Unaligned...

[Mark Gedak 27]

Is it possible for a Pathfinder to be unaligned?

I have a player who seems to be abnormally hung up on having different factions with secret missions. He's convinced it will lead to the doom of all and be ... "not fun".

[Sect]

It would be dumb if he did.

The factions are a pretty big part of the fun of the Society, a five way cold war between rival countries. From what I've see, however, the objectives for each faction rarely overlap with each other, letting everyone have a chance to do what they want. There isn't any player versus player going on at the moment, and it really is fun trying to meet the objectives, whether through cooperation or guile.

By not having a faction, your player has done to himself three things: removed part of the content of the modules for himself, eliminated the chance to gain access to some neat items, and lost himself a bonus feat and access to other feats.

[Michael Meunier]

Tell your guy that the factions do just the opposite. Of the two mods I read only one had even the slightest overlap between objectives and I could say it would be possible, though difficult, to accomplish both. Figuring out what the other guys are up to is alot of the fun of the game. Watching the characters trying to thwart the others missions was fun as GM. As long as everyone at the table remembers the "We're pathfinders first" rule, all will be well. I didn't see or hear about any issues at GenCon. I just had a bunch of Taldan's horribly failing bluff checks when the others at the table called them on something, that's all :).

[hogarth]

At any rate, it's certainly possible to sign up for a faction (at random, if necessary) and not lift a finger to help or hinder them.

[Ulak]

We helped people complete their faction quests, even when they belonged to different factions. The idea is for everyone at the table to have fun, not to see if you can make other people miserable. Trying to thwart someone from accomplishing their faction goal was to my understanding in direct violation of the Pathfinder Society charter.

[Kheti sa-Menik]

Michael Meunier wrote:

Tell your guy that the factions do just the opposite. Of the two mods I read only one had even the slightest overlap between objectives and I could say it would be possible, though difficult, to accomplish both. Figuring out what the other guys are up to is alot of the fun of the game. Watching the characters trying to thwart the others missions was fun as GM. <snip>

Did you really see a lot of this though?

I played all four scenarios at Gencon. I have to say it went like this each time:
Judge: Do I have any {insert name of faction here}?
Player 1: Here.
Judge: (hands over appropriate faction mission slip)
Player 1: (reads slip to himself, maybe takes a note or two then either hands it back to the judge or to Player 2 if he's the same faction; Player 2 does the same and so on)
Judge: Everyone all set? Let's begin!

No one at any of my tables attempted to see another factions' mission or tried to interfere with another factions' mission whatsoever.
Heck, at two of my tables, PCs of the same faction barely spoke to one another, let alone coordinate strategy to accomplish the faction mission.

Anyone have different experiences?

[Craig Shackleton]

My experience was more like Utak's. Both as a player and a DM, most people in my games either assisted the other players in achieving their goals, or at least willfully looked the other way as another PC blatantly grabbed their faction McGuffin.

[Lilith]

Overall, all my players were very enthusiastic about their factions and made sure to help fellow faction members in the pursuit of their missions. One fine faction member PAID another rival faction member to steal said McGuffin off one of the NPCs. 'Twas awesome roleplaying all around.

[Joshua J. Frost]

He must select a faction in character creation. If the world neglects to blow itself up when your player selects his faction, then we can all breath a huge sigh of relief.