I took a break from the Gen Con push today to write this blog post, and my mind started to wander. I thought a bit about days gone by and how last year at this time we were under just as much pressure trying to get Ultimate Combat off to the presses in time. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Anyway, I also thought to myself, "Self, what sort of blog were you writing this time last year?"
"Aha!" myself answered. "I can do a search and find out!"
Now, those of you who've been following our Monday Pathfinder Society blog posts for a while likely remember this time in spring 2011, when we had a very lengthy series of posts covering "The Future of Pathfinder Society Organized Play." In fact, that series was when we started doing weekly posts and claimed Monday as our own special day of the week. So I checked back to Part VII of that series from May 2. And lo and behold, that was when we announced the title of the current season, the Year of the Ruby Phoenix.
"Self, you should do the same thing for Season 4 in your blog post for Monday," I said. And it seemed a reasonable suggestion, so I agreed.
Season 4 of the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign will be entitled Year of the Risen Rune. The focus of the season is going to be the Pathfinder Society's burgeoning lodge in the Varisian city of Magnimar—the focal point of the forthcoming Shattered Star Adventure Path, which also debuts at Gen Con 2012. While that Adventure Path won't be sanctioned for Pathfinder Society credit and won't use the faction system we have in the organized play campaign, there will be a lot of overlap between the Adventure Path and the Pathfinder Society campaign. So whatever campaign you play, you'll have lots of options for exploring the untamed frontier region of Varisia and the ancient Thassilonian ruins located there.
We'll have a lot more information about both the Shattered Star Adventure Path and the Year of the Risen Rune in the coming months, but until we get closer to the launch of these exciting adventures, check out the venture-captain who Pathfinder players of all ilks are likely to get to know very well—Sheila Heidmarch—and the Pathfinder Society season's shiny new logo.
Sheila Heidmarch Illustration by Kieran Yanner
The Year of the Risen Rune and the Shattered Star Adventure Path both launch at Gen Con 2012 this August!
For Gen Con 2012, we plan to make this the biggest and best Gen Con yet! I am scheduling 750 tables of Pathfinder Society over the four days. We are also bringing the GM 101 workshops that debuted at Paizo Con (and were discussed in last Monday’s blog) to Gen Con. They will hopefully be a hit and draw in new players and GMs to Pathfinder Society, as well as make active Pathfinder Society players take the next step and help to GM in their home regions.
We will be hosting Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box Introductions. During nine of the 10 slots at Gen Con, we are setting aside four tables at each slot for these events. These are scheduled with new players in mind. The first 45–60 minutes will be exploring the contents of the Beginner Box, explaining the rules, and reviewing the pregenerated characters. The final 4 hours of each slot will be playing through the four 1-hour adventures that were offered during the Beginner Box Bash.
In addition, we are adding a Pathfinder Kid’s Track to our gaming area. We are focusing on players aged 6–12 and we will be using the Beginner Box for this as well. Each Kid’s Track slot will be 2 hours long and each player will receive a check-off card, very similar to what was used at the Beginner Box Bash. The first hour teaches roleplaying and rules and reviews the pregenerated characters found in the Beginner Box. During the second hour, one of the four 1-hour adventures used during the Beginner Box Bash will be played. We will be restricting tables to four children players and are requiring a parent or guardian be present with each child (or multiple children if they have two or more interested in participating) for the entire 2 hours. The parent or guardian will assist the child when needed. But, we want to make this a good and memorable experience for the kids that attend Gen Con, who often find little they can participate in, especially with others their own age. We will be scheduling eight slots per day for the Kid’s Track. However, we are only scheduling one adventure each day. If a child comes back and plays a different adventure each of the 4 days, he will be able to present his check-off card and receive a special certificate. We may also have other giveaways or special prizes. I will be very picky when choosing volunteer GMs for the Kid’s Track. I prefer to have schoolteachers and other professionals with experience dealing with children, but I will consider GMs who are parents even if they do not deal with children regularly in their profession. If you are volunteering to GM the Kid’s Track, please make sure to include all of your credentials. Also, since these are scheduled as 2-hour blocks, a GM will be required to run two Kid’s Track slots back to back in a 4-hour block to count as one slot of credit toward GM rewards.
Finally, we are adding an invitation-only second round to the Gen Con Special: Race for the Runecarved Key! The first round will be what you have come to know and love as the Pathfinder Special. It will be 75 tables all working together to overcome some nasty problem the Decemvirate wants dealt with. However, the change this year is that we are adding a special, secret scoring system. The top three tables from each tier will advance to the invitation-only second round.
This second round will be one of the deadliest dungeons ever explored by the Pathfinder Society, and only the very best of the organization’s agents even have a chance of surviving. Again, let me emphasize—this will be a true and deadly test of the Pathfinder Society’s best teams. It is almost a guarantee some Pathfinders will die. Make sure to bring your A-game. The first round will be made available to qualifying conventions worldwide after Gen Con 2012 as it is every year. However, the second round is only being offered this once—at Gencon 2012.
At this point I am looking at restricting the GM pool to only 4- and 5-Star GMs. To top it off, the players that advance to the second round will trade in their Chronicle sheets received after the first round as their tickets to this invitation-only event. When they complete the second round, they will receive new Chronicle sheets with a very special boon. We haven’t forgotten about our volunteer GMs for the special either. We didn’t want them to miss out on the opportunity to play in the invitation-only second round. So, we will be entering all Round 1 GMs into a drawing, were we will pull six names. Those six GMs will then receive a seat at a 16th table of the second round.
The observant readers may have caught that I just mentioned 16 tables and are scratching their heads that three tables from each tier and the special GM table don’t add up to 16 tables. Well, you are right. Like last week’s blog that announced a special Tier 12+ event at Paizo Con, we are adding a Tier 12+ to both rounds of this year’s Gen Con special! The special will be written for Subtiers 1–2, 3–4, 5–6, 8–9, 10–11, and 12+, and we'll actually have 19 tables of round 2.
Now, let’s talk about the GMs and volunteers we need to pull all of the above off and make it an awesome Gen Con.
I need a minimum of 125 volunteer GMs for Pathfinder Society games, Beginner Box Introductions, and Kid’s Track events. I’ll continue taking volunteer GMs until the slots are filled, at which point I will create a waiting list in the event a scheduled GM has to cancel his or her Gen Con trip for whatever reason. I also need eight Volunteer Assistants for each slot of the show. These folks will not GM during their volunteer slots, but will instead help me run Pathfinder Society HQ—including marshalling, collecting tickets, distributing GM packs, and entering tracking sheets into the database—and will be our go-to guys and gals for all things Pathfinder Society.
Below you will find the reward structure for volunteering at Gen Con 2012. Keep in mind that you’re volunteering for slots, not a specific event. I will let you know the slots and scenarios you have been assigned as soon as possible. You may designate what tier scenarios you wish to GM but this is not guaranteed to be filled. I will do the best I can to accommodate your requests. My target date to get all GMs their assigned schedules is April 10. This should allow you plenty of time to plan a schedule, before the May 20 event registration, with your friends and family who are also attending Gen Con 2012. Please let me know via email which days you will be at the convention and how many slots you are volunteering for at Gen Con 2012.
Volunteer Tiers and Rewards
Tier 1 GM Volunteers
Tier 1 GM volunteers are my every day GMs. They are invaluable to making the show a success. Tier 1 GMs must select and volunteer for a MINIMUM of 7 slots. Tier 1 GMs may feel free to volunteer for more than 7 slots if they so desire. Any slots over 7 will be used as overfill GMs. Overfill GMs are requested to show up for muster but will be free for the slot if a scenario has all of its assigned GMs present. I only have room for 80 Tier 1 GM volunteers so don't delay in volunteering for this tier. Volunteers will be chosen on a first-come, first-served basis, though I reserve the right to select volunteers who have previously worked for Paizo over new volunteers. Please do not volunteer for Tier 1 if you have any doubts that you won't be able to attend the show. Tier 1 GMs receive:
A FREE 4-day Gen Con 2012 badge
A FREE 1/4 of a hotel room in the Hyatt Regency Hotel
A $10 per slot voucher for Paizo.com credit, useable at the show or anytime after, including with your subscriptions
A FREE limited edition Paizo Publishing Gen Con 2012 T-Shirt
Tier 3 GM Volunteers
While the rewards for volunteering for this tier are smaller, the majority of my volunteers will come from Tier 3. Tier 3 GMs must volunteer for a MINIMUM of 5 slots. Tier 3 GMs receive:
A FREE 4-day Gen Con 2012 badge
A $10 per slot voucher for Paizo.com credit, useable at the show or anytime after, including with your subscriptions
A FREE limited edition Paizo Publishing Gen Con 2012 T-Shirt
Tier 4 GM Volunteers
This is the minimum volunteer level. Tier 4 GMs must volunteer for a MINIMUM of 3 slots. Tier 4 GMs receive:
A $10 per slot voucher for Paizo.com credit, useable at the show or anytime after, including with your subscriptions
A FREE limited edition Paizo Publishing Gen Con 2012 T-Shirt
Volunteering for One or Two Slot
While we will gladly accept anyone who wants to run just one or two slots during the show, there are no rewards for doing so other than our thanks.
When Volunteering...
Please be specific about what days and how many slots you are volunteering for. I will assign folks to slots and scenarios on an as-needed basis. I will update the needs in the thread below as I receive volunteers, so you may look there to remain up to date on where we still need help. You must have a gencon.com account and you must include your gencon.com account number in your email or I won’t be able to get you a badge (obviously this is only for volunteers who are volunteering for 5 or more slots). Finally, include your Paizo.com email account so I can make sure you receive the scenarios in your downloads.
Slot 1: Thursday 8 A.M. to 1 P.M. Slot 2: Thursday 1 P.M. to 6 P.M. Slot 3: Thursday 7 P.M. to Midnight Slot 4: Friday 8 A.M. to 1 P.M. Slot 5: Friday 1 P.M. to 6 P.M. Slot 6: Friday 7 P.M. to Midnight (Gen Con Special Round 1) Slot 7: Saturday 8 A.M. to 1 P.M. Slot 8: Saturday 1 P.M. to 6 P.M. Slot 9: Saturday 7 P.M. to Midnight (Gen Con Special Round 2) Slot 10: Sunday 9 A.M. to 2 P.M.
All Gen Con 2012 volunteers please email me at mike.brock@paizo.com with the subject line Gen Con Volunteer.
Thanks in advance for volunteering, good luck, and have a great spring and summer convention season!
Mike Brock Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator
Jessica as a Gray Maiden: winner of our Gen Con Pathfinder costume contest!
Over the last week, you’ve all had a chance to vote here on the forums for which Gen Con Pathfinder cosplay cosume is the best. Almost 200 of you cast your lots, and while every contestant got some votes, with many judges agonizing over their decisions, it quickly became a race for first between Jessica as the Gray Maiden and Bonnie as Feiya, our iconic witch. As the thread rolled on, however, a clear victor emerged. And the winner is... Jessica as the Gray Maiden!
For her sheer costuming awesomeness, Jessica will receive our eternal adoration and $50 in paizo.com store credit. The rest of the contestants will have to settle for just the adoration part.
Good work, everyone, and we hope to see you all dressed up again next year!
It's been over a week since Gen Con wrapped up, and a little less than that since we returned to business as usual here at Paizo HQ. But even though we're back in the swing of deadlines and such, the rush of Pathfinder Society at Gen Con still has me feeling high!
Over the course of four days and ten slots, we seated over 3,000 excited Pathfinders, many of whom played their first Pathfinder Society scenario during the convention. And though we sold out almost every event months before the show, I'm proud to say that nearly everyone who wanted to get into a game with generic tickets was able to do so. We only had to turn people away in two of the ten slots!
Our Friday night special, Blood Under Absalom, was a smashing success, and we were able to get everyone who wanted to play a seat, pulling in extra tables from the hall to ensure that no one was left out. The result was 51 tables (out of a sold-out 45) of Pathfinders of all levels running through the same adventure, GMed by none other than the incomparable Tim Hitchcock.
In addition to the rewards all players get for surviving a Pathfinder Society Scenario, we had additional prizes that players and GMs could try to win by unlocking the Pathfinder Society treasure chest. Inside were signed copies of hardcover rulebooks, free map packs and flip mats, Pathfinder Tales novels, and even exclusive Pathfinder Society boons. Some players walked away with Chronicle sheets granting them access to non-core races like aasimar, tiefling, tengu, and dhampir, and everyone who played a scenario or delve got a Gen Con exclusive boon granting them weapon proficiency with one Eastern weapon from Ultimate Combat. For those Pathfinder Society players and GMs who couldn't make it to the show, we'll be trying similar promotions at regional conventions and game stores in the coming months, spearheaded by our invaluable Venture-Captains, so keep an eye out for your chance to get some exclusive Pathfinder Society Chronicles in your area.
Thanks to everyone who spent valuable time and money ensuring Gen Con 2011 was the most successful Pathfinder Society convention to date. Without all our Venture-Captains, HQ volunteers, and over 50 GMs per slot, thousands of gamers would have missed out on the launch of the Year of the Ruby Phoenix and hours of fun exploring Golarion! Keep an eye on this blog in the coming months for early information about our plans of next Gen Con, including how you can volunteer to help make Gen Con 2012 an even bigger success!
P.S. Check out this awesome Wayne Reynolds art from the first two Jade Regent adventure path volumes. See, Shalelu's hair is blond!
It’s that time again! Though I failed in my sacred duty to announce the Annual Gen Con Pathfinder Cosplay Contest well ahead of time, we still had a number of unbelievably strong contenders this year, and it would be a shame not to crown one of them as the winner—a title which, in addition to bragging rights, confers $50 in paizo.com store credit. So let’s get voting!
Here’s how it works: Presented below are the photographs (and names, where possible) of this year’s contestants. In the comments thread for this blog, you can pick the ONE winner who you think has the most awesome Pathfinder-related costume and shout out your vote. You have until next Thursday at noon to get in your choices, after which we’ll announce the winner.
Your options are:
Jessica as a Gray Maiden
Leslie as Seoni
Jean-Marc as a paladin of Sarenrae and Luc as a paladin of Iomedae
Eric as our Iconic Alchemist
Bonnie as our Iconic Witch (and Corey as kilted barbarian)
Nani as a Harrower
Natalie (with the metal plates), Nicole the alchemist, Amy the ranger, Megan the pregnant sorcerer, Mike the cleric.
Though I only joined the company a couple weeks ago, I was invited to join the rest of the team at Gen Con in Indianapolis. I was thrilled at the opportunity, since it would enable me to bolster our company's presence within the gaming community and meet some of our most passionate fans. In addition, the trip nurtured group cohesion within the company, and I'm happy to say I know many of my coworkers far better than I did before. All that being said, I am glad to be on familiar ground again. As for my Gen Con experience, I have the following words.
It was fun! It was exhausting. It was a lot of things. It reminded me of the retail job I had when I was 18 in some respects. It reminded me of the anime convention I went to when I was 15 in other respects. In most respects, though, it was totally unique and utterly impossible to describe. I met a lot of cool people, and I learned a lot of weird things. Things I learned:
There is a restaurant chain called Steak 'n' Shake.
Local coffee shops in Indianapolis close ridiculously early, usually around 3 p.m.
Our fans are awesome.
Some people still don't know all about Pathfinder (what!?) and are eager to learn about it.
I love Washington weather and will never complain about it again.
