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Never, ever, ever, ever send people away. Forget everything you ever learned from other org play environments--our number 1 goal with Pathfinder Society is to get people playing as often as possible.
For last night's game, I would've been okay with the GM running a silent pre-gen just to get that table going. This should NEVER be the norm (always strive for 4 + the GM minimum) but if the choice is between the GM running a silent NPC to make the table happen or sending two players home, I would ALWAYS side with making the table happen.
Nope. In fact, for Gen Con, there were entire tables of pre-gens sometimes and I reported the tables as having 0 players plus the GM just so the GM could have the record of running that table.
The short answer: you can report the table at any size.
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This is great. I'm introducing some friends to PFS later this week but we can't get the numbers for a minimum table size. Good to know that we can include some silent pre-gens to make it work. Unless I've missed it somewhere, the Guide really needs updating to talk about how to deal with too few players. It only seems to talk about how to deal with too many.
I'll include language doing just that in 2.2.
Holy necroposting, a 6 year old thread.
I don't believe so, minimum of three with one NPC filler.
-j
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Back in the day there was a section in the PFS guide called "Play play play" which was basically saying do anything you can to get a table running, but it was always a bit fuzzier on just far how you could go to do that.
The current version of the guide just says minimum 3 players with 1 pregen, so I don't think that still applies.
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Back in the day there was a section in the PFS guide called "Play play play" which was basically saying do anything you can to get a table running, but it was always a bit fuzzier on just far how you could go to do that.
The current version of the guide just says minimum 3 players with 1 pregen, so I don't think that still applies.
The process works really well. We had a disruptive player at a recent convention who was also the ride for someone else, and when the GM asked a very basic question of mechanics of the player, said player erupted and took the someone else with them, apparently expecting the table to not go off in the absence of enough players.
That took our table down from 5 to 3, so we picked up Intern Seoni, who was amazingly handy and covered our gaps exceptionally well.
We've put a note to her file that she's 'capable of showing initiative and is fully comprehensive of the workplace paradigm in a proactive and synergistic fashion'. Not all situations call for her particular skillset, but our table recommends her wholeheartedly!
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Back in the day there was a section in the PFS guide called "Play play play" which was basically saying do anything you can to get a table running, but it was always a bit fuzzier on just far how you could go to do that.
The current version of the guide just says minimum 3 players with 1 pregen, so I don't think that still applies.
Does that phrase still do a Summon Dragnmoon?
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Does that phrase still do a Summon Dragnmoon?Back in the day there was a section in the PFS guide called "Play play play" which was basically saying do anything you can to get a table running, but it was always a bit fuzzier on just far how you could go to do that.
The current version of the guide just says minimum 3 players with 1 pregen, so I don't think that still applies.
Yes. :P
And no, PPP is no longer a thing in PFS.
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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A while back we actually ditched Kyra-bot in favour of a Lem-mascot. During the mission briefing we realized that (actually unusually in our meta) nobody had significant face skills or socio-political knowledges. So we brought in Lem, because we were playing The Stranger Within, and the thought of not getting to touch half the plot didn't appeal to him.
He mainly got told to wait outside if fights happened.
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Does that phrase still do a Summon Dragnmoon?Back in the day there was a section in the PFS guide called "Play play play" which was basically saying do anything you can to get a table running, but it was always a bit fuzzier on just far how you could go to do that.
The current version of the guide just says minimum 3 players with 1 pregen, so I don't think that still applies.
You have to say it three times in a row while lighting a candle made from the remains of retired Season 0 scenarios.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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I almost always have the 3 players at the table direct the NPC's actions, while retaining a veto in case the players understanding of the NPC diverge from mine.
No, Valeros will not sacrifice himself to the were-rats. // No, Seelah will not try to seduce the guard. // No, Kyra will not loan you her spiffy phylactery.
Having said that, acording to the rules for the +1 NPC, the character must be run by the GM. I've been called out a couple of times by players who insist that I be the one to run the NPC. I do so to the best of my ability, but I forget about the NPC a lot.
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When I have to run a GM PC I let the players decide who they would like to bring along, and I tell the players to let Kyra/Lem/Seoni/Seelah/whoever know if the PC's need something specific, otherwise they will do what I think they would to help out the party. Sometimes that involves Kyra buffing up and helping keep the front line PC's from crumpling, and healing when necessary. If the PC's ask for something specific "Hey X, could you do Y?" I'll pretty much always have the GM PC do it, provided it's not needlessly reckless or something against that character's nature.
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I almost always have the 3 players at the table direct the NPC's actions, while retaining a veto in case the players understanding of the NPC diverge from mine.
No, Valeros will not sacrifice himself to the were-rats. // No, Seelah will not try to seduce the guard. // No, Kyra will not loan you her spiffy phylactery.
Having said that, acording to the rules for the +1 NPC, the character must be run by the GM. I've been called out a couple of times by players who insist that I be the one to run the NPC. I do so to the best of my ability, but I forget about the NPC a lot.
Having played at tables both where the +1 NPC is handled exclusively by the GM and one where one of the players handles the NPC tactics (typically one that already has a simple-to-run PC), having the player goes down a lot better. The GM can focus on running the enemies and a player who might otherwise be active for all of ten seconds at a time in a fight has another chance to shine, and tactical mistakes made by the +1 is the result of player choice, rather than the GMs, which feels like letting the GM get a chance to sabotage the team, even if it was just an honest mistake on their part.
Plus, it had the rather amusing conclusion of Kyra and Seoni sharing a bunk on a boat.
"Seoni likes lighting things on fire, Kyra worships a goddess of the sun, they'd totally be into each other." The player's smile was so precious.
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Right so, minimum level of 7 and up, the minimum table size (GM not included) is 3.
Minimum table size (GM not included) of minimum level 5 and below is probably 1. Though, I would avoid that as much as possible. Personally, I'd minimum 2 at least.
If there are no players at the table, it is not a table.
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Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle
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Minimum table size (GM not included) of minimum level 5 and below is probably 1. Though, I would avoid that as much as possible. Personally, I'd minimum 2 at least.
1 player + GM is not legal.
Adventures with a Minimum level of 5 or lower. For these adventures, the GM can run a table of two or three players, and can add additional appropriately leveled pregenerated iconic characters in order to meet the minimum table size of four PCs.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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This original thread is from 2009. It was last active in 2015.
Also, it's quite likely (but I'm not digging out the history books) that Joshua Frost was campaign director at the time and he'd be the one making the rules. So correcting him now with PFS2 rules...
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Venture-Agent, Colorado—Denver
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Nope. In fact, for Gen Con, there were entire tables of pre-gens sometimes and I reported the tables as having 0 players plus the GM just so the GM could have the record of running that table.
The short answer: you can report the table at any size.
I had this question just recently. A friend GM sent me this:
Just wanna let you know that Joshua's post is from 2009.