DarkWhite's page

Hi all,

I've just finished session reporting for PaizoConOz 2010 Brisbane and Unicon 2010 Melbourne.

You know, I thought Pathfinder run at GenConOz last year was a pretty awesome event. I met a lot of great gamers, we played a lot of fun sessions, Jason Bulmahn made a guest appearance with seminars about the new Core Rulebook and a sneak preview of the Oracle class from the upcoming Advanced Players Guide, and there was the entire extravaganza that GenCon is known for happening all around us, including exhibitor hall, cosplay wandering around everywhere, and countless other distractions.

Though I have to say, I didn't realise until I completed session reporting just now, that despite GenConOz's cancellation this year, just how amazing our PaizoConOz event was! Last year we ran 28 tables of Pathfinder at GenConOz. This year we ran 45 tables at PaizoConOz! How good is that? A huge increase over last year. Easily the largest gathering of Pathfinder players anywhere in Australia ever!

I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I have all of you to thank for that success. All of you players who came along to enjoy the event, Brisbane players who made us feel especially welcome to their city, and interstate players who made the effort to fly in for the occasion, and of course an amazing team of GMs - Al, Ben, John, Matt, Rich, Seb, Simon - thank you all!

I'm already seeing discussion on the boards about Brisbane players getting together to organise some regular in-store game days, so this is a great result. Keep it going guys :-)

Makes me wonder what's possible for next year?

Cheers,
DarkWhite

For me, the factions are the best part of PF RPG. Otherwise, it becomes a somewhat 2-dimensional role-playing experience.

Puts glasses on ...

Pathfinder Society organised play - The Cold War - now with 3D Factions!

Because where else can you sit at a table and have four-to-six random people entertain you with their unpredictable and creative exploits for four-to-five hours? Many people seem to regard GMing as a chore, but I look forward to every session. Each time I re-run a scenario for a new group, I get better at telling that story. At least there's no risk of my character dying!

I have some good news ...

I just got back from PaizoConOz 2010 Brisbane two-weekends ago, and Unicon 2010 Melbourne last weekend. Tonight I reported 51 tables! That's 1/12th of the total required, so I've narrowed the gap for you all considerably - Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi :-)

Truth be told, I'm also missing one session reporting card of three tables I need to chase from one of my PaizoConOz GMs (Rich), and I know I have a few slot-zero sessions played with my home group left unreported during the organisational rush leading up to both cons - so I'll try and chase those up this weekend and enter them in too.

The rest is up to you :-)

Cheers,
DarkWhite

It's great to see interest growing for some regular scheduled game days in Brisbane.

With regards to location (north vs south) and time commitments (fortnightly vs monthly), might a good compromise be a monthly game in the north, followed by a monthly game in the south, on alternate fortnights? That way, those who only wish to commit to once a month can pick up games close to home, but those who wish to play more frequently can travel the extra distance every other fortnight. You could share the GM and organisational responsibilities between north and south on alternate fortnights. Or maybe rotate in a city location too, but you get the idea. I'm sure the stores which host the events would each appreciate a share of the customer activity.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

What I would like to know is how the regional coordinators effect gameplay. Or do I just continue as is for running events? We got a local con coming up and I am planning on running the con special at the event. This one is already taken care of thanks to Josh. But what about future specials? Will I contact my regional coordinator (which I either don't have at the moment or don't know which one would be my region) or do I still contact the head cheese, Hyrum? If this is all answered somewhere else, thanks for the link. :)

We don't know the details yet either, but I'm sure these will be worked out over the coming weeks/months. I believe Regional Co-ordinators will take some of the load off Paizo staff for routine contact matters, which may include distributing specials to convention organisers in their region. It seems Hyrum is still the contact for regions without an assigned co-ordinator yet, though I'm sure this will change as more co-ordinators are announced. But contact the wrong person, and I'm sure your query will be dealt with appropriately.

Cheers,
Stephen (DarkWhite)
Venture-Captain, Australia

Hi all,

A few people have been enquiring about the selection criteria for Regional Co-ordinator in their region, so I thought I might share my experience.

It's certainly not something that happens overnight. The journey started long before I was even aware of a Regional Co-ordinator role.

I have been playing or GMing various editions of D20 Dungeons and Dragons since the D&D Basic red box with Caves of Chaos all those years ago.

I have played Living Greyhawk and Living Arcanis at local conventions for about five years as a player.

When 4E was announced, Living Greyhawk and Arcanis campaigns were retired, so I was on the lookout for other 3.5 gaming opportunities. I was already a long-time collector of Dungeon magazine, and was considering running Shackled City when Rise of the Runelords, Burnt Offerings was released.

My first read of Burnt Offerings, and I immediately realised it's potential. At the time, this was the best story-driven campaign I had ever read! But it was a hard sell to my home group who were accustomed to the rich campaign background of Arcanis when little to nothing about the Golarion setting was yet released. So, to make the deal more appealing, I filled in some blanks, such as making Raptorans (winged elves from Races of the Wild) the Chosen of Desna, available as a PC race, and Harpies became Raptorans corrupted by Lamastu. now players had some background they could develop their characters around. Of course, that was shortly followed by the infamous goblin raid of Sandpoint, which sealed the deal! So I soon had two home groups running through Rise of the Runelords and Crimson Throne.

I have always thought roleplaying was under-recognised as a hobby, and have often gone out of my way to introduce friends, work colleagues, nephews/neices etc to the game, and run the occasional Free RPG Game Day at a local store. I have run Hollow's Last Hope, Revenge of the Kobold King, and more recently Master of the Fallen Fortress at Free RPG Game Day events over the last three years, introducing a number of new players to Pathfinder.

Running store game days such as these were really a trial run to GMing at a convention. I first introduced Pathfinder to a games convention at Unicon Melbourne three years ago. Unicon is actually a freeform or LARP (live action roleplay) convention, their session times were 3 hours each, which didn't mesh well with the 4 hours required to play a Pathfinder game. Some players seemed interested in Pathfinder, but were reluctant to sacrifice their LARP sessions in order to play. We had 0 tables on Day One and Day Two of the convention, but picked up a couple of tables of players on Day Three.

Though this might seem discouraging to some, it was actually a pretty good learning experience, and I persisted, bringing Pathfinder Society to Arcanacon, Conquest and Unicon for the last three years with much better results.

