Stars, Kudos, Conventions, and More!

Friday, August 17, 2018

So we've put a wrap on Gen Con 2018 and are already talking about 2019! Once again the Sagamore Ballroom rang to the sound of games, this time in three different systems - Pathfinder, Starfinder, and Pathfinder Playtest. We had a special during each evening slot, accompanied by awesome visual maps put together by Paizonian Andrew White. The presentation for Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-00: The Hao Jin Cataclysm by Mike Kimmel, featured the vocal talents of editor Jason Keely and customer service rep Sam Phelan blended together through the mastery of Ben Loomes of Syrinscape. I highly recommend checking it out!

If you prefer your interactives traveling to distant star systems, I recommend Starfinder Society Scenario #1-99: The Scoured Stars Invasion, by Mikko Kallio. Debuting at Origins and with repeat runs at PaizoCon UK and Gen Con, it mixes ship combat and tactical adventure in a must-play story that pivots the action from Season 1 and sets up the events of Season 1A.

John departs in a couple weeks for DragonCon in Atlanta, while I have a week longer at home base and then am off for SkalCon. We are currently looking at travel for 2019 and setting up the shows we will attend. If you are an organizer who wishes for an organized play staffer to attend your show, please send an email to organizedplay@paizo.com with the show particulars, including if you are able to assist with airfare/hotels/badges/meals. We are working on a short timeline and need requests by 1 September 2018.

Volunteers

A huge thank you to all the GMs and HQ staffers who volunteered for our conventions this year, both for the large scale shows like PaizoCon, Origins, and Gen Con and the local events. Without you, there would be no Society, no game rooms, and possibly no conventions. We appreciate your continued support and offer up three cheers for your continued generosity of time and energy!

A few final details need working out before we put out a call for PAX Unplugged, but we will be looking for some assistance with that show.

Pathfinder Society GM Stars

A cornerstone of the Pathfinder Society is the Game Masters who To achieve this milestone, GMs facilitate 150 games, of which at least 50 must be unique scenarios and 10 are special scenarios, as well as run a game for a venture-captain. A conservative estimate of time needed to reach 5-stars is 650 hours! To the GM listed below, thank you very much for the time and energy you spend running Pathfinder Society games! Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

• Snowy Brierley
• Brent Gass
• Kevin Baumann
• Francis Webb
• Stefan Rohde
• Matt Proctor
• Geoffrey Peart

Campaign Service Coins

My travels over the past six weeks afforded me several opportunities to award members of our community for going above and beyond in their dedication and service to the Society. Each of these members has been part of the venture officer community at some point, in some cases multiple times. They founded areas, setting up games where there were none. Mentorship, convention volunteer, organizer...just a few titles they've worn over the years. A huge thank you to the following volunteers. We recognized their effort with a coin and a new Organized Play number. For their effort and service on behalf of their local communities and the Society at large, vivat!

Gustavo Cruz	795	PaizoCon UK 2018
Jim Torbet	796	PaizoCon UK 2018
Caner Unsal	797	PaizoCon UK 2018
Lau Bannenberg	798	PaizoCon UK 2018
Walter Sheppard	799	Gen Con 2018
David Shaw	800	Gen Con 2018
Mike Bramnik	801	Gen Con 2018
Will Johnson	802	Gen Con 2018
Russ Brown	803	Gen Con 2018

Order of the Wayfinder

Two years ago, we founded a new award that recognized a top volunteer in the Organized Play community. Called the Order of the Wayfinder, it is handed out once each year in recognition of exceptional service to the Society as a whole. This year, we did not award a Paizo volunteer of the year, choosing instead to wrap that award into the Order of the Wayfinder, as many of the Volunteer of the Year recipients were also organized play volunteers. The first recipient was Bob Jonquet for being a long term Venture-Captain/Regional Venture-Coordinator and Gen Con lead. Last year, we recognized Alistair Rigg for being a long term Venture-Captain (on two continents) and maintaining the Warhorn catalog for both Pathfinder and Starfinder scenarios.

This year, during the Venture-Captain dinner at Gen Con, we announced the third winner. Unfortunately, the recipient wasn't able to join us, so I swore the room to secrecy until I could contact them. Several hours later, after a late night (for them) Messenger conversation, I could announce the newest inductee to the Order of the Wayfinder: Auke Teeninga!

Besides being a Regional Venture-Captain, having joined the ranks of VC as part of the original 13, Auke has spent hours behind the scenes streamlining event support, boon distribution, and scenario requisition. His work, while not as visible as some volunteers, enables thousands of events to receive their support in a timely manner. He watches over the requests and makes sure they do not fall through the cracks. In addition, he participates in a variety of Task Forces and liaisons with the other RVCs to deliver a quality program. Thank you Auke, for all your efforts on behalf of Organized Play!

Starfinder Society Second Seekers

Over the past few months we've received emails about several characters achieving fame with the Second Seekers [Luwasi Elsebo] faction. As Rising Stars in their faction, they hope to achieve some level of renown. If you have such a character and are interested in their continued ascension within the Starfinder Society, please send their name, class, and a brief write-up, along with your organized play number and their character number, to organizedplay@paizo.com.

