I'm DMing my first play-by-post scenario (MoFF) and party is stepping over bodies without any consideration of loot.
Should I give them less reward if they leave those treasures behind?
More PFS related questions:
1) When I was DMing MoFF during convention, I made a story, that city guard will send their guys to tower and none of PFS characters should be not there at moment or mission will fail. Game started at 12:00 and everyone knew that at 18:00 game will end unsuccessfully, unless they run away before that. They managed to complete it in time.
I used same trigger for my PbP party, so they do not waste time and turn it into endless "fight-loot-backup-sleep/heal-repeat" adventure. Is it valid for me to say that mission is failed if they do not complete some successful outcome before they decide that they need to retreat?
2) If one of the players is more in character and doing all the mentioned stuff, and others are more like, "let's do this" and "here comes an action" can still I reward him (with +1XP Chronicle), but do not reward others if they unable to complete primary objective? Is it possible that some in party will receive +1XP Chronicle and another one +0XP?
Am I violating Society rules?
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All of those violate PFS rules.
--Loot is awarded for encounters overcome, not loot picked up. If they didn't loot bodies, I wouldn't allow them to use the things on the bodies later in the scenario (like potions of cure light wounds or masterwork/magical weapons or armor,) but it is not removed from the chronicle sheet.
Have you GM'd many regular PFS scenarios? The wording in the "Treasure" sections of encounters is usually very clear, along the lines of "If the PCs fail to defeat or bypass this encounter, remove x gold, etc." Loot is only removed for failing to defeat an encounter (defeat largely meaning "run away from or get TPK'd by," bypassing or talking their way out of an encounter is considered defeating it,) not for literally looting the bodies.
--Characters get 1XP if they complete at least three encounters. That's the only requirement, ever. For Free RPG Day modules, characters automatically gain 1PP as well. Feel free to add flavor at the beginning of a module not explicitly written for PFS to get it to make sense for sending Pathfinder Field Agents on the adventure, but you cannot add requirements for them to get XP or Prestige.
If players decide to withdraw and rest, and it's not spelled out in the module/scenario how the enemies will react, you can use your discretion on whether the monsters are still there when they come back or if they took their ball and went home. But as long as the PCs complete 3 encounters, they get their 1XP, 1PP and any gold value found in those encounters.
--No, the only requirement to gain XP in PFS is completing three encounters (and being alive at the end of the adventure.) Prestige is the same for modules like Master of the Fallen Fortress. You cannot take XP or Prestige away for poor roleplay.
I like to reward players who play well with notes on their chronicle sheets commenting on their escapades. You can't give away anything that has some sort of in game effect, but it's surprising how positive the reaction usually is, and how it can turn into a long term RP aid. One of my players' PC is now 4th or 5th level and still carries around the centipede they captured in a jar in their very first adventure. It probably gets mentioned once a scenario that they play in and often moves the conversation along in an interesting path.
Zach Klopfleisch wrote: --No, the only requirement to gain XP in PFS is completing three encounters (and being alive at the end of the adventure.) Prestige is the same for modules like Master of the Fallen Fortress. You cannot take XP or Prestige away for poor roleplay. If a character actually refused to take part in an encounter (and wasn't doing something else that creatively helped the party), it might not count towards XP. If they were present, they completed the encounter.
Bear in mind that gaining XP moves the character towards higher level, which, if the party doesn't do well and loses gold or prestige for a scenario, can sometimes not seem like a benefit.
Isn't this question also related to : "should you reward the PCs with extra gold for prying more loot out of a scenario than is listed?"
Us old school gamers from 1st ed. could put the Vandals that sacked Rome to shame. Strip the gold leaf off the spines of books, strip the rooms of furniture, sell the bodies to meat packers and alchemist, then get serious and strip out the paving stones and other building materials. Sell off old iron doors for scrap metal .... or if this feels like to much work, set up a toll booth and open a Theme Park and charge the public for tours of the place.
No, we do it different now.
They defeat the challenge? Give them the reward. It will take you longer to figure out how much to short them the 100 gp than it is worth... and then next time you are going to have to explain to someone from the "old school" that Kobold Horn is no longer worth 10 gp a pound.
I agree with Zach in general, but there are some particular exceptions.
The way I handle loot is that the player characters have to find it. If there's a Perception DC for the treasure, they have to overcome it. (Otherwise, if all they have to do is defeat / bypass the guardian, what would be the point of the Perception DC in the first place?) If there's no Perception DC, then the party automatically discovers the treasure.
Strangely, in PFS, found treasure has no encumbrance.
There are a handful of scenarios where the GM is instructed to reduce gold if the players don't do something or another. (For example, there's an encounter in a bar, and the GM is instructed to reduce the gold reward if the PCs don't loot the till on their way out.)
Adding a ticking (in game) clock to a scenario that doesn't have one is definitely a violation of PFS rules. (Ticking out of game clocks, such as "hey guys, I have to wrap this up by 4:00 / November because that's when my next game starts" is allowed, as long as you tell everyone up front and they can decide if they think it is enough time.)
