I managed to release the update last night, and another quick one today.
You can now have different players on the same app and you can keep track of each player's characters. I also added the lock/unlock button so you don't accidentally click something you didn't mean to.
Going forward I will be doing smaller updates when appropriate since trying to do a mayor update didn't quite work (I didn't get in all the things I wanted to).
I have thought about iOS but I don't own any apple products at the moment to test. Once thins slow down around here I will take a look at it and see what I can do.
Thanks for the feedback!
It has been extremely helpful! I will be adding some of the features as times allows me.
I have been dealing with some real life events which haven't allowed to work on the app as much as I wanted to. and it might continue for the next few weeks.
The feature I am currently working on is profiles. You will be able to export/import them as well. It will come with a few more features so keep tuned!
Mark,
Thanks for the information. I will add the legal text as soon as I can!
I am hoping to have an update ready next week.
Btw, where can I find out when a new scenario is released so I can update the app accordingly?
JhonF,
I have added the tier for each scenario. I saw a couple of tiers greater than 12 which seemed odd to me. Also, "Ace for the Runecarved Key" has tier 12+ which I am not entirely sure what it means and I am currently not taking into consideration when searching by tier (I just treat it as tier 1-12). Would you be able to shed some light into it :)? I started playing PFS recently so I am unfamiliar with some of these things.
Eric,
I didn't have that issue in the phones I tested but I modified the layout so hopefully that would fix your issue. Please let me know if it does.
Geroblue,
If you can't download it from Google Play send me an email and I can reply by sending you the file.
Reading Eric's comment I am wondering if it would be useful to have player profiles in case the app needs to be shared by more than one player for whatever reason. What do you guys think?
I have been working on an android app that will allow you to keep track of the scenarios and modules that you have played or have run for PFS. You can quickly check by typing part of its name on the search bar.
You can use options to refine your search by season # or to only show the scenarios you have played/run. You can sort the list by season or by scenario name.
You can go to Google Play and search for Pathfinder PFS. It is free and has no ads!
Since I started playing PFS a few months ago, I have started to flesh out my characters and trying to give them more personality and uniqueness now that I am more comfortable with the rules.
On that process, my wizard has come with the idea that he would like to keep his wands in several sheaths around his belt for easy access.
1) Is there an item that already exists that fits this need?
2) Can I just claim my wizard has this belt?
In general, how much re-skinning are you allowed to do in PFS?
I have been working on a campaign for the begginer box which should take the players to 5th level and have some sort of conclusion then. I have been only thinking of the big picture, the main plot, a couple of twists here and there, some adventure fork ideas depending on some big decisions the players take, but no specific encounters or anything (I have an idea of what I want the final encounter to look like but that's about it). I am also not trying to get too ahead of the group since I want to have a reactive campaign depending on my player's actions.
My concern has been, how do I keep things interesting? I am hoping my story grabs the players attention for the whole 5 levels, but what about encounters, puzzles, traps, etc... I don't want my encoutners to be monotonous and repetitive. Maybe I just lack imagination :(. I have also read that after certain level, the game starts changing since players start having better equipment and magic, so the game evolves as well. I have been participating in PFS but not long enough to get a good idea about how things are kept fresh or run in the long run.
With this in mind, I have been looking to buy a couple of modules to get some inspiration, preferably an adventure path to get an idea how things are are put together, how are things kept fresh and how the game evolves as you level. What would be the best adventure path/modules to have as reference for a beginner like me?
Also, is it enjoybale for a GM to run published adventures? (this is somehting that just popped into my mind when thinking about buying modules and adventures)
Thanks for the feedback. I was really tempted since I saw several adventures for 5 dollars each and a couple of the campaign settings and other books for about 10 dollars.
It is sad that I can't find as many pathfinder modules on my area :(. I know I can buy the PDF but there is something about having the physical thing that calls out to me. I could order them online, but the shipping is too high from the places I have tried :(.
I found a store that is selling used 4e stuff for a very low price (No Pathfinder :( ) and I was wondering if it is possible to somehow convert it to Pathfinder system?
I recently started GMing and I am completely new to RPG so I am looking for some more material I can use.
New player here. Yesterday I played a paladin for the first time and I threw a couple of javalins through out the game and then is what I noticed that I don't know what happens to them afterwards!. What are the rules for retrieving thrown javelins? The core rule book only mentions retrieving ammunition for projectile weapons, but I couldn't find a section for thrown weapons. I would assume since they are larger, I would have 100% chance of finding it (unless I throw it off a cliff or something).
