Ancestry Guide Chapter Opener, artist Victor Manuel Leza Moreno

With PaizoCon coming up, the OP team is hard at work to get everything ready! We’ve got seven different scenarios premiering, including our new PACS Interactive, so we wanted to take this week’s blog to just kick back, relax, and do something we haven’t done in a while.

It’s been a year of online conventions for us, and while we love that we can still game from home, we’ve missed hanging out with all our players and swapping stories. So, let’s chat! What’s a great moment from the last year of Organized Play gaming? What plot twists shocked you, what jokes broke up the table for 10 minutes, what do you wish you could’ve told us about over a drink?

Here are a few of my favorite gameplay moments from the last year:

• This exchange from the Twitch chat during the first run of SFS 3-00: The Last Bite cracks me up to this day:

• My oracle made friends with mysterious spirits in a library because they left the spirits some very nice journals to write in.
• One of my players managed to tame a dinosaur during SFS 3-10: Live Adventure Extreme! thanks to a natural 20 and a very permissive GM.

What were some of your favorite gaming moments of the past year? Post them below or tweet them to us at @PaizoOrgPlay, we’d love to hear about them! Don’t forget to use spoiler tags if you’re sharing details about a scenario.

We can’t wait to see you all at PaizoCon Online. Check back next week for our announcement on updates to Starfinder Society for Year of the Data Scourge!

Until then—Explore! Report! Cooperate! And roll initiative!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

Mark your calendars!

As we continue winding down our Pathfinder Adventure Card Game program, we’ve decided to end it with a bang! At this year’s PaizoCon Online, we will be hosting a final Pathfinder Adventure Card Society Celebration Bonanza. The event is scheduled for 1pm PDT on Sunday, May 30, 2021. Come join us for some card flipping, location exploring action!

The bonanza will be the last published Society adventure for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. From May, the Pathfinder Adventure Card Society will join the Pathfinder Society (first edition) as a legacy program still available for convention support, but for which we will no longer produce new content. All scenarios will remain available for play and we will publish one last Guide to Organized Play: Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Game in early May which will include blog items such as adventure packs as well as a few rules revisions. Players may still report games on paizo.com and tables of Pathfinder Adventure Card Society will still count towards table limits for convention support.

In addition, the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Core Set and Curse of the Crimson Throne expansion remain available for purchase, as will most of the previous expansions, add-on decks, promo cards, and accessories.

We appreciate our community members who played the game and who participated in organized play activities! We hope to see you all at our PaizoCon Online 2021 celebration!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Looking to fill out your Pathfinder Adventure Path collection or add some new tools to your VTT gaming, Paizo has you covered. Come and celebrate Black Friday at paizo.com with 25% off your favorite digital products! It runs now until midnight Pacific time on Monday, November 30, save 25% on all Paizo digital products. The sale is not valid on products from licensed or compatible publishers, subscriptions, or e-tickets.

I’ve picked some highlights for beginners and veterans alike!

Take the first step into an amazing world of fantasy adventure with the Pathfinder Beginner Box or science fantasy with the Starfinder Beginner Box.

Complete your Pathfinder Second Edition “core four” rulebook bundle with the Pathfinder Core Rulebook (second printing), Pathfinder Bestiary, Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide,, and Pathfinder Advanced Player’s Guide.

Begin to explore the world of the Pathfinder with the hit Lost Omens World Guide! Deeping your knowledge of lore with our newest releases: Lost Omens: Legends and Pathfinder Lost Omens: Pathfinder Society Guide.

We have adventures of every length. Looking to save on a one-shot adventure? Check out the scenarios available through the Pathfinder Society, Starfinder Society, and Pathfinder Adventure Card Society. Check out our standalone adventures, like Pathfinder Adventure: The Slithering, for several sessions of Pathfinder play. For epic adventures that take you up to level 20, add Pathfinder Adventure Paths to your digital library, including volumes one through our newest, the Agents of Edgewatch Adventure Path. Want a more science-fantasy theme? Shoot for the stars with Starfinder Adventure Paths, including the first volume of the Fly Free or Die Adventure Path, We’re No Heroes.

Your galactic journeys through science-fantasy begin with the Starfinder Core Rulebook (new printing). Expand your galaxy with our newest rules-and-setting books: Starfinder Near Space, and the Starfinder Starship Operations Manual.

Hundreds of more game titles, from classic Pathfinder rulebooks to maps and pawns are available so there’s something here for virtually everyone! What’s your favorite Pathfinder or Starfinder product of 2020? Let us know in the comments below.

Adventures Ahead,

Aaron Shanks
Marketing and Media Manager

Starfinder Data Jockey by Alexander Nanitchkov

Several years ago, as part of the program assessment made at the time of the Pathfinder (second edition) Playtest, the team embarked on a huge initiative spanning several years: digitization. This year, with Covid-19 pushing us into our homes and away from our traditional spaces, we are both pleased to have started the process and dismayed that our timelines aren’t aggressive enough. But we’ve gotten through Phase 1 and we thought it would be a good time to talk over some of the items we’ve completed, as well as what Phase 2 looks like.

We are also making a huge plea to our GMs to report games and asking players to encourage their GMs to do so as well. Reported games give us our program data - how many people participated, what types of games did they play (scenarios/quests/bounties/Adventure Paths), where do they play (conventions, home games, FLGS). All of this data is necessary to plan for the program. We can’t argue we need to make more scenarios, for example, without the data that X number of people play scenarios. We’ve incentived the reporting through AcP, but we need the community to help us help them!

So where are we at with each program and where are we going?

Pathfinder Society (first edition): Its foundations lay in paper Chronicles, reporting sheets, character sheets, and boons. The emphasis on physical documentation made sense, as smartphones weren’t commonplace and computers expensive (and often not-portable). But as technology progressed, we stayed with paper, as that was what had been done. Twelve years on, we aren’t looking to change how we process Pathfinder Society (first edition) data. There is no benefit in trying to upload thousands of chronicles and boons. But we don’t want to limit those players that want to use digital tools. So we will maintain the hybrid state of the campaign, where you can either use digital or paper options and paper records (or digitized versions) remain the standard.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Society: As with Pathfinder Society (first edition) we have years of paper records for PACS. While the game is continuing in digital spaces during Covid, it is meant to be played in a physical environment. At this point, we don’t think bringing the records online is a necessity. If players wish to scan their Chronicles and boons to have a digital version, they are welcome to do so, but the program will continue within the hybrid environment. We will publish a Guide 7.0 via pdf that is in line behind the Pathfinder Society guide and should be sorted out in early October. At this time, there are no major program changes, so the guide will be a compilation of blogs.

Starfinder Society: This program started under the Pathfinder Society (first edition) format but is now existing alongside Pathfinder Society (second edition) and we want to shift them to be inline under organized play processes. This adjustment will happen by the launch of Year 4 and will do so in several chunks. We just issued Guide version 3.0 as a pdf, but Guide 4.0 is intended to be digital. We are phasing out boons and boon-slotting will end as of Year 4. Chronicle boons are moving online, as are Game Rewards, which take the place of Faction boons or other benefits that unlock once criteria are achieved. We will also be building an Achievement Points - SFS category that functions like the PFS version but draws on points earned for playing or GMing Starfinder games. We are not getting rid of Chronicles, but we will open up other methods of digital tracking. As we now have the bandwidth to correct reporting errors, including fixing factions, restoring deleted characters, adding missing AcP and refunding erroneous boons, we are confident we can keep our digital records clean.

Pathfinder Society (second edition): We’ve already implemented many of the items that Starfinder Society will embrace this year. Now that we have, we can remove some of the paper tracking that exists. The guide is online and had a facelift. Playing and GMing earns AcP-PFS and rewards for purchase appear on the Boons tab of your My Organized Play account. Chronicle Rewards are in and will go live next week. We’re converting the Faction Boons part of the guide to Game Rewards, which will be operational sometime in October. When it is ready to go live, we will let everyone know via blog and also how to convert boons purchased by Fame. We’ve simplified the Chronicle and the new version will appear in October scenarios. We plan to go back and put the simplified version into Year 2 by the end of 2020 as well as update all Year 1, though that is a larger project that will take longer due to resource need. The guide changes include language on how to track character progress. Chronicles will be one way, but a player may choose to track items via spreadsheet or other tool and keep that as their proof of play alongside their character sheet, making Chronicle sheets backups and relevant only to correct errors in the database. We’ve removed personally identifying information from the Chronicles as well (no more player name or GM signature) to help with player security and to make online completion easier.

So what is Phase 2?

• Finishing streamlining Pathfinder Society (second edition) to make it easier to join and less cumbersome to track.
• Bringing Starfinder Society in line with Pathfinder Society (second edition)
• Overhauling reporting instructions/processes on paizo.com
• Encouraging use of community developed tools for tracking and character management
• Providing Organized Play Foundation volunteers with the tools/information they need to rebuild their site and generate community best practices documents.

What does this mean for the Pathfinder Society (second edition) Guide?

It will be available next Wednesday, September 23rd, after we wrap PAX Online/TPKon. This puts the release in the middle of the week instead of on top of major conventions. The guide underwent a major structural facelift in preparation for Year 2. While moving things around, we cut out duplicate text, revised the organization to make it read smoother, moved reference points/examples/longer descriptions to appendices, reformatted references to reflect publishing styles, and hyperlinked all of it. Once we know we don’t need to make further substantial changes, we will also manually compile a set of PDFs to go with it. While we will be able to update the digital guide, due to the amount of work involved, the PDF will not be updated throughout the year.

