Return to HEX Next Week

We will be returning to our HEX campaign next week. We will be picking up where we left off more or less. Please be sure to have your characters.

Kelly - Please contact me if you have questions about making your character. You will have XP to add but if you can have your base character ready by the game, we should be in good shape.

David - Please let me know of any artifacts/resources that your character currently has on hand.

Bruce - I looked up the medalion and rings. They appear to have been tools/plot devices to the adventure where they were found. They have no apparent immediate use but they could play a role in a future situation. For example, the medalion is made of orichalcum.

Because I do not remember style totals, I will give each established character 4 Style points to start the session. Kelly will get what is dictated by character creation. Remember that you can earn more Style each session by doing extra stuff to make the game cool. Some examples are Becky's Diary, Col. Sharpe's Action Reports, Margo's "photos", building a lego diorama related to the game, etc..

If you can send me copies of your characters befor Tuesday, I would appreciate it. I would like to review the them to make sure that I remember what everyone does.

Revelations of Mars Kickstarter Add-ons and Pre-order

Does anyone else want to preorder Revelations of Mars material? I can include more add-ons to my Kickstarter pledge until 9/6/13.

Add-ons include:

+6$ Ubiquity dice (9 dice)
+$15 Sample character prints (paper, 8.5"x11")
+$20 Hollow Earth Expedition traveler's edition (softcover, 6"x9")
+$20 Revelations of Mars Ubiquity dice (nine dice plus dice bag)
+$20 Revelations of Mars GM Screen (hardback plus adventure booklet)
+$25 Revelations of Mars Style chips (50 Style points)
+$40 HEX PDF package (PDFs of all five books)
+$40 additional Revelations of Mars book (hardcover, 8.5"x11")
Paper Maps

• +$10 one map (paper, 11"x17")
• +$18 two maps (paper, 11"x17")*
• +$25 three maps (paper, 11"x17")*

* If you are already getting a paper map as part of your reward package, adding a second map is +$8 and adding two additional maps is +$15.
Canvas Maps

• +$40 one map (canvas, 16"x25")
• +$75 two maps (canvas, 16"x25")*
• +$100 three maps (canvas, 16"x25")*

* If you are already getting a canvas map as part of your reward package, adding a second map is +$35 and adding two additional maps is +$60.

My pledge and add-ons will get me a book, the PDF of the book, 2 sets of Mars dice, the GM screen, style chips and 3 paper maps.

If you wish to preorder on your own, contact jcombos@exilegames.com

My HEX page updated

I have updated the my HEX page. Not much to add but there is some new artwork and I moved things around a bit. Take a look and tell me what you think.

https://sites.google.com/site/zombiehomepage/Home/zombie-s-hex-page

Gaming plan for next week

The current plan is to finish up We Be Goblins Too! for PFS credit. It will likely take an hour or so to complete.

After that there was talk of me running some HEX, specifically picking up where we left off a few years back. I am game but I need to make sure that everyone has a character. I know that Bruce, Dave, David, Corey and Kara had one. The question is, do you know where they are?

Some other folks will need to make characters. If that is you, please come prepared with a character concept. As the party is currently in the Hollow Earth, you have the option of playing a Surface World character or a Hollow Earth character. We should be able to get you functional characters in a short amount of time. If you have a character concept before the game, post it here or send me an e-mail. I can help make suggestions on how to fulfill your concept.

If anyone wishes to swap out their original character for a Hollow Earther you can. According to my records, the PCs are currently at 65 XP.

I expect that we may only get an hour or so of HEX next week but I should have enough to continue another week. After that I have some work to do to construct some further adventures. (I have ideas but I am not sure that they are fully baked yet.)

Gaming Tomorrow

Who plans to be there tomorrow night? I know that Bob and Dave will not be there. David is now likely. How about the rest?

Depending on who plans to be there will determine what we play.

New PFS Pregens

There are 14 newly formatted pregens for levels 1, 4 and 7 now available. They represent the 11 core classes and the 3 classes from Ultimate Combat. They can be found here: http://paizo.com/download/pathfinder/PFS-Pregens.zip

I have not compare these to the NPC Codex versions to see if there are any differences. These appear to have replaced the older versions.

