[Outpost] GM Bearington's Echoes of the Overwatched (Inactive)

Game Master Gummy Bear

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***Basic Information Form***

Player:
Character:
Pathfinder Society Number:
Faction:
Slow Track or Normal:

This Chronicle #:
Starting XP:
Initial Prestige:
Initial Fame:
Prestige Spent on this Chronicle:
Starting Gold:
Day Job Roll:
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***End Form***

Also, please read my GM profile. It has some procedures/policies that I follow in my games.

Player: Emmjay
Character: Lomar Kenomic
Pathfinder Society Number:224344-8
Faction:Dark Archive
Slow Track or Normal: Normal

This Chronicle #: 4
Starting XP: 3
Initial Prestige:4
Initial Fame:6
Prestige Spent on this Chronicle:0
Starting Gold: 135
Day Job Roll:Craft(Alchemy): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29
Gold Spent on this Chronicle: 0
Anything else you want me to note on your Chronicle:

You didn't actually put in the link in the Flaxseed posting....

Player: Bristor Gwin
Character: Etienne Elodien
Pathfinder Society Number: 57774-12
Faction: Grand Lodge until Concordance actually comes out
Slow Track or Normal: Normal

This Chronicle #: 4
Starting XP: 5
Initial Prestige: 4
Initial Fame: 8
Prestige Spent on this Chronicle: 0
Starting Gold: Have to check
Day Job Roll: Profession fortune-teller: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25
Gold Spent on this Chronicle: 0

This is my first PbP game, so I hope you'll bear (pun intended) with my missteps. I have read guides to PbP and am a generally experienced PFS player, but my tech abilities are not great. For example, not sure how I add my character under the characters tab, nor how to add all the info I see under Lomar's post (class, level, AC, etc.)

Thanks Lomar, I've (hopefully) amended the situation!

Etienne, welcome to PbP! To add yourself to the characters tab, you need to post in the gameplay thread. I've asked for "Ninja Dots" in that thread.

What is a "dot"? "Dotting" in terms of PbP is when you make a post in a thread for the express purpose of tracking new posts within it. A dot appears at the end of the thread title on the thread page, indicating you've posted in the thread before. For games, it will also put the thread on your profile's campaign tab to make it easier to keep track of.

What is a "Ninja Dot"? This is when you dot, but then delete the post. You will still track the threads and the game still shows up on your profile, but the gameplay thread doesn't get cluttered with BS posts.

HERE IS A LINK that should help you figure out your character sheet and fill in your tagline (the info you see under Lomar's post). I can provide more step by step information too if that link isn't helpful enough!

Thank you for telling me you are new to PbP, if you have ANY ANY ANY questions, please feel free to ask. I am more than happy to walk you through the answers.

Thanks for the kind words - I already screwed up by failing to delete the ninja dot in a timely manner - blame that on my two-year old. Expect plenty of questions as we move forward.

So everyone is aware:

One of the characters signed up for this game will most likely serve as inspiration for a character I have made that I have yet to play. Looking at posts helps me get into character, so if you see one character getting significantly more posts marked "as a favorite" that may be the reason.

In general, I favorite posts I like from any character, just wanted to give people a heads up as I'm sure not every post I favorite will be a real crowd pleaser. Sometimes I'll favorite posts in discussion (as can be seen above) as a way for me to let the player know I've seen it without having to make a single word response.

Player: JackieLane
Character: Atronia
Pathfinder Society Number: 250076-1
Faction: Liberty's Edge
Slow Track or Normal: Normal

This Chronicle #: 4
Starting XP: 3
Initial Prestige: 5
Initial Fame: 6
Prestige Spent on this Chronicle: 0
Starting Gold: 1545 gp
Day Job Roll: Perform(oratory): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25
Gold Spent on this Chronicle: 0
Anything else you want me to note on your Chronicle:

Just so you all are in the know, I've heard from one of the other players and they are aware of the game's opening and will join us before it is time to start. A different player has yet to respond to my PM's and I may need to replace them prior to start. If we get a new character, please feel free to change the character you'd like to play, should you feel so inclined.

