The Flaxseed Pathfinder Lodge: Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Game Master Redelia

When I first started PFS the town I lived in had a pretty robust gaming sceen and I was able to play a session with her 2-3 times a month. I had her to 10th or so level before I ever started playing online. Since, I've moved to an area that has no face to face games so her last 7 or 8 levels came strictly from the boards.. Funny fact she was my 3rd character made, I just had more fun with her so she became my main.. My 1st character is level 11, 2nd is 8th..

Same here. He's my 3rd character made but my favorite. The rest of my characters are all first level, 2 have 2 adventures under their belts, 4 have had one adventure each and the other 4 have never been played.

The face to face scene is very robust here, I could get in at least 2 scenarios every week, I just can't get to them often.

It was sort of weird, my -1 (which I played at a combination of local conventions, GenCon, and online both virtual and PbP) took longer to get to 11 than my -10. Almost two years versus fourteen months Not sure if that's a matter of liking one character over the other, or more play opportunities for a bard vs. a sword/board/twf slayer/cleric...

My -3 character is my seeker as well, and he's also a wizard. He was just more fun than my first two. I imagine part of that was getting more comfortable with the PFS system and world to let me build a more robust, well-rounded character.

Haha yea my -6 is actually my 2nd highest level character at magus 14.. I think I just enjoy arcane casters more that anything else.

Quick question for the gloriously experienced people here that've encountered this question before. c:

Having finished The Confirmation on one of my characters, I'd like to take advantage of the reduced PP cost (she was the first to do it) for wayfinder enhancements. I'd also, however, like to be able to get the wayfinder to do two things, as per Inherited (3 PP). Does that mean I can choose the secondary function later? Or must I apply them at the same time?

EDIT: Nevermind, I'm silly - reread the text and figured it out. >^<

2017 State of the Union Questionnaire

Howdy, and regionally appropriate greetings, everyone

Once a year, before each season starts, we like to get feedback on how things are going, as a community and in regard to the Online VO positions.

This year we are doing it a little differently and we would like to get a broader and deeper response from the community as a whole.

If you would be so kind, please fill in the following, short, questionnaire with your thoughts on Online Play - it will be immensely helpful as we plan things for the new season.

https://goo.gl/forms/xuPeXQYKXYPGX4yx1

The questionnaire is completely anonymous - so you can really let us have it, if you so feel like it (we have thick skin, so it's all good). ;b

Thank you all for all that you guys do - it is much appreciated.

Until later - May your adventures be many and your dice always roll true.

- Jesse

Jesse R. Davis [IronHelixx]
PFS Venture-Captain, Online Play
Jesse@PathfinderSocietyOnline.com
http://PathfinderSocietyOnline.com
Discord Chat: PFSChat.com

Our Mission: To Champion, Serve, Support, and Build the PFS Online Community.

Gang --

Please fill the above questionnaire out! We want your ideas and input!

Hmm

I filled mine out!

I have filed out mine too. I did mark yes on the interested in being a VO but I am already for my county in California. I did that as I wanted to let you know I am willing to help out.

-Posted with Wayfinder

10/4! I've filled mine out! c: I didn't check in for VO, but I'd like to one day! \o/

@Hiyami i cannot speak for being a VO for online play but as a VO for my local community it is so much fun. The people i have met have so much enthusiasm for our hobby it warms my heart.

The VO leadership will be glad to have you aboard when you are ready I bet.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Great initiative - I was going to just fill it out, but am having a bit of a think to see what more detailed info I can give :)

I have filled out feedback form.

I am NOT volunteering for any positions -- I could not do them the proper justice they deserve.

Something I forgot to mention, but merits consideration, is how to rectify the divide between those of us able to 'camp' at our computers/phones 24/7 and those who are not either due to work, resources, or other reasons.

By addressing the concern rather as a whole rather than just leaving it to a given table, it might help bring the community together.

I don't really see it as a divide that needs rectifying. Casual vs Hardcore exists in every hobby or pastime, from online gaming, to PFS in your local gaming store, to people on mountain bikes.

If the complaint is the availability of games then that's a bandwidth issue that is resolved by either the current GM's doing more, or more GM's coming online. If people aren't getting games then perhaps they might look at running some... I did, and I met lots of cool people :)

Being on the other side of the world in a wonky time zone does me little favours, but I still manage to get games.

