Granta's GM School (Inactive)

Game Master Granta

@Hiyami: It looks like you copied the spoiler for Durward, not Hadriana.

Weird - that never showed up for me. I was RPing Hadriana the way she was written in the pdf? I think I ended up editing some of the stuff. @_@ /makes confused faces

Also, what do you do if you have players that are arguing in the discussion? It's not the game, so I'm tempted to leave it alone, but at the same time, I don't want the argument to detract from the game. @_@

It looks it was prompted by an ooc comment from gameplay and then cropped up in Discussion.

That's more Hilary's ball of wax than mine. Hmm . . . ?

That took a hell of a turn.

I can't help but think that PDK, who has been on the boards for ten years, should understand the perils of miscommunication and not go in swinging from the top of his high horse. He really left Penumbra with little way to apologise and retain his dignity.

That said, 'your French is so bad, I thought you were from Quebec' is less than classy.

As for dealing with it? Those are adults, not your problem.

You might want to move the discussion thread away from the swamp though: ask a player about their character, or ask the group a question about rules interpretation, or how to deal with fog-of-war during pbp...

I honestly thought he was referring to the changes in the French language that might occur from distance/time. Like American English and British English, for example. @_@

I did consider asking them about, say... item destruction which is something they're working on right now, but... I didn't want to outright blatantly ignore it in case it further fueled the flames of, uh. That. If it continues, I may anyways. ;A;

Anyone want to look at my wounded wisp game? I'm at the first encounter where everyone is supposed to be making friends for later, but I feel like the players are in a waiting mode rather than a playing mode.

@Alicorn: Link?

Derp. :)

http://paizo.com/campaigns/TASsGD6WoundedWisp

Yeah, that game has definitely stalled. Since the current encounter isn't really necessary, I would just have Heryn reappear and take them down to the wine cellar.

That's more Hilary's ball of wax than mine. Hmm . . . ?

Sorry I was absent. Here's how I would handle it...

★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★

Hey guys, I can understand being proud of one's national heritage. I also know that it is really hard to read tone on the internet. I suspect that Eric was not meaning to make fun of French Canadians... My guess is that he was noting that there is as much of a language drift between Québécois French and the French of Europe as there is between Yanks and Brits (two countries, divided by a common language!)

I also understand that it can be disconcerting to use someone's home language as the language of elves here... Would you like me to switch to another language for Google to mangle? I'm considering Bengali, but would love to hear your suggestions!

Meanwhile, can we return to the game? I'd much rather we work together and see if we can have a good time.

Hmm

Oh, goodness, I love Hilary's amazing CHA and WIs scores. @_@ You're amazing and that's a super straightforward, nice, non-confrontational way of putting it. Thank you so much! If the problem persists, I'll definitely use that!

Charisma, I'll grant you. Wisdom? Naw. I'm pretty sure that every Venture Officer has dumped wisdom, or we would not take on this job!

By the way, I really cannot write horror. I just can't! It always gets goofy and silly on me.

Heh, I do appreciate that zombies are just all around silly creatures. Scary in bad lighting, but undeniably goofy when under the sun.

A bit off-topic but... I am involved in a PFS campaign, trying to run through large parts of season 6/5 with a sustained group.

However, we have lost a few members and need a couple of new recruits. It seems like a lot of people have played major chunks of 6 so they're not jumping at a lvl6 run.

If you are interested, or know a good player who might be, a link to the recruitment thread is here.

I've been having a blast and hope we can find players to keep it going. still at level one right now.

I'd love to join such a campaign, but there are only five season 6 scenarios that I haven't played yet :-(

Hiyami,

Searching 4 squares is a move action, and would normally take 2 minutes, not 20 :-p

Characters could also hustle though, and do 20 move actions in 1 minute instead. You then have to keep track though, because after 1 hour of hustling in a day, the Fortitude saves start.

...Shhhhh, no one knows that /shot Or at least, no one buggered me over it, orz.

Could you point me at those rules so I can save 'em? o:

Perception area

It looks like I was wrong on the hustling though. All of the hustling references I found were about movement move actions plus another action. It looks like a non-movement move action wouldn't trigger hustling.

Thank you! c: *saves*

Hiyami and Cynan,

My life has suddenly gotten very stressful, and I am cutting back on as many obligations as possible. For the two of you, that means I won't be reading your threads anymore. So if you have questions, please make sure to ask them in here, and allow a little extra time for my responses.

