RPG Superstar 6 Season Star Voter. Pathfinder Society GM. 3,130 posts (3,157 including aliases). 256 reviews. 1 list. No wishlists. 23 Organized Play characters.
I'm about to run this and I think gifting the PCs with the scales is very Monty Haul. Literally the campaign starts with a monologue and the first thing that happens is that everyone gets an artifact. It's too much and it wasn't earned. The dragon already sparred their lives, that was enough of a gift.
I also personally find it gross that we're immediately using the dragon's fresh corpse for power. It doesn't feel like we are revering the dragon, it feels like we are looting its corpse.
It's also very unusual that a dragon scale can be immediately used as a minor artifact. Dragon scales can be used to build magic items, but they are instantly artifacts 1 minute after death?
After reading this thread, I think they will exist and I'll mention they could be made into an item later, but they will not be artifacts.
It's good on a computer, for me at least. I don't like that product reviews were wiped out and I don't like that it's not easy to see the latest product reviews (like we could between 2009-2020) but besides that it's good. Not so good on mobile.
I have feedback similar to others. I think many of the PFS changes will be problematic.
I like the change to a 3 hour format, but only if scenarios will have a reasonable optional section so that we can play to 4 hours (currently the optional encounter is a waste of time. Optional was much better in PF1 imo).
We already have short scenarios, they’re called quests! I don’t understand why people don’t like them. Will people also not like short 3 hour scenarios for the same reason? I don’t know.
Part of the problem with scenarios these days, is that they are all “4 hour scenarios”, but there is too much variation, I’ve had some scenarios last only 1.5 hours and others last the equivalent of 7 hours. There shouldn’t be that much variation. Why don’t you fix that first?? Are we going to have “3 hour” scenarios that last 5 hours or 1 hour?
I think having a single level band will be a real problem. In conventions, there’s always someone out of tier.
As a player, it’s like a combinatorics problem trying to schedule a convention where you play most of the time. If you’re going to do this, you also need to give us the ability, like in SF, to create higher level versions of our characters where we don’t have chronicles for them yet.
The easier/harder scenario adjustment, hopefully “easier” is written for 4 players. If you are worried about time and cost, why are you bothering with a “harder” version? Hardcore mode in PF1 was a failure and appeals to only 1% of the player base (most hardcore players are the only ones playing at high levels). If you’re worried about time and money, stop appealing to a small fraction of the player base, don’t bother with “harder” mode.
As mentioned by others, writing content for 6 players and then making a 4 player adjustment just didn’t work well in PF1. Why do it again? We already know the result.
In my opinion, you should try to make your CP adjustments simpler. I’ve seen some scenarios where the CP adjustment is just a nightmare, it’s trying to be too exact. It’s bad for GMs and it’s bad for writers, especially when you have different creatures coming in and out. Have a mook creature in the combat, and just add mook creatures as the CP increases. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Simple is best.
Having the stat blocks in the back of the scenario has been great. Reprinting stat blocks from Monster Core should be easy, copy/paste, why is this hard? It’s not like you’re printing more paper, it’s a PDF.
Last, $9 USD is a lot to pay for something that just promotes Pathfinder as a brand. I know it was a while ago, but it started off at $1.99 (and had 3 level bands!). Inflation, sure, but it’s a lot to pay. As you increase price, you’ll be getting few buyers and GMs will be looking to get it free. You should consider dropping the price substantially and giving out less scenarios for free to VCs, VLs, VAs. Free scenarios are the only reason why your leadership doesn’t care about price increases.
Lots of changes, maybe it’s too much too soon. Would have been good to see Starfinder roll it out first. If you’re going to roll out the SF changes, you need to roll out ALL of the changes to PFS as well.
Gryphcon, the premier Pathfinder event in Ontario, is April 4-6 this year, in less than 2 weeks! 4-5 tables in each slot.
http://www.gryphcon.org/info.php
Will definitely get, all of the other core bestiary pawns are sold out on Amazon, Ebay, and all local shops. Can't get them and I'm not interested in more obscure monsters. This will do nicely to fill in where I don't have good minis or even paper minis (love paper minis).
