Guide 6.0 and Changes to Pathfinder Society Organized Play

Without a boon that states otherwise, a PC cannot earn Sczarni vanities or boons.

So the Stranger Within scenario I registered to play at GenCon that is for Sczarni won't have a boon available on the chronicle sheet? That sucks. :(

Very minor note to an otherwise great guide: Page 33 details how to play older scenarios with regards to factions, but does so with the factions from season 5. (e.g. "Sczarni faction PCs should treat Taldor faction missions as their own for all Season 0, 1, and 2 scenarios" rather than what The Exchange should do.) I assume this is just leftover from the last guide, but thought I'd point it out.

It is! It's available now "Pathfinder Society: GM Star Reward Chronicle Sheets (PDF)"

Go to GM Star Reward Chronicle Sheets..

Wrong Chronicle.

I meant the one that allows you to refresh your GM stars (that's being offered at GenCon).

Ahh no luck for me then, I can't make the US this year.

Perhaps the boon will make it to other Conventions for us distantly challenged folks!

That's what I was mentioning earlier.

I GM at least 3 slots at every Convention I go to, and I'm almost up to 150 games GMed (still need 5 specials, though), so I'd like to start using those stars for replays.

I might be able to go to GenCon next year, but I live in California, and the cost is just really prohibitive.

I believe in the know direction podcast they said it would be an easy to get convention boon, which sounds to me like "dm at convention, get boon"

p.28, Glitches, 2nd paragraph: "When a timeworn technological item is first in a scenario". I assume a "used" is missing.
Everything else I noticed was already mentioned.

It's too bad the GM star replays won't reset each year. Our VC and VLs have been telling our GMs for the last year to plan for them resetting. Because of that, we've had a couple GMs waste their credit on scenarios they didn't plan to replay, but wanted to help fill a table.

I think it also hurts the incentive for welcoming new GMs. More options to replay something was very enticing. I'd be curious to hear why the decision was made to keep them one-time uses, apart from the convention boons mentioned in the Know Direction podcast. Some extra info on the convention boons would be helpful too. (Are they available the same way as other con boons or only to those GMing at a con?)

So after reading the guide, I can not tell. Given that leaving Factions is being forced, in some cases. Do we still lose Prestige awards we have already purchased? Example: Does my Qadiran Trade Prince lose the Trade Prince Prestige Award when I go to the Exchange? What if I switch to a different faction? I get why we lose this stuff when we change Factions by choice, but this is not a choice, and it would really suck to lose the Prestige I spent on this. Just trying to understand. If someone can point me to a page in the guide, or a quote on the boards, that makes it more clear that would be awesome.

I can honestly say that if I lose Trade Prince and receive nothing in return I will seriously reconsider any Faction specific Prestige purchases in the future, as they would then be only temporary bonuses. This would definitely put a damper on my enthusiasm for the new Factions.

The convention boon idea is nice but not everyone goes to conventions. Not to mention that it seems that this might require a boon that is so rare that you gotta go to PaizoCon or GenCon to get it which pretty much makes it useless. My local VC was also implying a reset as well.

Clarification:

Quote:

Note that not every technological item is timeworn, but

most technology that PCs encounter outside of the most
remote of Numerian ruins will be. These items function
normally, can be recharged, and do not suffer glitches.

I assume this is meant to read as:

Items that are not timeworn function normally, can be recharged, and do not suffer glitches. However most items the PCs encounter outside the most remote of Numerian ruins will be timeworn.

The way it is written now it sounds like:

Note that not every technological item is timeworn, but most technology that PCs encounter outside of the most remote of Numerian ruins will be. These (timeworn) items function normally, can be recharged, and do not suffer glitches.

Which makes no sense.

Your assumed revision is the correct interpretation, and I will need to revise that text in the Guide.

As others have noted above based on an interview I gave several months ago, the recharging of GM star replays is tied to one of the boons for this year. The boon allows one to recharge these replay opportunities based on the number of games one GMs after receiving the boon. In essence, perpetuating the reward is tied to continuing to be an active GM.

Well, I hope Strategicon GMs get access to it! :)

*he said not at all selfishly*

I just went back to have a look at the faction symbols after seeing the complaints.

Not sure what's wrong with them, I think they look fine.

The Dark Archives' one represents power coming from the books, not burning of the books.

