uncleden's page

I have a different point of view on Detroit's status. From what I've been told about numbers of tables in 2011, and numbers of tables this year. There aren't as many being run, and less being run every month that passes. I can only find one group still running regularly (The Warriors). That tells me Detroit needs help. One of the reasons, I can personally citate due to my email and PM's being constantly pinged, is for people looking for games, but not knowing where to look.

Unless you know someone over there, who tells you about the yahoo group. You won't ever know it exists. That's not good, and is one of the reasons this site was built. 20 different groups using 20 different ways to generate interest in their tables is extremely inefficient. I can only see further use of that system as a detriment to PFS Statewide. The statewide website was used to great effect in Georgia (Mike Brock's original stomping grounds), and I look to emulate that success in Michigan.

So, here is what I ask. Help bring cohesion back to Detroit, and help Detroit be part of Michigan and not it's own little island. Let people know what tables are out there to be played. We've tailor built a website specifically for PFS and it's needs. To fight this, I can only see it as slowing down the growth of PFS in Michigan as a whole, and worst yet, specifically in the Detroit region.

The issue in Detroit has not been a lack of players. It is a lack of folks willing to organize a game day. That means finding a venue willing to host and finding enough judges. There is a fair amount of cat herding involved. I am aware of 5 different game days in metro Detroit. All can be found in the yahoo group I gave you before. A group with a current member total of 178. Obviously not all of these folks are active or even local. It is far from trivial to get that many people to move over to a new site without good reason. You have not offered a good reason.

My suggestion to you. Show up to our game days. Make the effort to find who is running them, and offer to run the special or some other thing. Or actually build play numbers in the part of the state that you DO represent before you try to horn in and claim our work as part of your success.

Den

If you other Michiganders weren't aware, we're starting to direct all session coordinators and in our region to Michiganpfs.org. The goal is to have one site for all of michigan to use as a reference for gaming instead of the dozen or so ways public games are used.

I would not count on Metro Detroit jumping in on this. I appreciate your ambitions to get the rest up Michigan up to speed as far as Pathfinder Society goes. We are doing fine with what we have over here.

You can throw a link to us at
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Pathfinder_Society_Southeast_Michigan/
on your page if you wish.

Den

Joining in on this thread. I like the special mod for 4 star judges. I like even better that the mod was out for a year and then trickles down with some adaptation to the rest of us who have not hit that magic number of mods run yet.

What I would like to see, and won't cost much to implement is something to recognize the organizers who do a great deal of the heavy lifting required to have tables go off. I'd be happy with a unicorn or something similar next to where the judge stars go. Something like 1 for every hundred tables reported or so would be nice.

Mostly I picked unicorns because I thought it would be funny.

Den

Are unicorns the new Godwin? How bout Skullheads?

I'm half expecting someone to tell me that there ARE hellcats up there or something.

Joining in on this thread. I like the special mod for 4 star judges. I like even better that the mod was out for a year and then trickles down with some adaptation to the rest of us who have not hit that magic number of mods run yet.

What I would like to see, and won't cost much to implement is something to recognize the organizers who do a great deal of the heavy lifting required to have tables go off. I'd be happy with a unicorn or something similar next to where the judge stars go. Something like 1 for every hundred tables reported or so would be nice.

Mostly I picked unicorns because I thought it would be funny.

Den

So there's that other thread, that's turned toxic. I'm not talking about the main issue there.

But Mike commented that pre-gen credit for modules would work like GM credit for scenarios currently works: when you GM, you immediately assign the credit to a character, who receives the credit as soon as possible. Sometimes that's immediately, and at other times it happens when the character reaches the bottom of the scenario's tier.

Okay, but is that how people are using GM credit?

At Origins, I had a fellow sit down at my "Dalsine Affair" table with a 6th-level PC, with a 4th-level and four 1st-level colleagues. I suggested that he didn't want to play a character so high that it would force the new guys to play up. So he took 9 scenarios worth of GM credit and whipped up a 4th-level PC witch. Nobody at the table thought that the least bit odd.

At Stuffed COWS last month, I was playing in a 5-9 scenario, and one of the players had a 7th-level character that didn't fit well with the party, and a 4th-level Witch (11 XP). He decided to take out one of his GM-credit sheets, apply it to the witch, and join us as a 5th-level character. Nobody raised an objection.

According to the rules, I should have forbidden the first gentleman from assembling a PC out of loose GM Credit, and my GM should not have allowed the player at the table to play his witch.

Yes?

I see nothing here that was done wrong. We should not be looking for ways to punish cooperative players.

As a way of trying to explain "living" campaigns and generate interest, I have tried to explain to potential PFS recruits that their characters actions would actually have some weight in the gaming world as a whole.

Unfortunately I have not seen any such instances of that happening. Is this a "living" campaign? Or just tournament rules?

