This past year has been a wild ride. As a look back on the year, I wanted to use this space to let the Paizo editorial team (developers, designers, editors, and art team) share some of our favorite things that we made or did during 2018. If you missed part 1 of this two-part blog, check it out here!

Thanks to Sonja and Emily on the art team for selecting the accompanying art, and thanks to all of you out there that have supported us in our endeavors. Happy Holidays!

Illustration by Artur Nakhodkin

Jason Keeley (Developer)

The project I am proudest of this year is the release of the Signal of Screams Adventure Path for Starfinder. I've been working on the Starfinder adventures for a bit now, but this particular set of adventures were the first ones I concepted and outlined on my own. I got to indulge my love of horror and all things dark and terrible, as well as tell a type of story we hadn't yet told in Starfinder. Of course, this Adventure Path wouldn't exist at all without the efforts of the rest of the Starfinder team, everyone else here at Paizo, and my terrific authors, but I feel a certain sense of ownership over SoS (see what I did there?). Plus, I got to contribute to this awesome trailer.

As night settles over the land so very early in this cold and wintry days, why not fix yourself a mug of steaming hot liquid, wrap yourself up tightly in a blanket, and open up a volume of the Signal of Screams Adventure Path near your very vulnerable face? Really, what's the worst that could happen?

Lu Pellazar (Editor)

What a year 2018 has been! There were ups, there were downs, there were "oh no what is happening who am I what day is it"s. I've had my hands in a ton of new products, both as an editor and a writer, but I must say my magnum opus (at least for this year) are my contributions to the Starfinder Alien Archive 2: my bug children, the osharus and bolidas! I also got to refine my metaphorical juggling game in working on the Pathfinder Playtest, the Starfinder Armory (two words: BATTLE RIBBON), and the nail-biting-intrigue-filled War for the Crown APs all at the same time. I had a go at the Starfinder Beginner Box, and seeing it go from ideas floating in the Paizo brainverse to a real, tangible product is simply surreal! Last but not least, I gotta say the best part of my 2018 at Paizo was the addition of my new team members, James, Jason, and Leo! Shout out to my grammarsmith fam! We couldn't have made it through this rollercoaster of a year without y'all. =)

Chris Sims (Developer)

I dove into the Vast this last year, starting with Starfinder Armory and Alien Archive 2. It was fun to create the quorlu and the velstrac anchorite, and to watch Armory disappear at Gen Con. That said, I'm grateful that my colleague and Adventure Path mentor Jason Keeley "made" me write The Diaspora Strain adventure. Not only did I learn a lot, but I also got to delve into making horror for what's normally magical space opera. I hope my goal of affecting the players, rather than just the characters, plays out. Players should enjoy the adventure most of all, but I also want them to be a little harrowed and grateful the characters survived. It's a different feeling than most heroic adventure stories, much like it was a different feeling to write that adventure. And after that trip into darkness, I get to take players straight into the Pact Worlds sun in 2019. Ah, it is good to be a Starfinder developer.

Illustration by Federico Musetti

Amanda Hamon Kunz (Starfinder Managing Developer)

I can hardly believe that 2018 was just one year! In that span, I've had the privilege of officially moving back onto the Starfinder team, and being the game's managing developer has been a fantastic ride of creativity, teamwork, crunchy projects, challenging deadlines, and some of the best times I've had all year with the team's amazing game professionals: Rob McCreary, Owen K.C. Stephens, Thurston Hillman (PAIZO NORTH!), Jason Keeley, Joe Pasini, and Chris Sims. Gen Con this year was another incredible one for us, as we sold out of the Starfinder Armory on Day 1, and the year rolled on as we faced some mammoth beasts including the Starfinder Beginner Box, class design on the Character Operations Manual and now those classes' playtest, Adventure Path development, and more things that I can't even talk about yet! It has been a crazy year, but a great one. Here's to 2019!

Illustration by Vlada Hladkova

Adam Daigle (Pathfinder Managing Developer)

2018 has been a wild year. The announcement of the upcoming new edition and the Pathfinder Playtest this past March was exciting and quite a relief. I'm honestly surprised that the news didn't leak prior to the announcement (though I'm certain that many people were expecting a new edition on the horizon). It's hard keeping a secret for that long.

In addition to that, this year saw the release of my very first Adventure Path adventure Pathfinder Adventure Path #133: Secrets of Roderic's Cove. I've written plenty of articles and monsters over the years and have developed over a dozen Adventure Path adventures, but never managed to write one. Let me tell you, they're no easy thing to do.

While that was cool, I think my favorite part of 2018 was adding new faces to the developer ranks! Having Ron, Luis, Eleanor, Mike, and Chris join the team this year has been awesome. I'm very happy to be working alongside them and the rest of the best damn team of developers in the industry.

Thurston Hillman (Starfinder Society Developer)

2018 really saw the Starfinder Society kick into high gear! I'm grateful for the past year and getting to see a ton of really inspiring scenarios get played across the world, and hearing the ensuing feedback from all our fans. I just want to give a big thanks to all our fans and people who help keep Starfinder Society Organized Play growing. On a more personal note, I also had the opportunity to put together an exclusive Starfinder Society special scenario (#1-98: Into the Perplexity) which has become something of a hit among the conventions I've run it at. For 2019, I'm really looking forward to bringing the Scoured Stars season to its climactic conclusion, and moving forward into the unknown, including a very special #2-98 Perplexity sequel, that I'm already putting together for PaizoCon 2019!

Mark Moreland (Franchise Manager)

Every year comes with far more highlights than I could ever fit into a single highlight blog, from the launch of new Adventure Paths to new faces in the Paizo offices. For me personally, however, 2018 will always stand out as the first year that two large licensed projects I had a sizable hand in producing came out, both iterations of the Kingmaker Adventure Path from way back in 2010. You see, the Kingmaker Player's Guide was one of three consecutive "first assignments" I had writing for Paizo, so it's always held a special place in my heart. When I switched roles from development to franchise management toward the end of last year, the fact that two of the projects I'd be working on would be Kingmaker-related made me even more happy!

