Guide 6.0 and Changes to Pathfinder Society Organized Play

Monday, August 11, 2014

With Gen Con just four days away, we wanted to release the new and improved Pathfinder Society Guide to Organized Play (version 6.0) today so everyone has an opportunity to review it and discuss it before Gen Con. With the help of the Venture-Captains and Venture-Lieutenants, we have added several much-needed changes that we think will improve your experiences in Pathfinder Society play.

Most notably, the following changes will go into effect on August 14 when Season six kicks off at Gen Con:

  • Removed aasimar and tielfing as legal race choices. Added kitsune, nagaji, and wayang as legal choices.
  • The nation-based factions have transitioned to ideal-based factions. These new factions borrow some traits from past factions and introduce several new traits. Those who already have faction traits no longer appearing in the Guide to Organized Play keep those traits, but they are no longer available as options for new characters. If you are currently playing in a online game (PbP, VTT, etc..), you may finish the game with your character in its current faction. After the game is complete, you should immediately transition to one of the newer factions, with the exception of Grand Lodge and Silver Crusade.
  • Updated the faction goals for season six.
  • Added a new section in Chapter Five for special rules pertaining to Season 6, including information about time-worn technology and glitches.
  • Updated the shirts available for free reolls, including the new ones that go on sale at Gen Con.
  • Updated the art throughout to reflect the theme of season six.

There are quite a few more changes from version 5.1 to 6.0 so make sure to brush up on it before the new season starts.

Additionally, we have released the update to Additional Resources, including all of July and August books. That means you are able to get a few days to decide what new class you want to build from the Advanced Class Guide.

Finally, the Quick Start Guide has been updated to reflect the color scheme of season six, as well as a few changes in the text to match what is listed in the Guide.

We look forward to seeing all of the awesome VOs, GMs, and players at Gen Con, and are looking forward to an even more awesome campaign in the upcoming Year of the Sky Key. We sincerely appreciate everyone who provided feedback for the changes to the Guide for working together to make our organized play campaign the best itcan be for the player base, GMs, coordinators, and Venture-Officers. Feel free to pull us aside at Gen Con to chat about any or all of the above changes.

Mike Brock and John Compton
Global Organized Play Coordinator and Developer

More Paizo Blog.
Tags: Pathfinder Society
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4/5 ****

Yay!

Scarab Sages 5/5 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Netherlands

Aw yiss

Grand Lodge 2/5 RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Oh snap, no Divine Protection!

Pretty okay with that. ;)

Grand Lodge 4/5 ** Venture-Agent, Colorado—Denver

What is the Quick Start Guide? The link took me to the regular Guide to OP.

3/5

Yay!

I'm unclear from the wording in the guide, however, if we keep faction-based vanities when we use our free change, or only if we change to the corresponding new faction.

Silver Crusade 4/5

*thumbs up at entire team for getting it all done and shiny*

I would like to note formally, that our Guide to PSOP is now the size of Pathfinder Campaign Setting Book. That says and means something.

Additionally, I love the art, still wishing we had a printer friendly version. I feel my printer groaning at all the ink I am about to burn.

2/5

Is there a changelog available for the other non-listed changes?

5/5 5/55/55/5

The circuitry theme burrrrns. :)

For additional resources, i love the "its available on a chronicle sheet" heads up. Thank you!

Dark Archive 4/5 *

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Sounds good! My printer will gladly burn through ink for this.

Two small Additional Resource notes.
- Under Blood of Fiends it says that Aasimar characters are not legal for play. Assume this is just a cut and pasta error.
- Under Advanced Race Guide, kitsune, nagaji, and wayang are still listed as requiring a chronicle to play, while Tiefling and Aasimar are not noted as such.

4/5 Designer

2 people marked this as a favorite.
CigarPete wrote:

Sounds good! My printer will gladly burn through ink for this.

- Just a note, in the additional resources under Blood of Fiends it says that Aasimar characters are not legal for play. Assume this is just a cut and pasta error.

Mmm...pasta!

Grand Lodge 4/5 Global Organized Play Coordinator

CigarPete wrote:

Sounds good! My printer will gladly burn through ink for this.