I have considered the Crypt of The Everflame but I am hoping to use that as the first adventure when we make the jump to the full Pathfinder rules and since some of the players are new, I want an adventure that can run in just one session so they can have closure and sucess on their first try. I feel if they have a "to be continued" they won't be as excited as my first group did when they defeated Black Fang. What has been your experience with new players and multiple session modules?
I like Niilo's sugesstion to use Deadly Mine as a base and add some encounters leading up to the mine. Any idea how long Deadly Mine runs for? From reading it, it looks like it could be run in half the timed compared to the Black Fang Dungeon.
I have also looked at some of the other adventures like Hollow's last hope and Master of the Fallen Fortress which look more lengthy that the Deadly Mine. Any ideas how long they run for?
I have also seen Fangs from the Past, an adventure by a third party designed for the beginner box, read good reviews about it, but once again I don't know how long it runs for.
I have also been working on an adventure, but I think it might be too long for one session, but due to my inexperience I am not sure if it just me. Any tips on determining how long an adventure is going to be?
Also, any tips for creating my own adventure? Should I wait until the PC's are higher level? or the lower the level the easier it is?
As I mentioned on another thread, our first session was great and now we are going to meet up again to go into our second adventure!
However, the number of guests has been increased by 2 to a total of 6!
I don't want to send anyone home so I would like to run a 6 player game.
Description:
The two new players ares completely new to RPGs so I was looking for something similar to Black Fang's dungeon in terms of simplicity and variety, and easily scalable to 6 players.
As for characters I will be creating a barbarian, and another core class from:
http://edowarsblog.wordpress.com/downloads/
thanks to edowar for the templates!
I would prefer to have different classes so everyone feels different. Any suggestions? I am more familiar with the core rules classes, but not enough to make a decision. For example, I see the paladin in the same light as I do the cleric, and the sorcerer the same as a wizard. I am pretty sure I am wrong since I have just played a wizard in PFS but that is why I ask for advice.
For adventures, my original plan was to run the Begginner Bash! and the Deadly Mine, but I find them way too simple compared to Black Fang Dungeon, and was hoping to provide the new players with a similar experience (So they will want to join us in the future!). Does anyone have any experience with the beginner box bash/deadly mine for 6 players?
I created the Raven's Watch adventure, but it is supposed to be played in a later sessions since I want the players to gather information about black fang as side quests on the coming adventures to give the world a sense of connectivity.
I thought of creating a new adventure with 6 players in mind, but the thought of creating the maps, the plot, all the encounters from scratch and having 2 new players is very overwhelming. I do have 1 month to work on it, but in the back of my mind is this constant worry of "Will they like my adventure?, will it be boring?, Will it be tedious?"
So I come to you in hopes to give me some advice on creating encounters for 6 players. I believe I am supposed to add 1 to the average player level to get the CR for the encounters, but other than that, what else should I keep in mind. I was thinking to use the plot seed in the Game Master guide about the werevolves controlling a band of wolves.
I have also been toying with the idea to use PFS in Service to Lore as a template since I already played it. It is very easy for beginners and has a lot of variety, but I have no idea how to modify some of the encounters for 6 players.
I want to have an adventure for 1 session only (3-4 hours), since we are still testing the waters, and I don't want to commit anyone to finish a module of numerous sessions. Also they are not ready to jump to full pathfinder rules.
TLDR;
I need help on what adventure to run, or how to create an adventure for 6 players. The free adventures for beginner box, seem way too simple and won't give the 2 new players a good view of the game. I was hoping to have some practice creating an adventure, but having 2 new players and having a party of 6 is making me very cautious of this route. Raven's watch is not an option since I will be using it in a later date. I want an adventure that can be finished in 1 session (3-4hours).
I probably looks that I am stressed out, but I am actually enjoying GMing, it is just that I never expected to run anything for more than 6 players, and it worries me that this will cause some adventures to not be as fun.
I just found out I could get a shining wayfinder from the Silver Crusade for 2pp, and I was wondering if I could wear it around my neck like a necklace?
I wanted to use it as a light source without having to use one hand to hold it.
So we went through Black Fang's Dungeon yesterday afternoon and we had a blast!
Spoiler:
Most of the encounters went very smooth.
The Goblins at the entrance were quickly dispatched with only minor damage taken by the Wizard. In the next room, the rogue quickly figures out that she can pick locks and opens the chest, I kind of hint at the wizard that she can do a detect magic on the unknown potion. From this point on she start casting detect magic on everything. The cleric decides to check the mats and finds the key and they realize it was for the chest.
The fountain was very fun since they couldn't figure out why some of them were getting benefits and other people damage, and the rogue didn't get an effect at all so she thought everyone else was pulling her leg.
