I tuned in to the live stream announcement and was lucky enough to win a core book in the raffle :)
Some interesting things... Demiplane are offering discounts of ~33% for those who've purchased content direct from Paizo once accounts are linked. I understand that WotC don't sell their products online themselves so can't offer the same deal easily, but still - this is a good move by Paizo. Maybe WotC could finally ship sealed books with codes inside them for DDB discounts in the future - you know, get with the times and get a bit digital focussed. It does sound like Paizo are willing to work with Demiplane more than WotC are willing to work with DDB - Just my opinion and based on reading between the lines, etc.
The Nexus system of bringing in rulesets to Demiplane in an interesting concept. I saw that the Zweihander creator reached out to Adam on Twitter too. I imagine the long term goal is to have many rulesets on one site, with a nice audio/visual interface and journaling tools, screen sharing, etc. Dare I say it, maybe even a VTT at some point. A one stop shop if you will. Again, this is my opinion, but I believe that this will never be possible to bring other rulesets or 3rd party products in to DDB due to the agreements in place between DDB and WotC.
The foundations are forming and if it takes off, having multiple rulesets, character sheets, VTT, journalling, match-making, dice roller and audio/visual all in one place would be a very enticing product for GM's and Players alike. Imagine being able to cancel your Zoom and Roll20 subs and just having the one subscription to do everything. That's a world I want to live in!
Adam said dark mode was being thought of from day 1 too. :D
I'm not cr4pping on DDB - far from it. I love DDB! I truly believe they have a VTT in the works and hope that this is what WotC are hinting towards for 2024.
The Zoom/Teams functionality of Demiplane - while currently a little shaky in my experience, is very interesting and something I don't see mentioned on DDB much. I'm going to ask the question on the next dev update to see if this is something they are thinking of.
Anyways, back to work for me. Just some random thoughts. :)
To me, the more interesting of the two was the fact that Adam Bradford is heading up the project for them, but I do expect a lot of "But Pathfinder" in the future.
The answer to "But Pathfinder" is "You are free to go play Pathfinder. This ain't it."
I'll probably keep an eye on how Nexus develops, but I honestly am not particularly interested in it. When I felt motivated to getting back into TTRPG gaming again almost a year ago I looked at the options available. As almost all of my previous experience was with D&D 3.5e and I'm still quite familiar with the system, Pathfinder seemed the obvious choice. But what I heard of D&D 5e sounded good enough to check it out. In my opinion 5e is, at it's heart, a streamlined derivative of 3.5 that keeps most of the core concepts and "feel" of that system and just simplifies a lot of things that were unnecessarily complex. Sure, the super detailed customization options can be a lot of fun, but for the kind of game I'm interested in, with a mix of RP/storytelling and action driven by that story, I don't see a need for hyper-detailed combat options. I get irritated at the way 5e since Tasha's basically says "the game has rules, but here's a rule that says you can ignore things like races being, you know, distinct, so just do whatever you want and call it a gnome or an elf or whatever" but I still enjoy the general flexibility of the system and how it generally tries to use as few rules as possible for any given situation without getting into "rules are for uncreative squares" territory (except for the racial traits, apparently).
I understand that WotC don't sell their products online themselves so can't offer the same deal easily, but still - this is a good move by Paizo.
Not for local gaming stores. Both WotC and Paizo suggest supporting your local store if you can, but - without saying WotC's business model is perfect in that regard or even that the aspects of that model that are more beneficial to local stores are more deliberate than incidental - Paizo's subscription scheme pretty much kills any interest local stores (who can't compete on price) might have, lone exceptions notwithstanding. That said, DDB's existence can't do local stores' D&D business any good either.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
I'd argue that Amazon has more of a hit on local gaming stores than DDB ever would. DDB don't sell physical books.
If I'm buying a book, I will get it on Amazon 99% of the time. As much as I want to support local gaming stores, I can't justify the huge price differences and the savings I make by funding Jeff's trips to space.
Edit - added example - My local store - £46 for a WotC book plus parking/fuel costs. Amazon, same book, don't even have to leave my house - £26.
