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

Game Master Wilmannator

Actually you are right Penelope, in the first printng of the Advanced Class Guide, the Blessing of the Faithful ability was missing. This error generated the thread that miteke linked.

But it has been errataed already, so the d20PFSRD is correct and so do you!

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.

Nella, d20PFSRD and Shuo are correct.

@miteke: Are you here to be recruited or just wasting people's time with incorrect rules lawyering?

Edit: Sorry, that was rude. I'll assume you were trying to be helpful. Please do look things up properly before telling someone they're wrong - or preface it with "I think...". Note also that random people posting on forums do not constitute RAW. Always refer back to the source book (and errata) in question. d20PFSRD, Archives of Nethys and HeroLab don't constitute RAW either, but I often find it to be more up-to-date than Paizo's own PRD!

The Additional Resources page provides, in combination with actual RAW, the absolute and final say on what is and what isn't PFS legal.

FYI, the exact wording from the errata:

Page 91—In the Ecclesitheurge archetype’s Ecclesitheurge’s Vow ability, in the second sentence, remove both instances of the word “prohibited”. Add the following ability after the Ecclesitheurge’s Vow ability:

Blessing of the Faithful (Su): As a standard action, the ecclesitheurge can bless one ally within close range (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels). A blessed ally gains a +2 sacred or profane bonus (depending on whether the ecclesitheurge channels positive or negative energy) on attack rolls, skill checks, ability checks, or saving throws or to AC until the ecclesitheurge’s next turn. The ecclesitheurge can expend 1 use of channel energy when activating this ability to increase the duration to a number of rounds equal to the number of dice of his channel energy.

FYI, also corrected the thread that miteke linked to. Hopefully, that'll save some other folk some research.

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 also acknowledge that I might be asked to step aside for the benefit of the PFS community. I thought it might be a good idea just to restate it.

Eep ._.; I took so long time that a lot of people have joined... Ah well, time for formalities:

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'm now mostly finished with sheet(though I might have forgotten something and I probably need to add text to it X-x; I wouldn't mind if someone pointed something obvious I have forgotten), but I'm kinda having problem with the character(as in, I'm not sure what would be good name for character and what would be fitting god for paladin I had in mind. I did some choices, but not sure if they were good ones X-x;) as well...

@Boris and CorvusMask: Thank you for the official recruitment. Looking forward to seeing you both on the gameplay threads!

@Everyone: We are filling up nicely. I'm so impressed with the gameplay thus far actually currently trying to find a second GM for you guys to take another six of you. I'm even considering (in my madness) running two tables for you if that doesn't work. So... please do keep those submissions coming if you're reading this. There is still hope... and again: this is not first come first served!

Pretty soon (this weekend sometime), I'll post a Google Spreadsheet to help track the recruitments.

Thank you to everyone who has applied so far. I'll try my hardest to have as much fun playing the actual Confirmation as it has been doing the pre-adventure. I've had such a good time doing this, though, that I can't guarantee it!

GM, you're a madman and a saint, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

You are a gentleman and a scholar, good sir.

Thanks for putting this together, and it you manage to seat all 12 (whether at your table or a with another GM), you get the maddest of all props.

@Everyone: (in response to Jillia)

All 12? We've got more than that who have checked in on the recruitment, only 12 on the gameplay thread so far. We're still accepting recruits up until the 28th, so we could (and probably will) have more than that by then. I'm still working on the spreadsheet, but I think 15 have checked in on recruitment thus far.

@Lady Ladile: If we go to a second table, I'm going to consider you the same as anyone else (as a special case). You've put in the effort knowing full well that you're going to be recruited behind everyone else, which is awesome of you. Also, the other GM (if I find one) will be running to help me out, not necessarily to help expand the PbP community. I'm not loosening the recruitment requirements for anyone else. Just this one case, if we find a second GM.

So... September 28th... I know it seems a while off, especially with all the activity... but we'll get there. Hope you enjoy yourselves in the meantime.

