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I can't help but notice there is only 1 SFS scenario a month through the first 4 months of 2022 per Paizo's release schedule. So, it looks like SFS society is winding down? It seems to be losing new SFS scenario support. I know about the new modules but they don't have a SFS option it's campaign mode only and they are in essence replacing what would be an AP chapter. So this isn't a SFS replacement option to make up for the cut down in SFS scenarios.
Is there any piece of equipment or spell that can hide a creatures type from the scan of the biohacker's microlab. It looks like it will blow through disguise self.
So, I noticed a new format for SFS scenarios is their a discussion on this anywhere? I'm not sure if it's PFS2 also. I wonder what the purpose of the duplicate pages for different tiers. I can point out the negatives. I can't see a positive. Negatives include: If printing the scenario; more pages means more chopped down trees. More expenses on paper and ink. I highlight sentences now I have to highlight the same thing on 2 different pages, hence making things more difficult to prep adding prep time and more wasted ink. I make notes in margins now I have to make the same note in 2 different places. Paizo editors have to edit more pages. Writers have to write more pages. Increased prep time, adding waste in time, paper, and ink seems pretty negative. Can someone point to a thread that talks about the positives. I'm sure someone thought it was a good idea I just wonder what those are and to whom?
Has anyone found some good bug miniatures for this AP? Pre-painted or un-painted either is fine.
Starship Combat has become to one sided for the players. Can this be rebalanced? Starting with the special - NPC ships have been weakened and the players have a bunch of boons that boost their firepower. One result of this imbalance is players often can repair their shields faster than they take shield damage. With the added player firepower, Starship combats have become so imbalanced that it’s become pretty laughable. I’ve now played or run somewhere around 8 starship combats in a row where the players ship walks away entirely undamaged. Not a single hull point of damage and at or very close to full shield points. As a GM I can literally call the encounter over after one round of Starship combat. Combats go like this:
Round 2
Round 3, 4, 5, etc. repeat round 2 until NPC ship is destroyed Last round of combat Players have no hull damage, no shield damage and the NPC’s are destroyed A challenge level comparison is it’s like giving the players a 30 AC and letting them walk around a tier 1-2 dungeon. There is no challenge so what’s the point. I once really loved SFS I’m souring on it pretty fast and the main reason is the recent pushover encounters in starship combat.
HI, does anyone have any recommendations to fill out more business places in Kintargo. I have a party that likes to explore places within the city and I need more city detail to fill in the downtime. I am familiar with all the Paizo product including PFS scenarios so I'm looking at 3pp products. I have found plenty of Inn's and tavern's but am looking for other types of interesting business places the PC's can go but also would fit thematically within Kintargo and not throw the plot off. Things like curio shops, haunted houses, NPC's found in districts, etc.
I had an idea, maybe scenario's that someone played over a certain amount of time (4 or 5 years) can be re-played for credit. In essence anything that a person has played over 4 years ago can be re-played again for credit. This will reward long time players with more material to play and help the people who have played everything by giving them stuff to play again. I only am currently eligible to play 2 scenarios and a few modules everything else I have played. I'm not the only one in this boat. But I'd love to play the stuff I played at the start of my PFS career again. For most of them so much time has passed i don't recall the details anyway. I know tracking might get messy but I think it's worth it.
How long are scenarios supposed to run? I have always assumed they were designed for 4 hours but on a another thread I was told they were designed for 5 hours. This is a big issue in the store I organize, we have a 4 hour hard stop. So if in fact scenarios are now designed for 5 hours then we'll have to move into another time slot of just cancel PFS at the store. This is an issue due to the length of some recent scenarios running well over 4 hours for most groups. 6-22, 6-23, 6-99, and 7-02. 6-10 to 6-19 were awesome and had awesome run times.
