Scott Young's page

This concept is something I have wanted to see for a decade or more, so thanks Alex and everyone who worked on it.

I think the "intent" section is the most important to wordsmith, tbh.

Many people don't even read the whole Guide before GMing (sorry, Guide folks, but it's true). What matters is, what does a new GM get told by their organizer in the 30 seconds between arriving at their event table and starting a scenario designed for 5 hours in a 3-hour slot.

"You can fix errors and reskin things now" may be what the majority of (5-star, VO, highly-engaged) GMs posting here might already do and be able to handle. Giving that to a new GM without some limitations is not a good idea. So, we should make the 10-word version of the rule convey the intent without opening the barn door.

So sad to hear this news. Met him at a PaizoCon dinner, such a kind guy. And the early days of the Paizo forums made me realize how much bigger gaming was than my table in my town, and connected so many people who built the Paizo community. He will be missed, but his influence remains.

Smurf.

Thanks, Tim, and Liz before you, for providing such service to the Paizo community. So many authors, artists, and Paizo staffers cut their teeth in Wayfinder. I know I wouldn't have thought writing was something I wanted to do if I didn't have the experience of working with Wayfinder. You changed my life, and I'll be forever grateful. And while Pathfinder Infinite is the "heir apparent" in some ways, Wayfinder was the best.

Thanks, Tim, for everything.

What a line-up! Nice to see new and familiar faces returning. Welcome back Jason and Mike!

Very cool! Love that crossbows got some remastering love as well.

Many (most?) Pathfinders went to school. What did we learn from the Three Masters, if not to use cold iron against fey and bludgeoning against skeletons and fire or acid against trolls? You would think that in a Pathfinder Society-based Organized Play campaign, there should be a way to track this. And there could be, at the expense of additional content creation from Paizo and additional paperwork for all players and GMs.

Would it be worth it, just so a player whose character has no knowledge skills can “know” things beyond the rules? No, it would not.

Sure, you should be able to remember stuff (maybe with an Int roll), but it can be hard in the heat of combat to be sure that you’re seeing skeletons and not another undead, or exactly what sort of troll it is. But we don’t model that level of detail in this game. We also don’t model what information you learn from scenario to scenario. We abstract it into a roll to Recall Knowledge, and you roll it every time to figure out what the monster is. It’s a simplification to facilitate game play, and with rotating GMs it’s a necessary one.

It works the way the rules say it works because it’s a game and those are the rules of the game. Any other path leads to madness.

Best of luck to everyone that enters!

And, if you're on the fence about it: definitely enter. Just crank something out and see what happens. You'll discover if you love creating when there are timelines and guidelines and external feedback in place - a big part of freelancing.

(Although I have to say, in my experience the guidelines and feedback Paizo staff provide are so awesome they inspire creativity instead of limiting it.)

DO IT.

What an amazing team to carry Golarion's story into the future!

People who want to play Blood Lords with their regular group for PFS credit: please also keep in mind, most PFS games are not played that ways. A huge amount of PFS happens in places where the group changes and sign-ups can literally be anyone with a PFS number. If content is sanctioned, then it gets played in those circumstances much more than in your private home-game-at-a-public-location.

The issue of refusing to play if you won't get PFS credit is another matter. I know that people weigh "reward" differently, but for me, the reward happens at the table and not after. I accept that others may disagree, but try and think about the fun at the table before deciding to not play the AP.

Patrick Renie is a wonderful developer and a great person. It's so nice to see him featured like this, the developers can sometimes be the unsung heroes of the content that comes out on a regular basis. His name should probably be on the front covers of a lot of the products he's worked on alongside the authors.

If this is the new style of community management, I'm very disappointed. Paizo earned my loyalty for the past decade because it wasn't like this. Setting up layers of insulation to protect oneself from harsh comments is hiding; fixing the behaviors that generate harsh comments is leadership.

