Organized Play Manager
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Any ETA on the sanctioning documents and Pregens?
Huge apologies to everyone. I've tried all day to pull the sanctioning together, but ran into some roadblocks that I cannot clear. Mon morning I'll be working with the rest of the OP team to resolve the issues we will have them ready Mon/Tues barring any other unforeseen issues.
Games run this week count for getting the chronicle sheet. We've asked GMs to arrange a delivery method with each of their players (email/Discord/Dropbox/future event/mailing) and the OP team will support GMs in getting copies sent out.
As we are in the window where you need the physical book to run the adventure, the pregens should be supplied by the GM with the book. We will upload a pdf copy of the pregens when we put the pdf up on the site.
Again, my apologies! We will get these to you asap!
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Why was this adventure not released as a free PDF?
Because it's an exclusive for retail stores to offer. "Exclusive" means that the only way to run/play it is through your local gaming store.
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It will be a free pdf in a month. The retail stores who paid for a free RPG day package get to have a one month window of exclusivity to be able to offer the adventure to their customers.
I wound up driving an hour out of the Twin Cities to pick up my copy of the adventure (and purchase a bunch of items from the store in order to reward them for participating in Free RPG day.) Then I passed my business card to the owner and told him that I would run these adventures online for any of his customers who might want to play.
I don't know if I'll get the chance, but I'm hoping they'll take me up on it!
Hmm
Any ETA on the sanctioning documents and Pregens?Huge apologies to everyone. I've tried all day to pull the sanctioning together, but ran into some roadblocks that I cannot clear. Mon morning I'll be working with the rest of the OP team to resolve the issues we will have them ready Mon/Tues barring any other unforeseen issues.
Games run this week count for getting the chronicle sheet. We've asked GMs to arrange a delivery method with each of their players (email/Discord/Dropbox/future event/mailing) and the OP team will support GMs in getting copies sent out.
As we are in the window where you need the physical book to run the adventure, the pregens should be supplied by the GM with the book. We will upload a pdf copy of the pregens when we put the pdf up on the site.
Again, my apologies! We will get these to you asap!
Is there any update on the sanctioning doc/chronicles here?
Once the chronicles are available, I'm also going to need to know what to do about characters that played this before GenCon, but played that character during GenCon and are now out of tier.
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There was a chronicle sheet update; Tonya posted it on the blog post for "Achievement Points (AcP) and Free RPG Day":
Free RPG Day
we realized there was an issue in the sanctioning and decided to do a review of the entire package. Doing this the week before Gen Con was fraught, but we didn't want to issue something with erroneous info or that would just need an immediate correction issued. Because of Gen Con, the review is on pause briefly. We will have sanctioning available before the Aug 25th street date and any games ran on Free RPG Day will count as valid for applying credit. We appreciate your patience.
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There was a chronicle sheet update; Tonya posted it on the blog post for "Achievement Points (AcP) and Free RPG Day":
— Link to the CommentFree RPG Day
we realized there was an issue in the sanctioning and decided to do a review of the entire package. Doing this the week before Gen Con was fraught, but we didn't want to issue something with erroneous info or that would just need an immediate correction issued. Because of Gen Con, the review is on pause briefly. We will have sanctioning available before the Aug 25th street date and any games ran on Free RPG Day will count as valid for applying credit. We appreciate your patience.
Don’t see any links for sheets there
I've got a physical copy of the adventure but am likely to be running it online on the 24th August (the day before the PDF release I believe). Is there anyway to get the gorgeous maps as a digital file to use on Roll20 for the session? Not sure if the maps are bespoke for this adventure or if I can purchase/access them separately...
Don’t see any links for sheets thereThere was a chronicle sheet update; Tonya posted it on the blog post for "Achievement Points (AcP) and Free RPG Day":
— Link to the CommentFree RPG Day
we realized there was an issue in the sanctioning and decided to do a review of the entire package. Doing this the week before Gen Con was fraught, but we didn't want to issue something with erroneous info or that would just need an immediate correction issued. Because of Gen Con, the review is on pause briefly. We will have sanctioning available before the Aug 25th street date and any games ran on Free RPG Day will count as valid for applying credit. We appreciate your patience.
I did not intend to imply there are chronicles now. I was trying to pass along the update that there are to be no chronicles until some time before "street date" on the 25th of this month, beause the update was posted on another forum but people here are also asking.
"We will have sanctioning available before the Aug 25th street date."
