Pathfinder Society: Digitization Update

Welcome back Bequeathal, and that new Character Options page really looks lovely ^^

I believe there's a typo in the list of known bugs that's conflating ACP and Reputation:

"Capping Reputation for a table at 8, when Adventures award 12 to players and 24 to GMs"

GMs do not get double reputation compared to players.

Welcome back Bequeathal, and that new Character Options page really looks lovely ^^

Yes, that new page looks amazing, and feels better for long term reference/linkage than the old blog that it replaced!

That is a very pretty new page!

Bequeathal's return is helpful too!

Loving the new options page.

Oh that is lovely. Thank you all so much for your hard work. I especially appreciate that the Lost Omens World Guide is part of the core assumption, allowing players to have rich backgrounds from specific Golarian regions from the get-go.

Hmm

Huzzah!

Looks good.

I couldn't find the curated lists though for:
Avid Collector - Core Rulebook or,
Esoteric Spellcaster - Core Rulebook

Are they still to be added, have I just missed them or is the plan to keep them on the blog page where they were?

I bequeath onto all of you....this map of the Mindspan Mountains from season zero of PFS1. Trust me - it'll come in handy...some day.

Believe me.

I'm a bit unclear on how Bequethal works- is it only for things with a listed rarity? If I've played Extinction Curse Book 1 and assign the Chronicle Sheet to character 2001, and later want to Bequeth "Run Away and Join the Circus" to my 2002 character so he can become a Juggler, is that possible? And how much does it cost?

Looks good.

I couldn't find the curated lists though for:
Avid Collector - Core Rulebook or,
Esoteric Spellcaster - Core Rulebook

Are they still to be added, have I just missed them or is the plan to keep them on the blog page where they were?

Stay tuned for more info on that :)

I'm a bit unclear on how Bequethal works- is it only for things with a listed rarity? If I've played Extinction Curse Book 1 and assign the Chronicle Sheet to character 2001, and later want to Bequeth "Run Away and Join the Circus" to my 2002 character so he can become a Juggler, is that possible? And how much does it cost?

To Bequeath that boon, you'd look at Bequeathing the option it gives, in this case the Juggler Archetype. So you would choose the "Juggler Training" option for the boon, then buy the Uncommon Bequeathal boon for your -2001, and transfer the Juggler access to your -2002. If your -2001 had already taken the Juggler Archetype, they would have to use Downtime to retrain those options.

As another example:

It's really obvious now that you've explained it, thanks a lot.

Very nice looking page. Good work!

where can we descriptions for all the boons?

Looks very organized and concise. Kudos!

As another example:

** spoiler about Quest 2 omitted **

I just wanna point out that quest 2's boon actually says that "you have gained access to the following (spoiler) for all of your characters " so there's no need to bequethal this specific option.

where can we descriptions for all the boons?

As far as I know, this is still work in progress.

Any chance we can get a discount on rebuilds when the new books release this summer?

The concept for my mad scientist goblin would have worked a lot better as an inventor instead of an alchemist.

Has there been something worked on for getting Raised from the dead for a character without spending AcP? If the cost is as it was when I saw it last, that would be impossible for a new player to pull off. It getting higher for each successive raise makes for spending a lot of AcP that could go to Race/Ancestry and other boons.

Hopefully, there will be a way to raise characters without the use of AcP. Not sure how this is gonna be implemented without the Fame/Prestige counterpart that is being eliminated.

I really enjoy reading any and all comments on the Society posts.

hehe

The listing in the AcP system for Second Chance no longer mentions an increasing cost for each purchase. I think that changed shortly after it was announced that Fame was going away. I have fortunately not had to purchase that boon yet, so I don't know whether or not it increases the cost, but it doesn't appear so.

Like you, I would prefer that each character had some means other than gold to make sure they could be brought back, as spending AcPs that would otherwise go to a useful boon to do so seems harsh coming off of PFS1. But at least it does appear that you're no longer penalized for having to do so more than once by it getting more expensive each time.

Can anyone who has purchased the Second Chance AcP boon confirm whether or not the cost increased after you did so?

The whole point behind ACP and Reputation is to being able leverage who you know to get "favors". This is the same concept as used in 1e.

I don't think a raise dead should be easy for low level characters to get. Let's face it, they are the unknown "mooks" or "red-shirts" that sometime die on missions. Yea, we morn them but they are not well enough known that a person in power will want to use value resources on a res for them.

I bequeath onto all of you....this map of the Mindspan Mountains from season zero of PFS1. Trust me - it'll come in handy...some day.

Believe me.

LOL and it did!!

Thank you for the dedicated Option webpage! No more trying to find the blog!

On a related note, will that blog be updated to point to the Options webpage?

Looking good!

Looking better and better. Thank you to everyone who's contributing to the progress. A couple questions:

1) Does Bequeathal now allow you to transfer Chronicle Boons that have no Rarity? The language doesn't appear to have changed. So, for example, could PC#1 transfer 1-01's "Society Connections" to PC#2? And, if they can, could the transfer happen if PC#2 already has that Boon from their own playthrough? (effectively "recharging" its use)

2)

Some items, such as ancestry rewards, must be the first chronicle applied to a character or applied during rebuilding a character of less than 12 XP.

Italicized for emphasis. Does this mean that a "GM Credit Baby" with more than 12xp cannot have an Ancestry Boon applied to them?

(I'm aware that Ancestry Boons have no date, but I want to know the spirit of the rule)

Looking better and better. Thank you to everyone who's contributing to the progress. A couple questions:

1) Does Bequeathal now allow you to transfer Chronicle Boons that have no Rarity? The language doesn't appear to have changed. So, for example, could PC#1 transfer 1-01's "Society Connections" to PC#2? And, if they can, could the transfer happen if PC#2 already has that Boon from their own playthrough? (effectively "recharging" its use)

2)

The new Character Options page wrote:

Some items, such as ancestry rewards, must be the first chronicle applied to a character or applied during rebuilding a character of less than 12 XP.

Italicized for emphasis. Does this mean that a "GM Credit Baby" with more than 12xp cannot have an Ancestry Boon applied to them?

(I'm aware that Ancestry Boons have no date, but I want to know the spirit of the rule)

Technically, GM Baby's have no boons "applied" to them until they are built and played. Up until then, they have boons *assigned* to them. You cannot *apply* a boon until the character is "built" at which point you apply the boons, one at a time, doing things such as rolling downtime results, applying treasure bundles and boons, making any boon choices, leveling up etc.

As such, until you do that process, the GM credit blob has 0 XP, no boons, etc.

That was part of separating the "assignment" of boons, from the "application" of boons, to allow more freedom and flexibility in this area.

This begs the question of what to do in a circumstance such as:

You have 6 scenario chronicles. You plan to play on Friday. You do everything you need to do to be ready to play the character, including earn income checks.

Game is canceled.

You GM 3 more games, assigning chronicles to that character.

A new Race boon comes out.

Can you apply it to the character?

The answer to which is: This is a situation not covered in the rules, consult your local venture critter.

Not *every* ruling needs to be in the guide.

Looking better and better. Thank you to everyone who's contributing to the progress. A couple questions:

1) Does Bequeathal now allow you to transfer Chronicle Boons that have no Rarity? The language doesn't appear to have changed. So, for example, could PC#1 transfer 1-01's "Society Connections" to PC#2? And, if they can, could the transfer happen if PC#2 already has that Boon from their own playthrough? (effectively "recharging" its use)

That's a great question. Hope to see some discussion and clarification.

Personally I'd hope that a non-rarity tagged boon would could as uncommon for this purpose. And a prohibition on "recharging" a spent limited use boon via bequethal.

I've got a whole two days to maybe get an answer, and I could have asked a least a few days earlier when I discovered they had moved the deadline:

Can you buy multiple copies of the Vigilant Seal boon "Cursebreaker" and hold on to them.

1. You can purchase "Cursebreaker" more than once.
2. You don't (didn't) have to slot it as your downtime boon, so a partial "Cursebreaker" could be sitting in your unslotted boon pile.
3. You obviously can't work on more than one "Cursebreaker" at a time.

But what wasn't clear--and was unnecessary outside of this particular instance of gently mistreating the fame buy out like buying a horde of hirelings--is if you could buy another "Cursebreaker" before you finished the first.

This isn't a great benefit, and I'd probably choose magic items that I'd be less likely to simply purchase (i.e., not must haves) because it could be a long time, if ever, that I got to them. The the limited opportunities to use them reduces their value the more I'd have to divide my time Downtime over multiple items (shaving off a couple gold here and there instead of working something down to half price).

