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I'm at the airport now (+1 for hotel within easy walking distance) reflecting on the weekend.
Rand'm Thoughts:
1. Sometimes a failure is a really planned success. For example, I sign up for morning slots that I know I can ditch because they are non-reserved events and want to sleep in. Or when I intented to play a lot of S&S Adventure Card Game, but failed to do so because I got caught up doing so much other fun stuff (like playing the first 5 scenarios for the Wrath of the Righteous ACG).
2. This was another good PaizoCon...the fact that I failed to do all that I wanted to do was a good thing: I had more opportunities to do stuff than I could even handle. I spent some time socializing, some time PFSing, and yet more time AdvCardGaming. I blew off my Monday morning plans when Tanis offered to sit down at our table and chat and play because I couldn't imagine anything better that I would want to be doing...especially the stuff I intended.
3. I still get a kick out of talking to yahoos that I haven't seen since the last PaizoCon. PFS is a pretty transient community and so I expect some turnover over time, but it's always nice to see a familiar face from last time.
This year's big thrill was the return of MisterSlanky, who I last saw in 2011 at The Greatest Game of PFS Ever Played. We played in another game this weekend and I can't say enough about that factor of PaizoCon: the social aspect where we are coming together to jointly rejoice in a common passion.
4. Ever walk by a guy about 8 times and know you know but forget his name every time you walk by? Sorry Trevor. I suck. You're good peeps. Sadly, there were a number of people I saw, but didn't have a chance to hang with: Ben Bruck, another time.
5. People change. And PaizoCon shows those changes. One yahoo lost 120 lbs since last people saw him. Another yahoo came in with a big bushy beard that I didn't even recall. Marking change in others in 1 year increments reminds me that I'm probably showing change too. I hope I have people who notice change in me...and hopefully for the better.
6. The Special, while overshadowed by the Serpent's Rise Special, was essential to making the latter so good. Without the set up and events therein, the second isn't quite as good. In short, I believe they are a pair and conjoined and should be thought of in that way. It was a good experience. If you get a chance to play them, do so and revel in the coordination that it took to fit together as well as they did.
7. I want to get my hands back on Balazar, the summmoner from the Wrath of the Righteous ACG. I enjoyed playing him, but didn't feel like I had achieved mastery with him yet. We finished the first Book, had a good time doing so, and enjoyed the story elements that reminded us of our PbP run of Wrath. I look forward to time with this set and the Mummy's Mask ACG.
I'm out. Thanks to all who helped make PaizoCon so good.
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3. I still get a kick out of talking to yahoos that I haven't seen since the last PaizoCon. PFS is a pretty transient community and so I expect some turnover over time, but it's always nice to see a familiar face from last time.
This year's big thrill was the return of MisterSlanky, who I last saw in 2011 at The Greatest Game of PFS Ever Played. We played in another game this weekend and I can't say enough about that factor of PaizoCon: the social aspect where we are coming together to jointly rejoice in a common passion.
Aaaaaaw, I love you too Painlord.
Seriously, great convention and worth every minute. Almost makes me want to find time to post more again so I don't have to wait a year to see all of you.
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Well the end of another great Paizocon...and as I promised Painlord a little entry into this great event blog :)
Started off great with the welcoming free warm cookies at check-in and only got better. The hotel has so much more room than the Marriott and that really showed especially in the main ballroom. . . .SPACE BETWEEN TABLES!!! Inconceivably good news that, you didn't feel hemmed in and it made for a much more comfortable gaming environment!!
More about the hotel, although the in-house options for food etc was expensive you had far more options to eat out that were close by.
Thursday saw the start of the games and shenanigans with the pre-con games. Huge thanks to those that gave up their time to DM and play in those, didnt make it to the meet and greet as I took the time to spend some more time readjusting to the timezone so I was fresh for the main event.
The morning queue for badges was as epic as always....the size of the hotel really came into its own as the queues snaked down and around the endless corridors but boy did it move fast, kudos to the Paizo team there it flew by and it was soon a thing of the past as the halls filled with people rustling through probably the best goodie bag to date. Now onto the games.....
I think I managed to play a PFS game in every slot, and every one of my DM's stepped up and made the games some of the best I've had...Cant thank people enough for making this lonely Brit feel welcome at their tables. Special thanks to TetsujinOni for running parts 2 and 3 of Scions in the afternoon slots so I could complete that series.
The Specials were both great, and I think its been said that the Friday night game Siege of Serpents was really a good set up to what was probably the most awesome special to date..Serpents Rise was just outstanding, right from the premise to the whole energy and flow of the story it really was one hell of a roller-coaster of awesomeness...enjoyed every second of it and cant wait to see what season 7 has in store for us...
All in all, probably the best Paizocon that I've been too so far, thanks to Mike and the HQ staff, the GM's and the Paizo staff.... this traveler from across the pond felt he really got value for money :)
Hope to see some of you at Gencon this year, and others at Paizocon 2016 :)
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So, I did a crazy thing.
I went to PaizoCon without knowing a soul. Traditionally, when I go to conventions I try to volunteer and help out, but they were full up by the time I had emailed in. More on that later. Despite all of that, I set out undaunted.
Thursday afternoon, after settling in and washing off the day's travel, I wandered the hotel looking for something to do. I ran across Verdis and Painlord (and others I can't recall) playing Skull and Shackles ACG and joined in. Painlord quizzed me on my PFS history and who I'd played with. I'd met my local VC like once, but that's because I primarily play online. Taking me under his wing, Painlord introduced me to everyone that walked by.
Friday I started off with PFS ACG's Season of the Righteous. We fought hard, but 1-1A was too tough for us. I don't think we had the right party makeup for it was part of the problem. The fact that several of us, myself included, were either new or rusty didn't help either. Regardless, we enjoyed playing and chatting.
Afterward, I wandered over to the PFO meet and greet. Being as I Kickstarted it twice, founded the CG company Golden Flask, founded the CG settlement Tavernhold, and played in the alpha I figured I should probably say hi. (Oh, btw, I'm Virgil Firecask on there) Colorblindness and time have kept me away for a while, but it was nice to hear how things were going and put some TeamSpeak voices with faces. Some of the colorblindness issues I had with the interface are supposed to be fixed at this point and I was able to talk with Lee Hammock about some of the other issues I had playing the game. Hopefully I will have the time to get back to it soon.
For the next four hours I sat in Olympic 3 listening to panels about diversity (more dwarves!), occultism, and occult adventures. All good panels and, from the sound of it, they had enough material to make three hardcovers about occultism if they really wanted to.
The Friday night special was awesome. Our table was GMed by rknop and I was the bloodrager he mentioned. The Malachi Brothers (three guys who were all planning on playing fighters until one of them swapped to a paladin pre-gen) were great guys and even bought the table a round of beers. Great event and I'd like to parrot others saying that it should always be considered paired with the Sunday night special. The two combined gave a lot of insight to how things went down. This was also the first time I'd played this character at a physical table. She's a 4th level bloodrager who has been played completely online to this point. It's very strange to try and voice a character whom you've only had to type out until this point. Also, I really need to get some reference art and a better mini for her.
Exhausted from the night before, I stagger into an 8am game with Jason Bulmahn. We were all minions of Azarnak the Undying and he was booored. This is bad for any minion. It was our job to setup a level of our villain's dungeon and lure adventurers to it so that Azarnak could entertain the vampiress from the dungeon in the next town over. Hijinks ensued as a group of random, low-CR excerpts from the Monster Codex have to work together to get into town and out with supplies. Not to mention luring adventurers out to the dungeon itself. If there was a fantasy RPG version of the Venture Brothers, I think Jason Bulmahn just pulled a page from it.
At that point I completely departed from my schedule, because I had been emailed by Mike Brock the previous night (during the special) about emergency volunteering for the PFS ACG demo room. So, I was able to help out and earn a purple volunteer shirt.
Sunday I played a nice little card game called Citadels with Jessica Price. It was a fun game (provided that you didn't have horrible luck like the guy sitting next to me) and was a welcome respite from all of the dice-rolling.
Speak of dice-rolling, the Sunday night special was fantastic. My pregen was "The Professional" and I had a lot of fun playing an Unchained Rogue. I think my current rogue is about to be rebuilt.
I was also able to nab a pickup PFS game after the convention ended on Monday since I ended up spending an additional, unplanned night in Seattle due to airline issues. I was a little tired and don't actually remember any of their names... I apologize.
Overall, a really fun trip. A++. Would con again.
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Curio, when the table is reported, send a message to pathfindersociety@paizo.com with the session number and character number. You can request the credit be applied to a new character number and marked dead there, as you are allowed to apply dead pregen chronicles to a brand new character rather than be forced to pay the prestige or lose a current character.
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As far as I can see, there were a few things from the Guide that should have applied:I can still remember Serpent's Rise, even now. I know there are those on here who had tons of fun doing it, but sadly, this was not my experience.
1. The characters were interesting. By themselves, they were well-built. They just weren't built to do this scenario well. Not only were they required to use skills that none of them actually had for their respective missions, but the players at my table were hampered by the unclearness of the missions themselves. Sometimes you had to Meta from your memories from Siege of the Serpent to actually have a clue what to do, which obviously wasn't the intent. Mind you, these were not newbies to Pathfinder.
