10 "Specials" to get a 5th star...


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The Exchange 5/5

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Only thing I'm sort to get my 5th star is Specials....
so, does running 7-98 "Serpent's Ire" count for that?

I'm asking as I have a chance to Prep it for an up-coming CON (in a month) and may just sign up to run it 3 times or so...

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/5 ***

Yes, 7-98 counts as a special, at least for the first year of its release when there are restrictions on who and/or when it may be organized.

Liberty's Edge 5/5

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Starfinder Superscriber

Do you know, will the restrictions on 6-98 be lifted after GenCon? Or will that remain an Exclusive for at least another year?

I remember Tonya made a post a while back laying out exactly what were Exclusives and what were Specials, for these purposes, and for purposes of "must be at a Con at the moment". It would be awesome if somebody somewhere (ideally at paizo.com) maintained an up-to-date FAQ that we could reference at any time to figure out what was what.

-Rob "closing in on 150 tables" Knop

Grand Lodge 3/5

Does it (or 7-99) still count as a special if we're running it at GenCon without the required GM stars?

I don't need to worry about special count for quite a while, but grabbing a few early is nice.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Yes. Any run of a special counts, as long as it was considered a special. (Day of the Demon and The Midnight Mauler were considered to count while they were exclusive scenarios, but their non-EX versions do not.)

5/5

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

It might be a good idea to put this list in the next Guide.

5/5 5/55/55/5

Soluzar wrote:
It might be a good idea to put this list in the next Guide.

by the time you're nearing star 5 you should be able to dig it up on the forums

Scarab Sages 5/5 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Washington—Spokane

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Soluzar wrote:
It might be a good idea to put this list in the next Guide.

While it would be a great idea to add this list to the guide, it will always be in a constant state of flux.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

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Markov Spiked Chain wrote:

Does it (or 7-99) still count as a special if we're running it at GenCon without the required GM stars?

I don't need to worry about special count for quite a while, but grabbing a few early is nice.

How do you run it at GenCon without the required GM stars? Am I missing something here?

Hmm

Grand Lodge 4/5

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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

There are not enough 4 and 5 star GMs to run the number of tables GenCon hosts, so the requirements are waived for GenCon GMs.

Grand Lodge 5/5

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Steven Schopmeyer wrote:
There are not enough 4 and 5 star GMs to run the number of tables GenCon hosts, so the requirements are waived for GenCon GMs.

IIRC, Paizocon and Paizocon UK also waive the star requirements.

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/5

Joe Ducey wrote:
IIRC, Paizocon and Paizocon UK also waive the star requirements.

Yes, I ran Serpents Rise as a 3-star GM at PaizoCon UK 2015.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

Oh! So if I make it to PaizoCon, there'd be a chance I could run something like True Dragons? I would love to have a chance to run some of the Roleplaying specials!

Thank you, this is great information!

Hmm

The Exchange 5/5

Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:

Oh! So if I make it to PaizoCon, there'd be a chance I could run something like True Dragons? I would love to have a chance to run some of the Roleplaying specials!

Thank you, this is great information!

Hmm

yeah, be sure to get in on judging some of the Specials - otherwise you'll end up like some of us with 150 games judged - but not enough "Specials" to get our 5th star. ;)

it only took me 6 years to get my first 4 Specials, so at this rate I should have my 5th star late in Season 15? or maybe Season 16?

Grand Lodge 4/5

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Joe Ducey wrote:
IIRC, Paizocon and Paizocon UK also waive the star requirements.

Yes, but the question was about GenCon, so I spoke only to that. ;)

Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:
Oh! So if I make it to PaizoCon, there'd be a chance I could run something like True Dragons? I would love to have a chance to run some of the Roleplaying specials!

It is possible, if the special is being offered at PaizoCon.

5/5 5/55/55/5

nosig wrote:


yeah, be sure to get in on judging some of the Specials - otherwise you'll end up like some of us with 150 games judged - but not enough "Specials" to get our 5th star. ;)

it only took me 6 years to get my first 4 Specials, so at this rate I should have my 5th star late in Season 15? or maybe Season 16?

Hold your nose find some munchkins and run the bonekeeps.

