It all started with an idea: to run the Pathfinder Society in Bern. The Pathfinder Society is the official campaign for the Pathfinder system – similar to the Adventure League in Dungeons & Dragons. One-shot adventures, so you can try out the system and have a great evening, but also a series of one-shots, so players can experience a great story over several evenings and encounter familiar NPCs in a later adventure.
To make the Society’s international concept work, quite a bit of bookkeeping and administrative effort was required. You could collect points and use them to unlock bonuses. The flip side of the coin, however, was that you had to open an additional account on a website that was entirely in English (an issue for sessions played in German). And then there were some spells that were banned, some lineages that were banned, restricted under certain circumstances and/or had to be unlocked… Yet all you really wanted was to just give a different system a go.
The longer it went on, the more the drawbacks of the Society became apparent, accentuated by adjustments made to the Society adventures at the start of the current season. And that’s when the decision was made to stop running the Society adventures.
This also applies to the Starfinder Society, which has been running adventures in the KuL rooms for a few weeks now. The criticism concerns exactly the same points that are also perceived as cumbersome in the Pathfinder Society.
- An additional account (and an Organised Play ID) is required
- Some options must first be unlocked
- The objective-based, multi-stage reporting of the adventure restricts the GM’s ability to improvise
And generally speaking, the overarching concept of the Finder campaign is not seen as an advantage by the vast majority of players. The main thing is to play; the chance of ever participating in a Finder Society with your character somewhere else is slim.
Therefore, both the Pathfinder Society and the Starfinder Society are being discontinued, and the two current game masters will no longer be offering sessions.
What now?
Pathfinder Society
The Pathfinder Society is taking an early summer break and will return by October at the latest. It will no longer operate as a Society, but will continue with one-shot series. Planning is still at an early stage, but if the game master’s ideas are anything to go by, there will also be annual seasons with their own interconnected stories, as is familiar from the Pathfinder Society. Just without the administrative burden and the level-up rules for higher-level characters.
Starfinder Society
The Starfinder Society is not taking a break. Anyone wishing to explore the infinite expanses will still find what they’re looking for at KuL. No longer under the umbrella of the Starfinder Society, but completely separate from it. That means: no Organised Play ID, no Society restrictions, and a little more freedom for the game master and the players.