On a couple of occasions, players from Sydney have come down for Arcanacon or Conquest who have become good friends and good gamer contacts. Last year they came down to Melbourne and hired a serviced apartment for a gaming weekend. The purpose of the event was for GMs to play-test scenarios for upcoming conventions. So the condition of entry was that each player had to GM two scenarios for the other players, round-robin style. This was a great idea, as two players who had only GMed their home-group before have since stepped up to GM at public conventions.

Last year, with the help of some GM friends, I brought Pathfinder Society to GenConOz. I can't take credit for Jason Bulmahn's guest appearance, but that was the icing on the cake! It was a great experience to travel for a convention, meeting new players from around Australia.

We were to do the same this year when GenConOz announced their cancellation. Some frantic organisation with the help of a great bunch of GMs saw that we had an alternative venue lined up for PaizoConOz within a week! We were interviewed on Brisbane community radio about Pathfinder and PaizoConOz. We had 40 players from around Australia, five tables per session, and everyone had a great time!

I'm just recovering after running Pathfinder once again at Unicon last weekend, three days after returning from PaizoConOz in Brisbane, to be greeted with the news of Regional Co-ordinator Australia.

I'm very honoured, but I couldn't have done it without a great team of GMs, enthusiastic players, and of course my home-group who have been great moral support and tirelessly play-tested scenarios ready for each convention.

Yet, I know the work has just begun. I know I need to get some regular Pathfinder tables happening at local stores to encourage more play and GMs to help out at future conventions. I also want to make PaizoConOz a roaming convention to support and encourage Pathfinder communities in areas other than Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney - Australia is indeed a large region! But I'm confident we can do it, because we're off to a great start :-)

And you can too! Just head into your local gaming store, put up a notice, and hold a games day. It takes time for word to get around, and community to build, so don't be discouraged if it doesn't seem to take off right away, stick at it and it will happen, and then build on your successes.

Thanks guys!

Stephen (DarkWhite)
Venture-Captain, Australia

It would have helped to add the message board IDs to the announcement. I guess I know nearly all of them from discussions here - but with the real names I have problems to associate anyone with them.

Agreed. This was my first thought after the initial "wow, thanks guys!" Any chance the announcements can be edited with board aliases added?

Cheers,
Stephen (DarkWhite)
Venture-Captain, Australia

Hi Dice Munkey,

Did you attend PaizoConOz 2010 Brisbane a couple of weekends ago? Edit: yes I see you did. Among the 40 attendees, half were local Brisbane players, the other half flew in from all over Australia for the event - five tables of players per session. So there definitely seems to be Pathfinder interest in Brisbane, it's just a matter of organising game days and getting in touch with each other.

I know not every player is a boards regular, so I've just shot an email to the Brisbane players I have contacts for with a link to this thread.

Note: if you're a Brisbane local who attended PaizoConOz, but didn't receive this email, it could be because you checked "do not want to receive news" when you registered for the event.

If anyone wants to be notified of other Pathfinder game days in Brisbane or elsewhere in Australia, shoot me an email with your name, email address and location (eg, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney etc) and I'll add you to a mailing list for your area.

If anyone else is running local Pathfinder Society game days anywhere within Australia that they want to notify players in their area about, please email me details of the event, and I'll notify any players I have contacts for in your area.

PS, I've been flat out with Unicon running in Melbourne the very weekend after PaizoConOz in Brisbane, but I'll be reporting play sessions from both conventions over the coming week.

Cheers,
Stephen (DarkWhite)
Venture-Captain, Australia
PathfinderSocietyOz(at)gmail(dot)com

Congrat New York Venture Captain Art!

Does this mean your PC gets to become an NPC Venture Captain somewhere in Golarion? Heheh

It would be very irresponsible to set a precedent like that. It's dangerous enough that Slip adventures among other Pathfinders, but to promote him to NPC Venture Captain? You know not what you ask!

I think it's necessary to have more than one after a while, or you are really limited on who you can play with and what mods you can play

This is very true, particularly as you start reaching the higher levels. If you don't have low- and mid-level characters, then you'll have to wait while other players in your area catch up to you.

Also be careful to advance your chracters evenly if possible, otherwise you may find a) they catch up with each other, which means while you have two characters, being the same level limits your Tier opportunities; or b) the gap between them widens, meaning you can play low or high, but can't join a mid-Tier table.

I currently have three characters: level 1, 3 and 9 - I'm feeling the gap between 3 and 9 right now, particularly as all new scenarios released to the end of the year will be Tier 5+

Also, if you're likely to need a secondary (or tertiary) character, spend some time developing him now, before you actually need it - eg, always have one more character prepared than you're currently playing. I'm enjoying my level 3 and 9 characters, because I spent the time thinking about and developing interesting character backgrounds, and then building the characters stats around that concept. However, my level 1 was a random pre-gen I grabbed during a con because unexpectedly I was needed as a 4th player to make a low-level table - I really can't get into his mindset, so sadly I've abandoned him and haven't played him since.

Even if your main character is high level, it's important to create opportunities for new players to join a game, which is another important reason for having a low-level character and not always playing high.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

Hi Drew,

Thanks for your kind words of encouragement. We hope last weekend will be the first of many annual PaizoConOz events and will start planning toward next year's event as soon as I've caught my breath after having run PaizoConOz and Unicon in back-to-back weekends.

There's a free utility called Posterazor which you can find easily with a Google search. It's purpose is to slice poster-sized images into A4 PDF pages.

Step 1 - drag/drop a map from a Pathfinder PDF into a folder on your desktop.

Step 2 - crop the bmp map image to form a suitable working image - Picasa (also free) can do this - keep in mind, you're trying to produce a canvas that can be easily divided into A4 pages of 7x11 inch grid squares.

Step 3 - open image in Posterazor.

Step 4 - using the options in Posterazor, define a brief overlap so you can see where the slices will divide your map into A4 pages.

Step 5 - scale your image until 7x11 inch grid squares fit per A4 page.

Step 6 - align your image top/centre/bottom and left/center/right until the slices line up nicely with your map grid.

note: you'll also want to try position your slices along walls, so you can drop A4 sheets on the table during play without giving away too much of what might be in an adjacent room - you may need to go back over previous steps, trial and error, to get the best fit - yes, this can be frustrating! very frustrating!

