Kendra Leigh Speedling's page

Wayfinder was my very first TTRPG publication, and I don't know if I'd have gotten started in freelancing without it. I always loved submitting (and later helping edit/proofread) and reading the issues, seeing what everyone had come up with. It's sad to see it go.

Thanks to Tim and everyone else who kept Wayfinder going over the years. It's been a great run.

Great to see the very cool work you're all doing! And Pelogos sounds really neat; I'll definitely have to keep an eye out for that.

Welcome and welcome back, all! And Simone, I love the Lirael reference for your dog. :-)

So many great contributors to a fantastic book! Jessica that Euphoric Loop is a great addition for charms. And if y'all don't stop by Materials Changes when in Absalom, you're making a mistake!

Kendra the alchemical foods are a delight. We need some mundane recipes to simulate I think!

Yvonne the fulus are amazing, and really add some great roleplaying opportunities! I hope people learn more about their true cultural place in the real world.

I could go on and on, but thank you all!

Ha, I actually considered trying to put a recipe sidebar in my turnover...then I remembered that my cooking skills only extend to following a recipe, not making one. :-)

But maybe an Infinite project for someone more culinarily-inclined?

Wayfinder got me my start in TTRPG writing; my first published TTRPG credits were a couple articles in Wayfinder #14. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that I wouldn't have the freelance career I do without Wayfinder, so while I totally understand the decision, I'm bummed at the end of an era. I've loved working on the Wayfinders I've been involved in, both as a writer and editor.

Thanks for all your hard work over the years, Tim, and for giving me and so many other freelancers their start. You really have changed people's lives and shaped this community into what it is today, and I wish you the absolute best.

It was great to read everyone else's stories!

(I forgot to put my pronouns in because I wrote the post in a rush after almost forgetting the deadline. ^^; But I go by she/her if anyone is curious!)

Thank you for these powerful words, Maggie. The Paizo community is lucky to have you on board.

This looks awesome! Lot of great names on that list.

That's good to know! Might want to strike our scorpion pals from the running for now, then - though their Maftet buddies feel like they could be playable someday.

As someone who wrote PC maftets for Wayfinder back in the 1E days and ran one through the whole of a Shattered Star campaign, I'll beat the drums for playable maftets any day! ;-)

Glad to hear action's been taken, and I hope that all those who use hate speech on the boards will receive similar treatment as incidents are reported.

Tonya Woldridge wrote:

I am deeply sorry that Tender doesn't feel safe here and am sorry to see them go. We are working with our Director of People and Culture to find classes/seminars so we can educate ourselves regarding dog whistles and other forms of problematic content. While we do welcome diverse views on our forums, we are taking active steps to remove the hate. Consider this an appeal to all our community members to help us keep an eye out. We only have so many hours and unfortunately, miss things on the forums. If you do see problematic content, please flag it. If it is active hate speech or attacking behaviors, we ask you to send an email to customer.service@paizo.com with the subject line Intolerance.
In regards to the list mentioned above, it is now gone and will not be back on our forums. Any form of targeted hate such as this list is against community guidelines and will be handled as such. In this case, we took moderation steps so that the user won't be able to attack community members again.

A good first step that could have been taken months ago to be educated about dog whistles and similar problematic posts would have been to actually read, listen to, and act on the endless concerns raised by the very people experienced with this who called out the problematic posts time and time again, but those posts, and their posters were allowed to remain and continue... and continue, and continue. Whilst finding education is a great move at this point it's far too late for so many people who have been driven off these forums by the tacit acceptance of bigotry.

Any public venue for discussion will trend towards it's lowest common denominator if moderation is not appropriate as more and more good people leave and the bad actors flourish without any repercussions.

100% this. A community that lets transphobic rhetoric slide is not a community that's welcoming to trans people, and I find it incredibly saddening that these sorts of behaviors have been allowed to continue for so long (apparently even through numerous reports from the people targeted). Whether the indication that the user was banned was in error or whether they were banned and then un-banned is the case, neither is particularly reassuring. And this is clearly a problem that extends past just one user; this one just seems to be a particularly egregious example.

The best time to act on this would have been immediately when this was reported, but the next best time is now. It might be too late for the OP (though I hope not, and I hope the forums can become a place they feel welcome again), but Paizo's trans fans, creators, and staff deserve a place free from hate speech and attacks on their existence.

I'm also still waiting to hear back on the refund; it sounds like a lot of folks might be in the same boat. I decided I couldn't chance an in-person con yet and so my partner and I both regretfully canceled our tickets. Weirdly, I checked my account before sending the email and it showed no outstanding tickets, even though I know I rolled it over in 2020 and haven't received any refund since then (nor had I requested one before now). I haven't yet received a response besides the automated support ticket number to my initial request or a follow-up I sent the other day (neither has my partner).

I'm sure the customer service staff are doing the best they can under the circumstances, so hopefully things would be sorted out soon.

I love this and would absolutely buy ten more books like it. :D I can never get enough lore.

keftiu wrote:

As for the rest, I’d love some peeks into historical eras. One I’ve floated in the past (and had shot down by James Jacobs, sadly) was an adventure or AP set pretty immediately after Earthfall, dealing with survival in the harsh, sunless world - with an excuse to show the rise of early Nidal as a potential feature.

An Ancient Adventures book is one I've been pitching for a while now, as I love playing with (and playing in) Golarion's past. I'd love to see that come to pass.

...if this ever happens, you know where to find me. ;-)

As far as other areas I'd love to see explored, my current wish list:
- The Golden Road could use an update/more fleshing out, and I feel like there are a lot of cool things that could be done with it.
- Also hopping on the Arcadia train, as everything I've seen of it has only piqued my curiosity more.
- I'd also love a Casmaron book (or more than one book) about the Keleshite Empire or Vudra. They haven't gotten a whole lot of page count so far, and I'd love to know more about them.
- This is probably a long shot, but I'd sell a kidney for a Shory book. They keep getting tantalizing tidbits in other books, and a deep dive on their cities would be really cool.

I'm delighted to hear this news! Congratulations to my colleagues and friends at Paizo! This is a big good-faith step showing that the leadership is willing to take their concerns seriously, and while the issues raised won't be solved overnight, the workers now have a solid mechanism with which to do so.

Well done, Paizo staff, on all your hard work, and well done, my fellow freelancers, in standing with them! And thanks to the community at large for being so broadly supportive.

I wholeheartedly support the employees' efforts to unionize, and I stand behind the awesome people at Paizo whom I've worked with 100%. I hope that the execs swiftly recognize the union to make the process as smooth as possible and that the staff can get a working environment that's safe, supportive, equitable...and as conducive as possible to making great games!

Thank you all for sharing your stories and your perspectives. These are such important things to hear, especially now.

I hope that we can make a world where bigotry is drowned out by acceptance and love, and that everyone can feel free to be their true selves without fear. We need to be active allies to the trans people in our community (and everywhere!) and hearing what they have to say is an important part of that.

I've been lucky enough to work with some of the women in both parts of this blog, and although my schedule was a bit too packed at the moment to submit a snippet myself, I just want to say that I appreciate the care and attention Paizo's shown over the years to representing us not just in their products, but in staff and freelancers as well. It really does make a difference to see yourself in something. I hope it makes an impact on the younger or teenage girls who pick up a Pathfinder or Starfinder book, to let them know that they're welcome here too!

Congratulations, everyone!

Kendra Leigh Speedling wrote:

Congratulations to both of you!

Congratulations to you on that fancy contributor tag! Well earned, Kendra!

Why thank you! :-)

Congratulations to both of you!