Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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@mjeans: I admire your zeal for playing by the rules. But I think you've overestimated your obligations :)
Let's look closely at what the Guide says:
RESOURCES
The Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild requires all members to have the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook and the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide (this document). Players and GMs are also expected to familiarize themselves with the official Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild FAQ at paizo.com/organizedplay/faq and Campaign Clarifications at paizo.com/pathfindersociety/rpg/clarifications. When multiple versions of a rule exist, reference the Campaign Clarification document for further guidance. If an entry doesn’t exist for your source, use the written source as presented. If there still is a discrepancy, please bring the issue to the attention of campaign leadership by e-mailing organizedplay@paizo.com.
If a clarification or FAQ pertains to your character, you are expected to bring a copy of the relevant sections to any Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild game.
While GMs are not required to read every post on the forums, they need to keep abreast of clarifications. GMs may not ignore rules clarifications, including posts from the organized play team on organized play forum threads that they have seen. Forum clarifications will be added to the FAQ, Campaign Clarifications document, or this Guide as soon as possible.
Paizo produces a wide range of books that further explore the game rules and world of Pathfinder. These volumes contain a huge variety of options to help customize your character. You can view the list of all campaign-legal additional resources online at paizo.com/pathfindersociety/ rpg/additional. In order to use content from sources outside the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, a player must bring an accessible copy of the resource that indicates that she owns the resource. An accessible copy means one of the following: a physical copy of the book, a name-watermarked Paizo PDF of the relevant pages, or either a photocopy of the relevant pages or electronic access to the Pathfinder Reference Document at pfrd.info along with proof of purchase. Proof of purchase may include a receipt from a game store or a screenshot of your My Downloads page at paizo.com. An earned Chronicle sheet that prints the full text of a rules option may be used in lieu of an accessible copy. In addition to the rules themselves, you must bring a current copy of the Additional Resources listing pertaining to the rule. Inform the GM that you plan to use additional resource material before play begins and allow the GM to familiarize herself with any new rules.
There are only two books that everyone must have: the core rulebook and the guild guide (which is free).
The other ownership is all in the context of using stuff as a player, for your player character. That becomes clear from the beginning of the paragraph and is reinforced at the end.
Venture-Captain, Missouri—Columbia
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It is not a gray area. It is a clearly defined rule. Players have to own the sources for anything their character has. GMs only have to have the CRB and Guild Guide. If a NPC has something, then it has it. The GM does not need to have that particular resource.
If you as the GM would like to know more about that particular resource, you can look it up on Archives of Nethys.
As for running the NPC you have to go by what the scenario calls for. The GM has to run it as written.
Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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Okay, so there is a literal gray area, but it can be inferred that GM's can make due with only the books they have. But what does that mean with a scenario uses a class that is published in a book the GM doesn't have, like Unchained Rogue. I don't own any unchains stuff. And I don't even want to own them and have no interest in learning the mechanics of how to play an unchained rogue. Am I allowed, as a GM, to just run the NPC as a regular rogue?
As the GM you do NOT need the books, Archive of Nethys is perfectly fine, you are however not allowed to change something in the scenario, like using another version of the rogue class.
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Okay, so there is a literal gray area, but it can be inferred that GM's can make due with only the books they have. But what does that mean with a scenario uses a class that is published in a book the GM doesn't have, like Unchained Rogue. I don't own any unchains stuff. And I don't even want to own them and have no interest in learning the mechanics of how to play an unchained rogue. Am I allowed, as a GM, to just run the NPC as a regular rogue?
wait... please take a moment to examine what you are saying...
in your first post in this thread you say "...I am a stickler for the rules... "In the post above you say you ...
"...have no interest in learning the mechanics of how to play an unchained rogue..."
???
I am having difficulty understanding this.
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The consequence of those two facts is that a GM that can't find a feat or rule not adequately described in the scenario and not on AON and doesn't buy the source book has no possibility of running the scenario as written; and the GM is then breaking the rules.
Absolutely does not follow.
