PbP GameDay 4: PFS #5-08 The Confirmation (Inactive)

Game Master Wilmannator

The Confirmation Recruitment

For those of you who are new to PbP and who are enthusiastic about telling a story while they roleplay, this is the game for you! I'm an experienced PbP GM and would like to help some people who are new to PbP to get into it. To achieve this, I will be running the Confirmation for PbP Gameday 4.

Application is simple, but not easy. I want to see you enthusiastic enough about this game and this format to take the time to read up on how to do it properly, and to do at least one in character post (when everything else is ready). If you can manage that, I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun together.

If you have any questions, please do ask. I'm not expecting you to know everything - so I am happy to help out however I can.

Requirements

If you would like to play in this game, you must meet the following requirements:

• This must be your first or second PbP game ever. I want to help new people find a game, not play with folk who are already gavin no trouble finding one.
  
• You must read the guide on my profile and agree to abide by my rules and conventions. If you don't, that's fine. Just move along and I wish you best of luck finding another game.
  
• You must create (or have created) a PFS character for this game with a full character sheet on the profile page and the tag line properly filled out with your vital statistics. I understand this can be tricky for newcomers, so I am more than happy to help out. Please just ask. It will not affect your application to this game in any way.
  
• You must agree to post at least once every 24 hours during weekdays, and at least once over the weekend.
  

Get Recruited

In order to get recruited for this game, you need to do four things:

• Read over and meet the above requirements.
  
• Post here (using your PC's alias), on the recruitment thread, a little about yourself (especially your roleplaying experience) and why you want to play-by-post. Your recruitment post must also include the following text (copy-paste is fine):

  I agree to post daily, or notify the GM if I am temporarily unable to do so. I promise to respect others and to allow everyone - myself included - to have fun playing.
  

• Post on the discussion thread (using your PC's alias), telling us about your PC. More details on what to post are on my first post in that thread.
  
• Post in the gameplay thread in-character. Your in-character post must include the following elements:

  "Some spoken words,", Your character's internal thoughts, an out of character comment, A dice roll of your choosing: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21 (make it a knowledge check if you're stuck for ideas) and...

  A spoiler for the GM:

  Please!

I plan to close recruitment and select my players (6 of them) on Monday, September 28th. I plan to begin playing on Thursday, October 1st. I estimate that the game will go for about 4-5 weeks (finishing by early November), but please do note that the GameDay is until the 20th of December, so be prepared to commit to playing until then.

Note: Depending upon the quality and quantity of responses, the above start dates may vary. Also, since we are playing with a group of intentionally new players - the end date could well creep out until the end of GameDay. I will, however, do my best to help us finish in early November.

Character Creation

This is a PFS, non-core (regular ongoing campaign) game, and as such character creation is governed by the rules of the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. I would prefer level 1 characters, but level 2 characters are also fine (this scenario is tier 1-2). Pathfinder Society resources can be found here. If you are new to PFS and need help getting set up, please do let me know.

Please note that if you have already played The Confirmation at level 2, you may only play again at level 1.

Why The Confirmation?

Thematically, I like it for a first play-by-post. It fits well with the pacing and there are some challenges in there that reveal some Golarion lore. I think it can get a bit lost when played in real life (because just reading out block text isn't usually that fun for GMs). It's perfect for PbP though!

Finally, there are a lot of players out there who have played through quite a few PFS modules but haven't done any PbP. I wanted to make sure that anyone who wanted to get started on PbP could play... so an evergreen (infinitely replayable) scenario like this one was a perfect fit.

About Me

I love roleplaying, and have been doing it for over 20 years now. My main profile has got a lot about me on it, but the essence is I love to roleplay and I've got much time to post, little time to game in person.

I started play-by-post a little over a year ago and I've really gotten into it in a big way... 5,000+ in character posts since then!

