The first day of the Gen Con saw me waiting in line for my Press Badge. I had planned to get up early and get in line around 6:30 am but the staying up the night before to drink and play the DC Deck Building game and Elder Sign made getting up at 0 dark thirty a little difficulty for me.

So, I arrived at the press room around 7 am and was lucky enough to be about the 59th person in line. This ensured that I would receive one of the 100 early entry tickets for the vendor hall that day. The line for early entry was bit egregious as the Very Important Gamers and Trade Day participants had already began lining up as I was waiting for my press pass. I was very lucky that my neighbor in line new of another line for early entry into the vendor Hall. Ken Grazier, creator of Geek-Craft.com, had found a shorter line and was nice enough to come and get me out of the horribly long line and into one much closer to the Paizo booth. This was serendipitous as this was my first destination within the vendor hall.

Dustin, one of the host of the Under Discussion podcast, had pointed out that the Vendor hall experience early was going to be delightful. He was not wrong. I had the ability to move freely without being walked on or walking upon someone accidentally. I also didn’t feel like I would be stealing time away from another customer as all the vendors had enough staff to handle this small influx of people.

I hit the Paizo booth in order to find out what was new this year at Gen Con.

John Comptor was kind enough to take the time and answer all my questions. According to John, the biggest release at this Gen Con was their new base set for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game entitled Skull and Shackles. In this iteration of the game, 2 to 4 players take on the roles of press ganged pirates in the Shackles island chain. They adventure for survival and the ultimate control of this island chain. John states that there will be monthly adventure packs released to support this new base set as well as a character add-on pack.

The thing that had me at Paizo first was the release of their newest Adventure Path, Iron Gods. According to John, It is set in the country of Numeria in Golarion. It will span levels 1 to 16 when it is finished and will involve the investigation of the crashed spaceships that dot the landscape of Numeria. I loved Spelljammer! Any hint of this type of story creeping back into my fantasy games elicits squeals of glee from me. The first part of this Adventure Path is entitled Fires of Creation. The campaign guide that goes with this adventure path is surprisingly enough the technology guide. It provides a wealth of resources in regards to the technology that can be gleaned from these wrecked hulks and balances it all against extant magic items in both power and cost.

John also pointed out that the Advanced Class Guide was available as well. This core book presents new classes for players to try out at the table. They are composed of hybrid characters that blend bits and pieces of other classes to create something unique and entertaining. I was very happy to hear that the Shaman class makes it appearance in this book. In addition to these new classes, the book contains new options for all the other classes in Pathfinder as well as presenting a guide for creating hybrid classes of your own.

I was sold as soon as John said Shaman, spaceships, and technology guide. I am a huge geek for these things and picked up all three on the spot.

The people at the Paizo booth were wonderful to deal with and made the time spent at their booth well worth it.