Illustration by Josef Kucera

The first Kingmaker release to come out this year was by far the largest license Paizo has ever done, and one of the most robust projects I've ever worked on: Pathfinder: Kingmaker, an immersive and expansive CRPG adaptation of the Kingmaker AP. I came into the process long after the Owlcats had begun development, but I worked closely with their narrative team to approve storylines, dialogue, and in-world texts before the game's launch. At one point, I had a 10-inch stack of printed in-game text on my desk for approval. I won't pretend I read all 800,000 words, but it was certainly enough to keep me busy! After playing through the prologue and chapter one about seven times in alpha and beta builds, seeing the game in the wild, with tens of thousands of players worldwide was really something to behold. I'm still involved with the game's updates and expansions, but for the most part, I'm just enjoying my own journey through the Stolen Lands in my personal playthrough.

The second major Kingmaker release was Pathfinder Battles: Kingmaker, which was the first major prepainted plastic minis set I worked extensively on. While I didn't make the initial setlist, I was heavily involved in modifying it and approving the sculpts and paint masters. Again, seeing the set in the wild and reading and hearing fan reactions to it really made all the attention to detail and time poring over reference art for any room for improvement worth it!

As we look to a new year on the horizon, I'm already deep in the next few projects (including some we haven't announced yet!) so it's nice to stop for a minute and reflect on what made 2018 such a fantastic year to be Paizo's franchise manager.

Leo Glass (Editor)

My first year as an Editor at Paizo is in the books, and I can't believe how amazing it's been to collaborate with so many incredible professionals who deeply love Pathfinder and Starfinder! I had a blast editing sections of Pathfinder Playtest Adventure: Doomsday Dawn, Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook, Pathfinder Playtest Bestiary, Starfinder Alien Archive 2, Starfinder Armory, Starfinder Beginner Box, and numerous other Pathfinder and Starfinder adventure paths and scenarios. I loved working on the Starfinder Critical Hit Deck, because 1) author Owen K.C. Stephens is one of the most creative and intelligent folks I've ever worked with and 2) who doesn't appreciate an accessory that enables you to horribly eviscerate your foes? Finally, I also got the chance to write one of four quests in Pathfinder Society Playtest Scenario #1: The Rose Street Revenge, marking my first professional foray into adventure writing. Thanks to everyone whose contributions made these products successful!

2019 is going to be a great year for Pathfinder and Starfinder, and I can't wait to gush about all of the amazing products on the horizon. Until then, I hope everyone has a happy and safe new year. Oh, and if anyone knows how to train a squox to hold a red pen, DM me. See you at PaizoCon!

Illustration by Helge C. Balzer

Linda Zayas-Palmer (Organized Play Developer)

This year's certainly been a busy one. When it comes to the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild, we've been bouncing back and forth between the current campaign and the future of the Pathfinder Society. Wrapping up season 9 and rolling into season 10, we've been focused on bringing exciting conclusions to some of the campaign's looming threats and answering some of its mysteries. And when it comes to looking forward, we've spent plenty of time planning how to improve the Pathfinder Society experience in the future. We couldn't do it without all of you guys, which is why we've also been running quite a few surveys to gather your feedback. To all of you who have participated in those surveys, thank you very much for taking the time to share your perspectives and ideas with us.

When it comes to what I'm most proud of that I worked on this year, The Hao Jin Cataclysm certainly takes the cake. I developed both the Roleplaying Guild and Adventure Card Guild components of it, making it both my first interactive special as a developer and the moment when I took over the reins of Adventure Card Guild development. It was great fun to pick up a bunch of plot threads and NPCs from past adventures in the Hao Jin Tapestry and continue their stories. The experience of overseeing it at Gen Con was something I'll never forget.

I'm looking forward to what we have coming down the pike for you in 2019, and to when I can talk more about our plans for this year's convention season. But for now, happy holidays, everyone!

Illustration by Marko Horvatin

Gabriel Waluconis (Project Manager)

As the project manager my red-hot favorite was implementing project management software across the entire editorial team. What's that? People aren't here to read about that sort of work? Oh dearie me. Ahem.

As the project manager I don't have much to do with the creative aspects of any products. But I was quite happy to work with the good folk here to push out the Construct Handbook. I really like constructs. Like, you don't even know. I've also enjoyed working alongside my talented co-workers in tackling the logistical challenges of releasing a new edition for Pathfinder, having two playtests back to back (Pathfinder Playtest and the Character Operations Manual), all while continuing our normal release schedule.

But in the end, my absolute red-hot favorite is seeing a finished product on my desk. Knowing it couldn't happen without all of the departments here at Paizo. From editorial, customer service, finance, marketing, web team, IT team, to our awesome warehouse staff.

Jason Bulmahn (Director of Game Design)

Going into this year, I think that everyone on the design team was a bundle of nerves. We had been quietly working on the playtest for almost two years, but the hardest part was yet to come. All my experience with the first edition playtest told me that it was going to be fine, that the playtest was a good thing, something to help us better understand our game, but you just don't know until it is out there. What parts were going to work? What rules were going to end up in Pharasma's Boneyard? Only the playtest would reveal the truth. Since the day we announced, the rest of the year has been a blur. There have been ups and downs, and a lot of late nights spent pouring through survey results to tease out how the game was actually performing, but I can honestly say that we are leaving the year with a game that is leagues ahead of where we started… and it is all thanks to you! We have been hammering away at this game, but it was all of you helped us understand what needed to be fixed. So, I want to close out by looking forward. 2019 is going to be a great year for Pathfinder and speaking for the design team, we can't wait for you to see the Pathfinder 2nd Edition.