Sounds interesting. Like that it follows the APs again, at least a little. Hopefully more people are playing and there will be more scenarios in season 6, especially low level scenarios.
For me, the best campaign arc was in season 4, with Runelord Krune. Excellent high level play.
Next comes season 5, with the demons. Also excellent.
Season 6 features technology but I didn't really like that.
With either season, you can mix in the best scenarios from the other seasons.
We Be Goblins, you play a pregen goblin. Where Frostfur Captives, you're moving captured goblins from point A to point B. They don't work well together. The We Be Goblins series work together and you'll probably have the group wanting to play goblins after.
I'm not sure Blakros museum scenarios really have a theme besides the location. They are dungeon crawls and I think would be boring if too many were stringed together.
How would running all of the encounters work? Would they happen in different locations or the same location? All at once, in a chain, or with rest between.
The beauty of home games is you can do whatever you want, but scenarios are designed with organized play in mind, and there's no way all encounters could ever fit into a 4 hour time slot.
The funniest scenarios depend on the players (and GM), not the scenario itself.
As for the fun coming from the scenario itself, there is some potential humor in the following:
Sandstone Secret (Durvine Klein)
Absalom Initiation (weird situations)
Revolution at the Riverside (authorities)
Blooming Catastrophe (NPCs)
Lions of Katapesh (goblins)
Pathfinder Trials (situations)
Fanciful March of Urwal (leshies)
Archlord Who Never Was (NPC, jokes, situations)
I agree with most of Hilary's list, but I found the following ran long for me (some of these I've GMed a few times). Also, I'm very prepared.
1-02: The Mosquito Witch 1-4 (Very heavy roleplay, which is what makes it good. There are many encounters and spots to explore. Cutting would need to be done in the village).
1-03: Escaping the Grave 1-4 (yikes, would be nice to run short, but runs long)
1-04: Bandits of Immenwood 1-4 (there are a lot of long technical battles and there are lots of them (5?). I don't see it going under 3.5 hours without mods)
1-13: Devil at the Crossroads 3-6 (nope. Runs in 6-8 hours. I'm not sure
what mods you're using, but the hallway battle and end battle are long. Even the bathroom can drag out. Part of what makes this so good is the roleplay too, if you cut that out, might as well play something else)
1-22: Doom of Cassomir (this can be as short as 2 hours or as long as 5. Depends on how decisive the players are. It's wild how this one varies)
I don't mind buying scenarios, but now I'm going to really start thinking about whether I need to buy it or not (I've purchased scenarios I haven't used in the past). I'll probably be taking the VL up on the offer to provide them for free in the future.
Gamers are notoriously cheap (far cheaper than myself), this move really surprises me because scenarios are supposed to be "loss leaders", they're used to promote their other products. They aren't supposed to make money, it's marketing.
Anyway, thought I'd share that I was concerned and surprised as well.
Gryphcon returns to the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, in less than 2 weeks! There are still some spots if anyone is interested, and GMs are always welcome.
http://www.gryphcon.org/
3-5 sessions per slot, cost is less than $5 per slot.
Name of PC: Mousey
Class/Level: Ranger 2
Adventure: Zombie Feast - Graydirge Bank
Catalyst: Scythe trap
Story: Not much to tell. With a +14 bonus to hit, the trap crits at a lot at level 2 (13 or over), and the damage is very swingy, it's easy to hit for huge damage. It hit for over 60 HP damage.
It happened twice as well technically, as one of her friends opened the other door. Elf with low HP.
The group is a bunch of kids, so I was soft and didn't auto-kill them, especially since they didn't even know about the rule. Instead I destroyed their light armor.
Given that this is a dangerous AP and you never stay dead long in it, I thought it would be fun to have an obituary page, in the same vein (heh) as Rise of the Rune lords and other APs.
Where and how have my fellow GMs killed PCs?
Please try to include
Name of PC:
Class/Level:
Adventure:
Catalyst:
Story:
Most of all, I'm disappointed in spells like Ignition, which is meant to replace Produce Flame. Produce Flame did an average of 6.5 damage, Ignition now does 5 damage at range, and 7 damage in melee (which is not ideal for a wizard, especially considering how low their AC and HP are).