A DM that checks archives of nethys for a feat or ability, and archives of nethys has it wrong, is not breaking the rules. They're dealing with human error. Something that happens all the time in fields far more important than a role playing game.
The rules 100% absolutely do NOT require you to be perfect. (I don't think i've ever seen a game where someone didn't get something wrong) They just don't let you deliberately change things and take a good faith effort to get right.
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Perhaps it might be better to focus on a specific subset. My group is most interested in me running a high level seeker scenario. High level scenarios already have a huge commitment to understanding the way each NPC should be run. The two scenarios being considered are : "#9-25 Betrayal in the Bones (12-15)", or "10-09 The Rasping Rebirth (12–15)". So can anyone tell me what specific sources are needed to be able to resolve every class, archetype, feat, item or any other ability or rule to run each of these scenarios?
9-25: This adventure makes use of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player’s Guide (APG), Pathfinder RPG Bestiary, Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2, Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3, Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 4, Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 5, Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Combat (UC), and Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Equipment (UE).
10-09: The Rasping Rebirth makes use of the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary, Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2, and Pathfinder RPG Mythic Adventures (MA).
And as I restate, I don't want to learn classes from unchained or occult or mythic.
Unchained: There is almost no learning curve for the Unchained classes, especially with respect to running them in combat. You shouldn't be scared off about running any of those Unchained classes. (Building a PC would take more effort to learn the class, but not a lot.)
Occult: These classes are a big deal; I fully appreciate not wanting to learn these classes.
Mythic: You don't need to learn new classes. You only need to understand how Mythic Power works and understand any Mythic feats or abilities. But these are really just buffs to the monsters to make them more challenging for high-level characters. I think you are overestimating the work it will take to understand Mythic creatures.
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Venture-Captain, Missouri—Columbia
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Perhaps it might be better to focus on a specific subset. My group is most interested in me running a high level seeker scenario. High level scenarios already have a huge commitment to understanding the way each NPC should be run. The two scenarios being considered are : "#9-25 Betrayal in the Bones (12-15)", or "10-09 The Rasping Rebirth (12–15)". So can anyone tell me what specific sources are needed to be able to resolve every class, archetype, feat, item or any other ability or rule to run each of these scenarios?
Every product Paizo put out that features a class, trait, feat, piece of equipment, etc. that is PFS legal. You as a GM do not get to limit what sources a player in PFS gets to use.
If I got to limit players to what I owned, there would be no kineticsts, no occultists, no vigilantes, no shifters, no Horror, No Occult, and whatever else I personally don't like. Then I'd figure out a way to ban gunpowder.
At that point I would not be running a PFS session, but a homebrew session that could not be remotely close to a PFS session.
UNLESS I just ran a Core game. Since I run a lot of sessions online, I wouldn't be running anything as few players would play with those restrictions.
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Venture-Captain, Minnesota
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I have one important question for you, MJ. Do your players have PFS characters in the 7-11 range? Because if they don't, they won't have legal PFS characters for this, and you should run the scenario as a home game, not for PFS credit. That would mean that you could make any changes you desire to the text.
If they do have PFS characters of the appropriate level, then carry on! Welcome to GMing PFS. If you have any questions about the scenario, or need any more advice, we're glad to help.
Hmm
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ah... you might also check out the:
PFS GM Prep site.
for useful documents that would help you run the scenario you choose...
Often someone has put together a Monster write-up that would cover most of the rules you would need... as well as give a BUNCH of supporting documents/handouts/tracking sheets/what-not.
Heck, also check out the GM Discussion for the scenario you choose, even ask there so we don't get possible spoilers scattered into other threads...
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I have done GMing since around 2015 I think. I don't remember the last time I had to check a physical book to resolve a rules thing when preparing to run a game. Nethys has pretty much everything these days now that they've added skills as well.
I can understand being cautious, but in my experience, running as a GM (if you have a stable internet connection) can be done based purely on the scenario and websites.
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the other source is PFSprep.com this is especially helpful for scenarios that came out prior to to the stats being in the back of the scenario. but it has worksheets to help out with hard to follow things.