Illustration by James Zhang


The Savage Horde Has Descended On Seattle!

September 24, 2010

Way back in August I began to make some cryptic references to moving to the Emerald City of Seattle, leaving the reasons why a mystery. People began to guess, but all was revealed a couple of Tuesdays ago by Paizo as I was driving a rented U-Haul up the 5 from San Diego to Seattle. Turns out I was relocating the Horde from sunny Southern California to the green, and very wet, Pacific Northwest in order to work here at Paizo as the new Marketing Manager.

What does that mean exactly? Well, I'll be working closely with Erik Mona, our fearless publisher, making sure you the fans know what we're producing, when it's coming out, what we're planning, and other cools bits of news. In addition, I'll be working with the rest of the staff in getting them on podcasts, interviewed by blogs and magazines, and out in the wild spreading the glory of Pathfinder and Paizo.

I'll also be working on some new ways of keeping you the fans involved in what we're doing and ways you can help us out. So if you have any specific ideas, please leave them in the comments below.

BTW, have you had a chance to look at our new FAQ system? What we've done is put a link that says "FAQ" on messageboard posts. If you hit this link it will mark the message, letting us know that there's something you think we need to clarify, explain, or outright fix, and then have included in the official FAQ for the product. Every message you flag for us will be brought to the attention of our developers, letting them know someone has a question or needs a ruling. (FYI, those with more "flags" will go to the top of the list.) You can check it out here.

Hyrum Savage
Marketing Manager

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Tags: Hyrum Savage James Zhang Monsters Orcs Paizo Wallpapers

Good deal Hyrum!


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Welcome aboard, Hyrum.


Congrats, Hyrum!

Sczarni

Hey look Mark - He even gets new art on his first blog post! He defiantly does know what the fans want :) [/tongue in cheek humor]

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

Cpt_kirstov wrote:
Hey look Mark - He even gets new art on his first blog post! He defiantly does know what the fans want :) [/tongue in cheek humor]

old art but at least art.


Many are your words, Savage Marketer, but your offering of Art has been accepted. (Old the art may be, but new and large the size.)


Does this mean we might actually be getting an official Paizo Podcast in the future?

It's been talked about before.

Either way, welcome, Hyrum.

Dark Archive

W00t! Will you also be chatting on occasion over at the Werebagges(?) Paizo chat?


Werecabbages?


Strangely, that art made me a little uncomfortable. It will *not* be my new desktop.


Mairkurion {tm} wrote:
Werecabbages?

Dire relatives.

Liberty's Edge

Welcome to the Seattle area. Need a Pathfinder group?? ;)

The Exchange

Here's a suggestion for you Hyrum - as a loyal Paizo customer, I do not find that Paizo products and in particular the Pathfinder RPG line are "visible" enough in my local game store. The books are on a shelf, near the back, spine out and behind a counter (the store owners are afraid of people picking up a book and walking out). As a result, the only way to really know they are selling Paizo/Pathfinder is for the customer to know enough to ask to see your products.

I am sure this is the case at many other game stores. You need to make your products more visible - store owners won't do so on their own - maybe ship these guys posters to put in windows? Maybe make a small cardboard stand-up display (for putting on a counter). Maybe make a big cardboard stand-up display (for putting on the floor). Anything to make people in the store notice the name Paizo/Pathfinder and think "hey cool, that looks like something I want to learn more about" and ask to see the books and get hooked.

Anyhow, I hope this helps!


Mark Kraatz wrote:

I am sure this is the case at many other game stores. You need to make your products more visible - store owners won't do so on their own - maybe ship these guys posters to put in windows? Maybe make a small cardboard stand-up display (for putting on a counter). Maybe make a big cardboard stand-up display (for putting on the floor). Anything to make people in the store notice the name Paizo/Pathfinder and think "hey cool, that looks like something I want to learn more about" and ask to see the books and get hooked.

Anyhow, I hope this helps!

Just had a discussion about this today....

Hyrum.


Life-size Seoni cardboard display cutouts that has her hands folded outwards that has the strength to hold a pile of the latest Pathfinder books for the offering for the fanboi that succumbs to her charms by failing their will save and end up purchasing one.


Kick this around...

Lifesize cardboard display cutouts of Seoni with her hands opened outwards to be able to support the latest batch of Pathfinder books to catch the eye of an unsuspecting fanboi who's going to take a penalty and fail their will save by purchasing the product. It'd make for an interesting kiosk.


Congrats Hyrum looking forward to what you bring to the table :)

The Exchange

Urizen wrote:

Kick this around...

Lifesize cardboard display cutouts of Seoni with her hands opened outwards to be able to support the latest batch of Pathfinder books to catch the eye of an unsuspecting fanboi who's going to take a penalty and fail their will save by purchasing the product. It'd make for an interesting kiosk.

Ooh. Even if you can't make cutouts to give to all the stores, Paizo should definitely make some life-size cutouts for Paizocon and Gencon and all the other cons they go to. GREAT for photo ops!

