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 operations, Ryan Costello, thoughts on the state of the network.

You can rewrite lost text, you can redraw a lost image, but you can’t rerecord lost audio.

First of all, sorry. This is late. And why, relates to a PaizoCon struggle.

The Monday closest to May 24^th is Victoria Day in Canada, in honour of Queen Victoria’s birthday. It’s like the commonwealth equivalent of Presidents Day. Because Memorial Day in the States is the last Monday of May, he two holidays almost always line up to being a week apart. So PaizoCon moving to Memorial Day weekend in 2015 made my Mays much harder.

With the Monday before PaizoCon off, and there only being a few flights from Montreal to Seattle throughout the day, I usually need to take the Thursday before the con off. That means squeezing a week’s worth of work for my day job into a two day work week. Likewise, spending as much time with my family in the evenings. Because the week after PaizoCon is usually a mess of recovery, getting con coverage lined up, and cramming more family and work back into my life.

That’s why, in 2017, my wife Tina and our then only daughter Scarlett joined me for PaizoCon.

That ended up not being a great plan. Instead of getting to spend a little more time with my family, we ended up spending a lot of money and vacation time to not really have a proper PaizoCon or a proper family vacation. I did enjoy that Tina got to see what PaizoCon was all about, and my Pathfinder friends got to meet my family, but there’s a reason PaizoCon went back to being a solo trip for me.

2017 may have been the only PaizoCon with my wife and child, but 2016-2019 were my adopted family cons. The network had grown, my relationship with a lot of Paizo staff and freelancers had blossomed into friendships, as had my relationships with a lot of fans. A lot less time introducing myself, and a lot more time catching up. Especially with Perram there, who I believe only started attending in person as of 2018. As much as gaming, networking, and network work still defined PaizoCon as a con to me, spending time in person with my favourite people on the Internet became a key component as well.

Which is why PaizoCon 2020, aka PaizoCon Online, impressed me so much. Even though it’s an Internet event, and I’m spending time on the Internet with my Internet friends, it feels more like the in person socializing of a traditional PaizoCon than messaging over social media. That’s what I’m looking forward to with PaizoCon Online 2021, just 3 days away, according to the Know Direction Network’s official Countdown Correspondent Darran Caldemeyer. That’s THIS WEEK!

Speaking of content that’s right around the corner, here’s a recap of what you might have missed last week from the Know Direction Network:

Recap of May 17^th to May 21^st

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

Monday, May 17^th

Article

Recall Knowledge – PaizoCon 2012-2015 Memories

By Ryan Costello

I reflected on my early PaizoCon experiences.

Tuesday, May 18^th

Podcast

Digital Divination 030 – Intimidation

Intimidation isn’t mind control, but it can be battlefiend control. John and Ron talk about how the scariest Charisma skill works.

Article

Burst of Insight—Clever and Often Inspiring Rules, Part One

By Andrew Marlowe

Andrew shares some rules and concepts that inspire his games and game design, including a nice shout out to Perram.

Wednesday, May 19^th

Twitch

Know Direction 250 Live – Onward to PaizoCon Online with Paizo’s Aaron Shanks and Alex Speidel

Podcast

Game Design Unboxed 15: Cat Lady

Cat Lady wasn’t a game I was likely to play, but Danielle and Denice’s interview with designer with Josh Wood made me reconsider.

Article

Behind the Screens – The G.R.I.T. Scale
By Ryan Costello

How gritty is your game? I guess that depends on how graphic your descriptions get, how realism impacts your setting, how invested you and your players are, and how technical you get with the rules.
As a bonus, the G.R.I.T.S. Scale also measures how many spiders your game includes.

Thursday, May 20^th

Podcast

Know Direction 250 – Onward to PaizoCon Online with Paizo’s Aaron Shanks and Alex Speidel

As I’ve explained in the last three Recall Knowledge editorials, PaizoCon’s been a big part of my life for the last decade, so I had a great time discussion this weekend’s PaizoCon Online 2021  with first time guest Aaron Shanks and semi-regular guest Alex Speidel.

Article

Something Creates – An Organization pt. 3

Written by Andrew Sturtevant

Of the three organizations Andrew outlined last week, he decided to flesh out the Cyber Syndicate,

Cyber Professionals Union. I don’t know if he’ll be bouncing back and forth between this and his other two unions -Galactic Transporters Association (GTA), and League of Keepers- or if it’s all Cyber Syndicate from here on. We shall see.

Friday, May 21^st

Podcast

Intrepid Heroes 060 – A Saboteur Among Us!

John’s back in the GM chair for Dawn of Flame book 5: Solar Strike. It kicks off with a sabotaged starship, which prompts some wonderful Among Us references.  

Article

Bend the Knee Heightened – Fantastic Beasts and the Danger Club Podcast

By Loren Sieg

I appreciate what Danger Club as a single player actual play podcast. 

Preview of May 24^th to May 28^th

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

Monday, May 24^th 

Article

Recall Knowledge –PaizoCon Memories: PaizoCon 2016-2020

Let’s all pretend I got this article up on time.

Tuesday, May 25^th

Podcast

Legend Lore 026 — Dwarves

Luis and Loren look at dwarves, going over their mechanics and lore, and separating Pathfinder dwarves from other interpretations in popular culture.

Article

Fox’s Cunning by Dustin Knight

Dustin offers expert insight and helpful tools to enhance your game.

Wednesday, May 26^th

Twitch

Nothing on Twitch this week as we have a PaizoCon to prepare for!

Podcast

Presenting – Gamers Making Games:  Jefferson Jay Thacker!

John talks with Perram about joining the network, helping it grow, his place in the RPG industry, RPGs place in his life, and the hobbies he continues to collect.  

Article

Guidance by Alex Augunas

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

Thursday, May 27^th

Podcast

Valiant episode 18

Luis mentioned that for a few episodes starting with this one, he improvises everything as the Valiant heroes zagged when all his notes said “Zig”.

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.

Friday, May 28^th

Article

Monstrous Physique by Luis Loza

Luis makes monsters!

 

Now you know,

Ryan Costello