A Wild PaizoCon Appears!

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

I hope you're making the trek to the Emerald City this weekend for PaizoCon! (Current weather: 63 degrees and partly sunny. Rain Friday, sunny the rest of the weekend, highs around 65.) Below, a primer on Adventure Card Game goings-on at the show.

Season the Runelords Marchs (Mays?) Onward

PaizoCon attendees will get the opportunity to play Season of the Runelords all the way up through Adventure 3: Into the Mountain and will even get a sneak peek at Adventure 4: Abjurant Halls of Envy. I just wrote the mechanics for a scenario currently called "Look! A Monkey!" which I expect to be the start of a long and extended death-glare aimed in my direction by you, the fans. Just remember that you're the ones who went into something called the Abjurant Halls of Envy, and complaints can be delivered directly to me. I'm the one who looks like Mike Selinker.

While I'm on the subject of Adventure 4, I have more happy news. I've secured the talents of the brilliant Amanda Hamon Kunz to help with story design for the rest of Season of the Runelords. Amanda's design work has lately been featured in books including Ultimate Intrigue and Distant Shores, and her writing work shines in Cheliax: The Infernal Empire. I'm ecstatic to have a new story collaborator for this season, and if we're very nice to her she might join me again for later seasons. (Previous story collaborators have included Brian Campbell, Dave Gross, Keith Richmond, and Mike Selinker.)

Oh, and I'm bringing advance copies of June's Witch and August's Gunslinger Class Decks for folks to play with. Drop by the ACG section of the PFS ballroom and game with us!

Adventure Card Game Open Playtest

Those of you lucky enough to get into this lottery event will get to help me hone one of the quarterfinal rounds of this year's Adventure Card Game Open, which will take place at Gen Con. What you see there cannot be unseen, because if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also. But mostly because that's how human eyes work.

We Be Goblins! You Be Goblins! Everybody Be Goblins!

Another lottery event! This time, ACG players and forum rock stars cartmanbeck and Theryon Stormrune have put together a custom set of scenarios to play through inspired by the storylines of the We Be Goblins series of Free RPG Day adventures. Theryon and I will be running your tables, so I hope you bring your best goblin game faces. I also hope Theryon brings a certain culinary treat, but I don't know if those can travel cross-country or not.

Learn to Play Mummy's Mask

We've just received the happy news that our Mummy's Mask demo decks will be at the show! Stop by the ACG section of the PFS ballroom for a 30-45 minute demo. You can learn to play the game, get a sneak peek at the characters, and earn a free deck upgrade for a PFSACG character (one per player per season; this demo counts as Season of the Runelords).

Grand Convocation Scavenger Hunt

PaizoCon presents lots of great ways to play games and interact with Paizo fans and staff, but where does one begin? Why not participate in the Grand Convocation scavenger hunt, which rewards you with a special benefit in the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild and Adventure Card Guild organized play programs for every highlight you hit? Play games, meet staff, and walk away with new ways to experience Golarion! Pick up your scavenger hunt sheet at the Pathfinder Society headquarters in the Grand Ballroom.

Something Punny About Seminars

The "What's New in the Adventure Card Game" panel is Saturday at 2 pm, and Mike, Vic and I—and perhaps some other Lone Sharks—will be there to answer your questions and make up wildly improbable stories about card design and development. We'll also have a little something to say about Mummy's Mask at the PaizoCon Preview Banquet Saturday night. And I'll try and sneak into the "Pathfinder Society Q&A" on Sunday at 2:00 PM in case anyone has questions about PFSACG matters. Finally, Obsidian Entertainment will be doing a "Pathfinder Adventures" panel Sunday at 11:00 AM that will be worth your time. (Everyone feel free to ask those panelists when Hook Mountain Massacre is coming out so that I stop getting that question in email.)

Recurring Art Thing

Hooray! It's time for more excellent art from the PACG archives! From the upcoming Goblins Fight! Deck, the Animalbane Crossbow +2.


Illustration by Litos Lopez Rodriguez

Until next time, Pathfinders—see you at the show!

Tanis O'Connor
Adventure Card Game Designer

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Tags: Adventure Card Guild Community Conventions Litos Lopez Rodriguez PaizoCon PaizoCon 2016 Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Pathfinder Society
Contributor

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Its ... its like someone chopped the head off of a ratfolk and stuck it to a crossbow.

