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This is actually the biggest positive of Pathfinder Society (or other organized play campaigns). It's modular, so you just play with whoever shows up that week, and don't worry about assembling everybody each time. Yes, it means shorter missions with no long term plot lines, but you can still do character development and stuff on your own.
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I'd rather know my players and add some personal stuff for they characters and plan my adventures in advance according to what I know they like. I don't think organized play would be for me, even though I admit it has some advantages.
At least I'll be running it as a solo campaign. I hate when the campaigns just fade into nothingness.
I'm sorry your campaign ended. That can be very frustrating, but at least you're carrying it on solo.
As most folks know, I run only homebrew games. I once had a great game going and folks made it to 13th level before things just sort of faded away. Everyone said they were enjoying the game. I kept it to myself, but I was beginning to get bored with it. All the characters were OP and I was new to PF at the time and I just got tired of trying to build comparable villains. It was a great concept for a game, but it just fizzled. Thankfully my current game is an average of 14th level (some 13th level some 15th level) and Mythic and the players are all having a great time with it, and now that I have a better handle on the PF mechanics I can work withing the system more efficiently to provide good villains.
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At least I'll be running it as a solo campaign. I hate when the campaigns just fade into nothingness.
I used to accept party disbands as price of admission. Id just join another or launch a new campaign. However, since getting into Paizo's fine APs, I find its maddening to start so many and not finish them!
This is actually the biggest positive of Pathfinder Society (or other organized play campaigns). It's modular, so you just play with whoever shows up that week, and don't worry about assembling everybody each time. Yes, it means shorter missions with no long term plot lines, but you can still do character development and stuff on your own.
I'd like to give this a go with a more static group of individuals at some point. My experience was that, in PFS nobody gave a damn about anything but your character sheet. It's cool though, I learned to roll with it and have fun with that type of game. However, it was no substitute for a static campaign group!
My players were enjoying but I was getting frustrated by how slow everything was advancing. And having a new girl who didn't know a lot about what was going on made me think we might start something new that could fit better our current situation. They all said that it was OK if I thought it was the best. So now I'll be GMing some short stories but keeping them tied so they can use the same PCs and get some character developement.
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I'd rather know my players and add some personal stuff for they characters and plan my adventures in advance according to what I know they like. I don't think organized play would be for me, even though I admit it has some advantages.
I actually do all those things with my regular PFS players. I specifically tell them to bring X character to Y scenario because I know it will work for them or there will be a great encounter for them. And I can add personal touches such as referencing their past exploits in character and have recurring NPCs acknowledge them. It's not as easy to set up as in a home game, but a lot of the organizational work is already taken care of.
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I'd rather know my players and add some personal stuff for they characters and plan my adventures in advance according to what I know they like. I don't think organized play would be for me, even though I admit it has some advantages.
Even when I am running a Pathfinder AP I try to tailor it to better fit my players and involve their backstories more.
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I'd rather know my players and add some personal stuff for they characters and plan my adventures in advance according to what I know they like. I don't think organized play would be for me, even though I admit it has some advantages.Even when I am running a Pathfinder AP I try to tailor it to better fit my players and involve their backstories more.
This is a must. I always laugh when I see posts lambasting the APs because they don't work page for page perfectly with their group of players :)
I want to write the RoW game I've player after I finish writing the S&S that I GMed because it is a very different RoW version and it worked just GREAT with our group.
But if I cannot add my personal touch I'd rather not GM. I see APs as a canvas to work with.
This is a must. I always laugh when I see posts lambasting the APs because they don't work page for page perfectly with their group of players :)I'd rather know my players and add some personal stuff for they characters and plan my adventures in advance according to what I know they like. I don't think organized play would be for me, even though I admit it has some advantages.Even when I am running a Pathfinder AP I try to tailor it to better fit my players and involve their backstories more.
Yep let me second this.
