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I only play a play-by-post for most things the AcP cost is not too bad even with the slower rate of gain AcP when playing play-by-post only, but the cost of some ancestries is so high it would be hard to play them more than once or twice per edition of the game.
If you play in a live game every week it takes 40 weeks to get 160 AcP
If you play PbP finishing one scenario every month it takes 3.3 years to get 160 AcP
The average PbP game I've played tends to average around 6 to 8 weeks which brings it to 5 or 6 years to get 160 AcP I don't know if some adjust for how you play the game could be made, I have other suggestions below that I think work better for all types play.
There's another reason I don't like spending AcP to play ancestries. My very first PFS game I used all my free starting AcP to buy an ancestry I wanted to play. The game almost ended in a TPK the only thing that saved us is the GM doing lots of handwaving to save the party. Most of that game was just spent calculating how long it would take to gain enough AcP to be able to play that ancestry again. If the GM hadn't saved the party that would have been my first and last PF2e game. I had spent weeks building that character I was so afraid of it getting killed I made new characters from core ancestries out of fear. This was in a live game while we still had a PFS group here, but that group only played 2 times per month so even for live play saving up AcP would have taken longer.
I've been playing DnD and other TTRPGs for 47 years I love Pathfinder and Starfinder because of all the new ancestries and species to play I have no interest in playing any of the old DnD core races ever again. I'd also rather play 20 different 1st level characters all with different ancestries than play 1 character all the way up to the 20th level. I only have one character that uses the same species as one of my other characters that's because they are twins in some bazaar "The Prestige" like plot to outdo Zo!
If I was playing in an AP I would only be playing the same character for months or years at a time, but in organized play, I might switch characters every scenario and might be playing in 3 or 4 different scenarios at the same time so would want to be able to play more ancestries. I tend make a new character to fit the scenario or have several to choose from if I don't know what classes are being played in the party so I can play a character that fits well with the party. Making characters is half of the fun of the game so I wasn't to make as many as posable.
I'd much prefer to have things to spend AcP on that are not just letting me use options I have already paid real money for. I'd love to be able to spend AcP on having my own home in Starfinder or Pathfinder kind of like how GMs can get a game store in Starfnder. I'd love to have a record store or music label in Starfinder or my own starship even if it wasn't useable in play.
I would love if Starfinder didn't have to pay AcP for species at all, we have Drift travel you can explain why any species ended up anywhere. I get that in Pathfinder it makes more sense to not have playable skeletons everywhere. What if playing a skeleton was free to make, but if it was played outside of someplace skeletons fit in, there was some AcP cost to play them outside of Geb, or you got reduced AcP for playing them outside of Geb or wherever they fit in?
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Hi Driftborne,
I, too, do most of my gaming via Play by Discord.
What I've discovered is that there's nothing stopping you from playing multiple different games at the same time (each with a different PC, of course).
So, if you had 3 different games running at once, where each mission takes about 6 weeks (in real-time), you're effectively completing a mission every two weeks. It doesn't take long for the AcP to build.
Also, be on the lookout for online conventions. Those generally offer a mix of gaming via multiple different VTTs as well as Play by Discord, so you'll have more opportunities to catch games.
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Hi Joe, thanks for the reply.
I tend to play 2 to 4 SFS games at a time play-by-post. I used to play PFS in person but that group needs about a year ago I've only played PFS play-by-post this year. I got thinking about all the ancestry AcP costs recently. All my PSF characters use classes from Player Core 2 and all of my characters used class features that got dropped so I need to rebuild them all but with the Starfinder play test going on I don't have time to rebuild them and get games complete before the deadline. I don't mind just starting new characters but then I realized I didn't have enough AcP to start over with the same ancestries. My main interest is in playing different ancestries, not classes, so a bit bummed out, but I don't play much PFS anymore so not too worried about it.
Then I got the crazy idea to see how long it would take to get enough AcP to play all the Starfinder species costing 80 or 120 AcP Playing a scenario every 6 weeks is around 150 years. I've seen some people on the forums with over 80 organized play characters in their profiles, so I know it is possible in time to play at least that many species if you didn't have to pay to play them. I know some people have the goal to play every Starfinder scenario there is, my goal is to play as many species as possible. A full set of SF1e books isn't cheap I'd like to be able to play the species I paid for within my lifetime.
I guess paying for spaces and ancestries is supposed to be a reward for playing, to me just playing the game is the reward for buying the books. Like I said in my first post I like the idea of the GM reword of getting a game store. I was in 5th grade with the original DMG came out and got it for Christmas I spent years using the caste designing rules to make castles for my characters. I'd love to have my own starship in SFS even if it is not usable in play. I would never buy anything from WotC again but I do love the idea of the new Bastion system. I don't need anything that complex even just having a room that was mine on Absalom station would be cool or out post-Zed. I'd love to open a shirren pizza parlor with more topping options than you can count.
Hope this didn't turn into too much of a rant, brainstorming ideas is kind of my post-election depression therapy.
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I feel your pain on the post-election front.
