Faction Letter?!?


Pathfinder Society

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The Exchange

I was told that we missed the faction mission because we didn't try for it.

I said I thought in season 5 we weren't doing faction missions anymore.

I was told, the letter from you faction leader told you what your faction mission was.

I haven't gotten any letter from faction leader. Who is that and how would he know how to get a letter to me anyway? Is there another registration someplace that I don't know about?

3/5 RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16

If you look in the Faction Talk subforum, each faction has a message from its leader (I think it might be stickied). Also, as I understand it, the second prestige point isn't tied to a faction mission anymore, but rather a secondary success condition, in which you go above and beyond the stated mission*. There are separate chances for certain factions to gain minor boons for pursuing their factions goals.

*For instance...

Glass River Rescue:
Your main mission is to rescue the Dwarven emissaries, but the secondary success condition is to cover your tracks by killing the boss, eliminating the hidden scrying samples, maintaining a convincing cover story, etc.

5/5 *

For now, only Season 5 scenarios have a secondary mission.

For older scenarios (seasons 0-4) then you get one prestige from getting 1 xp, and one prestige if you successfully finish the main mission.

Soon(TM), a document will be released that details these secondary missions for the older scenarios as well. At that time, all scenarios will have the main mission, and a secondary mission like the newer scenarios.

Also, to be clear, the secondary missions are not always explicitly given to you.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 *** Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant

The faction letters while not being sent out like they were last year, were sent as links in an email a couple of months ago. They were also linked in a PFS Blog Post. If you don't read the Monday blog posts, and have opted out of allowing Paizo to email you, then you wouldn't have gotten them. When I run season 5 scenarios, I've made a point to bring copies of the faction letters with me, but most GMs probably won't. As we get further in the season, I'll probably stop doing so, but will still be able to point them to their faction's goals in the guide, since they also listed the brief faction goal in the newest version of the Guide to Organized Play released last month.

Instead of the faction leaders being "all-knowing" and sending you for things that they'd realistically have no way of knowing that you'd come across, they've put it on the players to be on the lookout for ways to further their faction's goals.

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

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WOW!

This is the first I've heard of this, and I consider myself pretty active on these boards.

I've played two Season 5 scenarios so far, and neither GM mentioned anything about this.

Honestly, I never opt in to additional emails from any website I belong to. I get enough spam trying to "find me a girlfriend" or "wire me money from Africa".

How is the casual player supposed to know about these things?


Nefreet wrote:
How is the casual player supposed to know about these things?

Luck?

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

MrSin wrote:
Nefreet wrote:
How is the casual player supposed to know about these things?
Luck?

Indeed.

Is this another way to penalize people? Few people in my area visit the boards regularly. Only one person in my home group does. The others only came to Paizo long enough to register their characters.

To have someone show up, play for four hours, and be told they're not getting all of their Prestige because they didn't scour the forums every week seems really harsh to me.

Here is the only mention of Season 5 Faction Goals I've found in the Guide, and this is hardly enough to go off of when Prestige is on the line,

Season 5 Faction Goals:
Season 5 Faction Goals
Each faction has specific goals it hopes to achieve during Season 5. Below is a brief overview of their motivations.
Andoran: Root out corruption in Andoran and better understand others’ paths to liberty.
Cheliax: Secure important artifacts and sources of power to establish order in the Inner Sea region and strengthen the faction’s power base.
Grand Lodge: Ensure the success of the Pathfinder Society’s expedition to the Sky Citadel of Jormurdun.
Osirion: Contact the Jeweled Sages, explore their history, and extend the faction’s protection of history beyond Osirion’s borders.
Qadira: Establish a long-term trade deal with one of several possible trading partners.
Sczarni: Extend the Sczarni faction’s reach into central Avistan, and neutralize the faction’s rivals.
Silver Crusade: Aid the nation of Mendev in its crusade against the Worldwound.
Taldor: Assist Lady Gloriana Morilla in gathering forces to march to Mendev.

The Exchange

Well I did get both prestige, but not the faction specific reward on the chronicle sheet.

Thanks guys, I will go to the faction forum to look for my letter.

