Highmoon Games

Thoughts on Pathfinder

David Miller of Purple Pawn posted a news story announcing the release of the Pathfinder edition of The Dream Healers. He also sent me two questions to answer, in order to add a more personal touch to the story rather than it being only a new release notification. In my typical fashion, I wrote a lot, and only a bit from that was used in the Purple Pawn post (thankfully). However, the questions addressed some interesting issues regarding the Liber Sodalitas line and the Pathfinder RPG, including why I chose to produce material for it.

Below are the unedited answers to David’s questions; feel free to leave a comment if you’d like to discuss anything further.

What is your goal with the Liber Sodalitas series?

Liber Sodalitas was Highmoon Games’ first product line. It was meant to provide new options for the game (the usual crunchy stuff) but presented so as to give customers a way to introduce those elements into their campaigns, rather than just putting out a laundry list of new material by itself. I chose the concept of societies because it is those groups that most call my attention in fiction and games (anything from the Fellowship of the Ring in LotR to the Knights of Myth Drannor and the Harpers in Forgotten Realms). Organizations are a very easy way to add depth to a game world.

Why Pathfinder? Is this a strategic decision? For business reasons or do you feel Pathfinder offers something special to RPG players not available in the alternative systems?

The Liber Sodalitas products were originally released for the d20 System over the past few years. I’ve chosen to updated them to the Pathfinder RPG rules for two reasons:

1- Pathfinder represents the new face of the 3.5 fantasy RPG rules system. Frankly, the unofficial name of 3.75 carries a lot of truth to it. Pathfinder sleeks out the rules in line with developments seen in both official and 3rd-party releases over this decade, breathing new life to that system. I don’t think 3.5 fantasy, as a whole, was broken, but it certainly had a few spots that needed major work and a general revision was overdue. When you looked at the 3.5 SRD and what was coming out of the home office in Renton, WA, sometimes you had to ask yourself, is this the same game we’re playing? Pathfinder levels the field, and being released through the OGL, it guarantees that any evolution that may come can be incorporated into any game product without a problem.

And to be clear, at least to me this has nothing to do with 3.5/3.75e vs. 4e. The rules systems were created to deliver very specific and different play experiences, and each does what it’s supposed to do well. It’s a matter of taste, not an absolute.

2- Updating to Pathfinder makes perfect business sense. Fans of the type of game experience 3.5 fantasy delivered now have a new banner under which to rally and that is an exciting development in our opinion. We want to be a part of this new surge, and a quick entry into that wave was the updating of our existing material. We’re actually updating so that the product matches the rules in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, even if the game is backwards compatible with 3.5 fantasy. In some cases, the 3.5 and the Pathfinder version will differ more than just a bit, so it won’t be like you’re buying the same product twice. I can’t say we’ll update all of our previous releases, but all the existing Liber Sodalitas releases will get the treatment. We’ll also release new, original material specifically for Pathfinder a bit down the road (I can say we have at least one new Liber Sodalitas in the works as well as an adventure).