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Question for whoever might have read the adventure, what's up with;
Granny's Hedge Trimmer? It's treated like a big reward, is rare with the magical and evocation traits, but is just a d4 simple weapon?
I'm definitely going to customize it myself, but does anyone have any ideas for what it should be?
Are there any larger maps available? Or maps without the symbols for players, so they aren't immediately alerted where they need to explore?
If you copy the map out of the PDF and paste it into an image editing program, it removes all the A1, A2, etcs. You can then print it if you need a physical map. Enlarging it to 1-inch squares can make it fairly pixely but it still usually looks better than what I could draw on a flip mat.
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They do look alike, but one is Lore. The other one is Data. :-)
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Gotta say I am super disappointed about this sanctioning doc for Little Trouble. The scenario takes a solid 4 hours to fully run but only gives the XP of a 1-hour quest.
It should be 4 XP for those who complete the scenario; that is what my players and I were anticipating after I ran this on free RPG day in a 4-hour session.
This module will probably not see much Society play because of the mismatched chronicle rewards. It's a shame because I love EVERYTHING about this scenario otherwise.
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Well, Plaguestone and Slithering both play through 3 levels worth of encounters, and take approximately 6-9 4-hour blocks to complete properly. Each of those only gives 1 level's worth of PFS rewards. Actually, I'm guessing on Slithering as it hasn't been sanctioned yet, but it's going to take just as long as, if not longer than, Plaguestone did.
The advantage with these Adventures is that they are NOT PFS play, which means you can use any and all options for character choices out there, or it may have assigned pre-gens like We Be Goblins. I've yet to read this one, but I'm presuming it's more of a low level one-off than tied to any ongoing storyline. So, it's meant to be enjoyed outside of PFS OPF rules and mechanics, but still offers some PFS campaign reward.
Just my pair of coppers, take em or leave em.
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So I thought i had heard that for Society Play you would be able to make your own Kobold to play in the adventure as long as it was first level (alla the Skittermander Free RPG day stuff) but now I am not finding anything that says so. Did I imagine that or am I just missing where that info is? If anyone can verify or deny that for me or point me in the direction to find said info I would appreciate it.
Organized Play Associate
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So I thought i had heard that for Society Play you would be able to make your own Kobold to play in the adventure as long as it was first level (alla the Skittermander Free RPG day stuff) but now I am not finding anything that says so. Did I imagine that or am I just missing where that info is? If anyone can verify or deny that for me or point me in the direction to find said info I would appreciate it.
Clarified here.
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Try to remember that non-PFS modules and APs providing chronicles is a bonus. Those adventures are not written for PFS so the fact that OP sanctions them is nice. We should be grateful that after playing a well-written adventure and having loads of fun, which is the whole point by the way, getting a chronicle that can be applied to a PFS character, probably one that didn’t even play the adventure, is just like icing on the cake.
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Try to remember that non-PFS modules and APs providing chronicles is a bonus. Those adventures are not written for PFS so the fact that OP sanctions them is nice. We should be grateful that after playing a well-written adventure and having loads of fun, which is the whole point by the way, getting a chronicle that can be applied to a PFS character, probably one that didn’t even play the adventure, is just like icing on the cake.
The "you should be grateful, so don't provide feedback" argument doesn't really make sense to me. We should still be able to speak up about what is seen as a misstep.
The reality here is that busy adults playing PFS often have character goals and finite time, meaning that this scenario will not see much action in Org Play because it takes 4-5 hours to run and only provides the same XP as a quest.
This is a shame. And it should not be difficult for the team to create a chronicle that says "4 XP" instead of "1 XP."
(By the way, I'm also posting here because the chronicles were put up late, and my players were all planning on a 4-XP scenario after enjoying a long session. We knew it was not guaranteed but it seemed logical considering how old Free RPG day scenarios gave 1XP in 1E PFS, and there was so much content here.)
Going forward, it would be helpful for the org play team to communicate whether this is the plan for all Free RPG day scenarios. My preference is, honestly, not to run them at all if we can only get 1/4 credit for hours of playtime. (I also understand sanctioning for a module takes more effort, but that's different because it has a ton more content and custom things going on than a standard one-off scenario like this).
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Organized Play Manager
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Going forward, it would be helpful for the org play team to communicate whether this is the plan for all Free RPG day scenarios. My preference is, honestly, not to run them at all if we can only get 1/4 credit for hours of playtime. (I also understand sanctioning for a module takes more effort, but that's different because it has a ton more content and custom things going on than a standard one-off scenario like this).
