schattenstern's page

A lot of options coming from an Adventure path tend to be limited (and unlocked via a boon for playing the AP).

I started GMing org play as I wanted to ease the burden of the regular GM at my lodge, it helped that I was a home-game GM beforehands for a long time.

As an Organizer I asked a lot of my regular players if they were interested. For weekly games I offer providing a repeatable scenario they played at my table with me as a player to help them if they have problems. If possible I seed that table with some of the easy players/helpful ones (and ask them to not use their weirdest chars)
What helped here (anecdotally) quite a bit were the RSP-boon and SF-boons with “check 1 box as a player, 2 boxes as a GM”
As a convention organizer *nothing* helped more to get someone in (and in my experience the 1st table is the important one) than the race boons of 1e/early SF where you got one shiny thing for doing one table at the convention. It also helped motivate recurring GMs WAY more than the small boost in ACP. (Especially as that boost has to be compared to a “I could also play in that slot” proposition, which would also grant increased ACP)

I cannot for the life of me figure out why the Ultralight Turboglider isn't SFS Legal. Can anyone give me some kinda idea about this? I don't get it. Its a powered hang glider, who cares?

Looking at the other precedents the old low level flying options (before we got a lot of flying races) were under a bigger risk for a ban.

That seemed to change once flying became available for a lot of races lv1 (compare limited flight of dragonkins to the full flight a lot of newer races get)

Well I am quite dissapointed that the specials get less and less levels.

I always found it fun to do them with old and trusted - high level - characters and now we get them only for low level characters.

Thanks for this solution Joe

Thanks for the retroactive Fame.

The corruption boons (nanite Corruption) have a clause that allows you to spend 8 Fame to remove the corruption.
Will we get something for ACP that allows us to remove the corruption?

I think the core of the problem is also summed up great in this (very old) Extra Credits Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxfkWZPAUg4

It does not feel good even if the math works out somewhat.

One thing I never want to see again is the atmosphere rules, as these will just end up in everyone moving at a snakes pace.

Scottybobotti wrote:

My comment on staying aggressive so that starship combat doesn't run over 10 rounds shouldn't be seen as a knock on the system.

Ok,but what about the fact that only one player (the pilot) could make any use of your advice?

The other players can also that advice:

For a 4 player party a group of Pilot/Gunner/Gunner/Tech guy (Engeneer/Science officer) will almost always be better than a Pilot/Gunner/Captain/First mate for example (especially before level 6)

Which also means if your "science guy" has a decent gunnery bonus (for example +8 while having a +16 engeneering/computers) he is still better as a gunner than the other "science guy" (with +5 Gunnery and +13 engeneering/computers) So the better choice is for the first player to do the gunning and the second being the science guy as this leads to ending the combat faster.

You can still swap around if you REALLY need to fix that system.

If so that would be quite say, as both systems were created with the intent to "make high level playable"

If so that would be quite sad, as both systems had the intent to make high level "playable".

Note: I think PF1 had a very fun highlevel gameplay.

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.

Thanks Linda

I agree with Tommi/Sebastian here.

This would not only be a QOL update but also reinforce the image of the society we want the players to have.

As the capstoneraceboons of APs seem to just want to "limit" the boon to players who completed the AP why not allow double dipping for them and change the future versions with:
If you have a chronicle from each part of the AP (list here) you gain access to this boon.

I think their intent is different from preventing someone to check a box on a skittermander and a pathra boon at the same time.

As you can adjust the shields freely before combat this does not seem like the issue here.

Another issue in the scenario: ** spoiler omitted **

This is something that should not happen as it is a clear copy paste error which should be immediatly clear if someone reads over the encounter.

For example the Mastermind rogue looses its racked (effectively) if a lot of enemies are unique.

The problem is, that creatures whose only "unique" thing is the name they got get the unique tag, which causes problems with abilities that rely on recall knowledge.

PF2 also still has the old recall knowlegde problem of:
"Oh this newly born red dragon might be identifiable by the villagers it attackes"
"after 500 Years terroriszing the village noone can even know they are a terrorized by a RED dragon but they only get critfails on recalling it"

Sad to hear the class loosing the one thing that made it an interesting caster.

Nice to see the change.

Do VL/VC get bonus novas for running Perplexity? This would greatly ease the burden on the few (if any) 4Nova GMs outside of America.
As far as I know there are 2 4 Nova GMs in all of continental Europe, while if the bonus would count we would have a far better GM-pool.