Questionnaire, all filed out! ;)

I did the questionnaire too.

Okay, one interesting thing that has popped up from the survey so far is that a sizable portion of you don't actually know who your Online Venture Team is.

Head / Desk.

Now part of that may be a good thing. We are blessed with a fantastic community here. Everyone helps out. If you have an abandoned game, four GMs will volunteer at the same time to pick it up and finish it. If you have a rules question, everyone helps out. If someone needs a Venture Captain to monitor their five star confirmation game, once again one of the many fantastic Venture Captains from one of the Face-to-Face regions will instantly decloak and offer to help out. Here on the Paizo boards, you don't just benefit from my expertise, but from everyone's. We're all volunteers here, and this community is absolutely amazing.

That said, clearly we have to find ways to be more visible on here. If you glance at my GM Profile, there is a list of official contacts for each of our Play-by-Post Lodges. Some folks on our Venture Crew are less visible here because they primarily work on another site, like Mike Hallet and Terence Lin. Magabeus has been nominated as our new Paizo Boards VA, and hopefully will get his official VO tiara soon. (Paizo has a VO confirmation backlog going on right now that we just have to be patient about.) Please treat him as an acting VA. Then we have amazing uber-Volunteers. There is Chris Marsh, Dungeon Master S, who will be running Castamir's Flaxseed Station, our Starfinder Satellite. There's Shifty, the Ninja who is EVERYWHERE. He'll be overseeing Race for the Runecarved Key in January. Both Chris and Shifty are face-to-face VOs who do tons of work online. There's also Granta, who has been volunteering everywhere and doing a lot with special projects like Specials and GM schools. Finally, there is our founder, Mike Tuholsi, aka Endless Forms. He still maintains Flaxseed for us, and got this whole thing rolling.

But the great thing about this community is that you don't need a title to make a difference. You can just be your awesome caring fantastic selves.

I ❤ all of you!

Thank you so much.
Hmm

text

*whistles and walks away*

...I'm now fascinated to see what the results were that necessitated such a post :p

Okay, one interesting thing that has popped up from the survey so far is that a sizable portion of you don't actually know who your Online Venture Team is.

Head / Desk.

Perhaps the approved Online Venture Team could be listed on the Campaign Info tab?

I can't say that I really understand the VO structure (there seem to be different ranks), but if different officers have different areas of influence, you could always list them with a "contact this person for...".

I'm new here, but I honestly thought that this community was completely organic. I didn't know that there was a structure that was being "imposed" upon it by Paizo.

That said, this is an excellent community and I greatly appreciate all of the hard work that Mike, you, and all of the other officers do to help the rest of us to have an awesome environment to play games in.

Perhaps the approved Online Venture Team could be listed on the Campaign Info tab?

I can't say that I really understand the VO structure (there seem to be different ranks), but if different officers have different areas of influence, you could always list them with a "contact this person for...".

I'll see if I can create a Venture Team Document and have Endless link to it up above in campaign information.

In my profile, I've got this information listed as whom to contact for what.

Looking for PFS Play-by-Post?

We have four great lodges!

Flaxseed Lodge (main contacts: Magabeus: Flaxseed’s Online VA, Granta: Specials & GM Schools, Mike Tuholski (the beloved founder and site manager of Flaxseed Lodge, also known as Endless Forms.)

Castamir’s Flaxseed Station (Opening for Starfinder Society action after August 17th! Main Contact: Chris Marsh, aka Dungeon Master S.)

Mythweavers. (Main contact: Michael Hallet.)

RPGgeek PFS Guild. (Main contact: Terence Lin (aka Not2Fear.)

Or you can contact your friendly local PbP Venture Lieutenant, Hmm.

Is this the kind of format you're looking to see?

--- ★ --- ★ ---- ★

I'm new here, but I honestly thought that this community was completely organic. I didn't know that there was a structure that was being "imposed" upon it by Paizo.

That said, this is an excellent community and I greatly appreciate all of the hard work that Mike, you, and all of the other officers do to help the rest of us to have an awesome environment to play games in.

In a way you're right that it is completely organic. Unlike Face-to-Face lodges, the GMs pretty much offer what they want, when they want. My job is less about scheduling games and rustling up GMs to staff them and more about providing help and support, and keeping the online Play-by-Post conventions rolling!

