Pathfinder RPG Advanced Players Guide.

Pathfinder recently announced the final playtest of their upcoming addition to the Pathfinder Role Playing Game (PFRPG): the Advanced Players Guide.

A few months back the fine folks at one of my favorite Role Playing Game distributor and publishers Paizo Publishing, released information and a playtest of the six ‘base’ classes they intended to introduce into the PFRPG world that would be included within this new supplement.

Before I go into what I think of the playtest .pdf that was released recently I should give a small review of Pathfinder and why I’m so excited about this release.

For starters Paizo has been in the RPG business for quite some time, among their claims to fame was publishing the print editions of Dragon and Dungeon magazine under license from Wizards of the Coast. These folks rarely made me unhappy with the content I found in their magazine publications, the editing was almost never a mess (unlike my own) and many of the adventures they included in the magazines created hours of fun for myself as a DM and my players at the table.

But not only did they publish a quality magazine, they also made dozens of great supplements for as it’s often now called “The Worlds oldest and most popular role playing game” (Dungeons & Dragons) these supplements, as well as modules, game aides, specialized dice, and all manner of well written and finely illustrated pieces that Paizo produced cemented them in my mind as one of the leaders of the RPG industry, even if they’re not quite as big and powerful as certain Hasbro owned companies I could mention.

After the announcement of Dungeons and Dragons 4.0 in 2007 not even a full year later Paizo made an announcement in March of 2008 that they would be releasing their own Role Playing Game called: Pathfinder the Role Playing Game, which not only would support the world of Golarion that the fine folks at Paizo had beautifully crafted, but was also promised to be completely backwards compatible with the 7 years worth of Open Game Content Third Edition works created by publishers every where during the hay days of the d20 open gaming license.

In a bold move the guys at Paizo began to release world wide fan based playtesting materials that would generate the types of feed back they would need to produce an outstanding product later in 2009.

Many gamers, including yours truly, followed this system from it’s alpha playtest, through the beta (I even shelled out the $25 for the soft cover printed edition of the playtest, which one of these days Ill have Jason Bulhman sign) and all the way up until it’s initial release in 2009, and we found ourselves gloriously heard by the folks at Paizo. The PFRPG was beyond any doubt, the best version of the worlds oldest role playing game that many of us had seen to date. With it’s simple mechanics for some of the most complicated rules created during 3rd editions tenure, to it’s beefed up classes, which made you want to continue beyond one of two levels of fighter or rogue; the PFRPG became a favorite at countless gaming tables as well as play by emails, play by posts (some supported even on the Paizo community forums as a matter of fact) and many other venues throughout the gaming community.

Now they’ve done it again.

The Pathfinder RPG Advanced Players guide has taken a page from it’s father book and run a global fan based playtest for the six “base” classes (called that to separate them from the core classes found in the PFRPG main book) as well as some new feats and other interesting teasers and tidbits that will be a fantastic edition to the final product and my own book collection when it is released.

As a fan, I admit that I’m biased, so I won’t just sit here and explain to you all the in’s and out’s of the classes and why they’re so fantastic.
What I will do is tell you to head to www.Paizo.com and open up a free account with them, when you’ve done this, I’ll also explain that you should search for the Advanced Players Guide .pdf and see for yourself why Paizo has proven to be a true Giant Golem in the industry.

Among the pure win that this book is gearing up to be made of, is the fact that the great folks at Paizo are among the only companies I’ve ever seen truly work for their fans, now maybe that is my biased talking, what with the beautiful artwork and the great writing that these guys have entranced me with, but I think that it’s far more true than many others, especially a specific Hasbro owned company who shall remain nameless.

So go on, go download the .pdf and read through it, give Paizo Publishing $10 of your money and buy yourself the .pdf of the PFRPG core rules.
If you’re a fan of 3.5 and found 4.0 lacking, or even if you didn’t you should check out any company that is so willing to put so much of their work into the hands of their audience.

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