Step 7 - save as PDF and print the pages you require onto 200 gsm cardstock.

Despite the frustration, especially when your slices almost but not quite line up where you want them, Posterazor seems to be the best technique anyone has found for the purpose so far.

Hope this helps :-)

Cheers,
DarkWhite

Hi Rizzo,

Sorry to hear you and the Sydney guys got caught up in all that Virgin Blue flight fiasco. We had scheduled the evening for an after-con social opportunity, but I guess everyone was keen to fly home so they could start work on Monday. Had you all known you'd be staying the extra night, you could have joined us for a relaxed dinner, coffee and good conversation after the event.

Ken hung back with Deluge, Simon and I, after we'd cleaned up the conference room, and recommended a Chinese restaurant which was rather nice - thanks Ken, we really enjoyed winding down with you after the con.

Deluge and I returned to the Chinese restaurant for lunch the next day. I thought I'd tried a pretty wide range of Yumcha/Dimsum in my life, but it wasn't until I bit into a steamed pork dumplings and felt the soup burst free of it's dumpling enclosure that I realised this was the first time I'd tried one of these famed juicy dumplings! I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! How could I have missed these all my life?

Gamer highlights for me were:

1) when Matt (RPG Superstar) Goodall's Barbarian character Kregor swaggers into a tavern proclaiming in his rough gravelly voice "now this is my kind of bar!", only to watch him squirm uncomfortably in his seat moments later as the curtain raises and Miss Feathers performs a brief cabaret of "Shiver" to the tune of "Fever" in an equally deep voice, and turns her attentions to him.

2) Echoes of the Everwar is a great four-parter to run as back-to-back sessions, and I hope I get more opportunity to run that series again at cons.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

Missed the opportunity to join us at PaizoConOz in Brisbane? Or maybe four days of Pathfinder wasn't enough and left you hungering for more? Never fear, as Pathfinder Society lodges in both Melbourne and Sydney have missions this coming weekend for any adventurers brave enough to take them!

Unicon - Friday 1st through Sunday 3rd October 2010

Sydcon - Saturday 2nd through Monday 4th October 2010

For those in the area, we hope to see you at either of these events!

Cheers,
DarkWhite

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to say a HUUUGE thank you to everyone who participated in PaizoConOz 2010 Brisbane this weekend, and I mean EVERYONE!

Extra special thanks goes out to everyone who GMed over the weekend - Al, Ben, Deluge, Matt, Owen, Rich, Seb and Simon.

I'd like to apologise for not being able to say proper thanks and farewell to all the GMs and players personally, as fate would have it my table was running overtime (organiser's curse) while many couldn't hang around due to flights to catch.

Last year's GenConOz was a great event, Pathfinder's first national gathering of players, and I do hope that GenConOz is back up and running in Brisbane next year so that Pathfinder can be a part of that experience again. But for me, PaizoConOz was an amazing event.

Despite some noise issues, I think the Riverside was a great venue for the number of players we had - central location and so convenient for interstate GMs and players who were staying there.

Despite any inconvenience caused by GenConOz's cancellation this year, it was great to be able to hold a national gathering of Pathfinders, and we should all feel proud of what we have accomplished together.

Of course it wouldn't have been possible at all without a great turn-out of players! We had 39 players - half Brisbane locals, the other half flown in from all over Australia, including Canberra, Darwin, Melbourne, Rockhampton and Sydney.

I have so many good memories of this weekend, and met a great bunch of people who I hope to meet playing Pathfinder again in the not too distant future.

Thank you all!

DarkWhite

Thanks Masika,

It was certainly a great start to the event. As you said, great to see so many players, both local to Brisbane and flown in from all over Australia. Great to recognise some familiar faces from last year, as well as plenty of new ones. Four tables per session, should increase to five tomorrow. Lots of fun all round!

If you're in Brisbane perhaps heard about the event for the first time on the radio show last night, but haven't pre-registered, come in even if it looked like sessions had booked out, we'll find a spot for you to play.

Also note there is free parking on-site for PaizoConOz attendees, just enquire at the reception desk when you arrive.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

Hi Bacchreus,

Yup, PaizoConOz is almost upon us, and I'm frantically busy with final preparations for the event - there seriously aren't enough hours in the day!

At this late stage, I think we'll keep table numbers as they are, and do any table swaps that might be necessary on the day of the event. A couple of us will be appearing on Zed Games, a 4ZZZFM Brisbane radio show about gaming at 6pm on Wednesday evening, and this could attract additional players that may not have previously heard about the event. I don't want a situation where someone swaps out of a 3-player table, because they don't think it will run, leaving the other two players without a game, when a fourth player could arrive looking for something to play on the day. It's difficult to predict how much influence the radio interview will have on our table numbers, but we have a few GMs prepared to run extra tables if needed.

I thought it worth mentioning - PaizoConOz will be the first major event where you can playtest the new Magus base class - check the Paizo site tomorrow!

I'm really looking forward to the event and meeting everyone too. It's been a long time in the planning, but it's finally here! Hope to see you all on Thursday :-)

Cheers,
DarkWhite

As for the class, specifically, Chapter 13 of the Guide will be updated today or Monday with a micro-update (3.0.1) that adds the Magus class as legal for play. I've read the class, I've put in ideas for the class, and I don't see any reason why this class isn't ready to be played in public as part of org play, just like we did with the APG classes earlier this year. :-)

Thanks Josh, this is useful to know. I'm up to my armpits in scenario print-outs, faction missions and maps as we speak, preparing for PaizoConOz. I'll shoot an email out to my GMs to keep a look out for the Magus beta rules on Monday so they can prepare themselves for the event. I'll also shoot an email to the pre-registered players, in case any of them with to make opportunity of the four-day event to have their first look at the Magus and give it a test-drive. I'm looking forward to it! :-)

Cheers,
DarkWhite

Paizo Blog: Prepare to Play with Fire!

The open playtest for Ultimate Magic begins Monday.

Okay, I suspect the answer is ... "all will be revealed on Monday!" ... but will the playtest be Pathfinder Society legal from day one? Eg, PaizoConOz 2010 Brisbane kicks off this Thursday, should we expect players arriving ready to playtest Ultimate Magic at that event?

