Registration for PaizoCon Online games opens next Monday! If you haven’t already, be sure to purchase your ticket now. If you’ve never used Warhorn to sign up for games before, here’s a brief explanation on how to register for the event and sign up for your games.

What’s Warhorn?

Warhorn is an online game scheduling platform. In addition to signing up for games, you can use the Discussion tab to ask questions of your GM or fellow players. Your GM can add links to the sign-in sheet and their VTT ahead of time.

Registering on Warhorn

1. If you haven’t already, create a Warhorn account. Remember the email you used, as the PaizoCon ticket purchase process will ask for this email!
2. Visit the PaizoCon Online 2023 Warhorn.
3. In the upper right corner or on the right side of the screen, click “Register.”

That’s it! You’re now registered for the event. Clearing attendees to sign up for games is a manual process. At least once every 24 hours, we’ll go through and grant the correct permissions to every user who has bought a ticket since our last check, so please be patient!

Once you’re cleared to sign up for games, you’ll receive an email from Warhorn letting you know. In the meantime, you can view the event schedule and plan out what games you’d like to join!

Signing Up for Games

1. Navigate to the listing for the game you want to join.
2. Click “Sign Up to Play” at the top of the player list.
3. For scenarios, you’re now signed up to play! For lottery games, you’ve joined the queue to potentially be selected to play in that game.

Lottery Games

Some of our events run by Paizo staffers or community members are likely to be in very high demand, and we don’t want to limit them to the fastest clickers. As such, we’re designating some games as Lottery Games in their description. Players who are interested in a Lottery Game can sign up as normal before 9am Pacific time on May 15, 2023. On this date, the signups will be closed and the players will be randomly chosen to play. Should any of these players drop, the seat will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you have any questions about the signup process, be sure to drop them in the comments, or head over to the Paizo Events Discord server. We can’t wait to see you at PaizoCon Online!

PaizoCon Online 2023 Team

OPC Musings

Happy spring, everybody! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, or at least I assume they are. I live in Seattle. That’s not how it works here.

We’ve got a busy few months coming up for Organized Play! I’m going on my honeymoon at the end of April, PaizoCon is in less than 60 days, and after that–well, you’ll see. We’re hard at working churning out the next few months of scenarios. I think you’re really going to like what we’ve got planned for you!

Digital Adventure Releases

These adventures will be available on April 26, 2023.

Pathfinder Society

Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-12: Negotiations for the Star Gun*
Pathfinder Quest (Series 2) #14: The Swordlord’s Challenge

Starfinder Society

Starfinder Society Scenario #5-16: To Catch A King*

*part of a subscription

Getting Started Pages

One of the consistent problems we’ve had in Organized Play is that there’s no one-stop overview of how our programs work to give to new players. Well…not anymore! Thanks to some help from Josh Foster, our Organized Play Developer, as well as Maryssa Lagervall and Andrew White on the tech team, I present our brand new Getting Started pages for Pathfinder and Starfinder Society! These pages are intended to give new players everything they need to get started and find their gaming group. We hope you find them useful and informative! If you see any errors or have suggestions for improvement, don’t hesitate to let us know.

Sanctioning Update

This was a big month for Organized Play sanctioning!

Pathfinder Society

For Pathfinder Society, the Gatewalkers Adventure Path recently released its final volume. Chronicle Sheets and sanctioning documents are now available on the store pages.

The big news, of course, is the sanctioning of Lost Omens: Firebrands. As I announced on the forums last week, we’re trying something new by listing the reasons why certain options aren’t permitted in the campaign. This is an experiment to see if the community can handle this feedback without using it as an invitation for debate, or as ammunition against our designers, editors and writers.

Starfinder Society

This month saw the release of the Drift Crisis Case Files! We broke from tradition slightly on this book as well by sanctioning each case file as a double-length scenario. Our hope is that doing so provides organizers with some additional content to be run at events with longer slots or over multiple weeks at a retail location. Let us know how it works for you!

Upcoming

Looking ahead, the next books on our radar are the Drift Hackers Adventure Path and Ports of Call for Starfinder. It’s likely that, due to internal issues, the Drift Hackers AP will see a slight delay from street date, but we should have it (and Ports of Call) ready by PaizoCon Online. On the Pathfinder side, the next adventure release is The Enmity Cyclein May, and we won’t have another hardcover until June with Lost Omens: Highhelm, but right now we’re on track for both of those. We’ll also be working to ensure the documents for the Free RPG Day adventures for both systems are available in time for the June 24 event!

Updates

We’ve also just pushed a couple of minor changes to the Treasure Vault items on the Pathfinder Character Options page. We added a missing access condition to the polytool to bring it in line with Lost Omens: Gods and Magic, permitted the black tendril shot thanks to errata, and removed the cassisian helmet from legality. Any character who purchased the helmet can sell it back for full price.

GM Recognition

Campaign Service Coins

While at GenghisCon at the end of February, I was able to award a Campagin Coin. We award these coins to members of the community who have gone above and beyond to provide an exceptional program to the community at large. Campaign Coins are awarded based on nominations; if you believe someone in your community is deserving of this award (whether or not they are a Venture Officer), send an email to organizedplay@paizo.com with their name and reasons.

Congratulations to:
Zach Armstrong, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #883

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 one GM earn their 5th Star for Pathfinder Society (first edition) and two earn their 5th Glyph for Pathfinder Society (second edition).

5th Star (PFS1): Jerry Wayne
5th Glyph (PFS2): Doug Hahn, Michelle Moniz

Congratulations to our outstanding GMs and volunteers!

Convention News

Convention season is in full swing! Our Convention Calendar is chock-full of events from around the world, and we encourage everyone to go out and support their local shows.

PaizoCon

On the PaizoCon front, tickets for the show went on sale yesterday, and we're excited to see you all! Game signups will begin on April 10 for our GMs and April 17 for all attendees. Make sure to register on our Warhorn beforehand so we can get you set up to sign up!

We’re also excited to be partnering with KublaCon in California for PaizoCon @ KublaCon! If you’re interested in playing in physical space with the community, they’re our exclusive partner for a physical event this year. You’ll be able to play all the new PaizoCon releases, including the Starfinder Special on Saturday morning, and watch the panels from their viewing space. Tickets and hotel rooms are available now on their website, and signups for games are already open on their Warhorn.

Gen Con

This week we began signups for GMs at Gen Con Online 2023! All the information is available in our blog, but GMs will be able to run the new scenarios and be rewarded as if they were attending the event in Indianapolis, all from the comfort of their home! We look forward to seeing you all virtually, we expect a great turnout for our events this year.

For Gen Con Indy, while GM applications are still open, at this stage we may not be able to offer new volunteers badges or hotel rooms. We welcome all GM volunteers, we can always use more people interested in running tables or filling in for last-minute drops!

UK Games Expo

Finally, I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be attending UK Games Expo this year! I’ll be running a few games in our Organized Play space and otherwise just visiting the show to make connections. If you’ll be at the show as well, feel free to reach out, I’d love to say hi to our UK community!

Until next time - Explore! Report! Cooperate! and show your flair with a Pathfinder pin!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

Greetings, players! The time has finally come to open volunteer applications for Gen Con Online 2023. Please read all the information in this blog before filling out the application form, and let the team know if you have any questions!

Gen Con Online 2023

Gen Con Indianapolis will take place online from August 3–6, 2023. This application is only for the online show; those interested in being part of our offerings in the Sagamore Ballroom in Indianapolis should visit our previous blog on the subject.

New content at this show includes the launch of Pathfinder Society Year 5, the new Pathfinder Society Special and the second American run of the Starfinder Society interactive special, and new Starfinder Society scenarios (including your first chance to meet the new First Seeker Candidates).

We're currently seeking volunteers for the following roles:

• Game Master: Run tables of Organized Play Scenarios, Bounties and Quests
• Headquarters (HQ): Answer player and GM questions, seat players, handle conflicts and disputes, and report games after completion

Please read this important information before applying:

• Volunteer applications will be reviewed and accepted or rejected by the Gen Con Organizing Committee. Filling out this form doesn’t guarantee acceptance; you’ll receive an email with further information from the Gen Con committee.
• Gen Con Online schedules will be assigned by the committee. You’ll be asked for your preference of system and level, but you won’t necessarily be able to choose the specific scenario(s) you run. The committee’s intention is to assign people to run the same scenario multiple times during the weekend. There’s a free-form field at the end of the form to enter specific requests, though there’s no guarantee they’ll be honored.
• Reward information is listed in the table below.
• Volunteers will be accepted on a rolling basis, and schedules should be assigned within two weeks of your application. Once your schedule is assigned and you confirm, you’re considered to be committed to attending the event.
• Adventure authors interested in running tables of scenarios they’ve written should fill out the volunteer form and then follow up by emailing genconleads@gmail.com. We’ll do our best to get you slotted into your scenario if it’s on the schedule.
• Gen Con Online doesn’t accept tables run in languages other than English.
• Any questions about the GM sign-up process should be sent to the committee at genconleads@gmail.com.

Rewards Table

Blocks	Product	In-Game Reward	Voucher
6+ blocks	✓	✓	✓
5 blocks		✓	✓
4 blocks		✓	✓
3 blocks		✓	✓
2 blocks		✓	✓
1 block		✓	✓

*Definitions for rewards:

• In-game reward: A reward for characters based on the current organized play program GM reward programs. Pathfinder Society (first edition)/Pathfinder Adventure Card Society is paper boons, Pathfinder Society (second edition)/Starfinder Society is Achievement Point rewards at the Premier Plus (2.0x) level.
• Product: a PDF copy of any Paizo product valued at $29.99 or less.
• Voucher: earn one voucher for $10 spendable on paizo.com for every block run.

Note that Gen Con Online badges are free, so GMs are asked to obtain their own badges for the show.

Gen Con Online 2023 Volunteer Application

Major Conventions Planning Server

Anybody interested in volunteering at Gen Con Online should join the OPF Major Conventions planning server by clicking the image below. Follow the instructions in #welcome to get access to the relevant channels. All important information will be conveyed on this server as well as via email, so please join the server!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

Heather Vigil, Joe Blomquist, Kevin Baumann, Rebecca Fehn and Joe Mathos
Gen Con Organizing Committee

Digital Adventure Releases

These adventures will be available on March 29, 2023.

Pathfinder Society

Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-11: Prisoners of the Electric Castle*

Starfinder Society

Starfinder Society Scenario #5-15: Beta Test*

*part of a subscription

Starfinder Society Year 6

The Year of Fortune’s Fall is upon us, Starfinders! This month, Jessica announced the theme for Starfinder Society Year 6, launching at PaizoCon Online at the end of May. When a mysterious and powerful criminal syndicate, dubbed the Organization, enacts a bloody attack within the Pact Worlds, First Seeker Ehu Hadif vows to bring an end to their predations. Yet, this attack is only the opening salvo in a plot destined to doom millions.

It’s up to you to unravel the plans of the Organization and bring the group’s leaders to justice! This Organization has been waiting in the wings for years, but now they must be stopped before it’s too late!

Replays

One of the most-requested features in my time here has been the ability to replay scenarios. Whether it’s because you have another character who would fit perfectly into an adventure or just because you want to help make a table fire, this has been something players and GMs have asked for constantly. I’m delighted to tell you that, thanks to the tireless work of our tech team, this is now possible!

If you check your Organized Play account, you will see that you now have Replays available for Pathfinder Society (both first and second edition) as well as Starfinder Society. Here are the rules governing these Replays, which will be added to the Guide to Organized Play during the next update:

• All players (current and future) start with 2 replays. Current players may have obtained additional replays as a thanks for your patience while we got the system up and running. [1]
• GMs will earn one replay for each GM rank they achieve. Additionally, on January 1st of each year we will run a report to grant GMs one replay per GM rank for each active system. [2]
• Additional replays for PFS2 and SFS can be purchased at a rate of 40 Achievement Points per replay. This cost does not increase over time. Players must purchase a replay prior to completion and reporting of the scenario they are replaying.
• Players must indicate to their GM when they are using a replay. When reporting a replayed scenario, the GM should check the “Consume Replay” box next to the character’s information so they earn full credit for the scenario.
• Players who replay a scenario earn full rewards as a result of their playthrough. They get access to any boons and items on their Chronicle Sheet, as well as gold, XP and Reputation, all subject to the outcome of the scenario.
• Replays are not used when GMing a scenario; GMs will continue to earn table credit and AcP for GMing a non-repeatable scenario.
• Replays can be used on sanctioned content that is scenario-length or shorter, such as One-Shots, non-repeatable Quests and Free RPG Day adventures. Replays cannot be used on long-form content such as standalone modules or Adventure Path volumes.

[1] The formula for additional replays is 2 replays for every 50 games played or GMed in the program prior to February 18, 2023.
[2] This functionality does not exist yet, tech is currently assessing the feasibility of doing so, but I'm confident in our/their abilities. If it is infeasible to do so automatically in a short timeframe I will investigate manual solutions.

As a reminder, per the rules in the Guide to Organized Play, players must inform their GMs when they are replaying a scenario, whether it’s because they are using a Replay or because it is a Repeatable scenario they have played before. Players replaying a scenario should not use metagame knowledge to ruin the experience for first-time players.

GMs are explicitly permitted to limit signups to their tables based on non-discriminatory criteria, such as limiting a run of a scenario to first-time players if they prefer.

We’re also aware of some minor issues with reduced Achievement Points or table credit that occurred as a result of this code update. We’re digging into the exact causes but hope to have fixes rolled out very soon. In the meantime, if you have any questions about incorrect counts of any points, including Replays, don’t hesitate to email orgplayreportingerrors@paizo.com. Thank you for your patience as we made these technical updates, and enjoy the new Replays!

Starfinder Errata Updates

Last month, the Starfinder team announced a host of new errata and updates to the core Starfinder rules. Any rule changes like this are always considered to apply immediately to Starfinder Society play, so these changes are now in effect at our tables.

Additionally, some of these changes address the initial reasons we did not allow certain character options for play in Starfinder Society. We’re pleased to announce that the following options are now legal in Starfinder Society play:

• Starfinder Armory: all garottes and vibrogarottes
• Starfinder Pact Worlds: mature xenolash
• Starfinder Drift Crisis: thasphalt blaster
• Starfinder Interstellar Species: Devastating Throw, Draconic Shot, Hurl Ally, ink gland augmentation, linnormling creature companion
• Horizons of the Vast Adventure Path: Zeitgeist mystic connection

The Starfinder Society Character Options page has been updated to reflect these changes, as well as to remove some additional clarifications that are now part of the core rules.

Sanctioning

Last week, with the release of Treasure Vault, we sanctioned the options for Pathfinder Society play! Delve into the vaults and discover your new favorite items! Sanctioning is posted on the Pathfinder Society Character Options pageas usual, and boons are available in the Boon Store.

This month, we’ll be taking a look at Lost Omens: Firebrands and the Drift Crisis Case Files for Starfinder, with the goal to get sanctioning for both ready for street date.  After that, while we prepare for Starfinder Ports of Call in May, we’ll be working on the Drift Hackers and Gatewalkers Adventure Paths.

GM Recognition

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 one GM earn their 5th Star for Pathfinder Society (first edition).

5th Star (PFS1): Gregg Homerding

Until next time - Explore! Report! Cooperate! and enjoy revisiting some favorite scenarios!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

Third Party Kon is ready to celebrate the PaizoVerse! TPK is a celebration of the PaizoVerse's rapid expansion in all its forms during the President's Day weekend, February 17-20. As Paizo and other publishers announce their support for the Open RPG Creative License (ORC), there has never been a better time to make or try third party content. The mods at r/Pathfinder2e have seen the incredible growth of the community even before the age of the ORC, and TPK wants to recognize that.

So how can you get involved?

GAME MASTERS: Run a game for players! Our Game Masters page has a great selection of free third party scenarios made by outstanding authors like Mark Seifter of Roll for Combat, Shawn Pommier of Eldritch Osiris Games, and Matthew Ninness of Sinclair's Library!

We also have instructions to sign players up to your game through RPGChronicles! Games will be hosted on the r/Pathfinder2e Discord server. We definitely recommend trying one of our scenarios out, or using a Foundry VTT-ready bounty available on Paizo’s website. Remember, you can use third party options in tables that still get credit for Organized Play using Adventure Mode if you’re running an Adventure Path, the Beginner Box, Standalone Adventures, or a One-Shot Product!

If you need help designing a homebrew one shot, World Anvil is giving 40% off any yearly subscription using the code TPK2023 at checkout!

PLAYERS: Try new options available from Pathfinder Infinite authors and masters! Our Players page lists many 3PP ancestries, items, archetypes, and even classes like the Legendary Medium from Legendary Games to try! As GMs register games with us, you’ll also be able to join them! Find your GM on the r/Pathfinder2e Discord TPK Channel, then make a character to play!

EVERYONE: TPK is hosting a 24-hour stream from Friday to Monday of actual plays and creator panels, featuring some of the most well-known voices in the community! Visit our Stream Schedule to see what you might want to watch.

You should also support the content creators making the PaizoVerse so diverse! We’ve teamed up with DriveThruRPG to sell a TPK MegaBundle of third party products! The sale will go live during the weekend on our website, so make sure you don’t miss out on your chance to get tons of great stuff at a steep discount.

CREATORS: There’s still time to join the TPK MegaBundle sale and submit your own demo options for players! Visit the TPK Creators page to find out how! We’ll be accepting demo material up to February 15th.

Start your adventure into the #PaizoVerse at #TPK23!

By Pete Zupan, r/Pathfinder2e mod and host of Rise of the Rulelords podcast.

Paizo publishes more adventures, character options, and monsters for Pathfinder and Starfinder than many could play in a lifetime…

But is it enough?

There are more ideas about ways to experience Pathfinder than even Paizo can keep up with, and the PaizoVerse community has stepped up to fulfill those needs. Authors, including a growing number of Infinite Masters, are creating new classes, monsters, and adventures every day on Pathfinder Infinite. Plus, they’re empowered to expand on the Lost Omens setting in “what if-style,” non-canon ways. Third Party Kon wants to celebrate that.

With the success of events like Beginner Box Day, we saw the power of the community to rally around a game we love. Over 300 people and 60 GMs participated in the inaugural event, and since then, the r/Pathfinder2e subreddit has surpassed 55k members. The event couldn’t have succeeded without help from the community, nor could it prosper just on player zeal. Rather, the efforts of a dedicated group of content creators and publishers have helped bring the game to a wider audience, showing people how many other options are out there. As the PaizoVerse grows, so does the love of the game. More and more often, publishers are adding Pathfinder Second Edition as an option for their rulebooks and adventures, and platforms like Foundry VTT are joining in adding exclusive Pathfinder products like the deluxe Beginner Box module and Bestiary Tokens!

Third Party Kon is a celebration of the PaizoVerse in all its forms. What is the ‘PaizoVerse’? It’s the growing collection of actual plays, bloggers, youtubers, podcasters, artists, and publishers who have made the hobby of playing Paizo-made games into a community.

During the President's Day weekend:

1. We’ll be airing a 24-hour stream of interviews from the best creators in the PaizoVerse and live plays of third party adventures from shows you know and love.


2. Of course, no gaming convention would be complete without free game demos! During TPK, players and Game Masters will get to experience the breadth of community-created ancestries, classes, spells, weapons, monsters, settings, and adventures of third party content at no extra charge.

Of course, we can’t do this without the participation of the PaizoVerse! TPK is accepting pitches to join our stream until January 14th. The first round of demo materials will also be added starting January 21st, so make sure your product is among the first that players see! Send your stuff to pf2events.com/creators.

Be part of the first PaizoVerse-run celebration! Make sure to join us for TPK, February 17 to 20, 2023 at pf2events.com, and join the largest group of Pathfinders at reddit.com/r/pathfinder2e.

OPC Musings

Well would you look at that number at the top, it’s already 2023! Don’t forget to date your checks correctly, I know I’m forever scribbling out the previous year for the first month or so.

I’m very excited for what’s coming in 2023. Obviously we have some fantastic products coming down the line, but I’m even more excited about the future of Organized Play. We’ve got two great metaplots in the works for you, and we’re going to be working hard to make the program even better this year. It’s a new year and we’ve got a lot to talk about already, so let’s dive right in!

Digital Adventure Releases

These adventures will be available on January 25, 2023.

Pathfinder Society

Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-08: Battle for Star's Fate*

Starfinder Society

Starfinder Society Scenario #5-13: Finding the Forgotten*

*part of a subscription

Pathfinder Core Rulebook Errata

Earlier this week, the Rules & Lore team announced a new errata policy, as well as posting some new changes to the Pathfinder Core Rulebook. Obviously these changes are going to affect Pathfinder Society play, so here’s how to handle them:

• All new rule changes in the 4th printing of the Core Rulebook are in effect immediately.
• Dust of disappearance has been made uncommon. Any character who previously purchased the item may keep it. It will be added to the Avid Collector - Core Rulebook boon for future purchases and characters.
• The horse animal companion rules have been updated, and apply immediately. Any character who no longer wants a horse animal companion may freely change their animal companion to a new animal. Retraining out of an animal companion entirely follows the normal rules for retraining.
• The alchemist class updates provide a number of changes and upgrades. Any alchemists built under the old rules can freely retrain their research field and any feats except those that specifically prohibit doing so (such as lineage feats). Any items purchased with gold can be sold back for the full purchase price. Retraining out of the alchemist class entirely can only be done with the normal retraining rules.
• The Core Rulebook now allows all characters to take two free ability boosts instead of the printed options for their ancestry. Newly created characters in Pathfinder Society may use this rule; previously built characters may not unless they rebuild the character from scratch with a boon.
• However, to retain the legality of numerous existing characters, the Pathfinder Society campaign will continue to offer the Voluntary Flaws optional ruleset and retain the text within the Guide to Organized Play.

Once again, these changes go into effect immediately. Please let us know if you have any questions or if we missed any updates that you’re not sure how to handle!

The Replacement of Ehu Hadif

This is your final reminder that if your character is interested in becoming the new First Seeker, time is running out! The deadline to purchase the First Seeker Candidate boon and send in your information is January 16, 2023. This is a hard deadline; after this date, submissions will be closed and we’ll begin to review the candidates and make decisions.

Toys of Boundless Wonder

Last month, multiple regions and local game stores came together for our Toys of Boundless Wonder event to play games and boost donations for Toys for Tots. The event was a smash success, with over 60 tables during the two-week event and 18 simultaneous tables playing this year’s Pathfinder Society Special! There’s a full writeup on the League of Aroden site, which I encourage you all to check out, but I wanted to include some photos here. Stay tuned for details on next year’s event!

Left to Right, photos taken by Ryan Youngbar and Trevor Peryea

Left to Right, photos taken by Patrick McElfresh and Zach Davis

Sanctioning Update

Last month, we posted boons to unlock various character options from the Blood Lords Adventure Path! Your characters can now take the Ashes mystery, cast new and horrifying spells, and more! We also updated the text of the Undead Companions boon from Pathfinder Book of the Dead to incorporate some undead companions from this Adventure Path. The full text of these boons is, as always, available on the Pathfinder Society FAQ page.

Looking ahead, the next two projects on our radar are the Fists of the Ruby Phoenix Adventure Path compilation, as well as Pathfinder Treasure Vault. Right now we’re on track to have sanctioning for both books available on their release!

GM Recognition

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 one GM earn their 5th Glyph for PFS2. Congratulations!

5th Glyph (PFS2): Bill Tobin

Conventions

With a new year comes new conventions! Our convention calendar is already looking rather full in January, and February and March are starting to fill out as well. Check it out and see if there are any conventions in your area to play Pathfinder and Starfinder Society!

I’m also pleased to announce two more conventions where I’ll be making an appearance!

First, I’ll be attending DunDraCon in Los Angeles, California, from February 17¬–20. It’s my first official trip to California and my first time in Los Angeles, so I’m excited to spend Presidents Day with our LA lodge!

After that, I’ll immediately be heading to Denver for GenghisCon the next weekend, February 23–26! The Mile High City is host to one of the Great Plains’ premiere conventions, and both Tonya Woldridge and I will be attending.

If you’re in the area of either of these shows, I encourage you to come out and say hi! Visiting local shows is one of my favorite parts of my job, and it’s wonderful to see the various communities come together.

Finally, for those of you eager to volunteer at Gen Con or PaizoCon this year, come back to the blog next week for some more news…

I’ll see you next week for more! Until then—Explore! Report! Cooperate! And have fun in the desert!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

Greetings, players! I’m pleased to let you know that the wheels have already begun to spin up for 2023’s convention season.

For our major shows (such as PaizoCon and Gen Con), we have a volunteer organizing committee that runs our organized play space. This group works closely with me, as the Organized Play Coordinator, to determine the schedule, recruit GMs, and get them everything they need to make the show a success!

Illustration by Lucas Villalva Machado

While we’re still finalizing what our presence looks like for Gen Con, we know we’re going to need a few new members of our leadership team. Applications for these positions are open until January 1, 2023. After that, I’ll anonymize the submissions and discuss them with our existing Gen Con Committee.

Please note that joining a leadership team is a significant commitment, as there is a lot of preparation work to do to get ready for a show. More information about the leadership team’s responsibilities and rewards are available in this document. If you’re not already a Venture Officer, we’ll be asking you to sign a volunteer agreement stating that you agree to these commitments. Note that anybody is free to apply for a committee; we welcome those who are not already Venture Officers!

Gen Con 2023 is seeking applicants for the following positions:

Online Committee Member

We’re looking to add one member whose sole responsibility will be to focus on Gen Con Online. This position is not required to attend the show in Indianapolis (and in fact, it will be much easier if they don’t). We’re asking them to oversee operations via our Discord during the show: coordinating with HQ, ensuring GMs have what they need, and taking responsibility for the Organized Play-related activities. It’s a tall order, so we’re looking for someone experienced with online conventions.

Academy Assistant

The Pathfinder and Starfinder Academies are our programs designed to teach young players (under the age of 18) about our games in a safe, family-friendly environment. We’re looking for someone who wants to learn about this program this year, with the goal of training them to take over next year. As a result, we’re looking for applicants willing to take on a multi-year commitment for this position. The ideal candidate enjoys working with children and families and can mentor GMs on playing with young children. A background check is required for this position at the applicant’s expense; this is only required once the position is offered and accepted, and previous checks (such as from a teaching or youth group) will be accepted.

Headquarters Department Head

At major conventions, we have a team of HQ volunteers whose task is to support GMs, answer questions from players, and muster players to tables. The HQ staff is the backbone of our conventions, and we can’t run a show without them. We’re looking for someone to serve as our Department Head for this team. They’ll work to train our in-person HQ staff on best practices, serve as backup for the team in the event of issues, and document methods for future conventions. The ideal candidate has experience with running HQ at larger conventions and is able to train new staffers quickly.

If you’re interested in any of these positions, please fill out the form below! If necessary, we’ll contact applicants with follow-up questions and notify all applicants of their status before the end of January. We’re looking forward to working with you at the Best Four Days in Gaming!