Two small Additional Resource notes.
- Under Blood of Fiends it says that Aasimar characters are not legal for play. Assume this is just a cut and pasta error.
- Under Advanced Race Guide, kitsune, nagaji, and wayang are still listed as requiring a chronicle to play, while Tiefling and Aasimar are not noted as such.

Yes, it should read that Tiefling characters are not legal for play without a Chronicle sheet. Thanks for pointing out the ARG entry. We will get it fixed.

Sovereign Court 5/5 RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

8 people marked this as a favorite.

Sad to see that stars don't refresh.

Edit: And amused that consuming the souls of slain creatures is still allowed, but a little bit of blood isn't.

3/5

Arcanist is listed as having their item crafting bonus feat as listed as not legal for play. I obviously don't have a copy of the book yet but is there meant to be something that replaces that feat, or do they have a choice of other feats that they can take?

5/5 *

No offense guys, but what happened to the Liberty's Edge faction logo? Someone had to do it in MS paint?

Silver Crusade 2/5

Wonderful. Looking forward to working through it.

:-)

5/5 *

Tarma wrote:

Arcanist is listed as having their item crafting bonus feat as listed as not legal for play. I obviously don't have a copy of the book yet but is there meant to be something that replaces that feat, or do they have a choice of other feats that they can take?

It's an exploit they can take. You just can't take that exploit in PFS.

Sovereign Court 5/5 RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

Some typos in the faction section. (The second place I went to)

Dark Archive header reads 'Dark Archives'

Tahnikepsu vs Tahonikepsu in the scarab sages section (and sad to see she's 'outed' as a dragon in the faction write up)

3/5

2 people marked this as a favorite.

When you correct the Aasimar-Tiefling typo, can you add a cut-off date to the requirement for aasimars & tieflings to have a chronicle sheet as you have on other grandfathered things in the guide? (so that a blog entry isn't needed to interpret the Additional Resources).

-TimD

The Exchange 5/5

YAY! New Guide!

First, whatever that thing is on page 34, my bard wants it!

Second, need to revise "Adapting Seasons 0-4" on Page 33 to reflect the new factions.

Liberty's Edge 2/5

No more Pageant of the Peacock shenanigans, at least that is one less headache to try to adjudicate.


Just a quick question:

Let's say you switch to the Dark Archive Faction. Clearly they do not have any vanities listed (unless a new field guide is coming out). Does that character simply get access to the Cheliax vanities in the field guide?

Grand Lodge 1/5 Venture-Lieutenant, Croatia—Osijek

Huzzah!

Grand Lodge 4/5 Global Organized Play Coordinator

2 people marked this as a favorite.
TimD wrote:

When you correct the Aasimar-Tiefling typo, can you add a cut-off date to the requirement for aasimars & tieflings to have a chronicle sheet as you have on other grandfathered things in the guide? (so that a blog entry isn't needed to interpret the Additional Resources).

-TimD

All changes and corrections will be made after Gen Con since I'm already on the way to Indianapolis and responding from 33,000 feet in the air.

5/5 5/55/55/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Fearspect wrote:

Just a quick question:

Let's say you switch to the Dark Archive Faction. Clearly they do not have any vanities listed (unless a new field guide is coming out). Does that character simply get access to the Cheliax vanities in the field guide?

Liberty’s Edge faction PCs qualify for Andoran faction

vanities and mission boons available in past seasons.
Likewise, Dark Archive faction PCs qualify for Cheliax
rewards, Scarab Sages as Osirion, The Exchange as
Qadira, and Sovereign Court as Taldor. Without a boon
that states otherwise, a PC cannot earn Sczarni vanities
or boons.

page 18.

Grand Lodge 4/5 Global Organized Play Coordinator

Removed a post. Paizo doesn't hate fun. We keep things out that don't fit PFS play. Luckily, you can enjoy that option in a home game.

5/5 5/55/55/5

As I'm pondering a character or two making a switch one paragraph has me doing the backfoot headscratch

You retain
your faction traits, if any, but lose any faction-specific
Prestige Awards you have accumulated during your time
with your old faction; generic Prestige Awards from
Table 5–4 and Vanities (Pathfinder Society Field Guide 60)
are unaffected.

What "faction-specific Prestige Award" isn't a vanity? Can you ditch the exchange and keep the 10% discount card.

I believe you keep your old faction boons from chronicle sheets as well right?

