Pathfinder Society in Denmark (or Tidings from the Viking Lodge)

Monday, April 9, 2012

Illustration by J.P. Targete

Last month, we highlighted the UK and Venture-Captain David Harrison's efforts to grow Pathfinder Society there. We now shift our focus to the north and the land of the Vikings. Venture-Captain Diego Winterborg's report on Pathfinder Society in Denmark was a very interesting read for me and I hope all of you find it informative as well.

Denmark is a Scandinavian country made up of a peninsula that is geographically joined to Northern Germany, called Jutland, and a large number of islands southwest of Sweden, the largest of which are Funen and Zealand. Its size and population are roughly the equivalent of Tennessee. Greenland and the Faroe Islands are part of the Danish Rigsfællesskab, or Commonwealth.

The Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign made its arrival in Denmark in February 2010 when a few friends and I went to a small RPG convention in the town of Odense. Danish RPG conventions are, by their nature, rather small events, and are largely dominated by indie games and a lot of deep-immersion, psychodrama players, so it goes without saying that we made quite an impression with our loud combat-heavy, dice-rolling RPG, which we ran in the convention's common area, for all to see. While we fully expected a lot of people would be provoked by our very different approach to gaming, it gave us an excellent opportunity to engage them in a discussion about the merits of “our game.” By the end of the convention, what started out as a four-man event had drawn in a score of new players and totaled some 10 sessions.

During the summer of 2010, we arranged a game day in honor of then Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator, Joshua J. Frost, who was making Copenhagen his first stop on his European tour. His tour culminated at Paizo Con UK that year. Frost was very keen on having a solid PFS presence in Europe, and in Denmark I volunteered for the position of regional coordinator. That is how Denmark, being a small country by most standards, was fortunate enough to be assigned a Venture-Captain with the first round of selections, when the program was born in the fall of 2010.

Early in the fall of 2010, the first game days were planned at the game store, Fantask, in Copenhagen. While the venue is very small and only allows for a single session every other weekend, it has been very reliable and has been a constant for over a year.

Pathfinder Society has since had annual representation in Denmark's two largest gaming conventions, Viking Con and Fastaval, as well as other smaller conventions and game days in and around Copenhagen.

This winter Jacob Trier, who had just recovered from serious illness, volunteered for the position as Venture-Lieutenant based in Jutland. This addition will ensure a stronger presence in the western half of Denmark. By next month, regular store games are expected to start in Dragon's Lair in the city of Aarhus and this year's Fastaval convention will have a locally based Pathfinder Society coordinator.

In 2011, Viking Con and Fastaval had nine Pathfinder Society tables each. This was satisfactory as a very small core of players and GMs drove our continued interest in Pathfinder. This year, however, we are seeing the emergence of more private gaming groups and expect to have a growing GM base for 2012's events.

The primary Pathfinder Society events scheduled for 2012 in Denmark are:

• Spilfestival, on March 24, features Blood under Absalom as its highlighted event. This marks a milestone for the Pathfinder Society in Denmark as it is the first time a Pathfinder Society multi-table special will be run here.
• Fastaval, April 4–8: Danish Pathfinder players will get their first opportunity to play the Season 3 exclusive, The Cyphermage Dilemma. We have 15 tables scheduled over the four days.
• Viking Lodge Game Days are planned for July 28–29. Started in 2010, this is fast becoming a Danish tradition. The plans for this event are still in the planning stages. Participants can count on being among a good number of Paizo fans and having a full day of Pathfinder Society games, followed by a night out in Copenhagen afterward.
• Viking Con 31, October 19—21, is Denmark's largest gaming convention and we will certainly have something special to offer to Pathfinder Society players.

Danish Pathfinder Society events are also receiving a measure of Paizo convention support, which hopefully will increase interest and send a strong signal that Paizo pays attention to its international fans.

To facilitate continued growth of Pathfinder Society, we are making plans with public libraries to start having monthly game days. The success of this plan is still dependant on GMs volunteering to run games. Initially, I am planning game days in Copenhagen libraries only. But, the public library network in Denmark is rather extensive and Pathfinder Society has the potential to reach veritably every Danish roleplayer interested in participating in an organized play campaign.

This brings me to one of my most important points about roleplaying in Denmark. The RPGA and Living Greyhawk never established themselves in our country, and the very concept of an organized play campaign is very new to Danish gamers. According to my friendly local gaming store, Pathfinder RPG sales are increasing, and continued convention scheduling and internet exposition is bound to draw players into the fold one handful at a time. While events to date remain small, we always know we will be among friends as we strive to continue increasing our numbers.

If you live in Denmark or Southern Sweden and are interested in trying out Pathfinder Society Organized Play, you can keep up with our growing community on our website, pathfindersociety.dk. Danish convention organizers and store owners interested in hosting Pathfinder Society events should contact me at pathfinder.society@live.dk.

Diego Winterborg
Venture-Captain

If you are in another country and do not have a Venture-Captain, but think you can do as good a job as Diego did above, please do not hesitate to send me a write-up about Pathfinder Society play in your area of the world and include some photos.

Mike Brock
Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator

Pathfinder Society in the UK (How the Brit Faction Earns Prestige)

Monday, March 5, 2012

Illustration by Ben Wootten

Like many of the Pathfinder Society player base, most of my experiences and understanding of Pathfinder Society Organized Play is based on what I have seen, experienced and organized in the United States. However, the campaign and player base is a worldwide network. What I have learned since stepping into the Campaign Coordinator role is that Pathfinder Society experiences can be varying and different in other parts of the world, including Canada. This includes the way game days and conventions are organized, the expectations of the campaign’s past, current, and future scenarios, and the direction the campaign should move toward.

