|
Hey there!
After years of running RPGs for private home campaigns and participating as a player at some conventions, I recently ran my first game with strangers at my FLGS.
It was quite fun and I now wanna take the big step and start doing a regular PFS round there. Since I'm in Germany I guess I'll have to make do without Regional Coordinators, which is why I turn to you fine folks! :)
I was thinking of starting out with a "Character Creation Workshop" where I'll help people make sure their Characters meet PFS regulations and assist new players in building something fun.
Then, I wanted to run the First Steps and after that start into a proper Season.
Now some questions:
a) How should I handle registration for these evenings? I'm worried people will sign up for a slot but then not show up, leaving us with too few players to play.
b) I strongly prefer 4-player tables to 6-player ones. I know accepting 6 signups greatly reduces the chances of a) occurring, but still... Now, will I have lots of work with Season 4 scenarios, since they expect 6 players? What if I decide to run with 5 people?
c) How many players do the First Steps scenarios assume I'll have? I can't for the life of me find any info on that.
d) I'm not entirely sure I understood the rules on replaying a scenario correctly. Obviously, every player character only gets credit for a single scenario once. But can a player replay that scenario with a different character to gain credit?
e) How does this whole thing even work? What if six sorcerers show up one day? What if no healer shows up? Do I have to worry about that or are these scenarios built to always work with any combination of classes?
f) How much time should I expect all of it to take? Checking characters + playing the scenario + after-scenario-paperwork = ?
g) Do I have to have a character to be able to report a session?
h) Any other advice for new GMs, especially regarding Store-based PFS campaigns?
Sorry for the amount of questions and thanks in advance!
|
Hi, and welcome to the wonderful world of PFS coordination. I will try to answer as many of your questions as possible, but Painlord has several awesome “How To” posts here: Painlord's Guides to PFS. I cannot recommend them strongly enough.
I’ve copied your questions below in hopes of making them easier to answer:
Now some questions:
a) How should I handle registration for these evenings? I'm worried people will sign up for a slot but then not show up, leaving us with too few players to play.
I like to use Warhorn. While not perfect, it has a customizable overview page, allows for multiple tables and dates, and an easy registration process that creates a listing of player’s addresses in one easy spot, should you need to reach them.
You will have some people sign up and not show, and some people show up and not sign up… and this is not perfect, but it’s ok. Things don’t have to be perfect, they just have to be workable for you and your group.
b) I strongly prefer 4-player tables to 6-player ones. I know accepting 6 signups greatly reduces the chances of a) occurring, but still... Now, will I have lots of work with Season 4 scenarios, since they expect 6 players? What if I decide to run with 5 people? If you can find enough GMs to pull off 4 player tables, that’s great, but flexibility is your friend and key to growing your player base, and by extension your GM base. Keep it between the navigational markers, no less than 3 players, and no more than 6, and you’ll be fine. The 4th season scenarios have instructions on how to scale encounters for tables of 4 or less (3 + a GMpregen) but a table of 5 plays the same scenario that a table of 6 will, so you might as well seat 6 if you can. Previous seasons were built for smaller tables, so if at all possible, you should try to do so.
c) How many players do the First Steps scenarios assume I'll have? I can't for the life of me find any info on that. First Steps were written in Season 3, which sort of has a transition feel to it. The scenarios often feel more difficult (in a good way) than previous seasons. But, since they were built prior to the change to 6 person tables, they are technically written around the concept of 4. But they handle six easily.
d) I'm not entirely sure I understood the rules on replaying a scenario correctly. Obviously, every player character only gets credit for a single scenario once. But can a player replay that scenario with a different character to gain credit? No, every Player, regardless of character used can only get credit for playing a scenario once. They can additionally get credit towards a second character by GMing the scenario once. After that, GMing the scenario continues to give the benefits of better understanding of PFS rules, an additional opportunity to give back to the community, and points towards the GM stars, but not credit to a character.
