Keeping Busy With New Adventures

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Phew! I always think of the months leading up to PaizoCon and Gen Con as the busiest time of the year, and while that's true, it often downplays the holiday season's tight schedule to get all of the scenarios ready a little earlier so that our colleagues can head off for some well-deserved rest at the end of the year. That doesn't mean you're off the hook, either—remember that you should be voting (and encouraging your friends to vote) in the ongoing Leaders in Liberty event to help direct the Liberty's Edge faction. After that, we have two great new scenarios for you to enjoy.

The first is Pathfinder Society Scenario #9–08: Birthright Betrayed, a Tier 1–5 scenario by Sam Polak. I'm excited about this adventure for numerous reasons, and the one you've likely heard me talk about before is the Sovereign Court opportunities that tie into the upcoming War for the Crown Adventure Path. It's hard to believe that so much time has passed since Crystal Frasier and I first began scheming this crossover. The wait to hear everyone's reactions to various scenes (including several that have left Thurston Hillman calling me "a monster” for the past 6 months) seems unbearable, but at last our first installation is here!

In Birthright Betrayed, the Pathfinder Society has an opportunity to study relics from the Shining Crusade. The problem is that those same exhibits are in a museum the local baron has habitually ransacked to promote his public image, in the process shaming his glorious ancestor. It's as much a service to history as it is a favor for the Sovereign Court faction to take this baron down a peg, particularly once the PCs begin investigating what's really been happening around the Taldan city of Ridonport. Even low-level PCs can accomplish big things in this scenario and walk away not just feeling like heroes but also being told that they saved the day. Sam's made this especially charming by providing numerous opportunities to meet and interact with the people of Taldor—not just the nobles we see in most Taldan adventures, but also the everyday folks just trying to make ends meet. I've included two of my favorite new NPC portraits from this adventure, both by Sebastian Gomez.

Illustrations by Sebastian Gomez

Overall it promises to be a great start to this story, which includes a Tier 3–7 scenario next month and a Tier 7–11 scenario in January (right before War for the Crown launches in February). This is indicative of a trend you'll see in Season 9. Specifically, there are very few officially multi-part series, unlike in past seasons. Instead, each faction has an ongoing storyline that we've tried to spread over the season as appropriate, and in almost all cases these faction scenarios' tiers get higher over time. The hope's that if you want to really play all 2–3 adventures with the same PC, you can, but the stories are typically partitioned in such a way that you can still have a meaningful experience if you use a few different PCs to play the adventures (see the recent pair of Scarab Sages scenarios for a good example). This also means that each of the factions gets a good level spread over Season 9, so you don't need to be low level to experience the Liberty's Edge story or high level to appreciate what the Dark Archive's doing. Overall, we're tinkering with how we've always done things to deliver some fun stories in different ways.

Speaking of traditions, we've made something of a tradition of releasing a new replayable scenario around this time of year. Linda Zayas-Palmer has increasingly taken the lead on these special projects, so it's only right that we hear directly from her about what to expect.

Our second scenario this month is the replayable 3–7 adventure Pathfinder Society Scenario #9–09: Beyond the Halflight Path. Like its older sister Pathfinder Society Scenario #8–07: From the Tome of Righteous Repose, Beyond the Halflight Path is packed with opportunities for the GM to customize her adventure. The story takes the PCs to Kaer Maga, an eclectic city whose ancient history refuses to stay buried. It's up to the PCs to get to the bottom of a troublesome mystery and strike against its source in the vaults below. What is the threat? What is the background behind it? Who even gives the mission briefing? All of these depend upon how the GM decides to assemble the story.

Brian Duckwitz really stepped up to the plate in writing this adventure. I left a lot of room in the outline for him to come up with possible plots, and you'll see many of those ideas in the adventure. I don't want to put spoilers here, so I'll just say: check out the Scintillating Halls arcs. They are delightfully creepy. When it comes to encounters, think about how many encounters are in typical scenario, and then multiply that by around seven. Now imagine adjusting everything for four players and giving every last creature its own tactics. Oh, and make each of the nine possible villains interesting and distinctive while you are at it. It was a serious undertaking, and Brian did an excellent job.

Illustration by Tom Ventre

This was also an opportunity to get some more great Duskwarden art, this time as depicted by Tom Ventre.

That's all for this week! I hope that (as is true for Pathfinders as for players in real life) everyone travels safely if you're heading out of town for the holiday season. Remember to look up local games to share the cheer with others, no matter where you're wintering this year.

John Compton
Organized Play Lead Developer

Pick Your Poison—Or Potion

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

In a couple of weeks, Pathfinder Player Companion: Potions & Poisons will be available in stores worldwide and as a PDF here on paizo.com. If you've got a character that uses poisons, brews potions, or has poisonous racial tendencies, this is the book for you!

Potions & Poisons starts off with a section providing feats and archetypes for gripplis, nagaji, and vishkanyas like the swamp poisoner, venomblade, and disciple of the forked tongue. There's also a scorpion bloodline for those sorcerers who trace their power back to these venomous arachnids.

The book goes on to provide player options for character classes that frequently make use of poisons, such as the alchemist, rogue, witch, and investigator. Some of these new options include the fermenter alchemist, venom siphoner witch, and the rotdrinker rogue, as well as new alchemist discoveries, witch hexes, rogue talents, and investigator tricks.

Illustrations by Kent Hamilton

Deeper into this Player Companion, readers can put poisons away for a bit and read about potions. There are new feats for characters who brew potions, spells that aid in potion brewing, and a table of spells that are viable for potions and oils.

Pathfinder Player Companion: Potions & Poisons continues with a section on interesting elixirs and nonmagical alchemical concoctions usable by everyone. The last part of the book provides 10 new poisons, 12 new drugs, a dozen items frequently used by character who incorporate poison use into combat, and a dozen items used by those who either treat poisons or fight against toxic creatures and characters.

There's plenty in there for everyone! So, take your antitoxin before diving in and watch out for any needles, weird fluids, or strange-smelling gasses.

We Were Professionals... Civilized!

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

This month sees the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild release its first Tier 3-6 scenario: Starfinder Society #1-06: A Night in Nightarch. Adventure Path author and overall prolific freelancer, Mikko Kallio, stepped up to the plate to tackle this first foray into higher level Starfinder play. I had the pleasure of working alongside Mikko on the Ruins of Azlant and War for the Crown Adventure Paths, and I knew from that point that I wanted to bring him onboard for Starfinder Society.

Illustration by Hannah Boving

A Night in Nightarch, as the scenario name suggests, takes place in the drow settlement of Nightarch, on the distant world of Apostae. If you've had a chance to read Alien Archive, then you know that the drow have a strong presence on Apostae, where they've taken on a major role as weapon suppliers. The crux of this month's scenario revolves around a standard business transaction gone awry; the Starfinder Society purchased a shipment of weapons from the drow, and now a petty rivalry between drow houses endangers that legitimate agreement. The drow offer the Starfinder Society 24 hours of diplomatic immunity to retrieve the stolen weapons shipment, and it's up to the PCs to accomplish this vital mission.

Getting the Society's guns back will require a measure of guile and stealth... or a determined group of Starfinders willing to kick in the door and murder everything in their path. Mikko did an excellent job of giving the PCs options on how to tackle this dilemma. For groups that prefer a methodical planning approach, there are several benefits to doing so. For groups preferring the battle thrill of clearing out an entire complex of foes, well, there are certainly a lot of enemies to be cleared in this scenario!

Finally, I'm eager to see the reaction to the Chronicle sheet associated with this scenario. We're trying something a bit different with this scenario, and following up on some promises we made from early in the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild's inception. So, please be sure to post your (spoiler tagged) thoughts on the forums!

As a related note, this scenario has no special scenario tags.

