RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16
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I'm looking to playing my first PFS game at a convention in a week. I got the materials needed to create my character, I do not know what to expect from in a PFS game. Are scenarios typically combat heavy? Skill use heavy? I'm assuming roleplaying will be at a minimum for a large party of strangers. It's awkward for me because I'm the type who likes to play "snowflake" characters. I'm not sure what character concept to go with.
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Welcome to PFS!
The scenarios run in PFS play typically consist of 4 encounters. Usually, these are combat encounters, though there are plenty of uses for skills and the like, especially in some scenarios. For the most part, you won't know which type it is until you play it.
Fair warning: conventions don't really allow time to do anything at the table other than play the scenario. So it would be wise to have your character ready to go before then. Or even have several options ready to go. This lets you create all of your concepts, even if only one gets to play.
Depends on the scenario, really. A starting scenario like The Confirmation has a good mix of skill use and combat so everyone at the table can do something. And don't immediately assume that RP will be at a minimum. Some low level mods actually have a greater RP focus than you'd think.
A good rule of thumb is to expect everything and nothing. Just try to find something that fits how you want to play, and work with that. If all else fails, just use a pregen. It's good to get a handle on how things work, and you can later apply that credit to the "snowflake" you might have been considering.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
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If you want help putting together a character, you can get great help in the Advice forum (put smoething like "[PFS]" in the subject, so people will hopefully only give advice within the rules).
In general, in PFS you don't know ahead of time who you'll be adventuring with; this is doubly true at conventions. That means your character should be mostly self-sufficient (don't assume there will be someone to cast abundant ammunition on your Gunslinger, or that anyone else will be carrying splash weapons to fight swarms).
That also means you should strive to have lots of things you're good at. The big dumb meat slab might do well in combat, but if that's all you can do, you might fail when you need a Diplomancer, or no one has that Knowledge skill you need (I've had one near TPK and one lost Prestige Point at recent games because no one in the party could identify magic items). Obviously, you can't be good at everything, but try to be good at multiple things. For instance, my alchemist can scout, do ranged damage, disable traps, and make several Knowledge checks; my Oracle can do melee damage, speaks 19 languages, and has decent social skills.
As far as roleplay goes, no one has the time (or, frankly, the interest) to listen to elaborate backstories or passionate soliloquies. But you can still give your character a personality, a reason for joining the Pathfinder Society, and one or two fun and memorable character quirks. In my local area, we've got a Soviet Dwarf who fights with a hammer and sickle, a hippy-dippy cleric, and a disco preacher of Cthulhu. So go crazy!
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Whippets! My god, whippets!
For some reason, there was a period when every other scenario was filled with whippets. Owl-whippet-bears. Were-whippets. "Oh, Tim Hitchcock wrote this one; you can tell because there's an encounter with three whippet ghouls." If you bought a cure light wounds wand with 2 prestige, it came with a free whippet.
Or maybe that was a dream.
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To piggy-back on some other, excellent advice, push the flow of information harder than you might expect. Ask the GM to clarify any muddy issues. Ask players details about their characters. As the GM about the campaign world, about the NPCs, about the situations.
Assume that the other people at your table don't know what your character can do. If you follow RainyDayNinja's advice and pick up some atypical skills ("My barbarian picks locks!") be free with that information.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16
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This is some fantastic advice. RainyDayNinja, you made me feel more confident about one character concept I'm leaning towards. I considered a Pharasmin gunslinger warpriest that hunts undead but has a sense of humor that keeps him sane while fighting monstrosities. My idea was that with the warpriest, I can give myself buffs as a swift action and can heal. This way I don't need to rely on others to use actions on me, and I can be good at something other than shooting things. Plus, the concept is interesting enough to be memorable yet not need much background to it.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16
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A suggestion:
Create a Table Tent to put out in front of you when you are playing...
That's an awesome idea! I'm an artist, so I can draw my character with his name and the caption "Gun Priest of Pharasma," stick it on some card stock, and prop it in front of me while I play.
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That's a great idea. I have table tents, but it never occurred to me to put anything on my tent other than my character's name and "Human Fighter" or somesuch. Imma hafta steal that idea and alter mine... I'm only sad because they're all laminated and printed on card stock and I put a lot of work into them...
Oh well, I'll probably make my wife make the replacements, anyway. I made the first run for us, she can take the second run.
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A suggestion:
Create a Table Tent to put out in front of you when you are playing...
I love hear/see peoples descriptions of their PCs! This is one reason why I ask players what they are running (both as a judge and as a player). I REALLY like it when players use table tents (a practice that seems to be falling off), and if your Tent has a picture - even better!
It doesn't have to be real fancy - but I should be able to read it from across the table. A piece of card stock folded so it stands up, with a name (or two) and some type of description - even if it's: "Armored Human Male with Lots of Big Weapons!"
Heck, even if it is only up for the first 15 minutes of the game, and then you fold it away and put it in the back of your character binder - it'll help everyone relate to your PC.
I'd kind of like to know what people suggest putting on table tents. Maybe even photos (even if there's no drawings of the character on it).
