PFS2 Glyphs - Should a 1-hour quest count as a GM Credit towards Glyphs?

[The Masked Ferret]

I believe that one-hour quests, such as Q-1a The Sandstone Secret, should not count towards GM Glyphs, even though they are reportable. Quest packs, such as SFS 2-03 the Withering World and PFS's Phantom Phenomena, should count for the purposes of Glyphs, as they are a longer time commitment.

Those are my thoughts. What are yours?

- Glen

[Tomppa]

I think 1 hour quests should count towards glyph, at 1 credit per 4 quests run.

[Sebastian Hirsch]

Letting them count as 1/4th of scenarios is likely the best solution.

[Gary Bush]

I think this is how it will be done. 4 quests equal 1 table.

[The Masked Ferret]

That is great! Is that... documented anywhere, so that it does not surprise a GM down the road?

[roll4initiative]

I think this is a good idea to get credit for running quests. We do spend some time prepping a quest. It just seems fair.

[TwilightKnight]

I don’t think the reporting system is set up to track 1/4 GM credit. Maybe the easiest thing to do is change the nova/glyph/star system from tracking by session to tracking by XP value and use the same math as players do for gaining levels. IE, it would take 40 XP to achieve one glyph. Doesn’t matter what you run to get to the total, scenarios, APs, modules, or quests. Theoretically this would allow the tracking system to assign different XP values to certain events if they wanted to. We could make a special worth more than a standard scenario since it is much more prep and harder to run.

[Gary D Norton]

I think it makes a lot of sense to tie GM credit to the number of XP earned by the players. Echoing Bob's suggestion, I see 40 XP to earn 1 Glyph, 120 XP to earn 2 Glyphs, and so on up to 600 XP for 5 Glyphs.

The question I have is with the heritage requirement of 50 unique scenarios to qualify for 5 Stars. Should Quests count towards that number (assuming that such a similar requirement will exist for Glyphs)?

[GreyYeti]

I like Bob's XP idea.

[The Masked Ferret]

Gary D Norton wrote:

The question I have is with the heritage requirement of 50 unique scenarios to qualify for 5 Stars. Should Quests count towards that number (assuming that such a similar requirement will exist for Glyphs)?

Might as well, as long as we are counting their XP.

Another note... would Slow Track effect the amount of GM Credit? I would guess not, but just wanted to clarify.

[TwilightKnight]

Glen Parnell wrote:

would Slow Track effect the amount of GM Credit?

No, why would it? Neither the player’s credit nor the character the GM assigns the credit to have any impact on the prep or running the game.

[The Masked Ferret]

one side effect of the above xp mechanics for gulps is that sanctioned APs and modules would become worth 3x as many XPs as a normal scenario... and there are people that complain about their current 2x value for stars and novas.

[Gary D Norton]

Glen Parnell wrote:

one side effect of the above xp mechanics for gulps is that sanctioned APs and modules would become worth 3x as many XPs as a normal scenario... and there are people that complain about their current 2x value for stars and novas.

I agree that counting them 2x for Thornkeep and Emerald Spire are a problem; most of those adventures are around the length of a normal scenario. Some sanctioned AP content can be short, some can be very long. Many AP books (especially books 3-6 of an AP set) took much longer to complete than 2 or 3 standard scenarios.

Perhaps organized play can revisit how many XPs are granted for AP chapters and Adventure Modules; they don't necessarily have to be all the same. [That would require some additional software support from Paizo to implement.]

[ProfessorC]

I personally think they should count for 1 Glyph per run. While yes I agree my time in front of the players is less than a full scenario, which is the only reason why it shouldn't be.

In terms of prep time, the time difference between a Quest, Scenario, AP is not that large. I do organize my games at a store so some of these may not apply to everyone.

1. Arrange for Space - Same for all three.
2. Prep the adventure, the first quest being repeatable actually has the same number of stat blocks as many of the other adventures. There are 3x the number needed for a single run. If they stay the same the quest prep time will be approximately as long as a scenario, page count is close. APs are approximately 3 scenarios if you add them up and take me about 3x the time to read/prep them.
3. Gather/Prepare equipment. As above maps/minis/props are about the same for quest and scenario. Again the APs are longer.
4. Event time - run time is of quest is approximately .25 of the run time of a scenario. Setup and teardown time is approximately the same. Saying it takes 30 minutes on either side you are looking at 2 hours for a quest vs 5 hours for a scenario.

With all that I anticipate it takes me about 10 hours of my time to run a scenario I have not run. With a quest I would only save about 3 of those hours, so only 7 hours. So in the long run I do not see the quests being that much shorter of a time commitment to run.

[Davor Firetusk]

Perhaps the Starfinder APs are not that much longer than a scenario, but with the exception of the modules Gary outlined and the We Be Goblins normal modules and APs take a lot longer.

[sanwah68]

Davor Firetusk wrote:

Perhaps the Starfinder APs are not that much longer than a scenario, but with the exception of the modules Gary outlined and the We Be Goblins normal modules and APs take a lot longer.

I have just ran the Against the Aeon throne AP, and the books take me about 3 standard scenario length sessions each. So the Starfinder APs are about spot on for 3 scenarios worth of content in my experience.