Come back next month, and be sure to bring your tinfoil conspiracy hats, when we preview our next scenario Starfinder Society #1-07: The Solar Sortie. This upcoming scenario is of extreme importance to the Dataphiles faction.

Until then!

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

What Pathfinder Society Means to Me

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Hi All! With Thanksgiving just around the corner for us in the Paizo office, I wanted to do a blog that was more personal. I'm a pretty private person by nature, so this isn't easy for me to write, but it's worthwhile.

To say one more thing up front: anxiety and depression affect a lot of people, and for those of us who deal with them, society sometimes gives us a sense that they are something that needs to be hidden away, or that they are something we should "just get over". Or, the real kicker for me, that because there are people out there who have a harder life than we do, that our feelings are somehow not valid. These ideas are preposterous and unfair. They are not something that people can "just get over", and I hope that by talking about my experiences, I can help someone else know that they are far from alone, and that there is hope. If you are struggling alone, please reach out and talk to someone you trust. People want to help a lot more than your mind might let you realize.

This blog is primarily about my experience with Pathfinder Society and the way it has benefitted my life, so it doesn't go much into the other ways that I've sought help over the years. It's not the whole story by a long shot, but it's an important piece.

When I first started off with Pathfinder Society, it was a fun activity I did at Gen Con with a group of friends. Then, when my home gaming group started scattering to the winds, we turned to Pathfinder Society to recruit new people with something way less daunting than our typical multi-year campaigns.

It was around this time that our local and freshly minted Centure-Captain Don Walker put a request on the messageboards for people to join him in an inaugural game at Pandemonium Books and Games. To be honest, I wasn't really that sure about the idea of playing in a group of mostly strangers. I was worried about whether they would accept me, and if I could open up around them. But I wanted to give it a try, so I went to that game, and I had a great time. And I kept going to games at Pandy, week after week. Over time, my confidence grew to the point where I took up the GMing mantle and became the store's organizer.

After graduating from college, I really struggled. I'd had an idea of what I would be doing with my life, but nothing was coming together the way I'd expected it. Anxiety and depression, which I'd been dealing with on and off since my early teens, hit me hard. There were a lot of weeks where the only thing that was able to draw me out of my apartment was my Sunday Pathfinder Society game. I kept signing up to GM week after week, even though I would spend every morning before the game filled with dread that, even though my last 10 games or so had gone well, this one, THIS one I would definitely botch. Once the game started going, though, I fell into a familiar groove. For those few hours, no matter what else was going on, I could laugh and have a good time with familiar and new players alike. After the games, I sometimes confided in the people I trusted most about what was going on inside my mind, and their supportive words helped push me to get the help I needed to claw back onto a better path in life.  I don't know if I ever really told them how much that support meant to me. So, to all of my friends in the Boston Lodge, thank you.

Eventually, I became a Venture-Lieutenant, taking on more responsibilities like organizing conventions and overseeing interactive specials. I also started GMing at conventions, and getting to know a lot more people in the community. And I have to say, you guys are pretty great. I know I only know a handful of you, but I look forward to meeting more of you each time I make it to a convention. I went from thinking that I would just GM at stores sometimes to plotting out my path to the 10 specials needed for my 5th star.

When the job posting for Paizo came up, I wasn't going to apply. My anxiety told me that it would be a waste of Paizo's time, and that there was no way they would hire me. But I was convinced to at least try. And, as you all know, Paizo hired me. I knew I wanted to work with Organized Play, and I was fortunate enough to get placed doing exactly that. Thank you, everyone at Paizo, and especially John Compton, for showing me the ropes. Thank you for making this a truly amazing place to work.

I don't want to give the impression that everything is always sunny, or that I have somehow erased my tendencies toward anxiety and depression from my mind.  But when they flare up, just as before, the Pathfinder Society community helps me get back on my feet. About a year ago, when I was walking home from work, I got hit by a car. I had a concussion, and a few things in my head got knocked out of whack. Among other things, I became intensely fearful, particularly of being any significant distance from my house. Fortunately, the Paizo offices aren't that far from home, so I was able to transition back to work after the holidays. In February, though, I had committed to fly out to TotalCon, and I was not going to cancel on that unless I absolutely had to. So, I went. Lisa and David Neilson hosted me in their home before the convention started, and helped me cope with the storm inside my head. I didn't want to color the convention experience of the new people I met with my anxieties, so I did what I had learned to do back after college. I put on my game face and I let my experience as a GM take over until I could push the fear back. And I confided in my friends from the community. That cross-country flight was the first thing to pull me more than 3 miles from my apartment in 4 months, and many of the experiences I had at TotalCon were immensely helpful in pulling myself back together. So, to those I spoke with and gamed with at TotalCon, and to Lisa and David in particular, thank you.

One of the best things about wearing the "blue shirt" is being able to dedicate much of my time to the Pathfinder Society community. It's sitting with John and Thursty and cackling with glee as we come up with new and exciting plots to throw at your characters. It's working together with freelancers to make the best scenarios we can for you. It's learning from experience, and especially from your feedback, how to make things better for the future. And it's getting to meet so many more of you in person. So, to all of you, thank you for being awesome.

What are you grateful for in our community? What has Pathfinder Society brought to your life? Are there any particular community members you would like to call out for their positive influence?

Linda Zayas-Palmer
Developer

I am the Law

Monday, November 20, 2017

Hello and welcome to this week's miniature unveiling! We continue with Pathfinder Battles: Iconic Heroes Box Set 8. This week, we have the Noble Aric and his alter ego the Red Raven. These miniatures were really fun to work with because it made me notice all the small, similar details between the two that I had not noticed before. See if you can spot them.

Michael Kenway
Director of Licensing

Art of the Wild

Friday, November 17, 2017

Now that Ultimate Wilderness is out in the wild, there have been plenty of discussions about what's in the book. Since words only go so far, I wanted to take this opportunity to show off some of the book's art. Feast your eyes on the bounties of nature.

Illustration by Kiki Moch Rizky

Illustration by Valeria Lutfullina

Illustration by Alexandre Chaudret

Illustration by Nikolai Ostertag and Brynn Methany

Adam Daigle

Managing Developer

Homebrew Special: The Little Dragons That Could

Thursday, November 16, 2017

We continue our Pathfinder Adventure Card Game homebrew series with a look at True Dragons of Absalom by David Jacobson (Theryon Stormrune) and newly crowned Pathfinder Society ACG Online Play venture-captain Tyler Beck (Cartmanbeck).

At PaizoCon 2016, with help of ACG organized play coordinator Tanis O'Connor, we debuted a series of adventures based on the incredibly popular We Be Goblins modules that Paizo has been releasing as part of Free RPG Day over the last few years. We had enjoyed playing the RPG versions of the scenarios so much, and had fallen in love with the tempestuous goblin characters detailed in the modules, so it was natural to try to convert them. We even convinced Tanis to create a special boon for the event (one coveted by many an ACG player since then). Then, before Gen Con 2016, we were honored to be asked to help adapt these into the official Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild Season of the Goblins!

We were thrilled by how well received our goblins content had been, so we decided to set to work on another set of adventures for PaizoCon 2017. There were more We Be Goblins modules we could use for inspiration, but one of our good friends, Elizabeth Corrigan (Eliandra Giltessan), has some sort of personal distaste for goblins—crazy, right??—so she asked us to consider kobolds instead. Coincidentally, one of our all-time favorite Pathfinder Society scenarios features kobolds: Thurston Hillman's (in)famous True Dragons of Absalom! Anytime Paizo provides pregen characters like the ones in that scenario, they beg to be adapted.

