Gm new to running PFS, have a few questions.

[Brayden Green]

Not a new GM, not new to Pathfinder. I eat it for freaking breakfast lunch and dinner.

We didn't have a PFS in my area, but we have a FLGS that just moved in, so I offered to start it up, being the wonderfully awesome person that I am. :)

Backhanded comments aside, I am new to the "paperwork side" of things.

I have read the rules guide 3 times, and haven't specifically seen the answer to the following:

They way I am interpreting the buy/sell phase:

Heroes kill baddies.

Heroes get loot, that goes as "party loot".

Heroes also get "Each player gets xx... loot that goes in their personal account (towards the Max gold limit.}

Heroes sell EVERYTHING at the end of the session, for half price.

Heroes split gold for goodies equally.

Heroes have the opportunity to buy common items (like always) and also have the additional opportunity to buy "special goodies" acquired through quests.

I sign off on the gp gained and day job boxes.

Is this correct?

Also, any "tips" out there to run a "smooth" game, paperwork and all would be appreciated. I feel like I am getting a handle on things, and the players are enjoying! Thursday will be our 3rd session, and we already have to split tables! (7 people last night.)

Woot! and all that...

[Harley Quinn X]

Hello Brayden, and welcome to PFS. I hope you like GMing for PFS, as we certainly appreciate having more GMs.

The gold that they get at the end of each session is the money for the total loot taken off of the baddies. There are no separate "Party loot" and "Individual loot" stashes in PFS. Think about it as the Pathfinder Society taking all the loot, but then giving each player character their share in gold at the end of the scenario.

The "Each player gets xx gold" is for if the party does not complete all the encounters, or ,for example, wants to buy something between encounters. If they complete all the encounters, the gold each person gets is the amount listed on the chronicle sheet. Else, you'll have to go through and add up how much gold they get for the encounters they cleared.

Hopefully your games go smoothly.

[Tierce]

Brayden Green wrote:

They way I am interpreting the buy/sell phase:

Heroes get loot, that goes as "party loot".
Is this correct?

It was my understanding that in PFS, there is no group loot, anything that is picked up can be used in that session only and is "trashed" afterwards. They can buy it if its on their session sheet, but all gold gained to the players is reflected on the session sheets at the end of the night and the only thing that can increase that is the "Day Job" roll. That's what I thought.

edit: As for tools to make things run smoothly, I used the tactical combat function in Hero Lab. It's a valuable tool to help me keep track of everyone and the baddies

[Brayden Green]

Thanks for the replies so far. I use "combat manager" for battles, spells resource, conditions resource, etc. It is amay-za-zing! And free, so I quite enjoy that...

[Jiggy]

Brayden Green wrote:

They way I am interpreting the buy/sell phase:

Heroes kill baddies.

Heroes get loot, that goes as "party loot".

Heroes also get "Each player gets xx... loot that goes in their personal account (towards the Max gold limit.}

Heroes sell EVERYTHING at the end of the session, for half price.

Heroes split gold for goodies equally.

Heroes have the opportunity to buy common items (like always) and also have the additional opportunity to buy "special goodies" acquired through quests.

I sign off on the gp gained and day job boxes.

Is this correct?

The easiest way to look at it is this: they get what's on the chronicle sheet.

The only way to EVER walk away with more gold gained than what's printed on the sheet is with your Day Job or by selling stuff you already own.

The only way to walk away with a new item is to buy it.

If you want to think of it as "selling" found items and redistributing, or if you want to think of it as a completely OOC phenomenon, or if you want to think of it as items magically vanishing from the PCs' possession and appearing on store shelves, it doesn't matter.

Oh, and the only way to get less gold than is printed on the sheet is to fail an encounter. (And I do mean FAIL - if they creatively bypass it, you're supposed to move the loot so they still get it, per the examples in "Reward Creative Solutions".)

I personally try not to think too hard about going from the mission to the chronicle sheet. I stay in-character for the mission, but once we're done, the chronicle is an entirely OOC way to keep the PCs supplied.

That's my advice to you, to keep from going crazy. ;)

[Harley Quinn X]

Jiggy wrote:

The only way to EVER walk away with more gold gained than what's printed on the sheet is with your Day Job or by selling stuff you already own.

Not quite true. There are rare times when scenarios will give you gold above what's on the chronicle sheet. But those are rare, and they will tell you specifically if it is one of those times.

[Don Walker]

Basically, you should allow the party to use any items they find during the adventure. Any actual cash should be saved for the payout at the end of the adventure. (You could let them spend it, but then you have to track it and deduct it from the final payout.)

If a party does not do an encounter that provides items/gold you should deduct that from their payout at the end. You may also cross off any items on the Chronicle sheet from these missed encounters.

If they use up or break any found items during an adventure, do not cross them off the Chronicle sheet unless the adventure specifically says to do this. This includes consumables such as potions.

