Exploring Factions' Favor

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

PaizoCon wrapped up about a month ago, and although we announced the next season of the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild at the preview banquet, we're overdue for a proper introduction on paizo.com.

In the pursuit of ancient secrets and unclaimed treasures, the Pathfinder Society doesn't just make discoveries; it also makes enemies. A cast of the campaign's greatest villains has conspired to take their revenge against the Pathfinder, bringing war to the footstep of the great city Absalom and chaos to the Inner Sea region. For years, factions within the Society have championed their own agendas, fought for recognition, and accumulated resources. At last they have a chance to prove themselves—an experience that could leave these organizations changed forever in Season 9 of the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild: the Year of Factions' Favor.

In the coming year, Pathfinders have an opportunity to redeem souls, avert an invasion, uncover hidden secrets below an infamous museum, and vanquish an ageless evil poised to take control of the region's greatest minds. At the same time, players can use faction resources to shut down an exploitative consortium, thwart a league of dangerous villains, oust an infamous tyrant, and decide whether the ends justify the means in the pursuit of justice. On top of this there are tombs to unseal, artifacts to recover, and countless other adventures that await in this exciting season that debuts at Gen Con 2017!

Icon Illustration by Giorgio Baroni

One of the big questions I've heard over the past several years is "Our factions keep building connections and accumulating resources, but for what?" For some factions it's been pretty clear, such as the then-Taldor building up steam to launch its own Army of Exploration during Season 5. For others, the payoffs have been less obvious. For others still, it's been less a question of payoff and more a matter of self-reflection; some of the factions have found themselves pulled in multiple directions, whether that's multiple leaders vying for ideological dominance or a leader and a faction growing steadily less suited for each other. With Season 9, we're examining a bunch of these questions by giving many factions a big events in which to flex their muscles, prove their worth (in-game and out), and trigger some substantial changes on the world. Some factions are performing some house cleaning, such as rooting out corruption or thwarting a growing menace within their ranks. Others still are receiving smaller-scale stories tied to recurring characters whose narratives spin into a much larger event. All in all, each of the factions is getting something exciting to pursue over the course of Season 9.

Although Season 9 had a placeholder name of "Year of the Factions" for many months, the adventures are far from faction-exclusive. Characters of all factions should be able to enjoy these scenarios, and Society leadership will oversee the vast majority of these adventures—particularly ensuring that the Society's interests aren't lost in the shuffle. Many of these adventures also involve the same elements that we've come to expect from Pathfinder Society scenarios, such as exploring ancient sites, uncovering hidden secrets, discovering rarely-traveled lands, and dishing out a generous helping of RPG action. All the while, the factions are jostling for the opportunity to lend their support and be awesome. For example, if a noteworthy port is giving the Society trouble and keeping the PCs from going on an adventure, you can bet the Exchange is chomping at the bit and saying, "Is this municipality using economic warfare to block you? Two can play at that game. Hold my beer."

On top of that, we'll have a helping of unaffiliated adventures, including a new higher-than-1st-level replayable adventure.

The Adventure Path

From Season 3 to Season 6 of Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild, the campaign's overarching theme connected to one of two Adventure Paths that would release that year. While this allowed the developers to promote and borrow from the supporting literature released around that same time for the Adventure Path, it also meant the organized play program was telling less of its own story. Beginning in Season 7, we broke from that mold. While the freedom to craft our own narrative is delightful, I've been missing the sense of cross-product collaboration. The difference is that rather than wait for the Adventure Path line to set the direction, I went straight to Crystal Frasier to start planning things from the ground up.

Crystal's a delightful co-conspirator, and I've known for a while that her desire to shake up Taldor is even stronger than my own. When we put our heads together, we realized just how well our two stories could work together, rather than one being subservient to the other. After all, the Sovereign Court's been building up to something big for quite some time, and overthrowing an irresponsible monarch in order to revitalize one of our central nations sounds like just the right thing.

Is the entirety of Season 9 about Taldor and the upcoming War for the Crown? Far from it, but we will have several scenarios that tell a big Sovereign Court faction story and contribute to this Adventure Path.

Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild

There are more stories we have in reserve than we have scenario slots to give them, and last year we tried something a little new with the Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild: we began tying its story into that of the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild and cementing the PCs' role as Pathfinders. For those of you interested in the ongoing Scarab Sages narrative and drama with the Aspis Consortium, I encourage you to play Season 3: Season of Plundered Tombs.

For the first time, we have a shared season name between these two campaigns, so Season 4 is the Season of Factions' Favor. Here we'll show another side of one of the ongoing plot threads, giving players an opportunity to travel to rarely visited regions in order to thwart an infamous, recurring villain who threatens to cast the Inner Sea region into chaos. So when several upcoming Roleplaying Guild scenarios reference the behind-the-scenes efforts of another group of Pathfinders, remember that you can experience those stories with the Adventure Card Guild.

We're launching the Season of Factions' Favor at Gen Con in August!

John Compton
Organized Play Lead Developer

Off to the Planes!

Monday, November 28, 2016

We launched Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild's Season of the Stolen Storm with the promise of exploring the elemental planes, yet so far, the season has maintained a conspicuously Material Plane focus. Part of that's a lesson learned from Season 6, whose two dozen scenarios incorporated advanced technology in modest quantities yet developed a nothing-but-tech reputation because many of those scenarios debuted near the beginning of the season. This year we've been ramping up our extraplanar storyline more gradually, including Pathfinder Society Special #7-99: Through Maelstrom Rift as a peek behind the scenes of developments on their way and Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-05: Ungrounded but Unbroken as the Society's first on-screen step onto the elemental planes. At the same time, we've provided an oft-requested return to Galt, a story of redemption in Dtang Ma, an evergreen Tier 3-7 scenario, and more.

