Greetings, ‘Finders, and welcome to one of the most perilous adventuring seasons of all—holiday shopping! But don’t fear, we’ve got a fantastic Black Fireday Sale to take the edge off those spending sprees!

All products featured in our Black Fireday Sale are physical-only—the discount does not extend to PDFs, Foundry modules, or other digital assets.

Save Big!

Get stellar books for a magical deal! Select products including Pathfinder Secrets of Magic, Pathfinder Guns & Gears, Starfinder Drift Crisis, and more are 40% off!

Deck the Halls!

Pathfinder and Starfinder reference card decks make great stocking stuffers! From the Deck of Endless NPCsto the Deck of Many Worlds, get all legacy (non-remaster) Pathfinder Second Edition and Starfinder First Edition card decks for 30% off!

Loot the Lost Omens Lore Vault!

Dive deep into the worlds and cultures of Golarion with Pathfinder Lost Omens lore books! Any and all Lost Omens line books published before 2024 are 30% off—including Pathfinder Lost Omens Highhelm, Pathfinder Lost Omens Ancestry Guide, Pathfinder Lost Omens Legends, and so much more!

Stock up on Starfinder!

As we give a fond farewell to Starfinder First Edition and look to the bright stars of the future, we’re excited to put the entire Starfinder rulebook and supplement collection on sale at 25% off! Plus, get your hands on the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Rulebook, A Cosmic Birthday, and Empires Devoured to start a Starfinder Second Edition game this winter!

Adventure Beyond!

Starting a new campaign in the new year? We’ve got you covered with a selection of Pathfinder and Starfinder Adventure Paths on sale 25% off! Venture into parallel worlds in Gatewalkers or save Destiny itself from ruin in Stolen Fate! Join a pack of roguish space traders in Fly Free or Die or explore the aftermath of the Drift Crisis with Drift Crashers and Drift Hackers!

Games and Accessories!

Give your GM the gift of combat made easy with a pawn collection or combat pad! A wide variety of pawns and other accessories are 20% off—making planning new encounters a steal!

Used to waiting on a player or two for game night? Pick up Pathfinder Goblin Firework Fight and Pathfinder Elemental Stones to pass the time—also for a sweet 20% discount!

This blog is just a peek into the exciting treasure vault of savings—check out the full Black Fireday Sale collection to see it all!

Paizo’s 2024 Black Fireday Sale runs from 12:01 A.M. Pacific Time on Wednesday, November 27^th through 11:59 P.M Pacific on Monday, December 2^nd—plus, keep your eyes peeled for some Cyber Moonday specials!

Advent Giveaway and Sale

For some bonus cheer this holiday season, Paizo will be running 24 days of giveaways and sales from December 1^st thru December 24^th! Each day, a different product will be given away on Paizo’s socials (Twitter, Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram)—ranging from rulebooks and adventures to licensed partner products and more! Plus, the item of the day will also be on sale on paizo.com, giving everyone a chance to save!

Shop The Black Fireday Sale!

Greetings, ‘Finders! We’re excited to join our Latine contributors in celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from September 15th – October 15th here in the United States of America! Since 1988, this cultural heritage month has celebrated Hispanic and Latine contributions to culture, science, history, and art!

This year’s theme is “Pioneers of Change: Shaping the Future”—a focus on Hispanic and Latine people paving the way for future generations. As part of our call for contributors, we asked folks who those pioneers were in their own lives!

But enough from me. Let me turn it over to some of our lovely Latine writers!

---

Joseph Blomquist (he/him)

¿Qué es la que hay? For those who don’t know me, I’m Joe, a Nuyorican freelancer known for scene-stealing ambiance and annoyingly attractive NPCs (just ask my devs). But today I get to talk about one of the pillars in my family: my granduncle, Rudy.

In 1960, the Washington Senators (eventually the Minnesota Twins) signed the first Dominican-born pitcher in Major League Baseball, Rudy Hernández (beating Juan Marichal by two weeks). Rudy grew up in New York, with our family avoiding much of Trujillo’s reign in the Dominican Republic (despite a few of El Jefe’s diplomats coming from our family). In those days, most of the Dominican and Puerto Rican players were close, playing in the Caribbean winter leagues, and it was his friend, Roberto Clemente, who finally convinced Rudy to become a pitcher. After pitching for both incarnations of the Washington Senators, Rudy continued in Triple-A baseball throughout the 60s. Eventually, he became a scout for the Orioles and Cubs and returned to Puerto Rico to coach for the Department of Sports and Recreation, for Orlando Cepeda’s baseball school, and to run his own baseball camp in San Juan. He passed in 2022.

Baseball wasn’t my sport, but that never mattered to Tío Rudy. For as little time as I got to spend with him, his tireless cultivation of Caribbean Latine talent for the sport he loved inspired my own desires to help grow our community with new and diverse voices. He taught me to persevere despite setbacks and how to set my goals high while still being flexible enough to change the game as needed.

Would you like to know more?
Follow me on Bluesky (@doctormono.bsky.social) or check out my recent Paizo releases: SFS Special #6-99: The End Awakens, PFS Scenario #5-05: The Island of the Vibrant Dead, the Mechageddon! Adventure Path, and more to come orita!

Art by Artur Nakhodkin

Carlos Cabrera (he/they)

Hi everyone! For this year’s theme, I wanted to focus on the person who helped set me on my path: my late father.

To begin, I can say I definitely got my sense of humor from him. We are a mixed-race family, and he used to say that he was Cornucopian because he was so many things and that he came from Cornucopia. In my childhood, I grew up with a younger sister and two older brothers. It wasn’t until much later that I found out I had even more siblings, but back when it was just the four of us, my brothers and I each had a separate video game console. I had an Intellivision, Felipe had a Vectrex, and Esteban (we all call him Rico) had a Colecovision. Later, when I upgraded to an NES and then the SEGA Genesis, I found the game that made me decide what I wanted to do with my life— Flashback: The Quest for Identity (womp womp).

There’s a lot I wish I could show my dad nowadays, but most importantly of all, I want to tell him that it worked. At least part-time, anyway. I’m sure for him it would be more than enough.

---

We welcome our Hispanic and Latine community members to share their stories in the comments!

In solidarity,

Rue Dickey
Marketing & Media Specialist

In July, we terminated Paizo’s longstanding Community Use Policy and replaced it with a new Fan Content Policy. This was an error, and we’re taking steps to rectify that today.

We are reinstating the Community Use Policy as it has existed for over 15 years, with a few minor updates and clarifications intended to make using the policy even easier. We have removed both the Approved Products List and Community Use Registry and clarified some elements that were previously in FAQs or simply not addressed (like being able to use our art and logos in black and white products). We have not changed the permissions granted by the policy. The specific language in the Community Use Policy declaration you need to include in your project has changed to reflect a new URL for the policy on paizo.com, and we have added the provision that you provide contact information somewhere on your product in lieu of the now-removed registry. This change will allow existing Community Use Policy projects to continue to operate as they have for over a decade.

We still fully intend to provide additional permissions for community creators to monetize their creations under limited circumstances. For the time being, the Fan Content Policy allows this, and we’re making no changes to that policy today—it exists alongside the Community Use Policy. With the Community Use Policy restored, we can refine the Fan Content Policy to more clearly define what commercial uses are allowed under what conditions and using which elements of our intellectual property. We will make our intended revisions and updates to the Fan Content Policy and let the community know when the new version is available.

Paizo’s community is the foundation of our success, and we deeply appreciate all of the hard work and passion you bring to our spaces. We apologize for this misstep and look forward to a long, bright future for community projects inspired by our work. Thank you for all of your outreach, feedback, and difficult conversations throughout this process. And above all, thank you for being a part of our community.

Today, we’re excited to launch a new landing page featuring all the information fans, content creators, and other publishers need to legally use Paizo’s intellectual property—game rules, setting details, artwork, logos, and other copyrights and trademarks—in their own products. Whether you’re looking to make an online rules database using the ORC license, a setting compatible with Pathfinder Second Edition, an adventure set in the Pact Worlds system, an actual play podcast, or a series of handmade plushies of iconic heroes like Valeros, Seoni, and Lem, we’ve got everything you need at paizo.com/licenses.

Along with this new hub of information, we also made a few updates and revisions to our existing licenses, both for ease of use and to bring them up to date with the current state of our games and brands. You can find out more about these specific licenses on their respective pages on the site.

Paizo Compatibility License

With Pathfinder (and soon Starfinder) in its second edition, we were starting to get a bit of a glut of system-specific compatibility licenses. So, we consolidated what was previously two distinct Pathfinder RPG Compatibility Licenses and a Starfinder Compatibility License into a single Paizo Compatibility License. Using the new license, a publisher can declare compatibility with any of our games and use the appropriate logo, and we don’t have to constantly maintain the list of products and game systems you can use it for.

We also got rid of the registration process by which publishers had to inform us they were using the license. Now, you agree to the license when you publish something using it, the same way you do for the OGL or ORC. Your use of one of the Compatibility Logos or our proprietary Pathfinder-Icons font aren’t locked behind any red tape. Just create your content, ensure you’re following all the rules of the license, and you’re ready to go.

Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite

In October, on the eve of the Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster Project launch, we announced that the ORC license wouldn’t be usable on our Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite community content publishing platforms. While this initially caused a bit of confusion, in the months since, we’ve seen publishers continue using both platforms with great success, accessing Paizo’s IP via the Infinite License alone.

Next month, with the release of Pathfinder Player Core 2, we’ll have completed the 18-month task of divesting our core game from the OGL, and thus, starting on September 1, 2024, publishing of new OGL content on Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite will cease; publishers wishing to release game content on either platform will need to use the Infinite license exclusively.

This means that until Starfinder Second Edition is officially out in just over a year, Starfinder content on the platform is going to need to be free of rules (setting lore, fiction, art assets, etc.) but once the new edition of the game is out, we plan to relaunch Starfinder Infinite in style. It also means that Pathfinder First Edition content, or Pathfinder Second Edition content based on OGL material, will also sunset from the platform in just over a month. So, if you have a Pathfinder product in the works featuring chuuls, the eight schools of magic, or yes, even drow, you have until the end of August to release them. We won’t be removing OGL-based content from the marketplace in September, but you won’t be able to release new material using the OGL after that point.

The Infinite FAQ and End User Licensing Agreement on the marketplaces will be updated closer to the date of the actual change, but consider this your fair warning.

Fan Content Policy

As of today, Paizo’s Community Use Policy has been replaced by the Paizo Fan Content Policy, which serves a similar role, but with different provisions.

First, the Fan Content Policy will allow you to sell merchandise using our IP. Yes, for money. You will also be able to monetize other content using Paizo’s IP, like putting a live play of one of our Adventure Paths behind a Patreon paywall. There are restrictions to this, however, so make sure you read the license carefully before you put in your order with the factory to make high-end poster maps of Golarion. Anything you sell needs to be made by you and sold directly by you to the consumer. You can’t upload a bunch of our art to one of those print-on-demand shops that will let anyone put the art on whatever hat or mug or shirt they want. You can screen print shirts or sew your own plushies and sell them on an Etsy storefront you operate or at conventions, but not mass produce either or sell them through external services or storefronts. But those Pathfinder Society faction dice bags you have been making because you love them? You can totally start selling those now instead of just giving them away for free.

Most of what you could previously do with the Community Use Policy is still permitted under the Fan Content Policy except for making RPG products, which you’ll need to release through the Pathfinder or Starfinder Infinite storefronts (even for free if you want) from now on. So, you can’t use art from the blog or setting material from Golarion to make your own rulebook or adventure under this license. If you’re currently using the OGL or ORC in conjunction with the Community Use Policy, in order to be compliant with the new Fan Content Policy you’ll need to either remove any game rules that would require you to use cite those licenses or remove any non-rule content you accessed via the Community Use Policy.

We know that all this legal stuff can be intimidating and confusing for many fans, and for that, we apologize. It’s our hope that these changes largely improve the community’s ability to create and engage with our brands, our games, and each other, even if they’re different than what we’ve offered in the past. Be sure to check out each license’s FAQ for more information, or pose your questions in the forums or comments below. We’ll do our best to answer them in as timely and clear manner as possible.

Now go out there and start creating! We can’t wait to see what you have in store for us.

Mark Moreland
Director of Brand Strategy

Happy Pride, ‘Finders!
Each year, the United States celebrates LGBTQ+ Pride Month in June in honor of the protests that took place at the Stonewall Inn, a queer club in NYC. The first Pride was a riot, and every Pride going forward is a protest. We’re here, we’re queer, we have always existed, and we will always exist.

This year’s theme for Pride Month is “Reflect. Empower. Unite.” with a focus on coming together as a community, standing up for ourselves and each other, and learning from the trials of our predecessors. Support has always been a central pillar of queer communities, and as we face new waves of bigotry and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, lifting each other up is more important than ever.

We’ve invited LGBTQIA+ Paizo employees and contributors to share their words with us for this community blog!

Also, Paizo is proud to be participating in Seattle Pride this Sunday, June 30^th! If you’re in the area, come to the parade and cheer on the Paizo kobolds in the parade!

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Zigvigix (they/them), host shirren and faction leader of the Advocates.

Alex Speidel (he/him), Organized Play Coordinator

be gay form unions

that’s it that’s the submission. what more can I say.

Avi Kool (they/he)

Hi all, I’m lead editor at Paizo and a nonbinary trans man. Being queer has been part of my life for as long as I can remember, even if I didn’t have words for it when I was young. As time has gone on, being queer exposed me to the world of social justice and activism, and I am a firm believer that no one is free until we all are free. Queer people are actively under attack in our current political climate. This is why it’s so important to me to center queer experiences in my work. At Paizo, we have the opportunity to spread awareness of queer identities to a large number of people, as well as making queer people feel seen in our books. So Paizo will continue to be queer as heck, and I’m proud to be part of that.

Basil Wright (he/they/xe)

I know that the fight for equality, freedom, and safety by my Indigenous community in the States is being echoed elsewhere, whether it's in Palestine, the Congo, Sudan, or in the United States of America. As Juneteenth goes by, I am reminded about the power of community, of the strength of those who stand beside you and uplift you and work towards a common cause. We are all stronger together. More often than not, I have found community with Indigenous creators, with Black creators, with queer creators (and many of us holding all these identities together, such as myself). I want to continue to create games and stories that highlight the importance of community, of belonging, of togetherness. We are better, together.

If you'd like to support my work, two of my games best exemplify the theme of community: Mouseia and Well Wishers, which you can find on my Itch.io page (https://kobanya.itch.io). I also have a Ko-Fi (ko-fi.com/kobanya).

Kofusachi (he/him), the pansexual god of joy and prosperity.

Carlos Cabrera (he/they)

In honor of reflecting over this past year, in 2023 I wrote that it gave me strength/I was jealous that my World of Darkness character was doing multi-gender polyamory better than me. This year I am happy to report that we are now equals! I would like to give a very special thanks to my partners for giving me their love and their time whenever able.

Looking at the year ahead, you will be able find my upcoming work as developer for the Welcome to Night Vale RPG by Renegade Game Studios. Things are about to get weird.

Caryn DiMarco (she/they)

I'm Caryn DiMarco (she/they) and you can find some of my recent work in books like Lost Omens Highhelm and Howl of the Wild. I'm proud to be a contributor to those books, and to a world like Golarion where LGBTQ+ stories, themes, and characters are the norm. TTRPGs have always been an escape for me, and seeing my identity and experiences reflected in the pages of my favorite gaming system is a comfort and a joy. 

Thank you to all my fellow authors, our wonderful devs at Paizo, and the many gamers I share tables with for coming together to show that diversity is natural and equality is attainable. Our real-life magic may be the stories we tell together, and our real-life dragons look more like bills and endless to-do lists, but the possibility of a better world is not a fantasy. Sitting down to play (or run) games with my community always reminds me of the potential within every one of us. 

Hao Jin (she/her), asexual sorceress.

Connie Chang (they/he/she)

Happy Pride, Paizo! Connie Chang here (they/he/she). I wrote Quain for the Tian Xia World Guideand a flash fiction about gay Grandmasters. Outside of Paizo, I'm the Game Master for Transplanar RPG, an all-transgender, people of color-led dark fantasy actual play channel telling stories in a noncolonial, antiorientalist multiverse. Transplanar is an ENNIE-nominated, CRIT Award-sweeping channel that has been featured in Polygon, Dicebreaker, and Gizmodo and discussed on NPR, The New York Times, and Dropout TV.

I'm thrilled to announce Transplanar's first-ever IN-STUDIO series, GODKILLER: LAST HOPE! LAST HOPE is a two-person, eight-episode show about Litany, the titular Godkiller forged for a single purpose: to slay the Immortal Emperor of Heaven—and their mother’s sister. After a monumental failure, Litany teams up with a heroic cultivator and travels across a richly layered fantasy world inspired by my diasporic Chinese heritage, learning what it means to truly become.

LAST HOPE utilizes my original holypunk duet game, GODKILLER, which is being published by Evil Hat Productions. If you're a fan of Tian Xia's Asian fantasy setting and/or queer interrogations of divinity, then tune in June 29 for the premiere of GODKILLER: LAST HOPE on Transplanar RPG's Twitch or YouTube!

Behind the scenes images from GODKILLER: LAST HOPE.

David N. Ross (he/him)

Being a gay man has always been important to my experience of RPGs. Not only has gaming been an activity I shared with my gay friends and even my now husband, but living outside gender and relationship norms has been a common experience connecting me to many fellow game designers.

My most recent Paizo work has yet to be announced, but you can get the 5e version of the Abomination Vaults Adventure Path now. Outside Paizo, I have recently been bringing adventures for Tom Cartos and the DM Lair to Pathfinder rules, and collaborating with my husband on a cooperative storytelling card game under the working title Pax Ad Astra.

Honora Tren (she/her) and Zupisha Loralu (she/her), lovers and New Valor Defense Force Guardians.

Dustin Knight (he/him)

Pride is a protest. All love is valid. Nothing I expose here can come close to supplanting these powerful words, but in the past year I’ve felt such a deep connection to these two ideas as I’ve grown to learn more about what I am and what it means to be a part of both the LGBT+ and Paizo community. You must learn to love yourself before you can properly love another. And that means being proud of yourself and your accomplishments, even though it feels like you are fighting a voice deep inside you that hates you for what you are. All love is a valid form of protest. And learning to love yourself despite what the world’s hate has planted deep inside is the ultimate act of defiance, and one I have only been empowered to face thanks to the unity of this incredible community.

Proud to Love Myself.

James Beck

Hello! My name is James Beck, I am a freelancer whose work you'll primarily find over on Pathfinder Infinite, where I have several Infinite Masters titles with Eldritch Osiris Games. One thing that I absolutely love about Golarion/the Pact Worlds is how much I can see myself in it. I love seeing fellow LGBTQ+ people that populate the world! I've been out and proud about my identity since 7th grade and one of the big draws of Pathfinder/Starfinder has always been how welcoming it is to me. Not only have the universes of Paizo been welcoming but so has the Paizo community, from fellow freelancers to Paizo staff and the broader community at large. I wish everyone across the world a happy pride! Be yourself!

Link to Eldritch Osiris Games: https://www.eldritchosirisgames.com

Arshea, Spirit of Abandon. Nonbinary deity of freedom and sexuality.

James Jacobs (he/him), Pathfinder Narrative Creative Director

The previous 12 months since last year’s Pride blog have been busy as we’ve navigated the frenzied switchover of Pathfinder from OGL content to the Remastered rules. That’s mostly all behind us now from an in-house production standpoint, and it’s a relief to be back on track exploring brand new stories. One of those tales I’m really delighted to see hit the shelves, though, isn’t an adventure or even a game. I’m talking about Liane Merciel’s upcoming novel, Godsrain. It’s the first novel Paizo’s published in a long time, and it’s helping to kick off the War of Immortals plotline, but the part I’m delighted most by is that my favorite iconic Merisiel and her wife Kyra are front and center to the plot. Bisexual representation is something I’ve been passionate about since the start of Pathfinder, with Merisiel being my chosen heroine for this quest. I can’t wait for you all to see what adventures she and the others up to while they’re also saving the world!

Katina Davis (she/her)

Representation is important year-round, but during Pride month I feel especially compelled to step forth from the shadows like a bisexual vampire to celebrate queer stories. I don’t always feel qualified to speak on queer topics because I’m married to a man and could easily be mistaken for straight. Then I remember how I once felt under-represented and less sure of my identity, and how isolating that can be. It’s taken me years to understand myself enough to find peace and joy in who I am. If I can reflect that queer joy back to even one person who might feel lonely and confused, that’s worth it to me. Just imagine the power of entire communities full of that energy!

My years working and freelancing for Paizo have been instrumental to my queer identity because they’ve introduced me to a diverse and supportive group of people that I’m incredibly grateful for. It makes sense given that we’re all tied by our love of a cooperative game—this community is one big adventuring party. We roll initiative together.

You can find my freelance credits, social media, and other links here: https://katinadavis.carrd.co/

Wat Ryshel (he/him), trans ysoki butler.

Kendra Leigh Speedling (she/her)

Hello, all! I'm Kendra, frequent Paizo contributor. You might have spotted my name most recently on Howl of the Wild and Treasure Vault. I've also got two Adventure Path volumes coming up that I'm excited to see hit people's tables: Singer, Stalker, Skinsaw Man for Curtain Call and Destroyer's Doom for Triumph of the Tusk. Part of what helped encourage me to be open about being queer was seeing others in the TTRPG community do the same, especially those whose identities more easily fly under the radar. "Unite" is the last part of the blog theme for this year, and every time I see (or write!) a queer NPC in an adventure or lore book, it gives me a sense of belonging. We're here, we're not going away, and as in any good adventuring party, it's important to have each other’s backs. Happy Pride!

Kyle Raes (he/she)

My name is Kyle Raes (he/him, she/her) and I’m pansexual and bigender. I’ve been contributing on and off again to Pathfinder for years alongside maintaining my daily blog that analyzes the various options available to characters in both Pathfinder and Starfinder.

It was seeing the sort of community that Paizo has attracted through these games that actually helped afford me the self-reflection to realize my own preferences and identity.

This community, both the players and even the writers and other staff at Paizo stayed true to themselves even with pressures out there trying to deny them that, and for that I am forever grateful, rocky times and all.

Right now, I’m between major projects, but I just this past month published my first submission on Starfinder Infinite!

Elemental Experts is a book with five archetypes for Starfinder giving both casters and non-spellcasting classes a way to go all in and specialize in a particular damage type as masters of that element! The book has all commissioned art by absolutely brilliant artists!

You can find my blog at https://dailycharacteroption.tumblr.com/

My Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/Kyle_Raes_Daily_Character_Option

And also check out my very first published homebrew on Starfinder Infinite! Elemental Experts - Paizo | Starfinder Infinite

Tiya/Tiyo Stories (she/he), genderfluid legendary wayang storyteller.

Lynne M. Meyer (she/they)

It’s impossible to talk about my queerness without talking about games, because they’ve been interwoven from the outset. I was introduced to TTRPGs by an actor friend (now spouse) who’s been playing and running games since the 1980s. Sure I’d love it, he invited me to join his upcoming campaign. I was hooked almost immediately.

I was alsostarting to come out to myself around this time.

All the characters I’ve played have explored queerness in some fashion. As I say in Thom James Carter’s book They Came to Slay: The Queer Culture of D&D, games—specifically, inclusive games with good queer rep—gave me a safe space to figure myself out and unpack years of comphet.

Icon Marsha P. Johnson said, “No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.” This month, I’m part of Queer Games Bundle 2024—a bundle of nearly 500 games, software, and zines from 271 queer creators across itch.io. The organizers put it best: this bundle is a direct action that you can take right now to support queer people in a life-changing way, and help nurture the diverse queer games community.

Find me on Bluesky (@lynnemeyer.bsky.social) and Twitter (@Lynne_M_Meyer).

Ixthia the Unbreakable, the nonbinary faction leader of the Exo-Guardians.

Rue Dickey (they/he/xe), Marketing & Media Specialist

It’s me, your friendly local nonbinary circus goth! Over the last fifteen years, I’ve cycled through a variety of labels—nonbinary lesbian, ace lesbian, nonbinary bisexual, trans man, nonbinary trans man, the list goes on—but through all of that change, I have had the love and support of my partners, my close friends and family, and my community. Queer community is vital—in some cases, it is literal lifeblood when bigotry causes institutions to abandon us.

Love is powerful. Love in a world that tries to shame you and hide you away is a protest. And love is a fire that cannot be snuffed out.

Last year’s Pride blog was one of the first projects I took point of here at Paizo, and I’m proud and elated to have continued the tradition through our various community and culture blogs full circle back to Pride. Even “small” acts of solidarity like this give hope and voice to people who have historically been silenced.

Keep up with me on the internet: https://twitter.com/ilananight13, https://bsky.app/profile/ilananight.bsky.social, and http://ilananight.space!

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And, for a special Pride preview, have a sneak peek at one of the items coming in Player Core 2: the Elixir of Gender Transformation! This item was written by Avi Kool, Lead Editor.

Elixir of Gender Transformation Item 1+
Alchemical, Consumable, Elixir
Usage held in 1 hand; Bulk L
Activate [one-action] (manipulate)

This clear, bitter liquid can be ingested to change certain secondary sex characteristics. Different formulations create different changes—for example, one variety might cause the voice to deepen and promote body and facial hair growth, while another might cause fat redistribution around the hips and the growth of breasts. These changes tend to be accompanied by shifting of the fat in the face, sometimes dramatically or sometimes more subtly changing the user’s appearance. Changes from this elixir take place gradually over the course of months or years, depending on the type.

Type lesser; Level 1; Price 1 gp
The elixir must be taken every week, and changes occur over the course of a year or more.

Type moderate; Level 3; Price 8 gp
The elixir must be taken once a month, and changes occur over the course of a year.

Type greater; Level 6; Price 35 gp
The elixir must be taken once, and changes occur over the course of 6 months.

From our tables to yours, happy Pride from Paizo!

Hail and well met, Pathfinders!
Paizo’s offices are closed today in honor of Juneteenth National Independence Day (Juneteenth). This holiday celebrates the true end of chattel slavery in the United States, when the Emancipation Proclamation was enforced in Texas at the end of the Civil War.

Juneteenth celebrations date back to 1866—the first year following the freeing of slaves in Texas. Beginning with Texas in 1938, Juneteenth was eventually recognized as a state holiday by all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In 2021, Juneteenth National Independence Day became a federally recognized holiday in the United States.

Black communities around the United States and Mexico celebrate Juneteenth in a variety of ways, from rodeos and picnics to poetry readings, music festivals, and more. Above all, Juneteenth is a celebration of Black art, music, culture, and freedom.

To see if a Juneteenth event is happening near you and get involved, take a look at the Worldwide Event Listings on Juneteenth.com.

If you can, donating time, money, or other resources to a Black-focused organization is a great way to celebrate Juneteenth! Here are some recommended organizations actively working to support Black communities:

• National Black Child Development Institute
• Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
• Color of Change
• The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
• The Marsha P. Johnson Institute
• National Black Justice Coalition

Take a moment today to reflect on what freedom means—and how that freedom was granted to different groups of people over time. In the words of Black feminist and activist Fannie Lou Hamer, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

In solidarity,

Rue Dickey
Marketing & Media Specialist

Hail and well met, Pathfinders and Starfinders! With Father’s Day coming up, we wanted to give you a guide for the best Father’s Day gifts for the Paizo gamer in your life—and showcase some Dad Creators!

Starfinder Beginner Box

Learn the rules of Starfinder while you play through the Starfinder Beginner Box! Dungeons With Dadrecommends this as a great starting point for playing Starfinder with the kids! The pre-generated characters and a dungeon that teaches you skills as you progress make for a great game night.

Pathfinder Beginner Box

Newly remastered, the Pathfinder Beginner Box teaches you the ropes of Pathfinder Second Edition as you solve the mysteries of the Menace Under Otari! Paul Benson from GeekDad reviewed the original Pathfinder Second Edition Beginner Box back in 2020—calling it a great resource for players, veteran and new alike!

Pathfinder Elemental Stones

Harness the power of the elements with this Pathfinder board game! Designed in-house by Paizo Games Lead Designer and proud board gaming Dad, Joe Pasini! Elemental Stones is a pattern-building game with a secret role element to keep you on your toes. Great for family game nights!

Pathfinder Adventure Path: Abomination Vaults

Give Dad a chance to continue the adventure of the Pathfinder Beginner Box with Abomination Vaults! This best-selling megadungeon adventure path is a great follow-up to Menace Under Otari, taking adventurers deep into the dungeons of Belcorra Haruvex! Pathfinder Adventure Path: Abomination Vaults is available in hardcover for Pathfinder Second Edition and Fifth Edition.

It wouldn’t be a Father’s Day blog without tipping our helmets to Keskodai, the Iconic Mystic from Starfinder First Edition! Keskodai is such a dedicated father; he keeps his child with him in a protective cylinder.

Follow Keskodai’s child, Chk Chk, into Starfinder Second Edition, where he will be stepping up as the new Iconic Mystic! Keep up with the Starfinder Playtest at starfinderplaytest.com!

It is with a heavy heart that Paizo announces the passing of longtime software developer Gary Teter. Gary was a pioneer in the development of the Paizo website and its core behind-the-scenes software systems that have helped to deliver Pathfinder and Starfinder products for more than 20 years. He was integral in the creation of our subscription programs, forums, and more–all at a time when such technology didn’t exist.

Our hearts go out to his family and friends during this difficult time.

We’ve asked the Paizo team to share their thoughts below, and we encourage members of the community to do the same.

Thanks again for all your hard work to make Paizo the success it is today, Gary. You will be missed.

-Erik, Jim, Lisa, Maggie, Mike, Rei, and Vic

Gary Teter came to Paizo way back in 2004 at a pivotal point in the company’s history. We started off as a magazine company, and the process of inputting subscriptions and renewals was eating up the small profit that magazines made back then, so we decided to try to do it through a website. But this was in 2004, and there just weren’t any website options you could purchase, so we considered building it ourselves, which was a daunting task.

Gary was brought in as we were struggling to figure out what to do. He brought vision and hard work to the table, and lo and behold, we launched paizo.com and brought subscriptions online. Once the magazines went away, that same subscription service morphed into one of the financial backbones of the company. I’m not sure Paizo would be here today if Gary hadn’t started working for us. Since then, he kept the machine going for twenty years!

Gary also brought a sense of humor to Paizo. Remember “Talk Like a Pirate Day,” when Gary made it so everything you posted turned into pirate language? Or the secret Smurf thing where your avatar changed into a Smurf whenever you mentioned them in a post? That was Gary.

I loved working with Gary during those early years of paizo.com. The website was a blank page, and we could dream about what we wanted it to be. Some things were instant successes, like side carts. Others were left on the cutting room floor (I’m looking at you, Paizooties). But through it all, Gary had a love for the customer and did his best to make their experience on paizo.com a great one. He would spend late nights trying to shave off shipping costs just to save folks a little more money.

Gary will be missed at Paizo.

Lisa Stevens
CEO

Gary Teter was never among the most well-known employees at Paizo, but if you’ve ever interacted with paizo.com in any way, you’ve felt his influence. And if you’ve ever noticed some feature here that no other website has, Gary almost certainly played a major role in creating it.

Gary was Paizo’s third-longest tenured employee, after Erik Mona and James Jacobs. Paizo’s original webmaster, Rob Head, hired Gary in March 2004, while Paizo was still just publishing magazines.

When we hired him, paizo.com was mainly a collection of static pages, one for each of our magazines, plus a sidebar for brief news updates. You could subscribe, purchase back issues, and not much else. Twenty years ago, Gary was working furiously on changing that, adding message boards in August, and launching a real web store offering thousands of gaming products in November. While the site has evolved over the years, the paizo.com you know today is still built on the foundations Gary and Rob created two decades ago.

But as important as Gary’s contributions to the website were, his role in shaping the paizo.com community was in many ways even more impactful. With the launch of the message boards, Gary took on the role of “PostMonster General,” acting not just as the community’s first moderator, but helping to set the tone for all interactions on paizo.com.

Gary was serious about his work and always interested in the ways that evolving technology could be used, from the utterly confusing construction that is ents and loaves to using a chatbot to turn an ordinary deck of cards into a mystery game to play with his son.

Gary strongly believed in doing things the right way with a customer-first attitude. Whenever I would approach him with a complicated idea that I thought our customers would appreciate, he would explain the inherent difficulties that kept every other website from doing it, and then he’d figure out how to make it happen, and he’d usually do it quickly and do it well.

Gary also always approached things with humor. He once demonstrated a new feature in our back-end software to our sales manager, who flippantly complained that it had one flaw: not enough pancake bunnies (referencing a then-current meme involving a Japanese rabbit known for balancing baked goods on its head). So Gary added “Pancake Bunny Mode” to the tool, in which lines of animated rabbits loaded up with syrupy goodness marched across the screen—a feature that you could toggle on or off… unless you were the sales manager, in which case there was no off switch.

Gary was occasionally courted by companies that offered him much more money that Paizo ever could, but he genuinely loved paizo.com and the paizo.com community, and he told me several times over the years that he never wanted to work anywhere other than Paizo for the rest of his life. Gary’s contributions to Paizo were foundational and crucial, and I’m greatly saddened that he won’t be here to help guide paizo.com into its third decade.

Vic Wertz,
Chief Technical Officer (Retired)

I remember the change that crept through Paizo after Gary came aboard so many years ago. From over in the editorial department, his influence was subtle at first, but then Smurfs started showing up on the message boards. To me, those little blue gremlins were probably the most visual (and unexpected) of the manifestations of the glory that was Gary. But beyond the boards and the machinery of the virtual world, Gary was someone I always felt welcome to chat with, be it a happenstance greeting in a breakroom that developed into a full-on conversation, a discussion at a work gathering about the intersection of internet and gamer culture, sharing quirky cat-themed anecdotes, or just some good old reminiscing about the early days of Paizo. His presence in the very early Paizo chat rooms was always welcome and comforting, as was his sense of humor. He put humanity into Paizo’s infrastructure in ways I expect I’ll still be discovering, marveling at, and appreciating for years to come. I’ll miss you, my friend.

James Jacobs
Creative Director

I first met Gary, like many who interacted with him, online. I first found my way to this community through the message boards, and Gary was the guy running the show back then. He had an interesting way of moderating conversations and keeping the community entertained and on point. It was this community and the people in it that led me to freelancing, and though it sounds weird for someone in the tech side of the company being responsible for a word jockey starting his career, that’s the case. Gary was not only fun to chat with, he was also supportive. In the way-back times, a few of us started a chat room that served as a somewhat real-time version of the message boards where regulars would hang out and keep up with each other. I was in that chat room all the time and so was Gary, who was the first Paizo staffer we asked to join. It was in that chat room where I really got to know Gary. From the Smurf “prank” to the odd threads and experiments that went way over my head, Gary was always up to something interesting, and I swear, half the time you could see the twinkle in his eye even through text. When I finally joined the company and moved out here, it was nice seeing a familiar face in the office that was outside of my immediate department. We even lived in the same apartment complex, so I’d see him around outside of work too. Gary was a delightfully strange man, with a head full of concepts, ideas, and plans that I couldn’t even fathom with my puny word-focused brain. So, thank you for all the education and entertainment. We’ll miss you, Gary!

Adam Daigle
Director of Game Development

Gary Teter was a passionate developer with a soft spot for retro hardware and clicky keyboards. When we were still in a physical office, it wasn't unusual to see Gary rolling by my window atop his Solowheel on his way home at the end of the day. Once we all started working remotely, Gary lamented the loss of the day-to-day impromptu conversations that would happen just by virtue of having desks near each other. Those conversations could be about anything from how we might solve a particular technical challenge to why we didn't have more (or any) pneumatic tubes in the office.

Professionally, Gary loved solving complex or tricky problems and took great delight in a satisfying solution. He made a lasting impact with his creativity and dedication to his work. I especially appreciated the sense of whimsy he injected into our daily conversations and many of the things he did. His depth of knowledge and creative ideas will be missed. He was a one-of-a-kind personality who will always be remembered at Paizo.