James Case (Editor)

That was a thing! I started at Paizo on the first (work) day of the year, only to find out that a second edition was in the pipeline about ten minutes into my first meeting. Getting the chance to work on a whole new edition from the ground up isn't something that happens often, and it was great to GM delves at PaizoCon and finally see so many players get to try out the playtest for the first time. In fact, having never gone to a gaming convention before, just seeing everyone enjoying Pathfinder and Starfinder at PaizoCon and Gen Con was exhilarating. My first piece of RPG writing was also published this year, a writeup for the aphorite race in Plane-Hopper's Handbook (curiously, the art ended up looking not entirely unlike a golder version of me, despite being ordered long before I was assigned to write the piece). I'm looking forward to the next year!

Adam Daigle
Managing Developer

When we thought of the topic of today's blog, we intended it to cover a variety of topics. But as we started writing, there were so many fantastic scenarios to highlight that the words just kept coming. So instead of splitting focus, I'll save my words for next week and turn the keyboard to Organized Play Lead Developer John Compton, as he summarizes the highlights from our 2018 Society products. To all our players worldwide, thank you for making our communities vibrant places of play. Cheers and Happy Holidays!

Illustration by Benjamin Widdowson

2018 brought a lot of change, and with change comes a lot of work. Thankfully we expanded the organized play team further this year, bringing on board Michael Sayre to develop Pathfinder Society scenarios and power us into Season 10's exciting stories. This has allowed the team as a whole to meet the demand for more Starfinder Society content (increasing our publication rate to two per month), create four Pathfinder Playtest scenarios, develop playtest surveys, and shape the future of Pathfinder Society as a campaign. Starfinder Society wouldn't be what it is without Thurston Hillman's creativity and long hours. All the while, Linda Zayas-Palmer has handled so many scenarios while simultaneously taking the lead on Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild adventures.

It's probably because of all of this new activity and new content that 2018's seemed so long! Let's see some of the highlights!

Pathfinder Society

First off, we had Pathfinder Society's the Season of Faction's Favor to wrap up, and that meant delivering scenarios that addressed ongoing faction storylines in big ways. The Liberty's Edge faction launched a daring raid into Galt as the Exchange flexed its economic muscles at long last to crush an unjust operation in the Mwangi Expanse. The Dark Archive dug into the foundational lore of the Blakros Museum, one of the campaign's oldest touchstones, as the Silver Crusade returned from Heaven (no biggie) in time to crush a fiendish invasion. The newly incorporated Concordance faction's hit the ground running by shutting down extraplanar rifts and cosmic anomalies, and the Scarab Sages have settled on their laurels for the time being after 2017's powerful capstone scenario.

Illustration by Dion Harris

The Sovereign Court had a big payoff in major crossover event with the War for the Crown Adventure Path, culminating in an opportunity to play out one of our most dramatic scenes of the year from multiple perspectives. But perhaps most notably of all, the Society at last tracked down several of its oldest foes, defeating them decisively in the name of the Grand Lodge and Pathfinder Society. There's so much going on that it's hard to really focus any one Season 9 scenario, so follow the links and dig in for a wonderful experience.

Season 10 kicked off in style, and the team's been relishing the opportunity to revisit some of the favorite storylines and characters. Far and away, one of the most dramatic must be Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-09: The Rasping Rebirth by Cole Kronewitter, which not only addresses what the state of the Worldwound is since Season 5, but it also allows the PCs to confront one of the campaign's greatest villains as players have been requesting since, oh, the third scenario I ever developed. We've worked to make choices matter in scenarios, and Cole delivered a scenario that includes one of my absolute favorite and powerful choices in the whole campaign.

This has also been a year for exploring hitherto untouched realms, made all the more possible by Mike Sayre's personal expertise. This really came through in Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-03: Death on the Ice by Scott Young, taking us far north into the Crown of the World to resolve a dangerous issue resulting from bad translations—remember to put a few ranks in Linguistics!

But it's hard to overshadow the season's interactive special debut. Veteran author Mike Kimmel stepped up to deliver one of the sharpest specials yet with Pathfinder Society Special #10-00: The Hao Jin Cataclysm. It kicked off the latest troubles in the Hao Jin Tapestry demiplane with style, allowing us to revisit so many old plot threads in compelling vignettes that collectively told a much bigger story. It benefited all the more from Linda taking the role of development lead and bringing a fresh perspective to interactive specials that made this adventure's energy all the greater.

Starfinder Society

Ah, did someone say multi-table interactive specials? Starfinder Society—driven largely by the development talents of Thurston Hillman—marked another milestone in the young-yet-acclaimed campaign by launching its first large-scale event, Starfinder Society Special #1-99: The Scoured Stars Invasion by Mikko Kallio. The Scoured Stars even has claimed the center stage in the ongoing Starfinder Society narrative, and Mikko not only gave us one heck of a space opera confrontation but also did so in a way that kept transitions smooth by introducing new opportunities as the House did well, creating an experience in which the players (not the scenario) really controlled the pacing.

Illustration by Graey Erb

When I think of influential scenarios, though, there are some absolute rock stars—literally. Since she wrote the very first Starfinder Society scenario, Eleanor Ferron's had the players demanding more of the in-world pop band Strawberry Machine Cake, and she delivered a spiritual sequel with Starfinder Society Scenario #1-14: Star Sugar Heartlove. I think it's really illustrative of the wonderful real-world tropes we get to play with in Starfinder, and Thursty and I often throw scenario ideas at each that seem like satirical jokes, only to realize that they're perfect for the setting and a few stat blocks away from becoming fan-favorite adventures. The ever-handsome Vossi is truly the mascot of this potential as he stars in Starfinder Society Scenario #1-15: Save the Renkrodas by Vanessa Hoskins, who brought this delightful "Save the Whales" concept to life. Likewise, it seems everyone's trying to be a celebrity after the reality tv show antics of Starfinder Society Scenario #1-09: Live Exploration Extreme!

