Starfinder Society Guide 1.1

I struck through Thursty's post from last night and added a moderator note to it. Please see the updated blog post.

Aw, beans.

My dwarf doesn't get her Personal Boon slot back after all.

She'll have to cry herself to sleep at night with the help of her free +2 Wisdom Personal Boon.

Aw, beans.

My dwarf doesn't get her Personal Boon slot back after all.

She'll have to cry herself to sleep at night with the help of her free +2 Wisdom Personal Boon.

I promise I'll make it up to the player base somehow...

*TOTALLY JOKING DON'T YOU PEOPLE DARE USE THIS AGAINST ME*

...perhaps in the form of something bear-related.

IIRC that legacy races would get opened up more was foreshadowed over a year ago, but I don't really remember where and when exactly. Clearly, not everyone got that memo.

I was in the Starfinder Society seminar where it was announced at PaizoCon (5 months ago) and even then it was announced that existing legacy race PCs would all get a yet to be determined bonus. No memos have been missed, we just want clarification on what the bonus is since it didn't make it into the guild guide as many of us expected it to be.

Legacy races were announced at 3:31.

That way no one loses anything. The RSP folks get recognized with a buff, and new (scenario earned) Legacy Race earners are on the same footing as those who've been hoarding them. Which, honestly, was my intent all along.

That is an admirable goal, but you missed one case which I think is a fairly common one:

My -705 has RSP GM Incentive #1 plus #1-06 to get a +2 bonus. Since the #1-06 does nothing now, can I now "detach" either the RSP boon (with #1-06 occupying my personal boon slot) or #1-06 (to free up my personal boon slot) and reuse that detached boon on a future PC?

My -705 has RSP GM Incentive #1 plus #1-06 to get a +2 bonus. Since the #1-06 does nothing now, can I now "detach" either the RSP boon (with #1-06 occupying my personal boon slot) or #1-06 (to free up my personal boon slot) and reuse that detached boon on a future PC?

We also have locals who have the question if they can detach the second scenario boon to get two dwarfs with +2, though you are correct, the scenario you mentioned is unclear.

Dracomicron wrote:

Aw, beans.

My dwarf doesn't get her Personal Boon slot back after all.

She'll have to cry herself to sleep at night with the help of her free +2 Wisdom Personal Boon.

I promise I'll make it up to the player base somehow...

*TOTALLY JOKING DON'T YOU PEOPLE DARE USE THIS AGAINST ME*

...perhaps in the form of something bear-related.

What did I tell you about promising people bears, Thursty?

What did I tell you about promising people bears, Thursty?

Ya' know what would be a great way to distribute uplifted bears?

RSP GM Incentive #3 should be coming out here pretty soon to replace #1 and #2 on Feb 1 2019.

That would certainly get more people to GM more often.

Thurston Hillman wrote:

...perhaps in the form of something bear-related.

What did I tell you about promising people bears, Thursty?

It makes them unbearably whiny, they will make a den, and it will be his bruin?

I am personally waiting for something cat related...

Thurston Hillman wrote:

Dracomicron wrote:

Aw, beans.

My dwarf doesn't get her Personal Boon slot back after all.

She'll have to cry herself to sleep at night with the help of her free +2 Wisdom Personal Boon.

I promise I'll make it up to the player base somehow...

*TOTALLY JOKING DON'T YOU PEOPLE DARE USE THIS AGAINST ME*

...perhaps in the form of something bear-related.

What did I tell you about promising people bears, Thursty?

Well, knock down a bee hive and call me "Björn."

Because I'm björn* to be wild once I get that Uplifted Bear boon that Thursty 100% promised me!

*

Characters who've earned a Legacy Race boon from RSP or a special convention boon prior to the publishing of this blog can create or continue playing a Legacy Race and increase one ability score that is 14 or lower by 2. These characters retain their Personal boon slot but cannot slot in a Personal boon that would augment an ability score (such as any of the admittance boons.)

A local GM just raised this question on hangouts;

What about GMs who're still working to unlock RSP GM Incentive #1? Say, they ran 2 games last Fall while the boon was still available, they've recently earned their 1st Nova, and so far checked 10 boxes out of 12 (and thus really close to unlocking it). The boon gives them until Feb 1 2019.

We know there's a fair number of GMs in this situation, 12 sessions over the course of a year is a lot for many people.

