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July 2021 Organized Play Update

Thursday, July 1, 2021

OPA Musings

Recently, I foolishly declared that because a couple of our major conventions were delayed, this summer wouldn’t be as bad on the convention front. I retract this statement! We’ve got PAX Online this month, PaizoCon Europe Online next month, and Gen Con after that. Oh, and after that is my wedding. So much for my relaxing summer!

Pathfinder illustration of a bear in the woods and Starfinder Illustration of a battle taking place on the top of a high speed train

Artists Sebastian Rodriguez and Mark Molnar


Title Changes

We’ve been shuffling around some job titles and responsibilities on the Organized Play development team over the last few weeks to account for the transfer of the Pathfinder and Starfinder One-Shots product lines to this team. To reflect this shift, we’re going to start calling the team the “Digital Adventures Team,” rather than a title more closely associated with our OP programs, as their creative remit now covers items that aren’t directly related to our Organized Play campaigns. (They'll still handle those products as well, just alongside these new items on their docket.)

  • Linda Zayas-Palmer is now the Development Manager (Digital Adventures) and manages the Digital Adventures Team, of which the “Organized Play Team” is a subset.
  • Thurston Hillman is now titled Developer (Digital Adventures), and will be focusing on Paizo’s One-Shots, Bounties, and Society Interactives.
  • Jenny Jarzabski is the Starfinder Society Developer, and Mike Kimmel is the Pathfinder Society Developer, though both share the official title of Organized Play Line Developer. Jenny and Mike are running the day-to-day development of Starfinder Society and Pathfinder Society, respectively.

Most of this is just bringing job titles in line with the developers’ day-to-day duties, but we wanted to announce them in case anybody noticed the changes in the masthead of new scenarios.

Starfinder Society Year 4

We’ve got a couple points of clarification with information we’ve released about Starfinder Society Year 4. In addition, we wanted to post an update that we’re currently working on compiling the common questions about the shift away from Fame and will have answers to some of the outstanding issues and boons prior to the Fame spending deadline.

Table Size

It was brought to our attention that there was an additional rule change with Year 4 of Starfinder Society that didn’t get the spotlight it should’ve. As of the beginning of Year 4, the maximum player count for a table is six players. Seven-player tables are no longer permitted. We didn’t intend to sneak this change by anybody, we just forgot to announce it with the rest of the changes!

New Ships

We have one final piece of business to attend to with our new year of Starfinder Society, and that’s the Azata! This brand new ship is available to all players, and its statistics are now available in the Starfinder Society Guide.

Starfinder Society Azata ship

Artist Mark Molnar


Pathfinder Society Year 3

Last month, we announced the title for Pathfinder Society Year 3: the Year of Shattered Sanctuaries. We’re excited for you all to experience this new storyline; from what I’ve read so far, it’ll be a great year for veteran and brand-new players alike. One of the highlights for new players is the three-part introduction arc we talked about in the Paizo Intro Blog last Thursday. Mike Kimmel did an interview with the Danger Club Podcast—go check it out for some more teasers, and stay tuned to the blog for more news!

Sanctioning

The big headline for this month’s sanctioning update is for our First Edition players! We’re pleased to announce that updated versions of the PFS (first edition) Additional Resources and Campaign Clarifications have been released and take effect immediately. We anticipate that this will be the final version of these documents, barring any major issues. We’re still working on sanctioning documents for the final Adventure Paths, but their rules options are all factored into this update.

I don’t have as much to report for our active programs this month. For Pathfinder Society, sanctioning documents for the Fists of the Ruby Phoenix Adventure Path and Malevolence are both ready to go live when the books are released on July 7th. Next on the list for PFS is Lost Omens The Mwangi Expanse and the Strength of Thousands Adventure Path. For Starfinder Society, I’m pleased to announce that the Character Options page has been updated to include the options in the Galaxy Exploration Manual. We weren’t able to get Fly Free or Die or Devastation Ark’s character options out this month, but we’re working on those as our next priority.

GM Recognition

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 dependent). A conservative estimate of the time needed to reach the 5th milestone is 650 hours!

This month, we have several GMs to recognize!

5th Star: Filipp Kovalev, Lindsey Long
5th Nova: Michael Beck, James Carter, Rebecca Fehn

Congratulations to our 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.

Upcoming Conventions

Remember that you can use the new Conventions calendar to check out all the upcoming conventions with a Paizo Organized Play presence! I also wanted to republish the information for all our major shows here so it’s all in one place.

