June 2023 Organized Play Monthly Update

OPC Musings

Welcome back to the OP Monthly Update! I know we missed last month, that’s entirely my fault. I was on my honeymoon, and then we announced a little thing called the Pathfinder Core Remaster, and by the time I came up for air, it was already mid-May!

Luckily it’s smooth sailing now, which is a lie, because convention season is in full swing! As I write this blog we’re doing our final preparations for PaizoCon Online. I can’t wait for this show, and I’m so excited for our upcoming shows like UK Games Expo and Gen Con. Not to mention, this fall I’ll be heading to a few local conventions! More on that soon, hopefully. For now, I’ve got a supersized OP update to deliver, so let’s get started.

Digital Adventure Releases

These adventures will be available on June 28, 2023.

Pathfinder Society

Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-15: In Glorious Battle

Starfinder Society

Starfinder Society Scenario #6-03: Project Dawn
Starfinder Society Scenario #6-04: Secrets Long Submerged

*part of a subscription

Pathfinder Core Remaster

Last month, we announced the Pathfinder Core Remaster: an overhaul and update of our Pathfinder Second Edition ruleset, a necessary but difficult maneuver given the events of recent months. I am sure that for many of you, the first question was “how will this affect Pathfinder Society?” The short answer is: we don’t know yet! The longer answer is that these books literally don’t exist fully yet; they won’t go to the printer for another month or so. Until they do, we can’t begin to answer these questions.

Rest assured that as soon as we can, the OP team will be diving into the new rule changes to figure out how to make the updates as seamless as possible for the community. For now, I ask for your patience on this topic. There will be many questions to answer in the weeks ahead, but we’ve got a steady hand on the metaphorical tiller.

FAQ and Boon Updates

In the quiet time before convention prep, the Pathfinder Society developers and I had some time to sit down and hammer out some updates to boons available in the boon store, as well as to handle some FAQs for the program. The full updates are available on the FAQ page, but here’s a summary of the changes:

• The Second Chance boon has been updated to indicate that purchasing and using this boon also covers the cost of recovering your body and any lost possessions if necessary. If a character is undead (such as a skeleton), they can use this boon to benefit from a similar ritual to restore themselves to their previously undead state.
• Similarly, an FAQ clarifies that in the event that your character ends a scenario alive but otherwise inaccessible (such as being imprisoned or transported to another plane), the Second Chance boon can be purchased and used to return your character to safety.
• Another FAQ clarifies which version of an item or character option to use in the event the option is reprinted in another book. In short, a hardcover printing of an option is considered the standard option unless otherwise stated. This applies to both Pathfinder and Starfinder Society.
• The Secondary Initiation boon has also been clarified to cover how it handles entry requirements for organizations (it handwaves them as occurring offscreen) and which ranks PCs can choose to be within organizations (anything reasonable is fair game, but no, your PCs are not fourth-mark Firebrands).
• Finally, we have issued one minor clarification to the Magic Arrow feat from the Pathfinder Advanced Player’s Guide, which you can find on the Character Options page as normal.

Starfinder Society Year 6 Updates

Program Changes

SFS Year 6 launched at PaizoCon Online! Hopefully, anyway; I’m writing this before the show, so if a dinosaur attacks, someone let future me know. The following Starfinder species are now considered “always available”: gnoll, hanakan, kiirinta, quorlu, raxilite, shimreen. Players are free to build characters of these species as often as they like; as always, characters with an Admittance Boon for these species gain an additional +2 to one ability score immediately.

The Achievement Point cost for a boon to play a character of the following species has been reduced to 80 Achievement Points: astriapi, cephalume, contemplative, trox, uplifted bear, urog. Meanwhile, the following species are now playable with the purchase of a boon from the online Boon Store: entu colony, huitz’plina, grippli, kitsune, kobold, psacynoid, samsaran, scyphozoan, trinir, and tryziarka.

Finally, a few more boons have been added to the Boon Store! Starfinders who enjoy having a permanent emblem of their position can now purchase the Marked Starfinder boon for 2 AcP after playing at least one session to gain a Society Subdermal Graft. Additionally, characters can now undergo a Training Montage (or Extended Training Montage) to retrain their character’s abilities! These provide more robust retraining options than the previously available mnemonic editor. Full text of these boons, as always, can be found on the Starfinder Society FAQ page.

