Catling's page

jon dehning wrote:

Zahir ibn Mahmoud ibn Jothan wrote:

Painlord wrote:

Andrew Christain (I love this guy more every time I meet him)

Who doesn't? He seems to be everyone's nemesis? For me, I find him to be an awesomely fun GM. My group first had him at Hell Knight's Feast a few years back and loved him. This year we got him for the kobold special. Awesome role playing scenario with an awesome role playing GM.

Are you the one who spilled coffee on my map? ;)

Same crew, but they are five. The guy who spilled was a random sixth they grabbed.

This is why we can't have nice things.

Thursday, July 30

Slot 1 (0800-1300): Goblin 3d Invasion

Slot 2 (1300-1800): Goblin 3d Invasion

Slot 3 (1900-2400): OFF

Friday, July 31

Slot 4 (0800-1300): Goblin 3d Invasion

Slot 5 (1300-1800): Goblin 3d Invasion

Slot 6 (1900-2400): OFF

Saturday, August 1

Slot 7 (0800-1300): Pathfinder Adventure Card Game OP (Sagamore)

Slot 8 (1300-1800): Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Demo (Dealer Hall)

Slot 9 (1900-2400): OFF

Sunday, August 2

Slot 10 (0900-1600): Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Demo (Dealer Hall)

Sweet! I can play most of the specials! :-)

Thanks to everyone that helped make it a success this year!!!! :-)

Can't wait for next year!

I can say that I was the GM for the OP.

The reason I handed out the faction missions for this scenario was to give the players something to try to talk about with the NPCs. As it was, most PCs walked up to the NPCs with nothing really to talk about, unless they tried to work in their faction mission somehow. Unfortunately, there were a lot of PCs without any good social skills, which was why I was being very flexible in allowing "creative solutions" by using other appropriate skill checks based on the conversation they were having with the NPCs.

As far as the player that decided to pursue the Osirion faction mission, he is an experienced player and GM and had already run this scenario in the past. Sometimes you just want your character to feel useful, which is probably why he went off to do that instead, as the three that went to do that hadn't really been successful with the influence checks up to that point. I gave you guys an extra influence point to one of the NPCs for the success on that, but that didn't help bring up the score on that NPC for a successful influence. The Andoren faction mission had nothing to do with the Blakros' daughter, so that entire part of the scenario was more a moral decision to be made by the PCs, which could potentially come up in later scenarios.

There are other scenarios that have followed the same or very similiar format: The Hellnight's Feast, The Merchant's Wake and parts of The Paths We Choose.

All I can say is that players and GMs do the best they can and sometimes the dice just aren't rolling well (on both sides of the screen).

I will say that in our area, we've been working on trying to work on this topic. I've started to organize a "Women's Only" table a couple of times a month at one of the game days. It's an extra table, in addition to other tables being offered. It's to encourage women players to come out and play, but we also wouldn't turn someone away if the other tables were full.
The first session was a lot of fun. AND it was the first time the person GM'd (who was a woman), so it made it pretty cool.

I can understand where you're coming from, Quill. And I'm also saddened by your experiences and the frustration and anger you feel you have to suffer in silence.

I think that is another good point to bring up. I don't want to speak for all women, but I know for myself, if I'm upset or angered to tears, I'd rather not have anyone else see it, especially the male players. It makes me feel weak and vulnerable, and it makes me feel like I'm not strong enough to handle gaming with "the guys". If it were a group of just women, it feel a lot different and that we can be more open and honest with each other and how we're feeling. I feel like I can tell another woman to "stop being mean" if they start to act like a jerk, but trying to tell a man that makes me feel like I'm a dumb and overly-sensitive girl. I feel like I have to work hard to try to act tough and keep up with the guys, trying to act impervious to the comments, jokes and other immature conversations that end up at a gaming table.

I remember I was playing at a table when the GM screamed and cursed at me very loudly when he was playing the NPC, but it was still absolutely uncalled for and inappropriate. I almost got up and left the table in the middle of scenario, but I didn't want to leave the rest of the party without a healer or miss out on the one chance I would have to play this scenario for credit. This past weekend I was playing at a table as the charismatic PC trying to talk to the NPC, who apparently didn't like what I had to say and had its pet attack. There were 2 PCs [played by men] who took an action to step out of the way of the attacking creature and did not attack the creature as it walked by. Two rounds later and my PC was dead. They players said they felt bad about it and immediately agreed to pay for all of the raise dead and negative levels on my PC, saying "it wasn't supposed to go that far". So I had to miss out on the playing the rest of the scenario for, hmm, I'm not sure what they were trying to do. Their amusement? I still haven't cooled down enough to discuss the actual rules I thought were ignored by the GM without getting too upset and frustrated. I had once again seriously reconsidered my involvement with PFS, but I've stuck with it.