Nefreet wrote:

Looking better and better. Thank you to everyone who's contributing to the progress. A couple questions:

1) Does Bequeathal now allow you to transfer Chronicle Boons that have no Rarity? The language doesn't appear to have changed. So, for example, could PC#1 transfer 1-01's "Society Connections" to PC#2? And, if they can, could the transfer happen if PC#2 already has that Boon from their own playthrough? (effectively "recharging" its use)

That's a great question. Hope to see some discussion and clarification.

Personally I'd hope that a non-rarity tagged boon would could as uncommon for this purpose. And a prohibition on "recharging" a spent limited use boon via bequethal.

I think they would almost *have* to count as rare, if not unique, as if all of them are given the same price, the price would almost certainly be based on the price of the most powerful option.

That said, The Bequethal boons do not transfer *boons* from one character to another. They tranfer *character option access* from one character to another.

So it is a non issue, as all character options have rarity.

"Bequeathal (Unique Option) This character transfers their access to a Unique character option to another of your characters. Character must have earned 20 or more total Reputation to purchase."

I've got a whole two days to maybe get an answer, and I could have asked a least a few days earlier when I discovered they had moved the deadline:

Can you buy multiple copies of the Vigilant Seal boon "Cursebreaker" and hold on to them.

1. You can purchase "Cursebreaker" more than once.
2. You don't (didn't) have to slot it as your downtime boon, so a partial "Cursebreaker" could be sitting in your unslotted boon pile.
3. You obviously can't work on more than one "Cursebreaker" at a time.

But what wasn't clear--and was unnecessary outside of this particular instance of gently mistreating the fame buy out like buying a horde of hirelings--is if you could buy another "Cursebreaker" before you finished the first.

This isn't a great benefit, and I'd probably choose magic items that I'd be less likely to simply purchase (i.e., not must haves) because it could be a long time, if ever, that I got to them. The the limited opportunities to use them reduces their value the more I'd have to divide my time Downtime over multiple items (shaving off a couple gold here and there instead of working something down to half price).

I don't see a problem with having multiple Curse Breakers, but once you start one, you have to keep that boon "slotted" until you complete the breaking of the curse. There is no such thing as a partial Curse Breaker. Not sure where you see that it didn't need to be slotted in the downtime slot (in season 1).

You would also have to declare what items you were breaking. You couldn't take Curse Breaker than decide to break an item that you earned on a chronicle 3 adventures in the future.

So I agree that more than one Curse Breaker can be purchased and be "on hold" but only one can be worked on at a time. Also agree that the boon looked great on the face be once you get started, you see how long it will take to actually get it done. And you don't have option to simply pay the difference. You have to see it through to the bitter end.

I would suggest that both clarifications to my questions be posted somewhere official, so I don't have to point back to this Blog in the future.

The whole point behind ACP and Reputation is to being able leverage who you know to get "favors". This is the same concept as used in 1e.

I don't think a raise dead should be easy for low level characters to get. Let's face it, they are the unknown "mooks" or "red-shirts" that sometime die on missions. Yea, we morn them but they are not well enough known that a person in power will want to use value resources on a res for them.

I can see where your coming from, but the cost is prohibitive for any participant, and PF1 boons were much different than the Prestige rewards that a character could get. My belief is that a Raise should not cost "Boon points" when it didn't require a boon in the past.

It was mentioned before that Faction reputation would have a part in having character have access to Raises, but how that would be implemented is up in the air.

The Second Chance boon, if kept afterward, may be a way for lower level characters to be raised if the player really wants that character, like my Catfolk, for example. Gold is also limited with the reward system where costs go up as levels increase. Spending on a raise would take money away from consumables, equipment and runes needed to improve the character (and increase survivalbility)

Without Fame to spend, and AcP being for Boons (which this really should not be), I hope for a solution that doesn't involve spending AcP.

It’s pretty clear to me that they’ve moved to a one currency system for all things.

The only thing that will prevent inflation is if there’s something to create a way to drain the pool. E.g. raise dead and bequeathal.

It does give players a way, as you said, to raise characters they might otherwise not be able to or not be able to without significantly negatively affecting their power level/future survivability.

I’m glad they removed the escalating cost (hopefully that is what they did with the disappearance of the text describing the escalating cost and wasn’t just a typo).

