Purple Fluffy CatBunnyGnome's page

Fromper wrote:

And again, I think we all agree that torture is evil. The question is "What is torture?"

How many movies, TV shows, comic books, etc have featured "heroes" who are willing to punch bad guys during an interrogation? Is that torture? Is it evil? Batman routinely hangs people upside down over a ledge. He has a personal code that won't let him ever actually let go and let them die, but the fact that the criminals don't know that makes it effective.

In the non-hypothetical scenario that prompted me to start this thread, our group beat up a bunch of bad guys, took one of them alive, tied him up, tapped him with a wand of CLW to wake him from negative HPs, then started asking questions. The captive was clearly evil, and we needed information to prevent more evil activity. None of the PCs in the room had a good alignment, as far as I know, so the question of a paladin or something objecting wasn't an issue.

We're describing how we're intimidating him before rolling the intimidate check and assists, and one of the players describes his character punching the guy while asking him a question. Having seen this sort of thing more times than I can count in PFS sessions, I didn't consider that even remotely abnormal, and I was actually really surprised when the GM objected and said he couldn't do that because it's evil. He was going to stop, roll the intimidate check, and hope for the best without hitting the guy a second time, so that's as far as it ever would have gone.

So is a single slap or punch to an evil captive while trying to prevent more death and destruction of innocent people considered evil? What about shoving someone against a wall? Is the line drawn at any physical contact?

Torture is when you deliberatly cause excessive pain and suffering to an individual and they are unable to defend themselves. It also includes inflicting such pain for the purposes of obtaining from him, or a third person, information or a confession or needlessly and excessively punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed (even if you can heal the damage afterwards).

so what you're saying is... torture is evil?

While I don't have a horse in the race so to speak.. I'm with Chris to be honest. We already have a few threads complaining about how much GMs get already, so to publicly ask for more is only going to perpetuate that attitude.

Give us the advance seating as a thank you... or the maps.. that would work

Red Ninja, I'm trying to be respectful of your opinion, but calling every opinion on the board that is not yours false makes you seem more like a troll vs. a concerned gamer.

I'm all for constructive conversation, however, with the tone that is developing in the thread no long makes this a constructive conversation.

Good luck

Purple Fluffy CatBunnyGnome wrote:

When making decision for the overall good of the campaign, the two extremes cannot be fully considered. The campaign cannot be geared towards either the over-optimizer or the under-optimizer. It has to be geared for the mid-line players as that is where the majority of the players live.

I'm sorry but this simply does not make sense. I'm not asking anybody to cater to/gear things towards these people; I'm asking someone to deal with them. Gearing things to the mid-line player means dealing with the problems caused by the extremes.

If the campaign is geared towards the over-optimizer then one of two things happens.. either people start learning to over-optimize and we end up with epic scenarios, or people that don't want to/don't like to over optimize simply leave the campaign all together.

If the campaign is geared towards the under-optimizer then the mid-line and the over optimizer complain that the campaign is too easy and eventually fade away to other systems.

Since, generally, the majority of the player-based would be in the mid-line area with neither over or under optimized characters it make since to gear the campaign towards that goal... the majority of the people that are going to play the game.

There isn't going to be one singular option that works the best for the campaign an appeases everyone. At some point, the decision has to be make to appease the majority vs. the entirity

Bob Jonquet wrote:

First, you have to ignore the most exteme outliers.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. How can you ignore them when they're pwning your face off? You ignore them at your peril, because they just get on with wrecking the game.

When making decision for the overall good of the campaign, the two extremes cannot be fully considered. The campaign cannot be geared towards either the over-optimizer or the under-optimizer. It has to be geared for the mid-line players as that is where the majority of the players live.

The bottom line of all of this is that Mike and Paizo cannot and will not look at the campaign and make decisions based on what is right or what happens in one area. They have to think globally and act globally. So while ideas you think are awesome and perfect .. for your area... won't work across the board. If people want this thread to be constructive, my suggestion would be to stop arguing about your area and instead come up with ideas that could be implemented across the board and fairly for all types of players.