APPLICATION LINK

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

OPC Musings

Happy Kuthona, players! Whether you celebrate Winter Week, First Choices, Crystalhue, Renewal or any other holiday, this time of year is one to gather with friends and family (safely) and enjoy the holidays. I hope you’re all looking forward to your favorite holiday traditions!

This month’s update may be a quiet one, but I assure you that we’re anything but quiet behind the scenes. We’ve started planning for 2023 conventions and over the past couple of weeks, I’ve also heard the pitches for the new seasons of Pathfinder and Starfinder Society. I think you’re all really going to like what we have planned for next year!

I don’t think I have another blog where I get to talk to you all directly before the holiday break, so before I go, let me just say: thank you all so much for your support of our games. We love what we do, each and every one of us, and I’m so lucky that my job puts me in such close contact with our community. I get to hear stories from your tables and experience firsthand the joy that gaming brings. I hope you all have wonderful gaming plans for the holidays, and that your cup runneth over in the new year.

Digital Adventure Releases

These adventures will be available on December 14, 2022. Note the early date due to the holidays!

Pathfinder Society

Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-07: A Most Wondrous Exchange!*

Pathfinder Bounty #21: Against the Unliving

Starfinder Society

Starfinder Society Scenario #5-12: Envar’s Expeditions*

Starfinder Bounty #6: Songbird Rescue

*part of a subscription

The Replacement of Ehu Hadif

For those of you with Starfinder Society characters interested in becoming the new First Seeker, time is running out! The deadline to purchase the First Seeker Candidate boon and send in your information is January 16, 2023.

We’ve got quite a few candidates already, but the more the merrier! We welcome all entries and look forward to hearing about your characters.

PaizoCon Online 2023

Prior to Thanksgiving, we announced that PaizoCon 2023 will be an online-only event. We’re already hard at work planning the show, but we’re looking for attendee feedback on what you’d like to see next year! Please head over to last week’s blog post and drop your thoughts in the comments.

I can already tell you that we’ll be premiering our new Starfinder Society season and interactive special, as well as launching some new Pathfinder Society content as well. We’re looking forward to Memorial Day weekend!

Sanctioning Update

November was a very busy month for us, with major releases across both our product lines.

For Pathfinder Society, Pathfinder Lost Omens Impossible Lands is now sanctioned for play! The new ancestries are available in the boon store and the options are listed on the Character Options page. Next on our radar is reviewing the character options from the Blood Lords Adventure Path, which we hope to add via boons in the boon store. We’re also starting the process of sanctioning Pathfinder Treasure Vault, which has set a record for “most individual character options in a single book” for this edition.

One note on the Impossible Lands sanctioning: we initially listed the kashrishi’s Community Knowledge feat as Restricted. However, the community pointed out that it’s identical to the android’s Nanite Surge feat, which is legal, so we’re changing Community Knowledge to be legal as well.

Over in the Pact Worlds, Starfinder Interstellar Species is now sanctioned for use in Starfinder Society play! Enjoy the new evolutionist class as well as new options themed around 25 fan-favorite species with the sanctioning on the Character Options page. Additionally, Starfinder Adventure To Defy the Dragon is now sanctioned for credit! Players and GMs earn one level of credit for playing this adventure.

GM Recognition

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 one GM earn their 5th Glyph for PFS2.

5th Glyph (PFS2): Emese Kollár

Until next time, Explore! Report! Cooperate! And stay warm out there!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

Greetings, Pathfinders and Starfinders! Today is Thanksgiving here in the United States. This year, I’m thankful for so much. We were able to return to physical conventions this year, and we pulled off a successful PaizoCon and Gen Con in-person in addition to their online counterparts. I got to travel to several local conventions and spend time with even more of you at your home events, and our Paizo family continues to grow with new hires.

Most of all, I’m thankful for how generous our community continues to be. Each year, we have dozens of charity events that raise money for worthy causes, and I wanted to take today to recognize some of them!

Illustration by Lucas Villalva Machado

Emerald Con, April 1–3
Right in Paizo’s backyard, this event raised $5,005 for Food Lifeline, which distributes meals to food banks, shelters and meal programs. This year’s event is in-person and online next weekend, and spots are still available!

Cosmic Crittercon 5, April 29-May 1
This year, the Crittermanders raised $5,943 for Doctors Without Borders, and once again enjoyed cookies while they did so!

GlyphCon, May 6–8
The Canadian community in Alberta raised $450 for The Hub homeless shelter in Leduc, Alberta!

Gen Con 2022, August 4–7
Our charity auction this year featured boons, custom earrings and dice bags, and signed copies of hardcover books. We raised $5,856 for The Patachou Foundation, which provides daily meals and learning experiences to underprivileged children.

SkålCon 2022, September 30–October 2
SkålCOnline, November 11–13
These two conventions in Minneapolis raised over $4400 to benefit Tubman, a local shelter, and Pawsitivity Service Dogs, which rescues dogs and trains them to act as service dogs.

Crittacon 2022, October 13–16
The Italian PFS community came together and raised €187 to improve food storage in Malawi and provide school meals in South Sudan. This funding will cover more than 200 shared meals!

Gobloween 2022, October 28–30
Boys and girls of every age joined this spooky event to raise $141 for the Monroe County Animal Shelter.

Defenders of the Healing Flame, November 5–December 31
This Extra Life team has raised over $3,600 so far for local children’s hospitals! The fundraiser is ongoing with a stream planned for December.

PF2e Foundry Community Extra Life Fundraiser, November 19
At press time, this fundraiser put on by the volunteer Foundry developers had raised over $9,100 for children’s hospitals!

We’ve also raised money for charity through five Humble Bundles this year: Pathfinder Second Edition Beginners Bundle: $35,382 for The Trevor Project and Tabletop Gaymers.

Pathfinder First Edition Character Options Bundle: $25,649 for the National Coalition Against Censorship

Stand With Ukraine Bundle (including the Pathfinder and Starfinder Core Rulebooks): $20,738,895 for Ukrainian relief

Pathfinder Strength of Thousands Bundle: $55,043 for Comicbooks for Kids Give the Gift of Pathfinder & Starfinder Bundle: Still ongoing; currently more than $22,000 raised for the Carl Brandon Society

We’ve still got more charity events this year, including Emerald Con, Cayden’s Ascension, and the Toys of Boundless Wonder drive. Thank you all so much for your generosity this year; you all get an extra Hero Point in your next session!

Until next time—Explore! Report! Cooperate! And enjoy your feasts!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

OPC Musings

Happy October! It’s fall, and the winds of change are blowing. When this blog is posted, I’ll be on a plane to Cincinnati for CinCityCon, and then in just a couple of weeks I’ll be headed to Asheville for Scarefest. I can’t wait to see you all! Getting to visit conventions is one of the best parts of my job; it really helps remind me why what I’m doing is important. If you’re in the area of either of these conventions, come on out and join us!

Plenty to talk about this month so I won’t pontificate too much, let’s get right into it!

New Boons

Spooky Scary Skeletons (Send Shivers Down the Boon Store)

Back when Book of the Dead was sanctioned, we let you know that we had plans for allowing the skeleton ancestry in a limited capacity. Here, in the spookiest month, I’m delighted to announce that the time has come!

Those of you who have already played Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-02: Return to the Grave know that, thanks to a recent expedition into the Gravelands, several skeletal adventurers were returned to Absalom. Those adventurers have elected to join us in the Pathfinder Society as they cope with their new existence!

There is now a boon in the Achievement Point store called “Steadfast Refugee.” This boon costs 206 Achievement Points* and can only be purchased once per player. It allows you to build and play a skeleton adventurer who was traveling through Lastwall before meeting their untimely demise and rebirth

Make no bones about it: while your character may be a skeleton, they are still expected to adhere to the ideals of the Pathfinder Society. They cannot be evil, and you as a player are expected to remember that other players have various tolerance for horror themes (not to mention that “playing the xylophone with your ribs” is funny a maximum of twice per session). Playing a skeletal character is naturally more perilous; other characters built for healing may not be able to heal you, so you may have to be more self-sufficient than normal.

Other characters can also be assured that traveling with a skeletal Pathfinder does not violate their anathema in any way. Pharasma has been consulted on this one and while she’s not thrilled, she understands that these Pathfinders didn’t willingly become undead, so you are under no obligation to smite them on sight. PVP is still prohibited, even if your party member is using their own skull as a basilisk ball.

*(get it, because that’s how many bones most humans have)

Condition Removal

We’ve also added a couple of new boons for condition removal in Pathfinder Society, based on requests from the community.

First up, the Pathfinder Condition Removal boon is available for 20 AcP. It can heal a number of conditions that could also be removed by purchasing healing services with gold; however, it provides another avenue should your character find their coin purse a bit light as they slowly turn to stone. The full text is available on the FAQ page.

Second is the Penitent Pathfinder boon! Since the beginning of the campaign, we’ve said that all characters have access to the atone ritual, should they violate their anathemas enough to require it. However, it’s been unclear how one learns the ritual or casts it, so we’ve simplified it. This 20 AcP boon provides the benefits of a successful atone ritual, provided your character still spends the 30 days of downtime in penance as required by the ritual.

Sanctioning Updates

Kingmaker Adventure Path

At long last, the Kingmaker Adventure Path arrives later this month! We’re all excited to bring you this update of one of our most beloved adventures, and I’m even more delighted to announce how sanctioning will work!

This adventure is unlike any other. As a sandbox adventure in one volume, it’s nigh impossible for us to determine the exact points where Chronicle Sheets should be awarded to players… so we’re not going to. The sanctioning documents will include one generic Chronicle, which GMs are instructed to award to their players for every three levels your characters achieve. This means that once characters reach levels 4, 7, 10 and so on, a Chronicle Sheet will be awarded, up to a maximum of six. You can apply these to one character or spread them across multiple as usual.

As a bonus, we’ll also be sanctioning the adventures in the Kingmaker Companion Guide! Sanctioning the Dark Archive Case Files has gone over well, and these small personal quests with your companions are complete enough to function as standalone adventures as well. You may also find that completing these adventures unlocks new options from your companions as well…

All these sanctioning documents will be posted on the product pages prior to street date later this month. We hope you all enjoy this new iteration of the adventure!

Starfinder Adventures

In addition to Kingmaker, we’ve got two Starfinder adventures ready for sanctioning this month! Both the Dead Suns Adventure Path compilation and the final volume of the Drift Crashers Adventure Path release this month. Sanctioning documents and Chronicle Sheets for both will be posted by the end of the month as well!

The Dead Suns Adventure Path will be very similar to the previous sanctioning for the six-volume iteration, and you’ll see many of the same boons as well. There’s no new rules content in this book, so you won’t see a new entry on the Character Options page, though ownership of this compilation gives you access to any character options published in it. The Drift Crashers Adventure Path will be added to the Character Options page at the end of the month as normal.

Sanctioning Rule Updates

Finally in sanctioning news, we have two rule updates to announce. First, we’ve updated the text on the Pathfinder Society Character Options page to be clearer about how one gains access to an option printed in a Pathfinder Adventure or Adventure Path. Previously, the rule could be read incorrectly to mean that all characters had access to anything printed in an Adventure. The new text has been added to the Character Options page and is quoted below, which should hopefully be clearer to all!

Using Options from Pathfinder Adventures or Adventure Paths
Typically, characters cannot select options from a Pathfinder Adventure. However, Chronicle Sheets from sanctioned Adventures or boons from the Achievement Points store often grant characters access to options from these Adventures.

Ownership of Adventures or Adventure Paths is not required for Character Option use in the Pathfinder Society campaign, as long as rules are referenced from the official Pathfinder Reference Document (prd).

Second, with the release of the Kingmaker Adventure Path comes our first foray into producing content in-house for “the world’s oldest RPG!” We wanted to give our dedicated players a way to earn Pathfinder Society credit for running this content, even if their gaming group might be a little reluctant to switch systems. As such, the following text has been added to the Guide to Organized Play:

If Paizo has released an official conversion of a sanctioned adventure to another game system (such as the ''Pathfinder Kingmaker Bestiary (5e)'' or ''Pathfinder Adventure Path: Abomination Vaults (5e)''), GMs and players may play these adventures using those rules and earn credit as if they had played it using Pathfinder rules. Adventures that have not been converted by Paizo in this way must be played using standard Adventure Mode rules.

GM Recognition

Campaign Service Coins

We award Campaign Service Coins to members of the community who have gone above and beyond to provide an exceptional program to the community at large. Campaign Coins are awarded based on nominations; if you believe someone in your community is deserving of this award (whether or not they are a Venture Officer), send an email to organizedplay[at]paizo[dot]com with their name and reasons.

This month, several RVCs were able to award Campaign Coins on my behalf at Hurricon, SkålCon, and SydCon. Congratulations to:

Shane Murphy, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #864
Greg Ferguson, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #865
Sandra Wilkinson, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #867
Ryan Blomquist, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #871

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 one GM earn their 5th Star for PFS1, two GMs earn their 5th Nova for SFS, and three GMs earn their 5th Glyph for PFS2.

5th Star (PFS1): Kyle Ashcraft
5th Nova (SFS): Milan Badzic, Jim Crase
5th Glyph (PFS2): Brad Fiske, Ivis Flanagan, Shannon Steward

I want to recognize Milan Badzic in particular. He is, to the best of my knowledge, the first person to complete the Triple Crown, having earned the 5th rank in Pathfinder Society (first edition), Pathfinder Society (second edition), and Starfinder Society. That’s no easy feat, and I truly don’t know if we’ll see it matched anytime soon. Congratulations, Milan, and please enjoy some time off, you’ve earned it!

Conventions

As I mentioned at the top, I’ll be attending CinCityCon and Scarefest this October, and I’ll also be joining the Minnesota crew at SkålCOnline in November for some Dark Archive weirdness. But as the year closes out, we’ve got plenty of events, both online and in-person, for you to finish strong! Check out our convention calendar for all the latest listings.

Until next time—Explore! Report! Cooperate! And have a spooktacular month!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

OPC Musings

Welcome to a joint update for August and September! After Gen Con I simply did not have the energy to write an update for August, and now it’s almost September, so we’ve combined them into one mega-update.

Speaking of which, I had an absolute blast at my first-ever Gen Con! It was fantastic getting to see so many community members coming out and enjoying our return to the Sagamore ballroom. Watching more than 50 tables run through Enter the Pallid Peak during the special was a real treat, and I returned from the weekend emotionally recharged (and physically exhausted). I’m already putting some plans into motion to improve the program and make it the best version of itself thanks to some conversations I had that weekend.

Illustration by Lucas Villalva Machado

Digital Adventure Releases

August 2022

These adventures will be available on August 31, 2022.

Pathfinder Society

Pathfinder Society Intro: Year of Boundless Wonder*
Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-02: Return to the Grave*
Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-03: Linnorm's Legacy*
Pathfinder Bounty #20: Burden in Bloodcove

Starfinder Society

Starfinder Society Scenario #5-06: Tarnished Legacy: Historia's Holdout*
Starfinder Society Scenario #5-07: Planar Bloom*

September 2022

These adventures will be available on September 28, 2022.

Pathfinder Societ

Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-04: To Seek the Heart of Calamity*

Starfinder Society

Starfinder Society Scenario #5-08: Tarnished Legacy: Star Sugar Superstar!!!*

*part of a subscription

Sanctioning

Newly Sanctioned: Last month we sanctioned Dark Archive for Pathfinder Society and Redshift Rally for Starfinder Society! For Dark Archive, the Character Options are available for use, and the 8 Case File adventures have sanctioning documents on the product page. They all grant 2 XP and commensurate rewards. Redshift Rally is sanctioned for play, and its Character Options are available for use as well.

Upcoming: Lost Omens: Travel Guide sanctioning is finished and ready for a street date next week, so look for those Character Options next Wednesday! Crown of the Kobold King and the Dead Suns hardcover have both had their release dates shifted to October, but we should be on track to have them both ready on release. The Drift Crashers Adventure Path should also be sanctioned around the release of the third volume in October.

We do intend to sanction the Kingmaker Adventure Path and associated content for Pathfinder Society! However, it’s a lot of content that we have not yet started reviewing, so we can’t guarantee that sanctioning will be ready for its release at the end of October. We’ll be sure to keep you posted as we make progress.

Guide Updates

Pathfinder Adventure Card Society

That’s right, there’s a PACS update! Been a while since we had one of those. We’ve long said that we intended to release one final version of the PACS Guide to cover any lingering issues and close out the program. Well, that day is today! The Guide has been updated to its final form at this time.

Major updates include the addition of Adventurer’s Packs, the sanctioning of content published on Infinite for play, and various other changes. The Guide is available for download now!

GM Recognition

Campaign Service Coins

While at Gen Con, I was able to award a number of additional Campaign Coins. We award these coins to members of the community who have gone above and beyond to provide an exceptional program to the community at large. Campaign Coins are awarded based on nominations; if you believe someone in your community is deserving of this award (whether or not they are a Venture Officer), send an email to organizedplay[at]paizo[dot]com with their name and reasons.

Congratulations to:
Chris Johnson, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #858
Doug Edwards, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #859
Kristin Bollerman, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #860
Jim Crase, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #861
Rebecca Fehn, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #862
and Tim Munsie (TMun), who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #863

Order of the Wayfinder

In addition to the Campaign Service Coin, we also have one other award: the Order of the Wayfinder. This award is given out only once per year, and recognizes a member of the community who has provided exceptional service. Typically, we give this award to individuals who have taken on a particular project and knocked it out of the park. Previously, this award has been awarded to the head of our Additional Resources review team and our Regional Venture-Coordinator for the Online region, among others.

I am pleased to finally announce that the 2021 recipient of the Order of the Wayfinder is Barb Wilkins. Since 2018, Barb has been the one-woman show behind sending out volunteer agreements to our Venture Officers. Every year, this involves sending out literally hundreds of agreements to volunteers, ensuring that they’ve been signed and returned, and maintaining the master list of every Venture Officer worldwide. It’s a monumental task, and one that she has done for nearly four years now. Her work is undeniably vital to Organized Play, and I am delighted to have presented this award to her at Gen Con this year.

GM Ranks

Whether stars, novas, or glyphs, achieving a 5 ranking in any program involves a substantial amount of time. To achieve the fifth milestone, a GM must run 150 games, which must include at least 50 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 four GMs earn their 5th Star for PFS1 and two GMs earn their 5th Glyph for PFS2.

5th Star: Zackery Kuehn, Ben Tash, Christopher Waterfield, and Denis Wishnevsky
5th Glyph: Milan Badzic and Robert Bollerman

Conventions

I'm pleased to announce that I'll be attending two regional shows this October! First up, I'll be at CinCityCon in Cincinnati, Ohio from October 7–9 (that’s over Indigenous Peoples’ Day so it’s a long weekend). Tickets are on sale now at https://cincitycon.com/; the tables I'm running will be charity tickets.

I'll also be attending Scarefest in Asheville, North Carolina from October 21–23, which is just a perfect convention for a big scaredy-cat like me! Tickets are available on their website at https://avlscarefest.com/ and game signups are on their Warhorn at https://warhorn.net/events/asheville-scarefest.

I'm looking forward to getting out to see you all this fall! I've got some fun tables planned and I can't wait.

If you’re not in the neighborhood of these shows, or you’re looking for more fun closer to home or online, check out our conventions calendar! We’ve got tons of shows coming up in the home stretch of 2023 for you to check out and support.

Until next time—Explore! Report! Cooperate! And enjoy the new Year of Boundless Wonder!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

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

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

OPC Musings

I’m gonna drop a hot take at the top of this blog: I think PaizoCon was a success this year! Everybody who’d been there before couldn’t help but comment on how different it felt, but as someone with no base of reference, I had a great time. We ran over 100 Organized Play games in the ballroom, including our first hybrid special. I got to hang out with some of my awesome coworkers and meet some fantastic community members, and I spent way too much money in our store!

No, it wasn’t a perfect show. There are things to iron out before Gen Con and things to improve for next year. A non-zero number of people (myself included) tested positive for COVID after the show (I’m doing fine, thanks for asking). Overall, I’m so thrilled with my first physical PaizoCon

I have a ton of things to talk about in this blog—it might be the longest blog I’ve ever written—so strap in, and let’s blast through these updates!

Digital Releases

Here are this month’s digital releases, available June 29, 2022.

Pathfinder

Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-16: Escape from Oppara*

Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-17: Dreams of a Dustbound Isle*

Starfinder

Starfinder Society Scenario #5-04: Fragment of the 4th*

*part of a subscription

Illustration by Nicholas Phillips

Year of Boundless Wonder

At our PaizoCon panel, Pathfinder Society developer Mike Kimmel announced the title for Year 4: Year of Boundless Wonder! We’re very excited for this new metaplot, featuring a treasure hoard full of wondrous items and treacherous secrets. More information about the year’s stories, as well as any rule changes, will be forthcoming between now and the year’s launch at Gen Con Indy and Gen Con Online. For now, be sure to check out our panel on YouTube and the announcement blog.

Achievement Points Update

I have good news and bad news!

The good news: last week, tech rolled a code update that, among other things, should start every new player with 80 Achievement Points for both Pathfinder and Starfinder Society and retroactively grant those points to current players as well. One of the most consistent complaints about the program at large is that new players can’t play weird characters from the jump. This 80 AcP grant is enough to purchase an uncommon ancestry, some new character options, or just resurrect your character a couple of times after making… interesting choices. We hope that this will ease a new player’s introduction to the system and benefit those of you who have been working diligently to save up for something shiny as well!

The bad news: doing so apparently broke AcP entirely in new and exciting ways. We’ve had reports of some people not seeing the grant yet, and other reports of events not awarding AcP for sessions anymore. Obviously, this is a problem, and tech is actively working on fixing it. Please know that fixing this is my highest priority, and I hope to see the issues resolved soon. Thank you all so much for your patience!

PFS Faction Pins

A couple of months ago on Paizo Live!, I announced that we’d be getting new faction pins in the store for PaizoCon. Unfortunately, thanks to shipping chaos, they missed it by one day and arrived just after the show closed. Luckily, they’re now available in the Paizo store!

Paizo Organized Play
Envoy’s Alliance
Grand Archive
Horizon Hunters
Radiant Oath
Verdant Wheel
Vigilant Seal

The Accessory Perks page has had an update in the works for some time. Now that these pins have arrived, that will hopefully be the motivation I need to put the final touches on the page and get it live so that these pins provide an in-game benefit. Until then, enjoy the bling!

Major Convention Recruitment

We’re currently recruiting GMs for Gen Con Online as well as PaizoCon Online Europe! Earlier today we posted a blog with more information on both, so for the sake of brevity here I will link you over there for more information.

Sanctioning

We released a ton of products, and sanctioning for other products, in May. So many that I don’t have time for fun commentary and I’m just going to list them all out!

Pathfinder Society

• A Fistful of Flowers (sanctioning documents, in advance of Free RPG Day this month)
• Abomination Vaults (sanctioning documents)
• Pathfinder Lost Omens: Knights of Lastwall (Character Options)
• Shadows at Sundown (sanctioning documents)

Starfinder Society

• Drift Crisis (Character Options)
• Horizons of the Vast Adventure Path (Character Options and sanctioning documents)
• SF One-Shot #4: Before the Storm (sanctioning documents)
• Skitter Warp (sanctioning documents, in advance of Free RPG Day this month)

Upcoming

Next on our sanctioning radar, in no particular order, are:

• Dark Archive
• Outlaws of Alkenstar Adventure Path
• Redshift Rally
• Pathfinder Lost Omens: Travel Guide

New FAQ Answers

Prior to PaizoCon, we posted a couple of new answers to crafting-related questions on the PFS FAQ page. I will reproduce the text here, but the most current version can always be found on that page.

Can I upgrade permanent items?
Yes, players may upgrade permanent magical items or items made from special materials using the Crafting rules on page 535 of the Core Rulebook. Players may not upgrade adventuring gear or consumable items in this manner.

Can I pay the cost difference to upgrade a permanent item instead of using Craft to do it myself? Yes. The Pathfinder Society has numerous crafters that assist their fellow agents. Use the rules for upgrading magic items on page 535 of the Core Rulebook.

GM Recognition

Campaign Coins

At PaizoCon, we awarded six new Campaign Service Coins. These Coins are given to volunteers who go above and beyond the typical volunteer duties to support their communities and Organized Play. Nominations are always accepted; volunteers may be nominated by emailing organizedplay@paizo.com with their name, region and a description of their service. As we begin to return to physical events, we hope to resume awarding these in-person, so letting us know what upcoming events they’re attending is also useful.

Congratulations to: David Peever, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #852
Jocelyn Hamilton, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #853
Preston Hudson, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #854
Dennis Muldoon, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #855
Glen Parnell, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #856
Nicole Heits, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #857

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 one GM earn their 5th Star for PFS1 and one GM earn their 5th Nova for SFS.

5th Star: LeRoy Byrd

5th Nova: Nikolaus Beattie

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

Upcoming Conventions

In addition to our major shows, convention season is in full swing! We have tons of events around the world scheduled for this summer, and we encourage you to support your local shows! Any convention that has filed for event support can be found on our conventions calendar.

Until next time—Explore! Report! Cooperate! And enjoy the Year of Redemption’s Rise!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

While Paizo gears up for PaizoCon the last weekend in May, our partners across the Atlantic are preparing for UK Games Expo, which runs the following weekend, June 3-5. The largest tabletop gaming convention in the United Kingdom, UK Games Expo is the perfect opportunity for European Paizo fans to get their game on!

Paizo won’t have any staff in attendance but have partnered with the convention to debut Pathfinder Dinky Dungeon, a lighthearted adventure in which players navigate a floor full of tiles and face off against everything from deadly traps and monsters to being cursed to wear a silly hat for the rest of the game. We were very excited to work with the folks behind the show to develop this family-friendly sorta-LARP and hope attendees have as much fun playing it as we did working on it. Be sure to post pictures of yourselves playing Pathfinder Dinky Dungeon and tag Paizo’s social media accounts, and we’ll make sure to amplify the most embarrassing best ones!

For those Pathfinder and Starfinder fans looking for something a bit more traditional, we’ll also have a large organized play presence at the show. Here’s more information from Regional Venture-Coordinator Ian Hawthorne of the Isles Region:

UK Games Expo has long held a place in the UK Pathfinder Society’s heart. From its humble beginnings in the Clarendon Suites back in 2007, we have seen it grow until now it occupies three exhibition halls and several function rooms at the National Exhibition Centre, as well as spilling over into the board game and RPG haven that is the nearby Hilton Hotel.

Yes, it’s a big event! It's also the perfect place to play Pathfinder and Starfinder. Terry Thambipillai, VC for the Midlands Region, has coordinated a wonderful mix of PFS1, PFS2, and Starfinder games available over eight different gaming slots. This gives you plenty of time to enjoy a game or three and still be able to watch seminars, play boardgames, or shop until you drop. We have a mixture of games suited both to invested and new players—UKGE is a great place to play for the first time in a relaxed, supportive, and fun environment!

All the details on how to buy tickets and find us can be found on the UK Games Expo website. Hope to see you there!

Hello friends! With PaizoCon 2022 just a few short weeks away, we wanted to highlight our newest releases premiere at the show, as well as some of our author and VIP events. Let’s dive in!