Cheers,
DarkWhite

Thank you everyone.

We are hoping to start a game next week. Lets see how this works.

Good luck, and welcome to Pathfinder Society :-)

Before running a scenario, it might be helpful to do a quick search for the scenario title among the threads here on the boards. Often other GMs have provided reviews, feedback, asked questions and offered advice on how to run the scenario smoother, avoid potential pit-falls, etc.

I generally find, first time I run a scenario, it always runs over the recommended 4-5 hours. This is because a) I'm playing it with my home group who are notorious for immersing themselves in character roleplaying; and b) after you've run a scenario once or twice, you become more familiar with the scenario, unexpected actions of the players, better prepared NPC/monster tactics, and ready with answers to player questions.

If running at a game-day or convention with a scheduled timetable, you'll want to keep a close eye on the time, and keep the players focused on the task at hand. But if you're playing in a more relaxed home game environment with friends, feel free to let your players explore more character development, interaction and other roleplay opportunities if that's what they enjoy, and you have the time to do so. Pathfinder Society can be good for both styles of play.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

1) Can we play season zero mods?

Yes, you may play Season 0 mods, however, a small few (Eye of the Crocodile King, Bood at Dralkard Manor, Asmodeus Mirage, Trouble with Secrets, Eternal Obelisk) have been retired from official Pathfinder Sociey Organised Play. It will be noted (Retired) after the product name on the product page. What this means is, you may still purchase, download and play retired scenarios if you wish, but you get no credit (eg, no experience, prestige, gold, item access or stars) for having GMed or played one.

Also note that Season 0 scenarios were written using D&D 3.5 rules. For official Pathfinder Society Organised Play, you must still use Pathfinder RPG rules, but may continue to use statistics straight out of the 3.5 Monster Manual for creatures that do not have a direct and obvious Pathfinder Bestiary equivalent. For example, do not attempt to convert vermin and adjust size-category, because challenge rating can be unpredictable for your party level. Just run creatures like these from the 3.5 MM if you still have one.

2) Do we need to register our meet ups?

You may run private home games, but you're strongly encouraged to report them online for several reasons. 1) your players get credit for each game they play, and may want to play that character at a store game-day or convention; 2) it helps Josh know where Pathfinder Society is being played the most, and where to direct marketing efforts, convention support, etc; 3) the GM earns stars for number of games played, which may benefit him in the long-term.

With 10 players, it sounds like you have a good group available that could take off in ways you might not have anticipated when you started out. Eg, participating in occasional store events, such as FREE RPG GAME DAY, participating at local conventions or building a local gaming community. It would be a pity to miss out on recognition for games played/GMed because you didn't think it neccessary to record your sessions from the start.

It's not difficult to create an event and report your play sessions online, and you can set it to "private" for home games.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

Hi Wrath,

I'm Sorry you'll be missing the event, but thanks for letting us know. As you said, a couple of the sessions you were booked to play were full tables, so hopefully you've given someone else the opportunity to jump into your seat while it's still warm.

noting that several low-tier sessions had booked out, we've broadened the Tier range of a few Tier 3-4 scenarios to Tier 1-4 to give new players a few more sessions they're now able to join. The actual Tier these scenarios will be run at will be determined by the average level of characters at the table, so they could run at Tier 1-2 or 3-4 on the day, but that's fine.

Also, if you notice any scenario titled: "#00 To Be Announced", then we've added a table to a session that had previously booked out. We have a GM to run it, and wanted players to be able to sign up, even though we haven't announced the title yet. note that while we have a few scenarios in mind to run at these new tables, one reason for not announcing them yet, is just in case we use one of these tables to run the Shadow Lodge special.

As always, we're monitoring table numbers and trying to keep tables open for new players - but if you find there are no seats remaining in a session you wish to sign up for, please notify us your intention to play, and we'll see what we can do ...

Cheers,
DarkWhite

Hi Bacchreus,

I have put some serious thought to running the Shadow Lodge special at PaizoConOz 2010 Brisbane.

You're right, it is going to be difficult to offer the Shadow Lodge special at this late notice, as it would require displacing at least three tables of players who have pre-registered their sessions. Many players would probably be okay with this, though I want to avoid disrupting multi-part scenarios, and we have at least one multi-part scenario scheduled in every session throughout the weekend, so no matter which session we schedule it, we're going to face problems.

• Replace all tables in one session with Shadow Lodge, and some players are going to miss a multi-part session;
• Run Shadow Lodge but exclude players at a multi-part table, and those players may feel they unfairly missed out;
• Allow player choice whether to abandon their table or not, and some tables may no longer have enough players to run.

I'll read the scenario first and distribute it to the GMs who have offered to run it (some will prefer to play it) to see if we're prepared to run it in place of the scenarios we were to run in a particular session, before making a decision - remembering that unlike every other scenario on the schedule, this is one we won't have had opportunity to slot-zero before running it.

I suspect we'll discuss the options above with players on the day. If we do offer it, I doubt we'll be running it on Sunday, as every table has scheduled multi-part scenarios on Sunday.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

DarkWhite wrote:

During that time, despite their low cost, I can't purchase Society scenarios without checking out my entire shopping cart. This has occasionally delayed my purchasing and running Society scenarios I have been looking forward to.

A while back, we added a feature to your shopping cart to ease your life in just this situation. Juts go to your cart, and look for the "Save for Later" button under each product's name. Clicking the button creates a "SAVED ITEMS—TO BUY LATER" section, and you can move stuff back and forth between there and your cart with a single click.

Hi Vic,

Thanks for pointing that out, I really hadn't noticed it. I do most of my "shopping" via the side-bar on each page, and the page you're referring to is mostly a transitional page I don't take much notice of, excpet to click through to to the billing/shipping page. Also, the "save for later" puts the product "out of sight, out of mind", and my purpose for putting things in my cart is so I have a constant visual reminder whenever I visit the Paizo site, eg reading messageboards etc, that I have some products I've "saved for later", eg it's in my face, not hidden away.

