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I am sure you old timers are long tired of this kind of question, I tried searching the forums but didn't find what I was looking for.
My question is this. Paizo publishes all these resources they want to sell I assume. So thus, book of advanced races. Lots of races, look like a lot of fun. BUT, if you want to play the society game instead of homebrew they are illegal for play unless you have a boon that was available in 2015.
But, I didn't start until 2018. I have never yet seen ANY explanation, much less a reasonable one why this should be so. So, can any of you old timers enlighten me. I would prefer a reasonable explanation, but would appreciate any. But if the explanation is along the lines of well, everybody played that to the exclusion of all others I admit upfront I am not going to be even mildly impressed.
So far I am liking the game. But I admit there are elements of society that seem ridiculously and artificially limited. But since that is what I have the opportunity to play it is what it is.
I have read the guide for this year. I have purchased several books. In just the last few weeks I have played I have spent over 200 dollars just in time to learn oh hey there is about to be a new version. Yay.
Any way, if people could please take the time to answer my concerns I would be most appreciative.
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15 races are available for play without a boon. I believe all of them are described and have new options available in the Advanced Race Guide, if that's what you have. Specifically your purchase expands the Core Rulebook by 8 choices. Several boons allowing extra races, which change regularly and I believe currently include the races restricted in 2014 (aasimar and tiefling), are being given out now for various reasons.
Why not more? It's not easy to answer such a question, but maybe the campaign staff felt 15 is a reasonable start.
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Part (though not all of) the explanation is keeping the world consistent. The Core rulebook races are all very common in Golarion, so it makes sense to have them all be always available. Ok, then the Society got more contact with Tian Xia, so some tien races (kitsune, nagaji, tengu) become available. Then we hang around the Worldwound so the outsider-based races become available (aasmiar, tiefling). Then Society has more contact with the elemental planes, so the elemental races (ifrit, undine, sylph, oread) become available. Some other races are not common anywhere, so their availability is still limited to getting a boon.
Some other races just would not work within the Society context. Mostly the "defaults to evil" ones. Some of them have been released in very limited numbers (I think there were 30 goblin boons given out for some special occasion). But you have to be able to co-operate, so no evil races.
And some races would just be too powerful to balance the Society scenarios around. This was what let to the eventual limiting of aasmimars (15 Race Points) and tieflings (13 Race Points) in my opinion. Especially with the alternate heritages available, it was so easy to make almost any build with these, there were a lot of them around. A counter-argument to this might be that tengus have the same amount of Race Points as tieflings, but well, they're less flexible, and tieflings and aasimars seem to be a kind of package deal. But yeah, no svirfneblin (24 RP) around even though they're not evil or anything.
Sometimes it's a combination of these things. But the most common explanation seems to be "they're in the 'Uncommon Races' section for a reason".
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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Ok, let me break down your question into a couple smaller ones that I can answer better.
Why limit races at all?
Two reasons: one is that the Core Rulebook races are supposed to be the most common ones in the setting, so clearly everyone should be able to play those. The other races are more rare, so it's not automatically the case that they should be available.
And the second reason: Paizo wants to be able to give out boons to play special races as a reward for GMing. It wouldn't be a reward if you could already play those races.
Where do you get these race boons?
There are three main ways to get race boons:
1) GM at a convention. That's generally a bit more effort than GMing at a home game so it gets a reward. But there are quite a few conventions to GM at. And there are also online conventions, so even if there isn't one nearby that you can visit, you have that opportunity as well.
GMing one or more games at a convention earns you a race boon, and GMing a lot of games at some conventions can earn you more exclusive race boons.
Conventions tend to rotate which boons they give every quarter, so a boon that was available in 2015 probably comes around in 2017 or 2018 as well.
2) The Regional Support Program: this is a program where GMs running in local stores can also earn race boons by GMing enough games. Currently, you can earn an Aasimar or Tiefling boon this way. You should ask your local Venture Officer about which stores participate in the program.
3) Trade boons with other people. Some people have more of a particular race boon than they expect to use (they don't like the race, they ran in multiple conventions that gave that boon etc.)
Which races (beyond the CRB) do you not need boons for?
Currently you do not need a boon to play:
Kitsune
Nagaji
Tengu
Wayang
Ifrit
Oread
Sylph
Undine
Why those specifically?
The first four are relatively common races from Tien Xia and the Society has been quite active there for a long time now. The second four are elemental races and since season 8 the Society has been very active in the elemental planes as well, and now there's the new Concordance faction of course.
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Thank you leathert that was a fantastic explanation and one that I could follow and absolutely makes sense.exactly what I was seeking. Thanks others as well but for my inquiry leathert has the gold medal for a perfect answer. I understand much better now.
No problem, I'm glad that this explanation was satisfactory.
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it was just a point that many races say you have to have a boon given out who knows whena boon that was available in 2015.Which race are you referring to?
Gotcha.
I know your post was addressed to "old timers", which I guess I qualify as, but regardless of age I don't see this question as anything different than other hobbies or industries that release limited content throughout their existence. Sometimes you get into a hobby late. Most people rarely get in on the ground floor.
I came in during the 4th Season. Aasimar and Tiefling were available without a Boon at that time, whereas Ifrit/Undine/Oread/Sylph needed a Boon. Come Season 6, those series of races switched availability. Now Aasimar/Tiefling needed a Boon. But I didn't look at that as a negative of Paizo. I looked at it as me being lucky to have played during those Seasons.
You can't really fault a company for giving its players something they wanted, when you weren't around for it. That'd be like expecting to get Facebook's initial public offering price years after it went live.