2. Character death. Nowhere in the scenario or any disclaimers was it said that your pregen's death would also be your designated character's death. Later some tables found out about it after the fact, which caused much dismay. Some GMs counted the characters as dead, while others didn't because the biggest precedence that we'd had for a pregen-only scenario was the We Be Goblins series, which not only gives you credit for a designated character, but also doesn't kill your character if your goblin dies. The matter-of-fact reaction from the staff suggested that they expected this to be no problem, but when you have to res a 7th level character with 22 prestige, that's a bitter pill to swallow. Especially when you have no warning. I will not put spoilers on this fact, because I believe it shouldn't be hidden from anyone who wants to play Serpent's Rise. You should be allowed to know beforehand that there is a risk in your choice of character designation.
3. Some GMs played intentionally softer. Considering that the "end boss" can (and did, at my table) easily wipe the floor with an entire party within a few rounds, some GMs realized that letting him do so would kill the enjoyment, especially when people found out about #2 above. So some of the fights such as that were toned down. The survivability of the party depended on either this, or having everyone run away,...
You may
also opt instead to apply the Chronicle sheets earned with a non-1stlevel pregenerated character to a 1st-level character with
the amount of gp gained reduced to 500 gp (or 250 gp for
characters using the slow advancement track). You do not
lose access to any of the Prestige Points, or items listed
on the Chronicle sheets that were earned during the
adventure. However, any boons must wait to be utilized
until the character is of the same level as the subtier on the
Chronicle sheet unless otherwise noted. Any equipment
that’s listed on the pregenerated character sheet may only
be sold to clear conditions such as death during the play of
a sanctioned event, and any remaining gold does not carry
over at the end of the adventure.
So for sure you can sell the pregen's equipment to clear the death (and at level 7, there's typically enough gear to clear the death).
Also, the first sentence indicates that you can apply the credit to a 1st level character, so I think that would let you avoid the death being on a level 7 character, or at least that's what I have seen in the past? This is not as 100% clear-cut as the last point, but I am still 98% sure of that.
EDIT: Looks like others agree
EDIT2: Found it set in stone in the PFS FAQ. I knew I saw it somewhere.
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I'll pass it on to my bf, thank you! The thing is, why is this even happening? Why couldn't they have made the scenario without killing a designated character, as we're all used to? Is that even necessary? We can understand how awesome the pathfinder society is, without having our own characters be fodder for that truth.
There is precedent for this, in that We Be Goblins Too outlined rules for characters to be marked dead if the pregen dies, albeit with a reduced price for rez.
I can't comment on why a pregens death means that the character receiving the chronicle is required to clear the condition. The ability to shift it to a new number is probably a concession to those who feel the same way you do.
I view it as the fact that since your PC receives credit for the adventure, he is adventuring while you are playing that pregen, and adventuring is risky. The only way to determine the outcome of that adventure is the adventure you are playing the pregen in.
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I promised Painlord a blog post after chatting with him for a few (I also promised I would get TOZ to write more than three sentences about his experiences too)... These are just a few of my thoughts and my experiences from the Con. Most people that saw me around the Con will remember me by the bright purple hair (blue&pink as well) .... or as Ms.'s TOZ (not sure how I feel about that one, but after 8 years I'm keeping him).
Thursday, having learned my lesson from previous conventions I usually try to arrive the day before and leave the day after. We were arriving early enough that we signed up for an afternoon pre-con game of Wrath of the Accursed. We had a fantastic time. The GM did a great job of instilling paranoia and rolling with some unexpected things that our characters did. I don't recall forum names (if I actually know them... I don't) but I thought that it was a great table. I had great time being the psudo-healer with my Warpriest Valkyrie (she got the most play this weekend). We also spent some time chatting and hanging out with friends that we saw. It's always great to spend time with old friends and meet new people as well. Some people were friendlier than others. Attempted to head off to bed for the early start on Friday; but got sucked into an ACG game of Skull and Shackles which was surprisingly fun! It wasn't at all how I thought it would be and I really enjoyed it. This means I will probably attempt to go and play more often locally now.
Friday I began my 8am slot with Fires of Karamoss; it was a pretty good table. I played my Warpriest again (realizing I really really need to get some scrolls of carry companion) with a group of lively individuals. There were some new players at the table and the GM was fantastic. It's a good scenario and I hope that when I GM this at Phoenix Comic Con I can do as well! Jetted off to do lunch after the slot so I could make my 2pm seminar with Nick Logue (GMing on the Fly), which was a really informative session. I realized I do quite a few of the things he mentioned, but I learned a lot of new things and took information away. The big three were to create relationships, try to say 'Yes' as much as possible, and be flexible with the world (so you can build it with the players). I love this idea and will be attempting to incorporate more of this in my PFS play. I often feel limited by the PFS - run as written rule - but I already do much of that in my home games (Skull and Shackles presently). I then headed off to dinner with friends before prepping for the Special that night - I had initially planned to play 3-4 or 5-9 tiers, but I ended up in a high level party with two new friends and 3 old friends (Rusty ironpants, ???, Holly, Daniel, and Jonathon) - I had a lot of fun playing my Beloved of Aram Zey sorceress; Justin Riddler was an awesome GM and I completely respect his skill and the fact that he shifted from one tier extreme to the other with ease. Only minimal loading time and completely understandable. The table felt 100% fun as the group would continue to RP while we were waiting for Justin to finish reading/prepping as necessary. All in all a fantastic day for me (My sorceress had a rough day though).
Saturday started with me feeling quite bleary eyed - I always have brief thoughts of sleeping in after the specials. I am glad that I didn't - I played Returned to the Sky with several awesome players. I had an great amount of fun playing my seriously unoptimized gunslinger (just ask the table, I didn't one-shot anything!); I was glad I'd taken several feats that really helped me and my table out. The roleplay was also great (people should stop Audrey from talking, that +0 Diplomacy is a killer) and the people all seemed like they had fun. Overall I thought that it was a great scenario to play in and I was glad I had gotten up. My table ran late and despite having an entry ticket to the "Crayon of Vecna" I decided to get lunch first. After a leisurely lunch with friends I ended up getting sidetracked by the card-game and built some decks with the help of my friendly local Cardgame VL. I then headed to the Horror in RPG's seminar - also interesting an informative with how to add some spooky elements to a game. After that there was dinner and a rousing round of Wrath of the Righteous card game; I honestly did not enjoy it as much as the Skull and Shackles game previously.
Sunday morning came way to early; started the day with a game of Tapestry's toil with one of the VL's that was working on getting his 5th star. It was an amazing table. Just awesome; I played my Warpriest again and the group had a great time. One of the players was hyper focused on completing his faction card things and it detracted a little bit, but as a party we took this in stride and incorporated it into the RP around the table more often than not. It was a great scenario and we had a fantastic GM who just made the table. Went off to my afternoon game GM'd by rknop where we got to be magical cats and it was SO much fun - I had a great table to play with and we all enjoyed hanging out. Then time for dinner and the special - I was pretty excited about getting to play in the special though a little hesitant because I knew I would end up with a random GM. Set up a group of 6 while in line and we had a pretty solid group.
We got to our table and I'll just say things went incredibly south from there. I can honestly say that I did not enjoy my experience at the special; especially after having some reflection time to realize just how incredibly awful it was. The scenario was great, the characters were great, and it had all the ability to be completely awesome; but it was not - My GM was entirely unprepared, there were no maps except a 2x8 square hallway and maybe an 8x16 set of greenery for all the other maps. We also got some 'harder' enemies. My character did not survive and I was not told ahead of time that the character I applied the credit to would die so I am more than a little frustrated with that - even if I understand that there is precedence for it (I didn't realize We Be Goblin's Too was this way as well till I read it here). I had a very bitter experience with the special and left feeling quite upset.
Monday morning I had planned to sleep in and skip my morning lottery slot since I was still feeling crabby from the previous night. I am SO glad I didn't - this game was my highlight of the con! It really made up for the lackluster performance of the night before. Stephen Helt was my GM for Midgard: Goblins in the Brewery and my table was amazing! I literally laughed so hard I needed to use my inhaler because I could not breathe. It was an amazing time. We spent most of the afternoon just hanging out and doing a reading of 'Old Man Henderson' for some new friends. Then we started a pick-up game for Returned to the Sky, ran by dinketry. As usual, this was the perfect ending to what was an amazing con!
Aside from the one blemish, I had a great time at the convention and I hope to see many of the same faces next year; I am terrible with names but I am always open to just hanging around and chatting.
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Curio, when the table is reported, send a message to pathfindersociety@paizo.com with the session number and character number. You can request the credit be applied to a new character number and marked dead there, as you are allowed to apply dead pregen chronicles to a brand new character rather than be forced to pay the prestige or lose a current character.I'll pass it on to my bf, thank you! The thing is, why is this even happening? Why couldn't they have made the scenario without killing a designated character, as we're all used to? Is that even necessary? We can understand how awesome the pathfinder society is, without having our own characters be fodder for that truth.
I'm not sure why you are under the impression that playing We Be Goblins doesn't also result in the death of an assigned character.
Playing a pregen and dying requires you to resolve that death with the assigned character, or re-assign it to a character number not currently under use.
Secondly, all the pregens were more than capable of completing thier tasks.