The unfortunate side of all of this is that the extremes on either end of the spectrum cannot be catered to, the campaign has to be run in the middle of the pack so to speak.

There should be a folder titled helpful resources ... you can put it in there if you want.

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I'm waiting for the "is it too whiney" thread... cause srsly ...

and now I go back to my break from the boards.

More Pink than Purple Thea, but might work...

http://s99.photobucket.com/user/missjms23/media/CatBunny.jpg.html

would soooooo have to be purplier ... and more gnomish ... and more purplier

HRmm .... I wonder if the PFS world is ready for a giant bunnygnome as a villain .... I must needs to send Mike a picture

starts shuffling through photos trying to find one that shows off her cute bunny puffball

1 person marked this as a favorite.

drags thread back on track to avoid it becoming a 2nd chronicle thread

Well... Here is Singapore, there are 2-4+ games ran each week for PFS...

It would be logical to run lesser games, but with PFS in Singapore still less then a year old, there is quite a lot of interest for games by players.

Hope a means to address this issue could be part of season 5.

This is something that has been an on-going problem for people since the inception of PFS. At one point, as a player, you could play each scenario multiple times as long as it was of a different faction that you'd played it with previously (garnering each player a potential for 5 chronicles for each scenario).

At this time, GMs were still not receiving credit for "eating" scenarios and were missing out on being able to play. This caused a glut of player character, and a reduction of GM pools. Let's face it, who wants to be the one having to eat scenarios all the time while your friends are getting to play.

The replay rules that we have now (1 player chronicle, 1 GM chronicle) is the fairest it has ever been. And while I understand the need to have replay as an option for players when one is starting a new lodge; the campaign as a whole cannot change to support one specific area and still have the rules remain fair across the boards.

I wish you luck and hope that there is a solution that you find that works for your area, however, trying to get open replay as that solution isn't something that is going to work.

Congratulations

only if you have editing powers ... if you don't ... you'll have to ask the last GM to look up the number for you

Or the player can look it up himself... since it's, ya know, his responsibility and all that.

I know what the +1 enchantment is.... steals Purple Fluffy CatBunnyGnome ears and adjusts them to one perky, one relaxed.

casts charm VO and steals her ears back... sets them to devious

I've been playing 3.XX since 2000 and I STILL don't know all the rules.

New rules come out every second month!
You have to get to a place where you can trust the entire table to help rules adjudicate with you. If someone is cheating, the entire table can help to detect it.
You also have to be handy with the phrase 'How's THAT work?'
Then you end up learning something new.

Players who have never GMed need to know that they don't have to know everything.

I swore to myself I wasn't going to post in this thread... however, that is the single best piece of advice I have ever seen given on this thread.. and it's one that I took to heart a long time ago.

I ran a game this weekend for a table of VO some/most of them 4 and 5 star GMs in their own right... it was also a 7 player table. Had it not been for them efficiently helping with rules decision we would still be there playing that game. GMs have to be willing and able to learn from the players as well as the players learning from the GM.

It seems to me that it would be a waste not to utilize a 5-star GM at a table that requires a certain collection of stars.

Did you GM 4-EX for him?

nope lol

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I had to miss this year. I am sure all my fellow St Louis gamers will tell me about it tomorrow.

Too bad ... tho I tried to make it so people from the forums would know who I was .... I wore purple bunny ears ...

Purple Fluffy CatBunnyGnome wrote:

C: no that monster is immune to that damange... muahahaha ... wait.. my ears are perky again adjusts purple ears to perky

My PFS senses say PFCBG GM'ed for Argen at Cape Comic Con this weekend and that the quote above may be a hint.

muahahahahahaha

All I can say is that the last game was a great one to end on as I take a mini break from GMing

Ok, long story short

A: snipped because it was a long story

B: heyya :)

C: no that monster is immune to that damange... muahahaha ... wait.. my ears are perky again adjusts purple ears to perky

I was told the link wasn't working correctly, re-posting a hopefully correct link.

