Every week, Recall Knowledge recaps the Know Direction content of the past week, a preview of the Know Direction content of the week to come, and the director of logistics, Ryan Costello, shares his thoughts on the state of the network.

A moment stood out to me in a recent episode of Know Direction (I wanna say the Nonat episode, but part of my brain tells me that’s wrong). We referenced Mythic Adventures, and I didn’t know how much we had to explain Mythic Adventures for listeners to understand.

If this was the Nonat episode (and I’m only partial sure it definitely was, maybe) that makes sense. Nonat became an influencer by way of 2e, and a lot of the crossover audience his appearance brought to that episode probably came to the into the game the same way. Mythic Adventures came out in 2013, and saw little first party support or even mention in the next eight years. If anyone new to Pathfinder heard about Mythic, it probably wasn’t in a positive light.

The reason I keep going back to this moment is the question it raises. What should we assume our audience knows? Traditionally, we assume you know a lot. Know Direction isn’t the podcast for the new Pathfinder player (although we occasionally cater to that audience with specific audiences). It’s for Pathfinder fans.

However, with a new edition out (and even a few years old now) you can be a Pathfinder fan without extensive or even cursory information about the releases and resources that came out during 1e. We don’t want to confuse anyone, or worse, come off as gatekeepers, by powering through 10+ years of references they might not even know how to start researching. On the other hand, we don’t want to bore or frustrate our longtime listeners by constantly explaining things they already know.

This week’s episode bridges that gap. We’ll be giving a crash course of the history of Pathfinder. What came before 2e, what’s still relevant, what are the talking points new players might hear but not understand? I expect it will be an oft cited episode, because by design I want to be able to say “If you don’t know what we’re talking about, I recommend KD 252”.

Speaking of network content I recommend, here’s a recap of what you might have missed last week from the Know Direction Network:

Recap of June 7^th to June 11^th

What happened last week on knowdirectionpodcast.com and twitch.tv/knowdirection?

Monday, June 7^th

Article

Recall Knowledge – It Begins!
By Ryan Costello

And by “It”, I mean PaizoCon coverage.

PaizoCon Online 2021 Seminars

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Pre-Show with Know Direction

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Keynote Address

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Galaxy Exploration Manual

Tuesday, June 8^th

Podcast

Legend Lore 027 — Ranger

The ranger has such a strange niche in Pathfinder, 2e specifically. The CRB decided that part of the siloing of class feats included basic fighting style choices like archery and two weapon fighting. Then the APG opened that up, and recast a lot of class feats as fighting style archetype feats. The ranger didn’t end up with much unique to the class, and its been searching for identity ever since. So it’s interesting how Luis and Loren address Perram’s question about ranger builds that don’t take archetype dedications, especially in the context of their sample builds.

Article

Something Creates – Corruption pt.1
By Andrew Sturtevant

Did Andrew do Dustin a favour and replaced him this week to talk about designing a corruption for Starfinder, or did the corruption already get to Andrew and Dustin was his first victim?

PaizoCon Online 2021 Seminars

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Joe Pasini

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Tournament of Champions

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Patrick Renie

Wednesday, June 9^th

Twitch Facebook

Know Direction: Beyond 59 Live- GEM Breakdown

Twitch crashed shortly before Alex and James were scheduled to go live with Joe Pasini. Producer Perram pivoted to streaming on Facebook. Not ideal or the original plan, but surprisingly smooth from a production point of view.

Podcast

Presenting – Kelly Pawlik

Dire Rugrat Publishing co-founder Kelly Pawlik joins John to talk about the state of third party publishing and the difference between game writing and fiction writing. I wasn’t familiar with Kelly’s work, so I looked her up when John told me she was an upcoming guest and was surprised John was talking to what looked to me like a 5e publisher. While Dire Rugrat may publish mostly 5e content these days, they used to publish a lot of Pathfinder content. And the changes in the industry that prompted that transition were some of the most interesting parts of this interview.

Article

Behind The Screens – Continuity And Your Campaign
By Ryan Costello

FYI, Alex and I switched Wednesdays. It didn’t benefit either of us to publish our articles on the same night we recorded our live episodes.

