Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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This is called "farming" and is likely to draw some very negative responses.
The short answer to your question: no, there is not.
The long(er) answer: no, and please don't make one or ask for one. Campaign management has made it pretty clear that looking through chronicles to find the "best stuff" for your PC is a form of cheating.
Some justification for those answers: If you play in an adventure path will you be upset with those kinds of rewards being written into the AP encounters? There are a pretty even mix of these kinds of things throughout all form of adventures (modules, APs, PFS scenarios), and if the expectation is that only PCs that can make use of those rewards are the ones that play them, then the game breaks down pretty badly. After all, who wants to play through any adventure with a druid-only party that is all after the Sabertooth Cat boon?
If you really want to grab an item tailor-made for a PC, and found that item after playing it with a PC who cannot make use of it, I suggest GMing the scenario. Then you can assign your GM credit to whichever PC you choose, and that choice can certainly be influenced by what is on the chronicle sheet. This is very likely why there are so many owlbears and axebeaks running around; not because the player "lucked out" and played it with the correct PC.
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But to address the OP's dilemma, if you play through a scenario and find that the rewards are not appropriate for the character you played with, simply sign up to GM the scenario at a later date and give the credit to the character you think would benefit most from it.
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Wasn't there a thread about this very same thing 6 months ago? (My search-fu is terrible.)
But as to "why not make a list?": you don't WIN Pathfinder.
Pathfinder isn't a (modern) MMO. It doesn't have a huge set of achievements (rode a hellhound through the Oparra Opera House - 30 Cool Points!) No character should have the "perfect" list of boons to become the "ultimate" character. These are design choices. It's not the way the developers intend for the game to be played.
No two characters have the same experiences, and they don't end up as the same undifferentiated "awesome dood." And good design and good GMing means you don't have to be perfect (being terrible is a different subject.) Most players I know definitely talk about "that awesome thing that girl did to the BBEG in that one scenario" - but more common is the great experiences with well role-played characters and situations.
I personally didn't like the way the QFP boon was handled either. I got the boon with my Cleric, and had already GMed part 1 with another non-animal companion character. WBG did a much better job of this. Since you weren't playing with a "real" character you could assign the chronicle to any character less than level 5 - even a newly created one (you just wouldn't get the chronicle until you hit level 2).
Yah I wish more boons were transferable between characters of the same player (Ooh, I got a unique and really cool Staff of the Moderately Successful Mage. . . with my barbarian) but that's not a reason to go picking out specific scenarios ahead of time.
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I wonder if that's not one of the reasons Paizo staff has given starred GM's replay options. Taking Belafon's experience there, with the stars, they'd be able to re-run or re-play part 1 with who they want the boon for and still get it instead of "missing out". But as stated above, the best option is to GM as well. Try it! Ye may like it.
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Pathfinder isn't a (modern) MMO. It doesn't have a huge set of achievements (rode a hellhound through the Oparra Opera House - 30 Cool Points!) No character should have the "perfect" list of boons to become the "ultimate" character. These are design choices. It's not the way the developers intend for the game to be played.
I have to disagree, Planning your character advancement is not something that we need to be vilifying in PFS play. PFS is not like a real campaign. It is highly instanced and is highly unlikely to have persistent character interaction (unless you are playing with a consistent group in which case why not just play a real campaign instead if you can?). This makes way more MMO like than Lets not pretend that you can plan your character advancement out like in a real campaign with player-DM collaboration where they can toss in a sidequest or customized treasure or an NPC that link specially to your character. So with that loss of the fundamental strength of tabletop gaming, PFs becomes depressingly MMO like which is probably why we see this kind of behavior.
The "just DM it" argument is also inadequate, especially for older scenarios where many players have probably played it already. Also I don't know how I feel about encouraging players to farm tables for a particular boon as a DM rather than a player. Ok, I do know how I feel. I don't like the idea. How is farming tables as a DM different from doing it as a player? Except that if you are just tossing off the table to get your shiny you can ruin people's experience much more effectively as the DM.
