The Negativest of Nancies

Pictured: A particularly simple and streamlined 1st level Pathfinder encounter.

So Paizo announced yesterday they're doing a new edition of Pathfinder, pretty close to the ten-year mark. For me, this is a shrug moment, as I am for the first time that I can recall perfectly happy with a ruleset, namely D&D 5E. (I like it even better than Star Wars Saga Edition, which is saying something.)

My big hope for it would be a turn to simplicity and general "shedding of baggage" in the Pathfinder line, because I find most of their adventure modules unusably bloated and byzantine– and adventure modules are what I want from Paizo more than anything. (Man, I miss the days of 32 page "drop this in your campaign" modules. Even more I miss Dungeon magazine.)

But looking at all this with the detached view of someone who isn't going to change game systems in any case, I wandered over to ENWorld and the Paizo forums and... ugh. I always forget how pessimistic and pointlessly cynical the online gaming community is, until I go wade in again. I mean, I know the term "grognard" is used for a reason, but the gamers I actually hang out with are overall pretty awesome and upbeat people just there to have fun.

At this stage, I mostly feel bad for the Erik Monas and Mike Mearlses of the world, who have to try to engage with their user base and are constantly beset by this crap. "It's just a cash grab!" "YOU'RE DESTROYING MY GAME!" "I'm sooooo disappointed..."

And yes, I engaged in it myself, back in the day, I won't bother trying to deny it. I regret that, but the damage is done and I'm not the person I was ten years ago. But also, the online gaming community is not what it was then, either.

Long story short? I miss the days before "Don't read the comments." Internet forums are all comment! And they used to be fun and useful, once. :P

-The Gneech