Guide 6.0 and Changes to Pathfinder Society Organized Play

If I got a tattoo of the Glyph of the Open Road, could I get free rerolls?!

If I got a tattoo of the Glyph of the Open Road, could I get free rerolls?!

No, but I'll give you geek of the year award ... and that's a good thing, AFAIC

Its somewhere you can show in public right? Because we're not taking your word for it.

Its somewhere you can show in public right? Because we're not taking your word for it.

if it''s not where he can show it in public, I DON'T want him to show it to us...

blackbloodtroll wrote:

They make great capes!

I've never actually required that the players wear them for the re-roll, just present them. When I play PFS, I'm often coming right from work where I'm required to be in shirt and tie, and I just keep the shirt with my gaming stuff in my car. I haven't had a GM yet who's given me grief for not physically wearing the shirt, and if they did I'd put it on over what I was currently wearing, make my re-roll, and then take it right off.

We have a couple of people with T-shirts. The rerolls often gets shared. Local rule is, if you lend the t-shirt reroll to others, the other persone has to wear the t-shirt like a hat.

Because of hilarious reasons.

You are supposed to wear the shirt, and if you have a folio you are supposed to have it filled out, and on the table.

The idea here is marketing.

That being said, our Lodge is pretty close, and if you say you have a reroll, we trust you.

And one player in our region does have a tattoo of the Paizo goblin. We give him rerolls =D

if you have a folio you are supposed to have it filled out, and on the table.

You're supposed to have it on the table, and it's nice if you're using it for the PC you're playing, but you're not obliged to have it filled in at all.

Nefreet wrote:

if you have a folio you are supposed to have it filled out, and on the table.

You're supposed to have it on the table, and it's nice if you're using it for the PC you're playing, but you're not obliged to have it filled in at all.

This.

Also want to say that the Folio does make a great Character Sheet. It's the most awesome thing that I bought completely by accident (as part of the RPG subscription).

Because I have the PDF, so I print out a fresh one for each character -- I can't imagine trying to shoehorn all that info into just one or two sheets.

You are supposed to wear the shirt, and if you have a folio you are supposed to have it filled out, and on the table.

The idea here is marketing.

Not quite right. The folio has to be on the table, but it doesn't have to be filled out (cite: Mike Brock, in this post).

Shirts do have to be 'worn', but some leeway is expected. Nobody wants to sit next to the guy wearing his one and only eligible shirt for the fourth straight day at a convention.

Tony Lindman wrote:

richard develyn wrote:

Then I don't understand why things come and go from being legal.

I had always imagined that the PFS restrictions weren't season related. We actually use the PFS restrictions for our non-PFS campaign as a way of imposing a sanity check, or a power-check, on Pathfinder characters.

I don't understand why it should be illegal in a week's time to create an Aasimar or Tiefling for some of the last season's scenarios, but it's ok now.

But then maybe I just don't understand PFS.

Richard

I think maybe you are just not understanding exactly what is happening.

Aasimar and Tiefling characters were not initially available at all. They were opened via special boons, then later made always available. That is where we are now.

As of the start of the season on Thursday, Aasimar and Tieflings go back to being only available by boon *for creation of new characters*. Existing characters that have been played at least once prior to Thursday will be allowed to continue with no changes or restrictions. The only change is that no *new* characters of those races will be allowed without a boon.

It has nothing to do with what season's scenarios you are running. A lot of people are quickly making new characters to run before Thursday to "lock in" the special races, but again it has to do with the current date, not the scenario being run.

Does that help?

It does, thank you - I do understand it better. As you say, people are getting around it by creating their aasimar and tiefling characters now, but I guess the reason for making this change must be as a way to throttle back particular races.

Richard

Yeah it helps boost attendance at events if they throttle who and how many can play what. This works if your solely pfs as if that's your bag you will attend events to open up options, feats, bonuses etc. Not all things banned in PFS are due to power a lot are banned due to theme, mistake and/or class feature encroachment.