But you know what might just win for the most influential scenario of 2018? Which one inspired the cries of "where can I find a mini for this" followed by a hundred epiphanies of "I'll make my own and bring it to PaizoCon"? It's the same scenario that brought us the blubbery majesty of morlamaws, often remembered as "those psychedelic walruses." That's right, it's Starfinder Society Scenario #1-08: Sanctuary of Drowned Delights by Kate Baker.

Art

We focus a lot on the authors and stories when we tell these stories, yet we'd be remiss if we overlooked the artists who illustrate our favorite villains, heroes, beasts, and scallywags—and the graphic designers who make our scenarios so beautiful. Senior graphic designer Emily Crowell has led the charge in evolving Pathfinder Society's look and layout, creating so many pregenerated character and Chronicle sheet variants as we've continually tinkered with their design. Her work makes me excited about the Second Edition and the ways in which we can streamline our tracking sheets and make our pregenerated characters more intuitive.

Illustration by Graey Erb

As for illustrators, I've included some of our favorite pieces from the year. I also want to call attention to Graey Erb for his extraordinary work in breathing life into many of our most iconic creatures and characters. Most noteworthy among these is the jinsul, the arch-nemesis of the Starfinder Society during Season 1. Thursty and I came up with a basic visual concept for the jinsuls, all the while praying that our art brief would translate well into the final image, and we were blown away by result. I'm also appreciative of how senior graphic designer Adam Vick has strengthened our campaign's visual continuity by having the same illustrator depict multiple facets of a planet, species, or society. In this way Graey's really made jinsuls his own unrighteous terrors.

Learn about him and our other talented illustrators in our preview blogs (we make a point to credit them), follow them on social media, support their work, and let them know you appreciate their illustrations in the latest scenarios!

It's been a great year, and we're looking ahead to a wonderful 2019!

John Compton
Organized Play Lead Developer

Join us next week for the first Society blog of 2019, which brings our next round of kudos.

Until next time -Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

From a whole new adventure the Paizo crew has taken on with the announcement of the Pathfinder Playtest early this year, to new Pathfinder and Starfinder Adventure Path campaigns, and now our current Starfinder Playtest, 2018 has been an amazingly busy and exciting time. Earlier this afternoon we began sharing our retrospectives from the last 12 months and it's always so wonderfully surprising how quickly they've gone by. We also get to think on how grateful we are for the encouragement and feedback our community has extended to us as we explore new systems and ideas within our games, our community, and of course paizo.com. It's important to us to take this moment to say: THANK YOU!

Illustration by Kiki Moch Rizky

We'll continue to share our thoughts and favorite moment from 2018 over the next week, but we'll also be taking some welcome time to take a break before ramping back up in January with previews of what's to come. You can expect to see more updates in the new year about the second edition of Pathfinder, the new Starfinder Beginner Box, and the evolution of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, as well as our Organized Play programs. It's going to be an awesome journey!

In addition to all of our thanks, to show our appreciation for your and the community's continued support, you can now use the holiday19 promotional code to receive a discount on an order from paizo.com.*

From everyone here at Paizo, we wish you safe travel, natural 20s, and hope you enjoy a wonderful holiday season!

Best wishes and happy gaming,
The Paizo Staff

*The holiday19 code stacks with Pathfinder Advantage. This discount does not apply to subscriptions, backorders, preorders, or third-party downloads.

This past year has been a wild ride. As a look back on the year, I wanted to use this space to let the Paizo editorial team (developers, designers, editors, and art team) share some of our favorite things that we made or did during 2018. When asking the team for contributions to the blog, I received so many that we're going to break this blog into two parts, with the second part dropping next Friday.

Thanks to Sonja and Emily on the art team for selecting the accompanying art, and thanks to all of you out there that have supported us in our endeavors. Happy Holidays!

Illustration by Jay Epperson

Illustration by Hannah Boving

James Jacobs (Pathfinder Creative Director)

It's been a strange year, with the Pathfinder Playtest causing all sorts of excitement and shenanigans both in and out of the office. And while there's a lot of amazing products coming soon (the ones I'm most excited about haven't even been announced yet, and I'm plenty excited about the ones we HAVE announced!), it's comforting to know that the more things change, the more things stay the same. The thing I'm the most proud about this year that I've done for Paizo is the Sandpoint, Light of the Lost Coast book. My original outline for this book was having trouble getting in everything I wanted to say in 320 pages, and in a weird way shrinking it down to 96 pages helped me focus on the heart of the content (while simultaneously keeping a big chunk of it on the proverbial back burner, hopefully, for something in the future!) and get it done in time to be one of the final 1st edition products. Of course, the bulk of the book's information is just as viable in 2nd edition or whatever version of whatever RPG you prefer to run your adventures in! It's actually kinda tough for me to pick my favorite part of my favorite book of the year. Between things like the Shroud and the Red Bishop and Kanker and new art of Ameiko and that rhyme about the Mutterer and so much more, though, my favorite is the amazing piece of art by Roberto Pitturru who opens up the book—a beautiful shot of the town of Sandpoint itself! Thankfully it wasn't a shot of the city on one of its many foggy days!

Ron Lundeen (Developer)

So much for my first year! It's gone by in a whirlwind of encounter design, art ordering, math balancing, and world building. My favorite work, by far, is adventure development for the Tyrant's Grasp Adventure Path. I love sending out the first edition with a bang! I wrote the first adventure for Tyrant's Grasp and turned it in to Crystal early in 2018, without realizing that developing it would be the last thing Crystal did before she departed and handed the rest of the AP over to me. She'd left me with her carefully structured outline and some absolutely stellar freelance authors, whose work I've been delighted to develop these past couple of months. And I get to share it with you all in the new year!

