UK Games Expo and Renkroda Heartlove!!!

Wednesday, May 25, 2018

Before I turn you over to Starfinder Society developer Thurston Hillman for a peek at May's scenarios, I'd like to highlight a couple upcoming non-US conventions other staffers and I are attending.

Also, we are pleased Michael's blog last week about sanctioning the the Strange Aeons Adventure Path was so well received. While there was a slight glitch in the pdf attachment process, it was resolved and you can now download the sanctioning documents from the link above.

I've spent the past few weeks previewing convention offerings at PaizoCon, Origins, and Gen Con. This week, let's take a peek at a conventions outside the United States. For those of you in the area, you can find lots of gaming goodness the to 1st to 3rd of June at the United Kingdom Games Expo in Birmingham, England . A group of Paizo staffers joins the local Organized Play community to bring lots of Pathfinder and Starfinder options.

Come take a sneak peek at the Pathfinder Playtest by visiting the Paizo booth in the NEC Exhibition Hall. Space is limited, so be sure to visit early and secure a place. Meanwhile, the Hilton Ballrooms play host to a cornucopia of organized play offerings, including the European premier of the next installment of the modular interactive special Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-99C: The Solstice Scar, version C on Saturday night. For more information on this scenario, see this week's Pathfinder Society Scenario preview blog.

Visit the UK Games Expo website to get a badge and sign up for events. We have a bunch of Paizo staffers, including Amanda Hamon Kunz, Cosmo Eisele, Dan Tharp, Erik Mona, Jason Bulmahn, Jeff Alvarez, and myself, flying in for the event and we hope to see you there!

If UK Games Expo doesn't work into your schedule, consider attending PaizoCon UK July 20th-22nd at the Aston University Campus in Birmingham, UK. Come join designer Logan Bonner and I, along with UK and European venture-officers, in celebrating the 10th anniversary of PaizoCon UK by playing games, talking about your characters, and enjoying some English hospitality. I'll write more about this event in a few weeks, but you can get a jump on planning by visiting their website!

With all the upcoming conventions, we need new scenarios. I'm turning you over to Thurston as he catalogs the delights instore for Starfinder Society players this month.

Wow, it's already coming up on PaizoCon season! When it came time to plan out the two scenarios the Organized Play Team knew would take the first salvo of "convention season", we wanted to focus on some less conventional scenario archetypes.

Starfinder Society #1-14: Star Sugar Heartlove!!! is an experience! Anything I could say about it would spoil that experience. I can say that it brings together a lot of things that people have enjoyed about our inaugural Starfinder Society season in a fun and exciting way. OK, fine, I can also say that it begins right before the sugar pop sensation, Strawberry Machine Cake, is set to perform a debut concert for their new album. Paizo's own Eleanor Ferron, the creator of Strawberry Machine Cake, exceeded even my ridiculous expectations when she wrote this scenario. I look forward to seeing the fan reaction to this.

This scenario has the Faction (Dataphiles) and Faction (Exo-Guardians) tags.

If this month's first scenario tells us anything, it's that the Organized Play Team can be swayed by fan reactions. Our next scenario continues this trend.

Pathfinder Society veteran author, Andrew Hoskins, is notorious for scenarios such as Pathfinder Society #6-17: From Under Ice, Pathfinder Society #7-17: Thralls of the Shattered God, and Pathfinder Society #8-07: Tome of Righteous Repose. He approached me last year about writing for Starfinder Society and I was happy to bring him onboard with a new scenario. What he received was an idea madly brewed in a cauldron of ideas floating around the Organized Play Team. Of course, Andrew being the stellar author that he is, ran with our somewhat abnormal outline.

Starfinder Society #1-15: Save the Renkrodas differentiates itself from our other May scenario by having a space dinosaur. Ok, Ok… the space the dinosaur is technically an alien lifeform called a renkroda (first detailed in Temple of the Twelve, written by Organized Play Lead Developer John Compton. So while there was certainly already some love for renkrodas on the team, it wasn't until a particularly dedicated volunteer (who we'll be highlighting in next month's scenario preview) began espousing some detailed renkroda-related lore on social media, that we realized the time was right for a scenario.

This scenario has the Faction (Acquisitives) and a new Vehicle tag that denotes the presence of a vehicle-related encounter.

That's it for this month's preview. In June, you'll get to see a whole bunch of previews for scenarios debuting at our season launch at Origins Game Fair. For those of you attending PaizoCon this weekend in Seattle, feel free to come up and say hello! I'm on the Starfinder Society Organized Play panel on Friday and roaming the venue throughout the whole weekend.

Either way, have a happy week of gaming!

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge


Organized Play Manager