Being a GM is like herding cats anyway, might as well try and incorporate those mischievous player tendencies, into the adventures, and get some fun out of it, instead of hee-ing and haw-ing, when the players go off the rails on some fanciful goose-chase.As for long campaigns, I tend to break them up in chunks, especially if we are talking about adventure path length campaigns. In one of my PF groups, we have run through the first two books of the Jade Regent, and have put that campaign on temporary hold.
In the meantime we have shifted to Shadow of the Demon Lord, and we are running a introductory adventure, written by myself, which has quite predictably derailed, with the players chasing a throw-away side quest, instead of the main story.....sigh.
We managed to finish quite a few long campaigns, but WotW wasn't meant to be one of them. I had some players leaving, new ones coming, and it became quite a mess.
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I'd rather know my players and add some personal stuff for they characters and plan my adventures in advance according to what I know they like. I don't think organized play would be for me, even though I admit it has some advantages.
PFS play doesn't have to involve meeting up with strangers at a local store or convention. You can do a home game for just your friends and just play with PFS rules.
That's actually how I got into Pathfinder at first. I met a couple (fiances at the time, now married) who recruited half a dozen players and invited them to their home. We'd play with whoever showed up that week, take turns GMing, and be able to start new low level characters once in a while, but still play our higher level characters most of the time. We ended up having a core group of 6 of us who were there almost every week, and a couple of others who came and went far less frequently. So we usually had a GM with 4-6 players every week, which is exactly what PFS is designed for.
And even though PFS rules say that you have to run everything exactly as written, we would occasionally customize some of the "fluff" to our specific characters. For instance, my highest level PC was the rebellious son of a retired Pathfinder, so one of the GMs would occasionally have my character's father show up with the official Venture-Captain at mission briefings to glare at me disapprovingly and warn me to follow the VC's orders this time.
In another example, we played the Ruby Phoenix Tournament module, which is set in the Asian themed continent of Tian Xia. One of my friends had a PC from Tian Xia, who was coincidentally from the major city near where the tournament takes place. So the GM had that PC's mother show up to cheer us on in the tournament, and annoy her daughter as only a mother can. The GM for that one is actually Chinese-American, and just channeled her own mother, so it was eerily realistic, and we all had fun with it.
The fact that we could also take those PCs to conventions occasionally and play the same characters with strangers was just a bonus. When I moved away from that area, it made it easy for me to jump into playing regularly at my new home, since PFS is a lot more common in Chicago than where I moved from. So these days, I mostly play PFS at public stores, though I also have a Rise of the Runelord campaign going at home with a small, stable group.
I don't know if my town is big enough for organized play. And I'm satisfied with my actual gaming group anyway.
Same here. I live in a very small town in the Midwestern U.S. so no organized play here. I've played one PFS game on Roll20 and wasn't impressed so I don't really feel I am missing anything.
Lugo has about 100.000 inhabitants, maybe 120.000 and there is many people who enjoy role playing but we mainly focus on small gaming groups.
As most people that I know enjoy very combat focused adventures with zero roleplaying, zero decission taking, zero morality issues and zero creative thinking I don't fit very well in those kind of groups.
It's on the other side of town for me.
Still doable, but kind of inconvenient.
My town is 62,000 and there are several organized play groups. A friend was going to start one up then had to move for family reasons before it got off the ground. I wasn't too worried about it, as organized play seems to restrictive to me. I'm a pretty free form GM and will bend, break, or throw out a rule if it interferes with the story telling at the moment. Organized play doesn't seem to allow for that.
Lugo has about 100.000 inhabitants, maybe 120.000 and there is many people who enjoy role playing but we mainly focus on small gaming groups.
As most people that I know enjoy very combat focused adventures with zero roleplaying, zero decission taking, zero morality issues and zero creative thinking I don't fit very well in those kind of groups.
100,000!!! That is huge! Just kidding =) My town is much smaller though. We have less than 20,000 people. So I guess I should be glad to be able to find anyone at all to game with lol.
