New Scenarios on the Horizon

Monday, March 9, 2015

This year both PaizoCon and Gen Con happen earlier in the year, and that means planning those conventions' adventures takes place even earlier on my end. As Mike and I have noted in several blog posts in early 2015, there are many Special events in addition to the full cast of scenarios. Now that we've finalized our plans for the Pathfinder Society Organized Play convention season and added product pages to , I would like to formally introduce you to our Special event schedule and the rest of Season 6, the Year of the Sky Key:

• Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–20: Returned to the Sky (Tier 7–11)
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–21: Tapestry's Toil (Tier 5–9)
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–22: Out of Anarchy (Tier 1–5)
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–23: The Darkest Abduction (Tier 7–11)
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–97: Siege of Serpents (Tier 1–11)
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–98: Serpents Rise (Tier 7)
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–99: True Dragons of Absalom (Tier 4)
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #7–00: The Sky Key Solution (Tier 1–11)

I want to make sure we have our cover designs finalized for the Season 7 scenarios before they appear on the website with their own product pages, but I'm sure you would appreciate hearing little more about what's in store there.

• Pathfinder Society Scenario #7–01: "Between the Lines" (Tier 1–5): Rival explorers have beaten the Pathfinders to a valuable site in Katapesh, but fortunately most of the riches—including the obscure text the Society sought in the first place—have ended up in the capitol's extensive bazaars. What is at first a routine shopping trip spirals out of control as the PCs uncover the writing's secret past—and secret messages.
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #7–02: "Six Seconds to Midnight" (Tier 3–7): A strange confluence of circumstances leaves the researchers of Uringen understaffed and in need of able-bodied assistants. Conveniently, recent Pathfinder Society experiments call for a rare reagent found only in that area, and the two organizations have negotiated a mutually beneficial deal. Can the PCs reach the secluded settlement in time to witness this extraordinary event—and handle the phenomenon's aftermath?
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #7–03: "The Bronze House Reprisal" (Tier 5–9): A recent assault on the Pathfinder Society has renewed hostilities with the Aspis Consortium, and clues left behind point to one of its masterminds: the gold agent Maiveer Sloan. By infiltrating one of the Consortium's artifact-smuggling operations, the PCs can sabotage their rivals' criminal operations and send a clear message: No attack will go unanswered.

There are lots of exciting adventures in the works!

John Compton
Developer

Familiar Places, Strange Faces

Monday, March 2, 2015

This is the time of year when I put the finishing touches on the Gen Con line-up, whose array of scenarios this year is looking positively stunning. If you haven't taken a look, check out last week's blog for a hint of what is to come. Also, I hear there are still a few volunteer slots left, so be sure to read that blog more closely and contact Mike Brock if you are interested in being a GM at this massive convention.

Illustration by Marek Madej

In the meantime, I am excited about the recently-released February scenarios for Pathfinder Society. This month was a little strange because both adventures are Tier 1–5, but that's mostly because I'm saving some of the higher-level adventures for later in the season when we resolve some other pieces of the Sky Key story. Several months ago, I also took a long hard look at how Gen Con's earlier date this year (July 30–Aug 2) would affect the Season 6 schedule. The Pathfinder Society team decided that the cleanest way to handle this would be to make the Year of the Sky Key shorter by a month and start Season 7 a month early. The result is a slightly compressed season in which you'll see a lot of plot coming together in the final six months and a slightly smaller number of scenarios per season (but not per year). The last standard scenario for Season 6 will be #6–23, plus several Special events released at PaizoCon and Gen Con.

Now that we've talked a bit about the big picture, let's look at some of these recent releases. Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–14: Scions of the Sky Key, Part 2: Kaava Quarry is the second installment in a three-part series that takes the Pathfinders to northern Sargava and (in this adventure) a fun stretch of jungle in the southwest Mwangi Expanse. Author Mike Kimmel was one of the three RPG Superstar 2014 finalists, and I think it's fair to say he had the most open-ended outline of the trio. I received a really fun proposal a few days later, and the result is a giant dinosaur on the cover of a Tier 1–5 scenario and one of my favorite encounters of the year. The PCs are going to need some help, so today I've included an illustration of one of the first acquaintances they meet upon entering the Kaava Lands.