The Exchange 5/5

BigNorseWolf wrote:
nosig wrote:


yeah, be sure to get in on judging some of the Specials - otherwise you'll end up like some of us with 150 games judged - but not enough "Specials" to get our 5th star. ;)

it only took me 6 years to get my first 4 Specials, so at this rate I should have my 5th star late in Season 15? or maybe Season 16?

Hold your nose find some munchkins and run the bonekeeps.

nah. spent years teaching my kids:

"if it's not fun, don't do it".

I try to take my own advice sometimes... and the way Bonekeep was introduced/explained to me... I prefer not to play that way. Not fun. So I don't play/run them. (which is also why I am looking closely into 7-98 "Serpent's Ire").

Silver Crusade 4/5

Bonekeep's not terrible. I prefer adventures with more plot and social interaction, rather than just dungeon crawls, but they're not that bad. With a good group, they can be fun.

And they're nowhere near as deadly as everyone goes on about, either. I just played the 3rd one this past weekend, so I've now been through all 3 of them, and we only had one PC death in all 3. And even that was a lucky crit by the GM against a level 7 playing up to subtier 8-9 in the 3rd part.

But I'd prefer to do other specials, for the most part. I've already GMed 3 of the multi-table specials, and I'll probably be GMing another 1 or 2 of them in the next 2-3 months. So I'll probably have 5 specials GMed before I even hit 4 stars.

Scarab Sages 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Captain, Isles—Online

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my advice to everyone, is once you hit 4 stars, concentrate on getting up to ten specials, as the rest will just fall into place

Shadow Lodge 4/5

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Also, volunteer for all the multi-table events, even if it is your first time GMing.

Spoiler:
This is terrible advice, learn from my mistakes.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

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If you do volunteer for multi-table events as a new GM, please prep the heck out of them. Nothing is worse for a player than losing time at a multi-table special while the GM frantically reads the scenario, trying to figure out where you're supposed to be now. They're timed, so anything you can do to keep your players on track and ready would be great!

Hmm

5/5 5/55/55/5

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Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:

If you do volunteer for multi-table events as a new GM, please prep the heck out of them. Nothing is worse for a player than losing time at a multi-table special while the GM frantically reads the scenario, trying to figure out where you're supposed to be now. They're timed, so anything you can do to keep your players on track and ready would be great!

Hmm

I expect to be saying "close enough for state work" a LOT next weekend...

1/5

nosig wrote:
Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:

Oh! So if I make it to PaizoCon, there'd be a chance I could run something like True Dragons? I would love to have a chance to run some of the Roleplaying specials!

Thank you, this is great information!

Hmm

yeah, be sure to get in on judging some of the Specials - otherwise you'll end up like some of us with 150 games judged - but not enough "Specials" to get our 5th star. ;)

it only took me 6 years to get my first 4 Specials, so at this rate I should have my 5th star late in Season 15? or maybe Season 16?

Locally we get at least a couple of the multi table specials run each year. You should try and get that organized.

4/5

BigNorseWolf wrote:
nosig wrote:


yeah, be sure to get in on judging some of the Specials - otherwise you'll end up like some of us with 150 games judged - but not enough "Specials" to get our 5th star. ;)

it only took me 6 years to get my first 4 Specials, so at this rate I should have my 5th star late in Season 15? or maybe Season 16?

Hold your nose find some munchkins and run the bonekeeps.

Hey, I played Bonekeep 2 without being a munchkin, I just brought my underground specialist dwarf ranger because if it involves going down a hole in the ground he's right there volunteering :)

1/5 5/5

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
TOZ wrote:

Also, volunteer for all the multi-table events, even if it is your first time GMing.

** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
Does second time actually GMing PFS count? If so, I burnt that advice about three days ago and scattered the ashes at sea. :P
4/5

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BigNorseWolf wrote:
Soluzar wrote:
It might be a good idea to put this list in the next Guide.
by the time you're nearing star 5 you should be able to dig it up on the forums

But you shouldn't have to dig it up. Just like the list of evergreens.

It seems to me to be quite easy to put a link up for both of these.

5/5 5/55/55/5

Mulgar wrote:

It seems to me to be quite easy to put a link up for both of these.