In addition, we are migrating the Guide from static pages to a Wiki-format to make finding items even easier. If everything goes well, we hope to have this ready for version 3.0 next GenCon. After a small period of testing and configuration, we should then be able to turn on the automated print to PDF feature, allowing the PDF of the Guide to be updated every time there is a significant change.

What are the major program changes appearing in the Pathfinder Society (second edition) Guide v2.0?

• Tiers/subtiers are now levels/level ranges
• Faction reputation system like in the Gamemastery Guide
• Removal of boon slotting from the beginning of play. Some boons (advanced, minion, promotional) have limits.
• How to use AcP to purchase Boons.
• Pathfinder training is now simplified and has a chart for benefits.
• Call out to slow track milestone leveling with less zeroes that does not reset.
• Removal of Fame.
• Characters gain Reputation with an individual faction and Total Reputation over all factions.
• GMs have a Challenge Point reference section
• Treasure Bundle Table
• Expanded Downtime instructions and tables for easy reference

Fame is going away. As a GM, should I give out Fame on Pathfinder Society (second edition) Chronicles?
Short answer: No, GMs should not be adding Fame to any Chronicles earned.

Longer answer:

From Year 2 launch forward, Pathfinder Society adventure (or sanctioned adventure) do not award Fame. With AcP as a purchasing currency, we don’t believe the added complexity of tracking Fame necessary. We are working on how to convert already purchased Fame items into the digital environment as well as making sure we have AcP or Faction benefits that cover items that used to be available to purchase with Fame, such as Restorations or Infamy removal. We will have more information on how to convert Fame in an October blog.

Wow, that was quite a bit of information. As always, we are working towards delivering a quality organized play program and value input from our community. We do ask for any feedback to be constructive and that it be posted in forums or emailed so that we can see and respond

Until next week, when we preview our September Society scenarios (say that five times fast)
- Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

Building a Legend

In the square of a chilly town, a girl stares at a board so covered in pamphlets and cutouts that she can scarcely see the wood underneath. “Protect a caravan from troll attacks, slay a dragon, guard the baron’s son from assassins at the summer ball… I don’t think I’m up for any of these.” In her pocket, a painted metal egg flaps filigree wings, flitting to the bounty board and knocking gently at a worn paper barely visible under an advertisement for a wandering circus. “Retrieve a missing necklace, last seen in the town sewers…” the girl reads with a note of confidence, “I think I could manage this!”

“If you’re going into the sewers, be sure to watch out for otyughs. Nasty fever,” a strange voice echoes from the girl’s ankles. When the girl sees its source—a small humanoid plant that appears to bleed red sap from a dozen cracks on its uncanny wooden body—she spins around in fright, sending a pulse of frosty magic into a nearby abandoned barrel. The discarded object rushes to life, scrambling on newly grown fowl’s legs to put itself between the girl and the plant.

“No need for that,” the leshy says, “Name’s Hau. Doctor of Pharmacology.” He opens the gourd that serves as his head and retrieves a certification and several vials. “In any event, I was looking at that job too, and thinking I could use a partner. Care to join? I can inoculate us against the otyughs ahead of time.” He squeezes an extract into one of the vials with a fizz.

The girl looks at the array of tools and substances that the small doctor measures before her with wonder, “Where did you learn such advanced techniques?”

“Oh, you know,” Hau says, “I studied for a time in Rahadoum, under a brilliant scientist.” He eyes the objects still dancing strangely around the girl. “And where, pray tell, did you pick up such unconventional magic?”

“Oh, you know,” Ivy says, letting the flying egg land in her palm, “from my grandmother.”

We were happy to release the sanctioning for the Advanced Player’s Guide a few weeks ago, but we have another Gen Con release to sanction for you all today, Lost Omens Legends! Please see the updates to our ongoing Character Options blog for these newest additions.

While many of these options are uncommon or rarer, as they represent the signature teachings, items, and ability of legendary figures, we wanted to release the sanctioning now to give everyone a chance to see what new options might inspire their characters. In the future, be sure to keep an eye out for Pathfinder Society adventures that feature these legends and their legacies for further chances to gain access to these options

Guide Updates

Today marks the first day of Gen Con Online, which means the launch of Pathfinder Society Year 2: Year of Corruption’s Reach. A new program year means a new guide. This year, instead of dropping the guide the first day of Gen Con and hoping people can access and incorporate the information into their characters, we are going to release the guide updates next week. There are no major changes to the program, just some streamlining of processes and adding clarifying language around sections that seemed to cause some confusion for our players.

The same holds true for the Starfinder Society guide. Unfortunately we weren’t able to issue this one when the Year launched in June. It’s ready now and will be available for download next week. The new version incorporates new Faction goals and an updated Story So Far. The big program change in Year 3: Year of Exploration’s Edge is the phasing out of boons on chronicles. We are using this year to prepare for the launch of Achievement Points in Year 4.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Society guide changes involve adding adventurer’s decks to the guide. Other than that, the program is continuing the same as we start Year 7: Year of Reborn Strife.

The biggest change is a revamp to how we are titling the guides. To avoid confusion with the upcoming Lost Omens: Pathfinder Society Guide (releasing in October) and to add cohesion to the Paizo Organized Play program as a whole, the guides will now be Guide to Organized Play. We are also dropping Roleplaying Guild from the names of the Pathfinder Society and the Starfinder Society. These are small naming convention changes that bring cohesion to the idea of Paizo Organized Play and society play as a whole! We’ve included links to each of the guides below and plan to have them updated by next Thursday’s blog.

Guide to Organized Play: Pathfinder Society (second edition)
Guide to Organized Play: Starfinder Society
Guide to Organized Play: Pathfinder Adventure Card Society
Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide (first edition)

Until next time, Explore! Report! Cooperate! And enjoy Gen Con!

James Case
Organized Play Developer

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

While Gen Con won’t be happening in Indianapolis this year, Gen Con Online promises to be just as jam-packed with Organized Play events! We’ve got nearly 900 game sessions scheduled, so let’s take a look at some of the new scenarios we’ll be premiering.

Pathfinder Special: 2-00 The King in Thorns
In our first multitable interactive special for Pathfinder (second edition), the Pathfinder Society travels deep within the jungles of the Mwangi Expanse, ready to do battle with a powerful fey adversary, the Thorned Monarch, whose shadowy plots have vexed the Pathfinder Society since its founding days. Adventurers will unlock lost magic and discover long-forgotten secrets—that is, if they don’t fall prey to the Monarch’s tricks! This interactive special currently has 70 tables scheduled at a variety of level ranges.

Starfinder Special: 3-00 The Last Bite
With her machinations laid bare, Datch is ready to execute the final stages of her plan: become the head of AbadarCorp and twist it for her nefarious purposes. Only the Starfinder Society can stop her plans in their tracks in this brand-new interactive special! The agents will have to battle drones, win friends and alliances, and work together to complete Luwazi Elsebo’s final mission and close the books on this saga.

New Scenarios
Gen Con will also see the premiere of a several new Pathfinder Society scenarios:
In PFS 1-24: Lightning Strikes, Stars Fall, Pathfinders chart a path through the Numerian wilderness, dealing with all matter of twisted and technological foes and a nefarious group that’s determined to make sure they never return.
In PFS 1-25: Grim Symphony, Pathfinders explore a haunted mansion in Ustalav filled with treasure – and discordant evil!
PFS 2-01: Citadel of Corruption kicks off the new year with a Decemvirate-led expedition into the corrupted forests of Iobaria.
PFS 2-02: Mountain of Sea and Sky ask the Pathfinders to secure a new lodge on an oceanside mountain in Minkai. Magical disturbances have sent the island’s guardians and wildlife into disarray. Through exploration, diplomacy, magic, and blade, the Pathfinders can set things right and earn welcome to a newly harmonious land.

We’ll also be releasing Quest 13: Falcon’s Descent, our final quest, in which the Eagle Knights request assistance with a band of slavetaking duergars, as well as our first Bounty, titled The Whitefang Wyrm, in which Pathfinders between missions accept a bounty to track down a dangerous dragon in the frozen Crown of the World. Starfinder released its first two offerings for Year 3, Crash Down and The Subterranean Safari, at ConCurrent, and you’ll find plenty of tables for both at Gen Con as well.

Not to be forgotten, the Pathfinder Adventure Card Society will feature tables of the interactive special 6-99 Tyrant of the Harrow, which debuted at PaizoCon and pulls the heroes into the Harrowed Realm populated by storybook characters. We're kicking off Year 7: The Year of Reborn Strife with zombie hijinks in the streets of Kaer Maga in 7-1: Attack of the Twice-Born. We’re also premiering the PACS 2020 Open: The Last Night at Everstand, in which teams take on the role of embattled defenders against foreboding odds to compete against each other for fame, glory and prizes!

In addition to all these events, we’re featuring tables of some old favorites from Pathfinder (first edition) as well as selections from Year 1 of Pathfinder (second edition) and Year 2 of Starfinder Society. With nearly 900 tables over the four days of the convention, we’re sure you’ll have plenty of opportunities to roll some (virtual) dice!

Player Instructions
The event catalog is live now at https://www.gencon.com/online, and player registration will begin on July 13. Badges are free and can be obtained now at their website. We do want to let players know that Gen Con event tickets are $2 per event, plus tax. Gen Con has pledged to donate a portion of each ticket to I Need Diverse Games; you can learn more about them at https://ineeddiversegames.org/. Our Quest and Bounty offerings are all free-of-charge and available to walk-in players as well.