If you'd like to read over some of the PFS games I've run, you can get a list of them from my campaign listing or click on some below (warning: spoilers, of course):

• Hall of the Flesh Eaters
  
• Scions of the Sky Key
  
• The Segang Expedition

First of all, it's pretty cool of you to make a "for the new" version of this. I think I'd like to take a crack at this, but I've never really felt comfortable "bogging down" someone else's game. (Well, that, and I do a lot of F2F games and am a bit more of a 'tactical wargamer' than 'full-on roleplayer'). Am I the kind of player you want?

Thanks in advance. Accepted or not, it's really cool of you to bring in new people.

Not only am I new to PbP but also to Pathfinder Society organized play itself. I have a regular tabletop game I DM, and I've wanted to try PbP for a while as I like the creative aspect and the pace and commitment of PbP fits my schedule (EST).

It's a little late here on the East Coast to drum up a character tonight,
what are the requisites? I am not familiar with the PFS at all, so direction or links to character creation are super helpful.

Thanks for the links regarding etiquette, if I make the cut I might need a few rounds to get my formatting done properly.

-B

@Everyone: There is plenty of time to apply for this game. I know that the character creation and reading over the guides will take a while. Unless we have a huge number of respondents and it gets too crazy, I will wait until September 28 to close recruitment.

@Jayson MF Kip: Thank you! I really want to help new players get into the game. More players means more games and more fun for everybody. You are exactly the kind of player I want... provided you're ready to kick it up a notch in the storytelling department. As noted on my GM profile, I use Google Draw for maps, so it is very much the "miniatures feel" during combat. Should fit just fine.

@B.A. Ironskull: Your situation sounds perfect, and exactly the reason I set this up as I have. The Pathfinder Society page that I linked to above has some good information about PFS, but it can be hard to navigate. For character creation, the Pathfinder Society Guide to Roleplaying Guild Guide (which most refer to as the "guide to online play" or simply "GOP") contains all the rules and regulations for PFS, as well as the character creation guide. In essence, it's 20 point ability buy and 150gp to start.

There are some restrictions on which rules you can and cannot use from the various additional rulebooks, and the Additional Resources Page contains all of those. Be careful, sometimes it lists what you "can" use out of a book, sometimes it lists what you "can't" use. Some of what you can and can't use is also mentioned in the GOP (linked above).

One of the cool things with PFS is you can change your character between each scenario right up until you hit level 2. That way, you don't need to worry too much about 'getting it right' first time around.

Finally, if you have Hero Lab, you can tick "Pathfinder Society Organized Play Character" on the "Configure Your Hero" window to let Hero Lab do the restrictions for you. It's not 100% accurate, but it's pretty close and will be fine for our purposes.

Anyway, get started on character creation and let me know if you have any further questions as things come up. I'm more than happy to look over your character sheet.

This event sounds like it may be the introduction to PbP that I’ve been looking for.

I once read through a PbP game for the first part of an AP I was GMing, and it really got me interested in giving it a go at some point.

I should also own up to not being a very good at forum type stuff. I read a fair few posts about various things but I’m not usually one to comment and join in too often. I'll have to pick up some formatting basics as I go along, but I’m keen to give it a shot!

I'll have a good read of your requirements when I can and get back to you. I have a PFS convention I’m playing games at in a couple of weeks (SPSX 2015 the first Scottish PFS convention!) so I have a couple of things to sort out for that first, but then I should have more free time to put some thought in to this.

Thank you for aiming an adventure at people new to PbP, I think it will help a lot of people out. Even if I don't get picked to play I'll still be reading along to get a better idea of what is going on.

@Luthor Volandis: Would be great to have you on board. I look forward to seeing what you come up with! It's fine if you don't post on the forums... I'm more of a reader than a poster myself. Posting in a game is a different matter, though. Your posts are not only welcome, they're required! I'm happy to help everyone along with the posting style for games so don't worry.

