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!

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
Suit Up, Save the World! (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 ^

---

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!

We’ve mentioned before that every now and then, someone makes a typo and realizes that they’ve accidentally created a pun or joke so bad that they must immediately drop it into their team’s work chat, triggering a wave of snickering when we were in office, and now a wave of reaction gifs via the office chat. We’ve even statted them up for previous April Fools’ Day posts.

It’s been so fun that I’ve started stashing anything I’ve deemed April Fools–worthy, to the point where if someone else deems it worthy of The List, I’m summoned to add it immediately. Around a month ago, I added to the goblins’ ever-full dance cards by releasing The List into the wilds of the Paizo Chat. So with a year’s worth of out-of-context inspiration, the goblins responded to me with this year’s foolish wonders!

Maryssa Mari
Web Content Manager

Wordsmith

With every strike of a wordsmith’s hammer, a new onomatopoeia is formed. They swiftly grab the word as it flies off the anvil before nailing it to the pages of our favorite comics. POW! WHAM! SPLAT! The hammer crafts each and every sound. The humble wordsmith is often overlooked by their artisan peers, whose pictures are the primary focus of readers. However, many don’t realize that while pictures can be sent to the printing press, sounds are not captured so easily on the page and must be hammered into place by a skilled wordsmith.

While most wordsmiths are content to forge their words out of sight of the public, they are fierce defenders of their work and are quick to fight anyone who belittles it. They know the pen is mightier than the sword, but the hammer is mightiest of all, and they use it mercilessly to SMASH! through their foes.

Though many wordsmiths are dwarves, they come from all kinds of backgrounds, each bringing their own unique sounds and noises from their culture. Tengu wordsmiths particularly favor onomatopoeias similar to bird calls like cawfor crows or okalee for red-winged blackbirds. Meanwhile, leshy wordsmiths favor sounds inaudible to most non-plant creatures, such as the tr-tr-tr that reflects the sound of a plant growing.

Wordsmith Creature — 4

Medium, Dwarf, Humanoid
Perception +10; hearing (precise) 60 feet
Languages Common, Dwarven; truespeech
Skills Athletics +10, Crafting +14, Occultism +10, Scribing Lore +12
Str +4, Dex +3, Con +4, Int +6, Wis +2, Cha +2

Items anvil and hammer (sterling artisans’ toolkit)
AC 19; Fort +13, Ref +8, Will +11
HP 70; Resistances sonic 7

HP 70; Resistances sonic 7
Word Warp [reaction] (auditory, occult) Trigger The wordsmith is the target of a linguistic effect; Effect The wordsmith twists the words and attempts to counter their foe’s utterances with their hammer (counteract +16, 3rd rank).
Speed 25 feet

Melee [one-action] hammer +14 (forceful, occult, sonic), Damage 2d6+4 bludgeoning damage plus 1d6 sonic plus forge onomatopoeia

Ranged [one-action] TWANG! +13 (range 60 feet, occult, sonic), Damage 2d4+4 sonic damage

Occult Innate Spells DC 24, attack +14; 2ndnoise blast, ventriloquism (at will); 1stcommand; Cantrips(2nd)figment, message; Constant(5th)truespeech

Forge Onomatopoeia (occult, visual) The wordsmith slams their hammer against a creature, creating a visual onomatopoeia like CRACK! or SMASH! that flies off at the site of impact. The target of the strike must attempt a DC 24 Will save.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
Success The creature is stupefied 1 for 1 round.
Failure The creature is stupefied 1 for 1 minute.
Critical Failure The creature is stupefied 2 and gains weakness 1 to sonic damage for 1 minute.

Mightier than the Sword (occult) Any hammer gains the forceful trait, can’t be disarmed, and becomes a +1 striking hammer while the Wordsmith wields it.

By Felix Dritz
Editor

---

Moowhip

Disarm, Finesse, Grazing, Professional (Cook), Reach, Tech
Price 10 credits; Damage 1d4 S; Bulk 1
Hands 1
Type Melee; Category Advanced; Group Flail

Moowhip: The self-replicating nanites in this handheld weapon can use the kinetic energy of your swings to turn air into interwoven monofilament sharp cheddar cheese fibers capable of cutting through any enemy or any hunger.

Grazing: If you Strike with this weapon and your next action is to use an ingested consumable or Interact with the weapon to eat some of the generated food, restore 1 Hit Point per weapon damage die.

Professional: A weapon with this trait can be used as a tool for the listed skill. Add the weapon’s item bonus to attack rolls as an item bonus to skill checks using the listed skill. Your proficiency with this weapon is equal to your proficiency with the listed skill (up to your proficiency in simple weapons).

By Dustin Knight
Starfinder Developer

---

Chain Letters of Golarion

Armiger Khelum,
If this letter comes across my desk one more time, I’ll be reporting you to Lictor Stought. I understand the fear one carries when confronted with the possibility of hags, but I can reassure you that the Bloddey Glass Hag is not one to fear because she does not exist.

“You are now cursed!! You must copy this letter and send it on or you will be killed!!! In a fortnight at twilight the Bloddey Glass Hag will crawl out from under your mattress! This isn’t a joke! She will stab your chest and pull out your eyeballs with a fork and if you don’t have eyeballs she will pull out your liver and if you don’t have a liver she will pull off your skin and use it to make a newe dress! And then she’ll take your corpse and she’ll stuff it under your bed or she’ll put you in the closet! What will your Maralictor tell your family??? It won’t be funny then! Send this letter to ten other Hellknights to break the curse! Remember, the Bloddey Glass Hag is watching you sleep!!!”

This is ridiculous, armiger.

I’ve sent copies of this to my fellow Paralictors, the Master of Blades, the Maralictors, and the Paravicar of our Order, just so they also have copies of this... ghost story of yours. I don’t want to see it again.

Signed,
Paralictor Shudi Osra

---

Kreighton,
Never let it be said that I’m not grateful for the random bits and bobs that you’re able to submit to the archive that tell us more about pre–Age of Darkness Kyonin. But this one does seem a little... strange. Perhaps you could provide more context?

— Gorm

“I was dining with my youngest child at the Viridian Crystal, and we had the most wonderful little cakes. I asked the chef’s familiar if we might have the recipe and the little jay twittered and said that while he couldn’t give away the lady’s recipe, I would be able to purchase it. Of course, being quite sensible I requested the price and was told ‘two pieces.’ This seemed very reasonable, so I accepted, and I was told it would be added to my bill.

The next day, I was going through my letters and found my bill from the Crystal, and I was being charged two platinum, 32 silver. Of course, 20 silver for dinner, 12 silver for the lovely crystal tiara I purchased for my child, but apparently the two platinum were for the recipe for the little cakes! Well, I threatened to take this up with the Edasseril family, only to be told that I could put the recipe wherever I wanted, so here I am. I’m sharing this recipe with everyone I know and hoping that they’ll send it to everyone they know, and I hope that Chef Avie Vandlade enjoys her comeuppance!

Viridian Crystal Cakes

• 1 and a quarter cups flour, weighed
• Three-fourths cup and two tablespoons fine white sugar
• Three-fourths teaspoon baking powder
• One-fourth teaspoon baking soda
• One-fourth teaspoon salt
• Six tablespoons unsalted butter, soft
• Two tablespoons oil (vegetable)
• One whole egg and one egg yolk, at room temperature
• One and one-half teaspoons vanilla
• One-half teaspoon butter flavor
• One-half cup soured cream, room temperature

Activate your fire elemental and put your oven at cake temperature. Well grease a half-foot round pan.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt gently in a medium bowl. Add softened butter and oil and mix until it looks like delicate sand.

In a small bowl, combine egg, yolk, vanilla, butter flavor, and soured cream. In batches of three, add the wet to the dry and beat until smooth. Scrape the bowl for any pockets of dry goods and make sure everything is fully combined. Once all thirds are in, beat for another half-minute until fully incorporated.

Pour into round pan, bake for around 40 minutes, or until a skewer comes clean. Cool in the pan for ten minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Cut into small circles or squares. Top with chocolate frosting.”

Dearest Gorm,
Yes, of course, I realize this letter was slightly obtuse. Cake temperature is 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
With care,
Kreighton

---

Do YOU want to be RICHER than ABADAR? Do YOU want to be PRETTIER than SHELYN? Do YOU want to be STRONGER than KURGESS?

Send my letter to your TEN CLOSEST FRIENDS and YOU will receive the BLESSINGS OF THE GODS!

If you THROW THIS LETTER OUT then YOU will find NORGORBER in YOUR HOME in ONE WEEK!

By Shay Snow
Pathfinder Society Developer

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!

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!

---

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.

Hello, elementonauts! Pathfinder Rage of Elements has been out for a while now, and we hope you’ve been having a great time with your kineticists, elementals, travels to the elemental planes, and all sorts of new spells, items, and monsters. We wanted to take this chance to recognize the great authors who came together to make this project special.

This book was initially concepted by Mark Seifter (who you’ll hear from shortly) before he headed over to his current gig. I took over as the design lead to shepherd the book along. Most of my work was outlining, coordination, and a massive amount of changes to switch the book to the Remastered rules late in the process.

Before we get into everyone’s bios, I must talk about the contributions of Jessica Redekop and Sen H.H.S., who share cover credit with me. Getting that level of credit requires a massive amount of work, and they were both wonderful to work with and superb writers. Jess’s enthusiasm for the planes and building out fun characters made the book such a fun read, and Sen H.S.S.’s ideas for putting the elemental cycle into the game and Pathfinder setting and creating the Plane of Wood were invaluable and incredibly creative. I’d also like to shout out Paizo’s own Andrew White, who brought the Plane of Metal to life, and James Case, who plunged into the Plane of Water with aplomb. And Kent Hamilton’s beautiful concept art for elemental metal and wood helped guide designs throughout the process, especially of monsters and locations.

In addition to the authors with full bios below, this book features excellent writing by Jason Bulmahn, James Case, Jessica Catalan, Andrew D. Geels, Luis Loza, Michael Sayre, Shay Snow, Levi Steadman, Mari Tokuda, and Linda Zayas-Palmer!

Logan Bonner
Pathfinder Lead Designer

---

Illustration by Lucas Melo

Logan Bonner (he/him)

(That’s me.) I’ve been designing tabletop RPGs since 2006, and am the Pathfinder Lead Designer, doing overwatch on the game rules as a whole. Lately I’ve been blooding, sweating, and tearing the Pathfinder Remaster books. After being one of the four designers of Second Edition, I’ve led Pathfinder Secrets of Magic to help set the template for how we could stretch our legs with rulebooks in Second Edition, and later led Pathfinder Book of the Dead, the remastered books, and at least one upcoming, unannounced tome. My biggest writing contribution to Rage of Elements was the kineticist class (with some expert help from the rest of the design team, so you can blame/thank Michael Sayre for the Ambush Bladderwort). You can find me on Twitter as @loganbonner and on Bluesky as @loganbonner.bsky.social.

Patrick Hurley

Along with previous Paizo publishing credits, Patrick Hurley has had short fiction appear in dozens of magazines and book anthologies, including Factor Four, Galaxy's Edge, Abyss & Apex, and New Myths. As well as being managing editor at Paizo, Patrick is a graduate of the 2017 Taos Toolbox Writer's Workshop and a member of SFWA. To read more of Patrick's stories, check out his author website: www.patrickhurleywrites.com.

Jason Keeley (he/him)

Hi folks, I'm Jason Keeley and I'm excited to have contributed even a small part to Rage of Elements. I've recently returned to Paizo as a Senior Developer for the Rules & Lore team, which means that all I've written for Pathfinder Second Edition has been training for this time! When I'm not doing things for Paizo, I spend my time recording a couple of podcasts in the Know Direction network, collaborating with Joe Pasini on puzzles, and generally working on other TTRPG projects—like my cereal mascot game This Compleat Breakfast, available for free at https://herzwesten.itch.io/this-compleat-breakfast! You can usually find me under the name "herzwesten" on most social media platforms.

Jon Morgantini

Hello there! I'm Jon, the Community and Social Media Manager here at Paizo. My work was focused on creatures of air and earth for Pathfinder Rage of Elements. It was my first freelance writing opportunity and it was so much fun! It's been very heartening to see the reaction to the book from everyone. I definitely have other projects coming down the line so you will just have to keep an eye out for my name in other places! When I'm not writing, I'm usually lost in Hyrule or perhaps some far corner of the galaxy, if not rereading the Wheel of Time series or whatever the dark fantasy du jour is. You can find me @loremasterjon over on Bluesky, where I soon hope to pontificate about writing my own Pathfinder Second Edition–compatible setting. In the meantime, play ALL the games!

AJ Neuro (he/him and they/them)

Pura Vida! I'm AJ, a Costa Rican game designer. Writing the elemental backgrounds for Rage of Elements was my first official contribution to Pathfinder, but I've also written for the recently announced Pathfinder War of Immortals! A few of you might have also seen some of my free resources for the Pathfinder community. I'm also a professional GM, and I run both official Pathfinder Second Edition adventures on Golarion, and adventures of my own making in my setting of Ex Nihilo! If you'd like to join one of my groups, or would like me to GM for your group, don't be shy and shoot me a message. By the way, we're actually a DID system, but we generally prefer to present as an individual; it's just easier for us (waves at all the other plurals reading this) :)

Illustration by Ivan Koritarev

Jessica Redekop (she/they/he)

Hello! I'm Jess, and I like elementals, the planes, and the elemental planes. I got to write a lot of Rage of Elements (enough to get my name on the cover!) but my favorite section is the introduction to the air chapter, with the mercurial air narrator, Shanaria.

I love this book and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to write such a large portion of it. A book focused on the elemental planes, giving them the compelling and interesting presentation they've always deserved, is like my ultimate dream project. It's weird to feel so early in my career but to have already achieved something so monumental and important to me. I hope Rage of Elements helps to open the elemental planes in your games as fun, cool places your characters want to explore!

When I'm not writing, you can find me on the Know Direction podcast network as a cohost of Legend Lore and cast member on Tavern Rats, a new actual play. On the social medias, I'm @tectonomancer.bsky.social.

Mark Seifter

Hi everyone, Mark Seifter here! For those who don't know me, I've been the design lead on over 100 tabletop RPG game titles and worked on even more for Paizo and various other companies in the tabletop RPG industry, and I was one of the four leads on the creation of Pathfinder Second Edition.

I love writing about elemental options, and in Rage of Elements, I especially enjoyed working on the elemental eidolon, which I hope gives you a fun and different playstyle than the existing options. I also authored the Lysianassa deity entry, the aether and void sidebar in the introduction (which turned out even more interesting with the advent of void damage), and more! I hope you enjoyed them.

You can check out my Twitch stream, Arcane Mark, with Linda Zayas-Palmer at twitch.tv/arcanemark and the Roll for Combat Live stream with Stephen Glicker at www.youtube.com/@RollForCombat.

Sen H.H.S.

Hi all! Sen H.H.S. here and long time no see! Working as the cultural consultant and cover author of Rage of Elements was a wild ride, and I'm delighted that everyone is enjoying the book. I hope to hear your stories about your adventures in the returning Planes of Metal and Wood sometime in the near future. As a cover author, I worked on a little bit on everything, from some metal, wood, earth, fire, and water spells and items, to the four elemental lords Ayrzul, Kelizandri, Laudinmio, and Shumunue. I also did the introductions for the Plane of Wood and the Churn of Elements, plus creatures such as the nightwood guardian, ore louse, marajau, and some fire elementals. (Lava otters are the best!) I hope all of those help make your upcoming planar adventures all the more exciting! As for what's coming up, please mark your calendars for the Season of Ghosts Adventure Path, which begins with Pathfinder Adventure Path #196: The Summer That Never Was at the end of this year! You can find me nowadays on Bluesky at @senhhs.bsky.social or you can see what I'm retweeting on Twitter @SenHHS. My website is https://senhhs.carrd.co/.

Illustration by Ivan Koritarev

Shahreena Shahrani (she/her)

Marhaba everyone! I’m Shahreena and I've been freelancing for Paizo for about five years. Rage of Elements was a particularly exciting project to work on, as I was not only involved as a writer, but also as a cultural consultant. I was inspired by the creative muse in pre-Islamic poetic traditions to create gennayn; by stories of nightmarish spirits to contribute to jaathoom; by Middle Eastern hospitality to create faydhaan shuyookhs; and by the storyteller Shahrazaad, from Alf Layla wa Layla, or 1001 Nights, to develop Shazathared.

Beyond writing, I helped reconceptualize the genies. You may have noticed the cleanup of similar-sounding genie names, new genie lore and abilities more engaged with folklore, and old genie names changed to theme-appropriate names. (As someone raised in a Muslim household, I was especially happy to contribute to the removal of “shaitan” for earth genie!) I also engaged in Arabic grammatical discussions on nonbinary terms of address in search of ways to address genie nobles—fun times! I hope you enjoy these genies as much as I enjoyed working on them.

If you're looking for a Middle East specialist for freelance work, feel free to contact me on Discord at Shahreena1.

Solomon St. John (they/them)

Greetings internet. I go by Sol day-to-day and, in addition to being one of the freelancers who contributed to Rage of Elements, I was also the editing lead, a role I also fill for both Pathfinder and Starfinder Society over in Organized Play.

Versatile heritages are one of my favorite features in all of Pathfinder Second Edition, so I leapt at the chance to write the talos heritage; I also wrote the accompanying creature stat block, the section on zuhra genies, and all of the wood elementals from wood wisps to the twins of rowan. That last bunch was especially fun, since I could draw inspiration from all sorts of places—from wooden dolls and obscure folklore like the vegetable lamb, to clonal organisms like the IRL “trembling giant” and the existential concept of growth itself. It’s my largest Paizo writing contribution to date and I’m delighted you all finally get to enjoy the fruits of our hard work.

My next Paizo project is just around the corner, so keep an eye out for Starfinder Society Scenario #6-07: Race for the Dustwarren Cup. Find me online @stjohnsol.bsky.social for a quiet feed of reblogs and cat photos.

illustration by Zach Causey

Ruvaid Virk

Hiya folks! My name's Ruvaid, and I've been a writer for Paizo for a little while now. You might have seen some of my past work like the alter ego archetype from Pathfinder Dark Archive, the retrieval prism talisman, or a large part of the Niswan entry for Jalmeray in Pathfinder Lost Omens Impossible Lands. It was a blast working on Rage of Elements with a lot of awesome people. This time, I got to really light the spark of imagination to bring you the entry for Ymeri, Queen of the Inferno, some of the new fire spells (like one where you can summon a bunch of fire ants at someone), a giant metal puzzle cube (the pelegox), and a fiery barbecue spitmaster (the brochmaw, who is also unofficially named Chimothy Chunger). If you want to see more of me and my work, I'm on Twitter (for now) @Darth_Ruvaider and BlueSky @darthruvaider.bsky.social.

Andrew White (he/him)

Hello! I’m Andrew, full-time member of Paizo’s tech team (and, lately, project coordinator for a bunch of Paizo’s virtual tabletop projects, most notably our premium Foundry adventure modules) and freelance contributor to 15+ Pathfinder and Starfinder releases that you know about so far, including Pathfinder Secrets of Magic, Pathfinder Book of the Dead, the upcoming Pathfinder Howl of the Wild, Starfinder One-Shot #2:The Great Grav-Train Robbery, and Starfinder Adventure: Drift Crisis Case Files. Rage of Elements was one of my favorite projects to date, and I had an absolute blast (this is not a kineticist joke, unless you want it to be) writing the lore of the Plane of Elemental Metal, its thirteen new elementals, and its divine reality-munching isopod Ferrumnestra, the Lady of Rust. You can find me on Twitter at @plaguecontrol (or Twitter-but-not-on-fire at @plaguecontrol.bsky.social), or you can listen to the Elemental Metal playlist that I made just for you at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6BahPTNUQjId2OIurnKMrJ.

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

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.

---

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.

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.

Toward the end of last year, Paizo went through several departmental reorganizations to more accurately reflect the types of products we create and allow various subject matter experts to work more closely with the peers whose efforts mirror or complement their own. We’ve also had some new additions to the team (and more to come, so stick around through the end of this blog) whose names we’d like you to know. I’ll let everyone, including me, introduce themselves in their own words!

Jason Bulmahn

Hello everyone, I am Jason Bulmahn and I am the Director of Game Design at Paizo, in charge of the entire Rules and Lore team. I first got my start with Paizo back in 2004 as the Managing Editor of Dragon magazine but then served as the Lead Designer for the first edition of the Pathfinder RPG. Today, I work on setting the goals and design objectives of our games, envision major projects that won’t even be announced for several years, coordinate game ideas with our partners, and work to ensure that the team has everything they need to succeed.

At night, I leave behind my guise as a mild-mannered game designer and turn into… yet another game designer, working on my own Pathfinder 2E setting called Eventide. I also tinker with other games under the name Minotaur Games, creating a zombie apocalypse hack of Pathfinder 2E called Hopefinder. You can find me streaming Wrath of the Righteous most Tuesday nights on Twitch and playing other games on Saturday afternoons (twitch.tv/JasonBulmahn). I can be found on almost every social media platform (just search for Jason Bulmahn), but I am most active on twitter @JasonBulmahn.

Michael Sayre

We meet again! I’m Michael Sayre, the Design Manager for the Rules & Lore team. My direct reports include Creative Director Luis Loza, Senior Designer James Case, Senior Developer Eleanor Ferron, and Developer Landon Winkler. I coordinate between them, our Lead Designer Logan Bonner, and the other teams in and beyond the creative department to plan and facilitate the creation of hardcover rulebooks, Lost Omens books, and a variety of other product types. I also do design and development work, leading and writing for those same books. You can follow me on Twitter as @MichaelJSayre1.

Logan Bonner (he/him)

Hello, out there! I’m Logan Bonner, the Pathfinder Lead Designer. That means I’m on overwatch for the game rules as a whole, looking for opportunities to introduce new systems and options and to make sure they come out at a pace that’s neither too slow to be exciting nor so fast it overwhelms folks and makes it too hard to keep up. Also, to make sure all the pieces fit together well. Rules sustainability and consistency, basically. One of our big goals with Second Edition was to give the books in our Rulebook line a better grounding in the lore of the world, and people have been really enjoying all we’ve added to make their characters and games feel more immersive. I’m looking forward to this new team structure, which will let us blend the story, world, and rules in more fun ways.

You can find me on Twitter, where I’m @loganbonner, or occasionally on Mastodon as @loganbonner@dice.camp.

Luis Loza

Hi, everyone! I'm Luis Loza, Creative Director for the Rules & Lore team. You might now my work from helping create the Lost Omens line of settings book, and I'm going to continue helping shepherd the setting as Creative Director. I look forward to some of the exciting events we have planned in the future of the Lost Omens setting and I hope you'll enjoy the ride! I live on a variety of places online, but the easiest spots to find me are on my twitter account (@donatoclassic) and my personal website.

James Case

I’m James Case, Senior Designer here at Paizo. My responsibilities include proposing, leading, and developing new rulebooks; designing new classes, subsystems, and supporting products; and training freelancers and new members of the team. You can follow me on Twitter at @toriariaria.

Eleanor Ferron (she/her)

Hi, I'm Eleanor Ferron, a Senior Developer on the Rules & Lore team. I work on the Lost Omens line with Luis Loza to bring the world and setting of Golarion to life!

Landon Winkler (they/them)

Hi, I’m Landon Winkler, a Developer on the Rules & Lore team. I’m new to the team, so still very much learning the ropes. Mostly, I just want to create fun creatures and other bits of stories for everyone to use. I love playing support, so getting these things polished up for your table is a great way to do that behind the scenes. On the off chance you need to get in touch with me, I can be reached at @landonwinkler as long as Twitter lasts. Cheers!

---

If you’re interested in joining this team, we’ve actually opened up two new positions! We’re looking to hire one new designer and one new developer for the team, whose responsibilities will be in helping us plan and create the new content produced by the Rules & Lore team. While industry experience is strongly preferred for people interested in these positions, these are not intended to be senior positions, and we do have room for talented and interested parties who are earlier in their TTRPG careers and might have great ideas but need a little more training and experience. You can see the specific requirements of these positions here on our Careers page.

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.

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

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

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

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

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!

---

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

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

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 our PaizoCon guest of honor, Vanessa Hoskins! Let’s get started!

---

Name: Vanessa Hoskins
Pronouns: she/her
Role (if not staff): Freelance Author, PaizoCon 2022 Guest of Honor
Social Media Handles: Twitter @NinjaCatVanessa

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

A few weeks ago folks got my dry, more business-y bio in the PaizoCon 2022 announcement blog. While it’s true that I started writing for Pathfinder in 2013, it’s difficult to get to know a person through a formal bio. So let’s get informal.

I’m a queer transgender woman, though I only discovered this about 5 years ago. I literally discovered this about myself through playing and writing for Pathfinder. While I was writing Pathfinder Society Special 8–99: The Solstice Scar, I devised the character of Medda Spiritbearer, a central NPC to the adventure. While writing it, a trans friend of mine was talking about how there could be more trans representation in Pathfinder Society (there’s loads now, but back then we just had one character and she was… played for laughs. It wasn’t good.) I thought, “I can make Medda trans, sure!” I started researching transgender women, what it means to be trans, and even got a popular trans consultant to assist with writing the character. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the way trans women experienced the world, the feelings they had about themselves, were startlingly relatable. I came out about a year later. You can read more about that here.

I’m a non-athletic video-game nerd at heart. I love playing on PC and consoles, you name it. I find gaming in all forms to be an engaging form of puzzle solving, storytelling, and dopamine production all rolled into one. Some of my favorites are the Final Fantasy series, Super Metroid, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Street Fighter II.

I have a film degree! …but I’ve never used it professionally. Even though I’ve been trained as a writer and director, by the time I graduated I had a steady job in Information Technology and the film industry was in a bit of a slump, so entry level jobs were difficult to find. However, I do find use of my degree constantly while working on creative projects. The axiom “Always preserve your options,” has resonated with me throughout my careers. Essentially, “don’t limit yourself to a decision before you have to.” In film this meant shooting in color, even if you wanted black & white as an end result. By shooting in color, you have more “channels” of light to adjust before desaturating everything. And if you want to keep that red umbrella red? You can isolate it from the filters instead of having to colorize it later.

My passion for TTRPGs is greater than just about any other form of entertainment. I’d rather be rolling dice with friends than watching a movie, going to the park, or just about anything. It’s my #1 thing I’d want to do with my spare time, given the option. Dice and characters and settings! Oh my!

Tell us about a project you are particularly proud of!

I’m extremely proud of Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-07: From the Tome of Righteous Repose. It was the first evergreen PFS scenario to start above 1st level, and it’s essentially a build-a-dungeon. When I was asked to write it, I remember thinking about how so many evergreens at the time were the same story and maps over and over, but with slightly different foes. I wanted something that really felt unique at the table, and gave GMs the creative control to homebrew their own dungeon crawl (within a limited number of pre-approved options). There’s even a way to roll up a random set of challenges, which is how I always run it. I allow the players to roll on the tables just before running the adventure, so I don’t even know what I’m running until we get started.

Where do you draw your inspiration?

Pop culture mostly? But not just what’s popular now; I draw from the cartoons I watched as a kid and books I read as a teen. I also play the “what if” game a lot where I take a set of given circumstances and ask myself “what if ___ is really happening?” or “what if the NPC is really a ____?” These brainstorms usually land a few chunks of gold (or at least silver) that I can then build into a fun adventure!

What are your goals or dreams as a creator?

I’d LOVE to open my own video game studio and make the kinds of games I loved as a kid. So… that’s just what I’m doing with Ninja Cat Games. It’s a little start-up studio I’m still trying to get off the ground, but so far it looks like it might just be a rocket ride!

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

Through the Organized Play system, mostly. After having volunteered as a Venture–Captain for years, and gone to Gen Con for even longer, I’ve meet people from all over the country—all over the world! It’s really amazing, and I feel really lucky to have met so many awesome people in all different places around the world. Sometimes my wife will mention a city or European country and I interject, “—Oh, I have some friends who live there!”

Sitting and a table and sharing an experience with other people, and working together towards a common goal, is a way to open lines of communication and friendship like nothing else. And because the players are all working together rather than against each other, there’s no animosity like in… say… competitive professional sports.

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?