I think one of the most important responsibilities of a Campaign Coordinator is trying to understand the make-up of the entire fan base, not just the largest percentage of the players. I also think the campaign can be better served if all of us have a better understanding of how our fellow gamers participate, promote, and try to grow Pathfinder Society in their own regions of the world.

With that in mind, I plan to devote one blog a month to a different region where there is an active Pathfinder Society presence. I have tasked my international Venture-Captains with sending me a write-up of what Pathfinder Society is like in their part of the world. Most of what you will read is in their own words. There may be some slight editing changes, but by and large, what you will be reading is the Venture-Captain’s perspective on what Pathfinder Society is like under their guidance in their region.

I hope all of you will find the articles as interesting and informative as I do. First up is the United Kingdom under the direction of Venture-Captain Dave Harrison and Venture-Lieutenant Rob Silk. I plan to attend Paizo Con UK this year, and am excited to get an insight into what I can expect when I arrive in mid-July (and no, I do not fear the curse). Without further ado, I present Dave Harrison’s report on Pathfinder Society in the United Kingdom.

The Pathfinder Society is global, not just on Golarion but also in our world! While it has its origins in the United States, it has been active in the UK since its inception. And so, I’ve been asked to introduce you all to Pathfinder Society play in the UK.

Who am I to talk about this? My name is Dave Harrison, also known online as Wintergreen, and after being a GM and playing roleplaying games for far too long, I’m a self-confessed Paizo addict who has somehow become the UK Venture-Captain. Of course, it’s not just me over here. I’ve lost count of the many players and GMs we’ve recruited over the last few years. Oh, that’s not a royal “we” by the way. I’m also including my co-conspirator and Venture-Lieutenant, Rob Silk, in all of this. (Make sure you pronounce Lieutenant the British way too!)

Pathfinder and Paizo itself have always been popular here in the UK. When Paizo staff members have come over from the US, we have made sure they have felt very welcome despite any differences in the roleplaying cultures—two countries separated by a common hobby?

The Pathfinder Society was officially launched in the UK at Gen Con UK 2008 with a contingent of Paizo staff and that was an immediate success. Pathfinder Society games were sold out and everybody was talking about the quality of the scenarios. From that, I managed to talk my way into helping organize GMs and games at several conventions. Flush with success, I did something that might be called foolish, and has certainly influenced my life! I asked, on the Paizo messageboards, if there was any interest in a UK-based Pathfinder Society convention—our very own version of PaizoCon. The answer was positive and, somehow, one of the most disorganized of roleplayers found himself setting up a new convention. Thankfully, with the help of a lucky Bluff roll, I managed to talk a few other people into helping me!

So the first PaizoCon UK ran in July 2009 at Aston University’s Business School & Conference Centre. I’ll admit, even on that Saturday morning, I was worrying that nobody would turn up and I’d be sitting alone in a large room for the whole weekend.

Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Over fifty people attended, including special guests such as our PaizoCon UK regular Richard Pett, some awesome GMs, and a fantastically keen group of players. Our only missing element was that Nick Logue, then Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator, couldn’t attend. Even so, by the end of the Sunday, people were already talking about how it would go next year! Even before I finished asking about doing another one, I heard a resounding “YES!”

The next year we had over 70 people attending, including Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator Joshua Frost, and we were given the opportunity to playtest the Year of the Shadow Lodge event. We also have a tradition of a Friday Night Balti meal to get everybody socializing at the start of the convention. Thankfully the waiters don’t bat an eyelid when we ask for a table for everybody.

By 2011, we had grown to over 100 people gaming across three different rooms in the conference center. Although one special guest, Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator Hyrum Savage, had to drop out at the last minute, we still held the Grand Melee where our high-level team “Szallus’ Mighty Taldan Beard” won through with a world-beating score. We concluded the convention with Shadow’s Last Stand, bringing the Year of the Shadow Lodge to a satisfactory conclusion.

This year, we will once again be at Aston University on the 21st and 22nd of July, with a host of almost 150 delegates and special guests, including Richard Pett, Eva Widermann, and many European Venture-Captains and Venture-Lieutenants, and Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator Mike Brock is braving the rumored curse to help us with an Olympic Class PaizoCon UK. Full details can be found on our website at www.paizocon.co.uk.

PaizoCon UK is our flagship, the Pathfinder Society convention for the UK, but it is far from the only event we attend (some might say dominate when the Pathfinders are noisily adventuring) in the UK. I have made efforts to ensure Pathfinder Society is represented at other major UK conventions, particularly Conception, the UK Games Expo, Oddcon, and Dragonmeet. Pathfinders turn up at many smaller conventions, fan-organized events, and regular games held at clubs, societies, and players’ homes.

So what do we have planned for Pathfinder Society in the UK?

Certainly we continue to grow—particularly into other parts of the UK besides England. Plans are in motion for a PaizoCon Wales, and Scotland and Ireland have growing numbers of Pathfinders. I am constantly recruiting GMs, more people willing to do my job for me by running and organizing games at conventions. We have more and more special events planned as well. Details will be disclosed at a future date.