I am beyond excited for Starfinder Bounties! As a person who GMs in a 3.5 hour slot because of her venue, short adventures are so very welcome!

Ditto - I love shorter time slot content, sometimes by necessity but also because introducing the game to new folks seems to me to work better in smaller chunks. Very excited!

Yeah, sorry KC, I wasn't saying that CS was deliberately doing anything badly! I'm a huge fan of Paizo's CS department since way back. I agree management and policies were preventing the right thing from being done, and it was exacerbated by decimating the CS department recently.

I guess my point is, if management has to be pushed into doing better, but "better" is really just "bare minimum expectations," then a lot more pushing needs to happen.

TOZ's "Huzzah!" (and the folks who post it on the rare times TOZ isn't the first poster) reminds me that on this forum there are people who love the same games I do. Very little else does that lately. (OK, most of Hilary's threads, too.) I like seeing it. I think the "+1" to ideas or opinions throughout are a repeat of favoriting posts, so they are duplicitous. SO, that's the difference in my mind.

I am still concerned that there is a larger picture being played out here. Do we really believe that forum moderation policies or company policy suddenly changed for the better this week, despite this lackluster response from management? Or, was a problem created by those policies, allowed to fester, and then suddenly "solved" by the people in power to help offset the huge amount of recent bad PR?

I feel bad that I have become this cynical about motives. On the one hand, banning bigots from the forums is a very positive change, but it's really hard for me to give credit to directors for finally meeting the absolute bare minimum expectations of a community.

These tools were there all along and were withheld by someone in the chain of command. What has changed at Paizo to make sure that doesn't happen again?

"weird"

I think a better way to describe it is, "some people here are acting like they're being discriminated against, the same way that trans posters have been verbally assaulted." And that's baloney.

As others have pointed out, Reddit and 4Chan and whatever that new Trump social media platform is are all available options for people who don't like Paizo's policy, which was always there from the beginning: "Don't be a jerk."

Funky Badger, I think the pictures went from "pics" to "dick pics" in the retelling, and not necessarily in the initial allegations.

Unfortunately, this announcement doesn't give me a lot of confidence that Paizo is planning to improve - just move on and hope people forget.

This should have been written by Mr. Alvarez, on behalf of Paizo, to us, Paizo's fans and customers. Instead, we got a lawyer's letter with a short quote from the President. For all the deficiencies in the first response, at least it was from Paizo. This approach appears to signal the digging in of heels and the building of walls by a legal team, not a promise to do better by a leadership team.

I love Paizo, and its products, and many of the people that work there and with them. Paizo has changed my life in so many positive ways. So to see this behavior, and to see Paizo leadership double down time and again in such a short time... it's disappointing. I feel I'm losing a friend who's decided to engage in destructive behavior and all I can do is watch and suffer for it, or shut them out.

Being unapologetic about being a selfish person doesn’t make it somehow noble. Good for you, you care only about your own opinions. Then why post repeatedly looking for validation? All it does is cause people harm.

But then, you know that.

As usual, HMM has a gem of a post here. I think that we can all do a lot to recognize that differing opinions are common.

One thing that I know made a difference to me early on was attending PaizoCon, and actually meeting some of my early forum heroes and anti-heroes. It definitely showed me that the anonymity of the forum up to that point had affected they ways i saw other posters.

EDIT: I think that Paizo has to start dealing with recurrent bad actors, though... that kind of behaviour makes it harder to respect certain posters.

And it’s only the privileged who can talk about bigotry as an issue of academic analysis and logic. The people who have to live them don’t have that luxury.

The object has always been a phylactery for me and I don't feel a need to stop using it.

So, you’re saying you are fine to offend people at your tables rather than change?

A mere moment of research shows how many folks outside the hobby are just learning that one of their faith’s sacred items has been co-opted in this way, and they are *pissed* that it ever happened. The change is the only good part of the story for a lot of people.

