New PFS GM, a little help SVP.


GM Discussion


Hey All.

I need some advice setting up as a PFS GM.

My LGS has as of last week just got into the PFS. There is a little bit of a story. They've asked me if I would like to GM for them, since the store itself is new to the RPG scene and I'm the only "Real RPG player" they know. I've 15 years experience playing and GMing Mostly D&Deqse stuff, but other RPGs as well. Played plenty of PF, never PFS thou.

So we had the first PFS game day last week. Turn out was ok. We had the regional Venture Captain for our area show up and two of his "Trusted" GMs who hosted the night. I played an oracle for that session (-which I still have not signed up on the site yet, oops). I asked a lot of questions from the more experienced GMs/VC, about the particulars, It was all good fun.

So now this week is rolling around and the VC or the previous GMs will be unlikely to make it again. So the store owners have asked me politely if I'd be ready to take up the reigns. I'm not sure I feel I am, but I want help the store grow a RPG community- because that's in MY interests as well.

So I'm coming here asking for help, advice, or very important things I should know. I've been reading as much of the Non-cost PFS resources from Piazo that I can. I'm not sure if I'm reading the right things or if I have everything. I'm not 100% what I should really be looking out for. I assume the players will be continuing with their level 1s they made last week.

Just... A little help if you fellows would be so kind. That's all I ask.

Grand Lodge 2/5 RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Welcome to PFS!

The first document you should be reading is the Guide to Organized Play, which is a free download. Is that one of the ones you've already started reading?

Grand Lodge 4/5 **** Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento

You should have the web site Archive of Nethys on your favorites. It is not a canonical resource, but he has a fairly accurate list of what is and is not legal for PFS play, and also tells you which source each item comes from so you can look it up or make them provide the book ref.

http://www.archivesofnethys.com/

5/5 5/55/55/5

Hi! don't let anyone tell you this isn't confusing when you first get into it.

Big picture: grab some friends,make some characters, run a published adventure, get a chronicle sheet. Wash rinse repeat.

1) Read the guide to organized play

2) Its good you've played a game, that will teach you more than 40 read throughs of the guide.

3) Tiers were, to me, the most confusing thing. They don't make much sense until you see an adventure or two. Since your entire store is starting up at once,you might try first steps part Iif thats not what you ran last time, you might want to start there.

Spoiler:
(you get sent around Absolom to pick up a crate with a raven on it, a box guarded by an imp, and Get mugged by a halfling barbarian. It gives you an idea, in and out of game, of what the pathfinder society is all about.

If you ran that one, you probably want a tier 1-5 scenario to run. Murder on the silken caravan Is a pretty strait forward adventure.

4) Characters have to be 20 point buy, and either one of the core races, a tengu, an aasimar, or a tiefling. I don't know why but a lot of new players don't seem to know about those restrictions and show up with rolled characters or illegal races.

5/5 5/55/55/5

Useful stuff

Point Buy Calculator if you can save it on your tablet and pass it around the table it really helps character generation

The scenarios by season

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, West Virginia—Charleston

I guess that the first question is scenario selection. Do you feel more comfortable running something combat-heavy or role-playing-heavy? A mix?

The only serious difference that you should be aware of between PFS and regular RPGs as a GM is that you do not have the ability to modify encounters if you feel that they are too hard/easy.


Hey all, thanks for the responses.

So just to response to stuff in the order I read it:

Yes I've gone through the Guide to Organized Play guide, and the GMing 101 guides.

I played the first campaign First Steps, and so did... well half of the players there. I see second and third steps are now retired (banned?). The store has purchase "The Goblinblood Debt" and our regional Venture Captain said/suggested that it was a fun one to play. So I'm thinking of using that, as it is the one on hand.

So the tengu, aasimar, and tiefling races and legal- no questions asked?

I personally like more emphasis on role-playing, but I've done heavy dungeon crawls in the past. It's usually just been a matter of breathing life into one or two NPCs- something quirky. Players often take it from there.

I think the item tracking confuses me the very most. I personally have a chronicle sheet listing what I can buy.
But how... do I handle if a new player just shows up with one? How would I double check that? If another player loses his sheet, what does he do then? I don't really see an obviously place for chronicle sheet entire in the website, do you just need to reference the adventure? All authorized PFS adventures have a premade chronicle sheet in the back correct? Etc...

Also factions. None of us were introduced to them last session, so I suppose that's my job to do so now. Not a big deal but any specific suggests on how I should go about doing that?
Lastly where do I find the "Faction reward" tables that you can spend your PP on?

5/5 5/55/55/5

Zombie boots wrote:
So the tengu, aasimar, and tiefling races and legal- no questions asked?

The character is legal without needing any boons. You're technically supposed to get a book with the race listed in it, so one of the bestiaries for the tengu, blood of angels/blood of fiends for the aasimar/tieflings, or the advanced race guide for both. 10 bucks will get them the PDf.

