question on Fame and purchasing gear

[Pogiforce]

I read the society rules over and over again, and I don't have access to my GM at hte moment, so I simply must ask: how exactly does fame and purchasing gear work? I understand it says that gear found in the core rule book, mundane items and +! items are all considered generally always available. But then it also says that depending on your fame, there is a limit on the value of items you purchase from your faction. So I have a level one, going on level two Fighter Tower Shield Specialist, and I want to sell his regular tower shield, and then buy a Darkwood Tower Shield. Now a Darkwood Tower Shield costs 630 GP, but since I have only 5 Fame I can only purchase items worth up to 500 GP from my faction. So can I actually purchase this shield between sessions or no? the way it's worded has me confused.

[ForkOfSpite]

A darkwood tower shield is always available, so there is no fame requirement.

The gp limit based on fame applies to items that ...
a) you do not have specific access via a chronicle sheet
b) are not "Always Available Items" (as defined on p. 23 of the guide)

[Nefreet]

Most special materials are "always available", including Darkwood (but not Dragonhide, for example).

A Darkwood Tower Shield is always available.

[The Fox]

Here's a link to the Guide to Pathfinder Society.

[BigNorseWolf]

There are 4 ways to qualify for buying an item

1) Its on the always available list (mundane equipment, +1 weapons armor and shields, special materials other than dragonskin, potion/oils and scrolls of first level spells)

2) Its on a chronical sheet (rarely relevant)

3) You can spend prestige for items (like the ubiquitous wand of CLW/infernal healing after the first adventure)

4) Fame: you can buy nearly any legal item with a high enough fame score. I always seem short on gold rather than fame.

After a pretty short amount of your fame will more than cover anything you can afford to buy.

[Pogiforce]

The Fox wrote:

Here's a link to the Guide to Pathfinder Society.

I had read the guide to Pathfinder Society, that was where my question had stemmed from in the first place. I had said so in my original post.

To everyone who replied, Thank you for providing me a clear answer.

[BigNorseWolf]

The guide can be a little legalistic and dense, going into some real specific before giving the big picture

[kinevon]

This is also covered in the sticked thread How to Upgrade Your Gear in PFS

I think there was a more recent update on the subject, but the basics are covered in the sticky thread.

Note that BNW's point 2 is a little different for the Core campaign,as anything not Core listed on the chronicle is always relevant. Maybe not useful for that specific character, but it would be the only access for it...

[Nefreet]

kinevon wrote:

I think there was a more recent update on the subject, but the basics are covered in the sticky thread.

Indeed there was!

But I imagine the original thread remained stickied due to the extensive commentary it already had.

[LazarX]

You start PFS with a restricted purchase list. (If you haven't read your Campaign Guide yet, shame on you!) Go download it now, read it and come back.... I'll wait.

Oh... you're back. Good.

The Guide describes your jinitial purchase list as limited to "always available items". Fame and Chronicles both serve the same purpose of expanding that list. Fame allows you to spend gold up to your fame limit. So you can buy any item that's specified as being allowed in both the Guide and the Additional Resources List. (So it is possible that a Chronicle can give access to an item that's not been allowed by the other sources.) Items that you gain access by Chronicles are not subject to Fame limits. You are limited to the Chronicles you have for that character. (there are some very rare exceptions to that last, but that's not worth going into here.)

If an item on a Chronicle has (Limit X) on it, you're only allowed to buy that item X amount of times. Usually these will be items like partially charged wands.