Castamir's Flaxseed Station

Game Master Chris Marsh

If you use the above shared event, please do not fill out the tracking form for that game.

Hello everybody! It's bright and sparkling Zoey here! I heard there are people here who like special games!! That's great, because the people in charge of the Outpost want to know which Special you'd like to play most!!!

Vote here on which special you'd like to see.

(If you don't play a particular system, just select 'none'. We understand you.)

No exclamation marks were harmed in the preparation of this post

When is the next Outpost event?

*whizzes by*

You can find the complete details of the announcement here: ANNOUNCING PLAY-BY-POST Outpost VII: The Allies We Made Along the Way!

*winks out to another Plane*

*whizzes by*

You can find the complete details of the announcement here: ANNOUNCING PLAY-BY-POST Outpost VII: The Allies We Made Along the Way!

*winks out to another Plane*

Wow! You beat me to it!

ANNOUNCING PLAY-BY-POST Outpost VII: The Allies We Made Along the Way !

PbP Outpost VII Event # 2715266
When: March 04, 2024 - May 13, 2024
Secondary HQ location: Our channel on the Organized Play Discord at PFSchat.com #pbp_outpost_vii

Link to official announcement - read more here!

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Greetings Pathfinder and Starfinder enthusiasts!

We’re all very excited to announce the upcoming PbP Outpost VII! I will try to keep this as brief as possible so that folks can find all the information quickly. The theme for this will be The Allies We Made Along the Way. When choosing your scenarios to run, try to choose ones with some sort of focus on allies, friends and collaborators the Society meets and befriends in their adventures!

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Important dates:

• General GM game submissions open - Immediately
  
• Specials GM submissions open- Immediately
  
• Specials GM Deadline - Jan 22, 2024
  
• Specials GM Chosen and Notified - Jan 29, 2024
  
• Scenario Support Deadline - February 05, 2024
  
• GM early player access - February 05, 2024 (limited to 1 table and 1 Special)
  
• Player seating, general - February 12, 2024
  
• Start of PBP Outpost VII - March 04, 2024
  
• End of PBP Outpost VII - May 13, 2024

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As of today, GM registration is officially open! In order for your game to count, it must start on or after March 04, 2024 and end on or before May 13, 2024.

If you need scenario support, you must register your game by February 05, 2024.

During this convention, we’ll also be offering the following specials.
Pathfinder 1e 6-97 Siege of Serpents
Pathfinder 2e ??? TBD
Starfinder ??? TBD

Vote here for which special you'd want to see!

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GM registration form

GM specials registration form

List of PbP lodges

More games? Cool. Created a new character.

Turns out that link to the registration form for GM-ing the Specials was broken:

Here's the correct link!.

Hi! This is bright and sparkling Zoey with another special announcement! I've opened up my own game store in the Downlow!
Only the coolest games!

A blog post will be coming out in the coming weeks but VOs were given a greenlight to share with you two new boons associated with the Regional Support Program (RSP). These boons are meant to incentivize and reward GM'ing (in addition to your increased AcP for GMing!)

Boons
SFS RSP Boon Game Store Owner
PFS2 RSP Boon Curse Maelstrom

FAQ:
Does reporting under the Castamir Station event count as a 'RSP' event (two boxes)?
A: Yes! it does!
Do I have to finish all boxes before year end?
A: No! The boon just mentions any game after January 1, 2024 so you can continue to earn progress in 2025 onward. Though the SF guide mentions 'Boons That Unlock Over Time' to keep in mind, and similar language may appear in the PF2 guide as well.
Do other events count for these boons?
A: Possibly! You'll need to talk with the VO of that lodge.
What was the event code for Castamir Station again?
A: 2715121. Just PM me if you want to be added as a reporter! (I've added everyone who is currently running a game that I am aware of)

What happens to SFS characters at higher levels?

I recall PFS1e had a "seeker arc" (never got a chance to do that).

I have a character that (with the help of Adventure Path chronicles) is at level 10 (27xp) and can soon get to at least 32. Is there some number that needs to be stopped on (I think it was 33 with PFS1e seeker) to be able to undertake higher level scenarios?

Well, there is a single 11-14 scenario in seasons 3,5 and 6.
There are also one oneShots that can be applied to characters of any level.

Then there are the Adventure Paths as well.