While I do agree that it is kind of crass to look at the chronicle sheets beforehand, it is completely ok to be picky about what scenario you play with what character. There is even plenty of information about this based on the blurb and reviews of various scenarios. This is especially important in season 5 since now we have faction specific arcs woven through the season. For example, I played the Season 5 special with my cleric of Iomedae because he has alignment channel and is going to be a holy vindicator. I based this choice on the title and reviews of the scenario and it added to my experience. I would not have had as much fun if I followed your guys' method of leaving my character advancement completely up to the random vagaries of signup and not fought for a place at a table of the correct tier to play the character I wanted.
On the subject of unique boons which are appropriate for only limited types of characters, I think that
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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Farming it as a GM is, in a word, unavoidable. The only way to not cherry pick which character got credit would be to throw a dart at your list of options and see what you hit. So, no, I can't really fault someone for putting QfP on their GM credit built druid or monk.
As for the idea of only GMing QfP simply because you get a boon? Yeah, that sucks. I really hope that doesn't happen, but I'm certain it has (and will) and can only hope that the experience was at least reasonable for the players involved. Again, however, pretty hard to avoid.
Finally, I don't think anyone is saying that someone shouldn't angle their way into a boon like that on QfP with their druid or monk (or cavalier or paladin, or whatever else can take advantage). I think people are saying you shouldn't be hunting that kind of thing down specifically. Nor should you be upset when you find out you played a scenario with a fighter that had on its chronicle the perfect wand for your wizard.
Angle away with your PCs. Just don't make a point of listing everything available on all the chronicles. Farm away with your GM credit. Just don't make it a crappy experience for your players.
Those statements are pretty easy to quantify: don't be a jerk.
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Finally, I don't think anyone is saying that someone shouldn't angle their way into a boon like that on QfP with their druid or monk (or cavalier or paladin, or whatever else can take advantage). I think people are saying you shouldn't be hunting that kind of thing down specifically. Nor should you be upset when you find out you played a scenario with a fighter that had on its chronicle the perfect wand for your wizard.
Those statements are pretty easy to quantify: don't be a jerk.
Exactly what I meant to say. The point of my spoilered text above is that campaign leadership is doing a better job of avoiding "must have boons on the wrong character" - because they listen to player feedback. Advertising what factions are associated with each scenario is a step toward that.
But there's a big difference between getting a boon that plays into your Andoran background and a list that says "OK, scenario 2-319 (The Dwarven Forgemasters) has a boon that let's you buy any magical heavy armor at a 10% discount." Among other things, if a majority of players start using that list you'll have very few casters when you sit down. And six fighters might not be able to handle it at all.
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Exactly what I meant to say. The point of my spoilered text above is that campaign leadership is doing a better job of avoiding "must have boons on the wrong character" - because they listen to player feedback. Advertising what factions are associated with each scenario is a step toward that.
But there's a big difference between getting a boon that plays into your Andoran background and a list that says "OK, scenario 2-319 (The Dwarven Forgemasters) has a boon that let's you buy any magical heavy armor at a 10% discount." Among other things, if a majority of players start using that list you'll have very few casters when you sit down. And six fighters might not be able to handle it at all.
I am glad that I misinterpreted your position to be more extreme than it actually is.
However, I still think that trying to play a scenario entitled "The Dwarven Forgemasters" with a martial character rather than a pure spellcaster, and recomending that to other players, is completely reasonable based only on the name alone since even without seeing the chronicle sheet I could guess that there is going to be cool forge related stuff on the chronicle sheet or possibly a forge related boon. Since, you know, "forge" is literally in the title. This reasoning would also be sound with dwarves for this example. That hypothetical boon would be an example of a specific boon done very well, since you can infer who might want it from the scenario title/theme.
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Is the ribbon pretty?No...but you can have a participation ribbon.rode a hellhound through the Oparra Opera House - 30 Cool Points!)Damn!
No cool points for me; I used a riding dog instead. Do I get a consolation prize? Please!
No, it's a cheap little blue ribbon with a tacky red sticker on it to look like the old first place ribbons, but it is only a pale imitation of it because there is no value behind it. But the girl who gives you the ribbon will be pretty.
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That's not exactly what I meant. Let's call scenario 2-319 "Prisoners of the Aboleth" instead (with the same boon). Now the existence of a "list" becomes a bigger problem.
