Great Things Come in Threes!

Monday, March 13, 2017

The Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) Trade Show in Las Vegas has wrapped up and I'm headed back to Seattle early next week. GAMA brings retailers and industry professionals together once a year at their trade show, as well as sponsors the Origins Gaming Convention every June in Columbus, Ohio. The Paizo team was busy this year! The Jasons (Keely and Bulmahn) ran lots of Starfinder ship combat demos, Erik Mona talked to loads of attendees about upcoming Paizo products, including the Starfinder line, Jeff/Cosmo/Pierce/Jenny spent lots of time in meetings, and I gave presentations on Paizo Organized Play. By the way, how many of you caught our live tweets from the presentations? That was the brainchild of our new Outreach Manager, Dan Tharp. You should see his fingers fly on a phone keyboard.

Between meetings and presentations, we all took a spin in the booth talking to retailers and other industry folks about our awesome games. Loads of drool over Starfinder, including the Free RPG Day offering, Starfinder: First Contact, a sleek book filled with monsters that work well in both the Pathfinder and Starfinder settings, and the shiny Buyer's Guide, listing the upcoming Starfinder products. Equally exciting to attendees, the news that Ninja Division will produce pre-painted miniatures for the Starfinder line. While at the show, I handed out over 150 Organized Play packets to stores looking to start organized play or expand their offerings. If you don't currently have Pathfinder Society in a location near you, one may be coming soon. Otherwise, email me at organizedplay@paizo.com and we can work together to get something started.

Starfinder Society and Know Direction

This Wednesday, March 22 at 8:30 PM Eastern time, the Starfinder Society team (John Compton, Thurston Hillman, and myself) will join Know Direction hosts Ryan & Perram for an evening of questions and answers. While focused mostly on the newly announced Starfinder Society Organized Play program, we can field some questions about Pathfinder Society as well. If you have a question you really want answered, put it in the comments and we will add it to our growing list. But be warned, some answers must stay under wraps until closer to the launch in August. In the words of the great River Song, "Spoilers!"

You can find the feed, and other Know Direction podcasts and interviews on their website. We'll see you there on Wednesday!

The OPC Needs a New Character

In my recent travels, I've gotten to play more than I've GMed or organized. Crazy, right? But it means all my characters leveled up and are now in the Tier 5+ range. So I need new characters to take on my great con tour this summer.

I've been trying to come up with ideas, but nothing really tickled my fancy, so I'm asking Pathfinder Society players to help me out. I'm actually making a contest out of it. Character concepts must fit the criteria below. Include a backstory of between 280 and 300 words that provides insight into the character and their motivations. Submit your entry as email text (no attachments!) to pathfindersociety@paizo.com (Subject: OPC Needs A New Character Contest) along with your Pathfinder Society number. Entries must be received by April 3, 2017 for consideration for the contest.

I've asked the Organized Play team (and maybe a few other staffers) to help me narrow down the options. We will put our top choices in a blog on Monday, April 10 for the community to vote on. The concept with the highest votes becomes my 23rd character. The winner receives $20 paizo.com store credit, as well as bragging rights and a named acknowledgement every time I play the character.

Criteria

• Race: Any legal without a boon
• Class: Any
• Gender: Any
• Name: No puns and suitable for playing with younger players
• Stats: Balanced (nothing lower than an 8)
• Resources: Any
• Format: Paizo stat block
• Play Style: I like to participate in all aspects of an adventure, so a mix of skills and combat, don't mind being a "face" but prefer not to be the front line fighter, and prefer cool concepts to min-maxed abilities
• Level progression: 5th for feats, skills, and selectable class features

I look forward to seeing what you all come up with for me to play!

Next week is John's scenario introductions, so I'll see you in two weeks with a wrap up of Who's Yer Con, which I'm attending March 31 to April 2 in Indianapolis, IN.

Until then—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Coordinator