Welcome to Pathfinder Organized Play! Pathfinder Society (PFS) games make it easy to fit Pathfinder into your schedule. Players can bring their characters to PFS games hosted at any in-person or online location and earn treasure and XP to advance.
If you'd like to play, create an account with Paizo and register for an Organized Play number by selecting Organized Play > My Organized Play. Keep track of your organized play number; you'll need to share it with the GM of each PFS game you attend. You'll also need to register each Pathfinder Society character you create using the buttons at the bottom of the My Organized Play page. Make sure you select the correct edition (first or second edition) when registering your character.
Character registration tip: You don't have to fill out a character's entire profile, but it's helpful for GMs if you add the character's name and Pathfinder Society faction.
Once you've completed your registration, you're ready to sign up for games! Visit Paizo's Organized Play Events page, join the online Organized Play community on Discord, or ask your local game store if they host Pathfinder Society events.
Pathfinder is a game full of options, and most (but not all) are eligible for PFS use. When building a character, there are two main limitations you need to be aware of:
Rarity: Every option in Pathfinder is labeled Common, Uncommon, Rare, or Unique. Common options are available to all players; Uncommon options are available if they're granted to you by a Common option (for example, focus spells granted by feats). Other Uncommon options, plus Rare or Unique options, are typically only available through boons.
Player Access: All players are allowed to use options from the Pathfinder Player Core, Player Core 2, GM Core, Monster Core, Core Rulebook, Bestiary, or Lost Omens World Guide. Options from other sources are valid if you have access to a copy of the book (print or PDF).
You can read more about access to character options for Pathfinder Society players on Paizo's website. See Boons and Achievement Points (below) to learn more about how you can earn access to Uncommon, Rare, or Unique options.
After completing the standard character creation process, your Pathfinder Society character has a few additional proficiencies and options to reflect their training.
Additional Regional Language
Pathfinder society agents get to travel Golarion and work with individuals from around the globe. You become trained in an additional regional language.
Pathfinder Society (PFS) Lore
Your character has learned a lot about the Pathfinder Society, its goals, and its work, so you become trained in Pathfinder Society lore.
PFS Faction
The Pathfinder Society has multiple groups, each of which places its focus on a different overarching goal. Choose a faction for your character to represent what drives them. This choice can be changed at any time.
Below is a list of the various factions and a link to the full description of each on Paizo's website.
Some Uncommon or Rare options, like character ancestries, are available to players with a Boon—a reward that can be "purchased" with Achievement Points (AcP). You'll acquire Achievement Points with each PFS game you play or GM. Additionally, all new players are granted 80 AcP when they register for the Organized Play program.
Ancestry Boons
If you'd like to play an Uncommon ancestry, log in to your Paizo account, go to Organized Play > My Organized Play, and navigate to the "Boons" tab. Select the character you'd like to supply the boon for, then click the Rewards purchaseable with Achievement Points link to expand the list of boons for the appropriate system. Click the Purchase button in the righthand column to acquire the boon. If the purchase does not complete, make sure you've selected a character from that top dropdown.
Advancement tip: After a character has played two sessions, they are eligible for the Wayfinder boon. This boon, which you can find by clicking the link titled Rewards purchaseable with Game Rewards, grants you a free Wayfinder. The Wayfinder Is a badge of membership in the Pathfinder Society. Upon activation, it casts a first-level light spell on itself, and it can be used to slot an ability-enhancing aeon stone.
Pathfinder Society Play uses the core Pathfinder rule system. You'll also need to know a few rules specific to Organized Play.
Pathfinder Society games strive to be open and welcoming to players from all backgrounds. Please be kind to others and read the Community Standards and Expectations. You will be expected to follow them, and repeatedly refusing to do so could lead to you being barred from Society play.
You're in charge of keeping track of your XP, reputation, purchases, and boons. After each game, you'll get a chronicle sheet that lists your earnings, XP, and reputation from that session.
Society GMs who haven't played with you before may ask to audit your character. It's advised that you bring records of your progression and access to any uncommon, rare, or unique options to each game. You may bring a folder with your chronicle sheets or a mobile device with digitized versions of them.
After each session, the GM will submit the scenario to Paizo Organized play to officially give all players credit for the game. You should be able to see all of your characters' recorded sessions on your My Organized Play page. Click the Show Sessions link underneath a character's name to see a list of the scenarios they've completed plus the AcP earned from each. If you don't see a session that you played more than 2 weeks ago on your page, please reach out to us so we can Investigate.
Most PFS scenarios can only be played once. Those marked "Repeatable" can be played once per character. Look for this tag on the Warhorn session—it will be in the box titled Pathfinder Society (2nd Edition). The only way you can repeat a non-repeatable scenario Is by consuming a Replay. All players get 2 Replays after they play their first PFS game. You can also purchase Replays for 40 AcP (look In the Rewards purchaseable with Achievement Points section for this boon). Additionally, GMs who have earned at least 1 glyph are granted Replays at the beginning of each year.
All PCs who trained with a Pathfinder school receive a free consumable (sometimes called "school item") granted by their school at the beginning of each full-length scenario. You will likely also find items throughout the adventure. See the In-Game Resources page for a list of school items that may be available to your character.
Any item gained during the course of a Pathfinder Society game is considered "use it or lose it." At the end of each mission, when your characters return to the Pathfinder Society, you will turn in all unused items to the Society for its future use.
You can't take the items you find with you, but Pathfinder Society agents are paid well for their work. At the end of each scenario, you'll receive a reward that's calculated based on your character's level and your group's achievements during the game.
You'll also get to make a roll to see how well you do at using your skills to earn income during your downtime. Characters with Pathfinder Society training get 8 days of downtime after a full-length mission; those that are field commissioned get 12. Your GM may have everyone roll while at the table, or you may be asked to do this roll on your own.
PFS games typically grant 1 XP per hour played, and characters level up every 12 XP. That means bounties and quests grant 1 XP each, and full-length scenarios grant 4.
If you'd like to spend longer at each level, you can elect to play "slow track" and receive half the XP instead. Make sure your GM knows about this, as they'll need to add that detail to your reporting.
Along with XP, you'll gain "reputation" with your faction based on your performance during PFS missions. Some faction-specific boons are only available to characters with a certain amount of reputation! The different levels of reputation, and the amount of reputation points required, are listed below.
Ignored
0 - 19 reputation
Liked
20-59 reputation
Admired
60-119 reputation
Revered
120+ reputation
These boons can be found In the Rewards purchaseable with Achievement Points list on the Paizo site. See Boons and Achievement Points for more on how to purchase a boon.
Advancement tip: Be sure to keep an eye on the various boons you become eligible for as your reputation increases! They can help you and your party make it through difficult missions. Look in the Rewards purchaseable through Game Rewards section of the boons page to learn more.
Sometimes your initial character build doesn't pan out the way you thought it would. PFS play has two options for players who wish to change character options:
Rebuilding: A player may rebuild their character completely, for free, until they play a game with that character at second level. If you wish to rebuild after that point, you'll need to purchase the Evolving Destiny (for level 4 or lower) or Career Change (for level 5+) boon to do a character rebuild.
Retraining: If you simply want to change an option (including your Pathfinder training, a feat, a skill increase, or a class feature), you can use your downtime for retraining rather than earning income. Please note that name, appearance, and other choices that do not affect the way you play your character can be changed without retraining.
If a mission goes poorly and your character dies, their contacts within the Pathfinder Society may be able to revive them. The Second Chance boon allows you to resurrect a character for 40 AcP.
All this information and more is available in the full Pathfinder Society (Second Edition) Guide to Organized Play, hosted online by the Organized Play Foundation.