Hi Hyrum, welcome to Paizo. I'm glad you're talking about the stores - the one game store I've been to has some Pathfinder books, but I didn't see any Pathfinder in my local B&N, where they have a ton of D&D books in their games/manga section. Sorry to hear you won't be down in SoCal anymore, tho. But Seattle is much greener, so hopefully you'll grow to like that.


Welcome to Paizo, Hyrum


Do well, or die trying! Congrats!

Dark Archive

Mark Kraatz wrote:

Here's a suggestion for you Hyrum - as a loyal Paizo customer, I do not find that Paizo products and in particular the Pathfinder RPG line are "visible" enough in my local game store. The books are on a shelf, near the back, spine out and behind a counter (the store owners are afraid of people picking up a book and walking out). As a result, the only way to really know they are selling Paizo/Pathfinder is for the customer to know enough to ask to see your products.

I am sure this is the case at many other game stores. You need to make your products more visible - store owners won't do so on their own - maybe ship these guys posters to put in windows? Maybe make a small cardboard stand-up display (for putting on a counter). Maybe make a big cardboard stand-up display (for putting on the floor). Anything to make people in the store notice the name Paizo/Pathfinder and think "hey cool, that looks like something I want to learn more about" and ask to see the books and get hooked.

Anyhow, I hope this helps!

Same issue here. I would love to see Pathfinder more visable.


A belated welcome to the Paizo boards, Mr. Savage. I think the last marketing manager went off to tour conventions playing a curmudgeonly atheist wizard (or to drag combats in PFS games which he was running out for an epic nineteen or so rounds so the PCs never got past the first encounter), so I'm unsure if that augurs well for your tenure, or not.... (Okay, so he runs PFS too... ;) )

As to suggestions, I occasionally comment in Tuesday night chats on the lack of press releases. Since the close of RPGSuperstar, I think Paizo must have four or five months without a release, despite news-worthy events occurring such as the change in the novel schedule so that the line launched earlier than expected, at GenCon itself... I'm still not quite sure why that didn't rate a press release.

As to how we can help out, there are several of us around who'd be happy to help catch those pesky little errors by participating in the proof-reading before things go off to print... Even assuming emailing drafts around is a bad idea from a security point of view, in the bigger context how much can sending the occasional package of paper, registered delivery, really cost if it spares comments about 'file/fire' typos, or that fox's cunning appears to be absent from the witch spell list. (On which note, I need to go and flag that up...)


Zeugma wrote:

I didn't see any Pathfinder in my local B&N, where they have a ton of D&D books in their games/manga section.

Pathfinder books are now available in many B&N stores.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Does this have anything to do with the recent destruction of the Space Needle in Marvel Comics? :)

Hail Hydra!

Dark Archive Owner - Johnny Scott Comics and Games

Welcome aboard Hyrum!


Pierce Watters wrote:
Zeugma wrote:

I didn't see any Pathfinder in my local B&N, where they have a ton of D&D books in their games/manga section.

Pathfinder books are now available in many B&N stores.

Darn it, another new Paizo member of staff (or at least very infrequently posting one).

Welcome Pierce, too.


Larry Lichman wrote:
Welcome aboard Hyrum!

Thanks Larry!


Charles Evans 25 wrote:
Pathfinder books are now available in many B&N stores.

Darn it, another new Paizo member of staff (or at least very infrequently posting one).

Welcome Pierce, too.

Piece is a long time Paizo staff member, but you're right, he doesn't post enough. :)

Hyrum.


Since you're posting here, Hyrum, do you know when Josh is announcing the first wave of regional coordinators, or is he waiting on something?


Hyrum ... your avatar ... it's hypnotic ... it's getting into my brain and burning marketing memes into the temporal lobe. I see why they've hired you now. *shakes fist*


Ooh, I see elsewhere Josh is retiring from running PFS.
:-?

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Charles Evans 25 wrote:

Ooh, I see elsewhere Josh is retiring from running PFS.

:-?

While Josh will no longer be the one making the announcement, regional coordinators have been selected and will be announced soon.


Charles Evans 25 wrote:

Since you're posting here, Hyrum, do you know when Josh is announcing the first wave of regional coordinators, or is he waiting on something?

Like Mark said, the RCs have been chosen and we'll be making the announcement on who they are on Monday.

Hyrum.


Urizen wrote:
Hyrum ... your avatar ... it's hypnotic ... it's getting into my brain and burning marketing memes into the temporal lobe. I see why they've hired you now. *shakes fist*

CURSE YOU HYRUM THE MONKEY!


Hyrum Savage wrote:
Charles Evans 25 wrote:

Since you're posting here, Hyrum, do you know when Josh is announcing the first wave of regional coordinators, or is he waiting on something?

Like Mark said, the RCs have been chosen and we'll be making the announcement on who they are on Monday.

Hyrum.

Thanks for the update. I think I know who our UK regional coordinator will be, but it would be nice to see the official verdict, and I might yet be surprised...

:)

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