Wow, how is this scenario supposed to be played in 4 hours? There are 5 combats, 6 role playing encounters, some with multiple skill checks involved, and a lengthy puzzle to resolve? Several of the combats are exceedingly lengthy due to the special abilities of the baddies against a tiers 3-7 who are usually not prepared for this. I mean literally this should be run in a 8 hour slot to fit it in properly. I am known for running games fast and I had to skip 2 combats, call 2 combats early, and steer the party in the right direction several times just to get this one completed in 4.5 hours. What happened to the initiative to improve PFS play by shortening scenarios to insure they fit in under 4 hours. please get back to the scenario shortening or I will no longer be able to schedule games at my local FLGS which has a hard 4 hour stop time. For this scenario I'm going to have to decide to schedule this over 2 nights or pull it off the store schedule all together.
I’m curious in the AP line, what books 5 & 6 did your group find challenging? For my group only these books were challenging:
These we played and my group found them to be cakewalks; Curse of the Crimson Throne book-5 (with Pathfinder conversion)
My group is burned out on AP’s and the primary burn out is centered around the AP’s being cakewalks at higher levels. I don’t have the time or the motivation to make heavy changes and/or re-writes to the upper level books so I am looking at what AP’s to schedule to run for my home group with the challenge of the high level books being a primary factor. I already restrict many of the soft cover splat books put out by Paizo and follow PFS character build restrictions to limit character power. I’m looking to tie authors to challenge levels since Paizo leaves it up to the authors to play test the scenarios. Thanks
I have 3 level 10 characters I'm jonsing to play and so far this season through the first 18 scenarios there has been only 2 7-11 scenarios. That is lower then any previous season. What gives with this? I know there may be a push for more lower level content but at the expense of experienced players wanting to continue to play seems like a big sacrifice.
It seems that there is a very real threat starting in August that players might start jumping ship to D&D Next. So is there anything happening with PFS that is worth getting excited about? There seems to only be downers: A whole season based on a sci/fantasy hybrid seems to be a downer for many players, many players I talk to have no interest in this. It looks like support for 12+ characters is getting pulled, so this puts a damper for experienced players who have high level characters they love to play. Modules are not being sanctioned at this time, will they ever be sanctioned or is PFS pulling the plug on these too? This severely limits playing options for players who have played most of the sanctioned stuff already out there. So with all this bad news is anything good happening? Even theories on anything good? Anything to get excited about?
Have chronicle sheets stopped being produced for anything other than the PFS scenarios? If not is it possible to get an estimated release date for chronicle sheets for: Modules:
(I ask because I only play Modules in PFS mode and the sheets are so far behind at this point that I’m going to stop my subscription for the modules pretty soon because without PFS chronicle sheets they have no purpose. And they are currently backing up on my shelf with no word when or if they will ever be sanctioned. I also plan to buy the campaign cards when if ever these get sanctioned) Tales:
(The chronicle sheets are a fun hand in hand thing for the novels, so I haven’t purchased any novel without a chronicle sheet to go with it ). Adventure Paths:
(My home games we play AP’s anyway but for a few players they don’t want to start a AP without PFS chronicle sheets so we won’t start the AP if later there is going to be chronicle sheets). So in essence because of this back up and I have played 90% of the PFS sanctioned stuff out there with very few items left to play in PFS mode I really need the modules sanctioned to be able to continue playing PFS, or to continue purchasing Paizo Modules, or novels, or accessories to the modules.
I know you have to play (or run) all 4 parts to get the boon, but what are the rules if someone plays the first 3 parts and then GM’s the 4th. Do they get the part 4 boon automatically? Or do they add maximum campaign points for part 4 and then get the boon if the total campaign points are enough? What's the official ruling?
So I’m curious. For 30 years I have always played the same home game with the practically the same players, there are always 2 people including myself who would run most of the games but occasionally another person from our group would step up and run and us as a group were always supportive. Games were almost always fun but it was also a group where friends came together. Now I have been playing PFS for a few years, there are a wide range of GM’s. There are different skill levels, personalities, etc. Some games I walk away from and say that was fun and others I walk away from and say that was “eehh, OK”. So the analyst that I am keeps me thinking what is the difference? What makes a bad scenario for many people a good experience for me or visa versa.? I honestly think it comes down to one thing, “distractions”. If I can get into the game mentally at the table with little distractions I enjoy the game. This encompasses a lot of sub things happening; Does the GM, have a good grasp of the rules or at least someone at the table does which prevents constant looking up the rules, does the GM keep the pace going, is the GM prepared, do the players respect the GM and hence minimal debating, is there little or no side conversations, are there few or no people who walk up and distract the table, does the GM keep us in the game, does the GM paint a clear picture of what is going on (so I don’t sit there confused), etc., etc. I don’t think things need to be perfect but minimal distractions for me leads to the best gaming experience. It comes down to- the less I as a player have to think outside the boundary of the world we are creating as a table the better the experience. I’m curious do others agree or is it something different for you that separates the good experiences from the rest?