True Dragons of Absalom brings players into the slightly crazed mindset of Absalom's sewer-dwelling kobold tribe, the Sewer Dragons. These kobolds are given a field commission by Venture-Captain Drandle Dreng himself to serve the Pathfinder Society in tracking down the perpetrators of a plot involving the Sewer Dragons' turf and a shadowy group calling themselves the Onyx Alliance. Just as exciting as the story, however, is the chance to run through an organized play scenario as a kobold, a race not normally legal for Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild play… and the pregenerated kobolds that come with that scenario do not disappoint.

Engashez represents the most diplomatic of kobolds… a Dragon Yapper bard who, rather than buffing her allies, annoys her enemies into submission with her high-pitched screeching and drumming.

So, we set about adapting the pregens for our game. Everyone who's familiar with Pathfinder kobolds knows that if there's one thing that kobolds are renowned for, it's their traps. They LOVE setting traps. We obviously had to translate this deadly proclivity into character powers, so we came up with a brand-new mechanic for trap-setting.

Traps aren't just for rogues and rangers! Varanog's magic traps will make cinders out of the most resilient adventurers …I mean monsters!

The nice thing about the trap-setting mechanic is that it gives you the chance to get cards out of your hand while setting up for combat checks later on. You could even set a trap or two at your current location, then move away and let one of your less combat-oriented allies jump over and obliterate a monster.

Once we adapted all six characters, we had to decide on the rest of the storyline. We wanted to have more than a single ACG adventure, so we dove into the Pathfinder Modules archive and found the perfect solution: We would also adapt Crown of the Kobold King and Revenge of the Kobold King. This would give us inspiration for tons of excellent characters for our special adventure path, including Jeva the werewolf-child; the deadly forge-spurned; and Merlokrep, the kobold king himself.

As a bit of a tangent, a lot of the scenarios we were putting together were set in the sewers of Absalom. Did you ever realize how difficult it is to design an entire adventure based in a sewer system? We had to pull locations from several different base sets, as well as create a couple of new sewer locations which were reused throughout the entire Adventure Path. We playtested and modified these until we were satisfied, and it was a bit tougher than we'd imagined.

We designed a bunch of dragon-themed boons, and even commissioned art for a bunch of them by the gifted and talented Keera McNeill; check out more of her work at Vivid As Life Illustrations)! I shudder to think how many playful faerie dragons had to die for my favorite new armor…

Note: The images on the cards above are not covered by the Paizo Community Use Policy, as Paizo does not own the copyrights to them.

We'd like to take a moment at this point to recognize that these cards ended up looking really nice, and we don't want to take all of the credit for that. Besides our awesome artist, we also had help from the one and only Andrew Warner (Hawkmoon269), who created a really excellent card creator database that we used to generate the majority of these new cards.

You'll notice a new Hat trait on that jester's cap. That's because adventure deck 2 of our We Are Dragons homebrew series includes a pleasant surprise for those who have played through True Dragons of Absalom:

Hats is a simple otyugh with simple tastes, and is by far our favorite otyugh of all time.

Hats likes hats. When Hats loses one of his hats, he gets mad. He has only a single role, the Master Collector, which helps him collect even more hats. I think you can see the pattern emerging here. When we sat down to play True Dragons at PaizoCon 2017, one of the first things a player asked was "Is Hats in this?” so we knew we'd made a good choice including him as an unlockable character.

Speaking of PaizoCon, Mike Selinker himself showed up and sat down to play with us, and really enjoyed the characters and scenarios. He also pointed out mistakes and suggested improvements in the scenarios and cards with such precision and care that it would have been impossible not to know that he does this for a living.

We've really enjoyed designing and running these special adventures for PaizoCon, and we're going to continue doing it. For PaizoCon 2018, we've got a very piratey, gobliny campaign planned; if you're planning to attend, we can't wait to see you there!

Tyler Beck and David Jacobson

Leaders in Liberty 2

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Back in July, the organized play team launched an exciting contest called Leaders in Liberty to name and detail a new character in Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild canon. We read the entries, narrowed it down to our top picks, and invited the community to vote on the best candidate. In mid October we had our winner, Karisa Starsight as presented by Sam Sampson!

When we first launched the contest, we were a little coy about exactly how this character might feature in the campaign. We were, after all, several weeks away from releasing Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-02: A Case of Missing Persons, which provides considerably more context. If you haven't played it yet, I both strongly encourage that you do so, and I will be providing only the slimmest spoilers (you can see more in the spoil-tagged section below). Namely, Major Colson Maldris is not currently available to provide the Liberty's Edge faction the necessary guidance and oversight. While this faction is likely one of the best equipped to operate without a leader, we want to bring in someone who can not only provide leadership in the difficult time, but also guide the faction's vision and steer its reforms in the wake of Maldris's rather spotty legacy.

Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-02 Spoiler:

Major Colson Maldris has gone missing, and it seems he's enlisted some very questionable allies. Without an appointed leader, the Liberty's Edge faction needs someone to keep the operation running smoothly and coordinate the hunt for Maldris.

That's right, we're asking you to help pick a faction leader.

We have two candidates, whose backstories I'll summarize below along with a snapshot of their strengths and style. The first is Leaders in Liberty contest winner Karisa Starsight, who you can read about in more detail in this September blog. The second is Tamrin Credence, a halfling smuggler and freelance freedom fighter. Let's meet them both.

Illustration by Tom Ventre

Karisa Starsight

The slaver Kolm Redarax found the infant Karisa aboard a derelict Bonuwat ship, and he was so taken by her unexplained presence and strikingly blue eyes that he adopted her as his daughter. She worked hard aboard that ship, tending to the slaves her adoptive father shuttled from port to port. Whereas he saw these souls as chattel, she quietly grew to respect and pity them. As she reached adulthood, Karisa struggled between her love and loyalty for her father and the plights of the people he bought and sold.

Several years ago, Andoren privateers known as the Gray Corsairs assaulted their ship, subduing the crew and freeing the slaves. When the Corsairs' captain was on the verge of slaying Redarax, Karisa intervened, swearing her own life, service, and freedom to Andoran in exchange for his life. Not want to condemn the young woman to anything resembling slavery, the captain provided a different offer: she could instead apprentice to an upstanding Eagle Knight, and Redarax would live out his sentence in an Andoren prison. Karisa eagerly accepted.

Her mentor was none other than Major Colson Maldris, and she has excelled as his aide. Over the past year, her duties have more resembled those of a steward, overseeing some of the Liberty's Edge faction's operations while Maldris traveled farther afield. Even so, there's a side of Maldris that she's only now uncovering as she tries to find his current whereabouts and holds together the initiatives he set in motion. All the while she wonders at the irony that no matter his morals, Karisa's father is in chains while she promotes liberty in the Inner Sea region and beyond.

Strengths: Karisa Starsight has a much more intimate familiarity with the faction's operations, which inclines her toward making changes and executing missions "within the system" while also watching for hypocrisies that undermine the faction's goals. She has solid connections within the Eagle Knights without being one herself. She's also the more self-reflective candidate, likely to examine the faction's moral pillars and assess how the faction could do better. Even so, her childhood on the seas leaves her ready to tackle threats head-on when needed.

---

Illustration by Kenneth Camaro

Tamrin Credence

Trained as a sommelier, butler, and shopping assistant, the halfling now known as Tamrin Credence spent his first 26 years as a Chelish slave, albeit a well-treated one. When a tiller (a member of the halfling liberation group called the Bellflower Network) infiltrated the estate and laid plans to lead a few halfling slaves to freedom, Tamrin made a counter-offer: he would create a distraction so the tiller could escape with twice as many souls. The plan worked, albeit at a cost. By the time the tiller returned to lead him out of Cheliax, the halfling butler had received many scars for his deception.

