Sean Hanlin's page

It will feel like coming home for me. Long hours spent playing RPGA were some of my best memories!!! I can't wait! Thanks to everyone at Paizo for making it happen!

Reading about a group in Marshfield sounds to good to be true! Can anybody tell me how to get in touch with it?

Hello, we are suffering from lack of space at present, the game store closed but pathfindersociety@gmail.com is my email. Shoot me an email and I will keep you informed at where we pick it up. I am trying to set up a game once a month at the library. Do you have any friends who play PFS?

Also pathfindersociety@yahoo groups contains our whole calendar of events as we also run a few in Stevens Point.

tagsRus

Dragons would be cool, they can be so much more then mindless final villains. It would be great to see a well made dragon make a run as the villain of several connected adventures.

I HATE SWARMS. If they were never in a scenario ever again then I would be happy..... Ok, used in moderation they are alright.

Outsider, again as with dragons, it would great to see reoccurring villains and outsiders could be perfect!!!!!

I like humanoid NPC's, it creates the world. Sometimes the best monsters are inside us.

Lets see some more orcs. They are very underused in society.

Yes, we have games running in Marshfield and we are trying to get a weekly game group in Stevens Point. We also have Appleton and EuClaire. Where exactly are you from?

The Real problem is he wants nothing from me as VC and in fact told me to my face that he already has a Venture Captain. He also tells them that he is the boss of PFS in the area. He tells the players that it is Paizo's requirement to charge for the game and he actively tries to undercut my lieutenants and I's work in the state. I am working on a way to work with him but as of yet he is still a potential problem.

I would never tell a store owner how to run his business and he also has every right to refuse to use my help but he doesn't have to right to try to ruin all other PFS games in the state.

I agree with Pain Lord in that players who don't role play are missing half of the game.

As a GM I try to foster a table that is comfortable to role-playing. There are a lot of meta and power gamers out there that really try to snuff out the role-playing aspect and it is really up to the GM's to make sure that all voices at a table are heard and respected.

You know, not to disagree with Painlord but there is a lot of role playing opportunities in PFS many more then I ever had in LG. One issue I've seen a lot, is many characters are tanked out for combat and despite the fact that many encounters could be role played around without combat most players just draw swords and attack. Stop your party from always running in swinging and you might find more chances to role play your character. Could there be more, and would I like a story that is interwoven through each season a bit more, probably, but I know my home players love that not every fight is just a strait up hack and slash scenario.

Where are you from? Perhaps we can get you hooked up with your Venture Captain and into a better run game.

Loaba, any character regardless of class that dumps a attribute is a power gamer.

It all depends on the party. In my home game we don't allow a character to have less then a 10 stat. No muss no fuss. We don't like power gamers nor doe we tolerate them. With that said, I understand that not everyone like role playing for the same reasons and if they build a legal character within the game rules then you just have to let them have their fun. A min maxed character is very easy to deal with as a GM as one trick ponies don't actually do well in a well rounded game. Now, if there is nothing but combat, or the GM doesn't play up a min maxers minimums then it can seem like they dominate a game. If there is a min maxer who has say a 7 chr and the GM over looks all the trouble that a character with a chr of 7 would cause, then that is poor GMing and not fair to the players who have well rounded characters. The main problem is the DMs don't make a Min Maxer play up the weaknesses.

It very much sounds like very poor GMing, however, even if it is not, the point of these games is to have fun and if the GM is making it so you're not having fun you need to get out and find a game that is fun.

It is impossible to make it to level 4 without rest, the human body isn't capable of staying awake and functioning beyond a certain point. If your DM continues to be a ****, point out that by this point the fighters should be taking -10 to every roll and see how fast he changes his tune, or get out of this very poorly run game. I mean seriously, you cannot have encountered this many experience point encounters without resting, that is simply not possible.

Thanks, this is the first I've heard of it. I will get right on it.

Thea Peters wrote:

KestlerGunner wrote:

Two points:

-I think it should be the responsibility of the VCs to judge who is someone that they want to reward for GMing more as opposed to all judges receiving rewards. Some judges are better than others.

I can understand the desire for this, but I think in the end it would create an atmosphere of discontent amongst area judges. What if you had one person that actually was pretty good, players thought they were could and there had never really been any complaints about their judging.

Enter in the person who is supposed to critique them who doesn't get along with the judge on a personality level. That personality level is going to overshadow any critique -- even thought it shouldn't we're all only human. Personality conflicts are a larger part of PFS then they probably should be but they do exist

I don't like this idea, either, but for a completely different reason. The nearest VC to my local PFS group is about a 3 hour drive away, so nobody in my local group has ever met him. There's a con coming up next month where we'll probably meet him, but none of the 4 GMs from my local group will be GMing at the con, so how would the VC be able to judge the quality of our GMing?

Where are you from???

War stories are cool, I've always thought there should be a place to share them on the Paizo site.

Where are you located? Perhaps an email to a venture captain might help you out as well.

Have faith in yourself, act confident even if you aren't confident. Trust your players, they usually are pretty cool. Fun is first, and yes sometimes you just need to overrule something and move forward. Don't get stuck in the rules, and most importantly, be yourself.

I would say it should depend on the players. If all are experienced then summons and mounts should be no problem at all. If they are new players then they probably should be playing fighters or sorcerers. However, as long as the players know about it ahead of time and are ok with it I don't see a problem. I used to ban psychics in my 3.5 game.

What would you even do with a Unicron sized enemy in Pathfinder???

Oh congrats, he's soooooo cute!!! Which side of the family does he look like? lol?

You are correct.

Judging PFS is leagues harder than DMing a home game for exactly the reasons you stated.