Jason Tondro (Editor)

This has been a big year for me. I only arrived at Paizo in March, when the whole editorial team was working overtime to get the playtest rules, bestiary, and adventure out to all of you in time for Gen Con. Holding those books in my hand was an incredible feeling. But since then, I've also written 60,000 words for Paizo in my night job as a freelancer! I started by writing Assault on the Crucible, the climax of the Dawn of Flame Adventure Path, and have also contributed articles and monsters to the back matter of Starfinder Adventure Paths, written an organized play adventure, and contributed to several other projects that haven't even been announced yet. And I've got even bigger stuff in the works! So as exciting as this year has been, I have to admit that 2019 is looking even better, as all the stuff I've been writing this year finally gets out into the world where all of you can play it. Happy holidays, everyone.

Illustration by Marko Horvatin

Owen K.C. Stephens (Starfinder Design Lead)

This was an amazing year for me professionally, with so many things I could pick as a favorite. Starfinder turned a year old, and we launched our first class playtest for it. My first Adventure Path adventure, Empire of Bones was released. I got kanabo into Alien Archive 2. In most years, any one of those things could easily rank as my favorite. But this year, they all fall short of my very favorite thing.

Wonder grenades.

They're in Starfinder Armory, on page 127. I didn't write them, develop them, or edit them.

But I invented the idea.

At my Into the Emerald Star Spire events at PaizoCon in 2017, before the Starfinder Core Rulebook was released, I was converting Pathfinder rules to Starfinder on-the-fly as I ran the game. I needed to replace some scrolls with something, and I wanted it to be more interesting than just spell gems. I knew I wanted it to be something that screamed "science-fantasy," something you'd never run into in a standard fantasy game or pure science-fiction setting. But as the players got the cache, I still hadn't decided what to use. I opened my mouth, prepared to just give them one-shot spell gems.

"They're grenades of wonder," I said, much to my own surprise.

"They're WHAT?!"

One-shot rod of wonder effects, I explained. Totally random. Illegal on many worlds. Pull the pin, throw, and no telling what'll happen.

The players loved them.

When I told the story to then-Creative Director James Sutter, he loved them. When I later told the new Creative Director, Robert G. McCreary, he loved them.

So they were added to the Armory outline. And I managed to avoid having anything to do with them, so when the wonder grenades came out in the print book, they got to be new to me all over again.

And that's my favorite thing of the year.

Mark Seifter (Designer)

This year was all about Pathfinder 2nd Edition for me. It was exhilarating, terrifying, gratifying, an entire whirlwind of emotions to create this new game, working not only with the design team and the rest of the creative staff at Paizo but also with thousands of fans through the open playtest. The game has improved by leaps and bounds thanks to the dedication and keen insight of our playtesters and our many sleepless nights and weekends of hard work.

Illustration by Kez Laczin

Logan Bonner (Designer)

Oh, man. What a year! Early in the year, we were sending the first step toward a new edition to the printer, and that was somehow the easy part! Once the Pathfinder Playtest came out, we got to see all sorts of opinions and data, positive and negative. And getting to watch so many people play the same adventure was so rewarding! This year has been all about collecting fan impressions and surveys, putting together streams so you could watch us play the Playtest, and doing demos at conventions. It's a lot of playtesting in a relatively short time—including actual, difficult stress testing—and we appreciate every one of you for taking the ride along with us. Everything we learned goes into a set of changes that's going to make the final game incredible. We're implementing changes as big as altering the whole proficiency system to making minor tweaks to the prestidigitation spell, all due to what you out there (and those of us in the office) found as you played and read the book.

My first personal highlight for the year was seeing data from surveys. We rarely get a chance to see how people are actually playing at home. Being able to see what people thought separated out from the noise of a messageboard conversation is something we haven't really had for previous playtests. Putting the surveys together took a lot of work, but has paid off.

My second personal highlight was going to PaizoCon UK in Birmingham. What a delightful, welcoming group of people and a fun convention! I had so many great conversations and played and ran delightful games.

Things haven't slowed down around the office, and we're hard at work polishing the final version of the game. We, and Pathfinder 2nd edition, will see you next year!

Lyz Lydell (Editor)

In 2018, I wrote my first Pathfinder Society Scenario, and it was a pretty big undertaking: resolving the metaplot for a longstanding and complicated faction leader in a Tier 7-11 scenario! Pathfinder Society Scenario 9-20: Fury of the Final Blade released right before PaizoCon. One night at the con, I happened across a table of GMs playing it and stopped by to watch for a while—without telling them I had written it. It let me see folks who have tons of experience with Pathfinder Society interact with the challenges and opponents I had built, and I was able to see them respond in a totally genuine way. Seeing their reactions when a certain monster showed up was absolutely priceless! I paraphrase: "Whaaaaaaaat!?" But even better was the next morning, when several of them came to find me—having learned that the quiet observer was actually the author—and let me know how much they had enjoyed the whole thing. I never thought I'd see people engaging with things I created like this, and knowing I've made a few lasting marks on Golarion.

Stephen Radney-MacFarland (Senior Designer)

It's been a whirlwind of a year. Not only did the Pathfinder Playtest see the light of day and created a ton of feedback (and even more work), this year saw the launch of the Flip-Tiles products. This is a project I had wanted to do for a few years now, and in short order, we saw three base sets and a couple of expansion, which much, much more to come. Then there was and my contribution to the Starfinder Dead Suns Adventure Path, The Thirteenth Gate, which I'm happy to hear folks are enjoying. In between, I worked seven conventions, ran more games of Pathfinder Playtest than I can remember, did a whole bunch of podcasts, and ran a session of the Pathfinder Playtest over at Penny Arcade for their Club PA members. That one was particularly enjoyable, as I reskinned the Beginner Box adventure (swapping goblins with kobolds and the black dragon with a red one) and ran the entire adventure in a little over four hours. Not bad considering one player had never played an RPG before and none of the other players had much Pathfinder experience. On a more personal note, my lovely girlfriend, Beth, bought me a special birthday present this year: Wayne Reynold's original art for the background cover of my Hell's Vengeance Adventure Path volume, For Queen & Empire. All in all, a pretty good year. Yep. Pretty, pretty good.

