Bad Guys!

Friday, April 29, 2016

This week's Pathfinder Battles preview reveals two of my favorite figures in October's Deadly Foes set, both of whom very much live up to their name.

Up first this week is the Technic League Captain, a villainous lout from the barbaric land of Numeria, where the remnants of a huge spaceship that crashed long ago still fuel the people with weird liquids and technological debris. Our friend the Technic League Captain, culled from the pages of the Inner Sea World Guide, has made that technology work for him in the form of a cool futuristic sword. Is it a ghost touch weapon? A brilliant energy blade? You decide! The Technic League Captain is a Medium, rare figure.

The Fire Diabolist is one of my favorite illustrations from the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: NPC Codex, which continues to be a great source of images for the Pathfinder Battles line. This 20th-level cleric of Asmodeus (!!!) comes ready to rumble with a killer mace and a sturdy shield. The Fire Diabolist is a Medium, rare figure who would probably prefer to cook your player characters all the way to well done!

That's it for this week. Swing by in seven days for another look at what WizKids has in store in October's Deadly Foes set!

Until then, I remain...

Erik Mona
Publisher

PaizoCon 2016 Event Schedule is Live Now!

Thursday, April 28, 2016

The PaizoCon 2016 Event Schedule is live!

With nearly 300 events over 4 days, including exclusive lottery games, seminars, panels, and one-of-a-kind workshops, PaizoCon 2016 has something for nearly every gamer to get excited about! With third-party publisher debuts, freelancing workshops, and panels featuring our Special Guests, the show will be a great way for attendees to connect to the larger Paizo and Pathfinder community. We'll also be hosting the annual PaizoCon Banquet Saturday night, and unveiling this year's Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Special, Pathfinder Society Scenario #7-98: Serpents' Ire.

PaizoCon attendees can also start entering their preferences for the PaizoCon Event Lottery right now! The lottery includes games and workshops with limited seating, as well as the Pathfinder Society special. It does not include panels, large seminars, or any the regular Pathfinder Society tables. Preference selections can be made until Monday, May 9 at 12:00 PM Pacific time.

The PaizoCon Event Lottery results will be available on Wednesday, May 11 at 12:00 PM Pacific time. This is also when Open Registration and Event Trading begins, so you'll be able to register for non-lottery events, or swap seats with other attendees for events you may have gotten in the lottery.

Still confused about this whole "lottery" thing? We have a dedicated thread explaining the lottery process, buddy system, open registration, and event trading just for newcomers!

Haven't picked up a badge yet? Go ahead and grab yourself a 4-Day Badge and get your selections for events in now! We also have a Kid's 4-Day Badge option for attendees 10 and under, as well as Banquet Tickets that are sold individually.

New to the area and want to know what's to do around the convention and in Seattle? Check out our Visitor's Guide to PaizoCon 2016.

Interested in discussing PaizoCon with fellow attendees, fans, and staff? Want to discuss a specific event? Head on over to the PaizoCon forums!

Chris Lambertz
Community & Digital Content Director

The Mechanics Behind the Comics

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

The final issue of Pathfinder: Hollow Mountain releases today, written by yours truly and drawn by the illustrious Sean Izaakse! Can Pathfinder's most heroic and villainous iconics overcome their differences long enough to defeat the demonic Castellan? Will Ezren teach Seltyiel the true value of friendship? Will Oloch and Valeros finally kiss? There's only one way to find out, and it's hitting your local comics shop as we speak!

It's been a blast writing this series with Erik and Wes, and while all three of us worked closely together to chart out the storyline and character arcs, it was extra fun to get to write the first and last issues—both setting the stage and then tying up all the loose threads. But writing a Pathfinder comic isn't all fun and games—or rather, the games aren't all fun. A lot of work goes into making sure that everything the characters do in the comics fits within the game rules and character abilities, and the review board of me, Wes, Erik, and Jacobs is merciless when it comes to making comic authors toe the line.

This issue in particular has a lot of magic flying around—so much so that Wes suggested I take a page of the raw script and post it up here for you to see what goes on behind the scenes. So if you've ever wondered what a comic script looks like, here's an example! (I guess I should add a spoiler warning, but this particular page was chosen to avoid revealing too much. Unless you consider "folks beat the dickens out of other folks" to be a revealing too much.)

Hope you enjoy this peek behind the curtain, and thanks for supporting the comics!

James L. Sutter
Executive Editor

Obsidian Tells a Tale

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

With Pathfinder Adventures' imminent release—Thursday, April 28!—it's time we talked about the core strength of both Pathfinder and Obsidian: storytelling.

When Obsidian Entertainment and Paizo started talking about Pathfinder Adventures, I was most excited about the prospect of bringing the story of Rise of the Runelords to life. A little background: I started at Obsidian in 2007 working on Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, and one of the first things I did was join a group of coworkers playing Rise of the Runelords. The story stuck with me. And when I started playing "Burnt Offerings" in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, it all came flooding back. I loved the way Mike Selinker, Chad Brown, and all of the designers at Lone Shark Games used the mechanics of the cards to tell a story. Local Heroes stood out to me right away, as did Foul Misgivings later. Since story has always been a priority at Obsidian, I knew that we could bring the theme and drama of the Adventure Path to the forefront of the digital version.

