AtlantaPFS is a volunteer organization of Tabletop Roleplaying Game (TTRPG) enthusiasts participating in Paizo’s Organized Play program and offering local game play opportunities at venues, conventions, and special events in the Metro Atlanta area, as well as digitally via Virtual Tabletops (VTT).

We welcome anyone interested in the games we play and run, no matter your experience in the specific games or in TTRPGs in general.

How does this all work?

Paizo’s Organized Play programs are living campaigns that showcase Paizo’s game systems in the community.

Players register for a player number on Paizo’s website and then register as many characters as they’d like. Players are assigned a player ID number as part of registration. The characters registered on the site are also assigned a number.

Game registration is done using a combination of both the player number and the character number that will be used during the session (we use Warhorn to schedule our sessions and manage GM/player sign-ups, though the scheduling is cross-posted to multiple other sites).

At the end of the session, the Game Master (GM) gives each player a chronicle sheet to indicate their participation and gives the sign-in information for each player to a Venture-Officer who coordinates at the venue.

The Venture-Officer takes that information to the Paizo website and reports on the session(s) run. This applies in-game experience and reputation to the player characters, and this system permits them to take the same character to be played anywhere Paizo’s Organized Play program is in play, whether that means a physical event or a virtual one.

Each reported session also awards GMs and players with Achievement Points, which can be spent on Paizo’s website for boons, either for the character played in the reported scenario, or for new characters. Some of the boons on the website allow for uncommon or rare ancestry/species or heritage admittance, Raise Dead, Remove Condition, and a lot more options for players to explore. New players are also automatically given a pool of Achievement Points as a way to thank you for signing up, and to permit playing some of the uncommon available options right away.

How is Organized Play managed?

At the highest level, Paizo determines the goals of its Organized Play program, and the Organized Play Coordinator distributes this information to the Regional Venture-Coordinators to disseminate to the lodges of their regions. Though there can and will always be local goals and requirements, these will never contradict but only enhance those set out by Paizo.

The Organized Play program is broken into regions that are made up of multiple lodges. Each region is run by volunteers given ranks (known as Venture-Officers) within the organization. The structure of Organized Play, with some definition of the roles, looks like this:

• Organized Play Coordinator – This is the person in charge of the Organized Play program at Paizo. The Organized Play Coordinator is the final link in the issue resolution/appeals chain.
  • Regional Venture-Coordinator – The worldwide living campaign is broken up by region, both geographical and online. The Regional Venture-Coordinator is responsible for multiple lodges that make up their region. If an issue is unable to be resolved at the lodge level, the Regional Venture-Coordinator becomes the fourth link in the issue resolution/appeals chain.
    • Venture-Captain – At a lodge level, this is the person who takes the global policies and directives set by Paizo, the regional directives from the RVC, and makes local decisions based on what is best for the area. The Venture-Captain also oversees and offers guidance to all other Venture-Officers in the chain. The Venture-Captain is the third link in the chain for issue resolution and appeals.
      
      • Venture-Lieutenant – The Venture-Lieutenant is responsible for making sure things run smoothly at multiple venues, overseeing the activities of several Venture-Agents. The Venture-Lieutenant is also the second link in the chain for issue resolution and appeals.
        
        • Venture-Agent – The Venture-Agent is the liaison to an individual venue, handling session scheduling, running a number of sessions per month, and acting as the first link in the chain for issue resolution and appeals.

Where do we fit in?

We are the Atlanta, Georgia representation of the overall Organized Play program, also known as the Atlanta Lodge of the Pathfinder/Starfinder Society (AtlantaPFS).

Within the state of Georgia, there are multiple sister lodges. These lodges, together, make up the Georgia Pathfinder Society (GeorgiaPFS).

Regionally, we are part of the Appalachian region, which is comprised of all PFS lodges in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia

How do I get involved?