Also noting the awesome SS: Jadnura replay boon; might we see a Starfinder Expanded Narrative boon for GMs anytime soon? Many of us expected to hear something about this from Gencon.

Thanks for the clarification!

Thurston Hillman wrote:

Dracomicron wrote:

Aw, beans.

My dwarf doesn't get her Personal Boon slot back after all.

She'll have to cry herself to sleep at night with the help of her free +2 Wisdom Personal Boon.

I promise I'll make it up to the player base somehow...

*TOTALLY JOKING DON'T YOU PEOPLE DARE USE THIS AGAINST ME*

...perhaps in the form of something bear-related.

What did I tell you about promising people bears, Thursty?

That things might get hairy at the next PaizoCon?

Any word on what the 5 nova requirements are going to be? It would really help to know...

We've done our internal brainstorming and are currently looking at the feasibility of implementing our thoughts. Some of this is technical, some is feedback. We should have more information soon and hopefully have a program in place by year's end.

It currently is shaping up to be similar to PFS 5*, but with some tweaks.

Glen Parnell wrote:

Any word on what the 5 nova requirements are going to be? It would really help to know...

We've done our internal brainstorming and are currently looking at the feasibility of implementing our thoughts. Some of this is technical, some is feedback. We should have more information soon and hopefully have a program in place by year's end.

It currently is shaping up to be similar to PFS 5*, but with some tweaks.

Thank you so much!

Is it me or are you supposed to used the gorgon with an uber pilot who can probably snap shot at -2, probably better than any of the other gunners can fire even with the penalty?

All you need is 1 engineer diverting power to the engines and you're good.

Is it me or are you supposed to used the gorgon with an uber pilot who can probably snap shot at -2, probably better than any of the other gunners can fire even with the penalty?

I'm not quite sure what you mean here.

The Snap Shot minor action takes place during the gunnery phase, so you still have to be facing in the right direction. It's a standard gunnery check with an additional -2 penalty, so unless your pilot is already a much better gunner than anyone else it doesn't make sense to do a Snap Shot. In which case you would do this with any ship, not just the Gorgon.

I asked this in its own topic but I guess it belongs here instead - what exactly does 0 XP mean for the purposes of Capstone boons.

If a character I have never played has a commencement GM credit applied does that make that character ineligible for Second Seekers and Acquisitives capstone boons?

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Is it me or are you supposed to used the gorgon with an uber pilot who can probably snap shot at -2, probably better than any of the other gunners can fire even with the penalty?

I'm not quite sure what you mean here.

The Snap Shot minor action takes place during the gunnery phase, so you still have to be facing in the right direction. It's a standard gunnery check with an additional -2 penalty, so unless your pilot is already a much better gunner than anyone else it doesn't make sense to do a Snap Shot. In which case you would do this with any ship, not just the Gorgon.

With any other ship you're giving up the ability to fire your other weapons. With the Gorgon you don't have other weapons so that's not that big of a deal. Uber pilot having a gunnery check 2 over the next best shot is pretty common.

I asked this in its own topic but I guess it belongs here instead - what exactly does 0 XP mean for the purposes of Capstone boons.

If a character I have never played has a commencement GM credit applied does that make that character ineligible for Second Seekers and Acquisitives capstone boons?

Yes, they're ineligible.

You can't dm credit then capstone, but you can capstone and then dm credit. I have no idea whats its trying to prevent but there it is.

Huh... I would have never assumed it worked that way, especially given the Race Boon/1-99 ruling.

It also means I know how to report this weeks 1-01 run for myself. Thanks guys!

It currently is shaping up to be similar to PFS 5*, but with some tweaks.

• Report 150 sessions as GM
• Run 50 different adventures
• Run 10 or more specials or exclusives
• Run a Roleplaying Guild session in the presence of a member of the Pathfinder Society leadership team or a Venture-Captain. ...

So it may be awhile before the 5th nova is available to anyone.

The 50th sanctioned adventure (including scenarios, modules, APs, and specials) should drop in February, but more importantly we only have the one special/exclusive (not counting #1-98 which AFAIK only Thurston can run) so unless someone's running #1-99 10 different times..

01-99 only 2x so far...

<sarcasm>wow, you've been slacking!</sarcasm>

I'd really like to see more Starfinder multitables, they don't have to be Origins/Gencon level of intense to make them fun. Something we can run at regional conventions with 3-12 tables.

