Question on the Pathfinder Society economy

[tremor3258]

I've never been in organized play so maybe it's answered there - but first to make sure I'm on the right path:

The Pathfinder Society as a whole is generally described as a multinational, multiracial organization dedicated to exploration and uncovering lost and hidden places and secrets. Materials and artifacts discovered are often sent to the Grand Lodge for safekeeping. New members are typically trained at the Grand Lodge over a period of time. Venture-captains get assigned lodges and can charge Society members to keep supplied if they're for the reason.

Venture captains also organize journals for submission to The Pathfinder Chronicles which the wiki described as an internal gazette, organized as chapbooks, sent to members with the more adventuresome exploits sometimes being leaked to the public - in the sense the organization's leadership doesn't publish them themselves. The leadership also expends not-inconsiderable effort to have anonymity within their own organization. Given the society's size and often varying philosophies, and the many, many ways to kill things on Golarion, this is a reasonable precaution.

So the question: Who pays for all this? The Society isn't necessarily distributing their member's findings at an organization level, and I don't think they give tours. While independent adventuring provides cash flow to venture-captains, this doesn't seem to get to the top level.

Is the Bank of Abadar sponsoring the Grand Lodge as a tax write-off? Do you sign over your will when you get your Wayfinder? A lot of stuff goes INTO the Society, but very little seems to be designed to go out, even to their field agents.

[Deadmanwalking]

Well, the field agents (and seemingly most operatives) aren't actually paid for their work. So that decreases overhead significantly. They own the Lodge, and must spend money on...publishing books and not a lot else?

I'm not saying it's no overhead at all, but simply assuming the people in charge of the Society are high level and thus have a fair amount of money (and likely business interests of various sorts) probably pays for most of it.

[Kasoh]

tremor3258 wrote:

So the question: Who pays for all this? The Society isn't necessarily distributing their member's findings at an organization level, and I don't think they give tours. While independent adventuring provides cash flow to venture-captains, this doesn't seem to get to the top level.

Is the Bank of Abadar sponsoring the Grand Lodge as a tax write-off? Do you sign over your will when you get your Wayfinder? A lot of stuff goes INTO the Society, but very little seems to be designed to go out, even to their field agents.

Well, most magic artifacts are found amidst piles of gems, coins, and other art objects. I'm sure some of the funding comes from there if the Pathfinder agents don't pocket it all for their trouble.

Rich nobles supporting their semi secret society of choice is another.

Academics paying for access to Pathfinder Libraries could be one.

In all honesty, I thought they widely sold Pathfinder Chronicles as edutainment pulps

Every time someone mentions how the leadership of the Pathfinders is organized, I always think that its actually a secret cabal and absolutely shady and why does anyone give them money and property.

[Michael Sayre]

Venture-Captains typically aren't assigned lodges. Someone who wants to be VC of a lodge lets the Society know they'd like to be a venture-captain with a lodge, send in proof they meet the requirements (own something that can serve as lodging and a copy of the Pathfinder Chronicles, basically), and then the Society approves or declines the application.

Money comes from a lot of different places: many Pathfinders are wealthy philanthropists who retired from an adventuring career, people do purchase copies of the Pathfinder Chronicles, people who can afford it may sponsor trainees into the Society's schools, the Society generally gets a cut of the profits from its members' adventures (particularly those arranged by the Society), folks representing the Society occasionally bring in big pots from pathfinding competitions to find new trade routes, paid consultations to examine potentially dangerous artifacts, etc.

There are bits and pieces of this subject scattered across a whole bunch of scenarios, and the upcoming Lost Omens: Pathfinder Society Guide covers this in some detail as well.

[Adjoint]

I believe that Lodges provide some services to the communities where they are located. They Pathfinders can serve as explorers, scouts, appraisers and in many other ways, depending on their expertise, and I assume that the Lodge that serves as intermediary between the employers and the agents gets a cut.

Additionaly, the Lodges provide special service to their Pathfinders, and most of them are not free. For example, a Pathfinder agent that wants to go on an independent expedition (and not one that is given to him by the Venture-Captain) may be required to pay for the aceess to libraries, maps, and resources necessary to plan and prepare for the adventure.

[tremor3258]

Thanks.

Wiki needs an update. It says venture captains are assigned and the Chronicles isn't the Golarian Geographic magazine that's been a previous assumption.

EDIT: Got home and checked the old Inner Sea World Guide (still working on the update) - lodges were owned by the Society and the Chronicles were distributed to lodges, with counterfeits and reproductions being popular for excitement or looking for treasure.

[Michael Sayre]

tremor3258 wrote:

Thanks.

Wiki needs an update. It says venture captains are assigned and the Chronicles isn't the Golarian Geographic magazine that's been a previous assumption.

Updated the wiki to note that only some lodges are maintained by the Society, but I'm not actually seeing it saying that VCs are assigned anywhere? In the instances of the buildings the Society does in fact own (Grand Lodge and surrounding, The Grinning Pixie, Nexus House, Woodsedge Lodge, a couple others) venture-captains are assigned, though these lodges only account for a fraction of all the lodges in the Inner Sea and beyond operating today.

Re: Pathfinder Chronicles, National Geographic isn't free, and the wiki already notes how much people are willing to pay for reproductions and such.

Inner Sea World Guide is a fairly dated document at this point in time; dozens of venture-captains have retired or taken up appointments in the 10 years since that book was published (and longer since some of those segments were written), so much of that information is no longer current to the modern setting. A lot of the world information is still relevant, as are the maps, but organizational information is better looked at in the Lost Omens lines.