OPC Musings
While obviously a lot has happened in the past few weeks, I wanted to give you all a recap of Gen Con Online, our last major convention of the year.
- We ran over 400 tables of Pathfinder Society, Starfinder Society, and the Adventure Card Society, with 131 GMs running games.
- This year’s Pathfinder and Starfinder Specials premiered at the event to great fanfare. These linked specials were a lot of fun to produce behind the scenes, and we hope you all enjoyed them! They are now available for conventions to request and will be available for sale next August.
- Our Gen Con charity auction raised $5,886 for Take This and Trinity Haven, Gen Con’s chosen partner charities. Thanks to all who participated in these efforts!
We hope you all enjoyed this event, as well as all our preceding events. Our major convention season has concluded for the year, though local conventions are still happening year-round with Paizo support. We encourage you all to find your local group and join up with their events!
Digital Adventure Releases
Here are this month’s digital releases, available October 27, 2021. Releases marked with an asterisk are part of a subscription
Pathfinder
Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-04: The Devil-Wrought Disappearance*
Pathfinder Bounty #15: Treasure off the Coast
Starfinder
Starfinder Society Scenario #4-09: Through Sea and Storm*
Starfinder Society Scenario #4-10: The Way In
Sanctioning
Last week, I posted a longer blog post about the current sanctioning status, so I’ll link you over there and summarize some of the big news:
- Tech Revolution is now sanctioned for Starfinder Society!
- The priority order for sanctioning the upcoming Pathfinder books is Guns & Gears, followed by Lost Omens Grand Bazaar.
- Other adventures and Adventure Paths are in progress and will be released as close to street date as we can get them.
One note I wanted to mention on the upcoming Pathfinder hardcovers: both books have accessibility and mobility devices in them. These are a little bit trickier to sanction than normal rules content; we want to ensure that you can play characters that use these devices to adventure, but we want to prevent using them to power-game, or their abuse at the tables by people who aren’t interested in representing adventurers of all capabilities. As such, we’re working on rules language that threads the needle between “policing who is really disabled” and “allowing open access to all adventurers at all times.” This is something I’m very invested in getting right, and we’ll be consulting with experts on the topic. As a result, sanctioning for these options may be slightly delayed behind the rest of the books. We’ll keep you informed, thank you so much for your patience!
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 had one GM reach their fifth nova for Starfinder Society. We also welcome our second and third five-glyph GMs for Pathfinder Society (Second Edition)!
5th Nova: Michael Beck
5th Glyph: Jocelyn Hamilton, Andrew Watson
Congratulations to our new 5 Star and 5 Glyph 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
Now that our new specials have premiered to the world, we have a number of upcoming conventions offering them. Check out the conventions calendar for a full list, and be sure to click on the events for more details.
Until next time—Explore! Report! Cooperate!