New Pathfinder Society Rewards for Reading Pathfinder Tales!

Monday, May 6, 2013

Fans of Paizo's Pathfinder Tales line of fiction set in the Pathfinder campaign setting have likely noticed that it's been a few months since we released a Pathfinder Society Chronicle sheet for the novels released as part of this line. For those who have been holding their breath to get an in-character benefit for reading Liar's Blade or Pirate's Honor, the wait is finally over! With the release of today's Chronicle sheet, we're changing up the way Pathfinder Tales boons work.


Illustrations by Eric Belisle

This Chronicle sheet is actually a Chronicle sheet for four different Pathfinder Tales titles: Liar's Blade, Pirate's Honor, The Wizard's Mask, and King of Chaos. Now, back when we began sanctioning Pathfinder Tales novels for Pathfinder Society credit during Season 2, a player received a Chronicle sheet for each Pathfinder Tales book he brought to a Pathfinder Society game, which was subsequently signed by a GM and applied to one of the player's PCs. Now, a player needs print this Chronicle sheet only once, and bring it to a sanctioned Pathfinder Society event along with a printed or digital copy of one or more of the four novels included on the sheet (digital copies must be legally obtained and possess a watermark indicating such). The GM should initial the Chronicle sheet for the associated books, indicating that the player has access to the book, and hopefully that she has read it.

Any time thereafter, the player may use the initialed boon for any of her PCs. Once used, the box to the left of the boon should be checked to indicate such.

A player who collects GM initials for all four books on a given Chronicle sheet can select one of the four boons to become a permanent bonus for one of her PCs. At this time, only that PC can use the boon, though any unused one-time boons still on the sheet can still be used by other PCs.

You may note that this Chronicle sheet is called "Pathfinder Tales, Volume IV." That's because it contains the boons for the fourth distinct set of four Pathfinder Tales novels. In the coming months, we'll be replacing the existing Chronicle sheets for the entire Pathfinder Tales line to utilize this format, and anyone who's already received initialed versions of the Chronicle sheets for Queen of Thorns, The Worldwound Gambit, and Death's Heretic (all 12 of them, in fact), can get an initial in the associated box on the compiled Chronicle sheet.

As if that weren't enough, we also plan to tie in at least one scenario per season to each novel released during that season. It's too late in the process to do so for these four books, but starting with Stalking the Beast in October, we'll have a scenario set in the same region as every new Pathfinder Tales novel, or otherwise thematically linked to them if not set in the same geographical area. This will allow us to tailor the boons on the Chronicle sheets to directly apply to a situation one of the reader's PCs may be in around the time they're reading the book.

So download the Pathfinder Tales Chronicle sheet below and grab your copy of Liar's Blade or Pirate's Honor. In the coming months, you'll be able to "fill your BINGO card" with the release of The Wizard's Mask and King of Chaos. It's never too late to sign up for a Pathfinder Tales subscription so you never miss a volume of the exciting fiction line!

Let us know what you think of the new format for these tie-in Chronicle sheets and the prospect of directly-linked Pathfinder Society scenarios down the road. We're always looking for community feedback and for new ways to improve the campaign.

Download the Pathfinder Tales, Volume IV Chronicle sheet!

Mark Moreland
Developer

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Tags: Eric Belisle Pathfinder Society Pathfinder Tales
Sovereign Court 3/5

Thanks for this update. Let me see if I understand this correctly for the older Pathfinder Tales novels. Once the new chronicle sheets are released for the older tales, we shred the old chronicle sheets and start using the new sheets? What if we already used a boon on an old chronicle sheet?

Grand Lodge 1/5

I like that this will cut down on the number of sheets for those who read most of the Pathfinder Tales, and it seems easy for GMs to sign off on. The option to have a boon become permanent for one of your characters once you've read all four books is great.

It does seem strange to have a line for Character Name at the top, since the individual one-time boons (not the Prolific Reader one) can be applied to different characters. I guess it's necessary for the Prolific Reader, but it would make more sense to have the character name line be down at the bottom of the sheet.

All in all, though, as an avid reader of the Tales line of books, I'm happy with this set of changes!

Paizo Employee Developer

You don't fill out the character name line until you assign it to a PC. Just use the player name and Pathfinder Society Number lines until you've selected a specific character who will keep it permanently.