Nefreet wrote:

You are supposed to wear the shirt, and if you have a folio you are supposed to have it filled out, and on the table.

The idea here is marketing.

Not quite right. The folio has to be on the table, but it doesn't have to be filled out (cite: Mike Brock, in this post).

(I usually bring an extra one, still in the shrinkwrap, to lend out to new players if I'm playing at a low-level table).

Shirts do have to be 'worn', but some leeway is expected. Nobody wants to sit next to the guy wearing his one and only eligible shirt for the fourth straight day at a convention.

+1 to all of this (I do the same with my sealed folio).

Can I just cut the front of the shirt, and safety pin it to the back of a Jean vest, with metal studs, and still get the reroll?

Apologies if someone mentioned this already, but the section "Adapting Seasons 0-4" in Chapter 7 is outdated, including making references to Sczarni PCs.

Not digging the new Faction symbols. Darkives in particular, all about uncovering hidden knowledge and their symbol is burning books???

…

If this hasn't been mentioned before: based on what is going *into* the Dark Archive, I think the books are burning themselves!

Not quite right. The folio has to be on the table, but it doesn't have to be filled out (cite: Mike Brock, in this post).

(I usually bring an extra one, still in the shrinkwrap, to lend out to new players if I'm playing at a low-level table).

Shirts do have to be 'worn', but some leeway is expected. Nobody wants to sit next to the guy wearing his one and only eligible shirt for the fourth straight day at a convention.

I normally wear one of my GenCon volunteer shirts and lend out my folio. And since I've sold my soul to Paizo for a couple of years (and this year in HQ hunter orange) I have pleanty of shirts for now.

I also would give leeway to someone in cosplay who has a shirt with them but not on. Hasn't come up yet (unfortunately).

jealous of the orange shirts the HQ Volunteers got this year. I'll have to try and get a slot of HQ in a couple years when I can re-up my shirts

Eh.
I see the class feature encroachment and/or power creep issues, so I understand why it was done...

But, I'm still a little disappointed that "Divine Protection" was explicitly called out and denied for PFS play (it would have made my Oracle's saving throws respectable, instead of pathetic...)

Regarding magic re-roll shirts, my table policy is pretty simple: if you want a re-roll, you have to be wearing the shirt, as a shirt*, when the original roll happens. (If you just have the shirt handy, you should don it, and I can give you the re-roll onrolls you make from that point on.) For the folio, have it on the table.

Straight-forward, and abides by the language of the Guide.

* exceptions for the extreme heavy-set, for whom even the largest t-shirts are insufficient.

We can expect to see a lot of YMMV with the re-rolls allowed.

It all boils down to what the judge at the table wants, how he wants to run his table.

If he requires the player to have the Folio filled out with the PC he/she is playing (I have encountered this once) - well, he's the judge isn't he?

If he requires us to wear the shirt "normal mode", for the entire time we are at the table (see Chris above), - well, he's the judge isn't he?

It would be best if we checked before the game started, in as respectful a way as possible, to see what the judge requires, and do it his way. Whatever he says. He's the authority at his table. That way, if we can't do it his way, we know at the start and can adapt as needed (skipping our re-rolls or if it means that much to us, just excuse ourself from the table before the game starts).

The only real problem here that I can see would be if we think it works one way and it doesn't... which is what YMMV is all about.

So, to me, in my opinion as a judge, at my table, if you say...
"I've got a folio - so I can get a re-roll, right?"
or
If you have a shirt that I recognize as valid (or someone else says is valid or heck, that you even ACT like it is valid), even if you pull it out of a bag and it's still in the little triangle shrink wrap,
or
some other weird thing... ("...these little burnt scraps of cloth in this zip-lock bag are all that remain from the shirt the para-medics cut off of me last year...")

I'll give you a re-roll.

(It's better then the guy who rolls a dice I can't read if my life depended on it, and picks it up and counts to himself for 10 seconds before anouncing a number - "I rolled a nat 20").

Besides - I know you can roll just as bad with that re-roll. Seen it lots of times. Heck, done it lots of times. I'm the guy who rolled 4 nat. "1"s in a row, all with different dice.