Rei Ko
Vice President of Technology

It's difficult to share memories of a coworker and feel like you did them justice. Working together is such a specific context that you can spend years with someone and never feel like you got the full picture of who they truly were. So I will resist the urge to lay out some sort of comprehensive, definitive statement on Gary Teter. I’m not qualified to do that. I will simply tell what I can, in the hopes that others will fill in the gaps in my telling to form a more complete picture.

Gary was a wizard. If you told him you needed something built, he would go read the book on that thing and come back having built it. He would build his own tooling so he could have exactly what he needed to get his job done. He would cast magic with code.

Gary was one of the most customer-oriented colleagues I've ever worked with. Regardless of the other factors in play, he was always deeply grateful to the people who purchased Paizo products—the people who enable so many of us at the company to do what we love for a living. Every feature he implemented had an eye towards surprising and delighting customers, as well as treating them fairly and honestly, whether they found out about it or not. It was a matter of personal principle. He couldn't not do that.

Gary believed that learning was a lifelong process. Twenty years into working on the code-base for Paizo, he was still researching new algorithms, frameworks, and techniques—either for use on the job or just for fun. He always had a handful of pet projects at home to work on after he'd signed off for the day: an audiophile amplifier here, a spectrum analyzer there. A few years prior to the pandemic he learned to ride an electric monowheel because, in his own words, "I just decided that I wanted to be the kind of person who could ride a wheel, mostly because it looked awesome, and I’ve always thought that sort of thing would be impossible for me, and that it was time I let go of preconceived notions about what I could and couldn’t do."

Gary was a trailblazer. If you needed to get 30 people from here to there across all manner of difficult terrain, he’d figure out the exact route to take. Perhaps someone else would have to arrange the provisions, and another person would need to load and balance the wagons, and a third person would keep the caravan together along the way. But the path itself? The guy with the machete hacking through the underbrush 50 yards ahead, shouting back, "It's this way!"? That was all Gary. It wasn't until I reached the end of this paragraph that I realized that there's another name for that person:

Gary was a Pathfinder. And now he's gone.

And Paizo is the lesser for it.

Brian Bauman
Software Architect

Gary was one of the first people I spoke to on my first day at Paizo, and I distinctly remember thinking, “Oh, right, I work in the TTRPG industry now. Of course I’ll be working next to a bespectacled, bearded ponytailed guy named Gary with an esoteric sense of humor.”

That was only my first impression, of course; over the next six years, he made countless others. He was an old-school geek who embodied the absolute best of classic weird online and programmer culture. He was the owner of a desk that resembled the Iron Throne if it had been built from 20 years of Paizo products. He was the guy in our weekly Zoom meetings who always had a wall of oscilloscopes or something that looked like a half-built robot on a workbench behind him somewhere. And, like others have said, he was an incredibly smart and talented coder who cared tremendously about his work and what it meant to the Pathfinder and Starfinder communities. It didn’t matter whether he was working on code to save customers money by shipping in as few packages as possible, an uncheatable die roller for the play-by-post boards, banishing spambots to an endless Sartre-esque digital labyrinth, or some shamelessly goofy forum feature; he approached every projects with the same level of deadly seriousness and took enormous pride in ensuring that it was done right, no matter how ridiculous it was.

It's hard to imagine a paizo.com without Gary and his contributions, and his passing will leave a tremendous void not only on Paizo’s tech team, but in the company as a whole. My heart goes out to his family and loved ones, and I am proud and grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him for as long as I did.

Andrew White
Digital Products Lead

Welcome to PaizoCon Online 2024, the celebration of all things Paizo, which begins today! Join us for free, fun panels at twitch.tv/officialpaizo. Meet friends and network on our Discord, with prizes, activities, staff AMAs, and more!

It’s the Annual PaizoCon Sale!

From now through May 27th, use PAIZOCON2024 at checkout for a discount on a number of cool things, including:

• 10% off Player Core & GM Core sketch covers
• 10% off WizKids minis
• 20% off Goblin Firework Fight and Elemental Stones
• 20% off all backlist Starfinder 1E (anything pre-Mechageddon!)
• 20% off all backlist Pathfinder accessories (Flip-Mats, spell cards, condition cards, etc.)
• 20% off 40+ Foundry products including Organized Play adventures!

The sale code does not apply to backorders, preorders, or subscriptions. It does not stack with the Paizo Advantage. Order while supplies last! Sale ends at 11:59 p.m. Pacific on May 27th.

Shop the PaizoCon Sale Today!

But wait, there’s more! Many of our partners have amazing offers to help you unleash your hero:

• WizKids: 20% off Pathfinder Battles
• DriveThru Sites: 40% off all Pathfinder/Starfinder Compatible OGL titles, Pathfinder Graphic Novels, and Pathfinder Tales fiction
• Pathfinder/Starfinder Infinite: 40% off Infinite Community Content Titles, plus an Infinite Masters Megabundle
• Roll20: Up to 40% off Paizo titles on the Roll20 Marketplace!

A final note that for Mental Health Awareness Month, Paizo is partnering with Take This, an organization dedicated to mental health in gaming. You can join us and members of the team of Take This on Sunday at 2 P.M. PST for a panel on therapeutic TTRPGs and safety in therapeutic roleplay. We can’t wait to chat with them!

We’re also having a virtual silent auction for Pathfinder and Starfinder Society boons like the starsinger, skittergoblin, and more, with all proceeds benefitting Take This!

We can’t wait to see you all this weekend however you choose to join us, whether it be watching the livestreamed panels or participating in our Events Discord. Happy Gaming!

Hail and well met, Pathfinders! Paizo is proud to celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AANHPI Month)—this May and every May!

A variety of characters from Pathfinder and Starfinder, featuring art by Roena Rosenberger, Raphael Madureira, Klaher Baklaher, Pixoloid Studios, Sammy Khalid, Alexander Nanitchkov, and Gunship Revolution (left to right)

Originally designated “Pacific/Asian American Heritage Week” in 1977, AANHPI Month was codified into the American calendar of holidays and heritage months in 1992. Each year, the Federal Asian Pacific American Council (FAPAC) dedicates a new theme for AANHPI Month, giving a focal point to how we celebrate the contributions of Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders. The theme of this year’s AANHPI Month is “Advancing Leaders Through Innovation.”

According to the FAPAC press release, this theme “pays homage to the visionaries and trailblazers who have shaped our AANHPI history and continue to influence our collective future.” Anyone can help uplift these current and future leaders by supporting organizations that foster AANHPI creatives, support AANHPI mental health, and provide opportunities to AANHPI youth. The following list is non-exhaustive, but a good start for people looking to volunteer or donate:

• Stop AAPI Hate
• Asian Mental Health Collective
• National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
• Asian American Arts Alliance
• Empowering Pacific Islander Communities

This year, we at Paizo would like to take a moment to spotlight some phenomenal AANHPI creators, reviewers, and streamers in the Paizo sphere! For starters, we’re proud to be sponsoring an all-AANHPI cast stream of Mountain of Sea and Sky, showcasing character options from the upcoming Lost Omens Tian Xia Character Guide! Catch the stream Saturday, May 25 at 6 p.m. Pacific time on twitch.tv/stellaluna!

Looking for more AANHPI creatives in the TTRPG space to follow? Here’s some community recommendations!

• The Rules Lawyer
• The Gallant Goblin
• Goblets & Gays
• The Atomless
• Unwavering Force
• Asians Represent
• Tablestory - Gatewalkers

A hearty thank-you from all of us here at Paizo to the wonderful AANHPI creatives, players, and community members that help make our worlds brighter and better!

In Solidarity,
Rue Dickey
Marketing & Media Specialist

Paizo’s made a name for itself on its adventures—even before the rise of the Pathfinder RPG, we were creating standalone adventures and Adventure Paths. There’s an old industry adage that “adventures don’t sell,” and while it’s true that a product like an adventure, which is aimed only at the GM, will sell less than a product aimed at players, I’ve never agreed with the theory that creating and publishing adventures is a waste of resources. To me, adventures are the whole point of an RPG—without adventures, GMs have nothing to run and players have nothing to play.

While a custom-created adventure by your own GM will always be able to speak to your table’s gaming preferences, creating adventures takes a lot of work. With published adventures, a GM can not only save a lot of time in preparing for a game or a campaign, but also find inspiration in them or learn how adventures are written, both of which help a GM get better at their craft. And when you don’t have a group to game with, even the simple act of reading a published adventure can help you feel that you’re still connected to your hobby until you find a new group to game with.

Published adventures have another advantage as well—they create shared experiences for gamers to talk about. It’s one thing to be at a convention or go online to talk about an adventure your PCs went on and how you barely made it out of the dungeon alive, but when you’ve done this with a published adventure, other gamers out there in the world who have been on the same adventure feel a connection to your game, and a greater discourse can be born out of that experience much in the same way as talking with friends about a recent movie or video game everyone’s been watching or playing.

As big a part of Paizo’s history as adventures are, it’s no surprise that we have several categories of adventures to choose from—and with the recent adjustments to our Adventure Path lengths and the formats of our standalone Adventures, I figured it’s time to chat a little bit about how Paizo’s three categories of published adventures are different, so you can figure out which category works best for your current campaign. Adventures are broken down into three size categories: Small, Medium, and Large.

Small: Scenarios and Quests

Our shortest adventure offerings are Scenarios and Quests. These PDF-only products give you a shorter game experience meant to play out over the course of two hours or so (in the case of a quest) or a single game session (a scenario). These are all part of Paizo’s Organized Play program, but they work just as well for a home game that needs a quick encounter or a short filler adventure in between longer storylines. You can think of a Scenario or a Quest as a short film.

Medium: Standalone Adventures

Our standalone Adventures have recently undergone an upgrade—from this point onward, starting with the upcoming adventure Prey for Death, our standalone adventures will be hardcover 128-page books. A standalone Adventure will typically present a single storyline that covers several sessions of gaming—as a general rule, you can expect your characters to gain somewhere between 3 to 6 levels over the course of a single standalone Adventure. This format allows us to explore larger storylines that need more room than a single volume of an Adventure Path to play out, but that don’t require the commitment to a three-part campaign—and also allow us to get a bit more experimental (such as with Prey for Death, which expects the players to all be Red Mantis Assassins—or at least closely allied with them!). We’ve got some more fun experiments in the works going forward for this line, so stay tuned! You can think of a standalone Adventure as a feature-length movie.

Large: Adventure Paths

Our Adventure Paths have been going strong for over 200 volumes, and while we’ve made some adjustments to their length (shifting from six-part campaigns down to three-part ones), this line of adventures isn’t going anywhere. An Adventure Path is published in three volumes that come out monthly; it can cover months or even years of gaming. You can expect your PCs to gain about 10 levels over the course of an entire Adventure Path. This format lets us tell long, sprawling stories that cover a wide range of themes, to explore ongoing events in the world of Golarion, and to present new parts of the world in great detail. You can think of an Adventure Path as a season of episodes for a television series.

Any Questions? Ask in the Comments!

Of course, these general details only scratch the surface. If you have more specific questions, feel free to ask! I’m always eager to answer whatever you might want to know about Paizo’s Pathfinder adventure line. Seeya in the comments section below!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Creative Director of Narrative

Hail and well met!
We hope you’ve had a chance to look at the 2024 Programming Schedule, because game signups are officially open!

If you haven’t already purchased your tickets, check out this step by step breakdown for getting badges via Tabletop.Events this year.

Game Signups

And here’s a step-by-step breakdown for this year’s game signups!

1. Find the game you would like to sign up for on the Schedule of Events. This schedule can be filtered by many different criteria including name, event type, date, and time. Click on the event entry (either the name or the number to the left).
2. On the right side of the screen, click the large green button that says “Get Ticket for YOUR NAME.” This will add the event ticket to your cart, but you’re not done yet!


3. You can go and add more tickets to your cart if you like, as your tickets are saved for two hours. Once you’re all done, click “Checkout” in the cart to the right of the screen.


4. Click “Check out for Free.” You’re all set! You can view your schedule on the “My Schedule” page at any time.

Please note that there is a limit on our new content this year. To ensure everyone gets a chance to play the new scenarios, you may not sign up for more than one session of a new release. These new releases are:

• SFS1 Intro: Year of Era's End
• SFS1 7-02: Zo! vs. Zo
• PFS2 5-16: A Lie Told to Strangers
• PFS2 5-17: Stranded on Yesterday's Tide

Submitting Community Events

While the main schedule has been released, community gaming event submissions are still open! These can be RPG events featuring Pathfinder or Starfinder, as well as other systems or even other types of games entirely! Want to introduce people to your favorite indie RPG? Looking for players for the new board game you just bought? Finally want to settle who the best Mario Karter in the community is? You can host all these events and more!

1. From the PaizoCon convention page, go to “Host” in the top bar, then click “Submissions.”
2. Click “New Submission” and choose an event type. For this explainer we’ll be using an RPG event, but most events will ask for the same or similar information.
3. Fill in the requested information! Let the staff and prospective attendees know as much as you can about the event you’re submitting. Once you’ve filled in the information, click Create!
4. After submission, staff will review events and either approve them (adding them to the schedule), contact you for more information, or reject them. We reserve the right to reject events for any reason.

You can submit events at any time before May 24, 2024. 

If you have any questions about event submissions, please reach out to us at paizocon@paizo.com

Other Activities

Portfolio Review Sign Ups

Portfolio reviews are now open to general attendees! Anyone is welcome to fill out the form, book a slot for portfolio review, and join us on the Paizo Events Discord server! Get thoughtful and detailed feedback on your illustrations from Paizo’s art directors and narrative team. Learn what we look for and how to get there. We are here to help! Sign up to have our team review your portfolio, and we’ll give you a constructive critique on your work.

The art and writing reviews are separate, so you are welcome to sign up for both, but please only sign up for one review per subject.

Review Guidelines

• Reviews will be done over Discord; please remember what time you signed up and join the Discord chat at your time as to not intrude on someone else’s review.
• Please only choose one slot per review subject; we have a limited number of times and want to give as many people a chance as possible.
• Please link to your portfolio so we have a chance to review your work beforehand.
• No AI generated work.

Appointment reminder emails will be sent out the week before PaizoCon, and again the day before a scheduled review. We can’t wait to see your work!

Sign up for an art review! | Sign up for a writing sample review!

Friends of Paizo:

We’ll once again be joined by multiple friends of Paizo in the Discord this year! Chat with, ask questions of, and learn more about the amazing work of teams like BKOM Studios, Foundry VTT, Roll20, and more!

Last year’s convention was entirely online, but this year we’re introducing PaizoCon@! Our new pilot program allows you to experience PaizoCon in person with your fellow Pathfinders and Starfinders at participating local game stores! Check back on this blog to learn more.

We look forward to seeing you all online this year!

Get your tickets for PaizoCon Online 2024 today!

Hello and well met! With many shenanigans and much wrangling, we bring you this year’s PaizoCon Online schedule! Included in this year’s schedule is our Twitch programming, Discord programming, and some community content creator streams happening during PaizoCon weekend as well!

As more games and activities are submitted, be sure to check back here, as well as the Tabletop.Events schedule for updates!

Jump To Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Monday

Friday, May 24th

10 a.m.–12 p.m. PDT
PaizoCon 2024 Keynote (Twitch)
Get excited for news, updates, and upcoming products at our annual Keynote, hosted by Erik Mona!

11 a.m.–12:30 p.m. PDT
Elemental Stones Boardgame (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
Play the first board game from Paizo Games, Elemental Stones, with one of its designers! (Tabletop Simulator is required.)

12 p.m.–1 p.m. PDT
Starfinder Second Edition (Twitch)
Find out where we've been and what's to come for Starfinder Second Edition!

12 p.m.–1 p.m. PDT
Guess that Adventure! (Discord Stages)
Very similar to Paizo’s ‘Guess that Monster’ livestream we did in honor of the release of Monster Core. We've stripped adventure covers of their identifying information and now we're quizzing Paizo developers on their knowledge of what adventure it is!

1 p.m.–2 p.m. PDT
Godsrain—Death and Renewal (Twitch)
If you haven't heard, there's been some interesting prophesies popping up in Golarion. Join us while we talk about The Godsrain Prophesies, upcoming novel, Adventure Path, and War of Immortals event!

1 p.m.–2:30 p.m. PDT
Elemental Stones Boardgame (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
Play the first board game from Paizo Games, Elemental Stones, with one of its designers! (Tabletop Simulator is required.)

2 p.m.–3 p.m. PDT
Organized Play Updates (Twitch)
Join the Organized Play team while they talk about what’s coming up in the newly revealed Year 6 of PFS and what's in store for the final year of Starfinder Society First Edition!

3 p.m.–4 p.m. PDT
Paizo Partners Online Tools Showcase (Twitch)
We have some amazing partners who help us produce various tools to aid with online gaming. Some you know, and others you might not be familiar with, but we want to give them all a chance to show off a little of what they do!

3 p.m.–4:30 p.m. PDT
Elemental Stones Boardgame (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
Play the first board game from Paizo Games, Elemental Stones, with one of its designers! (Tabletop Simulator is required.)

4 p.m. PDT
Organized Play Game Block 1 (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
Pathfinder and Starfinder Society scenarios begin at the start of this timeslot. Shorter adventures, such as Quests or Bounties, may also be available. Visit the tabletop.events schedule for full details on all Organized Play offerings!

4 p.m.–6 p.m. PDT
SF2E Live Play (Twitch)
Join the Starfinder team on their journey through the stars in this alpha playtest campaign of Starfinder Second Edition! This game will be the opening session of an ongoing campaign, with episodes dropping up until Gen Con 2024.

4 p.m.–8 p.m. PDT
The lightless Beacon: Call of Cthulhu 7E (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
In the mid 1920s, the passengers of the SS Essex County must investigate an unlit lighthouse off the coast of Rockport, Massachusetts. Was the lighthouse's lantern extinguished by inclement weather, or is something more sinister afoot?

This session will use Foundry VTT and be run by Paizo's Software Architect, Brian Bauman. Players will be provided with pregenerated characters.

7 p.m.–7 p.m. PDT
Pathfinder Battles and Beyond: 2025 releases from WizKids (Twitch)
Join Magellan Mulligan, RPG Project Production Manager/Producer at WizKids, for a look at some exciting new releases coming this year and next for Pathfinder Battles and more!

8 p.m.–9 p.m. PDT
Jackbox: Get Pathlashed! (Discord Stages)
Join the community in an evening of Jackbox nonsense to kick off PaizoCon Online 2024! There will be adult language/themes in this event.

Planned schedule:
Round 1: Lie Swatter! Up to 100 participants can play this game of spotting falsehoods and nonsense.
Round 2: Pathlash! It's Quiplash, but with a Pathfinder and Starfinder twist!
Round 3: Community choice! I'll present several fan-favorite games for vote at the top of the event and we'll pick one to close things out.

10 p.m. PDT
Organized Play Game Block 2 (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
Pathfinder and Starfinder Society scenarios begin at the start of this timeslot. Shorter adventures, such as Quests or Bounties, may also be available. Visit the tabletop.events schedule for full details on all Organized Play offerings!

Back To Top ^

Saturday, May 25th

4 a.m. PDT
Organized Play Game Block 3 (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
Pathfinder and Starfinder Society scenarios begin at the start of this timeslot. Shorter adventures, such as Quests or Bounties, may also be available. Visit the tabletop.events schedule for full details on all Organized Play offerings!

9 a.m.–10 a.m. PDT
Roll20: Bridging the Gap Between Digital and Physical Play (Twitch)
Join members of Roll20's staff as they discuss the platform's long-term investment in Pathfinder and Starfinder and share how user feedback is driving the development of powerful, reliable tools to make play easy, wherever you are.

10 a.m. PDT
Organized Play Game Block 4 and Starfinder Society Special (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
Pathfinder and Starfinder Society scenarios begin at the start of this timeslot. Shorter adventures, such as Quests or Bounties, may also be available. Visit the tabletop.events schedule for full details on all Organized Play offerings!

10 a.m.–11 a.m. PDT
An Adventure Path Retrospective (Twitch)
With the release of Seven Dooms for Sandpoint, we've reached a milestone of our 200th adventure path! Join the Narrative Team as they talk about the history of the Adventure Paths, things we’ve learned along the way, and ways we at Paizo have innovated the format and challenged traditional norms in the industry through our stories.

11 a.m.–12 p.m. PDT
Journalism & TTRPGs (Twitch)
Take part in a roundtable discussion with journalists from around the tabletop space. Learn how journalists breathe life into the industry and shine a light on projects—and learn how you can help support them in return!

12 p.m.–1 p.m. PDT
Transitions from Starfinder First Edition to Second Edition (Twitch)
Join the Starfinder team while they talk about working on Starfinder, the final adventure path; Mechageddon!, and what we can expect while transitioning into Starfinder Second Edition!

12 p.m.–1 p.m. PDT
Backmatter Speed Round! (Discord Stages)
We’re testing participants on their Paizo knowledge! Taking the backmatter from spells, item descriptions, or anything the host choses, the participants must race to guess the name or adventure that the choice description comes from!

1 p.m.–2 p.m. PDT
Pathfinder Project Remaster (Twitch)
Join the team while they talk about the Pathfinder Remaster project, what's happened so far and where we plan on taking it in the future!

1 p.m.–2 p.m. PDT
Paizo Games - Board and Card Games from Paizo (Discord Stages)
Come learn about Paizo Games, a new initiative to bring the worlds of Paizo to board and card games. Learn about our previous games and get some enticing hints about what is to come!

2 p.m.–3 p.m. PDT
VTTs Enhanced (Twitch)
Join the team while we discuss where we’ve been and where we’re going with virtual tabletop content, producing soundtracks for Adventure Paths, and maybe even some peeks at what the future holds!

3 p.m.–4 p.m. PDT
Whimsy in TTRPGs (Twitch)
In PaizoCon years past we've had panels such as Horror and Mysteries in RPGs, and this year we're bringing it back with Whimsy in RPGs! Join the team while they talk about how to have the most fun possible during your game!

4 p.m. PDT
Organized Play Game Block 5 (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
Pathfinder and Starfinder Society scenarios begin at the start of this timeslot. Shorter adventures, such as Quests or Bounties, may also be available. Visit the tabletop.events schedule for full details on all Organized Play offerings!

4 p.m.–6 p.m. PDT
PF Live Play with the Narrative Team (Twitch)
Join the Narrative Team for a one-shot adventure of epic proportions!

4 p.m.–8 p.m. PDT
Chickens in the Mist (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
Student reporters for the local university paper investigate rumors of a cockfighting ring hidden in the homesteads adjoining Big Thicket National Preserve in eastern rural Texas.

System: Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)
This session will use Foundry VTT and be run by Paizo's Software Architect, Brian Bauman.

7 p.m.–8 p.m. PDT
Make Some Magic with AbyssalBrews (Twitch)
AbyssalBrews has been creating third party magic items, systems, creatures, and more for Pathfinder 2E for over a year now. On that road, they’ve learned a lot about writing and a little about business. Join writer Matthew Ross and Illustrator Fernando Dominguez as they talk about being a third party creator and work on creating a specific magic item for Pathfinder 2E right in front of you. Ask anything about being a third party creator and see how the process unfolds!

9 p.m.–10 p.m. PDT
Paizo Con Paint-Along with WizKids (Twitch)
Join WizKids painting instructor JD Wiker (IG: @JeDiWiker) at your favorite local game store, or from the comfort of your own home, as he walks you through how to paint the Pathfinder Wood Giant from start to finish.

10 p.m. PDT
Organized Play Game Block 6 (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
Pathfinder and Starfinder Society scenarios begin at the start of this timeslot. Shorter adventures, such as Quests or Bounties, may also be available. Visit the tabletop.events schedule for full details on all Organized Play offerings!

Back To Top ^

Sunday, May 26th

4 a.m. PDT
Organized Play Game Block 7 (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
Pathfinder and Starfinder Society scenarios begin at the start of this timeslot. Shorter adventures, such as Quests or Bounties, may also be available. Visit the tabletop.events schedule for full details on all Organized Play offerings!

9 a.m.–10 a.m. PDT
BKOM Studios Games (Twitch)
Discover more about BKOM Studios' Pathfinder games!

10 a.m. PDT
Organized Play Game Block 8 and Pathfinder Society Special (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
Pathfinder and Starfinder Society scenarios begin at the start of this timeslot. Shorter adventures, such as Quests or Bounties, may also be available. Visit the tabletop.events schedule for full details on all Organized Play offerings!

10 a.m.–11 a.m. PDT
Infinite Possibilities: How to write for Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite (Twitch)
Join Dustin Knight, Meredith Gerber, and Alexander Augunas as they relay their experiences, offer advice, and answer questions about how to publish on Pathfinder Infinite, including where to find creator resources and collaborative creator spaces!

11 a.m.–12 p.m. PDT
Teaching & TTRPGs (Twitch)
TTRPGs are becoming more familiar in classroom settings. Join Paizo staff and guests with teaching backgrounds as they share their experience using RPGs in the classroom, running afterschool clubs, and how they think games can be used in educational settings going forward.

12 p.m.–1 p.m. PDT
Tips & Tricks: Ask the Paizo GMs (Twitch)
Get your questions ready! Get answers about the games you love from the people who love to make them!

1 p.m.–2 p.m. PDT
Exploring Tian Xia (Twitch)
With the Tian Xia World Guide out and the Character Guide coming soon, join the team as they share their inspiration, process, and maybe some favorite art from the guides! We’ll be answering as many questions as we choose—but not all secrets will be revealed.

2 p.m.–3 p.m. PDT
Therapeutic TTRPGs (Twitch)
Clinical professionals from Take This join Paizo staff for a panel on therapeutic TTRPGs and safety in therapeutic roleplay.

3 p.m.–4 p.m. PDT
Walking the Tightrope: Balancing Encounters in Your Adventure (Twitch)
Want the perfect mix of monsters, mayhem, and roleplay? The Paizo devs are here to talk about their favorite tips and tricks to balancing encounters!

4 p.m. PDT
Organized Play Game Block 9 (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
Pathfinder and Starfinder Society scenarios begin at the start of this timeslot. Shorter adventures, such as Quests or Bounties, may also be available. Visit the tabletop.events schedule for full details on all Organized Play offerings!

4 p.m.–5 p.m. PDT
Mechageddon! Authors Interview (Twitch)
Join developer Jenny Jarzabski and the authors of the Starfinder Mechageddon! Adventure Path as they talk about their inspiration, process, favorite mechs, monsters, and spoilers!

4 p.m.–8 p.m. PDT
The lightless Beacon: Call of Cthulhu 7E (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
In the mid 1920s, the passengers of the SS Essex County must investigate an unlit lighthouse off the coast of Rockport, Massachusetts. Was the lighthouse's lantern extinguished by inclement weather, or is something more sinister afoot?

This session will use Foundry VTT and be run by Paizo's Software Architect, Brian Bauman. Players will be provided with pregenerated characters.

5 p.m.–7 p.m. PDT
Bixby’s Mail Adventure Part Two: The Mailening (Twitch)
Join GM Alex Speidel, Paizo staff members Katina Davis, Rue Dickey, Valentine Luneau and former Paizo staffer Jackson Wood on another wild Pathfinder adventure! Bixby has one job: deliver a letter through the Maze of the Open Road. What could possibly go wrong?

8 p.m.–9 p.m. PDT
Mapmaking With Dungeon Alchemist (Twitch)
Join us as we use Dungeon Alchemist to make professional quality, custom maps for your Pathfinder games in seconds!

10 p.m. PDT
Organized Play Game Block 10 (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
Pathfinder and Starfinder Society scenarios begin at the start of this timeslot. Shorter adventures, such as Quests or Bounties, may also be available. Visit the tabletop.events schedule for full details on all Organized Play offerings!

Back To Top ^

Monday, May 27th

4 a.m. PDT
Organized Play Game Block 11 (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
Pathfinder and Starfinder Society scenarios begin at the start of this timeslot. Shorter adventures, such as Quests or Bounties, may also be available. Visit the tabletop.events schedule for full details on all Organized Play offerings!

10 a.m. PDT
Organized Play Game Block 12 (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
Pathfinder and Starfinder Society scenarios begin at the start of this timeslot. Shorter adventures, such as Quests or Bounties, may also be available. Visit the tabletop.events schedule for full details on all Organized Play offerings!

4 p.m. PDT
Organized Play Game Block 13 (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
Pathfinder and Starfinder Society scenarios begin at the start of this timeslot. Shorter adventures, such as Quests or Bounties, may also be available. Visit the tabletop.events schedule for full details on all Organized Play offerings!

4 p.m.–8 p.m. PDT
Chickens in the Mist (Tabletop.Events & Discord)
Student reporters for the local university paper investigate rumors of a cockfighting ring hidden in the homesteads adjoining Big Thicket National Preserve in eastern rural Texas.

System: Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)
This session will use Foundry VTT and be run by Paizo's Software Architect, Brian Bauman.

Back To Top ^

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Other Activities!

If you’ve already bought a ticket, keep an eye on your inbox as we release early sign ups for art and writing portfolio reviews! If you haven’t bought a ticket yet, don’t worry, we’ll be sending out another sign up email before review slots open up to the public on April 17.

Game Signups!

As said in a previous blog we’re doing game signups via Tabletop.Events this year. Game sign ups open to ticket purchasers on April 17 at 9 a.m. PDT, with GM early sign ups opening on April 10 at 9 a.m. PDT!

See you soon!

Don't forget to join us on the PaizoCon Discord for even more programming! Some of our partners and digital content guests will be hanging out in our online "exhibition hall" with their own channels to answer questions and show off their amazing products!

If you're interested in gaming, don't forget to purchase a ticket and sign up on Tabletop.Events to get access to our Organized Play games and non–Organized Play activities!

We can't wait to see you all at PaizoCon Online 2024!

Get your tickets for PaizoCon Online 2024 today!

Are you ready for the return of PaizoCon Online 2024? Join us Memorial Day weekend, May 24th–27th, as we once again bring events to your screen with an amazing long weekend of panels, giveaways, and, of course, gaming!

If you’re new to Pathfinder or Starfinder, PaizoCon is an annual weekend-long event where we celebrate our team, our community, gaming, and all things Paizo!

Like last year, parts of the show you know and love will remain free, but we’re continuing to have a ticketed event with community-run games and activities at the same time!

What to look forward to this year!

Some of you may have attended conventions hosted on Tabletop Events before, but many of us have not! If you haven’t, here’s how to get your badge for the show.

1. Visit the convention page at https://tabletop.events/conventions/paizocon-online-2024 (also linked at paizocon.com).
2. Click “Get/View Your Badge” under Attend in the top menu bar OR click “Buy Badges” on the right side of the screen.




3. There should be one badge type listed: the Attendee badge. Click the green “Buy” button.
4. Enter your first and last name, as well as your Discord username. Your Discord username will never be shared publicly, and is just so we can assign you special roles on the Paizo Events Discord server.
• On this screen, you can also purchase a badge for a friend! Information on adding and purchasing badges for friends can be found on this page.




5. Click “Add to Cart” when you’ve finished entering your information. Once you have all your badges in the cart, click Checkout.
6. Follow the instructions to enter your credit card information, and you’ll be all set! Welcome to PaizoCon Online 2024!

Submitting Community Events

New this year, the community is able to submit events for inclusion in the PaizoCon Online schedule! These can be RPG events featuring Pathfinder or Starfinder, as well as other systems or even other types of games entirely! Want to introduce people to your favorite indie RPG? Looking for players for the new board game you just bought? Finally want to settle who the best Mario Karter in the community is? You can host all these events and more!

1. From the PaizoCon convention page, go to “Host” in the top bar, then click “Submissions.”




2. Click “New Submission” and choose an event type. For this explainer we’ll be using an RPG event, but most events will ask for the same or similar information.
3. Fill in the requested information! Let the staff and prospective attendees know as much as you can about the event you’re submitting. Once you’ve filled in the information, click Create!
4. After submission, staff will review events and either approve them (adding them to the schedule), contact you for more information, or reject them. We reserve the right to reject events for any reason.

You can submit events any time before May 24, 2024. However, if you want your event to be on the schedule before it initially gets released, it must be submitted by March 28, 2024.

If you have any questions about event submission, please reach out to us at paizocon@paizo.com.

Other Activities

Portfolio Reviews

After the success of last year’s Friday portfolio reviews, the Art team has added an extra day onto their review schedule! Portfolio reviews will remain free on a first-come, first-served sign up basis, but this year we’re giving ticket purchasers the chance to sign up early.

If you’re interested in having your writing samples reviewed, we’re also offering writing reviews on Friday and Saturday this year as well!

Stay tuned for more information and registration in the coming weeks!

Livestreams

Get ready for a weekend full of fantastic livestream programming including seminars, interviews, liveplays, and the annual weekend opening keynote on the Official Paizo Twitch channel!

Stay tuned for the full stream and activity schedule coming soon!

Friends of Paizo:

We’ll once again be joined by multiple friends of Paizo in the Discord this year! Chat with, ask questions of, and learn more about the amazing work of teams like BKOM Studios, Foundry VTT, Roll20, and more!

Last year’s convention was entirely online, but this year we’re introducing PaizoCon@! Our new pilot program allows you to experience PaizoCon in person with your fellow Pathfinders and Starfinders at participating local game stores! Check back on this blog to learn more.

We look forward to seeing you all online this year! Stay tuned for more updates and announcements about PaizoCon 2024!

Get your tickets for PaizoCon Online 2024 today!

Hail and well met, Pathfinders and Starfinders!
February is recognized in the United States of America as Black History Month, a time when we honor the contributions of Black people to culture, cuisine, science, history, and more. The theme of this year’s Black History Month is African Americans and the Arts, focusing on art as a vehicle for empowerment and a way to preserve history and community.

The Association for the Study of African American Life and History’s cover image for Black History Month, featuring a collage of photos of Black artists and musicians

In honor of Black History Month, Paizo reached out to our Black contributors, content creators, and community members and asked them to share their projects, their joy, and their art! We’re proud and grateful to have such a phenomenal community here at Paizo.

Basil Wright

Basil Wright (he/they/xe)

Basil Wright (he/they/xe) is a Black and Seminole Game Designer and Sensitivity Consultant located in Florida. When writing for Paizo, they wrote The Aucturn Dilemma, a Starfinder bounty. His work has also appeared in All the Witches, Backchannels (Backwater Games), and is forthcoming in Jukebox. Xe has provided sensitivity consulting for MCDM Productions, Brotherwise Games, and many others. 

Currently, Basil is finishing Pelogos, their horror TTRPG about death, grief, and the afterlife. Players can either be an underwater paranormal investigator called a Lantern Keeper, or a sea ghost called an Echo, and can help the living come to terms with their loss. Once that project is complete, they'll be turning their attention to Rancher’s Respite: Call of Nature, an expansion to Rancher's Romance; both are a homage to their mother's expansive love of werewolf rancher romance novels. Their other long-term project is The Afrodyssey, where they intend to translate all 24 books of Homer's Odyssey into African American Vernacular English.

When xe's not working on games, Basil is either playing video games (visual novels, horror, etc.) or (lovingly) pestering xir sibling to make xem more banana jam for xir Monte Cristo sandwiches.

Links

• The Aucturn Dilemma: https://paizo.com/products/btq02ete?Starfinder-Bounty-11-The-Aucturn-Dilemma
• Website: https://towerofbasil.wordpress.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kobanya_kana
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/kobanya.bsky.social

Dan ‘Pan’ Grosset

Dan 'Pan' Grossett started the Cosmopunk podcast (@Cosmopunkpod) with 3 friends and quickly found himself charmed by the passion and friendliness of the Paizo AP Streaming / Podcast community. 

A huge fan of science fantasy, they can be found on Twitter (@Stellarencore) taking part in several other Starfinder shows like: 

• Emergency Power (@EmergencyPwrPod)
• Horizons Unknown (https://youtu.be/-WNurouqtdQ?si=aFArWg6hD61aFQP4)
• Spaceflix & Kill (https://youtu.be/YF9MZ0sL-W4?si=UMUEPhWgrborzCAN).

They are looking forward to Starfinder 2E while helping set up crossover events and dipping their toes into the world of Pathfinder 2E with Euro-focused group, Hoard Of Tales (@hoard_of_tales).