Tamrin Credence is a self-styled name that the halfling adopted in the decade since, both to distance him emotionally from his subjugated past and to create a new identity that wouldn't lead to his recapture. He's continued to assist the Bellflower Network as a spy and supplier, often leading him into dangerous territory or treacherous relationships. Although he's infiltrated and worked with the Aspis Consortium and Cheliax's port authorities to this end, his most infamous rivalry is that with Zarta Dralneen, whom he regularly undermined while she served Cheliax as that nation's liaison to the Pathfinder Society. Only once she fell from Cheliax's good graces, suffered unforgiveable offenses by her former allies, and sought refuge with the Society did the two agents begin finding common ground. They've now worked together on coordinating several missions, though years of thwarting each other's ambitions leave them prone to verbally sniping at each other over unresolved gripes they're yet to bury.

Tamrin's experience with the Liberty's Edge faction is modest, having only worked with Major Colson Maldris a few times before the former began more concerted collaboration in the past 18 months. Even so, he's a proud "liberator of humanoid assets" with criminal and business contacts in dozens of cities. What he lacks in faction experience, he makes up for in gutsiness, survivability, cunning, and a willingness to lead from the front as needed.

Strengths: Tamrin Credence is a pragmatic individual who doesn't mind breaking a few unreasonable rules if he can mitigate the harm to innocent bystanders and maximize the benefit for oppressed people. He's witnessed the dark underbelly of several infamous operations firsthand, and he knows that no matter how seductive those groups might seem at times, they're ultimately immoral. These experiences have left him hardened against corruption, and he takes a more decisive stance on correcting the faction's embarrassing past misdeeds. He has strong Bellflower Network connections, though he would broaden his agenda considerably if made the leader of Liberty's Edge.

Voting

Voting begins now! Let us know which of these two candidates should step up to lead the Liberty's Edge faction in Major Colson Maldris's absence. You'll have three weeks to pick your favorite candidate, and the winner will be announced on Wednesday, December 13. Our plan is to feature both of these characters at least once, so even the candidate that doesn't receive the most votes will still play a role in a future scenario. We're also looking forward to pursuing more of the Liberty's Edge storyline later in Season 9, discovering just what Maldris has set in motion!

John Compton
Organized Play Lead Developer

It's a Dangerous World

Friday, November 10, 2017

Sure, we can probably all name adventures named after their big, spooky destination—anything from Hall of the Flesh Eaters to Crypt of the Everflame to Ice Tomb of the Giant Queen. Yet for all the gutsy action that takes place in these fanes of dark deities and towers of trash-talking tyrants, a big part of adventuring isn't about where you're going but how you got there. That means crossing the wilderness, the great nameless expanses that for many of us boil down to random encounters and conveniently forgetting to track rations.

So why is there such a dearth of adventures about exploration? One possibility is that location-based dungeon crawls lend themselves to more evocative titles, whereas stories about getting from Point A to Point B could as readily be named "The Ambushes Happen at Midnight," "A Tragic Series of Fortitude Saves," or the ever-popular "We Cast Teleport." Sure, we have some beautiful exceptions to this trend like the Kingmaker Adventure Path, but I'm going to posit we've really been waiting for fun ways to engage with the wilds and weave them more fully into our narratives.

Enter Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Wilderness, which hits shelves later this month. Whereas Stephen discussed shifters and Linda waxed poetic about leshys in earlier blogs, I'm excited to share some highlights from Chapters 4 and 5, which cover wilderness rules and companion creatures respectively.

Chapter 4: Mastering the Wild

I'd break down Chapter 4 into three major themes: travel, resources, and setting.

Travel's all about the making the wilderness experience more interesting. Full disclosure: I'm often a GM, so my definition of "more interesting" quickly gravitates to things that can kill or inconvenience the player characters. Like me, you might adore the Hazards and Disasters section (pages 146–151), which has rules for everything from brambles to volcanic eruptions to something cruel called "vampire orchids." Likewise, the Weather (pages 165–171) and Traps (172–173) sections are quite charming, providing not just a more robust system for determining what the weather's like outside, but also the rules for a swinging log trap that can knock out the party's wizard faster than you can say "martial-caster disparity." When I'm on the other side of the GM screen, I really enjoy being the party cartographer, so I quite like the Discovery and Exploration section (pages 124–127), which provides an easy-to-use, overarching rules system for exploring wilderness expanses, uncovering sites of interest, and turning the experience of reaching a dungeon into more than a brief travel montage. Perhaps the real gem is Spells of the Wild (pages 156–161), which provides a deeper look at common wilderness-oriented spells like pass without trace, diminish plants, and wind walk, particularly with an eye for how these spells can contribute to (but not necessarily bypass) wilderness exploration.

Illustrations by Roberto Pitturru

Resources cover all the great reasons the PCs would want to enter the wilderness voluntarily. Love free stuff (tends to share an answer with "Do you have a character?")? No doubt you'd love to be able to salvage components for alchemical gear, magic items, and costly spell components using the new Foraging and Salvaging section (pages 134–135). How about commemorating your latest kill with the Trophies and Treasures section (page 162–164), which provides ways to collect mementos, skins, claws, and more that you can use to create new items—which vary based on the trophies you collect—and remind you of your awesome deeds? Want to get more mileage out of Profession (herbalist)? Me too! Now you can with the new Herbalism rules (pages 152–155). But wait, there's one more prize awaiting you, and it's one of the requests I've heard most for Pathfinder RPG: Harvesting Poisons (pages 142–145), allowing you to at last extract the poison glands from one beast and jab them into another.

Finally, I'd like to linger for a moment on the setting resources, which cover two easily-incorporated pieces of Golarion lore that bring the wilds to life: the First World (128–133) and the Green Faith (136–141). The First World is the "first draft" of the world as we know it, having been plastered over with a new reality by the gods. That suits the native fey just fine, though every once and a while the boundaries between the two realms grow thin and allow enterprising explorers back and forth. If you like what you see, I recommend also checking out Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The First World, Realm of the Fey. Meanwhile, think of the Green Faith as the venerable religion that doesn't just seem to predate worshipping the gods; it spurns anthropomorphization of nature altogether. Founded when four rival sects of nature-worshippers witnessed a beautiful natural phenomenon and averted destroying each other in a civil war, the Green Faith represents the faceless power that fuels much of druidic magic.

Not enough? Very well...

Chapter 5: Companions and Familiars

What book about nature is complete without a bunch of new animal companions? Ultimate Wilderness has tons of new options for new animal companions, ranging from the eohippus (an early ancestor of the horse) to the marsupial devil to the full-size (read: Large) grizzly bear! Be the first to train a saber-toothed cat. Dive deep beneath the sea in the belly of your pet anglerfish. Relish the sight of your GM struggling to respond when you ask if your paladin's divine mount can be a giant porcupine. Speaking of which, page 178 also incorporates a bunch of these new options into the cavalier's, paladin's, and ranger's list of available animal companions. Author Mikko Kallio did a great job here.

Illustrations by Brynn Metheney and Leesha Hannigan

Animals are great, but what've really captured my attention since Ultimate Magic and Advanced Race Guide were the vermin and plant companions respectively. At long last, in Ultimate Wilderness, I got to write a pile of fun new vermin and plant companions. Some of my favorite plants include the creeping puffball, which explodes in Wisdom-damaging poison when struck; the gulper plant, which lets you recruit a walking pitcher plant as your battle buddy; and the sniper cactus, which can fire its spines at distant targets. There's also an array of vermin companions, including the giant mantis shrimp, which can make iterative attacks with its pincers; the web tyrant spider, which focuses on web-throwing rather than poison; and the giant solifugid, adept at pouncing on anything that moves. Want familiars? You can also recruit the suture vine, a symbiotic plant that survives on blood but also knits your wounds back together as it feeds; the giant tardigrade, an "immense" version of the thoroughly unkillable micro-organism; and the ravenous tumbleweed, a carnivorous plant that attacks by charging into its prey and gains extra speed during windstorms.

