Fortune Favors the Bold

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Gen Con 50 is just about to start, and the convention's 50th anniversary promises to be bigger than ever. Here on the organized play team, we've been pulling out all the stops.

John and Thurston talked last week about our big specials and quests for Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society, so if you haven't had a chance to check that out, take a look! I'm here to talk about this year's other brand-new Pathfinder Society RPG offerings to kick of the Year of Faction's Favor, starting with our August scenario lineup.

First up, by Katherine Cross, we have the Tier 1-5 adventure #9-01: The Cost of Enlightenment. Katherine has a knack for painting vivid settings and memorable characters to draw your characters right in to an idyllic scene in a cosmopolitan city in Qadira. Of course, the Pathfinder Society wouldn't just send its agents to relax and enjoy a festival. Members of a formerly peaceful cult have become criers of great discovery that has left them preaching nihilism and ruin. If the PCs can earn the favor of some influential locals in the bustling trade hub, they can journey to the source of the revelation, face those who curse the appearance of outsiders in a sacred space, and discover their own perspectives on a complicated truth.

Illustrations by Josef Kucera

Our next new scenario, #9-02: A Case of Missing Persons, by Alex Greenshields, begins on the threshold of an international incident. Masked mercenaries have abducted two members of Andoran's top government body, the People's Council, and taken them to the revolutionary and bloody nation of Galt. Worse, these assailants are affiliated with Galt's force of secret police and executioners. When magical means to locate these prisoners fail, it falls to a group of enterprising Pathfinder agents to uncover a dark conspiracy, rescue a powerful Pathfinder Society ally, and reveal the mastermind's true identity. Can your Tier 3-7 PCs get to the bottom of this situation before the trail goes cold? My favorite part of this scenario is probably the creative encounter that Alex put together for when the PCs set off to rescue the Society ally, but I'll leave the details for you to experience for yourselves.

Last but certainly not least, we have the Tier 5-9 scenario #9-03: On The Border of War, by Crystal Malarsky. In Brevoy, the specter of civil war always lurks on the horizon, as scheming noble factions jostle for power. Two of these factions both have strong claims for the copper mining town of Zmeyka, and conflict seems almost inevitable. If war breaks out, an ancient keep on the outskirts of town that holds yet-undiscovered secrets of Brevoy's past could be lost forever. It falls to the PCs to quickly uncover the keep's secrets. They must also decide if they wish to throw the Pathfinder Society's weight behind one of the conflict's sides, stay out of the struggle entirely, or undertake the daunting task of attempting to negotiate for peace. Crystal did an excellent job presenting the participants in the rising conflict and the wealth of historical information that lurks in the ancient keep.

On top of these three scenarios, Paizo has teamed up with Games & Gears and Gen Con to produce a new module, Heroes for Highdelve, which will be premiering as a special event at Gen Con and available for sale at both the Games and Gears booth and the Paizo Booth at Gen Con. It will be available for download on paizo.com in the near future. This adventure, written by Paizo developer Amanda Hamon Kunz, charges 1st-level adventurers with the task of recovering a precious amulet and preventing mayhem from descending upon their home.

For those of you who have signed up to play in this event at Gen Con, we are pleased to announce that you can receive credit for one of your Pathfinder Society characters. You can now download the sanctioning document from the product page and soon the Additional Resources page.

If you're be attending Gen Con, I look forward to seeing you there!

Linda Zayas-Palmer
Developer