“Coming to the hobby fairly late, I was kicking myself for not taking up TTRPGs sooner. It's been a great source of new adventures and new friends. If you're even halfway curious but worried about what others may think, or about sticking out at the table, I promise you that if you find a good group and jump straight in, you won't regret it! More and more black folks are making their voices heard in the Tabletop RPG space, so lend us yours!"

Social Media:
Twitter.com/stellarencore
Twitter.com/cosmopunkpod
https://cosmopunk.carrd.co/

Lin and Becka

Lin & Becka | Ten Times Ten

Lin and Becka invite gamers of all kinds to where video games and tabletop adventures collide, a channel they have lovingly deemed Ten Times Ten.

While they have over a decade of combined experience, both past and present, as Game Masters, players, and innovative homebrewers, their passions extend beyond the TTRPG space as well.

• Explore their TikTok with their ongoing episodes of Fascinating Playable Races for players, as well as their episodes of Crypt of the Dungeon Master, where they showcase monsters to enhance any game master’s arsenal.
• On Spotify, they host deep conversations related to various forms of media, including video games, movies, and more.
• Join in their Twitch for exposure to their favorite games and to observe local tabletop events unfold.
• On YouTube, their channel offers videos that present a mix of their gaming knowledge, ventures, reviews, experiences taste-testing unusual snacks, and more!

Ten Times Ten is not just a channel; it's a community where gaming enthusiasts can find a fun and unique perspective on the gaming world, all while they keep it 100~.

Quinn Murphy

Quinn Murphy's journey with RPGs started when he "inherited" his brother's copy of Chainmail at the age of 11. He started running games for his friends and hasn't stopped for over thirty years. Though he's been building games his whole life, he started doing it professionally in 2009. Since then, he's written for a wide range of products and companies, including (but not limited to): Paizo (Pathfinder, Starfinder), Wizards of the Coast, Kobold Press, Magpie Games, and Onyx Path Publishing. Quinn loves TTRPGs of all shapes and sizes and relishes the thrill of finding the perfect form-factor to express a setting or idea. He believes that Imagination is for Everyone.

With his own company, Thoughtcrime Games, Quinn is currently running a Kickstarter for Community Radio, a wacky improvisational TTRPG inspired by Welcome to Nightvale.

Shan Wolf (he/they)

Hi everyone, I am a freelance game designer and contributing author on both the Pathfinder and Starfinder Lines. My credits include Starfinder Bounty #4: Poacher’s Prize, the Adventure Toolbox for the first part of the Drift Hackers Adventure Path, Starfinder Ports of Call, the Adventure Toolbox for the second part of the Strength of Thousands Adventure Path, Pathfinder Lost Omens Highhelm, as well as a few other projects.

My primary focus as a writer is in Black and Indigenous liberation narratives, monster creation, archetype creation, history and lore, and writing revolutionary and inherently anti-colonialist themes. Besides that, I am a huge Pathfinder and Starfinder booster. I love these games as they help bring to life amazing fantasies about being heroes and saving the world, or Universe, and that is always something I’m interested in doing, or just talking about in general.

If you’re interested in my work or hearing my views, feel free to take a look at my twitter, @Fenrirs_Chosen.You will see an outspoken and passionate advocate for Black liberation and making the tabletop space more open, safe, and inclusive.

---

We also want to spotlight some Black content creators and performers in the Pathfinder and Starfinder community! The shows on this list feature Black hosts, GMs, players, and/or producers—give them a listen and support them year-round!

• Tablestory—Gatewalkers Actual Play
• Know Direction
• Cosmopunk: A Starfinder Podcast
• Outcast and Outclassed—Pathfinder Actual Play
• Unwavering Force—Pathfinder Actual Play
• 20XX: A Drift Odyssey—Starfinder Actual Play
• The Atomless & SAGA—Starfinder Actual Play

If you’re a Black content creator in the Pathfinder or Starfinder space, we would love to hear from you! Shoot an email to community@paizo.com and introduce yourselves.

Thank you again to our Black contributors, content creators, and community members!

Howdy, folks! It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these blogs, and in that time, we’ve added some wonderful new folks to the Creative Department and had a couple of former Paizo creatives return to lend their expertise to Pathfinder and Starfinder. Since it has been a while, some of these folks have been with us for quite a few months, but you didn’t know that and that’s no reason not to join us in welcoming them. It’s been great having new people and new voices on the team in design, development, art, and edit to add their keen experience and varied experiences to the fabric of the Paizo Creative Department.

Michelle Kim

Hey everyone! I’m Michelle, a developer on Pathfinder’s Narrative team. I started off as a freelance writer for Paizo so you’ll see my name pop up in projects like Season of Ghosts, Howl of the Wild, and Lost Omens Divine Mysteries as well as some other unannounced products down the pipeline. I’m a big fan of horror ttrpgs like Call of Cthulhu, Ten Candles, and Bluebeard’s Bride but also a huge sucker for mecha games like Spectres of Brocken. I’ll play almost anything; crunchy? Yes. Narrative? Also yes.I have a few personal projects in the works including a Joseon setting supplement for Good Society: A Jane Austen RPG. If you want to find me on socials, I’m on Twitter at @_missmyk_ and on Bluesky at @missmyk.bsky.social.

Lynne Meyer

Hello! I’m Lynne (she/they), a queer, autistic, chronically ill femme originally from Chicago. Since joining the editing team last June, I’ve been living my best Leslie Knope life in Indiana and working on incredible stuff I can’t wait for you all to see.

Named a 2021 Queer in Games Awardee by Rainbow Game Jam, I’m best known for my work on the ENNIE Award-winning Uncaged: Goddesses and Uncaged Anthology. In my free time these days, I’m usually doing one of three things: playing the Chief Medical Officer in my Star Trek Adventures home game; doting on Izzy, my ancient, beloved kitty; or drinking way too much coffee as I wrap writing for the upcoming All the Witches TTRPG. I’m an unapologetic dice goblin, an em dash enthusiast, and an octopus stan who thinks that the Dumbo Octopus is the cutest thing ever. Come say hello on Bluesky (@lynnemeyer.bsky.social) and Twitter (@Lynne_M_Meyer).

Joshua Birdsong (he/him)

Hello Paizo fans! I am Joshua Birdsong. I am now the newest Designer on the Rules & Lore team. I am very excited to work among such an experienced team, and I am still (and hopefully always will be) learning so much. I cannot wait to help make awesome stuff for our game! I believe my first debut will be in Monster Core! You can find me @impr0phet.
DFTBA

Adriana Gasperi

I am Adriana Gasperi from Caracas, Venezuela, I am a graphic designer, traditional and digital illustrator, and fine artist in Portland, Oregon since 2017. I have been painting cats since 1995 my brand name is Gatos Ilimitados (unlimited cats) https://www.instagram.com/adriana.gasperi.art/ and lately I have been also painting all kinds of animals, and pet portraits. I have been vegan for the animals for about 8 years and belong to an international group of vegan artists called The Art of Compassion Project where we donate art related to animals and veganism. I live with my husband and 6 cats in downtown Portland. I love my job at Paizo and also the diversity and inclusiveness of the company, I enjoy working from home. I am a true crime documentary and podcast fan, Serial Killers is one of my favorite podcasts, as thrillers and horror movies (especially classics), film noir, American Horror Story, and all their new ones like American Crime Story, actually everything Ryan Murphy creates and produces, The Shinning and Psycho are two of my favorite movies.

Jason Keeley

Who, me? I guess you could say that I’m one of those “returning faces,” having come back to Paizo last year to take a position as a Senior Developer on the Pathfinder Rules & Lore Team! In my career at Paizo, I’ve been an editor, a developer of Starfinder Adventure Paths, and more! I’m thrilled to be working with second edition and with the rest of this team, who are an honest-to-goodness bunch of rock stars. You can find me at herzwesten on a lot of the social medias and if you want to see the type of things I get up to in my spare time, check out This Compleat Breakfast (a game about cereal mascots) on my itch.io page!

Felix Dritz (he/him)

Greetings fellow finders of the paths and stars! I’m Felix, one of the editors who sift through the many words you read. This means I check for general errors, discrepancies, formatting, and ensure it has that recognizable Paizo style.

I was first introduced to Pathfinder Organized Play in 2016 by accident, and I never left. So many kind and supportive people adopted me into this community, and I’m overjoyed that I get to support the games they love. It’s been a surreal journey to get here, but now I’m at a desk editing for a game I adore and the community I love.

When not editing for Paizo, I’m usually homebrewing my ever-expanding Pathfinder 2nd Edition setting. If I’m not editing or writing, then I’m likely playing Pathfinder, GMing at local game stores, mashing buttons on a videogame controller, or cooking. I’m not active on social media, but I hope to meet you around the table someday!

Bill Fischer

Bill Fischer has been creating strange and terrifying worlds for role-playing games for over 30 years. He is the author of The Runewild Campaign Setting published by Sneak Attack Press and has done both writing and editing for Kobold Press, Goodman Games, Roll For Combat, AAW Games, and EN Publishing. He lives in Minneapolis, MN with his partner and children.

Mike Kimmel

Hello! I’m Mike Kimmel, and I’m thrilled to be the newest member of the Starfinder team. Since coming on board in September 2023, I’ve been hard at work with my colleagues to create Starfinder Second Edition. While my prior work as a developer for Pathfinder Society Organized Play mostly involved adventure design, I’ve been able to stretch my narrative and game design muscles on the Starfinder team in all sorts of interesting ways these past few months. Alas, I can’t talk much about the things I’m working on—yet—but stay tuned for more Starfinder news in the coming weeks! I can’t wait for you to see what we’ve got in store for you.

Aside from working on games, I like to play them, too! I’m a fan of cooperative games of all kinds, and I also enjoy relaxing with a nice cup of tea and a challenging permadeath videogame. When I get a chance to run an RPG campaign, I tend to lean into horror themes—the spookier the better. If you’d like to chat about games, recommend a good book to me, or play some chess, you can find me on various Paizo-related Discord channels or drop me a line at mike.kimmel@paizo.com. Please note that I am not accepting glitch gremlins or other mischief at this time!

Simone D. Sallé (she/they)

Hi again! I’ve been in the Paizo orbit as a temp, freelance, and full-time contracted editor since 2018. I joined the staff as a senior editor in 2022 and have been having a wonderful time wrangling words with the creative team ever since! While we’ve worked on a lot of great projects lately, I’m particularly excited for everyone to see <em>Pathfinder Howl of the Wild</em> in May, which has some extremely fun new ancestries and mechanics, incredible art, and a heartfelt story.

Unsurprisingly, words and games fill a lot of my time outside of work as well: I have a spreadsheet of SFF book recs for anyone who asks, a handful of Pathfinder and indie TTRPG campaigns on my calendar, and an overflowing queue of Steam games that I frequently ignore to revisit Subnautica (my beloved). I also do freelance editorial work as Wildwood Editing for projects like Queerfinder and Luminant Age. I’m grateful to my Disreputable Dog, Penny Kibeth, for reminding me to take a break from screens and get some fresh air every day.

Editors largely operate behind the scenes, and our best work is invisible, but I can confidently say that I work with some of the finest professionals in the industry, and it’s a delight to learn, grow, and help shape the games I love with them and everyone else at Paizo. I’m not as active on social media these days, but if you track me down I’m always thrilled to discuss conscious language in storytelling, the merits of style guides, and how we can make our worlds—both real and imagined—better for everyone.

Dustin Knight

Greetings, Starfinders! I’ve had the honor of being a member of the Starfinder team for a little over a year and working here at Paizo is still a dream come true! I’m currently moving into my dream home in St. Paul, Minnesota, running a Firefighters of Absalom campaign, Where There’s Smoke, and playing in an incredible Starfinder campaign, Teenaged Wasteland. I’ve been a freelance author and publisher on Pathfinder Infinite for the past few years, as well as avid tabletop gamer, and Paizo-sphere discord lurker! I’m honored to help manage the rules of one of my favorite games in one of its most exciting eras and you may have seen me drop the FAQs and Errata updates for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. I’m also thrilled to see everyone’s excitement and enthusiasm for Starfinder Second Edition, as working on a new Core Rulebook line with such an incredible team has been my developer hoop dream for decades. Feel free to hit me up using any of the various Paizo discords, including my own discord channel for Pathfinder & Starfinder Infinite fans and authors at http://www.infiknight.net, or email me at dustin.knight@paizo.com! You can also follow me @kitsunewarlock.bsky.social and, as always, please send memes!

Greetings, Paizoverse! I’m very excited to announce the locations for this year’s PaizoCon@ program! This pilot program will allow you to experience PaizoCon in person with your fellow Pathfinders and Starfinders while supporting your local game stores.

All PaizoCon@ locations will be running Pathfinder and Starfinder Society games during the weekend, including exclusive runs of our May releases. Highlights include the launch of Starfinder Society Year 7, as well as the new Starfinder Society special and an exclusive rerun of Pathfinder Society Special #2-00: The King in Thorns. If you’re interested in volunteering to run games at your local store, please reach out to the listed contacts!

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PaizoCon@ KublaCon

Location: Burlingame, CA
Website: https://kublacon.com/
Contact: John and Wendy-Ann Francis, sfbayareaVC@gmail.com

Our exclusive convention partner this year is KublaCon in Burlingame, California! KublaCon has one of the largest Paizo Organized Play presences in the country, and we’re enhancing it with all that PaizoCon has to offer. Join them to watch our streamed panels in the viewing space, as well as participate in the specials and Organized Play scenarios!

PaizoCon@ FLGS Locations

Head out to one of our pilot stores and join in on the PaizoCon excitement! If you’re more of a visual learner, here’s a map of the locations!

PaizoCon@ Cardboard Corner Cafe

Location: Overland Park, KS
Website: https://cardboardcornerkc.com/
Contact: Darrel Curry
Signup form:

PaizoCon@ Dragon’s Lair Austin

Location: Austin, TX
Website: https://www.dlair.net/austin/
Contact: Milan Badzic
Signup form: https://forms.gle/9BcDzKyQRtg42YVEA

PaizoCon@ Fanboy3

Location: Manchester, United Kingdom
Website: https://www.fanboy3.co.uk/
Contact: Ian Hawthorne, Islesregionpaizo@gmail.com

PaizoCon@ Fox Den Board Game Cafe

[Logo Coming Soon]

Location: Burnsville, MN
Website: https://www.foxdenbgc.com/
Contact: Bret Indrelee, old.codger.coa@gmail.com

PaizoCon@ Game Kastle

Location: College Park, MD
Website: https://gamekastle.com/pages/college-park-md
Contact: Nicholas Ruchlewicz, novaorganizedplay@gmail.com

PaizoCon@ Gaming Etc

Location: Acton, MA
Website: https://www.gamingetc.com/
Contact: Adam Yakaboski, madcapmachinations@gmail.com

PaizoCon@ Mighty Meeple

Location: Concord, NC
Website: https://www.mightymeeple.com/
Contact: Doug Edwards & Peter Ramon
Signup form: https://forms.gle/iDFD4g49wWCNXfqD6

PaizoCon@ Mox Boarding House

Location: Bellevue, WA
Website: https://www.moxboardinghouse.com/bellevue/
Contact: Aaron Sadler, velisruna@gmail.com or @Velisruna on Discord

PaizoCon@ The Collective

Location: Orlando, FL
Website: https://www.thecollectivecomics.com/
Contact: Greg Ferguson, @greg_f_mco on Discord

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

Season’s greetings, Pathfinders and Starfinders! It’s December, which puts us right in the middle of a whole host of holidays and celebrations. We’ve reached out to our staff and contributors to ask about their favorite traditions for the winter (or, in the case of our southern hemisphere friends, summer) holidays!

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Eren Ahn (they/them)

Hello! I’m Eren (they/them, primarily), and you’ll see some of my work in the upcoming Lost Omens Tian Xia books for Pathfinder Second Edition. My family didn’t have too many winter traditions growing up (I got presents on Christmas for the first ten years of my life and tteokguk (rice cake soup) on New Year’s after that), but since I started living on my own, I adapted some traditional dongji rituals to celebrate the solstice. For me, this means making patjuk (red bean porridge) and leaving a small bowl of it on my windowsill overnight for any wandering spirits. I’m fond of winter, cold snaps and polar vortexes and all, and it’s a calming ritual to look forward to in my generally fast-paced life.

James Jacobs (he/him)

I’m James Jacobs (he/him), Narrative Creative Director for Pathfinder, and for me, the winter holidays are traditionally when I wander some 800 miles south to spend time with my family and to relax in my hometown of Sandpoint/Otari/Point Arena. There were a few years there during the pandemic when this tradition got interrupted, but things are mostly back to normal there. Bad weather might step in to keep me here in Washington (as it has a few times in the past), but otherwise the long journey south beckons with its promises of hanging out with family, relaxing in the redwoods of Northern California, visiting some local landmarks (during Thanksgiving I visited the Point Arena Lighthouse, which is the tallest lighthouse on the west coast of the United States, and which you’ve also seen if you watched movies like Forever Young or Need for Speed), and hoping for a bigfoot sighting or two.

Joshua Birdsong (he/him)

Hi everyone, I’m Joshua Birdsong. I am a designer for Paizo. I am very excited and humbled to be part of such an amazing team, and I look forward to helping create some awesome books for all of you! My favorite holiday tradition is consuming an entire container of chocolate hazelnut pirouline wafers on Christmas day! If you need to get in touch, you can find me on Twitter at @impr0phet. Don’t forget to be awesome!

Lynne M. Meyer (she/they)

Hello! I’m Lynne (she/they), the newest member of Paizo’s editing team. I’m pagan but grew up in a Protestant family. My holidays aren’t complete without pfeffernusse, a traditional German spice cookie. When I was growing up, my German grandmother lived with us and taught me to bake. She had pfeffernusse every Christmas—and only at Christmas. I looked forward to it every year.

When she passed, the tradition stopped. Years later, when I started dating the man who’d become my husband, I decided to bring it back. I even used my grandmother’s antique measuring cups.

It turned out that pfeffernusse is his favorite cookie! Pfeffernusse became my signature bake. Pre-pandemic, I’d make as many as ten dozen to share with our families. Times are different now, and those celebrations are happy memories. Circumstances make it difficult to see our families in person, and I’ve since lost my father as well as a brother.

Yet pfeffernusse remains part of my Yule. It’s the one holiday tradition I keep without fail. It ties me to my past and my present with love. Every year, when the aroma of anise hits me, I’m a little girl again, celebrating Christmas with my family.

Rue Dickey (they/he/xe)

Growing up and living in a very mixed-culture household means I celebrate a wide variety of holidays during December (Christmas Eve with my in-laws, Chanukah, the Solstice, and “Witch-mas” with my mom—Christmas day, but it’s goth and we make hot chocolate and exchange gifts). One tradition that transcends all of these holidays, though, is making fudge!

I use my grandmother’s fudge recipe (included below), which has been handwritten, photocopied several times, and taken a picture of via a phone to wind up in my hands. It makes 5 pounds of fudge—no more, no less, and no ratio editing allowed. And now you can make it too!

Ingredients

• 4 ½ cups of white sugar
• 2 cubes (8 oz) of butter
• 1 (12 oz) can of evaporated milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 18 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped)
• 1 (7 oz) jar of marshmallow fluff
• 2 cups chopped nuts (optional)

Steps

1. Cook the sugar, butter, evaporated milk, and vanilla over medium heat until the mixture comes to a slow boil.
2. Beat with electric mixture for seven (7) minutes, continuously.
   1. My wife and I take turns holding the mixer for this step, as it can start to ache.
3. Remove from heat.
4. Add in chocolate chips, marshmallow fluff, and nuts (optional).
5. Stir until all ingredients are well mixed.
6. Pour into 13” x 9” baking pan and chill in fridge until set (about 2 hours).
   1. If you’re like me and want to eat hot, kind of un-set fudge, half an hour on the counter is enough to make it cool enough to eat, but still warm and soft.
7. Cut into cubes and enjoy.

(Makes five pounds)

Tomas Gimenez Rioja (he/him)

Tomas (he/him) has written for Pathfinder Lost Omens Divine Mysteries.

Here in Argentina the holidays are during summertime. In the coast city in which I live, we usually spend the days going to the beach, and resting at home after that. Some card and board games are often played as well. On Christmas and New Year's Eve I meet with my family, and many others from my father's family, and get some asado (fantastically grilled meat from here). After midnight, once presents are opened, or exchanged, or a toast is made if it's New Year's Eve, it's time to meet with friends, where we spend the rest of the night playing games, might get a holiday-themed one-shot going, and go see the sunrise together when it comes.

Whatever you’re doing for the holidays this season, we hope you have a wonderful season! And to sweeten things up a bit, Paizo is offering our annual midwinter holiday sale!

Illustration by Kent Hamilton

Holiday Sale!

From now (Friday 12/15) through Monday, January 15, take 10% off a single order* on Pathfinder and Starfinder products at the Paizo Store using the code holiday24 at checkout.

* The holiday24 code stacks with Paizo Advantage and other discounts. Not valid on subscriptions, preorders, backorders, Foundry VTT products, or non-Paizo downloads. Code expires at 11:59 p.m. Pacific on January 15.

Illustration by Roberto Pitturru

“Neth, also known as Joya, is named for the two-faced Nethys, god of magic. A fitting tribute to the dual nature of this 30-day month, the name evokes the world outside growing starker, even as relationships between friends and family grow stronger with the shared harvest.”

“We begin with Moonday, which is straightforward enough. While it may be a day for work, it’s also the night when worshippers of Desna, Ketephys, and night-loving religions hold ceremonies, often with only the moon as a silent witness. Always helpful if you’re looking to dispatch a target in the dark.”

“Fireday is market day in most places, and a great time to put eyes on a target who’s trying to lay low. Apparently, it’s impossible to resist the smell of honeycakes and the cries of cloth hawkers peddling their wares, no matter who you’re on the run from.”

—Pathfinder Lost Omens Travel Guide

Greetings!
In the marking of time in Golarion, we find ourselves in the month of late Neth, or Joya. Here on Earth (a planet dear to us in Pathfinder Reign of Winter canon), many of us in the United States find ourselves on the cusp of celebrating Thanksgiving, which leads to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This sale is brought to you by Abadar, Master of the First Vault, and by Triune, the All-Code. Actually, given their portfolios, one could argue all our sales are sponsored by them. Chances are they’ll both survive until next year to sponsor it again. Or not—just wait until you see our Death and Dying rules for deities.

Kidding!

In this vault, you’ll find 15% off gorgeous hardcover, Special Edition, and Pocket Edition print books as well as digital versions of products, when available:

Pathfinder Secrets of Magic

Pathfinder Guns & Gears

Pathfinder Book of the Dead

Pathfinder Dark Archive

Pathfinder Treasure Vault

Starfinder Drift Crisis

Starfinder Starship Operations Manual

Starfinder Galaxy Exploration Manual

Select Pathfinder Foundry VTT products in our store

A fortune dragon’s hoard of maps, cards, and other accessories!

Illustration by Miguel Regodón Harkness

The sale starts and link goes live at 12:01 AM Pacific on Thursday, November 23 and ends at 11:59 p.m. Pacific on Monday, November 27.

As with every year when we hold our fall and winter holiday sales, please remember that the additional volume of orders will result in increased response times for our customer service department, as well as increased shipping times. While we are taking steps to mitigate this as much as we can, we also thank you in advance for your patience as we strive to make sure that these effects affect as few customers as possible.

If you don’t see everything you’re looking for, don’t forget that our annual Holiday Discount Code Sale is just around the corner in mid-Kuthona (that’s December for you earthlings.)

Get Ready To Shop the Black Fireday to Cyber Moonday Sale!

Greetings, Starfinders and Pathfinders! With just a little over a week until PAX Unplugged (I’m not anxious, you’re anxious), we’re here to give you an easy guide to all things Paizo at the show!

Games and Demos at Booth 22A!

Paizo’s booth space at PAX Unplugged is focused on games and demos! We’ll be running Organized Play adventures, board game demos, and Starfinder Second Edition demos all weekend!

• We’re excited to bring Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society to PAX Unplugged! Players can pre-register for games, or join a table as a walk-up throughout the day!
• Drop in to try out one of our board games—Goblin Firework Fight and Elemental Stones! This will be the first physical demo of Elemental Stones, after the digital-only demos during PaizoCon 2023.
• Get an early access first look at Starfinder Second Edition! Paizo staff will be running Starfinder Second Edition demos throughout the weekend.

Paizo Unplugged Live Plays

Paizo is excited to present two live play shows at PAX Unplugged—one Pathfinder and one Starfinder! Join us in the TTRPG Live Play Theatre, or watch the stream from twitch.tv/officialpaizo or twitch.tv/pax3.

Starfinder: Gifts Ungiven | Friday, December 1st from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. (EST)

Join Starfinder Senior Developer Jenny Jarzabski as xe leads a party of Starfinders through this mischievous winter pranking spree! Featuring: Andre Rivera as Obozaya, Dain Miller as Zemir, Matthew Ekberg as Altronus, Niall Spain as Navasi, and Noordin Ali Kadir as Raia.

Pathfinder: The Winter Queen’s Dollhouse | Saturday, December 2nd from 3 to 5 p.m. (EST)

Queen Anastasia of Irrisen has sent the Pathfinders one of many strange dollhouses from her aunt’s vaults—and Aslynn’s magic has brought that dollhouse’s magic back to life. Rue, Paizo’s Marketing & Media Specialist, leads a party of iconic adventurers through a poppet-sized house of mysteries. Featuring: Alex Speidel as Merisiel, Erin Roberts as Lini, Jess Redekop as Feiya, and Luis Loza as Valeros.

Retail Location & Licensed Partners

Get your Pathfinder and Starfinder books from our retail partner, Card Titan (Booth 3208). Card Titan will have a stock of Pathfinder Player Core and Pathfinder GM Core in standard, special edition, and hobby retail exclusive sketch covers! Other highlights of Paizo products available at Card Titan include Starfinder Enhanced, Goblin Firework Fight, and more!

A collection of Paizo’s licensed partners will also be attending PAX Unplugged! Get your licensed Paizo products at the following booths:

• Alchemy RPG @ Booth 3714
• Beadle & Grimm’s @ Booth 3647
• Fanroll Dice @ Booth 3601
• Foam Brain Games @ Booth 3047, Hall C
• Level Up Dice @ Booth 2848
• Q-Workshop @ Booth 3739
• Savagesparrow Studios @ Booth 4231
• Steve Jackson Games @ Booth 2746
• Wizkids @ Booth 2636, Hall C

We’re looking forward to seeing you at PAX Unplugged 2023!

Koonííni'ííni, Pathfinders and Starfinders!
November is recognized in the United States of America as Native American Heritage Month—a celebration of the indigenous peoples of Turtle Island and our contributions to art, culture, environmental conservation, and more! This year’s theme is Celebrating Tribal Sovereignty and Identity—showcasing the wide diversity of indigenous cultures and ways of life.

In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, we’ve reached out to some of our Native contributors, who have built items inspired by their cultures!

David N. Ross

I write for Pathfinder, Starfinder, and sometimes other games, and am a whiz a converting between systems. When I’m not working on freelance for various clients, I am developing a storytelling card game with my husband. You can find me on Twitter @DavidRossWorlds Bluesky @davidnross and via other contact options on my linktree: https://linktr.ee/davidnross

My mother’s family has always kept at least one dreamcatcher, a traditional Anishinaabe ward against bad dreams. It’s true that nightmares have always been fortuitously rare for me at least, especially since my grandma gave me one of my own. It certainly doesn’t hurt that mine reminds me every day I see it of family even when I am far away.

Dreamcatcher — Item 6
Magical
Price 180 gp
Usage affixed to a structure, tent, or tree; Bulk L

This willow hoop is strung with a web of plant fibers and fragrant sweetgrass and adorned with beads. The dreamcatcher automatically attempts to counteract any spell or magical effect that would force a sleeping creature within 10 feet of it to attempt a saving throw (counteract DC 20, counteract level of 3). An effect counteracted by the dreamcatcher creates a minor decoration representing it to appear in the dreamcatcher’s web, wobbling occasionally like a fly in a spiderweb, that vanishes when exposed to sunlight. A creature adjacent to the dreamcatcher can study such a decoration to attempt to Identify the Magic that triggered its creation. The dreamcatcher only triggers once per night.

Mahpiya

Bannock holds a special place on the prairies as a symbol of our adaptability and resilience. We were introduced to the food through the fur trade, and it stuck with us as we were forced into the reservation system, turning government rations into nourishment for our people. The process of making bannock itself is the process of learning our history. I carry memories of listening to my mothers, my grandmothers, and the other elders in my life (pidamayeye, Kokum Brenda and Grandma Bear) as we cooked together, shared food, and shared stories, both of our own lives and the lives of those who came before. Through food we remember our past, and the stories that guided us through it.

You can find me slowly trying to figure out bluesky @Mahpiya. Just don’t ask me for the recipe, it’s a family secret.

Bannock of Echoing Wisdom — Item 3
Alchemical, Consumable
Price 10 gp
Usage held in 1 hand; Bulk L
Activate 10 minutes (manipulate)

Cooked over a campfire and dipped into wozapi, bannock of echoing wisdom instills you with voices of the past, allowing you to recount any story you’re heard.

After eating the bannock, your mind is filled with the images, words, body language, and cadence of a story you have previously heard, allowing you to recount the story effortlessly with perfect memory. You gain a +1 item bonus to Performance checks to recount this story and a +1 item bonus to Recall Knowledge about subjects discussed within the story. These bonuses last 24 hours or until you make your next daily preparations, whichever comes first.

Marlowe Miller

Nawwih! The sun-blessed corn pounder is based on one of my favorite and most memorable Caddo stories, "The Young Man and the Cannibals." In it, a young man is trying to find his brothers and finds they've been eaten by a family of cannibals. The young man is saved by an unseen, unknown force (later revealed to be the Sun) from death by long-nosed iron mask and told to run, take a corn pounder from an old woman cannibal, and kill the cannibal family. I love this story because of the iconic symbols of the corn pounder and the long-nosed iron mask, and how it speaks to the running theme in our cultural hero stories of taking leaps of faith and persevering even in the direst of situations.

I'm a pretty solid social media hermit, but I can be found on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter @diwasti_ or on bluesky @diwasti.bsky.social. Alternatively, I can be emailed directly at genesysfrog@gmail.com!

Sun-Blessed Corn Pounder — Item 5
Uncommon, Magical
Price 150 gp
Usage held in 2 hands; Bulk 2

Nine rings line the haft of this mighty wooden corn pounder (a +1 striking greatclub), topped by a broad head with sun symbols burned into the surface. The narrow end is worn smooth from years of use. A very long time ago, this corn pounder was used to slay cannibalistic undead in an act of desperate survival by a young man, and the nine rings represent the nine brothers killed by the cannibalistic undead. While wielding the sun-blessed corn pounder, you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to attacks against undead creatures.

Activate—Beseech the Sun [free-action] (concentrate, fire, light) Frequency once per day; Trigger You critically succeed at a Strike against an enemy; Effect You call upon divine powers to aid you in your time of need. Searing sunlight erupts from the broad head of the sub-blessedcorn pounder. After the normal effects of the critical hit, the target must attempt a DC 21 Fortitude save.

Failure The target is stupefied 1 until the end of the target’s next turn.

Critical Failure The target is stupefied 1 until the end of your next turn, and you deal an additional 1d4 fire damage to your next damage roll against that creature before the end of your next turn.

Shay Snow

Not many Caddo recipes have survived to the current day, so the few recipes I have access to, I treasure. Caddo fish relish is a recipe I remember my aunties and Yeye preparing in large batches before canning it in mason jars and storing it away to eat with pretty much anything. It’s spicy and briny and we’ve always joked could be used as a weapon in a pinch! Some Caddo language learning time: this relish is made with daháw (onion), hasahk’uh ch’ántinu’ (unripe green tomato), and kah’án:k’as (spicy pepper)!

Fish Relish — Item 1+
Acid, Alchemical, Bomb, Consumable, Splash
Usage held in 1 hand; Bulk L
Activate [one-action] Strike

This canning jar is secured with a screw top metal lid and filled to the brim with a chopped mixture of onions, green unripe tomatoes, various hot peppers, and plenty of spices and vinegar to ensure a spicy, pickled mix perfect for eating with freshwater fish. In a pinch, the relish can additionally be used as an offensive bomb that will also perfectly complement an unconscious enemy.

Type mild; Level 1; Price 4 gp
The mild fish relish bomb deals 1d4 bludgeoning damage, plus 1d4 persistent acid damage and 1 acid splash damage.

Type spicy; Level 3; Price 10 gp
You gain a +1 item bonus to attack rolls. The spicy fish relish bomb deals 2d4 bludgeoning damage, plus 2d4 persistent acid damage and 2 acid splash damage.

Type well-preserved; Level 11; Price 250 gp
You gain a +2 item bonus to attack rolls. The well-preserved fish relish bomb deals 3d4 bludgeoning damage, plus 3d4 persistent acid damage and 3 acid splash damage.

Rue Dickey (they/he/xe)

Hey all! Rue here again, still a proud Indiginerd and the Marketing & Media Specialist here at Paizo! One of the joys of my experience as a game designer is getting to see my cultures brought to the table in a variety of systems and settings. Finally, the stories that we were punished for singing can be told to new generations.

The ghost dance was part of a resurgence of Arapaho culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and remains a cultural tradition and festival for North and South Arapaho peoples. Through the ghost dance, we reconnect with our ancestors, as well as send our energy forward to future generations, so that our knowledge can be shared, along with our triumph and sorrow. An act of protest at its inception, the ghost dance remains a symbol of Arapaho culture’s resilience. As the sun sets only to rise again, we too shall continue to rise.

Ghost Dance Dress — Item 5
Invested, Magical
Price 125 gp
Usage worn; Bulk L

This flowing dress is fringed in ribbons with beads and feathers woven in. Delicate hand-embroidery, beadwork, and dyeing turns this garment into a moving representation of the cycles of life and death, rain and drought, growth and burning. The ghost dance dressconnects the living and the dead. You gain a +1 item bonus to Diplomacy checks against spirits.

Activate—Ghost Dance [one-action] (concentrate) Frequency once per hour; Effect The rhythm of your ancestors’ feet upon the ground spurs you on, giving you a +1 circumstance bonus to your next melee Strike before the end of your turn.

Activate—Wind Cry [two-actions] (manipulate) Frequency once per day; Effect The wind whips up around you, whispering and shrieking of the shadows that have passed here. The ghost dance dress casts fear with a DC of 21.

Thank you so much to our contributors for sharing these snippets of their culture with us (and giving us more items for our game tables).

Rue Dickey (they/he/xe)
Marketing & Media Specialist
Arapaho Nation

Hail and well met, Pathfinders and Starfinders! We’re excited to bring you some news about next year’s PaizoCon Online.

PaizoCon Online 2024 will take place May 24–27th.

Our theme for this year’s PaizoCon Online is “Educate, Entertain, Inspire!”—and we’ll be theming our content to match. Learn the basics of Pathfinder and Starfinder, enjoy broadcasted actual plays, and find out what the future holds here at Paizo!

This year we will be expanding the selection of panels and events being held in our Paizo Events Discord server. On top of public panels on our Twitch channel and the free, no ticket required hangout spaces and staff AMAs, we will be hosting ticketholder-exclusive games, panels, and social events via the Discord! Purchasing a ticket to PaizoCon Online allows you to participate in these events, as well as Organized Play and Community Play games throughout the weekend.

Introducing “PaizoCon @”

We tested the waters of a concurrent in-person event last year, partnering with KublaCon in California. This year, we’re excited to announce “PaizoCon @”, a program that brings PaizoCon Online gaming to a selection of in-person events!

We will once again be partnering with KublaCon in 2024—not only offering in-person Organized Play gaming, but also a physical space within the con to watch our livestreamed PaizoCon Online panels!

We are also very excited to be partnering with a selection of local game stores throughout the United States and beyond! Be on the lookout for an upcoming list of participating friendly local game stores!

As PaizoCon Online gets closer, we’ll have more news about the panels, events, and more! We’re looking forward to seeing you at our annual celebration of all things Paizo!

It’s that time of year where company presidents look into the future, comparing what it costs to produce and create game products today versus what it did last year–and how those costs will change in the year to come. No one likes to raise prices, but doing so is a necessity. Paizo is not immune to economic factors like inflation, nor industry-wide fluctuations in cost-of-goods, labor, or shipping and logistics, and we must periodically adjust our prices to reflect rising costs. Let’s break things down.

