Faction Journal Cards

Sebastian Hirsch wrote:

John Compton wrote:

Sebastian Hirsch wrote:

Steven Schopmeyer wrote:

Sebastian Hirsch wrote:

EDIT: Just read the Grand Lodge list... the cards just arrived 3 days to late... ;(

Man, I know right? I've done plenty of faction missions this past month.

Yeah, but I am pretty positive, that we will find an opportunity to find oh let's say 4 more opportunities ...^^

BTW does every character gain her own card? And do I have to check the GM box on the character that gets the chronicle?

Every character can receive his or her own card.

Can you elaborate on the following:

Let's say I have just GMed Overflow Archive (well I did on Saturday, made a number of mistakes I am not going to repeat) and I want to apply that chronicle to an as yet unused and unplayed character (that is going to be a Dark Archive member), do I have to check the faction card of that character, or can I choose the faction card of another Dark Archive Character.

Also, would it be possible to add a little space to (the next version of) the card, so players we can note the PFS number of the corresponding character?

When you apply GM credit to a character, you can check one of the final objective's five check boxes for that character.

For example, let's say my –1 and –2 characters are both members of the Dark Archive. If I assign GM credit to XXXX–1, I can check one of the five GM boxes on the Faction Journal Card for XXXX–1, not XXXX–2.

Thank you, I assumed as much, but it is always better to have it in a quotable format.

I assume, that GM credit is enough, so if and when new cards are released a character is not forced to switch cards (you never actually have to have played the character - important for many GMs).

EDIT: Upon reading the cards, it really is plain as day, maybe I should stop doing those 32 hour days ... sorry for the inconvenience.

The organized play campaign will release additional Faction Journal Cards to reflect each faction’s evolving goals and
its ties to the current season’s objectives. A PC joining a faction can only acquire the most recent version of a faction’s
card; however, a PC who has checked at least one box on the earlier faction card may still continue to fulfill its goals
and earn its rewards even into the new season.

Obviously this isn't relevant now, but once the new cards are released, can a character simultaneously hold and continue to progress on the old and the new card? Obviously even with slow track characters can only check one box per scenario, but even then, they could end up with several cards.

SAGE CANDIDATE (7+ goals): The scarab grants the bonuses on saving throws and to Constitution to your allies within 30 feet.
After spending Prestige Points in order to be restored to life, you gain a number of temporary Prestige Points equal to half the
number expended. You may only spend these temporary points to retrain your character (Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Campaign
188) before the end of your next adventure, after which time unused points are lost.

Just noticed, this allows characters to spend those temporary Prestige Points to retrain HP... pretty sweet ^^

Overall, I like these. Challenges are great.

On the other hand, I'm sorta concerned - there's no check or gm signature space or date info or even a spot for scenario number they were achieved in or even what the pfs# of the character that was converted to the other faction.

Is there a possibility these could be reformatted like a chronicle, to accommodate that kind of information? These give some nice rewards, I'd hate to see it exploited.

Overall, I like these. Challenges are great.

On the other hand, I'm sorta concerned - there's no check or gm signature space or date info or even a spot for scenario number they were achieved in or even what the pfs# of the character that was converted to the other faction.

Is there a possibility these could be reformatted like a chronicle, to accommodate that kind of information? These give some nice rewards, I'd hate to see it exploited.

Agreed. Also because someone has to ask, Can you convert one of your characters? Or does it have to be a character controlled by another player?

Also because someone has to ask, Can you convert one of your characters? Or does it have to be a character controlled by another player?

The character has to be someone else participating in that game session, so converting one of your own PCs is not possible.

TimD wrote:

Very cool.

Can you elaborate a bit on the function of the Abolitionist ability under Liberty's Edge?

Does it effectively summon the stated NPCs for an extended duration, which is roughly the duration of the part of the scenario you are currently involved with? (since I'm not sure what "encounter" means in PFS terms when it comes to duration).

When "rallied" how much control is the PC who called them assumed to have? ... do they function like a summoned creature, like an allied NPC, do you have to make cha-checks, etc?

