A Brief Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play

In the simplest terms, it's a worldwide official organized play campaign set in the Pathfinder 2nd Edition world of Golarion. Imagine a massive playground where your character can explore dark caverns, engage in political intrigues, and recover lost artifacts. These organized play games, or scenarios, are available to be played locally in person as well as virtually online. The scenarios themselves last about four hours, they don’t have to be played in order, and it’s pretty easy for new players to find an open seat.  The Pathfinder Society is an organization within the Lost Omens setting, too. This makes for a delightfully meta experience: you're participating in the real-world organized play Pathfinder Society, while your character is a member of the in-world Pathfinder Society. 

Pathfinder Society play is great for a few reasons. First, if you’re new to the game, low-level scenarios (usually catering to levels 1-4) are an awesome way to play for the very first time. The GM has a solid amount of experience, there are probably a couple of helpful veteran players at the table who can give you some tips, and the community is welcoming. 

Second, schedules are hard. Pathfinder Society gives you a regular opportunity to enjoy Pathfinder, even if your regular playgroup has to reschedule or your GM’s cat has hairball issues...again (feel better soon, Mr. Whiskers! 🐱❤️). 

Pathfinder Society organized play also has a consistent character advancement and reward system. Your character progresses at a consistent pace, so it never feels like you’ve played a hundred hours but haven’t gained a level. Paizo’s online tracking system also rewards you with Fame, Faction Reputation, and Achievement Points after each scenario. These can be redeemed to unlock some of the more…uncommon character options. 

Bonus: If you’re a “forever GM,” Pathfinder Society organized play lets you, you know, actually play! Just remember that sometime in the future, be sure to volunteer as a Pathfinder Society GM and pay it forward!

Getting started is as easy as rolling a D20. All you need is a Pathfinder Society ID number, which you can snag by creating an account at Paizo's website. You can also create an ID when you play your first game. From there, either use a pre-generated character or craft your own daring hero following the organized play rules.

You can find games organized on platforms like Paizo’s Organized Play Event Calendar, at your local game shop, and Discord. Whether you're a lone wanderer or looking to join an adventuring company, there's a place for you.

Each year, or season, Pathfinder Society releases a series of scenarios that are tied to a larger, overarching storyline (metaplot). This season, year 5, has the overarching title, “Year of Unfettered Exploration.” Victorious over a longtime enemy, the Pathfinder Society is now free to set their sights on the future. Expect to discover new lands, unearth long-buried secrets, and face dangerous challenges. This year’s 10-scenario metaplot will fully embrace the Society’s motto of “Explore! Report! Cooperate!”

You can play scenarios in any order, and from multiple seasons. This week you might play a scenario from Year 3, next week something from Year 1, then follow it up with the newest Year 5 adventure. This way, it becomes much easier to find a game that fits your schedule, and if you want that classic ongoing campaign vibe, that’s still an option by playing a season’s scenarios in order.

Pathfinder NEXUS has taken its first steps to more deeply supporting Pathfinder Society organized play. This begins with three simple additions:

First, Pathfinder Society scenarios are now live on Pathfinder NEXUS. Year of Unfettered Exploration content will be added as it is released, so GMs and players will have up-to-the-minute access. These are NEXUS editions of the scenarios, so tooltips, pop-outs, and linked cross-references in the scenarios will make life a lot easier for GMs running them. Alongside the Year 5 content, we’ll be adding the library of previous seasons over time. It is a lot of great content, so please be patient with us!

Second, we've started adding in Pathfinder Society search filters into our character tools. Right now it's limited to Feats, but we'll be adding those filters across every option as we go forward. This will make it easier and easier to build characters you know will be fully compatible with Pathfinder Society rules.

Last, we've added a handful of level 1 “Iconics” as pregenerated characters. The wizard Ezren, the fighter Valeros, the cleric Kyra, and the rogue Merisiel are all excellent choices if you’d like to try a Pathfinder Society game but don’t want to build a new character. They’re also handy if you sit down at a table that is missing an important role. These are free to use, available on the Pathfinder NEXUS home page, and can be saved as your own copy if you wish.

There is much more to come in the future, and we’re excited to expand our support for organized play. Feedback is important for us, so if you have a good thought, request, or spot a bug, please let us know in our Forums!