Pathfinder Society in the Netherlands (or Join the Crew of the Flying Dutchman)

Tuesday, May 29, 2012


Illustration by
Christopher Burdett

Last month, we highlighted Croatia, Bosnia, and Slovenia, and Venture-Captain Zrinka Znidarcic's efforts to grow Pathfinder Society there. We now shift our focus back to the northwest and the land of the Dutch. I present to you, Venture-Captain Auke Teeninga's report on Pathfinder Society in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is a small country in northwest Europe. It borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders with the United Kingdom. The country's capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government is The Hague. The Netherlands, in its entirety, is often referred to as Holland, although North and South Holland are actually only two of its twelve provinces. The Netherlands is a geographically low-lying country, with about 25% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level, and its name literally means "Low Country."

In 1602 the Dutch East India Company was established. This chartered company is often considered to have been the first multinational corporation in the world and was the first company to issue stock. Its mercantile fleets challenged the best in the world for supremacy, and due to the companies success the Netherlands, enjoyed a so-called "Golden Age" of prosperity. Rembrandt van Rijn, Frans Hals, and Johannes Vermeer perfected their crafts. Christian Huygens and Anton van Leeuwenhoek made amazing discoveries in science. Cities like Amsterdam, Leiden, Utrecht, and Delft started to grow, and their distinctive canals were dug to provide both infrastructure and defensive capabilities.

Nowadays, these same cities are still used as a home base for expeditions. Multiple times each month, teams of explorers from the Pathfinder Society are sent to Golarion to search ancient ruins, collect art and artifacts, and gather knowledge to bring back to the Grand Lodge of Absalom.

I started playing Pathfinder Society at GenCon UK in 2008, and continued to do so at various conventions in the United Kingdom. I wanted to share my enjoyment (and cut back on flight costs to the UK), so I started organizing regular games in the Netherlands in 2010. The Dutch Pathfinder Society has been growing ever since, and currently we've got more than two dozen active players, half of which GM regularly. I've got big plans for 2013, which includes a multi-day, multi-table, Pathfinder Society-only convention like PaizoCon UK, and get players from across Europe to join and share their Pathfinder experience, while at the same time helping us to grow our player base.

Although we have a few stores in the Netherlands willing to host Pathfinder Society games, most of games are run from private homes. The games, however, are open to everyone (as long as they RSVP) and no one has been turned down yet!

In the Netherlands there are also quite a few roleplaying conventions, and the Pathfinder Society presence at these conventions is increasing slowly but steadily. Some of these conventions include:

Ei-Con, Leiden
V-Con, Vleuten
K-Con, Delft
Meetup, Utrecht & Amsterdam

If you live in the Netherlands and are interested in trying out Pathfinder Society Organized Play, join the Pathfinder Society NL forum on Google Groups or send an email to dutchpathfinder@gmail.com for more information. Convention organizers and store owners interested in hosting Pathfinder Society events should send an email to pathfinderbenelux@gmail.com.

If you are in another country and do not have a Venture-Captain, but think you can do as good a job as Auke did above, please do not hesitate to send me a write-up about Pathfinder Society play in your area of the world and include some photos.

Mike Brock
Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator

More Paizo Blog.
Tags: Christopher Burdett Pathfinder Society

What happened to the ARG preview?

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

I have had the pleasure at meeting and gaming with Auke at Both GenCon UK in 2008 and PaizoCon last year.

He is a great guy and I look forward to gaming with him again.

My wife is in that area all the time and begs me to visit her there, so I can use that to get over there.

Grand Lodge 4/5

YawarFiesta wrote:
What happened to the ARG preview?

It's right HERE.

5/5

Dragnmoon wrote:
He is a great guy and I look forward to gaming with him again.

For once I agree with Dragnmoon!

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Little photo sharing time.

One of Auke first PFS games at GenCon UK in 2008!

Sczarni 5/5

nice!

Dark Archive 2/5

I lived in Holland for 2 years at Soesterburg. Good times....

The Exchange 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Mediterranean

Very interesting plans for the future Auke.

Liberty's Edge 4/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Indiana—Northwestern Indiana

I enjoy reading about Pathfinder Society in different countries. I wish Auke and everyone else who has become a Venture Captain good luck in their regions.

5/5

Dragnmoon wrote:

Little photo sharing time.

One of Auke first PFS games at GenCon UK in 2008!

I prefer this picture from the same album..

4/5 RPG Superstar 2011 Top 4

I'll be trekking to the Netherlands next month. I hope you'll have a spot for me at one of your games (and don't mind my preference for koffie verkeerd).


Who cares the Netherlands? I WAAAANT A RACE PREVIEEEEW.

4/5 5/5 * Contributor

J-Spee Lovecraft wrote:
Who cares the Netherlands? I WAAAANT A RACE PREVIEEEEW.

I'd estimate that gamers who live in the Netherlands care about the Netherlands ....


Alexander Augunas wrote:
J-Spee Lovecraft wrote:
Who cares the Netherlands? I WAAAANT A RACE PREVIEEEEW.
I'd estimate that gamers who live in the Netherlands care about the Netherlands ....

