August Update— Release Schedule, Sanctioning, Spotlights and Conventions!

Should the SFS #2-00 be PFS2 #2-00?

Edit: Just hoping so because I regret not running the special at GenCon. :)

What about the replacement for scenario boons?

Many Gen Con goers were incredibly disappointed to receive blank chronicle sheets, something that soured my friend's first experience playing a special.

This big change came with almost no warning, and we were told more details about an alternative system for scenario rewards would come this week.

Thanks for the plug for Displacement Con.

Come and play with us:

Displacement Con on Warhorn

Like us on Facebook

Join the Discord and sign up as a GM or just hang out as a Player

We have close to 150 people registered on Warhorn and are in need of more GMs so people have games to play.

We have Eyes of the Ten scheduled and we need GMs that would like to run those scenarios.

While we have GMs signed up for PFS2 and SFS, none have signed up yet for our PFS, PFS Modules or PFS2 Quest offerings. This is the time to take your pick and get the time and scenario you want as a GM.

Players, check out our announcements for information on when player sign-ups start. GMs the sooner you sign-up to GM the sooner you get to sign-up for your player slots, don't miss out on the slots you want.

Any update on the timing for a potential PF2 errata/FAQ? I know there has been newer materials that seem to refer to rules that don't exist from the CRB (I'm looking at you Battle Medicine...), so sounds like things are at least reasonably finalized, but I've been waiting on a potential shifted staff build for a bit now, and it'd be really good to know if that actually works (like most, but not all, people think it does...) as I don't really want to make a Society character and then find out that, in fact, it doesn't.

NukeCon should be PFS2e as well, not SFS.

Also, I think the PFS adventures that begin with '3' in the release schedule are actually SFS.

Any update on the timing for a potential PF2 errata/FAQ? I know there has been newer materials that seem to refer to rules that don't exist from the CRB (I'm looking at you Battle Medicine...), so sounds like things are at least reasonably finalized, but I've been waiting on a potential shifted staff build for a bit now, and it'd be really good to know if that actually works (like most, but not all, people think it does...) as I don't really want to make a Society character and then find out that, in fact, it doesn't.

Campaign Leadership doesn't have anything to do with FAQs or Errata.

In the past, they've been just as blindsided as we were.

Shifting Staffs work... Or is that debated somewhere as well?

The Design Team rarely confirms when things work as intended.

It has been ab absolute pleasure to be able to work with the HQ team for ConCurrent and Gen Con, and see so many new members of our community with the transition online.

Huge shout out to every new GM, and every GM making the transition online. We see you, we know it can be a process, and we appreciate you.

Thank you again to our OP team, for putting the crunch on and making all of this happen in such a short time, and the online VOs who continue to help our newer members of the online community, you all are ROCK STARS!

11 weeks and I am blown away with all you guys have accomplished. <3

Just a quick note that BostonMetroCon will be running PF2 #2-00 as the special, not the Starfinder special.

Play-by-Post Gameday IX is also running Pathfinder 1E Special #7-00.

Looks like Gateway 2020 Online is running PFS #2-00 as well (saw the call for GMs on their Facebook page)

The SFS #2-00 should be PFS #2-00, I have asked our lovely web team to update the text when they have a moment!

Several of these conventions may also be running older interactive specials, but they only have to let us know if they're running new ones, so check with them for their full offerings!

Is there a way to get in touch with the Gateway 2020 folks? I couldn't find the FB page you mentioned.

Is there a way to get in touch with the Gateway 2020 folks? I couldn't find the FB page you mentioned.

https://warhorn.net/events/la-ca-pfs

Eric Nielsen wrote:

Is there a way to get in touch with the Gateway 2020 folks? I couldn't find the FB page you mentioned.

https://warhorn.net/events/la-ca-pfs

Thanks! I'm waiting to get my schedule from DragonCon since I already submitted that volunteer application, but if I have openings that align with Gateway's needs I'll definitely look into it (especially if I can pick up GMing another special table).

*Bounces up and down in his chair in anticipation waiting for the new version of the SFS Guide*

“PFS Scenarios #2-01 & #2-02“
I’m confused. These scenarios were offered at Gen Con. If they are done, and many people have already played them, why are they being held back? In past years, the new season scenarios were always released during or immediately after Gen Con. Why the change in procedure?

Nothing has changed. These will be the newest scenarios going into the season and cover August. They were released early on top of the finale of season 1 for the end of July.

The first new scenarios of a season are always the ones coming out in August and traditionally the ones run at Dragoncon for Labor Day weekend, which is happening again here.

Hmm, my second running of Fall of Plaguestone still shows 0 AcP -- not sure if anyone else is experiencing this.

Nothing has changed.

I’m sorry, but this is just not correct. The August releases which were traditionally #-01, #-02, and #-03 were released at Gen Con and made immediately available to the community. It’s been that way for years. There weren’t any scenarios dropped the last Wednesday of August because they were already released earlier in the month at Gen Con. In fact there have been a number of complaint threads often by misinformed players because of the lack of scenario drops at the end of August. Them not realizing the scenarios were released early. Having to drop essentially two months worth of scenarios on top of the special is one of the reasons the development team is overworked leading up to Gen Con. So yes, this is a change from the routine procedure. It would be nice to hear an explanation why, though given the tendency of our community to complain about any “why” Paizo provides for any of their decision making, I doubt they will respond.