I have two good pieces of advice, and they go hand in hand:

1. Everyone is late at some point. I rallied against this for a while early in my career. I’d say “Not me! I’ve never been late and I don’t intend to start now.” Then… then I had some really challenging months and fell far behind several projects. I even had to “give back” some assignments or parts of assignments so that I could take care of the things going on in my life. I was devastated. I’d never been late before. I was so PROUD of that… but that’s just what it was: pride. It’s ok to be late, and it’s ok if you fall behind sometimes. You just need to…


2. Communicate with your Developer. Let them know about issues you’re having, parts of the plot that aren’t jelling, or a monster ability that you can envision conceptually but just can’t get in words. And if you’re overwhelmed and not be able to turn your words in on time (and within 5% of the word count), then just talk with them. They might be able to buy you more time. They might want to re-assign some words. That’s ok. Just communicate with them and be clear and honest about the expectations of getting something done, and with good enough quality to print.

Please tell us about your pet!

My cat, Bella, is a black American shorthair. She is a cuddle MONSTER. That’s all she ever wants is to cuddle (or to be left alone to sleep). Recently she’s decided that “tent time” is the best time: that’s when we lay in bed and lift our knees up to create a “tent” under the covers. She likes to sleep down there.,/p>

If you could be any iconic, who would you be?

If I could be any iconic I’d be Seoni. She’s hot, she has powerful magic, and these awesome magic tattoos. Plus she’s really smart and a good leader.

However… I’m probably most like Merisiel. I’m kind of a disaster, but well intentioned. I saw the wrong thing at the wrong time, much to my wife’s dismay, and when I get angered, I get can get stabby (verbally, of course).

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live and why?

New York City. It’s the greatest city in the world, and when I’m there I feel like I’m in the right place. The first time I visited is when I was about 25 and I brought my little brother along. We walked all around the city, slept on a bench, visited museums, and just hung out in Central Park. From that moment I knew that I wanted to live there someday.

Jeff Alvarez has stepped down as president due to health reasons. Paizo has named Vice President of Marketing and Licensing, Jim Butler, as its new president.

“I have had the pleasure of working closely with Jim from his days at TSR through his time working on Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition at Wizards of the Coast, and now working with me at Paizo,” Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens said. Jim is a hardworking visionary whose almost three decades of game experience makes him the perfect person to guide Paizo into its third decade.”

“I’m grateful for the trust that Lisa and the Leadership Team have placed in me to lead Paizo,” Jim Butler said. “I look forward to working with my fellow employees to lead the company into the next era of tabletop excellence.”

Jim brings decades of gaming experience to his new role, including serving as Paizo’s vice president of marketing and licensing over the last five years. Before Paizo, he has worked at TSR, Wizards of the Coast, Warner Bros./Turbine, and Trion Worlds.

“I started my gaming career as an editor and game designer, switching over to marketing and brand management when Peter Adkison wanted ‘gamers with business degrees’ running Dungeons & Dragons,” Jim said. “It’s been an epic adventure so far, and I’m excited that a new chapter has begun.”

Jim lives in Redmond, WA with his husband, Matthew, and their fur-kids: Toker, Stella, and Skylar. He’s currently playing through volume 5 of the Pathfinder Return of the Runelords Adventure Path as a kobold druid and GMing the Extinction Curse Adventure Path for Pathfinder Second Edition.

Welcome to the start of our newest 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. Let’s get started!

Name: Patrick Renie
Pronouns: he/him
Title (if staff): Senior Developer
Department (if staff): Editorial

What are your goals or dreams as a creator?

I was a very shy, quiet kid. When my nose wasn’t buried in a book or my eyes glued to a video game, my head was often simply lost in the clouds. I invented all sorts of make-believe games and had multiple imaginary friends. One of my favorite books was an illustrated children’s dictionary. My teachers wrote things like “daydreamer” and “easily distracted” on my report cards.

Though I was a gifted writer, I struggled to compose anything longer than one or two pages. I didn’t like sports or group activities, but I knew how to give engaging presentations and I reveled in making the other kids laugh. I liked to doodle symbols and draw treasure maps in the margins of my homework. I loved to read books about sword-swinging knights and fireball-flinging wizards. Arithmetic and algebra came to me easily, but somewhere around geometry I hit a wall and basically gave up on math.

When I discovered tabletop RPGs, it was like opening a secret door to the clockwork of my mind. These games were full of all the things I liked: stories of fantasy adventure, sketches of crazy monsters, weird dice to fiddle with. The idea of creating my own adventures—something these books not only encouraged but gave me the tools to do—felt insane and electrifying. It was like for my whole life my brain had been this strange, almost alien machine that came without any instructions, and with roleplaying games I’d finally found the missing user manual.

Making adventures felt like a natural way to express myself. I could write stories with interesting scenery and cool villains without having to worry about protagonists’ specific motivations or settling on one ending. When I got bored with one idea, I could write about something else and come back to the first thing later. Eventually, to my astonishment, this mishmash of thoughts coalesced into something amazing—an entire world, a cohesive thing. It was like alchemy, or witchcraft. Once I got going, I couldn’t stop. I never stopped.

Today, I write Pathfinder adventures for young people who don’t fit the mold: oddballs who have weird, terrific ideas and great senses of humor. I want to inspire kids who love books but maybe struggle to focus—youngsters who might not have a lot of friends but love to make people smile, or those who burst with creative energy but whose talents don’t necessarily align with one particular discipline or trade.

If this sounds like you, then I at least hope you know you’re not alone. I know how it feels to live in a world that wasn’t designed for folks like you and me. It’s okay. We can make up our own little world instead. And in our world, everybody’s invited, no matter how much they fidget or how good they are at math or whatever it says on their report card. Anyone who wants to play is welcome.

In our world we can say, Come on in, everybody. We’ve got sword-swinging knights and fireball-flinging wizards and all sorts of other stuff too, like clockwork brains and goblin alchemists and winter witches. We’ve got all kinds of things, so come on in, everyone. Come on in and get ready, because we’re going on an adventure.

What’s the best creative advice you’ve ever gotten?

Write fearlessly. Whatever your burning idea, whatever it is you want to put into this world, it will resonate with someone else—that’s a statistical fact. Have you seen the stuff that’s out there? However silly you fear your idea might be, I guarantee there’s something far sillier already out there which is resonating with millions of people. There’s a guy on YouTube who makes sausages out of bubble gum, water, dirt, etc, then tastes and ranks them. It’s utterly ridiculous. I love it!

The best thing to do as a creator, whether you’re a writer, photographer, or sausage maker, is to work on the things that excite you. But what is that, exactly? How do you separate what you’ve been taught you should want from what you really want? You have to find that "flow state," your personal Nirvana. Here’s how: throw your phone in a lake, bury your computer in the desert, and lock yourself in a room with just a pencil and some paper. Only when you’ve totally lost your mind in your work can you catch a glimpse of the thing at the core of it all—that dynamo hidden under your flesh and bone, the self-experiencing universe inside you, transcendence, enlightenment, the Cosmic Sausage.

What I’m saying is: Get in the zone! Don’t think about recognition or what comes next, and definitely don’t listen to self-help gurus or motivational podcasts or wild-eyed windbags like me! It’s just you and the craft, buddy!

If there’s any actual wisdom at all buried in my mound of prolix drivel, then here’s the tl;dr: when you have fun writing it, readers will have fun reading it.

Make what you want. Forget the rest. That’s the only advice I can offer.

Please tell us about your pet!

My wife and I have two cats. We call them Coco and Patches. They’re the best.

Find Patrick on social media: patrick.renie@paizo.com

Hello all!

Did you know we have an office chat dedicated to our pets? Well, the goblins in charge of keeping company secrets had their backs turned for just a few minutes and I’ve decided the internet must know! The beacons were lit, I called for aid, and some employees have answered! So, before the goblins come to drag me back to the depths of the tech department, let me introduce you to a few of the Pets of Paizo!

Maryssa Mari
Web Content Manager

Bigby
Bigby is some kind of mysterious chihuahua mix—he has yet to inform us of his exact origin. We adopted Bigby shortly after I started working at Paizo, right around the first PaizoCon I was slated to attend. And he’s been my constant companion ever since. Thanks to all my colleagues who helped get him a little more accustomed to people over these years… though the Prozac didn’t hurt. He still doesn’t trust strangers, so if you see us walking around Redmond, give us a wave from a distance!

Jason Keeley
Starfinder Development Manager

Hilda is most likely a Turkish Angora, though you wouldn’t have thought so when we rescued her, underweight with short hair we had no idea how much floof we were in for. She’s about four years old now, slightly overweight, and is as sweet as can be but makes the most adorable grumpy noises. Jura is an American Shorthair kitten we rescued a few months back, he’s about seven months old and is firmly in the ‘terrorizing everyone and everything’ phase. His energy has been a wonderful addition, he’s helping Hilda get more exercise, and keeping us entertained with his antics. Hilda has been skeptical of the little ball of energy but if you can wear him out so he’s not trying to play fight they will lay together, and even clean each other.

Josh Thorton
System Admin

I adopted Jude in 2010 and he met his furry brother Dino when they moved in together in 2012. They’re both considered senior cats these days; Dino—pronounced like “dinosaur”—will be 15 next month and Jude will be 13 in August. Jude started out as a terribly shy and quiet cat but has come out of his shell and learned how to yell for food and attention from his brother. Dino likes to chase shadows and sometimes his own tail. He’s greedy for attention and scritches, but beware of his soft, fuzzy belly—we call it the bear trap!

Katina Davis
Webstore Coordinator

Arya—Once a speedster now a couch potato. Preferring to spend her time snoring, drooling, and cuddling but did you just say “walk, outside?!”

Rocket—Not quite a data dog but too smart for his own good. He will help you finish any snacks if you promise to play ball. Ball is life!

You can find them on Instagram @snoot.and.sploot
(Pawrents: Logan Harper & Austin Phillips)

This is Nova! She’s been a cranky old lady since she was one and is now pushing the ripe old age of five. She’s a sweetie who loves cuddling on your lap on cold days (mostly to steal your warmth) and chasing after toys. She also tries to get outside all the time and needs to stop meowing at me because it’s not going to happen.

Luis Loza
Developer

Introducing the interrupter of Zoom calls and livestreams, the great opinionated one, and destroyer of squeaky toys, ruler of the dust bunnies and gremlins that live under the couch, the great and terrible Bandit. He likes long walks when he feels like it and lays directly in the path of the rolling office chairs. Long may he reign over our household.

Maryssa Mari
Web Content Manager

Mike Kimmel’s pets are:

Tavi and Vonnie
Golden retrievers, a.k.a. guardian beasts
One of them always lies. The other always tells the truth.

Mike Kimmel
Pathfinder Society Developer

Raychael Allor’s cats (who are perfect angels and never do anything bad, honest):

Nadja—Countess Nadja Cravensworth, who enjoys climbing the walls (like her namesake), sitting like a strange clam, and eating things that require a call to the poison control hotline.

Ripley—Dame Ellen ‘Ripper’ Ripley, the ultimate trash child who likes paper balls, twist ties, and going into trash cans to pull out treat containers in case something was missed.

Jonesy—The newest addition to the family, so she doesn’t have an honorific yet. Her arch nemesis is a stuffed orange cat also named Jonesy (there can be only one!).

Raychael Allor
Marketing and Licensing Coordinator

Wow, can you believe that by the end of this month, Paizo will have released well over 30 products in 2022?! Also, this is the last Paizo LIVE episode before PaizoCon and PaizoCon Online at the end of May. So, we are revving our previews with Pathfinder Book of the Dead, Pathfinder Adventure Path #178: Punks in a Powderkeg (Outlaws of Alkenstar 1 of 3), Pathfinder Lost Omens: Knights of Lastwall, Starfinder Drift Crisis, Paizo Organized Play, upcoming conventions, and our new partnership with Foundry Virtual Tabletop. Please join us for Episode 011 of our 2-hour live Twitch show featuring the Paizo staff and occasional guests today Friday, April 22, 2022, from 4–6 p.m. PST.

Today, our guests and topics look like this:

• Conventions: Tonya Woldridge
• Foundry VTT & Paizo Partnership: Andrew White
• Organized Play: Linda Zayas-Palmer
• Pathfinder Adventure Path #178: Punks in a Powderkeg (Outlaws of Alkenstar 1 of 3): Freelance Author and PaizoCon Guest of Honor Vanessa Hoskins
• Pathfinder Book of the Dead: Logan Bonner, John Compton, Luis Loza, and Andrew White
• Pathfinder Lost Omens: Luis Loza
• Starfinder Drift Crisis: John Compton and Andrew White

In case you missed it, we started our previews in last week’s blog. For the new Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society Scenarios previews, don’t miss yesterday’s blog.

Refer to the Paizo Product Schedule to see what other fantastic fantasy products will be available soon. The April highlights include:

Starfinder Bounty #3: A Green Place

The Ring of Nations is a sprawling line of 27 nations encircling the planet Verces that’s home to some of the most advanced technology in the Pact Worlds. When an automated power plant in the ever-expanding city of Thamal went offline and cast swaths of the city in darkness, the government deployed repair and scouting drones to investigate. None have returned. Armed with a few aerial images of the power plant, now mysteriously overgrown with local flora, the PCs are dispatched to bring the facility back online!

A Starfinder Bounty designed for 1st-level characters!

Pathfinder Guns Deck

Pathfinder Guns Deck, a companion to Pathfinder Guns & Gears, provides illustrations and statistics for over 100 new firearms from Pathfinder Guns & Gears and supports numerous exciting firearms you can use to expand your game. With everything from black powder weapons like the musket to more unusual weapons like the mace multipistol and gun sword you'll have everything you need to blast your way through the deadliest combats!

Pathfinder Gears Deck

Pathfinder Gears Deck, a companion to Pathfinder Guns & Gears, provides illustrations and statistics for scores of new clockwork gadgets and inventions for creative characters to use as they tackle new adventures. Included in this deck are off-the-wall weapons like the backpack catapult and unexpected ways of staying ahead of your enemies like gadget skates!

Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Pathfinder Lodge

Adventurers need a place to gather between their far-off journeys and dangerous quests, and the Pathfinder Lodge provides the perfect guildhall for their rare moments of rest between adventures. Of course, an adventurer never gets to relax for long, and Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Pathfinder Lodge allows you to hit your players where it hurts them most—in the safety of their own hideout!

Have questions about upcoming products? Ask them here or save them for the Twitch chat! We’ll see you on later today, April 22, for Paizo LIVE at twitch.tv/officialpaizo!

You can catch all the past episodes on YouTube!

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks,
Marketing and Media Manager

It’s a big month for Paizo LIVE, our near-monthly, 2-hour live Twitch show featuring the Paizo staff and occasional guests talking about upcoming Pathfinder and Starfinder releases. This is the last episode before PaizoCon at the end of May, so we will preview Pathfinder Book of the Dead, Pathfinder Adventure Path #178: Punks in a Powderkeg (Outlaws of Alkenstar 1 of 3), Pathfinder Lost Omens: Knights of Lastwall, Starfinder Drift Crisis, Paizo Organized Play, upcoming conventions, and our new partnership with Foundry Virtual Tabletop. Please join us for Episode 011 from 4 to 6 p.m. Pacific on Friday, April 22, 2022.

Let’s prepare with some excerpts and preview images.

Excerpt from Pathfinder Lost Omens: Knights of Lastwall

AUTHORS
Jessica Catalan, Ron Lundeen, and Isabelle Thorne

ADDITIONAL WRITING
Banana Chan, Ryan Costello, Katina Davis, Alastor Guzman, Ianara Natividad, Erin Roberts, and Ashton Sperry

Internal preview art from the Introduction of Pathfinder Lost Omens: Knights of Lastwall by Will O’Brien.

Running a Knights of Lastwall Campaign
Campaigns that centrally feature the Knights of Lastwall can take many forms. The most obvious is a clash with the Whispering Way—necromancers who believe undeath is the apex of existence, from whose ranks the Whispering Tyrant arose—or other undead powers, from local malefactors to vampire barons or mummy pharaohs. This could be a glorious crusade or a desperate guerrilla war.

While the knights are a focused group with a specific goal, this doesn’t mean they’re suited only for campaigns involving undead powers. The order’s mission is to promote good, stop evil, and gather allies, and this is conducive to many urban-focused games. Knights in a city might navigate the web of local politics to stop a tyrant’s rise or a secret cult, all while recruiting squires and securing noble support for the cause.

Knights can appear in other campaigns as well. Many knight recruiters travel alone or with a retainer and might join other heroes to aid in their noble goals. Likewise, the organization and its members are far-ranging enough they might offer aid where player characters are members of an allied or sympathetic organization, like the Pathfinder Society, the Magaambya, or simply good folk doing good deeds.

The Knights of Lastwall are a friendly and accepting lot, but players might face them as foes. Particularly chaos-prone or destructive Firebrands, Gorumites, or Calistrians—or, conversely, particularly stringent or oppressive Hellknights or Abadarans— might come into conflict with the knights until they repent their ways and repair their harms. If the player characters are outright villains, the knights will be even more intent on stopping them. Woe betides a party of Whispering Way adherents should the knights catch them

For more Lastwall excerpts, read the Free Samples blog.

Excerpt from Starfinder Drift Crisis

AUTHORS
Kate Baker, Rigby Bendele, Jessica Catalan, John Compton, John Curtin, Alison Cybe, Leo Glass, John Godek, Sen H.H.S., Joan Hong, Jenny Jarzabski, Jason Keeley, Joshua Kim, Mike Kimmel, Ron Lundeen, Dennis Muldoon, Emily Parks, Samantha Phelan, Mikhail Rekun, James Rodehaver, Solomon St. John, Paul Scofield, Shay Snow, Kendra Leigh Speedling, Jason Tondro, and Andrew White

Internal preview art of a Drift Beacon from Starfinder Drift Crisis by Alexander Gorbunov.

INTRODUCTION

Over 300 years ago, the machine god Triune revealed itself to the galaxy and granted all who would listen a priceless gift: faster-than-light technology using the hyperspace realm now known as the Drift. Within decades, Drift travel had opened the galaxy to exploration, trade, and conquest on a previously unfathomable scale. Empires span multiple star systems. Companies ship essential products to countless worlds. Explorers cast off into the unknown to meet unfamiliar species and uncover wonders. Vacationers eagerly embark to reach distant attractions. And overall the galaxy has achieved prosperity and possibility, all thanks to the Drift.

So, what if, for reasons few could predict, the Drift just... broke?

In that instant, starships traveling the Drift are hurled about, landing in random and often perilous destinations (even on different planes altogether). Drift travel becomes more difficult, with each voyage taking longer, encountering frequent dangers, and sometimes failing altogether. Even long-range communication, which relied on the Drift to span the galaxy, fails, leaving worlds isolated in ways they haven’t experienced in centuries. Governments, civilians, scientists, and faiths all clamor for answers, yet Triune seems mysteriously absent.

Welcome to the Drift Crisis, a galaxy-wide calamity instigated when the Drift experiences a catastrophic failure. Unlike most Starfinder adventures published to date, Drift Crisis isn’t a single story told through a single group of heroes; it’s an event that spans countless worlds as the galaxy scrambles to make sense of the crisis, restore order, and repair the damage to an essential plane. Simultaneously, it’s a time of chaos as opportunists prey upon vulnerable neighbors, oppressed worlds overthrow their compromised tyrants, and zealots preach the downfall of technology to frightened masses.

Indeed, Drift Crisis isn’t a single story—it’s a framework for telling innumerable stories. In this book, you’ll find 20 exciting adventure seeds that explore different angles of the Drift Crisis, letting player characters aid victims, rebuild damaged worlds, take down once-untouchable villains, travel to exciting realms, and even reshape the galaxy. And this book isn’t alone. Drift Crisis forms the core of a larger narrative event presented by Paizo, including Adventure Paths, Starfinder Adventures, and Starfinder One-Shots that all present different angles of the Drift Crisis. Enjoy these on their own or use them to springboard your own Drift Crisis campaign!

Excerpt from Pathfinder Book of the Dead

AUTHORS
Jason Bulmahn and Jessica Catalan

ADDITIONAL WRITING
Brian Bauman, Tineke Bolleman, Logan Bonner, John Compton, Chris Eng, Logan Harper, Michelle Jones, Jason Keeley, Luis Loza, Ron Lundeen, Liane Merciel, Patchen Mortimer, Quinn Murphy, Jessica Redekop, Mikhail Rekun, Solomon St. John, Michael Sayre, Mark Seifter, Sen H.H.S., Kendra Leigh Speedling, Jason Tondro, and Andrew White

Internal preview art of the rare scion of slayers background from Pathfinder Book of the Dead by Roberto Pitturru

BOOK OF THE DEAD IN YOUR GAME
You can incorporate Book of the Dead into a campaign to give it a strong undead theme, using the options from Chapter 1 for a group that wants to slay undead or those from Chapter 2 to play undead, get undead animal companions, or otherwise access the tools of undeath for players. Many of these options aren’t suitable for all games, making them uncommon or rare accordingly.

The creatures in Chapter 3 can be adversaries in all kinds of games. Many of them have additional options for expansion or adjustments to make them more versatile, and you’ll also find undead adjustments to quickly make zombie ogres, vampiric monkeys, ghost hobgoblins, or any other kinds of undead creatures you might need for your game!

The sections of world lore in this book can be interesting whether you’re a player, Game Master, or reader. Chapter 4 contains the highest concentration of lore, but there’s some in other chapters, including details from Geb’s notes on some iconic undead creatures in Chapter 3.

Internal preview art of the March of the Dead adventure from Pathfinder Book of the Dead by Kiki Moch Rizky

THE MARCH OF THE DEAD
The final chapter of this book is a short adventure titled “March of the Dead.” This grim adventure takes place in a small town where an undead uprising presents a real threat. Face the zombie horde if you dare!

Excerpts from the Pathfinder Adventure Path #178: Punks in a Powderkeg (Outlaws of Alkenstar 1 of 3)

Adventure by Vanessa Hoskins
Barrel & Bullet Saloon by Stephanie Lundeen

Internal preview art of the Barrel & Bullet Saloon from Pathfinder Adventure Path #178: Punks in a Powderkeg (Outlaws of Alkenstar 1 of 3) by Tuan Duong Chu

Barrel & Bullet Saloon
Down a minor side street in the grimy, smog-clogged Ferrous Quarter of Alkenstar lies a squat, nondescript, two-story building whose weathered sign reads “The Barrel & Bullet Saloon. Drinks—Meals—Fireproof Rooms.” Its dingy white plaster and off-center porch encourage the refined guest to look elsewhere. Indeed, the cosmopolitan traveler who does venture inside is likely to be greeted with derogatory comments from a goggle-clad goblin inventor or by rude stares from a hard-drinking patron long since mutated by the wild magic of the Mana Wastes. To mitigate this reception the dwarven gunslinger behind the bar, Foebe Dunsmith, is always ready to share a welcoming word and drink on the house. Even so, this is the kind of bar where an introduction—or a good deal of diplomatic hard work—is necessary to navigate the dwarven desperados, goblin grenadiers, irascible inventors, and hard-drinking hoodlums who make up the unruly crowd of regulars. Jumping into a high-stakes game of bootbeer (an unexplainably popular guessing game in which players try to hide as much beer on their person as possible) or wagering on a hand of cards can win friends, but it can just as easily make enemies. And no night at the Barrel & Bullet seems complete without at least one knock-down, drag-out barfight!

OUTLAWS OF ALKENSTAR PLAYER’S GUIDE
Before running this Adventure Path, provide your players with copies of the Outlaws of Alkenstar Player’s Guide, a free download from www.paizo.com. This spoiler free supplement includes details to get your players up to speed on the goings-on in Alkenstar, plus suggestions for creating characters with abilities that complement the challenges they’ll face throughout the campaign.

Have questions about upcoming products? Ask them here or save them for the Twitch chat! We’ll see you on Friday, April 22, for Paizo LIVE at twitch.tv/officialpaizo!

You can catch all the past episodes on YouTube!

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks,
Marketing and Media Manager

Thank you all for your patience as we work out the first ever hybrid PaizoCon. There’s lots of moving pieces with this event and the current world situation makes it even more challenging. We hope to answer lots of question in this blog, but know there will always be more, so please ask away in the comments and we will get you answers.

Guest of Honor

We are very pleased to announce longtime Paizo freelancer Vanessa Hoskins as our Guest of Honor for this PaizoCon. She will be appearing on several livestreams and events. Keep an eye on our schedule for more information. If you haven’t gotten a chance to meet Vanessa, here’s a bit about her:

Vanessa Hoskins got her start in the RPG industry in 2013 by writing monster blogs and other 3rd party work for 2 years. Her first Paizo release was 2015's "From Under Ice," a Pathfinder Society scenario. Since then, she’s written several small-form adventures for Pathfinder and Starfinder Society, including the groundbreaking evergreen adventure "From the Tome of Righteous Repose." She's authored numerous adventure paths including Starfinder's The Cradle Infestation (#29), Pathfinder's Hand of the Devil (#164), and Outlaws of Alkenstar (#178). Vanessa has contributed to numerous rules systems, player options, and other game mechanics for Paizo across the Pathfinder and Starfinder systems. In addition to serving on the board of directors at the Know Direction Network, she is a host of the Know Direction podcast and stars in their Adventurous! actual play. She is a cast member for the Fall of Plaguestone and Three Ring Adventure actual plays on Roll for Combat. Vanessa co-authors Vellum & Lace, the first piece of serialized Pathfinder fiction on Pathfinder Infinite, with Helen Savore. Finally, she's recently started Ninja Cat Games, an indie video game studio. She does all of this while living in upstate New York with her brilliant wife and their adorable cat.

Hotel Block

The physical convention is being held at theDoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Seattle Airport. To book a room in the Paizo block, follow this link or call their toll-free reservation number at (800) 222-TREE (that is, (800) 222-8733) and reference the group code PZC or group name PaizoCon. Be sure to book your room soon, as spaces are limited.

Tickets

When we decided to do a physical PaizoCon, we knew it needed to be a smaller show than in prior years. We set the number of attendees at 500, not including staff, organized play GMs, and partner guests. We hoped this would balance safety concerns with our ability to deliver a great show. Unfortunately, with our reduced cap for the physical show, we have no tickets available at this time. We continue to reach out to ticketholders and process refunds and will update if we do get inventory to sell, but at this time it looks unlikely.

The good news is that there are plenty of tickets for PaizoCon Online and they are available now! You can purchase them by clicking here and add them to your cart.

Schedule

We’re currently putting the final touches on our streaming schedule and will be posting it to the PaizoCon Warhorn event listing as well as putting an image up on the PaizoCon website once available. With the streaming schedule finalized, we will shift our focus onto polishing up the physical show schedule so it can be uploaded as well. It is our goal to have all these schedules put in-place well before event registration occurs.

Event Registration

Thank you all so much for your patience. The signup dates for games have been revised as follows:

Wednesday, May 4, 2022 9:00 AM: Early GM signups open to qualifying GMs
Friday, May 6, 2022 9:00 AM: Player signups open to Warhorn VIP members
Saturday, May 7, 2022 9:00 AM: Player signups open to all players, including Author tables
Monday, May 9, 2022 9:00 AM: Seats at in-person VIP tables open to all

Let us know in the comments what other questions, if any, we can answer for you. Looking forward to seeing everyone online or at the physical show!

-PaizoCon Planning Team

I bet you thought after two years of April Fools Bestiary blogs (check them out here and here) that we’d be sure to do another April Fools Bestiary this year. Alas, we have fooled you. It is a jest. A harmless bit of innocent whimsy, in the spirit of April.

This year, we’re doing the April Fools Vestiary instead, full of stylish magic items sure to turn heads in the tavern, or in the dungeon you go to after the tavern, or in the magic item shop you go to after the dungeon where your rogue tries to steal a magic sword and gets the party kicked out of the town. Let’s see what hath sprung forth from Paizo’s foolishness this year!

---

Banhammer

Developed by militant forum moderators, these sleek, elegant hammers feature comically oversized heads with which to remove unwanted content. Some users customize them to make exaggerated squeaking noises when they attack. Banhammers have the ban critical hit effect and are two-handed basic melee weapons.

	Level	Price	Damage	Critical	Special
Banhammer, forum mod	6	2 hours a week on the forums	2d6 B & E	Ban	Probably has a battery?
Banhammer, site moderator	10	You probably dream of forums most nights	6d6 B & E	Ban
Banhammer, administrator	14	Say goodbye to your social life	10d8 B & E	Ban
Banhammer, CEO of a social media company	18	You’re not logged on. You are online.	12d8 B & E	Ban	Immoral

Ban (Critical hit effect)
The target must succeed at a Will saving throw or be deleted from one infosphere site, chosen at random from any site they are a member of. The target can restore their account with a heartfelt appeal and/or tweeting at the site’s owner and succeeding at a Diplomacy check (DC: entirely based on the GM’s whims).