Quill - I hope your gaming days do get better in PFS. Hopefully there is a good group of guys that want to play with you and will have your back when you're at the table. Forget the jerks and ask not to be seated with them and refuse to GM them. It sucks, but sometimes it's what needs to happen. I wish you the best.

Jiggy - Have no fear, it was not you. You're a great guy to game with and our adventures are always fun. You should bring out the wife more often, it's fun to play with more women. Would she be interested in a ladies-only table sometime?
Although I will say, if you notice me being super quiet at the table, that's probably a good indication that I've shut down and am not having a good time. Probably because there is jerk emerging at the table and is treating someone or some people like dirt.

Hmm....Women in PFS. It's actually something I've been a bit passionate about advocating since I joined Society a year ago. I joined PFS with my husband, with maybe 10 RPG sessions ever in my life (never did D&D or MMOs, nothing), so I had a LOT to catch up on for rules and understanding stuff and things like that. I started to run a Women's Only Pathfinder home group, and I worked hard to try to teach them how to play, which in turn made me learn the rules a lot better.

I ended up becoming much much more involved in PFS and that home group fell by the wayside. My husband stopped playing in PFS within a few months, but I continued on my own, showing up to game days a few times a week. Honestly, I was overwhelmed and often felt out-of-place at the table, and felt like I could never hold my own in combat or even out of combat. There were a number of times I went home in tears after games, because there was someone treating me like a real jerk or feeling like I would never be good enough to be treated as a equal with all the other super experienced [male] players.

I kept telling my husband I was going to quit and never go back, but I'm super persistent and stubborn, and I did keep going back. And I'm glad I did. I finally feel like I'm treated as an equal at the table, and newer [male and female] players will even ask ME for advice or rules questions. But it was a long and, frankly, emotional journey to get there.

When I took over organizing one of game days, I made it my goal to work on involving more women in PFS and helping them to feel more welcomed and comfortable at the table. I had planned on working on planning a few gaming seminars for women players, to help them build characters and confidence at the table and hearing and addressing concerns they have had while gaming. I would also like to try to start hosting one table for women players only, maybe once a week or once every couple of weeks at one of our game days. I'm hoping to work on actually trying this stuff out when I've got a little time to plan (there's been a lot going on personally for me lately).

What advice can I give the male players of the gaming world? Treat the lady players as you would that little sister (or even your mother) you respect and admire. Be protective, without being degrading. Let them shine once in a while, they will surprise you. Even if it's just one awesome D20 roll or ending combat with the last blow. Cheer them on, just like you would anyone else. High fives all around after combat is cool with everyone. Have fun and don't be afraid of a little light-hearted humor. Everyone likes a good laugh, but don't do at someone else's expense. Just remember - would you look at your sister like that? And would you let someone else talk to your sister that way? And is that joke one you'd tell in front of your mother?

I enjoy playing with most people in our local PFS group and I like to think of some of guys I game with regularly as like an older protective brother (even if they're younger). I think they'd have my back if someone starts to act like a jerk, which makes more comfortable at the table. I'm often times the only woman player at the table, so I've had to learn to hold my own ground and try a little harder to earn the respect of newer [male] players at the table, especially GMing. But like I say, it's still something I'm working on and I am still trying to be an advocate of increasing women players in PFS. Ladies - we've got this! :-)

It says it was answered in the FAQ in this post:

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2owod?Wild-armor-allows-you-to-ignore-armor-pen alties#1

But I can't seem to find in the FAQ. Is it really in there or just my imagination?

(Dude, I'm not good with Messageboards, so please excuse my lack of hyperlinking the texts).

I will agree that it seems sort of arbitrary... and that means Lord Snappy (my Giant Scorpion) will be losing his barding... even though my player doesn't own the book. Doesn't make a lot of sense (he was going to eventually be getting really nice barding... which would match my armor!), but I guess it proves once again that a vermin animal companion is extremely sub-optimal.