While the UK lacks the US tradition of games being run in stores, such events are something I am working on. A few such events have already taken place and, inspired by the Beginner Box Bash event, we are planning a “Learn to Play Pathfinder” day at the Sheffield store Patriot Games on March 31st.

Convention organizers and store owners who wish to have Pathfinder Society events in the UK should contact me via paizoconuk@hotmail.com or through our website at http://paizocon.co.uk/ for support.

I am very proud to say that here in the UK the Pathfinder Society has established an excellent reputation for roleplaying, quality adventures, and skilled GMs. Convention organizers invite us to their events where we are consistently over-subscribed. Most of all, I am happy to report that when players are talking, I hear descriptions of heroic deeds, intriguing personalities, and thrilling adventures—exactly what gets reported in the Pathfinder Chronicles!

Dave Harrison
Venture-Captain

And there you have it, our first international Pathfinder Society blog. If you are in another country and do not have a Venture-Captain, but think you can do as good a job as Dave did above, please do not hesitate to send me a write-up about Pathfinder Society play in your area of the world and include some photos.

Mike Brock
Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator

Labor Day Convention Roundup

Monday, August 29, 2011

This past weekend was PAX Prime at the Seattle Convention Center, and we had a strong Pathfinder presence in rooms 202 & 203. But have no fear, Pathfinder Society faithful in other parts of the country (or locals who missed getting in on the sold-out show); here are a few conventions where you can participate in Pathfinder Society Organized Play over the holiday next weekend!

Atlanta, GA: Dragon*Con 2011 September 2—5

Denver, CO: Tacticon 2011 September 1—4

Los Angeles, CA: Gateway 2011 September 2—5

San Francisco, CA: Celesticon 2011 September 2—5 and Pacificon 2011 September 2—5

Tampere, Finland: Tracon Sept 3—4

Terre Haute, IN: ISU-CON 2011 Sept 2—3

Vancouver, WA: Kumoricon Sept 2—4

Be sure to check Pathfinder Society Event Central frequently for more conventions, game days, and ongoing games offered in your area. If you're an event organizer who wants to make sure others hear about your convention or game store game, be sure to update your event so it appears on the calendar.

Good gaming, Pathfinders!

Mark Moreland
Developer

Paizo's Coming to PAX

Monday, August 22, 2011

As if our recent presence at Gen Con weren't enough for convention-goers seeking to get their Pathfinder fix, Paizo will have an organized play presence at PAX Prime for the first time ever this weekend. Among the game industry's largest conventions, PAX Prime is a great opportunity for a whole new population of gamers to try Pathfinder for the very first time!

Players new to Pathfinder (and roleplaying games in general) will have a chance to play five unique intro adventures to complete their PAXport card and earn a special Pathfinder Society boon. Those already involved in the Pathfinder Society Organized Play program can take part in any of five 1st-level scenarios being offered throughout the show.

Anyone who plays a PAXport demo or a full 5-hour scenario will get chances to win great prizes, including Pathfinder Tales novels, Pathfinder posters, a free adventure, and even a copy of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook!

If you're going to PAX, or know someone who is, make sure to stop by the Pathfinder rooms (202 & 203) with dice at the ready—there's adventure to be had. I'm looking forward to seeing many of you there!

Mark Moreland
Developer

Pathfinder Society: News from the Field

Monday, February 7, 2011

As the days get longer and the snows begin to melt (okay, so maybe not the last part) word comes in from Pathfinder Society events throughout the world, proving that it takes only a month for our esteemed agents to recover from the inevitable lull of the holiday season to pick up adventure and exploration anew on the cusp of spring.

Photography by Adam Daigle

In Houston, Texas, nearly 30 tables of Pathfinder Society were played in the final weekend of January, including the Year of the Shadow Lodge multi-table special. Attendee and Pathfinder Society author Adam Daigle sent the following pictures to me over the weekend, showing that Team Cheliax was present in full force.

	Cover illustration by Joe Wilson

That same weekend, on the other side of the pond, European Pathfinders were making their mark on Conception, one of Great Britain's largest gaming conventions. UK Venture-Captain Dave Harrison ran several tables of The Midnight Mauler, the Tier 1–7 scenario by Paizo's own Crystal Frasier available now only to 4-star GMs and Venture-Captains. Reports from players at the table are that this is a new favorite, so don't miss the chance to get in on this memorable event at your next local convention. Contact your nearest Venture-Captain to find out when The Midnight Mauler will be offered in your area!

Have a report from a recent convention or game day in which Pathfinder Society made a particularly large showing? Did any of your regional players create their own Pathfinder team regalia or did someone run a unique event or incentive? Stop by the Pathfinder Society Organized Play messageboards and let us know. Reporting back to the Decemvirate is one of every Pathfinder's duties, after all.

Mark Moreland
Developer

Jason & Sean at Neoncon!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

This weekend designers Jason Bulmahn and Sean K Reynolds will be prowling the Las Vegas strip under the pretext of being guests at Neoncon. If you're planning on attending Neoncon, make sure you seek those guys out and say "hi!" If you have pseudo-celebrity paralysis, though, and need more of an icebreaker, I've included some suggestions along with their schedules below. And don't worry, while he looks scary, it's the other one you need to worry about.

