Starfinder Society Update: Year 4 Program Changes

Huzzah!

In our monthly update blog, we will share information on how to convert any remaining unspent Fame to Starfinder Achievement Points.

Does this mean what it looks like it means? I have hardly spent any fame across my characters, so will this be somewhat of a "retroactive" AcP gain?

Huzzah!

Quote:

In our monthly update blog, we will share information on how to convert any remaining unspent Fame to Starfinder Achievement Points.

Does this mean what it looks like it means? I have hardly spent any fame across my characters, so will this be somewhat of a "retroactive" AcP gain?

My hope is that yes, we will be able to set up a system to convert unspent Fame to AcP. I will not promise my life on it, as we have not done any planning beyond "yeah, that would be neat," so it's also possible that in November we will say "okay here's your deadline to spend your Fame, clock is ticking before it evaporates like Pathfinder's did."

Thanks for getting this out there, and doing it early!

I am also interested in the fame -> AcP conversion details, which I'm also pretty sure haven't been worked out and I'm interested anyway.

Does the fame -> acp conversion mean I should get even more obsessive about getting few unreported scenarios in games I was player in reported? x'D

(I've been trying to avoid nagging too much whenever it takes bit long time for scenario to get reported, I realize I'm overly obsessive with my online paperwork)

Anyway, I'm also curious of how capstone boons like starfinder of note will work with achievement points?

Does the fame -> acp conversion mean I should get even more obsessive about getting few unreported scenarios in games I was player in reported? x'D

Absolutely you should! But nicely, of course.

Accurate reporting is important to our data, and it'll be even more important going forward. If you have unreported games that have been outstanding for some time (I would say longer than 1 month with no response from the GM or event organizers is a good benchmark), you can send the chronicles to pfsreportingerrors[at]paizo[dot]com. This can also be used for errors in reporting as well, though your first attempt should always be to contact the GM or event organizer (please be nice to my inbox).

Anyway, I'm also curious of how capstone boons like starfinder of note will work with achievement points?

Rude to sneak in questions via edit after I respond!

Faction boons will be moving to AcP, and will either be free or cost a minimal amount of AcP. You can see some examples of both right now on the Boons tab.

I can't speak to specifics on certain boons just yet, as we're still making some final determinations on what will be moving and what won't be.

Aquisitives Boons:

Publicist (Acquisitives)
Gain extra ammunition for a Starship weapon.
Must have 5 or more Reputation with the Acquisitives to purchase.

I am 90% sure that is the wrong name or wrong summary for that boon.

I think this may have already been asked and answered, but the sets of Achievement Points are/will be separate pools? (That is what I understand it to be.) However, having one pool would make it easier for players new to either campaign to get interesting/uncommon/rare bonuses in the other. Practical example: an android is a common race (and I really hope you're not going the whole ancestry thing in SFS) in Starfinder. With androids now available in PFS2, maybe a player who has been exclusively SFS for a while might be tempted to play "an early version of your SFS character, not that it would apply to anything -- it'd just be 'history in your head'."

Secondarily, what about people who GM'd Starfinder in the past? Yes, they get fame for their characters (though only the first time for non-repeatables). Maybe they should get something too? Maybe part of the whole conversion thing? You already track people who have run games, so it probably wouldn't be too difficult to do either.

Aquisitives Boons:

Publicist (Acquisitives)
Gain extra ammunition for a Starship weapon.
Must have 5 or more Reputation with the Acquisitives to purchase.

I am 90% sure that is the wrong name or wrong summary for that boon.

Fixed the summary :)

I can see that at least some of the boons that will be purchasable with AcP are already up. Can we expect to be able to see the boons that will be available before the 28th? I'm sure there's plenty of folk who have boons they were working towards under the Fame system who'll want to know how important getting Fame for that character is while it's still being given out.

I think this may have already been asked and answered, but the sets of Achievement Points are/will be separate pools? (That is what I understand it to be.) However, having one pool would make it easier for players new to either campaign to get interesting/uncommon/rare bonuses in the other. Practical example: an android is a common race (and I really hope you're not going the whole ancestry thing in SFS) in Starfinder. With androids now available in PFS2, maybe a player who has been exclusively SFS for a while might be tempted to play "an early version of your SFS character, not that it would apply to anything -- it'd just be 'history in your head'."