Poor Lord Snappy! So picked upon by the rules... no skills, no feats, almost no tricks. *sniff*

Eh. Wand of Mage Armor and Pearl of Power +2 to keep casting Barkskin. That's like +6 armor right there and cheaper than barding. Trust me, I know! (barding gets very expensive very quickly for companions)

When I ran it, I also bought the module called The Harrowing, since one of the characters (The All-Seeing Ajeck) is mentioned to have the artifact in that adventure. So I ended up doing a harrow card reading for one PC and then one for the group. It ended up being somewhat random, but the one PC thought it was a prophecy that needed to be figured out for the adventure, so needless to say it was quite amusing as he ran around trying to make sense of the reading. To this day, his character still runs around believing the reading was a prophecy and that he needs to "protect the Rabbit Prince and beware The Juggler". He took one of the bunnies from the petting zoo at the circus and someone in the party put a paper crown on its head, so now he has the "rabbit prince" in a familiar pouch. It was definitely a lot of fun for the group!

Eh, looking at the combat-trained tiger, it's really not over-powered. It's large, so it won't be effective in most dungeons or anywhere else with 5 foot corridors (since you can't give it feats like Narrow Frame to avoid the penalties).
If you're small and riding it, you'll always have to use a move action to dismount (you can't fast dismount if it's more than one size category larger then you).
If it moves it's full speed while you're mounted and you try to cast a spell, you'll have to make concentration checks. Well, unless you start to invest feats for mounted combat and stuff.
There is the whole having to use a move action to give it a command (druids and rangers can do it as a free action).
And a lot of GMs tend to kill animal companions, so that's like 500 gp down the drain if someone kills it. Druids and rangers get to go out in the wild between scenarios and summon a new companion for free.
You'll also be missing the whole "empathic connection" with your companion, so there would be a certain communication barrier. Your tiger might smell something in the room, but how does it tell you there's something there? Watch its tail twitch a little? As opposed to having some empathic feeling that your companion tells you that there's something close by (I realize that empathic connections do not give you a language between you and your companion, but you can sense that their hackles are raised and they're suddenly on guard, meaning there is something close you might not see).
And it only has a 14 AC, it will probably get hit a lot if it gets into combat.
More awesome creatures are like the Giant Gecko that can climb on ANY surface. Safely casting spells from a ceiling or climbing up something out of the way? Pretty Awesome.
Just try it out and see if it actually overpowers the table. It probably won't. It would definitely help a table that ends up being all spellcasters with no melee characters. It happens.
I guess I'm just saying try it out and talk to that person if it does become a problem.

Don't forget about the invasion of Paracountesses on Friday! This should be pretty epic...

I love playing druids, so this sounds like a lot of fun! :-)

One idea might be to create a group of druids that after years of adventuring together with their animal companions, they decide to Awaken (per the spell) their companions and give them their own decision to continue to join them or go off and do their own thing. So the animal companions, after years of being told what to do and to run into battle to save their masters, have decided they want the power to rule over people. They run off and find a large city to take over and run a criminal empire like "the mob", and enjoy the sweet life of having people serve them. The druids find out what they've done and step up to raise an army to overtake their former companions, realizing the mistake they've made. That's where the PCs come in. The animals might have found some sort of old magical relic that turns people into lycanthropes and serve the animals in their army against the druids (perhaps something the druids had uncovered years ago adventuring and thought they destroyed). But it would all make an awesome investigation for the PCs to find out all this backstory and what's happening to all the farmers and villagers that have gone missing (if they were turned into werewolves, etc). And figuring out how to infiltrate this animal "mob" and destroy it from the inside out or just join the army against them. It could be very interesting as a moral dilemma for the druids and the PCs, to destroy their former animal companions with NEW animal companions and having them look at how they are treating nature. Plus you'd get to create NPCs that are sentient animals and giving them class ranks and stuff. Especially creating a story for the fey caught in the middle - to side with the animals or the druids?

Just a thought. :-)

Have fun with your story, however you decide to do it. :-)

It would be awesome to meet you Byrhtnoth! :-)

The week of Christmas it looks like we won't have as many game days as usual. On Saturday December 21st there will be gaming at Village Games in Anoka at 11:30am, Tower Games in Minneapolis at 1pm, then Your Mom's Basement in White Bear Lake at 6:30pm. Sunday December 22nd, there will be gaming at The Source in Roseville at 1pm. Thursday December 26th there will be gaming at Legion Games in Burnsville at 6pm (which I organize, yay!). And then Saturday December 28th there will be gaming again at Tower Games in Minneapolis and Your Mom's Basement in White Bear Lake. The closest stores will probably be Tower Games and Legion Games.

