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So we've had various discussion about adding more PFS scenarios but that Paizo was just having trouble with the logistics of it.
I wanted to talk here a bit about season length, and explain why the current season worries me a bit.
Season 0: 28 Scenarios
Season 1: 28 Scenarios
Seasons 2: 28 Scenarios (Including Grand Convocation & Year of the Shadow Lodge)
Season 3: 30 Scenarios (Including First Steps & Blood Under Absalom)
Season 4: 29 Scenarios (Including Race for the Runecarved Key 1+2 & Bonekeep 1)
Season 5: 27 Scenarios (Including Siege of the Diamond City & Bonekeep 2)
Seasons 0/1 we had 28 scenarios.
Seasons 2-4 we had 26 scenarios + 2 to 4 specials (counting 1st steps)
Season 5 it looks like we're going to have 25 scenarios + 2 specials. A new low in PFS scenarios.
I think the quality is great and has gone way up from where we started but I'm worried about the current downward trend in scenarios produced.
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With my numbers I was counting the exclusive only the second time it was published and not the first.
If we count the initial publishing instead of the second we get slightly different totals:
Season 0: 28 Scenarios
Season 1: 28 Scenarios
Seasons 2: 29 Scenarios
Season 3: 30 Scenarios
Season 4: 29 Scenarios
Season 5: 26 Scenarios
Which makes this season look even shorter.
(As a note we may still get Bonekeep 3 later this season, which by my initial count would bring us up 28, although this has made me realize we didn't get Bonekeep as a cool extra special but that it replaced a normal scenario)
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If we count the initial publishing instead of the second we get slightly different totals:
That is based on perspective. For me I count them when they came out as exclusives and not the general public because I always got to play them as exclusives.
That is part of the reason so far I am seeing this season as very short.
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Based on the numbers posted by Vic Wertz a while ago now, it's still more than the vast majority of PFS players will ever need, even before you take into account other sanctioned material like APs and modules.
The big change in season 5 is a renewed focus on tier 1-5, which means that even if there are fewer scenarios, there are more that are available to more players.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32
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Based on the numbers posted by Vic Wertz a while ago now, it's still more than the vast majority of PFS players will ever need, even before you take into account other sanctioned material like APs and modules.
The big change in season 5 is a renewed focus on tier 1-5, which means that even if there are fewer scenarios, there are more that are available to more players.
Sure, if we assume that the average player plays only once a month, this is fine. However, those average players can only play if the long-running GMs also have things to do. I fully understand that I am not the norm, playing 2-3 scenarios per week. However, I think that the norm is slowly shifting to a more consistent once a week, as more people play in local gamedays rather than at cons. Locally, we have about 30 players who show up every Sunday to play. We're growing steadily.
The "renewed focus on Tier 1-5" is not really a new thing. It looks like this season is on track to switch back to the pre-Season 4 scenario distribution, which is a good thing. Even with 9 scenarios yet to be announced, this season has more 1-5s than Season 4 did. It's on par with Seasons 3 and 2. I really don't feel like we can call this a "renewed interest", though - it's just a shift back to the former norm.
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I always played them as exclusives, I just move them to the new season once they come out on my scenario tracker, which is what I used to get the counts.
Hmm I did keep Bonekeep1 in season 4 despite being rereleased in s5. Let's be consistent and only count initial releases. If we do that then we have my second set of numbers which is even more worrying.
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I fully understand that I am not the norm, playing 2-3 scenarios per week. However, I think that the norm is slowly shifting to a more consistent once a week, as more people play in local gamedays rather than at cons. Locally, we have about 30 players who show up every Sunday to play. We're growing steadily.
Well, one scenario a week is unsustainable on the face of it, let alone 2-3 scenarios per week. The distinction between 26 and 30 scenarios is, in that light, negligible.
