Paizo has built itself upon the strength of its adventures—the first offerings we published set in the world of Golarion were adventures of different types, ranging from short encounters with maps and minis included to classic 32-page softcover standalone modules, and of course, the flagship monthly adventure line: Pathfinder. This line’s name became the more specific “Pathfinder Adventure Path” two years later when we launched the Pathfinder RPG, but ever since that first volume kicked off Rise of the Runelords nearly two decades ago, the format has largely remained the same. Even as we’ve recently shifted to a focus on three-part Adventure Paths, the physical nature of the product hasn’t changed from a softcover 96-page monthly softcover book.
This format was in part a natural evolution of the monthly magazine subscription model of Paizo’s early days as a magazine publisher, but it was also a necessary side effect of the work and cost it takes to produce an entire campaign. Over the course of 222 months (of which only one was skipped a few years ago when we released the double-sized “Seven Dooms for Sandpoint”), we kept the Adventure Path line going on that regular schedule. But also over the course of 222 months, the world has changed.
And it’s time for the Adventure Path to change with it.
Hardcover Adventure Paths
Starting next year, we are transitioning from a softcover, serialized, monthly format for Adventure Paths to a quarterly hardcover all-in-one format. We’re still committed to publishing four Adventure Paths a year, but these will now be published as four separate hardcover books rather than 12 softcover books. This will allow a GM to have the entire Adventure Path in hand from the start, which should help those who are eager to start their new campaigns on “day 1” of release but who have struggled with how to adjust the adventure for their table while not having details for the later parts in hand. It’ll also help friendly local game stores keep entire Adventure Paths in stock and will prevent situations where parts of an Adventure Path go out of print before others, rendering the entire campaign difficult or even impossible for GMs who prefer physical media to collect. And from a creative side, it allows us, the writers and developers of the Adventure Paths, a lot more freedom in how to present the story—no longer do we have the specter of “what if the GM doesn’t have the other book” looming over us, forcing us to make decisions on encounters and plots that limit what happens in that 96-page softcover to resources found only in that particular section of the adventure.
A three-part Adventure Path consists of 96 pages of content split over three books, for a total of 288 pages in all. The new format will start at 256 pages. On its face, reducing overall pages by 32 would seem to reduce the amount of content you get in each Adventure Path, but that’s not quite accurate, since a single volume is more efficient in several ways. We don’t have to print multiple tables of contents or multiple ORC pages, and the number of back-of-the-book advertisements overall will drop from 8 to 12 to potentially as few as 2. Adventure Toolboxes will be more efficient, and we’ll have greater flexibility in what sorts of support articles we want to include. In the end, you’ll still have the same amount of actual adventure content in a 256-page hardcover as you did in three 96-page softcovers, but it’ll cost you less overall!
Here are some more facts about the new Adventure Path format:
• Each volume will be at least 256 pages long—some might be a little longer, but we’re hoping to keep them relatively the same length.
• Each hardcover Adventure Path will present 9 to 10 levels of play, the same as we’ve been doing for the past several years. Our plan is to do at least one a year that starts at 1st level, one a year that ends at 20th level, and then with the other two, potentially starting anywhere in between.
• We’re doing four a year, but the release schedules will be a bit flexible—one will come out every quarter (so, one in January–March, one in April–June, and so on), but they won’t necessarily be separated by three months each time; this allows us more flexibility internally when an Adventure Path might be more complicated, but also makes it easier to release things in time for conventions or holidays (which don’t always line up in a nice “once every three months” row).
• We’ll still be doing free downloadable Player’s Guides for each of them!
• Hardcover formats make it much easier for us to reprint entire Adventure Paths if they prove popular, letting us have more time to bring back older out-of-print Adventure Paths (like the recently released Gatewalkers Adventure Path compilation) rather than reformatting recent three-part APs that happened to sell out while still in demand.
• A standard hardcover Adventure Path will have an MSRP of $79.99, which is less expensive than the current $89.97 price for three 96-page softcover volumes. The total price is much less when you factor in potential shipping costs split over three books instead of one!
