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Whats the chance of a greater flow of society scenerios? I have played faithfully for a year now, and I am having a tough time finding new scenerios to play in. I am sure others are in this boat.
What might be ideal, I would think, is 4 per month. 2 low tier, and then 1 mid and 1 high. As of now 28 or so is nice, but still leaves one wanting. Plus the idea of more 1-5 or 1-7 tiers would be great because I would think most of the play is done in these tiers.
I imagin there is a good number of submissions that come in, versus what gets printed. And to be honest, some of the scenerios I have played left alot to be desired, so if its a quality thing the ones that are getting shot down must be written by 3rd graders, or is there another issue.
I dont mean this in a bad way, I am just curious as to why the flow is what it is, whats the hold up regarding submissions, and whats the chance of increasing the flow?
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I second the request, though I admit that I'm dubious of its actual fulfillment.
To Indivar, I'd suggest volunteering to run, and to run adventures that you've never played. This will introduce some new options into the local scenario pool and lend some weight to your requests for different scenarios from other GMs.
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I believe this point has come up in the past, and when it did rear its head, the answer referenced the hefty amount of time that it takes to write, develop, illustrate, and polish the scenarios that you seem to appreciate so.
It looks like you've already started GMing PFS scenarios, and I encourage you to continue to do so. If you are running out of material to play, you might consider the sanctioned modules (if you crave PFS credit) or the Adventure Paths (if you just love the Pathfinder game).
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I have run several times. Just trying to be proactive. I look at the different games in the area, and it seems to be like I cannot find a low tier to play unless i suggest it to out coordinator. I might have to bring it up to the coordinator that we may have to do modules on a saturday or something.
By the way, I have a 9, 7, 5, 3, and 2. So ya I have played a few. I just want to continue playing this game and not have to switch to something else to get a weekly game in.
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By the way, I have a 9, 7, 5, 3, and 2. So ya I have played a few. I just want to continue playing this game and not have to switch to something else to get a weekly game in.
There are currently 109 scenarios 29 Modules...
I have 123 GM credits and have played in 60 Scenarios and have a have 9 characters Levels 12, 10, 8, 8, 8, 3 (Dead), 3, 2 and 1 and I still have plenty of scenarios I can play.
Sounds like as Caderyn said above that it is a scheduling problem not a lack of scenario problem.
Is your organizer aware you want to play? Does he/she take into account what people have played?
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Come to St. Louis to play in our game nights. scheduling problems almost never exist, as the scenario is chosen after the players form a table. They compare lists of scenarios played and select one that they all have not played - which a judge then runs for them. The only time there is a real problem is when everything Player A hasn't played, Player B has - and even then one of them might just run the game that night. Or they split up and sit at different tables. (We normally seat 4 to 6 tables a night).
I hope and assume I am wrong, but from how you are describing this, it sounds like all of the sessions you guys run are with GMs running cold?
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Wow. As long as you guys have fun with it, I guess I don't see a problem with it. I have to say, though, that I dont think I could handle doing that consistently. I'd be willing to give it a try, but I dont know that I would feel comfortable doing it on a consistent basis.
Also, I agree with Dragonmoon. It sounds like a bit more organizational prep work might go a long way for you, Indivar.
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Whats the chance of a greater flow of society scenerios? I have played faithfully for a year now, and I am having a tough time finding new scenerios to play in. I am sure others are in this boat.
What might be ideal, I would think, is 4 per month. 2 low tier, and then 1 mid and 1 high. As of now 28 or so is nice, but still leaves one wanting. Plus the idea of more 1-5 or 1-7 tiers would be great because I would think most of the play is done in these tiers.
I imagin there is a good number of submissions that come in, versus what gets printed. And to be honest, some of the scenerios I have played left alot to be desired, so if its a quality thing the ones that are getting shot down must be written by 3rd graders, or is there another issue.
I dont mean this in a bad way, I am just curious as to why the flow is what it is, whats the hold up regarding submissions, and whats the chance of increasing the flow?
A typical scenario takes between a week and two weeks to develop. This is the time it actually takes from when the author turns it over and I start checking statblocks, story, grammar, world continuity, etc. to when I send it to layout. That takes another day, and then the editors have to find time amid all the other products we release in a month to edit the scenarios, which each take about two days for that process. As such, each scenario takes, on average, a little over two weeks to complete from the time we start working on the completed manuscript in-house.
Add into that the time we spend working with authors as they're writing and outlining, working with the art department to make sure maps and art are ordered on time and come in looking how we want or need them to look, and other miscellany (like answering messageboard posts, generating Chronicle sheets for modules, and novels, internal meetings, etc.) and getting two scenarios out a month is really all the editorial department can handle at the moment. We'd need to grow the department to increase the number of scenarios we produce, and then we'd also need to find space for those new people, as our offices are pretty much full at present.