The Guide to Organized Play: Starfinder Society has been updated with all these changes, as well as a brand-new overhaul and visual upgrade! Incredible thanks to Jared Thaler and Peter Nalepa, both of whom have worked very hard to make the guide more user-friendly and accessible. They’ve created a feedback thread on the forums for comments or questions.

First Seeker Election

Last month we formally announced Starfinder Society #6-06: Tomorrow’s Seekers! This scenario will allow you to meet the four PCs who were selected to vie for the title of First Seeker. You may note my name on the cover as the author; I’m so excited for this adventure and for you all to meet these wonderful colorful characters!

Look for some upcoming blogs where we’ll be revealing the candidates, their platforms, and a bit more about them. Campaign season begins when the ballot opens at Gen Con (August 1–4), and the voting period will close in mid-October. If you want to cast your vote, don’t miss your chance to play the scenario in that two-month period!

Sanctioning

One of the reasons we could get away with missing April’s blog was that it was a pretty quiet month on the release front! Luckily, we’ve got some new toys for you this month!

For Pathfinder Society, this month’s new release is the brand-new standalone adventure, The Enmity Cycle. The sanctioning documents for this adventure are just waiting to be exported; once they are, we’ll be sure to add them to the product page.

On the Starfinder side, the new hardcover rulebook Starfinder Ports of Call has been released and sanctioned for play! Visit the Character Options page for all the details. While you’re there, why not check out the new options from the Drift Hackers Adventure Path, which are also now sanctioned! Chronicle sheets for players and GMs will also be available on the product page for the AP as soon as they’re exported.

Coming up next, we’ll be getting sanctioning documents out for the Free RPG Day adventures (foreshadowing for the next section)! After that, for Pathfinder Society we’ve got the Stolen Fate Adventure Path and Pathfinder Lost Omens Highhelm on the docket, and Starfinder Society will be pretty quiet until the fall!

Free RPG Day

June 24 is Free RPG Day here in the United States! This initiative provides retailers with exclusive access to free RPG products from a number of companies, including Paizo. We have two adventures in this year’s kit: A Few Flowers Morefor Pathfinder and <em>Operation: Seaside Park for Starfinder

If your store is participating in this event, sanctioning documents and chronicle sheets will be available prior to the event! You’ll be able to get credit for your Organized Play characters after participating in these adventures. Free RPG Day is a great way to kickstart a new RPG group at a store, so we encourage you all to head to a participating retailerfor the event!

GM Recognition

At PaizoCon Online last weekend, I awarded three individuals with brand new Campaign Coins and Organized Play IDs. We award these coins to members of the community who have gone above and beyond to provide an exceptional program to the community at large. Campaign Coins are awarded based on nominations; if you believe someone in your community is deserving of this award (whether or not they are a Venture Officer), send an email to organizedplay[at]paizo[dot]com with their name and reasons.

Congratulations to:
Jofiane “Fi,” who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #887
Milan Badzic, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #888
and Harmeshver “Resh” Singh, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #889

GM Ranks

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 earn their 5th Nova for Starfinder Society and one earn their 5th Glyph for Pathfinder Society (second edition).

5th Nova (SFS): Terry T
5th Glyph (PFS2): Tim Munsie (TMun)

Congratulations to our outstanding GMs and volunteers!

Conventions

It’s convention season! As this blog is posted, I’ll be getting ready for my first games at UK Games Expo in Birmingham. It’s my first official trip abroad and I can’t wait to meet our European community! If you’re in the area, come say hi!

We've also announced PaizoCon South Pacific, running from June 30–July 2 in Sydney, Australia! While I won’t be attending (this year...), the Paizo community will be turning out for a great time.

And of course, there are tons of local conventions in your area! Check out our conventions calendar to see what events are happening near you and go roll some dice.

That’s quite enough from me—thanks for sticking with the supersized update. There’s a reason we try to do these monthly! Until next time, Explore! Report! Cooperate! And have a spot of tea!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Coordinator