Pathfinder Second Edition - Remaster project

I've made statements along these lines elsewhere, but I was waiting for confirmation from Paizo on this being OK. We've now had feedback from Paizo and we can release the following information.

These are the current plans for supporting the upcoming "Core" books (Player Core, GM Core, Player Core 2, Monster Core - "remaster" rulebooks) as well as the existing releases.

We plan to allow Fantasy Grounds users to make the decision to stay on legacy PF2 rules or migrate their campaigns to remaster rules; this applies for existing or new campaigns.

The way we're planning on doing this is as follows, this is all based around information Paizo has previously provided and also to provide the best experience to existing and new FG users:

• The PFRPG2 ruleset will become the main ruleset for the remaster rules. Legacy campaigns will use the PFRPG2-Legacy ruleset (name TBC) which will be a small ruleset layered on top of PFRPG2, similar to the Pathfinder first edition 3.5E/PFRPG relationship.
• There'll be "switch campaign" (or something similar) functionality when an older PFRPG2 campaign is opened for the first time in the remaster PFRPG2 ruleset - offering the option to remain with legacy (resulting in the campaign ruleset changing to PFRPG2-Legacy) or move to the new rules - which will keep the ruleset as PFRPG2.
• Campaigns using the PFRPG2 or PFRPG2-Legacy ruleset will be able to open data modules tagged for PFRPG2 or PFRPG2-Legacy; with any limitations programmed around or assumed - e.g. opening a remaster bestiary for a legacy campaign means the creatures won't have alignment traits.

Paizo remaster books can be found on paizo.com here: https://paizo.com/store/pathfinder/rulebooks/remaster

We're planning to have the remaster ruleset released at the same time that the standard editions of the Player Core and GM Core books are released (currently November 15th, 2023) - when we'll also have Fantasy Grounds versions of the DLC available.

We're still working out the pricing structure for people who currently own official Paizo PF2 FG products and migrate to the equivalent FG remaster products.

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Originally Posted by Trenloe

I've made statements along these lines elsewhere, but I was waiting for confirmation from Paizo on this being OK. We've now had feedback from Paizo and we can release the following information.

These are the current plans for supporting the upcoming "Core" books (Player Core, GM Core, Player Core 2, Monster Core - "remaster" rulebooks) as well as the existing releases.

We plan to allow Fantasy Grounds users to make the decision to stay on legacy PF2 rules or migrate their campaigns to remaster rules; this applies for existing or new campaigns.

The way we're planning on doing this is as follows, this is all based around information Paizo has previously provided and also to provide the best experience to existing and new FG users:

• The PFRPG2 ruleset will become the main ruleset for the remaster rules. Legacy campaigns will use the PFRPG2-Legacy ruleset (name TBC) which will be a small ruleset layered on top of PFRPG2, similar to the Pathfinder first edition 3.5E/PFRPG relationship.
• There'll be "switch campaign" (or something similar) functionality when an older PFRPG2 campaign is opened for the first time in the remaster PFRPG2 ruleset - offering the option to remain with legacy (resulting in the campaign ruleset changing to PFRPG2-Legacy) or move to the new rules - which will keep the ruleset as PFRPG2.
• Campaigns using the PFRPG2 or PFRPG2-Legacy ruleset will be able to open data modules tagged for PFRPG2 or PFRPG2-Legacy; with any limitations programmed around or assumed - e.g. opening a remaster bestiary for a legacy campaign means the creatures won't have alignment traits.

Paizo remaster books can be found on paizo.com here: https://paizo.com/store/pathfinder/rulebooks/remaster

We're planning to have the remaster ruleset released at the same time that the standard editions of the Player Core and GM Core books are released (currently November 15th, 2023) - when we'll also have Fantasy Grounds versions of the DLC available.

We're still working out the pricing structure for people who currently own official Paizo PF2 FG products and migrate to the equivalent FG remaster products.

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Thank you, Trenloe.

I am SO excited about everything. The Remaster. The upcoming Starfinder 2 that's compatible with the Remaster. It's all going to be so cool.

Thanks for the update, Trenloe.

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Originally Posted by Trenloe

I've made statements along these lines elsewhere, but I was waiting for confirmation from Paizo on this being OK. We've now had feedback from Paizo and we can release the following information.

These are the current plans for supporting the upcoming "Core" books (Player Core, GM Core, Player Core 2, Monster Core - "remaster" rulebooks) as well as the existing releases.

We plan to allow Fantasy Grounds users to make the decision to stay on legacy PF2 rules or migrate their campaigns to remaster rules; this applies for existing or new campaigns.