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

Selter Sago de'Morcaine PFS wrote:
Well I did get both prestige, but not the faction specific reward on the chronicle sheet.

I'm sorry, but that is utter <censored>.

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

For anyone else that dropped their morning breakfast reading this thread, HERE is the blog post of relevance.

Would have really been nice to announce this for the rest of us. I'd highly suggest a Sticky post on the main forum.

I don't follow the blogs regularly, because most of them are of no concern to me. I don't partake in the Faction forums, because I have characters in every Faction. And I don't receive emails from Paizo.

And I feel most players are going to be in this boat.

If these new "Faction Missions" aren't listed in the scenarios, there are going to be a lot of frustrated, angry players. If this had happened to me, I know I'd be one of them.

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

So, after another 20 minutes of searching, I still haven't found these mysterious Faction Missions. All the blog says is...

"Each faction leader, from Andoran's Major Colson Maldris to Taldor's Lady Gloriana Morilla, have sent a missive to their allies within the Pathfinder Society, updating their agents on the conclusion of last season's goals and laying forth new agendas for the coming year. A brief overview of each faction's goals for Season Five can be found below, along with a link to the full text of each faction head's letter on the paizo.com messageboards."

...but when I visit the individual Factions, I see nothing there.

At least make them easy to find. Anyone have a link?

Shadow Lodge *

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

In each of the Faction Forums there is a post with a title that looks like this (only with the appropriate faction listed):

Osirion Faction Status Report - Year of the Demon

The first post in the thread is the faction letter.

Unfortunately, this post is not stickied, but it usually isn't more than 3 or 4 posts down.

Liberty's Edge 1/5

Andoran Faction Status Report – Year of the Demon as an example. All of the Faction Letters Post names are formatted the same way I believe. They were supposed to be stickied, not sure why they are not.

I believe every Monday is PFS blog day, check Tuesday morning before 10am Pacific time and you should see the blog post.

Another option is to check this link once a week. That link is to just the Pathfinder Society posts. Right now Chrome is giving me a Aw Snap error on that link so it may be as helpful. Firefox is working with it just fine, so it may just be my browser.

One more option is this link. This link is to a page that has all of the blog posts in short form just scan through looking for the Pathfinder Society Logo. For example if you follow the link right now you should find the 5th post is a Pathfinder Society relevant post.

I have to say I do not understand why people would not frequently visit the site of a company they patronize. Especially nowadays when so many companies have forums, forums that they watch for customer feedback. I realize that most people are not going to come to the website once, or more, times a day. But really once a week is too much to ask?

Last year they sent out Faction Letter emails and many people did not get them because the mass of emails caused numerous spam filters to be set off, at least that is how I understand things. On top of that a lot of people complained about the emails clogging up their inboxes. PFS leadership adjusted the plan this year. They also made a point of posting in several places about the changes.

In addition, they suggested GMs print out the faction letter for their players so that they would not miss out on opportunities. So I truly feel the GM in the OPs situation dropped the ball on this one.

The Exchange

Ok, now that I know a bit more about it. I didn't lose anything. None of us were the faction that got a reward. I didn't realize it wasn't for everyone. That may be why GM didn't make a big deal about it when we were starting.

I have printed off a copy of each that I will bring with me from now on in case someone else at the table didn't know about it.

graywulfe wrote:
... I have to say I do not understand why people would not frequently visit the site of a company they patronize. Especially nowadays when so many companies have forums, forums that they watch for customer feedback. I realize that most people are not going to come to the website once, or more, times a day. But really once a week is too much to ask? ...

Both professionally and personally, I do business with literally hundreds of companies. I do not visit the websites of even 10% of them. There is no need or gain from doing so. Even the one I do visit it is normally with a specific piece of information I am trying to locate. I don't think I peruse any of them just to see what someone might have said in a blog.

This website (or at least the forums) is one I am on almost every day. Usually in the PF general, advice, and pbp forums. This was not something I knew to go looking look for.

Yes, I've seen the blog button at the top. The few times I checked it months ago it was just sales pitchs for new products (just like most company blog's). I already spend a fair amount on their products and there are more that I want than I can afford to buy for the next 3 years or so. I haven't been back.