Quote:
I think the item tracking confuses me the very most. I personally have a chronicle sheet listing what I can buy.

Once you hit 5 fame the chronicle sheet becomes largely superfluous. There's so much fuss made over the items on the chronicle sheets that new players are surprised to learn that you can buy almost anything they can afford as soon as they have enough fame and gold for it: usually you have more fame than you can spend in one go. (see the fame chart in the guide)

You can buy any legal item if your fame score allows you to. Not having enough fame to get what you want is such a rare event that, as a DM, I would never try to look for it unless someone hasn't spent ANY money in 5 levels and now wants to play Brewsters Millions.

Quote:
But how... do I handle if a new player just shows up with one? How would I double check that?

There is supposed to be an inventory tracking sheet where the player lists most of the equipment that they buy on one page. After playing for a while you'll probably develop a sense of how much stuff a character should have at X level and know when something odd is going on. If nothing odd occurs to you, i wouldn't bother to check unless the level 5 suddenly whips out a vorpal sword or a 10,000 gp staff that "was on my last chronicle"

Quote:
If another player loses his sheet, what does he do then? I don't really see an obviously place for chronicle sheet entire in the website, do you just need to reference the adventure? All authorized PFS adventures have a premade chronicle sheet in the back correct? Etc...

If you were the DM for all their games you can just sign them a replacement chronicle sheet. for someone else thats lost sheets thats over my non pay grade, but they'll probably have to start over until it gets sorted out.

Quote:

Also factions. None of us were introduced to them last session, so I suppose that's my job to do so now. Not a big deal but any specific suggests on how I should go about doing that?

If players show up early, have a faction carreer fair or something, with the faction heads talking to respective recruits. Hand out pamphlets

Quote:
Lastly where do I find the "Faction reward" tables that you can spend your PP on?

1) you can spend 2 pp on any item up to 750 gp (most commonly used to snag a wand of CLW)

2) Pathfinder society field guide: seeker of secrets Has some faction specific vanities.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, West Virginia—Charleston

I've only seen the fame item purchasing limits come up one time, and that's when I spent 50k+ on a character that I had leveled from 5 to 10 with mostly GM credits and sporadic play.

I have a little spiel about the factions, which I will reproduce below:

In Pathfinder Society, 8 factions vie for power through the use of its agents. These factions do not necessarily seek to take over the Society, but rather to use it to accomplish goals. Five of the factions are country-based, while three are ideology-based.

The three ideological factions are:
The Grand Lodge, which seeks to improve the Society as a whole. It's good for those who don't like factions.
The Silver Crusade, which seeks to use the Society to combat evil and help the helpless.
The Sczarni, which are essentially the mafia.

The five country-based factions are:
Andoran, which is a democracy and which seeks to spread freedom across the land. Hates slavery.
Cheliax, an oppressive regime which worships devils and has a slight BDSM theme.
Qadira, an Arab-esque nation of merchants.
Osirion, an Egypt-esque nation of sages who seek to gain knowledge.
Taldor, a land full of often-petty nobles which, although it has lost much power, seeks to rebuild its empire.

Also, if you like roleplaying, I would personally recommend some of the following scenarios:
The Pallid Plague
Murder on the Throaty Mermaid
The Frostfur Captives
The Gods' Market Gamble
Rise of the Goblin Guild
Severing Ties
The Disappeared (After your players become more acquainted with Zarta Dralneen)
The Night March of Kalkamedes
The Stolen Heir


BigNorseWolf wrote:
1) you can spend 2 pp on any item up to 750 gp (most commonly used to snag a wand of CLW)

Just clarifying.

You can't "Spend" fame, but it allows you to buy better items (Via chart) with your gold.

You can spend PP, but once you spend it- it's gone for good?
So if one were to spend 2 PP on a wand, you'll gain the CLW wand for a session. But lose the wand at the end of the session, and the PP will remain spent.

Netopalis wrote:
Five of the factions are country-based, while three are ideology-based.

That's probably a good summary of explaining it right there.

Thank you for all the advice everyone, by the way.

Grand Lodge 2/5 RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Zombie Boots wrote:
BigNorseWolf wrote:
1) you can spend 2 pp on any item up to 750 gp (most commonly used to snag a wand of CLW)

Just clarifying.

You can't "Spend" fame, but it allows you to buy better items (Via chart) with your gold.

You can spend PP, but once you spend it- it's gone for good?

Yep!

So when you gain Prestige, your Fame score and your available PP both go up. When you spend PP, your Fame doesn't go down, though.

Quote:
So if one were to spend 2 PP on a wand, you'll gain the CLW wand for a session. But lose the wand at the end of the session, and the PP will remain spent.

No, you keep items bought with PP.

