Director of Brand Strategy
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Will those of us who have already bought the Season 0 scenarios (I've got every one) be able to get the PF updates free, or at a discount?
The PFRPG scenarios will replace the 3.5 versions similar to how new versions of the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play do when we update that.
Cool stuff all the way around!
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Which is why the restriction has a 12-month shelf life. If you want to play the mod the first year it's available, you've got to be willing to travel. The people it's being released to first, are the only ones who have been vetted personally by the CO (Joshua Frost and now Hyrum Savage) as being good GMs, so you know you're getting a worthwhile experience for your travel time.I'm not sure what good spending resources on a module only 12 or so people can GM does for the society, but the rest of this is good news.
Allow me to rephrase:
I'm not sure how taking this time, money, and talent away from producing a module anyone can play is good for the society.
Honestly, these people are already given specific rewards for their efforts, as outlined in the recruitment phase of the project.
The phrase I highlighted above is an example of elitist crap I don't believe has any benefit for the society at all.
If you can explain to me how this benefits the society as a whole, I'll not only be surprised, I'll buy you a pizza.
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I'm not sure what good spending resources on a module only 12 or so people can GM does for the society, but the rest of this is good news.
You are correct that there are only 13 people right now who could qualify to run the scenario. However, more Venture Captains will be joining the first 13 as time goes by. It will also motivate existing GMs to not just run, but report more Pathfinder Society scenarios. One of the complaints I have had about the Society is without exclusive events it is hard to draw players to conventions. Conventions are where we are going to get Pathfinder the greatest amount of visibility and recruit more players. It took me less than a year to get 100 scenarios under my belt. Tonight I'll hit 241. That wasn't done in my dining room. In order to run that many PFS events I had to do a lot of traveling to other regions. If players want to play these exclusives, there will be opportunities.
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I'm not sure what good spending resources on a module only 12 or so people can GM does for the society, but the rest of this is good news.
To be clear, anyone can GM this.
They just need to have GM'd and reported enough scenarios ahead of time.
And this was a reward listed in the GM rewards.
mea culpa
Where should I have your pizza delivered?
((I was trying to find those old posts to find out if this was the case, but was running into the usual roadblocks to finding things around here.))
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If you can explain to me how this benefits the society as a whole, I'll not only be surprised, I'll buy you a pizza.
Since the mod appears to be going out to general release after 1 year, it would have still had to have been created and released. There is still another mod coming to market that will be available (ultimately) for everyone to play. How does that not benefit the Society as a whole?
Owen K.F.C. Stevens is writing a PFS module ? Awesome ! Set in Blakros Museum (the PFS equivalent of Falcon's Hollow) ? Fantastic !
Now, I do like fried chicken as a true southerner should, so I'll pass asking why an F got stuck in my name. But dude, it's ph. S-t-e-ph-e-n-s. Still, for you enthusiasm you are forgiven. :)
The Blakros Museum? Hmm, I think one of my characters is going to be dismayed at that...
Oh come on, it's pre-disastered. After those past few troubles, what could *possibly* go wrong this time?!
Heheheh.
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Owen K.F.C. Stevens is writing a PFS module ? Awesome ! Set in Blakros Museum (the PFS equivalent of Falcon's Hollow) ? Fantastic !Now, I do like fried chicken as a true southerner should, so I'll pass asking why an F got stuck in my name. But dude, it's ph. S-t-e-ph-e-n-s. Still, for you enthusiasm you are forgiven. :)
Now, Owen, let me break this in for you. You're obviously unaware of certain long-running jokes here on Paizo forums.
The trend began when many people failed to notice the particular spelling of Mr. Mona's name, leading to several instances of "Eric Mona". In a similiar vein, "Nicholas Longue" was a common mistake, "James Jakobs" was not unheard of, and of course "Sean K. Reynolds" or "Jason Bullman".
So, it's a time-honoured tradition to skew the names of Paizo staff and freelancers here, so you should be expecting "Oven K Stefens" to pop up from time to time.
So, it's a time-honoured tradition to skew the names of Paizo staff and freelancers here, so you should be expecting "Oven K Stefens" to pop up from time to time.
...
You know, I'm okay with the first v. And the missing C. And even an F. But nobody puts ph in a corner.
:)
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In other news, we've begun commissioning the conversion of Season 0 Pathfinder Society Scenarios from their original 3.5 rules set to the Pathfinder RPG, and will be re-releasing them in waves as they are completed. I've also assigned the first 4-star GM exclusive scenario, called The Midnight Mauler, and we expect to have it available to 4-star GMs and Venture-Captains to run exclusively for a year before it's made public.
Great! But will it be available by U-Con (Nov 12)?
-Swiftbrook
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Director of Brand Strategy
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Great! But will it be available by U-Con (Nov 12)?
