Generally, the initial success of PF was mainly due to the popularity of D&D 3.5e; people liked the evolution of that rules system and kept on going with that. Paizo also maintained that hype with a multitude of products. This also affected Starfinder, that is (as far as I have came to understand) Sci Fi PF and there is no current comparable product from WotC.

But my real question is this: knowing how WotC has steered from 3.5e onwards, what would anyone that has enjoyed PF 1e like to see from 2e? I’m totally on board with you that likely Paizo will not base PF 2e on any D&D edition, so I’d really like to see the direction they are taking.

I personally stopped ‘Pathfinder’ about two years after it launched because of the splatbook glut. I know many other people who eventually stopped playing it at some point or another for the same reason.

I know the plural of “anecdote” is not “data,” but it’s been a common enough complaint for me to suspect it’s a trend.

My theory is that the market has kind of split: that X% of people who love loads and loads of supplements are playing ‘Pathfinder,’ the X% that want things streamlined into very few books are playing 5E, and then there’s the X% that is happy just to play and goes with whatever the rest their group prefers.

5e’s official publishing schedule is quite reasonable. The old adage, “Always leave ’em wanting more,” comes to mind.

But I was specifically comparing PF to 3e. At its “worst,” WOTC was churning out a book a month during that era. Paizo churns out multiple books per month. Sure, many of them are softcovers, but a player who wants to stay current (read: not get steamrolled by the newest railroad adventure path) needs them all. I just can’t wrap my head around why people seem to be okay with a full decade of this (and PF2 will undoubtedly continue the process, selling you updates of the books you already have), but d20 was in a “glut” after just a year or two according to those same people.

The absence of all-but-one background, all-but-one feat, all-but-one subclass per class, and so on means that you’re having to leave out a whole lot of fan-favorite content, and write a lot more of the game from scratch, with 5e than with 3.5e. It’s a significant hurdle, created for exactly this purpose.

All of which is to say, I agree with you.

I hear ya. I’d personally rather just grab PDF versions so I can easily get updates during the playtest, like the UA content.

4e couldn’t be used as the bones for a system like 3.5 was with license changes. I don’t think there is anything legal that could stop Pathfinder from slapping a version 2.0 game on top of D&D 5e basic rules… but I can’t see that happening.

With the growth of 5e, pathfinder’s Golarion becoming a 5e setting and having adventures that can be run in 5e could lead to big sales, but would kill their rules system. I think they can do quite well on their own and Starfinder sales were very good.

I think 5e has a pecking order that works.
1) Official
2) Really good third party stuff like Tome of Beasts
3) OK Third party and DMs Guild.

With so few products released for #1, it is possible to purchase each hardcover book or at least have a good idea of everything official that is out there (I think the count is 14 now).

I’ve got a pretty good grasp on all of the official pathfinder books out there, but much harder and more $$$ to own it all. I’d have no idea how many 3rd party products exist.

Well, the real question is: how ORIGINAL will PF 2e be? Knowing that PF 1e was an evolution of D&D 3.5e, and since then D&D has had two new editions (the last one the most successful -in terms of sales- so far), let alone the fact that there are numerous rules systems out there, I’m really interested to find out what new PF 2e will offer.

What I can’t comprehend is: back when 3e came out and everybody started publishing stuff for it, in no time at all people were calling it “the d20 glut.” Yet Paizo—by itself—churns out garbage faster than WOTC plus all the third-party publishers ever dreamed of, and has been doing so for 10 years now, and people are still eating it up.