-TimD

It effectively summons those NPCs for the duration of an encounter, which could be a combat encounter or a short non-combat challenge.

These are under the player's control like a summoned creature would be, but they're still living, breathing, mortal creatures with hopes, dreams, and a whole lot of abolitionist fervor. Having them help during an encounter against a tough foe is something they're willing to do; however sending them down a trapped hallway to "look for traps," sacrificing them to some villain, or other egregious mistreatment of these volunteers is not on their agenda, and under those circumstances I would not object to a GM ruling that the liberated slaves say "no." Exceptional or repeat violations could easily be considered an evil act.

Why does everyone assume I'm going to do something evil...?

<.<
>.>

Right-O, nothing to see here, just eating some Team Evil cookies™, carry on...

More seriously, thanks John, just wanted to know how to run it!

-TimD

Spend at least 100 gp per character level on spellcasting services for spells with the healing descriptor for another PC. You

may instead purchase and expend material components or a single-use magic item that costs the same amount for that PC.

If I buy, for example, Potion of Cure Serious Wounds (750 gp) and give it to someone else, does it count for this goal?

Faction Cards wrote:

Spend at least 100 gp per character level on spellcasting services for spells with the healing descriptor for another PC. You

may instead purchase and expend material components or a single-use magic item that costs the same amount for that PC.

If I buy, for example, Potion of Cure Serious Wounds (750 gp) and give it to someone else, does it count for this goal?

It sure does!

These are just so awesome, I may finally get around to making that Dark Archive character I've wanted to make...
On a side note, the flavor on these are really good.

Removed a link. Please don't redistribute our downloads (even though they're free) with modifications like this. We'd rather people knew where to download from their original source, and will take the double-sided feedback into account and may offer this in the official download (and see if we can feasibly implement sooner than later).

The Exchange is disappointingly 'Merchant' and not enough thug left in it - A lot about Diplomacy and Merchant skills, and not a lot of the old enforcer types who rely on standover and other shady activities - I know we went 'legit', but this is just too nice.

You have to recruit people or 'trick people' - what ever happened to "You don't work for Fat Tony then you don't work for nobody"? Fuggedaboudit.

Understood. That'd be great if you offered that.

The Exchange is disappointingly 'Merchant' and not enough thug left in it - A lot about Diplomacy and Merchant skills, and not a lot of the old enforcer types who rely on standover and other shady activities - I know we went 'legit', but this is just too nice.

You have to recruit people or 'trick people' - what ever happened to "You don't work for Fat Tony then you don't work for nobody"? Fuggedaboudit.

I'll keep that in mind for future Faction Journal Card releases.

Well, it was Qadira that saved Guadil and not the other way around :)

Logistically, how are we to handle these cards in PbP?

Excellent stuff, John - thanks for these! We have a game tonight and it looks like that every faction can achieve a check box in tonight's scenario, despite it being a Liberty's Edge/Silver Crusade one.

Would love to see a double-sided two/per page format, since I want to send these to Staples and print dozens of them on cardstock and have them pre-cut - but that's a minor thing.

Logistically, how are we to handle these cards in PbP?

I recommend a player provide an out-of-character notice to the GM that he is attempting to complete one of the Faction Journal Card's goals during play (and provide the relevant goal's text). At the end of the session, the GM can confirm whether or not the PC fulfilled the conditions and instruct the player to check the relevant check box.

Since these do not require direct GM signatures, this process should not require constant scanning and sending of files.

Can one forgo a day job check if one is not trained in Perform, Craft or Profession?

I like how these will add some faction theme back into the modules.

In Dark Archive it says, "Recruit a named NPC scholar, knowledgeable spellcaster, or similar figure to the Dark Archive. Recruitment requires a Diplomacy or Knowledge (arcana) check with a DC equal to 15 plus your character level."

Should that be "... with a DC equal to 15 plus the NPC's character level."?

If not, why would it be harder for me to recruit someone as I advance in level?

It's harder to impress the Archive when you're an 11th level bard than when you're 1st level. A novice convincing someone to join is an unusual feat, whereas the skill employed by a master must be exceptional to merit notice. After all, they do excellent work every day.

