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Live in or near the Treasure Valley in Idaho? Join us today. Visiting Boise for a business trip and want a quick game? look us up! we are growing and adding events all the time! plus lots of home games! Meet the other Pathfinders in your area today! Go to Boise Pathfinder Society Google group.
PFS is not about anything but having a blast! reward better play? nah, reward having fun! every player has fun in a different way. My room mate is quiet and introverted, does not interact often in character, and often forgets to do any of his special abilities on his character. He would never be counted a good player in anyone's book. However he has a blast and enjoys PFS scenarios and playing with new people. reward the ones that enjoy it. PFS is about bringing in new people to rp! not about who has the biggest brightest shiny (insert references here)! when the table walks away laughing about how the barbarian fell on his hind end and then delivered the killing blow on the Kobold laughing at him. That is all the reward i need to give as a GM! because it will bring the new players back and keep the vets full of new war stories to tell over lunch! now i do like boons they add flavor to characters. (ask me about super monk in sewer dragons when we meet) but really they are not anything to fight over getting or how to give them out. swag on the other hand... I like the idea earlier of giving some low end swag along with the PFS number to new players. I think i will look into carrying a bunch of the wiz kids mini's for this purpose. new players always need a mini!
I often adjust tactics to the table. experienced players get the hardcore tactics. less so get the overconfident less tactful monsters (and some times i just forget to use tactics all together). I also think that there are other ways to adjust an encounter for the fun of the table than fudging die rolls. I often set a mood of impending doom or use foreshadowing in the encounters to enhance the encounter. also making them make knowledge checks to get a name of a creature and just giving its description with dramatic flare makes the CR 1/3 skeleton scarier because they have never seen a skeleton of that configuration before. maybe it has a template added to it. maybe not... to me tactics and drama make it more fun than a flat +2 to die rolls for difficulty sake.
I do both. if i feel it adds to the mystery or i just want to make them sweat a little. I roll hidden. whether its combat or skill. Skill checks I always let them roll. even perception and other easy to metagame skills. reason? when you do a task you have trained for a long time to do well. you know when you mess up. so do the characters when they pick their nose while looking for that alarm trap. I do like the 30mm die of doom though plan on getting me some for myself. however i wont be making people use them. some people have lucky/personal dice.
Love the new seasons chronicle sheets. the changes to faction points makes it a lot easier to explain to new players. I would like to suggest that Paizo make available a blank PDF Form of the new sheet to allow us to use the new form for season 0 thru 2 scenarios. we can easily type or cut and paste in the information from the old chronicle sheets to the new ones if we had the form.
if it needs an exotic weapon proficiency... expensive. (for the monk who now has to sacrifice two feats to use it.)Why two feats? He just needs to take EWP (Sansetsukon), assuming it wasn't intended for him to be proficient in the first place. I'm pretty sure the intent was for monks to gain proficiency with all the new monk weapons, but the RAW is that they aren't. because the pre req for EWP is a martial weapon proficiency which the Monk does not have. :)
The "monk" qualifier on a weapon merely permits it to be used as part of a flurry of blows; it does not actually grant proficiency with the weapon... And similarly, while APG specifically grants proficiency in the temple sword and the cestus, there's no such wording in any of the weapon entries in Ultimate Combat understood but is this an over site or editing error by piazo or was it done on purpose? I mean, if I make a tien monk why wouldn't I have access to tien monk weapons? I can understand a few being left out but all of them? RAW you are correct. and i will enforce it that way in the short term. but i would like to see a statement on whether RAW is correct or an errata to fix it.
Already posted on a thread in the rules section. But I want to know how it is being handled in society. The monk weapons listed in the a PG state in their description that monks are proficient with them adding them to the monk weapon proficiencies. However the monk weapons in the UC do not state whether they are covered under the monks weapon proficiency or if they require the spending of feats to add the proficiency. In Boise I have a new player using the three sectioned staff on his level one monk out of the UC weapons list. It is a double monk weapon with specials and 1d10 damage. Is this legal without a martial and exotic weapon proficiency?
Announcing the recently formed Boise lodge of the Pathfinder society. Located in the Treasure Valley of scenic Idaho, USA.
We will be sponsoring many local events and making a yearly caravan to Seattle for Paizocon! Join us at Boise Pathfinder Society Or email us at boise-pathfinder-society@Google groups.com
I also wish to know this. especially with the three sectioned staff. a double monk weapon with two specials, for the level one monk, and with 1d10 damage. if every monk gets proficiency... Ouch! (for the low level bad guys). if it needs an exotic weapon proficiency... expensive. (for the monk who now has to sacrifice two feats to use it.) but as to most the other monk weapons in UC, why deny them to the monks? they are nice and designed to make the monk a better Combat maneuver specialist, not a damage machine like fighter/barbarians. An official ruling or errata page for UC clarifying this would be nice.
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I am running this at Paizo con. and after reading it several times. I have to agree it seems anti climatic. I like the idea of having the last group start combat at range to take advantage of the terrain and their bows. this would increase difficulty a small bit. but depending on party make up i am not sure that it is enough. I am thinking of adding some terrain and cover to the final battle to increase difficulty as well. it is my opinion that these are all within my powers to do so as a PFS gm. adding additional creatures however is not. this will be my first time running pfs at a con and I look forward to it even if i am not super happy about the scenario.
Yes that is why i had no problem running games there. i would never have done it at Gencon my first time. as to minis- see the delicious post above :) i am mini deprived! and a bit old school i still struggle with the map thing all around. used to giving a description of the room and doing it story teller style. the clock is a good idea. I think i will set my phone to a count down timer. thank you Neil and all above look forward to seeing you all there. check out my who shot JR table if that slots empty for you all running it twice!
lol used to use tic tac's. thanks for the memory. that is not a bad idea. the one published does have maps from existing pack's/flip mats. the one not published well its not published so no clue! keep the ideas flowing. i want all the help you can give me!
ok got my schedule for the two tables i am running at paizo con. I am so excited. but then it hit me like a two ton Black dragon. i am a noob! time to ask some advice of my illustrious elders in the society. So my questions are as follows: one of the two scenarios I am running is slotted for release in June. and one is out already. I plan on purchasing map packs/flip mats for the one out already as i have downloaded it and am beginning to prepare for it. Will map packs be available for me, or will i need to budget to buy map packs at the con for the new scenario? no way i am allowing my first paizo con to be a demonstration of my lack of kindergarten artistic ability via attempting to draw the maps. how soon before the session will I receive the yet unreleased scenario? what are some other things I should look into adding to my arsenal of materials to make the sessions run smooth. (got all the rule books i need to have and a few of the additional resources (rule books)already.)
Just an idea... under current rules for the Kohpesh just increase the weapons size class from Medium to Large. this makes the Khopesh a two handed weapon for Medium Creatures. there would be a -2 penalty associated with the size category mis-match. but taking a weapon focus feat would off set this to -1 a mild penalty to take for using an impressive weapon! (PF Core rule book Page 144) I am at a loss for where the rules are for other large weapon statistics (dmg, weight, etc.)Except that you can't buy weapons sized large in PFS yeah did a search and found an old ruling by frost. and after digging the Pathfinder GM guide has not been added as a resource so yep large weapons not legal.
Just an idea... under current rules for the Kohpesh just increase the weapons size class from Medium to Large. this makes the Khopesh a two handed weapon for Medium Creatures. there would be a -2 penalty associated with the size category mis-match. but taking a weapon focus feat would off set this to -1 a mild penalty to take for using an impressive weapon! (PF Core rule book Page 144) I am at a loss for where the rules are for other large weapon statistics (dmg, weight, etc.)
Interesting, I expected Taldor was the runt of the faction litter, not Cheliax. I had no idea Cheliax was the smallest and least popular faction among PFS players. LN is better! it allows you to have moments of sinister and diabolical intent without limiting you to always being such. i find it is hard for most role players to remain evil for more than brief spurts, it is just not in most peoples makeup. I love playing sinister and selfish characters but in games focused on teamwork (as already pointed out)it is counter productive. remain neutral to good and evil and you can always play both sides of the fence when it adds flavor to the game session and avoid unnecessary complications to the flow of a session.
