Cottonseed Lodge (PFS2)

Game Master Redelia

I always roll in-thread because I make enough mistakes that I need an audit trail.

But I do try to inject a little noise into the signal by unnecessarily making spoilers, so that not every spoiler contains useful information.
For example:

"You ask Baron Potatoe von Hasselback for permission to add chives.

He is overjoyed and grants you permission."

or even

"You enter the mad scientist's evil laboratory.

You don't spot any traps."

I too keep my rolls behind a spoiler for a GM screen so that it exists with the campaign for audit. There are a number of reasons for that, and they don't necessarily apply to Secret checks as often as things like NPCs' attack rolls or saving throws. However, we all make mistakes, and ultimately I don't mind if a player looks at my rolls behind my screen. A player's comfort with me GMing is more important to me than them realizing they critically failed their Recall Knowledge or finding out a monster has a +7 attack bonus.

To me, there is some need for Spoilered or Hidden GM rolls, especially in PFS2 with a lot more secret checks with significant failure vs. fumble effects.

But other than those I tend to very rarely spoiler anything else. I'd rather a clear visible set of numbers out there so that my players can double check and bring up any questions right after rolls are revealed. Like "oh you forgot to include they were shaken and that would mean they missed" or "I forgot to adjust my Header AC for x condition and I'm really sorry it'll never happen again but that crit would not confirm'.

Stuff like that is much better posted visibly and resolved quickly. A PC dies and suddenly everyone starts opening spoilers and searching for mistakes from three rounds prior.

And yes a player can totally use ooc knowledge once they know enemy attack mods and damage. But that's on them and their ability to separate ooc vs. ic info. Plus even if they do it should rarely effect the game. Most combats and situations are pretty straight forward.

Players aren't supposed to know what you rolled when it comes to secret checks. The only time I'll mention anything about my roll is when an overlooked bonus could make a difference. For example the time a secret Perception check I rolled for a PC to detect a hazard failed by one. I asked the player in the OOC channel if they had any bonuses I wasn't aware of.

I personally prefer when GMs roll the attacks in the open rather than in spoilers. I expect that I am not supposed to look in a spoiler unless indicated otherwise. I know there are some very good GMs that expect people to open every spoiler, but there are also GMs that get unhappy when a player opens a spoiler they weren’t told to.

There is a big difference between the monster hit on their second attack and rolled below 7 and the monster hit on their second attack only because they rolled a natural 20 making the failure a success.

My general attitude on secret checks is that the game calls for too many of them. I allow people to roll their own checks but ask that they not metagame it.

*Announcement*

Hey folks, a new blog post went up today that you all might want to check out and be aware of!

Organized Play Schedule Update

Do the rules on repeatable/non-repeatable work on Adventures/AP?

Basically, can I play an AP more than once (with a different character) or are they all non-repeatable? Also are one-shots repeatable?

They do not have the repeatable tag so you can only earn credit once as the player and once as the GM for AP's and One-Shots.

There hasn't been a PF2 AP that is repeatable, but it is not without precedent to have a repeatable AP. The very first Starfinder AP book is repeatable. Just the first book.

It's not uncommon for game recruitment to slow down before a con. If you're not opposed to play-by-discord there have been some games recruiting on Find the Path and Cayden's Keg. See Play-by-Post Lodges for links to those lodges.

Just keep in mind that your character cannot be in multiple play-by-posts at the same time so if you're wanting to do the multi table special or another game during Gameday then right now I wouldn't do anything longer than a bounty so you can make sure your character is free for gameday

So is Play-By-Discord essentially the same (as in, it's not a live game)? Just at a venue different from the Paizo Forums?

You have it correct UncleFroggy, it is not a live game but the same as here (PbP), just different venue.

Yes, although there are also VTT games (live games) on most of the same discord servers, so you'll want to be careful about what you sign up for.

Yes, although there are also VTT games (live games) on most of the same discord servers, so you'll want to be careful about what you sign up for.

I saw that, thanks. That's why I wanted to be sure that PbD isn't a live game.