But in general, it is very hard to get beyond 13th and there are no society scenarios that support play beyond 14th.

You are not alone. I've one 2x level 10s, 1x12 and a nine. They are all pretty much retired now.

Well, there is a single 11-14 scenario in seasons 3,5 and 6.

There are also one oneShots that can be applied to characters of any level.

Then there are the Adventure Paths as well.

But in general, it is very hard to get beyond 13th and there are no society scenarios that support play beyond 14th.

You are not alone. I've one 2x level 10s, 1x12 and a nine. They are all pretty much retired now.

I see. So it's simply match levels to scenarios as normal (and available), but otherwise no "you must start here at 33xp". I'll just keep an eye out I suppose. Maybe I should think about running a higher level one to promote availability :D

Thank you!

There is no "Seeker arc" like they produced for PFSv1, though with SFSv2 announced for next year, maybe they will do some type of capstone ending. Maybe.

Hi! This is bright and sparkling Zoey with another special announcement! I've opened up my own game store in the Downlow!

Only the coolest games!

A blog post will be coming out in the coming weeks but VOs were given a greenlight to share with you two new boons associated with the Regional Support Program (RSP). These boons are meant to incentivize and reward GM'ing (in addition to your increased AcP for GMing!)

Boons
SFS RSP Boon Game Store Owner
PFS2 RSP Boon Curse Maelstrom

That's a really cool idea!

Anyone know if there are any skittermander avatars? I didn't see any. I know the web team hasn't added any new avatars in a while.

Hi, everyone!

We've had some changes over the last few months in the Venture Team here on the Paizo forums, so I wanted to update you all.

First of all, thanks to Numbat and Lady Ladile for all their hard work while they were on the team. Our best wishes to both of them in whatever they do going forward, and we hope to still see them around the lodges!

Second of all, welcome to Kludde and EbonFist, who have joined/are joining the team. Kludde has been working hard since about the start of the year, and Ebonfist is just joining the team now.

So that you know who to contact with any questions or problems, here is the team, and their areas of responsibility:

Venture Agents:
Flaxseed Lodge, PF1: EbonFist
Cottonseed Lodge, PF2: Lysle/GM Valen
Castamir Station, SF1: Kludde

I'm the Venture Lieutenant for all the forums.

The four of us work as a team, so we all are able to help out in any of the lodges.

You should also know that Bigrin42 is the Venture Captain for all of play by post, both here and on Discord.

We'll be shuffling responsibilities around a bit when the SF2 playtest comes out, so stay tuned for more.

Please reach out to any of us if you need anything, and happy gaming!

I'm getting an error message on rpgchronicles that says "sfs_sessions_v2" anyone know what this means?

I looked everywhere and can't find it. Paizo can get you into conventions for free like GenCon or Origins by dming stuff for them. I looked on the Wizards of the Coast website to see if they have a similar deal. I wouldn't even know who to contact. Can Wizards of the Coast get me into GenCon or Origins for free by dming for them? 5E seems to be more popular around the US than Pathfinder 2E. Other RPG companies have a deal, or is Paizo the only one?

It is usually handled by the convention not the company in my experience.

GenCon had this handy article:Independent GMs

Paizo probably runs a 'group' entry as part of Gencon.

Is it okay to have two of my PCs talking to each other in the Gameplay Thread? No one seems to be using it at the moment and maybe others will join in.

And since there is only one year left for SFS1 I'm seriously considering starting to use replay points in order to make tables fly.

Is it okay to have two of my PCs talking to each other in the Gameplay Thread? No one seems to be using it at the moment and maybe others will join in.

And since there is only one year left for SFS1 I'm seriously considering starting to use replay points in order to make tables fly.

Once I get back from work travel in May, I'm planning on making a BIG push to play through as much SF1 as possible, so I'm all in on making tables fire!

I'm sure it's not official, but keep in mind that, just because PF2 came out didn't mean PF1 went away.

I suspect the same will be true with Starfinder.

Obviously, it won't be as robust but there's probably years of SF1 playing ahead of us.

Starfinder is not going away just because they release Starfinder 2. Our forums community seems to be a place for those of us who love legacy systems can continue to gather and make games happen, even if it's very difficult to find those games other places.

I don't want to get into all the details, but I will share that we (the Paizo forums VO team) do have plans for how we will continue to encourage and support SF1 games after SF2 comes out.

