|
A lot of people here are interested in Signal of Screams.
Most of our regular players have level 7-8 PCs now, and even several rainy day players are actively working to get their PCs to this point so they can play Signal of Screams AP with us starting next month.
For both Dead Suns and Aeon Throne we've run the AP books with at least a 3 week gap of society scenarios to allow everyone to keep up. That can't work for Signal of Screams since we don't have tier 7-10 or 9-12 scenarios. The only solution I can think of is either running it intersparsed with Dead Suns 4-6 or run through Signal of Screams in campaign mode at our regular RSP venue.
I know Portland is one of the more active SFS cities so I'm curious how others are faring and what strategies people are planning for the next AP.
|
My area coordinator up here in Tacoma, WA is already planning on having at least two tables a month run through APs. Currently, we have three teams running through Dead Suns.
The three teams never run on the same week, so we usually meet up every month, with normal scenario's run as a second table- we're on a separate day from standard PFS days.
As long as there's an interest in playing the APs, he'll have them offered.
|
|
Certainly. My concern with the higher tier APs being run in society play is they will push society PCs far beyond the tier for society scenarios.
I first brought up the problem of needing tier 7-10 scenarios back in April in regard to AP4.
Playing through both Dead Suns and Signal of Screams with society characters will push them to level 13+. We're talking society PCs reaching level 13-14 in January 2019. By the current trend we might see tier 11-14 by early 2020. At that point the society PCs who reached level 13+ will have been on ice for a year. Those players will have forgotten those PCs and moved on to a dozen others - or moved on from SFS generally.
I'm increasingly in the mindset that campaign mode is the best option. Recommend players apply the chronicle sheets from the different APs to different society PCs so they get a chance to play those PCs for up to 3 scenarios at each new tier as they're eventually released.
And yet, Signal of Screams is already having a positive impact by encouraging infrequent players to attend more regularly to get their society PCs to the appropriate tier to play it. But if we use that interest those same characters will be effectively dead to society play in 3 months.
Starfinder Society Developer
|
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Certainly. My concern with the higher tier APs being run in society play is they will push society PCs far beyond the tier for society scenarios.
I first brought up the problem of needing tier 7-10 scenarios back in April in regard to AP4.
Playing through both Dead Suns and Signal of Screams with society characters will push them to level 13+. We're talking society PCs reaching level 13-14 in January 2019. By the current trend we might see tier 11-14 by early 2020. At that point the society PCs who reached level 13+ will have been on ice for a year. Those players will have forgotten those PCs and moved on to a dozen others - or moved on from SFS generally.
I'm increasingly in the mindset that campaign mode is the best option. Recommend players apply the chronicle sheets from the different APs to different society PCs so they get a chance to play those PCs for up to 3 scenarios at each new tier as they're eventually released.
And yet, Signal of Screams is already having a positive impact by encouraging infrequent players to attend more regularly to get their society PCs to the appropriate tier to play it. But if we use that interest those same characters will be effectively dead to society play in 3 months.
I respect the sentiment that's going on in this thread, but it's something we're still figuring out how to balance. With only a few exceptions, we've heard time and time again that we need to include more Tier 1-4 content, so we're doing our best to typically include one such scenario every month. You'll note a few places where this might end up being a 3-6 and a higher tier scenario, but generally we've had a lot of feedback that stores need more low-level content. Similarly, the vast majority of players that I talk to, do NOT play campaign mode, and as a campaign we don't want to build it into our assumption of what players will typically play. In fact, the overwhelming feedback we see, is that stores and gamers want SHORTER content than even a standard scenario.
High level play is something that I really want to pursue, but it's something that we, as a campaign need to ease our way into. The level structure of Starfinder Society resembles a pyramid, and we need to make sure that the base is solid as we build up to higher level content. While I recognize the desire to include more high level content, the more we put in without shoring up our base, the more awkward it can be at a local level when trying to organize events. This is especially true in hyper dedicated regions where people are going to hit that level 13-14 range. It's not that we're not going there, it's just that it takes time to make sure we can do it right.