Rereading the section in the PFS guide, I can see the hint to go look for the letter. But I would not call it clear or anything.

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

graywulfe wrote:
I have to say I do not understand why people would not frequently visit the site of a company they patronize. Especially nowadays when so many companies have forums, forums that they watch for customer feedback. I realize that most people are not going to come to the website once, or more, times a day. But really once a week is too much to ask?

I visit the Forums several times a day. Between slow periods at work, standing in line at Chipotle, during television commercial breaks, and usually when I have my morning coffee.

I visit the Advice, Rules Questions, General Discussion, GM Discussion, and PFS General Discussion forums. There's almost never a day I'm not on Paizo.

This needs to be Stickied on the PFS General Discussion board, where casual and experienced players alike will clearly see it. If I missed it, you can bet a lot of ppl have.

You said the OP's GM dropped the ball, but if *I* had been his GM, how could I have known?

4/5

Nefreet wrote:
You said the OP's GM dropped the ball, but if *I* had been his GM, how could I have known?

Most GM's read the scenarios they run, by reading the scenario they should know what factions are rewarded and what the players have to achieve to get those rewards.

If having hidden (no mission hand out) faction missions is a problem for you Season 5 in of itself may also be an issue for you. Season 5's second prestige point is based on hidden goals in the scenario. So players will not know what they need to achieve for the second prestige point other then the general note that it is tied to the scenario success goal.


Jeffrey Fox wrote:
Nefreet wrote:
You said the OP's GM dropped the ball, but if *I* had been his GM, how could I have known?
Most GM's read the scenarios they run, by reading the scenario they should know what factions are rewarded and what the players have to achieve to get those rewards.

To clarify, faction goals are hidden on the site, hidden faction missions are in the scenario.(personally I think both are a little silly from a player POV).

4/5

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MrSin wrote:
Jeffrey Fox wrote:
Nefreet wrote:
You said the OP's GM dropped the ball, but if *I* had been his GM, how could I have known?
Most GM's read the scenarios they run, by reading the scenario they should know what factions are rewarded and what the players have to achieve to get those rewards.
To clarify, faction goals are hidden on the site, hidden faction missions are in the scenario.(personally I think both are a little silly from a player POV).

The goal is to move away from the "all-seeing" faction leaders, faction missions that don't fit the scenario, and to save word count that can be used for better scenarios.

When the faction goals were released they were posted in a blog/ message board post on the general discussion forum, posted in all of the faction forums, and briefly mentioned in the guide. They also have printable hand outs in the GM Shared Prep folder (cause they're awesome folks).

Sure the faction goals could be more noticeable but it really is up to GM's and coordinators to educate their game groups about these things because even if you post a link on the forums you won't reach the people who don't read the forums.

Liberty's Edge 1/5

Selter Sago de'Morcaine PFS wrote:

Ok, now that I know a bit more about it. I didn't lose anything. None of us were the faction that got a reward. I didn't realize it wasn't for everyone. That may be why GM didn't make a big deal about it when we were starting.

I have printed off a copy of each that I will bring with me from now on in case someone else at the table didn't know about it.

graywulfe wrote:
... I have to say I do not understand why people would not frequently visit the site of a company they patronize. Especially nowadays when so many companies have forums, forums that they watch for customer feedback. I realize that most people are not going to come to the website once, or more, times a day. But really once a week is too much to ask? ...

Both professionally and personally, I do business with literally hundreds of companies. I do not visit the websites of even 10% of them. There is no need or gain from doing so. Even the one I do visit it is normally with a specific piece of information I am trying to locate. I don't think I peruse any of them just to see what someone might have said in a blog.

This website (or at least the forums) is one I am on almost every day. Usually in the PF general, advice, and pbp forums. This was not something I knew to go looking look for.

Yes, I've seen the blog button at the top. The few times I checked it months ago it was just sales pitchs for new products (just like most company blog's). I already spend a fair amount on their products and there are more that I want than I can afford to buy for the next 3 years or so. I haven't been back.

Rereading the section in the PFS guide, I can see the hint to go look for the letter. But I would not call it clear or anything.