There's so much more in here, from companion and familiar archetypes to new animal tricks to new companion feats. There's just not time enough to cover it all, so I encourage you to grab a copy of Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Wilderness today!

John Compton
Organized Play Lead Developer

Hell's Vengeance 2, All Hell Breaks Loose

Monday, November 6, 2017

Hey, I just got done revealing the surprise fifth entry in our upcoming Ultimate Add-On Deck series, and now it's time to get back to evildoings. Remember when I showed you in Hell's Vengeance Character Deck 1? I'll bet you thought, "Okay, these guys are awful people. But I get them. Linxia's just the anti-Seelah; strong and lawful but not at all good. Lazzero is Kyra with a downward-pointed star around his neck. Urgraz is kinda like Oloch with his pounding things flat and his abilities to 'help' his 'allies' with 'useful' tricks." And before you got too caught up in all those air quotes, you thought, "I'll bet the three characters in Hell's Vengeance Character Deck 2 are gonna be just like that."

I'mma go with a big "No" on that one, pally. The next three characters you will meet are not like anything we've ever done before. And the fact that they're willing to gut you like a trout makes them all the more likable.

Let's start with Zelhara.

She's got scars upon thars.

Zelhara is an inquisitor just like Imrijka! Except in no way like Imrijka. Because Zelhara is a straight-up torture fiend. Burying cards, shuffling other people's discarded cards into her deck, making her companions discard their allies—Zelhara is a pincushion of uncomfortable choices.

This whole deck is loaded with cards that have the Corrupted trait. Zelhara is so corrupt that she barely knows the rules for Corrupted cards exist. She doesn't even interact with the Redemption card that's in the deck (or the one in Wrath of the Righteous). She just blasts by all those penalties and clamps the thumbscrews to the world.

Oh, also, Zelhara is into whips and chains. She's so good with those that she can use her Divine skill to cut things to ribbons. Rolling Divine checks for weapons is awesome. Especially when these cards are on the table:

You don't know chains till they're coming out of your eyes.

Next, see this guy Emil? He's a pitborn, with a little bit of Hell in him. We've done a pitborn character before; what makes Emil special is he's our first-ever assassin. Here's what that's like:

Killing you softly.

Emil doesn't fight anything unless he wants to, and can evade his encounters at the cost of your cards. He can Harsk you from a distance. He can handle poisons like no one else; burying cards to poison is what happens to other people.

And when he turns into a bug-faced Red Mantis Assassin, he turns weapons into killing machines without having to play them as weapons, which means no Harpy Monk is gonna ruin his day.

Here are some cards Emil's going to want to have around:

Reepazo called. She wants her mask back.

Finally, we get to our first-ever kinda-undead character. Nyctessa is a dhampir, the offspring of a vampire and a human. Lone Shark's editor Aviva recently told us all about what happens in the Twilight novels when this occurs, and I tell you, Chad and I have never been more horrified. Anyway, Nyctessa is many things, but sparkly isn't one of them.

Life is for suckers.

Nyctessa is a necromancer in the style of my favorite character, Darago. But Nyctessa is really, really good at it. She hoovers up monsters and banishes not only them but allies and Corrupted cards, which might be your cards if she's checked the right boxes.

Then there's what might be the most interesting power in the whole box. Once per turn, if Nyctessa would die, she doesn't. If she checks both boxes on that power, she might siphon her discards when she's in dire straits. She's not invulnerable, but she's way less vulnerable than most beings tend to be.

Plus she does these things with those beings:

Death is for suckers too.

Hell's Vengeance Character Deck 2 completes the cycle of evil for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. It really felt good to get that out of our system. I promise we'll only do sweetness and light from now on. C'mon, you can trust me. I'm one of the good guys.

Mike Selinker
Adventure Card Game Lead Designer

P.S. In case you missed our design team playing four hours of Wrath of the Righteous on Paizo's Extra Life gaming marathon, here are all eight videos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Enjoy!

PaizoCon Oz 2017, There and Back Again

Thursday, November 9, 2017

In October 2017, I travelled to New Zealand to take part in PaizoCon Oz 2017. My first opportunity to attend PaizoCon Oz, the prospect filled me with lots of excitement and a bit of trepidation. I hadn't journeyed to the Pacific in almost ten years. It is a long plane flight, involves crossing the International Date Line, and meant visiting a country I was unfamiliar with outside of movies. But the lure of meeting a large group of hitherto unknown Society members, gauging their interest in our newest organized play program, Starfinder Society, and playing a game in the Green Dragon Inn at Hobbiton outweighed my trepidation and so I made my way across the Pacific Ocean.

The trip over did nothing to allay my concerns. My first flight was delayed on the tarmac to the point many of us on the plane thought we would miss the outbound flight from Los Angeles Airport (LAX) to Sydney. We got to LAX only to find the issues that had caused the first delay also delayed the Sydney flight. After waiting several hours, we boarded, but then had a medical emergency that delayed us further. Luckily I had left four hours between landing in Sydney and my hop to Auckland, so there wasn't stress about missing the final leg of my journey. At last, I boarded my final flight and landed in Auckland, New Zealand, at the northern tip of the North Island. Grabbing my rental vehicle, I set out for Matamata and Hobbiton.

My first impression of the island nation was its beauty. As I drove through rolling green hills and saw the flocks of sheep, broken now and then by a few houses, I pondered the unsettled nature of the country. There are people in New Zealand, but not like there are in Seattle. Here, we are packed in, with our green spaces protected by government mandate, zealously guarded by city councils and state governments. There, while I'm sure the government is making sure the hills remain open, it gives a sense of being unsettled, untamed land. Beautiful, but awkward when you haven't eaten in several hours and cannot find anything open. It turned dark as I made it to Matamata, found an open fast food restaurant, and made my way to the B&B on the outskirts of town that I was to call home for the next 5 days.

Morning dawned with chirping birds, lowing cattle, baaing sheep, and the smell of coffee. Breakfast entailed toast, cereal, and the freshest kiwi I've ever eaten. I reunited with a pair of UK players as well as Seattle VC Louis and his family. We spent the morning driving to the coast and dipping our feet in the Pacific Ocean. The views were breathtaking and I put my feet in the water, expecting warm water, until I remembered New Zealand was just finishing winter and heading into spring. I quickly removed myself from the chilly surf and contented myself with gathering a small handful of seashells for my collection.

After a yummy lunch of lamb kebab, we returned to Matamata and headed to the convention site, the local club. Matamata Club is a large complex housing a restaurant, pool tables, bowling greens, and meeting rooms of various sizes and shapes. The New Zealand Venture-Captains, Glen Irving and Paul Trani, previously secured use of all the meeting space. In addition, they worked with the site on an event menu; ensuring food would be delivered to starving gamers most hours of the convention. The bar stocked a variety of drinks to keep us from getting parched. Their attention to detail regarding site and food extended to every aspect of the convention. There were GM boxes on the tables, with maps, pens, Welcome boons, dice towers, and chocolate. A resources table included pregenerated characters, pawns and bases, as well as some of the more commonly used forms. The HQ table was laden with Taniwas (New Zealand dragons) of all colors, bags of dice, participant goody bags, and paperwork. Stalwart volunteers staffed the table all weekend, answering questions and keeping things running smoothly. VCs Glen and Paul have a most excellent group of people working with them on all the organizational aspects of the convention.

Thursday afternoon was Slot 0 games, as people travelled in from New Zealand, Australia, the US, and the UK. I found my table and set up for a run of Starfinder Society Quest: Into the Unknown. Four hours later, we had delved onto a mystery planet, shot some goblins in space, and returned safely to Absalom Station. There was lots of laughing, much "pew pewing" and an overall enjoyable time.