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That's not exactly what I meant. Let's call scenario 2-319 "Prisoners of the Aboleth" instead (with the same boon). Now the existence of a "list" becomes a bigger problem.
Well that would turn into an example of a specific boon done badly. My point is that if there is a boon which is narrow in it's applicability and/or usefulness then it needs to be telegraphed to a certain extent in the theme of the scenario. Otherwise the existence of a "list" becomes dangerously justified.
The Rats of Round Mountain series has a boon which is wide in its applicability and thematically linked to the contents of the scenario. this is a boon developed correctly.
The second level of Thornkeep is The Forgotten Laboratory and has a n alchemist-flavored boon and a cool alchemy related item on the chronicle. This is another well developed chronicle.
The third level of Thornkeep is The Enigma Vaults. It has noqual on the chronicle. This is a boon which is narrow in its applicability and is not linked with the title very well. It is somewhat linked with the theme of outer space though, except not in a terribly predictable way. This is an example of Fair to Mediocre chronicle development.
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And I'm sorry, but I disagree with the GMing the scenario to get the item. I do not like GMing so its quite unfair to expect me to GM just to get stuff suitable for my character. In a sense, its just like asking me to plan for making a character but instead, asking me to plan to GM all the scenarios to get items for a specific character. The same way I am asking about it as a player.
There is a large difference. As a GM, you EXPECTED to know what happens behind the screen. Players knowing what's behind the screen is called "Spoilers" and are indeed frowned upon by most gamers. If you're going to just be a player, please do not expect everyone to freely hand you spoilers. If I know Drogon, he likely will not be saying what the monk-friendly item is (indeed, I'm surprised he even said that much, though it was to make a point). Besides, many of the unique items on Chronicle sheets cannot be found in d20pfsrd or Archives of Nethys or what have you. However, as a GM, you can look at things and, like playing in an AP, get to choose which character to apply it to.
But alas, you do not wish to GM, so that shuts out perhaps the most convenient option.
Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area South & West
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I also don't quite see what this has to do with "winning" as I still am playing through the scenario(s) in whatever method I feel is fun.
But, apparently, what you feel is fun is to use information not made available to the player base as a whole. Are all the other players at the table aware that you are doing this, and think it's acceptable for you to do so, or are you putting your 'fun' above that of the other participants? You are supposed to inform your GM before playing if you have prior knowledge of anything about the scenario (which would include what's on the chronicle), and the GM is within his rights to bar you from the table should he choose to do so.
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Found a couple of posts about this. I could have sworn there was one recently in which Mike simply said "Please do not create such a list" but I can't find it.
We have an internal list of all gear provided across all scenarios, but it's not something I plan to release. It's a tool I now use to gauge how we're distributing treasure, not something I want people using to figure out what order to play scenarios in to get access to specific equipment levels in advance.
As has been stated upthread, the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign is one in which we hope that players are not reading ahead (either adventures or Chronicle sheets) in order to cherry-pick adventures based on a checklist of monsters they'd like to encounter or equipment they'd like to receive. As such, we consider discussion of such spoilers to be against the spirit of the game.
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Found a couple of posts about this. I could have sworn there was one recently in which Mike simply said "Please do not create such a list" but I can't find it.As has been stated upthread, the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign is one in which we hope that players are not reading ahead (either adventures or Chronicle sheets) in order to cherry-pick adventures based on a checklist of monsters they'd like to encounter or equipment they'd like to receive. As such, we consider discussion of such spoilers to be against the spirit of the game.
I think that one hits the ball out of the park, so to speak.
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-tilts head and considers-
I have a Lore Warden (fighter type), a now dead Sorceress/Bard but let's say she's still alive for this example, and a Taldor Faction character.
On my Lorewarden, I ran through an mod or scenario, can't remember which, where she got an awesome Sash of Suggestion that adds to Dancing. I was lucky enough to play her through the one with the noqual armor but man, what a waste that would have been for my spell caster.
I also ran through the scenario with the amazing Taldor/Cheliax boon with my Osirion Lore Warden and wanted to kick a baby at the end because I had a Taldor faction character that was within level.
Now, I ride the bus for 2 hours one way and I'm usually waiting in the rain for 20min at two separate stops to get to the game store on game day. In theory, yes, cherry picking does go against the spirit of the game.