Plenty of game days to choose from. Hope to see you there! :-)

Umbriere Moonwhisper wrote:

boons serve no purpose but to punish the players whom can't attend a Con for a variety of reasons. there are plenty of reasons we can't attend a con, and there are many gamers whom can't afford to devote the massive amount of income to buy race boons.

in fact, the restrictive nature is a Deterrent to new PFS players

The second VTT online game day is this coming Saturday. There are somewhere between 35-50 tables scheduled. There are also GM and player boons available to be won. You don't need to attend anywhere but your seat in front of your computer at your house. I'm not sure how much easier it could be.

I like it! <3

I was thinking Hunter. Its like a druid.. just not. Giant Scorpion you say? Is such a creature on the Druid list? Tell me!

Hunter doesn't give you martial weapon proficiency (or Scythes!), so it's odd to call it a "fighter type". Just sayin'.

Vermin companions are in Ultimate Magic! Your choice of wonderful new companions. They are mindless, so the rules are a little different for teaching it tricks.

The best pcs I find myself are ones that I form in my mind during society games.

Since playing some season 5 games, Ive got it into my mind to create a Desert Dwarf from Osirion. Im not exactly sure what class yet and the name is currently eluding me, but I do like it when an npc comes up in a game and you think.. wow.. he/she is kinda cool wonder what the backstory is.

It needs to be a desert druid riding a giant scorpion! Do it! Bwhahaha... What could be more frightening than a dwarf with a giant dwarvan waraxe riding on the back of a giant scorpion into battle?

But then again, I have a thing for druids. And tigers. Mostly just tigers. They pounce. And maul enemies for my druids. Rawr.

Well, I guess I can understand wanting to keep races locked down for PFS. I just wish they had more boons available. :-(

Maybe they could offer up some online auctions for race boons? Then everyone could have a crack at bidding for one. AND helping raise money for charity. 'Cause we rock like that! Yay helping others! :-)

Just a thought...

BigNorseWolf wrote:

I think its mildly insulting to suggest that people that want to try new races need help making a character.

I could use some help actually.

I am usually pretty good at creating fun, interesting characters, and I really like the core races. Recently, I've been having the urge to play a half-orc. That is a race that I generally shy away from, but now I want to play one. I just have not thought of a good concept that I like yet.

One concept my friend and I were considering for Half-Orc was to create bards with craft: puppets and have perform: manipulator (which is a person that controls a marionette), and have puppets made from the dead bodies of the last enemies you defeated (perhaps profession taxidermy would be more appropriate). So in battle you'd being performing with your dead goblin puppets and running up to the enemies with your bite attack, all while inspiring courage (or horror) with your party members. :-) I would hope the GM would give a small bonus to intimidate with that.

Well, since we're looking for opinions, I'll throw in my 2 cents.

I would love to see more race options opened up! :-)

I will freely admit that I just started in the world of RPGs earlier this year, and started Pathfinder Society in May. I am soooooo unfamiliar with everything involved with RPGs that I just want to dive in and try everything once. And well, conveniently, PFS meets several times a week, so that's several times a week I could try something new! But, unfortunately, there are some races I just don't get to try out. :-( I have to start up home games to play these races and then I miss out on playing with my PFS friends, and I longingly think about how these awesome characters would be if they played through some of the PFS scenarios. I imagine a catfolk showing up to the Blakros' Wedding would have caused an interesting stir amongst the attendees. A home-spun campaign just wouldn't appreciate it the same way people in PFS would.

That being said, I enjoy playing characters with a richly created background and I enjoy role-playing my characters to their fullest extent. Some people ask why should we have catfolk in Society play? I think 'why not'? They're curious and clever and a whole lot of fun to role-play. I love creating fun and interesting characters and I would love to have more options available.

I already have notoriety in our region for being the "tiger lady" (playing the druids with the tiger companions), it would be fun to known as the lady that also plays Catfolks. Just sayin'. I would also love to build the Kistune Oracle with the mange who is also a blight druid. Everyone stay back! Not only do I have the mange, but I'll make you sick too! Such colorful characters I could build. lolz

Please open up Catfolks? Please? I <3 Sulis too!

