I’m ecstatic to announce that over the past two weeks, Know Direction staffer Scott D Young ran the first new sessions of Adventurous in almost a year. Perram, Loren, Vanessa, Jason, and myself updated our Glanville, Lily, Idonia, Oggdren, and Xavier to 2e. We implied the events of War for the Crown concluded to our satisfaction, and that we’ve been a wandering band of well do wells ever since.
Between the two sessions, we have enough content for about eight episodes. And let me tell you, they’re fun episodes. Scott ran us through Lost Maid of Anactoria, a Pathfinder Society scenario he wrote. And let me tell you, I don’t know what was more shocking: That none of us had played the scenario, or how easily we scheduled two sessions. Seriously, I posted this:
And everyone was just… available that day. Despite scheduling six busy people across three time zones, we managed to stumble across an upcoming Saturday that worked for everyone. And when we needed to schedule a second session, the following Friday also worked for everyone. I’m sure you think I’m lying. I think I’m lying, and I know I’m telling the truth! But for serious, we went from the oft optimistic “we should get back to that campaign” to concluding a very fun adventure in a matter of weeks.
Before I go any further, shout out to our original Adventurous Game Master, Crystal Frasier. She ran my favourite campaign for four unforgettable years. She’s busy in the world of comics now (getting nominated for GLAAD Awards for her efforts, no less), but gave us her blessing to carry on the campaign without her. Continuing Adventurous’ history of serendipity, around the same time as the Adventurous cast started discussing GM options, fairly new KD staffer Scott reached out to me expressing interest in GMing an actual play for the network.
For now, the recordings sit in my To Edit queue. As mentioned in The Schedule Shuffle, Block 2 Tuesday (or Block 2sday as we all like to say) doesn’t have a podcast release (probably because I always make that “2sday” joke…), so that’s when you can expect these new episodes of Adventurous to release. Why, that’s tomorrow! We’ll see if I can get the first episode out, in which Scott introduces himself and we catch everyone up on our characters and how the edition change impacted their builds. If I can’t get it out then, we don’t have a Geek Together planned (yet!) for this week, so I’ll probably also be able to release it on Friday. Hopefully you’re as excited for Adventurous as I was to get back into Xavier Saveur’s stylish books and open-chested shirt.
Before moving on to plug a call to action we posted to Twitter last week. In honour of Black History Month, Know Direction’s Michelle Jones coordinated a celebration of Black tabletop game designers. She’ll be spotlighting Black designers she knows, but would love to include other Black designers she might not be familiar with. If you are a Black designer or content for Pathfinder, Starfinder, Essence20, Dungeons & Dragons, and beyond, let me know via direct message on any of Know Direction’s social media platforms, my Discord inbox, or e-mail knowdirection@hotmail.com. She’ll be releasing this profile piece as special article some time in February, and February starts tomorrow.
Speaking of podcast and blog content, here’s a recap of the podcasts and blogs from last week at the Know Direction Network:
Recap of January 24th to 28th
What happened last week on knowdirectionpodcast.com and twitch.tv/knowdirection?
Monday, January 24th
Twitch
Know Direction 268 Live – Thurston Hillman on Rotgrind
The first episode of Know Direction that I attended purely as an audience member!
Podcast
Intrepid Heroes 078 – Might As Well Be Walking On The Sun
Our Intrepid Heroes step down on the sun for the first time. According to GM Jason Tondro, it’s styrofoamy.
Article
Now You Know – Upshift Episode 0
By Ryan Costello
I announced the recording of the first episode of Upshift: Upshift Episode 0. More on that in a minute.
Tuesday, January 25th
Podcast
Know Direction 268 – Thurston Hillman Introduces Rotgrind
You know who’s always a good guest? Thursty Hillman. And after the success of War Hams, we’re honoured that he doesn’t big league us but is still happy to come onto our flagship podcast and talk about the new Pathfinder 2e actual pay he’s GMing, Rotgrind.
Article
Eldritch Excursion – An Open Letter to Oras
By Nate Wright
There’s no better example that Eldritch Excursion is a great way to get into the mind of Nate Wright than this article, that starts (as the title prepares us to expect) with Nate addressing the Pathfinder god of adaptation, change, and evolution before quickly switching focus to a Tweet I made about autocorrect trying to turn leshie into fleshy (shudder), before we finally get to the meat (double shudder) of the article: Nate stated out fleshy leshies for Pathfinder 2e and Starfinder.
Wednesday, January 26th
Twitch
Upshift Episode 0 Live
Perram and I unleashed Upshift on the world!
Podcast
Game Design Unboxed 29: Savage Sisters
Only the second GDU to focus on RPG design, Danielle interviews Graham Gentz about writing for 9th Level Games’ Savage Sisters indy RPG.
Article
Behind The Screens – The Power Is Yours
With potentially a lot of new GMs coming to gaming by way of Essence20 games, I’m packing my blogs with 80s and 90s references! Yes, that’s why I’m doing this thing that is new.
Kidding aside, I do think it’s important to empower new GMs. With the rules telling us to accommodate our players, and memes showing us fail to herd our cat PCs, it’s easy to forget our powers to casually or decisively alter the game experience for everyone at the table.
Thursday, January 27th
Podcast
Digital Divination 048 – Galactic Magic
John and Ron both contributed to the latest Starfinder hardcover, and are excited to have it as Starfinder players and Game Masters.
Friday, January 28th
Podcast
Upshift 000 – Episode 0
Months in the making, the podcast that rocked the Know Direction Network is here-ish!
We wanted to run an episode 0 to make sure the Upshift in our heads wouldn’t stumble because I won’t be communicating in the same way as I could for Know Direction. Hosting KD, the odd NDA prevented me from sharing information, but usually about products we had no reason to talk about before their release anyway. Now, I know way more about what we’ll be covering than I’m legally allowed to disclose, and I am not good at not disclosing. As it stands, the first Essence20 products is the one that was announced that I’m least excited for, so I leaned a lot of Perram’s enthusiasm for Power Rangers in this episode. Hopefully G.I. JOE makes it into people’s hands soon and I can spill.
Article
Might Morphin Power Rangers Snake Eyes Build
During Upshift Episode 0, Perram and I put the Power Rangers character creation rules to the test, building Snake Eyes as a Mighty Morphin Power Ranger. We even built Timber as a Zord! Well, Perram copied our Mighty Morphin Snake Eyes build to a character sheet, which we made available to anyone curious to see how an Essence20 game lays the rules out.
Preview of January 31st to February 4th
This is back to Block 2 of our 2-block schedule.
Monday, January 31st
Podcast
Valiant Episode 28
Our Valiant heroes continue to explore the Temple of the Whisperer.
Article
Now You Know – Young and Adventurous
By Ryan Costello
I am so proud of my title for the Scott D Young era of Adventurous.
Tuesday, February 1st
Article
Fox’s Cunning
By Dustin Knight
Dustin offers expert insight and helpful tools to enhance your game..
Wednesday, February 2nd
Podcast
Presenting – Nicole Lindroos
John Godek chats with Green Ronin Publishing’s Chief Operating Officer.
Article
More Lore
By Scott D Young
Scott D Young’s deep dive into the minutia of Golarion lore and how you can use it to enhance your game.
Thursday, February 3rd
Podcast
Legend Lore
Luis and Loren talk Pathfinder 2e.
Article
Investing In
By Rob Pontious
Rob shares what he loves about the RPGs he’s been playing lately, and why you should check them out.
Now you know,
Ryan Costello
