Add me as another vote in favor of this, not just the Character Folio, but essentially all forms.

Josh, is it really, truly necessary for us to have two pages of advertising in PSS modules. Pretty much all of us already have the rules, and while I can see you guys wanting us to buy Yetisburg, only one person per module sale is going to ever see the ad. Now, while I know I can set it to print out skipping the advertising pages, it still seems unnecessary, and to be frank, a waste of Paizo's advertising budget.

Josh, just a request. Add the Initiative modifier to the pregens please.

I cannot retired 28 scenarios. Ain't gonna happen.

I also can't allow scenarios to be converted in such a way as the new conversions result in fully-optimized, PC-destroying NPCs.

The Society needs play that's consistent--scenario #14 being played in Miami, FL needs to be the same #14 being played in Japan, otherwise one of those two groups is either getting an unnecessarily hard adventure or the opposite.

We'll need to discuss this here at HQ and formalize a policy.

I agree. They can't just be retired, but they can't be converted without some sort of universal balance. However, may I make a suggestion?

Allow us to work out the conversions for you guys, working with the original designers. We have a forum of some sort to do this in, and work together. Then you, or someone else at HQ will review the conversions, and has final approval. That way, we can take most of the workload off you guys, but we do get a balanced conversion. Unfortunately, this does still have one problem. What to do about the scenarios until the approved conversions are available?

I have had several games that have a hard time fitting into the four hour slot because if you have one combat go long then you sometimes cannot get the last one in. If it could be taken to four fights it may help break this trend I've seen.

For this, I think the solution would be to do something similar to PSS-01, to have one encounter that can be dropped if time's running short. My suggestion is minimum of five encounters, plus one optional that can be added if needed, and one of the five marked as able to be dropped should the module be running long.

Ultimately, Josh, I think the conversion issue is indeed going to need to be addressed by HQ at some point. While I understand you not wanting to issue official conversions to the modules, I think that we may well need them anyway. The only other alternative is to immediately and irrevocably retire all Season 0 mods. Unless we have official conversions, everyone is going to be doing their own versions, and no two are likely to match as a result.

... which is really funny when you remember the Pathfinder RPG catch-phrase is "It is YOUR game now!". ;)

Anyways, here's a quote from the Pathfinder RPG rulebook (p. 402):

"Likewise, don’t feel bound to the predetermined plot of an encounter or the rules as written. Feel free to adjust the results or interpret things creatively—especially in cases where you as the GM made a poor assumption to begin with."

All of which is trumped by the needs of the Organized Play campaign. As a Pathfinder Society Judge, I don't like the idea of people making more than cosmetic or minor changes to the scenarios, then turning around and reporting them as though they were the same scenarios that other players have taken part in, or other judges have run. As an Organized Play campaign, we're supposed to be on an even footing. How would it feel if you were part of a TPK in one module, then come here and find out that another Judge completely eliminated or rewrote the module, then reported the results to Josh and company? That said, based on the comments in this thread, while I think most of the changes were most likely for the better, and included necessary corrections, they SHOULD HAVE BEEN RUN BY JOSH BEFORE BEING USED IN THE CAMPAIGN!

In the new version of the Guide to Organized Play, it specifically states that there is a list of approved pregens on the Paizo site in the Pathfinder Society section. Is this up yet, and if so, where is it, as I need to forward these to the GM who will be running PSS at my regular venue next month.

Fortunately, in this case, it wasn't a group of new players. I've been running Pathfinder Society on nearly a monthly basis since October of 2008, and all of us were experienced players. Between us, I believe we average 15 to 20 years of Role Play experience. All of us were, and are, used to the concept of character death. That said, mistakes WERE definitely made. However, the issue still stands that, in the opinions of both myself and Neil that the Wand of Magic Missiles, when combined with the other Pirate Pact NPCs (designed to keep the party busy,) is extremely deadly. One of the reasons Magic Missile is one of the most important first level spells is that it is an automatic 1D4+1 damage to the target, no chance to miss and no save. In this case, there is no way, particularly as debilitated as the party was after the encounter with the Ettercaps, that we could have won the battle.

