Paizo will release an overhaul of its Pathfinder core rulebooks over the next year to provide a “fresh entry point” to the popular tabletop RPG and also move the game away from the Open Game License. Today, Paizo announced the Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster Project, which will incorporate various errata and rules updates made over the years and re-organize the rules in an easier to follow fashion. The first two rulebooks – Pathfinder Player Core and Pathfinder GM Core – will be released in November, while the Pathfinder Monster Core and Pathfinder Player Core 2 will be released in 2024.
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These new rulebooks aren’t a dramatic overhaul of Pathfinder Second Edition rules like the ongoing One D&D playtest is making to D&D 5E. Per Paizo, the overwhelming majority of the rules will not be changing and the old rulebooks will still be valid. Instead, these changes will consolidate key information in a single place. The Pathfinder Player Core will collect information about character classes previously spread across multiple rulebooks.
Perhaps most importantly, the new rulebooks will be published under the Open RPG Creative License, a replacement to the Open Gaming License developed by Paizo earlier this year. To totally divorce Pathfinder from the OGL, several “minor modifications” are being made to the ruleset, with alignment being removed entirely from the game and a “small number of nostalgic creatures, spells, and magic items” pulled from the new Pathfinder rulebooks. The alignment system and the other cut items will still be available through the old rulebooks but won’t appear in future Pathfinder releases.
This new project won’t impact any existing Pathfinder releases, with Rage of Elements still due for release this summer and the Lost Omens campaign setting books still also on schedule. Expect to hear more news about the new projects soon.