What you're describing fell under the heading of Vanities back in PF1. I recall having PCs who owned ships, theatre houses, a barber shop, caravans, wizard towers, estates, & the like as well as having memberships in many diverse organizations ranging from the local assassin's guild to various temples to a PF Society crew who's main goal was to avoid busy work assignments from Drandle Dreng.
Trying checking out this thread where others are asking about the inclusion of vanities in PF2e.
Vanities discussion
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I feel your pain on the post-election front.
What you're describing fell under the heading of Vanities back in PF1. I recall having PCs who owned ships, theatre houses, a barber shop, caravans, wizard towers, estates, & the like as well as having memberships in many diverse organizations ranging from the local assassin's guild to various temples to a PF Society crew who's main goal was to avoid busy work assignments from Drandle Dreng.
Trying checking out this thread where others are asking about the inclusion of vanities in PF2e.
Vanities discussion
I read the vanity thread, that's really interesting, sounds like something I would have loved. To me my character going on an adventure is their job, what they do with their downtime is what they really care about.
In a game that recently finished after the game everyone was posting their thank you to the GM and saying fare well to the other players after the game ended. One of the characters whose background story was they are on a professional sports team in Starfinder passed out ticks to their next game in their post, which turned into everyone role-playing going to the game, it was a lot of fun. That even carried over to the next game while we waited for the mission briefing to start.
So for some players, I think the things that happen in downtime or outside of the actual game sometimes matter the most. That's one thing I really like about play-by-post there's more time to role-play your character without slowing down the game. Before getting into SFS and PFS2e I played DnD for over 30 years and 90% of that was homebrewed open sandbox games almost the complete opposite of organised play. I don't mind the change but I do take advantage of every drop of downtime I can to deal with some character goal that has nothing to do with adventuring. Having vanities back would be a great way to play into that.
So how did the Vanities work in PF1e I don't have any PF1e characters so maybe I can't see the full boon list.
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There is at least one vanity boon out there- Awesome Opossum. The problem is the chronicle sheet for the scenario that grants the boon doesn't actually mention it, so many people are unaware that they could get a pet opossum.
Hard to know what you can't see...
I think one problem I have with playing ply-by-post I just download my Chronicles file and then away and forget they are there. When I was still playing in-person games I printed out my Chronicles and always had them with me at the game. I need to start adding them to my online character sheet.
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There is at least one vanity boon out there- Awesome Opossum. The problem is the chronicle sheet for the scenario that grants the boon doesn't actually mention it, so many people are unaware that they could get a pet opossum.Hard to know what you can't see...
While I can't reveal what mission this boon is from, here's the text of the boon:
Awesome Possum (Vanity Boon): While assisting with the reveals too much info Dacilane Academy, you dealt with several opossums. One of them, named Dimples, took a shine to you and has decided to accompany you. This character gains a domestic opossum wearing a small bow. This opossum is a lovely friend to take with you but has no mechanical benefits.
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I feel your pain on the post-election front.
What you're describing fell under the heading of Vanities back in PF1. I recall having PCs who owned ships, theatre houses, a barber shop, caravans, wizard towers, estates, & the like as well as having memberships in many diverse organizations ranging from the local assassin's guild to various temples to a PF Society crew who's main goal was to avoid busy work assignments from Drandle Dreng.
Trying checking out this thread where others are asking about the inclusion of vanities in PF2e.
Vanities discussionI read the vanity thread, that's really interesting, sounds like something I would have loved. To me my character going on an adventure is their job, what they do with their downtime is what they really care about.
In a game that recently finished after the game everyone was posting their thank you to the GM and saying fare well to the other players after the game ended. One of the characters whose background story was they are on a professional sports team in Starfinder passed out ticks to their next game in their post, which turned into everyone role-playing going to the game, it was a lot of fun. That even carried over to the next game while we waited for the mission briefing to start.
So how...
That sounds a lot like Dash Riprock, after the legal battles of Zoh vs Zo!
I was playing Dr. A-Prof in that mission & I agree - the post-mission RP was great. And completely contrived on the part of Dash's player. Absalom Ankhegs indeed!
So far as the Vanities go, I have an Excel file listing them all.
Sadly, it's not something easily cut-n-pasted into this format. Perhaps some other format might work better.
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That sounds a lot like Dash Riprock, after the legal battles of Zoh vs Zo!I was playing Dr. A-Prof in that mission & I agree - the post-mission RP was great. And completely contrived on the part of Dash's player. Absalom Ankhegs indeed!
I played Jek in that game, I'm glad to see other people thought that was cool too. Next game Jek showed up wearing an Absalom Ankhegs t-shirt. Then we found out
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So far as the Vanities go, I have an Excel file listing them all.
Sadly, it's not something easily cut-n-pasted into this format. Perhaps some other format might work better.
After getting your PM I realized I got the PF1e Pathfinder Socity Guide as part of a humble bundle. After reading about Vanities they look like a lot of fun. I wonder why they stopped using them in PF2e?
I found a way to get around having to pay AcP to play species and even to be able to play species not allowed as playable species in SFS Just GM Acts of Association and make the Ambassador that species. Actually really worked out well because having a rare or unplayable species as the dignitary makes the game more interesting.