All our games will take place on the Paizo Organized Play Online Events (POPOE) server, which we have used successfully for PaizoCon Online and ConCurrent. You can join it now at http://discord.gg/j3rhjJS. If you don’t already have one, we recommend registering for an Organized Play number at https://paizo.com/organizedplay before the event.

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below, or join the POPOE server and ask away! We look forward to seeing you all at Gen Con Online!

First, the elephant: Let me say that we did not expect the title of our latest Pathfinder Adventure Card Society epic to be so prophetic. Year of Rotting Ruin brought gamers a sweeping torrent of plagues, economic chaos, civil unrest, and... well, anyway. Sometimes you pick a theme and sometimes the theme picks you.

With that said, I want to wrap up one of the best Adventure Paths you’ll find in our eight-year Pathfinder Adventure Card Game history. Year of Rotting Ruin was the first Pathfinder Adventure Card Society AP to use our new Core Set and Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path. Coordinator Linda Zayas-Palmer, designer Keith Richmond, and storytellers Elizabeth Corrigan, Katina Davis, Jaym Gates, Steven Hammond, Ron Lundeen, Jennifer Povey, and Diego Valdez crafted an intricate and pulse-pounding series of tales. These are not the kind of tales you tell your kids. These are the kind you read with one hand in front of your face.

If you’ve finished The Dragon’s Demand and Curse of the Crimson Throne, and are wondering what to do next, here’s a travelogue through your next nightmare.

To start off, in Adventure 1: City of Sails and Shrouds, the forces of evil blew up a city. Straight up obliterated Vigil clean off the map. With the capital of Lastwall destroyed by the long-dead lich called the Whispering Tyrant, the Pathfinders faced the challenges of trying to help the citizens of the nearby city of Vellumis deal with the strife. Ron Lundeen and Linda Zayas-Palmer came up with scenario concepts that dealt with evacuations of refugees, uprisings of looters, and demonic forces stoking fear and chaos.

I’ll offer spoilers on one scenario per adventure in this blog. Scenario 1D: Treating the infection had a rude awakening for the players: You get arrested! Keith invented a delightful (to me, not to you) mechanic for how you deal with life behind bars. Good luck with that.

Also, there are sharks. Jigsaw Sharks. I don’t think there’s a card in this game whose title I love more than that.

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Dealing with these problems treated the symptoms, not the cause. Vellumis was wracked with peril, but it would have to fend for itself. To save the splintering province of Lastwall, writer Steven Hammond sends our heroes far into darkness in Adventure 2: Urgathoa’s Persistent Shadow.

Scenario 2B: Spoiled Victuals features the return—and return, and return—of a card that’s been with us from the beginning: Plague Zombie. In this scenario, you really would prefer they stayed dead. It’s good to want things.

Also in this scenario, we meet the supporters Ketrik, Boors, and Moise, a trio of guards whose allegiance will become important. You decide which to rally when, and those decisions will affect your game thereafter for quite some time.

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Jennifer Povey kicks off Adventure 3: Fortress of Ruin with a deeply involving harrow reading, and—spoiler alert—it doesn’t augur well.

Scenario 3B: Fear and Flame begins with a sentence I’m sure you’re thrilled about: “Add the Perils wildcard Ablaze.” It’s a scenario Keith Richmond festooned with Traps amid burning buildings. Can you run through a maze of fire to get out? I’m sure it won’t hurt much.

Hey, I mentioned there’s a lich at the heart of this Adventure Path. I’ll bet you think that means you’ll fight that lich in Adventure 6. Nope! You run into a most fearsome foe halfway through the Adventure Path. If you win—no guarantee there—what could possibly await on the other side of an undead lord?

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In Adventure 4: What Stalks the Shadows, you return to Vellumis in the wake of the battle with the lich. Unsurprisingly, things haven’t gone perfectly in your absence. It seems that the Whispering Tyrant had conspirators in your city. In Diego Valdez’s story, you have to navigate a twisty road of backstabbing and betrayal.

Like for example, when all the statues take wing and ambush you. Scenario 4B: Rock and Steel features a host of Ashwing Gargoyles pounding you with rocks, and also the first (but not last) appearance of a sentence that will tempt you in ways you won’t comprehend at first: “Once each turn, you may bury a card to explore.” Let’s see if you are willing to strip down that deck to make progress. Sounds good, right? Did I mention the Ashwing Gargoyles?

Time for Adventure 5! Wait, is that a record scratch I hear?

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Surprise! We dropped a totally unexpected standalone adventure in between AP chapters. In Standalone Adventure 1: A Night at Bloodthorn Manor, a group of children wander into a haunted house, and you have to get them out. The story text by Jaym Gates is fun and creepy and really weird, and I love all of it.

I mean, how confident are you when you read a note that says:

“We are safe. Daddy will take care of the bad people.”

Some confident? None confident?

I also love how Keith sets a trap for you in Scenario D: Unfinished Business. You get to choose your wildcards, one per character for this one. A six-player group starting with six wildcards had better make some careful choices.

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Taking us back to the AP, Katina Davis sets the stage for the return to Lastwall and a journey to the city of Ardis in Adventure 5: Echoes of Death. The city faces an uprising of previously dead monsters as well as an assassination attempt on its noble countess. Plus, there’s a giant golem in your way. That’s a lot to handle.p>

In Scenario 5B: Race for the Cemetery, Keith asks the heretofore unasked question, “What if every location was a Graveyard?” In case you’ve blotted it out of your memory, Graveyard is the Core Set location where every monster is Undead, and closing it spawns more Undead. So if every location is a Graveyard... well, you do the math.

And look, if there’s Undead everywhere, and this whole Adventure Path centers around a long-slain lich, you probably want to re-slay the Whispering Tyrant here. Otherwise, you’ll never make it to the end of this epic quest.

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All right, you’ve finally ended the threat of the Whispering Tyrant. Except... you haven’t. You still have to find his phylactery, which is the only way you can guarantee you won’t have to re-re-slay him. And that’s going to lead you to Adventure 6: Death’s Vengeance.

Lich-fighting makes strange bedfellows, so in the middle of this adventure, Elizabeth Corrigan and Keith Richmond give you one of the nastiest choices this game has ever seen: either ally with the Red Mantis assassins who promise they’re going to kill you later, or refuse their help and expect them to try to kill you now. Whether you choose to play Scenario 6C1: An Unlikely Alliance or Scenario 6C2: Backstabbed, you’ll come out of it in quite a different shape for your final boss fight.

It all ends in an arena of blood, but I won’t say any more about that. Well, except that once you’ve finished the six-course meal that is the Adventure Path proper, we tempt you with a wafer-thin mint of a bonus scenario that puts the lever controlling risk versus reward directly into your own hands. After all this, are you going to take the easy way out? (We didn’t think so.)

Year of Rotting Ruin is a big, soaring, down-in-the-muck Adventure Path. If you’re done with The Dragon’s Demand and Curse of the Crimson Throne, you owe it to yourself to pick it up. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll make it through alive.

Adventures Ahead!

Mike Selinker
Adventure Card Game Lead Designer

Each day during PaizoCon Online, we’re taking a look at upcoming products, revealing new art and details, and diving deep into the day’s focus with a livestreamed Marquee Event panel and Q&A session. Today’s Marquee Event panel focused on Paizo’s exciting Organized Play programs. This blog is a recap of some of the reveals covered in that session. Don’t forget to check out the PaizoCon Online Stream Schedule to stay on top of the latest Paizo news in real time!

Starfinder Society: Year of Exploration’s Edge

Illustration by Michele Giorgi

Starfinder Society’s Year of Exploration’s Edge kicks off in just three weeks at Origins Online (June 19–21)! The new season takes place in the first period of real stability that the Starfinder Society has enjoyed since the campaign began. Of course, that doesn’t mean things will be easy for Starfinders. Emphasizing shorter bouts of exploration instead of a single, overarching metaplot, the upcoming season offers exciting new ventures into unexplored locales in the Pact Worlds, Near Space, and even far into the Vast, taking us farther afield and exploring more of the setting than we’ve ever seen before!

Looking to explore the uncharted regions of the Vast with a fancy starship (maybe with some accompanying content from the Starfinder Starship Operations Manual)? How about seeing those places recently detailed in Starfinder Near Space up close with some new characters? Or perhaps you’d fancy a mind-altering visit to the one Pact World we’ve not yet seen in a Starfinder adventure? (Hint: it’s Aucturn—the planet that might be a Great Old One.)

Year of Exploration’s Edge is the perfect opportunity to start enjoying Starfinder Society, or even to pick up as bonus content for your already ongoing Starfinder campaigns when you need that fun “planet of the week” diversion. While we’re not as focused on a major overarching metaplot, there are three unique multi-part stories that PCs of all level ranges can still enjoy and should scratch that ongoing story arc itch.

All this content (and more!) is just around the corner, with the Year of Exploration’s Edge releasing two new scenarios every month starting in June. Finally, dedicated Starfinder Society fans across the world can look forward to the upcoming multi-table interactive, Starfinder Society #3-00: The Last Bite, arriving in the coming months. This big-ticket event is set to bring a climactic conclusion to last season’s Year of a Thousand Bites storyline and provide an unforgettable experience to gaming events across the world! We look forward to sharing all this great content with you in the coming months.

Illustration by Michele Giorgi

Pathfinder Society: Year of Corruption’s Reach

Illustration by Sebastion Rodriguez

We’ll be wrapping up the current season, Year of the Open Road, with an awesome special in the form of Pathfinder Society Special #2-00: The King in Thorns, by authors Kate Baker and Dennis Muldoon. An ancient fey monster, a long-sealed demiplane, and a hero from the past will all take the stage as the Pathfinders fight their way through a horde of deadly plants and First World assailants in the first interactive special of Pathfinder Second Edition!