Just FYI, you don't need to buy anything to take a look into PF2e, just search Archives of Nethys. That site has everything you need (and it is not piracy, so no worries there).
All those savings do have a cost, it's just not as apparent.
I will be very curious to see how Nexus stays profitable with discounted content. I wonder how much they'll invest in cosmetic microtransactions like the dice and character sheet backgrounds here. Paizo probably has much less overhead, but dev teams ain't cheap. Especially if you want things done right and on time.
I will be very curious to see how Nexus stays profitable with discounted content.
Might depend on how small a margin per book Paizo would be willing to accept too. I'm sure they won't take a loss on it, but if the tool is seen as a way of bringing in more players first those margins could be fairly low.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Im an IT guy so strangely, I can answer the question regarding the complexity of implementation.
For Pathfinder 2nd edition, the implementation of the character options data is actually going to be super simple because the data follows a very strict data model, there is no exception-based data. I could actually build a database for Pathfinder 2nd edition just by parsing the PDF in a weekend its that structured. I don't know if you find that interesting, when you asked the question I picked up the book and realized that its so structured, this actually would be super easy to setup.
As for trying Pathfinder 2nd edition, I have and the only thing that I can say about it is that its a rather bizarrely setup system. You have 600+ pages of options and rules, so there is a lot of crunch, but once you make all of your decisions about your character, the gameplay itself is very simple and actually extremely linear. Like all those options don't translate to gameplay options, they are just character creation options. Characters, once you make all your character creation selections are extremely limited in what they can do in particular in combat where you have almost no choices to make at all. I mean every time its your turn to act there is one very obvious sequence you must do which is super optimized, anything else you do is not just sub-optimal but almost completely ineffective.
I don't dislike it, I mean it plays fine, but its a really strange setup between huge amounts of character build options and virtually no actual gameplay options once you have made your character building selections.
Good info on both counts.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I understand that WotC don't sell their products online themselves so can't offer the same deal easily, but still - this is a good move by Paizo.
Not for local gaming stores. Both WotC and Paizo suggest supporting your local store if you can, but - without saying WotC's business model is perfect in that regard or even that the aspects of that model that are more beneficial to local stores are more deliberate than incidental - Paizo's subscription scheme pretty much kills any interest local stores (who can't compete on price) might have, lone exceptions notwithstanding. That said, DDB's existence can't do local stores' D&D business any good either.
There is a scheme called something like Bits & Mortar, which mean that when you buy the physical book from your local store then they give you a code with the book which can be used to get the PDF for free. I think Paizo might be part of this scheme, but I don't know how that links to Paizo then knowing that you own that particular book, to get the linked discount from HLO or this new venture.
I understand that WotC don't sell their products online themselves so can't offer the same deal easily, but still - this is a good move by Paizo.
Not for local gaming stores. Both WotC and Paizo suggest supporting your local store if you can, but - without saying WotC's business model is perfect in that regard or even that the aspects of that model that are more beneficial to local stores are more deliberate than incidental - Paizo's subscription scheme pretty much kills any interest local stores (who can't compete on price) might have, lone exceptions notwithstanding. That said, DDB's existence can't do local stores' D&D business any good either.
There is a scheme called something like Bits & Mortar, which mean that when you buy the physical book from your local store then they give you a code with the book which can be used to get the PDF for free. I think Paizo might be part of this scheme, but I don't know how that links to Paizo then knowing that you own that particular book, to get the linked discount from HLO or this new venture.
I know of Bits and Mortar because Free League, a Swedish TTRPG publisher I own a lot of stuff from supports it. Paizo is not part of it (I just doublechecked the list). It wouldn't be applicable to them anyway, because what it does is offer customers who buy a physical product in a local store the .pdf version free of charge if online there's a "buy the book, get the .pdf as a freebie" option, and Paizo doesn't offer that exactly (you can buy physical books, .pdfs or both from them, but to get the .pdf included in the price of the physical book you have to take out a subscription). For this to work the bookstore has to have joined B&M first - this bypasses the need for included codes or the like and requires the store to be set up with the program instead - and the publisher has to be willing to offer a .pdf version with every physical book. Considering WotC for now is adamantly against .pdfs period, I don't see that happening for D&D° any time soon. Paizo appears to turn a tidy profit from their subscription scheme, so they're probably unlikely to give that up as well.