Is there any point to the factions? They never seem to get anywhere.

Is there a place or website or page that displays faction standing?

I mean personally from a purely Andoran standpoint, I'm pretty sure we could carve out a few more Cheliaxian (if I misspelled that too bad demon worshiping scum) provinces on our western border. Provided our faction standing was kicking their rosie-red butts.

Am I missing the fun or is there no fun being had?

From what I have seen so far in PFS is that it is not a living game nor will it ever be. I have yet to see any real choices in the campaign world that made any difference at all in later mods. The only real mechanism for feedback is based off of how often someone is willing to post and complain to this board so it's not really representative to who is actually playing and running.

LG used to solicit this feedback directly as part of getting the mods from your local triad. This would change the mods for the later half of the year in a very real way sometimes. This essentially never happens here.
Perhaps faction missions will start to matter for campaign direction. Years 0-2 it hasn't been seen to happen.
Den

As Mark Moreland has already pointed out enforcement of the pvp rule is left in the hands of an individual DM. I feel this is a good thing.
I am a DM that will ask the players permission before allowing am area of effect spell to be knowingly targeted on them by an ally. The reason why is simple. A lessor metamagic rod of selective spell is cheap at 3k and if AOE is your thing and you do not buy one then you are starting the mod intending to hit your allies.
Also if I think a player might be getting overly pressured or intimidated into agreeing I do not allow the action to happen for PVP.
I haven't decided how I will handle the wild rager. Most likely they won't have fun at my tables again due to the no PVP rule.

Funny story about a mod played back in 3.5 that involves PVP and the ask permission rule. The judge in question was pretty strict about it being a 6 second round and while speech is a free action he didn't allow it out of turn. A player with a crazy high movement rate runs up to scout and draws a ton of attention. He ends up surrounded 2 deep by foes before the end of his next round. As part of his action he yells "FIREBALL ME"
What he forgot is that 2 of the characters were capable of doing this. He failed both saves if I remember right and ended up at about 4 hit points. The good news for him is that all the nearby foes had fallen and he was able to make a fast retreat out of there.

Den

Unpopular Viewpoint: There's something missing in organized gameplay.

And there's one final thought to this lengthy story... it has always struck me that organized game players, in the few arenas where I've seen it happen, tend to express the rules, rules, rules, rather than holistically playing a roleplaying game. In the few times I've witness this type of play, purchased boosters of minis were involved, or the group tended to be more concerned over a familiar's spell mechanic than any kind of real "mood" of playing a fantastical game with spells and dragons! This was always a turn off to many folks I knew, and frankly the one sticking point that I would dislike. I know you cannot change people, but I would become active in a society of gamers who were adherant to any mantra set forth by the game company that said, "keep the mood of a roleplaying game, tell/play the story and rules come second".

As someone who has played about as long as you have and also as someone who has organized several hundred tables Pathfinder Society and Living Greyhawk before that I might have some insight into what you are experiencing.

People who thrive in organized play tend to like to play the tactical game as much, if not more than the roleplay side. This is especially true in a loud game room at a con. I could offer other generalizations but I will stick with what I like about organized play.

I prefer to play a character in a portable setting. Where the GM and other players are not the same week in and week out. In fact I often start to regard a home game as something of a grind after a while. I tend to get bored. Two things about organized play prevent this. I end up playing with a larger pool of people and there is usually a time limit that keeps the game moving. The cuts the boredom that I inevitably feel if I am at a RP heavy home game.

The players I like to play with the most in an organized play setting have a solid grasp of the rules and can role play well. In fact I do not consider it a slur to be called and to call others "rules lawyers".
I also find that often the players that are the best lawyers are also the best at RP within the confines of a limited time scenario.

What tends to happen is that these best players are already at full tables due to the amount of people that have played with them before and would eagerly do so again. This is especially true at cons. What the new player ends up seeing all to often is those players that are left over. This would be the new players and the kinda irritating ones.

There is a chance that this is what happened to you. The other chance is that you are not compatible with organized play. Some players do prefer flavor over rules. I tend to consider the rules to be part of the flavor. There is nothing wrong with that so long as you know that OP is not a plot to force you to play in a different style.

Enjoy your gaming, organized or otherwise.
Den

Sure, but I figured if someone runs multiple games the GM might rather have one paper with all the data instead of three.

And without having to print out multiple pages filled with ink consuming graphics. Or the wrong mod name at the top. And without the event number on them.

ok. I'm done whining.

GreggH wrote:

Brewfest in Cape Girardeau MO is the highlight of the con year for me. I'm anxiously watching the Warhorn site at this very moment, waiting for the schedule to finalize. I look forward to reuniting with my Nackle brethren during a full weekend of PFS!

Curse you and all those Nackles!!!!