As mentioned in my first blog, one of the first things we did was put all of the location decks on a map. This helps gives the game instant context and setting without a word being written. As an example, throughout "Burnt Offerings," you were playing in bright and sunny Sandpoint, but when you start "The Skinsaw Murders," things look a little different...

Workin' on our night moves (yeah, you just got Bob Segered).

It's Sandpoint's nighttime look! And it's a good one. Since "The Skinsaw Murders" is a ghost story and a murder mystery, we decided to set the mood.

Where PACG uses text descriptions on the cards to convey the story, we use dialogue. Most of these conversations are driven by the iconic heroes that you choose to play with. Each of the iconics has a distinct voice, so a party of Ezren and Valeros experiences different dialogue than a party of Seoni and Amiri.

Before setting out to write dialogue for RotR's 11 iconic heroes, I worked with Erik Mona and James Jacobs at Paizo (with some helpful insight from Chris Avellone and Matt MacLean at Obsidian) to develop a Character Bible. I use it as a touchstone each time I write to make sure the characters are always true to themselves. Each character has a set of style and story notes to remind me how they speak and how they will develop.

I'll pull back the curtain and show you (most of) Lini's entry:

Style

Having an intimate relationship with animals, Lini sees the world from an animal's perspective. She has a hard time understanding people and their complicated schemes, but she is curious about them. She has tremendous instincts and will trust or mistrust NPCs with a high level of accuracy ([REDACTED] will always smell wrong and Ameiko will be a fast friend). She does not emote in half-measures. She's excitable and fiery, using short declarative sentences for just about every occasion. Dank dungeons make her uncomfortable, but she'll never abandon her pack or the mission in front of her.

She will have a habit of interrupting villainous taunts to attack with an "Aaah-Kii-Yeee!"

Story Notes

She will seem naive at first, not understanding man's cruelty. Her curiosity will continue to drive her though. She will grow to see mankind and those with powers as complex, yet simple as any other force of nature. In Chapters 5 and 6, Lini will have a very specific understanding of what she sees and experiences and will always know with certainty what she must to do to flow with or fight against anything she is faced with.

When each scenario starts and ends, you'll get dialogue that's reactive to the characters you have in your party. Likewise, when you fight the villain for the first time, you'll get some banter determined by who's fighting the villain.

Let's take Crow Bait as an example. Harsk is adventuring solo and having a productive discussion with Ameiko about the Sihedron rune when Maester Grump interrupts with terrible news.

They even ate the dogs!

Harsk will get down to the bottom of it! At various points throughout the game, we'll check to see what cards you have and add a little extra flavor. The game does a quick check of his deck and notes that he has the beloved Deathbane Light Crossbow +1. So he adds:

Nothing beats the old Deathbane!

Harsk comes upon the Farmhouse location. In most scenarios, it's just a country home. In Crow Bait, it's a gruesome scene with a creepy note addressed to Harsk.

The letter reads, "You, and you alone, have brought this fearful harvest. They are dead because of you, and more shall join them soon."

Soon enough, he finds Rogors Craesby, who discusses his ugly intentions:

Harsk is no creature's breakfast.

When all is said and done, Harsk considers what has happened and how it relates to the larger plot:

Harsk thinks in terms of tactics and the hunt.

Where there are opportunities for flavor or exposition, we take them. Certain henchmen will talk with you before they fight. Some ally cards in your deck provide good opportunities as well.

And the haunts in Foul Misgivings! Let me tell you about the haunts. Better yet, let me show you!

In case you didn't know, RotR gets dark! Credit for this amazing art goes to the incomparable Lindsey Laney.

There are eight unique haunts throughout the Foul Misgivings—so many that it's impossible to see all of them in one play through the scenario.

You can be sure that there are a great number of things that I've left out for the sake of spoilers and easter egg hunts. I will say that we track a specific action in Burnt Offerings that has implications in The Skinsaw Murders. And I can't wait to show you what we do with Here Comes the Flood!

Nathan Davis
Game Director, Obsidian Entertainment
@nathan_J_davis
(Previously Harsk in Rise of the Runelords and Ranzak in Skull & Shackles; currently Alain in Wrath of the Righteous)

First Taste of Seeker Play

Monday, April 25, 2016

Spring is in full swing in Seattle, causing the mercury to rise, dousing Redmond with pollen, and sending many of us into allergic conniptions. I hadn't planned it this way, but this is perfect timing to talk about what Paizo's backyard and this month's scenarios have in common: heat and flowers. That is to say we're traveling to Thuvia! This year the shipment of the legendary sun orchid elixir—a tonic capable of restoring one's youth—travels to Pashow for the first time in five years, and the city desperately needs the proceeds of their sale. Of course, the shipment needs to arrive safely to avert financial ruin and civil unrest, and the city needs outside help to ensure nothing befalls this lifeline.