Not trying to argue with you, I can see how "save for later" could be a useful feature, I'm just trying to describe my own shopping habits and reasons for them. Though I might use "save for later" now I know it's there :-)

I still think a Pathfinder Society Scenarios subscription simply added to my other monthly subscriptions would be a good idea, so when it comes time to run a scenario, I've already purchased it, and it can be billed when my other monthly items ship.

I'm sure there are also disadvantages to this, such as when I need a scenario released this week, but my subscription is set to ship with my Adventure Path which might not be due for another 3 weeks. Is there a way to release items in your side-cart waiting for other products to ship, eg a "ship now" button?

Cheers,
DarkWhite

I will eventually have pregens up for every base and core class.

Music to my ears!

I don't want to rush you, very happy to have the current 4 + 3, but thanks so much for this Josh :)

I just wanted to pop in and say a few quick things:

1) The registration system may have been down over the last few days/weekend due to new server hardware. If you tried to register, but couldn't, try again now.

2) We are aware that Thursday Tier 1-2 sessions have all booked out. We're currently re-negotiating our GM sessions, and should have another Tier 1-2 table available for both Thursday sessions within the next day or two, so check the registration again in the coming days, we should have you covered.

3) If you're trying to book a session, and find there are no tables available for your character level, please post a message here on the boards or direct to me via email, and we'll see what we can do. You might not be the only person seeking a table at that level. If we know about it, we might be able to do something about it - but it would be a shame to miss out because you didn't speak up.

Oh, and Two weeks to go!

Cheers,
DarkWhite

Hey, just wondering if there was still any call for volunteer GM'S? I would be available pretty much all day Friday/Saturday.

Hi Talonas81,

Have you already emailed me directly? If so, I suspect we've already been chatting about this via email this afternoon.

If you're not the same guy, then welcome aboard. There may be some opportunity to GM if you're interested, I'll be having another look through the sessions and emailing my GMs tonight to see how things are going. Eg, as mentioned up-thread, some tables are booked out, while others still need a few players. So there appears to be opportunity to GM, but also opportunity to play. It might be that we need to shuffle a few players between tables if they don't have enough players sitting with them, and that could affect the number of tables or which scenarios we run to cover everyone's needs in a couple of instances.

Send me an email - contact me via the PaizoConOz 2010 Brisbane event page - and we'll sort out which sessions you'd like to play and/or GM.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

@Kyle: these appeared to be *story* items, not regular treasure/equipment, and might have later significance, such as being revealed as cursed items, or being keys to a ritual in the final part - probably not, but until I've read the final part, there's no way of knowing. So I didn't know if these were to be treated like regular treasure/equipment or something special?

@Michael: I'll be running part III this weekend, and hopefully part IV prior to PaizoConOz the week after. Thanks for your insights, I'll keep them in mind as I read over the scenarios in the coming days.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

I've recently GMed Parts I and II of Echoes of the Everwar, and was wondering ...

Thanks,
DarkWhite

Question: What would you *expect* from a subscription?

Generally, our subs have two key benefits: convenience, and some form of savings.

The PSSs are pretty inexpensive already—especially if you already have an AP subscription—so we don't have a whole lot of room there.

For me, it would be convenience.

I often hold items in my shopping cart for days or weeks while I'm deciding just what or when I want to purchase. Eg, sometimes I add items to my cart over the course of a month to save on overseas shipping; sometimes I hold items in my cart until after important bills such as my rent is paid, etc.

During that time, despite their low cost, I can't purchase Society scenarios without checking out my entire shopping cart. This has occasionally delayed my purchasing and running Society scenarios I have been looking forward to.

Subscriptions on the other hand, occur automatically. Due to their low cost, an automatic payment wouldn't concern me. I'm really not expecting a discount, as you said, they're already low priced. For me, it's merely the convenience factor of bypassing my cart.

I realise Paizo already have wish-lists, and I do use those to track upcoming products I wish to keep an eye on, or non-immediate purchases I might wish to add to my order some time in the future. Otherwise, I'm a busy guy, and for various reasons, having products sitting in my cart is a good in-my-face reminder of purchases I might be considering - eg, products I might have browsed during my lunch-break but haven't had time to read reviews yet, or bookmark items that I might want to check if available locally before paying for overseas shipping, etc.

Hope this helps provides some insight into the unfathomable online shopping habits of at least one of your frequent shoppers ;-)

Cheers,
DarkWhite

Surely there's an archetype in the APG for swashbuckler? (at work, so I don't have my APG with me) Are there any classes in the APG which have similar archetypes? Eg, I could imagine a swashbuckler archetype for both fighter and rougue - different builds of course, but both recognised as swashbucklers?

+1 to Faction logo polo shirts. There being five factions, I could wear a different one each day to work!

When are you PFS Boxers coming in? ;)

Dragnmoon, sir, I'll require proof that you're actually wearing those at the table before I can allow your re-roll.

Bikini briefs actually. Josh got them for me. :P

Ummm ... no, that's okay Kyle, really. I'll just take your word for it ... please, just go ahead and take your re-roll ... please!

Probably not what you're looking for, as it's no closer a Pathfinder creature than the one you're replacing, you'd still need to do conversion and it doesn't fill the same "displacer effect in a room full of mirrors" role. It's proprietary WotC and non-OGL.

However, having said all that, I couldn't help by be reminded of the Gravbeast published by WotC in it's Monster Mayhem column. Being a member of the six-legged magical predatory feline family, it uses it's environment to good effect, providing a freaky memorable encounter, and could be a step on the road to recovery for those suffering separation anxiety for the displacer beast.

I really like how it isn't just another purple tentacled panther, but instead resembles a bengal tiger built "lower and heavier" giving a hint as to it's gravity-altering nature.

It's also living proof there may be other six-legged magical predatory felines out there with their own unique effects, providing another sample on which to base your own creation.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

Normally, I don't like reprinting old stuff, but on the other hand, in this case, I'd like it all in one book.

I think the Game Mastery Guide suffered in some spots the same problem afflicting a few other recent releases - too many good ideas, too much content, stuff gets cut down to meet a page-count.

NPC profiles were a whole section I thought the moment I saw it - hey, this looks great, but why stop here? These could easily fill a hard-cover product this size with NPC profiles alone! Apparently Paizo thinks so too, hence this thread.

