Ace Smith's page

Congrats to Dragnmoon on his 5th star. Keep it up and thanks for the hard work in growing PFS in San Antonio.

A big welcome to Kristina Wang, the new VL in Austin, TX. Come out to Dragon's Lair on Monday or Mothership Games on Thursdays and say hi to her.

My 2cp worth:

1) Dragons - Should be only in the very high tiers as combatants or possibly lower tiers as plot device Would love to see a VERY large dragon (like the green from Queen of Thorns) in a low level scenario where the PC's have to try and diplo it for info. They should be epic opponents and very rare.

2) Goblins - Two of the greatest adventures that Paizo has put forth for PFS are We Be Goblins and Frostfur Captives and both are goblin centric. Would love to see goblins with class levels at high tier scenarios. Think of the panic when a goblin barbarian one shots a 10th level PC.

3) Orcs - More would be nice but not a real necessity.

4) Drow - They can stay absent as long as you want (in my opinion)

5) Dinosaurs - Dinos are super cool and I would love to see more. (Maybe an awakened one)

6) Undead - Super intelligent undead as BBEG are cool. Mindless undead = boring.

7) Swarms - Swarms are ok in their place. It just seems that every sewer adventure has a swarm.

8) Outsiders - Outsiders are always welcome. Love to see the more obscure ones come up.

9) Humanoid NPCs - Given the world, these are a must. Would like to see more evil halflings and gnomes. I love laughing at a PC that got killed by a gnome because he didn't take it seriously.

10) Haunts - If I never see another haunt, I will be happy.

OwlCon is coming. After the response last year which created 28 tables out of 24 that were planned for, the organizers are asking for a Gaming Coordinator for PFS to sit in on the planning sessions. Is anyone interested in the position? I have been their point of contact for the last three years, but it would be nice to know if we had a Venture Captain.

If you are interested, email me at silverhair2012(at)gmail(dot)com.

Sent you an email.

I just wanted to make an announcement that Rob Silk is now officially the first 4 star PFS GM in the UK!

Congratulations Rob and thank you for all your efforts!

+1

This complicates matters! TBH the description of Scent where it simply says that the creature with scent can detect the presence of someone within a certain range and their location within 5 and then goes on to specify a mechanic where scent is used with Survival to allow tracking seemed to be clear. If they had wanted a mechanic for using scent to perceive then they would have stated one alongside the tracking rules. As they didn't I could not infer from the word "can" that it meant "could do so if it succeeds at a Perception DC set by an opposed skill".

So I guess there could be circumstances outside of the usual ranges for upwind/downwind/very smelly that might lead a creature with Scent to need use perception to smell someone? Thus explaining why a seemingly automatic success (with the ranges set) has a +8 perception DC.

BUT....If it was only in those circumstances why did the rules on Perception and Tremor Sense which immeadiately follow the Scent section specify Tremor sense auto suceeds as long as it is in range while saying no such thing about Scent???

W

The part about tremorsense auto-succeeding is why do not think scent auto-succeeds and I run it pretty much like any other stealth check. Sight based hindrances (invisibility, etc) would not apply to this check and the scenter would get his +8. It would also be modified by other factors (i.e. a herd of skunks just went by).

From the Ultimate Magic FAQ:

"Summoner: Does a synthesist (page 80) keep any armor bonuses or other benefits from his armor when he is fused with his eidolon?

No. The eidolon is, in effect, the synthesist's armor, and any armor the synthesist wears does not function while the eidolon is present. Fortunately, this doesn't mean the synthesist has to remove his armor when wearing the eidolon, and when the eidolon is banished/dismissed/killed, the summoner's worn armor immediately begins functioning again."

So you can have armor on, it just doesn't do anything. In fact, you should be wearing armor in case something happens to get rid of your eidolon.

I blame the Pope!

Creeped out just seeing that again. It's the eyes. They see into your soul.

Yar!

A Temple Sword IS a monk weapon.

You can also make all of your flurry attacks with only one weapon, or any combination of weapons you are wielding, including unarmed attacks (but not natural attacks), so long as they are all monk weapons.

** spoiler omitted **

A Monk using Flurry of Blows uses his full strength modifier on ALL Flurry of blows attacks, regardless of it being a light weapon, one-handed weapon, or two-handed weapon, and regardless of it being wielded in his/her main hand of off-hand, or in both hands.

