Play-by-Post GMing 101 (Inactive)

Game Master Hmm

Wow. That sucks. My sympathies.

Oh no! :( I hope everything turns out as well as it can, stay strong!

Oh no! That really sucks Hmm, I hope you can get everything sorted out and taken care of as quickly and painlessly as possible :(

I have open the credit agency online applications to freeze accounts. Most of this is straightforward. Type. Type. Type.

I think they have us do this so we don't run around waving arms and screaming, "The sky is falling!"

^ This sounds like a surprisingly good idea right now.

Hmm

PS Don't let my bit of drama stop the class. I want you to continue, and frankly, I may need the distraction tomorrow. It is neat seeing what all of you have done here so far! I am so proud of you!

Hmm, This may be more of a VL question than a GM question, but others may come across this in the future. I goofed slightly with Mathos. I had two slightly different versions of his sheet saved on my computer and I have posted one that isn't quite right. I know I can freely change him between scenarios until he hits level 2, but can I tweak him between quests?

Sucks about your spouse's car. I hope it all goes smoothly.

Yeah, you can tweak him between quests.

Hmm

That's crazy Hmm. Sorry for the chaos and bad luck.

On a positive note, I just realized you have to post under Gameplay to have it come up under your forums tab. I've been manually searching for this forum up until now lol.

sorry to hear about your break-in, Hmm... hope you get it all worked out... that would make me crazy to lose all my documents like that.

Got some interesting questions today, so I thought I'd share my answers to them.

How are rerolls handled in PbP? Can players with them share them with other players?

Great question.

Re-rolls can totally be done honor system. (There are some GMs that insist on a photo of the shirt and the person. I'm not one of them.)

Can someone give up their reroll item to another player? I've always ruled that they could, but that means that they won't have access to it. I have a guy locally who walks around with six folios, and lends them out liberally to any newbies that he sees. That's more easily monitored in person than online, though.

GM Stars stay with the player who earned it UNLESS that player has also earned a campaign coin for outstanding volunteer service and dedication from Tonya. You can tell people with campaign coins easily, because they're the only ones with three-digit PFS numbers that start with a 7. The people with Campaign Coins are the only ones that can lend out a reroll, stars included.

It's a rather small group, but I know at least four people who do PBP who have them.

What happens after Janira dies? I've done the Confirmation so I'm pretty intrigued especially since she is a character used in the Wisp and maybe other PFS scenarios

We're in a quantum universe. In thousands of other confirmations, Janira has lived.

It's too bad there's no reporting check box for Janira's death, since Janira living is the primary success condition. The reporting check boxes on scenarios are John Compton's way of knowing what happens with adventures from Season 5 onwards. In a way, we determine the future course of the campaign by the decisions we make.

Which is one of the coolest things about PFS.

_____

In other news, spent the morning walking the creek near the restaurant where my spouse's car got broken into. Checked garbage cans. Visited businesses and asked them to keep an eye out.

Sigh. It's been a rotten morning. No sign of the discarded backpack.

Hmm

Uesugi Hideyoshi wrote:

What happens after Janira dies? I've done the Confirmation so I'm pretty intrigued especially since she is a character used in the Wisp and maybe other PFS scenarios

We're in a quantum universe. In thousands of other confirmations, Janira has lived.

It's too bad there's no reporting check box for Janira's death, since Janira living is the primary success condition. The reporting check boxes on scenarios are John Compton's way of knowing what happens with adventures from Season 5 onwards. In a way, we determine the future course of the campaign by the decisions we make.

Which is one of the coolest things about PFS.

Prestige points can also be used to track what happens in adventures, depending on the success conditions.

Sorry to hear about the theft. Police and insurance reports are stressful enough to deal with without the added tax paperwork.

Dot

Welcome to the discussion, andreww!

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So I'm thinking about something that Bearington is doing here in Harrow, and that I like to do as well. He's building out the setting through RP and interaction, which is one of my favorite things to do. He's also generously giving the characters plenty to react to, which is really nice, and set up an opportunity for Mr. Sunshine to respond with some feline grumpiness.