Meanwhile, rules like Haunts only had one sample haunt, where I thought the GMG would have been the one-stop-shop to collate all haunts. As a result, the GMG probably isn't the book I'd reach for when looking for a haunt, despite containing haunt rules.

The Adventurer's Armoury also suffered from this problem. Too much content resulted in too much editing, leading to errors and teasing customers with things they wanted much more detail on, but descriptions got cut.

I'm not opposed to cutting content to provide focus to a product, it's better than the alternative of fluffing a product up to meet page-count, but if you're going to cover a topic, cover it well, or bump it to another future product were you can give it the treatment it deserves.

Though sometimes new concepts need a short "test if our customers like this idea" run, and then schedule a future product for a more complete coverage if the idea takes off.

I guess what I'm saying is, NPC profiles great idea, GMG seemed the right place to put them, but probably deserved their own hardback in the first place.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

This would be one step toward fulfilling my fantasy of optional non-core NPCs in APs and modules (if you would like Dave the Dread Druid to be a summoner instead, use stats from page X of the NPC book.

I'm a professional web developer, and a couple of important concepts in my work are graceful degradation and progressive enhancement.

Graceful degradation refers to including features that you expect won't be supported by some web browsers, but providing a suitable fall-back option. Eg, featuring a cool Flash animation on your webpage, but knowing that iPhones and iPads don't support Flash, you provide a standard graphic image that will appear in place of missing Flash content. While different visitors will receive a slightly different experience - static vs animated - your message is still communicated to both audiences despite the technical limitations of their devices.

Progressive enhancement refers to building a basic website which functions even in older web browsers (eg, IE6), and then add various layers of enhancements which will be ignored or supported by browsers depending on their capability. These might include such features as rounded corners, drop-shadows, or semi-transparent backgrounds.

So, what does this have to do with Pathfinder?

Graceful degradation - Show off the best Pathfinder has to offer from various sourcebooks, but provide a Core Rules / Bestiary I fall-back option when doing so. Eg, include Bestiary III's purple flying monkeys in the next Adventure Path, but provide a one-liner footnote that for GMs without access to Bestiary III, these may be replaced by Harpies from Bestiary I. Different creature, similar role, it won't adversely affect the players experience.

Progressive enhancement - Adventure Paths could continue much as they do now, with classed nPCs, monsters etc, from the Core Rulebook and Bestiary I as a baseline default. For GMs with other sourcebooks such as the APG, Bestiary III etc, a one-line footnote could suggest replacement nPCs, monsters etc, from those sources, and the proposed nPC book would play a crucial role in a progressive enhancement approach.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

I was really looking forward to a Pathfinder Bestiary each year, it's going to be difficult to convince me otherwise.

I would prefer an NPC book, hopefully one with a lot of APG and other not-quite-core characters.

Two bestiaries is a lot of monsters.

This would be one step toward fulfilling my fantasy of optional non-core NPCs in APs and modules (if you would like Dave the Dread Druid to be a summoner instead, use stats from page X of the NPC book.

This comes awfully close to convincing me otherwise.

While I like the idea of APG and other non-core material being supported in Adventure Paths and other products, an nPC book could be a perfect companion to broaden GMs options when running adventures. Swapping out key nPCs to enable closer relationships with the players at your table is something I've done in the past, and an occasional one-line after an nPC statblock as GeraintElberion suggested referring GMs to an alternate build from the nPC book would encourage GMs to be a little more creative with purchased adventures by giving them the tools to do so responsibly.

I thought the nPC section of the Game Mastery Guide was very well presented - I love the character portraits. The PDF version provides a grab-bag of printable character portraits to accompany your character sheet and inspire your character background.

Yes, the fact that the pre-gens get equipment, and I'm also pretty sure GP totals, that are different from what actual Society characters get bothers me tremendously. I'll need to look over them again to figure out exactly what would need changing to bring them in line, but I remember it wasn't pretty when I did the work the first time.

This doesn't bother me at all.

Most experienced players are going to gain far more mileage from optimising their characters using the full range of options available in the Core Rulebook, APG and other PFS legal sourcebooks.

The new player who grabs a pre-gen has a choice of (currently) four pre-built characters, gets what he's given with minimal modification (serial number filing), is more likely unfamiliar with the rules, and quite frankly deserves all the help he can get.

If experienced players think they can gain advantage over other players by grabbing a pre-gen just because they start with potions in their backpack at first-level, well good luck to him, but I think he's missing the point.

I am assuming you're sourcing official Pathfinder Society >> pre-gens here << and not from the back pages of an Adventure Path or other module which are built with different rules than official organsied play.

I haven't reverse-engineered Pathfinder Society official pre-gens for GP costs, but I don't see any potions in their equipment. There's alchemists fire, a thunderstone, and Ezren has a scroll of burning hands. Potions/scrolls and effects of 1st level spells are open access - legal for purchase without PA.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

I had created a nice background for a new character, which would have precluded his being part of a faction. My GM said that not being part of a faction was a very bad idea, because of the importance of gathering prestige. Now I have to try to think up a new background.

For that matter, I don't know how reporting events works. Can it even be done for a character with no faction?

(I really liked the story I had, too. He came from a land very far away from Absalom. The Order of the Grey Willow - he is a monk - had heard tales of the Pathfinder Society and sent him to investigate.)

Well you have your reason for joining right there - investigating and learninng about the Society, you're undoubtedly going to encounter factions along the way. Maybe a faction recruited you with the promise of getting you into the Society. Maybe your investigations into the Society have lead you to investigate one of the factions. Maybe to further your monk training, you're introduced to a monk school containing faction members, or you're spreading your school techniques to monks from one of the factions. You don't have to be from the nation of your chosen faction -there are many other incentives to pursue one of the five factions.

I think there is a case here for following the spirit and intent of the rules. The very purpose of pre-gen characters is to make it easier for new players - who may not even have held a Core Rulebook in their hands before - participate in a game with minimum delay for others at the table.

Enforcing a re-equip, denying them faction points for their very first game, and some of the other points you raised - someone already familiar with organised play might roll with the blows, but new players are often already bewildered and overwhelmed by the system - getting all rules lawyer on them for ideological purpose is not going to endear them to the game.