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The capitol city of my state has about 178,000 people. It's the largest city in Arkansas. So Lugo would be similar in size, just better ruins.
Doggone city folk...
I live in a small town of around 20.000 people, and still manage to scrape a couple of groups together every two week-ish, for some decent role playing. The nearest organized PF play is around 100km away (around 65-70 miles?).
We're at about 252,000. With surrounding burbs probably closer to 300,000.
But most of the towns I grew up in were unincorporated.
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I think that roleplaying in Spain is not as popular as it is in America. Also most people I know are very casual players with murderhobo tendencies. As I enjoy profound stories I don't fit there.
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I don't know if my town is big enough for organized play. And I'm satisfied with my actual gaming group anyway.
Well, my point was that you can play PFS with the same gaming group, if you want. If you're having trouble getting a campaign to work because not everyone can show up every week, then organized play would let you play with the same people at the same place. Don't worry about whether or not everyone can show up every time, and just play with whoever's there. It's just easier to coordinate.
My grievance is the bard in our group (I may have mentioned this guy before. If so, I forgot and forgive the repeat post). It's not the class itself because I think the Bard can fill a pretty important niche in a group. It's the player. He has no clue how to play this character and he's 13th level/4th Tier Mythic (I've been pretty easy on this group because they really wanted to reach 20th level so I've challenged them plenty but try to avoid killing anyone). But he has a bevy of spells he NEVER uses, and just uses Sound burst, Ball Lightning from a wand, a wand of Magic Missiles, his Ring of Shooting Stars (all of which have come in handy in past). But they're encountering more and more powerful creatures and these spells are next to worthless against them. And he just doesn't get it. I've tried to talk to him about it, but he just doesn't seem to grasp it.
Grievance over.
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Some players just aren't satisfied unless they're the ones dishing out the damage to enemies.
Unfortunately, they are also the players that, generally speaking, shouldn't play bards.
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I have cancelled my WotW campaign. I had 4 players but we were having a hard time to find gaming days, and when one came another didn't. In the end, we had so few sessions that when we managed to do one we spent so many time remembering where we were and telling the missing players from the last session what happened. So it had slowed down a lot.
My WotW group was great but we now have difficulties finding gaming days (a lot of times because of my job) so we're going to replace it for some short stories with some connection between them, which suits my gaming group better at this time.
I'm going to keep GMing WotW for Dalindra on solo anyway, as I don't want to cut the story unfinished. But I'm a bit disappointed on having to cancel.
I think book two is cursed as we have been over 2 months without being able to start ours as well.
My actual grievance for today is that there is no real way to deal with people being overly stubborn and asinine in rules arguments even when they just keep going with incorrect beliefs and then don't want to talk about intent only exactly what is written even when people like Mark or SKR had given probable intent.
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It's worse when they try to bend the rules to justify horrible things as good. I'm talking about one thread in the forums.
It's worse when they try to bend the rules to justify horrible things as good. I'm talking about one thread in the forums.
Yep
I'm sad my wife won't give this hobby a try because I thinks he would be good at it/enjoy it.
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I'm sad my wife won't give this hobby a try because I thinks he would be good at it/enjoy it.
The player who's been with me the longest almost had to quit playing when he got married about 15 years ago. His wife, who is really a pretty unimaginative person, told me that WE (meaning the group) had to quit playing so he wouldn't be tempted to play "that silly game". I politely told her that we'd play with or without him and she had no business trying to dictate what he did with his spare time. He still plays and now his 11 year old daughter has joined the group. They go to cons together and everything. I'm sure she's thrilled by this development.
I'm sad my wife won't give this hobby a try because I thinks he would be good at it/enjoy it.The player who's been with me the longest almost had to quit playing when he got married about 15 years ago. His wife, who is really a pretty unimaginative person, told me that WE (meaning the group) had to quit playing so he wouldn't be tempted to play "that silly game". I politely told her that we'd play with or without him and she had no business trying to dictate what he did with his spare time. He still plays and now his 11 year old daughter has joined the group. They go to cons together and everything. I'm sure she's thrilled by this development.
