Venture-Lieutenant, West Virginia—Charleston
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Question: How rigid is the assumption that pregenerated characters belong to the Grand Lodge faction? I am currently preparing for a convention, and expect to run a lot of tables with mostly or entirely new PFS players. If a player wishes to choose a faction other than Grand Lodge for their pregen, would that be acceptable? What about an experienced player who is playing a level 1 scenario but doesn't have any characters currently in the 1-5 range, and thus is playing a pregen - can that player select a different faction? Any Guidance would be appreciated. So, too, would Bless or Inspire Courage.
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I think it's more of a time saver, especially at cons, mostly due to trying to explain all the factions to a new player takes away such precious time. If an experienced player has a per-determined faction he wants to play then I'd say let him play it. I'm sure any faction would gladly accept the points right around now with all the speculation going around.
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Venture-Lieutenant, West Virginia—Charleston
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Is risk really important to that end, though? I mean, if a new player likes the concept of a particular faction, why should they be barred from playing it early on? I think that Grand Lodge makes sense as a default, but I don't see why it has to be an absolute.
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Assumed is the word used in the Guide to Organized Play. It's not a very strong word. There are a number of places where a strict reading of this assumption does not seem to be absolutely necessary.
With the first level rebuild rules, if a player wanted to have a different faction they say "I am using the rebuild rules to make a character just like Valeros, but is a member of the Andoran faction. However you want to word it, the effect is the same. This would also apply when using a higher level pregen to start a new first level character, as faction for that character can be changed at whim until the character is played above first level.
In a situation where a person is playing a pregen at a higher level than an existing character, that pregen should be able to use the faction of the character that is going to get the credit, since that character has to deal with the ramifications of actions in the scenario.
In most practical circumstances I feel it's acceptible to use the Grand Lodge as a default and not change it unless the player wants to play a different faction. There are corner cases where someone may decide to eat a scenario in order use a low risk to chance to push their faction agenda. That small risk is not worth having to tell a player that they can't play the faction they like.
Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant
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What I do is, if they're a pregen that they're playing for a new character I'll give them Grand Lodge (unless they know what faction they're making their new character for then I'll give them that faction).
If they're playing a higher level pregen and will be applying it to a current lower level character, I'll give them the faction mission for that character, since they'll be the one getting the experience/PP/GP/item access.
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What I do is, if they're a pregen that they're playing for a new character I'll give them Grand Lodge (unless they know what faction they're making their new character for then I'll give them that faction).
If they're playing a higher level pregen and will be applying it to a current lower level character, I'll give them the faction mission for that character, since they'll be the one getting the experience/PP/GP/item access.
Agreed. When I GM, the players tell me what faction they're in, whether they're playing their own PC or a pregen. If they don't have a faction, because they're a newbie with a pregen, then Grand Lodge it is.
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All makes sense to me... in fact, I would prefer to run the faction mission for the character that I am applying it to.
otherwise, there seems to be a disincentive to play the pregen -- or there is some confusion as well, since the pregen will be earning PP likely for a different faction than the one the character that the mission will likely be applied to.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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It's the default assumption, because it's easiest to explain to new players.
Having said that, if the new player comes to the table with a friend who already has a PC, I'll suggest that they share a faction so that the new player has a buddy for his faction mission.
If I'm running Season 0 - 2, I'll assign Osirion rather than explain that the pre-gen is "really" one faction but is working for another ... Nah. Let's keep it simple: you're working for the Sapphire Sage.
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whoa Whoa WHOA, hold on a second. Does Paizo total the amount of PP earned by ALL PC's for their faction(s)? For what purpose? something awesome I imagine.
EDIT: also why doesn't my Avatar Picture show up? I've edited it a bunch of times.
Well, yes. At least for what has been reported.
For a previous Season (I think it was actually 0-2 combined), Andoran had the most, and wound up with a new logo out of it.
For Season 4, at least for the past few months, there have been two factions, not fully revealed to us the players, that have been under the gun for possible removal from the campaign, dropping us from 10 factions down to only 8.
I believe certain Season 4 scenarios, in addition to that, will have an effect on what happens to one of the faction heads, survival, death, back to normal or exit to oblivion.
On the avatar, I have no idea. You might want to go to the Web Site Feedback forum to look for help on that, after checking the Paizo FAQs to make sure it isn't already covered in there.
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whoa Whoa WHOA, hold on a second. Does Paizo total the amount of PP earned by ALL PC's for their faction(s)? For what purpose? something awesome I imagine.
EDIT: also why doesn't my Avatar Picture show up? I've edited it a bunch of times.
Just a guess on something common that confuses people about avatars, so it might be your issue: You have a different avatar picture for every alias you use to post on the forums. So if your picture is tied to your main account, it won't show on posts using the name of a Society PC or other alias.
At a convention I attended a couple weeks ago, there was strict recording of each faction's total PP throughout the weekend and multiple references to the looming possibility of one or more of them being on the chopping block.