Greetings, Pathfinders and Starfinders! Here’s our streaming schedule for Gen Con Online, August 4–7, 2022. All shows will be hosted on our Twitch channel at twitch.tv/officialpaizo.

Thursday, August 4

12 p.m. Pacific; 3 p.m. Eastern: Paizo Keynote Address with Erik Mona
Join Publisher Erik Mona for another fast-paced keynote, as he takes us through more than a hundred slides featuring upcoming Pathfinder and Starfinder products!

1 p.m. Pacific; 4 p.m. Eastern: Start Your Pathfinder Adventure
Pathfinder Second Edition is three years old, and already there’s an incredible amount of content. Director of Game Design Jason Bulmahn, Senior Editor Patrick Hurley, Senior Designer Michael Sayre, and Development Manager Linda Zayas-Palmer take you through how to get started with Pathfinder Second Edition.

2 p.m. Pacific; 5 p.m. Eastern: Launch into Starfinder
Starfinder turns five years old at Gen Con this year! Let Senior Developer Thurston Hillman, Developer Jenny Jarzabski, Senior Editor Ianara Natividad, and Starfinder Lead Designer Joe Pasini guide you through how best to start your adventures in the Pact Worlds and beyond.

3 p.m. Pacific; 6 p.m. Eastern: Play Today with Organized Play
Join Organized Play Line Developer Jessica Catalan, Organized Play Line Developer Mike Kimmel, Editor Shay Snow, and Development Manager Linda Zayas-Palmer to hear the latest news on Organized Play, featuring Starfinder Society's Year of Redemption's Rise and Pathfinder Society's Year of Boundless Wonder!

Friday, August 5

12 p.m. Pacific; 3 p.m. Eastern: Exploring Pathfinder & Lost Omens Rulebooks
Whether you’re delving into the Dark Archive or touring the world with Lost Omens: Travel Guide, our hardcover offerings have something for everyone. Join Pathfinder Lead Designer Logan Bonner, Senior Developer Eleanor Ferron, Lead Editor Avi Kool, and Senior Designer Michael Sayre as they take you through our rulebooks, reveal secrets, and talk about what’s next!

1 p.m. Pacific; 4 p.m. Eastern: Starfinder Present and Future
Starfinder may already be in the future, but we’re going even further! Organized Play Line Developer Jessica Catalan, Senior Developer Thurston Hillman, Developer Jenny Jarzabski, and Starfinder Lead Designer Joe Pasini have plenty of surprises in store as they discuss Starfinder Interstellar Species, as well as what’s coming next for the Starfinder line.

2 p.m. Pacific; 5 p.m. Eastern: Pathfinder Adventures Ahead!
Between Adventure Paths, standalone Adventures, and Pathfinder Society scenarios, there’s an adventure out there for any group! Join Organized Play Line Developer (and freelance author) Jessica Catalan, Creative Director James Jacobs, and Organized Play Line Developer Mike Kimmel as they take you through our upcoming offerings!

3 p.m. Pacific; 6 p.m. Eastern: Infinite Publishing Guide
The Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite marketplaces allow authors to publish their content within Paizo’s settings. Join all-star authors Alexander Augunas, Dustin Knight (host of Infiknight Reviews), and Andrew White—along with Lysa Penrose from OneBookShelf—to talk about publishing on Infinite. Learn from the best!

5 p.m. Pacific; 8 p.m. Eastern: Find the Path Live: Dino Roundup
Jess runs the crew through an extended version of the Pathfinder Second Edition bounty, Hillcross Roundup. Prepare for dinosaur shenanigans aplenty! This liveplay will last approximately 3 hours.

Saturday, August 6

12 p.m. Pacific; 3 p.m. Eastern: Enhance: Virtual Tabletop Play
Computer, enhance! Our very own Front End Engineering Lead and VTT master Andrew White takes you through the virtual tabletop options for online play. The team will share tips and tricks, as well as show off official Paizo content for your favorite virtual tabletop!

1 p.m. Pacific; 4 p.m. Eastern: Pathfinder Workshop
Collaborate with Paizo staff to build a casefile, like those found in Pathfinder Dark Archive! Create a fun, mysterious concept and find out how the rules and tools in Dark Archive could bring it to your table with Pathfinder Lead Designer Logan Bonner, Senior Editor Patrick Hurley, Senior Designer Michael Sayre, and Development Manager Linda Zayas-Palmer.

2 p.m. Pacific; 5 p.m. Eastern: Starfinder Workshop
The galaxy is full of strange worlds and bizarre alien species around every corner. Let’s make some new ones! Enter the Star Chamber with Organized Play Line Developer Jessica Catalan, Developer Jenny Jarzabski, Starfinder Lead Designer Joe Pasini, and new Senior Editor Simone D. Sallé as they guide you through the creation of a brand-new planet and species.

3 p.m. Pacific; 6 p.m. Eastern: Ask the Paizo GMs
We at Paizo love our Game Masters, especially those who work with us every day! Learn tips, tricks, and best practices from some of the best, including Director of Game Design Jason Bulmahn, Developer Jenny Jarzabski, and Editor Shay Snow.

Organized Play Events

Organized Play has arrived in force for Gen Con Online! We have more than 250 tables of Pathfinder and Starfinder Society play. Just like at Gen Con Indy, we’ll be launching Pathfinder Society’s Year of Boundless Wonder with three new scenarios, as well as two new Starfinder Society scenarios!

Our full catalog can be viewed on Gen Con’s website; there are plenty of seats at our tables for last-minute signups!

We’ll also be running our brand-new interactive specials concurrently with Gen Con Indy! Starfinder Society Special #4-99: A Time of Crisis will have its second-ever run on Friday night at 5 p.m. Pacific; 8 p.m. Eastern, and Pathfinder Society Special #3-98: Expedition into Pallid Peril will be run for the very first time ever on Saturday night at the same time. We’d love to have you join us as we work to break our own records for most concurrent tables.

For more information, head over to our discord at paizo.events. See you online!

Charity Auction

Paizo’s yearly Gen Con charity auction returns! During the event, bid on signed copies of Pathfinder and Starfinder hardcovers, exclusive Organized Play boons for in-game content, and embroidered products handmade and donated by Mischief Loot! All proceeds benefit Gen Con’s chosen partner charity, The Patachou Foundation.

View and bid on the items in the #charity-auction channel of our Discord server at http://paizo.events. Learn more about The Patachou Foundation at https://www.gencon.com/gen-con-indy/charity-partners, and visit Mischief Loot at https://www.etsy.com/shop/MischiefLoot.

G’day, players! Paizo and the Organized Play Foundation volunteers are pleased to announce PaizoCon South Pacific 2022!

The Australian community will be gathering September 23-25, 2022, at The Metropolitan Spring Hill in Brisbane for a return to physical Pathfinder and Starfinder gaming. Events will feature the new interactive special, PFS 3-98: Expedition into Pallid Peril, exclusive early access to the September scenario releases, and more!

Tickets and more information are available on their Warhorn page. GM signups will begin on August 6, and player signups begin on August 23.

If you have questions about the event, check out their Warhorn page, or email Daniel Flood at daniel[at]creakingchair[dot]com. We can’t wait to see you all in Brisbane!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

With the release of Dark Archive, we welcome a new slate of community creators into the Infinite Masters program. Infinite Masters is an invitation-only cadre of the most active and influential members of the Pathfinder Infinite and Starfinder Infinite community, whose work consistently sets the standard for quality and professionalism, and who receive early access to official Paizo releases in order to support them with Infinite content as close to release date as possible. Look for new releases to expand the reach of Dark Archive and add even more supernatural mysteries to your games from some of these Infinite Masters.

Find the Infinite Masters’ latest works, including new companion titles to Dark Archive, here.

• Adrian Kennelly
• Alexander Augunas
• Andrew White
• Arkon
• Calder William CaDavid
• Ceri Rowland
• Chris A. Jackson
• Derry Luttrell
• Dustin Knight
• Dylan Wokeck
• Grady Wang (The Gallant Goblin)
• Gremlin Brothers
• Helen Savore
• Jacky Leung
• Jamie Trollope
• James Beck
• Jen Vaughn
• Jeremy Hochhalter

• Jessica Catalan
• Jessica Ross
• Kevin Glusing
• Kim Frandsen
• Leo Glass
• Liane Merciel
• Logan Bonner
• Luis Loza
• Mike Kimmel
• Monica Valentinelli
• Owen K.C. Stephens
• Sasha Laranoa Harving
• Simon Hunter
• Theo Thourson (The Gallant Goblin)
• Tim Pratt
• Tom Robinson
• Tony Saunders
• Tyler Beck
• Vanessa Hoskins
• W. Brian Lane

Congratulations to all the new Infinite Masters. We look forward to your work!

So many fantastic Paizo products are coming out this month, including Pathfinder’s biggest rulebook of the year, the first Pathfinder Lost Omens Special Edition, two Free RPG Day adventures, two Flip-Mats, an intergalactic race across land and sea, a bounty to save a nigh-extinct species, a handy pocket edition, numerous Society releases, and the start of a new Pathfinder Adventure Path that’s perfect for less than good-hearted adventurers!

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Pathfinder Dark Archive

ENTER THE PARANORMAL!
The unknown beckons from beyond the fringes of our understanding, and the eight lost files of the Dark Archive arm you to explore, understand, and confront it. Unleash the untold power of your mind as the new psychic class, or leverage supernatural secrets and mystic implements as the thaumaturge! As you pore over each case file, you’ll find paranormal player options like divine magic wielded by secret cults, eldritch pacts with powerful entities, and archetypes that skip through time. If you’re a GM, you’ll find options to turn your creatures into rumored cryptids, new rules for unexplained powers and mental battles—and more! Each file concludes with a short adventure to immerse players in the unknown, spanning every corner of the Age of Lost Omens campaign setting!

Demiplane has Dark Archive on PathfinderNexus.com and Roll20 has Dark Archive on their Marketplace.

Available in Hardcover
Subscription: Pathfinder Rulebook

Available in Special Edition
Subscription: Pathfinder Special Edition Rulebook

Available in Pocket Edition

Pathfinder Lost Omens: World Guide Special Edition

Subscription: Pathfinder Lost Omens Special Edition

CLAIM YOUR DESTINY
This indispensable guidebook to the world of Pathfinder presents everything you need to know for a lifetime of adventure in the uncertain Age of Lost Omens. The god of humanity is dead, and prophecy is broken, leaving adventuring heroes like you to carve their own destinies out of an uncertain future! This gazetteer features 10 diverse regions packed with thrilling and deadly possibilities, and is accompanied by a giant two-sided poster map depicting the heart of the Pathfinder setting.

Roll20 now has the Pathfinder Lost Omens: World Guide on their Marketplace, Fantasy Grounds has on their Store, and Demiplane has it ready on PathfinderNexus.com today!

