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Hi guys,
This is a bit of a spin-off thread from the "Future of 1-5 Scenarios" thread. I am not a heavy hitter organizer, or a long time GM. I run a small group of PFS for some folks at work, with my players all around level 3/4. The talk about what type of content to create for PFS is currently centered around the cold hard fact that the current number of scenarios isn't likely to change. In order for Paizo to get the biggest bang for their buck, as they are using a pretty significant amount of their bandwidth to make these scenarios, is to try and market these differently.
I know when I previously went looking for Pathfinder content, I pretty much ignored PFS scenarios because I didn't think they really fit my needs. However, I think if these scenarios were marketed as one-shots or side encounters, rather than "PFS Scenario #23", you might be able to get more people outside PFS interested in purchasing them. Set up a subscription for them just like any other Paizo product and really sell them up to the non-PFS crowd. To that End:
1) Continue to tie in with the Current AP. Maybe even have 2 short arcs a year, one dealing with each AP.
2) Tie in with other Paizo products like campaign materials and modules. Having a scenario that told a little side story in a published module, or that fleshed out a plot hook in the campaign material line would be cool. Or maybe one that featured a new character archtype as the villain.
Anyway, just some ideas to get more people interested in these as I find the format very useful for my group regardless of whether or not we ran it for actual PFS credit. Right now, they are currently kept kind of separate from all the rest of Paizo's content. Whether or not that is intentional I don't know.
Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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^^^ Me likey (-:Doesn't this break the no-replay rule? Because you potentially have people who have played it in non-PFS mode who come into the fold and replay in PFS mode.
Wait, what? Did I misread that?
Edit: Okay, I've re-read it and I didn't see anything I missed. I don't think...
Anyway, what you're saying is that someone could play it during their private life, then "replay" it during a PFS session during credit. And, yeah, that would be more likely to happen if Paizo went into overdrive marketing these scenarios to people outside of PFS. Personally, that would be a bit of a bummer, but only for people like me who like to experience a story brand-new.
Replay (the variety with evil dripping off of it and hell-red eyes staring back at me) in organized play becomes a problem when you can continue to play a scenario repeatedly for full character credit. That's the type of thing that gets my back up and gets me all confrontational on those threads. I can't see this type of marketing push engendering that type of problem. So, no, I wouldn't be upset about it. Frankly, I would think that most home-game GMs would take these scenarios and do to them what they would do to an AP: make it theirs. The end result would be something that has several differences from what would get played in PFS.
Anyhoo, there are a variety of reasons that I wouldn't be concerned about this kind of "replay" possibility harming PFS. To be blunt, this kind of thing is already out there. I've put my own home groups through Decline of Glory, Pallid Plague, Bloodcove Disguise, Rescue at Azlant Ridge, and (soon) Beneath the Silver Tarn. If any of those guys ended up playing those scenarios in PFS I'd be surprised if they recognized it the second time.
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I like this idea, too.
I know that Paizo is excellent at cross-promotion, and already mention a lot of products that work well together within those products. If they are not doing this already, they should have a sidebar in each volume of the Adventure Path of modules and PFS scenarios that take place in the same region. I'm sure that would drive some sales to GMs looking for appropriate side-quests.
I totally would have gotten a scenario subscription when I had the disposable income to be a superscriber. Beats the tar out of buying each one manually.
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I will add my voice to those saying we should release PFS scenarios into the wild.
I know that I have run a few of these as non-PFS events for non-PFS folks in the past, because they were great scenarios, and I happened upon a bunch of folks that wanted to just play something for the afternoon. They aren't convention goers (well, they go to DragonCon, but spend the weekend partying, not PFSing), and they aren't at all into organized play (too many restrictions for their taste), but playing through the Hall of Drunken Heroes with some home-game tweaks was perfect for an evening of fun.
Marketing these scenarios as the baseline for a well-written, tightly-contained 6-hour home game seems like a logical sales pitch. The fact that there are story threads winding through a number of them makes it even better.