Season 5 is nearly halfway done. That means we've posted faction head letters (stickied) in the Faction Talk section of the Pathfinder Society Organized Play messageboard. We'll also be sending out the email update to registered Pathfinder Society players as an additional heads-up, and we're frequently exploring other ways to get the word out.
Over the past three seasons, the Pathfinder Society campaign has published special scenarios that are exclusive to 4-star GMs, 5-star GMs, Venture Captains, and Venture Lieutenants—both to reward our top judges and to incentivize others to GM more and earn those stars. When Pathfinder Society Scenario #2–EX: The Midnight Mauler first came out in early 2011, the campaign had one 5-star GM, about half a dozen 4-star GMs, and 18 newly minted Venture Captains. We've since grown to over 50 5-star GMs, more than 150 4-star GMs, and 345 Venture Captains and Venture Lieutenants! Rather impressive!
Since then, we've introduced quite a few new GM rewards that continue to reward and incentivize the campaign's excellent volunteers to keep sharing their hobby with others: limited replay and the star bonus on "shirt re-rolls." Today we're announcing both a new reward and a change to how we're handling the exclusive scenario this year.
The Exclusive
This year we're releasing The Ruins of Bonekeep, Part 1: The Silent Grave as an exclusive scenario for qualifying GMs, who can now run the adventure anywhere. These GMs should see the scenario in their downloads early this week. Keep in mind that when qualifying for one's fifth star, all Ruins of Bonekeep adventures contribute to a GM's 10 required Exclusive or Special events.
GM Star Chronicle
Back when Mike first became Campaign Coordinator, I remember sending him an elaborate proposal for a GM reward system. Back then it was clunky, required heavy IT support, and accurately reflected how new I was to booncraft, so the idea faded from memory. We recently rediscovered those old plans, blew off the dust, and (with the help of some clever Venture Captains and Venture Lieutenants) revised the concept for distribution. In addition to being available for download from this blog, we will add these to the Free Products page in the next day or so.
The GM Star Chronicle sheet is a one-page reward that provides benefits that scale with a player's stars and a character's level. Each represents a character's tutelage and special training with one of the three Masters: Aram Zey, Kreighton Shaine, or Marcos Farabellus. When you meet both criteria for a boon (such as the GM having 3 stars and the character being level 5+), you can skip a Day Job roll or spend 1 Prestige Point to train with your patron and gain that boon's benefits. At this time, each GM can only select and assign one such Chronicle sheet. The exception to this limit is a 5-star GM, who can select and assign an additional Chronicle sheet to a different character for each additional 50 tables of GM credit he or she earns (two sheets at 200 games, three sheets at 250, et cetera).
Download your own GM Star Chronicle today! - (172 KB zip/PDF)
I'm excited to hear what new characters these inspire and how existing characters might connect with these eminent instructors.
John Compton
Developer