Patrick Renie Developer
If my first Gen Con taught me one thing it's that no one can adequately prepare you for the spectacle and energy of this convention. (If it taught me another thing it's that I can apparently make do with a lot less sleep than I had previously thought.) Meeting all the fans who visited the Paizo booth was a real joy, and while I certainly do not possess the roleplaying expertise of James Jacobs or Jason Bulmahn—or any other Paizo employee for that matter—I had a lot of fun discussing our products with the endless stream of visitors. We really do have the best fans in the business.
We also get to work with the best artists in the business. As this was my first time attending Gen Con, I obviously can't compare it to previous years, but I was shocked by the number of talented artists who stopped by to say hi or to show us their portfolios. Meeting—and reconnecting with—artists is the best part of my job, and I can't think of a better venue for this than Gen Con (cue special shout out to Stephen Radney-MacFarland for introducing me to Larry Elmore). I can't wait for next year!
ENnie Awards: Product of the Year (for the Advanced Players Guide)
Whew... another Gen Con over and done with! We had a great time at the show, in no small part due to the incredible support of our fans and customers. You all are the BEST!
In a Gen Con filled with highlights, though, for me one of the most incredible moments came about 15 minutes after the Ennie Awards wrapped up, when we went up to the Pathfinder Society Organized Play room to announce to a room of several hundred gamers that we’d won. The uproar of cheers that filled the room when Erik climbed up on his chair and made that announcement was overwhelming. Pictured is one of those many awards—the trophy for Product of the Year (Advanced Player’s Guide) held up with an enormous room of hundreds of Pathfinder Society GMs and players in the background.
We also made a large number of announcements at Gen Con for products coming out in the months ahead. Most of these announcements can be found here and there on paizo.com, but I thought I’d group them all up here in this post so everyone can find out about them at once.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Coming at the end of the year is Pathfinder Bestiary 3, followed next Spring by the Advanced Race Guide (a big hardcover book that’ll give you new options for ALL of the zero Hit Die races we’ve published to that point, as well as rules for building your own races of any power level), and then next Gen Con with Ultimate Equipment (a hardcover filled to the brim with new toys and magic items for any Pathfinder character).
Pathfinder Adventure Path: At long last, we’ve started the Jade Regent Adventure Path! But once you’re done traveling over the frozen Crown of the World and exploring Tian Xia, be ready next February for some good old-fashioned plundering and mayhem with the pirate-themed Skull & Shackles Adventure Path. And then, next Gen Con, we celebrate five years of Pathfinder and ten years of Paizo by returning to where it all began—the Shattered Star Adventure Path brings it all back to Varisia with a frantic search to be the first to recover and rebuild an ancient Thassilonian artifact—the original Sihedron Symbol—before it’s too late!
Pathfinder Player Companion: After debuting Goblins of Golarion at Gen Con, we’re ready to finish out the three-part exploration of the faiths of the Inner Sea with Faiths of Corruption. Two months later, the Dragon Empires Primer gives players all they need to know to make characters from Tian Xia. And early next year, Pirates of the Inner Sea will finally let you unleash your inner buccaneer!
Pathfinder Modules: We’ll be heading back to Varisia even earlier than Magnimar: City of Monuments and the Shattered Star Adventure Path, though, with Feast of Ravenmoor, a low-level module set in the Varisian hinterlands. Two months later, test your mettle in The Ruby Phoenix Tournament, and then next January find out what our latest RPG Superstar winner, Sam Zeitlin, has in store for you in The Midnight Mirror!
Pathfinder Battles: After WizKids releases the initial set of prepainted plastic Pathfinder miniatures of Merisiel, Kyra, Valeros, and Ezren (Pathfinder Beginner Box Heroes, which ties into the upcoming Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beginner Box), you can look forward first to the 40-miniature set of Heroes and Monsters, to be followed up later next year by the Rise of the Runelords set.
And finally... the announcement that I was the most excited for: a 420-page hardcover compilation of Rise of the Runelords, fully updated to the Pathfinder rules and expanded with new encounters and tons of new artwork, due for release at PaizoCon 5 next June!
TMBA was showing off its newest and upcoming prepainted terrain pieces. (Monte has a bunch of these, they're really amazing.) http://www.miniaturebuildingauthority.com/
Some minis companies, such as Iron Wind Metals, sell old minis, damaged minis, bulk minis, and bits by the pound. Often you can find very unusual pieces in these bins, such as the stone panther statues, nightmare, and giant war-wagon skull I nabbed.
Saw this mini while browsing the Reaper booth and am so excited to paint it! Especially with Jade Regent and Tian Xia products being released! I'm imaging it with bright, primary colors and gold accents.
Here's a neat little video shot by former Paizonian Phil Lacefield Jr. on Thursday morning at Gen Con.
Using a cheap Canon Powershot A470 and the CHDK time-lapse hack, we captured the first couple of hours at the Paizo booth. Unfortunately, no one remembered to check if the batteries were actually good in the thing, so it ran out of juice after only two hours of taking a picture every ten seconds. Despite our electrical deficiencies, this is a neat little glimpse into the chaos on the first day of Ultimate Combat sales! Look carefully for glimpses of blue-shirt Paizo staff, industry celebrity cameos, maybe even YOU!
Congrats to PFS player Chris Cook, whose PC, Phunc, was voted MVP at his table in last night's delve, and was randomly drawn from 51 MVPs for our grand prize of an all-expenses paid trip to next year's Gen Con! We're looking forward to seeing you again in 2012.
Last night this mob of PFS players all amassed for the Gen Con special event, Blood Under Absalom. In the end we seated everyone who came to play in the sold out event, with 51 tables (out of 45 planned) and ran the event for nearly 325 players!
These guys abducted their friend Scott (front) and took him to Gen Con for his bachelor party. They made t-shirts and everything. Good job, guys, and congratulations, Scott!
A few minutes after finally checking in to the hotel, this was the view from our room. I'm pretty sure this display was to celebrate the bang-up job Paizo did at the ENnies.
A few minutes after finally checking in to the hotel, this was the view from our room. I'm pretty sure this display was to celebrate the bang-up job Paizo did at the ENnies.
In addition to the live blog coverage of Gen Con, our intrepid staff has been posting photos to the official Paizo Facebook page to the delight of fans everywhere (as well as those of us stuck back at the office!)
We've rounded up some of their pictures from the show (so far) to show off for today's blog.
Mark Moreland and the Pathfinder Society Venture-Captains dine at the aptly-named "Pope Table."
Of course, they haven't just been sharing snapshots from Gen Con, they've been showing off samples of Pathfinder Battles miniatures from WizKids:
Unpainted sample miniature for the Black Dragon promo miniature for Heroes and Monsters (for more information on Heroes and Monsters or future Pathfinder Battles releases, see our press release).
Liz Danforth's very recognizeable art style defined the look of Tunnels & Trolls and the Grimtooth's Traps books. She was a pioneer female gamer in the 80s back when the industry and fanbase was almost exclusively male. She's also really nice, and signed my T&T book. Thanks, Liz!
If you were here, you could see up close and personal just how good this looks: the paint master of Ezren, from the Pathfinder Beginner Box Heroes Miniatures Set. (Photo by Jason Bulmahn.)
The Future of Pathfinder Society Organized Play, Part XX: Gen Con Is Here!
Monday, August 1, 2011
This is it, folks! The 20th installment in the Future of Pathfinder Society Organized Play blog series by yours truly. On this, the first of August, we're literally just hours from the kickoff of Pathfinder Society's fourth year, Season 3: The Year of the Ruby Phoenix!
So what can Pathfinders expect from Gen Con this year? Well, for starters, we have an exclusive Chronicle that we'll give to all players and volunteer GMs who play or run either a scenario or delve event in the Pathfinder Society room (rooms 231–234)—the largest such space we've ever had at Gen Con, I might add.
"From ashes of Shadow, the Ruby Phoenix rises."
Everyone who plays a session of either type of event will get a key (or a coin that can be turned in for multiple keys) to possibly open our HQ Treasure Chest. Inside is a chance to win a number of great prizes including Pathfinder Society branded memorabilia, signed copies of Pathfinder Roleplaying Game hardcovers, GameMastery map products, Pathfinder Tales novels, and 15 different Gen Con boons for use with your Pathfinder Society character!
"But, Mark," you're surely saying, "all the Pathfinder Society events at the show are sold out, or nearly so!" Well, yes. That's true. But we'll have up to 5 tables of hour-long delve events running through most of the day to give those who can't get into ticketed games a chance to play Pathfinder and possibly win some of the above-mentioned boons and prizes. So even if you didn't get a spot in one of the over 400 tables of Pathfinder Society going on at the show, stop by rooms 231–234 to get your Pathfinder on at your convenience!
And Paizo's presence isn't just in the organized play rooms, either. We'll have almost everyone in the company in the booth at one time or another, so stop by and see who you can chat up or have sign your new copy of Ultimate Combat. On Saturday at 3:00 we'll be having our annual Pathfinder costume party, so if you have an iconic getup or even a costume for your favorite personal Pathfinder character, stop by the booth then for group pictures and a chance to win some great prizes as the fans on paizo.com vote to choose their favorite costumed attendee.
I could write another three pages on all the great stuff we have in store for everyone at Gen Con, but as I leave in less than 24 hours for the fine city of Indianapolis, I'd better cut this short (sic) and get those last few little details ironed out before I pack up my travel toothbrush and prepare for my appointment with the TSA. See you all in Indianapolis!
I attended my first gaming convention in 1995. Home for a summer between college semesters and with my regular high-school D&D game done and buried thanks to all of the players attending school in different states, I was aching to throw some dice, kill some monsters, and take their stuff. So I headed over to the Thunderbird Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota and entered a whole new world of public gaming.
At Twin Con I played my first session of Living City, the original shared-world RPG campaign, and met a lot of local gamers who shared my gaming interests. I won a contest for a unique dagger designed by a local artisan, with LC stats to boot, and played a ripping game of Circus Imperium ("Whip the beast! Whip the beast!"). Most importantly, I picked up a sign-up form for Gen Con, and within a week of Twin Con I was registered for the biggest and best American gaming convention of them all.
I'd long wanted to attend this gaming Mecca (then held, naturally, at Milwaukee's MECCA Convention Center) thanks to previews and coverage in Dragon Magazine and Polyhedron, the official newszine of the RPGA Network that brought me the Living City campaign I'd so enjoyed at Twin Con. I knew that all the big gaming companies timed their major releases for the show, and that it attracted tens of thousands of "alpha gamers" from all over the world to play all sorts of games, shop in the cavernous exhibit hall, and learn from game professionals in panels and seminars. But until 1995, I'd never managed to have the right combination of time, money, and transportation to make my dream of hitting Gen Con a reality.
Flush with exciting stories of my fun time at Twin Con, I managed to convince a small gaggle of my local gamer buddies to accompany me on the road trip to Milwaukee. I recruited these guys from my old high-school-era gaming circles, and while none of them were as rabid as I was about gaming, they agreed to come with me and help split the cost of the hotel room.
That first Gen Con was a marvel. Until you've been to the show you can't really imagine how impressive it is to see 30,000+ gamers take over the downtown core of a major city. You have no idea what it's like to stand in an enormous dealer room filled with just about every gaming company you can think of, with booths staffed by some of the same names you usually see on book covers. It was an amazing experience, and one I swore almost instantly to repeat on an annual basis.
That's me on the right, manning the original Paizo "booth" with Dungeon editor Chris Thomasson.
For whatever reason, though, my buddies were not quite so enthusiastic, and so when the time came to sign up for Gen Con 1996, I couldn't convince any of my old gaming friends to come with me. Slowly but surely, by attending several local Living City events, I was developing a new cadre of gaming buddies, but only a year after I first got involved with LC, none of those relationships had gelled to the point where I felt comfortable sharing a hotel room with those guys. So I did the unthinkable, and decided to head out to Gen Con all by myself.
Even though it was my second Gen Con, 1996 feels like my first when I think back on it, because I felt like such a fish out of water that year. Without the companionship of pals to take in the convention with me, I ended up setting my own schedule and doing the things that I wanted to do, exclusively. And around then that meant haunting the various TSR seminars (especially when they had to do with my beloved World of Greyhawk campaign setting), playing a ton of RPGA events, and scouring the dealer hall for out-of-print AD&D modules I'd somehow missed the first time around. It was enormously fun, but I went into it quite nervous. It's hard to feel lonely among 30,000 fellow gamers, but with no hotel roommates and no friends to share the experience, I was worried that I wouldn't have any fun at all. I felt more like an isolated newbie than I ever had that first year.
I needn't have worried. I was far, far too busy to ever feel lonely. Within the first day I'd met up with the local RPGA'ers, and the convention's relentless programming had me seated at game tables around the clock. A funny thing happened at those game tables. I started recognizing gamers from the previous year, and they started recognizing me. The next year, 1997, I split a room in the vaunted (and, let's face it, probably haunted) Hotel Wisconsin with 11 other RPGA fanatics, some from my native Minneapolis and some from all over the country. I began to travel with these new friends, hitting game days and cons in Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and even Florida. Far from being alone, as I'd feared the previous year, I was developing a huge network of hard-core gaming buddies all over the country.
Here I am about two years later. I can't recall what year this was, but I'm certain it was the last time I did Gen Con in a T-shirt...
At Gen Cons between 1996 and 1998, my questions at various TSR seminars (along with, I must admit, a ton of critical commentary on the old TSR area on America Online) brought me to the attention of a few D&D contributors, who soon hired me on as a freelance continuity consultant for Greyhawk and Planescape projects. That work brought me to the attention of Wizards of the Coast's Lisa Stevens, who hired me for real in 1999 to join the RPGA staff as editor of Polyhedron and the head honcho of the network's Living Greyhawk campaign, which was to coincide with the launch of third edition Dungeons & Dragons in 2000.
Gen Con 1999, my fifth consecutive appearance, was the first time I attended the show as a gaming professional. The following year I launched Living Greyhawk and helped manage the RPGA's presence at the show, which dominated a massive arena complete with stadium seating and poorly lit subterranean passages. A lot of the volunteer coordinators of the Living Greyhawk campaign turned out to be guys I'd played RPGA games with those first couple of years, solidifying friendships with gamers who had been strangers only a few short years before.
By 2002, I'd been transferred from the RPGA to the periodicals division of Wizards of the Coast, which was spun off to form Paizo Publishing. This gave me a whole new Gen Con experience—helping to run a dealer hall booth for what amounted to a tiny, start-up company. "Booth" is probably too bold a word, as the first Paizo booth was really just a small table with a few posters taped to the wall of the D&D castle mega-booth.
Here I am the last year in Milwaukee with Eric Noah of EN World fame.
Since 2002, I've been one of the few constants of Paizo's presence at Gen Con. Most of the original Paizonians have moved on to other career opportunities, but I'm still around, standing behind a decidedly larger booth, with a decidedly larger set of responsibilities as publisher than I had as the lowly magazine section editor of 2002.
And here I am, about to head out for my 17th consecutive Gen Con, and my mood couldn't be further from the trepidation of 1996, when I attended the convention alone. Because with nearly 20 years of the convention behind me, I now understand that a gamer can never be truly alone at Gen Con. Each annual convention is a chance to reacquaint myself with old friends and make a ton of new ones. Where once I worried that not a single person there knew who I was, these days I can barely walk from my hotel to the Paizo booth in less than an hour, because I end up running into so many old friends.
If you've never been to Gen Con, or if this is your very first year to attend and you're a bit nervous about what's in store, take if from me. You needn't worry. Gen Con has a way of making gamers feel right at home, and once you've attended one time, you'll have so much fun that your biggest concern coming out of the show will be how you're going to manage to attend next year.