Also I think that requirement for 5th nova is good, shows the GM has been active in conventions - not just home and local games.

we only have the one special/exclusive (not counting #1-98 which AFAIK only Thurston can run)

1-00 Claim to Salvation's product name starts with Special, so I'm assuming that would(could?) also count for amount of specials run..then again 1-99 doesn't have the special part in it's product name, so who knows what the criteria might end up going to be at this point.

Multi-table is probably a better descriptor.

1-00 Claim to Salvation...

It was released as a special so it would could for specials run if that metric matters. Whether or not it continues to be a special, I don't know.

Sorry to ask another question about the +2 stat on the legacy race boon but I’m a little confused as to when and how it is applied.

Is it slotted at the same time as other boons. So you choose at that post briefing stage in the scenario which stat to boost and it is your scores at that point in time which are used to see if an attribute qualifies for the 14 or less criteria.
For example at the point you slot your other boons, you choose it as your one personal boon and raise strength from say 14 to 16. During a later adventure you have used one of your stat boosts at level 5 to increase strength to 16 and therefore it no longer can receive the +2 so you need to select a different stat.

Or is it something that is permanently applied to your character when it is created so you can boost the statistic further at level 5 etc..
You have a character with 14 strength which you increase to 16 using the boon. At level 5 you then spend one of your stat bonuses to increase it further to 18 and then at level 10 you use your next set of stat boosts to raise the stat to 19.

Or is it something that is permanently applied to your character when it is created so you can boost the statistic further at level 5 etc, but it doesn’t count for the purpose of increasing your attributes at level. 5, 10 etc working more like an personal upgrade.
For example: You have a character with 14 strength which you increase to 16 using the boon. At level 5 you then spend one of your stat bonuses to increase it further to 18 and then at level 10 a you use it to raise the stat to 20.

Thanks

Or is it something that is permanently applied to your character when it is created so you can boost the statistic further at level 5 etc...

You have a character with 14 strength which you increase to 16 using the boon. At level 5 you then spend one of your stat bonuses to increase it further to 18 and then at level 10 you use your next set of stat boosts to raise the stat to 19.

^ It's this option.

Hope this helps!

Hmm

<sarcasm>wow, you've been slacking!</sarcasm>

I'd really like to see more Starfinder multitables, they don't have to be Origins/Gencon level of intense to make them fun. Something we can run at regional conventions with 3-12 tables.

Also I think that requirement for 5th nova is good, shows the GM has been active in conventions - not just home and local games.

The only problem with the 10 special requirement, is there are GMs who just cannot get to conventions. So something for people whom are dedicated to their community would be good.

Revvy Bitterleaf wrote:

1-00 Claim to Salvation...

It was released as a special so it would could for specials run if that metric matters. Whether or not it continues to be a special, I don't know.

I would assume that Claim to Salvation is similar to Paths We Choose (it had no special requirements to run and didn't count toward 5-star qualification).

All of the single table scenarios from Pathfinder Society which counted toward 5-star qualification required four or five stars to run. Since there was no nova requirement to run Claim to Salvation I wouldn't think that it would count toward specials run for 5-nova qualification.

Helvellyn wrote:

Or is it something that is permanently applied to your character when it is created so you can boost the statistic further at level 5 etc...

You have a character with 14 strength which you increase to 16 using the boon. At level 5 you then spend one of your stat bonuses to increase it further to 18 and then at level 10 you use your next set of stat boosts to raise the stat to 19.

^ It's this option.

Hope this helps!

Hmm

Thank you

The only problem with the 10 special requirement, is there are GMs who just cannot get to conventions. So something for people whom are dedicated to their community would be good.

Few if any specials are restricted to conventions so even GMs who don’t attend can reach 5 star status.

ProfessorC wrote:

The only problem with the 10 special requirement, is there are GMs who just cannot get to conventions. So something for people whom are dedicated to their community would be good.

Few if any specials are restricted to conventions so even GMs who don’t attend can reach 5 star status.

a three table requirement is a de facto convention requirement in a lot of areas.

There was also Bonekkep 1, 2 & 3, several Scenarios released as specials and then later released as regular Scenarios, and also thinks like True Dragons of Absolom, Serpen's Rise, Sepent's Ire, etc. I think that is what Bob is talking about.