New Releases

We’ll be launching our brand new season of Starfinder Society at the show, and our first levels 9-12 scenario for Pathfinder Society (second edition). We’ve also got tables of our upcoming Free RPG Day adventures as an exclusive preview, the new Starfinder interactive special running in Seattle and online simultaneously, and a new Pathfinder Bounty!

SFS Intro: Year of Redemption’s Rise

Seattle: Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 4 | Slot 8

Online: Slot 1 | Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 | Slot 4 | Slot 8 | Slot 8 | Slot 10 | Slot 11 | Slot 11 | Slot 12

Play-by-Post: Paizo Forums | Paizo Forums

SFS #5-02: Road to Reconciliation

Seattle: Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 4 | Slot 8

Online: Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 4 | Slot 8 | Slot 10 | Slot 11

Play-by-Post: Paizo Forums | Mythweavers

SFS #5-03: Combatant’s Concerto: Fugue of the Traitor

Seattle: Slot 1

Online: Slot 4 | Slot 4 | Slot 10

Play-by-Post: Mythweavers

SFS Special #4-99: A Time of Crisis

Seattle: Physical Games (Slot 6)

Online: Online Games (Slot 6)

SF Adventure: Skitter Warp (Free RPG Day 2022)

Seattle: Slot 1

Online: Slot 2 | Slot 10 | Slot 11

PFS #3-15: Cavern of the Sundered Song

Seattle: Slot 1 | Slot 4 | Slot 4 | Slot 8

Online: Slot 1 | Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 2 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 | Slot 4 | Slot 4 | Slot 4 | Slot 6 | Slot 7 | Slot 8 | Slot 8 | Slot 8 | Slot 10 | Slot 10 | Slot 11 | Slot 11 | Slot 12 | Slot 12

Play-by-Post: Discord

PF Adventure: A Fistful of Flowers (Free RPG Day 2022)

Seattle: Slot 1 | Slot 8

Online: Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 | Slot 4 | Slot 4 | Slot 7 | Slot 7 | Slot 8 | Slot 10 | Slot 10 | Slot 11 | Slot 12 | Slot 12

PF Bounty #19: Grim Tidings

Seattle: Slot 5a | Slot 9a | Slot 9a

Online: Slot 2a | Slot 4a | Slot 5a | Slot 5a | Slot 5a | Slot 7a | Slot 8b | Slot 9a | Slot 9a

Play-by-Post: Discord

Author Tables

We’re lucky enough to have a number of authors running one or more tables of scenarios they wrote at PaizoCon! You won’t want to miss these, as these authors know their adventures inside and out.

Seattle Tables

PFS2 #2-16: Freedom for Wishes with author Jessica Redekop - Slot 1

SFS Intro: Year of Redemption’s Rise with author Alex Speidel - Slot 2

Online Tables

PFS1 #10-03: Death on the Ice with author Scott Young - Slot 10

PFS2 #2-17: Lost Maid of Anactoria with author Scott Young - Slot 1 | Slot 4

PFS2 #3-05: Inheritor's Rite with author Elizabeth V Nold - Slot 4

PFS2 #3-10: Delve the Pallid Depths with author Caryn DiMarco - Slot 10

SF Bounty #1: The Cantina Job with author John Godek III - Slot 5a | Slot 9a

SF Bounty #2: Test Flight with author Michael Bramnik - Slot 5a

Play-by-Post Tables

PF2 Bounty #17: Sodden Stories with author Michael Bramnik - Paizo

PFS2 #3-09: The Secluded Siege with author Lysle Kapp - Paizo

SF Bounty #2: Test Flight with author Michael Bramnik - Paizo

SFS #4-12: A Festive Operation with author Ivis Flanagan - Paizo

VIP Events

Finally, we have some very special games and panels you won’t see anywhere else to highlight!

Seattle Events

Celestian’s Compass - Jessica Redekop
In this Planescape adventure, a group of clueless adventurers blitz into the Birdcage and fall on a few darks while they search for an ambitious dazzler and the artifact he bobbed from their Prime. No prior knowledge of Planescape is required.

Red Fields - Wayfinder 22 Side Trek Adventure - Ivis Flanagan
Violent clashes have recently broken out between the Ariserphia centaur tribe of the Kortos Mounts and the people of Dianne, a logging town in the eastern Immenwood. Answering the town’s call for help, the PCs must quickly discover the truth of the situation before it spirals out of control, with the fate of both settlements in their hands.

Heroes for 2nd Edition Highdelve - Dennis Muldoon Highdelve is in danger, and only true heroes can save the day! Young human cousins Brialla and Meraina, as well as Kiliuk the tempestuous half-orc and Torgen the stoic dwarf, find themselves engrossed in Highdelve’s joyous summer festival, the Brightbloom Jubilee. But all is shattered when trouble arrives to threaten not just the festival but the whole town! Can the brave young heroes save the day and become heroes for Highdelve?

Online Content Creation Q&A - Roll for Combat
Join top online content creators Stephen Glicker (Roll for Combat), Vanessa Hoskins (Know Direction, Roll for Combat), Brogan Kelley (Nonat1s), and Mark Seifter (Arcane Mark, Roll for Combat) as we discuss tips, tricks, struggles, and triumphs in online content creation, and answer all your questions. This panel covers all kinds of online content: podcasts, live streams, and videos!

Creating a Winning Monster for RPG Superstar! - Roll for Combat
Join Pathfinder 2nd edition co-creator Mark Seifter and Stephen Glicker from Roll for Combat as they explain how to build a better monster for your game, as well as how to write a winning monster for the RPG Superstar contest.

Battlezoo 2022 Future Products, Spoilers and Q&A - Roll for Combat
This year, Battlezoo brought you creatures, monster parts, dragons, dungeons, and a mega-adventure, but next year will be even wilder! Join Pathfinder 2nd edition co-creator Mark Seifter and Stephen Glicker from Roll for Combat for the big reveal of next year’s line-up.

Online Events

Red Fields - Wayfinder 22 Side Trek Adventure - Michael Bramnik (VTT) and Ivis Flanagan (Play-by-Post)
Violent clashes have recently broken out between the Ariserphia centaur tribe of the Kortos Mounts and the people of Dianne, a logging town in the eastern Immenwood. Answering the town’s call for help, the PCs must quickly discover the truth of the situation before it spirals out of control, with the fate of both settlements in their hands.

---

We can’t wait to see you all at PaizoCon! Be sure to tune into the Organized Play panel, streamed live on our Twitch channel at 2pm Pacific on Saturday, May 28th. We’ll be discussing the upcoming Year of Redemption’s Rise and revealing the name and storyline for Pathfinder Society Year 4, so you won’t want to miss out!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

OPC Musings

It’s no secret that the past two years have been hard on the program. One w¬ay we’ve seen this most clearly is in convention support. Prior to the pandemic, we would send out support to hundreds of events worldwide; obviously, mass gatherings have been in short supply since then. Last year was our smallest year since we started keeping records in 2016.

However, I can see the ecosystem starting to return. As of this week, I have nearly all the events through May submitted, and we’ll be sending out support to double the number of events I had at this time last year. Summer is typically our busiest time, and I can’t wait to see how many more I get. It’s a positive sign in a time when we could all use some good news!

Digital Adventure Releases

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

Pathfinder

Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-13: Guardian's Covenant**
Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-14: The Tomb Between Worlds*

Starfinder

Starfinder Society Scenario #4-16: Hope for the Future**
Starfinder Bounty #3: A Green Place

*part of a subscription

Major Conventions

Volunteer applications are now open for both PaizoCon and Gen Con Indy! GMs are accepted on a rolling basis for both, so if you’re interested in GMing or volunteering, make sure to head over to their respective blogs and fill out the forms.

PaizoCon GM selections will close this Saturday, April 9; after this point, GM schedules can only be changed with the organizing committee’s approval. Player signups will open to GMs on Wednesday, April 13th; to Warhorn VIPs on April 15; and to all players on April 16. Unfortunately I have no new information to share on badge sales; please email paizocon@paizo.com with any such questions.

For Gen Con Indy, our soft cutoff for GMs is April 30. GMs may sign up after this date, but there’s no guarantee you’ll be considered for a room or be able to sign up for more than a backup GM slot. We have no information on Gen Con Online at this time; once we hear more from the Gen Con staff, we’ll be sure to let you know.

We can’t wait to see you all at PaizoCon and Gen Con this year!

Sanctioning

We’ve been hard at work in the sanctioning mines this month! First up, we sanctioned the Tyrant’s Grasp Adventure Path for Pathfinder Society (first edition). This will be the final content sanctioned for First Edition; while we intend to leave reporting open indefinitely, we won’t be providing any new content for the campaign at this stage. Thank you all for your patience as we got through the final pieces!

For Pathfinder Society (second edition), we sanctioned the Quest for the Frozen Flame Adventure Path. There are also two boons for the Pine Leshy Heritage in the Achievement Points store: one for all players, and a discounted version for those who play through the AP. Quit needling us about it!

Starfinder Society got sanctioning for the third one-shot, System Takedown, which can be applied to a character of any level.

Looking ahead, we have sanctioning for Book of the Dead ready to go for its street date, and we’ll have a blog on the topic later in the month. We’re also working on Lost Omens: Knights of Lastwall, as well as the Horizons of the Vast Adventure Path and Drift Crisis for Starfinder Society.

GM Recognition

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 completed our second hat trick, with one new 5-rank GM in each program!

5th Star (PFS1): Steven Crow
5th Nova (SFS): Jocelyn Hamilton
5th Glyph (PFS2): Nicholas Ruchlewicz

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.

Conventions

As I mentioned above, we have a ton of events planned in the next few months! Check out our conventions calendar and see if there’s an event near you. There are some great events happening around Memorial Day weekend, so if you can’t make it out to PaizoCon, you might find a local group near you!

Until next time - Explore! Report! Cooperate! And enjoy the spring sunshine!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

Convention Season 2022

Last week we announced PaizoCon 2022, a four-day online event with a simultaneous three-day physical event. I can’t wait to see you all online and in Seattle for this year’s convention! We’ve got lots of exciting new products to announce via our online streams, as well as tons of Organized Play games during the weekend. For more information, check out last week’s blog.

If you’re interested in volunteering during the event, please visit this blog and fill out the attached form! We need GMs and volunteers to make the event run, so even if you’re a first-time volunteer, we’d love to have you. The deadline for early GM signups is March 17; signups received after that date might not be cleared in time for game selection.

For those waiting patiently for Gen Con volunteer information, I’m meeting with the Gen Con committee this week to work on putting the final pieces into place. I’m hoping to have volunteer signups open in the next couple of weeks.

Illustration by Michele Giorgi

Starfinder Society Year 5

As we announced last week, Year 5 of Starfinder Society is titled “Year of Redemption’s Rise!” We’ll be launching this year’s storyline at PaizoCon 2022, both online and at the physical show, with three brand-new scenarios. Strap in, Starfinders, and get ready for a year like you’ve never seen!

It was also announced that five new species will be made always-available, and three new factions will be opened up to all Starfinders. Information on these changes, as well as any other new rule changes, will be discussed further in a blog prior to PaizoCon focused specifically on these changes. We don’t have any other major program changes planned at this time, but if we change course, we’ll be sure to let you know well before PaizoCon.

Sanctioning

We didn’t have any new material sanctioned this month, mostly because there wasn’t much more material to sanction yet! Behind the scenes, we’re starting to work on Book of the Dead, which I anticipate we’ll have ready for its street date. We’re also working on polishing off sanctioning for the Tyrant’s Grasp AP, the last of our PF1 Adventure Paths to be sanctioned, and we’re looking ahead to Lost Omens Knights of Lastwall, the Quest for the Frozen Flame and Horizons of the Vast APs, and even the Drift Crisis rulebook.

While I have you all here, there were a couple other topics I wanted to touch on.

Retroactive Sanctioning: In the past, there have been questions about how to handle chronicle sheets for adventures that have been sanctioned after a group completes the adventure. Previously the guidance has been that while this is technically illegal, there were ways to skirt the system by having a fake wrap-up session, which is silly and weird, so I’m doing away with that loophole.

Going forward, if an adventure is sanctioned after your group completes it, your GM is absolutely permitted. (and encouraged!) to issue chronicles for all interested players. These chronicles should be applied as if your group had finished the session on the day you receive the chronicle. You couldn’t, for example, retroactively apply it to a character at an earlier date and bump all their future chronicles up in level; this breaks the timestream and makes the Hounds of Tindalos mad.

Updated Sanctioning Documents: Wayyyyy back in August we announced an update to our sanctioning documents and the increase in Reputation that would come along with it. And then, y’know, we had a busy few months. However, I am now pleased to announce that the project has been finished! All sanctioning documents have been fully updated and should reflect the most recent version of the rules. Please let me know if you encounter any issues!

Normally this would be where I’d put GM Recognition, but this month I don’t have any new 5-rank GMs to announce. Instead, I’ll just thank all our GMs, especially those who have volunteered already for PaizoCon and Gen Con. You’re all fantastic and we literally wouldn’t be able to do this without you!

Until next time - Explore! Report! Cooperate! And don’t forget to sign up for PaizoCon!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

OPC Musings

It’s that time of year again when the convention machine begins to grind to life! We’re working hard on plans for PaizoCon and Gen Con, and hope to have news to share with you very soon, stay tuned. We’re also seeing event support requests start to roll in, which is always great! Lots of other things to talk about this month, so let’s dive right in!

Digital Adventure Releases

Here are this month’s digital releases, available February 23, 2022:

Pathfinder

Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-10: Delve the Pallid Depths*
Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-11: No Time for Treason*
Pathfinder Bounty #18: From Family Lost
Pathfinder One-Shot #4: Mark of the Mantis

Starfinder

Starfinder Society Scenario #4-14: Rasheen's Remembrance*

*part of a subscription

Pathfinder Society-Specific Rule Updates

This month, we published several rule clarifications & updates that apply specifically to the Pathfinder Society campaign. These clarifications are always available on the Organized Play FAQ pages or in the appropriate Guide to Organized Play, but we wanted to make sure we highlighted them here.

Massive Damage

When considering if a character would be killed outright by Massive Damage, you should treat their maximum Hit Points as 20 if they have fewer than 20 maximum Hit Points. This clarification is to attempt to avoid killing first-level characters outright. If a new player is about to do something reckless that will almost certainly result in their death (such as their character leaping off a cliff), ensure that they understand the potential consequences first.

Similar Lore

If a scenario calls for a specific Lore and a player has an extremely similar Lore (such as Pathfinder Lore in place of Pathfinder Society Lore), the GM should permit the use of that Lore. If a Lore is adjacent (e.g. Academia Lore in place of Library Lore), the GM can permit its use if they feel the two overlap enough. Ultimately, the GM is empowered to use their best judgment in such situations. This guidance has been floating around for a while, so we wanted to codify it in the FAQ page.

Additional Languages

The Character Creation section of the Guide to Organized Play has been updated to grant all Pathfinder Society characters an additional regional language at character creation. It’s important to us that the characters in the campaign represent the diversity of the world of Golarion, and this small change ensures that characters from a region outside the Inner Sea can more accurately represent their home and know their home region’s language. Most characters will gain an additional language as a result of this update.

Bequeathal Boons

The section of the Bequeathal boons that required a character receiving access to wait until their level matched the level of the originating chronicle sheet has been removed. This created unintentional tangles with sanctioned material that could be applied to a character of any level and was unnecessary with the way the game system gives most options a level anyway. The boons have been updated in the Achievement Points store; any previously-downloaded versions can be downloaded again to update the language, but doing so is not required.

Starfinder Errata

Last week, the Starfinder team released some errata, including updates for the newly-released Galactic Magic. In particular, this errata changed the text of the Genetics Field of Study for biohackers.

Any character who finds that this change materially affects their character is free to choose a different field of study for their biohacker with no required time or credit investment. We are updating the language around similar rules updates in the Guide to Organized Play to ensure that future changes of the same type will be handled similarly.

Sanctioning

This month was a busy month for sanctioning! We released sanctioning for Starfinder Galactic Magic on release date, and then updated it a few hours later to allow another option through (you’re welcome, vanguard fans)! We also updated the sanctioning for the Character Operations Manual to finally permit Qi Adept through for soldiers. For Pathfinder Society (First Edition), the Return of the Runelords Adventure Path is sanctioned for play and available for reporting.

February is a fairly quiet month on the product release front, so it’s possible that there won’t be any new content next time I talk to you. I’m working with our art team to get the final updates of the older sanctioned content completed so as to ensure that all sanctioned material is consistent and awards the correct rewards. Generally speaking, the next material to be newly sanctioned will be Book of the Dead and the Quest for the Frozen Flame Adventure Path for Pathfinder Society (Second Edition); the Horizons of the Vast Adventure Path for Starfinder Society; and the Tyrant’s Grasp Adventure Path for Pathfinder Society (First Edition), which should close the book on new material for that campaign.

GM Recognition

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 completed a hat trick for the first time, with one new 5-rank GM in each program!

5th Star (PFS1): Wally Waltner
5th Nova (SFS): Landon Hatfield
5th Glyph (PFS2): Jimmy Dick

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.

That’s quite enough from me, so I’ll sign off now. Until next time—Explore! Report! Cooperate! And stay tuned for news about SFS Year 5, coming soon!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

OPC Musings

I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions. That’s not because I’m perfect—far from it!—but because inevitably I will forget about them in a couple of weeks without someone to hold me accountable. However, it occurred to me that this space is an excellent place to set out some goals for this year, which I hope you’ll all help me complete. So here are some of my New Year’s resolutions for Organized Play in 2022:

1. Work with our tech department to roll out some exciting new improvements to the Achievement Points system
2. Have a successful 2022 convention season
3. Earn my third nova for Starfinder Society—and maybe my second glyph for Pathfinder Society?

What are some of your resolutions for this year? Let me know in the comments!

Digital Adventure Releases

Here are this month’s digital releases, available January 26, 2022:

Pathfinder

Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-08: Foundation's Price*
Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-09: The Secluded Siege*

Starfinder

Starfinder Society Scenario #4-13: Hard Reset*
Starfinder Bounty #1: The Cantina Job

*part of a subscription

Convention Organizing Committees

As we begin to plan our 2022 conventions, we’re seeking individuals interested in joining the organizing committees for our major shows! If you’re interested in helping to plan PaizoCon, Gen Con, or PaizoCon Europe, head over to last week’s blog post and submit an application. Applications close tomorrow (Friday, January 7), so don’t delay! We hope to release information soon about our plans for these shows and how to volunteer as a GM.

Starfinder Fame Update

As of last Friday, Starfinder Fame has officially expired. Any lingering Fame you haven’t spent yet is space dust in the wind; be sure to record your final purchases in your records.

All boon conversion tasks should be completed at this time as well. The Starfinder Society FAQ has been updated with the information on converting certain boons to Fame; please refer players to that page if they have questions.

Starfinder Nova Update

Last month, we announced that we would be adding SFS #4-09: Through Sea and Storm to the Nova qualification list; however, a paragraph was inadvertently omitted from the blog post. Rather than sneak it in, I decided to save it for this post and announce that SFS #1-39: The Herald’s War will be retired from Nova qualification. As of March 1, 2022, any future runs of that scenario will not count as Specials for the purpose of Nova qualification. This grace period is intended to allow any GMs who had already been planning to run the scenario for credit to do so before we close the door. We don’t intend to retire any future scenarios from Nova qualification—this scenario was always a stopgap until we had enough scenarios in the requisite level ranges.

Sanctioning

With the office quiet for the holidays, we were able to take advantage of our lighter workloads and really blast through the outstanding sanctioning tasks! The following rulebooks and adventures have been sanctioned for play since last month: Lost Omens Monsters of Myth, Absalom, City of Lost Omens, the Strength of Thousands Adventure Path, and rules options from the Agents of Edgewatch Adventure Path (via the Achievement Points system). For Starfinder, we harnessed the power of the precog, and can announce that we have Galactic Magic ready to go for its street date!

We’ve also got some sanctioning in the pipeline that’s not quite ready yet, but watch the @PaizoOrgPlay Twitter feed for sanctioning announcements, or check back here next month.

GM Recognition

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 one GM earn their 5th Glyph for Pathfinder Society (second edition)!

5th Glyph - Tim Ayers

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

Until next time - Explore! Report! Cooperate! And enjoy the new year!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

Greetings, players! As we close out 2021, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite things: numbers and data! Let’s review some of the accomplishments and events of 2021, shall we?

Major Conventions: 4; PaizoCon Online, PAX Online, PaizoCon Online Europe and Gen Con Online
PaizoCon Tables: 839, run by 243 GMs
PAX Online Tables: 81, run by 38 GMs
PCOE Tables: 260, run by 115 GMs
Gen Con Online Tables: 429, run by 132 GMs
Other Supported Conventions: 80, running nearly 4,000 tables of adventures worldwide

Scenarios Released: 57, including 2 interactive specials
Rulebooks Sanctioned: 10
Adventures Sanctioned: 31
Ziggys Saved: 1
Sanctuaries Shattered: Wouldn’t you like to know
Total Tables Run Worldwide: Over 15,000!

When I look back at this year, I think the theme is resilience through uncertainty. Between shipping crises (remember when the boat was stuck? good times!), the ongoing pandemic, and shakeups at Paizo, this year has been tumultuous, to say the least. But this is the best community out there, and you all have rolled with the punches, adapted to the new terrain, and kept playing with us. I can’t thank you all enough for everything, and I can’t wait to see you all in 2022.

Before I leave you, I have a message from Mike Kimmel to share.

---

Hey everyone! The end of the calendar year also marks the end of my first year on the Organized Play team. It’s been a year filled with challenges, rewards, and adventures. One of my fondest memories of the year was being able to write my first adventure outline for Paizo, which led to a little bounty called Hillcross Roundup. I’m looking forward to outlining and developing more adventures and tackling more challenges in the months ahead. Later this year, we’ll be wrapping up the Year of Shattered Sanctuaries and jumping into Year 4. I can’t wait to share these exciting adventures with you! I hope I’ll have opportunities to meet and interact with more members of the community in 2022, whether that’s online, in person, or both. I want to hear all about your adventures!

---

Stay safe and warm, and until next time - Explore! Report! Cooperate! And we’ll see you in 2022!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

Mike Kimmel
Pathfinder Society Developer

Greetings, friends! It's that time of year again where we begin to assemble our organizing committees for our major conventions!

Now, we haven't done this in at least a year, if not longer, so let's talk about what that means. For our major shows (such as PaizoCon and Gen Con), we have a volunteer organizing committee that runs our organized play space. This group works closely with me, as the Organized Play Coordinator, to determine the schedule, recruit GMs, and get them everything they need to make the show a success!

Obviously, there's a lot about 2022 that's up in the air. If we've learned anything from the past two years, it's that we can't predict the future. However, I want to share what our current plans are, with the understanding that they may change significantly.

We are currently investigating running our major shows as hybrid shows. This would mean that we would have both a physical presence at the event as well as online offerings, featuring the same scenarios that are premiering at the physical shows. As a result, we're looking for applicants who have the ability to assist with both physical and online events. Safety requirements and all those sorts of things will be announced well in advance of physical shows, we're not ready to talk about those yet, but rest assured that Organized Play will be following the latest CDC Guidelines as well as the show's safety policies to keep attendees safe.

Below is some specific information about the shows we're currently looking to form committees for: PaizoCon 2022, Gen Con 2022 and PaizoCon Europe 2022. There may be additional shows added to the major convention schedule next year (such as PAX Unplugged), and if we add more, we'll do a similar call for committee members. There are some positions we know we're looking for, but we're also seeking general interest for all our shows; let us know if you're interested and what skills you bring to the table!

Please note that joining a committee is a significant commitment; there is a lot of preparation work to do to get ready for a show, and especially coming out of two years of not having physical shows, we'll be doing a lot of rebuilding to figure out our new processes. Committee members are compensated with convention rewards as if they had GMed the maximum number of slots at the convention. Additionally, committee members who are not already Venture Officers are granted benefits for the year at the VL or VC level, depending on their position. Note that anybody is free to apply for a committee; we welcome those who are not already Venture Officers!

PaizoCon 2022

Date: Memorial Day Weekend 2022
Location: Seattle, WA
Needed Positions: Online Department Head, Onsite Department Head, Overnight Online HQ Department Head

Gen Con 2022

Date: August 4-7, 2022
Location:Indianapolis, IN
Needed Positions: Academy/Kids' Track Trainee

PaizoCon Europe 2022

Date and Location: TBD
Needed Positions: General Interest

If you are interested in serving on a committee, please fill out the Google Form below. Information will be shared only with Paizo staff and the current committees. If you are interested in GMing or serving as an HQ staffer, this is not the form for you. We will begin soliciting GMs and HQ staff once the committees are in place. Applications will close on January 7, 2022.

Major Convention Committee Application Form

Thank you all for your interest! Until next time—Explore! Report! Cooperate! And enjoy the holiday season!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

OPC Musings

Those of you with high Perception modifiers will notice that this section has a new title. As of Monday, I have been promoted to Paizo’s Organized Play Coordinator! This is a very exciting change that Tonya and I have been working toward for a while. I am now responsible for most of the day-to-day operations of the program, as well as the long-term planning for Organized Play. It’s a lot of responsibility, but I’m very excited by the prospect!

Tonya, meanwhile, has taken on some new responsibilities as Paizo’s first Director of Community! While she still supervises me and the Organized Play Program, she is also now supervising the Customer Service team, managing our company convention presence, as well as working to strengthen interactions between members of all Paizo communities: our players, customers, staff, freelancers, streamers, and more.

From Tonya: I’ve spent just under 6 years shepherding Paizo’s Organized Play programs. With this handoff, I’m not out of the picture, but my role becomes more strategic and less tactical, as I instead focus on planning, integration with Paizo as a whole, and contributing to the bigger picture. Which means I won’t be as visible in day-to-day activities, as Alex steps into many of the travel and communication duties. This is bittersweet, as I relish the challenges of my new role but will miss the friends and experiences I had as both the OPC and the OPM. I’ve watched Alex grow into the role and am confident in his ability to deliver a quality program, alongside Linda and the developers. Please join me in congratulating Alex on his promotion! Huzzah!

Digital Adventure Releases

Here are this month’s digital releases, available September 29, 2021.

Pathfinder:

• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-02: The East Hill Haunting*
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-03: Echoes of Desperation*
• Pathfinder Bounty #14: The Blackwood Truce

Starfinder:

• Starfinder Society Scenario #4-08: Precious Cargo*

*Part of a subscription

Sanctioning

Let’s start with the big news: Pathfinder Secrets of Magic is now sanctioned for Pathfinder Society! The character options are now available to all characters in the campaign as listed on the Character Options page. For Starfinder Society, we’ve sanctioned Starfinder Adventure: Junker’s Delight for both play and character options, and we’ve also gotten the options from the Devastation Ark Adventure Path out the door. Which means... we’re caught up on both programs! How about that?

Of course, next month we have Pathfinder Guns & Gears, Pathfinder Lost Omens Grand Bazaar, and Starfinder Tech Revolution, not to mention a number of new adventures. So, we have much more on the way very soon! For now, enjoy our newest offerings!

