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“On an unrelated note - I wonder if there are any plans to find a new distributor in Germany? I am accustomed to using English books, but not everyone is, and certainly not newbies…”

Scott Rouse:

“yes we are in active negotiations with a new German publishing partner”

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Führe einen Freund in die aufregende Welt von D&D ein* und du erhältst ein exklusives T-Shirt.** Wenn du 2 weitere Freunde in D&D einführst, erhältst du zusätzlich ein besonderes Abenteuer.

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Quick Start Rules

These quick-start rules provide an overview of the game so that you can play the Keep on the Shadowfell adventure. For the complete experience, including character creation and the full rules of the game, pick up the D&D Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual, and check out www.dndinsider.com.

Keep on the Shadowfell

This is the first published adventure using the 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons rules, suitable for entertaining your friends for hours with brave deeds and harrowing perils. You, the Dungeon Master (DM), and your friends can explore dungeons, banter with villains, and defeat vicious monsters with sword, spell, and prayer. Together, the player characters (PCs) can work to thwart the insidious plot of an unholy cult, winning great treasure and a heroic reputation.

Create a Character

The D&DI Character Builder allows you to create characters from levels 1 to 3 for free. And when you’re ready to subscribe, you can unlock the rest of the fun.

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We’re running a competition here in the UK to find the most interesting conversion of a 3rd-edition D&D character into 4th edition.

or other cool prizes, such as a 3-month subscription to D&D Insider or autographed copies of the Players Handbook 2 and Monster Manual 2!

All you need to do is, well, tell us about your character! Interested? Read on!
Here’s how it works. Terms and conditions apply; you can see all the technical details here.

First, you tell us about your character. There are a few details about just how to do this; we’ll get to that in a moment. The important bit is that you send us your submission between now and Friday, 12 June 2009. (Oh, another important bit: You must be from the UK or Ireland; this promotion is only open to UK and Republic of Ireland residents.)

Second, our panel of esteemed judges will evaluate all valid submissions and narrow them down to the top eight entries. Who are these esteemed judges? Well, we have Chris Perkins, D&D Creative Manager at Wizards of the Coast, along with Russ Morrissey, owner of EN World, the world’s biggest D&D fan site, and Dave Thompson, a long-time player who works on the sales of D&D here in the UK.

We’ll announce these eight finalists on 22 June, 2009, and each of them will win a 3-month subscription to D&D Insider. The next step is up to you: The public will vote on the eight finalists, narrowing them down to a winner by Wednesday, 1 July. The winner will be officially announced on Friday, 3 July 2009.

If that winner is you, pack your bags: You’re going to Gen Con US in Indianapolis, August 13-16 2009! And the runner up gets an autographed copy of both the Player’s Handbook 2 and Monster Manual 2.

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Our 3.5 products are available again!

Well, some of them are, and the rest are coming. Recent changes to the 4E license (the GSL, for those of you who follow it) have allowed us to re-release our third edition products with certain revisions. We’ve begun the slow process of revising prior products to make them compatible. In the past week we made the first wave of revised 3.5 PDF’s available!

This includes roughly the first dozen Dungeon Crawl Classics as well as our Judges Guild adventures. We’ll be releasing the rest slowly over time as we revise the original files. You can purchase them from RPGNow.com.

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Created by the fans for the fans, the first issue of the Wayfinder fanzine includes more than thirty articles designed to expand upon the world of Golarion. Inside you will find original fiction, new prestige classes, sorcerer bloodlines, magic items, and traits—and this is just a small portion of what awaits you.

Originally released in print for attendees of PAIZOCON 2009, this PDF is your chance to enjoy what your fellow Paizonians have created for the community—for FREE! The PDF release of Wayfinder #1 is in full color and includes a special challenge by Tim “Timitius” Nightengale, organizer of the first PAIZOCON.

Contributors: Adam Daigle, Ashton Sperry, Charles Evans, Claudia Burgos, Clinton J. Boomer, Colter Guthrie, Conceicao Hallen, Craig Johnston, Cristian Bodea, Crystal Frasier, Dave Mallon, Dennis Baker, Eric Morton, Ernesto Ramirez, Glen Zimmerman, Hal Maclean, Hugo Solis, Ian Cunningham, James Keegan, James Mackenzie, Jason Kirckof, Joseph Scott, Kelly Gragg, Jeff Lee, Jonathan McAnulty, Joshua Blazej, Justin Sluder, Kevin Coleman, Larry WIlhelm, Lissa Guillet, Liz Courts, Matthew Stinson, Michael Kortes, Michelle Craddock, Mike Welham, Neil Spicer, Raluca Rusu, Ross Byers, Russ Taylor, Paris Crenshaw, Tae-Bin Gulliver, Theodore Thompson, Trevor Gulliver, Troy E. Taylor.

Cover art by Hugo Solis and Michael Jaecks.

Wayfinder is a 77-page full-color PDF suitable for printing or viewing on your computer. It includes both Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beta and OGL-compatible material for your enjoyment, and is released under the Paizo Publishing, LLC Community Use Policy.