Starfinder Society Note: Replace the “ban” critical hit effect with the following text: “Choose one item currently being worn or held by the target, or one spell the target has cast. The target must make a Will saving throw. On a failure, that item or spell is now banned in Starfinder Society, and nobody at the table can use it for the rest of the scenario. On a critical failure, it is now banned in the whole campaign, and you should email the OP staff to let them know.”

Also these are not sanctioned for Starfinder Society play, this is an April Fool’s blog, c’mon now.

By Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator

---

Head Cannon — System: Brain and Throat

Augmentation Magitech
Level 10
Price 18,000
This tasteful adamantine armature installed within your throat and mouth and linked to your brain hides a collapsible cannon capable of firing powerful reality-altering shells. When installed, a head cannon grants a +2 circumstance bonus to the Fortitude save against a wound critical hit effect that targets the brain (provided your species’ brain is in your head [provided your species thinks with its brain]). As a standard action, you can open your mouth wide to use the head cannon to make a ranged attack against a single creature’s KAC within 60 feet. This cannon counts as a heavy weapon for proficiency purposes and deals 2d12 piercing damage. Upon rolling the damage, you can attempt a DC 16 Will saving throw to exert your belief over how badly your target was damaged; if you succeed, you can roll an additional d12 of damage. After you fire the head cannon, you take a –2 penalty to the DCs and skill checks for language-dependent effects for 1d4 rounds as your mouth returns to normal size and the gun cools down. Once you have fired the head cannon, you can’t shoot it again until you’ve rested for 10 minutes to regain Stamina Points, though you can spend 1 Resolve Point at any point to recharge the gun immediately.

By Jason Keeley
Starfinder Development Manager

Obozaya powers up her stylish new augmentation. Art by Eleanor Ferron (Senior Developer)

---

Robe of Feathers Fall — Item 8

This dashing travel- (and beer-) stained feathered robe is the result of magic experimentation gone awry. Dared to create a robe that would continually cast feather fall during a brainstorming session at a local pub, a young wizard got the enchantment wrong. Instead of a robe that would let its wearer float through the air, they got….this:

When you first invest the robe, and whenever you make your daily preparations, roll 1d6 and consult the following list to determine the type of feathers. 1: crow; 2: duck; 3: ostrich; 4: chicken; 5: goose; 6: peacock. With each step taken, huge amounts of feathers sprout forth from the robe with great force. The feathers make you concealed from all other creatures, but also conceal all other creatures from you. Of course, you cannot use this concealed condition to Hide.

By Jon Morgantini
Customer Service Representative

This feathered cloak is sure to turn heads. Art by Eleanor Ferron (Senior Developer)

---

Suit of Armoire — Item 13

Abjuration, Invested, Chaotic
Price An indeterminate amount of one’s lifespan, spent driving to the magic item warehouse, navigating its labyrinthine corridors, and consuming meatballs. Also some gold.
Usage Worn armor; Bulk 4

This classic, timeless suit of +1 resilient full plate is personally assembled from modular pieces of flat-packed darkwood, doubling as furniture and personal protective gear. To wear or remove the suit of armoire, you must succeed at a DC 41 Crafting check (yes, this includes the +10 modifier for an “Incredibly Difficult” challenge); on a failure, you and all creatures within 30 feet must succeed at a DC 31 Will save or be overcome with frustration at how you can’t follow the simple, easy-to-understand diagrams for assembling the armoire, imposing a –1 status penalty to Will saves for 1 hour.

Activate [one-action] Interact; Once per day; You did not fail at the check to assemble the suit of armoire today; Effect You open a set of doors on the armoire’s front, producing one fancy suit of clothes of your choosing.

Activate [reaction] Interact; An enemy hits or critically hits you with a Strike, or you fail or critically fail a Reflex save; You did fail the check to assemble the suit of armoire at least once today; Effect You forgot a peg or bolt when you were assembling the suit of armoire, causing it to collapse to pieces around you, though this shields you from harm. The triggering attack is a failure, or you succeed at your Reflex save. The suit of armoire falls apart around you into its constituent panels, leaving you unarmored.

By James Case
Designer

---

Wayfinderfinder — Item 5

Uncommon, Divination, Invested, Magical
Price 10 Treasure Bundles
Usage worn; Bulk –

This extremely fetching oversized compass has numerous extraneous gears, levers, doodads, and buttons. It does not function as a compass. Instead, it always points to the nearest wayfinder. An indentation in the middle of the wayfinderfinder can hold a single wayfinder. A wayfinder stored in this manner—and any aeon stone it may contain—provides no benefits, but the wayfinderfinder points to the nearest wayfinder of the type stored within, instead of any wayfinder. If you have more than one wayfinderfinder holding a wayfinder on your person at a given time, the wayfinderfinders point to each other instead, and any aeon stones in your possession begin annoyingly bouncing off your head instead of rotating around it.

Activate [one-action] command; Effect The wayfinderfinder shouts “Explore! Report! Cooperate!” then rapidly explains that certain uses of the wayfinderfinder may void its warranty.

By Mike Kimmel
Pathfinder Society Developer

---

We hope you enjoy this wonderful and foolish vestiary! If you have any ideas for foolish magic items, let us know below!

If your schedule allows, kindly join us for Episode 10 of Paizo LIVE from 4 to 6 p.m. Pacific today, March 25, 2022. Our monthly, 2-hour live Twitch show will feature Paizo staff and guests talking about our upcoming Pathfinder and Starfinder releases. You’ll have a great time exploring the new products with me.

If your schedule prevents you from joining us, you can enjoy the recording next week when we post it to YouTube. In fact, you can catch all the past episodes, including last month when we discussed Pathfinder Book of the Dead, Pathfinder Goblin Firework Fight, Organized Play updates, and more!

Now, let’s take an exciting peek into the Adventure Toolbox content from each of the Adventure Path volumes being released this month. This content is special because we endeavor to make it useful to all, whether you play the Adventure Path or not.

Preview art from Pathfinder Adventure Path #174: Shadows of the Ancients (Strength of Thousands 6 of 6) by Luis Salas Lastra.

“Campaign Repercussions
Our story has been long but now is at its end. By the conclusion of the Strength of Thousands Adventure Path, the heroes have risen from humble initiates to respected [redacted]. They have traveled far to come back home again and save the Magaambya from [redacted]. They have not only returned [redacted] to the world, but they might also have earned the Magaambya a very powerful protector in the form of the [redacted]. Still, your campaign could have a few loose ends and further opportunities for adventure.”

The Shadows of the Ancients Adventure Toolbox by Saif Ansari, Matt Hardin, Jacob W. Michaels, Brendan Perry, Nathan Reinecke, and Darren Spurrier includes campaign repercussions, and player rules on artifacts of the Magaambya and masks of the Magic Warriors. It also includes creatures like an ooze, a werecreature, and something clockwork and gargantuan.

Preview art from Starfinder Adventure Path #43: Icebound (Horizons of the Vast 4 of 6) by Mark Molnar.

“Adventure Toolbox
I’ve got movement on my scanner! Do you see anything?”
“Keep your voice down. I have eyes on ‘em. I’m in the circulation vent. They’re right beneath me.”
“How many?”
“I dunno. A lot. Looks like they’re headin’ for main operations.”
“What’re we gonna do? Lieutenant? Lieutenant Snyder, do you read?”
—excerpt from internal comms of the Chelish Bosun, discovered derelict in the Vast

The Icebound Adventure Toolbox by BJ Hensley, Jenny Jarzabski, Ron Lundeen, Jess Nevins, Jim Seals, and Jason Tondro includes new high-altitude vehicles and gear, charter updates, Swarmtech items, building the Swarm (making new Swarm creatures) in the Alien Archives, three of which are the size of starships. The Codex of Worlds explores Weydana-5, “the smallest of the planets in the Weydana system, is unusual even by the standards of the most jaded interstellar traveler.”

Preview art from Pathfinder Adventure Path #177: Burning Tundra (Quest for the Frozen Flame 3 of 3) by Loïc Canavaggia.

“Animal Companions Mammoth Lords keep unusual animal companions. Many types of megafauna—including cave bears, daeodons, dire wolves, and smilodons—can be represented by the animal companion rules presented on pages 214 to 217 of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook and on pages 144 to 145 of the Pathfinder Advanced Player’s Guide. The following new types of animal companions supplement those options.”

The Burning Tundra Adventure Toolbox by Jason Tondro includes player rules for animal companions, items, spells and rituals, and the Mammoth Lord archetype. The new creatures include a nymph, an ooze, and a zombie.

Preview art from Starfinder Adventure Path #44: Allies Against the Eye (Horizons of the Vast 5 of 6) by Rustan Curman.

“These draeliks and their ‘Path of Entropy’ business... I don’t claim to understand it. Third eyes, spiritual selves, seeing the future? All seems kind of melodramatic to me.
“On the other hand, they also say the universe’s slowly running out of energy and that, eventually, our great-great-however many great-grandchildren are all going to die cold and lonely. And that? Well, that’s just math.”
—Bron Targeld, New Harmony settler

The Allies Against the Eye Adventure Toolbox by Alexander Augunas, Jeremy Corff, John Godek III, Logan Harper, Jenny Jarzabski, Andrew Mullen, Jess Nevins, Jim Seals, and Jabari Weathers includes charter updates, diplomatic options (new player options including the Zeitgeist mystic connection, Data Broker operative specialization, Commander soldier fighting style, Disobedience vanguard aspect, and new feats and spells), the Eye of Entropy (with another new mystic connection, feats, and an archetype), and more Alien Archives, with creatures sized fine through colossal!

Have questions about upcoming products? Ask them here or save them for the Twitch chat! We’ll see you on later today for Paizo LIVE at twitch.tv/officialpaizo!

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks,
Marketing and Media Manager

Goblins and pigs! The Swarm and a dangerous cult! Twisted evil magic and a quest to prove yourself worthy of the title of Mammoth Lord! Pickles and… pickles—this month Paizo’s games have something for everyone. So, let’s talk about it all. Join us for Episode 010 of Paizo LIVE from 4 to 6 p.m. Pacific next Friday, March 25, 2022. Our near-monthly, 2-hour live Twitch show will feature some of the Paizo staff and guests talking about upcoming Pathfinder and Starfinder releases.

Illustration by Kiki Moch Rizky

Illustrations by Kiki Moch Rizky

Goblins have come to the town of Sandpoint, intent upon stealing their fireworks for an upcoming festival. Do you have the goblin grit to pillage your way to victory and emerge from the town with the most fireworks?

Pathfinder Goblin Firework Fight is a quick party game of theft and mayhem. Pillage loot from the town or from your fellow goblins but watch out! The other goblins are just as likely to steal from you!

Not only does it have goblins and fireworks, it also has pigs and pickles!

Illustration by Setiawan Lee

The Strength of Thousands Adventure Path reaches its dramatic conclusion with Shadows of the Ancients, a complete adventure for 18th- to 20th-level characters. We will share some story (spoilers) and explore the backmatter like:

TELLING FABLES by Jessica Redekop
Learn how to infuse your adventures with the feel of fables to tell truly remarkable stories!

TINY ADVENTURES by Matt Morris
The greatest vistas for adventure are sometimes right underfoot. Learn how to construct encounters where shrunken heroes must navigate a very large world!

Illustration by Rodrigo Gonzalez Toledo

A distress beacon from the desolate tundra sends the PCs on a mission into the biting cold.

This Starfinder Adventure Path volume continues the Horizons of the Vast Adventure Path and includes:

• Icebound, a Starfinder adventure for 7th-level characters, by Jason Tondro.
• A look at the Veskarium’s military intelligence agency Directive 9 by Christopher Wasko.
• A toolbox featuring equipment to traverse the upper atmosphere, a catalog of Swarm-based biotech, information on how to create new Swarm components, a collection of creatures ready to ambush the unprepared, and a glimpse at the swirling frozen clouds of an icy gas giant by BJ Hensley, Jenny Jarzabski, Jess Nevins, Jim Seals, and Jason Tondro.
• Statistics and deck plans for a sleek and stylish espionage vessel by Jason Tondro.

Illustration by David Alvarez

The Broken Tusks find sanctuary at last in a mountain settlement, but this peace is destined to be short-lived. The Quest for the Frozen Flame Adventure Path concludes with Burning Tundra, a complete adventure for 8th- to 10th-level characters.

HILLCROSS by Jason Tondro
Mammoth Lords convene at the only major settlement in their realm to trade, gather news, and negotiate peace. Explore the Oasis of the North, Hillcross!

ADVENTURE TOOLBOX AND MORE!
This volume also presents megafauna animal companions and ancestral gear that complements the new Mammoth Lord character archetype, and new prehistoric creatures to befriend or bedevil your players.

Illustration by Rodrigo Gonzalez

A seemingly new player appears in the system… Will the heroes make new allies, or will they try to go it alone?

This Starfinder Adventure Path volume continues the Horizons of the Vast Adventure Path and includes:

• Allies Against the Eye, a Starfinder adventure for 9th-level characters by Jabari Weathers.
• A look at the mysterious cult known as the Order of the Culling Shadow by Kim Frandsen.
• A toolbox featuring options for diplomatic characters, ways to unlock mystic power, a collection of strange creatures, and a glimpse at a world covered in glass by Alexander Augunas, Jeremy Corff, John Godek III, Logan Harper, Jenny Jarzabski, Andrew Mullen, Jess Nevins, Jim Seals, and Jabari Weathers.
• Statistics and deck plans for a stealthy ship used by smugglers, pirates, and worse by Jabari Weathers.

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

You can catch all the past episodes on YouTube, including last month when we discussed Pathfinder Book of the Dead, Pathfinder Goblin Firework Fight, Organized Play updates, and more!

Have questions about upcoming products? Ask them here or save them for the Twitch chat! We’ll see you on Friday, March 25, for Paizo LIVE at twitch.tv/officialpaizo!

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks,
Marketing and Media Manager

We invite you to join us for PaizoCon 2022, scheduled for Memorial Day weekend (May 27–29) at the Doubletree in Seatac, WA. For those unable to make the trek in person, we’re also pleased to announce that PaizoCon Online will once again bring events to your screen with online play and seminars (and an extra day’s events on May 30th). Join us for an amazing weekend of Pathfinder and Starfinder gaming, including the launch of Year 5 of Starfinder Society and the kickoff of the Drift Crisis! We’ll also be celebrating a huge milestone: 2022 is Paizo’s 20th anniversary, and we’d love to have you join us!

While our physical show will be limited to 500 attendees, we still plan to bring plenty of Paizo content to both the online and physical space. Some highlights include:

Premiere events debuting simultaneously at both PaizoCon and PaizoCon Online!

• Launch of Starfinder Society Year 5
• New Starfinder Special #4-99 on Saturday evening from 6–11 pm
• PaizoCon Puzzle Hunt returns for its 6th year!

At PaizoCon 2022 in Seatac you’ll find:

• Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society games from Friday to Sunday
• The Paizo Store
• Rooms for attendees to watch what’s happening at PaizoCon Online
• Small-scale seminars and workshops
• The Glass Cannon Network room returns! Join them for their show in downtown Seattle on Friday night and their PaizoCon show on Saturday night.
• Onsite places for attendees/staff to watch digital events

At PaizoCon Online, you’ll find:

• PaizoCon Online Keynote with Publisher Erik Mona
• Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society games running around the clock from Friday to Monday
• Panels focused on products and big announcements, Friday through Sunday 10 am to 4 pm Pacific

For purchasers of PaizoCon 2020 tickets who rolled them over to our next physical show, we will be updating your tickets to ones for PaizoCon 2022. Anyone who wishes for a refund can do so by contacting customer.service@paizo.com. Please use the subject line “PaizoCon 2020 Refund” to expedite your request. The deadline for refund requests will be March 11, 2022, after which we will open up PaizoCon 2022 tickets for general purchase and put PaizoCon Online tickets on sale.

One change from prior in-person PaizoCons is that we are using Warhorn for all our event scheduling. We will have an initial schedule posted by March 21st and will update it as we add more events. If you are an author, third-party publisher, or Pathfinder Infinite content producer interested in running events, please stay tuned to the Paizo blog for more information about how to add your events to our online or physical schedule!

Covid-19 remains an ongoing consideration, and Paizo is committed to the safety of the Paizo staff and attendees. The precautions we are taking include:

• In-person attendees are required to show proof of vaccination (including booster shots) and wear masks in all Paizo-controlled spaces such as ballrooms, seminar rooms, gaming spaces, and the Paizo store.
• No banquet event
• Hand sanitizer available in public spaces
• Reduced number of physical show tickets with a capped attendance of 500.
• More space between attendees in the seminar rooms, OP hall (between players and between tables), and in the Paizo store
• Paizo will pivot to an online-only event should conditions take a turn for the worse.

Look for more communication over the next few months as we finalize more details, including event registration dates. We look forward to seeing you either in person or online!

-PaizoCon Planning Team

Paizo LIVE 009 is today! Please join Paizo staff members Linda Zayas-Palmer, Jason Bulmahn, Jessica Catalan, Alex Speidel, and me as we take a closer look at the new Pathfinder and Starfinder products coming soon to your local game store and paizo.com. Our live Twitch show starts at 4 p.m. Pacific today, February 18, 2022, and will end early so that we can attend a special internal send-off for Mark Seifter. You can wish him well here.

Preview art from Pathfinder Adventure Path #176: Lost Mammoth Valley (Quest for the Frozen Flame 2 of 3)

February Releases

• Pathfinder Adventure Path #176: Lost Mammoth Valley (Quest for the Frozen Flame 2 of 3)
• Pathfinder Bounty #18: From Family Lost
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Keep
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Enormous Basic
• Pathfinder Flip-Tiles: Fortress Chambers Expansion
• Pathfinder One-Shot #4: Mark of the Mantis
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-10: Delve the Pallid Depths
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-11: No Time for Treason
• Starfinder Alien Archive 1 & 2 Battle Cards
• Starfinder Society Scenario #4-14: Rasheen's Remembrance

Preview art from Pathfinder Book of the Dead

While international shipping has made release dates unpredictable, and Pathfinder Book of the Dead is delayed, we will look ahead to March and beyond to discuss it and Pathfinder Goblin Firework Fight.

We will begin to explore the next Starfinder Society 2022 metaplot, talk about PaizoCon and Gen Con, and show off amazing art, so you don’t want to miss a minute!

You can watch past episodes on YouTube, including last month when we discussed Starfinder Galactic Magic, the Pathfinder Quest for the Frozen Flame Adventure Path, and Organized Play updates.

Paizo LIVE #8: Galactic Magic, Quest for The Frozen Flame, and Organized Play Updates

Have questions about upcoming products? Ask them here or save them for the Twitch chat! We’ll see you in just a few hours for Paizo LIVE at twitch.tv/officialpaizo!

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks,
Marketing and Media Manager

With the Gen Con housing block opening on Sunday, we wanted to make sure Pathfinder and Starfinder players knew what was happening at the Best Four Days in Gaming so you could make your plans for the show!

Paizo will be attending the Gen Con 2022 game convention from August 4–7 in Indianapolis. You’ll see the Paizo booth in the exhibit hall and the return of Organized Play to the Sagamore Ballroom. Organized Play will have a slightly smaller number of tables than in prior years, so we encourage you to sign up for events early to claim your spot.

For those unable to make the trek to Gen Con, Paizo will also host a suite of online events and seminars. This year’s Pathfinder interactive special will premiere simultaneously at the physical event and Gen Con Online.

We’ll release additional details in the coming months. Stay tuned!

-The Paizo Team

Paizo LIVE has become one of my favorite events. If you haven’t joined us, it’s our near-monthly, 2-hour live Twitch show featuring the Paizo staff and guests talking about upcoming Pathfinder and Starfinder releases. Join us for Episode 9 of Paizo LIVE from 4 to 6 p.m. Pacific next Friday, February 18, 2022.

You can catch past episodes on YouTube, including last month when we discussed Starfinder Galactic Magic, the Pathfinder Quest for the Frozen Flame Adventure Path, and Organized Play updates.

On Paizo LIVE, you can get the scoop about Paizo’s biggest products from some of the people who made them, helping you to understand the story they are telling, the innovations they bring to the game, and the insider stories of the products’ creation. Plus, we add a ton of Paizo LIVE spoilers about upcoming products that are worth hunting for. The wit and wisdom of the Paizo Staff is timeless, so you’ll want to watch every episode!

On the next episode, we will present our February 23 Releases, including Lost Mammoth Valley, the second volume of the Quest for the Frozen Flame Adventure Path. We will also start the hype about the next Starfinder Society metaplot.

Then we will look ahead to March with Pathfinder Book of the Dead, Pathfinder Goblin Firework Fight, and more!

We have the pleasure of welcoming Jessica Catalan on the show, who is the Starfinder Society Developer, the author of Lost Mammoth Valley, and is one of two authors on the cover of Pathfinder Book of the Dead, along with Jason Bulmahn. We’re hoping to have Jason on, too.

Have questions about upcoming products? Ask them here or save them for the Twitch chat! We’ll see you on Friday, February 18, for Paizo LIVE at twitch.tv/officialpaizo!

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks,
Marketing and Media Manager

This Lunar New Year, 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 lunar new year to put into your Pathfinder games!

Happy Year of the Tiger, and wishing everyone a safe and prosperous new year!

Art by Mirco Paganessi

James Case

My howmi (I couldn’t properly pronounce halmeoni when I was a toddler, abbreviations were made) is a great cook, but growing up, she made Korean food very rarely (Too much chopping! Just chop chop chop! Howmi don’t wanna chop so much!). New years was always the big exception, where she’d make enough food to feed everyone for... honestly, several days. We always had to have our tteokguk first to make sure we’d have good luck for the next year, and it was always the right way to start things off. Happy new year!

Tteokguk of Time Advancement — Item 5

Consumable, Magical, Transmutation, Polymorph
Usage Held in 1 hand; Bulk L

Dumplings and rice cakes float invitingly between seaweed and egg in this comforting soup. While normal tteokguk helps you gain an extra year of age when you eat it, the magic in tteokguk of time advancement takes this a step further.

Activate [one-action] Interact; Effect Upon eating the tteokguk, you gain several years of age, morphing into an older version of yourself. Your physical appearance and personality change to those you would have at any age older than your current one. This grants you a +4 status bonus to Deception checks to pass as the chosen age, and you can add your level as a proficiency bonus to these checks even if you're untrained. Furthermore, unless a creature specifically uses a Seek action or otherwise carefully examines you, it doesn't get a chance to notice that you aren't at your true age. This lasts until morning of the next day, at which point you are temporarily immune until the next lunar new year.

Eleanor Ferron

Every new year, my dad's side of the family would gather at my grandma and grandpa's house for a large family reunion. There weren't enough rooms or beds for all the cousins, us kids would fight with one another, and of course after a few days we were all sick of being there. But they're some of my fondest memories. On New Year's Day we would make sushi and lotus root, serve kuromame and the horrible lucky fish cake (which I would begrudgingly choke down a single slice of), but my favorite was my grandpa's inarizushi—tangy sushi rice inside sweet fried tofu pockets. I struggled for ages to be able to split open the delicate fried tofu without ripping the pockets open, and was so proud of myself when I got good at it. In Japan, they are said to be favored by the rice goddess Inari and her fox servants. I didn't know anything about the myths associated with them until later; my brother must have told me when he got interested in studying Japanese culture. Grandpa probably would have gotten grumpy if we'd brought it up, but he might not have minded giving one to a hungry fox. He loved nature and animals, and would go out in the morning to garden and feed the flock of California quail who hid in the tiny bamboo thicket on the edge of his yard. They came so often we used to call them his little chickens.

You really shouldn't feed wild animals, but in a fantasy game it's harmless fun.

Shrine Inarizushi — Level 1

Divination, Consumable, Divine
Usage held in 1 hand; Bulk L

Activate one minute (Interact)
A splash of sacred sake in the rice vinegar used to prepare this sushi makes it a suitable offering to the goddess Daikitsu and her favored fox servants. You place the sushi before a shrine of the goddess Daikitsu or in a wilderness area that naturally harbors foxes. For the next hour, whenever you are in exploration mode, roll a separate Search activity check with a +1 status bonus; this does not affect your Speed. If the check succeeds, a fox appears to inform you of this discovery as best as it can, although it cannot speak.

Sen.H.H.S.

In the days leading up to Chinese New Year, my family and I often visit Songshan Ciyou Temple for our annual prayers to the gods there. Like many other temples here, Ciyou Temple hosts a multitude of Taoist-Buddhist gods under one roof. Other than just for convenience, I think it is also a testimony of variety and complexity within a culture, something I do my best to reflect in my writing.

Last year has been a full-on bumpy ride, but it was consequently highly rewarding. I learned a lot, tried a lot, and flailed a lot in the process. I’m grateful to be a member of the greater Paizo creative community as their support means the world to me. There is a lot to look forward to, and since I can’t talk about many of them right now, follow me on Twitter (@SenHHS) for when those announcements drop!

Wishing everyone a happy Year of the Tiger! *Roar*

Incense Bundle of Annual Blessings — Item 8

Consumable, Magical
Usage held in 1 hand; Bulk L

The twelve incense sticks wrapped in this bundle vary in shade and color, reflecting the deities the months are named after. Offering all incense sticks to their respective deities within a week is said to bring unparalleled luck, though gaining entry to all the necessary shrines and temples can pose quite a challenge. Those that complete the challenge gain can, when affected by a misfortune effect, automatically disrupt it as the incense wards off the bad luck. This ability can be used once a month for the next 12 months.

Jessie Lo

Hi I’m Jessie, you can find me on my Pathfinder 2e podcast @GobletsandGays and on Twitter @akinomii_art. During Chinese New Year, it is very common to give out hongbao, red packets/envelopes, to your loved ones. Usually, they contain money, which is used to wish good luck, health, and wealth for the new year. It's also common to give out red packets as gifts, which often means a red packet is reused by several people until it wears out. It has also become common to get red packets from malls, which usually have a piece of chocolate, candy or special coupons.

Hongbao of Many Things — Item 5

Conjuration, Magical
Usage held in 1 hand; Bulk L

This enchanted long, red envelope is decorated with beautiful illustrations in gold ink. The hongbao holds twelve slips safely within.

Activate [one-action] Interact; Effect You draw a randomly selected slip from the hongbao, which transforms permanently into a useful item. Until you draw another item, the illustration on the outside of the hongbao changes to one of twelve animals, matching the item pulled. Each slip can be drawn only once; after the last slip is gone, the hongbao becomes a non-magical red envelope that retains the illustration of the final slip drawn. The effects of each slip are as follows:

1. 3d4 small firecracker pellets that let out a loud squeak when thrown against a hard surface.
2. Embroidered leather armor made from oxhide.
3. A lesser healing potion, except it is applied as a balm instead of drunk.
4. A stuffed bunny dressed in red robes.
5. 50 feet of coiled silk rope.
6. A bottle of snake wine.
7. A wooden, horse-drawn wagon.
8. A musical instrument made out of a ram’s horn.
9. A collapsible metal-banded bo staff.
10. An ornate jeweled egg.
11. A small, jade, statuette of a guardian lion dog.
12. 6 delicious pork buns that function as emergency rations.

Tan Shao Han

Happy Lunar New Year! May you all enjoy roaring good fortune in the year of the tiger! Based in Singapore, Shao Han (https://www.curiouschimeras.com/) is a member of the #RPGSEA movement who has created content for various RPGs, including Pathfinder 2, Blades in the Dark, and ARC. Fun fact: Due to Shao Han being taller than most of his family, he enjoys a +1 to his Cooking Lore checks when eating yusheng, and adds the reach trait and gains the critical specialization effects on his chopsticks attacks.

Seven-Color Raw Fish Salad — Item 8

Consumable, Divination, Fortune, Magical
Price 88 gp
Usage Prepared with 2 hands; Bulk 1

An appetizer popularized in Goka, seven-color raw fish salad (qicai yusheng) is both fun and tasty to eat. This large platter of salad of raw fish, seafood, fruits, and vegetables of various hues is dressed in generous drizzlings of crushed peanuts, plum sauce, and sesame oil. During the Lunar New Year, consuming the seven-color raw fish salad (as 'seven colors' sounds similar to 'seven riches') is a grand, often messy, affair of spectacle and skill. Diners gather around the platter with long chopsticks to toss the salad, lifting the assorted ingredients as high as possible without dropping them off the table; erudite diners lead the table in uttering auspicious sayings to wish good fortune for the new year.

Activate 1 minute (command, Interact); Effect You toss the ingredients of the seven-color raw fish salad into the air to prepare the dish. You must attempt a DC 20 Cooking Lore check, with the following results.