GM Recognition

At PaizoCon Online Europe, we awarded three new Campaign Service Coins. These Coins are given to volunteers who go above and beyond the typical volunteer duties to support their communities and Organized Play. Nominations are always accepted; volunteers may be nominated by emailing organizedplay@paizo.com with their name, region and a description of their service. As we begin to return to physical events, we hope to resume awarding these in-person, so letting us know what upcoming events they’re attending is also useful.

Congratulations to our new Campaign Coin holders:
847 Tom Mannering
848 Andrew Wilson
849 Chris Manning

Upcoming Conventions

This month is our final major convention of the year: Gen Con Online! The catalog is live and tickets are on sale for all our events now. We hope you’re looking forward to the premiere of our newest interactive specials, as well as the rest of our events at the best four days in gaming.

Remember that you can always check out the list of upcoming events using the new Convention Calendar!

Until next time: Explore! Report! Cooperate! And go learn some magical secrets!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

Tonya Woldridge
Director of Community

OPA Musings

The news last week about reduced scenario production is, of course, disappointing. We’re saddened that we won’t be bringing as much new Pathfinder and Starfinder Society content to your tables, but we hope you will take this opportunity to try out some of our other sanctioned content for both programs. I myself am starting to plan for a Strength of Thousands run with some of our local players, and I’m very excited for it!

I did want to address a couple of points that we heard from the community in response to the announcement, which was a request for additional replay options as well as an update to the rewards given out by some of our sanctioned Adventures. To the replays, I know this has been a widely-requested option, and we’re working with tech on how we can best make the system work with the desire to replay adventures for credit. This will be a longer-term project, but we will keep you posted as we have news, it’s definitely something I want to see happen as much as the community. For the sanctioned content rewards, we’re finishing up an audit to update some of the rewards for older adventures and make sure everything is working the same going forward. Stay tuned for news on that front very soon!

Finally, one thing that I don’t want to get lost: with the release of our newest Humble Bundle, featuring Starfinder Pact Worlds and the Starfinder Beginner Box at the physical tier, we’re excited to let you know that we’ve sanctioned the adventure in the Beginner Box, Steel Talon’s Lair! You can find the sanctioning on the product page; it awards one scenario’s worth of XP and credits, along with double the Achievement Points, to encourage you all to give the simplified rules of my favorite science-fantasy universe a shot. (OPM Note: The Pathfinder Beginner Box also awards double the Achievement Points).

Artists Sebastian Rodriguez and Mark Molnar

Digital Adventure Releases

Here are this month’s digital releases, available August 25, 2021./p>

Pathfinder:

• Pathfinder Society Intro #1: The Second Confirmation*
• Pathfinder Society Intro #2: United in Purpose*
• Pathfinder Society Intro #3: The Year of Shattered Sanctuaries*
• Pathfinder Bounty #13: The Blackwood Abundance

Starfinder:

• Starfinder Society Scenario #4-06: Combatants Concerto: Prelude to Revolution*
• Starfinder Society Scenario #4-07: Haven for Scourged Machines*

*part of a subscription

Starfinder Playtest

On Monday, the playtest for the new evolutionist class began. This playtest is legal for games that take place during the playtest period, using the rules in the Guide to Organized Play. Play-by-post games may use these rules as long as the game begins prior to the conclusion of the playtest, though keep in mind that the playtest survey will close on September 24th. After the playtest concludes, evolutionist characters may not be played until the final publication of the class. We look forward to seeing the new agents in the field!

Sanctioning

With a big month of releases comes an equally large month of sanctioning! This month, we sanctioned the options from Lost Omens: The Mwangi Expanse, as well as the Fists of the Ruby Phoenix AP and Malevolence. For Starfinder, we also got the rules options for the Galaxy Exploration Manual and the Fly Free or Die Adventure Path onto the Character Options page, as well as sanctioning the adventure included in the Starfinder Beginner Box.

Looking ahead, we’re starting work on Secrets of Magic, and working through the Devastation Ark Adventure Path’s options. On the horizon are Lost Omens: The Grand Bazaar and Junker’s Delight, as well as the Strength of Thousands and Horizons of the Vast Adventure Paths once more volumes of both are released.

GM Recognition

At PAX Online, we awarded a new Campaign Service Coin. These Coins are given to volunteers who go above and beyond the typical volunteer duties to support their communities and Organized Play. Nominations are always accepted; volunteers may be nominated by emailing organizedplay@paizo.com with their name, region and a description of their service. As we begin to return to physical events, we hope to resume awarding these in-person, so letting us know what upcoming events they’re attending is also useful.

Congratulations to Betsy Nold, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID# 846!

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 dependant). A conservative estimate of the time needed to reach the 5th milestone is 650 hours!

This month, one GM earned their 5th Star for Pathfinder Society (first edition).

5th Star (PFS1): Tommi Ketonen

If you believe you have achieved your 5th rank but haven’t been announced, email us at organizedplay@paizo.com.

Upcoming Conventions

Our remaining major conventions are PaizoCon Online Europe, August 19-22, and Gen Con Online, September 16-19. PaizoCon Online Europe’s player signups are open now, and Gen Con Online registration will open August 15.

Remember that you can always check out the list of upcoming events at the new Conventions calendar!

Gen Con Online

The Gen Con Online catalog opens tomorrow for viewing and player registration begins at noon Eastern time on August 15. Paizo has over 450 events listed for Pathfinder Society (both first and second edition), Starfinder Society and the Pathfinder Adventure Card Society.

The Gen Con Online badge is free; session prices this year are as follows:

• Two-hour Bounties and PACS sessions: $2
• Five-hour Scenarios: $4
• PACS Interactive Special: $6
• PFS2 and SFS Interactive Specials: $8

Gen Con Online has a minimum price of $2 per event, regardless of length. We added a bit more to the longer/premium sessions. While online events do not have the same infrastructure costs as physical shows, there are still associated expenses we need to cover. Monies received from ticket sales at Gen Con help offset volunteer rewards, such as GM vouchers and book rewards, and pay for Discord boosts to ensure server stability during the event. We expect that when we return to Gen Con Indy, prices will be set similarly based on their pricing structure.

We look forward to player signups; if you have questions about our events, please email genconleads@gmail.com. If you are interested in volunteering, visit the Organized Play Foundation volunteer opportunities page for more information.

Until next time, Explore! Report! Cooperate! And get ready for the Year of Shattered Sanctuaries!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

OPA Musings

Recently, I foolishly declared that because a couple of our major conventions were delayed, this summer wouldn’t be as bad on the convention front. I retract this statement! We’ve got PAX Online this month, PaizoCon Europe Online next month, and Gen Con after that. Oh, and after that is my wedding. So much for my relaxing summer!

Artists Sebastian Rodriguez and Mark Molnar

Title Changes

We’ve been shuffling around some job titles and responsibilities on the Organized Play development team over the last few weeks to account for the transfer of the Pathfinder and Starfinder One-Shots product lines to this team. To reflect this shift, we’re going to start calling the team the “Digital Adventures Team,” rather than a title more closely associated with our OP programs, as their creative remit now covers items that aren’t directly related to our Organized Play campaigns. (They'll still handle those products as well, just alongside these new items on their docket.)

• Linda Zayas-Palmer is now the Development Manager (Digital Adventures) and manages the Digital Adventures Team, of which the “Organized Play Team” is a subset.
• Thurston Hillman is now titled Developer (Digital Adventures), and will be focusing on Paizo’s One-Shots, Bounties, and Society Interactives.
• Jenny Jarzabski is the Starfinder Society Developer, and Mike Kimmel is the Pathfinder Society Developer, though both share the official title of Organized Play Line Developer. Jenny and Mike are running the day-to-day development of Starfinder Society and Pathfinder Society, respectively.

Most of this is just bringing job titles in line with the developers’ day-to-day duties, but we wanted to announce them in case anybody noticed the changes in the masthead of new scenarios.

Starfinder Society Year 4

We’ve got a couple points of clarification with information we’ve released about Starfinder Society Year 4. In addition, we wanted to post an update that we’re currently working on compiling the common questions about the shift away from Fame and will have answers to some of the outstanding issues and boons prior to the Fame spending deadline.

Table Size

It was brought to our attention that there was an additional rule change with Year 4 of Starfinder Society that didn’t get the spotlight it should’ve. As of the beginning of Year 4, the maximum player count for a table is six players. Seven-player tables are no longer permitted. We didn’t intend to sneak this change by anybody, we just forgot to announce it with the rest of the changes!

New Ships

We have one final piece of business to attend to with our new year of Starfinder Society, and that’s the Azata! This brand new ship is available to all players, and its statistics are now available in the Starfinder Society Guide.

Artist Mark Molnar

Pathfinder Society Year 3

Last month, we announced the title for Pathfinder Society Year 3: the Year of Shattered Sanctuaries. We’re excited for you all to experience this new storyline; from what I’ve read so far, it’ll be a great year for veteran and brand-new players alike. One of the highlights for new players is the three-part introduction arc we talked about in the Paizo Intro Blog last Thursday. Mike Kimmel did an interview with the Danger Club Podcast—go check it out for some more teasers, and stay tuned to the blog for more news!

Sanctioning

The big headline for this month’s sanctioning update is for our First Edition players! We’re pleased to announce that updated versions of the PFS (first edition) Additional Resources and Campaign Clarifications have been released and take effect immediately. We anticipate that this will be the final version of these documents, barring any major issues. We’re still working on sanctioning documents for the final Adventure Paths, but their rules options are all factored into this update.

I don’t have as much to report for our active programs this month. For Pathfinder Society, sanctioning documents for the Fists of the Ruby Phoenix Adventure Path and Malevolence are both ready to go live when the books are released on July 7th. Next on the list for PFS is Lost Omens The Mwangi Expanse and the Strength of Thousands Adventure Path. For Starfinder Society, I’m pleased to announce that the Character Options page has been updated to include the options in the Galaxy Exploration Manual. We weren’t able to get Fly Free or Die or Devastation Ark’s character options out this month, but we’re working on those as our next priority.

GM Recognition

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 have several GMs to recognize!

5th Star: Filipp Kovalev, Lindsey Long
5th Nova: Michael Beck, James Carter, Rebecca Fehn

Congratulations to our 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.

Upcoming Conventions

Remember that you can use the new Conventions calendar to check out all the upcoming conventions with a Paizo Organized Play presence! I also wanted to republish the information for all our major shows here so it’s all in one place.

PAX Online – July 15-18

Warhorn link: https://warhorn.net/events/paizo-organized-play-pax-online-2021
GM registration form: https://forms.gle/X8ansVaoyjD2zd7A7
Contact email: paizoorgplayhq@gmail.com
New releases: None; convention focused on acquisitions and new players

PaizoCon Europe Online – August 19-22

Warhorn link: https://warhorn.net/events/paizocon-online-europe-2021
GM registration form: https://forms.gle/nekXPhFXtbskCm1BA
Contact email: paizoconeurope@gmail.com
New releases: PFS Intro 1: The Second Confirmation, PFS Intro 2: United in Purpose, PFS Intro: Year of Shattered Sanctuaries

Gen Con Online – September 16-19

Website link: https://www.gencon.com/online
GM registration form: https://forms.gle/EcmxjF36GmVrR7979
Contact email: GenConLeads@gmail.com
New releases: PFS and SFS Interactive Specials

Until next time - Explore! Report! Cooperate! And get outside and enjoy the summer sunshine!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Paizo will not be attending this year's Origins Gamefaire. The show has not announced an online component, so at this point we aren’t planning to provide programming that weekend. We are looking forward to returning to physical conventions in the future, but we aren’t quite to that point yet. Thanks, and stay safe!

Bonjour and Güten Tag, players and GMs! We know you’re all getting ready for PaizoCon Online this weekend, but we wanted to share some more information about an upcoming show, PaizoCon Europe Online!

Dates and Times

PaizoCon Europe Online will run from August 19–22, 2021. The game blocks have been separated into six-hour segments, and we made a handy chart to help with time zone differences:

Block	Start Time (Central Europe)	Start Time (British Summer Time)	Start Time (Pacific Daylight Time)
Morning (Fri/Sat/Sun Only)	9:00 AM	8:00 AM	12:00 AM
Afternoon	3:00 PM	2:00 PM	6:00 AM
Evening	9:00 PM	8:00 PM	12:00 PM
Overnight (Thurs/Fri/Sat Only)	3:00 AM	2:00 AM	6:00 PM

There will be a total of 14 blocks of games over the weekend. European organizers and HQ volunteers will coordinate most of the blocks, with an American crew taking on the overnight block as well as the Sunday evening block. GMs and players are free to sign up for games in time zones that work best for them.

Playable Content

At this event, we’ll be kicking off Year 4 of Pathfinder Society with three new intro scenarios. First up, we have PFS Intro #1: The Second Confirmation and PFS Intro #2: United in Purpose. PFS Intro #3 (3-01), by Mike Kimmel, launches the year's metaplot. The title has yet to be revealed, as it is the same as the Year’s title. We plan to announce both shortly, so keep your eyes focused on upcoming blogs!

In addition to our new Pathfinder Society releases, there will be a selection of new and favorite scenarios for Starfinder Society, as well as scenarios from both editions of Pathfinder Society. The schedule will appear on Warhorn once it is finalized. Check out the Important Dates section for details!

In addition to our new Pathfinder Society releases, there will be a selection of new and favorite scenarios for Starfinder Society, as well as scenarios from both editions of Pathfinder Society. The schedule will appear on Warhorn once it is finalized. Check out the Important Dates section for details!

Badges

For this event, there will be a €10 badge fee for all players. GMs who run 1-2 games will pay €5, and GMs who run 3 or more games, or do not want to play at all, will be granted a free badge. All money raised by badge fees will be divided between three charities as chosen by our organizers: Alzheimer’s Research UK, Fonds Mimosa, and Stiftung Deutsche Krebshilfe.

This convention also features sponsored badges! If you wish to help another player out, you may add an extra €10 badge to your payment, which will be allocated to a community member who requests one. If you wish to request a sponsored badge, email paizoconeurope[at]gmail[dot]com with your name and Warhorn email, no other information necessary. Sponsored badges will be awarded by random draw. Sponsoring a badge is a great way to give a little extra to these charities while also helping out a member of the community; so far at PaizoCon Online, we’ve had a sponsored badge available for everybody who requests one (and still have a few available for attendees).

GM Signups

If you wish to GM games at PaizoCon Europe Online, fill out the GM Interest Form linked below. The Organizing Committee will reach out to you to confirm your acceptance and let you know how to get set up for GM signups.

GM Interest Form

Important Dates

Here are some important dates for the event:

• 7 June: Warhorn schedule is complete and publicly available
• 21 June: GM signups open on Warhorn; all confirmed and paid GMs will be able to claim their games at this time.
• 19 July: Warhorn opens for player signups
• 16 August: Warhorn player signups close; walk-ups will be used to fill any open seats
• 19-22 August: PaizoCon Europe Online!

Questions

If you have questions about this event, please email the organizing committee at paizoconeurope[at]gmail[dot]com. As this is a licensed partner show, Paizo staff have minimal ability to answer questions and will likely direct you on to the organizers.

We look forward to seeing you all this weekend, and then again in August for our Pathfinder Society season launch! Until then, Erkunden! Informe! Coopérer!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

OPA Musings

When Paizo hired me, there were a lot of hazards that I expected to come with the job. Traveling a lot? Hasn’t been an issue yet, but I’m prepared for that. Spending more on dice? That’s alright, I don’t have to buy rulebooks anymore, surely that’ll be an even trade (it’s not, but don’t tell my budget). Increased stress from dealing with the public? I worked retail, I’ll be alright. The thing I didn’t anticipate, however, was that my job would become impossible to describe to people.

Usually I start with “volunteer coordination,” because of course I work with hundreds of venture officers regularly. Then I move on to “event planning”—conventions are definitely event planning, people can grasp that. But how do you explain that you had a very important hour-long conversation about whether or not the robots in this art should be humanoid, how many limbs they should have, and what that might signify to players? And that you then spent an hour discussing the implications of glasses on a nearsighted character in a fantasy world?

I’ve also been hired to write a Bounty (shameless plug!), and naturally once it was publicly announced I emailed my parents to let them know, because it’s exciting! My dad’s response was, verbatim, “Ok? I gotta say, I’m kinda lost about this adventure. But good job?” Hazards of the job, I guess; my brother works in esports, so I foresee a lifetime of holidays where family members just nod and smile at us.

PaizoCon Online

PaizoCon Online is coming next month! We hope you’re all working hard on prepping your tables and characters for a weekend of Paizo gaming.

Last week, we announced two of our liveplays for the event, as well as the titles of the new Pathfinder and Starfinder One-Shots. PaizoCon Online will be your first chance to play these new adventures, and there are still seats open for both, as well as tons of other tables! Just a reminder that player signups will close on Monday, May 24 to give the organizers time to fold tables that won’t fire. Walk-up seats will be available during each slot to fill open seats as they arise.

Sanctioning

At the beginning of April, we released the sanctioning for the Abomination Vaults Adventure Path. We also intend to release the sanctioning for Pathfinder Adventure: Malevolence in the next week, once the warehouse is able to begin sending out the book to customers.

Our next items are Bestiary 3 and the Fists of the Ruby Phoenix Adventure Path for Pathfinder (second edition), and the Devastation Ark Adventure Path and Galaxy Exploration Manual for Starfinder. We’re also planning to sanction the two new One-Shots, Band on the Run and Dinner at Lionlodge, upon their release at PaizoCon.

Starfinder Updates

As we announced last week, Starfinder Achievement Points are coming! As of May 28, all games reported will earn AcP for Starfinder Society, and any games played on or after that date should not award Fame on the Chronicle Sheets. More details on this exciting new change are available in last week’s blog.

You can also visit your My Organized Play page now to see some of the boons that will be available initially; we’ll add more whenever we have time, so keep checking back!

GM Recognition

We had no GMs reach their 5th rank this month. If you believe you have achieved your 5th rank but haven’t been announced, email us at organizedplay@paizo.com.

Upcoming Conventions

In addition to PaizoCon Online, we have a number of conventions coming up offering Pathfinder and Starfinder Society! If you don’t see a convention on the list that you think should be there, contact the event organizer and ask them to register their event for organized play support.

Convention	Location	Start Date	Status	Interactive Events	Staff Attendance
POPCon 2021	Fenton, MI	5/7/2021	Online	None	Alex
PaizoCon Online	Seattle, WA	5/28/2021	Online	PACS 7-99	Yes
Con Summer Drain 21	Gulf Region	6/11/2021	Online	SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
Con-Current 2021	Columbus, OH	6/11/2021	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite	Alex, Tonya
PaizoCon Europe Online	Online	8/19/2021	Online	TBA	TBA
GenCon	Indianapolis, IN	9/16/2021	Hybrid	PFS 3-99, SFS 3-99 (Titles TBA)	TBA
MegaMooseCon 2021	Richburg, SC	9/17/2021	TBD	None
Nuke-Con 2021	Council Bluffs, IA	9/24/2021	TBD	None

Come back next week for a very exciting blog from our own Jenny Jarzabski. Until then, Explore! Report! Cooperate! And get ready for PaizoCon!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Guest Blog by Fenway Jones
Jasper's Game Day
Founder and President

Jasper’s Game Week, running from April 30th-May 11th 2021, is a TTRPG streaming event with both streams to watch and games to play run by Jasper’s Game Day (JGD). With our partners Paizo and MiniTerrainDomain and sponsors Ardent Roleplay/Meeples and Dragons, Hearthsinger Games, Penny for a Tale, Lark Adventures, and the Paizo Organized Play Convention, we are raising money for suicide prevention and awareness.

This year’s events include our Paizo Organized Play convention and Streaming events! Start Playing Games is also running a JGD fundraiser for the duration of the event where GMs can run any game they would like with proceeds donated to JGD. During the stream events, you may also purchase Reroll tickets to give adventurers a bit of extra luck in all online games, along with other rewards, available at https://jaspersgameday.com/jaspers-game-week/. Visit https://jaspersgameday.com/jaspers-game-week-schedule/ for details on game offerings and signup.

Don’t forget that during the streams you have the ability to watch and affect the games with people like Jason Bulmahn, Erik Mona, B Dave Walters and so many more!

Paizo Organized Play Convention!

Sign Up Here

Streaming Schedule Channel: Twitch.tv/hearthsingergames

May 8th

12 p.m.-3 p.m. EST GM: Anne Richmond
Game System: Starfinder!
Celebrity Players:
Erik Mona
Sydney Ammanuel
Kiah

3:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. EST GM: Waffles from Waffles and Maple Syrup
Game System: Pathfinder 2
Celebrity Players:
Matthew Lillard
Matthew Capodicasa
Syrup from Waffles and Maple Syrup

10:30 p.m.-1: 30 a.m. EST GM: Jake Kile from Queue Times
Game System: Pathfinder Second Edition
Celebrity Players:
Nathan (Maker's Misfits)
Bee Zelda (Broadswords)

May 9th

12 p.m.-3 p.m. EST GM: Chris “Chrifu” Bernal
Game System: Pathfinder Second Edition
Celebrity Players:
Wyatt Rowe
Derry Zumi

3:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. EST GM: Quinn Murphy
Game System: Pathfinder Second Edition
Celebrity Players:
Rick Sandidige
Jeremy Cobb from Three Black Halflings

7 p.m.-10 p.m. EST GM: Justin Harris (Tableverse)
Game System: Starfinder
Celebrity Players:
B Dave Walters
Helena Anderson
Anne Richmond

10:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m. EST GM: PJ Megaw (Nat 20 Productions)
Game System: Pathfinder Second Edition
Celebrity Players:
Michelle Rapp
Thomas Winkley

May 10th

12 p.m.-3 p.m. EST GM: Dan Thompson (Danger Club)
Game System: Pathfinder Second Edition
Celebrity Players:
Jasper William Cartwright (Three Black Halflings)
Drak
Jason Bulmahn
Silvanna Russo

3:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. EST GM: Vana
Game System: Pathfinder 2
Celebrity Players:
Chanzlyn
Megan Caves
Wendy Lee Szany

7pm-10pm EST GM: Adam Kelly (Southern Tomfoolery)
Game System: Starfinder
Celebrity Players:
Anne Richmond
Michelle Nguyen Bradley
Irene Campos

10:30 p.m.-1: 30 a.m. EST GM: Jess Negin
Game System: Pathfinder 2
Celebrity Players:
Jessica Lynn Parsons
Alexandra Hensley
Aubrey Vakarian

We strive to use gaming to reduce the stigma around talking about suicide prevention and mental health. Tables are composed of both TTRPG streamers and auction winners who have bid for seats to play with them. We place an emphasis on having a diverse group of GMs and players and accessible tables and games.

Jasper’s Game Day is an IRS designated 501(c)(3) non-profit that raises funds for suicide prevention and awareness. Net proceeds are donated to suicide prevention and awareness charities, crisis centers, and hotlines. We use gaming to build community and spread our mission that You are Not a Critical Failure. Visit www.jaspersgameday.com to learn more about us. If you or someone you know needs help, call the National helpline at 1-800-273-8255 or text 741-741, you do not have to roll for initiative alone.

OPM Musings

Tonya’s busy getting ready for her vacation, so I’ve taken over her musings for the month! Do not be alarmed. Last week, Linda and I did an interview with Know Direction, talking about the future of Organized Play and conventions this year. It was a really great time and I definitely encourage you all to watch or listen to it, but there were a few big announcements I wanted to republish here to make sure everyone sees them:

• Pathfinder Society Year 3 will premiere at PaizoCon Europe Online, August 19-22! In the interview we referred to this event as “an unnamed event in August,” but we’re allowed to say the name now.
• The interactive specials for Pathfinder and Starfinder Society will premiere at Gen Con, September 16-19. These interactive specials are linked specials; the events of the Pathfinder special will affect the Starfinder event, so we encourage convention organizers to schedule both. Thurston and Jenny gave our authors a great concept to work with, and we’re excited for them to tell you more!
• Finally, Linda dropped some exciting teasers for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Society special at PaizoCon Online: Ron Lundeen is the author, and it’s going to give players a chance to experience a new facet of the PACS stories they’ve enjoyed over the history of the program.

We hope you’re looking forward to what we have in store over the next few months! Convention season is nearly upon us, which is both exciting and terrifying. But enough of my rambling, let’s see what else we’ve got to announce.

Events

We hope you all enjoyed the Double Points weekend for the new Pathfinder One-Shot, Sundered Waves! We had over 150 tables reported during that release weekend and are very pleased with the response. We’re looking at our release schedule to see when our next special event of this type might be, so stay tuned to the blog for future announcements.

Tonight at 6pm Pacific time, player signups for PaizoCon Online will open! Don’t forget to join the Discord server(direct link = paizo.events) for the latest news and updates. The PaizoCon Warhorn also includes our stream schedule; you’re free to sign up as a “player” to help plan your schedule for the event.

Sanctioning

The big sanctioning news this month is for our Starfinders: we have a brand new Starfinder Society Character Options page! This page updates the look to match the Pathfinder Society page and make it more user-friendly. In addition, Alien Archive 4, is now sanctioned for play! While you will need a boon to use any of the new races to build a PC, the equipment and class options contained in the book are now available to you. You’ll also notice that we’ve expanded the Core Sources to include the Starfinder Alien Archive.

On the Pathfinder side, we’re sanctioning Abomination Vaults and expect to complete it in the next two weeks, but no later than the end of April. We’ll post about it when it’s done!

Both of our Character Options pages have also added links to the errata for books which have had errata released. We hope this change will make the pages even more useful to our players. We’ll be looking at sanctioning the two One-Shots scheduled for release at PaizoCon next so that they’re ready for the event. After that, our upcoming sanctioning schedule includes the Devastation Ark Adventure Path for Starfinder, Bestiary 3 and Malevolence for Pathfinder, and have started working on Tyrant’s Grasp and Return of the Runelords for Pathfinder (first edition).

GM Achievements

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 dependant). A conservative estimate of the time needed to reach the 5th milestone is 650 hours!

Two GMs received their fifth star in the past month. We have no new 5 Nova or 5 Glyph GMs to announce.

5th Star (PFS1): Juan Sanchez and Andrew Torgerud

Congratulations to our new 5 Star 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.

Conventions

In addition to PaizoCon Online, we have a number of conventions offering Pathfinder and Starfinder Society!