Secondarily, what about people who GM'd Starfinder in the past? Yes, they get fame for their characters (though only the first time for non-repeatables). Maybe they should get something too? Maybe part of the whole conversion thing? You already track people who have run games, so it probably wouldn't be too difficult to do either.

1) They are separate pools yes. However, if you check the boons that are currently up for preview, you may like the "System Traveler" boons I just posted....for both systems, actually...........

2) We're not planning to award anything extra for games played or run prior to this swap. GMs in particular often had access to extra boons for GMing, so they've been rewarded in that way. Going forward, all GMs will earn AcP at twice the rate, the same as Pathfinder.

I can see that at least some of the boons that will be purchasable with AcP are already up. Can we expect to be able to see the boons that will be available before the 28th?

Yep! I'm adding them as I have time, as I said in the blog. My hope is to have them all up by Monday the 24th, but you know what they say about the best laid plans of ysoki and men...

Quote:

Anyway, I'm also curious of how capstone boons like starfinder of note will work with achievement points?

Rude to sneak in questions via edit after I respond!

Sorry about that x'D

Anyway I do have one years old player chronicle that was never reported on paizo.com, so I'm pretty sure reporting info on that one has been lost. But probably too much effort to get one years old chronicle reported correctly

(there is also one game I did run and it was reported, but it doesn't show up on my paizo.com page while it does show up for players in that scenario x'D )

Cross posting here:

One of the advantages of the new format for the guide is that OPF now has the ability to host files:

For example, the Welcome to Starfinder boon is intended to be publicly available, and has been available from VOs.

It is now available to everyone;

Download the Welcome to Starfinder boon from the Lorespire Archive

This is an official link, and will appear on the Welcome to Starfinder table of contents in the new guide when it drops in several weeks.

Is there by chance a plan to have a way to filter the Boons page anytime soon? Disclosure triangles or page anchors are great things, IMO. Something like PFS2 Boons, PFS2 Chronicle Boons, PFS2 Faction Boons, SFS Boons, SFS Chronicle Boons, SFS Faction Boons, PF2PT Boons. Just something that we don't have to scroll through all of the lists to find what we're looking for.

Is there by chance a plan to have a way to filter the Boons page anytime soon?

It's on our list of next requests from tech, yes, probably in the form of collapsing sections.

Yay! Thanks for all the work on this! I have tons of boons I will probably never use, so it will be great to have the AcP for picking the ones I want in the future. Also curious about the fame conversion as I have a lot of that sitting around too ...

Jason Rapp wrote:

Is there by chance a plan to have a way to filter the Boons page anytime soon?

It's on our list of next requests from tech, yes, probably in the form of collapsing sections.

THANK YOU

I have significant concerns about ACP being tied to a similar pool over in PF2, and that it may discourage some GMs from running Starfinder.

In addition, it seems like it may have the same issue of "Buy cool stuff... or keep your character alive" that PFS2 runs the risk of.

If there are reasonably priced options that can do either that are easily attainable by *new* players, it might not be so bad. Otherwise, there may be a disincentive for new players to keep playing in Organized Play.

On the plus side, looking at some of the Boons it seems that there's at least an effort to produce the 'discounted' price for some Ancestries that folks over in PFS2 have been asking for, so there is that at least.

Still very wary of the system, and curious to see if all the Season 3 scenarios that *didn't* have nifty Boon stuff on the Season 3 Chronicles will actually start to populate once this thing goes 'live' in a month.

EDIT: If at the end of the Fame Purchase Period it was converted to 'Sassy-P' (S-ACP), that might be a significant option, and might soften the blow for folks who don't know what the heck to buy for all of their characters alt-itis is a horrible addiction, folks!

Can you explain how this will affect the boons that require a certain number of boxes filled to earn a race? If we’ve already earned the chronicle sheet to start, will we be able to keep filling boxes after May?

“ In a global campaign, we can’t ask our Australian players to fly to Indianapolis just for the chance to play their favorite species”

/applauds in Australian.

Can you explain how this will affect the boons that require a certain number of boxes filled to earn a race? If we’ve already earned the chronicle sheet to start, will we be able to keep filling boxes after May?

