Marketing & Media Specialist
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Hey folks, as we've announced in today's blog, we are cancelling PaizoCon Online this year. This was a difficult decision, but we look forward to engaging with you via other events this year.
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It would be REALLY COOL if we still got an Erik Mona keynote style presentation, just launched on youtube or something. I look forward to those the most!
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I wonder if the new store couldn't handle selling badges to the con, so they had to cancel it.
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Really bummed to hear PAIZOCON Online is cancelled. I attended every year and frankly the only reason I canceled all other standing engagements for that weekend. Just when you hope and pray there will be more this year, you find that the thing you like is canceled. Not having a Keynote to fawn over for the weekend will be sorely missed. Getting to see staff live play games. And though I will be sorely disappointed this year, I do hope it returns. Please...
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For those that are interested, the Online Region will hold "Bridging the Gap" con May 22nd - 25th, 2026 to help, well, bridge the gap in events.
Bridging the Gap 2026 is an online-only games convention hosted by the Organized Play Online region. The con runs from Friday May 22 – Monday May 25 for VTT games and then PBD games will continue to Friday August 14th.
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!
Details on Discord
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Community & Social Media Specialist
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It would be REALLY COOL if we still got an Erik Mona keynote style presentation, just launched on youtube or something. I look forward to those the most!
We will be doing some other fun streams to announce new product, so be on the lookout for those!
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Community & Social Media Specialist
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Say it ain't so!
Can we get some more insight as to what led y'all to this decision?
Simply put, we think there could be better ways to make PaizoCon more enjoyable and effective for people, so we need some time to reevaluate. Hopefully we'll be able to come up with something that works great for everyone!
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In the Seattle area the Emerald City Lodge will be hosting our own Memorial Day Weekend con on Saturday and Sunday. It won't be as cool as having the tie in to the nation- and worldwide community that PaizoCon provided, but it'll still be fun.
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Simply put, we think there could be better ways to make PaizoCon more enjoyable and effective for people, so we need some time to reevaluate. Hopefully we'll be able to come up with something that works great for everyone!Say it ain't so!
Can we get some more insight as to what led y'all to this decision?
Thank you. That makes sense: sometimes we have to stand down to do better. I'll be looking forward to what y'all put together for next year.
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I've only ever attended PaizoCon Online.
Why? Because, just like with GenCon, with the costs for time, travel, hotels, food/eating 'out', a full-sized convention is too expensive for me now.
Also, quite frankly, not having to deal with post-convention illnesses (Con bug) is a major bonus.
I miss the live con experience, but not THAT much.
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Community & Social Media Specialist
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Thank you. That makes sense: sometimes we have to stand down to do better. I'll be looking forward to what y'all put together for next year.
Thank you so much for understanding! This was a really hard decision for us, and we were so worried about letting our community down, but we really are working to make something better. Your understanding means so much, Shazburg!
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Community & Social Media Specialist
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I've only ever attended PaizoCon Online.
Why? Because, just like with GenCon, with the costs for time, travel, hotels, food/eating 'out', a full-sized convention is too expensive for me now.
Also, quite frankly, not having to deal with post-convention illnesses (Con bug) is a major bonus.
I miss the live con experience, but not THAT much.
This is good feedback too! Thank you, Keldin!
We will be doing some other fun streams to announce new product, so be on the lookout for those!It would be REALLY COOL if we still got an Erik Mona keynote style presentation, just launched on youtube or something. I look forward to those the most!
Eyes peeled ◎ܫ◎
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As someone who has been attending PaizoCon and GenCon ever since they've been online events, this really sucks to hear. We're losing out on one of the most highly anticipated events of the year, a place to hear about the company's biggest announcements for the year, and most importantly, one of the only places to get a direct Q&A and form of teased details about upcoming books from the designers and developers themselves.
It seems like, more than ever, that we're losing out on the interactivity with the design team. With Maya and JJ being the main exceptions to the rule, we barely hear anything from the designers themselves. And PaizoCon was the best place each year to reconnect with and interact with the team on a more personal manner. I can't even tell you who most of the design team is anymore, to be honest with you.
I'm just hoping that whatever comes about to replace PaizoCon is better suited to everyone. But especially so, I hope there's a strong online presence in it. Being unable to afford to fly out and attend in-person conventions myself, an online event like PaizoCon is exactly the experience I want from Paizo. Hopefully that doesn't get cast aside like how the online component of GenCon did last year.