Regarding magic re-roll shirts, my table policy is pretty simple: if you want a re-roll, you have to be wearing the shirt, as a shirt*, when the original roll happens. (If you just have the shirt handy, you should don it, and I can give you the re-roll onrolls you make from that point on.) For the folio, have it on the table.

Straight-forward, and abides by the language of the Guide.

* exceptions for the extreme heavy-set, for whom even the largest t-shirts are insufficient.

I've got one regular player who's a 9 year old girl. She might be able to wear one of the re-roll shirts as a night gown... or a dress. Her I would make an exception for also. Though I think she has a folio anyway, so it doesn't come up...

I often play for a judge who has 6 extra (still sealed) folios that he often hands out at the start of a game...

"here, you might need this later... give it back at the end of the game"

Regarding magic re-roll shirts, my table policy is pretty simple: if you want a re-roll, you have to be wearing the shirt, as a shirt*, when the original roll happens. (If you just have the shirt handy, you should don it, and I can give you the re-roll onrolls you make from that point on.) For the folio, have it on the table.

Straight-forward, and abides by the language of the Guide.

* exceptions for the extreme heavy-set, for whom even the largest t-shirts are insufficient.

My problem with this is multi-day conventions. If someone bought one shirt and hoped to use it every time they play PFS, you're saying they have to wear the same shirt multiple days in a row. That's a problem.

I can see not allowing someone to just pull the shirt out of a bag when they need the re-roll. But if someone prominently displays the shirt without actually wearing it (draped over the back of their chair, or their backpack next to the table, etc), I think that should always be enough.

We can expect to see a lot of YMMV with the re-rolls allowed.

It all boils down to what the judge at the table wants, how he wants to run his table.

If he requires the player to have the Folio filled out with the PC he/she is playing (I have encountered this once) - well, he's the judge isn't he?

Well, yes. But as a PFS judge he's expected to abide by the rules of the campaign, as clarified by the campaign staff. And Mike Brock has explicitly stated that the Folio does not need to be filled out - having it on the table is sufficient.

Yes, and everyone is expected to obey all posted speed limits...

Regarding the GM Star replay recharge.

I know several venture officers and GMs who got multiple copies at Gencon. (Just had to roll a 4 or possible crit on the first roll, and not confirm to get to choose your boon on the second roll.)

They are planning to take them home as rewards for their local GMS who didn't get to go.

Chris Mortika wrote:

Regarding magic re-roll shirts, my table policy is pretty simple: if you want a re-roll, you have to be wearing the shirt, as a shirt*, when the original roll happens. (If you just have the shirt handy, you should don it, and I can give you the re-roll onrolls you make from that point on.) For the folio, have it on the table.

Straight-forward, and abides by the language of the Guide.

* exceptions for the extreme heavy-set, for whom even the largest t-shirts are insufficient.

My problem with this is multi-day conventions. If someone bought one shirt and hoped to use it every time they play PFS, you're saying they have to wear the same shirt multiple days in a row. That's a problem.

I can see not allowing someone to just pull the shirt out of a bag when they need the re-roll. But if someone prominently displays the shirt without actually wearing it (draped over the back of their chair, or their backpack next to the table, etc), I think that should always be enough.

Me, I do not care. You have to have the shirt on you somehow. I do not care if you drape it across your pinky after the roll and say you need a re-roll.

Now for Mr. Mortika. I understand his reading of the rules and respect his judgement for him I put the shirt over my other shirt. What I think make Mr. Mortika awesome is that he tells you what to expect. He does not ambush you with it. Right at the start he tells the table what he expects and that is amazing.

How does one actually change their PCs faction? The best I have seen from past threads is that you simple state it on your latest chronicle sheet and the next time you complete a scenario, the GM reports your character as the new faction? Does that make the new faction stick or something? Or will the GM have to keep forcing the faction change when the website auto-populates character's information?

Yes, and everyone is expected to obey all posted speed limits...