Jason Bulmahn's NeonCon Schedule

Friday
Friday, 10 a.m.: Game Designer 101
Friday, 11 a.m.: Pathfinder RPG Design Time
Friday, 2 p.m.: Designing Content for the Pathfinder RPG
Friday, 7 p.m.: Game Designer 101

Saturday
Saturday, 10 a.m.: Game Designer 101
Saturday, 11 a.m.: Pathfinder RPG Design Time
Saturday, 2 p.m.: Designing Content for the Pathfinder RPG

Sunday
Sunday, 10 a.m.: Game Designer 101
Sunday, 3 p.m.: Game Designer 101

Icebreakers:

I hear you're doing an early playtest of "Words of Power" from Ultimate Magic here at the show. What's the deal?

Pathfinder intro game?

What is a GameMastery Chase Card?

Ravage verses Laserbeak. Discuss.

What happened to the kangaroo that used to be on your desk?

Why, Jason? Just why?

Sean K Reynolds's NeonCon Schedule

Friday
Friday 2 p.m.: Designing Content for the Pathfinder RPG
Friday 4 p.m.: Deities and Your Campaign World
Friday 6 p.m.: Miniatures Assembly 101
Friday 9 p.m.: Stories We Only Tell In Person

Saturday
Saturday 10:30 a.m.: Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
Saturday 2 p.m.: Designing Content for the Pathfinder RPG
Saturday 4 p.m.: Filing Off the Serial Numbers
Saturday 6:30 p.m.: Miniatures Painting 101

Plus crashing other seminars

Icebreakers

What's the coolest thing in Ultimate Magic that I don't know about?

Who's your favorite Pathfinder deity?

How's your weekly lunchtime painting group going?

I heard you're a scary germophobe. Is this true?

Why does your office look like you're moving... and then an earthquake happened... and then the apocalypse hit?

What's the "K" stand for? (He loves that one.)

Wes Schneider
Managing Editor

Guest Blogger Blake Davis Announces Special PFS Event

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Illustration by Andrew Hou

The Year of the Shadow Lodge is coming to Redmond, WA! Clear your schedules, as you won't want to miss this unique Pathfinder Society event coming up this Saturday, October 2nd at the Redmond Games and Gizmos at noon.

Year of the Shadow Lodge is a unique Pathfinder Society adventure in which multiple tables of Pathfinders work together throughout the mission. Pathfinders from levels 1–11 are welcome to come join and share their skills to help fight an epic battle that threatens Absalom's Grand Lodge itself.

As a special treat, since Games and Gizmos is one of Paizo HQ's local game stores, several members of the Paizo staff will be present and participating in the event! Events Manager Joshua J. Frost will be dusting off his own PFS character to play alongside one lucky table, and Developer Mark Moreland will be GMing. Other Paizo VIPs may stop by to observe and mingle with fans and players as well!

Details for holding yourself a spot can be found in this thread in the Pathfinder Society messageboards. Players can show up on October 2nd and hope for a space, but signing up as indicated on that thread is recommended due to limited space and to ensure there are enough GMs.

The event is also still looking for a few GMs to lead their fellow gamers through the stunning adventure, and as with any PFS adventure, GMs can apply credit for the scenario to one of their own level-appropriate PCs.

Thanks everyone, and I hope to see you there!

Blake "Nethys" Davis
Paizo Fan & Event Organizer

Summer Conventions

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Howdy folks!

Paizo is involved with or aware of a number of conventions this summer that will be running Pathfinder Society events or supporting the Pathfinder RPG in some way. Below is a collection of information and links for all of these shows. If you happen to be in the area, look them up and find some Pathfinder-related fun to help get you through the summer months!

Concept	Winona, MN	May 15–17, 2009
MisCon	Missoula, MT	May 22–25, 2009
A-Kon	Dallas, TX	May 29-31, 2009
Milwaukee Summer Revel	Milwaukee, WI	June 12–14, 2009
PAIZOCON 2009	Bellevue, WA	June 13–15, 2009
(A few tickets are still available! Events are going live soon! Additional special guests were recently added!)
Origins Game Fair	Columbus, OH	June 24–28, 2009
(GM volunteers for Pathfinder Society are still needed!)
ConFlict VII	La Crosse, WI	July 17–19, 2009
Open Gaming Con	Nashua, NH	July 24–26, 2009
SpoCon	Spokane, WA	July 31–Aug 1, 2009
GENCON	Indianapolis, IN	Aug 13–16, 2009
(GM volunteers are still needed! Event sign-ups are live until June 27th!)

Have a great summer!

Joshua J. Frost
Events Manager

Upcoming Pathfinder Society Conventions

Friday, January 9, 2009

As part of our continuing effort to showcase upcoming conventions that are running Pathfinder Society Organized Play events, here are several shows coming up in January and February that have let us know they are doing so. If you're local to any of these fine conventions, please show your support for Pathfinder Society by GMing or playing few Pathfinder Society Scenarios there. Spread the word!

St. Crispins	Santa Ana, CA	January 10
MarsCon	Williamsburg, VA	January 16–18
SnowCon	Maine	January 17-18
Arcanacon XXVII	Melbourne, Australia	January 23–26
Conception	London, United Kingdom	January 28–February 1
Marmalade Dog 14	Western Michigan U	January 30–February 1
Recess	New York, NY	January 31
Owlcon	Houston, TX	February 6-8
What the Hell? Con	Greensboro, NC	February 6–8
Winter War	Champaign, IL	February 6-8
OrcCon	Los Angeles, CA	February 13–16
GenghisCon XXX	Denver, CO	February 12–15
BashCon XXIV	Toledo, OH	February 20–22
UKON	University of Kentucky	February 27–28
Pandemonium Frost	Garden City, MI	February 27–March 1

If you know of any future conventions that plan to run Pathfinder Society Organized Play scenarios, please put their con coordinators, organized play coordinators, or RPG coordinators in contact with me. I'd love to use the blog to support as many shows as possible. With your help, we can support them all.