Its so beautiful....

Liberty's Edge

I might have imagined one strapped to the bottom of it with a look of pure terror, but I guess that's me.


Woo! I look forward to all the new toys :)

Silver Crusade

I'm extra looking forward to PaizoCon now that I know I can see some Mummy's Mask cards!

Sadly, the cupcakes will not be making it. They send their regrets.

Grand Lodge

A wild PaizoCon appears! It is on the wrong coast!

I'm using up my travel cash and vacation time on GenCon this year. Once I've paid off those credit cards bills (and gotten married, and bought a house), then maybe we'll make it out to PaizoCon.


4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

That lineup sounds quite awesome this year!
Sadly, I won't be able to make it.
Happily, it's because I'll be getting married this weekend.
Hopefully, our talk of attending PaizoCon as future wedding anniversaries comes to pass. :)

Adventure Card Game Designer

Drunk Tanis wrote:
Just remember that you're the ones who went into something called the Abjurant Halls of Envy, and complaints can be delivered directly to me. I'm the one who looks like Mike Selinker.

I love it when Tanis writes blogs while hopped up on the good cold medicine.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

3 people marked this as a favorite.
First World Bard wrote:

That lineup sounds quite awesome this year!

Sadly, I won't be able to make it.
Happily, it's because I'll be getting married this weekend.
Hopefully, our talk of attending PaizoCon as future wedding anniversaries comes to pass. :)

And you didn't try to have your wedding *at* PaizoCon?

Grand Lodge

Eliandra Giltessan wrote:

I'm extra looking forward to PaizoCon now that I know I can see some Mummy's Mask cards!

Sadly, the cupcakes will not be making it. They send their regrets.

She's the mad engineer behind the tasty treats of iconic origins.

Grand Lodge

Mike Selinker wrote:
I love it when Tanis writes blogs while hopped up on the good cold medicine.

NOOOOOOOO! Say it isn't so, Mike.


Didn't Tanis get concrud after PaizoCon last year? Or was that PAX?


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Vic Wertz wrote:
And you didn't try to have your wedding *at* PaizoCon?

Sarah's from Wisconsin, my family is in New Jersey, and our friends are in Boston and New York. Seattle may be a wonderful place, but it isn't exactly convenient in the "getting there" sense for our guests.

That said, I will be getting married with a snazzy Pathfinder-inspired wedding band.


First World Bard wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
And you didn't try to have your wedding *at* PaizoCon?

Sarah's from Wisconsin, my family is in New Jersey, and our friends are in Boston and New York. Seattle may be a wonderful place, but it isn't exactly convenient in the "getting there" sense for our guests.

That said, I will be getting married with a snazzy Pathfinder-inspired wedding band.

May the blessing of Calistria be on you.

Yes I know, Calistria may not be the first goddess you think of to bless a wedding but hey, cannot dispel my own RPG character second life totally :-)

Grand Lodge

Any plans for a PaizoCon East someyear? I'd also accept a transcontinental bullet train.

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

Oh man, I'd be all over a PaizoCon East.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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While we've licensed the PaizoCon name to a couple of fan-run conventions in Europe and Australia, what we do here in Seattle can really only be done in Seattle. (So keep your hopes up for that Hyperloop!)


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I'd even love a PaizoCon Lite East. Obviously with less ease for employees to be in the east, you'd have to lessen the seminars and what not, but even just a 2 day lots of PACG and RPG with a few Paizo and Loneshark Employees would be fantastic. And I think Delaware would be the perfect state for such a thing.

Grand Lodge

Hawkmoon269 wrote:
I'd even love a PaizoCon Lite East. Obviously with less ease for employees to be in the east, you'd have to lessen the seminars and what not, but even just a 2 day lots of PACG and RPG with a few Paizo and Loneshark Employees would be fantastic. And I think Delaware would be the perfect state for such a thing.

With some advanced warning, I'd go to PaizoConLiteEast (PCLE, pronounced Pickle?) in Deleware (or, indeed, the DC Metro area, even more ideally).

Grand Lodge

Hawkmoon269 wrote:
I'd even love a PaizoCon Lite East. Obviously with less ease for employees to be in the east, you'd have to lessen the seminars and what not, but even just a 2 day lots of PACG and RPG with a few Paizo and Loneshark Employees would be fantastic. And I think Delaware would be the perfect state for such a thing.

