Shadow Sorceress |
The Society rules state you need to bring a hard copy or watermarked PDF of any rules beyond the basics. Under normal circumstaces I get that, however I will be traveling to PaizoCon from Virginia and can not afford to carry all my books, nor do I have PDFs of all them, and since I have hardcopies I do not wish to buy PDFs. Is there a way around this or an exception that can be made for PaizoCon?
Majuba |
There is no exception for PaizoCon, as even the most prolific, hardcore fans/GMs may not be familiar with all the material out there (myself included). Some mitigations:
Other than that, you have a couple options:
Honestly, you probably won't have any issues at all even if you brought nothing, but it really will leave a bad taste in the GM's mouth if something does come up. I don't recommend that.
rknop |
Note that you can print out just the relevant pages from PFS. A photocopy of the relevant pages serves half the purpose. It doesn't prove that you own the book in question, but does provide the rules for the GM to review if she wishes to. So, while, by the rules it's not enough, it might be enough depending on how lenient the GM is. It would certainly help the GM want to be lenient if they had the rules available and didn't just have to take your word for it.
(You can't count on having Internet access and access to the PRDs from the hotel. The wireless does not survive the convention. It seemed to do OK up in the rooms, but down in the convention area? Hopeless.)
James Krolak |
Note that HeroLab, itself, isn't enough to prove you own the books.
One way that some folks really like to get the PDF from paizo.com and print out just the pages you're using. That's enough proof if the printout has the watermark from your legal PDF on it that shows it's yours. How they'd check to verify that the username on that watermark actually belongs to you, though, I don't know.
Some GMs will also accept you showing (or printing out, since the wireless isn't reliable at the hotel) your Downloads page from paizo.com that shows which products you've purchased. That only applies to the PDFs, of course, though.
Shadow Sorceress |
One way that some folks really like to get the PDF from paizo.com and print out just the pages you're using. That's enough proof if the printout has the watermark from your legal PDF on it that shows it's yours. How they'd check to verify that the username on that watermark actually belongs to you, though, I don't know.
Part of my problem is I don't want to buy PDFs for books I have hard copies of since they will get very little use beyond this event (which is already costing me far more than I wish to think about) and although we receive most of our Pathfinder product through subscription, I work in a bookstore so we do better to get the hardcovers through work.
Majuba |
It's a common issue, and why PDFs are part of the subscription. On the plus side, the hardbacks are very cheap PDFs.
Oh - one other tip: Decide beforehand which characters you'll most likely play, and only pack the books for those. For instance, I often play my Bloatmage at PaizoCon, so I be sure to bring my City of Strangers book (even though I have a PDF of it). But I probably won't play my halfling with a trait out of the Varisia book, so I leave that at home.