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It's my pleasure to announce West Virginia's first 5 star GM. This time it was for Andrew Shumate who is know on the forums as Netopalis. I had the pleasure of GMing his first RPG table ever at Charcon in October 2012. He has since become a stalwart part of the Pathfinder Society community and one of the pillars that keep the West Virginia lodge standing. He has run more than 250 tables in that time. He was in this year's top 32 in RPG superstar. Andrew as become a master GM whose skill has far surpassed my own. He pays attention to the game's pacing and ensures there is time for combat and role-play for each player, yet still ends on time. He has great rules mastery, not only handling obscure combinations with little effort, but also using the flexibility built into them to provide a fun and balanced game for the unique characters that come to the table.

I could go on for awhile, but I also have some comments from others who have played with Andrew.

"I had the privilege of being a part of Andrew’s fifth-star table, though I have at least twenty other sessions over the course of the past two years, with Andrew at the helm, to draw my opinions from. Andrew’s rules mastery is outstanding, and his preparedness at the table, even during game days he is not scheduled to run, is reflected by the high-caliber sessions he performs for his players. Andrew relishes the opportunities for role-play in scenarios, gives combat-minded players ample opportunity to shine, and is able to balance the two so expertly that it is rare that his slots go over the suggested duration. Away from the table, Andrew makes himself open to questions and constructive criticisms, and is always requesting from his players ways to improve. Andrew’s “capstone” session, Encounter at the Drowning Stones, is a scenario I have run before, and proved to be another quality session that I have come to expect and enjoy from his tables."

"I have played at Andrew Shumate's table and he does an excellent job running the Pathfinder Society scenarios. His knowledge of the rules is at a very high level and this provides for a very smooth flow to the game. He doesn't stray from the parameters set fourth by the scenario. However, when the G.M. is given the chance to use his discretion, he handled things in a very creative, fair, and fun manner. Even when the scenario is challenging, it is a great experience. He is an excellent G.M. and deserves his fifth star."

It's an honor to make this announcement, and to have Andrew as a friend. Congratulations!

If you were the GM, and you created the sheets to begin with, there is nothing to stop you from looking at your reporting history and using it to recreate the missing chronicle sheets.

It is a privilege and an honor for me to announce the certification of a new 5 star GM for Virginia. Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to present to you, Venture-Captain Adam Swinder of Blacksburg!

I recently had the pleasure of sitting at a table run by Adam to judge if he qualifies for his fifth star. He ran The Hellknight’s Feast which featured heavy role play, challenging combats and opportunity for creative solutions. I was able to see the broad range of his abilities. I am happy to report that he absolutely qualifies.

Adam’s rules knowledge is excellent. His players research every nook and cranny of the rules and he handles them with aplomb. He is able to improvise very well, adjusting the dialog of important NPCs with the mere mention of a player character’s backstory and previous interaction with the NPCs. His preparation was good. He was able to handle all the curves our group threw at him and knew exactly how to interpret them using the tools proved in the scenario.

I’ve known Adam for a few years, and sat with him at a number of tables. None of this was a surprise to me. His enthusiasm for Pathfinder and PFS is contagious, and he provides a fun, fair game to all who come to him. He is one of the best of us.

We cannot judge him on just one or even a few tables to determine consistency so I also asked his players. Those people who sit with him week after week. The praise was similarly glowing:

"Because he's very dedicated to his players, and about running an enjoyable experience for all involved. He's willing to give his time, effort, and money to make Pathfinder better for all involved. He's never too busy to make time to help you out, and he's always interested in what you want to do."

"Adam selflessly puts the fun of the community of game players, and the growth of that community above his own playing constantly. He spends hours of his own time helping the players who need help, especially new players who don't know what they're doing and struggling. He sits down with first timers to build characters so that they don't have to settle on pregens, nudges inexperienced players towards character choices that will work better for them, and gradually nudges everyone with the aptitude towards trying GMing so that the community keeps growing. Adam's not just a guy with a pile of PFS GMing credits, he's someone who deeply cares for the community of PFS. He should be a 5 star GM because if all that's not what makes you one, I don't know what would."

"Without Adam I wouldn't be in Pathfinder Society today, as my first ever experience with PFS was at Mysticon 2013, which he organized. He was also one of the first GMs I played under in PFS regularly, as I joined his Shattered Star AP group soon after I joined PFS in general. And it was his encouragement to start running games that resulted in me becoming a 4 Star GM within about a year of starting to run games. Beyond that he's always willing to talk with new people and help them with whatever problems they have, even when he probably should be paying more attention to his own problems."

Congratulations, Adam! This is a well earned accomplishment.

Andrew Roberts wrote:

Yes. It seems bad that a party of (1) level 5 and (4) level 7 pregens should play up in Bonekeep 3.

7 x 4 + 5 = 33

33 / 5 = 6.6

If I had this five player table, I would have run it with the lower subtier as there is no 4-player adjustment in Bonekeep 3.