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@Andrew: The PFS rules section for We Be Goblins! specifically calls out that death of the pregen does not carry over to the PC the chronicle is applied to.
Conditions, Death, and Expendables:
Since all PCs in this adventure are pregenerated characters, no conditions (including death) carry beyond the end of a module to the real PCs to whom the module’s Chronicle sheet is applied. Likewise, any wealth spent or resources expended during the course of the adventure are considered unspent upon the module’s completion.
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Curio, when the table is reported, send a message to pathfindersociety@paizo.com with the session number and character number. You can request the credit be applied to a new character number and marked dead there, as you are allowed to apply dead pregen chronicles to a brand new character rather than be forced to pay the prestige or lose a current character.I'll pass it on to my bf, thank you! The thing is, why is this even happening? Why couldn't they have made the scenario without killing a designated character, as we're all used to? Is that even necessary? We can understand how awesome the pathfinder society is, without having our own characters be fodder for that truth.I'm not sure why you are under the impression that playing We Be Goblins doesn't also result in the death of an assigned character.
Playing a pregen and dying requires you to resolve that death with the assigned character, or re-assign it to a character number not currently under use.
Secondly, all the pregens were more than capable of completing thier tasks.
I wasn't there, so I'm just going by what I'm reading, but it sounds to me like people are saying they either were not informed of or possibly, permitted to use that method to save their characters. As many time as I've had to quote the FAQ on the boards, it's sadly not universally known as an option.
It's hard to tell when reading into posts I know.
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Too many rules.
There's all of Pathfinder itself, then there's all of the guide.
I'm fortunate that nobody died at my table, because, honestly, I didn't know what you were supposed to do. I might have looked it up, but it's very tough to do that when the players are sitting there waiting for their chronicle sheets and announcements are being made that the room is closing in 5 minutes.
This particular thing hasn't come up before. I don't have, nor will I ever have, the entire PFS Guide to Online Play memorized. (I don't mean word-for-word, I just mean all the rules, or even that there are rules for all the situations that are in there.) And, I play a fair amount nowadays. We should default to the Guide, yes, but it's not always easy to remember that there is a rule in the guide for it. Sometimes, what seems like ought to be the obvious assumption to somebody (e.g. "this was a pregen, no penalty if you die" -- perhaps partly because they remember a WBG run) is wrong, other times it's not. How long do you spend searching the Guide before you decide your obvious assumption must be right? Especially when the room is closing in 5 minutes?
There's not an easy solution, alas. Too many rules.
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Post PaizoCon Thoughts
Well, that's my fourth PaizoCon done. I'm sad I didn't get to stay in the 'con hotel for this one, as I think it constricted my ability to hang out with folks. I found every time there was a chance to sit and really catch up, I was doing so on a timer before my bus (usually the last for the night post special) left.
Here's some more reflections on the specials. Spoilers follow.
The Good
- Nice mix of social choices, sector based encounters, and a more linear set of objectives. Something for everyone, as it were.
- I like that each phase had rumors and clues as to what was going on. That was a nice touch.
- The lenses on the top floor were neat! I love seeing encounters where the environment is a factor for tactics. Please do more of these!
Suggestions
- Definitely has significant pacing issues. I wondered if this was my GM, but I see this feedback in enough other posts for other tables to wonder if the scenario itself may share some of that burden. I also reflected a lot back on Legacy of the Stonelords last year, which didn't seem to have trouble pacing despite being a similar format. I also thought to the Year 2 special, also built around a similar plot thread an attack on the lodge, and remember it having a much greater sense of urgency. This one struggled to match both of them in each of these areas. This may mean just examining the flavor and flow of events as presented in the special itself to help GMs keep things moving and create a good sense of urgency.
- There did not seem to be a climactic final confrontation fight as the scenario was presented to us by the GM. This feels sort of flat at the end. I had been hoping to fight a full team of Aspis Agents, for example, or some powerful Silver/Gold Agent. The cleric and cronies didn't strike that chord.
- Less a suggestions, and more of a challenge: I would like to see a special next year that departs from the formula we've seen the past three years of Pathfinders working through Tier appropriate encounters in a given sector to take control of it. This is a great format for a battle interactive...but we've done three of those now. My hope is that the Sky Key Solution leans closer to Race for the Runecarved Key in format. I won't be at GenCon, so it will be awhile before I get to find out.
The Good
- -The pregens were brilliant. Bravo! I especially liked 322, the Artist, and The Leader. The "titles" were really great for giving the team a heist feel for the adventure. I'm even more excited to see they will likely each have a scenario focused around their machinations this season. Please, please, please, PLEASE make it clear in the blurbs for each scenario that they are the villain so we can make sure to play it with the right character.
- The side tasks were a great for interplay between the team, so everyone had their "role" for the heist before it became combat.