Illustration by Robert Lazzaretti

Patrick Renie (Developer)

One of my favorite parts of being a Pathfinder developer is writing requests for new art assets. Devising the physical details of an NPC or new monster, working with our talented art staff, and seeing what our amazing artists come up with never gets old. The art that comes in is inevitably even better than I could envision, and these illustrations really add another dimension to the stories we write for the Pathfinder world. Sometimes the art we receive is so vividly and imaginatively rendered that we rewrite whole chunks of the subject in question to better suit the art (rather than asking the artist to adjust the art to match the text). It's a uniquely synergistic craft that's as much a challenge as a joy to take part in.

Eleanor Ferron (Developer)

Ever since I started working at Paizo in January of this year, Luis and I have had the bittersweet honor of developing the final Pathfinder 1e Campaign Settings and Player Companions, doing our best to give the edition the best sendoff we could. It was a fun, if challenging, exercise to ensure every book would have fresh and exciting material for both players and GMs, and I'm hoping they will inspire fun new characters and campaigns going forward. But the things I am proudest of have to go to Starfinder, where I not only got to write the showstopper Starfinder Scenario #1-14: Star Sugar Heartlove!!! but also my very first adventure path volume, Starfinder Adventure Path #8: Escape from the Prison Moon.

John Compton (Organized Play Lead Developer)

Although I've had an active hand in developing slightly fewer scenarios as the organized play team expands, I've had a blast working on a bunch of these. One that really captured my imagination was Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-08: The Cost of Prestige by Matt Duval, which is a deep dive into Hell's politics and the city of Dis. Showing that the outer planes—including the evil-aligned ones—are functional albeit dangerous societies is really fun for me, and Matt did a great job with this one. Just be warned that it runs pretty long.

From a personal perspective, I got to write a lot of really fun material this year. Although I really enjoyed my Faiths of Golarion contribution and will cover a favorite scenario in a blog later this month, I want to highlight Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Distant Realms, a book I pitched in early 2017 to highlight extraplanar "landing cities" from which to launch adventures. Although Thurston Hillman and I each wrote our own entries (Shadow Absalom and Yulgamot respectively), it's the Maelstrom archipelago of Basrakal that really highlights the fun we have when collaborating directly. And if you like what we create together, get excited for 2019's Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Druma, Profit and Prophecy!

Illustration by Leon Tukker

Joe Pasini (Developer)

2018 has been a heck* of a year! (*That's all I'm allowed to call it.)

First, it saw the release of the first major projects I worked on as a Starfinder developer:

• Starfinder Armory! I especially enjoyed ordering art for the keytar (check out the band sticker).
• Alien Archive 2: I got to write a bunch of fun stuff for this (pahtra and vlaka and [uplifted bears], oh my!) and develop even more.

Second, the majority of my attention and effort this year went into work that won't be out in the world until next year.

• The Starfinder Beginner Box was a massive effort that nearly consumed me whole. The result is a box full of goodies that I hope will be a great way for folks new to Starfinder—and those new to tabletop roleplaying games—to see what all the fuss is about.
• I had the privilege to work with a number of talented people on [unannounced product], and even got to make my own contribution. I'm excited for this to be known to the wider world—mostly so I can brag on the aforementioned talented people.
• I wrote my first character class, the vanguard (available for playtest through January 16th [my birthday week]!). Lucky for all of us, the inimitable Owen K.C. Stephens developed it into something, you know, playable.
• I wrote my first Starfinder Adventure Path volume, Starfinder Adventure Path #15: Sun Divers. I work with prolific, creative people who seem to author several of these a year, but for an average Joe like me, this was no mean feat! Eternal gratitude to Chris Sims for developing the adventure, which must've been at least as harrowing as writing it.

Adam Daigle
Managing Developer

This year's been a busy one, particularly with all of the work that's gone into creating Pathfinder Playtest scenarios, reviewing feedback, discussing the Second Edition organized play program's structure, and conveying that in a bunch of really big blogs. While that's been really productive from a looking-to-the-future perspective, it's been less fulfilling in the present because we had fallen way behind in our Additional Resources and Campaign Clarifications process. Over the past 8 weeks, the developers have revisited how we approach these books, devised better ways to streamline the whole process, and pushed through numerous months' content. You may have seen the Additional Resources update two weeks ago, and we're pleased to have another release going up later today! With this, we've addressed every book published in 2018 except Pathfinder Player Companion: Martial Arts Handbook (it's coming in our next update).

As the organized play campaigns are community-led programs, we appreciate having the input of our community's leaders in evaluating which content to include. This wouldn't have been possible without the ongoing efforts of our volunteer review teams, led by Venture-Captain Alexander Lenz. Helping him in this endeavor are James Anderson, Sasha Lindley Hall, Þórarinn Sigurðsson, and many more. These teams of venture-officers read through the Campaign Setting, Player Companion, and RPG hardcover books searching for any ambiguities and mechanics that could be disruptive in the organized play environment, flagging these for the developers to review. It helps us resolve so many more clarifications from the start and speeds up the process considerably, and we're very appreciative of their work helping keep these documents up to date.

As we look ahead, we're already working on January's update (Pathfinder Player Companion: Wilderness Origins, Pathfinder Player Companion: Martial Arts Handbook, and Pathfinder Adventure Path #138: Rise of New Thassilon). Going forward, our goal is to update the Additional Resources and Campaign Clarifications documents either on the products' street dates or very shortly thereafter.

