Pure beginner in PFS - Help!


Pathfinder Society

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Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Where do I go to start? The organized play section has a link to another website, but there is different information on the pages, for instance the factions are different.

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

Greetings! Welcome to Society!

To best direct you where to go, are you looking to play 1st Edition Pathfinder, or 2nd?

That's probably why you're seeing different information.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Second edition, preferably.

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

Excellent!

Since 2nd Edition is so new, and the website is undergoing some substantial maintenance, the current Guide to Pathfinder Society (2nd Edition) is located HERE, on that 3rd Party site you probably found earlier.

But that's obviously a lot of reading for someone brand new (and currently requires some unintuitive navigating), so we can give you an easier breakdown here.

Are you generally already familiar with the rules for 2nd Edition? Have you already created a character as outlined in the Core Rulebook?


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Nefreet wrote:

Excellent!

Since 2nd Edition is so new, and the website is undergoing some substantial maintenance, the current Guide to Pathfinder Society (2nd Edition) is located HERE, on that 3rd Party site you probably found earlier.

But that's obviously a lot of reading for someone brand new (and currently requires some unintuitive navigating), so we can give you an easier breakdown here.

Are you generally already familiar with the rules for 2nd Edition? Have you already created a character as outlined in the Core Rulebook?

Yes, in fact I'm GMing a game. I'd just like to try playing.

Liberty's Edge 3/5 5/5 **** Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Omaha

Are you GMing a society game? or just want to play a society game?


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Gary Bush wrote:
Are you GMing a society game? or just want to play a society game?

GMing a regular game (Fall of Plaguestone). I'd like to try playing in a Society game and need info about how to do that.

Liberty's Edge 3/5 5/5 **** Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Omaha

Ok. The guide is a must read as it gives information for both GMs and Players. Do you know where society games are played in your area?

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

Thomas Keller wrote:
I'd like to try playing in a Society game and need info about how to do that.

In a Nutshell:

1) Register for a Society # through your Paizo account.

2) "Create" a new 2nd Edition character through your account (you don't need to upload anything about that character online unless you want to; but keep track of your character number)

3) Actually create your character, using the character creation rules in the Core Rulebook. You have 15gp to start.

4) Choose a Faction to Champion the causes of, and a School that represents your Training.

5) Find a place to play! Check for games here on Paizo, or the website Warhorn (which is very popular), or you can join the Play-by-Post community here in the Forums.

6) Tell your first GM that you're new. They'll probably ask you a lot of the questions we did. And you'll be off! Don't worry if you get something wrong at first. We all started sometime ourselves.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Gary Bush wrote:
Ok. The guide is a must read as it gives information for both GMs and Players. Do you know where society games are played in your area?

None that I know of. I'd have to play online.

5/5 5/55/55/5

Thomas Keller wrote:
Gary Bush wrote:
Ok. The guide is a must read as it gives information for both GMs and Players. Do you know where society games are played in your area?
None that I know of. I'd have to play online.

Flat Rolling Surfaces Map the same for starfinder pathfinder 1 and pathfinder 2

Roll 20 guide It's for 1 e but should get you over the learning curve anyway.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
BigNorseWolf wrote:
Thomas Keller wrote:
Gary Bush wrote:
Ok. The guide is a must read as it gives information for both GMs and Players. Do you know where society games are played in your area?
None that I know of. I'd have to play online.

Flat Rolling Surfaces Map the same for starfinder pathfinder 1 and pathfinder 2

Roll 20 guide It's for 1 e but should get you over the learning curve anyway.

I've heard bad stuff about Roll20. I much prefer Fantasy Grounds.

5/5 5/55/55/5

Thomas Keller wrote:


I've heard bad stuff about Roll20. I much prefer Fantasy Grounds.

There are fantasy ground games online, but roll20s being free for players, cheap for DMs, and having an easier learning curve makes it the apparent default for pick up games.

Silver Crusade 5/5 5/5 **

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Thomas Keller wrote:
BigNorseWolf wrote:
Thomas Keller wrote:
Gary Bush wrote:
Ok. The guide is a must read as it gives information for both GMs and Players. Do you know where society games are played in your area?
None that I know of. I'd have to play online.

