Cottonseed PFS PbP (2E)

Game Master Redelia

Well, Q5 and Q7 both only have 2 reviewers, so I'd give the numbers less credence than I usually do - which was little to begin with (until you get like 50 reviews, it's probably impossible to distinguish an actual difference from the noise of people randomly clicking numbers based on how their day is going or how good their GM was [which probably affects peoples' enjoyments of the scenario by way more than the difference between scenarios]).

Both are well worth playing IMO and if I can figure out how to do it, I'm going to go and upvote them.

I'm going to buy Q7 and prep it, should have the recruitment thread up tomorrow.

I quite enjoyed Q7 and plan to run it at a local gaming convention in a few weeks.

I quite enjoyed Q7 and plan to run it at a local gaming convention in a few weeks.

Is it in person? I miss in person conventions. Hopefully everyone will be safe..

Holding in-person conventions in New Zealand has a very different risk profile than holding in-person conventions in Maryland right now.

The Achievement Point System (AcP) is now live! Go to My organized Play and click on the Boon tab to purchase your boons!

Gobsmacked!

...and surprised the Paizo website didn't crash after you posted that.

I am in shock. ACP LIVE? Amazing.

Hmm

Blog official, even :D

Oh my goodness! ***One tear rolls down my cheek***

Already purchased my Iruxi...nothing else interests me.

So many choices. :)

I went with:

What a silly question :3

(Can't actually afford a Leshy YET but it's first on my list of things to buy!)

I'm drawn toward the hobgoblin also largely due to it being 1/player.

However, the ACP races are supposed to drop before the end of the month, and I'll likely want an Aasimar or Tiefling, if they're available. I'd expect a similar high cost and possibly a similar limit.

Ysoki.

Might pick up something else as well.

Be either Avid Collector for the most - depends what's useful, or the one that unlocks uncommon spells, since most of my PCs are spellcasters of one sort or another. None of the current races interest me atm .. but I was thinking of building a witch, so if aasimar or tiefling drop soon, then maybe combine the race and class and add in a few uncommons just for extra flavour.

I want to get away from the feeling that PFS2 seems to make for 'cookie-cutter' characters with how levelling up works.

Ysoki? Seriously? Although I do have a lashunta in PFS1 :)

I have to disagree that characters feel cookie cutter. Maybe at levels 1 and 2. Or maybe if you don't take any Archetypes. But even then, off the top of my head Fighter, Monk, Ranger, and Rogue each have three distinctly different playstyles just from their class feats alone.

I can't decide yet which race boon I want. I'm excited to be able to spend playtest points again. The one to start at level 2 is appealing, but maybe even more appealing are the reroll-a-failed-save boons. Cannot get enough of those.

Excited for Iruxi. Waiting for APG to build something fun for me to play.

Excited for Iruxi. Waiting for APG to build something fun for me to play.

If your characters aren't fun it's your own fault for not getting an owl.

I've got a question regarding Fame that I haven't been able to find the answer on. I recently did a scenario that, in addition to the 4 Reputation I got for my faction, also gave me 2 Reputation with a different faction. My chronicle sheet says that for the scenario as a whole, I got 4 Fame for a total of 8, but on the list of my characters in the My Organized Play section, it says I now have a total of 10 Fame. Which is correct?

I've got a question regarding Fame that I haven't been able to find the answer on. I recently did a scenario that, in addition to the 4 Reputation I got for my faction, also gave me 2 Reputation with a different faction. My chronicle sheet says that for the scenario as a whole, I got 4 Fame for a total of 8, but on the list of my characters in the My Organized Play section, it says I now have a total of 10 Fame. Which is correct?

Alright, so in general paper copy is what you should rely on. But I'll go into more detail here:

First, In the online reporting when it refers to "Fame" it is referring to "Reputation". This is a hold over from PF1. Fame is something different in PF2, and your PF2 fame isn't tracked in the online reporting, only you Reputation is tracked Online.

So, If i had to guess, it sounds like on your last chronicle before this one you had 4 Reputation with your faction, and 4 fame

Then you played a new scenario and you got 4 reputation for your faction, plus 2 reputation for a different faction, and lastly it gave you 4 fame.

At this point you should have 8 reputation with your faction, 2 reputation with a different faction, and a total of 8 fame. The online reporting is giving you the reputation amounts for your factions and then what it calls "fame" is the total of all those reputations.