Also just want to confirm -- I play with a group at work (as GM). If I want to move them to the Paizo Forums and get PFS credit, they all need to be PFS-legal characters. In terms of owning the books and material, there's no problem as long as they're part of my table? Basically I just want to clarify the Org Play rules before some of them decide they want to try other GMs...

The rules for resource ownership can be found here: Character Options, see "Resource Ownership". Under that section it says:

Family members, significant others, or other members of the same household (such as roommates) can share resources if they are playing at the same table, rather than requiring a separate copy of the same book for each person. A group of friends that always plays together at the same table fulfills this requirement, as long as all the necessary materials for each character's options are present. Members playing at separate tables must each supply their own materials as normal.

If your work group only ever play PFS with you then that is fine. If they start sampling other GM's then they must be able to supply their materials as normal. If that is likely then I would encourage them to stick to the CRB, bestiary, and lost omen world guide since everyone has access to those without needing to own them.

The rules for resource ownership can be found here: Character Options, see "Resource Ownership". Under that section it says:

Resource rules for families or home groups wrote:

Family members, significant others, or other members of the same household (such as roommates) can share resources if they are playing at the same table, rather than requiring a separate copy of the same book for each person. A group of friends that always plays together at the same table fulfills this requirement, as long as all the necessary materials for each character's options are present. Members playing at separate tables must each supply their own materials as normal.

If your work group only ever play PFS with you then that is fine. If they start sampling other GM's then they must be able to supply their materials as normal. If that is likely then I would encourage them to stick to the CRB, bestiary, and lost omen world guide since everyone has access to those without needing to own them.

Thanks. I just wanted to make sure I understood the rule correctly before I tell people the wrong thing.

While you can play CRB/LOWG/B1 without owning the material, it's not that expensive and Paizo is a good company to support.

I started playing Pathfinder with a workplace group too. We used to joke that every monster had 45 minutes of hit points.

While you can play CRB/LOWG/B1 without owning the material, it's not that expensive and Paizo is a good company to support.

It is if the exchange rate is $1 = ~50 Philippine Pesos...

*ANNOUNCEMENT*

Early GM sign-ups for PbP Gameday X are now open!

If you have signed up to GM for Gameday X, you may now sign up for one table of your choice and one Special of your choice!

Gameday X Event Listing

Reminder that this is for GMs only; general player seating will open on August 16th!

A message from the guide team if anyone is having troubles accessing the Org Play Guide.

Just to let you all know: we are currently experiencing an unplanned, extended outage of organizedplayfoundation.org, which is the website for the Organized Play Foundation. It also hosts the Pathfinder Society Second Edition and Starfinder Society guides. We are actively communicating with the hosting service, who are working on restoring access. Unfortunately, we do not have an ETA on when the website will be available again. As part of restoring access, we have taken steps that may cause the guides to remain unavailable until Monday morning. We will provide more information as we receive it. We apologize for the disruption, and thank you for your patience!

Dennis Muldoon wrote:

Yes, although there are also VTT games (live games) on most of the same discord servers, so you'll want to be careful about what you sign up for.

I saw that, thanks. That's why I wanted to be sure that PbD isn't a live game.

Also just want to confirm -- I play with a group at work (as GM). If I want to move them to the Paizo Forums and get PFS credit, they all need to be PFS-legal characters. In terms of owning the books and material, there's no problem as long as they're part of my table? Basically I just want to clarify the Org Play rules before some of them decide they want to try other GMs...

All of you can get PFS credit without being on the PFS forums. You just need to report the games. Reporting the games does have to be done on the Paizo site, though.

what does it mean to be "liked" by a faction? I know it's a certain number of fame points, but how many -- it's in the Org Play Guide which is down at the moment... also is access to wayfinders automatic after playing 2 missions (I'm assuming scenarios)? There's a boon I'm kinda looking at for Radiant Oath -- the one where the wayfinder casts a revealing light.

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UncleFroggy wrote:

GM Blake wrote:

UncleFroggy wrote:

BlackoCatto wrote:

Upsetting but I can wait. I can understand.

