Beyond the Pool of Stars by Howard Andrew Jones is an excellent Pathfinder Tales novel featuring lizardfolk characters. It was the first novel in the Tales line I listened to on Audible and is still my favorite. I was very much looking forward to the Audible version of the follow up novel, Through the Gate in the Sea, but the audiobook never released.
Both of his Pathfinder Tales books were excellent and I very much enjoyed listening to the Audible audiobook versions.
If replay option 3 can be programmed to calculate your recorded sessions and appear on players' account pages next to GM stars and/or games played, then it sounds great. However, it shouldn't be another bookkeeping item for players to have to spend 30 minutes reconciling chronicle sheets and recorded sessions every few months to check. If it can't be calculated within the account page, then replay option 1 would be the next best option for veteran players to help fill tables and continue playing. I don't know if an automated reset date on replaying would also help. Set a date, like six or seven years, where sessions that you played that long ago are re-opened for replay.
One of the most common topics I hear discussed from players is that the vast majority of gear listed on chronicle sheets is not relevant to the player’s character that earned it. Either the character has earned enough Fame to be able to buy an item of that cost without the chronicle sheet or it is gear the character has no use for. Since the Pathfinder Society (in game) is a collective group with a tenant to cooperate, I would like to see more shared between a player’s pool of characters. If your fighter acquires a partially used wand of magic missile, assume it is returned to the lodge for your magic user to later use. The same would hold true for some boons based upon new knowledges acquired or NPCs influenced. If a player’s -1 character discovers a safe path through the mountains, assume that he/she mentions that in his report and if the player’s -2 character returns there, he/she would know about said safe path. Also, if character -1 influences an NPC, then the NPC may have more respect for other Pathfinders, including character -2. If gear is going to be printed on chronicle sheets, then making it available at reduced cost would have an impact on the items that are kept after an adventure. That would add extra flavor to characters’ stories, because they can share exactly how they acquired the items they’re using. Rather than simply buying a cloak of resistance, they will have a story of the item being taken from an orc chieftain. With the few sessions of 5e AL I’ve played, the magic items all had stories to them.
On a more serious note, a special using pregen characters from the Pathfinder Tales novels would be very interesting. It could also tie in to the announced character decks for the Adventure Card Game by bringing the stories of those characters to a wider audience who may not read the novels.
Does the manual say what the Keleshites think of the other races of Golarion? My brothers of Qadira and I think camels deserve greater respect than any filthy Taldan! Qadirans tend to think of themselves as Qadiran first, Keleshite second, and whatever other ethnic identity they may claim third. This is why it hurt to lose the Qadiran PFS faction. :(
Several years ago, a group of players in our region created a family of Qadiran brothers - The Brotherhood of the Shifting Sands. Unfortunately, we haven't had our full group together to play in a couple years. It was also more fun when we were in the Qadiran faction and not Exchange. In every scenario, we establish trade deals to earn our family more income (not mechanically, but in a strictly roleplay sense). Making life miserable for anyone Taldan is another priority. Our fighter types refuse to speak the common tongue, so all in-game communication is in Qadiran and we rely on our more charismatic brothers to speak with all lesser folk. One of the main goals was to create a group of characters with teamwork feats, like outflank and swap places. Most PFS tends to be characters that are built uniquely by individual players. We built a well-balanced group that could end combats quickly and were a lot of fun to roleplay together. Twins Mausum ("monsoon") and Toofan ("typhoon") are cavalier/rogues dual-wielding keen kukris. The cavalier dips grant them the ability to hand out teamwork feats to allies. They retrained rogue levels to Unchained rogue for more shenanigans. Aasifa ("storm") is a cavalier/fighter who dual wields sawtooth sabres enhanced with lead blades from ioun stones. Al-Ra'd ("the thunder") is our front line fighter with a tower shield. Social stats are all dumped, so he's not too bright. However, rescued a guard dog in Taldor, which he lovingly named, Puppy. He retrained a few feats and added a level of huntmaster cavalier in order to raise his own animal companion buddy. :) Naar Min-Alfuuq ("Fire from above") is a grenadier alchemist who launches bombs with his bow. He can also hand out infusions to other brothers, like True Strike. Sadin is our bard, translator, and expert trade negotiator. Sahib as-Sahar ("master of magic") is a sorcerer specializing in toppling magic missiles, in order to trip enemies and allow our fighters to take them out quickly. Ayser al-Hakeem ("Ayser, the wise") is a dual-cursed life oracle who grants misfortune on our enemies. My character, Junayd ("small army"), is an APG summoner with a quadruped eidolon, Shaitan. Shaitan's appearance is similar to a crocotta/leucrotta. He taunts and demoralizes enemies.