So, according to the Timetable PFS 1.98 is coming out in November. I am assuming that is actually SFS 1.98, and has been pushed back to November.

Yes. If you look down at the remarks, it is correctly indicated as SFS 1-98 which refers to the scenario that Thursty was exclusively running at select events for the past year. It’s going to be fully developed and released as 1-98. The reviews have all been positive so it is a much anticipated scenario.

So what you're saying is... there are still new scenarios dropping for August, they just smoothed out the overall releases so there's no big gap in content coming out.

Cool. Not really a big change or issue.

I have a question about ACP and SFS. What will be the qualifying date when you start counting ACP for SFS? Will it be June of this year (the start of Season 3 of SFS?) or August 2017, when SFS started?

Hmm

Not really a big change or issue.

For some it is. Since those scenarios have always been released at Gen Con, local groups plan to run them locally during the month. There was no announcement in advance, nor an explanation after that Paizo was changing an accepted business practice that has existed for nearly a decade. So now those events have to be cancelled/rescheduled. Its not too much of an expectation to ask for a little head's up. Unfortunately, lack of communication is becoming more commonplace.

Given that obviously the scenarios are done, since they were already given out to dozens of GMs and played by many more dozens of players at Gen Con, there is [almost] no reason to release them now. If the decision is solely based on complaints about the gap between Gen Con and September releases, that is pretty weak.

I have a question about ACP and SFS. What will be the qualifying date when you start counting ACP for SFS? Will it be June of this year (the start of Season 3 of SFS?) or August 2017, when SFS started?

I guess it is assuming, but I've been assuming retroactive to all Starfinder content.

Would really suck if it wasn't, and would be weird to count tables for Novas but not AcP.

I agree it would be ideal to retroactively award AcP for SFS going back to the launch, but that is an incredible amount of work. Triggering the base points should be fairly easy, but they will need to go back and manually re-code every event that has been run over the course of three years that would qualify as either premier or premier plus. And since many people have traditionally shrugged off reporting since it was ancillary (the chronicles are the official record) I image there will potentially be hundreds of events that players/GMs are going to request be rebuilt so they can be reported properly and award appropriate AcP. Is it doable? Sure. Would it surprise me if they decided not to go all the way back to start? Not really. Would that garner some complaints? Absolutely.

Will the level range for the PFS2 Scenarios be announced ahead of time?

If AcP is the replacement for convention boons, and SFS has been getting convention boons I could see why they could decide to only start awarding AcP for SFS after they stop generating new convention boons.

However that runs into the problem of Scenario X run before that cutoff is worth 0 AcP, while the same scenario run after the cutoff is worth AcP, even if at the same long running event code. I'd guess there would be some form of mandated event code rotation to deal with that.

I don't think its possible to predict which path they are planning on without more reveals for them. I don't think its fair to expect retroactive AcP at this point, just from an expectation management perspective.

I agree it would be ideal to retroactively award AcP for SFS going back to the launch, but that is an incredible amount of work. Triggering the base points should be fairly easy, but they will need to go back and manually re-code every event that has been run over the course of three years that would qualify as either premier or premier plus. And since many people have traditionally shrugged off reporting since it was ancillary (the chronicles are the official record) I image there will potentially be hundreds of events that players/GMs are going to request be rebuilt so they can be reported properly and award appropriate AcP. Is it doable? Sure. Would it surprise me if they decided not to go all the way back to start? Not really. Would that garner some complaints? Absolutely.

Do we really need to worry about whether the past events to this point qualified for Premier or Premier Plus? The way I look at it, for Premier and Premier Plus events before Season 3, both GMs and Players got convention boons as an additional reward for participating in those events. We only need to worry about convention status going forward from the beginning of Season 3, making the retroactive awarding of ACP a simple matter of base points.

Are you guys going to finish up the PF 1e Adv paths for sanctioning?

Any word on which (if any) of these conventions will have PACS at them?

Any word on which (if any) of these conventions will have PACS at them?

It is short on time, but if you would like to organize PACs at Displacement Con, you are free to contact me via our FB Page: Displacement Con FB

I don't personally play that system, but am willing to support it if there is interest.

Are you guys going to finish up the PF 1e Adv paths for sanctioning?

I would be surprised to see any 1e stuff get sanctioned ever again.

I'm not concerned with using the ACP system for SFS reward boons. What confuses me is using ACP apparently to replace scenario boons. Losing scenario boons loses soooo much flavor and such from having played scenarios. It is wonderful to pull out mementos from past games that some players have the GMs make extra little 'flavor' additions to inventories and whatnots (such as PF1 players collecting Aspis Consortium badges). I for one will be VERY sad and disenchanted if we lose scenario boons. ACP for rewards makes plenty of sense... those boons are meta boons, related to nothing your character has done in game. But please bring back scenario boons!

I believe Scenario Boons are simply being moved to a downloadable format to stay in line with the AcP boons.

I have not heard of any AcP cost for Scenario Boons, only the requirement that your game has been reported correctly.

what levels will sfs 3-05/3-06 be?

I'll chime in that it would be nice for the level ranges of the incoming scenarios to be indicated in a post or blog.