Flat Rolling Surfaces Map the same for starfinder pathfinder 1 and pathfinder 2

Roll 20 guide It's for 1 e but should get you over the learning curve anyway.

I've heard bad stuff about Roll20. I much prefer Fantasy Grounds.

While there are games on Fantasy Grounds a considerable majority are on Roll20 so you may wish to at least try it out.

For what its worth, I agree with what I think is the general consensus. Fantasy Grounds is arguably better AFTER you get over the much steeper learning curve. Roll20 is easy to learn and it is definitely "good enough"

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

I also would like to invite you to consider Play-by-Post! Outpost III will be starting at the end of the month, and there are a lot of PF2 tables open!

Hmm


I agree with Hmm. Try Play-by-Post. One post per day is just so much slower allowing you the time to learn the rules as you go. I highly recommend it.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Nefreet wrote:
Thomas Keller wrote:
I'd like to try playing in a Society game and need info about how to do that.

In a Nutshell:

1) Register for a Society # through your Paizo account.

2) "Create" a new 2nd Edition character through your account (you don't need to upload anything about that character online unless you want to; but keep track of your character number)

3) Actually create your character, using the character creation rules in the Core Rulebook. You have 15gp to start.

4) Choose a Faction to Champion the causes of, and a School that represents your Training.

This is one thing that's confusing me. The Guide to Play website lists the factions as: (major) Envoy's Alliance, Grand Archive, Horizon Hunters, Vigilant Seal, and (minor)Radiant Oath and Verdant Wheel. The Paizo page lists: (no major or minor distinction) Dark Archive, The Exchange, Grand Lodge, Liberty's Edge, Scarab Sages, Silver Crusade, and Sovereign Court. And I don't see any Schools anywhere. Huh?

Quote:


5) Find a place to play! Check for games here on Paizo, or the website Warhorn (which is very popular), or you can join the Play-by-Post community here in the Forums.

6) Tell your first GM that you're new. They'll probably ask you a lot of the questions we did. And you'll be off! Don't worry if you get something wrong at first. We all started sometime ourselves.

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

Exactly.

Pathfinder Society (2nd Edition), located on the 3rd Party site, has Envoy's Alliance, Grand Archive, Horizon Hunters, Vigilant Seal, Radiant Oath and Verdant Wheel as Faction options.

Pathfinder Society (1st Edition), located here on Paizo's site, has Dark Archive, The Exchange, Grand Lodge, Liberty's Edge, Scarab Sages, Silver Crusade, and Sovereign Court as Faction options.

Different Campaigns.

Both Editions have Schools (Swords, Scrolls and Spells), which represent the training you focused on while studying to become a Pathfinder.

For 2nd Edition, those Schools can be found HERE.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Hmm wrote:

I also would like to invite you to consider Play-by-Post! Outpost III will be starting at the end of the month, and there are a lot of PF2 tables open!

Hmm

How does "Play-by-Post" work? Is there a beginner's guide somewhere?

EDIT: Very confused. Far down on that page I found something called "Player sign-ups" but it just links to a picture from 'Young Frankenstein'. Huh?


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Nefreet wrote:

Exactly.

Pathfinder Society (2nd Edition), located on the 3rd Party site, has Envoy's Alliance, Grand Archive, Horizon Hunters, Vigilant Seal, Radiant Oath and Verdant Wheel as Faction options.

Pathfinder Society (1st Edition), located here on Paizo's site, has Dark Archive, The Exchange, Grand Lodge, Liberty's Edge, Scarab Sages, Silver Crusade, and Sovereign Court as Faction options.

Different Campaigns.

Both Editions have Schools (Swords, Scrolls and Spells), which represent the training you focused on while studying to become a Pathfinder.

For 2nd Edition, those Schools can be found HERE.

So Paizo farms out the organized play for their latest edition to another site, but keeps the organized play for their old edition here? That's weird.

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

It's complicated at the moment. There's a lot of history behind the decision, but it's encountered hiccups since implementation.

Also, I'm not sure of the context of "farms out", but the lead volunteer happens to be my local Venture Captain ^_^


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Nefreet wrote:

It's complicated at the moment. There's a lot of history behind the decision, but it's encountered hiccups since implementation.