° and offering a free .pdf with every physical purchase isn't the same as covering the fee for unlocking content for DDB's digital tools either, so even if it were to happen it wouldn't solve the WotC-DDB paying for content twice issue.
I'm curious as to how the info and stuff on the site will work once everything gets up and running. Everything in Pathfinder is free. So how is that going to work with the site. Is the character creation stuff going to be accessible and then we have to pay for access to the books? Do we have to pay for access get access to anything to actually use it? Or is there a free option? I'm willing to invest in it, just might not have the money when this launches, and I've been wanting to try Pathfinder, and a D&D Beyond-like interface would be so helpful for my players.
I'd argue that Amazon has more of a hit on local gaming stores than DDB ever would. DDB don't sell physical books.
Right, the fact is that D&D Beyond offers a product that a local game store can't. Amazon doesn't care about gaming in the sense that it cared about something like diapers.com, which is a very interesting read. Short story was Amazon was interested in startup, but then devalued the price of diapers by having its site look at the pricing for this site-specific and then undercutting. Bezos at one point said he would literally sell diapers for free if it meant getting rid of that company, and once they merged the price of diapers skyrocketed.
Amazon undercuts the book industry as a whole, because a lot of people are going to look at tabletop and go well, if I can get a brand new sourcebook from 30 for amazon free shipping, or go to my barnes and noble, books a million, insert game shop here and its 45-50, why am I spending more money for the same service.
Paizo got in front of this, which made sense because they just have a smaller playerbase.
I understand that WotC don't sell their products online themselves so can't offer the same deal easily, but still - this is a good move by Paizo.
Not for local gaming stores. Both WotC and Paizo suggest supporting your local store if you can, but - without saying WotC's business model is perfect in that regard or even that the aspects of that model that are more beneficial to local stores are more deliberate than incidental - Paizo's subscription scheme pretty much kills any interest local stores (who can't compete on price) might have, lone exceptions notwithstanding. That said, DDB's existence can't do local stores' D&D business any good either.
There is a scheme called something like Bits & Mortar, which mean that when you buy the physical book from your local store then they give you a code with the book which can be used to get the PDF for free. I think Paizo might be part of this scheme, but I don't know how that links to Paizo then knowing that you own that particular book, to get the linked discount from HLO or this new venture.
I know of Bits and Mortar because Free League, a Swedish TTRPG publisher I own a lot of stuff from supports it. Paizo is not part of it (I just doublechecked the list). It wouldn't be applicable to them anyway, because what it does is offer customers who buy a physical product in a local store the .pdf version free of charge if online there's a "buy the book, get the .pdf as a freebie" option, and Paizo doesn't offer that exactly (you can buy physical books, .pdfs or both from them, but to get the .pdf included in the price of the physical book you have to take out a subscription). For this to work the bookstore has to have joined B&M first - this bypasses the need for included codes or the like and requires the store to be set up with the program instead - and the publisher has to be willing to offer a .pdf version with every physical book. Considering WotC for now is adamantly against .pdfs period, I don't see that happening for D&D° any time soon. Paizo appears to turn a tidy profit from their subscription scheme, so they're probably unlikely to give that up as well.
° and offering a free .pdf with every physical purchase isn't the same as covering the fee for unlocking content for DDB's digital tools either, so even if it were to happen it wouldn't solve the WotC-DDB paying for content twice issue.
ArcDream publisher of Call of Cthluhu derived Delta Green includes PDFs with direct purchases, but they also send a PDF to anyone who can provide a proof of purchase (image of a receipt) with the claim that they're very loose and more honor system than rigorously verifying the proof. They're also a small press so probably figure they're a little too niche for wide spread fraud. They just call it Free PDF Guarantee not Bits and Mortar.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Just made my Pathfinder Nexus account. Same screenname, naturally.