As others have noted above based on an interview I gave several months ago, the recharging of GM star replays is tied to one of the boons for this year. The boon allows one to recharge these replay opportunities based on the number of games one GMs after receiving the boon. In essence, perpetuating the reward is tied to continuing to be an active GM.

Is it a 'Con boon' or a GENcon boon'?

Andrei Buters is still a VL in Australia-Melbourne (alongside Jena Wills). Missing on page 44!

Not digging the new Faction symbols. Darkives in particular, all about uncovering hidden knowledge and their symbol is burning books??? Liberty's Edge, is very, very "meh". Not sure what the Sovereign Court has to do with their symbol? It sort of seems mix of the newer Andoran faction symbol and something that suggests Tian Xia.

Just some of my thoughts on the new logos and some suggestions on how to improve them:

I have to agree with the several other people who have brought it up already but I am a bit. . . offput. . . by the new faction symbols. Hopefully they are just temporary mock-ups or something. I actually think Darkives looks the coolest, even if Beckett doesn't think it's a good representation of the faction. Darkives is the one symbol I'm actually ok with, although if he or someone else can come up with a more appropriate symbol I wouldn't cry over seeing the current one go.

Liberty's Edge seems very tacky and the color scheme is too bright/too neon. If you're going to stick with that symbol (and I don't have a problem of the sword and shackle), use a natural color scheme or at the very least not highlighter yellow.

The Exchange uses an actual bag o' cash as their symbol? That one is the most hokey I think. The scale would be fine on its own but the money-bag is just too Monopoly Guy for me. Either just the scale or something new entirely; they're not bank robbers carrying bags of cash from their most recent steal.

Scarab Sages is fine but the colors need to be tweaked to be a little less neon. I'm sure you were trying to distance it from the red scarab of Osirion but the current color scheme is too funky. If the color scheme were adjusted I think this logo would be fine. Even if it is very similar to Osirion's symbol, that's unavoidable as the Jeweled Sages were from Osirion.

Sovereign Court's symbol looks neat but I was also confused at first; I caught the 'rising from the ashes' Taldor reference, as someone pointed out, but I thought we were trying to get away from nation-based factions? The phoenix rising from the ashes is too closely associated with Taldor and the Sovereign Court is supposed to represent nobility everywhere. Maybe you should take a page from The Exchange's book and make the symbol a monocle. . . jk. I'm not sure what to suggest for this one though but I'm sure the community could think of something clever.

As others have noted above based on an interview I gave several months ago, the recharging of GM star replays is tied to one of the boons for this year. The boon allows one to recharge these replay opportunities based on the number of games one GMs after receiving the boon. In essence, perpetuating the reward is tied to continuing to be an active GM.

So long as this is a boon available for everyone, and isn't tied to conventions, I'm okay with that; heck, I can even get behind that.

But if it requires attending a convention to acquire, then you've gone from having the appearance of ignoring non-convention going GMs to actively taking rewards away from them, and seeing as it's local game days that keep people interested in the campaign in between conventions, they deserve better than that. Without these game day events, people would lose interest in the campaign, and convention play would be a mere shadow of what it is now.

I feel like the faction icons were designed to be readable when reduced to 20px x 20px next to your name on the forum.

Removed a post. Paizo doesn't hate fun. We keep things out that don't fit PFS play. Luckily, you can enjoy that option in a home game.

If I may ask in a less belligerent way, then: was the Nanite bloodline barred because of its mechanical aspects or because of its theme?

No more Pageant of the Peacock shenanigans, at least that is one less headache to try to adjudicate.

Out of curiosity, what are "Pageant of Peacock shenanigans"?

Stars are still useless, and I'm not sure yet how I feel about the faction changes, but neither of these things are news.

glass.

Fomsie wrote:

No more Pageant of the Peacock shenanigans, at least that is one less headache to try to adjudicate.

Out of curiosity, what are "Pageant of Peacock shenanigans"?

Stars are still useless, and I'm not sure yet how I feel about the faction changes, but neither of these things are news.

glass.

Pagentry of the Peacock

There's some sneaky cleverness in this in that you can use the bard's Versatile Performance to run your Bluff off of your Perform skill and get items, traits, feats, ect. to jack your Perform skill up very high.

In conjunction with the aforementioned above, a player could essentially max out all knowledge plus social skills with just only one skill. It also opened up options of being able to take archtypes that traded out Bardic Knowledge with virtually little to no drawback.

It seems enough of a stir was made about it and so it's been banned.

