-buy range for people with jobs and comfortably below the price of a new computer or console game. The challenge for Paizo will be getting it in front of potential new players; their strength has always been in catering to the existing 3.x community, and I doubt they're going to have penetration into WalMart or Target.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
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5 comments:
They've put one of the character sheets up on the site; I used the layout to produce a simplified Pathfinder sheet for a new player in my group and it seems to work well.
Man, I am so stoked to get mine. I hope it will arrive early enough that I can play a Halloween game with my nephews.
As a Pathfinder fan, I will get this; however, I did ask on the forums to Erik Mona how they were going to get the box into the hands of new players. No response made. Not surprising since every game company with the exception to TSR (that I can remember, maybe there was others) puts their "beginner box" on the shelf of the FLGS or maybe the rpg section of Barnes and Noble.
Paizo will sell their beginner box by preaching to the choir because they have a solid fan base, but new players--unlikely.
Are you ever going to update your blog again, Trollsmyth?
That actually doesn't look half bad: a goodly set of counters... and that battle mat looks far sturdier than I would have imagined. That it goes up to 5th level means it isn't crippleware, though I couldn't tell you how fast people are expected to level up under 3.x.
I have seen these on the shelves at Books-A-Million, so that is one place beyond the usual Gamerly-Game-Store.
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