Matthew Pittard's page

We had a totally awesome run of the Accursed Halls. One of our GM's is rock solid on the terrain/visual side of things and made out of styrofoam the complete Accursed Halls experience. Right down to the fountains/ pools. Im not sure if we are allowed to post images in here but ill try later on.

What is funny is that Aklo was picked by one of the players locally because it was the first language listed in Herolab :)

What is interesting in that in the scheme of Living campaigns, perhaps people are playing Pathfinder society more because there is no comparable living game to play alongside it. I havnt heard anything about LFR for a long time (not even sure its still going) but in the past Pathfinder Society has run alongside other Living campaigns such as Living Arcanis and Living Greyhawk (and to an extent LFR).

Society seems to be the only one still pumping.

Katie: heh, I like the 'Slow Down' bit you mentioned, although Im not sure some people are capable of doing that :)

Im of a personal view that the sweet spot of an rpg is general the single digit levels, so Im glad that Society caps out at 12 (for the most part)

Id just like to say Aus got it first (well sorta). :)

I preferred Iron Man 3 to be honest. Some scenes were a tad Gratuitous (um.. Carol in underwear.. err ... okay). but it was a decent story.

Please ignore the person who was grumbling about staff leaving to go see a movie.

It scares me that some people can play every week. Locally we have a 2 week turnaround (although at one point via the warhorn we were scheduling every week). i have been playing since August of Last year and have played in over 55 scenarios. Others locally would have played a lot more.

Id like to see if there is any correlation between those that play every week and those that stop playing because of burnout.

Thank you Lab Rat. I was inclined to say the same thing.

and we all know Goblins are only quiet when they are sneaking around to kill your dogs. Which happens quite often.

Wait a second.. I didnt see the animal companions name on that list. Im hoping the companion didnt get put down just because its temporary master/friend got ganked?

Seems like a nice idea, however like you suggested Id cap it out at a level.

To me this bring matters back to the heart of an rpg. We are playing adventurers here who do crazy things. The guys in movies who go off in a small groups to battle monsters and do insane things. We need to all be prepared when characters die. We as players might feel sad and ticked off... thats a good thing. It means we are invested in what we do. Death is not always permanent in Society too. By level 5 you are likely able to be brought back somehow. I know a character who is still playing, just made level 9 and has died 3 times.

I think the forum thread is a nice idea.. possibly much in the same way that the adventure paths have one each. Make sure you put a spoiler in the title.. as it is likely people will want to say how they died. I dont believe there should be any reward should you have a character die. The reward was being able to play that character..

Its much easier to however do the number thing before the event. For everyone.

Very cool. Will have to have a long hard think about who to give this to. Lowlight would be nice for my Barbarian

Anyway,cheers to all!

Ive just started to play in a Rise of the Runelords anniversary edition game. Our local Pathfinder Society team (well the gms) runs it so we can get some gaming in ourselves.

Im relatively new to the gm crew. I have also been hankering to try out the Pathfinder Samurai and have decided to go even further out on a limb and use the Sword Saint archetype (even though Ive been told its not the best archetype)

Our group consists of 4 players, A Cleric of Abadar (with a honking big Greatsword) 2 Weapon Ranger, a Halfling Rogue, a Magus and myself.

Now we are only 2 sessions in, and I have already hit level 3. In the first session, we managed to dispatch the goblins (although the Cleric did drop to negatives in that combat), and then mounted an attack on the Glassworks (well sorta. My Samurai wanted to speak to the owner about his time in Minkai and asked the Halfling to assist him in entering after becoming concerned the business was not open). Tsuko did managed to rough us up, but we beat him back with some injuries and he bolted.

so no deaths after this session and we made level 2.. woot!

Next session was exploring some tunnels we found under the Glassworks previously (and get a bit freaked out by Tsuko's erotic picture drawing and poetry). We managed to dispatch the Sinspawn without too many troubles and the Vargouile was dispatched by a crit from the greatsword)

However.. we had massive issues with the Quasit. None of us had a weapon to get through DR and with the flying thing, it just wasnt happening. In fact some of us dropped and were hastily made ok and then moved.. ported back to town so we could stock up on things.

Upon returning it came down to a tanglefoot bag hitting the quasit and actually dumping her into the first font , whereas we all grouped around and started trying to breach DR. Some did, others did not. It was a tough battle, yet nobody died. Our Cleric managed to work out how to deactivate the well, which we managed to pull off.

And then we were level 3. Ive decided to take a dip in the fighter pool so I am now Sam2/Fighter 1.

