First up, some important provisos. I was reluctant to start playing Pathfinder Society, but decided to it and then give my (hopefully) unbiased feelings about it in a forum post to give myself an objective to stride for. I had been encouraged by other posters to give it a try after expressing my reservations. I'm also a GM with about five years of experience with various games, 3.5/PF being a constant through that time so that may bias my opinions. No names or locations will be given to protect the privacy and anonymity of those involved. I'm not here to embarrass anybody or call them out. With that said, let's get started.
Step One: Registration and Character Creation
This was rather easy. The steps made sense and were fairly intuitive. I had a pair of characters built within a fifteen minutes. Everything made sense and worked as intended. Had my ID Number and everything else ready to go.
Step Two: Finding a Game
This was also rather easy. I looked around on Facebook in my area and found that none other than the Venture Captain for my area was going to be starting a weekly game at a store near me. So talked to some friends and they were game. Awesome! This was working out great!
Step Three: First Game
I arrived at the session with two friends, So that makes 3 players and one GM. Each of us had their ID numbers, and had a filled out character sheet, model, dice, etc. We were chatting and enjoying ourselves. The VC arrived and we did quick introductions and then we got started.
This was where things started to sit poorly with me. Everything felt like it was extremely rushed with no time for role play. We were sent off on various tasks that felt like a strung together series of encounters rather than a story. Character interactions were extremely limited and were about class and name and what you generally looked like before the combat started. It was a whirlwind of dice rolling and a few lines of vague description from encounter to encounter. Players looked bored or disinterested which I think pushed the VC to make things even faster. The whirlwind session ended with us being official Pathfinders or something, I guess? Total time 2 1/2 hours. We were handed out chronicle sheets to fill out with stuff with the VC promising to email us something about session credits/experience? Never received.
VC however did an exemplary job on the few NPC's who talked in terms of voice modulation and expression. Wish I was that good, all of mine end up sounding the same.
Step Four: Second Game
Next week, more players showed up this time! Seven in total plus me, several of which were completely new role players. Volunteered to sit the game out, as did several others. Waited about forty five minutes and the VC never showed up. Another player volunteered to run a game since they were a registered PFS GM and I was not and they had modules on hand. Significant other of the GM had played in this module before, so volunteered to sit out so they could help GM. New Players took pregenerated characters that the experienced players walked them through while the GM prepped. What followed was remarkably like the first game. An infodump by somebody in the Pathfinder society before being hustled out of the door and into assaulting some cold abandoned castle or something through a tapestry? There was a vague reason why, but it was forgotten as soon as we were through and characters and players had to ask each other why they were there again.
However, this impromptu GM did a much better job with setting the mood and overall feeling of the area. With the degree of difficulty involved in running a game like that on such short notice they probably did a better job than the VC. Character interaction/faction/personality played almost no factor, and it was one giant combat encounter. Session finished in three hours. Whatever experience or chronicle sheets were filled out and handed back to the GM to receive something via e-mail? Never received.
Step Five: Third Game?
At this point I decided to investigate becoming a Society GM myself. I downloaded the handbook and GM 101 and read through it. Some good advice there, especially in GM 101. After reviewing the bookkeeping requirements to take in additional to normal gaming, I judged the time better spent on scenarios and encounters for my existing groups.
As far as I know no new games were scheduled after the second game.
In review: Online support was excellent and easy. Things were clearly explained and reasonably understandable. GM 101 in particular earns a head nod from me for good advice to newbie GM's, with some caveats due to PFS specific directions. Additional Resources page is a bit of a bear, but not that bad.
Actual playing experience was abysmal in both circumstances. Players seemed bored and disinterested with most time spent checking phones/electronic devices, even experienced players who I know for a fact can be engaged. Felt bad for the new players, but did not want to disrespect the GM by trying to tell them things like "it gets better" offered to stay in touch with them but never heard from them again, or the VC.
All in all it was real rough. The game thrives in my local area due to the popularity of the base ruleset and the Adventure Paths with at least me and two other GM's running a different AP at the same time for various groups. The player base is quite large and varied, but Pathfinder Society continues to struggle here.