Joshua J. Frost
Events Manager

Upcoming Pathfinder Society Conventions

Thursday, December 4, 2008

As part of our continuing effort to showcase upcoming conventions that are running Pathfinder Society Organized Play events, here are two shows coming up in December and January that have let us know they are doing so. If you're local to either of these fine conventions, please show your support for Pathfinder Society by GMing or playing few Pathfinder Society Scenarios there. Spread the word!

Anonycon (thread)	Stamford, CT	December 12–14, 2008
SnowCon	Maine	January 17–18, 2009

If you know of any future conventions that plan to run Pathfinder Society Organized Play scenarios, please put their con coordinators, organized play coordinators, or RPG coordinators in contact with me. I'd love to use the blog to support as many shows as possible. With your help, we can support them all.

Joshua J. Frost
Events Manager

Upcoming Pathfinder Society Conventions

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Since we launched Pathfinder Society in August, I've received a lot of email from convention coordinators. They ask how they can run Pathfinder Society events at their shows, or seek more information about the Society, or sometimes just let me know that they're on board and plan to run events. Since they're helping us, I want to do something in return for them. Once a month, from now on, I'll use my weekly Pathfinder Society blog to detail conventions that plan to run Pathfinder Society events in the next month. I'll even give you links to their shows (when I know them or can find them) and links to threads on our messageboards when coordinators from each show are asking for volunteers to run Society events. Here are the shows debuting Pathfinder Society between now and the end of November:

Cold Iron Conventions	Wisconsin	October 23–26, 2008
Ubercon	Parsippany, NJ	October 24–26, 2008
NeonCon	Las Vegas, NV	October 30–November 2, 2008
Lucca Comics and Games	Lucca, Italy	October 31–November 2, 2008
d20 Pro Conline	Online	early November
Game08 (thread)	Manchester, England	November 1–2, 2008
MACE (thread)	High Point, NC	November 7–9, 2008
Mepacon	Scranton, PA	November 7–9, 2008
GASPcon	Pittsburgh, PA	November 1–2, 2008
Shauncon	Kansas City	November 20–23, 2008
WolfCon (thread)	Chicago, IL	November 28–29, 2008

If you know of any future conventions that plan to run Pathfinder Society, please put their con coordinators, organized play coordinators, or RPG coordinators in contact with me. I'd love to use the blog to support as many shows as possible. With your help, we can support them all.

Joshua J. Frost
Events Manager

Paizo Invades England

Friday, September 5, 2008

Yesterday, we showed you a small sample of images from our recent excursion to the lovely England. Now that I have returned, all jet-lagged and full of smiles, I thought I'd share some more images plucked from the depths of my digital camera.

Before.	After.
Most excellent GM, Rob Silk, prepares to delight his table of players in the Pathfinder Society Organized Play room at the University of Reading.	GM Simon Butler (back to camera) prepares to run first-time Pathfinder Society members through a scenario. Standing (in black) is Dragnmoon from the messageboards, and sitting to his right (in purple) is RPG Superstar Top 4 finalist and recent co-author (among many) of the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting, Rob McCreary.
Paul, Peter, and Claire proudly display their loyalties to the Andoran and Osirion Factions. Peter and Claire also helped the Paizo-led Quiz Team, Coalition of the Willing, to a resounding victory on Thursday night.	Playin' Games, located just meters from the entrance to the British Museum, was the first London store we wandered into after the convention wrapped.
Of course, they had a nice selection of Paizo products displayed prominently in their RPG section.	Nice warning.
Next, we visited a fantastic sci-fi book and games store called Forbidden Planet.	Where, inside, we found a healthy selection of our books. (You can't see them, but they had almost all of our modules just behind the books I pulled out for this picture.)
The "New RPG" section where you can see our books prominently displayed in very good company.	We tried to visit the Orcs Nest, but they were closed.
Despite being closed, they were displaying our recent releases prominently in their front window. If you look very closely at the previous store-front picture, you can also see shelves just inside the window with a solid three rows on Pathfinders displayed on it.

Joshua J. Frost
Director of Marketing

Con-Crawling Adventures!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

From Seattle to Indianapolis to the British Isles, it's been a busy month for the Paizo staff! A few weeks back we posted some snapshots from Gen Con Indy, but over this past weekend the crew has been having even more adventures with Erik Mona, Josh Frost, Jason Bulmahn, and Nick Logue off to Gen Con UK, while Jacob Burgess, Sarah Robinson, and myself hit up the Penny Arcade Expo here in Seattle. Check out a few of the highlights below.

Jason chills by the Paizo booth at Gen Con UK.	Introducing the new British language editions of all your favorite Paizo products!
Artists Eva Widerman, Wayne Reynolds, and Lydia Schuchmann represent Paizo's elite European artists' collective!	England's not big enough for these two madmen. Authors Rich Pett and Nick Logue finally bring their years-long rivalry to an end.
The cake might be a lie, but back home at PAX, Jake Burgess's feelings for Portal's companion cube are all too real.	Sarah and Wes really got into some D&D 4E. Get it! Ha!