And when you do come back, swing by the Paizo booth and say hi. I'll be there, eager to meet you.
The Future of Pathfinder Society Organized Play, Part XIX: Retuning the Rules
Monday, July 25, 2011
We're just over a week away from Gen Con 2011 and the launch of Pathfinder Society Organized Play's fourth year, dubbed "The Year of the Ruby Phoenix", and the entire editorial staff seems to be under the permanent effects of haste and insanity. While I'm burning the midnight oil from both ends (sorry 'bout the mixed metaphor, but it's accurate), I thought I'd make a short post to preview some of the revisions to the campaign rules themselves, as will appear in the newest version of the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play, which we'll have out shortly.
For full details on these and other changes, you'll have to wait for the full rules, but here's a hint at some of what's in store. Note that none of these rules go into effect until August 4, 2011, when the revised Guide will actually become legal and valid.
The nearly out-of-print Seekers of Secrets will be removed from the Core Assumption, replaced with the brand-new Pathfinder Society Field Guide, releasing at Gen Con. This book includes new Prestige Awards unique to each of the 10 factions, new archetypes, spells, equipment, and a section on vanities, which are purchasable with Prestige Points and allow you to own a business or a manor house, have minions and servants to provide you bonuses, and grant you membership into exclusive clubs like thieves' guilds and hunting lodges.
Day Jobs are being simplified, and will now be a single Craft, Perform, or Profession check, with all relevant modifiers. Some vanities or Prestige Awards will allow you to use different skills for such checks, including the much requested Sleight of Hand.
Characters will be able to switch factions by paying Prestige Points to represent the fewer favors their new faction owes them. All PCs will receive one free faction change beginning on August 4 that must be used before the first session played in Season 3. If you don't play any Pathfinder Society during Season 3, you'll have to pay to change factions in Season 4.
New PCs will no longer be restricted from purchasing magic items at character creation. They will still be limited by having only 150 gp to spend on such items, and can't buy anything not on the Always Available list, but now you can start with a scroll or a potion if you've got the money for one!
Characters of new factions playing old scenarios will do a faction mission from one of the original five, earning prestige as if that mission had been tied to your faction all along. The pairings will be: Grand Lodge > Osirion; Lantern Lodge > Qadira; Sczarni > Taldor; Shadow Lodge > Cheliax; and Silver Crusade > Andoran.
Since Season 3 will feature only one faction mission per scenario, with a second Prestige Point tied to the completion of the overall scenario, Season 0 scenarios with 1 Prestige Point available can be run as written, while scenarios from Seasons 1 and 2 will treat one faction mission as the overall objective and the other as the faction specific objective to maintain the same 2 Prestige Points per scenario.
The Guide will also include rules for rebuilding elements of characters using open playtest rules, or when an errata or FAQ of an existing rule causes it to work significantly differently than before.
I guess that's about all I have time for at the moment, because I still have to get the guide polished off and ready to go, not to mention our four new scenarios and Gen Con special, Blood Under Absalom. (The art you're seeing here is a sample of what players in these new adventures have in store, by the way.) Oh, and revised pregens. Yeah, those are finally coming out, as well.
Next week, in the twentieth and final installment of the Future of Pathfinder Society Organized Play blog series, I'll talk a little about some of the exciting gaming opportunities we have planned for Gen Con and reveal the heretofore unmentioned exclusive prizes players in Pathfinder Society and Pathfinder Roleplaying Game delve events will have a chance to win at the show!
Twenty-Eight Years of the Best Four Days in Gaming
Friday, July 8, 2011
Illustration by Clyde Caldwell
Has it really been 28 years already? It seems like only yesterday that my friend Rich Rydberg and I were setting up our tent at a campground in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and excitedly talking about our first Gen Con. The year was 1984, and Rich was in my AD&D group at St. Olaf College, in Northfield, Minnesota. For the previous three years, we had seen all the coverage on Gen Con in Dragon magazine and dreamed about going to the king of all conventions, but it took until 1984 for all the stars to align.
The convention wasn't very big back in those days. The Parkside gymnasium where the dealer hall was located was hot as heck. But you could see all the luminaries of gaming easily. I ran into Gary Gygax the first day I was at the con! I even got Clyde Caldwell to draw a picture of my first D&D character, and it sits on my wall here at work. The biggest discovery for Rich and me was the RPGA. Since this was our first convention, we had registered for a bunch of random AD&D games, and boy were some of them bad. We hadn't realized how good our home game was compared to some of the games we played in at the con. RPGA changed all that with great adventures run by some of the best DMs in the business!
The RPGA became the center of my Gen Con world for the next four years as the convention moved to the MECCA convention center in Milwaukee. I literally played RPGA events from early morning on Thursday until the last slot on Sunday. Frank Mentzer ran me through The Temple of Elemental Evil. I got to play in the first Oriental Adventures tournament. And slowly, I rose to the top, becoming one of the first Grand Masters and eventually Paragon players.
Now, RPGA tournaments were a lot different back then. This was before Living City, so all the tournaments were either skill challenges like the AD&D Open, or they were roleplaying-based tournaments, where you were given a random character and you had to roleplay it on the spot, and at the end of the tournament, your fellow players graded all the players at the table, with the one with the highest total winning that table!
Of course, it wasn't all RPGA. One convention, I got to play in the first public game using the AD&D Battlesystem, and Rich and my opponents were none other than Ed Greenwood of Forgotten Realms fame, and Mike Nystul, whose character created Nystul's magic aura among other things.
My RPGA years came to an abrupt end when I started my first gaming company, Lion Rampant. In 1987, we released Whimsy Cards and the highlight of my show was selling a pack to Dave Arneson. The next year, we came out with Ars Magica and it won Best Game of the Year in the RPGA Gamer's Choice Awards. I'll never forget Rich yelling at me from across the dealer hall as he raced from the RPGA breakfast banquet carrying our trophy.
The First Wizards of the Coast Booth
The years went by and Gen Con became a business convention for me. As I entered the business side, I got to meet all of the luminaries of the industry and talk with them as peers. Gen Con was very social, with deals being talked about at the Safe House late at night. I went from Lion Rampant to White Wolf to Wizards of the Coast in the span of five years. Check out the crazy picture of me at the first Wizards of the Coast booth. We shared the booth with a small little internet start-up, America Online. Back then, it was all Talislanta and The Primal Order, but Magic: The Gathering would become the shot heard around the world in 1993.
Magic almost didn't make it to Gen Con in '93. The shipment got delayed in customs and I literally had to have it put on an airplane so that it arrived Saturday morning at the convention. Word had spread of the game and we literally sold it as fast as we could take money and write receipts. The next year, we had lines that wrapped around the convention hall, with people standing in line for many hours to get limited quantities of Arabian Nights, Legends, Antiquities, and The Dark.
One cool Gen Con moment happened one year when the staff of TSR and the rest of the industry agreed to a huge Nerf gun fight in the TSR Castle before the hall opened up for business. All the other companies ganged up on the TSR folks and a ton of fun was had by all as we all blasted each other with Nerf until we laughed ourselves silly. Imagine over 100 of the industry's finest running around screaming like kids. It was magical.
My next favorite Gen Con memory was when I worked the TSR Castle as a member of the TSR staff in 1997 after Wizards of the Coast bought the company. I was one of a handful of WotC employees who stayed in Lake Geneva that summer and became part of the D&D brand team when the staff transitioned to Seattle later that year. But for the summer of 1997, I worked at TSR and tradition was that the TSR staff all worked hard at Gen Con each year. Wearing my TSR shirt and talking fans off the ledge (everyone was worried about what was going to happen to D&D now that WotC had bought it) in the TSR Castle are moments I will always cherish!
At Gen Con 1999, I was part of the team that announced the impending release of the third edition of D&D the next year. We had this huge auditorium where we trotted out guest after guest from Gygax and Arneson to Cook and Adkison. Seeing the excitement as we let a lot of the cats out of the bag was really cool. And then everyone got one of my favorite t-shirts, the one where it had a list of things people didn't like about previous editions that were getting fixed in third.
The release of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook at Gen Con 2009.
2002 was my first Gen Con as an owner of Paizo. We had a small table in the WotC booth, where we sold subscriptions to Dragon, Dungeon, and Star Wars Insider. 2003 had us schlepping Silver Boba Fetts. 2004 was the year of the Undefeated cheerleaders. 2005 saw the mountain of Shackled City hardcovers. 2006 saw the release of our GameMastery line of system independent products.
Another great moment was 2007, the year we launched the Pathfinder Adventure Path line. Knowing that Dragon and Dungeon were going away, but that we had this awesome line of adventure product that included some of the best folks in the industry, was satisfying. 2008 saw the release of the Pathfinder RPG Beta. All of us were floored when we sold out of the print version of our Beta playtest. I thought we would be burning the unsold copies. Now it is a collector's item!
Of course, the year 2009 saw the release of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. The buzz had been amazing building up to this release, but we weren't prepared for the rush of people trying to be the first to buy the book. The Paizo staff ran around like shepherds, trying to tame a semblance of order into 500+ people descending on the booth at the same time. By the time the line went around the booth and into the art show area, I knew something had to happen. So Erik and I grabbed a bag and offered to let people give us $60, get their book, and get out of the line. Many people took us up on that offer.
Now 2011 Gen Con is just a few weeks away. I wonder what stories will be crafted from the Best Four Days in Gaming this year?
The Future of Pathfinder Society Organized Play, Part VII: Introducing the Year of the Ruby Phoenix
Monday, May 2, 2011
In August 2010, Pathfinder Society Organized Play entered the Year of the Shadow Lodge, and the ongoing conflict with this separatist splinter group within the Pathfinder Society has been a consistent plot element in many of the season's scenarios. We've seen prominent members of the Society and at least one faction betray the Decemvirate, and the Shadow Lodge conflict only gets more twisted as we wrap up to the dramatic conclusion at PaizoCon.
In August, with the launch of Season 3, Pathfinders the world over will embark on the most exciting Pathfinder Society adventure yet, a metaplot arc we've named the Year of the Ruby Phoenix.
In the Year of the Ruby Phoenix, the Pathfinder Society (as well as various other factions both allied with and opposed to the Society) set their sights on the Ruby Phoenix Tournament, a world-renowned fighting competition that occurs only once a decade in distant Tian Xia, and more specifically on the incredible collection of prizes available to the tournament's victor. In order to cement the Society's victory, Pathfinder agents will be sent throughout the Inner Sea and beyond to collect allies, uncover obscure lore, and retrieve magical weapons to augment their representatives in the tournament.
The search for the perfect "ringer" will culminate in the tournament itself, which will be released as an as-yet-unannounced Pathfinder Module: The Ruby Phoenix Tournament, which will continue the pattern of being sanctioned for Pathfinder Society play. After the PCs' inevitable victory, the treasure chosen by the Decemvirate as the prize awarded to them by their representatives' win will propel the adventure into unexplored territory for the remainder of the season!
The Year of the Ruby Phoenix kicks off at Gen Con with four all-new scenarios! RPG Superstar 2010 finalist Jim Groves brings us The Frostfur Captives for levels 1–5. RPG Superstar contestants Dennis Baker and Benjamin Bruck have authored the Tier 3–7 scenario Sewer Dragons of Absalom and the Tier 7–11 scenario The Kortos Envoy, respectively. And the master of the dungeon crawl, Mike Shel, rounds out the quartet with his Tier 5–9 romp, The Ghenett Manor Gauntlet.
As if that weren't enough, Pathfinders attending Gen Con (and special conventions thereafter) will have the chance to qualify the Pathfinder Society for the Ruby Phoenix Tournament in the underground pit fights of Pathfinder Society Special: Blood Under Absalom by veteran special designer Tim Hitchcock.
As if being the first to play these incredible adventures weren't enough, for the first time ever, we'll have opportunities for Pathfinder Society players and GMs to play a role in establishing Pathfinder Society canon, win special unique prizes from the Paizo store, and even a giant grand prize that we'll be announcing in the coming weeks. The call for volunteer GMs has gone out and registration for events through Gen Con are just around the corner! Don't miss your chance to be among the first to take part in the Year of the Ruby Phoenix.
Next week we'll take a look at the Osirion faction and what might be in store for those Pathfinders loyal to the Ruby Prince and the Sapphire Sage, Amenopheus!
For Gen Con 2011, I need a minimum of 75 volunteer GMs and I'll keep taking volunteer GMs until the slots are filled! I also need 2 Volunteer Assistants for the show—these folks will not GM, but will instead help Liz Courts run Pathfinder Society HQ and will be our go-to guys and gals for all things Pathfinder Society. Below you will find the reward structure for volunteering at Gen Con 2011. Keep in mind that you're volunteering for a slot, not a specific event. I'll assign people to events inside the slot they've volunteered for and I won't take requests.
Volunteer Tiers and Rewards
Volunteer Assistant: 2 needed, treated as a Tier 1 GM
Tier 1 GM Volunteers Tier 1 GM volunteers are my workhorses, everyday GMs. They are invaluable to making the show a success! Tier 1 GMs must select and volunteer for a MINIMUM of 8 slots. Tier 1 GMs may feel free to volunteer for more than 8 slots if they so desire. I only have room for 32 Tier 1 GM volunteers so don't delay in volunteering for this tier. Volunteers will be chosen on a first-come, first-served basis, though I reserve the right to select volunteers who have previously worked for Paizo over new volunteers. Please do not volunteer for Tier 1 if you have any doubts that you'll be able to attend the show. Tier 1 GMs receive:
A FREE 4-day Gen Con 2011 badge
A FREE 1/4 of a hotel room in a Downtown Indianapolis hotel
A $10-per-slot voucher for Paizo.com credit, useable at the show or anytime after, including with your subscriptions.
A FREE limited edition Paizo Publishing Gen Con 2011 T-Shirt
Tier 2 GM Volunteers: While the rewards for volunteering for this tier are smaller, the majority of my volunteers will come from Tier 2. Tier 2 GMs must volunteer for a MINIMUM of 4 slots. Tier 2 GMs receive:
A FREE 4-day Gen Con 2011 badge
A $10-per-slot voucher for Paizo.com credit, useable at the show or anytime after, including with your subscriptions.
A FREE limited edition Paizo Publishing Gen Con 2011 T-Shirt
Tier 3 GM Volunteers: This is the minimum volunteer level. Tier 3 GMs must volunteer for a MINIMUM of 2 slots. Tier 3 GMs receive:
A $10-per-slot voucher for Paizo.com credit, useable at the show or anytime after, including subscriptions.
A FREE limited edition Paizo Publishing Gen Con 2011 T-Shirt
Volunteering for One Slot
While we will gladly accept anyone who wants to run just one slot during the show, there are no rewards for doing so other than our thanks.
When Volunteering...
Please be specific about what slot you are volunteering for. I will assign folks to scenarios on an as-needed basis, so you really only need to tell me the slot(s) you're volunteering for (since I won't take requests). I will update the needs in the thread below as I receive volunteers, so you may look there to remain up to date on where we still need help. Lastly, you must have a gencon.com account and you must include your gencon.com account # in your email or I won't be able to get you a badge (obviously this is only for volunteers who are volunteering for 4 or more slots).
Slot 1: Thursday 8 A.M. to 1 P.M.
Slot 2: Thursday 1 P.M. to 6 P.M.
Slot 3: Thursday 7 P.M. to Midnight
Slot 4: Friday 8 A.M. to 1 P.M.