Come join me on Discord... Found a game almost immediately :)

You might be speaking generally, but if not, Discord is a big place, so he might need a little more specific link. :)

Sent him instructions via PM. I also followed redeux's instructions and went to Discord -- and yes, it's huge.

There is also 4-5 of them, which one, I am not joining them all.

I joined Cayden's Keg.

Under the General Channel, I went to #role-reaction. Click on the compass and the envelope and got access to pf2e-chat. You can ask for games under pf2e-lfg. People are generally very helpful in pointing you where to go. I'm a Discord noob myself so I'm still figuring things out.

I'm also a Discord noob, but I believe there is one server that is "official," like, they make announcements there (and whenever I ask certain questions on other servers, people always tell me to check the "official" server). I further believe (but am not 100% sure) that it's the OPO server.

IMO, there's really no downside to joining all of the servers. I joined OPO, RfC, FtP, and CK (the last one just last night, as you noted). I also joined a bunch of local game servers, plus, the Paizo Convention server (which is required for convention annoucements). Then, I have one channel where a GM circle is organizing, and my own personal channel for when I ran a VTT game. I just plop all the unused one into a separate folder to keep it organized.

The key is that you need to switch all the notifications off on every server so you're not pinged every 25 milliseconds by people posting random stuff.

Essentially "Organized Play Online" (OPO) is the overarching lodge for all organized play online. That includes both Play-by-post and virtual tabletop games.

But there are also other communities that are officially recognized as "lodges" within the online region. All of the discord's from the Play-by-Post Lodges are "lodges." This is similar to if you're lucky enough to have local society play near you then that would be a local "lodge" -- usually held in a game store or other public venue. with face-to-face gaming the lodges are based out of location. With online gaming the lodges are based on having a unique community that adds something to organized play. You don't have to join all of the discord servers but if you do you'll find that each one is different in the kind of community they have to offer.

But yes, agree with WaterySoup - Go into server settings and disable notifications for all messages. Also if you press and hold a server on your server list you can move it around and even combine it with another server to make a 'folder' Makes it a little easier to be organized. I have 'Online Lodges' folder for instance and a few other folders to keep things organized.

Redeux covered it all very well. We also have some guides in that same link he posted that will assist you in playing a game on Discord. How to format your posts and dice rolls.

Question about Recruiting Conventions -- Can we just join with a pregen or is it GM's choice to allow it?

Question about Recruiting Conventions -- Can we just join with a pregen or is it GM's choice to allow it?

Just sign-up with who you want to play, pre-gen or otherwise. Some GMs are looking for a specific party make-up, or wanna keep it low-tier or high-tier. But for the most part, just sign-up and it's fine.

ok. Just thought I'd ask to be safe :)

Is Gameday considered a "Premier" event where the AcP's gained is 1.5x?

Question about Recruiting Conventions -- Can we just join with a pregen or is it GM's choice to allow it?

If there are pregens available for the scenario tier, you can always choose to play a pregen. Pregens only go to level 5, if I recall, due to the complexity increase beyond that (when a player spends more time figuring out their pregen than playing the game, it can be a problem--Yeah, I'm looking at you Gallowspire).

Essentially "Organized Play Online" (OPO) is the overarching lodge for all organized play online. That includes both Play-by-post and virtual tabletop games.

But there are also other communities that are officially recognized as "lodges" within the online region. All of the discord's from the Play-by-Post Lodges are "lodges." This is similar to if you're lucky enough to have local society play near you then that would be a local "lodge" -- usually held in a game store or other public venue. with face-to-face gaming the lodges are based out of location. With online gaming the lodges are based on having a unique community that adds something to organized play. You don't have to join all of the discord servers but if you do you'll find that each one is different in the kind of community they have to offer.

But yes, agree with WaterySoup - Go into server settings and disable notifications for all messages. Also if you press and hold a server on your server list you can move it around and even combine it with another server to make a 'folder' Makes it a little easier to be organized. I have 'Online Lodges' folder for instance and a few other folders to keep things organized.

Is there a way to separate the channels from each server (i.e. if I wanted all the recruiting channels in 1 folder, regardless of server)? I found what you were saying that we can arrange them like on iOS or Android where you can group the servers together.