Pathfinder Adventure: A Fistful of Flowers

BLOOM AND DOOM!
When a stuffy noblewoman decides leshys will make perfect centerpieces for her fancy tea party, she has no idea what sort of trouble she’s stirring up. Not every plant in the forest wants to be put on display, and some of them are more than well-equipped to fight for those who’ve been plucked from their homes!

In A Fistful of Flowers, you take on the role of one of four unique leshys—plants who have been granted sapience and wills of their own. When new sproutlings are snatched from the woods, it’s up to your band of furious flowers and pugilistic plants to set things right!

A Fistful of Flowers is a short adventure for 3rd-level characters that takes a band of leshy heroes out of the forest and into the most dangerous of locations—an aristocrat’s fancy tea party. In addition, the four pregenerated characters provide a quick way to jump into the adventure right away in this exciting offering for Free RPG Day! Grab some dice, gather your friends, and play the role of the forest’s newest heroes!

Pathfinder Adventure Path #181: Zombie Feast (Blood Lords 1 of 6)

Subscription: Pathfinder Adventure Path

SOMETHING GNAWING AT YOU?
Dispatched to look into strange events at a farm tended by zombie workhands, the characters find a grave threat to the living population in the undead-dominated nation of Geb. Exposing the plot is the first step to influence and power, but if the investigators aren’t careful, it might be their last! The Blood Lords Adventure Path begins with “Zombie Feast,” a complete adventure for 1st- to 3rd-level characters.

We are working on bringing this Adventure Path to Foundry VTT.

Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Theater

BREAK A LEG!
Heroes enjoy being the center of attention, and what better place to do so than a theater? This line of gaming maps provides ready-to-use and detailed fantasy set pieces for the busy Game Master. Whether the adventurers go to see a good show or foil a sinister production, with Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Theater, you’ll be ready for the curtain call in a heartbeat!

Starfinder Pact Worlds Pocket Edition

BRAVE NEW WORLDS
The Pact Worlds are the beating heart of the Starfinder campaign setting. This pocket-edition rulebook is your guide to these core worlds and civilizations—the perfect resource for launching new adventures. Inside, you’ll find the following:

• Gazetteers of the system’s 14 major worlds, including the cosmopolitan corridors of Absalom Station, the perilous jungles of Castrovel, and the worldship Idari.
• Starships from across the system and a codex of NPCs from various factions.
• Six new playable races and tons of new gear, including weapons, armor, magic items, and tech gadgets.
• A host of player options, including archetypes, feats, spells, and more!

Starfinder Bounty #4: Poacher's Prize

A STARFINDER BOUNTY DESIGNED FOR 1ST-LEVEL CHARACTERS.
The Liavaran moon of Arkanen is a scientific anomaly that draws the attention of scientists and spellcasters from all over the Pact Worlds. While many are interested in technological and magical methods of utilizing of Arkanen's powerful storms, Akrikaus Research Laboratories is focused on preserving and studying the moon’s ecological diversity and the biological adaptations of the local flora and fauna, which have enabled these life forms to thrive despite Arkanen's harsh conditions. After years of work, Akrikaus has genetically re-engineered an extinct animal species and are scheduled to reintroduce the species into a nearby nature preserve. When opportunistic poachers steal these once-extinct creatures, Akrikaus hires the PCs to retrieve the valuable animals before they're lost forever.

Starfinder Adventure: Redshift Rally

ON YOUR MARKS, GET SET, GO!
It’s the 30th anniversary of the Absalom Run starship race, and to celebrate, the organizers have greatly expanded the event... and the prize money! When an accident in the qualifying heat takes an accomplished pilot out of the race, the party must step in to help starship manufacturer Redshift Revolution oppose the machinations of their dastardly competitor, Terminator. In a series of rallies over land, across sea, and through space, the PCs will face off against alien threats, try to win over the media, and most importantly, beat the Terminator racers across the finish line! Designed for characters with the need for speed, Redshift Rally is a Starfinder adventure unlike any other! This book includes:

• Redshift Rally, a complete adventure for 7th-level characters, leading them to 10th level.
• Details on the other teams the heroes will face off against in the Absalom Run, some more underhanded and devious than others.
• An Adventure Toolbox with a racer archetype, new spells that focus on speed and movement, vehicle modifications for the discerning mechanic, and two dangerous creatures from the clouds of Bretheda and the seas of Aucturn.

Starfinder Flip-Mat: Star Knight Starships

Subscription: Starfinder Maps

FOR HONOR AND ORDER!
Exploring space can be dangerous, but those sworn to uphold the traditions of knighthood over the millennia protect citizens across the galaxy... even from other star knights! This double-sided Starfinder Flip-Mat features the interior of a guard ship of the Knights of Golarion—a group dedicated to promoting justice in the name of a lost planet—on one side. On the other, you can find the deck plan for a warship belonging to the Hellknights—a ruthless organization that enforces the law above all else.

Starfinder Flip-Mats present ready-to-use science-fantasy set pieces for the busy Game Master. With Starfinder Flip-Mat: Star Knight Starships, you’ll be ready for the next encounter with these champions of space!

Starfinder Adventure: Skitter Warp

ANGELS & DEMONS
When an unprecedented cosmic storm engulfs a world of peaceful scientists, the inhabitants are transformed by planar energies to become either the best or worst versions of themselves. The crew of Nakonechkin Salvage are the only ones close enough to stop an army of demons besieging the capital city, but this mission is personal: one of their own was planetside when the storm hit!

In addition to a rollicking adventure, this book includes four pregenerated characters who are ready to play, with full stat blocks and backstories. The inside front cover includes all the maps needed for this adventure.

Skitter Warp is written for the popular Starfinder Roleplaying Game. It’s intended for 5th-level characters who are ready to lend some helping hands to friends in crisis!

Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-18: Dacilane Academy's Delightful Disaster

Subscription: Pathfinder Society

Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-19: Mean Streets of Shadow Absalom

Subscription: Pathfinder Society

Starfinder Society Scenario #5-05: Boom-Block Gambit

Subscription: Starfinder Society

For more read August 2022 Organized Play Scenario Previews.

New rules content will soon be found Archives of Nethys at paizo.com/prd paizo.com/sfrd, so you can try before you buy!

Shop the Paizo Store and your favorite local game store today!

Paizo has many partners who produce content under a variety of licenses, including media partners like Roll for Combat, who—in addition to streaming high quality Pathfinder and Starfinder actual-play podcasts and running the RPG Superstar design talent competition—publish their own line of Pathfinder Second Edition rulebooks and adventures under the Battlezoo brand. Check out this overview of their newest Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign from Roll for Combat’s Director of Game Design, Mark Seifter!

An eldamon trainer shopping with her eldamon friends: an air bat, fire squirrel, and death dog.
Illustration by Hazem Ameen © Roll for Combat

Befriend, Train, Battle, and Evolve!

Hi everyone, Mark Seifter here. I’m excited to announce a new Kickstarter from Roll for Combat, which went live today at http://kickstarter.rollforcombat.com! The Kickstarter features three exciting sourcebooks described below!

Battlezoo Eldamon lets you befriend, train, battle, and evolve ancient and playful monsters based on 10–20 elemental types, such as fire, ice, death, and possibly even music and time! Eldamon are slightly out of phase with reality and like to meld into items, creatures, and locations. You can add them seamlessly into any setting, allowing characters to interact with and collect them without disrupting the established adventure or requiring the GM to rebuild or change encounters. Anyone can befriend eldamon and have them fight playful mock duels with each other, but only the eldamon trainer class can phase them into our world to use them in combat against deadly threats. Meanwhile, as an elemental avatar, you have a powerful but quiescent eldamon melded into you, allowing you to harness the power of their strange abilities! Battlezoo Eldamon is perfect for monster-training lovers of all ages. The rules are simple enough to offer a great way to introduce children to the game but deep enough to provide a variety of combinations for strategic players. In addition to the rulebook for Pathfinder, you can also get your hands on a card game called Eldamon Battles (offering players the chance to experience duels between eldamon quickly and strategically), plushies of six of the most common eldamon, battle minis, dice sets, leather notebooks, and more!

An eldamon trainer and elemental avatar enjoy a campfire with several eldamon friends.
Illustration by Miguel Regodon Harkness. © Roll for Combat

Battlezoo Ancestries: Year of Monsters sends a monstrous new ancestry to your inbox every month, plus a final compilation book at the end that collects all the ancestries and offers more additional content! Such ancestries include demons, gremlins, intelligent weapons, dungeons expanded (you can get the original dungeon ancestry for free, despite the stated price of 1 cent, at http://battlezoo.com), oni, nymphs, doppelgangers, minotaurs, slimes, sthenos, mimics, and sidhe. Each ancestry will receive roughly twice as much content as a standard size ancestry, such as those presented in the Core Rulebook or Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. Thanks to stretch goals, some of the ancestry options might expand even more!

Lastly, Battlezoo Bestiary Strange & Unusual is the result of the 2021 RPG Superstar contest, licensed from Paizo. It features 150 award-winning monsters, an expansion of the monster parts system from Battlezoo Bestiary, the aberrant soul archetype (an option for characters who are slowly transforming into aberrations), and more.

I’m very excited about these new projects, and I hope you’ll check out the Kickstarter at http://kickstarter.rollforcombat.com. Let me know which of these interests you in the comments below, and feel free to ask me any questions there as well!

Mark Seifter
Director of Game Design, Roll for Combat

Author Bio:
Mark Seifter is the director of game design at Roll for Combat and Paizo’s former design manager. He is also one of the four lead designers responsible for Pathfinder Second Edition. You can find him @markseifter on Twitter. Check out his Twitch stream with Linda Zayas-Palmer, Arcane Mark, Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Pacific and Saturdays at 10 a.m. Pacific at https://www.twitch.tv/arcanemark. Mark also appears regularly on the Roll for Combat Live Youtube stream with Stephen Glicker at https://www.youtube.com/c/RollForCombat/. Both shows cover a variety of RPG and Pathfinder topics! You can also join his discord at https://tiny.cc.arcanemark!

Back the Roll for Combat Kickstarter

Greetings, Archivists,

Pathfinder Dark Archive is almost here! This book wouldn’t have been possible without the creativity and skill of the authors who contributed. To celebrate the release, we wanted to turn the blog over to these writers to reflect on their inspirations for the project and let you know what else they’re up to. Without further ado, here are some of the creators responsible for bringing the paranormal to you! If you liked a section, consider letting them know in the comments or following them on social media!

