Every week, Now You Know recaps the Know Direction content of the past week, previews the Know Direction content of the week to come, and shares the thoughts on the state of the network from the director of operations, Ryan Costello.
In last week’s PaizoCon 2022 update, Paizo announced that the guest of honour would be the Know Direction’s own Vanessa Hoskins. For nearly 10 years, Vanessa’s contributed to the Pathfinder community with classic content like The Solstice Scar Pathfinder Society multi-table special, and Adventure Path volumes like Abomination Vaults: Hand of the Devil. She joined the Know Direction Network in April 2018. That doesn’t seem that long ago, not just because time stopped making sense in the early 2000s, but also because in that time she’s been a staff writer, cast member, on the board of directors, and now hosts the flagship podcast. To put that into context, when listing staff, we put names in order of start date with the Network. Whenever Vanessa’s towards the end of the list I go through the same routine looking up her earliest contribution to the site to confirm her starting date. Beyond her writing and Network contributions, Vanessa’s a champion of LGBTQ representation, using her profile in the community to raise awareness, counter misinformation, and support minorities.
I’m proud of Vanessa for all of her accomplishments, value how much time I get to spend with her, and know that Know Direction is lucky to have her.
Speaking of Know Direction, here’s a recap of the Know Direction Network content that came from last week:
Recap of April 11th to April 15th
What happened last week on knowdirectionpodcast.com and twitch.tv/knowdirection?
Monday, April 11th
Podcast
Valiant Episode 33: In Which Xiadani Uses an Interact Action to Draw a Wand
Have I mentioned how much I love Luis’ naming conventions? Even though they fight a zombiew couatl, a combination I never imagined I’d hear about, Luis names this episode after Jess questions if anyone actually plays that you need to spend an action to draw a wand, followed by awkward silence and eventual admission that this cast of game designers, editors, and influencers absolutely spend an action to draw a wand.
Article
Now You Know – Busy Again, Again
By Ryan Costello
Between an aggressively missed deadline and a return to the office meaning a return to hours of commute eating into my free time, I’ve been feeling a lot more pressure lately.
Tuesday, April 12th
Article
Fox’s Cunning – The Truth Domain
By Dustin Knight
Dustin dedicated an entire article to extolling the virtues of Word of Truth and Glimpse of Truth, and did an excellent job convincing me these spells can create campaign-defining moments.
Wednesday, April 13th
Podcast
Presenting – Mike Bramnik
In addition to getting to know Mike and his history with PFS, his experience as Southern Indiana Venture Captain and PaizoCon Online Committee Chair gave great insight into what convention planning has looked like over the last two years and going forward.
Article
More Lore – Campaign Guide Part Two: Player versus Character Knowledge
By Scott D Young
GM: You know how cool this campaign is gonna be?
PLAYERS: Yeah!
GM: Well your characters don’t! Forget everything you know about everything that’s exciting about this campaign!
Scott offers two methods for dealing with player knowledge versus character knowledge in your campaign guide.
Thursday, April 14th
Article
Investing In: Victory Points
By Rob Pontious
Rob goes in a different direction for this blog post, importing and adapting other game systems to create a victory point subsystem for Pathfinder 2e. This was probably my favourite KD content of the week.
Preview of April 18th to April 22nd
Block 1 of our 2-block schedule.
Monday, April 18th
Twitch
Know Direction 274 Live – Book of the Dead Breakdown
Following up on Know Direction 272 – Book of the Dead Sneak Preview from two weeks ago, Luis and Vanessa break down the Book of the Dead from cover to cover.
Podcast
Intrepid Heroes 084 – The Final Battle!
This! Is! IT! Our Intrepid Heroes’ assault on the crucible leads them to Khaim, the General behind it all.
Article
Now You Know – Facts From Fools
By Ryan Costello
I don’t care if Paizo thinks Vanessa’s their Guest of Honor, she’s the Guest of Honour by my Queen’s English!
Tuesday, April 19th
Podcast
Know Direction 274 – Book of the Dead Breakdown
Find out what Book of the Dead has for your Pathfinder characters and campaigns.
Article
Eldritch Excursion
By Nate Wright
Nate Wright’s journal of flavour and mechanics.
Wednesday, April 20th
Podcast
Game Design Unboxed 35: Phantom Ink
Danielle speaks with artist, designer, and business owner Mary Flanagan about her co-design Phantom Ink, published by her company Resynom Games.
Article
Behind The Screens – Run An Inefficient Game
By Ryan Costello
Eek, I’m on my third cycle of promising this article and I’m still not sure I’ll get it out this week.
Thursday, April 21st
Podcast
Digital Divination 55
John and Ron talk Starfinder.
Friday, April 22nd
Article
Monstrous Physique
By Luis Loza
Luis makes monsters.
Now you know,
Ryan Costello