Grand Lodge 1/5

Thanks, Mark - so my understanding is leave it blank until you've shown a GM the 4th book in the batch, but meanwhile, you can assign individual boons you've already gotten GM sign-off for on the fly to whatever PC you wish.

1/5

Oh man. Liar's Blade Boon would be perfect for my Veiled Illusionist who just happens to lie 90% of the time (got to stay ahead of the Bleaching). Though it would be LOTS of book keeping.

The Exchange 4/5

Time to start reading some novels :)

The Exchange

Is Demonbane available for the prolific reader permanency? It doesn't list how many times the maneuver can be used before it expires.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Can we commission Eric Belisle to illustrate full body portraits of the remaining faction heads for Pathfinder Society? Please? Anyone wanna make a kickstarter for that? That art is amazeballs.

Shadow Lodge 3/5

Can we commission KestlerGunner to illustrate full body portraits of the remaining faction heads for Pathfinder Society? Kickstarter? His art is amazeballs, as they say.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Ohohohoho, oh you. :blush:
Haven't seen you at Blackburn lately, come play Fabric of Reality with us this weekend. You're over 10 years of age so you get dibs on a seat.

The Exchange 5/5

3 people marked this as a favorite.

Please clearify the fate of the earlier Chronicle "Boons".

I have for example several characters who have the Chronicle for "The Worldwound Gambit". On this is one of the selections "Demonic Scholar: You gain a permanent +1 bonus on Knowledge (planes) checks when making checks regarding demons."

Do I remove the current chronicles for Worldwound Gambit when the new chronicle comes out? Does that mean my PC looses the "...+1 bonus on Knowledge (planes) checks when making checks regarding demons."?

Several PF Tales chronicles have permanent bonuses, and as I have a number of PCs, and own all the PF Tales so far published (except "Pirate's Honor" - but I'll get that soon), this will effect a number of my PCs.

4/5

Pathfinder Adventure, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I like the idea of having a GM sight the book once without me having to cart all my books around (no pdf's here!)

But I have applied earlier boons to some characters as well, a couple of them each have the same boon - so I look forward to more information on this new direction.

Nice work guys/gals!

Sczarni 3/5

nosig wrote:

Please clearify the fate of the earlier Chronicle "Boons".

I have for example several characters who have the Chronicle for "The Worldwound Gambit". On this is one of the selections "Demonic Scholar: You gain a permanent +1 bonus on Knowledge (planes) checks when making checks regarding demons."

Do I remove the current chronicles for Worldwound Gambit when the new chronicle comes out? Does that mean my PC looses the "...+1 bonus on Knowledge (planes) checks when making checks regarding demons."?

Several PF Tales chronicles have permanent bonuses, and as I have a number of PCs, and own all the PF Tales so far published (except "Pirate's Honor" - but I'll get that soon), this will effect a number of my PCs.

Nowhere in the blog does it mention that those existing chronicle sheets need to be destroyed. Do they?

And if so, some of the Pathfinder Tales chronicles also include purchasable items that are quite expensive. What happens to those items when we remove those chronicles from our characters?

Sczarni 4/5 RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

If they follow past precedent, the previous chronicles will still be OK, because they were valid at the time they were applied to the character. I would expect that you couldn't continue to apply the old chronicles to new characters once the new versions are out, but if you already have them you should be good to go.

Sovereign Court 5/5 RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

Silly question.

Can I sign these myself if I'm the GM? No biggie since I have 'em on the PC/Tablet, but it would save time.

(As I said elsewhere, the only time I've cracked one of my PF books is when I loan em.)

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East

Darn, I saw the picture and got excited that it would have something to do with nagas.

Sovereign Court

thistledown wrote:
Darn, I saw the picture and got excited that it would have something to do with nagas.

It does.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East

GeraintElberion wrote:
thistledown wrote:
Darn, I saw the picture and got excited that it would have something to do with nagas.
It does.

I meant the boon, not the book.

Liberty's Edge

.

3/5

Any update on this being applied to other books?

The Exchange 5/5

I've noticed that it's been a while sense any new Boons for the Pathfinder Tales books has come out... just wondering when we might see the new one...

Liberty's Edge 5/5

2 people marked this as a favorite.

probably about the same time chronicles are available for the new AP and the last two 64 page modules.

John and company are very busy with some projects, so how bout we give them some time?

Scarab Sages 5/5 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Washington—Spokane

John Compton mentioned something on that very topic here.

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