Yessir! c: I actually hadn't realized that you'd been actively reading my threads. :P I guess that means I'm doin' alright if I haven't been getting too many scoldings!

Thank you c: I hope things calm down for you!

Yeah, I hadn't expected you to read the thread either. It's cool that you did but not a problem to stop.

I'd forgotten how tricky chokers can be. The combat in the secret room should be fun.

I'll try to answer questions in here from time to time too!

Hmm

I'd forgotten how tricky chokers can be.

Yeah, I had to do a little maneuvering once to avoid killing some brand new characters with the chokers.

Annnnd done! That was definitely messier than I might've wanted, but with that and my successful MotFF game, I think I feel pretty good? :D

Done!

Mine are still in the basement of the Wisp.

I suppose that's what ill children do to a pbp...

Anyway, what I should have started with is this: Congratulations!

Cynan,

Did you finish the game before the scenario was complete? You don't actually have to finish by today--that schedule is just for Solstice Scar. Your scenarios have until November 17.

I know, we’re still going.

I just think we’ll probably finish in November, a month after Hiyami.

Oh, gotcha. It happens.

When I ran 10 tables of The Confirmation, one finished like a month after the others. That table took so long, that I had to get a replacement GM for it, so that I could move the other tables along to The Wounded Wisp.

Thank you! I was definitely nervous about that being an issue for a while there, but somehow we seem to have managed. c:

Good job!

Hmm

I'm going to close the campaign tomorrow. If anybody has questions later on, please PM me.

I’ve enjoyed the discussion here, but it has slowed down. Thanks for all the great questions.

Hmm

Thanks for the education! c:

It has been enlightening, cheers!

So, I have a problem.

I’m about to TPK the party at the end of Wounded Wisp.

I rolled randomly and got the Harbingers.
I picked a group that made sense to me:
Swordsman (leader, minor noble)
Brute (his bodyguard)
Touched (“cleric” of Aroden)
Evokes (okay, I was lazy and this looked easy to run)

They have torn through the party due to auto-damage, lucky rolls on high-damage attacks and a life oracle pumping out healing.

The PCs are down to Merisiel and an arcanist.
The brute is down from the Harbingers.
And the oracle has one channel left which has a good chance of reviving the brute.

Is this encounter too much? Is it bad luck?
I really don’t want to TPK on a level one evergreen. Feels very harsh.

How have the tactics been on the part of the players? how about the npc's tactics?

Many like to lay blame on the encounter or the dice, but poor tactics on the player's part can turn even an easy encounter into a tpk, especially if the gm is running the npcs with even rudimentary tactics.

This us stories like Tucker's Kobalds comes in. If the gm is running the npcs with good or advanced tactics, then the pcs have to follow suit or they'll die, but not all players want that. Some players want to be able to rush in unprepared like a complete idiot and still have a good chance of winning.

Therefore, the gm has to figure out how far they can push the tactics, while always giving a way for the pcs to regain battlefield advantage or at least to escape.

If the pcs seriously can't handle an encounter, you may need to dumb down your tactics and include respites, have the npcs spend a round or two regrouping, or the classic monologue, giving the pcs a chance to get back on their feet.

You can also adjust hp and saves to make it easier without losing the flavor of what is going on.

I went for basic tactics: healer and caster hang back, melee guys charge in.

I don’t think I accounted for a group with no melee front-line.
They have an archer paladin, Merisiel, an arcanist, a cleric of Norgorber and an oracle.

I also had the fighters target whoever ‘got’ them, which turned out to be the oracle (effective use of grease) who was their healer. Which was probably an error.

I was under the impression that PFS GMing was very ‘by the books’. Could I have the Harbingers just steal the papers now and leave the wounded party? I think that’s the best option.

I'm not very experienced with pfs as either player or gm, as I primarily play home games and my gm style is such that I never need to prepare to run even all out campaigns.

Personally, I would have the Harbingers grab their objective and leave, without insult (as them leaving is what more professional and disciplined muscle would do, while truly thuggish enemies woukdn't dream of stopping when they have the upper hand.). This does present the problem of how the players can re-aquire the mcguffin from the harbingers in a later encounter though. Heck, that woukd be ripe material for a whole scenerio in it's own right.

What you may consider, is a partial dues ex machina. Have a third party enter the scene, but rather than simply save the party, instead, their concern is the harbingers. Then the PCs have to either escape with the papers while the harbingers are busy, or will need to persuade the new guys to hand over the papers. This way seems cheesy, but the cheesiness is lightened by the need to go through another, if a different type of, encounter to get their goal.