The last thing spellcasters needed was a nerf. They should have been given a huge buff. If they were going to do that with Ignition, why not make it one action, since spellcasters also get the multi-attack penalty? That would at least be a reasonable trade-off.
In previous editions, casters were glass cannons. They had low hit points and armor class, but to compensate, they had huge offense and utility. Now Wizards have low HP, do less damage than martials, and have low utility because skills seem to have taken over.
It seems like every class that was weak in PF1 was made powerful, and every overpowered class in PF1 was made weak in PF2. The alchemist is the perfect example.
I don't agree with the reason for not sanctioning it. I'm playing it now, with 10 year olds with non-evil characters. The plot still makes sense, the Pathfinder society is trying to get a Pathfinder Lodge in Geb and Berline is providing that opportunity.
The horror element isn't too much (it really depends on the GM). It's certainly not worse than Rise of the Runelords, especially with the incestuous ogres (if you want, you can take that way way over the top)...
Then again, we're just playing the first book, and will probably head back to PFS scenarios afterwards. So I don't know what happens throughout the entire campaign, maybe there are evil actions to take, I don't know? But so far, not at all.
To me the reason not to sanction is because it's open ended and takes so long. Would be almost impossible to fit a book into an 8 hour slot.
Your customers could really use a preview of what the maps might look like. Currently, I watch unpacking YouTube videos, otherwise I just don't buy them.
I ran the trap again at subtier 3-4 last night and it went much better with only 1 sensor and trap per alcove, but it's still a beast. The PCs were level 3 and it actually brought one PC to 0.
What messes people up is that they can't get a key unless they are not holding a key. And turning the keys at the same time. The damage is significant enough that people panic, stop thinking, and stop performing trial and error. And the trap DC is very high, unless you are extremely good at nature or thievery, highly unlikely to be successful, with a reset after only 5 minutes.
They disarmed only 1 trap.
Oh, and the perception DC is super high at level 3. They have to beat a 22, so it's almost a guarantee they will be taking damage before they can insert a key or attempt to disarm.
The group last night walked in and almost instantly knew how to solve the puzzle, but the devil is in the details and because of that, took almost 1 hour. I'm not sure how you fit this puzzle into a 4 hour slot without simplifying.
We went 4.5 hours and still have 1 hour left for the Lelzheshin conclusion.
I suspect that this was caused by the sudden increase in interest in Pathfinder due to the WoTC OGL crisis and also due to the continued migration of GMs from in-person gaming to Online events.
The WoTC crisis, but I think that the end of COVID, lockdowns, mask, and jab requirements is a bigger factor.
Unfortunately I ran the scenario before your response and targeted a single PC with 4 actions (assuming no one disarmed the trap, which would only remove one sensor and action). The disarm DC was super high, very difficult in subtier 5-6.
I'm also assuming there are no dance mishaps in this section, assuming someone crit failed to disarm a trap.
Anyway, yes, hitting a single PC for almost 80 damage a round at subtier 5-6 kind of put the brakes on the scenario and dragged it out, making it unfun. When I run it next time, I'm just going to use 1 action per alcove.
I get the feeling many GMs handwaved the trap altogether, this scenario runs very long.
I read through the Core Rulebook on traps and I'm looking at the Season's Toll trap, and I just want to be 100% sure before blasting the PCs that I got it right.
So if the PC who enters the trapped area fails to notice the trap (perception vs stealth DC) and then fails initiative against the trap, the trap could potentially blast the PC with 4 actions in the first round, for 4D6+4 damage each action (on a fail on subtier 5-6)?
Does this happen every round (potentially to someone that entered with the PC that was blasted, or to someone who enters to rescue them)? Could this trap potentially target a PC that is down and dying? Or does this trap only take action once every 5 minutes (on the reset)?
This is a potentially deadly trap or at least an intense resource sink if I understand it correctly.
If you’d like to GM and all of the tables have already been booked with GMs, let me know.
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Welcome to the Guelph Pathfinder & Starfinder Super Game Days event!
The Guelph Pathfinder Society is hosting a games day on July 15th and we hope this will be an event we have every 2-3 months! This games day is graciously hosted by The Dragon, located at 55 Wyndham St N!
