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(TLDR at the bottom.)
A recent thread has gotten me thinking a lot about Species Boons. They're a fun reward for both players and GMs, as well as a shiny carrot incentive: "COME PLAY THIS EXCLUSIVE SCENARIO" and you could get some whacky exclusive species! Or, come GM at "CONVENTION X" or whatever and you'll probably get something cool!
...but the more I think about this, the less I enjoy it, both as a player and a GM. If character stats, class, and species (and, arguably, Theme in Starfinder) are the "core components" of (mechanical) character making, why is Species the only one locked behind boons? Could you imagine if you had to rescue a cosmonastery in a scenario before you could make a Solarian, or GM 12 games before you could make a character with Wisdom higher than 14?
One of the big draws for Starfinder is the much-lauded Cantina Feel, and as more and more species become available (we're up to an amazing >100 now :D) there's just so much to choose from. With that number actively growing, it gets harder and harder to obtain access to make the character and species you want. Not only are there way more playable species than there are current species boons, but there's also all sorts of challenges to obtaining those species boons. So many are time-locked or seasonally available. Want to play a Ryphorian? Sorry, that was only possible between August 2017 and June 2018. Have an idea for a Bantrid? Oops, that was a one-time convention bonus years ago. Yearning to make a kickass Morlamaw (they're so hot right now)? Good luck finding out what you need to do to obtain that boon, and then finding a willing GM/enough players to make it happen, since it's been "possible" for almost two years now, and people only have so many replays. Will the option to earn any of these boons reappear again in the future? Who knows!
This feels especially punitive for new players, who come into the setting and fall in love with whatever species...only to learn that the only chance to earn that species' boon was years ago. Ooops. The "secondary market" of boon trading, as it exists today, is also a conceit to there being disatisfication with how people earn and receive species unlocks. Similarly, how many career GMs have you heard say "I give most of my species boons away to new players or friends, so people can play what they want?" Have you ever had to explain to a new player that, yes, technically, they could make a character of some given species, but they need to either go to a handful of conventions in Scandinavia or wait a year or two for the Reigons to rotate first? All of these are signs that there are barriers to people playing what they want. A lot of the "specialness" of the current species boons is tied up in Exclusivity, and simply put: excluding people from species isn't fun.
Or, stated another way: what's the point of having 100+ awesome, bonkers, out-there, species when it's super challenging to play the one you want?
I totally understand why the system is like this, though. Species unlocks are a sweet reward for doing something special, playing through a certain scenario, running X number of games, or what have you. You play/run something special, you get something special. Simple enough, right? To an extent, it's also a carry over from Pathfinder. It's just the way species unlocks have always worked. It's just not up to snuff for Starfinder Society, though. The OP Devs often talk about SFS being a place for experimentation, trying new things, and baby steps to change the way things are done, and I think there exists an opportunity to do just that while also serving the Cantina Feel - one of the core tenets of Starfinder's design.
Let's break that down a bit more: species boons seem to come in one of two flavours: what I am calling 'rewards' and 'incentives.' Rewards are a neat treat for playing something. Help liberate a species in a scenario, or make a favourable impression in a first contact? Hey, maybe you can play one of those at the end! Or, finish an AP that deals with a species? Maybe you can play one afterwards! Incentives, on the other hand, seek to entice pepole to do something, usually GMing. If you GM a bunch in your local community, or GM at a Convention, you usually get a species boon, or GMing will help you unlock your Skittermander or RSP Regional Species more quickly, etc. Help grow the scene, get a reward. Simple enough.
Here, then, is my modest proposal, using mechanics already found in Org Play today: eat everyone that has an SRO Boon instead of species boons being tied to a specific species, make them universal. When you earn a Species Boon, you can make a new character using any species you want, subject to the usual rules about Additional Resources and sourcebook ownership. These "Universal Species Unlock Boons" solve the problem of how hard it is to get access to what you want to play. I don't have a detailed idea, but I think something along the lines of the RSP Regional Species, Skittermander, or Alien Archive Player Reward #1, boons would be a great starting point. You have to check off a certain number of boxes, and at the end earn a Universal Species Unlock Boon. Playing lets you check off boxes, but GMing lets you check off even more, and doing either at Conventions, etc., earns you the most.
