PFS 1 - 05 - Assault on the Kingdom of the Impossible PbP (Inactive)

Game Master Beckett

Thank you for your kind and supportive words, they definitely mean a lot.

I definitely want to let people know that PbP exist and how to play it. This is a great chance to advertise another avenue of how we play our favorite game! I will be looking to work with the community to create tutorials so folks know how. I am definitely all ears about the issues you are facing with Pathfinder Society and PbP, and what changes you think would help solve those issues.

Just so you know, I am working right now to create a Pathfinder Society forum geared only toward online play. It won't happen overnight, but it will be on the Paizo forums. This will house How-Tos, links to other web communities that run games, be a launching point for folks to organize PbPs, and advertise online gamedays & conventions. At first, one forum will handle all of online play, and if there is a need for further granularity, then we can be a recommendation we bring up to the good folks at Paizo.

Thanks again for your support and let me know what further questions you may have.

That sounds good. I think personally that a lot of the issue is the difficulty of finding other people, (specifically for PFS PbP). PbP's are a slightly different beast than pretty much all other style of play, often taking much longer. A typical Play by Post game can range between 1-2 weeks to maybe 3 months, depending upon the pace of the game, frequency of the players to respond, issues within the scenarios, and the desire of all the players (and DM). One of the issues I have noticed is that scenarios in this medium are handled a lot differently sometimes. Because it's a lot easier to write/type than it is to speak in general, (that is to say that it's a lot more easy to communicate specifics, you can take your time and say exactly what you mean, and also link pictures, things of that nature), PbP offers a great advantage in that it allows for so much more flavor and additional material (such as from setting books, or just the world) to be included. It also offers a lot of possibilities to make each scenario very personal to each character, because in the medium there is not an issue of needing to split the spotlight nearly as much (such as through spoilers or PM), like you would in a TT (Table Top) game, or even other online styles such as DTT (Digital Table Tops). Now, a PbP can be played that way, and can be completed in about the same time it would take a table top game, but most are not.
As I have mentioned before, I first began to experiment with PbPs because I was deployed in Afghanistan, and I had literally no other venue of play. I have since then met many players who similarly just had no other option, but really wanted to play, including people that wanted to learn the rules from scratch. (PbP also offers a great way to do this, if DMs and other players are willing, and in my experience, most are. There is much less of a rush, but like I mentioned before, it is also much easier to have one-on-one side discussions going on in the middle of the game, without breaking the mood of the game, so it is much easier to answer questions, get advice, and hear suggestions from others without being rushed.)
A few things that I have found incredibly useful for my games (and some of these where tricks that others have passed on to). I have plenty of things I have shown other DM's I just don't want to totally overwhelm you, not yet anyway. ha ha)
1.) Google Drive -> Drawings is an excellent resource for PbP. Paizo's products are designed so that pictures, and specifically maps can be copied to Paint (and other programs) without including all of the DMOnly locations. It will only copy the base map, with the direction and the size. Monsters, secret rooms, treasure location do not appear. I use a free program called FoxIt to copy the maps to Paint, modify as needed, and then save as JPEG. Upload to Google Drawings, and then (following the same process) also upload NPC's, the Player's Avatars, or other small drawings as needed gives you a fully editable map, that allows the players to actually move around themselves, all for free. If you save the file so that "anyone with the Link" "may edit". HERE is an example of a map I used for Voice in the Void, as well as a LINK to the game.
2.) For PbP' specifically, there are times where, in order to move things along, it's better for the DM to roll for the players, sometimes preemptively, such as Init, Perception checks, or Saves. A tactic that I ask my players to do, is to copy a lot of the basic, commonly used stats, (HP, AC/CMD, Saves, Perception, Init, Gender/Rae/Class/Level (Archtype) into the online character sheet (registered character) in the Race and Class sections, so that it will appear under their avatar each time they post. As the DM, I do a similar thing with a link to the map, so each time I post, the map is right there. [url=http://paizo.com/people/IgnatiousTheSeekerOfFlame]HERE is an example. This helps phenomenally.
3.) I establish up front both at what pace I would like to the game to run at, such as at minimum 1 post a day for a slow game, and also I ask each of the players to give me an established action that their character will default to in case they are not able to post in a reasonable amount of time, (so that not everyone is waiting on them), with the understanding that if it seems obvious they might act differently due to a strange circumstance, I might act for them, (but not in a way that would use any of their limited resources unless someone is at risk of dying). I also like to establish up front a general format I like for posts, with BOLD being used for In Character speech, Italics to describe either In Character thoughts or to describe some flavor in relation to their action for the round.
For ExampleAt round might look like this: Shouting a warcry, I leap once more into the battle. I charge BBEG #12 attacking with my Long Sword
Attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20
Damage: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11
"Take that, stupid head!"
Wow, I didn't expect that sort of roll. . .
A few issues I have noticed from time to time:
1.) Because PbP's take a lot longer usually than other styles of game, there is sometimes issue with the rule of not being able to play a character in more than one game. This happens for a few reasons. In my case, there have been times when I simply have no internet, and because of the way Real Life works, we where not able to finish a scenario before I was away, though for all practical purposes it was done, and there was basically no way that the players couldn't have finshed/succeeded. This left them sort of hanging for a week or two, and not able to legally play their character in another game. Another is that it can take a long time to personalize everyone's chronicle sheet and send them out, it's one of the few things that in PbP can not be done early. Is there any way to alleviate this issue (just in PbP's so that people can play their character in another game under some circumstances, and if they meet certain criteria, basically being in the wrap-up stage and having already completed or failed their Faction Mission(s) and the main scenario goals?) The main issue is that there are very few games, and typically when a new one starts, there is a very short deadline. This also leads to a lot of (at least in my circles) a lot of players that are quickly becoming too far apart in levels to be able to play together, and because a lot of them are not able to play in other games, it sort of inadvertently removes them from play.
2.) It's very difficult to be able to prove if another player owns a product or is "wearing a PFS shirt". Neither of these are big issues on my part, as I basically own every book myself, and as we are less restricted by time, I can always check something out if I need to. I do feel that this would be a something that might be worth adding a line or two into the PFS Guide to clarify or make suggestions to players on how this should be handled. Along the same lines, sometimes it's not possible to verify the other player's actual chronicle sheets. We can see that they have been registered, and how much XP/PP/Fame was granted, but nothing else, which could also be a foreseeable issue, that might be wise to likewise address in the Guide.
3.) Due to the difference in medium, some scenarios just do or do not work so well in PbPs. For example, the Frostfur Captives, involves a lot of rolls for environmental hazards, which do not have the same feel, and are much harder to gauge time-wise in a PbP. It makes it feel like it is dragging on sometimes rather than enhancing the danger and feel of the game. This is less something that could be altered in the PFS Guide as much as a small issue that is worth taking note of. Some games just work and feel differently, where as A Voice in the void felt fantastic because it allowed so much ambience and personalization to the individual character that really enhanced the mood without altering the game or the encounters at all. It might be beneficial to note this to other DM's in a general sense.
4.) Again, due to the specific nature of PbP's, there have been a few times when in the middle of a game, some rule has changed, there where errata that affected one or more characters, or we have known that something would be changing soon. It would be really great to have this discussed officially and at least some guidelines for DM's to go by if and when this does happen.
On another note, as I mentioned, this was something I have been thinking about for a while, and had been planning to talk to someone at Paizo about this, and other things for a while, and had been waiting until after Gencon to bring up. My original goal (and other people I talk to frequently, this isn't just me) was to build a community that would both foster growth and allow for a new avenue of teaching new players, but also to allow people that do not have any other way to play a way to do so. That has been a rather large factor for a lot of us, and there is a large population within the different games I take part in (as both player and DM) that fall into that category. A lot of us, my self included are very willing to help out and to volunteer if needed. I personally am not looking for any credit, just to be able to expand the community, hopefully to be able to also link up with other small communities in one place, and to introduce more people into the game or to teach them how to play. We have also been tossing around the idea of trying to do a sort of "online convention", hoping that we might possibly get access to a few Boons or the like, for fun. Is that a possibility we could work on? And is there anything we can do to help to boost this sort of online initiative? I believe all of the other DM's in my circle and a few of the player's have already asked me to mention that they would like to help as well.