It has been stated many times that specific trumps general, and this is one of those cases of specific...

Pirate is 100% correct on this one.

I have run 2-14 twice now and both times I have found it hard to finish any where near to 'on time'. Is anybody else running long on this one?

That's good to know as I am running it at Comicpalooza this weekend. I will let you know how the session goes.

Matthew Hancock wrote:

After the final fight I had a player who wanted to run back and deliver his message to his contact, is that allowed?

Or does it all have to be completed before the final encounter?

Thanks,

As long as:

1) there is time in the slot
2) it makes logical sense they could go back

I would allow it.

+1. Especially the logical sense part. If the mod had them travel 1000 miles by ship, then I would not allow them to go back and deliver the message or whatever. If it was just across town, then why not?

For those who have not noticed, they put what they are calling an Offical PFS "Quest" in the latest Kobold Quarterly.

You get a Chronicle Sheet with a Boon each time you play it as a player and run it as a GM. Though I am trying to track down the chronicle sheets. Question for mark, are these reportable? or are they like the Pathfinder Tales Chronicle Sheets?

Quest Rules wrote:

Pathfinder Society Quests are brief adventures consisting of two to three encounters designed for use in the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign by Paizo Publishing. A legal Pathfinder Society PC may receive a Chronicle for completing a Quest as many times as he completes it, and a game master may likewise apply a Chronicle to any of his characters when running a Quest. Each Quest Chronicle grants a single-use boon or ability, each of which may be played once per scenario.

This official Pathfinder Society adventure is made available here as a Kobold Quarterly exclusive, and all Golarion references are used by kind permission of Paizo Publishing.

So now we have 4 ways to get a Chronicle sheet.

Scenarios
Sanctioned Modules
Pathfinder Tales
Kobold Quarterly PFS Quests.

For the Chronicle sheet, check out the additional resources page later today or tomorrow. http://paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/resources

We run a PFS group every Thursday at Little Wars of Houston from 6:30 PM to 10:30 PM. It's extremely close to Spring. We've had two tables for the past month (we just started a month and a half ago) and we're on the verge of needing a third.

I will be in Houston next week and would love to run a game for you on Thursday. Shoot me an email and let me know what mod you want run.

Welcome.

Harek Ivarson wrote:

Hello,

I've done a search and the most recent topic on this was 2 years ago in 2009, but now I've started to see Prestige Awards listed in the newest Pathfinder Adventure path modules.

So, are these legitimate for Society play now? Or are any modules?

Thanks!

Adventure Paths have no been added yet.

I would not count on Adventure Paths ever getting added as legal.

That is awesome news to encourage new people to try out the Pathfinder Society.

+1

I have just finished running an online game - we have run according to PFS rules regarding character generation, players & characters registered with the Society here, etc.

Now I want to complete the after-game administration.

I see how the system works, and was intending to use the end-date of our play as the session date. Obviously participant & GM data will be entered as usual.

As for the certification, I want to e-mail the players with their documentation. Is there a version of the certificate that's ameniable to being completed electronically? (Due to a stroke I no longer hand-write so printing them out, scribbling on them and scanning them isn't feasible.) I can firkle PDFs readily, but was wondering if there's a Word or form-fillable PDF already available.

What should I use for the GM signature? I was thinking of putting my e-mail address - which anyone with a query would be able to use if they needed to check anything. Would that be acceptable?

Having a form fillable PDF would be so easy and convenient. It would also easily done. Would love to see that.

I was hoping to announce this before leaving for the GAMA Trade Show in Vegas but time just slipped away.

So.... congrats to our first Texas Venture Captain!

Dave is going to rock the house and I can't wait to see the madness he has going on when I get to Comicpalooza this May. :)

Hyrum.

Thanks, Hyrum. Looking forward to it.

David Woodfin wrote:

Demoyn wrote:

Hyrum Savage wrote:

So.... congrats to our first Texas Venture Captain!

First, hmm? I guess I should get to work on my application, then. *evil grin*

Do it. It would be great to have another VC down in the Houston area.

Great... now Dragnmoon will apply too!

Hey now everyone. Just back off a little. Dragnmoon is not THAT bad. :)

Actually he has been a really big help down here and I am sure he will continue to be one.

Hyrum Savage wrote:

So.... congrats to our first Texas Venture Captain!

First, hmm? I guess I should get to work on my application, then. *evil grin*

Do it. It would be great to have another VC down in the Houston area.

