I was just wondering do I need to pick a faction or can I say my character is avoiding the politics part of this and I am in pathfinder to better mankind?
Just curious is all.
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I was just wondering do I need to pick a faction or can I say my character is avoiding the politics part of this and I am in pathfinder to better mankind?
Just curious is all.
If you plan on playing regularly at a conventions...Yes..
You have to even if you are playing a Home PFS game, But I can't speak for your GM who may decide to say, f the rules, do what you want.. Which I am not endorsing...
I thought that was the case but thought it would be fun if I had a character that wasn't involved in all the politics surrounding Absalom and it's demise LOL.
I personally think it would be cool to have a Absalom faction that was in play here to try to protect Absalom and it's independence. Call me what you will but I really like the flavor of Absalom and would much rather work to protect her from danger.
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I was just wondering do I need to pick a faction or can I say my character is avoiding the politics part of this and I am in pathfinder to better mankind?
Just curious is all.
Being that is it literally Step 1 in the Character Creation chapter...
Step 1: Choose Your Faction
Carefully review each faction in Chapter 3, and then make your decision based on your character concept. Remember that once you’ve chosen your character’s faction, you cannot later change this choice, just like you can’t later change your character’s race. Remember, too, that your character does not have to be from the nation that his faction represents—Ulfens loyal to Taldor, Thuvians loyal to Cheliax, and even Vudrans loyal to Andoran are all acceptable choices. You must choose a faction before you can begin play in Pathfinder Society.
Must, not may :)
Yeah, even if you did not like any of the Factions and you were not required to join one on character creation, if you were not in one of the five Factions, then you could do any of the Factions missions and would miss out on earning a lot of Prestige Awards.
Yeah but what if you want to play a character who doesn't care about politics or allegiances and just wants to adventure for his own selfish ends? Why is a faction necessary? If I want to not have prestige awards for a character, it would seem that should be a hit I can take in the name of avoiding all the Faction Mission nonsense.
Why is it mandatory?
EDIT: Also, if I do have to choose a faction, can I just ignore the Faction missions and focus on the (to me) more important part of the main mission?
EDIT: Also, if I do have to choose a faction, can I just ignore the Faction missions and focus on the (to me) more important part of the main mission?
Absolutely. There's no requirement to ever acknowledge your faction in any way, shape, or form.
EDIT: Also, if I do have to choose a faction, can I just ignore the Faction missions and focus on the (to me) more important part of the main mission?Absolutely. There's no requirement to ever acknowledge your faction in any way, shape, or form.
Thanks Hogarth! That's actually a relief.
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Thanks Hogarth! That's actually a relief.EDIT: Also, if I do have to choose a faction, can I just ignore the Faction missions and focus on the (to me) more important part of the main mission?Absolutely. There's no requirement to ever acknowledge your faction in any way, shape, or form.
This does mean you will never gain more than 1 PA for any given scenario. This will impact your ability to purchase items not listed on your Chronicle Sheets.
Just something you should be aware of.
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Thanks Hogarth! That's actually a relief.EDIT: Also, if I do have to choose a faction, can I just ignore the Faction missions and focus on the (to me) more important part of the main mission?Absolutely. There's no requirement to ever acknowledge your faction in any way, shape, or form.
The problem with ignoring the factions is PA is part of your character progression.
PA? Please explain.
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PA? Please explain.
From the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play, which can be downloaded for free HERE.
Pathfinder Society Organized Play also tracks a new statistic called Prestige Award (PA). PA is what you earn from your chosen faction for accomplishing various tasks for them during a Society mission or adventure. PA represents your worth to your faction—your renown or aplomb. It also represents your ability to buy new items, both magic and mundane, as your faction gives you much wider access to equipment than does the regular world. Starting with Pathfinder Society Scenario #29, each faction member has the opportunity to earn up to 2 PA. One PA will be earned for completing an easy or normal difficulty request (such as finding an item or talking to a particular nonplayer character, or NPC, about a secret subject) and the other will be for completing a quite difficult one (such as succeeding on a high Diplomacy skill check or the acquiring of a wellprotected item). PA is a very important part of Pathfinder Society Organized Play—as you gain PA, your ability to buy better and more powerful items increases. PA may also be spent on temporary benefits. Spending and tracking PA is explained in greater detail in Chapter 11.