Starfinder is not going away just because they release Starfinder 2. Our forums community seems to be a place for those of us who love legacy systems can continue to gather and make games happen, even if it's very difficult to find those games other places.

I don't want to get into all the details, but I will share that we (the Paizo forums VO team) do have plans for how we will continue to encourage and support SF1 games after SF2 comes out.

What would be great for keeping old editions going for organized play is a set of rules for 3rd party creators to make scenarios to sell on Starfinder Infinite or Infinite Masters.

Besides the edition changes coming, something I wonder about is the overall growth of Play by Post in general. Editions can split a community, but even with just the current edition of Starfinder the PbP community is already split up between the Paizo forums and several Discord channels.

The rise of live-play VTTs has taken away players too. When the Online Campaigns section of the Paizo forums was named, most players would have likely assumed it meant Play by Post games. Today players coming to the forums for the first time would likely think it means VTT games

There's no Critical Role for Play by Post to draw in new players.

I started playing play by post a little over 18 months ago and love it. Before I tried Play by Post I had zero interest in it, and I also wasn't interested in organized play either, which I also now really like.

What changed my mind was someone reading one of my comments in the general section of the Starfinder section of the Paizo forums that I couldn't find a local game, so they invited me to one of their PbP games. That's the short version, but my point is I think to grow the overall Play by Post community we need to reach out more outside of the Online Campaigns section of the Paizo forums, and even outside of the Paizo forums, the Starfinder subreddit is much more active than the Paizo forums general Starfinder section, I see new players looking for game there all the time.

Anyway, just my personal experience with getting into PbP and some random thoughts and observations. I have more thoughts on this but out of time for now.

I'm sure it's not official, but keep in mind that, just because PF2 came out didn't mean PF1 went away.

I suspect the same will be true with Starfinder.

Obviously, it won't be as robust but there's probably years of SF1 playing ahead of us.

Well this is true, I suspect the number of players for the old system will be very few.

Outpost VII

Total PFS 1 Games: 7
Total PFS 2 Games: 75
Total PFS2 bounty/quest blocks: 15
Total PFS 2 Games including bounty/quests 90. 90 PFS 2 games, 7 PFS 1 games.
At GaryCon online very few PFS 1 Games actually ran cause people didn't want to play them.

I am really hoping there are PFS1 offerings at the next NZ Paizocon Asia, even if I have to run then - so my wife can come with me and play.

EbonFist wrote:

I'm sure it's not official, but keep in mind that, just because PF2 came out didn't mean PF1 went away.

I suspect the same will be true with Starfinder.

Obviously, it won't be as robust but there's probably years of SF1 playing ahead of us.

Well this is true, I suspect the number of players for the old system will be very few.

Outpost VII

Total PFS 1 Games: 7
Total PFS 2 Games: 75
Total PFS2 bounty/quest blocks: 15
Total PFS 2 Games including bounty/quests 90. 90 PFS 2 games, 7 PFS 1 games.
At GaryCon online very few PFS 1 Games actually ran cause people didn't want to play them.

I would not use Outpost to set expectations. There was a backstage hiccup that really reduced the games here on the forums, and the forums are where most of the PF1 games are. Also, there were 13 PF1 games, not just 7. And this is five years after PF2 came out. And in person conventions are irrelevant in terms of how much interest there will be for PbP games.

Starfinder
Gameday XII
SF Paizo: 11
SF Discord: 16

Outpost VII
Starfinder Paizo: 5
Starfinder Discord: 30

Pathfinder 1e
Gameday XII
PF1e Paizo: 14
PF1e Discord: 0

Outpost VII
PF1e Paizo: 7
PF1e Discord: 6

So looks like between the two events we're losing players to Discord. Not sure if that's old players changing to Discord or if Discord is just better at attracting new players.

I use Discord for lots of shot or live communication but it just seems like it would be hard to follow a PbP game on it. Am I missing something about Discord?

Outpost this year should not be used for any such number crunching, for the reasons I posted above.

Forums or Discord is definitely a matter of personal preference. I have trouble following a game on Discord, but I know some people prefer the faster pace that happens there.

Admittedly, I have played on Discord only once, but I didn't find the pace noticeably faster and had a little more difficulty following the adventure.

