March 2022 Organized Play Monthly Update

Convention Season 2022

Last week we announced PaizoCon 2022, a four-day online event with a simultaneous three-day physical event. I can’t wait to see you all online and in Seattle for this year’s convention! We’ve got lots of exciting new products to announce via our online streams, as well as tons of Organized Play games during the weekend. For more information, check out last week’s blog.

If you’re interested in volunteering during the event, please visit this blog and fill out the attached form! We need GMs and volunteers to make the event run, so even if you’re a first-time volunteer, we’d love to have you. The deadline for early GM signups is March 17; signups received after that date might not be cleared in time for game selection.

For those waiting patiently for Gen Con volunteer information, I’m meeting with the Gen Con committee this week to work on putting the final pieces into place. I’m hoping to have volunteer signups open in the next couple of weeks.

Illustration by Michele Giorgi

Starfinder Society Year 5

As we announced last week, Year 5 of Starfinder Society is titled “Year of Redemption’s Rise!” We’ll be launching this year’s storyline at PaizoCon 2022, both online and at the physical show, with three brand-new scenarios. Strap in, Starfinders, and get ready for a year like you’ve never seen!

It was also announced that five new species will be made always-available, and three new factions will be opened up to all Starfinders. Information on these changes, as well as any other new rule changes, will be discussed further in a blog prior to PaizoCon focused specifically on these changes. We don’t have any other major program changes planned at this time, but if we change course, we’ll be sure to let you know well before PaizoCon.

Sanctioning

We didn’t have any new material sanctioned this month, mostly because there wasn’t much more material to sanction yet! Behind the scenes, we’re starting to work on Book of the Dead, which I anticipate we’ll have ready for its street date. We’re also working on polishing off sanctioning for the Tyrant’s Grasp AP, the last of our PF1 Adventure Paths to be sanctioned, and we’re looking ahead to Lost Omens Knights of Lastwall, the Quest for the Frozen Flame and Horizons of the Vast APs, and even the Drift Crisis rulebook.

While I have you all here, there were a couple other topics I wanted to touch on.

Retroactive Sanctioning: In the past, there have been questions about how to handle chronicle sheets for adventures that have been sanctioned after a group completes the adventure. Previously the guidance has been that while this is technically illegal, there were ways to skirt the system by having a fake wrap-up session, which is silly and weird, so I’m doing away with that loophole.

Going forward, if an adventure is sanctioned after your group completes it, your GM is absolutely permitted. (and encouraged!) to issue chronicles for all interested players. These chronicles should be applied as if your group had finished the session on the day you receive the chronicle. You couldn’t, for example, retroactively apply it to a character at an earlier date and bump all their future chronicles up in level; this breaks the timestream and makes the Hounds of Tindalos mad.

Updated Sanctioning Documents: Wayyyyy back in August we announced an update to our sanctioning documents and the increase in Reputation that would come along with it. And then, y’know, we had a busy few months. However, I am now pleased to announce that the project has been finished! All sanctioning documents have been fully updated and should reflect the most recent version of the rules. Please let me know if you encounter any issues!

Normally this would be where I’d put GM Recognition, but this month I don’t have any new 5-rank GMs to announce. Instead, I’ll just thank all our GMs, especially those who have volunteered already for PaizoCon and Gen Con. You’re all fantastic and we literally wouldn’t be able to do this without you!

Until next time - Explore! Report! Cooperate! And don’t forget to sign up for PaizoCon!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator