It was doing that, but it shouldn't have. It was a glitch due to the fact that the reporting system was originally designed with no intention to use it for anything other than the RPG society.
The glitch has since been fixed, hence why your table credit is gone.
The card guild has no GM. In the RPG, you need a GM, while in the card game, you just need someone to bring the box. So the table credit and GM stars are a way to provide an incentive people to be GMs, because without GMs, you can't play an RPG.
It also shows a developing skill. You should reasonably expect someone that has 3 GM starts to have had experiences that show they are mastering the game. The same isn't true of the card game.
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If the credit didn't mean much it would have made sense to keep, but it means a lot on the RPG side, so getting credit for something completely unrelated would have caused problems.
Prepping one scenario makes sense, but setting up multiple scenarios means those cards in the first scenario of the day can't show up in the second, neither of those in the third, and so on. I'd love to spend the prep time when no one is waiting to play, but it messes stuff up.
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I think it's a huge mistake not giving PACG organizers credit for their games. First they have to organize the game time and date. They have to arrange for promoting the game time. Second, they have to prep the box. Third, they are seen as the experts with regard to the rules and are expected to know the errata and other announcements on the paizo site. Fourth, they need to report the sessions and do the post session maintenance. Fifth, they are expected to teach newcomers, thus missing out on the sessions of the regulars group. And for many of us, we have to buy the boxed set and the expansions. Giving table credit to PACG organizers costs paizo nothing, but is a welcome nod that we are giving up our time to promote the game, something I would think paizo would appreciate enough to throw PACG organizers a table credit bone. If the rpg gms feel that PACG table credit is easier to acquire, they can certainly run some games themselves if table credit is that important to them. Frankly, having bought with my own money two SnS boxes, two character add on packs, plus all the adventure add on decks for both boxes, plus the session mats, player mats and pawns, so that I can accommodate 10 PACG players, I'm disappointed that I don't even earn table credit for the games. Paizo should rethink that decision.
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Again, though, table credit only matters in one place -- the RPG. Making it look like someone has great RPG GM experience because they set up a card game and knew the rules is just wrong. I have no problem with giving credit to the people who run these games, but it needs to be entirely separate from the RPG credit.
If I see someone has a lot of table credit and they're GMing an RPG table, I deserve to know whether that credit says they are an experience GM, or if it just means they know how to shuffle cards.
Acknowledging the people running the card game is one thing, doing so in a way that makes them look like an experienced GM is completely different, and a terrible idea.
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I agree that if there is some table credit that references running PFSACG sessions, it should be separate from the RPG table credits. They don't refer to the same thing because of the RPG aspect but it does take a lot to host ACG sessions week after week and multiple times a week. It seems that ACG organizers tend to run more games than RPG GMs but there's a lot more going into being a GM than an ACG organizer.
I'm glad they took the stars away but in the same instance, I think we should get some recognition of our hard work to put together and running the scenarios for our players.
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I agree with Paladin in Citadel. I would like to see some recognition for sessions ran, but it would need to be separate from RPG stars. I don't know if you want to call it "ACG Stars" or any other name someone can think of, but if we were to have stars linked to the number of games organized, I think it would need to be double or triple compared to the RPG side of things.
For our weekly group, I normally schedule a 4 hour window like we would normally for PFS, but I also run two or three scenarios in a night. Not only that, but I think with giving out "ACG Stars", it would help promote people running more games in my opinion, similar to the RPG side. Of course, some people still wouldn't want to organize the game, but it would be a nice reward.
That's rich. Okay, far be it from me to expose as fraudulent whatever fantasy world uses valuable table credit as its primary currency. I just know that PACG is costing me hundreds of dollars per quarter, since in canada we dont get a free organizer box, and several hours each week, with no promo cards to hand out to participants, and apparently disdain from the rpg side that PACG players are mere card shufflers. My time and money are valuable to me. And PACG is not the only game I spend money on. So if paizo wants to find an alternate way to recognize the sacrifices of pacg organizers, that doesn't dilute those precious rpg table credits, great.
Wow, my comments above are pretty harsh. My apologies for the abrasive tone.
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You should know my comments aren't just from someone "on the RPG side". I'm a card game VL and have run more games including home games, than I can count. However, I also GM the role-playing game and can say from personal experience that while the card game takes more time to host, the RPG takes a huge amount more work, and the two are not comparable because they are so different.
Again, I like the idea of recognizing people who run PACG. It just needs to be separate because of how different they are, and what goes into each one. If someone asks me which one is easier to run (GM RPG or host the card game) for a new player, I'll say the card game every time without hesitation, and that experience in no way transfers over to the RPG and shouldn't make you appear experienced as something like a GM. Just like I wouldn't look at a 5 year GM and say "Wow, he must be a PACG expert".