- The Aram Zey fight was tough and fun. I definitely liked the challenge of doing a high tier combat with the set parameters of the pregens.
- The "optional" party member was a blast from what I hear; we sadly did not recruit them.
Some Suggestions
- Make sure with side missions that the team members can talk about, they are encouraged to do so by the GM. There were a few burps at first when things were treated like secret objectives that weren't.
- Keep doing scenarios like this. That's really all I have to say. It was a ton of fun, it is great to get to play something I normally wouldn't/can't in Society, and the writing for their personalities was spot on.
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@Andrew: The PFS rules section for We Be Goblins! specifically calls out that death of the pregen does not carry over to the PC the chronicle is applied to.
Conditions, Death, and Expendables:
Since all PCs in this adventure are pregenerated characters, no conditions (including death) carry beyond the end of a module to the real PCs to whom the module’s Chronicle sheet is applied. Likewise, any wealth spent or resources expended during the course of the adventure are considered unspent upon the module’s completion.
Wow, I was not aware of that... Good to know. Took a close look at We Be Goblins Too! and it says this which is also different from the Guide.
Conditions and Death
In Pathfinder Society Organized Play, a player who plays a pregenerated character that dies must still resolve the death and recovery when applying the Chronicle sheet. This is also the case for We Be Goblins Too!; however, part of the fun of an all-goblin module is the opportunity to perform zany feats, even if they lead to the goblin’s death. To reflect the spirit of the module, at the end of the adventure, any dead pregenerated goblin characters may recover from death completely for only 5 Prestige Points; this includes both the cost of raise dead and the cost of removing the permanent negative levels and any other conditions.
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Venture-Captain, Netherlands
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@Andrew: The PFS rules section for We Be Goblins! specifically calls out that death of the pregen does not carry over to the PC the chronicle is applied to.
Conditions, Death, and Expendables:
Since all PCs in this adventure are pregenerated characters, no conditions (including death) carry beyond the end of a module to the real PCs to whom the module’s Chronicle sheet is applied. Likewise, any wealth spent or resources expended during the course of the adventure are considered unspent upon the module’s completion.
Wow, I was not aware of that... Good to know. Took a close look at We Be Goblins Too! and it says this which is also different from the Guide.
Conditions and Death
In Pathfinder Society Organized Play, a player who plays a pregenerated character that dies must still resolve the death and recovery when applying the Chronicle sheet. This is also the case for We Be Goblins Too!; however, part of the fun of an all-goblin module is the opportunity to perform zany feats, even if they lead to the goblin’s death. To reflect the spirit of the module, at the end of the adventure, any dead pregenerated goblin characters may recover from death completely for only 5 Prestige Points; this includes both the cost of raise dead and the cost of removing the permanent negative levels and any other conditions.
With these two exeptions, I think its logically people assumed the special would work like these. The goblin series provide special pregens only usable in this module. The special provides special pregens only usable in that special. I can see how people made the assumption this special would follow adapted rules as there is precedent for it.
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JB: Bestiary 5. 300 or so monsters. No psychic monster yet. Dream dragons. Flying monkeys. (great artwork) Wood colossus (drop a village on someone). Aliens. Piddlespotting aliens. "A metric ton of awesome crammed into Bestiary 5."
Spring 2016: Ultimate Intrigue hardcover. Looking at skill based classes and what they can do. Alchemist, Bard, Druid, Hunter, Inquisition, Investigator...etc.
Verbal dueling. Social combat rules. Feats and spying and ways to hide the truth. Playtest coming of new class: The Vigilante.
Listening to the Know Direction coverage of the banquet and it sounds like Jason was trying to say that there were too many good psychic monsters to include them in Occult Adventures so they WILL be in Bestiary 5. If others could listen to that podcast and confirm that would be great.
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JB: Bestiary 5. 300 or so monsters. No psychic monster yet. Dream dragons. Flying monkeys. (great artwork) Wood colossus (drop a village on someone). Aliens. Piddlespotting aliens. "A metric ton of awesome crammed into Bestiary 5."
Spring 2016: Ultimate Intrigue hardcover. Looking at skill based classes and what they can do. Alchemist, Bard, Druid, Hunter, Inquisition, Investigator...etc.
Verbal dueling. Social combat rules. Feats and spying and ways to hide the truth. Playtest coming of new class: The Vigilante.
Listening to the Know Direction coverage of the banquet and it sounds like Jason was trying to say that there were too many good psychic monsters to include them in Occult Adventures so they WILL be in Bestiary 5. If others could listen to that podcast and confirm that would be great.
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Bestiary 5 will contain psychic monsters. Do not know the quantity or number, but Jason did say "a lot."