James Case
Senior Designer

Alternative art of Thaleon and Mios by Denis Zhbankov

Rigby Bendele (they/them)

I’m incredibly proud of my work on Dark Archive, including the Rumored Cryptid adjustment (page 61), "The Beast of Birchfrost" cryptid adventure (pages 66–71; turn to page 69 to see pictures of my son), “Tempting Curses” (page 162) and “Bargained Contracts” (page 164). During the design process, I spent a good amount of time at my local library flipping through folktales. One difficulty with writing concepts based in folklore is avoiding appropriation, as there are a number of tales and creatures that get presented as universal but actually have specific cultural origins. I worked hard to make my pieces feel like they could've come from real world folklore without appropriating.

This work challenged me in ways that made me grow as a designer. It was my first time working on a Pathfinder hardcover book and focusing on mechanical options instead of adventures. I'm excited to see it in everyone's hands at this point. I'm particularly eager to see how people use this work in the future, as I love the collaborative nature of tabletop games.

If you want to hear more from me, you can find me on Twitter @rigbeesknees or check out my work in the Pathfinder Lost Omens Travel Guide.

Jessica Catalan

Hi, I’m Jessica Catalan! I’m the current Starfinder Society Developer and a freelance author who writes a whole lot of words for Pathfinder and Starfinder! For Dark Archive, I wrote the Experimental Cryptid adjustment on page 60, “Time (Oracle Mystery)” on page 188, and “Hazards of Perception” on pages 122–125. Dark Archive is a weird, wild, and wonderful book and I’m beyond proud to be a part of it!

Banana Chan (she/they/he)

Hi! I'm Banana and I'm a game designer and screenwriter. When I was asked to write for Dark Archive, I was ecstatic (but I tried very hard to stay cool so I wouldn't embarrass myself). I wrote the rituals and the adventure “The Verdure of Iblydos” on page 148. Please note, I'm not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, I've just done a lot of research for this adventure (this is for any other fans of the podcast Cults). The big inspiration points for me (other than the Cults podcast), were folk horror movies, such as The Empty Man, The Invitation, The Wicker Man, The Blood on Satan's Claw and (of course) Midsommar and how new age beliefs currently operate. The cult leader, Mother Mitera, is specifically inspired by Nine Perfect Strangers, Goop, and Teal Swan.

Art by Tuan Duong Chu

Sen.H.H.S

Hi all, Sen.H.H.S. here. I'm a TTRPG freelancer who started my debut with Pathfinder Bestiary 3 and has since contributed to several other books including Pathfinder Lost Omens Monsters of Myth, Pathfinder Secrets of Magic, “Ready? Fight!” from the Fists of the Ruby Phoenix Adventure Path, and Starfinder Drift Crisis. For the Dark Archive, I had the privilege of working on the first half of “The Last Dream” mindscape adventure on page 208. Yes, “that” map was my doing, you're welcome. :D Currently, I am working on a Pathfinder Infinite project featuring a team of Taiwanese writers. We hope we'll be presenting something about a traveling salesperson with interesting items sometime in the future. Please follow me on Twitter @SenHHS to discover when that will become available.

Oh, lastly, I just want to say

SPIDER BOYFRIEND’S GETTING HITCHED YEAAAAAH!

Joshua Kim (they/them)

Hey everyone! I’m Soup (they/them), a terminally hermit-inclined person that they keep letting write weird stuff. It was incredibly fun to write about the paranormal in a world where “normal” means magic, ghosts, and dragons. I wrote some of the case file lore sections and made sure to include lots of fun prompts that I hope will get your brain juices going. I think I was pretty successful at writing some spooky stuff and I hope you find it as neat as I did! I’m actually about to start running a Pathfinder Second Edition game for my weekly group and the Dark Archive will definitely be a cool book to draw from. I’m super excited to take a look at what the other authors have contributed! If you wanna find more of me rambling about games, writing, customer service, or my obsession of the week, feel free to follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/LiteralSoup)

Daniel Kwan (he/him)

Hello! I'm Daniel, a podcaster, game designer, and cultural consultant based in Canada. You might know me as the co-host of the 2x Gold ENnie Award winning Asians Represent! podcast or from my game design work (Candlekeep Mysteries, Avatar Legends, Wicked Congregation, Ross Rifles, & Motherlands RPG). I am also one of the co-founders of Level Up Gaming, a Toronto-based organization that provides the autism community with opportunities to develop social skills through tabletop gaming experiences. I wrote the “Sounds of Violence” incident report on page 115 of Dark Archive. The story prompt revolves around the aoyin, a creature from a classical Chinese text called the Shanhaijing (the Classic of Mountains & Seas)!

Art by Tuan Duong Chu

Jacob W. Michaels

Hi there, I’m Michael W. Jacobs—the so-called “evil” twin of Jacob W. Michaels, or so “they” would have you believe. But I ask, is it evil to expose you to the Echoing Pale? Would it not be worse to leave you in the dark, ignorant to all the lurking dangers blending in with the rest of us on Golarion? What if you didn’t know? What if you didn’t have to always be looking over your shoulder, wondering why the merchant you’ve worked with for years now scowls when you enter her shop? That casual greeting—just a friendly passer-by, or someone who thinks they know you, for some reason you can’t figure out? What if? (Evil twin aside, I’m actually Jacob W. Michaels, regular Paizo freelancer. I got to do the intro to Mirrors and Imposters section on page 116 of Dark Archive. It was a blast, and I hope it gives you something to reflect on.)

Andrew Mullen

Hello, Andrew Mullen here! My contribution to this book is the Mutant Cryptid template on page 59. Want to spice up a monster by making it weak to the memory of the taste of borscht, or some even more bizarre phenomena? I've got you covered! I've always enjoyed monster design, so I was very glad to offer ways GMs can make stranger adversaries.

Beyond this, I'm involved in two other projects of note. Alongside Mikhail Rekun (who you may recognize from the Dark Archive cover!) and Isabelle Thorne (who you may recognize from the Lost Omens Knights of Lastwall cover!), I'm a key member of the Luminant Age team. Luminant Age is a third-party campaign setting for Pathfinder Second Edition, a post-apocalyptic world of strange faiths, strange magics, and stranger creatures. You can find us at http://luminant-age.itch.io. I'm also a judge for the Brewmaster’s Compendium round 3] over on the Pathfinder Second Edition subreddit! Check out your community's creations and see what strange things lurk in areas even the Dark Archive has not cataloged!

Mikhail Rekun (he/him)

Приветствую, уважаемые читатели! My name is Mikhail Sergeyevich Rekun, and I’m one of the cover authors for Dark Archive.

I’ve always been interested in what one might call “Weird History.” As a historian, I mostly deal with formal, scholarly research and education—I even have a book, How Russia Lost Bulgaria, 1878-1886: Empire Unguided (Lexington Books, 2018). After hours though, I’d go down Fortean rabbit-holes like the Eilean Mor disappearances or the Philadelphia Experiment. So, when James Case asked if I wanted my name on the cover of the Dark Archive, well, I could hardly turn him down now, could I?

I wrote the lore sections for the Secret Societies (page 74), Deviant Abilities (page 94), and Curses and Pacts (page 156) sections, as well as “The Sacral King” incident report (combining Emperor Norton I of America with the Fisher King concept, for you Weird History fans) and the “Wishes in Krasnoprudny” adventure, along with several mechanical tidbits here and there.

If you like what you see here, I’m also the creative director of the Luminant Age project, a Weird Swashbuckler setting currently working on fulfilling our second Kickstarter. If you're fond of chimeric vampires and razor-wire whips, please follow us on Twitter at @LuminantA or check out our published products at https://luminant-age.itch.io!

Art by Sammy Khalid

Solomon St. John (they/them),
Editor

Greetings internet. I go by Sol, and I put my teenage special interest in cults and other esoteric faiths to use writing the lore of the Cults section (page 136) along with the “Occult Skill Feats” (page 78) that I hope you’ll enjoy. Atypical understandings of the divine are some of my favorite things to explore, so it was a real treat to take a broad look at some of the unexpected ways people in Golarion connect with the sacred and profane.

My first year and change at Paizo has been delightfully busy; in addition to working full-time as an in-house editor, I also wrote my first OP adventure, Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-12: Fury’s Toll, along with the “Spectra, Corrupted” adventure hook for Starfinder Drift Crisis and the undead companions & familiars from Pathfinder: Book of the Dead which, yes, includes the one that made everybody cry. I’m not sorry. :)

Mark Seifter

I'm Mark Seifter, Roll for Combat director of game design, and Paizo's former design manager as well as one of the four leads on the creation of Pathfinder Second Edition.

In Dark Archive, I wrote an assortment of different pieces, the foremost among them being the thaumaturge class on page 30. Thaumaturges use magical implements and exploit weaknesses and sympathetic connections in order to create magical effects without spellcasting and support various playstyles. I hope the class intrigues you and inspires you to create new characters, but most of all I hope it's fun to play!

I’m @markseifter on Twitter. Check out my Twitch stream with Linda Zayas-Palmer, Arcane Mark, Tuesdays at 7 PM Pacific, and Saturdays at 10 AM Pacific at https://www.twitch.tv/arcanemark, as well as my Roll for Combat Live YouTube stream with Stephen Glicker at https://www.youtube.com/c/RollForCombat/. Both shows cover a variety of RPG and Pathfinder topics! You can also join my discord at https://tiny.cc.arcanemark

Kendra Leigh Speedling (she/her)

Hi, all! I'm Kendra Leigh Speedling, and I wrote the reflection versatile heritage (page 119), apocryphal domain spells (page 142), and the sleepwalker archetype (page 206). The question of what's considered "weird" or "mysterious" in a setting with established magic and supernatural abilities has always been one that's interested me (what exists on the margins of a fantastical world?), and Dark Archive was a great opportunity to explore that. Getting these sections was really cool to work on, since at one point or another, I've written stories about both mirror people and dream magic. The apocryphal domain spells were also a fun challenge, as I tried to come up with more metaphorical or abstract associations with the usual domains. I hope people enjoy these new character options! You can find me (and cat pictures) at Twitter @KendraLS, and my full credits are on my website at klspeedling.com.

Art by Christoph Peters

Alex Speidel (he/him)
Organized Play Coordinator

My family has a very dumb “game” reserved for wedding receptions and other events where we sit around for a while. It goes like this:

Alex: [picks up their knife] This is a duck.
Matthew: A what?
Alex: A duck.
Matthew: Ohhhhh. [takes knife]
Matthew: [to Carol] This is a duck.
Carol: A what?
Matthew: [to Alex] A what?
Alex: A duck.
Matthew: [to Carol] A duck.
Carol: Ohhhhh. [takes knife]
Carol: [to Bill] This is a duck.
This continues until our table gets called for dinner. Anyway in this book there’s a spell that lets you create a contagious illusion, enjoy!

For more excellent content like this, follow me on Twitter @AlexSpeidel.

