Your loyal venture-officers and organizers have fallen a bit behind the announcements for a number of reasons. This is the fourth post in a series that should help you get up to speed on the Organized Play updates!
As we’ve migrated online in 2020, we’ve found a whole host of issues with playing online that supplement the goals Paizo already had to digitize Organized Play. Paizo’s provided an update on where everything stands.
Pathfinder Society 1st Edition
While the guide won’t be updated any further and the “old ways” should still be accepted, the campaign is explicitly blessing options like digital chronicle sheets, ITSes, and so on.
Pathfinder 2nd Edition
Beginning with the playtest, PFS2 has been intended to be primarily digital in nature. The guide is online, and will be moved to a wiki format. Boons are awarded via AcP which can be redeemed on the Paizo site; chronicle sheet rewards are also live on paizo.com! (That means, instead of earning boons on the printed chronicle, you can redeem those boons on paizo.com.)
Faction reputation is now being tracked as per the Gamemastery Guide.
Boon slotting is being removed; some boons will have limits, instead.
Starfinder
The goals for Starfinder are similar to the goals for Pathfinder 2nd Edition, but they are a year or so behind. Boon slotting is still performed in season 3, but beginning in Season 4, it will be removed. Existing boons will be transitioned at the beginning of Season 4–the exact mechanism is a work in progress. Chronicle boons will be online as well.
Likewise, the guide is still a PDF for Season 3, but Season 4 will feature an online guide just like PFS2.
Overall Changes
Reporting
Paizo has plans to improve the reporting functionality on the website. Their note about it is hiding under Pathfinder Society 2nd Edition, but it should impact every system.
Reporting is important! Even more important now that rewards are moving almost entirely to paizo.com. We continue to report our local games, so make sure you’re handing us your reporting sheets, digital though they might be!
Maps
Paizo is making changes to how they distribute map assets. Beginning now, downloads of map products will have high-resolution JPEG-format files (extension .jpg) included. There are a few related developments not touched on in this post:
First, new Organized Play scenarios are already including higher-resolution maps in special PDF files that come bundled with the scenario, and that only include the larger maps.
Second, Paizo is creating digital versions of products that didn’t previously have digital versions: so far, this mostly includes the various decks, but it should eventually encompass the accessories line (for current systems, anyway).
The situation is fluid, and Paizo has been responsive, so don’t be surprised if things look a little different as they figure out what works and what doesn’t.