It sounds like everything is OK here, just that the online reporting uses old terminology which is confusing.

Leshy + Avid Collector

I made a nightmarish gourd leshy fighter with the special background unlocked by one of the scenarios.

I also unlocked a spiked chain, which he will store in his head space. When his "friends" are threatened his demeanor will change from calm, happy leshy to angry, bloodthirsty leshy, his weapon spilling forth from his "mouth" into his hands like some sort of horror movie scene.

To add onto what Redeux said, you can get reputation in many different factions this way to unlock more purchasable boons in this manner.

Thanks for the answers! I appreciate it.

I just sometimes wondered if the progression of two different characters with the same ancestary and class would end up mostly the same. Only the choices made at level up would make a difference. With PFS1 - I suspect there would be more divergence as there are more choices that can be made. That's what I meant by 'cookie cutter' PCs.

But yeah, I'm waiting for the PDF of the new book to come out before I make more PCs.

I think that the same person making two different characters of same class and ancestry are likely to be very similar. Get two different people with different focuses doing it and it can be quite a bit different.

Now that said, I do think that the bonuses for their abilities will be very similar. Easily within one or two of each other. What those abilities can be quite different and the details of how those work with the character even more different. This is especially true if the two are built with different selections within the class — different bloodlines if sorcerer and things like that. A storm Druid should play significantly different than a shifter Druid.

I also expect the differences to grow quite a bit with APG. They have said there is more for every class in there. If you look back at the PF1 APG, it added a lot to the base classes while giving us new classes. I am very hopeful second edition APG will do much the same.

I play a Storm Druid while the wife has an Animal Druid - already there are noticable differences between the two - especially since mine is intended to be an aquatic druid - so I agree with you there. I guess this is going to be a 'wait and see what happens'. I'm also not sure how high level play is going to work with both ACs and Strike Chances going up per level. Who's going to be stronger? Arcanists or warriors?

Will there be options for Dex-based Champions?

Will there be options for Dex-based Champions?

If you are lawful good, there is already some support.

RANGED REPRISAL FEAT 1
CHAMPION

Prerequisites paladin cause

Seems the paladin is the only one who gets to use Retributive Strike with ranged weapons.

I chose ... poorly. :(

I mostly meant like a Divine Ally for a bow or something. I guess I could use the rebuild to make him LG, but it doesn't really fit his personality. :D

Blade Ally: A spirit of battle dwells within your weapon. Select one weapon when you make your daily preparations. In your hands, the weapon gains the effect of a property rune. For a champion following the tenets of good, choose disrupting, ghost touch, returning, or shifting. You also gain the weapon's critical specialization effect.

——

In spite of the name, it does not specify the weapon must be a melee weapon. Unfortunately I believe the runes would still have their restrictions so none of those runes would work with a bow. Returning would work with a dagger or other thrown weapon, the other runes appear to only work with melee weapons.

You would still get the critical specialization effect.

It looks to me like Smite Evil would still work. Strike says:
You attack with a weapon you're wielding or with an unarmed attack, targeting one creature within your reach (for a melee attack) or within range (for a ranged attack)

I do not know what else may or may not work. Probably something best discussed in a different area of the forums, like advice.

Shifting Discussion over

Kind of hoping someone runs Fall of Plaguestone as part of the Gameday.

I don't think that one can be done in the timeframe of the Con. It is a lot of dungeon crawls. Having played and GM'd it PbP it will take around 3-4 months to complete and a decent pace.

Are we likely to find out our GM status for the special before the time limit for putting in normal scenarios and getting support?

Yes, you will find out before as the recruitment for that will end on the 29th. Give us a day or two to sort and communicate through everything, especially with GenCon going on.

More (APG) Ancestry Boons added to the AcP Page.

Tielfling, Duskwalker, Aasimar, Dhampir, Changling, Tengu, Ratfolk, Orc and Catfolk

At 80 ACP a pop not bad. The only one that is different is the cat folk, which is a one time buy, at 120.

Now I kind of want to go bankrupt and purchase another race boon...

Hmmm .... Tiefling Witch?

My Age of Ashes GM had gotten so much ACP from running Age of Ashes that he is making a Dhampir Leshy. Interesting combination.

