PFS events at Gen Con... should I create (and register) PFS characters to bring?


Pathfinder Society


Ok, This has confused the hell out of me for the past 2 years and I'm no longer trying to play it cool as if I understand...

I have registered myself and my teenage kids for two PFS events at GenCon this year. The description for the events state materials will be provided. However, I also noted, as expected, that the two events are for levels 1-7 and 5-9 respectively.

Should I create and register PCs with PFS to bring to the events that are at various levels, such as 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th? I don't want to get to the event and be handed 1st level pre-gens when there are 2-3 other players with characters at 7th level.

Any enlightenment you wish to share with me on this issue would be greatly appreciated (by me and the kids).

Grand Lodge 2/5

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
rom90125 wrote:

Ok, This has confused the hell out of me for the past 2 years and I'm no longer trying to play it cool as if I understand...

I have registered myself and my teenage kids for two PFS events at GenCon this year. The description for the events state materials will be provided. However, I also noted, as expected, that the two events are for levels 1-7 and 5-9 respectively.

Should I create and register PCs with PFS to bring to the events that are at various levels, such as 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th? I don't want to get to the event and be handed 1st level pre-gens when there are 2-3 other players with characters at 7th level.

Any enlightenment you wish to share with me on this issue would be greatly appreciated (by me and the kids).

You will only be able to play your own characters at the 1-7 event, but they must be created at 1st level. You will recieve chronicles for these adventures you complete, after you have 3 you will go up to 2nd level. You will repeat this process for every 3 PFS adventures you complete. You could also play level 1 pregens, but it sounds like that's not exactly what you are looking for.

For the 5-9 you'll have to play a level 7 pregen for which you will not get a chronicle. The pregens only come in level 1, 4 and 7 flavor so only the level 7s would be legal for a tier 5-9 game.

Hope this helps.

Sovereign Court

You really should download and read the Guide to Organized Play. It spells this out pretty well.

Lantern Lodge 4/5

rom90125 wrote:
I don't want to get to the event and be handed 1st level pre-gens when there are 2-3 other players with characters at 7th level.

In most likelihood, there'll be more than one table running that 1-7 game, players with low level characters will be grouped at one table, players with higher level characters will be seated at another table, etc.

If you prefer to play your own character rather than handed a pre-gen (even a 7th level pre-gen), then you might want to change your 5-9 session to one available for 1-7 (or some other range available for first level characters).

You do have the opportunity to level your character up after every three games played, and can continue playing that same character at any other Pathfinder Society convention, game-day or even home game. That's how you advance to play those higher level games. But your first game starts with a first-level character, unless you want to be handed a one-shot 7th level pre-gen.

That 5-9 session might be a fun game with a 7th level pre-gen, but it can only be played once, you can't gain levels or purchase equipment between adventures with a pre-gen that didn't start out at 1st level.

>> You can download and print the currently available pre-gens here <<


Zizazat & Dark Wolf,

Thank you for the clarification. I have a better understanding now of what was published in the PFS Guide.

Twowlves, please continue to thread crap if it makes you feel better about yourself. I have read the PFS Guide and obviously struggled with the understanding of this guideline. I wish I knew why I failed to comprehend this bit of rules, despite reading the Guide twice, nevertheless, I owned up to my lack of understanding and asked you for assistance.

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
rom90125 wrote:

Zizazat & Dark Wolf,

Thank you for the clarification. I have a better understanding now of what was published in the PFS Guide.

Twowlves, please continue to thread crap if it makes you feel better about yourself. I have read the PFS Guide and obviously struggled with the understanding of this guideline. I wish I knew why I failed to comprehend this bit of rules, despite reading the Guide twice, nevertheless, I owned up to my lack of understanding and asked you for assistance.

He was not threadcraping, He was just telling you where to find the info you where looking for. Some people feel it is better to tell someone how to find the info they are looking for, if it is possible then to just give them the info they want, I think there is a saying for that, Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. I fall in that way to. I always try teaching before telling, if teaching does not work then I tell.

Grand Lodge 3/5

First let me say rom90125, Welcome to PFS, I hope you and your kids will have fun at Gen Con. I find it to be a great deal of pleasure to meet and play games with fellow PFS members.

Second, Twowlves and I are the type of people who from time to time cut to the chase of a discussion and like to guide people to written documentation sometimes rather that trying to rehash it. I myself had considered putting in a link to this thread to help answer you question as your original post didn't referance that you may or may not have found the PFSG confusing or lacking in in a manner that answered your question and since threads here are often used as FAQ, its often useful to point people back to specific documentation rather that just "winging it."