I believe I was the GM at this table, and that is exactly the judgement call I made. There was no 4 player adjustment, they were all playing pregens, and had started playing Pathfinder that con. I will say that this was an awesome table and one of the most fun I had at the Gencon. They learned fast, and had great attitudes, and I never expected to laugh so much running Bonekeep.

The pregen characters were:

Paladin x2
Fighter
Skald
Arcanist

Through a combination of skill and dumb luck they made it through 5 of 8 rooms. (If you are familiar with the scenario, they turned right in the front room.) They read their character sheets, and used all the gear and abilities on them, and the ACG pregens are noticably better than the older ones. In one case, a player remembered how to deal with a hazard from D&D. In another case, a full attack from a bad guy that would have killed one of them rolled 1,1,1,2.

They played smart, used teamwork, and earned their success with a little luck. They paid attention to every resource on their character sheets. If they were experienced pathfinders, I might have turned up the time pressure a bit and that would have caused them to make more mistakes. If these guys came back with their own characters after a year of PFS, I know they would take the place apart.

The next room would have really taken a toll on them and the last encounter would absolutely have destroyed what was left.

My group is going with Blakros Antiquities and Museum Foundation (BAMF). The archeologist in the group is part of the family.

This is something that we are dealing with in my local group at the moment, as we have a number of people starting to enter mid-level play. Our experienced players are well honed teams at this point and it's intimidating to try to hold your own beside them. They often just rise to the challenge of just beating the encounter without helping explain what to do, or how they did. Everyone learns differently, and not everyone can make a couple forum searches and buy things from a list. Bullying is never acceptable. The process of encountering challenges, and overcoming them is one of the big parts of the game. Those bullies are wrong. How can you be used to something that you have never encountered?

Something that my group of friends came up with as we were playing through 3.0 was the 'never again list'. Periodically you run into things that just make things hard and you have to completely change your tactics to deal with them. The first time you deal with incorporeal creatures, the first time an invisible opponent comes your way, etc. When these situations happened, our characters promised each other that never again would we be surprised by them. Learning by explerience caused us to have a number of interesting tricks, and we remembered them because every one had a story behind it.

The first time we fought shadows our group was in a world of hurt. We had no magic weapons, our spells were mostly used up and we were taking a beating. The only means we had of doing much at all was my ranger's wand of cure light wounds. We used it and eventually prevailed but it was very close. We said, "never again." When we ran into a ghost in the next adventure, it didn't last long.

You don't have to be prepared for everything, but prepare for what you or your character knows about. Encountering and overcoming new challenges is a big part of the game, and it is what makes your character's story. Listen to other players, look at the advice you find here on the forum. Browse through the books and look for neat things in the equipment and magic chapter and think of how they might be used. If you come up with your own tricks, you can remember to use them better.

I noticed that at least one of your characters is a spellcaster. Spellcasters have it a lot easier than most in dealing with unusual situations. You can learn new spells that can help deal with these situations. You can get a lot of mileage out of asking the group advice on which spells to prepare, and there will be times where you can seek out new spells to teach to your familiar once you know where you are going.

Higher level play is the reward for making it past level 6. At this point your characters start feeling realy strong. They are like superheroes compared to the average NPC, but even Superman gets beaten up pretty bad before he figures out how to overcome the villain. Improvise, Adapt, Overcome. If it doesn't kill you, (or cause you to run out of prestige) you can learn from it and your character has another "You want to know how I got this scar" story to tell as it shows off its new cold iron sword. Don't get discouraged, just try to learn a new trick every time and you will be awesome.

When I run into this, I explain that paladins (and all members of the Pathfinder Society *looks directly at the almost evil Cheliaxian types*) take an oath on their honor to uphold the three rules, Explore, Report, Cooperate. They are honor bound to work within those rules. Characters do not have to like other characters, they do not have to approve of their methods and they could be hated enemies that could want kill each other and be fully justified in doing so, but while working for the Society they are required to cooperate by that oath.

Deities are complex creatures who can see farther than characters, and would usually allow their servants to be in the presence of other people who do bad things. When you consider that Pathfinders will be the ones to encounter many great evils it seems obvious that a deity would want her servant to be in a place to deal with that evil when it arises. The Pharasman cleric should not be in any danger of needing an atonement for not immediately squashing the undead, especially given the arrangement to destroy them after. Pharasma wants that cleric to be in place so that when the big boss at the end of the season, who has avoided her judgement for to way too long gets his due, she can see it happen. There is no suspension of dispelief needed.

We have an example in the Death's Heretic novel where a priest of Pharasma was allowed to serve and represent her, even though he was going against doctrine for an extended period. She sent a servant to deal with him, she didn't suddenly change his spell list. GMs can be much more capricious than gods are, and need to remember the don't be a jerk rule as well. Paizo likes the morally ambiguous neutral ground where characters are challenged and that creates good stories. Both good and neutral-icky characters are necessary for that storytelling. We need to make PFS a place where they can coexist, even if it drives our characters (but not our players) crazy.

TL/DR: What BNW said just now.

I think one thing that needs to be kept in mind is that Modules are a completely separate product line from PFS. ... I personally wouldn't want to play a pregen in a module, it's something for your character to experience.

