Wrapping Up 2017—GM Stars, Conventions, and PAX Unplugged!

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

As I write the final "First of the month blog" for 2017, my thoughts roam back over the year. The Organized Play community delivered more games in 2017 than ever before—kudos to everyone involved! The biggest news of 2017 was the launch of our new organized play program—Starfinder Society. Though it had its hiccups, overall it was a resounding success. We are seeing players return to organized play, and many more who are new to Paizo and organized play are finding us at events around the world. Over the next few weeks, the team and I will write more about our thoughts on 2017 and what we have in store for 2018. Keep an eye on this space!

PAX Unplugged

Several members of Paizo staff, along with a cadre of volunteers, spent the weekend of November 17th in Philadelphia at the inaugural PAX Unplugged. There wasn't an empty seat in the booth as we ran hour long demos using Starfinder Society Quest: Into the Unknown. We had a few repeats, but most of our players were new. The enthusiasm and excitement in the booth kept me going through some long days. A huge thank you to the volunteers that came out and helped, both in the booth and the organized play tables downstairs. We greatly appreciate your efforts in spreading the word of the Society!

Paizo and Organized Play are looking to return to PAX Unplugged in 2018, with more demos and organized play tables. Currently, PAX is listing November 29th to December 2nd as their dates for the 2018 show. Right now the plans are nebulous, but if you're interested in helping out in the booth or running Pathfinder/Starfinder Society scenarios, save the date and watch this space mid-year for more info!

DIY Terrain Contest

In August, we opened a competition for the best homemade terrain and in November, we presented four entries to our community and asked them to vote for their favorite. It is my pleasure to announce the winner! The competition was tight, but the entry that received top honors, or should I say honours, is Chris Manning from the UK/Online community, for their 3D ship. Congratulations Chris! A huge kudos to all our participating artists, for their wonderful creations—Sam Sampson, Quinn Shannon, Scott Young, and Chris Manning

5* GM Recognition

Our GMs haven't let up the pace in running games and several of them achieved recognition in the past month. We saw more additions to the Nova Club, as GMs ran and reported games of Starfinder. We also had several GMs completed their 5-star requirements for Pathfinder Society. The requirements include running 150 games, of which at least 50 must be unique scenarios and 10 be special scenarios, but are not indicative of hours spent preparing for events. A conservative estimate of time needed to reach 5* is 650 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

• Jack Amy
• Elizabeth R Corrigan
• Andreas Frederiksen
• Mario Grande

Conventions

2018 is filling up with conventions, thanks to the effort of our volunteer event organizers! Check out the list below for upcoming events with Starfinder Society and Pathfinder Society play. This iteration, we added a column of where you can find the Organized Play staff hitting the tables and rolling the dice.

While our convention schedule is pretty set for 2018, if you are an event organizer and want to invite us out at your event in 2019, drop an email to organizedplay@paizo.com before next summer. We review our schedule in the fall and try to get all decisions wrapped by the end of the year.

Convention Name	Location	Start Date	Paizo Staff Attending
Aus East Coast Interactive 4	Sydney/Brisbane, Australia	12/8/17	—
Pathfinder Christmas Party 2017	Turku, Finland	12/9/17	—
30 Hour Food Drive 2017	Spokane Valley, WA	12/15/17	—
A Queen City Holiday 2017	Cincinnati, OH	12/15/17	—
CoolCon IV (2017)	Maitland, FL	12/27/17	—
Path Mas 17	Leon, Spain	12/28/17	—
#real GAPFS Holiday Party 2017	Winder, GA	12/30/17	—
Start of the Year 2018	Geneva, Switzerland	1/4/18	—
SacAnime Winter 2018	Sacramento, CA	1/5/18	—
PAX South 2018	San Antonio, TX	1/12/18	—
MAGFest 2018	Washington ,DC	1/4/18	—
ShadowCon 2018	West Memphis, AR	1/5/18	—
Midwinter Gaming Convention 2018	Milwaukee, WI	1/11/18	—
MarsCon 2017	Williamsburg, VA	1/12/18	Tonya
Niu yia 2018	León, Spain	1/12/18	—
Paradise City Comic Con 2017	Miami, FL	1/12/18	—
SCARAB 2018	Columbia, SC	1/12/18	John
Swampcon 2018	Gainesville, FL	1/13/18	—
Winter War 45 (2017)	Urbana, IL	1/25/18	—
Cancon 2018	Australia	1/26/18	—
Manaleak 2017	Birmingham, UK	1/27/18	—
FlintCon 2018	Flint, MI	2/3/18	—
LodgeCon 2018	Peotone, IL	2/10/18	—
TotalCon 2018	Marlborough, MA	2/22/18	TBD
OwlCon 2018	Houston, TX	2/23/18	Tonya
CoNfUsIoN 2018	Gouda, Netherlands	3/9/18	—
Marmalade Dog 23	Kalamazoo, MI	3/30/18

We have a few more updates to get to, mostly involving Starfinder Society, which seemed like a good thing to put in its own blog. So check back later to see what new developments are in store!

Next week, John brings us news on the faction front, including the results of the Leader's in Liberty contest. If you haven't voted, you have until tonight at 11:59 PM Pacific time to record your choice. Vote now for your favorite!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager