Mid-year Report of the Pathfinder Society Campaign

Monday, March 26, 2012

Illustration by Eva Widermann

Today is my six-month anniversary at Paizo. The time has flown since September 26, 2011. Usually, State of the Union/State/County/City addresses are given on an annual basis. In the future, I will most likely present this report at the yearly Pathfinder Society Members’ Meeting at Gen Con. However, this being my first year and with all the changes that have taken place, and in light of the goals set for the future, I thought it was important to give a report of how my first six months on the job have played out.

First and most importantly, I want to thank all of the Venture-Captains and Lieutenants, regional and convention coordinators, GMs, and people I use as a sounding board (you know who you are). Without all of you, I would not be able to achieve everything listed below and make Pathfinder Society as great as it is. I also want to thank all of our players and fans. Without you, I wouldn’t have an awesome job to come to each morning. So, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your efforts and support.

The Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign has already seen numerous positive improvements and changes. Here is a short list of things we’ve accomplished together in just six months:

• Established the Venture-Lieutenant program and the recruited more than 75 new Venture-Captains and Venture-Lieutenants to help us grow Pathfinder Society by presenting a Paizo 'face' in many local areas.
• Implemented numerous small updates to the Pathfinder Society webpage, the campaign FAQ (red updates!), and Additional Resources list.
• Planned and staffed 750 Pathfinder Society tables for Gen Con 2012., as well as the creation of Beginner Box introductions and a kids’ track.
• Streamlined the process by which regional coordinators can request convention prize support.
• Opened up post-retirement play beyond 12th level, sanctioned 15 additional Pathfinder Modules, and released Chronicle sheets for five Pathfinder Tales novels.
• Added holiday boons to event organizers’ arsenals.
• Worked with Venture-Captains to coordinate the worldwide Beginner Box Bash event and released a Pathfinder Society character creation guide using the Beginner Box rules.
• Planned and staffed 150 Pathfinder Society tables at PaizoCon 2012, as well as scheduled the debut of GM 101 workshops on a large scale.
• Worked with Venture-Captains to establish GM 101 workshops in multiple locations.
• Analyzed community feedback and reporting data, concluding that future scenarios should be designed with six players in mind.
• Established a new set of convention Chronicle sheets for the second half of season 3 with Tian-flavored and teamwork-inspired boons.
• Overhauled the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play that included more than 400 changes and additions.
• Established new guidelines for earning and maintaining a fifth GM star.
• Worked with Paizo’s web team to change the Events Page from a calendar format to a more user-friendly event listing.
• Readjusted the release schedule for Season 4 scenarios to release at the beginning of the month instead of the end.
• And finally, I experienced firsthand the sledding rules first detailed in To Scale the Dragon.

We've addressed our leadership, our organization, our ground game, and our rules. And we couldn't have done any of it without all of you.

All that is great, but it's not enough. We're not done yet (which means that we all have more work to do). I'm excited about the future of the Society. In particular, the following items on my now-less-than-secret list excite me:

• The Grand Convocation interactive will return at PaizoCon 2012.
• A second, competitive round has been added to the Pathfinder Society Special at Gen Con 2012.
• Continuing to attend as many conventions as I can get to. I've been to NeonCon (Las Vegas, NV) , DunDraCon 20 (San Ramon, CA), GAMA Trade Show (Las Vegas, NV), and the Alliance Game Distributors Show (Ft. Wayne, IN) over the past six months. My upcoming 2012 schedule includes stops at:
• PAX East (Boston, MA)
• Origins Game Fair (Columbus, OH)
• PaizoCon 2012 (Redmond, WA)
• Connecticon (Hartford, CT)
• PaizoCon UK (Birmingham, West Midlands, UK)
• Gen Con 2012 (Indianapolis, IN)
• Dragon Con (Atlanta, GA)
• Neon Con 2012 (Las Vegas, NV)

My goal is to meet as many Pathfinder Society players, GMs, and coordinators as I can face-to-face. I encourage you to introduce yourself to me at those conventions.

• The plotline for Season 4 has been laid-out, and Season 5 has already been put into a rough draft.
• We are looking at ways to make faction missions have a meaningful impact on the campaign and make more sense as presented in scenarios.
• Improve our Retailer Support program, including upgrades to the website interface to make it more user-friendly for both retailers and customers.
• Improve the GM Rewards program (we already made some adjustments to 5-star GMs as noted above).
• I would like to see the creation of the three campaign documents that were discussed on the April 4, 2011 blog.
• Expanding the Venture-Captain program to additional areas in North America, as well as increasing the number of Venture-Captains internationally.
• Working with Paizo’s web team to implement a more user-friendly web interface for event coordinators.
• Continuing to highlight international Pathfinder Society play through monthly blogs.

The last six months have been a great learning experience for me. I continue to transition from a regional coordinator mindset to one of a global campaign administrator. There have been some bumps in the road, but nothing that has proven insurmountable. I already knew that the Pathfinder Society community is smart, diverse, and very passionate. It is amazing how much energy and enthusiasm you all have for the game and it is very inspiring. Likewise, the people here at Paizo are some of the most creative and different-thinking people I've ever met. It's as amazing as you'd think it would be.

I will finish by letting everyone know that I will continue to do the best job I can to grow and improve the Pathfinder Society campaign. Sometimes I will make mistakes. But, when I do make a mistake, I will own up to it. As always, I am available for all of you to reach out to me with concerns, criticisms, thoughts, suggestions, venting, and ideas via email, private message, Skype, phone call, an in-person visit, carrier pigeon, written letter, message spell, pony express, contact other plane spell, or sending spell.

Mike Brock
Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator