Oh, yeah, that thing that happens in meat space. Yes. Let's officially pause for the weekend/con.
Also... Wei Ji, are you still reading? I would love to have my brother back! He messaged me, and I believe he will be returning pretty soon.
Mr. Splinters lies on the ground, very still, grinning and making plans. Of all the posts ever posted, this is the most terrifying...
Poor Mr. Splinters tumbles down the collapsed roof into the keep. Dozens of old campfires have left scorched stones as evidence of decades worth of squatters. As the marionette lands with a clatter, an ysoki peeks over the rubble he is hiding behind. Chani hears chattering that sounds bewildered or incredulous. Ysoki chatter: "Did they just throw a doll at us?" "Over the wall, technically." "It's not a bomb."
"I hear there is an organization in the north that is hiring archaeologists," Chimwemwe shouts after him. "I think headquartered in Absalom! I'd wager you'll fit right in."
Chani hears--or fails to hear--the voices fall silent for many heartbeats before a muffled and rushed conversation between the voices resumes in that same unfamiliar language. A high-pitched voice calls out in Taldane, "No thank you! Do not want. Thank you. Good day."
"I really need to read the team dossiers better," Iniquity says not-at-all quietly to himself after Dorrance mentions her introduction into the Society. "So there really is a vampire? I had half convinced myself that it was just an excuse by Narsen to get us to wander blindly in this eldritch mist with the hopes of stumbling upon you and killing you in the battle," he says to Boris. "Narsen suggested that the vampire was hunting Pathfinders. Do you have any inkling if that's so?"
Chani wriggles free of the black tendril and looks to his cards. The card is a painting of a boulder capped by snow. Chani:
Black puddings are immune to cold. Stone objects are not harmed by a black pudding's corrosive enzymes. Rulean directs his lance of force into the pudding but either the pudding is getting faster or the iruxi concentration is waning as the subsequent two strikes land nowhere near the pudding. However, before anyone can get too concerned, the pudding appears to have not sensed the incoming lightning from Song-of-Air. The energy strikes it dead center, and the ooze boils and explodes into inanimate, steaming gobbets.
GM Screen:
Don't forget that anything with a quote from a flagged/removed post gets removed too, even if the content of the author's post isn't a breach. That can have a pretty big cascade effect on the number of posts being removed.
How can we fix this? Here's a small dose of radical candor: You can fix it by looking for a non-PFS game that does not require a demonstrable PbP/D track record in their recruitment. I linked the general recruiting forum earlier. That is the place to look for home games, homebrew, and generally non-PFS games. You'll even find D&D 5e games there. Search patiently for what you actually want to play and do not torture yourself by trying to fit into a game whose rules you, and I quote you, "despise and hate." It will benefit you in no way to try to force yourself to play such a game. It's not vegetables. You don't have to eat it.
Also, are you actually interested in society play? Just today another beginner game was posted on RfC and yet again, you did not sign up for it. The vibe I am getting is that you don't actually want to play society, you just want to use it as an excuse to complain about something. That has been your most consistent interaction with society as a program.
Hmm. Having never been forced to suffer that specific manner of hazing, I had not seen it from that perspective. Thank you. I like Absalom Initiation, personally, but players have expressed to me fear of that scenario. It is easy to TPK with the wrong set up, I acknowledge. With a gentle GM hand guiding character selection, it is probably fine. If new players are left to their own devices, you could randomly end up with a team set up to fail. So the caveat there is that the GM may need to be more involved in character selection for new players.
"Dwarves, Soomdevi," Chimwemwe says, slowly giving up. "The High King of Cloudspire is a dwarf."
I'm going to try to clear some tasks off of my plate tomorrow, so initiatives will probably be either Wednesday night or Thursday morning.
Chimwemwe raises his fingers to his temple after Soomdevi's bluster. "...too much time with Teacher Koride." He raises his eyes but restrains himself from arguing the principal.
Am I able to Exploit Vulnerability before the battle? Apparently so.
"Onyije," Chimwemwe says calmly and quietly, the Lirgeni astrology and Esi having come upon the student struggling with her task and about ready to storm away. "Please allow me to help you. Take a moment to show me what went wrong, and let us consider--" "I didn't do anything wrong! It's the plaster!" Onyije shouts back. She looks about ready to punch Chimwemwe as he takes a breath to explain his rationale for his statement. Esi steps in and takes the half-orc a few steps aside to speak with her. Chimwemwe begins examining the patch of cracked wall while he waits. The other two step back after a few minutes of discussion. "So what did you want to show me?" Onyije asks, though the sincerity of her inquiry is debatable. Chimwemwe guides her in breaking down each step and where things went wrong when Onyije was trying to repair the wall on her own. "I see. Now that we have the process that led to this result mapped out, we can begin to alter the variables. The Cascade Bearers value adaptability and ingenuity. While some people are lucky and intuitive in their innovation, others--like myself--need to see the component pieces and study the effects of each change." He picks up the spilled pot of plaster. "Here you said the plaster was too thin and kept falling out of the cracks. Let us apply heat... can you produce a flame?"
Apologies. I forgot to answer the question about Retraining. It takes 7 days of Downtime to retrain a spell outside the free replacement at even levels. You've had 5 days of Downtime since you started working on the valley, so 2 more non-adventuring days and you can replace it.
"I barely got to eat anything but morrowkin flesh last time," Hunger grumbles quite audibly. Turiik's voice then says, "Jayma, maybe you could quickly explain what's going on to Rui while someone else finds Maika?"
"Giving one to the enemy seems wasteful," Hunger grumbles petulantly. "It's for a good reason," Turiik reassures the spirit inside him.
You return to the camp for dinner and take care of various menial tasks.
"I will hold the beast back," Hunger says through Turiik's mouth. "Sacrifice the other diners. They will be remade when you finish the knife and save us from this absurdity."
This is not news to anyone who has read Prestidigitation.
Chimwemwe sticks his tongue out in return. "She's probably older than all of us and immortal," he comments to those nearby. "I would have said it was impossible for a fey to change their nature, but Kurshkin suggests that it is possible. Maybe Binji will loose some of naivete as she studies at the Magaambya."
The catfolk picks the centaur's spear off of the ground, steps into the doorway, and throws it back at the villain.
↺ Retributive Strike | Ranged Reprisal:
I, too, am a primary PbP player with plenty of AcP. The OP’s self-inflicted restriction is that they only want to play AcP ancestries and do not want to GM. If you restrict yourself to 1 character to gain AcP, it is true it will take a good while.
"Nobody is going to remember anyway," Hunger grumbles back through Turiik's mouth. "I'm trying to be quiet," Turiik whispers.
The catfolk hisses underneath his wooden leopard mask at the dark eyes peering out of the tunnels. Turning back to his tribe, he says, "Onye Dinta sees many wounds. Onye Dinta will begin healing Ezgara." He touches the disfigured elf upon the shoulder, gently. Translucent feathers of golden light bloom over his hand, and Ezgara's vigor is restored. For a few moments, the elf is also plagued by the sense that golden eyes are watching over him. "Onye Dinta will now commune while Ezgara tends to Nicholo," he explains before moving to examine one of the fey corpses, batting it around with a finger to give it some semblance of false life.
While he waits for Meadow's answer, the One Who Hungers addresses the cooks through Turiik. "You should be proud. Your meals are worth killing for. And dying once."
To further undermine the assertion of the random Reddit poster: In Organized Play, since the plot of the scenario is never about your character beyond their role as a PFS agent, a character asserting that their witch patron is X and is correct vs. asserting that their witch patron is X but is incorrect is a distinction without a difference. Example: A changeling witch who believes their Fervor powers come from Shelyn but is actually secretly granted by a powerful night hag for some future (and never actually attained) purpose. A changeling witch who knows their Fervor powers come from Shelyn. The two examples are functionally indistinguishable in PFS. The difference in PFS is that you, the player, need to come up with the secret machinations of the night hang on your own and it only ever matters for your own personal head canon instead of telling the GM that you want your witch patron to matter in some way, tell me what I know about my character's patron.
"We should tell him," Turiik growls with the voice of the One Who Hungers. "He won't remember anyway. And probably won't believe us."
I also don’t like the precedent PFS set. A lot of places that do PF2e don’t allow uncommon ancestries period because PFS introduced the concept. There was this WM/living world that forces players to “work” for uncommon ancestries. There are even home game non-PFS tables that like setting up a system where players have to earn uncommon ancestries, and I hope I’m not unlucky enough to not have those tables be my only option The historic roots behind that go back much farther, so it isn't a PFS thing at all. Indeed. Restricting what ancestry is available in a campaign is not a PFS thing. It's a TTRPG thing. I've run a D&D campaign where all you could play were humans. Ancestry access is one of those things that has always been a negotiation between the player's imagination and the GM's imagination. The one has a setting fantasy in mind, the other has a character fantasy in mind.
Rulean senses magic in the area, but the skeleton does not animate as he approaches. Chani sees that a few of the bones have been gnawed and pulled away from the whole. It is clear that while the halfling died a good month or more ago, that is much more recent than when the building fell into disuse. The stones are weather worn and dappled with moss while grasses and briars have covered whatever used to serve as a floor. The parchment in the skeleton's hand turns out to be a map of the area. You recognize the three islands, the glade with the pool where you found the bear corpse, and the cave. The map bears a note over the island to the west--where the campfire flickers--that reads: "St. Alkitarem's Eye?" The map also indicates a small keep on the hillside to the east, looking in that direction, all you can see are trees blocking the hill. Several of the bones snap as you finagle the satchel off of the skeleton. The satchel itself jingles and clinks with the sound of coin and glass. A white clay cat amulet snags on the strap, tearing off of a tattered piece of a leather coat. "Who's there?" a voice calls weakly from the island with the campfire. "I'm injured and need help." GM Screen:
Ancestries:
Lizardfolk: 40 AcP Hobgoblin: 120 AcP (reducing to 80 on July 29 2022) Catfolk: 120 AcP (reducing to 80 on July 29 2022) Ratfolk: 80 AcP Tengu: 80 AcP Shoony: 160 AcP (Discounted to 80 with a certain AP credit) Android: 160 AcP Fetching: 80 AcP (reducing to 40 on July 29 2022) Fleshwarp: 160 AcP Kitsune: 80 AcP Sprite: 160 AcP Strix: 160 AcP Azarketi: 80 AcP Anadi: 160 AcP Conrasu: 160 AcP Gnoll: 80 AcP Goloma: 160 AcP Grippli: 80 AcP Shisk: 160 AcP Poppet: 160 AcP Automaton: 160 AcP Skeleton: 206 AcP Pine Leshy: 40 (AP Credit) or 80 AcP Heritages:
Aphorite: 160 AcP Changeling: 80 AcP Dhampir: 80 AcP Aasimar: 80 AcP Duskwalker: 80 AcP Tiefling: 80 AcP Beastkin: 160 AcP Ganzi: 80 AcP Genekin: 80 AcP Reflection Heritage: 160 AcP EDIT: Compilation credit to Doug Hahn
She said "relatively" swiftly.
Go to My Account.
As a primarily PbP PFS2 player, it does not take years. Maybe if you will only play with your favorite Uncommon ancestry, then, yes, building another 40-80 AcP playing only without GMing and only using 1 character created with the initial 80 AcP welcome gift could take quite a while. But that is a individual choice rather than a function of the game.
Thaumaturge Stuff: Yes. Area and Splash are Weaknesses that can be exploited.