But we're not just bringing you more player options; we're also sanctioning more playable content. In addition to Pathfinder Module: Seers of the Drowned City and Pathfinder Adventure Path: War for the Crown getting finished up soon (expect a blog next month), Thurston Hillman brings three new adventures into Starfinder Society to help elevate your PCs to new level heights—while also taking them to new, terrifying depths.

Illustration by David Melvin

We're also proud to announce the sanctioning of the Signal of Screams Adventure Path! While the third and final adventure of the series will release soon, we wanted to make sure that this adventure path got out as quickly as possible to our players. I suspect this adventure should see play from our most experienced Starfinders, as its higher-level range makes it a perfect opportunity to play through with some of your mid- to high-level characters. Unlike our other adventure paths, Signal of Screams does not include a repeatable first scenario; this is intentional, as the Adventure Path's serious horror themes make it less suitable for repeated play. Luckily, you can still use other replay methods (such as a being a member of a certain faction) if you really want to experience the "torment" over again. Just be careful—PCs going through the Signal of Screams Adventure Path are likely to come out… changed!

Download the Signal of Screams Sanctioning Document

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

Join us next week as we look back at a great year of organized play!

John Compton
Organized Play Lead Developer

Badge and ticket sales now open for PaizoCon 2019!

PaizoCon is an annual convention run by Paizo Inc., where the Paizo community comes to play, learn, and connect with each other. The Paizo community includes fans and players, Paizo employees, authors, artists, RPG media (podcasts and reviewers, etc), RPG industry publishers, and business partners. PaizoCon occurs over Memorial Day weekend (May 24-27) and is held in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotels near the SeaTac airport. Attendees interested in staying at the DoubleTree can access a special convention room rate here.

2019 Badge and Banquet Ticket Prices

• 4-Day Badges are $75.00
• 4-Day Kids Badges are $40.00 (for kids up to 10 years old)
• Preview Banquet Tickets are $45.00 (and include an exclusive commemorative item available only to attendees at the Preview Banquet*)
• 4-Day Badge plus a Preview Banquet ticket is $110 ($10 savings)

We are thrilled to announce our 2019 Guests of Honor are Liane Merciel and Wayne Reynolds!

Liane Merciel is the author of critically acclaimed novels including The River Kings' Road, Dragon Age: Last Flight, and Pathfinder Tales: Hellknight. She has also contributed to game materials such as Paizo's Nidal: Land of Shadows, Faiths of Golarion, and other forthcoming releases.

Wayne Reynolds's work has appeared in roleplaying games, collectable card games, board games, and miniature designs. He has contributed cover art and internal illustrations for comics, novels, and historical reference books. His work has graced the covers of the Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook and numerous volumes of Pathfinder Adventure Path, as well as the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook and every Pathfinder hardcover Paizo has produced since. Wayne continues to work with Paizo's designers to reveal never-before-seen corners of Golarion, while his own in-depth knowledge of historic weapons, armor, and fighting styles brings the most exciting elements of the Pathfinder RPG to life.

And returning for PaizoCon are our special guests from the Glass Cannon! Last year's smash-hit Guests of Honor included the Glass Canon Network crew and they'll be back again as Special Guests for 2019. They'll be hosting several live play games and other podcasting events throughout the four days so be sure to save some time in your gaming schedule to check them out.

In addition to our Guests of Honor and Special Guests, PaizoCon gives fans, friends, and freelancers an opportunity to meet, game, and network with the entire Paizo staff as well as other RPG industry folks. With the exception of the Preview Banquet held on Saturday evening, the Grand Ballroom will be filled with Pathfinder and Starfinder Society games and Pathfinder Adventure Card Game events run by the Organized Play Foundation (OPF). We'll have numerous games run by Paizo staff, RPG industry luminaries (including games run by the authors that wrote them), and by members of our amazing community. We also host seminars and workshops that range from deep dives into specific books we've published to world building, alien creation, and other topics for game developers, fiction writers, and RPG and sci-fi/fantasy fans alike.

On a personal note, I've been attending PaizoCon since 2009 and every year I look forward to the enthusiasm and excitement the community brings. I love seeing familiar faces, meeting new friends, and getting to see the people behind the forum avatars. After 12 years of PaizoCon and 11 years of running the show, Paizo is still finding lots of opportunity to improve the convention and the attendee experience. I'm happy to report, based on feedback from the community, in addition to the regular 8:00 AM-1:00 PM games the OPF will be running at least 10 tables of Society games during the 1:00 PM-6:00 PM time slots on Friday, Saturday (1:00 PM-5:00 PM), and Sunday afternoons. I will also be working with the OPF to leave a number of seats at Society games open folks who are unable to pre-register for events. I'm confident that these and other scheduling improvements will make 2019 one of our best PaizoCons so far!

I look forward to see you in May!

Sara Marie
Customer Service & Community Manager

With the release of the Starfinder Character Operations Manual Playtest, the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild is also opening its doors to a limited form of playtest. Since these classes won't be released until late 2019, we're looking at allowing players the chance to try these classes out during the playtest period.

Playtest Period: The availability for these rules runs from the publishing of this post until the end of the playtest period (January 16th, 2019.) Once this period has expired, players can no longer use the Starfinder Character Operations Manual Playtest classes until the publication of the book in late 2019.

How It Works: Given the smaller volume of scenarios that Starfinder Society has compared to Pathfinder Society, we've elected not to force players to choose between playtesting new classes on new characters or ignoring the playtest to continue with existing characters. As a happy medium between these options, we're opening up Society play for the playtest classes via the use of custom created characters that operate much like our pregenerated characters. We believe this should encourage players to test the waters with custom builds, be it with current scenarios or through our growing stable of repeatable options.

