Mark Moreland's page

The intent was to lower the damage bonus and the unintended result was that the movement bonus was reduced to a level before which it comes into effect.

Is there another Pathfinder Society player or GM in the Bahamas that can sign off on the Chronicles without you needing to travel?

Found a couple more errors, so far, in the NPCs, although it might just be my confusion, instead.

** spoiler omitted **

I hope Mark doesn't do a bunch of work for nothing!

I never do the work for nothing! Not only do I get paid to do it, but I love it! Also, we're outsourcing a lot of the work for this event, so if no one plays the highest tier, it won't be me who's slaved away creating that content.

Lem, Balazar, Amiri

But keep in mind that we don't do pregens anymore, so we typically order art based on who would look cool in different situations rather than any other reason, especially for Modules, where there are generally only the cover and two half-page illustrations with iconics on them anyway.

The image has now been updated and reflects the final cover of The Midnight Mirror.

To add to Mike's response, just beware that the highest tier of encounters for this event will be designed for all characters of 12th level or higher, meaning the CRs are likely to be well above what a 12th-level PC is intended to face, since they also need to challenge PCs that get to 14th, 15th, or even 16th level by that point.

Uh Is that not still the mock up image for midnight mirror? (picture being onr from Carrion hill.)

Yep, we're getting the correct image up as soon as possible.

There was one summer in high school in which I watched this movie over a hundred times between the last day of school and the start of the next year. I can recite the whole thing verbatim without the movie even being on to prompt me. It was even several years before I really even had a concept of who David Bowie was (and once I did, I followed him around the country on tour).

So yes. I've seen it, and it remains one of my all-time favorite movies, even if it's got a lot of flaws that I can recognize when judging it objectively.

Think of it like a cat scratching tower with two tiered platforms. The map shows a top-down view of the towers next to one another, but only shows one of the two tiered layers. The layers are identical, however, so just duplicate the map there at different heights and you're set.

Yup. Not all of these have been assigned. We generally don't even announce products until we have a final manuscript in hand from the author (meaning we know for sure who the author is) but we wanted to make sure we had product pages for everything through the end of the season and into the start of next season before their names or details about them showed up on convention event listings (like for PaizoCon or Gen Con).

We'll add the author information when we have it and are ready, but it's still really early to even be assigning scenarios for August.

Thanks for looking those over, Thod. The missing hit points, for example, are a great find. Since the pregens were built using ou in-house NPC statblock generator, I never even noticed that it was calculating the average per level instead of the fixed amount we use in PFS. I imagine we'll revisit the pregens at some point in the future, though I don't know when, and when we do, I'll keep all these points in mind.

Yes

Yep, the year preceding 1 AR was –1 AR. Zero got skipped, same as in our world.

And this, Kyle, is why you have a 5th star next to your name. Great advice!

Similarly, if your daughter had a bad experience with a given module in the past, she is able to play it again, for the improved play experience.

Is there somewhere we've said this? I'm not sure having something as subjective as a "bad experience" as the exception to the existing replay rules is the best idea.

We run extensive public playtests of large or experimental elements in our hardcover rulebooks, but we generally don't have time to playtest adventures. When one considers that it generally takes months if not years to complete an adventure path, and at least a few long sessions to complete a module, we simply would never have time for anything other than playtesting and then actual development. When we hire a freelancer, part of what they're paid to do is to playtest the adventure they turn in to us.

Answer to question number one: yes, there will be lots of opportunities for this boon to be used.

Answer to question number two: no, you can't get the boon until after you complete the scenario.

Answer to question number three: as the quoted text indicates, they must meet all the criteria listed in order to earn the Prestige Point for completing the scenario. This is independent of any Prestige Points earned for completing faction missions.

As the person ultimately responsible for developing the adventure the winner will write (and any additional assignments given to runners-up), I can't encourage people enough to read the judges' comments before voting. Remember that the public is acting as a collective hiring manager for Paizo, and if you vote for someone whose work will take longer than usual to develop, there can be cascading effects in terms of the module coming out on time, as well as other products waiting in line behind it or in production concurrently. The judges are there to let you know some of the real implications of your decisions, and those implications can affect when you get products and the quality of the final product.

So sure, you don't have to read anything, but if you want to help Paizo find the best possible freelancer to work with us for years to come, then I strongly advise it.

Also Merisiel leveling up isn't strictly valid. She has the Weapon Finesse Feat at level 1 and at level 4 she gets the Weapon Finesse via a Rogue skill and the free feat is used otherwise. This is only possible via a rebuild. Not serious - but a bad example in a PreGen. I didn't check if it can be done legal.

Merisiel is not a PC and thus didn't level up. She has a 1st-level version and a 4th-level version that were each built independently.

Mike ... Do you think that I could ask an approximate number of how many players we do have? I do not want this question to lead to begging numbers and percentages about your sales or gamer populations or anything else, because i thinkthat would be poor form. I just want to be able to tell new gamers that I might recruit how big of a campaign this really is.

