Pathfinder Thoughts

Thanks to an in-store discussion with one of our RPGing customers I picked up a copy of Pathfinder this week. Actually, the potential purchase has been brewing in the back of my mind for a while. Here's why...

I jumped right into 4th edition D&D pretty much right away. I've played in many games of it and I find it to be a REALLY fun game. I've said in the past (and I stand by this) that I've never had more fun doing RPG combat than I've had playing 4th ed. It's exciting, there's always something to do, the strategy discussions are engaging... it's great! So why did I want Pathfinder?

The answer to that question is this. Whenever I thought about starting up a D&D campaign I would always start thinking back to 3.5. We had some really good games with that edition. I have a strong fondness for it and there's something about that game that makes me think "roleplaying game" that I'm not really getting from 4th ed. Not that I think that the old D20 system is great. It definitely has its flaws and I think that there are better systems out there, but if I want to start a game at the drop of a hat I can do that with the old system and not necessarily with any other. So... Pathfinder.

I'm not going to dig too much into the details here. There are plenty of reviews out there that will give you the detailed breakdown of what makes Pathfinder different from D&D 3.5. I really just want to give some broad impressions.

The first thing - if you've played the old D20 system you won't have any trouble picking this one up and running it. I'm sure that's a given, but since this game aims to pick up the mantle for the people who want to continue on with the system, it's important.

Second, I'm really blown away by the overall production quality. Frankly, I think that the core book (and most of the other Pathfinder products that I've looked at recently) are of a better overall quality than the D&D 4 line. That's really saying something since the folks at Wizards have a lot of resources to throw at their D&D line and they are pretty nice. When reading the book I was never given the impression that I was looking at a product from a small company. It's well written, well edited, and the art is pretty fantastic.

Third. Pretty much every change from 3.5 that I've seen is for the better. Granted, I haven't run the game yet but I have no reason to believe that the changes will turn out to be a problem. Grappling is a good example. You can go over the rules for it, understand it, and feel like you won't necessarily need to stop in the middle of the game to hash out the rules with the players EVERY TIME you want to use it.

Anyway, I'm hoping to give the game a try in the near future and perhaps I'll write up a little bit on the experience but I was just so excited by the core book that I wanted to share these impressions.