Bounties, Quests, and Scenarios (PDF)

Bounties and Quests are standalone short digital adventures, usually designed to be played for up to 2 hours. We’ll be increasing the price of these from $4.99 to $5.99.

Society scenarios are adventures suitable for a single gaming session of around 4-5 hours. Many are part of an overarching theme for a particular year, so it’s possible to weave an entire campaign out of these scenarios one session at a time. Currently, scenarios are priced at $5.99 for “regular” scenarios and $7.99 for higher-level scenarios, which are generally longer and take longer to develop and edit. Very soon, we will standardize the price for ALL Society scenarios (regardless of level) to $8.99. Special “interactive” scenarios will increase from $14.99 to $19.99.

These price changes will be retroactive for all previously released products as of October 25th. If you have some gaps in your collection going back to the very beginning of Pathfinder Society in 2007, you may wish to backfill your collection before these new prices go into effect.

Other PDF Products

We don’t plan any other PDF price changes beyond what we announced last year.

Price Changes

We will be increasing prices on accessories, softcover, and hardcover books. The amount of this increase varies by product type, but here are some examples.

• Flip-Mats: $19.99 (+$3)
• Flip-Mat Multi-Pack: $29.99 (+$5)
• 96-page Adventure Paths: $29.99 (+$3)
• Pocket Editions will range in price from $26.99 to $34.99 based on page count.
• Hardcover prices will vary in price based on page count. That might seem obvious, but it’s a change from us keeping MSRP the same across wide page counts. Here are a couple of baseline examples.
  • 128-page: $44.99
  • 192-page: $59.99
  • 256-page: $69.99
  • 304-page plus map: $79.99
  • Special Edition covers add an additional $20 to the retail price.

You’ll see the above price changes reflected in products that begin releasing in April of 2024, as well as reprints of older products.

Holding the Line on the Core

Contrary to what I’ve outlined above, we’ll keep the price of the hardcover Core books (Player Core, GM Core, Monster Core, and Player Core 2) at $59.99 through at least the first printing. We feel these books are essential first purchases for Pathfinder players and want to hold the line on price increases as long as possible to reduce the barrier of entry for new players.

Paizo and the Environment

For years, Paizo has printed our products using ecologically friendly soy-based ink rather than petroleum or other vegetable-based inks. Soy ink results in richer and more vibrant colors that require less ink on every page. We’ll definitely keep soy inks in Paizo products, but I wanted you to know about it, since it’s not something we’ve made a big deal about or discussed in the past.

What is new is that we’re changing to FSC-certified paper. This means that the paper Paizo uses will come from ecologically sourced forests that prohibit deforestation (replacing the trees they harvest with new growth), require biodiversity and old forests to be protected, protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples, and ensure that Paizo has a sustainable source of paper for many years to come. To learn about the Forest Stewardship Council or delve into the certification process visit their website.

Paizo is not switching to recycled paper, which is significantly more expensive and has a vastly different look and feel. FSC paper is a mix of new and recycled paper, and you won’t be able to tell the difference between new products and old ones without looking for the FSC label.

We’re making changes in shipping supplies as well. We’ve switched to using starch peanuts and air pockets in store shipments. We’re also phasing out the use of foam packing corners (for cardboard ones) and have switched all of consumer box packaging from U-Line to Alliance Packaging, who use an average of 50% recycled paper in their boxes. Your products will continue to be shipped as safely and securely as we can make them, only with more thought put into the environmental and social impacts of what we do.

Thanks again for supporting Paizo!

Jim Butler
President

Koonííni'ííni, Pathfinders and Starfinders!

Today, October 9th, is recognized as Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the United States of America. In honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the Paizo offices are closed today. While we’re closed, we wanted to take a moment to recognize this holiday and suggest some resources for you to learn more!

Firstly, we would like to acknowledge that Paizo’s headquarters in Redmond, WA lies within the traditional homelands of the Duwamish and Sammamish tribes of Coast Salish peoples. Following the Treaty of Point Elliot in 1855, these tribes and others were consolidated and relocated to the Tulalip Tribes of Washington Indian Reservation. Since time immemorial, they have hunted, fished, gathered, and taken care of these lands.

If you are interested in knowing about the tribes and nations whose land you may be living on, here is an interactive map tool.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day honors the indigenous peoples of Turtle Island, Alaska, and Hawaii for their contributions to art, culture, history, and society. It also acknowledges the solemn truth of the atrocities committed against indigenous peoples over the course of this nation’s history. By celebrating the indigenous people of this country—past and present—we honor our ancestors and keep Native traditions of land, air, and water sovereignty alive.

If you have the means, a wonderful way for those settling in these lands and their children to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day is to donate money, time, or community service to your local tribal community, or participate in an environmental conservation project in your community.

Some larger scale non-profits and organizations to support nationwide include:

• Native American Rights Fund
• Redhawk Indigenous Arts Council
• National Urban Indian Family Coalition
• Indigenous Justice
• Spirit of the Sun

As we take today off here at Paizo, thank you for taking a moment to read this blog and celebrate the work of our indigenous relatives and ancestors, not to mention the work of indigenous people across the games industry. We look forward to showcasing some more indigenous creatives here at Paizo for Native American Heritage Month in November!

Hohóu, in solidarity

Rue Dickey (they/he/xe)
Marketing & Media Specialist

Hello, Pathfinders and Starfinders! Now that we’re getting back into the swing of regular streams here at Paizo, I thought it best to make an announcement post each month for upcoming streams. This way, you can mark your calendars in advance for all the amazing content coming your way!

Follow us on twitch to keep up with these streams as they air, and keep an eye out for the VODs, posted to YouTube afterwards.

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Paizo LIVE!—Friday, October 6th 4–6 p.m.

Join us for this month’s Paizo LIVE! October’s topics include an update on Starfinder Second Edition from Dustin and Jenny, a look at the Pathfinder Season of Ghosts Adventure Path from freelance author Sen H.H.S, and a glimpse at the upcoming Pathfinder: Elemental Stones board game from designer Joe Pasini! Bring a beverage and your questions and get settled in for this monthly fireside chat.

Gayming Live—October 7

Paizo is excited to be participating in Gayming Live, the world’s largest LGBTQ+ gaming and geek convention! Join us Saturday, October 7 at 11:15 a.m. Eastern for Queer Characters, Queer Stories, Queer Worlds—a panel discussing inclusive and diverse world building in TTRPGs. Also on Saturday, October 7, join us at 6:15 p.m. Eastern for In the Footsteps of Horror—a pre-recorded actual play of Pathfinder Quest (Series 2) #15.

Lost Omens Special—Friday, October 13th 4–5 p.m.

Take a trip to Tian Xia for this special Lost Omens Showcase Stream! Creative Director Luis Loza talks to Senior Designer James Case and Senior Developer Eleanor Ferron about the upcoming Pathfinder Lost OmensTian Xia World Guide and Pathfinder Lost OmensTian Xia Character Guide.

Starfinder Society Foundry Showcase—Tomorrow’s Seekers, Episode 2 — Tuesday, October 10th 4 p.m.

Did you miss the first episode of our Starfinder Society Showcase? Watch the VOD here to catch up.

Having assisted Aurora and Sarmack, our party of bright-eyed Starfinders continue their adventure by aiding Nykiti and Doctor Sevaille on missions of their own. Who will win the Starfinders’ hearts—and their votes?

Pathfinder Society Foundry Showcase—Intro to Year of Unfettered Exploration, Episode 2 — Tuesday, October 17th 4 p.m.

Did you miss the first episode of our Pathfinder Society Showcase? Watch the VOD here to catch up.

In their quest to show Venture Captain Taiwalei the Maze of the Open Road, our Pathfinders find themselves at an elemental intersection. Looking for a collection of elemental wisps, they journey back into the maze, astounded by what awaits them.

Starfinder Second Edition Developer Playtest — Wednesday, October 18th 1 p.m.

At 1pm PST on Wednesday October 18th over at twitch.tv/officialpaizo, the Starfinder Team will be streaming one of its internal playtest games for the new edition of Starfinder! Come watch as the team runs some combat encounters for the new system, including a preview of two classes we've not previously shown any content for!"

TabletopTown and Paizo are teaming up to put Pathfinder (and Starfinder) in your pocket. Coming in the fall of this year, TabletopTown is a mobile platform designed for the asynchronous play of tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) of all sorts, and this partnership will allow players and game masters access to the Paizo library through the marketplace, an in-app location for users to find and sell games, characters, and stories.

TabletopTown stands behind Paizo’s commitment to open gaming through the Open RPG Creative (ORC) License. The TabletopTown marketplace supports user-generated content and indie creators alike, allowing them to buy, sell, and share content freely, openly, and ethically. TabletopTown is fully system agnostic, and with its creator tools at their disposal, designers can build and share their games, modules, and characters, no coding experience necessary. Find new games and worlds to explore or visit familiar favorites like Golarion and Absalom Station!

Paizo’s worlds are rich with deep lore, intricate mechanics, and elaborate world building that goes beyond a scribble on a notes app during a tabletop session. Celebrate the details that make your game unique with searchable indexes, easy to reference descriptions, and intuitive content organization.

All of Paizo’s adventures will be available to buy and explore in the app, opening up new worlds and stories for game masters to investigate and make their own. With access to Pathfinder and Starfinder, game masters can quickly pull entries from their respective bestiaries and bring strange and mystical creatures like a Pleroma to life with all its stats, descriptions, and avatars added in a single tap. It’s easy to use and, for the game master, easy to depict!

With the entire ruleset at their fingertips, players can enjoy as much rules lawyering as they want to, or they can avoid cluttering the chat with things that would usually require looking up in a table of contents.

At launch, beginning players will have a variety of prebuilt character sheets at their disposal; this way, grandma’s desire to play a juggernaut champion doesn’t require pages of research! More experienced players can build out their own intricate lore and stat blocks with existing game mechanics for the skeleton of the character. Those players can then add modifications whenever they like, making use of home-brewed rules to get the details just right!

Hail and huzzah, Starfinders and Pathfinders!

We had a spectacular time at Gen Con in Indianapolis with record-breaking attendance, full Organized Play tables, full demo tables, a gorgeous booth, brisk sales, exciting Pathfinder and Starfinder Society specials, and community awards galore!

At the Show

From customers to content creators to the media, we loved saying hello to everyone who came to see us at panels, Exhibitor Hall at Booth #203, Demo Hall C, and the Sagamore ballroom!

The Paizo-related Crit Awards winners included:

• Best Player | Paizo: SuperDillin
• Best GM | Paizo: DeadAussieGamer
• Best Upcoming Youtube (2 Years or Less): WafflesMapleSyrup
• Best Villain: Azin by No Quest for the Wicked, a Starfinder podcast
• Best TTRPG-Related Charity/Community, Wellness Org, or Event: Rue's TTRPGs for Trans Rights

The ENNIE Awards also announced their Gold and Silver winners.

Congratulations to all the nominees, finalists, and winners—the tabletop roleplaying game community is better for your contributions.

We partnered with the Gen Con Blood Drive this year to give out digital Beginner Boxes for their raffle giveaway. They exceeded their Gen Con record in Day 1 and had over 1000 individual donors throughout the weekend!

And Beyond!

Thank you to everyone who joined us online this weekend, whether that was on our Events Discord for Organized Play games, or on Twitch or YouTube for our prerecorded panels!

• Paizo Keynote Address 
• Pathfinder Rage of Elements–Designer’s Commentary
• Pathfinder Remaster Preview
• Lost Omens Highhelm & Sky King’s Tomb—Developers’ Commentary

In case you missed it, we announced:

• The Starfinder Second Edition is coming and you can download the free Field Test
• You can also save the date for the Pathfinder Playtest of two new, fresh classes starting on September 1. We’ll be livestreaming at 4:00 p.m. Pacific on Thursday, August 31 at twitch.tv/officialpaizo. During the stream, we’ll reveal the two new classes, some of their abilities, and the iconics representing them, so players can dive right into the playtest the following morning.
• You can buy Pathfinder Rage of Elements and Pathfinder Sky King’s Tomb Adventure Path at your local bookstore, game store, or the Paizo Store.
• The Starfinder Society is electing a new First Seeker, and your voice matters!

Hopefully you also took the opportunity expand your gaming options with the 23 for 23% off Gen Con 2023 Sale!

In case you missed it (we did) the Infinite Masters got together and created a Pathfinder Infinite Megabundle filled with content for our setting, lore, and rules. It is still going on so check it out!

Thanks for playing Starfinder and Pathfinder at Gen Con and beyond this year!

With less than a week until Gen Con, it’s time to reveal our Gen Con Stream Schedule! These streams will be going live on twitch.tv/officialpaizo, with VODs available directly afterward on Twitch, and uploaded to YouTube after Gen Con.

Thursday, August 3rd

10am Eastern / 7am Pacific

Gen Con 2023 Keynote
Exciting news and upcoming products from Paizo! This Keynote features segments from a variety of teams, hosted by Paizo Publisher Erik Mona.

Friday, August 4th

10am Eastern / 7am Pacific

Rage of Elements — Designer’s Commentary with Logan Bonner
Join Pathfinder Lead Designer Logan Bonner for a tour of the planes! In this panel, Logan flips through Pathfinder Rage of Elements, providing commentary on the design and development of the book.

Saturday, August 5th

10am Eastern / 7am Pacific

Pathfinder Remaster Preview
Jason Bulmahn, James Case, and Michael Sayre dive into the Pathfinder Remaster Project with an exclusive look into the Player Core and GM Core books — plus a sneak peek at what’s coming in Monster Core and Player Core 2!

Sunday, August 6th

10am Eastern / 7am Pacific

Lost Omens Highhelm & Sky King’s Tomb — Developers’ Commentary
Luis Loza and John Compton sit down in the Paizo Games Library for a chat about Lost Omens Highhelm, the Sky King’s Tomb Adventure Path, and all things dwarves!

See you soon!

Whether it’s in person at Gen Con Indy or online, we can’t wait to see you and share some exciting news!

It’s been a little over a year since I took over the helm at Paizo as president, and I wanted to give everyone a look behind the scenes at what’s been happening during that time as well as provide a look ahead.

United Paizo Workers

Before I became president, I was leading negotiations with the UPW to create the tabletop industry’s first-ever collective bargaining agreement. This wasn’t an easy task, and we didn’t always see eye-to-eye on all the issues, but we worked together for more than a year and found compromises to create an agreement that I believe works for both the company and its employees. That’s not the end of the process, of course, as the leadership team continues to work with the union on many day-to-day matters that running a company requires.

We’ve had customers and companies reach out to us in concern about the unionization process. Yes, becoming unionized is serious business and brings significant changes, but it’s also brought an opportunity for the union and the management team to form stronger bonds that will serve us well in the future. To other business leaders in the industry who are concerned about unionization, I offer the immortal words of Douglas Adams: Don’t Panic!

Rise of the ORC

As some of you noticed earlier this year, there was a thing that happened with the Open Gaming License (OGL). Paizo and other publishers made the decision to leave the OGL and begin publishing under the Open RPG Creative (ORC) license. This wasn’t a decision we took lightly, but Paizo can no longer operate under a license that a corporate giant believed they could change, shake up, or cancel whenever it wanted to.

That decision had other impacts, however. Abomination Vaults 5E, Starfinder’s Scoured Stars and Mechageddon! Adventure Paths, the Lost Omens Tian Xia Character Guide, and Pathfinder’s Howl of the Wild rulebook all had to move to 2024 to make room for the Player Core and GM Core ORC Remastered rulebooks coming out in November.

The shift to the ORC license will also necessitate a change to our Compatibility License and Community Use Policy. We’ll have those available for public comment soon, and final versions will be released before the new Remaster books come out in November. We’re also taking the opportunity to introduce a new fan policy I think many artisans are going to love.

Reorganizations

I’ve been working with other members of Paizo’s leadership team to streamline operations throughout the company. The biggest changes have been merging the customer service team into the sales team, organized play into the marketing team, and the entirety of marketing under the sales and operations teams. These independent silos weren’t working the way they should, and now that they’re all under the same umbrella, they better share and work toward common goals to support our customers, distributors, and local game stores.

The creative team also saw some changes, primarily merging teams that specialize along narrative (organized play scenarios, standalone adventure modules, and Adventure Paths), rules & lore (Lost Omens and general Pathfinder rulebooks), and Starfinder lines. We’ve also added the ability for us to create games outside of our traditional RPG fold, and you’ll see the first of those efforts, Elemental Stones, launch this fall. Pre-order it today!

Mostly Remote

With virtually all of Paizo working remotely since the start of the pandemic, we decided that Paizo would remain a remote workforce even after most lockdown protocols ended. We’re in the process of closing down our Redmond offices and warehouse, and we’ll be moving our warehouse operations a few miles up the road to Woodinville over the coming months. Outside the warehouse team, Paizo employees have additional states eligible for remote work (currently Colorado, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington).

As we vacate the Redmond offices, we’ll likely have some downtime for Paizo.com and the forums as we move those servers to a new data center. We’ll let you know about that when we get a bit closer to the move.

New Technology

We’ve been operating Paizo’s finances on basic software for decades, but the time has come to invest in a new platform that can give us the business intelligence and integrations we need. Too many people at Paizo spend hours every week manually building reports from Excel files, so this change should result in a win for everyone. We’re in the final stages of moving over to a shiny new financial and analytics platform, which we’ll then use to integrate with a…

New Store

Yup. We’ll be replacing the current Paizo Store with a shiny new one. We’re still working out timelines for that, so stay tuned for future updates. The new finance platform needed to happen first, since the store needs to plug into something that can handle all the data. Some of the goals of the new store are to:

1. Provide a responsive design across mobile, web, and tablet.
2. Allow for an easy checkout process with more payment methods available.
3. Offer a more robust reward program than the current Paizo Advantage.
4. Allow for more robust subscription options, like the ability to skip a shipment or start with a specific book.
5. Allow sidecarts for subscribers.
6. Better organization and a Paizo-branded experience.

New Forums

The community is important to us, and we are investigating new platforms to provide a better forum experience (along with preserving the content of the current forums). As we finalize our decision, we’ll provide more updates to the community.

Licensing

Paizo’s goal with licensing is to serve the Pathfinder and Starfinder communities with amazing products from partners that resonate with gamers. We want to make your game experiences better, whether you play around the table at home, across a virtual table, or at your favorite local game store or convention. We’re looking for partners with a passion for the Pathfinder and Starfinder brands that can bring experiences to you in new ways and attract a wider audience.

That’s why we partnered with Owlcat on the Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous games, and also why we’ve partnered with BKOM on Gallowspire Survivors and the Pathfinder: Abomination Vaults ARPG. Not only are these games fun for a large number of current Pathfinder and Starfinder players, but they’ll also bring in nufriends to experience tabletop for the first time.

Bringing those new players into our games means making character creation easy, which we’ve done by partnering with Demiplane and Hero Lab Online. We have more work to do for new players, but we’re leveling up with new tools and an awesome community to guide them to amazing gaming experiences.

The Pathfinder Infinite and Starfinder Infinite programs have allowed community creators across the world a generous license to produce their own Pathfinder and Starfinder material using Paizo’s intellectual property, and make money for their efforts. Both communities continue to grow, and we're seeing more new, innovative material from Infinite creators every month.

Pathfinder Fiction

The fiction industry has been struggling for years outside a handful of very successful authors, and our previous Pathfinder Tales novels had the same challenges. We’re going to be trying out some new strategies to ensure making novels is profitable, but that means we need to create one!

Novels let us tell stories in ways that our game products can’t and can reach a wider audience of fantasy readers, so I’m pleased to announce that we’ve greenlit a standalone Pathfinder novel for release in 2024. What that novel is about, and who its amazing author is, will be revealed in due time—but prepare to be entertained (and for some major, longstanding canon questions to be answered)!

I’m really excited about the future, and I look forward to working with the Paizo team and our community to bring Pathfinder and Starfinder to wider audiences. What can you do to help? Take the opportunity to invite someone new to your gaming group, never miss another release by signing up for a subscription, make a leap into the Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society, and support your favorite local game store as you continue to explore the worlds of Pathfinder and Starfinder.

Thanks again for supporting Paizo! Here’s to continuing to create lifelong friendships through gaming.

Jim

This is it! After months of collaborative work, we are pleased to present the final version of the Open RPG Creative (ORC) License! The license is a system-agnostic, perpetual, and irrevocable open gaming license that provides a legal “safe harbor” for sharing rules mechanics so as to encourage collaboration and innovation in the tabletop-gaming space. After much commentary and iteration, the ORC License and accompanying ORC AxE (Answers and Explanations) document are now final and ready to be used by game publishers large and small.

We’ve posted the final drafts below. The public commentary portion of this process is now complete, and there will be no further changes. We’re grateful to everyone who contributed thoughts, criticisms, and suggestions since this process started back in February. We literally could not have done it without you, and we look forward to the amazing products the community will create using this license in the future.

The final text of the ORC License has been submitted to the Library of Congress and formally published on the website of Azora Law, the legal firm that conceived of and drafted it. All currently posted versions of the final ORC License text should be considered the Interim Final ORC License and ORC AxE. As soon as copyright registration is finalized, these documents will be updated with the final copyright registration number, which we expect will be ready in about six months. In the meantime, publishers are free to begin using the ORC License right now. No other elements of this document will be changing in the future.

Azora Law Managing Partner Brian Lewis and representatives from Paizo, Chaosium, and other publishers will be offering a panel on the ORC License at the upcoming Gen Con Indy 2023 in early August, where we will answer questions about the license and give suggestions on how best to use it.

From a purely Paizo-based perspective, we will shortly be updating our Community Use and Pathfinder Compatibility Licenses to incorporate the finalized ORC License. Watch this space in the coming weeks for more information regarding these company-specific documents.

Thanks again for helping us to get there. Now let’s make some games!

Download the Orc License

Download the Redlined Orc License

Download the Orc AxE

Download the Redlined Orc AxE

Join the conversation

Golarion and the Pact Worlds are filled with people of all sorts – this is just a small collection of our wonderful trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming characters!

Two of our iconic heroes- Mios, the Iconic Thaumaturge (they/them) and Kyyduh, the Iconic Evolutionist (they/them).

The world is frightening for a lot of trans people right now – with our rights under attack at local, state, and federal levels here in the United States and around the world. Trans people and queer performers like drag queens are being forced back into hiding in a cruel movement that threatens to set us back decades.

But we will not be erased – and we will keep making art and worlds that show trans and queer people that we belong. We have always been here, and we always will be – the world is richer with us in it.

In celebration of the gender diversity of both our settings and our community, this blog is a collection of trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming canon characters across Starfinder and Pathfinder – as told by their writers and people who see themselves in those characters.

l’setsya Wyrmtouched (she/her), a ganzi spellcaster with flowing blue hair.

Amber Stewart (she/her)

Il’setsya Wyrmtouched began as my arcanist PC in Rise of the Runelords, where she gave me an in-character outlet to express my inner self every week through a CN, wildly unfiltered, fun by any means character. She was and remains a whole lot of -GOALS- with a bucket of common PC characteristics of mine taken to a delightful extreme: after magically transitioning via a protean artifact, the Lethe Wall of Galisemni, she’s magically skilled and silly, with high intelligence, low wisdom, a fifteen-foot-long tail, happily married to her half-faerie dragon wife. Seriously, what’s not to love? I first wrote about her and her Wyrmtouched siblings in Planar Adventures and later, when I serendipitously needed a protean-linked NPC in my volume of Agents of Edgewatch, “Ruins of the Radiant Siege,” she was right there, practically begging for the job. Of course, a whimsical hedonist who’s a literal agent of manifest chaos isn’t going to work with every party, but she’s a fun challenge, and in that role, she was my attempt to make as close to a patron saint of Chaotic Neutral transwomen as I could.

Tesyovensku (they/them), a fetchling witch

Ashton Sperry (they/them)

Howdy! I'm Ashton, your nonbinary friend on the internet and occasional freelancer for the great folks at Paizo. And now I get the opportunity to tell you all about one of my proudest achievements in my freelancing career!

Tesyovensku is a nonbinary fetchling I wrote up for Lost Omens: The Grand Bazaar. You may have even had the chance to encounter them in a certain Pathfinder Society scenario! Getting to create a character whole-cloth who shares my gender identity was a thrilling experience, and I'm so glad they've resonated with so many people out there.

Tesyovensku's story is also one about triumph over adversity, something that I think many of us are struggling to achieve these days. The future for the queer community seems bleak, and honestly, if my little contributions to Paizo's canon can provide a glimmer of hope, then I am deeply honored and touched to have made things a little bit better. Together, we can all pull through—and maybe have a nice cup of tea while we're at it.

Arhan Benimaya (he/him), a human tattoo artist.

Avi Kool (they/them) – Lead Editor

Arhan Benimaya (he/him) is a human trans man from Cheliax who fled religious persecution as a child with his family before settling in Absalom. He used his art skills to help support his family and save for a serum of sex shift, and he grew up to be a successful tattoo artist in Absalom’s Docks District. His boyfriend is an azarketi dockworker named Brine, and the two of them can be found in Arhan’s shop along with Arhan’s service dog, Apple the mastiff. You can read more about Arhan in Pathfinder Lost Omens: Grand Bazaar!

Mios Uriev (they/them) is a nonbinary human from Caliphas, Ustalav, and the iconic thaumaturge. They worked as a night coach driver before being bitten by a werewolf, but using their extraordinary resourcefulness and willingness to try anything, they cured themself—though they’re still not quite sure which cure they attempted did the trick. Upon realizing they were cured, Mios gave up the life of a driver and decided to try their hand at adventuring, knowing that all monsters have weaknesses, if only you can find them. You can read more about Mios at https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6si2a?Meet-the-Iconics-Mios.

Brent Bowser (he/they)

I was struggling to find the voice I wanted for Vidrizix (NB Dragonkin) in Starfinder Bounty #8: Lost Dragon's Legacy, so I started using mine as a placeholder. The more I fleshed out the character and their relationships, the more I connected with them. I replaced instances of "he" with "they." It felt so right with Vidrizix that I realized I should do the same for myself.

Vidrizix (he/they), a purple dragon kin.

Dana Ebert (she/her)

I've been a Paizo contributor for three years now, and I'm not ashamed to admit that my all-time favorite NPC is still Iltara Clavela (she/her), who I created for Lost Omens: Grand Bazaar and put a lot of myself into. Her story has all my favorite tropes—fey blessings, ill-fated bargains, and the power of names. While Iltara was far from the first trans woman in Pathfinder, she was the first NPC whose shop offers gender-affirming transmutations to patrons! If you haven't seen this artwork by @hailiiz of Iltara and Ralliadra, a fellow trans shopkeeper from Grand Bazaar, you should check it out!

Tragellon Pearlcask (he/him), a muscular dwarf crab fisher.

John Compton (he/him) – Senior Developer

Tregellon Pearlcask (he/him)
The sky citadel of Highhelm has many mouths to feed, and local dwarves of the Pearlcask clan have developed sophisticated aquaculture that supplies the city with a wide variety of shellfish. In Pathfinder Adventure Path #193: Mantle of Gold, something sinister has sneaked into Tregellon Pearlcask’s caves, afflicting his prize crab (whose art we can’t wait to show you). His being a trans man isn’t crucial to the adventure; it’s just who he is, and he openly affirms it with Pearlcask humor. He’s described as “dressed for working on the water, wearing little beyond sturdy trousers, a teal sash around his waist, and several pearl studs in his ears. He’s muscular, with a horizontal scar under each pectoral ("Molting scars,” he acknowledges with a knowing wink, if asked)."

Michael Bramnik (he/him)

Hello there! To quote a friend, I might be, “straight enough to calibrate a Kinsey scale,” but I long for the day when months like these are no longer needed except purely in celebration. I fervently believe that LGBTQ+ visibility and positive representation are vitally important if we are ever going to move on to a better future.

For Pathfinder Society #4-05: The Arclord Who Never Was <spoiler> the character of Alyreha (who is encountered with a different name at first) is trans. I made this decision because of her study into the magic of True Names. Having been honored to escort friends to their procedures in the past and seeing just how much more “them” they were afterwards—it just felt right for the story of someone finding herself. </spoiler> It can be a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment (but is more pronounced in Isis Wozniakowska’s #4-10: Arclord’s Abode) because I think that normalization might be the most important aspect of representation, or, to use a movie quote from my childhood that taught me this lesson quite early, “peoples is peoples”—a lesson I hope future allies will learn. For this and all months to follow, I wish you all the best.

A floating skull with pink magical glow.

Rue Dickey (they-he-xe) - Marketing & Media Specialist

While I haven’t had the joy of writing any published trans characters (yet), I have seen myself in so many Paizo books- it’s one of the reasons I love the games we make and am so happy to be a part of this company! Above all, Arhan Benimaya(he/him) from Lost Omens: Grand Bazaar spoke to me very strongly as a Jewish trans man. Seeing someone who looks like me and whose story echoes with my heart made me even more certain that Golarion was a place for me.

Shay Snow (they/them) – Pathfinder Society Developer

Kyyduh is the Starfinder iconic evolutionist, which I worked on and helped create with the Starfinder team earlier this year. If you ask Kyyduh about their gender, their answer will be "Gender? don't even know 'er!" The agender pahtra uses they/them pronouns, no matter what form or shape they adapt while being an evolutionist. They identify as bisexual, with no true preference to gender, and they’ve identified as agender since they were a tiny kit shedding their first canines. They have ADHD and struggle to focus on verbal instructions, but when given written instructions they can adapt and pick up almost any skill presented to them.

Creating Kyyduh was a special experience for me, and allowed me to explore agender expression through a character that I knew would be public-facing. I was a little nervous when the blogs went live, unsure of how the Paizo community might feel about a nonbinary iconic, however I was genuinely overjoyed when I saw so many cheerful and welcoming comments, validating Kyyduh’s identity and disability. Kyyduh’s a bright, cheerful pahtra and will be facing so many upcoming adventures in the Starfinder universe!

Domakayo (he/him), a Vesk in a glittery bodysuit.

Tineke Bolleman

Domakayo (he/him), from Starfinder Society Scenario #3-15: Frozen Ambitions - The Preluria Connection. He is a little ode to drag performers.

Domakayo is a performer living on Vault of Vorlath. He performs in bars and has a dedicated fanbase. Domakayo dresses in his well known glitter bodysuit and discoball tail extension, and paints his scales in vibrant colors to mimic and exaggerate the colorations of female Vesk. His dance performances are lively and are punctuated by crushing items, a play on old fashioned Vesk courtship dances.

Domakayo loves expressing himself through his dance performances and the transformation he goes through before getting on stage. He has no stage name, finding comfort in using his own name and being who he was not allowed to be back home.

Rhenei Aldori (they/them) from The Swordlord's Challenge  always felt pressured by the demands of Ysoki society. Ysoki have a relatively short lifespan, and in Rhenei’s family there was a big emphasis on settling down while young and having kids. Classic gender roles never seemed to fit. Mom. Dad. Nanny. Caretaker. Babysitter. Even if not pressed into a parental role, their family would still press them into a caregiver role. When Rhenei clearly stated they did not wish any of this, there was a huge fallout. Rhenei left their home, and eventually ended up studying Aldori swordlord. After training, Rhenei swore the swordpact and is now Rhenei Aldori.

Rhenei loves expressing themselves by wearing colorful clothing.

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We’re happy to be able to bring so many of these characters to life here at Paizo—and to let our trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming community members know that they are safe, welcomed, and celebrated here.

If you’re looking for ways to help the queer community—especially queer youth—this Pride, consider donating to the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, volunteering with a local or online queer youth center, and speaking out against transphobia when it pops up around you. The proceeds of Paizo’s Pride Pins – available in Vigilant, Goblin, or Skittermander – benefit Tabletop Gaymers, an organization dedicated to making sure LGBTQIA+ players feel safe and welcome at the table.

Trans pride, trans power, trans rights!

I’m Aaron Shanks, Director of Marketing, and it is my privilege to introduce to you a group of professional geeks I call Paizo’s marketing+ team! Alex Spiedel, Organized Play Coordinator; Jon Morgantini, Community & Social Media Specialist; and Rue Dickey, Marketing & Media Specialist all report to me, but this group of adventurers needs more than four. So, I regularly borrow the talents of Raychael Allor, our Licensing & Marketing Coordinator, and Maryssa Lagervall, our Web Content Manager, who join us from the licensing and technology teams, respectively. Together we form Volt—er, a skilled and dedicated group to help you play Starfinder and Pathfinder!

As Director of Marketing, I lead our team of marketers in the creation and execution of a strategic marketing plan to promote Paizo products. I understand that there isn’t a single marketing program that’s 100% effective and am always seeking to try out new things in a rapidly evolving world. (So. Much. Change.)

But enough about me. I get to manage and work with United Paizo Workers. Let’s talk about them!

Illustration by Brian Valeza

Alex Spiedel, Organized Play Coordinator (he/him)

Alex is responsible for the day-to-day administration of Paizo’s Organized Play programs, including campaign management, volunteer relationships, communications, and technical operations. He’s also in charge of all Organized Play activities at conventions, from building and implementing con schedules to helping the on-site events run smoothly. His passion for making Org Play the best it can be—and his hunger for dice—knows no bounds.

Rue Dickey, Marketing & Media Specialist (he/they)

Rue (they/he/xe) is a nonbinary, mixed-Indigenous-Roma-Welsh, disabled creator living on unceded Kalapuya territory with xir two spouses, tiny dog, and long noodle baby. Queer rage and joy in equal parts are a focus of his design and they strive to create space at the table for stories that the world has tried to keep quiet. They would like to make the world just a little brighter—by bringing these stories into the spotlight. Rue spends xir limited free time building outlandish costumes and is proud to be a never-recovering circus goth.

Rue is the newest member of the marketing team! They’re our liaison to external press and news media—coordinating interviews, previews, and reviews to ensure that Paizo products get the recognition they deserve and the coverage we need to continue to thrive. Behind the scenes, xe coordinates the day-to-day marketing functions and makes sure everything goes smoothly.

Jon Morgantini, Community & Social Media Specialist (he/him)

Jon is a Paizo brand ambassador. This is the most normal job he’s ever had. He’s a 20-year military veteran of two services, has driven limos for celebrities, and previously worked at a funeral home. As Community & Social Media Specialist, he now works his wizardry on social media, and he knows what makes forums safe and fun to participate in. When not working, Jon can most often be found reading dark fantasy or techno thrillers and getting lost in Hyrule.

Jon produces content across all Paizo social channels, but the whole team of marketers spreads the word about the amazing Pathfinder and Starfinder gaming products that we release each month. Steve, Jon’s WizKids Goblin roommate, takes much of the credit.

Raychael Allor, Licensing & Marketing Coordinator (she/her)

When not fulfilling her role as an ever-tired cat mom, Raychael is involved in all of Paizo’s licensed partner marketing efforts, from concepting new campaigns to implementing those plans at conventions, across social media, and to the Paizo community. Her work with licensed partners involves not only communication and coordination with a wide variety of people from all over the world, but also interdepartmental coordination to make sure everyone is on the same page, no matter the project.

In short, Raychael is a vital member of the marketing and licensing teams and gets the opportunity to work on a wide variety of exciting projects—and tell the world about them!

Maryssa Mari, Web Content Manager (she/her)

Maryssa is officially part of the tech team. As Paizo’s Web Content Manager, she reports to the Director of Technology and partners collaboratively with teams across the company. She helps wrangle Paizo’s non-store online content, web page design, and is Keeper Of The Blog Schedule™. Her job is to be aware of the shenanigans Paizo gets up to online and provide assistance when needed.

When she’s not being a nuisance valuable member of the company chats, Maryssa enjoys hiking, crafting, 48-hour gaming marathons before forgetting her steam library exists, and keeping upcoming spoilers from the hoard of roommates.

Illustration by Franklin Chan

In conclusion…
Our marketing+ team is a fun and imaginative group made up of highly creative and smart people who are passionate about the products we produce. Someone let them all into the same room and now they scheme and create chaos together! They may or may not be half a dozen kobolds and skittermanders in cloaks—we haven't been able to confirm—and some of them escaped containment from other departments and won't leave ours. Please send help. Please play with us!