A player can replay a scenario for no credit, but should only do so if needed to make the table go off. Regardless, if playing a scenario that you have either played before or GMed, a player should let the GM know and be extra careful not to spoil the game for the other players. The GM can elect to remove them from table if this becomes an issue.
e) How does this whole thing even work? What if six sorcerers show up one day? What if no healer shows up? Do I have to worry about that or are these scenarios built to always work with any combination of classes? If six sorcerers show up one day, then they should be encouraged to think like 6 sorcerers and purchase potions of CLW, or a wand with enough ranks in UMD. Players should come at PFS kind of like life; cooperate with others, but try to be self-sufficient. With 2 PP, a player may pick up a CLW wand. This is strongly recommended for success. Even if they can’t use one, having your own to have someone else use on you is considered good gaming in our area.
f) How much time should I expect all of it to take? Checking characters + playing the scenario + after-scenario-paperwork = ? I’ll be honest with you, I don’t spend a lot of time checking characters, unless said characters become an issue. I try to give more pregame time to getting to know my players, getting a feel for the table experience level, and getting the scenario ready to go. Try to have your table going in 15 minutes after the start time, 30 minutes tops. Less is better, but not at the expense of the quality of the game. Expect 3.5 hours for the game ideally, and another 15-30 minutes to take care of passing out chronicles. Also include another 5-15 minutes to report each table. The better you train your GMs to fill everything out neatly, the quicker this portion will go.
g) Do I have to have a character to be able to report a session? No, but you do have to have a PFS number. If you don’t already have one, you can get one by going to the PFS link on the top of left hand side of the page.
h) Any other advice for new GMs, especially regarding Store-based PFS campaigns? yes, Relax, do the best you can, and be kind to yourself and others. Perfection is a myth so striving for it too strenuously just detracts from the very very Awesome you could accomplish otherwise.
You might have noticed that I'm not a VC, I don't have 4 stars (or even 3) and I don't work for Paizo, so please keep that in mind while taking my advice. What I do have is a love for the game and the very best wishes for you in starting up PFS in your area. I was right where you are not that long ago and the kind people I met through playing and on these boards saw me through. there is a ton of help on these boards for you, from GM threads going over specific scenarios to Venture officers (and others) that are more than willing to help out, whether you are down the street or half a world away.
Good luck out there!
|
|
Hey there!
Howdy!
After years of running RPGs for private home campaigns and participating as a player at some conventions, I recently ran my first game with strangers at my FLGS.
It was quite fun and I now wanna take the big step and start doing a regular PFS round there. Since I'm in Germany I guess I'll have to make do without Regional Coordinators, which is why I turn to you fine folks! :)I was thinking of starting out with a "Character Creation Workshop" where I'll help people make sure their Characters meet PFS regulations and assist new players in building something fun.
Then, I wanted to run the First Steps and after that start into a proper Season.
That makes sense for a group just starting up. Each player should also read through the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play.
Now some questions:
a) How should I handle registration for these evenings? I'm worried people will sign up for a slot but then not show up, leaving us with too few players to play.
It happens sometimes. You're allowed to play with 3 players and an NPC, and up to 7 players. That allows a lot of variation. I do my signups for 6 players, but I'll run a 7-player table if that's necessary. As long as we have 3 players (+ a GM), we have a legal table. If you can't get 3 players to show up to the game, then there may some problems with generating enough interest.
b) I strongly prefer 4-player tables to 6-player ones. I know accepting 6 signups greatly reduces the chances of a) occurring, but still... Now, will I have lots of work with Season 4 scenarios, since they expect 6 players? What if I decide to run with 5 people?
The Season 4 scenarios include notes on how to scale down the encounters for 4 players. If you have 5 players, you run it just as written. There's not really much difference in party abilities between 5 and 6 players.
c) How many players do the First Steps scenarios assume I'll have? I can't for the life of me find any info on that.
They're Season 3 scenarios, so they're written with the assumption of 4 players. As with all scenarios, you can run them with up to 7 players.
d) I'm not entirely sure I understood the rules on replaying a scenario correctly. Obviously, every player character only gets credit for a single scenario once. But can a player replay that scenario with a different character to gain credit?
Short answer: No.
Each player may only have 2 copies of a given Chronicle sheet, ever. One for playing and one for GMing. The same character may only have one copy of a given Chronicle.
e) How does this whole thing even work? What if six sorcerers show up one day? What if no healer shows up? Do I have to worry about that or are these scenarios built to always work with any combination of classes?
This falls under "you buys yer ticket, you takes your chances." If everyone shows up with a sorcerer, then maybe one of the players should think about a different character class. Especially at low levels, they're going to have a hard time surviving a scenario. On the other hand, at low levels you could always play a pre-gen although I don't encourage that.
f) How much time should I expect all of it to take? Checking characters + playing the scenario + after-scenario-paperwork = ?