You sins of Slave trade shall in the end undo you.I'm sorry, I can't hear you because of all coin in my purse. Maybe my ears would be more apt to hear your incessant squawking if a few more gold somehow ended up within in my hands. Exactly if perhaps these loose cannons fighting for freedom where to say pay for the freedom of slaves with gold. I might even sell their freedom at my cost plus a *coughs* small fee for processing the paperwork. and then they would not be shedding innocent merchant blood all over the place.
Title: Who Shot J.R.
would like a late afternoon or evening slot. need 5 hours to run the adventure smoothly with 6 people. volunteering for morning PFS slots so do not want to conflict with those. Willing to run it twice.
Paizo Blog: The Future of Pathfinder Society Organized Play, Part IV: Freedom and Democracy For All!
Oh, that Creative Director, always ruining surprises. +1 and well said. paladins should be tragic heroes choosing the good over the easy path! it is part of their mystique! I like the new changes, just because there is much profit to be had by the Andoran's causing chaos in their quest for freedom! I will eagerly sit the sidelines manipulating the markets for my faction to make the most profit from their chaotic and undisciplined war against tyranny! if Slaves are harder to acquire the ones we sell behind the Andoran's backs will bring that much more profit and let us not forget arms sales to both sides! **Giggles with glee as he counts the gold coins to be made from this news!**
as long as all decisions i make as your clone are binding! I am game *evil grin*
wow wish i had read this thread before posting my own... *bonks own head* Mark actually posted something along these lines in another thread about the rewrite of Mists of Mwangi. I know you did not want an official response. so consider it a statement separate but pertaining to this thread. I wont wuote it though as i am sure everyone here has readd that thread. if not I share my self bonk with thee. I intend to do this because my store game has a very balanced group skill/class wise and thier comments after 2 sessions is that the modules are fun for rp and story. but the combat is lacking. earlier some one said they would not tweek the BBEG but would tweek lesser encounters. to me one i s no different than the other if the result is the party enjoying themselves. several people have brought up the possibility of this resulting in two difficult of play and possible tpk or player deaths. well you can tweek both ways. tweek for more difficult, but if half way through the combat the party is starting to look desperate. tweek it back a couple notches. I loved this discussion Pain. thanks for bringing it up.
Pass or fail, and on pass you get "MARK MORELAND FOR A DAY!!!"yes but who would grade all these essays? and what would the criteria for grading them? plus, what would a good grade get the players and the gm? OOOOOH i could have him run three sessions at a con!!!!!! and actually play my character instead of giving him gm sheets!!!!!!***gets ready to compete against Thea in an essay contest***
in a different thread
I am wondering if this applies to encounters that are too easy/hard based on table make up. my current game store group is pretty balanced. barbarian, rogue, cleric, wizard, ranger. so far the CL of encounters have been appropriate, however combat goes quickly if it is one or two BBEG's only in larger scale combats like the opening scene of Murder on the throaty mermaid, does the combat have any level of difficulty for them. Are you saying in the above that as gm I can tweek the encounters to make the mission more memorable. and by tweek i do not mean rewrite the encounter. but maybe I can adjust ac and hit points to make the fight last a little longer, or add a couple more of said creatures in a multiple creature encounter? this would make some scenes a little more memorable for my party. their last round of comments was summarized as Great RP, awesome story, weak combat scenes.
yes but who would grade all these essays? and what would the criteria for grading them? plus, what would a good grade get the players and the gm?
I like this idea. Part one could even be deliberately getting caught to infiltrate a prison after achieving some outside goals in the area. with part 2 focusing on the escape happening only when all the faction missions are completed. ie. each faction mission results not only in PA for the said player(s) but also gathering information from inmates and getting one step closer to escaping the prison. part three then would be evading recapture (more cooperation) and then reporting the successes of faction missions and the knowledge learned. the amount of both would determine part 3's PA. of course this would work best for a diverse group of factions and classes.
"if it's on the map, I can hit it with my hammeer!" had a dwarf with an enchanted throwing hammer say something along the same lines once rite before he fumbled his attack roll throwing into melee. he then said "just because i can hit it (the BBEG) does not mean i did not mean to hit the elf warrior."
