Tonya Woldridge's page

SkalCon was always my time to see my Minnesota family. Jack and I would bond over food, games, and beer. We made a pilgrimage to the Nordicware shop to see what new cooking gadgets we could try out.

This year, the family came together to mourn Jack. There were tears, and laughter, and all the feels. In the end, it was the catharsis I needed to pick up and move on.

Thank you to the organizers, for their efforts to pull a convention together while grieving themselves. Thank you to the GMs, who prepped our games, and in some cases, their own maps. Thank you to the vendors that came out to remind us that beauty remains in the world. Thank you to the players, for being a family and supporting to each other.

Jack, I will see you once more in Valhalla. Everyone else, SkalCon X is only 360 away.

Unfortunately, Calcryx666, your wish has not been fulfilled.

Some gremlins (don't want to always blame the goblins) in the system have decreed that we must spend the evening appeasing their appetite for attention before we may run the order creation process. We are busy doing so and hope to have every gremlin happy and satisfied by tomorrow morning. We ask that you keep a close eye on your emails tomorrow and quickly let us know if you find issues with your order so that our Customer Service team can make any adjustments before we start shipping on Wednesday.

We apologize for the delay and are working to resolve it as speedily as possible.

Thank you for your understanding!

The glitch in the system was found. We will create physical subscription orders first thing tomorrow morning. Please keep an eye on your email inbox for your orders. If you find a problem, email customer.service@paizo.com as soon as possible. We hope to give the warehouse the go-ahead to ship on Wednesday and want to resolve all issues first.

Update: We found the issue holding up the digital subscription order creation. We've started the process and it will finish up in a few hours. Please email Customer Service if you need changes made to your digital subscription so that we can get them processed. We will fulfill the subscription orders on Wednesday, November 30. Thank you for your patience.

Perhaps you could fix the title to reflect that it's the December subscriptions that have been delayed

The title is correct. Today is both December physical subscriptions and November digital subscription order creations. We had issues with both, so it was almost the same message we posted earlier in the physical thread.

Hello!

We experienced an error when running the November digital subscription authorization today. We are troubleshooting now and hope to have an answer shortly. Thank you all for your patience.

Removed a post describing a character's actions due to a problematic term used in the description.

Lucille de Arvois

To mechanically explain: Lucille is trying to joink the not-useless looking members of Scourges group, she is probably the best manipulator in the group currently.

Syl and Maheem look like the 2 ones that dont seem [redacted]. Maybe Narwale is of use too. Fibbs destiny is to be Chisomos punching bag, anyone sleeping iwth scourge like Bansion is obviously desperate, not even his own grouping likes Jape so :).

Removed a post and a quote for baiting. Let's focus back on the original discussion.

I'm playing Quenial Bakersdottir, human bard level 2. I'll get the profile set up.

Thank you for asking!

The permission listed in the FAQ is for one copy of any Paizo pdf. This would include text, images, maps, and other assets contained in the file.

If you think there will be an issue with your printer, you can take a copy of the FAQ with you as well. I have heard of this method being used in some places where printers are concerned about copyright issues.

Removed a number of posts and subsequent replies. This is a celebration of Hispanic heritage. Our ability to celebrate diversity and culture is not a pie and is not limited. We enjoy uplifting these voices today and will do it with others in the future. Please keep your commentary positive to help us achieve our goals.

Removed a number of off-topic posts. This is the product page for a Pathfinder (Second Edition) product. It is not the place to engage in edition wars for RPGs. I now return you to your regularly scheduled product discussion.

We apologize for the delays in getting your product out.

As others have said, if there is an issue with an order, please send an email to customer.service@paizo.com. Please include your order number to help us identify the order you need assistance with.

To answer the question of whether this is the new normal - no. In the past six weeks, we had Gen Con, then August subscription orders, then Kingmaker fulfillment, then September subscriptions (which are earlier than usual to start adjusting for the holiday shipping schedule). This meant the warehouse team got a large batch of orders each week to process.

At this point, I'm going to close this thread. We have no comments to add to this discussion and are not interested in hosting a discussion here on our forums. Thanks for your understanding.

You can always email Customer Service with issues or problems beyond products. If not something we can solve, we will get it to the right internal party to address. As for this issue, it is now being discussed in our editorial department and we will have an update on it shortly.