(Just kidding... I look forward to the Nackle table with the "token round ear" in PFS... as long as I don't have to run it!)

I have not been to Brewfest since LG days. Thanks to your announcement I will put in for the time off so that I might attend this event again.

A better question would be: who ienjoys/ fighting swarms?

they should not be left out of PFS modules because they are tough, they should be left out because nobody likes them.

This

JP Chapleau wrote:

Deluge,

Read Jesse's post, He refuses to keep his allegiance a secret BECAUSE he's a paladin.

JP

Yep. Sounds like a perfectly reasonable way to play the class to me. Having a principled stand against lying and deceit sounds like how I tend to play the class as well. Though one could make an argument that refusing to inform someone of something that is not their business is not the same as lying.

Den

And i just noticed that i bit the worm on a potential paladin thread. All done.

Deluge,

Read Jesse's post, He refuses to keep his allegiance a secret BECAUSE he's a paladin.

JP

Yep. Sounds like a perfectly reasonable way to play the class to me. Having a principled stand against lying and deceit sounds like how I tend to play the class as well. Though one could make an argument that refusing to inform someone of something that is not their business is not the same as lying.

Den

Revised reply to better comply with Forum rules.

my gm reads my handout and sees this (preferably created without others knowing) when it clearly should be read as (preferably created without others knowing we are interested in the route you travel)

so i lose a faction point to either a stubborn gm or an poorly written scenario

Stubborn GM here.

To be clear the mod is explicit on the need to not be observed.
From page 7---
Osirion faction PCs can make a DC 12 Craft (cartography) check at any point after this encounter to copy Skagni’s map, but must do so without being seen by non-Osirion faction PCs.
And again in the conclusion. ---
Osirion faction PCs who copy Skagni’s map without being observed earn 1 Prestige Award

I double checked the handout to make sure there was something indicating the need to do this without being observed. I did that because I am not beyond fixing a scenario.

You were by the way softballed on the trample encounter. I gave 4 rounds to try to climb out. The mod gives 1 plus a possible surprise round.

Back to the reason I did not want to listen. You stated your point twice. When I was explaining why I was ruling the way I did you did not hear me as you continued to shout your point at me again. Seeing how it was pointless to talk to you I gave up at that point.
You are expected to miss a faction point from time to time btw.

Den

Thanks for that offer Bob, but that's just a little too far with the current cost of gas and all. If something changes though I'll be sure to look your group up.

Joel I'm shooting you off an email right now for more details.

Hope that works out for you guys.

There is also a Chicago area yahoo group for pathfinder society.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/ChiPathfinderDB/

Dragnmoon wrote:

There will be rules on changing factions in 3rd season, details on those rules have not been released yet.

Rumor has it that you have to shower your VC with expensive gifts and should they deem your gifts adequate, they can hand-wave a faction change. At least that's what I was told, and you should let everybody know too, before Mark comes back from his honeymoon.

My plan is to coat my venture captain in as much filth as possible and then deny him access to a shower until he relents. But I don't care to change factions so I am waiting until i find something i really want.

Jelloarm wrote:

uncleden wrote:

If that is one of the new factions I would certainly consider playing a halfling or an gnome. Most likely a bard. I would also sing at the table until I got stabbed.

Den

Diego Winterborg wrote:

That would be a both logical and fair option.

Definitely just hilariously misread Diego's post out of context.

That would have been my answer to uncleden as well :D

Note to self. When singing irritating falsetto songs near Diego, make sure he only has blades no longer than 1 inch. Hopefully the natural padded armor will save me.

I want to be a member of the Lollypop guild. Thanks for the spoiler. :)

If that is one of the new factions I would certainly consider playing a halfling or an gnome. Most likely a bard. I would also sing at the table until I got stabbed.

Den

Oh and this blog post is why I will continue to offer the new mods when year three starts. I was dreading the idea of having to learn 20 faction missions to prep a mod to the point where I was going to walk from the table.
This post offers everything I asked for when I heard of the expansion to 10 factions and more. It is good to see you are listening instead of just telling us you are listening.
Thank you.
Den

@ Mark:

Refering to the preview above, would an Andoran faction character only be able to liberate him/herself, or could that character "buy" the Liberation for a fellow Pathfinder (even from another faction)?

Liberation (5 PP) In the event that you are captured and forced into slavery, the faction mounts a rescue operation, freeing you from servitude without any material or physical effect. Any cost or penalty normally associated with being enslaved (including magical effects such as dominate person) is negated at no additional cost to you.

Is there anything in the wording that even sort of implies that "you" can use it on someone else?

I have been tacking for granted that my Eidolon begins each game fully healed just like players. I figure the faction can reserve a space for him when a Cleric channels positive energy. Since they cannot heal from sleep, was I oversteping? If we really have to keep track from one game to another, I presume getting a GM to initial the end game hp(after other PCs have a chance to offer their left over spells/channels per day) is good enough? I do not wan to heal every point from my wands and have not chosen the spell for it.