Yep! Any paper boons will always be valid, and anything that requires you to check boxes will continue to be able to be checked. The Year 4 guide is coming with some guidelines on how many, exactly, you can check per scenario, so do be on the lookout for that.

I have significant concerns about ACP being tied to a similar pool over in PF2, and that it may discourage some GMs from running Starfinder.

Can you elaborate on this? They are totally separate pools of points.

In addition, it seems like it may have the same issue of "Buy cool stuff... or keep your character alive" that PFS2 runs the risk of.

Also, when is the last time you saw a SFS character die?

Please, please, please keep a PDF of the guide. Even if it is only updated once a year.

I find the online PFSv2 guide almost unusable. The search doesn't, and the layout is not intuitive.

Maybe it is just me, but that is, I think, also one of the reasons that I have had a much harder time getting into PFSv2 than the original society.

Of course maybe it has improved since I last tried banging my head against it. Not an experience I enjoy repeating.

ROBORobert wrote:

Can you explain how this will affect the boons that require a certain number of boxes filled to earn a race? If we’ve already earned the chronicle sheet to start, will we be able to keep filling boxes after May?

Yep! Any paper boons will always be valid, and anything that requires you to check boxes will continue to be able to be checked. The Year 4 guide is coming with some guidelines on how many, exactly, you can check per scenario, so do be on the lookout for that.

I am not allowed to spoiler the details, but the guidelines are more generous than previously anticipated.

I find the online PFSv2 guide almost unusable. The search doesn't, the layout is not intuitive.

I will point out that in cases where people have alerted us to problems with the search, we have consistently fixed them. If you have examples of the search not working, please message them to me. We can't fix what we don't know.

The layout is the same as the PDF guide layouts. They only differences is that rules are no longer split in three different versions across 3 different sections of the guide.

(Previously a lot of people thought they knew where to find the rules, but were only finding 2/3rds of the rules. And some times different people were finding entirely different 2/3rds of the rules that said contradictory things.)

I'll admit, when this got shared originally I was scared about changes.

I love everything I've read. Heck yeah!

Milan Badzic wrote:

Huzzah!

Quote:

In our monthly update blog, we will share information on how to convert any remaining unspent Fame to Starfinder Achievement Points.

Does this mean what it looks like it means? I have hardly spent any fame across my characters, so will this be somewhat of a "retroactive" AcP gain?

My hope is that yes, we will be able to set up a system to convert unspent Fame to AcP. I will not promise my life on it, as we have not done any planning beyond "yeah, that would be neat," so it's also possible that in November we will say "okay here's your deadline to spend your Fame, clock is ticking before it evaporates like Pathfinder's did."

Well this, if you can get it to work, fixes my arguments I was going to throw all over this blog... You Suck!!!! ;)

Oh my gosh, the system traveller boons! I can spend the PF2 ACP I've been hoarding to get a kobold or a grippli in SFS! That will be fun.

★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★

I am a bit disappointed that the Starfinder ACP is not retroactive through Year Three. Yes there were some boons at online conventions. But boons have been thinner on the ground this year, and I was hoping that would mean that my regular players would be able to start the year with some Starfinder ACP already banked. I've been talking up that Starfinder ACP has been coming to all my players.

(If it becomes possible to convert fame to Starfinder ACP I would love that.)

Can you spend AcP for body recovery and raising a character? I've not used it very much in PFS, and haven't yet had to use it in SFS, but having the "insurance policy" there for the character you've invested a bunch of time in is very nice. I would hate to lose that.

(This will especially be true if we can't convert existing fame to AcP before we lose all of our Fame. The characters that previously had insurance policies may all of a sudden not have them any more.)

(Also... I should have two novas, but they don't show up next to my name....)

Also, when is the last time you saw a SFS character die?

26 of them so far this year - just saying.

Jared Thaler - Personal Opinion wrote:

Also, when is the last time you saw a SFS character die?

26 of them so far this year - just saying.

Outside a certain scenario that is a special case?

A certain scenario is responsible - but also there was a special involving a nasty space mouse that had them racking up last year

Im still bit curious on this: So if I bought starfinder of note previously, I don't need to buy it again post switch?

(also did the upcoming guide clarify on whether that capstone boon is exclusive with faction capstones?)

