Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play: Guide 5.0 and Changes to Organized Play

Thanks!

Edit: yes, it looks good now. Thanks again.

If this thread has taught me anything it is that many of the pfs 5 star gm's make truly terrible ambassadors for the game.

Still royally confused about faction missions.

The primary and secondary success conditions grant 1 Prestige Point
each, for a maximum total of 2 Prestige Points.

A free, supplementary document available for download at
paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/pfsproducts/pfsFreeProducts
details the secondary success condition for each scenario.

If I understand this correctly, I now have to look up secondary success conditions separately to figure out if a second prestige point is to be awarded or not? Really?

To boot, I dont see any such document at the supplied location, unless I'm just blind.

If I understand this correctly, I now have to look up secondary success conditions separately to figure out if a second prestige point is to be awarded or not? Really?

Correct. Each scenario will have a primary and secondary condition clearly listed to eliminate table variation with regards to the requirements for earning Prestige Points.

To boot, I dont see any such document at the supplied location, unless I'm just blind.

This is the number-one priority after everyone gets back in the office from Gen Con. Until then, see this post from John clarifying how to handle the distribution of Prestige Points in pre-Season 5 scenarios prior to that document's release.

As has already been stated by John. The document mentioned is only for previous seasons and it will be made available sometime shortly after Gen Con. Until it is available I believe he said award 1 prestige for if they gain an XP and 1 for completing the scenario objective. His actual quote is upthread I believe, but I don't have time to find and link it.

Edit ninjaed by Mark

This is the number-one priority after everyone gets back in the office from Gen Con. Until then, see this post from John clarifying how to handle the distribution of Prestige Points in pre-Season 5 scenarios prior to that document's release.

Mark, I just read that post and either I'm very dense or just not getting it.

I am running a season 0 on Thursday. It says that faction missions are no longer giving credit, but then describes performing faction missions and provides no indication of what the secondary objective is for the season 0.

What am I missing?

Secondary missions will be available on the web at the location indicated in the Guide (if you download the version of the Guide that came out today).

They aren't there yet. Until such a time as they show up, just award 1 prestige point if the characters try the scenario, and a second prestige point if they complete the primary goal.

Once, presumably in the next week or two, the secondary goals for all the scenarios show up, you will award the first prestige point for completion of the primary mission, and one prestige point for the secondary mission that's listed in that online document.

Faction missions from seasons 0-4 are not necessary for prestige points. You don't even have to use them; if you do, you will be using them just for roleplaying purposes.

They aren't there yet. Until such a time as they show up, just award 1 prestige point if the characters try the scenario, and a second prestige point if they complete the primary goal.

More accurately, award 1 Prestige Point is the characters complete enough of the scenario to earn them 1 XP, and a second Prestige Point if they complete the adventure (and in doing so carry out the primary goal of the scenario as indicated in the mission briefing).

Bummer. The index still doesn't list the page number for the retraining rules.

From my understanding, anything in the Core Assumption can be used without having to bring a proof of ownership, while anything in the Additional Resources can only be used if proof of ownership is available.

Which means that all these characters out there with things from the PFS Field Guide (such as the Agile enchantment) will be illegal from August the 15th (Gen Con) unless the player has a proof of ownership of the Field Guide.

I expect a sharp increase in sales for the Field Guide.

We have updated the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play (PFRPG) PDF with minor editorial changes.

In order to simplify the updating of the french translation, is there a place where I can find what has been corrected in today's new "reprint" of the PFS Guide 5.0 ?

I see that you have corrected this typo:

Page 32: Because the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign
has evolved over its lifetime, some small adjustments
need to be made when running scenarios from ** Seasons
0–2 ** under the current rules. Below are instructions for
converting Scenarios #0–1 to #4–26.

The latest PFS Guide now correctly mentions "Seasons 0-4"

More accurately, award 1 Prestige Point is the characters complete enough of the scenario to earn them 1 XP, and a second Prestige Point if they complete the adventure (and in doing so carry out the primary goal of the scenario as indicated in the mission briefing).

I'm running a season 3 scenario this weekend at my FLGS and I'd like to make sure that I've got this right. If the PCs complete 3 encounters they get an XP and a PP. If they complete the society mission then they get a second PP.