Please don't think of the structure as "imposed" by Paizo. Being an official lodge means that we get official support. We can get free scenarios to our GMs during conventions if they make the scenario support deadline, and we can get boons for our events. It also means that there is someone to help with problems or to contact with questions.

Sometimes that contact is the community itself. As stated before, everyone volunteers and helps out. That's what makes this place great.

Hmm

I'm not complaining in any way.

I'm just saying that if you want us to know "who your Online Venture Team is", we actually have to know that a team exists.

I don't feel that I necessarily need to know that a team exists. I know that if I need help, I can come here and get answers.

That's enough for me.

However, if knowing the structure and existence of the team is in some way helpful to others, I was simply making a suggestion.

Yes, the support, boons, etc that Paizo provides are awesome. In that regard, knowing who the officers are that are working to make sure that we all get those benefits is great so that I know who to thank.

I was not implying that I thought the structure was bad. I am not an anarchist ;)

Curiously enough, I've had the same experience in my face to face community. I don't actually know who my Venture Team is...though I have guesses. Fortunately, there's never been an issue that needed a Venture Leader's intervention.

Though I suppose I should find out who they are so I can thank them.

I know that if I need help, I can come here and get answers.

I think that's actually the most important takeaway for me. I'm really happy that you know to ask here!

Hmm

I can't say that I really understand the VO structure (there seem to be different ranks), but if different officers have different areas of influence, you could always list them with a "contact this person for...".

The official answer can be found here. Of course, official answers don't necessarily reflect reality, and the online format creates a lot of differences as well. So, here is a quick and very dirty answer:

• Post questions here unless you want the issue to remain private.
  
• PM Magabeus only if the issue requires privacy.
  
• PM Hmm as a last resort.

And I can't overstate the importance of spreading that load across as many shoulders as possible. There are hundreds of us and only a few venture officers. Imagine getting just one question a week from each player . . .

You'd have to read 2-300 PMs. Then you'd have to respond. Half of the people will probably reply with a follow-up question. You might have to PM a third person to get more information. Then you have to update the games that you're GMing.

But once you do all of that, then you can have fun and play Pathfinder. And don't forget, you're a volunteer.

And obviously, you're insane to enjoy doing all of that. Which means we actually need more insanity :-Þ

Yes, that's about right. There are days my inbox just fills!

When someone recently asked what it takes to be an online VC, I said that you had to be a workaholic and certifiably insane!

Although we don't have the same scheduling duties that face-to-face Venture Officers do, we have a huge region, with games going 24/7. Even with a happy, knowledgeable and self-sufficient group, there are new people to orient and problems to fix. Part of what I work towards is creating a culture where the answers are readily available, and everyone wants to help out.

--- ★ --- ★ ---- ★

What makes this volunteer job great though is all of you. I could not ask for a better community.

Hmm

Now I know! Thanks!

You guys rock for taking that responsibility onto your shoulders.

In the larger sense, this community that you all helped to build rocks. That itself is the best testimony I can offer.

The Master doesn't talk, he acts. When his work is done, the people say, "Amazing: we did it, all by ourselves!"

@Hmm BTW every time you sign off a message, I picture your avatar raising its eyebrow very Spock-like, as if to say, "Did that question really need to be asked?". Gives me a giggle every time.

It's a lot of work, that's for sure - Online Venture Officering can get pretty time-intensive.

The good news is that now we actually have an online play team, whereas it used to be pretty much just Jesse (Iron-Helixx) and it really got my goat that there didn't seem to be a lot of recognition of PbP - and in turn - the availability of infrastructure to support it.

I know I wasn't the only one that was interested in a VO gig, but it just didn't appear to be a possibility - but thats fine, we just rolled ahead and ran our own Specials and the like.
That's pretty much how I operate though, the local cons didn't suit my personal timetable, so I just raised a series of cons that did fit my calendar.

Magabeus hit me up with the idea of running the Multitable specials, and it was a good idea as there was a long gap between Game Days, so yes this community is organic, however now the 'official' team is getting bigger I suspect one day I'll get crowded out (which is actually really cool) by the sheer number of activities.

