Sunday, May 19, 2013

Books read in 2013: No. 26 -- Pathfinder Core Rulebook

by Paizo Publishing

Started: May 16
Finished: May 19

Notes: It's been a long, long while since I've done any tabletop gaming, though it is one of my favorite hobbies. Since I have played, this Pathfinder game has become quite popular as a continuation of D&D version 3.5. As I'm not only familiar with D&D 3.5, but it's also my favorite version of the D&D game, I thought I should check out Pathfinder. I've looked a little into D&D version 4, and honestly didn't care for what I saw, feeling the rules changes got too far away from the core concepts of the game. At least Pathfinder is there for us old fogies who like the older system. Heck, I miss gaming so much, maybe I'll even try to scrounge up a game somewhere. From a writing standpoint, one of the things I love about gaming is that it allows me to try out characters and plot ideas, to see if they will work and/or to flesh them out before I start writing.

Mini review: The book read well, though I felt it was written somewhat for younger readers (teens and 20-somethings), not that there's anything wrong with that; I just felt "talked down to" a little, but then I've been playing tabletop RPGs off and on for 30 years now and am pretty familiar with the "genre." This is basically a rehash of the D&D 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide, so there wasn't a lot of new material here for me, making it not the most exciting of reads. Still, this book is important to gamers for two reasons: 1.) The D&D 3.5 DMG is no longer in print, so if you need or want a new copy, this is the easiest and possibly best way to get one. 2.) There are enough minor rules changes here to generally improve the game somewhat.

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