Now, to tie it back to the motivations for the current Species Boon: rewards & incentives. How could a Universal Species Unlock Boon serve both of those?
For "Incentives": using the "graduated box-ticking" method described above, you still incentivise folks to GM, and participate at conventions. If you play 24 scenarios (or whatever) anyone can eventually play whatever they want, but you'll get there a lot faster if you GM and/or hit up Cons.
Alternatively, what if the special convention rewards weren't species? Steps are already being taken in that direction: I understand that at PaizoCon for a couple years now, folks have gotten a boon granting access to a minor faction, and not species. That's awesome! Similarly, at GenCon this year, the GM Boon offered a choice between species, or a complete character rebuild. The Charity Boons are also great sources of inspiration - make a convention boon grant access to a new starship frame, or ownership of a planetoid, or start a fringe cult or something. There's still all sorts of cool boon potential, outside of species. All of those examples are really useful, or very cool, or both. But, crucially, those things are not a core component of character building.
For "Rewards": I think the answer here is already out in the wild: the "Existing Species" option that exists on many Species boons already. If you already have the option to play a given species, either through an existing boon, or a Universal Species Unlock, or whatever: you can apply this boon to increase a stat below 15 by +2. You still get a neat reward, tied to a specific species, that reflects your character's involvement in that species's narrative.
Anticipating possible challenges here: what about species that are just inappropriate for Organised Play? I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but what if somewhere down the line some kind of crazy species has something game-breaking, like, I dunno, a half-genie that can cast Limited Wish once a day or something. I think the "Additional Resources" rider can handle this: just as we do today with feats, archetypes, gear, and other class options, we just say that those specific species are not eligible. In a pinch, this could also be used to maintain ultra exclusive special species; ex. completely made up species Omnipotians are not included under Additional Resources, but a very special rider in a very special Omnipotian Admittance Boon (available by playing scenario 4-9X: Escape from Omnipotia, hitting digital shelves May 2022!) states that you can play an Omnipotian as if it were included in the Additional Resources page. It kind of goes against the principle of opening up every species, but hey, maybe some things are special enough to be kept hallowed :)
Other challenges: people who have worked, traveled, GM'd, or otherwise expended significant resources to obtain a species now feel that it was a waste. Depending on how the graduated box-ticking goes, I think a lot of that becomes moot. If, like the Skittermander boon, you need to check off 24 boxes, no one can say that these are easy to get. It's attainable, but you can't just bang it out over a weekend at your FLGS. (...probably.) Like, your usual org play season usually only contains 25ish scenarios. You basically have to consume one season of material to get one of these Universal Species Unlock Boons. That seems fair to me? If my crazy idea actually happened, perhaps SFS could put out a blanket "any Boon that you have used before Date X to play a Species can be retroactively used to increase a sub-15 stat by 2" ruling. This is what already happened to the Legacy Race boons when the Legacy Races became always available, so there's precedent.
TL;DR Stop the existing model of species boons being tied to only unlocking a specific species. Instead, use the RSP Regional Species graduated box-ticking method to let anyone earn a boon allowing creation of one character of any species they want, subject to the existing Additional Resources rules. Continue the current practice of having species-specific rewards tied to narratives involving that species, but instead of the boon letting you play that species, instead have the boon let you increase a stat if you play a character of that species.
Editor's Disclosure At least a little bit of my motivation for this post is plain ol' jealousy. I'm bitter I can't play that species, or the other one, or that my life doesn't support going to big conventions regularly. Now, I know that jealousy is a terrible reason to make a forum post, but the more I thought about it, the more I genuinely believed that a Universal Unlock could make org play better, and more accessible to more people - all while serving that Starfinder Cantina Feel flavour. What I'm trying to say is: I have tinkered with this post and chosen my words carefully and edited this so that, I hope, it doesn't just come off as the hateful screed of some bitter jerk who can't play a khizar :) I hope this comes across with the respect and love for Org Play and the Org Play Team with which it was written.
Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East
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Good news! Pathfinder 2nd Edition recognizes a lot of these problems, and race boons there are bought with achievement points you earn by playing or running games.
Starfinder is unlikely to change, but at least they're already changed things for the next system.