Critical Success You manage to toss the ingredients deftly without wasting food, and your enthusiastic recitation of auspicious sayings is well received—a sign of impending good fortune! For the first month of the coming year, you enjoy a +2 bonus to skill checks to Earn Income and Diplomacy checks made to Gather Information about job opportunities.

Success You toss the ingredients adroitly, wasting a minimum of seafood, and your delivery of auspicious sayings is respectable. For the first month of the coming year, you gain a +1 bonus to skill checks to Earn Income and Diplomacy checks made to Gather Information about job opportunities.

Failure You fumble too many of the ingredients to have enough left to eat.

We are thrilled to welcome Maggie Gallagher as our new Director of People and Culture. Maggie’s experience and skillset are a perfect fit for Paizo, and we think that her personality; her commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion; and her passion for strong relationships truly make her the right person for our company today.

So, let’s let Maggie introduce herself.

“I come to Paizo with over 20 years of HR experience in fields including biomedical repair, software engineering, and various theaters and operas,” “While a true HR generalist, my passions are in diversity, equity, and inclusion. I have worked with numerous organizations in helping them implement Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and initiatives that advance organizational and cultural change by ensuring DEI considerations are incorporated in all aspects of the decision-making process.”

Maggie has also served as an instructor, volunteer, and presenter for several LGBTQ+ organizations. For the past five years, she has focused on groups and organizations that actively advocate for the rights of transgender individuals.

“Outside of work, I enjoy wandering the wilderness, fishing, and canoeing. As much as I love the outdoors, I am a true nerd at heart. I have been playing RPGs and Tabletop games for over 30 years, so I am very excited to be joining the Paizo team.”

Maggie can be reached via email at maggie.gallagher@paizo.com.

Get ready to reboot your spell caches with Starfinder Galactic Magic! This exciting new supplement dives into the most magical parts of the science-fantasy Starfinder setting, with a new class, a wealth of class options, dozens of new spells, and articles on how magic and religion affect day-to-day living in the Pact Worlds and beyond. Of course, none of this would be possible without our talented authors! Let’s learn a little more about some of them and what they worked on for this book in their own words. And if you’re a new (or returning) fan of any of these authors, be sure to check out their other projects, websites, livestreams, and more!

Jason Keeley (he/him)
Starfinder Development Manager

Illustration by Arturo Gutierrez

James Jacobs (he/him)
Creative Director

I’ve had the good fortune to write a lot for Pathfinder and helped to invent a fair portion of its deities, but always in the context of the fantasy genre. The chance to revisit some of these elements in a different genre is exciting and liberating. after spending decades with deities like Desna and Sarenrae flitting around in my head as divinities first in my homebrew game and then more recently in Golarion. Alas, there was only so much room to talk about Desnan dream stations or to explore the implications of what worshiping the goddess of the sun might entail when you’re in outer space, but hopefully the entries in this book will help spark new ideas for how to use these deities in your game! And of course, on the opposite side of the “friendliness scale,” being able to lean into the science-fiction tropes of the classic pulps and explore how Nyarlathotep and the Elder Mythos functions in Starfinder was equally delightful. But the thing I’m most excited to see once this book’s out is all the amazing content created by all the other authors in this book!

Jessica Catalan (she/her)
Starfinder Society Developer

Hello! My name is Jessica Catalan and I’m the Starfinder Society Developer. I’m also a mother, gamer, blogger, and freelance author who primarily writes for Paizo’s Starfinder and Pathfinder RPGs. You can find a list of my currently announced writing credits on my Paizo profile (meloriel). Some recently released highlights include Secrets of Magic, Guns & Gears, Lost Omens Grand Bazaar, Galaxy Exploration Manual, and Tech Revolution.

For Galactic Magic, I wrote the mystic and witchwarper class options, twenty spells, and numerous deities, including Kadrical, Lamashtu, and all the ancestral deities. Galactic Magic also marks two big firsts for me. This is the first time I was hired to create entirely new deities of my own design (Dagosarn, Flux, Isvith, Jalvari, Meyel, Romgul, Uvonn, and the Vesk Saints). Galactic Magic is also the first time I was hired for freelance development work, making this my very first developer credit.

I’m beyond thrilled to have been a part of this book and I look forward to seeing it hit gaming tables! Enjoy!

Rigby Bendele (they/them or xe/xem)

I'm a sometimes-poet, sometimes-game designer doing my best to make engaging, inclusive tabletop games. In Galactic Magic, you'll find my work in the technomancer and Oras section. When I was writing the Oras section, I thought quite a bit about Donna Haraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto" and the way in which cyborgs offer a rejection of the separations between animal, human and machine. This should probably tell you that I'm a queer theory nerd (which is the crux of my academic background) and that I love thinking about alternative ways of being through TTRPGs. While Galactic Magic is my first hardcover with Paizo, you'll find my name on more books soon and can enjoy more of my Starfinder work with SFS #3-07: Strike at Zone 78 and SFS #4-04: Mission Not Found.

You can find me on Twitter @slothscout.

Kendra Leigh Speedling (she/her)

Hello, all! I’m Kendra Leigh Speedling, and I’ve been freelancing for Pathfinder and Starfinder for about six years. You might remember me from this year’s Starfinder GenCon special, #3-99: Perils of the Past. I’m delighted to have been a part of Galactic Magic, helping give the “fantasy” side of “science-fantasy” some love. I did several sections for the book, including the faith introduction, the Besmara and Weydan entries, the Parallel Truths, and the new operative class options. I’ve always been fond of exploring how magic and faith interact with a highly technologically advanced setting, so this assignment was a lot of fun. I particularly enjoyed crafting the operative options, which hopefully add a little magical flair to your operative of choice!

I’ve got a few more Pathfinder and Starfinder projects in the works currently, though most of them are still Forbidden Knowledge at this point. I can confirm, though, that I got my grabby hands involved in Pathfinder’s upcoming Book of the Dead! In my non-freelancing downtime, I can be found hanging out with a book or video game—usually Animal Crossing these days—or pretending I know how to bake. You can find a full list of my writing credits at klspeedling.com and I’m on Twitter as @KendraLS, where I sporadically post cat pictures.

Besmara: illustration by Guilherme Olivieri

Sen.H.H.S. (she/her)

Hello, readers! Sen.H.H.S. here. You might have seen my name before in some Pathfinder Second Edition products such as Bestiary 3, Secrets of Magic, and many others. (See my carrd for the full list: https://senhhs.carrd.co/#portfolio) With Galactic Magic, it looks like I've made the jump over to write even more magic in a different(?) universe. This book has been a long time coming, and I hope you'll get to experience the magic (pun intended) within its pages soon. You can always find out what I'm up to on my Twitter @SenHHS. If my calculations are correct, you might get to witness me tweeting about "trace analysis in Golarion" in the next little while, for every reason whatsoever.

Shay Snow (they/them)

Hi, I'm Shay Snow, I'm an editor at Paizo, and I wrote up a bunch of species-specific spells and the entry on Zon-Kuthon, surprising exactly... no one! As my mutuals on Twitter know I'm a pretty big Zon-Kuthon fan so I joyfully jumped when offered the chance to give the pain man a new write up for Galactic Magic. You may have seen me in a few Starfinder scenarios, Pathfinder’s Lost Omens Grand Bazaar and Tech Revolution and I have a few things coming out in Lost Omens Monsters of Myth. Additionally, you can find my name on a few Coyote & Crow projects!

When not writing, I’m usually discussing Native issues and rights over on my Twitter @SpellsInSugar, where you can also sometimes catch me talking about video games and horror media. You can keep up with my work, or even contact me for hire, through my website https://shayjay.carrd.co/!

Jessica Redekop (she/they/he)

Hi! I'm Jess, and I wrote about some fabulous outsider deities in Galactic Magic ! Even though it's a smaller section, I'm particularly proud of my work in this book. It gave me an opportunity to introduce a lot of cool content into Starfinder, and there are some lines scattered through the section that are quite personal to me. I won't spoil which gods are included, but if you're familiar with my past work for PF and SF, some of them are very "me." :) I hope you like Starfinder's new and returning outsider deities as much as I do!

For more of my content check out Valiant, an actual play Pathfinder podcast on the Know Direction network, where I play Xiadani the aasimar druid. You can also find me @tectonomancer on Twitter.

Mikhail Rekun (he/him)

дравствуйте, уважаемые читатели! My name is Mikhail Sergeyevich Rekun, and you may recognize me from previous Starfinder products such as the Galaxy Exploration Manual (where I wrote about Accord and created the Starship Toolbox) and Starfinder Adventure Path #31: Waking the Worldseed (where I wrote the Hibb article), along with plenty of Pathfinder stuff. In my more mundane life, I’m a Russian-American historian, educator, and author.

Galactic Magic was a bit of a weird project for me. John Compton contacted me and said ‘we need magical nanomachines and we need them as soon as humanly possible.’ Well, I’m never one to shirk from a challenge, and produced the magical options for the nanocyte in basically a weekend. I’m reasonably pleased with the results, especially the ability to make fancy nano-runes and sigils like a proper anime protagonist. (That was what John wanted, right?)

Nanites are also of some interest to me for other reasons, as when not writing for Paizo, I’m working on Ourichor: Fulcrum of the Luminant Age alongside the inimitable Andrew Mullen and Isabelle Thorne (follow us at https://twitter.com/LuminantA). I shan’t share too much in the way of details, but let’s just say that fans of microscopic shenanigans may find our upcoming release, Armaments of the Luminant Age, of some interest to them.

John Godek III (he/him)

Hi everyone! My name is John Godek and I am an avid Starfinder GM, player, freelance author, and podcaster. I had the opportunity to write several sections of Galactic Magic and I can’t wait for you to see them! I created two brand new soldier fighting styles—the spellbrawler and the archer—along with new weapons, gear boosts, fusions, and armor upgrades that synergize with these styles as well as offer cool options for other styles and classes. In addition, I formulated nearly three dozen new magic spells, including spells that provide basic utility, create different types of barriers, and are related to or originated in the Vast. Finally, I crafted three new legendary artifacts of tremendous power, each steeped in ancient lore. Other Paizo projects I have forthcoming include work on the Drift Crisis hardcover, backmatter in Starfinder Adventure Path #44, and my very first adventure—Starfinder Bounty #1: The Cantina Job!

You can find me playing with the Emerald City Lodge in Seattle, or you can listen to my podcasts on the Know Direction Network, including: Digital Divination with Ron Lundeen, Intrepid Heroes, a Stafinder actual play, and Presenting, a podcast where I interview game designers, developers, artists, and writers.

Worlanisi: Illustration by Addison Rankin

Nate Wright (he/him)

Evening, everyone. I’m Nate Wright, a blogger on the Know Direction Network and a freelancer who has contributed to multiple works from Paizo. Some of my favorites include the anadi ancestry from Lost Omens The Mwangi Expanse and the memetic zenith from Starfinder Adventure Path #24: The God-Host Ascends. The best part about writing for this book has been visualizing the awesome abilities I’ve always wished my character could have and getting the opportunity to share that vision with the rest of the community.

If you want to see my most recent work, you’re in need of a freelancer, or you just want to watch me share cool art I found, you can find me on @RoscMan on the cursed bird app.

Dennis Muldoon (he/him)

Hi folks! My name is Dennis Muldoon, and I've been freelancing for Paizo for a few years now. I've contributed to almost every line Paizo publishes, now, most recently SFS #4-10: The Way In, the Azlanti Space Age material in the toolbox of Starfinder Adventure Path #42: Whispers of the Eclipse, and the ssumzili and golgopo monsters in Pathfinder Adventure Path #171: Hurricane's Howl. For Galactic Magic, I wrote the experimental apparatus mechanic alternate class feature for all your magically inclined mechanic needs, along with magic-themed mechanic tricks for mechanics of all types. I'm also extremely excited to bring the Lucky Drunk himself into Starfinder with a section on Cayden Cailean! My full list of credits is on my Paizo profile, and you can find me on Twitter @dkmuldoon.

Kate Baker (she/her)

Hey, Starfinder fans! I’m Kate, and I’ve been writing for Starfinder and Pathfinder for about five years. I was delighted to get to write the sections on Hylax and Talavet for this book. Hylax is near and dear to my heart after writing one of the Attack of the Swarm volumes, and I even have a tattoo of the Crown of Hylax! Talavet speaks to me equally, with such a strong focus on the importance of stories, something I’ve never appreciated more than in the last year and a half. I hope you enjoy reading about their role in the galaxy, along with the many other deities featured in this book.

Follow me at @KateBakerGM on Twitter to hear more about what I’m working on, including some upcoming projects for Starfinder Infinite!

Paizo LIVE is our near-monthly, 2-hour live Twitch show featuring the Paizo staff and guests talking about upcoming Pathfinder and Starfinder releases. Join us for Episode 8 of Paizo LIVE today from 4 to 6 p.m. Pacific. Catch past episodes on YouTube.

Join us as we proudly present… your dinner. No, wait, that’s another show. I mean our January Releases!

Here are the featured products and scheduled guests:

• Developer Thurston Hillman, Developer Mike Kimmel, and Editor K. Tessa Newton: Starfinder Bounty #1: The Cantina Job, Starfinder Society Scenario #4-13: Hard Reset, Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-09: The Secluded Siege, and Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-08: Foundation's Price
• Developer Patrick Renie, Development Manager Ron Lundeen, Author Stephanie Lundeen, and Editor K. Tessa Newton: Pathfinder Adventure Path #175: Broken Tusk Moon (Quest for the Frozen Flame 1 of 3)
• Senior Developer John Compton, Thurston Hillman, and Ron Lundeen: Starfinder Galactic Magic






We’ve a lot of art to show. And don’t miss those Paizo LIVE Spoilers!

Have questions for the guests? Ask them here! Then we’ll see you on today for Paizo LIVE!

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks,
Marketing and Media Manager

twitch.tv/officialpaizo!

Paizo LIVE is our near-monthly, 2-hour live Twitch show featuring the Paizo staff and guests talking about upcoming Pathfinder and Starfinder releases. Join us for Episode 8 of Paizo LIVE from 4 to 6 p.m. Pacific next Friday, January 21. Catch past episodes on YouTube.

I’ll show off all our January Releases! Here are the featured products and scheduled guests:

• Pathfinder Adventure Path #175: Broken Tusk Moon (Quest for the Frozen Flame 1 of 3): Patrick Renie, Ron Lundeen, Stephanie Lundeen, and Ianara Natividad
• Starfinder Galactic Magic: John Compton, Ianara Natividad, Thurston Hillman, and Ron Lundeen
• Starfinder Bounty #1: The Cantina Job: Thurston Hillman
• Starfinder Society Scenario #4-13: Hard Reset, Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-09: The Secluded Siege, and Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-08: Foundation's Price: Mike Kimmel

This episode, the three questions I will ask are:

1. What story does this product help tell?
2. What rules does this product use most or what innovations does it bring to Pathfinder or Starfinder?
3. Is there an insider or behind-the-scenes story of the product’s creation you would like to share? A challenge or joy you found?

And then the conversation will unfold from there. In terms of images, we will showcase the final covers, tables of contents, and chapter header art. Finally, when signing off, I will ask each guest for a Paizo LIVE Spoiler. This can be about any announced future product!

Have questions for the guests? Ask them here! Then we’ll see you on Friday, January 21, for Paizo LIVE at twitch.tv/officialpaizo!

Have questions? Ask them here! Then we’ll see you on Friday, December 10, for Paizo LIVE at twitch.tv/officialpaizo!

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks,
Marketing and Media Manager

Today is National Science Fiction Day in the U.S., so it feels a bit like a communal unbirthday for every author who writes weird fiction speculating about what might happen. I took a stroll around the virtual office to talk with some of my colleagues, who are science fiction authors and game designers themselves, and asked them to talk about their personal connections to sci-fi, their inspirations, and what kind of stories interest them.

Alien Mascot, art by Milos Rocenovic

It will probably come as a surprise to no one that my biggest sci-fi influences are largely comedic. I mean, when faced with yawning infinite void of space, you just have to laugh, right? For me, it probably started with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in all its forms: books, radio play, text adventure, BBC series, and eventually, major motion picture. There’s something so relatable about a hapless Earthling being thrust into a galactic adventure of stolen spaceships, time travel, and bureaucracy. From there, I would find Space Quest (featuring the first space janitor?), Red Dwarf (“Everybody’s. Dead. Dave.”), Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon (though that series is more a vehicle for puns than anything else), and Futurama (best math jokes in the biz!). The goofier episodes of The X-Files and Farscape are among my favorite. More recently, Galaxy Quest and Lower Decks have taken their shots at that most venerable of sci-fi institutions, Star Trek. Much of comedic sci-fi lovingly pokes fun at its own genre or points at the foibles of the present through a sci-fi lens. And that’s the kind of influence I try to bring to Starfinder when appropriate. Our iconic biohacker hosts a family-friendly science-oriented vidshow that often leads to more danger than it should. A group of skittermanders rescue their vesk boss from a dangerous massage machine. I love adding those sorts of touches, and I hope you enjoy them too! I can’t wait for you to see what’s next!

Jason Keeley
Starfinder Development Manager

Android, art by Mark Molnar

My dad got me into science fiction at an early age, with Heinlein’s Rocket Ship Galileo. Heinlein wrote a YA science fiction novel every year, just in time for Christmas. It was a smart strategy. I don’t know how many of those books I read: Have Spacesuit Will Travel, The Star Beast, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. In high school, I had my first actual class on science fiction, which introduced me to everything from Asimov and John Carter to Riverworld and Chalker’s Well of Souls; predictably, my final project was a Well of Souls wargame I designed myself. In fact, by this point, my science fiction intake was starting to be determined as much by games as by novels; I spent my rainy days pouring over Traveler’s Imperium, rolling random mutations in Gamma World, and playing Star Fleet Battles. When I got to college, I wandered the campus bookstore looking for stuff I’d never heard of before, and that got me to Phil Dick’s Man in the High Castle and the Mirrorshades anthology, which broke open the cyberpunk genre. It took me a couple of tries to figure out Dune. As a graduate student, I studied science fiction under the great and much-missed Dr. George Slusser, curator of the University of California Riverside’s Eaton Collection, one of the largest collections of SF in the world. One day, on my way out of class, I told Slusser, “You know, I want your job.” He said to me, “Stick around here long enough, you might get it.” When he passed in 2014, I applied for that gig. I didn’t get it, but no regrets. Now, I get to make science fiction instead of curate it, and some of the things I’ve made are on the shelves of the Eaton Collection. I’ll take that deal.

Jason Tondro
Senior Developer

We’re standing next to each other at a convention. It’s loud and crowded here in the dealer hall, but we’ve identified one another as fellow sci-fi nerds; the awkward serendipity when two weirdos recognize each other in the wild. We’ve been existing in a pandemic for two years at this point so we desperately want to chat with someone new, so we’re eager to start a conversation. Our hobby is our common ground, so we start talking about favorite works of sci-fi. You list the various novels, video games, and films that first connected you to a network of other minds imagining extraordinary realities. I tell you I’m inspired by the works of Yoko Taro, Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison, Tade Thompson, and the Strugatsky brothers. Then you ask one of those classic icebreaker questions: Which Star Trek is your favorite?

Cleo Striker, art by Raphael Madureira

I shrug. I’m not really into Star Trek, but I watched some with my parents growing up. (Star Wars’ western vibe was always more my jam, but my dad’s a certified trekkie.) So I tell you that my favorite is Voyager. Why? You ask. You’re correctly assuming Captain Janeway has something to do with it. We rewind to my childhood. When my parents began watching Voyager, I was an awkward girl with scabbed knees and an unflattering bowl cut. During the show’s run, I transformed from invisible tomboy to sullen preteen. I hated my body and wasn’t comfortable with the changes puberty was enforcing on it. I didn’t agree with everything I saw in the world around me. I was powerless to change anything and waiting for my real life to begin. Enter Seven of Nine, a badass with a crisp Federation uniform and stylish pixie cut. She was everything I dreamed of becoming. In her, I saw the future.

But she was more than a childhood role model for me. Even though I never watched the entire series, Seven’s narrative first sparked my interest in telling stories that explore the definition of humanity and the nature of the soul. She was concrete evidence of a feminine person driving her own narrative. And there were others like her. Ripley, Sarah Connor, General Leia, and (much later) Furiosa became favorite characters and visions of powerful femininity, canonized as goddesses in a new pantheon. I expect that of all my space heroines, Seven of Nine had the deepest influence on me.

Now, imagine yourself back in the convention hall. You listen politely to my explanation and we gush about our favorite sci-fi characters for few more minutes. I ask you another question, maybe about video games, and the ice is broken. We chat for a while. We say goodbye and head off to our next destinations, happy to have met and befriended a fellow nerd.

But, I digress. This is a blog about sci-fi in general, not “POV: you meet me at a convention.” Sci-fi works have had such an influence on my life, and it’s pretty amazing to be able to call myself a sci-fi creator now. When experiencing sci-fi, we can dream of other worlds near and far. We can hope for a bright solarpunk future and try to write it into being, or examine the great conflicts of our own lives, our fears, our struggles, through a lens that allows others to understand us better. Thanks to all of you for your interest in other worlds, and expect the aliens, philosophical machines, mechs, and space shenanigans to continue.

Jenny Jarzabski
Starfinder Developer

You heard from some of us. What’s your favorite work of science fiction? What inspires your own Starfinder games? We’d love to hear from you!

Let these mythical creatures not be overshadowed! Our freelancers aren't monsters in any sense of the word, but according to the vernacular of today's internet, you could call them absolute beasts! While the writers of our Paizo products are always credited in the front and back of the books, a simple name in a byline doesn’t give readers much information on the people who work to bring the setting to life. Instead, I reached out to the authors with the intent of promoting them—as well as any other personal work they would like to show off, so that new fans could find other projects, RPG products, websites, livestreams, and more to enjoy! If there's a section in the book that you particularly liked, why not check out the author behind it today?

Eleanor Ferron
Pathfinder Developer

Dana Ebert

Hi there! It's Dana Ebert (she/her), and I'm so excited to be back so soon! In Monsters of Myth, I took on Desert's Howl, which first appeared in Mythical Monsters Revisited almost ten years ago. This version expands on Jalari's story, while reimagining Desert's Howl as a unique monster with brand new lore and abilities for Second Edition.

I honestly adore the final stat block for Desert's Howl. I conceptualized its abilities with the intent of using mechanics to convey the feeling of being hunted and toyed with, and this version is simply vicious at denying the player characters rest and recovery in between encounters with the creature. With the release of this book, I hope that there'll be a few more Desert's Howl fans in the future!

As always, thank you so much for reading and making this community such a wonderful place! If you use Desert's Howl or any of its lore in your campaign (I'm very fond of Jalari's treasure coins, myself), I would love to hear about it on Twitter (https://twitter.com/MistressDanaRPG). And if you ever want to know more about what I'm currently working on, you can find that information on my Linktree (https://linktr.ee/MistressDanaRPG).

Sen.H.H.S

Hello, readers and greetings from Sen.H.H.S., your freelancer who lives across the Pacific Ocean from North America. You may have seen me around in projects such as Bestiary 3, Ruby Phoenix's Goka Gazetteer, Secret of Magic, and many other publications. For Monsters of Myth, I wrote the kaijus. When this assignment first came down, I was internally screaming because my gods, the pressure to deliver! Just how am I going to do these gigantic walking natural or supernatural disasters justice? After copious amounts of kaiju wikia consumption and kaiju movie clips (Pacific Rim is the best movie ever!) I hope the end result is as awe-inspiring (or horror-inspiring) as intended. If you’re interested in knowing what I'm up to recently in the TTRPG sphere, follow me on Twitter @SenHHS where I bemoan how my current reading list of forensic textbooks is raising eyebrows.

Aaron Lascano

Hello! I’m Aaron, and I wrote and designed rules for two sections in Monsters of Myth: Kuworsys and Somnalu. I had an absolute blast working on both of them, as I did a bit of research and reading of epic myth to prepare (a quick recommendation: The Epic of Gilgamesh is a genuinely incredible read). I’m fascinated by how myths are remembered, and how interpretations and treatments of myth change over time. I hope my sections even encourage players to do a bit of that themselves.

With Kuworsys, I had the opportunity to craft a new story around a pre-existing location, and with Somnalu, I got to contribute to the story of a legendary figure from Pathfinder’s past. I’m very excited for players to explore the ever-shifting ruins of Kuworsys’s labyrinth and to descend into the depths to confront slithering Somnalu.

If you’re interested, you can find me on Twitter at @devlascano. I make narrative-focused TTRPGs on Itch and I do freelance work on games whenever an opportunity arises. Cheers!

Andrew Mullen

Howdy! I’m Andrew Mullen, writer of xulgaths and quite a few other monsters at this point. For this project, I worked alongside Josh Kim and Liane Merciel. Josh wrote Kothogaz’s lore, and turning that into rules was an exciting challenge. I wanted a big, campaign-ending abomination to have more ‘breadth’ in the story than just the confrontation where you hope to kill it. For the Melfesh Monster, I just got to read through Liane’s fantastic work and pluck out tidbits to turn into monster abilities—she gave me a ton to work with!

Beyond my co-authors, I want to give a special thanks to my cousin Sameer Gupta. He’s a talented musician who focuses on American jazz and Indian classical music. Given Kothogaz’s ties to Vudra, it was important that I do right by any real-world Indian cultural aspects I used for inspiration. Without Sameer, the Craft Disharmonic Instrument and Raga of Remembrance sections wouldn’t be nearly as flavorful, interesting, or accurate. You can check him out on his website, and across social media as @tablajazz. I also highly recommend his album “A Circle Has No Beginning”—it’s gotten me through a lot of late night deadline pushes!

Shay Snow

Hi, I'm Shay Snow (they/them), I'm an editor at Paizo, and I wrote up the Kallas Devil and partnered with the extremely talented Liane Merciel to stat up Ulgrem-Axaan! I hope my skipping rhyme and lovely letters bring you lots of shivers, and I hope you enjoy all of the neat things that both the Kallas Devil and Ulgrem-Axaan can do for your games! You may have seen me in Pathfinder Lost Omens Grand Bazaar and Secrets of Magic, and I have a few things coming out in Galactic Magic. Additionally, you can find my name on a few Coyote & Crow projects!

When not writing, I’m usually discussing Native issues and rights over on my Twitter @SpellsInSugar, where you can also sometimes catch me talking about video games and horror media. You can keep up with my work, or even contact me for hire, through my website https://shayjay.carrd.co/!

Soup

"Heya, I’m Soup! I’m a nonbinary Korean-American freelance writer/game designer/podcaster/streamer. I love nothing more than cool new angles on classic fantasy tropes. I’m really excited for this book because I got to draw from Korean mythology and tradition to bring you the Taljjae, a creature inspired by the real-life mask dancing of Korea, and hopefully a cool addition to your games. You can find me streaming video games here (https://www.twitch.tv/literalsoup), my work here (https://literalsoup.com/), listen to my podcast here (http://absoluteterritorycast.com/), or contact me about business inquiries at literalsoup@gmail.com."

Jake Tondro

From a tall tower of ivory Tondro arose,
Where tales of Tolkien and Arthur he’d told.
But he exited, hexed, a man in exile,
To get a gamer’s refuge working for golems.
Then in plague, a plentiful pestilence,
Luis and Eleanor, developers at large,
Boldly offered a boon to the bairn.
“Fafnheir,” they said first, “of linnorms the father
“And Grogrisant, greedy for imperial guts
“Belong in this book, do not betray us!”
This task Tondro gladly took up
And laboring long in darkness and light
He sang the six-eyed lion’s song
And wove a wyrm from stubborn words.

Hi, Pathfinders and Starfinders! We’re lucky to have a community full of awesome people with so many different identities and experiences. Today, we want to give the spotlight to members of our community with disabilities. These folks are game designers, content creators, players and GMs, business owners, writers, and artists. Please take a few moments to learn more about them in their own words.

Zigvigix, Illustration by Sebastien Rodriguez, from the Starfinder Society Organized Play Program

GM Numbat (they/she)

I started playing RPGs in the mid-late ‘70s, enjoying the original D&D with its flimsy booklets and fun dice. Within a year, I was running games at my all-girls high school. I’ve played many systems over the years, though usually only briefly and with long breaks between. Partly this was because of a complex interaction of several chronic mental and physical conditions which can limit my abilities. I am grateful for the Paizo Organized Play community, where I found an accepting and welcoming home.