The reason a lot of things don't get changed is that the majority don't realize it's an inappropriate use of the word. I love that Paizo is open to revising things when they realize the issue.

Who says/said that new products are not selling as well as old ones?

Read the post... people not choosing to buy new products out of protest would show up this way, without being able to correlate the lower number to a reason. Thus making it a less effective form of protest.

I love watching edgelords have theoretical debates from the safety of their privilege without having to consider other people. It's really the best part of the forums right now.

[EDIT: Not related to the post above, but to exactly the posts you think it relates to.]

No I meant would I have to join them or am I going to be stone walled from being hired?

Is that the only thing holding you back? or are you just trying to raise theoretical arguments against a union because there are no actual valid arguments against a union?

I suggest we move this discussion to a hot tub in Kaer Maga if that's where we're going...

There are a lot of people on this thread (most I would suggest) who are saying (...)

A lot of your statements are built on assumptions that aren't true. As an example: as a freelancer, I've NEVER been paid in advance before turning over work, in TTRPGs or any other form of writing. So Paizo hasn't "lost" any costs if they decided to start everything from scratch.

Similarly, the existence of a union doesn't increase the risk of Paizo failing, AT ALL. Even with a union, Paizo leadership can still drive off a cliff. They just can't do it as easily on the backs of the creative and front-line staff.

If Paizo can only "succeed" by overworking their employees or engaging in other behaviors that a union would object to, then they're not really succeeding now, are they?

EDIT: Swapped avatars since I don't like talking real stuff from behind an alias.

Don't engage with bad-faith distractions.

Thank you, Nicole, for bringing actual facts and current information to the discussion, something that has been sorely lacking in many of the most vocal peoples' posts.

Paizo staff know what they need; you (we) do not. If you don't know about something, just please be quiet because you're not helping. If you just want to look smart there are dozens of other threads you can do that in.

Wow, another Winnipegger hired by Paizo! Might as well just move the offices here...

Congrats Jessica, and yay Starfinder OP because Jessica is about the only person I could think of who is as amazing as Jenny.

Are you suggesting that Foundry should get the benefits of being a licensed partner, without being a licensed partner?

...<redacted to avoid repeating something untrue>...

Excellent, this has been solved! Please present the evidence you have uncovered that clears up this issue. Gotta say, usually I don't trust an anonymous account over a bunch of people that I've gamed with in person, but something about your confidence just convinces me.

As a scenario author as well as a GM and player I'm also watching this discussion carefully.

Someone made a good point about paying attention to the newer GMs and not only the most experienced, since that is a more common situation. Very good point.

The idea of specifying a DC to "Aid" is a really good point, and I'm making a note to do this a lot more in future, especially for those lower levels.

Much of the discussion has focused on the effect of crits, but I haven't seen a lot of mention of hero points. It's not just the one you start with, but new ones handed out, as well as ones from other players' boons (often with a bonus for their GM glyphs). At my last table, many players started with 3, and overall the table had more than 20 over the course of the game. It doesn't remove the effect of a high DC entirely, but it can mean that mid-level challenges become givens.

Personally, I'd love to talk to more GMs on their experiences with my own scenarios so I can learn from their experience, but it's pretty darn hard to do that on a comprehensive campaign-wide basis.

A good review is a useful tool for authors - but usually, reviews are either really good or really bad, and don't always separate out the scenario-specific data from other effects like, "Did the GM prep sufficiently?" or "Did I bring my high society character on a wilderness exploration adventure?".

(I do have to say, I wish people wouldn't state that Paizo is "not listening" to complaints, especially after Mike Kimmel stated he *was* listening right off the bat. People who have been around a long time should know better.)

Huzzah! Great piece, Jenny!

Erik Mona offered to write some stuff for this issue on Facebook... so if you get in, your name will be in the same credit list.

Favorite recent moment would be in writing (and later running) 2-01 Citadel of Corruption, when PCs come face-to-face with a pair of masked Decemvirate members, and the jaw-drop that happens later in the scenario.