@GM Damo - That sounds more than fair to me. Thank you!

@Potential recruits - Gameplay may seem crowded but it's been a great group of interesting characters and entertaining chatter/action so far, so don't feel shy about jumping in if you've been considering it :)

Hey all!

Please see my Recruitment Spreadsheet Here.

Some people have checked in but haven't posted on gameplay or discussion yet (which is fine). @Matthew Morris / Kiril I still need your recruitment pledge please (see my original post and specifically how to "get recruited").

Anyway, that's a total of 16 interest checks, 13 recruitment agreements and 12 characters on gameplay. Keep the recruits coming, I say!

Keep on having fun.

It's great to see so many people having fun while getting used to a new way of playing (for us lot anyway). I'll certainly be more confident to jump in when i see a pbp i like the look of in the future :)

Don't know if you have filled your spots or not! I have had experience playing as a character and as a gm in my own homebrew tabletop games. I moved recently and can't find anyone near me to play. I have never even thought about play by post until just barely and I think it might be quite a bit of fun so if you have room I would love to play!

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.

Yes, copy and pasted. ;]]

@Cain Stern: Join in the fun. Haven't finalized recruitment yet, so jump on Gameplay and Discussion whenever your character is ready!

Swapping out my character from the Occultist (Vilelyen) to my Bard. He just seems more fun for this forum, even if he isn't quite as hard hitting!

@Brobdingnagian: Sounds great. No problems.

@Everyone: Updated the recruitment spreadsheet with some formatting and also a column for "Ready to Play". Please look yourself up on the sheet and let me know if you are not "ready to play" on the spreadsheet and don't know why.

I agree to the terms if there is room for one more, just need to fill in info for the character on her profile.

@Tavagra: While "room" is subjective, I haven't closed recruitment. Please do join in! Just remember, I need you to write (or copy-paste) the full terms into your recruitment post. :-)

Alright, will do that. At 4:45, Should be able to get her stats on her profile.

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.

Actually never mind. Right now I'm too busy IRL and already doing another play-by-post with a different character. Thank you though.

Alrighty! I have finished posting in the Recruitment, Discussion, and Gameplay threads! Please let me know if you're willing to accept me into your campaign. I really want to play and it took a lot of time for me to get the formatting right and to know what I'm doing... even though I still don't really know what I'm doing. XD hahah. Anyways, I would love to play so please let me know! Wanna see that name as cleared to play! ;]]

@Damo, Thanks for being awesome!

@Tavagra: No trouble at all.

@Cain Stern: Got those posts. I will let everyone know who is and is not in on Monday 28th September. Look out for it! Also, can't have you as cleared to play until you post a full character sheet on your profile. As in previous posts, any format is fine (even a link to a PDF export, scanned sheet, Google Doc, or... even... gasp.... a Microsoft Online file). I also can't put "yes" on your gameplay column until I have a spoiler from you (please see my first recruitment post for details).

@Tavagra: No trouble at all.

@Cain Stern: Got those posts. I will let everyone know who is and is not in on Monday 28th September. Look out for it! Also, can't have you as cleared to play until you post a full character sheet on your profile. As in previous posts, any format is fine (even a link to a PDF export, scanned sheet, Google Doc, or... even... gasp.... a Microsoft Online file). I also can't put "yes" on your gameplay column until I have a spoiler from you (please see my first recruitment post for details).

Spoiler: Check!

I use Microsoft OneDrive a lot at work, and I post a lot from work, so it just made sense to put my character sheet there... although it can be a pain sometimes XD

@Cain: Okay, so that's where your character sheet is. There's no link on that URL. It's not too bad from a computer, but from a phone it's quite hard to copy-paste it. Would you mind linking to it from your main profile area (just above your background)? This exact link (with the space before the "/" removed) should do just fine:

(It should look like this when you're done: Cain Stern Character Sheet)

[url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B14HJ5xER2N1WXI4YjNTbExTa0U/view]Cain Stern Character Sheet[ /url]

I've just sent a request for permission to access. With those two in place, I'll mark you "Yes" on the ready to play. I've added you to initiative in advance of that anyway. :-)

@Semagoro: Wasn't picking on you. Well, maybe a little. I've just never seen a Microsoft Online file for a character sheet before! :-) I can easily access it, so that format is just fine.