But if you got a speeding ticket for driving 25mph in a 30 zone, you'd feel it was undeserved, right? And that's a better analogue for the requirement that a folio be filled out in order to qualify for a re-roll; it's something that has no actual basis in the rules of the campaign.

I told my GM when I sat down for the session that I was changing. He didn't note it on the chronicle sheet, but I played it as the new faction from then on. Didn't realize at the time that there was a boon for my previous faction in the scenario, but can't have it both ways.

So I like the fill-able form for the Tracking Sheet, but can you add a second page? I had that filled up by 5th level with expendables and all.

How does one actually change their PCs faction? The best I have seen from past threads is that you simple state it on your latest chronicle sheet and the next time you complete a scenario, the GM reports your character as the new faction? Does that make the new faction stick or something? Or will the GM have to keep forcing the faction change when the website auto-populates character's information?

You can change your faction on the website.

You can change your faction on the website.

Last time I looked at the edit function, it didn't give me the option. Now it does. Go figure.

graywulfe wrote:

You can change your faction on the website.

Last time I looked at the edit function, it didn't give me the option. Now it does. Go figure.

There are two different ways to get into your character to edit it. One has the faction options you can change, and the other doesn't. Don't ask me what they both are. But this has been a problem on the web site for years now.

Themes86 wrote:

graywulfe wrote:

You can change your faction on the website.

Last time I looked at the edit function, it didn't give me the option. Now it does. Go figure.

There are two different ways to get into your character to edit it. One has the faction options you can change, and the other doesn't. Don't ask me what they both are. But this has been a problem on the web site for years now.

I just checked, and the new Faction Logos aren't available.

Were they at one time, and they were just removed?

Last time I looked at the edit function, it didn't give me the option. Now it does. Go figure.

There are two different ways to get into your character to edit it. One has the faction options you can change, and the other doesn't. Don't ask me what they both are. But this has been a problem on the web site for years now.

If you go to your "My Account" page and then hit "Edit" under the PFS section, it will take you to character pages where you can change your faction. (This will change the electronic reporting auto-fill that should reflect your chronicle hardcopy where you make the switch.)

The other place to edit is from the "Aliases" page to your character page, which does not give the option for you to change your faction.

Either way, as others have said, I believe that a "change" like Andoran --> Liberty's Edge isn't actually a change, and the symbols on the site will change themselves sometime soon.

I'm just wanting the online reporting to line up with my characters that are actually changing to a different Faction, like my Silver Crusader who's going to Grand Lodge, or my Osirion who's going to Dark Archive, or my Chelaxian who's going to the Sovereign Court.

Fromper wrote:

Themes86 wrote:

graywulfe wrote:

You can change your faction on the website.

Last time I looked at the edit function, it didn't give me the option. Now it does. Go figure.

There are two different ways to get into your character to edit it. One has the faction options you can change, and the other doesn't. Don't ask me what they both are. But this has been a problem on the web site for years now.

I just checked, and the new Faction Logos aren't available.

Were they at one time, and they were just removed?

The new faction choices are not yet available yet on the site.

I don't think I complain much, but you'd imagine that with all these Factions being available August 14th, and games being reported with characters earning Prestige in these new Factions, that the website would have been updated by now.

I feel uncomfortable signing my Chronicle Sheet with "The Exchange", while it's still being reported as "Sczarni".

I don't think I complain much, but you'd imagine that with all these Factions being available August 14th, and games being reported with characters earning Prestige in these new Factions, that the website would have been updated by now.

I feel uncomfortable signing my Chronicle Sheet with "The Exchange", while it's still being reported as "Sczarni".

I was able to change faction from Grand Lodge to Liberty's Edge on my Sorcerer yesterday from the My Pathfinder Society page by hitting the Edit button next to his name.

Nefreet wrote:

I don't think I complain much, but you'd imagine that with all these Factions being available August 14th, and games being reported with characters earning Prestige in these new Factions, that the website would have been updated by now.

I feel uncomfortable signing my Chronicle Sheet with "The Exchange", while it's still being reported as "Sczarni".

