Winter Witch Revisited

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Illustration by Ryan Portillo

It's the end of the summer, and while it's not winter quite yet, we got you a frosty gift. When we recently released Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Paths of Prestige there were some questions on the messageboards regarding the winter witch prestige class and how it worked with hexes and spells and some of the other goodies the prestige class gets. Since we're gearing up for the Reign of Winter Adventure Path, we decided we'd revisit the winter witch, make a few clarifications, and present you fine folks with the result. We wanted to get it cleared up so people can play the class in the Adventure Path, but don't think we're being completely altruistic—we really wanted to make sure that the White Witches of Irrisen provide a significant challenge to pesky adventurers making trouble and poking their nose in their nation's frozen business!

Download the New Winter Witch Spread! (1.2MB zip/PDF)

Adam Daigle
Developer

Remembering Season 2 and the Assignment of New Venture-Captains

Monday, April 23, 2012

Illustration by Ryan Portillo

One of my top goals from day one has been to see a facelift to the Pathfinder Society home page, and the creation of various sub-pages that will link to it. Though I can’t provide much details of what the final results will look like yet, I can say that one of the areas it will include is a section on the history of Pathfinder Society Organized Play.

It is important that new players can join the Society at any time and look back at what has happened in regard to the storyline from previous seasons. At the same time, veteran players will be able reflect back on what happened during a season they participated in. This is especially true as we move forward with the revamp of faction missions and season-long faction goals having lasting effects on future storylines, the viability of the factions’ existences, and rewards that characters in certain factions can earn. The first goal to accomplish this was a recap of Season Two, Year of the Shadow Lodge.

I met with Wolfgang Baur at Neon Con last November to discuss how we could get more Pathfinder, specifically Pathfinder Society, into Kobold Quarterly. When I pitched the idea of a Season Two recap in the spring issue, KQ #21, he seemed excited. I reached out to Nicholas Gray, a very devoted player I knew from my days in Atlanta, and he agreed to write up a summation that included the major plot points from the scenarios that revolved around the Shadow Lodge insurgency. Once the summer issue of Kobold Quarterly is released, and the new Pathfinder Society home page goes live, this article will also appear on the history section. A big thank you goes out to both Wolfgang and Nick for making the idea become a reality. You will also be able to find a recap of Season 3, Year of the Ruby Phoenix, shortly after Gen Con on the same page.

Switching focus from the history of Pathfinder Society to the future, in the past 4 to 6 weeks, I have assigned six new Venture-Captains to the Society to help grow PFS in their regions. Some were announced on the messageboards. Others have recently been assigned. Regardless, I wanted to write a few words to make sure they receive the recognition and thanks they deserve for stepping up and taking the reigns of PFS in their regions.

The two newest Venture-Captains to be assigned are James Engle in Cleveland, Ohio and James Hebert in New Orleans, LA.

James Engle will not only will be focusing his efforts on the Cleveland area, but he will also be helping coordinate the growth of Pathfinder Society in Canton and Akron as well. He advised me during his interview process that he would help out Toledo if there were a need.

James Hebert will expand outside of New Orleans and reach out to Lafayette and Lake Charles to the west, and Biloxi, Mississippi to the east. He also advised a trip to Baton Rouge may not be out of the question if there were interested stores or players looking to set establish games as well. Although it nearly killed me to put a Saints fan into a Venture-Captain position, I have faith that James can rise above the normal expectations of Saints fans and do a good job with Pathfinder Society. ;-)

We also added Michael McNerney in Columbus, Ohio, Karim Majeri in Paris, France, and Daniel Luckett in Western Michigan. Finally, we promoted Venture-Lieutenant Clint Blome to full Venture-Captain status of the Omaha, Nebraska region.

You have my thanks, and I’m sure the appreciation of your local players, for all of your efforts in coordinating Pathfinder Society.

Mike Brock
Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator

A Dedicated Follower of Factions

Monday, April 16, 2012

One of the defining characteristics of the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign that separates it from other organized play programs is the faction system. A few weeks ago, Paizo Publisher Erik Mona, Campaign Coordinator Mike Brock, and I spent an obscene amount of time in a few very long meetings really digging into factions to determine what worked with their current implementation, what was lacking, and how we could improve them, and in doing so improve the quality of the Pathfinder Society campaign as a whole. We came up with a lot of great ideas, and Mike and I have hinted at them in recent weeks on the messageboards. Well, today I'm going to pull back the curtain a little bit and reveal a few of the changes we have in store in a bit more detail.

First, starting in Season 4, all 10 factions will have a specific goal they hope to achieve over the course of the year. In general, we'll be moving away from the original metaplot of the factions vying for control of Absalom, as the campaign has expanded to incorporate the entire Inner Sea region to a much larger extent than was anticipated in Season 0. These goals will be clear and will be disseminated to all members of a given faction by the faction heads at the start of the season. Make sure all your Pathfinder Society characters are registered on paizo.com and that your email address and privacy settings are updated before August so you'll be sure to get any missives your faction leader may send. All Pathfinder Society scenario designers will receive an overview of the factions' plans in order to incorporate opportunities to achieve these goals into their respective scenarios.