I do not think you were overstepping.

Most conditions and effects do not carry from mod to mod. It seems reasonable that somehow the hp would come back.

I guess you could go primarily by their weight. Arguably you'd be able to pack them pretty tightly if you had them lay foot to head in alternating sequence. Otherwise, I'm not entirely sure. The main thing would depend on the size and type of the skeletons. A hydra skeleton would likely take up much more room than a human skeleton, but arguably the human skeleton could be placed inside the hydra skeleton's ribcage or something.

Otherwise, I'm not sure...
Actually, depending on the level and/or spells available to the necromancer, you could smuggle your undead around as inanimate objects. If you have tons of bone, use fabricate to turn them into sculptures made out of bone (it's called Scrimshaw and it's art), then use fabricate to put them back together again before animating them.

If you have wall of stone, fabricate, and stone to flesh, you can create an army of undead out of nothing. Cast wall of stone to get a crapload of raw material. Cast fabricate to turn all the raw stone into statues of your favorite creatures. Cast flesh to stone which turns them into corpses. Cast animate dead to produce your army of skeletons which you just created out of stone.

Now, while that's not technically storing them in a bag of holding, it definitely makes them more portable, which I think is where the question comes from originally, right?

In last nights game we ended up with a mixed bag of 7 zombies and skeletons. The issue came up when we needed to cross some water and water walking could not affect all of our undead canon fodder and the meanie cleric (me) refused to use another slot to be able to cast it twice.

I hadn't thought about the weight issue. I was looking at this as more of an issue of volume. I found some real life examples that seem to apply.
The record for how many people have crammed into a VW bus is 34.
VW Bus: 34, Pasco Bug Jam, Pasco County Fairgrounds, Dade City, Florida, USA, 14 November 2010
http://www.recordholders.org/en/list/carcram.html

I also found that one model of vw bus had the dimensions of 75″ x 165″ x 67 1/2″. This works out to 483.3984375 cubic feet.
Based on that being a little less that twice the volume of the bag of holding I feel it is safe to assume that there is room for about 17 zombies in there. Skeletons might be able to fit tighter.

So as you said it seems to boil down to weight.

How many undead can you transport in a type 4 bag of holding?
In our legacy of fire campaign this has come up with our party's necromancer.

In asking I am assuming a mixed bag of zombies and skeletons. Would skeletons be able to cram in tighter due to lack of fleshy bits getting in the way?

I hope this question is at least a little entertaining.

You're right, off by just 1. It's +1 in the tier 1-2

Todd Morgan wrote:

Isn't she just +1 in the statblock for the low tier? I don't see the +2. But in either case, yes, it appears her to hit is +1 higher than normal in both tiers

Count me a bitterly disappointed with this mod. I'm left with the feeling that "they almost got it right". The trek through the frozen lands were kinda whatever. The final encounter was flat out lame. At the lower tier it may have been a real challenge. The high tier not so much. For our group of experienced judges playing this I feel that any combination of 2 of us could have defeated it at tier 4-5.

I'll be posting a review in the next couple of days for this mod, including what I will be doing to fix it so I am not embarrassed to run this at my next game day.

Den

People seem to have missed something very important...

Tell the GM and the other players at your table that you're a new player, both to Pathfinder Society and tabletop roleplaying games. Most of the people I've met are more than willing to help a new gamer out once you advertise that fact.

Good gaming!

Yep. Lilith nailed it.

For the most part the people I have gamed with are very willing to help new people ramp up to speed.

Den

Howdy. So, the Harrower Class. Why not PFS legal? I won't go into a long debate, I merely would like to know the why. Thanks!

What is the source?

Is it 3.5?

Al Rigg wrote:

Does the Overseer GM get a credit for running Year of the Shadow Lodge, or does that just go to the Table GMs? If so, how do you report the Overseer as a GM?

The Overseer has to take it on the chin. He/she gets no credit. If the coordinator wants to be generous they could report an additional table, put the Overseer as GM and add one or more players from different tables. This is the coordinator's call and not expressly allowed by the rules.

This falls into the same category as giving credit to convention organizers who never actually run any tables. They are still working and contributing, just not getting any credit for their efforts (for now).

I'd probably get around this by reporting the judges gm credit under the overseer as the gm. Just my two cents.

Remco Sommeling wrote:

I do not think the ruling on cheating death was bad at all, perhaps the killing part was a bit harsh, but it doesn't seem unrealistic or unfair. It created an oppurtunity for the party to save your character.

Except their wasn't any real opporunity. Everyone was grappled or otherwise occupied. Escaping takes actions, moving to my location takes actions. Having bought a round MEANT ABSOLUTELY NOTHING because there was nothing you could do.