Formatting posts is covered in the guide on my GM Profile under "formatting your posts". There is also a very handy How to format your text spoiler at the bottom of every text box you post in. Just click "show" and it's all there. Have a practice with your recruitment posts and feel free to ask me if you have any trouble at all. It's one of the reasons I'm recruiting this way (requiring an in-character post with all of the stuff in it).

I am also interested in trying PbP, and will finish formally recruiting this evening (on this alias). Thanks for running a game for us newbies!

Old hat to PFS but PBP virgin. I can make a blank -23 or build my -22 with one chonicle sheet either way will have to wait until I get home. Do you have a preference?

@Varus Teutoburg: You're most welcome, and no rush on the finishing touches. Thank you for checking in!

@Matthew Morris: I don't have a preference either way. I have a slight preference for a level 1 character (to keep it in subtier 1), but any number of chronicles is fine... and level 2 is also fine provided you haven't played at level 2 before.

So umm, anything I should keep in mind besides whats in the guides?

Also, I live in Finland, so is the timezone a problem?

Hi, I am pretty interested in playing a PBP game and I was really happy when I saw this thread.

I am a long time rpg player but since I started to work it has been really difficult to find another players and time to play the standard personal rpg.

Oh, I have never played any pathfinder society game, since they are not available where I live, but I guess it will not be a huge problem.

Since this will be (fingers crossed) my first PBP pathfinder society game, please let me know if I am doing anything wrong.

Also, I am from Brazil, and I will apologize since the beginning for any language mistakes that I’ll most certainly commit, since it is not my first language. I can read it pretty well though.

I agree to post daily, or notify the GM if I am temporarily unable to do so. I promise to respect others and to allow everyone - myself included - to have fun playing.

@CorvusMask: Those guides (combined with my initial post above) are fairly comprehensive for what you need (unless you're new to PFS). Anything else and we can pick it up as we go! As for being in Finland, no problem at all. A minimum of 1 post per day can be done equally well in any timezone.

@Shuo, the Owl of Shokuro: For PFS tips, see my response to Jayson MF Kip above... and judging by your last post, I won't have any issue at all with your English proficiency. Thank you for the agreement text, too. You character sheet on your profile, by the way, is looking great! Nice work with the tagline. It will be great to see your background and in-character post! As for everyone, please let me know if you need any help.

Dotting for interest.

Looks like you may have already filled up, but you've convinced me to try at least putting together a character per your guidelines in case I get in on the Waitlist ;) I'll put my character online tonight.

(Frequent GM online, but I've been a bit intimidated to jump into PbP and this would be a good start :))

@Wolfspirit: I definitely have not filled up! No-one has officially applied (Shuo, the Owl of Shokuro has come the closest, but we still need a gameplay and discussion thread post).

Also, and more importantly, this is most certainly not a first come first served recruitment. I won't decide on the 6 players until September 28th. Please do apply, if you're interested! This game would fit your "ease into PbP" desire. No intimidation here (I hope) just help and understanding for your first time in a posting game.

Yeah, I'm not completely new to PFS, just to pbp. I got my first star from while ago and my first character is almost level 8.

But yeah, gotta read those guides over and over just to be sure I don't do things too much wrong and figure out which character I should use ._.;

Thank you Damo Ill whip up an archaeologist tonight :-)

@Matthew Morris: Archaeologist? That bard archetype from Ultimate Combat? Awesome. Can't wait to see how that turns out.

Also, just in case you guys are wondering what to do for recruitment posts on the discussion and gameplay threads, you can't go far wrong with something like what Shuo, the Owl of Shokuro has put together:

Shuo's background post - Discussion thread

Shuo's in-character post - Gameplay thread

Nice to have a good example up there already. Thanks Shuo!

I agree to post daily, or notify the GM if I am temporarily unable to do so. I promise to respect others and to allow everyone - myself included - to have fun playing.

So I've been playing Pathfinder off and on for about three years. I have never tried play by post before, but think it will be a good opportunity to help improve my roleplaying skills. I've wnated to try before, but was always a little nervous about it. But with a group of new players, hopefully it will run smoothly and we can all learn from it.