Illustration by Sebastian Rodriguez

I really enjoy incorporating all levels of play into these storylines, and this month level 1-5 PCs experience a major piece of the action in Pathfinder Society Scenario #7-21: The Sun Orchid Scheme by the winner of RPG Superstar Season 9, Nicholas Wasko. Pashow is ready to perform a test run of their operation, and knowing the Society's reputation for troubleshooting tough problems, the city-state's emir and the visiting dignitary Princess Ziralia (pictured here) has contracted a team of Pathfinders to perform a non-lethal raid on one of the convoys. Hopefully the PCs can uncover any weaknesses in the convoy's defenses before the real deal. Then again, when has anything gone according to plan? Nick has written a thrilling adventure with some great twists, and I'm now all the more excited for the module he'll be writing in the future.

Finally adventuring in Thuvia is exciting. Finally releasing true seeker-level content is exciting. Combining the two was almost more than I could handle, so I called in Thurston Hillman as reinforcements. He's crafted a rousing and challenging adventure befitting Tier 12-15 with Pathfinder Society Scenario #7-20: All for Immortality, Part 1: First Taste of Eternity. The convoys carrying the sun orchid elixir have left the Citadel of the Alchemist, and Pashow's enemies are closing in. Fortunately, the PCs are on hand to help where the fighting's hottest, but they're due to uncover—and resolve—an even greater threat in the process. This adventure has one of my favorite depictions of a new villain, but I'm loath to post it here because it would spoil the surprise. I'll just let Thurston's writing and Sebastian Rodriguez's art speak for themselves when you get a chance to play this first of three adventures.

John Compton
Pathfinder Society Lead Developer

Good Bad Dogs

Friday, April 22, 2016

It's been a long week of hard work and hard business travel (ok, fun business travel), so at the end of the day here on Friday, the thing I'm most looking forward to doing is heading home and hanging out with my dog. I got my first pet—a wonderfully chubby pug named Tiny—about 5 years ago. Before that I didn't really understand compassion. While I always (sort of) enjoyed hanging out with my friends' dogs, I never knew why people liked them so much. Then I got one of my own, my heart melted, and I guess you could say I'm a better man than I ever was before.

But the thing is, not all dogs are as awesome as my little Tiny. Some of them are right bastards.

For this week's preview, we're taking a look at two terrible canines from October's Deadly Foes set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted plastic miniatures. Bring your pepper spray and choke chains, and most importantly, BEWARE OF DOG!

Up first this week is the Cerberi, a nasty three-headed dog from the pages of Pathfinder RPG: Bestiary 3. Based on the mythical guard dogs of Hell, these outsiders can dimensionally anchor an enemy with a bite, and their three noses are particularly good at sniffing out undead. Of course, they're lawful evil, so they aren't so great with the living, either. The Cerberi is a Medium, uncommon figure.

Bad dogs travel best in packs, and when you're talking about dogs from Hell like the Cerberi, you've got to also talk about the original hounds of hell—hell hounds! This charming fellow is the Advanced Hell Hound, a Large and more imposing version of the original creature (whom we included in the Shattered Star set). I've included a side view, as the flames coming out of this guy's mouth make it a little difficult to interpret from straight-on. Either way, this guy is sure to light a fire under the feet of your player characters. The Advanced Hell Hound is a Large, uncommon figure.

And that's it for this week! Join us in seven days for another look ahead at the villains, heroes, and monsters of Deadly Foes!

Until then, I remain...

Erik Mona
Publisher

A Visitor's Guide to PaizoCon 2016

Thursday, April 21, 2016

PaizoCon 2016 is just a little over a month away, and we're all busy making preparations for our favorite convention of the year. Whether you're a first-time visitor to the Seattle area, or a PaizoCon veteran, here's a few things to do in the area before, during, and after the convention!

Movement Speed

If you are not renting a car, and you're not using an allied NPC boon for local travel, the DoubleTree Hotel is conveniently located right on the A Line Express of King County's Metro bus system. Just up the street is also the light rail which leads directly to downtown, which is going to be your best way to get to the sights of Seattle. The most affordable way for out-of-town visitors to view the area is to pick up a Regional Day Pass, which can be purchased at the light rail station for $8 for unlimited rides (for fares up to $3.50). The challenge rating of facing the local highway system is mighty—use public transportation and carpool as much as possible! For planning out your travels, Google Maps and One Bus Away has been the most reliable for public transportation arrival and departure times.

Photos courtesy of Liz Courts

Gazetteer of Seattle

When I first came to live on the moister side of the Pacific Northwest, I had an excellent guide to show me the way (thanks, Cosmo). Now I am passing on some of the locations that I enjoy in the area, and if you are arriving early for PaizoCon, see the sights of the Emerald City! A fair warning: Seattle is quite hilly, and some spots are very steep. PaizoCon Founder Tim Nightengale recommends that you visit Seattle Premier Attactions for a broader overview of what you can see, but here are my favorites.

