Absolute noobs searching for advice and guidance.

[Wolftame]

Greetings

I'm new the PF and PFS but wants to go all in on this and have convinced some people to do so as well. So far I have gotten a few to set up accounts and joined OP. Plan is for 2 alternating GMs so everyone can play each adventure once (I assume a GM can't have his own character in an adventure? Does running an adventure as GM prevent you from doing it as a player?).

I've bought the CRB and Bestiary and will buy the Lost Omens world guide ASAP. Got the character sheet pack pdf (PFS uses the regular character sheets right?). I've also bought the first adventures we're going to try (#1-00 and #1A for now) and are about to create our characters.

My confusion around PFS is mainly about the bookkeeping and paperwork of things (at least so far). I'm guessing the "Wellcome to Pathfinder" thing isn't applicable for Season 1/PF2e play, right?

What about #1-00, how does it work, you're supposed to use the lvl 5 pregens so how do players register this? Do they take the pregens and list as one of their chars? What about the rewards (what's the point of handing out rewards to pregens if they are one time uses and doesn't grow like a regular chars).

Ok, mind went a bit blank now, I'm sure I had more questions but I will have to come back to those as there's bound to be a lot more confusion before we get anywhere.

Today's session will be discussing how we want our parties to look and create at least 1 char each to register.

[Wolftame]

Looking around a bit to see if I can find answers to my own questions and not sure if I'm more or less confused :P

#1-00 uses 5th level pregens, and it does not have the repeatable tag.
I guess that means that if I GM it one of my characters can never play it?
If I understand correctly I play it with the pregens, but any rewards the pregens gets can get assigned to 1 registered character of a lower level? I guess this also prevents that character from doing this adventure (as non repeatable).
On the chronicles sheet, even though the pregens are used, do I record the character they want to assign stuff to as the character ID taking part? (basically as if that character was playing it?).
Do the selected get ALL the rewards from the adventure (gold, XP, fame, items, downtime etc) ?

[roll4initiative]

Be sure to read through the guide to organized play. You'll be referencing it a lot.

http://www.organizedplayfoundation.org/encyclopedia/pfs2guide/

[roll4initiative]

You can get credit twice for each scenario. Once for GMing and once as a player, but with different characters.

My advice with the 5th level pregen credit, save it until your PC reaches 5th level. Then apply it at that time.

[Wolftame]

Christian Dragos wrote:

You can get credit twice for each scenario. Once for GMing and once as a player, but with different characters.

My advice with the 5th level pregen credit, save it until your PC reaches 5th level. Then apply it at that time.

Thank you. I am reading through it and I'm sure more of it will make sense once I get rolling.

I figured out I could both GM/Play the same scenario. When GMing do I just apply it to any char the same as if a player use a pregen (So GM gets all the same rewards as a player for one of his chars?).
You mention saving it and not applying it until lvl 5 which touches one thing that confused me, the part that you can credit the lvl 5 pregen play to any lower lvl char that person have, but you can't actually apply things until they reach that level? (basically credit for having done it at lvl 1, but get the rewards at lvl 5?)

(sorry If I'm coming across a bit daft, bit of a learning curve to start with here ;) ).

With the item rewards as I understand it each character taking part basically get a copy each of said item (as the group as a whole get access to it?)

[BigNorseWolf]

You can both play and DM the same scenario, but if you have the same group of friends playing you won't be able to play the same adventure: since they can't play it twice. You dm they play , you go to play, one of your friends can DM.. but then you have no other players. You need a larger/different group to both play and dm

[Wolftame]

BigNorseWolf wrote:

You can both play and DM the same scenario, but if you have the same group of friends playing you won't be able to play the same adventure: since they can't play it twice. You dm they play , you go to play, one of your friends can DM.. but then you have no other players. You need a larger/different group to both play and dm

If all works out and we get it together there will be 8 people partaking on a regular basis. 6 will be "permanently" paired in two fixed groups of 3 and two (me and one other) will be part of both groups alternating who GM and who plays for each runthrough. I think this should work out (other than scheduling conflicts). Occasionally someone might have to sit in via webcam probably, but that shouldn't be a legality issue, right?