PFS Season 5 Faction Status Reports and Adventure Tracking

I copies all 8 of the PFS Season 5 Faction Status Reports into a single document. You can find a copy here: https://sites.google.com/site/zombiehomepage/Home/zombie-s-d-d-pathfinder-page/Faction%20Status%20Reports%20-%20Season%205.docx?revision=1

I also uploaded my current copy of our PFS Adventure Tracking spreadsheet. It can be found here: https://sites.google.com/site/zombiehomepage/Home/zombie-s-d-d-pathfinder-page/Adventure%20tracking%20Grouped.xlsx?revision=5. I will update and repost this document after Gen Con. If there are any corrections that need to be made or if anyone wishes to have their adventures tracked per character which currently are not, please let me know and supply the needed information.

Year of the Risen Rune Chronicle with Faction Boon

There is a new PFS boon announced last night. You may apply one chronicle to each character that qualified. It grants a faction specific boon for your character. It can be found here http://paizo.com/download/pathfinder/PZOPSS04XX-Chronicle.zip

I will try to print several of these so that folks can add them to their characters before the next time we play.

I can tell the following characters qualify from the sessions I have run. You may have played and/or run games which qualify your characters.

Corey - Phi-torr and Sebastian Creo both qualify for Andoran.
David - Al GoBoom and Zaldon qualify for Andoran. Tamara and Penny qualify for Silver Crusade.
Kelly - Bellis qualifies for Grand Lodge. Fabbl qualifies for Qadira. Dominic qualifies for Silver Crusade.
Kara - Grunda Mofunda qualifies for Andoran. Zhen Lao qualifies for Grand Lodge.
Bob - Glorindin qualifies for Grand Lodge.
Alan - Gizer qualifies for Silver Crusade.
Steve - Karorgrarbag qualifies for Andoran and I suspect that so does Max based upon games you played at Gen Con 2012. I am not sure about Thraddius.
Dave - Sven qualifies for the Shadow loge. Li Hua qualifies for Silver Crusade. I suspect that Scawny Jax qualifies for Andoran based upon games you played at Gen Con 2012. Not sure about where your GM credit went.
Bruce - Izzy qualifies for Cheliax. Elis qualifies for Qadira. Jennifred qualifies for Taldor. I believe that Otis qualifies for Andoran. Gooter earned prestige with 3 different factions and it was not clear if he earned 6 with one. Not sure about where your GM credit went.

I qualified with 7 characters; Simon with Lantern Lodge, Maltok with Shadow Lodge, Mikhal with Cheliax, Stragen with Andoran, Sir Kalten with Taldor, Bront with Grand Lodge and Lorik with Silver Crusade.

Star Wars: Age of Rebellion Beta

I know that we have hardly played Star Wars: Edge of the Empire yet but the next installment of the Fantasy Flight RPG experience is coming our way soon. Check it out: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp?eidm=245&esem=1

I am hoping to score a copy at Gen Con.

Next Tuesday

Bruce plans to run Song of the Sea Witch a tier 3-7 adventure next Tuesday. As long as you have at least 3 players, he will be able to run the adventure.

Dave and Keith will not be there for sure.

Dave you may want to send Bruce copies of Kara's Hero Lab characters Grunda Mofunda and Zhen Lao in case they are needed. Technically she could play Simone Dickenson too as she is 7th level (1 away from 8th) but I expect that they will play subtier 3-4.

Other Significant PFS Changes for Season 5

Besides the ITS, from my reading of the new Guide there are a few other significant changes happening with Season 5.

Faction missions will be going away. Instead you will play to your factions season goal and the mission goal. I am not sure mechanically how this will work. Starting 8/15/13, this applies to all previous season scenarios as well.

GM stars now supply a bonus to rerolls granting a +1 bonus for each star. You must show a copy of your PFS membership card to receive this bonus. You can print a copy of your card online from your My Pathfinder Society page. You still need a shirt or folio to qualify for a reroll.

The way that Average Party Level (APL) is calculated has changed again. Divide the total number of character levels by the number of characters in the party. You should always round to the nearest whole number.