The only way to keep getting Chroicle sheets every week, is to add in sanctioned modules and AP volumes. And while Wrath of the Righteous isn't going to be sanctioned, the back-catalog of APs which are now legal for PFS is steadily growing.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32
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I fully understand that I am not the norm, playing 2-3 scenarios per week. However, I think that the norm is slowly shifting to a more consistent once a week, as more people play in local gamedays rather than at cons. Locally, we have about 30 players who show up every Sunday to play. We're growing steadily.Well, one scenario a week is unsustainable on the face of it, let alone 2-3 scenarios per week. The distinction between 26 and 30 scenarios is, in that light, negligible.
The only way to keep getting Chroicle sheets every week, is to add in sanctioned modules and AP volumes. And while Wrath of the Righteous isn't going to be sanctioned, the back-catalog of APs which are now legal for PFS is steadily growing.
I realize that it's unsustainable, and I quite often GM for no credit. However, I would also like to be able to run something new every now and then, and that becomes increasingly hard
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Are any of these PFS scenarios?You forgot to add:
The six part goblin attack series of quests
The four advanced BB demos
GM 201
They were all made for PFS - Goblin Attack is another high-star GM reward, BB demos have PFS credit attached (I believe?) and GM 201 was made for PFS GMs.
Don't forget to include the new season-starting boon that was made available to all players, the chronicles to Carrion Crown, the new GM reward chronicles, all of the new modules that have released since they started sanctioning modules (including the added challenge of new-format modules!)... the PFS workload isn't just limited to new scenarios, due to the player request for more content. Even if a module or an adventure path isn't exclusively for PFS, the work to adapt it for use in PFS is a Society-only workload that they have been working endlessly on.
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Are any of these PFS scenarios?You forgot to add:
The six part goblin attack series of quests
The four advanced BB demos
GM 201They were all made for PFS - Goblin Attack is another high-star GM reward, BB demos have PFS credit attached (I believe?) and GM 201 was made for PFS GMs.
Don't forget to include the new season-starting boon that was made available to all players, the chronicles to Carrion Crown, the new GM reward chronicles, all of the new modules that have released since they started sanctioning modules (including the added challenge of new-format modules!)... the PFS workload isn't just limited to new scenarios, due to the player request for more content. Even if a module or an adventure path isn't exclusively for PFS, the work to adapt it for use in PFS is a Society-only workload that they have been working endlessly on.
I know there are lots of other things like APs, modules, holiday boons, quests... but they aren't PFS scenarios which is which I'm counting here. (not total chronicle sheets)
It sounds like none of those things are PFS scenarios.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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"BB demos have PFS credit attached." Only for GMs getting credit towards total tables, and ... so far as I know ... only for running the original four. It is, after all, a different game system.
I don't want to speak for Pirate Rob, but I think the concern was for reduced opportunities to play, which is different from the PFS workload. (For example, I wouldn't consider boons to be something people could play.)
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No, I understand - but as much as I'm running Season 5 (between me and a fellow frequent GM, I've missed Where Mammoths dare not Tread and he's missed Port Godless, with both of us either playing or running), I can't begrudge the campaign staff for the slow-down because of all of the other content that is being given to the campaign. The scenario pile is smaller because of all of the other work that the same number of people are expected to do. We may be getting less scenarios, but more overall content, by far.
Also, if you look at things that have been retired (either for being shiite or for no longer being relevant to the campaign), Season 3 is brought to heel and Season 0 is decimated.
And Thirdly - we haven't heard anything about special events being released for Paizocon yet, right? I'm sure there will be something else by July - which is still in season.
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Whatever happened to Quests, especially as a source of new scenario writers?
It's still right here. Although as far as I know (I'm just some yahoo though) none of them have been looked at.
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Global Organized Play Coordinator
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I haven't been counting AP/module sanctioning etc. Just scenarios to get seasons length. Are any of the things you listed PFS scenarios?You forgot to add:
The six part goblin attack series of quests
The four advanced BB demos
GM 201
No they are not scenarios. But they are projects people asked for that came from pfs development. There is only so much time in a day, week and month. Is OP more of a rich environment and welcoming new players with the above, or should we just focus all of our time and energy on scenarios and not produce anything else (which would include holiday boons, ap Chronicles, module chronicles, etc)? We can do nothing but scenarios, but i dont know if that is a good thing for op. Gramted we are producing a few less scenarios when comared to previous seasons, but content wise, we are producing at least as much if not more.