Pathfinder is a version of Dungeons and Dragons, and if you are familiar with D&D you'll also be comfortable with Pathfinder. While D&D 5E is easier to learn, Pathfinder has a richer variety of options to build your characters, while still being easy to play.
Our first games day will be held on Saturday July 15th starting at 9 AM and we hope to see you there! We welcome both new and experienced players! If you don't have a character, no problem, we'll have pre-generated characters at the event for you so you can try the game out and just have fun. We'll also have a table that will help you start playing Pathfinder on your own and will help you make a character.
GMs can signup now, player signups begin on Monday May 15th at 9 PM.
The cost per player per session is only $5 which will go back to the venue for hosting. GMs play for free.
Although we're currently featuring Pathfinder 2, we're also open to hosting tables of both Starfinder and Pathfinder 1 in the future if there are GMs!
Our games day needs GMs! So if you're a GM and can run something to help the community, it would be much appreciated! Our games day only exists because of you!
In future events, we hope to have more tables, expand to 3 slots, and perhaps even run a special event if there's enough interest!
If you have any comments, questions, or feedback, feel free to contact me.
Jason S
https://warhorn.net/events/guelph-pathfinder-starfinder-super-game-day
I had a similar problem with my daughter, who played a druid, and always used and befriended animals creatively. It's actually a super useful and extremely powerful ability when used creatively (and given the time to do so).
The problem isn't the Pathfinder game. When I was playing with her solo or with her friend who was similar, we came up with lots of alternate stories, creative solutions, and cool ideas. I was actually more satisfied with those stories than "normal" stories.
The problem is when I added my brother and his two children into the mix. They wanted to kill everything and got extremely agitated when my daughter tried to find alternate solutions, or less direct methods.
In the end, she just got used to killing everything and as a player, doesn't try to use her resources as creatively. Which is kind of sad now that I think about it.
I think the answer is that someone's play style has to compromise. If they won't compromise to her play style, then perhaps you're better off doing solo games, or taking only a few trusted players with her.
Curious what this version of Champion looks like with Alignment gone. I do hope what we would’ve called Neutral Champions can still sneak in somehow; a very classic LN-style “Judge” is definitely missing.
Oh damn, I kind of liked how the different champions had different powers, although LG was much better than the rest.
For one the first ever full blown Pathfinder second edition conventions in Ontario, we had a great turn out!
Lots of interest, we had 4 tables in most slots, from Friday night to Sunday afternoon (where we finished with 2 tables).
Next year we're looking to have 6-7 tables, with plenty of kid tables!
If you're interested in PF2, try reaching out to the Google group for Ontario PFS and hopefully we'll see a lot more local PFS in the future!
https://groups.google.com/g/ontariopfs
Maybe we should get a Facebook group? Just a thought!
Thanks again to Matt, Paul, Jeff, and the other great GMs and players that showed up, we had a great time!
Quests are primarily used to introduce new players into the game. IMO, PF2 already has enough quests and was very generous with them in season 1.
At this point, as we shake off he shackles of lockdowns and mandates, and start meeting again in person, what PF2 needs is a scenario schedule that has more scenarios.
In season 4 there were only 15 scenarios, compared to 21 and 25 in seasons 2 and 3. Hopefully, more profit is being made and that can be ramped up to at least 21 again.
We went from wondering if we could fill 2 tables per slot to now having 4 tables per slot, and we could probably have at least 6 tables if there were enough GMs!
Glad errata is happening more often. I'm not sure if the community at large will be watching, use it, or want to use it, but it's good for any future iterations of the game. Bottom line: The game needs to be ready to go on the 1st printing.
Not sure how I feel about the ancestry changes, I'll have to look into it more. I don't think a character with a 16 in the prime stat ever made then "non-viable", I always thought it made them more interesting.
I would assume the lighting would be darkness. There are less Pathfinders and servants, there would also be less torches, mundane or everburning, around.
I would assume this scenario would be on a tight timeline, but there's nothing that mentions time in the scenario. What should be the penalty for taking a 10 minute rest or even taking hours of rest? It makes no sense that all of the rogues would be running around. They would be cleaned up, long departed, or trying to escape, not trying to create a diversion. Their leadership would certainly be gone.
