A significant lack of Pathfinder games.

[BizzaroStormy]

I've noticed that a fair amount of people seem to like pathfinder, so why is it that there have been little if any games on these forums or myth-weavers?

[Kallisti]

Because so many more people consider Pathfinder the work of the Antichrist that starting a Pathfinder game would start a flame war? I don't know. If I had to guess, I'd say maybe it's because there's only Pathfinder core, which doesn't give many options. But there are core-only games for other systems, so that's probably not it.

[sonofzeal]

Because the people who play Pathfinder games generally have to fit into all of the following categories...

1) Enjoy playing Core-only games.

2) Enjoy learning new rules (but haven't moved beyond Core for whatever reason).

3) Don't mind buying more books (but again haven't moved beyond Core for whatever reason).

4) Don't mind paying people for houserules.

5) Think Paizo did a job of making those houserules.

6) Know enough people who also fit into categories 1-5 to actually get a group together.

...so as much as people might think it's a good idea in theory, most will either continue to do their own thing. Personally, I think a lot of the Paizo hate is really overblown, but I really only satisfy conditions #2 and #5. I'm unlikely to invest in PF until #1 is taken care of effectively, and even then I've got #3 and #4 to contend with unless a friend buys the books. Unfortunately, #6 is not likely to happen any time soon.

Ah well.

[Akal Saris]

I think it's because PF fans are actually not a very large number of the population, but they are very outspoken =P

There's a significant OVERDOSE of PF games in my local area of Washington DC - the PF society has 6 games a weekend here. It's insane! Unfortunately, between grad school, my 4E and 3.5 games, and life, I barely attend them, but the community in my area is way more active than the 3.5 community.

As far as sonofzeal's listings go, I just play the games and use their online SRD and cheap PDFs. The games I've played in include material from pretty much every Paizo book & module for 3.5 and PF, so the volume of material is about the same as core + completes in 3.5. I haven't found a PF game yet that will allow me to use non-Paizo material yet, which is weird.

[sonofzeal]

I think it's because PF fans are actually not a very large number of the population, but they are very outspoken =P

There's a significant OVERDOSE of PF games in my local area of Washington DC - the PF society has 6 games a weekend here. It's insane! Unfortunately, between grad school, my 4E and 3.5 games, and life, I barely attend them, but the community in my area is way more active than the 3.5 community.

As far as sonofzeal's listings go, I just play the games and use their online SRD and cheap PDFs. The games I've played in include material from pretty much every Paizo book & module for 3.5 and PF, so the volume of material is about the same as core + completes in 3.5. I haven't found a PF game yet that will allow me to use non-Paizo material yet, which is weird.

The SRD certainly helps with #3 and #4, and solid access to AP content helps with #1.

I should have added #6 - find a whole group of people that also satisfy #1-5 to whichever degree. *runs back to edit*

[BobVosh]

Lack of splat books is kinda sucking for me in PF. However I have enjoyed all the changes done so far with it, and my group plays it.

So 2 games IRL for PF, none online. Seems to be a running theme here...

[Temet Nosce]

Personally, I like some of their rules and dislike others. When I next run a game I'm certainly stealing a lot of their stuff (races, classes, altered item creation rules, etc), but I wouldn't really want to play in a game using the full rules (or limited to PF).

They wrote up a decent set of houserules, but not good enough for me to justify doing more than keeping a few.

[The Tygre]

The way I see it, PF wasn't so much of a new system, but a way to continue the old system. It was a jolt to 3.5 with enough changes to justify a complete republishing, insure that we could squeeze out a few more years out of the trusty red, blue, and brown. Personally, I'm holding out for the great 4th edition 3rd party deluge. Unfortunately, it's barely a trickle in Goodman Games Gulch right now...

[BobVosh]

OGL isn't what it was for 3.5. Don't expect a mountain of 3rd party stuff.

[Frosty]

My friend thoroughly likes PF. I myself will be incorporating many PF rules as houserules, but not all of them.

[Shpadoinkle]

Pathfinder has one or two good ideas, but I think they seriously screwed up most of the changes. I like the merging of some skills and the fact that the only mechanical effect of your favored class is that you just get an extra hit point every time you take a level in it, but everything else I've seen and heard about it leaves me saying "meh" or "WTF where they thinking?!"

