Pathinder Society XP for Modules

[Jamz]

I'm sort of new to PFS and trying to enter in credit for The Emerald Spire Superdungeon...

It say in the chonicle sheets for "Getting Credit" you are awarded 3xp & 4pp per chronicle sheet (or 1.5 xp and 2 PP for slow advancement). But HL only lets you select +1 or +1/2 XP?

Is this a typo in the chronicle sheets or is it abnormal for a module to give triple XP and HL doesn't support that? (it does seem rather high as the whole module would grant 16 x 3 or 48xp)

[Azhrei]

Typically, each PFS module grants +1 XP and +2 PP. However, those numbers are based on a self-contained scenario that can be accomplished in 4-5 hours (they typically build them for 4 hours). When playing in a module that runs longer, you should expect a commensurate increase in the awards.

In HL, create three journal entries and give each one +1 XP and +2 PP. That will model the typical approach.

My group is currently playing through RotRL Anniversary Edition using PFS rules (so the other players can learn the differences). Each section of the first book is worth +3 XP and +6 PP. That amounts to 1 level in PFS, since it takes 3 XP to level up once.

Our GM is trying to figure out a better way to spread out the awards, since getting 6 PP all at once means suddenly a bunch of magic can be purchased and he'd prefer to give it out 2 PP at a time and force players to budget.

[eeyore1968]

Originally Posted by Azhrei

In HL, create three journal entries and give each one +1 XP and +2 PP. That will model the typical approach.

This is wrong. Successful completion of a module awards 3 XP and a total of 4 PP, not 6 PP.

[Kiirnodel]

Originally Posted by Azhrei

My group is currently playing through RotRL Anniversary Edition using PFS rules (so the other players can learn the differences). Each section of the first book is worth +3 XP and +6 PP. That amounts to 1 level in PFS, since it takes 3 XP to level up once.

Our GM is trying to figure out a better way to spread out the awards, since getting 6 PP all at once means suddenly a bunch of magic can be purchased and he'd prefer to give it out 2 PP at a time and force players to budget.

There are two methods to go through a full module like that.

Either you can play through it completely as a home game or purely as PFS. Either way, you can get credit for PFS, but the results are slightly different.

If you play it as a home game, you must play through the entire AP as a home game. Afterward, you are able to give an existing character the credit for the individual parts.

If you play it as a PFS scenario, you only play through a specific section, and you must do so with your existing PFS character. In which case, you gain the full level and Prestige all at once, because it is the result of going through that entire dungeon (the marked location is usually the final/biggest dungeon of the book).

Gaining 6PP (which I believe eeyore is correct, it should only be 4) is not a huge difference. Most of the tiers where you gain access to purchase magic items happen at 5-10 Fame increments, so gaining 4/6 all at the end versus a couple here and there shouldn't affect balance hardly at all.

[Azhrei]

Hm. Okay, I'll take credit for screwing up the allocation of PP. However, it seems strange then that they can't be evenly divided amongst the 3 XP gained, so when I enter the info into HL, I have to choose one of the XP entries to have 2PP and the other two to have 1PP each. That seems... wrong.

@Kiirnodel, we are playing through the entire AP. We're playing by PFS rules simply to give players new to PFS some experience regarding what is different from a normal home campaign. So I believe we'll be using the first of the two schemes you mention.

It looks like Fame and PP for home games is allocated thusly (basically, 4 to 6 PP per character level). And for PFS characters, it's done as described by this Paizo thread. The Paizo thread says "3XP, 4PP" in multiple spots. Hence my confusion.

[Kiirnodel]

If you're playing through the whole AP (all the books in their entirety), then you can't really follow PFS rules completely. If, for example, you started the first book at level 1, then you've already stepped outside of the "PFS legal" part.

That first method I mentioned is for playing through the Adventure Path as a home campaign and getting credit for a PFS character (to be used separately). If you want to run a home campaign that follows PFS style rules restrictions that is of course perfectly fine. But the adventure paths aren't designed in their entirety to necessarily follow the type of rules and rewards that PFS uses normally.

If you tried to follow just the rules for the APs in PFS, you would only get 3XP and 4PP for each book, so you would be severely outmatched even in the first book of the AP. During the Adventure Path campaign, I highly recommend simply following the rewards outlined in the actual adventure, as you will abide more to the expectations for the ongoing campaign.

If you aren't sure about how playing RotRL works in relation to PFS, look here. There is a link to download the rules for running the campaign in PFS. But the basics boils down to: Each book has one section of "sanctioned content" and if you are using PFS legal characters you must follow all PFS rules and be in a specific level range, and you only play through the section marked as sanctioned. If you are playing through the entire campaign, you can take credit (for a different character), but are otherwise not bound to PFS rules.

[Azhrei]

Originally Posted by Kiirnodel

If you want to run a home campaign that follows PFS style rules restrictions that is of course perfectly fine.

This is what we're doing. No idea about the OP has he hasn't seemed to respond yet.

Thanks for clarifying.

[Jamz]

Ok, so I guess my question to the Hero Lab developers stands, why is XP hard coded checkboxes of .5 and 1 when XP can technically be .5 to 3 (possibly more). Entering prestige points is fine as we can type in the PP.

I noticed one chronicle sheet for Emerald Spire is 1, 2, or 3 XP depending on which objectives you completed...

And really, regardless on how we run said modules/adventure paths is immaterial (provided it's within PFS rules). Especially for GM. Being the GM, It's always going to be "credit" for a PFS character.

Bottom line, it seems HL should treat XP like PP and let us type it in, entering 3 journal entries per sheet is silly (that would be 48 entries just for the Emerald Spire Module!)

[Azhrei]

You may have a point regarding how it's silly to have to enter three journal entries to get 3 XP.

But that's not the common case. The common case is someone playing a PFS character in a PFS module, which awards 1 XP per module played. (The ½ XP is for "slow advancement", but why anyone would choose to advance more slowly is beyond me! )

[Minous]

Originally Posted by Azhrei

You may have a point regarding how it's silly to have to enter three journal entries to get 3 XP.

But that's not the common case. The common case is someone playing a PFS character in a PFS module, which awards 1 XP per module played. (The ½ XP is for "slow advancement", but why anyone would choose to advance more slowly is beyond me! )

I can answer that quite easily. If you play with a group that tends to not level up together (you have 1-2 people always at the table with the rest rotating) you will end up leveling up beyond what they can play or hitting a point where you don't have a valid character to play in sub-tier. Slow progression allows you to keep playing a particular character longer too. I have an aasimar boon that let me create a character that I enjoy playing and is fun in parties. Using slow progression I can sit at up to twice the number of tables with that character that I normally could.