Why is it mandatory?Because, frankly, Joshua Frost feels it's integral to the campaign somehow.
From a practical standpoint, it's because the opportunity to remove Factions from consideration came and went over a year ago at the start of Season 1. This was when the PFRPG was released, and everyone was given a rebuild and Season 0 scenarios were decided to still be legal for play The alternative was to force all characters and scenarios into retirement and start over with PFRPG-compatible scenarios only. I'll make no judgement here as to which was the right call, simply point out both had their upsides and downsides.
From an RP standpoint, no satisfactory answer exists, as this has been explained as an "abstract" system for which no explanation is needed.
That's just it. Faction missions often make little sense from an RP standpoint. There's this out of character feeling in the air that "oh, there's my faction mission objective. I better do it so I can get my award points"... but there's little motivation in game to do so. It seems forced to me. I find it difficult to RP around the missions because they're so bound by an out of character motivation. Is this just a necessary evil in regards to organized play vs home games? I have over 16 years of experience playing home games... organized play is a new animal to me, so I'm trying very hard to understand how this is supposed to work in regards to RPing in PFS.
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PA? Please explain.
As covered in the guide, PA (Prestige Award) tracks the renown or fame within your faction. There is a direct ingame relationship between your PA level and the amount of gold you can spend on items (as per table 11-2).
If you choose a faction (required) and then ignore all the mission and gain no Prestige you'll end up with a character who has a ton of gold to spend and very little (relatively speaking) to spend it on. The only things you'd be able to buy are the 'always available' items (level 0 and 1 scrolls, oils and potions, and +1 weapons and armor), and the items expressly listed on the Chronicles for modules you have completed.
So in metagame terms this would actually be just about the complete opposite of 'focusing on yourself' :)
In RP terms, you are part of a group inside a group. Both these groups ask you to do things in order to help further their goals. You are not always privy to the reasons why, and if you feel you character is too ill-equipped to follow orders from their superiors that is your choice of course but your personal renown within the faction will suffer and you will be a less effective agent of both groups.
PA? Please explain.From the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play, which can be downloaded for free HERE.
Pathfinder Society Organized Play also tracks a new statistic called Prestige Award (PA). PA is what you earn from your chosen faction for accomplishing various tasks for them during a Society mission or adventure. PA represents your worth to your faction—your renown or aplomb. It also represents your ability to buy new items, both magic and mundane, as your faction gives you much wider access to equipment than does the regular world. Starting with Pathfinder Society Scenario #29, each faction member has the opportunity to earn up to 2 PA. One PA will be earned for completing an easy or normal difficulty request (such as finding an item or talking to a particular nonplayer character, or NPC, about a secret subject) and the other will be for completing a quite difficult one (such as succeeding on a high Diplomacy skill check or the acquiring of a wellprotected item). PA is a very important part of Pathfinder Society Organized Play—as you gain PA, your ability to buy better and more powerful items increases. PA may also be spent on temporary benefits. Spending and tracking PA is explained in greater detail in Chapter 11.
Yeah, that's been explained to me by the folks who invited me to join them in PFS in my area... but what I want to know is whether ignoring PA you are making it so you are not capable of purchasing -any- magic items. ie, is ignoring PA a viable alternative?
PA? Please explain.As covered in the guide, PA (Prestige Award) tracks the renown or fame within your faction. There is a direct ingame relationship between your PA level and the amount of gold you can spend on items (as per table 11-2).
So if you choose a faction (required) and then ignore all the mission and gain no Prestige you'll end up with a character who has a ton of gold to spend and very little (relatively speaking) to spend it on. The only things you'd be able to buy are the 'always available' items (level 0 and 1 scrolls, oils and potions, and +1 weapons and armor), and the items expressly listed on the Chronicles for modules you have completed.