Slot 5: Friday 1 P.M. to 6 P.M.
Slot 6: Friday 7 P.M. to Midnight (PFS Special: Blood Under Absalom)
Slot 7: Saturday 8 A.M. to 1 P.M.
Slot 8: Saturday 1 P.M. to 6 P.M.
Slot 9: Saturday 7 P.M. to Midnight
Slot 10: Sunday 8 A.M. to 1 P.M.
All Gen Con 2010 volunteers please email me at hyrum.savage@paizo.com with the subject line Gen Con Volunteer.
Tell your friends! Tell your family! Tell everyone in your game group! We need volunteers!
Thanks in advance for volunteering, good luck, and have a great summer convention season!
Let me start this off by saying that our fans and friends are freakin' amazing. Seriously, folks—when Tiffany started this whole costume contest thing two years ago by showing up at the Gen Con booth dressed as a cleric of Desna, we were flat-out flabbergasted. The fact that Pathfinder cosplay has grown by leaps and bounds since then—enough to justify a full-fledged costume contest—is one of the greatest compliments our game could receive. If you've never seen what goes on in our hotel rooms after a long day of working the Gen Con booth (and I sincerely hope you haven't, as we were told those door locks were secure), there's a whole lot of summer-camp-style giggling that goes on late into the night as we marvel at all the folks we've met that day. The costume contest only compounds that.
This year we had a number of strong contenders. In fourth place, Kelly's amazing Harsk outfit (complete with badger and authentic handmade crossbow!) tied with Blake's fabulous depiction of Nethys, the two-faced god of magic. In third, Tiffany's Harrower costume was a spot-on recreation of the art from the campaign setting hardcover, while Jason's potion-covered homage to the iconic alchemist exploded into second place.
Yet there can be only one winner of the Third Annual Gen Con Pathfinder Cosplay Contest, and this year the landslide victory went to Lora as the iconic witch. The level of detail on this costume was simply stunning. As art director Sarah Robinson pointed out, given the number of illustrators who complain about having to draw all the little pouches, fetishes, and other bits and pieces Wayne Reynolds likes to load up the iconics with, seeing someone actually make them to this level of detail is amazing. For her dedication, Lora receives the grand prize of $50 in Paizo store credit, as well as bragging rights until next year, when she'll have to defend her title.
When the time comes, will you be the one to take it from her?
If you know anything about me (and I'm not saying you should), you probably know that I'm Paizo's fiction editor as well as one of the developers. What you may not know is that, in addition to working on the campaign setting and making sure authors like Dave Gross are fed and walked regularly, I'm also a musician involved in variousextracurricular bands and projects. Usually that doesn't affect my job at Paizo much, save for that one time when Jacobs and I, in the first and only performance of Operation Banjo Thug, ambushed Wes with some impromptu talkin' blues. (An experience from which he's never entirely recovered and which, without witnesses, he can't verify as having actually happened.)
A while back, however, Jacobs and I were sitting around after work talking about what a Paizo theme song would sound like. We decided that it would really need to have two distinct elements: a big industrial section like Nine Inch Nails' "Just Like You Imagined" (300 had just come out), and a classic, Conan-style orchestral piece. And of course, no soundtrack would be complete without an homage to The Omen's big choral theme, which we in the office will forever refer to as "Sawhorse Middle School," for reasons I won't go into here.
The idea never quite left my head, and a few months ago I sat down on a Saturday and decided to do something about it. The resulting track was received with much hilarity at the office—which was really what I was going for—and people ended up liking it so much that they voted to use it as the theme song for Paizo at the ENnies this year.
While it's hard not to be proud of the awards we won—Best Publisher? Best Game? It literally does not get better than that—in my secret heart, my favorite part of Gen Con this year was hearing the fight song blasted over the PA every time someone from Paizo went up to accept an award.
Now that we're home, it occurs to me: why stop there? Hopefully some of you reading this blog would be equally amused by the track. As such, I give you my attempt at a Paizo fight song, "Pathfinder Est Domine."
Gen Con 2010 Promotional Paizo Mini from Reaper Miniatures
Monday, August 16, 2010
Not only did Reaper Miniatures bring miniatures of the six new Advanced Player's Guide iconics to Gen Con, they brought a promotional mini of half-elven venture-captain Varian Jegarre—a Pathfinder of Egorian and protagonist of Dave Gross's Pathfinder Tales novel Prince of Wolves—which con guests got for free if they spent $50 at the Paizo booth. If you couldn't get one at Gen Con, though, don't worry—we'll have some for sale here at paizo.com in the near future.
One really nice thing about this mini (above and beyond the nice sculpt and detailed face) is it's a one-piece mini, which makes it nice for people new to painting minis—there's no assembly required!
Painted miniature by Meg Maples
Sean K Reynolds
Developer and Miniatures Aficionado
We’re back from Gen Con, and in addition to the usual scramble to meet deadlines and recovery from horrifying illnesses contracted by shaking hands with approximately ten bajillion people, that means it’s time for everyone to vote on the contestants in the Third Annual Gen Con Pathfinder Cosplay Contest!
We had an extraordinary number of contestants this year, and all of them did bang-up jobs! Yet only one can be the official winner of the grand prize (both a pile of Paizo store credit and bragging rights), which is where you come in. At the bottom of this blog, you’ll see a link for comments. Sound off and place your vote for the best costume in that thread. You have until the end of the weekend to make your selection. On Monday morning, we’ll tally all the votes, and announce the official winner in a blog post next week.
Ready? Here are this year’s fine contestants, in no particular order:
Lora as Feiya, the iconic witch.
Jason as Damiel, the iconic alchemist.
2009 contest champion Kelly as Harsk, the iconic ranger. (Maybe he’s a little tall for a dwarf, but how can you say no to a hand-made crossbow and his adorable animal companion, Biter?)
Blake as Nethys.
David as a paladin of Iomedae.
Corienne as a Tien monk.
2008 contest champion Tiffany as the Harrower from the campaign setting hardcover. (You can’t see her wayfinder here, but it came with its own ioun stone!)
Noel as Trifaccia from Pathfinder Adventure Path #12. Look out, he's got a whip!
Honorable Mention: Jodi as Amiri, the iconic barbarian, who despite her amazing costume has removed herself from the running, on account of already being Sean Reynolds' girlfriend (and isn't that prize enough?).
A very tired, very hungry, but ultimately satisfied and successful bunch sit down for a lovely after-show dinner.
Thanks to everyone who visited our booth, came to our seminars, gamed in our Pathfinder Society room, stopped us in the halls to thank us, or voted for us in the ENnies. You made this yet another great Gen Con. See you next year!
With Society games at an end, I popped over to The Arsenal, a Society store in Indianapolis that serves as a game store, gaming area, and cafe. They have some cool themed gaming rules in the basement, a lot of Pathfinder Society games each week, and they can bring you food right to your table while you do it. All-in-all, a fun visit.
Just a quick reminder that this is your last chance to start getting things ready for the Third Annual Paizo Gen Con Costume Contest! For more details, you can always refer back to the official announcement, but the short version is that if you come by the booth during Gen Con wearing quality Pathfinder cosplay, you've got the chance to win both cash and cred from the Paizo staff. So bust out those sewing machines and start working!
Now, since no blog would be complete without art, here's Jenny Poussin as Seoni, her costume courtesy of Paizo messageboard regular Laithoron. It's unclear whether their powerhouse partnership will actually be competing this year, but at the very least they should give you some inspiration.
James L. Sutter
Fiction Editor
(And yes, you've seen this picture before—the question is, have you seen it enough?)
Nominations for the 2010 ENnie Awards are live and we couldn't be blown farther away! Paizo products are up for awards in 11 categories, with related Pathfinder projects showing in even more. Unbelievable! A huge thank you from all of us here at Paizo to all of our readers for your endless enthusiasm and help in expanding our rules and worlds, as well as boundless appreciation to everyone at ENWorld for organizing and hosting one of the most highly anticipated event in gaming year after year.
But this year's ENnie Awards are just kicking off. Head on over to ENWorld to check out all the nominees and prepare for this Friday (July 16th) when the voting booths open and you can cast your vote for your favorite RPG rules, accessories, products, and projects.
Thanks again from all of us here at Paizo Publishing and we'll see you at the ENnies!
Next month I travel to Europe for a Pathfinder Society whistle-stop tour of several exciting events. I start with an event in Copenhagen on July 9, head down to Wiesbaden, Germany for an Ulisses-Spiele event on July 11, swing over to Utrecht and Leiden in the Netherlands for a pair of back-to-back events on July 13, skip down to the south of France in beautiful Lyon for a Black Book Editions event on July 15, and then make my way north to Birmingham for a weekend of Paizo Con UK events from July 17 through July 18. Then, just when it's getting started, I wing my way back to Paizo on July 19.
Quite a trip—one that I'm very excited to embark on—but before I get down to the details of each stop, I'll give a little background on why Paizo is sending me through the European Union and the UK to participate in Society events.
When the Society first started, we knew we eventually wanted to build a dedicated network of volunteer coordinators—we call them Regional Coordinators. These folks would be our go-to men and women who could help organized local conventions, game days, and hobby store events as well as function as our core of volunteers at Paizo Con, Gen Con, Dragon Con, Paizo Con UK, Games Expo UK, Gen Con Australia... well, you get the idea. We are now ready to make a big deal about our coordinator system (watch for a blog post here next week), but before we can really get started I need to know where our largest communities in Europe are, and who among them are the most dedicated. I already had a good idea of who and where these folks were in the US, Australia, and Canada, but I had only a vague notion of our hardest-core European groups. Thus a trip was ordered, and now I head for Europe next month to participate in local events and talk to their organizers about possibly becoming a regional coordinator for their city or country.
Here are the details:
Copenhagen, Denmark—July 9, 2010 Address: Støberiet, Blågårds
Plads 3, 2100
København Ø
Time: Two slots, 12:00–17:00 and 18:00–23:00
Additional Details: You must email Henrik Garde to sign-up. This event is free.
Wiesbaden, Germany—July 11, 2010 Address: Nachilfeinstitut Faultier
Adolfsallee 59
65185 Wiesbaden
Tel: 0611-505870-7
Time: 10:00–18:00
Additional Details: This event will be held at the tutoring center "Faultier" ("lazybones"). There are a large number of single rooms so groups don't disturb one another and enough tables and chairs for larger groups. The center has a microwave and an electric water boiler for Tea and instant coffee free of charge. The station across the center covers all the other needs (bakery, McDonalds, Asia Snack and Mr Doener). A big thank you in advance to Michael W. and the team of the tutoring center for giving us the permission to use their facilities. Across from the tutoring center there is the department store called "Lilien-Care" with a parking deck where you can park your car for a fee of only EUR 3.00 for the whole day. Around the center there are several more parking areas too but we recommend that you use the parking deck. You can find free parking lots behind the Wiesbaden main station in the direction of the Schlachthof and behind the Motel One. Finally, we recommend that you come by public transit. The center is in only 2 minutes walking distance from the Wiesbaden main station and from the central bus station. This event is free.
Utrecht, Netherlands—July 13, 2010 Address: Labyrinth
Oudegracht 207
Utrecht
Time: 11:00–16:00 (the event might run later—I leave at 16:00)
Additional Details: This event is free.
Lyon, France—July 15, 2010 Address: Trollune
25 rue Sébastien Gryphe
69007 LYON
Time: Two slots, 14:00–19:00 and 20:00–01:00
Additional Details: This event is free.
Birmingham, United Kingdom—July 17–18, 2010 Address: Aston University Business School
Birmingham, UK
Time: Several gaming and panel slots on the 17th and 18th—see the Paizo Con UK website for details.
Additional Details: This event requires the purchase of an event badge. See the Paizo Con UK website for details.
If you live in Europe or plan to be there during my trip, stop by one of the events and say hello! I hope to see you all there!
With PaizoCon just a few days away, some of you reading this blog may be thinking, "Man, I can't believe I can't make it to Gen Con and PaizoCon this year. The world is so unfair!"
While that is undoubtedly true, never fear, gentle GenConian! Because this is your official reminder that the Third Annual Pathfinder Gen Con Cosplay Contest is less than 2 months away at this point! (Shock! Gasp!)
Here's the deal: At some point during Gen Con, you show up to the Paizo booth dressed in your best Pathfinder costume. (That means monsters and characters with obvious ties to Golarion itself, not generic cosplay—that wizard hat could be from anywhere.) In addition to drawing a crowd of happy gawkers, the contestants will have their pictures taken by whatever staff members are handy. Those folks with the best costumes, as decided by us, will end up on the Paizo blog once we return from Gen Con, at which point we'll allow the posters on the messageboards to pick their favorite. What criteria that mad and merry crew will use is anybody's guess—creativity? recognizability? skin-to-clothing ratio?—but whoever they select as the best Pathfinder cosplayer will walk away with 50 dollars in store credit! But more importantly, the winner will go home knowing that he or she (or they, if folks want to team up to make a life-sized linnorm) have entered the exclusive cadre of the Paizo Cosplay Winner's Circle.
And now ('cause you knew it was coming), a note for PaizoCon attendees: While there's no official costume contest at PaizoCon this year, folks attending both cons are encouraged to bust out their costumes early and show the colors this weekend, to give the competition a taste of what they're up against. (And, of course, to get as much fun as possible out of that Hellknight armor you spent all winter forging.)
So what are you waiting for? Fire up that old sewing machine and see if you have what it takes to compete with folks like the already announced model-and-designer team of Jenny Poussin and Laithoron from the Paizo messageboards, whose amazing realization of Seoni (pictured above) is bound to set the bar high this year. But forewarned is also forearmed, and there's still time to get in on the game...
James L. Sutter
Fiction Editor and General Rabble-Rouser
Working at Paizo is awesome—there can be no question about that. Most days—those days when I'm in my happy-hippie, all-is-right-with-the-world mood—I show up to work and think, "Wow, we're all so lucky to be editing RPGs all day! How did we ever get so lucky?" That's most days.
And some days, we *&#@ing earn it.
Last Saturday was one of those days. Every year around this time, we start to reach the mission critical phase on our Gen Con products, and it's all hands on deck trying to get them out the door in time for the do-or-die ship date which will allow them to be at Gen Con. This year is no exception, and while most of the big products (such as Dave Gross's Prince of Wolves—more on that soon!) have already been put to bed, the Advanced Player's Guide is still in the last, messy phases of its birth. Thus it was that Saturday found me, Rob McCreary, Judy Bauer, Sarah Robinson, Wes Schneider, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona in here for more than 11 hours on Saturday to try and get things handled. (It should be noted that Chris Carey was in his Fortress of Editorial Solitude, having been saddled with the final proofing of Before They Were Giants, and Sean was busy moving. I'm pretty sure Jason was in a coma somewhere.)
Even with most of the Editorial Pit on hand, weekend workdays still feel different than normal ones. Everything's a little looser, and what professionalism we cultivate tends to get abandoned (though I did not, as originally planned, wear my jammie pants).
All of this is necessary to explain the photographs, I promise.
You see, when we moved into our new office last September, it was immediately noted that the otherwise normal-looking office building is bordered on two sides by a big field of brambles (reportedly haunted by vagabonds and feral corgis) and a big grassy ridge. At several points since the move, Wes and I have looked up at the ridge and wondered what mysteries might lie, Narnia-like, just over its crest.
Around 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, having just finished editing chunks of the classes chapter of the APG until my eyes were ready to bleed, I decided I needed something stronger than caffeine to keep me going, and stormed into Wes's office.