I have a deep appreciation for our dedicated fans who are reaching those higher levels of play, but I also don't want to commit to something that could hurt the overall campaign. We're going to do high level content, that's a promise. It's just not going to come out in excessive quantities until we're sure that we have enough content available for players coming into the campaign to enjoy. I'm firm in creating a campaign, and not just presenting one single narrative that forces an "optimal play path." I recognize that some people find enjoyment in leveling as quickly as possible, but that's not a group we can provide consistent support to.
Venture-Captain, Minnesota
|
Thanks for letting us know, Thursty.
Arc, I think that campaign mode is going to be the answer for Signal of Screams, genererally. Treat it as a retirement arc for now, until the Society has built up more content. I must admit that I'm considering running Signal of Screams as well for the chance to provide higher level play in Starfinder, but I think it'll have to be in Campaign Mode to make it work.
(I just wish it wasn't horror-themed. I much prefer more light-hearted SFS play.)
Hmm
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I respect the sentiment that's going on in this thread, but it's something we're still figuring out how to balance. With only a few exceptions, we've heard time and time again that we need to include more Tier 1-4 content, so we're doing our best to typically include one such scenario every month. You'll note a few places where this might end up being a 3-6 and a higher tier scenario, but generally we've had a lot of feedback that stores need more low-level content.
I'm sorry if that's the tone you got from my post. Yes, I do believe we need higher tier content but I've already made that case - and we still don't have it.
So primarily I'm trying to sort out how to run the next AP that lots of people are asking to play, given the society scenarios we have and have coming, in a way that builds the community rather than, well, retires a bunch of PCs and inevitably some of their players with them.
|
APs are written to be played in campaign mode and I see no reason why that should change. SFS scenarios and SF APs are separate. There is a 'conversion', as it were, of SF APs to SFS, which is nice. But APs should not be influenced by SFS any more than that.
It would be irritating if every SF AP revolved around the PCs being Starfinders. There are a lot of things happening in the galaxies that the Starfinders aren't a part of. Lorically, the Starfinders aren't big enough yet to have their hand in too many pots.
|
|
You can't ignore the SF APs. They're sanctioned, there's chronicle sheets, and for the more active local groups there simply are not enough SFS scenarios to keep up a weekly game schedule with 2-3 SFS tables a week.
Whether they're played in campaign mode or narratively reworked a bit to play with society PCs, the chronicle sheets are being applied to society PCs.
... and because they're sanctioned we have players showing up with brand new Paizo Organized Play numbers with Dead Suns 1-6 chronicle sheets being applied to their -701. Even if we scaled back how frequently we run SFS tables the chronicle sheets have to be considered in our planning.
|
|
Considered into your planning yes, into the planning of SFS living campaign, not really. I am a part of an active local group. We do not demand that SFS OP cater to us because as a whole, we are outliers, as is your local groups.
It is not realistic. Based on their appeared resources it is unrealistic for SFS OP to output more than 2 scenarios per month. Also, I'd personally prefer they didn't do more out of a concern for quality scenarios.
I truly mean this with no malice (get offended if you want to, but it is not my intention). You, your play groups, me, and my play groups are all numbers. We are a small percentage of the SFS players as a whole, therefore our desires are less important. It is not a complete lack of care but your preferences are less meaningful if you are not the majority or close to it. Add in that your desires are fairly unrealistic, and you get a diplomatic 'No'. (Which, btw Thurston, you rocked that diplomacy roll!)
Maybe you were expecting this as you probably should...
Maybe ya'll should play Starfinder less if you don't want to run out of content and play repeatables as much. Yeah, that option is less desirable but it's a better solution than arguing for a change that is not going to happen. I say that it isn't going to happen, not because it is an assumption, but because Thurston literally just said it.
You could always recreate your high tier society character as a non society PC and play a high tier homebrew/sandbox game with the understanding that it's an Alternate Universe for the character.