By all means, assist them to learn and play by the system. But your role as GM is also to encourage new players and ensure everyone has a positive experience of Organised Play.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

DarkWhite wrote:

Not having my Guide to Organise Play on hand, but the fact that none of the pre-gen characters have factions, and Master of the Fallen Fortress contains no faction missions, would seem to indicate that while strongly encouraged, choosing a faction may be <whispers>technically optional</whispers> (or at least it's sending mixed messages).

As previously mentioned picking your faction is a non-optional step 1 of character creation. MotFF is slightly different in that the players are not even Pathfinders yet and the mod basically culminates with said n00bs joining the Society (and the implied promptly being recruited into a faction).

:)

Now I do have my Guide to Organised Play on hand, and you're quite right, it's there quite plainly in black and white. Character Creation Step 1: Choose Your Faction "You must choose a faction before you can begin play in Pathfinder Society".

Which is why I was rather bewildered, if this is so crucial to Society play, why MotFF - as an intro to Pathfinder Society - wasn't used as a stronger vehicle with which to introduce new players to their factions. The rescued prisoner should have introduced the character(s) who freed him to the Andoran faction; and similar clauses for each of the other factions. The idea is that characters are presented with faction contacts as a result of their actions during the adventure, earning their first faction points for doing so.

If pre-gen characters define weapon, feat and spell selections, then why not assign their faction and traits? Players who have already read a little about factions and trait are always free to swap them out before play, but at least you don't have to explain five factions to a new player - he can just run with the one found on his pre-gen sheet.

I realise the reason this isn't done is to keep MotFF and pre-gens generic so that they can be used by a wider audience, eg 3.5 players, home-brew campaigns, players not so invested in the Golarion or Society settings. However, a side-bar approach would neatly sideline faction and traits if this were a real concern.

I like your idea Darkwhite of maybe blackmail being why I was aligned with a certain faction I could maybe work that in somehow.

You also made a good point that "So have a deeper read of the factions, maybe don't align yourself with the nations they represent, but align yourself with their underlying methods and motives which may suit those of your own character."

Both very compelling ideas which I am going to have to look into further.

Cool, glad I could be of help.

I've had my own struggles with factions in the past, as mentioned recently in the Tell me about factions thread, where I describe how I re-purposed my character Slip's background, to be more faction-friendly. I can see a few parallels between your faction questions and my experience with Slip.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

Things to think about if you decide to fully ignore faction missions.

1. You could hurt other players of the same faction because now they don't have help.

No more-so than if you weren't the fifth or sixth player at a table of four or five, or if you were playing a faction other than those already at the table. Eg, players shouldn't expect there'll be someone else at the table to help with their faction orders.

Noteleks wrote:

Now I know for sure that I read the PFS Guide correctly and as such may still decide to not take the faction and suffer the penalty associated with such a decision.

I assume when you say this that you mean not take the faction missions, because if you mean not take a faction at all, then your character would not be legal and you would not be able to play it.

Not having my Guide to Organise Play on hand, but the fact that none of the pre-gen characters have factions, and Master of the Fallen Fortress contains no faction missions, would seem to indicate that while strongly encouraged, choosing a faction may be <whispers>technically optional</whispers> (or at least it's sending mixed messages).

Your best bet would be to take a faction that seems to be the most common in your area, and then you can at least passively help the other characters of the same faction and earn some extra PA that way.

As mentioned by others, you should still choose a faction, as sometimes you may want to be involved in a faction mission because it aligns with your character's personal goals; and you may still pick up faction points from other players of your faction completing the mission for you.

But I totally understand your approach on this. One of my characters is a Mwangi witch-doctor (Witch class); I've seen other characters from Irisien, TienXia, and other locales, far removed from the intrigues of Absalom and it's surrounding nations.

I'd really like to see factions expanded, to give folk from Mwangi, Irisien, TianXia etc better options. But also mentioned above, with 60+ scenarios already released, I don't see any easy way for this to be implemented.

I really had to dig deep to understand why my Mwangi character would become involved in the faction wars at all? In the end, I chose Osirion, because many of their factions involve exploring ruins, recovering relics, and they hold great respect their ancestral dead - and I figured Mwangi is also full of lost ruins and being a witch-doctor, I can relate to respecting the dead.

So have a deeper read of the factions, maybe don't align yourself with the nations they represent, but align yourself with their underlying methods and motives which may suit those of your own charcter.

Or maybe you didn't seek out a faction, maybe they sought you out. You could be tied to a faction because they hold some kind of blackmail over you for some reason. Now that could make for an interesting character background!

Cheers,
DarkWhite

Hi all,

PaizoConOz 2010 Brisbane is only a month away, and is shaping up to be a great event!

With a quarter of all tables already booked out, I'd recommend booking your sessions as soon as possible to guarantee a seat at your character level.

Sunday in particular booked out fast, but one of our GMs volunteered to sacrifice his Sunday player sessions to run another table of Before the Dawn Parts I and II, which should suit low-level characters leveling up to level 3 or 4 by Sunday.

I've compiled a list of tables with seats remaining. The first number on the left of each line is how may players already signed up to play - note that Before the Dawn on Sunday can accommodate up to 12 players each (two tables of 6 each session). Sessions not appearing on the list below have already booked out.

11 tables have booked out (6 players).
24 tables have 4-6 players and ready to go!
24 tables have 0-3 players and need more players if they're to run.

If you're finding your options are limited because there are no tables of your character level remaining in a particular session - eg, Saturday morning's low Tier scenarios have booked out - please speak up, because we may have some flexibility to adjust the schedule, as we have with extra Before the Dawn tables on Sunday. Tables remaining with one or two players aren't likely to run on the day, so if there is enough demand for a different scenario, it might be possible to negotiate a more popular scenario in those sessions if we know in advance.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

Thursday 23rd September

Morning 9am-1pm (for setup and registration)

Session A - Afternoon 2pm-6pm

3 - #05 Mists of Mwangi (Tier 1-2)
3 - #37 The Beggar's Pearl (Tier 3-4)
0 - #47 The Darkest Vengeance (Tier 4-5)

Session B - Evening 7pm-11pm

5 - #35 Voice in the Void (Tier 1-2)
3 - #45 Delirium's Tangle (Tier 1-2)
1 - #55 The Infernal Vault (Tier 3-4)
2 - #16 To Scale the Dragon (Tier 5-6)