Has anybody noticed we can also see starfinder acp boons? :O Two system travelers there(ratfolk and android) and 6 race boons, with 40(bantrids vlaka), 80(raxilite, morlamaw) and 120(barathu, anassanoi) cost (and one of them is from ap :D That was nice surprise xD)

I am extremely happy about the ability to convert the leftover fame to ACP, as this will help a LOT with the transition (especially for AP/GM blobs who do not know what boons they will need once created)

Also the system traveller boons are a great idea.

I have a few very basic mechanics questions. My apologies - I'm sure they're answered somewhere but I cannot find them.

1. AcP will be tracked wholly online and so there will be no need to record AcP on paper chronicles, correct?

2. AcP is earned not by individual characters but by the player, correct? So if I play four different characters in four different scenarios, instead of each character individually earning 2 fame, bigboom now earns 16 AcP?

3. AcP earned via SFS is a separate pool distinct from AcP earned via PFS, so the AcP from the two do not get added together, correct?

I have a few very basic mechanics questions. My apologies - I'm sure they're answered somewhere but I cannot find them.

1. AcP will be tracked wholly online and so there will be no need to record AcP on paper chronicles, correct?

Correct.

2. AcP is earned not by individual characters but by the player, correct? So if I play four different characters in four different scenarios, instead of each character individually earning 2 fame, bigboom now earns 16 AcP?

Correct.

3. AcP earned via SFS is a separate pool distinct from AcP earned via PFS, so the AcP from the two do not get added together, correct?

Correct.

Im still bit curious on this: So if I bought starfinder of note previously, I don't need to buy it again post switch?

Correct.

(also did the upcoming guide clarify on whether that capstone boon is exclusive with faction capstones?)

Capstone boons are Capstone boons. Starfinder of Note is a Capstone boon.

So, we're all on board with calling the Starfinder achievement points Space ACPs = "Spacey Pees," right? Right :D

Anyways - I am optimistic! Anything that removes barriers to entry/play sounds good to me, and if this means people can play Bears or Contemplatives or whatever without having to live in a certain area or travel to a certain convention, I'm all for it! Yay for boon equality! Looking forwards to seeing more details.

And now, to go and badger my local players to buy their Starfinder of Note boons, if they haven't already!

Awesome, thank you for the answers! I know it's not the primary goal but one less bit of paperwork record keeping is a plus in my book!

Can you spend AcP for body recovery and raising a character? I've not used it very much in PFS, and haven't yet had to use it in SFS, but having the "insurance policy" there for the character you've invested a bunch of time in is very nice. I would hate to lose that.

[...]

(Also... I should have two novas, but they don't show up next to my name....)

There will be an AcP boon to resurrect your character, yes.

(I can't help with the novas but tech is aware of that bug)

I have a few very basic mechanics questions. My apologies - I'm sure they're answered somewhere but I cannot find them.

1. AcP will be tracked wholly online and so there will be no need to record AcP on paper chronicles, correct?

2. AcP is earned not by individual characters but by the player, correct? So if I play four different characters in four different scenarios, instead of each character individually earning 2 fame, bigboom now earns 16 AcP?

3. AcP earned via SFS is a separate pool distinct from AcP earned via PFS, so the AcP from the two do not get added together, correct?

Correct, correct and correct.

Im still bit curious on this: So if I bought starfinder of note previously, I don't need to buy it again post switch?

That is correct, you won't need to buy anything you already have. Paper boons and Fame boons will continue functioning as written in perpetuity.

So, we're all on board with calling the Starfinder achievement points Space ACPs = "Spacey Pees," right? Right :D

My vote is for Spacey Peas!

Hooray!

Are secondary success conditions still going to be a thing? How do those work?

So I have thought of two things that may change and hope there is an easy way around them.

1. I give away most of the boons I earn at cons and such as I GM a lot of Starfinder and get lots and lots of boons I don't need. Will there be a way to gift boons with AcP (I don't know how it works in PF2 so I apologize if this is not a issue).

2. PF2 has to change event codes every quarter for our lodge - are we going to need to do that for SFS now? If so this makes me sad and I wish there was an easier way around it. If this is the case, when do we need to start doing that?

I do like the progress so don't get me wrong - just look for clarification so I can prepare some.