So in metagame terms this would actually be just about the complete opposite of 'focusing on yourself' :)
Thank you. That's what I was looking for.
Dang. I don't like that.
Well I'm playing a Wizard... they really don't need expensive gear (just spells), so I think I should still be ok for the most part. What do you guys think?
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Yeah, that's been explained to me by the folks who invited me to join them in PFS in my area... but what I want to know is whether ignoring PA you are making it so you are not capable of purchasing -any- magic items. ie, is ignoring PA a viable alternative?PA? Please explain.From the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play, which can be downloaded for free HERE.
Pathfinder Society Organized Play also tracks a new statistic called Prestige Award (PA). PA is what you earn from your chosen faction for accomplishing various tasks for them during a Society mission or adventure. PA represents your worth to your faction—your renown or aplomb. It also represents your ability to buy new items, both magic and mundane, as your faction gives you much wider access to equipment than does the regular world. Starting with Pathfinder Society Scenario #29, each faction member has the opportunity to earn up to 2 PA. One PA will be earned for completing an easy or normal difficulty request (such as finding an item or talking to a particular nonplayer character, or NPC, about a secret subject) and the other will be for completing a quite difficult one (such as succeeding on a high Diplomacy skill check or the acquiring of a wellprotected item). PA is a very important part of Pathfinder Society Organized Play—as you gain PA, your ability to buy better and more powerful items increases. PA may also be spent on temporary benefits. Spending and tracking PA is explained in greater detail in Chapter 11.
It's not that you're completely limiting your ability to buy magical items, you still can, however, the value of the gear you can buy is severely gimped.
If you have played 24 modules.
If you take 1 PA per module the highest gold amount you can spend per item is 8,000
If you do the faction missions and get 2 PA per module you can spend 41,000 per item.
*** Disclaimer don't pick apart my example I used round numbers*****
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Well I'm playing a Wizard... they really don't need expensive gear (just spells), so I think I should still be ok for the most part. What do you guys think?
I think it is probably less of a handicap for a wizard than for most of the other classes. A headband of vast intellect and a cloak of resistance are your only must-have (IMO) items. Not being able to purchase wands could be an annoyance, but it's not fatal.
The level 12 cap for PFS characters also means magic item purchases are less of a necessity than in most home campaigns.
In addition, I think you need to read the mission for your faction since some of them may align with your personal goals. Finally, you probably want to choose one of the less popular factions for your group or area, so you minimize conflict with more gung-ho faction members. It's also possible that you could pick up PA through the activities of other members of your faction without doing anything.
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Things to think about if you decide to fully ignore faction missions.
1. You could hurt other players of the same faction because now they don't have help.
2. your power level may be reduced due to lack of level equivalent items, making it harder to help the group as a whole.
My point being, you are not just hurting yourself, you could be hurting the other players to, which could lead to resentment.
But really, though few people will say this, your Home PFS game may differ ;). That said, I would be very wary of bringing that character to conventions.
Edit: I do not condone not following PFS rules even in PFS home game only.
Wow didn't think I was going to spark off such an insightful debate.
As for DougDoug, I have read the whole Pathfinder Society Guide and knew the answer would probably fall in the define category since like Zizazat so clearly stated it is step one.
I was just hoping I might of missed something since none of the factions really appealed to me and the thought I had for a character at the time.
I was really hoping for a faction along the lines of protecting or serving Absalom as a option and I couldn't find one. I was kind of hoping I missed something which would allow me to do that or to just skip the faction option entirely.
Now I know for sure that I read the PFS Guide correctly and as such may still decide to not take the faction and suffer the penalty associated with such a decision.
Now do get me wrong I personally like the faction option of PFS and I wouldn't get rid of it for any reason. I would just maybe think of adding a Absalom faction to the list. For you have all these factions vying for control of Absalom but you have no faction working to protect Absalom which seems kind of odd.
But I digress so please let the debate continue...
Let's use Raise Dead as an example of something you may need PA for some day. To purchase Raise Dead normally, you would need 5450 gold. To purchase it with PA requires 16. Assuming you do not set enough gold aside for just in case, you would have to play through 16 scenarios to get your 16 PA if you do not do any of the Faction stuff at all, while your fellow players who do complete the missions could afford a Raise Dead for their character after as few as 8 scenarios.
