John Compton Organized Play Lead Developer |
Why so low a tier? Thralls was 5-9, so almost no one in-universe will be familiar with Valais. I'm a tad disappointed.
My responses fall into a few categories.
1) To ensure that Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild continues to grow and provide new opportunities for beginning and experienced participants to play at the same table, we push to have a considerable number of Tier 1–5 scenarios each season—close to one a month. That means that real estate for higher tier adventures (particulalry 7–11) is pretty tight, and we have very clear goals for those adventures this season. There are enough seconday plot lines that giving each one a high-tier progression isn't readily feasible—not without a serious change to the level ratio that we use now.
2) Should high-level PCs get all of the fun if traveling to other planes? For us, the answer is a resounding no, and this adventure promises to be a really fun one for low-level PCs.
KageCM |
6 people marked this as a favorite. |
Muser wrote:Why so low a tier? Thralls was 5-9, so almost no one in-universe will be familiar with Valais. I'm a tad disappointed.My responses fall into a few categories.
1) To ensure that Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild continues to grow and provide new opportunities for beginning and experienced participants to play at the same table, we push to have a considerable number of Tier 1–5 scenarios each season—close to one a month. That means that real estate for higher tier adventures (particulalry 7–11) is pretty tight, and we have very clear goals for those adventures this season. There are enough seconday plot lines that giving each one a high-tier progression isn't readily feasible—not without a serious change to the level ratio that we use now.
2) Should high-level PCs get all of the fun if traveling to other planes? For us, the answer is a resounding no, and this adventure promises to be a really fun one for low-level PCs.
For point two couldn't some other plane hopping scenario be made for low levels that doesn't involve Valais? I know several people including myself that have PCs that have played both previous scenarios featuring Valais and have anxiously awaiting her return. And now there's a chance to help restore her and we're stuck on the sidelines missing out because we're too high level. This is very disappointing.
sanwah68 |
Is there a chance that someone could let me know what the scenario is where the first demon is destroyed?
Like to play/run it first, even if it is out of tier for this one....and yes, I can understand everyone's point of view.
John Compton Organized Play Lead Developer |
Rey Remolacio |
7 people marked this as a favorite. |
Paizo created an NPC in Valais that was intriguing to players and inspiring to GMs. Interactions between players and Valais performed by a motivated GM elicited fear, confusion, and compassion to depths reserved for few fictional characters. On one occasion where I was running Thralls of the Shattered God at a convention a player jumped to her defense against another player knowing full well the possible reprisals for player-versus-player actions.
These players, so invested in the redemption of Valais, wish to see her story completed while playing the same character. Yet Paizo has decided to make this highly unlikely with the level range for the third part of her story. Many will accept this slight, happy to simply see Valais' recuperation reach fruition. But for others it will be akin to seeing some other band of heroes defeat Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, or another pair of friends pluck a ring from the bodies of two hobbits and toss it into the nearby volcano. Some may see this as hyperbole; but there are those that chose to believe in an apparent monster and brave a terrible dungeon, then chose to follow her again into a demon-infested land in the hopes that she could be saved.
I have no doubt that Season 9 will be filled with thrilling scenarios for players to enjoy. I even believe that the Shores of Heaven will be a wonderful experience. But it will be bittersweet to see "the replacements" go through the adventure instead of the heroes that invested trust into Valais despite her appearance and were rewarded with more than anything that could appear on a chronicle sheet.
John Compton Organized Play Lead Developer |
Pathfinder Society Subscription charged card yesterday - but no scenarios in downloads and still pending order.
For instance, today bought Starfinder Subsription and five previous scenarios - all are in downloads immediately!
I am just unlucky, or PFS scenarios are not distributed yet?
The scenarios released yesterday, though I'm not involved in the distribution side of things such that I would know why you might not have received yours. If you have experienced an issue with payment or delivery, I recommend making a post in the Customer Service board or emailing customer.service@paizo.com.
Fedor Checherov |
Fedor Checherov wrote:The scenarios released yesterday, though I'm not involved in the distribution side of things such that I would know why you might not have received yours. If you have experienced an issue with payment or delivery, I recommend making a post in the Customer Service board or emailing customer.service@paizo.com.Pathfinder Society Subscription charged card yesterday - but no scenarios in downloads and still pending order.
For instance, today bought Starfinder Subsription and five previous scenarios - all are in downloads immediately!
I am just unlucky, or PFS scenarios are not distributed yet?