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I fully agree with Andrew. There's two different levels of prep work that goes into each facet of the game. I'm a ACG VL as well and I try and support both the RP and ACG side. I'm currently running Plunder & Peril for our area and I can easily put in 5 to 6 hours of prep work for each part. That includes printing and putting together maps, paper minis, printing stat blocks, reading and re-reading the scenario and then sitting down for 4 to 8 hours (depending on the scenario/mod) running the whole thing.
For the ACG side, I just prepped my game box for adventure 5. That took me maybe 30 minutes and I'm ready to go. I haven't read the "red text" for any of the adventure 5 scenarios, but I have read the special rules for each scenario in adventure 5 and that's all the prep work I need to do for at least two or three sessions. That's why I'm thinking if there is an "ACG Stars" system that is set up, even though I know Vic Wertz is against the idea, the rate in which you gain stars should be set at two different paces and should be easily distinguished between RPG and ACG stars.
Since I'm not a Pathfinder RPG Player, I'm not really up to speed on the significance of table credit. In order to education myself, I downloaded the organized play rules. Here's what is says about table credit...
"GM Stars
In order to both encourage more reporting from GMs
and event coordinators and to offer a “bragging rights”
type of reward for GMs, Pathfinder Society Organized
Play offers a GM ranking system. This system uses stars
to denote the activity and experience of a given GM. The
stars are visible on your Pathfinder Society ID card, which
you can download from paizo.com/pathfindersociety and
print off each time you gain another star.
You can earn up to four stars for running (and
reporting) a certain number of games, as follows.
• 10 sessions reported as GM = 1 star
• 30 sessions reported as GM = 2 stars
• 60 sessions reported as GM = 3 stars
• 100 sessions reported as GM = 4 stars
You are eligible to obtain a fifth star based on a number
of criteria. To obtain a fifth star, you must accomplish
the following achievements.
First, a potential 5-Star GM must have run a total
of 150 Pathfinder Society game sessions, including at
least 50 different adventures and 10 or more Specials or
Exclusive events over your entire history as a GM.
Second, once you qualify to be a 5-Star GM, you must
work with your Venture-Captain to arrange to run a
Pathfinder Society session in the presence of a Paizo staff
member, a Venture-Captain, or a Venture-Lieutenant.
This designated Paizo representative will evaluate your
rules knowledge, improvisational skills, preparation, and
ability to provide a fair and fun experience for Pathfinder
Society players.
Finally, at the recommendation of the Paizo
representative, you may be granted a 5th star, which
will be noted on your paizo.com user profile, on your
Pathfinder Society membership card, and on your posts
to the Pathfinder Society messageboard at paizo.com.
Paizo announces and recognizes all 5-Star GMs by name
at both Paizo Con and Gen Con annually.
There may be special five-star GM events and possibly
even future five-star GM rewards (in addition to the
existing four-star GM rewards)."
It will be interesting to see if they roll out an equivalent program for PACG to encourage reporting and participation.
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The other thing that GM stars allow on the RP side of things is a bonus on rerolls equal to the number of GM Stars and also you can use your GM stars to replay a scenario or module since there is a no replay rule. Also, there's a chronicle sheet that you can add to a character to gain bonuses as well based on your GM Star count.
Since the ACG allows replays as you can't exactly use out of character knowledge to gain an advantage and adding your star total to a reroll in ACG would be very powerful, I don't think we need those rewards. In my opinion, if there was a reward for "ACG Stars", it would have to be something specific for ACG and not just a copy/paste of the RPG rewards. Mainly, I'd just like them as bragging rights.
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As a note RPG coordinators also receive no stars or rewards. Just GMs.
And pretty much anyone can "run" PFSACG sessions. So there is a distinct difference between those of us that go to retail stores to run PFS ACG for the public and those that report sessions from their home games. So like Joshua, I prep my box for each session that I play and like Mark, I've invested a lot of money into doing this. It would be nice to get some recognition but it is difficult when you consider that these scenarios are open to the public and anyone can report their sessions.
Prepping the box takes time and buying the full game takes money, but neither really correspond to why GM Stars exist for the RPG: a gauge of experience. For a card game, I think the closest equivalent would be judge levels in Magic: The Gathering where a higher level judge has a better grasp on the rules than a lower level one, and you need to pass examinations in order to even become one in the first place if I recall correctly (not a judge myself but a few of my friends are). This is completely separated from being able to prep a box and shuffle cards together, so being an organizer for a lot of sessions doesn't mean you have a better grasp on the rules (although it does put you in a better position to have more experience at what kinds of situations can crop up that you should be watchful for). If stars were ported to PACG I'd rather see it in a form similar to the MtG judge program rather than (or in addition to) being based on reporting tables.