Paizo Paizo News: Tian Xia, March Organized Play, Artificial Intellegence

Get ready for the horrors of Tian Xia, organized play for Pathfinder and Starfinder, errata updates, and a new policy on the use of artificial intelligence in Paizo's products.

Tian Xia​

Coming this fall, Pathfinder will going to Tian Xia starting with the Season of Ghost Adventure Path in October. This horror-themed campaign will take players from 1st to 12th level over four volumes: The Summer that Never Was, Let the Leaves Fall, With No Breath to Cry, and To Bloom Below the Web. Each adventure in the path will take place over the course of a different season, starting with the Season of Ghosts in the small town of Willowshore. Heroes must work together to help the people of Willowshore prepare for winter in the face of a sinister curse. Can you save your hometown from this supernatural horror or will it become the next haunted ruin?

In 2024, get ready for not one, but two Lost Omen books! Lost Omens Tian Xia World Guide will cover the different nations and cultures that inhabit Tian Xia. Learn the secrets behind the undying emperor, offer a prayer to the local kami, and learn about the yaoguai wars that shaped the landscape.

The Lost Omens Tian Xia Character Guide will introduce new rules to bring your characters to life with six brand-new ancestries and a ton of new backgrounds. There will also be expanded heritages and feats for existing ancestries.

March Organized Play Update​

Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-11: Prisoners of the Electric Castle and Starfinder Society Scenario #5-15: Beta Test will be available digitally on March 29.

Replays are coming! A lot of players have been asking for it and Paizo is delivering. All players will start with 2 replays (current players may have additional replay credits based on the number of games played prior to February 18, 2023) and all GMs will earn one replay for each GM rank they achieve. Additional replays can be purchased for 40 Achievement Points per replay.

Players must indicate to their GM when they are using a replay so it can be reported properly. Replays can be used on any sanctioned content that is scenario-length or shorter, but not long-form content like standalone modules or Adventure Path volumes.

Starfinder Errata Updates​

The following options have just been made legal for Starfinder Society play: all garottes and vibrogarottes (Starfinder Armory); mature xenolash (Starfinder Pact Worlds); thasphalt blaster (Starfinder Drift Crisis); Devastating Throw, Draconic Shot, Hurl Ally, ink gland augmentation, and linnormling creature companion (Starfinder Interstellar Species); and Zeitgeist mystic connection (Horizons of the Vast Adventure Path).

Artificial Intelligence​

With all of the talk and use of AI generated imagery and text, Paizo will be updating its creative contracts with the stipulation that all work submitted to them will be created by a human. They believe that the human touch is an integral part of the success of their games and will continue to work with them into the future.

Starfinder: Enhanced Edition​

In October this year, Paizo will be putting out a pre-order for the Enhanced version of Starfinder. It will include revised classes, new archetypes and feats, a new starship combat system, and more. You can find our coverage here.

 

[Storyteller Hero]

Since the US Copyright Office has declared that AI images will not have copyright protection in the USA, I can see a lot of publishers in addition to Paizo setting rules for submission to ban AI images. It's already much of a risk to deal with AI images in publication due to the lack of predictability for what is to come in legal disputes over what is allowed to train AI generators and how lawmakers in various countries may treat AI images in the future.

 

[Weiley31]

As a huge fan of Yokai in Japanese Mythology, this will be a great thing to have when I decide to check out Pathfinder 2 one of these days.

 

[Blue Orange]

Tian Xia and yaoguai sound more Chinese to me, though kami are Japanese...apparently Minkai is their fantasy-Japan...

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Get ready for the horrors of Tian Xia, organized play for Pathfinder and Starfinder, errata updates, and a new policy on the use of artificial intelligence in Paizo's products.