• Pike Place Market: In operation since 1907, this is a multi-level market that you've probably seen on TV where the folks throwing the fish around. It is less busy during the week before noon, so keep that in mind, and that you'll want to bring cash here, as not all the places accept credit or debit card. If you're a foodie, don't miss Beecher's Handmade Cheese, Daily Dozen Doughnut Company, DeLaurenti, Ellenos Yogurt, Market Spice, Piroshky Piroshky, the "original" Starbucks, and World Spice. There are dozens of different stores in Pike Place, not to mention a comic book store—spend some time meandering!
• Pioneer Square: One of the oldest neighborhoods in Seattle, built in 1857, there is quite a bit of local history to discover here, including King Street Station and the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. Don't miss the Underground Tour!
• Seattle Aquarium: I have it on good authority from an enthusiastic three year old that this is the best. Jellyfish, octopi, otters, seals, tide pools and an underwater dome are some of the features here. Seagulls can be seen all around Seattle for free!
• Seattle Center: There are not one, but multiple things to do in this encounter. The EMP Museum is more than just music (though there is a lot of that too, and the guitar exhibit is quite stunning), and the Pacific Science Center has multiple attractions (including a LEGO® exhibit starting on May 28th), and the Seattle Center is also home to the iconic Space Needle. Whether or not Chihuly was contacted from Things Beyond Space and Time is a matter of some debate, but Chihuly Garden & Glass is full of inspirational mind-bending art. The easiest way to get to the Seattle Center is by the Monorail from Westlake. If you're planning on attending multiple museums at the Seattle Center or around town, check out the Citypass!

Other strong contenders for things to see and do in Seattle: the International District, Ivar's, Molly Moon's Ice Cream, Seattle Art Museum (check out the Roman glassware and Native American collections), Seattle Great Wheel, and probably at least a dozen other places that I'm forgetting. If you get lost, Pike and Pine streets are great fixtures to orient yourself, as is the Washington State Convention Center and Westlake Center. In a pinch, just head downhill towards the water.

Many have asked this question, but this is a good spot to say this again: we do not offer tours of the Paizo offices, sorry!

Staff Accountant Ashley Kaprielian loves a few things more than numbers. This is one of them.
Photo courtesy of Liz Courts

Local Eats

Besides the DoubleTree Hotel's coffee stand, breakfast buffet, and lounge, here are a few places to eat within walking distance (half a mile) of the convention space.

• 13 Coins Restaurant
• Dave's Diner & Brews
• Denny's
• Gregory's Bar & Grill
• Jack in the Box
• L&L Hawaiian Barbecue
• Mango Thai Cuisine & Bar
• Sharps RoastHouse
• Taco Bell

To the Market!

• Safeway, 21401 Pacific Highway South, Des Moines, WA 98198 (2.1 miles, open 5am to 1am)
• Safeway, 4011 S 164th St, Seattle, WA 98188, (2.3 miles, open 24 hours)
• QFC, 17847 1st Avenue South, Normandy Park, WA 98148 (2.5 miles, open 24 hours)

For other shopping needs, the Westfield Southcenter Mall is four miles away (2800 Southcenter Mall, Seattle, WA 98188), and is open 10am to 9pm, and includes a multiplex IMAX theater. If you need non-emergency medical care, Immediate Clinic Burien (15870 1st Avenue South, Burien, WA 98148; 8am to 8pm) and Concentra Urgent Care (545 Andover Park W, Tukwila, WA 98188; 24 hours) are the closest.

Photo courtesy of Cosmo Eisele

Photo courtesy of Chris Lambertz

3, 2, 1—Let's Jam!

Alright, it's convention time! I know you might not want to hear it, but give yourself a little bit of extra time to prepare yourself and get a bite and a cuppa joe in before your day starts. (And for all of the volunteers that arise to run at this hour, thank you!) A little bit of courtesy goes a long way, so please be kind to the hotel NPCs when gathering with your party. If this is your first convention ever, well, thank you for picking ours! Here's a few convention tips:

• Wear comfortable, broken-in shoes, and bring an extra pair. Your feet will thank you.
• Bring extra socks.
• Stay hydrated—there is no substitute for water.
• Bring a non-sugary snack to keep your energy levels up.
• A minimum of 3 hours of sleep, two real meals, and one shower. In the words of Erik Mona, "Man cannot survive on gaming, booze, and 5-Hour Energy alone (trust me, I've tried)."
• Don't completely fill your schedule—give yourself some downtime.
• Make new friends.
• For freelancers and would-be freelancers, bring a business card (and leave some room to write notes on).
• Don't forget the dice.

ConCrud

It happens—you know it, we know it. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, stay hydrated, eat proper meals, get some rest—these give you a bonus to your Fortitude save to help from spreading Urgathoa's touch.

Got any additional questions? Concerns? Musings? Want to know other favorite haunts that we like? Ask away in the the discussion thread!

Getting the dire ducklings in a row,

Liz Courts
Community Manager

Knockin' on Heaven's Door

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

In celebration of the release of Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Heaven Unleashed, I wanted to take a moment as one of the biggest fans of Heaven on the Paizo development staff to reveal a never-before-seen, behind-the-scenes peek at how exactly we went about building the great mountain of Heaven!

As is often the case at Paizo, we didn't build it all at once. For many years, we had dropped hints and brief descriptions of different locations within it, or discussed it in broad terms. While we had given the plane a very rough outline back in a book called The Great Beyond, that was one of the first setting books we ever did, and frankly we were still figuring a lot of things out back in those days and had no concept yet just how important Pathfinder's setting would become. (To give you a sense of how long ago that was: the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game didn't exist yet, folks currently running the adventure paths hadn't even started freelancing for Paizo, and Wes didn't yet have any stress-induced gray hair.) Since then, we'd revisited the plane various times—for instance, I got to explore the Great Library and Heathen Shore (Heaven's international district) in The Redemption Engine—but we'd never sat down and really hashed out a full outline of the plane.