***Basic Information Form***

Player: Jeremy Patrick (Jhaeman)
Character: Arrius Vext
Pathfinder Society Number: 238544-3
Faction: Dark Archive
Slow Track or Normal: Normal

This Chronicle #: 2
Starting XP: 1
Initial Prestige: 2
Initial Fame: 2
Prestige Spent on this Chronicle: Nil
Starting Gold: 608
Day Job Roll: Nil
Gold Spent on this Chronicle: Nil
Anything else you want me to note on your Chronicle:

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This is my first Pathfinder play by post as well. There's some stuff I'll have to figure out like the die roller, etc.

Okay, I've figured out the dice roller. Despite the instructions, I'm not sure about how to do a tagline with stats (or if it's even necessary).

A tagline is super helpful! Instead of clicking back and forth between your profile and the gameplay thread, you can do it all from the same page. It doesn't sound like much, but it is worth it. Also, GM's can find common values that they may roll for you much easier. Clicking through 5 character profiles is tedious and wastes my time, but looking at your taglines takes much less time.

Which part of the instructions are you working on?

A tagline is super helpful! Instead of clicking back and forth between your profile and the gameplay thread, you can do it all from the same page. It doesn't sound like much, but it is worth it. Also, GM's can find common values that they may roll for you much easier. Clicking through 5 character profiles is tedious and wastes my time, but looking at your taglines takes much less time.

Which part of the instructions are you working on?

The link that's posted higher up in this thread. I'm not sure where to copy the information to (though I should be able to figure out what numbers to plug in).

Thanks in advance for running the game, btw. Looking forward to it!

I hope you have a good time!

I'm going to do my best to explain where you need to copy/paste the tagline information, starting from this thread.

1. Click on your character profile

2. To the far right of the profile, should be a button that says "Edit My Profile." Click on it.

3. You should be looking at a form entry page with several rows labeled to the left of where you can enter the information. In the "Race," "Classes/Levels," and "Gender" rows, enter your information.

4. This page can be finicky. If you are on the page too long (for whatever reason), it might not save. I encourage you to save your changes frequently or even copy/paste what you have typed so you don't have to do it again if the website messes up.

Everyone: This advice goes for in game too. If you just typed out a long/awesome/other post you would be sad losing, I highly suggest you get in the habit of copying your post before submitting. For reasons beyond my knowledge, the page does not always submit correctly AND YOU WILL LOSE ALL OF YOUR HARD WORK. This is a very sad feeling. I encourage you all to copy your text so you can just paste it back in if it gets lost. [/soapbox]

Okay, thanks--that makes sense. I'll try it out tomorrow.

Copy the text in this link, fill it out in Notepad or similar, then just post it where appropriate. Makes things much organized and easy to work with.

The Link

Thanks guys, looks snazzy!

I have posted our need for a 5th player in recruitment! I will get an opening post up sometime this weekend so you all can do some introductions, RP, or whatever else you want. The game will officially start on March 5th, this Monday, so I will not post in gameplay again until then.

Player: Escharid Blackrose
Character: Erhun Gabarris
Pathfinder Society Number: 133884-12
Faction: Scarab Sages
Slow Track or Normal: Normal

This Chronicle #:
Starting XP: 3
Initial Prestige: 4/4
Initial Fame: 4
Prestige Spent on this Chronicle:
Starting Gold: 1448
Day Job Roll:
Gold Spent on this Chronicle:
Anything else you want me to note on your Chronicle:

I must check my equipment first, maybe buy a few things

Welcome aboard Erhun!

Here what I like to buy, if you're ok:

Sell half price Lamellar Leather (+30 gp)

Buy +1 Chain shirt (1250GP), potion CLW (50 GP), Masterwork Backpack (50 gp), one alchemic fire (20 gp), one holy water flask (25gp)

1448+30-1250-50-50-45=83 gp

BTW I got a question about Equipment in PFS (page 21, always available items):
"All basic armor, gear, items, and weapons from Chapter 6 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, including items for Small and Large characters. This does not include equipment made from dragonhide, but it does include equipment made from the other special materials, such as alchemical silver and cold iron (see the Special Materials section on page 154 of the Core Rulebook). "
Do that mean we can buy Mithril armor if we have enough money?

