First Time Society GM


GM Discussion


Tomorrow evening I will be DMing my first official Society game, we are doing scenario #7-18 for Year of the Serpent, and I'm a bit nervous. Mostly because I DM online the majority of the time, but also because I'm jumping into this headfirst as a GM with no player experience in society play.

I have a few questions in relation to society play that can hopefully get answered here.

1. Faction Cards - Are they mandatory for both GM and Player?

2. What is the normal(or legal) table size for a standard society session?

3. Outside of the required books, pen and paper, what else should I consider bringing?

4. Any general tips?

5/5 5/55/55/5

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Luphey wrote:
Tomorrow evening I will be DMing my first official Society game

Thanks for stepping up.

Quote:
we are doing scenario #7-18 for Year of the Serpent

7-18 is faithless and forgotten part III. Don't recall anything snake related...

Quote:
and I'm a bit nervous. Mostly because I DM online the majority of the time, but also because I'm jumping into this headfirst as a GM with no player experience in society play.

*wince* I wish you'd shown up a few days ago. We could have tried to get you into an online game. PFS has some funny things that are `100 times easier to grock when you see it than when you hear about it.

Quote:

I have a few questions in relation to society play that can hopefully get answered here.

1. Faction Cards - Are they mandatory for both GM and Player?

They are not. I really really like them because they keep the faction relevant. You should print some out if you have the chance. For a dm it's easy, you're ticking the box waaaay down on the bottom.

Quote:
2. What is the normal(or legal) table size for a standard society session?

3 minimum players and 1 dm. In which case the party will get an NPC pregenerated character to go with them (likely Kyra the cleric. Everyone picks kyra)

7 absolute maximum players and 1 dm

Quote:
3. Outside of the required books, pen and paper, what else should I consider bringing?

The adventure

Chronicle sheets <--- the last page of the adventure. It basically says "i went on this adventure, i got this much gold"
game mat
mini's

Quote:
4. Any general tips?

Guide for pfs Good for all the pfs rules. Lil legalistic for an overview.

best new person guide i could come up with

Discord for PFS chat, in case you need answers faster If you ask, you might be able to get in a PFS game of first steps or something before tommorow.

Repeat after me: "I am going to mess this up and that's fine. I am going to mess this up and that's fine"

"close enough for state work. Close enough for state work"

Good luck. gonna need it :)


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Dont forget to bring the sign up sheet and your bag of dice. Also, you may want to bring some pre-generated player ID numbers to hand out to those new to society play.

5/5 5/55/55/5

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*grumble* can't find the "my pathfinder society" page with the new layout

Here it is

Right click, open that in a new tab
Sign in (its a sensative area)

Click the GM/Event coordinator tab
Scroll to the bottom

Click "reserve 10 pathfinder society cards" Download and print. Hand them out, ding, your group has PFS numbers.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

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We are here to help, too! Please ask questions!

Faithless and Forgotten III is a great adventure. One thing that you might find helpful is doing a search in the GM forum for the GM thread on it. It's good to see what issues others might have had with a scenario, and what they thought about running it!

Hmm

Dark Archive 4/5

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Also check out the GM Shared Prep site for awesome scenario extras other GMs have put together. I know I found the ones for #7-18 particularly helpful!


Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the help. I'll have to study up tonight so all of the links are very much appreciated.

After this game its only what?... 149 more games and I might be a five star? ;P

Scarab Sages 5/5 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Netherlands

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Luphey wrote:

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the help. I'll have to study up tonight so all of the links are very much appreciated.

After this game its only what?... 149 more games and I might be a five star? ;P

Be carefull, it can happen faster then you think :)

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

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Yes, it seems like yesterday when I reported how my very first table as a GM went... I am now closing on star four. It goes by quickly if you love to GM and show your players a good time!

Remember, mistakes are okay. You'll make them. We all do. Just have a good time and your players will too.

We're all rooting for you and wish you well!

Hugs,
Hmm


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Just got back from running said First Society Game. It went pretty smoothly. My group consited of a Hafling Barb, a Halfling Bard, a Human(?) Wizard, and an Investigator, that for the life of me I can't remember the race of.

Overall they tackled the content pretty well, especially since there isn't a whole lot of forced combat in the scenario. We finished the scenario in about 3 1/2 hours, which felt a little quick to me, but no matter.

All in all, my group said they had a great time, and I did as well, so it was a win-win. I honestly can't wait to do it again, only 9 more games and I'll have my first star.

And thanks again for the tips everyone, I know I already said it once, but they we're greatly appreciated.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

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I am so delighted that it went well! You'll find other games run a lot longer, and it will vary with the party and the game.

What are you planning on running next? Let us know, and we'll offer what help we can!

Hugs
Hmm


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I'm not sure what our venture lieutenant has in mind. I'm assuming that It will be another scenario from Year of the Serpent though. However when I find out, I will definitely be heading here first thing.

Silver Crusade 4/5 5/5 *

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Congratulations on a first run in - don't forget to get some games in yourself than to be a slave to the screen - always good to have some of those PC near death experiences to talk about ;)

oh and you can always come up with suggestions for your VL as well i would expect, dropping into part 3 of the three parter is not the easiest start so i would hope you would get some chances to pick things that are interesting for you as well.

Lots of people who can give you suggestions if you have a preference on what interests you across Golarion!

Silver Crusade 4/5 5/55/55/5

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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Congratulations! Glad to hear everything went well. I second the thought that you should make time to play, too--you can learn a lot from other GMs, good or bad.

Plus, y'know, playing Pathfinder is fun and all that.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/55/55/5 *

Luphey wrote:

I'm not sure what our venture lieutenant has in mind. I'm assuming that It will be another scenario from Year of the Serpent though. However when I find out, I will definitely be heading here first thing.

If you are lucky and have lodge that has GMS try to play 3 games to every 1 you run. I strongly recommend staying away from a season if you are running a lot so you have something to play that you haven't prepped. I don't run a lot of season 4 stuff unless I played it so I get some surprises.

Keep up the good work and most importantly remember if you are a GM have fun it's a game for everyone to have fun not just the players.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

In my case I GM 3 games for everyone that I play... So I really relish those play breaks!

Hmm

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/55/55/5 *

Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:

In my case I GM 3 games for everyone that I play... So I really relish those play breaks!

Hmm

I GM about 5 games to 1 I play hence why I hit 5 stars so quickly we have a lack of gm volunteerstar at one of our lodges

Grand Lodge 2/5 5/5 Venture-Lieutenant, California—North Coast

Sadly I GM every game for my store and I think the only time I will get a chance to play is at PaizoCon this year.

Though I have been in discussion with one of my players and he is excited extremely excited since he heard about the Regional Support Program GM incentive.

Liberty's Edge 4/5

Thanks for stepping up to GM!

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