Väl mött, äventyrare! We are coming up on the end of August and there have been some things happening which I want to share with you. First up is the Absalom Lodge Conclave which is tomorrow in Quincy. You can read all about it at the post I made on our site earlier this week. I am expecting that we fire at least two tables in the first slot, so be sure to reserve your seat on our Warhorn page. A third table depends on if we have a GM willing to run a table.
As some of you know (because you came to the event), we began operations in Kirksville, Missouri on August 21st. This becomes the fourth lodge in the League of Aroden. Cordaro Boughton is our Venture-Agent for the Emerald Goblins Guild of Kirksville. I thought there was a pretty good sized group of people at the Annex building that day for PFS and D&D, especially considering it was move in day for Truman State and literally a nice sunny weekend. This just shows me how starved gamers in Kirksville are to play RPGs. As we move forward, Cordaro will have the schedule set up and we will begin posting it.
Not to be outdone, we are also in the beginning stages of launching a lodge for Monroe City/Shelbina. The Venture-Agent for this lodge will be Russell Amberson. This lodge will be working very closely with our Gryffyn Flight lodge in Hannibal. We also are hoping to kickstart a RPG Club at the Hannibal campus of Moberly Area Community College this semester which may or may not be affiliated with Gryffyn Flight. It could end up being its own lodge. Time will tell on this.
For official news, yesterday’s weekly Paizo Blog told us that we have some new scenarios coming out on August 31st. Enjoy them because the production schedule for PFS has been reduced due to the hiring process for two new PFS designers/developers/editors. We are only going to get one scenario a month for PFS2 from September through January as it looks right now. There has been a lot of internal Paizo movement which is pretty normal at this point in the year, but the good news is this hiring push is actually enlarging the production staff for the team. So, there is a silver lining in the cloud. Also, one of the upcoming scenarios is a repeatable 5-8 tier scenario, so that will be extra nice.
Now, some really good news for us which will address the upcoming content shortage. First up, in October we can expect the release of Crown of the Kobold King which is a 128-page adventure. It is a hardcover which gathers three classic Pathfinder adventures into one unforgettable compilation, expanding them into a mini-campaign and introducing a brand-new dungeon level for heroes to explore. Completely updated to Pathfinder Second Edition, the insidious Kobold King and his minions return to bedevil a new generation of adventurers! This is for levels 1-6.
But wait, there’s more! They have just sanctioned the 8 Case File adventures found in Dark Archive. They cover a large level range, including L12. Here is the link to the sanctioning documents which can also be found on the product page. I just played one last night in Hannibal and it was a lot of fun. Remember, these are meant to be ran in Adventure Mode where the GM sets the requirements for characters. Each of the case files is roughly equivalent in time to half of a scenario (two hours). Therefore, players each 2 XP, 2 Reputation, and 5 Treasure Bundles appropriate to a character of their level. You apply them to a character of your choice. These are not repeatable for play. These should make up for some missing scenarios easily.
Oh, you poor fool. You thought I was done! NOOOO! If those adventures are sanctioned, then that means Dark Archive is sanctioned for play. You can go to the Character Options page and see what is allowed or not allowed for that book as well as all of the rulebooks and Lost Omens books that have been released to this point. Lost Omens: Travel Guide is out next week and will be sanctioned on release date. We are being told that sanctioning for Crown of the Kobold King and the upcoming SF hardcover version of the Dead Suns Adventure Path should be right about street date as well. Also, the classic Kingmaker Adventure Path has been updated for 2e and is slated for release at the end of October. Its sanctioning will probably be sometime in November. They even put out some content for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Society too! Check out the new and updated Guide for more on that.
GM Recognition
Campaign Service Coins
While at Gen Con, I was able to award a number of additional Campaign Coins. We award these coins to members of the community who have gone above and beyond to provide an exceptional program to the community at large. Campaign Coins are awarded based on nominations; if you believe someone in your community is deserving of this award (whether or not they are a Venture Officer), send an email to organizedplay@paizo.com with their name and reasons.
Congratulations to:
Chris Johnson, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #858
Doug Edwards, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #859
Kristin Bollerman, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #860
Jim Crase, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #861
Rebecca Fehn, who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #862
and Tim Munsie (TMun), who now holds a Campaign Coin and Organized Play ID #863
Order of the Wayfinder
In addition to the Campaign Service Coin, we also have one other award: the Order of the Wayfinder. This award is given out only once per year, and recognizes a member of the community who has provided exceptional service. Typically, we give this award to individuals who have taken on a particular project and knocked it out of the park. Previously, this award has been awarded to the head of our Additional Resources review team and our Regional Venture-Coordinator for the Online region, among others.
I am pleased to finally announce that the 2021 recipient of the Order of the Wayfinder is Barb Wilkins. Since 2018, Barb has been the one-woman show behind sending out volunteer agreements to our Venture Officers. Every year, this involves sending out literally hundreds of agreements to volunteers, ensuring that they’ve been signed and returned, and maintaining the master list of every Venture Officer worldwide. It’s a monumental task, and one that she has done for nearly four years now. Her work is undeniably vital to Organized Play, and I am delighted to have presented this award to her at Gen Con this year.
GM Ranks
Whether stars, novas, or glyphs, achieving a 5 ranking in any program involves a substantial amount of time. To achieve the fifth milestone, a GM must run 150 games, which must include at least 50 unique scenarios and 10 special scenarios, as well as run between one and three games for Venture-Captains (program dependent). A conservative estimate of the time needed to reach the 5th milestone is 650 hours!
This month, we had four GMs earn their 5th Star for PFS1 and two GMs earn their 5th Glyph for PFS2.
5th Star: Zackery Kuehn, Ben Tash, Christopher Waterfield, and Denis Wishnevsky
5th Glyph: Milan Badzic and Robert Bollerman
Quick notes on this last section. Barb Wilkins has been instrumental to me in getting going as a Venture-Officer and has been an excellent voice in offering advice over the last few years. She has earned that award a few times over in my opinion. We here in the League of Aroden have benefited mightily from her over the years. If you do not know her, she and her husband Alan have been co-VCs for the lodge in Rolla for many years and are stepping down this year. They organized CogCon which was held in Rolla twice a year. We do not know at this time if CogCon will resume or not. That is going to depend on the players in Rolla.
Finally, a big shout out to Zackery Kuehn who came to GM for us at QuinCon for earning his fifth GM Star! That’s a major achievement. Also, a huge shout out to Milan Badzic who upon earning this 5th Glyph became the first 5 Star, 5 Glyph, and 5 Nova GM in Org Play history. That’s 450 sessions of play as a minimum with 1950 hours or more. I know Milan has far more total sessions and hours than that.
That’s all for this post! I hope to see some of you tomorrow at Tri-States in Quincy as we roll the d20!
Explore! Report! Cooperate!
The League of Aroden 