Friday morning kicked off smoothly and we had three blocks of games. That afternoon, I ran another game, this time a retired Pathfinder Society scenario, and then played Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-99: The Solstice Scar—Version A.

I love watching the multi-table interactive specials in action, seeing how people decide to tackle the obstacles and what choices they make to move the storyline along.

Saturday started with running another scenario, then participating in Writing for Paizo workshop with Legendary Games owner Jason Nelson and freelancer/RPG Superstar Matt Goodall. Of course, everyone was waiting for the big event on Saturday—the trip to Hobbiton and the chance to play Pathfinder in the Green Dragon Inn. The visit lived up to all expectations. Driving through more sheep laden hills, I imagined myself in Middle Earth, getting ready for Bilbo's 111th birthday part. I've been a fan of the Lord of the Rings books and movies for so long, and watched/read so much back matter for them, that the journey to Hobbiton took on almost a pilgrimage type quality.

Our guide mentioned that almost 33% of visitors hadn't read the books or seen the movie. They tour the set because a friend or family member told them they should. Then I remembered the movies are over 10 years old and the books written in very formal English and realized that, despite the growing popularity of what we refer to as "geek/nerd culture", there are people out there that haven't been exposed to the awesomeness that is LotR.

We spent over an hour walking the set. I started at the front of the pack, but soon lagged behind, taking photos. My poor phone battery. I ran through it once, hooked up a battery pack and then ran through it. The level of detail in the hobbit houses was superb. At each one, there were items and decorations that gave insight into who lived there and their occupation. Coming down the hill from Bag End, we gathered on the party green. There our guide noted that we needed to get into a festive mood. He would sing the Green Dragon Inn song ala Peregrine Took. We were to dance along and he would not stop singing until we all were dancing. I think he thought it would take longer to get us moving, but as you can see in this video we all were in a festive mood!

Once done with dancing, we headed over the bridge and into the inn, where we were greeted by mugs (not pints, you have to go to Bree for those) of ginger beer, cider, or ale. To accompany the drinks, we had a hobbit's feast. The sense of camaraderie and friendship in the inn made the food taste even better. I really enjoyed meeting new people and getting a chance to socialize away from the gaming table.

After dinner, the staff cleared the crockery and we set up to run Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-00: Assault on Absalom. I played at one of the high tier tables. Our GM, VC Guy Martell, kept us on point so well that we finished combats and at one point had time to stand, stretch, and use the loo. We intrigued our guides so much talking about the event during the tour that they joined in and played their first ever games. Will have to check in and see if they are continuing their Pathfinder journey.

Despite the late night Saturday, we rose early Sunday to start another full day of Society play. Once again I ran one, played one. I can now claim two GM credits as a Starfinder GM. Think I need to get a move on, if I'm ever going to reach 1 Nova. My last game was one of the new Season 9 adventures. We went really off the rails and made what should have been a brief social encounter the highlight of the scenario. Thanks to my fellow players and the GM for some fantastic roleplay and an enjoyable end to PaizoCon Oz.

After the convention, I took two days and saw more of the island. I drove by Mt. Doom, on my way to Wellington, where I visited the WETA exhibits, stood on the rocky shores of the southern tip of the island, and strolled through an 19th century graveyard. Unfortunately, the trip had to end, so I had another drive up the island to Auckland, through more of the rolling hills and green pastures. The scenery amazed me in how there are clear delineations between each type of landscape and you go from one to another in a blink of an eye.

I've chosen a few of my favorite photos to highlight in this blog, but I took many more. If you are interested, you can check out the full albums by following the links below:

• Hobbiton
• PaizoCon Oz
• New Zealand Scenery
• Wellington, NZ

Huge thanks to VCs Glen Irving and Paul Trani for taking the lead on the convention, to their team that made it happen, to the GMs that gave up their time to run games, and to the players for traveling to the site and participating in the games. Without any of the above, this event would not have been successful. I, and Paizo, appreciate the energy and effort you expend on behalf of the organized play community.

I highly, HIGHLY, recommend putting PaizoCon Oz on your travel schedule. Its moderate size gives a full slate of offerings while keeping the community feel. A little bird mentioned next year's PaizoCon Oz may be in Brisbane, Australia, though the collective Venture-Officers of Australia and New Zealand are still discussing the issues and will announce more in the upcoming months.

Meanwhile, back in North America, the team is deep into planning Pathfinder Society RPG Season 10, Starfinder Society Season 2, and Pathfinder Society ACG Season 5, as well as maintaining operations on Seasons 9/1/4 and working on program updates. I cannot wait to share some details with you in a future blog!

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Warp Not, Waste Not

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Golarion is filled with adventurers from sleepy villages and pristine cities who spend their days navigating the labyrinthine social structures of society. In fact, there are a host of Paizo books filled with Pathfinder player options to support and encourage just those kinds of characters and stories.

Pathfinder Player Companion: People of the Wastes is not one of those books.

Rather, the myriad archetypes, feats, items, and class features in People of the Wastes are for characters who are from or adventure in some of the most treacherous parts of the world, from the demon-filled Worldwound to the corrupted Southern Fangwood of Nirmathas to the flooded Sodden Lands to the unpredictable and primal magic of the Mana Wastes.

This book, as such, provided us with an opportunity to gleefully provide options for PCs who, though often nonstandard, nonetheless fit right into these wasteland locales. Characters who have encountered the Cindersnort goblins of the Mana Wastes, for example, might choose this book's volatile fuse character trait, or its Sizzling Shot feat, each of which focuses on the use of powerful but unpredictable firearms.

Another fun option People of the Wastes provides involves advice for playing character with the mutant template from Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 5 (at your GM's discretion, of course!). There's also the constructed pugilist brawler archetype, which is perfect for mutant PCs who have chosen to use mechanical prostheses to augment their bodies. This archetype grants the brawler a constructed limb and provides a host of options for modifying it.

I won't spoil the rest of this archetype's specifics, though. I'll simply leave you with this illustration below.

Illustration by Benjamin Widdowson

Amanda Hamon Kunz
Development Coordinator

How About One More Ultimate Deck?

Monday, November 6, 2017

In last week's blog on designing the Ultimate Add-On Decks for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, we purposely failed to mention one big thing: We're not doing just four of them. June's Ultimate Equipment will be followed in July with the fifth Ultimate deck: Ultimate Wilderness.

Why'd we keep that a secret? Well, we needed a little more time after the first announcement to make sure we wanted to do this deck. After all, when we made the decision to do those decks, the Ultimate Wilderness for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game was still being written. We didn't know what the book would contain, what would be illustrated in it, or even who the iconic character would be. But then this happened:

The Ultimate series—it ain't over till it's Zova.

Hi, Zova! As you saw last week, Zova is the iconic shifter from Ultimate Wilderness. Note the claws. She's got the ability to alter various parts of her body to animal forms. That's a cool idea, but one which we didn't really have a mechanic for. That is, until we designed the Hunter Class Deck.

For the Hunter, we sprinkled the deck with a new cycle of spells called "aspects." We designed this cycle for characters who want to take on aspects of certain animals, characters like the Feral Hunter and Shifter. Take a look at Aspect of the Stag, a spell that has the Animal trait.

Just one aspect of the aspects.

In Ultimate Wilderness, we're not exactly going to sprinkle the deck with aspects. The appropriate verb might be "inundate," really. Because requesting the art for the dinosaur and monkey aspects just made us smile.

There are also so many cool non-humanoids in Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Wilderness. We're gonna have trouble choosing between these.

A koala, an archaeopteryx, and a snapping flytrap walk into a bar...

We're also doing some fun new things with blessings in these decks. In each of the five Ulitmate decks, we'll introduce a brand-new Basic blessing. If you're playing a home game, we encourage you to mix and match these with the blessings of the Gods, the Ancients, the Elements, Ascension, the Archdevils, and even the Gobs. Because Basic doesn't mean boring.