Convention	Location	Start Date	Status	Interactive Events	Staff Attendance
River Raiders	Lindfield NSW, Australia	4/2/2021	Online	None
Farmageddon VIII	Farmer City, IL	4/23/2021	Online	None
CritterCon IV	Cosmic Crittermander Discord	4/23/2021	Online	SFS 3-00 The Last Bite	Alex
Chupacabracon 2021	Austin, TX	4/30/2021	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
Sac OPF TakeTwo Con 2: The Return	Sacramento, CA	4/30/2021	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
POPCon 2021	Fenton, MI	5/7/2021	Online	None	Alex
PaizoCon Online	Seattle, WA	5/28/2021	Online	PACS 7-99	Yes
Con Summer Drain 21	Gulf Region	6/11/2021	Online	SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
ConCurrent 2021	Columbus, OH	6/11/2021	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite	Alex
PaizoCon Europe Online	Online	8/19/2021	Online	TBA	TBA
GenCon	Indianapolis, IN	9/17/2021	Hybrid	PFS 3-99, SFS 3-99 (Titles TBA)	TBA

As a final note, tune into Paizo Live! this Friday at 4pm PDT, where our own Mike Kimmel will be a featured guest. He’ll be talking about the Pathfinder Bounties, as well as our Organized Play products

We’ll see you next week for a special preview of our PaizoCon releases for Pathfinder Society! Until then: Explore! Report! Cooperate!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

OPM Musings

I really believe we are caught in a time loop. I am absolutely certain I wrote my February musings last week. The past month’s flurry of activity involved much planning - we are just a week away from revealing information regarding Starfinder Society Year 4, and we’ve mapped a solid plan for Pathfinder Society Year 3. PaizoCon planning is moving forward, which means convention season is well under way, and we’ve got a few upcoming announcements on that front. In addition, we’re talking to our pals at Know Direction about appearing on their show. Plus a few more still undisclosed projects that we hope to share shortly!

Be sure to keep your eyes on the blogs as March will bring many announcements and I don’t want any of our community members to miss the great information we have to share.

PaizoCon Volunteers

The first day of GM signups saw over 90% of our offered games filled. Plan is to add more games on the Warhorn, then do round 2 of signups. We will continue until we run out of GMs. Last year, we ran over 800 games. Let’s see if we can top that this year! Anyone who wants to join the GM or HQ teams should visit the Organized Play Foundation’s website for volunteer benefit information and to access the registration form. From there, the organizing committee reviews the form information and sends an email acceptance outlining the next steps. If you want to participate in wave two of registrations, be sure to complete the form by noon Friday, March 5th. There is no last day to volunteer, but spaces are filled on a first registered basis and GMs get access to player registration 24 hours early (March 31) alongside Warhorn VIPs.

Anyone wanting to play at PaizoCon can register for badges in advance of the April 1st player signup date; to do so, visit the PaizoCon Warhorn and follow the instructions on the main page.

Sanctioning

Last week, we posted an update on our sanctioning progress, and we already have an update to that post. Bestiary 2 is now sanctioned on the Character Options page and is available to use! It joins the Lost Omens Ancestry Guide, The Slithering and all our previous rulebooks as usable Pathfinder Society material. Our next focus is Bestiary 3 as well as the Abomination Vaults Adventure Path.

We’ve got new Character Options pages for Starfinder Society in the works to replace the current pdf Additional Resources document. When that rolls out (maybe even this month, if everything aligns), it will include new sanctioning for Alien Archive 4. After that, we’ll look to catch up with the Devastation Ark and Fly Free or Die Adventure Paths as well as investigate sanctioning the Starfinder Beginner Box.

On the Pathfinder (first edition) front. Our hope is to produce sanctioning documents out for the remaining content by the end of the summer, but that will depend on available time as convention season ramps up.

GM Achievements

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 dependant). A conservative estimate of the time needed to reach the 5th milestone is 650 hours!

Two GMs received their fifth nova in the past month. We have no new 5 Star or 5 Glyph GMs to announce.

5th Nova: John Godek and Nils Janson

Congratulations to our new 5 Nova 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

Conventions

In addition to PaizoCon Online, we have a number of conventions offering Pathfinder and Starfinder Society!

Convention	Location	Start Date	Status	Interactive Events	Staff Attendance
Reaper Virtual Expo	Denton, TX	3/5/2021	Online	None	Alex, Jenny
BahliCon 2021	Great Lakes Region	3/11/2021	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
COS VCON	Butler, PA	3/19/2021	Online	SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
Whos Yer CONline	Great Lakes Region	3/19/2021	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
River Raiders	Lindfield NSW, Australia	4/2/2021	Online	None
Farmageddon VIII	Farmer City, IL	4/23/2021	Online	None
Jasper's Game Week	Detroit, MI	5/7/2021	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
PaizoCon Online	Seattle, WA	5/28/2021	Online	PACS 7-99	Yes
Con Summer Drain 21	Gulf Region	6/11/2021	Online	SFS 3-00 The Last Bite

We’ll see you next week for some big news!

Until next time: Explore! Report! Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

OPM Musings

Wow, the month flew by. Activity the last few weeks focused on getting January scenarios out of the door, working on future scenarios, planning for our new seasons, and ramping up for convention season. We’re putting some finishing touches on our plans and will share them with everyone in a few weeks.

It’s been satisfying to have some of our longer-term projects come to fruition. Over the next few months, we hope to bring a few more projects across the finish line. I’ll leave it to Alex to reveal our latest project.

New FAQ Pages

We’re glad there was such a positive response to the new Pathfinder Society Character Options page last week because we’ve got another new set of pages for you: FAQ pages for Paizo Organized Play have now been updated! We’ve got areas for general organized play questions, as well as areas for program-specific questions. Just like the Character Options page, this update both refreshes the look of the pages and will make it easier for the Organized Play team to publish content. We’re still tweaking these pages, so you may see some changes in how the content is organized, but if you have feedback, let us know! We’ve kept the Pathfinder Society (first edition) pages in the legacy format.

Eagle-eyed players will notice that the Pathfinder Society FAQ page currently contains the full text of a number of boons. You’ve been asking for a place to view the full text of boons before buying them, and now we’ve got one! Any boon that is more complicated than its short description will have its text published on this page. Boons that unlock ancestries or similarly self-evident boons will not have their text published.

The FAQ page also contains the full text of our Year 2 Chronicle Boons. As we discussed in last week’s blog, there is an issue where GMs cannot download these boons after running the game, so we’re pleased to offer this workaround. Any GM with a chronicle sheet for running a Year 2 scenario with a boon attached can use the full text as published on the FAQ page instead of downloading the boon. Once the bug is fixed, these boons will be removed from the FAQ page to avoid spoilers.

Fame

Last week, we updated the community regarding our Pathfinder Society digitization efforts. At this point, Fame is no longer a spendable currency and we are not tracking it in any way. Reputation still exists and unlocks benefits for characters via the Achievement Point system on your “My Organized Play” page. You can see your current Reputation with the factions (note, it is called Fame on the webpage in a holdover from Pathfinder Society (first edition), which is something we have queued to fix.)

Sanctioning

We caught up on some of the outstanding tasks, as well as kept up with our goal of day one sanctioning. Last month, we finished up Troubles in Otari and added the character options from the The Threefold Conspiracy to the Starfinder Society Additional Resource document. By the end of this month, we hope to have The Slithering and another update to Starfinder Society Additional Resouces. We also are on target to have Lost Omens: Ancestry Guide ready on release day (February 24th). We haven’t forgotten the Pathfinder (first edition) outstanding items, but we haven’t had the capacity to dip back into that system yet.

GM Achievements

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 dependant). A conservative estimate of the time needed to reach the 5th milestone is 650 hours!

We had one GM earn their 5th star this month. No GMs earned their fifth Nova or Glyph.

5th Star: Dawn Upson

Congratulations on your achievement, Dawn!

Conventions

Convention season is just around the corner, and we’re starting to kick up planning for our major conventions. We hope to have information on how to volunteer soon! In the meantime, there are plenty of local events offering Paizo Organized Play. If you don’t see a convention on the list that you think should be there, contact the event organizer and ask them to register their event for organized play support.

Convention	Location	Start Date	Status	Interactive Events	Staff Attendance
COTN 2021	Plymouth, MN	2/12/2021	Online	None
Orccon 2021	Los Angeles, CA	2/12/2021	Online	SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
OutPost IV: Roll Them Bones	Online	2/16/2021	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King in Thorns
Total Con 35	Marlborough, MA	2/18/2021	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King in Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
George WashingCon 2021	Bloomington, IN	2/19/2021	Online	None
Hamburg Society Con online	Hamburg, Germany	2/26/2021	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King in Thorns
Reaper Virtual Expo	Denton, TX	3/5/2021	Online	None	Alex
COS VCON	Butler, PA	3/19/2021	Online	SFS 3-00 The Last Bite

Come back next week for a very special guest blog from the Organized Play Foundation!

Until next time: Explore! Report! Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

OPM Musings

But I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more…

With the calendar turned to 2021 and vaccines starting to rollout, we’ve got a chance that some of us will actually get to travel to conventions. Unfortunately, we aren’t quite at the point where it is safe to attend events in person. So for the next few months, our presence will remain digital. We’re in talks with a few shows about being virtual guests and will let you know more as soon as we make the final determinations. If you have a digital show between now and April and would like some organized play participation, please email the team at organizedplay@paizo.com with your event particulars.

Not traveling gives us a few more months of internal process smoothing and a chance to finalize a few projects. In addition, Alex’s first anniversary at Paizo approaches. His presence on the team brought much needed stability to program functions and the venture-officer support. I look forward to doing even more now that we’ve acclimated him into the program. Most of the planned projects involve behind the scenes activities, but we hope that they make the forward-facing aspects even better for our community.

Alright, that’s enough musing from me. Without further ado, let’s get to the list of updates for this month!

New OP Developer

As we announced in last week’s blog, Mike Kimmel has joined the team as our newest developer! A prolific Paizo freelancer, Mike wrote many beloved adventures for Organized Play, such as Starfinder Society Scenario #1-22: The Protectorate Petition and Pathfinder Society Scenario #7–10: The Consortium Compact, as well as backmatter for Pathfinder Adventure Path #135: Runeplague and parts of several Lost Omens rulebooks. He also founded the Freelance Forge community, a forum for current and prospective RPG freelancers. You’ll hear more from him next week, but we’re thrilled to bring him on board and can’t wait to see what our fully-staffed team produces going forward!

Digitization

We originally set the final day for Fame purchases in Pathfinder Society as December 31st. I’m happy to say we all took a much needed holiday break. This does make getting final decisions through the pipeline a bit problematic. So we decided to push the deadline out to January 31st, 2021. This is it, though, the final extension. Once February hits, Fame will be gone as a purchasable currency.

We know there are still a few items that we haven’t imported to either AcP or faction reputation or game rewards. We took the transition process slowly to make sure we’re doing it right and not breaking anything more than we had to. Some of the outstanding items, such as a method of bequeathing rewards between character and alternative methods to revive dead characters, are questions we will answer in the next few weeks and will share with you once we make decisions.

Sanctioning

Right before Christmas, we announced sanctioning for the latest Pathfinder adventure, Troubles in Otari, which offers a great transition from Beginner Box play to utilizing the full Pathfinder ruleset.

We’re also excited to announce that the Starfinder Society Additional Resources have now been updated! This update includes the character options from the Threefold Conspiracy adventure path, which were accidentally passed over when we released the chronicles.

Looking forward, work on Pathfinder Adventure: The Slithering nears completion and we hope to upload sanctioning before the end of the month. After that, we’ll shift gears to rulebooks, focusing on Starfinder Alien Archive 4 and the upcoming Pathfinder Lost Omens: Ancestry Guide (releasing in February), before we jump back into adventures. We’ll keep you all updated as we have news to share.

GM Achievements

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 dependant). A conservative estimate of the time needed to reach the 5th milestone is 650 hours!

One GM received their fifth star in the last month. We had no one reach 5 Novas or 5 Glyphs.

5th Star: Shannon Petrosky

Congratulations to our new 5 Star GM, and thank you for your dedication!

Conventions

In their holiday message and update, Gen Con announced that they were postponing badge registration and event submission until they have a better idea of what the year will bring. Once we know their plan, we’ll have more info to share about volunteering for that event. We’ll have information on volunteering for other Paizo-sponsored conventions soon as well. There are just a few questions left to answer before we are ready to push go!

Otherwise, we have a few events on the calendar already to look forward to in 2021! If you don’t see a convention on the list that you think should be there, contact the event organizer and ask them to register their event for organized play support.

Convention	Location	Start Date	Status	Interactive Events	Staff Attendance
OrcaCon Online 2021	Bellevue, WA	1/8/2021	Online	None	Alex
Con Damage '21	Gulf Region	1/22/2021	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns
EpiDemiCon	Great Lakes Region	1/22/2021	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
COTN 2021	Plymouth, MN	2/12/2021	Online	None

Until next time: Explore! Report! Cooperate!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Beginning January 4, 2021, prices for all Pathfinder Society (second edition) and Starfinder Society scenarios, as well as the Pathfinder Bounties, will increase due to rising production costs. High-level scenarios (level range 7-10 and higher) received an additional increase due to the extra time and attention needed from authors/developers related to added complexity of play at higher levels. To help our community with budgeting costs, we plan to produce no more than one high-level scenario per month across both Pathfinder and Starfinder Society lines.

The changes outlined below apply retroactively to Pathfinder Society (second edition) and Starfinder Society scenarios and the Pathfinder Bounties. Pathfinder Society (first edition) and Pathfinder Adventure Card Game scenarios will not be affected

Product	Old Price	New Price	New Subscriber Price
Standard PFS2/SFS Scenario	$4.99	$5.99	$4.79
High-Level Scenario	$4.99	$6.99	$5.59
Bounty	$1.99	$2.99	N/A
Interactive Special	$9.99	$9.99	N/A

As always, subscribers will receive a 20% discount off the cover price for new releases in their subscription. Paizo Advantage customers can also receive free subscriptions to one or both lines of Organized Play scenarios.

Again, these changes will take effect January 4, 2021, and will apply to all previous adventures for Starfinder Society and Pathfinder Society (second edition). If you wish to make changes to your subscriptions in light of this information, please email customer.service@paizo.com. Thanks for your understanding!

Until then - Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

OPM Musings

In many ways, I’m relieved to see the home stretch of 2020 and that the new year lies just beyond the horizon. With Covid, murder hornets, wildfires, protests, elections, and beloved icons passing, this year packed more into it than I’d expect in a decade. I felt the lack of conventions the most. You, our community, mean the world to me and it physically hurt not to get to meet up with you and get to chat about gaming, organized play, and maybe even our favorite television shows (though I have a great store of talking points now!). As vaccine availability allows us to reopen, I urge everyone to not rush back into games spaces, but to do so responsibility in an effort to keep our communities safe! We will be back together again soon, but only by being careful can we all be together again.

Scenario Release Update

As mentioned above, this year dealt us unforeseen challenges. Almost as if to put convention season crunch into perspective, good ole 2020 gave us a “hold beer” moment scenario production. We’ve done our best to not let the difficulties of remote work impact our production schedules, but as we come to the end of the year, we just didn’t quite meet our goals. We felt it best to share the changes to our schedule now, so that organizers and GMs can plan accordingly, instead of waiting for our monthly release blogs. Here’s a summary of our changes:

December scenarios (PFS 2-09 and 2-10, Bounty 5 and SFS 3-13 and 3-14) will be released on December 30th, the last Wednesday in the month. While we ordinarily try to release early due to the holidays, a pile up of products in the pipeline meant we just couldn’t meet our desired release of December 16th, and are opting to go with the standard organized play release date instead.

Due to an author not being able to complete their contract, we have to push one Pathfinder Society scenario out of January release and into February. In January, we will release PFS 2-11: The Pathfinder Trials, and Bounty 6 for Pathfinder Society. Both Starfinder Society scenarios (3-15 & 3-16) will release as well. February releases include PFS 2-12, 2-13 and 2-14, as well as Bounty 7 and SFS 3-17 and 3-18. Thank you all for your understanding and patience!

Sanctioning

Last month, we announced sanctioning for the Pathfinder Beginner Box. We divided the adventure in the box, “Menace Under Otari,” into two parts and wrote a chronicle for each part. As an incentive to reaching out to new players and building your communities, we designated the adventure as a repeatable event which awards double AcP; players must use the pregens in the Beginner Box or build characters using the rules within the product.

Originally, our next agenda included The Slithering for Pathfinder (second edition). To capitalize on the Beginner Box momentum, we’re diverting briefly to sanction Troubles in Otari first. For Starfinder, we queued up the Devastation Ark AP. Of course, we still have the remaining PF1 content on radar as well.

Several people asked what about our timelines and priorities regarding sanctioning. We tried a different process with the Beginner Box that worked reasonably well, so we will use that method on the next few projects and refine the process. We hope this will get the adventure sanctioning out the door without placing as large a burden on the product line developers and get us caught up so that we can achieve our goal of day one sanctioning on all products. But until that point, we are still a bit behind. We’ll inform you in these blogs as we have updates to share, so stay tuned!

Stars/Novas/Glyphs

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 dependant). A conservative estimate of the time needed to reach the 5th milestone is 650 hours!

Two GMs received their fifth star in the last month. We had no one reach 5 Novas or 5 Glyphs.

5th Star: Densial Edmonds, Daniel Harvey

Congratulations to our new 5 Star GMs, and thank you for your dedication!

Conventions

December is usually a quiet month for conventions, but 2021’s schedule is starting to roll in. If you don’t see a convention on the list that you think should be there, contact the event organizer and ask them to register their event for organized play support!

Convention	Location	Start Date	Status	Interactive Events	Staff Attendance
Emerald Con	Seattle, WA	12/4/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite	Tonya, Jenny
Con Damage '21	Gulf Region	1/22/2021	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns
COTN 2021	Plymouth, MN	2/12/2021	Online	None

We’ve got an announcement for later today, so visit us back here this afternoon for some exciting news! And don’t forget: Explore! Report! Cooperate!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States, and several other countries celebrated their day of giving thanks over the past months. While celebrations look very different for all of us this year, we wanted to take a moment to give thanks to our Paizo community. Without you all, the worlds of Pathfinder and Starfinder would be just stories we told ourselves. We’re grateful for all your support, and wish you well as this year comes to a close. We also want to thank the Organized Play community organizers for supporting our programs in the face of tremendous adversity. Without the venture-officers, we would lack structure and without GMs, games. To all of you who spend time planning schedules and completing tasks behind the scenes, a huge shout out of thanks!

Every year we have several dozen conventions/events which support charities. We developed the charity boon programs to support these efforts. This year, without physical gatherings, we thought the support for charities would diminish. In light of this year’s adverse conditions, we’re especially thankful for the tremendous generosity of our players. We’d like to recognize a few the events who conducted charitable activities and supported the charities’ good works!

Contingency 2020, Hunstanton, England
This event in February raised £7500, or $9934 USD, for Alzheimer's Society UK.

Owlcon 2020, Houston TX
The Texas Organized Play community ran over 50 tables and raised $260 for Extra Lifein February of this year.

PFS MANCon, Manchester, England
While this event was cancelled due to the start of the pandemic, many of the attendees donated fees and refunds to the nominated charity. The equivalent of $635 USD was donated to the Alzheimer’s Society to help tackle dementia.

CoVcon, Pittsburgh PA
COSCON quickly moved online when lockdown began in March. Through their efforts, they raised $268 to support Royal Family KIDS and the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization.

CritterCon 3, Online
The Cosmic Crittermanders ran their third event to benefit Doctors Without Borders in April of this year, raising $6741 and running 76 tables.

PaizoCon Francia, Geneva, Switzerland
One of our few in-person events, this convention raised around 500 Swiss Francs, or $550 USD, for Fonds Mimosa.

Displacement Con, Grand Rapids MI
The unofficial replacement for Grand Con, this event featured board games and Adventurer’s League in addition to Paizo Organized Play games. A total of $225 was raised for Make-A-Wish of Michigan.

Gen Con Online, Indianapolis IN
The charity auction at Gen Con raised $11,008.66, which will be donated to Gen Con Online’s partner charities: Take This, Trinity Haven and I Need Diverse Games.

Pittsburgh Con Online, Pittsburgh PA
A new event, this online convention raised $188 for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. The local volunteers hope to run the event again next year!

Tavern Con 2020, Ithaca MI
This event raised $460 for Gaming for a Cure.

SkålCon Online 2020, Minneapolis MN
This online convention was attended by several members of the Organized Play team, and it raised $4700 for local charity Tubman.

Defenders of the Healing Flame, Multiple Lodges
Unable to conduct in-person marathons, 7 lodges teamed up to raise money for Extra Life. Through 55 tables of play, they raised $6,529 for Children’s Miracle Network. Thanks to the members of Bluegrass Lodge in Kentucky, Queen City Lodge in Cincinnati, Virginia Lodge, Boston Metro Lodge, Mid-Maryland Lodge, Central Jersey Lodge, North Shore MA Lodge and the NE Indiana Organized Play community for all your efforts!

CONGlomerate, Online
Just this month, the online region raised $1,070 for Extra Life and the Seattle Childrens’ Hospital.

In total, this year our Organized Play community raised more than $42,000 for charity. Thank you all so much for your incredible efforts! All charities are linked above, if you would like to support your community’s fundraising or learn about the charities’ goals. Your efforts truly exemplify the “Cooperate” portion of the Pathfinder Society motto, and we can’t wait to see what the community will do in 2021 and beyond.

Check back next week for our Monthly Update! Until then: Explore! Report! Cooperate!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

OPM Musings

We’ve kinda slowed down a bit on the convention front, with PAX Online being our last big show of 2020, but that doesn’t mean the program slowed down. On the editorial side of the team, we have earlier than last Wed of the month release dates for Nov and Dec scenarios to avoid releasing items on American Thanksgiving or Christmas/Kwanzaa. We also hope to have space to allow our team to take some time off over the holidays.

In this downtime between active conventions, we also do quite a bit of our planning for the upcoming years. Look for more information in blogs after the first of the year. We also use the time to complete outstanding tasks, like mailing charity boons and producing goblin songs. Finally, we like to take this time to get 2021 conventions spun up and the background items put into place.

To that end, we’re currently in talks with volunteers at the Organized Play Foundation about the makeup of our 2021 convention teams. With the uncertainty of in-person shows as well as digital platform use for conventions, we’ve got to shake up how we are doing things, including revamping the Department Head structure, looking to have a hybrid digital-physical committee, and streamlining volunteer registration processes. As these changes deal with volunteers, the specifics will appear on the Organized Play Foundation website. As soon as the information is posted, we will bump this blog. Expect this to happen in the next week or so.

Fame Conversion Status

Unfortunately, we did not quite make our October goals. We did get every boon into the system, but we did not publish the conversion guide out to our community. With the accelerated production schedule of Nov and Dec, to get products out before the holidays, we just could not put one more thing into our schedule. We still have this on our radar and hope to have more information out to you, but we don’t want to prioritize it over getting out the monthly scenarios. We will keep you updated via blogs on where we are and what our new timeline is expected to be. We are also adjusting schedules so that a delay on our end doesn’t remove integration time from the community. Thank you for your patience.

Sanctioning

A new batch of sanctioning was posted last week! This included the Extinction Curse Adventure Path for Pathfinder Society (second edition), as well as the remainder of The Threefold Conspiracy AP for Starfinder Society. If you’re new and want to know more about what sanctioning is and why we do it, there’s some good information in that blog as well, check it out!

Next in the queue for sanctioning is the Pathfinder (second edition) Beginner Box, which we do hope to have sanctioned before the end of the month. After that, we’ll take a look at Devastation Ark, The Slithering, and the remaining PF1 Adventure Paths to determine what’s next on our priority list

Stars/Novas/Glyphs

This month, we had time to review all outstanding four-star and four-nova GMs. Now that the system is more automated, we are able to keep closer track of those GMs on the road to the top. We believe that we have contacted every GM on that list to let them know what’s left to become a five-star or five-nova GM. If you were not contacted and feel you should have been, please email us at organizedplay[at]paizo[dot]com and we’ll check it out.

As a result of this process, we discovered several GMs who had completed all their requirements. They are recognized below; congratulations, and thank you for all the time you have devoted to Organized Play!

Congratulations to:

• 5 Star GMs:
• Steven Lee
• Betsy Nold
• 5 Nova GMs:
• Doug Edwards
• Mike Bramnik

Convention Listing

If you don’t see a convention on the list that you think should be there, contact the event organizer and ask them to register their event for Organized Play support!

Convention	Location	Start Date	Status	Interactive Events	Staff Attendance
Viking Lodge Halloween Con 2020	Copenhagen, Denmark	11/6/2020	Online
Virtual Mepacon 39	Allentown, PA	11/6/2020	Online
Carnage 2020	West Dover, VT	11/6/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
CONglomerate	Online	11/6/2020	Online
Midwest Game Fest Online 2020	Kansas City, MO	11/12/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
Lone Star Con	Texas	11/13/2020	Online	SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
MACE 2020	Charlotte, NC	11/13/2020	Hybrid
ConQuest Avalon: Morganna's Quest	Bay Area, CA	11/20/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns
Fin d'année 2020 Francia	Francia	11/26/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
TurkeyCon 2020	Burlingame, CA	11/27/2020	Online
WinterWolfCon ‘20	Online	11/27/2020	Online	SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
Emerald Con	Seattle, WA	12/4/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite	Tonya

Don’t forget to come back next week for previews on the November releases for Paizo Organized Play!

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

OPM Musings

A little over six months ago, I joined the Paizo team as the new (and first!) Organized Play Associate. Those six months have been an adventure. I had a total of eight days in the office before I was suddenly working from home in a different timezone. We went from discussing floor plans for the Sagamore to scrambling to put together our first completely online convention. My poor dice sit neglected in their bag as macros have replaced them (alright, not really, I take them out regularly, I can’t bear to let them sit unrolled).

That paints a bleak picture. Let me brighten it up! I’ve seen how resilient our community can be, as we moved online and kept playing at full force. I’ve seen how hard our Online Region venture-officers worked to welcome the entire world into their realm. I’ve witnessed the passion our players have for our products, passion matched only by the people I work with. Tonya has taken a vacation, which hasn’t happened in far too long, and is also the reason I get to take over this space for the month!

I will be very honest: I love my job. I love coming to work each day and helping to support some talented creatives. I love working with the volunteers and the players, all of them, even you. I think it’s important to remember that gaming is at the heart of what we do. Games are meant to be fun, and we’re all playing this one together. I’m having fun! Let’s keep it going.

Sanctioning

While no new hardcover books came out this month, Lost Omens Pathfinder Society Guide comes out on October 14! We hope you’re all looking forward to it, and we’re aiming to have it sanctioned as soon as possible, ideally on Oct 15th! To let you all We’ll post a blog as well as update the Character Options blog.

By month’s end, we aim to have sanctioning posted for Extinction Curse and the remainder of The Threefold Conspiracy. We’ll post a blog when we add them to the website, so keep an eye out on Thursdays! The team is also currently working through Tyrant’s Grasp and will begin to look at the still unsanctioned APs in the coming weeks.

Chronicle Boons

Many of you have noticed that there are now Chronicle Boons available on the Boons tab of My Organized Play. These Chronicle Boons will replace the boons on the Chronicle sheets you’re used to. They have no cost and can be purchased for any character who qualifies.

If you already have a boon from Season 1 on your chronicle sheet, you don’t need to purchase it again online, though you certainly can if you like! Season 2 scenarios will only list boons online, so those boons, such as the boon for PFS 2-00: The King in Thorns, will need to be purchased.

There is currently a bug where characters with GM credit do not qualify for a scenario’s chronicle boon; we have sent this to tech and are hopeful for a fix very soon. Other feature requests we’ve made include the ability to hide boons that a character does not qualify for, or which they have already purchased.