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This isn't actually a signature, just something I copy and paste onto the bottom of all my posts. Or is it? Yep, it is. Or is it..? I’m a hobbit, and the master cranial imploder of the "Oops, I Accidently Destroyed Someone's Brain" cult. Extended sig. I'm actually in Limbo, it says I'm in Mechanus because that's where I get my WiFi from. Please don't tell the modrons, they're still angry from the 'Spawning Stone' fiasco. No connection to Dragonslayer8 other than knowing them in real life.
"If you could do D&D Beyond again, except knowing all the dumb decisions not to make, knowing how the company will be throwing curveballs from the start, and getting paid better for it because you don't have to give all your money to Wizards of the Coast...would you?"
Apparently for Adam Bradford, the answer is yes.
Well, I guess I will come out of post retirement here - someone linked this thread to me and I decided to stop in and say hello.
And yes, all of the above is a pretty intriguing opportunity isn't it?
This is just the start too... Keep your eyes peeled for a whole lot of fun things on the horizon.
"If you could do D&D Beyond again, except knowing all the dumb decisions not to make, knowing how the company will be throwing curveballs from the start, and getting paid better for it because you don't have to give all your money to Wizards of the Coast...would you?"
Apparently for Adam Bradford, the answer is yes.
Well, I guess I will come out of post retirement here - someone linked this thread to me and I decided to stop in and say hello.
And yes, all of the above is a pretty intriguing opportunity isn't it?
This is just the start too... Keep your eyes peeled for a whole lot of fun things on the horizon.
Later gators!
Way to go, guys, we woke ze original!
Edit: Is this cursing the fact we woke the eldritch entity that summoned D&D Beyond into being along with a plague of sorcerers, or is this celebrating that very same fact? This is up to you, dear reader.
I think a lot of this depends on whether Nexus is an independent product created via a licensing agreement with Paizo or if it's a joint ownership type product between Paizo and Demiplane.
Also I agree with BigLizard, Pathfinder has quite a lot of options as far as building your character goes. But once it's built, in combat your optimal move is going to be the same thing every single turn. A good example is Octavia from PF:Kingmaker video game. If you build Octavia following the default/auto level pathway she's will basically just acid splash nonstop for all of eternity because that is always the best move for her. She can certainly do other things, but they would be sub-optimal so her AI will always choose the optimal move, which is acid splash.
That being said I do enjoy Pathfinder as well as D&D, so I think something like this nexus would be good overall.
I think a lot of this depends on whether Nexus is an independent product created via a licensing agreement with Paizo or if it's a joint ownership type product between Paizo and Demiplane.
Also I agree with BigLizard, Pathfinder has quite a lot of options as far as building your character goes. But once it's built, in combat your optimal move is going to be the same thing every single turn. A good example is Octavia from PF:Kingmaker video game. If you build Octavia following the default/auto level pathway she's will basically just acid splash nonstop for all of eternity because that is always the best move for her. She can certainly do other things, but they would be sub-optimal so her AI will always choose the optimal move, which is acid splash.
That being said I do enjoy Pathfinder as well as D&D, so I think something like this nexus would be good overall.
I understand that criticism, but I gotta wonder, don't whatever Pathfinder call DMs have options in encounter building to discourage the default? I'm figuring if as much attention was spent on building out characters with options on the player half, there would have been similar efforts in encounter options on the "DM" side of the screen.
I guess I was sorta hoping that the more intricate combat Pathfinder is sometimes associated with (more options, more maneuvers etc) that it'd be like the TTRPG version of Absolver (martially arts video game where you had a wide range of maneuvers to learn and while there were certainly some "strong" fight styles and combinations, how you'd choose to fight didn't necessarily default to your most powerful moves, because you opponent's style may have easy counters to it, so part of fighting an NPC or other player involved figuring out their style and using what you had on hand from there).