I do not have any real problem with the ruling about the hero point. It seems correct as per RAW and such. The chokers were not fighting for dominance or to take your possessions. They were hunting and you were the meal.

A larger problem is the cr8 encounter in the first place for a party of level 4 characters. Did the party have any advance warning that there would be a nest of chokers there? How many characters in your party?

kikanaide wrote:

I will be running two sessions at Penguicon - one on Saturday, 2-6 p.m., and another on Sunday, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. I currently plan to run two older modules - #24 - Decline of Glory and #5 - Mists of Mwangi.

This is rather last-minute, and won't appear on the official schedule (it will appear on the errata handed out at the con). If you're attending Penguicon and interested in playing, feel free to drop me a line. I'd feel better with at least one or two committed players for each session.

What kind of PFS turn out shows up normally?

Last year when i ran at PenguinCon, I was able to get a full table in three slots. Most people are there for other things.

I'd say to make sure you have a stack of pregens and some membership number cards.

@Jason S: Remember that you are a Pathfinder FIRST, and a faction member SECOND.

JP

Only 1 of my 5 characters would share that opinion.

I played a Bard for the first time yesterday and had fun! He was introduced to the party as a fighter type but then the table was in shock to discover that a Bard was in their ranks! There has been much Bard hate and I'm on the fence. What do you all think of the class? The APG has some pretty cool new spells and variants.

Not sure why, but this Subject heading made me think of a drag queen bard who dresses like Katy Perry and sings " I played a bard and i liked it."

Well that is probably pretty close to where the bard hate comes from.

Den

Apologies if this has already been mentioned (haven't read all the thread yet) but this actually worries me a bit.

I have found that faction missions can eat away at game time that means the main plot is rushed or even cut short.

With 5 factions at worse you had 5 missions, and there was a fair liklihood that two ro more players may share a faction, so you maybe end up with 3 or so missions.

With 10 different factions, we now have the possibility of 6 missions at a table of 6 players, and a greater potential of having all players having different factions.

This is a concern of mine as well.

Also the way the item purchase access is largely dependant on completing your faction missions and not at all on whether you are successful on your pathfinder mission. The idea of having to be prepared to keep track of 20 different faction missions seems like a huge hassle for a judge. Obviously all 20 will never come into play. In an ideal world you might even know which factions will be at the table before you judge it. That is not what seems to actually happen at play time.

From a role play perspective I have a couple of issues as well. I do like the idea of more choice for the PCs. However far too many of the faction missions come off as contrived filler due to not being able to come up with 2 good faction mission for each faction. From a RP PC perspective the pathfinder society seems to be mainly run by people who send you on dangerous jobs, keep the best of the treasure and then let you keep a portion of what you found for yourselves. Granted you could say that they provide you with that juicy lead that lets you make the gold in the first place. It just hardly feels like the sort of group that would inspire loyalty.

I propose that with the addition of the new factions that the total faction mission count remains at 10. Each faction could have a mission that is rather difficult. The other PA point that can be earned is for actually completing the pathfinder mission. This would make sense from both a roleplay perspective as well as for game mechanics.

Den

Todd Lower wrote:

What I meant was that Paladins in general have to be convinced of the necessity of the group's actions. After that it is easier to accomplish the stated mission.

Well.. The mission, as presented is CLEARLY for the greater good. Smuggling the cleric in will help the populace heal the sickness.

Also, Paladins in PFS must not be 100% rigid (but not stupid either) and promote law and good. While the Pure Legion are the lawful authority, and force the paladins to support them is the same as saying that paladin must support and assist Cheliax's devils, it's not gonna happen.

What I always say: use this to roleplay. Many people see paladins as a roadblock to roleplaying ("they always say no to everything"). I find its actually the other way around. Paladins are fun to play with and interact. Yes, they are often annoying self-righteous jerks, but that makes them unique among all the classes.

Get a sap as a paladin! Its a must have and at 1gp, you'd be stupid not to have one. Sapping people does not prevent you from looting them... :P

JP

Perhaps it is, but by the time the very long briefing was completed, my attention span had me hearing zzzzzzzzzz.. smuggle zzzzzzzzzz... sneak zzzzzz.... I was at the table with this paladin, and frankly was happy to have him there. He did roleplay well. In fact he prevented a guard from being tortured. (not to mention saving the players from the wasted table time of what was certain to be the prolonged pointless interrogation of a bunch of mook guards that didn't seem to actually know anything.)

I see playing paladins according to their code more as he does and less as you do. I'm not gonna be playing any sapping stealing paladin anytime soon. Seeing him try to sneak in his full plate to bypass a fight with the legion was fun. Even with invisibility it didn't work. Maybe if his armor wasn't made out of cowbells. :)

The Jade wrote:

Sounds like U-con was gold!

