Cottonseed Lodge (PFS2)

Game Master Redelia

Howdy hey. Some helpful folks on discord sent me on over here and said to post in the gameplay tab to get started. I haven't tried pbp before but am looking forward to giving it a try. I'm just wondering if there is a style guide or something to indicate how to post, I'm character, out of, etc, that I could read before posting there? I'd hate to commit some kind of breach on my first go lol.

Welcome Casey!

Glad you made it. We will make sure to post a couple of guides here for you to read over so you can get your character set up alright. We have just begun an online convention today so you may actually be able to hop right into a game. This will help you get settled in and with PbP you will have the time to make corrections and read over the guides. If you just let your GM know this is your first PbP they will be glad to help get you all settled in.

Numbat's Intro to PbP

Does anyone have a free spot from a player dropping or no-show for Casey to hop into?

That guide is super helpful, thanks!

Welcome Casey!

I have two Quests starting, and would be happy to offer a seat as seventh player to "Kit" at one of them.

If seven players show up to an event, rather than turning someone away, the GM can consider adding a seventh person to the table. She should check with the players to determine their preferences before running a seven-person table, as seven-person tables often overpower otherwise challenging adventures and limit the amount of time each player gets to shine in the given scenario.

We have time in PbP so the amount of time would not be limited, and I feel that with a Quest it would not be a problem having seven players.

Otherwise, if there are two more "newcomers" of any sort, I can also offer to play another table of either Port Peril Pub Crawl or Grehunde's Gorget.

Thanks for the invite, I'd love to hop in.

I will wait to see what our illustrious master of the PbP Lodge, Venture-Captain Tyranius, feels about my letting a 7th player into a Quest.

And to see if there are people other interested in one of those Quests (Port Peril Pub Crawl being a repeatable I would probably offer that one unless a demand for Grehunde's Gorget) in which case we would have a fresh table.

In the meantime I am PMing you so you can read up on what is happening on the table I would be offering you to join.

EDIT: you have not enabled PMs (sorry, I cannot remember where you must go to do so).
Here is a link for you to read (only read) what is going on so far.
Please wait till we know if you are joining there or not to post.

B-E-A-Utiful :)

Edit: Thanks for the heads up, I found the setting and enabled PMs.

Hi!
I still cannot PM you it seems. Have to work right now so will post more later etc..
But welcome to the game, and you can enter and post in the game linked above.
We are happy to have you.

Question for our officers:
having finished a Quest, I will be offering those players (and then opening it up to recruitment if any slots are left) a Scenario.

So long as we finish by May 18, this can be run as part of Outpost III?

We can put on some more "ritz"?

As long as you are completed by the May 18th deadline toss on some more Ritz

These are some slides I put together for a group I have been introducing to PbP or PFS2 or both.

A few notes for numbat:

1. It would be helpful to describe the architecture of the forums here; it was not very clear to me for a long time.

Each campaign has separate tabs for Gameplay (in-character posting), Discussion (out of character posting), and Recruitment. These are separate threads in the Play-by-Post, Play-by-Post Discussion, and Recruitment forums, respectively, linked under a single umbrella.

On occasion - and my thread is currently an example of this - a thread will be started in one forum first, but not linked to a campaign. In my case, you won't be able to find an associated Gameplay and Discussion thread because I (the GM) haven't created them, or I've created them but haven't linked them.

This architecture carries over to the Lodge threads (Flaxseed Lodge, Cottonwood Lodge, and whatever Starfinder's is) - there's a Recruitment thread, a Discussion thread, and a Gameplay thread. To dot into the Lodges, you dot in to Gameplay.

Since it comes up a lot, I'll point out that people are very (perhaps even overly) protective of the Recruitment threads - I suspect if I had posted this in Recruitment, someone would have told me to take this post to Discussion.

2. It would also be helpful to put some common expectations beyond the rules.

- Most games ask for 1 post/weekday and 1 post/weekend. This means that a typical scenario will run 6-8 weeks. People are expected to commit for the duration of the game, and large breaks (more than a few days) should be discussed with the GM up front, rather than sprung on the GM (and fellow players) with little warning, e.g., "Starting tommorrow I'll be gone for 2 weeks."

- The age range for PFS is wide and includes minors and the diversity of people who play PFS is large. This means that certain things, even if technically allowed or not explicitly banned, may be disallowed at a specific table to accommodate another player.

3. Treatment of online Chronicle sheets should be mentioned somehow. To be honest, I could use some guidance. I keep PDFs in my Google Drive and a paper copy in my binder, especially since some characters are mixed F2F/PbP. Not sure what everyone else does.

