Richard Lowe's page

When restrictions ended, it was entirely reasonable for Paizo to want to encourage a return to in person play. What frustrates me is that, rather than supporting both formats and letting players choose, they appear to have tried to drive people back to physical tables by limiting online play. One example was preventing the Discord channels that had been used to advertise online games from continuing to do so.

To me, the better approach would have...

For reference I'm the Venture Captain for Virtual Tabletops (VTT) in the Online region. I genuinely don't understand what you mean, we were always growing as a region over the years but during covid (and after we helped put on the first Paizocon Online in 2020) we had a huge number of new players join us.. and they've continued to do so.

We have a huge 'main' discord server with scores of games listed every month, we have grown multiple extra discord lodges that each has their own unique character and run tons of games in both VTT format and Play by Discord. In addition to the English language lodges we've opened online lodges in Italian, Spanish, Russian, ones focused on different virtual tabletops, we run multiple tier 1 online conventions every year (in fact we just ran Bridging the Gap to help cover the time Paizocon Online would normally have been, with over 250 tables and $2250 raised for charity!)

If a local IRL lodge that has a discord has decided to try and get their community back to being physical that is entirely a call of that community and something the venture officers no doubt feel is the best way to keep things going, but I can promise you that Paizo themselves have been nothing but endlessly helpful and open to increasing and improving online play (they took our feedback about map quality not translating well to VTTs and absolutely ran with it to give us all much higher quality maps for example!).

If you've been having trouble finding games online I promise you that is not Paizo trying to stop them, here's a list of all of our lodges both virtual tabletop and play by post/discord, we'd love to have you join us and everyone from experienced online gamers to brand new players is welcome, hit us up and we'll do our best to get you into games!

VTT Lodges
Org Play Online (Online region main VTT lodge, Discord)
Cayden's Keg (Discord)
Cosmic Crittermanders (Discord)
Rolling Bones (Discord)
Fantasy Grounds (Discord)
Italian Language Online Lodge (Discord)
Russian Language Online Lodge (Discord)
Spanish Language Online Lodge (Discord)

Play by Post Lodges
Cottonseed Lodge (PF2, Paizo Forums)
Flaxseed Lodge (PF1, Paizo Forums)
Castamirs Flaxseed Station (SF, Paizo Forums)
Flaxseed on Deck (ACG, Paizo Forums)
Find the Path (Discord)

Deepest sympathies to everyone at Paizo, staying or not, it sucks for you all and our hearts go out to you. You are all awesome, you are loved, take the time you need and let the community know how we can help when you can, we're here for you.

Know Direction have worked with Paizo and are hosting panels, seminars, and all sorts of cool Twitch stream content over the weekend as I understand it. They aren't hosting any actual games, you can still find all the (270+ at this point!) Pathfinder and Starfinder scenarios and specials at Bridging the Gap, along with as much conversation and hangout as you can cope with ;)

Back again!

Bridging the Gap Update #4

Player signups are now open!

You can view games and signup for them on Warhorn and join our Discord if you haven't! We have over 200 games listed so far with more being added as GMs continue to offer them (speaking of which you can still sign up to GM as well!

We hope you all find something that you'll enjoy in lieu of the usual PaizoCon Online and look forwards to seeing you all there from Friday May 22 – Monday May 25 for VTT games and even longer for Play by Post/Discord ones!

Explore, report, cooperate!

Bridging the Gap Update #3

A quick update today - but an important one to answer our most frequent question! When do player signups open?

Player signups will open on Mon Apr 6 at 19:00 UTC.

As a thank-you to our wonderful GMs, they will be able to signup for a single normal table and a single special table 24 hours before that!

We will also have a range of charity tables hosted by authors and Paizo staff! We will be auctioning off seats for those starting on Mon 30 Mar at 00:01 UTC.

See all our games listed on our Warhorn with more to come, and join us on Discord

Does this include pbp specials or is that all VTT?

And if so, which specials please?

The specials for the con are both VTT and PbP/D:

PFS2 4-99 Blessings of the Forest
SFS1 5-99 Battle for the Bulwark
PFS1 9-00: Assault On Absalom

Plenty more info on the discord, and HQ volunteers who can answer questions there!

Bridging the Gap ( Fri May 22 – Mon May 25) Update and GM signup!

It may have seemed quiet from the outside but our spaceship construction engineers have been busy bolting on new modules to this ship as we go!

Firstly, we are excited to be supporting Room to Read for the con. We'll be offering donors charity boon raffle entries, d20 rerolls, nat 20s and more!