Is Gameday considered a "Premier" event where the AcP's gained is 1.5x?

Past Gamedays have been, but the Premier-ness of an event is based on the number of tables. I don't know whether they (the royal "they") count how many tables are anticipated, how many tables are registered, or how many tables get reported at the end. The VOs may be reluctant to spill the exact details because there are jerks out there who report phantom tables.

Is Gameday considered a "Premier" event where the AcP's gained is 1.5x?

Our events are indeed considered premier events for the additional AcP. We normally have well over double the amount of tables required.

I recommend against playing a pregen unless there is a reason you need to play that scenario at that time. Also, unless you are trying out the system. It is much more enjoyable to await the opportunity to play a scenario with your character.

New blog post on some reward changes for SFS and 2E Scenarios. Please read.

Increased Rewards for Sanctioned Content

I recommend against playing a pregen unless there is a reason you need to play that scenario at that time. Also, unless you are trying out the system. It is much more enjoyable to await the opportunity to play a scenario with your character.

I agree with Leo. I don't like playing as pregens typically but I also don't usually like playing alongside them or GMing for them either. It's just a minor dislike though, and I often do it.

Meh, I'll be contrarian - pregens are fine. They're mechanically adequate (in PFS2, that is, I think many of the PFS1 pregens were too weak), most of them have decent personalities (I think only Valeros feels tropey to me), and playing them is a good way to learn a bunch of different classes.

All other things being the same, of course you'd rather play your real characters. But rarely is everything else the same.

For a new player, I'd probably not only allow but actually encourage them to play two wildly different pregens for their first two scenarios, and then create a "real" character and playtest it for their final level 1 scenario before locking it in.

My favorite discord lodge is Find the Path, but I am a member of all of them.

I second the advice about muting servers, but you can actually be more selective about how you do it.

For some servers I have the whole server muted, full stop--no mentions, nothing.

For other servers, I disable desktop and mobile notifications and then mute the categories and channels I don't care about: this way I can still use the "unread messages" inbox in discord (one of my favorite features of the desktop app that I dearly wish they would add to mobile) to browse new messages in those channels without automatically marking them as read. That way I also get the little red notification dot in my system tray for discord, and I can see there are new messages I care about in that server when I'm browsing servers in discord.

For the servers that are most important to me (pretty much just my own server where I'm running or playing in games with friends) I allow desktop and mobile notifications (though I often mute the mobile notifications from my phone).

Most servers have a bunch of "non-Pathfinder chat" channels, and side from a few on Find the Path, I always mute those. I mute some game system chat channels too if they're too chatty for me, ha ha.

--

Regarding the different servers

OPO is awesome for getting answers (esp. official answers) to your PFS questions. There are a lot of really active chat channels there as well. I keep this whole server muted all the time.

Roll for Combat is quieter and more PbP oriented. At the moment, by default, you have to manually mute every single table you're not in, which I find inconvenient, but the new VC there (congrats again Bigrin!) is working on improvements there, piece by piece. I think I'll be in a GameDay X game here.

Cosmic Crittermanders is a very SFS oriented server. It is quiet and well organized enough but doesn't feature the second most important play by post discord quality-of-life feature after a dice bot: the "tupperbot" that lets you use an alias to post as your character instead of yourself.

Cayden's Keg is very friendly, and is mostly oriented around VTT games. They do run the occasional PbD game, and I'm in an Age of Ashes game there. They're putting a lot of effort into building up the server and it has a very up-and-coming feel.

My favorite, its no secret, is Find the Path. I love the mix of active and friendly community, quality GMs, frequent pbp games... And they are one of the most well-organized discord servers (for *any* topic) I'm a member of, which actually ends up being important. I'm in a few PFS games here at the moment, and in the past I have also played SFS, Modules, and APs here.

--

Anyhow, that's probably way more info than anyone wanted about discord servers but I really love them. They're a much smoother, richer experience than playing on Paizo IMO. Also I'll be running Burden of Envy on Find the Path for GameDay X and want to get people excited about the idea of playing there, ha ha.