Totally new to pbp, but I've been playing PFS for several years now. As a writer (or at least a person with a degree in creative writing) I'm really excited at the in depth roleplaying.

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.

@Rin Whisteldown: Thanks for the agreement. I see you've posted elsewhere, too. I'll reply on those threads. Welcome to the mad house!

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 am a long time gamer, started with AD&D 2nd Edition in high school. I've been playing and GMing d20 since it came out. I have never played in PFS and am hoping to start. I am currently running a homebrew Pathfinder game in a setting that I created, but due to scheduling and a growing family (3 children, eldest now 2 and a half, younger ones are twins, nearly a year old) we haven't been able to meet as often as I would like. Our last session was nearly six months ago.

I have been following several PbP games here and have been trying to join, but have yet to be selected. I am hoping this will be a good opportunity to get a foot in the door.

This character is the latest version of a concept that I have used in at least four failed campaigns. It does have some questionable gear, as I have not been able to find any info regarding first level characters starting with crafted gear if they have the skills. If necessary I can scale back the gear to just purchased equipment.

Thank you for this opportunity.

@Garr Turog: Welcome to the recruitment and thank you for the agreement! I look forward to seeing you on the other threads. Self-crafted gear is not legal for Pathfinder Society organized play. For rules on PFS, check out the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide is essential reading. Also, the Additional Resources page for what is and isn't legal out of the sourcebooks.

Nice to meet you as well Rin, Garr! About crafted gear, in PFS I'm rather certain that no crafting of any item is allowed, making crafting only useful as a day job. If you're looking for extra rules and resources for PFS that really helped me, you can find them all Here!

Oh, this is me being Cyrus'ed, isn't it? It's good to know our GM is so on top of things :)

Having read the Guide, the Additional Resources page and the PFS FAQ, I still cannot find anything that says self-crafted items cannot be used. Can someone reference or quote a page or passage?
I'm not trying to argue, it just isn't obvious to me.

Cyrus'd indeed! Yeah, your GM has OCD. ;-)

@Garr: p8 of the guide, under 'Feats':

Neither the craft feats nor the item creation section of the magic items chapter in the Core Rulebook are legal for play. Additionally, except for specific examples cited in this guide or the Pathfinder Society FAQ, crafting of mundane items is not allowed in Pathfinder Society.

It's hard to find in the new version, but I'm sure it wasn't always that tricky to spot. Bold section above was mine.

Wow, ok. A ruling about skills and equipment hidden away in the Feats section. No wonder I never found it. I was never interested in crafting magical items.

Garr's equipment has been updated to reflect this. Sorry to have been so much trouble.

Not to muddy the waters, or obscure the point, but I believe that alchemists and alchemist type characters (investigators and poisoner archetype rogues, but oddly not underground chemists) can use craft alchemy to make alchemical items, but can't trade or sell them to other players, though they can give them to be used during the course of the adventure.

Guys, I will be finalizing the list of who is in and who is out by MONDAY.

Looking at the Recruitment Sheet, there are still some players who haven't finished their recruitment requirements:

• @Kajar: I still need your character sheet on your main profile.
  
• @Kharaste: Your haven't posted on gameplay yet. Just checked actually, and you've joined another game without providing us with the courtesy of a "goodbye". Unless I've missed it. Taken you off the sheet. Not that you'll read this anyway.
  
• @Giussepe: You just did a dot. Removing you.
  
• @Al_Square: Still waiting for... everything from you.