Isis Wozniakowska (she/her)

Hey all, I’m Isis Woz, one of Paizo’s freelancers. I’ve written for Secrets of Magic, wrote two Starfinder scenarios (Starfinder Society Scenario #3-21: Frozen Ambitions: Renewal’s Blight and Starfinder Society Scenario #5-04: Fragment of the 4th), and I also did work on the upcoming Starfinder Interstellar Species. But for Dark Archive I wrote the mind smith archetype (page 204) and I’m so happy with how it came out! I hope people enjoy having a sword made of pure mental energy to play around with.

For me, Dark Archive was such a treat to work on since it covers so many interests that I’ve had in fantasy. As a longtime fan of paranormal and psychic detective stories—and a comparative literature major with an emphasis in mythology and spiritualism—this book is one that I’ve been excited for since I was given the chance to write for it. Hopefully you all will enjoy it too.

If you ever want to swap character concepts, Dark Archive or otherwise, you can find me on Twitter as @wozenstein, where sometimes I talk about TTRPG things but most of the time I just talk about and retweet Ace Attorney jokes.

Art by Christoph Peters

Hey, all! Alex dropping in with one quick note: these are the previews for our August scenarios. They’ll be making their world debut at Gen Con Indy and Gen Con Online. After that, they’ll be available for PaizoCon Europe, and they’ll be releasing to the public on August 31st. Enjoy!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

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Hello Starfinders!

This month we’ve got two delightful releases, so let’s dive right in!

For months, the Starfinder Society has sifted through the wreckage of Histora-Prime's life, working to put an end to any of his remaining schemes and to make reparations for his many crimes. When the Starfinders uncover the existence of a hidden complex in Absalom Station’s Spike owned by Historia-Prime, a team of agents is dispatched to investigate! Explore the complex, uncover its purpose, and escape alive—if you can! Feast your eyes on one of the terrifying foes awaiting you within the—wait, why is it so… fluffy?

Starfinder Society Scenario #5-06: Tarnished Legacy: Historia’s Holdout is an adventure for levels 1–4 by Hilary Moon Murphy. This adventure is the first scenario in the two-part Tarnished Legacy story arc. The second scenario is Starfinder Society Scenario #5-08: Tarnished Legacy: Star Sugar Superstar!!! which releases in September.

Illustration by Fabio Rodrigues

Meanwhile, the Drift Crisis continues to wreak havoc on the galaxy! On Akiton, unstable planar matter ejected from the Drift has collided with the old mining town of Grat Gwaz, causing regional destruction and rapid biological mutations. From the wreckage sprouts colorful flora which quickly overtakes the region, terraforming Great Gwaz into a lush jungle paradise—a bountiful resource ripe for exploitation. At the request of famed Akitonian Starfinder Avor Stelek, a team of Starfinders is dispatched to investigate the so-called "planar bloom." Rub elbows with opportunistic gangs, hopeful citizens, and scientific investigators on your quest to determine what should be done with the planar bloom! Does the site’s bounty outweigh the danger? Or should the planar bloom be destroyed? The fate of Great Gwaz is in your hands!

Starfinder Society Scenario #5-07: Planar Bloom is an adventure for levels 5–8 by Joan Hong. It’s one of four stand-alone Starfinder Society Scenarios directly tied to the Drift Crisis, a galaxy-wide catastrophe detailed in Starfinder Drift Crisis. While basic knowledge of the Drift Crisis enriches the experience of this adventure, it is not required. The Starfinder Society Drift Crisis Scenarios include: Starfinder Society Scenario Special #4-99: A Time of Crisis, Starfinder Society Scenario #5-04: Fragment of the 4th, Starfinder Society Scenario #5-07: Planar Bloom, and Starfinder Society Scenario #5-14.

“Hara Asula”, artist Bruno Cesar

Take care, Starfinders! It’s a dangerous galaxy out there!

Jessica Catalan
Starfinder Society Developer

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Last month we previewed the final scenarios for Pathfinder Society Year 3, which can mean only one thing: this month we get previews for the beginning of Year 4, the Year of Boundless Wonder!

The first Pathfinder Society scenario for August, and for Year 4, is naturally the introduction to this year’s metaplot! The Pathfinder Society has been entrusted with a vast trove of magic items and other treasures, but an old nemesis wants to get her hands on the objects as well. The head archivist, Zarta Dralneen, has tasked a group of agents with sorting through the items in the Grand Lodge’s vaults, but the Society’s enemy has a surprise or two in store for them! When the PCs come face-to-face with unexpected enemies, they must keep their wits about them to survive—and if they do, they may gain some new allies, and valuable insight into their new enemy’s schemes! Pathfinder Society Intro: Year of Boundless Wonder (Scenario #4-01) is an adventure for 1st- through 4th- level characters by yours truly. It’s a “Repeatable” adventure, so you can earn Organized Play credit for multiple characters by playing or GMing the adventure multiple times.

Biglock, artist Josef Kucera

Our next adventure takes us to the Gravelands, a haunted land brimming with undead horrors. The Pathfinder Society has learned of a settlement of refugees trapped within the mist-shrouded borders of the Gravelands. They need help, and they’re running out of time before the Whispering Tyrant’s forces discover them and add their corpses to his armies! The Pathfinder Society seizes on an opportunity to send a small group of agents behind enemy lines, chart a safe path, and get the refugees—including some unlikely new friends—to safety. Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-02: Return to the Grave is an adventure for 1st- through 4th-level characters by Joseph Blomquist. It contains faction missions for the Horizon Hunters and Radiant Oath factions.

Illustration by Alexander Ngo

But that’s not all! We have a third Pathfinder adventure in store for August! In the Lands of the Linnorm Kings, the Pathfinder Society is in talks with Linnorm King White Estrid of the Ironbound Isles to secure the rights to explore the Isle of the Ancestors, where she famously bested the crag linnorm Boiltongue in combat. However, the talks have been disrupted by the arrival of Boiltongue’s children—five rambunctious linnorm siblings—in the city of Halgrim. Gorm Greathammer of the Pathfinder Society believes that the ensuing chaos is a test of the Pathfinder Society’s capabilities, and has sent for a group of agents to look after the linnorms and keep them from causing too much trouble while he wraps up negotiations. It’s all fun and games until… never mind, it’s pretty much a disaster from the start!

Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-03: Linnorm’s Legacy is an adventure for 5th- through 8th-level characters by our very own Starfinder Society Developer, Jessica Catalan. It contains faction missions for the Grand Archive and Verdant Wheel factions.

Manglefang, Illustration by Nicolas Espinoza

Explore! Report! Cooperate! Enjoy the Year of Boundless Wonder!

Mike Kimmel
Pathfinder Society Developer

The summer is in full swing and with it begins the countdown to Gen Con 2022 on August 4th–7th in Indianapolis, Indiana! We’ve been putting together the most product-packed booth we’ve ever offered, featuring amazing new releases like Pathfinder Dark Archive and Starfinder Adventure Redshift Rally as well as a deeper collection of releases and accessories than ever before! Plus, in celebration of our 20th Anniversary and the release of the popular Abomination Vaults Adventure Path for Pathfinder Second Edition and the upcoming 5E-compatible release, our staff members will GM in-booth Pathfinder delves throughout the Ruins of Gauntlight during the week. Come join us, roll some dice, and add some new adventures, maps, and accessories to your collection!

Our Organized Play team is excited to see you all again in the Sagamore Ballroom! This year’s Pathfinder interactive special will premiere simultaneously at the physical event and Gen Con Online at twitch.com/OrgPlay. We’re nearly out of physical table reservations but there’s still plenty of online seats if you’d still like to join us. Save yourself a spot!

For those unable to make the trek to Gen Con, we’ll also be hosting several online events and seminars on Paizo’s twitch channel. Stay tuned for the Gen Con Online panel schedule.

However you choose to participate, we can’t wait to see you!

-The Paizo Team

It’s been a while since we last shone a spotlight on the Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite marketplaces—where community content creators can sell game supplements set in the Pathfinder and Starfinder settings—but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a lot going on there! We’re working closely with the staff at DriveThruRPG, who host both Infinite sites, to give more attention and publishing resources to community creators, especially members of the select Infinite Masters community (more on that below). First, let’s look at the top performers on the site last month!

June's Top Performers

Editor’s Note: Due to a miscommunication, this list originally featured only the top-performing titles from Infinite Masters. This has been corrected, and the following list reflects the top performing products in June from all Infinite publishers, listed in alphabetical order. Apologies for the confusion, and congratulations to all of June’s top community creators.

Abomination Vaults GMs Guide (P2)
In this book, GMs of the Abomination Vaults Adventure Path will find new mini-adventures that connect to the dungeon, new wandering factions, a checklist of all the side quest the campaign offers, and full stat blocks for every single monster on every single level of the megadungeon!

Boosted Bestiary (P2)
The Boosted Bestiary takes more than 60 creatures from the Second Edition Pathfinder Bestiary and updates them across multiple levels, giving you more than 200 new monsters. Menace your players with chimeras from level 2 to 20, drakes from level 0 to 14, shoggoths from level 6 to 21, and many more creatures at many more levels! Every creature has a description of its new role and gets level-appropriate powers.

Character Classes: Symbiote (P2)
Weaponizing disease and evolution, the symbiote literally grows the tools to guarantee their survival in any environment. (Standalone FoundryVTT module and PDF/module bundle also available.)

Curse of the Crimson Throne Second Edition Conversion Guide (P2)
This guide is an encounter-by-encounter conversion guide for GMs and is intended to be used as a supplement to the Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path for Pathfinder first edition, which contains the story, NPC information, and adventure plot.

Everything Shields (P2)
With the Everything Shields Pathfinder Second Edition supplement, you can create hundreds of customized shields and shield-focused characters.

Kineticist: Power of the Elements (P2)
The kineticist, a fan-favorite class from Pathfinder first edition, updated for your Pathfinder Second Edition game!

Kitsune of Golarion (P2)
Kitsune of Golarion unlocks the full potential of the kitsune ancestry, detailing kitsune from every corner of the globe with new heritages and ancestry feats, magic items, two new archetypes, and more.

Kitsune of Golarion: Foxfire Adepts (P2)
Kitsune of Golarion: Foxfire Adepts is an expansion of the character flavor and options introduced in Kitsune of Golarion penned by one of its original authors, only this time focusing on the famed foxfire of this ancestral group.

Kitsune of Golarion: Starspinners (P2)
An archetype expansion for Kitsune of Golarion, starspinners enhance and fortify their star orb familiars in special shells, launching them across the battlefield like telekinetic cannonballs of doom!

Lost Omens Ancestries: Dragonkin (P2)
Lost Omens Ancestries: Dragonkin presents a new versatile heritage that allows characters to tap into their draconic potential to breathe fire, grow deadly claws, take flight with powerful wings, and more.

Queerfinder Issue 1: Bars of Absalom (P2)
The inaugural issue of the Queerfinder Society's travel magazine, a guide to Golarion from queer creators and allies focused on queer characters and stories!