I just recently had the conundrum of how to include a bit more of the Lastwall and Belkzen settings in Tome of the Righteous Repose. The scenario basically skips straight from the briefing to the dungeon delve, which is very efficient for in person play. In PbP however, I like to spend some time building things up so that the setting feels more real. I wanted to do a scene on the border between Lastwall and Belkzen, to give the players a better grounding in the area.

Only one problem. Forts are rather boring for me to describe. Guards are everywhere. How do I make this non-generic? I settled for brief scene set of the Fort, with having the guards ask the PCs why they were crossing the border. Then, once that happened, I built the setting by introducing an interesting person for them to converse with -- a half-orc knight who has run spy missions over the border into Belkzen.

I further stirred things up by giving them something to respond to, since we have a character who has made a big deal about how messed up the tengu homeland of Kwanlai is. Tying a small interaction into a known PC personality quirk or hangup or background detail can reap serious roleplay benefits.

Sometimes, the way to make a setting non-generic is not through descriptions of landscape and buildings. It's through the culture and the people.

Bearington, I am loving how you've made Maricella your own here! Now... a thought about pacing. It is probably time to poke to players into moving to the tavern. You've already told the story of old Venky. Make a big deal about the Lucky Lantern, and how this is where the trouble makers go. You've set your scene, now it is time to add action.

Woo hoo! Tavern, ho!

Hmm

I agree with Hmm, unsurprisingly. This is about as far as I would the this conversion, especially considering the hostility she initially displayed.

Don't feel like you need to wait for everyone to post before you respond. Sometimes there just isn't more to be said until the conversation moves forward.

That said, the instinct to include everyone is good to listen to. Try not to conclude a scene unless everyone has had a chance to participate, but don't be afraid to move forward. If someone posts less frequently than our super posters, consider directing questions or comments to them specifically or describe their character as leading some action they can respond to.

It also takes some time to get used to doing so from a player perspective but in my experience most of a given game's 'super posters' tend to be good about knowing when to slow it down a bit and to also leave openings in their own posts for other PCs to jump in and react to! Ideally you'll have a good balance where everyone feels connected and involved in the story and with each other, even if some people aren't able to post as often as others.

I'd also like to post something that I saw in the profile of a rather new GM -- GM Red.

1. Guide your players. Drop hints. No one remembers what that handout said that you showed to them four days ago. Just because you're invested doesn't mean they are, so repeat certain key points from the handouts or NPCs. Repeat parts of the mission briefing or story if needed. Anything to get them back on track.

2. Go with it. Just because the scenario/PDF only indicates the players have to go to the temple, doesn't mean the players have to go the temple. Maybe they want to go to the bar first. Maybe they want to explore the town. Make up the bar scene, explain it, create an NPC and have them interact with her. Dress up the scene by adding a barfight or some other activity that won't interfere with the story but that will otherwise add some fun.

3. Foster PC relationships. When players begin to roleplay with each other, you know you've done a good job, and you know you've got a group that's going to stick around. You can't exactly force this, but you can certainly set it up so that PCs need to work together to achieve their goal - that is the very essence of PFS, after all.

4. Keep it fun. Did your PC forget to use their Heal skill on themselves when they could have avoided ability score damage? Would you let them correct that if playing on tabletop? I would. Stuff like this happens all the time. If you enforce the rules harshly, you take away from the game's fun.

5. Roleplay. Pathfinder ROLEPLAYING game is what it's called. :)

Gentle guiding can really help your pace, as can some of his other tips. Characters that have some idea of where to go, and who are excited about your game are characters that will be far more likely to be active.

Hmm

The Ethics of Adding Extra Scenes for RP reasons in PFS

So, in PFS, GMs are not supposed to add monsters or encounters. There are VERY good reasons for this. We want the broad strokes of the story to be consistent across the board, and we want challenge ratings to be consistent.

Yet you just saw me adding a roleplay scene on the border to Belkzen, and quoting GM Red's "Go with it." I think that adding in a bit of roleplay to flesh out the setting or to help leak a bit of hidden backstory is great, so long as it does not expend player resources or spoil a mystery.