Note that I said opportunities and not missions? Faction missions aren't going away, and you'll still get faction missives from your faction head at the start of a scenario. But except in specific cases where necessitated by the circumstances, faction missions won't just be a specific skill check you need to make or else fail the faction mission. They'll be more general, and tied to the overall faction goal for the season. While we'll make sure there's an opportunity presented in each scenario for members of each faction to put forward their factions' goals (and any specific tasks suggested in the scenario's faction handouts), we'll also be allowing for more player creativity.

For example, Andoran's goal for a season (and this isn't their goal next season) might be to bring slavers to justice. In a particular scenario, the PCs may encounter a merchant in Osirion whom they can discover has ties to slavers. Andoran faction PCs who discover this can then deal with the guy as they see fit, or if they miss this clue, they can use their time in the markets in a later encounter to put together a list of slavers operating out in the open in the markets of Sothis. In both cases, the PCs are helping their faction toward the overall season goal, and while we will present an opportunity to do so without the need to go off the rails, PCs will be rewarded for taking the initiative and going beyond these suggestions.

Another hot topic of discussion has been the so-called "faction war," in which each faction competes with the rest to be the winner of a given season. We're revising this faction-versus-faction paradigm, instead measuring each faction's success against its own goals to achieve varying degrees of success. Thus, a faction whose members get all their possible prestige in a given season achieve 100% success, and the results of their actions will play out in the ongoing, unfolding plot of the campaign. Similarly, a faction that struggles a bit and only gets 80% of its potential prestige might not achieve its ultimate goal but will certainly see the results of its many successes. Finally, a faction that only reaches the lowest threshold of success might see in-world consequences of its failures, which may determine the faction's goals the following season (perhaps calling into question the faction's very existence).

We've got some pretty deep and (we think) fun plots developing for all 10 factions, and the authors of our four Gen Con scenarios are already working to incorporate those threads into their adventures. Stay tuned this summer for more information from your faction heads about what your PCs are going to be working toward in the next year.

Mark Moreland
Developer

Illustrations by Ryan Portillo

The Future of Pathfinder Society Organized Play, Part XII: Power through Political Manipulation

Monday, June 6, 2011

Since the Age of Enthronement, no nation in the Inner Sea has had as wide-reaching and influential an empire as the kingdom of Taldor. Sadly, decadence and overconfidence led to the empire's relatively swift decline centuries ago, as vassal after vassal broke free from the crown. Despite its waning influence worldwide and constant internal political strife, Taldor is one of the five nations most strategically poised to take control of Absalom from within. Using the same tactics of espionage, sabotage, blackmail, and deception employed by Taldan nobility for millennia, agents of this political faction hope to manipulate the nobility and citizenry of Absalom to recognize the nation's rightful place as the natural ruler of humankind throughout the region.

Illustration by Ryan Portillo

The Taldor faction has, since the very beginning of Pathfinder Society Organized Play, been in a near-dead heat with the Qadira faction, a fitting rivalry given the nations' longstanding feud. In the end, we decided that the inability of either nation to pull ahead and truly challenge Osirion or Andoran for the top spot on the faction ladder meant something needed to change. So we shook things up...

Taldor isn't going anywhere, but the faction will be led by a new political manipulator in place of Baron Jacquo Dalsine (who many pointed out over the years was so uninvolved that he never even bothered to spell his name correctly when he signed it on faction missives). Lady Gloriana Morilla, pictured here, is also a member of Taldor's thriving noble hierarchy, but she's somewhat less concerned with looking good and throwing a good party than she is with restoring Taldor to its long-lost glory. She knows that the longer the nation rests on its imaginary laurels, the more its influence and gods-decreed dominance slip away from the Grand Prince and his loyal subjects. Expect the missions given to Taldan characters to focus more on the political intrigue that defines the faction starting in Season 3, though characters will still be encouraged to look good and make grand spectacles of themselves while carrying them out.

Lady Gloriana and all 10 faction leaders are featured in the upcoming Pathfinder Society Field Guide, with a headshot of each as well as a brief overview of their backstories, motivations, and personalities. We'll also be featuring them as prominent NPCs in adventures set in Absalom, so faction members will get the chance to directly interact with the very people who dictate so much of their adventuring careers.

Come back next week for a recap of PaizoCon 2011, the new scenarios released there, and the exclusive events attendees will have the option of playing. After that, we'll dive headlong into the first of the new factions to be officially announced. This is where it gets good!

