ahayford's page

I have recently stepped back into organized play after many years. I used to run a PFS1e game at my local workplace for myself and my co-workers. I always GM'd and we'd have a crew of rotating players. I have recently gotten really interested in PF2E and Starfinder after getting kind of tired of 5e. With the advent of VTT's and online play, I decided to come back to PFS and SFS as a player to get some play time under my belt to help me learn the rules. I'm not great at picking up rules myself and thought getting some playtime in would help boost my confidence and help me learn the rules. I went to a few discords and have played in about 6 PFS and 5 SFS games.

So far, the experience has been less than ideal. I really want to be diplomatic and kind, because GMing is hard and anyone that has the confidence to do so instantly gets my respect. I struggle myself with social anxiety issues and self confidence problems that can make the anticipation of an upcoming session difficult. However, all the games I've played in seem to take the same general formula.

1) Players introduce their characters, maybe do a little RP (cool).
2) Mission intro with story NPC that tells us what we are going to be doing (a little slow getting started but cool)
3) Then GM just tells us what all the skills we can use are and asks for rolls. There is typically very little player agency here, just DM asking for rolls. (not super interesting)
4) Mission starts, very railroady...not in the sense that there is a given plot to follow, but just very little openings for ways to do things.
5) Combats are stupid easy and barely worth even playing. Party frequently takes no damage or very little. A lot of time is burned on combats where the outcome is pretty much known from the outset.

I can get behind the idea of the scenario and playing within the restrictions of a pickup game/time limit. However, the whole experience has been largely unsatisfying to me. GM typically whisks us away to each point, with very little options for what/how to do things, and things that could be interesting, just seem to devolve into a series of rolls where the DM tells us what we can use rather then people coming up with creative ideas or solutions. Almost no roleplaying, or if there is it tends to be from gimmick characters that play the same joke over and over.

Now, I am no expert or amazing DM, but I just haven't been enjoying myself as much as I'd hoped to. Maybe its just PF2E and Starfinder are a bit more rules heavy than I'm used to and the Society encourages rigid adherence to the rules. Maybe I've just been in games with less experienced GMs or have played modules that aren't the greatest. I don't know.

In contrast, I recently played in a short playtest for a module being written for another system. There was no pretext that our characters would have any use after the adventure we were running. The session lasted 4hrs, about the same length as a PFS/SFS game, and I had a blast. The session as a basic, go find the dungeon, do a short crawl, defeat a boss...but it didn't feel like we were just picking from a rigid set of available options like my SFS/PFS scenarios have felt.

Is some of this because of people replaying scenarios just to level up?
Is some of this because of GMs trying to make sure players get all the rewards from a scenario?
Are the play tiers where tier 4's play with 1's at low tier trivializing the game?

Should I keep trying? Should I try and GM? Is PFS/SFS just not to my liking or have other people had different experiences?

Please, I really don't want to offend anyone and am asking this with the utmost sincerity.

Hi guys,

I'm planning on running Murder's Mark next week to help a couple guys catch up to the rest of my PFS group. I'm planning on running over two evenings and I was wondering what the procedure is for reporting multi-session events on the web page is. I currently have two events scheduled...but not sure how I should report it when its done. Should I just report only the final sessions and cancel the first one?

Hi guys,

This is a bit of a spin-off thread from the "Future of 1-5 Scenarios" thread. I am not a heavy hitter organizer, or a long time GM. I run a small group of PFS for some folks at work, with my players all around level 3/4. The talk about what type of content to create for PFS is currently centered around the cold hard fact that the current number of scenarios isn't likely to change. In order for Paizo to get the biggest bang for their buck, as they are using a pretty significant amount of their bandwidth to make these scenarios, is to try and market these differently.

I know when I previously went looking for Pathfinder content, I pretty much ignored PFS scenarios because I didn't think they really fit my needs. However, I think if these scenarios were marketed as one-shots or side encounters, rather than "PFS Scenario #23", you might be able to get more people outside PFS interested in purchasing them. Set up a subscription for them just like any other Paizo product and really sell them up to the non-PFS crowd. To that End:

1) Continue to tie in with the Current AP. Maybe even have 2 short arcs a year, one dealing with each AP.

2) Tie in with other Paizo products like campaign materials and modules. Having a scenario that told a little side story in a published module, or that fleshed out a plot hook in the campaign material line would be cool. Or maybe one that featured a new character archtype as the villain.

Anyway, just some ideas to get more people interested in these as I find the format very useful for my group regardless of whether or not we ran it for actual PFS credit. Right now, they are currently kept kind of separate from all the rest of Paizo's content. Whether or not that is intentional I don't know.

