Just purchased and downloaded the .pdf of the faction guide. Good stuff! Since the factions are such an important part of this AP, anyone have good ideas for incorporating the prestige award mechanics into their game?
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Just purchased and downloaded the .pdf of the faction guide. Good stuff! Since the factions are such an important part of this AP, anyone have good ideas for incorporating the prestige award mechanics into their game?
There are sidebars in all of this AP's volumes (excluding the first one, where factions don't really play a part) detailing how to use the Faction Guide with Serpent's Skull, including AP award for achieving certain goals in the adventures.
Just purchased and downloaded the .pdf of the faction guide. Good stuff! Since the factions are such an important part of this AP, anyone have good ideas for incorporating the prestige award mechanics into their game?
It's a worthwhile question. I have thought about that myself, particularly in respect to the Pathfinder Society. Many of their rewards depend on contact with Absalom, which I don't see as being practical in this AP.
I haven't been able to come up with substitions for the rewards that I'm personally satisfied with presenting to the players, but then I can be pretty picky. I'd welcome some ideas, otherwise I might just forego using the Faction Guide. :/
There are sidebars in all of this AP's volumes (excluding the first one, where factions don't really play a part) detailing how to use the Faction Guide with Serpent's Skull, including AP award for achieving certain goals in the adventures.
Which Volume has the PFS, Robb? That is the one I see as the most problematic.
EDIT: I took quick flip through Chapter 2. On page 55 there is a sidebar that outlines what are specific accomplishments within Chapter 2 that are worthy of reward to any faction. There are also some comments about developing a Faction that represents the Sargavan Govt's interests in these matters.
What I'm hoping for in later Chapters is that we'll see some revised rewards suggested for the Pathfinder Society. I just can't see them having the ability to make a side trip to Absalom. Granted you some of those rewards could be made "portable" (or like "take-out") via traveling experts or scholars from the PFS. Though as a GM, I'm not inspired by that thus far.
I'm just pointing out that what is in the Faction Guide for PFS needs adaptation. I'm hoping a sidebard in Chapter 3 or beyond will flesh this out a little.
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Unfortunately, there's no change to faction rewards in the AP. That's something that would just take too much space to detail for 5 factions, space that would have to be taken away from something else (like the adventure).
Basically, we've got 5 factions that the PCs can choose from, and there's no way to know what faction a group of PCs will choose. We can't detail new rewards for the Pathfinder Society without detailing new rewards for all of the factions (which also means the Sargavan Government would need to be created as a full faction). Which them means reprinting all of the stuff from the Faction Guide about how factions work.
What we wanted to do was provide a way for people who have the Faction Guide to use it with the AP, hence the sidebars describing the Prestige Awards gained. What the PCs purchase with that PA either comes out of the Faction Guide or can be developed by the GM. And if you don't have the Faction Guide, then you don't have an entire section of the AP that you can't use.
EDIT: For the PFS, a lot of those rewards can be brought in by the regular supply runs coming into camps (there is more detail on this in Pathfinder #39). And remember that there are standard faction rewards that can be purchased by any other faction, so there should still be plenty to spend PA on!
Just purchased and downloaded the .pdf of the faction guide. Good stuff! Since the factions are such an important part of this AP, anyone have good ideas for incorporating the prestige award mechanics into their game?There are sidebars in all of this AP's volumes (excluding the first one, where factions don't really play a part) detailing how to use the Faction Guide with Serpent's Skull, including AP award for achieving certain goals in the adventures.
Discovered! Thanks for pointing this out, as I hadn't read that far yet.
I'll do more thinking this weekend and see if there are ways to come up with Sargava-specific rewards, maybe using the generic "Religious Faction" as a template: Taking away ideas of divine intervention/religious hierarchy and replacing with government aid and bureaucracy.
Also understood re: more specificity. I'd much prefer coming up with stuff for this on the boards than taking up AP space.
Knowing that they don't get aid from a specific faction until #38, is anyone having their PCs start #37 as part of a Faction? Curious to know how you handled it, if so.
Thanks!
Knowing that they don't get aid from a specific faction until #38, is anyone having their PCs start #37 as part of a Faction? Curious to know how you handled it, if so.
My group will be starting Serpent Skull next week. So far, I have two players that have taken Factions.
One is a Pathfinder on their confirmation mission/trip - they have to explore a centuries old or older ruin in the Mwangi Expanse.
The other is a Varisian Wanderer who also took World Traveler as their second trait. The Varisian Sorcerer is simply out seeing somewhere that they haven't seen before. And once they arrive in the City of Seven Spears, there may be a contingent of Varisian Wanderers who show up.