I don't know I've found that when DMing at pathfinder events that it can actually be easier. First, there are usually at least one or two experienced players at each table that know the rules well. Secondly, most of the players are really there to have fun. Where weekly home games can drag down when people meet every week. When they come to game days or big cons they are there to pack in games for fun. There are far more times that our home games break down with rules discussions. Most of our players seem to understand that they are under time constraints and keep the game going making it easier on you the GM.

I'm running my first event and I was wondering much of these questions so thanks for your answers!

I was running a brand new group, new to both Pathfinder itself and to organized play. In our very first encounter in our very first adventure the dice turned a very straight forward fight into a fight that almost TPKed them It did take away from the fun of both the encounter and the rest of the module when I crited 4 out of the first 5 rolls and beat down the entire party so that they had to blow all their healing just to survive the first fight. One character spent the next 2 encounters hiding at 2 HP so that he wouldn't die. Everyone understood that it wasn't anything that I did but all the same if I had been rolling behind a screen I would have fudged at least a few of the crits into normal hits. When the die is that terrible it does have the ability to take the fun out of a game.

Also, as I've been through years of gaming and the point of the game is to have fun and at the same time grow our game. She's 12 and at her age it is understandable that she isn't about all the rules. Boring, lol. It is our job to help them enjoy the game. They will grow up and the rules will become more important as they understand how the whole game works. It is totally awesome that you even have this problem, a family that enjoys gaming together, that is a problem I'd like to have!!!!

The first game day that I am running for our area is in Steven's Point WI. Email me at pathfindersocietywi@gmail.com for more details.

Just finished playing through all three with my new group of players. They loved it and it really hooked them on Pathfinder society. From a GM and player stand point, very well written!

I think what the argument is against this is that the point of our games is to have fun and people can be angry or disappointed if they don't get the limited edition boons. We risk losing those players that don't get them.

However, some people really like the contest and the thrill of chance. My buddy won a boon at Gen Con this year and I was happy for him, even though he won it over me. It was a chance table and fortune favored him. Was I disappointed that I didn't get it, sure. Will I stop playing Pathfinder Society events, absolutely not.

One final note, I think they got this practice is from the RPGA. Back in the day all special events had winning items for the top two players at each table.

Congrats!!!!!! Stars are cool!

Hello everyone, I'm the new venture captain for the state of Wisconsin. Now that I have to organize a whole state I thought I might start by trying to find some of the most active gamers. Anyone out there from this great state please drop me a line, say hi and introduce yourselves. I hope to get to know you as I am planning to visit as many places as I can. The email that you can reach me at is pathfindersocietywi@gmail.com Shoot me a message, tell me where you are and what kind of gaming is going on around you. Also, tell me if there is anything that I can do for you. Also, I would love to hear adventure stories, I am hopping to create a space that all of us can share stories about our gaming experiences. Anyway, hello and lets build something together.

I've seen a couple of shout outs from Wisconsin members looking for an email contact, its pathfindersocietywi@gmail.com. I might change it if it turns out to be too long for people but this is it for now. Please send me a line, I just got the position last week so I have a lot of work to do and I could always use the help. I can't wait to meet each and everyone of you! Specifically from Janesville and Milwaukee, so please get in touch and lets get building.

I let the table dictate where I roll the dice. If in the first combat I roll out in the open and a player loudly announces when I hit his character on a roll of a 13 that he must have a +10 to hit then the rest of the attack rolls are behind a screen, if everyone is into the game and having fun then the rolls are out in the open. As long as where the dice rolls are being rolled doesn't change the fun of the game, I don't really care where they get rolled.

I personally know, and have worked with, Sean Hanlin, Derreck Boobyer, and (I think) Garret Gottschalk. They are all excellent choices who will help the Pathfinder Society continue on to great things.

Hey Jeff how have you been? Wanna come up for a couple of game days here in sunny and "warm" WI over the winter... lol.

Hello everyone, I am looking forward to meeting each and everyone of you!!! I plan on building the game here in WI to towering heights!!! Thanks for all of your well wishes.

I used to run a ton of Living Force for the RPGA and we left it to the Judges to give out rewards. If a character did something heroic or cool, or roleplayed particularly well we handed out force points. It was a pretty good system and created some really cool moments. Some of my best gaming experiences were when some of the players came up with some really cool "feat of skill" or "great character" moment. If the table was cohesive and fun the judge might hand out 3 or 4 rewards, if they weren't they might hand out none. It really did help create a fun and easy going atmosphere.

On the flip side I used to hate it when I was in the Living City and the experienced players who knew how to play the system managed to get all of the rewards for themselves. So a reward system done wrong actually hurts a game community.

I wish I could come but I'm performing in a play that weekend. It sounds like a blast.

nosig wrote:

is this for Organized Play? (PFSOP, the "living" campaign?) or for a home game (one of the campaigns like Kingmaker)? that makes a difference. If you are going to be playing with the same players each time you sit down, figure out what they don't have. If it's at CONs and hobby shops ... you'll need to figure out what works best there. I'd hate to sit at the table and find I'm the 4th gunfighter there (which I have seen at a table - I ran my Cleric at that one).

At my PFSOP tables I've not seen a lot of Samurai and I've not seen any Aldori Sword Fighters, so I'd say run one of those. Perhaps a Halfling or Gnome Samurai (I think that would be cool!)?, thou I am told that the Gnome Cavalier is kind of common (I have only seen one), running a Gnome Samurai would be different.

Random pick ups... also thinking Inquisitor too

Well if you had 4 gunfighter you wouldn't have much problem hitting things now would you, lol. Damaging things might be a problem. I've been apart of organized play for a long time and doubling and tripling the characters has always been a problem. You could drive yourself crazy. The best path is you are going to be playing a lot of organized play is to have two solid characters that you like to play, that way if you sit down and there is 6 samurai you can whip out the arcane class you've got as a back up.