Grand Lodge 1/5

One of Turkey—Istanbul's VLs seems to be cloned near the end of the guide.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 Venture-Lieutenant, Florida—Jacksonville

BigNorseWolf wrote:
Fearspect wrote:

Just a quick question:

Let's say you switch to the Dark Archive Faction. Clearly they do not have any vanities listed (unless a new field guide is coming out). Does that character simply get access to the Cheliax vanities in the field guide?

Liberty’s Edge faction PCs qualify for Andoran faction

vanities and mission boons available in past seasons.
Likewise, Dark Archive faction PCs qualify for Cheliax
rewards, Scarab Sages as Osirion, The Exchange as
Qadira, and Sovereign Court as Taldor. Without a boon
that states otherwise, a PC cannot earn Sczarni vanities
or boons.

page 18.

Thankee BNW. I was posting on Vanities but it got Et. Thanks for pointing that out

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

1 person marked this as a favorite.

What date can we expect the website to be updated to transition our character icons to those of the new Factions?

I ask because I'll be running and reporting a game this Thursday, and I'm hoping I can have the players (and myself) update their Factions accordingly.

Grand Lodge 2/5 RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

BigNorseWolf wrote:

As I'm pondering a character or two making a switch one paragraph has me doing the backfoot headscratch

You retain
your faction traits, if any, but lose any faction-specific
Prestige Awards you have accumulated during your time
with your old faction; generic Prestige Awards from
Table 5–4 and Vanities (Pathfinder Society Field Guide 60)
are unaffected.

What "faction-specific Prestige Award" isn't a vanity?

I believe you keep your old faction boons from chronicle sheets as well right?

I think "generic" modifies both "Prestige Awards" and "Vanities", rather than only "Prestige Awards".

That is, you get to keep:
"generic Prestige Awards" and
"[generic] Vanities"

Rather than:
"generic Prestige Awards" and
"Vanities"

Does that help?

5/5 5/55/55/5

Nope.

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Still a little bit of confusion on Languages.

Pg. 8: Tian characters receive the languages Tien and Common for free.

Does that mean all Tien characters no matter the race?

Grand Lodge 2/5 RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Hm, then maybe I don't understand your question.


Dragnmoon wrote:

Still a little bit of confusion on Languages.

Pg. 8: Tian characters receive the languages Tien and Common for free.

Does that mean all Tien characters no matter the race?

I'm still a bit confused on this too. Would a Tian-Min character, for example, get Minkaian as well or just Tien?

Shadow Lodge

Dragnmoon wrote:

Still a little bit of confusion on Languages.

Pg. 8: Tian characters receive the languages Tien and Common for free.

Does that mean all Tien characters no matter the race?

If that's not what it means, then it's highly redundant; that section already says everyone gets Common, and all the Tian ethnicities already get Tien...

Shadow Lodge

Neongelion wrote:
Dragnmoon wrote:

Still a little bit of confusion on Languages.

Pg. 8: Tian characters receive the languages Tien and Common for free.

Does that mean all Tien characters no matter the race?

I'm still a bit confused on this too. Would a Tian-Min character, for example, get Minkaian as well or just Tien?

The Additional Resources entry for the Dragon Empires Gazetteer explicitly states that the ethnicities in that book, including Tian-Min, grant all the languages they list. That means your Tian-Min character would gain both Tien and Minkaian by virtue of ethnicity, and would be granted Common by viture of The Guide Says So.

Silver Crusade 4/5

We already had a thread on the Tien language thing, and I don't think it's changed. We agreed in that thread (without any feedback from anyone at Paizo) that anyone from the continent of Tian Xia gets Tien as a bonus language, regardless of race. Humans still get their ethnic bonus language, too (ie Minkaian for Tian-Min).


SCPRedMage wrote:
Neongelion wrote:
Dragnmoon wrote:

Still a little bit of confusion on Languages.

Pg. 8: Tian characters receive the languages Tien and Common for free.

Does that mean all Tien characters no matter the race?

I'm still a bit confused on this too. Would a Tian-Min character, for example, get Minkaian as well or just Tien?
The Additional Resources entry for the Dragon Empires Gazetteer explicitly states that the ethnicities in that book, including Tian-Min, grant all the languages they list. That means your Tian-Min character would gain both Tien and Minkaian by virtue of ethnicity, and would be granted Common by viture of The Guide Says So.