In the end, this is a change that I’m not only excited to embrace, but thankful. Adventure Paths are best enjoyed, in my opinion, all at once, and that can only happen if we move away from the older format and embrace the new. It’s certainly a big change, but in the end, it’s a good one! I’ll be lurking around in the comments for this blog and will be eager to answer additional questions folks have, but in the meantime—here’s a teaser of what we’ve got planned for early 2026’s hardcover Adventure Paths!
Hellbreakers: A 1st- to 10th-level campaign involving the outbreak of the war between Andoran and Cheliax. Can your PCs make the difference in this violent clash that threatens two of Golarion’s most bitter rival nations?
Hell’s Destiny: An 11th- to 20th-level campaign that continues the war-torn story from Hellbreakers and can also work on its own as a high-powered campaign. Can your PCs stop a truly diabolical threat from engulfing the Inner Sea region and casting the continent of Avistan into ruin?
James Jacobs
Narrative Creative Director
Illustration by Gunship Revolution
(Rafael Cal-Ortiz, Mico Dimagiba, Luisa Odulio, Marcus Reyno, Jen Santos, and Timothy Terrenal)
Pathfinder Organized Play Scenarios
Greetings, Pathfinders!
With the debut of the Year of Battle’s Spark, we’ve made a few changes to our standard Pathfinder Society scenario layout to simplify things for GMs and ensure more efficient development behind the scenes here at Paizo. For example, scenarios will now match our Adventure Path encounter format, with “micro” stat blocks for non-custom enemies and hazards found in the Pathfinder Monster Core or GM Core. This will keep overall scenario sizes more manageable and prevent replication of basic information already presented in the core rules.
We’ve already implemented this change, but there are others on the horizon, as well. With the January 2026 release of Pathfinder Society Scenario #7-09: The Chitterwood Walks, Part 1: Scrambling the Tribes by Genevieve Rudat Olejnik, our scenarios will use a single level band, with this scenario set at levels 3–4. You can expect to see two Pathfinder Society scenarios released each month from January onward, with the Year of Battle’s Spark ending with 22 scenarios! Somewhat smaller in size than our most recent offerings, these new-format scenarios are designed to be run in 3 hours rather than 4, making it easier for event organizers to schedule weeknight slots at game stores, where there often aren’t enough hours in an evening to squeeze in our current longer scenarios. (Each scenario will still award 4 XP and 10 Treasure Bundles, as well as 4 Reputation with your chosen faction.) Of course, we’ll continue to endeavor to include juicy roleplaying encounters and other opportunities to flex to longer run-times as needed for conventions and other venues, but the baseline approach will be toward tighter, more-focused adventures.
Additionally, we’ll no longer be using challenge points to scale encounters. Encounters will be written for six PCs, and we’ll provide guidance on offering either a “Harder” or “Easier” experience based on the table you’re GMing for! This matches up with changes we’re implementing in Starfinder Society and is intended to help streamline the overall experience at the table and reduce some of the complexity and GM load in preparation.
As we’ll be providing more content through the main scenario line, our final quest will be Pathfinder Quest #27: Within the Glacier by Kate Tremaine, debuting this December. Pathfinder Quests were always intended as introductory short scenarios to introduce the campaign to new players, and with nearly 30 of them available, there are plenty to choose from. We plan to use some of the resources currently aimed at Quests for exciting new Pathfinder Society projects that we’ll be discussing in future updates.
Thank you for your continued support of the Pathfinder Society campaign and for rolling with these new changes. As the line’s primary developer, I’m excited about the opportunities provided by the updated scenario format and look forward to a bright and exciting future for the campaign!
As we continue to introduce additional updates, we’ll be sure to share them here in this space.
I’m thrilled for the future of Organized Play and can’t wait to share it all with y’all!
Until then, remember the credo of the Pathfinder Society: Explore! Report! Cooperate!
Shay Snow
Pathfinder Society Developer
Upcoming Changes to Pathfinder Adventures
Monday, August 25, 2025