Are all the season 4 scenarios suppose to be on sale? Seems like only part of them are?

Hey guys,

I run PFS for a small group of about 10 folks where I work. One of them playing a brawler with grapple...and he has a buddy that likes to cast vanish on him so he can sneak up on casters and ambush on them. Since many of the "final" battles have included a lot of 1 caster fights, the net effect is this largely trivializes these fights. Now, I fully support this use of combined tactics to take down something that would be harder to drop in a stand up fight....however, I would like to at least provide some level of challenge. My current thoughts on this are...

1) Research all my spells ahead of time better, so I know what I have that is vocal only.
2) If there are any mooks, they immediately go after the grappler since he is also -4 to his dex.

Still, I'm interested in what other people do to at least make things interesting with grapple specc'd players verse casters.

Hi guys,

The group I run PFS for, mostly friends from work, and I decided we'd like to run the scenarios by season for each character...to kind of experience them as they were originally released. No real reason other than we though it might be cool and we are all ridiculously OCD. At the end of each season, we'll let everyone roll up new level 1's so they can experience a new class. When we hit the level where their previous character left off, they can bring in the old one or keep the new....

To that end, I have devised the following progressions. This took a bit of effort in order to keep everything with-in a single season. Thus, I thought someone else might be interested in it. Let me know what you guys think. Yes I know its going to take us a looooong time to do this...but I was bored this afternoon and this problem tickled my brain.

The level next to the Scenario lists the level the players will be coming into the scenario. I'm not sure we'll ever do Eyes of the Ten, as my guys like lower level play...but we'll see.

Let me know what you guys think? Are there some other full modules I should try and work in rather than the ones I have listed here?

Season 0:
First Steps 1 1.0
First Steps 2 1.1
First Steps 3 1.2
Silent Tide 2.0
Mists of Mwangi 2.1
Frozen Fingers of Midnight 2.2
Perils of the Pirate Pact 3.0
Among the Living 3.1 <--- This Week
Decline of Glory 3.2
Prince of Augustana 4.0
Tide of Morning 4.1
Hydra's Fang Incident 4.2
Murder on the Silken Caravan 5.0
Black Waters 5.1
Slave Pits of Absalom 5.2
The Many Fortunes of Grandmaster Torch 6.0
Our Lady of Silver 6.1
To Scale the Dragon 6.2
Fingerprints of the Fiend 7.0
Lost at Bitter End 7.1
Lyrics of Extinction 7.2
King Xeros of Old Azlant 8.0

Season 1:

MOD: We Be Goblins 1.0
The Devil We Know Part 1 1.1
The Devil we Know Part 2 1.2
The Devil We Know Part 3 2.0
The Devil We Know Part 4 2.1
Voice in the Void 2.2
The Beggar's Pearl 3.0
The Pallid Plague 3.1
Among the Dead 3.2
Assault on the Kingdom of the Impossible 4.0
Delerium's Tangle 4.1
The Infernal Vault 4.2
The Citadel of Flame 5.0
Fortune's Blight 5.1
The Darkest Vengeance 5.2
City of Strangers 1 6.0
City of Strangers 2 6.1
Sniper in the Deap 6.2
Echoes of the Everwar 1 7.0
Echoes of the EVerwar 2 7.1
Echoes of the Everwar 3 7.2
Echoes of the Everwar 4 8.0
Drow of the Darklands Pyramid 8.1
Encounter at the Drowning 8.2
The Jester's Fraud 9.0
No Plunder, No Pay 9.1
Hall of Drunken Heroes 9.2
Mod: Curse of the Riven Sky 10
Mod: Ruby Pheonix Tournament 11
Eyes of the Ten 12

Season 2:

Mod: Crypt of the Everflame 1.0
Before the Dawn 1 2.0
Before the Dawn 2 2.1
The Penumbral Accords 2.2
Mod: Masks of the Living Gods 3.0
Shades of Ice 1 4.0
Shades of Ice 2 4.1
Shades of Ice 3 4.2
Murder on the Throaty Mermaid. 5.0
Mod: City of Golden Death 5.1
Shadow's Last Stand 1 6.1
Shadows Last Stand 2 6.2
The Dalsine Affair 7.0
Shadows Fall on Absalom 7.1
Fury of the Fiend 7.2
The Rebel's Ransom 8.0
You only Die Twice 8.1
The Sarkorian Prophecy 8.2
The Heresy of Man 1 9.0
The Heresy of Man 2 9.1
The Heresy of Man 3 9.2
Below the Silver Tarn 10.0
Chasm of Screams 10.1
The Flesh collector 10.2
The Forbidden Furnace of Forgotten Koor 11.00
Warth of the Accursed 11.1
The Mantis's Prey 11.2