Yea in one of groups, I play in, we have tried to get some of the players spouses or children to join in, but we haven't really had any luck so far.
My wife played in a 10 year long 2e campaign, but when it ended the other couple divorced and she didn't want to play 3.0 or 3.5 because of the extra math in it. She has a genius level IQ but she hated the tedium of adding or subtracting things to calculate hits, etc. And when I told her 3.x was worse, she just said, "Nope. Not interested."
In my group the married guy moved, family and all.
Now that my taxes are done, I'm going to try to start a game at home. Maybe we'll restart rise of the Runelords, because I'm the only common player.
I'm kind of worried that congress strike will slow my tax rebate. Why don't they just re-op last years budget, and overcome his veto.
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I am the «married one» in my group. Not really married but I'm living with my couple and we've been together since I was 18 years old.
I met him when a couple of friends of mine wanted to know what roleplaying was and got me to go with them. They didn't like it but I fell in love with the game. Dalindra was the GM at that game. We started dating a month later and have been together since then.
We share the same passion and commitment to this hobby so it's easy for us. And we get to do some solo playing when we are bored.
This is my anti-grievance of the day.
My grievance is that I'm having a hard time spelling grievance for some reason (recently awaken and still sleepy).
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My wife played in a 10 year long 2e campaign, but when it ended the other couple divorced and she didn't want to play 3.0 or 3.5 because of the extra math in it. She has a genius level IQ but she hated the tedium of adding or subtracting things to calculate hits, etc. And when I told her 3.x was worse, she just said, "Nope. Not interested."
I always feel down after a campaign ends... but divorce? Sounds a bit excessive...
Players who refuse to listen to advice that may save their character from dying. A player just wanted to do things his way at the table. I mean everything. With the end result being that bad things happened to the character. Heavy armor wearing Cleric wanted to do acrobatics or climbing checks yet also wanted to always succeed at them. He almost never did. It became a joke at the table
DM: Their a pit in the ground with loss dirt around the edge of the it. What do you do?
Player X: I go take a look.
Myself or some other player: be careful the DM said their loose dirt you character may fall in plus your on the heavy side.
Player X: (Had a way of nodding to everyone who told him advice but it was his way of telling us he was ignoring us.) I'm going to take a look.
DM: Well between your rushing to the edge of the pit and the extra weight of your armor you start slide in make a Acrobatic checks to avoid falling in.
Player X (Wearing full Plate and having no ranks in Acrobatic falls down into the pit taking damage)
The same player had a bad tendency to throw fits as well at the table when that kind of thing happened trying to blame the group. When his character died because he had lost 3/4 of his hit points refused to listen to the healer of the group when asked if he needed to be healed. Began another hissy fit and I cut him off. I told him enough was enough and to stop the acting like a child at the table. He rushed ahead ignoring any attempts to stop him. He very and I mean very grudgingly admitted I had a point and calmed down. He improved somewhat at the table. It also helped that the DM was not on his side when his character died.
Players who have animal companions yet refuse to buff them or at the very least buy armor for them. Then sending them into combat and somehow expecting them not to be knocked out or killed off by npcs. Sure that may work at the first few levels. Not later on.
Players who build characters a certain way. Even if it ends up making the character performance suffer at the table. Yet it's everyone else fault for doing a better job with their character. Low Str Fighter expecting to lift, carry, hit and do as much damage as the player who built one with a higher Str. The player who expects opponents to have a hard time resisting his spells yet takes a low Int or Cha. That's fine build the character how one wants. Just don't blame everyone else for one poor choices during character creation.
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Gonna be honest that example is more an issues with the GM.
1. He didn't say he was rushing.
2. While acrobatics might be the right check the ground would have needed to be more than a little loose to force a check to go tumbling in.