If someone wanted to run modules from the previous season which allowed aasimars and tieflings, how could they find out what was allowed then?

Is there an archive for these guides?

Better still, is there somewhere a master guide which separates the restrictions for PFS from the restrictions for PFS for any particular season?

Richard

Looking forward to the new scenarios :)

If someone wanted to run modules from the previous season which allowed aasimars and tieflings, how could they find out what was allowed then?

Is there an archive for these guides?

Better still, is there somewhere a master guide which separates the restrictions for PFS from the restrictions for PFS for any particular season?

Richard

Ummm. Scenarios follow the rules in force at the time the scenario is run, not when it was created. The only exception to that is for Season 0 scenarios, which have instructions for when and how you can update the monsters from 3.5 to PF versions.

As long as the Aasimar or Tiefling PC has at least one XP from before AUgust 14th, they are legal to run as an Aasimar or Tiefling, based on what they were at the time that final pre-GenCOn 2014 XP was earned.

So after reading the guide, I can not tell. Given that leaving Factions is being forced, in some cases. Do we still lose Prestige awards we have already purchased? Example: Does my Qadiran Trade Prince lose the Trade Prince Prestige Award when I go to the Exchange? What if I switch to a different faction? I get why we lose this stuff when we change Factions by choice, but this is not a choice, and it would really suck to lose the Prestige I spent on this. Just trying to understand. If someone can point me to a page in the guide, or a quote on the boards, that makes it more clear that would be awesome.

I can honestly say that if I lose Trade Prince and receive nothing in return I will seriously reconsider any Faction specific Prestige purchases in the future, as they would then be only temporary bonuses. This would definitely put a damper on my enthusiasm for the new Factions.

I would also like an answer to this question, I was considering some faction changes and will be playing at Gencon, so I would like some clairification on how these changes will effect current vanities.

Andrei Buters is still a VL in Australia-Melbourne (alongside Jena Wills). Missing on page 44!

Nope! As of the new guide I'm back in with the field troops! No more Officer's perks for me.

I am really, REALLY excited about timeworn devices. Maybe it's just because I'm a Rod of Wonder fan, but I love magical items that make you roll a 1d100 when you use them. Pew pew!

I actively dislike the new Faction logos. They aren't really up to the standard that's been set in the past. It would be great if a dedicated graphic designer could redesign these. Right now they're not cutting the mustard. Heck, I'd do it myself for free if I thought it'd get somewhere. Without getting into details, I think they could all go back to the drawing board.

Michael Brock wrote:

Removed a post. Paizo doesn't hate fun. We keep things out that don't fit PFS play. Luckily, you can enjoy that option in a home game.

If I may ask in a less belligerent way, then: was the Nanite bloodline barred because of its mechanical aspects or because of its theme?

Mostly because of its theme.

Fomsie wrote:

No more Pageant of the Peacock shenanigans, at least that is one less headache to try to adjudicate.

Out of curiosity, what are "Pageant of Peacock shenanigans"?

Stars are still useless, and I'm not sure yet how I feel about the faction changes, but neither of these things are news.

glass.

So the bonus to rerolls, as well as the only way to currently replay one to five favorite scenarios above first level is useless? So noted.

glass wrote:

Stars are still useless, and I'm not sure yet how I feel about the faction changes, but neither of these things are news.

So the bonus to rerolls, as well as the only way to currently replay one to five favorite scenarios above first level is useless? So noted.

If anyone isn't aware, there's also the GM Star Reward Chronicle Sheets.

But if it requires attending a convention to acquire, then you've gone from having the appearance of ignoring non-convention going GMs to actively taking rewards away from them,

How can you take something away that wasn't owned in the first place?

Speaking of Australia and venture officers, Canberra's VC, Ben Jordan, is listed as a VL.

glass wrote:

Fomsie wrote:

No more Pageant of the Peacock shenanigans, at least that is one less headache to try to adjudicate.

Out of curiosity, what are "Pageant of Peacock shenanigans"?

Stars are still useless, and I'm not sure yet how I feel about the faction changes, but neither of these things are news.

glass.

So the bonus to rerolls, as well as the only way to currently replay one to five favorite scenarios above first level is useless? So noted.

While I wouldn't say useless (looking forward to Bonekeep rd. 2 soon, to get even!), I do hope that the star recharge boon will be made more widely available than just convention play.