We have had some lucky rolls and some people keel over, but no deaths yet... Yet.

As some people had indicated previously, Its better to simply not play on the table or if possible play on a different table. I have an Aasimar Cleric of Mephistopheles who while not overtly preaching his beliefs , certainly talks about them. Hes LN, and while I play him as so, I do not doubt that others see him as simply an evil servant of an evil devil prince.
(He had a great time in the Accursed Halls)

There is a distinct lack of Clerics and Paladins locally so he has actually seen more game time that I expected him too. (In fact he started as a gm credit character who by chance happened to get played a bit). I always ask before I use him what else is at the table because as he radiates an aura of evil ,I cannot personally see why a Paladin or some Clerics would travel with him.

I have always found it hard to play him as Im not exactly sure what his place is in the society. I settled on the secrets domain of Mephistopheles.. (he wants to know everyones) and view him more as a Contractor who works for the society.

For a second I thought Adamintine was a new Skymetal I had not heard of before.

No to taking my guns away. My 2nd amendment right allows for extreme exploitation of my Musket Master! :)

Have you had a character actually enter the gnome containment area?

I dont see the need honestly for Star rewards for GM's. I played for several months before I myself came forward to my local group and asked to become a gm/if they wanted me. Turns out they did.

I think if people are in this to win awards/prizes/kudos then they are in it for the wrong reason. The only reward I need is when at the end of the game someone says 'thanks for the game' or just 'thanks'. I remember that.

Its for similar reasons that yes I roll my eyes when people self congratulate themselves for earning their first or second star (Im about 2-3 scenarios off my first), as if seeking acclaim for gming a game. Sure running a game can be difficult and time consuming but again if you are doing it because you are forced to do it, or because you might win a prize or that you want to impress someone playing in your game then you are really doing it for all the wrong reasons.

Personally I like gming because I love crafting the behind the scenes story/plot, creating interesting npcs and some elements of the control I get. Is it a power addiction? Possibly.

Agreed. In fact thats the only way it should be run Tony. Im running it the week after next. When you ask players during the game to start rolling sense motive checks , players tend to 'lock down' and refuse to believe anything

Are there other companies that make pawns? Ideally Id like some Brigands. Someone linked me to Cardboard heroes.. but I fail to see how I can get a cardboard hero when Im buying the pdf and printing to my normal paper stock. Is there a company that makes pawns that would fit into the Paizo bases? Im thinking Id like as close to their bestiary box thickness as possible.

I started out gaming back when I was 9 .. (which is and seems like a very long time ago). I remember my first ever DM was a female... I remember she was Blonde and that I think the game was Talislanta or Rolemaster.

Ive been quite fortunate to have had many gms over the years with Im guessing a 2/3 male 1/3 ratio. Whilst I cannot remember all their names, I do remember one in particular. It was an all female gaming group and whilst i cant remember the game, I do remember one of the players had the atypical paladin.. and Im pretty sure she was a power gamer (back in the days Im thinking though of the gender discriminatory percentile strength ). The GM in that game was particuarly good at plot. I remember loving that game but I dont think it lasted long.

Since then however I have moved to different gaming groups and due to my involvement with Living style games have experience a lot of different gms. One in particular was the wife of another gm (which I didnt know at the time) , she has now I believe moved on to Tasmania. Her eloquence of speech and descriptive ability was just incredibly good.

I have only been playing since August of last year myself but in that time , I have found quite a few missions to be well.. bordering on crazy. Faction leaders know more about the mission than they should (and sometimes we are talking about places that havnt seen a living person in hundreds of years). Finding a yellow mushroom because it exists in the Tomb even though nobody has been in there.. is well silly.

Im happy with the secret objective idea. Id like to see the Vanities updated and expanded.

Id also love to see perhaps an Aspis/Shadow Lodge hookup, or just the Shadow Lodge going bad boy again. Well better bad boy. Its often hard to see the difference between the Aspis and Pathfinder Society :)

This only really effects one of my characters. He may go Grand Lodge as its the only one I can fit to it.

I had my character die quite horribly during to Scale the Dragon so it dosnt have a fond place in my heart :)

Its not a bad scenario at all.

We also had our VL , Chris Chisholm interviewed on Camera for a local con, Swancon. Ive yet to see the Video, but I will post the link to it should we find it!

I have done it once and that was not to confirm a crit roll and yes it was in a PFS game. It was in fact my first ever time dming (PFS) and the scenario was Prince of Augustana. The player was playing a pregen fighter and was on 1 hp when I critted for max damage.