This fanzine uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Publishing, LLC, which are used under Paizo’s Community Use Policy. We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. This fanzine is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo Publishing. For more information about Paizo’s Community Use Policy, please visit paizo.com/communityuse. For more information about Paizo Publishing and Paizo products, please visit paizo.com.
Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at webmaster@paizo.com.

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Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook Sold Out!
All Preordered Copies Now in Distribution Channel, New Print Run to Arrive in Early November
Ten days before the launch of their much-anticipated Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook, Paizo Publishing today announced that the first print run of the book has sold out, with all preordered copies on their way to stores for an August 13 release. With preorders more than five times greater than for any previous product in Paizo’s seven-year history, orders for the Core Rulebook continue to mount even as the company speeds to produce another print run. Paizo.com has retained enough copies to handle all paizo.com subscriptions and pre-orders. Customers who have not already placed a pre-order with paizo.com or their game or book retailer are encouraged to seek out a copy immediately following the book’s retail release, as supplies are expected to run out well before the arrival of a second print run in early November.

“We thought we had printed enough to last us at least until the end of this year, but skyrocketing demand from our customers and distributors has us reprinting already,” Lisa Stevens, CEO of Paizo said. “We have a healthy amount heading to Gen Con, but we think even those will go fast, so don’t delay in picking up your copy!”

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook is the first release in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game line of hardcover tabletop RPG rulebooks. Clocking in at a whopping 576 pages and at a weight of more than four pounds, this $49.99 rulebook is the newest incarnation of the 3.5 version of the world’s best-selling roleplaying game. Playtested by more than 50,000 players over the last year, the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook is the most hotly anticipated tabletop RPG release of 2009. A massive electronic download file ($9.99) will remain available at paizo.com.

“The phenomenal support of the constantly growing community of Pathfinder RPG players has been a staggering sight to behold,” said Paizo Publisher Erik Mona. “To sell out a hugely ambitious print run before the release date just goes to show what an immense audience this game will enjoy in the years to come.”

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook can be found wherever gaming products are sold or can be purchased directly from Paizo Publishing via paizo.com.

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On August 13th, Lone Wolf Development will release the eagerly-awaited Pathfinder Roleplaying Game data package for Hero Lab. The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game package allows you to create adventurers and NPCs in the world of Golarion, described in the upcoming “Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook” from Paizo Publishing. The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game data package includes all the races, character classes, spells, feats, magic items, and all the new mechanics introduced by the Core Rulebook, presented in Hero Lab’s award-winning user-friendly interface. Like all of Hero Lab’s supported game systems, the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game data package allows players to create characters in minutes, verify them with Hero Lab’s built-in validation engine, and print out character sheets (or use Hero Lab itself at the game table). GMs can create NPCs, and use the Tactical Console to manage encounters between the players and their foes. (Note - this is an early release of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game data package, so the integrated data file editor, prestige classes, and some other functionality are not yet available. These will be corrected in free updates that will be made available in the weeks after the initial release.)

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Welcome to the Pathfinder Reference Document!

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is released under the Open Game License, meaning the core rules that drive the Pathfinder system are available to anyone to use for free under the terms of the OGL. This compendium of rules, charts, and tables contains all of the open rules in the system, and is provided for the use of the community of gamers and publishers working with the system.

This compendium is NOT the official Pathfinder Roleplaying Game! Players interested in a user-friendly introduction to the Pathfinder system will want to purchase the complete Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook and the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary, which comes complete with more than 350 monsters to menace your player characters.

Both books contain hundreds of beautiful full-color illustrations and lots of descriptive text to explain and introduce key rules concepts necessary to fully enjoy the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game experience. Both the Core Rulebook and Bestiary are also available in affordable PDF editions.

Erik Mona,
Publisher, Paizo Publishing

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This year’s 4th Edition Extravaganza seminar at Gencon, led by Bill Slavicsek, R&D Director for D&D, pulled the cover away to reveal the next big campaign setting that will be released for D&D 4th Edition. If you don’t already know what it is by now — is that cave on Mars comfortable?


Created by popular demand, this requested setting was saved specifically for now in 4th Edition, and will also feature new novels set in the world of Athas. As a follow-up to the initial announcement, we spoke with R&D’s James Wyatt regarding the release of Dark Sun.

Wizards of the Coast: Let’s start with the basics. Can you tell us about the process for determining this next campaign setting? What niche were you looking to fill, how were various settings nominated and critiqued, and what ultimately led you to Dark Sun?

James Wyatt: With Bill Slavicsek as the head of the department and Rich Baker as one of our senior designers, there was really not a lot of question about whether we’d do Dark Sun, just a question of when. Both Bill and Rich worked on Dark Sun among their very first projects at TSR back in the days of 2nd Edition A D&D, and both of them have been eager to revive the setting for years.