I’m glad they removed the escalating cost (hopefully that is what they did with the disappearance of the text describing the escalating cost and wasn’t just a typo).

I will ask.

What I would like to see is 1 free Resurrect ritual if you are at least Admired with any faction. Possibly a second if you are Revered. That would most closely resemble what we had with Fame. Liked is probably too early for that benefit, though maybe there could be a reduction in cost if you are Liked.

The AcP Second Chance should really be for situations like Hills mentioned. You get unlucky and your 80 AcP boon character gets killed before you can afford a raise or have built up enough reputation.

I have been advocating this as well. (I think "Liked" would be a good level for a free remove curse...)

I would suggest that both clarifications to my questions be posted somewhere official, so I don't have to point back to this Blog in the future.

I have passed this request to the OPF FAQ team.

Not sure if it is on the radar. Figured I'd drop it in. I believe I mentioned it before, but do not remember where.

My reputation is not showing up correctly for my characters. After looking it over and comparing it to paper, it seems that my characters are not receiving the bonus reputation granted by some scenarios that I have ran.

For example, I GM'd a scenario that had bonus reputation for the Grand Archive. However, under my character's reputation section. It shows nothing for Grand Archive. I made sure to double check the reporting page and it had the box checked.

Not the biggest of deals, but it can slow down acquisition of boons based off reputation.

Along those lines. For characters utilizing slow advancement, there is no way to halve the bonus reputation given to them.

Pretty sure issues with GM rep is a known issue.

Reputation related issues I've reported and I know Alex is tracking:

1) GMs don't get the bonus faction reputation. They should get it unconditionally (not based on the checkbox).
2) APs/Adventures/"Start at [2|3] Level Adjustment" are all capped at 8 reputation.
3) [Fixed] Flooded Kings Court/Trailblazers bounty awarding 1 rather than 2 bonus reputation.

You should contact Alex and/or start a new thread about the slow track issues. I don't think I've seen anyone comment on that before -- while you could write "2" in the reputation column for each of them, they'd still get 2 more from the bonus reputation checkbox instead of 1.

(I had experimented with putting "6" in for the GM character with bonus reputation checkbox, and while the system accepts it, whenever they fix item 1, they'd suddenly have 8. So I revised those reports. Likewise for slow track you could report "1" for the character and when the checkbox adds two, its correct. But that feels hacky.

Blake's Tiger wrote:

I’m glad they removed the escalating cost (hopefully that is what they did with the disappearance of the text describing the escalating cost and wasn’t just a typo).

I will ask.

I have asked.

This is correct. Second Chance should no longer escalate in cost.

40 is still to much... hopefully it is midigated by faction rep..

40 is 10 games played (and not necessarily the same character), 5 games GMed, or some combination of that. Less if done in conjunction with a Premier or Premier+ event.

Raise Dead becomes available to a 4th level character. A character whose lump sum wealth should be 140 gp.

It's earlier than a PFS1 character via max prestige every scenario: 5th level, if I'm remembering my math right.

Raise Dead was 16 prestige in 1E. 8 games played or just short of 4th level. Granted that didn't cover the Restorations.

It isn't the games played or what it compares to the former Fame/Prestige costs, it is the fact that Boons are not being given in Conventions and Gamestores anymore, being relegated to the the AcP earned to get boons and Race (Ancestry) boons for the player.

The normal Fame count was being used as a failsafe to bring back a character or to buy other magical services and items (like in 1st edition getting the fully charged CLW wand). AcP is the replacement for boon giveaways at special events, but the normal Fame rewards should not fall into this particular.

Using AcP for raises will take that away from the boons that the player could get instead.

I agree with you, and that's why I'd like a free resurrect tied to reputation. I can also see how you could compare it to the previous system by "banking" the first 40 AcPs you earn on a character like you would have banked prestige in the past. I don't particularly like having to do that, since as you point out, it delays a player being able to actually get a useful boon, potentially quite significantly if they have multiple characters and want to bank 40 AcPs each.

I was mostly pointing out that it's not earlier in 2E than it was in 1E, in case that was being argued as an example of the 2E system being more favorable to a player. It is not.

I wasn't arguing one way or another (an additional reputation gated raise dead would be nice, of course) merely trying to show parity between effort in each system.