Thinking about running pathfinder society, should I wait? Any suggestions for what to run?

[Rfkannen]

I am mostly a player, but a while ago I decided to get some practice running pf2e by gming menace under otari, finding players using reddit's looking for group subforum.

I was thinking of doing that again, since it was a lot of fun! However, I then remembered that pathfinder society has some sort of dm reward system. So I might as well run it with some extra player option restrictions to get those!

However there are two things that are making me not sure:

It seems like pathfinder society mostly wants dms who are fairly good at the system. I have a lot of experience with other systems (mostly 5e), but my only experience with running pf2e is that one time with the beginner box. I am also not super confident with the rules of pf2e so far and often have to check stuff like skill actions during combat when playing.

The society rules were kind of confusing, but it looks like pathfinder society only wants you to run either bounties or adventure paths. I would be wanting to run something in the length of 3-10 sessions, not 1 or 30. I am not sure pathfinder society has any adventurers of that length that are legal.

Should I wait to run pathfinder society till I am more confident in the system and am comfortable with my schedule in running a full adventure path? If you would suggest just going for it, any recommendations for what adventurers to run? (also where do you usually find players?)

[FLite]

The Pathfinder society welcomes DMs of all levels. One of the ways you get good at GMing is *by* GMing.

Quote:

The society rules were kind of confusing, but it looks like pathfinder society only wants you to run either bounties or adventure paths. I would be wanting to run something in the length of 3-10 sessions, not 1 or 30. I am not sure pathfinder society has any adventurers of that length that are legal.

The primary core of society play is actually the Pathfinder Scenario. A single adventure designed to run ~4-5 hours, but which ties into a whole line of similar adventures to form a campaign. So you can run as many (or as few) as you like. You can find them on the Paizo Store here.

(It sounds like you were possibly looking at the "Additional Adventures" page. Those are for people want to run something other than Pathfinder Scenarios.)

If you have any organized Pathfinder Society games in your area, there are almost always people looking for GMs. And the local Venture Officers may even have GM training classes available.

[umopapisdnupsidedown]

FLite wrote:

The Pathfinder society welcomes DMs of all levels. One of the ways you get good at GMing is *by* GMing.

...

If you have any organized Pathfinder Society games in your area, there are almost always people looking for GMs. And the local Venture Officers may even have GM training classes available.

I've been thinking the same lately, I'd love to get something going, but the nearest PFS group I know of is 600 miles away. There's a thriving(?) TTRPG scene, and I wouldn't mind GMing a bit. Is there anything special a person has to do to get things going in a new location, or do we just, y'know, register an event and do stuff?

[NECR0G1ANT]

umopapisdnupsidedown wrote:

I've been thinking the same lately, I'd love to get something going, but the nearest PFS group I know of is 600 miles away. There's a thriving(?) TTRPG scene, and I wouldn't mind GMing a bit. Is there anything special a person has to do to get things going in a new location, or do we just, y'know, register an event and do stuff?

In-person or online?

I recently started up games at a new location. Here's the e-mail I sent:

Quote:

Hi, I'm potentially interested in running Pathfinder 2E games at your store through the Pathfinder Society Organized Play Program. Pathfinder is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game, like Dungeons and Dragons, and we play it in four-hour blocks. If you can provide us with a space, your store will have the guaranteed foot traffic and also Pathfinder Society has a Retail Incentive Program that encourages our players to shop at your store. Contact me for more information if this is something you’re interested in.

[Silbeg]

I would talk to your FLGS and see if they have time that you can get a table on a weekly (or so) basis. Then see if you can put up flyers for that game.

I would also contact your nearest Venture-Captain to see if there is any help that they can give. If you don't know who that is, contact your RVC... they are listed on the https://www.organizedplayfoundation.org/communities/paizo/findpop/ site. We can often put you in contact with someone who can help, or could mentor over emails, zoom, what have you.

I'd also suggest to your FLGS that they join the retail program from Paizo, though I don't know if that does much any more.

Advertising is always helpful. I know many lodges that use Facebook, Meetup, Warhorn, among others.

Then, pick the scenarios you want to run for the first few sessions (I would suggest the intro scenarios), and create flyers for those. There are resources around to help with that.

Good luck!

We all started somewhere.

[umopapisdnupsidedown]

Nice, thanks to both of you for your input. I'll start with an email to the RVC, we'll see what he says. My FLGS has table space and the owner is a very nice guy, but sadly he hasn't been able to stock a lot of Paizo products (stock is reportedly very difficult to get, around here. Maybe a business opportunity for him...?)

Really appreciate the resources. Will see how I get on...