Almost a week has passed since the Occult Adventures playtest closed, and I've heard very positive feedback from the Design Team about the playtest contributions of Pathfinder Society players. Thank you for participating in the playtest and helping us tweak the classes and make Occult Adventures the best Gen Con release yet. Note that as of the playtest's conclusion, creating characters using the playtest versions of the Occult Adventures classes is no longer legal; only those who unlocked the ability to play a psychic character can continue to use that PC before the book's publication and inclusion on the Additional Resources page.
This year we put together something different for Pathfinder Society: we offered a four-part boon to incentivize playtesting and reward those who ran a lot of tests across a wide range of levels. The Chronicle sheet addressed a few concerns we have had during past RPG hardcover playtests, such as limited higher-level playtest reports and a glut of playtest characters running around the campaign between December and August using non-final versions of the classes. Mark Seifter and I worked together to build an incentive to assist the designers while also keeping the impact of the playtest to a minimum after it wrapped up. We also knew that unlocking that fourth and final boon would be difficult but that we wanted to reward anyone who was so dedicated to the playtest process.
I'm certain there are ways to improve the process even further, and I would like to hear your feedback on what went well and what could be better in the organized play playtest. Did this Chronicle sheet inspire you to try a class and provide feedback? Were you more inclined to test just one character to unlock as many boons as possible, or did you try out several classes? Did you or anyone you know unlock the third boon (6 play credits) or the fourth boon (9 credits)? Did the boons strike a good balance between being attractive and not being game-breaking? Did you find the Chronicle sheet easy to use and understand? These are just a few questions on my mind, and if you have related feedback about some other aspect of how we handled the playtest for Pathfinder Society, let me know here.
John Compton
Developer