Sovereign Court 5/5

its confusing at 1st but a good way to keep it simple is.
1--all gear exceeding 50 gold(if i recall correct amount) should be listed on the I.T.S.
2-- if they r claiming anything from a chronicle they must have the chronicle on hand.
3-- have a copy of additional resources handy along with the other documents u get from here.

other than that keep it simple follow the scenario, dont modify it. remember ur their to have fun, it will take a few nights for things to run smooth

5/5 5/55/55/5

Zombie Boots wrote:
BigNorseWolf wrote:
1) you can spend 2 pp on any item up to 750 gp (most commonly used to snag a wand of CLW)

Just clarifying.

You can't "Spend" fame, but it allows you to buy better items (Via chart) with your gold.

You can spend PP, but once you spend it- it's gone for good?
So if one were to spend 2 PP on a wand, you'll gain the CLW wand for a session. But lose the wand at the end of the session, and the PP will remain spent.

You can't spend Fame but you can spend prestige.

Fame is a measure of all the prestige you've ever earned. You will always be "Hey, that guy that saved the mayor from that Giant owl attack !" so fame doesn't get spent.

Prestige is a measure of how many favors you're still owed (either by the society or by the faction) You completed a mission so they'll be happy to give you a wand, but if you pick up a wand every time you head out on an adventure they're not going to feel like they owe you a resurrection if you get eaten.

when you spend it, its as good as gold. You get to keep the item.

Sovereign Court

A few more n00b questions from me:

1. If one player finds gold, is it automatically shared with the party, as with items? Specifically,

in A Vision of Betrayal:
, one player took the loot from the Hero's Shrine. Does she keep it all or is it shared?

2. Are lesser items like swords and daggers included in the gold total for a mission and can players sell off lesser items to make more gold? Can they keep the items instead of needing to buy them (I'm talking about simple and cheap gear specifically)?

3. Do corpses need to be raided for players to get the gold and items on them? Sometimes an adventure specifically states that players need to find an item to gain it, but what about other times?

4. Can rogues pick pockets during a mission and make gold, or does the day-job check replace this totally?

Thanks, the whole gold thing has me confused.

Silver Crusade 2/5

Gold is actually pretty easy. There is a total maximum gold on the chronicle sheet. Money entries during the scenario are the auto-split values.

During the final write ups, start with max gold and subtract any gold they missed in the scenario. Or, at least, that's what I do.

Any items discovered can be used during the scenario, but are all turned over to the Society at the end. This means use the potions found in the scenario because they are temporary potions any way.

Sovereign Court 5/5

all items and gold found in the scenario are turned over to the Pathfinder society at the end. so basically all the rewards they get r on their chronicles. everything else is for use during the adventure only.

you dont need to loot a corpse unless its part of the mission. looting corpses just gives them temporary gear/items to use during the adventure.

i may be wrong about pick pockets cause i generally do not play thieves, but i dont think you get to keep anything obtained thru pick pocketing.

5/5 5/55/5 ** Venture-Captain, Germany—Hamburg

Quote:
i may be wrong about pick pockets cause i generally do not play thieves, but i dont think you get to keep anything obtained thru pick pocketing.

You're correct. It's not possible to increase your gold income with anything other than the day job.

However, it is possible to buy the "Thieves' Guild" vanity with prestige points which lets you use Sleight of Hand for your day job. Unless it's too time-consuming, it's ok to make that day job roll during the scenario, stealing a few gold pieces from passers-by. This would be for flavor only, you'd still have to read your day job reward from the usual table.


Alright. I think I'm set to go this Sunday, just an in-world question thou:

Lantern Lodge? Shadow Lodge? Retired?
Why'd Paizo decide to do this, any particular reason? Just world evolving?

Also Shadow lodge I get- uprising and such. Why is Lantern Lodge no longer valid? According to the blurbs I read, they seem no different than Grand Lodge- just foreign.

Sovereign Court

Zombie Boots wrote:
Lantern Lodge? Shadow Lodge? Retired?

Yes, which is why certain adventures were retired as well. I'm not sure why either...

Thanks for the answers to my questions regarding gold and gear.

5/5 5/55/5 ** Venture-Captain, Germany—Hamburg

As far as I know, the retirement of Shadow Lodge and Lantern Lodge was mainly done for storyline reasons. (Maybe there were additional reasons, but that's something I don't know.)

from Rivalry's End:
The Shadow Lodge's involvement in the Pathfinder Society ended when Grandmaster Torch decided to openly follow his own agenda and actually betrayed the Society agents he hired. He tried to gain access to the names of the Decemvirate in order to gain power over them.

from Way of the Kirin:
The Lantern Lodge ended their involvement in the Inner Sea's politics when Amara Li successfully created an alliance between herself and a group called "The Way of the Kirin", who are very similar to the Pathfinder Society. Amara Li now works to build some kind of Pathfinder Society/Way of the Kirin lodge in Goka, and doing this, she doesn't have the time to get involved in the Inner Sea any more.

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