Did that - emailed customer.service - already, but didn`t get even automatic "do not reply we are busy" reply
Medriev |
John Compton wrote:Did that - emailed customer.service - already, but didn`t get even automatic "do not reply we are busy" replyFedor Checherov wrote:The scenarios released yesterday, though I'm not involved in the distribution side of things such that I would know why you might not have received yours. If you have experienced an issue with payment or delivery, I recommend making a post in the Customer Service board or emailing customer.service@paizo.com.Pathfinder Society Subscription charged card yesterday - but no scenarios in downloads and still pending order.
For instance, today bought Starfinder Subsription and five previous scenarios - all are in downloads immediately!
I am just unlucky, or PFS scenarios are not distributed yet?
This is a problem that is affecting multiple customers. See this thread:
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2uos7?October-2017-Society-Scenario-New-Release s#16
Heofthehills |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I tend to be very, very forgiving about PFS and the direction of the story, even when it ends up that I can't complete a story on a character for reasons beyond my control. However, my wife and I had been holding off on our Silver Crusade characters since we first met Valais in Traitor's Lodge years ago. The scenario was still new and we fell in love with the character. Last season, we managed to play Thralls...and now we have been sitting, ignoring other plots that those two characters would enjoy because we were enjoying THAT story, with those characters. Two characters that seek redemption. A tiefling that fights all urges at being bad, and an aasimar who is filled with so much guilt for almost killing an innocent, that he refuses to speak unless he is certain of it's undeniable truth. Both seeking to find the good in all situations...and we came across Valais. Now, a pair (clearly not the only such characters) who would gain such insight from going into Heaven and having that experience...will be robbed of it...
In the past...in a rare few situations...there have been instances where players were allowed to get credit as GMs to run a scenario out of their character's tier. IF this is the end of Valais's story, I beg that we be allowed a way to enjoy this story for our characters (The past situation was with Rivalry's End and Way of the Kirin, but still involved a character seeing a story to it's end)
I don't know about everyone, but I know that I would be willing to play a reskinning pregen as my character and take a 4-5 cert on a higher level character just to get a chance to enjoy seeing the end of a story arc on the character that has earned that journey. Maybe we can find someway that the players don't feel as if the campaign has kicked those characters to the curb?
Daniel Yeatman |
Another good scenario, yet best re-adapted for a homebrew campaign where the players can fully enjoy the plot with the same characters. Honestly I'm quite supportive of these mini-modules and scenarios they create for the Pathfinder Society, but for the life of me I don't understand why people still subject themselves to the Pathfinder Society ruleset when one can just as easily play these scenarios with friends, on their own time, with their own rules.
TriOmegaZero |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Because I can do that, and also go play them at PaizoCon, GenCon, and so many other cons without a single hitch.
Even better, I can (and have) run games at Space City Con, Comicpalooza, Origins, PaizoCon, and Phoenix Comicon under the exact same rules no matter who shows up and expect them to have characters that are not outside of the established norms.
Daniel Yeatman |
Perhaps I expressed myself poorly; I understand that PFS exists in order to have games at conventions, and there is a reason to have a more streamlined ruleset in place for those occasions. What I don't understand is why, when people like a certain plotline from these scenarios, they don't just play them with their own group at their leisure. Even if one has played the other scenarios with Valais in them in PFS, for example, they can just play this one with their own group.
What I mean is, there is no necessity to abide to the Pathfinder Society ruleset in order to play a scenario on your own time amongst friends, and you can utilize whatever character you see fit. It's not like Paizo is watching over your shoulder, or anything.
TriOmegaZero |
Sometimes we do that. Sometimes we just accept the limitations and play different characters. It helps if you are comfortable thinking about playing a cast of characters rather than a single character through the story. There are too many adventures for just one character to reasonably experience. So you play different characters and experience the overarching story from multiple perspectives.
Heofthehills |
Some of us, Daniel, aren't able to get a time with our friends for a home game. Some people don't have reasonable schedules. I haven't been able to get a game outside of a convention in 4 months, and the only reason I can get those is due to taking vacation and leaving town so I'm not on call. It's not so easy for everyone to 'play this one with their own group' especially if you don't have your 'own group'.
Chris Lambertz Community & Digital Content Director |
Aduaitam |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So I run this one with a group that has been invested OOC with the role of Valais Durant. Lining up the timing so they can all get their fifth-level characters through this at once is torture, but they won't have it any other way. So we come to this startling conclusion. Maybe I shoulda read it before putting them on this path. Why:
Man. I expected better of Heaven's Shore.