Season 3 & 4 scenarios are developed to run in 5 hours. That should be a workable timeframe for scheduling, but if you're planning on running more than one slot in a given day then you should leave time between slots for players to get some food.
g) Do I have to have a character to be able to report a session?
No, but why wouldn't you have a character so you can assign your GM credit to it?
h) Any other advice for new GMs, especially regarding Store-based PFS campaigns?
Work out details with the store owner or manager ahead of time. Make sure they'll have enough space for you to play on the date you've selected and that they'll be open during the hours you plan to play. Find out if any of the store employees are interested in joining you, as that often makes it easier for you to find space.
As a public venue, you'll most likely have new players interested in joining. Try to leave that 7th player seat at your table for walk-ins.
Start grooming some (if not all) of the players to become GMs in their own right, so if the group grows (and it probably will) then you'll have someone to run a second or third table at the same time. This will also give you a chance to play from time to time.
Sorry for the amount of questions and thanks in advance!
No problem. Everyone starts out somewhere. Thanks for taking on the responsibility to start up PFS in your area. You mentioned you don't have any Venture-Captains in Germany... have you considered applying for the position?
|
Hey there!
After years of running RPGs for private home campaigns and participating as a player at some conventions, I recently ran my first game with strangers at my FLGS.
It was quite fun and I now wanna take the big step and start doing a regular PFS round there. Since I'm in Germany I guess I'll have to make do without Regional Coordinators, which is why I turn to you fine folks! :)I was thinking of starting out with a "Character Creation Workshop" where I'll help people make sure their Characters meet PFS regulations and assist new players in building something fun.
Then, I wanted to run the First Steps and after that start into a proper Season.
This is an awesome idea. No matter how much you suggest to new players to read the guide, visit the website, look up additional resources... it never happens. Having a workshop where that all happens together is a great start to a local lodge.
Now some questions:
a) How should I handle registration for these evenings? I'm worried people will sign up for a slot but then not show up, leaving us with too few players to play.
I wouldn't sweat registrations or sign-ups too much. I would definitely set up a warhorn or facebook page to make a contact point and scheduling, but don't get all hung up on who signs up ahead of time. Take players as they come, never turn anyone away because they didn't find you ahead of time, especially if you are playing in a public space. Store owners are much less likely to give you space, support, and advertise for you if you are sending their customers away.
b) I strongly prefer 4-player tables to 6-player ones. I know accepting 6 signups greatly reduces the chances of a) occurring, but still... Now, will I have lots of work with Season 4 scenarios, since they expect 6 players? What if I decide to run with 5 people?
Season 4 scenarios have rules to scale back for 4 players. Smaller tables are great, but growth means big tables unless you are really lucky to have a bunch of willing GMs.
c) How many players do the First Steps scenarios assume I'll have? I can't for the life of me find any info on that.
I believe everything until season 4 was designed for four players, but perfect tables never happen.
d) I'm not entirely sure I understood the rules on replaying a scenario correctly. Obviously, every player character only gets credit for a single scenario once. But can a player replay that scenario with a different character to gain credit?
No. A player can get credit for each scenario (or module) a total of twice: once as a player and then a second time (on a different character) for running it. This can happen in either order, and level 1 only Modules and Scenarios have exceptions to this rule.
e) How does this whole thing even work? What if six sorcerers show up one day? What if no healer shows up? Do I have to worry about that or are these scenarios built to always work with any combination of classes?
Most of the missions are doable by any combination of characters, but some of them are a challenge to ANY combination of characters. That's kind of the nature of the Pathfinders: Grab the closest 4-6 people hanging out in the lodge and send them off to a mission. One of the most fun missions I ever did was 4 rogues and myself as a tank. We didn't take a single point of damage and I only swung my sword twice.
f) How much time should I expect all of it to take? Checking characters + playing the scenario + after-scenario-paperwork = ?
PFS runs strongly on the honor system. Don't spend time to check characters weekly unless there is an obvious reason to. If you play with the same group from week to week, you know what they've done. If a new player comes in from out of town I'll make a really fast (like less than 3 minutes for a 7-9ish level) glance through, just to make sure all the sheets are complete and big purchases are match the fame or a sheet.
Between 5-6 hours per scenario. I usually spend 15-30 minutes before the scenario printing, filling out session sheets, handing out faction missions, and doing last minute table-shuffles. 4-5 hours for the scenario depending on role-playing, rules discussions, and complexity of the scenario. About 15-30 minutes after the game is for chronicles, dayjob rolls, spellbook rolls, and animal training.
g) Do I have to have a character to be able to report a session?