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With these two exeptions, I think its logically people assumed the special would work like these. The goblin series provide special pregens only usable in this module. The special provides special pregens only usable in that special. I can see how people made the assumption this special would follow adapted rules as there is precedent for it.@Andrew: The PFS rules section for We Be Goblins! specifically calls out that death of the pregen does not carry over to the PC the chronicle is applied to.
Conditions, Death, and Expendables:
Since all PCs in this adventure are pregenerated characters, no conditions (including death) carry beyond the end of a module to the real PCs to whom the module’s Chronicle sheet is applied. Likewise, any wealth spent or resources expended during the course of the adventure are considered unspent upon the module’s completion.
Wow, I was not aware of that... Good to know. Took a close look at We Be Goblins Too! and it says this which is also different from the Guide.
Conditions and Death
In Pathfinder Society Organized Play, a player who plays a pregenerated character that dies must still resolve the death and recovery when applying the Chronicle sheet. This is also the case for We Be Goblins Too!; however, part of the fun of an all-goblin module is the opportunity to perform zany feats, even if they lead to the goblin’s death. To reflect the spirit of the module, at the end of the adventure, any dead pregenerated goblin characters may recover from death completely for only 5 Prestige Points; this includes both the cost of raise dead and the cost of removing the permanent negative levels and any other conditions.
Except the Free RPG Day module always has pregenerated characters usable only in that specific module. WBG 1 is the only one to have no penalty for death, and I suspect WBG 2 has its reduced prestige cost for a raise because it's a goblin module. They are exceptions, not the rule.
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The copies of Serpents Rise I saw at the table appeared to be the finished copy, not drafts (with full art and everything). When we've gotten "beta" versions of specials, they are often entirely text with very little artistic fluff (maps at best; and even then usually bare bones grid ones). The pregens were similarly decked out with art and solid formatting.
Everything points to it being the final copy.
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I figured since this was a playtest; they would go easier on the "if you die in the special, your character dies as well" bit. Would prefer to go the route of WBG 1.
The absolute worst that happens is that you make a new character and he dies for you.
More likely you sell all the aspis agents stuff and buy a res, he's fine, no effects carry over.
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Venture-Captain, Netherlands
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Except the Free RPG Day module always has pregenerated characters usable only in that specific module. WBG 1 is the only one to have no penalty for death, and I suspect WBG 2 has its...With these two exeptions, I think its logically people assumed the special would work like these. The goblin series provide special pregens only usable in this module. The special provides special pregens only usable in that special. I can see how people made the assumption this special would follow adapted rules as there is precedent for it.
Ok, let me rephrase that then:
With these two exeptions, I think it logically people assumed the special would work like these. The Goblin series provide special pregens only usable in their own module, and you can not play these modules with your own character, deviating from the norm of other free RPG day modules, where you get pregens provided, but you are free to bring your own character if playing for PFS.
The Serpents special provides special pregens only usable in the Serpents special, and you are not able to play the Serpents special with their own character, or normal sanctioned PFS pregen.
I can see how people made the assumption this special would follow the adapted ruleas as set by the Goblin series, as they have created a precedent for adapted pregen use.
Chief Technical Officer
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Just found this thread and wanted to clarify a couple of Adventure Card Game things from banquet reports...
Varian and Radovan will appear in the Season of the Righteous (with writing assistance from Dave Gross!), not Mummy's Mask. There are some characters from fiction in MM—just not those two.
The "competitive play" version mentioned is also not a feature of Mummy's Mask—it features in a specific organized play event debuting at Gen Con (which was tested in a PaizoCon event).
Re: the Pathfinder Battles Rusty Dragon Inn bar case incentive, we did show a photo during the banquet. I'm sure Erik will be posting it in a future Friday minis blog, but until then, you'll probably have to make do with this photo snapped at the banquet. (There are no stools because they don't work so well with based minis...)
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Curio, have you read the scenario? I have and the tactics in Serpents Rise, particularly concerning the BBEG are designed to give the party an edge. If GM's are running the BBEG at full force then something is probably wrong. I'm not saying bad rolls happen, but the party should be able to take the BBEG, as long as they try to work together.
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Curio, I ran this at Paizocon. My team did very well, and trust me, I did not softball them. There is really only one skill that they dont have to succeed at the mission, and the scenario offers a way around that.
I'm sorry your experience wasn't exceptional, but this is another instance of straying from written tactics where the tactics are less deadly.