Pathfinder Society’s first Second Edition season, the Year of the Open Road, focused on rebuilding and rediscovering the Pathfinder Society in the wake of the world-shattering events that heralded the end of the first edition storyline. Now, with the Society rebuilt and refocused on their principles of exploration and discovery, the Pathfinders are set to embark on a new mission: creating a new Pathfinder lodge in Iobaria and delving into the ancient secrets that have lain dormant on the Inner Sea’s northeastern border for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years.

Iobaria is home to ancient cyclopean ruins, deadly dragons, and mysterious monstrous denizens seldom recorded in the annals of the Inner Sea. As a centuries-old ritual unfolds, a looming presence stalks the abandoned cities and forlorn forests of the haunted northland, threating to ignite the wilderness into a conflagration of devastation and otherworldly evil. Agents of the Pathfinder Society are going to need to come prepared, as even the mightiest adventurers will find themselves pushed to the brink of certain doom on the desolate frontier.

This season we’ll also be rolling out some innovations to scenario format, taking the feedback we’ve received over the last year and assembling it into an improved template we think is the best yet for our program. We’ll also be swapping out our traditional Pathfinder Society Quest short scenario format for a new approach we’re calling Pathfinder Bounties. These 1-hour adventures answer the question “What does a Pathfinder do when the Society doesn’t have a job for them?” Unlike our quests and scenarios, bounties don’t assume that the players are members of the Pathfinder Society, and the adventures presented therein might be anything from a dragon hunt on the Crown of the World to saving a Druman farmer’s prized alpaca herds from predacious chupacabras. Bounties are designed to provide exciting entry points for any adventurer looking to start their career, and they’ll all be repeatable, making them a perfect option for game store owners and volunteer coordinators looking to introduce their community to Pathfinder Second Edition.

The Year of Corruption’s Reach kicks off at Gen Con Online Online (July 30–August 2)!

Illustration by Sebastion Rodriguez

Pathfinder Adventure Card Society: Year of Reborn Strife

PaizoCon Online sees the launch of the first ever interactive developed specifically for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, adventure #6-99: Tyrant of the Harrow. An ill-fated fortune telling pulls the heroes into the Harrowed Realm, a mystical realm populated by a host of storybook characters. They must find a way back home before being sacrificed to fuel the plans of an evil mastermind!

Pathfinder Adventure Card Society’s new season, Year of Reborn Strife, starts in just a few months! The first half of the new season runs from August to December, with a new storybook releasing every month. The season’s early action takes the PCs to a swarming ancient metropolis filled with mysteries and intrigue. Kaer Maga, City of Strangers, is a haven for outcasts, misfits, rebels, and wayfarers from across the dangerous land of Varisia. Anyone is welcome on its shrouded streets, so long as they don’t ask too many questions or interfere with the freedom of their neighbors.

But a new threat rises to upset this delicate balance. Among the city’s more unusual denizens are zombie servants, kept in check by control amulets that prevent them from rampaging through the streets. A group of Pathfinder agents is on the scene when these amulets begin to fail, creating an undead menace. It falls to these Pathfinders to root out the source of the disruption. Along the way, they’ll meet several representatives of Kaer Maga’s iconic and eclectic factions, delve dangerous caverns, and uncover ancient secrets at nearly every turn!

The Year of Reborn Strife launches at Gen Con Online Online (July 30–August 2)!

Illustration by Benjamin Widdowson

The Open Road Ahead

We’ve got loads of more news to share about upcoming conventions, program features, sanctioning, and more, but we will save those for another blog on June 4th. For now, join us at PaizoCon Online for games, chats, streams, and a celebration of all things Paizo!

Don’t forget to Explore, Report, and Cooperate (and wash your hands!).

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Linda Zayas-Palmer
Organized Play Lead Developer

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

Michael Sayre
Pathfinder Society Developer

Greetings all!
The finalized schedule includes over 1150 Paizo Organized Play (POP) games, as well as author-run events, non-organized play games, panels on both Discord and Twitch, and a full slate of Twitch-streamed games. For the full schedule, check out the PaizoCon Online Warhorn page. Reminder, all times are listed in PDT.

In preparation for event registration, we suggest you visit the following sites and register accounts. You may use existing accounts on all the sites listed, so no need to create a new one just for PaizoCon Online.

• Register for an account and an organized play number at Paizo.com (if playing POP games)
• Join the PaizoCon Online Discord Server. Here is an invite code.
• Follow the Paizo Twitch channel.

Player signups go live Saturday, May 16th, at 1 pm PDT on the PaizoCon Online Warhorn page. Once you are registered for a game, please download the associated VTT platforms and input your character(s). All VTT information is listed in the Notes section of the Warhorn page. There is no need to register for panels or streams, they are included on the schedule to help in planning.

The Discord page is open and there are channels to chat before the event and ask questions if needed. You may also email paizocononline@paizo.com if you need assistance.

So without further ado, here are the descriptions for the special events we are pleased to offer at PaizoCon Online 2020. We will release the Twitch panel schedule on Thursday afternoon.

Author-Run Organized Play Tables

PFS2 1-12: The Burden of Envy (level 1-4)
Lysle Kapp
Swindler, rogue, and occasional Pathfinder ally Guaril Karela has approached the Society with an opportunity that Valais Durant, the leader of the Society's Radiant Oath faction, can't refuse. Guaril has been charging refugees to sneak them out of Xin Edasseril, a city ruled by the Runelord of Envy, and now it looks like Guaril won't be able to fulfill his contracts. Society agents are charged with sneaking into the dangerous city and sneaking out with a handful of its citizens before their absence is noticed so that the Radiant Oath can help them find new lives beyond their current ruler's tyrannical reach.
Sessions: Tuesday, May 26: 12pm (noon), Friday, May 29: 6am, Saturday, May 30: 6pm

PFS2 Quest 3: Grehunde’s Gorget (level 1-4)
Kate Baker
Venture-Captain Bjersig Torrsen calls the PCs north to the town of Iceferry in the frigid Land of the Linnorm Kings. There, Bjersig informs the Pathfinders that he has a request from the family of a storied and long-dead Linnorm King. The family's patriarch, the warrior Hlavard Grenskuldr, appears to have perished in a shipwreck while wearing the family's heirloom, the gorget of the Linnorm King Grehunde the Sunchaser. For one hundred generations the family has passed this heirloom down from parent to child, until Hlavard sought to wear it on a journey to Valenhall as Grehunde herself had intended to do before perishing with the task unfinished. Unwilling to leave the relic to rust away in a watery grave, Hlavard's family has requested the Pathfinder Society's assistance in locating the shipwreck and retrieving the family treasure.
Sessions: Friday, May 29: 6pm

PFS2 Quest 7: A Curious Claim (level 3-6)
Dennis Muldoon
Money is power in the land of Druma and those who know how best to manipulate the economics of the land have the most of both. The PCs are sent to Druma to investigate a missing ship and the particulars of an insurance claim related to its disappearance, though both ravenous undead and agents of one of the Pathfinder Society's fiercest rival organizations seek to keep them from the truth behind the ship's sad end.
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 12pm (noon), Saturday, May 30: 3pm

PFS2 Quest 9: Wayfinder Origins (level 3-6)
Dustin Knight
The Pathfinder Society has sent an expedition to a previously uncharted island! The island contains a door sealed with a type of magical technology thought lost with the ancient Azlanti empire. What secrets lie behind the door, and what dangers may lurk beneath the island's surface? To find out, the PCs will first have to solve the magical "puzzle" sealing the door and preventing contact with whatever lies beyond.
Sessions: Wednesday, May 27: 6pm, Thursday, May 28: 6pm, Friday, May 29: 6pm, Saturday, May 30: 6pm

SFS 1-16: Dreaming of the Future
Sasha Laranoa Harving
The Starfinder Society pursues the dream visions of a Liavaran dreamer, seeking information lost in a time before the Gap. Three broken fragments form the key to a forgotten repository of knowledge hidden within the Pact Worlds. It's up to the PCs to find these missing fragments and brave the dangerous reliquary to secure a new source of prescient knowledge for the Society.
Sessions: Thursday, May 28: 12pm (noon)

SFS 2-03: The Withering World (level 1-4)
Rigby Bendele
The Starfinder Society has dispatched an investigation fleet to a seemingly impossible world: a planet located between a nurturing sun and a voracious black hole. When a chance meeting with the local inhabitants leads the Society to discover another group of visitors who threatens this incredible planet, it's up to a group of heroes to make sure that the world's delicate balance does not break and the planet isn't sent hurtling into a black hole!
Sessions: Friday, May 29: 12pm (noon)

SFS 2-18: Forbidden Tides (level 5-8)
Kate Baker
After the Starfinder Society made first contact with the morlamaws of Arniselle, the walrus-like people of that world have worked alongside several Pact Worlds organizations to explore their homeworld and other planets beyond. Recently, a group of radical morlamaws was discovered to have been working with an individual opposed to the Society's interests. The PCs travel to Arniselle to follow-up on this group's activities and link it back to the mysterious ysoki known as Datch. The truth behind these morlamaws is beyond comprehension, and threatens all life on Arniselle and beyond!
Scenario tags: Faction (Exo-Guardians)
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 12pm (noon)

SFS 2-21: Illegal Shipment (level 1-4)
Joseph Blomquist
As the Swarm invades the distant Suskillon system, a notorious collector of alien life captures several Swarm lifeforms with the intent of selling them to interested buyers. Bringing these creatures to Absalom Station as part of a clandestine trade, events go awry and the trader’s preserved wildlife escape into the station. In order to prevent station-wide panic, the Starfinder Society sends its best agents to find out what happened, track down the escaped Swarm lifeforms, and stop a full-scale infestation at the heart of the Pact Worlds!
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 6pm

The following authors have volunteered to run one or more of their Paizo-published adventures. All tables will run as normal Organized Play tables and will earn full rewards.