Season 3:

Mod: The Godsmouth Heresy 1.0
The Frostfur Captives 2.0
Tide of Twilight 2.1
Echoes of the Overwatched 2.2
The Quest for Perfection 1 3.0
The Quest for Perfection 2 3.1
The Quest for Perfection 3 3.2
The God's Market Gamble 4.0
The Icebound Outpost 4.1
The Temple of Empyreal Enlightenmeant 4.2
The Goblinblood Dead 5.0
Mod: Carrior Hill 5.1
Sewer Dragons of Absalom 6.1
Song of the Sea Witch 6.2
Among the Gods 7.0
The Midnight Mauler 7.1
Storming the Diamond Gate 7.2
The Ghenett Manor Gauntlet 8.0
The Immortal Conundrum 8.1
Wonders in the Weave 1 8.2
Wonders in the Weave 2 9.0
The Haunting of Hinojai 9.1
The Golden Serpent 9.2
The Rats of Round Mountain 1 10.0
The Rats of Round Mountain 1 10.1
The Kortos Envoy 10.2
Red Harvest 11.0
Portal of the Sacred Rune 11.1

Season 4:

Rise of the Goblin Guild 1.0
Severing ties 1.1
The Disapeared 1.2
The Cyphermage Dilemma 2.0
The Veteran's Vault 2.1
The Night March of Kalkamedes 2.2
Mod: Feast of Ravenmoor 3.0
Mod: Fangwood Keep 4.0
Wrath's Shadow 5.0
The Sanos Abduction 5.1
The Blackros Matrimony 5.2
My Enemy's Enemy 6.0
Way of the Kirin 6.1
Rivalry's End 6.2
The GolemWorks Incident 7.0
The Green Market 7.1
Fortress of the Nail 7.2
Glories of the Past 1 8.0
Glories of the Past 2 8.1
Glories of the Past 3 8.2
The Fabric of Reality 9.0
Tower of the Ironwood Watch 9.1
King of the Storval Stairs 9.2
The Cultist's Kiss 10.0
Feat of the Sigils 10.1
The Refuge of Time 10.2
Words of the Ancients 11.0
The Waking Rune 11.1

How would you rule this?

Hey guys,

I'm a brand new PFS GM currently running a Monday night game at work.

I really wanted to get an RPG group together at work, but new the people I had in mind had spotty schedules at best. I have a solid crew of about 3 folks that show up every week without fail, and about 4-5 floating players that show up with mixed reliability. Thus I thought, PFS scenarios would be ideal for my group. We are running this as officially reported PFS games as I'd like to eventually get multiple tables running if we drum up enough interest here.

I have managed to get through the 3 introduction scenarios before they were officially retired (once we complete this evening), so I am starting to plan ahead as to which modules I should pick up.

With my group, I'm planning on running a "slow" XP curve for the players that show every night, and fast for the spottier attendees. Already, I have a few players that are varying degrees of "behind". So my question is this. Is there an easy listing of which scenarios are really linked to that season's story line and which are not? I would like to run a cohesive campaign that eventually touches on each seasons plot (assuming we even play that long) but I also don't want to run out of scenarios at each tier for my players to play. Any suggestion on a list of "core" scenarios?

Thanks for your time.

Hey guys,

So, I have been trying to put together a PFS game at my work, have about 5 guys ready to play. I read through the documents and had everyone roll up some characters. I happened to looking through some stuff here and found some posts mentioning racial boons allowing you to play certain races and I became confused. I didn't realize that there were strict limits on race, and the Guide to Organized play mentions this...

Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play, p. 7,
"Select your character’s class and race from the choices
offered in the Core Rulebook. You may also select aasimar,
tengu, or tiefling as your character’s race with access to
the proper Additional Resources book. Additional class
and race options from resources like the Pathfinder RPG
Advanced Player’s Guide, Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic,
Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Combat, Pathfinder RPG Advanced
Race Guide, and Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Inner
Sea World Guide are generally available with few or no
alterations, as well."

This says nothing about the race choices limited to the core books, and in fact, implies that anything is legal if its in the Core book, Advanced Player Guide, or Advanced Race guide. I had players pick Aasimar, Changeling, and Catfolk....and now I think I need to ask them to pick something different. Which races are currently legal and which are not? It would be nice if the official document was modified to contain an explicit list, or at least, a more accurate description of how races are unlocked etc.

Note: I have found several threads stating that only Core races are allowed by default, but all the threads date before the release of Advanced Race guide. The wording of the race section in the guide is very confusing so I thought I'd ask for exact clarification. Thank you.