But you know what? It's about enjoyment first and foremost. I know when I start GMing, I will be noting "Special Boons - Fighter/Spellcaster/Faction orientated in with the description because WE CAN'T REPLAY THE SCENARIO/MOD!
So, as a player, I'm highly considering slow playing because of this. But what uber sucks is what's the point of an amazing boon if the character can't use it? Now, if we could apply said boon to another character that it would be useful for, that's another matter entirely.
So, since the spirit of the game is to have fun, as a GM and a Player, I'm not going to hold it against anyone who "Cherry Picks." After all, we only get 1 shot as a player and 2 as a GM.
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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I mentioned the monk part of QfP because, frankly, it's no secret. Good lord, the series is called Quest for Perfection, and you're in search of an ancient monk's long-lost progeny. When it first came out we ALL wanted to play through it with our monk characters (and the kind of complaints that Saint Caleth highlighted were commonplace, by the way). But, no, I most certainly am not going to tell you what it is. And no, you can't find it on the PRD or d20PFSRD.
Omnitricks, when you go to the local store you're going to end up chatting with people who have gone out on adventures, heard rumors, and "survived to tell the tale" so to speak. We'll liken it to the Adventurer's Guildhouse. Of course they're going to tell you what they've heard. "The Venture Captain wants to send a group up to the Storval Stairs to rescue a caravan. I heard the baddy in control of that region has gotten hold of a wizard's private treasure trove. I'd love to be the wizard that gets sent on that job."
But we cross a line when we start listing out exactly what you can find and how to find it on every chronicle (meaning some of the boons/items only come available if you do certain things; should I be handing you that information, too?). Coming here and asking us to cross that line for you so that you can plot the perfect character for each and every adventure does a disservice to the people you are going to be playing with (both the GMs and the players).
Moreover, Paizo has specifically asked us not to do that (thanks for the links, Belafon; I swore Mike said something, too, but never found it, either). We hold Paizo and this game in high enough esteem to abide by their requests and actually play this game cooperatively instead of selfishly pursue our own ends. After all, we all found out what was in those adventures by playing through them. Why shouldn't you have to do the same thing?
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Honestly, even with Mark's explanation, I think players who do this don't do it against the spirit of the game.
DeviantDiva said it best - there's no point in having amazing boons on chronicles when you play out the scenario and then find out oops, it's wasted. If development thinks having boons wasted like that is okay, that's a design flaw that's leading to this behaviour.
I don't think it's good to know in advance that if you do task X you get boon X or if you do task Y you get boon Y, but I don't think that's what we're talking about. We're talking about where if you play this specific class or this specific faction in this scenario, you get a boon.
A lot of the regulars already knew about the retirement boons for shadow lodge and lantern lodge; how many of them that are posting here against this idea opted not to play those scenarios with their shadow lodge/lantern lodge characters (assuming you had them) before August 14th?
How many newbies were spitting chips to find out if they had used those characters, they would've gotten a boon?
I mean, really, how dare we try to enjoy the game as much as we can. I think calling it going against the spirit of the game is the wrong way to look at it.
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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Honestly, even with Mark's explanation, I think players who do this don't do it against the spirit of the game.
Not as they see it, that is true. But, clearly, it is against the spirit of the game as Paizo sees it. Don't get upset with them when they ask you to play their game in their way; that's all I'm saying.
DeviantDiva said it best - there's no point in having amazing boons on chronicles when you play out the scenario and then find out oops, it's wasted. If development thinks having boons wasted like that is okay, that's a design flaw that's leading to this behaviour.
I do actually agree with this. I think Paizo does, too, which is why you are seeing two different behaviors, now:
1 - A clear indication of what kind of boon to expect and how to earn it (the faction retirement boons being an example; the new Season 5 faction mission boons being a continuation of this example).
2 - The kind of boon that is useful across the PC spectrum, as opposed to the kind that is in QfP.
I don't think it's good to know in advance that if you do task X you get boon X or if you do task Y you get boon Y, but I don't think that's what we're talking about. We're talking about where if you play this specific class or this specific faction in this scenario, you get a boon.