Just had a game the other day... Murder on throaty mermaid:
During the encounter with Snig the player offered to get Snig a "date" with one of the Female NPC's. the player then said with the straightest of faces and tone "and she likes it rough so it is ok to scratch and bite her all you want!" he was under the impression that she was the guilty party. the table had to take 5 minutes just to get over the laughter. I would like to hear some of your funny one liners as well.
there's just only so far we're willing to pull back the curtain on how things work behind the scenes.**rolls his stealth and sneaks behind the curtain** **Grumbles to self** "need to talk to that gnome armor smith about his "shadow leather" being undetectable.... but I will sir sit here patiently and take a couple tankards of your best mead." **big innocent grin**
I have read several in preparing to run them in a store game. and I am of the same mind. if not for the fact that my store game is a core of the same 5-6 people every time. I would not be considering running them there. I am not planning on offering mufti-part scenarios at my convention this summer. instead focusing on some of the great stand alone sessions. this is not to say the others are bad. just i for see many more organizational issues with them that i want to avoid on my first Convention.
I love PFS as is. (including Gunslingers, which i plan to make one when play test is over for society play. but not a cowboy. I want to make a Halfling or Gnome sniper! thief/gunslinger multiclass) the war Idea sounds fun as long as it avoids pvp. I would love to gm some sessions where players actually effect in major ways the political power structure of the game world. it does not have to be pertinent to society but it should be published. ie. say the Qadira faction over several months completes more missions / gains more pa. the Qadiran satraps are able to monopolize more trade routes into areas. no direct effect on play. but published so that the Golarian campaign setting changes.
I actually kind of agree with Thea. I am new Gm coordinator. and it has not been an issue for me or my new players. Why? Because I take the time to troll the rules forums and if I can not find the answer I post a question. The community here is great and i always get an answer or two dozen within a day. I have even gotten official responses to questions from Mark and others. No, I think the level of hard work the Paizo staff is doing for our community is above and beyond. An update will come and I will patiently use the tools already in place until then. My new players are not confused by rules changes as most of them effect older players or resources they do not own yet anyways. Lets also face the fact the rules that are changing are mainly effecting the min maxers. That is not a bad play style by any means, but it is not the style of the majority of people who play table top RPG's. the suggestions here are not bad ones. but they are time sinks (big or small) that take away from other projects. If forced to choose between, I prefer the frequent publications of play material (mod's, scenarios and adventure paths) to maintaining an up to date rules correction blog. I can always spend 30 minutes researching a question on the boards or 5 minutes asking an oft asked question of the community, who is willing to answer it for the umpteenth time with little or no judgment of my noobness.
excellent advice. I will defenately use it. I was already planning on freebies for my judges. including free passes and a few other perks like Lunch and dinner, etc. I also was not going to run the August releases. probably the newest release i will use is June '11 and then i still have tons of options since this will be new to most of the convention attendees.Keep the advice coming please. :)
Haunted Ground: These areas of accursed ground are often the sites of horrid crimes or intense and bloody battles. The intense fear of those who lost their lives lingers and saturates the area. This fear affects living creatures that stray within these areas. A living creature that starts its turn in an area of haunted ground must succeed at a DC 15 Will saving throw or become shaken for 1d4 rounds. If the creature is already shaken, it becomes frightened for the same duration instead. Frightened creatures become panicked for the same duration instead. Creatures that are immune to fear effects are immune to haunted ground. this is a nice touch for the new Carrion Crown adventure path. Haunting of Harrowstone:
where in the prison grounds would this be effective? the whole prison could be considered haunted, but this would mean constant checks for the whole adventure. would it be better to use this rule at the locations of the major ghosts? like Vesorianna, the Lopper, Father Charlatan, The splatterer, etc. I mean I know it is up to me as a gm. but i like this idea, and as it applies to the new adventure path a lot, I Seek input. Love the Paizo support for the game community! keep up the hard and excellent work! it is much appreciated.