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Had a response and then decided she just doesn't care anymore ... people are going to think and make up stuff as they want... leaves thread... begins break from gaming

yep ..I think I'm limiting my gaming down to just the committments I currenly have and then taking a long break....

Kristin I know ... I'm very much needing the break from work .. can't believe that there is snow forcast for Friday tho (at least in Iowa).

Have to say I agree with most of everything Dragnmoon has said in this thread.

It isn't about how far you're willing to drive, or even the GM credit or lack thereof. It's about people who are willing to step up and do what's needed in order to grow our hobby what we are all a part of and enjoy.

There are those that GM only when necessary and for them the GM credit is key, there are those that travel god only knows how may hours (10 at least for me**) to attend a convention and GM -- if for no other reason than to give those local GMs a chance for a break and to sit down and play. ** and no, didn't receive GM credit for all of those as most of them were re-runs for me**

I'll state my case again; the balance we have is perfect.

edit to avoid assuming anything for anyone

Doug Miles wrote:

I suggest that a GM motivated by getting another Chronicle sheet may do more harm than good. I'd rather play under a GM who enjoys GMing for the sake of the community, because he or she wants to hone their skills or because they just have more fun that way.

What about an event coordinator who desperately needs another GM and asks a player to step forward at the last minute? Or a VC/VL who encourages players to take up the GM mantle in order to expand the game in their area? Or GMs in local groups who'll run a game because it's their turn but prefer to play when possible? Are you saying that all those GMs do more harm than good because they had to be encouraged?

People are motivated by different things, but their reasons for running a game have no bearing on the way they run it or their behaviour at the table. In fact it's quite possible that GMs who had to be encouraged to run something end up doing it better than the GMs who never play, as they're better able to see the game from the players point of view.

I have to disagree ... My experience is such that GMs running for the credit alone are simply "turning and burning" the scenarios. They don't take the time to get into the flavor of them. They haven't invested time in learning the story (I'm sure there are some exceptions, just not in my experience); in contrast, GMs that have run a scenario more than once, have taken the time to get into the story are generally more fun and entertaining judges.

Stormfriend, while I see your point about the motivation for some GMs, the fact is that there has to be a balance between player and GM. Right now we have that balance and it was a hard fought road for a lot of us to get to that balance. And as GMs is was a hard fought road to just to get the credit we have now coming to us. That is why you see a lot of us naysaying this idea.

Actually, you have to read the boon description .. there are some checkboxes (i.e. cyphermage dilemma) where you use the check box to designate if a player earned the boon or not.

What I generally do is read through it once ... then attack it with the highlighters

Red/coral -- important plot points I want to try to incorporate
Green -- DC
Blue - Dialogue that is buried in text
Purple - factions -- just the name of the faction not the whole thing

At one point players could play through a scenario one time per each faction that they had a character with -- so in essence a player could play each scenario 5 times (original factions at the time). GMs still only got 1 credit for GMing it and if they ran it before playing they couldn't go back and play the scenario.

This created a problem.

So the rules were changed.. 1 player credit, 1 GM credit and the GM could play after they ran it. This way players and GM stay on an even keel with getting chronicles and neither one outlevels the other.

I don't feel there needs to be a change, right now it's fair across the board. People step up to help GM and allow other GMs a chance to play.

congratulations!!!!!!!!

Hrmm ... refresh your pathfinder society page and see if it's there, I just tried to register a new one and it worked.

Want:

Goblin

Trade:

One of this years Gen Con GM boons.

Hrmm... wish you luck on that one ... I have a feeling that those of us that want one are going to be continuing to want

When I started looking at conventions ... the cost was overwhelming... but then I took at look at ways I could save money

There are cons that pay for your badge if you GM X number of slots -- I judged that and generally the whole conventions

There are cons that will pay for your hotel room if you GM x number of slots -- judge that and what you need for the badge and there is a large chunk of the con bill right there

Driving... I know that I can get roughly 4 hours of driving on a 1/2 tank of gas with my car. Since the majority of the cons I would travel to would be w/in a 6 hour drive; all I needed was one person to ride with me to split the cost of gas -- we each take a tankful and call it happy

If I have to spring for the hotel; I look for something that is close to the venue, however, not right on top of it. I also realize I'm not willing to compromise too much on the hotel so while I don't look at super 8s and motel 6s ... I do look at pretty much anything else to see what the lowest price is for my money.

