Playtest schedule confusion

[NimbleW]

So I've been hearing a lot of talk about a schedule for the playtest. Something about three weeks for the first chapter and two weeks for each subsequent chapter. However, one thing is entirely unclear to me; namely, are those the dates until which we can report our feedback, or from which we can report. Are those the dates the surveys are released to public, or they deadlines after which the surveys won't be accepted anymore?

[Jhaeman]

It's best thought of as suggested windows in which to play each chapter in order to submit feedback for the first serious examination the devs do for each survey. A better explanation is provided in this link to a short podcast episode explaining the structure of the PF2 playtest: http://knowdirectionpodcast.com/2018/06/paizocon2018-030-how-to-playtest/

[Hurká]

In the podcast they talk about the sessions being 8-9 hours. Is that each individual session or the sessions in total will only be 8-9 hours of play?

[NielsenE]

Each chapter is 8-9 hours long, so for many groups it'll be two sessions per chapter.

[David knott 242]

NielsenE wrote:

Each chapter is 8-9 hours long, so for many groups it'll be two sessions per chapter.

That settles it for my group then. I think we will just have to skip the parts of the adventure where you create new parties at higher levels. That would let us complete that adventure in six sessions, which for us could be anywhere from 3 to 6 months depending on whether our PF2 playtest sessions are every two weeks or once a month.

If we decide to continue during the time between the close of playtest feedback and the release of the new rules, I guess the PFS scenarios for PF2 could cover that gap.

[NielsenE]

Do we know if the 8-9 hours they listed is inclusive of character creation/level-up time?

[chris manning]

pretty sure they said each part is the length of two PFS scenarios - eg 8hrs playtime. I expect your GM will want you to build characters beforehand or have a slot0 to do so

[NielsenE]

I'm the one GMing, so trying to figure out if I should tell people to show up with characters, or if the reason for the the three week long chapter one playtest time is they assume the first week/session is primarily character creation. (With level up and alt-characters being created outside of sessions... or like they said they hope its faster to create a character and want that as part of the playtest time/experience/session.)