Mark Moreland
Developer

The Future of Pathfinder Society Organized Play Part X: Dominance Through Trade

Monday, May 23, 2011

The western tip of the vast, continent-spanning Padishah Empire of Kelesh, the Satrapy of Qadira serves as the gateway between the wealth and resources of eastern Casmaron and the eager ports and markets of the Inner Sea. Its singular position as the funnel through which Casmaron's wealth f lows has painted Qadira's outlook on the world, and from the richest trade prince of Katheer to the lowliest caravan driver of the vast southern deserts, Qadirans recognize that the way to true power and influence is through trade and economic dominance. And no single city or nation is more strategically placed to rule the markets of the entire region than Absalom, which is why the satrap has invested substantial resources and his best agents in ensuring that Qadira gains control over trade in Absalom and—shortly thereafter—the entirety of Avistan and northern Garund.

The weekend is over and now there's profit to be made! And that's Qadira's bag. In many ways, it's the most accessible faction for those of us living in the real world, because, you know, we all understand how much power comes with money. It is nice, after all, to be able to buy the things you need and to charge what you think you're worth for the services you provide to others.

Illustration by Ryan Portillo

So we already talked about a few changes coming to some of the other factions, but Qadira is one of the two getting the largest shakeup. I don't want to spoil anything, especially in light of two new scenarios coming out later this week, but I will say this: the change is going to take place "on screen." So once people have played the scenario in which the proverbial stuff hits the fan, use this thread to discuss it. Just use spoiler tags, or at least charge your fellow Pathfinders a fee for the information you possess. After all, what true Qadiran wouldn't profit when profit can be had?

And you're likely wondering who the mysterious stranger is in this blog post. Well, I'm not going to say. At least not for free...

Come back next week for a look at how to get ahead in the Pathfinder Society, or how to take your time and enjoy the scenery a bit more. Next Monday's blog is likely to make a lot of players very happy.

Mark Moreland
Developer

Illustrations by Jared Blando and Ryan Portillo. Widescreen version here.

Anybody Have a Mirror Handy?

May 20, 2011

One of my favorite movies as a kid had an awesome medusa put on the silver screen by Ray Harryhausen, a true master of physical special effects magic. The medusa in this wallpaper, from Tomb of the Iron Medusa reminds me a lot of that iconic one and now I really want to make a fighter with a divine heritage to chop her head off, in order to win the hand of the princess.

What's your iconic medusa memory?

Hyrum.
Marketing and Organized Play Manager

The Future of Pathfinder Society Organized Play, Part VIII: In the Secrets of the Past Come Tomorrow's Triumphs

Monday, May 9, 2011

Osirion is among the oldest human nations of the Inner Sea region—its founding marked the end of the Age of Anguish. Over its long history, it has experienced centuries of incredible power as well as generations of subjugation under foreign rule, as its ancient might was lost to desert sands and forgotten with the passage of time. With ambitions of once again being the most influential and powerful nation in the Inner Sea region, Osirion knows that Absalom is its largest competitor for the position. So while the nations of Andoran, Cheliax, Qadira, and Taldor battle among themselves for control of the City at the Center of the World, Osirion delves deep into its history to resurrect the secrets of the past. As a sleeping giant, it amasses its power to swoop down on its unsuspecting enemies when they have weakened one another, using the strength of history to secure its future dominance.

Whether it's the faction's Egyptian inspirations or it's unassuming modus operandi, Osirion has been one of the most popular factions since the earliest days of Pathfinder Society Organized Play. In many ways, this faction's ideals fall most closely in line with the baseline mission of the Pathfinder Society, and that's not changing with Season 3.

Back in the fall, we tried something new: We started introducing faction leaders as NPCs and plot elements within scenarios beyond just signing their names at the bottoms of faction mission handouts. And we began with Amenopheus, the Sapphire Sage, head of the Osirion faction. As far back as PaizoCon 2010, there were hints that not all was as it seemed with the Sapphire Sage, and with the onset of the Shadow Lodge conflict, his part in the overall metaplot was revealed.

I know not everyone has played the scenarios in question, so I won't post any spoilers (and I ask all comments below to use spoiler tags as necessary) but I will say that observant Osirian players may have noticed their missions are coming from some lowly scribe named Otoneraphim of late. The subplot with Amenopheus will be resolved at PaizoCon in the two-part Tier 1–7 series Shadow's Last Stand, so you've got a little over a month to catch up on past installments in this story before the "season finale".

As part of the increase in metaplot within the campaign, more venture captains and faction heads will play larger roles in scenarios during the Year of the Ruby Phoenix, and many of the faction-specific metaplots will involve their respective faction heads. I'm eager to hear what people think of this, and specifically how you have or haven't liked the way we used Amenopheus as a major player this season. Stop by the Pathfinder Society section of the messageboards and make your opinions heard!

Next week we'll continue looking at some of the campaign rule changes in store for next season, specifically those dealing with prestige. The following Monday, we'll look at another of the 10 factions, but which one depends on you. We're just a few fans away from hitting 4,000 followers on Facebook; if you, the fans, can spread the word and help us add 250 new fans before the end of the week, I'll move one of the five new factions up in line and make it the following week's blog topic, revealing its symbol as an even earlier preview.

Mark Moreland
Developer