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July Update – AcP, Sanctioning, Spotlights and Conventions

Thursday, July 2, 2020

Pathfinder Extinction Curse Adventure Path: The Apocalypse Prophet book cover

OPM Musings

With two online conventions under our belt, we’ve got our processes down. That being said, there are still several more in the pipeline – Virtually Expo (to replace UK Games Expo) and Gen Con being the next on the horizon. Besides conventions, we have lots more going on in the OP realm, so I’m going to end my musings with a huge thank you to all our GMs and volunteers organizing games. As the world starts to resume in-person gatherings, I’ll note each community will decide when and how to approach in person gaming and request that all our players work with their organizers to take suggested precautions and keep our community safe, healthy, and happy.


Achievement Point Update

Another month, another few code rolls getting us ever closer to the final launch of the Achievement Points (AcP) system. For those keeping a close eye, you may have seen the rolls last week. They fixed our outstanding issues but had a few unintended problems that we needed to resolve before we could keep the roll live. We’ve now resolved character number issues, points accrued from Premier and Premier Plus events, GM credits, and how boons generate from the system, as well as a few other back end items. This is in line to be resolved after our long weekend and we hope to have the final deployment soon.

This brings into question the free rebuild boon that is currently on the site. I said previously that we would remove the boon two weeks after AcP went live. Given that we are less than 30 days from the release of the Advanced Players Guide, I want to amend my commentary. We will extend the date of the free rebuild to 31 August. This allows us enough time to get the APG sanctioned and for players to use the rebuild to include options from that book.

We’ve made a change to the rebuild boon, however. One of the code rolls gave the ability to customize the boons beyond the one sentence preview. With this live, we are adjusting the rebuild boon to the style we will use with all other AcP purchases. The full text of the boon outlines the parameters for rebuild, including a all changes are final once character is played and a slight recalculation of the gold your character has post-rebuild, to account for any consumables you have purchased & used as well as a favorable resale value of items. This is intended to make the rebuild easier: rather than having to calculate the value of every item you have purchased and used since creating the character, you will now simply have 85% of the gold you have earned during the character’s career to that point. This revised rebuild went live today. Any unapplied rebuilds that don’t this text will still be honored. In that case, the player should utilize the 85% rule when rebuilding. Players who rebuilt characters prior to this blog do not need to make adjustments to their characters. In all cases, a copy of the boon should be included in the character’s chronicle sheet history.

Another note on AcP. Most of the point totals have settled. You can review your totals in your “My Organized Play” section of Paizo.com. If you are seeing errors in your AcP count, make sure to click the “Refresh Points” button on the GM/Event Coordinator tab of your My Organized Play page. If there are still errors, check to make sure all your games are reported. If they aren’t, please reach out to the coordinator/local venture officer with your chronicles to get the game entered into the system. If all games are accounted for, then email pfsreportingerrors@paizo.com with as much detail as you can about the errors so that we can take a look and make adjustments as needed. This email should also be used for any other reporting errors if your GM or event coordinator is unable to fix them.

One final piece of AcP. We’ve solicited a list of frequently asked questions and are working on putting together answers. We hope to have this done before it goes live and will post a link in the comments as well as distribute the link to our community.

Gen Con Online

Our next major online convention is just weeks away! Gen Con Online will be July 30-August 2, and we currently have nearly 900 games on offer for our four programs. The event catalog will be available for preview on July 6 on Gen Con’s website. For GMs who haven’t signed up yet, we invite you to register for the OPF Major Events discord, as there are still opportunities to volunteer; for more information on how to play or GM games, visit last week’s blog post. Next week we’ll be previewing the new scenario releases you’ll see at Gen Con Online.

Sanctioning

This month, we released the sanctioning for the Age of Ashes Adventure Path for Pathfinder (second edition). Players and GMs may now report their sessions and earn credit for the AP. Additionally, last week we announced the winner of the Battle of the Pantheons contest, and their pantheon has officially been sanctioned as well!

Going forward, we have plans to get Near Space sanctioned for Starfinder Society and the Advanced Player’s Guide sanctioned for Pathfinder Society before the end of the month. There may be more, but these two are the next ones on our radar.

Volunteer Recognition.

No new campaign coins have been awarded since PaizoCon Online.

We did announce our Order of the Wayfinder for 2019. We usually announce this recipient at Gen Con or PaizoCon, but we held it last year to try and do it in person. Unfortunately, our lack of travel thwarted our plans, so we announced it virtually at the most recent Venture-Captain gathering when the recipient was in attendance.

The Order of the Wayfinder is a step above the Campaign Coin and is given to one person a year in recognition of their efforts on behalf of some aspect of the Organized Play Program. Their activities support the actions of the entire community and make a huge difference in the quality of our programming. The award comes with a wayfinder (compass) with an engraved plaque and a new organized play number in the 100’s.

Past recipients included Bob Jonquet, Auke Teeninga, and Alastair Rigg.