[Myou]

Because Pathfinder is a book of houserules, and it's not a very good one. It has some good changes, but for every good change it has a stupid one that should never have happened.

So given that all it is is a collection of houserules, and those houserule are available free online, most people just take whichever they like to add to their 3.5 games.

[DeathQuaker]

When I thought I might have time to, I thought about running a Pathfinder game here. I didn't because, in all honesty, I was afraid that I'd just end up getting trolled by all the Pathfinder haters here. It's nearly impossible to discuss Pathfinder at this board without someone jumping down your throat because it's fun for them to crap all over your gaming preferences because you have the audacity to have different gaming preferences from them. I figured trying to run something like that here would just invite trouble. It's not about people who just don't prefer the game--we all have different preferences and playstyles and that's fine and good--it's about people who belligerently badmouth the game with little to back themselves up over and over again, spamming the discussions with their vitriol in an effort to bury any actual positive or constructively critical discussion of the game system. I've not been able to enjoy any Pathfinder discussion here, much as I've tried, due to all discussions going quickly to hell in a handbasket.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I've misjudged the character of the people at these boards, I am NOT singling anyone out, and I apologize if anyone takes offense to that statement. Just saying how I feel on the matter. That IS why _I_ haven't tried to host a Pathfinder game here. I can't speak for others.

If/when I decide I have the time to run a Pathfinder PBP again, I will run it over at the Paizo boards, now that they have an on-message-board die-roller (in the meantime I'm busy with my RL Pathfinder campaign). If you're looking for a Pathfinder pbp game, I'd suggest trying to find one or start one over there. For obvious reasons, you'll find more Pathfinder players there anyway.

[UglyPanda]

You get it from both sides. Some of the Pathfinder side will bombard you with how things have been made better by repeatedly moving the goalposts.

To answer the OP's question:
-Pathfinder is newer and has a much smaller player base.
-Less people know the rules, so less newbies are willing to play.
-The Pathfinder players tend to congregate over at their own forums.
-A lot of PbP games are meant to be unlike those you'd play at the physical table. So, a lot of them use books and sources which Pathfinder doesn't have.
-Similar to the above, PbP DMs are often less exclusionary than physical table DMs, so they would be less likely to run a game that's inherently core-only.
-Most of the people who don't like it don't care enough to say anything when it's brought up. The Pathfinder player base might be smaller than you believe it is.

[Hurlbut]

Lack of splat books is kinda sucking for me in PF. However I have enjoyed all the changes done so far with it, and my group plays it.

The PF doesn't prohibit you from using the 3.5 splat books, Paizo even have a Conversions PDF to expedite adapting said splatbooks to PF.

[Akal Saris]

While it's true that they don't prohibit you from using WoTC content in the core book (and generally seem to encourage it), of the 3 PF games that I'm currently in, none of them use WoTC material. 1 game it's because it's run by Paizo, and in 2 games I suspect it's out of loyalty to the PF brand or something.

Both of the online PF games I play are on RPol, by the way, which generally has a wider variety of game systems and freeform games than the PBP board here.

[ErrantX]

I'm strongly considering switching to Pathfinder myself and just adapting what I have to from WotC's extended line to facilitate my gaming needs come the end of my current campaign. I've got a friend here that is hardcore Pathfinder fan (worships the grounds of the store where he bought it) and while I'm fond of it, I'm sure the rest of my friends could take it or leave it. They're all very open to it though, so that's helpful.

All in all, I see myself doing a lot of conversion work with Pathfinder, but besides the few things that I just don't personally like, I really think it's a solid update to 3.5's often broken mechanics. It's not perfect, but what system ever is? I'm currently staring at my XPH and thinking of conversions there because I'll be damned if I have to wait years for a psionics conversion by a company that I don't particularly like or trust. If Paizo's not doing it, I'm less than enthused.

2 cents deposited,
-X

[Aron Times]

Looking at the posts on this forum, the Playground favors the following games in this order:

1. D&D 3.5
2. D&D 4E
3. Other RPGs
4. Pathfinder

Basically, the 3.5 players hate Pathfinder even more than they hate 4E, at least in the Playground.

[Stephen_E]

While it's true that they don't prohibit you from using WoTC content in the core book (and generally seem to encourage it), of the 3 PF games that I'm currently in, none of them use WoTC material. 1 game it's because it's run by Paizo, and in 2 games I suspect it's out of loyalty to the PF brand or something.

