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Hello. I apologize if this is the wrong forum for posting this question, but maybe someone can help me out.
Where would I find out about joining in on PFS games in my area? I have a wonderful long term home game that I play in on Saturday evenings, but would like to add some more game time where I could explore playing different characters that I have ideas for. From what I have read PFS is an organized play format where I create a character and play them out for the "season" through a series of pre-set adventures? Is that correct? I am also assuming that there are local places where these groups meet and play (I am in Dallas, Texas and I would imagine that Madness Comics in Plano, Texas is a meeting place). Are the game groups static? ...or do people just meet and form groups and play?
Sorry for the random newb questions. I'm a long time PnP role player, but this organized stuff is new to me. Any advice that someone could give on PFS play would be welcomed. Not just who to contact or where to go, but game advice also.
Venture-Captain, Netherlands
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Welcome!
Great place to start is reading the guide to organised play. It will answer a lot of questions you have. Short: You make your own character, yes, and the adventures are pre-set. Altough the outcome all depends on you and your team. The teams are dynamic. Unless the local play scene is really small, you will usually end up with a different table composition each time.
The Guide to Organised play is a free download here.
Also, at the very back of the Guide, there is a section with who oversees which location.
Looks like there are two people you can contact for your region:
Texas—Dallas & Ft. Worth: Jon Cary (VC) DFWVentureCaptain@gmail.com
Texas—Dallas: Marcus Mayes (VL) dfwventurelieutenant@gmail.com
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Welcome to PFS! :)
You can look up events on the Events page.
It looks like there are four regular game days in your area:
Sat: Common Ground Games
Sat: Area 51
Sat: Madness Comics
Sun: Y2 Komics
You can also contact the Venture Officers for your area. They are Stephen Ross (Venture Captain) and Kevin Willis (Venture Lieutenant).
You can read more about the particulars of Pathfinder Society in the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play. (Your Venture Officers' email addresses will be in there also.) Here are some quick clarifications:
1. There are seasons, and each season has an overarching metaplot, but the scenarios (the word we use to describe these short adventures) are episodic (like a TV show). For the most part, you can play them in any order you want. They are relatively independent of each other. You can even play a scenario from season 6 (our current season) one day, then a scenario from season 4 the next day, and so on.
2. Most local events are weekly game days. Even though you will mostly see the same faces week after week at these events, the design of organized play allows you to take your character from one event to another event elsewhere in the world and continue their adventures.
Lastly, a warning. PFS is great, but it is not the same as a home game. There is often a culture shock of sorts for people who are used to home games when they move into organized play. Home games can do things that organized play cannot, and vice-versa. The biggest disappointments I see players experience originate from wanting PFS to be like their home game, when it simply cannot be. They are different beasts, but they are both great fun in their own ways. :)
Explore, Report, and Cooperate!
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Welcome to PFS! :)
You can look up events on the Events page.
It looks like there are four regular game days in your area:
Sat: Common Ground Games
Sat: Area 51
Sat: Madness Comics
Sun: Y2 KomicsYou can also contact the Venture Officers for your area. They are Stephen Ross (Venture Captain) and Kevin Willis (Venture Lieutenant).
You can read more about the particulars of Pathfinder Society in the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play. (Your Venture Officers' email addresses will be in there also.) Here are some quick clarifications:
1. There are seasons, and each season has an overarching metaplot, but the scenarios (the word we use to describe these short adventures) are episodic (like a TV show). For the most part, you can play them in any order you want. They are relatively independent of each other. You can even play a scenario from season 6 (our current season) one day, then a scenario from season 4 the next day, and so on.
2. Most local events are weekly game days. Even though you will mostly see the same faces week after week at these events, the design of organized play allows you to take your character from one event to another event elsewhere in the world and continue their adventures.
Lastly, a warning. PFS is great, but it is not the same as a home game. There is often a culture shock of sorts for people who are used to home games when they move into organized play. Home games can do things that organized play cannot, and vice-versa. The biggest disappointments I see players experience originate from wanting PFS to be like their home game, when it simply cannot be. They are different beasts, but they are both great fun in their own ways. :)
Explore, Report, and Cooperate!
Thank you so very much! I have downloaded the Organized Play thingy and am checking it out so I can make sure I make a "legal" character.
I expect the play to be different from a home game. I'm not sure if what I am expecting (metagaming, min/maxing, munchkins, and powergaming) is going to be prevalent, but I'm looking forward to whatever it is. I can enjoy role playing and PnP gaming in different flavors...so it will be all good. I am sure there will many memorable experiences that it will be enjoyed and fun people met.
I'll contact those peeps and see what my next step is. Thank you again!
...any tips on character creation?
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...any tips on character creation?
First off, read the Guide to Organized Play. It will be the main document you use for character creation.
If you are going to use any rules that are not in the CRB, you will need to make sure they are legal by checking the Additional Resources page. You will need a copy of any book (print or watermarked PDF) in order to use rules from that book.
I would recommend playing the confirmation as your first PFS scenario if at all possible.
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...any tips on character creation?First off, read the Guide to Organized Play. It will be the main document you use for character creation.
If you are going to use any rules that are not in the CRB, you will need to make sure they are legal by checking the Additional Resources page. You will need a copy of any book (print or watermarked PDF) in order to use rules from that book.
I would recommend playing the confirmation as your first PFS scenario if at all possible.
One important point in the GtOP is the first level rebuild. Until you -play- a character at second level, you can rebuild any aspect of it except the character number and any consumables you have expended. This allows you to try out different builds and either change classes completely if you don't like how it plays, or just tweak things as you go along. I find it invaluable as I am trying something new.
