The Future of Pathfinder Society Organized Play Part III: The Rules that Govern the World

Monday, April 4, 2011

Continuing our series of Monday blogs on the future of the Pathfinder Society, today let's talk about the campaign documents that outline the rules of the campaign.

The Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play has seen several incarnations since the campaign began in summer 2008. Currently in version 3.0.2, it has grown to a dense, 38-page PDF including the basics for players, GMs, and coordinators, as well as many explanations and clarifications of rare corner cases. While most of these rules are staying the same, the nature of any campaign is that it evolves. And the current document is simply too unwieldy for us to continually update, re-layout, and re-edit (not to mention print, for all of you following along at home). Today, we'll be updating the document to version 3.0.3 with a few revisions noted below; this will be the last revision to this document until we release version 4.0 in July.

A few months ago we moved the list of Additional Resources to their own page on the website where we can more easily update them without needing to redo the entire guide every month. This has worked out really well for us, and we plan to keep updating it here. This table of information has been removed from v3.0.3, replaced with instructions to find this information on paizo.com instead.

Additionally, we replaced the old replay rules section on page 18 with the new rule implemented on the messageboards in October outlining the 1:1 player/GM credit rule. We've clarified the Play! Play! Play! rule on page 17 to try to eliminate the misconception that the rule should negate every other rule in the book, while maintaining its intent of encouraging people to find creative solutions in order not to have to turn people away. Finally, we clarified a rule that was incorrectly interpreted in past versions of the guide regarding animal companions with Intelligence scores of 3 or higher (page 20).

So what's in store for campaign documentation in the future? Great things!

In July, we'll release not one but three new campaign documents, each with a different target audience. The first will be a 4-page introduction to the campaign with only the basic overview of the campaign and how someone can get started right away. This will be aimed at people new to the campaign who wander up at a game store or convention and just need the bare minimum to get started right then and there. We'll also have a longer, more detailed version of the player's campaign guide with extended information on additional options and explanations of factions, traits, day jobs, spending Prestige, and so on. The third book will be a GM- and coordinator-oriented information about creating sessions, reporting, and other organizational elements of the campaign.

Many of the specific corner cases and campaign specific rules that don't really belong in something everyone's expected to download and print before participating in the campaign will be moved to an online FAQ instead. This will allow us to more quickly address rules clarifications in a single, easy-to-find location instead of continually bloating the PDF campaign documents. We will have the FAQ up and full of information by the time Season 3 kicks off, and maybe even sooner if the deadline gods smile upon us.

Check back here next Monday for a glimpse at the first of next season's 10 factions—the freedom-loving nation of Andoran—and see what changes they've brought about in the last three years of dominating Pathfinder Society Organized Play.

Mark Moreland
Developer