"Wes," I said, in my most inspiring voice, "It is time. We're going over the mountain."
Wes looked at me for a moment.
"Yeah, okay," he said.
Thus it was that everyone save Erik and Sarah (who had left for the evening) and Jacobs (who's too old and wise for such things) trooped outside on our Voyage of Discovery. Leaping over the drainage ditch, we scrabbled up the steep, grassy rise and came out into a magical wonderland!
Photography by Rob McCreary
Well, okay, maybe it was a gravel pit. But the point was, we had gone over the mountain! And for what it's worth, the gravel pit was pretty cool. Wes and I spent a few minutes running up the mountain of rubble to get a view of the surrounding countryside, then noticed the idling dump trucks and realized it was an active gravel pit—one which might not appreciate a bunch of trespassing nerds—and beat a hasty retreat to recommence editing.
And there you have it—the wild excitement of a Saturday at the Paizo offices!
(EDITORIAL NOTE: Sutter and Wes would like any authority figures to know that the preceding anecdote is entirely fictional; that they in no way condone trespassing, accidental or otherwise; and that they're both too pretty for jail.)
If you've been listening carefully in these blogs or the Tuesday Paizo chats, you may have heard us refer to "the Board" from time to time. The Board is the giant whiteboard where the entire editorial department records its priorities, status updates, deadlines, etc., and collectively attempts to slay the Gen Con dragon.
This is not that board.
Rest assured, you will see pictures of that board (complete with Wes's fabulous Product Dragon) when it's time, but from now through May that board will likely remain a secret—the place Wes goes when he needs a good cry, or the rest of us go when we decide a few minutes of elevated heart rate and panic-sweating would be good for us. (It's like the gym, but cheaper!)
This, on the other hand, is a picture of the board in the Editorial Cube. While the Editorial Pit often refers to the entire editorial department, the Editorial Cube is where the dedicated editors sit, having forgone walls in our effort to achieve a more perfect editorial hive mind. (Not that the developers don't edit, of course, but if somebody's likely to start a knife fight over semicolon usage, they probably sit in the Cube.) This board represents our recent attempt to increase organization. You can determine for yourself whether or not we've been effective. And of course, you can rest easy knowing that all future subscription products will be Verne Approved™.
Official Call for PaizoCon and Gen Con Volunteers!
Friday, March 19, 2010
Hello!
This is the official call for volunteer GMs and assistants to help Paizo Publishing run events at PaizoCon 2010 and Gen Con 2010. (If you're looking for the Origins Game Fair volunteer thread, click here.)
Paizo Con 2010
For Paizo Con 2010, I need a minimum of 20 volunteer GMs for Pathfinder Society Organized Play and I'll keep taking volunteers until the slots are full! Below you will find the reward structure for volunteering at PaizoCon 2010 as well as the events and slots for which I need volunteer GMs. I also need 2 volunteer assistants for the show—these folks will not GM, but will instead run Pathfinder Society HQ and will be my go-to guys and gals for all things Pathfinder Society. Volunteers must volunteer for a minimum of 2 slots and the volunteer assistants are volunteering to split time at HQ for the entire show. PaizoCon 2010 volunteer GMs and volunteer assistants receive the following:
(Volunteer GMs) A $10 per slot credit voucher for the Paizo sales area
(Volunteer Assistants) A $15 per slot credit voucher for the Paizo sales area
All PaizoCon 2010 volunteers can email me: josh@paizo.com with the subject line PaizoCon Volunteer. I can only take volunteers for Paizo Con who have purchased a badge to the show.
Keep in mind that you're volunteering for a slot, not a specific event. I'll assign people to events inside the slot they've volunteered for and I won't take requests.
For Gen Con 2010, I need a minimum of 50 volunteer GMs and I'll keep taking volunteer GMs until the slots are filled! I also need 3 Volunteer Assistants for the show—these folks will not GM, but will instead run Pathfinder Society HQ and will be my go-to guys and gals for all things Pathfinder Society. This year I'm also seeking 4 "booth volunteers." These folks must be highly knowledgeable about all of Paizo's products lines, must be well kept, clean, and professional, and must be able to stand and move for up to 6 hours at a time. Booth volunteers will work the Paizo booth sales floor, answer questions, and let Paizo employees know when product needs to be restocked. Booth volunteers will not work the register and will not have access to the back area of the booth. Below you will find the reward structure for volunteering at Gen Con 2010 as well as the events and slots for which I need volunteer GMs and booth volunteers.
Keep in mind that you're volunteering for a slot, not a specific event. I'll assign people to events inside the slot they've volunteered for and I won't take requests.
Volunteer Tiers and Rewards
Volunteer Assistant FULL! No more needed.
Booth Volunteers FULL! No more needed.
Tier 1 GM Volunteers
Tier 1 GM volunteers are my workhorse, every day GMs. They are invaluable to making the show a success! Tier 1 GMs must select and volunteer for a MINIMUM of 8 slots. Tier 1 GMs may feel free to volunteer for more than 8 slots if they so desire. I only have room for 24 Tier 1 GM volunteers so don't delay in volunteering for this tier. Volunteers will be chosen on a first-come, first-served basis, though I reserve the right to select volunteers who have previously worked for Paizo over new volunteers. Please do not volunteer for Tier 1 if you have any doubts that you won't be able to attend the show. Tier 1 GMs receive:
A FREE 4-day Gen Con 2010 badge
A FREE 1/4 of a hotel room in the Marriott Downtown Indianapolis
A $10 per slot voucher for the Paizo booth (to be used in the Paizo booth on Sunday only)
A FREE autographed copy of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Player's Guide hardcover at Gen Con
A FREE limited edition Paizo Publishing Gen Con 2010 T-Shirt
Tier 2 GM Volunteers
While the rewards for volunteering for this tier are smaller, the majority of my volunteers will come from Tier 2. Tier 2 GMs must volunteer for a MINIMUM of 4 slots. Tier 2 GMs receive:
A FREE 4-day Gen Con 2010 badge
A $10 per slot voucher for the Paizo booth
A FREE limited edition Paizo Publishing Gen Con 2010 T-Shirt
Tier 3 GM Volunteers
This is the minimum volunteer level. Tier 3 GMs must volunteer for a MINIMUM of 2 slots. Tier 3 GMs receive:
A $10 per slot voucher for the Paizo booth
A FREE limited edition Paizo Publishing Gen Con 2010 T-Shirt
Volunteering for One Slot
While we will gladly accept anyone who wants to run just one slot during the show, there are no rewards for doing so other than our thanks.
When Volunteering...
Please be specific about what slot you are volunteering for. I will assign folks to scenarios on an as-needed basis, so you really only need to tell me the slot(s) you're volunteering for (since I won't take requests). I will update the needs in the thread below as I receive volunteers, so you may look there to remain up to date on where we still need help. Lastly, you must have a gencon.com account and you must include your gencon.com account # in your email or I won't be able to get you a badge (obviously this is only for volunteers who are volunteering for 4 or more slots).
One of the big highlights of Gen Con Australia 2009 was the "What’s Next for Pathfinder?" seminar that took place Saturday afternoon. The Pathfinder players at the show were so excited for this seminar that they took a break from their Pathfinder Society games to attend. Not surprisingly, it was pretty packed.
Although much of what was covered during this seminar had already been announced, there were a few surprises in store, including the final two new base classes being planned for the Advanced Player’s Guide and a special surprise, a first look at one of the base classes from that book. At Gen Con Indy this year, we announced four of the six base classes slated to appear in the Advanced Player’s Guide: the alchemist, the cavalier, the oracle, and the summoner. During this seminar, the final two were revealed: the inquisitor and the witch.
The inquisitor class is going to look a lot like your Van Helsing-type character, dedicated to hunting down and killing monsters. This means that the class is going to have a fair number of skills and some limited divine spellcasting ability. In addition, the inquisitor is going to have the ability to designate a foe during combat, and the longer the combat progresses, the more damage he will deal to that foe in combat. Unlike a ranger, the inquisitor’s abilities are not based on monster type. Instead he has to carefully study his targets, learning how to more effectively deal with them as a combat progresses. Higher-level inquisitors will learn how to exploit monster weaknesses and possibly even add additional weaknesses to a monster using special attacks.
The witch class is going to be a class that fully embraces both the arcane and divine spell lists, taking select spells from each to make for one intriguing list. The big news for the witch is the focus on her familiar. This will function like a wizard’s familiar, but with additional powers and abilities, with maybe a few extra limitations thrown in to balance out the rules. You can also expect some new mechanics for witch curses, through some new spells and class features.
While the crowd was certainly excited to hear about these new classes, the room grew rather quiet as I handed out a sample oracle character for them to analyze. But rather than leave you out in the cold, here is that character, updated with the most recent version of the class.
Sample Oracle
This sample shows one of the first builds of the new oracle class. The relevant class abilities are summarized, but they do not include additional bonuses that Areanna would gain at higher levels. For example, at 9th level, Areanna’s form of flames ability improves, allowing her to assume the form of a Medium fire elemental.
Areanna
Female human oracle 7
CG Medium humanoid Init +6; Senses Perception –1 Defense AC 19, touch 14, flat-footed 16; (+5 armor, +1 deflection, +2 Dex, +1 dodge) hp 49 (7d8+14) Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +5 Offense Speed 40 ft. Melee+1 flaming shortspear +7 (1d6+2 plus 1d6 fire) Ranged dagger +7 (1d4+1/19–20) Special Attacks fire breath (2/day, 7d4 fire damage, DC 17), form of flame (Small fire elemental) Spells Known (CL 7th)
3rd (5/day)—cure serious wounds, dispel magic, fireball (DC 17)
2nd (7/day)—aid, augury, resist energy, summon monster II
1st (7/day)—bless, cure light wounds, divine favor, produce flame, remove fear, shield of faith
0 (At Will)—guidance, light, purify food and drink, read magic, resistance, stabilize, virtue Focus fire Statistics Str 12, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 18 Base Atk +5; CMB +6; CMD 18 Feats Combat Casting, Dodge, Eschew Materials, Improved Initiative, Mobility, Nimble Moves, Toughness Skills Acrobatics +12, Intimidate +14, Knowledge (religion) +10, Perform (dance) +14, Spellcraft +10 Languages Common, Ignan SQ oracle’s curse (speak in tongues), orisons, revelations (cinder dance, fire breath, form of flame) Combat Gearelemental gem (fire), elixir of fire breath, wand of cure light wounds; Other Gear+1 flaming shortspear, daggers (4), +2 studded leather armor, cloak of resistance +1, ring of protection +1 Special Abilities Cinder Dance (Ex): Areanna’s base speed increases by 10 feet. At 5th level, she receives Nimble Moves as a bonus feat. Fire Breath (Su): As a standard action, Areanna can unleash a 15-foot cone of flame from her mouth. This flame deals 1d4 points of fire damage per level, maximum 10d4. A Reflex save halves this damage. The save DC is equal to 10 + 1/2 her oracle level + her Charisma modifier. She can use this ability once per day, plus one additional time per day for every four oracle levels she possesses. Form of Flame (Su): As a standard action, Areanna can assume the form of a Small fire elemental, as elemental body I. She can use this ability once per day, but the duration is 1 hour/level. Speak in Tongues: In times of stress, Areanna speaks in tongues. Whenever she is in combat, she can only speak and understand Ignan. This does not interfere with spellcasting, but it does apply to spells that are language dependent. She gains Ignan as a bonus language.
As you can see, oracles are spontaneous divine spellcasters, working in a manner similar to sorcerers. Instead of bloodlines, each oracle has a focus (fire in Areanna’s case). At 1st level, 3rd level, and every four levels thereafter, oracles can select one revelation from their focus to learn. These revelations grant them special powers and abilities, such as the ability to breathe fire, turn into a fire elemental, or even call down a storm of fire (Areanna is not quite high enough level for that one). In addition, oracles must select a curse at 1st level. These curses are a mixed blessing, with each one limiting the oracle in one way, while granting special bonuses in other areas. Areanna’s curse is perhaps one of the easiest to deal with, which is why it grants one of the smallest bonuses.
Well, that about wraps up my summary of Gen Con Australia 2009. I want to thank Ian Houlihan, the convention director, for bringing me down to the show, Mark Rogerson, the events manager, for showing me a great time in Brisbane, and Peter Ball, the seminar manager, for setting up some great panels. I am hoping to make this show a regular in my convention schedule. Maybe next year, you will too.
After a lengthy, globe-trotting adventure, I am finally back and well rested from my journey to the future. I am here to tell you that Gen Con Australia 2009 was a big success! For those of you that missed it, I thought this would be a good time to recap my trip to Australia and the news from the con.
Flying to Australia is hard, even if you are not very tall. The plane ride from LA to Sydney alone took about 14 hours. Arriving in Brisbane (two days after I left thanks to the international date line), I was greeted by some of the friendly con staff and some truly terrific weather. I spent some time exploring the city, including a wonderful tour down the Brisbane River, but no trip to Brisbane would be complete without paying a visit to the Australia Zoo (of Steve Irwin fame). When we arrived, Mark, my incredibly helpful guide, explained that most of the animals inside were ready for their tryouts to get into Bestiary II. Let me tell you, the animals in Australia do not disappoint!
From Koala's to Kangaroos, the Australia zoo is a real "hands on" experience, allowing you to feed and get up close to all of the animals. Except for the large and hungry ones, such as their extensive crocodile exhibits. Lucky for us, we showed up in time to catch one of the crocodile feedingdemonstrations. Yeah, I am beginning to think that CR 2 might be a bit underrated. We also got to take a good look at the Cassowary, one of the world's biggest and deadliest birds. Apparently, the claws on its toes can rip a man open with relative ease. Terror bird anyone?
After the zoo, it was time for the Gen Con Australia to get underway. There were thousands of folks at the show, playing board games, card games, miniature games, and many RPGs. The Pathfinder RPG fans were there in force, playing a lot of Pathfinder Society games thanks to the tireless efforts of Stephen White (DarkWhite to those that lurk on the boards), who organized and ran more tables than any sane man should. Much of my time was spent talking to fans, participating in a host of seminars, and signing books (I may have signed over 50% of the Core Rulebooks on the continent).
Of course, the big seminar that everyone was waiting for was the "What's Next For Pathfinder?", where I spilled the beans on the final two classes to appear in the Advanced Player's Guide, set to release next August. But that was not all. I had another surprise in store for the attendees—a first look at one of the new classes. Tune in tomorrow for all the juicy details!
Jason Bulmahn here with another update from the FUTURE! By the time you read this, Gen Con OZ will nearly be over, but it's not too late to learn the lessons of TOMORROW! That lesson is: the people of Australia love the Pathfinder RPG.
But that's not all, in this distant future time, the people are very excited to learn more about the Advanced Player's Guide and all 6 of its wonderful new base classes. One day (probably as soon as this afternoon's seminar takes place), you too might enjoy their splendor.
A word of warning from the future. Although we live in a time of wonder, where the impossible is real, it does have one drawback—giant horror spiders! (Thanks to the Brisbane Museum for the terror.)
By the way, although it has not happened yet, I would like to offer my sincerest condolences to all the Daves of the world. No one could have predicted that the aliens would have responded that way.
Hello Pastlings, Jason Bulmahn here, from the FUTURE. That's right, while you are living in yesterday, I am in tomorrow. By the time you read this, the first full day of Gen Con Australia will be over.