While Heaven Unleashed is mostly a big book of cool encounters tied to Heaven, it was important to us to finally give a comprehensive overview of the plane—what the various layers are, who runs what, etc. So several of us sat down and brain-melded to try and figure out how to weave existing canon and new stuff together to create a framework for Heaven. There was plenty of pressure, for as Wes pointed out, a well-designed Heaven ought to be just as cool as Hell, especially since they're in many ways mirror reflections of each other. (Plus, it had always felt like a shame to both of us that everyone reads Dante's Inferno, but not even hardcore planar fans can be bothered to finish Paradiso...)

The result was this whiteboard sketch, with each of Heaven's seven's layers charted out. Here you can see our thoughts on the function of each layer and which souls go where, as well as our metaphysical musings about how the souls residing on certain layers "face outward," others face inward, and still others face beyond, toward Heaven's role in the multiverse. (We go down all sorts of theosophical rabbit holes around here.) And of course, there are the names of the layers, the identities and titles of the rulers of each layer, which gods live where... all the basics you need to know as a scholar of Heaven or just someone looking to petition the gods or kick some angelic ass.

You'll also notice a bunch of green boxes on the board. Those were for those layers or rulers who hadn't been named or decided yet when I took this picture. We've figured things out since then, of course, and I'm happy to say that I think we achieved our goal of making Heaven just as interesting as its unholy sister plane. But if you want to know the rest of the details... well, that's what the book is for, now isn't it?

James L. Sutter
Executive Editor

Class Decks by the Score

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Yesterday, we sent our printer Cartamundi four more Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Class Decks, bringing our total of class decks to 20. With such an auspicious number in the books, I thought it'd be nice to look back on our designs—even though you've only seen 13 of them to date. So this is both a review and a preview.

Oh, hey, the important thing: Ace designer Tanis O'Connor led the design of all of these. All of Lone Shark Games' designers helped, of course, but we've been very lucky to be working under Tanis's singular vision for the whole line. Yay, Tanis!

Okay, I mentioned in a recent blog that we design these in "waves." That certainly surprised a few people. I expect folks imagined that on the first of every month, we flip the page on our Dog Shaming Calendar, say "Oh, Bonzo, will you never learn?" and then design a class deck. That's not really how we work. Instead, we tackle a big project with lots of sub-projects all at once, so we can see the whole picture. And then we bang on it over several months until it's done. Then Vic says, "You have to turn it over to me now," and the wave gets edited, illustrated, proofed, printed, and sent to you. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Here's a wave-by-wave look at the decks.

Wave 1: The "Big Seven"

As we were wrapping up Skull & Shackles, we decided to get our feet wet with a set of seven initial decks. Wait, that's not true at all. We decided to do the eleven core iconics' decks all at once, but then our internal gaskets blew into pieces, and we scaled back. Seven was all our diminutive brains could handle in one wave.

Exactly which seven? Our choices mirrored the Rise of the Runelords Base Set's characters—Bard, Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, and Wizard—and established a principle that you could use the deck to grow your character over an entire Adventure Path. At this point, we only had the first two sets' cards to draw from, and we hadn't actually seen folks play with Skull & Shackles in the wild. We decided on a core ethic, though: These decks would be usable with any Adventure Path. So no cards that worked in only one set.

Our primary resource for ideas the Pathfinder RPG NPC Codex. That supplement expanded our minds as to what a character of a class could be. A key exemplar of this idea is Flenta, the fighter who wants everyone to believe she's a wizard. We could never make that our fighter archetype. But in the Fighter Class Deck, we could use the principles of fighterdom to make a new kind of hybrid character that showed off how robust our system was.

We also wove subthemes into the deck. For example, we gave rogues Meliski and Wu Shen some new Poison cards, and the ability to do some fancy trickery with them. We wove our first Gambling items throughout the set, a lucky Rabbit's Foot here and a set of Marked Cards there. We seeded things we hoped to do more ornately later, such as Darago's window on what would become Balazar.

If there was any legit critique of those first seven decks, it's that we were trying to do too much. So for example, the Cleric Class Deck found Tarlin and Zarlova fighting for space to get 2-Handed weapons and Arcane/Divine spells. That seemed untenable. Something had to give.

Wave 2: The Expanded (and Condensed) Roster

After taking some time to see the first wave in play, we made some changes. Wave 2 encompassed Paladin, Monk, and Druid, three of the four classes that originally appeared in the Rise of the Runelords Character Add-On Deck. The most obvious change was dropping from four characters to three, each of whom could now have a full complement of tools to exploit.

Plus we introduced some characters who would look really out of place in the Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box: Rooboo the tengu monk, Raz the dog-riding paladin, and Gronk the elf druid who spent most of his time as a tree. You wanted variety, we gave you variety.

In addition to introducing cards from Wrath of the Righteous, we started relying more heavily on "cycles," sets of cards that introduced variants on a central theme running through the deck. The Monk Class Deck, for example, got a whole bunch of new Asian-themed weapons, all of which work with the Acrobatics skill that Monks are known for.