With all the above said, my eyes are starting to drift heavenward, and I suspect a lot of my time will be spent wandering amongst the newly discovered stars :)
(Because I have 5 stars in PFS, bit need to go and do it again in SFS to get 5 stars there too)

My curiosity is how the VO team is going to handle having to run TWO platforms (SFS and PFS) and how that's going to work on a daily basis - SFS will require a different set of skills and gaming mastery and possibly different timings/specials/events. Locally I wanted to deputise a VA for SFS to be my 'go to' person as the VC, but was told VA's MUST be linked to a store. I really don't see the need to make it a VL just to make it make sense.

Shifty, I will never crowd you out. There will always be room in Hmm's event schedule for at least one Shifty special a year.

--- ★ --- ★ ---- ★

I personally dislike the idea that VAs must be tied to a store, or that you cannot have co-VA's. We have four people now who actively organize and run Dreamers, and multiple hands working right now on Paizo Boards keep Flaxseed spinning.

I do wish that they would let us have official Starfinder VOs.

Hmm

Huh, I knew that as a VA, I was technically tied to a specific store, but since I'm also the only Venture officer in my city, so...

There's three other places in town that sell games (two of them sell Pathfinder stuff and the other one has the Adventure Card Game for sale), but their schedules or spaces just weren't to my liking so I never tried to run PFS there.

I thought about trying to be a VL since I'm the only VO in my city. There's another city about an hour away that has my local VC that I report to, but we have separate player-bases. If only I understood the first thing about organizing conventions.

I don't have any assigned VL, but I have half a dozen odd VA's who run their local games store. Frankly there's no longer a lot of reason to be a VL, other than to be an obvious back-up to the VC - VA is where it is at to be honest, a great gig.

The VA's are tied to a store, but with that said, I was off running cons etc whilst NOT a VO of any description, I would go through the RVC (with info to the local VC as a courtesy) for con support etc and was merrily doing my own thing.

Organising a con is actually pretty straightforward, were you thinking a face-to-face local convention/Gameday, or were you talking about an Online event?

Do you have RSP at your store?

I keep telling myself to looking into the RSP thing but I haven't taken the steps to actually doing it. I am officially filling out the request form now.

There is a local anime convention that has a table top space devoted to it that a couple of my local PFS players go to and have ties to the organizers. I kind of doubt that I'd have the players or GMs to have multiple tables running at the same time, so if I were to go there, I was probably just going to run quests. I vaguely recall Tonya (maybe on a Know Direction Paizo Con recording?) saying she was considering changing how "tables" at a con work to make quests more equitable?

That's ok, it's a start - if you have the mass to kick off your own con that's sweet, but if not, piggybacking off an existing event is common sense.

You can also get the event covered under RSP, which is far superior to the old Game Day support. Give it a crack mate :)

If you have Q's, just ask.

I have also coveted a VL slot - I do more than just manage my store in terms of the local 'scene' but the con organization requirement has always been a big turn off with it due to complicated local issues (long story short there was some drama~ like right before I moved to the area and it left things pretty darn fractured) not that it really matters much really that I am a VA who has VL like duties. The only difference is access to a special board on this site and access to one of those sweet green polos.

I wouldn't sweat past drama, just about every scene has it to some extent.

Just make sure you put out the 'Under new management' sign and go from there :)

I keep telling myself to looking into the RSP thing but I haven't taken the steps to actually doing it. I am officially filling out the request form now.

There is a local anime convention that has a table top space devoted to it that a couple of my local PFS players go to and have ties to the organizers. I kind of doubt that I'd have the players or GMs to have multiple tables running at the same time, so if I were to go there, I was probably just going to run quests. I vaguely recall Tonya (maybe on a Know Direction Paizo Con recording?) saying she was considering changing how "tables" at a con work to make quests more equitable?

Interest at Anime Conventions might surprise you. At Anime Detour, we started with only a couple tables and overflowed. Last year we kept four tables constantly full. The most popular tables were of course House of Harmonious Wisdom quests. How can you go wrong with a quest series where the heroes are characters in a Wuxia film? It's a storyline the anime groups instantly get. We also did a few tables of longer things like Confirmation, Consortium compact and I think Gallows of Madness, but quests were our bread and butter and we ran them all con. I ran the equivalent of 5 complete tables of House of Harmonious Wisdom that weekend, and most people came and went, returning after a few hours to play another quest in the set.

It worked great!