You say "behaviour," I say "behavior." Neither of us is wrong.
A lot of the regulars already knew about the retirement boons for shadow lodge and lantern lodge; how many of them that are posting here against this idea opted not to play those scenarios with their shadow lodge/lantern lodge characters (assuming you had them) before August 14th?
I'm not going to lie: I didn't like this. I liked it even less when it became common knowledge that having the "Debt of the Kirin" boon from Intro Part 2 (now retired) would be beneficial. As a coordinator I have never experienced the kind of difficulty in scheduling as I had with these scenarios. Parties were wildly disparate in talent and level, making for some very un-fun games, from what I witnessed and heard. I am planning to run them in the coming months, again, and see if the experience is different, with the lure of the boon removed. I suspect it will be.
For the record: I GM'd Rivalry's End and put it on a 13th level PC. A more ignominious end to that chronicle sheet I cannot imagine. But it was fitting for the character, so I did it. I played through it with a non-Shadow Lodge, as I did with Way of the Kirin (played through it with a non-Lantern Lodge). I had plenty of opportunity to build faction appropriate PCs, and chose not to.
How many newbies were spitting chips to find out if they had used those characters, they would've gotten a boon?
I mean, really, how dare we try to enjoy the game as much as we can. I think calling it going against the spirit of the game is the wrong way to look at it.
I am going to assume culpability for starting this debate by dropping the "you'll get negative responses" comment. I hope it's clear that I am not vilifying the behavior. I'm just not going to condone it, and don't want people vilified, in turn, for not condoning it. I hope that makes sense.
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Avatar-1 makes some good points.
In Season 5 we have been given a loose correspondence between factions and scenarios, i.e., "faction X should be interested in scenarios Y, and Z." Perhaps something similar could be done for classes? I'm just spitballing here.
Boons aside, I recently played in a wonderful scenario of political intrigue and investigation. Thankfully, I was playing a face character instead of a face-smasher character. Everyone at my table had a good time, but the face-smashers (there were 4 of them) were itching for combat. I don't think it would be too much of a spoiler to let players know "hey, this scenario will feature lots of intrigue and diplomacy; if your only shtick is to hit things in the face, you might want to consider another scenario."
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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Avatar-1 makes some good points.
In Season 5 we have been given a loose correspondence between factions and scenarios, i.e., "faction X should be interested in scenarios Y, and Z." Perhaps something similar could be done for classes? I'm just spitballing here.
** spoiler omitted **
Boons aside, I recently played in a wonderful scenario of political intrigue and investigation. Thankfully, I was playing a face character instead of a face-smasher character. Everyone at my table had a good time, but the face-smashers (there were 4 of them) were itching for combat. I don't think it would be too much of a spoiler to let players know "hey, this scenario will feature lots of intrigue and diplomacy; if your only shtick is to hit things in the face, you might want to consider another scenario."
I see nothing wrong with what is under your spoiler. As I mentioned, these kinds of discussions are going to be had at the Adventurer's Guildhouse.
But this is stepping over the line:
The chronicle sheet features the following item upon completing the story arc: [details of a Gnome-y item redacted]
The chronicle sheet features the following animal companion boon: a hodag. You will only get this boon if you successfully rescue it from being the dinner of the group of spriggans hiding in the fort and only if you succeed at a DC 30 handle animal.
Those kinds of details, I think, are what will be asked for, if we continue down this path instead of playing under Paizo's auspices.
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I'm not going to lie: I didn't like this. I liked it even less when it became common knowledge that having the "Debt of the Kirin" boon from Intro Part 2 (now retired) would be beneficial. As a coordinator I have never experienced the kind of difficulty in scheduling as I had with these scenarios. Parties were wildly disparate in talent and level, making for some very un-fun games, from what I witnessed and heard. I am planning to run them in the coming months, again, and see if the experience is different, with the lure of the boon removed. I suspect it will be.
I hear that. My runs of Way of the Kirin were similar. And I did my damnedest to never say what the boon was for the faction.
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Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area South & West
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Obviously experiences differ in different parts of the country.
