Pathfinder Society Ireland

My name is William Boyle and I am the Venture-Captain for Ireland, both North and South. I am aided and abetted in this by my Venture-Lieutenants Andrew Wilson (Belfast), Nina Hanzlikova (Dublin), Venture Agents Gary Bingham (Belfast) and Brendan Molloy (Dublin). Along with a dedicated crew of gamers, GMs, store liaisons, FLGS owners and managers, games club runners, and long-suffering, significant others.

I was lucky enough to encounter Pathfinders and Golarion at Gen Con UK in England back in 2008. It was great, but back home  there was not much sign of Golarion on either side of the border. Move forward a couple of years and we realised that there was this really cool organized play campaign, Pathfinder Society. After a couple of home games we knew this deserved a wider audience. So to work…

Traditionally, RPGs here were played more at games clubs, conventions, and home games than at the limited number of games shops. Pathfinder Society has become a big part of the RPG thread at “Q-Con” in Belfast. “Q-Con” is the annual convention of Queen’s University Belfast Dragonslayers Society, and is the biggest Gaming/Anime con in these island in 2013 we ran 25 tables of play. We have had special permission from Paizo to run some special limited edition scenarios. Under Nina’s brilliant local leadership we expanded our presence at Gaelcon—Ireland’s biggest independent convention – where we’ve had our own rooms and hope to increase our total tables from 28 to over 30! When we go to conventions we like to get the Hirst Arts 3D terrain out to add a little “preindustrial light and magic” to the show!

We have also been lucky enough to run events at local games clubs, leading to invitations to go to others. As the word has spread, brilliant GMs in other parts of the country such as Nina Hanzlikova and Liam O’Tailliuir have run Pathfinder Society at local clubs and conventions! We have run all nighters and 24 hours sessions at the Dragonslayers. We even appeared on a segment on the excellent www.theadventuringparty.net podcast!

Since the start of Pathfinder Society, games shops here have begun to spring up that allow games to be played on site.

In Northern Ireland we have Replay Games (Bangor). In the Irish Republic, Pathfinder Society in Dublin is played at Gamers World .

The Pathfinder Society will be at the same conventions noted above, but we will also be adding Warpcon and Leprecon to the list. The monthly games held at Replay have led to home based AP games (now also under the Pathfinder Society umbrella).

I cannot finish without recognising the tremendous support that Mike Brock and Dave Harrison have and continue to provide. Many thanks, fellas!

So if anyone is considering a trip to Ireland let us know we’d love to have you over for a game!

William Boyle
Venture-Captain, Ireland