Third-Party/Non-Organized Play Games

The Book in the Old House (Pathfinder second edition)
Russ Taylor, Legendary Games
Kick off the Aegis of Empires AP! Escort a nobleman to the an abandoned estate—fast and easy coin, right? But why is the neighborhood deserted but the house still pristine? I'm sure those furtive shadows, sinister rumors, and the deafening chorus of frogs haunting the grounds are nothing to worry about!
Sessions: Wednesday, May 27: 6pm

Scions of the Five Winds (Pathfinder second edition)
Vanessa Hoskins, Legendary Games
Five bearers of elemental power gather at the Temple of Elements to perform their annual blessing, when a dark power intervenes. Can the scions of the five winds defend their temple and fight off the dark power that seeks to unbalance the elemental forces?
Sessions: Thursday, May 28: 6am, Saturday, May 30: 6am

Wizards Wanted (Pathfinder second edition)
Scott 'Curaigh' Janke
Wizards Wanted! Explore, Report, Trade spells! This will be a session of PFS (2) where most of the players have a spellbook that needs filling. Tier and scenario will be determined by the players. Alchemist and anyone that can learn spells from another Pathfinder are also welcome.
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 12pm (noon)

Remnants of the Outer Dominion (Starfinder)
Matt Daley, Legendary Games
Remnants of the Outer Dominion is a 10th-level Starfinder adventure set in the Arcforge Campaign Setting. The wrecked Outer Lord starship known as Mourner's Comet has orbited the star of Aurin since the ancient race battled with the Dragons, its derelict hull visible across the skies of many worlds. As the wreck approaches near the inhabited worlds for the first time in over a century, scattered factions from different spheres converge upon Mourner's Comet to uncover its secrets and perhaps claim them for themselves.
Sessions: Friday, May 29: 6pm

The Wandering Water Bear (Starfinder; Author table)
Hilary Moon Murphy
Vaando dome on the ice-encrusted asteroid of Nisis is desperate. Under constant threat from diaspora wyrms that darken the waters and attack their settlement, they've hired the party to contact a missing dwarven scientist. The only one with clues to the scientist's whereabouts is her ex-spouse, Captain Cora, an irritable riverboat captain. Her ship, The Wandering Waterbear, is a submersible that travels between settlements on the River Between; it's also the smelly and nigh-indestructible shrunken corpse of a Giant Tardegrade. Captain Cora likes to pilot her ship down the river and ram wyrms. The party's job is simple; get on Cora's crew, find the scientist and save Vaando dome. This adventure appears in Wayfinder 20.
Sessions: Wednesday, May 27: 12pm (noon), Friday, May 29: 12pm (noon), Saturday, May 30: 6am

Bestiary Bash (Pathfinder first edition)
Scott 'Curaigh' Janke
Sharpen you claws and study your Agrippa! Monsters with class levels in a tournament to hold the Sapphire Blade!
Sessions: Thursday, May 28: 12pm (noon)

Cat’s Meow (Pathfinder first edition)
Jessica Peters, Find the Path Ventures
Excuse me, my cat is lost. Can you help me find her? What seems to be a simple case of lost and found, soon expands into something more mysterious. Cat's Meow is a Pathfinder 1e adventure for 1st level characters. Adventure adapted from High Level Games.
Sessions: Friday, May 29: 6pm

Legend of the Burning Star (Pathfinder first edition)
Steve Helt of Legendary Games
Dive into the spectacular Aegis of Empires AP with urban investigation and wilderness exploration to unravel an ancient and deadly mystery whose madness echoes down through the ages, run by the author! 10th level PCs
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 6pm

Riders on the Storm (Part 1) (Pathfinder first edition)
Greg Vaughan Track vicious raiders into the mountains for the voormann of Perenland and put an end to their attacks. An original Greyhawk adventure for 10th-level characters updated to Pathfinder (1e). Pre-gens provided. This is part 1 of a two-session game. Ideally the same players that sign up for this session should sign up for part 2 as well.
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 12pm (noon)

Riders on the Storm (Part 2) (Pathfinder first edition)
Greg Vaughan
Continuing the mission against the mountain raiders begun in Part 1. An original Greyhawk adventure for 10th-level characters updated to Pathfinder (1e). Pre-gens provided. This is part 2 of the same adventure from the previous session. Ideally the same players that signed up for part 1 should be the players in part 2 as well.
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 6pm

Wizards Wanted (Pathfinder first edition)
Scott 'Curaigh' Janke
Wizards Wanted! Explore, Report, Trade spells! This will be a session of PFS (1) where most of the players have a spellbook that needs filling. Mid-tier 3-7 though the scenario will be TBD. Magi, alchemist and witches welcome too, but the focus will be on book-based casters wanting to trade some spells.
Sessions: Friday, May 29: 12pm (noon)

Fall of Magic (Fall of Magic system)
Mike Ferdinando
Magic is dying, and the Magus is dying with it. We travel together to realm of Umbra where magic was born. "Fall of Magic" is a collaborative storytelling game where we play a group of travelers in the company of the Magus. On the way, we'll encounter strange hosts, fantastic places, and perilous choices as we play to find out who our characters are, how they relate, and how our journey changes us. Game rules will be taught at the table.
Sessions: Wednesday, May 27: 12pm (noon)

The Flocculent Cathedral (Trophy Dark system)
Mike Ferdinando
Coiled in the moss-shrouded marshlands of The Mire lay the ruins of a lost temple to a forgotten saint. What riches can be found there... and what are you willing to do to claim them? Trophy Dark is a collaborative dark fantasy/horror RPG of desperate treasure-hunters seeking fortune in an enchanted forest that does not want them there. The game has very simple rules that will be taught at the table. This is an 18+ table.
Sessions: Thursday, May 28: 6pm

Laser Metal: Quest for Fire (Attention Span Games’ Laser Metal system)
Mark Orr
In a brutal, futuristic, post-apocalyptic world only the most metal of heroes will survive. Will you join the quest for fire and rock the Laser Metal tournament? Laser Metal is a science fiction RPG that is light on rules but heavy on metal, and doesn’t' take itself too seriously. Players will play pregenerated characters provided by the GM. This is an 18+ table.
Sessions: Friday, May 29: 12pm (noon)

Starfinder Adventure Card Game Concept (Reskinned Pathfinder Adventure Card Game)
Tyler Beck, et al
This event will allow players to join veteran PACG organizers in a celebration of the game format, set in the world of Starfinder and designed by Tyler "Cartmanbeck" Beck. The Dead Suns Adventure Path is the inspiration for this brand-new Core Set-style game. This game builds on the rules of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, so significant experience with that game is recommended. This session will use pregenerated characters, and will be run using Tabletop Simulator software, so please be familiar with the controls and functionality of that platform beforehand. Which scenarios will be run during a given slot will be coordinated through the convention's Discord server. Please do not sign up for more than 2 slots of this game, in order to give other players the chance to experience it.
Sessions: Wednesday, May 27: 12pm (noon), Thursday, May 28: 6am, Thursday, May 28: 6pm, Friday, May 29: 12pm (noon), Sunday, May 31: 6am

Please note that no Organized Play credit or rewards will be awarded for these tables

Panels

Wayfinder #20 Launch Party and Chat
Tim Nightengale, Wayfinder/Paizo Fans United
With this year's PaizoCon going virtual, how about a Wayfinder release party as part of the fun? Join the Wayfinder Staff and Contributors in voice and text to chat about the newest issue!
Sessions: Tuesday, May 26: 6pm, Friday, May 29: 6pm, Saturday, May 30: 12pm (noon), Saturday, May 30: 6pm

Freelancing 101 with Freelance Force
Mike Kimmel, Freelance Forge
Learn the basics of RPG freelancing from a panel of freelancers!
Sessions: Wednesday, May 27: 12pm (noon)

What's New with Legendary Games!
Jason Nelson, Legendary Games
Get all the latest news and sneak peeks from the stars of Legendary Games, including the amazing Aegis of Empires AP Kickstarter ongoing NOW!
Sessions: Wednesday, May 27: 12pm (noon)

Danger Club Presents: Level 0 to Level Hero
Dan Thompson, The Danger Club Podcast
Tune in to a live episode of The Danger Club and hear a group of British voice actors playing Pathfinder 2e. A team of level 0 characters are trapped behind enemy lines and hunted by terrible monsters. Can they make it home? Will they become heroes, or die as zeros?
Sessions: Thursday, May 28: 12pm (noon)

Play-by-Post (PbP) 101
Play-by-Post Venture Officers, Organized Play Foundation
Interested in games online? Like to write descriptive narration? Talk to the team of PbP coordinators about the pros of playing PbP online as well. Through the use of Discord screen share, they’ll show you the ins and outs of a game.
Sessions: Thursday, May 28: 3 pm

Converting a Galaxy: From Star Wars Saga Edition to Imperial Assault
Carlos Cabrera, Something Clever Games
Learn how a Star Wars GM converted his player’s characters from Wizard of the Coast’s roleplaying game to Fantasy Flight’s board game in an ongoing campaign since 2008. Carlos Cabrera is a freelancer who has worked with Legendary Games, Encounter Table Publishing, Rite Publishing, and Paizo.
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 12pm (noon)

Creating Dynamic Characters for the Gaming Table
Jessica Peters, Find the Path Ventures
Join Find the Path for this interactive seminar that delves into the ins-and-outs of creating dynamic and interesting characters. You'll get to work with the crew to build a character that implements our best tips, including using archetypes to guide mechanics selection, playing against stereotypes, and creating backstories that tie into the campaign and the world.
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 9am

Playing Dynamic Characters at the Gaming Table
Jessica Peters, Find the Path Ventures
In this panel, Find the Path will give advice and strategies for roleplaying dynamic characters that stay true to your vision while also growing and evolving with the story at your gaming table. This is a continuation of Creating Dynamic Characters for the Gaming Table, but you do not need to have participated in that seminar to attend this one.
Sessions: Sunday, May 31: 9am

Methods for Fast Combat
MrBoot
Learn methods that both players and GMs can use to hasten combat, improve smoothness of play, and encourage engagement in the game.
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 12pm (noon)

All panels listed here will be taking place via Discord text and/or voice chat, as determined by the panel organizer.

