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I'm a 4e D&D Living Forgotten Realms player who is looking for more interesting adventures, and the ability to use guns in my fantasy living campaigns. Right now I have access to the Pathfinder Beginners Box and a FLGS that can provide me with a table. Plus the PRD.
What do I need to do in order to create a PFS campaign? I will probably find myself as the Coordinator for the store if I get this going. So what do I need for, and to do the job of a coordinator?
Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
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You already have an account - check.
Download the Pathfinder Society Rules and familiarize yourself with them.
Look for a good tier 1-5 scenario. There are several good suggestions you can find here. I'm currently unaware of any with a gunslinger background but maybe there is a new one that at least features one of these.
Get some players and have fun.
Painlord also writes some good 'guides'. Take them as good reading material and not as gospel. You can learn a lot from them - but your style might differ in some aspect.
But I shouldn't forget - Welcome here !!!
Edit: The guide can be found as a link on the right. I have linked it here
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Welcome, Jeffrey.
You do need to be aware that the Beginners Box characters are not legal for PFS play. They're 15-point builds and we use 20-point builds for PFS. Some of the rules are simplified in the BBox (no AoOs, for example), too.
I'd recommend checking Guide that Thod linked for your local Venture-Captain if you have one. We're here to help new groups get started in new venues, plus we have contacts with other local PFS players to help get events started at your venue.
As to setting up the events, you'll need to hit the PFS section of the website (left hand side of this page), and read up on how to create an event. Once you have an event registered, you'll receive an event code that you can use when reporting sessions.
I'd recommend starting your group off with the new First Steps series of scenarios:
First Steps, Part I
First Steps, Part II
First Steps, Part III
These will take a group of characters from 1st to 2nd level in the campaign.
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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Welcome to the Pathfinder Society GM Boards!
I found myself in a similar boat a few months ago, so here's what I've done.
1. The very first thing I did was to print off the PFS one sheet, which is also found on the Paizo site here. That sheet has a little checklist of things to do before you start your first society game.
2. I followed the instructions on the said sheet, which includes stuff like getting players, a venue, a time, a scenario, registering it, etc.
3. I already had a pretty solid player base from playing D&D/Shadowrun with some regulars, so they were easy to recruit to PFS. Everyone else just took time. Over the last few months I've been directing everyone I meet toward Pathfinder Society so that now our area has at least 5 weekly tables (3 days, 2 different locations). My advice would be to remain vocal about Society at all times, you never know what co-worker or passerby might be interested in rolling the dice.
4. I've posted every question I've ever had here on these boards and have gotten timely, polite, and correct information back. I'd recommend that you continue to post any and all questions/concerns/problems you may have when you start to organize your local group; the GM base here is really strong and supportive.
In the end, I think it's a situation where how much you put into it determines how much you get out. Have a positive attitude, read the ample amount of documentation, ask questions and listen to the advice and you'll do well.
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There is also a guide to create a PFS character using just the Beginner Box. I'm currently on my iPad so can't link to the guide but you can find it on the Beginner Box page.
Linked for you, Boss. :)
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The Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play is a free download, so start with that. You'll want to buy the Core Rulebook, which has more detail than the Beginners Box, and is explicitly listed as mandatory in the Guide to Organized Play. The Guide also says the Pathfinder Society Field Guide is mandatory, but I have no idea why. You can get away with skipping that at first, though you should probably get it eventually.
After that, I'd say start with the First Steps adventures, which I believe are also free downloads. Those 3 are good intros to the PFS campaign, and will get your players to level 2. Additional adventures can be purchased from the Paizo web site, usually for $3.99 per download.
As for gunslingers, they're covered in the Ultimate Combat book, so you'll want to buy that book to play one. Of course, that will also require you finding someone else to be the GM sometimes so you can play a PC.
Also, make sure the other players read the specific PFS rules, especially regarding equipment purchasing/discovering and day job/crafting. I think those are the only sections they might need to read over more than once since it's different than normal homebrew campaigns (don't know how different from the Living Campaign setting).
