On the contrary. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'd probably like the Pathfinders better if they were like the Royal Geographical Society (a national fellowship for likeminded individuals to share knowledge) instead of an international paramilitary controlled by a shadowy junta, with its own training camps and footsoldiers, as described in Seekers of Secrets, etc.
I personally don't see them as vast paramilitary conspiracy. I see as something of a loosely-organized Royal Society with a semi-anonymous junta that also trains adventurers as a matter of efficiency, for Golarion is a world where being waylaid by bandits or monsters en route is a very real possibility, to say nothing of the over-elaborate (and durable!) deathtraps, curses, ancient guardians, and lingering magic waiting at the actual dig site.
So it's not so much "we're raising an army", as it is "we want our stuffy academics to have a decent chance of not dying horribly before they can ship us their research notes and historical curios."
I'm playing in RotRL currently, and in Magnimar we decided to see if the Pathfinder Society knew anything about some information we'd stumbled across.
The DM explained that we would need a member to access the records, to which we really had no objections, until he looked up the requirements.
Treking across the continent to visit the first chapterhouse? Yup, we'll just go with what we know.
I realize that RotRL was likley written before the prerequisites for joining the Pathfinders were, but it's just a kill clause for preventing the pc's from gaining what information the Chapterhouse /might/ have had.
So, while they might be a perfectly valid source of information for others, in our campaign, they've been relegated to a good ol boy's club that won't be gaining any knowledge we dig up.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
|
So, while they might be a perfectly valid source of information for others, in our campaign, they've been relegated to a good ol boy's club that won't be gaining any knowledge we dig up.
Spoiling because kind of OT.
You don't have to be a member to get access to the records. You have to know a member to have access to the records. Or to be more exact, have him access the records and tell you what they say.
Meet local pathfinder in the bar, talk to the janitor, well placed charm person (or blackmail) and voila!
Make your DM watch more Leverage. :-)
So, while they might be a perfectly valid source of information for others, in our campaign, they've been relegated to a good ol boy's club that won't be gaining any knowledge we dig up.Spoiling because kind of OT.
** spoiler omitted **
We ended up putting a bounty out at the lodge for information on a certain rune, beyond merely its name. We're off investigating a Fort now, so will see if anyone took up the task when we return :)
I have a similar antipathy, though in my case it extends to any group with continent spanning influence - magic changes everything, of course, but nonetheless these far flung, cohesive groups just dont ring true to my particular view of 'realistic fantasy'.I think you're perceiving them as way more organized than is the case presented in material to date. The organization appears to be mostly on the individual lodge level (most of which even a veteran pathfinder may not be aware of). With only periodic reports being sent to the main lodge in Absalom (one of the very few to openly announce its presence). The decemvirate also appear to take a very hands off method of leadership. Preferring to nudge individual venture-captains into directions that they would go down anyway they lead with a very soft hand (when they do at all)]
I realize they're not monolithic, the level of direct control exercised by the organization over it's operatives isn't what I meant. It's the fact that the organization exists in so many far flung, disparate locations and in such a homogenous way. It doesn't bug me as much as the red mantis, but it still feels "unrealistic".
On the contrary. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'd probably like the Pathfinders better if they were like the Royal Geographical Society (a national fellowship for likeminded individuals to share knowledge) instead of an international paramilitary controlled by a shadowy junta, with its own training camps and footsoldiers, as described in Seekers of Secrets, etc.This has always been my view as well. I guess that not everyone has that influence in the stuff they have read.
I suppose the Pathfinders inspirations were guys like Giovanni Belzoni and Richard Francis Burton.
A mix between archaeologists, charlatans and tomb robbers.snip... Royal Geographical Society... snip...
+1 definitely.
The paramilitary fluff is a huge turnoff for me. I wanted to use the society as a background for an explorer modeled on David Livingstone for example, but I simply cannot envision him going through the whole bootcamp thing. Ah well.
They include a clause for meritorious admission to the society. I wish it were the rule and not the exception.
Pathfinders are a plot device for organized play, and exist for no other reason. Otherwise, they can be ignored.
THIS.
Also it would be REALLY easy in your game to have the Pathfinder Society have an internal meltdown and the entire organization disintegrates.
I tend to view them as just another wide-ranging organization, although one that unlike, say, the Whispering Way, is likely to be friendly or helpful towards the PCs. They are a nice hook for adventures if the party doesn't go out of the way to avoid them, and can serve as allies, merchants, or trainers. If you want to get more involved with them, you will likely know where to find them - if not, well, it's still a big world out there.
+1 on Royal Geographic Society being what the Pathfinder Society _should_ be. They should not be any more organized than that , and they should certainly not be a paramilitary organization.
Ken
Except that the Royal Geographic Society would be just as quick to train to their people how to fight if we lived in the same world as Golarion. They would just about have to have paramilitary training in order to survive in a that world.
|
I'm not sure if the Royal Geographic Society is really applicable to the PFS. One is a group of experts focused on geography, the other is a international band of adventurers that face extreme danger and knowingly walk into the maw of evil to forcibly acquire dangerous magical goods.
Academics hate having to pick up skills unrelated to their chosen vocation. They rue all the time lost managing their courses and dealing with administration, as important as it is to their advancement in a faculty. Any time lost spent learning how to flick a fireball or reload a crossbow in under 6 seconds is time that could have been spent researching and publishing theses. RGS adventurers would have hired protection and local guides, not done it themselves.
I know the style is nice and all, but would you really GM a Pathfinder expedition as consisting mostly of Experts and their hired grunts? Not really.
I think there's a good 'style' link between the RGS and the PFS but it stops there. To put it into practice, I'd expect PFS adventurers with traits dedicated to one Knowledge skill, and regular, fairly accurate, printing press produced maps published by the PFS. Everything else is highly dangerous, requires major military power and specialty and thus gets tangled in the power play of the campaign setting.
|
I pretty much ignore Seekers of Secrets ideas on training. I've always run the PFS as accepting any member that adds a significant discovery to its pool of knowledge.
It seems to me that those rules are most frequently observed in their breaking (with the exception of the PFS organized play where it is the base assumption).