Creating a Playtest Character: Prior to playing a scenario in the playtest period, a player can determine if they want to playtest one of the new classes. Depending on the tier of the scenario, the player can then use a 1st-, 4th- or 8th-level character using one of the classes in the Starfinder Character Operations Manual Playtest and created using the following guidelines:

• Classes: The character must have all levels in a single playtest class. Although multiclassing ramifications are important for the playtest as a whole, we're keeping to single classes in the organized play portion of the playtest for simplicity.
• 1st Level: The character can be created using the character creation rules presented in the Starfinder Core Rulebook and Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide.
• 4th Level: This character follows the same rules as above, except it can select one 4th level armor or weapon and one 3rd level armor or weapon. In addition, the player can spend up to 4,000 credits on other available equipment.
• 8th Level: This character follows the same rules as above, except it can select one 8th level armor or weapon and one 7th level armor or weapon. In addition, the player can spend up to 18,000 credits on other available equipment.

Credit: The credit earned for playing a playtest character follows the same rules and guidelines as presented on page 7 of the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide. This means that you must choose which of your characters will receive the credit at the beginning of the adventure. Credit must be assigned to characters of lower level than the playtest character.

Resolving Conditions: We recognize that players taking the opportunity to playtest these characters are performing a service for the game and campaign. As a result, whenever a player playtests a 4th- or 8th-level version of these characters, the cost to purchase a raise dead is reduced to 6 Fame and subsequent restorations to remove the negative levels are only 1 Fame each. This means that there's still some risk to your established characters, but the penalty for dying as a playtest character is far less onerous than it would be for a normal character or pregenerated character.

Applying Credit: As we want to encourage extra play of the higher-level versions of these classes, we're also going to open up the rules for applying credit when playing a playtest character. A player using a non-1st-level playtest character may choose to apply the earned Chronicle sheet to an existing Organized Play character. To do so, simply replace the credits earned on the Chronicle sheet with credits from the list below that match the level range of the existing player character.

• Levels 1-2: 720 credits (2,160 credits for Adventure Path module)
• Levels 3-4: 1,460 credits (4,380 credits for Adventure Path module)
• Levels 5-6: 4,085 credits (12,255 credits for Adventure Path module)
• Levels 7-8: 5,835 credits (17,505 credits for Adventure Path module)

Shields: As a special note, the availability of shields, as presented with the vanguard class, are available for all playtest characters (biohacker, vanguard and witchwarper) to try out. However, shields cannot be purchased for other organized play characters.

With all this in mind, we encourage our players to take an active part in the playtest, both by sharing your opinions online in the Playtest forums and by completing the playtest surveys. We hope that by opening up the means in which players can create and customize characters for the playtest, that we can see some unique and fun builds using these new classes and that such tests will provide the design team with priceless "field agent" feedback!

I look forward to hearing from each of you about your experiences with the Starfinder Character Operations Manual classes and am even more excited to see these classes join the roster of Starfinder classes officially in late 2019.

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

The Starfinder Character Operations Manual Playtest begins now!

This playtest focuses on three new classes for the upcoming Starfinder Character Operations Manual, a sourcebook full of new character options that is scheduled to release in late 2019. First up is the biohacker, a brilliant super-scientist who analyzes their enemies and creates injections that can help allies or hinder foes. Biohackers specialize in scientific fields of study and utilize a scientific method that is either studious and methodical, or instinctive and improvisational—the hallmarks of any good mad scientist! Next is the vanguard, a martial character who excels in melee fighting and channels the entropic forces of the universe to manipulate their surroundings, bolster themselves and their allies, and power their devastating unarmed strikes. Finally, we present the witchwarper. This Charisma-based spellcaster pulls from alternate realities to power their magic and alter the environment and even nearby creatures to the witchwarper's advantage. This playtest is your chance to get a look at early versions of these classes and have a hand in their development before they hit shelves next year!

Playtesting the Classes

The Character Operations Manual Playtest launches today, December 3, 2018, and runs through January 16, 2019. So how can you help playtest these new classes? First, download the free PDF of the Character Operations Manual Playtest from starfinderplaytest.com. Then make up some characters using the new rules. We're most interested in feedback from actual play, so it's best if you can get some friends together and play a few sessions using the new classes. If possible, make up characters at different levels to get a sense of how they work at different points in their careers. There's no playtest adventure to go along with these classes—you can use them in existing adventures like Starfinder Society scenarios or Starfinder Adventure Paths, or in adventures or mock combats that you create yourself. It might be helpful to take some notes during play, so you can remember your thoughts on the experience after the game session. To gather the most useful data for this playtest, we ask that you avoid using house rules and play these characters using only published rules from the Starfinder RPG.

Playtesting in the Starfinder Society

Players participating in the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild can also join in the worldwide playtest. From now until the playtest's completion, players can create unique custom characters of levels 1, 4 and 8 to test the new classes with. These custom characters use many of the same rules as pregenerated characters, though the Organized Play team has slightly relaxed the rules in order to encourage playtesting these new classes. Look for more information on the specifics in a follow-up Organized Play blog post later today.

Surveys

Our primary means of collecting feedback for the playtest is through surveys that we would like everyone participating in the playtest to complete. There is one survey for each class, so please fill out the survey for each class you play. If you get the chance to try out all three classes, that's great! But it's okay if you can only play one or two of the classes—just fill out the survey or surveys for those classes. Links to the surveys can be found on the playtest page. Please make sure you've filled out your surveys by January 16, 2019.

In addition to responding via the surveys, you can engage with other players and designers on the Playtest forums, discussing the new classes and possibilities for the future. While we want to focus on actual play feedback, we're interested in hearing all of your ideas about the classes. You can also join us on Paizo's Twitch channel. We host a live Starfinder stream every Wednesday, where we talk about all things Starfinder—including the Character Operations Manual Playtest.

What are your thoughts about the playtest? Do you have any questions about the playtest process? Let us know in the comments below!

—The Starfinder Team