Basically, don't think of the DC as representing the difficulty of recruiting. It's the difficulty of recruiting well.

Quick question: So when using the abolitionist boon for Liberties Edge, is it safe to assume that for one encounter just means that single fight rather than for the rest of the scenario correct? If so what happens if you proc multiple encounters at the same time and then call forth your freed rabble? Do they stay till the entire fight ends or do the poof once one of the original groups is handled?

I've got a pretty good idea on what the answers are here but getting confirmations one way or the other can help nip table conflicts in the bud early.

I like how these will add some faction theme back into the modules.

In Dark Archive it says, "Recruit a named NPC scholar, knowledgeable spellcaster, or similar figure to the Dark Archive. Recruitment requires a Diplomacy or Knowledge (arcana) check with a DC equal to 15 plus your character level."

Should that be "... with a DC equal to 15 plus the NPC's character level."?

If not, why would it be harder for me to recruit someone as I advance in level?

The most important reason is that it's easy to figure out what your character's level is, but it's not always clear what level an NPC is. After all, NPCs not intended as combat threats rarely have their level printed in the scenario (or printed anywhere, for that matter), so basing this on the NPC's level would result in massive discrepancies in the skill check's DC on a table-by-table basis.

It's harder to impress the Archive when you're an 11th level bard than when you're 1st level. A novice convincing someone to join is an unusual feat, whereas the skill employed by a master must be exceptional to merit notice. After all, they do excellent work every day.

Basically, don't think of the DC as representing the difficulty of recruiting. It's the difficulty of recruiting well.

You're not impressing the dark archive, you're recruiting some scholar to join.

But John's answer says, It's just the easiest way to get a reasonable number to work with and number that will scale with the characters., so that makes sense.

Quick question: So when using the abolitionist boon for Liberties Edge, is it safe to assume that for one encounter just means that single fight rather than for the rest of the scenario correct? If so what happens if you proc multiple encounters at the same time and then call forth your freed rabble? Do they stay till the entire fight ends or do the poof once one of the original groups is handled?

I've got a pretty good idea on what the answers are here but getting confirmations one way or the other can help nip table conflicts in the bud early.

In most cases that I can imagine, they would stick around until the ongoing combat—multiple encounters and all—came to an end. In the grand scheme of things, having a lower-level commoner stick around for a few extra rounds is unlikely to change anything.

If the PCs are purposely triggering multiple combats by opening doors and moving from room to room in one extended melee, I would be far less inclined to have the NPCs follow. I imagine they might take a few rounds to put up some flashy anti-tyranny posters, salute the Liberty's Edge PC, and depart.

As is the case with determining whether a PC completed a faction goal, it's important that a GM exercise a bit of leniency when determining this duration.

You're not impressing the dark archive, you're recruiting some scholar to join.

This is accomplishing a faction goal, which is by definition impressing the Dark Archive.

I rather like them in general. But some of the rewards seem rather... familiar;

There's others but I can't immediately recall the prior source. In the case of the ones I listed, the conditions for earning the boon in the adventure and on the faction card are also rather similar. I was a bit disappointed by that.

Dark Archive - cool, useful boons, and quite doable but fun goals. This one's my favourite.

Grand Lodge - cool, useful boons again. The capstone is going to make you loved if you need it. Especially if succeeding at the secondary condition was also needed for something else, like a faction mission. I wonder how feasible it will be to get people to switch factions though. There doesn't seem to be much in it for people to switch factions, since they lose previous goodies. The other goals are cool, but if you're going to check boxes only once per non-Absalom nation, there needs to be room on the card to list previous destinations.

Liberty's Edge - I like this one the least. After season 5 I thought we were also going to see more of an anti-corruption angle, but I don't see it on this card. It's obsessed with slavery. And while there's a couple of adventures with slavery in it, it's not nearly as prevalent as magical dinguses. So the boons are more circumstantial and the goals are harder.

Scarab Sages - the boons are good, though kinda monotonous. I don't think anyone will mind the capstone though, that'll improve the Sages' reputation a bit. A more Knowledge-oriented boon instead of three life-support boons would've been nicer. The goals are a good mix of easy and hard.

