Hey Everyone, I’m The-Magic-Sword and you can find me on Reddit, Bluesky and Enworld. The Video should be dropping shortly, I’ll be typing out the minutes and taking screenshots to follow on with the news as best I can! (TMS Note: This is how I’ll say something as myself from here on!)
Stream is up, title is editorialized since I didn’t see one in advance. “Starting Soon”
Ok, Erik Mona introducing the stream as Paizo Live with lots of stuff to talk about, recapping gencon. Thurston Hillman, James Jacobs, Adam Daigle, we’re primarily talking about adventures. Still recapping how cool gencon is.
Pathfinder Adventure Paths and Related Products– including new lost omens stuff.
Pathfinder’s AP line has been going since 2007, James Jacobs has been on monthly deadlines since then. If there’s time, they’re gonna do a Q+A btw. Erik thinks he has 3 hours of content to talk about in one hour.
They’re taking a moment to reflect on the past, favorite volume of an AP since the beginning?
Thurston has a tie, first AP played was Second Darkness, but the real winner is Shards of Sin, the first volume of shattered stars. Super cool vertical dungeon design and great memories of a long term campaign with friends.
For Adam Daigle, Pathfinder 71 Rasputin Must Die! They got to blend the real world into fantasy and they enjoyed ordering art for it. The research to properly reflect the period was also enjoyable– the adventure has gatling guns.
James Jacobs introduced as “Mr. Adventure Path” for James it’s the first volume they ever did, James enjoyed being out of the content restrictions from the prior days.
For Erik, Crown of the Carrion King from Legacy of Fire, it was the last adventure he wrote before he became more focused on management. Adam freelanced on it too!
Talking about the October Runelord Path
Mythic AP, you start at level 12, they want to let you fight the most powerful of runelords, by the time you get this one done they’ll be out of runelords.
Erik is showing off some of the previously compiled APs. In the beginning Paizo wasn’t sure if the compiled ones were going to go well, but it proved a popular format.
In the 2e era, that includes abomination vaults– it even got a 5e edition, and that version is live on dnd beyond, so if you still play 5e, check that out!
They also did Fists of the Ruby Phoenix, starting at 11th level. Finally they did Gatewalkers just recently, updated for player feedback.
James is showing Kingmaker, another compilation they did for 2e.
Biggest news of the stream!
Starting in 2026, they’re changing the format of APs, instead of monthly installments, they’re going to be hardcover quarterly releases. 79.99, and come out once per quarter, but not quite every three months due to christmas/gencon timings.
They skipped something!
Compiled Season of Ghosts! SoG is their most popular PF2e AP and everyone keeps asking them about a compiled version.
Keeping this secret was hard, the AP is a four act AP, and James is proud of it– and says they got great authors, for the compilations they go through feedback on reddit and the forums to make adjustments. Your Kineticist and their ability to create countless trees is now accounted for! February.
March is first brand new all in one AP,
The Hellfire Crisis! War between Cheliax and Andoran, Battlecry kicked things off, but they’re going to be touching on the crisis a whole bunch… including right now.
Why should you be stoked to participate? Hellbreakers is the spark that sets off the war, it kicks off a few weeks after the battle of hellknight hill, it concerns the liberation of Isger as you join the Hellbreakers to liberate them.
Gets you to 10th level or so, same price as Season of Ghosts.
New Product!
128 page lost omen book!
Lost Omen Hellfire Dispatches!
This book is an overview of the conflict, to help liven up the AP and supplement Battlecry. This war has been brewing since the beginning of the setting. Kent Hamilton put a lot of thought into the art for this.
Champion:
Captain:
Cavalry:
So check out Hellfire Dispatches in April 2026!
There’s another AP: Hell’s Destiny!
11th to “I don’t know– High-Level” clarified to 20th level by Adam Daigle, continues the plot, it can lead off from Hellbreakers but you can also start fresh, it’ll make sense as those characters or otherwise. You’ll be on the western side of the conflict, doing some nautical stuff, and trying to get people to turn against cheliax. About halfway through you join andoran forces. It sounds like you might go to hell in the AP too.
One thing that’s going to change, is that not only will the APs be all in one– they’ll also have the special editions.
What are the benefits of the format change?