Next, GM registrations are now open! If you would like to join us as a GM or HQ volunteer, please fill out an application at the Bridging the Gap GM Signup form. We can offer scenario support (a free copy of the scenario you are GMing from Paizo) up until Monday April 20th, 2026.

GMs choose the scenarios they wish to run as well as the format (VTT or PBP). For VTT, GMs also choose the slot in which each game will be hosted and the tool they will host in. For PBD, GMs choose the Online Region lodge which will host the game. For specials, please use the same form to express interest in GMing one or more specials. We will advise which GMs are selected on Friday April 3rd.

Also, Bridging the Gap is live on Warhorn, join us here!

Lastly, we'll be offering early access to the following June scenarios:
- PFS2 #7-19: The Lost Legacy
- PFS2 #7-20: The Strings Of Hell
- SFS2 #1-23: Psychic Echoes
- SFS2 #1-24: Final Gambit: Part One

If you've not joined us yet come along to the discord and get ready for the con!

Bridging the Gap ( Fri May 22 – Mon May 25) Update and GM signup!

It may have seemed quiet from the outside but our spaceship construction engineers have been busy bolting on new modules to this ship as we go!

Firstly, we are excited to be supporting Room to Read for the con. We'll be offering donors charity boon raffle entries, d20 rerolls, nat 20s and more!

Next, GM registrations are now open! If you would like to join us as a GM or HQ volunteer, please fill out an application at the Bridging the Gap GM Signup form. We can offer scenario support (a free copy of the scenario you are GMing from Paizo) up until Monday April 20th, 2026.

GMs choose the scenarios they wish to run as well as the format (VTT or PBP). For VTT, GMs also choose the slot in which each game will be hosted and the tool they will host in. For PBD, GMs choose the Online Region lodge which will host the game. For specials, please use the same form to express interest in GMing one or more specials. We will advise which GMs are selected on Friday April 3rd.

Also, Bridging the Gap is live on Warhorn, join us here!

Lastly, we'll be offering early access to the following June scenarios:
- PFS2 #7-19: The Lost Legacy
- PFS2 #7-20: The Strings Of Hell
- SFS2 #1-23: Psychic Echoes
- SFS2 #1-24: Final Gambit: Part One

If you've not joined us yet come along to the discord and get ready for the con!

Bridging the Gap ( Fri May 22 – Mon May 25) Update and GM signup!

It may have seemed quiet from the outside but our spaceship construction engineers have been busy bolting on new modules to this ship as we go!

Firstly, we are excited to be supporting Room to Read for the con. We'll be offering donors charity boon raffle entries, d20 rerolls, nat 20s and more!

Next, GM registrations are now open! If you would like to join us as a GM or HQ volunteer, please fill out an application at the Bridging the Gap GM Signup form. We can offer scenario support (a free copy of the scenario you are GMing from Paizo) up until Monday April 20th, 2026.

GMs choose the scenarios they wish to run as well as the format (VTT or PBP). For VTT, GMs also choose the slot in which each game will be hosted and the tool they will host in. For PBD, GMs choose the Online Region lodge which will host the game. For specials, please use the same form to express interest in GMing one or more specials. We will advise which GMs are selected on Friday April 3rd.

Also, Bridging the Gap is live on Warhorn, join us here!

Lastly, we'll be offering early access to the following June scenarios:
- PFS2 #7-19: The Lost Legacy
- PFS2 #7-20: The Strings Of Hell
- SFS2 #1-23: Psychic Echoes
- SFS2 #1-24: Final Gambit: Part One

If you've not joined us yet come along to the discord and get ready for the con!

I think anyone suggesting the price increases are because Paizo went "we wants MORE monies!" is probably pretty far off the beaten path. Which means that if that's true it was far more likely "what is the minimum we can raise prices and remain afloat and publishing as we are currently?"

Sure, price increases suck, everyone feels the tightness in their wallet these days... that applies to them as well. Everything you're buying is more expensive? Think how much even a small increase in supplier costs from each supplier affects businesses, not just Paizo, but pretty much everyone who isn't a huge corporation.

The publishing industry notoriously runs on razor thin margins and profits (outside Amazon), a couple of poor years sales can be the end of smaller businesses (yes, Paizo is a small business by every metric not some 'juggernaught'). No-one has celebrated the price increases, least of all Paizo, but the realities of todays economy are a far more likely driver of it than corporate greed, let's be a little sensible here.

And please, regardless of how you feel lets leave the ridiculous rhetoric and straw man arguments out of it, that doesn't help anyone.