I love that there is also a cheaper boon that lets you just take options from the races through adopted ancestry, that was a clever decision.

I love those versatile ancestries. Nice to be able to make a dhampir leshy, or an aasimar tengu, or whatever.

Is anyone else a little surprised by the prices? I expected it to be about 1/2 the cost that it is.

I've played more than 3/4 of the season and GMed about 1/3, and I can only buy one thing (I have 120 AcP, although I think I should have 140ish because a lot of sessions are missing AcP).

It feels like if you play the whole season at a local bi-weekly game (24 games/year x 4 AcP/nonpremium game = 96 AcP/year), the loyalty reward should be bigger than one non-top shelf ancestry.

On the other hand, 24 games = 8 character levels earned = 1 uncommon ancestry seems reasonable, so maybe the scaling is off at the AcP/game level? I don't have a great answer. But the prices did surprise me.

80 AcP is GMing 10 scenarios. I feel like that's probably where the price point was reached.

I think the prices are very reasonable. Sure, they look high, but let's try to keep things in perspective. AcP is replacing boon rolls which generally are like 5-10% chance for a session, and then it's luck of the draw whether or not you got something you'd actually use. Some players never get to go to face-to-face conventions so they'd be limited to our online region offerings. The other way was to GM X number of sessions at a convention for a GM boon. Those tend to be pretty interesting boons, but still luck of the draw whether or not you'd use them.

Contrast that with AcP and you're earning points every game regardless of whether you're playing or running. Sure, it's slow progress if you're playing and the sessions aren't part of a convention, but it's better than nothing and I personally think you're better off for it in the long run.

For reference running 6 blocks at a premiere con is almost enough for an 80 AcP boon, which is precisely the type of boon you'd be getting under the old system for running 6 blocks. Keep in mind though, that 6 block GM boon would've given you less of a choice of what ancestry/heritage you wanted.

Needless to say, I am a fan of AcP and I think overall this is going to be a much better way of getting boons going forward. I get credit for every game I play or run, and I no longer am going to have a stack of boons I don't want/never will use.

Though I do wonder if we'll be able to gift AcP boons to another player. That's the only drawback I see, because I definitely have given out stacks of boons over the years. Even if that's not possible, I still think it'll be better overall though.

The price seems reasonable.

RSP GM race boon was 12 games to be able to play that year's race and you only had one shot at it. 12 games GMed = 96 AcP, so 80 AcP is a discount.

Tier 1, to use old terminology, GenCon GM race boon required 9-10 sessions GMed. 9-10 premium+ games GMed = 108-120 AcP, so 120 AcP is on that range.

As a player at a RSP venue, you have a 10% chance (assuming the VO 1. remembers and 2. uses an equitable distribution method) to earn a player boon that would be around the impact of the Avid Collector boon (20 AcP). 10 games played (10 x 0.1 = 1) = 40 AcP, so 20 AcP is a discount.

Before, as a player in a home game with your friends or family, you earned nothing, zero, zip. Now you earn 20% of a player boon equivalent/5% of a GM race boon/3% of a Tier 1 GenCon GM race boon. Double that if you're the one GMing the home game.

Look at this way. As long as the sessions are input into the Paizo.com system, you are always earning AcP whether you are running or playing sanctioned content. You do not have to be concerned about winning a roll. Just play or GM.

In PFS1, there were more playable races without boons, and a lot more playable spells without boons. Like tengu was free in PFS1, now it's behind a paywall. So while the boons "cost" the same, at least some stuff costs more (because they didn't cost before).

Don't get me wrong. I personally like the AcP system, and I'm able to buy everything I want. There wasn't a lot of RSP support in my area: I barely got any rewards in the previous system, so AcP is better in almost all respects for me.

But ... I think making things too expensive will create secondary effects through behavioral changes. For example, there's already a lull for offering games outside of conventions (like right now before Gameday). And that's because there's a bonus for playing in a convention, so depending on how big that bonus is, people will abstain from games in a run-up period related to the size of the bonus. Making things expensive makes the bonus larger. If it's possible to get 80 AcP in a weekend by GMing 6 Premium games ... is that a good thing?

If it's not a problem, then it's not a problem. But I don't want to see local games die because everyone wants the convention AcP, and I don't want to see a bunch of low-quality GMs grinding out scenarios in the laziest way possible so they can get the GM AcP.