I'm sure a formal announcement from Hyrum is forthcoming, but he had an early morning flight to GAMA this morning, so it might be a few days before he's back in the office and making any campaign related press releases. In the meantime, I'll welcome David to the fold of PFS slav...uh, minions...yeah. ;-)

thanks, Mark (I think...)

Dragnmoon wrote:

Congrats David, and welcome!

When you get a chance drop me an email, zizazat@gmail.com

Dave don't do it, it's a trap!!!!

Didn't realize Dave was Calamarian. Though, I'm a gnome...not a sith lord. Come Dave, let me show you the benefits of the dar...gnomish lifestyle.

Actually, if I was Calamarian it would be a twap.

My email address is TexasVCWoodfin@gmail.com

Hyrum has not announced it yet, but he has the Forum title, so I would like to send a Congrats out to David Woodfin for being selected Venture-Captain down here in Texas!

Thanks. I'm going to looking to several of you other Texans to help me out on this one to really grow PFS down here in Texas. We have to be the biggest PFS group because, as everyone knows, everything is bigger in Texas.

I doubt that I'm in the minority of actual PFS GMs, but definitely in the *vocal* minority when I say that I'm very much *FOR* trusting gameday coordinators to empower their judges to change encounters as appropriate for their playgroups. (I think *most* PFS judges alter scenarios.)

You and your HeadGM probably know your players and play styles much more than Paizo and the rest of us, and you guys can decide for yourselves if you want to add extra challenge (without adding extra XP or PA) to your modules.

100% agree with this. I and my judges have free rein to adjust the scenarios to give the tables a good time. Of course, I have a good enough group of core players and GM's that if one of the GM's is going overboard, I will hear about it and we will have a talk and they will either not change the mods or not judge.

Like the rules.

In the Core Rulebook the rules on Improvised Weapons are specified as being: "...an improvised weapon in combat is considered to be non-proficient with it and takes a –4 penalty on attack rolls made with that object. To determine the size category and appropriate damage for an improvised weapon, compare its relative size and damage potential to the weapon list to find a reasonable match. An improvised weapon scores a threat on a natural roll of 20 and deals double damage on a critical hit. An improvised thrown weapon has a range increment of 10 feet."

Can improvised weapons have other qualities depending on the object?
eg:
* A particularly long improvised item, such as a ladder, having reach
* An item with a hook or curved area having trip
* An item that is flexible or has prongs having disarm
etc.

I don't see why not. I would probably allow something like that if you could realistically explain it.

First of all, thanks to all the answers. All of you have cleared my mind at this respect. Thanks.

On the other side, I indeed have mistyped. It was PC#2 who played the module :D

With your clarification that you played with PC#2, you have met the rules.

On the Gm'ing before playing part:
I do this all of the time and have a great time with it. You just have to make sure that you don't give away anything to the others at the table that have not played it. Therefore, you may not get to participate in solving the riddle or deciding to open door A before door B but the reason people (or at least me) play this game is to have a good time with other like minded gamers. If that means playing a mod I already GM'd and not getting to completely participate in order for the others to have the best time that they can, then I will wholeheartedly do that. Though, if you are a person that can't roleplay a difference between what you know and what your PC knows, then you should probably stay away from the GM then play idea.

Right. If the character class, prestige class, variant class, animal companion, familiar, eidolon, or whatever's description does not specifically say a particular Bestiary feat can be taken, then it still is not available for PFS play.

This is pretty consistent with all of Pathfinder and the way rules work. General rules are trumped by explicit rules but only in those specific areas covered by those explicit rules.

Any chance that evil alignments will ever be allowed?

I hope not. Characters of evil alignment are very difficult to play and have a fun table for everyone if they are actually played as evil. In a home campaign, if you wanted to run an evil party you might be able to pull it off but I've found that even that is difficult. In something like PFS, you would have way too much PVP type stuff.

silverhair2008 wrote:

I have considered indicating my interest in being one of Houston's VC's, but have been told I probably shouldn't because of the stress I put myself through getting OwlCon organized. Also I am unable to travel at present so the requirement to attend PaizoCon or GenCon put me out of the running.

Just my 2 cp.

Ah! but non-USA Venture-Captains can attend another regional convention instead.

So once Texas secedes, you're golden!
:)

Republic of Texas!