They decided to go to the trap room next, and this one was a bit trickier to run. The Cleric got close to the altar and got burned, she didn't move for a while and took a health potion on the same spot so I decided that was probably more than 5 seconds and the trap went off again taking down the Cleric.
The fighter quickly carries her back to safety and runs back to town for more health potions while the wizard and the Rogue take care of the Cleric.
They sleep for a few hours to tackle the trap room again. They start toying with the idea of crawling towards the altar but no one wants to take the risk. The fighter decides to climb through the statue, which I let him do with a DC 15. Picks up the gem and climbs back through the statue.
The spider encounter was uneventful and was passed by quickly.
When they encountered the pillar, they did all their checks and found out about the water symbol. they started throwing water at it and doing all sorts of crazy stuff. They finally decided to try to press all the symbols, and the wizard gained the power to swim!
Getting to the island caused the fighter and rogue to drown most of the time. So the wizard and the cleric took care of ReefClaw!
They picked up the treasure but they didn't find out that the sword was magical.
They tried to use stealth while entering the throne room, however the Cleric rolled so poorly that made all the goblins notice them. They decided to talk to the goblins instead of fighting (thanks to the cleric) and gave them the dragon toy. They were close to starting a fight to get whatever was in the chest, but they decided not to and moved forward.
The cliff gave them a hard time, but finally the fighter made it through. He distrusted the rope at the top, and used his own to bring everyone up. They were a bit confused why that made a difference since I still asked them to roll to climb with a rope, I explained about the difficulty with a rope and without it.
One of the skeletons was killed in 1 shot by the wizard, and they were confused when the other 2 took way more damage but weren't going down. I kept mentioning how their hits didn't seem to be doing the full amount of damage they expected. I explained to them after the adventure.
Surprisingly no one took damage from the skeletons and made it through.
They decided to sleep on their bed rolls before continuing.
The fight with Black Fang was a bit anticlimatic (at least from my point of view) I think to the players it felt quite right. They did extreamly well against the dragon hitting almost every time, and the fighter used the dragon bane sword so they were killing Black Fang quite fast. Both the fighter and the cleric dodged the acid attack and took half damage.
The next round they did great again and took Black Fang below 25 before its turn came up. So I had to make a choice since Black Fang had only stayed for a turn, I could either run or stay, I figured I could kill someone in the next attack (one of them the fighter) so Black Fang wouldn't take enough damage and still survive to fly away! My plan back fired, I didn't hit anyone. The Cleric scores a hit and the Fighter crits bringing Black Fang down below 0 HP. I "fudged" the numbers and kept Black Fang alive, and the wizard hit as well so Black Fang is now ultra dead!. I made Black Fang flee on its 3rd round, even though he was dead. The players decided to rest before trying to attack the goblins they left alive in the throne room. It was late and I could tell most people were tired and wanted to finish. It was mostly one person interested in taking them down. I discouraged it by saying the Cleric will lose the grace from her deity since her alignment is good and the goblins had shown no sign of aggression and were in friendly terms with the PCs. That made them think twice and decided to call it a day.
They went back to town, got their reward, their experience and that was the end!
I felt a bit bad about cheating the players of their kill, but I was already working on a follow up story with Black Fang so I needed him alive :(. I wasn't intending in killing the players either, I was going to make Black Fang fly away if he killed 2 people. Is this practice frowned upon? :(.
We had a lot of fun, lots of laughs. Everyone was in the right mood, so whenever a bad rolled came across most people acted a really bad version of the skill (e.g coughing while trying to sneak). Very funny comments happened, and I was surprised how quickly they picked up the flow of things. The key was that I didn't overwhelm them with rules like I do when we play boardgames, I just told them to let me know what they wanted to do and I will tell them if they need to roll and what skill they should use. This off course put a lot of pressure on me, and by the end of the night I was really tired. Everyone liked it and wants to try it again, however, one of the players felt it was too long. Any ideas on how to make it shorter?. We are already scheduled to meet again in one month. I will probably run them through the Beginner Bash! adventures and the mine, while I continue to work on my new adventure!
They didn't show interest in creating their own character (except for the Cleric, she didn't like that she was mostly healing) so we will be playing the pre-gens again, I am thinking of allowing them to change the name and their sex and giving the Wizard and the Cleric all their level 0 spells like the Handbook says.
One question regarding that, why does the wizard get all 4 cantrips without preparation? On the core rule book you are only allowed 3. Am I missing something?
I was thinking of following the core rulebook and ask the wizard to choose 3 out of the 4 spells per day, that way when we jump to the core rule books they won't feel like they got less spells per day.