A link on the page sure. But not in the guide. The guide is already huge, bloaty, legalistic and its unfortunately what a new person coming into pfs is looking at: a great wall of text.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I am optimistic that the updated guide will handle this well.

4/5

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Preston Hudson wrote:
Soluzar wrote:
It might be a good idea to put this list in the next Guide.
While it would be a great idea to add this list to the guide, it will always be in a constant state of flux.

A list of 90% of the specials and or evergreens would be better than none.

Silver Crusade 5/5 5/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria

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Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:

If you do volunteer for multi-table events as a new GM, please prep the heck out of them. Nothing is worse for a player than losing time at a multi-table special while the GM frantically reads the scenario, trying to figure out where you're supposed to be now. They're timed, so anything you can do to keep your players on track and ready would be great!

Hmm

They are really prep heavy and the GMs should be very well prepared since costing your players time has serious consequences.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Also, you should not walk up the day of the special and offer to run a table. It's suboptimal.

5/5

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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Steven Schopmeyer wrote:
Also, you should not walk up the day of the special and offer to run a table. It's suboptimal.

But the guilt may motivate you to give your all to GM'ing for the next four years and see you earn your 5th star in record time! *wink*

Dataphiles 3/5

I volunteered for a special the same day once, but served as a runner collecting all the success data from table GMs and taking it to the overseer. It was a still a lot of fun. However, TOZ is correct that it would be a bad idea to run a special under those circumstances. I GMed a special for the first time the next con after serving as a runner, and even having prepped for it I felt under prepared in the moment. The players all told me they had a great time though so I guess it was just me feeling stressed. Now I'm about to run my sixth special so I think I'm way ahead of the game on that requirement though I don't know if I'll ever reach the 150 games.

4/5 **** Venture-Lieutenant, Maryland—Hagerstown

The higher tables are even harder to prepare for, and to get them in on the time crunch. The table i was at during a smaller con, had a hard time keeping up, just do to the epicness of the battles.

Dataphiles 3/5

Z...D... wrote:
The higher tables are even harder to prepare for, and to get them in on the time crunch. The table i was at during a smaller con, had a hard time keeping up, just do to the epicness of the battles.

Indeed. That first special I mentioned GMing I had asked for more tier, was told I would be receiving lite tier, and then got a table of 8-9(I think...maybe it was 7-8 I forget the specific tier range on that one). I've yet to run a 10-11 special, but I'm sure it's challenging to keep pace with the other tables.

Shadow Lodge 4/5

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Majuba wrote:
But the guilt may motivate you to give your all to GM'ing for the next four two years and see you earn your 5th star in record time! *wink*

Fix'd.

Scarab Sages 4/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Captain, Australia—NSW—Greater West

Back to the OP, this question gets asked quite a lot, and sometimes what constitutes a special may not be clear to all. Would it be possible for campaign management to have a stickied forum post that can be updated and easy to point to. Easier that putting it in the guide and a lot easier to update. A lot of forums I am on would lock that thread so there is no chatter on it, so only pertanent info is on it.

5/5 5/55/55/5

Steven Schopmeyer wrote:
Also, you should not walk up the day of the special and offer to run a table. It's suboptimal.

I got a special that way. Desperate times..

Dark Archive 5/5

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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:

If you do volunteer for multi-table events as a new GM, please prep the heck out of them. Nothing is worse for a player than losing time at a multi-table special while the GM frantically reads the scenario, trying to figure out where you're supposed to be now. They're timed, so anything you can do to keep your players on track and ready would be great!

Hmm

So, funny story about this!

Earlier this year, I was running a table of Legacy of the Stonelords for a local convention. I checked in my downloads and it arrived, but this was the same time as the Humble Bundle, so I wasn't able to download my copy of it. But that's not a problem, because I'm friends with a couple of people, one of whom is a VC, and I asked if he could get me a copy so I'd have it all set and ready to go.

So I read through it, highlighting stuff, knowing that I'm going to be doing one of the higher tier tables. I go through it a few times, make up sheets for the monsters so I'll have easy reference, get initiative cards made, the whole she-bang.

Everything runs perfectly, I'm prepped, I have maps, I have everything all set up, we get to the throneroom and I'm about to hand out...

