Hi Troy, I sent you a PM. Get back in touch when you can. Thanks!

-SK

Has it ever occurred to anyone that prepared spellcasters of all stripes have a pretty potent storage item, and it only costs a pittance?

Cast your eyes away from the portable hole. Begone from my sight, bags of holding! Forget those handy (ha!) haversacks!

Instead, behold the ultimate in storage ease: the spell component pouch! For a paltry five gold you too can own this inventory sorting marvel!

Need a pinch of multicolored sand? POOF! Need a few individual eyelashes? TA-DAAA! How about everyone's favorite - bat guano? It's all there! Individually wrapped and sorted and divvied out for your convenience! Need exactly five small marbles? Well you're in luck!! Better yet, it doesn't even cost any action with which to retrieve it!

Simply dip your hand into the pouch, root around and pull out those arcane accessories as needed! No muss, no fuss!!

***********
This advertisement provided by a guy who can barely shake exactly two pills out of a medicine bottle in ten seconds, much less reach for a pinch of gum arabic before gesticulating precisely to bend the rules of reality in six seconds AND have a move action left to flee the scene.

Howdy folks,

I will be spinning up a home game in the near future set in my homebrew campaign realm. The premise is that the city the players are in has an unusual way of dealing with criminals: if the crime is severe enough (or nobles pay enough money to bribe the arbiters), the criminals are sent into the Prisons. "Prisons" is a fancy way of saying a massive dungeon complex beneath the city. They're dropped there and left to die with nothing on but skivvies essentially with the lingering promise that if they can manage to escape the dungeons through a specific exit, they are granted a full pardon.

So, with that in mind, the characters will be starting with nothing except a torn shirt, burlap pants and a short length of rope as a belt. They have to scavenge and survive. There are prisoners that live down there that have created their own factions to survive and of course there are areas of the dungeons that are avoided because they're so dangerous.

The players have been informed of this lack of starting resources time and time again, but one player wants to make an alchemist anyway. So, here's the crux of my post: one of the house rules I'm implementing is that arcane spellcasters may make use of the esoteric spell components as described in the Unchained book - do you think those rules would do well for an alchemist attempting to find ingredients for their bombs, mutagens, extracts, etc?

I also have a copy of the Alchemy Manual and have been considering using the power components as things that the player can search for instead, and coming up with how much (and/or what kind) is necessary to make their bombs, extracts, etc.

Has anyone here played in and/or run a game that has had similar limited resources for players? Or seen rules for "esoteric" or "itemized" alchemical ingredients? I've done some internet crawling and searching through these forums and haven't found anything.

Any advice/suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
-SK

185. The inevitability of death:
You're only allowed to cheat death so many times. After the fifth resurrection or raise dead, an advanced marut inevitable has been sent to deal with you. Any being killed by the marut is well and truly dead, unable to be brought back from the beyond.

(This is a house rule in my campaigns.)

So, I have an interesting conundrum in my RoW game. The players are just starting out and one of them is playing an oracle with the winter mystery. At first level he took the Child of Winter revelation, meaning he can ignore light snow for movement and leaves no tracks.

So here's my question to you folks:

Thanks for your input! I'm curious to see what the masses here have to say.

-SK

Hey folks,

I'm running a PbP version of Carrion Crown, and I had one player drop out (as happens fairly often in PbP). I have a friend that wants to join in - the problem being that the group is right smack dab in the middle of events in Ravengro and are a bit paranoid (rightfully so).

So, in "game time" he'd be joining about a week after the professor's funeral, even though in "real time" the forum-based game has been going on for nearly nine months now. I'd like my friend to be another invitee to the professor's funeral, but he got held up along the way to Ravengro.

I have not read the other books in the AP as of yet, so if any of you could recommend some sort of event from one of those books that would have delayed his character (such as being attacked) that'd be awesome. I know that we can just hand-wave his delay, but he and I both agree that it'd be better to have it plot related in some way, no matter how minor/major.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations/ideas.
-SK

Hi fanguad. I'm the husband referenced above. :) We're in the Wilmington/Lowell area. Do you know of any good gaming shops in this area? And thanks for the links. We'll be sure to check them out! Thanks again for the response!

Cheers!
-SK

Yeah, what Michael said. :)

Basically, you have the choice of EITHER:

1. Rebuild any one PFS character up to a total of their current levels, with any new race and/or class (ie, Level 8 human ranger can become a tiefling level 4 wizard level 4 alchemist)

OR

2. Make a NEW character as one of the following races: oread, undine, sylph, ifrit, vishkanya, (something else...don't recall what), or grippli (the grippli being the big draw, as this is the only boon currently to offer that race)

Sorry folks, I've decided that I'll offer the boon as a prize at one of my local PFS events. It was definitely a very popular item, considering the roughly dozen or so messages awaiting my attention in my inbox. :) (I'm slowly working my way through them, answering individually)

Now, if my wife wants to give up *her* Tier One boon, I'll definitely let you know. (I wouldn't count on it....but you never know.)