3. No reflex allowed to catch yourself?
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I work for corporation and for some time dated a lot of women in their 30's-40's. IT was all good but one thing many had in common was thinking gaming was for babies. I had to hide that fact well. If I got caught I might as well wear a diaper and suck my thumb. While I enjoyed the dating, I got real tired of playing crouching cougar, hidden gamer.
I took a shot at online dating thinking I could try a change of pace. I got hit up by a younger gal who liked my profile. We have been dating 2 years and are now engaged. She doesn't do TTRPGs but loves board games. She has zero issue with my PF/Traveller/Cuthulhu group. Its nice not having to keep that part of my life private!
Reminds me of:
Last year, the Nigerian Princess and I took Mr. Comrade to a local gaming store for his birthday. We ended up playing a complicated board game, Android, I think it was called, with three other gaming store habitues. One of them, the most rules-lawyer-y got into a tense standoff with the Nigerian Princess and it got really awesome really quick, he being all nerdy and condescending, her being all "I'm a strong, independent black woman and I don't take shiznit off dweebs like you," neither of them backing down. She even did the neck roll.
Anyway, later I discovered that the rules lawyer-y one is a union brother and works as a hazmat first responder in my building.
Much more recently, I was working alongside a union sister and she discovered a leaking package and went and got a hazmat responder who turned out to be the rules lawyer. I was listening to my headphones so I didn't hear their conversation, but he had a smug, shiznit-eating grin on his face and I could tell she was getting annoyed.
After he left, she came over and complained to me. "I don't care if it's just an ORMD or something else, why doesn't he just do his job and get it out of here."
I saw parallels between this conversation and the one between him and the Nigerian Princess, so I told her the story.
I probably should have been tipped off when I said a "nerdy gaming store" and she said "you mean, like Dungeons and Dragons?" but she threw me for a loop when she started saying not nice things about the first responder like, "he should grow up and stop being a child." I was ready to drop the subject and let it go, but then she pulled a 180.
"I used to play an elven wizard" she started and then regaled me with stories from her D&D past, even though she remained firm in her conviction that it was a somewhat guilty secret and that she had done the right thing by giving it up in her early twenties.
Later, she kept yelling out "Magic missile!" and "Flame strike!" when the packages got backed up.
I tell you, my union brothers and sisters never cease to surprise me.
My wife played in a 10 year long 2e campaign, but when it ended the other couple divorced and she didn't want to play 3.0 or 3.5 because of the extra math in it. She has a genius level IQ but she hated the tedium of adding or subtracting things to calculate hits, etc. And when I told her 3.x was worse, she just said, "Nope. Not interested."I always feel down after a campaign ends... but divorce? Sounds a bit excessive...
He was also the GM for our DC Heroes superhero game. That ended, too. I felt let down, too. He turned into a complete ass and just dropped everything, including a lot of friends deciding he needed new ones. To this day we barely speak. His ex wife has moved back and she's getting to game again for the first time in years and it's good to have her back in the circle as she's one of the most involved players I've ever had.
Gonna be honest that example is more an issues with the GM.
1. He didn't say he was rushing.
The player was rushing. I should have written it in my OP about that player. He liked to hog all the attention at the table and would rush from point A to Point B 99% of the time
2. While acrobatics might be the right check the ground would have needed to be more than a little loose to force a check to go tumbling in.
It was very loose. It was in fact a trap but the DM was not going to point that out. The player because he liked the attention he would get from his antics tended to not listen to both players and DM. Would rush forward consequences be damned. Unless they turned out negative for his character.
3. No reflex allowed to catch yourself?
I forgot to write that in as well. Reflex save allowed and failed.
Gonna be honest that example is more an issues with the GM.
1. He didn't say he was rushing.
The player was rushing. I should have written it in my OP about that player. He liked to hog all the attention at the table and would rush from point A to Point B 99% of the time
2. While acrobatics might be the right check the ground would have needed to be more than a little loose to force a check to go tumbling in.