None of my health concerns are obvious by looking at me. The major advantage to this is that when I have a good day, no one prejudges me simply based on appearance. The major disadvantage is that when I am having a bad day, it is difficult for some to understand, as I look “normal.” Over time, I have become better at learning my limits and predicting some of those times that I need to cut back on commitments. Still, I can be caught out with an unexpected flare and have to pull out of playing, or worse, running a game. I always feel terrible when I do, even though most of our community has been wonderfully supportive. Dietary restrictions are a challenge, especially when traveling or wanting to socialize. I catch myself annoyed by someone’s fidgeting or apparent distraction at the table and remind myself that this may be their coping mechanism, just as I have mine. We are each so individual, with our own needs and concerns, often not obvious to others. Let us celebrate those differences and the unique perspective they bring.

Ivis K. Flanagan (she/her)

Disabilities come in many forms. There are disabilities that the world can observe and recognize. There are others, though, that people fight in the dark, because the social stigma of them can be a silence spell, where the anxiety of the possible response is more encompassing than the darkness of suffering alone. PTSD is one of those.

PTSD is the demon that I fight. While many often associate this fight with former soldiers or others who have been in warzones, those are not the only demons at hand. Any traumatic event can be a catalyst. This is my fight—utilizing weapons of words, medications, and therapy in the ongoing battle. I now add to these this transparency in the hopes that someone else will see that they aren’t alone. You have allies who know these battlefields well.

Another weapon against it is finding safe spaces and friends who care. I have been able to do that through this community—the players, volunteers, freelancers, and staff who I am lucky to call colleagues and friends. This community is ever growing, and its values of inclusion, diversity, and honesty are why it is a safe space, a space I am grateful to help create, and a place where no one has to fight alone.

Tassada Kor Full, “Illustration by Milos Rocenovic from SFS #4-06: Combatants’ Concerto: Prelude to Revolution

Avi Kool (they/them)

Hi all! I’m senior editor at Paizo (on Twitter at @legalizegoblins) and multiply disabled, both physically and mentally. Due to hypermobility and congenital muscle issues, I have numerous joint conditions and when walking for more than a few minutes, I have to wear braces on my knees to reduce pain. This can lead to awkward questions, uncomfortable assumptions, and a sense of self-consciousness. Sticking out in public is challenging, whether it’s the braces themselves or the need to use the elevator when all my friends automatically go for the stairs. Additionally, I have a whole cocktail of mental and learning disabilities. This isn’t uncommon; comorbidity is the norm for mental illness and learning disabilities, which is why you often see people listing out a number of disorders. Here’s my list: bipolar disorder, OCD, generalized anxiety disorder, ADHD, and dyscalculia. I struggle with feeling self-conscious about the number of health problems I face, but there’s no need to be ashamed. Disability is actually extremely common, though we don’t talk about it like it is, and many people with disabilities have more than one.

It’s been a huge pleasure to see disability become more prominent in our games. I feel so lucky to have worked on books like Grand Bazaar, where I gave my NPC, Arhan Benimaya, a service dog. Disability *is* normal, and we should treat it as such.

Dave Nelson (he/they)

Hey everybody! I'm Dave Nelson and I live with a handful of disabilities, mainly autism, dyslexia/dysgraphia, and anxiety. Often these "invisible" disabilities get either swept under the rug or have their legitimacy questioned. It makes it quite the uphill battle to get recognized and taken seriously. I feel very strongly that more exposure to what folks with these disabilities are actually like and what they go through will help combat these issues. So from the very start of my writing career I have tried to champion neurodiverse causes and representation as best I can. You can find examples of my neurodiverse characters both in Lost Omens Grand Bazaar in the form of Erikanesh, or the upcoming Absalom, City of Lost Omens with Chun Hye-Seung. You can find me on Twitter @davicthegrey, talking about my experiences, games, and all other manner of things.

Chun Hae Seung, Illustration by Alex Stone, from Pathfinder Absalom, City of Lost Omens

Stefan “Waffles” Timmons (he/him)

Hello, I am Stefan, better known in the TTRPG sphere as Waffles from WafflesMapleSyrup LLC. I am a disabled US Navy veteran with major depressive disorder, tinnitus, as well as other depressive contributing factors such as insomnia and chronic pain. I have battled with suicide in my life and strive to have nobody need to fight that battle alone.

I am one of the two CEOs of WafflesMapleSyrup, who run two separate streams and podcasts. I am the GM of our Starfinder show Journeys Adrift, and I play an android magus (Arc II) in our Strength of Thousands show, Outcast & Outclassed. TTRPGs have given me a close-knit group of friends and a significant other that keep my head up and let me strive to do better in life.

WafflesMapleSyrup strives to reduce the stigma against mental health with our platform in TTRPGs, and because of their similar standards, love to do so with Paizo. We've participated in PaizoCon streams, Jasper's Game Day, and Paizo events, among other events with various creators since we began.

We aim to build our platform into something large enough to have the reach necessary to reduce the stigma against mental health and show that it is okay to be different, it's okay to be disabled, and there should always be a place for everyone at the table.

Esther Wallace (she/her, zhe/zher)

Hi y’all, I’m Esther Wallace. I GM Chromythica, a Pathfinder 2E actual play, and I’m multiply disabled. I have myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), two types of OI (osteogenesis imperfecta, a rare bone disease, and orthostatic intolerance, which mostly means I get really dizzy when I stand up), and other as-yet-undiagnosed chronic illnesses.

My disabilities come with frequent symptoms of brain fog, intense pain, and exhaustion. I’m still learning how to navigate as a disabled person in the tabletop community. Gaming spaces are so often not constructed with disabled people in mind; for me, it makes all the difference in the world if a GM and fellow players ask me about my access needs and work with me to implement accessibility practices. As a player, this can take the shape of GMs building in time for me to move my body or encouraging me to play online games from bed or a couch. As a GM, this frequently takes the form of my players helping me recall rules on particularly bad brain fog days!

I created the hashtags #tabletopaccess and #ttrpgaccess as a way for disabled people to discuss our experiences in tabletop, and I host periodic Twitter chats about disability and tabletop RPGs using these hashtags. Disabled people are welcome to respond to any of the prompts I’ve posted, and nondisabled people are welcome to follow along and learn!

You can find me on Twitter @dungeonminister and catch me GMing @Chromythica on Twitter and YouTube!

Illustration by Lucas Villalva Machado, from Pathfinder Lost Omens Grand Bazaar

Owen K.C. Stephens (he/him)

Hi, I’m Owen K.C. Stephens. I’ve been playing and homebrewing for TTRPGs for 39 years, been a professional game writer for 25 years, a developer for 21, and a publisher and consultant for 9. My involvement with Paizo goes back to the early days of the company putting out DragonMagazine. I wrote the original Guide to Absalom as a freelancer, was a Paizo developer on-staff from 2014 to 2019, am a co-creator of Starfinder, and have done regular freelance work for Paizo since I left. I am also the publisher and co-owner for Rogue Genius Games, and the Fantasy AGE developer for Green Ronin.

Content Warning: Trauma, abuse, and suicidal thoughts discussed in the rest of this bio.

I’m a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. I have Civilian Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (also known as Non-Combat PTSD) and Major Depressive Disorder. I must be medicated and undergo psychotherapy in order to remain functional. This is much like having a broken leg and needing crutches—the crutches don’t let you act normally, but they do make it possible to get more done than you possibly could without them.

Gaming, both game-writing and game-playing, have been a major source of therapy and the ability to build a social safety net for myself. Before I was diagnosed, without RPGs, I would not have survived high school. I know games are important—they saved my life—and believe representation is a crucial part of that.

You can find me and links to my social media at owenkcstephens.com.

For content designed by disabled authors and game designers for playing characters with disabilities, check out Pathfinder Grand Bazaar and Starfinder Tech Revolution! For some great fiction, read “Wheels Aflame” by Sara Thompson.

On the occasion of Transgender Awareness Week, we at Paizo want to reaffirm our support for our transgender colleagues, creators, and community members. We recognize that we've not always been there for our trans community members. While things are rough now, we as a company are dedicated to improving and providing a safe space for all gamers—especially trans gamers—to play, create, and be part of a thriving community where they are not only welcomed but celebrated.

We felt that this year, we shouldn’t place additional emotional labor upon our trans staff, creators, and community to contribute to a blog for Trangender Awareness Week. Rather, we wanted to address the issue of transphobia on our forums.

Many members of the community have noted a high amount of homophobic and transphobic posts recently. Let us be clear: these hateful posts are not okay under any circumstances, and those who make them will be faced with permanent suspension from the forums. Though our customer service department is doing their best to keep watch and address moderation flags, it’s clear that the volume of moderation needed on the forums in the last few months has meant that the team sometimes takes more time than usual to moderate a thread.

Transphobia is serious and removing it from the forums should take precedence over other more routine moderation tasks. Therefore, if you need to report transphobia on the forums, please don’t hesitate to contact customer service directly by email at customer.service@paizo.com with INTOLERANCE in the subject line. Any such hate will be dealt with swiftly and incur a permanent suspension.

While we realize that combatting discrimination is an ongoing process and this is only a small step, we hope that it can begin to make our community forums a place where all members of our community feel welcome, and more importantly, safe.

Thank you to our trans community members and other allies who have pushed us to be better recently. We hear you, we value you, and we will continue to improve ourselves, our games, and our community to earn back the trust we’ve lost. It’s hard to admit that we haven’t been living up to our values, but it’s the right thing to do, and we can’t move forward without doing so.

Please also consider donating to nonprofits benefiting and supporting the trans community—members of our staff recommend TGI Justice Project and Ingersoll Gender Center, though there are many great organizations doing the work that would value your contribution.

Over the last six weeks, Paizo's Leadership Team has attempted to better listen to and understand the challenges faced by its workforce, customers, and community. We want to take a moment to update you on a few important developments that have emerged from those conversations.

Before we begin, it's important to note that this update does not address requests regarding salaries, adjustments to the current work-from-home environment, or other matters that are now subject to negotiation with the United Paizo Workers union during collective bargaining.

We’re still searching diligently for a candidate to fill the company’s Human Resources Manager position, and plan to begin interviews very shortly. As this is an incredibly important hire, we want to make sure we find the right candidate with experience leading initiatives related to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) and working with a union. We are continuing to gather resumes as the search continues.

We’ve hired a company called Energage to complete an employee engagement survey on behalf of Paizo. This survey is designed to allow employees to provide anonymous, unfiltered, and honest feedback to the company that will help Paizo establish priorities for improvement planning. It will also serve as an important benchmark against which to measure the results of future surveys, allowing us to develop a baseline to measure against. We expect employees to be able to access the engagement survey sometime this week.

Discussion in the past several months has resurfaced two instances in which a Paizo executive mishandled user data when replying to message board posts, resulting in allegations of doxxing. These actions were contrary to Paizo policy, and corrective actions were taken to ensure that this does not happen again.

“This was a huge mistake on my part and I am deeply sorry for any issues that have arisen from these actions. This was not the right way to treat our customers and I apologize,” said Paizo President Jeff Alvarez. “As President, I know I need to hold myself to a higher standard.”

Paizo takes issues related to discrimination and harassment very seriously. We have hired the law firm of Moritt Hock & Hamroff (MH&H) to investigate allegations of discrimination against trans employees and sexual misconduct before reporting back to the Leadership Team. Investigators from the firm will reach out to members of Paizo’s staff and others that made claims on social media. Cooperation with the firm is voluntary, of course, but we remain committed to investigating these matters thoroughly to ensure a safe and respectful workplace.

We chose MH&H upon the recommendation of a consultant with expertise in matters of DEIB. MH&H has a team of attorneys that specialize in these issues, and we’re confident they’ll be able to provide an impartial analysis of the facts that we need to move forward with any corrective actions.

Because the results of these investigations are private personnel matters, Paizo will not be able to make them public. Corrective actions will be taken against any employee (including managers and executives) found to be guilty of these allegations.

It has never been Paizo’s intention to discriminate against any employee when making decisions of who to send to industry trade shows, but we see now that our room-sharing policy was based on outdated interpretations of gender, was not friendly to transgender employees, and could contribute to a perception of transphobia at the company. Paizo’s Leadership Team acknowledges the pain this caused, and we understand that we need to be better at recognizing issues where such decisions could have unintended results. We also recognize that such actions do not align with Paizo's core values, the values of its staff members, or the sentiments of diversity and inclusion expressed in Paizo products, and as such, have disappointed, angered, and confused members of our community. We believe these mistakes are not representative of who we are, or what we want the company to represent. We need to do better... and we will.

“As the person in charge of trade shows, I want to apologize to anyone that felt marginalized as a result of the convention decision-making process,” said Jeff Alvarez. “It was not our intent to discriminate against anyone, and I’m sorry.”

As previously communicated, Paizo has adopted a one-employee-per-room travel policy moving forward. Regardless of gender identity, couples will be allowed to share rooms during travel as long as both parties request it.

Paizo remains committed to maintaining a diverse, safe, and fun workplace where our employees are treated fairly and look forward to creating awesome Pathfinder and Starfinder products for many years to come. We hope that this update helps communicate that we, the Leadership Team, are doing our best to listen to and address the concerns of our community members. We believe in creating a better Paizo, and believe that transparency, communication, and accountability will be instrumental as we move forward. Thank you for your continued support of our company and our products.

Paizo Leadership Team
David, Erik, Jeff, Jim, Lisa, and Mike

First, we at Paizo acknowledge that our beautiful coastal rainforest is the traditional, unceded land of the Coast Salish people, specifically the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish People. Today and every day we honor the Duwamish Tribe—past and present—and the land itself.

November is Native American Heritage month. This is a time to celebrate the culture, history, and heritage of indigenous peoples across the Americas. We asked some of our Native American contributors and staff to lend their voices to this celebration.

Dolok Darkfur, from Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-12: Breath of the Dragonskull by Michael Sayre

Michael Sayre, Paizo Designer (he/him)

Growing up, my grandpa’s Tlingit stories showed me how storytelling works as a vehicle for culture and values (and how it’s a great way to pass the time waiting for the fish to bite!) Those stories of kushtaka and little men in the woods excited me, and I remember hanging on my grandpa’s every word, realizing how his cadences and storytelling devices had been passed to my uncles, who would use the same rhythm even for different stories, which were all so hypnotic and mesmerizing. I remember the elders at the rec center and other events who would tell stories I’d never heard before but which were still so familiar.

Stories of Raven helped me contextualize the cleverness and skill of Tlingit elders and leaders in a modern environment, and I’d only continue to discover the value and power of some of those stories as I grew older. Stories about Bear (both ally and obstacle) helped me realize how strong people can be when I thought that people, especially me, were just weak and flawed. All of those stories and experiences helped make me realize that I wanted to tell stories of my own. Gunalchèesh ax eet yeelatûowu.

Taking the first steps to telling those stories never would have happened without the support of Goldbelt, our tribal corporation, that assisted me on numerous occasions with education and health care related issues that would have forced different life choices if I’d had to navigate them without a corporation representing a rich tapestry of communities supporting me. What I am, all the Tlingit & Haida people of southeast Alaska helped me be.

Jessica Catalan, Paizo Developer (she/her)

Hi everyone! My name is Jessica Catalan (she/her), and I’m a Canadian, Métis freelancer author and Starfinder Line Developer for the Starfinder Society. This year, Canada held its first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, an annual commemoration honoring the children who died while attending residential schools and the survivors, families, and communities still affected by the legacy of the residential school system. While this is a step forward for us, reconciliation without action is just words and there is much to be done. I’ll spare you the newscast.

I’m not much of a speaker, but as many of us have realized over the past two years, while one voice can be silenced, together we are strong, and we can be heard. So, in addition to raising my voice and lending my support to Every Child Matters, MMIWG2S, and other movements here in Canada, I can take two concrete steps I’d like to mention today: reclamation and amplification.

Today, I’m here to amplify. I encourage you to look at the other names on this blog—check out their works, support them on ko-fi or patreon, back and purchase their projects, follow them on social media. Hear them. Keep an eye out for other Indigenous works, such as Coyote & Crow, and support the people involved. And if you’re an Indigenous TTRPG author who loves Starfinder and is struggling to have your voice heard, reach out to me. I’m listening.

Carlos Cabrera, Paizo Contributor (he/him)

Hi there, my name is Carlos Cabrera. I am mixed, but I identify as Mexican, Indigenous (Mescalero Apache), and Cape Verde (Portuguese and African). At first, I was going to write something for both Hispanic Heritage Month and Native American Heritage Month, but when I started looking into my family history—closer than I ever have before—I had to take some time for myself. The facts were not very pretty, and history was not kind to my family as early as either grandparent on my father’s side.

I also grew up in a white household. My mother's family comes from a variety of European countries, and even a little Cherokee as history also likes to dictate. There are other idiosyncrasies there as well, but I recognize that my upbringing comes with a certain amount of privilege. Earlier this year, I wrote to the Mescalero Apache Reservation to see if my family had any affiliation. My relief when I discovered they were not was short-lived. The facts of how my family avoided that were not any prettier.

I think that is why I pledged a copy of the Coyote & Crow RPG to the reservation and continue to write to this day. I hope it inspires someone to either get into games or go on their own grand adventure, even if they don't have the luxury of walking out their front door like I did. Maybe one day I can even pay them. I think that would be my American Dream.

Miiyu, from Starfinder Society #4-06: Combatants' Concerto: Prelude to Revolution by Shay Snow

Shay Snow, Paizo Editor (they/them)

Kúha’ahat, táy:sha’! I’m Shay Snow and I’m mixed Native American. My family stems from two separate tribes—my mother’s tribe is Caddo and my father’s tribe is Swampy Cree. Both tribes have strong matriarchal ties, so when introducing myself I lead with my mother’s tribe and then follow-up with my father’s tribe. I can’t speak on being just a Native TTRPG creator, but I can speak on being a Caddo and Swampy Cree creator.

Being a Caddo creator means crafting your words carefully, knowing that your language is dying. Being a Caddo creator means trying to take all of the nuance of your language, the humor, the care, the cadence that warms your heart and makes you want to move when it’s spoken, and trying to put it into a language that your family was forced to adopt and speak. Being a Caddo creator means trying to find rhythm and when you can’t find it, forcing that rhythm into your work so that hopefully your words make other people want to move and dance.

Being a Swampy Cree creator means moving slowly through the minefield that is your history and trying to pluck the safe bits out so that your heritage doesn’t accidentally cause you pain. Being a Swampy Cree creator means knowing that some parts of your culture have been taken and commodified and it’s now on your shoulders to look at those spirits and offer your respect as you try to carefully tell their stories without causing danger or harm.

Being a Native creator in 2021 has meant creating and crafting with careful words and tools while also being painfully aware of everything pouring into the news and media over the past year. It means writing and trying to bring joy while burning sweetgrass and mourning over loved ones lost recently and loved ones lost long ago and recently found.

My name is Shay Snow, I live on unceded Caddo and Wichita land, and my family calls me Little Jay.

To all members of our community with indigenous heritage: thank you for all you do as creators, GMs, players, and people.

CEO Lisa Stevens recently expanded the Paizo Leadership Team to include industry veterans Mike Webb and Jim Butler. Mike and Jim join Jeff Alvarez, Erik Mona, Lisa Stevens, and David Reuland as they work together to drive Paizo into the future.

“With me stepping back from day-to-day operations of Paizo, it’s been important for me to find leaders that can guide the company into the future,” said Lisa Stevens, CEO of Paizo.

Jim Butler began working in the industry as an editor and game designer for TSR, eventually moving to Seattle with Wizards of the Coast where he worked alongside Lisa Stevens on the brand team for Dungeons & Dragons. Jim founded Bastion Press before working for Turbine/WB Games on Dungeons & Dragons Online and The Lord of the Rings Online. He then worked for Trion Worlds as Director of Global Marketing for RIFT and other MMOs.He completed the circle in 2017 when he returned to Seattle to work for Paizo as Vice President of Marketing and Licensing. He lives in Redmond with his husband Matthew and their furkids (Toker, Stella, and Skylar).

“I’m excited to bring my experiences and expertise to help shape the future of Paizo,” said Jim Butler. “Gaming is an integral part of my life, and I’m looking forward to working with the rest of the leadership team to grow the Pathfinder and Starfinder brands for many years to come!”

Mike Webb has been a role player since 1980, and made his living in the industry since 1997, when he joined Zocchi Distributing as Vice President and General Manager. In 2000, he joined the crew of Alliance Game Distributors as Vice President of Customer Service and Marketing, where he led innovative and national award winning in-store promotions and marketing programs. He has been active in the community, serving 14 years on the Game Manufacturers Association Board of Directors, and running miniature games and rpgs at local and nationwide conventions. An avid fan of Pathfinder from the beginning, Mike joined the Paizo team in July 2021. Mike lives in Decatur, Indiana where he runs a weekly Pathfinder game for his high school son.

"I've long found Paizo to epitomize what's great about our business. Bringing people to the table to tell epic stories together, providing truly mythic campaigns and Adventure Paths, and providing GMs and players tools that expand that experience - these are the things that made me a fan,” said Mike Webb, Vice President of Sales and E-Commerce. “Having the chance to join a team I've admired for years is the opportunity of a lifetime.”

You can reach Jim and Mike via email at jim.butler@paizo.com and mike.webb@paizo.com.

Paizo is pleased to announce it has voluntarily recognized the United Paizo Workers union, which is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

“We look forward to working with the union to continue and expand our efforts to make Paizo a better place to work and to ensure that Pathfinder and Starfinder products continue to exceed gamer expectations for many years to come,” said Jeff Alvarez, President of Paizo.

The next steps will involve the United Paizo Workers (UPW) union electing their bargaining representatives and then meeting with Paizo management to negotiate terms for a collective bargaining agreement. We expect this process to take some time, but we are committed to the effort and hope to settle a contract in due course. Until an agreement is reached, the Paizo staff continues to focus on creating amazing Pathfinder and Starfinder products.

Paizo has always been about creating awesome games, and we look forward to the changes that unionization will bring to the company. Please join us on this journey by following the UPW on Twitter and stay tuned for future updates!

September 15th through October 15th is National Hispanic Heritage month here in the United States, a time to honor the accomplishments, culture, and history of folks whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Here at Paizo, we’re proud of our Hispanic coworkers, contributors, and community members! We’re taking an extra day to celebrate them and all the amazing work they do. Here’s a few of our awesome contributors.

Luis Loza (he/him), Paizo Developer

I’m of Mexican heritage, but always felt like I wasn’t Mexican enough growing up. I’d get weird looks for being into games or for being loud and goofy. I wasn’t always a quiet child that was into the same things as my parents, relatives, or peers. For a long time, I felt like I wasn’t being Mexican the right way, even though that’s a silly notion. A lot of my best friends growing up were white because it seemed like white people could kind of do whatever they wanted to and at best be written off as weird, rather than “not white enough.” Over the years, I learned part of it was because of boundaries as to where Mexican ended and everything else began. Mexicans did A, B, and C, but not X, Y, and Z. I saw it with a lot of people, not just Mexicans. It could be a heritage thing, a religion thing, a sexuality thing, a gender thing. These invisible boundaries were there, and I was tired of them. I like the things I like and that doesn’t make me less Mexican. Part of the reason I enjoy RPGs is because anyone can do anything they want or be whomever they want. I hope that I can extend a hand to other people to climb past these boundaries with our games. Maybe the next person we help can begin tearing these boundaries down so everyone can be who they want without feeling like they’re not doing it correctly.
Thanks,
Luis Loza

Diego Valdez (he/him), Paizo contributor and former Customer Service Representative

My name is Diego. I’ve been around the TTRPG industry in a few ways. You may know me from my time as a customer service representative for Paizo. But I have also done a lot of freelance writing for both Pathfinder and Starfinder! For org play I have written two Starfinder Society scenarios and a quest, and I also have three ACG adventures under my belt. I have a little bit of backmatter in an AP for each Pathfinder and Starfinder. You can also find me as a contributor on Alien Archive 3, Near Space, Starship Operations Manual, Tech Revolution, Gods & Magic, and the soon to be released Absalom, City of Lost Omens.

I come from northern New Mexico, and I am very proud of my Chicano background and heritage. Since I was young learning about it, embracing it, and living it has always been an important part of who and what I am, even now, here in Washington so far from home. Being able to bring more of that into the worlds I write for is something I have really wanted to do. From a Curandera class, to an adventure revolving around novelas, to setting locations with a Nuevo Mejicano style, I hope to bring it all!

Joseph Blomquist (he/him), Paizo Contributor

Hola, my friends. I’m Joseph Blomquist, a Nuyorican writer with a decade or so of freelance work around the game industry. I’ve contributed to MWP’s Smallville RPG and Marvel Heroic Roleplaying lines, to Starfinder Society with 2-21: Illegal Shipment, 3-18: Secrets in Stillness, to Pathfinder Society with the upcoming 4-04: The Devil-Wrought Disappearance, among many other projects. With the exception to some PF2 conversions for Legendary’s fantastic Boricubos: The Lost Isles, my Latino culture hasn’t come up as often in my freelance career as I would have liked—but it has influenced my outlook on business and the perception of Hispanic and Latino cultures in all industries, not just ours.

Twenty-five years ago, I changed my name. To honor my stepfather, I took his name, forsaking the family name I’d borne for twenty years, Rodriguez. Living in New York, where Rodriguez was a more common surname than even Smith, nothing changed. But moving back to Ohio, where I had spent much of my ill-omened teenage years, I saw a marked difference in how I was perceived. It made me reconsider the importance that a simple name could hold over someone’s life. I’ve made it my mission to help grow voices that may have been ignored or passed over in the past because of their name, sex, skin color, or any other element that makes them outside of the “normal.” I haven’t always been successful, but I’ve tried to include every dark-haired, dark-eyed, swarthy individual I could see in my mind’s eye so that others might see themselves. And to live up to the responsibilities of my name, my family, and nuestra historia.

We appreciate all our Hispanic community members, and we invite those who didn’t share their voices as part of this blog to say hi in the comments and share something you’re proud of! We look forward to celebrating you.

The Starfinder universe is vast and full of adventures just waiting to be discovered. Sometimes, captains of the grand ships that soar between the stars decide it’s time to move to a new vessel for the next phase of their journey. So it is with Jenny Jarzabski, who has been the stalwart captain of the Starfinder Society ship for the past year. She is moving fully on to the Starfinder team, where she will continue to produce excellent adventures in the form of standalone adventures and AP volumes.

But never fear; the Master of Stars is in good hands. Our new First Seeker, Jessica Catalan, has the creative vision and experience to chart a bold course for the Society’s future. Jessica has consistently proven herself as one of Paizo’s most talented, versatile, and dependable freelancers. It’s been a pleasure to work with her, and I’m delighted to bring her on to the Digital Adventures team.

Hello! My name is Jessica Catalan and I’m beyond thrilled to announce I’ll be taking over as Starfinder Society Developer!

Some of you may have heard of me, but for those who haven’t, let me introduce myself. I’m a Canadian, Métis freelance TTRPG author and a regular contributor to both the Pathfinder and Starfinder RPGs. I’ve been a freelance author for nearly three years, and in that time, I’ve contributed to over 30 Paizo products, including three AP volumes, five Starfinder Society Scenarios, and two Pathfinder Society Scenarios, one of which was this year’s Pathfinder Society Special: #3-99 Fate in the Future. I’ve also done freelance development work on the upcoming Starfinder Galactic Magic.

Some of my recent work includes Pathfinder’s Secrets of Magic, Guns & Gears, and Lost Omens Grand Bazaar, and Starfinder’s Galaxy Exploration Manual, Tech Revolution, and the Starfinder #39: The Gilded Cage. Some of my upcoming releases include Pathfinder’s Book of the Dead, Lost Omens Knights of Lastwall, Pathfinder #176: Lost Mammoth Valley, and Pathfinder #186: Ghost King’s Rage, and Starfinder’s Galactic Magic and Drift Crisis.

Before becoming a freelance author, I managed d20diaries, a personal blog discussing my family’s experiences in d20 gaming. While my blog has long since taken a backseat to freelancing, it still gets a periodic update when time allows. When I’m not playing or writing for my favorite TTRPGs, I’m spending time with my kids. I’m a sucker for a good book, board game, video game, or TCG.

Jenny has made a huge contribution to Starfinder and has been a shining light as leader of the Starfinder Society. She’s left me an impressive legacy to measure up to and, while I’m still settling into my new role, I look forward to bringing my best to the Society. I hope you’ll join me.

Jessica Catalan
Starfinder Society Developer

Stay tuned for details on what’s coming down the pike for October, including an adventure written by Jessica herself!

Linda Zayas-Palmer
Development Manager for Digital Adventures

Join Paizo Publisher and Chief Creative Officer Erik Mona for a peek at upcoming Paizo releases!

highlights include:

Pathfinder Rulebooks:
Guns & Gears, Book of the Dead, and now — Dark Archive!