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I think a lot of this depends on whether Nexus is an independent product created via a licensing agreement with Paizo or if it's a joint ownership type product between Paizo and Demiplane.
Also I agree with BigLizard, Pathfinder has quite a lot of options as far as building your character goes. But once it's built, in combat your optimal move is going to be the same thing every single turn. A good example is Octavia from PF:Kingmaker video game. If you build Octavia following the default/auto level pathway she's will basically just acid splash nonstop for all of eternity because that is always the best move for her. She can certainly do other things, but they would be sub-optimal so her AI will always choose the optimal move, which is acid splash.
That being said I do enjoy Pathfinder as well as D&D, so I think something like this nexus would be good overall.
I understand that criticism, but I gotta wonder, don't whatever Pathfinder call DMs have options in encounter building to discourage the default? I'm figuring if as much attention was spent on building out characters with options on the player half, there would have been similar efforts in encounter options on the "DM" side of the screen.
I guess I was sorta hoping that the more intricate combat Pathfinder is sometimes associated with (more options, more maneuvers etc) that it'd be like the TTRPG version of Absolver (martially arts video game where you had a wide range of maneuvers to learn and while there were certainly some "strong" fight styles and combinations, how you'd choose to fight didn't necessarily default to your most powerful moves, because you opponent's style may have easy counters to it, so part of fighting an NPC or other player involved figuring out their style and using what you had on hand from there).
I don't know anything about 2e Pathfinder, but 1e was very much built with a certain level of optimization in mind. The power discrepancies between the "best builds" and "fun builds" was very much a problem in my experience. This lead to the MMO effect where you kind of had a best in slot playstyle and it was hard to have optimizers and non-optimizers in the same group.
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She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
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I tuned in to the live stream announcement and was lucky enough to win a core book in the raffle :)
Some interesting things... Demiplane are offering discounts of ~33% for those who've purchased content direct from Paizo once accounts are linked. I understand that WotC don't sell their products online themselves so can't offer the same deal easily, but still - this is a good move by Paizo. Maybe WotC could finally ship sealed books with codes inside them for DDB discounts in the future - you know, get with the times and get a bit digital focussed. It does sound like Paizo are willing to work with Demiplane more than WotC are willing to work with DDB - Just my opinion and based on reading between the lines, etc.
The Nexus system of bringing in rulesets to Demiplane in an interesting concept. I saw that the Zweihander creator reached out to Adam on Twitter too. I imagine the long term goal is to have many rulesets on one site, with a nice audio/visual interface and journaling tools, screen sharing, etc. Dare I say it, maybe even a VTT at some point. A one stop shop if you will. Again, this is my opinion, but I believe that this will never be possible to bring other rulesets or 3rd party products in to DDB due to the agreements in place between DDB and WotC.
The foundations are forming and if it takes off, having multiple rulesets, character sheets, VTT, journalling, match-making, dice roller and audio/visual all in one place would be a very enticing product for GM's and Players alike. Imagine being able to cancel your Zoom and Roll20 subs and just having the one subscription to do everything. That's a world I want to live in!
Adam said dark mode was being thought of from day 1 too. :D
I'm not cr4pping on DDB - far from it. I love DDB! I truly believe they have a VTT in the works and hope that this is what WotC are hinting towards for 2024.
The Zoom/Teams functionality of Demiplane - while currently a little shaky in my experience, is very interesting and something I don't see mentioned on DDB much. I'm going to ask the question on the next dev update to see if this is something they are thinking of.
Anyways, back to work for me. Just some random thoughts. :)
The answer to "But Pathfinder" is "You are free to go play Pathfinder. This ain't it."