Is there an attendance estimate? Because it sounds like the con had a lot of tables running.

I don't have any figures for the overall convention attendance. As far as PFS goes, I counted 273 event tickets sold. We only had like 157 tickets sold in advance so there were a lot of walk-ons using generic tickets. Our busiest day was Saturday in the afternoon slot when we seated 57 players. There were 8 slots offered over the three day convention and we met our goals for events filled. I didn't have any time to walk around and scope out things, but I have an impression that PFS drew more attendance than any other game system.

Glad to hear it. Shame I had to work.

I ran "Black Waters" over this weekend and ended up in a bit of a dilema, one that cost a PC his life.

** spoiler omitted **

I guess this boils down to a more fundamental question - how to play intelligent evil? I feel that the game is more fun when there is actually a chance that your character can die. Intelligent creatures are where I feel this danger lies. While it's easy to have a mindless creature switch from the incapacitated character to whoever struck it last, I feel the smarter ones will be more methodical in how they deal with the heroes.

I don't like killing PCs. However, other than blantanly going "Well, everyone else ran away and left you to die but instead I'm going to run out and chase the rest of the party" I didn't see away around this. While I don't think that the players (especially the one who died) would have objected, it seems like it turns the game into a "show up and win" scenario with no challenge.

I'd like to know if there's any official stance on something like this, as...

A little different to Dougs answer, i would likely spread a full attack on the paralyzed PCs Then round after round I'd let the players hear their friend bleeding out as they try to stabilize. If they took too long they would have to find where i hid their friend. If still not aiding their team mate, i'd feel ok that it was them and not me as a judge.

Coup de gras just doesn't have that kind of thrill at low levels.

I'm not saying that I am never going to use coup de gras, just not in a case like this. When i have used it. A pc got paralyzed by hold person. The villain immediately says "drop your weapons or your buddy dies." they then fail to drop their weapons or drop the villain or actually get to where the villain will have to eat AOOs for what he is about to do. Then yeah, save or die unless all this damage already kills you.

I have a quick question. I have a character, Imam Gabriel Al Katheer. He is a cleric of Sarenrae.

Origionally I had created him for Pathfinder Society Organized play. I never used him for the Organized play.

Instead I restated him ( rolled the 4d6 dropping the lowest) and I used the character in a Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign.

I don’t want to let good materiel go to waste. I origionally made him andoran. This was when I thought that the factions would be competing for influence over absolom, and the prestiege points we earned would in some way influence the outcome of things in Absolom.

I chose the andoran faction because I wanted to do some small part in swinging things in their favor.

I never used the character In pathfinder organized play. I used him in a curse of the crimson throne campaign.

I have since created and used a character Fatum Aedituus Venificus , a cleric of pharasma, and gotten him to 10 level as a mystic theurge. He also is of the andoran faction.

Now if I start using Gabriel, he will be first level. I have not used this character yet. He is registered as Andoran faction. With an already established 10 level character of the andoran faction. This will create problems for my 1st level cleric who is of the same faction. Is there any way this unused character can have his faction changed from Andoran to Qadiran?

Thanks.

Easiest thing is to make the character with the same name, give it a surname and pick a different faction.

Also you don't roll characters in organized play. It is 20 point buy.

Den

Based on a cloaker not being a goblin. The assumption is not unfounded - the Core Rulebook defines the base line DC of a Knowledge check.

On what page? It seems to me like there is a little 3.5 in your reasoning?

Pathfinder has returned to Brewfest! Below is a link to the events scheduled, with some variance for change allowed. Sign up at the link below!

Brewfest 2010

I can vouch for this venue. I made it to a one day of Brewfest a couple of years ago when it was a dual regional con. It is in the upstairs of a tavern in and at least when i was there you could have food and drinks brought to the table while you were gaming.

The lack of regional play that matters has largely killed the smaller local cons, but this is an event that deserves to live.
That being said, with regret, I will be unable to attend as it is out of range for me where I live now.

Den

Ok, I would like to start Organized play in our area so would like to set up an event and I am looking for Tips and advice on how to go about doing this.

1. Finding a place to hold the event...
2. Attracting individuals to the event...
3. Making sure I have enough GM's to run enough events to cover the numbers that show up for the event...
4. Do we need to purchase multipule copies of the scenarios we are going to be running at the event?
5. Any other tips or advice to running an event...

I have already figured out how to report the event and how to sign up the event. I also have a idea for a place to hold the event but would still like input on where others may hold there events.

Thanks

I'll add my reply from one of the other threads to this one.