Guides

Last week, we released the new Guide to Organized Play: Pathfinder Society (second edition) on the Organized Play Foundation’s website. This is a complete update and overhaul. Many sections were trimmed or outright removed, and a number of upgrades were made for ease of use. We discussed some of the changes in our recent blog about our goals for the future, and later today we'll be publishing a blog discussing how to bring your characters in compliance with the new rules.

Our goal is to continue refining the Guide in the coming weeks, based on community feedback. Once the text is finalized, the OPF will create a PDF version for download.

Stars/Novas/Glyphs

Several GMs received their fifth star in the last month. Doing so indicates a commitment to Organized Play, as to achieve this milestone, a GM must run 150 games, of which at least 50 must be unique scenarios and 10 special scenarios, as well as run a game for a venture-captain. A conservative estimate of the time needed to reach five stars is 650 hours!

Congratulations to:
Patrick Berndt
RC Craigo
Melvin Ngo

For Novas and Glyphs, the online evaluation system is active and GMs should confirm their observer entered their evaluation into the system.

Convention Listing

If you don’t see a convention on the list that you think should be there, contact the event organizer and ask them to register their event for Organized Play support!

Convention	Location	Start Date	Status	Interactive Events	Staff Attendance
Nuke-Con	Omaha, NE	10/2/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns
SkålCon Online 2020	Minneapolis, MN	10/9/2020	Online		Tonya, Thurston, Alex
Save Against Fear 2020	Harrisburg, PA	10/9/2020	Online
Friend Con 2020	Bloomington-Normal, IL	10/9/202	Online
Rolling in the Isles	Isles Region	10/11/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns
AB-Confusion	Germany/Netherlands	10/16/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
Canceled Con	Online	10/23/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
G0b10w33n Online	Bloomington, IN	10/29/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
Virtual Mepacon 39	Allentown, PA	11/6/2020	Online
Midwest Game Fest Online 2020	Kansas City, MO	11/12/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
Lone Star Con	Texas	11/13/2020	Online	SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
MACE 2020	Charlotte, NC	11/27/2020	Hybrid
WolfCon Online '20	Online	11/27/2020	Online	SFS 3-00 The Last Bite

Don’t forget to come back next week for more exciting organized play news!

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

The Strength of Thousands Adventure Path is coming in July 2021! This six-part, monthly Adventure Path takes characters from 1st to 20th level. It’s set in the Magaambya magic academy in the Mwangi Expanse, the oldest and most prestigious magic school in our world. We’ve been looking to tell a “magic school” story for a long time, and we’re thrilled to tell a non-Western magic school story set in the Magaambya. In Strength of Thousands, the characters start as students, become teachers, and ultimately hold the fate of the school in their hands.

Magaambya by Tomasz Chistowski

The name of this Adventure Path comes from a school motto; each teacher and student stands on the shoulders of thousands who have come before, so the weight of reputation and responsibility rests squarely on the heroes’ shoulders.

Strength of Thousands is open to characters of all kinds, but it’s a magic school, so some spellcasting ability is necessary. If you like playing fighters or monks or other non-spellcasting classes, don’t worry! We’re layering on additional spellcasting ability to all characters in this Adventure Path, so if you can’t normally cast spells, you get a little bit of spellcasting. If you are a spellcaster already, you get a little more. This makes the characters slightly more powerful than normal, but lets them feel like students in the world’s premiere magic school.

Celebration by Tomasz Chistowski

The adventures initially focus on the Magaambya, but soon expand to take place all over the Mwangi Expanse (and even beyond, in an interplanetary excursion!). The teachers at the Magaambya are also diplomats and guardians of the world, and we want the players to really feel that. You’ll undertake diplomatic missions in the dangerous city of Mzali, stage a rescue in the Sodden Lands, and uncover secrets lost for thousands of years.

Strength of Thousands gets tons of support in supplemental articles in each volume, including rosters of fellow students and faculty members and an academia downtime subsystem so characters get more skilled throughout their academic years as students (and as teachers). We expect Strength of Thousands to span many in-game years and thrill real-world players for a long time!

Storyteller - Mikhail Palamarchuk

We’ve established a diverse and talented team of authors for the Strength of Thousands Adventure Path. Rather than talk about them, let’s have them tell you who they are in their own words!

Kindled Magic, by Alexandria Bustion and Eleanor Ferron
Allie Bustion is an award-winning freelance narrative designer and writer who has worked on their own indie titles, like HEIST and Misbehavin', as well as Sea of Legends. You can find their name in recent and upcoming books from Paizo and others, including the Mwangi Expanse world guide, the Starship Operations Manual, and Lost Omens: Legends. More often than not, they can be found on Twitter (@madpierrot) taking a lot of pictures of their cat or analyzing popular media or on Twitch (MadPierrotTV) playing Apex Legends and Final Fantasy XIV. More of their work can be found on madpierrot.design, madpierrot.itch.io, and patreon.com/madpierrot.

Hello! I'm Eleanor Ferron, a mixed-race author, artist, and Developer here at Paizo. Along with my fabulous colleague Luis Loza, I work on the Lost Omens setting guides for Pathfinder 2E. I’ve also illustrated several RPG products, such as the role-playing card game and campaign assistant, Short Order Heroes. Both Luis and I have been working hard on coordinating an incredible crew of authors for the Lost Omens: Mwangi Expanse book that will accompany the Strength of Thousands Adventure Path, and so I am incredibly excited to see that setting come to life for players and GMs to explore!M.o

Spoken on the Song Wind, by Quinn Murphy
My name is Quinn Murphy. I’ve been doing freelance design and publishing my own games for a little over a decade, and have been in love with RPGs for most of my life. Over the years I’ve done design work for Dungeons & Dragons (4th Edition), Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, Misspent Youth, Trinity Continuum: Aeon, and more. I’ve been working with Paizo since last year, starting with the Pathfinder Society Quest Archaeology in Aspenthar and other projects. I am really excited to be working on the Strength of Thousands Adventure Path, where we can introduce players to wonders and teachings of the Magaambya firsthand!

Hurricane’s Howl, by Michelle Jones
I'm Michelle Jones, author of Hurricane's Howl and contributor to World Guide: Mwangi Expanse. I've been a Paizo freelancer for about 4 years now, and I'm so excited to finally write for an adventure path. Since most of my Pathfinder work up until now was on the Player Companion line, I always had to ask myself what new rules players would find exciting. It was always a fun challenge, but working on Hurricane's Howl and the World Guide gave me the opportunity to do what I'm really passionate about. The opportunity to tell a story, introduce new characters, and explore a part of the world that really deserves some love. So read World Guide: Mwangi Expanse and play Hurricane's Howl; I promise you are in for a good time. Find me on Twitter @AleshaKills.

Secrets of the Temple-City, by Luis Loza
Luis Loza is a developer at Paizo Inc. working on Pathfinder Second Edition. His work includes rules, campaign setting material, and adventure development for Pathfinder. As a writer, he takes inspiration from a variety of places including folklore from his Mexican heritage, books, movies, and video games. He lives in Seattle with his wife and a cat that should really be more cuddly if you ask him. You can learn more about him and his work at luisloza.com.

Doorway to the Red Star, by Michael Sayre
Hello! My name is Michael Sayre and I’m a designer and former Pathfinder Society developer here at Paizo. I was born and raised in Alaska, where my family is from for as far back as anyone can trace! I’m of primarily Tlingit and Irish descent, and my family are shareholders in the Goldbelt Corporation, a company formed for the Tlingit and Haida people of southeast Alaska following the Alaska Native Claims Act. Pushing the boundaries of the stories we tell beyond Golarion’s Inner Sea has been both a professional goal and a personal passion of mine since I started work at Paizo, and without giving any spoilers as to the particulars of my contribution to this project, that’s definitely something this adventure has allowed me to do!

Shadows of the Ancients, by Saif Ansari
Saif Ansari thought he had created role-playing games while making up stories with his brother in India. After emigrating to the US, he realized a whole gaming industry existed and has been running games ever since. Saif has published short fiction and short plays, appeared in anthologies, written for games, and was nominated for an ENnie back in 2017. He runs games in New York City and also lives there with his wife and two children.

Watch the Lost Omens Announcement Panel here!

Hey, there! Luis, here! Eleanor and I have been hard at work getting the next book in the Lost Omens line ready to go, and we’re proud to announce it here for you today. Lost Omens Mwangi Expanse is coming June 2021! This 312-page book will be our deepest dive in all of Pathfinder’s history into the Mwangi Expanse!

Mwangi Expanse Cover, Art by Ekaterina Burmak

Watch the Lost Omens Announcement Panel here!

Mwangi Expanse will be exploring various subjects that make the region what it is today. You’ll get to learn about the events that shaped the history of the Expanse, like the rise and fall of the serpentfolk empire and Old-Mage Jatembe’s rediscovery of magic. Learn about the dozens of cultures and people of the Expanse—from Alijae elves to Zenj humans. You’ll also get to understand the role of faith in the Mwangi Expanse and learn about the different gods of the region, which include established deities like Grandmother Spider as well as newer deities like Adanye, the catfolk deity of imagination and protection.

Grandmother Spider, Art by Valeria Lutfullina

Beyond the peoples and beliefs of the Mwangi Expanse, we’ll get to show you the region itself, traveling along the waterways of the area and trekking into its misty rainforests. The book will also take you to the various important cities of the region, like Nantambu, home of the fabled Magaambya academy, and Mzali, the temple-city home of the evil god-child, Walkena. Finally, we’ll get to experience the dangers of the Mwangi Expanse by showcasing some of the region’s nastier monsters, including old classics like chaura-kas and new threats like corpse-eating karina.

Anadi, Art by Alexander Nanitchkov

Of course, the book will also include new rules options to play characters from the Mwangi Expanse. These include cultural items like Song’o fighting sticks or the magic masks that Alijae elves use to chronicle their genealogy. It also includes the player rules for those new deities to worship that I mentioned. Most exciting of all, I feel, are the new ancestries featured in the book. This book features six new ancestries: anadi, conrasu, gnoll, golomas, grippli, and shisks! These six represent a good mix of classic ancestries and new ancestries that we know fans have been wanting to see.

We hope that everyone out there is as excited as we are to check out Lost Omens Mwangi Expanse. Look forward to learning all about it next summer!

Luis Loza
Developer

OPM Musings

I joined Paizo’s Organized Play team in September 2015. Looking back over the past 5 years, I’ve collected several happy memories, made wonderful friends, and achieved important milestones. I’ve also learned a few hard lessons in communication and process implementation along the way. I’ve cried with some of you, laughed with more of you, and would happily do it all over again if I could.

Before accepting my position, I served as an Organized Play volunteer for 2 years. Some of the best gaming experiences I’ve ever had occurred while volunteering. I met people from around the globe, attended Gen Con—talk about crossing an item off my bucket list!—and sparked enthusiasm among my fellow gamers. I believe that volunteering brings people who love games even closer together. If you want to experience the benefits of serving as an Organized Play volunteer firsthand, check out our blog from last week on how to volunteer with the Organized Play Foundation.

Sanctioning

While no new character options were sanctioned in the past month, you can now earn Organized Play credit for Paizo’s Free RPG Day adventures: Little Trouble in Big Absalom and Skitter Home. Such credit can be retroactively earned from games played on Free RPG Day. GMs should contact their players to issue chronicle sheets.

Last week, James Case also wrote a blog explaining how rarity and access in Pathfinder Second Edition works in Pathfinder Society play. James’s thoughts should help explain our philosophy on less common options.

Looking forward, we are actively working on three Adventure Paths: Tyrant’s Grasp, Extinction Curse, and Threefold Conspiracy. As we finish them, we will update you in future blogs.

Guides

To avoid conflict with the conventions this weekend, we scheduled the Guide to Organized Play: Starfinder Society upload for next week. An upcoming blog post will summarize the changes.

The Guide to Organized Play: Pathfinder Society is being actively revised and has an estimated publication date of September 15th. It will once again be housed online and we intend to provide a downloadable option as well. We will post the links in a blog once they are live.

Finally, the Guide to Organized Play: Pathfinder Adventure Card Society is in the works and should be posted shortly. There are no program changes for Year 7, but we plan to include the adventure deck options first published in blogs so we have all the options in one place.

Achievement Points (AcP)

It’s been three weeks since ya looked at me, cocked your head to the side, and... oh wait, this isn’t the place for singing songs. Focus!

We launched the boon purchase part of AcP just before Gen Con and are busy working out the bugs. The first step was to move the chronicle boons from the Year of the Open Road into the system so that we had digital versions as well as paper ones. This has caused some oddities to pop up, such as Chronicle Boon points appearing in the point total section. We are pausing the input process while we track down some of these number issues. Hopefully, fixing them will resolve the residual AcP challenges as well.

Volunteer Recognition

We awarded one new Campaign Coin at PaizoCon Francia this month. The following recipient is one of the longtime members of the Swiss venture-crew responsible for organizing many events. Congratulations to…

Christopher Clark 839

Thank you for all the effort you put into Organized Play, Christopher!

Stars/Novas/Glyphs

One GM received their fifth star in the last month. Doing so indicates a commitment to Organized Play, as to achieve this milestone, a GM must run 150 games, of which at least 50 must be unique scenarios and 10 special scenarios, as well as run a game for a venture-captain. A conservative estimate of the time needed to reach five stars is 650 hours!

Congratulations to Patrick Berndt for earning their fifth star!

All five-star GMs should now see their stars listed by their name on the forums, as well as in their My Organized Play tab. If you are a five-star GM and your status is not visible on the forums, please email organizedplay [at] paizo [dot] com and let us know!

We’re working through some technical snags before we can get caught up on our five-nova GMs, but we hope to have them ironed out soon. We’re also watching the climb to five glyphs with great interest, as many GMs have taken advantage of the online environment.

There’s been some discussion about the requirements for evaluation games, so we want to clarify. Two main points. One, GMs should work with their RVC to get their evaluations completed in a method that works for the GM. If the RVC is not responsive, please reach out to the OP team for assistance. Two, the GM should complete the reviews in their usual medium, but if circumstances don’t allow, then they should choose a different platform they feel comfortable with – VTT, webcam, slides, etc. Any RVC/VC comfortable completing an evaluation in the GMs chosen method may do so. There is one caveat to this second piece. A GM should only ask the Online region RVC/VCs to evaluate one of their games.

We think this will cover most issues, but if it does not, please communicate with either your RVC or the org play team so that we can find a solution to your particular issue. We cannot write rules to cover every corner case, but we can work to find a way around impediments.

Finally, there is a known bug where glyphs don’t display next to a username in the forums. We’ve asked the tech team to address this issue. Thank you to those who reached out to let us know there is a problem.

Convention Listing

If you don’t see a convention on the list that you think should be there, contact the event organizer and ask them to register their event for Organized Play support!

Convention	Location	Start Date	Status	Interactive Events	Staff Attendance
ReaperCon Live!	Dallas, TX	9/3/2020	Online
Displacement Con 2020	Online	9/3/2020	Online
Gateway 2020 Online	Los Angeles, CA	9/4/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns
Tracoff 2020	Tampere, Finland	9/4/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns
Pandemic Pacificon 2020	Online	9/4/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
Virtual DragonCon 2020	Atlanta, GA	9/4/2020	Online
PAX Online	Online	9/12/2020	Online	None; Acquisitions Event	Tonya, Alex
TPKon 9	Online	9/18/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns	Tonya
iSydCon 2020	Sydney, NSW, Australia	9/25/2020	Online	SFS 2-00 Fate of the Scoured God
BostonMetroCon	Boston, MA	9/26/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns
Nuke-Con	Omaha, NE	10/2/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns
SkålCon Online 2020	Minneapolis, MN	10/9/2020	Online		Tonya, Thurston, Alex
Canceled Con	Online	10/23/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
Midwest Game Fest Online 2020	Kansas City, MO	11/12/2020	Online	PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite

Don’t forget to come back next week for more exciting organized play news!

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

Janira shuffles the papers in front of her, smiling as she scans the contents, setting each to the side in a neat pile once she finishes reading. After placing the last one gently on top of the stack, she leans back in her chair and sighs. “So fortunate,” she mutters softly. “With all the chaos sown by the Whispering Tyrant, the sight of so many busy agents pleases me.” She pulls a clean piece of parchment from a desk drawer. Dipping her quill in the inkpot, she pauses thoughtfully. “Time to answer, Gavix. Remember the tone – cheerful, excited, and full of optimism.” As the quill scratches the parchment, she sighs once more. “Desna smile on their operations. We could use a bit of fortune at this point.”

Paizo-Sponsored and Paizo-Licensed Events

Greetings organized play members! Just a quick update to chat about our next series of online events. The events below qualify for Premier Plus Event status. GMs, for more information, join the discussion on the OPF Major Events discord. For the Paizo-sponsored events, the Organized Play Foundation’s website lists GM rewards plus contact information for the organizing committees.

PaizoCon Francia – August 14-16 (Geneva, Switzerland)

Going on this weekend! If you are in the Geneva area and want to attend, you can find more info on their Warhorn site.

Virtually Expo (UK Games Expo) – August 21-23 (Online)

The UK biggest games convention moved online! The schedule of games and registration is available on the Virtually Expo website.

Pax Online (PAX Aus/PAX West) – September 12-20

We are utilizing Warhorn as the scheduling mechanism for this show, alongside VTTs of GM choice and discord. Our planned schedule includes 14 tables each block during the weekend and 2-5 tables during 1 block a day total during the week (and nothing the following weekend. GMs that want to run the weekend of 19-20 should submit games to TPKon (see below).

To register for the Paizo Organized Play Online Events discord, follow this link. If you already joined for PaizoCon Online, ConCurrent, and Gen Con Online, you don’t need to rejoin, just keep an eye on the server about a week before the event to see when we open the channels for the convention.

We will open Warhorn registration for GM to choose their tables to run on the 22nd and player signups on the 5th of Sept.

Non-Paizo Sponsored Events:

We posted a list of other conventions in the August Update blog, but we’ve had two additions since then.

DragonCon Online – August 29-31. This is being planned by the local organized play community and more information is available on the DragonCon website or by contacting RVC David Shaw via email at apparvc@gmail.com.

TPKon 9 – September 18-20. An online region supported convention with GM submissions currently going on. You can find more information on the TPKon website.

Come back next week for more organized play information!

Until then,

Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

OPM Musings

Wow. Eleven weeks. That is how long it's been since we decided to move PaizoCon online. In those eleven weeks, we’ve organized three major online conventions with over 2,700 games. Huge thank yous to all the GMs, HQ, and organizing committee volunteers who jumped in to help us bring the program online. While we aren’t finished with our online events (Virtually Expo and PAX Online are coming up soon), there is a bit of breathing room for us to evaluate our methodologies and streamline some best practices. The reality is that we aren’t going to have large in person gatherings for the rest of 2020 and potentially into 2021, so we want to establish workable methods to keep our organized play programs functioning in our new existence.

Again, a HUGE, MASSIVE, GIGANTIC, COLOSSAL thank you to all those who helped out at Gen Con and our other online events. We couldn’t do it without you!

Scenario Release Schedule

While we hoped the move to work from home wouldn’t impact our release schedule, we had to acknowledge before Gen Con that we just couldn’t quite hit our aggressive release schedule. To save the sanity of all those working on the scenarios, we adjusted our releases slightly. This is our current plan through the end of 2020, though of course unforeseen issues may mean we have to make adjustments.

• July 29th:
• PFS Scenarios #1-24 & #1-25, Quests 12 & 13, SFS Scenarios #3-03 & #3-04
• August 26th:
• PFS Scenarios #2-01 & #2-02, Bounty 1, SFS Scenarios #3-05 & #3-06
• September 30th:
• PFS Scenarios #2-03 & #2-04, Bounty 2, SFS Scenarios #3-07 & #3-08
• October 28th:
• PFS Scenarios #2-05 & #2-06, Bounty 3, PFS Scenarios #3-09 & #3-10
• November 18th:
• PFS Scenarios #2-07 & #2-08, Bounty 4, PFS Scenarios #1-98*, 3-11 & #3-12
• December 16th:
• PFS Scenarios #2-09 & #2-10, Bounty 5, PFS Scenarios #3-13 & #3-14

*SFS #1-98 is a scenario which had a limited release under SFS staff and will now be available to GMs meeting certain criteria. We haven’t finalized the qualifiers yet, but will do so soon and publish in a future blog.

Sanctioning

Last month, the OP team sanctioned the Advanced Players Guide and Lost Omens: Legends for use in the Pathfinder System and updated the Character Options blog accordingly. It is our intention to move this to a full webpage, but that’s still in the queue. The team also opened up kobolds as an always available ancestry in a blog penned by Pathfinder Society developer Michael Sayre.

In Starfinder news, we also announced sanctioning for Starfinder Near Space and the Starship Operations Manual. Rules for both of these books are available in the Additional Resources. We also announced how players can take part in the Tech Revolution Playtest while earning Organized Play credit.

With all this new material, you’d think the team would take a break. But no, the team is eyeing the next set of sanctioning. We don’t want to list anything specifically at this point, but keep an eye on the blogs for more news.

Achievement Points (AcP)

We finished the final tech pieces and rolled out the Achievement Point system for Pathfinder Society (second edition) in July. There are still some bugs in the display (quests/bounties count as .25, but display as 0 due to whole integer rounding logic) and in calculation (some scenarios/quests aren’t giving AcP) that we are working out, but the core pieces of the system work and now we can do some refinements.

Since it is now active, we announced that we intend to move Starfinder Society to AcP at the start of Year 4. If you look at your account, you will see the current pot is named Achievement Points (PFS2ed). When we do the rollout for Starfinder Society, it will be as a new category of Achievement Points - (SFS). So you will earn points based on what program you are playing/GMing.

We have no intention of converting Pathfinder Society (first edition) to Achievement Points. Eleven years of program rewards are too much to convert, so we intend to maintain the current pot of paper boons for the lifetime of the campaign.

Campaign Coins

With all the other moving parts of Gen Con Online, we didn’t give any coins out. Bringing conventions online means we need to rethink how we announce coin recipients and change some of our methods. You’ll see some of these changes in the next few months. Be assured, we are still recognizing our outstanding program volunteers! If you have someone in your area who gives back to your community and who you think epitomizes our organized play program, please send an email with your recommendation to organizedplay@paizo.com.

Stars/Novas/Glyphs

We rolled out our online evaluation program. Venture-captains and regional venture-coordinators conducting evaluations can now enter them on the evaluations tab of their “My Organized Play” section of paizo.com.

Individuals who achieved their 4th rank can now see the status of their progress to 5th rank.

To protect privacy, only Alex and I see the list of open evaluations/qualified GMs. We will be reaching out to GMs on that list who are eligible for evaluations to help them get games scheduled/put them in contact with VCs/RVCs doing evaluations in our online environments.

Convention Listing

While Covid-19 impacted the physical convention scene, we’ve still got a few events running. In-person conventions evaluated the conditions in their particular region and may have additional requirements for attendees. The shifting climate may necessitate changes on short notice. Be sure to check out individual convention websites/social media channels for last minute updates!

If you don’t see a convention on the list that you think should be there, contact the event organizer and ask them to register their event for organized play support!

Convention	Location	Start Date	Status	Interactive Events
PaizoCon Francia	Geneva/Switzerland	8/13/2020	In-Person	SFS #3-00
Shadowcon UK 2020	London, England	8/29/2020	Online
Play-by-Post Gameday IX	Online	9/1/2020	Online	SFS #3-00
ReaperCon Live!	Dallax, TX	9/3/2020	Online
Displacement Con 2020	Online	9/3/2020	Online
Gateway 2020 Online	Los Angeles, CA	9/4/2020	Online	PFS #2-00
PAX Online	Online	9/12/2020	Online
iSydCon 2020	Sydney, NSW, Australia	9/25/2020	Online
BostonMetroCon	Boston, MA	9/26/2020	Online	PFS #2-00
Nuke-Con	Omaha, NE	10/2/2020	Online	PFS #2-00

Don’t forget to come back next week for more exciting organized play news!

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

OPM Musings

With two online conventions under our belt, we’ve got our processes down. That being said, there are still several more in the pipeline – Virtually Expo (to replace UK Games Expo) and Gen Con being the next on the horizon. Besides conventions, we have lots more going on in the OP realm, so I’m going to end my musings with a huge thank you to all our GMs and volunteers organizing games. As the world starts to resume in-person gatherings, I’ll note each community will decide when and how to approach in person gaming and request that all our players work with their organizers to take suggested precautions and keep our community safe, healthy, and happy.

Achievement Point Update

Another month, another few code rolls getting us ever closer to the final launch of the Achievement Points (AcP) system. For those keeping a close eye, you may have seen the rolls last week. They fixed our outstanding issues but had a few unintended problems that we needed to resolve before we could keep the roll live. We’ve now resolved character number issues, points accrued from Premier and Premier Plus events, GM credits, and how boons generate from the system, as well as a few other back end items. This is in line to be resolved after our long weekend and we hope to have the final deployment soon.

This brings into question the free rebuild boon that is currently on the site. I said previously that we would remove the boon two weeks after AcP went live. Given that we are less than 30 days from the release of the Advanced Players Guide, I want to amend my commentary. We will extend the date of the free rebuild to 31 August. This allows us enough time to get the APG sanctioned and for players to use the rebuild to include options from that book.

We’ve made a change to the rebuild boon, however. One of the code rolls gave the ability to customize the boons beyond the one sentence preview. With this live, we are adjusting the rebuild boon to the style we will use with all other AcP purchases. The full text of the boon outlines the parameters for rebuild, including a all changes are final once character is played and a slight recalculation of the gold your character has post-rebuild, to account for any consumables you have purchased & used as well as a favorable resale value of items. This is intended to make the rebuild easier: rather than having to calculate the value of every item you have purchased and used since creating the character, you will now simply have 85% of the gold you have earned during the character’s career to that point. This revised rebuild went live today. Any unapplied rebuilds that don’t this text will still be honored. In that case, the player should utilize the 85% rule when rebuilding. Players who rebuilt characters prior to this blog do not need to make adjustments to their characters. In all cases, a copy of the boon should be included in the character’s chronicle sheet history.

Another note on AcP. Most of the point totals have settled. You can review your totals in your “My Organized Play” section of Paizo.com. If you are seeing errors in your AcP count, make sure to click the “Refresh Points” button on the GM/Event Coordinator tab of your My Organized Play page. If there are still errors, check to make sure all your games are reported. If they aren’t, please reach out to the coordinator/local venture officer with your chronicles to get the game entered into the system. If all games are accounted for, then email pfsreportingerrors@paizo.com with as much detail as you can about the errors so that we can take a look and make adjustments as needed. This email should also be used for any other reporting errors if your GM or event coordinator is unable to fix them.

One final piece of AcP. We’ve solicited a list of frequently asked questions and are working on putting together answers. We hope to have this done before it goes live and will post a link in the comments as well as distribute the link to our community.