When you report the scenario it asks you for the character number you want to give the credit to. That number doesn't actually have to have a character associated with it, but you have to assign the sheet when you run it.
h) Any other advice for new GMs, especially regarding Store-based PFS campaigns?
Do whatever you can to make sure the store employees are behind you and PFS. Remind them that more players are more traffic and more books they can sell. They can advertise for you during the rest of the week while you aren't at the store.
Keep all the pre-gens handy to drop a walk-in directly into a game, even if it's already in progress. Don't be afraid to take a break to explain what you are doing to an interested observer. The easiest way for someone to learn the game is by playing it, so rather than telling a newbie to go home and read about it, hand them a pre-gen and a chair.
Sorry for the amount of questions and thanks in advance!
Welcome to PFS! I was exactly in your shoes a little over a year ago, and today I was named Venture Captain of Alabama. I know Mike is looking for someone to be Venture Captain for Germany right now. Keep up the good work, and remember YOU are supposed to be having a good time too.
|
|
Thanks for the helpful replies, everyone! Just to clarify: I'm not thinking about setting up a convention with multiple tables or something like that. I just wanna play Pathfinder, at the store, in a system that easily copes with different players showing up each time. Right now, it's daunting enough to get all the bureaucracy for a single table sorted, as well as dealing with time constraints, etc.
Add to that the fact that I'll already have quite a bit longer prep times for each scenario since I'll have to translate all box text to German.
I mean, sure if interest is real big and more people want to play than I can reasonably handle myself, I'll maybe look into recruiting another GM or two. But for now I'll take one step at a time. :)
After reading this, I now think I'm going to allow up to six people to register for any one night, as that'll make the chances of not getting a legal table relatively small. I'll just have to learn to run six-player tables and still have fun. :)
The advice on players being supposed to be somewhat self-sufficient (wands of CLW, Painlord links) was really helpful, thanks!
5 hours is quite a lot, though. That basically renders weeknight gaming impossible. You'd have to start at six if you wanted to finish at eleven, which isn't realistic with people having jobs. But starting at seven and finishing at midnight isn't better. I was kinda expecting the scenarios to be shorter. Bummer.
One more question I came up with: Only level 1 characters may participate in a Tier 1 scenario, no exceptions, right? So if I run First Steps, which cannot be run at slow advancement, I can't also run Master of the Fallen Fortress for the same group of people, since they'd be level 2 (and thus not legal) for the final First-Steps-adventure?
|
|
5 hours is quite a lot, though. That basically renders weeknight gaming impossible. You'd have to start at six if you wanted to finish at eleven, which isn't realistic with people having jobs. But starting at seven and finishing at midnight isn't better. I was kinda expecting the scenarios to be shorter. Bummer.One more question I came up with: Only level 1 characters may participate in a Tier 1 scenario, no exceptions, right? So if I run First Steps, which cannot be run at slow advancement, I can't also run Master of the Fallen Fortress for the same group of people, since they'd be level 2 (and thus not legal) for the final First-Steps-adventure?
With good planning (and proper scenario selection!), 5 hours is not necessarily required. You just have to have good table management to keep the players moving. For some scenarios, it is very difficult to finish in less than 5 (the higher level scenarios especially), but for many, it is not. Most of my low level tables finish in 4 hours unless there is a lot of role playing going on. Look for the straight dungeon crawls with a single map. Predraw the map to speed things up.
Master of the Fallen Fortress is a Level 1 module. Level 1 modules can be run multiple times for credit, and you can run it once for credit as a level 2. Though since it was designed for level 1 characters that might make it a bit easy...
|
|
Well, my thought was to play MotFF first, then follow that with the First Steps. But in that order, they'd be level 2 after the second First Steps adventure, and thus not legal for the final part of the series, correct?
MotFF has a nice plot hook to get people into the Society and I've already run it twice for friends, so I'm rather confident with running that module. I also really like it!
|
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
|
I recently started a regular game in my town, so here's what I would suggest:
-If you have the emails of people who plan on showing up, you might consider helping them through the bulk of character creation over email before they show up. For my second game, I had five brand-new players show up wanting to build characters from scratch before we started, so I used up 2 of my 5 hours doing that, and had to rush the scenario.
-Practice good time management. This is a huge issue at conventions (where GMs often run through the entire dinner break, and are still finishing up when the next slot is supposed to start), but is important in regular games too. This means warning players when their turn is coming up, forcing them to delay if they don't know what to do on their turn, ending combats when they become trivial instead of forcing them to chase down the last couple of minions, etc.