I love continuity, and my favourite campaigns end with a big call back to major events from earlier in the campaign. But continuity doesn’t mean taking the minutes of every session and memorizing everything that’s come before. I talk about different short cuts to make sure continuity in your game matters, without making it a hassle.

PaizoCon Online 2021 Seminars

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Secrets of Golarion

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Paizo’s Beginning Years

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Secrets of Magic 

Thursday, June 10^th

Podcast

Valiant Episode 18: In Which They Return to the Mine

Did you miss Luis’ sidebar, present in most episodes but absent in episode 17? I did. It was nice to have it back.

I also got the sense over the last few episodes that the recording session before this one (because Luis records in batches) didn’t have any combat and Luis was worried about fan reception. If that’s the case, I can understand the concern, but I enjoy the setting Luis is building, and the way these characters interact with one another, that combat or not, I’m on board.

Article

Investing In: a Fantasy Monster of the Week
By Rob Pontious

Rob returns to Evil Hat’s Monster of the Week, but this time talks about how he replaced its modern setting with fantasy.

PaizoCon Online 2021 Seminars

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Logan Bonner

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Starfinder Adventures

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Jason Keeley

Friday, June 11^th

Podcast

Know Direction: Beyond 59 – GEM Breakdown

The Galaxy Exploration Manual got a lot of attention at PaizoCon, so one concern going into this episode was if it would feel redundant. Alex and James managed to cover even more ground (and to GEM’s credit, it may be light on page count for a hardcover, but its dense with content), infusing a lot of their personalities into the episode.

Article

Monstrous Physique Presents: Summoned Monsters, Vol. 1 (PF2E)
By Luis Loza

What a cool surprise. Luis’ new direction for Monstrous Physique combines the “free monsters” element of classic Monstrous Physique, with the networking and crowdsourcing of fellow Friday blog, Bend The Knee. He presents three designers (in this case, Cody Garret Wells, Dave Nelson, and Jessica Redekop) with an image of a creature, and they interpret into a stat block. In this case, a gigantic flaming skeleton with angel wings.

PaizoCon Online 2021 Seminars

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Secrets of the Pact Worlds

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Sunday Pre-Show

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Art of Paizo

Preview of June 14^th to June 18^th

This is back to Block 1 of our 2-block schedule.

Monday, June 14^th

Article

Recall Knowledge – Audience Expectations
By Ryan Costello

Is the title a reference to what you expect from us, or what we expect from you? Both! Yay wordplay!

PaizoCon Online 2021 Seminars

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Mwangi Expanse

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Eleanor Ferron

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Starfinder Q&A

Tuesday, June 15^th

Podcast

Digital Divination 032

John and Ron talk about Starfinder from the perspectives of a fan and a Paizo developer.

Article

Burst of Insight by Andrew Marlowe

Andrew Marlowe shares GM and design advice for and from other game systems.

PaizoCon Online 2021 Seminars

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Pathfinder Q&A

PaizoCon Online 2021 – Wrap Up

Wednesday, June 16^th

Twitch

Know Direction 252 Live – A Crash Course in Pathfinder’s History

Here’s hoping Twitch works this week.

Podcast

Game Design Unboxed 17: Sagrada

Danielle Reynolds and Denice speak with one of the fastest growing names in the tabletop industry, Daryl Andrews. And such a good person. Seriously, if you haven’t checked out Game Design Unboxed yet, this is the one to try.

Article

Guidance by Alex Augunas

Alex shares his thoughts and comments on topics getting attention in the RPG gaming community.

Thursday, June 17^th

Podcast

Know Direction 252  – A Crash Course in Pathfinder’s History

We bridge the knowledge gap that separates long time Pathfinder players and players that came on board with the new edition.

Article

Something Creates by Andrew Sturtevant

Andrew Sturtevant creates Starfinder content, and shares insight into his decisions and his struggles along the way.

Friday, June 18^th

Podcast

Intrepid Heroes 62

An actual play podcast of the Starfinder Adventure Path Dawn of Flame from Paizo.

Bend the Knee  Heightened By Loren Sieg

Loren asks members of an actual play podcast an elaborate question about their tabletop gaming opinions.

Now you know,

Ryan Costello