We don't release sales and marketing data such as this. Just know that the campaign is growing at an exponential rate and we have thousands of players, GMs, and organizers.

How do editors do that all day and not go crazy?

Who said we don't go crazy?

But how feasible would it be for each player to have an entry for their character stored at Paizo? More than the little profile currently could do.

Not very feasible at all. If we were to do any form of organized auditing, it would need to be done by real people and not create any extra work for anyone at Paizo, as we're already full up to the brim on campaign management and development tasks that are actually pressing and ongoing issues. Same applies to the tech team. We're open to suggestions on how to make it work within the constraints of what we can realistically implement, but having things funneled through us or making significant changes to paizo.com are not within those constraints.

I saw that too. I assume the braid is supposed to add the base amount of fast movement of a monk for non monks. So +10' of movement, that is not how things are technically worded, however.

Since 2nd-level monks don't have fast movement, a non-monk gains only the increased unarmed damage bonus. The printed text is an artifact of an earlier version that granted a higher-level monk bonus. The magic item should be run exactly as published, and isn't really up for alternate interpretations.

Michael Brock wrote:

All I can do is ask everyone to have a little patience while we work towards improving the campaign.

Is there any way you could perhaps share what sorts of ideas your weekly discussions have produced?

Also... so, Mike, how 'bout that Synthesist? And that White-Haired Witch?

-Matt

We will share details as they are ready to be released.

It isn't Pathfinder Society's job to correct errors in other products. If you feel there are such errors that need to be addressed in FAQs or errata, please direct those concerns at the portions of the board where they belong. In both the case of the white haired witch and the synthesist, neither is thematically inappropriate for Pathfinder Society Organized Play, and we have no plans to eliminate either from the Additionsl Resources. Balance issues should be handled at the source, not with a band aid in organized play.

Bear in mind that, while you can play any module you're eligible for, Eyes of the Ten was specifically crafted to act as a capstone to a Pathfinder's normal adventuring career. I'd strongly recommend folks play it over a similarly-leveled module specifically because of its strong ties to the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign.

Also, consider that every PC that skips Eyes of the Ten in favor of another 12th-level adventure is one less character reported as having played it, and thus one less bit of data supporting us producing a second retirement arc, which a lot of people have been asking for lately.

I think that the point may have been missed that my character hasn't played the retirement arc or gone up that high, because I don't want to retire him.

Not to single you out, but since you raised this point, I wanted to mention that I personally can't understand the decision not to play a character for fear of not being able to play him as a result.

By not playing a character past the middle of 11th level, you're effectively retiring that character with sessions left on the table, when you could get a good 5 sessions worth out of him before "retirement" (which isn't really even a thing anymore). The Eyes of the Ten arc was specifically designed to be epic and feel like the culmination of a character's adventuring career, which, if you ask me, is the way to go out on top rather than just ceasing to be played.

It's like getting a fast sports car that you really like driving and then never driving it because you know that it will just put miles on the odometer and bring about its eventual breakdown and death.

Answers to Peanuts's questions:

Joseph Caubo wrote:

Now all we need is a 15th level module so there is a bridge to allow characters to play Academy of Secrets (13), Tomb of the Iron Medusa (14), ??? (15), The Moonscar (16), and The Witchwar Legacy (17). I can't wait to get Venture-Captain Nikolai Adonai to 17th level, it will be glorious!

Blood of Dragonscar!

It's 3.5... but it still counts!

... "If you aren't playing for Pathfinder Society credit", is the end of James's sentence that he left off.

For my part, I don't care so much for 'I don't have time to tell you' especially when its more or less said 'it's been discussed behind closed doors'.. partially because I see no reason for the doors to be closed.

The time (ostensibly) is periodically put in to it, so letting others witness it should not be an issue. Perhaps people agree with the reasons, perhaps they disagree.. at least they see the reasons.

The door is "closed," James, because we really, literally, do not have the time to make a post transcribing every discussion that takes place within the Paizo offices. If the amount of transparency we do provide (which I think is a lot, compared to just about every other company out there, in just about any field) isn't enough for you, then maybe Pathfinder Society isn't the right campaign for you to participate in.

Gen Con no longer uses the old exhibition space and adjacent rooms. The dealer hall is now on the other side of the building, but we're still going to be right across the hall (and up the escalators) from the dealer hall.

I don't think they'll ever revisit one of the older games in the series with a sequel. My impression of both sequels is that they were done because a lot of the character design and mechanical backbone of the game was already programmed. I imagine they'd need to start over from scratch to get something that wasn't originally in HD up to the graphical and interface standards we expect of modern games.

All that said, I really like the time travel aspect of the game. If it weren't Oscar season I'd be playing it non-stop when not working but I have 62 movies to get through by the 26th.

Last year we were in rooms 231–233. This year I believe we'll have that whole row of rooms (231–237). See here for more on the convention center and its floorplan.