Oh, the joys of tax-free shopping...

Adventure Card Game Designer

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Vic Wertz wrote:
(So keep your hopes up for that Hyperloop!)

I'm on board for anything co-designed by Brogan "K-Bro" BamBrogan.

Grand Lodge

Mike Selinker wrote:
I'm on board for anything co-designed by Brogan "K-Bro" BamBrogan.

Is it the mustache? I think we'll all understand if it's the mustache...


If you plan a PaizoCon in Paris one day, I'll provide the Promo-Only-Premium-Platinum-All-Inclusive-First-Class Superior Masterwork Goblin Catapult +3 of Soft Landing to get you there.

Well as long as MyFly doesn't steal it before.

Adventure Card Game Designer

James McKendrew wrote:
Mike Selinker wrote:
I'm on board for anything co-designed by Brogan "K-Bro" BamBrogan.
Is it the mustache? I think we'll all understand if it's the mustache...

It's the *power* of the mustache.

Grand Lodge

Mike Selinker wrote:
It's the *power* of the mustache.

Can this be a Promo Blessing?


Frencois wrote:

If you plan a PaizoCon in Paris one day, I'll provide the Promo-Only-Premium-Platinum-All-Inclusive-First-Class Superior Masterwork Goblin Catapult +3 of Soft Landing to get you there.

Well as long as MyFly doesn't steal it before.

Does it have a promo tag on it?

Grand Lodge

James McKendrew wrote:
Mike Selinker wrote:
It's the *power* of the mustache.
Can this be a Promo Blessing?

I believe Abadar is known to occasionally manifest with a rather fine mustache.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Are these 'Seasons of ...' ever going to be printed as a set in either soft/hard cover format? PDF's just aren't my cup of tea. I've just bought the Season of Shackles card set and I would ideally like to work off of a nice printed materials in book form. I have been holding off on purchasing the PDFs for some time hoping that a printed edition would become available.

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

Beagle wrote:
Are these 'Seasons of ...' ever going to be printed as a set in either soft/hard cover format? PDF's just aren't my cup of tea. I've just bought the Season of Shackles card set and I would ideally like to work off of a nice printed materials in book form. I have been holding off on purchasing the PDFs for some time hoping that a printed edition would become available.

I highly doubt they'll do printed versions of these for the same reason that they don't do printed versions of Pathfinder Society Scenarios... not enough people would buy them to make it worth their energy.


You could buy the pdfs and have them printed and even bound if you so desire. See this FAQ.


Individually printed I agree, but what about printing the complete season as a whole, single printed book. These 'seasons' effectively double the life of the base sets which people have already invested in. Surely there is a market here of existing owners of RotR/SaS/WotR/MM base sets plus add-on packs. With the inclusion of the Season of ... printable card sets the longevity of the game is increased, making it worth investing in a printed book to accompany the relevant printed 'season' card set. Also each 'season' book could include Card Guild setup & play instructions.


@Hawkmoon269
So could I buy all of the PDFs and ask a 3rd party company to print all of these and bind then into a single book? If yes, do you or anyone else know where this could be achieved (it sounds costly and quality could be an issue)?

I still think that Paizo is missing something here, this is a good product that isn't being marketed/made available. At some point in the future there is a complete new adventure waiting for every owner of the game, these 'seasons' allow gamers to get more value out of products they have already heavily invested in.


Correct. If you are in the US, most office supply stores have print services. So Staples or other such places can do it for you. You could also try such places as the UPS Store, which have print services.

They may want you to offer proof that you are allowed to print it, which my require pointing them to that FAQ I listed and showing them that you are the owner of the pdf in some fashion.

The reason Paizo is unlikely to offer a physical printing of such a product is that they would likely not make an profit from it and in fact might lose money on it. While you might be passionate about such a thing, the question is how many other people would also be passionate about it? Is it enough to justify Paizo having someone devote time to laying them out as a printed book? And would the print run be large enough that they could be printed cheap enough to offer them at a price low enough that enough people would want to buy it?


I'm in the UK and I will investigate options here, although web-portal printing is probably the way to go here. If you know of any reputable links please do send them.