This ticket was resolved 4 hours ago. As Totally Not Gorbacz noted, tickets are the best way to reach us.

Please let us know if there is anything further we can do to assist.

Removed several comments that were baiting and didn't help resolve the original poster's issue

Ehdge, I've pulled your ticket and will be responding to it shortly. I apologize for it getting lost in my queue.

Removed some posts as personally harassing and inappropriate.

Logan Harper She/Her wrote:

Unfortunately, I am not finding a ticket for you in our queue, please send us an email to customer.service@paizo.com and we can assist as soon as possible.

I came looking for a customer service contact, so I'm going to invite myself into this thread as well.

Timeline:

02/24: Placed order #29029836. Receipt was confusing. Emailed customer.service@paizo.com requesting explanation.

03/02: Received reply from "-T", that being Tonya Woldridge, Director of Community, Paizo Inc. Unraveled the receipt. Everything's cool, order's at the Warehouse, will ship ASSP. Told me reach out if there was any other questions, provided community@paizo.com & customer.service@paizo.com email addresses. Groovy.

04/06: Came up from air thanks to busy grad student schedule and work trips. Noticed I haven't gotten my order yet. Looked up order history to see if there was a tracking number. Found out that while the last three times I ordered physical products from the Paizo website, they got to my house fine, this time there was a note buried in the Shipping screen: "Unable to ship. Contact customer service." I would have been happy to contact customer service at any time in the preceding month, but no one from Paizo told me I had to do that, I found this out on my own. Emailed customer.service@paizo.com as requested, and included a copy of the screenshot, as well as the full thread.

04/25: Contacted customer.service@paizo.com, again. No acknowledgement of previous emails. No response.

05/03: Contacted the community@paizo.com address that Tonya Woldrige provided. Explained I was using that address since my correspondence to customer.service@paizo.com appears to have been consumed by hungry goblins.

05/10: Today's date. Tomorrow will be the ten week anniversary of my March 2nd contact.

I know the problem isn't on my end, I've ordered physical product from Paizo...

That is not the answer we want to give at all. There was a problem implementing the Kobold Horde sale. We also have had a turnover of staff, so are trying to go through some back queues and catch tickets. I'll take a look and see what I can do to get this one moving.

We made an update to post the IOSS number on the shipping labels to enable customs to see the paid duties faster. If anyone needs the IOSS number to provide it to their local customs, we will send it out.

Dalvyn, if you would post your ticket number, I will look and see what happened to it and why you didn't receive an answer. Thanks!

Tonya Woldridge wrote:

I have completed all tickets that were submitted before this weekend. I will be working through the tickets received this weekend. I expect to have those requests done tomorrow.

I have two tickets: 148977 opened March 6 and 154538 opened April 29. Neither has had a response, and my 2022 PaizoCon badge is still active.

Looking now. Thank you for the ticket numbers.

I have purchased two tickets to paizocon back in 2020 and have been told they are rolled over to 2022 in person paizocon badges.

I have been trying to reach customer service for months with many emails and phone calls.

I finally got a response telling me that my ONE ticket was confirmed, and even gave the proper order # for the order containing TWO tickets.

I have been approved to sign up for games with my one ticket, however, my partner who has already been knee deep in travel and lodging plans along side me, Is left sitting on their hands.

They will not be able to sign up for games if our second ticket is not confirmed with organized play. Im not even sure they will be able to get in to the con now and may have wasted HUNDREDS of dollars and taken loads of time off of work for nothing. I simply have no idea what to do. I have written a fair number of emails since this incorrect confirmation and still have no response.

Everything ive read on announcements or forums says that my tickets should be good to go, but i can not get ANYONE to respond to me about ANYTHING.

Is there only a single person running this convention? Is there no one else i can try to contact?

Does anyone know what i should do? Am i just going to have to tell my partner they cant sign up to play any of the games, and that they might very well be stuck in seattle by themselves??

Please HALP!

You should have a response to your ticket confirming 2 tickets and what I need to transfer the second one (their email address used to log into paizo.com). I will keep an eye out for that information tomorrow and get it processed asap.

There will not be a pickup at PaizoCon this year due to the reduced staff and smaller footprint of the con.

The issue has not been the ticketing system. It was a process that had me as a logjam. Other issues going to CS are resolved in a timely manner, this is all on me.