Dragnmoon wrote:

Talking to others in Texas it seems the biggest thing stopping people in Dallas and Houston from applying is the requirement to go to GenCon or PaizoCon and volunteering all your time for that. I fully understand why that requirement is there, but it does make it hard.

I actually don't understand the requirement. I mean, I get what they're trying to accomplish, but I think it's fairly short sighted.

I've talked to several friends who coordinate volunteer efforts for non-profit organizations and they both stood slack jawed (seriously, one just stared at me) when I told them the requirements for the volunteer position. It's hard enough getting good people to volunteer for something with this hefty of a time commitment, but to tie it into the other laundry list of requirements makes it all a pretty significant burden for a number of reasons. I think this may already be evidenced by the number of open VC positions.

Coordinating GMs, preparing for modules, and GMing already takes a pretty significant chunk of time, but the list of other requirements is pretty extensive. Now some of those things are pretty important, like keeping up with the conventions, and being up-to-speed with the full compliment of Paizo materials, but the ones that surprise me are the ones that come with a rather significant financial burden for the volunteer. While overall it's a pretty darned inexpensive vacation, travel to GenCon or PaizoCon can be considered "too expensive" for a lot of people. Getting a free ticket, and getting crammed in a double bed doesn't quite make up for that expense (at least for some of us). Even something as minor as keeping tabs on all the local game stores can be a pretty significant effort, and with the rising price of gas, very expensive. As an example, if I were to go to each game store in the Twin Cities metro area and spending some quality time networking, I'd be looking at a full weekend at least simply because there are so many, and they're spread out from here...

Maybe I am just being a lawyer here and if someone can direct me to where anyone official has clarified this (or an actual V-C can clear it up) I would appreciate it. I don't actually read that you have to spend your entire GenCon or PaizoCon working for Paizo.

All right. I admit, I don't understand. Painlord, walk me through this:

Let's say that I and three of my friends all have 12th-level (retired) PFS characters. Right now, without any permission, we can take those characters and run them through a 14th-level adventure. (Given the deadliness of the author's previous work, the GM might well invite us to add a level or two to the PCs first.) Afterwards, they would still be retired PFS OP PCs.

What advantage would there be, to make the module "PFS-legal", but with the credit only going to those PCs? (Well, I suppose the GM could get PFS credit or something.)

You can't officially play your PFS characters in anything but PFS sanctioned mods. You can take a "clone" of your character and play in any mod you want with them but it would not count towards any rewards in PFS.

Mark Moreland wrote:

We have a 14th-level module coming out in a few months. Would you folks like to see that opened up for PFS credit with either a new or retired PFS character?

Please! But only for 'retired' PFS characters (i.e. lvl 12).

I firmly believe that for this campaign to exist and grow, there needs to be appropriate risk and rewards.

If released, please have consumables expend and death 'count'.

-Pain

+1

Enevhar Aldarion wrote:

If you are the coordinator of an event you can print out as many copies of the scenarios as needed, then loan them to the GMs, but they cannot keep them and must give the copies back to you at the end of the event. I am pretty sure this is not printed in the Guide, but it has been stated in threads several times by the folks in charge.

I recall reading this as well. Do to the nature of copyright rules, I would suggest that it be explicitly stated in the next PFS Guide so we have an "official" document from Paizo legally permitting the practice to occur.

+1

Matthew Morris wrote:

Good morning,

I've ran Silent tide, but am getting ready to start my first PFS character. The plan is to do Silent Tide for the first session.

Now I'm not worried about credit for it. I expect not to get XP/Prestige/Cash etc. I just want to make sure I can play my character and not negatively impact the people who I'm sharing a table with.

Which character did you apply credit for your GM session?

PFS now has a 1 and 1 rule. You can play a scenario once and GM it once for credit, it does not matter the particular order (you can play before you GM, GM before you can play). You just have to make sure the credit is applied to different characters (AKA you can't apply Silent Tide play and GM credit to the same character).

This is true. Just make two characters and apply your GM credit to one and then play the other one and get credit for that character.

I want to repeat this one, you can not move more than 5-ft after taking a full attack action, even if you kill the creature on your first swing.

This is NOT true. Page 187 of the Core Rulebook under the Full Attack section states that "After your first attack, you can decide to take a move action instead of making your remaining attacks, depending

We're still in need of judges for Comicpalooza 2011. If you'd like to judge for us please email me at demoyn35@hotmail.com.