For Chronicle sheets I have switched to only digital. I keep my character sheets (in plaintext) and any Chronicles, boons, notes, etc. in a folder in Evernote with the character's name. Google drive is all well and good but I find it harder to read/edit my plaintext character sheets (where I track current hit points, expended daily resources, etc) on the fly in Google docs than I do in Evernote. My perspective is heavily colored by the fact I primarily post from mobile

Good feedback, Watery Soup.

Thank you.

I am slowly switching to online storage of my chronicles.

I don't know what best practices are, but that most likely could be a whole thread of it's own. If someone wants to start the discussion and give a link to the thread here, I would be happy to join in.

I'm still doing everything physically (in an overstuffed binder) but that's because I still go to physical games sometimes and get physical sheets from the GMs.

I could, of course, scan those but that seems like more work than just printing the ones I get digitally.

So for chronicles I scan them in either using my printer or free scanning apps from my phone right onto Google Drive. I sort the folders by PFS character number. This way I can pull up all information with ease anywhere and not have to worry about carrying everything around.

If I get a physical sheet at a con I can immediately scan it in using my phone. Takes a couple of seconds as you can have it scan in whole batches.

So for chronicles I scan them in either using my printer or free scanning apps from my phone right onto Google Drive. I sort the folders by PFS character number. This way I can pull up all information with ease anywhere and not have to worry about carrying everything around.

If I get a physical sheet at a con I can immediately scan it in using my phone. Takes a couple of seconds as you can have it scan in whole batches.

This is more or less what I do. I keep all my character sheets digitally too. To play at a con or other in person venue all I need are my phone or tablet and some dice (and I could even use an app for that).

OrgPlay Online

Fixed the link

Thanks Mike!

Redirecting discussion from recruitment

Jayson Ghita wrote:

I use Pathbuilder. It's free unless you want to use animal companions or familiars, and then there's only a one time fee. I make characters on there all the time on my phone.

Ya but I don’t think it’s has an i phone verson or that it’s pfs legal but idk jack

Pathbuilder2e is currently only for android. You can install an android emulator on your computer and get access to it that way. There is also a web version that is under development but will likely be some months before it is ready from what I have seen on their patreon.

Pathbuilder2e doesn't directly have PFS legality in it, For example there is no option for your school feat at level 5. Or there is nothing preventing you from picking Red Mantis Assassin as an archetype in the app. It would still be up to each player to know what they are picking is PFS legal. If you ever have a question about whether something is PFS legal or not though, you can click the "PRD" option next to the feat and it will take you to AoN where the icon next to the name of the feat/option tells you whether or not it is PFS legal. See THIS PAGE (link) for more info on the icon usage within AoN.

That said, I've really enjoyed pathbuilder2e. I have the paid version which among letting me make use of animal companions, it also has cloud saving and lets me add custom feats for non-pfs stuff.

Pathbuilder2e is great.

There are a few quirks/errors, but it's really great for planning out a character across many levels.

And while I have no financial stake in the matter, I encourage everyone to pay for the material. It's not supposed to be free, so if you think you've found a loophole - for example, you paid for Hero Lab and think every rulebook for every RPG is included - you're probably wrong.

A PFS scenario ($5) provides 3-4 hours of entertainment ($1.25-$1.50/hour). Ten rulebook PDFs ($100) that you use an hour a week for 2 years works out to another $1/hour.

So fun anecdote. I used to play a lot of Living campaigns back in the day so when I heard my FLGS was having organized games of some D&D 3.5 variant called Pathfinder I read the rules including the OP rules. Bought a couple of pdfs and downloaded a couple of free resources including Curse of the Crimson Throne Player's Guide for the Acadamae Graduate feat. I didn't have a mobile device so I printed out what I was using and showed up for slot 1 of my first game day.

When I mentioned that I had printouts of my used resources I was told that yes it is the rules but no one ever actually checks.

Round 2 I go over to another table and the GM is auditing a player. A brand new player at an intro scenario. He audited me as well and when he spotted that I had the Acadamae Graduate feat I mentioned that it was from a free resource. He wanted proof that I had it so I dug out my printout of the page. Then he told me that I was supposed to have a copy of the current list of what was legal. Another GM had a quick chat with him that amounted to "Don't harass the noobs."

I have spent hundreds of dollars on PF1 books and pdfs but that is one of maybe 2 times in several years of PF1 that anyone ever asked me for proof that I owned something. (I don't go to conventions.)

So obey the rules. But honesty costs.

Oh and that GM had a wizard with Acadamae Graduate and knew it was legal.

Redirecting discussion from recruitment

Wolfykip wrote:

Jayson Ghita wrote:

I use Pathbuilder. It's free unless you want to use animal companions or familiars, and then there's only a one time fee. I make characters on there all the time on my phone.