Gen Con Online

Our next major online convention is just weeks away! Gen Con Online will be July 30-August 2, and we currently have nearly 900 games on offer for our four programs. The event catalog will be available for preview on July 6 on Gen Con’s website. For GMs who haven’t signed up yet, we invite you to register for the OPF Major Events discord, as there are still opportunities to volunteer; for more information on how to play or GM games, visit last week’s blog post. Next week we’ll be previewing the new scenario releases you’ll see at Gen Con Online.

Sanctioning

This month, we released the sanctioning for the Age of Ashes Adventure Path for Pathfinder (second edition). Players and GMs may now report their sessions and earn credit for the AP. Additionally, last week we announced the winner of the Battle of the Pantheons contest, and their pantheon has officially been sanctioned as well!

Going forward, we have plans to get Near Space sanctioned for Starfinder Society and the Advanced Player’s Guide sanctioned for Pathfinder Society before the end of the month. There may be more, but these two are the next ones on our radar.

Volunteer Recognition.

No new campaign coins have been awarded since PaizoCon Online.

We did announce our Order of the Wayfinder for 2019. We usually announce this recipient at Gen Con or PaizoCon, but we held it last year to try and do it in person. Unfortunately, our lack of travel thwarted our plans, so we announced it virtually at the most recent Venture-Captain gathering when the recipient was in attendance.

The Order of the Wayfinder is a step above the Campaign Coin and is given to one person a year in recognition of their efforts on behalf of some aspect of the Organized Play Program. Their activities support the actions of the entire community and make a huge difference in the quality of our programming. The award comes with a wayfinder (compass) with an engraved plaque and a new organized play number in the 100’s.

Past recipients included Bob Jonquet, Auke Teeninga, and Alastair Rigg.

Please join me in recognizing Alexander Lenz as the 2019 recipient for his coordination of the Additional Resources Task Force. The AR Task Force is a group of individuals drawn from the volunteer organizers who review published materials for inclusion in the relevant organized play campaign and make recommendations to the Organized Play team. Without their input, completing our sanctioning documents would be a much different task. Thank you, Alex, for the years you’ve spent leading the Task Force!

Stars, Novas & Glyphs

We have no new GMs to recognize yet, but part of the updates rolling out with AcP will also allow our venture-captains to easily and automatically provide evaluations to GMs who request them. This will help us automate the process and get our top-tier GMs their badges and recognition sooner!

Convention Listing

Many of the conventions planned for the upcoming months have needed to cancel or postpone due to shelter in place orders, but several others moved their events online. We’ve listed the status for each event, but please check their websites or notices for any last-minute changes.

Convention	Location	Start Date	Status
Pittsburgh Con Online	Pittsburgh, PA	7/17/2020	Online
OGC Online 2020	Online	7/17/2020	Online
Farmageddon VII	Farmer City, IL	7/17/2020	Online
InterNetGalatic ConQuest 2020	Online	7/24/2020	Online
Ropecon 2020	Finland	7/24/2020	Online
Gen Con Online	Online	7/30/2020	Online
Virtually UK (UK Games Expo)	Birmingham, England	8/21/2020	Online
Shadowcon UK 2020	Shepherdstown, WV	10/30/2020	Postponed

We have GM spots available for both Gen Con Online and Virtually UK, click the links to learn more!

One final note on conventions: the team has decided to award Premier Plus status to all conventions that report 75 or more tables in their After-Action Report. As a result, you may see an increase in your AcP if you played at a qualifying convention.

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

ConCurrent starts tomorrow, June 19th, featuring the launch of Starfinder Society Year 3: Year of Exploration’s Edge. We’ve revealed the year art and symbol, but now we get to take a peek at the first two scenarios of the year.

First up, Starfinder Society #3-01: Crash Down, written by Paizo’s own Starfinder developer Jason Tondro. It involves the PCs experiencing an unexpected event in orbit of a planet in the Vast that leads to them needing to survive on the planet until help arrives! This scenario uses a new Survival Tag that lets both GMs and Players know the major theme of this adventure.

Second, Starfinder Society #3-02: The Subterranean Safari by Jessica Catalan, has an interesting story. This scenario directly builds off the end of the upcoming Starfinder Free RPG Day product, Skitter Home. The PCs join a Veskarium military official on a hunt through the subterranean realm of the skittermander homeworld! Due to changes in timing, we couldn’t announce the Free RPG Day connection until now, but players who’ve enjoyed the story in Skitter Home can get some additional follow-up in this scenario (though it’s certainly not required!)

Besides these new adventures, the ConCurrent schedule includes lots of prior year Starfinder Society content, including higher level games, as well as Pathfinder Society (both editions) as well as Pathfinder Adventure Card Society.

If you haven’t signed up for games at ConCurrent, but wish to, register via Warhorn and sign up for games. Then join the Paizo Organized Play Online Events (POPOE) Discord server at and follow the instructions in the #player-instructions channel. If this is your first time participating in Paizo Organized Play, register via the Paizo website. If you misplaced your number, email organizedplay@paizo.com for assistance.

We look forward to seeing you with us tomorrow as we launch into the stars!

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Another week’s past and we’re still plugging away on our outstanding tasks – convention planning and execution, scenario production, sanctioning/additional resources/character options, and achievement points. We’ve got another roll of code to address some of the issues raised in last week’s blog, including the boon character assignment fixes. Keep an eye on your totals and let us know things that still look wrong or if they are looking good! Feedback is necessary for us to figure out the bugs and get the system rolling and for that we need you!

ConCurrent/Origins Online Update

We did get a bit of a monkey wrench tossed at us in the 12th hour. Last night, GAMA cancelled the Origins Online event. As we noted previously, Paizo submitted games to Origins Online, more than they could schedule. So we planned to run the overflow as ConCurrent via Warhorn and our Paizo Organized Play Online Events Discord. What does canceling Origins mean for organized play games? Not much. We are running ALL events through ConCurrent and will recognize it as a Premier Plus event for GM recognition/achievement point rewards.

Thank you to the team of volunteers who banded together last night to help input data into the Warhorn system so we will be ready to launch player signups on Saturday, June 13th at 1 pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). To register, visit the ConCurrent Warhorn Site and select your games. If you wanted to GM, but missed registrations, we are opening GM registration from now until midnight Friday, June 12th (also EDT). To register as GM, visit the OPF Major Events discord and follow the guidelines to access the ConCurrent channels.

Come back later for the Battle of the Patheon contest update!

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

OPM Musings

Sighing, Janira puts her quill down, reaching for the cup of tea sitting next to her on the desk. Cautiously she takes a sip, testing the temperature before settling back into her seat and finishing the cup. “Well, that’s done,” she murmurs at the papers before her, before glancing at the stack sitting neatly on the back corner of the desk. She sets the empty cup back on its saucer, then picks up her quill and retrieves the top paper from the stack. “Once more into the breach, old friend. Let’s get this wrapped quickly, so that we can go see how the newest initiates fared on the obstacle course. I bet Marcos the newest Envoy’s would get through fastest and I want to see if I won.”

AcP and GM Credits

We made great strides on resolving the issues in the AcP program. The quests are now giving the correct number of points – 1 per player and 2 per GM – as well as reflecting any bumps for Premier and Premier Plus events. Those multiplier bumps levelled out at 1.25 for a Premier event and 1.5 for a Premier Plus event. This multiplier goes with the base points for the type of adventure being run. So, playing a scenario is usually 4, becomes 5 at a Premier event and 6 at a Premier Plus event. Running a scenario earns a GM 8 points, with 10 points at a Premier event and 12 at a Premier Plus. When you look at your My Organized Play page, you will see AcP listed in two columns. The first is the base points that type of game earns. The second, on the far right, notes the amount of points you earned, ie base times any event multipliers.

What does this mean for launch? It is imminent. We found one small bug – all boons sheets generated by the program awarded them to Org Play #8. We’re pretty sure Linda needs ALL the boons and are working to fix the code so that it populates a purchaser’s org play number. Once that change is made, we should be good to launch the purchasing.

This also means we are REMOVING the free rebuild boon from those available. At this point, we plan to remove that boon 2 weeks after we launch AcP purchases. We will include a rebuild boon on the AcP reward chart, but it will cost. If you are planning on doing any character rebuilds, I highly encourage you to do so now!

For those watching, you’ve also seen GM credit appear for Starfinder Society games – it was listing 0 for a long time – and for Pathfinder Society (second edition) tables. We fixed the Nova image display a bit ago and just uploaded the Glyph. Those should be showing up on accounts shortly. The new rating system is built and we’re getting trained on how to implement it so that we can get five stars/nova (and soon glyph) status updated via the new method. We will catch up all those who earned the status but haven’t seen their fifth star appear, so that should be resolved shortly as well.

There is one outstanding issue with Glyph GM credit that we need to resolve. That is Quests are currently awarding 1 table credit. It is not our intention that a GM can run Quests as a way to reach their 5th Glyph faster than a GM who runs scenarios. Thus, we are changing Glyps to award award partial credit - .25 as they are one-quarter of a scenario. At the same time, we are looking at modules and adventure paths and what an appropriate GM credit would be for the longer form adventures. We anticipate this will lead to several bands of GM credit based on the size/length of the adventure. These changes are ongoing and should be resolved shortly.

Whew – that was a bit of information. But there’s still more topics to cover.

Origins/ConCurrent

PaizoCon Online resulted in running over 1200 games – many more than we would run at a traditional PaizoCon. Knowing the demand for online games, we submitted 450ish to Origins Online. Unfortunately, they were only able to accept 100 of our tables. This accounts for 10% of all Origins programming, which is a large portion. But what to do with the other 350ish tables? Seeing the demand for PaizoCon, we didn’t want to cancel the tables. Instead of cancelling, we decided to run ConCurrent. It will function as a Premier Plus Con with all the associated benefits. The only difference is that we are providing HQ and admin support via our online discord server, same as we did for PaizoCon.

While we aren’t going to reopen GM signups or add more RPG games, we do have a few vacancies for GMs as well as space in our on-call pool, which will allow us to cover GM illness or those that don’t show for their tables without stress. If you are interested in assisting, please join the OPF Major Conventions discord, join the Origins Online channel and post in the #gm-waitlist thread.

A bit of oversight on our part led to us not listing PACS games/taking PACS organizer registrations at the same time we did the RPG GM registrations. We added the PACS tables to our schedule and are asking anyone interested in running PACS at Origins Online/ConCurrant to join the OPF Major Conventions discord and visit the #gm-selection tab to register to be table organizer for games.

Gen Con

Gen Con released information about getting our events on their schedule, so we are moving forward with requesting OPF for GMs for Gen Con. Once again, we will do registration through the OPF Major Conventions discord starting Saturday, June 6th at 1 PM. We post the schedule on the server and GMs may claim games on a first come, first served registration. The current plan is to offer tables of all our programs – Pathfinder Society (both editions), Starfinder Society, and Pathfinder Adventure Card Society. Once we have our schedule, we will upload it to Gen Con systems so that they can put tickets on sale. For players interested in attending Gen Con, register to attend and view events on the Gen Con website.

Campaign Coins

We awarded a number of coins at the end of PaizoCon Online. Congratulations to the newest recipients and thank you for all the effort you put into organized play.

James B (Finegas)	828
Derek L (Tyranius)	829
Tyler Beck	830
Rich Lowe (Stuntmonkey)	831
Hels Yau	832
Katrina Hennessy	833
Race Dorsey (Redeux)	834
Race Dorsey (Redeux)	834
Steve Mombourquette	835
Andrew Warner	836
Mike Hallett	837
C.B. (Redelia)	838

Stars, Novas & Glyphs

We didn’t have anyone reach their 5th Nova or Star this month. For those waiting on displays of 5 stars behind your name, we hope to have them appear soon as part of the Achievement Point resolution.The counts of Glyphs are moving upward and I know we have people running games, so we can’t wait to see them show up on people’s accounts!

Convention Listing

Many of the conventions planned for the upcoming months have needed to cancel or postpone due to shelter in place orders, but several others moved their events online. We’ve listed the status for each event, but please check their websites or notices for any last minute changes.

Convention	Location	Start Date	Status
Paizo Game Day	Indianapolis, IN	6/6/2020	Online
3XP Online	Cambridgeshire, UK	6/13/2020	Online
Origins Online	Columbus, OH	6/19/2020	Online
LexiCon 2020	Lexington, KY	7/3/2020	Postponed
FeenCon Online 2020	Online	7/4/2020	Online
Huntsville Comic and Pop Culture Expo (2020)	Huntsville, AL	7/18/2020	Postponed
1D4 Con 2020	Shepherdstown, WV	10/30/2020	Postponed

Organized Play Staff Travel

At this point, there is no travel planned for organized play staff through the beginning of August.

Check back next week for the Battle of the Pantheon semi-finalist entries and vote on your favorite for inclusion in the Pathfinder Society (second edition) program.

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Achievement Points – Pathfinder Society (second edition)

The last week saw great progress on the backlog of organized play tasks. I’ve reviewed resumes for the new Organized Play Associate position, posted a blog with Pathfinder Society (second edition) sanctioning, and made progress on onboarding our venture-officer volunteers from the Organized Play Foundation. There are other tasks, that we aren’t quite ready to reveal, that got crossed off the to-do list. While not over the hill, we made progress up the slope.

One of the outstanding tasks I’m working on is the Achievement Point (AcP) system. We found a few small bugs – GM credit and GM AcP credit are currently linked – and need a few improvements – scaling the amount to accommodate points earned for quests – before we can roll the system out. We are testing the system and moving the bar forward but are still a few weeks out from implementation.

To bridge the gap and allow players to determine how to spend their points once the system goes live, we decided to release the first round of rewards. We haven’t decided how often to change things, but plan on leaving this in place for a minimum of three months, to give players time to reach their goals. When we do decide to rotate the offerings, we will announce our intentions and give a good amount of time for players to acquire points and purchase. This gap will most likely be a month long, but we will watch feedback once the system goes live and make final decisions then. As with our other programs, the first rotation or two will be where we work the bugs out and fine tune the processes.

Achievement Point Chart #1:

AcP Cost	Purchase Multiple Times	Scaling Cost	Reward Name	Description
80	Yes	No	Leshy Ancestry	Build a leshy PC
80	Yes	No	Iruxi Ancestry	Build an iruxi (lizardfolk) PC
120	No	N/A	Hobgoblin Ancestry	Build a hobgoblin PC from Oprak
20	Yes	No	Evolving Destiny	Rebuild a PC who has 47 XP or less (i.e. level 4 or lower)
50	Yes	+15 every time	Career Change	Rebuild a PC who has 48 or more XP (level 5+)
20	Yes	No	World Traveler	You are treated as being from a particular region for the purpose of accessing character options
20	Yes	No	Exclusive Spellcaster—Core	Select an uncommon spell from a curated list of CRB options; your PCs have access to it
40	Yes	+10 every time	Second Chance	Gain the benefits of a resurrect ritual
4	Yes	No	Inherited Wayfinder	Gain a wayfinder at no additional cost
20	Yes	No	Ancestral Adoption 2019	Choose leshy, lizardfolk, or hobgoblin when taking the Adopted Ancestry feat

Campaign Coins

At MarsCon in January, we had the pleasure of recognizing longtime venture-officer Jason Avery, VC New Hampshire, as recipient. He may now use #827! Huzzah and thank you for your efforts on behalf of the gaming community.

Novas

Congratulations to our first Nova recipients:

• Gary Norton
• Natalie Kertzner
• Glen Parnell

As with stars, 5-nova GMs run 150 games, of which 50 are unique scenarios and 10 are interactive events. They also run at least three evaluation games under the purview of a Venture-Captain, who evaluate the GM using this rubric. Not a small time committment! Congratulations again to our first ever 5-nova GMs.

Keep those assessments coming! Venture-Captains, to log evaluation games, please use this form to submit evaluations.

Stars

We had one GM reached their 5th star in January. Doing so indicates a commitment to organized play, as to achieve this milestone, GMs must run 150 games, of which at least 50 must be unique scenarios and 10 special scenarios, as well as run a game for a venture-captain. A conservative estimate of time needed to reach 5-stars is 650 hours!

Congratulations to Aerine Caerwyn on achieving her 5th star!

Glyphs

I mentioned it under the Achievement Point entry but wanted to note it here as well. We are having issues with the separation of GM Achievement Points and GM table credit. Until we get this issue resolved, counts aren’t accurate. Once we do get it fixed, we will get the symbol in place and people can start announcing their Glyphs.

Convention Listing

Convention season 2020 is well under way! You can play in Society games at any of the conventions listed below! The list includes all submissions as of 4 February. If you see one missing, ping the organizer and have them submit a request for support or have them email me at organizedplay@paizo.com to discuss their event. All of the conventions on the list maintain some type of web presence, be it website, social media page, or Warhorn listing, so if you are interested in attending in either capacity, check out their websites or contact the local venture-officer for more information!

Convention	Location	Start Date
CaptainCon 2020	Warwick, RI	2/7/2020
FlintCon 2020	Flint, MI	2/8/2020
LodgeCon 2020	Peotone, Illinois	2/8/2020
GenghisCon 2020	Aurora, Colorado	2/13/2020
BASHCon 35 (2020)	Toledo, OH	2/14/2020
Capricon 40 (2020)	Wheeling, IL	2/14/2020
Con of the North 2020	Plymouth MN	2/14/2020
DunDraCon 44 (2020)	San Ramon, California	2/14/2020
DunDraCon 44 (2020)	San Ramon, California	2/14/2020
NexusCon2020	Starfinder Nexus Discord & Roll20	2/14/2020
Orccon 2020	Los Angeles, CA, USA	2/14/2020
Orccon 2020	Los Angeles, CA, USA	2/14/2020
Radcon 8 (2020)	Pasco WA	2/14/2020
Dreamation 2020	Morristown, NJ	2/20/2020
TotalCon 34 (2020)	Marlborough, MA	2/20/2020
4th Annual Omaha Pathfinder Charity Con 2020	Bellevue, NE	2/21/2020
Manaleak 2020	Birmingham, West Midlands, UK	2/22/2020
Hoop & Stick 2020	65666 Bethel Rd New Plymouth, OH 45654	2/27/2020
PAX East 2020	Boston, MA	2/27/2020
Adventure Con 2020	Hamburg, Germany	2/28/2020
Gad Con 2020	Aberdeen MD	2/28/2020
George WashingCon 2020	Bloomington, IN	2/28/2020
Mysticon 2020	Roanoke, Virginia	2/28/2020
Owlcon: Hindsight 2020	Houston, Texas	2/28/2020
Vinterfinder 2020	Copenhagen/Denmark	2/28/2020
ArctiCon X	Merrillville, Indiana	2/29/2020
Cincycon	Hamilton, Ohio	3/6/2020
KevätMaraCon2020	Finland, Oulu, Kaijonharjun nuorisotalo	3/6/2020
Southend Pathfinder Conclave 2020	Southend, Essex, UK	3/7/2020
BFG CON	Frederick, MD	3/13/2020
Cleveland ConCoction	Aurora, Ohio	3/20/2020
COSCON 2020	Lyndora, PA (USA)	3/20/2020
CogCon Spring Revel 2020	Rolla, MO	3/27/2020
CoNfUsIoN 2020 - Winter	Gouda, zuid-holland, the Netherlands	3/27/2020
Not-A-Con 2020	Winder, GA	3/29/2020
CODCON 2020	Glen Ellyn, IL	4/3/2020
Save vs Hunger 2020	Maryville, TN	4/3/2020

Organized Play Staff Travel

While we aren’t ready to announce our full year of convention travel quite yet, we can confirm a few appearances during first quarter 2020. For those proactive organizers out there, please note the deadline to request Paizo staff attendance is 1 June 2020. Organizers may email your interest to organizedplay@paizo.com. Note: staff do not attend conventions that conflict with Paizo-sponsored shows.

Convention	Location	Start Date	Paizo Staffers Scheduled to Attend*
OwlCon 2020	Houston, TX	2/28/2020	Thurston
GenghisCon 2020	Aurora, CO	2/13/2020	Tonya
Gama Trade Show 2020	Reno, NV	3/9/2020	Staff TBD
Emerald City Comic Con 2020	Seattle, WA	3/13/2020	Staff TBD
CogCon 2020	Sacramento, CA	3/27/2020	Tonya

*Staffers scheduled to attend may change without notice.

Don’t forget to come back next week for the scenario previews!

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

With all the snow falling around the office, I thought a bit of Frozen humor appropriate. Since I ran away from the snowmageddon to the warmer climes of Virginia, I’d ask our community to send good vibes back to the Paizonians braving the wrath of Baba Yaga to keep operations and books moving forward.

Linda and I being at conventions left Michael, James, and Thurston with the run of the Org Play department. I’m looking forward to hearing what craziness they concocted in our absence. One of the tasks this week involved completing the Pathfinder Society Year 2 outline, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a leshy luchador or an iruxi alchemist snuck in somewhere.

The big news for this week is that we are coordinating with the Organized Play Foundation to launch the call for volunteers for the next batch of Paizo-sponsored conventions for 2020. The following events need GMs and HQ volunteers:

• PaizoCon (SeaTac, WA, USA) – May 22-25, 2020 – Call currently open
• UK Games Expo (Birmingham, United Kingdom) – May 29-31, 2020
• Origins (Columbus, OH, USA) – June 17-21, 2020
• Gen Con (Indianapolis, IN, USA) – July 30 – Aug 2, 2020

General signups open Wednesday, January 22, 2020 at 12pm Eastern time. Information on volunteer perks and links for the volunteer questionnaires are on the Organized Play Foundation website.

We won’t request volunteers for PAX Unplugged until second quarter 2020, but I wanted to include its’ information since the date changed significantly next year.

• PAX Unplugged (Philadelphia, PA, USA) – November 20-22, 2020

One other note – The Origins staff event organizer noted that a $10 processing fee applies to any badge returns. If you are volunteering at a level that receives a badge as part of the perk package, please keep this in mind before purchasing badges, as any fee incursions are the responsibility of the GM. The Origins staff noted the fee was the policy in the past, though not collected consistently, and that they intend on enforcing it this year.

Next week, join us for previews of the Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society scenario releases for January. Pathfinder Adventure Card Society won’t have a release this month but returns with a new adventure in February 2020.

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Greetings from Columbus, Ohio! This is a brief blog to let you know what the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game doings are at Origins Game Fair (in Columbus) and on Free RPG Day (at participating retailers worldwide) this weekend.

At Origins, there's PACG play in the Franklin Rooms pretty much all the time. If you're here and you haven't seen the new Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Core Set and Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path, now's your chance to dive in. Plus, you'll be able to play all 4 scenarios of The Fangwood Thieves, the new Season of the Kobolds adventure for Pathfinder Adventure Card Society. (If you've never played PACS before, this is a great place to start!) It's a rollicking good time.

I'll be here throughout the weekend, mostly doing my annual nightly broadcast from the Big Bar on 2 with my co-hosts Paul Peterson and Gaby Weidling (remember them?). If you like lots of guests and assorted silliness, tune into the Lone Shark Games Twitch channel each night. Last night's broadcast should already be up!

And then on Saturday, it's Free RPG Day! As I mentioned in a previous blog, we took this opportunity to write a whole new goblin adventure using the Core Set! We Be Heroes? is a weird, wild adventure of good-guy gobbos dealing with paladins, undead, and strange chickens. It includes 4 new goblin characters, though you can play it with any of the 159 (!) other PACG characters we've released over the years. You'll like it. Pick it up at any participating store or try it at Origins. If you can't get to one of those locations, though, don't worry—starting July 1, you'll be able to download the FREE PDF or buy a print copy from paizo.com.

We're also pleased to announce that We Be Heroes? is officially sanctioned for Pathfinder Adventure Card Society play. Just download this sanctioning document (218 KB zip/PDF), which describes the adjustments you need to make the adventure PACS-legal. (We will soon be issuing similar sanctioning documents for The Dragon's Demand and Curse of the Crimson Throne.)

Since We Be Heroes? is for starting characters, it didn't make sense to include roles for our new goblin heroes in that adventure. But we will be releasing them online so you can take them all the way through any Adventure Path—if you can keep them alive, that is. We're doing something very new for these: One of the two roles you can choose for each goblin uses a concept called goblin markers. Here's how they work: Each goblin picks a pattern of marker that's theirs. When various circumstances occur (such as Crimsi examining a barrier or Siathorn stealing an Animal ally from another character), they get to mark their character with one of their goblin markers. Feats allow them to count and spend the markers for all manner of craziness, such as the Kitbasher Crimsi letting a friend examine the top card of a few location decks then move to one of them. (Crimsi's friend will probably take only a small amount of damage in the process; I wouldn't worry about it too much if I were Crimsi.) There are only 7 of each marker in the box, so no goblin can have more than 7—unless you're playing Pizazz, who has a feat that lets him swipe a marker from another goblin to heal himself.

It's going to be a fun weekend! Hope to see you at Origins and Free RPG Day!

Mike Selinker
Adventure Card Game Lead Designer

My calendar reminders say 18 days to PaizoCon, 24 days to UK Games Expo, 36 days to Origins, and 85 days to Gen Con. The team is neck deep in preparations as we head towards the finish lines. Who's getting excited? Last week, we posted a blog that had information on our convention special events—PFS #10-98: Siege of Gallowspire, SFS #2-00: Fate of the Scoured God, and PFS(2) #1-00: Origin of the Open Road. You can read it here!

Campaign Coins

I attended KoboldCon in Colorado Springs last weekend and had the pleasure of recognizing OJ Pinckert as a campaign coin recipient. If you've been at Gen Con the past few years, you may have met him and his Goblin BoB around the event. He is now the proud owner of organized play #808. A huge huzzah for his years of service to the program!

Stars

During April, several GMs reached their 5th star. To achieve this milestone, GMs run 150 games, of which at least 50 must be unique scenarios and 10 special scenarios, as well as run a game for a venture-captain. A conservative estimate of time needed to reach 5-stars is 650 hours! To the GMs listed below, thank you very much for the time and energy you spend running Pathfinder Society games! Huge congratulations on your achievement!

Jeff B
Andreas Forster
Eleanor Jenner
Ken S
Sandra Wilkinson

Novas & Glyphs

Last month, we presented the first peek at the requirements for reaching 5 novas. As we seek to standardize some points between the campaigns, what is implemented for novas will apply to Pathfinder Society (2nd edition) Glyphs as well.

The commentary to that blog provided quite a bit of feedback. Readers also raised a few questions. One point of discussion was whether the Nova represents a commitment to the campaign (quantitive) or recognizes the ability of the GM (qualitative). Feedback from the discussion threads and surveys of last fall say the majority of respondents want some level of qualitative measure and that a 5 nova GM meets a baseline expectation of table experience.

At this point, we have a potential rubric. A massive shout out to Chris Marsh, whose original version provided the basis for our discussions. As I don't want to clutter this blog with a conversation about the rubric, I will post it in a discussion thread on our forums. The thread was opened last Friday, May 3 and you can find a link to it here. We will take feedback for one week. After that, we will lock, load, and publish the rubric for future use.

Regarding other questions. I'm working on a FAQ sheet that will address most of the commentary/concerns and hope to have it posted soon.