1 You may purchase one. You may then reuse it many times. At my next game day for example Doug Doug will run mists of mwangi for the 14th time. Digital copies are a no-no. Print out a spare if you have more than one judge.
2 Lots of hair pulling. Some blackmail, emotional and otherwise works. Or get a core of people to take turns eating mods. Veterans can be persuaded for a while to judge for new people but will lose interest if none of them step up and do the same.
3 Yahoo groups, here, going to local cons and running events there, meetup, flyers at a game store. It really depends on your locale.
4 If you are looking at a local thing no more than one or two slots if you are going to run often.
5 I run 2 slots every other Sunday. I am also fortunate to be in an area where alot of people can play and will also judge.
6 Make it an open to the public event if at all possible. Be aware that some people are thin skinned and will not deal well with other types of players. (children, loud, too much roleplay, not enough roleplay, etc)
Also that a certain ratio of people with play 1-6 times and you will not see them again. Don't take that personal as it is the nature of organized play.
Post your planned schedule as clearly as possible as far in advance as you can. If someone says they already played something hit them up to judge and then if they do let them pick what to play next time.

Den

I am planning on starting an organized event in my area and would like some advice and tips on how to go about doing that.

I already know how to go about reporting and signing up the event. I also have an idea for a place to hold the event but would still like advice on where you hold your events.

1. Do you have to purchase several copies of the scenario being run...
2. Making sure you have enough GM's for the event...
3. How do you get the word out to individuals who might be interested in your event...
4. How long should your event be set up for...
5. How often should you hold your event, Weekly, monthly, or yearly...
6. Any other helpful tips or advice...

Thank you

1 You may purchase one. You may then reuse it many times. At my next game day for example Doug Doug will run mists of mwangi for the 14th time. Digital copies are a no-no. Print out a spare if you have more than one judge.

2 Lots of hair pulling. Some blackmail, emotional and otherwise works. Or get a core of people to take turns eating mods. Veterans can be persuaded for a while to judge for new people but will lose interest if none of them step up and do the same.
3 Yahoo groups, here, going to local cons and running events there, meetup, flyers at a game store. It really depends on your locale.
4 If you are looking at a local thing no more than one or two slots if you are going to run often.
5 I run 2 slots every other Sunday. I am also fortunate to be in an area where alot of people can play and will also judge.
6 Make it an open to the public event if at all possible. Be aware that some people are thin skinned and will not deal well with other types of players. (children, loud, too much roleplay, not enough roleplay, etc)
Also that a certain ratio of people with play 1-6 times and you will not see them again. Don't take that personal as it is the nature of organized play.
Post your planned schedule as clearly as possible as far in advance as you can. If someone says they already played something hit them up to judge and then if they do let them pick what to play next time.

Den

I assume this should likely go to Josh F. ,but anyway. I made a stupid mistake and reported my event as one of my other events.

That is, the event called Cabin Con 2009 - never was completed.
The event called Demo at the Board Room Game Center occured as scheduled last night. However, I input all the character data as the Cabin Con 2009 event.

What if anything can be done about this? Is it a problem since the characters were inputed correctly ,but under the wrong event. I was using the same scenario even.

Sorry for the trouble. Let me know what I can do to fix it as the players were all new to PFS and really enjoyed their session.

It probably wont hurt anything.

Did you change the date played to match or just take what the event filled in for you. If you filled in the date, i would just call it good and leave it be.
Correct scenario, characters in correctly, correct faction points, correct date, wrong event code. Not a problem.

Den
FWIW I have reported 100+ sessions.

William, everyone is feeling what you are going through. We all want to impress the players and have everything run smoothly. I think your subconscious anxiety is valid. It reflects how much you care about delivering a quality game to the players. Take heart. You could be stressing over nothing. You might get a table full of kids who just want to roll the dice and kill stuff, and could acre less about maps, props or role-playing. You could get a table of people who just like to role-play interactively and could care less about where they are or what the plot is about. You may get a bunch of guys who sit around and tell stories of adventures-past and entertain themselves. There's a subset of Murphy's Law that says the more prep work you do, the more likely the players will go completely off-script and do the opposite of what you're prepared for them.

That being said, i now have 18 cents and an urge to hitchhike to GenCon.

Season 2 starts with the August scenarios.

Season 1 ends with the July scenarios.

The plot line for season 2 started creeping into the Tier 12 scenarios in April and with the lower-level scenarios in June. I don't want the seasons to feel like walled-off plot lines, so there will likely be some blending between them.

Also, with season 2, we're changing the naming convention. I should have the next few months up soon and you'll see them numbered thusly:

Season#-Scenario#

So August will be 2-01, 2-02, 2-03, and 2-04 and Season 2 will run through 2-28 and then start Season 3 with 3-01.

Thumbs up on this naming scheme.

I have found that the "spiritual sequels" seem more popular at my FLGS than the "story arc" scenarios. Here's to hoping that we see more of these in Season 2.