F. Wesley Schneider
Pathfinder Managing Editor

Frozen Fingers of Midnight: A Pathfinder Society Scenario Sneak Peek

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Last Saturday night, Craig Shackleton gathered together a number of Paizo Origins attendees in the lobby of the Drury Inn in Columbus, OH and ran us through the first ever installment of a Pathfinder Society Scenario. The aptly named Frozen Fingers of Midnight kept a bunch of us up way too late as we explored Absalom in service of the Pathfinder Society. Our mission was to find the cause of a freezing sickness that had infected a highly-regarded emissary from the Land of the Linnorm Kings.

Ever the bunch of roleplaying fanatics, we created a freak show menagerie of characters too weird to live and too rare to die:

Erik Mona was Ecritus, a pathfinder in service to the Cheliax faction and a Cleric of Asmodeus with a voice much like the Monarch from The Venture Bros. cartoon on Adult Swim. Barely able to tolerate his less intelligent brethren, Ecritus used every opportunity available to him to manipulate his fellow pathfinders into doing his bidding.

Michael (a representative from the company printing the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game beta) played Angelo, a pathfinder Paladin in service to the Andoran faction and completely unsure of the terrifying rabble the Pathfinder Society assigned him to in order to solve the mystery of the freezing sickness. A quiet, jovial sort, Angelo spent most of the scenario in the background, steering clear of Ecritus and Jason Bulmahn's character.

Jason played Dar-An'Sumat, an Osirion necromancer obsessed with sending the dead to their proper resting place in Pharasma's embrace. Ever the loyalist, Dar was also a member of the Osirion faction, and while trying to complete his faction's mission in the scenario, spent a great deal of time with his hooks, cotton cloth, and flensing knives sending the deceased foes of the party to the great beyond. Jason was decidedly creepy in this role.

Chris Self, Paizo's Sales Manager, played a sorcerer of the Cheliax faction named Blase. In any other group of pathfinders, Blase would be creepy and strange, but when put up against the creepy and strange Osirion and Blase's fellow Chelaxian, he was pretty tame. Chris played him dark and goth-like.

My own character was an Ulfen barbarian with an incredibly long and unpronounceable name in service to the Qadiran faction. He was a member of the Pathfinder Society because the society's goal of protecting and seeking knowledge matched his own. Cast out from the Land of the Linnorm Kings as a youth, he wandered the Inner Sea educating himself in the ways of more civilized peoples. I played him as a smart, well-spoken Dolph Lundgren-type who saw violence as a last resort and would blackout when flying into a rage. He was fun to play and very difficult to roleplay around some of his more violence-first-then-questions-asked adventuring companions.

Lastly, and certainly not least, was Nicolas Logue as the Ulfen cripple and albino rogue, Thalg Sickeyes. In Nick's own words from the Post Your Gen Con Character Concepts Here! thread on the Pathfinder Society messageboards, "His bloody birth ended his mother, thus he claimed his first life before he took his first breath. He was born with his left arm crippled. It remains palsied to this day. Thalg is an albino, with sickly yellowed pupils and stringly white hair." Click the link to the thread to read more about Nick's decidedly twisted take on an Ulfen rogue.

Our first foray into a Pathfinder Society scenario was a blast. Craig Shackleton has written a fantastic little adventure for Gen Con and I'm positive everyone who gets a shot at playing Frozen Fingers of Midnight will be impressed as well. Who knows, if you're lucky, you may even get Craig as your GM.

Stranger things have happened.

And now, pictures:

Joshua J. Frost
Director of Marketing

Origins Game Fair: Day Two

Saturday, June 28, 2008

The second day of the Origins Game Fair is over and I'm happy to report that there are at least 23 people in the world outside of Paizo who have seen the final Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beta. If you're not one of them, you won't have to wait long to join them. In August, you'll be among the countless thousands who will get to see it first hand. Let me tell you, both as a marketing professional for Paizo and as an avid gamer who is running Curse of the Crimson Throne via the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, the book looks gorgeous!

And now, pictures:

Joshua J. Frost
Director of Sales & Marketing

Origins Game Fair: Day One

Friday, June 27, 2008

Thursday was the first day of the Origins Game Fair and the first day of any con is generally the slowest. Despite the reputation, Paizo's booth was filled with many gamers asking about the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, the next Pathfinder Adventure Path, The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, and Yetisburg, Paizo's new release under the Titanic Games line.

Yetisburg left the crowd laughing and certainly saw a nice crowd of folks eager to demo the civil war comedy card game, but every once in a while someone from the historical miniatures part of Origins would walk by, hat and jacket resplendent with civil war flag pins, stare at the Yetisburg banner, sigh, shake his head, and move on. As the co-designer of Yetisburg I have to say that reaction rests warm in my heart.

Since the yetis of Yetisburg come from Canada, it was only fitting that Canada's finest team of demoers, the Shackleton Brothers, would travel down from the frigid north to teach Americans how the yetis did their deeds in Pennsylvania all those years ago.

And now, pictures:

Nick Logue sets up the Yetisburg demo table in the Paizo booth before the hall opens.

Paizo's Planet Stories line looking robust as it fills the shelves on the booth wall.

Two of the Shackleton Brothers lead a crew of brave heroes through the trenches of Yetisburg.

Joshua J. Frost
Director of Sales & Marketing

Stonehenge at Essen!

