Need clarification of page 31 in Guide V4.3

[Cire]

GUIDE TO PATHFINDER SOCIETY ORGANIZED PLAY V4.3 wrote:

Running Multi-Session Adventures

Since sanctioned modules and Adventure Paths are multisession events, Pathfinder Society characters may not be used in other Pathfinder Society events until they receive a Chronicle sheet for the sanctioned content.

So my question is as follows. I begin playing a sanctioned module that takes two sessions with character A.

After the first session, I GM a scenario.

Can I apply that chronicle to character A or not? Can I hold it until character A is done with the sanctioned module? Or am I just out of luck and have to apply it to a different character?

The character was not really "used in the scenario," but it seems like a gray area to me and I figured I should ask.

[kinevon]

No, you cannot apply any extraneous credits, nor play the PC in any other games, while it is involved in a multi-session event.

The same would hold true for a PC being used in a months-long PbP game, as well as a module or AP segment played over multiple sessions.

[pathar]

Well hang on now, GM credits hold until the character is eligible. The character in question is "locked" between sessions, but the GM credit can easily be applied after the second session. I would say go for it.

[Paz]

pathar wrote:

GM credits hold until the character is eligible.

Do you have a rules citation for that?

EDIT: In fact, that appears to be contradicted by the Guide:

GtPFSOP v4.3 wrote:

When you choose to take a Chronicle sheet for GM credit, you must decide which of your characters receives the Chronicle sheet when you fill out the tracking sheet for that table. You must apply Chronicle sheets in the order they are received. The only exception is when you hold a higher-tier Chronicle for a lower-tier character.

Since you received the GM chronicle first, you'd have to apply it first. But you can't, as the PC is currently locked in a game.

[Bbauzh ap Aghauzh]

I suggest we FAQ the original question, which would allow Mike to make a determination how he feels on it.

Personally, I don't see a problem with what the person wants to do, but if the rules are supposed to indicate otherwise, we should probably know that.

[pathar]

Paz wrote:

pathar wrote:

GM credits hold until the character is eligible.

Do you have a rules citation for that?

Of course not, this is a corner case. But I'll happily explain my reasoning:

Page 40 establishes that chronicles can be held until they're appropriate for a character. Yes, that's about tier/subtier, but it establishes precedent. The idea is that the GM can put the chronicle on the character he wants, and apply it when the character is eligible, thus making GM rewards flexible.

Page 13 specifically says that "Pathfinder Society characters may not be used in other Pathfinder Society events" when in the midst of a multi-session adventure. I don't think that "applying GM credits" is the same as "using in another event." I also think that it would remove a certain amount of deliberately-induced flexibility for GM credit for no reason.

All told, I don't see any reason that it would be a problem.

[pathar]

Paz wrote:

EDIT: In fact, that appears to be contradicted by the Guide:

GtPFSOP v4.3 wrote:

When you choose to take a Chronicle sheet for GM credit, you must decide which of your characters receives the Chronicle sheet when you fill out the tracking sheet for that table. You must apply Chronicle sheets in the order they are received. The only exception is when you hold a higher-tier Chronicle for a lower-tier character.

Since you received the GM chronicle first, you'd have to apply it first. But you can't, as the PC is currently locked in a game.

Hmm, I forgot about that. But the idea of that is so I can't hold a chronicle with a low tier that's appropriate just because I want the high tier rewards, which isn't the case here. There's no abuse of the system.

In the absence of a ruling from on high, based on the evidence presented thus far, I think I'd still go ahead and do it, personally. But I also have little interest in multi-session games for this very reason.

[SCPRedMage]

You don't receive the GM chronicle until you finish the module, just like players and their chronicles, so you'd actually receive the OTHER chronicle first; otherwise, I'd have already given one of my characters credit for chapter one of Rise of the Runelords, despite my party BARELY haven gotten to Thistletop.

Also, your GM credit character isn't actually being used during the adventure, and (more importantly) doesn't even need to be chosen until the game gets reported, so yes, you can play him elsewhere before you finish running the module. If, after giving him the chronicle from the adventure you played, he is still eligible for the GM chronicle from the module, then you could assign the GM chronicle to him.

The entire reason for the restriction is to prevent the resource-relate wackiness of using a character in two simultaneous adventures, which simply cannot happen with GM credits, so trying to apply that restriction to GM credit characters is pointlessly restrictive.

[Dragnmoon]

You guys are forgetting another reason they get locked... Level and resources... If he is playing a character in an online game and then adds GM credit, he now has more gold then he started the online game with and even the possibility of level out of the online game if he was near leveling. For those reasons alone I think it is not allowed.

[Sin of Asmodeus]

Did the new guide hit yet?

[Aeshuura]

I think it will be released after GenCon, since that is the kick-off for Season 5.

[Paz]

I'd expect it in early August, in advance of Gen Con.

[SCPRedMage]

Dragnmoon wrote:

You guys are forgetting another reason they get locked... Level and resources... If he is playing a character in an online game and then adds GM credit, he now has more gold then he started the online game with and even the possibility of level out of the online game if he was near leveling. For those reasons alone I think it is not allowed.

Hmm, somehow I misread the OP, and had the situation reversed; I somehow read that he was RUNNING the module, and PLAYED the scenario in the middle of it.

Yeah... officially, you can only hold GM chronicles when the character is too low a level to play that adventure, and it sounds like that's NOT the case here. You can't hold it for that character until later, and you can't apply it to the character because of the multi-session module, so you'll have to throw it at a different character.

Also, the precedent established for holding the chronicles based on level can't be used to justify holding it here; that rule clearly does not apply here, so extending the concept to work in this case would actually be creating a new rule, and is outside of the scope of what we're allowed to do in PFS organized play. What we'd need is either a change to the Guide, or a "clarification" on the messageboards.

[Thorkull]

Paz wrote:

I'd expect it in early August, in advance of Gen Con.

So would I.

[Aeshuura]

Does Gencon mark the end of Season 4, or the beginning of Season 5? I always assumed that GenCon marked the end of the previous season, which is why I was saying that I would expect it to be released after...

[Todd Lower]

Aeshuura wrote:

Does Gencon mark the end of Season 4, or the beginning of Season 5? I always assumed that GenCon marked the end of the previous season, which is why I was saying that I would expect it to be released after...

Year 5 scenarios are released for GenCon and all rule changes (such as the retirement of two of the factions) take place on either the day before GenCon starts or the first day of GenCon.

I always seemed to me that PaizoCon is the end of the year and GenCon the beginning of the next year.

[Fromper]

Aeshuura wrote:

Does Gencon mark the end of Season 4, or the beginning of Season 5? I always assumed that GenCon marked the end of the previous season, which is why I was saying that I would expect it to be released after...

Scenario numbers 5-1, 5-2, and 5-3 are on the schedule to be played at GenCon.

[Aeshuura]

I see, I see, so then we should expect it earlier! Thanks guys!