RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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So, I've been gone from PFS for two years (last game played was early November 2012 and ran a game a few weeks later) for various reasons, and I decided I wanted to get back in. Glancing at the forums, I was surprised to see a subforum for "Retired Factions", and even more surprised to see that my main faction, Qadira, as well as pretty much all of the factions I knew of, were retired.
So, I've looked through the current guide for the Pathfinder Society, so I'm familiar with the current factions (and that my main character and secondary are now part of the same faction), but can someone give me a brief on what changes have been made that would affect an older character, what I should look out for this year, and other tidbits that would be good for someone that hasn't been around for two years to know?
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Ways to bypass hardness are important in S6 and there's a feat tax to do anything knowledge-y for the season. There are no longer faction missions for prestige, but a primary/secondary goal for the table, the secondary of which is not explicitly stated most of the time, but you can figure it out typically.
I would recommend reviewing the Additional Resources to see if the legality of your characters has changed since 2012.
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure what you two mean by "feat tax". And the fact that there's no faction missions sadden me: that was one of the things I enjoyed about PFS.
Well, there's no "faction missions" in the sense that you're used to. Most scenarios have content that specifically ties in with one or more factions, which are mentioned on that scenario's product page. Further the goals of your faction in such a scenario, and there's usually some sort of special boon to get.
It's just not ten faction missions in every single scenario to get your 2nd PP.
Welcome back! Have fun!
Faction mission were not completely done away with, but they have been massively modified. The reason for this was people seemed to be concentrating too much on the faction mission and not enough on the real mission. I remember a table that was a mission fail, but all the players considered it a success since they completed their faction mission.
A scenario no longer has a faction mission for every faction that gives a simple prestige point as a reward for completing. Now a scenario might have something special for say just the Grand Lodge and the Exchange. If you are a member of one of those two factions and correctly help your faction to further it goals, you get a special boon on the chronicle sheet. These are usually a bit more complex and difficult than the simple skill check that most of the old faction missions involved. The reward is also a bit better in my opinion.
There is also always a secondary success condition which can reward you with the second prestige point. You are often not explicitly told what the secondary success condition is. But you can often figure them out. If a mission is to go find out why Jimmy-Joe-Bob is missing. It is quite likely that the secondary success condition is to bring back JJB's body to his family for a proper burial. Don't let anyone know the PF's were just here and stole the X, is also a common one.
Many factions eliminated. You do not have to switch to the most similar faction to the one you used to have if you don't want it. Most ex-Cheliax did switch to the Dark Archive. But some switched to the something else.
Legal characters. Almost anything that was legal back then still is or is grandfathered in. There are a few exceptions. Like it was confirmed (last year?) that a PC could not be both wild-blooded and cross-blooded. So a few people had to do some rebuilding on their PC's. So unless you have something weird, you're probably fine. Post the build if you want help confirming it.
There was some emphasis on certain things in some seasons. Season 5 has a lot of demons and season 6 has a few constructs with hardness that can be a problem for many characters.
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So, I've been gone from PFS for two years (last game played was early November 2012 and ran a game a few weeks later) for various reasons, and I decided I wanted to get back in. Glancing at the forums, I was surprised to see a subforum for "Retired Factions", and even more surprised to see that my main faction, Qadira, as well as pretty much all of the factions I knew of, were retired.
So, I've looked through the current guide for the Pathfinder Society, so I'm familiar with the current factions (and that my main character and secondary are now part of the same faction), but can someone give me a brief on what changes have been made that would affect an older character, what I should look out for this year, and other tidbits that would be good for someone that hasn't been around for two years to know?
My understanding is that Qadira faction PCs are automatically converted to the Exchange, but that they get a free faction change if desired.
Scenario difficulty has generally gone up, and the assumption changed from 4 players to 6. Scenarios now have a four-player adjustment. Tables have very little choice to play up/down; it is usually a strict factor of APL and party size. There is now something called out-of-subtier gold, which is the average of the two nearest subtiers.
Basically there have been lots of changes in the last few years...you'll definitely want to thoroughly read the Guide. In any case, welcome back. :)
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One big change: you are now required (going forward) to list all your purchases (those over 25gp) on an "Inventory Tracking Sheet", or ITS for short.
You don't have to include those things you've already bought (old characters are "grandfathered in"), but I'd suggest doing it anyways so that all of your items are together in one, easy to read location.
The ITS can be found (form fillable) in the back of the Season 6 Guide. You are also allowed to customize your own, so long as it retains all the basic information.
Luckily for you, story wise, Campaign Leadership is working on a "story thus far" document to help out players just like yourself! I think the New Year was the target date for it to be released.
I did not know about that. I am eager to see it myself.
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Luckily for you, story wise, Campaign Leadership is working on a "story thus far" documentI did not know about that.
Yup.
Provide a "The Story Thus Far" handout that provides a low-spoiler summary of each season's storyline so that a player can quickly catch up on the critical plot concepts when sitting down to an adventure that deals with ongoing metaplot elements. The working length for each handout is about four paragraphs or 300-400 words. There would be one such document for each season and perhaps one for a few of the most complex ongoing metaplots (Grandmaster Torch, for example).
You should start seeing these changes implemented at the beginning of Season 7, though some like "The Story Thus Far" handouts are likely to appear sooner.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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My understanding is that Qadira faction PCs are automatically converted to the Exchange, but that they get a free faction change if desired.
Scenario difficulty has generally gone up, and the assumption changed from 4 players to 6. Scenarios now have a four-player adjustment. Tables have very little choice to play up/down; it is usually a strict factor of APL and party size. There is now something called out-of-subtier gold, which is the average of the two nearest subtiers.
Changing factions won't be a huge deal for me, since The Exchange actually fits those two characters like a glove, one being a Qadiran merchant prince (with ALL of the Qadira prestige awards), and the other being a pirate. Hearing that the difficulty has gone up should be interesting and challenging: the adventures are fun, but they aren't typically what I would call challenging.
One big change: you are now required (going forward) to list all your purchases (those over 25gp) on an "Inventory Tracking Sheet", or ITS for short.
You don't have to include those things you've already bought (old characters are "grandfathered in"), but I'd suggest doing it anyways so that all of your items are together in one, easy to read location.
The ITS can be found (form fillable) in the back of the Season 6 Guide. You are also allowed to customize your own, so long as it retains all the basic information.
Thankfully, I'm familiar with this kind of thing, being a Living Greyhawk veteran, so this shouldn't be a hard change to adjust to at all.
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uh, here's a silly question: can you use the feat Improvisation instead?
Improvisation: You gain a +2 bonus on all skill checks for skills you have no ranks in. Furthermore, you can use all trained skills untrained.
I think I'd probably allow that? I had a good look at the wording for technologist against the wording you've quoted, and RAW it seems to fit.
Venture-Lieutenant, Indiana—Martinsville
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Also, the allowed races had a changeover for S6, as the Aasimar and Tiefling are out and the Kitsune, Nagaji and Way yang are in, with the Tengu being kept along with the core races in the book.
I believe the whole laser gun/robot thing will still be around at some point, but it isn't gonna be around every corner like a lot of others thought it would be.
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Also, the allowed races had a changeover for S6, as the Aasimar and Tiefling are out and the Kitsune, Nagaji and Way yang are in, with the Tengu being kept along with the core races in the book.
I believe the whole laser gun/robot thing will still be around at some point, but it isn't gonna be around every corner like a lot of others thought it would be.
The laser/robot thing will only be in a few scenarios, there are three so far. Probably some to come, but more than enough without it.
If you have problems to mix fantasy with felt scifi, look at the Wizardry series from Sirtech.