Anarkitty's page

Do the Job/Heroic: Core setting should probably assume the Heroic Mercenaries/Adventurers end of the spectrum, same as Pathfinder. The characters can choose to care about morality or not, but there shouldn't be a downside to being "the good guys".

Lawless/Great Empire: Not lawless, but fragmented. Different factions controlling different systems/sectors/galaxies each with their own laws and alignments.

Core Races/Some Races/Lots of Races: At least to start with anything over a dozen races gets really hard to learn the system. There could be more NPC races but only a handful of playable races to start.

Balancing against Humans is good, but if you want to subvert the trope you could designate an alien race as the dominant race in the galaxy and balance humans and everyone else against them. It would really drive home the idea that humans are just one race of many, not the dominant species in the universe, if that is the feel you want to go with.

Political Intrigue/Shooting Gallery: There needs to be robust systems for both because every group falls in a different point on that spectrum.

Normal Sci-Fi/Gonzo Sci-Fi: Gonzo, or at least space opera. Corrupt governments are all well and good, but they're way better with cat-jelly-dragon hybrid monsters grown in a secret laboratory on Pluto.

Are you aware of a late medieval heavy crossbow trick with a tower shield - especially during sieges? The crossbowman wore one on his back. He would shoot, turnaround, cock and load, then turn back to shoot.

Way back in 2nd Edition AD&D it was a standard tactic in my group to sling a shield across your back when you weren't using it to get the AC bonus on your rear arc. Even characters that never used it as an actual shield wore one on their back.

Like many other ways to potentially "break the mod" don't be surprised if/when you run across a GM that says, "Congratulations, you win. Here is your chronicle sheet. See ya in three hours for the next session."

My advice for society play is, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is and you should carefully consider what effect it might have on the GoodRightFun of everyone at the table, including the GM. YMMV

I would be very surprised if a GM kicked me out of a game for trying something different, and I would report them immediately to the PFS leadership for it, even if they offered to give me the Chronicle sheet.

Even if you get the rewards for the Chronicle, that is not the point of playing in the PFS. Playing is the point, and the chronicle rewards are not a worthwhile "consolation prize" for getting booted from a table just because a GM doesn't want to deal with an idea they haven't seen before, especially on the basis of how it might impact the remainder of the session.

You bring up the GoodRightFun of the rest of the table, but what about the GoodRightFun of the player whose only crime is playing their character according to the rules. There is a general assumption that the player hasn't read the adventure, so they don't know that this particular action will be game breaking, they're just doing something that makes tactical sense during the down time they were provided.
Planning ahead and preparing for the unknown is not a violation of any rules. PFS assumes the players will employ planning and tactics and use any and all resources they have at their disposal, and unless/until it is officially restricted, there is no excuse for kicking a player just because they are thinking ahead. If they start being a jerk about it, or ruining it for the rest of the players, then that is a violation of the rules, and by all means, kick them out, but do it for that reason, not because you just don't want to deal with their legal character.

That's if you're lucky. Usually it's more like asking the three ladies, getting five different answers, all of them are Ladies Rooms, and then they proceed to fight you, each other, and a random passerby who just stopped by to tell you all that you are idiots and that the bathroom is right over there behind the door marked "Janitor's Closet."

Anarkitty wrote:

nor does someone having a photocopied version detract from my experience or make me less likely to "win".

As an isolated incident, perhaps not.

But if the culture of "I can photocopy this (or print off a web page), so I don't need to pay for it" becomes more widespread, then Paizo don't make as much money, so are less interested in supporting PFS. And without Paizo's support, PFSOP withers and dies, and everybody loses.

Paizo have never made any attempt to hide the fact that PFSOP is a marketing tool to sell Paizo products, not a free service provided to the community as a charitable gesture. It's their sandbox, and those are the rules they have laid down for player's participation.

I agree with you, I bought the books (or the ones I need for the character I want to play, anyway). I didn't say that the idea of everyone wanting stuff for free doesn't have consequences, nor did I say that Paizo doesn't have every right to make buying the books a requirement.

Just don't tell me that you or I will be personally impacted if we paid for a book and someone else didn't. I have no personal stake in whether someone else paid for their rule book, it doesn't make mine any less valuable or degrade my gaming experience in any way. If I'm on a diet and you eat a donut, do I gain weight?

In a very indirect sense I guess it has an effect if Paizo stops supporting PFS because no one is paying for their books, but I doubt the PRD would exist if they were losing money on it, so I'm really not especially worried about that particular consequence.

Here are two ways to think of it:

1) You and I sit together at the table. You have bought 'Awesome Character Guide 1', and I havent. But I built my character with rules from ACG1. Why should I get to use it for free, when you paid for it to get that right?

2) Your playing in a MtG/PokemonCCG/YuGiOh tournament. You invest a lot of money into your deck, cause you want to have winning cards. Someone else shows up with printed copies of scans of Black Lotus/Blue Eyes White Dragon/ Mewtwo and kicks your butt. Is it fair for that player to get to use those cards, just cause the images can be found on the internet?

1. Because I would be happy to loan you my book during that session, because we are working together towards a common goal. When you show up to the next session and I'm not there to borrow the book from, you're screwed, but that doesn't hurt me. I don't see any way that this affects me negatively.

2. In a tournament situation, it is competitive, while at a RPG table it is cooperative, so it is a completely different situation. I didn't pay for my character, or my sword, or my armor, or my potions, and while I payed for my rule book, letting someone else read it doesn't in any way deprive me of access to it, nor does someone having a photocopied version detract from my experience or make me less likely to "win".

You are making an argument that simply doesn't hold water in a cooperative experience.

Personally, I decide I want an animal for my character before I look at the stats for it. For example, I decided a Yak mount would be neat for my Half-Orc, and I bought it.

Then I looked up the stats and almost swallowed my tongue. Naturally it will be useless for 95% of all encounters (maybe 90% after it is combat trained), but on the rare occasion where I have the opportunity to hurl myself, my double-axe, and a ton-and-a-half of enraged meat at someone because they decided to engage the party across an open field, I'm going to damn well do it, and it is going to be awesome, and that is the point.

The rest of the time it is a horse that costs more to stable and looks really cool.