*cracks open CRB to 154*

Reading the rules you quoted, I would say you are allowed to purchase Mithral. Looking at page 154, Dragonhide and Mithral are both present. Dragonhide is the only material specifically called out as "not always available" and I don't see any language that indicates there are supposed to be other exceptions. Purchase away!

I will note those purchases on your chronicle sheet!

GM Bearington: How do you want to handle spells memorized? Should I just make a post with the listed, squeeze them into the header, or something else?

Spells memorized, including if you are keeping a slot open, can be kept on your profile page. If you make any changes to it, just post that you are making them.

For reference, I am providing links to some of my PbP characters. While this is primarily for the newer players, all are invited to take a look. I don't expect you to organize your character sheets like mine and there is no standard way of doing it, but finding a way that works best for you is important.

Character Profile food for thought:

This is my Dhampir Occultist. The formatting feature to pay attention to here is the nested spoilers (a spoiler within a spoiler). I find them super handy for more characters with a lot of mechanical options.

This is my Tiefling Cleric. My personal preference for prepared caster's formatting of prepared spells. Opening his Spells spoiler, you can see exactly what I have prepared and what I do when the slot has been used.

This is my Human Fighter. Take a look at the Offense portion of his Statistics spoiler. I have included all my options for melee combat, such as Power Attack and one or two handing his weapon.

Again, I'm sure there are better ways to format character sheets, but I figured I'd give some examples of what I do so you can make your character sheets as robust and easy to use as you'd like. In my experience, investing a decent amount of time in making your character sheet a useful reference to you is well worth it.

A couple of things to consider are that your character sheet for PbP should have all the same information you would expect a physical character sheet to have and that if it something isn't listed, you don't have it (not meant to be punitive, this is mainly for items!).

EDIT: On request, I can look critically at your character sheet's format and provide feedback. I can audit if you like too. Feedback can either be provided in a PM or in this thread, at your discretion.

I'll transcribe my character sheet to the site tomorrow (unless I can just e-mail you the PDF).

I would transcribe it to the site when you can. For a new character it can take some time, but once you have something to work with, updating it is easy to do. Keeping it on the site also makes it easier to manage changes instead of sending a pdf every time.

Thanks for the examples - they are very helpful. Happy to take any feedback you have in either PM or this thread. Should have time later today to get the info posted.

While I'm posting, some more questions:
1) How do we handle decision making. I read in one of the guides about different approaches (a leader who makes decisions vs. going with something once two people agree, waiting for everyone to chime in). Just wondering about preference - seems important to be able to keep things moving, but also don't want to punish people who have posting times that are later.

2) Are there rolls that you will make for us as a GM to keep things moving? I'm assuming you handle initiative order. But also maybe saving throws? Just wondering how that works.

Thanks for your patience and willingness to teach!

Here is what I, as a GM typically do:

1) At decision making points, I typically give 24 hours for everyone to post as once a day is all I expect of my players. If I have at least 3 people post in agreement, we are moving on. If prior to the 24 hour mark everyone, everyone has posted, or we are only missing a chronically inconsistent player, we are moving on.

EXCEPTION: If we have a significant disparity in time zones or someone who works third shift, I extend the posting window to 30 hours. I find that this helps smooth over the time difference and hopefully relieve the pressure of waiting on what is likely one or two people.

If the table wants to designate a leader, that is fine. I would allow some level of "well I would have done this if the leader wanted us to go that way" but within reason and it has to be justifiable without the new information you received. This isn't my preferred method due to the possibility for constant retcons, but if the table wants it to happen, I'll make it happen.

For example:
Player 1 is declared the leader. Player 1 says we open the door and smack the baddies. Sounds good, as the GM, I will begin combat after resolving the trap Player 1 just found with his face.