Might be good to see a new thread just based on this.
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Game starts at 7
6:55 people start to trickle in
Folks eat, gossip, get settled in.
7:15 Geek soduku! People finalize how many people they have for which table. The veterans will then decide who's playing what character, trying to balance out levels, tiers, and party composition. The DM desperately tries to sneak in one more reading of he scenario
7:30: people get going. There's a mission briefing that one person will be paying attention to while most players find dice and minis check character sheets, phones,and chronicle sheets to make last minute purchases. You will get a flurry of 5 or six mispronounced names without much clear idea whether drendle drang is a person you're talking to, a place you want to go, or a particularly nasty curse you want to avoid.
You'll have a chance to ask questions, gather information and make knowledge checks to get some idea of what you're in for.
There will be ~ 4 encounters, usually some mooks for one fight, a trap or three, some sort of a skill or social challange, some sort of strong monster thats usually more likely to kill you than the boss, and then a solo or near solo boss fight. These will inevitably involve some "i'm over here he's over there what are you doing how are you searching how does that rule work" while trying to keep the game moving.
The encounters will test adventuring basics. Can you attack at both melee and ranged. Can you deal with swarms and other unusual creature types. Can you deal with damage reduction and incoporeal critters.
10:30 the boss fight starts! Hurrry!
11:05 The dm hurridly signs chronicle sheets and hands them out with a "go ahead fill them out"
Grab stuff get out the door hang out in the parking lot for a bit to come back to reality then head home.
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Veterans sit around and discuss what characters to play so there's a good party composition? That never occurred to me before. I'll make sure I have about three characters to work with.
I'm pretty sure this is actually counter-productive if you're new.
It's better to have characters for each tier before having several at the same tier that you can pop in and out when need be. This usually means keeping your characters about 3-4 levels apart from each other until you have at least 1 per tier. At that point you can start having 1 per subtier that you can swap out for better class composition.
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Veterans sit around and discuss what characters to play so there's a good party composition? That never occurred to me before. I'll make sure I have about three characters to work with.
First make the race to 3, or better yet 5 that will open up the 3-7s and double the adventures you can play at. If you have a choice between a 1-5 and a 3-7 play the 1-5 (you'll thank me when you're stuck in the doldrums at 6) - assuming nothing sounds right up your characters ally of course.
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actually I kept most of mine close together in clusters of a sort.
levels are 1,1,4,5,5,7,9,9,10,10,11,11,14....
That sounds like the same thing?
As long as you don't get 1,1,1,2,2,2,2,3,3 and have nothing higher than that.
That's about 27 odd experience there in my example. Better distributed as, say, a 1, 4 (9 exp) and 7 (18 exp)- now you can play in every tier instead of only 1-5 and low 3-7.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32
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I advocate starting a new character when your newest one hits level 3.
In regards to the gun priest bit, be aware that Holy Gun isn't allowed for PFS play.
Don't worry too much about your rules knowledge going into your first game, though. We're quite an easy-going group, and your local GMs and players will be more than happy to help ease you in.
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My own spread is 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 5, 6, 9, 12, 12, and that's only because I have been starting more characters as of late for low-tier play. The difficulty is I am getting to the point where I have played and/or GM'ed most of the low tier scenarios. Sad times.
That is a the sad eventuality of PFS play. You will eventually run out of scenarios to play more characters up through those low levels.
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That is a the sad eventuality of PFS play. You will eventually run out of scenarios to play more characters up through those low levels.
Not so much if you make use of slow track periodically for your higher level characters. It is a good way of deliberately altering the effective ratio of low to high level scenarios for oneself. But, eventually, yes, it is possible to run out of everything.
As a PFS coordinator now at my local store, I am definitely seeing people who have played almost everything.
Make sure to shower and use deoderant &mouthwash before heading to the game.
A surprising amount of people seem to forget this at games. It's not as bad as it used to be, but the term "gamer funk" exists for a reason.
-j
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Make sure to shower and use deoderant &mouthwash before heading to the game.
A surprising amount of people seem to forget this at games. It's not as bad as it used to be, but the term "gamer funk" exists for a reason.
-j
Ah yes, the topic! Soooo... ^This.
If you want to play a snowflake, go for it, but be cautioned: people will remember your character for what he or she does, not what they are. So a tiefling paladin with a 16 page backstory who says three words all game will be forgotten, but people still tell stories about a half-orc barbarian who maaaay have been all that is man.
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Oh, are we doing this?
I'm looking at:
1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 7, 7, 8, 10, 10, 11, 12, 16.
I, too, am staring directly into the heat death of the 1-5s. Replayable level 1 modules help, but they only go so far.
Heh, just heh.
Yes, that is 21 PFS PCs, all with at least one chronicle.
