My coworkers and I were talking and wondering the odds of Pathfinder releasing the 2.0 set at Gencon.  I am curious of others thoughts on this.   My coworker had what I believe may be the best thought in that they may release the set a few weeks in advance but have a module released at Gencon.   So what do you guys think?   

Pathfinder 2.0 will ABSOLUTELY debut at Gen Con!

Thursday August 1st, 2019 will be the release date. The digital copies may come out a few days earlier and it will likely ship to retailers to be ready to be on the shelf as of the 1st, but the official release date will be the 1st of August and it will be at Gen Con.

They may have full fledge events, but most likely it will be small play tests of it and a few scheduled events. That is how they rolled out Starfinder two years ago.

Then 2020 Gen Con will likely see an entire Sagamore Ballroom full of Pathfinder 2.0 games going all convention.

This is all my assumption based on how they have rolled out previous product lines and how it would work best logistically.

I was always interested in the Pathfinder booth.  I'm a euro board gamer and I love True Dungeon but just only played maybe two tabletop RPGs in my life.  I'm always concerned about not knowing what the hell I'm doing.  How does one break start something like this?  As in getting into a Pathfinder or Rifts or something?

Paizo, the publisher of Pathfinder, has an entire ballroom dedicated to their Pathfinder and Starfinder games and the collaborative team aspects of these games, known respectively as Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society.

There are pre-generated 1st level characters that you can play low level or introductory scenarios. You do not even have to pre-register a PFS or SFS account as the gamemaster can get you a Paizo ID right then and there when you show up for your first game.

They muster groups together about 15 minutes before the time slot and all you will need to do is to tell that person that you are a beginner and they may put you with other beginners or with some veterans who do not mind playing with one.

If they roll out Pathfinder 2.0 in full, then you may be lucky as it will be new to everyone at least in ways that it might differ from the playtest that has been available since last Gen Con. Most of all do not worry and just go and have fun and they will help you through the basics of the game.

You may also want to go to websites like Paizo.com or d20pfsrd.com and familiarize yourself with the basics of a character and the skills and combat system beforehand.

Heck, I would be willing to play some low level PFS adventures with a beginner myself!

Echoing hendelbolaf, new players are the life-blood of any RPG.  Sitting at table with a new player, either as another player or as GM, new players bring a different perspective to the game and adventure.

Paizo will have lots of events around Pathfinder 2.0.

But a cautionary word, when Starfinger premiered at GenCon, Paizo sold out of their books by Thursday afternoon.  I would expect nothing less for Pathfinder 2.0.

Since Paizo did the pre-order the playtest and pick up at GC, they might do the same for the launch (really on the might).

Having spoken with some of the Paizo staff the year of Starfinder, it's my impression that they were completely surprised and unprepared for the massive customer interest. I'm guessing they used lessons from that launch to better prepare for the 2.0 Playtest and I want to say they had rulebooks available all 4 days of the convention last year. Hopefully that will also be the case with the actual 2.0 launch this year.

I'm also hoping they do the pre-order and pickup at Gen Con again this year. That process went very smoothly for me during the playtest launch and removed any stress of having to be at their booth first thing Thursday morning to fight for a book.  

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