I've cleared the back PaizoCon tickets received before April 30. I'll be back at it tomorrow finishing the last 40 tickets that came in over the weekend. That should bring us current.

Question for the in-person con:

First off, my order history shows qty. two 2020 tickets converted to 2022. I got Warhorn confirmation for me. Yay.

But the usual e-ticket spot on the paizo site doea not show 2022 tickets. How do I transfer my second ticket to my wife's account, so she can also signup on Warhorn?

I've had a support ticket in since April 7th with no non-robot response. (Ref. #152428) Since signups start soon, I'm starting to feel anxious!

I believe I replied to your question tonight. The rollover of the tickets has caused some display issues.

To transfer a ticket, we just need the paizo.com email address for the person we are transferring the ticket to.

I have completed all tickets that were submitted before this weekend. I will be working through the tickets received this weekend. I expect to have those requests done tomorrow.

Hi!

I've gotten through all the tickets in the CS queue for queries and refunds. If you should have gotten a response and didn't get one, please let us know by responding to your original issue ticket confirmation email. That will bounce it back into the queue!

We will be honoring all tickets sold for PaizoCon 2020. At this time, we don't have any more spaces open and so won't be selling physical tickets. We are working as fast as possible to get the online tickets for sale so that you can be registered and ready for event registration!

We've updated the product page with the set list for the upcoming Pathfinder Battles–Mwangi Expanse release. We are still waiting on them to arrive, but once they do we will be shipping them out quickly.

Removed some posts for baiting and harassment, including the OP, but left the thread as some discussion as to how to do a conversion may be desired. Keep it civil please. This is not the thread for edition wars.

Removed some posts that were personally harassing, and quotes, as we'd like to keep this civil to all. Not locking the thread, as there are stages of loss/grief to work through for some, but am watching it closely and will shut it down if it goes sideways. Thanks!

removed a few posts that were going off topic. Let's keep this thread focused on the excitement and speculation on the content! Thanks!

I've been trying to work on PaizoCon refunds all weekend, but the current login issues are also causing issues with me accessing our systems. I've got our tech team on it first thing Monday and will continue to work on this issue as fast as possible.

If you sent a ticket into the queue in the past 2 weeks, I have them and am working through them. I will get them all answered asap. If you didn't, but know you had tickets, we rolled them over and will put them back visible on the site as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience as we work through the technical difficulties.

I will post here again as soon as I am able to complete the tickets. They are my top priority as soon as I can access our systems.

Moderation was done and a user was suspended from the community. At this point, this thread has reached its conclusion and will be locked. If you see further instances of hate speech, please email customer.service [at] paizo.com using the subject INTOLERENCE

We just sent the email, so if you didn't get it @David, please let us know.

Hi!

Apologies for the lack of communication. I've been heads down taking care of things and posting here went off my radar! But here now with a quick update before I go back into the realms of processing PaizoCon returns.

Rolling the tickets over in bulk happened relatively easily. Refunding them is taking much longer, as they have to be done singly and can take some time if there are distributed tickets involved. Unfortunately, it is a process that needs focused attention and thus is taking much longer than expected.

I'm trying to get through the emailed refund requests/service tickets tonight. Once done, I'll move into refunding banquet tickets. I'll be working this weekend to clear the backlog so that all requested refunds should be cleared by the start of Monday.

Once we have this processed, I'll be contacting the remaining ticket holders via email. That may also generate a few more refunds.

This is the first time we've been in this situation, so we are working out process as we go.

Thank you for the feedback NightTrace. It is very helpful to hear and allows me to learn/grow.

My apologies to Tender. I should not have invalidated their feelings with my comments.

The suspension wasn't overturned at all. I am not sure what happened for it not to take in our systems. It was reprocessed this morning and verified by other staff that it took. I am actively pursuing answers as to what happened so that this situation doesn't happen again. I am also reviewing all other recent suspensions to make sure they didn't have the same issue occur.

AlastarOG, thanks for the heads up. Moved to the First Edition Advice forums.

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.

Perception to notice Z'hor'll slipping into the opening

Z'hor'll enters the tube and sees the handholds/pipe extend about 50 feet down. They can see that the space opens up at the end of the pipe and faint light reflecting from a surface about 100' from where they are on the pipe rungs.