So, I'm close to having a complete idea. A question:

As a GM, do you wish to see a completely intact character sheet?

If so, what's your preferred format?

Regardless:

I agree to post daily, or notify the GM if I am temporarily unable to do so. I promise to respect others and to allow everyone - myself included - to have fun playing.

Ive got a reasonable amount of face-to-face PFS play from both sides of the screen, as well as a small handful of VTT games under my belt. I've got four Seekers and three more PCs currently at level 11 (through various combinations of PC and GM credit). 4 GM stars, and an outside shot at a 5th within Season 7.

Also, no PbP experience whatsoever. Should be fun.

Update: Paizo site was down for me last night, at work now, but I have Kiril Glinka kind of loaded, will finish and post by 8:00 PM EST.

I just wanted to check that I'm OK by the recruitment guidelines before I work up my character sheet.
I've got one session of PFS experience, so I have a level 1 character with 1 XP.
My first, and only, PbP game is an ongoing Deathwatch game, so although I've got that under my belt it's still my first game and it's not a PF game.
Is that OK? If so, I'll sort out the sheet for my halfling verdant sorceror.

@Everyone: For your character sheets, I'm fine with any format. I use Hero Lab for mine (you can "output character sheet" and choose "BBCode" and it's pretty much perfect). I think PCGen can also do it, and I'm sure there are a number of online solutions for it. Mythweavers hosts character sheets, though I'm not sure if they provide a generator or simply a view of them (you need a login to make it work).

In any case, I'm okay with any of the above formats, also with manually typed up profiles, PDFs, or even sheets that are hand written and then scanned in if that's easier for you. So long as you link to it from your main profile and I can view all your stats, then it's fine by me.

@Varus Teutoburg: Thank you for your posts in discussion and gameplay. It's great to have your character in the mix.

@Jayson / Jillia: Thank you for applying. Great to see your posts on gameplay and discussion.

@Matthew Morris: Yeah, the Paizo can be fickle at times. No trouble at all.

@golfdeltafoxtrot: This would be your second PbP game ever, so you fit within the guidelines. Please do feel free to apply! You will be given the same consideration for the game that everyone else gets.

I have bit of problem that out of my characters, I have only played with two of them(and both of those are out of tier for replayable scenarios) and rest of them are characters I've given gm exp, but haven't needed finishing building them yet <_<; And I'm busy tomorrow so I hope I can make it X-x; When does recruiting for this end? (I'm probably gonna use the stonelord paladin if I have time to build and figure out character stuff)

Reading guides kinda make me even more scared about this type of thing since I don't feel like I'm good with narrative writing ._.; And the guide's advice on getting rid of bad players makes me wonder if I should even try even though this is meant to be for newbies xD

@CorvusMask: Recruiting finishes on September 28. All I can say about writing narrative in PbP is don't worry about it too much and just give it a go! It's great fun.

OK, character sheet done. If there are any mistakes, I apologise in advance! I've been playing face-to-face Pathfinder for about 4 years, GM'd half of 2 Adventure Paths, and have really enjoyed the extra RP opportunity that PbP allows. I've only played Deathwatch PbP though, so looking forward to my first chance at a Pathfinder PbP.

I agree to post daily, or notify the GM if I am temporarily unable to do so. I promise to respect others and to allow everyone - myself included - to have fun playing.

I agree to post daily, or notify the GM if I am temporarily unable to do so. I promise to respect others and to allow everyone - myself included - to have fun playing.

I posted above using my main profile but i've now created a PFS character using the same name.

I've got the basics of who my character is and what they do. I now need to enter the details in Hero Lab, type up his background (as it's purely in my head right now) and do the required posts above.

It's getting late here in England though so i'll have to finish this off tomorrow i think :)

@Markus: Thank you for your formal recruitment post. Great to have you posting around on the other threads, too.

