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You can play older scenarios. The only ones you can't play are explicitly marked "Retired" (and that's just about a third of the ones from season 0, plus a couple of First Steps). Look at the individual season subpages under this page to see which are retired.
For a home game, there's no maximum time limit. You probably still want to try to keep it to 4 or 5 hours, because that's about "right" for most of these scenarios. But if all players are cool, you can do whatever. The time limit is for public spaces like conventions and game stores, that also have external constraints.
You can play games at whatever frequency you want. You can GM PFS once, and never again, and that's OK. You can do it once, not do it for two months, do it seven times in three days (say you're at a con), then wait three months before you GM again, and it's all fine.
Nominally, all PFS games are "pick-up group" games. Some of these games accidentally have the same set of players each time if there are regular folks who get together and play PFS. I was sort of like that for a while at my previous University; last summer, I ran several PFS games that pulled from a bank of about 8 or 10 players, so there was a lot of overlap. I know that some folks play PFS as part of their home games. But, the general principle is, any legal PFS character can play in any appropriate game. So, if you're following the PFS rules with your home PFS games, players can take those characters out and play them in other PFS games elsewhere.
Re: boons, any boons you get on a chronicle sheet either for GMing or for playing is available to that player under the conditions specified in the boon. I am not aware of any time-limited boons, but there are a lot of use-limited boons (i.e. you can only use it once, or three times, or some such).
If you're going to GM, do read the whole Guide to OP, and go over it to make sure you grok it. Players just need to read the quick start section before getting going-- or, can even sort of slide on that if you make characters for them.
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What rknop said, but to elaborate on home game vs public game.
Nothing is forcing you to GM for public games at all. In fact in the Guide to Organized Play they even call out using PFS structure to simplify campaign rules for yourself. I've been doing a home game for my wife and four of our friends. We've done a quest and a scenario so far, and we plan on continuing our second scenario tomorrow.
As far as the copy of books go, a simple skype chat with video could verify hardcopies. For PDFs... I'm not so sure. It being a home game with friends and family, however, if one of you has a pool of books you are using there shouldn't be any problem. Until one of you goes to a con, gamestore, etc. Then they'll need their books. For instance, since I bought most of the copies of our books on PDF my wife just uses my copies from a drive. However, if she were to take her Arcanist to a convention or game store she'd need to provide her own copy of the Advanced Class Guide in PDF or Hardcopy to play it. So she'd probably be limited by the core assumption.
Venture-Captain, Netherlands
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I'm considering getting my feet wet with PFS and GMing my first home game online with friends and family. Unfortunately, I'm pretty confused as to how this would work to ensure that characters would be PFS-legal.
Let them read the guide to organised play. Let them check the options with the additional resources page. You can audit the characters before play. Two different people are more likely to catch a mistake then one.
I'm uncertain of whether or not I need to run Season 6 scenarios (the Guide to PFS Organized Play has a section on running older scenarios,
You can run scenarios from all the seasons. Only several from season 0 are retired. Dont worry, they are in a seperate section and not mixed in with the normal scenarios.
but at the same time, I've seen mentions on the paizo website's list of what is permissible excluding things like aasimars and tieflings that didn't have xp before August 14th 2014),
Aasimars and Thieflings were recently dissalowed. If you had created one and played a session with it before Agust the 14th, 2014, you were good. You got to keep playing that character.
From that point on, you could not make new Aasimars and Thieflings anymore.Other things are not allowed. You can check the additional resource page to see what you can and can not use. Its all grouped per book, so you can easily check it.
and of how to handle the "Need to provide hardcopy of books/photocopy to use non-core content in an online game.
I'll need to leave you hanging here. I dont do online play. But if you use skype or another tool that uses a webcam, let someone hold it up to the camera?
I'm also just generally confused as to what boons are, and how they are obtained. Is there an expiration date on boons, or can any character that plays older scenarios that grant boons (if they are granted in this way) obtain a boon, even if from non-season 6 content?
Boons can be earned in two ways: playing a scenario that gives you a boon on the chronicle sheet. Once you complete the scenario and get the sheet you can use that boon.
Conventions or other special events: Certain boons get handed out at Conventions or other special events. GMing at cons can earn you some of the very popular race boons.
Is there a maximum time limit to play through a scenario during a home game, or is this restricted to conventions where tables need to be cycled through?
No max time for a home game. The time restriction is there for conventions or playing at a store. Basically any venue that will require you to leave at a certain time.
It is however good practice to see if you can fit a game in a four hours slot at home. That way, if you ever run a game at a public venue, you wont have to adapt your game style.Same goes for your players. If they get used to wrapping up a game in more or less four hours, it will help them in the future.
Does my becoming a PFS GM force me to run games at a particular frequency, or to play "Pick-up Group" games (where anyone may join), to borrow MMO terminology?
Nope. You can GM as much as you want. If you GM just one time in your life, that is perfectly fine. Want to GM more? Do your thing! Having fun is the most important thing :)
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Anyone can GM. Your GM number is the same as your player number, and there is no tests or requirements other than following the Guide to Organized Play, and reporting your sessions.
There is a GM/Coordinator tab on your My Pathfinder Society page where you can create events and report sessions. Each session reported will count towards your table credit and stars.
Stars allow you to utilize scenario replays, and 4 star GMs gain access to exclusive scenarios. The Guide details this under the GM Rewards section.
Edited for clarity. Thanks Avatar-1.