I don't mind driving in a few minutes if I need to.

If where you're going charges for parking.. make sure the person(s) riding with you know that they need to help with the parking -- then I look for more to help as that can get expensive.

Pack food as Mike said... if you have a card for a warehouse store that is going to be your best bet for lots of travel foods at a decent price .. in addition a flat of water or energy drink is going to be cheaper as well and give you hydration on the drive.

In all reality on a trip all you should have to stop for is to pee and if you need to gas up before you get to the final destination... however, gas up before you leave (should be elementary) and plan your route.. there are websites that give you the cheapest gas prices of any given location ... figure out where you'll be when you think you need to gas up and find out where the cheapest price will be and set your GPS for that...

*blushes* Thanks guys (and gal(s))!

It has been a pleasure to be involved with PFS since the early days, and I look forward to continuing to be involved as the campaign moves forward to a very vibrant-looking future :-)

Who knows, one of these days I might even be able to jump across that itsy bitsy little lake, and make it to a PaizoCon in the USA :-D

@PFCBG: I am perfectly willing to share the mansion, but if you want to move out, feel free to build an international wing for the non-Australians - you would certainly still be welcome to visit to watch a game of Aussie Rules, with beer and pies ;-)

but but .... I already stole Kyle's room ... I don't wanna give it up ..

hrmm ... perhaps yous can stay... just mind the rules... no Dragnmoon ;)

Purple Fluffy CatBunnyGnome wrote:

Avatar, I know there are a lot of GMs out there, myself included, that have been burned with people using laptops .. they are on facebook or other chat/media websites and not paying attention. Them not paying attention causes delays in gameplay and causes the GM to have to repeat information -- which at a convention and a GM that is running the whole time -- is hard on the voice and is kinda mean.

There is also the issue with a lot of larger laptops taking up considerable table space and encroching on other player's space and map space in the center of the table.

For those reasons I generally do ask if they absolutely have to use their laptop at the table and if they do because it's the only character sheet they have; ask that they limit the use to game only. I also watch as to how much table space they are using and will try to say something if I noticed their neighbors getting crunched.

One of the best ways to do it I saw was a guy who had his laptop on the table -- all of his books were stacked under the laptop or were in his bag under his chair. The screen of the laptop was pushed down (not closed) so that he could see and know what was going on and he'd open it during a combat -- that laptop user I personally had no issue with as he was still a participating member of the group.

I'm never distracted with anything other than the game, I don't take up any more space than anyone else does on the table - I'm conscious of that. I lower the screen whenever I'm not looking at it so I can get a good look at the map and the tactics of the table; that's something that helps me more than anyone else there.

I'm an online player, so before I had the laptop, I would have to transcribe sheets to paper everyday before a con day, sometimes multiple times if I'm levelling up, and this was a nightmare - and getting the laptop was primarily for Pathfinder to alleviate this.

I do understand that some people would abuse it, but I haven't seen any like that...

Honestly, if it was a new player at my table and I wasn't 100% sure of how that player would work with a laptop open and the game, I might ask them to put the laptop to the side. My personal experience is that most people cannot concentrate on the game and their laptop at the same time and the game suffers.

It could be that the GM just has had really bad experience with players and laptops and his personal rule is no laptops at his table; it does give you the choice, deal with the GM prerogative or not play at the table.

wow ... hrmm ... hey Doug ... thinks it's about time for the international wing of the mansion? I mean we can't be consorting with those down under types forever ya know

congarats man :)

Have I missed something ? Because I don't know if I've gotten my boon or not ?

Hi Slimguage, Doing a quick search of the forums, netted me this lovely little gem in which the information is given by Mark Morlenad about half a page down

Rerednaw,

Check out this little linkie right here it should hopefully give you some good starting points to begin GMing and some good reference information.