There are ways of achieving 3 table specials at small venues without conventions if you have sufficient internet infrastructure. There have been a number of hybrid specials where multiple locations supervised by the same VC have each hosted a table, with an Overseer linked to them by technology.

There are also online conventions too. We just ran 1-99 in PBP Gameday VII.

Hmm

Three tables isn’t a convention as defined by PFS

Three tables isn’t a convention as defined by PFS

It's a convention to anyone that lives in the boonies which is one of the larger impediments to attending a number of conventions.

Revvy Bitterleaf wrote:

1-00 Claim to Salvation...

It was released as a special so it would could for specials run if that metric matters. Whether or not it continues to be a special, I don't know.

At the very least I hope it counts if it was ran at Gen-Con 2017!

No kidding! I ran it twice at GenCon and like 5-6 times since, all because I thought it was a special!

Jadnura has some SWEET rewards. Replays and the ability to make your odd stats matter (albeit around level 9 or 10)

Jadnura has some SWEET rewards. Replays and the ability to make your odd stats matter (albeit around level 9 or 10)

Agreed. I need to point out Jadnura to a dedicated player who doesn't GM, because she would love replays. These are the very first replays that we've seen in Starfinder Society outside of burning novas.

Hmm

We need the expanded narrative boon for SFS.

So, I have earned the Half-Orc admittance boon on a previous character. If I roll a half-orc now, does that mean if, for some reason (say I pick up a different, fun personal boon), I choose not to use my personal boon slot for that one session, her ability score would also drop two points? But I could re-equip the boon and restore those points in another session?

Do I have to benefit the same ability score (of 14 or less) every time I slot this boon then? Or can I use it as a variable benefit?

You don't unslot a personal boon except by this one time dispensation to unslot it if you no longer need it (and can immediately reslot the +2 version if you have it).

Quick question. On page 7, The guide seems to contradict the blog when it comes to applying credit for playing pregenerated characters. The blog states that the pregen needs to be applied to a character in the level range for the scenario but the guide seems to imply that it needs to be applied to a character of a lower level than the pregen.

The blog states

We've also allowed players to apply credit to a character of any level within the level range of a pregenerated character scenario, which should ease up some of the credit discussions around Starfinder Society #1-00: Claim to Salvation.

The guide states on page 7

Credit for playing higher-level pregenerated characters must be applied to a Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild character of a lower level than the pregenerated character or to a 1st-level character.

I’m assuming this is a typo on page 7 as in the more detailed section on applying credit the guide agrees with the blog.

No, the guide is correct.

We've also allowed players to apply credit to a character of any level within the level range of a pregenerated character scenario, which should ease up some of the credit discussions around Starfinder Society #1-00: Claim to Salvation.

Applying Credit: You may apply credit for an adventure once
your Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild character reaches
the level of the pregenerated character used to play through it.
For example, if you played an 8th-level pregenerated character,
you would apply the credit once your character reaches 8th
level. To apply credit, follow the steps below. In the case of the
scenarios that require you to play a pregenerated character,
you can apply the credit to a character who reaches the same
Tier as the scenario, such as a 7th- or 8th-level character in the
prior example.

The blog was referring to cases such as SFS #1-00 which is tier 3-4. As was previously clarified on the forums, since you have to play a pregenerated PC for this scenario (specifically a level 4 pregen for this one), you can apply credit to any PC in the level range - specifically a level 3 or 4 PC for SFS #1-00. So if you only have a level 2 PC and play #1-00 the chronicle sheet applies once they reach level 3.

If the scenario does not require you to play a pregenerated PC, you must apply credit to a PC of a lower level than the pregen once they reach the same level of the pregen, or to a level 1 PC using the rules on page 8.

No, the guide is correct.

The blog was referring to cases such as SFS #1-00 which is tier 3-4. As was previously clarified on the forums, since you have to play a pregenerated PC for this scenario (specifically a level 4 pregen for this one), you can apply credit to any PC in the level range - specifically a level 3 or 4 PC for SFS #1-00. So if you only have a level 2 PC and play #1-00 the chronicle sheet applies once they reach level 3.

If the scenario does not require you to play a pregenerated PC, you must apply credit to a PC of a lower level than the pregen once they reach the same level of the pregen, or to a level 1 PC using the rules on page 8.

Ah right, I understand now. Thanks for clearing that up.