Pathfinder Lost Omens:
The Grand Bazaar, Pathfinder Lost Omens: Absalom, City of Lost Omens Monsters of Myth, Knights of Lastwall, and now—Beadle & Grimm Pathfinder Lost Omens: Absalom, City of Lost Omens Special Edition!

Pathfinder Adventure Paths:
Pathfinder Adventure Path: Abomination Vaults Hardcover, Pathfinder Adventure Path: Abomination Vaults Special Edition Hardcover, Kingmaker Anniversary Edition, Quest for the Frozen Flame, Outlaws of Alkenstar, and now— Blood Lords Adventure Path!

Pathfinder Adventures:
Night of the Gray Death

Starfinder Rulebooks:
Tech Revolution, Galactic Magic, and now—Drift Crisis!

Starfinder Adventures:
The Liberation of Locus-1

New:
Pathfinder & Starfinder Infinite Licensing Program—Check out this blog more details!

Enjoy over 100 vivid art images. Don’t miss our staff seminars on Twitch for even more reveals. Happy Gen Con!

Hi all! For this latest community blog, we’re celebrating Rosh Hashana, the New Year of the Jewish calendar, which begins on the evening of September 6th this year. I’ve reached out to our fantastic creators to celebrate Jewish heritage and how it relates to our life and work. I hope you enjoy their insights and thoughtful reflections!

Avi Kool (they/them)
Senior Editor

Content Warning: Some of the following entries discuss the Holocaust.

Avi Kool (They/Them)

When I was 5 or 6 years old, my Hebrew school teacher told me something I’ll never forget: “Jews question everything.” You can see this philosophy in the constant back-and-forth of Rabbinical literature throughout history, but even as a child, this stuck with me (perhaps to my teachers’ chagrin). In many ways, this drive to find the answers to hard questions has been a boon in my work as a TTRPG editor.

I also owe more than I could ever say to my grandmother. She was forced to leave school at 14 when the Nazis seized control of the Netherlands, where she was born, and she went into hiding. She loves math and language, and I often wonder what she would have done with her life if she had been able to continue her education. In addition to being my personal hero and an all-around wonderful person, she’s an avid fan of games and sports. Her skill at games continues even at her ripe old age of 94: she solves 1000-piece puzzles by, and I quote, “remembering all the shapes” and routinely mops the floor with my mom and her friends at mahjong. She actually won’t play with the other residents at the retirement home because they don’t “take the game seriously enough.” I figure she’s earned the right to be a die-hard gamer at her age!

Jacob W. Michaels (He/Him)

Shana tova, Paizo community. I’m Jacob W. Michaels, one of Paizo’s Jewish freelancers. I’ve contributed to a number of Pathfinder books in First and Second Edition, and recently had my first Pathfinder Society Scenario published (2-19: Enter the Pallid Peak). I’m excited to have my first contribution to a rulebook, Guns & Gears, out soon, plus the Kingmaker 2e conversion! This is the time of year, as we approach the High Holy Days, my thoughts turn to tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world in part by doing good deeds. Then, on Yom Kippur, we look at what we’ve done wrong over the last year, and ask for forgiveness, not just from God, but from the people we’ve wronged. I think it’s funny that for many of us, our gaming experiences match these concepts. We like making heroes who set out to save the world (though, our adventurers probably kill a lot more monsters than we do in our real lives). We even may find ourselves atoning for our sins—literally in the case of champions or other divine servitors who’ve upset their deities and lost their powers. But of course, it’s so much easier in games, which is a shame. I imagine what this world could be like if we could all try to live up to our best characters’ ideals. Maybe we’re not killing a rampaging dragon, but even the littlest thing—let someone into traffic, pay for a stranger’s coffee—can make a difference. If we can start small, then we can work up to the massive things we still need to do to make the world a better place. Be safe and be good, friends.

Hilary Moon Murphy (She/Her)

My name is Hilary Moon Murphy. When I was growing up, my family told me in no uncertain terms: "We are not Jews." This was in a family where the adults spoke Yiddish amongst themselves (but never to me) so I grew up understanding Yiddish as a second tongue. This was in a family where I was raised by a woman with numbers tattooed on her arm from a concentration camp. This was in a family where, one day, a family member started screaming when a Nazi character appeared on a TV show and didn't stop until almost ten minutes after the TV was turned off.

I believe that my family cut me off from my Jewish heritage because they wanted me to be safe. They wanted to bury their memories of everything and everyone they had lost. This denial was so strong that I didn't start reclaiming my heritage until after I had children of my own. There were tears on my face the first time my kids and I lit a menorah. I felt like I was bridging generations, reaching out to all those my family lost and saying, "I remember you. I will not let you be forgotten."

David Schwartz (He/Him)

Hey! I'm David Schwartz, a long-time contributor to Paizo. In case the name didn't tip you off, I'm Jewish (among other things). Before I was asked to contribute to this blog, I had not really considered how my Jewishness influenced my approach to roleplaying games. After much thought, I realized that it can probably be summed up by my two favorite anecdotes from the Talmud:

1) A non-Jew came before Shammai and said, "I will convert on the condition that you teach me the entire Torah while I am standing on one foot." Shammai pushed him away with the builder's cubit in his hand. The same gentile came before Hillel. He converted him, saying, "That which is hateful to you do not do to another; that is the entire Torah, the rest is commentary. Go study." (Shabbat 31a)

2) The Mishnah states: If a fledgling bird is found within fifty cubits of a dovecote, it belongs to the owner of the dovecote. If it found outside the limit of fifty cubits, it belongs to the person who finds it. Rabbi Jeremiah asked: If one foot of the fledgling is within the limit of fifty cubits, and one foot is outside it, what is the law? It was for this question that Rabbi Jeremiah was thrown out of the house of study. (Bava Batra 23b)

You can find me on social media as davidschwartznz on Twitter and Facebook.

I’m excited to share that Paizo will once again be participating in the Mox Gauntlet charity game tournament, and it’s coming up this Sunday!

The Gauntlet has become an annual tradition for us at Paizo, and we’ve been participating since our victory at the very first event. Every year the folks from Gamers Engaged— the charitable giving arm of Card Kingdom, Inc.—put together a fantastic gaming tournament to raise funds for a local charity. This year, proceeds are going to Young Women Empowered, an organization whose mission is to cultivate the power of diverse young women to be creative leaders and courageous changemakers. They offer various camps, workshops, partnerships, and public events to help these young women connect, learn, and grow.

You can support us on our team donation page or by donating to the team members individually. Our roster has some familiar faces this year, as well as some newer folks. I’m thrilled to be captain of Team Paizo for the 3rd event in a row and participating in the Gauntlet for my fifth time. I’ve pledged to send out a punny space postcard as an optional incentive for $25 donations made direct to my donation page. Aboard the Paizo rocket ship we’ve also got Organized Play Associate Alex Speidel, who promised a plethora of intriguing incentives on his donation page; Customer Service Representative Austin Phillips (donate here); and our new VP of Sales and E-Commerce, Mike Webb (donation link). Starfinder Lead Designer Joe Pasini (donate to Joe) rounds things out as an alternate in case someone gets pushed out the airlock at the last minute.

This year’s theme is Cosmos, so we’ll be taking on a slew of space-based challenges. Firstly, we’ll be split up into separate games of Space Park, then reunited as a team in the second round for cosmos-themed trivia. As usual, the organizers have kept the third-round finale a secret, so we’ll all be on the dark side of the moon until the big reveal on Sunday!

The Gauntlet will be held virtually this year, and the entire thing will be streamed through the Gamers Engaged website. Be sure to tune in to watch our progress and cheer us on! Donations are being accepted until the end of the event and not only do these funds go to a great cause, but our team can gain power-ups to use in the tournament based on how much we raise. You can help us launch our fundraising goals into orbit! We appreciate every single donation and share on social media—every bit helps. Thanks so much for being a part of our tremendously supportive gaming community. We’ll see you at noon Pacific Daylight Time on August 15th!

Katina Davis
Webstore Coordinator

Paizo LIVE is our monthly two-hour live Twitch show featuring the Paizo staff and guests, like RPG authors, talking a little bit about all things Pathfinder and Starfinder. Join us for Episode 4 of Paizo LIVE today from 4 to 6 p.m. Pacific! Catch past episodes on YouTube.

Scheduled guests include:

• Starfinder Society Developer Jenny Jarzabski and Organized Play Developer Mike Kimmel will discuss the Year of the Data Scourge and the Year of Shattered Sanctuaries, currently ongoing.
• Pathfinder Developer Eleanor Ferron and RPG author Jabari Weathers will discuss Pathfinder Lost Omens: The Mwangi Expanse, scheduled to release 7/7.
• Starfinder Lead Designer Joe Pasini to discuss the Starfinder Galaxy Exploration Manual, available now.
• Pathfinder Designer James Case will discuss Fists of the Ruby Phoenix Adventure Path volume 3, King of the Mountain and the upcoming rulebook Pathfinder: Secrets of Magic.
• Pathfinder Creative Director James Jacobs will discuss Pathfinder Adventure: Malevolence (scheduled to release 7/7) and Pathfinder One-Shot #2: Dinner at Lionlodge, available now

We will take your questions before and during the show, so ask your questions here and we’ll pick our favorites. Then we’ll see you on tonight at Paizo LIVE at twitch.tv/officialpaizo!

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks,
Marketing and Media Manager

Heartbond (APG), artist Valeriya Lutfullina

June is Pride Month, a time for the LGBTQ+ community to celebrate their lives, their struggles, and their identities. It’s also a time to remind ourselves and those around us that the fight for equality is not over. The first Pride celebrations were inspired by the Stonewall riots, a six-day riot against police brutality, led by community leaders including Marsha P. Johnson, a Black trans woman.

Pride is important because LGBTQ+ individuals do not have equality in any country. The Human Rights Watch reports that 69 countries have national laws criminalizing same-sex relations between consenting adults. At least nine countries have laws criminalizing “forms of gender expression that target transgender and gender nonconforming people,” and many more countries don’t need to pass laws to ensure their police forces and militaries do the work of suppressing LGBTQ+ lives. Worldwide, gay, trans and non-conforming individuals face legal and illegal discrimination, abuse, and hatred. There are places in this world I will not travel with my fiancé because I am worried we will face physical and verbal abuse, and some of those places are within driving distance of where I live. Here in America, my rights are debated on a daily basis in local, state and federal court.

My fellow contributors to this blog and I are lucky that many of us live in a country that will not arrest us, directly, in most places, for our sexuality or gender. We are lucky that Paizo is a company that does not discourage us from expressing ourselves in our personal lives, and that permits us to create beautiful and diverse worlds that represent the world as we would like to see it. But we are lucky, and every gamer knows that sometimes the dice run hot, and sometimes you roll a 1. None of that is guaranteed to us, and it could be taken away in moments - or slowly, over four years.

---

I started with the depressing stuff not because I wanted to, but because I didn’t want it to get lost. But that’s not all of what Pride is. Pride is also about joy in who we are, and in our community. It’s about gathering and celebrating our lives, the freedoms we have fought to achieve, and to remind ourselves that it is all worth it.

For this year’s Pride blog, I asked our staffers and contributors to tell us about something they’re proud of from the past year. I told them that it didn’t have to be gaming related; that, in fact, this was a chance to use the platform we’re lucky to have to shout out the things that don’t get attention. I’d like to thank them all for sharing themselves with me and with the Paizo community.

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

---

Alexander Augunas, Paizo Freelancer

I'm Alexander Augunas! I'm the Know Direction Network's Everyman Gamer, publisher of Everybody Games, and a freelancer for Paizo Inc. This past year has been a crazy year for us all, but I like to think that I did some good work during the chaos and confusion of the global shutdown. In Lost Omens: Legends, I presented Golarion's most powerful sorceress, Hao Jin (set to appear in the upcoming Fists of the Ruby Phoenix Adventure Path) as an asexual woman whose experiences with asexuality I personally identify with, a prospect that I felt was one of the most deeply empowering and important RPG articles I have ever written. Second only, perhaps, to The Rot in RPGs, a blog article I did for the Know Direction Network where I analyzed how systemic racism has impacted tabletop RPGs and offered some suggestions on what we as a community should do to combat it. It's a deeply researched piece that I wrote in response to the murder of George Floyd, and it's an article I hope inspires gamers to keep doing better as a community for those who are marginalized. Because I truly believe that if we try, we can change. Games have that kind of power, and I firmly believe that as creators we have the responsibility to use our power to better the world we've inherited.

Sonja Morris (she/her), Managing Art Director

On June 15th, my wife and I celebrated 19 years of marriage (21 years of being together), of which I am very proud.

Carlos Cabrera, Paizo Freelancer

The thing I am most proud of this year is somehow finding a better work and life balance over the course of it. I know this time has been hard for so many of us, but what I discovered about myself getting through it is where my healthier boundaries are and how to lay them down more confidently. When my pandemic fatigue set in, I signed up for the Moderna trial. When I had to make big, life-altering changes at home, I found a place where I can still be a part of my incredible 4 year old's life.

I am proud I was able to do all of that on my own terms. Creatively, this has led me down new paths of freelancing. I have a coming project I can't wait to tell people more about—my first ever built and pitched privately with the help of a new friend. I am also planning a return to voice acting. There is a lot to look forward to, but you know what also helped a great deal? My partners of more than one gender who made it a point (in a pandemic!) to be in my company.

Hao Jin, artist Gabriela Marchioro

Shay Snow (they/them), Paizo Freelancer

I’m super proud that I’ve pushed myself this year to accept projects that I would normally shy away from. I’ve spent a long time turning things down because of a deep fear of being under qualified or just the belief that I wouldn’t be good enough when compared to other people who came before me. This year has been a rollercoaster ride, but I can look back at it and actively point out my victories and places where I’ve excelled and grown as a person. My partner, my friends, and I have watched me break out of my comfort zone and restore my self-confidence in not just my writing and editing skills, but also in myself and my ability to handle large projects. I look forward to another year of accepting things and showing not just other people, but showing myself that I can handle anything thrown my way.

James Jacobs, Pathfinder Creative Director

Writing adventures about ghosts and cultists and things that go bump in the night has long been something I’ve enjoyed, but with Malevolence, an adventure I ran for several folks here at the office last year before writing it up as a standalone adventure for Pathfinder, I finally got to create that haunted house adventure I’ve been eager to write. Several of the spooky, creepy events and encounters that I inflicted on my players made it into the adventure, along with a few that I had planned but they never reached and a few more that I made up specifically for the adventure. The in-depth mechanics for how players can unravel the manor’s mystery by researching, investigating, and interpreting haunted dreams is one of my favorite parts of the adventure, and I can’t mention the other favorite part without spoiling something big. Still, it’s exciting to get Malevolence out into the world after it spent a few extra months in shipping delay hell, and I hope it does as good a job providing your group with a bit of escape from the horrors of the past year as it did for me to write it.

Amber Stewart (she/her), Paizo Freelancer

It has been a really awesome year for me, and I’m super proud of not only having my first AP entry released with Ruins of the Radiant Siege (in which I’m thrilled to have included an explicitly trans NPC Il’setsya Wyrmtouched) but for also finally, FINALLY finishing with school and receiving my doctorate (Doctor of Pharmacy). I hope that this next year can be just as great and even more productive!

Dr Monsylkis artist Graey Erb

Kendra Leigh Speedling (she/her), Paizo Freelancer

Hey, all! I'm bi and demisexual, and I've been freelancing for Paizo for a few years. It's been a tough year, globally speaking, but I hit a few personal milestones that I'm proud of, the release of my first AP volume (The White Glove Affair) being one of them. What I'm focusing on here, though, is a little more mundane: I've been talking to people.

I'm not a very outgoing person, which has always made networking intimidating to me. I'd talked to people off and on at PaizoCon, but until recently, I hadn't really gotten to know anyone in the freelancing community too well. With the con's shift to being online, though, I was more comfortable casually chatting. After that, staying in touch with other freelancers seemed to flow naturally, and before I knew it, I was in a community of talented writers and fun people, some of whom I now count as friends as well as colleagues. I look forward to meeting them once in-person cons are safe again! And...well, maybe you'll see me hanging out at the hotel bar next PaizoCon. I promise not to flee if you come say hi. :-)

Dana Ebert (she/her), Paizo Freelancer

Hi there, I’m a Paizo freelancer and am proudly BIPOC, queer, and transgender! I do other things as well, including professional GMing and voice acting. Without a doubt, my proudest accomplishment this past year was nailing my first freelancing assignment with Paizo. It’s no secret that the book in question is Pathfinder Lost Omens: The Grand Bazaar, and while I can’t spoil any of its content, I think I can share that in the end I was able to write something deeply personal that I hope will resonate just as powerfully with other people who share similar experiences. In fact, I’m definitely going to be talking about it on Twitter once the book is released, so if that sounds interesting then you can follow me there at @MistressDanaRPG. Until next time, endless love and support for each and every one of you who help to make our community a more inclusive, diverse, and welcoming place!

Dustin Knight (he/him), Paizo Freelancer

The word I've used to describe this last year has been surreal. I'd repeat again and again: survive, not thrive. And yet, I struggled every day to do something I could be proud of, even if it meant fighting to convince myself that I deserved to rest. But even as I write this, I find myself pondering what it means to feel pride. It's tempting to drop names and links in some hackneyed attempt to avoid today's undertaking, but it's one I've avoided for too many years. Today I'm proud to publicly identify as asexual.

And yet, I can't help but feel like I'm still avoiding the prompt. So I've got to admit what I'm most proud of this surreal year has been my career. I've passed so many milestones it's hard to believe any of this is real. Most surreal of all was having aced the Paizo design test last fall. Proving myself in that capacity and then getting my first hardcover book assignment has been a validating experience unlike any other. So many friends have helped me on this journey, and this year I hope I've made them proud. Thank you, my dear friends. And thank you, Paizo.

The PaizoCon Online 2021 panels are going up on Youtube, so you can watch them again or see what you missed. You can watch the Keynote Revelations and Starfinder Galaxy Exploration Manual panels, PaizoCon Liveplays, Fists of the Ruby Phoenix Adventure Path panels, Pathfinder Secrets of Magic panels, panels about the Art of Paizo and The Mwangi Expanse —and now you can check out the “Secrets of...” and Ask the Experts panels!

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.

Secrets of the Pact Worlds

Join some of Starfinder’s top storytellers as they reveal the mysteries behind the Starfinder campaign setting, from unpublished conspiracies to the real stories behind that one thing you really want to know. Bring your setting questions to this often too-honest Q&A!

Ask the Experts: Starfinder Q&A

You have questions about the Starfinder RPG, and we have the answers! Sit down with Lead Designer Joe Pasini, Senior Developer John Compton, and Developer Jason Tondro for a question-and-answer session.

Ask the Experts: Pathfinder Q&A

Answers straight from the source! Join Designers Michael Sayre and James Case, Design Manager Mark Seifter, and Director of Game Design Jason Bulmahn for an hour-long conversation.

In today’s blog we celebrate the fathers and father figures in our community. As we pause to honor and reflect on fathers of all kinds, we also recognize the many different feelings and memories that arise from this day. Whatever Father’s Day means to you, and wherever you are in the difficult journey of fatherhood, know that we’re grateful. Whether you’re a father (or father figure), have a father, or have memories of your father, and whatever those experiences may mean to you, fatherhood is one of the things that binds most of us together—wherever, whenever, and whoever we are.

When I was approached about writing the Father’s Day blog, I accepted right away, knowing it would be relatively straightforward to come up with some clever gaming puns or some Father’s Day gifts in the form of silly magic items. (What dad doesn’t want a pair of argyle socks that magically clean and fold themselves?) Over the coming days, as I reflected on my five years of fatherhood (and counting), and on my own father, trying to come up with more ideas for a roleplaying game-related Father’s Day blog, I realized jokes were my easy way out. Surely, I thought, I could write something deep and meaningful about my first RPG session with my five-year-old son. So, this past weekend, I sat down to plan a game for him. That also would not turn out exactly as I planned.

I felt intense pressure to get it right. I wanted something great to write about for the blog, of course, but I also needed it to be right for my son. After all, I thought, roleplaying games have deeply impacted my own life. My brother and I remain close, even into adulthood, in no small part because of roleplaying games. I met my spouse and my dearest friends through roleplaying games. Playing and writing those games has gotten me through many difficult times. I’ve seen tabletop games have a similar impact on countless others. I had to be a great dad and get it right for my son.

I faltered. How could I ever meet such expectations? Thinking of roleplaying games and fatherhood reminded me that my brother and I started playing right around the time our own father began to have less presence in our lives. This only increased the pressure I was putting on myself. At a time in my life when I most needed a father, roleplaying games filled the void in a way. Roleplaying games helped me learn collaboration, cooperation, creativity, resilience, compassion—and even provided an outlet for pent up emotions. (Speaking of things we can learn from our dads. Ha.)

The day before I’d planned to run my son’s first session, I was tired, dinner was over, and it was time to play before getting ready for bed. I wasn’t thinking about the blog, and my complex emotions about fatherhood meant I had no plans for the game. When my son and I went to play, one of the most surreal experiences of my life unfolded. He asked if I wanted to build a maze with him using some magnetic tiles—one of his favorite toys. Of course, I said, but you’ll need to show me how. He laid out a basic floor plan. He put up some walls. I watched as he carefully considered the placement of each tile, occasionally changing his mind about the direction of a given corridor, or where the entrance would be. He blocked off one of the paths and told me that’s where the bad guys hide. You had to sneak past, or they’d come out and get you. He went to get his toy cars—they’d fit perfectly in the maze. He put in a few bad guys. He put another in the deepest part of the maze and told me I had to rescue it. He gave me another car, said it was me, and picked up one for himself. He drove through the maze, arrived at an intersection, and asked me which way we should go. Your turn, Papa. We went through the maze. We laughed when I was too loud, and the bad guy popped out of the wall to get me. I escaped and drove around until the bad guy got lost in his own maze. Good job, Papa, but you should be more quiet next time. We went and rescued the car. We made it out before the bad guy found us—but just barely!

Without ever having learned himself, my son taught me to play an RPG on a whim, with a map and secret doors and all. He had a story in mind—one he came up with on his own—and we worked together to tell the story. He taught me to try again even when I messed up. He taught me to take turns and look out for each other. When he suggested I fight the bad guy car, and I asked if we could be gentle instead, he respected the boundary I set. He told me that was a good idea and helped me find a creative solution.

This was not so different from the way we usually play, but with the uncanny similarities to sitting down for a game of Pathfinder or Starfinder, I was stunned. Thinking on it, I didn’t know exactly how my son learned all those things—collaboration, compassion, creativity—especially when his access to other adults over the past year has been far more limited than usual. Surely, he learned a bit from me, but also from his mother, friends, grandparents, teachers, and from aunts and uncles. As I tucked him in and he told me, “Papa, I love you, you’re my best friend,” I was somewhat confident he learned to spontaneously express his feelings because I’d modeled it for him. I didn’t think I could take full credit for all of the other things, but I was certain that roleplaying games helped me become the sort of father who could raise a good man. Of course, I still didn’t have good ideas for his first “real” session.

But I sure did know what I was going to write about for the Father’s Day blog.

Mike Kimmel
Pathfinder Society Developer

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

Paizo will not have a physical presence at this year’s Gen Con Indy. Instead, like last year, we will focus our efforts on supporting Gen Con Online with hundreds of Pathfinder and Starfinder games suitable for all players on a variety of virtual tabletop platforms. We’ll also have several special game streams and Paizo-focused seminars to choose from. We will release more information about our plans as we get closer to the show’s September 16–19 dates. We look forward to returning to an in-person Gen Con in 2022!

May is Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month! In this blog, we wanted to give the members of our community the chance to introduce themselves and talk about their experiences and influences in their own words. Enjoy!

James Case (he/him), Designer

Hi! It’s James again, still here, still hapa. One of the things I’ve noticed more in this last year is that being mixed means your identity can sometimes feel like it doesn’t quite belong to you, since it can feel contingent on where you happen to be—I mean, I didn’t feel particularly Hawaiian or Asian compared to baseline when I lived in… literal Hawaii or Asia. As I’ve been trying to meet more API voices in the RPG space, I’ve often found myself staring at, say, a social media post calling for “Asian American devs” and wondering if the Tribunal of Mixed Asian Heritage would be okay with me responding to it, or whether they need me to wait for something that says “Asian American—and mixed!—devs.” It’s a trip.

Regardless! This time last year, I could only hint at a few projects still under wraps, but this year, I’m happy to report my Ruby Phoenix volume is coming soon and I’ve scattered several Hawaiian influences through our books! My favorite has been the nightmarchers, a Hawaiian ghost story that my grandfather (now 101!) told me when I was young, and which I could show him on a recent trip back home. And there’s more to come~

You can find me on Twitter at @toriariaria, where I talk about RPGs some and about J-Rock a lot, so come say hi!

Dana Ebert (she/her)

I'm a mixed-race Filipino-American transgender woman from Portland, OR, where I'm a professional Game Master, TTRPG writer, and voice actress. I was a contributor to Pathfinder Lost Omens: The Grand Bazaar, and I'm so incredibly excited for you all to see the fantastic things that are going into that book! My upcoming projects include a submission for Unbreakable Vol. 2, an #OwnVoices anthology of adventures inspired by Asian mythology and folklore that's slated for release later this year. I'm also a voice actress in League of Ultimate Questing: Battle Axis, an actual-play podcast where adventuring is a major league sport, complete with sports commentary and hilarious fake ads for in-world products. You can follow what I do on Twitter at @MistressDanaRPG, where I'm looking forward to talking more in-depth about my Pathfinder contributions as they're released!

Left: CAPTAIN*CARMINE, lead singer of the Pact Worlds’ sugar-pop sensation, Strawberry Machine Cake. Art by Graey Erb.; Right: The nightmarchers, an undead troop for your game table. Art by Luca Sotgiu.

Eleanor Ferron (she/her), Pathfinder Developer

My grandfather was Nisei, a Japanese American son born to first generation Japanese immigrants to America. Being mixed race has always left me with a complicated relationship with my heritage, and there are times when I hardly think I should be included in this blog! But I have always had an interest in the stories and culture of Japan. At Paizo, I've worked to try to showcase Asian characters and creatures—not just as foreign abstracts, but as a critical part of the Inner Sea. Most recently, I've been happy to bring tengu and kitsune to your tables as playable ancestries!

John Godek III (he/him)

Hi! I’m John and my mother was from the Philippines, where I lived when I was very young. I am an avid TTRPG player and GM, playing out of the Emerald City Lodge in Seattle, and having achieved my 5th Nova earlier this year. I am also the executive producer for several RPG-oriented podcasts on the Know Direction Network: Intrepid Heroes, an actual play for Paizo APs; Presenting, where I interview folks in the gaming industry; and Digital Divination, where Paizo developer Ron Lundeen and I chat about Starfinder and RPG topics in general. Over the past couple years I have had the opportunity to contribute to several Paizo products, including the Starship Operations Manual and upcoming Galactic Magic hardcovers, the backmatter for two upcoming adventure paths, and another unannounced Paizo hardcover. I have also contributed to six issues of Stellar Options from Legendary Games, a collection of Starfinder player options. When I am not busy with gaming related activities, I am a university professor in the Seattle area, teaching entrepreneurship and marketing. Prior to that, I was an officer in the US Coast Guard where I sailed the seven seas and circumnavigated North America, completing scientific work in the Arctic and Antarctic, and law federal enforcement operations on both the East Coast and West Coast of the US.

Joshua Kim (they/them)

Josh/Soup is a Korean-American freelance writer / game designer / podcaster / semi-professional hermit from California. They have a wide variety of hobbies including cooking, making coffee, and acquiring new hobbies. They have a keen interest in what games have to say in a literary sense, how mechanics, symbols, and themes combine to create new meanings and experiences that no other medium can. You can find their Twitter here, their games here, their blog here, and their podcast here. When they’re not writing, you can find them streaming video games here.

Left: Sebnet Sanserkoht, venture-captain of Nexus House. Art by Riccardo Moscatello.; Right: Taiwalei, seafarer and recruiter for the Envoy’s Alliance. Art by Carol Azevedo.

Sen.H.H.S. (she/her)

When I adapted the creation myth of Pan-gu in 2019, I never dreamed that it would lead to me writing for the company whose work got me into TTRPG. A full year has passed since I started freelancing and wow, it's been a journey. Bestiary 3, Ruby Phoenix, Grand Bazaar, and more to come! All done from the other side of the Pacific, thanks to the Internet!

Thinking back, while my cultural identity and knowledge was crucial in helping me land many early gigs, I have to say that being Asian for me in TTRPG space is... complicated. Even just typing this took me several attempts because there are so many talking points I hesitate to bring up, either because it would need very long explanations, or because it might invite controversy.