Have a good day, all!
-SK

I have one of the Tier One GM boons from GenCon 2013. I don't plan to use my character respec nor do I intend to make a grippli. But, I have been giving thought to an ifrit character, so I might be willing to even trade the Tier One for an elemental race (oread/sylph/ifrit/undine) boon. Or, if you have something else that you think I might be interested in, let me know.

Thanks!
-SK

At our gaming table, we jokingly and yet seriously ask "If you were a pie..." to indicate roughly the amount of damage a character has sustained to determine how many hit points they have left.

A classic example (iterated just this past Sunday in fact), after the party's rogue was hit by a crit from the GM (me), when asked "If you were a pie...?", the player responded, "Slowly molding in the trash can". I might've killed him...

In all seriousness, unless they have Status up and running, at my PFS games the players typically agree to give rough approximations, whether generic percentages (about 25% HP left/gone), or physical descriptions (winded and slightly scratched, or bleeding profusely, or my favorite, "I have the sway" meaning they're at 0 HP).

-SK

If you and your players have a day to run a game, you also might want to consider the Godsmouth Heresy (link) module, which is for all intents and purposes a dungeon crawl as well. And suitably spooky/atmospheric in parts too, if your players are the type that get into the atmosphere of the dungeon they're in.

Enjoy!
-SK

My main character died Saturday night during #05-03 The Hellknight's Feast. How did it happen?

** spoiler omitted **

Now, I was a level 5 cleric. We were at a full table of 6 players. The APL came out to 6.8, or 7 (mid-tier.) Because we had 6, under the new rules, we were required to play high tier.

Alas, having never spent any prestige, I had plenty to buy the raise dead (and I had a boon that discounted that purchase by 50%) and the TWO Restorations I needed to remove the negative levels.

It was most certainly not a pleasant experience (dying, I mean - the scenario was tremendously entertaining for me, actually.)

Mark

I'll own up to an error here. I missed the sidebar that described the scaling down rules for the 7-8 tier. I sincerely apologize, for the following issue...

I take GMing very seriously (and yet, of course, have a lot of fun doing it) and it embarrasses me to hear that my error caused a player death. For what it's worth, please accept my apology!

-Marty
aka S.K.

Mark, thanks for the kind words, sir! (This is Marty, and yes I am indeed from Maryland.) It was a blast to run those characters with you all, and perhaps embarrass a couple players with Lady Dyrianna. :)

That said, I feel sad that not everyone was able to enjoy the scenario as much as we. Having said that, terraleon, how were the other scenarios you played (if any)? It's usually my experience that the judges/GMs are of exceptional quality and put a lot of time into the effort, especially at the Cons.

As to your question, you're fully within your right to ask for more RP or more opportunities to interact in an adventure. Sure, don't be a bully or rude about it, but it's never a bad thing to at least ask/suggest for more RP time. And if he/she says no, at least you know not to game with that GM for future reference. (I would hope that this latter occurrence doesn't happen.)

All the best!

Marty, aka S.K.

I have to agree with Wookie above. Everyone did a fantastic job. From the volunteer GMs to the marshals to the HQ staff. You can definitely tell Paizo cares about its reputation by the folks they get to work the Con and the sheer amount of behind the scenes work that's done.

I had a blast with this year's PFS at GenCon. And as a first time GM at a Con, I was a bit overwhelmed and yet it lived up to expectations and more. I was honored to be able to run a table for the Special as well! The energy in the room during the Special was simply awesome!

Now, to address the thread's topic (note that I was a Tier I GM):

PROS
1. Thanks very kindly for the water. Very much appreciated.
2. The color-coded tables was a stroke of brilliance for making it easy to find the requisite table.
3. Size of the tables were just perfect. Plenty of room for the players and the game map in all cases (at least in my case).
4. Thanks for making the Special able to be run off of basically one or two flip mats, and therefore easy to transition from one scene to the next. Also, well done on putting in RP scenes as well as combat ones. (I let the players choose cards that had the encounter numbers on it. For example, if they were in Battle District, I had an index card each with A1, A2, A3, etc and they chose their destination without knowing what it was. They seemed to enjoy "controlling their destiny", so to speak.)
5. Thanks to the Marshal that provided me with an "emergency" blank map, after my initial game didn't seat and I volunteered to run a scenario I had never run nor had prepped for some players that desperately wanted to play it before the end of the Con. (and while I'm at it, if those players read this, thanks very kindly for your patience as I caught up on the scenario. You guys rock!)
6. Thanks for the seamless hotel arrangements and badge! I commend Mike Brock and everyone involved with that process.

CONS
1. Please try to limit the number of announcements on Sunday morning. Just when the game flow would be re-established, another announcement would break it. Wash rinse repeat a couple of times. I heard both GMs and players grousing about this.
2. Catching the Con Crud! Yep...I succumbed to the prevailing germs, despite lots of hand sanitizer and other precautions. Oh well...it was worth it!
3. GMs and players that left their tables an absolute wreck for the next group to play! Many times did I have to clean the table of refuse, scrap paper, bottles, and whatnot as I went to set up for a game.