It was very loose. It was in fact a trap but the DM was not going to point that out. The player because he liked the attention he would get from his antics tended to not listen to both players and DM. Would rush forward consequences be damned. Unless they turned out negative for his character.
I forgot to write that in as well. Reflex save allowed and failed.
3. No reflex allowed to catch yourself?
Other than the acrobatics when it should have been reflex to start with since it was a trap.
It's a interesting point Pan makes about dating and going out with those who may or may not like the hobby.
One of my friends married someone who disliked gaming. Kept his gaming a secret. Did not realize how much his wife disliked it. The type to not marry a gamer even if my buddy was the last man on Earth. When he told her they had two children. She was not happy and they are still together. He was lucky because it could have been much worse.
I could probably never marry or go out with someone who disliked my hobby. Espcially not "well I can change him types". My hobbies are my hobbies. If a person I may want to date or marry can't accept that. Then I prefer staying single.
Another thing I don't like. Those that do marry or date someone who is a gamer then don't like that they do it or claim they don't understand gaming. My response to that is "do you prefer I go out and get drunk. Maybe hit the strip joint while I'm at it. Is that easier to understand" Sorry the hobby is not rocket science.
Other than the acrobatics when it should have been reflex to start with since it was a trap.
Agreed but I'm not the DM. It's not like the DM was a jerk . Two opportunties to not fall into the pit. A skill check and Reflex save.
I work for corporation and for some time dated a lot of women in their 30's-40's. IT was all good but one thing many had in common was thinking gaming was for babies. I had to hide that fact well. If I got caught I might as well wear a diaper and suck my thumb. While I enjoyed the dating, I got real tired of playing crouching cougar, hidden gamer.
I took a shot at online dating thinking I could try a change of pace. I got hit up by a younger gal who liked my profile. We have been dating 2 years and are now engaged. She doesn't do TTRPGs but loves board games. She has zero issue with my PF/Traveller/Cuthulhu group. Its nice not having to keep that part of my life private!
That has definitely been the most welcome change over the past 20 years. I'm in my early 40s as well, and I can count on one hand the number of women I've played RPGs with in person (other than cons) over the years. A big reason for that is that back then/in this age range, women did not play games. I even remember once or twice being able to invite someone to join our game. She was curious and wanted to try, but the rest of us had to swear never to tell anyone that she did play the game. It would have ruined her if it were found out.
So glad that's over.
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I work for corporation and for some time dated a lot of women in their 30's-40's. IT was all good but one thing many had in common was thinking gaming was for babies. I had to hide that fact well. If I got caught I might as well wear a diaper and suck my thumb. While I enjoyed the dating, I got real tired of playing crouching cougar, hidden gamer.
I took a shot at online dating thinking I could try a change of pace. I got hit up by a younger gal who liked my profile. We have been dating 2 years and are now engaged. She doesn't do TTRPGs but loves board games. She has zero issue with my PF/Traveller/Cuthulhu group. Its nice not having to keep that part of my life private!
That has definitely been the most welcome change over the past 20 years. I'm in my early 40s as well, and I can count on one hand the number of women I've played RPGs with in person (other than cons) over the years. A big reason for that is that back then/in this age range, women did not play games. I even remember once or twice being able to invite someone to join our game. She was curious and wanted to try, but the rest of us had to swear never to tell anyone that she did play the game. It would have ruined her if it were found out.
So glad that's over.
That is part of it. The type of women I was dating were too worried about being career oriented and adult to cut loose. Everything was about doing things like you imagine a career professional would. No time for marriage or having kids, gotta achieve professional self enlightenment. That rolls over into everything they do. Gotta eat at sophisticated places, take vacations to sophisticated places, and date carbon copy sophisticated mates.
For a time I found it fascinating, but after awhile it became tiresome. The fiancé is a lawyer, but way down to earth. Its nice having someone who understands all this to talk with. Part of the reason I asked her to marry me!