Chief Technical Officer
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We haven't announced subscriptions yet—almost there!—so I'm going to focus on the last two questions, which are not Starfinder-specific.
3. Our subscription costs are determined by the cost of the products released that month. In some lines (like the Pathfinder Adventure Path Line), it's pretty predictable; in other lines (like the Pathfinder RPG line) it's more variable.
4. I'm sure some of our other Aussie friends will be along soon to chime in with their own experiences on that.
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4. I'm sure some of our other Aussie friends will be along soon to chime in with their own experiences on that.
Like Steve Geddes! Tell him, Steve!
I'm in Australia too and get monthly subscriptions. It varies from month to month, but in general if i choose USPS priority I get them about the same time as street date, UPS is generally up to a week early (but very pricey!) Note that international orders over a certain limit have to go international priority and you might be surprised by the shipping charges, so be warned!
If you like PDFs and opt for a subscription (when such becomes available and presuming free PDFs are a subscription perk) you'll get access to those as soon as your book ships - usually before street date (sometimes as much as two weeks before). FWIW, the subscriptions usually offer a discount too, which mitigates some of the freight cost (the free PDF likely to cover a lot of it too).
P.S. The linked thread is a great place to read what has been officially stated about the logistics of Starfinder's release.
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As a fellow Australian, I will just say, be aware of the postage costs on the larger items, such as the hardcover books. They can sometimes be close to the price of the book itself. There has been many threads concerning international postage costs, so I won't rehash them here.
Each line of books for Pathfinder has its own subscription, so a lot of them are fairly standard monthly costs, and you can add other items to your package to combine shipping.
As for getting the book at the release date; I have been a subscriber for a number of years, and most, but not all of the time, will receive my books on or before the release date. The Gencon releases are the ones that I generally don't, and a couple of years did not even receive my PDFs before the release date (i.e. they were shipped after Gencon). Paizo does their best, but sometimes, it doesn't work. Especially, if you add non-subscription items to your package you seem to go to the back of the shipping queue, so in my experience don't add items to stuff that you want quickly.
For another 2 Australian cents, I find the postage costs on hardcovers to be too much for me, so they are PDF purchases only, with an amazon buy in addition if I REALLY want a physical copy.
As for my subscriptions, I've always got the pdf before the release date, except for once, which was probably the same instance as sanwah68. For the physical copies I use to get them a few days before stores had them in Sydney, but for the last few years its been a week or so later. Having the pdf early means this is of no concern to me.
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Chief Technical Officer
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...Especially, if you add non-subscription items to your package you seem to go to the back of the shipping queue...
Not exactly. While we're shipping subscriptions, we pull together groupings of similar orders and put them in a queue that can be automated a bit more, while orders that are more unique go into another queue.
For example, let's say that this month, there are x people who are receiving just the Adventure Path—we'll have somebody packing x AD volumes into x envelopes. Similarly, we have y people who are ordering every single one of that month's releases, so we have somebody packing y sets of everything into y boxes. Each of these orders is able to be fulfilled relatively quickly, but there are a lot of them, so it still takes several days to get through them all.
On the other hand, say we have exactly one customer who put a single Pathfinder Battles mini into his sidecart to ship alongside the AP volume he's getting. That order goes into our regular pick-and-pack queue. Each of these individual orders takes quite a bit longer to fulfill, but there are fewer of them, so we're still able to fulfill them all in several days.
So adding non-subscription items to your order will put you in a different queue, but you could theoretically be moving from late in one queue to early in the other.
You can even get part of the 'subscription plus other stuff' order on the very first day of shipping, then wait ten or eleven days for the rest of it to ship because the easy bit went first. Happened to me this time around. Pity the subscription part, for the downloads, was in the second box. *sighs*
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Chief Technical Officer
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You can even get part of the 'subscription plus other stuff' order on the very first day of shipping, then wait ten or eleven days for the rest of it to ship because the easy bit went first. Happened to me this time around. Pity the subscription part, for the downloads, was in the second box. *sighs*
This is true, but note that it can happen only when our system determines that your shipping costs will be lower if we divide your package into multiple boxes. In that case, each package could indeed end up in a different queue based on the contents.
(Also, regarding your particular situation, the "subscription part" is usually the "easy bit"—that is, it's likely to be in the first queue I described—so this is actually a good example of how stuff in the slower queue can ship ahead of stuff in the faster queue.)
(Also, regarding your particular situation, the "subscription part" is usually the "easy bit"—that is, it's likely to be in the first queue I described—so this is actually a good example of how stuff in the slower queue can ship ahead of stuff in the faster queue.)
Sadly for me, the cheapest shipping split was a single non-subscription item shipping alone, which was simple and shipped straight away, and another box containing a mix of subscription and non subscription, which was more complicated and shipped much later in the process, though still not right at the end of things. It still beat the street date by a good margin, and while the first box has arrived already, I've still got another one en route to look forward to.
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FYI, the "predictable" nature of subscribing to adventure paths is kinda false. They will on a somewhat unpredictable basis, decide to hold an issue for release at a convention, so some months you will get nothing, and others you will get two, and appropriate taxes and shipping fee increases as well. So if that's going to be a problem for you be forewarned.
According to Erik Mona last Thursday, subscription details will be forthcoming Very Soon(TM).
Any chance we would be able to pick our goodies up at GenCon if we're subscribers?