Convention Listing

We have organized play activities at quite a few conventions in the upcoming months, so if you want to get your game on, check out the list below! The list includes all the event support requests received to date. If you see one missing, ping the organizer and have them submit a request for support or have them email me at organizedplay@paizo.com to discuss their event. All of the conventions on the list maintain some type of web presence, be it website, social media page, or Warhorn listing, so if you are interested in attending in either capacity, check out their websites or contact the local venture-officer for more information!

Convention Name	Location	Start Date
1D4 Con (2019)	Shepherdstown, WV	5/3/2019
2019 D8 Summit	Utica, IL	5/3/2019
Chupacabracon VI (2019)	Round Rock, TX	5/3/2019
ConTRAPtion 2019	Worthing, West Sussex, UK	5/3/2019
HeroiCon 2019	Decatur, IL	5/3/2019
Comicpalooza 2019 Houston, TX	5/10/2019
PeazoCon!!! 2019	Madrid, Spain	5/10/2019
QC Gamefest 2019	Davenport, IA	5/10/2019
SFERAKON 2019	Zagreb, Croatia, Europe	5/10/2019
the Seelie Court 2019	Philadelphia, PA	5/10/2019
MegaConvention 2019	Orlando, FL	5/16/2019
BLFC 2019	Reno, NV	5/17/2019
KevätMaraCon2019	Oulu, Finland	5/17/2019
Tricon 2019	Bay City, MI	5/17/2019
FlamingCon 2019	West Palm Beach, FL	5/18/2019
Fargo CoreCon 2019	Fargo, ND	5/23/2019
MomoCon 2019	Atlanta, GA	5/23/2019
Cherry Capital Comic Con 2019	Traverse City, MI	5/24/2019
Gamex 2019	Los Angeles, CA	5/24/2019
KublaCon 2019	Burlingame, CA	5/24/2019
Mobicon 2019	Mobile, AL	5/24/2019
Seekerpalooza 3 (2019)	Montreat, NC	5/24/2019
Nexus Game Fair 2019	Brookfield, WI	5/29/2019
ConCarolinas 2019	Charlotte, NC	5/31/2019
Die Con 19	Collinsville, IL	5/31/2019
Galaxy Con 2019	Richmond, VA	5/31/2019
PULSAR'19	Paris, France	6/8/2019
Prairie Con XL (2019)	Brandon, Manitoba, Canada	6/14/2019
Summerfest 2019	Richland WA	7/25/2019
Summerlodge 2019	Taastrup, Denmark	8/9/2019
Con Voyage 2019	Sydney NSW (at sea on the Carnival Spirit)	8/23/2019
SkålCon 2019	Roseville, MN	9/20/2019
Saluki Con 2019	Carbondale, IL	9/28/2019

Organized Play Staff Travel

Want to hang out with Paizo staff? Play in a game which they are GM? Check out the list below and come see us at a convention near you. If you are an event organizer and want to invite us out at your event in 2020, the deadline to request our attendance is 1 June, as we must submit the convention plan by July. Organizers may email your interest to organizedplay@paizo.com. Note: staff do not attend conventions the last weekend in May or the weekend of Gen Con, due to already being slated to attend those shows.

Convention	Location	Start Date	Paizo Staffers Scheduled to Attend
PaizoCon	SeaTac, WA	5/23/2019	All
UK Games Expo	Birmingham, United Kingdom	5/31/2019	Tonya, Amanda, Cosmo, Erik, Jason B., Jeff, Rob
Origins	Columbus, OH	6/12/2019	Tonya, John C., Thurston
GenCon	Indianapolis, IN	8/1/2019	Most
FanExpo	Toronto, Canada	8/22/2019	Tonya
DragonCon	Atlanta, GA	8/30/2019	John C.
Delta H Con	Houston, TX	9/20/2019	Linda Zayas-Palmer, Mark Seifter
NukeCon	Omaha, NE	10/4/2019	OP TBD
PaizoCon Asia-Pacific	Adelaide, SA, Australia	10/17/2019	Tonya
GameHole Con	Madison, WI	10/31/2019	Tonya, TBD
PAX Unplugged	Philadelphia, PA	12/6/2019	Tonya, Amanda, Cosmo, Erik, Jason B., Jeff
Delta H Con	Houston, TX	9/20/2019	Linda Zayas-Palmer, Mark Seifter
NukeCon	Omaha, NE	10/4/2019	OP TBD
PaizoCon Asia-Pacific	Adelaide, SA, Australia	10/17/2019	Tonya
GameHole Con	Madison, WI	10/31/2019	Tonya
PAX Unplugged	Philadelphia, PA	TBD	Tonya, Amanda, Cosmo, Erik, Jason B., Jeff

*Staffers scheduled to attend may change without notice.

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

I hope this May Day finds you enjoying good weather and getting ready for the turn of the seasons. For those of our friends in the Southern Hemisphere, shorter days herald the coming of winter, but hopefully, you can get a few more rays of sunshine before the first flakes fall.

In the office, convention preparations take up much of the team's time. On a positive note, scenario development proceeds at a good clip, and we look forward to getting the scenarios into the hands of our convention GMs. As the developers finished with the new special events, they finalized some outstanding points and identified information that would aid player participation. To reach as broad an audience as possible, we decided a short blog that could be linked via social media and other information outlets would be the best option. If you know of someone that would benefit from the information, please pass a link to this blog on to them.

As a general practice, when scheduling the special events at PaizoCon, Origins, and Gen Con, we separate out each subtier and assign GMs accordingly. This helps with the amount of prep work needed by the GM, and it makes sure we have the right number of tables at each sub-tier. As registration for these events open, please know we are watching the ticket sales and will make adjustments to the number of tables in each subtier accordingly. It is important to register for events in a subtier you are willing and able to play, as the opportunity for trading levels is almost non-existent onsite. Reminder for those playing #10-98: Siege of Gallowspire, not only are tickets sold by subtier, they are divided up into Soldier and Champion. See the entry below for more information on those terms.

I turn now to our team of developers working on the special events—Organized Play Lead Developer John Compton and Society developers Linda Zayas-Palmer and Thurston Hillman—for specific scenario details.

Pathfinder Society (1st edition) #10-98: Siege of Gallowspire (For Levels 5-16)

Soldier is a little bit harder than a typical Pathfinder Society Special. Champion is a full-on Hard Mode.

Regarding other characters. You can bring up to three additional PCs of level 5-20 to the game. These PCs are called Aid Characters. Aid Characters can generate more powerful aid tokens, and they can also participate in special Aid Missions. The higher level the Aid Character, the better they are likely to do at challenges.

The only thing you need to bring for an Aid Character is that PC's most recent Chronicle sheet fully filled out. You may want to bring their character sheets too, particularly if you don't remember the characters that well and you'd like to roleplay them a bit. Aid characters must be your own PCs.

If you don't have PCs at the appropriate level, you can instead enlist the aid of 4th level NPC Pathfinders by using the iconic pregenerated characters. These NPCs aren't as capable as your own PCs would be, but they can still help out.

You may have heard from previous discussions of the idea of changing which PC you are playing mid-session. That is no longer part of the scenario.

Check here for more information!

Starfinder Society #2-00: Fate of the Scoured God (For Levels 1-10)

We're pleased to announce that the upcoming Starfinder Society interactive special (Starfinder Society #2–00: Fate of the Scoured God) is going to be a repeatable event! Unlike typical scenarios with the Repeatable tag, this event is repeatable once over its three Tier ranges (Tiers 1–4, Tier 5–8, and Tier 9–12) giving players multiple opportunities to experience this momentous adventure throughout the coming convention season. We're excited to provide players attending numerous conventions (such as Origins and Gen Con) a chance to run or play in this event multiple times, and for credit!

Pathfinder Society (2nd edition) #1-00: Origins of the Open Road (For Level 5)

When Starfinder Society launched in 2017, we featured a special prologue adventure that helped set up the upcoming stories we would tell in the first year—all while giving players a taste of higher-level play with pregenerated characters. Two years later, we're kicking off Pathfinder Society's second edition campaign in much the same way in Pathfinder Society Scenario #1-00: Origin of the Open Road, with the PCs playing 5th-level pregenerated iconic characters who uncover forgotten secrets of the Society in the arcane capital of Quantium. Even though this is a special adventure, it's not an exclusive scenario; run and play it at any venue.

Until later—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

John Compton
Organized Play Lead Developer

Linda Zayas-Palmer
Organized Play Developer

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

I'm currently on a road trip through Oregon, Idaho, and Washington, getting a bit of personal time before delving back into convention season. John Compton and Jason Bulmahn just returned from GameStorm in Portland and from brief conversations the convention seemed to go well (maybe we can get a few more details in a future blog!). When I get back on Monday, I've got a few more weeks in the office packed with blog writing, con planning, meetings, finalizing details Pathfinder Society for Second Edition, and working on items for the current programs, before I head out to KoboldCon in Colorado Springs.

Regarding current programs, we need your help! As we approach the launch of Starfinder Society Year 2, we are calling all Starfinders who've championed the Second Seeker faction and purchased the Rising Star boon to send in your character information. For those with the boon in their sights, the deadline for submissions is May 1 at midnight Pacific time. Any items received after the deadline will be retained for future use. Players should email their character information to us at organizedplay@paizo.com. We reply to all submissions, so if you've sent it in and not heard back, please resend.

Campaign Coins

We distributed no campaign coins in March due to our lessened travel schedule. Huge thank yous to all that sent in recommendations over the past month. We would love to have more suggestions for deserving members of our community. Anyone can make a recommendation, not just the Venture-Officer or GM teams. Please take a moment and email me at organizedplay@paizo.com with their name, location, and the reasons you feel they deserve recognition for their service. This message should be a synopsis of what the volunteer does that benefits your community, and does not need to be overly detailed or involved. If you are able, please include what events they may attend in 2019 so that we can either make awards in person (preferred) or make arrangements for remote presentation.

Stars

We are now into the second quarter of 2019 and convention season started in earnest. Our GMs this month took advantage of all the opportunities to run games and earned their 5th star. To achieve this milestone, GMs run 150 games, of which at least 50 must be unique scenarios and 10 Special scenarios, as well as run a game for a venture-captain. A conservative estimate of time needed to reach 5-stars is 650 hours! To the GMs listed below, thank you very much for the time and energy you spend running Pathfinder Society games! Huge congratulations on your achievement!

Chris Murphy
Bill Swathwood

Novas & Glyphs

After soliciting opinions from a variety of sources and then lots of brainstorming and discussion, we formulated a plan for Novas which also will apply to Pathfinder Society Glyphs later this year.

Requirements will remain similar to the existing Pathfinder Society Stars. A GM will need to run 150 games, of which ten must be special events, and the total must include 50 unique scenarios. Venture-Captain recommendation and processing are where the change comes in. After listening to quite a bit of feedback about what being a 5-star GM means, we've decided to add a qualitative element to the requirements. Our tech department is assisting us in making the process automated, so GMs qualifying for their 5th star won't have to wait for the monthly processing.

To add the qualitative element, we increased the number of adjudicated games 1 to 3. To help schedule the additional games, GMs can request Venture-Captain observation any time after their 100th game. Observations may be held in person, via web games, on VTTs, via PbP, or any other medium that is currently being used by the community. Venture-Captains will evaluate GMs on 5-6 criteria based on a published rubric. There will not be numerical scoring, but a system of does not meet/meets/exceeds expectations. GMs will need to accumulate a better than average score on each evaluation, which means they can have all meets and 1 exceeds expectations and qualify. They could also have a does not meet, 2-3 meets, and 2 exceeds expectations and qualify. A GM cannot complete more than three evaluations in a weekend. Any GM that fails to meet the criteria may wait three months and try again.

At this point, we have a rubric that we are soliciting feedback on and working on the last bits of tech. I hope to have the final bits hammered out in the next few weeks, so we can publish the rubric and get our 4-novas GMs started on their path.

Upcoming Conventions

Want to attend a convention in the next few months? Check out the list below! The list includes all the event support requests received to date. If you see one missing, ping the organizer and have them submit their event or have them email me at organizedplay@paizo.com to discuss. All of the conventions on the list maintain a web presence, be it website, social media page, or Warhorn listing. If you are interested in attending in either capacity, check out their website or contact the local Venture-Officer for more information!

Convention Name	Location	Start Date
BeholderCon 2019	Boise, ID	4/5/2019
Gryphcon 2019	Guelph, Ontario, Canada	4/5/2019
LexiCon 2019	Lexington, KY	4/5/2019
Ravencon 2019	Williamsburg, VA	4/5/2019
Bookwyrm 2019	Fresno, CA	4/6/2019
MAG Con 2019	New Caney, TX	4/6/2019
CODCON 2019	Glen Ellyn, IL	4/12/2019
FG Con 14 (2019)	Fantasy Grounds (VTT)	4/12/2019
JohnCon 2019	Baltimore, MD	4/12/2019
Mepacon Spring 2019	Scranton, PA	4/12/2019
Pathcon 5.5 (2019)	Salt Lake City, UT	4/12/2019
Pretzcon 2019	Omaha, NE	4/12/2019
Save vs. Hunger 2019	Maryville, TN	4/12/2019
GameCon XII (2019)	Colorado Springs, CO	4/13/2019
Tricon 4 - Reincarnated (2019)	Archdale, NC	4/13/2019
Conquest 2019 Melbourne	Melbourne, Australia	4/19/2019
EyeCon 2019	Sydney, NSW, Australia	4/19/2019
MTAC 2019	Nashville, TN	4/19/2019
HMGS-South Recon 2019	Kissimmee, FL	4/25/2019
Cape Comic Con 2019	Cape Girardeau , MO	4/26/2019
CritterCon 2 (2019)	Discord (Online)	4/26/2019
Gaming Hoopla '19	Mundelein, IL	4/26/2019
KoboldCon 2019	Colorado Springs, CO	4/26/2019
Kubla!Now!! LA	Burbank, CA, USA	4/27/2019
NRVcon 2019	Blacksburg, VA	4/27/2019
PrezCon 2019	Auckland, New Zealand	4/27/2019
1D4 Con 2019	Shepherdstown, WV	5/3/2019
2019 D8 Summit	Utica, IL	5/3/2019
ConTRAPtion 2019	Worthing, West Sussex, UK	5/3/2019
Comicpalooza 2019	Houston, TX	5/10/2019
QC Gamefest 2019	Davenport, IA	5/10/2019
BLFC 2019	Reno, NV	5/17/2019
FlamingCon 2019	West Palm Beach, FL	5/18/2019
MomoCon 2019	Atlanta, GA	5/23/2019
Gamex 2019	Los Angeles, CA	5/24/2019
KublaCon 2019	Burlingame, CA	5/24/2019
Seekerpalooza 3 (2019)	Montreat, NC	5/24/2019
Nexus Game Fair 2019	Brookfield, WI	5/29/2019
ConCarolinas 2019	Charlotte, NC	5/31/2019
Prairie Con XL (2019)	Brandon, Manitoba, Canada	6/14/2019
Summerfest 2019	Richland, WA	7/25/2019
Summerlodge 2019	Taastrup, Denmark	8/9/2019
Con Voyage 2019	Sydney NSW (at sea on the Carnival Spirit)	8/23/2019
SkålCon 2019	Roseville, MN	9/20/2019
Saluki Con 2019	Carbondale, IL	9/28/2019

Organized Play Staff Travel

Want to hang out with Paizo staff? Play in a game which they are GM? Check out the list below and see us at a convention near you. I've been asked several times what it takes for a staffer to attend. At a minimum, the event should supply room(s) and badges, and the more costs covered, the easier it is to put on our schedule. Note: staff cannot attend conventions the last weekend in May or the weekend of Gen Con. We've moved our budgeting process up a bit, so if you are an event organizer and want to invite us out at your event in 2020, drop an email to organizedplay@paizo.com before June 1, as we must submit the convention plan by July.

Convention	Location	Start Date	Paizo Staffers Scheduled to Attend
KoboldCon	Colorado Springs, CO	4/26/2019	Stephen Radney-McFarland, Tonya Woldridge
PaizoCon	SeaTac, WA	5/23/2019	All
UK Games Expo	Birmingham, United Kingdom	5/31/2019	Jeff Alvarez, Jason Bulmahn, Cosmo, Amanda Hamon, Robert G. McCreary, Erik Mona, Tonya Woldridge
Origins	Columbus, OH	6/12/2019	John Compton, Thurston Hillman, Tonya Woldridge
Gen Con	Indianapolis, IN	8/1/2019	Most
FanExpo	Toronto, Canada	8/22/2019	Tonya Woldridge
DragonCon	Atlanta, GA	8/30/2019	John Compton
Delta H Con	Houston, TX	9/20/2019	Mark Seifter, Linda Zayas-Palmer
NukeCon	Omaha, NE	10/4/2019	TBD
PaizoCon Asia-Pacific	Adelaide, SA, Australia	10/17/2019	Tonya Woldridge
GameHole Con	Madison, WI	10/31/2019	Tonya Woldridge
PAX Unplugged	Philadelphia, PA	TBD	Jeff Alvarez, Jason Bulmahn, Cosmo, Amanda Hamon, Erik Mona, Tonya Woldridge

*Staffers scheduled to attend may change without notice.

Join us next week for a sneak peek into Starfinder Society Year 2, and until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

I spent much of February traveling to different conventions and leave again this weekend for a week of GAMA trade show fun! In my absence, organized play lead developer John Compton took to the Paizo twitch channel with Marketing Manager Dan Tharp for a discussion of upcoming bits and bobs about the Paizo organized play programs, with the predominate focus on the remaining storylines of Pathfinder Society Season Ten, the launch of Pathfinder Society Year One, Starfinder Society Season One, and the Adventure Card Guild. Without further ado, John's recap:

Campaign Coins

We distributed no campaign coins in February, partly due to lack of recommendations. The organized play team cannot be everywhere, and we rely on recommendations from community members regarding who receives coins. Anyone can make a recommendation, not just the venture-officer or GM teams. Please take a moment and email me at organizedplay@paizo.com with their name, location, and the reasons you feel they should be recognized for their service. It doesn't need to be a long, involved email, just a synopsis of what the volunteer does to make your community go. If you are able, please include what events they may attend in 2019 so that we can either make awards in person (preferred) or make arrangements for remote presentation.

Stars

As we start 2019 convention season in earnest, please join me in three cheers for the GMs who utilized the winter months to qualify for their 5th star. To achieve this milestone, GMs run 150 games, of which at least 50 must be unique scenarios and 10 special scenarios, as well as run a game for a venture-captain. A conservative estimate of time needed to reach 5-stars is 650 hours! To the GMs listed below, thank you very much for the time and energy you spend running Pathfinder Society games! Huge congratulations on your achievement!

• Walter Wooten
• James Kight
• Guy Caley

Convention Listing

2019 Organized Play Staff Travel

Want to hang out with Paizo staff? Play in a game which they are GM? Check out the list below and come see us at a convention near you. I've been asked several times what it takes for a staffer to attend a convention. At a minimum, the convention should supply room(s) and badges. The more costs a convention can cover, the easier it is to get a convention on the schedule. Please note - staff do not attend conventions the last weekend in May or the weekend of Gen Con, due to already being slated to attend those shows. If you are an event organizer and want to invite us out at your event in 2020, drop an email to organizedplay@paizo.com before July, as we put our schedule together in August.

^{*Staffers scheduled to attend may change without notice.}

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

The Organized Play Foundation (OPF) is putting the final touches on their call for volunteers for Paizo organized play programs. Paizo requested volunteers for Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild, Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild, Pathfinder Society Academy, Starfinder Society, and Pathfinder Society version 2 at PaizoCon, Origins, Gen Con, UK Games Expo and PAX Unplugged. Registration launches on Friday, January 18, 2019 at 6:00 AM Pacific time. To register, visit OPF Convention Volunteer Page and complete questionnaires for the events you wish to attend. Due to how requests are processed by convention organizing committees, you will need to complete a different questionnaire for every event you wish to volunteer for. Registering early on will ensure maximum choice of program and level of volunteerism, though cancellations mean volunteers are often accepted up to the week before the event.

Each convention will offer a volunteer incentive package based on the number of blocks an individual volunteer. While volunteer incentives vary between each convention, potential offerings include rooms, badges, printed Paizo products, credit for use at Paizo.com, t-shirts, free scenarios, and in-game rewards. The listings on the Organized Play Foundation will outline each conventions incentive package.

Check back next week as the organized play developers preview this month's scenarios for Starfinder Society and Pathfinder Society!

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge

Organized Play Manager

Last Wednesday I was on a plane bound for Washington, D.C. and MAGFest. I returned Monday from one of the highest energy conventions I've attended. Trevor and the tri-state crew, as well as help from Pennsylvania and further afield, delivered four days of Starfinder Society and Pathfinder Society adventures. This week, I'm catching up on tasks so that I can fly out to SCARAB next week. Come hang out and say hi! If you're interested in which conventions Paizo staffers will attend in 2019, check out the listing at the bottom of the blog.

I received multiple queries on when the call to volunteer would go out for PaizoCon and Gen Con. With the formation of the Organized Play Foundation and their oversight of volunteers, the call will originate from the OPF and Paizo will boost the signal. At this time, Paizo is requesting OPF solicit volunteers for PaizoCon, Origins, Gen Con, UK Games Expo and PAX Unplugged. It is our hope to have everything coordinated by next week so that we can receive questionnaires and respond quickly.

Finally, as we move into 2019, I want to say thank you to the community that keeps making Paizo organized play programs - Starfinder Society, Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild, and Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild - fantastic places to play. Without the volunteers and players, we would not have the renaissance in RPGs we are currently experiencing. Huge huzzahs and I look forward to meeting more of you in 2019.

Campaign Coins

December was a quieter time for travels, as I only attended PAX Unplugged, and did not present any campaign coins. There is still the one outstanding coin from PaizoCon Asia-Pacific that has not yet reached its recipient. As we are in the turning of the year and the last few months of our original Pathfinder Society campaign , I thought this a fitting time to list all those who've received a Campaign Service Coin for their dedication to our hobby.

Recipients

Name	New Number	Con Received
Kyle Elliott	701	PaizoCon 2014
Kristie Schweyer	702	PaizoCon 2014
Stephen White	703	PaizoCon 2014
Alistair Rigg	704	PaizoCon 2014
Art Lobdell	705	PaizoCon 2014
Myron Paul	706	PaizoCon 2014
Eric Brittain	707	PaizoCon 2014
Michael Azzolino	708	PaizoCon 2014
Robyn Nixon	709	PaizoCon 2014
Auke Teeninga	710	PaizoCon UK 2014
Dave Harrison	711	PaizoCon UK 2014
Rob Silk	712	PaizoCon UK 2014
Zrinka Znidarcic	713	PaizoCon UK 2014
Jon Cary	714	Gen Con 2014
Steve Miller	715	Gen Con 2014
Joe Jungers	716	Gen Con 2014
Seth Gipson	717	Gen Con 2014
Garrett Gottschalk	718	Gen Con 2014
Dominick Trascritti	719	Gen Con 2014
Todd Morgan	720	Gen Con 2014
Bob Jonquet	721	Gen Con 2014
Del Collins II	722	Gen Con 2014
Lucas Servideo	723	Gen Con 2014
Andrew Christian	724	Gen Con 2014
Dan Simons	725	Gen Con 2014
Brent Jans	726	Gen Con 2014
Jon Dehning	727	Gen Con 2014
Jester Deren	728	Gen Con 2014
June Soler	729	Gen Con 2014
Michael McNerney	730	Gen Con 2014
Karim Majeri	731	PaizoCon UK 2015
Benoit Gros	732	PaizoCon UK 2015
Mark Langereis	733	PaizoCon UK 2015
Chris Brockley-Blatt	734	PaizoCon UK 2015
Gael Aubort	735	PaizoCon UK 2015
Brett Sweeney	736	Gen Con 2015
Eric Clingenpeel	737	Gen Con 2015
Jason Roeder	738	Gen Con 2015
Richard Gilbert	739	Gen Con 2015
Michael Costello	740	Gen Con 2015
Derek Boobyer	741	Gen Con 2015
Seth Brummond	742	Gen Con 2015
Michael VonHasseln	743	Gen Con 2015
Daniel Flood	744	Gen Con 2015
Martin Shelby	745	Gen Con 2015
Dan Cornett	746	Gen Con 2015
Chris Hays	747	Gen Con 2015
Vanessa Hoskins	748	Gen Con 2015
Angus MacLennan	749	Gen Con 2015
Tersha Choy	750	Gen Con 2015
Michael Meunier	751	Fall 2015
Sebastian Schirrmeister	752	Fall 2015
Wolf Vituschek	753	Fall 2015
Florent Fournol	754	Fall 2015
Ray Diaz	755	PaizoCon 2016
David Montgomery	756	PaizoCon 2016
Robert Hetherington	757	PaizoCon 2016
Jesse Davis	758	PaizoCon 2016
Luke Woods	759	Origins 2016
Jen McTeague	760	Origins 2016
Pete Pollard	761	PaizoCon UK 2016
Terry Thambipillai	762	PaizoCon UK 2016
Vincent Colón-Roine	763	PaizoCon UK 2016
William Boyle	764	PaizoCon UK 2016
Paco Sanchez	765	PaizoCon UK 2016
Michael Eshleman	766	Gen Con 2016
Brendan Green	767	Gen Con 2016
Joanna Gore	768	Gen Con 2016
Rigby Bendele	769	Gen Con 2016
Kristen Gipson	770	Gen Con 2016
Jean-Marc Comeau	771	Gen Con 2016
David Jacobsen	772	TotalCon 2017
Wendy-Ann Francis	773	Dundra Con 2017
John Francis	774	Dundra Con 2017
Mark Stratton	775	WYC 2017
Carol Tierney	776	UKGE 2017
Allison Ooms	777	WYC 2017
Chad Newman	778	Origins 2017
Alexander Lenz	779	PaizoCon UK 2017
Tesifonte Negro	780	PaizoCon UK 2017
Nils Janson	781	PaizoCon UK 2017
Ian Hawthorne	782	PaizoCon UK 2017
Glen Shackleton	783	Gen Con 2017
Joe Mathos	784	MarsCon 2018
Paul Reese	785	MarsCon 2018
Mike McKeown	786	MarsCon 2018
Troy Schnack	787	Quad City Fest 2018
Jack Brown	788	PaizoCon 2018
Keith Apperson	789	PaizoCon 2018
Louis Manko Levite	790	PaizoCon 2018
Simon Kort	791	UKGE 2018
Sebastian Hirsch	792	UKGE 2018
Brent Bowser	793	Origins 2018
Bobby Harring	794	Origins 2018
Gustavo Cruz	795	PaizoCon UK 2018
Jim Torbet	796	PaizoCon UK 2018
Caner Unsal	797	PaizoCon UK 2018
Lau Bannenberg	798	PaizoCon UK 2018
Walter Sheppard	799	Gen Con 2018
David Shaw	800	Gen Con 2018
Mike Bramnik	801	Gen Con 2018
Will Johnson	802	Gen Con 2018
Russ Brown	803	Gen Con 2018
Glen Irving	804	PaizoCon AP 2018
Redacted	805	PaizoCon AP 2018