Obsidian officially announces Pathfinder partnership, first game

Obsidian Entertainment have announced that they have partnered with Paizo to produce games based on the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

We mentioned yesterday that an Obsidian/Pathfinder banner had been spotted at Gen Con, and now we officially know what that’s all about. Obsidian, for the uninitiated, are the studio that developed Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Neverwinter Nights 2, Alpha Protocol, and a bunch of other top-notch RPGs. They’re currently working on Kickstarter phenomenon Pillars of Eternity.

That said, the first announced title Pathfinder title probably isn’t what you’re expecting. Are you thinking it’ll be a huge, turn-based RPG on PC? Well, it’s not. It’s a tablet game based on the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game – a co-op game for up to four players. I suppose it might hit PC at some point, though. That’s not the only thing being done, thankfully; it’s called a “long-term licensing partnership” and this is described as the “first licensed product”, so maybe they’ll get onto doing a proper RPG once Pillars of Eternity is done. Assuming this now doesn’t mean they’re suddenly going to turn that into Pathfinder: Pillars of Eternity, or something.

Pathfinder is a variant of D&D 3.5e with adjustments to make the rules simpler and more sensible, but with more options; it also has its own campaign setting (the world of Golarion). It is generally much approved of in pen-and-paper gaming circles.

Naturally, we’ll keep you posted when something more interesting than a tablet game is announced.