I was able to change faction from Grand Lodge to Liberty's Edge on my Sorcerer yesterday from the My Pathfinder Society page by hitting the Edit button next to his name.

Not there now. At least not for me.

Nor is it there for me, Sil.

Nefreet wrote:

I don't think I complain much, but you'd imagine that with all these Factions being available August 14th, and games being reported with characters earning Prestige in these new Factions, that the website would have been updated by now.

I feel uncomfortable signing my Chronicle Sheet with "The Exchange", while it's still being reported as "Sczarni".

I was able to change faction from Grand Lodge to Liberty's Edge on my Sorcerer yesterday from the My Pathfinder Society page by hitting the Edit button next to his name.

It doesn't look like you were successful.

I was not able to change any of the Factions to the new ones when I reported on Sat, and I also rechecked yesterday, and it was a NoGo at that station.

CigarPete wrote:

Nefreet wrote:

I don't think I complain much, but you'd imagine that with all these Factions being available August 14th, and games being reported with characters earning Prestige in these new Factions, that the website would have been updated by now.

I feel uncomfortable signing my Chronicle Sheet with "The Exchange", while it's still being reported as "Sczarni".

I was able to change faction from Grand Lodge to Liberty's Edge on my Sorcerer yesterday from the My Pathfinder Society page by hitting the Edit button next to his name.

It doesn't look like you were successful.

I pulled up that link and I see the character in question, Bellamin Tarmikos, with an Andoran symbol next to his name rather than the Grand Lodge symbol. Not sure what you are seeing.

You said "Grand Lodge to Liberty's Edge" in the comment I quoted, not "Grand Lodge to Andoran".

And... the old factions are NOT quite the same as the new ones.

I have a character or two who will likely join up with "Dark Archive", who would never, EVER have served Cheliax... and at least one started idea who was happily Osirion, but will NOT be a follower of the Scarab Sages next time she's played.

Suppose I'm gonna wait to play any of the ones affected by the change/lack thereof, until the change is made on Paizo-- easy, because I like the Silver Crusade and that hasn't changed, nor has the Grand Lodge.

Can I just cut the front of the shirt, and safety pin it to the back of a Jean vest, with metal studs, and still get the reroll?

Only if the number of studs matches your number of GM stars...

Fromper wrote:

Chris Mortika wrote:

Regarding magic re-roll shirts, my table policy is pretty simple: if you want a re-roll, you have to be wearing the shirt, as a shirt*, when the original roll happens. (If you just have the shirt handy, you should don it, and I can give you the re-roll onrolls you make from that point on.) For the folio, have it on the table.

Straight-forward, and abides by the language of the Guide.

* exceptions for the extreme heavy-set, for whom even the largest t-shirts are insufficient.

My problem with this is multi-day conventions. If someone bought one shirt and hoped to use it every time they play PFS, you're saying they have to wear the same shirt multiple days in a row. That's a problem.

I can see not allowing someone to just pull the shirt out of a bag when they need the re-roll. But if someone prominently displays the shirt without actually wearing it (draped over the back of their chair, or their backpack next to the table, etc), I think that should always be enough.

Me, I do not care. You have to have the shirt on you somehow. I do not care if you drape it across your pinky after the roll and say you need a re-roll.

Now for Mr. Mortika. I understand his reading of the rules and respect his judgement for him I put the shirt over my other shirt. What I think make Mr. Mortika awesome is that he tells you what to expect. He does not ambush you with it. Right at the start he tells the table what he expects and that is amazing.

Or you could just buy a Player Character Folio and be done with it. No shirt wearing required.

A (quick and not very thorough) search yields no information on reporting sessions with the new factions. Will they be added to the list for reporting purposes soon? Or should we select their former version?

A (quick and not very thorough) search yields no information on reporting sessions with the new factions. Will they be added to the list for reporting purposes soon? Or should we select their former version?

For now, I'm assuming that we continue using the old factions, and they'll be merged in. It's not like there's any other option, right?