Paizo and SmiteWorks sign an agreement for official Pathfinder support!

[swbuza]

It may well be that there is a different pricing and revenue sharing model. Different companies may negotiate different licensing terms.

[LindseyFan]

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that these other VTT solutions aren't as fully fleshed out as an FG product. For instance, if you buy a FG PHB you have the complete text in edition to the automations. Perhaps these other solutions contain automations and stat blocks, but in order to make a "game legal" copy, you have to have the pdf for all the text with actual rules.

This is just my wild guess though.

[daplunk]

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that these other VTT solutions aren't as fully fleshed out as an FG product.

No you're on the wrong path there.

Don't think of Realm Works as a VTT. It's campaign management software. It contains all of the text from the books in a very easy to use format. Arguably in an easier to use format than FG given that the focus is solely on the world and the story not the combat, and table top management. We don't use it as a VTT though. Alot of us use it at the table as a form of virtual binder. It's incredibly easy to modify content and wind it into your world which could have been a consideration in the licensing agreements as once you own content you can continue to strip it to pieces as use what ever bits you want where ever you want.

As far as combat automation. The Realm Works content coming our will contain Hero Lab portfolios and the two tools integrate so we roll real dice but use Hero Lab to manage tracking of the combat.

IMO FG / Roll20 are the online software solutions. Realm Works with Hero Lab is the software solution for play at the table.

[damned]

Hi daplunk how long ago did RW negotiate their deal?
Possibly it was sometime ago and a little more is now known about how these deals might pan out and maybe a change is coming.

[daplunk]

That's a very good question and one I don't know the answer to. I can tell you they have been in discussions for many many years but this latest revelation seems to have come as a surprise to LWD from the 'feel' of the forum posts. The impression I get is this is something new and honestly it's something I expect to see replicated both here and in Roll20 should both offer official support. It's gone as far as there are mechanical elements setup between both LWD and Paizo with the automatic checking of PDF ownership which leads me to think Paizo have thought this out, laid the foundation and are now communicating the change.

Let's be honest... apart from the slap in the face to physical book owners its a really good thing for those that primarily play digitally which these days if both the online and @table communities. It's going to really hurt physical stores though.

[lostsanityreturned]

Can someone explain the issue here to me?
I am not getting it, it seems obvious that paizo won't be allowing people with physical copies they bought ages ago to get the digital content in realmworks. That would be insanely bad as a business decision.
Unless Realmworks has decided to become a charity and convert the modules for free.

[ddavison]

I won't comment on internal details of publisher negotiations, but I will simply state that our arrangement is as follows:

Fantasy Grounds licensed content for Pathfinder will be sold on Steam and on the Fantasy Grounds site at a fixed cost per item. As far as I can tell, the costs will be the MSRP print price. There might be an option at some point to buy from the Paizo store at a slight discount if you already own the print or PDF product there.

[Talyn]

Yeah, I own the dead tree Core Rulebook and a couple others. I have no use for buying a PDF I'll never use just so I can have permission to buy (for the same price, hey double dipping!) the FG conversion of that same book. These big companies just can't seem to get it right. Wizards refuse to make PDFs because people who will never be their customers might pirate them so let's punish the people who'd rather have a legal PDF. Now Paizo makes you pay twice. Awesome...

[Trenloe]

I won't comment on internal details of publisher negotiations, but I will simply state that our arrangement is as follows:

Fantasy Grounds licensed content for Pathfinder will be sold on Steam and on the Fantasy Grounds site at a fixed cost per item. As far as I can tell, the costs will be the MSRP print price. There might be an option at some point to buy from the Paizo store at a slight discount if you already own the print or PDF product there.

Thanks for re-stating Doug.

Whereas there is obviously concern regarding the LWP/RW agreement for those that use that platform, it's good to have the Fantasy Grounds agreement confirmed and know that it is not following the model mentions on the LWP forums.

[daplunk]

Shits about to hit the fan lol...