I want to DM some games for my group. They have been nice and DMd a ton. It's about time I try my hand at the DM role.
We have been using the PF ruleset since A2. I looked at the PF Society and was intrigued by it's concept. I think some of my players would like to participate in this game.
Questions:
1: Are the scenarios ok for me as a beginner DM?
2: Do all the players have to "Participate" in the PFS and submit to it? (Some of my players may not be so inclined) I still may make them members but they will not contribute.
3: If I do, do this, will starting off in "Silent Tide" keep my player from being able to submit? In other words, should I start with the first scenario of this season or of last season?
4: I must use the 3.5 ruleset until notified, right?
Thank you for your answers.
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I want to DM some games for my group. They have been nice and DMd a ton. It's about time I try my hand at the DM role.
We have been using the PF ruleset since A2. I looked at the PF Society and was intrigued by it's concept. I think some of my players would like to participate in this game.
Great! The more the merrier. Keep in mind, though, that until GenCon, none of the scenarios and the Society as a whole are not using any of the Pathfinder RPG rules. If your players are ok with going back to standard 3.5 SRD then I'm sure they'll love it. There are a lot of exciting adventures so far in Season 0.
Questions:
1: Are the scenarios ok for me as a beginner DM?
As long as you are familiar with the 3.5 rules set, you'll be fine. Some scenarios have interesting environmental factors that you might need to brush up on in the DMG, but for the most part it's very straightforward.
2: Do all the players have to "Participate" in the PFS and submit to it? (Some of my players may not be so inclined) I still may make them members but they will not contribute.
As long as a player is registered on Paizo.com (which I assume they are if they've downloaded any of the PRPG playtests) and register for a PFS number, there's really nothing else they need to do in order to participate. If you are running legal, reportable games, they'll have some extra paperwork to do to keep track of their character wealth, but this only takes a few minutes per scenario. All the reporting of scenarios is done by the event organizer, which would be the GM for a home game. And if they don't want to deal with the faction quests, wealth management and some of rules restrictions as part of organized play, you can always run them through the adventures in unofficial games that you don't report.
3: If I do, do this, will starting off in "Silent Tide" keep my player from being able to submit? In other words, should I start with the first scenario of this season or of last season?
Silent Tide is a great start and one of the better scenarios so far in terms of story, pacing, and difficulty balance. Whether you play them in or out of order has no impact on anything, except that some scenarios have recurring characters, though they needn't be run in any order for an external or overarching story. You just have to make sure that whatever scenario you're running at any given time is of a tier that includes the APL of your group. The other thing to keep in mind when playing with the same group is that a character who dies and isn't raised could cause a huge level discrepancy between the higher level players and the new PC. This is less of an issue with larger groups, people playing at game stores or at conventions, as one can generally find a group of similarly leveled PCs but it's tough with four to six players in a constant group.
4: I must use the 3.5 ruleset until notified, right?
Correct. That notification will come on August 13, the day that there is another alternative to the 3.5 rules. You can run the scenarios unofficially with any other rules set until or after that date, but any game not run by the rules set in the current version of the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play would not be legal and couldn't be reported. Any character that played in even one session of these games would be ineligible to play in any other legal game. But if your players aren't interested in legality and just want to play the adventures in a non-OP context, go for it!
Hope I was helpful!
Thank you Yoda. You have answered my questions fully.
I will announce my intentions to the gang and give them time to become PFS members.
I've been reading the DMG, DMGII, Pathfinder Chronicles campaign Setting and the Guide to PFS play. Time to buy a scenario and get rolling.