Please join me in recognizing Alexander Lenz as the 2019 recipient for his coordination of the Additional Resources Task Force. The AR Task Force is a group of individuals drawn from the volunteer organizers who review published materials for inclusion in the relevant organized play campaign and make recommendations to the Organized Play team. Without their input, completing our sanctioning documents would be a much different task. Thank you, Alex, for the years you’ve spent leading the Task Force!

Stars, Novas & Glyphs

We have no new GMs to recognize yet, but part of the updates rolling out with AcP will also allow our venture-captains to easily and automatically provide evaluations to GMs who request them. This will help us automate the process and get our top-tier GMs their badges and recognition sooner!

Convention Listing

Many of the conventions planned for the upcoming months have needed to cancel or postpone due to shelter in place orders, but several others moved their events online. We’ve listed the status for each event, but please check their websites or notices for any last-minute changes.

ConventionLocationStart DateStatus
Pittsburgh Con Online Pittsburgh, PA 7/17/2020 Online
OGC Online 2020 Online 7/17/2020 Online
Farmageddon VII Farmer City, IL 7/17/2020 Online
InterNetGalatic ConQuest 2020 Online 7/24/2020 Online
Ropecon 2020 Finland 7/24/2020 Online
Gen Con Online Online 7/30/2020 Online
Virtually UK (UK Games Expo) Birmingham, England 8/21/2020 Online
Shadowcon UK 2020 Shepherdstown, WV 10/30/2020 Postponed

We have GM spots available for both Gen Con Online and Virtually UK, click the links to learn more!

One final note on conventions: the team has decided to award Premier Plus status to all conventions that report 75 or more tables in their After-Action Report. As a result, you may see an increase in your AcP if you played at a qualifying convention.

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

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Dark Archive 3/5 **** Venture-Captain, Colorado—Denver
Nefreet wrote:


To have the 15% cost on top of the AcP cost seems a bit much to me. But not enough that I'll rally against it if it's what Leadership thinks is best.

There's no AcP cost -- it's free.

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Zach Armstrong wrote:
Nefreet wrote:


To have the 15% cost on top of the AcP cost seems a bit much to me. But not enough that I'll rally against it if it's what Leadership thinks is best.
There's no AcP cost -- it's free.

That ends 31 August.

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

If the 15% cost only applies to the free version of the Boon, and after August 31st it just becomes an AcP cost, then that I support fully.
2/5 5/5 *****
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

That would be great, but that wasn't how I was interpreting the blog post.
Scarab Sages 4/5
1 person marked this as a favorite.

My least favorite thing about the 85% thing is that it’s trying to solve a problem that didn’t exist.

blog wrote:
This is intended to make the rebuild easier: rather than having to calculate the value of every item you have purchased and used since creating the character, you will now simply have 85% of the gold you have earned during the character’s career to that point.

Were people really complaining that figuring out how much gold you have by looking at your purchases was too hard?

2/5 5/5 **
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber
Ferious Thune wrote:

My least favorite thing about the 85% thing is that it’s trying to solve a problem that didn’t exist.

blog wrote:
This is intended to make the rebuild easier: rather than having to calculate the value of every item you have purchased and used since creating the character, you will now simply have 85% of the gold you have earned during the character’s career to that point.
Were people really complaining that figuring out how much gold you have by looking at your purchases was too hard?

I can imagine at least one very easily attainable scenario that, once it caught on, would become quite a headache for the campaign that, perhaps, they might be trying to head off.

You know how things like "Spend your first 2 PP on a wand of cure light wounds" catch on.
Scarab Sages 4/5
Blake's Tiger wrote:
Ferious Thune wrote:

My least favorite thing about the 85% thing is that it’s trying to solve a problem that didn’t exist.

blog wrote:
This is intended to make the rebuild easier: rather than having to calculate the value of every item you have purchased and used since creating the character, you will now simply have 85% of the gold you have earned during the character’s career to that point.
Were people really complaining that figuring out how much gold you have by looking at your purchases was too hard?

I can imagine at least one very easily attainable scenario that, once it caught on, would become quite a headache for the campaign that, perhaps, they might be trying to head off.

You know how things like "Spend your first 2 PP on a wand of cure light wounds" catch on.

Related to how difficult it is to figure out how much gold you should have? Or are you suggesting that the reason that they implemented the 85% wealth wasn’t the reason they gave us for implementing the 85% wealth?

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

I suppose people who wish to really abuse the rebuild now have 24 days to buy and use as many consumables as they wish before they click that button.
***

Where can we find a list of events that are Premier or Premier Plus?

Or, if it's easier to just answer specific questions, what levels are the following conventions:

Pacificon 2019
DunDraCon 44
PaizoCon Online 2020
ConCurrent 2020
Gameday 2019
Outpost III
2/5 5/5 *****
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

PaizoCon 2020 and ConCurrent were both Premier Plus. (I don't have information either way on the others).
4/5 ****

DundraCon 44 had over 75 tables so it should count. May take a bit to get things processed though before the change goes through.
1/5 *
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I keep detailed accounting of everything I buy and so far have purchased only one or two consumables, which I have not used. I don't like the idea of spending ACP on a rebuild and then my PC arbitrarily losing money because of it.
Dark Archive 4/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Turku
1 person marked this as a favorite.

