New Tier vs Retirement Arc

[AxeMurder0]

Hey everybody, I had a thought today regarding the various talks about a new retirement arc and thought I would share it...

Instead of a new level 12 3-5 part retirement arc adding a new tier 9-13 (9-10/12-13).

This has the advantage of being much easier to schedule. Currently Eyes of the Ten requires 4-6 players who are at exactly 33xp and can commit to 5+ sessions of game play.

I do think some of the oddity is it's appeal though. It's an awesome story, it's epic in a way that's hard to do in PFS's normal episodic play. It reveals huge secrets regarding the Pathfinder Society.

Secrets that I'm proud of our community for largely being able to hold on to.

What are we up to with tables played for Eyes of the Ten though, 200? That's like 2% of the active PFS player base.

Maybe it's worth writing awesome stuff for that 2%. They are the most dedicated players/GMs.

Those of you clamoring for a new retirement arc, is it to experience another awesome story like Eyes of the Ten, a desire for more higher level play? Attachment to your characters?

I guess I'm asking if this idea would scratch the same itch?
Thanks for taking the time to read, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts as well.

[LazarX]

I think the easier solution would be to allow a tad more flexibility in entering Eyes of Ten, say allow someone with 33-34 exp points.

The game does change dramatically at 12th level, expanding it to 13 means NPCs that take that much more page space to run and more importantly combats that take a lot longer to do, and scenarios with 10-11's are hard enough to fit within a convention 4 hour slot. I don't even want to think to try running with 12-13's. As it is, higher level convention play such as sanctioned slots of "Rasputin Must Die!" takes a minimum of two slots to allocate.

Also keep in mind the fact that figure may well represent players who simply don't stay with a character for 12 levels. As new shinies come out, you get a lot of folks who leave off their higher level characters and start over again.

[Mystic Lemur]

I disagree. A new tier would have to be supported with scheduled scenarios, and that would take away from the other tiers. There is barely enough demand for the 7-11 scenarios they are putting out now, much less for higher level scenarios. If the reporting stats for high level modules match the stats for Eyes of the Ten, then there really isn't enough demand to justify them on the schedule. High level scenarios have a hard time getting enough story into the word count along with all the mechanical bits that have to be included.

I think the current track of sanctioning high level modules and APs, with the occasional high level story arc, is the best way to go.