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When I make a character for Pathfinder or Starfinder society, I normally play that character through all of the scenarios for one whole season. So I have a Pathfinder season 1 character, a season 2 character, etc etc. But I have noticed with the change in how many levels one can play certain scenarios (1-4 tier instead of 1-5 tier) my Starfinder Season 1 character is almost too high of a level to play the rest of the season 1s.
Is their any word on then slow progression will be allowed? I don't see any info on the Starfinder Society Guide and all chronicle sheets I see only have normal progression on them.
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It is a shame that nobody ever answered this question. I found it while searching for the same issue. After searching, there still doesn't appear to be any update about the possibility of slow progression beyond what was posted in Feb. of 2018, even though there are now at least 4 sanctioned APs (18 modules?) and over 50 scenarios -- over 100XP.
Thread: Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide Update (2018 edition)
Department of Expectation Management: As a heads up, there's no plan on adding in slow progression yet. Emphasis on the "yet" part of that. I would probably wait for us to get a solid year of two scenarios/month under our belt before we start even considering that.
Paizo - is there any update on SFS slow progression?
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I wouldn't view myself as a prolific Starfinder player or GM.
This is NOT a complaint given the number of repeatable scenarios that are out there (thank you very much for this!).
However, I have folks who are suddenly pushing into 5-6 range and this is kind of scaring me (I am totally not prepared nor equipped for the level jumps given the finances, imo).
Instead of the casual meander that was PFS1, this has been feeling more like a sprint -- again, not a complaint -- and it worries me that I may soon out-level the repeatables and/or fall into a weird Tier compared to other groups I play with.
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I do have some concerns that slow progression will suddenly give those characters twice as many boon sheets to pull from each scenario, making their contributions potentially more worthwhile.
My response to leveling up characters "too fast" is simply to be a serial new PC generator. This lets me play in the repeatables and generally have a character in any needed level range.
I admit that I'm weird like that, though.
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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I don't personally feel much of a need. I used to do a lot of slow play in PFS1 but kinda stopped doing that when I began to feel the pinch of running out of scenarios.
But I don't want to tell other people how to enjoy their game. If it can be implemented easily, then let's do so.
Regional Venture-Coordinator, Appalachia
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I do have some concerns that slow progression will suddenly give those characters twice as many boon sheets to pull from each scenario, making their contributions potentially more worthwhile.
My response to leveling up characters "too fast" is simply to be a serial new PC generator. This lets me play in the repeatables and generally have a character in any needed level range.
I admit that I'm weird like that, though.
I ended up with like 33 PFS1 characters and only got to really enjoy like 10 of them without slow it would have been even less.
I didn't find having 30+ character journals to maintain fun especially when so many were theoretical GM blobs that existed due to excess credit.
As is now I am literally just having credit Go to waste
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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I do have some concerns that slow progression will suddenly give those characters twice as many boon sheets to pull from each scenario, making their contributions potentially more worthwhile.
Well, this is something the boon slot system should be able to cushion.
I mean, slow track will give you more boons to select from, but not more that you can actually slot. (I'm kinda assuming that anyone racing to use all their boon slots would have had one of each type from the Guide anyway.)
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Venture-Captain, North Carolina—Central Region
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I see your points, but an issue for me is that, while I would enjoy spending more time with some of my favorite characters, early levels can be so painful to wait through. Did PFS include the ability to switch to slow track after a certain point, or were you on it for your entire career?
When PFS first implemented it, you could choose to change from normal to slow or back each time you gained a level. After a year or so, it was changed so that you could choose each scenario which type of credit you wished to receive.
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I see your points, but an issue for me is that, while I would enjoy spending more time with some of my favorite characters, early levels can be so painful to wait through. Did PFS include the ability to switch to slow track after a certain point, or were you on it for your entire career?When PFS first implemented it, you could choose to change from normal to slow or back each time you gained a level. After a year or so, it was changed so that you could choose each scenario which type of credit you wished to receive.
This has been **incredibly** helpful functionality in PF1.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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I see your points, but an issue for me is that, while I would enjoy spending more time with some of my favorite characters, early levels can be so painful to wait through. Did PFS include the ability to switch to slow track after a certain point, or were you on it for your entire career?When PFS first implemented it, you could choose to change from normal to slow or back each time you gained a level. After a year or so, it was changed so that you could choose each scenario which type of credit you wished to receive.
I think that change happened in season 7 or so, so a bit more than "after a year or two". But it was a surprisingly easy change to carry out, and added a great deal of quality of life.