@Everyone: There is still time to get recruited, but it's going to take a lot of effort. If you haven't already done up a character for this, I wouldn't bother starting. If you have already done a character, you've got 2 days to get your agreement in and start posting on discussion and gameplay. At this late stage, the only help I'll be providing new additions to the list of recruits has already been provided in previous posts.

Just added my character sheet to my profile. Sorry for the delay.

The Tables Are In!

First up, a big thank you to absolutely everyone who recruited for this game. It was a great response from first time players. I wasn't even sure if I'd get a full table in the start. When you open up to all PbPers, you usually get a really strong response as there are far fewer GMs out there than players. But since I was targeting the subset who had never played before... well, I didn't know how many would be interested. Thank you again for a great response... and for the awesome, awesome work in the gameplay and discussion threads. You guys have reignited my faith in first time players. Really well done.

Second, we have another GM. Steve (PapaSteve08 / GM_PapaSteve) has been playing in my PbP games from the very first one I ever ran. He's an awesome player and has wanted to GM for a while now, but hasn't found the 'right' opportunity to throw his hat into the ring. He's been following along with this game with great interest (he even privately had a go at the riddle contest) and has been as impressed as I am with all of you. When I asked him if he'd like to run, he didn't hesitate.

Now, because Steve hasn't run a PbP before, he has asked that I play along also to help out from time to time. He has also requested Nella (Lady Ladile) since she has PbP experience also. I think we can all agree that Nella has done an amazing job of continuing to post, especially considering I pretty much said she was last on the list and we've gone well over 6 players on the gameplay thread!

Lastly, the tables. Steve and I selected 11 players based on our ratings (and other criteria). From those 11 players, we assigned them to tables based on party balance and RP balance - so Steve's table is not the table of 'left overs' by any means. In fact, I think we've got the strongest 2 line-ups in the history of PbP pick up groups, and that's from a single recruitment thread for first timers only. Well done!

Table 1: GM Damo

• Boris "Love" Derevnya Jarlson (Upaynao)
  
• Brobdingnagian (Wolfspirit)
  
• Jillia Tennille (Jayson MF Kip)
  
• Markus Notine (golfdeltafoxtrot)
  
• Rin Whistledown (Juniperkitsu)
  
• Varus Teutoburg (Jocard the Fist)

Table 2: GM_PapaSteve

• Kajar (B.A. Ironskull)
  
• Lissa Villasani (Blue Moose)
  
• Luther Volandis of Absalom (Luther Volandis)
  
• Nbu T'ka (Wilmannator) <-- me!
  
• Penelope 'Nella' Tabor (Lady Ladile)
  
• Shuo, the Owl of Shokuro (Sir Longears)

Didn't make it*:

• Garr Turog (Demon Lurking)
  
• Grimn (CorvusMask)
  
• Semagoro (Daniel Yeatman)
  
• Al_Square

* If you would like to know more about why you were or weren't selected, I can provide you with feedback. PM me if you want it to be private, or ask here if you don't mind public.

For those who were selected...

GM Damo's Table 1:

Reply here or go to discussion and say "Hi!" so I know you've read the above and that you're still happy to play.

GM_PapaSteve's Table 2:

Reply here if you like, but you also need to dot in ("dot in" just means to make a post in gameplay so that it appears in your campaigns and you appear in the "characters" listing of that campaign) on PapaSteve's Confirmation Gameplay and also dot in on the discussion thread here.

YAY! Glad I made it -- and really happy that I'm on team halfling!

I couldn't help but laugh when I saw Brob's post about an all halfling team. I checked over the lists and I was like No f*cking way! Pure coincidence, honest!

Eh, I probably didn't make it because I suck, but I'm feeling kinda better now since this week is turning out to be really busy schoolwork wise X-x; But yeah, go on, I don't mind public statements on why I suck xD Constructive feedback is always appreciated

And lol, didn't realize there were so many halflings :D

I wouldn't mind advice to make my next submission better. I wish I'd gotten my submission together earlier and been able to take part in the more active portion of the gameplay. I feel I didn't give a good showing in the straight conversation.
Thank you for the opportunity, I hope you will think about running a table like this again.