As perhaps an unwelcome dose of reality... these prices are still either on par with or below equivalent page size/quality products from similar RPG companies in general. Price increases suck, but Paizo pdfs are still pretty solid value, that doesn't mean we should welcome them but it does mean that when it's for development, art, and production costs which we all know have drastically increased over the last few years in basically every industry it is pretty reasonable.

Mark Quarry matches the fantasy of the monster hunter really well, I think we can all imagine Geralt tearing down the wanted poster for some awful bog creature, asking around the locals for info, going and getting something it's specifically weak to and then tracking and killing it, the class perfectly captures that feel!

But most Pathfinder games don't. If we just look at published APs there's really not a lot of times where that scene above happens, it's far more often investigating places full of different creatures without knowing what's in there to begin with. Let alone Society scenarios where you might only have one or two fights and if the bad guy isn't highlighted ahead of time your main ability is significantly hampered.

It feels like the ability will play really well in a game about hunting monsters, everywhere else it'll feel like you're missing out on something that feels like it should be a core ability. Hopefully they'll consider that.

It looks like the Gap has devoured everyone's favourite con for this year and so we've worked a little magic to help out...

Announcing: Bridging the Gap!
May 2026, Fri 22nd - Mon 25th

The Online Region of Paizo’s Organized Play is proud to host Bridging the Gap 2026! We will be offering online play in Virtual Tabletop AND Play-by-Discord/Play-by-Post formats! Most games will be run on the conventions Discord server or the Paizo forums.

GMs worldwide will be offering tables to fit even the most finicky of timezones, on many different VTT platforms and in multiple languages! As well as Venture-Officers standing by 24 hours a day during the con to help ensure everyone has a great time.

We’ll be running multi-table specials for Pathfinder 1, Pathfinder 2, and Starfinder over the con, as well as plenty of scenarios from each, and of course from Starfinder 2. There will be a charity component, as well as scenarios run by authors and we may even sneak a few Paizo staff in to run some if you’re lucky!

More details, staff openings, GM and player signup all soon to come as we get things planned out, the Discord is open to join right now, we’ll see you there!

It looks like the Gap has devoured everyone's favourite con for this year and so we've worked a little magic to help out...

Announcing: Bridging the Gap!
May 2026, Fri 22nd - Mon 25th

The Online Region of Paizo’s Organized Play is proud to host Bridging the Gap 2026! We will be offering online play in Virtual Tabletop AND Play-by-Discord/Play-by-Post formats! Most games will be run on the conventions Discord server or the Paizo forums.

GMs worldwide will be offering tables to fit even the most finicky of timezones, on many different VTT platforms and in multiple languages! As well as Venture-Officers standing by 24 hours a day during the con to help ensure everyone has a great time.

We’ll be running multi-table specials for Pathfinder 1, Pathfinder 2, and Starfinder over the con, as well as plenty of scenarios from each, and of course from Starfinder 2. There will be a charity component, as well as scenarios run by authors and we may even sneak a few Paizo staff in to run some if you’re lucky!

More details, staff openings, GM and player signup all soon to come as we get things planned out, the Discord is open to join right now, we’ll see you there!

Fantastic to see a simpler version that was how many people understood it being applied, please tell the team we appreciate their listening greatly!

Looks like we have some fantastic new classes for people to try out, it’ll be cool to see what ideas everyone comes up with (though Slayer with alchemist dedication fees like it might see a lot of play, thanks Geralt ;) ).

The amount of organisers who've posted their practical experience that sanctioned content is a bigger draw at conventions than non, both here and elsewhere, is... significant. Starfinder Society is a marketing tool, the more eyes on it, the more players and people who get to enjoy it the more Paizo sells. Many companies would kill for people this desperate to advertise their stuff! Easy, quick, 'generic' sanctioning chronicles for long form Starfinder content takes almost zero effort or cost, let us help you sell stuff Paizo! :)

I think Blakes Tiger hit the nail, a background of "My character woke up after accepting that offer and has no memory..." that may or may not be true, is probably absolutely fine, it's a background not something that happened in a scenario and we have countless 'dragons burnt my village', 'my parents are secretly royals', etc that are just flavour with no mechanical effect (or even provably true).

If during the scenario you accept the offer and get taken away... yeah, your character could reasonably be marked as dead (the GM should definitely inform you this is not likely returnable from beforehand imo though).

A screenshot of your 'My Downloads' page from Paizo is absolutely acceptable as proof of ownership in Society, I can't imagine that the new stores download page showing the same won't also be considered such.

