The Pathfinding Jawa I: What is Pathfinder?

Every now and then on the Sandcrawler, us Jawas find ourselves with a lot of downtime. Engines need repairs, code needs compiling, sandstorms, Tuskan's killing our driver, etc. etc. While there's plenty of work we can do while the Sandcrawler is stuck in one area, sometimes we like to relax a little, turn off the droids and computers, and break out a couple of these bad boys and the books.

 

 Tabletops RPGs have been around for decades now, and are one of the many pinnacles of nerd culture. With hundreds of different games from the iconic Dungeons and Dragons to steampunk games, space games, and everything in between, there's a tabletop out there for everyone. I myself had never actually played much in the way of tabletop RPGs until this June, when I discovered a local Pathfinder Society through my city's subreddit. 

For those of you familiar with D&D, Pathfinder follows a modified version of the 3.5 edition rules, and rather then running full campaigns, most adventure modules are in single 4-5 hour sessions. For those of you who got a small headache reading that last sentence, Pathfinder is a fantasy tabletop RPG, complete with Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Dragons, Magic, and all the other zesty high-fantasy shenanigans we've come to know and love. While Dungeons and Dragons typically has campaigns that last anywhere from a few sessions to a few years, Pathfinder (excluding multi-module adventures and adventure paths) usually fit an entire adventure into a single session, which makes it a lot easier for players to come and go as they please/their schedules allow. As a relative newcomer to Pathfinder myself, this weekly segment will serve to highlight some of the more entertaining moments in my character's travels, as well as hopefully a pseudo-guide to other newer players.Without further ado, here's this weeks installment following the adventures of Loth, my Elven Witch!

Week I: Rednecks don't like Witches (#5-22: Scars of the Third Crusade)

Warning: These write-ups contain mild spoilers for certain pathfinder modules, I will always list the module beforehand so read at your own discretion. 

Introducing Loth: A Chaotic Neutral Elven witch who loves nothing more than de-buffing and cursing enemies, then cackling in their faces as they fail all their saves and attack rolls. In Pathfinder, witches make fantastic de-buffers against any enemies that mind-affecting magic works on (too bad that makes me practically useless against undead.) Coming fully equipped with a tattered hat, staff, lots of cackling, and an adorable greensting scorpion familiar, Loth is usually in the back ranks of any combat, and on the lead of any investigative/diplomatic work (he's downright 'charming' one might say.)

This week, Loth ventured out to a hick town out in the sticks accompanied by a standoffish Monk, a bumbling Sorcerer, a Valley-girl-esque Swashbuckler, a run-of-the-mill Ninja, and Kyra, the pre-gen Cleric. Our goal was fairly straightforward: 3 other pathfinders are being framed for murder, we have to go find out what happened, clear up the misunderstanding, and get our men home. We were warned that Pathfinders aren't the most beloved people in this town, and to step lightly to avoid provoking the townsfolk. Without giving too much away about the module itself, suffice to say things did NOT go as intended. The Ninja tried to challenge the locals to a beer-drinking contest only to pass out after a single stein, the Sorcerer blatantly told the townsfolk we were pathfinders in the first 5 minutes, the monk choked out an old lady on a poor intimidation roll, I made a few offhand comments about flaying humans and witchcraft in general, and Kyra got into a theological debate with the town's inquisitor. All in a solid first day on the job.

Things really didn't get much better from there, as my dagger was pickpocketed and used to murder a townsfolk, and the one combat encounter we had ended with our would-be-assassin running away and screaming that WE tried to murder HIM. After all of our bumbling around earlier, our only option at that point was an utterly terrifying trial by combat by the less-than-lovable inquisitor, the sheriff, and our would-be-assassin while we were literally surrounded into a roughly 50 sq. ft area by an enraged mob. As much as we pleaded for them to actually listen to us, our only way out was to kill all three, chase off the mob, jailbreak our allies, and get the hell out. All in all it was a tense adventure, but we all made it out alive so in the long run, it could have gone worse. It turns out bringing a witch and sorcerer to a town on-edge about grisly, possibly demon-involved murders isn't a good idea. Stay tuned next week to see what other shenanigans the Green Mountain Lodge Pathfinder Society gets ourselves into.

-Madjawa