Yeah I wish there was a better way. I am still salty after a very lengthy discussion about pathfinder players scooping up race boons in trades but starfinder only players having no such option. The general response was to GM more at conventions but as you accurately pointed out that only grants you some currency to possibly trade unless you travel the globe.
This is assuming you can go to conventions at all and that they dont just pick all the pathfinder GMs to DM anyway.
hearing it's changing for PF2 makes me a bit optimistic but I am still more or less leeching off one very generous GM for my race boons 8(
Regional Venture-Coordinator, Appalachia
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I feel the counterargument is important to make -
Generifying the boons in such a way that they can be earned by anyone, anywhere, yes even by players who never ever get behind the GM screen or do anything to help make the campaign what it is, means that many cons, most especially the small to mid-size con that is the bread and butter of many the Venture Officer will really cease to have its last meager draw for local volunteer support and that's a problem.
Running a con is hard. Running a con with almost nothing but good will to offer volunteers is even harder. Something abstract like "extra check boxes" doesn't move the needle the same way "GM here and get something sort of special" does. Gen Con supremacy is of course always going to be a source of jealousy. But going to Gen Con and giving them that sort of commitment to GMing when you could be enjoying the premier gaming show in the world instead IS worthy of special recognition. I remember one year the T1 race boon for GenCon - awarded for spending almost your entire con working for Paizo was then awarded as the REGULAR GM Boon not 6 months later and I was livid for months. Why should a GM who ran one game at a con get the same reward I got for indenturing myself to paizo?
Starfinder already does an excellent job of feeding players the ability to play a number of non-standard races through play and that's wonderful but if you don't hold something back to be given as a reward then its really hard to reward people who provide the services that make this campaign function.
I understand that people love their specific beloved race and feel its unfair that there is an extra hoop to jump through for Dragonkin that doesn't exist for say Morlamaw but if the rewards being offered weren't things people wanted then they wouldn't serve as proper incentives.
Venture-Captain, Netherlands
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Yeah I wish there was a better way. I am still salty after a very lengthy discussion about pathfinder players scooping up race boons in trades but starfinder only players having no such option. The general response was to GM more at conventions but as you accurately pointed out that only grants you some currency to possibly trade unless you travel the globe.
This is assuming you can go to conventions at all and that they dont just pick all the pathfinder GMs to DM anyway.hearing it's changing for PF2 makes me a bit optimistic but I am still more or less leeching off one very generous GM for my race boons 8(
Can you elaborate on the point that starfinder boons cant be traded? Boons you unlock by playing cant be traded in either system. But other boons can be.
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Starfinder already does an excellent job of feeding players the ability to play a number of non-standard races through play and that's wonderful but if you don't hold something back to be given as a reward then its really hard to reward people who provide the services that make this campaign function.
That's a fair point. The thing is, the idea isn't "get rid of incentive boons." It's "get rid of Species as incentive boons." Species is such a central, core, concept, that's it's frustrating for so many of them to be locked behind boons. That problem existed in Pathfinder, sure, but in Starfinder the problem is magnified simply because, thanks to Starfinder's awesome Cantina Feel design, there's so many cool species to play :D And not only that, but with Alien Archives continuing to be an annual release, as the number of playable species continues to grow, the problem will continue to grow too. The rate at which new species become available in Org Play is less than the rate at which Alien Archives (plus APs, and scenarios) introduce new PC species.
To keep incentivising GMs, though, you can still give out really cool, really desired, boons that aren't a central component of character identity. Exotic Starship frames, Minor Factions, even esoteric stuff like the Planetoid Ownership charity boon that I saw floating around at conventions earlier this year, or "temporal anomaly" / "reality rewrite" character rebuild boons. Heck, you could even make an Expanded Narrative-style boon into a GMing/Con incentive; let the folks who play/GM a lot get more replays, so they can keep playing/GMing a lot (for credit!) There's lots of cool stuff that'll help incentivise people to GM, but doesn't create a barrier to players, and in particular new players, making the characters they want to play.
The other angle to consider is what you pointed out: these put Paizo into a no-win situation. Either they keep a species boon super exclusive and then piss off all of the player base that didn't kill themselves GMing at that Con and therefore will never get to play that species, OR they open it up at some later point and then risk infuriating the people who DID kill themselves GMing, as you say. Either way, some part of your player base feels put out. (Yes, this problem exists with any Con-exclusive thing, but again, it stings more for Species than other neat toys, imo.)