Thanks kids! :-)

For Jiggy's demographic: I'll celebrating my 4th anniversary of turning 29 in a couple of months. It's not polite to ask a lady her age. ;-)

Congrats Ryan! It's always been a super fun time with you leading the table. :-) You say that we put up with your voice acting, but the truth is, you put up with all our crazy antics and parlor tricks we manage to come up with (even those super wise but incredibly naive druids, and all the tigers, and even the 5 wisdom craziness that is a character). Thank you so much for all you do for the community and all the help you've given me as a coordinator and GM. Although, with everything you do, you "say" you have a social life, but we still don't believe you. :-P
So congrats! Many thanks and many hugs! :-)

Let me sum up my long rant that I have not written yet:

Tigers, tigers, tigers, tigers, tigers, bear traps. And more tigers.

And that's how it's done boys.

I suddenly feel like I'm watching several cat fights breaking out simultaneously.

As it would seem - kind words tend to fall on deaf ears, negative words only tend to provoke.

*sighs, shakes head slowly, and walks away*

I call back, "Come on tigers, let's go find some kinder posts to read"...

I would like to say a HUGE THANK YOU to all the VCs and VOs and VLs out there working hard everyday to provide awesome game days to all the players every week!!!! :-)

I've seen how hard you work and I admire and appreciate all you do. I only organize game days for one store, I could not imagine how much work it would be to oversee everything in the region.

Most of us players are able to take a week off of PFS if we want, but that's not an option for the VOs. The VOs are still people, with families and friends and a life outside of PFS, and I feel grateful that they've chosen to dedicate as much time to PFS as they do.

Yes, the VOs are people and mistakes can be made. But a private conversation seems far more appropriate when you believe a mistake has been made. And as long as both of you are willing to listen, there's no reason you wouldn't be able to come up with an amicable solution. I know in this age of digital media it can be easy to post and hide behind the anonymity that a computer screen can give and pretend that you're allowed to say whatever you want. But the truth is it still affects people. I hope other people keep these things in mind once in a while.

I also appreciate Mr. Mike Brock's open door policy to address concerns and Mr. John Compton's willingness to step in to address concerns as well. The support from the campaign's leadership is nice to see as a player.

So again, I would like to extend a big thank you to VOs everywhere!

Big hugs all around! :-)

Although, I don't recommend hugging the tiger. I cannot guarantee how he will react...

It's simple. More bear traps.

Set up bear trap in front of door. Knock on door. Bad guys run out and triggers the bear trap's readied action to snap on their foot. Bear trap rolls an attack.

Thank you bear trap. You've broken the readied rules.

Sorry, that was far more sardonic than I intended.

Why do some traps roll attacks instead of just having a reflex save?

Eh, it is what it is. There are so many "what ifs" that it takes some judgement calls. When anything involves people, there is always the chance for human error. Nobody is perfect.

But everyone needs more bear traps. And tigers.

Someday I will inquire if I can use them an improvised thrown weapon. More GM judgement calls.

what you are looking for is a Handy Haversack in saddlebag form (homegame). The issue of hands will always be there...

From the Animal Guide:
Quadruped(claws/paws), Slots: Armor, belt (saddle), chest, eyes, headband, neck, shoulders, wrist. Grasp/Carry: No.
so that is what you have to work with.

If you are looking to carry stuff - saddlebags.

Polymorphic pouch (p 316 Ultimate Equipment). I always take Natural Spell as my 5th or 7th level feats. ;-) (Wild Speech is invaluable as well).

I just like the idea of having a SLWS on with tiger form. Swift action - shoot out wand, move action - pick up wand from ground, standard action - cast. Thereby completely negating any benefit from the SLWS (and provoking attacks of opportunity at least twice).

Just saying it might be "possible" to have your animal companion with SLWS and you run over during combat (while not in wild shape form) and pop out that wand as a swift action and cast...(it's really not something I'd do, but I'm sure someone has already tried).

Catling wrote:

I would just like to know when they're going to make a spring loaded polymorphic bag for those of us that choose to roam around in wild shape all day.

Use a swift action to spring that scroll of BoL right into my teeth as a tiger, then use a move action to unroll it on the ground with my giant claws, then cast.
Oh wait, where did all these holes come from! Doh! Foiled again...
Ah ha! Maybe this friendly spellcaster next to me can figure it out. Grab scroll with teeth and hold up for adjacent spellcaster. They grab it and unroll it "what the h...?" (scroll looking clearly mangled at this point) "what is wrong with you?". What? I didn't have enough actions in the round to un-wild shape. I tried? *shrugs*

Maybe my tiger companion should have spring loaded wrist sheaths. He can hold my wands for me. Pop them out when we need them. Darn wrist sheaths going away when I wild shape...