Friday, November 16, 2007

Live from the Spiel convention in Essen, Germany, this is the closest there has been to a gathering of all of the published designers of Titanic Games's Stonehenge Anthology Board Game. These photos take place at the Hutter booth, where many hundreds of players demoed various Stonehenge games under a giant trilithon. From left to right in the first picture are designers Richard Borg, me, Paul Peterson, Bruno Faidutti, and Richard Garfield. (Peterson's game "Stonehenge Rocks!" originally appeared in Knucklebones magazine.) Those are actual German players being harassed by the  designers in the other picture. The only one missing is stay-at-home James Ernest,  but despite my Guns N Roses-like sign, James is still in the band.

Mike Selinker
Titanic Games Lead Designer

Origins Wrap-Up

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Another Origins Game Expo has come and gone, and what a great time it was! We Paizo folk were there in force, with the largest booth taking up the center of the exhibit hall. Thousands of fans stopped by to check us out and pick up some of our newest products. Many got their shiny new copies of GameMastery Module D1: Crown of the Kobold King, signed by none other than author Nicolas Logue himself. We sold enough of the new GameMastery Item Cards: Dragon's Trove deck to nearly empty the hoard (don't worry, we've restocked it for Gen Con). But the big winners at the show were the Combat Pad and the Critical Hit Deck. We had trouble keeping these hot products on the shelf.

Visitors who stopped by our booth on Saturday and Sunday got a special treat, as we had a few early print copies of Pathfinder #1 on hand for fans to flip through. I think you could hear the "oohs" and "ahhs" all the way across the exhibit hall.

Nowhere in our booth was the action more intense than over at the delve. Hundreds of fearless gamers walked into the dungeons of the Kobold King in hopes of scoring fabulous prizes from the Paizo treasure chest. While every player walked away with at least one key to try his or her luck, many met a gruesome end. All told, 88 characters were brutally cut down in the dungeon (55 by yours truly... I guess I went a little kill-crazy). If you missed out on your chance, you can always pick up Crown of the Kobold King (it should be arriving in game stores any day now) or you can stop by our booth at Gen Con and try your hand at our new delve event (based on GameMastery Module D2: Seven Swords of Sin). With a bit of luck, that delve will have an even higher body count.

For more pictures, check out the photo gallery here.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

ENnies Voting Open!

Monday, July 16, 2007

Voting for the coveted ENnies awards, presented each year at GenCon Indy for excellence in the RPG field, is now open to the public! Voters need not be members of EN World—merely visit http://www.ennieawards.com/voting.html to cast your lot and make your opinion known. This year, Paizo has been nominated in a number of different categories, including:

Best Miniature Product—Flip-Mat: Tavern
Best Regalia—Art of Dragon
Best Aid/Accessory—GameMastery Combat Pad (nominated as Open Mind Games/Paizo Publishing)
Best Aid/Accessory—GameMastery Critical Hit Deck
Best Free Product—Savage Tide Player's Guide
Fan's Choice: Best Publisher—Paizo Publishing

...plus an honorable mention for the Age of Worms Adventure Path as Best Adventure. So what are you waiting for? Get to the polls and let your voice be heard!

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Paizo at Origins

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Origins is here, and Paizo's right in the thick of it! From July 5th through July 8th in Columbus, OH, swing by the con and experience all the action, including:

Pathfinder Preview Games
Curious about Rise of the Runelords? Sign up to run through one of six two-hour preview roleplaying sessions, GMed by Erik Mona, Jason Bulmahn, and all-star Runelords authors Nicolas Logue and Greg Vaughn. Or just stop by the booth to chat with all of them, plus GameMastery Module author Tim Hitchcock, about their work on Paizo's forthcoming adventures.

Paizo Delve
Get in on the ground floor and stop by the first-ever Paizo Dungeon Delve, based on Nicolas Logue's GameMastery Module D1: Crown of the Kobold King. The delve, run by Jason Bulmahn and Nicolas Logue inside the Paizo booth during dealer hall hours, will offer small groups of players fifteen minutes each to explore and survive the Kobold King's dungeon and locate as many keys as they can. These keys can then be used at each group's Delve conclusion to attempt to open a real pirate chest and win prizes.

Seminars
Want to have all of your Paizo questions answered by the powers that be? Attend one of Paizo's several scheduled seminars, including:

• "What is Paizo's GameMastery Line?" chaired by Erik Mona and Jason Bulmahn
• "Stonehenge: What's An Anthology Board Game?" chaired by Mike Selinker and other Stonehenge designers
• "What's New at Paizo Publishing?" chaired by CEO Lisa Stevens and other Paizo employees
• "Writing for Paizo Publishing" chaired by Erik Mona and Jason Bulmahn
• "Introducing Pathfinder" chaired by Erik Mona, Nicolas Logue, and Greg A. Vaughan
• "Design a Stonehenge Game!" chaired by Mike Selinker, in which the crowd and Mike will have exactly one hour to create a new game for Stonehenge to be published online at the Stonehenge Library!

Board Game Tournaments
Test your strategy in one of two Stonehenge tournaments, as well as several Kill Doctor Lucky sessions and the premiere of the all-new Kill Doctor Lucky … and His Little Dog Too! rules variants.

So what are you waiting for? Hop over to the official Origins site and get your badge today!

