First time GMing for PFS


GM Discussion

3/5

Hi Everybody!

First off, let me apologize for posting this as i am know many have before me. I took a look at previous posts and didn't really get the information i was looking for.

I have read through the guide to online play and am working my way through the PFS GMing 101 PDF. But i need to know a few things about running scenarios.

I have seem people suggesting First steps, but everything in that line with the exception of the first PDF appears to be discontinued, which means that it cannot be run for credit... i think... Is it still a good place to start? What scenarios do you use to start out a brand new pathfinder group?

Thanks in advance for all the help.

Silver Crusade 4/5 5/55/55/5

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Try reading through this thread on the best scenario for new Society players. It should work pretty well for the inverse, too.

5/5 5/55/55/5

TheCedict wrote:

Hi Everybody!

First off, let me apologize for posting this as i am know many have before me.

No problem.

Have you played PFS before? There's a guide and everything but it really, really helps if you've seen pfs

Quote:

I have seem people suggesting First steps, but everything in that line with the exception of the first PDF appears to be discontinued, which means that it cannot be run for credit... i think... Is it still a good place to start? What scenarios do you use to start out a brand new pathfinder group?

its still a good place to start.

I like to go

First steps (you're pathfinder trainees doing erands around town)
Wounded wisp (you're on an actual mission in absolom)
Confirmation: Your first real mission in the real world! Field trip!

3/5

BigNorseWolf wrote:
TheCedict wrote:

Hi Everybody!

First off, let me apologize for posting this as i am know many have before me.

No problem.

Have you played PFS before? There's a guide and everything but it really, really helps if you've seen pfs

Quote:

I have seem people suggesting First steps, but everything in that line with the exception of the first PDF appears to be discontinued, which means that it cannot be run for credit... i think... Is it still a good place to start? What scenarios do you use to start out a brand new pathfinder group?

its still a good place to start.

I like to go

First steps (you're pathfinder trainees doing erands around town)
Wounded wisp (you're on an actual mission in absolom)
Confirmation: Your first real mission in the real world! Field trip!

I have played a lot of Pathfinder, but never PFS. I have been reading through first steps and are not some of the factions no longer there?

3/5

Terminalmancer wrote:
Try reading through this thread on the best scenario for new Society players. It should work pretty well for the inverse, too.

Thanks for this, i hadn't seen it in my searches!

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

TheCedict wrote:
I have read through the guide to online play

Hey Cedict --

My name is Hilary and I'm a Venture Officer for online play. I don't know if you were specifically looking for online play, or if you had just meant that you had read the guide that was online.

Either way, welcome!

If you are looking to GM Online:

Welcome to Pathfinder Society Online! We love getting new GMs!

May I help direct you further? We have two major types of online play. If you're looking for VTT, I would love to direct you to the PFS Discord Server at PFSchat.com.

If you're looking for Play by Post, The Flaxseed Lodge and Mythweavers are the main places to go.

Any of these groups would be more than happy to help a newcomer get up and running, or you can ask questions here.

___

I think the above linked thread of scenario suggestions has a lot of great ideas for folks new to Pathfinder Society Play. When training a new GM, I often start them off on an evergreen like the Confirmation or Consortium Compact, but you can start anywhere.

We'd also be pleased to give you more of a run-down of the world of PFS, including factions and more if you'd like.

Yours,
Hmm

Scarab Sages 5/5 5/55/55/5

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A more forest than trees approach than the guide.

3/5

Flutter wrote:
A more forest than trees approach than the guide.

Thanks for the information, however i will be GMing live at a video game shop nearby. I don't think i will have time to get into an online game before i have to DM too

3/5

Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:
TheCedict wrote:
I have read through the guide to online play

Hey Cedict --

My name is Hilary and I'm a Venture Officer for online play. I don't know if you were specifically looking for online play, or if you had just meant that you had read the guide that was online.

Either way, welcome!

** spoiler omitted **

I think the above linked thread of scenario suggestions has a lot of great ideas for folks new to Pathfinder Society Play. When training a new GM, I often start them off on an evergreen like the Confirmation or Consortium Compact, but you can start anywhere.

We'd also be pleased to give you more of a run-down of the world of PFS, including factions and more if you'd like.

Yours,
Hmm

Thanks for the information, however i will be GMing live at a video game shop nearby. I don't think i will have time to get into an online game before i have to DM too. I would be glad for all the information you can give me.

Grand Lodge 3/5

As a fair novice PFS GM myself, remember a few things-

1> Have your Venture Captain's contact on hand for reporting. If you don't have a venture captain, and are doing this on your own accord, i'm sure there's a way to contact a VC in your area to help out.
2> If you plan on doing PFS regularly at the shop, talk to the manager about getting an official "Event Code" for reporting purposes.
3> Get more PFS numbers from your venture caption, so when new players are interested in joining, you can hand them out to players.
4> Before starting a session, get all player's character information (name, class/lvl, faction, PFS#)- this way, you don't have to worry about forgetting about it after you hand out chronicle sheets.