SUGGESTIONS:
1. Is it possible to muster players at one end of the room (say under the banners, which worked well), and muster the GMs at the other end of the room near the HQ? That way, the Marshal can easily find their GMs without shouting over the gathered players and assign their tables, then make their way to the banners for player assignments.
2. I like the earlier suggestion of having a "door guard" allowing only actual tickets in first, then allowing Generics after the others have seated.
3. You may need to find a bigger room for the Kid's Track...wow, was that busy at times (which is awesome).

If I think of anything else, I'll post it here. But, in conclusion, I had a great time. Overall, things were pretty smooth and I had tremendous players at every table. Thanks to everyone who actually RPd during Hellknight's Feast instead of relied on dice rolls to move you through.

I look forward to seeing you all next time!
Marty aka S.K., out.

Thanks for the tips, folks. As a first-time GenCon GM, they're definitely very much appreciated. As someone who speaks all day for a living and frequently has to do so at an increased volume (I'm a technical trainer by trade), I definitely can vouch for the throat lozenge recommendation. Or, if you have honey lemon tea, that does well too.

Having pre-printed Knowledge check, scenario info, and NPC cue cards is a fantastic and effective idea. They work well at your regular PFS game tables, let alone Con tables.

Something to think about with this year's event: from what I've read, we'll be in an even larger room this year with even more tables, so minimize the effect on your voice/throat as much as possible, because I can only imagine it'll be loud. At the many seminars and conferences I've taught/spoken at, I've learned that these types of events get loud and people continually trying to talk over each other make it all the louder.

See you all at the Con!
-SK

I'm set to run this one as well at GenCon...twice out of my eight slots if I remember right. Plus I'm running it a couple times for the local PFS chapter. I look forward to the wickedness... the surprise after they accomplish the trial is just plain funny...and evil :)

pro·ceed·ing (pr-sdng, pr-)

n.
1. A course of action; a procedure.
2. proceedings A sequence of events occurring at a particular place or occasion: hectic proceedings in the kitchen.
3. proceedings A record of business carried on by a society or other organization; minutes.
4. Law
a. Legal action; litigation. Often used in the plural.
b. The instituting or conducting of legal action.

"everything before"??

Well then... I guess it's a product of bad lessons on my part!

I'd always been taught that you can swap "succeeding" and "proceeding" to convey information that follows, hence my earlier statement. Searching about online tells me I've been wrong. Sorry to ruffle feathers. :)

Not to be the Grammer Nazi, but...

"The first sentence contradicts all the proceeding text."???

if it's the first sentence, how does it have proceeding text? wouldn't everything else be following text?

I believe the term you're thinking of is "preceding", meaning "everything before". The term he used was proceeding, meaning everything afterwards.

Doug Miles wrote:

It was fun if you weren't wearing an expensive dress with a CMB of +3.

Your dress had a CMB of +3? Tough dress. :-D

Well, yeah, it really was a...

....wait for it...

killer dress!

Hey everyone,

I've done a little bit of searching, and finding some conflicting answers to this, so I figured I'd get the "final" word straight from the source.

Anyway, I am new-ish to Pathfinder Society play (see my shiny new single star!) and thus far have been pretty good about sticking to the flow and statistics presented in the adventures. However, there are times where I've been scratching my head about some of the design ideas, most notably monster/enemy stat blocks.

So, my query is thus: Are we, as PFS GMs, allowed to modify feats, spells, and/or skills of said bad guys so long as it fits in the general theme of the adventure/scenario/module/thingy? Just how much leeway, if any, are we given?

I'm especially curious because I've volunteered and been chosen to run eight games at GenCon in August, and I just want to make sure I'm on the up and up. Plus, and perhaps more importantly, our local PFS gaming groups have been getting larger and larger somewhat rapidly (from 0 to over 25 regular players in about 9 months - which is awesome!) and do not want to do them any disservice by mucking things up as a face for Paizo (so to speak).

Thanks folks!

-SK

Good morning all,

I'm actually the GM that ran the game where Brandon's pregen character decided to shuffle off its mortal coil. He went down valiantly but alas the BBEG made him a part of its balanced breakfast (serving size: 1 pregen Valeros). (At our table, there were actually two character deaths: 1 pregen and 1 existing character.)

In all seriousness, I'd like to confirm that the way to proceed on this is to allow Brandon to apply this to a fresh, new 1st level character and immediately report it as dead, in according with the discussed FAQ and other forum discussions.

And if this is the case, I'd like to request that this ruling be placed in the sticky thread devoted to PFS rulings, as I believe it would be helpful for what I'm sure is a somewhat commonplace occurrence, as well as be placed in the next update to the Guide to Organized Play.

Thanks for all of the help and replies, folks. It's somewhat ironic and a little embarrassing that this deadly game garnered me my first PFS Star. Anywho, see you all 'round!

-SK