Summary: Module chronicles were intended for when you would be playing the module anyway so there shouldn't be pregens for every module level.

Non-optimal is not the same as not necessary. At my regular PFS game we mix in a module from time to time for variety and because the players want it. Just a couple months back I had excited new players show up to play as we were starting a module and they played 4th level pregens. Am I to tell them, "I'm sorry, you haven't earned the right to play this module yet so you can come back in three weeks" and hope they do, or should I allow them to jump in, play well with a little coaching and use the chronicle as an incentive to make their own characters? I was able to let them play and they did well and they are now regulars.

Anyone who calls for getting rid of the ability to play a pregen in a particular tier is directly impacting my ability to recruit new players and making more work for me. Modules are now part of PFS and should not be marginalized. My players ask for them and when we offer them at conventions they sell out. When the choice comes up to play a pregen or not play at all, they choose to play a pregen. You may not want to play a module with a pregen, but I have never had anyone tell me that when it came to sitting at a table or not.

How do you feel we've done in recent scenarios—namely ** spoiler omitted **—at balancing combat with roleplaying? Are the combats too hard (a conscious choice as a result of having fewer of them)? Are the more free-form roleplay encounters engaging? How can we improve upon this going forward, or would you rather see us return to a more hack-and-slash style with a bit more consistency in terms of difficulty and formula?

I think that you are doing great. I much prefer the fewer more interesting (and difficult) combats mixed with the open roleplaying encounters. I cringe every time I set up a speedbump encounter where it literally takes longer to draw the map than it does to complete the fight. My players would much prefer spending that time roleplaying.

There is still space for hack and slash scenarios and heavy RP scenarios. Part of the fun is not knowing what to expect when Drenge wakes you up in the middle of the night.

On the subject of chase scenes -
I really like chase scenes, but the enjoyment of these depends entirely on the skill and creativity of your GM. When I played God's Market, we were taking a mostly mechanical approach playing it like a badly written board game. The GM actually put the page on the table to put our miniatures on.

I read through the titles of the different boxes and quickly saw the intended geography in my mind. I pointed this out and our group of players had a few fun moments out of it, even if the mechanics we were presented with were pretty banal. When I run chase scenes I try to give my players the sense that they are running through the world and not just moving pawns on a monopoly board.

My suggestion is for you to include a couple short sentences of flavor text for each square in the chase. It would eat into the word count of the scenario, but give the GM a little to work with if they are running it cold or just not very creative. I think that you should make it explicit that the Reward Creative Play rule applies to chases.

I think that some races should be added as general access, but not all of them. I remember a plot point from a recent scenario that monstrous races are illegal in Absalom, so it is not unreasonable to limit it to those that could walk the street without being jailed. In my experience the game will self correct to keep things human centered as long as humans get an extra feat at first level and the others do not. Personally, I love that Golarion is human centered. The different human races and nationalities give a lot of flavor that the other races do not seem to have. That said, the occasional odd race can also add a lot of flavor.

My suggestion is to treat boons for races from the ARG or Dragon Empires like the boons for the novels. You can download and print one, it had to be signed off by a GM who sees that you own the relevant book and you can only use it once. This gives everyone the chance to play something new. We will probably have a brief monster squad period. Those who fall in love with their new characters will play them but I believe most will go back to their existing characters after buying the new book and dabbling a bit.

We ran the BBB for the local game store and there were three race boons given out. One has never been used. One made a character and never played it. The third played his character twice and went back to his elf.

Personally I believe skill challenges and "chases" need to go away. I played a society game once where there was the chase mechanic - one of the tasks was a stuck door or something like that. I said fine, I'll force the door, and succeeded. Then I said, I'll hold the door open so the rest of the group can just lay on the speed. The judge was like, no, you can't do that, you need to keep pursuing.

Forcing a series of skill checks on a "pursuit" theme without any regard to the party's abilities are inane. The entire "series of skill checks" idea is just bad mechanics if it ignores other rules like haste, boots of speed or of flying, flying mounts or companions, monks who could easily Ki jump over obstacles, etc.
I really, really wish adventure designers would stick to the existing rules when writing scenarios, instead of using some other square-peg-in-round-hole game mechanics to resolve the situation.

I can understand where you can get that impression, but I found the encounter to be rewarding and allowed everyone in the group a place to shine. There were one stage that my travel/liberation cleric literally walked through. It honestly sounds like a GM not being flexible enough. In a similar position My GM allowed a character to do just that with a door, making skill checks every turn against falling debris. In another situation, a character who made it easily was able to stick around and use tools and aid checks to make sure that the others passed more easily. It's important to remember that just because an encounter uses special rules, every other rule in the game does not magically go away. In a chase scenario slowing down to help your teammates is an important tactical decision that should not be taken away.

May I request a full month of availability, please? The regular Pathfinder Society games in my area (San Diego, CA) are on the third saturday of every month, so Nov 19th was the last and Dec 16th is the next, but this is available from November 21st to Dec 12th.

If this works like the last one you can get a boon for GMing a session as well. It's a fine opportunity to arrange a one shot home game during the weeks of the event.