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I believe barring external factors such as GM stars or the like, that four times is the maximum number of times a player can participate in a Special.
1 as a Standard player
1 as a Standard GM
1 as a Core player
1 as a Core GM
I could be mistaken, but I've played one special on both a Core as well as a Standard character, and GM'd a Standard plus played a Standard for a different one.
Pathfinder Society Lead Developer
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There is at least one other exception. Legacy of the Stonelords was playtested at PaizoCon '14, and John Compton granted a special dispensation allowing everyone to reply/reGM the revised version that was being released later at GenCon '14.
I recall we did something similar for the test run of #5–00: Siege of the Diamond City at PaizoCon 2013.
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There is at least one other exception. Legacy of the Stonelords was playtested at PaizoCon '14, and John Compton granted a special dispensation allowing everyone to reply/reGM the revised version that was being released later at GenCon '14.I recall we did something similar for the test run of #5–00: Siege of the Diamond City at PaizoCon 2013.
Nope. At least as far as I can recall.
Stone lords was almost a different scenario from Paizo to GenCon. Siege was changed just enough (Act three) but was deemed not different enough to warrant an additional credit.
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There is at least one other exception. Legacy of the Stonelords was playtested at PaizoCon '14, and John Compton granted a special dispensation allowing everyone to reply/reGM the revised version that was being released later at GenCon '14.I recall we did something similar for the test run of #5–00: Siege of the Diamond City at PaizoCon 2013.Nope. At least as far as I can recall.
Stone lords was almost a different scenario from Paizo to GenCon. Siege was changed just enough (Act three) but was deemed not different enough to warrant an additional credit.
That is my recollection as well.
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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Davor might have a point. A lot of the reasons to be wary of replay don't apply to multitable specials.
I don't think people are likely to go and repeatedly grind a special, because you need 3-5 simultaneous tables to even get started. So it's not as if people are going to do this out of laziness. Too much logistics involved.
There are also increased GMing incentives (credit towards fifth star, possibly Con GMing boons, bragging rights).
Also, I think it could have a positive effect on community-building. Here in the Netherlands we've run 1-2 multitable specials per year, and it brings almost every PFS player together. But it's about four years after we started doing so, and we're now starting to circle back to the first special we've run (Siege of the Diamond City), so now there's a bunch of people who've already played it. Many of them will probably be GMing, and we've recruited many new players since. But as we start to rerun other specials, this is an issue we're going to bump into again - it would be nice if people who played a special four years ago could do it again so that we can really encourage the whole community to turn up.
Venture-Agent, Minnesota
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Many of the specials are so combat-oriented that I don't think re-running them would be a problem.
(Sky Key Solution might be an exception to this, as there are lots of puzzles and roleplay sections that might be harder to replay. Race for the Runecarved Key could be problematic too.)
However, Cosmic Captive could be easily replayable if the players commit to doing a different route each time.
I think that there might be something to this idea, actually, but it would have to be looked at special by special.
Hmm
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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@Andrew: I'd certainly use the opportunity (if I wasn't also hankering to GM), but even with replayability I'd be surprised to see them come around faster than once every 2-3 years.
It's possible that a different Con culture plays a role in that; we don't have the biggest lodge ever and getting enough people together on the same day takes quite a lot of pulling. I suppose in the US where you might have more cons the next state over it could be different.
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Open replay for specials would be a great idea IMO. Specials tend to generate a lot of excitement in the community and are often centerpieces of conventions and gamedays.
I would put two restrictions on it:
-Use the "one chronicle per character" rule to prevent abuse. Specials aren't that common and don't come up often, hence the name. At least where I am when the topic of specials comes up the first question is "Has this been played nearby recently?" We had a gameday recently and didn't do a special because we couldn't determine one that a large part of our player base hadn't played.
-Keep the most recent specials away from replayability until next season so that more people have the chance to play that don't get as many opportunities. I also can understand recent specials requiring RVC approval.
One thing I would like to add, there need to be some kind of better support for Core and specials. Sometimes mustering on site makes it difficult to coordinate
Of course you all realize that we might as well have just cast a Summon Drogon spell.
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I disagree there shouldn't be replays for multitable specials. There are so many branching paths and a huge variety in tiers that it isnt even close to the same experience. It also helps if the entire community can come together when trying to fire a multitable special.
But blah blah LIVING GREYHAWK blah... yeah yeah...
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There are other campaigns out there that also have 'replay'.
Perhaps not as huge, perhaps not the same size of footprint, but all of their 'Specials' are 'one and done' jobbers, with at most two *big* ones in August and December/January, and some 'mini' ones every couple of months.
Those do not get replayed. There is no way to accurately reproduce the environment from play to play.
And that's one of the only saving graces of said campaign atm, imo.
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I can certainly see the benefit of saying a multi-tier special should be replayable, earning a credit for each tier. There are a lot of regional conventions that try to offer older specials so they have something to entice players, but too often the players have already played. It would be a boost to those conventions if players could replay at a different tier. Generally, I am not in favor of replay, but in this case, I think it has merit.
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the specials were not designed for multi replay - sure they are good and have variety but they are a limited roadmap.
Cosmic Captive almost certainly is designed to be replayable at least. I suspect I didn't even see half the scenario while playing 1 of the 3 paths.
Also the difference between tiers alone is massive. We aren't playing the same game when in one special Im fighting Dretches and the next its a Balor.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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I think some specials are much more suited to this than others. Several specials are written to allow the PCs to pick a direction in which to explore/defend and has different encounters depending on the direction chosen; and this is a large chunk of the overall scenario. Stonelords, Siege of the Diamond City, Cosmic Captive, Sky Key Solution, and to a lesser extent also Siege of Serpents follow this format.
Those specials are pretty suitable for replay. A party going in a different direction at a different tier will have a very different adventure than last time. I think there's more surprises in store for someone replaying Cosmic Captive than for someone replaying The Confirmation.
The very linear specials and the ones with "gotcha" moments, basically Shadow Lodge, Blood Under Absalom and Runecarved Key, not quite so suited for replay because so much will be the same (same railroad, different monsters).
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Those specials are pretty suitable for replay. A party going in a different direction at a different tier will have a very different adventure than last time. I think there's more surprises in store for someone replaying Cosmic Captive than for someone replaying The Confirmation.
Until there's a Captive where the 'high table' is 7-8, and the people playing at it are the ones that played at the 10-11 and are *strongly suggested* to go a given route 'to save everyone else because they can handle the tougher stuff'... AGAIN.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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Until there's a Captive where the 'high table' is 7-8, and the people playing at it are the ones that played at the 10-11 and are *strongly suggested* to go a given route 'to save everyone else because they can handle the tougher stuff'... AGAIN.
Those specials are pretty suitable for replay. A party going in a different direction at a different tier will have a very different adventure than last time. I think there's more surprises in store for someone replaying Cosmic Captive than for someone replaying The Confirmation.
You don't have to follow that suggestion, it's not going to break the scenario. It just means instead of a few parties doing a particular area in depth, a lot of parties have to do a few encounters there.
Heck, the middle road is advertised as tougher on every tier, because it is. If the 3-4 party is more combat oriented than the 7-8 party then the 3-4 party should be the ones going there (they'll be better at it, and presumably it's the sort of game they were looking for).