A party needs to complete three encounters to earn the 1 XP. These encounters do not have to be combat encounters, but should involve some effort whether it be roleplaying, investigation, traps, etc.

[Brayden Green]

So when the PCs win a combat, for example, and they have tons of gear, and then the text says "If the PCs defeat Goober McGooberman and his group give them each xx amount of gold".

The PCs want the gear, and so I give it to them. What happens with the "each player gets" line? Do I give them that too?

Real life example: "In service to Lore" the ambush at the end. "If each PC survives the encounter, give each player 129 gp."

What do I do with that? Do I give that to them on top of the gear? Does that only really come into play if they aren't getting other things done, and thus won't be hitting max gold? And if this is the case, how do you address that in the moment, if you don't know whether or not they will be maxing out gold yet. Do you give it to them on top, or do you just say "Oh by the way, you have 129 gp each, in your pockets... Cool, huh?"

[Jiggy]

They get the gear and gold, but it's all sort of "absorbed" into the printed rewards on the chronicle sheet.

The gear they find only matters if they want to use it during that scenario. It vanishes at the end, no matter what. If they want it for keepsies, they have to buy it after the scenario.

The gold they find only matters if they want to spend it during the scenario. If they do so, make sure it gets deducted on their chronicle sheet (this usually only happens if you have a fresh character who couldn't afford all the gear they wanted at character creation, and even then it's rare in my experience).

At the end of the session, anything kept/used/sold/gained vanishes, and instead of anything anyone might have calculated, they get the listed GP reward on the sheet (minus any portion of it that they failed to earn or spent in advance).

[Jiggy]

For reference, here's how it usually goes down (at least locally):

Fight Ends
Players: Alright, we loot the bodies.
GM: They were each carrying +1 leather armor, 25gp, and a potion of CLW.
Players: Alright, everyone remember to use the potions before your own stuff. Next room!

[Lady Ophelia]

I like to call the end of the module layout as "Item check " which means you can use and borrow items you.find on the body. But at the end in order to receive your paycheck you have to turn in the stuff you found. But until then its free for usage.

[Thamius]

The characters don't earn the gold listed per encounter AND the gold rewarded to them via the chronicle at the end of the scenario. If you go through each encounter and add up the "reward each character xx gold," it should tally up to the final max total on the chronicle for the appropriate sub-tier. If they skip or fail an encounter you can remove that portion of the treasure from their total at the end.

The "xx gold" listed per encounter presumes all of the loot and treasure will be turned in to the Society at the end, after which they can use their cut of the payout to buy back some of the items they just turned in, or anything from the Always Available list, or anything they can purchase within the limits of their Fame score.

A common misconception for new players is that they "get to keep for free" everything on the chronicle once the scenario is over. While they can use found items during the adventure, it all must get turned in, even captured spellbooks and rusty daggers. The chronicle is just the expanded shopping list they can access beyond the Always Available and Fame-limited gear, but they must still shell out the shiny coins. Life is full of tough choices!

[kinevon]

Brayden Green wrote:

Heroes kill baddies.

Yep.

Heroes get loot, that goes as "party loot".

Heroes can loot the bodies, and "need" to in order to accrue the maximum gold reward for the scenario.

Heroes also get "Each player gets xx... loot that goes in their personal account (towards the Max gold limit.}

No, that gold amount is what they would be getting if, in a normal game, they found everything, and then sold it all for normal (50%) value.

Heroes sell EVERYTHING at the end of the session, for half price.

More-or-less. All the items found along the way are sold for half value, no one can keep anything found during the scenario.

Heroes split gold for goodies equally.

As mentioned, this is already covered by the gold award mentioned per encounter, and under the max gold for the scenario.

Heroes have the opportunity to buy common items (like always) and also have the additional opportunity to buy "special goodies" acquired through quests.

Not so much quests, as items found during this scenario and earlier scenarios that are listed on a chronicle, so they bypass normal Fame buying limits, or, in some cases, normal campaign rules (intelligent items, as an example)

I sign off on the gp gained and day job boxes.

After filling them out appropriately, yes.

Is this correct?

With clarifications, yes.

Also, any "tips" out there to run a "smooth" game, paperwork and all would be appreciated. I feel like I am getting a handle on things, and the players are enjoying! Thursday will be our 3rd session, and we already have to split tables! (7 people last night.)

Congrats on the growing group.

Some things that can help make the game smoother:
Read the scenario throughly, multiple times if possible.
Research any feats/spells/equipment you are not already throughly familiar with (archetypes, especially, can make things a bit different then you might think.)

For lower tier scenarios, make sure you are familiar with the NPC spell lists, feats and tactics.

At higher tier this still holds true, but you might want to take the time to actually try building the NPC in HeroLabs or something similar. I found that this helped immensely when I was running The Ruby Phoenix Tournament, as it helped me understand the bits and pieces of the build. And let me print out full character sheets, using Armidale's custom output sheet, including spell and feat descriptions.