We absolutely missed our deadline, I am so sorry. I had to do emergency dental work that took me out of the office Mon and yesterday. We've been working to pull things together today, but didn't make it.

At this time, we don't have any tickets to sell. Given our reduced capacity of 500 people and that we rolled tickets from 2020 to 2022, we've been processing returns to see what space we would have. I'm working to contact ticketholders now and we are going to extend the date for returns. I hope that we will have tickets to offer and will keep the group updated.

I'm working on a blog for next week that will have the hotel information and the new dates for returns, as well as some other show news. To those of our community who were looking for ticket sales today, I am very sorry for not updating earlier!

Working together, The Armenian Man and Roland shifted the flagstone to the side, revealing a 5'wide pipe descending into the ground further than the limits of The Armenian Man's vision. Set into the side of the pipe are evenly spaced wrought iron handles to aid in climbing.

With the reveal of the pipe, let's get an initiative roster going. Just so we are prepared :)

Z'hor'll, by the spell it appears it would if it could get under the edge of the flagstone.

Thank you for the heads up!

Fuln looks very uncomfortable at Kyra's words, not meeting her eyes and shifting where he stands. "It isn't wrong to try and protect your city!

Roland's keen eye picks up that liquid doesn't pool around the stone, like it does elsewhere in the room.

The Armenian Man's scythe slips in and the flagstone lifts. Looking at the area, he briefly sees a large hole under the flagstone, before it slips off the edge of the scythe and clatters back into place. Watching the action, Z'hor'll notices no hinges or other mechanics to mark this as a trap door. It looks to be a paving slab not mortared into the floor.

Zinta finds lingering traces of transmutation magic, along with a slight whiff of necromancy.

@Yoshua The benefit is still being determined as we talk to licensed partners and get further into planning, but it looks like it will be something related to the swag bags given to participants.

If we produce any PaizoCon commemorative exclusives, we will put them for sale via the webstore that weekend, as our show is hybrid and we will want to give our online attendees a chance to get the items as well.

To confirm what Aaron said, we will not be changing the mask guidance originally posted and that masks are required for access to any Paizo Convention Spaces at the DoubleTree.

Kyra examines it closely and is pretty sure there are no traps, but can't locate any signs of opening mechanisms

Fun looks at the group gathering around Baldo and scoffs. "Of course there's no trap door in here. This is a laboratory, not a dungeon."

While most of the group is looking, it is The Armenian Man who notices a gap between the stone and the surrounding ones. It looks as if a thin object could be inserted between them.

As Zinta walks toward the group, her attention is caught by a diamond shaped burn on the workbench, as if something had sat on the bench when the explosion occured.

I can log into paizo.com, but cannot log into store.paizo.com.

When I log into paizo.com and go to store.paizo.com it asks me to login

I can log into paizo.com, but cannot log into store.paizo.com.

When I log into paizo.com and go to store.paizo.com it asks me to login

So, I have an order that I need help with after a bank card was stolen. I sent an email into customer service stating the problem.

While researching it myself, I figured I could potentially proactively help myself by removing the stolen payment method. Low and behold, there currently isn't a way for me to delete old payment methods. Heck, it has two cards from years ago.

So, then I figured I'd post in the customer services forums to see if maybe I'm missing something. That's when I noticed I can't even make a post in the customer service forums.

Does anyone have suggestions, or in other words, what do?

I need to cancel my Pathfinder battles subscription. I have been furloughed for the foreseeable future due to COVID-19

Hey, I have two pending orders and just curious when those are going to ship out. One is listed as complete and the other is listed as pending.

Hello, I'm looking to order the new Kingmaker fig set. I want to add the case incentives but don't have a way to add it. I checked out the threads and I see a lot of responses to subscribers, but wanted to know what I can do or how I can ensure that those case incentives make it to me.

Hey, just a quick question. Is there any chance that you'll be publishing an anniversary edition using the 1st ed rule set?

I'm not going to lie, I will buy it only if it's first edition. I'm not currently interested in the second edition system.

If anyone else is reading this, you can start your flame war below.

((This is a character bio that I've created and know no other place to try to get feedback. I'm trying to make something that would be in a personal journal.

I'm looking for a couple things:
1. Who is this person?
2. How do you Vrye through his lens?
3. What is your opinion and what influenced that opinion?

Thank you so very much!))

