Why aren't you reporting your scenarios?


Pathfinder Society

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So we have this problem right now: very few GMs are reporting finished scenarios. To be sure, we have plenty who are, but I'd hazard a guess that somewhere around 60% of the GMs running Pathfinder Society aren't reporting their sessions. So this thread is to help answer the question, "Why aren't you reporting your scenarios?"

Reporting is important for us for several reasons: it gives us a clear idea of how many people are currently playing or GMing Pathfinder Society, it gives the players a partial back-up in case they ever lose their chronicle sheets, it keeps us informed of which factions are currently the most popular (which could influence the products we publish), and lastly it keeps us connected to our active GMs so I know who to go to when it comes time to run promotional Pathfinder Society game days at stores or conventions.

We're debating internally several ways to encourage GMs and coordinators to report their sessions. I'd like to hear what YOU think we should do. If you're reporting currently, great, why are you reporting? If you're not reporting, please start reporting, and please tell me why you're not?

Q. Why aren't you reporting your scenarios and what can we do to encourage you to report your sessions?

A. *insert your answer here*

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16

Well, I haven't GMed one yet, but I was a player in 2 scenarios with one GM who hasn't reported. I've emailed him severeal times over the past months, and not gotten a reply. I can't say for sure why he hasn't reported, since it's not someone I knew beforehand - he's someone that I found on the boards here and is now on a Chicago area email list of PFS interested parties. I have heard 2nd or 3rd hand that he simply is too busy with gaming 5-6 days a week to take the time to do the admin stuff like reporting. I can't say if this is the case or not though.

Liberty's Edge 2/5

I've only reported one event that I've ran because the other coordinator I run the game day with decided to take on reporting duties.

The one game I have reported was an independent event I ran for a handful of players that wanted to play up before most could.


One problem Ive seen is people showing up to a game without their pathfinder #. So you then have to wait for that person to someday send that # to you.

2/5

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I'm reporting my events. I know for a fact that there are DM:s who don't. I'll hazard a guess that at least one reason for not reporting is the software itself, which still has bugs.

For instance, sessions showing up on the sheet where the player wasn't in attendance or duplicates of the same session. My character's sheet has at least two of these and is missing a few sessions due to unreported events.

I've tried contacting the DM in question about the unreported sessions. I've contacted Paizo staff via email and the board asking for corrections. So far no luck on either front.

How about this: "Eating" a scenario nets the DM full xp, prestige and treasure, which can be allocated to the DM's character of choice.

Reporting scenarios nets you credits which can be used to buy more scenarios.

Some kind of DM reward program, which gets you free stuff, like the above mentioned credits, promo material, like posters and such, miniatures. Anything of the kind. No one says no to freebies, after all. (Yes, I know some kind of DM reward program is in the works already.)

The Exchange 5/5

I've reported 44 tables so far (just counted), but I still have about 10 tables I have yet to report. There's not really a problem that I need help with, unless you consider being lazy a problem and nagging me the helping part. In such a case, Joshua you have succeeded. I, like many man-boys, am a procrastinator & the bane of Events Managers everywhere. So nag me, I beg of you, else nothing will ever get done that could be put off until tomorrow.

OK, that wasn't an excuse but rather a confession. Here're my excuses:
The roughly 10 tables remaining mostly are from two different conventions in which many of the players were walk-ups and didn't have PFS#s. They had no intention of playing again and declined to take a number. They had a good time but weren't sure about the whole organized play thing. I had a sheet of blank cards that I printed off for each con (those were very helpful by the way) and I also had made pre-generated characters for anyone to use. My record keeping between slots was very poor since I was accustomed to knowing everyone at the table. Our local Yahoo group has everyone's number in the database. Sadly I'm not as organized around strangers. The pre-gen characters all had a name, but the same sheet would be used by different players each slot. This didn't happen THAT often, but enough to cause me to misremember these important details after the con was over. Was Akeem the Cleric played by the guy with glasses and a goatee or by the EMO kid who would answer his cell phone and walk away right before his turn? Frak!

