That's No Boon...

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Gen Con's only about a week away—I'm sure my colleagues' fainting away is out of sheer excitement—and Paizo's organized play team is bringing a huge amount of new content to debut. It's too much to share all in one blog, so we're saving our six new scenarios (three Pathfinder Society and three Starfinder Society) for next week and starting off with our special events.

From Thurston:

In our last Starfinder Society blog, you may have already heard a bit about Starfinder Society #01-00: Claim to Salvation, written by organized play veteran freelance author Larry Wilhelm. While this scenario acts as background to the eventual formation of the Acquisitives faction, it also serves to introduce the universe of Starfinder to a wide audience. Players take on the roles of our iconic Starfinder characters in their 4th-level iterations, showcasing some of the abilities and skills each class gets after a few levels of play. The special starts in the Pact Worlds and quickly moves into the unexplored reaches of space, getting into starship action, and eventually ending up on the false moon of Salvation's End. As you can see by the impressive artwork, Salvation's End is a pretty big location, and the PCs get their first look at it in our opening Starfinder Society special. One thing that really excites me, both as a developer and writer, are locations that can service multiple visits. Sufficed to say, Salvation's End is something we expect to regularly see in the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild campaign. We hope it develops into something like the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild's own Gloomspires or Absalom Siege Castles. The first tables of Claim to Salvation open on Thursday evening, and I'm excited to see the result of Larry's stellar (bad pun) work.

Before Claim to Salvation debuts, players have an opportunity to learn the Starfinder rules with Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Quest: Into the Unknown, by an author who probably doesn't need any introduction: Ron Lundeen. Ron's credits include too many adventure path installments to list and one of my favorite Pathfinder Society scenarios, Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-21: The Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment. After working with Ron on several projects, I knew I wanted him to tackle this very important introduction to Starfinder. I can honestly say that he knocked this quest pack out of the park—maybe into orbit... ok not that... oh, he knocked it to the Drift! Into the Unknown takes the PCs from Absalom Station out to the depths of space, but does so in a way that really showcases what it means to be a Starfinder Society field agent. This quest pack provides a cohesive narrative spaced over the course of five distinct quests, including two introductory starship combat encounters. I'm eager to see GMs across the world get a chance to run these quests and introduce players to the science fantasy setting of Starfinder!

From John:

Multi-table interactive specials are something of a tradition at Gen Con, and this year's only difference is one of scope: we have two such specials. If you attended this year's PaizoCon, Origins, PaizoCon UK, or UK Games Expo, you've no doubt experienced Pathfinder Society Special #8-99: The Solstice Scar Version A by the talented Andrew Hoskins. We'll be running this excellent tale of museum curating gone tragically wrong on Saturday night. If you haven't heard, we'll be updating The Solstice Scar about twice a year to cycle in new content and advance the storyline. Gen Con 2017 marks not only the point at which you can start scheduling this for public events, but also celebrates the occasion by our running more than 180 tables of the adventure simultaneously.

We're also debuting Pathfinder Society Special #9-00: Assault on Absalom by Mikko Kallio. For millennia, warlords of all stripes have dreamed of conquering the City at the Center of the World. These sieges are central to Absalom's history and remain a prominent archaeological scar on its surrounding lands. For the first time in decades, someone has dared to besiege the city, and unless the Society's ready to aid Absalom's defense, this familiar conqueror might succeed. Not only has Mikko done an excellent job of presenting an exciting adventure and incorporating Absalom's flavor, but we've also worked with Keith Richmond from Lone Shark to provide an Adventure Card Guild component. Join us on Friday night for the tremendous event! Absalom may never be the same, and we may be hearing the repercussions of this epic battle for months to come.

It's gonna to be big—like, "towering battle golem with...is that a cannon arm?" big.

And of course, you'll be able to find all of us either in the Sagamore Ballroom or at booth 103 in the exhibitor hall. Come by and say hello. Also be sure to check back here next week, when Linda tells us about the upcoming Pathfinder Society scenarios.

John Compton and Thurston Hillman
Organized Play Lead Developer and Starfinder Society Developer