Cottonseed Lodge (PFS2)

Game Master Redelia

Just my 2c's about specials, I only played them in PBP format, and I highly recommend playing one, it is a different experience.

But also they are rushed even in PBP, not rushed in a way that you don't have time to read posts, but every day the story moves forwards regardless if this is weekend or not. So if you are used to posting 5 days a week, there will be two days when your PC will be booted. I know that the GM survey for Gameday does well explaining that, but I never been told that as a player ;)

Does anyone (but probably priority to regular GMs) have requests for Gameday?

I'm signing up for Sundered Waves because I got the scenario support but didn't run before. I have a second game I'm willing to run but no strong feelings.

I'm disproportionately open to 3-6s and 5-8s because I've run a lot of 1-4s. But I know the demand is high for lower levels.

Non-repeatable games I've played but not run:

1-00, 1-02, 1-13, 1-19, 1-20, 1-21, 1-24, 1-25, 2-01, 2-02, 2-03, 2-07, 2-08, 2-10, 2-12, 2-16, 2-17, 2-18.

Note that I have no guarantees you'd actually get into the game, but I've seen a lot of the higher tier stuff undersubscribed in past PbP conventions.

I'm hoping for a table of 2-18 that I can bring my leshy fighter through.

Just my 2c's about specials, I only played them in PBP format, and I highly recommend playing one, it is a different experience.

But also they are rushed even in PBP, not rushed in a way that you don't have time to read posts, but every day the story moves forwards regardless if this is weekend or not. So if you are used to posting 5 days a week, there will be two days when your PC will be booted. I know that the GM survey for Gameday does well explaining that, but I never been told that as a player ;)

That rushed feeling of the story moving forward is due to times effects or Parts written into the special. A normal scenario doesn’t have time hacks that you need to make but a Special will say something along the lines of Part 1 will take maximum 150 minutes. When the tables accrue so many successes or 150 minutes has passed, whichever happens first, then part one will end and Part 2 will begin.

^Standard conversion to PbP for this is 6 minutes of scheduled time = 1 day of PbP. If a section says it lasts 90 minutes, we're moving on after 15 days.

My experience is that the specials usually finish early because of the part where you move on after a certain number of successes and that drives the move from one section to another more often than the time limit.

If you get a table full of folks who are posting once per day or less, they're going to experience less of the special (and feel like it's moving without them) much more than a table where everyone is posting 2 or 3 times per day. The table posting faster is going to rack up successes that push the whole House forward whether or not another table has gotten through even one success.

That's true, though I know when I'm House GM, both in PbP and in person, I try to make sure (as much as possible) that I don't move forward or end early when a slower table is right on the verge of getting a success.

@GM Sedoriku, 4 is legal, right?

Yup 4 would be a legal table size. We would need to add a Pregenerated character, however. 5 would be a better fit.

Oh right... 4 + the GM.

Are you looking for a body for a table or just theorising?

Ah is that why the requirement for the 5-glyph GM includes "specials"? Because they're a bit more of a handful than normal?

@Mr Tea -- if you look at the spreadsheet, the character similarities even line up... either APG class or Core class :)

Does anyone (but probably priority to regular GMs) have requests for Gameday?

I would love to play 2-10 due to orcs ;)

But I can play any other 3+ and 5+ scenario that you listed. Just responding since you asked

I have a question about relationships in PFS. One of my favorite things about Pathfinder is the relationships that develop between the characters. For this reason, I have gravitated toward longer campaigns, but I also see a lot of benefits to PFS and would like to do more of it.

Those of you that have played a lot - do you still feel you get to form relationships with other characters? Are there few enough characters/players that you tend to run into the same people in multiple campaigns?

I have a question about relationships in PFS. One of my favorite things about Pathfinder is the relationships that develop between the characters. For this reason, I have gravitated toward longer campaigns, but I also see a lot of benefits to PFS and would like to do more of it.

Those of you that have played a lot - do you still feel you get to form relationships with other characters? Are there few enough characters/players that you tend to run into the same people in multiple campaigns?