The key element of this set: surprises. We wanted you to open up the deck and think, "Wow, I didn't see that coming."

Wave 3: Crazytimes Begin

OK, Amiri's waiting this whole time saying, "I was in Runelords too! What's a frost-giant-sword-slinging girl gotta do to get in a class deck?" Best for last, I say. Her time finally came, as wave 3 began with Barbarian, followed by Oracle and Alchemist.

Hoo boy, we jumped quite a ways out of the box here. The Barbarian Class Deck has two great cycles, the war paint cycle (in which you decide what color to paint your face and gain superpowers from it) and the improvised cycle (in which you decide what random thing to smash your foes with). Plus, we debuted the first character for the game based on a Paizo employee's home character: Erik Mona's Ostog the Unslain. (Try to keep him that way.)

In addition to a blind woman in a Rio Carnival outfit, the Oracle deck had a lizardfolk AND a pitborn. Grazzle and Ramexes divined things the fun way: using bones and entrails. This deck also gave the first previews of cards from our upcoming Mummy's Mask set, including some wild Egyptian blessings.

And where the Oracle Class Deck opened the door, the Alchemist Class Deck melted it off its hinges. The deck featured bombs, elementals, and the weirdest armor you've ever seen from us. (Spoiler: The Mummy's Mask team likes weird armor.) But most interesting of all was a cycle of "allies" you probably didn't imagine we'd make: oozes, slimes, and jellies. If these are Mother Myrtle's friends, I don't want to see her enemies.

Wave 4: New Old Tricks

By wave 4, we wanted to use some of the cool tricks we designed for Skull & Shackles and Wrath of the Righteous. This wave—Inquisitor, Witch, and Gunslinger—use rules we'd restricted ourselves from using in previous sets.

For example, check out this card from the Inquisitor Class Deck, Detect Thoughts.

See that little "if you have a role card" dodge in there? That's a spell that grows with you. You might hold on to that Adventure Deck 2 spell well through Adventure Deck 4 if you know it's gonna pick up allies after you get that role card. Thanks, Wrath of the Righteous mythic path cards, for teaching us that little trick.

The Witch Class Deck makes particularly great use of Wrath's cohort rules, maybe the cleverest stuff we've done with that card type. And the Gunslinger Class Deck (created in Wave 4, but due to be released after the next two decks I'm gonna talk about) takes some guns from Skull & Shackles and adds card after card of brand-new explosiveness.

Wave 5: Goblins in the Machinery

By now you know that we're breaking from our traditional class-driven format to roll out some goblin buffoonery. Goblins Fight! and Goblins Burn! are straight-up ridiculous, but as with all the other decks, they're fully playable in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild. These decks are... not kind to the goblins in question. You will see lots of goblins blown up, impaled, and/or turned into ooze. But y'know, in a good way. The crude little buggers really wanted to invade Gen Con, so they muscled their way in front of the Gunslinger Class Deck from the previous wave to make that happen.

Wave 5 also includes two of our most intricate decks, Warpriest, and (hey, I'm announcing this right now) Summoner. If you've played Oloch or Balazar, you know that you have to read those characters closely before diving in—there's a lot of "there" in there. And if you like that, you'll like these. The allies in these sets are some of the most interesting ones we've made.

As for the Summoner Class Deck in particular, I have never seen us stress so much over the complex interaction of a character and corresponding Owner card before. Probably took us thirty tries to get it right. But that's a story for another day.

So that's the score on the score of class decks we've sent to the printer to date. By the time the Summoner Class Deck comes out, Class Decks will have added more than 130 different character/role combos to PACG play.

One more thing...

When we were designing the goblin decks, we kept thinking about some of the goblin-themed promo cards we created for previous Adventure Paths, and how they'd go really nicely with these two decks. So Paizo dug into their warehouse and emerged with enough copies of these promos to cover Class Deck subscribers. For the first time, Class Deck subscribers are going to get some of that sweet, sweet promo card love. Subscription copies of Goblins Fight! will ship with the item Goblin Lockpick and a Blessing of Zogmugot (both Skull & Shackles promos), and Goblins Burn! will ship with the spell Fire Sneeze (a Rise of the Runelords promo) and another Blessing of Zogmugot. These are not reprints—these are the very same printings as the copies that have sometimes sold on eBay for more than the price of the decks we'll be shipping them with (so the cut and color of Fire Sneeze in particular is slightly different from the cards we print today).

If you haven't already signed up for a Class Deck Subscription, there has never been a better time. And if you already have a subscription, thank you for that... and get ready for a whole lot of strangeness!

Mike Selinker
Adventure Card Game Lead Designer

Pathfinder Society at PaizoCon 2016

Monday, April 18, 2016

PaizoCon 2016 is fast approaching, and we're expecting the sign-ups and lottery to go up in the near future. I know a bunch of you are wondering how to allot your lottery priorities, so let me help by tempting you with even more fun options. After all, we love making PaizoCon special by running unique games and providing other great content to make your trip to Seattle as fun as possible.