@Luthor Volandis: Thank you also for your formal recruitment post. I look forward to reading over your background and character makeup. Hero Lab makes it soooo easy to create a character - and to post the stats to your profile!

official wannabe in - The Paizo site was down last night. Ranger or whatever-we-need, I have Hero Lab and will be happy to use it.

Where should I post my character for consideration?

Thanks!

-B

Dotting for the officialness of it! Messaged you before but didnt post here. I have a sorc for consideration on the way

@B.A. Ironskull: Just add your character sheet to its PFS alias (you'll need to register for that here and then post in recruitment, discussion and gameplay when you're ready (see my original post for what to post in each thread).

@Al_Square: I was wondering when you'd post! Great to see you dotting in, and I look forward to looking over your sorcerer.

@Everyone: The gameplay thread is hotting up! Join in on the fun.

I'm very glad to see a recruitment thread like this. While I've been playing D&D/Pathfinder for quite some time, I've neither played PbP nor PFS, though I've been eager to try it.

Part of the allure of this is the option to play with different people. For the most part, I've been playing roleplaying games with the same people for more than a decade, and after that long, it starts to get a little stale.

Currently building up a Varisian Kineticist (I've really wanted a reason to make one.)

*peeks in*

Hi! Hmm sent me this way and so here's my dot to make things all official-like. Thank you for being willing to allow me to submit a character! Given the nature of things, I'll just consider myself to be submitting as a possible backup/alternate for the time being hehe. I've more or less got a cleric ready to go; just need to read over everything and make sure I've not missed anything first :)

I agree to post daily, or notify the GM if I am temporarily unable to do so. I promise to respect others and to allow everyone - myself included - to have fun playing.

Hello again! I think I have everything set up and formatted correctly, but please let me know if I need to adjust something. As far as roleplaying experience goes, I've been gaming for roughly ~17 years - mostly AD&D 2nd and 3rd editions with a smattering of other systems here and there. My real life group got into Pathfinder roughly two years ago and I jumped into the PbP scene here on the forums back in February/March of 2014. Though I'm not a newbie to PbP, I am a newbie to PFS and am applying here with permission from the GM and with the knowledge that priority will be still given to first-time PbPers, which I am perfectly fine with :)

Although I still enjoy face-to-face gaming for the social aspect as well as for the chance to scratch the itch for combat, I've come to find that I greatly prefer the PbP format for actual in-character roleplaying as I feel it provides a deeper experience as well as gives me more time to really think about each of my characters and how they would response to a given situation - a wonderful thing if you're like myself and not especially good at improvisation.

Regarding my own schedule, making one post per day should not be a problem. However, my work schedule fluctuates from week to week and I tend to keep odd hours at times (I am GMT -6) so my posts may not always come at the same time(s) each day.

Anyhoo, I think that covers everything. Whether selected or not, I'm looking forward to seeing how this game will play out. Good luck everyone! :)

Hello All -
My name's Drew. I'm a long-time tabletop RPG'er (like, back to the late 70's - no that's not a typo >.<), and not new to PFS, but have never played PbP before. I'm currently a student, which makes getting to my local lodges games a little difficult, but mostly I'm trying to experience RPG's from a different angle. I'm also going to run some games online on Roll20 to that effect.

I agree to post daily, or notify the GM if I am temporarily unable to do so. I promise to respect others and to allow everyone - myself included - to have fun playing.

@Blue Moose: Glad you like the recruitment thread. I look forward to seeing your kineticist. That will make two of the new occult classes up for consideration! I'm actually playing a PFS PbP at the moment where we're all playing occult classes (using the pregens). Feel free to check it out, it's almost done, and we had a load of fun playing: The Haunting of Hinojai

@Lady Ladile: Welcome to the recruitment and thank you for your understanding. Let's see how this goes, and great work with the character!

@Kharaste 'Cara' Helevin: Hi Drew. As a roleplayer who has played since the late 80's, I don't often find a table where I'm not among the oldest. Great to have you recruiting here!

