November's adventures fit two of the toughest kinds of scenario to write. The first is the load-bearing adventure, one whose contribution to the campaign's ongoing plotline is so central that it must work properly. The second is the Tier 1-2 evergreen scenario, which far and away sees the most play of any adventure during that season of Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. I know that from replay alone, the latter needs to be especially clean, effective, and fun because so many people will see it—often again and again while taking characters from 1st to 2nd level. These needed some especially capable authors.

Back when we started this project, I worked out the scope of the game with the execs at Obsidian. André Nguyen created a great mockup of gameplay in Flash that helped get everyone at Obsidian and at Paizo on board (I may share some screens from that version at some point). We agreed on a pretty limited set of features to begin with—enough so that you could play through the Base deck of Rise of the Runelords. I knew a three-scenario game would be enough to prove the game out, but not enough to bring to market. As development continued and our confidence in the product grew, we kept building upon what we had piece by piece, carefully increasing the scope over time. With each additional piece, we added a lot more content and improved presentation—well beyond our original plans.

Just as many people consider one place home no matter where they live now, I’ve met many gamers who have what they consider their "home group" even when life’s circumstances and opportunities take them to opposite ends of the state, country, or planet. Fortunately, the quality of low-cost virtual tabletop programs and communication software improves every year, and it’s easier than ever to run a game when friends are thousands of miles apart. Even so, there’s something really special about reuniting the band in person.