I went through and excerpted all the questions that were answered by John Compton or Michael Brock. Please correct/advise me if my edits have resulted in a misleading response.
Faction Journal Card FAQ
I assume the goals can only be completed going forward? I can't just check off things I have completed before the cards were released. Just want to make sure, because I know this question will come up.
The goals cannot be completed retroactively.
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I would assume these can't be applied retroactively... that all games prior to yesterday 'wouldn't count' toward these cards.
No, they can't be applied retroactively.
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Do scenarios played before the cards came out count towards that goal?
No, the cards are not retroactive to any play before they were released
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Acquire a merchant’s license in a city other than Absalom with a population of 5,000 or more. Doing so requires spending 25 gp per character level and succeeding on an Appraise or Profession (merchant) check with a DC equal to 15 plus your character level. If you exceed the DC of the check by 10 or more, you instead receive the license for free. Whenever you are in that city, you may purchase all mundane items at a 10% discount.
Can this be any Appraise or Profession (merchant) check in a city? If not, does it have to be in the presence of or directed at a specific type of NPC?
It is a check attempted solely for the purpose of fulfilling this objective, and the PC can try it once per adventure. It does not have to be performed in the presence of any particular NPC, but so long as it's not especially disruptive to the game, a GM is welcome to flesh out the encounter a bit.
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Liberty's Edge card: Liberate one or more slaves, captives, or hostages during an adventure.
Could this include freeing prisoners the PCs take or preventing/dissuading a PC from taking a prisoner, such as the surrendered enemy combatant for the Silver Crusade? I'm going to assume no, but I imagine it could come up.
You are correct in assuming not. This applies to slave and other captives the PCs find, not ones the PCs make themselves. When in doubt, assume that these goals work off of opportunities that are already in the adventure, not ones the PCs sow themselves in order to farm objectives.
"Hey Major Maldris, I dominated a small village and forced them to perform morally debasing acts, but I generously freed them all a week later. Am I a hero, or what?!?"
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“PARAGON (7+ goals): When you or an ally purchases the spellcasting service raise dead, resurrection, or true resurrection, reduce the Prestige Point cost by 25%.”
Does this stack if there are multiple Silver Crusaders with this boon at a table?
No, apply only one reduction. A quartet of high-ranking Silver Crusaders cannot resurrect a whole village for free.
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Grand Lodge card wrote:
EXPEDITION COORDINATOR (7+ goals): You can forego your Day Job check to organize an expedition to a site you recently visited and discover things you missed before. You can check one of the boxes to retroactively succeed at the scenario’s secondary success condition that you would have otherwise failed. If you do so, all other PCs at the table also succeed at the secondary success condition.
What if the secondary condition is not to retrieve an object, to retrieve an object that was destroyed, involves a creature or character who was killed during the scenario, or is in a location the PCs couldn't feasibly re-enter?
Ultimately, the nature of the secondary success condition is not critical; the PC leads an expedition that finds something equally valuable and worthy of a Prestige Point.
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BTW does every character gain her own card?
Every character can receive his or her own card.
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Just to be clear, these can be used right now?
Yes
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Question on Liberty's Edge Liberator Reward, is that supposed to be 6+ goals completed or was it meant to be 7 like the other cards?
It is meant to be 6+ goals because the Liberty's Edge Faction Journal Card is an exception to the rule that all cards have seven non-GM-related goals. The card does, however, have the same number of checkbox requirements (not including a few special "you can check this box in addition to another box" ones).
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I have a question when it says "Once per adventure that grants a Chronicle sheet and at least 1 XP" does this mean we do not get a check if we are going slow track? probably reading into it but thanks in advance.
You can still work on your card. That language is intended to prevent someone from earning check box credit when playing a single quest (or checking one box for every part of The Silverhex Chronicles)
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Can you elaborate on the following:
Let's say I have just GMed Overflow Archive (well I did on Saturday, made a number of mistakes I am not going to repeat) and I want to apply that chronicle to an as yet unused and unplayed character (that is going to be a Dark Archive member), do I have to check the faction card of that character, or can I choose the faction card of another Dark Archive Character.
Also, would it be possible to add a little space to (the next version of) the card, so players we can note the PFS number of the corresponding character?
When you apply GM credit to a character, you can check one of the final objective's five check boxes for that character.
For example, let's say my –1 and –2 characters are both members of the Dark Archive. If I assign GM credit to XXXX–1, I can check one of the five GM boxes on the Faction Journal Card for XXXX–1, not XXXX–2.
