Extra Life, New Regions, and Volunteer Recognition!

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

In the couple of weeks since I got back from PaizoCon Oz, I keep looking at our blog schedule for an opportunity to write of my travels and share some of the photos I took at the event. That there hasn't been a gap testifies to how much is going on in the realm of organized play. So, I'm going to share a couple of photos today and I promise to give a full account of my travels next week.

Extra Life

Paizo is a major partner with Extra Life this year. Extra Life is a charity that raises funds for local Children's Hospitals. We have a Super Team and welcome anyone that wishes to help raise money for the kids. You can find our team page here. Feel free to make an account and join our efforts!

As part of our fundraising efforts, we will be live-streaming games the 25 hours of the Extra Life event. Starting at 10:00 AM Saturday and running through 10:00 AM Sunday, you can watch Paizo staffers and a few guests roll their dice, move their mice, and hope no one gets hurt. Organized play events start at 2:00 AM Pacific standard time with a PFS scenario brought to us by the local Seattle Venture-Officers and GMs. From 6:00-10:00 AM Pacific standard time, John Compton takes the helm to run a Starfinder Scenario. Tune in to watch our scenarios and help with the hijinks. Visit our Twitch stream to watch the event and qualify for the chance to earn special prizes, such as limited edition boons, Paizo books, a Gen Con badge, and more.

Participating in the live stream event gives the Paizo organized play team an opportunity to reveal another way in which we're distributing race boons: via online events. From this weekend, when an organized play team member appears on a podcast, streamed charity event, or other online public appearance, they'll bring a few boons with them. Which boons, you ask? How about Ghorans (for Pathfinder Society) and Skittermanders (for Starfinder Society)! To whet your interest in these boons, please note that Ultimate Wilderness (releasing in November) features new options for Ghorans. I encourage you to join John, Thurston, myself, and a few other staffers from 6:00-10:00 AM Pacific standard time this Sunday when we're giving away the first of these via raffle. We are working on the method of disbursement, which will most likely involve a $20 donation to Extra Life and some variety of raffle, but regardless of dispersal method, you must be logged in and watching to win.

In addition to the Paizo live-stream, there are quite a few other conventions running events for Extra Life as well. So the organized play team decided to encourage the spirit of generosity by shaking things up a bit. The following modifications to Society rules apply for any games played at a venue supporting Extra between November 2 and November 6, 2017.

• The Retail Incentive Program applies for all locations, regardless of whether the event takes place in a location selling items. Monies donated to Extra Life qualify as purchases for the program, regardless of whether donated by players, GMs, or spectators.
• We've sent a special Extra Life boon to locations running events. This boon is eligible for dispersal to players the same way other boons are available or to anyone who makes a $10 or more donation to Extra Life.
• Spectators may donate money to Extra Life and change up the action of the game, as long as it does not modify the adventure mechanics or the GMs ability to run the adventure as written. So make the players talk in funny voices, dance a jig at the table, or swap character sheets with a neighbor.

Don't forget to check out our Twitch stream and root for Paizo and its partners in our quest of helping sick children.

Online Organized Play

Over the past two years, the numbers of GMs running games in the aether doubled, then doubled again and is continuing to grow at lightening pace. Players with mobility issues, or in remote locations, or on non-traditional schedules, are joining the online games as a way to connect with other players and experience organized play. Paizo's partnerships with online VTT platforms and hosting of Play-by-Post games on its forums support player opportunities for online gaming. For these reasons, and to keep up with the growing demands on the organizers' time and energy, we are expanding the team. It is our great pleasure to announce the creation of an eleventh region—the Online region, under the guidance of Jesse Davis, also known as Ironhelixx.

One of the biggest changes in the online region is the addition of Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild play. Stemming from our playtests of the various base sets, we are looking to introduce more players to the Society based stories of the Season of Faction's Favor and Season of Plundered Tombs, the swashbuckling adventures of the Season of the Shackles, the holy fury contained in the Season of the Righteous, the virtues and sins of the Season of the Runelords and the fire and chaos of Season of the Goblins. If you want to experience the fun of the card game, but haven't had a group near you, this may well be your answer.

Both the Retail Support Program and the Regional Support Program will have online components. We are currently fleshing out the details and will post them in the next few weeks. It is a balancing act, as we don't want to deny the online players the benefits of the programs, but we don't want to negate the benefits for physical locations either. At this time we are soliciting feedback for how to integrate these programs. If you have ideas, feel free to send them to me at organizedplay@paizo.com

To assist Jesse, we are promoting three people to the position of Venture-Captain. Each will oversee one aspect of online play. Please welcome the following individuals to the VC ranks:

Venture-Captain—PbP: Hilary Moon-Murphy
Venture-Captain—ACG: Tyler Beck
Venture-Captain—VTT: James Bartlett

Rounding out the team are the Venture-Lieutenants and Venture-Agents: Gerard van Konijnenburg, Phillip Wood, Christine Bussman, Sylvain Corbaz, Michael Hallet. Andrew Warner, Richard Lowe, Helen Yau, and Hannes Schunk. Contact information for the above listed individuals, as well as all volunteers, is available on the Coordinators Page.