I'll probably keep an eye on how Nexus develops, but I honestly am not particularly interested in it. When I felt motivated to getting back into TTRPG gaming again almost a year ago I looked at the options available. As almost all of my previous experience was with D&D 3.5e and I'm still quite familiar with the system, Pathfinder seemed the obvious choice. But what I heard of D&D 5e sounded good enough to check it out. In my opinion 5e is, at it's heart, a streamlined derivative of 3.5 that keeps most of the core concepts and "feel" of that system and just simplifies a lot of things that were unnecessarily complex. Sure, the super detailed customization options can be a lot of fun, but for the kind of game I'm interested in, with a mix of RP/storytelling and action driven by that story, I don't see a need for hyper-detailed combat options. I get irritated at the way 5e since Tasha's basically says "the game has rules, but here's a rule that says you can ignore things like races being, you know, distinct, so just do whatever you want and call it a gnome or an elf or whatever" but I still enjoy the general flexibility of the system and how it generally tries to use as few rules as possible for any given situation without getting into "rules are for uncreative squares" territory (except for the racial traits, apparently).
Not for local gaming stores. Both WotC and Paizo suggest supporting your local store if you can, but - without saying WotC's business model is perfect in that regard or even that the aspects of that model that are more beneficial to local stores are more deliberate than incidental - Paizo's subscription scheme pretty much kills any interest local stores (who can't compete on price) might have, lone exceptions notwithstanding. That said, DDB's existence can't do local stores' D&D business any good either.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
I'd argue that Amazon has more of a hit on local gaming stores than DDB ever would. DDB don't sell physical books.
If I'm buying a book, I will get it on Amazon 99% of the time. As much as I want to support local gaming stores, I can't justify the huge price differences and the savings I make by funding Jeff's trips to space.
Edit - added example - My local store - £46 for a WotC book plus parking/fuel costs. Amazon, same book, don't even have to leave my house - £26.
Just FYI, you don't need to buy anything to take a look into PF2e, just search Archives of Nethys. That site has everything you need (and it is not piracy, so no worries there).
All those savings do have a cost, it's just not as apparent.
I will be very curious to see how Nexus stays profitable with discounted content. I wonder how much they'll invest in cosmetic microtransactions like the dice and character sheet backgrounds here. Paizo probably has much less overhead, but dev teams ain't cheap. Especially if you want things done right and on time.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Might depend on how small a margin per book Paizo would be willing to accept too. I'm sure they won't take a loss on it, but if the tool is seen as a way of bringing in more players first those margins could be fairly low.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Maybe virtual pawn vending machines?
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Good info on both counts.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
There is a scheme called something like Bits & Mortar, which mean that when you buy the physical book from your local store then they give you a code with the book which can be used to get the PDF for free. I think Paizo might be part of this scheme, but I don't know how that links to Paizo then knowing that you own that particular book, to get the linked discount from HLO or this new venture.
I know of Bits and Mortar because Free League, a Swedish TTRPG publisher I own a lot of stuff from supports it. Paizo is not part of it (I just doublechecked the list). It wouldn't be applicable to them anyway, because what it does is offer customers who buy a physical product in a local store the .pdf version free of charge if online there's a "buy the book, get the .pdf as a freebie" option, and Paizo doesn't offer that exactly (you can buy physical books, .pdfs or both from them, but to get the .pdf included in the price of the physical book you have to take out a subscription). For this to work the bookstore has to have joined B&M first - this bypasses the need for included codes or the like and requires the store to be set up with the program instead - and the publisher has to be willing to offer a .pdf version with every physical book. Considering WotC for now is adamantly against .pdfs period, I don't see that happening for D&D° any time soon. Paizo appears to turn a tidy profit from their subscription scheme, so they're probably unlikely to give that up as well.
° and offering a free .pdf with every physical purchase isn't the same as covering the fee for unlocking content for DDB's digital tools either, so even if it were to happen it wouldn't solve the WotC-DDB paying for content twice issue.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
I'm curious as to how the info and stuff on the site will work once everything gets up and running. Everything in Pathfinder is free. So how is that going to work with the site. Is the character creation stuff going to be accessible and then we have to pay for access to the books? Do we have to pay for access get access to anything to actually use it? Or is there a free option? I'm willing to invest in it, just might not have the money when this launches, and I've been wanting to try Pathfinder, and a D&D Beyond-like interface would be so helpful for my players.