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Can you elaborate a bit on the function of the Abolitionist ability under Liberty's Edge? Does it effectively summon the stated NPCs for an extended duration, which is roughly the duration of the part of the scenario you are currently involved with? (since I'm not sure what "encounter" means in PFS terms when it comes to duration).
When "rallied" how much control is the PC who called them assumed to have? ... do they function like a summoned creature, like an allied NPC, do you have to make cha-checks, etc?
It effectively summons those NPCs for the duration of an encounter, which could be a combat encounter or a short non-combat challenge.
These are under the player's control like a summoned creature would be, but they're still living, breathing, mortal creatures with hopes, dreams, and a whole lot of abolitionist fervor. Having them help during an encounter against a tough foe is something they're willing to do; however sending them down a trapped hallway to "look for traps," sacrificing them to some villain, or other egregious mistreatment of these volunteers is not on their agenda, and under those circumstances I would not object to a GM ruling that the liberated slaves say "no." Exceptional or repeat violations could easily be considered an evil act.
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Can you convert one of your characters? Or does it have to be a character controlled by another player?
The character has to be someone else participating in that game session, so converting one of your own PCs is not possible.
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Spend at least 100 gp per character level on spell casting services for spells with the healing descriptor for another PC. You may instead purchase and expend material components or a single-use magic item that costs the same amount for that PC.
If I buy, for example, Potion of Cure Serious Wounds (750 gp) and give it to someone else, does it count for this goal?
It sure does!
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Logistically, how are we to handle these cards in PbP?
I recommend a player provide an out-of-character notice to the GM that he is attempting to complete one of the Faction Journal Card's goals during play (and provide the relevant goal's text). At the end of the session, the GM can confirm whether or not the PC fulfilled the conditions and instruct the player to check the relevant check box.
Since these do not require direct GM signatures, this process should not require constant scanning and sending of files.
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In Dark Archive it says, "Recruit a named NPC scholar, knowledgeable spell caster, or similar figure to the Dark Archive. Recruitment requires a Diplomacy or Knowledge (arcana) check with a DC equal to 15 plus your character level."
Should that be "... with a DC equal to 15 plus the NPC's character level."?
If not, why would it be harder for me to recruit someone as I advance in level?
The most important reason is that it's easy to figure out what your character's level is, but it's not always clear what level an NPC is. After all, NPCs not intended as combat threats rarely have their level printed in the scenario (or printed anywhere, for that matter), so basing this on the NPC's level would result in massive discrepancies in the skill check's DC on a table-by-table basis.
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Quick question: So when using the abolitionist boon for Liberties Edge, is it safe to assume that for one encounter just means that single fight rather than for the rest of the scenario correct? If so what happens if you proc multiple encounters at the same time and then call forth your freed rabble? Do they stay till the entire fight ends or do the poof once one of the original groups is handled?
In most cases that I can imagine, they would stick around until the ongoing combat—multiple encounters and all—came to an end. In the grand scheme of things, having a lower-level commoner stick around for a few extra rounds is unlikely to change anything.
If the PCs are purposely triggering multiple combats by opening doors and moving from room to room in one extended melee, I would be far less inclined to have the NPCs follow. I imagine they might take a few rounds to put up some flashy anti-tyranny posters, salute the Liberty's Edge PC, and depart.
As is the case with determining whether a PC completed a faction goal, it's important that a GM exercise a bit of leniency when determining this duration.
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Are these cards only good for Season 6 or can we expect these to carry over for Season 7?
Be sure to read the Additional Cards section on the file's first page.
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I'm not sure what prevents 'cheating' or error here.
A player can't have more boxes checked than they have XP/Scenarios/Chronicles... but otherwise the checks don't reference where they came from in any way. Is the GM really involved in any way with keeping track of these things?
if someone wants to cheat, they will cheat. It's life and it happens. If we put lines for a GM to initial, the person could just initial it himself and no one would be the wiser. The next GM won't know if it is an actual GM's initials or not. We are trying to go with the belief that the majority of people will just play nice and use these in the spirit they have been presented - another way to try to immerse the character into the world through accomplishing goals for their faction.
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Per mentioning about the Silverhex Chronicles, can you tick off a box once you play enough of them to get 1XP on the chronicle sheet? If so, could you look at any of the quests you did to tick a box, or only the last one you completed? If the last one, can you hold off until you complete a quest that matches one of your goals even if you got sufficient for XP earlier on?
Yes, as per the instructions on the first page of the PDF, as long as you earn 1XP and a Chronicle sheet, you may apply it. Also, since Silverhex is six short adventures that form one full adventure, I don't have a problem with the player deciding which one box to check from the assortment of adventures just completed.