[BigNorseWolf]

Wolftame wrote:

BigNorseWolf wrote:

You can both play and DM the same scenario, but if you have the same group of friends playing you won't be able to play the same adventure: since they can't play it twice. You dm they play , you go to play, one of your friends can DM.. but then you have no other players. You need a larger/different group to both play and dm

If all works out and we get it together there will be 8 people partaking on a regular basis. 6 will be "permanently" paired in two fixed groups of 3 and two (me and one other) will be part of both groups alternating who GM and who plays for each runthrough. I think this should work out (other than scheduling conflicts). Occasionally someone might have to sit in via webcam probably, but that shouldn't be a legality issue, right?

You can play online so that definitely works.

[Wolftame]

Christian Dragos wrote:

You can get credit twice for each scenario. Once for GMing and once as a player, but with different characters.

My advice with the 5th level pregen credit, save it until your PC reaches 5th level. Then apply it at that time.

Ok, have to ask how that is technically done. What's the reporting procedure if I play it now but don't want to apply until the character that should get the credit reaches lvl 5?

What's the pros and cons of applying immediately (if you can) and waiting?

[roll4initiative]

You simply wait until your PC hits 5th level. Report it now and wait. Doesn't matter when the game was reported. I like to wait with the higher tier chronicles because more money & loot.

[Wolftame]

Christian Dragos wrote:

You simply wait until your PC hits 5th level. Report it now and wait. Doesn't matter when the game was reported. I like to wait with the higher tier chronicles because more money & loot.

So report the game with player IDs, but no character IDs? (I haven't registered/reported anything yet so I have no idea how the procedure works or looks).

[roll4initiative]

Well, we were always told the paper chronicles are more important than the reporting on Paizo. Just keep all your chronicles very organized with your character sheets. What i would do is just report the game with whatever number the players gave you. Most likely their xxxxx-1 PC. I played a game last week and did the same, but I have applied the chronicle to my xxxxx-3 PC. I will let my GM know so he can go back and edit the reporting.

Back when PFS first started in 2009 things were a mess as well. And for a couple years.

[Hmm]

If you're doing PF2, your numbers will be xxxxxxx-2001 for the first character, and then xxxxxxx-2002 for the second character and so on. Will you be holding your games in a public place and advertising them? Because then you might be able to attract new people to constantly refresh your player pool.

Also, welcome to our community. We were all new once. Know that you can keep asking questions, and we'll be here to answer them or just to cheer you on.

Hmm

[Shadrick Hawkins]

I would strongly encourage you start with just the 1 hour quest (Sandstone Secret). I would encourage you to also consider most players utilizing the 1st level pregens instead of making your own PCs for that very first run through based on your current lack of experience.

Then play 1-01 (Absalom Initiation), which is really designed as the true introduction to society play. Do this with new custom characters that each of you create. This will also start everyone with a little bit of extra money (3.5gp) earned in the quest, to build those first characters with.

Jumping straight into playing 1-00 with the level 5 pregens, with out at least one experienced 2e player, will be a lot more challenging. Also, the level 5 pregens aren't actually well designed for some of the encounters in that scenario. So I would highly recommend saving it for a bit later.

When it comes to earned treasure, it is important to note that unlike home games, treasure in PFS2 is given to you at the end of the scenario in the form of just gold. Then each player is allowed to buy certain things based on access criteria as explained in the online organized play guide.

So, for example, if you find 2 potions and a magical sword in the scenario - your players can use those items in the scenario, but then it all goes away at the end and essentially turns into a pile of gold. Between each scenario your players can then buy items with the gold they have (again, based on certain access rules). These items may include early access to things based on what was earned in the scenario, as documented on the Chronicle Sheet.