Smoke and Sail: a Pathfinder 2e Naval Warfare Sourcebook (P2)
The ultimate guide to nautical adventure for Pathfinder Second Edition, Smoke and Sail presents full rules for running dynamic naval battles including ship movement, positioning, weapons, ranges and damage, templates for vessels of varying sizes and the NPC crews that sail them, nearly 100 new items of treasure, new skills and feats for your naval adventure, and much more!

The Witch Handbook (P2)
Expanding on the witch class presented in the Pathfinder Advanced Player’s Guide, this book presents 24 class feats, 4 patron themes, 11 hex spells, and 7 lessons, sure to add versatility to any witch.

Witches+ (P2)
This love letter to the witch provides a dozen new patrons, class feats, lessons, and suggested changes to existing class features and options, including enhanced potion brewing and world-hopping witch huts.

Infinite Masters

The Infinite Masters is an invitation-only cadre of the most active and influential members of the Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite community, whose work consistently sets the standard for quality and professionalism, and who receive early access to official Paizo releases in order to support them with Infinite content as close to release date as possible. We’ve just invited a new slate of community publishers into the Infinite Masters program and look forward to introducing them soon.

In the meantime, check out this amazing fiction bundle from Infinite Masters Vanessa Hoskins and Helen Savore, celebrating the June release of the seventh chapter of their ongoing Vellum and Lace serial; former Starfinder Design Lead and Infinite Master Owen K.C. Stephens’ “missing” feats chapter from Starfinder Galactic Magic; and Solarians of the Inner Sea, bringing the Starfinder class to the world and rules set of Pathfinder Second Edition.

More Resources Coming Soon

As the Infinite programs continue to grow, we’ve heard a lot of feedback from creators looking for more resources, and we’re happy to oblige. In the coming weeks, we plan to release more art packs to help community publishers make content to support our major new releases, including Starfinder Drift Crisis and the Blood Lords Adventure Path. We’re also looking into adding AP-specific filters to the site so that GMs running a given campaign can quickly find community content geared specifically for them. It’s an exciting time to publish or shop on Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite, and the future is going to be even more so.

Welcome to our Creator Spotlight blog series! Nearly every Monday, we’ll present a question-and-answer session that highlights a different creator in the tabletop roleplaying games industry. We plan to focus on recognizing the efforts of Paizo staff members, freelance contractors, podcast players, streamers, YouTubers, licensed partners, and more. Each participant is provided a list of standardized questions from which interviewees can choose. You can request the Creator Spotlight form to be featured here by emailing marketing@paizo.com. This week we're shining a spotlight on community creator John Vanegas!

Name: John Vanegas
Pronouns: he/him
Role (if not staff): current player, occasional DM
Social Media Handles: @JohnaldV (Twitter/Instagram) and @SciStarMedia (Infinite Adventures Podcast on Twitter/Instagram)

Tell us about yourself. What is your bio? What's your story behind the bio? Why do you do what you do?

I grew up and have lived in the DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) area. I am a second-generation immigrant who has some mixed feelings about his place in the world: but more positive ones than negative. I was raised under the presumption that I was a gifted kid and rode that in stride until I was knocked down a peg when I got to high school. Consequently, I straddle the line between grandiosity and self-forced humility. I love creating art because as cheesy as it is, it’s the easiest and most digestible form of self-expression. If you just say what you feel, people either write you off or call you pretentious. But if you present a fictional fantasy that conveys something important, the message can be taken with a bit of sugar. I think that art is a way of connecting and building bridges between other people. Everyone's a stranger after all. Observing and taking in art is a way to connect with the part of you that exists within other people.

Tell us about a project you are particularly proud of?

Of all the projects I’ve been a part of, I can say with absolute certainty that I am most proud of the Infinite Adventures Podcast! We have published almost 180 episodes, and I can’t be prouder of how far we’ve come. It is single-handedly the largest/longest project I have worked on, and I have enjoyed every minute of it (except when I am required to edit but that’s neither here nor there).

How have you seen immersive fantasy worlds and cooperative strategic play bring people together and create lifelong friendships?

One thing I can say about the TTRPG experience that I absolutely love is that it’s like a masquerade ball. You invite a bunch of your closest friends and hope that they get along with each other. And it becomes an easier experience in my opinion (for more socially anxious, nerdy types) when you allow them to interact with other people through the lens of fantasy characters. Doing so allows them to embrace self-confidence they otherwise might not have. After a while, most gaming sessions transform from focusing on going straight into the action to giving everyone a place to hang out in a safe space.

Please tell us about your pet!

Ok! I don’t live with them anymore—they live with my folks—but I have two adorable dobies and they are just the sweetest noblest boys in the entire world. Tyler is a black dobie with a passive curiosity about everything. He’s always looking around and watching what everyone is doing, and you can just see the spark of an intellectual buried in his canine soul. Austin is a gray dobie. He is incredibly playful, often exhibiting bursts of energy out of the blue. You absolutely do not need a mind reader for him; he telegraphs every minute emotion and feeling he has. If he could speak, this boy’s stream of consciousness could be heard out loud.

What character would you like to play next and why?

I have not played a dromite before and we need to fix that one day. I have always liked insectile species in fiction. I think that they’re not as common because many people feel scared of bugs, but there’s something fascinating about them to me. They’re like living machines, one of the closest things to aliens we have on our planet. We know they have societies and systems as complex as humans and yet they live alongside us doing their own thing. But being able to pretend what it’s like to be a large sapient ant person in a fantasy game sounds like too good an opportunity to pass up.

At least this isn’t in Ustalav, Mios thought, smiling wryly to themself as they approached the Lily Lounge. It hadn’t taken much investigating into the recent mysterious disappearances in Augustana to find all signs pointing to this new luxury lounge, famous almost overnight. If this were Ustalav, Mios figured, the lodge would be full of vampires. Or werewolves. Or some kind of vampiric werewolves like those vukodlaks from last winter.

The Lily Lounge’s clientele, at least the ones who hadn’t been disappearing, tended towards the wealthy; after all, it advertised itself as a luxurious resting place for valiant hunters returning from their hunts. Though Andoran claimed to not have any nobles (technically true), many of these clients were just that in all but name. The real trouble is that the lounge was reported to also let in the less well to do… who would then go missing. Not at the lounge, though, and not right away. Whoever was responsible, likely the owners, weren’t that sloppy. No, these poorer clients were always seen afterwards for some time but mysteriously disappeared within a fortnight, often alongside reports of erratic behavior. Even odds it’s enchantment magic forcing the victim to kidnap themselves, Mios thought, or maybe this is the one time it actually IS a doppelganger replacing them at the lounge.

Regardless, the place was highly suspicious. Though Mios could tell that the lounge’s secrets were rather well-hidden by anyone else’s standards, little things gave it away to their trained eye. Heliotrope planted at the four corners of the lot, to divert close attention. Structure offset slightly from cardinal directions, subtly separating building from external expectations to decrease guard. It even extended to the proprietors—thought of highly, but only ever in the vaguest of terms—even Mios couldn’t discover much about one Gilbert Zoon (the lounge’s founder) or his business partner Sabricia (last name unknown). They’d been seen out during the day, though, so at least they weren’t vampires. And nothing was timed around the full moon…. Mios reflexively reached out and touched the old wound on their leg, another reminder of the past, and what it meant to let down one’s guard. Memories like these were why Mios never regretted leaving Ustalav behind. Here in Andoran, what was the worst it could be? No, Mios thought as they reflexively formed a turning-away sign, better not to jinx it. Some of the old superstitions died hard.

Their reminiscence was broken by an incoming party of young hunters—just the chance Mios had been waiting for. They waited until the hunters had just entered, then adjusted their wolf pelt, held their back straight, and walked forward like they owned the lodge. They’d seen enough nobles in their life that it was easy to put on airs. At the door, Mios made some small talk with the staff before being invited in. Pupil dilation normal, good recall of earlier events, able to respond to abstract questions. The staff didn’t seem to be under any form of direct mind control, though they did seem a bit tense.

After a day or two casing the Lily Lounge, Mios had decided the front door would be better than sneaking in a window or cellar, which would almost certainly be trapped or magically defended against break-ins. Threshold magic—versatile, but dependent on intent. If the owner’s intent was toward privacy, the magic could help reinforce a boundary between the outside and inside. It was the same principle when creating a circle of salt to ward off a ghost—create a boundary, then give it authority. But you can’t bar a door that you’ve opened yourself, like the front door. Let alone put greeters at. Even vampires can freely enter a public building. The staff smiled at Mios, and they walked in.

As Mios entered, two beads on their wrist pulsed once with subtle light, and a tarnished coin on their waist spun slightly. The building had been highly warded, then—but Mios had made it through easily. They absconded down a hallway, away from guests and staff, and reached out an empty hand. Ownership is never broken by mere distance, only a change in relationship. As Mios concentrated on the truism, they felt a familiar weight through their glove. When they looked down at their hand again, their lantern shone in it, and in its light, once-invisible defenses crisscrossed the walls and doors. Mios peered at an especially warded door. Sarkorian abjuration, but corrupted. Strange to see that so far south. It suggested demonic influence, or someone familiar with the Worldwound and its closing. Mios shifted their usual silver blade to a back sheath, replacing it with one of cold-forged iron, just in case. With a bit of effort—more than it usually took—Mios dismantled the wards, opened the door, and crept down the hallway beyond.

Passing nondescript private suites, Mios’s lantern light eventual fell upon a door covered up entirely by an illusion. Curious, since there was no sign of this wing from the outside. Extradimensional, or just a massive illusion? Mios slipped into the room to find out. Ah, the classic trapdoor leading down. That explained it. Maybe just mundane architectural tricks then. The chamber below was furnished in fine silk, imported wood, and elegant paintings, easily the most grandiose and opulent part of the lounge… but in the lantern’s light, the facade melted away. The entire place was a dismal cavern with clear demonic magic coursing through it. Well, clear to Mios. Surely the victims had been fooled. The thaumaturge drew their iron blade.

Mios’s lantern dispels more than just shadows. Art by Roena Rosenberger

As Mios turned the corner, their light shone on two figures who must have been the owners, though no sooner did the light reach them than their true forms were revealed. The man, now a hideous creature with claws and a carapace, shrieked in pain and flinched backwards from the light. Weak to light… no, not to light. Treachery demon. Harmed by truth. An incredibly dangerous threat for the unsuspecting citizenry of Augustana, but Mios began to grin; they were just about the worst possible match-up the demon could face. The thaumaturge reached into one of their many pouches, riffling for a bit before settling on a dried chrysanthemum. They passed the flower through the flame of their lantern and smeared the ash on their pick. They felt the concepts align, felt the tension of forces coming to oppose each other: against an unnatural creature of treachery cloaked in falsehoods, present an object of the natural world, symbolizing honesty, tempered in the light of truth. Three properties from the demon, three from Mios.