To start off, if you’re brand new to Pathfinder/Starfinder Society Organized Play, take a look at the New Player Welcome page on the Organized Play Foundation’s website. Next, get a player number and register at least one character. If you come to a session without this, a Venture-Officer can get you a number. As mentioned previously, this will be needed in order to record your character’s participation in the global campaign. If you’re good with the rules, you may also wish to volunteer to be a Game Master at local venues and/or conventions. Sign-ups, both to play and to run normal sessions, are handled on our Warhorn page. Each convention has its own sign-up process. Venture-Officers keep their eyes open for potential new recruits into the corps, so you may be asked your interest in becoming a Venture-Officer at some point.

You mentioned appeals. What’s that about?

Just as countries, states/provinces, counties, cities/municipalities have laws, venues, conventions, and Organized Play have rules for acceptable conduct. By participating in any convention or walking into any venue, you are agreeing to follow their rules. Similarly, taking part in the Organized Play global campaign indicates your acceptance of and agreement to be held accountable to follow the Organized Play Code of Conduct. If behavior goes against the spirit or the letter of the Code of Conduct, action is required to be taken by a Venture-Officer, and a documented investigation may be required, depending on the severity of the issue. Records of these investigations are kept so they can be passed up the chain in the event things need to be handled by a higher level of authority, or in the event an individual exercises their right to appeal any decision or sanction handed down.

Convention/Event/Venue staff, as well as PFS members, may also report an incident and request an investigation by filing a ticket with us. Reporting parties can be kept anonymous, and there will be follow up at the end of the investigation. Although we are not permitted to discuss any potential sanctions placed on another player with the reporting party, we will follow up with them and ask that they let us know if the behavior continues.

Tickets? This is sounding like a business instead of fun

Ticketing systems are a more robust and efficient way of managing requests and issues than email. Plus, ticketing systems are a way to maintain required records so that accidental deletion of a paper trail is difficult, at best. The hope is that interaction with the ticketing system is minimal.

The ticketing system can be used for both issues and requests. It’s open to anyone to use, whether they are a member of the Atlanta Lodge, a representative of a venue/event/convention, a Paizo employee, a member of the Organized Play Foundation, or the general public. The system does include a knowledge base, which will be fleshed out as needed.

This is all about making sure we’re all getting out of this what we want and expect – fun without problems.

Is there anything else I should know?

Depending on the game system you intend to play or run, you’ll also need to read and familiarize yourself with the Guide to Organized Play for the system. In each guide are rules for character creation, participation, and what rewards you can expect for your character during the sessions.

You’ll also want to review the Character Options pages for the game system, as that tells you what’s legal and what’s not for use in Organized Play. You will need to have the book that contains any option you want to use, whether as a physical or digital copy, and the digital copy must have the watermark with your Paizo-registered email address.

You’ll also want a pencil and dice, or, if you’d prefer playing using a digital character sheet, a way to access that sheet and to update it through the session. A mini representing your character is also helpful.

Venture-Officers and table GMs usually have these items available for use during a session, as well as pregenerated characters you can use either as a way to get a feel for the system/for a character class or if you don’t have a character within the level range of the scenario being run (there are more details on this in the Guides to Organized Play).

As a lodge, AtlantaPFS is leveraging the RPG Chronicles website as our sign-in sheet and chronicle sheet generator. An account is not required on the RPG Chronicles website to receive a chronicle sheet. Game Masters and Venture-Officers who have subscriptions on the RPG Chronicles site can trigger sending the chronicle sheets out via email, or, for those who are not comfortable providing their email address on the site (and for Game Masters without a subscription), the Game Master or Venture-Officer running the session can download the chronicle sheets and get them to the players.

We are always willing to expand our presence in the community. Should you be a contact at a venue, for an event or for a convention and wish to have us participate, offering games of Pathfinder or Starfinder Society, please fill out a Support request by clicking Support on the menu above, selecting the appropriate category from the dropdown menu and clicking “Click to Continue”, then filling out the requested information on the next page to the best of your ability. All requests for us to support new venues, events, and conventions will be reviewed and someone will reach out to discuss our support with the primary contact. If you are a player wishing to have us offer sessions at a venue convenient to you, you can also reach out to us in the same way, though we would need for you to provide us with a contact person to proceed.

Other than that, come join us and have fun.