I tried.
With the book prices going up to 80 dollars for the revised edition, I am selling my Pathfinder 2 (OG) collection. This is a series of me selling things and explaining why these games never worked for me. Perhaps people looking for non-revision books will find fun with these, which is what I hope.
I never played this (outside of the PF2 Beginner's Box, which I am keeping for the maps and pawns), and it felt like it strayed too far away from what made Pathfinder 1 so special to me. The danger of the world, the epic fantasy, the 3.5-like 'better Greyhawk than Greyhawk' world, and the feeling the world was grounded yet fantastic.
I am keeping my Pathfinder 1 collection.
Solo play with this level of rules complexity hurts this game tremendously. I can't do it and keep everything straight. I immediately feel like Atari 2600 with too much on the screen, and everything in my brain starts blinking in and out of frame as I try to figure out what rule to read next. The Beginner Box did not prepare me for the whole complexity level of the game.
The PF2 character sheet killed this game in my play sessions; I could never create a character without Hero Lab. The sheet looks worse than many tax forms and is a complete failure in game design. People play on VTTs or use Hero Lab to make it manageable (shout out to the excellent Pathbuilder). I am not an apologist for this terrible sheet; it makes Rolemaster look simple.
The revised edition purging the OGL and eliminating the classic monsters and races is also a huge negative. The dark elf race is always a part of my vision of Pathfinder; that 'better Greyhawk' feeling needs them, and people say, 'house rule them in' to have their memory holed from canon feels wrong. Erasing a race from lore is wrong, no matter how you present it.
It is funny since ACKS 2 is doing the same thing, purging the OGL and doing their own thing. I applaud that since that game and world were never too linked to the original OGL universe, and it feels right they break loose and create their own identity. ACKS always had its own world, and cutting free the OGL baggage lets them find that identity - otherwise, they will always be compared to B/X. With Pathfinder 2, the promise of continuing what we loved about 3.5E feels like it is being broken with the revised edition and is the end of an era.
I commend Paizo for merging the game with Starfinder 2 and wish them well. This needed to happen a long time ago, and letting Starfinder limp along with 3.5 rules (even though I like 3.5 better) was a huge mistake.
The world has also moved on to a more steampunk tech level, and it does not feel like a fantasy world. The art feels heavily censored and toned down from the original Conan-feeling art of the first edition, and the game's world feels too safe for my tastes. I also have an issue with the game getting too 'cute' and fan service with many choices.
I could live with all that, but playing this solo is too much for one person. This game is better with others, where each player knows their class and is an advocate who knows the rules and tricks for that class. Continually referencing chained tags to apply effects feels like D&D 4E, and it is horribly slow. PF2 is the Advanced Squad Leader of fantasy gaming.
3.5 was the best version of D&D we had since the year 2000. It is a horrible mess, but removing B/X from the equation, the 3.5 edition still feels enough like classic D&D to pass as the game. 3.5E is a mess, but it is easily understood and has clear rules. This can be played solo.
This is the big "if" with my Pathfinder 1e collection. I have better fantasy games than this: Old School Essentials, Swords & Wizardry, Castles & Crusades, and Dungeon Crawl Classics offer more fun for fewer books. If I had to keep one game? Dungeon Crawl Classics. There isn't much difference in what I do and how I play DCC vs. PF 1e.
Pathfinder 1e feels like the game I loved, but it got replaced by better games that do the same things easier. I do not have to work as hard in DCC to get the same tone and flavor as how I ran Pathfinder 1e. With Pathfinder 1e it is:
- List of special rules for a gonzo tone
- Characters designed a certain way
- Lists of situations that come up
- World designed for the flavor and tone
- Lots of RP assumptions
- The ban list
The one game that changed everything for me is the Savage Pathfinder game. Savage Worlds is a better set of rules than 3.5E, and it removes the cumbersome rules while keeping the 1e feeling and flavor. The world and characters are young again, and the fantasy world feeling is there. This version of the world and rules feels fresh to me, and it does not have that historical baggage the 2E game puts on the original. I hope this product line continues with the classic adventure paths, but I can see why it wouldn't if it gets popular and competes with the new stuff.
Still, my big 'so what' with Savage Pathfinder is I want to do my own thing, and the new savage Fantasy Companion fits the style of games I want to play with the system. If the world and PF 1e style were necessary, I would play Savage Pathfinder. How do I use the Savage Worlds game? Fantasy Companion and a DIY world.
Still, I have the boxes on order, and I will assemble the sales slips for my PF 2 books soon. The game is getting shipped out. I was excited about this game, but it wasn't for me, and it did not work out. Hopefully, others can have more fun than I did with these books, and I send them into the wild to be loved and treasured by others. Since the OGL version of PF 2 will be a collector's item someday because it will go out of print, these will find a lovely home somewhere.
If you are having fun, more power to you. My story with this game ends here.
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