In our Age of Ashes campaign the citadel was taken over by a Hellknight PC and his hobgoblin allies, clearly that is 100% canon now :D

Cannot wait for this, hopefully it does really well and more collabs with DE are on the cards! Warframe...finder?

I think I'm pretty positive about all the changes generally, they'll benefit most people a decent amount it seems. The one thing that does strike me as a slightly less than ideal is the gold expiring after 12 months as Ectar bought up, 24-36 months tends to be more common for loyalty programs precisely because a year can be too short a time for average customers to collect much to make use of and thus instead of an incentive it actually feels like a punishment to the consumer, the exact opposite of the marketing intent. I'd hope that Paizo might consider extending the time before expiry into that range to help out their smaller spending, but consistent customers.

Beautiful, both story and art. What a fantastic celebration :D

Fantastic! Best of luck to the team, may they feast upon their opponents cries of defeat! ;)

'Captivated' is not a status or effect in PF2 as some people have pointed out, you would need to find it listed as one for a separate effect, they're only affected by fascinated. So it's option 2 but not because some other effect breaks, but because there is no such status as captivated.

I have to agree with Elfteiroh, you've really leveled up ;)

This presents something that's far more interesting, whilst a mobile isn't my tool of choice for VTTs there's undoubtedly a market there and a lot of players who are edged out by the need for a PC or tablet. Hopefully this will serve to allow even more players and GMs to enjoy games and bring in more people to our community, everyone wins!

I hope this does very well, it certainly gives a far more professional, impressive vibe this time! My one issue that immediately stands out would be that even the free $0 subscription requires a credit cards info be entered to "buy" it, that's going to significantly cut down on the user base, most directly amongst those who don't have PCs and are the best audience I suspect, if that could be fixed I think it'd add a world of new players.

More Venture-Gossip? MORE VENTURE-GOSSIP! :D

Greetings aadzie!

There's a whole region of games you can jump in with! The Online region runs Starfinder Society in a bunch of different places, for live games (those usually run over 4 ish hours with voice chat and using a virtual tabletop) we're primarily based on discord.

Our main lodge is here; Org Play Online, but you'll also find Starfinder being run on some of our other lodges such as; Cayden's Keg, Cosmic Crittermanders, and Rolling Bones. I'd recommend either grabbing the discord app (here) or using their browser version if you prefer, and jumping on those lodges to say hi. There's plenty of players and GMs who are looking to play and if you let people know you're new then one of our venture officers (and the community in general!) will help you with where to find games!

There's a couple of other links that might be useful for getting to grips with online gaming if you're new to it that can be found here;
Unofficial Org Play "How to" (TONS of useful, detailed guides, all in one place!)
Flutters Guide to Playing Online (A guide written by a druid that has a problem with technology for people that have a problem with technology)

Hopefully that gives you a place to begin and we can get you into some Starfinder games!

Hmmm….very underwhelming class ability then. thief racket so much better.. Precision Rangers have no such restriction..

Very much not the case, it doesn't work with a very small group of weapons but is an absolutely fantastic ability overall and the changes open up a whole world of new, very cool options.

You can now find Remaster iconics for download here!

I'd also recommend against throwing shade towards people who might disagree with your interpretation, it rarely sets a good tone and often will prejudice people against your message regardless of factual basis.

However as Hammerjack laid out I'm afraid it doesn't work;

Apply any abilities that alter the damage die size first.

I just have to say that your post is an effective advertisement for NOT joining PFS. I'm repelled at the thought of having to interact with someone with such lack of self-control, disrespect for others, and apparent inability to engage in reasoned dialogue.

Whilst I understand and can sympathise to a degree with the OPs frustrations I think it's fair to say that the behavior shown is not something I or most others would ever expect, or accept, from our Venture Officers and not something you should or will see in Society. I hope that you do decide to give us a try, I promise that the vast, vast majority of people are incredibly welcoming and warm and if there are issues we try to resolve them with sensible measures and a degree of calm, best of luck in your games!

Orcs make much more sense as core option than goblins do because orcs already had nuance shown to them where goblins got spontaneously overall much more nicer in much higher quantities when they became core :'D

Perhaps unfortunately for those not involved an awful lot of that development was in Society, there were many scenarios over 10 years and multiple seasons showing numerous different goblins and goblin tribes working with both the society and others in helpful ways. So there was absolutely a ton of cooperation shown, just perhaps not in ways that every player would be able to see and experience.