I have some scattered traces of evidence like the initiative cards from the con, so with some work I am confident I can recreate or fudge the tables enough to report them. There are a handful of players who had numbers and came to play who have been very patient (or just don't care) about the reporting process.

This is just an observation--not an expectation--so don't feel like you have to address it. The RPGA had a rewards program that gave each player & GM points for every game they played. Every four months those points got tallied and (after a long delay and many apologies) everyone got some cheap swag they could use in the game. These cards, spell templates & alternative paint minis were cheap to produce but the players and GMs would pine after them. If their tables weren't reported by the deadline for the rewards period they wouldn't get their cardboard tokens and plastic minis. I admit I did my share of nagging and cajoling for stuff in a campaign where nearly everyone on staff was a volunteer. I think that sort of thing helped to pressure the procrastinators and 'mis-rememberers' to stay on top of the reporting.

As Joshua has stated, Paizo isn't WotC or the RPGA and doesn't have a warchest of swag to throw around. However, there is a notion here that some kind of bribery might encourage better reporting behavior. Men love to compare the size of certain...things...with other men. Since I don't think Lisa Steven wants that done literally on her website, perhaps Gary or another nearly-as-talented staff member at Paizo could create a way to display how many scenarios a GM has reported through a limited edition avatar or a recognition like the RPG Superstars have. I admit I'm curious to know how I compare to GMs like YodaAteMyHead or Crow81--when it comes to who's promoted Pathfinder Society more that is....

Liberty's Edge 3/5

I haven't had to report tables yet for my group (others have taken care of it). If I remember correctly reporting wasn't available at the beginning right? My guess is people played those first ones without worrying about reporting them. Habits are hard to change.

After seeing this topic I decided to check my reported tables. All reported except the last two, so I've inquired on my gaming groups message board about who needs to report them.

Just knowing this is being looked at I will be sure to gather the necessary information to report 15 and 16 when we play them this weekend. After that perhaps I will have some suggestions.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Doug,

I played in several of your events at BASHcon (which I loved by the way). If you want to contact me at copatt75@yahoo.com, I'll be happy to help (as much as I can) with who played who during which games.

Chad

The Exchange 2/5

44 tables you got me by 2 tables and I thought I had the lead...

Has anyone broken 50 tables yet

Rich
Co-Coordinator
PFS NYC

Sczarni 4/5

Joshua J. Frost wrote:


Q. Why aren't you reporting your scenarios and what can we do to encourage you to report your sessions?

A. I have 1 waiting for a PFS #. These were before the actual reporting was avalible. 1) I didn't have access to the temp numbers at the time and 2) since couldn't report at the time, I just didn't think of it once I was able to

The Exchange 5/5 RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16

I attempted to do so, back in October. The system wasn't working for me then, and I was sitting on the record sheets. I suppose I was waiting for an announcement to try again, or email the results to somebody, or something.

Let me ask:

Some of those sessions were run at conventions, where some of the players didn't have pathfinder society numbers, and since then have never applied for them (or, if they have, they haven't emailed me with the information). (They just wanted to play D&D.)

If we don't count their characters, some of the tables would have had only two or three official, signed-up players. What should I do about that? I presume we don't cancel the experience points and faction influence the PFS characters earned, but can I report a game with only two or three PCs?

Scarab Sages

Okay, I admit, I haven't been good about reporting my scenarios. It's partly due to my hectic work schedule, and when not working, due to sheer laziness.

The situation has been remedied. I'm caught up for all events up to and including last night's session.

Sorry!

I'll try to do better from now on. :)

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

1 person marked this as a favorite.

For everyone waiting for someone to send you their number...just report the ones who played and leave a blank player entry in the reporting form. Enter a placeholder name and faction for the time being. It'll give you an error that the prestige isn't reported because there's no PFS number, but it will report the rest of the session fine (at least as far as I can tell from when I've done that.)