Favorite gaming moment was also at PaizoCon, during Bonekeep. My dhampir archer went into those terrible halls with a group of lower-level PCs. Predictably, a retreat was called very early, although no one seemed to want to be the one to first abandon their comrades. Gerard Dessedeux fell early, and a gnome druid (whose name I've forgotten) had her goat familiar drag me out, unconscious and bleeding out. I managed to stabilize due only to my Numerological Gift, which was fortuitous, since no one else made it out. Just me and the goat.

Gerard was to be my first all-martial PC, but that day he dipped into Beast-Bonded witch so he could take the goat, Tertius, as a familiar. So now he's an arcane archer. Not at all according to plan, but you just can't let a story like that not shape the character.

Corollary: I'm a fairly experienced gamer and a rabid Paizo supporter. Due to a variety of issues, I don't play PFS2 as often as I played PFS1. I can't afford the new hotness, and so I'm restricted to the same options I've had since Season 0 of PFS1. Do you think that encourages me to play more PFS2, or discourages me from bothering to play?

(Of course, this is a bad example - I'm gonna play everything because the stories in PFS2 are amazing. But I'm a story person, and so the different mechanics of PFS2 versus PFS1 don't really make much difference for me. That's not necessarily true for every experienced gamer, of course.)

EDIT: cleaned up grammar a bit.

This will sound weird coming from someone who is adamant that not every option should be PFS-legal, but I think the OP is correct: the prices are too high.

Imagine the experience of a new player that sits down at a PFS2 table (virtually, or hopefully in person again one day).

They sit down with their core-only character that they have lovingly crafted, selected from the same basic options that have been available to RPGers for decades. At the table are players with new character options, special powers, and game mechanics that aren't open to them.

"Just get that first character to level 8, which will take a minimum of 24 game sessions *if* you can play exactly the right tier of scenario every time, and you too can have a single* new option!" the GM says.

I think it is important to look at a broader representation of players, and not to assume that the experience of VOs and longtime PFS advocates to dominate the opinions.

* Yes, you can get things for less than that. But those are neat things, not new character options like ancestries.

This is an interesting thread. Of course, I only saw it after Sara Marie cleaned it up... thanks Sara Marie!

I think the biggest issue is that it's one thing to be a GM, and another to be a good service provider. The two aren't necessarily found in the same person by default. That's why I personally wouldn't pay to play with someone I didn't know already or at least admire by reputation. I have donated at several cons to play with "name" GMs and it has always been a great experience, but that's because I chose the GMs carefully. Not sure I would pay to play under a GM I didn't already know. (But see below.)

I've also had people pay to be at my table for scenarios I have written. The money goes to charity, so I wasn't the one getting paid, but I sure felt the pressure of a group that had paid for the experience I was responsible for. Prep takes on a new level, and this would be even moreso if it was content I didn't already know intimately.

I think it's a big uphill slog for someone to start something like this. Not impossible, but takes a lot of work and hustle and building a whole brand, not just hanging up a shingle and saying, "pay me to GM". You need to be on social media (not just the forums), showing people what you're like. You need to be creating and giving away content, so people get to "know" you and your style and feel comfortable paying for your games. Run free games at cons as promo, to get players and spread the word.

I also think pricing matters. If you're charging as much as a movie, you're competing with multi-million-dollar productions in an established business model. If you're charging less, it may not be worth your time, but it may be easier for people to take a chance on a relative unknown. There's a delicate balance, but it is always easier to raise prices later than to price yourself out of a very small market and get nowhere.

Good luck to the folks trying it.

They're like the Quests, except it's not assumed that you are a member of the Pathfinder Society, and so there's a whole lot of background that a new player doesn't need right off. Great for store demos and recruiting new players at cons.

Congrats Michael and James! Really excited to see the magic that comes from this.