Great thanks for your hints. I'm not trying to find a way how to screw a party or give them more gold, I'm just trying to be sure I'm doing everything right. I'm in low-PFS coverage area and only chance for me to play PFS except paizo messageboards are visiting neighbourhood country during convention once per year.
I plan to apply for local venture officer soon and I work hard to raise awareness about Pathfinder and Society around. Before that, I try to work out and solve any "gray area" questions that arise to me.
Zach, as you can see I have one star, that comes from 2 big modules and 3 free-day ones. So, yes, I haven't mastered many of regular scenarios. Yet. I'm planing to do that in future.
I got your point about adding flavour at start, not requirements. I will review my position and act regarding the PFS rules now.
Good comment on party withdraw.
Zach, great thanks on chronicle sheet comments. Never seen anyone do that, but this looks like great idea to me. This way if character say: I cut my rope in three to bind some captives hands, I can note that he has 3 pieces of rope (15 ft+15 ft+20ft) at the end of adventure.
Starglim, nice point about leveling up without enought gold. Some of my players, do not spend gold on early levels, trying to save for raise dead or high quality armour. So I wasn't paying that much attention on how it might affect them.
In my recruitment thread:
Myself wrote: If we are in combat and there is no reply for you in 18 hours, I will bot you or withdraw you to location of zero danger. Should I count player not posted his action for 18 hours as one, who is not participating combat?
nosig, no no... Sometimes, I try to bring more drama into action. Looks like I do it wrong. I will give them reward if they accomplish this adventure alive. I just try to figure, how much should I give.
Chris,
If there's a Perception DC for the treasure, they have to overcome it.
Module in question contains Appraise DC. One player rolled and failed. Other discarded their chance to roll and decided to move further. Should I rule that they have not overcome DC and failed to identify a treasure?
found treasure has no encumbrance
How it could be? If I found half-plate, does it weights 0 lbs? I haven't seen such point anywhere in rules and I ask my players to track their weight and encumbrance all the time. I allow them to leave some of possessions in Pathfinder Lodge if mission is city based, but then they are unable to use those resources they left behind.
Masterwork leather armour should still be several pounds, and 100gp gold is still 2 lbs. If scenario says: It's decorated chest (25gp), containing something valuable (500gp). I lookup chest in Core Rulebook and say: "The chest is decorated with gold and silver bird symbols and weights 25 lbs".
FLite, so you say it's OK to ruin the roleplaying mood with "guys we have only 30 minutes left to solve this one out", instead of me saying "You can see torches at some distance. Men carring those are bearing spears and armoured in scale mails. Large shields bear a city guard sigil on them. Looks like city guard approaching for investigation and you need to solve this problem fast"?
During my games, I try to exclude any non-roleplay speech and ask my players to keep any mechanic/rules talks to minimum. Sometimes, they say "I barely scratched his skin with my sword", showing me 2 fingers for hitpoints.
In my recruitment thread I wrote:
Myself wrote: I plan to start adventure August, 26th, 12:00 GMT and willing to finish it September, 18th midnight.
Does this count as enough notification for out-of-game timer and I can wrap session up on September, 19th?
No, I'm saying you can't say "Guys, you have 6 hours in game to finish this. If you stop to rest for 8 hours and regain spells, the guards will show up and kick you out." Which is what it sounded like you might be suggesting.
(Also, I am unclear why the city guard finding them there would be a problem. It's the cairn lands, and they are there on a rescue mission.)
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Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
You don't get the idea of the chronicle.... It's not based on loot that players personally pick up. That's why two people at the same table can both buy the "Sword of Station". It's based on encounters fought. Now if no one picks up the Sword of Station, no one can use it for the Scenario, but it still remains a Chronicle sheet option.
Don't penalise your players for not slowing you down with trivia. If they don't bother to pick up the loot that's lying there, penalising themselves out of using it during the scenario is enough.
There are some scenarios which have specific exceptions on loot, such as Confirmation. These exceptions will be specifically called out in those scenarios.
I would certainly play the remaining monsters as much more aware of the presence of invaders if the PCs leave, rest, and return. You do need to follow the morale/tactics guidelines, but they are guidelines.
Tiaburn wrote: found treasure has no encumbrance
How it could be? If I found half-plate, does it weights 0 lbs? I haven't seen such point anywhere in rules and I ask my players to track their weight and encumbrance all the time. I allow them to leave some of possessions in Pathfinder Lodge if mission is city based, but then they are unable to use those resources they left behind.
Masterwork leather armour should still be several pounds, and 100gp gold is still 2 lbs. If scenario says: It's decorated chest (25gp), containing something valuable (500gp). I lookup chest in Core Rulebook and say: "The chest is decorated with gold and silver bird symbols and weights 25 lbs".
See page 21 of the Guide to PFS Organised Play:
Quote: We assume that you have enough bags, backpacks, or muscle to haul around the loot you find or, in the case of an urban scenario, immediate access to markets and bazaars where you can sell your goods. Detailed tracking of the weight and value of items found during a scenario doesn't really happen. It's just divided up into chunks by encounter for tracking between scenarios, generally.
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