Paizo Publishing and the Grognard’s First Lesson
I have a lot of respect for the Paizo crew. From my perspective, the evolution of the modern publisher’s take on the gaming genre was molded by this team of creative gamers/businessmen. It was impressive to watch as it unfolded; the publication of the (then dying) Dragon and Dungeon magazines was given over to this 3rd party. It felt like these venerable magazines were too much effort for too little return for Wizards of the Coast.
Paizo revitalized these publications. They made them meaningful to gamers again. Greyhawk got center stage for a number of scenarios under Dungeon, and played a meaningful role in their second Adventure Path. Dragon became a clearing house for the notes that would otherwise have been left on Dungeon’s cutting room floor. Indeed, even the concept of writing a finite series of adventures to document a campaign was something the editors of Dungeon keyed into and proved out as a profitable model.
Now their fork of the d20 SRD, entited The Pathfinder RPG, is sold out at GenCon.
As hard as WotC wants to push for 4th edition to be something new, there are those gamers and publishers who want to capitalize on the already existing ovre for 3.5. Paizo gets to do this due to the Grognard’s First Lesson (”You can’t copyright maths.”).
To evade the legal-tangle of challenging the Grognard’s Second Lesson, they’ve created their own setting for Pathfinder. Golarion is a worthy addition to gamers’ bookshelves, and looks to have a unique flavor.
To everyone at Paizo; congratulations! Here’s to a bright future and winding paths…