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My group is considering starting a PFS ‘campaign’ for our home game (only 2 of us have played PFS before this). I would really like to see this work. If for no other reason than it would be less prep work for me. However, I would also like for it to give some of the other guys a low risk low pressure way to give a try at being the GM.
Our usual GM is kinda ‘Monty Haul’ for treasure and magic stuff found. Now obviously in PFS we can’t mess with the rewards and I think all of them are pretty close to the same value for a given sub tier (a few gold doesn’t mean much to me). But in looking over the few I have received, I see some significant differences.
Some have absolutely nothing special on them. No boons or special notes of any kind. All of the magic items that can be purchased are standard fare that the PC’s will almost certainly have the fame too buy by the time they have the money to buy. You can buy: potion cure moderate wounds, scroll of invisibility, +1 battleaxe, etc… Boorrriiiinnnnngggggg. I could buy those anyway.
Some are fairly interesting. A +1 on intimidate and sense motive vs Aspis. Wand of summon monster 1 at caster level 3 with 8 charges. A one-time +1d6 damage vs dragons. Tax collectors ring that gives you a +1 on intimidate and -1 on diplomacy in Magnimar. Etc… These are excellent.
I don’t think the group really needs super powerful rewards all the time. It just needs to be something that catches your attention. Something that makes you say ‘hey look at that’ instead of just ‘ok what is the gp total?’ when reading the chronicle sheet.
I haven’t seen enough to be sure, but it looks sorta like maybe the later ones are less likely to be ‘meh’ then the older ones. Is that true or just a coincidence from the few I have gotten?
I’m looking to make a list of the ones to get that have more interesting chronicle sheets (or ones to avoid). Bonus point if it is also one of the ‘sets’ of scenarios that go together like the Blakros series of scenarios to make it more campaign like.
You don’t have to tell me what on the sheet is interesting. In fact, I’d prefer if you didn’t, since I am hoping I will not be the GM for every single scenario. Just 'this has something unique' or 'this one is perfectly blah.'
I know some of you will complain that this is meta-gaming and I suppose it is, but I can’t see it affecting anyone other than us in any significant way. We will mostly just be using them amongst ourselves. I am the only one in our group likely to go to a convention and I wouldn’t want my PC to out level theirs so I wouldn’t use that PC anyway. Besides, I don’t see many of these boons/rewards being a power gaming kind of thing anyway. Just an interesting kind of thing.
Any help would be appreciated.
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I do not personally see anything wrong with this. A PFS campaign would be very interesting and setting up the rewards to reflect this simply makes sense. I do suggest you put a couple modules in though. There are a number of modules with very interesting boons in them, for instance From Shore To Sea not only is a VERY interesting mod from a game history point of view but you get some fun quirks.
The Quest for Perfection is a great arc with easily written in "boons", along with the normal functional boons.
Keep in mind, you can put a nonfunctional boon on any scenario you GM. I have run a Dwarf through Voice in the Void who decided to look into the void, saw somthing and now has "Is afraid of the dark." written on his sheet. My cavalier has "Is afraid of kitchen cutlery." written on mine after Temple of Empyreal Enlightnement (for those who know). A good deal of the functional boons I have seen was on Season 2 and 4 scenarios. So check those out.
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I’m looking to make a list of the ones to get that have more interesting chronicle sheets (or ones to avoid). Bonus point if it is also one of the ‘sets’ of scenarios that go together like the Blakros series of scenarios to make it more campaign like.
I would very much not like to see such a list posted publicly.
First, there are some very good scenarios that don't have particularly interesting chronicle sheets.
Second, the metagaming for the wider campaign would be troublesome. If I had trouble mustering a table because someone looked it up on some list and told everyone 'bad chronicle'...
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I’m looking to make a list of the ones to get that have more interesting chronicle sheets (or ones to avoid). Bonus point if it is also one of the ‘sets’ of scenarios that go together like the Blakros series of scenarios to make it more campaign like.I would very much not like to see such a list posted publicly.
First, there are some very good scenarios that don't have particularly interesting chronicle sheets. ...
A 'very good scenario' is another reason to play a scenario even if it has a boring chronicle sheet. I would have no reason to oppose playing or running those either. Though I think it would be better to find one on both the good scenario list and the interesting chronicle sheet list.
... Second, the metagaming for the wider campaign would be troublesome. If I had trouble mustering a table because someone looked it up on some list and told everyone 'bad chronicle'...
If it is both a boring and has a 'bad chronicle,' why would anyone want to play/run it?
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I think unfortunately you are going to find a mostly negative response to this inquiry... there have been a few threads in the past in this forum with people looking for specific sorts of items and in general folks are hesitant to reveal the rewards publicly due to the ease of spoiling the story as many of the rewards tie in directly to the story line.
I think your best bet might be to contact in person or via email your Venture Captain and explain what sorts of things you are looking for and see if he/she would be willing to let you flip through some scenarios and check them out before you purchase them.
Additionally just look at the scenarios themselves and look for very high ratings... you are almost guaranteed to provide a fun time for your players in the highly rated ones.
Sorry it probably wasn't a helpful response to your initial question, but I am guessing you haven't seen any of the previous similar threads and wanted to save you the frustration :)
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... there have been a few threads in the past in this forum with people looking for specific sorts of items and in general folks are hesitant to reveal the rewards publicly due to the ease of spoiling the story as many of the rewards tie in directly to the story line...
That is why I specifically said I don't want to know what the rewards are. Just if they are interesting or not.
... I think your best bet might be to contact in person or via email your Venture Captain and explain what sorts of things you are looking for and see if he/she would be willing to let you flip through some scenarios and check them out before you purchase them...
Ok, that I didn't think of. I will send an email to him in the near future.
... Additionally just look at the scenarios themselves and look for very high ratings... you are almost guaranteed to provide a fun time for your players in the highly rated ones...
Well, I sorta tried that. Every one I looked at had a high rating. Even the ones that I though had both a lackluster chronicle sheet and were a pretty boring scenario. If they are all listed as good, it doesn't separate them at all.
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I have no idea how many sessions I've played, but on my 10+ characters, I can think of two items I've ever bought off a chronicle sheet. Both of these items I needed to GM to get on the right character.
The items tend to be non-interesting, which is at least part of the reason why a +1 keen longbow on a cert got a "please ban" thread.
Some of the boons can be interesting, but the item selection typically ranges from poor to terrible. The rare items that are good, tend to be very specific to a build, so chances are that only GMs can take advantage of those rare few.
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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These two threads might be enlightening. They both detail a way to play through PFS scenarios in a way that makes sense for a home game / campaign style. I think they're a good place to get started.
The reason why I'm hesitant to post the handful of scenarios I can think of off the top of my head that have neat rewards isn't because I think you or your group would abuse that knowledge, but because that information has been made available in the past and has been spread about these boards. Everyone knows which scenario to go to if you want the [redacted] mount, or where to get that wand of [redacted] with 6 charges.
My advice would be to follow one of the plans laid out by those two posters. Drogon's Shadow Lodge campaign is very solid, although you'll have to replace the first 3 games with something (a level 1 module perhaps) as they are no longer legal.
Here's a final tip: modules offer less gold than 3 back to back scenarios, but are more campaign-story focused and have unique rewards, and are actually cheaper than scenarios if you buy them as a PDF -- $9.99 versus $3.99 times 3.
Hope this helps!