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Chief Technical Officer
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FYI, the "predictable" nature of subscribing to adventure paths is kinda false. They will on a somewhat unpredictable basis, decide to hold an issue for release at a convention, so some months you will get nothing, and others you will get two, and appropriate taxes and shipping fee increases as well. So if that's going to be a problem for you be forewarned.
Your main point is correct, but there are a couple of inaccuracies in there. First, there are only two conventions that have the potential to affect our release dates, and they're not unpredictable at all: they're PaizoCon (in May) and Gen Con (in late July or August). Second, while those shows may determine which day in that month we release products, they are not the common cause of doubled-up or skipped months.
Skipped months happen primarily when that month's product didn't arrive in our warehouse in time (this could be a production delay on our part, or an issue at the printer, in shipping, or in customs). Doubled-up months happen primarily when we get back on track after a skipped month.
It's probably worth noting that Starfinder is bimonthly (intially, says the optimist!) - so the likelihood of double installment months is probably pretty slim whilst that schedule holds.
I'd guess we'd be more likely to occasionally get two months in a row with no product followed by two months with a subscription shipment.
Any chance we will get any news on Starfinder subscriptions soon? I was hoping it would get announced at PaizoCon, but I didn't see anything on it...
I am from germany and taxes are always a big impact.
We have two tax rates: Books 7% and all other gaming stuff 19%
Of you have a mixed order with books and stuff you pay the 19% on the whole order (including the books).
If possible its always best have books shipped seperated.
Sometimes i choose to ship items directly because lower tax saves more than shipping costs
Any chance we will get any news on Starfinder subscriptions soon? I was hoping it would get announced at PaizoCon, but I didn't see anything on it...
It wasn't ready by the convention.
The latest from Vic Wertz is "soon, which rhymes with June".
Hi, some news on the suscription ground? Should I preorder it better, I really want thad pdf like in the pathfinder suscription.
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Hey. It gained an exclamation mark. Getting closer...
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Is there any chance that 'soon' could be before June order spawning? There are June releases I would like to buy, but I can't yet calculate exactly how much my Starfinder purchases will be, so I don't know if I can buy them. Even if you don't have everything set up to allow people to sign up, just letting us know what the details will be would be helpful.
Looks like there is still no word on Starfinder Adventure Path subscriptions, after Free RPG Day.. Inquiring minds want to know!
Lol
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REALLY soon!
*Puts down the can of gasoline he was about to pour over the pile of money he wanted to give Paizo.*
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REALLY soon!
I've TOTALLY been feeding my anticipation by internalizing conspiracies for the website maintenance going on the past few weeks... Site down, must be Starfinder subscription work.. Oh, big outage!.. must be close... they'll announce any day now... any day now.. Always followed by rapid refreshing of the Paizo Store blog.
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REALLY soon!
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
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Starfinder Subscriptions are now live! Go to http://paizo.com/store/subscriptions#SFRPG. If you have any issues with your existing preorders and starting a new subscription, let customer service know via email, phone or by starting a new thread.
I can start posting spoilers now... ** spoiler omitted **
-Skeld
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Starfinder Subscriptions are now live! Go to http://paizo.com/store/subscriptions#SFRPG. If you have any issues with your existing preorders and starting a new subscription, let customer service know via email, phone or by starting a new thread.
Please, can we have PDF subscriptions? I'd love to subscribe to the AP.
Hmm
Paizo have been wary of providing PDF-only subscriptions for anything other than those products which only have electronic versions (largely because of the probable knock on effect to the print subscriptions, which are what keep the lights on and pay the staff salaries).
If you know someone nearby who only wants the printed material, you can probably sort out a deal where you subscribe, get the PDF and then pass the printed copy on to them. I suspect if there's someone like that in your local area, you'll both get a bargain.
*ahem*
YES.
TAKE MY MONEY, PAIZO!
Alright so to be up to date with all non 3rd party Starfinder rules. I'd basically need the Core Rule Book and the Adventure Path subscription right?
Subscribed!
And had my preorder for the Starfinder hardcover automatically canceled.
Way to go Paizo!!
Question regarding the Starfinder Accessories...
I noticed for the subscription there are four options to select to start my subscription. Will I get all 4 and the associated free PDF no matter what I select or do I need to select a specific one?
I'm guessing it doesn't matter what I select but just looking for clarification/confirmation.
Question regarding the Starfinder Accessories...
I noticed for the subscription there are four options to select to start my subscription. Will I get all 4 and the associated free PDF no matter what I select or do I need to select a specific one?I'm guessing it doesn't matter what I select but just looking for clarification/confirmation.
To get all 4 select the GM Screen. It goes left to right.
It was answered here.
Question regarding the Starfinder Accessories...
I noticed for the subscription there are four options to select to start my subscription. Will I get all 4 and the associated free PDF no matter what I select or do I need to select a specific one?I'm guessing it doesn't matter what I select but just looking for clarification/confirmation.
To get all 4 select the GM Screen. It goes left to right.
It was answered here.
I suspect that's how it's intended to work, but it's still kind of wonky. I selected the combat pad, kind of hoping that would mean combat pad plus pawn collection (i.e. left to right), but my subscriptions has all 4 items listed, while my sidecart actually only has the combat pad. Hopefully it'll get worked out today when people get into the office.