So... Ultimate Combat, Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Intrigue, Ultimate Equipment, and now Ultimate Wilderness. That sounds like a great quintet. Bring on the Ultimates.

Mike Selinker
Adventure Card Game Lead Designer

Paizo Super Team, Go!

Friday, November 3, 2017

This weekend the Paizo Super Team is gathering for an epic 24-hour livestream event in support of Extra Life! The event will feature special guests, laughs, and games in our effort to rally for children in need. Plus, we'll have an array of special prizes to give away, including a very special staff edition of Pathfinder Adventure Path #100, a gold-foil edition of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, and a limited edition copy of the Starfinder Core Rulebook.

The stream begins on our official Twitch channel on Saturday, November 4 at 10:00 AM Pacific time and runs until Sunday, November 5 at 10:00 AM Pacific time. The full schedule can be found below:

• Lone Shark Games plays the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game at 10:00 AM
• Pathfinder Roleplaying Game with Erik Mona at 2:00 PM
• Pathfinder Roleplaying Game with Erik Mona at 6:00 PM
• Captain Sonar with Joe Pasini at 10:00 PM
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Owlcat Games at 12:00 AM
• Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild with Venture-Captain Louis Manko Levite at 2:00 AM
• Starfinder with the Organized Play Team at 6:00 AM

Help support Extra Life by contributing or adding yourself to Paizo's Super Team and join the stream on Twitch!

Chris Lambertz
Community & Digital Content Director

From the Wilderness to Your Table

Friday, November 3, 2017

"Some people fear the wild, clustering into cities where the largest beasts they have to contend with are scurrying rats. I'd never want to live in one of those so-called bastions of civilization. Why, they build their own cages! Walls, they call them, to stave off the dark and the unknown. The energy of nature sings through my veins. It connects me to everything that moves and breathes. Through it, I am truly alive."
—Nalsa Tigerstalker

Illustration by Ramon Puasa Jr

Looking to play a character who thrives in the wild? Not in the mood for playing another city-slicker? Let me tell you a bit more about what we have in store for you in the upcoming Ultimate Wilderness. Stephen showed off the shifter in Tuesday's blog, and talked a bit about two of the three featured races: ghorans and vine leshys. Let's take a closer look at all three of these races.

Ghorans are an ancient race of plant creatures whose memories trace back thousands of years. Their bodies can only last a couple of decades, but they continually renew themselves by planting seeds that sprout into new vessels for their consciousness. If you play a ghoran, check out the delightfully odd aromaphile archetype. These mesmerists can produce clouds of sickeningly sweet odors. By making subtle changes to the aroma, they can alter the way it affects those who inhale it. These clouds can hypnotize and debilitate their foes, and they can also help their allies recover from negative effects.

Vine leshys are a new race in this book. Unlike most leshys, they don't devote themselves to a particular ward. Instead, they prefer to wander and explore, taking on new wards for only a short time before taking off in search of new and exciting vistas. I wrote these little guys, and they are leshys, so of course I love them. I've been playing a vine leshy named Verdant Taleweaver in a home game. She uses one of the new archetypes from this book: the herbalist alchemist. Herbalists rely upon their insights into the natural world rather than raw intelligence, and they can harness some of the secrets of druidic magic. Instead of throwing bombs, with their risk of harming innocent plants, herbalists use seedpods. These pods harness the powers of other leshy types to weaken and hamper their targets. Playing Verdant wasn't 100% about wanting to play a leshy PC, honest. I also got valuable playtest feedback. Please just ignore the fact that my door is plastered with pictures of leshys. *whistles innocently*

And that brings us to this book's third featured race, the gathlains. These playful fey are capricious and free-spirited to a level that makes even gnomes raise their colorful eyebrows. They soar through the air on winds of wood, venturing far from their homes on the First World. If you want to play a gathlain who loves a good prank, check out the fey prankster rogue archetype. These tricksters can harness their connection to plants to distract, trap, and befuddle. They can also weave illusions that sow confusion by disguising pairs of people as each other. These illusions work on objects too, allowing the gathlain to, say, make a piping hot bowl of soup appear to be a hat and vice versa.

You certainly don't have to play one of these new races to make use of the new archetypes in this book. There are over 60 pages of archetypes for all sorts of characters. There are new options for the classes you'd expect to see highlighted in a nature book, like druids, hunters, rangers, and kineticists. One of the druid options is a rot warden, a druid who can transform into vermin and command swarms. Plant master hunters form bonds with plants instead of animals, and they take on the aspects of creatures like assassin vines and giant flytraps. Several of the new ranger archetypes give rangers additional powers based upon natural features that help them wherever they go, like the flamewarden, who wields the power of fire to immolate enemies and restore the spark of life and health to her allies. If you want to play a character whose powers are intrinsically tied to her environment, try the terrakineticist, a kineticist who taps into the strongest nearby source of elemental power, giving her powers over water in the ocean and air in the skies.

These traditional nature classes certainly don't get to have all the fun, though. How about a slayer who is a master of death from above? He's called the avalancher for a good reason. Bacchanal skalds thrive on drinking, dancing, and wild parties. Even animals dance to their merry tunes. If you'd rather play a class that turns its attention to the skies, try the star watcher investigator, who combines navigational skill with a penchant for astrology. Star watchers produce horoscopes imbued with magical power. To pick one last archetype at random, summoners can become leshy callers. Leshy callers call forth extraplanar plant material and imbue it with leshy spirits, and they can summon adorable plant creatures to aid them in combat. These are just a few of the archetypes that caught my fancy, but the book has a lot more to offer.

Check back again in a few days for more previews of Ultimate Wilderness!

Linda Zayas-Palmer

Developer

Extra Life, New Regions, and Volunteer Recognition!

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

In the couple of weeks since I got back from PaizoCon Oz, I keep looking at our blog schedule for an opportunity to write of my travels and share some of the photos I took at the event. That there hasn't been a gap testifies to how much is going on in the realm of organized play. So, I'm going to share a couple of photos today and I promise to give a full account of my travels next week.

Extra Life

Paizo is a major partner with Extra Life this year. Extra Life is a charity that raises funds for local Children's Hospitals. We have a Super Team and welcome anyone that wishes to help raise money for the kids. You can find our team page here. Feel free to make an account and join our efforts!

As part of our fundraising efforts, we will be live-streaming games the 25 hours of the Extra Life event. Starting at 10:00 AM Saturday and running through 10:00 AM Sunday, you can watch Paizo staffers and a few guests roll their dice, move their mice, and hope no one gets hurt. Organized play events start at 2:00 AM Pacific standard time with a PFS scenario brought to us by the local Seattle Venture-Officers and GMs. From 6:00-10:00 AM Pacific standard time, John Compton takes the helm to run a Starfinder Scenario. Tune in to watch our scenarios and help with the hijinks. Visit our Twitch stream to watch the event and qualify for the chance to earn special prizes, such as limited edition boons, Paizo books, a Gen Con badge, and more.

Participating in the live stream event gives the Paizo organized play team an opportunity to reveal another way in which we're distributing race boons: via online events. From this weekend, when an organized play team member appears on a podcast, streamed charity event, or other online public appearance, they'll bring a few boons with them. Which boons, you ask? How about Ghorans (for Pathfinder Society) and Skittermanders (for Starfinder Society)! To whet your interest in these boons, please note that Ultimate Wilderness (releasing in November) features new options for Ghorans. I encourage you to join John, Thurston, myself, and a few other staffers from 6:00-10:00 AM Pacific standard time this Sunday when we're giving away the first of these via raffle. We are working on the method of disbursement, which will most likely involve a $20 donation to Extra Life and some variety of raffle, but regardless of dispersal method, you must be logged in and watching to win.