14 - The Many Fortunes of Grandmaster Torch (1-5)
04–19 - The Night March of Kalkamedes (1-5)
05–11 - Library of the Lion (1-5)
Tier 1-7:
49 - Among the Dead (1-7)
Tier 1-12+"
04-Sp - Race for the Runecarved Key (1-12+) (4 table minimum)
that is the total of scenarios left that I can play for credit without using a GM star or are replayable that can give credit to a level 1 or 2 PC.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16
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I hate to necro a thread, but I want to give a shout out to everyone for helping me out. I went to the con, played two games, and had a blast! Thanks a lot!
Though, the two games were rather insane. Despite it being an adventure for 1st level characters, my first game had a wight and a shadow. The shadow one-hit killed our sorceress, causing her to turn into a shadow as well. The rest of us managed to slay both shadows and survive the session.
I had fun, but I felt really bad for the guy who had the sorceress. He originally was going to use a stronger character, but decided to pick her because he thought she'd be more fun to play with a PFS newbie. He spent a boon on that character, too. At least it made for a good story for my character. Being a Pharasmin priest, he presided over her funeral.
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I hate to necro a thread, but I want to give a shout out to everyone for helping me out. I went to the con, played two games, and had a blast! Thanks a lot!
Though, the two games were rather insane. Despite it being an adventure for 1st level characters, my first game had a wight and a shadow. The shadow one-hit killed our sorceress, causing her to turn into a shadow as well. The rest of us managed to slay both shadows and survive the session.
I had fun, but I felt really bad for the guy who had the sorceress. He originally was going to use a stronger character, but decided to pick her because he thought she'd be more fun to play with a PFS newbie. He spent a boon on that character, too. At least it made for a good story for my character. Being a Pharasmin priest, he presided over her funeral.
Hey! This sounds rather familiar. I was the GM here...so I'm definitely glad you enjoyed it! That adventure does have a bit of a reputation as being pretty tough. I do feel a bit bad about the sorceress, but I think the player was a good sport about it.
Will you be playing in the area much more?
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16
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Oh wow! You are the GM of that game! It was a tough, but very memorable first game for me, as was the second game (though my character preferred the wights over what he had to deal with in that one).
I'd love to find more events in the area. Most of them are a bit out of my reach, but maybe I can manage it when I have more downtime during the summer. I leveled up after my second game and took a level in warpriest. I'm itching to play more now that my character is a real Pharasmin priest.
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Also, I would hope that the Sorceress was a gnome or halfling, or that the Shadow critted... 1d6 should not, otherwise, kill even a Str 7 PC in one hit...
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16
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** spoiler omitted **
The sorceress was a kitsune. The player joked he could just use the same character sheet with a different name and ID # until he realized that he lost the race boon when she died. The shadow did, indeed, crit her, but we all almost died. If we did not have a pre-gen cleric that spontaneously sat in the session at the start of the game, the adventure would have ended right there. I wasn't bothered that much by the encounter's difficult except that it inexplicably never left the room. That really threw me off. The only reason we confronted the shadow instead of run was because we thought it would chase us throughout the dungeon.
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** spoiler omitted **
The shadow did indeed crit, 8 str damage in one hit on a kitsune sorceress. It was unfortunate, and if the player of the sorceress sees this, PM me please.
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** spoiler omitted **** spoiler omitted **
Con: Lowered hit points, smaller window between dying and dead. along with increased difficulty in stabilizing, and less time for your allies to react to your going down. Unless you go from conscious to outright dead, which is eminently possible, even at higher levels, if you have taken damage that leaves you barely awake already.
Any Con dump scares me, as GM. So, you die at -7, and you have a -2 penalty to your hit points every level. And you are running some sort of squishy, so you only have 4 or 6 hit points right out of the box, and get only 3 hit points every level. At 12th level, your PC would only have 26 hit points, so it only takes one failed save on an average damage fireball to change your PC from full health to outright dead...
Str: As mentioned, a single crit from a Shadow, or even two hits, can make you not only dead, but another Shadow for the rest of the party to deal with. And your touch AC, even with Mage Armor, is probably only going to be, at best 17 at first level. It gets a little better at higher levels, but there are nastier versions of Shadows, and their damage typically goes up per hit...
And a ray of enfeeblement, from a higher level caster, knocks you straight to helpless, which won't help your allies, either.
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** spoiler omitted **
If so, can someone whose Str has been lowered to 1, which gives a max heavy load of 10 lbs, do very much? A spell component pouch is 5 lbs, IIRC, clothes tend to weigh more than that, so it wouldn't take much to make a low Str PC either locked in place, or emulating the Taldan Trebuchet (reference to a real PC who frequently wound up with Str damage/drain, and wound up stripping, all too often).
A lot of poisons do Str damage, so it wouldn't be much of a stretch to run into a caster and something that takes that last point of Str in a single adventure.
I have just seen too much of that Shadow in Accursed Halls, probably. I think I did 9 points of Str damage with it, one of the last times I ran it. Then again, I played a home game, where we ran across a bunch of Shadows and a Greater Shadow, and our party cleric was of an archetype that gives up harming undead for better healing, and the paladin had gone into a PrC appropriate for our general party location, which meant he didn't have very many, nor very strong, channels. Ugly. Only one survivor, the wizard ho ran away.