Remember, check back Thursday afternoon for the list of seminars streaming on Paizo’s Twitch channel.

Less than 2 weeks to wait!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Get ready to stay safe at home as you play awesome Pathfinder and Starfinder games with friends around the world!

Paizo is excited to announce that PaizoCon 2020 will be online! The annual game convention of all-things-Paizo, originally scheduled for Memorial Day Weekend in Seattle, will fall-back, regroup, and expand to six days of gaming at a safe social distance online May 26-31.

The event will include seminars and live-plays on Twitch, games scheduled via Warhorn and run on a variety of VTT platforms such as Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, Astral, and D20Pro, an official PaizoCon Online Discord server as a general hangout for con-goers, plus blogs on paizo.com, and more!

A PaizoCon Online 2020 homepage with schedules, game registration, and more details is scheduled to go live on May 1. Players can create a paizo.com account and get an organized play number in preparation today. GMs can sign up at Warhorn. For more information, email paizocononline@paizo.com.

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks
Marketing and Media Manager

At PaizoCon last May, Paizo launched a new Core Set for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. At the same time, the organized play team updated the Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild into the Pathfinder Adventure Card Society. Three months out, we asked one of our active volunteers to give their impressions of current Society. Without further ado, I’m turning the blog over to our guest author, Jonathan Ng.

Hi, I’m Jonathan and I’m one of the Venture Lieutenants for the Seattle region.  We play weekly at the Mox Boarding House in Bellevue, which is one of the local staple game stores in the region.  We are currently running through the previous Season, Season of Tapestry’s Tides.

We have about 8-9 or so players a week, and often this presents to us a logistical dilemma - how do we balance out our party?  The RPG side of the Pathfinder Society can often have this type of dilemma, but we often need to go through a much longer period of time with the same characters and parties - this could be fatal in higher level scenarios!

Some days, we balance out our party perfectly, with a Strength character at each table, a Dexterity character, some healing, some Arcane… and then some time ago, we had a scenario where we decided to seat people according to when they arrived.  We ended up with a party of Athnul, Hayato, Lirianne, and Seltyiel, and a party of Alahazra, 2 Linis, and Radillo. Guess where most of the high level weapons ended up? The poor weapon users keep telling us to share, and yet this has happened not once, but twice.  Worse yet, this scenario just happens to punish non-magic users. Luckily, the martial table managed to make it through.

One of the things I like the most about the Pathfinder Card Society scenarios is that the developers often use Society scenarios to test out interesting concepts.  The concept of the Defensive Stance in Mummy’s Mask and the siege scenario was actually previewed in Season of the Runelords.  When I first played that scenario, everything about it seemed new and different - I think I played way too many “defeat and corner the villain” scenarios at that point.  Tapestry’s Tides also has a scenario like this:

Instead of having locations, the scenario in question required you to fight on ships, then beat the actual ship to close the location.  Luckily you didn’t actually need to close all 9 locations to win - that would have been a nightmare!

With all the cards we bring every week to host a game, the box runners often have to find creative storage solutions.  One of the box runners brings a set in a card bandoleer. I bring something that looks somewhat like a rounded-off suitcase.  And one of the box runners has an actual, honest-to-goodness Pathfinder Adventure Chest:

I’m very glad for the people in my region who are interested enough in the game to play through these Seasons.  It has been great playing together with them and I hope to do this for a long time.

Come back next week for our monthly Stars, Spotlights, and Convention Blog – which includes an update on Pathfinder (second edition) Society!

Until then – Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

In the latest PACG Homebrew Special, our Online Venture-Captain Tyler Beck returns with a new Adventure Path for kobolds! Because more kobolds is good kobolds. —Mike

Hello again, everyone! It's your mostly-fearless-except-for-fear-of-falling-from-heights Venture Captain for online Pathfinder Adventure Card Society, Tyler!

I had a blast at PaizoCon, and we got LOADS of new information from Paizo on the release of the Core Set and the Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path (both available now), on the new Year of Rotting Ruins that begins at Gen Con, and on the fact that the Core and Curse scenarios in the storybooks that come in the box are sanctioned for PACS play! I also want to give a quick plug for the current online PACS play-by-post convention, Cards Against Gnomanity II. Though the event has already begun, we'd love to have you join us for future games, so if you just tell us in the recruitment thread that you're interested, we can help you find a game—even if you've never played PACS through play-by-post!

Mostly, though, I want to talk to you a bit about something that I spent several months working on leading up to PaizoCon, and then spent most of my actual time at PaizoCon running: this year's homebrew special, entitled "I Want My Mummy!"

This set of three adventures was designed to run during three afternoon sessions at PaizoCon. We decided this year to do Tier 1, Tier 3, and Tier 5 so that people got a broader taste of the characters. The story is based on some of the most popular PFS scenarios from WAAAY back in season 5: the Destiny of the Sands trilogy. This means that your kobold characters (new versions of the infamous kobolds from True Dragons of Absalom) get to interact with everyone's favorite creepy dude in a hot tub, Grandmaster Torch. He'll send your kobolds on a grand adventure to… do a bunch of seemingly mundane tasks for him, as is tradition.

Grandmaster Torch, the guy everyone loves to hate. One of his requested tasks is to harass the owner of a legitimate cabaret hall and her elemental buddies.

That's okay though; you're well aware that Torch doesn't always have the interests of the Pathfinder Society at heart, and you will get the chance to disrupt his plans several times. Along the way, you'll also be able to use the fun trap-setting mechanic that we introduced back in our first kobold-themed homebrew special, "We Are Dragons". There are several ways to set traps, one of which is represented by the kobold Alchemist, Athrax:

The kobold Alchemist, Athrax. There's no "n" in there… read it again, I promise you it's true.

As you can see from his character and role cards, Athrax uses the trap-setting mechanic to keep from banishing his Alchemical items. He also has a few spells, but he just straight-up banishes those, so it's best to keep things like Cure and Find Traps in those slots, which can be useful one-shots. Athrax also has a useful way of ignoring Triggers, by setting traps and then examining locations. Sometimes it's more than worth a buried card to ignore a Trigger.

In brief, trapsetting works like this: When you set a trap with a card, you display that card next to your location (we played them facedown at PaizoCon because we had different-colored sleeves for each character, which helps determine who set the trap initially). When a monster is encountered at a trapped location, the trap is sprung, and you get to add 1d6 to all checks against that monster for the encounter.

After Adventure 1, we skip ahead to Adventure 3, where you're in hot pursuit of two Aspis agents who have gotten hold of one of the fabled Sage Gems, mythical gems that hold the power of the Jeweled Sages inside them. Several of the scenarios in this adventure allow you to gain Chase Points for finishing quickly, culminating in a scenario where you're literally chasing the Aspis agents along a set of locations, trying to move quickly to the place where another Sage Gem is likely to be found. Once you arrive, you find many dangers, the worst of which is the deadly Sage of Plagues, who has one of the most diabolical powers I've ever written. When you defeat him, he explodes in necromantic energy, shattering the Ruby Sage Gem… but even shards of such a powerful relic have the ability to grant incredible abilities to those wielding them.

The Sage of Plagues makes you so poisoned that you can barely hold onto any of the items you've been carrying. At least you gain some extraordinary abilities out of the deal, right?

Finally, in Adventure 5, you've got a chance to really make use of your new mythic abilities, going up against some truly terrifying mythic foes. You even have the chance to fight the diamond sage, Tahonikepsu herself, whose powers as a time dragon are nothing to sneeze at. Check out her character card below, and keep in mind this scenario power that is in effect when you encounter her: "At the beginning of your turn, expend a mythic charge or uncheck a skill or power feat from your character or role card; If you can do neither, bury 1d4 cards from your hand and 1d4 cards from your discard pile."

The Diamond Sage Tahonikepsu, a mythic time dragon sorcerer who does NOT play around.

This time, I'm not JUST going to tell you all about these fun scenarios… I'm going to make them available to everyone! See the Dropbox link below to download the character sheets, custom cards, and adventure text for the I Want My Mummy adventure path. It could be a great set of scenarios to run in between regular adventures of the Mummy's Mask AP, or you could just run it on its own… just remember to level your characters up appropriately in between the adventures!

LINK WITH ART: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dwvhoe3xdinjt3a/AAB7643f_nBGsp3CAo0gatvla?dl=0

I'm working on an even more ambitious project for next year's PaizoCon, so stay tuned. Thanks for reading!

