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Welcome to the nuthous.. society.
You can run mods for a home group and report them officially if you want. All you need is a PFS number and you're good to go.
I would highly, HIGHLY recommend playing a few games before dming them. There's a thousand little things that might get missed but you'll pick up on instantly if you play a few games.
On a related question, are there any issues with running something for a group which includes your significant other?
No more so than in a home group.
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Zeroith item: download the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play. It's free and it details what you can and can't (and must) do for Society games. As for modules, this should help. Also, most PFS games are Scenarios (~4 hour modules).
Beyond that, if there are local PFS games to be had, I have to agree with BNW- take in a few sessions as a player. It'll give you a feel for what's different.
Welcome, and enjoy!
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... [D]o you have to open them up to all and sundry to qualify as valid PFS games?
Short answer, no. There was a thread about home play and open tables and if you have to allow everyone that had a PFS card... Playing at a public place is another matter.
Like BNW said, to have a valid game, your players will need Society numbers. If you're hosting your own event, you can get the cards as a download under the GM/Event Coordinator tab from the My Pathfinder Society page once you've registered an event.
You can check here to see if you have a local coordinator that can help you out should you have more questions or want advice about running an event.
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This has been a helpful thread!
My group has been playing the system for years, but I only just experienced Society play recently at the Pheonix Comicon. We had no idea Pathfinder was even represented, until we found a room devoted to it, what a great surprise.
After a frantic evening of character creation in our hotel rooms, and monopolizing the hotels printer room in the early morning we spent the rest of the convention playing Society Scenarios, and fundamentally relearning the game. There were so many rules we had misunderstood, glossed over, or changed in our own games that playing level one characters was a totally eye opening and refreshing experience.
Our group is hoping to start events in Flagstaff AZ, as it seems to have no local Society representation. I'd wondered what options we had, and now I know!
Thanks!
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Valar, if you can drum up enough PFS action in the Flagstaff area, there is no reason that you couldn't be a Venture Officer. I don't know how close Phoenix, Sierra Vista, or Tucson are, but they all have VOs. They are all listed in the Guide and should all be willing to help you set up public games in your area.
Even without the benefit of being a Venture Officer, setting up nearby public locations to play with community players can be very rewarding. I personally set up a permanent PFS location near me purely out of a desire to game near my house. The newest VL in my area GMs primarily out of that location.
Good luck, and look into Meetup.com- it is an easy way to set up sign-ups and is, if I'm not mistaken, free.
Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant
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First off, Welcome to PFS! :D
Others have answered your questions pretty well I thought, so I'm just going to tackle this one...
On a related question, are there any issues with running something for a group which includes your significant other?
Man I certainly hope not! I've been running for my wife for years. :) (And she's run for me once, trying to get her to run more often...) The only issue I know of is having to sleep on the couch if you kill your SOs character. ;D
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Hi!
I'm about to GM my first PFS game this coming Monday (it's a very excited home group) and the advice on this thread is helping calm the jitters!
I've played and run Pathfinder before, but this our first experience playing a PFS scenario - I'm fairly new to the Society (I haven't even let the local venture-captain know I exist yet) but the threads I've read and the advice I've gleaned so far are tops!
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I've been a GM of various systems for a long time now, and whilst I'm new to the PFS as a whole, I'm interested in actually running games as well as playing
However, I'm uncertain on how to get started, can you run modules for your home group, or do you have to open them up to all and sundry to qualify as valid PFS games?
On a related question, are there any issues with running something for a group which includes your significant other?
How I started:
I played about 20 games of PFS at my local store. I am very fortunate to live in an area with a very active PFS community, so that didn't take me long. I personally needed that to get an idea how the missions typically played, and the various character types.Once I decided to explore running PFS, I made sure I had read all of the CRB and had a basic understanding of how to execute the core rules. Then I downloaded and read the FREE RPG DAY Module (available here on the Paizo site for free) "Master of the Fallen Fortress."
That was the first module I read, with no idea about running it yet. I just saw how they organized their module, figured out how I would organize myself to run it. Then I asked a few questions of veterans (for example, I couldn't find any info about the aura of one of the monsters, because I did not yet own the Beastiary) and someone helped me find that information on Paizo-blessed 3rd party websites (not sure if I can share the name, but e-mail me and I can let you know), and revisited any rules I thought I needed to revisit.
Then I ran it, and it went great.
I think that's a fairly solid way to get a grasp for what is expected of you as a PFS GM. Play enough to be comfortable with running a game, download a FREE RPG Day adventure, and find players to run it.
You also need to know (and download) the Pathfinder Guide to Organized Play, also available free here.
Good luck.
I had not GM'd for more than 20 years, and like I say, it went great for me and for my players, and I'm still GMing PFS off and on in my area.
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I'll echo what almost everyone else has said with one minor warning.
I started playing PFS a few years ago, then work got in the way and I had to take a break from PFS and pathfinder general.
I've got back into playing PFS a couple of months ago and I GMed my first game for my home group yesterday. I've played with this home group on and off for a couple of years as work allowed, but this was their first introduction to PFS.
I ran The Confirmation, and it went well, but I learnt a couple of valuable lessons that are probably worth sharing with other GMs starting out.
1. My characters I've played PFS with are a Wizard(Bonded Item) and an Alchemist. We had someone yesterday decide to go with a druid, no problem, except I realised that I know almost nothing about how animal companions work. I will admit I probably made alot of errors and let her run her animal far more liberally than is RAW. So learning point for me: Learn what other classes do and how they do it. If possible get an idea of who is bringing what before the game and read over their class, class skills and rules relating to those classes.
2. Even if your home group is used to playing RPGs, and even if they are used to Pathfinder, PFS has some...intricacies that are unique. The ITS and chronicle sheets in particular. The ITSs weren't too much of a problem, but you need to explain BEFORE you start how found items work in PFS ie: You can use them for the mission but can't keep them afterwards - so don't put them on your ITS.
I also explained how the chronicle sheet works badly - we were a bit rushed after we finished the mission so I was trying to explain it as I wrote them up as some of them needed to leave and thus had to reexplain it to some of the others once I'd finished the write up.
Of course that wouldn't have been a problem if they had....
3. Read the Guide to Organised Play. But not just read it make sure they have read and understood it. I provided them the link to it and told them to read it in the week leading up to the game, and then had one of them turn up (saying sorry didn't get to make my character = see point 4) and complain when I said that No he couldn't choose an evil alignment.
Finally
4. Allow more time at the beginning of the first session than you expect, or plan a character creation session. You will need to go over their characters with them ie: no crafting, not evil, etc. We started late because I allowed an extra hour but figured most of them would be able to do it without assistance and just a quick glance over their sheet would do.
Points 2 and 3 especially I would have found extremely difficult if I didn't have my own PFS experience to fall back on (ie: I've been through the guide multiple times as I've been playing, I know how the chronicle sheets work since I've got them for my current characters etc.)
All in all though, once you've got the admin out of the way, its really no different to GMing any normal game, and I'll probably stick my hand up to GM normal PFS games when I go away for work again (got to do something on the weekends)
Thanks for all the help! Could any of you guys recommend a good starting Scenario? I was thinking the Confirmation, but I don't have much info to go on. Are there any Scenarios that maintain a pretty cohesive narrative between Scenarios?