I am definitely still wanting to play! Can't wait to get started.

And I could totally reroll my character and make a halfling Kineticist if we need more halflings lol.

Thank you all for the fun here everyone. It was a great way to get an intro to pbp, and i enjoyed meeting all of you and your characters.

@Group 1 Have fun, and maybe we'll bump in to each other again at some point in the future.

@Group 2 See you all soon!

I'm happy that we gave a good first impression, and that the two tables came together, but I can't help but feel disappointed that I wasn't picked. I really put my heart into my character these past weeks, and I loved the interactions we had together.

I don't mind it being public, could you give me some feedback on why I wasn't picked? I'm mostly curious as to whether or not I did something wrong, or didn't do something I should have. I felt like I had a shot at this, I guess that's what I get for being overconfident, hah!

It was a tough group. There were a lot of good characters and the choices must have been hard.

I also enjoyed the time we did get.

Good luck to all those who were picked.

Firstly, it's been awesome hanging with all of you guys and gals.

Best of luck to those who didn't get picked. May your next group be even better! I wouldn't mind tabling with any of you in the future.

Good luck to table 2, as well. Do us proud.

As far as table 1 goes, apologies to the other 5. You're stuck with Jillia. Deana he with you.

@CorvusMask, Garr & Semagoro: Just in general, Garr is correct. There were a lot of great characters and choosing who to drop was very hard for both Steve and I. There weren't any huge red flags for any of you, and it was really hard. By the way, late entries received just as much consideration as early ones. The advantage early entries had was they could rework their posting style to get it right. That was it. Rin, for example, was a latecomer and really wowed both Steve and I.

In the end, it came down to the following:

@CorvusMask: There were a number of times during the beginning of recruitment where you asked questions that had already been answered. Some of those were answered in the large number of posts that followed my recruitment post, but some were answered in the original post itself - one question was answered both in the original post, and in a previous post addressed directly to you. While I know there's a lot of info out there, and a lot to do, more points go to those who read through things properly. For future recruitments, you really shouldn't be asking questions to things that the GM has already answered (either in the original post or any subsequent post). Again, a minor thing, but with the quality of applicants, it came into it.

@CorvusMask & Garr: Neither of you found the "secret question" in my Play Guide. That either means you didn't read it or skimmed it. That's fine, but more points go to those who read more diligently. Not everyone who was recruited read it, but there were a very large number who did (compared to only 2 the last time I did open recruitment). We couldn't recruit everyone who read it (especially since Steve is running one of those tables and doesn't have reading my guide as a requirement for his table), but it certainly helped in the points department.

@CorvusMask, Garr & Semagoro: This one should show how close it came for all of you... the style of your posts just didn't click with either Steve or I. Neither of us can put a finger on it, but when we went away separately and came back to each other, we had the same feeling for all three of you. It's not a criticism of your posts, and the frequency, formatting and content were all fine. We just preferred the other players "styles". The good news is, that Steve and I play a lot together and have a similar style, so other GMs likely won't have this issue. It really is a very minor thing, and nothing you could really do about it. Were the other applicants not so strong (and more suited to our style) we wouldn't have even worried about it. But there were, so we had to.

@Semagoro: You were the hardest to drop, really. I know you answered the secret question and I can't fault anything you've done. As with the others, you really put in a lot of effort in to your posts. It goes back to style. Steve and I vacillated on this decision for a long, long time. In the end, we just had to go ahead and make it. If someone drops out, we'll be in touch!

I hope there are no hard feelings for those who didn't make it. This has been a lot of effort from everyone involved, and I really hope that this recruitment has at the very least allowed you to post a bit and given you the confidence to try another recruitment. It should also help with your "PbP resume" as you can now point to a gameplay thread to strut your stuff to a potential GM for next time.