Question for Maya: Are the two additional streams we're getting this month being done due to the lack of a Keynote for PaizoCon? Or are the additional streams just unrelated?
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For those that are interested, the Online Region will hold "Bridging the Gap" con May 22nd - 25th, 2026 to help, well, bridge the gap in events.
Bridging the Gap 2026 is an online-only games convention hosted by the Organized Play Online region. The con runs from Friday May 22 – Monday May 25 for VTT games and then PBD games will continue to Friday August 14th.
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!
Details on Discord
Happy to hear about this, at least. Jumping on the Discord to learn more. :)
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Cheering all the Paizo goblins, kobolds, and orcs on from afar. I know it’s a labor of love.
And bravo to the Online Region!
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Having moved to Seattle, in part, for PaizoCon, this is a bit sad, even if a 1e grognard like myself wasn't getting as much out of it lately. But using the usual PaizoCon prep time to review feedback and make improvements seems like a good use of it.
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We will be doing some other fun streams to announce new product, so be on the lookout for those!It would be REALLY COOL if we still got an Erik Mona keynote style presentation, just launched on youtube or something. I look forward to those the most!
Would this be in reference to the two extra Streams happening next week, or are those only partially or wholly unrelated? I remember those being teased as presenting "big announcements" for all of Paizo's product lines, so I'm curious if maybe those are the substitute?
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Sorry to see this canceled, but I'll add my support to seeing some kind of keynote or "state of Paizo" with some incoming release hype for the following few months.
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I'm interested to see what happens, on the subject of reevaluation, and this is just my perspective as a fan obviously-- what a lot of people mention in response to my write ups is that they prefer it as a way to get information out of the stream partially because the stream itself can be such a big ask-- its long form content at a particular time that goes on continuously and any given fan has a mix of things they care about and don't care about discussed, so you're sometimes watching the keynote or something waiting for THE THING, and sometimes it doesn't happen, and its actually easier to get information secondhand.
Personally, for both the write ups and AMAs the reason I started doing them is because I recognized that in other similar communities, they provide a 'festival' atmosphere that gets people hype for whats coming, and they seduce eyes over from other competing products, like "hey, something big is going on with the Pathfinder people, whoa they're getting a COMMANDER CLASS!? WHAT!? Maybe I should talk to my GM" so they always seemed like a good way to boost a game i love as fan (ultimately in the service of me not going through the tragedy of 4e's end of life again.)
In the spirit of both of those things, if I were in the companies shoes and considering how to promote, I'd be looking at sizzle reel content, short trailers (or longer trailers that can be broken up) that explain a specific feature from an upcoming piece of content, like a new class, that can make its way through DND-tock and stuff, or get recommends through the algorithm-- the same stuff we might get in a panel, but condensed. Longer form explanations of anything could be an official AMA on the sub or something, that's easy to find and read digestably.
I think the AP trailers do a decent job, but they're paced a little slow for how short they are, and I think character options are actually better to promote because they're universal-- only a subset of the community plays APs, but every new character has a shot at being a new class. There's a part of me thats even tempted to say that since paizo products have been interlinked in big event pushes lately (Godsrain, Hellfire Crisis) you can basically do both with the same trailer.
E.g. we might see the Slayer explained in the context of being a van helsing type deal in the context of bastard hall, all in a short video, with some music, snatches of players declaring that they're using cool actions intermixed with hype roleplaying lines, with some MTV style punchy editing.
IDK if any of that is realistic of course.
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It'd be lovely to see Paizo at the Terminal City Tabletop Convention, I haven't been keen on travelling to the states recently.
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This is good feedback too! Thank you, Keldin!I've only ever attended PaizoCon Online.
Why? Because, just like with GenCon, with the costs for time, travel, hotels, food/eating 'out', a full-sized convention is too expensive for me now.
Also, quite frankly, not having to deal with post-convention illnesses (Con bug) is a major bonus.
I miss the live con experience, but not THAT much.
Just to balance the feedback, I've been upset that there hasn't been a live PaizoCon. That's what we REALLY need. This game is all about social interaction, and online interaction is not the same. An entire generation is currently suffering the effects of a lack of real-life, interpersonal connection, and PaizoCon could go a long way towards not only giving us a great experience in gaming, but a great experience in communication and interpersonal connection! BRING BACK IRL PAIZOCON!!!
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My only hope is that whatever form is taken does not remove the "Online" component, because "People are going back to work" for several people whom are either disabled, covid aware, too poor to make it to Seattle or all three, PaizoCon online was our only option. So whichever form the reopening takes, please let it include an online component.
