PFS Core Rules only campaign mode!

[CDragos]

This is awesome news even for an experienced GM like me who is overwhelmed by all the material out there.

http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5lh ... gn#discuss

[Hjal Nelson]

Oh, a thousand times yes.  I'd love to see games where the post-CRB crutches aren't available.


Of course, it does look like game scheduling is about to become twice as complicated.

[greywizard77]

I think this will help my as a GM. I hate dealing with all the other books are options that I'm not as familiar with. It's just one less thing to worry about. I might be more motivated to run games.

I'm looking forward to how this will work out locally. I will, of course, miss my Tiefling witches, Aasimar Oracles, Dragon-style monks and all the other non-core cheese...

Does anybody know if they'll adjust the scenarios? I'm not a numbers guy, but I'm not sure a core-only party is the same power-level as a non-core party is.

[CDragos]

You can still play your tieflings and oracles, just not in a Core Only game. I'm sure most stores will offer one table of core-only. Scenarios don't change so your core-only rogue will be up against goblin alchemists and tiefling gunslinger baddies.

[greywizard77]

Yeah, that's what I meant..
I'll miss them in Core-only. Probably should've clarified.

I do think that its a good thing, if simply that more play options are good for everyone.

I wonder how many local players would actually want to play this, though. Once you go cheese it's hard to go back to core-only!

[Hjal Nelson]

According to Mike Brock's comments on the blog, apparently the only difference in the scenarios is in a Core Only game, the Gm just writes "Core Only" on the chronicle to differentiate it from the usual PFS options.

If there's something on the chronicle that's not in the CRB, you still get to buy and use it in the Core Only campaign.  (presumably with all the other usual rules, namely gotta own a copy of the book)

[greywizard77]

I was more concerned about encounter balance. Is it "fair" for a core fighter to run up against a goblin bomber with access to all the rules options from other sources? How does that affect the play experience? I don't know enough about encounter design to know all the intricacies of game balance.
Veteran players won't mind, and might welcome the challenge. But a new player? That seems to be the audience of the new Core only option.

[Ahz]

I think the audience is going to be GMs who are newer or maybe experienced GMs that don't want to deal with all the books.  For players, I think it'll attract people who want a challenge, also those who are running out of scenarios to play (because you can replay everything again with a 'core only' character).

I'm really looking forward to this.  Since I read the announcement I've been thinking about what I want to play.

[Dulon]

I was more concerned about encounter balance. Is it "fair" for a core fighter to run up against a goblin bomber with access to all the rules options from other sources? How does that affect the play experience? I don't know enough about encounter design to know all the intricacies of game balance.
Veteran players won't mind, and might welcome the challenge. But a new player? That seems to be the audience of the new Core only option.

As far as monsters being "fair" well, they aren't already, the majority have special abilities that PCs can never get (or at least have to work really hard to); most NPC villains are even designed to be better than any PC to balance out the player's action economy advantage. Relegating stuff like alchemists and gunslingers to the monster-only pile doesn't noticeably shift encounter balance that much.

Since all expansion material is supposed to be balanced off of Core anyway it actually still has some of the most powerful builds like the Diviner Wizard that's impossible to ambush or the Paladin Archer that smites people from hundreds of feet away. Ultimately the lack of expansions and loss of classes and archetypes will make a lot of character concepts more difficult, or even outright impossible, but building a good, or even cheesed out character is still totally doable with just Core and shouldn't shift game balance too far from where it's already at.

[CDragos]

I made a CRB melee druid. I hope a Core game is offered at EG next month. I would love to GM it!

[greywizard77]

I'd definitely like to see how a core-only build plays out. Not sure I want to manage ANOTHER character, though. Eleven is pushing my limits of sanity

[CDragos]

Core only games would be best with season 0 & season 1 scenarios since those are pretty much Core written anyway. I'm considering GMing some Core only games at Bonnie Brae in the near future.

[greywizard77]

Yeah. Which leads me back to me point of balance. The more options you add, the greater the chance for things to break. I'm sure you can make several broken combos with just the core rules, but adding more options makes them even MORE broken! So, I'm just curious to find out how the later mods run with Core-only.

Let me know what you plan on running at BB. I've played most of Season 0 and 1, but it would be a good chance to try out the new variations.

[CDragos]

You can replay any scenario in Core Mode now. Hooray!

[CDragos]

Speaking of core rules, I keep seeing people make references to a new version of the Core Rulebook. Anyone know when it's coming out? My current one is old and falling apart.