PAX Online – July 15-18

Warhorn link: https://warhorn.net/events/paizo-organized-play-pax-online-2021
GM registration form: https://forms.gle/X8ansVaoyjD2zd7A7
Contact email: paizoorgplayhq@gmail.com
New releases: None; convention focused on acquisitions and new players

PaizoCon Europe Online – August 19-22

Warhorn link: https://warhorn.net/events/paizocon-online-europe-2021
GM registration form: https://forms.gle/nekXPhFXtbskCm1BA
Contact email: paizoconeurope@gmail.com
New releases: PFS Intro 1: The Second Confirmation, PFS Intro 2: United in Purpose, PFS Intro: Year of Shattered Sanctuaries

Gen Con Online – September 16-19

Website link: https://www.gencon.com/online
GM registration form: https://forms.gle/EcmxjF36GmVrR7979
Contact email: GenConLeads@gmail.com
New releases: PFS and SFS Interactive Specials

Until next time - Explore! Report! Cooperate! And get outside and enjoy the summer sunshine!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

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Tags: Conventions Organized Play Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
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Dark Archive 4/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Turku
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Awesome! Been hoping for the Chronicle of Legends for some time ^_^
Question though: Are the archetypes mentioned in the blog that came out when Chronicle of Legends was published, also legal?

This blog, which contained these archetypes:
Deadeye Devotee (Arcane Archer Archetype)
and
Thought Thief (Arcane Trickster archetype)

Pretty please?
The Exchange 1/5 5/5 ***
1 person marked this as a favorite.

HUZZAH!

Congratulations to the new 5 Star and 5 Nova GMs!

BREAKING NEWS!!!

Phoenix Con in Neenah WI, August 13th,14th & 15th, will have Organized Play! Myself and four volunteers have submitted 15 tables, over 60 hours, of PFS1, PFS2, and Starfinder gaming goodness! We have applied for Convention Support so hopefully we will have those sweet, sweet, increased ACPs, as well as the usual chance for prizes!

Find and register for Phoenix Con on Tabletop.events and Facebook!

Hope to see you there!
Dark Archive 4/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Turku

Also, it seems like Additional Resources is actually missing the sanctioning text for the Arcane Anthology: It merely has the title of the book, with no mention of anything allowed or disallowed.
Dark Archive 4/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Turku

Nevermind, it was pointed out that the Arcane Anthology can be found under Antihero's handbook, the big red Arcane Anthology right at the beginning of the "player companion" part is just a copy error.
Silver Crusade 4/5 Venture-Captain, Pennsylvania—Pittsburgh

Woohoo! Thanks to everyone for the extra sanctioning!

Now to go figure out what on earth those options even are. It's been so very long since I even looked at them...
Silver Crusade 4/5 Venture-Captain, Pennsylvania—Pittsburgh
Tommi Ketonen wrote:

Awesome! Been hoping for the Chronicle of Legends for some time ^_^

Question though: Are the archetypes mentioned in the blog that came out when Chronicle of Legends was published, also legal?

This blog, which contained these archetypes:
Deadeye Devotee (Arcane Archer Archetype)
and
Thought Thief (Arcane Trickster archetype)

Pretty please?

I was hoping they'd open up some of the options that were reserved for chronicle sheets, myself, but I think we're out of luck. We might be anticipating "No" answers on those, based on:

Quote:
We anticipate that this will be the final version of these documents, barring any major issues

So, aim to play them for a home game, I guess!

Paizo Employee 5/55/5 * Organized Play Associate
8 people marked this as a favorite.

Correction: When I wrote this blog two weeks ago, I thought we would have FFoD character options ready, but instead we finished off Galaxy Exploration Manual. GEM is now sanctioned, FFoD is still in progress. My apologies for getting your hopes up, but hopefully you'll enjoy the new rulebook content!

Another correction: Linda's new title is Development Manager (Digital Adventures), not Development Lead.

In conclusion: we're human and I wrote this as a heat wave approached, be gentle with me!
5/55/55/55/5 Venture-Agent, Online—VTT

Congratulations to the other new 5 star and 5 nova gms!
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Congratulations to the gms, but more importantly, congratulations on your wedding!
5/5 5/55/55/5
Alex Speidel wrote:


In conclusion: we're human and I wrote this as a heat wave approached, be gentle with me!

Galaxy exploration manual being sanctioned is more than enough to keep the locust out of the honey roasting pot! Thank you!

1/5 * RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16

Woohoo! Pathfinder 1st Edition is finally fully sanctioned!

Time to dust off my beloved character sheets.
Grand Lodge
Starfinder Superscriber

I’m still hoping for the opportunity to somehow play the Interactives from this year and last year offline. We have several small groups here in Indiana that have been playing together in-person for the last year but don’t have the means or inclination for online gaming.
1/5 * RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Jarek Khasad wrote:
I’m still hoping for the opportunity to somehow play the Interactives from this year and last year offline. We have several small groups here in Indiana that have been playing together in-person for the last year but don’t have the means or inclination for online gaming.

Made all the worse by Indiana's small gaming groups being scattered.

2/5
1 person marked this as a favorite.