(Sorry, I'm clearly not adding anything useful. Please disregard. Although the images amuse me.)

you are supposed to regurgitate them! Haven't you used the hairballs of entangle yet?

I always buy my scrolls from that little green bard feller with the marshmallows and funny brogue accent - his scrolls are magically delicious! You get the Breath of Life and Eagle's Splendor combo scroll - so when you come back you actually do look better! Don't forget the duck sauce... *duck!*

*facepalm* Doh! That's what I've been doing wrong this whole time! Where's the feat for coughing up a spell as a hairball?

I imagine your strange little green fellow scroll merchant has a few extra scrolls he can sell? I do prefer tastier scrolls, and halflings do love their sweets (even if they are tigers by day).

Although, I would be a little nervous that the goblin hordes would catch wind of it and would be after the sweet and tasty treats. And then I'd have to run away from them, yelling "They're after me Lucky Scrolls!"

And I have a feeling all the bystanders would simply watch and say "Hey wait, did that tiger just say something?"

On a more serious note - spring loaded wrist sheaths on animal companions, possible or impossible? Eh??

I would just like to know when they're going to make a spring loaded polymorphic bag for those of us that choose to roam around in wild shape all day.
Use a swift action to spring that scroll of BoL right into my teeth as a tiger, then use a move action to unroll it on the ground with my giant claws, then cast.
Oh wait, where did all these holes come from! Doh! Foiled again...
Ah ha! Maybe this friendly spellcaster next to me can figure it out. Grab scroll with teeth and hold up for adjacent spellcaster. They grab it and unroll it "what the h...?" (scroll looking clearly mangled at this point) "what is wrong with you?". What? I didn't have enough actions in the round to un-wild shape. I tried? *shrugs*

Maybe my tiger companion should have spring loaded wrist sheaths. He can hold my wands for me. Pop them out when we need them. Darn wrist sheaths going away when I wild shape...

(Sorry, I'm clearly not adding anything useful. Please disregard. Although the images amuse me.)

Awesome thing to see! Thanks Todd, you're super awesome!

I think we all try to take care of each other when we can. Organizers will buy the scenarios and gift them to the GMs. Players at the table will pitch in for a raise dead when they're teammate goes down. Personally, I buy extra cure light wound potions and will hand them to new players at the table. I figure they can always give them back at the end of the scenario if they didn't use them.

It's nice to see a good community building in PFS. It's a big warm fuzzy feeling...like cuddling with big warm fuzzy tigers.

Yay tigers!

03-05 Tide of Twilight
03-09, 03-11, 03-13 Quest for Perfection 3 part series
03-23 Goblinblood Dead
04-05 The Sanos Abduction
04-17 Tower of the Ironwood Watch (mostly?)
04-19 Night March of Kalkamedes (for the most part)

I can understand your dilemma Martin. I've also GM'd a few tables with new(er) players and occasionally they feel like they're not contributing or they get so frustrated with the progress of themselves or the team in combat. I've felt that myself sometimes, and I think we all have had those days.
The last time I had someone get up and say they were leaving because they just felt like they weren't useful at all, I managed to talk them into staying. I told that person that this fight was almost over, and there's really only one fight left, and it shouldn't be as bad. I talked to that person for a minute about what they feel their character can contribute and discussed some "ideas" on how they can help contribute in combat. They were a spellcaster and I asked which spells they had, and I gave some suggestions on how they could use those spells in combat, and really tried to get them excited about using those spells in combat (sleep and color spray! Color spray in combat at 1st level = yeah!). I did convince the person to stay at the table and the team rallied together for the last combat and creamed the bad guy. And the person that was going to leave said he was really glad he did end up staying.
Sometimes in the middle of combat it's hard to stop and focus on how the players are doing, but it's what you have to do at times. If someone gets up and wants to leave, it might be a really good time for a break (even in the middle of combat). Just take a minute for everyone to step away, and you can maybe talk to player that wants to leave one-on-one. Find out why they're frustrated and how you can help them want to stay. Maybe they're just not sure what they can do or should be doing, and it's a great opportunity for a little training/advice. Maybe they just had a bad day. Maybe they don't like the other players. Hopefully you'd be able to talk them into staying and they'll end up having a lot more fun if they feel like you've listened to their concerns. And will want to come back and tell everyone else how much fun they had! :-)

I am no longer allowed to use the terms "sheath" "long" "hard" or "grasp" while having a conversation with an intelligent longsword that I happened to be holding. Or the terms "holding" or "hands" for that matter...