We are always looking for more volunteers, both online and around the globe. If you are interested in helping organize games and joining the ranks of the Venture-Officers, please email me with your location and area of interest at tonya.woldridge@organizedplayfoundation.org to open a discussion.

Thank you to the team of volunteers helping spin up the new region and to all the Venture-Officers worldwide, without whom we would not have an organized play program.

DIY Terrain Contest

Last August, we asked GMs to submit their best DIY Terrain photos. The four submissions below impressed us and we couldn't choose between them, so we are posting them all and asking you to choose a winner. Please give them a good look over and vote for your favorite!

We will leave the polls open for 2 weeks and announce the winner on November 22nd.

Entry #1—Pathfinder Lodge	Entry #2—Ship
Entry #3—Tornado in a Tower	Entry #4—Extra-dimensional Oubliette

5* GM Recognition

With the turn of the seasons, the convention pace slows down a bit, but continues to provide many opportunities for GMs to run games. Several of those GMs completed their 5-star requirements. These include running 150 games, of which at least 50 must be unique scenarios and 10 be special scenarios. These requirements don't include the hours spent preparing their scenarios or gathering their supplies. The time needed to reach 5* is well over 600 hours! To those listed below, who earned their 5th star over the past few weeks, welcome to the club and thank you for your dedication to our Society.

• Matt Hill
• James Hines
• Alan Kaekel
• Jussi Leinonen
• Michael Lindner

Conventions

For those wanting to get a few more conventions in before the end of the year, you are in luck, Thanks to the dedication and effort of our volunteer organizers, Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society appears at quite a few locations all around the globe. Barring unforeseen circumstances, you can catch up with Paizo staffers at Gamehole Con, PAX Unplugged, AetherCon, and MarsCon. So check out the list and find a Society event near you!

Gamehole Con V	Madison, WI	11/2/17
Carnage XX (2017)	Killington, VT	11/3/17
NekoCon 2017	Hampton, VA	11/3/17
Enchanted Realms Fall Charity Event	Colorado Springs, CO	11/4/17
Extra Life 2017	Boise, ID	11/4/17
Extra Life Day 2017	Austin, TX	11/4/17
Gryphcon Shadow 2017	Toronto, Canada	11/4/17
Jet City Comic Show 2017	Tacoma, WA	11/4/17
Rolecon 2017	Moscow, Russia	11/4/17
Con on the Cob 2017	Richfield, OH	11/9/17
Acadecon 2017	Dayton, OH	11/10/17
AetherCon 2017	Online	11/10/17
Arkansas Anime Festival 2017	Bentonville, AR	11/10/17
Fall MepaCon 2017	Allentown, PA	11/10/17
InvictaCon 2017	Porto, Portugal	11/10/17
Mace 2017	Charlotte, NC	11/10/17
PentaCon XXXIII (2017)	Fort Wayne, IN	11/10/17
TridentCon 2017	Parkville, MD	11/11/17
Conquest Avalon 2017	Sacramento, CA	11/17/17
JimCon 2017	Winnipeg, Canada	11/17/17
Memphis Comic and Fantasy Convention 2017	Memphis, TN	11/17/17
NerdLouvia 2017	Louisville, KY	11/17/17
PAX Unplugged 2017	Philadelphia, PA	11/17/17
The Final Con-tdown 2017	Sioux Falls, SD	11/17/17
Beacon 2017	Belfast, N. Ireland	11/18/17
Dreieichcon 2017	Germany	11/18/17
GobbleCon 2017	Burlingame, CA	11/24/17
Ludo-Outaouais 2017	Gatineau, Canada	11/24/17
Wolfcon 2017	Chicago, IL	11/24/17
SP "Assault on Absalom" DAU '17	Barcelona, Spain	11/25/17
AnonyCon 2017	Stamford, CT	12/1/17
Dragonmeet 2017	London, United Kingdom	12/2/17
Aus East Coast Interactive 4	Sydney/Brisbane, Australia	12/8/17
Midwinter Gaming Convention 2018	Milwaukee, WI	1/11/18
Arisia 2018	Boston, MA	1/12/18
MarsCon 2018	Williamsburg, VA	1/12/18
Cancon 2018	Australia	1/26/18
TotalCon 2018	Marlborough, MA	2/22/18

PAX Unplugged

Paizo has a booth at the show, where we will run demo games of Starfinder, Pathfinder RPG, and Pathfinder ACG. We need help running the tables, and helpers will get room, badge, and store credit similar to Gen Con rewards. If you want to help out by running demos, email tonya.woldridge@paizo.com. Space is limited and will be filled on a first come, first served basis, so if you want to attend, send your email today! in the next few weeks regarding our presence at the show.

Until next week—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager