December Update—Kudos, Spotlights and Conventions!!

Thursday, December 6, 2018

To aid our community in scheduling their vacation, I wanted to announce the main Paizo events now, along with committee chairs if known. The Organized Play Foundation will call for volunteers, including GMs and Department Heads, later this month. It is our intention to arrange timelines so that volunteers know if they are selected well before housing lotteries or the closure of ticket sales.

PaizoCon - May 24 to 27 - Seattle, Washington (Venture-Captain Louis Manko Levite)

UK Games Expo - May 31 to June 2 - Birmingham, United Kingdom (Venture-Captain Ian Hawthorn)

Origins - June 12 to 16 - Columbus, Ohio (Venture-Captain Michael McNerney)

Gen Con - August 1 to 4 - Indianapolis, Indiana (Regional Venture-Coordinator Bob Jonquet)

PAX Unplugged - TBD Nov/Dec - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Venture-Captain Quinn Shannon)

Campaign Coins

In November's Spotlight blog, I noted that I left two Campaign Coins in the care of a local venture officer to hand out when they saw the recipient. One was given out at the Auckland PFS BBQ, so I can announce that Venture-Captain Glen Irving received #804 for his continued efforts on behalf of Paizo organized play in the New Zealand area and as part of PaizoCon Asia-Pacific 2017. Congratulations, Glen, and thank you for all your hard work and efforts on behalf of our Societies.

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 2018/2019 so that we can either make awards in person (preferred) or make arrangements for deliver.

Stars and Novas

This month is the last opportunity to award 5 stars in 2018 and two individuals fulfilled the requirements this month. To achieve this milestone, GMs run 150 games, of which at least 50 must be unique scenarios and 10 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 GMs listed below, thank you very much for the time and energy you spend running Pathfinder Society games! Huge congratulations on your achievement!

• Jacinta Reed
• Pete Pollard

On the 5 Nova front. Per feedback, we are keeping much the same structure as our PFS stars. Requirements will include a set number of games (most likely 150 for continuity), including some number of required special events (probably 10) and a variety of scenarios (50 is the current benchmark for PFS). Where it will differ is in the application of the Venture-Captain review. This is still under feedback, both from a tech application and what the form of the review will look like, and I hope to have more to share next month.

The votes are in and the symbol we will use for GM recognition in Pathfinder Society version 2 is a glyph based on the Pathfinder Symbol of the Open Road. Huge thank you to everyone who voted in our poll!

Convention Listing

Looking at the list below, there are a few conventions left to attend before the calendar flips to 2019. In addition, a few conventions occurring in first quarter 2019 already submitted their event support request. I expect this convention list to grow quickly after the first of the year!

If you see an expected event missing from the list, ping the organizer and have them submit a request for support or have them email me at organizedplay@paizo.com to discuss their event. 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!

Convention Name	Location	Start Date
PFS/SFS @Cancon2019	Canberra, ACT, Australia.	1/26/2018
Winterfest 2018	Pullman, WA	12/2/2018
NerdLouvia 2018	Louisville KY	12/8/2018
SFS Jax Special	Jacksonville, FL	12/8/2018
Critmas 2018	Cincinnati, OH	12/14/2018
BDG SFS Christmas Special!	Concord, CA	12/15/2018
Toys For Tots Charity Game Day 18	Fairfax, VA	12/15/2018
PFS @ Endgame	Oakland, CA	12/22/2018
MooseBear Con	Salt Lake City, UT	12/28/2018
MAGFest 2019	National Harbor, MD	1/3/2019
SacAnime W2018	Sacramento, CA	1/5/2019
RetroCon	Online (Play by Post, multiple forums)	1/14/2019
Arisia 2019	Boston, MA	1/18/2019
SCARAB 2019	Columbia, SC	1/18/2019
Winter War 46	Champaign-Urbana, IL	1/25/2019
Dreamation 2019	Morristown, NJ	2/21/2019
Owlcon 2019	Houston, TX	2/22/2019
Who's Yer Con 19	Indianapolis, IN	3/22/2019

2019 Paizo Staff Travel

We've finalized our travel schedule for the first quarter of 2019! Below is a list of all events that have an organized play presence at which Paizo editorial staff plan to attend! We encourage you to check the convention event listings for panels and other special events featuring our staffers or drop by the organized play space and say hi!

Convention Name	Location	Start Date	Paizo Staffers Scheduled to Attend*
OrcaCon	Everett, WA	1/11/2018	Linda, Amanda Hamon Kunz
SCARAB	Columbia, SC	1/11/2018	Tonya
Super Magfest	National Harbor	1/3/2019	Tonya
DundraCon	San Ramon, CA	2/15/2019	Michael
OrcCon	Los Angeles, CA	2/15/2019	Linda
GhenghisCon	Denver, CO	2/21/2019	Tonya
TotalCon	Marlborough, MA	2/21/2019	John Compton, Jason Keeley
MaceWest	Ashville, NC	3/1/2019	Tonya
GaryCon	Lake Geneva, WI	3/7/2019	Jason Bulmahn
Emerald City Comic Con	Seattle, WA	3/14/2019	Tonya
Who's Yer Con	Indianapolis, IN	3/22/2019	Linda
GameStorm	Portland, OR	3/28/2019	John Compton, Owen KC Stephens, Jason Bulmahn

*Scheduled staffers may change without notice

It's never too late to start planning! If you are an event organizer and want to invite us out at your event in 2020, drop an email to organizedplay@paizo.com before next summer, as we put our schedule together in August.

With the holidays around the corner, we shortened our timelines with the intent of delivering December scenarios a bit earlier than usual. Join us for next week's blogs as the team previews our December releases.

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge

Organized Play Manager