In addition to the Paizo live-stream, there are quite a few other conventions running events for Extra Life as well. So the organized play team decided to encourage the spirit of generosity by shaking things up a bit. The following modifications to Society rules apply for any games played at a venue supporting Extra between November 2 and November 6, 2017.

• The Retail Incentive Program applies for all locations, regardless of whether the event takes place in a location selling items. Monies donated to Extra Life qualify as purchases for the program, regardless of whether donated by players, GMs, or spectators.
• We've sent a special Extra Life boon to locations running events. This boon is eligible for dispersal to players the same way other boons are available or to anyone who makes a $10 or more donation to Extra Life.
• Spectators may donate money to Extra Life and change up the action of the game, as long as it does not modify the adventure mechanics or the GMs ability to run the adventure as written. So make the players talk in funny voices, dance a jig at the table, or swap character sheets with a neighbor.

Don't forget to check out our Twitch stream and root for Paizo and its partners in our quest of helping sick children.

Online Organized Play

Over the past two years, the numbers of GMs running games in the aether doubled, then doubled again and is continuing to grow at lightening pace. Players with mobility issues, or in remote locations, or on non-traditional schedules, are joining the online games as a way to connect with other players and experience organized play. Paizo's partnerships with online VTT platforms and hosting of Play-by-Post games on its forums support player opportunities for online gaming. For these reasons, and to keep up with the growing demands on the organizers' time and energy, we are expanding the team. It is our great pleasure to announce the creation of an eleventh region—the Online region, under the guidance of Jesse Davis, also known as Ironhelixx.

One of the biggest changes in the online region is the addition of Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild play. Stemming from our playtests of the various base sets, we are looking to introduce more players to the Society based stories of the Season of Faction's Favor and Season of Plundered Tombs, the swashbuckling adventures of the Season of the Shackles, the holy fury contained in the Season of the Righteous, the virtues and sins of the Season of the Runelords and the fire and chaos of Season of the Goblins. If you want to experience the fun of the card game, but haven't had a group near you, this may well be your answer.

Both the Retail Support Program and the Regional Support Program will have online components. We are currently fleshing out the details and will post them in the next few weeks. It is a balancing act, as we don't want to deny the online players the benefits of the programs, but we don't want to negate the benefits for physical locations either. At this time we are soliciting feedback for how to integrate these programs. If you have ideas, feel free to send them to me at organizedplay@paizo.com

To assist Jesse, we are promoting three people to the position of Venture-Captain. Each will oversee one aspect of online play. Please welcome the following individuals to the VC ranks:

Venture-Captain—PbP: Hilary Moon-Murphy
Venture-Captain—ACG: Tyler Beck
Venture-Captain—VTT: James Bartlett

Rounding out the team are the Venture-Lieutenants and Venture-Agents: Gerard van Konijnenburg, Phillip Wood, Christine Bussman, Sylvain Corbaz, Michael Hallet. Andrew Warner, Richard Lowe, Helen Yau, and Hannes Schunk. Contact information for the above listed individuals, as well as all volunteers, is available on the Coordinators Page.

We are always looking for more volunteers, both online and around the globe. If you are interested in helping organize games and joining the ranks of the Venture-Officers, please email me with your location and area of interest at tonya.woldridge@organizedplayfoundation.org to open a discussion.

Thank you to the team of volunteers helping spin up the new region and to all the Venture-Officers worldwide, without whom we would not have an organized play program.

DIY Terrain Contest

Last August, we asked GMs to submit their best DIY Terrain photos. The four submissions below impressed us and we couldn't choose between them, so we are posting them all and asking you to choose a winner. Please give them a good look over and vote for your favorite!

We will leave the polls open for 2 weeks and announce the winner on November 22nd.

Entry #1—Pathfinder Lodge	Entry #2—Ship
Entry #3—Tornado in a Tower	Entry #4—Extra-dimensional Oubliette

5* GM Recognition

With the turn of the seasons, the convention pace slows down a bit, but continues to provide many opportunities for GMs to run games. Several of those GMs completed their 5-star requirements. These include running 150 games, of which at least 50 must be unique scenarios and 10 be special scenarios. These requirements don't include the hours spent preparing their scenarios or gathering their supplies. The time needed to reach 5* is well over 600 hours! To those listed below, who earned their 5th star over the past few weeks, welcome to the club and thank you for your dedication to our Society.

• Matt Hill
• James Hines
• Alan Kaekel
• Jussi Leinonen
• Michael Lindner

Conventions

For those wanting to get a few more conventions in before the end of the year, you are in luck, Thanks to the dedication and effort of our volunteer organizers, Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society appears at quite a few locations all around the globe. Barring unforeseen circumstances, you can catch up with Paizo staffers at Gamehole Con, PAX Unplugged, AetherCon, and MarsCon. So check out the list and find a Society event near you!

Gamehole Con V	Madison, WI	11/2/17
Carnage XX (2017)	Killington, VT	11/3/17
NekoCon 2017	Hampton, VA	11/3/17
Enchanted Realms Fall Charity Event	Colorado Springs, CO	11/4/17
Extra Life 2017	Boise, ID	11/4/17
Extra Life Day 2017	Austin, TX	11/4/17
Gryphcon Shadow 2017	Toronto, Canada	11/4/17
Jet City Comic Show 2017	Tacoma, WA	11/4/17
Rolecon 2017	Moscow, Russia	11/4/17
Con on the Cob 2017	Richfield, OH	11/9/17
Acadecon 2017	Dayton, OH	11/10/17
AetherCon 2017	Online	11/10/17
Arkansas Anime Festival 2017	Bentonville, AR	11/10/17
Fall MepaCon 2017	Allentown, PA	11/10/17
InvictaCon 2017	Porto, Portugal	11/10/17
Mace 2017	Charlotte, NC	11/10/17
PentaCon XXXIII (2017)	Fort Wayne, IN	11/10/17
TridentCon 2017	Parkville, MD	11/11/17
Conquest Avalon 2017	Sacramento, CA	11/17/17
JimCon 2017	Winnipeg, Canada	11/17/17
Memphis Comic and Fantasy Convention 2017	Memphis, TN	11/17/17
NerdLouvia 2017	Louisville, KY	11/17/17
PAX Unplugged 2017	Philadelphia, PA	11/17/17
The Final Con-tdown 2017	Sioux Falls, SD	11/17/17
Beacon 2017	Belfast, N. Ireland	11/18/17
Dreieichcon 2017	Germany	11/18/17
GobbleCon 2017	Burlingame, CA	11/24/17
Ludo-Outaouais 2017	Gatineau, Canada	11/24/17
Wolfcon 2017	Chicago, IL	11/24/17
SP "Assault on Absalom" DAU '17	Barcelona, Spain	11/25/17
AnonyCon 2017	Stamford, CT	12/1/17
Dragonmeet 2017	London, United Kingdom	12/2/17
Aus East Coast Interactive 4	Sydney/Brisbane, Australia	12/8/17
Midwinter Gaming Convention 2018	Milwaukee, WI	1/11/18
Arisia 2018	Boston, MA	1/12/18
MarsCon 2018	Williamsburg, VA	1/12/18
Cancon 2018	Australia	1/26/18
TotalCon 2018	Marlborough, MA	2/22/18

PAX Unplugged

Paizo has a booth at the show, where we will run demo games of Starfinder, Pathfinder RPG, and Pathfinder ACG. We need help running the tables, and helpers will get room, badge, and store credit similar to Gen Con rewards. If you want to help out by running demos, email tonya.woldridge@paizo.com. Space is limited and will be filled on a first come, first served basis, so if you want to attend, send your email today! in the next few weeks regarding our presence at the show.

Until next week—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager