Pathfinder Society 3: Organized Playtest

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

The past few months have been busy for the organized play team, from many of us traveling to give fans sneak peaks of the Pathfinder Playtest to our developing a huge number of scenarios to launch at PaizoCon, Origins, and Gen Con (more on those Gen Con adventures in several upcoming preview blogs). We've also been discussing many of the features in a Second Edition Pathfinder Society campaign, as we introduced in our initial playtest blog as well as the blog that followed. We'll be getting into some of our ideas—including some possibilities for incentivizing special events without gating material—and takeaways from your feedback shortly after Gen Con.

In the meantime, I want to confirm and reinforce what you'll be seeing at Gen Con and beyond for the Pathfinder Society Playtest.

1: What to Play

Paizo has created 11 different adventures for you to playtest, and we're including them all in the organized play playtest.

Pathfinder Playtest Adventure: Doomsday Dawn (August 2nd): The biggest playtest adventure resource by far is this series of 7 adventures that span a wide range of levels. Some of these are "traditional" adventures, whereas others are designed to stress-test different parts of the game. A common estimate is that each of these adventures runs about twice the length of a Pathfinder Society scenario, though it will vary by your group, play style, and familiarity with the rules.

Pathfinder Society Playtest #1: The Rose Street Revenge (August 6th): This is a series of four quests (short adventures intended to take about 40-;60 minutes each). Explore Absalom, clash with a variety of foes, catch a murderer, and emerge as heroes.

Pathfinder Society Playtest #2: Raiders of Shrieking Peak (August 6th): This is a scenario (about 4-;5 hours) for 5th-level characters, taking the PCs into the Isle of Kortos's wilderness to rescue a missing comrade and recover a lost relic.

Pathfinder Society Playtest #3: Arclord's Envy (August 6th): This is a scenario for 5th-level characters that takes place in the wondrously arcane nation Nex. Solve a murder in the capital city, where mages, golems, and elementals rule.

Pathfinder Society Playtest #4: The Frozen Oath (September 26th): This is a scenario for 10th-level characters, taking the PCs into the frozen Crown of the World. There they'll fight with all manner of arctic menaces while uncovering an ancient ruin. We'll have a product page up for this scenario soon.

Beyond that, Paizo's also excited to receive any homebrew adventure data. Just keep in mind that 1) that style of game doesn't earn any organized play credit (see below) and that 2) one big advantage of having printed adventures to playtest is that they control for more variables in the playtest process and thus provide information that's easier to process and compare.

Valeros is pumped and ready to playtest!

2: Characters

The playtest experience is distinct from the current Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild campaign. That means you aren't bringing your existing Pathfinder Society characters to the table—at least not directly. There are two different ways we're handling player characters.

Build Your Own Character: In Pathfinder Society, you have to play a certain number of times to reach a particular level. In order to playtest a wide range of levels, we're not using that organic character growth model in the playtest. Instead, each of these adventures is made for characters of a particular level, and you get to build a character of that level and just show up.

Play a Pregenerated Character: The organized play team is providing a set of pregenerated characters (we're currently working on six of them with a possible seventh character) at both 1st and 5th levels. That's perfect for Pathfinder Playtest Scenarios #1-3, especially when running The Rose Street Revenge as a demo or when playing these adventures at conventions. You can also use the 1st-level pregenerated characters for the first Doomsday Dawn adventure with some minor modifications—or your own home games, if you like.

Doesn't that leave plenty of adventures in which there won't be a pregenerated character option? Yes. We're providing a good array of pregens for our first few adventures, but creating pregenerated characters for all of the levels represented isn't practical. Paizo's also really interested to hear about the character-building process—if it was easy, intuitive, hard in places, et cetera. This does make it important to factor this into your playtest schedule, though (see the General Advice below).

3: Earning Credit

Back in March, we introduced a "prize table" method of earning playtest credit (see the end of the linked blog). The more we discussed and refined the concept, the more we liked it.

Playtest Points: At the back of each Pathfinder Society Playtest scenario, you'll find a pair of half-page tracking sheets. Each asks you to record the adventure you played, the date completed, the GM's organized play number, the GM's initials, and a reminder to fill out that adventure's survey (see below). That means that instead of receiving a different Chronicle sheet for each adventure, you'll just fill in a single line of information. If you fill up your tracking sheet, just grab a new one and starting filling it in, too. Just keep these sheets together, much like you would your character's Chronicle sheets!

In addition, for each of these adventures you will earn a number of Playtest Points (PTP). 

  • Earn 1 PTP for each playtest quest played. It's absolutely fine to play all of The Rose Street Revenge in one sitting and record it as a single event.
  • Earn 4 PTP for each playtest scenario played.
  • Earn 4 PTP for each chapter of Doomsday Dawn
  • For every 4 PTP someone earns by being a GM, they'll receive 1 bonus PTP.

As we approach the launch of Pathfinder Society's Second Edition campaign, we'll post the different ways that you can redeem these points for special character options. These aren't intended as major power upgrades but rather as fun tools, backgrounds, and other options to thank you for contributing to the playtest process.

Replay: You can freely replay these 11 playtest adventures for credit; in fact, you'll likely learn something new about the game each time you play an adventure. Just be sure your foreknowledge of any story and encounters doesn't ruin the experience for others at the table. We expect there will be plenty of playtest rewards, so by replaying some adventures and gaining extra PTP, those points aren't going to go to waste.

Reporting: How are we tracking how many PTP you've earned? Although your tracking sheets are a handy record, you'll be purchasing rewards using your accumulated PTP reported on paizo.com. Yep, reporting is important. Think of this as a trial run for how we can provide ongoing rewards once we launch the new campaign, so help us report events dutifully so that we might distribute, say, ancestry boons in the future.

But what's your character name? Your character number? Your faction? Go ahead and make up a name used in playtesting. For your number, use XXXXX-15XX (for example, 11300-1501 for a first character, 11300-1502 for the second, etc.). It's easy to go overboard in creating characters by making loads of characters, so you might want to stick to just a few numbers or one character number per playtest class. Whichever strategy you choose, the playtest points you earn are cumulative to the campaign; you don't need to assign credit to the same character.

4: Surveys

Surveys are going to be a major vector for soliciting feedback during the playtest process, and that includes the organized play events. In addition to several general-purpose surveys, each of the playtest adventures will have associated surveys—often including a different survey for the players and for the GM—that seek scenario-specific information. Once the playtest launches at Gen Con on the first weekend of August, you'll be able to find these surveys at paizo.com/pathfinderplaytest. Keep in mind that Paizo will periodically add more surveys to that site to secure more information and better pace the playtest feedback.

In particular when running chapters of Doomsday Dawn, keep in mind that there might be specific numbers to track during gameplay. If you are the GM, please take a look at the survey beforehand so that you can record these values and report them accurately later.

5: General Advice

Plan for Building Characters: In the Characters section above, I noted that there will only 1st- and 5th-level pregenerated characters available. This comes with a really important consideration: plan for building characters AT or BEFORE your playtest events. That might mean gathering your group together the day before the event to run a character-building session. It might mean scheduling the event to start an hour earlier to build in time for this process. If someone shows up without a character for Pathfinder Society Playtest #1, 2, or 3, they can always grab a pregenerated character. For #4, though? It's important to have that character ready to go. Work out with your group, your store, or your community what makes the most sense.

How much gold does your higher-level character start with? Each PC should be built using the character wealth numbers for their respective levels found on page 348 of the Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook (see Table 11-2).

Plan for Teaching Rules: I've now run many hours of our convention demo and the Rose Street Revenge quests, and I've found it's possible to convey a nice overview of the rules in about 10 minutes. However, I could readily stretch that out to three times that length, especially in answering questions. As with planning for building characters, you'll want to schedule a little time for teaching the rules.

Assess Your Area's Needs: Just figure out what's best for your region, your gaming space, or your home group. It might make sense to run a few big events, meet regularly to run part of a scenario at a time, or create temporary playtesting groups to tackle the larger Doomsday Dawn adventures. Take the time to discuss it with your community. There's no one right answer.

We're excited to see what you think of the new edition and our excellent new adventures! Next week we'll provide previews of the upcoming July and August Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society scenarios, and the following week we'll preview the increasingly imminent Pathfinder Playtest scenarios.

John Compton
Organized Play Lead Developer

More Paizo Blog.
Tags: Organized Play Pathfinder Playtest Pathfinder Society
1 to 50 of 91 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | next > last >>
Silver Crusade 5/5 5/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I am so looking forward to this, thank you John for making it easier to plan the playtest locally ^^

Grand Lodge 4/5

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Prize table rules!

Dark Archive 4/5

I can't wait to look at the scenarios. I'm excited. My players have asked when the change over will occur. They are excited. Woot! Woot!

4/5 5/5 ***

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Huzzah. Looking forward to this part of the Playtest


Damn moar beefcake Valeros :D

Excited for this Playtest!

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

Are playtest demos equal to Playtest quests in PTP points?

Silver Crusade 2/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Blog wrote:
For your number, use XXXXX-15XX (for example, 11300-1501 for a first character, 11300-1502 for the second, etc.). It's easy to go overboard in creating characters by making loads of characters, so you might want to stick to just a few numbers or one character number per playtest class. Whichever strategy you choose, the playtest points you earn are cumulative to the campaign; you don't need to assign credit to the same character.

This seems confusing to me. I feel like I'm missing something obvious here. If the points go into a single pool, why would we need more than one "character number" for reporting playtest credit?

5/55/55/5 **

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Will Replays need to be done on different Character #s? I'm not seeing anything explicitly stating that. (Similar to Joe M's question directly above)

The Exchange 1/5 5/5 ***

Can't wait to play and run Archlord's Envy at GENCON!!!!

Lantern Lodge 4/5 5/5

Any word on when the ability to make playtest characters will actually work? When you do this online at the moment it dies at the "pick a faction" stage and you are left with a weirdly named character that sounds like an android.
-Anonymous Visitor 592 160

The Exchange 1/5 5/55/55/55/5

Starfinder Charter Superscriber

"Reporting: How are we tracking how many PTP you've earned? Although your tracking sheets are a handy record, you'll be purchasing rewards using your accumulated PTP reported on paizo.com. Yep, reporting is important. Think of this as a trial run for how we can provide ongoing rewards once we launch the new campaign, so help us report events dutifully so that we might distribute, say, ancestry boons in the future."

How is this being handled for Origins where we received a sheet with PTP points recorded on it but for which no tracking sheet was used to report on Paizo.com.

1/5 *

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I'm a little worried about the reporting being an important factor, since it looks like I never got credit for my Starfinder sessions from GenCon last year. Other than that, things look good to me.

1/5 *

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Additionally, what time will the rules PDF drop? I'm signed up for a Thursday 8AM session at Gen Con. I was planning to pick up a pregen for either Lem or Lini, but since only 6-7 characters are getting the pregen treatment and I'll bet the Core 4 will be represented, I don't like my odds of either of them getting a pregen.

The Exchange 1/5 5/5 ***

If we are running the Playtest at GENCON will we get the 5th Lvl pregens before had so we can familiarize ourselves before we run our slots?

Sovereign Court 4/5 * Organized Play Manager

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Joe M. wrote:
Blog wrote:
For your number, use XXXXX-15XX (for example, 11300-1501 for a first character, 11300-1502 for the second, etc.). It's easy to go overboard in creating characters by making loads of characters, so you might want to stick to just a few numbers or one character number per playtest class. Whichever strategy you choose, the playtest points you earn are cumulative to the campaign; you don't need to assign credit to the same character.
This seems confusing to me. I feel like I'm missing something obvious here. If the points go into a single pool, why would we need more than one "character number" for reporting playtest credit?

Some people want to separate out their characters, with a different number for each. Some want one number where their character changes each time. It is up to the player how they want to look at it. In the end, the points credit to your Org Play number, not to a particular character, and the scenarios are marked repeatable so they will grant credit each time you play.

Sovereign Court 4/5 * Organized Play Manager

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Marc Waschle wrote:
If we are running the Playtest at GENCON will we get the 5th Lvl pregens before had so we can familiarize ourselves before we run our slots?

Short answer, yes.

Long answer, make sure you are on the slack channel, as that is where the GMs are discussing running the playtest at Gen Con.

Sovereign Court 4/5 * Organized Play Manager

Shaudius wrote:

"Reporting: How are we tracking how many PTP you've earned? Although your tracking sheets are a handy record, you'll be purchasing rewards using your accumulated PTP reported on paizo.com. Yep, reporting is important. Think of this as a trial run for how we can provide ongoing rewards once we launch the new campaign, so help us report events dutifully so that we might distribute, say, ancestry boons in the future."

How is this being handled for Origins where we received a sheet with PTP points recorded on it but for which no tracking sheet was used to report on Paizo.com.

The staff used tracking sheets to pull player information so that we could enter it when the system went live. You should see the info appear closer to Gen Con.

Sovereign Court 4/5 * Organized Play Manager

1 person marked this as a favorite.
GM Aerondor wrote:

Any word on when the ability to make playtest characters will actually work? When you do this online at the moment it dies at the "pick a faction" stage and you are left with a weirdly named character that sounds like an android.

-Anonymous Visitor 592 160

We removed the "pick a faction" bit, as there are no factions in the Playtest. You will see the update soon. Hoping for the week before Gen Con.

Sovereign Court 4/5 * Organized Play Manager

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:
Are playtest demos equal to Playtest quests in PTP points?

Yes! This does mean we need to track Org Play numbers at the demo tables, which we haven't in the past.

Scarab Sages 4/5 5/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Australia—NSW—Greater West

I have a question from my community: Does GMing the playtest tables add towards either the PFS1 or PFS2 tables for GM star/glyphs etc?

3/5 *

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Tonya Woldridge wrote:
Long answer, make sure you are on the slack channel, as that is where the GMs are discussing running the playtest at Gen Con.

Would someone be so kind as to private message me an invite to this Slack channel, because this is literally the first I'm hearing of this.

The Exchange 1/5 5/55/55/55/5

Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Tonya Woldridge wrote:


The staff used tracking sheets to pull player information so that we could enter it when the system went live. You should see the info appear closer to Gen Con.

I'm a bit confused by this comment. Do you mean that the staff used the names on the tickets or provided through Origins registration?

There was no PFS style tracking sheet filled out by players in any of the PFS Playtest Rose Street Revenge tables I played in but we were given sheets to track our PTP (as pictured above.)

Liberty's Edge

I just Tried to create an organized play - play-test Character and I got a message saying to choose a faction, however no factions are available to choose :-(

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

FedoraFerret wrote:
Tonya Woldridge wrote:
Long answer, make sure you are on the slack channel, as that is where the GMs are discussing running the playtest at Gen Con.
Would someone be so kind as to private message me an invite to this Slack channel, because this is literally the first I'm hearing of this.

Have you agreed to the NDA? I assume that you are GMing this at GenCon?

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

Sandra Wilkinson wrote:
I have a question from my community: Does GMing the playtest tables add towards either the PFS1 or PFS2 tables for GM star/glyphs etc?

I don’t have an answer. I just sincerely hope it does for PF2 GM Glyphs.

Hmm

The Exchange 1/5 5/5 ***

I second the comment on the Slack channel, this is the first I have heard of it as well. Of course I haven't been on it since Starfinder last year.

Sovereign Court 5/5 5/55/5

I'm in the same boat about the Slack channel. Is it the same as the Starfinder channel from last year?

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

1 person marked this as a favorite.

If all three of you have agreed to the NDA, Tonya will be adding you from an email list provided by Bob Jonquet. You can check with Bob to see if you’re on the master list.

Hmm

The Exchange 1/5 5/5 ***

Thanks Hmm!

Silver Crusade 3/5

Are you allowed to tell us what levels the Doomsday dawn scenarios are? I'd like to know so I can plan on running everything, including the non-doomsday stuff, in order of ascending level with my group using a single party.

4/5 *

I am excite!

Grand Lodge 4/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Missouri—Columbia

I am running seven sessions of Raiders of Shrieking Peak at GenCon. I am glad to see the PTP come about for everyone. Now to get the materials for running the session so I can be even more excited!

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.

My wife and I are looking forward to playing Rose Street Revenge at Gen Con! We will likely use pregens, as I'm not sure we'll have the free time to build characters before our session. Would I be correct in assuming that the pregens will be some of the iconics? Can we find out which ones ahead of time?

Dark Archive

For how long will the playtest run?

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Texas—Austin

So at my location, we have a pretty strict 5 hour slot due to the store closing.

Is there any recommendations for how to run any parts of Doomsday Dawn if they take ~8-10 hours?

I'm considering coming up with a custom "tracking sheet" so people can play part 1 and part 2 across different sessions, but that could feel clunky if we have mixes of people show up in terms of who has played what

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

Illeist wrote:
I'm in the same boat about the Slack channel. Is it the same as the Starfinder channel from last year?

One more thought: If you two were part of last year’s Starfinder channel, you might want to check to see if you’ve already been added to the Playtest channels. I realize that I never received a notice, I just checked and found I was already there..

Hmm

Silver Crusade 4/5

3 people marked this as a favorite.

Bruno grapple playtest

1/5 *

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
ryric wrote:
My wife and I are looking forward to playing Rose Street Revenge at Gen Con! We will likely use pregens, as I'm not sure we'll have the free time to build characters before our session. Would I be correct in assuming that the pregens will be some of the iconics? Can we find out which ones ahead of time?

Everyone should check out ENWorld, since it looks like they are getting to spoil the pregen sheets. To answer your questions, it looks like the 6 are Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard, Paladin, and Alchemist. No idea what the bonus 7th would be, if we get it.

Grand Lodge 3/5

How does one go about playing the Playtest at GenCon? Will it be similar tot he Starfinder rollout, where there are no tickets, just wait-in-line?

GenCon has no listings for "Playtest" or "Doomsday Dawn."

1/5 *

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
nogoodscallywag wrote:

How does one go about playing the Playtest at GenCon? Will it be similar tot he Starfinder rollout, where there are no tickets, just wait-in-line?

GenCon has no listings for "Playtest" or "Doomsday Dawn."

I believe ticketed events for the playtest are all sold out; you should be able to see them if you don't filter out sold out events. Note that it's not Doomsday Dawn at GenCon (since those would all be 8 hour sessions) but Pathfinder Playtest Adventures 1, 2, 3 as listed in the blog. It's my understanding that you can play the Rose St. Revenge by waiting in line in the same way as the Starfinder quests last year. (To be clear, the Starfinder rollout also had ticketed events that sold out rather quickly)

4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Demos in the Vendor Hall will be walk-up, wait-in-line. Scenarios and Quests in the Saq are ticketed.

The Powers That Be are monitoring ticket sales and adjusting ticketed tables as demand dictates. Additionally, it is apparently common for people to release tickets Wed/Thurs as they change their plans last-minute.

Paizo Employee 4/5 Organized Play Lead Developer

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Milan Badzic wrote:

So at my location, we have a pretty strict 5 hour slot due to the store closing.

Is there any recommendations for how to run any parts of Doomsday Dawn if they take ~8-10 hours?

I'm considering coming up with a custom "tracking sheet" so people can play part 1 and part 2 across different sessions, but that could feel clunky if we have mixes of people show up in terms of who has played what

In those circumstances, I'd explore three possibilities.

1) Break a Doomsday Dawn adventure into two parts (perhaps three parts for some of the higher-level ones?), and stress to participants how handy it is to show up to both sessions.

2) Check with your location and community to see if it might make more sense to hold a few day-long events on Saturdays or Sundays.

3) Spin off a few temporary groups that agree to meet and play through one or more of the Doomsday Dawn adventures as a team. I mention this with the implication of meeting at someone's home, but this could as readily intersect with suggestion #1 above in a game store or other public space.

#3 has been pretty common in the Seattle area, and I participated in the Occult Adventures playtest with a set group of local gamers as we went through all of The Emerald Spire Superdungeon together. Exactly what variation is best for you and your area could vary. Talk to your community and store owners. It's especially helpful if your activity can help drive traffic and sales for your favorite locations.

Paizo Employee 4/5 Organized Play Lead Developer

3 people marked this as a favorite.
First World Bard wrote:
ryric wrote:
My wife and I are looking forward to playing Rose Street Revenge at Gen Con! We will likely use pregens, as I'm not sure we'll have the free time to build characters before our session. Would I be correct in assuming that the pregens will be some of the iconics? Can we find out which ones ahead of time?
Everyone should check out ENWorld, since it looks like they are getting to spoil the pregen sheets. To answer your questions, it looks like the 6 are Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard, Paladin, and Alchemist. No idea what the bonus 7th would be, if we get it.

Over the course of the playtest, we're experimenting with a few different pregenerated character rosters and layouts. You'll find that the pregenerated characters we have at Gen Con and beyond will be a little different than the ones we've used at PaizoCon, Origins, and UK Games Expo. As part of the process, we'll be looking for feedback about the layout, presentation, and usability of the pregens so that we can have an even better set of pregens ready to go when the second edition launches in full in August 2019.

Dark Archive

I think I already can guess the answers but I'd rather have Official confirmation than assume and find out I don't know what the heck I'm thinking after all.

Standard Table Limits? 4-6 preferable - 3 allowed with somebody (or the party in consensus) controling a pregen, 7 allowed if there is no other option but anything greater or fewer is right out?

Does it have to be an "Official event" at a gamestore or con? Or can it be demos ran anywhere?

I assume that all participants will need an organized play number for reporting purposes.

Age limits on playtesting for Society? I have a ten year old daughter that loves to play that is interested in society.

Any other minutia that we need to be mindful of to keep reporting as hassle free for players, GMs, and Paizo alike?

1/5 *

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
John Compton wrote:
Over the course of the playtest, we're experimenting with a few different pregenerated character rosters and layouts. You'll find that the pregenerated characters we have at Gen Con and beyond will be a little different than the ones we've used at PaizoCon, Origins, and UK Games Expo. As part of the process, we'll be looking for feedback about the layout, presentation, and usability of the pregens so that we can have an even better set of pregens ready to go when the second edition launches in full in August 2019.

Neat! If it's possible, could you mention a blog post in the next week or two which roster of pre-gens will be at Gen Con?

Grand Lodge

I would really like to be part of this! I am in the Orlando, south of MCO. Are there any groups that I could meet with in the Lake Nona area?

The Exchange 4/5 5/5

2 people marked this as a favorite.
John Compton wrote:
As part of the process, we'll be looking for feedback about the layout, presentation, and usability of the pregens so that we can have an even better set of pregens ready to go when the second edition launches in full in August 2019.

This is not, strictly speaking, an Organized Play topic, but I really hope the playtest surveys incorporate plenty of chances for feedback on the stat blocks. From players of course, but particularly from GMs. What I wouldn’t give to have range increment and usage/capacity of ranged weapons in Starfinder stat blocks...

Paizo Employee 4/5 Organized Play Lead Developer

rasplundjr wrote:

I think I already can guess the answers but I'd rather have Official confirmation than assume and find out I don't know what the heck I'm thinking after all.

Standard Table Limits? 4-6 preferable - 3 allowed with somebody (or the party in consensus) controling a pregen, 7 allowed if there is no other option but anything greater or fewer is right out?

The playtest scenarios are designed for four players with special considerations for scaling up encounters if there are more players. Please cap playtest tables at 6 players maximum. Normally we would allow a 7th player as needed to maximize play opportunities, but we are avoiding this during the playtest to limit playtest variables.

It's possible to run Playtest Scenarios #1–3 with three players and a pregenerated character using the typical Pathfinder Society standards, but keep in mind that there won't be pregenerated characters for other levels of play.

Quote:
Does it have to be an "Official event" at a gamestore or con? Or can it be demos ran anywhere?

Once these adventures are released to the public (most of them between August 2nd and August 6th), you can run them anywhere.

Quote:
I assume that all participants will need an organized play number for reporting purposes.

If you are participating in a Pathfinder playtest game for credit, please do have an organized play number. Organizers at larger events typically have some spare numbers that they can distribute if you don't already have a number.

Quote:
Age limits on playtesting for Society? I have a ten year old daughter that loves to play that is interested in society.

Paizo's organized play presence at Gen Con has guidelines and expectations for children, and it sounds like if your are at Gen Con with your daughter, you would need to be at the same event table as she. Other venues may exercise different guidelines. In general, the better able a child is to take turns, share the spotlight, respect others' choices, and follow along with the game/rules, the more fulfilling the experience will be for everyone at the table. There's not any one "right" age for that; at Origins this year there was a girl of perhaps 10 years who was incredible when it came to all of those points. I've also gamed alongside children who were much less prepared for that experience. When in doubt, speak with the event's coordinator—both for advice as well as to give a heads-up to expect a younger child at the table.

Quote:
Any other minutia that we need to be mindful of to keep reporting as hassle free for players, GMs, and Paizo alike?

Keep your org play number handy, and register the number ahead of time. It can be easy to forget your number the first few times you play, so keep a record of it on your phone or other place you're unlikely to lose.

You'll do great.

4/5 5/55/55/5 **** Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis

Does it require an Organized Play number in order to participate?

I have some friends that do not play Pathfinder or Starfinder. I doubt they have any interest in joining the boards here just in order to provide feedback. On the other hand, they have played a wide variety of different RPGs over the years and are likely to provide a different perspective than the people that visit these boards.

Can I run a playtest for them and get credit? Will there be a way for them to provide playtest feedback?

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Bret Indrelee wrote:

Does it require an Organized Play number in order to participate?

I have some friends that do not play Pathfinder or Starfinder. I doubt they have any interest in joining the boards here just in order to provide feedback. On the other hand, they have played a wide variety of different RPGs over the years and are likely to provide a different perspective than the people that visit these boards.

Can I run a playtest for them and get credit? Will there be a way for them to provide playtest feedback?

They'll be able to play, and will be able to do the surveys (those are not PFS specific). They won't be able to get credit, but it's unclear if you'll be able to get Gming credit for running for them.

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