I'm a pretty dedicated local player and have recently made the shift to GMing (it's good fun and our lodge recently lost 3 regular GMs and so can use the support). Having the recharge more readily available would definitely help with mustering. For example, I've had at least one game day in the last month where players unsigned day of and I lost the roll-off with my fellow GM to see who faced the "replay or go home" choice. It would be nice, in that sort of situation, to have a less-scarce way to replay. It would be nice to be able to tap that resource to help the support the lodge instead of hoarding it for personal goals like Bonekeep.

Enjoy GenCon! :-)

But if it requires attending a convention to acquire, then you've gone from having the appearance of ignoring non-convention going GMs to actively taking rewards away from them, and seeing as it's local game days that keep people interested in the campaign in between conventions, they deserve better than that. Without these game day events, people would lose interest in the campaign, and convention play would be a mere shadow of what it is now.

I will agree with you that the GMs in the trenches who are running regular games in their communities are the lifeblood of this campaign; but just because I don't have the same toys as everybody else doesn't mean I'm not having fun in the playground. As a non-convention going GM I feel as though I am well compensated through GM Credit and the boons I earn from running and participating in the online game day events. I have yet to use a GM star to replay a scenario, I haven't applied the GM Star Chronicle to any of my characters, and I always forget to make use of my rerolls; so I'm not even utilizing everything that is being offered to me.

There is always an opportunity to lament about what I don't have; but that tends to make me sad and miserable. I find I'm in much better spirits if I appreciate what I do have. If all else fails...there's always beer.

How do the new factions interact with season 5 rewards? Say I play The Glass River Rescue, would a Scarab Sage PC qualify for the Osirion reward?

How do the new factions interact with season 5 rewards? Say I play The Glass River Rescue, would a Scarab Sage PC qualify for the Osirion reward?

It's on page 18, top-right.

Liberty’s Edge faction PCs qualify for Andoran faction vanities and mission boons available in past seasons. Likewise, Dark Archive faction PCs qualify for Cheliax rewards, Scarab Sages as Osirion, The Exchange as Qadira, and Sovereign Court as Taldor. Without a boon that states otherwise, a PC cannot earn Sczarni vanities or boons.

(Not to stay off-topic, but I should note that my post above is *not* intended to express concern about feeling unrewarded for GMing. I enjoy running games and would do it without any additional reward beyond GM credit. My concern is just that having easier access to replay for GMs would help handle the sorts of situations that come up when seating tables, the sort of thing I described above.)

New topic. I'm disappointed to see that the discrepancy between pregen credit and GM credit—that you can assign pregen credit to a lvl 1 but not GM credit—was not ironed out for this season.

If there's a benefit to the society in keeping GMs from applying their GM credit to a lvl 1, I don't see it. (Which isn't to say there isn't one!)

The game and the organized play rules are already complex enough. So unless there is some significant benefit here that I'm not seeing, wouldn't it be better to avoid having one more tiny distinction to remember? The two "credit holding" systems are pretty much the same otherwise, so why not standardize in the interest of simplifying wherever possible?

Speaking for myself, if I run a high-tier scenario and don't have a character in-tier, I'd much rather be able to apply that chronicle to a new lvl 1 than bother holding it until I get my next guy up to level.

Mike, John: I don't know if the post-GenCon touch-ups will go beyond typos etc., but if they do I'd be delighted to see this issue addressed. (Assuming my case here is more or less on-target, and there's not a consideration here I'm missing.)

And if not this year, maybe next year!

:-)

If anyone isn't aware, there's also the GM Star Reward Chronicle Sheets.

They're a little meh.

Rolling a check with only a +2-4 isn't all that likely to succeed anyway.

The one use Filigree *drinks* item activates when you go below 0, not when you die, and you can't chose to activate it or not. At best, you're probably going to go into the negatives and it will save a team mate from having to stabalize you. At worst, you will drop to -5, be put back up to 5 and then be hit again, this time to death.

A little elemental resist is ok.

Having the fame score for an item isn't an issue at level 7, You can get some good partially charged wands by playing/dming the right scenarios.

Star 5 almost has a convention requirement anyway, and if you really like one of those spells you could just play that race anyway (since the boon is limited to the core races)

If there's a benefit to the society in keeping GMs from applying their GM credit to a lvl 1, I don't see it. (Which isn't to say there isn't one!)

I assume it's so they can't cherry-pick the high level boons they get (like that ioun stone with the free feat, or that free single item worth 1500 gp or less).

