Pathfinder Society 2: Replay, Rewards, and Rebuilds

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

There's been a lot to follow, not only with the twice-weekly preview blogs for Pathfinder's second edition, but also in the many discussions about how these might affect Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. If didn't already see it, check out our earlier blog about Pathfinder Society in Second Edition, where I laid out some of our preliminary thoughts and inspirations with the invitation to give us feedback, brainstorm ideas, and help build an even better campaign.

Over the past few weeks, the team's been discussing some of the trickier topics with our venture-officers, and I'd like to share some of the ideas we've been batting around as well as some of the prospective challenges.

Three Competing Interests

The transition to the second edition campaign has to balance three competing interests: old player loyalty, new player accessibility, and ease of implementation.

Established Player Loyalty: People have put a lot of effort into the first edition campaign, from building characters to earning GM stars to seeking out rare race boons. There's a lot of investment, and many have a strong desire to hold onto those investments indefinitely—or at least have them mean something in the new edition.

New Player Accessibility: The announcement of second edition is driving a lot of interest. With an outwardly easier level of entry (one book as opposed to hundreds) and an opportunity to join a new campaign on equal footing, we can attract many new players. The campaign needs to remain accessible to these players and GMs, and that includes not locking a huge number of rewards behind having played in the first edition.

Ease of Implementation: Our team's larger than ever before, and there's a lot of time between now and the second edition's release, but we're not kidding ourselves; there's a lot of work ahead, and a lot of that depends on the playtest and what the final version of the game looks like. We have to consider the ease of implementing each change, including the resources required from the development team, the technological requirements to implement a solution, the burden placed on the venture-officers, and the effort required of the individual players.

For some topics, these three interests see largely eye-to-eye. For others, they're in opposition. Collectively, they all contribute to the health of the campaign and are part of our assessment about how to build the second edition organized play experience. With that, let's look at some of the tougher decisions that lie ahead and what the team's currently thinking.

GM Stars

When Starfinder Society started up, we recognized that five GM stars wouldn't necessarily correspond to proficiency with the Starfinder rules. Certainly GM stars conveyed dedication to organized play as a whole and comfort "behind the screen," yet we needed a separate means of tracking one's Starfinder Society accomplishments. As we look toward the second edition of Pathfinder RPG, we're seeing similar indicators.

That means a few things. First, it means that we're looking to introduce an additional means of tracking GMs' efforts in second edition games. Second, it means that first edition GM stars aren't disappearing; their principle impact is on the first edition campaign, and they remain the celebrated badge of honor for a GM's contributions. Third, we recognize that this may disappoint some folks, and we're looking at ways to balance this by making players' experiences and GMs' ongoing efforts relevant in the new campaign. We've been following the conversation in several places, and we're opening another thread that focuses the discussion—let us know your thoughts in this [https://secure.paizo.com/community/forums">GM Stars thread.

Option 1—New Metric: Everyone retains their GM stars, which correspond to the first edition campaign. For the second edition campaign, we introduce another 0–5 scale metric that's similar to stars/novas. We've tossed around several names for these, including glyphs and sigils, but there's no final decision on this matter. Glyphs/Sigils would have a fairly similar role to GM stars but be specific to the second edition campaign.

Option 2—Subsidized Metric: This functions as Option 1, but the GMs stars reduce the number of games required to earn glyphs/sigils. Two stars reduces the number of games run to earn one's second glyph/sigil by 10. Likewise three stars reduces the number of games run to earn the third and fourth glyphs/sigils by 10 respectively. Finally, a five-star GM reduces the number of games needed to earn the fifth glyph/sigil by 20. It ends up looking like this for a five-star GM.

1. 1st Glyph/Sigil: 10 games
2. 2nd Glyph/Sigil: 20 games (10 less than normal)
3. 3rd Glyph/Sigil: 40 games (20 less than normal)
4. 4th Glyph/Sigil: 70 games (30 less than normal)
5. 5th Glyph/Sigil: 100 games (50 less than normal)

Basically, having a bunch of GM stars conveys that you're already an accomplished GM, so attaining a similar rank in the second edition would be easier.

Option 3—New Metric with Reward: This functions as Option 1, but the GM stars provide a carry-over benefit as a thank you for a GM's efforts in the first edition campaign. Assume that the benefit is something interesting and flavorful but not something that grants an overtly significant power boost. This might be a special character background, fancy item, title, or the like.

Option 4—Something Else: We can, of course, explore other options. As noted in the "Three Competing Interests" section, there's a balancing act between old player loyalty and new player accessibility—ensuring that GMs feel they're getting their due without locking too much away from newer players who never had the same opportunity.

Where We Are Now: Our discussions so far have brought up sundry variations on the Subsidized Metric and other models. That's sparked ongoing conversations with our tech colleagues to assess what's possible and with what required resources. We can cook up clever ways to connect GM stars and the glyphs/sigils, but ultimately we need to ensure that our solutions work for our co-workers. In the meantime, we're continuing to debate the merits of each approach, and we're interested in your feedback.