I'll even play devil's advocate a bit with myself here - it's possible that I have a weird view of the popularity of ancestries because I joined PFS1 after PF2 was announced; maybe I see a disproportionate number of exotic races because people were using their boons accumulated over 10 years. So maybe fewer people want those PFS2 ancestries than I think.

because I joined PFS1 after PF2 was announced

That's definitely going to skew your perception. There were years before anything but core races were available to anyone but convention GMs let alone always available (and then the aasimar/tiefling debacle). Before that there were at least a couple of years before convention GM boons.

What do you mean by the aasimar/tiefling debacle. An for me, it was rare to get racial boons in New Zealand - with AcP, there's more possibilities as it doesn't matter where you are in the world.

About 5-6 years ago aasimar and tieflings could be made without a need for a boon, effectively like the tengu, kitsune, wayang, sylph, etc. of now. They were very overpowered, relative to most other races offered and ultimately the campaign leadership decided to make them a boon only race. The process of fazing the races out (you only needed 1 xp on a character to keep the race as a legal option) lead to people making tons of teiflings and aasimar right before the change. Lots of tables of those races around that time.

Short version of story:

aasimar/tiefling were legal.

They had overpowered favored class bonuses (later errated but initially they advanced certain class features at 50% faster than normal), strong flexible ability score modifiers, darkvision, useful SLAs (that at least briefly allowed early access to Prestige Classes w/casting requirements), immunity to "person" spells and notable skill bonuses.

Eventually PFS announced that in the quite near future it would no longer be legal to make new aasimar/tieflings but that existing ones would remain legal.

There was quite a bit of abusive speed runs through replayables to bank aasimar/tieflings for future builds.

At least in the short run it did nothing to stem the flow of outsiders, and meant that new players couldn't play them, but older players could. Was quite a mess for a variety of reasons.

The SLA early entry and FCB were both errated at some point later, thus dealing with the most egregious power issues with the outsiders but there was much unrest in the PFS community at the time.

Later when options were taken away but existing characters grandfathered in there was no warning. This also made people unhappy who say had a character partially built who was taking the options after say their next adventure. Note that PFS1 had no-retraining rules at the time. Sure if your item or whatever got errated you could rebuild as appropriate but when your build relied on an option that you hadn't taken yet you were just totally out of luck.

Given the actions taken with the outsiders it had to be that way, but also sucked for some people. So not only was there a bunch of problems with the initial bit, its ramifications echoed though PFS for quite awhile.

That short story turned out quite a bit longer than I expected.

Moral of the story: It's actually super hard & complicated to take away character options in a fair and non-upsetting way. So PFS1 largely remained quite limited in its races available for most of its life.

As a corollary to that story (which I only vaguely knew about because I got involved after they were no longer legal) I heard some grumbling about Organized Play opening up the legacy races at the back of the Starfinder book in Season 2 because there had been scenarios in Season 1 that made them available on the chronicle sheets.

Also, I would adjust the Moral of Pirate Rob's story to "It's impossible to make any adjustments to this (or indeed almost any system) in a fair way (because people have different ideas of fair) and non-upsetting way (because not everyone cares about things being fair and will be mad that their unfair advantage is removed.)

Same with AcP. Maybe the system is rewarding exactly the behavior Organized Play wants. Maybe it's not but they didn't realize the full repercussions.

Either way, someone is not going to like how it's being done.

Quote:

because I joined PFS1 after PF2 was announced

That's definitely going to skew your perception.

Well, I hope you guys are right. The feeling I have is that in PFS1, without any boons, I felt like I had access to maybe 500% of what I wanted - basically, I didn't mind not getting boons because there was plenty to explore outside of that. I (mentally) generated 5x the number of characters that I could use.

In PFS2, I feel like I have access to maybe 150% of what I want. Part of that is that with 2 kids in quarantine, I've been playing PF2 at a faster pace (I have way more PF2 characters than PFS2 characters ... naked goblin monk, check ... Tien rapper, check ...). Part of that is just PF2 not having 10 years of history. But finding out that some of the stuff that was ubiquitous in PFS1 (at the end) is now going to cost me more than half of my AcP to try was surprising.

On the plus side, AcP comes even as it goes. The only way you won’t afford more character options is if you stop playing.