The way we're planning on doing this is as follows, this is all based around information Paizo has previously provided and also to provide the best experience to existing and new FG users:

• The PFRPG2 ruleset will become the main ruleset for the remaster rules. Legacy campaigns will use the PFRPG2-Legacy ruleset (name TBC) which will be a small ruleset layered on top of PFRPG2, similar to the Pathfinder first edition 3.5E/PFRPG relationship.
• There'll be "switch campaign" (or something similar) functionality when an older PFRPG2 campaign is opened for the first time in the remaster PFRPG2 ruleset - offering the option to remain with legacy (resulting in the campaign ruleset changing to PFRPG2-Legacy) or move to the new rules - which will keep the ruleset as PFRPG2.
• Campaigns using the PFRPG2 or PFRPG2-Legacy ruleset will be able to open data modules tagged for PFRPG2 or PFRPG2-Legacy; with any limitations programmed around or assumed - e.g. opening a remaster bestiary for a legacy campaign means the creatures won't have alignment traits.

Paizo remaster books can be found on paizo.com here: https://paizo.com/store/pathfinder/rulebooks/remaster

We're planning to have the remaster ruleset released at the same time that the standard editions of the Player Core and GM Core books are released (currently November 15th, 2023) - when we'll also have Fantasy Grounds versions of the DLC available.

We're still working out the pricing structure for people who currently own official Paizo PF2 FG products and migrate to the equivalent FG remaster products.

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So to make sure I have this right, there will be an additional charge for remaster content?

I only own the books in FG format (and haven't even played a game with them yet). If it will cost more I wish I knew about this ahead of time and I wouldn't have bought the things and saved me some money.

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Originally Posted by Alynn

So to make sure I have this right, there will be an additional charge for remaster content?

I only own the books in FG format (and haven't even played a game with them yet). If it will cost more I wish I knew about this ahead of time and I wouldn't have bought the things and saved me some money.

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I'm not happy with the whole "new edition but not" mentality of it but Paizo saw there were a lot of people who felt the same way so they split the middle. Essentially with FG you can either treat it as a new edition or you can treat it like how they did their Unchained book for PF1. I'll be doing the latter, at least for a while so I may not pick up the new core books till they get some traction under them.

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Originally Posted by ProfDogg

I'm not happy with the whole "new edition but not" mentality of it but Paizo saw there were a lot of people who felt the same way so they split the middle. Essentially with FG you can either treat it as a new edition or you can treat it like how they did their Unchained book for PF1. I'll be doing the latter, at least for a while so I may not pick up the new core books till they get some traction under them.

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I get that, my point is I've never actually played pathfinder. So there is no reason to not use remaste.

However earlier this year I spent nearly 400 dollars getting all the PF content so that I could run a game as soon as my current 5e campaign finished. What I want clarification on is that I will need to shell out more money for this upgrade or not.

We're limited with the Paizo license agreement with what we can do with full official products. Basically, we won't be able to provide a free full upgrade from legacy PF2 products to the equivalent remaster Core products. We've asked Paizo if we can do a full upgrade at a discount and we're waiting to hear back from them.

What we are planning to do is release a data only module under the Open RPG Creative (ORC) License, this will give you all of the data records you need to play remaster games, but without the full rules (there'll be no reference manual in the ORC version) or graphics/portraits/tokens.

The ORC data modules, the remaster ruleset and your existing purchases will allow you to move your current PF2 game to remastered without any additional purchases. But if you want to get the full remaster products, which also supports the PF2 devs, we hope that there will be some form of discount if you own the equivalent legacy product - but that is yet to be confirmed so we can't commit to that at this point.

Dang, then I never should have bought them. That sucks.

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Originally Posted by Alynn

Dang, then I never should have bought them. That sucks.

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Let's take a step back from the fact that you won't be getting a free upgrade to the new 464 and 336 page products...

You'll be getting a free upgrade to the FG remaster ruleset.
You'll be getting a free set of all of the FG remaster data records - classes, feats, items, spells, lookup data, etc. that you need to run the game in Fantasy Grounds.
You'll be able to run *everything* you already have in Fantasy Grounds, using the remaster rules, and you'll get all of the new Core rule books data you need to run remaster in FG for free.
You'll still be able to use the graphics and portraits/tokens from the products you already have.

Personally I think this is a great solution to the FG remaster migration - so much so that I don't think many people are going to buy the new remaster rulebooks in FG (even if they're new to PF2) as they'll have what they need to play available to them. This is a double-edged sword, as it means that the FG work-for-hire devs, who will spend hundreds of hours doing the remaster data and migration code, are going to get hardly any recompense for all of their hard work; but that's the hit we'll take if it means that we're offering a good solution to the users, while keeping within the current license agreements.

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Originally Posted by Trenloe

This is a double-edged sword, as it means that the FG work-for-hire devs, who will spend hundreds of hours doing the remaster data and migration code, are going to get hardly any recompense for all of their hard work; but that's the hit we'll take if it means that we're offering a good solution to the users, while keeping within the current license agreements.

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Dang it, Trenloe, I wasn't going to buy it immediately but now you go and play the whole "It's our gift to you" card and making me all feel guilty and all because I didn't bring anything to the party... Well, in lieu of a fruit basket, how's cash in exchange?