Their pick thrummed with power as the creatures howled. Time to get to work.

About the Author

Mark Seifter is the Director of Game Design for Roll for Combat, the former Design Manager at Paizo, and one of the four leads on the creation of Pathfinder Second Edition. He is the author of the thaumaturge class in Dark Archive. You can see him on Arcane Mark with Linda Zayas-Palmer Tuesdays at 7 PM Pacific, and Saturdays at 10 AM Pacific at https://www.twitch.tv/arcanemark, and Roll for Combat Live with Stephen Glicker at https://www.youtube.com/c/RollForCombat/." @markseifter on Twitter.

About Iconic Encounters

Iconic Encounters is a series of web-based flash fiction set in the worlds of Pathfinder and Starfinder. Each short story provides a glimpse into the life and personality of one of the games’ iconic characters, showing the myriad stories of adventure and excitement players can tell with the Pathfinder and Starfinder roleplaying games.

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous CRPG console release date and a brand new DLC

We at Owlcat Games and our partners at Prime Matter are happy to announce that the PC adaptation of Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous adventure path is coming to consoles on 29 September 2022.

The critically-acclaimed RPG will be available in both physical and digital formats for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S via backward compatibility); as well as Nintendo Switch via the Cloud.

The Enhanced Edition of Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous will become the standard version for the console release, and also will be available for all PC owners of the game on 29 September for free.

But that’s not all. The Treasure of the Midnight Isles, our third premium DLC for Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, will launch on 11 August 2022. The islands—scattered across the dark abyssal ocean—hide treasures untold (and horrors unspeakable). Board the grim, cursed ship and venture into the unknown to find your fortune… or your demise.

• Explore the vast archipelago full of treasures and dangers in a stand-alone rogue-like mode, or as a part of the main campaign
• Try out different builds and party compositions, taking advantage of the enormous variety of the Pathfinder role-playing system – including the mythic paths
• Death is just a setback! If a party perishes, its progress can still help you in subsequent playthroughs
• Equip new magic weapons, put new magic potions and scrolls on your belt, and challenge both old and new enemies
• Discover the secret of the ship that takes you on your journeys – and the truth about the ultimate treasure you're seeking

Prepare for your trip to the Midnight Isles with a 50% discount for Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous in the Epic Games Store Summer Sale. Also, the Mythic Edition and Commander Edition are available at a 45% discount. The Epic Games Store Summer Sale starts today and ends 28 July 2022.

Hello, Starfinders!

This month, First Seeker Ehu Hadif has approved the closure of the Adamantine Bastille, a Starfinder-operated prison located beneath the Lorespire Complex. The facility’s administration has long remained a source of contention and discomfort among members of the Starfinder Society. Take on the role of the agents tasked with overseeing the transfer of the Bastille’s most violent and dangerous inmates to the custody of the Stewards! Don’t worry, I’m sure it will go smoothly! What could go wrong? Starfinder Society Scenario #5-05: Boom-Block Gambit is an exciting metaplot scenario for 5th- through 8th-level characters written by Lysle Kapp.

Meddo “The Horn” Borvakis, by Jason Smith

Take care, Starfinders!

Jessica Catalan
Starfinder Society Developer

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Okay, Pathfinder Society Year 3 is coming to an end. I’ve got one more chance to shatter some sanctuaries… here goes!

We’ve got two July scenarios for the Pathfinder Society. In our first offering, a group of Pathfinder Society agents has been tasked with chaperoning a class of Dacilane Academy students on a field trip! Located in Absalom, Dacilane Academy provides a stable educational environment for children of active Pathfinders. Well, “stable” might be a strong word. Those familiar with previous incidents might recall that Dacilane Academy has seen its fair share of supernatural shenanigans. And it hasn’t seen the last of them, either! When someone says, “What could possibly go wrong on a Dacilane Academy field trip to Woodsedge Lodge?” the only thing you know to expect… is the unexpected! Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-18: Dacilane Academy’s Delightful Disaster is the debut Pathfinder Society adventure of freelance author Matt Morris. It’s a non-metaplot scenario for 1st- through 4th-level characters.

Alec, by Nicholas Phillips

Our second adventure for the month is the conclusion of the four-part “Absalom” metaplot arc in Year 3, and the overall conclusion of the Year of Shattered Sanctuaries metaplot! After learning the true culprit responsible for the Pathfinder Society’s recent troubles, and discovering an imminent threat, the Society has dispatched its toughest agents to Shadow Absalom, the twisted “dark reflection” of Absalom on the Shadow Plane. There, they must prevent a terrible foe from acquiring great power—and perhaps gain some unlikely allies in the process! Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-19: Mean Streets of Shadow Absalom is authored by Amber Stewart, one of the original creative minds behind Shadow Absalom and many other notable elements of the Age of Lost Omens. It is a metaplot scenario for 7th- through 10th-level characters and includes an Envoy’s Alliance faction mission.

Ralzin, by Allan Santos da Silva

Explore! Report! Cooperate! And… let me shatter just one sanctuary? Pretty please? Just one?

Mike Kimmel
Pathfinder Society Developer

July 2022 marks the 20th anniversary of Paizo as well as the 15th anniversary of the world we now know as the Lost Omens campaign setting. In 2007, with the licenses for Dungeon and Dragon magazines set to expire, Paizo had to take some big risks to stay in business—risks that ultimately paid off. With a much smaller staff taking a stab at something new, Paizo released a series of short standalone adventures telling the tale of the rise (and fall) of the kobold king, Merlokrep, in the northern wilderness of Andoran. Over three adventures, Hollow’s Last Hope, Crown of the Kobold King, and Hungry Are the Dead, authors Jason Bulmahn, Tim Hitchcock, Nicolas Logue, and F. Wesley Schneider established the foundations for what would grow into the Lost Omens setting we continue to explore and expand today.

Paizo’s Director of Game Design, Jason Bulmahn, recounts:

Losing the magazines was a scary time at Paizo. Exciting, but scary. None of us really knew how things were going to shake out long-term, but we had a plan to carry on making Adventure Paths, something we were known for from the pages of Dungeon magazine. The only problem was that we only needed three people to make the Adventure Paths happen, and we had six folks on the editorial staff.

My job back then was to create everything else, from maps and cards to standalone adventures. And that is where Crown of the Kobold King came in. While the Rise of the Runelords was fleshing out Varisia, Mike McArtor, Jeremy Walker, and I worked to create Darkmoon Vale, a small wilderness area in which to set a couple of standalone adventures to get us started. Although Hollow’s Last Hope was technically first, it was a smaller adventure for Free RPG Day, and Crown was set to be our true premier.

We were lucky to get Nicolas Logue as our author. We were still putting together our styles, but Nick’s bombastic encounters made for a fun, exciting dungeon romp. This adventure would also serve as the very first step into a much bigger story. Around this time, we were picking up the pieces of some of our older products, looking for ideas to add to Golarion. One place we searched was the “Compleat Encounter” line of products. One of these was the Vault of the Whispering Tyrant, which introduced an important character to our world. In these very early days, although we knew little else about him, we decided that he was sealed away, kept at bay by three seal stones. One such stone was already broken, and its remains were under the dungeon of this adventure (you can see a hint for it in area 28, the Forsaken Tunnel).

Honestly, looking back at this adventure brings back memories of a Paizo long past, where we were all just scrappy kids making the stories that would come to define a world. I am excited to see this story polished up for a new generation of gamers!

To celebrate Paizo’s anniversary and 15 years of the setting we all love, Paizo is releasing a hardcover compilation of the Crown of the Kobold King saga, updated from its original 3.5e rules (this predates even Pathfinder first edition, after all) to Pathfinder Second Edition, and including a whole new chapter by original Kobold King scribe Nicolas Logue. The book’s lead developer, Creative Director James Jacobs, has the following to say about the process.

It took over half a decade to do it, but we got there eventually. Originally, we planned on doing a compilation of the Kobold King adventures in a big adventure to support first-edition Pathfinder at about halfway through that edition’s life cycle—that’s when I hired Nick Logue to write the “missing level” after all. But then, for various reasons, we didn’t move forward with the project and the final level just sat in limbo on my hard drive. Fast forward to 2021, when we were facing a lot of challenges with the standalone adventure line’s schedule and availability for folks to work on it. With the renewed look and interest on kobolds, it seemed like a good time to go back!

Combining the adventures together into one single adventure presented a few unusual challenges as well, beyond the known challenge of converting from 3.5 rules to Pathfinder Second Edition. Most significantly, the individual plots for the previously published adventures, which were meant to be stand-alone themselves, kind of clashed and didn’t work well together. It was sort of like having three different openings to the story. And so those plots got minimized, turned into background elements, or got written out/replaced entirely, and I focused more on what was itself a “background element” of the original adventures—the presence of one of the seals that helped keep the Whispering Tyrant imprisoned. At the time of the original publication, that plot was very much in the category of “teasing future potential stories” but didn’t have much to do with the main adventures. Today, that plotline is the most important one, and so I focused the revision on those events. In doing so, and in bringing in the final “lost level” that Nick wrote years ago, a brand new plot came into being—one that, for the first time, reveals where the Crown of the Kobold King came from, what it was for, and what might happen if King Merlokrep’s plans come to fruition!

A lot has changed in 15 years, but at its core, the same exciting adventures that launched Pathfinder are still as dangerous and engaging as ever. With fully updated art to reflect our reimagined Second Edition kobolds and the brand’s evolving visual style, the 128-page hardcover is sure to launch a new generation into an adventure-filled exploration of Golarion, or take old veterans back where they first began. Pick your copy up at your local game store or bookseller this fall, or preorder on paizo.com today.

Mark Moreland
Director of Brand Strategy

Merlokrep, the Kobold King, then and now. Illustrations by Eric Dechamps and Riley Spalding.

It’s time to announce some changes to the Paizo Advantage program, add a few new subscriptions, and say goodbye to a few others.

Paizo Advantage Changes

We’re simplifying the way that you obtain your Paizo Advantage discount. Any four of these qualifying subscriptions will now get you the Paizo Advantage! The qualifying subscriptions include:

• Pathfinder Rulebook (formerly Roleplaying Game)
• Pathfinder Rulebook Special Edition
• Pathfinder Lost Omens
• Pathfinder Lost Omens Special Edition
• Pathfinder Adventure Path
• Pathfinder Adventure (formerly Modules)
• Pathfinder Maps
• Pathfinder Accessories
• Starfinder Roleplaying Game
• Starfinder Adventure Path
• Stafinder Adventures
• Starfinder Maps
• Starfinder Accessories

*We previously posted in error that the Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society PDF line will now count as a subscription for purposes of qualifying for the Paizo Advantage.