All right, good to know. I understand there was a big debate on this exact topic not too long ago, hence the confusion.

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Fromper wrote:
We agreed in that thread...

Speak for yourself.

Liberty's Edge 5/5 5/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Indiana—Martinsville

The area that denotes what factions are used for which in earlier seasons are still using the old factions and mentioning the retirement of Lantern and Shadow Lodge. I would think the new factions would need to be correlated. Right now it lists Silver Crusade (Andorian), Sczarni(Taldor) and Grand Lodge (Osirion). No mention of other factions.

I know that the Grand Lodge and Silver Crusade is still around, but Sczarni is now folded into The Exchange and there are no mention of where the other factions would go.
I would guess it was in the middle of editing when put on the page.

Silver Crusade 1/5

Page 12 talks about:

Quote:


Cooperate: The Society places no moral obligations upon its members, so agents span all races, creeds, and motivations. At any given time, a Pathfinder lodge might house a fiend-summoning Chelaxian, a Silver Crusade paladin, an antiquities-obsessed Osirian necromancer, and a friendly Taldan raconteur. Pathfinder agents, no matter which of the eight factions they belong to, are expected to respect one another’s claims and stay out of each other’s affairs unless offering a helping hand.

We are down to seven factions. New players might get confused about that.

Shadow Lodge

Nefreet wrote:
Fromper wrote:
We agreed in that thread...
Speak for yourself.

You'd do better at convincing people of your point if you gave a good argument reconciling it against the Additional Resources for Dragon Empires Gazetteer...

Not trying to be snarky or anything, just trying to recommend a starting point.

Liberty's Edge 5/5 5/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Indiana—Martinsville

Also, it is mentioned that all character in PFS do get Common, dispite what is in the book. (Using races from the splat books, they do not have Common as a starting language)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Matthew Morris wrote:
Edit: And amused that consuming the souls of slain creatures is still allowed, but a little bit of blood isn't.

Can I interest you in a grim lantern?

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
SCPRedMage wrote:
If that's not what it means, then it's highly redundant; that section already says everyone gets Common, and all the Tian ethnicities already get Tien...

Just seems odd to make that one exception for that one region when all other regions if you come from it you only get the region language if you use a skill point or have the ethnicity.

Why allow a Dwarf coming from Tien to get Tien for Free but not allow a Dwarf coming from Osirion to get Osiriani for free?

Silver Crusade 1/5

Do I read this right:
If I want to play "The Paths we choose" with my Taldan fighter he cannot participate in any other scenario until I play The Paths we choose?
Or if I play another scenario he won't play The Paths We Choose as a member of the Taldor faction, but rather as a member of the Sovereign Court (or whatever) faction?
(Maybe this is explained in the scenario itself, but I did not buy it yet...)

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

SCPRedMage wrote:
Nefreet wrote:
Fromper wrote:
We agreed in that thread...
Speak for yourself.

You'd do better at convincing people of your point if you gave a good argument reconciling it against the Additional Resources for Dragon Empires Gazetteer...

Not trying to be snarky or anything, just trying to recommend a starting point.

I did, you simply disagreed with me. And I you. We are at an impasse.

I believe the wording in the Guide trumps the Additional Resources, and you believe it's the other way around.

Not your fault or mine. It's unclear until it's ruled on. Though I believe, since the Guide's stance on the matter did not change, that it further shows Tian characters only get Common and Tien, since they had the opportunity to change it.

Shadow Lodge

Dragnmoon wrote:
SCPRedMage wrote:
If that's not what it means, then it's highly redundant; that section already says everyone gets Common, and all the Tian ethnicities already get Tien...

Just seems odd to make that one exception for that one region when all other regions if you come from it you only get the region language if you use a skill point or have the ethnicity.

Why allow a Dwarf coming from Tien to get Tien for Free but not allow a Dwarf coming from Osirion to get Osiriani for free?

Because it's so separated from the rest of the world that it's practically a separate campaign setting, to the point where it has its own separate "common" language, whereas Osirion is still well within the Inner Sea region, and Taldane (aka "Commmon") is still widely spoken there.

Sovereign Court

So is the included ITS now required or can we continue to use our individually designed ones (i.e. - an expendable/ammunition exclusive sheet)?

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