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Where are you? Find if there are local PFS groups in your area, if there I recommend doing that one to start. Show up to one of their events, there are premade characters you can use that will always be in range of the game going on, so you could just use one of those. If you don't want to use a premade, you need to find out which scenario they are running at the local group and be sure that it's a 1-7, 1-5 or 1-2 so a lv1 can play in it.
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Hey, welcome to the institution.
Online vs meatspace: Meatspace is probably an easier place to start. Nothing beats face to face communication if you can manage it.
Where are you located roughly? Finding a meatspace game is a little patchwork at the moment. The Pathfinder society online collective is a good place to go for games.
What you should know
Your character is a member of the pathfinder society: the out of game and in game group of murderho..erm.. gentlemen explorer archaeologists. This is the excuse to have you all together and adventuring without cramming you all together without descending into cannibalism a bit of backstory you should think about when it comes to your character. WHY are they with these people? "They're paying me" is an acceptable answer, but not necessarily the most fulfilling.
Go on a pre made adventure. Finish it. Get a chronicle sheet. Usually you get 1 xp. Get 3 xp, level up. Wash rinse repeat.
Most PFS groups are mixed levels, within reason. The scenarios come in level ranges with different adjustments, usually 1-5, 3-7, 5-9, 7-11, so that a level 1 isn't adventuring with a bunch of level 11's and dies when the first monster looks at them funny. Most PFS groups will frequently have a low level table so its not that bad. If you play as a level 1 with a bunch of level 5's you're a little squishy and may have to hide in the back, but you get a bit of a treasurebath at the end.
Guide to organized play can be downloaded for free, and is comprehensive, but a little focused on the minutia and hard to get the big picture off of.
What to expect, lets say the game starts at 7
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.
What I can't stress enough with a meatspace group is SHOW UP EARLY. Expect to take half an hour finding the place. The DM's are going to get VERY busy once the game starts putting people at tables, picking tiers, and needs to herd a bunch of pyromaniac cats through a scenario before closing time.
Venture-Captain, Germany—Hamburg
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7:30: people get going.
That's if they are really focused. Everytime, I have people not getting ready, some arriving late.
In other words, don't panic if the game doesn't start exactly on time.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.
Definitely the last option *lol*
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Go to a local gameday or con, just introduce yourself around and mention its your first foray into Society play. 98% of gamers are overjoyed to convert...er explain how things go along. Your first DM and table of players will help as well. Ready the Pathfinder Society Guide, make a 1st level character or two (healers are always welcome) and don't worry too much about how you start, you can redo your character up until you play as a 2nd leveler.
Hey guys, I hope this is the right place for this. I've played tabletop RPGs for a few years now but this is my first time looking into any type of organized play. What do you guys think would be the best way to start off playing? I don't know if online or local would be better to play in with a brand new character especially since I don't want to come in with a brand new level 1 character to a game that is geared to a higher level group. Any suggestions are welcome, thank you in advance.
Download the guide to Organised Play. In the back you'll find contact info for your local venture officers. They are your best resource to finding games local to you.
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Hmmm.
My experience with PFS play has been somewhat different, but then my 'meatspace' play has been at conventions where I've (mostly) signed up in advance.
Even with 'geek sudoku', the tables I've sat at have been rolling by :10 past the hour, with at least three quarters of the table paying attention to the mission briefing, and then introductions of the characters (if they didn't happen previously).
Within the first half hour typically we're into our first encounter, and then moving on from there.
There's also Play By Post, here on the forums, as well as the meatspace and VTT versions of play.
I've played in all three versions, each has strengths and weaknesses.
Try them out, see what you think.
Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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Our local game store closes by 10:00 PM.
If you are not in your seat by 6:05, I start the briefing without you. (If I know you will be late and you have a good reason, I will have a paper copy for you to read when you get there.)
By 6:30, we are well into the first encounter, I have already calculated subtier and people have made rolls. If you aren't there by then, and haven't PMed me with a good reason and your character class and level, you may not get a seat.
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Some other suggestions to add to the list:
If you are on Facebook, there is also a Pathfinder Society Facebook group.
Some groups use Warhorn or Meetup to arrange schedules.
If you tell us where you prefer to play, somebody here will most likely ping one of the coordinators for that area and ask them to check this thread. :-)
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There's a ton of PFS play in the Chicago area. I know there are at least two game stores that do regular games within the city limits, and at least five others in the suburbs in various directions from the city. There are groups farther from Chicago, too. When I get home after work, I can cut and paste a bunch of links from my home computer to most of them.
Normally, contacting the venture officers for an area would be a good way to get info, but I heard that our Venture-Captain just stepped down in the last couple of weeks. He'll probably still respond to inquiries, but it might take longer if he's busy with other things in life. I've met him a couple of times, but I don't know him that well, so I don't know what's up with him.
But if you want to tell me where in the Chicago area you are, I'll be happy to help. If you don't feel comfortable posting your exact location here, send me a PM, and I can point you towards the public games closest to where you live. And if you happen to be in the northwest suburbs, I can probably even help you out in person. I'm at Games Plus in Mt. Prospect playing PFS most Sundays at noon.
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So here's some Chicago links:
COWS Gaming: For weekly games at the Dice Dojo on the north side, monthly games at Wanderer's Refuge on the north side, and apparently now they're doing almost every week at Elysium Games in Evanston. Of course, that last one started after I moved away from Evanston. *rolleyes*
Warhorn site for the Mt Prospect Lodge: Games every Sunday at noon in Chicago's near northwest suburbs.
Meetup.com site for Grayslake Gamers: Games every other Monday evening and every other Saturday in Chicago's further northwest suburbs.
Warhorn site for Emmett's PFS in Downer's Grove: Games every Sunday in Chicago's near west suburbs.
Concentric Gaming Company: Holds 2-3 gaming conventions per year at College of DuPage in the near west suburb of Glen Ellyn, including plenty of PFS games.
PFS in northern Indiana: Holding regular games southeast of Chicago.
And last, but certainly not least:
Windy City Pathfinders: Web site for discussion and finding games in the area. Formerly hosted by our old Venture Captain for the area, but he stopped playing, so I don't know who's running it now. I don't visit the site very often.
I'm pretty sure I'm missing at least one group that meets in the southwest Chicago suburbs. Since I don't live anywhere near there, I never paid that much attention to that one, so I didn't save the link or anything.
There are also occasionally other conventions or isolated game days in the area, but those are the things that meet regularly.
Hey guys, I hope this is the right place for this. I've played tabletop RPGs for a few years now but this is my first time looking into any type of organized play. What do you guys think would be the best way to start off playing? I don't know if online or local would be better to play in with a brand new character especially since I don't want to come in with a brand new level 1 character to a game that is geared to a higher level group. Any suggestions are welcome, thank you in advance.
It really depends on your comfort level. I've had great success in finding good games online. I had to start a pathfinder game at the local shop because there were no other options.
Give both options a try and have fun with it. If there is a shop with a game near you, then go join up and see how it goes. You can peruse the recruitment forums here to find good online games to join using d20pro, roll20 or Fantasy Grounds.