Pathfinder Society is an organized play campaign for the Pathfinder tabletop roleplaying game. In case you’re not familiar, Pathfinder is a D&D knockoff originally based on D&D 3.5E that originated from a copyright dispute between Hasbro and Paizo, who at that point were a third-party publisher of D&D supplement books.
Unlike a real game, where you and your GM work together to make a story, PFS runs entirely off pre-written scenarios. The GM has very little discretion and must run everything exactly as written. PFS also restricts a lot of things you can do in the real game: you can’t play an evil character, a lot of “evil-adjacent” subclasses and spells were locked off, and there were heavy restrictions on itemization.
The scenarios were largely rushed out because PFS ran on a yearly cycle: each year started at GenCon (a tabletop convention in Indianapolis) and ran until the next GenCon. I was there for the launch of Year 7 in 2015 - I also attended when they launched the final season for Pathfinder 1E.
PFS had dedicated GMs, and I was a GM for about two years. If you’re familiar, I was on my second star (denoting, I believe, 50+ scenarios GMed) and working on my third when I quit due to a combination of burnout and the fact that 2nd Edition was coming out and it was going to suck.
We will be playing some of the worst scenarios PFS had to offer - or rather, I will be along with my four PNGtubers, which were made using the very scientific process of rolling randomly on a table full of bad ideas.
Meet the PNGtubers:
Summary
Mara
Mara is a Buddhist demon who appears extensively in Shin Megami Tensei and Persona. This version of Mara has been forced out of Buddhist Hell due to an economic downturn and into the only thing that could possibly be worse: a Vivziepop show.
Tired of years of chaos and wanton violence, Mara has (attempted) to turn over a new leaf as the owner of a host club in Hell. Unfortunately, that host club was located less than a block from the Hazbin Hotel and was promptly destroyed in the extermination at the end of Season 1. He had no other choice but to re-open as part of the hotel.
Likes: Abusing game mechanics, alcohol, violence for a purpose
Dislikes: Everything about the Hellaverse
Favored Class: “Whatever’s the most broken.”
Favorite Hazbin Song: Gravity
Artist: dxgm4 on Discord
The Shape
The Shape (real name unknown) is a superhero who gained his powers by accidentally touching a modern art installation irradiated with mysterious energy. Before that, he was a coach for the Washington Commanders (then called by a different name). He is a parody of a character from a game called Freedom Force that I planned to LP at one point and never did because it’s a pain to record.
His superpower is being immune to concussions and damage due to g-forces, and primarily fights by flying at full speed and headbutting his target.
Likes: His wife, barbecue, football, polyhedric shapes
Dislikes: Evil, soccer, abstract art, triangles, the Philadelphia Eagles
Favored Class: “Bashing the bad guys!”
Favorite Football Team: New York Giants
Artist: chongotheartist on Discord
Astra Fischer
Astra is a five-species hybrid sparklefur. The five species are fisher cat, rabbit, raccoon, deer, and space dragon. By law, she must wear only the most fashionable of clothing. Her usual dress is based on a Versace museum piece with a 7-figure price tag.
Contrary to her appearance, she works a boring office job she doesn’t like to talk about. She streams games in her off hours, and was suggested by prettypinkpansy on Bluesky.
Likes: Fashion, streaming, bars, going out with friends
Dislikes: Mara, horror movies, gore, people who can’t take anything seriously
Favored Class: “I’ll play whatever everyone else doesn’t.”
Favorite Game: Style Savvy: Fashion Forward (3DS), Dwarf Fortress
Artist: Sofftiddies on Furaffinity
Callie Fateburn XXVII
Callie is a Monster Girl Quest OC who is the 27th Monster Lord, living thousands of years after the final battle against Ilias and long after the deaths of Luka and Alice XVI. Since then, the monster girl population has generally become less horny and predatory - especially after the unsealing of Monster Boy Island.
She still lives in the old Monster Lord castle on Hellgondo Continent, along with her single general (a descendant of Granberia) and any other visiting monsters. Met Astra online.
Likes: Monster boys, monsters, sweet potatoes, streaming games
Dislikes: People who still think the old ways exist
Favored Class: “Anything with a pet!”
Favorite Monster Girl: Thunderbird
Artist: _pelmesha on Discord
How does this work?
This LP will have each set of updates done in 3 phases. The first phase is posting the title and a brief synopsis of the scenario. At that point, there will be a two-week break (or more if I need to figure out how to get a VTT going).
During that two-week break, anyone can sign up to play. I will guide you through the entire process if you decide to make your own character, or you can play as one of my PNGtubers. You can sign up in the thread, by DMing me on Bluesky (@timrod.bsky.social) or by finding me on Discord (I’m not hard to find). On the off-chance I actually DO get a full table (a full table is 5 players), then I’ll even go through the trouble of videoing everything.
If no one signs up, I’ll play through the scenario with my PNGtubers acting as players and re-enacting how these scenarios went when I played them in real life. Combat will mostly be glossed over because from experience, most of the fights in these scenarios are not particularly challenging and once a fight starts, no one generally moves once they’re in attack range.
Why is this a separate thread from BG3?
The simple answer is copyright. As far as I am aware, people have done play-by-post games of Pathfinder Society scenarios that are on public forums and Paizo has not had a problem with them. However, I know how litigious tabletop publishers can be. This way, if the thread should get copyright claimed (and I do not expect it to, nor do I believe I am violating copyright), the mods can delete this thread without touching the BG3 LP.
Updates in this thread will be cross-linked to the BG3 LP.
: Our first scenario will be Season 7-12: The Twisted Circle. This is the last one the former head GM for Connecticut ran before he quit for good.