Also, like others have said, not having a high total PA could hurt your purchasing power. Sure, there is the always available stuff and anything from your chronicle sheets, but it can hurt you for other stuff. Now for this example the table in the book provides two convenient numbers, 9 and 18 PA. 18 PA is what someone could have if they get the max from each scenario for 9 scenarios and 9 is what you would have if you do not get the PA from any faction missions. 9 scenarios played also puts you at 4th level. You would be limited to items with a max cost of 1500 gold, while your fellow players who earned max PA would be limited to items with a max cost of 5250 gold.
You want to be a wizard, so here is a sample wand price for you. Take any 2nd level wizard spell you would like to have in a wand. Minimum cost for this is 4500 gold. Your 4th level buddies could buy one right away because it is within their purchase cost limit. But you would have to wait til you earned 9 more PA from 9 more scenarios, becoming 7th level in the process, before you could buy that same wand.
Now I know for sure that I read the PFS Guide correctly and as such may still decide to not take the faction and suffer the penalty associated with such a decision.
I assume when you say this that you mean not take the faction missions, because if you mean not take a faction at all, then your character would not be legal and you would not be able to play it.
Your best bet would be to take a faction that seems to be the most common in your area, and then you can at least passively help the other characters of the same faction and earn some extra PA that way.
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The way I see it the missions encourage people to build more rounded characters and give the players a bit more incentive to do some role playing. We've had some really fun (if a little strange) role playing sessions as players tried to get their PA without alerting everyone what their mission was.
Some (many?most?) of the faction missions are just detours which don't add anything to the game, they do encourage players to take ranks in skills that are friendly to their faction but not much beyond that. Those missions can feel forced.
Overall I'm pretty neutral on the weak faction missions and like the good faction missions.
One weird thing about the faction missions is it's a lot easier if you have two people working towards them, particularly if the two characters have diverse skills.
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I would just maybe think of adding a Absalom faction to the list. For you have all these factions vying for control of Absalom but you have no faction working to protect Absalom which seems kind of odd.
But I digress so please let the debate continue...
I also feel like the City at the Center of the World is woefully under-represented. However perhaps even more so than other faction conflicts an Absalom faction would be more about stopping the other 5 then perhaps just trying to gain leverage for their own faction. Even more of an escalation to PVP, and with a system that doesn't allow that...keeping it as far from players minds as possible is for the best :)
EDIT: Oh, and how are people still getting 1 PA for playing a mod? I thought you had to complete specific tasks to each each available PA. Just showing up is not a faction mission.
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Let's use Raise Dead as an example of something you may need PA for some day. To purchase Raise Dead normally, you would need 5450 gold. To purchase it with PA requires 16. Assuming you do not set enough gold aside for just in case, you would have to play through 16 scenarios to get your 16 PA if you do not do any of the Faction stuff at all, while your fellow players who do complete the missions could afford a Raise Dead for their character after as few as 8 scenarios.
Ummm, huh? Note that, even if you join a faction, and play a scenario, there is no guarantee that you will receive ANY PA for playing the scenario.
In order to receive any PA award in a scenario, you have to complete at least one of the faction missions for your faction. If you do not, and no one else from that faction is involved in that same play-through (entirely possible, 5 factions, 3-7 PCs, so sometimes you may be the only member of your faction playing this run), you are not likely to complete any of the missions, so no PA earned.
I could see someone, with a lot (and I mean immense gobs) of luck playing 33 scenarios and never earning a PA point, ever. There gear list, and spell list for a Wizard, would look a little strange at 12th level, as most of their gear, and spells known, would be +1 and first level, with random samples of higher level stuff thrown in, and a pile of unspent gold waiting for access...
But, as I said, it would take a lot of luck. Assuming you chose a faction not commonly seeing play in your area, so there wouldn't be the chance of other players completing the faction mission; you would still run into increasing issues with character effectiveness as you level. You will be using equipment that is weaker than normal once you reach a certain point, so your to-hits and damage are low, your defenses are weak, and you lack the flexibility you might need to survive.