I was born in the City of Masks and am the epitome of its children, a true son. Both of my parents are citizens but they are not of the city. They housed, fed me, and clothed me. The city, however, took care of my education, informed me about the nature of people, and helped shaped my morals. The city held me close to its heart and in return I flourished.

The harbor disgorges the faceless many; the curious, the hopeful, those seeking delights, and even some who would drink the water of Lethe. These strangers showed me how people treat one another, what our value is to one another. The lowliest of beggars should be revered. They are often richer in faith than any Hellknight bearing a longsword and wreathed in armor. Walk through the city with both eyes open, ignorance should be expunged from oneself.

Our city is here to indulge in. Wait for a fair price. We honor all coin. No tariff or tax will greet you at the gate. We have no registers in which we record your name. We will welcome you no matter what mask you use to obfuscate yourself with. Your secrets are your own. We understand their value and want nothing more than for those confidences to be kept safe.

My family runs an inn within the Vise where my siblings and I took care of the many. Every visitor, every person who darkens our doorstep comes seeking something. I learned over time it is a type of worship, a silent prayer as one wends their way through the crowd. One whisper can be lost but with so many voices it is instead a tumultuous roar. If any one person hears you over the ruckus, that person is worthy of adulation.

As I worked for my parents, I learned to observe and to hold my tongue. A person who will keep the secrets of all those around him, someone who understands that closed doors should remain closed, is exalted. The proprietress of The Dancing Cat noticed me and hired me to protect her guest’s anonymity. She is the one who first set my feet upon the path that makes me the man I am today.

Sometimes in our city people die due to indulgence. If we can send a traveler home, that is always our first choice, but some travelers have no home to return to. When this happens, The Blissful Abattoir comes into play. More than once have I run to bring about the Collectors to gather up the poor soul. They are always very respectful and never fail to invoke the name of Pharasma. Their distinctive orange robes and beaked masks are quite a somber affair, like the psychopomps that serve that goddess. Their Abbot is an educated fellow and has often gone out of his way to enlighten me, for which I am grateful. Without him I do not know if I would ever found my faith. Just last year, during midwinter, I brought my brother to help us celebrate Ascension Day. The Abbot says I show potential. One day I may join the Monastery of the Veil, where all take a vow of silence.

Currently however, I learned that Queen Abrogail II is looking for people to assist her. Some foreign powers have invaded a small village in our nation and House Thrune has created a compact, calling all of the nation to aid in repelling the occupying force. While I do not agree with her religion, I do know that this is my mandate. I shall go and discover all I can. Do not look for me, I will ever be just another face in the crowd.

Nemo

I was born in the City of Masks and am the epitome of its children, a true son. Both of my parents are citizens but they are not of the city. They housed, fed me, and clothed me. The city, however, took care of my education, informed me about the nature of people, and helped shaped my morals. The city held me close to its heart and in return I flourished.

The harbor disgorges the faceless many; the curious, the hopeful, those seeking delights, and even some who would drink the water of Lethe. These strangers showed me how people treat one another, what our value is to one another. The lowliest of beggars should be revered. They are often richer in faith than any Hellknight bearing a longsword and wreathed in armor. Walk through the city with both eyes open, ignorance should be expunged from oneself.

Our city is here to indulge in. Wait for a fair price. We honor all coin. No tariff or tax will greet you at the gate. We have no registers in which we record your name. We will welcome you no matter what mask you use to obfuscate yourself with. Your secrets are your own. We understand their value and want nothing more for those confidences to be kept safe.

My family runs an inn within the Vise where my siblings and I took care of the many. Every visitor, every person who darkens our doorstep comes seeking something. I learned over time it is a type of worship, a silent prayer as one wends their way through the crowd. One whisper can be lost but with so many voices it is instead a tumultuous roar. If any one person hears you over the ruckus, that person is worthy of adulation.

As I worked for my parents, I learned to observe and to hold my tongue. A person who will keep the secrets of all those around him, someone who understands that closed doors should remain closed, is exalted. The proprietress of The Dancing Cat noticed me and hired me to protect her guest’s anonymity. She is the one who first set my feet upon the path that makes me the man I am today.

