“The Nerdies” are the end-of-year awards from Nerds on Earth. They are only awarded to the most excellent of things, and are selected by Nerds on Earth writers and editors, with input from readers via our social media.
Our category today is “Best RPG MOMENT,” which is an odd little category, we admit. What defines a “moment” and how do you measure the significance of it? Well, it’s slippery but RPGs are too much fun not to try. Besides, the popularity of old school pen and paper RPGs are exploding through the roof, driven in part by new school delivery technologies. So, we narrowed it down to four before opening the vote to determine the winner of the Best RPG Moment of 2018.
2018 Nerdie Award for Best RPG Moment
The Pathfinder Playtest
Paizo Publishing released the Pathfinder roleplaying game in 2008. It was an evolution of Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, with Paizo taking the beloved 3.5 system and improving it to create their own new game. Now, ten years later, they have released the Playtest for the second edition of Pathfinder, with the goal of reinventing their system as they once did with D&D 3.5.
To facilitate this test Paizo released the Pathfinder Playtest Core Rulebook free to the public. It contained a new system designed to streamline character creation and combat while increasing options for both players and game masters. All of the classic Pathfinder elements are still there, including
race ancestry options, various class features, archetypes, and more.
The playtest started in August 2018 and runs through the end of the year. It has involved the participation of tens of thousands in the Pathfinder community who have filled out survey after survey to thoroughly test every element of the next evolution of Pathfinder by playing a seven-part adventure called Doomsday Dawn, a decade spanning story that allowed players to revisit locations from previous Pathfinder adventures while stress-testing the new rules.
After ten years, a new edition of Pathfinder has indeed been a huge and overdue moment for the RPG community. For this reason, the Pathfinder Playtest wins the 2018 Nerdie Award for Best RPG Moment. – Rick