It also accounts for upgrading items. You can no longer just "pay the difference" -> you need to actually sell the old item and purchase the new one.
Granted, this is probably an issue mostly for wands/staves and the 15% seems a bit high for that.

I can see how it makes everything easier - I don't have to go through my inventory one by one and check the price of every individual item I've ever bought and calculate how much gold I get back - I'll just add up the gold earned from all the chronicles, and deduct 15%. It's also not cumulative - If you do another rebuild later on, you still lose just 15% of what you would originally have, not 15% of what was left after the last rebuild.

I agree that it isn't quite as "good" or "cheap" as old rebuilds, but then again, old rebuilds were hard to come by, requiring a gencon boon or similar, while now the rebuild is available to everyone, everywhere, all the time, multiple times per character.

100% would be -better- but I don't think 85% is any kind of a deal-breaker. Some characters probably end up with a bit less gold than they would have originally, some characters may end up benefitting from it, and some may break even.
Scarab Sages 4/5

In some instances, it might make things slightly faster. But only if you are completely changing your character. If you are rebuilding into something close to your existing character (only changing Ancestry, attributes, backgrounds, etc.), it is significantly more effort.

The cost of upgrading items was already accounted for in the sell things back for 100% system. All this does is reward people who spend a bunch of extra gold and penalize people who have been strategic about what they spend.

Here’s a potential abuse of the 85% system. I’m one XP away from 5th level. I’ve spent heavily on consumables, spellcasting services, and upgrades, spending 25% of my wealth. I now spend 20 AcPs on the rebuild... and change nothing but equipment. I’ve gained 10% wealth in exchange for 20 AcPs just in time to afford my +1 armor. Or in the case of the current boon, for free.
2/5 5/5 *****
3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I feel there's about 4 main types of rebuilds:

a) nearly complete, you're just not happy with how the character is playing at all and are going to change nearly everything.

b) swapping a small set of things you can't change with retraining

c) swapping a considerable number of things that could be retained, but are time prohibitive

d) swapping a small number of things that could be retrained.

They all interact a little differently with this free (and later AcP costed variants) rebuild.

A) You're likely to want a completely different of gear. You might have changed fighting style/armor proficiency, etc. Being able to get your new gold total quickly and easily is nice. 15% might be a touch excessive compared to the total most characters would end up with under a full accounting, but its the right ballpark.

B) This is particularly common with people wanting to swap in a leshy/hobgolbin/lizardfolk, or forward looking to the APG. And you're probably not changing your gear. Here's where the gold fee is a bit hard on people. Perhaps in the future OP could consider a 'Ancestry Change Boon' at some AcP cost, when applied it swaps your ancestry out for any you have access too (including for an AcP purchased one etc). Includes changing all ancestry feats up to your current level. Probably need a 'Background Change' as well, but I think it would get less use. There would be no gold fee on this, and no non-ancestry releated changes. If you are switching from an ancestry granted weapon, you're going to need to do the usual sell-back/purchase path.

C/D) Feels like an 'Training Montage' boon for some AcP that gives you extra downtime days that can only be spent on retaining, could be a solution. Again, no GP change (and no special sellback provisions, just use the normal rules)
3/5 **
1 person marked this as a favorite.

I think a better wording woukd have been you have a month to rebuold your character wuth APG material one month after we habe sanctioned it if the book is not sanctioned for releasd date.
Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Real response from someone in my PbP, after I told them the Rebuild Boon was no longer free:

[Name Redacted] wrote:
Ya know Paizo, not everyone reads every single post you make on your blogs... maybe don’t put so many rules relevant things only there?

Which, I agree with. I often don't read company Blogs. Really, I mostly only read the ones linked in the Society Forum.

I checked the Boon's description, and nothing alerts you that there's a 15% cost when you purchase it, so perhaps updating that text would be of paramount importance to avoid annoyed players.
Scarab Sages 4/5
1 person marked this as a favorite.

In general, it would be good if the system allowed you to see the full text of any boon before you purchase it.
Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

And fix the file format, since you'd only know to manually change it if you read... this Forum.
2/5 5/5 **
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber

Has the text changed yet?
Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

Not on the Boons tab.
3/5 **

Where is the boons tab?
Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

I should make a Tutorial...

Slide #1
Slide #2
Grand Lodge 4/5 **** Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento

Since the point is to simplify, do you still have to recalculate everything if you are not changing your equipment with the rebuild option?
Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

That is the current thought process.
4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, United Kingdom—England—Coventry
1 person marked this as a favorite.

The last convention listing is confusing - you may have merged two events together :-)
Shadowcon UK 2020 is still going ahead and will be online.
It is NOT in Sheperdstow, WV but rather in London UK.
It is from 29 - 31 Augsut
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