Also, I'm not sure of the context of "farms out", but the lead volunteer happens to be my local Venture Captain ^_^

Oh, I thought it was a separate company. What's a "Venture Captain"?

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

Currently, the people in charge of Pathfinder Society as a global campaign are Linda Zayas Palmer (Organized Play Lead Developer), Tonya Woldridge (Organized Play Manager), and Michael Sayre (Organized Play Developer).

Beneath them are Regional Coordinators who oversee entire continents. Beneath them are Venture Captains who oversee large populated areas (mine is the Greater Sacramento area, Sacramento being the Capitol of California). Beneath them are Venture Lieutenants who oversee... you know I'm not quite sure. And beneath them are Venture Agents, who usually act as the primary face for coordinating with game stores.

Any number of those people volunteer for bigger projects, such as drafting up the online guide, organizing Conventions, etc.

-----------------

Play-by-Post (or "PbP" for short) is exactly as it sounds. You play through an adventure by posting in a Forum here on Paizo.

THIS is an example of a 1st Edition PbP I ran years ago. Each player uses an Alias and posts their dialogue and actions. Dice rolls are available by typing [DICE=Type of Dice Roll]1d20+X[/DICE], which ends up looking something like this:

+1 Shortsword: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29
Crit, Slashing: 2d6 + 8 ⇒ (5, 3) + 8 = 16

A typical game that would take 4 hours at a store may take up to 4 weeks via PbP. Sometimes quicker, sometimes longer, depending on the group. It's not for everyone, but I find that PbP really allows for roleplaying opportunities that a time sensitive venue may have to cut down on.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

So you roll the dice at home and then report the result? I'm baffled. That seems rife for abuse.

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

That green text you see was generated randomly. Try it for yourself ^_^

Copy/Paste the text below (do not "Reply"):

[DICE=This is my first roll]1d20+1[/DICE]

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

Thomas Keller wrote:
Hmm wrote:

I also would like to invite you to consider Play-by-Post! Outpost III will be starting at the end of the month, and there are a lot of PF2 tables open!

Hmm

How does "Play-by-Post" work? Is there a beginner's guide somewhere?

EDIT: Very confused. Far down on that page I found something called "Player sign-ups" but it just links to a picture from 'Young Frankenstein'. Huh?

You made it to the sign up sheet. There should be tabs for the different player signups for the Specials and the General signups!


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Hmm wrote:
Thomas Keller wrote:
Hmm wrote:

I also would like to invite you to consider Play-by-Post! Outpost III will be starting at the end of the month, and there are a lot of PF2 tables open!

Hmm

How does "Play-by-Post" work? Is there a beginner's guide somewhere?

EDIT: Very confused. Far down on that page I found something called "Player sign-ups" but it just links to a picture from 'Young Frankenstein'. Huh?

You made it to the sign up sheet. There should be tabs for the different player signups for the Specials and the General signups!

Ah, okay. Looks like it's full. Oh well, maybe next time.

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

Not at all! There are several games still looking for players.

The player signups are actually HERE. You're going to be interested in the games colored [yellow].

I see you haven't registered for a Society # through your Paizo account, yet, and you don't have any characters. If you need any help with that, let us know!


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Nefreet wrote:

Not at all! There are several games still looking for players.

The player signups are actually HERE. You're going to be interested in the games colored [yellow].

I see you haven't registered for a Society # through your Paizo account, yet, and you don't have any characters. If you need any help with that, let us know!

Admittedly, it's difficult to tell on a phone, but it looks to me like both game 1s have no open seats.

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

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That's first edition. The second edition games you'd be interested in are [yellow].

There's a column that tells you which games are still open (with a red "NO" or a green "YES").

As of right now there's still:

• Escaping the Grave
• Flooded King's Court
• Star-Crossed Voyages (use a pregenerated character)
• The Burden of Envy
• Devil at the Crossroads (use a pregenerated character)
• Lions of Katapesh
• The Blooming Catastrophe
• Grehunde's Gorget (a quick game)
• Port Peril Pub Crawl (a quick game)
• Archaeology in Aspenthar

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

Nefreet, have you been told today that you are awesome? You're awesome!