View attachment 277129​

Tian Xia​

Coming this fall, Pathfinder will going to Tian Xia starting with the Season of Ghost Adventure Path in October. This horror-themed campaign will take players from 1st to 12th level over four volumes: The Summer that Never Was, Let the Leaves Fall, With No Breath to Cry, and To Bloom Below the Web. Each adventure in the path will take place over the course of a different season, starting with the Season of Ghosts in the small town of Willowshore. Heroes must work together to help the people of Willowshore prepare for winter in the face of a sinister curse. Can you save your hometown from this supernatural horror or will it become the next haunted ruin?

In 2024, get ready for not one, but two Lost Omen books! Lost Omens Tian Xia World Guide will cover the different nations and cultures that inhabit Tian Xia. Learn the secrets behind the undying emperor, offer a prayer to the local kami, and learn about the yaoguai wars that shaped the landscape.

The Lost Omens Tian Xia Character Guide will introduce new rules to bring your characters to life with six brand-new ancestries and a ton of new backgrounds. There will also be expanded heritages and feats for existing ancestries.

March Organized Play Update​

Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-11: Prisoners of the Electric Castle and Starfinder Society Scenario #5-15: Beta Test will be available digitally on March 29.

Replays are coming! A lot of players have been asking for it and Paizo is delivering. All players will start with 2 replays (current players may have additional replay credits based on the number of games played prior to February 18, 2023) and all GMs will earn one replay for each GM rank they achieve. Additional replays can be purchased for 40 Achievement Points per replay.

Players must indicate to their GM when they are using a replay so it can be reported properly. Replays can be used on any sanctioned content that is scenario-length or shorter, but not long-form content like standalone modules or Adventure Path volumes.

Starfinder Errata Updates​

The following options have just been made legal for Starfinder Society play: all garottes and vibrogarottes (Starfinder Armory); mature xenolash (Starfinder Pact Worlds); thasphalt blaster (Starfinder Drift Crisis); Devastating Throw, Draconic Shot, Hurl Ally, ink gland augmentation, and linnormling creature companion (Starfinder Interstellar Species); and Zeitgeist mystic connection (Horizons of the Vast Adventure Path).

Artificial Intelligence​

With all of the talk and use of AI generated imagery and text, Paizo will be updating its creative contracts with the stipulation that all work submitted to them will be created by a human. They believe that the human touch is an integral part of the success of their games and will continue to work with them into the future.

Starfinder: Enhanced Edition
In October this year, Paizo will be putting out a pre-order for the Enhanced version of Starfinder. It will include revised classes, new archetypes and feats, a new starship combat system, and more. You can find our coverage here.

I wonder if Paizo is going to hire sensitivity editors for their Tian Xia product? Assuming (becuase it's Paizo) the answer is yes - but would love confirmation. Wonder if that was uncovered in this article's author's reporting? (Can't seem to tag @Dawn Dalton. Oh wait maybe it's @LPuff ?) Darryl covers it in this week's news News Digest for the Week of March 3 Sounds like a great creative crew. Looking forward to it...

 

[WageMage]

While everyones opinion of AI art differs, I love this move by Paizo. I'm guessing other companies will follow suit.

 

[Prime_Evil]

While everyones opinion of AI art differs, I love this move by Paizo. I'm guessing other companies will follow suit.

I suspect most companies will be cautious until the legal and ethical implications are sorted out. As with any new technology, this may take a few years. In the longer term, I suspect AI will be used to enhance human capabilities rather than to replace them. We are already seeing this trend, with Adobe integrating AI-powered workflows and tools into Creative Cloud. But it'll take time to establish clear boundaries about how this interacts with intellectual property law.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The AI can create true wonders, but they need previous software or training or they will always creating the same figures with the same poses. Fantasy art needs more dinamic poses. AI art can be perfect to create portraits of characters, but for scenes of epic battles a profesional artist is better. There are pros and handicaps.

Other point is AI art can create photorealistic NSFW, even with characters from cartoons for children, or videogames, for example Tiny Tina from Borderlands, and I don't mean when she is adult.

I guess AI art could be protected by copyright if the artist can prove the AI art was only one of the parts of the creation, and there were also other ways, for example a sketch by pencil, and the AI was only to give color.