Seven Swords of Sin Revealed

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Say what you will about their morality, the rulers of ancient Thassilon knew how to govern. Knowing the horror that a full-scale duel between them would unleash, the Runelords settled on an elegant means of solving disputes. Each of the seven wizards created a unique blade imbued with the barest shadow of his might, and whenever two disagreed, each would bestow his blade upon a chosen champion, whose job it was to decide the matter in bloody arena combat. To be a champion for one of the Runelords was the greatest honor a warrior could aspire to... though generally a short-lived one.

While most of the great Thassilonian wonders were shattered or lost in the empire's fall, there are those who whisper that the swords themselves remain, hidden and awaiting hands to wield them. To the Thassilonians, they were known as the Alara'hai, the Seven Blades of Conviction. Given the Runelords' reputation, however, most scholars today know them by a different name.
—Pathfinder Chronicles

A while back, it was decided that Paizo would run a delve at this year's GenCon—an enormous three-dimensional dungeon that would allow participants to walk up to the booth and play 15 minutes of D&D for free, battling an array of cruel traps and monsters and collecting keys that could potentially win them real-world treasure (the exact nature of which I'm not allowed to reveal yet, but trust me—it's some quality loot). In keeping with the spirit of things, we decided to make the creation of the delve into something of a game itself—each interested member of the Paizo staff was assigned a few rooms and an EL range and told to fill it with unique traps and monsters, with the goal being to see whose room could kill the most players at the convention. People went to work with gusto, and soon the delve was a bizarre menagerie of deadly encounters, each stranger than the last. But as the idea germinated, we came to realize that this delve was too cool to be a one-shot deal—there had to be a published product. We could take the established rooms, add enough new dungeon encounters and plot elements to double its size, and weave a storyline that tied it all together. Everyone agreed that it was a good idea, and soon the adventure had a vague concept, a title, and a slot on the release schedule. Time went by, and the process rolled onward without issue. Then one day in a product meeting, someone asked who was going to be revising the rooms and writing all the extra content.

"Oh," said GameMastery Brand Manager Jason Bulmahn. "Sutter is."

I was drinking at the time, and promptly coughed tea into my sinuses. "What?" I squeaked.

"Surprise!" Bulmahn said. "I thought it would be more fun to tell you this way. You'll have a month to write it. Get to work."

Thus was born GameMastery Module D2: Seven Swords of Sin. In the weeks that followed, we faced several unique challenges in developing this adventure—things like finding a narrative that made sense of encounters like fiendish goblins riding dinosaurs and living cauldrons spewing boiling magma, or coordinating the numerous tie-ins with the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path—but at the end of the day I'm really happy with how the adventure turned out. In Swords, PCs discover that a powerful sorceress named Tirana has stolen numerous powerful magical weapons dating back to the days of ancient Thassilon, and are contracted by the Church of Abadar to recover them before she figures out how to unlock their full power. To do so, the PCs track the thief back to Kaer Maga, an anarchic outlaw city built entirely inside the ruins of a great Thassilonian structure (and my favorite part of the module, but more on that in later posts). Once there, they have to locate Tirana's headquarters and descend into an abandoned research facility filled with traps and monstrous guardians, finally coming face-to-face with the wizard herself, who wields the legendary Sword of Lust.

With several new monsters and magic items, a squatter metropolis on a cliff, a deadly dungeon with an old-school, Tomb of Horrors feel, and pages of art as gorgeous as the cover shown above, I'm hoping this module will have something for everyone.

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Origins Events Announced!

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Today Paizo announced what's easily the most exciting lineup of Origins events in our five-year history. So what can guests at the con expect to see?

Pathfinder Preview Games
Curious about Rise of the Runelords? Sign up to run through one of six two-hour preview roleplaying sessions, GMed by Erik Mona, Jason Bulmahn, and all-star Runelords authors Nicolas Logue and Greg Vaughn. Or just stop by the booth to chat with all of them, plus GameMastery Module author Tim Hitchcock, about their work on Paizo's forthcoming adventures.

Paizo Delve
Get in on the ground floor and stop by the first-ever Paizo Dungeon Delve, based on Nicolas Logue's GameMastery Module D1: Crown of the Kobold King. The delve, run by Jason Bulmahn and Nicolas Logue inside the Paizo booth during dealer hall hours, will offer small groups of players fifteen minutes each to explore and survive the Kobold King's dungeon and locate as many keys as they can. These keys can then be used at each group's Delve conclusion to attempt to open a real pirate chest and win prizes.

Seminars
Want to have all of your Paizo questions answered by the powers that be? Attend one of Paizo's several scheduled seminars, including:

• "What is Paizo's GameMastery Line?" chaired by Erik Mona and Jason Bulmahn
• "Stonehenge: What's An Anthology Board Game?" chaired by Mike Selinker and other Stonehenge designers
• "What's New at Paizo Publishing?" chaired by CEO Lisa Stevens and other Paizo employees
• "Writing for Paizo Publishing" chaired by Erik Mona and Jason Bulmahn
• "Introducing Pathfinder" chaired by Erik Mona, Nicolas Logue, and Greg A. Vaughan
• "Design a Stonehenge Game!" chaired by Mike Selinker, in which the crowd and Mike will have exactly one hour to create a new game for Stonehenge to be published online at the Stonehenge Library!

Board Game Tournaments
Test your strategy in one of two Stonehenge tournaments, as well as several Kill Doctor Lucky sessions and the premiere of the all-new Kill Doctor Lucky … and His Little Dog Too! rules variants.

So what are you waiting for? Hop over to the official Origins site and see how you can get in on the action.