@Gary I would advise against that solution as I have seen this causeing problems in the reporting system in PF1 (especially the scenario being marked as a replay) after you reported to a "wrong number" and fixed it afterwards, it still was counted as being "played" for both players.

So this could cause unintended consequences further down the line.

Jared one of the bigger Problems is, that we have FAR too many skillchallanges that either force you to roll or expect mathematically that everyone can roll (with a reasonable chance at a sucess/crit sucess) to succeed and a lot of these only give you options you need to be trained in (and not saves/perception)

This could be fixed somewhat with hirelings but is bad gamedesign (which I express in all reviews for these scenarios. So now you are telling players "here I take away the thing that allowed you to lessen the impact of designdecissions that you do not like".
Also the sentence " In the course of completing a scenario, the PCs are likely to acquire all 10 Treasure Bundles as part of overcoming challenges and inspecting their surroundings. " reads to me as a non native speaker that if everything goes "normal" you get full rewards and the sentences afterward suggest that if you fail hard you might get less treasure.
And this is how it also was in PF1/SFS so it is not wierd for people having this expectation. Also some kind of anecdotal information: Players react FAR worse to loosing money than to loosing out the second sucess/prestige/fame.

Well it would be nice if the solution to the 3-player table would be something that is not a hardmode, as this leaves the players in a bind, if they are not that comfortable with the extra challange:
Either they suck it up cause they want to play or they speak up and noone gets to play (which might lead to peer pressure)

As can be seen in my review of the scenario I completely agree with the three posters above me.

Mike I think you did a good job with making the hobgoblins feel "there" but not useless or overbearing.

The key is a reasonable dm to player ratio. If you have DMs with prepped ish scenarios it doesn't matter how many people show up until you run out of flat rolling surfaces.

The problem in a lot of 1 table locations is that there is no second table available...

pauljathome wrote:

Michael Sayre wrote:

The overall rewards for everyone have increased.

Uh,that's not really true. [...]

Sure it is. Did you get three race boons a year just for GMing regularly on your way to 5 stars before? Because now if you're an active GM you do, plus your bonus points for convention GMing. If you do 7+ slots at a major con, you get an ancestry boon's worth of points plus a free rebuild and three free resurrections. And if you don't want/need an uncommon ancestry you've got e.g. many lifetimes' worth of free resurrections.

At the end of the day this is one of the most generous programs we've ever had. The World Guide is a core assumption. Every weekly player gets enough points for a new ancestry over the course of the year and a twice-monthly GM who GMs a con can clear three. A highly active GM who runs weekly games and attends multiple cons might clear a year with 6 or more. And that'll apply to every GM, not just the ones who make it to GenCon or get lucky on an RSP roll.

Sry Michael this is just wrong. First there are no major conventions with the highest scaling in continental europe as of now, second there was a very big benefit of doing multiple smaller conventions in the old system that is no longer in the new system. (For example in 2018 I got over 12 race boons for running around 24 tables at conventions. Which is not possible in the new system)

Alexander Lenz wrote:

(as there is quite a bit GM shortage/domotiivation to GM PF2 over SFS)

May I ask why? Don't you get a chronicle sheet for the adventure to apply to your own character in both settings? So why would there be less interest? Is it harder to prepare Or is there just a lot of starfinder around your area? (Don't get me wrong, Starfinder is great, I'm just curious why there's less motivation for PF2E)

Most of the GMs have more interest in SF, and while they play PF2 they are not motivated to prep and GM scenarios for it.

That should give the GM the ability to properly slot a 6-player group into a "high end low subtier" scaling without having e.g. a party composed primarily of level 2 characters suddenly finding that they need to deal with level 5+ monsters.

That is a good start, but as a player I see a LOT of 7 player tables (as there is quite a bit GM shortage/domotiivation to GM PF2 over SFS) so addressing 7-player tables would alos be nice.

I will try running the non-epic boss fight scenarios first, and then I'll try Salvation and then Waking Rune.

roll4initiative wrote:

Cult of Lissala]Cult of Lissala campaign arc

cool cool. Could you clue me in on which scenarios those are exactly? Thank you!

3-25 (only 3-7 and not needed per se but it is the opener in my opinion), 3-26 and then all of the Season 4 7-11 (in order)

Unfortunately, I think that generally removes the early access to the content. Paizo staff may be able to look at the books early, but the VOs can’t. So part of the process is delayed until the books are released, which slows the whole thing down.