I personally hate fudging rolls because A) It makes me feel.. 'off' and B)Im a firm believer in letting the dice decide. Again, I did it because it was the guys first ever game. (And I was having a heck of a lot of fun playing a certain self crowned Prince!) There have been other games where the temptation was there.. namely 2 pc kills (and I just realised.. both Paladins!).

I recommend the first swathe of Season 0 scenarios for 'new' players. Between Silken Caravan, Silent Tide, Black Waters , Prince of Augustana there is a lot of variation there in terms of story and scope and I dont think any of the battles are particuarly deadly. It also introduces the story of the Society as it was originally. If a character pops out at level 2-3 at the other end of these season 0 scenarios then that should hold them in good scope for things to come in later seasons.

Vernar: Are you in fact stealing someone away if they had already been stolen away to become a slave originally?

You are also presuming here that they take it for themselves. Obviously if they wanted Freedom they would take it and thus we wouldnt be having this circular discussion. Eagle knights are tasked with showing people that freedom and democracy is a worthy goal in the end. Does that annoy other nations? Surely it does, but you dont stop doing something because others think its wrong.

My Wizard enjoys sports and is actually a professional Tennis Player. Profession (Tennis Player). He even owns Masterwork Tennis Gear.

Iammars: Indeed he did. One of my players actually commented on the fact they didnt realise he was also a Venture Captain. I didnt really know myself until I had read the scenario. He appears to be the reserved one in that relationship. It is actually the only Season 4 I have run so far.

Both sound quite Interesting.

Knowing a bit about the setting is also good. Use the Golarionwiki if you can (Golarion is the name of the setting). Im not sure many here do (and perhaps many Pathfinder society players only learn about the setting by playing the scenarios) but Golarion is a really rich vein to mine for character concepts.

For example in Andoran there is a particular region that makes very good cheeses and dairy products. Perhaps create a fighter or Ranger who while in his every day role of protecting caravans to take items for processing, helped out a Pathfinder squad in a battle with some local bandits. Later on a representative approached him after their recommendation.

All I am doing there is taking a very small bit of information from the Andoran: Spirit of Liberty Country book (available as a pdf or in hard copy) and embelishing it out, to create a little bit of a character background.

In terms of your secondary question above, the knowledges skills are by their own definition tied to certain things in the game world. In Practical terms in a combat situation you can use them to identify creatures. Ie Nature for Plants/ Vermin. Knowledge Religon for undead and so on. You make a roll normally against the CR of an opponent to find out A) What is is B) Possible weakness/strengths it might have.

Outside of Combat, Knowledge skills could be used to identify

A) A Local bar, brothel or location of the city hall (Knowledge : Local)
B) Where a a strange glowing portal might lead (Knowledge: Planes)
C) What sort of rose it was that just spiked your characters with its thorns (Knowledge: Nature)
D) What does that holy symbol on the Church door mean ? (Knowledge: Religon)
E) What ways could be used to close the drawbridge near the moat (Knowledge :Engineering)
F)Who does that Coat of Arms belong to? (Knowledge: Nobility)

Thats just some uses.

One thing to note is that checks in Pathfinder tend to be quite specific. If you dont have a certain skill then its likely your character knows little about the subject. Certain objectives within a scenario might require you to roll a Knowledge : Engineering roll. If you dont have the skill then the best you can hope to get is a 10 on a roll (and thats really never likely to be enough). This is why everyone talks about having a balanced party, so what you dont have someone else should have.

Taking the example of the former Caravan guard turned pathfinder. Does he have knowledge nature because he understands what sort of ingredients are requires to make the cheeses (although again thats probably either a craft or profession skill there). Does he know possibly about dangerous plant life located around the dairys. Knowledge local is of course an easier knowledge to justify. Your character lives in a community obviously, thus he knows other people , places to drink, places to buy weapons at.

sigh tips. What a way to ruin any cruise.....

How about paying a standard normal price for things and then not tipping for anything?

I know a Cleric character that has died 3 times. Was even brought back at the start of the adventure to continue on with us. Ive played some 30 scenarios now (and I notice people above are casually swapping out Scenario/module)and have died once, to a crit.

Having said that I have run 7 scenarios now and have had 2 pc's die in my games.

Jiggy: Our new local policy is to try to limit to 4 players on a season 0 table where possible, if we get more we try to add a new gm. Of course with 'drop ins' this may not work (we might end up with 6 anyway), but we do try.

Warpath: I think I ran this one back in Jan. Ill comb back through my notes from the scenario and see what I did. I think from memory I had the main living room as 30 x 30 and then the bedroom as 15x 15. There were a lot of baddies and it got very congested (as I also had 5 players).