I really like to run modules for public PFS events, but after running a lot of them I have come to the realization that they don’t scale well to 6 players. They are written for 4 and when 6 play they are a walk over and not much fun for anyone. Is there a way to legally limit modules to 5 players at a public PFS event? Doing this makes the modules fun for everyone, having them play as cake walks take out the fun. Since it’s a PFS event a GM is limited to Run as Written which means the mods. can’t be amped up to accommodate more players like they could otherwise be tweaked in a home game.
My party got whacked by having 2 players succumb to a Insanity spell and it looks like they will have to travel by foot 600 miles to Orlov to get a Heal spell. I don't really have time to create stuff myself so instead of having this trek be a series of wandering encounters does anyone know of any short published mini-scenarios, for Pathfinder that are cold-weather themed? Looking for something in the 9th to 12th level area.
I feel with the new chronicle sheet format for Dragons Demand module there needs to be an increase in PFS mode content in future modules or more scenarios per month. The new content per year was the 26(+ a few extra) scenarios and 6 modules that were PFS sanctioned front to back. Now that modules are not 100% sanctioned they can’t be played front to back with PFS characters and hence we lose the entire module product line if you want to play the whole story as written by your actual PFS character. Playing bits and pieces of AP’s or modules in PFS mode are extremely un-filling due to major parts of the story being dumped. It is very rare to see AP’s added to a convention schedule and hence there will be less new content for PFS veterans to play at future conventions. So losing the module line will hurt veteran attendance at conventions due to less new items to play. So please either increase the scenarios per month to 3 or sanction entire modules front to back as PFS mode.
Do the rules of PFS fair play apply to GM’s when it comes to rules, dice rolls, and stat blocks? Or are they god like and make any decisions they want at their table in PFS? Here is the situation, we are playing at a convention, scenario 4-26, we are playing up and we told the GM we do not want to play in hard mode.
Spoiler:
We breeze though all of the dungeon without much difficulty. We get to Krune, mind you the GM has been bragging the entire time how tough Krune is. We finish the previous combat and wait 4 round for him to appear. The GM rolls Krune’s initiative and tells us we have to keep the initiative from the previous combat. This upset one player because he wants to use his shirt re-roll to use it on Krune’s intiatvie, I say it’s bad GM call but not illegal. Krune goes first and does this:
We spend a round dealing with the spells. Round 3 – Krune from outside the room summons 3 elder earth elementals who come in and start killing a party member a round. (after reviewing Krune’s stat block we know now know that the best summon spell he has he can summon 1 greater earth elemental or 3 huge elementals). On the next round he kills another party member. Who brought up with a breath of life. On the next round the earth elementals kill the same person again.
While the remaining players are tyring to escate the combat the GM rolls a 11 on one of his attack rolls a determines it is a critical hit. We didn’t call it out when we saw it due to trying to play a friendly game of PF and not even expecting that a GM would change a result of a dice roll. So we have 5 witnesses now from 5 players and GM’s with at least 150 tables of play each. Is it illegal for a GM to change die roll results, add spells, and create special abilities that a creature does not have? It seems to me the GM has made the decision he was going to kill the party and was going to bend whatever rule he wanted to get this result, is this legal? The end result was 2 dead, a failed mission, loss of gold, and loss of a unique boon, (the Triaxius 1/time teleportation orb to get the remaining party members out.) and a crappy time playing the season 4 highlight scenario. If we file a complaint with a local VC what can be done? Do game results ever get overturned? Do GM’s get censured? Can GM’s be censured in PFS?