For me, I report immediately after a session because I don't want to lose the information, don't want to forget, and I tell new players to check their prestige that evening, hoping that them seeing that their progress in the game actually shows up somewhere, and to give them an incentive to come back to Paizo's site.

I have had issue with running games places where I wasn't the organizer and then waiting for them to report the games. I even volunteered to be the "scribe" of a home game I went to in another state since the host couldn't get the software to work right when he reported. So I have reported eight sessions for a homegame I wasn't really even involved in except for one day.

I have run into the "player doesn't have a number yet" scenario, but if you give them a card and they never register, it still lets you report even if there's no account associated with that number. Their name in the "My Sessions" page just doesn't link anywhere.

I feel like GM's and even moreso organizers need to get some incentive to report. For people who are running games but have little interest in playing, as is the case for some GMs and a lot of organizers, simply getting XP or loot in game doesn't really benefit them. I'm obviously not in a position to determine what is an acceptable solution, but I think it's one of the major shortcomings of the organizational structure as it now stands.

I know that there was the original plan to allow organizers, GMs and even players to report their own events and I think this would solve some of the problem. If a player is into it, he should be able to report at least his own involvement, since he wouldn't know the rest of the table's numbers and such.

I'd also like to see some sort of email notice be sent out to my players when one of their characters gets a scenario reported. This again brings them back to the site to see their progress, reminds them of the game they had a blast playing, and allows them to verify that everything was entered correctly. The lack of communication and recourse for non-reported sessions or errors might be a deterrent for some people.

Ok, I've written way more than I intended to. Was I at least helpful?

Sovereign Court

I'm not even sure if I've been running the games 'legally', myself. I ran Murder on the Silken Caravan with three PC's, way back, so if that was against the PFS rules, then every adventure since may have been run against the PFS rules (as it'd have illegal characters)

If that gets clarified, I'll get my scenarios reported post haste.

Lantern Lodge 4/5

I have run some tables in which one or two players chose not to sign up. In these instances, I have reported the three players who did sign up. Not sure whether this constitutes a Pathfinder Society legal table or not? There were enough players (4-6) to run the session, just not all signed up players.

Ideally, you'll want players to sign up so they feel connected to the campaign, and Paizo can send them new product announcements etc. However when you have a table of less than four players, eager for another player or two to join so they can start a game, and then a random player or two wander in, not really wanting to "buy into" Pathfinder, but just looking for a game to play at the con - as easy as it is to do, sometimes players just don't want to sign up.

Also what does "Mark this event as completely reported" do? I haven't clicked this for any of my reported events yet. I guess I'm afraid that the moment I click it, I'll realise something that needed correcting, and it'll be too late to include it. Is this what Josh is referring to as "not reporting scenarios"? And can you "mark as completely reported" an "incomplete" table of three signed up players?


yoda8myhead wrote:
For everyone waiting for someone to send you their number...just report the ones who played and leave a blank player entry in the reporting form.

This.


Uzzy wrote:

I'm not even sure if I've been running the games 'legally', myself. I ran Murder on the Silken Caravan with three PC's, way back, so if that was against the PFS rules, then every adventure since may have been run against the PFS rules (as it'd have illegal characters)

If that gets clarified, I'll get my scenarios reported post haste.

Go ahead and report them. Playing with 3 is highly inadvisable, but not strictly "illegal." We say a minimum of four so you don't TPK the party, but exceptions are allowed when players are hard to come by (in the case of 3) or when there are a few extra players (in the case of 7-8 players).


DarkWhite wrote:
I have run some tables in which one or two players chose not to sign up. In these instances, I have reported the three players who did sign up. Not sure whether this constitutes a Pathfinder Society legal table or not? There were enough players (4-6) to run the session, just not all signed up players.

There's nothing you can do about people who just want the one-shot experience. Go ahead and report everyone else.

Liberty's Edge

I reported the only scenarios I've ran! I'll have another to report after Sunday.