Only the Target of Exploit Vulnerability counts. Say you were fighting a bunch of trolls and had successfully exploited vulnerability on Troll 1 to apply the Fire Mortal Weakness to your attacks, the other trolls also take the Mortal Weakness, but the other trolls aren't valid for Intensify Vulnerability, for example, only Troll 1.
I wish I had enough free time to search for an link all the pages and pages of forum discussion and Paizo blogs on this topic. Humoring the premise that it is better for Organized Play to make all ancestries and heritages free, what is your solution for incentivizing people to GM, since gaining access to uncommon/rare ancestries is the data demonstrated best way to get more people volunteering to GM?
Grinding is elemental to games with advancement not just video games. I was grinding in D&D for gold and XP long before any TSR Gold Box video game was released for the Commadore 64. The AcP system doesn't exist to force a grind. Like Doug said, it's an incentive to GM. In 1e PFS, the only way to get the really diverse ancestries is to GM at public events. They changed it so that people who didn't GM could eventually gain these boons, too. The restriction on what ancestries are available is a creative direction choice. Not everyone who comes to try PFS is happy with it, no, but that doesn't make it inherently bad that there's a creative director to the story and feel of the living campaign that limits what is and is not available. Note that there are Adventure Mode games where you can build by whatever rules the GM allows. They're less common than Organized Play scenarios and sometimes take longer to play, but they exist as an option for one to play whatever kind of character one might desire.
You have the benefit of having a GM who is fairly in love with the Thaumaturge class. I'll address the rules questions first: 1. I believe the intent of the rule was to allow you to use your implements at will without having to have 3 hands. And without boring you with my justification for how you would use reaction implements, I'll just say that it works so don't worry about it. You can use your implements with reactions. 2. I judge Recall Knowledge action to be an action that qualifies. You can swap to make a Recall Knowledge check. 3. A question you didn't ask: I don't hold to the ridiculous reading that once Tome hits Adept that you're forced to spend an action to make a Recall Knowledge check each round. That mechanic is definitely incomplete. So do you want A) you can optionally spend the action or not to Recall Knowledge and gain the attack bonus on a success or B) it's a free action, but you need to be starting your turn with Tome in hand, i.e., if you used Amulet as a reaction, you'd be starting your turn with Amulet in hand and lose the Tome "start of turn" free action? Hero Points: If you're following the link in the campaign header and see the fancy tracker, yes, we're using it. I'm resetting it after every chapter, though. Loot Tracking: I fill in what you find, but then it's up to you guys to use it. Starting Equipment: Use the 270 gp lump sum. They have enough for everyone to have +1 striking weapons. However, by my perception, they're ignoring the Loot Tracker.
It does take longer to /complete a scenario/ in PbP than live, yes, but it doesn't take more scenarios. You accrue the AcP at the same per scenario rate. I can sympathize how having fewer immediately available ancestry options can feel restrictive when you're coming from AL where you have open access to 40 ancestries from the get go of any character you create. AL isn't the same kind if living campaign as PFS, there are different rules. If the OP team chooses to change some rules/access to make campaign more appealing to other groups, I won't be bothered in the least. However, that the character creation rules are different does not make them unfriendly. Unpopular, maybe. However, at the end of the day, any new player can create any 80 AcP ancestry/heritage character as their first character.
When Turiik awakens on the gangplank, his spine arches and fingers extend in a painful imitation of claws. "What--? Where--?" The Eratuki man manages to sputter out a few words before his hair turns white and eyes turn black. "You are going to need me," the deeper voice of the One Who Hungers says. "And maybe I'll get to finish my meal." While the transformation remains, Turiik's milder voice asks, "You all saw that, didn't you?"
The polar bear slumps to the ground as the doom takes him and turns into a pile of snow. Unfelt wind blows the snow away, leaving Turiik's corpse.
Oh, I forgot to tell you all there was a new exploration slide.
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Pathfinder Society GM. Starfinder Society GM. 2,390 posts (23,394 including aliases). 4 reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 71 Organized Play characters. 34 aliases. 