My apologies for any insult you may have taken from my post. Some of that has built up over the past several months from certain posters displaying, what I consider to be ridiculous expectations and an insulting manner. I hope that the other information in my post helps you find the information for PFS without having to wade through too much information you do not care about. PFS leadership does use the blog for passing on information, so checking on it like I suggested is a really good idea.

I say this with no insult intended, I really don't understand how people who check out the site daily could have missed this, but like I have said before, I probably spend an unhealthy amount of time on this site.

I definitely agree that they could have done more to make the Faction letters easier to find. I also guarantee that Paizo staff is reading these comments and taking them into account for future doling out of information.

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

Simple fix: make a Sticky, title it "Season 5 Faction Missions", and post it at the top of the PFS General Discussion forum (the same that this thread is in).

Going forward, Sticky post or not, *I* will know there is more to every scenario than what is printed within, but many others will not, and we'll have repeat occurrences similar to the OP.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 *** Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant

Nefreet wrote:

Simple fix: make a Sticky, title it "Season 5 Faction Missions", and post it at the top of the PFS General Discussion forum (the same that this thread is in).

Going forward, Sticky post or not, *I* will know there is more to every scenario than what is printed within, but many others will not, and we'll have repeat occurrences similar to the OP.

Ok Nefreet, how will that help others if they don't come to the forums. You yourself said that you're here several times a day, but you didn't see the post about it. Maybe if it had been sticked, but I've gotten so used to ignoring the stickies and just looking for the new threads that it wouldn't help me if it was stickied.

If you won't opt to get PFS emails (very rarely sent out, but when sent provide important information), and you don't read the PFS blogs (most Mondays with often useful information), what other way is there that would get the information out to you (and others) that wouldn't cause John and Mike hours of their already overtaxed time to implement?

If nothing else, I strongly suggest you try checking the blog every Monday/Tuesday to see if they've dropped any important information. Usually at least once a month is a post with information that you'd really want to have (sometimes there are fluff pieces or no post).

5/5

The season's faction goals are in the Guide to Organized Play that everyone is expected to read.

Quote:

Season 5 Faction Goals

Each faction has specific goals it hopes to achieve during Season 5. Below is a brief overview of their motivations.
Andoran: Root out corruption in Andoran and better understand others’ paths to liberty.
Cheliax: Secure important artifacts and sources of power to establish order in the Inner Sea region and strengthen the faction’s power base.
Grand Lodge: Ensure the success of the Pathfinder Society’s expedition to the Sky Citadel of Jormurdun.
Osirion: Contact the Jeweled Sages, explore their history, and extend the faction’s protection of history beyond Osirion’s borders.
Qadira: Establish a long-term trade deal with one of several possible trading partners.
Sczarni: Extend the Sczarni faction’s reach into central Avistan, and neutralize the faction’s rivals.
Silver Crusade: Aid the nation of Mendev in its crusade against the Worldwound.
Taldor: Assist Lady Gloriana Morilla in gathering forces to march to Mendev.

Grand Lodge 4/5 Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator

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Mike Lindner wrote:

The season's faction goals are in the Guide to Organized Play that everyone is expected to read.

Quote:

Season 5 Faction Goals

Each faction has specific goals it hopes to achieve during Season 5. Below is a brief overview of their motivations.
Andoran: Root out corruption in Andoran and better understand others’ paths to liberty.
Cheliax: Secure important artifacts and sources of power to establish order in the Inner Sea region and strengthen the faction’s power base.
Grand Lodge: Ensure the success of the Pathfinder Society’s expedition to the Sky Citadel of Jormurdun.
Osirion: Contact the Jeweled Sages, explore their history, and extend the faction’s protection of history beyond Osirion’s borders.
Qadira: Establish a long-term trade deal with one of several possible trading partners.
Sczarni: Extend the Sczarni faction’s reach into central Avistan, and neutralize the faction’s rivals.
Silver Crusade: Aid the nation of Mendev in its crusade against the Worldwound.
Taldor: Assist Lady Gloriana Morilla in gathering forces to march to Mendev.