It requires being proactive. If you sign up for tables at random, you'll run into a variety of characters even if you have the same players.

As Blake has said I have seen players form relationships playing in random scenarios when they run into that character in the future. That can be hit or miss as people bring different characters in.

Some players will come to an agreement to join games together to continue it along.

Thank you Blake and Tyranius! I don't have a problem being proactive. ;)

Do you find that it becomes easier at the higher levels? I assume there are fewer characters as level increases?

There are technically fewer higher level characters, but I don't think it makes that much difference to the odds.

Also, realize that just because it's PFS, that doesn't mean you can't keep the same group of players (or a subset). PFS is designed to have anyone join, and in most public games, there's some change. But you could also find a group that you click with and decide to run a whole series of scenarios together. Not saying it's commonplace, but that it can happen, even on the boards.

But it is always fun to start a new game with a random mix and a character comes in that you have played with before. Then you two can riff on your previous adventures a bit.

Being proactive can take the form of organizing the games yourself. GMs are not the only ones that can organize games.

A good way to do this is to start a GM rotation. Find a group of players willing to play characters of roughly the same level where you each take turns GMing a particular scenario. I just went through a GM rotation that did a handful of bounties together.

Or, put together a crew of good players. Players who are fun to play with and, more importantly, GM for. If you put together such a crew, you'd be surprised often you will get GMs who are happy to run for your crew.

That would work if I knew anyone else who played PbP! Still, I like the idea! Maybe in the future if I start to get to know some other players.

Thanks for the ideas!

I have a question about relationships in PFS. One of my favorite things about Pathfinder is the relationships that develop between the characters. For this reason, I have gravitated toward longer campaigns, but I also see a lot of benefits to PFS and would like to do more of it.

Those of you that have played a lot - do you still feel you get to form relationships with other characters? Are there few enough characters/players that you tend to run into the same people in multiple campaigns?

These PCs got involved in a steamy relationship in an adventure together. I never met the player of the PC before and it was our first time playing in a game together. The roleplaying just turned out to work well together. Other players had fun with it, too. In my 11 years of PFS, it was the first time any of my PCs had such a notable relationship with another PC. If that player and I play Brüwulf and Atae together again, it's a sure bet there will be more steamy escapades goin' on!

Some of my PCs have gained friends and if I see an opportunity for them to adventure together, I try to take it.

put together a crew of good players

The very spirit of PFS! Push aside all those bad players.

I believe it's called curating the community.

These PCs got involved in a steamy relationship in an adventure together. I never met the player of the PC before and it was our first time playing in a game together. The roleplaying just turned out to work well together. Other players had fun with it, too. In my 11 years of PFS, it was the first time any of my PCs had such a notable relationship with another PC. If that player and I play Brüwulf and Atae together again, it's a sure bet there will be more steamy escapades goin' on!

Do remember, though, that these are public games and not everyone may be comfortable with pushing that sort of thing too far. Be cognizant of making sure the table is a welcoming place for everyone.

Damn, all this talk reminds me I should make the Pastel Order happen again.

I had a series of games running for one crew a few years back, and then I had to stop due to my own time constraints. Real life happened and it kind of just stopped.

What's the Pastel Order? :)

It was 3 or 4 players playing in my games here on the forums. We did PFS scenarios in relatively quick succession long term and recruited extra players to have 6+1 people in the game.

Long term is a strong word. We did like ... 6? Plan was long term. Then I had to step away.

Quote:

put together a crew of good players

The very spirit of PFS! Push aside all those bad players.

Taken out of context that looks bad. Good thing there was context.

In different systems I just started a Starfinder dragonkin character with a partner bond to another character on the boards. We've agreed to join games together with them whenever we have the opportunity (and playing with that character has shaped my character.)

In PF1 I've been running a series of games for the same group around a theme. The cast has been rotating some but one character has been around for at least half the games others have dropped in and out but one has been in every single scenario. We're up to our 15th scenario together.

And in PF2 one of my characters just ended up in a cycle of looking for and registering for new games at the same time as another player's character so we ended up in something like 3 out of 4 games back to back together.