But this is just the transitional guidelines. At some unspecified point in the near future one PP will be granted for completing the society mission, and a second for doing whatever is indicated in some document that will be available from paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/pfsproducts/pfsFreeProducts.

Does this sound right? If so, getting 2 PP/scenario sounds nearly automatic and the factions are irrelevant during the transition. But considering how many moving parts there are, things like this are expected.

Mark Moreland wrote:

More accurately, award 1 Prestige Point is the characters complete enough of the scenario to earn them 1 XP, and a second Prestige Point if they complete the adventure (and in doing so carry out the primary goal of the scenario as indicated in the mission briefing).

I'm running a season 3 scenario this weekend at my FLGS and I'd like to make sure that I've got this right. If the PCs complete 3 encounters they get an XP and a PP. If they complete the society mission then they get a second PP.

But this is just the transitional guidelines. At some unspecified point in the near future one PP will be granted for completing the society mission, and a second for doing whatever is indicated in some document that will be available from paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/pfsproducts/pfsFreeProducts.

Does this sound right? If so, getting 2 PP/scenario sounds nearly automatic and the factions are irrelevant during the transition. But considering how many moving parts there are, things like this are expected.

This is exactly what I understand now.

If I understand this correctly, I now have to look up secondary success conditions separately to figure out if a second prestige point is to be awarded or not? Really?

Since the document will only cover previously-published scenarios (S0-S4), you can download it once, keep it with your game prep stuff, and always have it handy.

Any bets on what the secondary objectives will be? I think some of them should be stupidly obvious, though. ie In any scenario that has slaves, Andoran faction members have to free at least 3 of them (or all of them, if there's less than 3), Silver Crusaders should help the innocent, and adhere closely to a good alignment, etc.

Probably asked before, but does the "transitional" period rules for prestige apply to Eyes of the Ten? I ask because we will be doing parts 3 and 4 during this period.

Any bets on what the secondary objectives will be? I think some of them should be stupidly obvious, though. ie In any scenario that has slaves, Andoran faction members have to free at least 3 of them (or all of them, if there's less than 3), Silver Crusaders should help the innocent, and adhere closely to a good alignment, etc.

The secondary objectives will not generally be faction based, but rather will be tied to the main mission.

Fromper wrote:

Any bets on what the secondary objectives will be? I think some of them should be stupidly obvious, though. ie In any scenario that has slaves, Andoran faction members have to free at least 3 of them (or all of them, if there's less than 3), Silver Crusaders should help the innocent, and adhere closely to a good alignment, etc.

The secondary objectives will not generally be faction based, but rather will be tied to the main mission.

In season 5+ scenarios, yes. But I'm talking about seasons 0-4.

Probably asked before, but does the "transitional" period rules for prestige apply to Eyes of the Ten? I ask because we will be doing parts 3 and 4 during this period.

I'm taking a GUESS here, but I would believe faction missions still need to be done for EOTT.

Cire wrote:

Probably asked before, but does the "transitional" period rules for prestige apply to Eyes of the Ten? I ask because we will be doing parts 3 and 4 during this period.

I'm taking a GUESS here, but I would believe faction missions still need to be done for EOTT.

Given the pivotal role the faction missions play in certain parts of the overall story, I'd have to agree. Besides, the Taldor mission in part 3 is one of the all time greatest faction missions.

I searched the thread, but there doesn't seem to be a link to this "change log". I really don't want to download the new version and read every single line, comparing it to the older version I already have. Is there a link for the change log, or is the information located within the new version itself and I should just download it?

Or should I just roll 3 d256's to determine the change log's IP address?

The new Guide has a change log as part of the download. When you unzip the download, the Guide and change log are separate files.

Thanks!

I really don't want to download the new version and read every single line, comparing it to the older version I already have.

You are expected to have access to, and have read, the most recent version of the Guide. If you had downloaded the guide, you would have seen the changelog provided for your convenience.

Yesssss...but for the initial comparison, to check on the changes...it's easiest to look for a change log...and there have been numerous OTHER publications in the history of the written word that, since the inception of the internet, have printed up such a document separately from the actual document that's been changed. That's kind of the advantage of electronic print media: You don't have to slowly sift through things, line by line, or post by post. Just do a quick search, click a url, and get on with one's real life...

Yesssss...but for the initial comparison, to check on the changes...it's easiest to look for a change log...

And now you don't have to. It's right there. :)