Rules Section for PFS


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Silver Crusade

Just had a thought while viewing the messageboards - would it be possible to add a category to address Rules as it pertains to society play? Yes, it uses the same rule set, but there are enough adjusted and prohibited game rules to make general rule advice occasionally less than helpful.

Such a section might be a good place to announce changes to the player's resource section. Not to mention a good place to get advice on PFS legal builds.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to any comments.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

When asking about campaign specific rules, you can ask in the PFS General Discussion forum.

Liberty's Edge

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

Just had a thought while viewing the messageboards - would it be possible to add a category to address Rules as it pertains to society play? Yes, it uses the same rule set, but there are enough adjusted and prohibited game rules to make general rule advice occasionally less than helpful.

Such a section might be a good place to announce changes to the player's resource section. Not to mention a good place to get advice on PFS legal builds.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to any comments.

Actually there are really not a lot of changes from the rules for PFS play, definitely IMO not enough to warrant a whole sub forum for them.

I have gotten a lot of use out of the rules forum, so I can't relate to the reluctance to use them.

Shadow Lodge

sowhereaminow - can you give examples of some rules that you think would warrant going in this new forum instead of the normal Rules forum or the Pathfinder Society General Discussion forum?

Jiggy and Dragnmoon are both right, but any suggestion that could potentially improve rule clarifications for PFS is worth exploring.

Silver Crusade

@avatar - Nothing specific. just been seeing people marking topics in rules and advice with PFS tags quite often as of late. Thought there might be a need, so I threw the idea out there.

@dragonmoon - The main difference with the rules in PFS are the altered or banned items, classes, spells, etc. which could affect the discussion. Doesn't make much sense for someone to ask questions about the vivisectionist he is making, only to find out 20 posts in he was planning on using it for PFS! :-)

Still, it was just a thought. Thanks for the replies!

Sczarni RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

Actually, I think the main difference between PFS rules and normal Pathfinder rules is the lack of GM leeway in adjudicating rulings.

What PFS players are looking for in a rules thread is an absolute, 100% consistent ruling that they can take to any Society GM and say, "this is the way the rules work. This particular thing is legal (or not)."

Often the rules threads in the general forum tend to go down the route of "Yeah, this area of the rules is a bit fuzzy. Ask your GM how she wants to run it," or "Well, this thing isn't really clear, so I'd house-rule it this way in my game."

That sort of answer is not really helpful for a PFS player, since you often have no idea who your GM will be until you sit down at the table.

Liberty's Edge

Tamago wrote:

Actually, I think the main difference between PFS rules and normal Pathfinder rules is the lack of GM leeway in adjudicating rulings.

What PFS players are looking for in a rules thread is an absolute, 100% consistent ruling that they can take to any Society GM and say, "this is the way the rules work. This particular thing is legal (or not)."

Often the rules threads in the general forum tend to go down the route of "Yeah, this area of the rules is a bit fuzzy. Ask your GM how she wants to run it," or "Well, this thing isn't really clear, so I'd house-rule it this way in my game."

That sort of answer is not really helpful for a PFS player, since you often have no idea who your GM will be until you sit down at the table.

I think this is exactly the issue.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

So really, it's more of an issue of people answering questions on the Rules Questions forum as though it were the Suggestions/Homebrew forum.

I mean, sometimes the real answer - even for PFS - is that it's the GM's call. But too often over in Rules Questions, people can't see that A+B=C, and get hung up on the fact that the rules don't explicitly list C, and say "ask your GM".

However, asking the same questions on the PFS boards would just get you the same answer, just phrased as "expect table variation".

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Jiggy wrote:
However, asking the same questions on the PFS boards would just get you the same answer, just phrased as "expect table variation".

Which is an acceptable answer, though it may be frustrating at times.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Question: Mounted players that are hit by a area spell (like Frieball) Get a Reflex save but should not the save be based on the mounts Reflex save or a Ride check?

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Dragnmoon wrote:
Jiggy wrote:
However, asking the same questions on the PFS boards would just get you the same answer, just phrased as "expect table variation".
Which is an acceptable answer, though it may be frustrating at times.

Correction: "Expect table variation" is sometimes an acceptable answer. Not always.

For instance, it IS an acceptable answer when the question is "What exactly does a successful charm person let me do?" or "How does my animal companion affect social situations?" or even "Exactly which squares do I threaten with my 10ft reach weapon?"

It is NOT an acceptable answer when the question is "Can I take 20 to search for traps?" or "Do I take TWF penalties as a result of using different weapons for my normal iterative attacks?" or "Does a natural 1 on UMD automatically fail?"

Unfortunately, a great many people (in both sections of the forums) can't tell the difference and will react to any challenge against "expect table variation" with mini-rants about "then we'd have a 2,000 page rulebook" and "this isn't an MMO" and so forth.


The threaten question isn't the best example, since it's been clarified by Sean.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Cheapy wrote:
The threaten question isn't the best example, since it's been clarified by Sean.

Yeah, but it's more obscure than being right there in the CRB or FAQ, so I wouldn't fault a GM running it differently and would happily accept table variation on that one.


Can't you just print out the clarification?

Sovereign Court

Cheapy wrote:
Can't you just print out the clarification?

If a player has the clarification printed out, then that should quell the Table Variation. Not all polearm-users WILL, though.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I included it to show that I wasn't just being a hard-ass in my position. I let little stuff like that slide (unless a PC's life is on the line) all the time. And even with some lenience, there is *still* an over-acceptance of "expect table variation" over on the PFS boards.

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