Sometimes in our city people die due to indulgence. If we can send a traveler home, that is always our first choice, but some travelers have no home to return to. When this happens, The Blissful Abattoir comes into play. More than once have I run to bring about the Collectors to gather up the poor soul. They are always very respectful and never fail to invoke the name of Pharasma. Their distinctive orange robes and beaked masks are quite a somber affair, like the psychopomps that serve that goddess. Their Abbot is an educated fellow and has often gone out of his way to enlighten me, for which I am grateful. Without him I do not know if I would ever found my faith. Just last year, during midwinter, I brought my brother to help us celebrate Ascension Day. The Abbot says I show potential. One day I may join the Monastery of the Veil, where all take a vow of silence.

Currently however, I learned that Queen Abrogail II is looking for people to assist her. Some foreign powers have invaded a small village in our nation and House Thrune has created a compact, calling all of the nation to aid in repelling the occupying force. While I do not agree with her religion, I do know that this is my mandate. I shall go and discover all I can. Do not look for me, I will ever be just another face in the crowd.

Nemo

((Feedback welcome and requested))

Hello, not sure who I should be bringing this up to, however, I am an audio visual professional by trade. My company is PSAV, a transnational audio visual provider. I am currently a video engineer but have also done sales and management roles within my company. I specialize in corporate events from 30-5000 people. Most of my work is in convention centers and hotels and so I understand all of the associated costs and problems. I help pitch events, put them into the order system, and negotiate pricing. From there I pull the equipment from our warehouse, deliver it, set it up, and then operate it.

So, the meat of this post. I'd like to offer my assistance in a more professional capacity than running up to troubleshoot the issues. The audio system they gave you this year was 3 JBL single cabinets from a line array, put on sticks with subs. The subs were unnecessary, the speakers poorly placed and inadequate to cover the room. They didn't have the height to fill the room and instead blasted the people closest to them. Those people as a result rotated them to face the wall, creating slap back. The projectors were barely passable in their lumen output, it would have also helped to either ring the room or have delays set up.

Finally, during the special, it might also help to have a couple headsets, either radios or ClearCom systems set up to facilitate communications.

I'm willing to aid in the quote process, operation, execution, and if required, might be able to source the gear and do the show load in. Please contact me.

Some skills (Bluff rank 20, Handle Animal 15, Sense Motive 10) offer abilities that read "as spell X". Without any further text on the Skill Unlocks as a whole, or within the specific skills, are these abilities SP, SU, or EX?

Does anyone know why this is banned? Is there a way to appeal? Honestly, I'm looking at all the pesh feats. Pesh Euphoria, Rejuvenation, Healing, and Sahir-Afiyun.

I have a really cool concept and I can get it to work without this feat, however, the feat itself really makes the character much more interesting and convincing.

I don't know if this has already been addressed but I'd like either a FAQ or clarification if possible.

Slashing grace has been clarified by the masses to only include weapons in the one-hand category due to how it is written. I'd love to find out if the developers meant for it to be this way or if they meant any weapon wielded in one hand.

Please ensure that scenarios are edited before they are released to the public. You have a staff whose job is to edit scenarios.

A concerned player.

PS I'm trying to post this in a more polite manner after my last post was taken down.

I'm trying to look at a couple builds to "babysit" new players in PFS. I'm looking specifically at building a buffer/healer and was trying to find the FAQ on the Evangelist/Sensei and how they interact with certain feats. Can anyone please direct me to the FAQ? I've searched and my google-fu appears to be weak.

I see a lot of people say Ninja > Rogue.

Sell me on it.

Explain why the Ninja is better. As I see it, the only things Ninja get over Rogue is EWP and an extra attack using Ki. Rogues are up on Evasion and Trapfinding.

Dear campaign leadership,

Is Lissala legal, or can you please make her legal?

I know that this has been covered by a lot of people who spend a lot of time on the forums and they have come to a consensus. However, I have not seen leadership yet step in and say yay or nay one way or the other. Further muddling this is the fact that there is a blog post that specifically states that you can use the blog post as legality, however, without a source book listing her as valid...

Please, will someone give us a simple yes or no. With all the activity of worshippers of Lissala that are rumored to be abounding, I'd really like to play a character who worships her.

In all things, I obey.

I'll go first.