Silver Crusade - I'm not a fan of a constant bonus on charisma checks against good creatures, because then you'll constantly be bugging the GM to reveal an NPC's alignment. All in all I'm not very excited about these boons. I find them mechanically uninspired. They're all a bit on the happy soft side, which is odd because the goal list is more mixed between making nice and smiting evil.

Sovereign Court - the rewards are quite cool. Perhaps people will hold out on using the first boon in case they need the second boon, so that might be a wrinkle. The capstone boon is quite spectacular, but it seems it doesn't apply to yourself. The list of goals is really flavourful and mostly quite doable.

The Exchange - I'm not so excited about the rewards. Day jobs are often treated as a big thing mechanically, but the gold they produce is just not worth all the fuss. I do like the idea of the % off chronicle items, that makes it relevant to go over those sheets that list a thousand items. I've never actually seen a GM distinguish between a 2K and a 5K town before. Treating your fame as 2 higher is kinda meh too, it just means it takes one good scenario less. All in all it feels like you might earn just as much money playing up a couple of times. The goals are okay, but repetitive (go to city and spend money 3x + 1x + 1x; earn money from day job 2x + 1x). I like the general idea, but it's monotonous.

.
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All things together, I'm quite happy; the list above is a bit nitpicky. I expect to have a lot of fun with this. I do love checking boxes.

RyanH wrote:

You're not impressing the dark archive, you're recruiting some scholar to join.

This is accomplishing a faction goal, which is by definition impressing the Dark Archive.

That makes sense, but yes, while it would be more impressive to the archive to succeed at doing that as a noob, it shouldn't be easier for a 1st level member to recruit a 20th level wizard than it is for another 20th level wizard to recruit him, and that's what the DC is ... not how impressive it was to the archive. But again, it's a way of getting a reasonable number.

Master Librarian from Dark Archive - "Before the start of an adventure..."

Is this meant as one time use?

OK, why now?

Are these cards only good for Season 6 or can we expect these to carry over for Season 7?

Sounds like there'll be new ones on S7, but you can continue working on any S6 cards that you "activated" by checking a box before then.

Since there's at least one easy box on every card, that means play every character at least once before august (or assign credit)...

OK, why now?

Are these cards only good for Season 6 or can we expect these to carry over for Season 7?

Be sure to read the Additional Cards section on the file's first page.

It's harder to impress the Archive when you're an 11th level bard than when you're 1st level. A novice convincing someone to join is an unusual feat, whereas the skill employed by a master must be exceptional to merit notice. After all, they do excellent work every day.

Basically, don't think of the DC as representing the difficulty of recruiting. It's the difficulty of recruiting well.

A first level can recruit a janitor thats handy with a mop.

An 11th level should be recruiting an ancient blue wyrm that IS a living library of lost lore, making it a bit more sifficult. Still, a skill should scale faster then level, making success more likely as you level even with minimal resource investments

Tsriel wrote:

OK, why now?

Are these cards only good for Season 6 or can we expect these to carry over for Season 7?

Be sure to read the Additional Cards section on the file's first page.

Still strikes me as poor timing. Honestly, I would've rather these have been introduced at the start of Season 7 since it was delayed for so long.

John Compton wrote:

Tsriel wrote:

OK, why now?

Are these cards only good for Season 6 or can we expect these to carry over for Season 7?

Be sure to read the Additional Cards section on the file's first page.

Still strikes me as poor timing. Honestly, I would've rather these have been introduced at the start of Season 7 since it was delayed for so long.

picks up shiny new bone in teeth and growls

Can one forgo a day job check if one is not trained in Perform, Craft or Profession?

This is a very good question. Precedence based on the GM boons, says yes. However that seems to circumvent the intent behind why you are forgoing your dayjob for the faction cards.

John Compton wrote:

Tsriel wrote:

OK, why now?

Are these cards only good for Season 6 or can we expect these to carry over for Season 7?

Be sure to read the Additional Cards section on the file's first page.

