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is there any point to factions now?
there's no longer a list of items your character gets access to as part of his/her faction. there's no benefits. it just seems like flavor of faction missions now. ( which isn't all bad. granted. )
i would like to still see the faction prestige grant access to magic items or maybe give characters a discount on things. like giving taldans a 10% discount on masterwork items ( remnants of the once great kingdom ), chelaxians a 10% discount on scrolls of summon monster or conjuration school, ossirians a discount on potions, etc. something fitting but minor to distinguish what the faction network does for your character, but not for pathfinder members of other factions.
10 prestige granting access to a belt of giant strength +2 for one faction but not another, is a nice early unlock. or a busshel of 10 golem bane arrows for some other faction. just unique nice stuff. ::shrug::
makes the flavor last like orbit chewing gum ;)
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Vince, I can agree with you somewhat since I liked the Factions better in Season 0 than I do now. But I also think there are bigger fish to fry. I recognize that Josh only has so many hours in the day to work on changes for the Society. Probably his highest concern is making sure the scenarios are released on time. I'm sure he's got a big pile of pots and pans on the back burner of things he'd like to do to improve the Society. This is nothing you don't know already. But my point is before trying to tweak the Faction system I'd rather see something like consequences for failing to achieve Society missions, and rewards, favors, boons, etc that actually have an impact on future scenarios. We all have our agendas :)
Director of Brand Strategy
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The problem I had with the system in season 0 was that it favored certain classes over others in different factions. It was better to be an Osirian wizard than sorcerer, for example, and if you were a Chelaxian rogue, you didn't get much benefit from your faction. While I understand that the point was to try to emphasize the defining characteristics of each faction (rogues from Taldor, rangers from Andoran, conjurers from Cheliax, etc, I much prefer the current, less limiting system. I think using the faction missions as foreshadowing or their own, independent narratives over the course of a season would be one way to play up the flavor aspects of the missions while maintaining the character wealth balance that exists under Season 1.
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Honestly, I'd like some more fluff with my factions. Maybe something like a Facebook like page for my faction leader. Faction events at Cons. That sort of thing.
Something that would that makes faction members seem like they were more bound together, make the factions more like a community.
I wouldn't be surprised if something like this was in the works, but it doesn't hurt to suggest.
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Honestly, I'd like some more fluff with my factions. Maybe something like a Facebook like page for my faction leader. Faction events at Cons. That sort of thing.
Something that would that makes faction members seem like they were more bound together, make the factions more like a community.
I wouldn't be surprised if something like this was in the works, but it doesn't hurt to suggest.
I was going to Turn my Page that I became to busy to work on, into a Social networking page for Society Characters. Basically you wouldn't be putting a page of yourself but your character.
was going to have section for people to put all the info about their characters, including the ability to log their adventures. And was going to set it up some way by faction.
Hoping I can maybe work on that idea when I move back to the states.
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Director of Brand Strategy
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Honestly, I'd like some more fluff with my factions. Maybe something like a Facebook like page for my faction leader. Faction events at Cons. That sort of thing.
Awesome ideas. Josh, Gary, you guys don't have anything else on your plates right? We can expect these to be live next week?
Joshua gives some hints about the future of factions in this thread.
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While I think the factions meant more in Season 0, as has been said, I do feel a definite difference between characters of each faction. As for some ideas to exploit these more...:
1.
2.
3.
4.
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I too miss the Season Zero faction stuff. While I agree that the faction specific rewards were a little too class-limiting, I think that the competition was healthy and fun.
In fact, yesterday we brought a new player into the fold. His first question at the table after reading everything was, "so does anything cool happen if my faction wins?" We had to explain to him that in fact, no it no longer means anything, not even bragging rights.
I'd like to see factions be upgraded again to a midpoint, where players really enjoy playing for their faction in the effort for something cool (heck, even a coupon for a value dependent on your faction's ranking (1st 12%, 2nd 10%, 3rd 8%, etc) for the Paizo store would be awesome). As it stands though, the whole thing feels like it's lacking something.
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I've always believed that Andoran won Season 0, but now those players who started with Andoran PCs are gravitating to a new faction with their secondary PCs. Many new players in my area are opting away from Andoran too. I would be surprised if one Faction stayed on top for long with there being so much turnover due to fast leveling.
While I think the factions meant more in Season 0, as has been said, I do feel a definite difference between characters of each faction. As for some ideas to exploit these more...:
1.Include a faction dependent scenario.
What if you have a group that doesn't have all 5 factions? Or a preponderance of a single faction? (i.e., 4 players, 3 are Cheliax, 1 is Taldor or something like that.
4.two Pathfinder groups are racing against the same thing
Same problem as #1. PLUS this could lead towards fighting amongst the party, which is something that Pathfinder Society doesn't do, could cause anger/bitterness/fights amongst PLAYERS, or evil acts by characters.
Good idea though. Be very hard to pull off for the above reasons.
#2 was a good idea.
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Ideas
I agree it would be hard to pull off - however for #1 the reason I said possibly only 1 per season (year) it would be that there is one faction specific adventure. You'd go into it KNOWING it's faction specific.
#4. Would be much much harder to pull off, and the problems of in-fighting might be too hard to get past it, but if it is pulled off right... I think it would be awesome.