I do like to be able to really write and dig into characters, which I think you can do more on the forums, but I suspect it is all a matter of preference and I could see playing in both for different experiences.

Much like how I like playing in person every now and then.

Attrition may be inevitable with a system no longer having things created for it but taking opportunities to make sure people know it exists is the best way to pull new players in as existing players depart.

We can rage against people going elsewhere (but shouldn't, people should have fun their own way) or we can continue to partner with people who run on and prefer Discord to cross pollinate. Who knows, maybe someone will really want to play a scenario but not be able to get into a Discord version and come here for it and find they love the format.

I think the advantages of Discord are it's easier to use on a phone, and that you can get a notice alert when there is a new post. The group that taught me how to play PBP on the forums, had us use Discord mostly just for notices. In the beginning, 95% of our Discord use was just the GM posting "GM post." so we knew there was something new to react to, or the last player to post their turn would let the GM know the PCs were done.

I agree Attrition may be inevitable, and there's nothing wrong with people choosing other platforms to play on.

But at least from a Starfinder perspective in general the Paizo forums Starfinder General Discussion page is really slow compared to Reddit. On Reddit, there are new players weekly looking for games. Many of them are coming over from 5e and may have not even heard of Play by Post. Many of them are even jumping into Starfinder 1e even knowing SF2e is on the way.
So I wondering if Something like posting announcements for Outpost VII or other events on Reddit could help bring new players to PBP both here and on Discord. Or post on Reddit something like a PBP class for new players. I think we have a great friendly, helpful, community here, but to grow it might need to look beyond the forums to find new players.

For VTTS and face-to-face In-person games, there are 1000s of live-streamed games on Youtube, but there's nothing promoting or even just showing people playing PBP. There's never going to be a Critical Role of PBP, so this is just me thinking out loud how would you promote PBP?

I'm getting some reports of people having trouble dotting in to gameplay threads. Is anyone else experiencing this? If you've managed to fix it, how did you do that?

If you are having problems with the forums that prevent you from posting here, my email of redelia at orgplayonline dot com is another way to reach out to us.

Hi, everyone!

You are cordially invited to Augustana Station, our new lodge for SFS2 play, starting with the playtest!

Just checking ...

If you GM a scenario that you have already GMed before, do you need to spend a replay point to credit it to a PC?

Officially, if you gave credit to a PC the previous time you ran it, there is no way to give credit to a PC again. Replays can't be used as GM, only as player. (unless this has changed since the last time I saw it discussed). The reporting system doesn't even have a box for replay for the GM.

Repeatable scenarios are different, of course. You can take credit on a PC every time you run one of them.

Crud .... then I guess, I'll just have to play it again ... which is okay as I have lots of replay points. Just need a GM though.

I post to add the Paizo Forum as my possibility of PbP.

Hi, Dragonvan! Welcome to Castamir Station! We're winding down a convention so recruitment for new games will likely be picking up soon.

In the meantime, make sure you post in the Gameplay section to ensure that this Campaign stays on your Campaigns page.

Most people dot and delete, meaning making a very small post then deleting it immediately so the channel doesn't get cluttered up.

Hello everyone! Paizo Organized Play is seeking feedback on our programs as we look to Starfinder Second Edition and beyond. Whether you’ve been playing Organized Play for years, have just joined the Society, or haven’t yet played a game with us, we’re looking for your thoughts on our programs.

The survey below should only take a few minutes to complete, and the data will be invaluable to the future of our programs. We are explicitly looking for feedback from both OP participants and non-participants, so please encourage your communities to complete it!

**Survey link: https://paizo.me/3NKzGrV

You want more surveys, you say?

Well, we have just the thing for you! Castamir station is always looking for more GMs to guide our starfinders on missions. We want to keep our online lodge healthy and growing, and GM are the key to that!

We'd like to know what people consider to be the barriers to GM entry so that the VO team can help where needed. That's why we're conducting our special GM interest survey.

**Link to survey

Does anyone have a link to a good set of instructions to set up a game. I've tried using the set up instructions form the first sticky post in the online games general section but not having any luck. Part of the problem is I just want to set up a game for practice on how to set one up and the instructions assume you have a recruitment page. Many of the games I'm playing in don't even have a recruitment page set up, not sure how to do that.