We're aware of the demand for more material, and are always looking for ways to make more content available to Pathfinder Society players. This was the primary reason we sanctioned Pathfinder Modules two years ago, and why we continue to release Pathfinder Society Quests through outlets such as Kobold Quarterly. It's not a function of submissions, as suggested, since even a "perfect" submission still needs to be developed and edited and takes about the same 2 weeks as an assigned scenario. We're also no longer accepting submissions of full scenarios, so an accepted submission under the current Open Call would result in a Pathfinder Society Quest rather than another scenario.
TLDR; We're working at maximum capacity right now, and are producing as much content as we can. We're always looking for ways to grow and improve the program, but we can't do more than we can do, so at the time, producing additional scenarios isn't something we can do.
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Hi Mark and all!
So Indivar and I are in the same area, and we are working on getting things better organized so in which we can get games in a better rotation and to prevent burn out.
I think the big thing for us, is that especially for the begining of Season 4, we have a lot of players who are sitting either really low (1-5) or really high (7-11) and there's not much middle play going on. It also didn't help that we only got one (1-5) adventure so far this season and so all the low players got stuck having to either wait it out, or have to GM credit there way into a tier that worked for the following week's game.
One of the things we are proposing is to rotate low-tier play with high-tier play. Meaning one week we play high, next week we run lows, and we ask our GM rotation to GM one high and one low, and then play the opposite week. So that way everyone gets play time (including me the coordinator) and the GM's get to play so they don't burn out.
In the past we also used to do Module play, but this fall it doesn't work for me due to my work/school/life schedule so I have addressed this with Indivar as a viable option if they want to help out and run something in the meantime as a way to help out on the flow of game days.
Concerning quality, that's a whole other topic, that I have to address privately with Indivar so no worries.
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How often do you guys play LO?
The reason I ask is that this is how my local group handles the schism between levels (we play one Saturday a month):
Slot 1: We offer a low level scenario and a high level scenario, both from older seasons
Slot 2: We offer the newest low level scenario that has been released
This way the high levels get to play at their level and they can start a new low level character to play with the new players. YMMV, but I thought I would offer this.
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I think the big thing for us, is that especially for the begining of Season 4, we have a lot of players who are sitting either really low (1-5) or really high (7-11) and there's not much middle play going on. It also didn't help that we only got one (1-5) adventure so far this season and so all the low players got stuck having to either wait it out, or have to GM credit there way into a tier that worked for the following week's game.
There's another Tier 1–5 scenario coming out in 2 days, and we have a total of 36 Tier 1–5 and Tier 1–7 scenarios from seasons 1–3 that can be run any time. We have more scenarios of these tiers than any other tier (there are 21 Tier 7–11 scenarios, 13 Tier 5–9 scenarios, and 5 Tier 3–7 scenarios in the same three seasons), so there should be plenty of material to run while waiting for the next Tier 1–5 scenario to come out.
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Whoa there friends! We're not saying that we are ungrateful here. But I can understand where one can get a little "We want more!" here also. We are just looking to figure out how we can bridge the gaps so that players who are new, and veteran can get in and play no matter what.
Because that is where we currently are in the gaming rotation. We have a constant flux of players, where some weeks we plan to run high, and then end up having to settle for a low because of the fact that we have more low-tiered players than high tiered ones, and my judges have reluctantly stepped up, but that's also the problem. They "reluctantly" step up, because they have a greater desire to play than run, which while understandable, makes for a harder growth plan than most. So we are looking for ways to bridge gaps between our veterans who want to get some game time, along GM time in so that everyone progresses together.
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Don't worry about our feelings, folks. We know people appreciate the work put into these, and we consider requests for more scenarios to be a good thing.
Indeed, something worth planning toward, you might say.
More plans you say? I approve of this. Bring on the more, in a good and safe way for the company! We are your willing and humble servants/gamers.
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I appreciate the feedback. I just want to roll some dice and get some laffs in is what it boils down to. It seems that if I check around on the odd day off, all of the games being played within an hour drive are ones that I have played. Plus as an older gamer, I have ran several campaigns that have spanned years. I kind of came into this burning out on running, looking for my karmic turn as a player.
That said, Ophelia and I and our other folks can kind of see what we can do to better deal with the logistics. And ya I meant no disrespect - hell I like pathfinder and want to keep playing it. Just keep up the good work guys.
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I think that is the best thing to do now...
Many Organizers use their own methods of tracking and scheduling.
Here is a link to an example of the Excel file I use to track what Players have played, Their PFS Number and level of their PCs. (You have to download it to get format correct, format does not work in Google docs)
Your organizer can use it or just look at it as an example for inspiration.
My personal one I use for our game has 23 active players (63 overall players) 2 years worth of tracking data.
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I think that is the best thing to do now...
Many Organizers use their own methods of tracking and scheduling.
Here is a link to an example of the Excel file I use to track what Players have played, Their PFS Number and level of their PCs. (You have to download it to get format correct, format does not work in Google docs)
Your organizer can use it or just look at it as an example for inspiration.
My personal one I use for our game has 23 active players (63 overall players) 2 years worth of tracking data.
That, sir, is a thing of beauty. I heartily approve, and shall quickly *yoink* it for my own needs. Thank you for posting it!