Exploring Factions' Favor

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

PaizoCon wrapped up about a month ago, and although we announced the next season of the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild at the preview banquet, we're overdue for a proper introduction on paizo.com.

In the pursuit of ancient secrets and unclaimed treasures, the Pathfinder Society doesn't just make discoveries; it also makes enemies. A cast of the campaign's greatest villains has conspired to take their revenge against the Pathfinder, bringing war to the footstep of the great city Absalom and chaos to the Inner Sea region. For years, factions within the Society have championed their own agendas, fought for recognition, and accumulated resources. At last they have a chance to prove themselves—an experience that could leave these organizations changed forever in Season 9 of the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild: the Year of Factions' Favor.

In the coming year, Pathfinders have an opportunity to redeem souls, avert an invasion, uncover hidden secrets below an infamous museum, and vanquish an ageless evil poised to take control of the region's greatest minds. At the same time, players can use faction resources to shut down an exploitative consortium, thwart a league of dangerous villains, oust an infamous tyrant, and decide whether the ends justify the means in the pursuit of justice. On top of this there are tombs to unseal, artifacts to recover, and countless other adventures that await in this exciting season that debuts at Gen Con 2017!

Icon Illustration by Giorgio Baroni

One of the big questions I've heard over the past several years is "Our factions keep building connections and accumulating resources, but for what?" For some factions it's been pretty clear, such as the then-Taldor building up steam to launch its own Army of Exploration during Season 5. For others, the payoffs have been less obvious. For others still, it's been less a question of payoff and more a matter of self-reflection; some of the factions have found themselves pulled in multiple directions, whether that's multiple leaders vying for ideological dominance or a leader and a faction growing steadily less suited for each other. With Season 9, we're examining a bunch of these questions by giving many factions a big events in which to flex their muscles, prove their worth (in-game and out), and trigger some substantial changes on the world. Some factions are performing some house cleaning, such as rooting out corruption or thwarting a growing menace within their ranks. Others still are receiving smaller-scale stories tied to recurring characters whose narratives spin into a much larger event. All in all, each of the factions is getting something exciting to pursue over the course of Season 9.

Although Season 9 had a placeholder name of "Year of the Factions" for many months, the adventures are far from faction-exclusive. Characters of all factions should be able to enjoy these scenarios, and Society leadership will oversee the vast majority of these adventures—particularly ensuring that the Society's interests aren't lost in the shuffle. Many of these adventures also involve the same elements that we've come to expect from Pathfinder Society scenarios, such as exploring ancient sites, uncovering hidden secrets, discovering rarely-traveled lands, and dishing out a generous helping of RPG action. All the while, the factions are jostling for the opportunity to lend their support and be awesome. For example, if a noteworthy port is giving the Society trouble and keeping the PCs from going on an adventure, you can bet the Exchange is chomping at the bit and saying, "Is this municipality using economic warfare to block you? Two can play at that game. Hold my beer."

On top of that, we'll have a helping of unaffiliated adventures, including a new higher-than-1st-level replayable adventure.

The Adventure Path

From Season 3 to Season 6 of Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild, the campaign's overarching theme connected to one of two Adventure Paths that would release that year. While this allowed the developers to promote and borrow from the supporting literature released around that same time for the Adventure Path, it also meant the organized play program was telling less of its own story. Beginning in Season 7, we broke from that mold. While the freedom to craft our own narrative is delightful, I've been missing the sense of cross-product collaboration. The difference is that rather than wait for the Adventure Path line to set the direction, I went straight to Crystal Frasier to start planning things from the ground up.

Crystal's a delightful co-conspirator, and I've known for a while that her desire to shake up Taldor is even stronger than my own. When we put our heads together, we realized just how well our two stories could work together, rather than one being subservient to the other. After all, the Sovereign Court's been building up to something big for quite some time, and overthrowing an irresponsible monarch in order to revitalize one of our central nations sounds like just the right thing.

Is the entirety of Season 9 about Taldor and the upcoming War for the Crown? Far from it, but we will have several scenarios that tell a big Sovereign Court faction story and contribute to this Adventure Path.

Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild

There are more stories we have in reserve than we have scenario slots to give them, and last year we tried something a little new with the Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild: we began tying its story into that of the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild and cementing the PCs' role as Pathfinders. For those of you interested in the ongoing Scarab Sages narrative and drama with the Aspis Consortium, I encourage you to play Season 3: Season of Plundered Tombs.

For the first time, we have a shared season name between these two campaigns, so Season 4 is the Season of Factions' Favor. Here we'll show another side of one of the ongoing plot threads, giving players an opportunity to travel to rarely visited regions in order to thwart an infamous, recurring villain who threatens to cast the Inner Sea region into chaos. So when several upcoming Roleplaying Guild scenarios reference the behind-the-scenes efforts of another group of Pathfinders, remember that you can experience those stories with the Adventure Card Guild.

We're launching the Season of Factions' Favor at Gen Con in August!

John Compton
Organized Play Lead Developer