Perhaps you are right, it's not that I am passionate, it just makes sense to me having seen that Paizo has added character mats, a play mat, wizkid mini characters, class decks and has set about initiating an organised play model for PAGC. Also they seem committed to this game into the near future beyond the next release. They have spent money on character mats for promos so I didn't think it was a stretch for them to add a line of printed 'Season of...' books. Particularly since the Organised Play model is still being fleshed out.

Do you think it is possible that the APP version of this game will eventually have 'Season of ...' adventure paths available?


Was just thinking about this the other day and was wondering why they haven't leveraged DriveThruRPG and their print on demand service.

I had purchased Hero Kids last year to introduce my kids to tabletop RPG and you can either purchase a PDF or pay additional for a printed copy of the core rule book that is printed on demand (or so it says), which I was able to get a soft bound copy of.

Since it looks like they have a partnership with DriveThru for the custom cards feature, not sure why they couldn't just have the collection available there at whatever rate works for them, and people can just order as they need/want it. They would not need to keep inventory of books that may just sit there.


Makes good sense to me, I'm already committed to using DriveThru for Errata, Season of ... Cards and Community Cards so why not Soft Bound Season of ... Books. I hope the Paizo Team/Mike/Tanis reads this as you have had a good idea here. I have not ordered any books this way as yet, what is the quality like?


I print them at home and put them in sheet protectors in a binder. Easy to update if there are changes.

Grand Lodge

I actually had some good conversations with Vic over this weekend and there is plenty on everyone's plate. Having Paizo go to a printer to get adventure paths produced in a hardbound or softbound format is not cost effective for them. It just won't sell enough units to make it profitable. The current format, PDFs, is easy to distribute and has worked for years with Pathfinder Society.

One of the reasons this format works is that if corrections need to be made, a fix can be applied to the PDFs. Not a nightmare of proofing material for a printer. It allows Paizo to be flexible in a manner that is just not possible for their printed material (Pathfinder RPG). Can you imagine if you had gotten Season 0 printed after it came out then a few months after Season 1 came out and the newer Tier system was implemented, Season 0's rewards were revised. That would be a nightmare. You'd be complaining left and right. But in PDF format, you just reprint and put the changes in the binder.

As far as DriveThru PrintOnDemand service, it just wouldn't be convenient for Paizo to make sure their content has to be maintained on their site as well as Paizo 's. (Quality is sometimes good, sometimes meh. Formatting is an issue with some PDFs-to-Print.)


Everything you say makes perfect sense for RPG materials, and having read quite a few threads on multiple blogs/threads I am well aware of your background knowledge of this game and other Paizo gaming formats, for which I offer you my respect.

I am coming at this from a different angle/perspective, more as a general gamer who has committed to this game long-term without feeling the need to delve deeper into other Paizo gaming formats. This is a card based game closer to a board game (once corrected not likely to change after a season is finished) than an RPG so it is not a stretch for customers to want printed materials of complete (and corrected) seasons. I don't have the time or gaming group necessary to RPG and this game has scratched that itch for me solo, and in group play and gaming materials/resources add to the play-through experience (which is where I am coming from, so to speak).

Thanks for the heads up with regard to DriveThru PrintOnDemand services though, I appreciate your advice in this regard. Thus far I have only used their card printing facilities and I have had no major problems/issues there. It seems that there will only ever be PDFs available and I will buy into this in time reluctantly. I will wait (some time) though, just in case Paizo responds either positively or negatively to this query.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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We reevaluate the possibility of authorizing print-on-demand books on a fairly regular basis, but we're still just not satisfied with the quality level yet, especially with full-color products (which is the only kind of product we do).

Beagle wrote:
Do you think it is possible that the APP version of this game will eventually have 'Season of ...' adventure paths available?

It's not impossible, but due to the complexity of the scenarios, I wouldn't look for it anytime soon. If you're familiar with RotR, you'll know that Adventure Deck 3, The Hook Mountain Massacre, contains five scenarios: four that are relatively straightforward, and one, Here Comes the Flood, that's a real departure from everything that has come before, mechanically speaking. During the Obsidian panel at PaizoCon this weekend, I asked Nathan from Obsidian what percentage of AP3 scenario development was spent on Here Comes the Flood, and I believe he estimated it as around 80% of the work. Well, PFSACG scenarios *regularly* have that kind of complexity. When Obsidian is deciding what to do next, it's hard to imagine PFSACG scenarios coming to the top until they've exhausted the regular APs, which only *occasionally* get that crazy.

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