Whither goest Pathfinder?

As a regular player of rolegames, my consistent problem over the last decade or so has been fitting the preparation time requirements into my life's schedule. As a result, my favourite games as a moderator over that time have pretty consistently been those that have provided easy access to high-quality materials that I can use for actual play: not additional rules or options, but adventures, campaigns, plots, scenarios, and so on. Unfortunately, the hobby in general seemed to be moving away from publishing that kind of material, and more towards a model where games were supported by rule expansion, and providing a constant stream of increased mechanical options for players and moderators. This made my involvement with any one game harder, not easier.

Recently, I've attached my time in the hobby pretty solidly to Paizo, and their Pathfinder series of products. What's interesting to me about Pathfinder is that its success (if it is indeed successful) seems apparently solidly based on a traditional hobby model: entrench a game's popularity and mindshare by providing a host of high-quality actual play materials (and by that, I mean adventures, campaigns, and practical campaign setting material, and not splat materials (by that, I mean products that focus on interminable variation of player character and rule-system expansion).

( Click through if you want to read a fuller rumination on the subject )

Whither goest Pathfinder?

As a regular player of rolegames, my consistent problem over the last decade or so has been fitting the preparation time requirements into my life's schedule. As a result, my favourite games as a moderator over that time have pretty consistently been those that have provided easy access to high-quality materials that I can use for actual play: not additional rules or options, but adventures, campaigns, plots, scenarios, and so on. Unfortunately, the hobby in general seemed to be moving away from publishing that kind of material, and more towards a model where games were supported by rule expansion, and providing a constant stream of increased mechanical options for players and moderators. This made my involvement with any one game harder, not easier.

Recently, I've attached my time in the hobby pretty solidly to Paizo, and their Pathfinder series of products. What's interesting to me about Pathfinder is that its success (if it is indeed successful) seems apparently solidly based on a traditional hobby model: entrench a game's popularity and mindshare by providing a host of high-quality actual play materials (and by that, I mean adventures, campaigns, and practical campaign setting material, and not splat materials (by that, I mean products that focus on interminable variation of player character and rule-system expansion).

( Click through if you want to read a fuller rumination on the subject )