P.S. I really appreciate seeing Venture-Officers weighing in - my perspective is skewed as that of a player/GM, so the dread calculus of scheduling and running Cons is a big, terrifying, blind spot to me.
Venture-Captain, Minnesota
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I really hope that we keep rotating back older boons that have appeared a long time ago. So bring back ryphorians and brethedans in a chronicle scenario later. Let bantrids show up in the rotating GM boons or be earnable via RSP.
The bigger issue that I find though is scheduling old scenarios when so many of your regulars have played them. There have been times that I wanted to GM something, but it's been run twice in my area so it's a dead scenario until we get another crop of new people. Even online it can be hard to find enough players for a scenario like 1-08, Sanctuary of Drowned Delights, because it was charming and low level and so lots of PBP GMs have run it. At Dreamers, we need to wait months sometimes to get enough new players to give some of these scenarios another run. (Thank goodness for the PFS Session Tracker, which lets us figure some of these things out, and local conventions where I can sometimes propose a scenario that I got locked out of running the first time.)
Please note: I am not looking at this from a 'We need to run this scenario to get this boon' as much as: I want to GM, and hate running out of content to GM. I have started asking other local GMs to please not run non-repeatable scenarios twice, so that we can have more GMs get a chance to run them, and so that they can get a chance to play.
I'm also looking at this from the "Let's get players a chance to play this content and see more of the storyline." New players just get locked out of older content too often unless we get 3 or 4 newbies at once.
:/
Hmm
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Even online it can be hard to find enough players for a scenario like 1-08, Sanctuary of Drowned Delights
ShamelessTimely Plug: anyone in this boat right now is welcome to come play 1-08 online this Saturday at 8pm EST :D
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Venture-Captain, Georgia—Atlanta
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Starfinder already does an excellent job of feeding players the ability to play a number of non-standard races through play and that's wonderful but if you don't hold something back to be given as a reward then its really hard to reward people who provide the services that make this campaign function.That's a fair point. The thing is, the idea isn't "get rid of incentive boons." It's "get rid of Species as incentive boons." Species is such a central, core, concept, that's it's frustrating for so many of them to be locked behind boons. That problem existed in Pathfinder, sure, but in Starfinder the problem is magnified simply because, thanks to Starfinder's awesome Cantina Feel design, there's so many cool species to play :D And not only that, but with Alien Archives continuing to be an annual release, as the number of playable species continues to grow, the problem will continue to grow too. The rate at which new species become available in Org Play is less than the rate at which Alien Archives (plus APs, and scenarios) introduce new PC species.
To keep incentivising GMs, though, you can still give out really cool, really desired, boons that aren't a central component of character identity. Exotic Starship frames, Minor Factions, even esoteric stuff like the Planetoid Ownership charity boon that I saw floating around at conventions earlier this year, or "temporal anomaly" / "reality rewrite" character rebuild boons. Heck, you could even make an Expanded Narrative-style boon into a GMing/Con incentive; let the folks who play/GM a lot get more replays, so they can keep playing/GMing a lot (for credit!) There's lots of cool stuff that'll help incentivise people to GM, but doesn't create a barrier to players, and in particular new players, making the characters they want to play.
The other angle to consider is what you pointed out: these put Paizo into a no-win situation. Either they keep a species boon super exclusive and then piss off all of the player...
I have a thought on this. If Paizo were to go down the "if it's listed as a playable race, it's open to everyone in SFS" road, then a GM race boon would still be viable, if it were for a race that is not open to all to plan. Or, if it were open to GMs, Con boons, etc. a number of months in advance of other players (3 - 6 months, for example, to have players nearly salivating, wanting these new races to play).
Incentives will always be needed to get people to GM. Far too many are reluctant, not only for con GM duties, but for any GM duties. I can't tell you how many people have been asking about me giving them my now unlocked Uplifted Bear at the share with another level of check boxes. It also gives those who get that early release of a race the chance to playtest it while showing it off to everyone else who then wonders how they got it and will possibly follow the same path the GM did to get the new toys sooner.