Once you’ve been charged for your fourth subscription line, you’ll save 15% on all Paizo products purchased on paizo.com. For more details and the fine print, check out the Paizo Subscriptions page and the FAQ.

New Subscription - Starfinder Adventure

If you're looking for galactic adventure, the Starfinder Adventure line has you covered! Each 64-page Starfinder Adventure presents a short but challenging adventure designed for 2-4 session games within the world of the Starfinder campaign setting. A Starfinder Adventure can be run as a one-shot adventure or woven into any ongoing Starfinder campaign.

The first product in this subscription line releases on July 27, 2022. Redshift Rally is a complete Starfinder adventure for 7th-level characters written by Jessica Catalan. Inside, you’ll find details on the history of the Absalom Run and its current competitors, a pair of weird alien creatures, new spells and vehicle upgrades, and a new archetype perfect for players with a need for speed!

You can expect to see 2-3 Starfinder adventures released for this product line each year.

Subscribe to the Starfinder Adventure Subscription Now

New Subscription - Lost Omens Special Edition

With the Pathfinder Lost Omens Special Edition subscription, we'll ship you a deluxe edition of each new volume of the product line. Each special edition is bound in faux leather with metallic deboss cover elements and a bound-in ribbon bookmark.

Paizo releases Pathfinder Lost Omens Special Edition volumes quarterly, though you’ll see several monthly releases in 2022 and 2023 as we catch up with previous Lost Omens releases in the Special Edition format. The first Special Edition release this year will be Lost Omens World Guide on August 4th.

Subscribe to the Lost Omens Special Edition Subscription Now

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

While the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game remains in print, we don’t have any additional products planned for the line so we’re removing that subscription option. You can still get both the Pathfinder Adventure Game Core Set and Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path expansion through paizo.com and your favorite local game store.

Pawns

We’re announcing the sunset of the pawn line for both Starfinder and Pathfinder. Paizo will keep the core pawns (Bestiaries for Pathfinder and Alien Archives for Starfinder) and the bases (Pathfinder Pawns: Base Assortment and Starfinder Pawns: Base Assortment) in stock for as long there’s enough demand, but they will no longer be part of a subscription. The Starfinder Accessories subscription continues as normal.

As always, thank you for supporting Paizo, and we look forward to gaming with you in 2022.

Good Gaming!

Jim Butler
President

Gazing past his easel at the bustling Commerce District of Niswan, Thaleon’s thoughts wandered once again. They rarely stayed put, but life would hardly be any fun if they did. There were so many delicious new sensations to take in, from the kites dancing overhead to the tempting sizzle of vegetable wraps from a nearby food stall. He observed the colors of the market, his eye lingering on a small shrine where a priest was drawing the rose of Shelyn in colored powders. The Rahadoumi elf didn’t worship to any gods himself, of course, but he had nothing but respect for the old priest’s lifelong devotion and mastery as his fingers effortlessly scattered a vibrant green around the rose’s exterior. Thaleon turned back to his own easel to paint with his mind’s eye, the emotions of the market his palette. He blended the vibrant gold of a cunning merchant’s intellect with the frustrated red of the customer she had just outwitted in a battle of bargains. Now for some green as well, the color of growth, flexibility, potential...

Thaleon frowned. He sensed a green, but it was of an altogether unpleasant, oily variety, coming from a woman in pristine robes, her ravenous eyes scouring the market. Wanting to get closer, Thaleon steadied his mind and searched his feelings until he found the one he needed. Calmness, boredom… no, listlessness. The drabbest of grays, utterly unremarkable. Without so much as an incantation, Thaleon cloaked himself in the emotion and vanished from sight. Quick and quiet as a shadow, he slipped through the marketplace. Most would struggle to navigate a crowd, even invisibly, without bumping into a customer or jostling a cart, but Thaleon had decades of practice slipping by unnoticed and had long ago learned the consequences of getting caught.

The woman’s eyes found their target, and a predatory grin spread across her face. The crowd before her instinctively parted, and within moments, she held her prey in her grasp, her nails digging deep into the priest’s shoulders. As blood pooled in their wake, the woman whispered a single word, “Watch.” Her eyes flashed that oily green, the unmistakable swirl of magic about them. Thaleon saw nothing, but he felt the man’s terror, pure white and primal as the priest gazed with horror at a nightmare no one else could see. He fell to his knees and pushed the nearby offering basket, filled with flowers and a few coins. “Please, not them. Take what you want from me, just don’t….” His words were cut short as he vomited onto the cobblestones. The woman scowled with disgust. “This is your final warning.” With a regal nod, she strode away, splitting the crowd in her wake.

Thaleon’s hands trembled. He wanted to soothe the priest’s terror and pain, but he knew the man couldn’t find peace while the monster’s threat loomed over him. He reached for compassion—blue, tranquil as a cloudless sky—and sent it flowing into the priest, calming the man and closing his wounds. The priest glanced about, seeking the source of the swirling colors.

“Don’t worry, Father,” Thaleon whispered from the empty air, “you’re not alone.”

He quickened his pace and strode after the woman. From that display, it was clear what manner of monster she was. All Thaleon needed was a chance, away from the market stalls where so many innocents walked, to show the fiend exactly what he felt about her threats. As fortune would have it, it didn’t take long before she chose to turn down a secluded alleyway.

Thaleon didn’t need to search for his fury, it was right at his fingertips, and he used it to paint a simple blade in the air, the shape of the blade he’d been given when he left home. As the blade shot towards the woman, red fury burned away the tranquil gray that had kept Thaleon invisible, but he wasn’t afraid to let the monster see his face. With a feline growl, she rolled out of the blade’s path, scuffing her robes, before spinning toward Thaleon. Her hands spun too, twisting backward, and weaving shadowy threads of magic.

An agonizing scream echoed within Thaleon’s mind, reverberating and tearing. He steeled his will against the oncoming tide, instinctively countering each wave of psychic sound until silence prevailed once again. Definitely a rakshasa, then. And one who underestimated him too, having chosen to attack him on the battlefield of the mind. Thaleon felt a surge of pride; if she wished to play with occult magic, she’d picked the wrong opponent.

As the rakshasa leapt forward, Thaleon transmuted his pride into certainty and fortitude, summoning a disc of force in the air. Claws met the barrier and cracked it like glass, but Thaleon’s brow furrowed as he poured more will, more certainty, into the spell. More translucent shields sprung into being, and though the rakshasa’s claws shattered two of the discs, they could do no more than carve a groove into the third. She rebounded back, and Thaleon released a stream of chaotic emotion that collected around the rakshasa’s feet, dragging her to the ground, but not before she wove shadows into a bolt of flame that clipped Thaleon’s side.

Arm throbbing, Thaleon’s fury blotted out all thought, bursting forth as the air shook with color. While the rakshasa was getting to her feet, he painted again, pouring out his heart to form not just one rage-blade, but an entire storm of them hovering above the alleyway.

Thaleon’s emotions unleash in a torrent of thought. Art by João Fiuza

With an oily green flash of the rakshasa’s eyes, a sickening vision filled Thaleon’s mind—a group of rakshasas savoring a platter of roast meat unmistakably elven in origin. For an instant, the artist’s stomach churned before he recognized the intrusion and broke the enchantment. This twisted scene was the rakshasa’s dream, not his. Still, if she expected him to be sick... he retched loudly, hoping the monster’s pride would dull her suspicions. Right on cue, she charged, claws extended, running at full speed until she was just below the hanging blades. Thaleon rose from the ground, and with a last exertion, let the blades fall, each sharper and more jagged than the last.

The rain lasted for only a moment, but when it was finished, Thaleon’s fury subsided, replaced by relief and sorrow for the fiend’s past victims. No more rakshasas threatened Niswan that day.

About the Author

Linda Zayas-Palmer is the Development Manager for the Digital Adventures team, which produces Organized Play scenarios and other digital-only adventure content. Her largest projects as an author are Paizo's Fires of the Haunted City and the final third of the Roll for Combat's Jewel of the Indigo Isles Adventure Path. You can see her on Arcane Mark with Mark Seifter on Tuesdays at 7 PM Pacific and Saturdays at 10 AM Pacific at https://www.twitch.tv/arcanemark.

About Iconic Encounters

Iconic Encounters is a series of web-based flash fiction set in the worlds of Pathfinder and Starfinder. Each short story provides a glimpse into the life and personality of one of the games’ iconic characters, showing the myriad stories of adventure and excitement players can tell with the Pathfinder and Starfinder roleplaying games.

Digital Releases

Here are this month’s digital releases, available July 27, 2022:

Pathfinder Society

Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-18: Dacilane Academy’s Delightful Disaster*

Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-19: Mean Streets of Shadow Absalom*

Starfinder Society

Starfinder Society Scenario #5-05: Boom-block Gambit*

Starfinder Bounty #4: Poacher’s Prize

* - part of a subscription

Achievement Points Update

Our tech team is working hard to fix the issues with Achievement Points not being awarded properly (or, indeed, at all). Our hope is the code will be able to roll out later this week; if this changes, I’ll be sure to let you know! We appreciate your patience as we work to get this resolved.

Pins & Perks

As we announced last month our Pathfinder Society faction pins are now available! You can purchase them from the paizo.com webstore or your friendly local game store to show your Pathfinder Society pride. Starfinder Society faction pins remain in stock, and our Pathfinder Society (first edition) faction pins are now discounted!

As promised, the Organized Play Perks page has been updated to reflect the benefits of bringing these accessories with you to game days. The system has been revamped to make it easier to understand and to ensure any future merchandise counts without having to revise the policy constantly. Don your pins proudly and reap the benefits!

Pathfinder Society Year 4 Rule Changes

Last week we posted a blog discussing our rule changes for Pathfinder Society Year 4. In short, there aren’t many! We’ve added some new boons to the store and are reducing some prices on others but overall, we don’t have major changes planned. Check out the blog for more details.

Conventions

Gen Con Indy and Gen Con Online are just under a month away! We’re excited to see you all in the Sagamore Ballroom once again and we hope you’re looking forward to it. Tickets for our physical events are almost completely sold out, but more turn up occasionally, so be sure to keep a close eye on events you’re interested in! Tickets for Gen Con Online can be purchased starting this Sunday July 10, so be sure to be online to grab your seats!

After that, PaizoCon Europe will be running their events just two weeks later, from August 18-21. They’ll have the new August scenarios just as Gen Con did, so if you can’t visit us at Gen Con, PaizoCon Europe Online might be your best bet! You can find more information on their Warhorn page. Player signups open on July 15 at 12 noon BST.

My hope is very soon, I’ll be able to start announcing other convention travel for later this year. I’ve been working on a plan for how I can see as many of you as possible this fall, so stay tuned!/p>

As always, you can see upcoming conventions on our Conventions Calendar. Find your local community and support your local shows!

