2-01: Bloodcove Disguise and Shopping

[Steve 'Taz' Cansdale]

All

Just a brief question and request for guidance...

I have just started a new Chapter off with 2-01 (which they enjoyed immensely!) and they will be rolling straight into 2-02 next week.

Now, the Guide to Organized Play says (on pp24): "For the sake of ease of play in Pathfinder Society Organized Play, players may always buy gear, spells and so on that are available to their characters so long as their characters are in a town of more than 5,000 residents. Pathfinder Society Organized Play assumes that every faction has at least one representative in every small city or larger on Golarion. If outside of a town, PCs may be restricted from buying anything, though this will vary by scenario."

At the end of 2-01, they are running for the hills on their way to deliver the supplies.

So, the question I have is this: As they are no longer in Bloodcove when the scenario ends, are they allowed to buy equipment??

Thanks

Taz

[Doug Miles]

This is not an official reply. I say no, the point of the series is the whole affair is a rushed job. If they don't buy equipment in Part 1 before the heat is onto them, then they have to make it through Part 2 without any purchasing (unless it's equipment they got access to in Part 1). Really, you should put this on the players to voluntarily not buy anything to contribute to the spirit of the scenario.

[Steve 'Taz' Cansdale]

Doug Miles wrote:

This is not an official reply. I say no, the point of the series is the whole affair is a rushed job. If they don't buy equipment in Part 1 before the heat is onto them, then they have to make it through Part 2 without any purchasing (unless it's equipment they got access to in Part 1). Really, you should put this on the players to voluntarily not buy anything to contribute to the spirit of the scenario.

Thanks Doug... That's the way I was leaning as well and would surely go that route if this was a home campaign, but this is Org Play where the players that played 2-01 may not go on to play 2-02... so I'm twisting in the wind a bit...

I am leaning towards saying NO but they are all newbies and are desperately short of CLW potions/wands/scrolls (though they do have a Cleric in the party)... What I'd hate to happen is for a TPK to happen in 2-02 and the players get put off playing Pathfinder...

Taz

[Deussu]

You both seem right. The time I played these we agreed unanimously to refrain from purchasing anything, since we were going to play the second part right after the first one.

With a team of newbies or similar 1st-level characters a traveling (maybe lost?) salesman offering a bunch of necessary magic items would probably be the convenience they need.

[Steve 'Taz' Cansdale]

Deussu wrote:

You both seem right. The time I played these we agreed unanimously to refrain from purchasing anything, since we were going to play the second part right after the first one.

With a team of newbies or similar 1st-level characters a traveling (maybe lost?) salesman offering a bunch of necessary magic items would probably be the convenience they need.

Hmmmm, that might be an option I guess... but the start of 2-02 is very frenetic with the Apsis in hot (and close) pursuit so I'm not sure it would make sense for them to be able to find time to dicker with a traveling merchant.

I think that if the 'official' position is that they CAN shop between 2-01 and 2-02, then I will allow them to have shopped on the way to meet with their caravan master (but that their goods were on the wagons during the final encounter of 2-01).

Taz

[Doug Miles]

The part I always struggled with is how did your Faction get you those missions in Part 2 as you are running for your lives from the Consortium...

[Chris Kenney]

I'm going to have to disagree here. While it flies in the face of common sense, lots of things in this campaign do - for example, it's in theory entirely possible for six months of real time and up to 20 adventures to pass between going on part 1 and part 2. Unfortunately for common sense, consistency of rules has to triumph in this case or it's not fair to the players who play them back-to-back.

[Steve 'Taz' Cansdale]

Doug Miles wrote:

The part I always struggled with is how did your Faction get you those missions in Part 2 as you are running for your lives from the Consortium...

Well there is a Chapter House in Bloodcove... Secret messenger squirrels could have delivered them to the players... ;-)

[Steve 'Taz' Cansdale]

Chris Kenney wrote:

I'm going to have to disagree here. While it flies in the face of common sense, lots of things in this campaign do - for example, it's in theory entirely possible for six months of real time and up to 20 adventures to pass between going on part 1 and part 2. Unfortunately for common sense, consistency of rules has to triumph in this case or it's not fair to the players who play them back-to-back.

Chris, if you apply the rules as defined in the Guide to Organized Play, then it clearly penalizes those players that play 2-01 immediately followed by 2-02 as, clearly, those players that are coming into 2-02 from another scenario (not 2-01) are very likely to have been able to shop at the end of that session...

All in all (and in the absence of 'official' guidance), I think I'm going to allow them to have shopped (and have the goods sent to Scavola) before they rushed out of Bloodcove.

Taz

[Chris Kenney]

Sorry, that was about as clear as mud there. I meant that I was disagreeing with Doug Miles' interpretation that they shouldn't be allowed to because of the way the modules are set up. IE, yes, it makes no damn sense, but the rules say they do, and other players have a chance to do it in between because of the allowed gap.

[DM Livgin]

I'm running this soon, and am going to describe any purchases they make as items the caravan master Raimondo was able to source and supply for the characters. He just wasn't able to give them to the characters until after the witch encounter of 2-01 because of the mad panic of fleeing Bloodcove.