^^^This

5/5 5/55/55/5

Mike Lindner wrote:

The season's faction goals are in the Guide to Organized Play that everyone is expected to read.

Quote:

Season 5 Faction Goals

Each faction has specific goals it hopes to achieve during Season 5. Below is a brief overview of their motivations.
Andoran: Root out corruption in Andoran and better understand others’ paths to liberty.
Cheliax: Secure important artifacts and sources of power to establish order in the Inner Sea region and strengthen the faction’s power base.
Grand Lodge: Ensure the success of the Pathfinder Society’s expedition to the Sky Citadel of Jormurdun.
Osirion: Contact the Jeweled Sages, explore their history, and extend the faction’s protection of history beyond Osirion’s borders.
Qadira: Establish a long-term trade deal with one of several possible trading partners.
Sczarni: Extend the Sczarni faction’s reach into central Avistan, and neutralize the faction’s rivals.
Silver Crusade: Aid the nation of Mendev in its crusade against the Worldwound.
Taldor: Assist Lady Gloriana Morilla in gathering forces to march to Mendev.

Right, but then they added some more in more recent letters/faction updates on the forums. (just the chelaxians afaik)

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

Seriously? First off, I posted that. Those one sentence blurbs are not going to help me determine that, in order to get my Prestige, I need to acquire "Artifact X" in "Citadel Y" and give it to "Commander Z". That section in the Guide does not make it apparent, IMO, what each faction needs to do in each scenario to earn their Prestige.

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

Eric Clingenpeel wrote:
Ok Nefreet, how will that help others if they don't come to the forums. You yourself said that you're here several times a day, but you didn't see the post about it. Maybe if it had been sticked, but I've gotten so used to ignoring the stickies and just looking for the new threads that it wouldn't help me if it was stickied.

It puts everything in one easy place where everyone can clearly see it, comment on it, and update it as time goes by?

Because the current system is broken?

Shadow Lodge 4/5 *** Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant

Nefreet wrote:
Seriously? First off, I posted that. Those one sentence blurbs are not going to help me determine that, in order to get my Prestige, I need to acquire "Artifact X" in "Citadel Y" and give it to "Commander Z". That section in the Guide does not make it apparent, IMO, what each faction needs to do in each scenario to earn their Prestige.

Those one sentence blurbs aren't going to help you get ANY prestige. Faction missions have nothing to do with prestige now, as has already been mentioned in this thread.

"Faction missions" in Season 5 only now only advance a faction's goal for the season (which are summed up in those single sentences above) and provide a minor boon for that faction only. If you're in a scenario that has something for your faction, as long as you're paying attention, you should be able to get a minor boon from it.

Its up to the player to figure out how to advance his faction's goal, and I for one prefer it that way.

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

And that's fine. Cool. Love it. Not arguing against it. But please make it easier for people to understand what's going on. That's all I'm asking. Because right now, it's not clear.

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

I don't know how things operate at your local game store, but over in my area we can get upwards of 30 ppl on a Friday night. Not everyone comes to play a certain scenario, and sometimes ppl get moved around into something they weren't planning on playing.

As of right now, where would such a player go to quickly determine what their Faction Mission is for that scenario? Because I couldn't tell them, in all honesty.


Nefreet wrote:
As of right now, where would such a player go to quickly determine what their Faction Mission is for that scenario? Because I couldn't tell them, in all honesty.

Pretty sure you aren't supposed to know the hidden faction mission things. You couldn't point them unless you already did the scenario and shared it, which could be viewed negatively(Spoilers, yo!). Again, I'm not a big fan of secret faction missions.

4/5 *

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Your faction "mission" is the same for the entire season. The specific thing you need to do in a given scenario isn't known to anyone but the GM. The GM *should* make sure to point out which factions should be looking for opportunities (that information is public knowledge), but it is up to the players to do so.

Grand Lodge 4/5

BigNorseWolf wrote:
Mike Lindner wrote:

The season's faction goals are in the Guide to Organized Play that everyone is expected to read.