Things you want to be careful of:

1) Making a scene so compelling that the players think this is a key NPC and they start dumping spells on him.

2) If you do something in the background like a background barfight, to show that it's that kind of town, make it clear that it's non lethal so that the Silver Crusaders don't go around offering their potions of healing to the NPCs.

3) Taking your story off track, or going too long with the scene. A bit of RP is best when it ties your PCs into the story, It is dangerous when it causes false expectations, or drags your players away from their real goals.

4) Giving the PCs a valuable prize or gear that is not in the scenario. Just don't.

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EXAMPLES:

Example One:

A number of modules start with a festival with games that the PCs can participate in. Many of these games have skill checks and prizes that give the PCs an in-game benefit.

You get a player who is not good at any of the games. He's bummed because he has none of the listed skills to do them.

Player: "I'm looking for the archery contest."

GM (Going with it): "You find the archery contest!"

The player shoots his bow, does well, and is rewarded with a non-mechanical prize. I like to offer free tickets for a show or exhibit that I want the Players to go to, because it IS featured in the module. Never mind that the scenario does not charge the players for attending the show. He won tickets!!! Or offer a non-lasting transient prize like perishable food. Frozen ices work GREAT for this.

Example Two:

An example of using roleplay to bring out a PC's personality, and bring out the setting of the city they're in while moving plot forward. Quick, in and out, engaging your whole team in the plot. This was in a F2F game, but I think it's a good example of the sort of things you can add as fluff.

This is a huge distinction, maybe the defining distinction, between standard and PFS games. I have become a very "go with it" GM over the years and I have built entire sessions on the fly from a single off-hand comment by a PC. I can't do this for PFS.
In some ways this is a blessing. If you are new or have new players there is typically a nice trail of bread crumbs to follow. In some ways this can be frustrating if your party insists on doing everything you don't expect them to (like mine)

Thank you Bearington for going first! I'm definitely taking notes and brainstorming for my section.

Something I've noticed, to help bring out the RP in folks... can be hit or miss.

For when there's information to be disseminated to the players based on a certain skill DC, (like knowledge checks, or sometimes heal or survival or the like too...) Though not the ones where the degree of success determines how much you learn. Just the single checks.

If a player has put ranks in that skill and can make the DC by taking a 10, I've found sometimes it helps to not even give the players the option to roll. Just put a spoiler in for that player only. Couch the information as something 'they know' based on the scene presented ... (perhaps even how they know it (if they have a defined background) etc). Then let them give the information to the other players. Its amazing how paraphrasing information can change the feel of things.

Some players take this and put their own RP spin on it... which works great! Admittedly, some just copy and paste (less desirable) or worse, just say 'I tell the others' and so they go read the spoiler themselves.

But when it works well, its nice! And if not, you're no worse off =)

This works especially well at lower levels when less folks have all the skills covered, or if there's just one PC who can make the roll... so they are not denied interesting background info.

A thought.

Neal B., one of the Minnesota VAs, put together a GM 101 Kit for new GMs. Some of it is the stuff Paizo has put together. Some of it is cheat sheets from other GMs. It is totally worth a look, so I am sharing it with you today.

Also nifty... If you have players who are brand new to Pathfinder, be sure to distribute Welcome to Pathfinder Boons. These can only be assigned to their -1 characters while they are still level one.

I'm hoping that you guys will find some use out of both of these!

Hmm

Link to relevant post in discussion

I hope so too.

It does present a small teachable moment though? Hmm, I know this is your class and I am just a learner here, but could this be a time to talk about when and when not to bot?

Indeed, I think it's time to bot as that player has been absent for at least a day. One round of botting is easy to explain away in RP. Even two to three are easy enough. If the player starts missing more than one encounter, however, then it might be time to PM or otherwise contact that player before their removal.

Hmm will know more about PFS specific standards, however.

In my experience as a player, most GMs will largely only bot players for combat. I've seen it suggested elsewhere that if you have to bot a PC it's best to have them do something very basic and to avoid using consumable resources (potions, use-per-day powers, etc.) when possible. Of course if you're pretty familiar with the botted PC's general SOP and/or have the trust and permission of the player, you could have them do something more elaborate that it would be in-character for them to do. I think this is largely why Hmm asks permission up front to bot PCs if needed and for them to give her some general ideas for what to do with their PC.