I played the intro over lunch, and my first impression is that the live cinematic interaction is neat. It certainly keeps one engaged when the visuals get extra flashy without it feeling like you're just watching a movie and clicking A to progress to the next line. Still waiting to see how I like the whole monster-in-my-party aspect, but I should have a better grasp on that when I get a bit farther.

I hope that when people post this to their local messageboards it's made clear that this is an unofficial, fan-generated poll that does not necessarily reflect the specific metrics we are currently measuring in campaign HQ. If, however, the poll seems to generate a lot of interest, we may consider having a professionally designed poll with a bit more of a scientific sampling and question phrasing based on the type of things we're interested in hearing from members of the community. I would prefer that the existing poll not be purported as coming from Paizo, though, so please keep that in mind when spreading it around. Thanks!

We do not currently have a venture-captain whose territory is "the Internet". If you have questions regarding reporting, you can contact any of our venture-captains for assistance or post on these boards.

You are reading it incorrectly.

I won't lie; it was Final Fantasy that got me into gaming way back in my youth. While the franchise and I have had a tumultuous relationship over the years, namely as some games became more future/tech-oriented and less fantasy/steampunk, I still get every game that comes out on a system I own as soon as possible. So today my preorder of FFXII-2 came. I was less than thrilled with XXIII, with its railroad movie-watching experience and then grinding-intensive post-game to get all achievements, but I've heard this one solves a lot of the problems in the previous outing.

Anyone else playing it, and if so, what are your thoughts?

After, as it takes place

Just as a point of clarification, we often revisit rules elements brought up in threads just like this one. And 9 times out of 10 we decide that the ruling as it stands is sound and doesn't need to be addressed publicly. Just because the community doesn't hear every conversation between Mike, the venture-officers, Erik, James, myself, and others we consult doesn't mean we're not constantly talking about the campaign and the decisions that go into running it; it is our full-time jobs, after all.

As I said before, we don't have the time to go into every rules decision.

Creating PDFs of web-based elements is, I believe, on the tech team's ever-growing todo list. In the meantime, folks will just need to print off the pages or sections that directly relate to their characters.

15 sessions seems a bit high. If one assumes 4 sessions a day, for 3 days, you only get 12 sessions. And most areas can only do 3 sessions a day. This rather crushes the chances of smaller conventions of ever getting special boons, which might help PFS grow in that area.

If they're only running 1 or 2 tables a slot, sure. But to get 15 sessions over a two-day convention (let's assume 5 total slots for the show), you only need to run 3 tables each slot.

I like story arcs too but I would resubscribe in a hot minute IF...

We had modules that were optional side treks to the current ongoing AP. Almost like the Set Pieces of old, just more connected to the AP while still being able to run it as a one shot.

One of the main reasons Set Pieces are no longer included in the APs, and why they often seemed so unconnected from the main adventure when they were there, is that the same person can't develop both the AP adventure and any side quests. That means that it's near impossible for the two not to either contradict one another or be completely unrelated simply because they're a story being told by two people. It's the main reason we make sure that the same person develops each AP from start to finish.

Would you consider Academy of Secrets a side quest for Curse of the Crimson Throne? If so, that level of connection is certainly possible, but much closer than that and we risk crossing the streams, and that's bad for everyone.

Anything will less than 5 sessions is now officially considered a game day and not a convention. This is part of concretely outlining different tiers of events so we know what level of support we can provide.

Mark Moreland wrote:

james maissen wrote:

IMHO all special campaign rules should be periodically reviewed.

That's what we do. When we feel something needs to be changed, it changes. I believe our track record shows this.

I wasn't aware of that..

How often do you list out and review all the house rules for PFS?

Somethings I've seen revised. And when Mike took over I know he singled out a number of things for feedback in that review.

But somethings I'm not sure anyone still around knows *why* they are as they are/were.

I'm curious if it's been reviewed why magical knack continues to be banned, as honestly I don't understand why it would ever be.

First, we don't have any house rules, as organized play, by definition must have a universal rules set for all participants.

We just released a complete overhaul of the campaign rules documentation that involved going through each and every line to determine what was and wasn't needed and ensuring that what was left in was clear. That said, we do not have the time to go through each and every decision that has been made to justify or explain it. If something is not allowed for play, it's because we decided it shouldn't be added.

Edit: As to Magical Knack specifically, the conversation on this and the venture-captain boards did prompt Mike and I to discuss it specifically and we're on the same page regarding it's exclusion from the campaign. We currently have no plans to make it a legal additional resource.

While the Chronicle Sheets have been updated on the module pages it seems someone forgot to keep the How To Play pages, or was this intentional? Also, are the additional sheets for Ambush and the Pathfinder Tales updated?

The How To Play rules should now be consolidated into the Guide instead of spread over all the modules.

So do I lose my 5th star this Gen Con, or next (assuming I don't meet the qualifications next year)?

Despite my being tempted to take it from you right now just for asking, you'll have a full season under these rules to maintain the star, so the rest of this season is a freebie.