Ya but I don’t think it’s has an i phone verson or that it’s pfs legal but idk jack

Pathbuilder2e is currently only for android. You can install an android emulator on your computer and get access to it that way. There is also a web version that is under development but will likely be some months before it is ready from what I have seen on their patreon.

Pathbuilder2e doesn't directly have PFS legality in it, For example there is no option for your school feat at level 5. Or there is nothing preventing you from picking Red Mantis Assassin as an archetype in the app. It would still be up to each player to know what they are picking is PFS legal. If you ever have a question about whether something is PFS legal or not though, you can click the "PRD" option next to the feat and it will take you to AoN where the icon next to the name of the feat/option tells you whether or not it is PFS legal. See THIS PAGE (link) for more info on the icon usage within
That said, I've really enjoyed pathbuilder2e. I have the paid version which among letting me make use of animal companions, it also has cloud saving and lets me add custom feats for non-pfs stuff.

Ok thanks for the info

So obey the rules. But honesty costs.

Living life costs. Honesty is free.

Hero Lab (both classic and online) is a legal character building and management tool for Organized Play. Owning material on Hero Lab is not considered owning a legal source of that material for Organized Play. You still need the book or PDF and some method of proof of ownership.

Respectfully, there is no such thing as a "legal character building and management tool for Organized Play," or rather all tools for putting your character sheet together are 'legal' as long as they're legible from crayon on construction paper to some home built app that displays a 3D render of your character mini next to your character sheet details to engraved copper plates.

The term legal applies to legal sources of player options for use in the PFS campaign. You need one of three things if asked for by the GM: 1. the book containing the rules element, 2. a watermarked PDF of the book containing the rules element, or 3. access to the PRD (Archives of Nethys) and a copy of a receipt for the book containing the rules element (a view--real or screen shot--of your Downloads page containing the PDF of the book containing the rules element also works). As was alluded to in an earlier post, you also need either a print out or access to the current version of Additional Resource because the GM is not expected to have memorized all the rules or the list of what elements are currently legal. HeroLab or any other character building tool, as of the time of this post, are not legal sources even though they display rules elements.

Using the term "legal" to discuss things like character sheet managers or character building tools confuses the issue. New players wonder if they need to buy a Character Folio or HeroLab in order to participate instead of using ruled paper and a pencil or some free character management app.

As long as you have all the pertinent details and the GM can read it easily, you can use whatever you want to to keep track of your character details.

If the GM asks for a source for one of your character options you're using, it has to be one of the three things listed above.

@ GM Blake - I posted quickly and should have been more precise. I was reacting to "HeroLabs isn't "pfs legal" either." and the (not as common now) practice of some GMs telling players they could not use it at their table. It has been made clear that it, as well as other digital sheets, are acceptable as long as the player is willing to hand it to the GM for perusal.

I did reinforce that owning content on Hero Lab was not sufficient to meet the requirements for owning the source for Organized Play.

I apologize for the hasty post earlier.

If the GM asks for a source for one of your character options you're using, it has to be one of the three things listed

1. the book containing the rules element
2. a watermarked PDF of the book containing the rules element
3. access to the PRD (Archives of Nethys) and a copy of a receipt for the book containing the rules element (a view--real or screen shot--of your Downloads page containing the PDF of the book containing the rules element also works).

My understanding is that a fourth option is that you may also simply have:

These are the Legal Sources and Table Policy I refer to.

The above link also is where you find the information and the links to the electronic or physical copy of the below Additional Resources page for that source to show that the options you have selected for your character are legal for play that you must provide, as GM Blake noted.

And, simply to be complete: it seems that nothing is required for anything from the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, the Pathfinder Bestiary, or the Lost Omens World Guide.
If you wanna come to a game with just a couple dice & a piece of paper, stick to those books!

Most, or all, this info is in the online guide, like the character options page which has links to the above Paizo blog page, and all that we are discussing..

The first page of the online guide has a cool changelog at the bottom, so you can spot what changes have occurred recently without having to go check around.
Looks like this:
0.09 – Errata and Clarification update.
— Character Options. Clarified Pathfinder Lore / Pathfinder Society Lore.

The most important rule still being... to have fun!

The most important rule still being... to have fun!

I agree with you, but I'm not sure that everyone would.

I think a lot of people will say that, but then put in a qualifier that expresses their true opinion.

"Of course having fun is most important, but if people aren't following the rules it's not fun." Translation: rules are most important.

"Of course having fun is most important, but I want to make sure my character gets all the stuff they deserve." Translation: getting stuff is most important.