Illustration by Damien Mammoliti

Adventure Card Game Open Playtest (Lottery Event): Last year, Adventure Card Game Designer Tanis O'Conner masterminded a way to play the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game competitively, working as a team to outclass the other groups playing the same adventure. She'll be running playtests of this year's adventure (set to debut at Gen Con 2016), and this is your chance to be her nefarious guinea pigs. Your infernal insights disqualify you from participating in the Open at Gen Con, but you will have the diabolical satisfaction of watching the competitors brave the challenges you helped shape.

Adventure Card Game: We Be Goblins! (Lottery Event): ACG enthusiast Tyler Beck has worked with Tanis to create a three-part adaptation of the wildly popular We Be Goblins! series of adventures, complete with new characters and custom cards printed through DriveThruCards. There will be several rounds of this 4-hour PaizoCon exclusive, but seats are sure to go quickly!

Pathfinder Society Special #7-98: Serpents' Ire (Lottery Event with 35 tables): At PaizoCon 2015 players portrayed Aspis agents bent on wrecking the Grand Lodge. This year we're getting half the team back together—and adding some devious new faces—in order to infiltrate and destroy a new target: the Korholm Agenda. Step into the role of an 8th-level pregenerated scoundrel on Sunday evening.

PaizoCon Banquet (Ticketed Event): Following PaizoCon tradition, Paizo employees join fans for a great meal, and then we gather ‘round to hear what products are coming up over the next year. Expect some big news from the Pathfinder Society team, including the announcement of the next Roleplaying Guild season.

Pathfinder Society Q&A Seminar (Open Event): No doubt you have burning questions from the banquet, so the following day Tonya, Linda, and I will take your questions during the Pathfinder Society Q&A panel.

Out of Retirement / Season 0 Reborn (Lottery Events): The Out of Retirement tradition continues, giving a select group of players the chance to experience one of the retired Season 0 adventure renovated with full Pathfinder RPG stats and updated Chronicle sheets for full organized play credit. This year I'm running a slight variation on this event called Season 0 Reborn, in which I update one of the other Season 0 scenarios with all the extra goodies. As an added benefit, you can get organized play credit for these revised scenarios at PaizoCon, even if you already played the original versions.

We also know that GMs appreciate as much warning as possible about what maps to expect—especially when preparing for big events like PaizoCon. I've provided a list below of the published maps expected to appear in the April and May scenarios. As a note, the map list for Pathfinder Society Special: #7-98: Serpents' Ire is still being finalized, and I'll post that information in its product page once that's settled.

Pathfinder Society Scenario #7-20: All for Immortality, Part 1: First Taste of Eternity

• Flip-Mat: Desert Ruins
• Map Pack: Extradimensional Spaces

Pathfinder Society Scenario #7-21: The Sun Orchid Scheme

• Flip-Mat: Desert Ruins
• Flip-Mat Classic: Prison

Pathfinder Society Scenario #7-22: Bid for Alabastrine

• This adventure uses only custom maps.

Pathfinder Society Scenario #7-23: Abducted in Aether

• Map Pack: Evil Ruins

We'd also like to thank everyone who voted in our best Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild Accessory contest! The winner of the Best Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Accessory contest is...

Drumroll please...

Calthaer! His excellent revolving game board has won first place, and he will receive $30 credit to paizo.com. The two runners up, lackoffocus and Hawkmoon269, each receive $10 paizo.com credit for their fine work!

For our next contest, we want to see your sketches of your Pathfinder Society characters! More details and submission information will be available on May 17th—until then, get sketching!

John Compton
Pathfinder Society Lead Developer

Winged Warriors (Big and Small)

Friday, April 14, 2016

Hard to believe it's already Friday, which also means it's already time for another sneak peek at new minis from the upcoming Deadly Foes set of prepainted plastic Pathfinder Battles gaming figures from our friends at WizKids! This week I've decided to focus on two winged figures, one quite small, and the other very large! Let's take to the air and see what all the fuss is about!

Up first this week is the Imp, a diabolical little fellow who makes a perfect familiar for a villain or for the somewhat villainous arcane spellcaster that seems to infect nearly every party. Even though this figure is Tiny, I love all of the detail WizKids put into his face, and he's a nice addition to the ranks of devils that we'll continue to see in this set as we move toward its October release. The Imp is an uncommon figure.

Look, up in the sky, it's a freakin' terrifying raptor with claws as long as short swords! Here's hoping he's friendly! Giant Eagles have been a staple of fantasy since long before J.R.R. Tolkien had them rescue a bunch of hobbits from a tree, and I'm pleased to finally bring this "staple" creature to the Pathfinder Battles line. At the Large size and positioned in the uncommon rarity, it should be pretty easy to build up a terrifying flock!

And that's it for this week. I've got to space these things out a bit to make it all the way to October! In the meantime, keep on keepin' on, and keep up with the suggestions for new minis we can make for you!

Until then, I remain...

Erik Mona
Publisher

Goblins Invade—Critical Role Pathfinder Stream!

Friday, April 15, 2016

Happy Friday, Pathfinders!

If you follow Paizo on any of our social media outlets (Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter), you might have heard this exciting new, in the lead up to International Tabletop Day, Critical Role will be live-streaming their own Pathfinder game!