Here is a view from the future, where anything is possible, such as this exciting Paizo booth. Such a glorious pile of fabulous products would not be available in your time. If you too live in the FUTURE, and are planning to stop by Gen Con OZ, make sure to stop by and experience the Splendor of Tomorrow!
Btw, tonights lotto numbers are 4-15-26-32-35-44. Enjoy your millions.
The votes for the First Annual Gen Con Pathfinder Cosplay Contest are in, and after a hard battle, the winner is... both of them!
Yes, it seems that our messageboard horde saw too much merit in Tiffany's fantastic starknife and Kelly's unnerving Pactmaster mask to let either of them go unrewarded. (And in a way, Tiffany started this whole idea with her costume last year, so perhaps we should consider this the 2008 and 2009 awards.) Regardless of how you parse it, the result is that both Kelly and Tiffany will be receiving $50 in Paizo store credit. Congratulations to them both, and special thanks to messageboard poster Taig who offered to foot the bill for the second prize—we may not have taken him up on it, but we always love seeing the generosity of our community.
As for all of you who didn't have time to compete this year: there's always time to start preparing for next year's contest! Time to start collecting those giant crab legs for your Rovagug suit, hitting the gym in preparation for the Merisiel outfit, or shaving the family dog and training it to carry your goblins—I mean "beautiful children"—on its back. The possibilities are endless!
(P.S: I'm ashamed to admit that Tiffany's contact information was lost in the shuffle of Gen Con. Tiffany, if you're reading this, please email me at james.sutter@paizo.com to claim your prize!)
Another Gen Con has come and gone, and as all the editors crawl out from where we've been hiding in fetal positions beneath our desks, recovering from the exhaustion and excitement, we're forced to conclude that this was the best convention yet. The release of the Core Rulebook was a rousing success, the ENnies were kind, the community was more welcoming than ever, and our favorite industry professionals were just as zany and fun as last year. Yet all that in no way lessened the excitement of...
PATHFINDER COSPLAY!
Despite the relatively late warning (next year's contestants: consider this your starting gun), we doubled our Pathfinder cosplay turnout this year. That's right: two intrepid individuals spent portions of their con wandering around in full Pathfinder regalia, forever winning our hearts (and potentially $50 dollars in store credit). This year's contestants were Tiffany as a cleric of Desna (whose same costume last year inspired the contest, and hence is allowed to compete this year as well—unfortunately, only last year's photo is available) and new challenger Kelly, who wowed us all with his incredible rendition of a Pactmaster of Katapesh.
Tiffany as Cleric of Desna
Kelly as Pactmaster of Katapesh
Which costume is the best, and most deserving of reward? It's a tough question, but it's up to you to decide. If you want to weigh in on the matter, or just congratulate them both on their amazing costumes, head over to the Pathfinder Cosplay Contest thread on our messageboards and make your voice heard. Votes will be collected for roughly 48 hours, at which point we'll announce the winner here on the blog. So what are you waiting for? Let the voting begin!
While some of us were back in blissful Seattle sipping ice tea and lounging on the beaches and others of us were still trekking back from Gen Con—drunk on our own sleep deprivation and tears—Ashton Sperry, paper minis mogul and N’wah from the boards, decided to drop by. While most of us missed him, he certainly left his mark. Here are just a few of the scribbles that followed in Ashton's wake. Sorry we missed you man, but thanks for the post-its! It really made getting back to the old grindstones all the more bearable!
For everyone else! Expect more reports from Gen Con starting bright and early tomorrow morning! It was great to see a ton of you at the show and, as always, we had a fantastic time. For folks who couldn't make it, though, tune in to the blog and messageboards for what you missed!
Illustrations by Ashton Sperry*
F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor
*Except the stick figure. That's Sean's. Ashton wrote the note.
Ryan Dancey stopped by to pick up his copy of the Pathfinder RPG. Without his championing of the Open Game License, this book and indeed Paizo would not have been possible.
This is Katie and her brand new Pathfinder RPG rulebook, signed by Jason and myself. She's excited to read the new rules and roll up a new character. Welcome Katie!
One of my most prolific Pathfinder Society GMs, Doug (pictured left in the white shirt), impresses me at every show with his hand-drawn maps on giant graph paper. Even more jaw-dropping for me is when I come to observe one of his tables and see his version of a map I just drew (and submitted to map god Mike Schley) a few months ago. It's a level of surreal that, even after 5 years of RPG design, I still get a kick out of seeing.
Thanks to all of my GMs for their hard work and thanks to all Pathfinder RPG GMs. You guys are hardcore and we dig it.
I stopped by and chatted with Bobby Jackson, Reaper sculptor extraordinaire. Here is his Valeros sculpt as it is nearing completion! If it isn't 100% obvious, this is Valeros from the cover of the Core Rulebook. Sweet!
The line is starting to wind down to reasonableness. But this morning was chaos! I was trying to keep to the back of the line and it grew faster than I could walk. It stretched twice around the booth, past the art show and towards the bathrooms. Wow! I must have signed 300 autographs today. :)
From where I sit, it's August 13, the official release date of the Pathfinder RPG. And as a co-owner of Paizo Publishing and someone with a significant role in what some refer to as "the edition wars," I have an announcement to make:
The Edition Wars are over, and we have all won.
You like 4th Edition? Great--Wizards of the Coast has some fun stuff coming out for you, and there are quite a few third parties expanding the scope of the 4E world too.
You like 3.5, but want to see it evolve? We've got you covered with the Pathfinder RPG, and more companies are coming on board to support that all the time.
You like 3rd Edition and want to keep playing it as it is? Congratulations--you can. And since the Pathfinder RPG was designed with compatibility in mind, you'll be seeing a lot of new stuff coming out that you can easily use with your game.
You like more than one of the above, or perhaps something completely different? That's fine, too.
So let's put an end to the talk about why the games you're not playing are lacking, and keep the focus on why the games you are playing are keeping your attention.
The Indianapolis Convention Center, home of Gen Con, as seen from our hotel room.
I first came to Gen Con with WotC in 1993, the year we released Magic: The Gathering on a mostly unsuspecting audience. Back then, it was at the MECCA convention center in Milwaukee.
The feeling I get about tomorrow's Pathfinder RPG launch reminds me a lot of how we felt at Wizards before Magic came out.
The booth is done, a billion books are ready, and I'm that silly tired that comes from two long hot fun days of setup. Very excited to kick this thing off tomorrow. Oh, quick note: the RPG pile o' books itself is larger than most booths here. :-)
Welcome to our near-live Gen Con blog! These are being sent from our iPhones and other tiny, tiny devices, and not going through the usual editing process, so you might see a few more typos than normal. Here's the plane that's taking Lisa and me to Gen Con... or at least to Denver.
It's already starting to feel like a ghost town here at Paizo headquarters as the majority of the staff packs up and heads off for Gen Con Indy. With the debut of the Pathfinder RPG, we're totally excited, but also expecting the convention to be four days of absolute madness. So what are we doing? Oh, we're adding fuel to that fire, of course! There's already going to be tons of opportunities to get Paizo swag just by stopping by our booth, but in addition to the Pathfinder RPG, the annual Paizo delve, tons of Pathfinder Society Events, and way more, we're adding buttons! That's right, special, collectible Gen Con '09 Pathfinder Buttons. For as long as they last on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, we'll be giving away a different button, allowing you to show your love for the grim gray maidens, those madcap goblins, or the lovely Seoni. So hurry on over to the Paizo Booth (#2312) every day to pick up the whole set!
And that's it! We're off. We'll see you all at Gen Con Indy!
Here at Paizo, we have many different levels of experience with cosplay, from Art Director Sarah Robinson's complete disdain for anything other than the latest trendy fashions (seriously, the woman has every purse in the western hemisphere) to Jason Bulmahn's days playing a lumbering oaf at midwestern renaissance fairs (how little things change!), to Wes Schneider who may, in fact, be a Pokémon. But the one thing we all have in common is that we love the idea of people dressing up as Pathfinder characters.
We never thought such things were possible until we met Tiffany, a real-life cleric of Desna, at last year's Gen Con, and thanks to her we're now convinced that anything is possible. Which is why I'm filled with glee to announce the First Annual Pathfinder Gen Con Cosplay Contest!
Here's the deal: At some point during Gen Con, you show up to the Paizo booth dressed in your best Pathfinder costume (faction shirts and other official Paizo merch don't count). We should stress that we're looking for monsters and characters with obvious ties to our world itself, not generic cosplayers (that wizard hat could be from anywhere), or people dressed up like actual Pathfinder books (very clever) or members of the Pathfinder staff (the world already has one James Jacobs, and one is enough for everybody). In addition to drawing a crowd of happy Paizoites, the contestants will have their pictures taken. Those folks with the best costumes, as decided by us, will end up on the Paizo blog once we return from Gen Con, at which point we'll allow the posters on our messageboards to pick their favorite. What criteria that mad and merry crew will use is anybody's guess—creativity? recognizability? skin-to-clothing ratio?—but whoever they select as the best Pathfinder cosplayer will walk away with fifty dollars in store credit!
So what are you waiting for? Get out that sewing machine and hot glue gun, send your party members on a run for foam rubber and acrylics, and show us what you're made of!
If you answered yes to these questions, than the 2009 ENnies Awards Dream Date Auction is for you. This is your chance to sit with Paizo during the ceremony and to support the event at the same time! At the event, we will regale you with tales of daring stat block formatting, stories of narrowly missed printing dates, and the bone-chilling saga of stair rules that were nearly forgotten. In other words, we are going to have a good time and you get to join in on the fun!
Help us earn bragging rights by having the largest auction ever. Bid today!
In celebration of the launch of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
at Gen Con 2009, Paizo is offering a large assortment of events for players young and old, veterans and noobies, casual and grognard alike. In addition to an assortment of seminars, Paizo's premier organized play system, Pathfinder Society, will have four scenarios for 1st-level characters (with 2 additional scenarios for higher-level experienced players) available for play throughout the show from 8 A.M. on Thursday through 5 P.M. on Sunday. Slots start at 8 A.M., 1 P.M., and 6 P.M. and run for four hours. Look for such titles as The Decline of Glory, Tide of Morning, The Devil We Know, Part 1: Shipyard Rats, The Devil We Know, Part 2: Cassomir's Locker, Sniper in the Deep, and Drow of the Darklands Pyramid to further explore the Pathfinder RPG rules and the Pathfinder Society Organized Play experience. On Friday and Saturday night, Paizo will also offer an interactive event for all levels of Pathfinder Society entitled Betrayal in Absalom that turns Indianapolis into an interactive City at the Center of the World for players to run an RP and combat-laden scavenger hunt. Prizes will be awarded to the winning teams each night. Lastly, every day of the show during dealer hall hours, Paizo Publishing will run a delve at their booth that's designed to be a meat grinder event that quickly shows off the PRPG rules set as well as handing out prizes to those lucky enough to survive. For those of you who just want to play and aren't interested in the Pathfinder Society, there will be pre-generated characters available for every slot of Pathfinder Society events with the exception of the interactive—the interactives both require you to have a character for Pathfinder Society ready to go.
For those of you signed up for Gen Con and ready to go, a summary of events is listed below including links to each event's sign-up page. You must be logged in to the Gen Con website for the links to work. We've also included a running total (frequently updated in this thread) of how many tickets remain for each event and slot. Online ticket sales for Gen Con 2009 end on June 27, 2009. So don't delay in reserving your spot for one or more of Paizo's Gen Con events!
Official Call for Paizo Publishing Gen Con 2009 Volunteer GMs and Assistants!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Hello!
This is the official call for volunteer GMs and assistants to help Paizo Publishing run events at Gen Con 2009. (If you're looking for the Origins volunteer thread, click here.) In order to be sure that Gen Con 2009 is the best possible play experience, I need a minimum of 42 volunteers (54 volunteers total on Friday and Saturday night) with no maximum—I'll keep taking volunteers until the slots are filled! Below you will find the reward structure for volunteering as well as the events and slots for which I need volunteers. This year, I'm also creating a new "Volunteer Assistant" position for the show—these two folks will aid me in all manner of things and will be my right and left hand man/woman throughout the entire show. They will be rewarded handsomely for their time. Speaking of our rewards, we've DOUBLED the voucher amounts you get for volunteering this year and increased the number of hotel rooms available for Tier 1 volunteers. By doing this, I hope to see even more people working for us at Gen Con.
Tell your friends! Tell your family! Tell everyone in your game group! We need volunteers!
One last thing to keep in mind: you're volunteering for a slot, not a specific event. I'll assign people to events inside the slot they've volunteered for and won't take requests.
Volunteer Tiers and Rewards
Volunteer Assistant
The volunteer assistants will work closely with me every day of the show from 8 A.M. to 10 P.M. to help muster slots, gather tickets, answer questions, and run HQ. The volunteer assistants may also be used as gophers, lunch-gatherers, or errand-runners. Reliable, punctual, and guaranteed-to-be-at-the-show applicants ONLY please. This position is limited to two volunteers and will be assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis, though I reserve the right to select volunteers I've worked with in the past (i.e., at Gen Con 2008 or Gen Con UK 2008). Volunteer assistants will only be used as GMs to cover GMs that are MIA. Volunteer assistants receive:
A FREE 4-day badge
A FREE 1/4 of a hotel room
A $150 voucher for the Paizo booth (to be used in the Paizo booth on Sunday only)
A FREE black & white photocopied version of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook before the show after signing an NDA
A FREE autographed copy of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook hardcover at Gen Con Wednesday evening
A FREE limited edition Paizo Publishing Gen Con 2009 T-Shirt
Tier 1 GM Volunteers
Tier 1 GM volunteers are my workhorse, every day GMs. They are invaluable to making the show a success! Tier 1 GMs must select and volunteer for a MINIMUM of 8 slots. Tier 1 GMs may feel free to volunteer for more than 8 slots if they so desire. I only have room for 18 Tier 1 GM volunteers so don't delay in volunteering for this tier. Volunteers will be chosen on a first-come, first-served basis, though I reserve the right to select volunteers who have previously worked for Paizo over new volunteers. Tier 1 GMs receive:
A FREE 4-day badge
A FREE 1/4 of a hotel room
A $10 per slot voucher for the Paizo booth (to be used in the Paizo booth on Sunday only)
A FREE black & white photocopied version of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook before the show after signing an NDA
A FREE autographed copy of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook hardcover at Gen Con Wednesday evening
A FREE limited edition Paizo Publishing Gen Con 2009 T-Shirt
Tier 2 GM Volunteers
While the rewards for volunteering for this tier are smaller, the majority of my volunteers will come from Tier 2. Tier 2 GMs must volunteer for a MINIMUM of 4 slots. Tier 2 GMs receive:
A FREE 4-day badge
A $10 per slot voucher for the Paizo booth (to be used in the Paizo booth on Sunday only)
A FREE black & white photocopied version of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook before the show after signing an NDA
A FREE limited edition Paizo Publishing Gen Con 2009 T-Shirt
Tier 3 GM Volunteers
This is the minimum volunteer level. Tier 3 GMs must volunteer for a MINIMUM of 2 slots. Tier 3 GMs receive:
A $10 per slot voucher for the Paizo booth (to be used in the Paizo booth on Sunday only)
A FREE black & white photocopied version of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook before the show after signing an NDA
A FREE limited edition Paizo Publishing Gen Con 2009 T-Shirt
Volunteering for One Slot
While we will gladly accept anyone who wants to run just one slot during the show, there are no rewards for doing so other than our thanks.
