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Pathfinder
I’ve been an avid D&D player for most of my life, and it’s an awfully good time to be someone in that position. The tabletop role-playing scene has seen some revolutions in design in recent years, not the least of them the incredible job Wizards of the Coast did on their fourth edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. You’ll be hearing me chat a lot about that ever-growing platform of books and modules if you stick around here very long, but I wanted to reserve my first post on the subject to highlight an awesome alternative to Wizards' behemoth of an RPG.
The Pathfinder Role-Playing Game is basically 3.5 D&D, revised. Where Wizards effectively reinvented the game with Fourth Edition, the folks over at Paizo Publishing have taken advantage of their Open Gaming License from the previous edition, and released a set of revised rules that are almost completely compatible with whatever insane library of 3.5 edition books you already have sitting in your basement.
I’ve spent the last few weeks delving through the absurdly hefty 576-page Core Rulebook, and have come away impressed. A lot of legacy issues have been tweaked through an exhaustive period of playtesting, and it shows. Skills now make more sense, with less overlap between their potential uses. Classes have seen some major changes, adding unique flavors to each choice that helps to set it apart from the others. Rules for combat have been streamlined, fixing pesky problems like grappling, but without changing the fundamentals of play. Those design changes are almost without exception a step up from 3.5 rules in useability and fun. It also just so happens that the book is home to some amazing fantasy art that should help get your imagination going.
If you’ve already picked up the book, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. Personally, I’m extremely impressed with both Pathfinder and Fourth Edition D&D. It’ll be a hard choice moving forward to decide which ruleset to use in my weekly sessions with friends. Do you have a preference? Which game system are you playing these days?
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