Character Rebuilds

As we stated in the Pathfinder Playtest FAQ, we are not converting first edition characters into second edition characters. This may be the toughest decision we've had to make. There are a bunch of participants (like many of us, no doubt) who have tons of character folders and Chronicle sheets, and that also translates to some characters who won't reach especially high character levels.

Fresh Start: The news of a second edition is causing a lot of buzz, including in groups that haven't tried Pathfinder before because of the large perceived buy-in. Avoiding character conversions means everyone starts at (or very near—see the playtest credit section) the same level, and that means that newer participants aren't perceptibly "punished" for having joined now rather than years ago.

Conversion Options: For practical purposes, the second edition Core Rulebook will have a limited number of pages, and that means that there's space for only a fraction of the classes and races present in the entire corpus of first edition books. While the Core Rulebook will contain lots of cool options, it won't present contain the full breadth necessary to adapt a player's ganzi bloodrager or merfolk kineticist. For some of those class + ancestry combinations, those options might not even be available in the first year or two. On top of that, there are plenty of character builds reliant on combos that might function differently in second edition. Even with the characters who would convert into the new edition fairly cleanly, there's a lot of messiness involved in making these changes.

Publishing Schedule: The odds are good that Pathfinder Society's second edition release will look a lot like that for Starfinder Society's first year, albeit with at least two scenarios per month. Namely, we're hoping to provide a bunch of low-level scenarios right out of the gate and gradually expand into higher and higher tiers over time. Allowing character conversion would leave us with numerous characters ranging from levels 1–20. We'd either have nothing for the higher level PCs to play for a long while, or we'd be releasing content that's exclusively for first edition conversion characters (and that assumes that everyone converted characters that fall in the same tier).

First Edition Boons

There are a lot of convention boons out there, and the common perception's that there's not enough time left to use them all—much less provide much incentive for earning more of them. There are a few approaches we've considered, and from that have spun at least a dozen sub-variations.

Option 1—No Transfer: In this model, first edition boons would apply only to first edition. Use them now while there's still a good opportunity. From the perspective of new player accessibility and ease of implementation, this option's very good. The "clean break" nature of it makes it tougher for established players.

Option 2—Boon Currency: In Season 4 there was a convention boon called Xenophobia that allowed someone to irrevocably sacrifice race boons to it in order to gain favored enemy benefits. We might be able to use this model to let players use First Edition boons—perhaps only those of certain types—gain some kind of long-term reward based on the number of boons used (for the sake of discussion, let's say 10 boons maximum). This would allow someone who doesn't want to use her remaining boons in First Edition to still enjoy some payoff in Second Edition. That's certainly nice for an established player, particularly for someone who made it to lots of conventions. It's not great for newer players, and it requires a modest amount of design work.

Option 2 Variant—Expanded Boon Currency: This is really more of a variation on the Boon Currency mechanism, not a new way to make use of first edition boons. Specifically, the Expanded Boon Currency model takes everything above and allows someone to trade in specific second edition boons to qualify for whatever rewards we would present for this system. This variant could also be applied to any of the other Boon Currency options that follow.

Option 3—Rotating Boon Trade-In: This model resembles the Boon Currency option. However, instead of being able to use a pile of boons to purchase a variety of benefits, the first year or two would have a few rotating second edition boons that one could secure by expending any one first edition boon of a similar style—most likely exchanging any race boon for an ancestry boon. This would let us keep any boon conversion limited but interesting. It seems to strike a respectable intersection between established players, newer folks, and staff resources—particularly if boons available in this way were eventually released through other channels that didn't require this exchange.

Option 4—Boons for Benefits: This model also riffs on the Boon Currency option. However, instead of opening access to options that only established players can access, this allows players to expend boons in order to secure temporary/instantaneous benefits that could benefit any number of characters at the table. Conceptually, compare it to the Retail Incentive Program, where rewards focus more on giving everyone a little boost or averting a catastrophic stroke of bad luck. The venture-captain who pitched this variant referenced the benefits of breath of life at the cost of a first edition race boon, calling it "Life for a Life." This is a pretty charming approach because it allows players to carry over some benefits to the new edition, but it does so in a way that nobody's really holding exclusive options over newer participants.

Legacy Boons: During Seasons 9 and 10, we're including some legacy boons on Chronicle sheets. Each of these presents some combination of a fun carry-over benefit and/or a lasting narrative repercussion for having done something important. You've already seen one in a Season 9 scenario, and we expect more in the coming months as appropriate.