Friday 24th September

Session C - Morning 9am 1pm

3 - #33 Assault on the Kingdom of the Impossible (Tier 1-2)
3 - #29 The Devil We Know Part I Shipyard Rats (Tier 3-4)
1 - #49 Among the Dead (Tier 3-4)

Session D - Afternoon 2pm-6pm

5 - #04 Frozen Fingers of Midnight (Tier 1-2)
3 - #43 The Pallid Plague (Tier 3-4)
3 - #51 The City of Strangers Part I Shadow Gambit (Tier 3-4)
4 - #25 Hands of the Muted God (Tier 5-6)

Session E - Evening 7pm-11pm

4 - #49 Among the Dead (Tier 1-2)
3 - #30 The Devil We Know Part II Cassomir's Locker (Tier 3-4)
3 - #52 The City of Strangers Part II Twofold Demise (Tier 3-4)
0 - #17 Perils of the Pirate Pact (Tier 3-4)

Saturday 25th September

Session F - Morning 9am-1pm

4 - #31 Sniper in the Deep (Tier 5-6)
1 - #28 Lyrics of Extinction (Tier 7-8)

Session G - Afternoon 2pm-6pm

2 - #06 Black Waters (Tier 1-2)
5 - #48 The Devil We Know Part IV Rules of the Swift (Tier 3-4)
2 - #50 Fortune's Blight (Tier 5-6)
4 - #36 Echoes of the Everwar Part I The Prisoner of Skull Hill (Tier 7-8)

Session H - Evening 7pm-11pm

3 - #35 Voice in the Void (Tier 3-4)
2 - #24 Decline of Glory (Tier 3-4)
2 - #39 The Citadel of Flame (Tier 4-5)
5 - #42 Echoes of the Everwar Part II The Watcher of Ages (Tier 7-8)

Sunday 26th September

Session I - Morning 9am-1pm

5 - #51 The City of Strangers Part I The Shadow Gambit (Tier 1-2)
8 - #57 Before the Dawn Part I The Bloodcove Disguise (Tier 3-4)
1 - #45 Delirium's Tangle (Tier 4-5)
3 - #44 Echoes of the Everwar Part III Terror at Whistledown (Tier 7-8)

Session J - Afternoon 2pm-6pm

5 - #52 The City of Strangers Part II The Twofold Demise (Tier 1-2)
7 - #58 Before the Dawn Part II Rescue at Azlant Ridge (Tier 3-4)
3 - #53 Echoes of the Everwar Part IV The Faithless Dead (Tier 7-8)

Evening 7pm-11pm (for clean-up and social catch-up)

It was my understanding that it's updated automatically, depending on how many sessions you've reported as GM.

You get your first star after reporting 10 games, two stars after 30, three stars after 60, four stars after 100 games reported.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

4. Do we need to purchase multipule copies of the scenarios we are going to be running at the event?

You don't need to purchase multiple copies if you can print multiple copies from a single PDF; and you only need to print multiple copies if you're running more than one table of the same scenario during the same session time, eg each GM running the scenario will require his own copy. You could avoid this by scheduling different scenarios across different session times, for example if you have two tables running in the morning, you could schedule #01 Silent Tide and #33 Assault on the Kingdom of the Impossible once at each table. Then in the afternoon, you could run these same two scenarios again, but the players tables so you're not running the same scenario more than once in the same session, you can share the print-outs across different sessions.

Eg, you can run many sessions from a single PDF purchase, once at home with friends, later at a store game-day, then twice more at a convention etc.

However, if different GMs are going to be running the same scenario, they might want their own copy ahead of time so that they have time to prepare for the scenario before the event.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

Or a monthly subscription ... gotta have 'em all!

The Living Arcanis campaign had similar intrigue with secret societies and player goals were often in conflict. This led to PvP combat on more than one occasion, although Living Arcanis also had a no player versus player combat rule.

When player goals are often in conflict, players themselves often come into conflict. On more than one occasion I have seen players I previously respected come to blows with their GM or other players, and leave the table mid-game over Secret Society goals in Living Arcanis. If I never see this happen in Pathfinder Society, it will be too soon!

I think non-conflicting faction missions, no player-vs-player conflict, and no interefering with other's faction missions rules are something Pathfinder Society has learned from previous campaigns, and something they are doing right! Pathfinder Society does not need the kind of attention such displays bring to the game.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

I'm sure Majuba will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that he was just saying the pre-gens don't have traits (or factions) printed on them.

My earlier post regarding traits was because I didn't know what source the OP had obtained their pre-gens from.

Actually, I thought that was the case, but someone unfamiliar with Pathfinder Society could easily have interpreted it otherwise, which is why I thought it necessary to spell it out. I'd hate for a GM somewhere say "sorry, you can't choose a faction because you're playing a pregen" based off something he read on these boards.

And for the record, pregens do not get traits. If the character is kept by the player and used later, they may select traits (and faction).

There's actually no reason to deny first-level pregens their faction or traits.

You could transfer all of the stats, feats, equipment etc to a blank character sheet, call it your own character, then choose a faction and give it traits as if you'd built it yourself. So why not just choose them for your pregen before the game?

I think the only reasons pregens don't have a pre-selected faction and traits are:

a) it lets the player choose their own faction, which is largely a campaign/roleplaying choice;

b) faction and traits may be new concepts, even to players familiar with 3.5 but new to Pathfinder, requiring a small amount of campaign knowledge. So rather than delay the start of the game with discussions about factions and traits, this choice could be made after the player has experienced their first Pathfinder Society scenario, and seen other factions in action;

c) it allows pregens to be used in other non-Society adventures and campaigns.

Though I'd argue that without a faction, you miss out on participating in a faction mission, which is an important part of the Pathfinder Society expeirence. New players can fill in their blank traits between sessions, but I'd give all players the opportunity of selecting a faction before the game.

There's really no unfair advantage to be gained from players adding faction and traits to their pregens, rather they're disadvantaged visavis other players if they don't.

New players are already at a disadvantage entering a bewildering new world, let's help them feel a meaningful part of that world, and not lessen their experience for playing a pregen character sans faction responsibilities.

Additionally, GMs require a character's faction in order to record their Organised Play participation online.

Cheers,
DarkWhite