Hmm

It really just depends on the general convention. I help with MomoCon here which is mainly an Anime convention and it has started transforming itself into a gaming convention as well. Granted, it's (a lot) bigger in the Video Gaming department, but we were able to sustain 4-5 tables the whole weekend and filled up a special completely mostly with walk-ins.

The way I schedule that is by having 2-3 tables dedicated to Quests, and GMs can sign up for a slot and they just run quests during that slot, and otherwise try to advertise for their table when they don't have one. How many they run is actually irrelevant to them fulfilling their slot for the convention requirement for badges etc. They must just be available during that time when we have time (and at MomoCon... we have demand!)

The other 2-3 tables are regular tables. This is meant more for the players who come with characters and GMs who want to play full length scenarios. There is a mix of low level and high level here. It's also good to have a few of these for players from quests to "graduate" to a full length table if they become more interested.

I find both are essential to both pleasing those players who just want to stay for a little bit and the GMs/players who want to come for the high level stuff.

I will give the caveat that it didn't start this way. It was already a sizable convention when we joined and we ran max of 3 tables the first year we were there.

Also, as far as pregens, bring extra Ninja pregens. I'm not actually joking here...

Agreed. Ninjas, and oddly, Swashbucklers, go over big at Anime Conventions! They want to be all cool and dexy!

Hmm

Question for (primarily) Hmm and Shifty:

I've received two of the "Free RPG Day 2017" Boons - they're exactly the same, except given to me by different DMs. Can I use them both?

Even though there's not a new adventure featured for Free RPG Day, we want to encourage you to get out and game together. In fact, we've made a unique Chronicle sheet for the event. If you're playing a game any time from June 16th to June 25th, you can earn a copy of this sheet—just one per participant, no matter how many times you play. In fact, consider printing off some extras to hand out at whatever event you're a part of so that others can join in the benefits. Everyone gets the first boon, which allows the chance to replay (or "re-GM" for credit) one of the past Free RPG Day modules one time, and while it's certainly the spirit of this reward to use that boon for Free RPG Day this year, you're welcome to hold onto it for whenever you need it.

If you play in a Free RPG Day game—that's a game hosted by a location participating in Free RPG Day 2017—you also receive the Tome of First Contact boon. Just as you're getting a first glimpse at what Starfinder has to offer, so to has one of your characters found a wondrous bestiary filled with alien beasts and otherworldly people. Reference it to get an edge when facing creatures from beyond Golarion, and above all, enjoy Paizo's contributions to Free RPG Day 2017!

I just went to https://pbpgameday.com/ and got the following error page.

Your connection is not secure

The owner of pbpgameday.com has configured their website improperly. To protect your information from being stolen, Firefox has not connected to this website.

pbpgameday.com uses an invalid security certificate. The certificate expired on July 30, 2017 at 7:59 PM. The current time is July 31, 2017 at 10:56 AM. Error code: SEC_ERROR_EXPIRED_CERTIFICATE

Urk. I'll ping Jesse now.

Thanks!

Hmm

Looks like the security certificates just need to be renewed. It's usually a case of "Oops, forgot to renew my subscription" than "OMG hackers!"

Thanks for letting us know - we actually did renew the SSL certificate a week before it expired, so I am not sure what happened - I have contacted the certificate authority.

- Jesse

No idea if this'll be helpful or not, but I use Google Chrome and, uh... here's a screen cap of what I got?

/flees

No need to flee. I got that message too!

Hmm

And now for something completely different. This is the PBP world, and I know that many of you play here because you can't get to PFS live. Still, enough of us are going to GenCon that I thought I'd mention that GenCon still desperately needs GMs this year. If you are going to GenCon, and haven't signed up to GM yet... We need YOU. In fact, we needed you yesterday.

Interested? Follow the instructions on the blog in the link.

Hugs,
Hmm

If I had the free time and money to go, I would GM in a heartbeat. But alas, I have very little of both. I hope they get the support they need.

If I had the free time and money to go, I would GM in a heartbeat. But alas, I have very little of both. I hope they get the support they need.

I'm in the same situation as well.

I know. This is my first time going, and the only way I could afford it was to go on the GM indentured servitude plan as a Tier One GM! I am going this year because... Starfinder! I just couldn't resist being part of the launch.

Hmm