Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Taking a Stab At Pathfinder Infinite (Would You Like to See More?)

As a lot of my regular readers know, the Pathfinder Infinite platform came online in late 2021. And at the time I said I had a couple of ideas I'd like to publish on it assuming progress was made regarding the ugliness that had come to light regarding Paizo's treatment of workers. And since Paizo's employees now have a union, and the company seemed to support rather than fight those efforts, I figured it was time for me to make good on that tease I'd put out.

And though 150 Sights To See (And Rumors To Hear) in Absalom dropped this past weekend, I wanted to pull back the curtain a bit to let folks know what's going on, and how they can help keep the wheels moving.

Because I can't do this one alone.

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Do Readers Want Me To Add More To Golarion?


In case some readers are confused, I'll catch you all up to speed. Pathfinder Infinite is a community use platform that lets independent and 3rd-party creators make content set in the world of Golarion (the base setting for the Pathfinder RPG), and which uses Paizo's intellectual property (as long as the project obeys all the appropriate rules set forth by the company). So rather than just making generic content that could be used with the Golarion setting if one wanted to (like my supplement 100 Random Bandits to Meet), or creating content that uses the Pathfinder rules system but which is part of an independent setting (like Gods of Sundara for my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting), I can just explore parts of Golarion that I enjoy, but which haven't gotten the attention that I feel they should have.

Like this one.

My supplement, 150 Sights to See (And Rumors To Hear) in Absalom is actually the second Pathfinder Infinite supplement that's been released by Azukail Games. The first was 100 Rumors and Hooks To Hear in (or About) Magnimar, and it came out a few weeks previous. However, the issue that we've run into is that neither of these two supplements has been a particularly noteworthy success. In fact with slow sales and the cost of splitting profits for the community-use platform, it seems like Pathfinder Infinite just isn't a great investment when taking these two products as examples of what one can expect.

However, I didn't want to just shrug my shoulders and walk away. As someone who contributed to Paizo products in the past, I felt this would be a solid opportunity to get some of my own ideas out for the setting that I'd never had a chance to before... but for that to happen, I need the folks out there playing these games to come along for the ride.

Because on the one hand, it's possible there just aren't a lot of people playing Pathfinder anymore. On the other hand, it might be that there are lots of players, but they don't use the Golarion setting for their games. It might be that the type of supplement just isn't what folks want, and they'd prefer something more mechanical like fresh archetypes and prestige classes, modules to play through, or lists of world-specific NPCs they might meet while traversing the setting. Or maybe there are a lot of GMs out there who want lists of weird sights and side-quest worthy rumors, but they'd prefer to find them in Varisia, or Ustalav, or one of the other nations or cities we didn't actually cover yet.

There's a lot of possibilities here, is what I'm saying.

So if you're reading this, and you would actually like to see me put out some stuff for use in Golarion proper, there are two things I'd like to ask you to do.

- Leave a comment (either here or on social media) with the kind of supplement you would be most interested in seeing in the future.

- Help boost the signal on 150 Sights to See (And Rumors to Hear) in Absalom and 100 Hooks and Rumors to Hear in (or About) Magnimar. Consider sharing them on social media, or getting copies for yourself and leaving reviews once you've read through them.

The reason I'm asking my readers to do this is, first of all, I want to make sure that folks get the content from me they want. All that talk about following your interests and drive as a creator makes for good sound bites, but at the end of the day I want to make sure there's actually a desire among my fellow players for the stuff I'm putting together. Secondly, the best way to get my publisher to agree to let me keep going down a particular vein of content is to prove there's a paying market for it. They want to sell copies, I want to sell copies, and if the stuff we produce for Pathfinder Infinite just stalls out and doesn't sell, then the company just won't sign off on further Pathfinder Infinite projects in the future.

Most products on Drive Thru RPG don't even sell the 50+ copies you need to hit Copper status, let alone the 100+ copies you need to hit Silver status, but I've had a really good track record with my Azukail Games releases. I feel confident in saying that if we can push one, or even both, of these supplements up into Copper territory, that would be enough of a sign of gamer interest to get approval for at least a couple more ideas.

So if you're not done playing in Golarion yet, and you want to see what dark corners of the world I'd like to explore, take a few moments and help me spread the word so we can build up some momentum!

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That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

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1 comment:

  1. Something that might be interesting is 100 Anonymous rumors or speculations from different magical sources. Pathfinders, Riftwardens, Black Fire Adepts, Fiend cultists, clergy of Good deities, etc.

    "There's a secret fraternity in the University of Lepistadt in Ustalav that will assist you in discovering your path to Lichdom, for a price."

    "Some planar scholars theorize that if you save a follower of Pharasma's life and then die on any moon in the Material Plane, you are guaranteed to receive one secret from either Pharasma or Groetus that you will remember when you become a petitioner and subsequently an outsider."

    ReplyDelete