Has anyone expanded the city of Heldren with some Pre-AP mini quests or beefed out the NPC personalities?. I'm going to start running this is a few weeks and would like to give the PC's more of a sense of where they came from prior to diving into the AP. A few ideas I've been working with is the Players grew up with the town cutey Xanthippe and don't understand why all the older boys gaga over her. Finally one of them decides he needs to prove his manhood in front of her and challenged whichever PC who has shown the most interest in her to a knife fight. The PC's are hired by Old mother Theodora to go into the woods and find some rare flowers and while out they they are accosted by a band of goblins. While the PC's are away cutting down some lumber a group of brigands go into town and scare the villagers so they all whole up in the Armory. but the brigands fooled the townsfolk into making believer there were a few dozen but in reality by just running in and out of the forest there were really on 8. While 6 of them run around the armory making it look like there are a bunch of extra's 2 of them start robbing the town, and that's where the party stumbles back into town. Nothing really complex just a few mini-encounters. Did anyone do anything like this? and would like to share their ideas. 
Has anyone taken a look at Frog God games "The Northlands Saga" for possibly additonal material to add to this AP? I'm also interested in looking at other published material that would fit well into the northern themes of this AP. Any sugestions would be appreciated.
So, my group tried Shard of Sin in PFS and it didn’t work out that well. This is our first foray into trying an AP with PFS rules. The issue is the sanctioned part of the AP is written for a level range of 2 to 4. PFS has it at 3 to 5. My players were averaging level 4. So they just cake walked a dungeon slog leading to 8 hours of game time boredom, with no danger to them what so ever. They still have the final level to complete which toughens things up a bit. But I really feel we wasted about 8 hours of game time with Absolutely no challenges which equals no fun. So my question is do others AP converted to PFS have the same issues? Or is it just this particular conversion. I’m leaning to not playing the AP’s as PFS any longer, we tried it, it didn’t work out so we move on.
There are a awful lot of Tieflings and Assimars running around these days, when you consider their strengths they seem to be the strongest races to play. Especially Assimars with the player companion that allows you different stat increases. So I have a suggestion, grandfather these 2 races at Gencon and open 2 other races to be played. It will add variety and control the Tiefling/Assimar infestiation. The only question is what races to replace them with? I would like to see Catfolk and Ratfolk opened up.
For those who have played a number of the Pathfinder Modules, I curious how you would rank how good them are. I've played or DMed 7 of them and I would rank the ones I have experience with as follows: 1-Feast of Ravenmoor
How would someone create a holy symbol if they don't start play with one nor do they have access to buy one. I assume that a craft skill would be needed would it also need to be infused with magic somehow?
OK, so I’ve played about 20 PFS scenarios and they are all seeming kind of the same after a bit and are getting a little boring: explore the newly found ruins, escort someone, night in the museum, go get the goblins, etc. etc. I know there are limitations to what PFS scenarios can do in a 4 hour time slot, but what scenarios stand out as being really different. Examples I can think of is the Temple of Emperial Enlightenment, the Bloodcove Disguse, and We be Golbins.
I’m curious about how does the mechanics of this sort of module work? I know there are 5+ tables running at the same time, but besides that why are there 5 tables running at the same time? Are they competing? My larger question would be would either me or my table be at a large disadvantage if I only had a level 2 character to run? While others maybe be as high as 11.
Has anyone come up with a good map of the Ruby Fortress in New Stetven?