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Venture-Captain, North Carolina—Central Region
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I think that change happened in season 7 or so, so a bit more than "after a year or two". But it was a surprisingly easy change to carry out, and added a great deal of quality of life.I see your points, but an issue for me is that, while I would enjoy spending more time with some of my favorite characters, early levels can be so painful to wait through. Did PFS include the ability to switch to slow track after a certain point, or were you on it for your entire career?When PFS first implemented it, you could choose to change from normal to slow or back each time you gained a level. After a year or so, it was changed so that you could choose each scenario which type of credit you wished to receive.
You're quite likely right. I started during Season 5, so I remembered the original method, but couldn't recall when it changed, only that it didn't feel like long after I started.
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"And now... it's time for my second favorite past time, thread necromancy!" The Pact World's most famous media presence points his trademark finger guns and bumps the thread.
"Normally, I don't support anything slow, but... there are times in any dramatic narrative where it is important to slow down the pace a little to amp the tension of the plot, amirite? That's why Zo! throws his support to the idea of initiating slow track in Starfinder Society!"
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I'm not active in OrgPlay, so I don't have a dog in the fight, as they say, when it comes to slow progression. But as a GM who runs SFS as an "adventure path" I can say that one change that would make it far easier for a single PC to complete an entire storyline would be to end the practice of including a scenario, late in a season's metaplot and important to it, that suddenly drops level tiers.
This happened in the metaplots for Year 1 (rollercoaster progression that went Tier 1-2, 1-4, 3-6, 3-6, 5-8, 1-8, 5-8, 3-6, 7-10, 3-6, 3-6, 5-8, 7-10, 1-12), Year 2 (for perhaps inescapable real-world reasons, the multi-table finale cut out PCs who'd gone on some of the most important missions to that point), and Year 4 (#4-13 and the finale #4-16).
Year 3 and its three "mini"-metaplots avoided this pitfall, and Year 5 has as well, so far (though #5-11 may change that).
Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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Necromancy...
I have no strong opinions either way, but not having a slow track option makes it somewhat more viable to offer more high-level scenarios, as character levels are pushed upward.
Fortunately, I was in the position to sponsor someone a replay via a boon, but without that, a recent high-level table would not have fired at my recent event.
Depends on what people value more, but for what it's worth, I am currently slow tracking a character in PFS2, and that system has the advantage of the math not getting quite as wobbly as you go past level 12 as in PF1 and SFS.
Contributor
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I actually feel that slow track makes those high-level tables more possible, because they allow the higher level characters to slow down while the lower level characters go full speed to catch up.
Having slow track would make it easier for us to schedule a high level sequence at Dreamers.
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Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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Sure, existing SFS characters can linger longer in the relevant level range, but plenty of other players might not get their characters there in the next years if they slow-track and spread their credit.
AP and Adventure credit makes the whole subject a bit more complicated, though I welcome recent changes.
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Year 3 and its three "mini"-metaplots avoided this pitfall, and Year 5 has as well, so far (though #5-11 may change that).
Narrator Voice: It did.
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Until the website can handle fractional reputation, slow track will mean that if you only partially succeed at a scenario, you get 0 reputation (not 1/2.)
I anticipate this will cause no end of headaches. (Given the whole fight over SFS quests not giving reputation because the website can't handle fractions in that field.
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It's also a matter of fairness across campaigns. PF2 has had slow track from the beginning of its implementation, despite a paucity of material.
It almost didn't. (Also remember that PFS2 released twice as many scenarios at start as SFS did. SFS started out releasing 1/month. And I think fewer APs and Modules (?would have to double check that?)
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Contributor
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Until the website can handle fractional reputation, slow track will mean that if you only partially succeed at a scenario, you get 0 reputation (not 1/2.)
I anticipate this will cause no end of headaches. (Given the whole fight over SFS quests not giving reputation because the website can't handle fractions in that field.
Is that why SFS Bounties don't give rep?
There must be some way we can do slow track though. It is so frustrating to try to figure out where to put my GM credits without some way of slow tracking them. If I don't play characters at least once every level (or every other) I lose track of them. I have had characters go up 3 levels before I get to play them again, something which can make me lose touch with their personality and growth as individuals.
And I don't like the answer of 'don't apply the credit' because then I forget which credit I have applied and which I haven't. I really, really want slow track.
Hmm
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Venture-Agent, Minnesota—Minneapolis
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I also liked Slow Track in PF1. I used it quite a bit for GM credit. I also used it a couple of times on Player credit when there was a particular set of scenarios I wanted to fit in before I leveled out of range.
It would be great to Slow Track GM credit. Make it less common where a character levels multiple times without being played.
If we did it for SFS, I would suggest we require that the adventure normally give at least 1 XP — no slow tracking the bounties.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Online—PbP
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I have always really wished that slow track was not an option, because I think that it makes the chronicles sheets a pain to fill out as GM. It already is a pain that characters can be getting different gold rewards due to tier, so I can fill out much less of the sheet for everyone before copying.