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Community & Social Media Specialist
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Eyes peeled ◎ܫ◎
Yes keep them peeled! We have lots planned! We also recommend turning on notifications for our Twitch channel so you can tell when we're live since sometimes the calendar is a bit wonky on accurately displaying what our streams will be.
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Community & Social Media Specialist
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As someone who has been attending PaizoCon and GenCon ever since they've been online events, this really sucks to hear. We're losing out on one of the most highly anticipated events of the year, a place to hear about the company's biggest announcements for the year, and most importantly, one of the only places to get a direct Q&A and form of teased details about upcoming books from the designers and developers themselves.
It seems like, more than ever, that we're losing out on the interactivity with the design team. With Maya and JJ being the main exceptions to the rule, we barely hear anything from the designers themselves. And PaizoCon was the best place each year to reconnect with and interact with the team on a more personal manner. I can't even tell you who most of the design team is anymore, to be honest with you.
I'm just hoping that whatever comes about to replace PaizoCon is better suited to everyone. But especially so, I hope there's a strong online presence in it. Being unable to afford to fly out and attend in-person conventions myself, an online event like PaizoCon is exactly the experience I want from Paizo. Hopefully that doesn't get cast aside like how the online component of GenCon did last year.
Question for Maya: Are the two additional streams we're getting this month being done due to the lack of a Keynote for PaizoCon? Or are the additional streams just unrelated?
Kind of both! We want to do more streams in general because you all seem to really enjoy our big announcement streams just across the board, but also with the lack of PaizoCon, we wanted to start doing these streams ASAP since we know you're all still interested in and very much invested in what we're working on! This answers LoreMonger13's question too!
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Community & Social Media Specialist
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Just to balance the feedback, I've been upset that there hasn't been a live PaizoCon. That's what we REALLY need. This game is all about social interaction, and online interaction is not the same. An entire generation is currently suffering the effects of a lack of real-life, interpersonal connection, and PaizoCon could go a long way towards not only giving us a great experience in gaming, but a great experience in communication and interpersonal connection! BRING BACK IRL PAIZOCON!!!
This is something we definitely wish we could do! Thanks for giving more feedback, Demoyn!
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Community & Social Media Specialist
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My only hope is that whatever form is taken does not remove the "Online" component, because "People are going back to work" for several people whom are either disabled, covid aware, too poor to make it to Seattle or all three, PaizoCon online was our only option. So whichever form the reopening takes, please let it include an online component.
I am personally adamant about not removing a heavy online component because as much as it would be nice to have it in person again, we really do have so many fans who aren't able to attend and shouldn't have to miss out on such a fun time and such big announcements. We'll do our best in this reevaluation, and thank you for letting me know my inclinations to still keep focus on online elements are on the right track!
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Kind of both! We want to do more streams in general because you all seem to really enjoy our big announcement streams just across the board, but also with the lack of PaizoCon, we wanted to start doing these streams ASAP since we know you're all still interested in and very much invested in what we're working on! This answers LoreMonger13's question too!As someone who has been attending PaizoCon and GenCon ever since they've been online events, this really sucks to hear. We're losing out on one of the most highly anticipated events of the year, a place to hear about the company's biggest announcements for the year, and most importantly, one of the only places to get a direct Q&A and form of teased details about upcoming books from the designers and developers themselves.
It seems like, more than ever, that we're losing out on the interactivity with the design team. With Maya and JJ being the main exceptions to the rule, we barely hear anything from the designers themselves. And PaizoCon was the best place each year to reconnect with and interact with the team on a more personal manner. I can't even tell you who most of the design team is anymore, to be honest with you.
I'm just hoping that whatever comes about to replace PaizoCon is better suited to everyone. But especially so, I hope there's a strong online presence in it. Being unable to afford to fly out and attend in-person conventions myself, an online event like PaizoCon is exactly the experience I want from Paizo. Hopefully that doesn't get cast aside like how the online component of GenCon did last year.
Question for Maya: Are the two additional streams we're getting this month being done due to the lack of a Keynote for PaizoCon? Or are the additional streams just unrelated?
Thank you, Maya! <3
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Eyes peeled ◎ܫ◎Yes keep them peeled! We have lots planned! We also recommend turning on notifications for our Twitch channel so you can tell when we're live since sometimes the calendar is a bit wonky on accurately displaying what our streams will be.
Any chance for simultaneous Youtube streams? I loathe Twitch with a fiery passion.