Quote:

Season 5 Faction Goals

Each faction has specific goals it hopes to achieve during Season 5. Below is a brief overview of their motivations.
Andoran: Root out corruption in Andoran and better understand others’ paths to liberty.
Cheliax: Secure important artifacts and sources of power to establish order in the Inner Sea region and strengthen the faction’s power base.
Grand Lodge: Ensure the success of the Pathfinder Society’s expedition to the Sky Citadel of Jormurdun.
Osirion: Contact the Jeweled Sages, explore their history, and extend the faction’s protection of history beyond Osirion’s borders.
Qadira: Establish a long-term trade deal with one of several possible trading partners.
Sczarni: Extend the Sczarni faction’s reach into central Avistan, and neutralize the faction’s rivals.
Silver Crusade: Aid the nation of Mendev in its crusade against the Worldwound.
Taldor: Assist Lady Gloriana Morilla in gathering forces to march to Mendev.
Right, but then they added some more in more recent letters/faction updates on the forums. (just the chelaxians afaik)

Without getting into specifics of scenarios, from what I've seen of 5-01 to 5-04, I'd describe at least one of the faction head letters as essential and one as very helpful so far, over and above the Guide overview, for a player to guess what is required. I've definitely provided them to the affected factions when running season 5 games.

Dark Archive 4/5

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The boons provided are tiny, like +1 to diplomacy against a group of people you will likely never meet again which when you use it you cross off the boon.

Honestly if you know what your faction is and what it stands for it is fairly straightforward how to get your faction boon.

For example Qadiran this is the trade faction, meaning that anytime you are introduced to a merchant NPC you should consider it as an opportunity to expand trade relations (yes sometimes it wont be relevant but if you are part of a massive trade consortium you should be doing this at every available opportunity).

All of the faction missions are similar to that you have 1-2 goals for your faction for the whole season, if your PC is a good fit to the faction you will generally get your faction boon without doing anything special just by roleplaying as normal (I have stumbled into every one of my faction boons just by playing my PC's as they were designed) without any knowledge of the faction letters.

5/5 5/55/55/5

Caderyn wrote:
All of the faction missions are similar to that you have 1-2 goals for your faction for the whole season, if your PC is a good fit to the faction you will generally get your faction boon without doing anything special just by roleplaying as normal (I have stumbled into every one of my faction boons just by playing my PC's as they were designed) without any knowledge of the faction letters.

Wardstone patrol: chelaxian edition is an ENORMOUS variation from this.. probably because it was the first? one to use a supplemental letter that differed from the guide.

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

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I took the liberty of posting all the Faction Letters in one place. Would be wonderful if someone could Sticky it so it is easy to find going forward.

Dark Archive 4/5

BigNorseWolf wrote:
Caderyn wrote:
All of the faction missions are similar to that you have 1-2 goals for your faction for the whole season, if your PC is a good fit to the faction you will generally get your faction boon without doing anything special just by roleplaying as normal (I have stumbled into every one of my faction boons just by playing my PC's as they were designed) without any knowledge of the faction letters.

Wardstone patrol: chelaxian edition is an ENORMOUS variation from this.. probably because it was the first? one to use a supplemental letter that differed from the guide.

Yes it is a rather large variation but its still very easy to actually trigger the success conditions, I was playing a grand lodge PC for that one (I had no mission) but I checked the Success conditions for the Cheliax faction mission and I had actually completed that one (its a best 2 out of 3 mission, you get given part one as a freebie, part 3 is effortless to any PC interested in magic)

5/5 *

Nefreet,

Maybe this will help you and your players. I actually compiled the core statements from all the faction letter, and made literal handouts (a-la-season 4) that you can print out and pass to players, or keep in a single double-sided sheet to pass around.

***Direct link here***

Also available in the GM Shared Prep folder under Helpful Resources

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

The collection I posted was meant more for everyone else to use as a resource, but I'll certainly take a look at yours when I'm not on my phone.

Do people *not* think that having all the missions in one, central, easy-to-find resource would be helpful?

Dark Archive 4/5

As a GM, I have taken to printing out these letters and handing them to the players who are in the relevant factions.

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

And that's cool, but what about last minute games, or GMs that aren't prepared, whatever the reason may be? I don't see why having a Sticky post wouldn't help.