A Mathematical Prodigy and a Bully - Dwarf Oracle
A Reactionary Flame of the Dawnflower - Human Rogue/Duelist
He's a Tusked Veteran of Battle - Half Orc Rogue
An Excitable gnome with a Magical Lineage - Gnome Sorcerer
A Hermean Paragon who's an Armor Expert - Aasamir Paldin
Desert Shadow Watching Taldor. - Fetchling Ranger/Bard

This waiting is so frustrating in a Christmas kind of way. It's like waiting for Christmas morning when people are still alseep, but they've given you a +/- 2 week window of when Christmas day *actually* is. You're waiting for people to wake up and tell you if it is even Christmas today.

I love your product and I am looking forward to the fulfillment system, but even a hint of what is in the box under that shiny Blue Golem Wrapping Paper(when is the actual question)?

I play in society, both at game stores and conventions. My wife and a couple of my friends are intimidated by society play however. I asked them if we played at one of our houses if they'd be interested in finding out how society works. In preparation for this I'm asking them that we play a 3 slot chronicle for my birthday to kick things off and they've all agreed. I was planning something like First Steps.

So my question is this. If you could only have one character in society but wanted to have a nice seamless story arc, what games would you play?

Some adventures I have in mind are things that include everything leading up to the Ruby Phoenix tournament and maybe if they all find them selves agreeable and liking it, leading that into Blood Under Absalom as a table some con. Also, Shades of Ice, Hersey of Man and the Devil We Know all spring to mind. I'd like a nice multi-part story arc that really immerses my players and gives them a sense of being in the world as a whole and a pivotal role in the society.

Also, can I get a hand of more experienced players and GM's mapping something like this out? Ideally, chronologically it should all fall in order. A couple adventures obviously can be broken up without damaging continuity, like Among the Living, Among the Dead and Among the Gods, but I'd like them to see the emergence of things like the Shadow lodge.

A god requires followers is known and understood universally. The why is sometimes vague so a friend of mine and I sat down and had a theological/philosophical discussion. Here is the result.
Gods pull from a power pool of some kind; this allows them to grant divine magic, perform miracles, and manifest avatars among other things. Where does this power come from? Obviously worship. But that takes so many forms.

A good god has a lot of followers and seems to gather this energy from them performing tasks in their name. Sometimes this takes the form of alms, prayers or other offerings. A good god will have a large church, giving this power in large numbers, or fanatics performing feats in the gods name from waging war to protecting and sheltering the innocent who then revere the god. An evil god generally has fewer followers, thus requires sacrifice among other forms of piety to unleash this energy. A "dead" god has no worshipers, thus no power.

A priest or a paladin is another matter. The god actually invests a fragment of itself into either the devotee or into the holy symbol, requiring it to be present to manifest the power of the gods. Think of the holy symbol almost like a conduit to the god. They can see, hear and experience the divine casters experiences through it. This would make them omnipotent where the priest is concerned but would also explain the gaps in knowledge where the god doesn’t have a following, creating a blind spot in their knowledge.

Undead would be a perversion of this power unless the god themselves are gods of undead. This explains why they resent lichdom and other intelligent undead. Unless it's a god of undead, then the perversion itself is an act of piety and grants this energy to the font the god pulls from.

So in Golarion, the star stone actually allows humans to tap into this shared essence that followers generate, giving them the ability to harness the ability, elevating an individual to godhood. While very powerful, unless they have a large, devout following, they don’t have as much energy or experience with it as other gods might. The new young gods tend to attract a large following granting them great power but they still lack the experience and haven’t had it suffuse their essence. They further haven’t been able to move between spheres of influence, making them much easier to truly kill since you only need to destroy the god in a single location, unlike other gods who may have other aspects in other universes. (Pelor on Greyhawk is remarkably similar to Sarenrae; one might even say they are different aspects of the same god. So even if you challenge her, she might be able to do a balance transfer from another aspect in another universe while Aroden couldn’t accomplish this allowing him to be slain.)

Irori was able to tap into this mass power by sheer personal understanding and exploration achieving one-ness with the universe and thus granting him access to this font of power. Having followers revere him has further granted him access to a larger pool.

Using this analogy you might be able to further speculate that this divine energy is actually finite in quantity; each individual adding to the sum total that the gods then vie for by converting followers from other gods. Gorum might gain some by having individuals slain in their proper aspect like a great bloody war. Sarenrae and Asmodeus lose a share of energy that Gorum is granted. As he spends it, he must foment more wars to further increase his power. This explains the need for souls ending in their proper place and why holy wars might erupt.