As we all know, Paizo had to cancel their annual PaizoCon 2020 held in Seattle, Washington for this year due to stay-at-home orders in Washington. While some states are reopening and some states are not, the convention scene is largely being cancelled out because of social distancing requirements which really don’t work well for conventions. I do not want to get into pros and cons of the reopening and social distancing and all that. Let’s leave that for our other lives. What I want to cover in this post is that Organized Play is continuing online and so is PaizoCon 2020.
That’s right, a lot of the VOs were wanting a convention for Org Play and so did Paizo. After all, they are still in business and want to stay in business, so they need to promote their p
roducts. Conventions are a great way to do that as we all know from the effect they have on our wallets as we head home loaded down with new books, dice, minis, and other gaming materials. Therefore, the folks at Paizo and Org Play have announced what might is going to be the largest virtual Org Play convention yet, PaizoCon Online 2020!
Join us for six days of gaming during PaizoCon Online, which takes place May 26-31. Stay safe at home as you play awesome Pathfinder and Starfinder games with friends around the world!
GM signups go from noon on May 1 to noon May 13. Player signups start 1 p.m. on 16 May and run through midnight May 24. All times PDT.
I want to remind you that this is a virtual convention meaning it is 100% online. There are multiple Virtual Table Tops (VTTs) that this will be on.
Roll20 is the most popular VTT in use for Pathfinder Society games, but it is not the only one out there.
Fantasy Grounds is also used by some GMs. I’ve seen several in the Discord chat talking about their sessions being on FG.
D20Pro is also used by some GMs.
Astral is a newer VTT that I personally have not used, but am hearing good things about.
All of the voice communications will be via Discord which I’ve shared with you before. 
You can sign up to GM now or wait until May 16 and sign up to play via Warhorn which we all know so well. To see all the sessions and trust me, t
here’s a lot of them, use the daily view. There were already 670 sessions with a GM signed up to run them this morning. I was nice enough to make that link go right to PaizoCon Online. Be sure to log in and set the time to your time zone so it matches up right.
I have been running and playing games online since 2016 via Roll20 and Discord. I’ve met a lot of great people that way including our newest Venture Agent Nicole Heits, for our new lodge in Maryville, Missouri. We are still building up the plans for a big event there when we can do live gaming again. If you aren’t sure about this, I would like to point out that my 13 year old granddaughter is starting to master Roll20 and Discord at her house since we can’t all be together. She did pretty good in her first session. So if she can do it, you can too!
Did I say how much you have to spend to play at PaizoCon Online 2020? It’s the freest convention you’ll ever attend. That’s right! Your cost is NOTHING!
Now, that’s a bargain! Also, it costs you nothing to use any of the VTTs to play on. GMs might spend some money on them, but that’s because we like the extra tools for building and running tables online. All the players have to do is show up and fill out a character sheet. You can easily fill out a Roll20 PFS2 character sheet in less than 10 minutes. So really, there’s no barrier to playing online.
I’ve been running some sessions online and even ran a group through Fall of Plaguestone on Roll20 last month. This looks more and more like it’s our only means of playing for a bit. I don’t know exactly when we will be able to play live again. Illinois is still under a stay-at-home order. I’m not 100% sure on Columbia’s status, but I believe we are not able to gather yet under the current reopening plans there. There are plenty of issues still with social distancing requirements which are going to negatively impact us for a while longer I fear.
Once we can safely gather I will schedule a Smackdown and a Conclave. So far, QuinCon is still planning to occur, but that is going to depend on social distancing requirements. That is going to be in the Adams County Board of Health’s hands along with the State of Illinois. Also, an ominous sign from the Gen Con folks occurred Friday when they announced a delay in event signups.
While we evaluate safety measures related to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, both the release of the event catalog and the opening of event registration will be 
delayed. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this unprecedented time. We will update our community with the measures we are taking to keep everyone safe and healthy in the coming weeks.
Marion County, Indiana is where Gen Con will be held and they are lagging behind the rest of Indiana in meeting their state guidelines for reopening. Even a full reopen is going to limit numbers of people and require social distancing. If you’ve ever been to Gen Con, there is typically no social distancing at all possible.
But hey! We’ve got PaizoCon Online 2020! I do not know if they are doing lottery stuff or not. This is their first online con. BUT I do know for certain that the Achievement Points are getting closer and closer to finally launching. They’ve been playing around with them in the accounts and will have them up by August 1st for certain. I know that seems like a while off, but they’re pretty busy right now with PaizoCon Online. This is the biggest virtual Org Play convention ever easily and a lot of the Org Play people are getting a crash course from us online vets as how to do online gaming and how to run a con. They’re working their butts off as I type. I know because Linda Zayas-Palmer said she was going to work when the Arcane Mark podcast signed off at 1. Online cons take some effort anyway and this one dwarfs the other ones we’ve done. SIX DAYS of gaming, folks!
Okay, that’s enough from me! If you have questions, come see us on our Discord channel. Spread the word! I’ll be running some games if people want to test out the virtual gaming world and have some fun.
 
The League of Aroden 