Over on another OP game's boards, now closed, there was a couple of discussions on items you should add to your kit bag once you can afford them/gain access to them. Some of them are get-out-of-jail items that can be fairly useful in only limited circumstances, like a potion of flying or invisibility, to others that are fairly essential, like tanglefoot bags (although those are open access in PFSOP, anyhow).
You might want to look over things you might need (just for weight issues, for instance, and there are always weight issues, even for that Barbarian with a 20+ Strength) like a handy haversack, or even just the ability to buy scrolls of second or higher level spells...
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The way I see it the missions encourage people to build more rounded characters and give the players a bit more incentive to do some role playing.
This is basically it, I think; it gives you some incentive to take skills like Sleight of Hand (that's a fairly popular one to use in faction missions).
I'm not a big fan of tying faction missions to what you can purchase, but some of them are kind of neat. Like the time we had to hurl insults at a certain personage and suffer a beating for the glory of Taldor! :-)
I disagree with you Zizazat, for I believe an Absalom faction would be more on keeping track of the other factions activities (kind of the big brother approach). For if you know what someone is doing it makes it easier to defend or foil an action in the future. Absalom isn't going to do anything to hurt their current ties with the factions due to how it would impact there economy. I believe they would be more apt to keep an eye on said factions activities maybe even let them know every once and awhile that they(Absalom) knows what they(Factions) are up to.
As for PVP an Absalom faction would frown on that for that makes Absalom look bad in the eyes of the other factions and weakens their relations with said factions.
EDIT: Oh, and how are people still getting 1 PA for playing a mod? I thought you had to complete specific tasks to each each available PA. Just showing up is not a faction mission.You are correct, there is no free PA that I've seen.
Maybe this is a change in season 2?
I just worded myself poorly, as I feel the first PA of a scenario is usually so simple that it is basically automatic and it feels to me like you get one PA per scenario regardless of what you do about the 2nd PA.
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Things to think about if you decide to fully ignore faction missions.
1. You could hurt other players of the same faction because now they don't have help.
No more-so than if you weren't the fifth or sixth player at a table of four or five, or if you were playing a faction other than those already at the table. Eg, players shouldn't expect there'll be someone else at the table to help with their faction orders.
Now I know for sure that I read the PFS Guide correctly and as such may still decide to not take the faction and suffer the penalty associated with such a decision.I assume when you say this that you mean not take the faction missions, because if you mean not take a faction at all, then your character would not be legal and you would not be able to play it.
Not having my Guide to Organise Play on hand, but the fact that none of the pre-gen characters have factions, and Master of the Fallen Fortress contains no faction missions, would seem to indicate that while strongly encouraged, choosing a faction may be <whispers>technically optional</whispers> (or at least it's sending mixed messages).
Your best bet would be to take a faction that seems to be the most common in your area, and then you can at least passively help the other characters of the same faction and earn some extra PA that way.
As mentioned by others, you should still choose a faction, as sometimes you may want to be involved in a faction mission because it aligns with your character's personal goals; and you may still pick up faction points from other players of your faction completing the mission for you.
But I totally understand your approach on this. One of my characters is a Mwangi witch-doctor (Witch class); I've seen other characters from Irisien, TienXia, and other locales, far removed from the intrigues of Absalom and it's surrounding nations.
I'd really like to see factions expanded, to give folk from Mwangi, Irisien, TianXia etc better options. But also mentioned above, with 60+ scenarios already released, I don't see any easy way for this to be implemented.
I really had to dig deep to understand why my Mwangi character would become involved in the faction wars at all? In the end, I chose Osirion, because many of their factions involve exploring ruins, recovering relics, and they hold great respect their ancestral dead - and I figured Mwangi is also full of lost ruins and being a witch-doctor, I can relate to respecting the dead.
So have a deeper read of the factions, maybe don't align yourself with the nations they represent, but align yourself with their underlying methods and motives which may suit those of your own charcter.