Conventions

The summer con rush is wrapping up, but the list below shows there are still plenty of opportunities to attend conventions and play Society games! All of the conventions on the list maintain some type of web presence, be it website, social media page, or Warhorn listing, so if you are interested in attending in either capacity, check out their websites or contact the local venture-officer for more information! If you know of a convention running Society games that is not on this list, encourage the organizer to contact me at organizedplay@paizo.com to discuss their event.

Convention Name	Location	Start Date
Play-by-Post Gameday VII (2018)	Online	8/13/2018
GardenCon 2018	Geneva, Switzerland	8/16/2018
AnimeFest (2018)	Dallas, TX	8/17/2018
Burg Comics Con 2018	Harrisburg, IL	8/18/2018
SFS Tacoma Game Day 2018	Tacoma, WA	8/19/2018
Convocation 2018	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada	8/24/2018
Coulee Con 2018	La Crosse, WI	8/24/2018
Dragonflight 39 (2018)	Bellevue, WA	8/24/2018
Extra Life Table Top Appreciation Weekend	Hudson, OH	8/24/2018
MegaMooseCon 2018	Richburg, SC	8/24/2018
Neon RI	Warwick, RI	8/24/2018
Shadowcon 2018	London, United Kingdom	8/25/2018
Reaper Con	Denton, TX	8/29/2018
B-Con	Denver, CO	8/30/2018
FanExpo 2018	Toronto, Ontario, Canada	8/30/2018
CoNfUsIoN 2018 - Summer	Utrecht, the Netherlands	8/31/2018
DragonCon 2018	Atlanta, GA	8/31/2018
Gateway 2018	Los Angeles, CA	8/31/2018
Gateway to Golarion III	Kutztown, PA	8/31/2018
Gexcon 2018	Chantilly, VA	8/31/2018
PacifiCon 40 (2018)	Santa Clara, CA	8/31/2018
SacAnime Summer 2018	Sacramento, CA	8/31/2018
TRPG Festival: Welcome to Pathfinder Lodge in Japan	Shizuoka, Japan	8/31/2018
Your Pathfinder Con I (2018)	Fredericksburg, VA	8/31/2018
Corn Con	DeKalb, IL. USA	9/1/2018
CornCon (2018)	DeKalb, IL	9/1/2018
Charlotte Crit-Con 2 - Double Damage	Concord, NC	9/7/2018
Evergreens & Beer (2018)	Sylva, NC	9/7/2018
HoH Comic Con 2018	Elkhart, IN	9/7/2018
Lone Star Game Expo 2018	Grapevine, TX	9/7/2018
SIBCON 2018	Butler, PA	9/7/2018
PFS/SFS @ Granite State Comic Con 2018	Manchester, NH	9/8/2018
TotalCon End of Summer Sizzler (2018)	Marlborough, MA	9/9/2018
BattleCon The Third (2018)	Richmond, VA	9/14/2018
Grand Con 2018	Grand Rapids, MI	9/14/2018
SkålCon 2018	Roseville, MN	9/14/2018
CogCon 28 (2018)	Rolla, MO	9/21/2018
HMGS-South Hurricon 2018	Kissimmee, FL	9/27/2018
Fields of Honor 2018	Johnson, IA	9/28/2018
Retail Support Con I (2018)	Raleigh, NC	9/28/2018
RinCon 2018	Tucson, AZ	9/28/2018
Saluki Comic Con (2018)	Carbondale, IL	9/28/2018
Rollplay 2018	Singapore,	9/29/2018
SydCon18 (2018)	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia	9/29/2018
NukeCon 2018	Omaha, NE	10/5/2018
Conapalooza 2018	Kingsport, TN	10/12/2018
Pathcon 5.0 (2018)	Salt Lake City, UT	10/19/2018

2018 Organized Play Staff Travel

Unfortunately, I've had to withdraw from attending FanExpo in Toronto this year due to some logistics issues. I'm working with the event team to add it to my travel roster in 2019. I've updated the list below to reflect organized play staff attendance at the last few shows of the season.

Convention Name	Location	Start Date	OP Staff
DragonCon	Atlanta, GA	8/30/18	John
SkalCon	Minnaepolis-St. Paul, MN	9/14/18	Tonya
Hurricon	Tampa, FL	9/27/18	Tonya
PaizoCon OZ	Melbourne, Australia	10/19/18	Tonya
U-Con	Ann Arbor, MI	11/16/18	Tonya
PAX Unplugged	Philadelphia, PA	11/30/18	Tonya

With the Pathfinder Playtest in full swing, we will soon revisit the Pathfinder Society 2 topic threads we introduced when we first announced a new edition of the Pathfinder Game. While we cannot give you a full view of what the new Society will look like, we hope to be able to narrow our discussions and hone in on a few topics.

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge

Organized Play Manager