Adventures ahead,

Aaron Shanks

“P.S. Save the Date! Paizo LIVE will return on Friday, June 30. This team is planning regular episodes the last business Friday of every month.

“P.P.S. This team will all be at Gen Con, physically, so look for us there. This also means that we’ll be pre-recording a few streams for your enjoyment. We aren’t planning any live streams at this time.”

Hi gay happy Pride!

Pride month is a time to celebrate queer joy, a time to be out and proud about our existence. Pride is a protest and always has been. For every victory, like the Respect for Marriage Act or the removal of the ban against gay men donating blood, there are just as many setbacks to equality. States like Florida and Texas pass law after law banning discussion of queer issues in schools and gender-affirming medical care, which whips the outrage machine into a frenzy and leads to Target employees being attacked over the yearly Pride collection. The LGBTQ+ community wonders every day what new attacks on our freedom, our right to simply exist, await us in the news.

The theme of this year’s Pride is “Rage and Resilience.” In recognition and celebration of our wonderful community of LGBTQ+ staffers and freelance contributors, we asked them to submit something about what gives them strength. We hope you enjoy hearing from them and encourage our community members to share their own responses in the comments!

Happy Pride, everyone! May you all get a new set of rainbow dice that rolls as well as mine does.

Alex Speidel (he/him)
Organized Play Coordinator, known bisexual

The story proceeds dramatically, as it usually does

Solatra (credited as Sasha Laranoa Harving; nov/nov)

Age 15. I came out as pansexual. My community was fairly progressive, but I still encountered people who thought I should just pick an easier label.

Age 16. I came out as aromantic. Anyone who had met me knew I was a hopeless romantic, in love with love, and told me it was a phase.

Age 17. I came out as a trans lesbian. I was met with anger, derision, mourning someone who did not die.

As time went on I debated if any of those things were accurate at all. I felt anger at myself for not figuring it out earlier, at my community for not letting me express myself.

Fast forward. Age 27. I'm out and proud as a xenogender aromantic pansexual lesbian. It is the multiplicity of my existence, the fact that I can be all of these things at once and love with all my heart that makes me strong.

Find what makes you strong and let it lift you up, and when people tell you your identity is wrong, know that they are simply too weak to accept your truth. In adversity there is community. In love there is life. Be strong. Together.

James Jacobs (he/him)
Pathfinder Narrative Creative Director

I find strength from friends and family, but thinking it over, I’ve got a potentially unexpected answer to the question “What gives me strength?” Horror gives me strength. I understand that the genre isn’t for everyone, but it defines who I am. From a kid watching horror movies with my dad, or while reading horror comic books and novels given to me by my grandparents, or while writing horror stories for school, the genre of fear has always given me strength. Whenever I finished a story (be it a movie, novel, game session, campfire tale, or whatever), I felt stronger, especially while growing up amid horrors both small (those endless school bullies) and enormous (the threat of nuclear apocalypse). There’s a reason horror sees its greatest growth during times of despair—and when times are good, the genre falters. It’d be nice to live in a world where I didn’t need horror to feel strong, but in the meantime, horror helps me continue my journey toward that world. Especially when I get to share my love of horror with friends or family, so… huh. I guess friends and family ARE at the core of it all!

Carlos Cabrera (he/they)

It gives me strength/I am jealous that my World of Darkness character is doing multi-gender polyamory better than me right now.

Mios, the iconic thaumaturge. Mios is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.

Marlowe Miller (they/he)

As a genderfluid Caddo person who has had my gender questioned by strangers since I started middle school, I know that I'm able to make a change just by existing as a visibly queer person. My mere presence challenges the public's preconceived notions of trans people. It's scary sometimes, I won't lie—but it's unavoidable and a responsibility I must bear. I couldn't do it without the help of my chosen family, both here at home in Alabama and in other states.

People question why I stay here when the law is becoming more hostile by the day. I stay in Alabama because I love the queer communities that flourish here, and because I know that if there weren't so many trans and gender-nonconforming people down here in the South, our lawmakers wouldn't be trying to legislate us out of existence. I stay in Alabama because there are people down here who can't leave and we need to stand together to survive. I stay in Alabama because it's my home, and I'm determined to keep it and my communities safe from people who would see it all destroyed. What gives me strength and keeps me going? Community.

Rue Dickey (they/he/xe)
Marketing & Media Specialist

Hey, I’m Rue (they/he/xe), and I’m a mixed race, nonbinary, disabled creator, as well as Paizo’s Marketing & Media Specialist! I’ve been doing freelance writing with Paizo for about a year—my first writing credit is in our newly announced Pathfinder Howl of the Wild, and I’m new here on the marketing team! Above all else, my friends and family give me strength. I have the joy of living with my two wonderful spouses, Rina and Jalen, and I know that they’ll always be there for me just like I’m here for them. My parents are proud of me even if they don’t necessarily understand what I do. It’s wonderful to know that I’m surrounded by people who I love and who love me back. Another thing I find strength in is the goodness of people—and how our community is quick to come together to support those in need. Running two very successful fundraisers for trans rights didn’t just help monetarily; it also showed folx in Florida and Texas that we care about them worldwide. And we won’t let them be erased. We’re here, we’re queer, and we won’t be erased.

Eren Ahn (they/them primarily)

If I'd been asked this prompt last year, I would have written a lot of flowery prose about the importance of family and friendships. I still draw strength from my community; I love and appreciate all of the people I've been fortunate enough to build relationships with, both being born to them and forging them through time and long conversations at 1:47am.

That being said, this year I've reached a level of self-confidence and inner strength I never had before. For the first time, I feel focused and at ease enough to fight for myself in both my professional and personal life. I draw strength in being able to live my life in appreciation of myself, and I hope that's a sentiment many others can agree with. I find a lot of peace in knowing that I always have myself in my corner. I don't know if I would be as happy as I am now without them.

You'll see my work in both Pathfinder Lost Omens Tian Xia books, and as of this being published, I'll have announced the first creature-focused module a friend and I are collaborating on! You can learn more about that on my Twitter @chromathesia.

Amber Stewart (she/her)

I’m Amber Stewart (she/her) and what gives me strength is seeing how my work and that of my peers serves as an idealized mirror for players to see themselves represented in-game, or as a playground to explore their identity in fantasy. Coming to recognize and accept where you fit on the spectrum of orientation and gender identity is a unique thing for each of us, and TTRPGs can be part of that process—it absolutely was for me. You might not immediately recognize that something in-game reflects part of who you are, and play can help unlock some of that identity and provide an avenue for you to explore it: I know that playing female PCs (at an ever-increasing frequency over time) was for me part of my journey to accepting myself as being trans, and then as an outlet to explore that identity well before anyone in my family but my partner was aware.

Now, I might play to my own experiences more than not in my content, but with a broad freelance community, we get a LOT of voices represented. It’s cool, inspiring, and wholesome to see and I’m ever prouder of this community with each passing year.

Kendra Leigh Speedling (she/her)

Hello! I'm Kendra Leigh Speedling, bisexual (and demisexual) disaster and frequent freelancer for Paizo. You may have spotted my name on several books recently, including Pathfinder Treasure Vault and To Defy the Dragon, a Starfinder standalone mech adventure that might help tide you over until Mechageddon!.

It’s a tough time to be queer, especially for our trans and nonbinary friends and family. I’m not as recognizably queer as many others, which has advantages and disadvantages. I could stop talking about certain aspects of myself and pass as straight, but I don’t want to. My pithy answer to what gives me strength is spite. My more heartfelt answer is community, both among LGBTQ+ folks and allies in the Paizosphere and among my other queer friends. The bigots are vocal, but acceptance is increasing overall, particularly in younger generations. I think the recent backlash against us is driven by their fear that they're losing.

Sometimes I come across historical photos online, grainy black-and-white images of queer couples, of people proudly wearing clothes associated with a different gender, and I feel a sense of community across time. We have always been here. We will always be here. And we are worth celebrating.

Brent Bowser (he/they)

Growing up in a small farm town, I used to think there was something wrong with me because I was the only one. Gaming helped me find myself and others like me. I've volunteered with the Organized Play campaign for over ten years, and the caring, generous, accepting friends I've made saved my life. And if bigots and jerks don't feel welcome in Organized Play, then I've done my job.

Jessie "Aki” Lo (she/her)

My name is Jessie Lo, better known as Aki/Akino, and I’m a Bisexual Asian-Canadian freelance artist, writer, and community content creator.

Tons of things bar me from opportunities to create within this space, but what I find that gives me strength is spite. Spite is my biggest motivator, it empowers me to persevere when I feel like I can’t. As a queer woman of colour, I already live in a world where I have to work harder to get by. As an Asian woman, I am constantly fighting the stereotype of being obedient and quiet. However, I genuinely could care less of what others think, so as long as I succeed and continue to uplift marginalized voices with my work, like co-producing my multi-award winning Pathfinder Second Edition podcast Goblets and Gays. It's incredibly surprising what a healthy amount of spite can do for your motivation. Truthfully, I’m just a loud little hater who can find ways to empower and support myself and my community.

If you’d like to see more queer, spite-fueled projects, please continue to support me. https://twitter.com/akinomii_art

Caryn DiMarco (she/they)

I'm Caryn DiMarco (she/they), and my freelance work from Paizo ranges from Pathfinder Society adventures to contributions to the Lost Omens and rulebook lines. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to work with a team of freelancers, developers, editors, and more that represents the richness and complexity of the LGBTQ+ community.

Those spaces we make for ourselves and each other are a key part of what keeps me resilient. I find it easy to get overwhelmed by bad news (especially when it's so widespread). When I do, I'm able to remind myself that the small actions we take to make people feel welcome and safe make a difference. Whether that's making sure our settings represent the diversity of our world, taking steps to keep the games we play inclusive, or simply sharing the bits of LGBTQ+ culture that sustain us, all of our individual efforts become something bigger and more powerful when combined.

Grady Wang (he/him)

Growing up, the pervasive message about strength was that it comes from within—the action hero who goes it alone, the player character who levels up after each struggle, the message that boys need to suck it up. As I grow older, I’ve learned that personal strength only carries you so far. True strength comes from opening yourself up to others, even if it also makes you vulnerable. For me, strength comes from community.

I am so lucky to have found an amazing community in tabletop. From the inclusivity at cons to the thoughtful and empathetic team at Paizo to the generosity of my fellow freelancers, I have learned and grown so much. My goal is to give back and encourage the same behaviors that inspire me to stand up for my beliefs and live my truths. One such way is through the Queerfinder zine series on Pathfinder Infinite, which aims to introduce queer-identifying aspiring designers and artists to veterans in the industry. Another is working with the Storytelling Collective to provide resources for designers of all backgrounds. If your dream is to work in tabletop, please feel free to reach out. We are all stronger together.

Lovely Ria is a Pact Worlds pop icon chosen by Desna. Ria is nonbinary and uses xe/xem/xer pronouns (pronounced “zee,” “zem,” and “zer”) to represent xer genderfluidity and connection to the queerness of the alien cosmos. Ria’s wild travels took xem all the way to Cynosure, home of goddess Desna

Jenny Jarzabski (she/her/xe)
Starfinder Senior Developer

Hi, I’m Jenny Jarzabski. Working with the Starfinder team is one of the things that fills me with pride and fuels my hope every day that a better world is possible.

When encountering a Starfinder NPC (nonplayer character), you can assume that character is queer unless explicitly stated otherwise. This is only partly a joke considering the myriad weird and wonderful celebrations of queer identities in the setting.

Examining society’s gender constructs and ultimately turning them upside down is a long and proud tradition for sci-fi creators. As we create infinite fictional worlds, we imagine humanity’s own infinite possibilities. Here on Earth many people recognize multiple genders in humans, though the truth is more complex and subtle even than “male,” “female,” and “nonbinary.” In the fictional worlds of Starfinder, understanding has progressed even further. Add aliens to the mix and it gets super interesting!

For example: maraquoi, a fur-covered simian species, have seven genders that each play a different role in reproduction. Shirrens—an insectoid, choice-obsessed people who broke away from the destructive Swarm—present three genders: female, host, and male. Astrazoans are shapeshifting echinoderms with no inherent concept of gender, and synthetic lifeforms like anacites and androids can choose to adopt humanoid gender roles and pronouns or create their own.

I’m proud of my personal contributions to our queer cosmos, not to mention the fantastic additions to the Starfinder setting made by dozens of queer creators. To those creators: I’m honored to help amplify your voices and develop your work. Because of you, the Starfinder multiverse is a more beautiful, diverse reality.

Starfinder is set far in Pathfinder’s future, in an era when many alien cultures have already achieved peace and prosperity, and social progression has advanced beyond the norm here on Earth. This vibrant reality is imperiled by threats from both beyond the stars and in their own backyards, but even in the face of these dangers, a Starfinder character can proudly be who they are. And that’s why Starfinder’s worlds are worth fighting for, just like ours.

Dustin Knight (he/him)
Starfinder Developer

After years of contemplating the definition of love, I find an endless source of strength in the seemingly endless journey to completely learn what it means to love oneself. It might seem a little intense to bring this up in a blog post for a tabletop RPG company, but I couldn’t have made it this far on my continuing journey toward self-acceptance and self-respect without these games, this community, and these annual blog posts. The commitment to love expressed and confirmed time and time again by this community has helped me learn who I am and accept that with pride instead of guilt or shame. There is an unparalleled cathartic magic to roleplaying and storytelling, and I draw endless strength from the idea that my contributions to our hobby may help others down their path of self-acceptance and self-love.

Katrina Hennessy (she/they)

I hesitated to write this, not only because life is at its chaotic best, but because I feel I don’t belong. I’m not really a part of the LGBTQ+ community, yet I’m not not part of it. For most of my life I knew I didn’t fit, but I played my part anyway. I am a happily married woman with adult offspring, but I still don’t fit in The Box where most of society automatically places me.

The Paizo community provided strength and support to learn by allowing me to witness others on their own path, providing hints and a direction to look. I think I now know which labels apply, but it doesn’t really matter. All of this has helped me better accept myself and feel less different. I won’t say normal, as I’m not sure that is a word that should ever be applied to any human being. Everything about humans (and probably most living creatures) exists on a spectrum.

So, if you aren’t sure where you belong on the spectrum, that’s OK. If you want to poke around and try to work it out, this is a great community to be in while you do so. No obligations to make announcements, fly flags, or anything else. Nothing wrong with doing so and please accept and respect those who do. Being quietly personal about your status also deserves respect.

Andrew Mullen (he/him)

I’m Andrew, and a few months ago I realized I’m bi! That was sort of a weird thing to have happen, seeing as I’m a dude in his late 30s with a wife and a toddler. I guess when society assumes you’re heterosexual, and your attractions mostly match up with that, then you assume you’re straight, too.

I draw a lot of strength from my family. When I told my wife, Melissa, about the realization, she was just glad I’d discovered something about myself. As we talked more, she projected a very uncomplicated and sincere sense of affirmation. What better than that, when you’re open and vulnerable in unfamiliar territory? My parents and close friends were similarly supportive!

You know how the right acts like it owns the “traditional” family? Well, queer folks of all stripes are out here having families that look like a 1950s all-American ad. It’s very satisfying to disprove and reject bigotry by being myself.

Alexi J. Greer (they/them)

I remember living in Orlando in 2021, with my polycule and gathering of queer and trans friends. I didn’t know what would happen in the next two years, but there was something in the air that made me pause that summer. “I think we should seriously consider moving up near your family in New England,” I told my fiancé. I worked through illness and sleepless nights to make the move work, but it did. Then it wasn't even three months before I was messaging my friends down in FL. "Stay strong and keep going. We're going to make a plan to bring you up here."

What gives me strength are the people I care about and my determination to see them happy. And my confidence that we can fight for happiness; not just our own, but others' too. Happiness should be chased, not negotiated for as if it were a commodity to be rationed out. Evil pretends to represent the majority, but it's a boldfaced lie. There's a wider world that wants you here, with us, and shining as your full self. And if you're in need, I know I'm not alone when I vow to support you too.

From the Pathfinder Remaster Project to Starfinder Enhanced, the team at Paizo has a plethora of new content coming down the pipeline. This year’s PaizoCon Online featured speakers across Paizo’s creative team who teased at new products and projects.

Pathfinder Remaster

Lead Designer Logan Bonner revealed the final, painted covers for the Player Core and GM Core books during the presentation. These fully painted covers by Wayne Reynolds feature Pathfinder iconic heroes doing battle against and standing alongside new diabolic and mirage dragons, both of which will debut in Monster Core. These full-color covers will be available online and at retailers, while the Hobby Retailer Exclusive Sketch Covers, previously revealed on the Paizo Blog, will only be available through your FLGS.

Hardcover Rulebooks

Pathfinder has a variety of new rulebooks—some freshly released and some on their way. James Case, Senior Designer on Pathfinder, showcased some of the upcoming content.

Rage of Elements, Pathfinder’s latest rulebook, will be available in early August at Gen Con 2023, as well as online and at local retailers. This book adds wood and metal elemental planes to Golarion, taking players on a tour of the planes and introducing their elemental lords. Also included in Rage of Elements is a much-anticipated new class: the kineticist, an elemental adept martial class. Rage of Elements is the first Remaster compatible rulebook, giving a preview of the rule changes to come.

Coming in 2024 is the recently announced Howl of the Wild, a creature-filled book featuring an iruxi naturalist and his eccentric crew as they navigate the wilds on their airship, the Zoetrope. This book introduces six new wild-side ancestries, new creatures, regional variants of existing creatures, spells, archetypes, and more.

Lost Omens

Luis Loza, Creative Director of Pathfinder, gave a preview of Lost Omens Highhelm, an upcoming book that’s part gazetteer and part exploration of dwarven culture. This new Lost Omens entry releases in June and includes new skills, feats, ancestries, backgrounds, and mechanics to immerse yourself in dwarven culture and the city of Highhelm. Players can also expect to learn more about the dwarven pantheon, particularly eight gods not yet expanded on in Golarion.

Pathfinder Adventures

Syncing wonderfully with the release of Lost Omens Highhelm, Pathfinder’s next Adventure Path, Sky King’s Tomb, takes player characters on a quest for a major piece of dwarven history. The Adventure Path starts in August, and the three volumes will take players from levels 1–10.

Following that, our Adventure Paths take us to Tian Xia for Season of Ghosts. This ghostly, horror-flavored four-part Adventure Path for levels 1–12 takes place over a full calendar year in game—with each installment covering the length of one season in a cursed town in haunted Shenmen.

Standalone adventures return with Pathfinder Adventure: Rusthenge, a softcover book that places low-level characters in the world of runelords and their conflicts. Rusthenge will release late this year, bringing the western reaches to your table.

Partner Projects

Many of Paizo’s licensed partners are currently running crowdfunding drives or releasing new projects, such as the Dynamite Comics Kickstarter, BKOM Studios Abomination Vaults ARPG Kickstarter, Demiplane’s Pathfinder NEXUS, and more.

Breaking news! Steve Jackson Games announced that Pathfinder: Revolution, the Pathfinder expansion for hit board game Revolution, will release late this year. Pathfinder: Revolution puts players in the rebellion of Korvosa, facing off against tyrannical Queen Ileosa to save the city from her bloody path to immortality.

Starfinder

Looming big and bright on Starfinder’s horizon is Starfinder Enhanced, a book full of player options, items, spells, and rules for scaling up equipment. This book rolls out enhanced versions of four classes—the envoy, solarian, technomancer, and witchwarper—and presents new rules and changes that reflect feedback from the experiences of developers and community members alike.

Starfinder and mech fans alike can look forward to Mechageddon!, a high-level hardcover Adventure Path coming in 2024! Newly announced at PaizoCon 2023, this adventure starts on Daimalko—the planet of kaiju—and takes players through levels 3–18, letting their mechs level up with them through tier 17.

Organized Play

Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society have plenty in store for this summer’s convention season! Debuted at PaizoCon Online 2023, Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-13: Within the Prairies and Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-14: Shattering Golden Chains continued this season’s path towards conflict with the night hag, Aslynn. Starfinder Society introduced its new season with Starfinder Society Scenario #6-01: Year of Fortune’sFall and Starfinder Society Scenario #6-02: Drift Scars. Starfinder Society players also participated in the group interactive special #5-99, Battle for Bulwark!

Look forward to election day in Starfinder Society! The First Seeker has stepped down, and four new candidates have been chosen from player-submitted characters to run for their place. In Starfinder Society Scenario #6-06, going live at GenCon 2023, Society players will get to meet the candidates and vote on who will step up as the next First Seeker.

Pathfinder Adventure Path #200

Pathfinder Adventure Path #200 is coming next year, and it’s a special double-sized standalone adventure available in hardcover and softcover. Seven Dooms for Sandpoint brings Pathfinder Adventure Path #1 author James Jacobs back to that adventure’s setting, the town of Sandpoint, for a level 4–12 adventure that adapts Pathfinder’s designer playtest campaign for the first time.

Watch the PaizoCon Online 2023 Twitch Panel Playlist on YouTube!

For the last several months, numerous publishers, including Paizo, have been working hard on the ORC License, a system-agnostic, perpetual, and irrevocable open gaming license that provides a legal “safe harbor” for sharing rules mechanics and encourages collaboration and innovation in the tabletop gaming space. In collaboration with hundreds of publishers and other interested parties on the ORC License Discord, we’ve been group-editing the license and related Answers and Explanations (AxE) document, kicking the language into shape and making sure that the license is as solid as possible, and works for as many publishers as possible.

We’re nearly at the end of the process. Thanks to all the hard work of everyone listed above, we’re now ready to release the third draft of the ORC License and AxE. We believe this draft is solid enough to be the final draft of the ORC License but know from past experience that new text can bring the opportunity for new errors or requests for clarification. The community has been phenomenally helpful in refining the language of this license. Now it’s time to take one last look and provide any final comments you may have before we lock the license terms in the very near future.

We have provided a redline version of both the ORC License and the AxE below to help you better compare the differences between the Third and Second Drafts. If you wish to start fresh with a “clean” copy of the Third Drafts, those have been provided as well.

We’ll keep commentary open on the official ORC License Discord for the next few days, with an eye toward locking the final version of the license by the end of next week. During this time, we’ll fold any necessary improvements into each document and release a Final Interim ORC License at www.azoralaw.com/orclicense, paizo.com, and elsewhere. Publishers will be able to use this version of the license to publish material under the ORC License by including the proper ORC Notice.

At the same time that the Final Interim ORC License is published, these documents will be filed with the United States Library of Congress, who will issue copyright registration in about six months. Once the registration is issued, Azora will publicly release the ORC License (including the final AxE). The only change between the Final Interim ORC License and the ORC License will be the addition of the TX number in Section III.a.

So, we’re very nearly there! Please help us over the finish line by taking a look at the Third Draft and providing your feedback on the official ORC License Discord. Thank you again for your assistance!

Download the Orc License

Download the Orc License Redlined

Download the Orc AxE

Download the Orc AxE Redlined

Join the conversation

PaizoCon Online 2023, the celebration of all things Paizo, begins today! Join us for free, fun panels at twitch.tv/officialpaizo. Meet friends and network on our Discord, with prizes, partner presentations, staff AMAs, and more!

From now through May 29, take 20% off a single order* of Pathfinder and Starfinder products at the Paizo Store using the code PaizoCon2023 at checkout.

Stock up on Pathfinder Accessories, Deep Cuts miniatures, and the entire Pathfinder Battles line of prepainted miniatures from WizKids (excluding preorders or full sized figures).

Join us for the PaizoCon Keynote on Twitch from 10 a.m. to noon Pacific and on the Paizo Events Discord for partner giveaways every hour on the hour between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Pacific Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!

Get it before it is gone!

Inside our Starfinder Solidarity Bundle you will find everything you need for years of exciting science-fantasy play, like digital copies of the Starfinder Core Rulebook, Alien Archive, Alien Archive 2, Alien Archive 3, the Starfinder Beginner Box, as well as the entire Fly Free or Die Adventure Path. Plus, it features physical copies of Starfinder Alien Archive 2 and the Starfinder Critical Hit Deck! That is over $400 in Starfinder Roleplaying Game digital and print materials for only $45! Best of all, you choose how much of your purchase supports The Trevor Project.

But wait, there’s more! Many of our partners have amazing offers to help you unleash your hero:

• BKOM Pre-Kickstarter Campaign
• Demiplane Character Tools Launch Party Sale - Use code PF2CHARACTERS at checkout to save 20% on all Pathfinder Second Edition rulebooks and Lost Omens source books (pre-orders not included) on Pathfinder NEXUS!
• Demiplane's Official Pathfinder 2nd Edition Character Tools Open Beta Is Live
• DriveThruComics Sale
• DriveThruRPG Sale
• Dynamite Kickstarter - Hardcovers of Pathfinder & Starfinder comics are crowdfunding now!
• Foundry Anniversary Sale
• Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite Sale
• Pathfinder Infinite Bundle
• TALES OF ASUNDA #1-3, NIOBE & DURA #2, MORKA MOA #3 + MORE! Kickstarter with Pathfinder First Edition content tiers

Roll20 is celebrating with newly re-packaged Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics, Pathfinder Flip-Mats, and Starfinder Flip-Mats. They also have Pathfinder and Starfinder Core Rulebook discounts, dynamic Pathfinder and Starfinder Mega-Bundles, the new digital Pathfinder Harrow Deck!

Shop the PaizoCon Sale Today!

* Discounts listed here do not stack with other discounts, including the Paizo Advantage. Not valid on subscriptions, preorders, Foundry VTT, or non-Paizo products not specifically listed as on sale. Sale ends at 11:59 p.m. Pacific on May 29.

PaizoCon South Pacific is happening again at the historic Quarantine Station in Sydney, Australia this June/July!

This year, we’re doing things a little differently and have embraced a spooky theme to celebrate the shortest days of the year here in the Southern Hemisphere. A boatload of Pathfinder and Starfinder Society content will be on offer over the weekend, alongside ghost tours and other activities that will let you catch up with other players from around the region. Activities will include:

• Low level sessions of Pathfinder Society 2E and Starfinder; beginners welcome!
• A whole pile of OP scenarios, a module, and even short adventures to play, so as to provide something for everyone.
• Dinner at The Hold on Sunday, July 2^nd (https://thehold.com.au/)

A weekend-pass is $70, or you can purchase individual sessions at $15 per person. Tickets are purchased through Warhorn via PayPal. All the details can be found here or at Warhorn, and you can keep up with the conversation on Discord. 

Please contact the organisers (Sandra Wilkinson or Nik Beattie) by email (nsworgplay@tutanota.com) or via the PCSP section in the NSW Discord (https://discord.gg/dkkPNpxGn9) if you have any questions or queries about the convention, they will be more than happy to help you out!

PaizoCon South Pacific Organisers

Share your unique vision with the pros! Get thoughtful and detailed feedback on your illustrations from Paizo’s art directors. Learn what we look for and how to get there. We are here to help! Sign up to have our team review your portfolio, and we’ll give you a 10-minute constructive critique on your work. Reviews will be held Friday, May 26th starting at 10 am and going to 3 pm. We’re offering early sign up for ticket holders, and then we will open it up to anyone interested.

How To Sign Up:

• Click on one of the links below that corresponds with a Paizo Art Director.
• Click on the highlighted date on the Calendar.
• Choose one of the available times and hit “next.”
• Follow the prompts and fill in your name, email, and link to your portfolio.
• We’ll see you at your scheduled time in the Paizo Events Discord in one of the Portfolio Reviews channels.

Guidelines:

• Reviews will be done over Discord; please remember what time you signed up and join the Discord chat at your time as to not intrude on someone else’s review.
• Please only choose one art director to sign up for a time slot with, we have a limited number of times and want to give as many people a chance as possible.
• Please link to your portfolio so we have a chance to review your work beforehand.
• Please no AI generated work.

We can’t wait to see your work!

Sign Up With Sonja!

Sign Up With Kyle!

Sign Up With Kent!

Sign Up With Adam!

Hey everyone, Luis Loza here! I'm back to talk about another addition to the draconic ranks in Pathfinder Monster Core. If you haven’t seen our preview for the new diabolic dragon, be sure to check that out as well! Anyway, on to the latest preview!

Mirage Dragon Concept Art - by Kent Hamilton

The next dragon we’re showcasing is the mirage dragon, an arcane dragon with a mastery of illusion magic. Arcane dragons typically have a stronger connection to magic, represented by stronger spellcasting capabilities, direct influence over magical energies, and other supernatural abilities. Many arcane dragons sport lithe frames as they make use of their magic more directly and thus don’t require the powerful bodies that other dragons use for combat. That doesn’t make arcane dragons any less dangerous, however!

Take the mirage dragon, for example. Its scales are iridescent and capable of changing color for better camouflage, making mirage dragons surprisingly stealthy. The fins on the dragon’s head open up into a radiant display that can captivate foes, giving the dragon plenty of time to close in on prey. A mirage dragon’s hallucinatory breath can confound or overwhelm multiple enemies at once, which is helpful when dealing with parties of would-be dragon slayers. Add on a suite of illusion spells, and you have a dragon that’s just as dangerous, if not more so, than its larger cousins. Mirage dragons love to gaze upon their own reflections and hoard gold pieces polished to a mirror shine, as well as reflective metals, large mirrors, and other treasures to line their lairs.

I hope you enjoyed this peek at the mirage dragon. If you want a second look, make sure to check out our preview for the cover of Pathfinder GM Core. Stay tuned for more Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster previews—draconic and otherwise—in the coming weeks!

Luis Loza
Creative Director—Rules & Lore

Check out this year's Streaming Schedule and join us on twitch.tv/officialpaizo for PaizoCon Online 2023!

Friday May 26th

10 am – 12 pm PDT
PaizoCon 2023 Keynote
Exciting news and upcoming products at our annual Keynote, hosted by Erik Mona.

12 – 2 pm PDT
Pathfinder Remastered
Join the Pathfinder designers as they talk about the upcoming Pathfinder Remaster releases! Topics include an explanation of what the Remaster project is and what kinds of updates and improvements fans can expect.

2 – 3 pm PDT
News from Organized Play
The Organized Play team shares exciting news about our programs and upcoming adventures.

3 – 4 pm PDT
Secrets of the Pact Worlds
Join the Starfinder team as they reveal new projects and behind-the-scenes talks about the Starfinder setting's direction moving forward. Learn about upcoming adventures and get a chance to ask the developers some of your pressing questions!

4 – 5 pm PDT
Introduction to Foundry
Join Viviane(Cora) and Shane(Anathema) for a discussion about Pathfinder products for Foundry VTT, A preview of the forthcoming Kingmaker premium content module, a look at the recently released Harrow Deck module, and some audience Q&A

5 – 6 pm PDT
Pathfinder 2E on Fantasy Grounds Unity
Bryce will walk you through the resources available for online virtual tabletop (VTT) play using Fantasy Grounds Unity. He'll introduce the built-in Pathfinder 2E ruleset, available modules, how to build a character, level up, run an adventure, encounters, combat, and as much as he can fit in one hour!

6 – 7 pm PDT
Mini Painting with WizKids
[Description coming soon]

Saturday May 27th

9 – 10 am PDT
Pathfinder NEXUS Dev Update/Q&A
Join Demiplane CDO Adam Bradford for the latest updates from Demiplane for Pathfinder NEXUS, including previews of the upcoming character tools!

10 – 11 am PDT
Primal Previews
Join the Pathfinder Rules & Lore team as they reveal the secrets of elemental power and primal realms! This panel will include previews and discussion on Pathfinder Rage of Elements and other upcoming Pathfinder releases that explore Golarion, from the Inner Sea to its wildest and most remote regions!

11 am – 12 pm PDT
Ask the Paizo GMs
Get answers about the games you love from the people who make them! Paizo staff will be on hand to field your questions from the Twitch chat. (Another Ask the Paizo GMs panel is on Sunday May 28th at 3 pm PDT if you can't make this one!)

12 – 1 pm PDT
Secrets of Golarion
Learn about what's between the covers of the Lost Omens books and what's behind the scenes. Join some of the crew steering the world of Golarion to hear about what's going on in the world and what's coming. We'll be answering as many questions as we can—but not all secrets will be revealed.

1 – 2 pm PDT
Pathfinder Adventures
Come join the Pathfinder Narrative team for a discussion about Pathfinder Adventures, be they stand-alone modules, Organized Play scenarios, or full Adventure Path campaigns! We'll be chatting about several upcoming adventures, answering questions, and previewing some upcoming surprises—including an announcement for what we've got planned for the 200th Pathfinder Adventure Path volume!

2 – 3 pm PDT
Infinite Possibilities: How to Write for Pathfinder Infinite
Join Infinite Masters Dustin Knight, James Beck, Tony Saunders, and Vanessa Hoskins as they relay their experiences, offer advice, and answer questions about how to publish on Pathfinder Infinite, including where to find creator resources and collaborative creator spaces!

3 – 4 pm PDT
Check Yourself: Self-Editing for Games Writers
Paizo's editors share their insight on common writing pitfalls to avoid, following a style guide, using inclusive language, and other ways to strengthen your writing, whether freelancing for companies like Paizo or publishing your work on other platforms.

4 – 5 pm PDT
BKOM Studios' Pathfinder Game
Discover BKOM Studios' latest Pathfinder video game!

5 – 5:30 pm PDT
GMing Pathfinder on Roll20
Join us for a conversation about GMing Pathfinder using the Roll20 virtual tabletop platform.

Sunday May 28th

9 – 10 am PDT
Digital Map Tools in Fantasy Grounds Unity
Joshua will introduce Fantasy Grounds Unity and how it can work with Paizo's Flip-Tiles, Flip-Mats, and map packs to enable online or local virtual tabletop play for Pathfinder and Starfinder. He'll cover using dynamic line of sight, snapping tiles into place, manipulating tiles, adding or modifying lights, adding FX, and using image brushes for advanced effects. Using this in-game allows for preplacement of encounters, linking story entries, hiding and revealing enemies automatically, opening and closing doors and windows, and approval of player movement.

10 – 11 am PDT
WizKids Interview
An interview with Mark Moreland about the process of making WizKids minis.

11 am – 12 pm PDT
Build an Adventure Workshop
Learn tips and tricks to building a one-session adventure from some of Paizo's adventure developers.

12 – 1 pm PDT
Into the Darklands
Dig deep beneath the surface of Golarion to find the wonders, dangers, and mysteries of life below. Join us for a discussion of the Darklands and how they tie into the upcoming Lost Omens Highhelm book, the Sky King's Tomb Adventure Path, and more!

1 – 2 pm PDT
Starfinder Nuts and Bolts
Get an in-depth look at the upcoming Starfinder Enhanced book from the people who made it! Learn about the new enhanced core classes and get previews on new class content, new species, new feats, and a whole lot of new content that we just can't wait to reveal!

2 – 3 pm PDT
Mysteries in RPGs
Who doesn't love a good mystery? They can be great to include in roleplaying games, but sometimes, the search for clues can derail the best-laid plans of even the most talented GM. In this panel, we'll discuss techniques on how best to present mysteries in your games, chat about our own mysterious inspirations, and maybe even shed light on some mysteries that we've presented but haven't yet answered—as long as that mystery isn't "How did Aroden die?" of course!

3 – 4 pm PDT
Ask the Paizo GMs
Get answers about the games you love from the people who make them! Paizo staff will be on hand to field your questions from the Twitch chat. (Another Ask the Paizo GMs panel is on Saturday May 27th at 11 am PDT if you can't make this one!)

---

See you soon!

Don't forget to join us on the PaizoCon Discord for even more programming! We'll be announcing our Digital Content guests soon. They'll be hanging out in our online "exhibition hall" with their own channels to answer questions, show off their amazing products, and host panels of their own via Discord stages!

If you're interested in gaming, don't forget to purchase a ticket and sign up on Warhorn to get access to our Organized Play games and non–Organized Play activities!

We can't wait to see you all at PaizoCon Online 2023!

Today, we are pleased to reveal the Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster Project, four new hardcover rulebooks that offer a fresh entry point to the Pathfinder Second Edition roleplaying game! The first two books, Pathfinder Player Core and Pathfinder GM Core, release this November, with Pathfinder Monster Core (March 2024) and Pathfinder Player Core 2 (July 2024) completing the remastered presentation of Pathfinder’s core rules. The new rulebooks are compatible with existing Pathfinder Second Edition products, incorporating comprehensive errata and rules updates as well as some of the best additions from later books into new, easy-to-access volumes with streamlined presentations inspired by years of player feedback.