I am also very excited about Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–15: The Overflow Archives, written by Scott Sharplin. I first learned of Scott when speaking with a few freelancers at PaizoCon, and like the professional that he is, he had an Open Call submission waiting in my inbox soon after I got back in the office. You may already be familiar with his work in The Silverhex Chronicles (namely Mists and Mausoleum), and when the schedule had an opening for a low-level adventure tied to the Dark Archive, I asked Scott if he would be interested in turning his Open Call piece into a full scenario. The final adventure is unlike anything published in the campaign to date, and it's a delightful yet whimsically dark story that takes the PCs deep into one of the Grand Lodge's more notorious vaults. Just to give you a sense of the strangeness within, I present the Owl and the Albatross, two figures featured in the story within a story.

Illustration by Marek Madej

John Compton
Developer

Starting to Look a Little Spooky!

Monday, October 27, 2014

Illustration by Darren Ward

In the United States and many other countries throughout Europe and the Americas (and likely beyond), the transition between October and November is a time for Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, and other festivals that mix spiritual significance and macabre imagery. Having grown up loving Halloween—no surprise, I suppose, given my love of playing other characters in RPGs—I like to include a spooky scenario on the schedule in October whenever possible. This year, Tom Phillips returns with his third scenario: Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-06: Hall of the Flesh Eaters, a Tier 1-5 scenario that takes place on one of the Gloomspires, an array of ancient towers rising from the ocean west of the Eye of Abendego. This is a new feature of Tom's invention picked up from his 2012 Top 8 RPG Superstar submission (careful—there are some light spoilers in the link), and we at Paizo agreed it would be a great fit for Golarion. It's been fun giving Tom a lot of creative freedom to flesh out (har har) this location, and I know you're going to enjoy the creepy atmosphere and encounters.

The other scenario for the month is Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-07: Valley of Veiled Flame by returning author Nathan King. I really enjoy picking up old plot threads, and for years players and GMs alike have asked when they might see a use for one particular unique item that appeared on a Chronicle sheet many years ago. In this Tier 5-9 adventure, the PCs travel deep into the Zho mountains on the trail of a lost team of Pathfinders only to find an extraordinary treasure hidden among the peaks. I'd rather not spoil the plot for you, so I'll just leave you with this piece of art.

Also, you may have heard about the upcoming Occult Adventures hardcover book and seen signs about an upcoming playtest. In the past, the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign has participated in the playtest phase of other hardcover books, and we intend to continue that tradition with Occult Adventures—with a bit of a twist: We will provide a Chronicle sheet available as a free download that incentivizes testing one of the new classes and providing feedback during the playtest window based on how many times you played.

Finally, I've begun experimenting with a new type of boon. I'll say no more on the subject, but I'm interested to hear what people think when they start seeing it on Chronicle sheets. When that time comes, I strongly encourage you to discuss it with spoiler tags or noting the spoiler nature in the thread's subject line, for I would appreciate players having a chance to discover it through play and come to their own conclusions first.

John Compton
Developer

The Wait is Nearly Over

Monday, September 22, 2014

Illustration by Teresa Guido

There's always a strange lull after Gen Con, whose middle-of-August dates mean the public sees that month's Pathfinder Society scenarios a few weeks early. Those extra weeks mean a longer wait between the August and September releases—more time in which to speculate about how the rest of the season will play out. This Wednesday, we'll see the first of the post-convention adventures.

The first is Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-04: Beacon Below, which returns to the Sanctum of the Sages to explore a previously unexplored branch of that desert fortress. This Tier 7-11 scenario takes the PCs underground on a dungeon crawl with some intriguing twists. As originally advertised in its faction head letter, there's a lot here for members of the Scarab Sages to enjoy. During the writing process, the author Matt Duval pointed out that the outline also had a great opportunity for the Dark Archive, and the scenario now gives members of that faction something extra to consider. We're previewing the art of one of the principle characters as part of this blog.

Our other scenario is Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-05: Slave Ships of Absalom, a Tier 1-5 scenario that sounds suspiciously like The Slave Pits of Absalom, an adventure dating back to the first months of the organized play campaign. Although this is not quite a true sequel, the action and intrigue in author Mark Garringer's work explore familiar scenes in Absalom's Coins district. Of course, no adventure involving intrigue and slave-liberation is complete without opportunities for the Liberty's Edge and Sovereign Court factions to do what they do best.

Happy gaming!

John Compton
Developer