Season 5 changes summary - all PFS players and GMs please read

[Trenloe]

EDIT: Added item 5 regarding the abolishment of faction missions.

Hello Everyone!

I just wanted to remind you all of the changes that are taking place starting August 15th - the first day of Gen Con and the first day of Season 5.

There are a few minor changes that are mandatory - so please be familiar with the subtle changes, especially around tiered play (item 4 below) and the new chronicle sheet and inventory sheet (item 3).

1) Any Lantern Lodge and Shadow Lodge character must change their faction before August 15th. You can change your faction with no penalties up until the 15th plus keep your prestige and vanities. Also, any boons received for playing 4-21 Way of the Kirin and 4-23 Rivalry's End must be applied before the 15th. If you wait until after the 15th to do this, you will have to follow the instructions on how to change your faction listed in the Guide to Organized Play, including taking the penalties listed.

2) GM star rewards.

a) GMs who present their GM card with their star rating on it can add that to their re-rolls when playing a scenario (for example, if you're a 4 star GM and you present an electronic copy of your card while playing you can add a +4 to your re-roll when you use it.) You can download your card in PDF format from here: https://secure.paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/myAccount

Plus there are new rules regarding replay - see below.

b) "There are two exceptions to these rules. All Tier 1 scenarios and Tier 1–2 sanctioned modules are available for unlimited replay with a 1st-level character for credit. The sanctioned modules may also be played with a 2nd-level character once for credit. GMs may receive another Chronicle sheet each time they run one of the Tier 1 scenarios or Tier 1–2 sanctioned modules, but may only apply a Chronicle sheet to one 2nd-level character per adventure.
Alternatively, campaign GMs who are recognized for their efforts by receiving GM stars (see page 37), may receive additional player or GM credit for a number of non-Tier 1 scenarios or sanctioned modules per GM star they have earned. For example, a three-star GM may select any three scenarios or sanctioned modules that she can then play or GM for credit one additional time each. For each of these adventures, she can thus earn a total of three Chronicle sheets, rather than the two normally allowed. When replaying a scenario with GM-star credit, the GM completing the Chronicle sheet will annotate the Notes section of the Chronicle sheet and add "GM Star Replay Credit × Star" to annotate the use of star credit replay. The GM Star Replay Credits renew each year on the first day of Pathfinder Society events at Gen Con.
No character may ever have two of the same Chronicle sheet—a given Chronicle sheet must be applied to a different character each time it’s earned. "


3) Some of you may have noticed an inventory tracker with the character sheets in the Guide to Organized Play. According to page 21 of the Guide "A GM must be present in order for you to purchase items, so you may only purchase items during or after a scenario. All transactions must be recorded on the scenario's Chronicle sheet and reflected on your character's Inventory Tracker." This is now standard starting August 15th. You can use the one listed in the guide or one of your own.

It is now listed in the FAQs as mandatory

https://paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/faq#v5748eaic9qyq

4) Also don't forget the new rules regarding wealth and tiered play. From page 31

Starting with Season 4, scenarios are designed for six characters and contain instructions on how to adjust the scenario for four-character parties. When the APL of a table is between two subtiers (like APL 3 for a Tier 1–5 scenario), a party of four characters must play the lower tier without any adjustments for party size. A party of five to seven characters whose APL is between two subtiers must play the higher tier with the four-character adjustment.
For scenarios written in Seasons 0 to 3, when the APL is in between subtiers, a party of six or seven characters must play the higher subtier. Parties with four or five characters must play the lower subtier. In the fringe case where there are no players that are high enough to have reached the subtier level (such as a party of six 3rd level characters), the group may decide to play down to the lower subtier.

Starting with Season 5 - you will see Out of Subtier gold amounts on the Chronicle Sheets. For Seasons 0-4 please use the average of the low and high tier gold amounts.

5) Changes to how prestige is earned. In-a-nutshell, faction missions are going away - all Pathfinders will have a primary and secondary goal for the scenario, 1 prestige awarded for completing each goal. In certain scenarios one or more factions will have the chance to advance their faction's season goal and get cool rewards - at least that's the plan. Older scenarios will get a document describing what the secondary goal/mission is.

See info here: https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2q1gy?C...restige-Points

[Trenloe]

The new bonus to the PFS reroll presents an interesting quandary regarding online play rerolls - normally these are limited to 1 reroll per session to a player who is wearing a reroll approved shirt while they are gaming or they are using a copy of the Paizo Character Portfolio product for their character. Obviously these are hard for us to enforce as we don't play with video and so can't see what the player is wearing or of they have a portfolio for their character.

Any ideas on how we can enable rerolls based off the guidelines in the PFS guide (Season 5) page 26?

EDIT: Reroll information/qualification thread can be found here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...eroll-register

[Nickademus]

Pic confirmation?

Have the player upload a pic of them wearing the shirt or holding the folio. I mean, the only reason Paizo is awarding the bonus is to promote sales and if the player proves that they paid for the product at some point in time, does it matter if they use the product at the time of the game?

[Trenloe]

Pic confirmation?

I had thought of this, but some people may not be comfortable uploading a photo of themselves to a public forum.

[Nickademus]

The default is then a pic of the shirt/folio with their FG username written on a sign next to it. That would validate the photo as belonging to them.

This would be easier for a person to 'photoshop' and make a fake, but really, if people want to cheat just for a reroll they have worse problems than bad rolls. Not really worth our time to try to prevent.

[Blackfoot]

Obviously these are hard for us to enforce as we don't play with video and so can't see what the player is wearing or of they have a portfolio for their character.

Any ideas on how we can enable rerolls based off the guidelines in the PFS guide (Season 5) page 26?

Online Play somewhat defeats the purpose of the 'shirt' which is obviously to get people at a convention wearing shirts that say Paizo or Pathfinder on them. Which leaves me wondering if it really is a legitimate opportunity to use them at all. I would think that Paizo is going to come to some decision about this for online play.. but in the meantime.. we could start a thread where players with shirts could post images of their shirt for us to have on file... of course.. anyone who went to a con could snap a pic of a shirt and then post it so that really proves nothing. A pic of 'you in your shirt' might work.. of course that could be really scary for some of our players...

[Trenloe]

I think Nick's idea is probably the best for the meantime until an official PFS ruling is made for online rerolls. I'll create a sticky thread to track this.

[JohnD]

Do these shirts come in XXXXXL?

[Trenloe]

Reroll register sticky thread can be found here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...eroll-register

[Trenloe]

Do these shirts come in XXXXXL?

Yes. Buy one now: https://paizo.com/products/btpy8z2o?...ulebook-TShirt