It's expensive. Anyone read it? Is it worth buying?

The Core Book contains everything I ever used from the D&D DM's guide. I wonder what they put in it.

In word: everything else! From rules for making your own haunts to an entire chapter devoted to stat blocks of NPCs, it's a MUST have for the Pathfinder GM on the go. That and the artwork is SOOOOO awesome.

Quote from: Nightfall;395215In word: everything else! From rules for making your own haunts to an entire chapter devoted to stat blocks of NPCs, it's a MUST have for the Pathfinder GM on the go. That and the artwork is SOOOOO awesome.

Is it completely new original material?

Is there any direct cribbing from 3.5E SRD material?

It pretty good and what appears to be all original material.

The beginning may seem 101 stuff if you been gaming for a while. It is however well written. The further you go in the more detailed and useful the material becomes.

Chapter 1 Getting Started
Chapter 2 Running a Game
Chapter 3 Player Characters
Chapter 4 Nonplayer Characters
Chapter 5 Rewards
Chapter 6 Creating a World
Chapter 7 Adventures
Chapter 8 Advanced Topics
-Customizing your game
- Chases
- Disasters
- Drugs & Addiction
- Fortune-telling
- Gambling and Games of Chance
- Haunts
- Hazards
- Mysteries and Investigation
- Puzzles and Riddles
- Sanity and Madness

Chapter 9 NPC Gallery 50+ pages of generic NPCs organized into useful catagories like Thieves Guild, City Watch, etc.

Appendix

Index

Quote from: ggroy;395217Is it completely new original material?

Is there any direct cribbing from 3.5E SRD material?

1. Yes. By an A-List of game designers, no less.

2. No.

The wide range of NPC stat blocks are a nice addition. Quick game prep is getting easier all the time.

Personally, I thought the Gamemaster Guide totally rocks!

I can finally grok all the variables in Kingmaker Kingdom stat blocks now as well.

Especially liked the new Haunts & Hazards encounters as well.

A good resource for novice and veteran GM's alike!

The Haunts, the Chase mechanic and certainly the chapter worth of USABLE stat blocks are pretty darn awesome.

The material as far as I can tell isn't any cribbed from any of the DMG 3.x While there are similarities, there's not enough to say "Gee I should have saved my money." Trust me. It's a worthy investment for many GMs, especially for those looking at Pathfinder RPG and thinking "What's next?"

Has anyone else noticed the amount of shit-dumping of supplements that are starting to get published for Pathfinder. All those sorry companies that lost out when DND went 4th edition, are now turning their lazy attention to Pathfinder?
 
Paizo's game deserve better treatment than this.

Quote from: Lawbag;395474Has anyone else noticed the amount of shit-dumping of supplements that are starting to get published for Pathfinder. All those sorry companies that lost out when DND went 4th edition, are now turning their lazy attention to Pathfinder?

I haven't noticed. Can you cite some examples?

Quote from: Lawbag;395474Has anyone else noticed the amount of shit-dumping of supplements that are starting to get published for Pathfinder. All those sorry companies that lost out when DND went 4th edition, are now turning their lazy attention to Pathfinder?
 
Paizo's game deserve better treatment than this.

So far this shit-dumping looks like it has been "ghettoized" to the pdf market.  A Pathfinder splat "glut" hasn't occurred much yet at the gaming store and distributor level.

Quote from: Garnfellow;395487I haven't noticed. Can you cite some examples?

http://paizo.com/store/games/roleplayingGames/p/pathfinderRPG

Many of the Pathfinder 3PP titles are pdf only, and appears to be similar to the d20 glut variety.  Typical stuff reminiscent of d20 glut such as tons of player classes and options, monsters, etc ... which looked like Mongoose could have cranked out.

Very few modules and campaign settings.  It looks like the Pathfinder 3PP crowd doesn't want to tread that closely to Paizo's strengths (ie. modules, adventure paths, settings, etc ...).  The few which have, are typically d20/OGL seasoned veterans like Expeditious Retreat Press, Necromancer, etc ...

Yeah I haven't really seen a lot of stuff just some random player stuff along with a few monster books. The majority of that has been localized to pdfs. I only have ONE actual 3rd party thing and even that is just one small book in the vast ocean of pdfs.

The locale stuff and few modules are generally written by guys that know their stuff. *cites Sunken Cities by Wolfgang and co.*

Quote from: Lawbag;395474Has anyone else noticed the amount of shit-dumping of supplements that are starting to get published for Pathfinder.

Just noticed Paizo's recent update to the Pathfinder release schedule.

http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/p/paizoPublishingLLC/pathfinder/companion
http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/p/paizoPublishingLLC/pathfinder/campaignSetting/pathfinderRPG
http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/p/paizoPublishingLLC/pathfinder/modules/pathfinderRPG


It looks like Paizo themselves are starting to move into the "shit dumping" phase already, all on their own.  Their Pathfinder "companion" and "campaign setting" supplement books look more and more marginal over 2010 and into 2011.

It looks like the sort of marginal splatbooks produced by WotC over the lifetime of 3E/3.5E D&D, or something Mongoose could have produced.

Not sure I'd call classic undead 'marginal' since they're taking existing srd undead and trying to fix them slightly.

I know there's a lot coming out that people might not have a use for, but for me the highlights still include the following: There's only ONE actual book for the RPG, Ultimate Magic, compared to WotC's constantly dropping stuff on dragon magic, book of nine swords and/or incarnum.

Thanks for doing my research for me. Xxx

Specifically what I meant by shit-sumping, were all the third-party products riding on the coat-tails of PF. The supplements are usually no different from all the lazy supplements which ruined 3.X editions, and from what I'm seeing here, its the same faces, reworking old rules and variants that you may have missed first time around.

Quote from: ggroy;397358It looks like Paizo themselves are starting to move into the "shit dumping" phase already, all on their own.

The more important question is: What are they going to sell you once they've bled this vein dry?

Seanchai