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Organized Play: February 2021 Monthly Update

Thursday, February 04, 2021

OPM Musings

Wow, the month flew by. Activity the last few weeks focused on getting January scenarios out of the door, working on future scenarios, planning for our new seasons, and ramping up for convention season. We’re putting some finishing touches on our plans and will share them with everyone in a few weeks.

It’s been satisfying to have some of our longer-term projects come to fruition. Over the next few months, we hope to bring a few more projects across the finish line. I’ll leave it to Alex to reveal our latest project.

New FAQ Pages

We’re glad there was such a positive response to the new Pathfinder Society Character Options page last week because we’ve got another new set of pages for you: FAQ pages for Paizo Organized Play have now been updated! We’ve got areas for general organized play questions, as well as areas for program-specific questions. Just like the Character Options page, this update both refreshes the look of the pages and will make it easier for the Organized Play team to publish content. We’re still tweaking these pages, so you may see some changes in how the content is organized, but if you have feedback, let us know! We’ve kept the Pathfinder Society (first edition) pages in the legacy format.

Eagle-eyed players will notice that the Pathfinder Society FAQ page currently contains the full text of a number of boons. You’ve been asking for a place to view the full text of boons before buying them, and now we’ve got one! Any boon that is more complicated than its short description will have its text published on this page. Boons that unlock ancestries or similarly self-evident boons will not have their text published.

The FAQ page also contains the full text of our Year 2 Chronicle Boons. As we discussed in last week’s blog, there is an issue where GMs cannot download these boons after running the game, so we’re pleased to offer this workaround. Any GM with a chronicle sheet for running a Year 2 scenario with a boon attached can use the full text as published on the FAQ page instead of downloading the boon. Once the bug is fixed, these boons will be removed from the FAQ page to avoid spoilers.

Fame

Last week, we updated the community regarding our Pathfinder Society digitization efforts. At this point, Fame is no longer a spendable currency and we are not tracking it in any way. Reputation still exists and unlocks benefits for characters via the Achievement Point system on your “My Organized Play” page. You can see your current Reputation with the factions (note, it is called Fame on the webpage in a holdover from Pathfinder Society (first edition), which is something we have queued to fix.)

Sanctioning

We caught up on some of the outstanding tasks, as well as kept up with our goal of day one sanctioning. Last month, we finished up Troubles in Otari and added the character options from the The Threefold Conspiracy to the Starfinder Society Additional Resource document. By the end of this month, we hope to have The Slithering and another update to Starfinder Society Additional Resouces. We also are on target to have Lost Omens: Ancestry Guide ready on release day (February 24th). We haven’t forgotten the Pathfinder (first edition) outstanding items, but we haven’t had the capacity to dip back into that system yet.

GM Achievements

Whether stars, novas, or glyphs, achieving a 5 ranking in any program involves a substantial amount of time. To achieve the 5th milestone, a GM must run 150 games, of which at least 50 must be unique scenarios and 10 special scenarios, as well as run between one and three games for venture-captains (program dependant). A conservative estimate of the time needed to reach the 5th milestone is 650 hours!

We had one GM earn their 5th star this month. No GMs earned their fifth Nova or Glyph.

5th Star: Dawn Upson

Congratulations on your achievement, Dawn!

Conventions

Convention season is just around the corner, and we’re starting to kick up planning for our major conventions. We hope to have information on how to volunteer soon! In the meantime, there are plenty of local events offering Paizo Organized Play. If you don’t see a convention on the list that you think should be there, contact the event organizer and ask them to register their event for organized play support.

ConventionLocationStart DateStatusInteractive EventsStaff Attendance
COTN 2021 Plymouth, MN 2/12/2021 Online None
Orccon 2021 Los Angeles, CA 2/12/2021 Online SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
OutPost IV: Roll Them Bones Online 2/16/2021 Online PFS2 2-00 The King in Thorns
Total Con 35 Marlborough, MA 2/18/2021 Online PFS2 2-00 The King in Thorns, SFS 3-00 The Last Bite
George WashingCon 2021 Bloomington, IN 2/19/2021 Online None
Hamburg Society Con online Hamburg, Germany 2/26/2021 Online PFS2 2-00 The King in Thorns
Reaper Virtual Expo Denton, TX 3/5/2021 Online None Alex
COS VCON Butler, PA 3/19/2021 Online SFS 3-00 The Last Bite

Come back next week for a very special guest blog from the Organized Play Foundation!

Until next time: Explore! Report! Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

More Paizo Blog.
Tags: Conventions Organized Play Pathfinder Society Starfinder Society
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Horizon Hunters 1/5 *
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Congratulations to Dawn on the 5*!

For the sanctioning updates, whatever happened with sanctioning Devastation Ark for Starfinder? The last update for that AP was in November, and my group has been really curious about what we can expect for organized play.
2/5 5/5 *****
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Congrats Dawn!

