Pathfinder card game coming soon, Pathfinder RPG in discussion

The first Pathfinder card game born out of a licensing deal with the developers behind South Park: The Stick of Truth, Fallout: New Vegas and Neverwinter Nights 2 will hit tablets in the "next few months," said Obsidian Entertainment CEO Feargus Urquhart.

Discussion about what comes next for the Dungeons and Dragons spin-off franchise is already underway, he added.

"We've had a ton of ideas," Urquhart said. "Obviously we could do something like Pillars of Eternity. Obviously we could do something like Neverwinter Nights 2. We're going through all of those things to figure out what would be the best thing to do.

"I would say we're just starting to really figure it out, it's going to be awhile."

For now, fans of Pathfinder will have to make do with the upcoming tablet game based on the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. Paizo created Pathfinder, which is based on the third edition of D&D's rules, after the launch of the fourth edition of Dungeons and Dragons in 2008.  It has since become a competitor to D&D.

Pathfinder, which started out as a table-top fantasy role-playing game, released a card game set in its universe in 2013. That's what Obsidian's first Pathfinder game is based on.

It is meant to be a faithful port of the card game and will include the first box set. Initially, it will only support single player, but multiplayer will be added post-release. The studio also plans to release the game's many add-on packs.

The main reason the studio decided to start with a tablet game and not a full role-playing title is because they wanted to build up some experience working on tablets, Urquhart said.

"As a developer it's important we're able to do lots of things," he said. "We're thinking about how can we take traditional RPG stuff and put it on the tablet. No one has solved it really."

And the port of the card game stands to do quite well.

The tabletop game has sold 60,000 to 80,000 box sets, he said, and the average player invests $150 or more.

The team is currently looking for a publisher for the tablet game, which will hit Android and iOS and then come to PC.

Last summer, Obsidian announced a deal with Paizo, Inc to create games based on the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game universe.

In deciding on what to do next in the Pathfinder universe, Obsidian has to both discuss the possibilities with Paizo and come up with funding.

"Part of it has to do with how much we have going on and how it would get funded," Urquhart said. "That's going to be the big conversation with Paizo, what they want to see, what they want to do."

Urquhart said the team just knows they want to create a role-playing game in that universe.

He added that the studio of 170 people could easily work on developing both Pillars of Eternity and another role-playing game at the same time.

"I'm not particularly worried about that," he said. "We have enough people that could do those things."

Whatever they do, Urquhart said he and the team at Obsidian think Pathfinder has a long life ahead of it.