Thank you for all the responses Natural Pengu, it’s great to see you’re focused on answering the communities questions and helping people understand the app! Despite the concerns I mentioned I truly do wish you the best, more competition in the VTT space is always good! I do have one last thing to suggest based on your replies which is that if this is an early access offering and not feature complete you really need to make that clear and have it front and centre, nothing seemed to say this until your comments.

The community deserve to know if what they are buying is not truly finished and has a lot of development ahead of it in case they are wanting something that is fully featured, and it also allows those who are interested in helping with feedback, bugs, etc to know this is a project they can get invested in and potentially help shape to some small degree. Whereas if people find out after purchasing that something is still in early access with a long roadmap ahead it can definitely lead to issues (this is why Steam enforces games saying if they’re early access for example).

Best of luck with it all, I look forwards to seeing what’s to come!

I think some more clarity and actual gameplay videos, etc would certainly be helpful to evaluate why this is "the ultimate Pathfinder virtual tabletop" over the many others available. Most all VTTs do in fact do something better than others, but it varies from one to another and user choice is often based on what they most value. Whilst more competition is almost always good and it's absolutely possible a new option like this might have some fantastic features that others lack, overall there's a real dearth of information here that doesn't help people make informed decisions unfortunately. I look forwards to another blog or a lot more information on their site, which seems rather bare bones right now, to help people see if this is the best choice for them over the others.

Not understanding the very basic premise that having fewer options to boost yourself is a tactically more difficult and challenging environment is such a huge self own I'm shocked to see people admitting it.

Going from 16+ bonuses to three changes the dynamics to the point that strategy and tactics are vastly more important, rather than the easy dumbed down method of stacking enough bonuses that the dice roll doesn't even matter.

I am grateful for many challenging, improved, and easy to use products in my life. This is one of them.

Players of wizards in PF1 who were able to solve every situation, every encounter, often on their own, being unable to understand a changed paradigm to the point they keep asserting that the class is broken or made poorly is something that’s just not going to change unfortunately. The choices in PF2 design to bring wizards to a similar level of ability overall as other classes can only ever be understood by them as a mistake, it also seems to be perhaps unsurprising that many of the same players dislike or refuse to join in team work, a core facet of PF2 mechanics.

I do kinda hope the adventure remembers to lean on the macabre rather than on undead puns :O

Like, I haven't really paid attention to it since my reaction to PFS scenarios that aren't my tastes is to mostly shrug and focus on ones that are more to my tastes, but I've noticed some people being kinda disillusioned with tone and atmosphere in few scenarios being bit too much on goofy side ^_^; Kinda don't like being negative, but I do think its good to remember to have balance between silly and gravitas

Gravitas... Gravitas... No, Don't Help Me, I'll Get It In A Moment... >.>

Cori Marie wrote:

Then don't buy it. For me the value is there because of the amount of time similar prep takes me. If you don't need or want that level of prep nobody is twisting your arm to buy this.

Why do ppl think this is a valid argument when discussing price is beyond me. That I’m not buying and you are is already established, stating that has no bearing on the fairness of the product price tough.

If you could post a link to the extensive analysis on cost/hours invested in making it/hours of use a purchaser is expected to get that you did to ascertain the price point is both not only unfair but also poor value compared to AAA video games it would really help us see your point, unless y’know, you’re just basing it off your feelings.

Cause if so then the only real feedback with respect to value is from those who’ve posted their hours taken to create similar content and how much that would have cost them, by which metric this is pretty great value for money.

The issue isn't, really, "what are skeletons weak against" but rather, "does my character recognize those enemies are skeletons and not some other form of construct/undead/monstrosity" etc. It's just the lack of time/prep/guidance/gm experience in describing things with either their actual names or with descriptions that clearly tell you what they are. Not all boney-things are skeletons. Not all shambling enemies are zombies.

A good example Draugr vs skeleton champion, both being level 2 creatures, with very similar arts, but different weaknesses/resistances.

This is absolutely the top take and I really feel people should be considering it strongly as the actual, logical and in game reason for RK on things you've faced before.

As mentioned, a bunch of bones in armour could be 3, or 4, or possibly more different creatures! Is a player welcome to assume it's an armoured skeleton and switch to bludgeoning weapons if they've fought skeletons before and seen how effective they are? Of course! Said player should also not be mad or upset when it turns out they're fighting something with resistance to bludgeoning, which they didn't RK to identify.