DarkWhite wrote:
Also what does "Mark this event as completely reported" do? I haven't clicked this for any of my reported events yet. I guess I'm afraid that the moment I click it, I'll realise something that needed correcting, and it'll be too late to include it. Is this what Josh is referring to as "not reporting scenarios"? And can you "mark as completely reported" an "incomplete" table of three signed up players?

Right now the completely reported button and the update button are the same. If we ever implement allowing players, GMs, and coordinators to all input their stuff, that will change. But, for now, it's only a cosmetic difference.

Sovereign Court 2/5

Joshua J. Frost wrote:


Q. Why aren't you reporting your scenarios and what can we do to encourage you to report your sessions?

A. *insert your answer here*

I'll go with people not giving me their number, but after reading this thread, I will get to it.

EDIT : I tried reporting, but it did not work as intended.

Somehow, some of my players are getting reported as having played the adventure twice, which can't be. Also, I was noted as having played some of the adventures I ran ...

Not working very well, i'm afraid.


Please email me the specific details so I can look into what it's not doing correctly. Thanks! josh@paizo.com

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Stereofm wrote:

Somehow, some of my players are getting reported as having played the adventure twice, which can't be. Also, I was noted as having played some of the adventures I ran ...

Not working very well, i'm afraid.

This has popped up quite a bit. The system seems to check if any of the PFS numbers entered (including the GM) have appeared in any previously reported sessions of that same number. When it find an error, it sometimes reports the whole table as having played before. It might not be taking date into account. Until Josh and/or Gary get to the bottom of it, the workaround seems to be to go to any sessions showing a problem and simply hit update again. That's always worked for me at least.

Sovereign Court 4/5

I've reported everything I've GM'd and thus have done my job adequately. I find the reporting tool easy, though I'm rather techy, even if I say so myself.

Liberty's Edge

I'm just a player, I have not GM'd any of these scenarios, but to give GM's incentive to report their games might include something like GM xp... I frequent the boards on Jinx.com and they have a system where if you use their forums you get 'shopper xp' I guess you could call it, and more if you take their trivia quizzes.
My thought is to have them gain xp for what they have reported so far, and continue with it as they report more, and then as they gain GM prestige they get swag and then coupons for paizo products too.

I know that it's similar to what many are saying here but I keep waiting every week on the Jinx website to take their quizzes so I can get to the next level and I'm not called an 'initiate' or something (and discounts on anything is nice too). and I'm not trying to advertise for their clothes, I think it's a good model for geeks and the 'oohh shiny' factor that we all have. Like Doug Doug was saying he can compare his GM-ness with others and it'll be a quicker way to do so. maybe it will get other GM's wanting to be the one with the most games run under their belt and reported proper-like.

My Gm has been really good about reporting all our games, but we mostly play in home games.

Sczarni 4/5

Aurelia wrote:
I think it's a good model for geeks and the 'oohh shiny' factor that we all have.

Look: Shiny Charter

Sovereign Court 2/5

Joshua J. Frost wrote:
Please email me the specific details so I can look into what it's not doing correctly. Thanks! josh@paizo.com

Works better now. The update thing that Yoda mentioned was the trick.

Thanks a lot, I will update more sessions now

Sovereign Court 5/5 RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

home game fell apart, and none of the players have expressed any desire to go portable.

so I'm 3 scenarios short.

Guardtower got derailed by my real life.

The Exchange 5/5

Crow81 wrote:

44 tables you got me by 2 tables and I thought I had the lead...

Has anyone broken 50 tables yet?

Rich
Co-Coordinator
PFS NYC

55 tables reported. I caught up the conventions I had been sitting on over the weekend. I am still going to have all my players check their own Chronicles and compare them to their PFS accounts to be sure I captured everyone.

A number of convention players sat down and played a slot or two for lack of something else to do, but declined to take a PFS card. Organized play is hard to sell without follow-up & more play opportunities. Two conventions that I ran PFS at are outside of my local community and I don't believe there is anyone local who is organizing. I may be ahead on tables, but there's something to be said for developing repeat business, so-to-speak. Only eight out of 18 players over those two non-local conventions have registered their characters or were previously registered.