Player 2, posting after I have moved things along and has a history of always checking the door for traps prior to entry can roll perception and try to deal with the trap.

Player 3, who sees that Player 2 rolled a 1 on perception but has no history of checking the door for traps wants to roll. As the GM, I won't accept that roll because I have no reason to believe that Player 3 would have rolled perception in this situation.

Clear as mud? :)

As far as scenario pacing, I find that I usually run things a little fast. In FtF I typically end 40-45 minutes early and in PbP I typically end a couple of days early. This is not a promise, just something for everyone to be aware of, so don't feel like you can't RP or take a little extra time enjoying some part of the scenario or each other!

2) I will make rolls on behalf of the player to keep things moving. Initiative is a prime example of a roll I make for you. I'd like to make knowledge checks too, but I still haven't come to terms with how I feel about it, so I do not. I try to leave as much dice rolling as I can to the players, but there may be certain situations where I will make the roll. As you will hopefully see when I run combat, I try to resolve things that are likely to be inconsequential while moving things forward.

Are you familiar with block initiative?

General note to everyone: If you have not read the combat portion of my profile, please do.

EDIT: Erhun, what time zone are you in?

I'm French, so European time zone (GMT+1)

Ok, thanks!

That's all clear, GM Bear. And I'm fine with 3 folks to make a decision. No need lead for leader unless someone else feels strongly about it. And I'd also be fine with you making knowledge checks, but I understand your reluctance.

Looking at the gameplay thread, a couple of you appear to have attempted OOC text. Like any other text format commands on this site, you will need to close out the command.

What I mean: (ooc) is used to start the blue text and (/ooc)is used to end it, except use [brackets] instead of (parenthesis).

Hope that helps! :)

As can now be found on any of my posts, the slideshow for the game is up! Please check it out and let me know if you cannot access it. As always, if you need help, let me know!

Done, works for me.

Forgot to mention that the room right next to Atronia is open, even though the map shows it as closed. That would be where the ladder ends and you all are coming out of.

What is the area just to the bottom right of Arrius? Are those stairs going up or down? Sorry, I initially thought that represented the ladder leading to this level.

Those are what is left of the stairs that have been destroyed and boarded up at the lower levels.

Sorry all, I'll update this tomorrow. I just got back from a con and I am exhausted.

Arrius, as nothing has happened as a result of the floor sinking, you still fit within the, "when your character is not in immediate danger or distracted, you may choose to take 10," clause of taking 10.

Red line on map definitely helps!

All,

A player has been dropped from this game. I will be watching the recruitment thread for up to two days to find a new player (I've noticed some people asking for games). If I don't snag one, I'll make an official post to recruit someone. I'm willing to put a post up immediately if the majority (3/4) of you want a recruitment post up now.

Due to the context of the situation, I'd rather not have our thread discuss the events that led up to this. GM Hmm, our Venture Captain, has said what needs to be said about it and, as she stated, discussion can take place in that thread.

I apologize for this abrupt change, this is not a typical event for our lodge, but I believe you all will be able to handle the impending challenge with the current party and the challenges beyond with a new fifth player.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to send me a PM.

Very respectfully,

GM Bearington

Wouldn't it be best for the new player if he or she can get in as quickly as possible? For this reason, I think a post in the recruitment thread would be a good idea. Still, it's up to you. I don't know what the chances are of someone finding out about this without a post in Flaxseed's recruitment.

I'm fine with you posting something, or going with just 4 players since it's an early season scenario, and it seems we have a good mix of classes (or your plan of seeing if anyone pops up).

Let's amend my statement slightly. Do you all know of anyone you want to game with? :) If you do, I will extend them an invitation on the basis of whoever posts the name(s) first and go from there.

If this was a higher tier (and therefore further from being a single crit away from death), I'd consider four people. However, being a 1-2, a poorly timed critical on my end could get real bad, real quick.

I don't know anyone.

If you open the door, you would be able to see it fully. Right now it is still ajar.

Don't know anyone who hasn't played it already. So I'd say recruit away!

I can ask Lady Ladile if she is interested

I'm happy with whatever you think.