I agree that First Steps is a good starting point. I'm a new GM and new to PFS and we just started First Steps with 6 new PFS players (most were well-established, long time Pathfinder/3.x players). It provides a good overview for the campaign setting and introduces you to the various factions and the in-game Pathfinder Society (plus, it's free to download).
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Welcome to Pathfinder Society!
There's been lots of good advice so far here, but I'd just like to clarify one thing:
If you have access to the PRD, you don't need copies of the books.
The PRD is a great resource. However, it can be difficult to tell what rules are legal for Pathfinder Society. You need to check the Additional Resources page to make sure you are allowed to use that item/feat/ability in orgainzed play.
Also, note the following:
In order to use these additional resources for your character, you must bring a physical copy of the book with you or printouts of the appropriate pages detailing cost (if any) and explanations for each feat, item, spell, prestige class, and so on that you use. (If you're bringing a printout of the pages, it must be from the actual Paizo PDF and not text copied and pasted into a blank word processing document).
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Well I bought the Core Rulebook. I have permission from the manager to use have a table on the fourth Saturday of the month at the store. Now I just need to figure out if I should start my own warhorn site or see if the LFR coordinator will let me use his. That option would be the easiest for the players as well.
So I'll probably start by running the first two parts of First Steps this month and then next month run the last part and We Be Goblins. I think I might have staples print and bind all four scenarios together to make my life easier.
Now my next question is about the Pathfinder Society Field Guide is it a book I need right away or is it something I can slide on for a few sessions? Because my FLGS doesn't have it in stock right now and I'm not sure when they'll get it in.
Also is the Field Guide the type of book I should have multiple copies around so the players can use, or would that be a no-no since everyone is supposed to own one?
I'm not sure how strict those rules are. Personally I'd rather just have my copy of the core rules and a copy of the Field Guide there for everyone to use so that they players didn't have to lug all those books around.
Once again, thanks.
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The Core rulebook and the Bestiary are the priorities out of the three. The Field guide serves two functions. One, it is campaign background. It provides information on the society and the city of Absalom, a place that characters should know pretty well. It provides more detail on the factions and their place so you understand the politics better. The background helps make things more immersive for the GM and the players.
The second function is that it provides a good amount of game information. It provides class archetypes that are specific to the society. It lists a lot of gear and magic items that the society makes available to its members. It also details a lot of additional things that your characters can spend those prestige points on.
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I ran Intro to Lore for the first slot with three players new to pathfinder, 2 that have played pathfinder and one player with pathfinder society experience and then myself with no pathfinder experience previously. I had 2 Magus [Magi?], Paladin, Rogue, Cleric, Ranger.
The second slot was o Delve the Dungeon Deep and had four of the previous players return while two had to bow out for prior commitments. For this I had 2 Magi, Paladin, Ranger. The Paladin spent the 2 prestige from the first scenario to get a CLW wand which was a life saver.
Intro to Lore was a bit slower going while we got acquainted with some of the changes from 3.5 to Pathfinder. I double checked a few things I didn't need to which slowed things down a few, but like I told the more experienced pathfinder society player, I wanted to make sure the rulings were right because they would come up more often. The hardest thing was for the players to get use to the Pathfinder cover, and firing into melee rules after playing so much 4e and so many years since playing 3.5. Those penalties were what the more experienced pathfinder society player questioned me on, but double checking showed me to be right. And those rules came up extremely often. [as a note I still hate the cover rules, but it one thing I have down pat.]
I made a few mental errors here and there on some details, which is normal for me. Nothing that really had a game effect though. The did well in all the mission except for the orphanage. That was more lack of effort really. Overall it was fun and pretty easy to run.
To The Dungeon Deep was trampled by the group. They steamrolled through it in less than two hours total time. They did end up using 8 charges from the CLW wand, which was a life saver.
While short it was a fun mod.
All in all a good gameday and I should be wrapping up the final part at next months gameday in the first slot before running We Be Goblins in the second. Hopefully I'll get more time to recruit players but not bad for being stuck with only a week of having it posted on warhorn.