When I go to Gameday X event listing, it has Pathfinder Intro 1: The second confirmation listed. And Pathfinder Intro 2: United in Purpose.

But when I go to season 3 Pathfinder, the first scenario is Pathfinder Intro: Year of Shattered Sanctuaries.

Either I'm missing something and they are both located in different places, or Pathfinder Intro Year of the Shattered Sanctuaries contains both of those. Not that I want to buy the scenario so I can see what is ahead, but as a completionist, I'm trying to write down everything I need to play to play everything in PF2. I'm trying to find out where Pathfinder Intro 1 and 2 are located.

When I go to Gameday X event listing, it has Pathfinder Intro 1: The second confirmation listed. And Pathfinder Intro 2: United in Purpose.

But when I go to season 3 Pathfinder, the first scenario is Pathfinder Intro: Year of Shattered Sanctuaries.

Either I'm missing something and they are both located in different places, or Pathfinder Intro Year of the Shattered Sanctuaries contains both of those. Not that I want to buy the scenario so I can see what is ahead, but as a completionist, I'm trying to write down everything I need to play to play everything in PF2. I'm trying to find out where Pathfinder Intro 1 and 2 are located.

I believe it follows the same format as the recent SFS intro scenarios:

Yes, Year of Shattered Sanctuaries is 3-01. They didn't put it in the title of the adventure, but it is listed under Season 3 and the next adventure is 3-02. Thus in the gameday signups it is under 3-01.

When I go to Gameday X event listing, it has Pathfinder Intro 1: The second confirmation listed. And Pathfinder Intro 2: United in Purpose.

I'm also wondering about these 2. They're not available in the store (unless I'm not looking in the right place). It's for 1-2 so I'd be very much interested in possibly playing them. Are they repeatable?

My searching mojo in action:
Product pages:
Second Confirmation
United in Purpose

Both seem to be repeatable, but they are not assigned to Season 3. You can see them in a level up under preorder ;)

Pathfinder Intro 1 and Intro 2 are not part of season 3.

Go to the PFS Product Page and scroll down and click on preorder.

the second most important play by post discord quality-of-life feature after a dice bot: the "tupperbot" that lets you use an alias

This was a significant hurdle for me playing on Discord - I used a workaround where I changed my name for the entire server. It was fine as long as (a) I only played in one PbD game per server, and (b) didn't mind all my other posts suddenly switching names.

Can you elaborate on how to use the "tupperbot" on each server?

(A lot of Gameday games are on Discord - I had already plotted out how to avoid more than one game per server, but if I don't need to, it opens up my schedule possibilities.)

caps wrote:

the second most important play by post discord quality-of-life feature after a dice bot: the "tupperbot" that lets you use an alias

This was a significant hurdle for me playing on Discord - I used a workaround where I changed my name for the entire server. It was fine as long as (a) I only played in one PbD game per server, and (b) didn't mind all my other posts suddenly switching names.

Can you elaborate on how to use the "tupperbot" on each server?

(A lot of Gameday games are on Discord - I had already plotted out how to avoid more than one game per server, but if I don't need to, it opens up my schedule possibilities.)

waterysoup - HERE is a link to the PBD Player's Handbook that I created for the Roll for Combat discord. There is a section on pages 5-6 that discuss how to use tupperbot. The only difference between discord servers would be the channel(s) that they would like you to use to set up your tuppers. Also, feel free to reach out on discord, I am always happy to chat.

If bigrin's guide doesn't make it clear enough for you, you're welcome to PM me with any questions on discord, or post in #pathfolk-pathlodge on Find the Path. I highly recommend using the "tul!auto" command he mentions in his guide.

Also note that you can perform any Tupper commands by messaging the bot directly instead of using a #bot channel. The only thing you can't do while messaging the bot privately is actually test out your tuppers.

Also keep in mind that a few of those Discord Lodges you mentioned (Cayden's Keg and Cosmic Crit) are Mainly VTT but do have a small bit of PbP/PbD in there as well so they might not be set up with Tupper or some of the latest Bots right off the bat.

One of the scenarios is for the Quest Blackwood Abundance, is that new?