Where I play, it was common knowledge that Shadow Lodge or Lantern Lodge characters would want to play in the appropriate faction-ending scenario. But that shouldn't be a big surprise - that had been made pretty clear on the Paizo forums just about as soon as the scenarios were announced, and repeated in a blog entry just in case anybody might have missed it.
There was a strong suspicion that there was a fairly nice faction-specific boon on the chronicle. But just what was in store for the characters wasn't common knowledge. I had absolutely no idea what was on the chronicle until I played the first scenario (on July 10th). And as far as I can tell hardly any of the local player base knew what to expect, even the folks who played it the week before the last-chance deadline.
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As has been stated upthread, the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign is one in which we hope that players are not reading ahead (either adventures or Chronicle sheets) in order to cherry-pick adventures based on a checklist of monsters they'd like to encounter or equipment they'd like to receive. As such, we consider discussion of such spoilers to be against the spirit of the game.
Credit to Belafon for posting this upthread.
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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Also germane to the discussion:
I'm going to go outside my normal position of letting the player base police itself and say this. This post is directed at any person who wants to encourage cheating and breaking the rules. If you don't want to follow the rules we have established for Organized Play, then don't play our campaign. I have seen posts and advice that continuously encourage people to break the rules and this will stop. Are there some rules that can change to make the campaign better? Of course and we are working to fix those. Should people blatantly break the rules because they don't like them? Absolutely not. If you feel this is what you need to do, then leave the campaign. Encouraging people to intentionally break the rules is the same as encouraging cheating, especially playing outside of their tier, and it is not welcome and will stop.
This is not said in an angry or irritated tone. It is a matter of fact statement. Enough is enough.
Link to the thread: DON'T CHEAT
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There's already a compromise for the new season where it is strongly hinted which factions would want to play which scenarios. I don't think we need anymore than that. Sometimes you get awesome stuff, and sometimes someone else gets awesome stuff.
Do we really need an entire party of rangers and cavaliers all trying to get an axebeak?
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... I do actually agree with this. I think Paizo does, too, which is why you are seeing two different behaviors, now:
1 - A clear indication of what kind of boon to expect and how to earn it (the faction retirement boons being an example; the new Season 5 faction mission boons being a continuation of this example).
2 - The kind of boon that is useful across the PC spectrum, as opposed to the kind that is in QfP.
...
... "faction X should be interested in scenarios Y, and Z." Perhaps something similar could be done for classes? I'm just spitballing here.
... "hey, this scenario will feature lots of intrigue and diplomacy; if your only shtick is to hit things in the face, you might want to consider another scenario."
First, I personally really like both of these.
I don’t know if it was the same one, but a while back I played a sneak, investigation, influence scenario. In other words it was a very ‘skills heavy’ scenario. Every single character was a 2 skill point per level class. Only mine was not a heavily armored class. Only mine had charisma above 9. I don’t think any of the others had an intelligence above 11. My character was playing up out of level (and was also kinda poorly built since it was my first) so wasn’t able to contribute as much as my high charisma might have suggested. We only barely made it because of really lucky dice rolls, a sympathetic GM and liberal spending of PP and gold.
Now I can see if that was the assumption build into the scenario. It is a lodge out in the hinterlands, it’s happening now, you’re not ideally suited for this, but you’re the only pathfinders I have available so you will have to do. But from the intro, this was in Absolom and known about for weeks. Is it believable that any of the faction captains with a whole bunch of candidates would pick the 6 least capable people for this crucial mission? Maybe 1 or 2 of Foxes ‘face smashers’ in case things break down. But all 6?
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Second, more specific to the discussion/argument that the OP accidentially ignited.
Ok, I’m going to argue both sides of this one. Some of my fairly random thoughts:
- I understand that in-character, my PC has no way to know what mission will give him what rewards. Plus he is pretty much being sent where/when the leadership wants. I get that and agree with it.
- In a home game I am confident that my GM will eventually give out something at least fairly kool to each of the players.