To put things vaguely, when your culture comes from a place that constantly threatens to erase your home country from existence (and you along with it), there's a lot of conflicting feelings and delicate dancing to do every time you put out work inspired by the culture. You can't erase the history that made you, nor can anyone else. However, if stating your identity blatantly might result in backlash, would you ever be ready for the consequences?

I haven’t an answer, but I know I am still writing.

You can see what I'm up to via my Twitter @SenHHS. Also, I'll be at the Ruby Phoenix panel at PaizoCon Online, so come say hi!

Ruvaid Virk (he/him)

Hi everybody! I’m Ruvaid, a Pakistani-American, and among the newest crop of freelancers to write for Paizo. Bestiary 3 was my first assignment, and I have more work in the upcoming Fists of the Ruby Phoenix AP and Secrets of Magic. Please look forward to it!

Growing up, I didn’t even know what TTRPGs were. It wasn’t until I entered college and met some of my closest friends that I even got a chance to play my first tabletop game, a little thing called Pathfinder. So, to have the opportunity to be a part of this blog and have my name show up in Pathfinder books honestly still feels surreal.

I’m glad to be a part of such a welcoming community, and I’ve had a great time meeting awesome people. Thanks for having me, and I can’t wait to put more content out there for you all to enjoy.

I also have a Discord group where I organize PFS2e games every Saturday morning at 9am EDT/6am PDT that anyone interested is welcome to join! Outside of tabletops, I enjoy practicing calligraphy when I can. I also love bad puns, playing board games, reading and writing fantasy, and playing the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV.

You can find me on Twitter (@Darth_Ruvaider) and Discord (darthruvaider#3915). Come say hi!

Left: Yoh Souran, ace pilot and diehard Ruby Phoenix fan. Art by Vlada Hladkova.; Right: Sihn Siphandon, inventor and proprietor of the Grand Bazaar’s Clockwork Caravan. Art by Loïc Canavaggia.

Join us for Episode 3 of Paizo LIVE from 4 to 6 p.m. Pacific next Friday, April 23. Paizo LIVE is our monthly two-hour live Twitch show featuring the Paizo staff and occasional guests talking about all things Pathfinder and Starfinder. Paizo LIVE is also archived on YouTube.

Scheduled guests include:

• Avi Kool, Senior Editor
• James Jacobs, Creative Director
• Jason Tondro, Developer
• Jessica Catalan, Freelance Author
• Luis Loza, Developer
• Tonya Woldridge, Organized Play Manager

Scheduled topics include The Starfinder Fly Free or Die Adventure Path, The Pathfinder Adventure: Malevolence, The Pathfinder Fists of the Ruby Phoenix Adventure Path, and more!

We will take your questions before the show and answer a few on the show. The categories are Pathfinder Adventures, Lost Omens World Guides, Starfinder Adventures, Paizo Organized Play, and PaizoCon. Ask your questions here or comment on our social media posts and we’ll pick our favorites.

I’ll see you at Paizo LIVE!

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks,
Marketing and Media Manager

Today, the International Transgender Day of Visibility, we celebrate and recognize the lives of transgender people in our gaming community. As several of the authors in today’s blog point out, roleplaying games have a unique ability to let us explore, sometimes for fun, sometimes to learn about ourselves, and often both at the same time. By continuing to work to ensure that Paizo has transgender representation in our stories, and our community, we hope to provide space and time for players and GMs, authors and artists, partners and competitors, employees and fans, to be able to travel through life’s journey, living, learning, growing, and of course, gaming.

The importance of this day, a day to acknowledge and celebrate trans voices in our communities, is punctuated by recent political actions seeking to prevent trans youth from receiving medical care, yet another attempt in a long history to silence a group of people and strip away their humanity. This day is highlighted by its relation to the Transgender Day of Remembrance (November 20th) which honors the trans lives lost to violence, bigotry, and indifference. We hope that this day of visibility can stand as a beacon of light and hope for the trans people in all of the different roles in our gaming community: from colleagues to contractors, players to partners. Wherever you are on your journey, we’re glad to have you around the table to roll dice, tell stories, and make some truly fantastic memories together.

Below are contributions from several of our transgender community members, each focused on their personal truth and experience. Some of these entries are raw and emotional. This is a very personal topic, and we support our contributors in speaking genuinely about a subject that affects every part of their lives. We thank them for taking the time to share their insight with the wider community.

Art by Javier Charro

I’ve spent a lot of time playing and making TTRPGs. When I first started playing Pathfinder regularly in 2013, I already knew I was trans. It took me a while before I started playing explicitly trans characters, since I was worried that people who played in my local area wouldn’t be welcoming. Since then, the world has changed. While I still experience transphobia, I’m more confident moving through the world as a trans person. Part of this comes from having more stability in my life, but a big part is seeing other trans people be able to live genuinely. Inclusion of trans characters in Paizo books, particularly the wealth of characters in Lost Omens: Legends, often starts with individual contributors deciding to push for more trans representation. Representation can never replace having trans people creating and playing TTRPGs, but it sends a clear sign that trans people are invited in. I live my life as open as possible and include trans characters in my writing to let trans people know they’re welcome, and to let people who are thinking about coming out as trans see full, happy trans lives.
Rigby Bendele, freelance author (they/them)

I’m Alison Cybe, and I’ve been playing TTRPGs since 1993. That makes me older than most types of fossils. I started early, when my parents bought me one of TSR’s black box games for my birthday. Because of that, I’m one of those people who will talk endlessly about how important a good starter set is for a game. I was also one of those players who was always “happy” to play a female character as well as a male one. I kinda noticed that a lot of players in my local club were the opposite, but a few of us were content to “cross-RP,” as it was called back then. I’ve not actually heard anyone call it that for years now, which is good. Shows that we’ve moved on a lot. This means that, for me, gaming provided a safe “fantasy space” to explore the way that gender is constructed and perform as the type of woman I had always somewhat wanted to be. Over the years, I've met a lot of trans and nonbinary people whose first avenues of exploration were the same and ultimately lead to understanding their own identities. Because of that, I always tend to be quite outspoken on the idea that trans characters should be visible in games. There are no settings that don’t benefit from the added diversity of characters, and the value that they give to the audiences outweighs the upset that they cause to bigots (which is, in my honest opinion, an additional bonus). The best way to do this is to create avenues for trans people to write trans characters and subjects—in fact, publishers should do this with people of every minority as much as possible. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
-Alison Cybe, freelance author (they/them) or (she/her)

I know that “visibility” is an issue I’m supposed to care about. I know that it’s the first step along the very, very long path toward you people treating us like actual human beings, rather than aberrations. Honestly, though, this week? I really couldn’t care less.

I’m supposed to use this blog to talk about how including trans characters enriches a fictional world. They do, of course—at bare minimum because trans people exist in the real world. To not include us in your narratives, or in your games, is a quiet signifier that you really wouldn’t mind if we were gone. Believe me when I say: trans people notice when you do this. We put you on the list of cissies we don’t trust. And we all have a list. We have to—you might kill us, after all.

Don’t believe me? Ask one of your trans friends. You do have trans friends, right?

Personally, I’d love to talk about examples of trans characters enriching fictional worlds—but then, of course, I’d need some examples. Which examples should I use? The ones where we’re monstrous, misogynistic villains, like in Silence of the Lambs? The ones where we’re broken, made to suffer, in the hopes that you all might actually start caring about our struggle, like The Last of Us Part 2? Or maybe softer ones, like The Danish Girl, where you couldn’t even be bothered to cast an actress to play the title role? Which disrespect would you like me to entertain?

(Perhaps you think I’m being unfair, by lumping you in with the others. Can’t imagine what that’s like.)

I don’t know how I’m expected to talk about how trans characters enrich a fictional world when I’ve almost never seen a fictional world that let a trans character enrich it. I can count on one hand the number of positive media representations of trans people that I’ve personally witnessed, let alone enjoyed. But then again, this is just art imitating life: as the Arkansas legislature so forcefully reminded us this week, you don’t want trans people to enrich the real world, either.

I would love to be proven wrong on this. But the operative word there is “prove.” This is the thing that none of you seem to get: you have to prove it. By default, to protect ourselves, I and other trans people have to assume you hate us. So prove us wrong.

Prove us wrong by writing us into your stories. Write us with rich inner lives. Write us messy and flawed and full of joy. Write us full of hatred for a world that hated us first. And then, when you’re done, pay a trans person to tell you all the ways you got it wrong. Because you will get it wrong, and that’s okay. What’s not okay is complacency in the face of that wrongness. Cis complacency digs trans graves.

But sure. “Visibility.”
-kieran tessa newton, editor (she/they)

My name is Sasha Laranoa Harving, although I also go by the name Solatra Lilac Harvinkai, and I am neither male nor female. That doesn't mean I lack a gender, although it does for some, and I personally use nov/nov/novs/novself pronouns. For me, my experience with gender was always one of looking up at the stars on dark nights in the countryside and feeling at home, more so than I ever did in the house I lived in. I felt like I was one with the stars for many years, in a way no other person I meet seemed to resonate with. And as time went on, as I realized there was something else to me than my mediocre life had implied, I discovered roleplaying games, and I saw characters who expressed their gender more freely than I had, colorful gnomes whose stats proudly declared them nonbinary! Spiteful dragons who dared to lack a gender in a time when the roles forced upon us were clear and seemingly constant! I also discovered Starfinder with its acknowledgment of the power the stars have: fiery and passionate, cold and distant, a variation for every pinprick of light in the sky, just like the people upon this world. I realized my gender was more than an expression along a two-point scale; my gender was that of the stellar world above and deserving to be acknowledged, embraced, and loved, just like every other light above and every life below. So, when you call me, hear me: I am a star.
- Sasha Laranoa Harving, freelance author (nov/nov)

My name is Sol, short for Solomon, though you won’t see that on any of Paizo’s products—yet. I hemmed and hawed a lot about taking part in this blog as, compared to a lot of people here, I’m very new. I’ve only been at Paizo for about six months. It’s my first job in the RPG industry, and the first where I felt comfortable enough to publicly use they/them. It is, in fact, the first place outside the internet where I’ve started taking steps to be visible as who and what I am. These steps are not steady. To be visible to others, to be known, and to admit that those who knew me maybe don’t—it’s scary. I think lots of people with recently-cracked eggs feel the same way, even if they—like me—have a good and trusted support network, and even if they—like me—have dabbled with the thought of transitioning for years. Like others, I used RPGs to play with gender long before I thought to apply those principles to myself. Recently, though, it’s been the growing number of visibly trans, nonbinary, and just plain queer characters in the gaming sphere and beyond that have bolstered my courage and reaffirmed my intent. Every casual, singular “they” and genderless or trans NPC that comes across my desk leaves me thinking, “I want that. Someday. And I can have it, when I’m ready.” For those like me, who aren’t quite ready, that representation offers comfort, lessons, and a promise. It reassures that there has always been a place for us, a place that will wait until we’re ready to be seen. So, this is me tilting my hand. I’m here. I’m almost ready. And for those like me: I know you’re out there. Take all the time you need. We’ll see you.
-Solomon, Paizo staff (they/them)

Roleplaying games helped me discover who I am. By being able to play different characters, all with aspects of myself imbued within them, I have been able to discover more about myself than I thought possible. Growing up, I’d play RPGs, video game and tabletop, and I’d play powerful women doing amazing things as often as possible. When I’d get stuck playing a “boy character,” I’d often just focus on mechanics and ignore the character, or imbue these compulsory male heroes with stereotypical traits, betraying my disingenuous view of masculinity. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I started researching transgender women in order to properly write one into an adventure. I found the experiences, thoughts, and feelings of these women to be eerily like my own. It was then that I had the realization that I am trans. My own journey of accidental self-discovery by writing a trans character into an adventure inspired me to stay visible and keep trans characters visible in our games. I hoped that it would help other people discover themselves by seeing someone like them depicted in stories. And it has worked. I’ve heard from multiple gamers that seeing a transgender character, written by transgender authors, has lead them to self-acceptance and given them courage to confront the social norms of our society and the roles that have been thrust upon us by the circumstances of our birth. Representation matters. Being visible matters. It’s a small step, but one that will lead us to a more peaceful and prosperous future.
-Vanessa Hoskins, freelance author (she/her)

To our trans community members: we see you, we hear you, and we support you! Thank you for enriching our community with your presence.

Last Thursday, we shared a blog highlighting the presence of women creators and professionals in the Paizo community. We have so many fantastic women that today we take the opportunity to celebrate more of them. Every aspect of Paizo involves women and they make our spaces richer for their contributions. Let’s give it up for more awesome women in the Paizo community!

Emily Crowell

I first started working in the video game industry where I worked with Nintendo on many fun projects, a favorite being Zelda: Twilight Princess. While there, I got to work with Sonja and met Sarah briefly. I then worked freelance making strategy guides for Pokémon and video game maps for guides like Skyfall and Mass Effect. I was then offered a great opportunity to join the Paizo family and learn about producing TTRPGs and have been there ever since. I now get to work with Sonja, Sarah, and an incredible art team. I once again am working on maps, laying out new products, and really enjoy ordering art as a Senior Graphic Designer. I love seeing the amazing pieces we have come in and the fans reactions to them.

Sonja Morris

I have been working in gaming since 1991, starting in the video game industry then moving to TTRPG in 2012, achieving the position of Managing Art Director. I have many favorite projects that I have worked on at Paizo, but the thing I love the most is collaborating with my colleagues to come up with fun and engaging art and design. In addition to gaming, I love horror movies, music, and spending time with my wife Alex and chihuahua Max.

Sarah Robinson

I am one of the most senior employees here at Paizo and hold the position of Director of Visual Design. I started with Dragon Magazine and have worked on almost every project since. Working with the many artists that take our art descriptions to final illustrations, for all of our projects, is the best part of my job. I knew Sonja long before my days here at Paizo when we were creating layouts for Nintendo Power and I met Emily during that time. It has been great to work with them again, along with the rest of the art team.

Art by Teresa Guidio

Jessica Catalan

Hi everyone! My name is Jessica Catalan. I’m a mom, freelance author, and blogger, and I’m thrilled to stand alongside the many talented women working in tabletop gaming. As a huge fan of Pathfinder and Starfinder, writing for Paizo is a dream come true. It’s been a wonderful experience full of exciting projects, fulfilling work, and welcoming people, both in the company and among my fellow freelancers. (You can find my announced projects here: https://paizo.com/people/JessicaCatalan )

When I was offered the opportunity to write for today’s blog, I pounced—then faltered. The words wouldn’t come and, as much as I’m happy in my skin, that wasn’t always true. Like many women, I heard “you can’t” and “you’re just a girl” more than I care to remember. I endured the insults and arbitrary constraints. But as a girl growing up in the 90s, when ‘girl power’ was in full swing and sarcastic girls kicked ass in robot pterodactyls, I reclaimed my femininity with pride while young. Media—from Sailor Moon to Pink and countless others—made all the difference. I had it easy.

I’ve always been a quiet person—never one to stand up or seek recognition. But I have a daughter. And when she came home from Kindergarten a few years ago, in tears from enduring all too familiar insults for the first time, it became glaringly obvious the issues I’d thought I’d left behind weren’t better; I’d just became accustomed to fighting past them. Now I had to teach her to do the same.

There’s a moment in Avengers: End Game where the Marvel women unite onscreen. It’s short, but the sight brought my daughter to tears. That was her Spice Girls—forty seconds of female superheroes carrying a glove—and then it was gone. My son didn’t even notice. Representation matters—for girls like my daughter, yes, but also for countless other people enduring so much worse with less visibility.

My name is Jessica Catalan. I’m a Canadian, Métis woman and author in the gaming industry. This is me standing up to be counted. Whoever you represent and whatever you stand for, I hope you join me. To someone out there, it means world.

Jenny Jarzabski, Starfinder Society Developer

Jenny Jarzabski is a longtime Paizo freelancer who writes prolifically for Pathfinder and Starfinder, though authoring organized play scenarios was always her favorite. She’s best known for her Starfinder Society scenarios #1-07: The Solar Sortie, #2-01: Pact World Warriors, and the interactive special #3-00: The Last Bite. Jenny now works as the Starfinder Society Developer at Paizo, helming the strange and beautiful ship that is SFS full time. You can find her on Twitter (@jenjski), Twitch (jezebel77), and Instagram (cutie_gothbot).

Art by Mark Molnar

Simone D. Sallé

Hi fellow creatives! I first worked with the Paizo team in 2018 as a contract editor for the 2e Playtest, then spent the past few years as a freelance contributor (including the Starfinder Character Operations Manual, Lost Omens: Gods and Magic, Bestiary 3, & more). As of this month I'm once again contracted with the editorial team full-time! I'm so grateful to get to learn from and work alongside such bright, creative people who are as passionate as I am about making TTRPGs accessible and welcoming to all. There are so many more stories to be told, so for those who want to be involved in making games—especially if you haven't seen yourself well represented in gaming spaces before—I'll share the same advice I needed to hear: don't tell yourself you're not experienced enough to belong! GM that game, join community groups like Freelance Forge, answer the open author calls. There's room for you at the table.

Nicole Heits

Nicole joined the Paizo organized play volunteer community with a bang, jumping in to get a group going in her town, becoming a venture-agent in April of 2020. Since then, she’s lent her hands and her typing skills to many a convention online, including ConCurrent, Gen Con Online, PAX Online, and ReaperCon. The latter was a short notice event when the original organizer became ill and needed assistance and Nichole responded instantaly with offers of assistance. She lends experience to any event she’s involved in. More recently, she took on a larger leadership role in the volunteer community, including building a Rivers Region discord and helping process volunteer agreements. Her energy and enthusiasm spread to the venture-officer corps and she is an important member of the team.

There are more women working on projects at Paizo, sharing their creativity and energy with our community. To those in the blog and those who prefer to remain behind the scenes, we thank you for sharing your gifts with our community. For anyone interested in joining the greater Paizo community of freelancers, games professionals, and volunteer coordinators, please take the leap and join us.

Both in the office and in our works, Paizo honors the presence of women creators and professionals in our spaces. Today, we want to introduce you to a few of those fantastic staffers and freelancers that make our games amazing! Some submissions came from the women themselves, some from their friends and colleagues, and we are so very pleased to share them with you!

Tineke Bolleman

If you’ve ever been to PaizoCon, either online or in the flesh, you probably have a memory of a friendly conversation or late-night shenanigans with Tineke Bolleman. Tineke’s a longtime volunteer— she started in 2014 and became the Venture Captain of the Netherlands region in 2017, to be exact—and is a positive force for change, inclusion, and welcoming others into our shared spaces.
After years of serving our community as a volunteer, Tineke started freelancing for Paizo. She’s an author for Starfinder Society scenario’s #1-16: Dreaming of the Future and #1-24:Siege of Enlightenment as well as Pathfinder Society scenario’s #1-05: Trailblazers’ Bounty and #2-03: Catastrophe’s Spark. Her work has also been published by Rusted Iron Games, Wayfinder, Eyes Unclouded (a really neat setting based on Studio Ghibli’s works), and A Crystal Heart. On working with a few months ago on Starfinder Society #3-15: Frozen Ambitions: The Preluria Connection, Starfinder Society Developer Jenny Jarzabski says, “I feel confident saying that she’s a rising star you should keep your eye on! Whether she’s writing adventures, roleplaying vesk in tiaras, or telling us all about weird animals, Tineke brings joy and laughter to our community. We’re lucky to have her!”
When asked, Tineke noted she is very proud of writing the Marixah Republic and the Gideron Authority in SFS 1-24 and Near Space and that she has written many favorite characters including the Chelaxian kids from Trailblazer’s Bounty, Amkha from Catastrophe’s Spark, and Kanavu from Dreaming of the Future. She also gave a honorable mention to Wilbert the Saint Bernard.

Linda Zayas-Palmer

Linda participated in the Pathfinder Society as a player, then GM, then volunteer coordinator several years before she join the Paizo staff as a Pathfinder Society developer in spring 2015. Over the past six years, she’s help shepherd the Society through an edition change and several in-game world shattering events. As managing developer, she worked closely with the Lost Omens team of Eleanor and Luis in creating the Lost Omens: Pathfinder Society Guide. Linda is known for her love of leshys, creating many of the creatures that appear in the Pathfinder RPG. Lesser known, but as loved, is venture-captain Armeline Jirneau, a reform-minded-member of the Envoy’s Alliance with a secret identity. First introduced in PFS 8-06: Reaping What We Sow, Armeline’s part of a new generation of venture-captains. Readers can learn more about Armeline in the Lost Omens: Pathfinder Society Guide.

Art by Riccardo Moscatello

Hilary Moon Murphy

Hilary Moon Murphy (aka Hmm) is a librarian, mom and a gamer chick. She's passionate about building community, and so has spent a lot of time as an Paizo Organized Play GM and volunteer. Writing for Paizo has been a ton of fun, and she always loves when she sees players using something cool that she wrote for either Starfinder or Pathfinder. Instead of talking more about herself in the third person though, she'd like to address all the other women who may be reading this blog and asking themselves the question: "Could I become a freelancer too?" So, here's the straight answer: if you're a female gamer, chances are you already know a lot about working hard, being creative and finding time for what's important. If you want to write, go for it! Submit to Wayfinder. Write for 3PP products. Get business cards. Contact Paizo developers at conventions and say, "I want to write for you" and hand them your business card. Do it and be awesome!

Sara Marie

While many of the women in this blog are from our editorial department, Sara Marie comes from the operations side of Paizo. Sara Marie started at Paizo over ten years ago, working her way up through the ranks of Customer Service to her current position of manager of the Customer Service and Community departments. This is a huge amount of effort, as not only does she lead one of the most public facing teams, but she also moderates the forums and is a staunch advocate of our play-by-post community. If you’ve ever travelled to PaizoCon or Gen Con, you most likely encountered her expertly directing activities in the registration queue or store. When she isn’t busy keeping the wheels turning, she loves crafts and exploring the beautiful outdoor landscape of the Pacific Northwest. Sara has also been learning about the interactions between businesses and local government, and how the community of tabletop roleplaying games here in Washington can continue to grow and thrive.

Jessica Redekop

My name is Jessica Redekop and I'm a woman in tabletop gaming. I contributed to the recent Pathfinder Lost Omens: Ancestry Guide and the upcoming Bestiary 3 and PFS #2-16 Freedom for Wishes. I was also a contributor to Lost Spheres Publishing's City of 7 Seraphs, and I play Xiadani on Know Direction's Valiant, an actual play podcast. I'm on twitter and Instagram as @tectonomancer.
I love RPGs and I am grateful to every person I've known on my journey into this industry, to the people I've played games with and to those who gave me a chance as a writer, who welcomed me into this hobby and made me feel like I belonged. I know how often women and enbies are turned away from gaming, heard the horror stories about convention experiences, and have had some of those horror story experiences myself. It's easy to imagine how differently I'd feel about RPGs with that kind of introduction to them. I'm grateful that didn't happen to me.

Tonya Woldridge

Hello nufriends! My Paizo-adjacent journey started as a volunteer in England. I was venture officer of several places before joining the Paizo team as the Organized Play Coordinator in 2015. Though I joined a publishing company, I never thought of writing as a creative outlet. My goals focused on growing the organized play program, partly through making play spaces more inclusive so that everyone would want to participate. A couple years in, I wanted to understand more about the publishing side of our business. I mentioned this to Linda. She helped me secure an assignment and mentored me through the whole process. This help gave me the confidence to ask for another assignment, which led to me writing for Pathfinder Lost Omens: Pathfinder Society Guide. While I’m not seeking a writing career, being part of the production of a book led to deeper insight and helps me be a more effective manager of the Organized Play program.
Between organized play and freelancing, I’ve met a host of fantastic people I love spending time with! To anyone thinking they want to join gaming communities, please do, we can’t wait to meet you! You can find me on Facebook (PaizoOrgPlay), Twitter (@PaizoOPM) and Discord (TonyaOPM#6396). I look forward to saying hi!

Art by William Marton

Ivis Flanagan

Hi, I’m Ivis – one of Paizo’s newer freelancers, and OPF Venture Officer. Bounty 8: The Tireless Path comes out at the end of this month. I also wrote part of quest pack SFS 3-11 Into the Veskarium, was released late last year, which was written and developed by a group that was all women or non-binary!
Marian Wright Edleman once said “you can’t be what you can’t see,” and it is a thought that comes full circle for me. I was taught as a kid that “girls can’t play RPGs” by the boys who ran them, and since I never saw anyone other than that core crew doing so, I took it to heart that they must be right. For years I stayed out of the tabletop space, believing that it wasn’t a place that I belonged. Then I found Paizo’s Organized Play, where for the first time I saw people that looked like me participating, and I felt like I could take part.
In my time in this space, I have met some incredible women. Many of them I have looked up to as mentors, and some I am even lucky enough to call friends. They have all encouraged me to move forward, to step into out and into my own, becoming confident in my abilities through the process. I have come from being very shy player, to a competent gm, and now to an author – getting to help build the worlds that I love for those that come after. My greatest hope in all of this is to be seen by someone else and help them step forward onto their own path.

Devinne Caples

Devine joined us just over a year ago as our HR generalist. It was just before we transitioned to work from home. She moved into the office next to the Customer Service department. Sara Marie shared her experience of Devinne. “Often in the mornings, we would be arriving at the same time for work and get to catch up about work and life while I got a pot of coffee started for the day. Devinne has been a source of inspiration and camaraderie over the past year, checking in on me during some very rough spots, being a compassionate listener as I try to navigate my career as a parent and a woman. Devinne provided insight, advice, empathy, and so much knowledge. From my colleagues at here Paizo, I’ve heard so many similarly positive things about how she has been able to help and support them.”
Writing this out for this blog is bittersweet, as this March also marks the end of Devinne’s time at Paizo, as she had an absolutely wonderful opportunity come up elsewhere. Her new organization is lucky to have her, though she will be sorely missed here at Paizo. Congratulations Devinne!

`

These are just a few of the absolute rock stars involved in producing the games you love. If you get a chance, please let them know how much their contributions benefit your hobby!

February is Black History Month! Black voices, be they in the RPG industry or in other creative mediums, are helping create amazing stories and we’re proud to share some voices from our community, in their own words. Enjoy these profiles as well as some previews for art from the upcoming Lost Omens: The Mwangi Expanse!

Jahmal “Mad Jay” Brown (he/him)

Jahmal “Mad Jay” Brown is host of the Diceology podcast, Professional GM at IntoTheMadLands.com and freelance writer with credits including PRIME Supers for Cortex Prime, Pathfinder’s Mwangi Expanse and his own By Acer’s Light for Burning Wheel and Dungeon World. He likes games and stories about outsiders and underdogs. Jay games with his kids and loves his momma but she doesn’t game yet. He is easily found on Twitter @madjayzero or www.madjayzero.com.

Allie Bustion (she/her or they/them)

Allie Bustion is an independent and freelance narrative and tabletop game designer, working for Paizo on several upcoming and previous titles, Wizards of the Coast, Guildhall Studios, and Green Ronin as well as their own projects, HEIST and Misbehavin'. Away from the table, they play video games. Sometimes, even on Twitch. On Twitter, you can catch them talking about wrestling, storytelling, and their cat.

Devinne Caples (she/her)

My name is Devinne and I am the HR Generalist for Paizo. I am also a wife and mom to three children. I wear a lot of hats. I enjoy working in Human Resources and working at Paizo has given me the opportunity to work in a very diverse work environment. Working at Paizo has opened my eyes to the RPG world and how beneficial it can be to be part of such a community, especially during these uncertain times. These communities connect individuals and provide a means to still feel a part of something bigger than themselves while in isolation. I admire what we do here.

Art of an Alijae elf, by Mirco Paganessi (left) and the goddess Desna, by Sophie Medvedeva (right)

Travis “Rabbit” Lionel (he/him)

Travis, circa 1994. Writer, gamer, black guy. Growing up, I was always told I wasn’t black enough or I was trying too hard to “act white” due to my hobbies and interests. I always loved games like Final Fantasy and became invested into tabletop games such as Magic: The Gathering and Pathfinder 1st Edition by the beginning of high school. However, I never let these things stop me from loving my blackness, my history and my hobbies no matter how far removed. Okay, that’s partially true; I did have some identity issues. Now, I’m in a position to not only show that black people can participate in these hobbies, but centralize themselves into the hobby as well. I was blessed with the opportunity to work with Paizo on Lost Omens: The Mwangi Expanse in 2020. I wanted this to be a chance for an African inspired setting to have a black voice on it as often we have so few chances to make African settings anymore than mud huts. I also wanted to show little black children that tabletop games and other hobbies are not the exclusive domains of white people and that everyone is welcome.