Thanks to everyone for the verbatim text. Believe it or not, I get a little thrill every time I see it. I know it's cheesy, but both sentiments in that text really sum up the way I believe PbP should always go: post every day, have fun.

I agree to post daily, or notify the GM if I am temporarily unable to do so. I promise to respect others and to allow everyone - myself included - to have fun playing.

Hello! I'm Daniel, and I've been playing D&D for close to ten years now, since the beginning of high school. Lately I've gotten my old group together to play Pathfinder locally, but either because I've changed, they've changed, or something, their style of play doesn't satisfy me. I live in Italy by the way, so there's also the language barrier to account for!

Just last week I played my first ever PFS online game with Roll20, and it was quite invigorating! I did notice the relative lack of time for proper roleplaying, however. The only other PbP I've got is another one on these boards that I applied for just yesterday, but I'm kind of nervous about the whole thing. You guys write so eloquently, yet concisely, and I'm always worried that I'll mess something up.

I'd love to have this as a proper introduction. I've got most everything ready, except starting equipment and a few other things, so I'll write in the Discussion and Gameplay threads as soon as I can.

@Semagoro: Sounds like your situation is perfect for this game. Post on the other threads whenever you're ready. I'm really impressed with the action so far, and would love to see what you've got to add!

As for messing something up... that's why we're here and why I'm running this: to give you a chance to do just that without worrying about it too much. I'll pull you up (or the other players will) if you're doing anything "wrong" and we can work on it. I'm really trying to make this a gentle intro to PbP.

I agree to post daily, or notify the GM if I am temporarily unable to do so. I promise to respect others and to allow everyone - myself included - to have fun playing.

I decided that we probably didn't need *two* bards, so I made an Occultist. I'm traveling this weekend and need to clean up putting stats in the right spot, but it's a start ;)

More in depth about my experience: I'm working on my 4th star and I do a lot of face to face GMing, but PbP would be interesting to get a few of the "hard to muster" games going. I've also been curious about how it all works. This so far has been a good learning experience in how to set up PbP games.

I'll try to finish up everything the next couple of days, travel commitments permitting.

@Vilelyen: Thanks for your submission! I love the occultist. I was Mavaro in the game I linked to above. If you're looking for help with setting up for PbP games, I've also written a Guide to Successful Play-by-Post Recruitment. Hopefully, it'll help. I tried to follow my own guide when recruiting this one! ;-)

Umm, is this already full? ._.; I spot max player numbers in players section

As far as I know, it's join in, (get a feel for the process, posting, etc.) and the actual choosing of the team will happen later.

Ah, ok

@CorvusMask: Jillia is correct. Please have a read through of my original post again.

I solemnly swear to be up to n- Wait, wrong pledge. Let's try that over again.

I agree to post daily, or notify the GM if I am temporarily unable to do so. I promise to respect others and to allow everyone - myself included - to have fun playing.

In any case, As I mentioned last night, I've been playing Pathfinder and its ilk since 2000, and while I have experience with the system(including GMing a campaign of RotR), I've never done PbP before and I've been wanting (badly) to play in PFS. The idea of being able to sit and think about my reactions and explore my character's mindset sounds like a wonderful time to me.

@Lissa Villasani: Thank you for the Intro! PbP is indeed a wonderful way to delve deeply into your character. Much more opportunity than I ever found at the gaming table.

I agree to post daily, or notify the GM if I am temporarily unable to do so. I promise to respect others and to allow everyone - myself included - to have fun playing.

B.A.Ironskull, where can I find the discussion and gameplay threads?

Penelope, Check out this URL

Blessing of the faithful was removed.

Are you sure? That thread is from a year ago and both d20PFSRD and Archive of Nethys list Blessing of the Faithful as part of the Ecclesitheurge archetype. I'm at work currently but will go back and check the recent ACG errata when I can.