May Stars, Volunteers, Conventions & More!

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

I'm currently neck deep in convention preparation for PaizoCon, UK Games Expo, Origins, and Gen Con, as well as pulling travel plans together for PaizoCon UK. So many spreadsheets! But I don't have them printed out on my bedsheets (yet) so I think I'm still safe.

On the subject of PaizoCon's—after holding PaizoCon Oz 2017 in New Zealand, the team approached me about widening the locational mandate and rotating the event throughout the greater Asia-Pacific region. Home office was happy to agree to their request, so from here on out, PaizoCon Oz is now PaizoCon Asia-Pacific! I've got it on good authority that they will release specifics soon. Hope to see some of you in Brisbane, Australia, this October!

In March, we lost a dedicated society volunteer to suicide. David Setty was a tireless GM and supported his local community in Cincinnati with all his efforts. While you may not recognize the name, if you attended Gen Con in the past few years, you probably saw David GMing in the Sagamore Ballroom. He was the red-haired GM wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a bright smile. In recognition of his importance to their community and to raise funds for suicide prevention, the local lodge is holding the David Setty Memorial Game Day. More information is available via their Facebook event. You can help by donating to their fundraising efforts. If you aren't close enough to attend, consider taking a moment to tell the people around you how much you appreciate them. It may make all the difference in the world! For more information, email Venture-Captain Brent Bowser.

Campaign Coin

This past weekend, I attended Quad Cities Gamefest in Davenport, Iowa. While there, I had the distinct pleasure of awarding a Campaign Service Coin to an extremely active volunteer. During his tenure as Venture-Captain of the Quad Cities Society, the group expanded and grew from the base laid by the original venture-captain, James Martin. The recipient fosters good relationships with game storeowners and works to help out in the greater geographic area to expand Society to places that haven't had organized play before. For their service and dedication to the growth of their community, we recognize VC Troy Schnack with a Campaign Service Coin and organized play number 787 in recognition of his service.

If you know a deserving member of your community, please email me at organizedplay@paizo.com with their name, location, and the reasons you feel they should be recognized for their service. If you are able, please include what events they may attend in 2018. This is especially helpful if they will be at an event with a member of the organized play team (see further down the blog for that list of events.)

Stars and Novas

This month we only have one new addition to the 5-star GM roster. They earned the accolade this weekend, making them the newest addition to the island. Huge congratulations on achieving your fifth star.

To achieve this milestone, GMs facilitate 150 games, of which at least 50 must be unique scenarios and 10 are special scenarios, as well as run a game for a venture-captain. A conservative estimate of time needed to reach 5-stars is 650 hours! To the GM listed below, thank you very much for the time and energy you spend running Pathfinder Society games! Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

• Nick Sullivan

I've been watching the reporting data for Starfinder Society and we don't have anyone approaching 5-nova GM status yet, but the team knows it is coming soon. We hope to have more information in the next few weeks, as we keep discussing both the nova requirements and the future of GM stars in organized play. Once determined, we will include the information in a future update blog.

Volunteer Opportunities

We still have badges and rooms available for Gen Con volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering to run Pathifner Socity or Starfinder Society events, please visit the Gen Con 2018 volunteer questionnaire for more information and to register.

PaizoCon, Origins, Gen Con update

Event catalogs for PaizoCon, Origins, and Gen Con went live this week. If you want to run a mid-slot game at PaizoCon, a limited number of tables will be available for on-site signups. Origins offerings should be complete. I'm holding back on listing the newest season of ACG launching at Gen Con until after the PaizoCon Banquet, where we announce the new season information. So know there will be several tables each morning and afternoon block of Gen Con that we have dedicated to the new season ACG launch. We also haven't uploaded our seminar offerings and hope to do that this week.

Badges for PaizoCon and Origins dropped already. Gen Cons are currently ongoing. If you are expecting a badge and don't have it by Friday, please let me know by emailing organizedplay@paizo.com with your name, paizo.com email, and convention you are volunteering at.