On one of the threads Rob McCreary mentions that if the ship life is getting a little boring for your group add some mini quests or encounters. Here's one that I'm going to use, does anyone have something creative that others can use. On one of the days at a point when there land is far away. (Day 6 or 7 would probably be best). The PC rigger spots a rowboat off in the distance. Sitting on it is what appears to be 2 men sitting motionless staring at each other with a small chest between them. The spotting PC can notify the officers or ignore it. If the officers are notified the Captain orders a crew to investigate. Master Scourge decides he who spotted must go investigate and tells him to pick 5 mates and go investigate using the ships rowboat. The 2 men don’t move or respond unless attacked or their row boat is boarded. At which point they stand up and attack. If they are attacked at a range they will throw their chest overboard and swim toward the party and attack. If the party tries to recover the chest that was thrown overboard they have 2 rounds to reach where it was thrown in or it sinks to deep to recover. A swim check DC12 will be needed to dive underwater and recover it. If the swimming PC is wounded and bleeding there will be a 20% chance per round he is attacked by a shark. Any combat on a rowboat will require each PC who is standing and attacking to make a DC 10 Acrobatics roll or fall overboard. This also applies to the undead pirates. If a wounded PC falls overboard here is a 20% per round he attracts a shark. The 2 men are undead pirates from Isles of the shackles pg. 62 The treasure chest is filled with fake jewelry worth a total of 5 GP. If the party makes a appraise check DC 16 they will notice 1 real necklace mixed in with the fake stuff worth 50 GP. A player may make an opposed Sleight of hand vs Master Plugg and Master Scourges perception to pocket it unnoticed. If this is done out at the row boat the party will receive a +10 to their roll due to distance between the rowboat and the ship. If the party loses the treasure they will all be punished with 3 lashes from Master Scourge. Otherwise Mister Plugg will look at all the junk in the chest scowl that it is worthless crap and throw it overboard.
Besides the obvious Kingmaker and Rise of the Runelords is there any other AP where a modified kingdom building rules would fit? My players want to modify the rules and try them again.
I'm looking to start a game up that plays on Tuesday nights 7 to 11 PM weekly. I have 2 dedicated players and would love to add a couple more. Campaign will start in late May and we will likely play at my house which is a couple blocks from BART in San Francisco. We will be playing The Slumbering Tsar AP from Frog God Games. email me if interested royaswel at yahoo dot com
I was planning on running the Slumbering Tsar which is a 3rd party mega adventure which starts at level 7. I don’t want to start my PC’s at level 7 but would prefer to have them go through some Paizo adventures to reach that level. My group has already played RoftR, SS, CC, KM, we are going to play CotC, and JR so all of those are out. With the exception of those what string of low level adventures would you recommend to get PC’s to level 7?
I’m curious how other DM’s handled the conquest of Pitax. My players will get to this section next week. I’m throwing around some ideas in my head. If the players try and annex Pitax maybe some role playing with the major Pitax factions where if the players do well then no problem if they don’t then maybe a 1d4 of unrest to represent a major faction working against them.
I'm curious what recommendations people have for expansion material for the Skulls and Shackles AP. Are there good pirate themed adventures, source books, etc.? I'll start with a recommendation. Buccaneers of Freeport from Green Ronin is a great source book if you want to give details to other pirate ships. It details the personality's of a pirate captain, officers and crew for 9 different ships. It give backgrounds and NPC motivations. It devotes 15 to 20 pages per ship. It gives a map of each ship in 5ft square scale. It does not give stats which makes it easily transferred into any game system. I'm going to stat out most of the ship crews from this source book to Pathfinder and use them as additional rivals for the PC's.
Can someone point me in the direction where it says in the rules that ability focus a monster feat can be used to enhance a witches hex. I have found some threads where some posters say it can be done, but I can't find one that has pointed to the rule in which this is allowed.
Anyone have ideas on how to make politics interesting? Things like having the various ruling positions having to make interesting decisions. For example; I'm going to have Maegar Varn come a visit on a state visit and try to make a peace pact with the PC's. To sign the deal he will promise marriage of his eldest (and very attractive & talented) daughter to seal the marriage. But since the kingdom is currently only size 5 and with no nice places to stay he will honor the agreement 1 year hence with the promise that the PC's build an appropriate living space for a ruler. Within 1 year Vh vanishes. Not only does it give some interesting role playing opps. Once VV happens the PC's will really care about the fate of its citizens. I'm undecided if the daughter will live or not. The Warden will have to make a decision on a crazy case in the farmlands where one family decides to trade his cow for an unwilling daughter of another family who promptly runs away. So now the daughter is gone and he wants his cow back. If the part investigates where the daughter went she turns up as a 14 year old victim to poverty and a prostitute in the town brothel. Anyone have any interesting challenges for the politics running of the country?
