OPM Musings
I really believe we are caught in a time loop. I am absolutely certain I wrote my February musings last week. The past month’s flurry of activity involved much planning - we are just a week away from revealing information regarding Starfinder Society Year 4, and we’ve mapped a solid plan for Pathfinder Society Year 3. PaizoCon planning is moving forward, which means convention season is well under way, and we’ve got a few upcoming announcements on that front. In addition, we’re talking to our pals at Know Direction about appearing on their show. Plus a few more still undisclosed projects that we hope to share shortly!
Be sure to keep your eyes on the blogs as March will bring many announcements and I don’t want any of our community members to miss the great information we have to share.
PaizoCon Volunteers
The first day of GM signups saw over 90% of our offered games filled. Plan is to add more games on the Warhorn, then do round 2 of signups. We will continue until we run out of GMs. Last year, we ran over 800 games. Let’s see if we can top that this year! Anyone who wants to join the GM or HQ teams should visit the Organized Play Foundation’s website for volunteer benefit information and to access the registration form. From there, the organizing committee reviews the form information and sends an email acceptance outlining the next steps. If you want to participate in wave two of registrations, be sure to complete the form by noon Friday, March 5th. There is no last day to volunteer, but spaces are filled on a first registered basis and GMs get access to player registration 24 hours early (March 31) alongside Warhorn VIPs.
Anyone wanting to play at PaizoCon can register for badges in advance of the April 1st player signup date; to do so, visit the PaizoCon Warhorn and follow the instructions on the main page.
Sanctioning
Last week, we posted an update on our sanctioning progress, and we already have an update to that post. Bestiary 2 is now sanctioned on the Character Options page and is available to use! It joins the Lost Omens Ancestry Guide, The Slithering and all our previous rulebooks as usable Pathfinder Society material. Our next focus is Bestiary 3 as well as the Abomination Vaults Adventure Path.
We’ve got new Character Options pages for Starfinder Society in the works to replace the current pdf Additional Resources document. When that rolls out (maybe even this month, if everything aligns), it will include new sanctioning for Alien Archive 4. After that, we’ll look to catch up with the Devastation Ark and Fly Free or Die Adventure Paths as well as investigate sanctioning the Starfinder Beginner Box.
On the Pathfinder (first edition) front. Our hope is to produce sanctioning documents out for the remaining content by the end of the summer, but that will depend on available time as convention season ramps up.
GM Achievements
Whether stars, novas, or glyphs, achieving a 5 ranking in any program involves a substantial amount of time. To achieve the 5th milestone, a GM must run 150 games, of which at least 50 must be unique scenarios and 10 special scenarios, as well as run between one and three games for venture-captains (program dependant). A conservative estimate of the time needed to reach the 5th milestone is 650 hours!
Two GMs received their fifth nova in the past month. We have no new 5 Star or 5 Glyph GMs to announce.
5th Nova: John Godek and Nils Janson
Congratulations to our new 5 Nova GMs, and thank you for your dedication! If you believe you have achieved your 5th rank but haven’t been announced, email us at organizedplay@paizo.com
Conventions
In addition to PaizoCon Online, we have a number of conventions offering Pathfinder and Starfinder Society!
| Convention | Location | Start Date | Status | Interactive Events | Staff Attendance |
| Reaper Virtual Expo | Denton, TX | 3/5/2021 | Online | None | Alex, Jenny |
| BahliCon 2021 | Great Lakes Region | 3/11/2021 | Online | PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite | |
| COS VCON | Butler, PA | 3/19/2021 | Online | SFS 3-00 The Last Bite | |
| Whos Yer CONline | Great Lakes Region | 3/19/2021 | Online | PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite | |
| River Raiders | Lindfield NSW, Australia | 4/2/2021 | Online | None | |
| Farmageddon VIII | Farmer City, IL | 4/23/2021 | Online | None | |
| Jasper's Game Week | Detroit, MI | 5/7/2021 | Online | PFS2 2-00 The King In Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite | |
| PaizoCon Online | Seattle, WA | 5/28/2021 | Online | PACS 7-99 | Yes |
| Con Summer Drain 21 | Gulf Region | 6/11/2021 | Online | SFS 3-00 The Last Bite |
We’ll see you next week for some big news!
Until next time: Explore! Report! Cooperate!