Season 1 playthrough

[djosh]

So some of my friends are interested in playing Pathfinder, and they became very interested in Pathfinder Society. The problem is some of them are really into knowing the "whole" story of the background and everything. They want to play through all the seasons in order to learn the story. They decided to skip on season 0 and want to start with season 1.

I told them I would see what I could do but I have no idea where to start. I don't know what order I should be doing the scenarios in, I have no idea if I should be presenting them with the "old" factions so they can experience them like they were when they came out. I need some advice.

I have never DM'd a society scenario but I do have experience DMing in general. This is just a bit overwhelming for me. I tried to talk them into a Adventure Path, but they think it is more interesting being a treasure hunter for their chosen factions. They don't want to touch anything past season 1 for now so I just need to figure out a plan of attack. Please help.

[tuypo1]

honestly for that i would suggest you run them as normal modules outside the society system the players will still be society members but you can run it as a normal game instead

[Nathan Monson]

I think the senarios are numbered chronologicly, so you can play through them in order. not sure about old factions tho

[Preston Hudson]

Skipping of Season 0 is a double edged sword. Skipping it will save the GM conversion time as 0-05 is the only one that has been converted to this point (the others are using 3.5 rules). Running will provide some back story to future season scenarios.

As far as running them in order, there are some threads here on the boards that will guide you through the major story arcs for each season but other than that and any multipart scenarios, there is really no order.

If you plan to run them as home games, it really does not matter if you use the old factions or current factions and you are not tied to running them as written. On the other hand, if you want to provide PFS credit, you must use the current factions and run them as they are written.

Hope this helps and, if you have any other questions, please feel free to PM me.

[BretI]

Still might want to do The Confirmation and The Wounded Wisp first, since both of those introduce Pathfinder Society and from what I've seen don't have anything that gets in the way of the storyline for other seasons.

[Mystic Lemur]

You can't just play them in order under Society rules. I don't know if it's because of the retired scenarios, but you stall out around level 4-5. Around the start of Season 3, VanceMadrox posted a couple of recommended campaigns for Seasons 1-2. Maybe it will give you some ideas.

Here you go:
Post 1
Post 2

[Paz]

Mystic Lemur wrote:

Around the start of Season 3, VanceMadrox posted a couple of recommended campaigns for Seasons 1-2.

Those campaign paths were revised and expanded HERE.

[Eric Clingenpeel]

I highly recommend Brian's Path 2, Character 1: The Early Society. It has a mix of Season 0 & 1 and is a great path to learn the story of the early society and is a great lead up to The Eyes of the Ten Seeker arch.

[Drogos]

And if your players just want to play Pathfinders as their motivation, you could run the Shattered Star AP which has the characters as new members of the society from the start. It is also sanctioned so you could give them credit as you complete books for other PFS characters.

[djosh]

Wow thank you guys. This is great information. I'm really interested in those campaign paths, especially the path 2 stuff. Just wondering, how weird would it be to use the current factions in the older adventures? Also where would I go to convert the 3.5 quests to Pathfinder? Thank you for all the help so far guys :)

[RAdeMorris]

djosh wrote:

Wow thank you guys. This is great information. I'm really interested in those campaign paths, especially the path 2 stuff. Just wondering, how weird would it be to use the current factions in the older adventures? Also where would I go to convert the 3.5 quests to Pathfinder? Thank you for all the help so far guys :)

Here?

[Eric Clingenpeel]

Pg 33 Guide to PFS Organized Play wrote:

Season 0 (Scenarios #1–#28): Season 0 scenarios were

written under the 3.5 rules set of the world’s oldest roleplaying
game, before the release of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
Scenarios are to be run with minimal changes by GMs,
limited to adding CMB/CMD scores to NPCs and monsters
and using newly combined skills such as Stealth and
Perception instead of Move Silently and Spot. If a creature
in the scenario also appears in the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary,
Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2, or Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3 and
maintains the same CR between both rules sets, you may use
the Pathfinder RPG stats in place of the 3.5 stats. This is the
only substitution allowed in these scenarios.

Prestige awards and faction missions: Faction missions
no longer count towards the success conditions of a scenario,
but they may be used to add extra flavor to the game session.
Instead, earning Prestige is tied to fulfilling the primary and
secondary success conditions of each mission. The primary
and secondary success conditions grant 1 Prestige Point
each, for a maximum total of 2 Prestige Points. The primary
success condition for a Season 0–2 scenario is the overall
scenario’s goal; Season 3–4 scenarios instead use the Success
Condition included after the scenario’s Conclusion section.
A free, supplementary document available for download at
paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/pfsproducts/pfsFreeProducts
details the secondary success condition for each scenario.

Seasons 0–2: For the first three seasons of the campaign,
only five factions were available for characters to ally
with. As such, members of the newer factions introduced
in Season 3 playing older scenarios may utilize faction
missions from another faction, as follows.
• Grand Lodge faction PCs should treat Osirion faction
missions as their own for all Season 0, 1, and 2 scenarios.
• Sczarni faction PCs should treat Taldor faction missions
as their own for all Season 0, 1, and 2 scenarios.
• Silver Crusade faction PCs should treat Andoran faction
missions as their own for all Season 0, 1, and 2 scenarios.

[djosh]

So question about factions again. Those rules seem outdated with the new factions. What do I do about the new factions? Thank you guys so much for the help, helping me so much figure out how I want to tackle all of this.

[Netopalis]

The new factions have ties to the old factions. The substitution is as follows:

Cheliax - Dark Archive
Andoran - Liberty's Edge
Taldor - Sovereign Court
Qadira - The Exchange
Osirion - Scarab Sages

If you play to the point where this switchover occurs, run 5-99, The Paths We Choose. It explains how each of these factions become their new counterpart.

[djosh]

Thank you everyone for the help, I think I am all set for running an adventure this Sunday. I may even set up to record it in the system. Will be fun :)

[tuypo1]

have fun

[djosh]

One last question before I start tomorrow, the items in season 0, do they convert over to Pathfinder items easily? I don't want to give them overpowered items or items that don't really exist in Pathfinder. Everything else seems easy enough to convert, just want to make sure the items don't cause any problems. Thank you again for all the great help :)

[StFrancisss]

Very minor changes were made in some items so nothing in season 0 will be a problem.

Are you running this officially as Pathfinder Society (PFS) and will be reporting it? Because there are rules for how loot and such can be purchased. Basically, you don't get any items from a scenario, you just get a set amount of gold afterwards (as indicated on the Chronicle sheets). You can then use that gold to purchase things. And purchasing things in PFS also has its own set of rules (things like mundane items, and +1 weapons/armor can always be purchased, other things you must get enough fame from the Society to purchase).

These rules can be found in the Guidlines for PFS Play free pdf.

Honestly, if you don't care about getting official credit a very simple way of doing things would be this: any items you get from the scenario don't carry over (so they might as well drink the potions they find). And then just give them the max gold on the chronicle sheets (or whatever they earned) and let them buy whatever from the core rulebook.