Those of you that have played a lot - do you still feel you get to form relationships with other characters? Are there few enough characters/players that you tend to run into the same people in multiple campaigns?

It really depends on the environment.

With in-person gaming, you tend to run into the same people week after week. Geography and the logistics of in person gaming limits who attends where. Sometimes they are playing different characters, but you still will tend to see the same people over multiple adventures.

With PbP in PFS Standard and Starfinder unless you actively arrange to play together it doesn't happen as often. There are a lot of people potentially joining the PbP games, so it is less likely you would see the same people. Note that in my experience PFS Core is a smaller group of people, so I think it more likely you will see the same people over again.

That said, when I see who is at a particular table I may switch to a character that has played with their character before. I've also contacted people I've played with before to see if they want to join a particular game.

With as fast as the low level adventures fill up, there generally isn't a lot of time to coordinate. With some of the higher level stuff, there it time to contact people and arrange to join the same game.

The smaller the community, the more likely you are to adventure again with the same character or characters.

You will also have situations where a GM recruits for a series of linked adventures. There you will see the same characters for 2-3 scenarios and might develop a connection with some of the other characters.

There are some changes to some of the ancestry AcP boons. Get the details here.

Whooo! Cool. Once the changes have been applied to the boon list, I'm intending to create an iruxi. Now I just need to find the right background so he's an astronomer.

Since another Gameday is coming up, I thought I'd share some of the tools and tricks I've learned over the years of doing PbP format for Pathfinder.

1) You know how scenario PDFs are broken into like two half pages? Do you know how that makes copying and pasting the box text a pain in the butt? Don't worry about that problem anymore with this removes the line breaks tool.

2) See how that link is a bit light on the font? Type the bold command as part of it! Bold link!

3) I'm a big fan of secret rolls in 2e, and sure, you could roll them in spoilers, but what player isn't tempted to see what's behind that GM screen? Roll on the Dice Rolling Thread instead. Have really nosy players? Roll a bunch of fake rolls mixed in or something!

4) You know how using Google Slides for the map can be a bit of a hassle with the map background image? Take the image, take a screenshot of it (maybe with something like Gyazo), and then on the slide you want the map for click the Background button next to the comment, line, layout, shape tools, etc.. and then "Choose Image." From here, you can either upload the image if you have it saved or just take the image URL from something like its Gyazo page and put it in the "by URL" tab. You might have to change the size of your slides by going to File > Page Setup > Custom for the map to fit right. You can also stretch the map over the slide before you take a screenshot of it so it'll already be the right size (though stretching it can lead to it looking a bit weird).

If you do those quick steps, the map becomes the background and cannot be moved accidentally. Perfect for those mobile players and GMs!

5) Did you know you can have animated images on Google Slides? Simply download a .gif image and then upload it to the slide. It'll stay animated! This is really cool for fog effects, horror elements (like for Mosquito Witch), or other fun things you can think of.

6) You can double spoil things! To do it, the nested spoiler cannot have an "=words."

7) This isn't probably new to many, but I thought I'd mention it. You can make text Bigger with the "bigger" tag and smaller with the "smaller" tag!

8) Third-party time! There is a Chrome Extension called Paizo Campaign Tools that make PbP a little easier. There are many different tools it offers, and there are some nice screenshots on the page I linked, so I'll just leave it at that for you to explore.

Edit: I checked again and saw it doesn't do a great job advertising itself, so here I am again to tell you some of its features. You can set your profile image to anything you want in a campaign (but only for your visibility), you can set "default aliases" on a per-thread basis, you can change the order your campaigns are listed in on your campaign page, any "new posts" words are highlighted for you, you can click a bell on a campaign you want to respond in to remind you later, you get additional post code tools such as underlining and coloring words, and you can "blacklist" players (just greys them out, but you can still see and interact with them).