I agree with this sentiment.

In fact most scenarios should have some tie in to a previous scenario in my opinion.

Aww, thanks again guys. I feel like gushing a-la Sally Field at the Oscars.

Can we let this thread die now?

Nope.

More reasons why you deserve the 5 stars I'll kicK the list off.
You draw some of the best maps out there. This effort goes a loNg way to wow people.
WhenEver you run a mod you are prepared.
WhenEver you run a mod you do it in a neutral fashion that makes players feel like they are getting a fair shake.
You Put forth the effort to attend many events and judge for them.
You hAve a very firm grasp on the rules as written.
And every other thing you Do!
And other Stuff.
Den

Hello Pathfinder Society Members!

Please join me in congratulating Paizo messageboard regular and hard-working Pathfinder Society GM and organizer Doug Doug in becoming the Society's first ever 5-Star GM.

Thanks for all your hard work, Doug!

Let me say first from having known Doug for quite some time and having played at many of his tables, that he truly deserves this honor.

Let me say second that I will be taunting 5 star Doug greatly, some ways will in fact be rather vulgar. :)

Yay for Doug!!!!

Not nearly as sweet as my rap name.

MC Serious Ice. He ain't joshing ya?

Den

In my opinion, if you are not playing a goofy character then you should not use a goofy name. Are you going to take Aragorn from LotR seriously if his name were Pinky Sparklepants instead? I cannot take someone seriously or expect them to play properly if they give their character a stupid name.

I know people who can come with a cool, character appropriate name in seconds, and then there are players like me where sometimes it can take me as long to think of a name as it took me to make the character. To me, a character's name should reflect that character's racial, ethnic, and/or geographical background and that is why it sometimes seems to take me forever to come up with a good one.

But a gnome with the name of Pinky Sparklepants would be awesome!

Den

My advice, I think you should strongly suggest (tactfully) that they change their name, if it is disruptive to the game... ie it can not in any role-playing way be explained and is explained (your above captain spider... perhaps can be explained in a role-playing fashion with a self proclaimed captain pirate calling himself spider); and it suspends the disbelief of role-play (or brings us back into the real world/destroys the belief we are in a separate cohesive world). This seems to get me too. Since Paizo also disallows easter eggs in submissions of written adventures (both to not get sued and the above I presume), I could not see them encouraging such behavior as "stupid names". But, hey I don't work for them (though I'd love to, and they'll see some of my submissions for scenarios when I feel like I have a good enough grasp on the system). So don't take my word as law.

happy GMing,
Jeremy

There is not truth, there only is...

Frankly, I think you guys are partially missing the point of organized play. If it really bothers you that others pick names that seem silly, then make sure you only play with players that take the game as seriously as you.

Seeing different styles and approaches is what I find fun about organized play. Of course I have characters named Kneecap and General Zho so I am hardly partial.
Keep in mind, what we are doing is inherently silly. We are after all a bunch of grown ups playing make believe.
Den

We generally don't have time to go back and fix errors, but when we have the chance and time, we do.

For the Pathfinder Society Scenarios, we pretty much have only one person devoted to handling the products—that's Josh. He happens to be in the middle of a vacation right now and isn't available to answer concerns or problems, and when he DOES get back, he generally has to prioritize what he addresses because there's just no time to fix every problem AND continue forging ahead with the schedule. I will send him a link to this thread, though, so that when he gets back he'll check the issue out with the scenario.

I do appreciate the concern folks have for errors and the time it sometimes takes to get them addressed. I'm also aware of the perception that we're not providing the amount of help with errata and FAQs and the like that we could be providing; it's something I've been trying to get addressed, but until the middle of May, which is the deadline for shipping files to the printer if we're going to have those books printed in time for Gen Con, fixing errors and building FAQs and addressing errors is, unfortunately, a VERY low priority for us.

And in the end, as Masika implies... you DO pay for the product. And not buying products or posting negative reviews is a VERY effective way to get the message across to us that we need to stay on our toes.

So... sorry that the error is causing concerns... this post is mostly just to let folks know that we ARE listening, even if the fact that we're slammed with other issues and problems right now is preventing us from fixing everything makes it look like we're ignoring you. We're not ignoring anyone.

James,

Can you name 1 pathfinder society mod that has been updated to fix an error. I can't. For certain posting a harsh review doesn't seem to do it.
Pathfinder Society Scenario #41: The Devil We Know—Part III: Crypt of Fools has a glaring omission in maps that renders a puzzle unsolvable as written. A fix that should take less time than the time spent to implement than the time that is being spent trying to telling people repeatedly that you are listening and then not actually fixing them.

I can understand not fixing stuff that has been out for a year already. But when you find out about a problem with a mod within a month of it coming out and sit on your hands and do not fix it. Unacceptable.

Den