Sanctioning

We are delighted to announce today the Outlaws of Alkenstar Adventure Path is now sanctioned for Pathfinder Society play! Delve into the seedy underbelly of the clockwork city and thwart a deadly plan, all while earning experience for your Society characters! The sanctioning documents are available on the product pages and should be added to the landing page shortly.

This month, we should be able to post sanctioning for Pathfinder Dark Archive (both the character options and the adventures within) as well as Redshift Rally for Starfinder. It’s convention season so our schedules are pretty busy, but we’re aiming for street date on both! Looking ahead, Pathfinder Lost Omens: Travel Guide is next on our list, followed by Crown of the Kobold King and the Dead Suns compilation.

GM Recognition

Campaign Coins

I intend to award some Campaign Coins at Gen Con/Gen Con Online, as well as potentially at PaizoCon Online Europe. If you would like to nominate one or more individuals for these coins, please email the nomination to organizedplay@paizo.com no later than July 15, so I have time to consider them.

GM Ranks

Whether stars, novas, or glyphs, achieving a 5 ranking in any program involves a substantial amount of time. To achieve the 5th milestone, a GM must run 150 games, of which at least 50 must be unique scenarios and 10 special scenarios, as well as run between one and three games for venture-captains (program dependent). A conservative estimate of the time needed to reach the 5th milestone is 650 hours!

This month, we had two GMs earn their 5th Star for PFS1, and one GM earn their 5th Glyph for PFS2.

5th Star (PFS1): Derek Larsen (Tyranius), Nathan Goodrich
5th Glyph (PFS2): Olivier Brochet aka Zog

Congratulations to our new 5-rank GMs and thank you for your dedication! If you believe you have achieved your 5th rank but haven’t been announced, email us at organizedplay@paizo.com.

Until next time—Explore! Report! Cooperate! I’ll see you at Gen Con!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

There’s my favorite customer in the world! I’ve been looking all over the Grand Bazaar for you. I’m so glad you agreed to meet me after dark. It’s much more comfortable without that burning sun and fewer prying eyes. I don’t share my secrets with just anyone and I know you’ve been looking forward to my upcoming shipments. A night market is the best market, I’ve always said so. Except, have you ever been shopping in Shadow Absalom? No? Well next time dearie, let’s meet there!

Ichor slinger from Pathfinder Book of the Dead by Carl Springer.

Now, take a good sip of my Tomb Juice™ and let’s get started. I’ve smuggled, er, procured some tantalizing tidbits from my upcoming subscription releases. You’ll find a piece of art and a bit of introductory text to get a feel for what’s coming soon. They are not complete introductions, mind you, because I obtained these under less than legal, er, less than ideal conditions. Still, I think you’ll be pleased and intrigued, dearie. You know how much I like to give free samples.

Pathfinder Dark Archive

“Welcome to the Dark Archive

My future and fellow Archivists,
The Dark Archive is no more, except for me. When the Pathfinder Society announced that our faction was to be dissolved, absorbed into its other departments, I grabbed the files I could and left before they could stop me. These pages are all that remain of our faction’s records, and I am all that remains of our membership.

This world of ours is strange, isn’t it? I muse on this idea more often than I care to admit, vital though it may be to our work. The most common description of the Dark Archive is that we “investigate the paranormal” and that’s... true, but it’s a description by negation. If we are to turn our gaze to the “paranormal”, first we must ask: what is normal?

We know a staggering number of things about our world. We know of its general size and diversity of terrain, as well as a vast majority of the peoples and creatures that inhabit it. We know of the void that hangs above it, and that other worlds, some with peoples and creatures of their own, lie across that void, or even on other planes of existence. Beyond even this, consider all the endeavors that have expanded the normal even further. Consider the fields of alchemy and the burgeoning craft of clockwork engineering. Consider the magic that we have split into schools, the meticulous cataloging of its sources that we have uncovered and explored. This is all within the boundaries of the normal.

I apologize for being long-winded; I wanted to provide enough description to, hopefully, plant in you the same question that drives each of us, that defines our work, that first brought me, far too many years ago, to the Dark Archive’s doorstep: what could there possibly be left to find?

This is what we mean by “paranormal.” Though some might recoil in fear from such unknowns, my hope is that they excite you. In these casefiles, I’ve done my best to compile every lead we collected in the course of our efforts to part the strands of the unknown that keep us from uncovering the truth as we gaze into the darkness.”

Start your Pathfinder Rulebook Ongoing Subscription today!

Pathfinder Lost Omens: Travel Guide

“Welcome to our latest guidebook, Golarion’s Finest Guide to the Inner Sea!
Are you a world-spanning traveler from Arcadia or Tian Xia, planning the trek of a lifetime across the numerous and varied lands of the Inner Sea? Are you a lifelong dweller in one region of the Inner Sea who now craves a different view? Or are you simply an avid armchair tourist, looking to discover more about this diverse and exciting region from the comfort of your own home? If any of these apply to you, then this is the guide you’re looking for!

The Inner Sea region is truly enticing and sensational, full of culture, stories, and traditions across its stunning range of nations and peoples, not to mention its rugged landscapes and enduring mysteries. In this comprehensive guide, you will be delighted to learn all about this fabulous region! We explore aspects from history to religion to cuisine to fashion—and that’s just the beginning! In addition to a broad overview with all kinds of fascinating and unexpected details, we’ve also included wondrous illustrations, maps, and diagrams throughout!

Within these thrilling pages, you’ll find everything you need to know to enrich your travels, no matter their scope or purpose. We present you with the most up-to-date information to help you orchestrate your wanderings or delight your dinner guests with your newfound knowledge. We help you determine precisely where to go and what to see. Even the seasoned traveler who’s spent considerable time already in any of the nations of the Inner Sea will be amazed at the depth and breadth of our guide. Which Varisian or Taldan festivals should be on your schedule? Which games should you try in Oppara or Nantambu? What should you wear to the opera in Westcrown or the theater in Almas? Is there ever a good reason to head into the Eye of Dread? We answer these questions—and thousands more!”

Start your Pathfinder Lost Omens Ongoing Subscription today!

Pathfinder Adventure: Crown of the Kobold King

“Only the Desperate and the Brave.” So reads the proud motto of the town of Falcon’s Hollow, for here on the fringes of Andoran, in the shadow of the looming volcano known as Droskar’s Crag, the dim, mist-laden forests are prowled by feral beasts, ravenous monsters, and the restless souls of the dead. Once, a great dwarven kingdom brought safety and stability to the region, but that all ended with the wakening of Droskar’s Crag during the apocalypse known today as the Rending. For too long did sibilant whispers ride the vale winds after nightfall in the aftermath of this disaster, and during those desperate years, evil took root in the hidden places deep below. Today, the land has recovered from the volcanic eruption, and as is humanity’s wont, settlers have returned to the region. “Only the Desperate and the Brave” came to build Falcon’s Hollow, and time has appeared to reward that desperation and bravery, for now their home feels relatively safe and secure.

This is all a lie, for what awaits the people of Falcon’s Hollow deep below might well be doom adorned with a bloodstained crown.”

Pathfinder Adventure Path #181: Zombie Feast (Blood Lords 1 of 6)

“The undead-populated nation of Geb is the principal food exporter to many nations throughout the Inner Sea. Few foreigners hold the undead nation or its melancholic ghost king with anything other than distaste, but they’ve come to rely on Geb’s cheap, zombie-raised food. That reliance puts these nations at a significant risk when the ghost king’s scheming right-hand vampire looks to sacrifice thousands for his personal power.

Geb, the infamous necromancer, founded the nation millennia ago. After his earth-scorching war with the archmage Nex ground to a halt, Geb found no passion for ruling and no meaning without his rivalry, so he ended his life, but arose as a ghost. No more interested in rulership as a ghost than he had as a living man, Geb mostly retreated from public view and entrusted control of the country to his 60 apprentices, the Blood Lords.

The Blood Lords swiftly secured an iron grip on the nation. They leveraged Geb’s rival economic factions to cement this control, playing the factions off each other and maneuvering Geb’s people and assets like pawns in a great game. Fearing old age and refusing to share power, many Blood Lords transformed themselves into undead. Some of today’s Blood Lords are the same scheming necromancers who originally served Geb while he lived.”

Start your Pathfinder Adventure Ongoing Subscription today!

Starfinder Interstellar Species

Starfinder has more than 100 unique species available for you to choose from when creating a player character. These species have appeared across hardcovers, Adventure Paths, Starfinder Society scenarios, and even the Alien Character Deck. With such a wide breadth of options already, this book provides more depth on 25 of those playable species—many of which were selected to appear in this book thanks to a public poll of Starfinder fans asking what species they’d like to learn more about.

A NOTE ON TERMS
This book uses the word “species” in place of “race” and “racial” for the purposes of building a character, playable species traits, bonus types, and similar rules elements—this change doesn’t otherwise affect the mechanics of these elements, and it applies across all Starfinder products.

CLASSES
The classes chapter kicks things off with a new class: the evolutionist, a class all about transformation and augmentation, starting on page 10. The chapter continues with a bevy of new class options for the biohacker, envoy, mechanic, nanocyte, operative, precog, and soldier.

SPECIES
The second chapter begins with a table of the 100+ playable species in Starfinder, complete with headshot, short description, and reference. Whether you’re making a new player character, throwing together an NPC on the spot, or just curious about what Starfinder has to offer, this reference will inspire.

Species Builder
If you’ve scoured the stars for the perfect species but nothing is quite the right fit for your ideal Starfinder character, why not make your own? Using a series of simple, nonlinear steps, you can create your own playable species for Starfinder, complete with mechanics, physiology, and backstory. Whether you want to recreate a species from your favorite fiction or invent something entirely new, this system has you covered!

Species Profiles
Along with the rules needed to play them, each of the 25 species profiles in this book contains new art, a physical description, details about that species’ home world and society, and a deep dive on something that makes them unique. You’ll even learn naming conventions and sample names for that species! Each species profile also offers a selection of player options—everything from feats to spells to equipment—that are thematically tied to that species, but generally not mechanically tied, so they’re available to a wide array of characters.

NPC GALLERY
One hundred NPCs of expansive variety await you in chapter 3, ranging from CR 1/2 to CR 20, and each with its own niche. You can drop these into your games from whole cloth or make a few simple adjustments to better fit your campaign; advice is included for how to do just that in the chapter introduction on page 150.

INDEX
If you want to jump straight to the player options for your character, check out the index on page 188, which includes categories of the various player character options that appear throughout this book.

EVOLUTIONIST INFORMATION
The following two sections of this introduction provide information for applying an archetype to an evolutionist player character or applying an evolutionist class graft to an NPC.“

Start your Starfinder Roleplaying Game Ongoing Subscription today!

Do I have more Tomb Juice™? Well of course, dearie, there is always more for my best customer!

Subscribe Today!