There are ways for the AR-team to get earlier access to the books than the "normal" VOs and subscribers, how much earlier varies from book to book.

Thurston Hillman wrote:

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Multiple checks don't miss any: in PFS1 this was something that made me wonder if the writers failed statistics or just hate players. If there's any chance of missing a check requiring multiple checks dramatically increases the chance of failure.

Please avoid attacking our writers for their perceived competency or dubious morals.

My bad, thats a fair bit harsher than I intended.

While this is formulated harshly the statistical truth still stands, if you have to make three consecutive checks to achieve something, even if you can make the check on a 5 you still have nearly a 50% (0.8*0.8*0.8=.512=51,2% success chance).

I recently got a LOT of complaints from some of my players that computers is very harshly penalized in this way, as you have to do the same computers DC (except the few “here is the keycard/password reminder”) than the engineering check for the same result in a lot of cases, but for computers you often need to do 2 to 3 checks to get the same result you would have gotten with one engineering check.

Matt2VK wrote:

What's scary is pull up a pregen and try to make some of those DCs.

When I helped playtest scenarios, we used L1 pregen parties to see if they could at least survive and succeed at the primary success condition.

But I don't believe, really don't believe, that this is being done with higher level scenarios.

I think this is the most important part, if the pregens cannot succeed with a reasonable chance of success we will alienate players. Especially if you have weekly/biweekly tables even the newer players will play everything and will play pregens in the high subtiers, so they should not feel like dead weight.

If the check is just for flavor/background/foreshadowing/reducing avoiding (reasonable) damage you can do something that challenges the specialists to reward them.

My solution is simple, after 2 or 3 encounters (halfway through the scenario) everyone gets a heropoint (this way everyone gets the point and there are no discussions about favoritism.)

I am using a combination of a surface and printed out statblocks and it works.

For GM-screens, I think the new PF2 landscape screen is a godsend.

What system are you looking for (PF1/PF2/SF)?

Additionally did you ask your local VO about supporting the event? The title of the event sounds very German(ish). (Especially bavarian)

Also what kind of event is it exactly?

Sebastian Hirsch wrote:

GM Lamplighter wrote:

Rysky wrote:

We really need to take care of that Cheliax problem.

Indeed.

Might be time to think big, the Society is bound to have a doomsday device or two they could loan for this purpose.

If we were a little more or a little less responsible, we'd find a ritual to drop the Blakros Museum directly on top of House Thrune and let a bunch of problems solve each other.

Even as someone who is not against cheliax I am for every solution to PERMANENTLY solve the museum situation.

Well of the goblins I had at my table 2 were pyromanics that got an infamy warning during the session and one was a "mechanical character" so the race was choosen for purely mechanical reasons and did not come into play.

I still think it was a BIG mistake to make goblins player characters without a lot and well written in world reasons as to why they are no longer kill on sight. It does not help that my first contact with Goblins in Pathfinder was Rise of the Runelords 1 aka "Why we have to kill goblins".

...then I seriously doubt it represents 1/4 of the community...

Auke, Nils, Benoit, Dave are 4 RVCs that are (mostly) active in europe, exactly 1/4th of the available RVCs and so at least 4 RVCs would have to work exclusively on exceptions for their premium conventions.

Sorry, just saying let's try to stick to verifiable numbers.

The three biggest events in continental europe I have numbers of (I do not have conctact to the French so there might be one convention I am missing) AB-Con, Confusion and Gardencon all have less than 75 tables.

So if for your region 5-6 events meet the criteria how about a rule like "The biggest 5 (or 6) events in an RVCs region + events specifically chosen by the RVC to promote organized play are premium conventions"

This is just a quick and dirty suggestion as I have no access to the numbers of the other RVCs.

Ask me again next year and I may be able to tell you precisely which events ranking high in tables counts.

While this might be interesting this still creates a big problem for the smaller regions as they will never get to these big table counts.

If we simply leave it at RVC discretion, there will be a lot of questions as to what parameters they are using to determine which event gets designated and which doesn't. In more than one discussion I was involved in the subject of tier 1 came up as a possible toggle for premier status.

How many of these came form persons out of high density areas (like America)?

As I asked eralier how many (non premium+ (so paizoconUK and UK-Games Expo) 75+ table conventions are there in Europe (which is now the sphere of 4? RVCs)

So you want an whole continent to work on a "exception" basis? Maybe just use a rule that also fits for at least 1/4th of the system.