Also now once I log onto the forums, it refuses to show me any forums. Just says that "This board has no forums." Intriguingly if I don't log in, I can view the forums.

Likewise, except that when I log in, I get a permission denied. Looks like your permissions are screwed up.

Updated!

Josh, when will we be able to purchase the modules for the new season? When they're premiered at GenCon?

Brian, this particular forum is for discussion of the Pathfinder Society organized play campaign, but I'll still attempt to go ahead and answer your question.

I'm not familiar with Rise of the Runelords, but usually with an adventure path, the intention is that it is a campaign that will advance the characters from first level all the way up to the higher levels. For example, the Second Darkness adventure path is designed to end up with players at levels 15-16 by the end of the final volume.

Does the Pathfinder Society have any sort of tests or registration for DMs in the fashion that the RPGA used in the heyday of 3.5e?

Has the Society switched over to the actual Pathfinder rules yet? (If the answer is "no," then my entire game group will not be playing until they do.)

Thanks,
Jesse

Jesse, just to let you know, I'm planning a huge rollout of Season 1, using the release Pathfinder rules, for Gateway.

Deussu wrote:

In addition Osirion tends to be fairly paladin-friendly, consisting mostly of "this thing was a piece of our national treasure, go get it back".

Taldor and Qadira are a real pain for a paladin.

I'm gonna second this. If you want to play a cheliax Paladin, crumble up your mission notes and pray another chelaxian is there.

Honestly, I doubt that any Paladin would even work with Cheliax in the first place, simply because doing so would put them in violation of their alignment. Any Pally I see coming from Cheliax, I would think would likely be a rebel, possibly an Andoran faction member if they actually work with the Society.

I ran this over the weekend myself, and my impressions are as follows.

1) The randomness of the adventure makes it almost a slog. First of all, there's not a set method of determining which encounter you go to from the previous one. I did it by rolling 1d4, then counting clockwise around the map the number that I rolled. This led, eventually, to at least two encounters with the skeletons (needless to say, the second one was post disbelieving, and a waste of precious time.

2) The encounters in Enkendu's lair are good for the most part, until you take into account the hardness of the statue, WHICH WAS NEVER SPECIFIED IN THE MODULE! Particularly at Tier 1-2, if you set the hardness too high, as I apparently did, you're going to run into parties literally unable to damage it.

3) The final encounter. I'm not sure at about Tier 6-7, but at the lower tiers, this encounter is ridiculously easy, far too easy for a climactic encounter. When I ran this, I actually even attempted to have them end up having to deal with the imp after this, and it still didn't work out.

Frankly, this is definitely a sub-par module by almost any standards, especially with regards to Pathfinder Society. I honestly don't plan to run this one again if I can avoid it at all.

Where are you located?

Sorry for not replying sooner. This week's been hella hectic. We're located in Anaheim, California

Ok, it looks like we may have at least 20, and as many as 35 players showing up for Pathfinder Society at Hobby Day on Saturday the 11th. As I'm the one person who is supposed to be running this, I'm going to be a bit overwhelmed. Basically, what I need are at least three more DMs comfortable with running 3.5, and who would be willing to organize a Slot Zero for those who haven't played yet. This is a bit short notice, but I just found out about this myself. Ultimately, I think if we have four to five DMs, we should be able to get through this, or even three DMs willing to run as many as two sessions. Please, anyone who can help, email me at clbeilby@gmail.net, and I'll get back to you ASAP!

Actually, Josh, upgrade that. It looks like I'm going to need full, convention level, support. I may be getting as many as 35 players for Pathfinder Society at this event!

Josh, on a related question. How do we get an Event Code? I'm hoping to run Silent Tide in a couple of weeks at a game day, and also have a Slot Zero run for me in the next week or so.

Bump.

Hi, I'm looking for someone in SoCal, specifically in Orange County or Long Beach, to run Slot Zeroes for at least two DMs, plus possibly two or three other players. I'd like to start of with Silent Tide, if possible, and preferably within the next three weeks.

Ok, thanks all. I wasn't quite clear on this.

For sanctioned Pathfinder Society play, are we allowed to use the Pathfinder Beta, or is it definitely the 3.5 PHB only?