The "common starships" in the guide still lists just the Pegasus and Drake as the always available choices. This should be updated to include the Azata
Dark Archive 4/5 ** Venture-Agent, Finland—Tampere

Wait is agent of edgewatch article content not on sanctioning list? :O

I could have sword I had heard it was on list as well

(also awww... I spotted that xenoambassador isn't legal after all x'D )
4/5 ****
Thaine Hepler wrote:
The "common starships" in the guide still lists just the Pegasus and Drake as the always available choices. This should be updated to include the Azata

Thanks I will look into fixing this.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East

Goodbye Stonefist Gloves. I held out hope for you until the very end. Bracers of Might, Inescapable Gloves, Mithral Rose, Death Warden's Bandolier... so much for the non-mythic items in Mythic Adventures.
Dark Archive 4/5 ** Venture-Agent, Finland—Tampere

Oh right :'D Mythic adventures is now only book not mentioned in sanctioning document at all x'D

Still glad they went through wrath of the righteous for non mythic content, but huh Mythic Adventures got forgotten about

(well and mythic origins, which did have few non mythic versions of spells.)
Liberty's Edge 5/5
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Starfinder Superscriber

Am I missing something, or is the Azata unambiguously worse than the other two? You give up a LOT for that tech workshop and longer range (but lower quality) sensors. I don't know if this was the intention, but unless I'm missing something this really looks like a "trap" option.
The Exchange 4/5 5/5
1 person marked this as a favorite.
rknop wrote:
Am I missing something, or is the Azata unambiguously worse than the other two? You give up a LOT for that tech workshop and longer range (but lower quality) sensors. I don't know if this was the intention, but unless I'm missing something this really looks like a "trap" option.

I'm really hesitant to engage with the word "trap" when the subject is a role-playing game.

Having said that, take a look at all the tiers above 2. The Azata has higher AC and shields than any other option.
Liberty's Edge 5/5
3 people marked this as a favorite.
Starfinder Superscriber

Ah, thanks! I didn't notice the higher shields. That does help, although I'd think starship combat would take forever trying to whittle down enemies with guns that are weaker than Pegasus guns.
5/5 5/55/55/5
rknop wrote:
Am I missing something, or is the Azata unambiguously worse than the other two? You give up a LOT for that tech workshop and longer range (but lower quality) sensors. I don't know if this was the intention, but unless I'm missing something this really looks like a "trap" option.

I've heard (these ears aren't just for show) The Azata was built under the new rules for starship building while the drake and pegasus were built under the old rules. This may effectively give the new ship fewer build points as costs went up on some things but i don't think any of the good options had their costs lowered.

And how many people remember sensors even HAVE range?
5/5 5/55/55/5
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Belafon wrote:


I'm really hesitant to engage with the word "trap" when the subject is a role-playing game.

Still gunshy after the starship mimic? Or do you fear setting off an album of admiral ackbar memes?

Quote:
Having said that, take a look at all the tiers above 2. The Azata has higher AC and shields than any other option.

Trying to find a non snarky response...

This is more likely to extend starship combat than to let the party succeed at one.
The Exchange 4/5 5/5

Oh, I’m not going to say that the Azata is a better ship for making starship combat more fun.

Just saying that it is not strictly worse than the Pegasus or Gorgon: its focus is in a different area.
Paizo Employee 4/5 **

I'm so glad we got exemplar traits!
Grand Archive 4/5 ****
rknop wrote:
Am I missing something, or is the Azata unambiguously worse than the other two? You give up a LOT for that tech workshop and longer range (but lower quality) sensors. I don't know if this was the intention, but unless I'm missing something this really looks like a "trap" option.

Actually you give up nothing for the tech workshop. (If you look the Azata is actually over budget)

The Azata suffers from having been built post build point price errata.
Grand Archive 4/5 ****

Higher shields also means you can focus on divert power to guns and lock on Actions.

And hopefully starships in newer scenarios will by built to the same scale.
Liberty's Edge 5/5
Starfinder Superscriber

The older scenarios still exist, though, and the Azata is going to have trouble in those combat encounters.
Grand Archive 4/5 ****
rknop wrote:
The older scenarios still exist, though, and the Azata is going to have trouble in those combat encounters.

Granted. I am thinking about running some test encounters.

Scarab Sages
Thomas Keller wrote:
Congratulations to the gms, but more importantly, congratulations on your wedding!

I was going to say, I can't tell who wrote this, so whose wedding is it?

In any case: Mazel tov!

"I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language.
Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence?
Paizo Employee 5/55/5 * Organized Play Associate
9 people marked this as a favorite.

It's MY WEDDING, it's in OCTOBER, and you're ALL INVITED (this is untrue, the venue has a hard cap)
Scarab Sages 5/5 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Netherlands
Alex Speidel wrote:
It's MY WEDDING, it's in OCTOBER, and you're ALL INVITED (this is untrue, the venue has a hard cap)

Put down a webcam and live stream it ;)

Scarab Sages 5/5 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Netherlands

Congratulations Filipp, Lindsey, Michael, James and Rebecca!
1/5

PF1, whoo!

On the subject of unexplained red text in the PF1 update:

Additional Resources:
-Extra header for Arcane Anthology

Campaign Clarifications:
-Martial Arts Handbook is red here, but with no red clarifications or resources
-Wilderness Origins is red here, but with no red clarifications or resources
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