Or maybe you didn't seek out a faction, maybe they sought you out. You could be tied to a faction because they hold some kind of blackmail over you for some reason. Now that could make for an interesting character background!
Cheers,
DarkWhite
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These faction missions are dangerous!
Running an older mod for people new to the society, and wouldn't you know it some uppity freedom fighter is looking for Rod Blagojevich with some 'campaign donations'... The next moment a frog reminds Blagojevich his masters know he's on the take...
Even knowing what was about to happen I couldn't keep composure, and someone nearly drown in their soda.
I like your idea Darkwhite of maybe blackmail being why I was aligned with a certain faction I could maybe work that in somehow.
You also made a good point that "So have a deeper read of the factions, maybe don't align yourself with the nations they represent, but align yourself with their underlying methods and motives which may suit those of your own character."
Both very compelling ideas which I am going to have to look into further.
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I would suggest you take a serious look at the classes which they recommend for the various factions and take a faction that fits well with your class. I made the mistake of going with a bad mix and wind up leaning on my fellow faction member for a lot of faction missions in spite of having a lot of skills.
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I like your idea Darkwhite of maybe blackmail being why I was aligned with a certain faction I could maybe work that in somehow.
You also made a good point that "So have a deeper read of the factions, maybe don't align yourself with the nations they represent, but align yourself with their underlying methods and motives which may suit those of your own character."
Both very compelling ideas which I am going to have to look into further.
Cool, glad I could be of help.
I've had my own struggles with factions in the past, as mentioned recently in the Tell me about factions thread, where I describe how I re-purposed my character Slip's background, to be more faction-friendly. I can see a few parallels between your faction questions and my experience with Slip.
Cheers,
DarkWhite
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Not having my Guide to Organise Play on hand, but the fact that none of the pre-gen characters have factions, and Master of the Fallen Fortress contains no faction missions, would seem to indicate that while strongly encouraged, choosing a faction may be <whispers>technically optional</whispers> (or at least it's sending mixed messages).
As previously mentioned picking your faction is a non-optional step 1 of character creation. MotFF is slightly different in that the players are not even Pathfinders yet and the mod basically culminates with said n00bs joining the Society (and the implied promptly being recruited into a faction).
:)
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Not having my Guide to Organise Play on hand, but the fact that none of the pre-gen characters have factions, and Master of the Fallen Fortress contains no faction missions, would seem to indicate that while strongly encouraged, choosing a faction may be <whispers>technically optional</whispers> (or at least it's sending mixed messages).The reasons for this is that pregens are not supposed to be recorded. You do not get faction points for missions done as a pre-gen, and MOTF is only legal for play with the included pregens - not with any other characters.
In the real world, I've never seen this actually stuck to, but there it is.
Chris a couple of things.
Though it does not say otherwise in the guide I let players who are going to keep the pre- gen choose a faction in the beginning of a scenario so they don't fall behind on faction points, and miss out in the fun the other players are having.
And in Master of the Fallen Fortress you are not limited to the pre-gens only, you can use any first level character never played, you just choose a faction when it ends, I confirmed this with Josh on these forums.
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Not having my Guide to Organise Play on hand, but the fact that none of the pre-gen characters have factions, and Master of the Fallen Fortress contains no faction missions, would seem to indicate that while strongly encouraged, choosing a faction may be <whispers>technically optional</whispers> (or at least it's sending mixed messages).As previously mentioned picking your faction is a non-optional step 1 of character creation. MotFF is slightly different in that the players are not even Pathfinders yet and the mod basically culminates with said n00bs joining the Society (and the implied promptly being recruited into a faction).
:)
Now I do have my Guide to Organised Play on hand, and you're quite right, it's there quite plainly in black and white. Character Creation Step 1: Choose Your Faction "You must choose a faction before you can begin play in Pathfinder Society".
Which is why I was rather bewildered, if this is so crucial to Society play, why MotFF - as an intro to Pathfinder Society - wasn't used as a stronger vehicle with which to introduce new players to their factions. The rescued prisoner should have introduced the character(s) who freed him to the Andoran faction; and similar clauses for each of the other factions. The idea is that characters are presented with faction contacts as a result of their actions during the adventure, earning their first faction points for doing so.