-Be nice: warn new players if they're about to do something stupid. But don't be too nice: let them suffer the consequences if they do it anyway.
|
|
Well, my thought was to play MotFF first, then follow that with the First Steps. But in that order, they'd be level 2 after the second First Steps adventure, and thus not legal for the final part of the series, correct?
MotFF has a nice plot hook to get people into the Society and I've already run it twice for friends, so I'm rather confident with running that module. I also really like it!
Correct unfortunately as I like the hook Master of the Fallen Fortress gives you for society...
|
e) How does this whole thing even work? What if six sorcerers show up one day? What if no healer shows up? Do I have to worry about that or are these scenarios built to always work with any combination of classes? If six sorcerers show up one day, then they should be encouraged to think like 6 sorcerers and purchase potions of CLW, or a wand with enough ranks in UMD.
That works, but for wizards and sorcerors I recommend using a wand of infernal healing for out-of-combat healing. It's on a wizard/sorc spell list, so they can use it without using UMD. Also, IH is more efficient with charges compared to CLW (10 hp healed compared to 5.5 average). Itt does make you detect as evil for a minute, so hopefully that's not a problem. :)
The problem with UMD is that it seems to fail when you need it most.
IH has been my goto out-of-combat healing spells for most of my PCs now.
|
|
People keep mentioning wands. Wands are not "always available" items as per the Guide to Organized Play, so in order to buy these, the players need to first play a Scenario that has them on the Chronicle Sheet, right? Am I supposed to make sure such a Scenario is played on a regular basis to make this item available to players? Is there even a Scenario with a wand of IH?
Oh, and another silly question: If a player finishes a scenario where the group found a certain weapon, can she buy two of them for dual-wielding, provided she has the gold? Can consumables be bought again and again as soon as you found them once?
Pathfinder Society scenarios (with the exception of 1st Steps) are written assuming the party has wands of cure light wounds or infernal healing.
Just to clarify, you can buy item any item you want, as long as the PC has enough Fame (and it's allowed for PFS).
It's a bit misleading to say that you can buy any item you want -- if you want your PC to be able to use a particular item, you have to bring the book containing the rules for that item to your game session.
For instance, I don't own the book that contains the spell Infernal Healing, so buying a wand of it for my PC wouldn't work.
|
|
It's a bit misleading to say that you can buy any item you want -- if you want your PC to be able to use a particular item, you have to bring the book containing the rules for that item to your game session.
For instance, I don't own the book that contains the spell Infernal Healing, so buying a wand of it for my PC wouldn't work.
Hm, about that rule... If I create characters with people, using the books I have, I'm allowed to let them play even if they don't own the books, right? They just might run into trouble if they attend another person's game, bring their char, and the GM at the convention doesn't have the book?
It's a system meant to ensure that GMs don't have to bring all legal books to be able to check whether a character is legal, and to make sure people actually have the spells/items they use at hand, so they can look them up, right?
It's not a system meant to ensure players only use stuff from books they paid for?
On the same note, a couple coming to a PFS game surely don't need two copies of each book they use?
The goal, I guess, is to make PFS as accessible as possible, not to restrict people from playing?
It's a system meant to ensure that GMs don't have to bring all legal books to be able to check whether a character is legal, and to make sure people actually have the spells/items they use at hand, so they can look them up, right?
It's not a system meant to ensure players only use stuff from books they paid for?
It's both of those. If a player doesn't want to spend any money, he or she is certainly welcome to make a character using only material from the "core" books. I have some core-only PCs that are a lot of fun!
On the same note, a couple coming to a PFS game surely don't need two copies of each book they use?
There are a number of grey areas, of course. I don't think any GM would require a husband and wife to bring two copies of the same book, for instance, even though there isn't really an exception spelled out in the rules.
|
Venture-Captain, Arizona—Tucson
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The main purpose of the "bring a book" rule is to emphasize the players' responsibility to provide access to any non-core rules when needed. The GM is not required to be a walking rule encyclopedia, nor is he required to bring his entire Pathfinder library to every game.
If several players shared a text, but routinely played together, I wouldn't have a problem with that. If a rule question about a class ability, archetype, item, or feat arose, they might be required to efficiently find the relevant rule for reference. If that wasn't practical, they would be wiser to play a character built around abilities they could document.