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Community & Social Media Specialist
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Any chance for simultaneous Youtube streams? I loathe Twitch with a fiery passion.
Unfortunately without the staff to monitor in both places, we can only stream on one platform at a time ㅠㅠ We do have a YouTube simulcast, but we realize it's not quite the same. If you're willing to wait a few days, we always get them up on as permanent videos on YouTube after!
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My only hope is that whatever form is taken does not remove the "Online" component, because "People are going back to work" for several people whom are either disabled, covid aware, too poor to make it to Seattle or all three, PaizoCon online was our only option. So whichever form the reopening takes, please let it include an online component.I am personally adamant about not removing a heavy online component because as much as it would be nice to have it in person again, we really do have so many fans who aren't able to attend and shouldn't have to miss out on such a fun time and such big announcements. We'll do our best in this reevaluation, and thank you for letting me know my inclinations to still keep focus on online elements are on the right track!
Thank you so much for fighting for those of us who cannot afford to go to a physical convention, and those of us who physically cannot go even if they financially could. It means a lot to me to have an online component for these kinds of events, for both the social environment and for easier access to the news and announcements Paizo would make there.
And thank you for answering my question earlier, Maya. I'll make sure to tune in and take notes for both of the streams next week, so I can make a text version for those who cannot afford the time or have the ability to absorb the news via video means.
You've been amazing as always, Maya. Keep doing your best. The Paizo community will be supporting you as best as we can.
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Community & Social Media Specialist
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Thank you so much for fighting for those of us who cannot afford to go to a physical convention, and those of us who physically cannot go even if they financially could. It means a lot to me to have an online component for these kinds of events, for both the social environment and for easier access to the news and announcements Paizo would make there.
And thank you for answering my question earlier, Maya. I'll make sure to tune in and take notes for both of the streams next week, so I can make a text version for those who cannot afford the time or have the ability to absorb the news via video means.
You've been amazing as always, Maya. Keep doing your best. The Paizo community will be supporting you as best as we can.
You're very welcome, Ezekieru! I'll keep fighting, and we'll work hard to make the best PaizoCon ever. Thank you too for supporting me and all of us!
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Everyone saying how sad they are about the halting of online PaizoCon is how I felt when the in-person PaizoCon was halted.
Feels like Paizo and PF may have peaked; no sense of excitement anymore.
Even my group has began looking at other IPs like Daggerheart and Star Wars RPG.
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Community & Social Media Specialist
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Everyone saying how sad they are about the halting of online PaizoCon is how I felt when the in-person PaizoCon was halted.
Feels like Paizo and PF may have peaked; no sense of excitement anymore.
Even my group has began looking at other IPs like Daggerheart and Star Wars RPG.
As a Star Wars nerd myself, of course other games are great! But, I also have to insist we have lots more to come! Game however makes you happy though!
I'm excited out of my mind for High Seas, and with Starfinder just beginning to integrate with Pathfinder, there's no end of possibilities for the system. Can't wait to explore more of Paizo's worlds! Hope we see Numeria and Arcadia soon.
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I keep telling Tim Nightengale we need to start over at the beginning again with a grassroots PaizoCon. Maybe it's time!
Heh, it may just have to come to that. I'm not quite to that point...yet. Plus seems like most people preferred PaizoCon Online mostly because they didn't have to travel (or leave their house).
I will say that the in-person PaizoCon, especially in those first few years, was really special. Pathfinder was new, the community was smaller, and the ability to hang out casually with game designers, developers, editors, and artists was a real treat. It's kind of like we captured lightning in a bottle. The memories and relationships from those PaizoCons are something I will treasure forever.
The world has obviously changed, and Paizo adapted marvelously.
No matter what, I'm proud of what PaizoCon was, became, and what it means to my fellow fans.
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Given the logistics and possible restrictions involved in trying to negotiate a safe method of meeting up for voice/video, this is probably the wise course of action, even if it is rough to handle.
Cannot imagine how it must feel for the Paizo team to have to confront these concerns head-on in an environment where the company is probably in the crosshairs of particular aspects of society that want the most prominent aspects of the company gone from public view.
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Contributor
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I will say that the in-person PaizoCon, especially in those first few years, was really special. Pathfinder was new, the community was smaller, and the ability to hang out casually with game designers, developers, editors, and artists was a real treat. It's kind of like we captured lightning in a bottle. The memories and relationships from those PaizoCons are something I will treasure forever.
Those early ones I was able to attend were some of my favorite cons.