Tyler "Cartmanbeck" Beck
Venture Captain, PACS Online Play

Hi everyone!

Last month, after countless hours combing thorough feedback and iterating improvements to design, Lone Shark released a revision to the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: the Core Set. I’ve played every base set of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, so I can say that their hard work has paid off. The Core Set is still fundamentally the same game, but the play is smoother, more dynamic, and more exciting.

The Core Set's release was also a perfect opportunity for the Organized Play team to improve the rules of Pathfinder Adventure Card Society. I talked about three of the big updates in the New Rules, New Opportunities PACS blog. The blog said that we would soon have a FAQ that described how to handle updates that weren't already called out in the Core Set Rulebook. This FAQ is now available, through the link Core Conversion Guide at the bottom of paizo.com/pacg. I'd also like to highlight something I said in the comments after that blog. We recognize that people who are deep into an ongoing campaign may not want to update the rules immediately. To that end, ongoing games may continue to use the Mummy's Mask rulebook until the official start of Season 6 at GenCon (August 1st).

In Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society, we've established a tradition of releasing sanctioning documents for non-Society adventures like modules and adventure paths. These documents allow players and GMs to receive credit for their organized play characters in adventures that weren't originally designed with organized play in mind. We'd never had anything like that for the card game, and that seemed like a missed opportunity. We're happy to say that you can now play the Dragon's Demand Adventure Path from the Core Set, The Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path, and the free RPG day adventure We Be Heroes? with your Adventure Card Society characters. Each product's paizo.com page now includes a pdf describing how to play for PACS credit.

We also tried a bit of an experiment in Dragon's Demand. The last scenario is a choose-your-own builder, which provides 6 different rules structures that you can use to build the scenario. This scenario, Wandering Way, is replayable any number of times, and the rules in the sanctioning document allow you to play it at any tier. So if you're looking for a scenario that any character can play, a way to help a character who has missed a few sessions catch up, or a chance to flex your own creativity in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Society, check it out! The addition of this scenario to the sanctioned content is a big change, and we welcome your feedback on how it's being received and used in your area.

Linda Zayas-Palmer
Developer

Hello everyone! It's your friendly cyber-neighborhood Venture Captain Tyler again, bringing you a quick discussion about the options that we have as players in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Society. (Note the new branding!). First I'll talk about the stunning number of characters you can choose from, and then I'll talk about the mindboggling amount of content there is to play through.

We have a LOT of character options now. So many that I found it a daunting task when I started typing all of them out. So, instead, I decided to do something a bit more fun… I made a graph! (Yes, I'm a huge nerd, we all are, deal with it!)

Click on the image for a larger, more readable version!

There are a total of 32 class decks and 162 characters you can play in PACS! (I'm counting Aric and the Red Raven as one playable character even though they have 2 character cards.) In the graph, I've listed the characters in the format "Name (Deck or Box)" in order to distinguish where they came from. I've also listed some specific scenarios, adventures, or other means of unlocking certain decks for certain characters. Altogether, the decks, characters, and means of unlocks make up the nodes of the graph.

The edges of the graph represent the way in which a character is available for any given deck. Most of these are yellow arrows with the word "Free" on the label. This means that you can use this character with the associated deck without any additional requirement. Obviously, you can use, the monk Rooboo with the the Monk Class Deck she came in. But the PACS Guide also says you can swap any character with any other character of the same class. For example, the Pathfinder Tales deck includes the wizard Varian, so you can replace him with any of the other 9 PACG wizards: Varian from Curse of the Crimson Throne; Darago, Ezren, Melindra, or Radillo from the Wizard Class Deck; Nyctessa from Hell's Vengeance 2; or Ezren from RotR, Mummy's Mask, or the Core Set. (The Tales deck also gives you free access to 9 rogues and 8 sorcerers—that's 27 "Free" characters to choose from!)

The new We Be Heroes? Free RPG Day adventure includes 4 new goblin characters: Crimsi the ranger, Grenek the barbarian, Pizazz the bard, and Siathorn the druid. The rule I described above means they can be played with the Class Deck corresponding to their respective classes, but thanks to a table on page 8 of the most recent PACS Guide, they can also be played with the Goblins Fight! Character Deck (Crimsi and Grenek) or Goblins Burn! Character Deck (Pizazz and Siathorn). Looking at the graph, you'll notice another connection for Crimsi: the Hunter Class Deck. This is thanks to a beautifully written adventure reward from Season of Factions' Favor Adventure 4: "Each player unlocks the ability to play all characters that have the Ranger trait using the Hunter Class Deck." This is one of several character unlocks that are achieved through completing specific sets of scenarios, with the best example of these being my buddy Mavaro from Mummy's Mask, who can be played with a total of FIVE different decks, four of them through adventure completion unlocks. These unlocks are represented on the graph by maroon or orange nodes with names in the format "S4A4" for Season 4 Adventure 4, or "S5-5E" for Season 5 Scenario 5E.

There are four new characters in the Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure path, three of whom don't have a matching Class Deck. But fear not! Page 9 of the PACS Guide gives us decks for these characters, with Kess the Brawler using the Barbarian Class Deck, Quinn the Investigator using the Ultimate Equipment Add-on Deck, and Hakon the Skald using the Warpriest Class Deck. (Crimson Throne's other character, Varian the Wizard, starts off with three deck options—Wizard, Tales, and Hell's Vengeance 2—so he's versatile from day one.) And don't forget that you can add an Ultimate Add-On Deck to a Class Deck or Character Deck, or add a Class Deck or Character Deck to an Ultimate Add-On Deck (as described on page 8 of the PACS Guide), giving you loads of choices for your card upgrades!

There's one more character on the graph that I'd like to specifically point out: Arueshalae from the Wrath of the Righteous base set. Arueshalae—or Aruey, as I like to call her (please don't tell her that)—was unlocked way back in season 1 for a few lucky convention-goers who were able to pick up a specific convention boon. It allowed them to use her with the Rogue Class Deck—but only in Season of the Righteous. Now, however, there is a new way to unlock our succubus friend, and play her in any scenario!

My friend Aruey, always willing to help out her friends... and smite some serious demon butt.

The Season of the Righteous Adventure 3 PDF was updated recently: the reward for that adventure now unlocks Arueshalae with the Hell's Vengeance 2 deck. This reward is retroactive, so if you have completed all 4 scenarios of Season of the Righteous Adventure 3: Lexicon of Paradox, you have already earned the following reward:

Each player unlocks the ability to play Arueshalae from the Wrath of the Righteous Demon's Heresy Adventure Deck using the Hell's Vengeance 2 Character Deck. When Arueshalae is Tier 3 or higher, you may add the loot cards Spherewalker Staff, Starbow, and Swallowtail Bracers to your Class Deck box.

A huge number of players just gained a new character to play... and she's quite the character, with a cohort and several Owner boons coming along with her. I recommend adding the Ultimate Combat Add-On Deck when playing with her, for maximum arrow-based destruction!

I know a lot of our players out there are concerned with compatibility of the old class decks with the new Core and Curse cards. The folks at Lone Shark and Paizo have heard you, and they've been hard at work on some creative solutions. Make sure you check out the Conversion Guide, especially the Characters and Roles section.

Also, Vic recently made a post that gives us an option for trying out some new cards in our class decks, letting you swap any class deck card for any Core or Curse card that has the same name! You'll need to own copies of these cards, and you'll need to come up with innovative ways to make sure your cards don't end up mixed up with those of the box that you're using to play (I recommend a small sliver of colored Post-It Note stuck to your cards). Or, you can play online with us over in the Flaxseed On Deck play-by-post lodge, where your cards will never get mixed up because they're digital!

Who wouldn't want to try out these cards with one of their favorite characters?

With so many character options, you'd think that we would run out of adventures to play them in. But you'd be wrong! Here are the currently available adventures for PACS play:

• Season 0: Season of the Shackles (Uses S&S; 6 adventures with 1 bonus scenario; Tiers 1–6)
• Season 1: Season of the Righteous (Uses WotR; 6 adventures with 2 bonus scenarios; Tiers 1–6)
• Season 2: Season of the Runelords (Uses RotR; 6 adventures; Tiers 1–6)
• Adventure #8-00—The Cosmic Captive (Uses RotR; 1 adventure; Tiers 2 and 5)
• Season 2B: We Be Goblins (Uses RotR; 2 adventures; Tier 1–2)
• Season 3: Season of Plundered Tombs (Uses MM; 6 adventures with 1 bonus scenario; Tiers 1–6)
• Season 4: Season of Factions' Favor (Uses MM; 6 adventures with 3 bonus scenarios; Tiers 1–6)
• Adventure #9-00—Assault on Absalom (Uses MM; 1 adventure; Tiers 2 and 5)
• Season 5: Season of Tapestry's Tides (Uses S&S; 6 adventures with 1 bonus scenario; Tiers 1–6)
• Adventure #10-00—The Hao Jin Cataclysm (Uses S&S; 1 adventure; Tiers 2 and 5)
• Season 5B: Season of the Kobolds (Uses Core and optionally Curse; 1 adventure; Tier 1)

That's around double the content that has been released in regular Adventure Path form! The last of these, released just this month, is a four-scenario adventure written by David Jacobson and myself, outlined and developed by Linda Zayas-Palmer, with rules text from Keith Richmond. Working on this was a blast, particularly since it let us draw inspiration from David's and my fan-made Adventure Card Game adventures that we've run at PaizoCon the past several years, including our own take on Season of the Kobolds.