Regarding Total Con, we're also planning to run PFS1 9-00 Assault on Absalom. There just wasn't a place to list PFS1 specials on the form, if people are still looking for a PFS1 special.
Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/55/5 ****

Awesome news! Congrats to the new 5-Star GM. Thank you for all the hard work you put in for all your players!
Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/55/5 ****
Eric Nielsen wrote:

Congrats Dawn!

Regarding Total Con, we're also planning to run PFS1 9-00 Assault on Absalom. There just wasn't a place to list PFS1 specials on the form, if people are still looking for a PFS1 special.

And for those interested, it is being offered on Sunday Afternoon so a lot of international players could be interested!

Grand Lodge 4/5 **

I looked around in the FAQ pages. Where is the chart for the reputation system?
(The one that tells you how many points you need to be "liked", etc...)
*

Okay, I bought some Fame items before 01/31, where should I list those? Do I just note that I got them, and the Fame cost, or do I need to have put them on the Chronicle sheet that I last gained?

Wait, they're running The King of Thorns!?
Sovereign Court 4/5 * Organized Play Manager
PMSchulz wrote:
Okay, I bought some Fame items before 01/31, where should I list those? Do I just note that I got them, and the Fame cost, or do I need to have put them on the Chronicle sheet that I last gained?

Note Fame purchases somewhere on the Chronicle :)

Sovereign Court 4/5 * Organized Play Manager
1 person marked this as a favorite.
ArgusRuneborn wrote:

Congratulations to Dawn on the 5*!

For the sanctioning updates, whatever happened with sanctioning Devastation Ark for Starfinder? The last update for that AP was in November, and my group has been really curious about what we can expect for organized play.

It is in the hopper now that ThreeFold is done, but we aren't sure we can get through it this month. We'd rather underpromise and overdeliver, than have groups ready to go and have to push back release dates.

4/5 *** Venture-Agent, Massachusetts—Boston

"Use the rules for upgrading magic items on page 535 of the Core Rulebook."... Is this incorrect? There don't seem to be rules for that there unless I've missed it.

EDIT: This is from the FAQ for upgrading magical items on the FAQ page.
EDITEDIT: I need to re-download more often... was working from first printing.
2/5 5/5 *****
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Check the errata, its the page reference for the second printing.

"Page 535: Craft Requirements. Add text about upgrading an item from a lower-level version into a higher-level version. "The GM might allow you to Craft a permanent item from a lower-level version of the same item as an upgrade. For example, you might upgrade a bag of holding from a type I to a type II bag, but you couldn’t upgrade a clear spindle aeon stone into an orange prism aeon stone. The cost for this upgrade is the full difference in Price between the items, and the Crafting check uses a DC for the item’s new level.""

And there already was a campaign leadership clarification stating that as the GM for the campaign, they are authorizing this.
Paizo Employee 5/55/5 ** Organized Play Associate
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Christian Dragos wrote:

I looked around in the FAQ pages. Where is the chart for the reputation system?

(The one that tells you how many points you need to be "liked", etc...)

It's in the Guide to Organized Play.

Scarab Sages 4/5 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Isles—Online

congrats Dawn
Dark Archive 4/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Turku

Not strictly sanctioning, but there was a mention earlier about making a curated list of options from the Agents of Edgewatch available through AcP purchase, since the AP isn't going to be sanctioned.

Any word on when we can expect this to be on the horizon? Mostly, are we talking "maybe a month or two" or "Probably by the end of the year and that means it'll probably get pushed to next year due to unforeseen circumstances"?

EDIT: Not trying to be a wiseass with that comment, just seeking to set my expections on if I should wait a month or two to see if some of the cool items (exquisite swordcane in particular) gets approved, or if I should scrap the idea for now and get back in a year.
The Exchange 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Mediterranean

Congratulations, Dawn. Awesome achievement in these times!
Scarab Sages 5/5 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Netherlands

Congratulations Dawn!
Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

I posted this in the PFS2 Upgrading Items thread, but may as well post it here, too.

Is it intended that the new Society FAQ limits upgrades to just magic items? The regular Pathfinder FAQ applies to all same-named items.

People were excited to be able to upgrade their Sturdy Shields (and my glassmaking alchemist was looking forward to upgrading his Spyglass), so I'm hoping the new FAQ is in error.
***

FYI - it appears the character options listing for the Ancestry guide is using the old "Seedpod has a range of 10 (not range increment)" text.

Please stop picking on the poor Leshies :P.
Liberty's Edge 1/5 **
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

RE: Secondary Initiation boon

There does not appear to be an actual approved list of what constitutes an "Organization". To be honest, I've built an "Eagle Knight" concept out that made use of this boon. It's storyline only (currently) because there are not Eagle Knight related archetypes/etc that the boon would give Access to.

Am I just a jerk here, or is this valid? :D
1/5 *
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Nefreet wrote:
People were excited to be able to upgrade their Sturdy Shields (and my glassmaking alchemist was looking forward to upgrading his Spyglass), so I'm hoping the new FAQ is in error.

The sturdy shield is a magic item, so the FAQ applies just fine there.

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