Can we also change the official alignment of Taldor from N to NE? I've seen two players switch their factions at the table because of how evil their missions were... Both were new characters not yet registered on the system. At least if Taldor are listed as NE players know what to expect.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Upon reflection, I have two concerns.
1) One of the best parts about the factions is a sense of camaraderie among players as they sit down with strangers at the table. Yeah, we've never met, you and I, but we're both secretly working for Qadira, and so we're likely to get along.
More factions means that it's more likely that I'll be sitting at the table as a lone member of my faction.
2) Too much of the emphasis around the table is spent on faction missions as it is. (I can't figure out how to be specific without throwing out the worst kind of spoilers, but let's just note that several scenarios can come unhinged at a crucial junction because PCs put their faction missions ahead of accomplishing the goals the Society sets before us.) It's one thing when there's two or three factions represented at the table; it'll be another thing when there's five or six.
2) Too much of the emphasis around the table is spent on faction missions as it is. (I can't figure out how to be specific without throwing out the worst kind of spoilers, but let's just note that several scenarios can come unhinged at a crucial junction because PCs put their faction missions ahead of accomplishing the goals the Society sets before us.) It's one thing when there's two or three factions represented at the table; it'll be another thing when there's five or six.
This is why I have always felt that only one of the PA should be tied to a Faction, with the other being tied to the main mission or to a side mission that the Society gives you, even if that does make it more complicated to keep track of your PA.
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Unless gunslingers or the use of guns increases, I don't see how a faction from Alkenstar would be much fun. If your goals are related to maintaining the scarcity and limited use of firearms, but there aren't any in the scenarios, what will you be doing?
Capturing a tome or scroll that hints at the secrets, finding new areas to mine the components, etc
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Who ever the 5 are, It would be nice if it made sense these factions where part of the Pathfinder Society.
...and had enough Pathfinders to justify being a "faction" in the Society, as opposed to just a guy with his own agenda. While factions like Alkenstar might sound fun and/or attract players, it really makes little sense that they are that powerful enough within the Society be be a faction.
Hopefully one of the enw factions will actually *be* the Pathfinder Society, since not everyone wants to have a "dotted line boss" as well as a real boss.
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...and had enough Pathfinders to justify being a "faction" in the Society, as opposed to just a guy with his own agenda. While factions like Alkenstar might sound fun and/or attract players, it really makes little sense that they are that powerful enough within the Society be be a faction.
As presented in the webfiction the Gun Hunters working as agents inside the Society makes total sense to me. Move around the Inner Sea a lot putting your nose where it doesn't belong, asking lots of questions, taking stuff. He's just quietly looking for black powder too :)
Now a whole faction worth of agents? Probably not. Before the release of the Gunslinger class I started working up a hand crossbow build that was that guy.
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Define a "short period of time". Let us know.
It would be the best if the percentage of missions completed by a faction were tracked, by calendar periods. However it sounds like you're only going to track successes and failures for 3-6 months after a scenario is released? I suppose that's better for sales, but maybe it's not better for us, the players.
Even if I play a scenario at a much later date, I'd still like to feel like I had a beneficial (hopefully!) effect for my faction.
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Jason, Mark talked about this earlier in the thread.
Our production schedule requires that we have almost a six month lead from when something's assigned to when it comes out. That means if leave too large a window, the results would come almost a year later, which is longer than we'd like to drag things out.For example, we are releasing two new scenarios on Wednesday. If someone plays one of those this weekend and saves the Princess from Bowser, earning 1 PA for the Mario faction, and I want to include that success in a future scenario, the soonest it'll appear is in September's adventures, as I've already assigned everything through August and they're already being written. Since I can't expect everyone to play everything the week it comes out, it would actually be October before the results of this month's scenarios can be incorporated into the campaign because September's pair will be assigned before we've provided ample time for people to play and report the scenario. Hopefully granting players a month or even two will be enough to get a good sense of who's doing well and which factions are having a tougher time. But if someone plays this month's scenarios six months from now, the results of those scenarios will already have been rolled into something that was either just released or on the verge of being released within a few weeks.
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Jason, Mark talked about this earlier in the thread.
Yes I know, and that's what you'd have to do if X faction failed to their mission and you'd like to see the fallout of their success or failure in a future scenario.
Honestly, how will that work out? Right now our PA numbers look like we succeed at full PA 85-95% of the time. Either we'd have to increase the challenge or Paizo would have to redefine the definition of success.
But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about that in Q1 of 2011, there were 400 Qadirans who participated in 2000 scenarios, and they earned a total of 3000 PA out of 4000 PA. Maybe do something based on that information, on how your faction is doing "in general".
Perhaps that's not exciting either, and you'd still have the same problem (increasing the challenge to make it interesting), but I stand by my point, it would still be nice to help my faction (like we do currently) no matter when we play a scenario.