2017, A Big Year for Pathfinder Society

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Every year goes by so quickly, yet every year I end up looking back and realizing just how long it's been—and how much we've accomplished—since January. 2017's no exception. All the work that went into getting Starfinder Society going, we've been keeping busy bringing you more stories, adventures, art, and memories in Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. While we've enjoyed all of the scenarios, there's a handful that I feel really defined 2017.

This year we tried something new: publishing a new series of quests mid-season. Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-16: House of Harmonious Wisdom really knocked it out of the park, and the positive feedback has encouraged use to launch a similar series in early 2018.

Season 8 was our opportunity to travel to the elemental planes, and we scheduled two scenarios on each plane with an aim to present one urban adventure and one "wilderness" adventure. To me, Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-19: Treacherous Waves by Eleanor Ferron really captured the flavor of the elemental planes and of Vialesk, the foremost city on the Plane of Water, with colorful characters and daring scenes that flit between dry and wet environments.

Illustrations by Hannah Boving, Sebastian Rodriguez, Akim Kaliberda, and Giorgio Baroni

Every season comes to an end, and we try to bring everything together with a bang—often in a confrontation with loathsome foes. Ever since the "All for Immortality" series, we've scheduled at least one Tier 12+ scenario per season. For Season 8 we knew our goal from the very beginning, and we knew it was a worthy challenge for our seeker-level characters: break open the Untouchable Opal and free the being trapped within. The result, Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-25: Unleashing the Untouchable, is a truly epic adventure by Robert Brookes.

Multi-table interactive specials are pretty great, but they're also an immense amount of work to assemble. To both deliver more multi-table content and change up our traditional format, we created a "modular special" with easily replaced parts that we can swap out with new content over time. Pathfinder Society Special #8-99: The Solstice Scar tread new ground with Andrew Hoskins as the author, and we've already finished the next installment that's set to appear at conventions beginning in mid-January.

Speaking of multi-table interactive specials, no retrospective's complete without the Gen Con centerpiece. This year Absalom itself came under attack in Pathfinder Society Special #9-00: Assault on Absalom by Mikko Kallio, and the Pathfinder Society's factions pooled their resources and expertise to help fight off the invasion. This was one of the smoothest-run specials yet!

The Season of Factions' Favor kicked off with a trio of great scenarios, and one in particular really set the tone for Season 9. Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-02: A Case of Missing Persons by Alex Greenshields continues the ongoing saga of Major Colson Maldris, and the looks of disbelief I've seen on people's faces when they play this one... they give me life. The Liberty's Edge struggle this scenario introduces also kicked off our Leaders in Liberty contest and voting. I can hardly wait for the next installment in Spring 2018.

Illustrations by Tom Ventre and Josef Kucera

The elemental planes have plenty of conflict, and conflict begets adventures. Heaven's a different story, as it's easy to think that no matter what happens there, a horde of archons is ready to jump on it. For more than a year we'd been considering an adventure in Heaven an unattainable goal... then we checked the reporting data for a Season 7 scenario and saw that participants had overwhelmingly chosen exactly that. Thus began Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-06: The Shores of Heaven, a delightful and heavenly story that brought out the plane's potential in a compelling way with compelling characters. Cole Kronewitter did an excellent job.

Just as some factions are struggling with leadership or learning to flex their muscles in new ways, others are tackling an internal threat that threatens to destroy the organization entirely. The Scarab Sages got to show off their strength and destroy an ancient evil in Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-07: Salvation of the Sages, one of the most extraordinarily fun and over-the-top scenarios I've had the pleasure to develop in a long while. Just as he helped kick off the Scarab Sages storyline in Season 5 and drive it forward in Season 6, I enjoyed having Matt Duval to tie things together with this adventure.

Ever since The Confirmation, no season's been complete without a new replayable (aka evergreen) scenario. Last year we published the first replayable adventure above 1st level, and we knew that this year we wanted to provide a similarly compelling mid-level experience. Brian Duckwitz delivered with Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-09: Beyond the Halflight Path, which delves deep below the eclectic city of Kaer Maga in pursuit of numerous objectives that change with each retelling.

And even with this long list I'm omitting tons of great adventures, from Mike Kimmel's trip under Merab's streets to Crystal Malarsky's archaeological peacekeeping mission to Larry Wilhelm's voyage into a live volcano to many, many more. What were your favorites?

Finally, no season's complete without some excellent artwork. Here are some of our favorites from 2017, compliments of Akim Kaliberda, Giorgio Baroni, Hannah Boving, Josef Kucera, Sebastian Rodriguez, and Tom Ventre. Also, although I don't want to provide spoilers by posting it here, we also adore Sean MacDonald's cartography from Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-20: Torrent's Last Will, for which I've seen some of the most dazzling printed maps.

See you in 2018!

John Compton
Organized Play Lead Developer