I love love love, 2nd Edition Pathfinder and I hope to continue playing and working on it in the future. In addition, you can find me on Twitch (https://twitch.tv/eightbitrabbits) giving lots of opinions about games of both the tabletop and video variety here.

Erin Roberts (she/her)

I'm a new(ish) freelancer for Paizo, but I have been a writer for some time, telling stories of impossible magic, maybe-one-day technology, and all-too-real things that go bump in the night (feel free to check me out on Twitter at @nirele). I am also a child (and current resident) of East Coast cities like New York and DC, with roots in the Deep South and Panama, who grew up in a family that ensured that the lessons and pride and continued journey of Black history were a fundamental part of who I am.

One of the reasons that I enjoy writing so much is that I love to tell a good story, but also that I love to think about the story beneath the story, the iceberg that the tales we spin are only the very tip of. After all, even the silliest, most ridiculously fluffy pieces of creative work teach you a little something, from who gets to shape the world to what places make interesting backdrops to which stories are worth telling. Part of why I love my creative work is that I have the opportunity to bring who I am to the page, to add the people and places and stories that I know from my experience as a Black woman to the undercurrents of the collective tale we’re telling, and to lift up the power of community, the fight against injustice, the distinction between race, culture, and destiny, and the deep importance of collective joy.

Isis Wozniakowska (she/her)

I’m one of Paizo’s newer freelancers. I’ve written for the upcoming Secrets of Magic book and my first Starfinder scenario, #3-21: Frozen Ambitions: Renewal's Blight, was just announced. I’ve been involved with Organized Play off and on for five years, but I’ve really become a more active member within the past two. I also both play and GM Paizo APs and adventures regularly. You might have even heard me in the most recent Starfinder Society special voicing Luwazi Elsebo, a role which I’d be happy to reprise anytime (wink wink).

I’m the daughter of a Black woman and a Polish immigrant man. My mother is a Blues musician, and a former belly dancer, which ended up giving me a Black music and musical history education in my childhood. She has also always been a major science fiction and superhero movie nerd. She and her siblings loved watching Star Trek as kids and seeing a Black woman like Uhura on screen each week inspired all of them.

The first time I showed my mother a picture of a Black elf in one of my Pathfinder books she got so excited that she bought elf ears for herself for Halloween because she’d never seen a classic fantasy race that looked like her. I’ve gotten my passion for science fiction and fantasy from her, and I can only hope to recreate more moments like this for her and other Black people in the future through my time spent participating in Organized Play, and through further work in writing for RPGs.

Art of a glassworker and a gardener, by Katerina Kirillova

This year, we’d also like to highlight the following charities focused on Black authors and communities, which we encourage you to support as you are able.

Black Trans Advocacy Coalition Mission

Carl Brandon Society

Race Forward

Join us in celebrating these staff additions and promotions since our last blog in April 2020! (Variations in the content are because employees were given the option to opt-in.)

New hires:

Raychael Allor, Customer Service (December 21) – Hi! I’m Raychael (she/her; pronounced like ‘Rachel’, thanks mom) and I’ve been playing TTRPGs regularly for about 5 years. I also spend a lot of free time either playing CRPGs and MMOs or reading horror fiction. My Twitter handle is @AnnonInGelydh and mostly contains retweets about mental health, cats (I have 3), and dice (I don’t have enough).

Alex Crain, Warehouse Associate

Rian Davenport, Customer Service

Addley C. Fannin, Editor – Greetings, internet. I’m Addley (they/them), a long-time gamer, forever GM, and font of useless information. I once lived in Alaska and wrote book reviews. Now I’m in Seattle, and couldn’t be more excited to help edit Pathfinder and Starfinder. My Twitter doesn’t have much yet but y’all can still follow @fannin_addleyc

Heather Fantasia, Customer Service (December 28th) – Hi everyone! I wear many hats, working at Paizo is the latest! I’m also a barista, vocal instructor, yoga enthusiast, yarn wrangler, mom, pet mom...

Keith Greer, Customer Service (October 2020), (he/him) – PNW Native+For Life; I’ve been playing RPG’s (analog and digital) since the 80s, and making dark and heavy music since the 90s; I spend my spare time playing World of Warcraft, watching horror movies, and raising my kids (to hopefully do the same).

Logan Harper, Customer Service – Hi! I’m Logan (she/her). I’m a bit of a hobbit who you can usually find curled up with my pups watching movies. Or if it's Sunday then I’m battling monsters with The Tribe in our online game. The rest of my downtime is spent recording voiceover auditions and episodes for The Barking Bard Podcast with my partner. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @LoganHarper_

Kyle Hunter, Art Director (November) (he/him) – After about 15 years, I’m back! I was part of the original WotC Periodicals crew that split off to form Paizo. Even stranger, I worked with Sarah and Sonja on Nintendo Power in the 1990s! Wrote and drew the comic Downer in the later days of Dungeon Magazine. In addition to designing the Paizo logo, I created the droid manufacturing logos for Star Wars.

Jenny Jarzabski, Starfinder Society Developer – Hi, I’m Jenny (she/her). I’m a long-time Paizo freelancer and gamer who’s thrilled to have officially joined the team. When I’m not playing games, I’m probably outside. I love the great outdoors—cycling, hiking, and rock climbing are some of my favorite activities. I sometimes ramble about various topics on Twitter, @jenjski. See you in space!

Mike Kimmel, Organized Play Developer (January 4) – Hello! I’m Mike Kimmel (he/him), the newest member of the Organized Play team. I’ve been a GM for 20+ years and I love teaching people how to play games. You can witness my Twitter shenanigans at @_MikeKimmel.

James Mafi, Warehouse Associate

Lee Rucker, Project Coordinator – Hello! I’m Lee (they/them). When I’m not wrangling projects, I mostly spend my time playing games (all kinds), hanging with friends (digitally these days), and reading. I hope to utilize my skills in organizing, process improvement, and planning to help make everyone’s lives less stressful here.

Levi Steadman, Tech – Hello, I’m Levi (he/him). I’m a Michigander who has been playing Pathfinder for half his life adjusting to my new life here in the PNW. I’ve joined the team to help with the QA process for the website and automated some of the monotonous QA tasks that tend to slow things down. When I’m not doing my day job or playing Pathfinder I’m almost always playing MMOs with my wife and our friends back in Michigan.

Title changes:

James Case (he/him): Pathfinder Society Developer to Designer. Twitter: @toriariaria

Adam Daigle (he/him): Managing Developer to Director of Game Development—As I mentioned in my teary blog this past summer, when Amanda left us for other ventures, I took over management of the Starfinder development team in addition to the Pathfinder development team. Now I have the duty and honor of managing the development of both of our games, and this new title represents that. It’s weird that I was a fan and freelancer posting on our messageboards less than ten years ago. I’ve been stoked to see so many awesome new people joining us and seeing other people rising through the ranks to well-deserved positions.

Leo Glass: Senior Editor to Managing Editor

Thurston Hillman: Starfinder Society Developer to Pathfinder Society Developer

Jenny Jarzabski: Organized Play Developer to Starfinder Society Developer

Scott Keim: Data Entry Clerk to Financial Operations Specialist

Avi Kool (they/them): Editor to Senior Editor
After working on Pathfinder Second Edition since the playtest, I have a huge amount of love for the system and the stories it empowers us to tell. I can’t wait to lead the Editing team on the Pathfinder line to further explore the way the game works as well as the world of Golarion and the people who inhabit it.

When I’m not editing, I enjoy learning about nature, cross-stitching, watching horror movies, and petting my dog. I am the company’s resident expert on bears, for which I have no certifications whatsoever. You can find me talking about bears and making tabletop RPGs queer on Twitter at @legalizegoblins.

Heather Payne: Warehouse Associate to Warehouse Distribution Lead

Lu Pellazar Editor to Senior Editor

Michael Sayre: Pathfinder Society Developer to Designer

Jeff Strand: Shipping Manager to Warehouse Manager

Kevin Underwood Warehouse Associate to Logistics Coordinator

Diego Valdez: Customer Service Representative to Customer Service Lead

---

Most Paizo employees continue to work from home and we have no return date scheduled. Many of us have yet to meet face-to-face, but we have Happy Hours every other Friday hosted by Devinne Caples, our HR Generalist. This also means our Customer Service team is unable to take calls directly in the office they continue to work via email, the forums, and the main Paizo voicemail box. We thank you for your support, patience, and patronage.

In his offices in Skyreach, Ambrus leans on his desk, reading a parchment laying before him, then looks over at Janira and Zarta. “What do you mean, retiring from active service? How can that be? He’s one of our best and most active agents!”

Zarta shrugs. “His skills are needed elsewhere and we shouldn’t stop him from moving. Besides, we have other Pathfinders ready to step into the vacancy. Don’t fret.”

“Besides, having allies in other places only helps the Society!” chimes in Janira. “This is a win for everyone!”

---

Light years from that encounter in the Grand Lodge, a spaceship docks at the Starfinder bay in the Lorespire Complex. A lone figure exits the ship, looking around at their new environment.

“I’d read reports about the complex, but hadn’t imagined it was quite this…” their voice trails off.

A damaya lashunta steps forward, datapad in hand. “Hello. Welcome to the Society. If you will follow me to our offices. Ehu sends his greetings and will meet with you shortly.”

---

Taiwalei by Carol Azevedo

We announced a couple of weeks ago that Michael Sayre was leaving the Organized Play team (check out his blog here and my sendoff here). And as promised in that blog, we have a few changes to announce.

First off, James Case is stepping into Mike’s position as the Pathfinder Organized Play Developer. This means that he’ll be the lead on the Pathfinder Society line, shaping the direction of the Pathfinder Society’s overarching plots and schemes going forward. James is always brimming with new ideas, both for entertaining stories and for ways to improve the way we do our jobs. It’s been a pleasure working with James, and I’m looking forward to being part of what he comes up with next!

And of course, with someone leaving, it's time to bring in someone new as well. I’m excited to welcome Jenny Jarzabski to the Organized Play team. You all might already know Jenny for the numerous projects she’s written for Paizo, including many top-notch scenarios for both Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society, or from her active presence in the community as a frequent convention volunteer and 5-star GM. Thanks for joining us, Jenny!

In all of the shuffle that’s been going on lately, Tonya reminded me that I hadn’t announced my own title change from a few months back. Whoops! I’m now officially the manager of the other organized play developers, and my title changed to Organized Play Managing Developer.

Linda Zayas-Palmer
Organized Play Managing Developer

---

Hi everyone, James here! As Linda said, I’ll be taking over the Pathfinder Society (insert witch cackle here). One of the things I love most about organized play is the feel of the living campaign—how the actions of all of the players can affect the storylines and world—and how our digital-first products free us to quickly move adventures from an idea to everyone’s game tables. I’m excited to step into the role of sending the Society on new adventures to new places, and I look forward to continuing to build out the world of Golarion with all of you!

James Case
Pathfinder Organized Play Developer

---

Naiaj, by Sebastian Rodriguez

Howdy! I’m Jenny Jarzabski, and I’m happy to announce that I’m joining the Organized Play team! I’ve been a Paizo freelancer for the past six years designing adventures, setting, and rules for Pathfinder and Starfinder. Most recently, I authored The Devastation Ark: Waking the Worldseed and the Starfinder Society Season 3 Interactive Special, The Last Bite.

Before I was a freelancer, I was a volunteer. I played my first game of PFS in 2012 at the Dallas-Fort Worth (Texas) Pathfinder Lodge. I played every slot I could sign up for and soon stepped up to GM at local cons. PaizoCon 2013 was the real game changer for me, though. I enjoyed it so much that I hopped on a plane and volunteered for 8 GM slots at GenCon a month later. I’ve been a regular attendee of big conventions ever since.

Considering my history with the Org Play program, I’m thrilled to take my place as a Developer working on Starfinder Society alongside my old pal Thursty. I know we’re going to make an excellent team, so you can expect plenty of weird and wonderful space shenanigans coming your way!

When I’m not playing games, I’m probably outside. I love the great outdoors—cycling, hiking, and rock climbing are some of my favorite activities. I also dabble in cooking, fermentation, and home brewing, and my greatest quarantine accomplishment was the perfection of a two-day sourdough baking ritual. You can follow my real-life adventures on Twitter at @jenjski.

Jenny Jarzabski
Organized Play Developer

---

Check back later today to read about our vision for the organized play program as a whole (and an update on the Guide to Organized Play: Pathfinder Society!).

Until then, Explore, Report, Cooperate!

>

Meleeka drops into a ready stance. Legs spread slightly more than shoulder-width apart, left knee touching the ground, the ball of her right foot raised and poised to launch her in any direction at a moment’s notice. She begins slowly sweeping her arms in broad, circular movements, fingers curled like grasping talons as she channels her rage and negative emotions out of her body, giving them shape as flickering flames shrouding her hands.

The soft clap from outside the training area is all the signal she needs. Meleeka launches herself off her right foot, throwing her body into a twisting spin to add momentum to her first blow, shattering a wooden training dummy into shards of smoking wood. Landing on her left foot, she kicks off the ground immediately, throwing herself into a backflip that takes her over the next nearest training dummy. Coiling her hands together into a hammer of fire, she reduces that target to shards as well. Eyeing the last target, a stone statue known to the initiated as One-Who-Waits, Meleeka charges forward, flames shrouding her feet and giving her extra momentum for her final leap. Arms outstretched, body turning from a vertical whirl to a horizontal spin, she latches onto the statue with her fingers, using her strength and momentum to sweep the heavy stone off the ground, overhead, and bringing it crashing back down in a fiery explosion.

Looking at the wreckage, Meleeka is surprised to find that, unlike a few months previously, the fires had not stoked the anger in her heart, but consumed it, leaving her with a relaxed sense of peace that was entirely unfamiliar to the young and very talented martial artist.

“You are ready.” The words come from one Rashmivati Melipdra, a jovial but imposing woman who had taken Meleeka under her wing, untwisting the young woman’s spirit while teaching her discipline and friendship. “You may not see it, but I do. I have no need for an apprentice who has learned all I have to teach.” Rashmivati says the words with an empathetic smile, her pride in her protégé plainly written on her face. “The rest of what you have to learn, you must learn for yourself.”

“Where shall I go?” Meleeka asks.

“Absalom first,” Rashmivati replies. “You should meet Ambrus, and Sorrina, and all the rest. In the Grand Lodge, you will encounter many people who see the world through eyes different from your own. Learn from them, and let their wisdom show you the next path in your journey.” Rashmivati pauses for a moment in pleasant reflection before continuing. “And tell my brother Shristi that it has been too long since he last visited home. Tell him he is missed, and that I trained you as a disciple. He may have more to teach you!” Rashmivati takes the young woman in a hug as she finishes. Meleeka’s body stiffens for a moment, still unused to Rashmivati’s displays of affection, before melting into the older woman’s arms.

“What shall I do?” Meleeka whispers into the silken scarves covering her mentor’s shoulders.

“Whatever you wish my child. Go, and make this world your own.”

Illustration by Riccardo Moscatello

Hey everyone, Michael Sayre here! It’s with a mixture of sadness and excitement that I announce my departure from the Organized Play team. I’ve accepted a new position here at Paizo that will take my career in a direction I’ve always wanted to go and I’m excited about this new opportunity. But I will miss planning, outlining, and developing these adventures that we’ve all shared over the last two years! I’ve learned a lot from Linda, Tonya, John, Thursty, James, Alex, and everyone else who’s been a part of the Organized Play family during my time in this department. But don’t worry! I’m leaving you all in excellent hands, and Linda will be following up in a bit to let you know about the rest of the changes to the team.

Thanks so much for allowing me to be part of this community, and hopefully I still have many more opportunities to join you all at a table in the years to come. You’re all awesome. And just in case this is the last time I get to say it…

Explore! Report! Cooperate!

Michael Sayre

Here at Paizo, we take pride in the diverse perspectives our staff bring to our games and workplace. The worlds and narratives that result from these perspectives inspire thrilling adventures that everyone can enjoy. We’re delighted to share some of these voices and viewpoints from our community in their own words. Read along, be inspired, and happy Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month to everyone!

Illustrations by Valeria Lutfullina

James Case (he/him), Organized Play Developer

I think I have a pretty typical background for many people from Hawaii. One of my grandfathers was Native Hawaiian, one of my grandmothers is a Korean immigrant, and my other two grandparents are white—one from the neighbor islands of Hawaii, one from Missouri (definitely pronounced with a -ruh). Growing up in an environment where (checks wiki) 25% of the people were hapa, or mixed race, I never thought much of it, but after leaving the island, I realized how much I took growing up in a multicultural environment for granted, with a diverse set of influence both within my own family and in the ones around me to draw on. In my work now, I’m happy to be able to help push towards a broader view of what fantasy can be. It’s no secret that fantasy games especially have often skewed to a predominantly European setting, and while I love my knights and dragons, don’t get me wrong, I also know that that’s just one mythology among many that each have their legendary heroes to embody and monsters to slay (or beseech, or fight alongside!). I’m happy to see more and more stories coming out of games lately, and to be in a place where I can contribute to them by pitching creatures from stories that my grandfather first told me around a campfire on the beach.

Eleanor Ferron (she/her), Pathfinder Developer

My grandfather was Nisei—a Japanese American son born to first generation Japanese immigrants to America. He was one of the most interesting people I ever knew, serving in American military intelligence even during a war when Japanese American citizens, including his family, were unjustly forced into internment camps with only the things they could carry. He inspired in me both a fascination for East Asian culture, but also in the Asian immigrant communities that helped build the American West Coast. My work at Paizo has allowed me to work with peoples and myths inspired from East Asia, and in our own Golarion setting, with Avistani immigrants who draw from those same people and myths, such as the Tian communities in Varisia or the well-known tengu jinx-eaters who sail the Shackles.

Joan Hong (she/her), Customer Service Representative

I’m the daughter of two Korean immigrants who left everything behind to chase their American Dream. I grew up learning Korean traditional instruments, eating rice at every meal, and thinking that the dishwasher was just an oversized drying rack. If I’m being honest, I spent a lot of my childhood resenting my Korean heritage because I felt like an outsider. What I wish I knew back then is that the culture and traditions my parents passed along to me don’t make me an outsider, they provide me with a rich background and history that broaden my perspective. Recently, seeing greater Asian representation in media has touched me in ways that I can’t express well in words. It makes me realize how important representation is, and how much I missed out on because I felt like I wouldn’t fit in with people I couldn’t see myself reflected in. As an Asian staff member and freelance writer for Paizo, I feel empowered to share my perspective thanks in part to the support of wonderful colleagues. The TTRPG industry is changing for the better every day, and look forward to more content from diverse writers and streamers.

Ianara Natividad (she/her), Editor

I come from a family of immigrants, myself included, who moved from the Philippines and settled in the United States. I grew up surrounded by the most hardworking people I’d ever known. There was always that sense I had to work just as hard. Sometimes, I felt the pressure of what it means to have to succeed, knowing that many of the people around me—my mom and dad especially—endured and sacrificed so much to build my life in America.

For most of my schooling, I was set for a STEM career. All of my extended family’s children, in my generation, were pursuing similar opportunities: STEM, medicine, law, and business. My exposure to gaming all came from external sources, such as school and friends, so it wasn’t something I openly shared with my family. Eventually, I realized STEM careers weren’t for me. My parents felt confused and disappointed at first, but they understood that I wanted to do something that kept me happy. They supported me as I studied history, worked at a nonprofit, and pursued my editing and writing work. It felt like my family knew I would work hard regardless of what field I chose, an ethic that I witnessed and learned from them. So I did. I went into my gaming interests hard, and all that ultimately led me down the path that got me working at Paizo. Just one of the many reasons I love and appreciate my family.

Lu Pellazar (he/they), Editor

Ohai! I’m Lu, an editor (and occasional contributor) at Paizo. Most of my experience with being API in the gaming industry is not just about incorporating my roots in the products I work on. For me personally, it’s a lot of learning from other API gamers, writers, designers etc. As a mixed-race diaspora kid who was raised by my Black dad and Filipino/German mom (who was herself raised by my 100% Bavarian oma), it’s hard to feel like I fully “fit in” with ANY of my cultures, let alone my Filipino side. I never really embraced my Filipino culture until my mid-20s, when I started looking into it more myself. I’m in my 30s now, but I’m still learning new things about my culture every day; yes, even “basic” things that “every” Filipino person knows. AND THAT’S FINE!! For anyone reading who might relate (my friends have to remind me of this): Just know that being a diaspora kid is a cultural experience in and of itself, and none of us are any less valid for it. There are a ton of amazing creators and gamers in our community that we can learn from if we want to.

Illustration by Mirco Paganessi

Please join us in welcoming our new employees, celebrating staff promotions, and generally bringing some orderliness to our titles. We invited each employee to add as much, or as little, as they would like to share.

New Employees

---

Alex Speidel, Organized Play Associate

Previously introduced here.

Calliope Taylor, Customer Service Representative

[they/them/she/her] Calliope is a forever GM and slightly over-enthusiastic tabletop games evangelist. When not embroiled in one weekly RPG game or another, they can be found explaining the finer intricacies of Goblin culture to increasingly uncomfortable looking people in the supermarket frozen food section. You can follow them at @thegriefmop on twitter.

Devinne Caples, HR Generalist

Devinne has an educational background in Human Resources and Leadership and Management. This wife and mother of 3 children and 2 fur babies, is passionate about living life and always strives to do her best in everything. Away from the office she enjoys spending time with friends and family, watching her children play sports and traveling.

Ianara Natividad, Editor

Heya! My name’s Ianara (she/her), and I’m absolutely ecstatic to join the Paizo team as an editor. I’ve played tabletop and roleplaying games for over the past ten years, even running a few campaigns of my own. I hail from South Carolina, where I worked in the nonprofit sector while freelancing as a writer and editor. I regularly contribute to Worldbuilding Magazine, a fantastic community-driven digital publication for all things worldbuilding. When I’m not working, I take naps and play games. I’m also on Twitter, @imachinate.

Eric Powell, Accounting & AP Specialist

Promotions

Adam Vick, Art Director

Leo Glass, Senior Editor

Leo has worked as an editor at Paizo for 2 years and has contributed to products such as the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide, Starfinder Beginner Box, and Starfinder Character Operations Manual. He holds a B.A. in English with an emphasis in creative writing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. If you’ve ever overused scare quotes or reflexive pronouns in your freelance turnover for Paizo, there’s a good chance he removed them. He is extremely excited to serve Paizo and his extended family on the editing team as senior editor. He’s also thankful for his loving partner, Ashley, his dog, Rocko, and his cat, Pixel. If you’re a fan of his freelance writing, you can follow him on Twitter @leoglasswrites.

Mark Moreland, Director of Brand Strategy

Sonja Morris, Managing Art Director

Title Changes

Brian Bauman, Software Architect

Brian has worn a number of hats over his two years at Paizo - some of his favorite pet projects have included making our watermarking service faster and more reliable, quadrupling the speed of our builds, and migrating our database to a more stable cluster solution. He currently spends most of his days designing and implementing better tools for the developers, designing Paizo’s cloud architecture, and advocating for industry standards and best practices. In his spare time he plays baritone saxophone in a brass street band, sings tenor in a seasonal Victorian caroling quartet, and plays all the board, video and tabletop games he can get his hands on. His adorable dog Cosmo puts up with all of it.

Sarah Robinson, Director of Visual Design

Scott Keim, Finance Operations Specialist

Tony Barnett, Graphic Designer

Whitney Chatterjee, System Administrator II

From all of us here at Paizo, thank you for your patronage.

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks,
Marketing and Media Manager

Please join us in welcoming our new-hires and celebrating the career advancement of some staff here at Paizo Inc.

---

Logan Bonner, Pathfinder Lead Designer

Hello! I’m Logan Bonner, the new Pathfinder Lead Designer. My job is to see to the health of the game’s ruleset, make sure we’re putting out inspiring new rules for you, and monitor where and how new concepts enter the rules space as the game grows so it stays fresh and exciting, but manageable to understand, run, and play. I’ve been at Paizo for a long while now, with my first big book (as an editor) being Ultimate Equipment. Designing Second Edition with Jason, Mark Seifter, and Stephen Radney-MacFarland was the biggest job in my time here, and the new places we can take the game are really exciting! We want to surprise people and deliver new concepts as well as bringing back the best of Pathfinder First Edition. The best place to find my design discussions is Twitter, where I’m @loganbonner.

James Case, Developer

We were pleased to announce his transfer in our blog: Introducing Our New Org Play Developer!

Glenn Elliot, Program Manager

Hi, I’m Glenn, and for the past two years, I’ve been the Licensing Manager here at Paizo. I’m now switching roles to build a Project Management Office for the company and look forward to the challenge! I’ve been a Producer or Project Manager at various companies over the last 15 years including several small (now defunct) mobile game companies, PopCap Games, the Bluetooth SIG, and Microsoft. Before that, I was in R&D at Wizards of the Coast where I was the lead designer for RoboRally and the BattleTech trading card game, and before that, I was a software engineer at Boeing. I’m a computer gamer and roleplaying gamer, and in my free time I’m also a Master BBQ Judge for both the PNWBA and KCBS, as well as a fan of port wine. My wife and I love to travel, especially to Portugal, but really anywhere with sun and a warm beach is fine with us!

Maryssa Lagervall, Web Content Manager

Hey guys, I’ve adopted the website ala Bruce Wayne tragic orphan style. A new super suit and alter ego are pending. Until then, come yell with me about comics, movies, and any other pop culture thing you can think of @maryssamari

Patrick Hurley, Editor

Hi, I’m Patrick! I’m delighted and amazed to be an editor at Paizo. I’ve been writing science fiction and fantasy for over a decade and have also helped edit some great IP, including Star Wars, Marvel, and Star Trek. Along with Paizo short fiction, I’ve had stories published in the magazines Galaxy’s Edge, Cosmic Roots & Eldritch Shores, New Myths, Frozen Wavelets, Stupefying Stories, and Abyss & Apex, the book anthologies Portals, Battling In All Her Finery, and Murder & Mayhem, and the podcasts The Overcast and The Drabblecast. I live in Seattle and I’m a member of SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America), the Dreamcrashers, and I’m a 2017 graduate of the Taos Toolbox Writer's Workshop.

Kieran Newton, Editor

Hello “gamers.” My name is kieran (he/him), and to become Paizo’s newest editor, I bought a car and drove 2600ish miles over the course of five days, from New York City. I think I have surprised even myself with my level of commitment to this particular bit. I’ve been editing for a long time, but I’m *really* excited to finally be able to do that in games, and on products as vastly cool and complex as Pathfinder and Starfinder. I’m just learning my way around these weird worlds and their canon, but I can’t wait to help folks tell weird, complicated, and most importantly, challenging stories here. For now, though, feel free to follow me on twitter @kierantnewton, where I mostly yell about video games and make weird jokes, and on twitch at twitch.tv/eyelur0, where I mostly yell at video games and make weird jokes.

Michael Nzazi, Project Coordinator

Hi, I am Michael, the new Project Coordinator working with the Project Management Office team. I am a French-born speaker originally from Congo, and I have lived in Portland, OR and Boston, MA before settling myself in Seattle. Before joining Paizo, I was working at Microsoft. I enjoy doing project management work and will be supporting the team to build a strong PMO. I am excited to be part of the organization!

Mark Seifter, Design Manager

I'm Mark Seifter, one of the four leads on the creation of Pathfinder Second Edition and the new Design Manager. As Design Manager, I'm in charge of design consistency across all our various products and games, as well as departmental outreach and the design process. If you have any thoughts or ideas you'd like to share, you can hit me up on social media (@markseifter on Twitter, or Mark Seifter, Game Designer on Facebook). Also, be sure to check out my twitch stream with Linda Zayas-Palmer, Arcane Mark, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7 p.m. Pacific, and Saturdays at 10 a.m. Pacific at https://www.twitch.tv/arcanemark. We cover a variety of RPG and Pathfinder topics on Tuesdays and Saturdays, chosen by the viewers, with interviews on Thursdays!

Aaron Shanks, Marketing and Media Manager

I became Paizo’s part-time Public Relations Manager in 2018 and the full-time Marketing and Media Manger golem this year. I have a hand in managing news, reviews, interviews, and the multitude of our business communications. I have spent over twenty years working for economic development and arts nonprofits in marketing, communications, and the performing arts. Roleplaying games have been a part of my life since I was ten and I’ve have been in a player in an ongoing homebrew game for over 25 years. I’m at @aaronwshanks on Twitter. (he/him)

There are more Additions and Promotions ahead! Stay tuned, we are not done yet!

With gratitude for our customers,