Nope. I hope to have it available in early 2011, but there are a lot of publicly available scenarios and projects that will take priority. When it's been distributed to Venture-Captains and 4 star GMs, we'll shout it from the rooftops.
I think it is wonderful that the most hardworking GMs get something special/exclusive, and I hope this never changes. Anyone who has ever GMed regularly knows that while one may love it, it does involve work. Add conventions on top of that, and it becomes a lot of work.
Kudos to those who have the energy and extra time to make it happen for a lot of players on a regular basis.
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Director of Brand Strategy
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Would there be consideration to opening up this scenario to local convention organizers?
The annual Pathfinder Society Special is the exclusive content available to conventions. If you know a 4-star GM or Venture-Captain will be attending the show, you can certainly offer this scenario as an additional draw, though. Once this stops being exclusive to those categories of GMs, it loses its status as a reward for all their hard work.
Now, if only this scenario will be out before the last weekend of February and I can find a 4-star GM or two to come to Virginia to run it at the con I am helping to organize. :)
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Director of Brand Strategy
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cool thanks! do you know when the low level mods will be put on the scenario listing?
They should already be there.
December now has #2-11: The Penumbral Accords
January is #2-13: Murder on the Throaty Mermaid
And February through April will feature the three-part low-level Shades of Ice series.
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Owen K.F.C. Stevens is writing a PFS module ? Awesome ! Set in Blakros Museum (the PFS equivalent of Falcon's Hollow) ? Fantastic !Now, I do like fried chicken as a true southerner should, so I'll pass asking why an F got stuck in my name. But dude, it's ph. S-t-e-ph-e-n-s. Still, for you enthusiasm you are forgiven. :)
The Blakros Museum? Hmm, I think one of my characters is going to be dismayed at that...Oh come on, it's pre-disastered. After those past few troubles, what could *possibly* go wrong this time?!
Heheheh.
I'm not entirely sure, but my character Ailyn made the decision long ago to burn the place down before ever setting foot in there again ^_~
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Director of Brand Strategy
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I'm not entirely sure, but my character Ailyn made the decision long ago to burn the place down before ever setting foot in there again ^_~
Since continuity in PFS play is tied to each PC instead of to the "plot" as in an ongoing home campaign, you can follow through with this by not using that character in the forthcoming scenario.
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I'm not entirely sure, but my character Ailyn made the decision long ago to burn the place down before ever setting foot in there again ^_~Since continuity in PFS play is tied to each PC instead of to the "plot" as in an ongoing home campaign, you can follow through with this by not using that character in the forthcoming scenario.
Pff, spoilsport. :)
Guess that's what I get for bringing up a long-running joke in my own group about that museum. :P
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I'm not entirely sure, but my character Ailyn made the decision long ago to burn the place down before ever setting foot in there again ^_~Since continuity in PFS play is tied to each PC instead of to the "plot" as in an ongoing home campaign, you can follow through with this by not using that character in the forthcoming scenario.Pff, spoilsport. :)
Guess that's what I get for bringing up a long-running joke in my own group about that museum. :P
I encourage you to bring the same character back to the museum and follow through with burning that place down. :)
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Director of Brand Strategy
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SO I'm trying to figure out how this reads...either way, great job on listening to the community and tailoring the adventures that way...but...
Does this mean we're still getting the 28 scenarios a year, or are we getting those 28 plus some additional low-level ones?
More of the 28 scenarios a year will be low-level, and there will be an additional Tier 1-7 scenario released exclusively to 4-star GMs and Venture-Captains for one year before being made publicly available and being replaced by a new exclusive. We may add more scenarios down the road, but there's nothing I can officially announce at this point.
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More of the 28 scenarios a year will be low-level, and there will be an additional Tier 1-7 scenario released exclusively to 4-star GMs and Venture-Captains for one year before being made publicly available and being replaced by a new exclusive. We may add more scenarios down the road, but there's nothing I can officially announce at this point.SO I'm trying to figure out how this reads...either way, great job on listening to the community and tailoring the adventures that way...but...
Does this mean we're still getting the 28 scenarios a year, or are we getting those 28 plus some additional low-level ones?
1-7? GAH! Please please please stop those. 1-5 or 5-9 or maybe add 3-7, but please no more 1-7's!
They hardly ever scale well and are a pain to properly prepare. Yes they make it easier to muster tables, but at the expensive of a great Pathfinder experience.
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More of the 28 scenarios a year will be low-level, and there will be an additional Tier 1-7 scenario released exclusively to 4-star GMs and Venture-Captains for one year before being made publicly available and being replaced by a new exclusive. We may add more scenarios down the road, but there's nothing I can officially announce at this point.SO I'm trying to figure out how this reads...either way, great job on listening to the community and tailoring the adventures that way...but...