I very much think it's important to try and keep actual creature names out of descriptions both so as not to give away exactly what is being faced for free, and also not to mislead people into assuming without actually knowing. It's both more evocative and avoids problems to say "You see what looks like a skeletal corpse, covered in platemail armour." vs "A skeleton champion is in the room." etc.

I know Paizo is providing Foundry support for new Starfinder scenarios, but I'm still using roll20 and by far the most time consuming thing about setting up tables is taking a screencap of each NPC and monster from the pdf, moving that screencap to the TokenStamp website to make it a circular image with a transparent background, then uploading that to a blank character sheet.

I can't overstate how helpful it would be if all the pdfs had a page at the end that was just "here's circular tokens of monsters and NPCs that you can print out and use with your flipmat, or upload to a VTT."

I'd strongly recommend giving Token Tool a try, it has an option to import a pdf and then scroll through all images as drag and droppable onto your desktop (or whatever file you like) whilst retaining the alpha channel assuming the image has one (so you avoid that pixelation around the edges).

Since you bothered to look up things in a state database, you do know there is this little thing called "Reinstatement" fees. Know how to deal with that. It really doesn't stop me from operating. However, since I'm busy with doing literally everything from the creative writing and content for TTRPG and the programming for a Computerized RPG game based on it all, the artwork, 2d work and 3d models, and music/audio and basically the workload of a dozens of fulltime employees and pay for every single cent without even one peso from any venture capitalist as I am not using any of those leeches. Maybe, I'll worry about the little state reinstatement/renewal stuff when I get to it.

Wait, wait, wait… you’re doing 96 hours of work a day?! My good sir I whole heartedly withdraw any concerns or complaints, you are a Hercules, you are an icon of the modern working man! I’m frankly shocked you can find so much time to post on the forums, but no doubt this is just another example of your excellent time management that allows you to do 12 full time jobs in a single day, I applaud you sir!

13th century mythology is public domain like the Bible is. You don't need to be a lawyer. The description of drows used by TSR / WotC is public domain. D&D's drow is essentially, the Dökkálfar as written and described in Prose Edda.

So I'm confused, do you think Paizos lawyers are just bad at their job then? Because you, not a lawyer, are saying with absolute certainty the opposite of what Paizo has been advised. Generally, I feel that most people, when seeking actual, real legal advice are probably advised to listen to actual, real lawyers and not people whose companies have gone into administrative dissolution just to throw out a random entirely unrelated example, maybe that's just me though.

They can certainly use a few sentences or such way of writing to hint there may be survivors and those that may exists on other worlds. Like, even something simple like "The dark elves are extinct, or are they." Then leave it there. Just leave enough for third-parties. Without that "or are they" literary device to put into question whether or not they are extinct, it becomes an absolute. Third-party content publishers will generally not want to jive or contradict Paizo canon. I know Paizo is reading the forum. I'm sure they are.

I'm placing it here for them to look at. How hard is it really to make 1 hour (or less) of text edits of the specific pages where drows are relabeled dark elves (Apostae) and relabel the language as "Dökk álfur". Ultimately, removing any use of the term "drow" and replace with dark elf/elves. We know.... dark elf basically equals drow. Dark Elf is just English translation for Dökkálfar (Norse/Icelandic). Here we can just call them dark elves and a very particular heritage (which I'll work on introducing under ORC), as Dökkálfar with a even darker skin tone and maybe a few things I may come up with.

Point: Mainly, I just need them to leave enough opening literary-wise so that it is not going to be an issue with setting canon. It doesn't really change their setting ideas, either... if they just craftfully wordsmith it so there can be third-party content on it that won't be breaking the setting's canon either. In other words, all they need to do is leave a small opening in their wordage.

Are you a lawyer? And is this legal advice you're offering to Paizo, that you're willing to back up with fully researched documentation and argument in court?

It feels like there's an awful of lot people saying "my actual play experience over levels x-y was great and the shield was impactful" and the counter is "the math says shields aren't worth it" which seems a little disingenuous. White room math is all well and good and can absolutely help with evaluating options, but actual real play experience from multiple people over a huge range of levels is at least as useful, if not more so since y'know that's where the shield is actually being used.

Fantastic candidates! The art for them is absolutely awesome, looking forward to finding out more about them in the coming months! :)

If it's good enough to establish a serial killer's trend, it's good enough to establish design trends.

I urge you to do some reading on basic statistics, 3 points not only isn’t enough to establish a trend it’s a tiny percentage of the total number of responses you need to see consecutive results within.

What you’re incorrectly conflating with a trend is a threshold, absolutely different things.