Id love to get a paper mache version of that large idol later on in the scenario. I found it very difficult to run the vertical and the horizontal of that encounter.

I have only a single character who is a Shoanti Barbarian and member of the Shadow Lodge. Obviously he is being lumped in with Cheliax on those early missions but I think the Shadow Lodge does get the underhanded work because they are having to clean up after the Pathfinder Society. While my character is aligned with the Shadow Lodge simply because he was 'saved' by the lodge, he acts out of a sense of owing something to the Lodge and if a faction mission seems too 'wrong' he wont do it.

How many of you guys use things like Warhorn to organise what you will be running and when? How long in advance to you schedule a game? A Month? 2 ?

Belafon: I must admit Im in that boat. The only recent scenario I have run is Fortress of the Nail and thats because the dm had to pull out. At the moment Im running season 0 stuff. I have run about 4-5 season 0's so far. Im doing this because A) I was told they are 'easier' to run B) They give me a lot of background information on the setting and C) They are generally friendlier to new players. I can build them up to a 3-4 and then they can move on to the season 1-5 stuff. I have played some of the ones I have gm'd but generally thats not why im picking the ones I am picking to run.

I do have a laugh when I see people play the Sandman version of the Bard. Esp when its a high number of undead critters in the scenario.

Obviously the Basic one is the best. I prefer also to use dry erase markers ... just MAKE sure that you always clean them off after a session or you will end up with maps like mine where the ink has set in.

Map packs are nice but.. tricky to store.

I tend to find Bards lose a bit of their 'shine' when there is more than 1 at a table. Although Ive seen this maybe twice in all the time Ive played (and not a huge amount of time either).

There needs to be either a sticky thread JUST for the Firearm /Gunslinger questions. These same questions seem to come up every third week.

Im fairly new to running Pathfinder Society. After the end of LG and the 'changes' that LFR went through, I felt kinda done with Living campaigns. In fact I had never played a game of Pathfinder before I tried Society for the first time. Now about 8 months on, Im due to run my 6th game soon as I felt I wanted to give something back to the group that lets me get a game in.

I can't really add anything to this apart from : Make sure the gaming environment itself is welcoming. If you are gaming in a hall or community area, make sure that the noise level is acceptable (ie if you are gaming in the same area as Wargamers try and find the quiet zone. If not find somewhere else.) A GM might get frustrated if he has to constantly repeat himself and if he or she (and some of my all time fav gms are female... more needed!)keeps finding this then they might decide its just too difficult.

Im running this one as well soon, check out the goodies in the shared prep folder.

Perhaps the society organizers need to put a lower time limit on the sessions for games. 3 hours is way too short and honestly shouldnt be permitted.

Eric: Our Gunslingers really kick in after 3rd+ level when we can do cool things with Alchemical Cartridges. People have remarked in games with my Musket Master how deadly I am in combat because of the touch AC. Its gets to the point where feats like Deadly aim are just used 24/7 so the damage potential gets huge. As for Ninjas. Locally the just dont survive long. Its a running curse locally. One gets to just before level 2 then dies or just before the next level and dies.

I think maybe the guy was a little unsure on how to play the Gunslinger. Keep in mind a Musket master at early levels (if this guy was playing that archetype) spends a round reloading effectively so is acting on every odd round.

Hi,

This may have been asked before so I apologise if It seems a very strange and basic question.

Are Pathfinder sessions supposed to have a 4 or 5 hour time limit. Esp recently, Ive been seeing a lot of 4 hour time sessions been created to run these games in and Ive always been told they are supposed to be a maximum of 5 hours.

This is concerning me in that , Id be worried if people started to consider 4 hour limits the norm because of their con play where Pathfinder gets shoehorned into 4 because thats 'how the con does it'.

Now I know many games may not go the distance, many might finish in 4 hours or less. Id be more concerned that the game is purposely sped up or shoehorned along because of the false view that there is a 4 hour limit. If the scenario has been designed for 5, then it does an injustice to those playing the scenario to be rushed through it just because thats what a con slot is. Obviously this isnt an issue for non con games but id be concerned if scenarios were having an hour cut just so the groups can get through 2 scenarios a day

At the end of the day someone has to 'eat' the module ( an old LG term which basically meant that someone couldnt play it because they had to run it). Ive done it a lot myself (mainly season 0 scenarios), the incentives to me seems to be if you dont run the game, no games get run... which would be bad for everyone then. It dosnt seem like you are asking that he runs every game, but I think fair is fair. People cannot expect one person to just keep on gming game after game.