# Jason Bulmahn - Maker: Game designer - Houses: Paizo - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/jason-bulmahn/ > A Milwaukee architecture graduate turned Dragon magazine editor who, when D&D moved to 4th Edition, led Paizo's reworking of the 3.5 rules into Pathfinder, for years D&D's closest rival. **Why it matters:** Bulmahn was lead designer of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, the Open Game License's biggest success, which kept the 3.5 ruleset alive for its fans and made Paizo a major publisher. He later led design of Pathfinder Second Edition. ## Quick answers **Who is Jason Bulmahn?** A Milwaukee architecture graduate turned Dragon magazine editor who, when D&D moved to 4th Edition, led Paizo's reworking of the 3.5 rules into Pathfinder, for years D&D's closest rival. **What is Jason Bulmahn known for?** Jason Bulmahn is best known for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. **Why does Jason Bulmahn matter to fantasy and games?** Bulmahn was lead designer of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, the Open Game License's biggest success, which kept the 3.5 ruleset alive for its fans and made Paizo a major publisher. He later led design of Pathfinder Second Edition. ## Life Jason Bulmahn was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and attended the Milwaukee High School of the Arts. Milwaukee was then the home of [Gen Con](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/gen-con/), and as a teenager he went to his first convention there and got hooked on roleplaying games, [Dungeons & Dragons](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/original-dungeons-and-dragons/) above all. He graduated from high school in 1994 and studied at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. While there he became a competitive [Magic: The Gathering](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/magic-the-gathering/) player, playing in the 1995 World Championship in Seattle and a 1996 Pro Tour in New York. He took a bachelor's degree in architecture in 1998. After graduating he worked as an associate designer at a Milwaukee architecture firm. Gaming continued on the side. He volunteered for the RPGA, coordinating the Living Greyhawk organized-play campaign in Wisconsin and later joining the group that oversaw its structure worldwide. He has said the experience taught him more about pacing, stakes and improvisation than any book. ## Work In 2004 he decided to make games his career and applied to [Wizards of the Coast](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/wizards-of-the-coast/). Wizards did not hire him. Instead he joined [Paizo](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/paizo/), the Seattle-area company founded in 2002 by Lisa Stevens, Vic Wertz and Johnny Wilson to publish *[Dragon](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/dragon-magazine/)* and *Dungeon* under license. He became managing editor of *Dragon* for what turned out to be its last years in print. In 2007 Wizards declined to renew the license, and Paizo published the final print issue in September 2007. That year Wizards also announced [Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dnd-4th-edition/), a sweeping redesign with a more restrictive license for other publishers. Paizo, whose monthly Adventure Paths were written for the 3.5 rules, decided not to follow. Bulmahn had been working on his own revision of the d20 rules as a side project. In March 2008 Paizo announced it would publish it as the [Pathfinder Roleplaying Game](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/pathfinder-rpg/), with Bulmahn as lead designer. The game was built under the [The Open Game License](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/open-game-license/) from the 3.5 System Reference Document that Wizards itself had released with [Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dnd-3rd-edition/). Pathfinder, nicknamed "D&D 3.75," was designed to stay compatible with existing 3.5 material while fixing its familiar problems. Bulmahn felt the 3.5 base classes gave players little reason to stay in one class for all twenty levels, so Pathfinder added class features at every level and made less combat-focused classes more durable. Paizo developed the game in public: the beta rules were a free download in August 2008, open for anyone to playtest, and won an ENnie Award. The *Core Rulebook* was released in August 2009. Bulmahn led the design of the core book and major expansions such as the *Advanced Player's Guide*, *Ultimate Magic*, *Ultimate Combat* and *Mythic Adventures*. Demand surprised even Paizo. Preorders for the first printing sold out before the company had received its books, and many players who did not want to move to 4th Edition moved to Pathfinder instead. In 2013 he started Minotaur Games to publish Pathfinder supplements and his own designs, including the card game *Pirate Loot*. He became Paizo's Director of Game Design in 2017 and helped develop its science-fantasy spin-off, *Starfinder*. He then led the design of Pathfinder Second Edition (August 2019), preceded by a public playtest in 2018. The new edition was a clean break with a three-action turn economy, no longer compatible with 3.5. To promote it he ran the actual-play series *Pathfinder: Knights of Everflame* with Geek & Sundry. He also wrote *The Fall of Plaguestone*, the first Pathfinder Second Edition adventure. By 2024 he was Paizo's Director of Games, responsible for the teams behind all of its roleplaying lines. ## Legacy Pathfinder was the clearest proof of what the open license made possible. Using rules Wizards had released as open content, a small magazine publisher built a game that for several years competed directly with D&D. It kept a large community on the 3.5 rules and made Paizo a major company in the field. Wizards' own next edition, [Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dnd-5th-edition/), was developed through a long public playtest, and its core rules were later released under the OGL as well. When Wizards tried to revise the OGL in 2023, Paizo responded by creating its own Open RPG Creative license and remastering Bulmahn's second edition under it. Bulmahn's career, from Milwaukee convention-goer to head of design at the company that challenged D&D, shows how far the open-content model could take a publisher. ## Facts - He attended his first Gen Con in his home city of Milwaukee while still in high school. - He played competitive Magic: The Gathering, including the 1995 World Championship in Seattle and a 1996 Pro Tour in New York. - He earned a bachelor's degree in architecture in 1998 and worked at a Milwaukee architecture firm before entering games. - After Wizards of the Coast turned down his job application in 2004, he joined Paizo as managing editor of Dragon. - Pathfinder's public beta was a free download in August 2008 and won an ENnie Award. - He ran the actual-play series Pathfinder: Knights of Everflame with Geek & Sundry to promote the second edition. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Bulmahn) - [Wikipedia: Pathfinder Roleplaying Game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathfinder_Roleplaying_Game) - [Official site](https://jasonbulmahn.com/) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.