Excellent starting scenarios:
The Confirmation (as Imbicatus suggests)
First Steps part 1, In Service to Lore
The Wounded Wisp
All of these scenarios are designed to be introductions, and all three are replayable with first level characters.
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Hello. I apologize if this is the wrong forum for posting this question, but maybe someone can help me out.
Warhorn is usually the best place to look. Fortunately for you you're not in between metro areas so you don't need to hunt around.
From what I have read PFS is an organized play format where I create a character and play them out for the "season" through a series of pre-set adventures?
For a new player the "Season" you're in is almost irrelevant. You could play a season 6, then a season 1, then a season 0, then a season 6 again... they have overaching themes and easter eggs that make a bit more sense if you're playing all of one season but player availability and mood matter a lot more than what season it is.
You pretty much play from level 1 to 11, with a few exceptions.
Are the game groups static? ...or do people just meet and form groups and play?
Semi static. You'll see the occasional people with no li.. erm.. dedication to the hobby! that are there every week, some people there on occasion, and every once in a while someone blows through like a tumbleweed.
I'm a long time PnP role player, but this organized stuff is new to me. Any advice that someone could give on PFS play would be welcomed. Not just who to contact or where to go, but game advice also.
Game starts at 7
6:55 people start to trickle in
Folks eat, gossip, get settled in.
7:15 Geek soduku! People finalize how many people they have for which table. The veterans will then decide who's playing what character, trying to balance out levels, tiers, and party composition. The DM desperately tries to sneak in one more reading of he scenario
7:30: people get going. There's a mission briefing that one person will be paying attention to while most players find dice and minis check character sheets, phones,and chronicle sheets to make last minute purchases. You will get a flurry of 5 or six mispronounced names without much clear idea whether drendle drang is a person you're talking to, a place you want to go, or a particularly nasty curse you want to avoid.
You'll have a chance to ask questions, gather information and make knowledge checks to get some idea of what you're in for.
There will be ~ 4 encounters, usually some mooks for one fight, a trap or three, some sort of a skill or social challange, some sort of strong monster thats usually more likely to kill you than the boss, and then a solo or near solo boss fight. These will inevitably involve some "i'm over here he's over there what are you doing how are you searching how does that rule work" while trying to keep the game moving.
The encounters will test adventuring basics. Can you attack at both melee and ranged. Can you deal with swarms and other unusual creature types. Can you deal with damage reduction and incoporeal critters.
10:30 the boss fight starts! Hurrry!
11:05 The dm hurridly signs chronicle sheets and hands them out with a "go ahead fill them out"
Grab stuff get out the door hang out in the parking lot for a bit to come back to reality then head home.
For character advice, you are in and out of game a pathfinder society member: a murderho..erm.. gentleman adventure archeologist out to plumb the depths of golarions forgotten past. Have someone that would either love to be in such an organization or is at least willing to take their money.
20 point buy, so no one in new york shows up with the all 18s that "Their brother saw me roll fair and square in california". No item creation. Start at level one. You can redo your character in between sessions till level 2. Jacks and one eyed kings wild. Start with 150 gold... you know what you have your weapon some scale mail a sling and a rope. Someone else is carrying the rest.
a little versatility and self reliance is better than a one hit wonder. The parties are randomish, so your fighters +2 use magic device and a wand of cure light wounds may make you the party healer. Thats LESS likely with experienced players in the area that have binders full of characters but it happens.
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...any tips on character creation?
Yes.
The tenets of the Pathfinder Society are Explore, Report, Cooperate!
Build a character that is prepared to do that.
The Pathfinder Society is a gang, er, I mean group, of adventurer-explorers. You don't really know who will be in your party from one table to another, so you want to be able to fill a variety of roles.
In a home game, everyone can specialize in their role and the group will do well. But in PFS you have no way to guarantee that every role will be covered well.
The two dominant encounter types in PFS are combat and social. There are occasional traps and puzzles, but mostly it is combat and social situations.
I recommend you have some way to contribute in each of those, at least in some small way. Even if you don't want to play a high Charisma character, you can put some ranks in Sense Motive. On the flip side, if you want to play a face character, try to have something you can do to help other party members in a fight, even if it is Aid Another with a longspear.
Knowledge skills, especially local and history, are almost always useful. Knowing many different languages also seems to help from time to time.
Diplomacy can go a long way in this campaign.
Most characters carry wands to heal themselves and scrolls to remove conditions that they are most frightened of. Like I said above, you never know who you will be gaming with, so there is often not a dedicated healer in the party. But there is almost always at least one character who can use your wand for you.
Lastly, and most importantly, most players prefer other players to have characters with personality above all else. No one will care how sweet your build is if your character is not fun to play with. If you play a character that is fun for the other players, you will get the most out of the organized play campaign.
Have fun! :)
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...any tips on character creation?...The tenets of the Pathfinder Society are Explore, Report, Cooperate!
Build a character that is prepared to do that.
The Pathfinder Society is a gang, er, I mean group, of adventurer-explorers. You don't really know who will be in your party from one table to another, so you want to be able to fill a variety of roles...
...Have fun! :)
I like that! Thank you, very much!
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
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I like that! Thank you, very much!...any tips on character creation?...The tenets of the Pathfinder Society are Explore, Report, Cooperate!
Build a character that is prepared to do that.
The Pathfinder Society is a gang, er, I mean group, of adventurer-explorers. You don't really know who will be in your party from one table to another, so you want to be able to fill a variety of roles...
...Have fun! :)
Once you come up with a character build, feel free to post it in the Advice forum (not in the PFS forum). Put something like "[PFS]" in the title, so people know it's not for a home game, and you're sure to get more specific advice.