Completed Carrion Crown Campaign. Well my group has finished up and even though I had some gripes about some of the errors in the 1 & 2 module overall it went really well. I asked my players if anything stood out as being particularly good or bad and they said they thought the whole thing was good. They thought it strung together nicely and they liked the variety from module to module. The string together was partly me every time I could mention the Whispering Way I did, so not having a main bad guy to chase down didn’t hurt the stream of the adventures they just saw it as an organization they needed to take down. This is the first AP we have finished. We went through the first 4 modules of RotR before the DM quit, but we were not having that good of a time as players. We went through the 3 first 3 of SS, we liked it but the campaign got put on hold due to the DM having personal problems, but we plan on getting back to it in a few months. My group has been playing RPG’s pretty consistently since 1979. And this ranks very high on our campaign ratings. I would say the first Dragonlance will always be the best, we still tell stories from that campagn from the tail slapping alligators which pissed off one player so bad he stormed out, to the death of Flint faling out of the sky with the death of the dragon he was riding. To Sturm after dieing 6 times and his con. geing drained pretty low(in 2.0 you lost a con point permantly every time you died), deciding to be reincarnated instead and came back as a reindeer. Fun times. We start Kingmaker tomorrow, my players are raelly looking forward to it.
I’m a very experienced DM who has questions about the kingdom building system. We are fine with the high level of accounting needed. The players interested in kingdom building will show up earlier and we will do the kingdom building phases and then later in the session play the role playing section. My players like all the rules laid out in front of them up front, any changes mid stream really pisses them off, so I’m trying to set the house rules up front. From what I read on these forums there are a few issues revolving around the kingdom building system. There are mentions the magic item/economy system being broken. but I’m not sure exactly what is broken. I have heard also that after a certain point all the kingdom rolls are pretty much automatic. For issue one I’m not sure I completely understand the issue but from what I gather it involves players pulling out BP converting them to GP and having huge magic item buying power. Is that correct? Would just banning this conversion fix this problem, or maybe upping the penalty from 1 to 5 per BP conversion work? In regards that automatic rolls with larger kingdoms; would increasing the DC roll based on kingdom size to make the rolls progressively harder as the kingdom grows mediate the problem. Maybe saying the DC increase on all rolls +1 per 5 kingdom size, representing that larger kingdoms are harder to manage. Would these works? Are there any other kingdom glitches that need to be addressed? Thanks,
My party does not have a sense of urgency, they just stop and craft items while at the same time they are supposed to be on a clock to stop the WW. How would you propose changing the last 2 adventures (Ashes at Dawn & Shadows of Gallowspire) to make it more difficult due to the party ignoring the clock and taking their time. I want to do something, I believe the party's decision should result in a tangible reaction. So, OK, they can stop and craft but the adventure then becomes more difficult as a result.
I don't get the AP plot line after Adventure #4, am I missing something? The Whispering Way is collecting items to create the Carrion Crown. One of these items is the Raven Head. The party finds the Raven Head at the end of Wake the Watcher, and yet the WW still can make the Carrion Crown without it. Ice Titan in another thread suggests the WW finds a replacement item, OK I guess that can work but its a bit flimsy. I just can't help but thinking that I'm missing something. Really? the way this is written all these items are important to the plot of the AP, the party gets one of these items and in the end it doesn't really matter the WW just keeps going without a hiccup.
I’m wondering how other DM’s would think is a fair and semi-realistic way for a party to recover a body that fell into the river from Schloss Caromark. My group will be playing this tomorrow and since they do not have a rogue or a way to fly or levitate I’m pretty sure a few will fall off the bridge and die from the fall and get swept down stream. I have no idea how this would be in real life or how long it would take to do a search and rescue. I’m thinking I will roll a 1-50 roll (d100/2). 1-30 represents how many miles down stream the body went. 31-40 the body was found in Lepidstadt floating down the river. 41-50 the body is lodged under water with no chance of recovery. Each day the body lies there, there is a 20% change some critters find it and eat it. The party can go ½ movement rate and search if they make a Survival 20 roll, otherwise they go ¼ movement and search. When they get to the area where I determined the body to be they have a perception 20 roll to spot it. If the body was recovered it Lepidstadt all items carried are missing. If down stream somewhere a 5% chance per day someone comes across the body and takes all the items. Does this sound fair and semi-realistic? 
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