When I presented this remark about the legacy boons to our venture-officers, I received a few remarks that the one legacy boon so far seems underwhelming. I can see where that comment's coming from; that particular boon is more a feel-good acknowledgement of selfless action than it is an awe-inspiring boost in personal power. I would keep one key thing in mind: the final Second Edition rules don't exist yet, and they won't exist until after our community's been able to playtest the system. While we're able to design some boons based on the current rules, we're cautious about laying out boons that could prove incompatible or disproportionately powerful, diminished, or even invalidated based on the Core Rulebook's final text. That means that the more rule-oriented components of legacy boons would need to appear in a supplemental document in the final days leading up to Second Edition's launch at Gen Con 2019.

Where We Are Now: As I mentioned above, folks have pitched a lot of variations on these ideas, each of which aims to balance our goals in different ways. Each one—including the No Transfer option—has merits for the short-term and long-term health of the campaign. This topic really brings another dynamic to the fore: cosmetic rewards (e.g. titles and fancy wayfinders) vs. mechanical rewards (anything granting a notable edge, such as free gear, bonus gold, or stat boosts). Just as we're examining the means by which to address first edition boons, so too are we looking to what rewards feel the most worthwhile and the impact of not having access to those rewards—either ever or at a later opportunity—as would be the case for a newer participant. Let us know at our First Edition Boons thread.

Replay in First Edition

We've seen several threads regarding replay in the first edition campaign. This seems to stem from two different attitudes.

"There won't be enough new scenarios to finish my favorite characters' stories."

"Paizo has taken the stance that unfettered replay damages campaigns. Once Paizo moves to Second Edition, they will have already ended the first edition campaign. There's nothing to lose."

Even once Second Edition launches, we're not interested in opening up unlimited replay. However, we are interested in providing folks a chance to explore a favorite character's story to its fullest. There are a few ways forward.

Option 1—No Further Replay: There are already some replay options out there, and everyone would be able to fill out a new Expanded Narrative boon (i.e. "recharge the GM stars' replay" boon) each year. However, there wouldn't be any additional allowances for replaying beyond what already exist.

Option 2—Favored Character: This model allows each participant to select one Pathfinder Society PC to ignore all replay restrictions. That could mean playing a new PC all the way from 1st level to 20th, or you could make an 8th-level PC your favored character in order to play through all of the Tier 7–11 and higher adventures. Whatever the case, everyone would be able to fulfill that limitless story with another PC.

Option 3—Heightened GM Star Recharge: In this model, the Expanded Narrative opportunity continues but has some capacity for more recharging than normal. That might mean someone could instantly begin a new Expanded Narrative Chronicle sheet the moment she fills out the first one, not waiting for a new season. It might instead mean that there's a limit of one sheet per season, but the sheet grants more than one replay for each GM star. There are likely other variations on this approach.

Option 4—Unlimited Replay: As noted above, we're unlikely to institute unlimited replay in First Edition, even after the new campaign launches. If that's something you'd want to see anyway, go ahead an say so, but please also convey what you'd want to see were unlimited replay not selected.

Where We Are Now: We're still in internal discussions about the right way forward for replay, balancing the health of communities, the desire to wrap up a few select characters' stories, and ways to transition toward the second edition. We're interested in hearing your take on what replay considerations would be best for the organized play campaigns and community at our First Edition Replay thread.

Earning Playtest Credit

We intend to incentivize playtesting, much as we have incentivized playtesting new character classes in the past. The especially tricky consideration in this endeavor is that we won't have a finalized Chronicle sheet format, wealth-per-level expectation, or any number of other key variables until after the playtesting has concluded. As a result, you won't see a Chronicle sheet for each playtest scenario, as it would be full of IOUs. What's more, the playtest scenarios and the printed playtest adventure Doomsday Dawn cover a wide range of levels, which would be strange to array in any meaningful way—much like assigning a new character a Tier 16–18 Chronicle sheet.

Instead we're looking at more of a "prize table" model. Much as one could redeem tickets at a pubic arcade for prizes, players and GMs alike would earn points for special options in the second edition. Each quest played or run would earn 1 point, and each time someone plays or runs either a Doomsday Dawn chapter or one of the scenarios, they'd earn 4 points. Prizes might include a special background, a special wayfinder, the ability to start the campaign with a single character at 2nd, or the ability to start with a single character at 3rd level. The catch? A player can only select each prize once.

This comes with a few considerations. First, this does strain the Ease of Implementation goal somewhat, as it represents another thing the organized play team would need to design. Second, there is the possibility of giving everyone who earns a handful of points (let's say up to 10 points) an additional one-time point boost equal to (or double) their number of GM stars as a modest way of rewarding GMs in the past campaign.

Where We Are Now: So far, this approach has been going over well. There are still many details to work out, but the system is equipped to advertise our playtesting incentives in a clear way, finalize the exact mechanics for the rewards once we have the final game rules in hand, and let people playtest as much or as little as they like and still have options for what they earn.

John Compton
Organized Play Developer