But make no mistake: we'll be seeing more of the elemental planes. That begins this week, beginning with two short series: Tyranny of Winds and Forged in Flame!

The first installment of Tyranny of Winds comes to us from Charlie Brooks, who takes us on a whirlwind tour of Osirion's Scorpion Coast in Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-08: Tyranny of Winds, Part 1: The Sandstorm Prophecy, a Tier 1-5 adventure. Much to Venture-Captain Norden Balentiir's consternation, his lodge has suffered another theft, this time apparently in association with the Society's recent acquisition of a powerful elemental artifact. The culprit has escaped into the Scorpion Coast, an untamed wilderness that Osirian pharaohs once attempted to settle through the labor of elementals—no doubt of interest to members of the Scarab Sages. It is now the domain of free-willed elementals that view most humanoids as trespassers, and it's here the PCs must travel if they are to find where the thief fled.

This season it's a goal of ours to present at least two adventures in each of the four elemental planes, and the Plane of Fire has proven one of the greatest challenges because, well, PCs are remarkably combustible in a realm that deals 3d10 fire damage each round. The answer was to look to the great trade cities, which offer some protection from the heat. The City of Brass is the most famous of these (and is on the way), but what really jumped out at us was Zjarra, a cosmopolitan refuge that attracts commerce from across the multiverse. Not only is this appealing to the Exchange faction, but Zjarra is also the home of a dangerous informant who has offered her expertise in solving one of the Society's pressing problems—for a price. Venture-Captain Esmayl Ibn Qaradi has given the PCs the first crack at negotiating this planar metropolis in Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-09: Forged in Flame, Part 1: The Cindersworn Pact, a Tier 5-9 adventure!

In other news, traveling to the elemental planes and exploring elemental themes has warranted commissioning some really great art. Pictured here are an earth elemental, an efreeti information broker, and a Qadiran venture-captain who first appeared in Season 0 and now has his own handsome art—all illustrated by Giorgio Baroni.

John Compton
Pathfinder Society Lead Developer

No Trick, But a Serious Treat!

Monday, October 24, 2016

October scenarios always present an interesting challenge because they coincide so well with Halloween yet are also early enough in the season that I'm itching to develop the yearlong metaplot further. In the past we've had some creepy October adventures like Hall of the Flesh Eaters and To Judge a Soul, Part 2: Karma Reclaimed, but we've never had one with explicit Halloween imagery. This time, I carved out a piece of the Season 8 schedule like a chunk of pumpkin flesh from a cheerful jack-o'-lantern, tentatively naming the adventure "No seriously, Halloween." Linda and I didn't know quite what the plot would be until we combined it with another concept that had been percolating in our collection of madcap ideas. Then it all came together so beautifully that Linda couldn't resist writing Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-06: Reaping What We Sow herself. If we follow the jack-o'-lantern analogy, Linda is the candle—so often a cheerful source of light and warmth. From within the haunted depths of a jack-o'-lantern fortress, however, her creative energies shine with a truly sinister radiance. In this Tier 1-5 adventure, the PCs travel to a small town in northern Galt on a mission of peace and redemption, yet it can so quickly become a tragedy of blood and tears. Come for the Shelynite pumpkin-carving festival! Stay for the legacy of vengeance and terror (with notes so a GM can lighten the mood or play up the horror as befits the audience)!

Illustration by Marko Horvatin

In the office, we keep track of our long project queue with notecards. Early in the writing process for #8-06, Linda took a few artistic liberties with the scenario's project card, which I have photographed and spoilered below.

#8-06 Spoilers!

Illustration by Giorgio Baroni

The concept of an evergreen 1st-level adventure dates back to the First Steps adventures, and with The Confirmation in Season 5, it turned into something of a yearly tradition to release another evergreen adventure near the end of the calendar year. This has worked really well, providing players of all experience levels an infinitely replayable scenario designed to let the GM change several components to enhance the experience. This year, we made two big changes before we reached out to Andrew Hoskins to write the next evergreen adventure. First, we've changed the level, as Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-07: From the Tome of Righteous Repose is a Tier 3-7 scenario replayable for all of those levels. This helps address one of the big concerns that there are lots of low-level adventures—not that that's a bad thing—yet comparably fewer adventures that help a PC travel beyond the Tier 1-5 range.

Because we expect #8-07 will see a lot of play, we also aimed to increase the replayability beyond that of its evergreen predecessors by varying not only the creatures involved but also the location and the plot itself. The adventure allows the PCs to travel to three different locations and face off against one of four Major Threats, each of which has an assortment of possible Linked Threats (i.e. lieutenants and favored minions). On top of that, there are sundry additional monsters, traps, and hazards that a GM can use to populate the dungeons, each of which varies depending on whether the site appears in Lastwall, Ustalav, or the Hold of Belkzen. Don't fret though, as GMs just need to prepare what they plan to run, not every option. With Andrew Hoskins' writing, Linda's development work, and the guidance of our newest in-world venture-captain Shevar Besnik, you're in for many great adventures to come.

John Compton
Pathfinder Society Lead Developer