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Can I use these cards when playing a pregenerated character? I seem to remember that all pregen characters are considered part of the Grand Lodge. Does that mean I can only work towards those goals and apply the credit to my own character if my own character is part of the Grand Lodge as well?
For an example: I'll be playing my first PFS game this week. I have a 1st level character made (allied with the Exchange), but I won't play her yet. Instead, I'll play Kyra. How would this work in terms of these new factions cards?
No. You have to play your actual character to check off a box for your character's faction.
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So if you complete two objectives in the same scenario/module you can only choose one to check off?
This is correct. The objectives and boons are meant to be spaced out over the course of a character's career (or at least over the course of 5–6 levels). Earning multiple checks over the course of an adventure would quickly fill in the card, earn the boons more quickly than intended, and mean that the character would have no further reason to continue participating in the faction's cause.
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Are faction missions as part of scenarios now going to continue or is this a complete replacement?
I still intend to include the occasional scenario with strong ties to a particular faction, likely accompanied by a related boon. After all, I've really enjoyed the storytelling potential of powerhouses like the Destiny of the Sands trilogy, a particular pair of Season 6 Liberty's Edge adventures, and the Season 5 evolution of the Taldor faction, and tying a few scenarios to particular factions' stories can be very potent. That said, the frequency will not be the same as we have seen in Seasons 5 and 6. The Faction Journal Cards now cover the lion's share of faction involvement on a scenario-by-scenario basis.
This frees up the scenario schedule in some exciting ways, granting me more capacity to set adventures in interesting (and often new) locations—even if they don't have a critically important element tied to a faction. As a result, I think folks will really enjoy where Season 7 takes us.
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Does something done to or by my animal companion/familiar/mount count as being done to me? For example, if my animal companion escapes from a grapple or makes a subsequent save, does that count?
I believe we have established in the past that animal companions, familiars, eidolons, and the like are not members of any faction; only the PC is. As a result—barring any elements I'm not considering—I am inclined to say no.
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Just to be clear, these can also be used the PFS Core campaign?
This was asked earlier but it'd be nice to get an official clarification.
Yes they can
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If I have filled the entire goal of GM, can the next time I GM and apply the chronicle to the character, can I check a different box? One that was still complete able in that scenario of course.
Additionally, if I GM for a high level game (such as a 3-7 or 5-9) can I check the GM box, even if the character getting the chronicle is not in range yet, or do I need to wait till I can apply the chronicle to check the box?
You can only check off GM boxes when you Gm. You can't check off any of the "player" boxes for GMing.
To your second question, the answer is yes.
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For Dark Archive, is it safe to assume that an artifact is any magic item we are assigned to procure but don't actually get to keep? This happens a lot in PFS Scenarios and I'm not sure which ones are actually artifacts.
Yes
To clarify this point further, it requires the recovery of an object that is actually an artifact-level magic item (i.e. A minor artifact or major artifact); just recovering a flashy magic item MacGuffin is not sufficient.
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With APs you can tick a box in either PFS or non-PFS mode.
Michael Brock said you must play your PFS character to check off boxes. In non-pfs mode you don't play your PFS character. Why would my completely different PC in a home game AP that isn't a member of the faction be able to advance my PFS character's goals?
It's the nature of allowing home play for APs. In the same line of questioning, why would a completely different PC in a home game AP that isn't a member of the Pathfinder Society be able to receive a Chronicle with gold, XP, and PPs? It is the one side case where people are just going to have to make the best of it.
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For the Grand Lodge faction, do the various city-states in the Mwangi Expanse (e.g. Nantambu) count as different nations? What about areas outside of national boundaries, like the Kaava lands?
Use the regions presented in the Inner Sea World Guide (or the list presented on PathfinderWiki's Geography page) as a guideline. Although I find it somewhat distasteful to paint the entire Mwangi Expanse as a monolithic region, it's rather difficult to delineate what counts as a "new region" otherwise. Even with this in mind there are dozens and dozens of distinct regions that would qualify.
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<This answer and response speaks to Day Jobs and whether one has to actually abe trained in a Day Job to “forgo it.”>
Does a PC need to have a legal Day Job skill in order to "spend" a Day Job check for this? Or does she need to spend a PP?
Think of a character having a Day Job opportunity at the end of a scenario. Some characters don't have a Day Job, and the opportunity is wasted. Some have a Treasure Map boon and use that instead. Whether a character has the appropriate skill or not is irrelevant to this particular Chronicle sheet; he or she still has that chunk of down time.
