RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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Hey there! So here's the basics:
PFS is a "living campaign," similar to living Greyhawk or living Arcanis, if you've ever heard of those. If not, the idea behind a living campaign is simple. Home games are awesome, but sometimes folks can't make it or you don't play as frequently as you want. That's where PFS is a cool alternative. PFS consists of scheduled game nights and events all over the world. So no matter where you are, you might be able to find (or in your case start) a PFS game.
The way it works is you make a character following a standardized set of rules (found in the Guide to OP), and you can play that character at any PFS table. Those tables play scenarios, short 4-5 hour premade adventures. Afterwards, you get a sheet that tracks your experience, gold, and loot--a chronicle sheet. Almost all of the scenarios are modular, so you can play them in any order!
The benefit to all of this is that if you do start doing PFS at home, and ever want to play without your home group, you can look for a PFS night and play with new people, using your existing PFS character you played with your friends! A lot of the people I now game with and friends I have are folks I originally met through PFS. There are even conventions you can attend where PFS occurs and participating in those is a great way to meet more like-minded people :)
All that said, let's check your questions
1. Nope, you can have private games!
2. Nope, see #1
3. There's both the physical paper trail from your chronicle sheets and an online tracking that occurs. Once a game completes, you report it (under the "My Pathfinder Society" tab, explained in the Guide to OP) and a digital record is created. This is helpful if your character is lost, because you can use it to recreate them, and also for campaign staff because they can see trends in scenarios (ex: most people saved NPC 1 in this game, NPC 1 will now be in scenario Y).
4. Yes, see the Guide to OP
5. Yup, see #4
If you have any more questions let us know!
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I've been trying to write a briefer guide
Is every session the DM registers, open to the public?
Does it need to be in public places/stores?
no and no
How are characters tracked?
You get a chronicle sheet that says so and so with this number played an adventure.
this one looks suficiently non spoilery
Are there specific character creation rules?
Stats and money. Point buy calculator 20 point buy. Minimum of 7 and maximum of 18 before racials. 150 starting gold. Jacks and one eyed kings wild.
Classes. MOST class options in PFS are legal. A few exceptions are the Regular summoner (the unchained one is fine), the vivisectionist alchemist, and the undead lord cleric.Races. Races are a little more narrow, limited to those in the core rulebook, tengu, nagaji, wayang, and kitsune. Other races have been legal before, and there are boons (special certifications) that open up more, so you may see some even weirder pathfinders in your group.
Do we need to start with L1 characters?
Yes. Sorry.
Any other quick briefs on how this operates would be awesome. I'm interested to see my group would like to transition to PFS, but I'm not really sure how it works/what the advantage is.
Advantages: easy to rotate the dm.
You can play your beloved character at game days, conventions,Disadvantages: can be a little strict on the "cool but against the rules" especially as far as character creation goes.
the race pool is not open.
Extra paperwork. (I'm looking at YOU I.T.S.)
snarling wolves.
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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The big trade-off of organized play is that in order to play fair with thousands of people, you all need to use the same rules. So that means less flexibility to make something special for your usual players, but on the other hand if you show up at another table you can be pretty sure that your by-the-rules character can be played without adjustments.
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And, just to be perfectly clear, characters don't keep the gear they find in the game, but instead turn in it at the end of every scenario for the gold they earn on the chronicle sheet.
Definitely. And thats its own paragraph in my pamhplet because every time I've sat at convention with a newbi in two consecutive games they've thought they've had ALL the lootz from the first tone.
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People argue over loot in home games? In the home fame we're playing in if we're having too much trouble deciding who gets the shiny than we sell it and share the gold. This past Sunday we decided that everyone was better off with the gold than a +2 Con Manual. We've got three people playing that have experience with Pathfinder and three that don't have as much experience, so the three of us with a bit of system mastery are trying to make everyone as good as possible. Because in the XCrawl setting we're there's no coming back from the dead. If you die, you die!
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Ah ok. So the loot is much slower as well. Gotcha.
No, I wouldn't say the loot is slower - it is just standardized. Instead of getting that +1 longsword that the bad guy had, you get a certain amount of gold and everyone has the option to buy the sword off their own chronicle sheet. It's kind of a hard concept to wrap your head around if you haven't experienced it because it's so abstract. But like the other posters said, there is a brilliant simplicity to it.
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The only impact the loot that you find in the adventure has in the game is you can use that treasure as consumables first because you'll get your gold total anyways. Essentially, the loot you find in the adventure ends up being free consumables. So you will want to use the potion of cure light wounds that you found on the bad guy before you cast any spells or use wand charges, because you'll then get a chunk of change at the end of the adventure and be able to buy another potion if you want.
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Re metaplot i want to say yes but could you elaborate?
Whoa there.
The gold you get from the scenario is on the upper right hand side. This is usually your reward. Just about everything else on the chronicle sheet merely provides access to the item, not the item itself.
It doesn’t matter how much gold you have, the society is not just going to hand anyone a vorpal sword. They’re not going to spend the time and expense of finding, making, or stea.. Acquiring such an item for just anyone either.
You usually acquire access to equipment from the society in 4 ways:
It's on a chronicle sheet. You were the one that brought the item in for study, so you can buy it back once they’re done studying it in between adventures.
It's on the always available list. The society will let any members, including their most junior, buy mundane and alchemical weapons, armor and gear made of normal and special materials (other than dragonhide), alchemical equipment, scrolls and potions of first level spells.