Both of the online PF games I play are on RPol, by the way, which generally has a wider variety of game systems and freeform games than the PBP board here.

The PF game I'm in he does allow limited stuff in.
I'm taking the Practised Spellcaster feat for my Ranger/Diviner Wizard.

Was really sad in that campaign that a Shadow just missed killing both me and my Animal Companion. If it had siceeded and the party had killed the Shadow the GM was seriously considering let me continue as a Shadow with my Animal Companion Shadow.

Stephen E

[Ravens_cry]

I am currently playing in 2 Pathfinder games,one homebrew, one published campaign, and I might be playing in three soon. As well, a sub group is playing a different campaign, in Pathfinder. I will admit, we are indeed a Core centric group. Is Pathfinder the Messiah, the Avatar, or Captain Planet? No, but I enjoy it much more then Dungeons and Dragons 4.0, which I have, yes, played. I even own the PHB for 4.0, though I might sell that soon.

[Nai_Calus]

I think the Pathfinder fans are just really vocal about it.

Personally, the two or three things I kind of sort of like are more than outweighed by the many things I don't like, and the unforgivable sin of nerfing the freaking bard. So I refuse to play it. I've seen a lot of people who also don't like PF, so perhaps it's a lack of people willing.

[Tequila Sunrise]

It can take a few months for a new [sub-]edition of the game to get attention. I remember looking for 4e games right after it came out, and well, I ended up running it myself 'cause I couldn't find one.

So run PF yourself. And don't be afraid of trolls, 'cause I've never seen one crash a recruitment thread. (I'm sure they do occasionally, but so what?)

[averagejoe]

For me part of the problem with Pathfinder is that it isn't different enough. If 4E is too much like a different game to be D&D (according to some) then Pathfinder is too much like 3.5 to really be a new edition of the same game. It has a lot of good ideas, and even the ones that don't fix/hurt the balance issues can be fun, but in the end it feels like I'm paying full price for an expansion pack. Some of the creases are smoothed or streamlined, and it has some neat bells and whistles, but it's still D&D 3.5 in most important ways. They could have almost called the core rulebook, Unearthed Arcana II.

I suspect that a lot of people feel the same way. Maybe I would choose PF over 3.5 if I was just starting out, but I don't see why I'm paying for a game which, in the end, is hardly changed from the one I own.

[Starbuck_II]

I would totally play a Pathfinder game. But does'nt change how they changed somethings weirdly. Slow fog is no longer as good, etc.

As the PSRD is out I have most information, but I'd love to play it to see it in action.

[Fluffles]

They. Nerfed. Dodge. How much else needs to be said?

[pres_man]

They. Nerfed. Dodge. How much else needs to be said?

Huh? How was it nerfed?

[Starbuck_II]

Wait... didn't they unnerf it. Oh I get sarcasm...

Dodge in PSRD is dodge vs all similar to Psionic dodge in SRD.

[Akal Saris]

I don't think Fluffles' comment was sarcasm so much as ignorance, probably based on some beta version. Or maybe his sarcasm went over my head? I dunno, I'm pretty blitzed atm.

Personally, I don't plan on converting any of the games that I currently run under 3.5 to PF - but I will try and make my next campaign a PF one (probably using 1 of their modules), and if my PCs like it better, well, then we'll keep using it. Meanwhile I'll keep playing in the 3 that I'm in now as a PC, to get a feel for what I want to keep and what I'll need to houserule.

[Person_Man]

I think it's because PF fans are actually not a very large number of the population, but they are very outspoken =P

There's a significant OVERDOSE of PF games in my local area of Washington DC - the PF society has 6 games a weekend here. It's insane! Unfortunately, between grad school, my 4E and 3.5 games, and life, I barely attend them, but the community in my area is way more active than the 3.5 community.

What? Where? I recently moved from MD to northern VA (though I've worked in DC for most of the last 10 years), and have a hard time putting a group together now that most of my regular gaming friends have gotten married and moved to the suburbs.

[Foryn Gilnith]

It's nearly impossible to discuss Pathfinder at this board without someone jumping down your throat because it's fun for them to crap all over your gaming preferences because you have the audacity to have different gaming preferences from them.

As a Pathfinder hater, I have this to say: can't you report things like that? IIRC there is a line in the forum rules regarding system tolerance, and if people cross that line you might want to consider reporting them. *shrug*