I gave you the answer-talk to your RVC about it.

I did.

So to put it in friendlier words:
Please consider that there is currently no 75+ table convention in the whole of continental europe and that means all of continental europe will have only one speed to get ACP as there is also no premium+ convention there.

So if this gets implemented as you suggested you tell all players in continetal europe that there is no difference (regarding ACP) between going to a convention or GMing for your buddies at home.

You can also look at James Hargraves post who is raising similar concerns.

...and don't be surprised if they don't have an immediate answer as we are still figuring out exactly how the new system will work. Tonya is still traveling quite a bit which makes communication slower.

So why are these things not decided BEFORE a system launches? It is not that PF2s release happened outr of nowehre.

And are these numbers you told us final or are they a work in progress?

Please don't shoot the messenger*.

Thanks for completely ignoring the raised concerns bob.

If you want to be involved in the community and give back to all the awesome GMs who run for you, by running games for others, great, go to a convention and earn a trunk-load of AcP in a few short days.

How do I do that?

Rewards/boons are icing on the cake and shouldn't be the end-all, be-all, of the reason someone attends an event. Some will disagree with me and that's fine.

As someone who has to do conventions (with less than 75 tables) I will have no incentive for my GMs to show up.

Premier conventions are spotlight events probably at the tier 1 (75+ tables) level. In addition to more vouchers, the value of the AcP goes up per the Guide. As I understand it, these events must be designated by the RVC and approved by Tonya. As the Premier Event Coordinator, I may be involved in that approval process and will be working with Tonya and the event organizer to make sure the event is classified correctly so the participants receive the correct AcP values. AFAIK the Paizo system will have to be manually notified about these events so it can trigger the higher rate of AcP. Generally, 1-2 Paizo staff members will be present at these events.

Premier Plus conventions are significant spotlight events that generally include direct sponsorship from Paizo. Currently, this includes Gen Con, PaizoCon (US), Origins, Pax Unplugged, and UK Games Expo. These events receive an even higher AcP value (see the Guide) as well as perks such as volunteer t-shirts, physical product support, and other bonuses. Numerous Paizo staffs generally attend these events.

Bob please list me the number of events in the last 5 years in continental europe that would quailfy as a premium event. This aproach is bullshit, as it encoureages something I would be happy to get rid off: Cheesing your tablecount upwards. And there are a lot of ways that can be used to inflate your table count.

So the "benefit" of the system that events get more ACP will not be available on a continent because the limits are stupidly high. Additionally with the boons being retracted to the ACP system there is literally no incentive left for anyone to GM at a normal convention as they get the same number of ACPs (read: boons) as if they would run the game non publicly in their cellar for their friends. So I strongly recommend to not limit premium above anything that was not already a convention becasue if not this will lead to a lot of conventions dying becasue there is no incentive to GM on a convention.

For the area B5 encounter, what is the savebonus of Tavvar and her aides?

And where is the guide for organized play?

Or a functioning link to the pregens?

@BigNorseWolf: There are some scenarios where you do not get a specific item the boss was usiing on the chronicle if they manage for flee (mostly semicharged wands) but you still get full GPs for the encounter. (You might not fulfill part of the secondary sucess conditions if that happens)
But even then this is more of a rare case and beating the boss so he flees will give the same rewards than killing him most of the time (and if not it is specifically written in the scenario -> For Example: If BigBad manages to escape cross the wand of greater Invis (4 charges) and the wand of dimension door (1 charge) from the chronicle)

Regarding the "Scaling Encounter A" sidebar, does gunnery count as skill check? (As gunnery can also be a BAB+Dex check)

Pathfinder Society members might recognize her as a slightly less windswept Janira Gavix.

How did she get rid of her shadow corruption?

Have: Alien Associates
Free Agent x 2
Inside Manufacturer
Hauler Bot
Emergency Resupply x 2
Society Rebuilder
Free Captains
Manifold Host (Minor Faction)
Second Seekers Roheas (Minor Faction)
Damai/Quorlu/Vertani
Formian/Ikeshti
Draelik/Witchwyrd

Want: Uplifted Bear

PM sent

My advice is talk about the great T-Rex chase (from the season 6 adventure) with the players before unning this scenario: They will immediately know what to do and not even think about challanging this poor helpless little creature. It worked when I played and both times I gmed it.

The only "downside" is that the final fight is completely and utterly underwhelming for the buildup.