So Paizo releases two related but distinct products. The core rules for their game systems and then the lore & adventures set in their Golarion setting.
I think Paizo did a decent job with Pathfinder 1st Edition, considering the starting point and their design considerations. With PF2e they've managed to iterate on and experiment with the D&D formula pretty well and it's become my current preferred system.
They've taken some of the good elements 4e had as a purely tactical combat system, updated them and made a system that is fun to run. They've also included a fair amount of character and class customization for a relatively new system. I also appreciate that they've put effort into systems for the non-combat aspects of the hobby, though I think their crafting system is failure and have homebrewed my own alternative. Another core strength of the PF2e system is that such homebrew is actually very easy to implement, as the overall patterns and math for the systems balance are easy to understand.
Now for the second part of their product line, the Golarion setting. The setting is a grab bag of everything imaginable, and while there are obvious woke elements as far back as when the campaign was written for 3.5. A few examples, there's a character in one of the early adventure paths (I think it was Curse of the Crimson Throne) that has a backstory panel calling out she's a lesbian. It had no bearing on the story when my GM ran the campaign, I didn't even learn about it until later.
If you fast forward to modern-day they just release a lore book set in their Africa continent with a goddess that's a pro-BLM statement (literally celebrates burning), and the new adventure path starts you off in Hogwarts set in magical Wakanda. I exaggerate that slightly, but the influences are there. On the other hand, the introduced a new race (called Ancestries b/c of woke language policing) called the Anandi. Based on Anasi legends, these are literally just giant jumping spiders who are really super friendly and don't get why everybody was so terrified of them so they've learned to shapeshift into humanoid forms and communicate telepathically. They just want to be your giant 8-legged buddies.
As a GM, I'm free to ignore all the woke shit. The world they created is literally a kitchen sink approach to world building, EVERYTHING a nerd could want is in there and even includes pulp-style content from the early days of the company that modern leftists would never allow.
To the company's credit as well, all the base rules are 100% free and available online. They maintain a commitment to the Open Game License and are generally friendly to 3rd party content companies. This is a stark contrast with how Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro treat the core D&D property. If you prefer to run games in your own homebrew settings like I do, then the base rule books are quite worth a buy and you can look things over before you decide if you want to give the company your money. I bought the basic 3 books b/c I use their product enough to throw them some money and ignore the lore content as, frankly, my friends and I have created a far more interesting setting for our games.
Is PF2E any good? I know both PF and DnD are going woker and woker.
So Paizo releases two related but distinct products. The core rules for their game systems and then the lore & adventures set in their Golarion setting.
I think Paizo did a decent job with Pathfinder 1st Edition, considering the starting point and their design considerations. With PF2e they've managed to iterate on and experiment with the D&D formula pretty well and it's become my current preferred system.
They've taken some of the good elements 4e had as a purely tactical combat system, updated them and made a system that is fun to run. They've also included a fair amount of character and class customization for a relatively new system. I also appreciate that they've put effort into systems for the non-combat aspects of the hobby, though I think their crafting system is failure and have homebrewed my own alternative. Another core strength of the PF2e system is that such homebrew is actually very easy to implement, as the overall patterns and math for the systems balance are easy to understand.
Now for the second part of their product line, the Golarion setting. The setting is a grab bag of everything imaginable, and while there are obvious woke elements as far back as when the campaign was written for 3.5. A few examples, there's a character in one of the early adventure paths (I think it was Curse of the Crimson Throne) that has a backstory panel calling out she's a lesbian. It had no bearing on the story when my GM ran the campaign, I didn't even learn about it until later.
If you fast forward to modern-day they just release a lore book set in their Africa continent with a goddess that's a pro-BLM statement (literally celebrates burning), and the new adventure path starts you off in Hogwarts set in magical Wakanda. I exaggerate that slightly, but the influences are there. On the other hand, the introduced a new race (called Ancestries b/c of woke language policing) called the Anandi. Based on Anasi legends, these are literally just giant jumping spiders who are really super friendly and don't get why everybody was so terrified of them so they've learned to shapeshift into humanoid forms and communicate telepathically. They just want to be your giant 8-legged buddies.
As a GM, I'm free to ignore all the woke shit. The world they created is literally a kitchen sink approach to world building, EVERYTHING a nerd could want is in there and even includes pulp-style content from the early days of the company that modern leftists would never allow.
To the company's credit as well, all the base rules are 100% free and available online. They maintain a commitment to the Open Game License and are generally friendly to 3rd party content companies. This is a stark contrast with how Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro treat the core D&D property. If you prefer to run games in your own homebrew settings like I do, then the base rule books are quite worth a buy and you can look things over before you decide if you want to give the company your money. I bought the basic 3 books b/c I use their product enough to throw them some money and ignore the lore content as, frankly, my friends and I have created a far more interesting setting for our games.