I want to thank Paizo for this great product and allowing my friends and I to have a great night and hopefully more to come. Also thanks to all the tips that I was given by the community, and I would also like to thank all the GM's out there that run the games for us because i just never realized how much work it was to prepare and to run a session!
It really helped, and I also took a loook at JohnnieTheGamer's thread and that was also filled with great advice.
I have my first run this weekend, and I will report back and probably ask questions that came up.
Playing PFS a couple of times as a player already gave me a better understanding how thins are run and about different types of GMs. I will try to use what I have learned so far to run the adventure!
I mentioned to my friends that I will be trying out Pathfinder Society next week, and they got interested. However, their schedule doesn't allow them to join the Pathfinder Society game. They encouraged me to learn the game and be the GM and to introduce them pathfinder (I have no RPG experience at all). So with this quest in mind I did some research and got the beginner's box.
I have read through both books a couple of times, but there is still a couple of things I don't quite get. I am hoping to learn more once I start playing Society, I know it uses more advance rules than the beginner box but I am expecting to get a better grasp of how everything fits together. Until then, here are my questions:
The spoilers contain plot points for the introductory adventure!!!
Spoilers:
1) the minimaps shows the enemies' locations. Is this where I am supposed to place the tokens? or is it just a reference? My confusion comes because the spider is supposed to be placed in the southwest corner, but in the minimap it is a bit offset. Also, the skeletons before Black Fang are way too close to the cliff but in the text it says to place them on the north side of the room. Same with Black Fang it is asked to be placed on the east side of the room, but I see him more like in the middle of the two rooms or at the west of the last room depending how I look at it.
2)Magic Pillar:
It gives you some history of the pillar, but I am not sure when I am supposed to provide this information to the players, if at all. Also, it isn't clear to me whether the players need to do something to figure out that there is one specific symbol that is repeated. I know they need to do a check to figure out it is water though.
3)Graffiti:
Do players need to specifically ask for a knowledge history skill check to find out the information about what "wyrm" means?, or when they enter the room and I read the description should I ask them to roll a history skill check to see if they know the information?
4) Perception:
How many times can a player do a perception check? For example in the 2nd area of the dungeon, where the straw mats are, could a player do multiple perception checks on the mats to find the key? Or to find traps, lets say on their first roll the exact number needed to figure how the trap is triggered. Could they try again to get a +5 above the DC and get more info about the trap?
I don't feel as overwhelmed anymore knowing that I am not expected to know all the rules.
I haven't had a chance to post my character, I might do it later this week.
The organizer finally responded and he volunteered to go over my character before starting and that they will help me learn as we go along.
To be honest I was feeling a bit stressed out thinking of going to the first session not knowing what to expect and assuming that I had to be a Pro. Thanks to your comments and the organizer respose I feel more comfortable now!
I think I will follow your advice and try another class, I created a fighter and I while equipping I wasn't sure about something.
Lets say I would like to have 2 sets of weapons:
1)a two handed weapon
2) a one hand weapon plus a shield.
I am wondering if I am able to keep my shield on my back or something while I use my two handed weapon. Then later, I can switch to my main hand and a shield for more protection. If allowed, I believe I would have to spend some actions drawing my weapons and stuff, but I wasn't able to figure out if carrying a shield makes it impossible to use a two handed weapon.
At the end I opted for a two handed plus a bow, but I still would like to know the answer to that question.
I have wanted to play an RPG for quite some time now, and I just found out about a Pathfinder society group that meets in a nearby store. I tried contacting the organizer but I haven't heard back from him. However, the store claims they still meet there every week.
Since I can't get a hold of him I would like to know what is expected from a complete noob to RPG on their first games.
I have been reading the online material from Paizo, so I don't have a hard copy. Do I have to bring a hard copy of the rules to the table, or people would help me with he rules? i.e: If I need to know how much I need to roll for X, or how much Y costs, or what the effect of Z is.
A lot of the rules are still a bit fuzzy to me. There is so much to remember! I don't want to buy the hard cover book just yet because I am not sure if this something I would actually like. It looks like fun, but I would prefer to wait until I play it.
I have created my first character, a wizard, but I am worried that I messed up somewhere and people would scream at me for "cheating". Is there a way to validate my character?
Wizards need to prepare spells for the day, do I prepare my spells before the session, at the start of the session, or would my character actually have to sleep 8 hours during the game and prepare the spells during the scenario?
Do people actually role play their character, or is it just roll dice, kill monster, move on? I don't mind either way, but I hope people understand that I probably won't be the best role player since is my first time!
As I mentioned, I have never played an RPG before, so I am really not sure what to expect or even if these events are open to complete new players. The only thing I do have is a set of dice because they weren't that expensive.
Any advice you can provide I would greatly appreciate it!
