Announcing the Regional Support Program!

Tuesday, February 13, 2017

Happy Monday! Reading over social media posts, it looks like Pathfinder Society events last weekend went wonderfully and those that attended them had a great time! OwlCon in Houston, Texas, saw a return of the Skeleton Moon, run by designer and honorary PFS Team member Stephen Radney-McFarland. No deaths, but some difficult combat and a few sticky situations. From all accounts, LodgeCon was successful as well and many people enjoyed playing PFS in Illinois this weekend.

Last spring, we rolled out a Game Day initiative for the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. Our intention was to respond to player requests for boons outside of conventions, for those that could not afford time or money to attend a show. From the outset, the program had issues. From it's unfortunate name, which was already being used to refer to a one day function where Pathfinder Society was played, to the convoluted system of goals and rewards, the Game Day initiative caused more headaches than it solved.

We went back to the drawing board and discussed the issue quite a bit. As a result, we changed the name to Regional Support Program (RSP), which better describes the program, and overhauled the requirements. What emerged is sleek and simple, aimed at maximizing the programs reach while keeping administration to a minimum.

This time the Regional Venture-Coordinators will oversee the program. Any location running public games may apply for RSP event status, provided they have a venture-officer associated with the location. The venture-officer may be any rank, from agent to regional coordinator. Once the RVC receives the information necessary to log the event, such as location, organizer, dates, and number of sessions, the RVC will update the log form and will send the package of boons and cards out to the organizer. The overseeing venture-officer will advertise the event as a RSP event, so that players and GMs know if events are participating or not.

As a RSP event, the overseeing venture-officer receives a package of player boons to distribute to the players, as well as a GM boon. Each venue determines their method of player boon distribution and provides that information to players. The basic criterion is that a player has a 10% chance per game played of earning a boon. For the GMs, they have a tiered boon three levels of rewards. If a GM runs 6 games at qualifying events, they earn Reward A. If they GM 12 games at qualifying locations, they earn Reward B. If they GM 24 games at qualifying events over the course of the year, they earn Reward C.

The portability of the program becomes an asset. GMs count games run at any advertised RSP event towards their total, but may only earn one check box per game ran. Our graphic designer, Emily, made a fantastic tracking card that the GM may slip into their wallet and carry with them. Thus they are always ready to chart their progress and work towards their chronicle.

The full policy is posted on the Pathfinder Society policies page. Any questions should be directed to your local venture-officer. If you would like to have the RSP program in your area but do not have a local venture-officer, consider joining the ranks of volunteers. To do this, contact your Regional Venture-Coordinator (you can find a listing of regions and their respective RVCs here).

I'm off for San Ramon on Thursday, to visit the lovely Bay Area Pathfinder Society Lodge and attend DunDra Con. While there, my plans include running a few games, playing a few games, and hanging out with fantastic people. If you're in the area and don't have anything planned, consider coming out and joining in on some games. Information for the con is on their website.

With February being a short month, scenario release is almost upon us. Join us next week for John's sneak peek at February's scenarios!

Until then—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Coordinator