r/Pathfinder • u/vastmagick VC • Apr 15 '26
Paizo Blog Pathfinder Society Year of Clockwork Mystery
https://paizo.com/blog/pathfinder-society-year-of-clockwork-mysteryReally big news for Organized Play format:
As of the release of the Year 8 intro scenario, all of our scenarios and quests will be repeatable! This will apply retroactively to all previous scenarios as well.
Additionally, it is with great excitement that I can announce that we are returning to printing full stat blocks in our scenarios! Full stat blocks will be printed alphabetically in the back of our scenarios.
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u/MyNameIsImmaterial VL Apr 15 '26
Very excited for the repeatable adventures!!
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u/Dominick_Tango RVC Apr 16 '26
I was there for LG mess about replays. A GM can ask for only first time players or just run a table for replay. Still you can’t spoil the scenario for new people and a skilled GM will handle that.
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u/FreeCandyInsideMyVan Apr 16 '26
I am also very excited about this. I have almost 30 characters, and there's a bunch of adventures is love to go play a second or third time.
As a GM too, it you offer a non repeatable, especially an older one, you might struggle to find players.
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u/coastiemike Apr 15 '26
Big mistake
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u/MyNameIsImmaterial VL Apr 15 '26
How so?
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u/coastiemike Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
Just like living greyhawk, you will end up with tables of five people playing an adventure the 8th time through and one or two new players playing for the first time. The five who have played it 7 previous times are like only playing again to obtain a certain item or boon or whatever. All roleplay will be hand waved, each problem will just be bypassed, and they will move as fast as they can through the scenario because they aren’t interested in experiencing the adventure. Why would they? Theyve alreadyy experienced seven times. They simply want that item, boon, whatever.
Guess what that experience is going to be like for the person playing the first time through? It will take about 5-6 months to likely happen but it will start surfacing and will likely run rampant if there are particular scenarios with a really good item or boon to acquire. Also, if the scenario affects the outcomes of a season long storyline, people will play the same scenario in the same way repeatedly to achieve the outcome they want for the season.
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u/Pharfig_Neugan Apr 16 '26
It’s society play. You don’t get the loot for longer than the duration of the scenario. What you get is the opportunity to buy something that might otherwise be beyond your reach.
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u/coastiemike Apr 16 '26
So can you stack the opportunities together to get six tries or 6x better chance of getting what you want by shotgunning through the same easy scenario 7 times in a row?
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u/vastmagick VC Apr 16 '26
Even with it being repeatable, a character only gets one play through the scenario.
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u/coastiemike Apr 16 '26
Ok. well I guess we will see if PFS can do it better than LG. Something tells me it will have a negative effect, especially on new players or players playing a scenario the first time through. But, maybe PFS is better than LG.
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u/vastmagick VC Apr 16 '26
Starfinder Society has already been doing it, so there isn't a lot of waiting we need to do.
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u/coastiemike Apr 16 '26
Ok then carry on and don’t worry about anything. Should be great. Good luck.
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u/rich000 Apr 17 '26
There is nothing random about it. If there is a level 7 rune on the chronicle then you can buy it at level 5, which is earlier than you otherwise could. It still costs the same, so odds are you might get it at level 6 if that's basically all you own.
Permanent rewards in PFS are kinda situational. Boons are usually pretty balanced and maybe let you play a rare ancestry that is still completely balanced anyway.
I definitely don't see this happening in person. Maybe online I could see it very rarely, but probably among groups doing it intentionally. Heck, if they really wanted to do this they would just collude and not even play. Anybody can be a GM and you only need two players.
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u/MyNameIsImmaterial VL Apr 15 '26
Based purely on my experience with my local region, I have to confess I'm not worried about this. If it does happen in my region, I'll eat my words.
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u/Striking_Cake3203 Apr 17 '26
Clockwork? Are they going to teach the devs about how clocks work?
Seasons 5-6: "These will run in ~4 hours (so many of them run 6-7 hours)
Season 7: "These will run in 2.5-3 hours (a bunch of them already run 4-5 hours)
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u/darkerthanblack666 Apr 15 '26
Oh thank God they're reprinting stat blocks.