I think what made 2010 the right time for Dark Sun was a combination of factors. First, it’s going to utterly rock under the 4th Edition rules. Under 2nd Edition, Dark Sun was all about a grittier, action-packed feeling in a dark and dangerous world, and that’s going to map really well to the new edition and the baseline assumptions about the world. Second, one of the factors we’ve looked at in planning our settings is the degree to which a setting strays from the standard D&D medieval fantasy feel. Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Mystara — those are all pretty close to baseline fantasy. Eberron strays only a little farther afield, with its pseudo-technological elements (airships, warforged, lightning rail). Dark Sun is something very different, and we felt it was time to show the breadth of what’s possible in the game, just what a broad swathe D&D’s kind of fantasy can cover.

Wizards of the Coast: For those players who may never have played Dark Sun in its earlier inception, can you give us a rundown of this world? How would you describe Dark Sun encapsulated, and what sets it uniquely apart from other settings?

James Wyatt:Dark Sun is a sort of post-apocalyptic fantasy, a world that’s been blasted and ravaged by out-of-control magic. The arcane magic of the world draws its power from the life force of things around it, and if it’s not wielded carefully, it can transform nearby plant life into ash and drain other living creatures of their vitality. That’s why the world is a desert, its civilizations concentrated in a handful of city-states ruled by evil sorcerer-kings and its wilderness haunted by marauding nomadic bands.

The gods of the setting are absent or dead, replaced by elemental spirits tied to the ancient primordials. Shamans and other primal characters draw on the forces of sun, sand, wind, and precious rain. Wizards practice their magic in secret or openly serve the sorcerer-kings. And psionic power is more common than on other worlds — which is handy, since this setting will come out a few months after Player’s Handbook 3, which introduces the psionic power source.

Wizards of the Coast: How is Dark Sun being conceptualized for 4th Edition? What is being retained about the setting, and what might be added, altered, or deleted? Are there significant events in store, such as with Forgotten Realms and the Spellplague, or a broader retcon of the entire setting?

James Wyatt: Our goal with the setting was to cleave as close to the original boxed set as possible while still allowing as many D&D options as we could and making the setting ideal for 4th Edition play. We’re in the process of re-releasing Troy Denning’s excellent Prism Pentad series of novels, and we didn’t want readers to come away from those books and look at the campaign setting and not recognize it as the same world. So we tried to capture the essence of the original Dark Sun boxed set while ensuring that the Prism Pentad novels could be one possible way things turn out.

Wizards of the Coast: Are there elements of Dark Sun that you determined would be especially suited for the 4th Edition rule set? Conversely, are there elements of the setting that you understand will be a challenge to incorporate into 4E?

James Wyatt: As I mentioned before, I think the overall tone of Dark Sun makes it fit really well in the 4th Edition environment. In many ways, it’s really a perfect fit. Even the idea that characters might wear less armor or rely less on gear in general is easy to implement in the current rules set.

Wizards of the Coast: Can you give us a hint of what kinds of challenges and monsters unique to this setting will be in store for adventuring parties?

James Wyatt: Well, I can tell you for one thing that Rich and his team worked hard to make sure Dark Sun continued to feel like a place where the most dangerous enemy you face might be the world itself. It’s a brutal, harsh environment, and if that’s the kind of game you want to play, you’ll have ways to make survival beyond the walls of the city-states an adventure in itself. Beyond that — nomadic elf raiders, cannibal halflings, hunting packs of thri-kreen, the deadly sorcerer-kings and their templars, braxats, silt wyrms, The Dragon …. Oh, and I’m told that Rich managed to make the belgoi’s game mechanics actually work well in the game.

Wizards of the Coast: And for the parties themselves, can you tell us what we might look forward to with Dark Sun character concepts and designs? How will, say, a Dark Sun fighter stand apart from a Forgotten Realms or Eberron fighter?

James Wyatt: One of the things I’m most excited about with the new setting addresses this question, but I don’t want to talk too much about it. Suffice it to say, at this point, that a Dark Sun fighter has a whole set of options available to him that aren’t (yet) available to other D&D characters. These options will add a whole new dimension to Dark Sun player characters, both in terms of what they can do within the rules of the game and in terms of fleshing them out as people in the world.

Thanks to Bill and James! Be sure to check our Gen Con page for ongoing coverage of the convention, and find out what’s happening with Dungeons & Dragons!

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The Janesville Gazette reports that Gail Carpenter Gygax, wife of late Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax, is currently seeking to have a statue built in Gary’s honor in his hometown of Lake Geneva, WI. Working with a local attorney, Gail hopes to begin raising money for the project soon, with an official fundraiser planned for next year’s Gen Con, the annual gaming convention that Gygax himself founded. “Big names” in gaming and film have reportedly already contacted Gail regarding the project and, presumably, its funding.

The memorial statue would serve as somewhat of a resting place for his legacy in his hometown, which he loved so much, Gail said.

“That is my mission, to get that (statue) as an appreciation for what he gave people throughout the world,” she said.

“Through his games, these men and women developed lifelong relationships,” she added. “His games taught them friendship and respect and teamwork. It was more than a game; it was life.”

We can only hope that this statue will, in fact, be an Iron Golem: a monolithic creature of enchanted metal, nigh impervious to attack. Gary deserves no less.

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