It's just hilarious to me that everyone playing "The Paths We Choose", which "contributes directly to the ongoing storylines of the Andoran, Cheliax, Osirion, Qadira, Sczarni, and Taldor Factions" will not be one of those factions, and won't even get to play this before choosing their next faction.

Joe M. wrote:

If there's a benefit to the society in keeping GMs from applying their GM credit to a lvl 1, I don't see it. (Which isn't to say there isn't one!)

I assume it's so they can't cherry-pick the high level boons they get (like that ioun stone with the free feat, or that free single item worth 1500 gp or less).

That might be a concern, sure. I'm not sure how much weight I'd give it in the balancing, myself, between (i) general trust that GMs will play nice (which the system already runs on to a large extent) and (ii) the boon-holding bit of the pregen credit hold rules.

You may also opt instead to apply the Chronicle sheets earned with a non-1st-level pregenerated character to a 1st-level character with the amount of gp gained reduced to 500 gp (or 250 gp for characters using the slow advancement track). You do not lose access to any of the Prestige Points, or items listed on the Chronicle sheets that were earned during the adventure. However, any boons must wait to be utilized until the character is of the same subtier on the Chronicle sheet unless otherwise noted ...

I guess it doesn't strike me as a serious problem with standardizing the systems if some GMs would sometimes cherry-pick boons to kick in at certain levels. Especially since we can already do that under the current system!

But I'll let the question drop for now and bring it up in the PFS forum post-GenCon.

:-)

The GM stars and the replays connected to them as well as the GM star chronicle sheet are something very appreciated over here and far from useless.

I´m really looking forward to play Bonekeep 2 with one of my own characters instead of a pregen hopefully soon!

Also, i love the layout and graphic style as well as the portraits. Especially the female barbarian on page 14 i think. Finally a realistic one with impressive muscles!

glass wrote:

Fomsie wrote:

No more Pageant of the Peacock shenanigans, at least that is one less headache to try to adjudicate.

Out of curiosity, what are "Pageant of Peacock shenanigans"?

Stars are still useless, and I'm not sure yet how I feel about the faction changes, but neither of these things are news.

glass.

So the bonus to rerolls, as well as the only way to currently replay one to five favorite scenarios above first level is useless? So noted.

It's not useless. I'd run without any perks, myself.

glass wrote:

Stars are still useless, and I'm not sure yet how I feel about the faction changes, but neither of these things are news.

So the bonus to rerolls, as well as the only way to currently replay one to five favorite scenarios above first level is useless? So noted.

Please also note that (most) of us love the GM rewards you've come up with.

Please don't let one outspoken grape impact your feelings about the bunch.

"Me too!"

I also don't think the GM stars awards are useless. Indeed, when I got my first star (and perhaps second?), I don't know if the "bonus on reroll" rule wasn't in place yet, or if I just didn't know about it, but other than bragging rights there were no real perks. (The replay rule came later.) I still liked it just for bragging rights. (Which, if you are looking at this from the perspective of somebody who is outside the toleplaying gamer community altogether, is probably pretty bizarre and pathetic, but, hey, we're all in it together here!) The little extra perks are nice. I haven't used any GM star replays yet (I'm hoarding them), but I have used the bonus-on-reroll. And, hey, if it's worth casting Bless for plus one, it's certainly worth a free +2 or +3 just because you've GMed a bunch of games that you did for fun anyway.

Paz wrote:

If anyone isn't aware, there's also the GM Star Reward Chronicle Sheets.

They're a little meh.

Rolling a check with only a +2-4 isn't all that likely to succeed anyway.

The one use Filigree *drinks* item activates when you go below 0, not when you die, and you can't chose to activate it or not. At best, you're probably going to go into the negatives and it will save a team mate from having to stabalize you. At worst, you will drop to -5, be put back up to 5 and then be hit again, this time to death.

A little elemental resist is ok.

Having the fame score for an item isn't an issue at level 7, You can get some good partially charged wands by playing/dming the right scenarios.

Star 5 almost has a convention requirement anyway, and if you really like one of those spells you could just play that race anyway (since the boon is limited to the core races)

There's actually two more pages in that file. Personally I think the other two are cooler.

I'm a pretty dedicated local player and have recently made the shift to GMing (it's good fun and our lodge recently lost 3 regular GMs and so can use the support).

Sorry!

There's actually two more pages in that file. Personally I think the other two are cooler.

Most of the rewards overlap, and come on, who can resist a boon that says Aram Zey won't insult you publically? :)