Pathfinder PFS Information

PCGen for Pathfinder Society Organized Play

This page is meant to include all the information for players that want to use PCGen to track their characters.

The guide is written with the assumption that you are familiar with PCGen.

Sources

When selecting sources, you have two options. You can either use the source that tries to include all the items that are available to characters (this source tries to keep up with the additionnal resources page and new source included in PCGen), or you can manually add sources and only select allowed equipment/feat/races/etc.

Using the first option, everything is included in the single source Guide To Pathfinder Society Organized Play (GTPSOP). When you load this source, all other sources mentioned in this source and in the Additional Resources Guide are modified according to the rules in GTPSOP.

XP

There is a Pathfinder Society mode for XP leveling, but you can’t track ½ (gained through slow advancement) as the XP in PCGen is an integer at the moment.

Game Mode

The second thing is that there are two game modes that support PSOP.

- Pathfinder PFS: This is the game mode designed to eliminate all source books not specifically approved from PSOP or existing sources that are not yet converted to PSOP from the source selection user interface. You can use this game mode if you want to use only using PSOP converted sources that are legal for use in PSOP. It should be noted that while I spent quite a lot of time working on these sources it is possible that some things slipped through. So if you see something that PCGen includes that seems too good to be true, you should check with the real GTPSOP and the Additional Resources Guide to be sure.

- Pathfinder RPG: This is the normal game mode used if you want to use GTPSOP but also want to be able to use unconverted sources. This is ideal for players that use PSOP rules as a basis for their home games, but choose to also include additional unapproved sources. This game mode can also be used if you want to include additional sources that exist in PCGen and the Additional Resources Guide, but have not yet been converted to PSOP use in PCGen. If you use this game mode for characters being played in PSOP and you add sources that are not yet converted to PFOP by PCGen, you will have to check with the Additional Resources Guide yourself to make sure the abilities and items you have chosen are approved for PSOP use. The list of PSOP sources that have been converted are listed in the info box for the source Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play in the advances sources selection dialog.

Now... how to use it:

Pathfinder Society expect players to own all books that contain rules or items that their characters use. The way you do this is to select the Multi-Set called Pathfinder Society Core Assumption (which includes the Core Rulebook and Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play and Chronicle Sheets boons and abilities [more on that below]). Then select each book source that you personally own. Load them and then create or load your character using those sources. You can also use the Multi-Set called "Pathfinder Society". This is the set that includes every PSOP source that PCGen supports. If you use this set in a PSOP game be aware that you will be presented with abilities and items from sources that you personally don't own and if you include them on a character you play in PSOP, this is cheating and a GM can ask you to leave the game or worse.

Now, on to your character sheet... Pathfinder society characters will make frequent use of the Background and Chronicles tabs. So here's how they work:

- Society Faction: This is selected on the Background tab. If you had a character that was originally associated with a faction that is no longer allowed, such as the Shadow Lodge, you add your original faction here. You will then use the chronicle sheet and the boon from that chronicle sheet to allow an additional faction selection.

- Prestige Awards: This is selected on the Background tab. As your character gains fame, you add Fame points to this ability pool and spend the fame points on various prestige awards defined in GTPSOP, Faction Guide and other sources. Unspent fame can be spent on the "Current Prestige Award" ability which will allow you to resolve the reminder and have an ability show on the output sheet that shows the total remaining points available.

- Chronicle Sheets: This is selected on the Chronicles tab. PCGen includes boons and items specified on chronicle sheets from seasons 0-4, many modules and some special event sheets. When your character gains a chronicle sheet form a game or special event, you add the sheet to your character and select the subtier that you played. In the gase of playing a scenario between tiers, you need to select the subtier actually played so the selection of boons and items will be accurate. PCGen does not track XP or GP gained on chronicle sheets. When you add a chronicle sheet that has boons to your character a new ability pool will be shown that allows you to add the boon to your character. Boons for save bonuses, skill bonuses, etc are shown on the fantasy PDF output sheets, the standard htm.ftl output sheet and on the standard preview htm.ftl output sheets. These output sheets also include a section that documents the chronicle sheets you have applied to the character.

OPTIONAL: Under PCGen > Tools > Preferences > House Rules you can select the option DisplayFullAbility. If you do this, the chronicle sheet section of the output sheet will include a list of all purchasable items listed on the standard chronicle sheet according to the subtier you selected. Note that in some scenarios, some items may not actually be available to your character and may have been crossed out by the GM for items that you didn't find. Display of these items if for convenience only and you should always confirm the items on your actual chronicle sheets prior to purchasing the items for your character.

NOTE: While the chronicle sheets applied are documented on the output sheet, the order of the chronicle sheets is not.

Inventory Tracking Sheet

Lastly, there is no fully automated method in PCGen that duplicated the inventory tracking sheet required by PSOP. However, there is several workarounds.

The first one is to track ITS separately on its own sheet (of paper), in a libreoffice sheet, etc.

Second one uses the ability to customize equipment. When you buy each inventory item you can customize it and alter the name to, for example (#12) to specify on which chronicle sheet you purchased this item. Then to track items sold or used, you would customize a bag or other container items and replace its name with "Sold #12" or whatever and move the items sold for that chronicle into that bag. That bag would go into the equipment Not Carried. Oh, and there is a trick to handling items like wands. Once you use the first charge of a wand, add a new identical wand with the same name adjustment to identify which chronicle sheet it was purchased on and add that into a non-carried bag titled "Ammunition Used (#12)" or whatever and adjust its charges to the number of charges used, while reducing the in-use equipped or carried item by the number of charges used. If you're careful and diligent about selecting the proper buy/sell rates when purchasing and upgrading equipment, and moving used or sold items into the appropriate not-carried containers, PCGen will be able to total the equipment value of all the equipment you have ever purchased for your character.

Third way is to use the campaign chronicle tracker (in description). For each sheet, you can have an entry where you list what you used/bought. This will be exported (only with the PDF export for now). You could also use a custom description page instead.

References

Pathfinder Society Organized Play home page

Guide to the Pathfinder Society Organized Play (find the link to Paizo)