Which Pathfinder Society scenarios have non-violent endings or solutions, or are non-violent or focus on non-violence?
Virtually every scenario can end with a non-violent solution. It depends on the GM and the players if they want to make it happen and are creative enough to make it happen.
Sometimes it means making deals with evil creatures/enemies though. Is that really better than having a violent solution? I don't think so, but to each their own.
I'll give you some examples of scenarios where they assumed you'd have a violent ending and my group (of children age 8-11) turned it into a non-violent ending.
Doom of Cassomir example:
The hag at the end, the party druid (who wanted to save the frogs and crocodiles of the swamp) made a deal with the (evil) hag.
They negotiated the following:
Cult was disbanded and the hag would no longer attack the people
They found a nearby village with empty houses that needed residents, and convinced some people living in Cassomir to live there.
Convinced residents to move to the north and east of Cassomir and spent 2 months (using crafting) building basic housing for them.
The swamp and Admirals fens was left undrained.
Shadows and Scarecrows bounty:
The bounty assumes the party will defeat Tefla, who is evil.
Instead Tefla offered the group a deal, defeat Kareida and help her track down the other refugees, in return for more gold than the rancher was offering. So they took the deal. I ran this 3 times and only 1 group took the deal.
They actually didn't know Tefla was evil (no Religion), Tefla was an authority figure, and they didn't investigate enough to know what was going on (the first location they investigated, they had the skills to track down the refugees). So they didn't knowingly work with evil, it was done more because of ignorance.
Oh this is an old thread, sorry for continuing the zombification.
This is what I’m going to do. I bought the first 6 bounties and I’ll probably buy the next 6 at some point. I’ll give every player a pregen in the class they want to play and have them play that until they hit level 2.
The one bad thing I'll say about quests and bounties (I've run 5 quests now and 2 bounties) is that the time per XP ratio isn't very good.
Typically they take 1.5-2 hours to complete. Everyone has a good time, but I can usually complete a scenario in 4-5 hours, which gives 4 XP compared to 1 XP.
The kids actually care about XP a LOT (too much), so when they find out, they generally don't want to waste time with quests and bounties.
But like I said, when a new player want to jump in for an introduction to the game, they are great. (Well, SOME of them are).
I'd maybe start with a quest or a bounty. I ran the following two and they were very good.
- Sandstone Secret
- Shadows and Scarecrow
I like them just because they are short, leave time to teach the game, and have enough roleplaying etc so that people can decide if playing the game is right for them.
I would avoid the statue encounter in subtier 1-2. I had two big hitters (2H fighter and a monk) so I thought it might be suitable but they could hardly put a dent in the hardness before he crushed them. The sorcerer and druid did nothing basically.
I've been running the mummies before this and will continue doing that if I run this again (which I probably will).
My 9 year old daughter's favorite encounter was talking to the scorpions (she's a druid). Kids.
I guess everything is virtual for a while and maybe a few more months, I was wondering if anyone had any tips for online play.
I had my first session the other night and I noticed it had some similarities, and some differences.
I noticed that people spontaneously take breaks when I play in person, but when I was online we went 90 minutes with no break. When should you take breaks? Every 45-60 minutes? How long? Maybe I'll set a timer next time.
In person, I can game for hours, maybe all day (if I'm not the GM). Online, at least with a headset, the limit seems lower. At 1.5 hours I think everyone in my group had enough, maybe I could have gone for another 30 minutes before needing a break or calling it a day. Is it better to have micro sessions or just take a 15-30 minute break every few hours? Or have 4-6 hour sessions like in person games?
I was playing with the complex options in Roll20 and tried them out, but it takes so much time to set them up with little benefit, I will use them sparingly. (I guess it demos well). I'll be using my own tokens, no macros for monsters, and normal fog of war (like a normal tabletop where parts of the map are revealed). I think basic is better, at least for me. If I was more invested in online play, I would buy the Bestiary for $50 to have everything done for me, but scenarios have so many custom monsters, it wouldn't cover everything.
Any thoughts, advice, or tips for online play, virtual tabletops, or Roll20?
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