In addition, the orginalpost doen't mention that your used the guide at all. This isn't a slight upon you. I just want to point out that this being the internet and all, it can be hard to determine exactly what you mean, as there is no inflection, body language or anything else to go off of other thatn what you typed.

Twovlves was actually trying to be helpful and was also pointing towards the guide because often at Gen Con we see people build thier characters without ever seeing the guide and come with characters that aren't quite ready to play at the table. he also didn't want to duplicate information that someone had also given you as that just muddies up things.

In closing, welcome to the boards, if you come here often you will see guys like Twovlves, Myself, Doug Doug, Yoda8myhead, Dragnmoon, Zizazat and many, many others who try and help out when we can. If we aren't very verbose, it might be because we don't have a the time we would like to post all of our thoughts on the subject.

TTFN


Dragnmoon wrote:


He was not threadcraping, He was just telling you where to find the info you where looking for.

My two cents: I think the PFS guide presupposes a certain amount of familiarity with how organized play works, so it's a little hard to understand in some cases if you don't have that familiarity.

For instance, there's some talk about pregenerated characters, but there's nothing that specifically answers the question: "What are my options if I signed up for a tier 5-9 game and I haven't made a character yet?"

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
hogarth wrote:
Dragnmoon wrote:


He was not threadcraping, He was just telling you where to find the info you where looking for.

My two cents: I think the PFS guide presupposes a certain amount of familiarity with how organized play works, so it's a little hard to understand in some cases if you don't have that familiarity.

For instance, there's some talk about pregenerated characters, but there's nothing that specifically answers the question: "What are my options if I signed up for a tier 5-9 game and I haven't made a character yet?"

Oh I agree, though I have had less problems with this section then Others have, It was always clear to me, but I need to remember what is clear to me may not be to others ;-).

Sovereign Court

I was not threadcrapping, I was trying to be helpful when I only had about 3 minutes to type a reply.

I understand the internet makes it difficult to read someone's words exactly as they intended them without the nuance of verbal ineraction, so giving people the benefit of the doubt is a respectful rule of thumb.

Herald wrote:
In closing, welcome to the boards, if you come here often you will see guys like Twovlves, Myself, Doug Doug, Yoda8myhead, Dragnmoon, Zizazat and many, many others who try and help out when we can. If we aren't very verbose, it might be because we don't have a the time we would like to post all of our thoughts on the subject.

Just wanna add here that I'm honored to be included on that list!

Grand Lodge 3/5

Twowlves wrote:


I was not threadcrapping, I was trying to be helpful when I only had about 3 minutes to type a reply.

I understand the internet makes it difficult to read someone's words exactly as they intended them without the nuance of verbal ineraction, so giving people the benefit of the doubt is a respectful rule of thumb.

Herald wrote:
In closing, welcome to the boards, if you come here often you will see guys like Twovlves, Myself, Doug Doug, Yoda8myhead, Dragnmoon, Zizazat and many, many others who try and help out when we can. If we aren't very verbose, it might be because we don't have a the time we would like to post all of our thoughts on the subject.
Just wanna add here that I'm honored to be included on that list!

It's all good... Sometimes we just need to know that were all on the same side. (just differant factions) :P

The Exchange 5/5

It's all good... Sometimes we just need to know that were all on the same side. (just differant factions) :P

Whaaaaaa there are different factions??!!! When did that happen .. the only tru faction is the Wonderseekers!!!!!!

*scampers away lookin for a dragon to write a song about*

Dark Archive

All of my games are levels 1-7, but I'm only a 2nd level character. I'm hoping to find plenty of level 1-3 folks to get a table with. I'm sure they have all this stuff worked out, but never having played any organized play games at a con, my lack of experience gives me a little worry. I'm really looking forward to it.

Grand Lodge 3/5

galvatron42 wrote:
All of my games are levels 1-7, but I'm only a 2nd level character. I'm hoping to find plenty of level 1-3 folks to get a table with. I'm sure they have all this stuff worked out, but never having played any organized play games at a con, my lack of experience gives me a little worry. I'm really looking forward to it.

As a Gen Con GM, I'm sure that you will find plenty of 1st, 2nd or 3rd level players who will join you during the muster. We always have lots of low level players at the Con as many people use the opportuninty to give PFRPG their first try. Some people make a secondary character to play at the con and they will be low level too. All in all you might be the beefy character in the party, and I say enjoy it!

This year Josh has said that we are almost sold out, so I expect good things. Cya at the Con.


The overwhelming majority of Society play at Gen Con is low tier play. :-)

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