Pathfinder Society

[Velocinox]

So I thought it would be a good idea to register our adventuring company with the pathfinder society and perhaps even join and begin working our way up the ladder.

Then, I read the joining requirements. Well, sorry Pathfinder Society, I'll not be derailing our entire campaign to trudge off to Absalom and endure months or years of downtime (or worse in-game months or years of shoehorning our entire gaming group into a 'go to college' campaign setting) just to satisfy your sense of 'quality' members.

Wouldn't a society of fiercely independent adventurers be better served by a meritocrious society that lets anyone join AND THEN weeds out the pretenders and slackers? Don't keep out the ones that would rather spend time unearthing the world's secrets than engaging in a glorified spring break trip to Absalom?

Seriously though, why isn't joining the Pathfinder Society just as easy in-game as it is for real? Go to the local lodge, sign a document, pledge your service, abide by shared goals, report outcomes. Simple.

Think about it in-game... think about all the adventurers that are discovering things in their normal adventures that never come to light in the society because they don't want to participate in some stupid lengthy social ritual first?

Who in-character is a Pathfinder member that didn't just hand-wave it during creation, or be presented with it honorarily Ex post facto? Your entire beginning campaign would have to be completely dedicated to just that.

Sorry, but I think the entire beginning section of Seeker of Secrets was poorly planned and written. Please update this to make sense, and allow the average campaign player a chance to join without making everyone else at the table bend to their will.

(Yes, I know this can be house-ruled, but most GMs that play Golarion just go with canon if they haven't come across a problem.)

P.S. Just for clarity, this has nothing to do with the real world official-play Pathfinder Society. I have nothing against them and I enjoy participating. This is entirely about the in-game canon about a society that is all about gaining as much knowledge as possible preventing those very same people they want from joining because those people are too busy off doing what the society would have them doing anyway...)

[ElyasRavenwood]

In you own home game the Pathfinder society can be shaped however you like it.

I'm sure you will be happy to know that since the Seeker of Secrets which was published in 2009, there have been two other publications: the Pathfinder Society Field guide published in 2011 and the Pathfinder Society Primer published in 2013.

The Pathfinder Society field guide focuses on the city of Absalom, the factions in Pathfinder Society Organized Play, and other information.

The Pathfinder Society Primer gives an excellent overview of the society. On pages 8 and 9 they talk about two paths for joining the society. One involves going through their training. the other involves a "field commission" where they take in an adventurer who has made a reputation for themselves.

In my own home campaign I have decided to expand the Pathfinder Society. The Grand Lodge, in addition to housing the leadership of the society, their research facilities, their vaults, and training facilities, houses a zoo (menagerie) and a museum complex open to the public like the smithsonian Institution's museums on the Mall in Washington DC.

I also felt that the Scrolls taught by Krieghton Shane, the Spells taught by Aram Zey, and the swords taught by Marcus Farebelus....well needed more subjects. I added Stealth taught by Drendle Dreng, Survival taught by Kestril, and the Devout, taught by one of my own PFS characters Fatum, a Mystic Theurge of Pharasma,

In my own home campaign, my PCs met as they were passing through the front gates of the the Grand Lodge and the first couple of levels will represent their three years of initial training. My players are having fun rooting out rust monsters from the armory, solving puzzels, and investigating an orphanage to see if it is "on the level" so to speak.

So each to his own. The pathfinder Society is what you make of it in your own home campaign if you even want it in your home game.

You might find the latter publications more to your liking and the information about field commissions of interest.

I hope this helps.

[Alleran]

The Society is counter-intuitive to most adventuring parties and is also more like Rene Belloq than Indiana Jones, a bunch of shady individuals more interested in stealing artifacts from their rightful owners, covering up their own blunders and stockpiling rather than sharing (although to be fair, that does kind of match the description of some adventurers...). In other news, the sun rises in the east and the sky is blue.

Anyway, I suspect that if you took a poll of the people with characters who are in the Pathfinder Society, the vast majority would be field commissions. IIRC, the Field Guide (the most recent one, anyway - Seekers of Secrets has been updated twice since it was first published, and there is indeed a slightly lessened focus on the usual method for joining the Society) states that the field commission is significantly less common, but player characters are never really the norm. They're the exception.

As far as my own characters are concerned, of maybe a dozen that I've played with, only one of them was a member of the Society, and that was only because we were running through Serpent's Skull and the Pathfinders seemed like a slightly better option (at the time) than the Consortium or the Red Mantis. Slightly. Most of the other characters range from ambivalence to outright dislike/distrust.

(One of the other players in a S&S campaign fully intends to ban the Society from the Shackles once she has enough of a position of authority to do so. There is to be no thieving of Ghol-Gani relics!)

[ElyasRavenwood]

Hmm, I have always thought of the Pathfinder society agents closer to Indianna Jones rather then Beloq, but then again, that may be because in my home campaign, the Pathfinder Society has museums in which to put their relics and artifacts.