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I'll start this by noting that I'm not really much of a "flavor-player". I'm much more concerned with how it affects our characters than the overarching storyline, so take this bit with a grain of salt:
I actually like the PA limiting magic item costs. We recently had to play down our 3rd level chars in a 1-2 tier (my girlfriend and I had the only 3rd level characters there). So, instead of getting a thousand-or-so gold for the scenario, we only got a hundred-some. Without PA limits, that would essentially be taking away possible magic items from us; however, since we were already above the PA limits, even if we took away around a thousand, there wouldn't be much more we could buy.
Tl;dr: I think PA limits keep things fair and even among players. I'm all for it.
Factions could be more 'beneficial' by providing 'ranks' that give certain benefits. I was thinking that the faction traits are really the only things that provide direct advantages to our characters... what if every time you gained a "PA rank" (moved up a row on the PA/gold chart) you could take another Faction Trait. Hopefully, more variety would be added, and maybe they would be weakened a bit. It could represent your Faction's willingness to train you in different areas. What I like most about this, is that different factions will have different traits, but they'll all be "equivalent" in power, so no-one will have a huge advantage (I didn't play in Season 0, but this seems to have been an issue...).
Also, quick thing: I'd really like to see Season 0 Faction Missions have 2 possible PA!! I've played mostly Season 0 Scenarios, and my guy's a bit behind others in PA who have the same XP.
Just my 2cp :D
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Factions could be more 'beneficial' by providing 'ranks' that give certain benefits. I was thinking that the faction traits are really the only things that provide direct advantages to our characters...
I would be delighted to see ranks in the Pathfinder Society itself become available. Our characters are now equal or higher level than most of the Venture Captains and other Society personalities profiled in Seeker of Secrets. Adril Hestram better start using "Sir" and "Madam" when he addresses the PCs or he's going to be spitting teeth out of his 8th level mouth ;)
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While I think the factions meant more in Season 0, as has been said, I do feel a definite difference between characters of each faction. As for some ideas to exploit these more...:
1.Include a faction dependent scenario.
What if you have a group that doesn't have all 5 factions? Or a preponderance of a single faction? (i.e., 4 players, 3 are Cheliax, 1 is Taldor or something like that.
4.two Pathfinder groups are racing against the same thingSame problem as #1. PLUS this could lead towards fighting amongst the party, which is something that Pathfinder Society doesn't do, could cause anger/bitterness/fights amongst PLAYERS, or evil acts by characters.
Good idea though. Be very hard to pull off for the above reasons.
#2 was a good idea.
If faction events only happened at Cons I would have to think that the problem wouldn't be that bad.
I'm chomping at the bit to tell you guys about the changes for the next season, but I have to wait until they're coded and final.
Changes are coming! :-)
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I'm chomping at the bit to tell you guys about the changes for the next season, but I have to wait until they're coded and final.
Changes are coming! :-)
Is this a changes happen in a couple of weeks kinda thing or wait till PaizoCon kinda thing?
(Sorry, I just gotta be nosey)
hmmm...He says changes for Next Season, Next Season starts at GenCon
Is this a changes happen in a couple of weeks kinda thing or wait till PaizoCon kinda thing?
Changes are coming. :-)
Changes are coming. :-)
Received in the exact tone of someone saying, "The Dark is rising."
I knew I needed to change my avatar to a giant smiley face. If I was half as sinister as some of you make me out to be, I'd be in politics, not running Pathfinder Society.
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If I was half as sinister as some of you make me out to be, I'd be in politics, not running Pathfinder Society.
I was completely unaware Josh had that kind of notoriety preceding him but ...
I don't know about the rest of you but I think Josh who seems in all manner affable on the boards intimidated me in person not because he was in the armed forces but because he bears a striking resemblance to my dangerously stern childhood Jesuit soccer coach who too was in the armed forces.
Let me tell you, The Empire of Cheliax and the Orders of Hellknights could learn a few things from Jesuits.
I'm 4,576 years old. You?
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I'm 4,576 years old. You?
I was 6 years old when Star Wars came out.
Funny, you don't look a day over 3,000.
He moisturizes daily. With the spent tears and broken dreams of failed would be PFS submission authors.
Those of us going to Paizocon should petition for some (at least part time) aid for him.
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Those of us going to Paizocon should petition for some (at least part time) aid for him.
Even though I won't be able to make it to Paizocon this years, I could probably make a donation of somekind to this cause. At the very least, I could buy him his meals for the con...
Getting BACK ON TOPIC, though, I'm really glad to see there is more than meets the eye when it comes to the factions and the missions. At first, I thought they were more for flavor than anything else, but seeing what Josh has stated here, I'm much more excited about 'em.
I was 6 years old when Star Wars came out.
Episode I? You were born in '99? Damn.
He moisturizes daily. With the spent tears and broken dreams of failed would be PFS submission authors.
Nah, those I'm not proud of. I do moisturize with the tears of perma-banned paizo.com messageboard participants, though.
/bow
There Josh I said it, can I have my soul back now, preety please?
I pawned it. Sorry.
josh, did you also get your eternal youth by bathing in the blood of 1,000 virgins?
josh, did you also get your eternal youth by bathing in the blood of 1,000 virgins?
Nope. That's a secret I'm not allowed to reveal.
josh, did you also get your eternal youth by bathing in the blood of 1,000 virgins?Nope. That's a secret I'm not allowed to reveal.
why? how bout you reveal that secret? it' something that nobodies lips can keep quiet about forever. all it takes is a lunatic with government paranoia to find out. i can find plenty over in northern california.