This year saw a huge explosion of new Pathfinder players. Remastered books like Pathfinder Player Core and Pathfinder GM Core improve upon the presentation of our popular Pathfinder Second Edition rules, remixing four years of updates and refinements to make the game easier to learn and more fun to play.

In time, the Pathfinder Player Core, Pathfinder GM Core, Pathfinder Monster Core, and Pathfinder Player Core 2 will replace the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Gamemastery Guide, Bestiary, and Advanced Player’s Guide, which Paizo will not reprint once their current print runs expire. Existing Pathfinder players should be assured that the core rules system remains the same, and the overwhelming majority of the rules themselves will not change. Your existing books are still valid. The newly formatted books consolidate key information in a unified place—for example, Pathfinder Player Core will collect all the important rules for each of its featured classes in one volume rather than spreading out key information between the Core Rulebook and the Advanced Player’s Guide.

The new core rulebooks will also serve as a new foundation for our publishing partners, transitioning the game away from the Open Game License that caused so much controversy earlier this year to the more stable and reliable Open RPG Creative (ORC) license, which is currently being finalized with the help of hundreds of independent RPG publishers. This transition will result in a few minor modifications to the Pathfinder Second Edition system, notably the removal of alignment and a small number of nostalgic creatures, spells, and magic items exclusive to the OGL. These elements remain a part of the corpus of Pathfinder Second Edition rules for those who still want them, and are fully compatible with the new remastered rules, but will not appear in future Pathfinder releases.

In the meantime, Pathfinder’s remaining projects and product schedule remain as-is and compatible with the newly remastered rules. This July’s Rage of Elements hardcover, along with the Lost Omens campaign setting books and our regular monthly Adventure Path volumes, continue as planned, as does the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign, which will incorporate the new rules as they become available.

Learn more with our FAQ here or read it below

Is this a new edition of Pathfinder?

No. The Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster Project does not change the fundamental core system design of Pathfinder. Small improvements and cosmetic changes appear throughout, but outside of a few minor changes in terminology, the changes are not anywhere substantive enough to be considered a new edition. We like Pathfinder Second Edition. You like Pathfinder Second Edition. This is a remastered version of the original, not a new version altogether.

Are my existing Pathfinder Second Edition books now obsolete?

No. With the exception of a few minor variations in terminology and a slightly different mix of monsters, spells, and magic items, the rules remain largely unchanged. A pre-Remaster stat block, spell, monster, or adventure should work with the remastered rules without any problems.

What does this mean for my digital content?

Paizo is working with its digital partners to integrate new system updates in the most seamless way possible. The new rules will be uploaded to Archives of Nethys as usual, and legacy content that does not appear in the remastered books will not disappear from online rules.

We will not be updating PDFs of legacy products with the updated rules.

Will the Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster books be part of my ongoing Pathfinder Rulebooks subscription?

Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster books will be included in ongoing Pathfinder Rulebooks subscriptions. We are currently working on a method whereby existing subscribers will have the opportunity to “opt out” of these volumes if they wish and will provide additional details as we get closer to the release of the first two volumes.

What impact will the Second Edition Remaster have on Pathfinder Society Organized Play?

We are working closely with our Organized Play team to seamlessly integrate new rules options in the upcoming books as those books are released, as normal. In the rare case of a conflict between a new book and legacy source, campaign management will provide clear advice with as little disruption as possible to player characters or the campaign itself.

Will there be more Remastered Core books to come? What about Monster Core 2 or Player Core 3?

It’s very likely that we will continue to update and remaster the Bestiaries in the future, but for now we’re focusing on the four announced books as well as Paizo’s regular schedule of Pathfinder releases. Publishing 100% new material remains Paizo’s primary focus, and we look forward to upcoming releases like Pathfinder Rage of Elements, the Lost Omens Tian Xia World Guide and Character Guide, our monthly Adventure Path installments, and other exciting projects we have yet to announce.

Will the new Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster books have Special Editions?

Yes. We are looking into various exciting print options for these books and will post more information soon.

Will the new Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster books have Pocket Editions?

Yes. Pocket editions of the new books will appear roughly three months following the hardcover releases.

Will these changes impact the Starfinder Roleplaying Game?

Not yet.

How can I learn more about the Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster books?

To learn more about the Remaster books, check out our live stream chat about the announcement happening later today on Twitch. Beyond that, we’ll be making a handful of additional announcements in the coming days and weeks to showcase more about this exciting project, culminating in your first full look at the project during PaizoCon (May 26th–29th)!

SAVE UP TO 80% ON KOBOLD MOVING SALE!

The Paizo goblins and the kobolds at Kobold Press have been sharing the same warren for many years as small-folk allies. But the kobolds have outgrown their space in our warehouse, so they've found a new one that's just right. They must unload some of their loot to avoid hauling it to their new lair. They claim to be Strength-challenged and can't carry it all! (We know kobolds are strong as we are, but who wants to carry it when it’s better to sell it?!)

For the next few months, you can get great deals on a wide array of new and classic Kobold Press titles: 60% off select 5e titles and 80% off select Kobold Quarterly, 13th Age, or 4E titles! But don’t move slowly, the best titles will go quickly!

Each book you order will unburden a poor kobold who otherwise will have to schlep these tomes through the dangerous, monster-infested terrain of the Midwest.

Won’t you help an innocent, defenseless kobold today?

(We know this might sound like a kobold feigning weakness to ambush, but we goblins will vouch for them. This time.)

Kobold Warrens Moving Sale

*Discount does not stack with other discounts. Sale ends at 11:59 p.m. Pacific on June 30, 2023.

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

In January, Paizo and an alliance of more than 1,500 tabletop RPG publishers announced our intention to support the development of the Open RPG Creative (ORC) license, a system-agnostic, perpetual, irrevocable open gaming license that provides a legal “safe harbor” for sharing rules mechanics and encourages collaboration and innovation in the tabletop gaming space. The ORC is not explicitly a Paizo license, but is intended for the common use of the entire games industry, across a wide variety of games and platforms. Over the last several weeks, we have been working closely with Azora Law, an intellectual property law firm that works with Paizo and several other game publishers, to develop and refine a working draft of the ORC license for public discussion and refinement.

The first public draft of the ORC license is now complete, and we welcome the feedback of individual publishers on the official ORC License Project Discord, found here.

You can download a copy of the ORC license and its associated FAQ/AxE (Answers and Explanations) document below. We will continue to refine the license and add to the FAQ based on public feedback provided on the official Discord. Azora will be soliciting commentary and feedback through that platform between now and Friday, April 21, at which point they will incorporate that feedback and release another public draft. If additional rounds of public commentary are required, the process will continue until the license is complete and meets the needs of the majority of participating publishers. It is our intention to wrap up the entire process by the end of April if possible.

Thank you for your interest and participation in public conversations regarding the ORC license during the weeks it has taken us to put together this preliminary draft.

That work is now complete, and the next phase begins.

Download the Orc License

Download the Orc AxE

Join the conversation

BKOM Studios and Paizo are joining forces to bring two new Pathfinder video games to the market! One will be launching on Steam later this year, and the second is in early stages of development.

"We are so excited about this collab," says Frederic Martin, CEO of BKOM Studios. "We absolutely love role playing games (lots of us at BKOM are already part of that community) and already were fans of the Pathfinder brand. In Paizo, we found the ideal partner with whom to collaborate to materialize a common vision. After 26 years in this industry, there are people whom you know you want to work with again. And John Feil (Director of Licensing at Paizo) is definitely one of them. We can't wait to reveal more about the projects we've been working on with John and his colleagues," he adds. "The upcoming titles are perfectly aligned with BKOM’s vision to bring unique and meaningful gaming experiences on PC and consoles."

"We at Paizo are incredibly excited to be working with BKOM," says Mark Moreland, the company's Director of Brand Strategy. "Their track record is impeccable, and we can't wait to expand the Pathfinder brand into new digital spaces with them."

Details about both projects will be revealed soon!

Are you ready for the return of PaizoCon Online 2023? Join us Memorial Day weekend, May 26th–29th, as we once again bring events to your screen with an amazing long weekend of panels, giveaways, and, of course, gaming!

If you’re new to Pathfinder or Starfinder, PaizoCon is an annual weekend-long event where we celebrate our team, our community, gaming, and all things Paizo!

The entirety of this year’s convention is online. This year things will be slightly different: parts of the show you know and love will remain free, but we’ll also be having a ticketed event with community-run games and activities at the same time!

How it works: After purchasing your ticket, please navigate to your E-tickets page to add your Discord (name#numbers) and Warhorn email, so we can add the “Ticket Purchaser” role in our Paizo Events Server and Warhorn, which will give you access to sign up for games on Warhorn.

Game sign-ups: Both Organized Play and Open Play games will be available on April 17 through Warhorn. Stay tuned!

PaizoCon livestreams: We’ll be providing the full schedule of online Twitch and Discord panels soon, including Erik Mona’s annual opening keynote.

Friday art portfolio reviews: The opening Friday of PaizoCon, the Paizo art team is offering portfolio reviews on a first-come, first-served basis. Stay tuned for more information and registration!

Friends of Paizo: Join not just us, but multiple friends of Paizo in the Discord this year. Chat with, ask questions of, and learn more about the amazing work of teams like Foundry VTT, Roll20, Abyssal Brews, and more!

We look forward to seeing you all online this year! Stay tuned for more updates and announcements about PaizoCon 2023!

Get your tickets today!

Creating a dangerous dungeon to challenge adventurers is a lot of work. While the various architecture aeons, drafter devils, engineering elementals, and other dungeon designing minions here at Paizo are generally great at their job, there are some times when the rooms they create don’t quite hit the mark. While we typically just set those aside for incineration at a later date, we were running out of space at the delving warehouse. To clear up a bit of space, we figured that we could just set a few of those unused rooms out on the curb for anyone to pick up. So, today on April Fools’ Day, we invite you to come on by and grab any of these rooms and throw them into your next dungeon!

Rooms Designed by Cosmo Eisele (Director of Sales), Vanessa Hoskins (Developer), and Luis Loza (Creative Director)

Art by Addison Rankin

Chamber of Bouncing

This large chamber looks inconspicuous at first glance. There are open doorways at either end of the chamber. The floor and walls of the room are magically enchanted to forcibly bounce creatures that come in contact with them. A creature that moves through the room finds itself springing and bouncing around. Every time the creature moves 5 feet, they are bounced 10 feet in the same direction. This bouncing doesn’t count against the creature’s movement. Creatures that collide against a wall are bounced back 10 feet in the opposite direction. Alternate versions of these chambers include trapped doorways that magically move along the length of the walls, making it difficult to reach an exit while bouncing around, or glass walls within the room that are effectively invisible to the naked eye and serve to block the bouncing in the chamber.

Crawler’s Room

This room contains a miniaturized version of the very building in which it’s located. The miniature building takes up the entirety of the room, blocking access to the door on the opposite of the chamber. The miniature’s doorways are large enough for a person to crawl inside. Creatures that enter the room are subject to a magically-enhanced gravity, causing the creatures to collapse to the ground. Reaching the other side of the room requires crawling through the building replica and traversing the miniaturized dungeon. The miniature version of this room doesn’t contain its own miniature and is instead filled with small piles of treasures.

Grand Sycamore Ballroom

This vast chamber is large enough to contain a legion. Hanging high on the walls, out of the reach of most, are massive tapestries displaying legendary heroes, each standing thrice as tall as they would appear in life. The room is filled with a carefully positioned pattern of round tables, each surrounded by eight chairs, and sporting different colored adornments, arranged in broad sections. In the center of the room, against the far wall, stands a magnificent stage. A long table at the front edge of the stage has four chairs for the Grand Coordinator and their closest officers. Several double doors exit the room on all four sides.

Helpful Warning Room

This 10-foot-by-20-foot room has a packed dirt floor and unlocked wooden doors at both ends. In the center of the room there is a long gash cut through the dirt, and a notched and rusty shield stuck into the floor in the exact center of the gouge and room. Scrawled upon the shield, in an obviously unskilled hand, is the word “TRAP!” written in red paint with an arrow pointing straight up. Following the arrow up shows an enormous greataxe attached to the ceiling and rigged to swing through the room when a barely concealed tripwire is tripped. This obviously is the source of the gouge, and the swinging axe is easily avoided when the trap is tripped. Upon closer inspection, there is another scrawled word on the head of the axe itself in the same red paint: “BOOM!” This word is painted on top of a fireball rune (Core Rulebook 524), which goes off when the axe head swings within 20 feet of the party.

Visualizer Chamber

The walls of this room are decorated with colorful artwork. All objects and creatures within the room have their appearance drastically altered, resembling stylized artwork that’s made up of small groupings of black, cyan, magenta, and yellow dots. Anytime a creature would speak or make some other sound within this chamber, the sound doesn’t occur normally. Instead, a large image of the words or sound effect appears in the air near the creature. This alteration to appearance and sound doesn’t prevent creatures from acting normally, casting spells, and so on.

Hello again, PaizoCon lovers! As registration for the convention draws near, we're excited to announce that this year we're bringing community games and other events back to PaizoCon! Prior to 2020, a huge part of our programming consisted of a wide variety of games and other events led by Paizo staff or your fellow con attendees. The reinstatement of our community events schedule is a return to form for Paizo, and we hope you'll join us for all the excitement and fun!

PaizoCon's community events make it possible for Paizo staff, freelance authors, third-party publishers, and talented GMs of any background to host an assortment of unique experiences for appreciative players from all over the world.

PaizoCon Attendee Information

Here are just a few delightful things players might experience:

• Many different RPG systems, including (but by no means limited to) Paizo's own Pathfinder and Starfinder.
• A vast assortment of published adventures and homebrewed content.
• All manner of genres, degrees of seriousness, and maturity levels.
• Shorter or longer games or games that start at times that are more convenient to you.
• Playtests or premieres of upcoming third-party adventures by the next big author or company, or by some of your familiar favorites!
• Trying to survive Cosmo's terrifying gauntlet of Killer Clowns!¹

We're thrilled to offer such experiences once again!

Event Host Information

But of course, these wonderful events require people to envision, plan, and run them. That's where you come in. Now is your chance to run the game you've been planning for years, and to give your players an experience they'll be talking about until next PaizoCon!

This year's event application process is designed to make it easy for you to describe what you want to host, so that we can help attendees find exactly what they're looking for. PaizoCon attendees who wish to run one or more events for PaizoCon 2023 should review the following information, then fill out the application linked below.

Rules

• PaizoCon attendees may apply to run one or more events.
• Applications will be accepted for about 3 weeks and will be processed on an ongoing basis.
• Events need not be tabletop RPGs—if you want to run your own panels, workshops, mini-painting corners, board games, party games, or something completely different, let us know and we’ll see what we can do for you!
• Filling out the application does not guarantee that your event will be accepted. Paizo staff will review all applications and approve them based on variety, application quality, and scheduling needs.
• Accepted events will be scheduled a timeslot and will be listed on net alongside other scheduled PaizoCon events. A voice and text channel on the PaizoCon Discord server will be made available during the scheduled timeslot. Any other necessary arrangements—virtual tabletops, alternate voice chat applications, etc.—must be made by the applicant and included in the application.
• By default, the content for all events is expected to adhere to the Pathfinder Baseline. Deviations from the Baseline are to be disclosed in the application, and such deviations will be published in the schedule so attendees are aware of what to expect. All events must adhere to the PaizoCon Code of Conduct—no exceptions.
• Applicants who are approved to run events for 12 hours or more will receive a free attendance badge for PaizoCon 2023, and our gratitude. Applicants who do not qualify for a free badge will still need to purchase one.
• Any questions about the sign-up process should be sent to paizocon@paizo.com.

Important Dates

Please note that some of these dates are tentative and subject to change.

• March 3 (Fri): Event applications open
• March 27 (Mon): Event applications close
• April 17 (Mon): VIP & non-OP games open for signup
• May 26–29 (Fri–Mon): PaizoCon 2023

Fill out the application here!

¹Clown presence not guaranteed.

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Over the last few months, the world has seen a huge upsurge in interest, use, and quality of algorithm-generated imagery and text. Since we launched the company in 2002, Paizo has made its reputation with the assistance of countless traditional artists and writers, who are just as integral to the success of our games as our in-house editors, art directors, designers, and developers. The ethical and legal issues surrounding “AI art” and writing prompt programs—and the serious threat they pose to the livelihoods of partners who have helped us get to where we are today as a company—demand that we take a firm position against the use of this technology in Paizo products.

In the coming days, Paizo will add new language to its creative contracts that stipulate that all work submitted to us for publication be created by a human. We will further add guidance to our Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite program FAQs clarifying that AI-generated content is not permitted on either community content marketplace.

Our customers expect a human touch to our releases, and so long as the ethical and legal circumstances surrounding these programs remains murky and undefined, we are unwilling to associate our brands with the technology in any way.

Stated plainly—when you buy a Paizo product, you can be sure that it is the work of human professionals who have spent years honing their craft to produce the best work we can. Paizo will not use AI-generated “creative” work of any kind for the foreseeable future.

We thank the human artists and writers who have been so integral to our success in the past, and we look forward to working with them for many years to come.

We’re in the heart of Black History Month! In honor of Black excellence in the tabletop industry and beyond, here are some wonderful creators in our community to introduce themselves and share some of the amazing work they’ve done.

---

Isis Wozniakowska (she/her)

Hey all, Isis Wozniakowska here, I wrote Starfinder Society Scenario #3-21 and #5-04 as well as the upcoming Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-10, and I've done work for Pathfinder Secrets of Magic, Pathfinder Dark Archive, Starfinder Interstellar Species, and more to come.

I got into this whole TTRPG writing thing by answering an open call for writers of color, which is not the kind of thing I can advise when a lot of people I know ask me how to get into this. It's something I think about a lot, how I sometimes feel like I've gotten more chances as a writer lately because I can answer these specialized calls for people who come from specific backgrounds. It's taken me months to come to terms with that possibility of having my own privileges recently as the creative world tries to diversify its talents. And it's been especially complicated for me as someone who spent her formative years living with a white European father in a nicer city than people with my skin color often do.

But I think these days I've finally learned that these opportunities are important because they're the kinds of opportunities that my mother's family couldn't have had years ago, and that my dad as an immigrant never had the luxury of being offered either. So I'm here, I'm creating fantasies and cultures in a world as diverse as our own. And I'm proud to call myself a Black writer or a Mixed writer or whatever other adjectives need to be thrown in front of there to remind myself that I'm here building a name for myself and my family going forward. And I can be proud of the fact that I get to have opportunities that people like myself would have never had in generations before me.

If you want to find more of me, my Twitter is a @wozenstein, and you can always keep an eye out for more Paizo work from me in the future.

Shan Wolf (he/they)

Hi everyone, I am a freelance game designer and contributing author on both the Pathfinder and Starfinder lines. My credits include Starfinder Bounty #4: Poacher’s Prize, the Adventure Toolbox for book 1 of the Starfinder Drift Hackers Adventure Path, the Starfinder Ports of Call hardcover, the Adventure Toolbox for book 2 of the Strength of Thousands Adventure Path, and the upcoming Lost Omens Highhelm sourcebook. My primary focus as a writer is in Black and Indigenous liberation narratives, monster creation, archetype creation, history and lore, and writing revolutionary and inherently anti-colonialist themes.

Besides all that, I am a huge Pathfinder and Starfinder booster. I love these games as they help bring to life amazing fantasies about being heroes and saving the world, or universe, and that is always something I’m interested in doing, or just talking about in general.

If you’re interested in my work, or hearing my views, feel free to take a look at my twitter @Fenrirs_Chosen and you will see an outspoken and passionate advocate for Black liberation, and making the tabletop space more open, safe, and inclusive.

Erin Roberts (she/her)

Happy Black History Month, y'all! I'm Erin and in addition to being a prose writer and a creative writing teacher, I've been a freelancer for Paizo for a couple of years—how time flies! I've written for a few Lost Omens books, bringing things like Impossible Cake (Pathfinder Lost Omens Grand Bazaar), the Tunwalkers (Pathfinder Lost Omens Knights of Lastwall), reflections on time from the Ladies of Shadow tea and assassination guild (Pathfinder Lost Omens Travel Guide), and a look at the artists and buildings of Golarion (Travel Guide) to their pages. I've also had fun in space, writing a bounty (Starfinder Bounty #3: A Green Place) and adding to vlaka lore (Starfinder Interstellar Species).

Outside of the Paizoverse, I’ve written for D&D (Journeys Through The Radiant Citadel), World of Darkness (Hunter: The Reckoning Fifth Edition) and several awesome 3PP and indie projects (including Anansi’s Tapestry of Lives and Moonlight on Roseville Beach). What’s next? I’m a game writer for a future Foundry VTT project and you can catch my freelance work in projects like Pathfinder Lost Omens Firebrands, Pathfinder Lost Omens Highhelm, and other fun places not yet revealed by the mythical powers that be. I also chat with a bunch of writing folks every week as one of the hosts of the Writing Excuses podcast, new every Sunday. I usually share whatever shenanigans I'm up to next on Twitter at @nirele, so feel free to follow me there!

Paizo continues celebrating the spirit of Open Gaming with 25% off select Starfinder releases that introduce you to the Pact Worlds! Explore the world now with a free PDF copy of Starfinder Pact Worlds. Simply add the PDF to your cart, and use discount code OPENGAMING at checkout. Offer valid through 11:59 PM PST, February 18, 2023.

Want to try Starfinder yourself (or pick up a copy for a friend)? Use code OPENGAMING for 25% off any or all of the following through 11:59 PM PST, February 18, 2023.

Starfinder Beginner Box — $39.99 $29.99

Explore the Galaxy! Launch into an exciting universe of science fantasy adventure with the Starfinder Beginner Box! Create and customize your own futuristic hero to play through challenging adventures and action-packed battles against dangerous foes! With streamlined rules, this deluxe boxed set is the ideal introduction to the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, an imaginative tabletop roleplaying game for 2-7 players. Welcome to the best launchpad for a lifetime of pulse-pounding adventure among the stars—the only limit is your imagination!

Starfinder Core Rulebook (hardcover) — $59.99 $44.99
Starfinder Core Rulebook Pocket Edition (softcover) — $19.99 $14.99

Blast off into a galaxy of adventure with the Starfinder Roleplaying Game! Step into your powered armor and grab your magic-infused laser rifle as you investigate the mysteries of a weird universe with your bold starship crew. Will you delve for lost artifacts in the ruins of alien temples? Strap on rune-enhanced armor and a laser rifle to battle undead empires in fleets of bone ships, or defend colonists from a swarm of ravenous monsters? Maybe you'll hack into the mainframe of a god-run corporation, or search the stars for clues to the secret history of the universe or brand new planets to explore. Whether you're making first contact with new cultures on uncharted worlds or fighting to survive in the neon-lit back alleys of Absalom Station, you and your team will need all your wits, combat skill, and magic to make it through. But most of all, you'll need each other.

This massive 528-page hardcover rulebook is the essential centerpiece of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, with rules for character creation, magic, gear, and more—everything you need to play Starfinder as either a player or Game Master! The next great adventure in science fantasy roleplaying takes off here, and the Starfinder Core Rulebook is your ticket to a lifetime of adventure amid the stars!

Whether you join us in the Desna's Path galaxy or explore the stars with one of the many other publishers producing great stories in their own settings, we thank you for supporting Open Gaming!

Over the course of the last week, more than 1,500 tabletop RPG publishers, from household names going back to the dawn of the hobby to single proprietors just starting out with their first digital release, have joined together to pledge their support for the development of a universal system-neutral open license that provides a legal “safe harbor” for sharing rules mechanics and encourages innovation and collaboration in the tabletop gaming space.

The alliance is gathered. Work has begun.

It would take too long to list all the companies behind the ORC license effort, but we thought you might be interested to see a few of the organizations already pledged toward this common goal. We are honored to be allied with them, as well as with the equally important participating publishers too numerous to list here. Each is crucial to the effort’s success. The list below is but a representative sample of participating publishers from a huge variety of market segments with a huge variety of perspectives. But we all agree on one thing.

We are all in this together.

• Alchemy RPG
• Arcane Minis
• Atlas Games
• Autarch
• Azora Law
• Black Book Editions
• Bombshell Miniatures
• BRW Games
• Chaosium
• Cze & Peku
• Demiplane
• DMDave
• The DM Lair
• Elderbrain
• EN Publishing
• Epic Miniatures
• Evil Genius Games
• Expeditious Retreat Press
• Fantasy Grounds
• Fat Dragon Games
• Forgotten Adventures
• Foundry VTT
• Free RPG Day
• Frog God Games
• Gale Force 9
• Game On Tabletop
• Giochi Uniti
• Goodman Games
• Green Ronin
• The Griffon’s Saddlebag
• Iron GM Games
• Know Direction
• Kobold Press
• Lazy Wolf Studios
• Legendary Games
• Lone Wolf Development
• Loot Tavern
• Louis Porter Jr. Designs
• Mad Cartographer
• Minotaur Games
• Mongoose Publishing
• MonkeyDM
• Monte Cook Games
• MT Black
• Necromancer Games
• Nord Games
• Open Gaming, Inc.
• Paizo Inc.
• Paradigm Concepts
• Pelgrane Press
• Pinnacle Entertainment Group
• Raging Swan Press
• Rogue Games
• Rogue Genius Games
• Roll 20
• Roll for Combat
• Sly Flourish
• Tom Cartos
• Troll Lord Games
• Ulisses Spiele

You will be hearing a lot more from us in the days to come.

Greetings, players! Somehow, it’s once again time to start recruiting volunteers for our major conventions! At this time, we’re opening applications for Gen Con Indianapolis 2023. Information on Gen Con Online, as well as other PaizoCon events, will happen at a future date. Please read all the information in the convention’s section before filling out the application form, and let the team know if you have any questions!

Gen Con Indy 2023

Gen Con Indianapolis will take place in Indianapolis, Indiana from August 3-6, 2023. While we intend to participate in Gen Con Online, this application is only for the in-person show. 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 are 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
• Demo GM: Run quick demos for new players, giving them a short Pathfinder/Starfinder experience before quickly turning the table over for the next group. Our Demo GMs may receive an Exhibitor badge in compensation for the fast and furious nature of the position, subject to availability.
• Academy GM: Run games for young children (under 18) and their families and provide a safe, welcoming environment for our youngest gamers. This position requires proof of a completed background check.

Please read this important information before applying:

• Volunteer applications will be reviewed and accepted or rejected by the Gen Con Organizing Committee. Filling this form out does not guarantee acceptance; you will receive an email with further information from the Gen Con committee.
• Gen Con Indy schedules will be assigned by the committee. You will be asked for your preference of system and level, but you will not 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 is a free-form field at the end of the form to enter specific requests, though there’s no guarantee they will be honored.
• Reward information is listed in the table below. GMs who don’t qualify for a badge will still need to purchase one.
• 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 are considered to be committed to attending the event.
• Adventure authors interested in running tables of scenarios they have written should fill out the volunteer form and then follow up by emailing genconleads@gmail.com. Please note we have a limited number of tables and the schedule is fairly locked-in at this stage, but we’ll do our best to get you slotted into your scenario if it’s on the schedule.
• Gen Con has indicated that they do not plan to have any mask or vaccination requirements for the event. They have also prevented us from enforcing a mask mandate within our spaces. We will work to ensure the safety of all our attendees as best we can under this policy. At this time we are still evaluating our options such as obtaining air purifiers, reducing player count to ensure safe distancing, and increasing the distance between tables. We will be sure to provide hand sanitizer and masks on-site for any who want them.
• Any questions about the GM signup process should be sent to the committee at genconleads@gmail.com.



Rewards Table

Blocks	Housing	Product	Player Badge	Volunteer Attire	In-Game Reward	Voucher
7+ blocks	X	X	X	X	X	X
6 blocks		X	X	X	X	X
5 blocks			X	X	X	X
4 blocks			X	X	X	X
3 blocks			X	X	X	X
2 blocks				X	X	X
1 block				X	X	X

*Definitions for rewards:

• Player Badge: a badge for the duration of the event. GMs must have a Player badge before registering to play games. Demo GMs may receive an Exhibitor badge if our allotment allows.
• 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 physical copy of a Paizo product, chosen from a list of recent releases prior to the convention.
• Volunteer Attire: One shirt per day of volunteering (unless volunteer received shirts in the previous year).
• Voucher: earn one voucher for $10 spendable on paizo.com or at the Paizo booth for every block run.
• Housing: GMs will be housed at two volunteers per room. More volunteers (up to four) may be added to one room if all volunteers agree. More information is available on the application form.

Important Dates

Note that these dates are from Gen Con directly; other dates specifically relevant to us may be added.

• January 29: Indy badge registration begins
• February 12: Indy housing portal opens
• May (dates unknown): Indy event catalog goes live, Indy event registration begins

Gen Con Indy 2023 Volunteer Application

Major Conventions Planning Server

Anybody interested in volunteering at PaizoCon Online or Gen Con 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, Kevin Baumann, Rebecca Fehn and Joe Mathos
Gen Con Organizing Committee

Paizo is celebrating the spirit of Open Gaming with 25% off select Pathfinder print releases that introduce you to the world of Golarion! Explore the world now with a free PDF copy of the Lost Omens World Guide. Simply add the PDF to your cart and use discount code OPENGAMING at checkout. Offer valid through midnight PST, January 25, 2023

Want to try Pathfinder Second Edition yourself (or pick up a copy for a friend)? Use code OPENGAMING for 25% off any or all of the following through midnight PST, January 25, 2023:

Pathfinder Beginner Box | $39.99 $29.99
Leave the ordinary behind and take your first step into a world of amazing fantasy adventure with the Pathfinder Beginner Box! This box contains everything you need to learn how to play Pathfinder Second Edition, including rules to create your own fantasy hero and tools to tell your own incredible stories. The box includes the 72-page Hero's Handbook, which presents the rules for playing the game and creating characters, including their skills, spells, and gear; an 88-page Game Master's Guide, containing an introductory adventure, over 20 pages of monsters, rules for building your own adventure, and dozens of wondrous magic items; dice; double-sided adventure map; pregenerated characters; and over 100 character and monster pawns.

Pathfinder Core Rulebook 2nd Edition | $59.99 $44.99
Pathfinder Core Rulebook Pocket Edition | $29.99 $22.49
This comprehensive guide to Pathfinder Second Edition provides everything you need to enter a world of limitless fantasy adventure! Choose from ancestries like elf, human, and goblin, and classes like alchemist, fighter, and sorcerer to create a hero of your own design, destined to become a legend! Based on more than 20 years of active development and playtest feedback from more than 125,000 gamers, the 2nd Edition Pathfinder rules are easy to learn and exciting to master! This indispensable volume contains all the rules for players and Game Masters, and is your first step on a heroic new journey! Available as both a full-sized hardcover tome and an easily transportable pocket edition.

Whether you join us in Golarion or find your calling with one of the many other publishers producing great stories in their own worlds, we thank you for supporting Open Gaming! Now and in perpetuity.

For the last several weeks, as rumors of Wizards of the Coast’s new version of the Open Game License began circulating among publishers and on social media, gamers across the world have been asking what Paizo plans to do in light of concerns regarding Wizards of the Coast’s rumored plan to de-authorize the existing OGL 1.0(a). We have been awaiting further information, hoping that Wizards would realize that, for more than 20 years, the OGL has been a mutually beneficial license which should not–and cannot–be revoked. While we continue to await an answer from Wizards, we strongly feel that Paizo can no longer delay making our own feelings about the importance of Open Gaming a part of the public discussion.

We believe that any interpretation that the OGL 1.0 or 1.0(a) were intended to be revocable or able to be deauthorized is incorrect, and with good reason.

We were there.

Paizo owner Lisa Stevens and Paizo president Jim Butler were leaders on the Dungeons & Dragons team at Wizards at the time. Brian Lewis, co-founder of Azora Law, the intellectual property law firm that Paizo uses, was the attorney at Wizards who came up with the legal framework for the OGL itself. Paizo has also worked very closely on OGL-related issues with Ryan Dancey, the visionary who conceived the OGL in the first place.

Paizo does not believe that the OGL 1.0a can be “deauthorized,” ever. While we are prepared to argue that point in a court of law if need be, we don’t want to have to do that, and we know that many of our fellow publishers are not in a position to do so.

We have no interest whatsoever in Wizards’ new OGL. Instead, we have a plan that we believe will irrevocably and unquestionably keep alive the spirit of the Open Game License.

As Paizo has evolved, the parts of the OGL that we ourselves value have changed. When we needed to quickly bring out Pathfinder First Edition to continue publishing our popular monthly adventures back in 2008, using Wizards’ language was important and expeditious. But in our non-RPG products, including our Pathfinder Tales novels, the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and others, we shifted our focus away from D&D tropes to lean harder into ideas from our own writers. By the time we went to work on Pathfinder Second Edition, Wizards of the Coast’s Open Game Content was significantly less important to us, and so our designers and developers wrote the new edition without using Wizards’ copyrighted expressions of any game mechanics. While we still published it under the OGL, the reason was no longer to allow Paizo to use Wizards’ expressions, but to allow other companies to use our expressions.

We believe, as we always have, that open gaming makes games better, improves profitability for all involved, and enriches the community of gamers who participate in this amazing hobby. And so we invite gamers from around the world to join us as we begin the next great chapter of open gaming with the release of a new open, perpetual, and irrevocable Open RPG Creative License (ORC).

The new Open RPG Creative License will be built system agnostic for independent game publishers under the legal guidance of Azora Law, an intellectual property law firm that represents Paizo and several other game publishers. Paizo will pay for this legal work. We invite game publishers worldwide to join us in support of this system-agnostic license that allows all games to provide their own unique open rules reference documents that open up their individual game systems to the world. To join the effort and provide feedback on the drafts of this license, please sign up by using this form.

In addition to Paizo, Kobold Press, Chaosium, Green Ronin, Legendary Games, Rogue Genius Games, and a growing list of publishers have already agreed to participate in the Open RPG Creative License, and in the coming days we hope and expect to add substantially to this group.

The ORC will not be owned by Paizo, nor will it be owned by any company who makes money publishing RPGs. Azora Law’s ownership of the process and stewardship should provide a safe harbor against any company being bought, sold, or changing management in the future and attempting to rescind rights or nullify sections of the license. Ultimately, we plan to find a nonprofit with a history of open source values to own this license (such as the Linux Foundation).

Of course, Paizo plans to continue publishing Pathfinder and Starfinder, even as we move away from the Open Gaming License. Since months’ worth of products are still at the printer, you’ll see the familiar OGL 1.0(a) in the back of our products for a while yet. While the Open RPG Creative License is being finalized, we’ll be printing Pathfinder and Starfinder products without any license, and we’ll add the finished license to those products when the new license is complete.

We hope that you will continue to support Paizo and other game publishers in this difficult time for the entire hobby. You can do your part by supporting the many companies that have provided content under the OGL. Support Pathfinder and Starfinder by visiting your local game store, subscribing to Pathfinder and Starfinder, or taking advantage of discount code OpenGaming during checkout for 25% off your purchase of the Core Rulebook, Core Rulebook Pocket Edition, or Pathfinder Beginner Box. Support Kobold Press, Green Ronin, Legendary Games, Roll for Combat, Rogue Genius Games, and other publishers working to preserve a prosperous future for Open Gaming that is both perpetual AND irrevocable.

We’ll be there at your side. You can count on us not to go back on our word.

Forever.

–Paizo Inc

Our 20th Anniversary Year is coming to a close and we want to say: thank you and Happy Holidays!

Illustration by Kent Hamilton

From now through January 18, take 15% off a single order* on Pathfinder, Starfinder and Kobold Press print products at the Paizo Store using the code holiday23 at checkout.