Dark Archive 4/5

I actually think that's a great idea. I was just giving a tip to others so that there might be a wealth of faction letters available to people who aren't so tech-savvy.

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

@Carlos: Nice work! I think I'll laminate them so I can use them over and over again.

Shadow Lodge 3/5

Intended as feedback only (I haven't played/GM'd a season 5 scenario yet, but knew the gist of how "faction missions" would work in season 5) - I was expecting this kind of thing to happen.

I hoped it wouldn't, because it sort of seemed like everyone had a reasonable understanding, or expected to be able to understand when it came to time to play (and let's face it, it's the end of September now - 6 weeks later - so there must be some truth to that).

GMs of season 5 will likely need to be vigilant in making sure players know how their faction now affects their game before they begin.

4/5 5/5 **

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Just to sum things up in case people are confusing secondary success conditions and prestige points.

The faction head letters have NOTHING to do with prestige points! Those are only to help guide you to possibly get a boon on the chronicle sheet, if that faction could further its cause while the plot unfolds. However, only a few factions might even have a chance to do this in each Season 5 scenario.

Prestige points are now tied to primary and secondary success conditions. The primary success condition is tied to the mission briefing from the Venture-Captain, while the secondary success condition comes from taking the intiative and going beyond the mission briefing to do the mission more fully.

The example given in the podcast several months ago, when this concept was revealed, was that you are sent to retrieve this urn with the ashes of the uber-emperor. Getting the urn and bringing it back gives you one prestige point. However, if you looked in the urn you'd have realized it was empty! The secondary success condition means you take the initiative to find the ashes and put them back in the urn, thus more fully completing the mission. That will get you the second prestige point.

Note that neither of these is tied to rooting out corruption, making trade deals, tracking down the Opal Sage, etc. Those faction-specific side missions could give you a small boon or help the PFS Campaign staff at Paizo spin the direction of your faction in future scenarios, but that's all.

[Edited.]

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

Dan Simons wrote:
Those faction-specific side missions could give you a small boon or help the PFS Campaign staff at Paizo spin the direction of your faction in future scenarios, but that's all.

I guess we differ, then. I consider that just as important as XP, Prestige, having fun, and a sense of accomplishment.

The Exchange 5/5 RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16

Also, just a check on this topic.

The boons read "You get this benefit". The instructions to the GM read "If a PC is a member of a particular faction, they get the boon."

One GM I met at Gen Con was giving his PCs all the boons, because a GM gets boons as he pleases. I replied that I thought that the PC to whom he assigns the Chronicle needs to be of the proper faction.

He replied. "If that were the case, they wouldn't be worded this way. They would be worded 'If you are a member of this particular faction, you get this benefit.' The condition isn't part of the boon."

Who's right?

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/5

Chris Mortika wrote:
Who's right?

John Compton has clarified this:

John Compton wrote:

As a public service announcement to GMs, #5-01 The Glass River Rescue does not explicitly state that only members of the featured factions receive the respective boons in the Faction Notes section. It should say such. Those boons are for members of the respective factions only.

This is not an issue for the other two scenarios released yesterday, but please be advised that this is the intention for these faction-related goals and their boons.

So you are right.

Liberty's Edge 5/5

Gm PCs get only the boon to which their PC qualifies.

The Exchange 5/5 RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16

Another question, which I don't think has been answred anywhere: if a PC pays prestige (or rebuilds a 1st-level PC) to transfer his loyalties away from a faction, does he still get access to the boon?

My guess: yes, if he paid prestige, no if he used a free 1st-level PC rebuild.

4/5 ****

Chris Mortika wrote:

Another question, which I don't think has been answred anywhere: if a PC pays prestige (or rebuilds a 1st-level PC) to transfer his loyalties away from a faction, does he still get access to the boon?

My guess: yes, if he paid prestige, no if he used a free 1st-level PC rebuild.

Why would they lose access? They are correct when they gained the boon, I don't see why rebuilding to a different faction would take it away.

(I can see some arguments regarding abuses of free rebuilds as an argument on why they should go away, but I see nothing that says they do go away.)

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