Starting a Society Group

[Talonknife]

I'm looking to start a Society group on my college campus, since a lot of people I know play or are interested in playing and Society seems like the easiest way to get everyone involved. What exactly do I need to do to get a Society group up and running? I'm also looking at maybe trying to get the Society group established as a campus-sponsored club so I can have access to things like mass emailing. Are Society games required to be entirely open to the public, or can I have a semi-public group (i.e. open to any registered student, but not to the general public)? Are there any conditions on Paizo's end that might interfere with getting official recognition from the school (obviously, there may be conflicts from the school itself)? I'm also considering trying to apply for Venture-Agent if possible, although I might need some more experience under my belt first.

[Kate Baker]

That's terrific! It's great to hear about new groups starting.

The best way to get started is to contact your local Venture Captain. If you don't know who that is, check out the list here. If there's not someone in your exact city, contact the nearest Venture Captain.

It's not actually necessary to do anything other than register for an Organized Play number to run Society games, and you can even run games for a private group and have them be Society-legal. Your VC can let you know how things typically run in your area, and that person will want to be aware of all the Society play going on in the area. I don't really know about the interactions with campus stuff, but your VC can probably help you there, too.

[GM Lamplighter]

Welcome aboard! Kate's hit all the important points. I do want to encourage you to have some public games, though... even if it's as part of the school's "club days" or whatever event fits. You get a lot of folks intersted when you have a public presence, and that can help grow the group for when the inevitable happens - people graduate, get busy with other things, etc. The sooner you are at least open to new folks dropping in, the more sustainable your group will be.

Society play does have some differences from a home campaign in terms of loot, so make sure you grab the latest Roleplaying Guild Guide from the main Society page.

Best of luck!

[Talonknife]

GM Lamplighter wrote:

Welcome aboard! Kate's hit all the important points. I do want to encourage you to have some public games, though... even if it's as part of the school's "club days" or whatever event fits. You get a lot of folks intersted when you have a public presence, and that can help grow the group for when the inevitable happens - people graduate, get busy with other things, etc. The sooner you are at least open to new folks dropping in, the more sustainable your group will be.

Society play does have some differences from a home campaign in terms of loot, so make sure you grab the latest Roleplaying Guild Guide from the main Society page.

Best of luck!

I should mention that I personally have no qualms with leaving games open to the public, I'm just concerned the school might not give us an official club status if the games aren't student-exclusive, which isn't really a huge loss, but would make recruiting from the student body a little more difficult. Hopefully, they'll allow public games and I won't have to worry about any of that.

I've played some Society before, at cons and when I was in high school and still lived within reasonable distance of an active venue, so I'm fairly familiar with how loot works, but I've only ever been a player. I've never played Society from the other side of the table, so I'm hoping I can get some advice on avoiding pitfalls in both the technical side like chronicles and reporting, and in actually running the games themselves.

[AaronUnicorn]

Talonknife wrote:

I should mention that I personally have no qualms with leaving games open to the public, I'm just concerned the school might not give us an official club status if the games aren't student-exclusive, which isn't really a huge loss, but would make recruiting from the student body a little more difficult. Hopefully, they'll allow public games and I won't have to worry about any of that.

Obviously, YMMV, but you might want to look and see if your school has an SCA chapter, and see how they manage it. When I was in college, we had an SCA branch that was a student organization (and got student funding, could use university resources, etc.) but was able to have non-student community members.

The rules we had to operate under meant that the President and Treasurer both had to be students to continue to operate as a student group, but that it was totally fine to have outside members.

So, it's worth checking into the specific rules that the university has in place for student organizations/clubs, but they may not be as restrictive as you're afraid of.

[Talonknife]

AaronUnicorn wrote:

Talonknife wrote:

I should mention that I personally have no qualms with leaving games open to the public, I'm just concerned the school might not give us an official club status if the games aren't student-exclusive, which isn't really a huge loss, but would make recruiting from the student body a little more difficult. Hopefully, they'll allow public games and I won't have to worry about any of that.

Obviously, YMMV, but you might want to look and see if your school has an SCA chapter, and see how they manage it. When I was in college, we had an SCA branch that was a student organization (and got student funding, could use university resources, etc.) but was able to have non-student community members.

The rules we had to operate under meant that the President and Treasurer both had to be students to continue to operate as a student group, but that it was totally fine to have outside members.

So, it's worth checking into the specific rules that the university has in place for student organizations/clubs, but they may not be as restrictive as you're afraid of.

I'm going to go talk to my freshman advisor after my next class and figure out who to talk to about starting an official student organization. I don't think the school's rules will be that restrictive, but my motto is "Hope for the best, plan for the worst." I can't think of any student orgs that have members that are not part of the college, but then again, most of our orgs are pretty internal, so there's no real reason for other people to join. And again, even if that is the case, the only things we really lose out on are campus-wide email announcements and funding from the student senate, which I don't expect to really need, anyway.

[DM Livgin]

Talonknife, I'm 6 months into starting my Lodge and was surprised to find there were not any guides for this, Treantmonk's guide to Venture-Agents? I wish you the best!

All you need to do is to do is report the games. Semi-public / private games are completely legit, If you have the population and incentives for students-only have at it!

Reach out to your Venture-Captain, they are a great resource and the one to speak to to become a Venture Agent.

[BigNorseWolf]

Quote:

Are Society games required to be entirely open to the public, or can I have a semi-public group (i.e. open to any registered student, but not to the general public)?

Some society games are run at home privately or with regular groups online, so there's no worry there.

I know of a few college student only PFS groups so that's not a problem.

All you need to run an all official and everything PFS game is a PFS number. (the low bar for qualification is how a lot of us got in...)

Quote:

I'm also considering trying to apply for Venture-Agent if possible, although I might need some more experience under my belt first.

Take it slow there... :)

[Hmm]

Ward, stay tuned... Four of us have been conspiring on something like this.

Hmm

[GreySector]

Talonknife wrote:

I've never played Society from the other side of the table, so I'm hoping I can get some advice on avoiding pitfalls in both the technical side like chronicles and reporting, and in actually running the games themselves.

I recommend retaining the reporting sheets generated from your games (either the physical copies or scans) so that if there is a question about any reported data you can refer back to the original reporting sheet.

[DM Livgin]

Talonknife wrote:

I've never played Society from the other side of the table, so I'm hoping I can get some advice on avoiding pitfalls in both the technical side like chronicles and reporting, and in actually running the games themselves.

The Society format can feel overwhelming. spread out learning all the Society rules: Session one, teach the ground rule of Explore, Report, Cooperate and point out how much gold they got. Session two explain how prestige works and that they can buy a wand with it. Session 3 or 4 hand out the Welcome to Pathfinder boons and explain fame purchasing limits.

Don't be afraid to skip the optional encounter if you are at all close to the recommended time cut off. It is nice to leave time and energy to answer questions after the game.

Find a PFS GM prep advice thread. Read the scenario reviews. Read the scenario GM thread.

[Talonhawke]

Good luck!

[Sir Belmont the Valiant]

I am starting (sic) a small, one table PFS group in a group that meets regularly.

I am prepping by playing as many season 6 and 7 scenarios as possible, preferably level 1-5. Why? because I bought a Charity-centered Humble Bundle that included all of these scenarios. Without stopping to count, that's like 60 - 70 adventure PDFs.

Look for one of these bargains if you can, and be ready to run from your laptop. Printing out maps can be a problem though. Get one or two erasible maps and pre-draw them when possible. (I bought several rolls of wrapping paper at 50 cents each during post-New years clearance. The ones I bought are the ones with the one-inch grid on the back; that's where I will draw maps.)