Gen Con Community

Nascrag never really officially made a decision on D+D 3.5 vs. Pathfinder.  Pathfinder has many enthusiastic supporters while D+D 3.5 has many...apathetic supporters.  Hmmm, I'm not saying that right.  It just seems that inertia drives this decision more than anything.  Also, I think there is some concern that it could affect our attendance numbers if we weren't listed in the catalog under "Dungeons and Dragons".  Frankly, we are roleplaying heavy and rules-light in any case, so the difference is nominal.

But that's just background.  The question is more general.  If you are a D+D player, do you even look in the Pathfinder section?  Are Pathfinder events even under consideration?  How about the reverse?  Pathfinder players, do you look for D+D?  Or is D+D = D+D 4.0 in your minds?

Pathfinder is the only D&D type system that I play any more. It brought me back to gaming after a ten year lay over.  I have attended Gencon over the last four years, and will be there this year.  I have never entered a Nascrag event, but I do like the concept.  I would love to try if it was under the Pathfinder rules, but I have no plans to learn nuances the original 3.5 system. 

I generally try to play in several society events during the con.  

Pathfinder is a great system and it's what I exclusively play.

Having said that, the last NASCRAG event I played, it didn't really matter what rules system we used, I don't think we had a single combat.

Personally, I'd just stick with D&D 3.5 unless there are more players playing Pathfinder now. When I searched for NASCRAG, I typed in "NASCRAG", I didn't search in D&D specifically.

This question can probably only be answered by your long time loyal players (and the numbers between PF and D&D).

I play in a weekly D&D 3.5 game and a monthly Pathfinder game.  However, I only look for Pathfinder games at Gen Con.  While I can easily move between the two game systems, I feel Pathfinder is superior.  I really only play the 3.5 because the GM had never played Pathfinder.   

 Pathfinder has been matching Wizards 4.0 in quarterly sales for about a year.  There are almost certainly more people actively playing Pathfinder than 3.5 these days.

 I would suggest posting a similiar inquiry on the Paizo forums, and perhaps some place like 3.5 Private Sanctuary.

organized:

 Pathfinder has been matching Wizards 4.0 in quarterly sales for about a year.  There are almost certainly more people actively playing Pathfinder than 3.5 these days.

 I would suggest posting a similiar inquiry on the Paizo forums, and perhaps some place like 3.5 Private Sanctuary.

Having Dm'ed both Pathfinder and before that DnD 3.5 I think its a mute point which system you use if NASCRAG is using rules lite as it were. Both systems are very well done, and neither chosen or changed should impact NASCRAG.

NASCRAG uses rules? I thought it was closer to the Amber Diceless System. Someone told me once that if you get into combat at NASCRAG, you screwed up. Also, I was told you get docked points if you pull out a rule book. Both point to 'don't worry about the system'. If nothing else, drop the gaming system completely and just list it under NASCRAG and be done with it.

Our homegroup currently plays Piazo's Kingmaker adventure path, but we have a mixture of 3.5 and pathfinder rule.

Yes, I would play pathfinder, but as always: use the rules you like and discard the ones you don't (and substitute them with your own) 

Our group has converted over to Pathfinder completely as far as D&D 3.5 goes.  We do play D&D 4th also.  Actually our group plays about any game.  In our groups mind, now D&D = Pathfinder and D&D 4th = W.O.W.   

 I tried D&D 4.0, and hated it, so I went back to 3.5.  I still enjoy it, but I've also just bought the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, so I'm going to be exploring that.  I've heard from too many enthusiastic people who love it to avoid it anymore.  I would play either!  

My group has played, and is actually currently playing a Pathfinder game. (Our current DM is actually running Rappan Athuk Reloaded using Pathfinder rules). To be honest, we have basically found that Pathfinder is 3.75e of D&D. It cleans up a lot of rules, and makes the game flow better. It can be as roleplaying or rules heavy as you want it to be, just like pretty much anything else out there. I'd say you can't lose with making the change.

 The other nice thing about Pathfinder is that if you're like me, and have a huge collection of 3.0 and 3.5 books, you can use them with Pathfinder without any really major editing. A few tweaks here and there, and your old stuff works just fine with the system.

At the end of every session, I polled my players with something like "The only 3.5 game I am involved in any more is this event. We've switched completely to Pathfinder at home. Would it change any of your opinions on attending if, next year, it was a Pathfinder game?" Don't let it devolve into a "which is better" conversation, just straight up "straw poll" type of thing.

I had not a single person out of approx 50 players say that it'd be an issue. Obviously "my players are not your players" so you shouldn't just take their word for it, but that seems to be the easiest way to do it.

Good luck!

Cheers,
D