Find Your Own Path

I hopped into Paizo's web site last night not expecting much out of the ordinary and found this. They are intending on keeping their Pathfinder series of adventures under the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5E set of rules. They will be publishing, in August, no doubt for GenCon Indy, a little game they are calling Pathfinder RPG that uses the D&D 3.5E rules. Their articles on the topic seem to say they will tweak a couple things, but because many fans really want to stay with 3.5E, they plan on giving them what they want. Amazing concept, huh? Giving the customers what they want? Brilliant!

Anyway, here's the link to more info on the topic at Paizo's site.

Pathfinder RPG

Once I read through their news and download the Alpha demo to read I will post my impression of the whole thing. No doubt it will be positive as Paizo has done some amazing things for the 3.5E boom that both helped the industry and eventually flooded it with too many books for players to buy. They have consistently provided very high quality in their supplements and have listened to the fans to see what they really wanted in the game.

On another note, it seems White Wolf has decided to take a different tack with regard to the upcoming D&D 4E release looming and the fans wanting to stay with their current version of the game. They will be running a "graduation" promotion for players of the D&D 3.5E rules. All the players need to do is sacrifice their Player's Handbook to White Wolf and they will get a copy of Exalted for free, and thus "graduate" from the lowly Dungeons & Dragons game.

If you want some info on what they have planned check it out here.

Exalted Graduation

I'm not too convinced this is the best move they could have made but I am holding my breath to see what the fans do as June gets closer for the D&D 4E rules release. It just irked me a little bit that White Wolf had to come out with this deal as a means of moving up from D&D, when in all fairness, it is a lateral move for players from one game to another. One thing you won't catch me doing is making one game out to be better than another. A game is a game and if you don't like one then try another. Not everyone is going to like everything.

The plus side of this promotion comes for those people who are planning on moving away from their D&D 3.5E rules to the upcoming 4E release. If they don't plan on playing 3.5E again or if they have multiples of the Player's Handbook, which many gaming groups do, they have the opportunity to try out Exalted if they hadn't before.

If you have an opinion or spot any additional news on these two developments please make a comment. I would love to see what you have to say.