Does this mean we're still getting the 28 scenarios a year, or are we getting those 28 plus some additional low-level ones?
1-7? GAH! Please please please stop those. 1-5 or 5-9 or maybe add 3-7, but please no more 1-7's!
They hardly ever scale well and are a pain to properly prepare. Yes they make it easier to muster tables, but at the expensive of a great Pathfinder experience.
How do you mean? I've never had this problem.
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1-7? GAH! Please please please stop those. 1-5 or 5-9 or maybe add 3-7, but please no more 1-7's!
They hardly ever scale well and are a pain to properly prepare. Yes they make it easier to muster tables, but at the expensive of a great Pathfinder experience.
I respectfully disagree on this point. I have a much easier time prepping for tier 1-7 adventures, as I can frequently show up at a gaming event with two scenarios and still get a full table of folks that haven't played one of them yet. The 1-7's tend to be my favorite adventures as well.
EDIT: This probably looks like Kyle is arguing with himself, seeing as he had to go and get the same avatar as me. Tee hee :D
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Are there any 4-Star GMs right now? I haven't seen any. Hopefully there will be a few when the GenCon & PaizoCon reporting is finished.
I'm not quite there yet, but I know I must be pretty close. I have also noticed that the 8 or so scenarios I ran before they started tracking them have never been entered under my name.
Truth be told, I kinda lost track. I would like to know if there are any 4 stars out there yet, though.
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How do you mean? I've never had this problem.More of the 28 scenarios a year will be low-level, and there will be an additional Tier 1-7 scenario released exclusively to 4-star GMs and Venture-Captains for one year before being made publicly available and being replaced by a new exclusive. We may add more scenarios down the road, but there's nothing I can officially announce at this point.SO I'm trying to figure out how this reads...either way, great job on listening to the community and tailoring the adventures that way...but...
Does this mean we're still getting the 28 scenarios a year, or are we getting those 28 plus some additional low-level ones?
1-7? GAH! Please please please stop those. 1-5 or 5-9 or maybe add 3-7, but please no more 1-7's!
They hardly ever scale well and are a pain to properly prepare. Yes they make it easier to muster tables, but at the expensive of a great Pathfinder experience.
I have only played one 1-7 scenario on all three tiers, but I know what he's talking about. Even if you up the power of the enemies, some situations just aren't as challenging for a higher level group. In the one I ran numerous times in the Magus playtest, the Tier 6-7 group essentially ignored over half the encounters in the module by casting Fly and kiting a bunch of landbound enemies with poor long range attacks, commanded incorporeal undead from earlier in the module against those same landbound enemies many of whom could not harm incorporeal due to not having magic attacks, etc. The module was challenging as intended at both 1-2 and 3-4.
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Mark and Hyrum, one other thing you guys can do to help fix things is Please clarify some rules in the guide.
Key rules are Playing up, GM credit and Replay rules.
One thing everyone mentions is that they think the Play, Play, Play! rules allow GMs and coordinators the ability to break the 3 I mentioned above, When I mention to them it does not, but you do have the ability to give them playing options that the player may not like *Play pregens or play without credit, etc.* It just starts getting into a huge argument that makes me look like the bad guy.
I don't like looking like the bad guy :(. So please clarify these things for me so I can stop looking like the bad guy, especially that Play, Play Play! does not allow you to break them.
Edit: This line in particular in Play, Play, Play! is problematic - "If the rules are preventing you from getting a legal table assembled for play, then the rules need to change."
they read that as "well I can change any of the Rules"
What they miss is the next few lines - "You, as the GM or coordinator, have the ability to stretch the rules in small ways (most of which are stated in this document) in order to ensure that as many players as possible can play. Never turn away players!"
And that those small ways are given to you in the document to be able to allow all players to play, either it be Playing-Up/down, making a new character to play with the low levels, Playing a pregen character, playing with out getting credit, etc. Play, Play Play! gives you the option to always give a player an option that allows them to play, what it does not do is always give you an option for them to play to always get credit if it is one of those situations.
Also of course instead of clarifying you could also just make it that a player can play no matter what and get credit.
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1-7? GAH! Please please please stop those. 1-5 or 5-9 or maybe add 3-7, but please no more 1-7's!
They hardly ever scale well and are a pain to properly prepare. Yes they make it easier to muster tables, but at the expensive of a great Pathfinder experience.
While I can see the potential for this, I haven't experienced it. I have run 51 & 52 at all tiers (except the lowest for 52), and they worked beautifully each time. Only one encounter was somewhat unchallenging, and it was about the same on each tier, and still did the job of draining resources at each.
Also.. after experiencing your "Master of the Fallen Fortress", I can't believe you ever have trouble making things challenging.