It is not too late to treat yourself and the gamers in your life to our biggest releases of the year, including:

Starfinder Galactic Magic

Starfinder Drift Crisis Suite

Starfinder Drift Crisis Adventure Path

Starfinder Drift Hackers Adventure Path

Starfinder Interstellar Species

Pathfinder Book of the Dead

Pathfinder Dark Archive

Pathfinder Quest for the Frozen Flame Adventure Path

Pathfinder Outlaws of Alkenstar Adventure Path

Pathfinder Blood Lords Adventure Path

Pathfinder Kingmaker Adventure Path Suite

Pathfinder Lost Omens: Travel Guide

Pathfinder Lost Omens: Knights of Lastwall

Pathfinder Lost Omens: Impossible Lands

All our goblins, gnomes, halflings, fetchling wisps, ant gnolls, grippli, kobolds, leshies, ratfolk, kashrishi, poppets, shoonies and compact skeletons—and a galaxy of less than human-sized aliens—want to ensure you don't overlook our small releases, so you can make your perfect bundle!

Starfinder Adventures including Redshift Rally and To Defy the Dragon

Starfinder Accessories including Starfinder Spell Cards

Starfinder Society including Season 5: Year of Redemption's Rise

Pathfinder Adventures including Shadows at Sundown and Crown of the Kobold King

Pathfinder Accessories including the Deck of Endless NPCs

Pathfinder Society including Season 4: Year of Boundless Wonder

Board and Card Games including Pathfinder Goblin Firework Fight

Kobold Press, including Tome of Beasts 3, Vault of Magic, and other great 5E content

Don't forget to subscribe so that you don't miss a product in 2023!

Paizo will be closed Friday, December 23, Monday, December 26, and Monday, January 2. The warehouse will be closed the first week of January for inventory.

Once again, and we can't say it enough, thank you for playing Starfinder and Pathfinder! We wish you all safe travels, critical hits, and all the adventure that the holiday season brings!

Best wishes and happy gaming,
The Paizo Staff

*The holiday23 code stacks with Pathfinder Advantage. Discount stacks with Paizo Advantage, but not other discounts. Not valid on subscriptions, preorders, Foundry VTT products, or Non-Paizo downloads. Code ends at 11:59 p.m. Pacific on January 18.

Greetings from the future! As mentioned in our Introducing the Narrative Team blog, there have been some changes to Paizo’s teams, and perhaps none have seen more of a shake-up than the Starfinder Team!

With the restructure of the editorial department, you’ve already heard about changes to the Narrative Team under Linda Zayas-Palmer and will be hearing more about the Rules and Lore Team under Michael Sayre in the coming weeks. Today is your chance to learn about the Starfinder Team and some of the exciting changes we’ve got coming down our futuristic pipeline.

The Starfinder Team is responsible for everything Starfinder. That includes Starfinder Adventure Paths, Starfinder modules, Starfinder hardcovers, Starfinder the flamethrower… oh wait, ignore that last one! The team handles all aspects of Starfinder except for Starfinder Society, which remains under the Narrative Team due to its close connections to Pathfinder Society through Paizo’s Organized Play programs—though we keep in regular contact with our SFS developer for scheming purposes.

All right, let’s introduce the team!

Dustin Knight

Greetings Starfinders! I’m Dustin Knight, the newest developer for Starfinder! I’m taking the lead on the development of future Starfinder hardcover books. Working at Paizo is a dream come true, and I’m so excited to bring smiles to our fans around the world. I’m also elated to be able to work with the most creative and skilled artists, designers, developers, editors, and writers in the industry; my only regret is not contacting Paizo years sooner to ask for work (hint, hint). Being able to develop player-facing options is especially exciting for me given my experiences both writing new content and evaluating existing content for Organized Play—where I hope my additions to our awesome game will facilitate memorable stories for years to come.

You may have already met me lurking around various Starfinder & Pathfinder Discords, hanging with the crew on Know Direction: Beyond, and releasing my own line of Pathfinder Infinite products. When I’m not developing or writing new RPG books, I’m still finding time to play TCGs, experience the culinary cross-roads of the Seattle area, and enjoy every minute of my precious boyfriend’s incredible Starfinder campaign!

If you’re interested in working with us, please feel free to contact me at dustin.knight@paizo.com. Don’t be shy about including your availability, interests, and experiences, whether RPG related or otherwise, as it can greatly help us assign exciting content that plays to your strengths as an author! Feel free to chat me up on the Infinite Possibilities Discord.

Jenny Jarzabski

Hi, I’m Jenny Jarzabski, and I’m super hyped to keep bringing that extra sparkle to Starfinder’s Adventure Path line. I’ll be outlining and assigning Adventure Paths and modules, plus working with the rest of the team to dig deeper into Starfinder’s lore and shape the future of Starfinder as a game and brand!

My Paizo career began in Organized Play. There, I helmed the Starfinder Society’s Year of the Data Scourge before joining the Adventure Path team. Recently, I’ve stepped into my new role as Queen of Adventures—note that my actual title is Senior Developer—a role that encompasses my old job responsibilities with an added layer of creative influence and mentorship.

Besides my on-the-clock work, I’m a longtime Paizo freelancer, but adventures are my specialty. My latest published work is recently released Drift Crashers 2: Nightmare Scenario, but I have so many ‘Finder credits at this point that it’s hard to keep track. Before I became a freelance writer I worked as a teacher, bartender and certified sommelier, and event planner. I still enjoy talking about wine and, of course, tasting it! I love the outdoors, playing video games (Drakengard/NieR and Final Fantasy XIV are my favorites), watching anime, cosplay, performing, and music. I love mechs, magical girls, and tragic androids; you can expect more of this holy trinity (and many more fun surprises) in future Starfinder releases. I’m not into social media these days, but I’m active on Discord and my digital mailbox at jenny.jarzabski@paizo.com is always open! Forgive me for the Drift delay in responding.

Thurston Hillman

Hello! I’m Thurston Hillman, the managing creative director for the Starfinder Team. This is a bit of a unique title in our company as it combines the elements of manager and creative director to balance out the fact that Starfinder is a smaller team. My role comprises the usual logistical scheduling tasks as well as the oversight and guidance provided by a creative director. I work side-by-side with my co-workers and other departments to make sure that Starfinder is the best brand it can be, and to bring all the content that our fans want.

I’ve been GMing Starfinder campaigns off and on since the game came out, including some hosted on Paizo’s Twitch Channel. (Check for Pungeon Crawl!) Along with my obvious love of Starfinder, I’m a huge fan of Pathfinder, and I even GM a show as part of the Narrative Declaration team (https://www.narrativedeclaration.com) in our custom Rotgrind setting. I also run a home PF2 campaign set in the nation of Druma, for which I co-wrote the actual book back at the end of Pathfinder 1st Edition, and we’re now entering the fourth adventure in my homebrew Adventure Path that has the PCs battling against corrupt Prophets of Kalistrade and the forces of Abaddon. Yeah, that’s right, I’m using this space to TELL YOU ABOUT MY CAMPAIGN!! *insidious laughter follows*

I’ve been working with Paizo since Starfinder’s launch, where I was the Starfinder Society developer. I later helped the Pathfinder Society for a brief stint before moving into digital adventures and then back onto Starfinder in my current title. In all those roles, I’ve worked on too many products to name, and most recently I’m wrapping up work on the Scoured Stars Adventure Path, which is a dream-come-true project. Also, I tossed a never-before-seen Scoured Stars art piece into this blog, because I am ABUSING MY NEW AUTHORITY *more insidious laughter ensues*

On official channels, you can contact me at thurston.hillman@paizo.com. For the foreseeable future, I’m hands-on when it comes to outlining and assigning our current slate of projects, so while Dustin and Jenny are using their stable of freelancers and contacts, I’ll still be involved in the process for a bit. I’ll be primarily focused on supporting Adventure Paths and charting the vision for our hardback lines, but don’t be surprised if I have a special project or two that you one day hear about.

You can find me on pretty much all the socials as @OnCallGM, and I tend to answer when summoned on several Discord channels. Outside of TTRPGs, I have a stack of miniatures I need to get back to painting… so many miniatures…

Dustin Knight
Developer

Jenny Jarzabski
Senior Developer

Thurston Hillman
Managing Creative Director (Starfinder)

Hi! Those of you who have been watching the credits of recent products or the discourse on social media may have noticed some shake-ups in Paizo’s staff recently.

Over the past couple of months, we’ve done some restructuring on the editorial team, and we’ve also welcomed many new faces. This restructuring includes reorganizing the designers, developers, and creative directors into three broad teams: the Narrative Team, led by me (Linda); the Rules and Lore team, led by Michael Sayre; and the Starfinder Team, led by Thurston Hillman.

Today, I’d like to introduce you to the narrative team. The narrative team is responsible for all Pathfinder adventures, including Adventure Paths, standalone Pathfinder Adventures, and Pathfinder Society. The team also includes Starfinder Society due to its close connections to Pathfinder Society through our Organized Play programs.

And without further ado, here’s who’s who in their own words, as well as how to contact each of us.

Jessica Catalan

Hi everyone! I’m Jessica Catalan and I’m the Starfinder Society Developer! I’m thrilled to be in charge of planning, outlining, assigning, and developing our Starfinder Society Scenarios, Starfinder Bounties, and our upcoming Starfinder Society Specials. In addition to working at Paizo full-time, I’m a frequent freelance author for the Pathfinder and Starfinder RPGs. Outside of writing, I love reading and playing board games. I live in wonderful Winnipeg, Canada with my husband, two kids, and pet rabbit. You can follow me on twitter @d20diaries. If you’re interested in writing a Starfinder Bounty or Starfinder Society Scenario, reach out to me at jessica.catalan@paizo.com.

Take care, folks!

John Compton

I’m John Compton, a senior developer currently working on Pathfinder’s Adventure Paths. Previously, I’ve overseen various organized play programs’ creative content and most recently co-led Starfinder’s hardcover book production, and it’s great to be revisiting adventure design on the narrative team (starting with the recently announced Sky King’s Tomb adventures). I love a good intrigue, heist, investigation, or adventure sandbox, and I’m excited about the to-be-announced stories we have in the works. While my assignments are few and far between, I’m always interested in meeting and training up our game’s next authors. You can contact me at john.compton@paizo.com.

When I’m not playing or creating RPG content in the Seattle area, I’m usually gardening, spoiling my friends’ various pets, socializing on Discord (I’m in the Pathfinder RPG and Starfinder RPG servers), dissecting whatever narrative media I consume, or learning eclectic trivia that then seeps into my professional writing.

Josh Foster

Greetings Pathfinders and Starfinders! I’m Josh Foster, a Pathfinder Society Developer. I’m full of ideas for short adventures and can’t wait to get them on the page. I’ll be the one outlining, assigning, and developing new Pathfinder Quests—and I’m extremely excited that Quests are coming back. I’ll also be working on non-metaplot scenarios for both Pathfinder and Starfinder Societies (though mainly Pathfinder), as well as helping the narrative team with the metaplot whenever they need my overly-caffeinated input.

I’ve been a mainstay of Pathfinder Society play since way back toward the launch of the campaign. I’m a five-star GM, have helped run the Pathfinder Society programs at several stores, and served as a Venture-Lieutenant in Georgia. When not playing tabletop RPGs, I spend way too much time playing Final Fantasy XIV. I’m now living in downtown Seattle with my amazing wife and our adorable dog.

If you’re interested in writing a quest or scenario, you can contact me at joshua.foster@paizo.com.
Good gaming everyone!

Vanessa Hoskins

I’m Vanessa Hoskins, a Developer on the Narrative Team, and I get to assign talented freelancers to help shape the stories we tell on Golarion (and beyond?). I’ll be outlining, assigning, and developing long-form adventures and their backmatter. This includes Adventure Paths and standalone adventures.

In addition to serving on the board of directors at the Know Direction Network, I’m a cast member on the Adventurous! actual play. I also co-author Vellum & Lace, the first piece of serialized Pathfinder fiction on Pathfinder Infinite, with Helen Savore. Finally, I recently started Ninja Cat Games, an indie video game studio. I do all of this while living in Indiana with my brilliant wife and our adorable dog.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NinjaCatVanessa
Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ninjacatvanessa
Contact me about work here: vanessa.hoskins@paizo.com

James Jacobs

Ahoy! I’m James Jacobs, Creative Director for the Pathfinder narrative team. I’ve been with Paizo for about a year less than Paizo’s been a thing, and over the past 19 and a half years have worn enough hats in the editorial department to make a whole family of ettins with chimera pets proud! Going forward, my focus will be on guiding the stories for all of the Pathfinder adventures Paizo will be producing, along with actually developing adventures for both the standalone line and the Adventure Path line. I’m hoping to be able to chat soon about some fun things we’ve got planned as the Adventure Path nears its 200th volume, and some new and exciting stuff we’ll be doing on the standalone adventure side. I’m also involved in other narrative-based things you’ll see coming from Paizo or our partners when it comes to stories beyond adventures.

As for myself? I’m from a small town, Point Arena, on the remote coast of northern California, but for the past half of my life I’ve been living up north in the Seattle hinterlands. (And yes, there’s a fair amount about the town of Sandpoint that’s inspired from my hometown… although we do have fewer goblins living there, especially since I moved up north!) I’m sort of a social media recluse, but I’m pretty active here on our message boards, and have started to de-lurk over on Reddit’s 2nd Edition Pathfinder page as well. Feel free to drop me a message anytime in either place, or shoot me an email at james.jacobs@paizo.com. I try to answer quickly, because who knows if I’ll get distracted chasing a bigfoot or chupacabra or mothman ten minutes from now and… wait… WHAT’S THAT NOISE! THAT HAND AT THE WINDOW……

Shay Snow

Hello, friends! I’m Shay Snow, one of the new developers for Pathfinder Society! You’ve probably seen my writing floating around, as I’ve been freelancing with Paizo since 2020 and was previously a member of Paizo’s fantastic editing team since October 2021!

While I’ve written two Starfinder Society scenarios, I’m quite new to Organized Play. However, the Emerald City Lodge has been extremely welcoming and willing to show me the ropes! I’ve enjoyed running and attending games, and I love the chance to interact with Paizo fans on the ground and get their opinions on the game and the Society. (Yes, you can tell me about your level 12 champion of Shelyn! But in exchange you must listen to me talk about my level 4 rogue!)

I’m from Watauga, Texas, a suburb between Dallas and Fort Worth, and I moved to Washington in February of 2022. I’m Native American, mixed Caddo and Swampy Cree. When not centered on tabletop games, I’m usually consuming horror content and spending time with my spouse and two cats, Beans and Sweet Corn. The best place to find me outside of my home office is on Twitter @spellsinsugar, or you can email me at shay.snow@paizo.com!

Linda Zayas-Palmer

Hi, I’m Linda Zayas-Palmer, the manager of the narrative team. My job mostly involves logistical tasks like scheduling, training, and reviewing text from developers.

I’ve been a fan of Paizo’s adventures since Pathfinder First Edition came out. The story of Rise of the Runelords inspired my home group to make the jump to Golarion, and Council of Thieves was my first-ever campaign as a GM. As for Organized Play, after positive experiences with the community at my first GenCon, I wound up joining the Boston Lodge as a player, GM, and eventually Venture-Lieutenant. Paizo’s adventures and the community around them have brought so much joy and togetherness to my life, and it’s a privilege to be part of the team that brings those kinds of experiences to the world.

In addition to my day job, I also do freelance writing for Pathfinder and Starfinder. Some of my recent projects include the raxilite section of Starfinder Interstellar Species and the final part of Roll for Combat’s Jewel of the Indigo Isles Adventure Path. Every Tuesday at 7pm Pacific and Saturday at 10am Pacific, I stream on Twitch together with former Paizo design manager Mark Seifter, under Arcane Mark (twitch.tv/arcanemark). Outside of Paizo and its products, I enjoy reading, math, teaching, solving puzzles, playing video games, watching anime, and singing.

I don’t engage much with social media, but if you’d like to reach out to me, you can email me at linda.zayas-palmer@paizo.com, or join Arcane Mark’s discord server at tiny.cc/arcanemark.

Jessica Catalan
Developer

John Compton
Senior Developer

Josh Foster
Developer

Vanessa Hoskins
Developer

James Jacobs
Creative Director

Shay Snow
Developer

Linda Zayas-Palmer
Development Manager

Type40 is very proud to announce our new partnership with Paizo! We absolutely love the rich and inspiring lore of Pathfinder and Starfinder and look forward to creating new and exciting ways to help you enjoy your games.

The Pathfinder and Starfinder tabletop roleplaying games allow you to immerse yourself in exciting adventures with your friends. You can travel across the fantastical lands of Golarion, discovering unknown adventures where you can unleash your hero in Pathfinder! If you’d like to venture further, you can journey across the galaxy aboard your starship, exploring an amazing science-fantasy universe full of aliens, magic, and adventure in Starfinder!

But what is Type40?

Type40 is a multi-award winning design studio with a shared vision “to help gamers have as much fun as we can” by producing the highest quality inworld artifacts for gamers, collectors, and enthusiasts across both the physical and digital spaces. Type40 has been producing award-winning games, art, and artifacts for over a decade. Find out more on our website here!

So what happens now?

The creative cogs are turning here at Type40, and we’re confident we’ll be able to bring you something that will encompass your excitement as much as it does ours. Meanwhile, if you’d like, follow this link to sign up for our newsletter so you won’t miss out on any announcements. If social media is your thing, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!

From adding flavor to the use of Hero Points to building new NPCs and new worlds to explore, Paizo has published many exciting Starfinder and Pathfinder accessories. Today through Black Fireday, Small Business Starday, and Cyber Moonday ACCESSORIZE YOUR GAME with the best the industry has to offer!

Even better, join in a raucous game-before-the-game that up to 4 can play while waiting on the rest of the party to arrive! Join fellow Licktoad goblins in raiding Sandpoint for fireworks in the quick-playing free-for-all of Pathfinder Goblin Firework Fight! Steal from the humans. Steal from your buddies. Impress the Chief!

Main Sale
Cards
Minis & Figures
Non-Mint Offerings
T-shirts
Goblin Loot

This sale stacks with other discounts, including the Paizo Advantage. Not valid on subscriptions, preorders, or non-Paizo products not specifically listed as on sale. Sale ends at 11:59 p.m. Pacific on Monday, November 28.

Thank you for playing Starfinder and Pathfinder!

Shop the Accessorize Your Game Sale today!

We invite you to join us for PaizoCon Online 2023, next Memorial Day weekend, May 26–28. We’re excited to once again bring events to your screen with an amazing long weekend of Starfinder and Pathfinder online gaming, the launch of Year 6 of Starfinder Society, product previews, new product announcements, content creator AMAs, seminars, giveaways, an extra day of play on May 29th, and more. We’d love to have you join us!

Last year, after several years of online-only PaizoCons, we produced a hybrid convention with both in-person and online events. We learned a lot, and we’ve decided the time isn’t right to produce a physical show. Why? We’ve learned the best way to make the PaizoCon experience accessible and affordable for the most people is to keep it virtual. And yes, COVID and its variants continue, which makes in-person commitments unpredictable for us all. So, we’re planning now to help PaizoCon 2023 level-up!

Please tell us the pros and cons of the PaizoCons of the past—indeed, of all the online cons you’ve attended. Organized Play regularly plans games both online and at local retailers. Would you like to see Pop-up PaizoCon events at stores alongside PaizoCon Online? In the thread below, tell us what you’ve loved and can’t do without, what didn’t work, and what you would like to see added—now, while we have some time.

Look for further communication over the next few months as we finalize more details, including event registration dates. We look forward to seeing you at PaizoCon Online 2023!

-Your Gamer Friends at Paizo

This Hispanic Heritage Month, we thought it’d be fun to have some of our staff, freelancers, and members of the community write up some magic items inspired by their background and culture to put into your games!

We hope everyone enjoys these items and ¡échale ganas en tus juegos!

Background illustration by Olivier Bernard
Kazutal by Ksenia Kozhevnikova
Yllaldo Monk by Sammy Khalid

Joseph Blomquist

As a Nuyorican, my relationship to Puerto Rico was challenging at first. Whenever I went to PR, I was the only cousin that barely spoke any Spanish. A real connection came with food—especially once my grandmother introduced me to a tiny local fruit, the quenepa. Each island has a different name for quenepas, and it was extremely difficult to get back home in NY. It was a great start to a lifelong love of Puerto Rico and a reminder of an amazing woman that never knew how much her grandson cherished every moment we shared.

Would you like to know more? Follow me on twitter (@DoctorMono) or check out my recent Paizo releases: SFS Scenario #4-13: Hard Reset and PFS Scenario #4-02: Return to the Grave.

Glowberry — Level 1

Magic Item
Price 5 per bunch
Bulk L per bunch
Capacity 10; Usage 1/hour
A glowberry is a bioluminescent fruit that grows in tropical regions throughout Castrovel. The bright-orange fruit begins to glow immediately when the thin, green-brown peel is broken and the fruit is exposed. The flesh continues to glow even if cut into pieces or pulverized into a liquid. Glowberries grow in bunches on trees that can grow as tall as 100 feet, often bearing thousands of bunches every season. While the colloquial name glowberry is common for the popular fruit throughout the Pact Worlds, each individual Castrovellian culture has a different name for the fruit. When the fruit is exposed, a glowberry increases the light level by one step in a 10-foot radius for 1 hour.

---

Carlos Cabrera

Art in one form or another has always run in my father's side of the family. I have a younger sister who paints, my late father and one of my older brothers draw (cartoon art and comic book art, respectively), and I've been known to draw, write, and design games. I also have an uncle who can play Santana by ear, the musician by which I acquired my name. My father was a huge fan of Santana's music, and on my mother's side my grandfather's name was Charles, so they agreed. Over the years I've dabbled in music here and there, be it ukulele or electric bass, and most recently classic guitar.

I thought it would be a special idea to create a magical guitar: an instrument that not only played the piece of culture being performed but also granted a memory. This instrument can most often be found within the hands of a calaca, which I designed for the first edition of Pathfinder and Luis Loza brought into second edition here.

Memory Guitar – Item 4

Divination, Mental, Magical
Price 100 gp
Usage held in 2 hands; Bulk L This simple guitar appears worn and battered from use, but upon close observation, the damage seems to be intentional. From the correct angle, the guitar’s scratches and marks seem to form a simple picture, such as an environmental scene or a crude face.

Activate [three-actions] Interact; Effect You play music with the guitar and the instrument’s power shares a memory with your audience. When sharing with an audience, you share a memory of yours with anyone within 30 feet. This has the effects of mindlink for anyone that can hear the music.

Activate [three-actions] Interact; Frequency once per month; Effect You play the guitar and the instrument attempts to help you recover a lost memory. You can either have a specific memory in mind, such as trying to remember a childhood event, or let the guitar find a memory for you. You recall the moment with perfect clarity and reestablish it permanently in your mind with the failure effects of modify memory.

---

Luigi Lizza González

When I was a kid, I joined my school's music club and discovered the cajón drum: a wooden, box-shaped percussion instrument primarily used in Criolla and Afro-Peruvian music. You play it by slapping the sides and corners to mark the beat and guide the dancers. At first glance, it doesn't look like it could generate a great variety of sounds, but you would be surprised. Also, that instrument helped me realize how much I enjoy working in tandem with others to create something beautiful (in this case, music).

As a person born and raised in Perú, the dream of entering the gaming industry seemed so distant and unattainable that, for a long time, I didn't even think of trying to accomplish it. However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Pathfinder community is one of the most welcoming spaces to be part of. So, now, as a published author and a co-owner of Eldritch Osiris Games (@EldritchOsiris on Twitter), I can explore my most quirky sides and put my love for arts, philosophy, and storytelling to good use. If you want to see my silly face and know more about my work, you can find me on Twitter as @LuigiLizza.

Guiding Cajon Drum — Item 5

Enchantment, Magical
Price 160 gp
Usage held in 2 hands; Bulk 2
This wooden, box-shaped percussion instrument resonates with great power when struck. The drum is large enough that you can’t play it while holding it. Instead, you sit on the drum and play it with both hands. Sitting on or standing up from the drum requires an action, which has the move trait. You’re flat-footed while sitting on the drum, but you gain a +1 item bonus to Performance checks to play the drum. The drum is loud and creatures within 100 feet of the drum can hear its music, regardless of the ambient noise, though it can’t penetrate silence and similar magical effects.

Activate [one-action] Interact (auditory, emotion, enchantment, mental); Frequency once per round; Effect You play the drum, unleashing a rhythm that gets other moving. Up to 2 allies that can hear the drum can use a reaction to Stride 5 feet.

---

Luis Loza

When I was little, I would see people playing with trompos—wooden tops that were spun by pulling on a string. People could perform cool tricks with them including scooping them up into their hands or guiding along the string in intricate manners. Trompo tricks are similar to yoyo tricks in how much coordination they require and how impressive they can be to watch. It was only much later in life that I learned that trompos weren’t exclusively a Mexican toy and were actually common throughout Latin America and even in other parts of the world. Even knowing that, trompos still feel like a Mexican thing to me, so I wanted to make a cool item that made use of one!

Tornado Trompo — Item 18

Air, Evocation, Magical
Price 19,000 gp
Usage held in 1 hand; Bulk L
Various runes are carved along the entirety of this wooden top. Spinning the top requires wrapping a thick string around its base and pulling the string in a vigorous motion. Wrapping a string and pulling the string each require an Interact action. The top’s magic is connected to the power of the wind, which becomes evident when placed on a surface as it hovers in place.

Activate [two-actions] envision, Interact; Requirements A string is wrapped around the top and you have a hand free; Effect You lightly pull on the string and catch the top in your free hand. It spins in place, hovering over your open palm, sharing its power over the winds with you. You gain the effects of fly as long as you keep the top in your hand. You can Release the top at any time to end the effect.

Activate [two-actions] command, Interact; Frequency once per day; Requirements A string is wrapped around the top; Effect You call upon the top’s power and give the string a powerful pull. The top travels across the ground in a 120-foot line. As it does, it unleashes a powerful vortex of winds, becoming a tornado temporarily. This tornado has the effects of whirlwind (Secrets of Magic 141) except that it’s not limited by being used outside or in a cramped space and can’t be sustained. Creatures in the tornado’s path must attempt a DC 38 Reflex save to determine the effects of the tornado. The tornado ends after traveling its full distance, causing any creatures that rose in the air due to a failed save to begin falling immediately.

I am officially announcing my retirement from the adventure game industry. After 35 years of making some of the most amazing games and getting to work with the most amazing people, it is time for me to step away and move on to the next chapter in my life. In January 2020, I was diagnosed with a very rare disease that, while not life-threatening, is debilitating, sapping me of much of my energy and making it hard to do my job. The pandemic allowed me to step back from the day-to-day operations of Paizo enough to help me feel comfortable making this life change at this time.

There are so many people to thank for my amazing career that it would be impossible to list them all, but there are certain pivotal people who made a huge impact, and I would like to shine the spotlight on them for a little bit. First, to Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein•Hagen, who not only allowed a young Lisa to edit Ars Magica, but also let me get involved with the design of their first game. They allowed me to wear a lot of hats at Lion Rampant, which formed the seed that blossomed into my career. To Stewart Wieck and Mark Rein•Hagen, who listened to my crazy plan to merge Lion Rampant with White Wolf magazine and actually agreed to do it! This led to my involvement from the ground up on Vampire: The Masquerade. To Peter Adkison, for giving me the hard sell and convincing me to pick up my life in Atlanta and move to Seattle to become employee number one at a fledgling Wizards of the Coast. Being involved with the creation of Magic: The Gathering, the acquisition of TSR, and making some Star Wars games were a few of the highlights from my career there. Thanks to Johnny Wilson for being the only person to “take the bait” when I left Wizards and formed Paizo with him and Vic. And to Erik Mona and Jeff Alvarez, for being with me for the last 20 years and helping me grow Paizo into the company it is today. From the magazines to Pathfinder and Starfinder, it has been an incredible journey! And finally, to Vic Wertz, for being my partner both in business and in life. Your guidance, support, tough love, and off-the-charts intelligence have been a constant at my side since 1993. I am so happy we were able to share our careers together!

To the hundreds and hundreds of people who played a part in my career, both big and small, you have my eternal THANKS, and I look forward to staying in touch through my retirement years.

Vic and I still own Paizo, so I won’t be entirely gone. However, I have turned over all the operations to Paizo’s amazing Leadership Team, helmed by Jim Butler with Erik Mona, Mike Webb, Rai Kong, and Maggie Gallagher. If there is anything you would have previously talked to me about regarding Paizo’s operations, please address it to my team there instead. If you want to talk to me as the owner of Paizo, I can still be reached at lisa@paizo.com.

I look back on my career with great satisfaction. I was truly blessed to be able to work with some of the pivotal people and games in this industry’s storied history. It has been a really good run, and I have all of you to thank for it! Keep making great games—I look forward to seeing what the next generation brings to our industry.

Lisa Stevens
Retired

Hello GenCon friends and attendees!

Last week was a very eventful GenCon 2022, and we were delighted to see so many familiar and new masked faces this year! It was great to be back at the booth alongside our Organized Play team running delves, scenarios, and specials in the Sagamore Ballroom once again! Reuniting with so many amazing members of the community was a much-needed boost to all our spirits.

But in-person conventions are not without challenges right now, and there have been several reports of COVID-19 infections among attendees. GenCon staff have asked anyone who attended the show and tested positive to send an email to customerservice@gencon.com for contact tracing. We’d also like to take this opportunity to remind you of our #contact-tracing channel in the Paizo Events Discord server for more up-to-date contact tracing information. It’s been a few days since GenCon has ended, but we encourage everyone to test and take care of themselves. Washington state residents can get free kits by mail at this site, all US residents can get tests at this site, and further guidance is available at the CDC’s website.

Thanks and take care,

-The Paizo Team

While Pathfinder Lost Omens Knights of Lastwall has been out for some time now, we wanted to take another look at the book and the authors who made it possible. Much like the Knights of Lastwall put in the effort to further the cause of good, these authors gave their all to create the latest exciting entry in the Lost Omens line of books. As these authors share a bit about themselves and their work, consider letting them know if you like their work in the comments or following them on social media!

Luis Loza
Senior Developer

Art by Will O'Brien

Banana C.

Hi! I’m Banana and I had the privilege of working on a few of the deities, specifically Iomedae, Pharasma, Ragathiel, and Sarenrae. I had such a great time writing up the rituals involved for each deity, especially Pharasma’s. I’m a sucker for any god of death and goth stuff. Aside from this book, my latest work has been on Suburban Consumption of the Monstrous, Exquisite Crime, Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall, Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft and Betrayal at House on the Hill 3rd Edition. You can also find me on Twitter and TikTok @bananachangames and on YouTube under https://www.youtube.com/c/BananaCGames.

Jessica Catalan

Hi everyone! My name’s Jessica Catalan and I’m the Starfinder Society Developer and a freelance author. For Knights of Lastwall, I contributed Avalorex, the Knightly Training and Lastwall Sentry feats, the spells, details on the Eye of Dread region, and—my personal favorite—entries on the gods Arqueros, Kols, and Vildeis, and all the avatar stats. This book was a really fun project to work on and I’m grateful to have been a part of it. Dig in and enjoy!

Art by Christoph Peters

Ryan Costello

Hello, I’m Ryan Costello, contributor to Knights of Lastwall and Director of Operations at the Know Direction Network. Until recently, I was always up to my eyeballs in Pathfinder. Now that I’ve stepped away from the Know Direction podcast, it’s more meaningful to me when I get to participate in a Pathfinder project. And what a project! Knights of Lastwall takes the classic imagery of chivalry and combines it with the sensibilities, forward thinking, and creativity that makes the Lost Omens line some of my favorite Pathfinder content ever.

I especially liked working on the “Other Groups” article and exploring the Charcoal Battalion from Oprak’s Ironfang Legion, the Final Epitaph philosophy of Pharasmin knights, the orcs of the Rampart Warband, and my favorite¬¬: the undead hunting Eagle Knight splinter group known as the Vulture Knights. By eating carrion, vultures play an important role in disease containment in our ecosystem. Tying vultures to hunting undead wrote itself, and I got to cast these vilified creatures as the noblest of heroes. The section I worked on that will probably see the most play is the “Knights of Lastwall Backgrounds” article. As my wonderful developer Luis put it, you can tell I wrote this section by the wordplay.

You can follow me on Twitter @KDRyanCostello and check out knowdirectionpodcast.com for more Pathfinder and other TTRPG enthusiasm and content from me and the rest of the staff.

Alastor Guzman

Hey, I am Alastor Guzman, your local Mexican game designer. I’m a freelance designer and writer and have worked on several indie games and some bigger projects like Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel. I was honored to be able to write some of the factions in the “Other Groups” article as well as some magic items for Knights of Lastwall. It was lots of fun designing new magic items for a Pathfinder book, looking for the mix of utility, purpose, and awe in the items that will see your table. I also enjoyed developing the groups and their interrelationships in a way you can use in your games.

Besides my work as a freelancer, I have also worked on smaller Mexican projects such as the ENNIE-nominated The Maze and Tezca Sentai. I am currently working on new projects like a legendary fight system for fantasy RPGs, and fantasy settings based on Mesoamerican mythology. You can follow me on Twitter @alastorgv or support me on Ko-fi. If you are looking for a narrative or system designer, you can check my work and send me an email at alastor@axostories.com.

Art by Christoph Peters

Erin Roberts

Hi! I’m Erin Roberts, and I loved bringing a little bit of love to this book by writing the married knights Buttons and Fenn Tunwalker, along with the intro to the “Factions” article, a few of the minor factions, and Milani, the Everbloom. While I had a wonderful time writing all of it, creating a couple whose love for each other and the knights they watch over is a source of strength during tumultuous times was particularly meaningful for me, given *gestures at the world*.

I’ve appeared around these parts in the past as part of Pathfinder Lost Omens Grand Bazaar (everything is cake!) and in Starfinder Bounty #3: A Green Place, and I have work coming up in Pathfinder Lost Omens Travel Guide and Starfinder Interstellar Species. Follow me on Twitter @nirele for more about those projects and other fun things I’m working on!

Ashton Sperry (they/them)

Howdy! It’s me, your nonbinary freelancer friend on the internet! I wrote the entries on Khagrig Daybreak and Gendowyn in Chapter 2, and the “Broken Lands” and “Other Campaigns” sections in Chapter 4 of Knights of Lastwall. Every project I’ve been on has been a distinct honor and pleasure, working hand-in-hand with my fellow authors as well as our developers to bring this fine material to y’all. With my sections, I got to explore some of the more unusual characters tied to the Knights, which I had a lot of fun doing; “How does a Chaotic Neutral fey queen tie into the faiths of the knighthood?” and “How would my knight character fit into a campaign set in Vudra?” were just some of the questions I got to explore in my submissions for this fine tome. As always, you can find me on Twitter @WhoTweetedThis where I talk about gaming stuff and post the occasional piece of art. Thank you for your time, and I hope you enjoy Knights of Lastwall!

Isabelle Thorne

Hallo everyone! I’m Isabelle Thorne, trans girl and long-time Paizo contributor. I had a big hand in this one, as you might guess from the cover! The Knights of Lastwall really are my baby; I first developed them in the Pathfinder Lost Omens Character Guide and followed through in Pathfinder Lost Omens Legends with the Iomedars, all leading up to this. And they’re the first piece of Pathfinder I really got to shape from the start. So, this is kind of a big moment for me!

And there’s so much. In addition to most of the section intros and other bridges, I contributed the in-depth looks at the Crimson Reclaimers and Shining Sentinels, and the insight in “Life as a Knight of Lastwall.” I also got to show off some of my NPCs from earlier books, like Beirivelle and Ileana (and Clarethe again!). Additionally, I had the opportunity to explore deities through a knight’s eyes; Kazutal, Falayna, Shelyn (finally!! I’m so happy), and our first look at the Vudrani deity Suyuddha. Finally, I expanded on my knight vigilant and knight reclaimant, plus feats for other archetypes.

Beyond this momentous occasion, I’m expanding into freelance editing and fiction; you’ll get to see some of that in Queerfinder on Pathfinder Infinite and the recently crowdfunded Sinclair’s Library. Hopefully I’ll have so much more yet to show you. ^_^

Art by Hazem Ameen

Twas the day before Gen Con and all across the show floor, the goblins were prepping for what we have in store…

Hello friends! The wait is over, and we look forward to seeing you all tomorrow at Gen Con 2022! Paizo’s goblins have put together the most product-packed booth we’ve ever offered and we’re here with a quick preview of the amazing things that await this weekend!