• For scenarios written in Seasons 0 to 3, when the APL is in between subtiers, a party of six or seven characters must play the higher subtier. Parties with four or five characters must play the lower subtier. In the fringe case where there are no players that are high enough to have reached the subtier level (such as a party of six 3rd level characters), the group may decide to play down to the lower subtier.
• Seasons 4 and 5, scenarios are designed for six characters and contain instructions on how to adjust the scenario for four-character parties. When the APL of a table is between two subtiers (like APL 3 for a Tier 1–5 scenario), a party of four characters must play the lower tier without any adjustments for party size. A party of five to seven characters whose APL is between two subtiers must play the higher tier with the four-character adjustment.

This leads to the next change; gold. The Max gold earned per scenario has changed. If your character is playing out of tier, either up or down, they will receive the average gold of the two subtiers. That means a 3rd level character playing in a tier 1-5 will receive the same gold playing either subtier.  This is being done to address some issues with wealth balance and play up/play down bullying.

EXAMPLE 1: If a party of 6 characters (levels 2,3, 5,5,5,5) played a subtier 4-5 the 2nd and 3rd level characters would receive the average gold between tier1-2 and 4-5. The 5th level characters would receive the normal tier 4-5 gold.

EXAMPLE 2: If a party of 6 characters (levels 1,1,2,2,3,4) played a subtier 1-2 the 3rd and 4th level characters would receive the average gold between tier1-2 and 4-5. The 1st and 2nd level characters would receive the normal tier 1-2 gold.

Lastly, all conditions gained during an adventure, except for permanent negative levels, ability drain that does not reduce an ability score to 0, and conditions that provide no mechanical effect, must be resolved before the end of the session; if these are not resolved the character should be reported as ‘dead.’ This is a softening on the position taken a few weeks back regarding a forum discussion about Baleful Polymorph.

New PFS Inventory Track Sheet

There is a new requirement starting with Season 5 of PFS that every character have a completed Inventory Track Sheet (ITS). You must track any item you purchase 25 GP or higher. You may track other items which are of a lower cost. You need to track the chronicle where you made the purchase, the chronicle where you sold the item or the chronicle where you expended the item.

This is being done to assist in GM character auditing and because they are making changes to the chronicle sheets to remove the items sold/conditions gained and the items purchased/conditions cleared boxes. This will be replaced with a notes section. Purchases will be tracked on the ITS and the GM will put a comment like "items purchased -XXXX GP - See ITS #X" in the notes section and initial it. Purchases may be made at the end or the start of a scenario. You must start using an ITS per character starting 8/15/13.

You can have different ITS for gear, magic items, expendables, etc. if you want.

You are not required to retroactively track your purchases for each character but you can. I completed an ITS for each of my 10 characters going back to when they started. It took me a little over an hour to complete the task. No character required more than two sheets so far.

There is an ITS being published at the back of the new Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play. You can use that one or you can make your own. Here are some examples that have been doctored up.

Original - https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8K2RGe8rb1QaVdKS3hja2twNm8/edit
One Column with resource and page - https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8K2RGe8rb1QaUoyNkZjQWxmSkk/edit
One Column with resource, page and fame - https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8K2RGe8rb1QRmVxb2pRMWNxeGc/edit
All Wands and Ammunition - https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8K2RGe8rb1QY0VFYUdNOHNFMm8/edit
All Wands/Ammunition with fame- https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8K2RGe8rb1QaUoyNkZjQWxmSkk/edit

If you are going to Gen Con, you will see this change implemented immediately.

PFS FAQ Updates

Lots of new PFS FAQs. Check them out at http://paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/faq

One that I found interesting:

Are races such as tieflings and aasimars considered as half-human in Pathfinder Society Organized Play?

Yes

Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play V.5

The new version of the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play was released today. I goes into effect starting 8/14/13. If you are planning to play PFS at Gen Con, you may want to look it over before then.

There are new rules for faction missions and prestige. There are changes to pregen play.  The will be retraining rules. all sorts of stuff.

Check it out at http://paizo.com/products/btpy84k4.

A copy of the Inventory Tracking Sheet can be found here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8K2RGe8rb1QaVdKS3hja2twNm8/edit?usp=sharing

It is also in the back of the guide.