Pathfinder Society Organized Play
Pathfinder Society Organized Play is the new mega-campaign from Paizo Publishing based on their Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting. The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, in case you’re not aware, is a system designed by Paizo to be compatible with the 3.5 Edition of D&D, and the Society is made up of thousands of adventurers, each in one of five factions, who explore and then report back about their adventures, all hoping to have their best escapades included in the Chronicles.
I should also let you know that the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game itself is available for free at Paizo’s site in beta release here You have to put the free product in your cart, and then go to the link provided to download it, but first it needs to be “personalized.” It’s alittle odd to download, but futz with it a bit and you’ll get it.
In Paizo’s own words “Pathfinder Society Organized Play is a constantly evolving mega-campaign played by thousands of players and the adventures you experience are shared by players around the world. Play is organized into Seasons, throughout which the actions and achievements of you and your fellow Pathfinders create an ongoing storyline.”
At the moment, the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is in Beta testing mode, and apparently so is Pathfinder Society Organized Play. This year will be Season 0, a time to experiment with what form the campaign will take and and figure out what works best for the campaign. This initial season debuted at GenCon 2008.
I find it interesting that the Pathfinder Society appears to be designed for both convention and home play, as there are scenarios that may be bought for home use at the Paizo site for $3.99 each. At least that’s what I think is going on. The scenarios were indeed available at GenCon to be played, but the very same scenarios are available for downloading and home use. I believe things will become more clear as the campaign is developed.
For more information, go here. You can join the Society, register your character, join the discussion at the message board, buy stuff and also download a players guide for free, by the same method I described before.
Enjoy. It the message board comments are be believed, others have.