I did set up and GM a Paizo forum game 2 years ago but had help setting up, unfortunately, that helps is lost somewhere in a discord chat (note discord was just used for chat not running the game.) I managed a start set up another game over a year ago but its somehow is linked to the wrong game page from my first game I GMed and looks like there is no way to fix that. In the last week, I've been trying to figure out how to set up again but ended up 3 new campaigns partially started up but they don't link to my GM alias that they were set up under, and just show up on my main account. Not sure if there is a way to fix or delete those campaigns. Meanwhile, I've stopped trying afraid I'm going to just end up with lots of broken campaigns littering my account.

Any help would be appreciated.

Here's a link to a post that might be helpful

That should open up the campaign and gameplay tag. Recruitment and Discussion tags get activated when you manually set them up in the Campaign.

Does anyone have a link to a good set of instructions to set up a game. I've tried using the set up instructions form the first sticky post in the online games general section but not having any luck. Part of the problem is I just want to set up a game for practice on how to set one up and the instructions assume you have a recruitment page. Many of the games I'm playing in don't even have a recruitment page set up, not sure how to do that.

I did set up and GM a Paizo forum game 2 years ago but had help setting up, unfortunately, that helps is lost somewhere in a discord chat (note discord was just used for chat not running the game.) I managed a start set up another game over a year ago but its somehow is linked to the wrong game page from my first game I GMed and looks like there is no way to fix that. In the last week, I've been trying to figure out how to set up again but ended up 3 new campaigns partially started up but they don't link to my GM alias that they were set up under, and just show up on my main account. Not sure if there is a way to fix or delete those campaigns. Meanwhile, I've stopped trying afraid I'm going to just end up with lots of broken campaigns littering my account.

Any help would be appreciated.

The instructions are a little odd. I never start with the recruitment page.

Start >HERE<.

Click "ADD NEW THREAD" and give your campaign a name and a first post.
Change "Post As" to your GM alias and click "Submit Post".

Your post will show up below a box with a link "Create a campaign for this thread". Click on that.

You will then see the campaign with the usual tabs at the top. You can create the Discussion and Recruitment threads by clicking the relevant tab, then "Create a new thread" at the bottom of the box on the new page that appears. Both will give you a default title for the post, but still require text in the text box.

At that point, your basic campaign is ready. You can edit these three posts for an hour if you want, or add further posts below them.

cmlobue and phaeton_nz thanks for the help!

You will then see the campaign with the usual tabs at the top. You can create the Discussion and Recruitment threads by clicking the relevant tab, then "Create a new thread" at the bottom of the box on the new page that appears. Both will give you a default title for the post, but still require text in the text box.

At that point, your basic campaign is ready. You can edit these three posts for an hour if you want, or add further posts below them.

For the three posts you need to set up can you dot in and then delete the post?

I don't know - never tried that. I usually put in a 'This is the ...... thread' post

No, it's really important to not delete your first post. Doing so makes it so no one can ever post to the campaign after that.

I also do think it works better to create a recruitment thread first. I actually don't create the other threads until after the party is chosen.

For the long term health of the lodge, I do believe it's important to use recruitment threads for games. It's how we get our games noticed by our most likely players who aren't already part of the lodge.

For SFS recruitment I think the biggest help would be to rename
"Castamir's Flaxseed Station Recruitment" to
"Starfinder Society organized play recruitment"

I've never gotten to play any of the Starfinder Adventures or APs I looked a few times when I was new but the general section of the Recruitment page is so flooded with Pathfinder games I never bother to check there anymore. I've always thought that non-SFS Starfinder needed its own recruitment page.

Maybe it's because I mostly play SFS online and it's a smaller community, but I really like it when GMs just have a signup sheet and it's first-come first-serve. If I miss a sign-up in time I'm just out of luck, if I do an application and don't get picked it just feels bad, as a GM I'd feel bad having to pick who gets left out, so I just avoid games with applications completely. I guess I could see an application being a good thing for a long AP but not for scenarios.

Even for a first come first served game, I believe it's better to use a recruitment thread. The first six people to post in the recruitment thread would then be your party.

There are up and down sides to each of the three main recruitment methods; I almost always run GM choice because I think it creates better games that are enjoyed more by everyone at the table. Each recruitment method also has ways it's not the most fair to everyone, so by the fact that the lodge has plenty of all kinds, everyone should get to play.