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My group has decided PFS Scenarios make more sense for us than a campaign, because of inconsistent schedules. I've been reading through the organized play guide, and I want to make sure my players (who are all relatively new) and myself understand the added steps when making characters.

As I understand it:
In addition to the normal rules in the CRB, players can choose to pick a "school" which gives them different options for bonus loot at the start of an adventure,
They can also choose to be a Field Commission, which means they don't get any starting loot but more downtime after,
If they don't choose any of the above, they get some healing potions at the start.
Is that all correct?

Also, at the start of each scenario, they choose which faction they're representing for this scenario, but that can change each scenario, correct?

Any other rules they should be aware of when creating characters before their first scenario?

Thanks!

I picked up the Wrath of the Righteous base set yesterday and played it for the first time with my girlfriend last night. All in all, it was successful and fun! But there were a couple stumbling blocks we came across that confused us. We just kind of faked our way through it to keep the momentum going, but I'm curious how these rules are supposed to be handled.

First, the impression I got is that a combat check by default is resolved using either Strength or Melee, unless a card (spell, ranged weapon) allows you to use another skill. However, it says in the rulebook in one example that even though Harsk's Str die is a d6, he has to use a d4 for his combat check because he doesn't have the Melee skill. Why can he not roll a d6 for his strength?

My gf was playing Enora the Arcanist, and ended up with the spell Brilliance in her hand (adds 3 to intelligence checks while displayed). She fought a monster, used an Arcane spell to defeat it, and displayed Brilliance to add +3 to the Arcane check. I wanted to make sure this was an appropriate use of the spell. Since Arcane is listed under Intelligence, we figured that Brilliance would apply to it.

She then ended up encountering Sophini, the villain of the scenario. Sophini said she had to summon a random monster to fight first, and she summoned a Ghost. Ghosts are immune to the Mental trait, and the only spell she had available had the Mental trait, so she couldn't use that. She was forced to essentially punch the ghost in the face, but the combat check to defeat it was 12. Her strength die is a d6, so she played a blessing, rolled 2d6, and actually managed to roll a 12! However, we got confused on what to do next, because her combat check did not include the Magic trait, leaving the ghost undefeated. We figured that, since she rolled a 12 she takes no damage, and since it was a summoned creature it goes back into the box after the encounter no matter what. However, Sophini says that 'if the summoned monster is not defeated, Sophini is undefeated.' So she fought Sophini next, handily beat her check to defeat, but we figured Sophini still counted as "undefeated" since we didn't actually defeat the summoned monster, but she still takes no damage since she beat the check. We followed the rules for a villain escaping to an open location after not defeating her. Did we do all this right? Or what should we have done?

Lastly, Enora's power says that after playing a spell, you can recharge a random spell from your discard pile. We played the rule the following way: my gf would play a spell, roll to recharge that spell. If she succeeded, it went back into her deck, if not it went into the discard pile. Then she would shuffle her discard pile and go through it from the top until she found a spell (thus making it a 'random' spell), and then automatically recharge it (since the power doesn't say anything about 'attempting' to recharge it, we assumed it automatically succeeded). Is that the right way to approach that power, or is there a better way?

Thanks for the help! We had a lot of fun and are looking forward to playing the next scenario!

I'm running Crimson Throne for my group of friends, and while I love the adventure as a whole, the sixth part was a serious disappointment in my eyes.

My two big complaints are that the rebellion section in the middle was unfortunately glossed over, and the final confrontation taking place outside of Korvosa. I'm thinking about rewriting a lot of it, and am looking for feedback.

My thoughts were to write a huge expansion of the rebellion section (using a lot of the suggestions in the GM Reference thread here). The general concept is to retake sections of the city, with the help of Kroft, Sabina, and any other allies the party has made. This can be done either directly by the party, or through commanding the rebellion forces from the Gray District headquarters war-room. The number of Rebellion Points accumulated during the castle-raid sections determines what allies and resources are available to the party. This allows them to take advantage of the allies they've made, reconnect with old friends/family now that they're back in the city, and put a serious thorn in Ileosa's side. Ideas I'm working with are retaking Old Korvosa from whatever force my group leaves in control (Arkonas, Cerulean Society, etc), opening up the City to trade again by stopping a blockade in Endrin Square, and clearing out the Bank of Abadar to add more funds to the war effort. The result is that as they take over more sections of the city, they also topple more of the giant statues that Ileosa has erected.

These statues wouldn't just be a token symbol of the blood, sweat and tears the citizens are shedding for Ileosa's plan, they would be actual collection devices, storing the blood she needs. This leads to my second fix: the final dungeon being IN the city, or rather, beneath it. I feel like the whole point of the campaign is to save Korvosa, and removing the party from the city for the final battle cheapens the reward. Instead, I want to put that dungeon in catacombs beneath the city, and every statue that gets toppled provides an access point into the catacombs. The map that the party finds in the castle shows a layout of the catacombs, and the more statues the party topples, the closer they can get to Ileosa. I.e. if they retake the whole city during the rebellion phase and topple all four statues, they can get much closer. If not, they'd have a much longer trek through the catacombs to get to her, diminishing the likelihood of success when they finally reach her. The final dungeon would be the same as in the book, just set in a cavern underneath the city instead of in the swamps outside of it. I'd probably have to replace the Boggards with a more appropriate enemy, but with the same back story as to how they came into Ileosa's service.

Thoughts? Suggestions? I want to make the finale as epic as the adventure leading up to it, and what is written was wholly underwhelming.

I just recently moved to NYC and I'm sure there are dozens of them, but I was hoping someone could recommend a decent gaming shop, preferably in Manhattan. I'm looking to find a great place to get all my gear and meet some gamers. Thanks for the suggestions!