If pre-gen characters define weapon, feat and spell selections, then why not assign their faction and traits? Players who have already read a little about factions and trait are always free to swap them out before play, but at least you don't have to explain five factions to a new player - he can just run with the one found on his pre-gen sheet.
I realise the reason this isn't done is to keep MotFF and pre-gens generic so that they can be used by a wider audience, eg 3.5 players, home-brew campaigns, players not so invested in the Golarion or Society settings. However, a side-bar approach would neatly sideline faction and traits if this were a real concern.
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Which is why I was rather bewildered, if this is so crucial to Society play, why MotFF - as an intro to Pathfinder Society - wasn't used as a stronger vehicle with which to introduce new players to their factions. The rescued prisoner should have introduced the character(s) who freed him to the Andoran faction; and similar clauses for each of the other factions. The idea is that characters are presented with faction contacts as a result of their actions during the adventure, earning their first faction points for doing so.
Pretty much agreed on all this, but I think from Paizo's POV they are trying to kill 2 (or 3?) birds with one mod. Free RPG day content, check. New pre-gens highlighting APG content, check. Nod to PFS play, check.
I do wish that there were tasks or events in the story of MotFF which would serve as an end of game wrapup checklist to help new players understand their faction choices.
"You selflessly helped free the imprisoned Pathfinder, you might like Andoran."
"You secreted away a few bottles of that vintage wine for sale at a high price later, my might like Qadira."
"You were extremely interested in the Demon summing lore in the bookcase, you might like Cheliax."
And also award up to 1 PA per player based on these kinds of things. My only serious problem with this for a 1st time adventure is that you are getting 0 PA out of it.
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I'll acknowledge I might be off on the second, but as to the first, they don't fall behind on Faction points because they're not supposed to get the XP and gold, either. The Pregens are not made to PFS standard and, if you were to transcribe them straight to a character sheet and add a faction, none of them would be (quite) legal. Well, none of the Core Iconics would be, I haven't taken a good look at the APG Iconics. None of them have traits, and all of them have non-legal starting equipment. Then, of course, there's the inherent problem of giving credit to people with high-level Pregens, which I see a lot and utterly baffles me.
Umm... the guide covers almost all of this. As for having non-legal anything, it's defined in the guide that you can do it so it's by definition legal.
For example, if a new player comes to your table and starts by playing the iconic wizard Ezren, she can gain a chronicle sheet for that scenario (if she desires) and then continue play with that character in another scenario. In order to do so, however, she needs to “file off the serial numbers” from the pregenerated character—change the name, select two traits, choose a faction, and register the character on paizo.com/pathfindersociety (or receive a registration card at the table)—before she can continue to play the pregenerated character as a fully-functioning character in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. Special Note: this rule only applies to level 1 pregenerated characters. If a player uses a higher level pregenerated character, she cannot continue to use that character for credit in future games and cannot collect a chronicle sheet for the character.
If people are giving chronicles for high level pregens they are ignoring the guide when they do it, when I was at Paizocon Josh made it pretty clear you didn't get credit for those pregens.
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I'll acknowledge I might be off on the second, but as to the first, they don't fall behind on Faction points because they're not supposed to get the XP and gold, either. The Pregens are not made to PFS standard and, if you were to transcribe them straight to a character sheet and add a faction, none of them would be (quite) legal. Well, none of the Core Iconics would be, I haven't taken a good look at the APG Iconics. None of them have traits, and all of them have non-legal starting equipment. Then, of course, there's the inherent problem of giving credit to people with high-level Pregens, which I see a lot and utterly baffles me.
You can now Give XP to level 1 Pre-Gen only, If they decide to keep the level 1 Pre-Gen as their character. That is in the Guide. After wards they can make minor adjustments to make the character legal to include adding 2 Traits.
Not in the guide, It does not mention faction points either way, I give them Faction points for the Faction they decided to be in before the scenario starts. The guide does not address that directly, but that is what I do.