I don't mean it in a negative way. I'm not going to tell people what's important to them. I'm just saying that not everything can be #1 importance, so if there's a #1, there's a #2.

I showed up to GM a game and two no-shows dropped us below the legal table size. Someone at the other table suggested we all just go home. I offered it to the table, but in my mind I was thinking, I prepped a scenario, convinced my wife to be a single mom for a night, drove 30 minutes through rush hour traffic, and you think I'm just going to shrug and go home? People were confused as to why the 3 of us would sit there and play Pathfinder for no credit. In their minds, not playing Pathfinder was better than playing Pathfinder for no credit. I disagree, but it's just because I truly believe that having fun is most important.

Important Announcement

Quote from Tonya below. Along with a link to the blog post.

'Feedback from our communities regarding tables for Pathfinder Society (second edition) indicates that 7-player tables aren’t working. So, we are phasing them out. Starting as soon as possible, we ask GMs to move to 6-player tables. We are giving a transition period so that we don’t cause issues for conventions and events already planned. As of June 1st, seven players will not be legal tables. In cases of 7 players, the tables should be split into two. This will make a more balanced experience and works better within the scaling mechanisms of the program.'

Blog Post concerning PFS 2E Table Limits

I like that this limit has a nice long time frame -- enough for those of us with 7 person tables to finish our PBP games.

Hmm

Is there profiles I can Copy/Paste for the 2E pregens?

I think it is still a work in progress, but it appears some are here.

That is part of the PbP GM Kit.

Yup, still a work in progress there but those should get you a good baseline. The important portion (About section) is complete.

Thanks.

Btw Kyra 3 has the about section of Kyra 1.

Fixed that one quick. Thanks! Once things calm down a small bit we will be getting them finished up with taglines and detailed abilities.

If it helps, here is level 3 of Kyra:

Kyra PFS2 level 3

I've spot-checked against the character sheet, and it should match.

Also added the tag line

Big Announcement (Link)

Exciting news and when more information is available we will post it.

Edit: Also the Blog is now posted: Paizocon Online!

Paizocon Online Blog Post (Link)

I am sure most of you have seen already but I wanted to put it all in one place for you all. The Paizocon Discord is up as well as GM Registration. Reminder that there are no PbP games for this Convention, it will be live games via voice on Discord and your choice of VTT / Google slides.

Has the PFS 2e guide ever been done in a pdf format? I find the foundation site hard to navigate.

Or is there an alternate link to the foundation site with a better format?

I wanted to GM a PFS 2e game for the first time and wanted to review the rules.

There is one out there. I will post it once I get to my home computer this evening. You just have to bounce the version of of the website version. The creator keeps it up to date but if a change just occurred it might be a day or two behind.

There is also a link in the PDF to click to get the most current version as well.

Has the PFS 2e guide ever been done in a pdf format? I find the foundation site hard to navigate.

Or is there an alternate link to the foundation site with a better format?

I wanted to GM a PFS 2e game for the first time and wanted to review the rules.

I believe this is the guide Tyranius is referring to. Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide via PFSPREP

Thanks for posting that.

Indeed that is it. Thanks! My work computer leaves me a little hindered :)

Indeed that is it. Thanks! My work computer leaves me a little hindered :)

I know that feeling :)

If I do play a pregen, how do I create a character & header for it without having to create a new xxxxx-06? Or would I put it in my new xxxxx-06 spot but apply the chronicle for playing a pre-gen to an existing PC?

Shifting to discussion. You can create an alias instead so that it doesn't take up a PFS #. To create an Alias at the top of the page hover over my account near the top right of the page. Click on account settings.

Once signed in scroll about halfway down and you will see a section on the left called messageboard aliases.

Click on create new alias. From there it is exactly the same as creating a PFS character. Choose a picture and fill in the profile information.

Once the game is complete you would apply the chronicle to your character and when they hit that level range it would go into effect.

Oops. I should have brought the conversation here too, and that is a much better answer.

Cool. Thanks, Tyranius & Numbat!

Two things:

1) The online team has been requesting on the Outpost III thread that we report our Outpost III games early, even if they are still running! They've got to get ready for the deluge of being HQ at PaizoCon, so let's help them out by getting our games in early.

2) You can now sign up as a GM to do Origins Online!

If I understood correctly, Origins is VTT only, right?

Correct Deneve!

In the interests of getting things wrapped up - especially with PaizoCon Online right around the corner - GMs are encouraged to go ahead and report their Outpost III games by/before the end date of May 18th even if the game isn't quite finished yet.

Use your best judgement in terms of reporting prestige and the like and if anything should change between the time you report and the time the game actually wraps up (sudden character death, etc.) just let one of the Online VOs know and we'll get the reporting adjusted accordingly.