Wait.... why is he continuing? I'm out of scenario. I don't have any more scenario to run. There is literally nothing left in my packet.

Turns out my friend hadn't updated his download since Paizocon... So I only had the first half of the scenario...

Thankfully, I was able to get the second half printed and I managed to run that cold. Turns out it was just using a lot of the same maps that we already used, and a good portion of it was RP, so that was nice too.

My players seemed to have a good time, regardless of my screw-up, and it seemed like there was fun had by all, so it wasn't a big deal. But I still find it funny. One of my favorite PFS moments.

Me: Joe, what's going on? What am I supposed to be doing now?

Joe: You run it like it says in the scenario. Jeez, this isn't your first GM table.

Me: Joe, this isn't in my scenario. My scenario is over. It says I should be giving out chronicle sheets.

Joe: Oh... Oh damn... Uhhh... We'll print out a new copy, and just run with it from there. Good luck!

Grand Lodge 4/5

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Yeah, we had that problem at PCC too.

Silver Crusade 4/5 5/55/55/5 RPG Superstar 2013 Top 8

Keirine, Human Rogue wrote:
Earlier this year, I was running a table of Legacy of the Stonelords for a local convention. I checked in my downloads and it arrived, but this was the same time as the Humble Bundle, so I wasn't able to download my copy of it. But that's not a problem, because I'm friends with a couple of people, one of whom is a VC, and I asked if he could get me a copy so I'd have it all set and ready to go.

I don't recall getting that request. IIRC you got that incorrect copy from one of our VLs.

Liberty's Edge 5/5

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I accidentally opened that version in my tablet while overseeing. Yeah, that confused everyone.

4/5

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I'm going to have 5 Specials before I get my third star. I'm not sure if that means the Master of Schedules has confidence in me or has it out for me. Possibly both.

Dark Archive 5/5

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Michael Eshleman wrote:
Keirine, Human Rogue wrote:
Earlier this year, I was running a table of Legacy of the Stonelords for a local convention. I checked in my downloads and it arrived, but this was the same time as the Humble Bundle, so I wasn't able to download my copy of it. But that's not a problem, because I'm friends with a couple of people, one of whom is a VC, and I asked if he could get me a copy so I'd have it all set and ready to go.
I don't recall getting that request. IIRC you got that incorrect copy from one of our VLs.

You are correct. It was the VL, mainly because I ran into him before I ran into you. C'est la vie.

Lantern Lodge 5/5

Eric Ives wrote:
I'm going to have 5 Specials before I get my third star. I'm not sure if that means the Master of Schedules has confidence in me or has it out for me. Possibly both.

Every time this thread pops up I wonder what it must be like to have to accrue specials/exclusives. This GenCon I'll finish specials 14,15,and 16. (But I'll still be 2 tables short of 150 after adding GenCon's eight.)

Do most people not have a special before their first star?

5/5 *****

Very much depends on how many conventions you go to. The UK has a relative dearth of big cons where you might expect to be able to run a multi table special which is why I ended up running Bonekeep until my eyes started bleeding.

Silver Crusade 4/5

andreww wrote:
Very much depends on how many conventions you go to. The UK has a relative dearth of big cons where you might expect to be able to run a multi table special which is why I ended up running Bonekeep until my eyes started bleeding.

We've been doing the multi-table specials at our local store recently. We usually take up 2-3 tables every Sunday, but the store has 8 or 9 total tables. We just reserve 5 tables for one Sunday every 6 months or so for the special event, and we easily have enough people who played them at GenCon who volunteer to GM, and enough people who missed GenCon who want to play them.

We did both of last year's multi-table specials that way in the past year, and we're already starting on plans to run 8-00 that way in September.

So I've only GMed one of the multi-table events at a convention, and two at our local store.

4/5 5/5

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Quick question. Is the requirement 10 unique specials or can some of those 10 be reruns?

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ***

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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

There can be reruns. (I ran Day of the Demon 6 times for my qualification.)

Grand Lodge 4/5

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Jeff Hazuka wrote:
Do most people not have a special before their first star?

Indeed, most do not, especially those who cannot attend conventions. Online conventions helped me get to ten as fast as I did. (My first GM table being a special also helped.)

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