Alongside the new releases like Pathfinder Dark Archive and Starfinder Adventure Redshift Rally, our staff members will GM in-booth Pathfinder delves throughout the Ruins of Gauntlight during the show! Can you survive the Abomination Vaults? Stop by to find out.

If you’re joining us online, don’t forget to check our schedule of amazing panels [link to schedule] hosted on our Twitch channel at twitch.tv/officialpaizo, and don’t forget to reserve a seat if you’d like to join any of Organized Play’s online games.

We have an exciting weekend ahead of us, so keep an eye on our Instagram and twitter for the most up to date announcements and tomfoolery.

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

-The Paizo Team

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

Thursday, August 4

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

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

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

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

Friday, August 5

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, August 6

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

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

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

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

Organized Play Events

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

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

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

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

Charity Auction

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

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

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

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

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

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

-The Paizo Team

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

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

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

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

Tell us about a project you are particularly proud of?

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

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

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

Please tell us about your pet!

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

What character would you like to play next and why?

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

The Drift has broken. Faster-than-light travel is unreliable. The galaxy is in chaos, and opportunists lurk in every star system. Starfinder needs heroes, and with the recent release of Starfinder Drift Crisis, your characters can be part of the action! But this book wouldn’t have happened without heroes of a different kind: the authors who joined our team to tackle a totally new kind of book, all the while with fire in their eyes, passion in their hearts, and in their brains 101 new ways for your PCs to rediscover that in space, nobody can hear you scream. Meet some of the great minds who helped bring you the Drift Crisis!

John Compton
Starfinder Senior Developer

Illustration by Miguel Regodón Harkness

Dennis Muldoon

Hi Starfinders! My name is Dennis Muldoon. In addition to being a freelance author, I'm also an avid Starfinder player, GM, and organized play Venture-Captain in the San Francisco Bay Area. I was very excited to contribute to this book, writing the Blazing Speeds adventure seed, as well as the ChiwaTech faction and volocoth devils. For more Drift Crisis-related content from me, check out the new Starfinder Society interactive special, SFS #4-99 A Time of Crisis.

Sen.H.H.S.

Hi all, Sen.H.H.S. here! You may have seen my name around some Pathfinder products such as Bestiary 3 and Secrets of Magic. I was also in Starfinder's Galactic Magic, and am delighted to be back to join the chaos that is Drift Crisis, where I wrote about the Drift before everything went sideways. You can follow me on Twitter @SenHHS to keep track of what I'm up to, though I think the disruption to the Drift has disrupted my tweets somewhat. So! You can look forward to more of my work in the upcoming [static] and [white noise] which is going to be released in [more static] hello is this thing on [all static and endless white noise]

Mikhail Rekun

Приветствую, уважаемые читатели! My name is Mikhail Sergeyevich Rekun, and I wrote the Pahtran Independence section as well as the Hymothoa.

In my day job, I’m a history teacher and historian, and as part of that I’ve spent a lot of years teaching decolonization and the end of the European imperial system to students. So when I wrote up the Pahtran bid for independence, the examples of decolonization were very much on my mind—especially the multi-cornered disaster that was the Congo Crisis, but to a lesser extent also Algeria and Vietnam. Decolonization is a big, messy, complicated subject—too big to treat seriously in either this post or the 2-page Pahtran Independence section, but I do hope that I’ve managed to capture at least a little of that messiness in a gameable format.

If you enjoyed reading about the Pahtran political crisis, I’m also the creative director of the Luminant Age project, a Weird Swashbuckler setting currently working on fulfilling our second Kickstarter. If you like the idea of your PC becoming a senator while fighting thousand-year-old glasswrought engines, please follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LuminantA or check out our published products at https://luminant-age.itch.io!

Alison Cybe

I’m Alison Cybe, and I created the themes for Drift Crisis! It was a blast; themes are super fun elements which can do a lot to enhance your character. I know that when a player is starting out, they choose their theme based on which stat benefit they gain, but they also come with extra abilities as you level up. I like to surprise players with those; make each one quite unique to that theme! Each time I make one, I try to combine a selection of upgrades which are both fun and create a character unlike anything else!

Drift Crisis is a lore event. There’s a school of thinking in game development which teaches that heavy lore is something to be avoided; that it gatekeeps casual players from the game. I don’t believe that. Players love lore. A good, deep sense of history to the cosmos, with a large number of groups pursuing their own goals and agendas, it all creates the sense of a living and breathing world. Drift Crisis contains so much for players, outside of the options; it provides a means to look at the cosmos anew.

James Rodehaver

Hey everyone, I’m Jim, James, Evil Jimjam—it all means me. I had the honor of contributing to The Drift Crisis with the Trifold Legionnaire adventure seed. I was inspired to explore a conflict where the antagonist was so focused on a goal that they became a force of destruction. I wanted to highlight the theme that the impact of someone’s decisions, even without malicious intent, can put them on the wrong side of conflict. I also added Sovereign Trinity to the NPC rolodex. The story of some power-hungry figure with a messiah complex attempting to elevate themselves to godhood is a classic and the Drift Crisis felt like the perfect opportunity for someone to try that with Triune.

In addition to contributing to the Drift Crisis book, I am going to appear in the Drift Crisis actual play stream on Paizo’s official twitch channel. More details are coming soon, but I’m excited to play alongside some amazing pro streamers and one of Paizo’s own is going to be in the GM seat!

John Curtin

Hi Paizo, I’m John Curtin! You may know me from such internettings as Starfinder Facts on Twitter or Bearly Factual Productions on Patreon. While I’m normally full of the absurd and wacky on social media, in Drift Crisis I tackled the very serious topics of Near Space’s troubles in the Crisis, and maybe the most solemn subject of all: loot. While you’re enjoying the Treasure Tables in the back, be careful near the artifacts; some of them can get pretty nasty. Fun fact: The Leng Luminary was inspired by a lantern from my wedding to my partner! Hope you enjoy Drift Crisis as much as I plan to, and can't wait to talk more about what I have coming up in Interstellar Species!

Illustration by Laslo Ludrovan

Kendra Leigh Speedling

Hi, everyone! I'm Kendra Leigh Speedling, and I did the Cracks in the Cosmos adventure seeds/spells, the riftstalker (which got some extremely cool Princess-Mononoke-vibes art), Shaizera of Radiant, and everyone's favorite unethical highly acclaimed media mogul, Zo! I think the Drift Crisis provides a good opportunity for some cool, unusual adventures, and I had a lot of fun being a part of it (and throwing in First World shenanigans). If you end up playing Cracks in the Cosmos as a full campaign, I'd love to hear how it goes! You can find me (sporadically) on Twitter @KendraLS, and if you'd like to check out other things I've written, my credits are on my website at klspeedling.com.

Jessica Catalan

Hi, I’m Jessica Catalan! I’m the current Starfinder Society Developer and a freelance author who primarily writes for Pathfinder and Starfinder. I contributed a lot to Starfinder Drift Crisis, including the 'Drift in Crisis’ article, The Vast, factions (Eyeswide Agency, Hellknights, Tetrad), class options (mystic, technomancer, vanguard), stat blocks (gravity, vorclash, Drift Architects), and the Alluvion Fractures adventure seed. The Drift Crisis is an exciting event to be a part of and I look forward to seeing the adventures and content our community creates as a part of it!

Rigby Bendele

I contributed the Moored faction, the Chaos on Absalom Station adventure seed, the drift saboteur, and Aleksana Guryari's NPC write-up for this book. When writing the Moored, I spent a lot of time looking at the way we make meaning during a crisis. I pulled on time that I spent in activist communities when thinking about the Moored. When big moments of crisis happened, these groups would often get overwhelmed by well-meaning people finally motivated to join their local orgs. However, this also meant that orgs suddenly had to go supporting 20 people to hundreds. These moments of crisis seemed like they would be a good thing, but weathering the sudden change in resources truly taxed them.

If you want to hear more from me, you can find me on Twitter @rigbeesknees or check out my work in Galactic Magic and the upcoming Pathfinder Dark Archive releases.

John Godek III

Hi everyone! I’m an avid Starfinder player, 5 Nova GM, podcaster, and recent kidney transplant recipient. I teach entrepreneurship and marking as a professor for my day job. Prior to academia, I founded tech startups, and served on icebreakers and law enforcement cutters in the US Coast Guard. I was a federal law enforcement officer, and one of only 200 people in the world qualified to pilot polar class icebreakers. I visited both the Arctic, and Antarctica, transited the Northwest Passage, and circumnavigated North America. For Drift Crisis, my experience in federal law enforcement and as a sailor inspired my sections on the Stewards and Free Captains factions, as well as the starship infiltrating Azlanti Stellar Scout. My current work in academia aided me in drafting the Stabilization Protocol adventure seed where you track down Drift experts from across the galaxy.

I have three podcasts on the Know Direction Network: Intrepid Heroes – a Starfinder actual play with GM Ron Lundeen and Eleanor Ferron among the players, Presenting – interviews with game creators, and Digital Divination – a show with Starfinder Development Manager Jason Keeley. Recently I started a Youtube channel for the Presenting and Digital Divination podcasts: http://gamingdivination.com.

Andrew White

Hello! I'm Andrew White, Paizo's front-end engineering lead and a freelance author who has written for a whole mess of Pathfinder and Starfinder projects going back to the Advanced Player's Guide. Lately, I’ve also been working closely with the folks at Foundry VTT to convert Paizo’s adventure content for virtual tabletops. My contributions to Drift Crisis were a bunch of new class options for precogs, solarians, and witchwarpers, my favorite of which is the ability to deliberately enrage eldritch beings from beyond space and time in the hopes that they’ll eat your enemies before they eat you. Have fun with that one!

If you’d like to see more of my work, I also recently released the Danger Dossier on Starfinder Infinite, which addresses Starfinder’s only major flaw by adding froghemoths to it; I’m a contributing author to a bunch of exciting announced and unannounced upcoming Paizo projects, including one of the Drift Crisis Case Files, and I can occasionally be found retweeting stuff written by better writers at @plaguecontrol.

Kate Baker

Hi, I’m Kate Baker, frequent contributor to Starfinder and Pathfinder products, and I was delighted to get to work on Drift Crisis. This book is such a fun shakeup of the setting, and I know everyone who plays the game will find some great ideas for implementing this storyline. I particularly enjoyed getting to write the Swarm adventure seed.

You can follow me at @KateBakerGM on Twitter to find out more about what I’m up to!

This month, we're celebrating Pride with our co-workers, freelancers, and community content creators. For many of us, Pride isn't just a June event, it's an all day, every day existence. With that in mind, we asked, "What are you proud of in the last year?"

Art by Sebastian Rodriguez

Aubrey (she/her)
Community Content Creator

My name is Aubrey, I use She/Her pronouns, and I am the GM and Co-Producer for Goblets and Gays. We are a very gay Pathfinder 2e podcast. What I am most proud of in the last year is my show, the work my players and I have put into it. We have built an audience that is bigger than I ever expected. We were nominated and won an award, Podcast that Rolls like Family from the 2021 TTRPG Gifs awards.

We've gotten a chance to work with so many people from all over the world. We got to collaborate with Nat20 Productions to launch a Live Actual Play show as well. We are rapidly approaching our second anniversary and we are just getting started.
https://themadqueen.carrd.co/

Raychael Allor (she/her)
Marketing and Licensing Coordinator

I'm Raychael Allor, Paizo's Marketing and Licensing Coordinator! The thing I'm most proud of this year is finally allowing myself to be proud of what I've accomplished and endured. I'm still here, I worked hard to get to this point, despite many obstacles, and I'm allowed to be happy, no matter what my brain likes to tell me.

Alexander Augunas (he/him)
Freelance Contributor

Hello, I’m Alexander Augunas (Asexual/Biromantic/Male)! I’m Know Direction’s Everyman Gamer and the Master of Ceremonies of Know Direction Beyond, as well as the publisher of Everybody Games. I also write for Paizo and Pathfinder 2E / Starfinder when I’m not working my day job. This year, I’m proud of the work that my team and I did on Kitsune of Golarion, a Pathfinder Infinite product that details kitsune ethnic groups from across Golarion. I’m also thrilled that my first Adventure Path volume, Starfinder Adventure Path #51: Into the Dataverse, was announced a few weeks ago at PaizoCon. Finally, I’m proud to be celebrating my first Pride as biromantic and of my new partner, who’s been amazingly patient with me as he and I work to figure out my feelings. If you are questioning or ever start to question yourself, please give yourself the time and kindness to figure it out in whatever capacity you need. Sometimes the answer is simply acknowledging the feelings you had at the start, and that can be scary. Take a step back. Breath. It’s okay. We’ve all been there, and many of us still are. You’ve got this

Art by Fabio Rodrigues

Rigby Bendele (xe/xem or they/them)
Freelance Contributor

Community is what will save us, and I've seen my community come together over the past several years. Whether it's been mutual aid programs, labor solidarity, or activist communities, I've seen those around me step up and mobilize to protect each other. I've also worked to be someone my community would be proud of, especially when it comes to ensuring I don’t leave vulnerable members behind.

As I look to the future and continue to see a cycle of advances in rights and then backlash, standing together is vital. While living under cissexist oppression has been hard and there are never any guarantees of what the future holds, it is always worthwhile to put in the effort. I owe so much to those that organize movements. I can never repay that debt; I can only try.

I guess this is where I talk about my own work, and how much I’ve done this past year or what my upcoming releases are. If you’re interested in that, you can find my work in the recently released Starfinder Drift Crisis and in the upcoming Pathfinder Dark Archive, Lost Omens: Travel Guide, Starfinder Interstellar Species, and Pathfinder Society Special #3-98: Expedition into Pallid Peril.

I also run a free newsletter about LGBTQIA+ speculative fiction (mostly sci-fi and fantasy). If you want to hear my thoughts on queer literature, you can subscribe (or read the archive) at Transgenre Reads. You can find me @rigbeesknees on Twitter.

Brent Bowser (he/him)
Great Lakes Regional Venture Coordinator

This past year I’m proud to count myself among the many who’ve realized their worth. I mustered up the courage to tell my boss, “Treat me fairly, or I’m going elsewhere.” Here I am now, living my best life in a new job, recording a stand-up comedy special, my first Organized Play Scenario coming out this month (PFS: #3-16: Escape From Oppara), and an editor of The Journal of Dungeoneering For Hip and Attractive Professionals. From Starbucks and Amazon to every individual altering their situation, I’m proud of us collectively striving to make life better for ourselves, and each other.

Carlos Cabrera (he/they)
Freelance Contributor

Hi, my name is Carlos Cabrera and I identify as bisexual. I have written for Pathfinder in both first and second editions and have done some additional voice acting work. My latest credit to date is the voice of Ashasar for the Pathfinder Society Special #3-99: Fate of the Future, which played at GenCon last year!

The thing I am proud of most in the last year is my willingness to diversify my career and follow my freelancing work wherever it takes me. Not only did I decide to start pursuing voice acting after stumbling upon it in the Seattle indie video game scene, I have two board game projects currently in the works and one has been picked up by a publisher!

I look forward to wherever my career takes me next and should be returning to writing more content for Pathfinder soon as well. You'll be able to find all of my upcoming project announcements at http://somethingclevergames.com!

James Case (he/him)
Senior Designer

Hi, still James here, still gay. I worked on a lot of Paizo stuff I’m proud of this year, but instead of those, something else I’m proud of is making my first forays into professional media translation and translating some anime, including both an episode with a ton of puns and an episode that made my roommate go “wait why hasn’t that character stopped talking yet it’s been like a minute and I don’t think she’d breathed.” Between this and the RPG thing, middle school James would be proud. I also (with my stepmother’s help) figured out how to stop messing up a few recipes that had been giving me trouble this year, which I’m proud of too! All this and more can be found on the Tweetosphere at @toriariaria.

Art by Sebastian Rodriguez

Caryn DiMarco (she/they)
Freelance Contributor

Hi! I'm Caryn (she/they). I write marketing content as my day job, but the much cooler answer to "what do you do" is my recent experience freelancing for Paizo! I wrote Bounty 14 (The Blackwood Truce) and PFS scenario 3-10 (Delve the Pallid Depths)... and hopefully more fun things in the future. You can (sometimes) find me on Twitter talking about my work: @caryndi

My proudest moment in the past year was, in fact, seeing something with my name on it published! It was the culmination of a lot of effort I've put in over the years, and also a new opportunity to learn and grow as a writer. On a more serious and somber note, I'm also proud of the resilience and resistance of the LGBTQ+ community recently. I wish it wasn't necessary. But speaking truth to power, doing what you can to make your community better, and even just living your truth even though others are hostile to it are all accomplishments. I'm simultaneously proud to be fighting the good fight where I can and grateful/humbled to be part of a community that has given me wonderful examples of how to do so.

Dana Ebert (she/her)
Freelance Contributor

Whenever anyone complains about inclusion I add a gay character to their favorite game.

James Jacobs (he/him)
Creative Director

Hey there! I’m James Jacobs, and I wear a lot of hats at Paizo—lately I’ve been developing Adventure Paths, standalone adventures, and of course the behemoth Kingmaker project. Last year has been yet another rough year, and looking back on it all it’s difficult for me to isolate anything in particular I’m proud of myself other than just making it to this point, so instead I’ll say I’m proud of all the amazing freelancers who work for Paizo and have been so supportive of us—not just in the past year, but for the past 19 years I’ve been working at Paizo. I’ve come close to quitting the job or moving on several times—many of them in the past year—and the kind words and support of freelancers is one of the things that’s kept me here. I’m proud of you all, but more to the point I’m thankful for you all.

Dustin Knight (he/him)
Freelance Contributor

Greetings, Pathfinders! My name is Dustin Knight (Asexual/Biromantic/Male)! I’m the host of Infiknight Reviews on Twitch, producer of Know Direction: Beyond, author of the Fox’s Cunning blog series on Know Direction, and a Venture-Lieutenant for the Pathfinder Society! I'm very proud of the successful creator space and community that developed on the Infiknight Reviews Discord channel. And this year I’m proud of all the work I’ve done with Pathfinder & Starfinder Infinite, developing my own work like Infiknight Archetypes: Spell Trickster and writing with other incredible authors in collaborations like Kitsune of Golarion. Of course, I’m super excited to see how people react to my work in Lost Omens: Travel Guide, and I’m extremely grateful for the overwhelming positive response I got for Nouru/“Tattletail” in Lost Omens: The Grand Bazaar. And, to save the best for last, I’m immensely proud of my incredible new partner whose kindness, sweetness, and endless thoughtfulness have helped me learn to love myself and open my heart to share my love with another. Over the years this blog has been such a source of inspiration, learning, and opportunity for me, and I hope I can help pay it forward by offering my fellow creatives a helping hand and safe creative space where they can be free to express and learn who they are with open minds and open hearts. (@WarlockKitsune on Twitter)

Sonja Morris (she/her)
Director of Visual Design, Elder Gay

In addition to all of the things I worked on at Paizo over the last year, I am proud of myself for actually finishing Horizon Forbidden West and not giving up on Elden Ring (though I haven’t finished it yet). Twitter @robosapienx, Insta @robosapienx

Art by Vlada Hladkova

Dave Nelson (he/they)
Freelance Contributor

Hey, all! For those that don’t know me, I’m Dave Nelson, a bi and aromantic freelancer for Paizo. In a year full of accomplishments and personal growth, there is clearly one thing I am proud of most of all. I am proud to be a part of the freelance community that took collective action last fall to fight for Paizo staff. I remain proud that I took a stand for others and honored to be in the company of those that did the same.

If you want to take a look at my work, my words are coming up in Lost Omens: Travel Guide and Drift Crisis: Case Files (my first hardcover credit!) You can find me on the bird site @davicthegrey where I share photos of cats and other great things that catch my attention. I’ll be launching a new project soon and that’s the best place to hear all about it.

Jessica Redekop (she/they/he)
Freelance Contributor

Hi, I'm Jess! You might remember me from essential PF2 content like the APG’s dandy archetype, Lost Omens Grand Bazaar’s wig of holding, and the upcoming fashion section of Lost Omens Travel Guide. I'm one of several asexual Paizo contributors, and I couldn't be prouder of the community of talented and diverse professionals I get to work with. Paizo freelancers achieved a lot in the last year, and the collective action we took last year to improve working conditions for Paizo staff and ultimately demand recognition for the United Paizo Workers union ranks high among my proudest moments. It is my privilege to continue working alongside this incredible, kind, and fierce group of creators I get to call my peers.

If you’d like to check out more of my work, you can go straight to Hell (literally, as in the plane, Hell) in Drift Crashers #1: The Perfect Storm, my Starfinder adventure path volume available either now or soon! I play Xiadani on Valiant, a PF2 actual play on the Know Direction network, and tweet into the tweeterverse from @tectonomancer.

Art by Raphael Madureira

Simone D. Sallé (she/they)
Contract Editor

Hey, I'm Simone (she/they), a queer editor, writer, and general language enthusiast. Among other things, I wrote the primal magic treatise and witch journal entries for Secrets of Magic, and as a contractor I've been a contributing editor on numerous Paizo publications! I'm delighted and honored to work alongside so many phenomenal creators in this community who do such great work on the games we love.

It's hard for me to celebrate my achievements, but after many years of freelancing on the side, I'm proud of taking the leap to self-employment and making Wildwood Editing my full-time job. I love running my own solo business and continuing to learn more about myself, my craft, my community, and how to build better worlds, both in games and in real life. If you’d like to follow along, I have a monthly newsletter about games, language, advocacy, and more that you can sign up for here: https://www.subscribepage.com/wildwoodediting.

There’s a lot to celebrate during Pride Month, but don’t forget that queer history is important, queer folks are everywhere, and we need your support all year long. (And if you’re newly exploring your identity and wondering if you’re queer enough to belong, the answer is YES. Welcome!)

Kendra Leigh Speedling
Freelance Contributor

Hi all! I’m Kendra Leigh Speedling, a freelancer for Pathfinder/Starfinder, and I’m bi and demisexual. Most recently, I’ve worked on Book of the Dead and Guns & Gears on the Pathfinder side, and Drift Crisis and the one-shot System Takedown on the Starfinder side. This year, I’m proud of tackling two big projects back to back, which was a big challenge! One of these was To Defy the Dragon, a Starfinder adventure module out this fall. I had a great time working on it, and I hope people enjoy not only getting to take down a dragon tyrant from the seats of mechs, but also discovering the other things the ruins hold—some of which might tug at their heartstrings. (I’m not sure how much I can say about Project #2 yet, so…I’ll leave it at that!)

More broadly, I’m proud of those in the Paizo community—staff, freelancers, and fans alike—who have united to push for positive change over the past year. This is a rough time for a lot of people—especially queer people—but knowing there are so many doing their best to make gaming more inclusive and welcoming gives me hope. Stay awesome, everyone.

Isabelle Thorne
Freelance Contributor

Hallo! I’m Isabelle Thorne, long-time Paizo contributor (most recently to Lost Omens Knights of Lastwall) and proud trans girl. ^_^

This year is a pretty big deal for me. In addition to contributing lots of content to the aforementioned Knights of Lastwall, I’ve gotten started as a freelance editor for works like Queerfinder on Pathfinder Infinite, among several others, and I’m pushing myself to make editing a full-time gig. In addition, after many long years and struggles, I’m finally making an effort to leave my hometown and move somewhere more affirming and supportive, where I can have a real community and my own life. It’s going to be tough, but I’m hoping it will really pay off in the end!

Art by Sammy Khalid

Esther Wallace (she/her; zhe/zher),
Community Content Creator

Hi y’all! I’m Esther Wallace (she/her, zhe/zher). I’m a queer/bisexual, genderfluid, disabled creator and game designer.

My biggest point of pride in the last year is finishing my graduate degree, where among other things I studied tabletop as a form of ritual and meaning-making. Right now, I’m extremely proud of designing my first game, Front Porch. It’s a worldbuilding game about gossip and gossip’s power to create and unravel social bonds and social worlds, and it will hopefully drop in July 2022.

I’m also the GM of Chromythica, a trans and queer-led Pathfinder 2E actual play. Our story focuses on two gnomes, a tief-elf, and a talking dog who stumble on a vast plot of Draconic intrigue and Infernal meddling, learning in the process that they’re fated to shape the destinies of dragons and the course of history. I’m immensely proud of everything we have accomplished as a trans and queer cast! Together, we imagine a story where trans and queer people not only survive, but thrive. I’m proud of us for telling the stories that we most want to encounter in this world. We’d be delighted for you to join us in our story if you’re just finding out about us!

Finally, I’m proud to have created #tabletopaccess, a hashtag for disabled gamers to share our experiences in the tabletop community.

You can find me on Twitter @dungeonminister (or @chromythica) and on the web at oakgrove.games, chromythica.com, and hallowedbe.org.

Grady Wang (he/him) and Theo Thourson (he/him)
Community Content Creators

Grady Wang (he/him) and Theo Thourson (he/him) are life partners who cofounded and run The Gallant Goblin, a TTRPG publishing company and product review channel on YouTube. We are proud of everything we have accomplished in the last year to become a self-sustaining LGBTQ+-owned small business as well as promote queer-identifying creators in the tabletop space.

We launched Queerfinder on Pathfinder Infinite in January 2022 as an in-world travel magazine featuring queer-friendly stories, NPCs, locations, and plot hooks as imagined by queer creators. The magazine celebrates existing industry talents, such as Paizo contributors, as well as up-and-coming designers and artists trying to break into the industry. We're so proud of our passionate and talented team, who not only strive to elevate each other but to improve industry conditions through advocacy for wage transparency, better contracts, and higher pay. Together we're developing many more exciting stories to share with you in upcoming issues!

We were also thrilled that our band of rainbow kobold adventurers, originally conceived as a Pride Month fundraiser for GLSEN in 2020, are making the leap into the real world as huggable plushies. After over a year of development, we launched our new Hero Plush brand on Kickstarter and are so proud it became one of the top 40 plush Kickstarters of all time! We hope to bring more cuddly, aspiring heroes into homes in the coming years! You can find us on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!

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Show your pride, Paizo golem, goblin, or nufriend style! These enamel pins made by Campaign Coins feature a Paizo golem, a Pathfinder goblin or a Starfinder skittermander, all in the Pride flag colors. Five dollars from each pin sold will go directly to Tabletop Gaymers and championing the visibility and inclusion of the LGBTQIA+ community through tabletop gaming.

Paizo is pleased to announce that Maggie Gallagher and Rai Kong have been promoted to the Leadership Team. Both have also received promotions in-line with that responsibility. Rai Kong is now Vice President of Technology, and Maggie Gallagher is now Vice President of People & Culture, both reporting directly to Paizo’s President.

“I’ve worked closely with Maggie and Rai during their time here at Paizo, and I’m excited to add their expertise and vision as we lead Paizo into its third decade of gaming,” said Jim Butler, Paizo President.

Maggie Gallagher joined Paizo in January 2022 with over 20 years of HR experience and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion expertise. She has served as an instructor, volunteer, and presenter for several LGBTQ+ organizations. Most recently, she has focused on groups and organizations that actively advocate for the rights of transgender individuals.

“I'm excited to join the Leadership Team and to participate in the strategic direction of the company,” said Maggie Gallagher.

Maggie can be reached at maggie.gallagher@paizo.com.

Rai Kong started her career in web design/UX and web development in the computer gaming industry, working for both computer software companies and gaming review websites before continuing her career in other sectors. She joined Paizo in 2018, bringing extensive e-commerce, web development, and management experience from over a decade of working in technology at Nordstrom.com, where she used her skills to help lead cross-company efforts in Modernization and Agile transformation initiatives.

She loves games of all kinds and is just as likely to be found playing board games—her current favorite is Terraforming Mars—and pinochle as she is tabletop RPGs or video games.

"I'm pleased to participate in shaping the future of Paizo and lending my voice to meet the needs of our customers,” said Rai Kong.

Rai can be reached at rai.kong@paizo.com.

The Paizo Leadership Team now includes:

• Jim Butler, President
• Maggie Gallagher, Vice President of People & Culture
• Rai Kong, Vice President of Technology
• Erik Mona, Publisher and Chief Creative Officer
• Mike Webb, Vice President of Sales & Operations

Welcome to our Creator Spotlight blog series! Nearly every Monday, we’ll focus on a different wonderful industry creator, as an individual, including Paizo staff, freelancers, contractors, podcast players, streamers, YouTubers, licensed partners, and more. The format is a list of standardized questions from which interviewees can choose. Request the Creator Spotlight form by emailing marketing@paizo.com. This week we're shining a spotlight on community creator, Dan Thompson!

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Name: Dan Thompson
Pronouns: (he/him)
Role (if not staff): GM of The Danger Club Podcast
Social Media Handles: @danthompson2099 @DangerClubPod

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

I’m the GM for The Danger Club Podcast. We’re a bunch of actors from the UK who have been making a Pathfinder show for nearly four years now! I’ve been playing roleplaying games since I was a kid, and when I quit my job to move to London and be an actor, I didn’t really know anyone. So one day I invited a few of the cast from my show to play a game after we got out. We had a great time and started playing every week. Then people started asking to come watch us, and one of them suggested we try podcasting. Back when we started there were already lots of great shows, and I often felt intimidated by how good they seemed to be at playing the game and remembering rules. That’s impressive, but it’s not how my friends and I game at all. We just grab dice, make some jokes, and try to tell a story. People sometimes say that Pathfinder is a complicated game and you have to learn a ton of rules to enjoy it, so we wanted to show that you don’t need that at all. We’ve gotten good at recording and editing, but when it comes down to it, the podcast isn’t any different from those early days. It’s the feeling of sitting in the pub with your mates, making up characters, and having a good time.

Tell us about a project you are particularly proud of?

The thing I’m really proud of is the work we did during lockdown. We’re all performers, so when the pandemic hit, we literally lost our careers overnight—just years of work gone in an instant. My mental health was pretty bad at the time, and it would have been really easy to just call it a day and focus on getting through. But then we saw members of our community struggling the same way, and we just made a snap decision that we couldn’t bail on them. We learned how to record from home, we learned how to use Twitch, and we invited people from Paizo to come on and talk about their work. We put out two or three shows a week for two years, and we never missed a week. At the same time we got to know the Dangerling community in a way we hadn’t before and came away much closer.

What do you do as your day job?

All the DCP are actors/performers of one kind or another. In the “before times,” I worked as a comedian and was part of the acting team for a lot of London’s historic sites. I’d spend the day running around in armor and spend the evening pretending to be a character in armor around a gaming table. Since the pandemic killed off a lot of those companies, I’ve moved more into production, and now I stage manage a cabaret club and develop scripts for online games. I won’t lie, I miss the armor a little bit.

Where do you draw your inspiration?

As a neurodivergent person, my brain is quite a frantic place. Letting a part of it sit in Golarion and make up stories is a way for the rest of me to stay grounded. Part of my brain is pretty much always devouring things I see and turning them into Danger Club stories, which leaves the rest of my brain free to remember to eat lunch or leave the house on time. I’m not focused enough to be one of these GMs who knows every shop and NPC in their world, so I prefer to focus on key moments that I want to happen and cling for dear life, laying down track in front of the train until we get there.

'

What piece of advice that you have been given as a creator that is either so great that you have to tell us about it or so awful that you have to warn us?

There are no competitors here, only potential collaborators. It’s easy to feel like other creators are so far ahead, but they probably have days where they feel the same about you. Some of my favorite projects are where we reached out to people we admired and asked if we could make something together. The more we lift each other up, the better we all do.

How did you get started writing/producing/creating content?

I’ve been writing my whole life. I’ve been a comedian, actor, comic book writer, and I’ve been making up roleplaying games since I was 12. In terms of podcasting, we used to play Pathfinder at a London pub every Monday, and over the years people started coming to watch, so we decided to record some and see what would happen. Now, here we are!

What are your goals or dreams as a creator?

I want to grow the DCP community to be absolutely gigantic. They’re such an awesome group of people, and every time somebody new joins the Discord, it’s like getting a new friend. We’ve been through a lot, and the way they’ve supported each other and us through it all just fills me with joy. I want everyone to get to share in that…but in a nice way, not a Borg way.

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

Well, back in 2011 I suggested to a group of actors that we go play a roleplaying game after the show and we’ve played every week since then and now make a podcast together! That’s definitely got to count for something, right? You see it in our community as well. A lot of our listeners are new to Pathfinder so some of the more experienced GMs set up a channel on our Discord where they could form gaming groups. I got a message the other day that one of them is closing in on the end of Agents of Edgewatch, and I couldn’t be prouder.

Please tell us about your pet!

Sadly my apartment isn’t big enough to keep a happy pet, but I do have a unicorn who keeps me company while I write!

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live and why?

I’m a Londoner until the end. Every street here has a thousand stories to uncover, and no matter how much you learn, there’ll always be more. I’ve played Pathfinder in the Tower of London and in the foundations of London Bridge. I’ve not managed to play in an actual palace yet, but there’s still time.

Dear PaizoCon attendees,

Thank you for attending PaizoCon 2022! We hope you had as wonderful a time playing games and participating in events as we did putting on the show. It was a much-needed return to PaizoCons of yore, and we can’t wait to continue offering in-person convention experiences in the years to come.

This year’s in-person PaizoCon wasn’t without its challenges, however, including several reports of COVID-19 infections among attendees. Paizo considers the health and well-being of all community members a priority, and we want to take this opportunity to inform you that individuals you may have had close contact with at PaizoCon 2022 have tested positive for, and/or shown symptoms consistent with, COVID-19. Close contact is defined as having shared a game table, panel space, or similar, to the best of our knowledge.

The following are all reported cases we’re aware of at the time of this post. For more up-to-date contact tracing information, please see the #contact-tracing channel of the PaizoCon Discord server located at https://paizo.events.

Report 1: An attendee started experiencing cold-like symptoms Monday, May 30, while traveling and tested positive later that evening. Their last negative test prior to the convention was before their flight to Seattle on Thursday, May 26.

Report 2: A Paizo staff member reported a positive test on Monday, May 30, after taking the test the previous evening. They had tested negative the previous Friday morning and had arrived at the show on Saturday. They were masked while wandering the show (they had no assigned tasks that day) and ate dinner at a nearby restaurant alone. On Sunday morning, they felt ill so went home without visiting the show. They tested positive later that evening.

Report 3: Two attendees who traveled to the show together and were in each other’s company the entire convention reported positive tests on Tuesday afternoon, May 31. They were masked most of the time, but not while outdoors or at meals. They were at the hotel bar hangout mostly maskless on Saturday night. Both began experiencing symptoms Monday afternoon/evening.

Report 4: An attendee reported testing positive on Tuesday, May 31. They flew into the convention the previous Thursday, ate at the hotel bar Thursday night and Friday afternoon, attended panels in the streaming room Friday through Sunday, and attended the Find the Path and Hideous Laughter podcast meetups. They flew back Monday morning and were wearing a mask consistently when not eating or drinking.

Report 5: An attendee reported a positive test on Thursday, June 2. They were in the Organized Play room all weekend and were masked consistently all weekend except when they ate alone at the hotel bar on Friday, and around the lobby cafe at other times.

Report 6: A Paizo staff member reported a positive test on Friday, June 3, after a few days of feeling bad. They spent most of their time in the Organized Play ballroom. They ate lunch in the hotel restaurant on Friday and Sunday but otherwise engaged in no other maskless activities at the convention.

Report 7: A Paizo staff member started experiencing symptoms Friday, June 3 and reported a positive test later that morning. The staff member spent most of their time at or near registration, did not participate in any panels or gaming events, and shared meals mostly with other Paizo staff members.

Report 8: An attendee working the Syrinscape booth in the lobby reported a positive test on Friday, June 3.

Paizo has reported these cases to the convention venue and King County Public Health, and will continue to work in concert with them as we monitor the situation.

We encourage all PaizoCon attendees to test for COVID-19 as soon as possible. Washington state residents can get free kits by mail at this site, all US residents can get tests at this site, and further guidance is available at the CDC’s website.

If you do test positive or exhibit symptoms, please contact us at paizocon@paizo.com so we can inform others you may have been in close contact with. Your information will never be shared publicly without your consent. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Thanks,

-The Paizo Team