Dominick Finch
Right, the fact is that D&D Beyond offers a product that a local game store can't. Amazon doesn't care about gaming in the sense that it cared about something like diapers.com, which is a very interesting read. Short story was Amazon was interested in startup, but then devalued the price of diapers by having its site look at the pricing for this site-specific and then undercutting. Bezos at one point said he would literally sell diapers for free if it meant getting rid of that company, and once they merged the price of diapers skyrocketed.
Amazon undercuts the book industry as a whole, because a lot of people are going to look at tabletop and go well, if I can get a brand new sourcebook from 30 for amazon free shipping, or go to my barnes and noble, books a million, insert game shop here and its 45-50, why am I spending more money for the same service.
Paizo got in front of this, which made sense because they just have a smaller playerbase.
ArcDream publisher of Call of Cthluhu derived Delta Green includes PDFs with direct purchases, but they also send a PDF to anyone who can provide a proof of purchase (image of a receipt) with the claim that they're very loose and more honor system than rigorously verifying the proof. They're also a small press so probably figure they're a little too niche for wide spread fraud. They just call it Free PDF Guarantee not Bits and Mortar.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Just made my Pathfinder Nexus account. Same screenname, naturally.
This isn't actually a signature, just something I copy and paste onto the bottom of all my posts. Or is it? Yep, it is. Or is it..? I’m a hobbit, and the master cranial imploder of the "Oops, I Accidently Destroyed Someone's Brain" cult. Extended sig. I'm actually in Limbo, it says I'm in Mechanus because that's where I get my WiFi from. Please don't tell the modrons, they're still angry from the 'Spawning Stone' fiasco.
No connection to Dragonslayer8 other than knowing them in real life.
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D&D Beyond FoundersWell, I guess I will come out of post retirement here - someone linked this thread to me and I decided to stop in and say hello.
And yes, all of the above is a pretty intriguing opportunity isn't it?
This is just the start too... Keep your eyes peeled for a whole lot of fun things on the horizon.
Later gators!
Way to go, guys, we woke ze original!
Edit: Is this cursing the fact we woke the eldritch entity that summoned D&D Beyond into being along with a plague of sorcerers, or is this celebrating that very same fact? This is up to you, dear reader.
Frequent Eladrin || They/Them, but accept all pronouns
Luz Noceda would like to remind you that you're worth loving!
I think a lot of this depends on whether Nexus is an independent product created via a licensing agreement with Paizo or if it's a joint ownership type product between Paizo and Demiplane.
Also I agree with BigLizard, Pathfinder has quite a lot of options as far as building your character goes. But once it's built, in combat your optimal move is going to be the same thing every single turn. A good example is Octavia from PF:Kingmaker video game. If you build Octavia following the default/auto level pathway she's will basically just acid splash nonstop for all of eternity because that is always the best move for her. She can certainly do other things, but they would be sub-optimal so her AI will always choose the optimal move, which is acid splash.
That being said I do enjoy Pathfinder as well as D&D, so I think something like this nexus would be good overall.
I understand that criticism, but I gotta wonder, don't whatever Pathfinder call DMs have options in encounter building to discourage the default? I'm figuring if as much attention was spent on building out characters with options on the player half, there would have been similar efforts in encounter options on the "DM" side of the screen.
I guess I was sorta hoping that the more intricate combat Pathfinder is sometimes associated with (more options, more maneuvers etc) that it'd be like the TTRPG version of Absolver (martially arts video game where you had a wide range of maneuvers to learn and while there were certainly some "strong" fight styles and combinations, how you'd choose to fight didn't necessarily default to your most powerful moves, because you opponent's style may have easy counters to it, so part of fighting an NPC or other player involved figuring out their style and using what you had on hand from there).
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I don't know anything about 2e Pathfinder, but 1e was very much built with a certain level of optimization in mind. The power discrepancies between the "best builds" and "fun builds" was very much a problem in my experience. This lead to the MMO effect where you kind of had a best in slot playstyle and it was hard to have optimizers and non-optimizers in the same group.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master