Events by Slot
When volunteering, please be specific about what slot you are volunteering for. I will assign folks to scenarios on an as-needed basis, so you really only need to tell me the slot(s) you're volunteering for (since I won't take requests). I will update the needs in the Gen Con volunteer thread on the Pathfinder Society messageboards as I receive volunteers, so you may refer to that thread in order to remain up to date on where we still need help.
I've spent a huge portion of this week thinking about and planning for Gen Con 2009. As most of you know, we're launching the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game at Gen Con, which means we're also kicking off Season 1 of Pathfinder Society Organized Play. The first slot of the show, Thursday morning, will be a character creation/conversion seminar with Paizo employees and volunteer GMs who have all seen the rules ahead of time and will be available to answer questions and help you either build a new character or follow our soon-to-be-released conversion guidelines for Season 1. We'll cut everyone loose before the dealer hall opens so they can hop in what will assuredly be a long line for the RPG hardcover itself and then let everyone flow back to the Org Play area to finish their characters alongside their shiny new (possibly autographed) Pathfinder Roleplaying Game books.
The real fun kicks off Thursday afternoon when we launch Season 1 of Pathfinder Society Organized Play! We have four outstanding scenarios written by four outstanding scenario authors (if I do say so myself) who will all be in attendance at Gen Con and will likely GM their own scenarios once or twice as surprise GMs throughout the show. Tim Hitchcock and the Werecabbages are brewing a brilliant Friday and Saturday night interactive event for the Pathfinder Society that I cannot reveal the details about yet as the lycanthropic vegetable club would stake me and eat my brains for doing so. Rest assured, when Tim pitched me the idea, I ran screaming through the office declaring it the best idea since horseshoes.
Here are some quick summaries of the four scenarios we'll be running at Gen Con 2009:
Pathfinder Society Scenario 29: The Devil We Know, Part 1: Shipyard Rats (Tiers 1–7) by Joshua J. Frost
When simultaneous kidnappings of Pathfinder and Aspis Consortium agents rock Cassomir's imperial shipyards, the Society orders you to join forces with hated Aspis agents to solve the mystery. Can you work together with the enemies of the Society to uncover the source of the kidnappings, or will you perish in the shipyards of Cassomir? Written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
Pathfinder Society Scenario 30: The Devil We Know, Part 2: Cassomir's Locker (Tiers 1–7) by Joshua J. Frost
The Pathfinder Society dispatches you into the catacombs beneath the shipyards known as Cassomir's Locker to uncover the source of a shamanistic rat cult that's breeding monstrous vermin never before seen on Golarion. After thwarting a double-cross and delving into the dirty dungeons below, will you find the artifact that powers Cassomir's Locker in time or will you bring about the destruction of Taldor's most important port? Written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
Pathfinder Society Scenario 31: Sniper in the Deep (Tiers 5–9) by David Eitelbach & Hank Woon
When rumors stir of a hidden treasure ship in Absalom's Flotsam Graveyard, the Pathfinder Society sends you beneath the Inner Sea to investigate. Mayhem, undersea adventure, and chaos are to be had in this rousing rampage beneath the roiling waters of Absalom's harbor. Written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
Pathfinder Society Scenario 32: Drow of the Darklands Pyramid (Tiers 7–11) by Sean K Reynolds
A rogue band of drow are plaguing the artifact shipping lanes of Osirion and the Pathfinder Society has sent you to stop them. When the drow capture an entire caravan laden with Society relics, the Decemvirate orders you into the Darklands to track down the drow and their stolen cargo. You'll travel beneath Golarion, fighting through caverns of hideous creatures to reach the fabled Darklands Pyramid—will your survive the journey, or become a slave forever? Written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
Lastly, I want to congratulate the selectees for the final 3.5 Pathfinder Society Organized Play Open Call: Elizabeth Leib and James MacKenzie! They're writing #28 Lyrics of Extinction and #27 Our Lady of Silver respectively. Congratulations!
Someone made the terrible mistake of giving James and I cameras, a lapse in judgment we heartily exploited over the past week at Gen Con. While many of the images we captured proved too terrible to inflict upon you gentle souls, here are a few quick highlights we snapped from the showroom floor. Special thanks to all the Paizo volunteers, everyone from the message boards we ran into (you guys are awesome!), all who voted in the ENnies, Tiffany, Boomer, and um... Sheila (sorry we forgot your name; blasted cloak of invisibility).
Gen Con was a great success! We saw nearly 400 characters made for Pathfinder Society and handed out 600 registration cards for new players and Game Masters. Our fine volunteers rocked the Pathfinder Society room in ICC 101-102 and all of the players were enthusiastic, excited, and fun. The room was filled with laughter, chaos, and the roar of critical successes. Nick and I had a good time and everyone's positive and negative feedback was heard, written down, and (in many cases) will be incorporated in the next version of the guide. Season 0 is our playtest season—we're happy folks are helping us test it.
We learned a few lessons at Gen Con, both from the organization standpoint and from the standpoint of GMs and players. We know a little more about how to organize the event, how many tickets to sell for each slot, and how many GMs to gather to run it smoothly. We learned that a bull horn (thank you, Lou) is the most valuable asset of the room and we learned that people really DO want to sport the colors of their faction and wear their shirts with pride (and free re-rolls).
Thanks everyone who was there for making it a great success. We'll see you next year. Until then, found your local chapter of the Pathfinder Society and hook another bunch of recruits into becoming Pathfinders. We know they'll love it.
As Gen Con comes to a close, we look back on what we've accomplished here this week and we couldn't be more happy. This week represents to us how strong our community is, how much they support us, and how unbelievably willing they are to sacrifice their time, their sleep, and their sanity to insure that our company is successful.
I want to say thank you, personally and publicly, to our GMs here at Gen Con:
Chris, Christopher C., Christopher S., Clinton, Coridan, Craig, Dan R., Daniel M., Dave, Erik, Geoffrey, Greg A. V., Greg V., Heather, James, Jared, Jeremy, Joe B., Joe R., John, Liz, Lou, Mark, Marshall, Mat, Matthew, Michael K., Michael M., Michael W., Neil, Philippe-Antoine, Randy, Rob, Ron J., Ron L., Russ, Shane, Stefan, Steven, Tim C., Tim H., and Will
Brian Lewis, Christian Doyle, and Scott C. Brown from The Gamers: Dorkness Rising.
SOLD OUT!
Juxtaposition.
Paizo won EIGHT ENnies Awards—7 golds, and 1 silver. Best Publisher (Gold) is the one we are most proud of and you, our community, made that happen. Thank you. These are all of last night's ENnie Award winners.
Victory!
Daigle at Ascension of the Drow.
Lou Agresta does horrible, vile things to the participants of Ascension of the Drow.
Clinton J. Boomer—exile, rogue, sycophant. (And a cool dude!)
Ed Greenwood, Michael A. Stackpole, Paul S. Kemp, and James Lowder signing Worlds of their Own.
We did it: We sold out of our entire weekend's worth of stock of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beta Release in less than two days. Less than one day plus one hour, really. Ok, so less than 9 hours total. That's a lot o' copies.
We're also mowing through The Gamers: Dorkness Rising DVDs so fast that we had to have another very, very, very large quantity overnighted to us here at the show—a quantity that ends in three zeros.
Now that's I'm done showering you with OUR accolades and successes, let me show you YOUR successes:
Shot 1 of the Pathfinder Society Organized Play room on Friday afternoon looking from the main entrance. What you see there is a completely sold out slot—two full scenarios, 12 GMs each, 6 players per GM. I'd like to swear here in excited glee, but I'll keep it PG and say, "RAD!!!"
Shot 2 of the same room, same time, from the other entrance. The GMs that are standing are: Michael Kortes (in white and red, front), Knight Errant JR from the Paizo boards (in white t-shirt, middle), clight101 from the Paizo boards (just over JR's shoulder, in grey), SheKaKa67 from the Paizo boards (black hat, top left), Lilith from the boards (back right corner, green shirt), and Greg Vaughan (far right, green and white striped shirt). There are many GMs in this picture from the boards—these are the ones I can pick out of the picture.
Our community is awesome, and without our community's awesomeness, we wouldn't be around. That's YOUR success, community—being our support and our rock at shows like Gen Con (and stores, homes, and cons beyond).
Nearly sold out of Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beta. STOP. Line at the booth stretches to Miami. STOP. Rabid gamers seen occupying every seat in the Pathfinder Society Organized Play room. STOP. Nick Logue taken over by zombie urges. STOP.
Hey, here's some pictures!
The entrance to the Pathfinder Society Organized Play cavern.
Paizo Contributor Michael Kortes takes a much needed drink between rounds of intense Pathfinder combat during Silent Tide.
Nick Logue, taken over by zombie urges.
Silent Tide and The Hydra's Fang Incident off to a good start at 8:00 A.M.
Or, at least, it will almost have begun when some of you start reading this. It had not begun as of me writing it, but Gen Con starts today and the Paizo crew couldn't be more excited. For two days, we've been delicately crafting our booth out of aged cheddar while letting the succulent roast beef floor stew in its own juices. The racks, carefully constructed from licorice and gum drops, sit majestically beneath our towering and quite delicious pecan sign.
Yes, you can say Gen Con is tasty. And we can't wait for the feast to begin. We're serving Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beta and Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting, a new Flip-Mat, Flip-Mat: Basic, on the side, with Yetisburg, Key Largo, and The Gamers: Dorkness Rising for the second course. For dessert, we have Gary Gygax's lost final novel, Infernal Sorceress, and a brilliant short story compilation that gathers together a host of hobby gaming writers who have all written shared-world fiction (like R.A. Salvatore, Gary Gygax, and Michael A. Stackpole) called Worlds of Their Own. The delve is back with an all-new horror twist, we have the cast and crew of Dorkness Rising on hand for signings all day every day, and a mega-signing on Saturday with a handful of the authors from Worlds of Their Own.
And then there's Pathfinder Society. Nick and I prepared the room yesterday and we've had it simmering at a temperature of awesome for twelve hours. We can't wait to guide a bunch of hungry adventurers (just like us!) through many, many days of exploration and daring-do.
We hope to see you here. If not, start a party on the boards. Have a good time while we are.
Gen Con 2008 is roughly 22 days from the moment you read this blog. Paizo is unveiling more new products, hosting more new events, and cramming more game play into the Paizo booth than we have ever done at any convention. To give a taste of what you'll find at this year's supreme gaming event and to make those of you who can't make it seven flavors of raving envious, here's a full list of Paizo events we'll debut at the show:
Pathfinder Society Organized Play
Though most of the Pathfinder Society Organized Play events are totally sold out, there are still a few that have open slots. If you didn't sign up for these slots during pre-registration, no problem! Grab yourself two generic tickets per slot at the show and come ready to play. Keep an eye on the Pathfinder Society website for character creation guidelines that should be posted around August 1. The following slots still have availability:
Slot 2: Thursday 1 P.M. to 5 P.M.
Scenario #3: Murder on the Silken Caravan
Scenario #4: The Frozen Fingers of Midnight
Slot 7: Sunday 8 A.M. to 12 P.M.
Scenario #3: Murder on the Silken Caravan
Slot 8: Sunday 1 P.M. to 5 P.M.
Scenario #1: The Silent Tide
Scenario #2: The Hydra's Fang Incident
Pathfinder Adventure Path Preview: Ascension of the Drow
Though this event is completely sold out, we'd be remiss to not include it in the list of Paizo events at Gen Con. Ascension of the Drow is a Nicolas Logue-run Paizo mega-event that will determine the ruling house of a Drow city to be featured in Pathfinder #16. More than 100 players, Game Masters, and special guests will play a variety of Drow, demons, and maybe even gods as they battle for total supremacy.
Assault on Falcon's Hollow: a Paizo Delve
Last year's delve went smashingly (pun intended) and we knew for this year's delve that we'd need to line up an even greater number of monsters to raise our tallies of PC deaths and TPKs even higher! Come by Paizo Booth #2221 during dealer hall hours, grab a pre-generated Pathfinder Roleplaying Game character, and test out the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game's combat system while you protect the tiny village of Falcon's Hollow from a ravenous horde of horrendous undead. Accomplishing pre-determined goals will win you and your party keys. Those keys just might open our treasure chest, winning you fame, fortune, and some free stuff. Sponsored by Dwarven Forge.
Paizo Publishing Seminars
Judging by pre-registration numbers alone, we may very well "sell out" most of our seminars at Gen Con this year (they're free to attend for Gen Con attendees.) Pre-registration numbers are the highest attendance counts we've ever had for Gen Con seminars and the show hasn't even started yet!
Writing for Paizo
Thursday 5 P.M. to 6 P.M.
Marriott — Indiana Ballroom C
Sticking with 3.5: the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Future of Paizo
Friday 5 P.M. to 6 P.M.
Marriott — Indiana Ballroom C
Pathfinder Adventure Path Preview
Saturday 5 P.M. to 6 P.M.
Marriott — Indiana Ballroom C
Worlds of Their Own Author Signing
Many of today's best (and best-selling) fantasists got their start writing shared-world fiction supporting roleplaying games. Worlds of Their Own collects more than a dozen thrilling tales, providing an exciting overview of the original worlds and characters of authors who achieved their greatest fame writing stories they do not own. Worlds of Their Own presents an unprecedented sampler of fantasy and science-fiction adventure tales from some of the best-loved and best-known authors in the genre.
Worlds of Their Own authors Ed Greenwood, Paul S. Kemp, Michael A. Stackpole, Greg Stolze, and Editor James Lowder will be on-hand in our booth on Saturday, August 16, 2008 from 2:30 P.M. to 3:30 P.M. signing copies of Worlds of Their Own. Copies of the anthology will be available for sale in the booth.
Worlds of Their Own Mega-Signing
Saturday 2:30-3:30 PM
Paizo Booth #2221
The Gamers: Dorkness Rising Signings The Gamers: Dorkness Rising will finally be unleashed upon the world at Gen Con! Paizo is the exclusive hobby distributor for Dead Gentlemen Productions and we're pleased to host a full-time signing area in our booth throughout the show. If the dealer hall is open, someone involved with The Gamers: Dorkness Rising will be in our booth signing copies of the DVD. As of today, we expect the following folks to spend time in our booth:
Don Early, Producer
Matt Vancil, Writer / Director
Nathan Rice, Lodge / Sir Osric
Steve Wolbrecht, Composer
Scott Brown, Leo / Turk / Flynn the Fine
Christian Doyle, Gary / Fastidian / Luster
Matt DeMille, Production Designer / Art Director / Set Decorator
Brian Lewis, Cass / Rennard / Brother Silence
Jen Page, Luster (Female) / Professor
The Gamers: Dorkness Rising Signings
Thursday through Saturday 10 A.M. to 6 P.M.
Sunday 10 A.M. to 4 P.M.
Paizo Booth #2221
We hope to see you there!
(If you don't get the blog title, think Beatles. You're welcome for getting that song stuck in your head.)
We Paizonians have a tradition: every year at Gen Con we invent something. One year we invented Titanic Games. Another year we invented Pathfinder. Yet another year we invented trans-hyperdimensional quasiphasic proton pillows (patent pending). Last year, quite by accident, we invented Yetisburg.
The gathered Paizo editorial staff (Erik Mona, James Jacobs, Jason Bulmahn, F. Wesley Schneider, Jeremy Walker) and myself were playing rugby in the lobby of the incredibly expensive Burg de Yeti hotel in downtown Indianapolis. It was just after the second scrum when Jason threw his head back and howled, charging the ball carrier (Wes) with a vicious fervor that only a man as imposing as Jason can muster. One might say that, with his towering height and rampaging facial hair, he looked rather... yeti-like.