9) You know how forums have that like Wifi looking button? It's an RSS feed indicator. Want to know how to use those to get notifications for PbP stuff? Well, I use Feeder.co. For $0, it will check your RSS feeds every 2 hours and notify you. I tell it to give me a little *ping* on my browser, but it can send emails, texts, etc.. For $5-6 a month, you can get it to check every 2 seconds! Instant response time for your PbP games! There is a limit to the number of threads it can watch, a higher limit if you subscribe. #Not Sponsered

10) Oh no! The forum monster ate this entire post! Who cares with Typio! Typio is a Chrome Extension that, when toggled on, saves everything your typing into a recent list. If your forum gets eaten or you see the Backtrack monster, simply go back to the post and click the little clock icon in the text box, it'll let you recover everything you typed instantly!

Thanks for the list of wonderful tips and tricks Zer0darkfire!

Nice list!

4. Little different method. You can set up your map how you like it, then go to file-> download -> current slide as jpg. Then on your slide set background -> upload the jpg. Really easy way to get your map as the background so it can't be moved!

Thanks for the list of wonderful tips and tricks Zer0darkfire!

If only I had a trick to change my profile name!

Anyway, you're welcome! I hope some players or GMs find some of these useful!

1) You know how scenario PDFs are broken into like two half pages? Do you know how that makes copying and pasting the box text a pain in the butt? Don't worry about that problem anymore with this removes the line breaks tool.

Sweet Iomedae I would have paid good money for that tool.

GM NovelEnigma wrote:

1) You know how scenario PDFs are broken into like two half pages? Do you know how that makes copying and pasting the box text a pain in the butt? Don't worry about that problem anymore with this removes the line breaks tool.

Sweet Iomedae I would have paid good money for that tool.

It annoyed me so much that googling a solution to it was one of the first things I did when I started GMing.

4) You know how using Google Slides for the map can be a bit of a hassle with the map background image? Take the image, take a screenshot of it (maybe with something like Gyazo), and then on the slide you want the map for click the Background button next to the comment, line, layout, shape tools, etc.. and then "Choose Image." From here, you can either upload the image if you have it saved or just take the image URL from something like its Gyazo page and put it in the "by URL" tab. You might have to change the size of your slides by going to File > Page Setup > Custom for the map to fit right. You can also stretch the map over the slide before you take a screenshot of it so it'll already be the right size (though stretching it can lead to it looking a bit weird).

Or you can not stretch it and not change the slide size; just arrange it on the slide, then take a screenshot of the whole slide, including the blank space left over, then upload *that* as your background.

hmmm... so what are those perception rolls I found? ;)

Sorry, GM NovelEnigma, couldn't resist :)

Another great tool for GM's and Secret rolls that I use for all my PFS2E games now came from Doug Hahn.

He made a spreadsheet that will help format all of the players macros for BB Code so you don't have to search for them and type them up one at a time.

Just have your players fill out the character input tab at the beginning of the game and on the macros side you can just copy past the BB Code dice rolls in for all GM rolls you need to do, including initiatives.

Macro Cheatsheet

For secret rolls I just roll physical dice at my desk. After 2 years without in person gaming I just like having an excuse to roll them.

Another option for #4, you can directly edit the slide masters and make specific slides with said image as part of the back ground. You might need to trim an image to make it fit better however.

10) Oh no! The forum monster ate this entire post! Who cares with Typio! Typio is a Chrome Extension that, when toggled on, saves everything your typing into a recent list. If your forum gets eaten or you see the Backtrack monster, simply go back to the post and click the little clock icon in the text box, it'll let you recover everything you typed instantly!

Mozilla Firefox seems to have this built in. Clicking back on my browser brings the post back. I also tend to copy paste my posts into a text document before posting.

For secret rolls I just roll physical dice at my desk. After 2 years without in person gaming I just like having an excuse to roll them.

hmmm... I could probably do that when I do my GM rotation :)

For secret rolls I just roll physical dice at my desk. After 2 years without in person gaming I just like having an excuse to roll them.

I've considered doing that and have a few times to save time, but I'm always worried a player is going to be like, "Prove you rolled a nat 1 for my 'x' check!"

Plus, as a bonus, my post count increases.