Convention Listing

Hard to believe we are almost halfway through 2018. Time is a flying! Never fear, there are plenty of conventions scheduled for the second half of the year. I've updated the list with all the event support requests I've received to date. All of the conventions on the list maintain some type of web presence, be it website, social media page, or Warhorn listing, so if you are interested in attending in either capacity, check out their websites or contact the local venture-officer for more information! If you know of a convention running Society games that is not on this list, encourage the organizer to contact me at organizedplay@paizo.com to discuss their event.

Convention Name	Location	Start Date
Chupacabracon V (2018)	Round Rock, TX	5/4/18
ConTRAPtion 2018	Worthing, United Kingdom	5/4/18
Demicon 29 (2018)	Urbandale, Iowa	5/4/18
Heroicon 2018	Decatur, IL	5/4/18
NoBrandCon 2018	Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin	5/4/18
David Setty Memorial Game Day (2018)	Cincinnati, OH	5/6/18
BLFC 2018	Reno, NV	5/11/18
Microcon 2018	Turku Finland	5/11/18
SFERAKON 2018	Zagreb, Croatia, EU	5/11/18
the Seelie Court 2018	Philadelphia, PA	5/11/18
KoboldCon 2018	Colorado Springs, CO	5/12/18
RusCon 2018	Moscow, Russia	5/12/18
Tri Con 2018	Bay City, MI	5/12/18
BeholderCon 2018	Boise, ID	5/18/18
Kevätmaracon mk. II 2018	Finland, Oulu	5/18/18
Mallicon 2018	Cincinnati, OH	5/18/18
Mutli-Table Specials - Sydney and Brisbane	Brisbane and Sydney, Australia	5/19/18
CoreCon	Fargo, ND	5/24/18
MegaCon 2018	Orlando, FL	5/24/18
MomoCon 2018	Atlanta, GA	5/24/18
Phoenix Comic Fest 2018	Phoenix, AZ	5/24/18
Cherry Capital Comic Con (2018)	ACME, MI	5/25/18
Comicpalooza 2018	Houston, TX	5/25/18
Gamex 2018	Los Angeles, CA	5/25/18
KublaCon 2018	Burlingame, CA	5/25/18
Mobicon 2018	Mobile, AL	5/25/18
Parece Con	Leon, Spain	5/25/18
Seekerpalooza 2 (2018)	Montreat, NC	5/25/18
Summer Wolfcon 2018	Chicago, IL	5/26/18
Nexus Game Fair 2018	Milwaukee WI	5/31/18
ConCarolinas 2018	Charlotte, NC	6/1/18
UK Games Expo 2018	Birmingham, NEC, United Kingdom	6/1/18
Die Con 18 (2018)	Collinsville, IL	6/8/18
Magic City Con	Birmingham, AL	6/8/18
RAGECON 2018	Reno, NV	6/22/18
VrockCon 2018 - Are You Thursty?	Flat Rock, NC	6/30/18
InConJunction 2018	Indianapolis, IN	7/6/18
MidSummer ConQuest	Sacramento, CA	7/20/18
Summerfest 2018	Richland, WA	7/20/18

2018 Organized Play Staff Travel

I've updated the organized play staff itinerary for the rest of 2018. These aren't all the events that will have Paizo staffers in attendance and some of the events have staff members beyond the organized play team. If you're at any of the events listed below, please stop by the booth or organized play room and say hi!

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	OP Staff
PaizoCon	Sea-Tac, WA	5/25	Tonya, John, Linda, Michael (+Paizo staffers)
UK Games Expo	Birmingham, England	6/1	Tonya (+Paizo staffers)
Origins	Columbus, OH	6/13	Tonya, John (+Paizo staffers)
PaizoCon UK	Birmingham, England	7/20	Tonya (+Paizo staffer)
Gen Con	Indianapolis, IN	8/2	Tonya, John, Linda, Michael (+Paizo staffers)
DragonCon	Atlanta, GA	8/30	John (+Paizo staffer)
Fan Expo	Toronto, Ontario, Canada	8/31	TBD
SkalCon	Minnaepolis-St. Paul, MN	9/14	Tonya
Hurricon	Tampa, FL	9/27	Tonya
PaizoCOn OZ	Brisbane, Australia	10/19	Tonya
U-Con	Ann Arbor, MI	11/16	Tonya
PAX Unplugged	Phiadelphia, PA	11/30	Tonya (+Paizo staffers)

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge


Organized Play Manager