This coming Monday, April 18 at 7:00 PM Pacific time, I will be taking over the usual Geek & Sundry Twitch show #NoSurvivors for a special episode of Critical Role—Critial Role One-Shot! I will be running a one-night Pathfinder game that should prove chaotic, silly, and fun for players and views alike! Critical Role's own Taliesin Jaffe and Marisha Ray will be playing alongside No Survivors' own GM Ivan Van Norman, as well as our special guests: the incredibly talented Ashly Burch and Phil LaMarr.

Expect some fancy audio-scapes thanks to Syrinscape, and some familiar themes for all you long-time Pathfinder GMs and players, as you come watch us storm into Critical Role One-Shot!

Matt Mercer
Critical Role

Paizo and our friends at Syrinscape will also be providing prizes for giveaways during the stream—including Pathfinder adventures and SoundSets! And to celebrate the International Tabletop Day, we're putting a number of goblin-related products on sale at 25% off starting on Monday, April 18th until midnight Saturday, April 30th. You can check out the full lineup on paizo.com/goblins!

Chris Lambertz
Community & Digital Content Director

Let Me Be Your Armor, Let Me Be Your Shield

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Spellcasters are the focus of legend and envy. Weapon masters are flashy and famous. Armor masters?

Armor masters are survivors.

The reason the best offense is a good defense is the undefended die, which tends to end any effort at offense. The life of adventurers, crusaders, and champions of any cause is filled with dangers and enemies. Hammers seek to crush heads, spears seek to pierce flesh. Unless you've mastered some esoteric fighting style likely to allow you to dodge crossbow bolts, or have the skill (and time) to defend yourself with spells, you need armor. And anything you depend on to save your life is worth learning to master.

So who are the armor masters of the Inner Sea?

The horse tribe nomads of Karazh have learned to balance the weight of their armor in the saddle, so it does not hamper their skilled riding.

The Knights of Arnisant follow in the footsteps of the famous general who was crucial to the defeat of the Whispering Tyrant. They depend on their shields to guard not just their bodies, but also their minds and souls against incorporeal undead, curse-flinging witches, and the death magic of necromancers.

The Kortos Cavalry are Absalom's only mounted troops, protecting the island's hinterlands as well as the Westgate district and training to fight to the last.

The yojimbos are samurai dedicated to protecting others, and their resolve is not focused on just their own needs. Each can act as a living shield, standing between a chosen ally and a deadly foe, but through force of will can also inspire an ally to overcome fatigue, or at higher levels allow and ally to stave off fear, nausea, and even death.

And anyone trusting armor from leather to plate can learn at least a few armored tricks to help themselves survive, whether it's combinging the power of your attacks with the weight of your armor with Intense Blow, expending stamina to more effectively use Redirect Attack, or just learning to fight from rafters and walls while wearing an arachnid harness.

Illustrations by Manuel Castanon

Most characters wear at least some armor—get the most from it with the Armor Master's Handbook!

Owen K.C. Stephens
Developer

The Queen Returns—New Pathfinder Products Announced!

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

We welcome you, once again, to the city of old Korvosa.
Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

All around the Paizo office the return of the sun and leaves and greenery are a reminder of upcoming trips and conventions (including PaizoCon 2016, May 27-30!) ahead this spring and summer. This time of the year is one that the Paizo staff, fans, and our community really look forward to—getting to meet many of you face-to-face, game together, and the announcements of Pathfinder products to come that we've been keeping under our hats!

In just a few short weeks, April products will be arriving at local game stores and the mailboxes of subscribers. These include:

• Pathfinder Adventure Path #105: The Inferno Gate (Hell's Vengeance 3 of 6)
• Pathfinder Adventure Card Game—Class Deck: Alchemist
• Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Heaven Unleashed
• Pathfinder Player Companion: Armor Master's Handbook
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: River Crossing
• Pathfinder Map Pack: Road System
• Pathfinder Tales: Hellknight
• Pathfinder—Hollow Mountain #5
• Pathfinder Legends—Mummy's Mask #5: The Slave Trenches of Hakotep

Last month at GAMA Trade Show, Erik showed off two exciting developments to retailers and gaming industry professionals. The first is the introduction of a new Pocket Edition softcover format for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook and Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary slated for release this July. These new softcover editions are a great option for newcomers to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, or gamers who'd prefer a more travel friendly version of the rules.

The second announcement is one that's been highly speculated and sought after in our community—a return of the classic Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path this September! The Curse of the Crimson Throne Hardcover will update the Adventure Path to the Pathfinder RPG ruleset, include a new mission by James Jacobs, new illustrations, and more. Stay tuned for previews and peeks over the coming months on the Paizo blog!

We've also released the rest of our current product lineup for September 2016, so be sure to look out for:

• Pathfinder Adventure Path #110: The Thrushmoor Terror (Strange Aeons 2 of 6)
• Pathfinder Adventure Card Game—Class Deck: Warpriest
• Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Temples
• Pathfinder Player Companion: Divine Anthology
• Pathfinder Pawns: Hell's Vengeance Pawn Collection
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Mythos Dungeon

Safe travels as you embark to gaming destinations near and far! If you're in the Seattle area next month, grab yourself a PaizoCon Badge and Preview Banquet Ticket (this nets you a first look at more Pathfinder goodness headed your way!), and celebrate all things Paizo and Pathfinder.

Chris Lambertz
Community & Digital Content Director