Wes, not wanting to be run over, retreated back behind his line and started rallying his team, pushing them toward the beastly Jason Bulmahn while shouting, "Don't be afraid of him! He's only seven feet tall!" Wes's teammates, Jeremy and James, took to Wes's orders like crows to a battlefield and started flinging all manner of object at Jason: silverware, bowling pins, a circa 1863 cannon ball, and one very angry muskrat. These distractions caused the hulking Bulmahn to pause just long enough for an errant Russian teapot to clonk him upside the head. He went down like a telephone pole, crashing terribly to earth and taking myself and the rest of our team with him.
As I struggled to extract myself from the pile of collapsed bodies, it hit me: this could be a game! It could be about our famous rugby match in the Burg de Yeti! And Jason would be represented as a yeti, with Wes as a famous rugby general and the rest of the guys as teams of brothers fighting against each other. Most importantly, I would need someone at least half as crazy as me to help me design it—Mike Selinker!
Yet another Gen Con. Yet another invention.
That's exactly how it happened. If anyone says that, as the Paizonians gathered for dinner one night, a very tired James Jacobs incorrectly heard an equally tired Erik Mona and then blurted out an incredulous "Yetisburg!?" in response, thus causing an idea I couldn't get out of my head, prompting me to tell Mike Selinker, and the two of us deciding we had to make this game—well, they're probably lying.
And that's the truth.
*Not a guarantee
Joshua J. Frost Yetisburg Co-Designer
Director of Sales & Marketing
Gen Con was a great show for Paizo, as usual, but this year had a new addition to our booth presence. It all started with a little contest around the office to determine who could design the most deadly dungeon chamber. While this idea was all well and good, we would need some "test" subjects to run through our gauntlet of pain, and thus the idea of running a delve at Gen Con was born.
Using the fabulous Master Maze 3D dungeon terrain pieces produced by Dwarven Forge, along with our Critical Hit Deck, Combat Pad, and item cards, we set out to murder as many unsuspecting visitors to our corner of the booth, and murder we did. Of course, we also gave out some great prizes to those who managed to succeed, including free production, discounts at the booth, and even some real swords.
Every unfortunate soul who met his end in the depths of Tirana's death trap became a red dot on our oversized delve maps, as a warning to others. Of course, that didn't seem to help much, as by the end of the show there were 255 red dots on the maps. Considering that we ran roughly 1000 players through the delve, a 1-in-4 death rate is pretty respectable (mental note: make next year deadlier). Of course, part of the fun was figuring out whose rooms caused the most deaths. Phil Lacefield's rooms certainly had the most kills as a whole, but no individual room had more kills than Publisher Erik Mona's doom-filled Vrock chamber. Congrats to Erik for having the least compassion toward poor player characters.
If you missed out on the delve, never fear. Many of its chambers were used as inspiration for GameMastery Module D2: Seven Swords of Sin, which should be hitting your store shelves any day now.
We'll have the scores for Paizo's Deadliest GenCon Delve Room contest up soon, but it's taking us some time to tabulate all the character deaths... it seems the majority of valiant PCs went down like field mice under a rotary mower. Until then, here's the first of several YouTube videos people took of fan favorite author and messageboard regular Nick Logue introducing delve players to his unique (and decidedly kinesthetic) brand of game mastering.
Gen Con has come to a close and we're a bizarre blend of happy and sad to see it stop. We're happy to finally be off our feet and sipping cold drinks by the pool and sad to leave behind a throng of interesting and fun readers, fans, and gamers as we make our way back home tomorrow.
Sunday is the day of last resort as attendees cram the show floor to buy everything that piqued their curiosity the days before. Our booth has seen steady business all day and the early indicators are that this will be the best Gen Con Paizo has ever had.
Paizo Publishing had the distinct honor to sponsor Nick Logue's Iron DM event last night. Yesterday's blog was written before the Iron DM finale and we were excited to present awards to the runners up as well as the grand prize to Iron Dungeon Master "Ancient Sensei," an amazing DM who came in second place last year (by two-tenths of a point on their grading scale) and just edged out the winner of the past two Iron DM events, Iron Dungeon Master "Dreads." This year's ingredients were river rapids, Rakshasas, and redemption; "Ancient Sensei" did not disappoint with his first-hour TPK followed by a trip to hell where his players had to redeem themselves to return to life. Paizo was proud to give the top three Iron DMs a pile of GameMastery goodness, including autographed copies of GameMastery Modules D1 and W1. Ancient Sensei also received Paizo's "secret" prizes which included a copy of D2: Seven Swords of Sin autographed by nearly every Paizo employee who wrote a room for the module, and a huge sword donated by KingofSwords.com. You can learn more about Nick Logue's Iron DM by visiting irondm.com. We can't wait to sponsor this event again next year!
I can hear the angelic sounds of gaming through my hotel room door so I must heed the call and hastily beat a path to dice rolling. I hope you've enjoyed my four-day look into the Gen Con experience from the eyes of Paizo Publishing—it was fun to put together, so I hope it was fun to read.
Until next year!
Joshua J. Frost
Director of Sales & Marketing
The three winners of this year's Iron DM (from left to right): two-time champion and this year's second place finisher, Iron Dungeon Master "Dreads;" this year's champion, Iron Dungeon Master "Ancient Sensei;" and third place finisher Iron Dungeon Master "Necessary Evil."
Nicolas Logue signs a copy of D1: Crown of the Kobold King.
Erik Mona waits for the results of a critical die roll as he runs the Seven Swords of Sin Dungeon Delve.
The Seven Swords of Sin Dungeon Delve was never without lines or a crowd of onlookers.
The race for Most Deaths is a close one! As of this morning, Customer Service Enforcer Cosmo Eisele and Paizo Publisher Erik Mona were tied for the most player characters killed in their rooms.
Board #1 as of this morning. The dots are where PCs died.
Board #2 as of this morning.
Paizo's youngest fans were on hand to demo Stonehenge: An Anthology Board Game.
Steve Greer expounds on the importance of good dice-rolling while exploring a dungeon.
James, Erik, and Wes talk about Pathfinder and Paizo's upcoming Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting.
Today was another hectic day in the booth! Saturday has the reputation as the busiest day of the con and today was no exception. Paizo's booth was buzzing with the news of our awards last night at the ENnies—we took home two gold medals for GameMastery Flip-Mat: Tavern (the second year in a row a Flip-Mat has won a gold ENnie) and the Savage Tide Player's Guide free download and our partner company, Open Mind Games, took home a much-deserved silver ENnie for the awesome GameMastery Combat Pad.
We also had Gary Gygax back on hand with us signing The Anubis Murders, as well as Larry Elmore signing the final print issue of Dragon, and our own Paizo editors signing their works as well. James, Wes, Jason, and Jeremy signed a good deal of autographs and it was nice to see the readers and fans patting these guys on the back for their amazing work on Dragon, Dungeon, and Paizo's GameMastery and Pathfinder lines.
Today was also Nicolas Logue's Iron DM. Nick runs this event every year and its reputation as one awesome gaming experience has increased its attendance year-over-year. Iron DM saw 15 Dungeon Masters and over 130 players this year. If you're not familiar with the event, Iron DM is modeled after the Iron Chef television series: DMs get one hour to write an entire adventure using three "ingredients" that Nick reveals at the last second. Once the adventure is written, the DMs find their randomly assigned table of players and begin. The event is often interrupted by mini-games called Player Olympics, wherein the players must compete table-against-table to win prizes and fame. At the end of the day, the Iron DM who receives the best review scores from his or her players wins the crown. Paizo Publishing was proud to sponsor this event, and we gave away buckets of GameMastery items as prizes. I have a video of Nick introducing one of the Iron DMs that I'll upload to YouTube when I return to the office. Nick is most definitely a character and his Iron DM event was a blast.
Tomorrow is our final day at Gen Con and, though my tired feet wish its end, it would be great if the gaming and fun could continue on for another four days.
And now, pictures!
James Jacobs, Erik Mona, and Jason Bulmahn show off Paizo's two gold ENnies after last night's awards ceremony.
Ryan and Amber from Open Mind Games show off their silver ENnie.
Dragon #359 cover artist Larry Elmore and Erik Mona pause for a picture during Larry's magazine signing.
Paizo is always proud to host the folks from Dead Gentlemen Productions in our booth! These fine folks are (from the left): Jen Page from The Gamers: Dorkness Rising (Female Luster), Steve Wolbrecht from The Gamers: Dorkness Rising (Nodwick), Don Early (Executive Producer of The Gamers: Dorkness Rising) and Chris Dupenthaler from The Gamers (Mark the Berserker) and The Gamers: Dorkness Rising (Mark).
Paizo's prize table for Nick Logue's Iron DM contest.
Nick diligently copying down deeply personal information about an Iron DM so that he can embarrass and crush him later.
Gary Gygax returns!
This time, he came with a HUGE line! (That's Paizo's Jeremy Walker standing behind him.)
The second day of any four-day convention is typically referred to as the "slow day." Retailers and manufacturers complain that nearly every year their business is down, the crowds are down, and Friday is generally a light day. Eager four-day attendees are typically seen swarming the Dealer Hall on Thursday to get the awesome Gen Con exclusives (such as Paizo's alternate Pathfinder #1 cover) and those folks are more inclined to game and rest on Friday. Then the two-day crowd hits with the four-day crowd on Saturday and the show floor turns into a zoo.
Today was slow for us, but we're only able to say so because yesterday was such a huge hit. Pathfinder and GameMastery Modules continue to do very well and I'm pleased to report that our first three Planet Stories novels (The Anubis Murders, City of the Beast, and Black God's Kiss) are selling very well and their positive reception has been exciting to see.
Speaking of The Anubis Murders, Gary Gygax was on hand this afternoon for 90 minutes signing copies of his book and generally anything people asked him to sign. "Keep on the Borderlands" got several Gygax-o-graphs as did the original hardcover Monster Manual, current editions of the core system, badges, convention on-site books—you name it. Someone jokingly asked Gary to sign their baby and he would've done so, graciously, had they not told him it was a joke. He was a nice guy and it was a real honor to meet him. One quick story about his session in the booth today: a guy walked up, looked at his book and said, "Hmm, Anubis Murders, I'm not familiar with your work. I'll have to go look it up." Gary gave him a stern, reproachful look and said, "Try Dungeons & Dragons." Needless to say, the guy looked very sheepish as he fled the scene.
We also had the pleasure of Wayne Reynolds' presence in our booth today, signing copies of the poster included with Dragon #359. He modeled Pathfinder #1 for us, as you'll see below.
The number one question on everyone's mind, of course, was "What does Paizo think of 4th Edition?" We heard this often and our response was the same each time: we're excited to see it, but we know just as much about it as you do. I can report that WotC intends to have an OGL with 4th Edition and that Paizo's eager to learn more, but that does not put us closer to a decision—it only puts us in need of more research and discussion. Rest assured, the moment we make a decision we'll scream it to the four corners of the multiverse.
And now, pictures!
A beholder watches over the crowd as they prepare to hear WotC's 4E announcement.
Jungle James!
Eric Boyd says farewell to the final print version of Dragon magazine.
F. Wesley Schneider and Michael Kortes talk about Paizo's products.
Erik Mona, Gary Gygax, and Greg Vaughan.
Amber Scott (Medesha on the messageboards) holding up her very own copy of Paizo's Gen Con exclusive Pathfinder #1.
The following is a picture-by-picture example of the many forms of the martial arts employed by the mighty and unstoppable Nicolas Logue as he GMs the Seven Swords of Sin Dungeon Delve.
Rhinoceros Style.
Chicken Claw!
Bear Growl.
Dyn-o-mite. (I recorded five minutes of Nick running the delve. It'll be on YouTube and this blog very soon.)
Tim Hitchcock, Nicolas Logue, and Michael Kortes talking about GameMastery and Pathfinder.
The incredibly talented Wayne Reynolds modeling the covers he sketched and painted.
Jason Bulmahn demos "Stonehenge Roulette," the game he wrote for the Stonehenge Library.
Tomorrow: Larry Elmore stops by to sign the final Dragon cover!
It's broiler hot, the humidity makes you feel like you're walking through a warm pond, and the bodies are stacked so close in the hall when someone trips in aisle 14 the domino effects doesn't stop until aisle 37.
And that's awesome!
We're having one of our best first days at a con ever and it's in no small part due to the crush of Paizo readers and fans that have mobbed our booth to look at and purchase Pathfinder, to play in our Seven Swords of Sin Dungeon Delve, or to watch the latest Dead Gentlemen video. Our booth is busy busy busy and we love it!
Of course, the con is buzzing about the Wizards announcement to take place at 6:30 P.M. Eastern tonight. We're all aware by now that they're announcing 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons tonight and the Paizo staff plans to be in full attendance to usher in the news. Many of you have asked us, "Will Pathfinder/Modules/Paizo/etc switch to 4th edition?" Our response is this: We haven't seen 4th Edition, but we feel that we have a good gauge of our fan base and if we think it's something they will like and support then it's something we will like and support. We always take our readers' and fans' feedback seriously and we'll take feedback on this potential transition doubly so. We hope to have more information soon and we'll let everyone know the moment we've come to a decision.
Now, pictures!
F. Wesley Schneider prepares to kill willing players at our Seven Swords of Sin Dungeon Delve.
Paizo's Seven Swords of Sin Dungeon Delve is sponsored by KingofSwords.com. Naturally, that means they gave us seven swords to give away to seven lucky delvers!
A quick shot of the Paizo booth straight down the middle.
James Jacobs poses with a mysterious figure from the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path.
Paizo.com messageboard regular Lilith (wearing the light grey shirt) prepares to lead Kill Doctor Lucky first-timers on a quest to kill a sorry old man.
James Jacobs and F. Wesley Schneider hold court as they enlighten the uninitiated about the glories of Pathfinder.
An ever-moving and easily blurred Jason Bulmahn rolls the dice to determine one unlucky player's fate in our Seven Swords of Sin Dungeon Delve.
Tomorrow: Gygax, pictures from the 4E announcement (we hope!), and more!
Gen Con is always a big deal for us here at Paizo, but this year is even more momentous than most. With many people getting their first chance to pick up and check out copies of Pathfinder (with an alternate Gen Con-exclusive cover!), Seven Swords of Sin, Elements of Power Item Cards, and the first few books in the Planet Stories line (from such authors as Michael Moorcock, C. L. Moore, and Gen Con Guest of Honor Gary Gygax, who will be signing copies at our booth), this convention will be our first chance to show off all of Paizo's new ventures at once. So along with a boatload of shiny new products, what kinds of things can you expect to see starting Thursday?
Signings: Want your chance to personally meet industry legends like Gary Gygax, Larry Elmore, Wayne Reynolds, and our own cast of Pathfinder and GameMastery authors? Paizo has you covered!
Seminars and Events: Learn about everything Paizo's going to be doing in the upcoming year, design your own Stonehenge game, or play in game demos ranging from Kill Dr. Lucky to Pathfinder roleplaying blocks run by our editors and authors.
Delves: Bring your friends or join a party and play your way through a chunk of deadly 3D dungeon based on Seven Swords of Sin and run by a crack team of expert GMs. Do well, and you just might win awesome prizes from Paizo—including one of several actual swords!
The ENnies: Show your support for Paizo at one of gaming's most prestigious awards shows! Will our proud convention warriors end the night with glory or defeat, champagne or stale Mountain Dew? Only time will tell!
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