Developer
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As the primary developer on the campaign during the seasons with the highest scenario outputs, I can say with authority that we overextended ourselves significantly during that time, in part because of my own ambition to increase scenario output for the benefit of the campaign. The results were less than desirable behind the scenes. So until internal resources change significantly, there likely won't be more 30+ scenario seasons. That said, there are plans in the works that may or may not come to fruition that will address the OP's concern, if not in the way anyone expects. I'll let others comment on those plans when the time is right, as I'm now only tangentially involved in their implementation (and the time isn't right anyway).
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Sure, if we assume that the average player plays only once a month, this is fine. However, those average players can only play if the long-running GMs also have things to do.
Given that one can re-GM a scenario as desired, GMs always have things to do. I'd be GMing seven nights a week, if it wouldn't destroy my mind, body, career, and family. ;-)
I fully understand that I am not the norm, playing 2-3 scenarios per week. However, I think that the norm is slowly shifting to a more consistent once a week, as more people play in local gamedays rather than at cons. Locally, we have about 30 players who show up every Sunday to play. We're growing steadily.
I'm now home and can find the post I was referring to; it's here. So less than a year ago, even excluding the one-session-ever people, the median PFS player played less than once a month. I find it hard to believe that things have shifted drastically.
It would be interesting to see newer data though; Mike, any chance of this?
The "renewed focus on Tier 1-5" is not really a new thing. It looks like this season is on track to switch back to the pre-Season 4 scenario distribution, which is a good thing. Even with 9 scenarios yet to be announced, this season has more 1-5s than Season 4 did. It's on par with Seasons 3 and 2. I really don't feel like we can call this a "renewed interest", though - it's just a shift back to the former norm.
Hence why I said 'renewed', instead of 'new'.
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Sorry, what's "Goblin Attack", and how have I never heard of it before now?
BB stands for Beginner Box, or the Beginner Box Bash, which is a set of 4 short scenarios, about an hour to play each, designhed to showcase the Beginner Box rules for new players.
When they first came out they had a boon available for the players who played all 4 scenarios, and another boon available for a GM who ran all 4 scenarios.
At present, all that you get is, as a GM, you get a table credit when you run all 4 of the BB scenarios.
And Goblin Attack, from what I have heard, was another set of short BB scenarios, that were offered at GenCon. I think there were some threads about it both over in the BB forum, and in the GM forum here, back during or shortly after GenCon or another con that offered them.
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Sorry, what's "Goblin Attack", and how have I never heard of it before now?
They were/are a series of five 1-hour adventures first done at Gencon 2013 where players could go any time and they would fire whenever a table had enough people to start. They were/are quick, simple to run and because of their nature could be run all day, any day.
Players received a special sheet that looked like a postcard with slots for the GM to sign off when they completed any of the 5 adventures. If you completed all 5, you could trade your complete postcard for a PFS-legal boon. At Gencon, this was the "mask of goblin seeming" which IIRC, let you alter self into a goblin for 1 minute, 3 times ever.
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Sorry, what's "Goblin Attack", and how have I never heard of it before now?They were/are a series of five 1-hour adventures first done at Gencon 2013 where players could go any time and they would fire whenever a table had enough people to start. They were/are quick, simple to run and because of their nature could be run all day, any day.
Players received a special sheet that looked like a postcard with slots for the GM to sign off when they completed any of the 5 adventures. If you completed all 5, you could trade your complete postcard for a PFS-legal boon. At Gencon, this was the "mask of goblin seeming" which IIRC, let you alter self into a goblin for 1 minute, 3 times ever.
They were actually first done at PAX 2012 by Kyle Elliott's crew before being brought to the GenCon stage.
We did over 300 tables in 3 days that first year, IIRC.