Just to clarify, I am pretty lenient in my ruling about Faction Missions, to a point. This scenario was written before the newer Factions existed, so with that in mind, my understanding is that both of you are considered the same faction, so would not count as being seen (by each other). Otherwise it would be impossible for one of you to succeed. OOC, this is something that can be accomplished in 2 rounds, (not this second), but if anyone else in the group sees it, or if the guards spot you, that would cause it to fail. It also CAN be done later, and I always try to give the option for after the scenario is "finished", like on your way out, but I also kind of leave it up to you to remember that. Secondly, again my understanding is that if one of you does complete it, it is considered complete for everyone that had that mission, otherwise it would be impossible for any but one person.

In my understanding, Illusions are a little vague. The way I rule it, is that if a character interacts with them, part of the magic makes them "believe" that the illusion is real, so for instance their brain will not allow them to simply push their hand through it if they fail the save. They also do not actually even get a save unless they actually interact with it. Attacking it, touching it, and similar things, dependent on circumstances will allow the individual to get a Save to Disbelieve, as will taking an Action to attempt to disbelieve. Seeing another individual walk through an illusionary wall may or may not be enough to allow others to automatically realize it's an illusion, sort of depending upon how likely other plausible explanations might be. Unfortunately, that is really sort of arbitrary and up to DM interpretation. A Cleric or Wizard might just give you a +4 on another save, a Fighter will probably be enough to make you autodisbelieve unless they are pretty high level and a Fighter might actually have some sort of gear to allow that. I am perfectly willing to hear different sides if it does become an issue, though. :)

I would rule that familiarity with illusions wouldn't necessarily grant a save bonus. I say this because there is a specific trait, for instance, and without that trait, though you may know how to cast them, you may not have spent much time exposed to or resisting them.

Also, if you've ever had a hallucination, you'll know that just because you are familiar with the idea of hallucinations, and you know you could have one at any moment, it doesn't prepare you at all to realize you are hallucinating when it happens.
But maybe I just have a crappy Will save.