I figure there's nothing game-breaking about a 5hp speedbump. If you play at my tables you can have a combat-trained guard dog (size small) for 25gp. It's your gold to waste :)Yep, I have to agree there. They don't level with you, and are 1-2 swings from going to dog heaven. +1 for the same reasons. it is not an animal companion, but just a very basic meat shield with no feats. I do see the advantage for a low level caster having one. it can keep you out of Attack of Opportunity range by placing the small or medium dog in the square between you and the Baddies. especially if the tanks are already engaged. and that one round of casting could be the difference between life and death for a squishy caster type. and as pointed out it is one to two swings from Dog heaven.
First i am assuming you mis-typed and meant you play the scenario with pc #2 I am new so i could be wrong here but It has been posted in several other questions that you get credit once for playing and Once for GM'ing a scenario. you can only apply a Chronicle sheet from GM'ing to one character once. and the same goes to Playing. and it has to be separate characters of different factions. Ie i have a Qadira monk who gets all my GM chronicles and I will soon make another character from a different faction for playing sessions at conventions.I have seen many posts from GM's playing a session first then GM'ing it for credit after having played it. I would avoid doing it in the opposite order myself for the reason of having read it before play. why would you want to play in a session you already know everything too. under the Play play play rules you have to basically sit back and let the rest of the party play and just be a combat robot. That would be no fun for me. but this does not mean you can not (more experienced GM's correct me if I am wrong) do it in the order you suggested. But you would still be bound by the Play play play rule of not spoiling the session. and as a GM/coordinator i would let you sit at the table only to make it legal. I would also try to make sure there was a table you Could sit at running a session you had not played/gm'ed. I as a local coordinator plan on running my GM's through new sessions (once i have a stable of GM's to do so with) in a home session before my events. this, to me, seems to be a great way to get them familiar with the session and get them both player credit and Gm credit (for another character). as well as allow them to play and GM both. Hope this helps.
I am having the same problem. I have a public game scheduled for April, but a zipcode search finds nothing within a 50 mile radius.Your event did not have a zip code or latitude/longitude attached. I have added a zip code and it now displays in search results. Should we get the lat/long for our events and add those in manually when registering? I do not mind doing that if I know ahead of time I need to.
I too like this thread. It is making me, as a new coordinator/judge take a step back and think about many things. I also do not agree with everything. however i also agree that we never will %100. rather than argue with what i do not like i will highlight what i do like, in an effort to be positive. I like the idea of more community involvement. Volunteers overseen by the Paizo staff has the potential to allow Paizo to focus on creating new stuff. while the volunteers revise/update old stuff and handle some of the more mundane work that i am sure litters the desks of Paizo staffers rite now. some of us have worked in offices that get summer interns. we love it when they show up because they can literally clear off mountains of minor jobs that keep getting put aside for priority ones. I think Volunteers can do the same for Paizo staff :) I like the focus on making each and every table as fun as possible for those playing it. will this happen all the time. no, Judges and coordinators are after all human and have bad days too. but giving coordinators and Judges more tools to ensure this can not hurt. what those tools can be is obviously up for debate. I do want to also stress something however. I do not think anyone posting on these thread or even the whole forum thinks PFS is broken. I think we all just want to improve it in our own quirky ways. Hyrum and gang, you guys and those that went before you, have done a great job so far. Keep up the good work!
Yes the ship is not magical, but filling in the gaps with small details like this seems fair enough.Actually, I thought of that, but there really isn't anyone on board who can legitimately fill that role, especially at the low tier. For long, over-seas trips, it would require a lot of scrolls or wands, but none are to be found on board. I checked the map. from Absalom to Magnimar is all inner sea/coasting. just from Magnimar to Mordant spire is open ocean. but i agree magic is a good idea until l you look at the level of the main "weather wizard" on board. i think just throwing in 6-8 level 1 sailor NPC's as background is the best fix. when players interview them, the officer on deck or captain chastise the party telling them to leave them alone so they can sail the ship. below decks they are either sleeping or getting ready to go on watch and have no patience for stupid questions they know nothing about.
WOO HOOO! *does happy dance* as for the credit thing that is cool too. but I GM because i love it! the added reward is a bonus!
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