New GM, New SFS user, Many questions

[Ensign53]

Hello all!

I am looking to try to set up a SFS in my local gaming community, and I want to make sure I have everything right as rain before we go. I have been told that the best thing to do is to play a few society games before running them: unfortunately that is not an option as there are no Society games where I am currently, which is why I'm trying to get at least one started.

I'm new to the whole Paizo community, but have been DMing D&D for over a decade and a half now, so the actual content isn't an issue, so much as the extraneous stuff. I want to make sure I dot my is and cross my ts so that I don't potentially screw over my players.

For Society-specific product, I have gotten my SFS number and have the download for the two free PDFs, the Society Roleplaying Guide and the Quests into the Unknown. Am I good to start there, or do I need to officially register something with Paizo prior to the game? As far as scenarios, I will buy them as we approach them, so I'm starting with the free ones for now.

Is there anything my FLGS can/should do in terms of contacting Paizo for SFS product, or is that not a thing and it's more community-ran? (Hard copies of things, SFS gear/merch, etc. I'm not sure what it could be, but I also don't know what it wouldn't be.)

I saw in the guide that adventure paths could be sanctioned, and in the URL listed, I found the rules and chronicle sheets. Do the players themselves have to own the product for adventure path things, or does me as the GM owning it work for purely adventure path things? (I realize that they need to own things like the Armory to use the things in the Armory, etc., but many players I've found do not buy GM specific things unless they are running a game themselves.)

In reflection of the above question, what are the consequences if I knowingly (in a moment of weakness) or unknowingly (in a moment of stupidity) break the SFS rules and guidelines? Do my players get punished, or just me? What punishments are there?

And is there anything else that I'm just glaringly missing? Thank you for the time and responses to the questions; I know there are a lot, but I don't have anyone local and public that I can ask.

[Damanta]

If you want to register the games online you need to create an event in your society section of your profile. It's not an obligation, but rather a useful way to keep track of what the results were for a few things like player survival, amount of fame earned and in some scenarios a certain outcome.

Can't comment on the FLGS thing as that's mostly the territory of venture officers, which I'm not. Most support things run through/via venture officers.

For going through it in campaign mode it's fine if just you have the books. If they assign the chronicle sheets after campaign mode and want to use items that are specific to the AP and not on the sheet they need to own the book.

If you break the rules and guidelines try to fix it. Maybe not during a game but after it. There's no punishment scheme set up.

As for glaring things missing: Try to make sure you and all your players are running the same release of commonsense.exe to avoid unnecesary discussions about RAI vs RAW. :)

[BigNorseWolf]

An attempt to provide an overall picture

You could try some online games.

cosmic crittermanders and roll 20 starfinders both have a fair number of games going off.

Quote:

In reflection of the above question, what are the consequences if I knowingly (in a moment of weakness) or unknowingly (in a moment of stupidity) break the SFS rules and guidelines? Do my players get punished, or just me? What punishments are there?

I think the worst that could happen is someone takes their character to another table and gets told they can't play it there. Above all else try to keep the weird stuff at your table. I mean its one thing if you let the party talk the space dragon that was supposed to eat them into coming with the party to the end boss, or let them duct tape 12 grenades together to make the wedding a real blast, but the space dragon and bomb bouquet doesn't come with them to the next table.

It doesn't matter how many goblins you sell into slavery, you only get the credits that are on the sheet and your dayjob