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Curio, I think what some are saying is that the problems you had with the scenario are largely not an issue with the text, but more with the GM. I don't want to come across as saying, "too bad, so sad, suck it up," as that is not my intention, but unfortunately it is the nature of the beast we deal with for large special events like this. Perhaps more manageable at PaizoCon (35'ish table), but we have a need for as many as 180 GMs for these events at GenCon which makes it a challenge to provide the very best GMs. The best option we have available is for you to relay your experience to your regional Venture-Officer team and perhaps CC Mike Brock. Include as much detail as possible such as GMs name, event location, session/slot, etc. This helps the leadership to investigate and locate GMs that either need additional help to improve the quality of their game or in extreme cases, get banned from GMing future tables.
Believe me when I say PFS leadership, organizers, and the Venture Corps wants to provide the very best gaming experience. We don't like to hear players not having a good time. There might be some tweaks that can be made with the product/s to reduce problems and improve clarity, but in the vast majority of cases like this the efforts of the GM are usually the cause.
Also, as has been stated in various locations, specials are usually released with very limited prep time before the convention. Add to that the unique nature of the story and it made an already challenging scenario even more problematic.
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Curio, I ran this at Paizocon. My team did very well, and trust me, I did not softball them. There is really only one skill that they dont have to succeed at the mission, and the scenario offers a way around that.
I'm sorry your experience wasn't exceptional, but this is another instance of straying from written tactics where the tactics are less deadly.
Apparently, from what I'm hearing, system mastery was also involved. Some tables where the gm didn't play soft, also had the good fortune of having players with system mastery that gave them an edge despite having pregens that weren't really equipped properly for the scenario. They grabbed scrolls of Breath of Life, knew combat maneuvers by heart, ect. Many players who were experienced still had to review the characters and so didn't get the time to do things, such as buying items to keep alive or help them with their missions. Saying that your table did fine with everything as written doesn't say all tables had the same experience. My situation also wasn't unique. My table was half-dead when they came into the boss battle. We didn't have time to buy items, and we didn't know that our pregens' deaths would equal the deaths of our designated characters. We would likely have played differently if we had.
** spoiler omitted **
There was definitely system mastery, but hardly any equipment was purchased.
My opinion on the poorly equipped thing, is the only thing really missing was healing. Otherwise they were equipped fine. Optimally? No. But they were equipped satisfactorily.
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We didn't win the final fight, but mostly because our Boss Dude (tm) fled. (which, btw, I'm wondering about tactics wise now). Granted, one of our party, who was in bad shape, grabbed the McGuffin and bailed, so that may be part of it.
We overall did fine besides a crit against the above mentioned party member in the previous fight leaving him in bad shape even with healing. A lot of it was teamwork. I played the Leader and spent a lot of time making sure my damage dealers were in position to do their jobs. 322 made a point of prioritizing healing over other spellcasting. Our melee folks made with the flanks whenever possible. So I think a big part of this is that while the characters alone are not well optimized or balanced, it may be because they are intended to operate as part of team (or with minions, since it is implied each is the Boss of a future scenario) versus alone.
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We didn't win the final fight, but mostly because our Boss Dude (tm) fled. (which, btw, I'm wondering about tactics wise now). Granted, one of our party, who was in bad shape, grabbed the McGuffin and bailed, so that may be part of it.
We overall did fine besides a crit against the above mentioned party member in the previous fight leaving him in bad shape even with healing. A lot of it was teamwork. I played the Leader and spent a lot of time making sure my damage dealers were in position to do their jobs. 322 made a point of prioritizing healing over other spellcasting. Our melee folks made with the flanks whenever possible. So I think a big part of this is that while the characters alone are not well optimized or balanced, it may be because they are intended to operate as part of team (or with minions, since it is implied each is the Boss of a future scenario) versus alone.
Yeah, definitely sounds like some GM issues there.
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We didn't win the final fight, but mostly because our Boss Dude (tm) fled. (which, btw, I'm wondering about tactics wise now). Granted, one of our party, who was in bad shape, grabbed the McGuffin and bailed, so that may be part of it.
We overall did fine besides a crit against the above mentioned party member in the previous fight leaving him in bad shape even with healing. A lot of it was teamwork. I played the Leader and spent a lot of time making sure my damage dealers were in position to do their jobs. 322 made a point of prioritizing healing over other spellcasting. Our melee folks made with the flanks whenever possible. So I think a big part of this is that while the characters alone are not well optimized or balanced, it may be because they are intended to operate as part of team (or with minions, since it is implied each is the Boss of a future scenario) versus alone.
Yeah, definitely sounds like some GM issues there.
** spoiler omitted **
That's frustrating and I'd hoped it wasn't a GM thing. There was some bending over backwards to actively try to kill PCs in some fights, a super aggressive opening spell salvo that broke with everything discussed in threads on the boss fight's set tactics, some really weird wire crossing on side objectives, etc.
It tops off what was a disappointing experience with the GM overall, despite the scenario itself being a lot of fun. Oh well.