The Exchange 5/5

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

i played a few scenarios at a convention, and they don't seem to have gotten around to posting those yet, though its been over a month now.

Liberty's Edge 4/5

Seraphimpunk wrote:
i played a few scenarios at a convention, and they don't seem to have gotten around to posting those yet, though its been over a month now.

I played a scenario at a convention over Halloween weekend last year, and it hasn't been reported yet. Same for everything welse I played at that coneention, including some LG scenarios which can, now, never be reported, and an LFR scenario for my primary LFR PC...

Scarab Sages 1/5

Hi!

Just entered results from PFS SCE 9 (event # 355)

When I come back to "My Pathfinder Society window", this event DOES NOT appear as completely reported, why?

Do I need to come back at a later time ?

The "instructions" does not mention the difference between UPDATE and SAVE CHANGE buttons, and I am a bit confused...

Seems that entering a location is very complicated. Could we just type-in location name in there?

The Exchange 5/5

ESSEL wrote:

Hi!

Just entered results from PFS SCE 9 (event # 355)

When I come back to "My Pathfinder Society window", this event DOES NOT appear as completely reported, why?

Do I need to come back at a later time ?

The "instructions" does not mention the difference between UPDATE and SAVE CHANGE buttons, and I am a bit confused...

Seems that entering a location is very complicated. Could we just type-in location name in there?

ESSL, I'm going to assume you have not reported an event before so please forgive me if I'm trying to tell you something you were already aware of.

At the bottom of the reporting window you saw some options such as UPDATE and SAVE CHANGE. There also should have been an option entitled MARK AS COMPLETELY REPORTED or something to that effect. Only select this option if you are confident that all the info you have entered is correct. Even if the event HASN'T been marked as completely reported, the players are still credited with whatever you marked them down for. I'm realizing that now, after I made some entry errors and can't fix them because they're "completely reported".

I'm sure if the players cared I could get Gary to make corrections but I also tell my players that their Chronicle sheets trump anything reported on the website. I believe the website reporting is really for Paizo to get a picture of how many people are playing and who is coming back for more. Since there are no character audits, no one should be worried if their online report matches their Chronicle sheets IMHO.

Scarab Sages 1/5

ESSL, I'm going to assume you have not reported an event before so please forgive me if I'm trying to tell you something you were already aware of.

At the bottom of the reporting window you saw some options such as UPDATE and SAVE CHANGE. There also should have been an option entitled MARK AS COMPLETELY REPORTED or something to that effect.

Thanks Doug for your help. The option MARK AS COMPLETELY REPORTED DOES NOT APPEAR.

Worse, the system created a 2nd session of that game WHITOUT warning me and I cannot find a "DELETE SESSION" button.

The first time I tried to report, I did not enter a game location cause the table was full anyway. Maybe the MARK AS COMPLETELY REPORTED button did not appear because of that.

Scarab Sages 1/5

Joshua J. Frost wrote:


Q. Why aren't you reporting your scenarios and what can we do to encourage you to report your sessions?

A. *insert your answer here*

Because your reporting system is a complete mess (even tough I did report it anyway!)

Sorry for being so blunt!

4/5 5/55/55/5 **** RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8

Joshua J. Frost wrote:
Q. Why aren't you reporting your scenarios and what can we do to encourage you to report your sessions?

A. I didn't report because the reporting system was not in place when I first ran the scenarios and there was a TPK on the third session, killing all the characters that had participated in my games (aside from one person who played in the first game and never showed up again). Once the reporting system was up, I felt no great desire to report the actions of three dead characters and one person who likely lost interest.


ESSEL wrote:
The option MARK AS COMPLETELY REPORTED DOES NOT APPEAR.

Essel,

I see that you created this as an on-going event. On-going events don't have a "mark as completely reported" button because they're on-going. Did you mean to create this as a one-shot event?

Liberty's Edge 2/5

I've reported 3 events so far, one of which today.

