Season 9 Guide: Core and Race

[andreww]

I was flicking through the new Season 9 Guide and I came across this:

Quote:

Chronicle Sheets: Items listed on Chronicle sheets earned in the Core Campaign are valid options for Core characters. Promotional boons and other Chronicle sheets that open up new race options otherwise can’t be used in the Core Campaign.

This would suggest that the scenario boon allowing you to transform an existing character into an Oread or to create a new Oread character does not work in the Core campaign.

This runs directly counter to what was said about that Boon around the time it came out.

Is the intention that this Boon does not work in Core mode? If so, what do existing Core Oread characters do about that? I have one which I understood to be legal at the time and I know of a number of others.

Johns post at the time made it clear that it was supposed to work. Has this now changed?

Relevant scenario, do not read if you wish to avoid spoilers:

The boon is on the chronicle for Captives in Crystal. It reads:

Elemental Saturation (Earth): The Lucent Archive is suffused with powerful elemental energy, and long-term exposure can transform a humanoid’s body. Before you begin an adventure, you can expend 20 Prestige Points and check the box that precedes this boon to permanently transform yourself into an oread. In doing so, you must retrain any race-related options associated with your original race (e.g. alternate favored class bonuses, race-specific archetypes, and race-specific spells) at no cost. Any of your equipment resizes to Medium size at no additional cost, and if you lost proficiency with a weapon (such as by losing the dwarven weapon training racial trait), you may sell back the weapon at full price. When creating a new 1st-level PC, you may instead spend 10 Prestige Points and check the box that precedes this boon to create an oread PC.

[Gary Bush]

I am pretty sure the no race boons in core was in season 8 as well.

[andreww]

Gary Bush wrote:

I am pretty sure the no race boons in core was in season 8 as well.

It has always been clear that race boons don't work in core. This isn't about those. It is about racial options opened up by scenario chronicle sheets. What the Season 8 Guide said was:

Quote:

The only exception to this rule are special race options. Boons that offer additional race options only apply to the Core Campaign if they were earned during an adventure; promotional boons and other Chronicle sheets that open up new race options otherwise can't be used in the Core Campaign.

The bolded text no longer appears in the Season 9 Guide.

[brock, no the other one...]

The spoilered thing is from 'Chronicle sheets earned in the Core Campaign'. It is neither 'Promotional boons' nor 'other Chronicle sheets'.

The choice of text in the new guide is unfortunate, as 'item' can be read to mean a physical piece of equipment or something itemised on the chronicle sheet.

In this case, I would read 'Item' as 'Things'.

[Starglim]

brock, no the other one... wrote:

The spoilered thing is from 'Chronicle sheets earned in the Core Campaign'. It is neither 'Promotional boons' nor 'other Chronicle sheets'.

This was my reading as well: the wording was revised precisely to confirm that this Chronicle sheet does apply if earned in the Core campaign.

[Zoomba]

While I would tend to agree that the phrasing is only meant to exclude chronicle sheets earned from means other than playing (GM Boone, Regional support, Charity boons, etc), it would be good if we could get some clarity on this.

If this is a change, guidance on what to do with existing Oread CORE characters would also be important. Do they have a free race retrain?

[Nefreet]

William Donald wrote:

it would be good if we could get some clarity on this.

It was clarified in the GM Discussion thread for the scenario itself.

John Compton wrote:

Actually, the oread boon is entirely compatible with the Core Campaign, and it represents a way for someone in that campaign to play a non-Core race. Note, however, that this boon does not open up other oread options from other books, so the Core oread would not have access to variant racial abilities, oread feats, the oread spells from Advanced Race Guide, etc. What you see in Bestiary 2 is what you get.

[andreww]

It was but the season 9 guide makes the position unclear as it appears to rule out using it.

[Nefreet]

How so?

Would this not be a perfect example of "Specific > General"?