You can spend 1 or 2 pp to buy an item worth up to 300 or 750 gp. Many adventurers use their first two PP to purchase a wand of cure light wounds or infernal healing this way. Even if they can’t cast it themselves, they can hand it to someone who can. This way, you pay for your own healing, even if someone else is operating your wand.
And most importantly, Fame. You can buy any legal item from the society that you meet the fame score for. (See the chart in the guide.) As you adventure your fame grows, and the society is more willing to open their vaults or have their craftsmen make items just for you. This means that if you have a character concept that requires a flaming, shocking, mithril kusarigama you don’t need to pray that you find one on the chronicle, you can get it made. Your purchase limit USUALLY exceeds the amount of gold on hand. While chronicle sheet loot looks very important, in practice only rare items, partially charged wands, and items you can’t normally buy (like an elven cloak of resistance) really matter.
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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The only impact the loot that you find in the adventure has in the game is you can use that treasure as consumables first because you'll get your gold total anyways. Essentially, the loot you find in the adventure ends up being free consumables. So you will want to use the potion of cure light wounds that you found on the bad guy before you cast any spells or use wand charges, because you'll then get a chunk of change at the end of the adventure and be able to buy another potion if you want.
Not entirely true.
Sometimes the loot you find is "unique." A wand of flame blade at CL10 with only 8 charges. Or a broken, artifact-level longsword that gives a cool role-playing bonus (and might be "mendable" on a future chronicle with the right boon), or a set of gauntlets of giant strength (specifically NOT a belt of giant strength).
Finding those kinds of things on chronicles is pretty impactful.
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Lets say our GM wanted to integrate a recurring villain
You can reflavor the listed Bad guy as the guy/gal thats been menacing you all along but you can't change his stats. If the end boss is a fireball tossing wizard and the guy you have a beef with is a fireball tossing wizard that works. If he's a crossbow ace... not so much.
or a few extra quests we had to run off and complete
or a couple of groups we needed to politic and play off against one another or help foster alliance between.
As long as you don't GET anything out of the alliance its fine.
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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a set of gauntlets of giant strength (specifically NOT a belt of giant strength)I've seen a quote* saying that these items get ret-conned to the standard slot and any you find are leftovers from pre/proto-Pathfinder
* Yeah, I know. But I don't have a link.
From Season 0, yes. But I'm not talking about a Season 0 chronicle; I'm talking about one that is more recent. It is listed on that chronicle and called out specifically as legal to purchase.
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Can we go back and start at Season 0 modules?
Do we have to play the modules in order and/or the current seasons modules?
You can play the scenarios in any order you want as long as you have a character of the correct level (or use a pregenerated character, but the rules for applying credit when using a pregen are more complicated).
Note that a few of the Season 0 scenarios have been "retired" and are no longer legal to play for credit.
Venture-Agent, Minnesota
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I have read some where that PFS uses "Eschew materials". At what level spells do material components come into play. I play a cleric and just got 2nd level spells. I am looking into higher level spells to plan and not to "cheat by mistake"
I didn't see anything in the PFS primer or the current Guide.
Eschew materials is probably a waste of a feat for you. A spell component pouch costs 25 gold, and is presumed to have all your low cost spell components. Eschew materials only lets you bypass the material components that cost less than 1 gold.
But yes, it's a fully legal feat. I've had all of 2 scenarios in my sorceresses's career where it came in handy because spell component pouches were confiscated, and I could still cast. Otherwise, it hardly ever comes up.
Hmm
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I have read some where that PFS uses "Eschew materials". At what level spells do material components come into play. I play a cleric and just got 2nd level spells. I am looking into higher level spells to plan and not to "cheat by mistake"
I didn't see anything in the PFS primer or the current Guide.
I believe you're saying that someone told you that Pathfinder Society Play ignores material components.
That is not correct.
As Hmm said, if you buy a spell component pouch you are considered to have unlimited castings of any spell with material components costing less than 1 gp. The Eschew Materials feat (which sorcerers get for free) lets you ignore even the need for a spell component pouch for material components costing less than a gold but this rarely has a game effect other than roleplaying. ("I don't even need a bit of guano to cast fireball!")
However any component that cost more than 1 gp needs to be on your character sheet. That means if you're casting raise dead you need 5000 gp of diamond dust written in your inventory. All the way down to 25 gp of silver dust and a vial of holy water for consecrate. You can't simply mark of the cost from your gold total; you actually have to be carrying those specific components at the time you want to cast the spell.
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You can't simply mark of the cost from your gold total; you actually have to be carrying those specific components at the time you want to cast the spell.
But since you can convert gems to gold and vice versa with no appreciable loss, you should be carrying most of your wealth in weightless, easy to transfer diamond dust anyway.
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My very first game a Cleric said" he wanted a GP from each of us or he would not heal the party members". I though he was being a jerk but now I understand.
This is actually not legal to do in Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild play. If you have an item you can give it to another character and they may then expend it ("here drink this potion of cure light wounds"). You may also pay for another character's non-continuing expenses (1 gp for a night at the inn, 250 gp to be bailed out of jail).
However you may not give another character money or any items that they carry over from one scenario to another.
The cleric can ask you to provide 100gp of diamond dust for him to cast restoration on you during the scenario. However another PC is not allowed to ask you to pay him for the actual work. And if he ends up not casting restoration he has to return the diamond dust to you at the end of the scenario. If you adventure with him again please refer him to page 24 of the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide (version 7.0):
In Pathfinder Society Organized Play, you may never buy items from, sell items to, or trade items with another player. You may, however, allow another player to borrow an item for the duration of a scenario. You are also permitted to spend your character’s gold to help a party member purchase spellcasting services such as raise dead or remove disease.