The team has had multiple discussions on sanctioning in the recent months. Part of our discussion revolves around intention, access, behaviours, and expectations. So let's unpack a bit.
Intention - Free RPG day is a way to drive peopel to participating stores. It is meant to be an on the day experience where players come together at their local FLGS. Only stores who buy in get to participate. It is controled by an entity other than Paizo.
Access - As I mentioned above, it is a buy in, and not cheap. There are different sized boxes and each one gives you so many copies of each item. From there, stores are able to use it as player swag, GM rewards, or something else.
Behaviours - Free RPG Day is a marketing initiative by the stores. Come to our place and get stuff. Stay and maybe play a game. It is meant to incentivize in the moment.
Expectations - Our community has a very "if I've had it I should always have it" mentality. This makes running a living campaign very difficult. We hesitate to change anything, because we upset the balance when we do. We can't experiment for fear of backlash. We also can't take things away. But no change means stagnation and ultimately may result in the death of the org play programs. So we are caught between a rock and a hard place.
The team decided that the edition change was the right time to shake expectations and try to do some of the initiatives we've been theorizing for the past few years. Now, we haven't gotten them all right. That is okay. We are discussing, adjusting, and reframing the changes. We are making it a LIVING campaign. One of these changes was developing a road map of products and look at how different products lead to each other. A holistic experience model. One conclusion from this viewpoint is that OP doesn't need to incorporate every type of adventure. We wish to encourage a group of players who meet over OP to shift to playing APs. Or those that try a setting light bounty fully to OP members playing scenarios. Previously we considered any non-OP produced content as additional inclusions in the OP experience. We now look at each item as playable content, but not necessarily part of the OP experience. Then we figure out how we support each item and what makes for the best gaming experience for that adventure.
Why do I mention all this, as it is somewhat off-topic? Well, because it changes how OP looks at Free RPG Day scenarios. They are playable content in an intended experience for an intended purpose. Had Covid not intervened, we could have done a huge "double AcP rewards" event for participating stores. This would have rewarded the experience of playing in a way that supported the ideals for FreeRPG Day without weighting the adventure in a program it wasn't meant for. But the world fell apart. Free RPG day got shunted to right before our major convention. And communication failed. For that, I am so very sorry. Stating things ahead of time would have been the right course of action. Putting the information out and setting expectations always beats following up on problematic situations. I dropped the ball. There are no excuses on that front.
Communication as a whole has lacked for the past few months. Again, I apologize. I'd like to say the team is business as normal, but I'd be lying. I won't speak for other OP staff, but from my perspective, I planned the same three conventions 2-3 times in a 4 month period. I haven't been on an airplane since February where I was attending 1-3 cons a month. Our inperson brainstorms are now conducted on Zoom or Discord. Which works, but slows us down and means we don't accomplish the same amount of work. So the ball that dropped was communication. Again, I apologize.
I know this answer is long and that I may have rambled. I appreciate those who got through it all.
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Access
To be fair, this specific point only applies during the month the Free RPG Day module is dropped. After that it is available to anyone and therefore the access is essentially unlimited.
Though I can see and agree with the "Intention" or in other words, audience, it is intended for to be a limiting factor. IMO, all products that are not specifically designed for org play like Bounties, Adventure Paths, Modules, etc. should have reduced rewards (less than scenarios), but I am sure some people, maybe even most would disagree, including perhaps some Paizo staffers.
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Good to have some free troubles in little packages over at Absalom adventure stuff. :)
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Just to clarify: The Chronicle Sheet earned is to be assigned to any PFS character.
"Players of this adventure, as well as GMs who run the adventure, gain the Chronicle Sheet included with this document, which they can apply to any of their Pathfinder Society (second edition) organized play characters. Players must decide which character to apply credit to when they receive the Chronicle Sheet and the GM signs it."
However, I can still "Attach this boon to one kobold character you
create to give it the following background." So it can still be copied to a new Kobold character in order to gain the Background, but not the XP, Treasure Bundle, Reputation. Am I correct?
Alternatively, I can make it easy and just assign it to a new Kobold Character.
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Since the sanctioning document does not appear to have been updated, the rewards in society play have changed in this adventure.
Blog post giving the increased rewards.
8 days of Downtime: (Initially 2 days)
4 Reputation (Initially 1)
The XP reward has not changed.
The last sentence in the above post seems to be partially incorrect. The XP isn't retroactive, but the paragraph does state that it now awards credit as a scenario. Thus 4XP. So if a group wanted to play it now, that's what it would be.