Unfortunately I was informed by a player that the last two events I've reported (along with all other events we've held) don't show up on his page. Checking the events I've reported I see the two I'd previously reported are now blank.

The Exchange 5/5

Don't worry, after reporting 60 or so scenarios it starts to get easier [sound of horn being tooted].

Honestly I still manage to mess stuff up, but with some focused determination I have cleaned up a lot of my reporting issues. The key is not to get frustrated. Treat it like a puzzle to be solved. Try burning some incense and saying a prayer to Asmodeus or the Ghost in the Machine or something. Consider a Native American spiritual cleansing ritual before trying to report a scenario. Apologize to your keyboard for the cookie crumbs you have subjected it to. Get one of those thingies that zealot guy from the DaVinci Code had strapped to his thigh. Seriously, I know it feels like a crapshoot sometimes. Sorry ESSL!


NotMousse wrote:

I've reported 3 events so far, one of which today.

Unfortunately I was informed by a player that the last two events I've reported (along with all other events we've held) don't show up on his page. Checking the events I've reported I see the two I'd previously reported are now blank.

Try logging out and then logging back in and checking. Also, are you sure you entered his number in correctly? I'm sure you did, but this is a small possibility. Let me know if this fixes anything.

Liberty's Edge 2/5

Joshua J. Frost wrote:
Try logging out and then logging back in and checking.

Fixed one event (one he couldn't attend oddly enough), but not the other.

Scarab Sages 1/5

Joshua J. Frost wrote:
ESSEL wrote:
The option MARK AS COMPLETELY REPORTED DOES NOT APPEAR.

Essel,

I see that you created this as an on-going event. On-going events don't have a "mark as completely reported" button because they're on-going. Did you mean to create this as a one-shot event?

YES

Event Number 355
Please Delete sessions 2 (and higher)
Only one session to report.


Essel,

Please email me additional specifics about what exactly you want deleted. I need to know the event name, scenario ran, and players numbers of each slot. I don't want to make a mistake here.

josh@paizo.com

Scarab Sages 1/5

Joshua J. Frost wrote:

Essel,

Please email me additional specifics about what exactly you want deleted. I need to know the event name, scenario ran, and players numbers of each slot. I don't want to make a mistake here.

josh@paizo.com

Josh, can you go in "My Pathfinder Society" ?

When I go there, and click on "Sessions" corresponding to event #355
PFS_SCE no.9 everything becomes crystal clear.

Where session number = 1, everything is perfectly reported.

Where session number = 2, this is scrap, because it is the same redundant information. The systems displays the message :
Player has already played scenario at session # 1 of event # 355 PFS_SCE no.9 on April 19, 2009. six times.

My email (and customer ID) is lotusbleu25@hotmail.com


The problem is, I don't see session #2 in your sessions. :-) I see 1, 3, and 4 for that event. This was for Draconis '08, right?

Scarab Sages 1/5

Joshua J. Frost wrote:
The problem is, I don't see session #2 in your sessions. :-) I see 1, 3, and 4 for that event. This was for Draconis '08, right?

Not at all! I was only a player at Draconis, not a GM.

In "My Pathfinder Society" Please look for sessions under "Events I'm Organizing", not for sessions played by "My characters"

There are only two events:

#355 and #64.

In event # 355 there are sessions 1 and 2. Session 2 is a duplicate and must be deleted.

We are speaking of a single game I GMed a few days ago (PFS Scenario #9 Eye of the Crocodile King,on April 19th 2009). I mistakenly reported it as an ongoing game, when it was a "one time only" game.


Done!

Scarab Sages 1/5

Joshua J. Frost wrote:
Done!

Excellent! (rubbing hands)

I will give you a break Josh, before asking you to solve more issues....8D

Scarab Sages 1/5

Reporting for CanGames

event# 494: BlackPFSatCangames (2 sessions of SCE_6 Black Waters)

The reporting went pretty well, save for character 6289-1 appearing as "doctor weenz" instead of Kasann Al-Hazara.

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