Still strikes me as poor timing. Honestly, I would've rather these have been introduced at the start of Season 7 since it was delayed for so long.

Then don't start using yours until the beginning of Season 7.

Can we just find some slavers and beat them up for no reward?

Tsriel wrote:

John Compton wrote:

Tsriel wrote:

OK, why now?

Are these cards only good for Season 6 or can we expect these to carry over for Season 7?

Be sure to read the Additional Cards section on the file's first page.

Still strikes me as poor timing. Honestly, I would've rather these have been introduced at the start of Season 7 since it was delayed for so long.

Then don't start using yours until the beginning of Season 7.

You'll progress towards rewards at the rate you would have preferred; if other people choose to get a head start on theirs over the next couple of months is no reason for you to get upset.

I GM regularly, I can't ignore it. (Figured my 4-stars beside my alias would've been obvious to that.)

Just to clarify here, the only reason why I think it's poor timing is because this has been released so late in the season when this was expected back in January. Now it's April, so people realistically only have a few months to really make use of any of this. For the casual player, that's abit problematic. If I am upset about *anything* with these cards, it's how tardy they are.

I fully expect these to make an appearance at my weekly gathering come Friday along with the plethora of questions that'll go with it.

Just to clarify here, the only reason why I think it's poor timing is because this has been released so late in the season when this was expected back in January. Now it's April, so people realistically only have a few months to really make use of any of this.

Hmmm? You can keep earning on the current card as long as you want.

Tsirel wrote:

Just to clarify here, the only reason why I think it's poor timing is because this has been released so late in the season when this was expected back in January. Now it's April, so people realistically only have a few months to really make use of any of this.

Hmmm? You can keep earning on the current card as long as you want.

For as long as you completed an objective on the card prior to Season 7.

the lowest boon in Sovereign Court mentions "ranks in Diplomacy".... but my Bard uses Versitile Performance for his Diplomacy skill (so he uses his ranks in Perfrom Strings rather than Diplomacy)... can he use Versitile Performance to use his ranks in Perform? or does he need to start putting ranks into Diplomacy (which is will only use for this boon)?

the lowest boon in Sovereign Court mentions "ranks in Diplomacy".... but my Bard uses Versitile Performance for his Diplomacy skill (so he uses his ranks in Perfrom Strings rather than Diplomacy)... can he use Versitile Performance to use his ranks in Perform? or does he need to start putting ranks into Diplomacy (which is will only use for this boon)?

Possess a number of ranks in one of the following skills equal to your character level (minimum 4): Bluff, Diplomacy,

Disguise, Knowledge (nobility), or Sense Motive.

Or beeing the operative word, surely you could access one of those?

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Tsirel wrote:

Just to clarify here, the only reason why I think it's poor timing is because this has been released so late in the season when this was expected back in January. Now it's April, so people realistically only have a few months to really make use of any of this.

Hmmm? You can keep earning on the current card as long as you want.

For as long as you completed an objective on the card prior to Season 7.

Thankfully, a lot of my characters automatically fulfill the skill requirement. :)

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Tsirel wrote:

Just to clarify here, the only reason why I think it's poor timing is because this has been released so late in the season when this was expected back in January. Now it's April, so people realistically only have a few months to really make use of any of this.

Hmmm? You can keep earning on the current card as long as you want.

For as long as you completed an objective on the card prior to Season 7.

I think most players are going to play once in the next 5? months. Most factions have at least 1 low lying fruit to tick off a box.

Is it possible to tick off two boxes with one action?

For The Exchange, if you roll at least 100gp on a day job check, can you cross off both the 100gp box and the 50gp box?

Is it possible to tick off two boxes with one action?

For The Exchange, if you roll at least 100gp on a day job check, can you cross off both the 100gp box and the 50gp box?

One box per scenario unless the condition says otherwise

even if you fulfill multiple objectives, you can
only check one box per adventure.

... I am happy, but quite surprised, that those fancy checkboxes... don't require any kind of GM oversight or even an initial.

The sooner Society can get into the habit of not requiring GM initials on sheets, the better. The honour system has always worked best, without the headaches. It's a game.