New to Pathfinder Society


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Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

So friends and I have been running modules for pathfinder for a few months. We have been having issues with getting a steady group together and are finding that we dont like to finish modules when people are missing, and as such have started like 5 different ones but haven't finished any yet. I starting to have a hard time tracking 5 different games.

It looks to me like something along the pathfinder society play could work very well for home games when we are never sure who will show up and they are intended to be finished in the 4-5 hours we typically play in so it all seems well and good there.

I have a few questions, that just don't seem to be covered, or I am being extremely dense and not seeing answers in front of me.

Do I need to be a registered PFS GM to create and use paizo's pathfinder society stuff on this website to organize my groups and for them to register characters/record adventures, or I am better off just following the format and keeping a binder at home with information on it? I assume none of these characters would be "legal" to use in an actual society game, but I am not sure there I guess.

The whole tier thing is confusing for me after reading it a few times over. My general understanding is you take the APL of your group and that determines the tier you should be running to keep it at the right difficulty?

I have to buy any pathfinder society scenarios that I want to play at home, which I am fine with, but it seems that seasons 0-5 are not up to date with the current formatting of current scenarios and as such require that additional document to determine if characters meet the goals of the scenarios. Which, I think I understand, but it makes me wonder if I am better of just starting at season 6, or will this be confusing from an NPC perspective and not knowing what's going on?

Sorry for the long paragraphs, and I appreciate any input. Also sorry if I post this in the wrong forum!

5/5 5/55/55/5

Flutter's guide for newbies

Swigs wrote:
Do I need to be a registered PFS GM to create and use paizo's pathfinder society stuff on this website to organize my groups and for them to register characters/record adventures, or I am better off just following the format and keeping a binder at home with information on it? I assume none of these characters would be "legal" to use in an actual society game, but I am not sure there I guess.

Anyone with a PFS number can DM a PFS game. There's no certification process or most of us wouldn't have gotten in. the characters would have to be PFS legal though. This would let you take your characters from the home game out into the world with conventions and play them there.

Anyone can buy PFS scenarios and play them for home use. That works too.

Quote:
The whole tier thing is confusing for me after reading it a few times over. My general understanding is you take the APL of your group and that determines the tier you should be running to keep it at the right difficulty?

yes. Because if your party is levels 1 2 2 3 a monster from the 4-5 difficulty range would stomp you flat the actual calculations can get complicated but that's the general idea.

Quote:
I have to buy any pathfinder society scenarios that I want to play at home, which I am fine with, but it seems that seasons 0-5 are not up to date with the current formatting of current scenarios and as such require that additional document to determine if characters meet the goals of the scenarios. Which, I think I understand, but it makes me wonder if I am better of just starting at season 6, or will this be confusing from an NPC perspective and not knowing what's going on?

Nice spot check! you're absolutely right.

heres the secondary success conditions o update to that


Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Thank you for the guide BigNorseWolf! I will read through that and see what I can do to makes things a bit clearer in my mind.

I appreciate the very quick response!

4/5 *

Welcome aboard, Swigs! You're right, PFS works really well when you have drop-in players and can't do a regular extended campaign.

There's a couple of options: you can just use the PfS scenarios and ignore the reporting and all that, and just run it as a home campaign. This works if you want to allow lots of options, 3rd party or homebrew stuff. But then, as you say, your characters won't be legal to play in any other PFS games.

I encourage you, though, to try the PFS character rules. There are still lots of options available, and it means that you *will* be able to play them at a convention or just when you happen to travel and can drop into a game. I used to travel a lot for work and I got to play in a bunch of cities with people I never would have met otherwise. It's great to be part of a world-wide campaign!

Enjoy!

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

Welcome, Swigs!

If you have any other questions, we'd love to answer them!

Hmm

4/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis

Since you are coming off of a story based AP, you might find this thread interesting. It is a listing of scenarios that together help build a larger story.

1/5

An option for you is to run the PFS scenarios but not have them be legal PFS games that you report. Basically you'd have your Home version of PFS. Like you could have everyone bring a level X to the game and run a scenario for level X. Then later say to bring a level X+1, so people jumping in just creates a character at that level.

Doing this would let you do less paperwork and not have to follow all of PFS rules. But it means your characters aren't PFS and don't exist outside this home version.


Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Thank you everyone for the information. After talking to a few of the people I GM for, it sounds like we might be switching over to PFS style play. Also excited because that might allow me to have a character as its less of a chore to only GM a single scenario so its easier to swap off and on.

BretI wrote:
Since you are coming off of a story based AP, you might find this thread interesting. It is a listing of scenarios that together help build a larger story.

Thanks I will check this out!

5/5 5/55/55/5

Welcome to the institution.

Shadow Lodge 5/5

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BigNorseWolf wrote:
Welcome to the institution.

In need of institutionalization is the way most of us could be described. Yes.


Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

So, we ran our first society game last weekend and I am little confused on how the chronicle sheet works. I read through the guide again, and I just cant seem to get a clear understanding. We ran the Scenario Intro 1: First Steps—Part I: In Service to Lore.

I can see on the chronicle sheet that the 417 gold listed is what is gained for completing all the objectives in the scenario. And I believe I am understanding correctly when the scenario is finished the players lose any gear they may have collected throughout the scenario (for instance the letter opener/masterwork dagger or the wand of knock).

My question is, does the gear just go "poof" or do they actually get to sell it off and add that gold to their money earned. I just see there is a section on the chronicle sheet to add gold for items sold off, or is that just for selling off gear that was purchased at the beginning, or during, the scenario?

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 *** Venture-Agent, Nebraska—Omaha

All collected gear is returned to the Society (poof!), and the party is rewarded for their efforts with the cash payouts (417gp). If you wish to acquire an item found during the scenario (and appearing on the chronicle sheet), you are more than welcome to pay full price to purchase it.