Thomas, feel free to join one of the games in the Yellow part of the sheet. Also, I am going to cast 'Summon Venture Officer', so that one of the many awesome PBP Venture Officers can come to give you a little extra assistance getting started.

Both Nefreet and I are just enthusiastic members of the PBP community*, but wait until you meet the PBP officers. They're so helpful!

Hmm

* Yeah, I'm an ordinary citizen now. Yay!

Dark Archive 4/5 5/55/5 ***

1 person marked this as a favorite.

A small pentagram is carved deep into the soil and lined with coffee grounds. A thick aromatic smoke fills the area as a thin framed man sits within. "Looks like you need a bit of assistance? Looking to join the Pathfinder Society I hear?"

@Thomas Keller- I may have a few things to help you along your way concerning Play-by-post. First off here is the official announcement for Outpost III mentioned above. It looks as if you have found the Player Signup sheet as linked above. Thanks Nefreet!

Outpost III Announcement (Link)

Next here are a few player instructions on building an account and linking your character here on the Paizo website so as to get ready to play some games. Give them a good look over.

PbP Player Guide (Link)

My suggestion. Read through those, create a character (Or use a pregen) and sign up for a game on the Outpost III Sign up sheet. Let the GM know you are new to this and they will gladly help guide you.

Let us know if you have any further questions.

- Venture-Captain Tyranius

1/5 5/55/5 **

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Hello and welcome, Thomas Keller.
I am in the middle of a VTT game now but Hmm's summons worked. I will PM you later this evening and see if we can work out something for you.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Nefreet wrote:

That's first edition. The second edition games you'd be interested in are [yellow].

There's a column that tells you which games are still open (with a red "NO" or a green "YES").

As of right now there's still:

• Escaping the Grave
• Flooded King's Court
• Star-Crossed Voyages (use a pregenerated character)
• The Burden of Envy
• Devil at the Crossroads (use a pregenerated character)
• Lions of Katapesh
• The Blooming Catastrophe
• Grehunde's Gorget (a quick game)
• Port Peril Pub Crawl (a quick game)
• Archaeology in Aspenthar

Yes, but episode 1 "Initiation in Absalom" has no open seats. You have to start a character with that one, right?

4/5

Thomas Keller wrote:
Nefreet wrote:

That's first edition. The second edition games you'd be interested in are [yellow].

There's a column that tells you which games are still open (with a red "NO" or a green "YES").

As of right now there's still:

• Escaping the Grave
• Flooded King's Court
• Star-Crossed Voyages (use a pregenerated character)
• The Burden of Envy
• Devil at the Crossroads (use a pregenerated character)
• Lions of Katapesh
• The Blooming Catastrophe
• Grehunde's Gorget (a quick game)
• Port Peril Pub Crawl (a quick game)
• Archaeology in Aspenthar

Yes, but episode 1 "Initiation in Absalom" has no open seats. You have to start a character with that one, right?

Nope. You can start a character in any scenario which is playable by a L1 character.

Envoy's Alliance 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ****

A chipper green haired gnome carrying lawbooks bigger than she is beams at Thomas Keller. "Absalom Initiation was my SECOND mission! I started with Sandstone Secret! Most of us get recruited elsewhere in the field, and then go back for our initiation later!"

She hands him a business card. "I'm from the Envoy Alliance Legal Defense team! Welcome to the Pathfinder Society! You'll find that we value teamwork, and want everyone to succeed!"

Seriously, welcome. I hope that you have a great time in OutPost III.

Take Care,
Hmm

2/5 *** Venture-Agent, Texas—Austin

The number of a PFS scenario just says the order it was published, not necessarily the order it needs to be played. Generally they are standalone stories, but there's a meta narrative that links them together, some more closely than others. Continuations of particular plot points can sometimes be several sessions apart, some even years apart.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Derek Larsen wrote:


Next here are a few player instructions on building an account and linking your character here on the Paizo website so as to get ready to play some games. Give them a good look over.

