Dungeons & Dragons 3.75
Paizo Publishing (of stripped from publishing Dragon and Dungeon magazines fame) is set to release their own take on fantasy role-playing: the Pathfinder RPG. You can download a preview of it here.
Some thoughts:
Interesting attempt at competing directly against 4E. I mean, sure, you can argue that any fantasy RPG (or RPG in general) is competition against 4E, but this is a direct shot across the prow of the Hasborg cube. “Why upgrade when you can play our game with all your existing books that you spent hundreds of dollars on?” Considering how many folks aren’t keen on 4E and are happy with the way things are this seems like a viable path.
The release date though could be problematic. August 2009? 4E will already have been out more than a year. While this does open the door to picking up gamers who have tried the new edition and don’t like it, it does also mean gamers will have a year to grow complacent with the new edition. By August 2009 maybe they just won’t care enough to worry about how their 3.5 books were invalidated.
However it works out good for them. The more options there are out there for pen and paper role-playing, the more gamers benefit.