5/5 5/55/55/5

The loot you collected is how you got your gold total. If you like anything in the scenario you have to buy it back.

Shadow Lodge 4/5

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MisterSlanky wrote:
BigNorseWolf wrote:
Welcome to the institution.
In need of institutionalization is the way most of us could be described. Yes.

I'm not locked in here. I can leave any time I want!

5/5 5/55/55/5

4 people marked this as a favorite.
TOZ wrote:
MisterSlanky wrote:
BigNorseWolf wrote:
Welcome to the institution.
In need of institutionalization is the way most of us could be described. Yes.
I'm not locked in here. I can leave any time I want!

you can checkout any time you want...

4/5 5/5 Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Tampere

2 people marked this as a favorite.
TOZ wrote:
MisterSlanky wrote:
BigNorseWolf wrote:
Welcome to the institution.
In need of institutionalization is the way most of us could be described. Yes.
I'm not locked in here. I can leave any time I want!

"Relax" said the Dreng man,

"We are programmed to receive
You can check out any time you like
But you can never leave"

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

Swigs wrote:
My question is, does the gear just go "poof" or do they actually get to sell it off and add that gold to their money earned. I just see there is a section on the chronicle sheet to add gold for items sold off, or is that just for selling off gear that was purchased at the beginning, or during, the scenario?

It requires some suspension of belief, but it's the most feasible method for handling loot distribution in an organized play environment.

It ensures everyone has equal access to the same items, even if that means two characters playing together both have the same magical talking sword.

4/5

Swigs wrote:
My question is, does the gear just go "poof" or do they actually get to sell it off and add that gold to their money earned. I just see there is a section on the chronicle sheet to add gold for items sold off, or is that just for selling off gear that was purchased at the beginning, or during, the scenario?

It is assumed to be sold off and part of the total scenario gold, so that 417 gp is from selling off that gear found during the scenario. It doesn't change if you use up the items during the scenario, however (which is kind of neat because it encourages usage of those consumables found during the scenario).

The portion of the chronicle for selling items is for selling items that you have purchased, although now they have the "Inventory Tracking Sheet" for that instead of writing it on the chronicle. (Although you can write it on the chronicle too if you want)

Scarab Sages 5/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Rei wrote:
TOZ wrote:
MisterSlanky wrote:
BigNorseWolf wrote:
Welcome to the institution.
In need of institutionalization is the way most of us could be described. Yes.
I'm not locked in here. I can leave any time I want!

"Relax" said the Dreng man,

"We are programmed to receive
You can check out any time you like
But you can never leave"

there are whispers from the shadows of one man who got out. He was a Grand Master...


Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Once again, you guys are great! Thank you so much for all your assistance.

Looking forward to continuing on with the next scenario this weekend.

Happy gaming!


Hi PFS newb here!

If I use a 4th level Pregen to get me started, how much retraining can I do in order to actually get the character I want?!

I get the idea of PFS but the conept that the only way to actually have the charcter you WANT is to start from first seems terribly tedious!

Can retraining be used to start with a higher than 1st level character?

1/5

One solution is to try and play some modules to help you level up quicker. There is also the use of campaign mode to get to play at higher level. You also could GM and build up xp that way. Also, welcome to the Society.

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

doc roc wrote:
Hi PFS newb here!

Greetings! Welcome to PFS!

doc roc wrote:
If I use a 4th level Pregen to get me started, how much retraining can I do in order to actually get the character I want?!

When you play a Pregen, you have two options for applying credit. You don't "start out" with a 4th level character. Everyone in PFS starts at 1st level.

You can apply the credit to a 1) 1st level character, or 2) hold the credit until your character reaches 4th level.

doc roc wrote:
I get the idea of PFS but the conept that the only way to actually have the charcter you WANT is to start from first seems terribly tedious!

You can pile up credit from GMing and playing Pregens to a "Blob" to effectively start them out higher than 1st level. That's how most of my characters start out.

doc roc wrote:
Can retraining be used to start with a higher than 1st level character?

No, but you can use the Retraining rules from Ultimate Campaign on any level of character.


Nefreet wrote:


You can pile up credit from GMing and playing Pregens to a "Blob" to effectively start them out higher than 1st level. That's how most of my characters start out.
.

A bit confused... hows does credit work?

If by playing pre-gens you build up credit which can then be used to "create" a higher than 1st level PFS character, would that be any quicker than just starting a PFS character from 1st level and levelling up as normal? If it isnt what would be the point?

Thx

5/5 5/55/55/5

doc roc wrote:
Nefreet wrote:


You can pile up credit from GMing and playing Pregens to a "Blob" to effectively start them out higher than 1st level. That's how most of my characters start out.
.
A bit confused... hows does credit work?

When you play the dm hands you an an all officialy signed sheet that says "I played such and such an adventure and got this much prestige gold and stuff"

When you DM you get to sign your own sheet and max out the gold and PP. (most tables get most of that anyway, so it's not that big a deal)

Quote:

If by playing pre-gens you build up credit which can then be used to "create" a higher than 1st level PFS character, would that be any quicker than just starting a PFS character from 1st level and levelling up as normal? If it isnt what would be the point?

Thx

It wouldn't be any quicker, but it might let you make characters that didn't work very well at level 1. For example I have a kitsune foxform fighter that skipped to level 3 because the build doesn't work till i have foxform.

There's not much advantage to doing pregens this way: You can pregen credit from 1 to 2 but generally can't pregen credit from 2-3. You can change your character any* way you want at first level, so if you have a fighter rogue in mind you can pregen your way to second level and dump strength OR play as a rogue for first level and then re train your character to have been a fighter for the first level for the 3 extra HP.

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