I was recently asked to transfer my electronic sheet from my laptop to a paper sheet to keep my laptop off the table, which also had all my rulebooks on it, for which I was allowed to pick up the laptop to look up a rule during the game if I had to. That's the last time I'll do that - next time that happens to me, I'll have to respectfully decline to play at that table.

I use, on my laptop:

• text character sheets,
  
• scanned chronicle sheets, and
  
• a dice roller on the laptop
  

Avatar, I know there are a lot of GMs out there, myself included, that have been burned with people using laptops .. they are on facebook or other chat/media websites and not paying attention. Them not paying attention causes delays in gameplay and causes the GM to have to repeat information -- which at a convention and a GM that is running the whole time -- is hard on the voice and is kinda mean.

There is also the issue with a lot of larger laptops taking up considerable table space and encroching on other player's space and map space in the center of the table.

For those reasons I generally do ask if they absolutely have to use their laptop at the table and if they do because it's the only character sheet they have; ask that they limit the use to game only. I also watch as to how much table space they are using and will try to say something if I noticed their neighbors getting crunched.

One of the best ways to do it I saw was a guy who had his laptop on the table -- all of his books were stacked under the laptop or were in his bag under his chair. The screen of the laptop was pushed down (not closed) so that he could see and know what was going on and he'd open it during a combat -- that laptop user I personally had no issue with as he was still a participating member of the group.

I don't think we are going to get a PFS specific ruling from the powers that be, simply put because they haven't made one in the past on this kind of issue. They are going to leave it up to the GMs and coordinators as to how they are going to run things for their specific tables.

Here's a thread for Vegas by their VC. Should be of use to you. http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2nssi?The-Las-Vegas-Lodge-welcomes-4-Venture

since that thread is almost a year old and that person is no longer the VO for that area .... go with the one listed on the VO page.

:) and Welcome

Hi Thalia,

There was another similar thread with almost exactly the same question, taking a look might answer yours :)

Holy crap ... like it's about time an stuff

Hrmm ... I'm at work so I don't have all the documents to be able to spread them out and look at them. I've never heard of Brownies being legal for society play, but I haven't done an awful lot with improved familiar passed getting the one I wanted from a boon.

If you're looking for something for PFS play, I would take a look at the additional resources guide

*click on the big society link on the left ... there should be an option to download the additional resources guide ... if not then look for player resources on the left *

Brownies, to the best of my knowledge are not leagal for society play.

I belive that the improved familar feat opens up the range of available familars to what is PFS legal and removes class/etc restrictions --

Hi Stellari ... As brownies aren't allowed in PFS play, I'm guessing that you've posted in the wrong part of the forums. I've flagged your post to have it moved to the correct section of the forums.

Hi Tinywytch,

I'm sorry to hear you had a disappointing experience, unfortunately there are a few scenarios that are extremely deadly at level 1 and I think it was moreso that the developers were playing with an idea and have kept it to a mimimum though.

One thing I would suggest, would be to go to the product page for that specific scenario and leave a review. The developers look at those when making design decisions and can take your point of view into consideration when looking for a new design idea.

Sooooo gaming stuff packed and ready to go ... is it con time yet?

Big Joe wrote:

Purple Fluffy CatBunnyGnome wrote:

Purple Fluffy CatBunnyGnome wrote:

Ahhh yes ,,, the annual meet people and eat them ... forgot about that .. ok .. so the evening game is tentative, depending on what those plans turn into

1pm - TBD
Gm Wes
player 1 Thea
player 2 zylphryx
player 3 Myron
player 4 Marc R.
player 5 Big Joe
player 6

Oooh! Wes?! And Floozie Bunny? *AND* NoStrings?!?!

Hmmm....

1pm - TBD
Gm Wes
player 1 Thea
player 2 zylphryx
player 3 Myron
player 4 Marc R.
player 5 Big Joe
player 6 Painlord

Why not?

-Pain

This could be interesting ... hrmm ... it's been almost 3 years since we've seen eachother ... I should wear my bunny ears so you know who I am