In addition to the adventures written for Pathfinder Society, some other Paizo adventures have been sanctioned (approved) for Organized Play credit. Since these adventures are published for a wider audience than the Pathfinder Society campaign, there is typically a downloadable sanctioning document with Chronicles and any special considerations for Organized Play.
Sanctioned Adventures
- Pathfinder Adventure Paths : Multi-volume campaigns that take dozens of game sessions to complete. Many Adventure Paths are sanctioned for use in the Pathfinder Society campaign.
- Pathfinder Adventures : Stand-alone adventure books that take one or more sessions to complete. Many Adventures are sanctioned for use in the Pathfinder Society campaign.
- Pathfinder Bounties : Short one-hour adventures aimed at introducing new players to the game or representing what characters do between Pathfinder missions. All Bounties are sanctioned for use in the Pathfinder Society campaign.
- All Pathfinder Bounties are repeatable.
- Bounties do not grant Downtime.
Modes of Play
The Pathfinder Society rules of play are customized to work with Pathfinder Scenarios and Bounties and are not necessarily applicable to other sanctioned adventures. Adventures run using these customized rules are referred to as “Society Mode” in the rest of this document.
“Adventure Mode” is used for adventures not specifically designed for Organized Play. This mode allows the GM more freedom to adapt those adventures, including running the adventure in Pathfinder using GM house rules and the ability to alter encounters and statistics found in the adventure.
If Paizo has released an official conversion of a sanctioned adventure to another game system (such as the Pathfinder Kingmaker Bestiary (5e) or Pathfinder Adventure Path: Abomination Vaults (5e)), GMs and players can play these adventures using those rules and earn credit as if they had played it using Pathfinder rules. Adventures that have not been converted by Paizo in this way must be played using standard Adventure Mode rules.
Character Types
Most Adventure Mode sanctioned products can be played with any character; some products include pregens, and players are encouraged to play those characters for an optimal experience.
Any adventure that can be played with a PFS character can also be played with an Iconic Pregen. When playing an adventure using a PFS character, the Chronicle must be assigned to that character.
Story Pregens are characters released with an adventure. They often contain ties to the adventure's backstory. Campaign Characters are characters that are designed according to the GM's house rules.
Table: Mode of Play by Adventure Type
| Ruleset | PFS Characters Only | Story Pregens Required | Story Pregens Recommended* | Campaign Characters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Society Mode | Scenario, Quest | - | - | - |
| Adventure Mode | Bounty | Free RPG Day | Beginner Box, One Shot | Adventure, Adventure Path |
* To provide the same level of experience, we strongly recommend that GMs who chose to use Campaign Characters work with their players to tie those characters into the adventure backstory.
Sanctioning Documents
Each sanctioned adventure comes with a freely downloadable sanctioning document located on the product’s description page on paizo.com. This document contains the rules for running that adventure, as well as Chronicles awarded for completion.
Read the sanctioning document carefully, as it might modify the adventure's rewards. Specific information in a particular sanctioning document always takes precedence over the general information presented in this Guide.
Unlike Scenarios and Quests, Chronicles for other sanctioned adventures are assigned at the completion of the adventure.
A group can complete an adventure when it is not sanctioned. If it later becomes sanctioned, the GM is allowed and encouraged to issue Chronicles to all interested players. These Chronicles are applied as if the group had completed the adventure on the date the Chronicle is issued. Such Chronicles must have an accurate issue date (that is, they cannot be backdated) and cannot be applied such that they retroactively affect other Chronicles.