Aside from the usual Evergreens-
Consortium Compact is another that actually has the PC's in the field, doing Pathfinder stuff
There are the "quests"- Silverhex Chronicles, Phantom Phenomena, & Honour's Echo. All three are a collection of five missions that culminate in the sixth, and each of the several missions run about an hour each; nice short missions that PC's can accomplish if they don't/can't sit around for a 4+hr scenario.
these could also be used to try to entice others to try GMing.

Enjoy running the game, and remember to have fun- also, you aren't allowed to kill players unless the scenario says so.

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

Cedict --

Don't worry about online for now. I misread your post!

If there is no other PFS organizer on hand, you can always just apply for your own event code if you are running PFS regularly. Most stores want nothing to do with our reporting. They just want us to have a good time, and attract customers for them.

Hmm

5/5 5/55/55/5

Oh right. Reporting. That'll be it's own series of "how do I..."

If you don't mind us asking, where are you? Someone may be able to help.

If you need faster answers, there's a discord server full of geeks who can help you.

Things you need in order of importance

-The adventure (probably first steps)
-Dice (enough for everyone) pencils, paper
-Pregnerated characters for those not making their own. Kyra is a really good pick to heal your party, Amiri does a lot of damage. So does the slayer. harsk looks very cool but steer people away from him if you can , he is frustratingly ineffective
-copies of the chronicle sheet (the last page of the adventure)
-PFS numbers to track and record the games. Having business cards makes it look like you know what you're doing, which is especially important when you don't know what you're doing.
-A battlemat, mini's or tokens.

5/5 5/55/55/5

Step by step nuts and bolts

1) get there early. Last thing you want is people ducking in 5 minutes early seeing nothing and ducking out

2) buy something. Customers get better treatment than paperweights.

3) Get set up. Find your flat rolling surface. Get your battlemat down on the table BEFORE people start arriving with books and whatnot. Book on battlemat works better than battlemat on book. If you have multiple mats or flip mats, pre draw an encounter or two. Repeat to yourself "close enough for state work" You'll be using that a lot.

3a) Put out something that says "playing pathfinder here": a dead tree core rulebook, DM's screen, a tabletent with the PFS logo on it

4) Eat if you're going to. Players can scarf while you're talking, but you talk alot, so that doesn't work as well for you

4 again because i forgot this) Talk with the players especially if you don't know them. Figure out if they're new to pathfinder, new to pfs, new to role playing games or if they have any experience with it, what they look for in a game (hack and slash, high drama etc). Give everyone a pfs number,Write everyone's PFS number and character name down. There's an official sign in sheet but any piece of paper will work: I use a harry potter hufflepuff journal as an entire book is harder for me to lose than a piece of paper (not impossible just harder). Get everyone's email or some way of communicating with each other: ie a facebook page, meetup,

5) The adventure starts with a blurb. Your first time, i'd just read it, in a voice if you can imagine. Amrbus Valsin does first steps, I usually do him as a nicer version of Lee Harvey Emmery. Hold up a picture of the npc as you're running so they can see who they're talking too.

"REEECRUITS!

6) Run the adventure. for this one put out a map of absolom so people can see the city. If they dither too long trying to figure out the shortest route, just tell them the shortest route is the order presented in the scenario ( as the order actually has no impact on getting the scenario done by sundown)

7) Ambrus valsin, Guaril Karella, Zarta draleen, and Anemopheuous are especially important as they are important members of the grand lodge, the exchange, the dark archives, and Scarab Sages. If a PC hits it off well with any them, encourage them to join that faction.

8) The last fight is particularly tricky: in fact its one of the more complicated and table variation fights I've seen in PFS. Its also counter intuitive as the NPCs are messing each other up and getting in each others way: the archer can't shoot very well into the mist. The halfling barbarian has a well earned reputation for killing people with a badly (well?) time crit. you're not allowed to fudge dice in pfs but *cough cough roll behind the screen cough cough*

9) read the denumont/end of the adventure: this one is fortunate that it comes with one. Congratulate everyone on becoming official pathfinders.

10) Chat, clean up, make plans for next time, slowly come back to reality, clean up,

11) You don't have to report that night. Most reporting seems to take place within about a week as standard. But if you're dead tired and it's late do it tomorrow, especially as you'll be cursing out the reporting system for doing something weird...

Grand Lodge 4/5

TheCedict wrote:
I have been reading through first steps and are not some of the factions no longer there?

Equivalent factions are on page 11 of the RPG Guild Guide 8.0. For First Steps Part 1 they are

  • Getting Started, Ambrus Valsin: Grand Lodge (unchanged)
  • Act 1, Guaril Karela: The Exchange
  • Act 2, Ollysta Zadrian: Silver Crusade (unchanged)
  • Act 3, Amenopheus: Scarab Sages
  • Act 4, Zarta Dralneen: Dark Archive

Liberty's Edge 4/5

You might try the 6-10 Wounded Wisp. It's a good scenario for new players.

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