I'll be there. I just sent you an email so sign me up where you need me.

I have another question that is similiar.

How do most of you handle the following.

Character A is the only PC in range of the BBEG.

The BBEG has 3 attacks. He knocks the PC unconscious on his first attack, would most of you continue to use his two remaining attacks on the unconscious PC because no one else is in range?

Personally, I've always just stopped attacking a character once he drops to the ground.

Unless the monster is unintelligent, I would probably move him into a better tactical position. If unintelligent and something that would eat the PC, I have them try and drag the PC off. It definitely ups the stress level to see one of your fellow PC's being dragged off to be lunch for some monster. :)

I would not play an enemy that way unless the module specifically called for it.

I agree. The only time that I make monsters continue to attack is if they are mindless and are only there to get food. Then they may continue to hit the downed guy or possibly grapple and attempt to carry off, that sort of thing. As mentioned, any attacks on a downed character is less attacks on viable threats.

I was brainstorming and I had this idea, run two different PFS Specials at this years GenCon. Friday night, run a special to wrap up "Year of the Shadow Lodge". Saturday night, run a special to kick off "Year of the Next Big Thing". Just an idea.

-Swiftbrook

No sure how feasible this is but I do think this would be awesome. The Special at GenCon last year was the best.

I have to say that I'm not a big fan of going out of your way to make the scenario more difficult on the players.

I disagree. Several of the mods are just too easy, especially for the power gamers that I play with. If you don't make the mod more difficult for them, they just walk through it and there is no challenge. No challenge = No fun.

Welcome and congrats.

So to make sure that I am straight on this, you can increase the level of an existing character to 8th and play with him. You would then apply the Chronicle Sheet to the level that the character actually is or to the character at 8th and they would wait until they hit 7th to apply it, since this is when they would actually be legal to play?

Sure, if you just want them to open those beings as viable distributer of divine superpowers that's fine, but I don't think simply saying 'you can now worship Bob the devil' will help in opening up variety. I think if you really want to open up variety in providing characters multiple avenues of worship you need to have fully fleshed out divine/fiendish powers - not just a name and associated domains.

I completely agree with this. I would love to see more of the deities fleshed out. Though, if there was a devil named Bob, I would certainly worship him. He's got to be totally tough to survive with a lame name like that.

North Austin Pathfinder Society only meets monthly, yes. We've already had our December meeting, and if we're back on a regular schedule, we probably won't meet again until the 8th just like Dragn's. Keep an eye out though, people might try to arrange a New Year's game day.

Trying to get a game together either on the 31st or the 1st. Keep an eye on the Yahoo group.

Well said James.

Add in the fact that the boots are activated as a FREE action, the boots are very worth it.

In addition, Haste only lasts for 1 round per level when it does get cast. That leaves a LOT of time without haste.

In addition, you can turn it on and off many times so the use is multipied.

My recommendation? Buy the boots.

+1

Honestly, I think that part of the appeal of the 1-7 scenarios is just the shortage of 1-5's.

I will be very glad to see the new lowlow tier adventures. IMO, 1st level should probably be its own sub-tier.

I love this idea. Intro mods are always welcome, especially at cons with newbies. You could even make them a little shorter (like 3 hours) so you have time to help newbies learn the game.

Assuming there wasn't any deaths that led to this scenario, the 7s could replay the mods that the 4s missed for no credit just to get them to 5 for the 5-9s as well.

Good suggestion.

-1

MilCon 2010 went great this year. We ran 16 table of Pathfinder over 2.5 days.
Thanks to all of the GM's: Bill, Randy, Jarred, Trey, Jordan, Brian, and Chris. You guys really made the Con!

Thanks especially to Tessa, who really set the interactive apart with her awesome rendition of Osprey (especially the wounded Osprey complete with makeup and blood!)

We had a full table of newbies who had never played Pathfinder before who came in Friday first slot and played together through Sunday. We gave out a total of 9 new Pathfinder numbers over the weekend.

We ran a total of 9 tables of 1-5 or 1-7 mods, 3 table of 5-9, and 1 table at 7-11 and 3 tables of the interactive (tier 1-2, tier 5-6, and tier 10-11).

I apologize for the confusion at times while I tried to organize both Pathfinder and other RPG games but I really feel that everyone had a great time.

One last thanks to everyone who showed up. You all made the Con the success that it was.