James thinks it’ll make them easier to run and develop, they write easier, the old format led to the AP volumes being disconnected because of when they can and can’t reference information. The number of authors is also going to range differently, possibly down to one– but they’ll be able to make the AP be cohesive, there will be fewer dropped plotlines. Often, old format led to them realizing they wanted to foreshadow something after the book went to the printer, and this fixes that, and they won’t be on a 96 page a month production grind. As a GM, you’ll have the whole story day 1, they don’t have to do previews, which saves pages and effort. They didn’t have the resources to do things this way before, but James says it’s how it always should have been done.
Erik thinks its better for the retailer, since they don’t have to stock the volumes separately, they can keep things in print– compiled adventures are usually kept in inventory more than the separated volumes. Customers have also consistently preferred the compiled volumes.
August of 2026. The AP they aren’t naming yet, that will be out at gencon next year, will be focused “on one of the most storied and dangerous megadungeons in the setting” they’re arguing over whether it qualifies as a dungeon… site based. Erik is trying not to blow it by saying too much.
We’re sticking to 4 APs per year.
James wants to add, they want one that starts at low level, and one that starts at high level, and two that are ‘dealer’s choice’ year to year… the low and high level one won’t always lead into each other.
Thurston adds that it offers staff a better opportunity to do players guides.
Format Change for Society Scenarios!
Season 7 just launched.
It’s following on with the hellfire stuff, they’re trying to make them easier to run, they’re streamlining things. They’re announcing that with these two scenarios they’re going to be doing two scenarios per month every month… but they’re gonna be shorter, which is feedback they’ve gotten, they need to be short enough to run at game stores and conventions, 2-3 hours in length, and they’re focusing them more firmly on a stricter level range. They’re gonna do an easier means of adjustments for difficulty and group size you can already see in starfinder. They can do some longer form content in multiple parts if they want.
In December, the last pathfinder quest is happening– those resources are going to some other things, and they’re really excited, but they aren’t spilling about that just yet… but it’ll benefit you if you are and aren’t an organized play person.
Paizo listens to what the customers want, which is to hone in more and create the best version of each adventure.
Pathfinder Quest adventure board game coming to backerkit september 16th. There’s a collectible coin if you’re in the launch party before the campaign starts.
Q+A time!
Curse of Crimson Throne update? They have the technology and the people to make any 1e AP or even 3.5 AP in pf2e, they’re not announcing anything right now BUT keep letting them know which ones you want them to do… James would personally do Second Darkness to fill in the big hole, and has a lot of setting updates to make. It doesn’t feel like Golarion because it was created in the inbetween times. Interestingly, everyone in this chat thinks they should do Second Darkness, but aren’t confirming it, Erik says he has not approved one on the schedule yet. They’re also not confirming a darklands supplement, but they think pf2e really needs one. They’ve got Iron Gods, Skulls and Shackles as requests from fans. More compilations get bought the more they’ll do– the company started with the idea they were bad ideas, but they’ve proven to be better.
Galactic Ancestries for Starfinder, Moonflower Leshy Heritage.
Will you update old 2e APs? Some are more likely than others, but its a maybe.
When will chelliax learn to chillax? Some people are incapable of that, it’ll be interesting to see over the crisis.
Single AP author would be a madman? The way the question is phrased is a reference to dead god’s hand, it’s finished and developed, look out for it on the schedule, Erik Mona is excited and over delivered by 80-90 pages.
Will PF Society scenarios be repeatable? They haven’t announced it yet, they’re watching the feedback before they make that decision.
Can you join Cheliax because of how good their art is? Talk to your GM, but normally no. If you’re interested in being on the side of cheliax, you could convert or play pf1e He’’s Vengeance.
Will there be a 20 level AP ever again? Look at how they’re doing the hellfire crisis, they function as sequels to one another– they don’t have to lead into each other but they have that thematic link. 20 level APs are really long, so they want a conclusion for the people that only go up to like 10.
Pitch Erik an AP right now, to the people on stream, they can’t say the one they’re doing.
Thurston is saying Starfinder… wants to do an AP that is the “Perplexity” Starfinder Megadungeon, about what happens when society missions go wrong, when starfinders go bad!
Adam wants to explore Arcadia folklore stuff.
James would want Guildmaker, criminals building your own thieves guild, building up a neighborhood and unleash your criminal activities on Guildmaker.
Erik would do the fall of the Padashan Empire, it’d be like a bronze age collapse event in Golarion.
Thank you all for coming, thanks for your love of Paizo APs! (TMS Note: and thank you for reading! Exciting times)