I am not allowed to combine air elemental form and summon nature's ally III, no matter how much I want a sharknado.

Haven't you seen the Saddle of the Sky-River from the Animal Archives?

Imagine the possibilities my friend, imagine the possibilities...

EVERYTHING in my handy haversack when I wild shape! lol

I have all my handy potions, wands, scrolls and super fun items (like smelling salts, vermin repellent and universal solvent) all in my handy haversack and I hand it off to one of the other PCs and I wild shape. Then I kindly ask the group wizard or sorcerer if they would use my wand of mage armor on me. This circlet of animal speaking is very handy...

Next on the list - polymorphic pouch! So all my wands will be in easy reach...of my teeth?

Maybe an extra saddle too. Who wants to ride the tiger into battle?

And maybe I should pick up extra Beads of Newt Prevention and hand one to everyone at the table before the adventure, just to prevent any awkward situations... so...you're a newt now? Hmm...uh, I gotta go..

I like this idea!

The biggest complications with the reporting system though is when you're guest hosting for an event when the regular store organizer is out of town or at a convention or when you just have to step in and help. Unfortunately, if the regular host has the event set up under their name already, you can't enter and report the event under yours (unless we've been doing it wrong, then, well, our mistake).

I do love and appreciate all the work the GMs do every game day and for every table, but there is really a lot of work that goes into organizing game days on a regular basis. I only organize one of the stores in our region on a bi-weekly basis, but I also help out the other stores when they need it. Often times it's chaos at the start time as there's suddenly a bunch of people that cancelled and/or signed up last minute, then it's trying to fit them in tables, along with getting the new walk-ins registered, and then realizing you need an additional table, so you go through your GM folder and pull out a scenario to GM on the fly. And that's even after I've spent the week organizing everyone onto tables and arranging GMs and posted the tables. It's not only me, right?

But I do enjoy it, otherwise I wouldn't be doing it! Yay chaos! :)

As to any incentive to offer, what would be super super awesome is if they would be willing to offer like one free scenario by PDF for every so many tables you organize (like 10 or 20 or something) that we can use ourselves to GM a table, or can gift to another person to GM one of the tables at the stores we organize. I know I've spent plenty buying the scenario PDFs for myself or gifting to others to have them (or myself) GM at one of the events. But I'm sure everyone's done the same. But it would be an awesome way to say thanks. :)

Just my two cents...(or should I say, two tigers!)

Thanks ya'll for thinking of the organizers! :)

Keep in mind for wild armor the minimum cost is 16000, because it must be +1 before it can be wild.

Even animals with an Int of 3 are still animals so even if you teach them a language you still have to make handle animal checks to control your pet.

A pet will move to attack a target along the most obvious path. As a PFS GM the way I rule this is if you don't have the flank trick a pet will move toward the target as safely as possible (avoiding AoOs) and to the closest square. If that is flanking fine. A pet without the trick will not 5' step into flanking while one with it will each turn if possible.

So if the closest spot is flanking, great it will move to flank without the trick but won't maintain if the target moves. Not sure if this is how it is supposed to work but that is what I do in my games.

Yup, if you're giving your companion the attack command, it's going to go the most direct route to the enemy and attack it.

If you've taken the time, with a full week of training, to teach your companion what it means when you say "flank" with the flank trick, then you can tell it to flank. Yeah, pack animals might do this in the wild, but your party is not a pack of the same animals and you're not ambushing your prey by surrounding it first. And besides, let's say you have a badger companion or a hawk companion - they probably don't flank in the wild anyways.

Just like summoning a creature. If it's animal that does not understand your language, it won't flank but will attack by the most direct route. Unless you summon it to appear in a flanking position, which is the best case scenario.

I believe that only druids should have access to owning exotic animals like tigers.

Oh Animal Archive, you and I have a love-hate relationship...
I love all the additional tricks and spells, but I loathe that any player can buy a combat trained tiger. I had to wait 7 levels before my tiger got that big.
Ah, but will your tiger listen to you? Haha, probably not...

I still love tigers.

Especially my tigers.

Ha! At last, a question I know something about!

I have 5 separate druid characters with tigers. What can I say? I like tigers.