Fair enough. I'm sorry, Netherlandians. I just got worked up because I was really looking forward to a preview today.


As Mr. Brock pointed out up-thread, they did 2 ARG previews last week to account for this shortened holiday week.

2/5

I love getting these International Pathfinder reports to read! Great to see the pics of folks enjoying a good PFS game too. :-) I have a quick question for our Netherland-brethern, "How popular is Heineken there?" It is my go-to beer for sushi joints in the States as I prefer it to the Asian beers usually offered.

Grand Lodge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Baltic

Whiskey Jack wrote:
How popular is Heineken there?

Maybe it's because of living downwind from the Heineken brewery my entire youth, but it isn't my favorite beer.


Auke Teeninga wrote:
Whiskey Jack wrote:
How popular is Heineken there?
Maybe it's because of living downwind from the Heineken brewery my entire youth, but it isn't my favorite beer.

Heineken is for foreigners :)

Glad to see you're still going strong Auke, and still have a large part of the original crew. Keep up the good work!

Scarab Sages 5/5 5/5

Looking forward to the Big plans of 2013 ;)

4/5 RPG Superstar 2011 Top 4

I'd like to thank VC Auke, VL Mark, and all of the Dutch GMs and players for making my recent trip to NL a memorable one. It started when Auke somehow convinced me to run Dawn of the Scarlet Sun at Free RPG Day Utrecht and followed with several home games over the following months. Hardly a weekend went by when I wasn't involved in a game somewhere in the country. My characters have a few more scars now, but each was well earned.

I hope my bard's antics didn't damage Taldor's (or South Africa's) reputation too much.

Grand Lodge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Baltic

Jerall Toi wrote:
I'd like to thank VC Auke, VL Mark, and all of the Dutch GMs and players for making my recent trip to NL a memorable one. It started when Auke somehow convinced me to run Dawn of the Scarlet Sun at Free RPG Day Utrecht and followed with several home games over the following months. Hardly a weekend went by when I wasn't involved in a game somewhere in the country. My characters have a few more scars now, but each was well earned.

Hey Jerall! It was great having both you and your wife over! I'm glad you could man the fort while I was away to PaizoConUK and GenCon!

Jerall Toi wrote:
I hope my bard's antics didn't damage Taldor's (or South Africa's) reputation too much.

I think I missed your bard's performance... :-(

Grand Lodge 5/5

Auke, it was great to meet you at the GenCon Venture-Captain dinner. Sorry I didn't quite understand when you told me your name. I'm a visual person and now that I see it - it is perfectly clear.

I had the good fortune to travel to Brussels, Brugge, and Amsterdam with a short stop in Den Haag in 1995. I spent Friday evening through Sunday afternoon in Amsterdam and found the city absolutely stunning.

4/5 RPG Superstar 2011 Top 4

Auke Teeninga wrote:
Hey Jerall! It was great having both you and your wife over! I'm glad you could man the fort while I was away to PaizoConUK and GenCon!

It's not like I wanted to attend those anyway :P

Hopefully, I'll get to them in the not too distant future.

5/5

I will be in the Netherlands for work for several weeks and would like to visit a game shop or place where pathfinder is played and maybe even play a game. Who is the current contact point for this? Thanks

The Exchange 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Mediterranean

Riggamortis wrote:
I will be in the Netherlands for work for several weeks and would like to visit a game shop or place where pathfinder is played and maybe even play a game. Who is the current contact point for this? Thanks

Auke Teeninga is your man.

Scarab Sages 5/5 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Netherlands

Riggamortis wrote:
I will be in the Netherlands for work for several weeks and would like to visit a game shop or place where pathfinder is played and maybe even play a game. Who is the current contact point for this? Thanks

You can contact Auke, he is still our general coordinator, or send me a message :)

5/5

Thank you for the quick responses. I have sent a message to Auke.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden

We use a single Warhorn event to plan almost all sessions, so that's the place where you can find games and join.

On 11-13 march we'll also be playing a lot of PFS at Ei-Con in Leiden.

Grand Lodge 5/5

Tangentially related question: Does Golarion have a Netherlands equivalent? Canal-streets, very low-lying, etc?

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden

Not really that I know of. Unkind tongues have suggested Kaer Maga may be modelled on Amsterdam though...

5/5 **** Venture-Agent, Netherlands—Utrecht

Kaer Maga is the opposite, I'd say; built on top of a cliff, while almost a quarter of the Netherlands is below sea level. :P
I've always compared Kaer Maga to Australia, but with less criminals and more ruffians and the like.
I wouldn't really know any equivalent. Maybe somewhere in the River Kingdoms? As in, geographically, not philosophically. We're not bandits. >_>

Dark Archive 5/5 5/5 *

Westcrown in Cheliax has many canals.

Grand Lodge 5/5

Florent Fournol wrote:
Westcrown in Cheliax has many canals.

Yea, but multiple places have that kind of thing going on.

I mean, its probably close enough for in-game purposes (a different kind of urban setting, where you might need Swim if you get in a fight in the street), but not close enough if we wanted to say it was actually based on the country and the people.

Scarab Sages 5/5 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Netherlands

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Hm... maybe we should start looking for somewhere that is famous for cheese and syrup waffles?

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