- But that isn’t necessarily the case here. My PC is at the mercy of which ever table is open. Even if I go by the schedule and read the blurb on the scenario, there is still often only 1 going on in each tier. I am not so petty as to not play just because there was no specific reward for my sorcerer. However, it was mildly irritating that my 5th level sorcerer had not a single item on any of his faction sheets that was worth buying for him (or that couldn’t just be bought at his fame level) or boon that he could use. I knew it was luck of the draw but it was still an annoyance. {{ Now this last scenario he finally got a boon that applies to him and I am happier. Oddly enough, I don’t know if I will go for it since it requires me to take a feat that I had not planned to take. But at least it is something to think about that applies to the character. My other 3 PC’s are lower level, but still none of the special stuff applies to them either. }}
- I think everyone understands that sitting down at a table with, for example, 6 archers because the scenario gives out a sweet bow is likely to cause a mission fail (or at least be un-fun). But normal variation is causing that kind of thing to happen sometimes anyway.
- I understand the developers are doing a reasonably decent (and constantly improving) job of providing a wide variety of special rewards. However, the PF system has so many possible types of builds (archer, TWH, TWF, tank, or mounted paladins; blast, control, buff, debuff, or SoS sorcerer; etc…) that even if they cover all of them, it will be fairly easy to randomly miss every single reward that would be ideal for your PC. So end up with nothing other than what can be thought of as 'normal' purchases.
- I am also aware that 'generic' rewards on the chronicle sheet should be considered sufficient even if the special stuff doesn't apply to you. But you still feel like you lost out on something if after many sessions, you don't have anything special when everyone else seems to have something.
Not saying I know what the correct compromise/solution is. However, I think the stronger and/or more accurate hints suggested above are a strong step in the correct direction.
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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Having the right character for the right mission is justified in that you are assigned t an adventure by the Society, not by your own accord. Ambrus Valsin would not send Thog the Barbarian to the Blakros Matrimony if he didn't have to.
O.o
Have you been there? The first time I went there I would've LOVED to have Thog the Barbarian with me. I was the last man standing in that fight...so many monkeys...<shudder>
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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There are some scenarios I'll love to run again and again (Quest for Perfection, Devil we Know, Nightmarch of Kalkamedies) for fun, regardless of the boons attached.
I recently ran <redacted> and encouraged the players to not be of a particular faction, just for the boon.* I don't see an issue with that.
*
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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Uhhhh, yeah? ...
and this:
If anyone actually would tell me what scenarios I can get the interesting, unique stuff like evil-evil tattoos, animal companions and the like they can just post it here and I'll check back or if they don't want to step on the toes of the people who don't like it, can just pm me.
I'm assuming this is okay, now, considering the conversation at this point?
Just checking.
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When I sit down to start either a series or a scenario with a boon, I will let people know "Hey, theres some stuff here for martial types." or "Hey, theres stuff here for you druid and ranger types."
I will not be specific, but if people want to collect cool or interesting boons for their character they have a chance. I will also add thematic and aesthetic boons that have no in-game consequences.
For example in Shades of Ice:
For Shades of Ice Part 2, they all took one of the claws of the white dragon and created a necklace, one took some of its skin and bound it to his shield. None of these were "boons" that changed them gamewise, but did add to the experience.
In many adventures, even real life ones, it is not uncommon to bring something memorable back, this is how I see boons.
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Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area South & West
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Uhhhh, yeah? ...
and this:
If anyone actually would tell me what scenarios I can get the interesting, unique stuff like evil-evil tattoos, animal companions and the like they can just post it here and I'll check back or if they don't want to step on the toes of the people who don't like it, can just pm me.
I'm assuming this is okay, now, considering the conversation at this point?
Just checking.
Ask yourself this: Would you comply with that request if Mike Brock was looking over your shoulder?
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Most of the boons are rather meh, anyway. I haven't gotten a single season 5 boon yet due to incompatible level/faction issues. Don't care; they're not that great.
Better than the earlier season boons.
"+5 to diplomacy checks when dealing with Andoran officials? Well that would have been great BEFORE I played that scenario in Andoran. When is it going to come up NOW?"
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Most of the boons are rather meh, anyway. I haven't gotten a single season 5 boon yet due to incompatible level/faction issues. Don't care; they're not that great.Better than the earlier season boons.
"+5 to diplomacy checks when dealing with Andoran officials? Well that would have been great BEFORE I played that scenario in Andoran. When is it going to come up NOW?"
I don't know...I've played a season 5 game where that would be a perfect boon to have had...