Up next is Year 6: Year of Rotting Ruin (Uses Core and Curse; 6 adventures, Tiers 1–6)—the first adventure drops at Gen Con on August 1!

And it doesn't even stop there! The Dragon's Demand, Curse of the Crimson Throne, and We Be Heroes? have also been sanctioned for PACS play. Each product page below includes a link to a sanctioning document that details the changes that need to be made for PACS play:

• Core Set: The Dragon's Demand (Core and optionally any AP; 3 adventures; Tiers 1–3–but with unlimited replay at Tiers 1–6 for the random scenario, effectively giving you an endless supply of fresh PACS scenarios!)
• Curse of the Crimson Throne (6 adventures with 1 bonus scenario; Tiers 1-6)
• We Be Heroes? (1 adventure, Tier 1)

In addition, Linda announced at PaizoCon that we will soon be seeing some standalone PACS adventures that can be played at several different tiers, so stay tuned for more news on that front. There are so many new options for play, my head is spinning!

That's it for me today. I'm sure you can tell that I'm excited about all of the new content and character options that we have available to us now and moving forward, and I'm sure the comments section of this blog will quickly include a rousing debate over the best ways to play some of the characters shown in the graph. (I'll likely start off the comments by expanding my previous list of best secondary decks to add to any given character.) Thanks for reading, and I look forward to playing with as many of you as I can!

Tyler "Cartmanbeck" Beck
Venture Captain, PACS Online Play

With PaizoCon just around the corner, the current focus of the team involves pulling the edges together on all the moving pieces. As many of our convention catalogs went live last weekend, I wanted to take a moment and give some updates.

PaizoCon: The event lottery is complete, and I'm working with Customer Service to resolve any issues with scheduling. We will be reaching out via email as needed to discuss our resolution options. We also received a few GM cancellations so we will be reaching out to GMs that were on the waitlist for coverage. If your plans changed and you wish to GM some games, please visit organizedplayfoundation.org/paizoorganizedplay and complete the questionnaire for PaizoCon.

Origins: Tickets are on sale for all games, including the Saturday evening premiere of Starfinder Society #2-00: Fate of the Scoured God. This multi-table interactive event wraps up the storylines from the prior 22 months and gets ready to pivot to our Year of a Thousand Bites. We are selling tickets to this event by Tier range, to make GM allocation easier, so be sure to grab double check which one you add to your cart!

The Origins system has a few problems finding and displaying the events that run from 7 pm to midnight. The best way to find games is to look for the title of the scenario, such as "Daughters' Due" or "Herald's War." Then you can look through the schedule for the date/time you wish.

There are still tickets for many tables, including the PFS interactive finale running on Friday, Pathfinder Society #10-98: Siege of Gallowspire. We set these up for sale by Tier and by difficulty level—Soldier (slightly harder than usual) and Champion (hard mode). This year, I can pull ticket sale information, so we are using those numbers to adjust our table offerings. Unfortunately, ticket sales shifts may not resolve the schedule for everyone. If you can't get into a game you want, please come by on the day, and we will see what we can do on site. We desire to seat everyone that wants a game!

Gen Con: We submitted our schedule, and you should see them appear any day now! Tickets go on sale May 19 at gencon.com. Games for Gen Con run in 5-hour blocks from Thursday through Saturday 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM, 2:00 PM to 7:00 PM, 8:00 PM to 1:00 AM, and 2:00 AM to 7:00 AM. Sunday has one block starting at 9:00 AM. Each block includes a selection of Pathfinder Society, Starfinder Society, and Pathfinder Society (2nd edition) games. Pathfinder Adventure Card Society, Pathfinder Society Academy (to include Starfinder events) run in 2-hour blocks from 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM Thursday through Saturday and Sunday from 9:00 to 2:00 PM.

A few highlight events:

• Thursday, 8:00 PM—a large scale seating of Pathfinder Society (2nd edition) #1-00: Origin of the Open Road
• Friday, 8:00 PM—Starfinder Society #2-00: Fate of the Scoured God
• Saturday 8:00 PM—Pathfinder Society #10-98: Siege of Gallowspire

As with Origins, we are selling tickets to PFS #10-98 by Tier and difficulty level, so check your tickets carefully. Especially with #10-98, where only 7th level pregens are available.

For those of you not traveling to any of the conventions listed above, both Starfinder Society #2-00: Fate of the Scoured God and Pathfinder Society #10-98: Siege of Gallowspire are available after August 4 for conventions running 3-concurrent tables. At this time, Starfinder Society #1-99: Scoured Stars Invasion and Pathfinder Society #10-00: Hao Jin Cataclysm become available for purchase.

If you missed it this morning, developer Linda Zayas-Palmer wrote about our plans for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Society. Check it out here: PACS Blog. Otherwise, tune in next Wednesday for more decisions regarding the evolution of the Pathfinder Society.

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

The new Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Core Set is almost here! Paizo and the designers at Lone Shark built upon years of fan feedback and experience to improve the game. If you're curious about what the Core Set has to offer and the design principles that went into the revision, you're in luck. The designers have been publishing a series of great blogs on the topic: overall principles, adding more story, varying the challenge, reducing complexity, encouraging teamwork, rewarding heroism, and embracing chance.

Much like the card game itself, the card game branch of Organized Play is looking to build on feedback to make a better program, without throwing out the content that we had before. We renamed the Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild to the Pathfinder Adventure Card Society (PACS). This establishes our card game as the third branch of our organized play programs, with me as the dedicated developer. We will have year themes different from the Pathfinder Society, though there may still be crossover events from time to time, and are looking at what kind of special events we may be able to do besides the annual Open tournament.

In the PACS, there will be a lot of features that you are already used to. Players use class decks to play Adventures made up of several scenarios. As they play, characters upgrade their deck and gain Feats, which let them improve their skills, learn new powers, and add more cards to their deck. Every few scenarios, players can increase their character's Tier, allowing them to play more challenging scenarios.

The Fangwood Thieves

The Fangwood Thieves is the first PACS adventure to use the Core Set. The first two scenarios debut at PaizoCon, and the second two debut at Origins (June 11-15). This collection of 4 scenarios is designed as an introduction to the Core Set and is well-suited as a demo for the game usable anywhere, particularly game stores and conventions. It can also help new players catch up to other players who are playing an ongoing Adventure Path.

The plot's fairly straightforward, taking place in the Fangwood and involving a group of thieving kobolds. If you are steeped in Golarion lore, you may notice a few nods to existing canon, such as references to the aftermath of the Ironfang Invasion Adventure Path, but you don't need this knowledge to enjoy the adventure.

The Shape of Year 6

We're saving the name and symbol for Year 6 to be revealed at the PaizoCon Banquet, but I can talk about the season's overall structure. Over the years, we've received feedback that a season with a single large Adventure Path doesn't fit the schedules of everyone in the community. To help address this concern, we shortened the overarching Adventure Path story, including four scenarios per adventure instead of five or six. Not only does this fit more naturally with the new Hero Point model, but it also gives us more space in the season to experiment with other scenario and adventure formats.

Speaking of other formats. For Year 6, we'll be adding two new self-contained adventures. The first of these adventures will release in early 2020, and the second in the summer of 2020. These stand-alone adventures will be written for multiple Tiers to make them as versatile as possible. To differentiate what is part of the meta-plot and what is not, we are adopting a new title structure borrowed from the RPG adventure paths.

Rules Update

Even though Season 6 itself won't start until Gen Con, we'll be releasing an update to the Pathfinder Adventure Card Society Guide at PaizoCon 2019 (May 24-27), to coincide with the release of the Core Set. Here is a sneak peek of the three primary adjustments and one clarification appearing in the updated guide.

Using the Core Set Rules

Card Game Organized Play traditionally used the rulebook from the most recently released boxed set (with help from the boxed set that the adventure uses for card-specific rules). We'll be making this update again. Once the new guide releases, the revised rules from the Core Set will become the new default for Organized Play. As with previous rulebooks, the Core Set Rulebook will be available for free at paizo.com/pacg. With the new model of production, in which products like the Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path are presented as expansions on the Core Set rather than stand-alone games, the Core Set's rules will be the baseline rules for PACS for the foreseeable future.

So how should groups transition to the Core Set rules? The Core Set Rulebook includes a one-page transition guide that neatly summarizes the revision's changes and gives instructions for handling these changes when playing older sets. There are also a few specific cards that will be receiving changes. These changes will be available at paizo.com/pacg.

Hero Points and Tiering Up

In the Core Set, instead of gaining specific power, card, and skill feats, characters earn hero points. They can use these hero points to buy feats, reroll a die, or come back from the dead. Going forward, hero points will be the new standard for organized play. In PACS, a character can have several feats of each type equal to their Tier, but they can take these feats in whatever order they like. Hero Points also allow for more flexibility in how many scenarios a character can play before bumping up to the next Tier of play. A character could rush their advancement and increase their Tier after only 3 scenarios, or they could stick around for up to 6 scenarios to continue to improve their deck.

Challenge Modes

The Core Set includes options for making the game harder, introducing Heroic and Legendary difficulty. We are looking into how we can incorporate these difficulty levels into organized play and will have more information soon.

Replay

This isn't a change, but it's a clarification of an ambiguous rule. The rules about replay (namely, that characters that replay don't receive rewards) refer only to that specific character. In Pathfinder Adventure Card Society, playing a scenario with a different character does not count as “Replay.” This means that when you play a scenario again with a different character, that character earns the scenario's full rewards.

As always, we'll be keeping an eye out for community feedback, from rules changes to the new adventure model, so let us know what you think!

Linda Zayas-Palmer
Developer