For initiative, you can either have them roll for the same initiative (especially if the druid is mounted) or you can have them roll separately, in which case the companion will have to delay if it goes before the druid so it can be given a command, or the druid would delay to the companion's initiative so they can act as a team for flanking or whatever other tricks it's been taught.

You may want to check out (or have the player check out) the Animal Archives book, which lays out additional tricks to teach an animal companion. One trick they should teach it asap is attack attack (or attack anything). If it only has attack, it will not attack creatures with an unnatural aura (such as undead or aberrations, etc). It will also need to be taught the flank trick to flank and the grapple trick to grapple. You can have them "push" the companion to perform one of these tricks, but it will be move action for the druid and they will have to make a handle animal check to hit the DC in order to have them do it.

Most players will play their animal companions as well as their druids. To have fun with it, you can certainly chime in as the GM and have the animal give certain responses (i.e. the PC gives the companion an order and fails the handle animal check and you tell the PC "the tiger looks at you questioningly..." etc). Especially if they cast speak with animals. That can be a very fun interaction as you respond to the PC with how a tiger would think ("hmm...food? food now? how about food?"). But for the most part, they will be directing where their companion goes and what it does.

Tigers have 3 primary attacks - 2 claws and bite. If the tiger moves more than the 5' step on its turn, then it only gets one attack (EITHER one claw attack or bite attack). Otherwise if they don't move or only 5' step, then they can lay into the bad guy with the bite and 2 claw attacks (none are secondary). There is nothing more fun than rolling 3 D20s for the attacks. If the tiger has the grapple trick, it can instead attempt a grapple (which provokes attacks of opportunity), and once it succeeds on a grapple (on the same turn) it can make 2 claw attacks as the rake - it will still have to roll the attack to see if each one hits. On the next turn, if it maintains the grapple, it can rake again. The rake ability is a lot easier to use once it hits 7th level. At 7th level, the tiger can pounce (in which it can charge the enemy and take a full attack [2 claws & bite]) and if any of the attacks hit, they can get a free grab in which they can attempt a free grapple without provoking attacks of opportunity and if they grapple then they immediately get the rake attempt (roll for each attack for the claws). Tigers are quite deadly once they hit 7th level. Especially with feats like power attack. And improved natural attack. And spells like strongjaw (makes natural attacks 2 sizes larger).

You will probably have more questions as the druid levels up, like wild shape. For wild shape, at 4th level, they can wild shape as any small or medium animal they would be familiar with, so you'll need to look up the stats in the beastiary. BUT, they only have the template added to their character's stats, per the beast shape spell, but they are proficient in all the animal's natural attacks. They also keep their current feats and do not get the animal's feats as listed in the beastiary. They also lose all their armor and shields, unless they have wild armor (which is +3 armor bonus, which is 9000 gp enchantment to armor). Anything on their person melds with their body when they wild shape. If they have a bag, it gets melded. If their wearing magical items that have a constant bonus, it's melded into their form, but it will still continue to function. If you have Ultimate Equipment, there is a magical item called a polymorphic bag, which transforms to a small bag tied around their neck when they wild shape, so they can still have access to stuff in their bags (like wands and potions and things).

I hope that helped.

But most importantly - have fun with it! Having an animal companion in the party can be fun and makes things much more of a challenge then people think. "Hey, we're going to rest up in this inn overnight, oh, but what are we going to do about this tiger?" Or, "why is everyone in town looking at us funny?" "Maybe because we have a giant tiger with us?". And don't forget the fun challenges with getting an animal into various places. "Hmm...how are we going to get the tiger down in the sewer with us? And back out for that matter. They don't climb ladders very well." Or "A cliff? Seriously???"

*note, to help with these situations, you can get the Knights of the Inner Sea guide to get the Carry Companion spell, which helps in the most sticky of situations

I personally enjoy playing "non-human" races for the role play fun.

What could be more fun than playing that crazy hyped-up catfolk getting into everything and having the human rogue look at you and say "did you get into the catnip this morning already?"

Response: "I sure did! Hey look a cave! I'm going to go run!" *run run run, fall in pit trap* "Uh...found the trap guys! Ow, meeeowsers!"

Human rogue: *face palm*

I only play druids with tiger companions.

Yup, I'm "that" person.

Epic moment in [my short] role play history: three large tiger fight. My large tiger companion, wild shape into dire tiger and summon large tiger.

Yes. That happened.

Confession: It was awesome. I love my tigers.