PbP Player Guide (Link)

Oh boy, that's really complicated. I'm not really a computer guru.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
cavernshark wrote:
The number of a PFS scenario just says the order it was published, not necessarily the order it needs to be played. Generally they are standalone stories, but there's a meta narrative that links them together, some more closely than others. Continuations of particular plot points can sometimes be several sessions apart, some even years apart.

I thought because they were under a heading of "Season" that they were "Episodes" that had to be followed in order.

Grand Lodge 4/5 ** Venture-Agent, Colorado—Denver

Thomas Keller wrote:
Derek Larsen wrote:


Next here are a few player instructions on building an account and linking your character here on the Paizo website so as to get ready to play some games. Give them a good look over.

PbP Player Guide (Link)

Oh boy, that's really complicated. I'm not really a computer guru.

I'm in the same boat as Thomas regarding PbP. Even though I've been doing tabletop RPGs for 40 years, there are no instructions for PbP beginners on how to create a character "sheet" for PbP. I would love to give it a shot but it's so overwhelming.

Grand Lodge 4/5 ** Venture-Agent, Colorado—Denver

Thomas Keller wrote:
cavernshark wrote:
The number of a PFS scenario just says the order it was published, not necessarily the order it needs to be played. Generally they are standalone stories, but there's a meta narrative that links them together, some more closely than others. Continuations of particular plot points can sometimes be several sessions apart, some even years apart.
I thought because they were under a heading of "Season" that they were "Episodes" that had to be followed in order.

No need to play them in order. They're typically "one-shots". A handful of them will have an over-arcing theme, though.

3/5

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@Thomas & Christian - I don't know if this will help or just add another layer of confusion but one of our GMs/players put together a Google Slide presentation for PaizoCon a couple of years back. It offers some visuals for navigating the website and PbP games that might be helpful.

Direct link to the slides here.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Lady Ladile wrote:

@Thomas & Christian - I don't know if this will help or just add another layer of confusion but one of our GMs/players put together a Google Slide presentation for PaizoCon a couple of years back. It offers some visuals for navigating the website and PbP games that might be helpful.

Direct link to the slides here.

Oh my god. Yeah, I think I'm out. I find all that stuff about "hyperlinks" and what have you absolutely terrifying.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Derek Larsen wrote:


PbP Player Guide (Link)

- Venture-Captain Tyranius

Okay, I think the anxiety is dropping. I wanted to ask, in the one slide it recommends using "Hero Lab BB" for posting a character sheet. What is that?

1/5 5/55/5 **

Hero Lab is a specific purchasable character builder and GM tool. Although I use it extensively it is not at all necessary. the BB part refers to BB Code which is what the forums use for formating and Hero Lab has the ability to output the entire character sheet in BB Code which makes it very easy to paste into your online character sheet.

Thomas, you seem to not have PM turned on so I can not contact you directly.

PFS2 1-01 The Absalom Initiation is indeed a good scenario to introduce you to the Pathfinder Society and its factions. I am willing to run this for our new folk who wish to try out PFS2 and/or PbP. We do not need to wait for Outpost III to start and we can plan to take time to answer questions and work through any kinks.

I already had a request from one other newish player so I will hold places for Thomas Keller and Christian Dragos if they are interested. I will post in Cottonseed recruitment later today. This is the PFS2 online lodge here in the forums.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Thank you, that sounds great! This is definitely going to be a process, at least for me. Thanks for the understanding.

Grand Lodge 4/5 ** Venture-Agent, Colorado—Denver

I'm interested! I'll look for the post on cottonseed after work tonight. I'm more interested in PFS1e PbP. I organize plenty of 2e tables here in Denver. I have about 15 PFS1e PCs of levels 3 to 10 looking for adventures.

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

I was going to offer the same, but I'm currently GMing an AP, and am signed up to GM #1-01 for Outpost, so I'm already a bit taxed.

Probably after Outpost, I'll keep running it for newer players. If anyone here is interested, shoot me a PM and I'll reserve a spot for you ^_^

Dark Archive 4/5 5/55/5 ***

Thanks all! And don't sweat it Thomas, after your first game you will be a PbP expert! It definitely is a lot all at once in the beginning, but it will all make sense after a game or two, I promise.

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

I was also very hesitant to get into it at first, years ago. Now it's the majority of my play.

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