How does Pathfinder Society help the Pathfinder RPG? How does it harm the game?

[Mystic Lemur]

If it wasn't for Society, I would still be playing 3.5 and cherry picking the changes I liked for free from the PRD. Actually, I probably wouldn't be playing at all, because I didn't have a regular group until I started playing a Society home game.

Of course, my home group is starting to drift away from Society a bit in favor of Adventure Paths, but I've had a chance to get plugged into the local PFS public play scene in a way I never imagined I'd enjoy so much.

[Lou Diamond]

I have a few problems with PFS, mainly I feel that it is overly restrictive and somewhat squashes player creativity. The main problem is if PFS is a marketing tool for Pathfinder I think it is not doing a very good job. All Pathfinder content needs to be used in PFS if something like a Synthithist is found not to work then it fine to remove but not allowing a whole section of material like Mythic it to PFS is just wrong.
I would be fine with limiting Mythic to tier 7 to 11.

I know it would be more work for the DEVS to include Mythic but PFS is supposed to be a marketing tool for Pathfinder as a whole then it is failing by not including Mythic and other Pathfinder content. All Pathfinder content should be used in PFS and if found not to work then it can be removed.

Mike and John I am very pleased with season 5 though I would like to see more 7 to 11 and seeker content. I know that this is hard as you have to balance the 1 to 5 scenarios with 7 to 11 scenarios and also throw in the 3 to 7 scenarios it becomes very hard for you guys . Just keep up the good work. Have you thought about having a season with in a season.
Have the low tier do missions that have nothing to do with the world wound and the 5-6 and 7to 11 tiers concentrate on the world wound.

[Baron Ulfhamr]

The Fox wrote:

Here is a quote from the Rise of the Runelords Chronicle:

Rise of the Runelords Chronicle wrote:

Alternatively, if you are participating in the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path with an ongoing group undertaking the entire, six-chapter campaign, you may receive credit for playing the sanctioned portions of the adventure as if you had played a pregenerated character. In this case, GMs running the Adventure Path are not bound to the rules of the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign (such as 20-point buy, unavailability of hero points, etc.) when running the campaign or the sanctioned portion of the adventure. Pathfinder Society characters and characters from an ongoing Adventure Path campaign may not play in the same adventure.

So even though you played non-PFS characters, you can apply credit to PFS-legal characters following the guidelines for playing Pregens.

That would solve it!

[Matt Thomason]

Lou Diamond wrote:

I have a few problems with PFS, mainly I feel that it is overly restrictive and somewhat squashes player creativity. The main problem is if PFS is a marketing tool for Pathfinder I think it is not doing a very good job. All Pathfinder content needs to be used in PFS if something like a Synthithist is found not to work then it fine to remove but not allowing a whole section of material like Mythic it to PFS is just wrong.

I would be fine with limiting Mythic to tier 7 to 11.

I know it would be more work for the DEVS to include Mythic but PFS is supposed to be a marketing tool for Pathfinder as a whole then it is failing by not including Mythic and other Pathfinder content. All Pathfinder content should be used in PFS and if found not to work then it can be removed.

The main issue there is that Mythic really needs to be either on or off for a campaign. If you turn it on for PFS, it means ramping up the difficulty of encounters and giving it to everyone. Then you run into the issue you can't give it to everyone unless everyone has the rules for it, and not everyone is interested in playing in a Mythic campaign. The only practical way to support Mythic tiers in PFS would be to flag individual tables and characters to separate Mythic from non-Mythic play.

[Joynt Jezebel]

I must admit the local, Perth Australia, Pathfinder Society puzzles me.

I pointed out the location of the paths at the front and rear of the venue to people from the Society. Then a fortnight later they were back role playing as though nothing had happened, when in fact the Societies purpose had been fulfilled and it was now nugatory. Strange.

[LazarX]

Lou Diamond wrote:

I have a few problems with PFS, mainly I feel that it is overly restrictive and somewhat squashes player creativity. The main problem is if PFS is a marketing tool for Pathfinder I think it is not doing a very good job. All Pathfinder content needs to be used in PFS if something like a Synthithist is found not to work then it fine to remove but not allowing a whole section of material like Mythic it to PFS is just wrong.

I would be fine with limiting Mythic to tier 7 to 11.

I know it would be more work for the DEVS to include Mythic but PFS is supposed to be a marketing tool for Pathfinder as a whole then it is failing by not including Mythic and other Pathfinder content. All Pathfinder content should be used in PFS and if found not to work then it can be removed.

Mike and John I am very pleased with season 5 though I would like to see more 7 to 11 and seeker content. I know that this is hard as you have to balance the 1 to 5 scenarios with 7 to 11 scenarios and also throw in the 3 to 7 scenarios it becomes very hard for you guys . Just keep up the good work. Have you thought about having a season with in a season.
Have the low tier do missions that have nothing to do with the world wound and the 5-6 and 7to 11 tiers concentrate on the world wound.

Your main agenda here seems to be Mythic play. One could remove all mythic content from pathfinder's offerings and that would be at most 3 books out of out of what... a hundred or more produced when you count all of the content with Pathfinder's name on it? Mythic play is simply not workable within PFS because of it's extreme force multiplier status. I would be highly surprised if we even saw another Mythic AP before the end of the decade.

7-11 content is extremely problematic because this is where the gulf between those who crack munchkin their characters and those who don't really starts to get wide. it poses a lot of challenge in designing encounters for the greatest number of groups. The latest one I played, Of Kirin and Kraken was actually pretty well served in this area, where much of the success in the scenario is based on how you think it through rather than how much you can smash.

[WalterGM]

For me it is all about networking and finding great people to game with. We'll play PFS enough that it inevitably bleeds into APs and homegroups, or just watching movies and hanging out. My current circle of friends consists of a lot of people that I've met solely through participating in PFS.

Also, without PFS, my personal play group would still consist of the same half-dozen people it has had since 2012, rather than the 20+ it has included over the last four years.

I am currently participating in *3 adventure paths with a 4th on hiatus. Between those three, 12 of the other people participating are all awesome people I wouldn't have known without PFS.

Spoiler:

1. Way of the Wicked: online, 3 participants met through PFS
2. Skull and Shackles: 4 participants met through PFS
3. Kingmaker: 5 participants met through PFS

Hiatus
4. Serpents Skull: 4 participants met through PFS

Past APs
1. Wrath of the Righteous: 5 participants (100%) met through PFS
2. Rise of the Runelords: 4 participants met through PFS

[Sebastian Hirsch]

Since I started playing PFS I bought quite a number of pdfs, either because I didn't own them yet (and just used the PRD) or because I am unwilling to carry the books.
That is money Paizo would not have gotten from me without PFS.

However since someone was so kind to mention one of my trigger words (mythic) I really can't take part in this discussion (The WotR part of this website, has enough pieces of my mind regarding this issue ...)