Nefreet |
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?
Thomas Keller |
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.
Gary Bush Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Omaha |
Gary Bush Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Omaha |
Nefreet |
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.
BigNorseWolf |
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.
Thomas Keller |
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.
pauljathome |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
BigNorseWolf wrote:I've heard bad stuff about Roll20. I much prefer Fantasy Grounds.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.
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"
Hmm 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
Thomas Keller |
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?
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.
Nefreet |
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.
Thomas Keller |
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?
Thomas Keller |
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.
Thomas Keller |
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"?
Nefreet |
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.
Hmm Venture-Captain, Minnesota |
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!
Thomas Keller |
Thomas Keller wrote:You made it to the sign up sheet. There should be tabs for the different player signups for the Specials and the General signups!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?
Ah, okay. Looks like it's full. Oh well, maybe next time.
Nefreet |
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!
Thomas Keller |
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.
Nefreet |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
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
Hmm 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!
Tyranius |
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.
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
Thomas Keller |
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?
RealAlchemy |
Nefreet wrote:Yes, but episode 1 "Initiation in Absalom" has no open seats. You have to start a character with that one, right?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
Nope. You can start a character in any scenario which is playable by a L1 character.
Pip Hip Hooray |
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
cavernshark 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.
Thomas Keller |
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.
Oh boy, that's really complicated. I'm not really a computer guru.
Thomas Keller |
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.
roll4initiative Venture-Agent, Colorado—Denver |
Derek Larsen wrote:Oh boy, that's really complicated. I'm not really a computer guru.
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.
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.
roll4initiative Venture-Agent, Colorado—Denver |
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.
Lady Ladile |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
@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.
Thomas Keller |
@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.
Thomas Keller |
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?
GM Numbat |
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.
roll4initiative Venture-Agent, Colorado—Denver |