We hope we were a bright spot of your last year, delivering informative, insightful, and entertaining podcast and blog content to you, our fellow Pathfinder enthusiasts, once again. For Pathfinder, 2016 was fine but transitional, like a Mick Foley title reign, but it was a big year for us. We solidified our blog content, adding the versatile and talented Andrew Marlowe, Monica Marlowe, James Ballod, and Luis Loza to our consummate blogger roster of Alex Augunas and Anthony Li. With podcasts up on Wednesdays, we now have content every day of the week (and during con seasons, even more than that). Despite having to shift some schedules, we’ll have even more for you in 2017.

That’s the plan anyway. Who knows what the future holds. This is 2017. The year of Starfinder. The year everything changes. We’re already getting a Bestiary in the beginning of the year, and the Pathfinder RPG line won’t have a hardcover release at GenCon for the first time in eight years. We know Paizo has big plans for Pathfinder alongside Starfinder, but we will only slowly discover what those plans are as the year goes on.

I don’t know how we’ll be covering Starfinder. So far it’s been treated it like anything else Paizo publishes. But should it be? If Starfinder’s success matches its hype, it won’t be long before there’s as much Starfinder news to cover as Pathfinder news. Know Direction is a Pathfinder podcast, not the Paizo podcast. Then again, we started as a Pathfinder RPG podcast and that evolved and expanded. We won’t know until Starfinder launches at GenCon, but maybe it will be time for the podcast to change again.

One change we do know about now is the shift in our blog release schedule. Despite recent accusations of posting a clickbait article, I want to point out that we don’t have ads on our site or in our podcasts. We do this for love, to grow as gamers and game designers, and the precious, precious exposure. I’m made the joke a few times that one of the reasons we were able to grow as much as we did this year is because our exposure is the best exposure, but truth be told we have a large audience and -at least according to a recent blog post by President of Green Ronin Publishing Chris Pramas– regular blogging is one way to get noticed in the gaming industry. Even still, exposure only goes so far, and writing on a regular schedule is time and energy consuming. On that note, let’s talk about Alex Augunas.

Since February 2014, Alex has been consistently publishing original blog content to our site multiple times a week. We’d tried adding regular blog content to the site since the beginning, but it was either released erratically (the 3.5 sourcebook reviews from the 35privatesanctuary.com days), or they came and went unceremoniously (my various interview blogs, Monster by Request, my blog about podcasts… more failed attempts than I realized, now that I think about it). Blogs just didn’t seem like our forte until Alex came on board. Almost three years later, Alex has turned into a popular Paizo freelancer and premier author of third party Pathfinder content, his products regularly topping Paizo.com’s list of Pathfinder products from other publishers.

Alex was recently accepted into a Masters in Education in the Foundations of Applied Behavior Analysis program. First of all, I encourage everyone to congratulate him next time you see him, because acceptance into a Masters program is an accomplishment. Second of all, while this does impact the amount of time he can commit to the network, he is still dedicated to releasing Guidance and Iconic Design. It will just be on a slightly different schedule.

Starting January 14th, here is our new regular blog schedule:

WEEK 1
Monday	Guidance	Alex Augunas
Tuesday	Code/Switch	James Ballod
Wednesday	Keyword Design	Ryan Costello
Thursday	Behind the Screens	Anthony Li
Friday	Encounter Table	Luis Loza
WEEK 2
Monday	Iconic Design	Alex Augunas
Tuesday	Burst of Insight	Andrew Marlowe
Wednesday	Third Party People	Ryan Costello
Thursday	Inspire Confidence	Monica Marlowe
Friday	Monstrous Physique	Luis Loza

Here is a bit of what to expect from our bloggers for 2017:

MONDAY
Guidance

“In 2017, Guidance is going to start taking more of a turn away from player options and GM options, focusing more on topics interesting to freelancers and folks who want a “behind the scenes” look at why designers and developers make the choices they do when designing Pathfinder.”
–Alex Augunas

Iconic Design
 “Iconic Design is going to continue doing what it does best—present interesting character designs using Pathfinder compatible content. There is going to be increased focus on using newer material from new Player Companions, Campaign Setting Guides, and Core Rules products as those products become available.”
–Alex Augunas

TUESDAY
Code/Switch
“A goal I have for Code/Switch is to try and do a statistics decathalon. I’d like to take tasks from Pathfinder and do them in real life to get a fully statted human being. It’s a dream project kinda thing, and something which should be video-recorded.”
–James Ballod

Burst of Insight
“Over the coming year, Burst of Insight will continue to bring game design tips to GMs and encourage GMs to bring personalized content to their table. As always we’ll be examining official Paizo content, 3rd party materials, previous editions, and even other game systems to see how GMs might apply those concepts to their game in new ways.”
–Andrew Marlowe

WEDNESDAY
Keyword Design
“A new blog, one I’ve wanted to do for a while. Every installment, I’ll be designing a new mundane item, magic item, feat, spell, and archetype based on a single word. I’m open to suggestions. In fact, I’d prefer the challenge.”
–Ryan Costello

Third Party People
“When Know Direction launched, we were all in on Pathfinder the game, not the campaign setting. Between the launch of the Core Rulebook and the Advanced Player’s Guide, most of our interviews were with third party publishers. I loved meeting the people that are passionate enough about Pathfinder to throw themselves into publishing it, and I’ve missed the insight and discovery of those interviews.”
–Ryan Costello

THURSDAY
Behind the Screens

“In 2017, Behind the Screens will continue to provide introspective insights on the topic of communal narratives as well as organizational tips and tricks to running smooth games. We’ll be kicking off the year with a series of articles with advice on running dynamic, multi-table events!”
–Anthony Li

Inspire Confidence
“I will be continuing my look at the GM/designer resources.”
–Monica Marlowe

FRIDAY
Monstrous Physique
“What to expect in 2017? Just more monsters. Gonna try to hit every creature type and varied CRs, using monsters from myth or pop culture whenever possible.”
–Luis Loza

Encounter Table
“Probably try to make a dungeon over the span of the year. Each entry would be one part of the dungeon plus some encounter details, possibly tying in to MPs monsters every once in a while.”
–Luis Loza

PODCASTS
Know Direction
“2017 is going to be a year of change and experimentation for Paizo and Pathfinder. I hope that Know Direction continues its strong tradition of covering the new events and releases in Pathfinder as well as helping to bring the personalities behind our games and the people who make them to you.”
-Jefferson Jay Thacker, aka Perram

The Private Sanctuary

Although our milestone 300th episode is around the corner, so is reality. With both hosts being busy and getting busier, the Private Sanctuary, our launching ship podcast, will be releasing less regularly. That said, they are committed to bringing you more original Pathfinder ideas, analysis, and worldbuilding.

Expect all that and more! We’re less than 150 days until PaizoCon, so as usual, there’s only so much we can plan for the year before the banquet changes all expectations. I doubt any announcement at PaizoCon 2017 will compare to the photon bombshell that Paizo dropped last year, but time will tell. As always, we will be there for you. Because if you want to find the path, you need Know Direction.