One word: BONEKEEP! If they are a group that has been playing together with optimized characters, then even that will be a cake walk. We had a team work through all three levels without any problem in CORE mode. Level two may have been the toughest if you choose any of them. I hoped level three would be more challenging, given that it was a 5-9 and not a 3-7. That just meant that our characters had a couple extra levels too. I'd suggest starting with 3-26 Portal of the Sacred Rune and run through the Cult of Lissala arc. Everything is a 7-11, but Severing Ties. Get them to 4-26 The Waking Rune for their final scenario before retirement and run it in hard mode. 3-26 Portal of the Sacred Rune
Storval Stairs and Elven Entanglement are good to work into that schedule.
For events that have two or more scenarios, we'll post a Meetup for each scenario. That works out pretty well to define the table assignments between the different scenarios, but then we'll have to determine the sub-tier on-site. We set the RSVP limits based upon the number of GMs we have, so 7 (1 GM and 6 players) or 14 (2 GMs and 12 players). Meetup recently changed waitlists, so anyone can signup when an event is full and be automatically added when an RSVPed player drops. One way you can avoid the e-mail blasts is to create filters in your e-mail client. Personally, in Gmail, I create a label (or folder) for Meetup. Then I set everything sent from Meetup to use that label and skip the inbox. That avoids getting message alerts on your smartphone.
I believe it is #3. There were a few discussions of it here, so it would probably be corrected in the guide's next revision.
I use them to serve two purposes. It can teach new players some of the basics, but it also introduces the veterans to new classes that they had not yet considered playing. A few weeks ago, we ran The Silverhex Chronicles and two veterans played a hunter and an arcanist. Each of them came out of the game saying that they are going to build characters of those classes. The downside to the Quests is that you are not seeing many of the unique abilities of the classes at 1st level. I'd love to see a replayable Quest series for 7th level pregen characters that gives you a similar level one equivalent chronicle sheet to start a new character.
Please join me in congratulating Scott Sinclair on earning his 4th GM star! Scott has GMed a lot over the past year, because we welcomed a new venue to the area with events every Thursday night. He has served as Venture Agent at The Rogue's Roost since January. Having been a theatre major, Scott is great at telling a good story. When he has the chance to play, our favorite character of his is Dump Stat Linda the Paladin - think Cher from Clueless in full plate.
An event that schedules 21 games over three days and raises $1,600 for a charitable cause should be congratulated with convention support. An event that schedules 28 events over three days and is relocated to this venue at the last minute should be congratulated with convention support. Under the new definitions, however, these events would have to compete with a handful of other events for Game Day support and not convention support, simply because that venue is a retail store. Those are just two examples of Enchanted Grounds supporting the PFS community and I hope we can continue to commend businesses like this for all they do. I think this retail component which now downgrades conventions into Game Days should be reconsidered. Events of that scale are not a Game Day.
There are a lot of players that absolutely do not make good GMs. Many people are involved with PFS, because it fits their lifestyle far better than a home campaign would. You can show up to have some fun for a few hours in a fully packaged adventure and then head on to other things in life. In a home campaign, you are expected to attend close to every session. In PFS, you can come and go as you please. There are expectations of GMing that you present the story well, in order to make it an enjoyable time for everyone at the table. Some GMs can pick up something blind and do that, but there are many that cannot. Some are perfectionists and will spend hours of prep work several weeks before their scenario is to be run. If someone like that can't GM often, that's fine. Players who aren't good GMs don't have be bad players though, either. They may not be great at GMing, but will spend a lot of time and thought into building great characters. You don't have to "pay it forward" by GMing if you are excellent player. You're making the game fun for everyone at the table by sitting across from the GM.
We've had one player mistakingly use a star at a convention to sit in a game he forgot he played a couple years prior. It was a spur of the moment decision to pick an open game during mustering and now he's penalized for that. And he still jokes now that it wasn't even a good scenario! We've also had two other players willingly use them under the assumption they would refresh, so they too have wasted those stars. We've occasionally had cases where three GMs will prep to run tables, but when we only have players for two tables, that third GM is left out. The GM put a lot of time into preparing to run a game and simply wanted to come socialize with friends and have a fun time. Are we really supposed to tell him to go home, because he's already played both scenarios? There are some really good scenarios out there that we'd love to replay again. I won't specify the scenario, but many of us were really impressed with an older scenario where the NPC's roles could change as it plays out. After we finished, we thought we'd love to play that again to see what could happen differently. I think too many people are looking at both extremes; either unlimited replay or the current conditions of no replay (Core mode and limited stars aside). Maybe one play credit per sub-tier would be a good option to consider. You can still limit the GM credit to one chronicle, but an extra play (or two for the 1-7s with three sub-tiers) gives players an option to get the full chronicle in rewards without being excessive. It would also allow players an extra chance to join a game without being left out of an event, because they've played what is scheduled. |