Out of combat the botted PC usually remains largely silent during RP exchanges and the like, mainly only chiming in if they've got the skills necessary to do something like make a Knowledge check or occasionally give the other PCs a prod if they're stuck on something.

This is true. I am hesitant to bot anyone, personally, and it's one of the areas I most bed to work on outside of PFS standards. There is a time for it, however. The game shouldn't grind to a halt because of one player.

A bot is totally in order.

So a little while ago, my alter-ego, Bot Buddy, wrote a Guide to Botting. I have some revisions to do still based on feedback, but it should be usable for you guys now.

This is such a teachable moment. I get prior player permission when I do my signups. It's part of the player questionnaire that I posted earlier.

When do I bot? In a game with a 2-3 posts / day requirement, like this one, I do it if eight hours have gone by. I'll also bot if I know from a player's schedule that they are busy, but those bots are done right away to keep things moving.

When I did Sky Key Solution, I botted ruthlessly to keep the pace going because I was worried about us having a 33 table TPK if we didn't rack up enough victory points. My rule was simple. The last two people in any combat round to post got botted. That was extreme, but it got people posting at a time we desperately needed to move fast because we had a very literal deadline.

(I also group monster initiatives so that there are no more than 3 monster initiatives. I want the game to MOVE.)

Does anyone want to Bot Herald? Who would like this opportunity?

Hmm

PS It is also likely time to PM Herald. He may have had the same issue that I did with the forums not showing him a gameplay update.

So sorry, I neglected to subscribe to this thread when I dotted in so it wasn't showing in my feeds. That, plus busy times at work, led to distraction. Again, apologies.

Fixed now, and I'll make a better effort when the thread shifts to a new GM.

FWIW, I'm fine with being botted if it's been 24 hours and/or I'm holding up gameplay. A bot was totally in order for me, but I snuck in under the wire.

Hey, welcome back! :D

Grouping initiatives is a good idea. I am normally against grouping initiatives, but I think PbP almost demands it. Having such a large combat over this medium can make the game drag HARD.

Welcome back, Herald!

Yep, I usually group into 1-2 bundles of opponents. Up to three at the most. But I try to keep it to as few bundles as possible so that more players can post.

By the way, I got no response to the GM 101 packet so... Was it not helpful to you guys? Too basic? Already stuff you know? How can we improve it to have materials that you might find useful?

Hmm

I grabbed the GM101 bundle. It was good. The quick reference for the end of scenario is really good. The grapple and sunder ones were good too, especially grapple because it is confusing sometimes. The tier stuff maybe not as useful, but it may become useful in the future. The damage dice progression was interesting.

Something maybe to add would be a quick reference for conditions and areas of effect for cones, channels etc. I know this stuff is in the GM books already, but a quick reference may be handy.

GM Kit:
Combat maneuver cheat sheets are IMMENSELY helpful.

The damage dice changing sheet is confusing for me, but I find all the weird rules of damage dice changing to be confusing in the first place.

I believe the "Now that you're Dead" portion has a mistake: It is my understanding that a recent rule change requires pregens to be assigned BEFORE you play. It is also the reason I'm about to lose one of my favorite characters </3 I'm not bitter, promise!

The format for the PFS APL & Tier page was a little difficult to understand on my first pass. The very similar document right after it made much more sense to me in terms of format. I like how the total is used, not the average. It avoids all the weird rounding rules.

Everything else seems pretty useful to me!

The only thing I would add are possibly a bunch of tips for smoothing out gameplay. For example, initiative cards can be utilized to great effect, but I never would have thought of it myself!

Yeah, I noticed the error in "Now that You're Dead". I think it is time for me to assemble my own folder so I can edit things.

Hmm

So...

An assortment of learning things today.

COMPOSING POSTS OFF LINE

Bearington discussed pre-composing posts. This is HIGHLY recommended for anything that might be long or unwieldy. I would also stress the value of organization. I like to use Google Drive, but you can certainly organize in folders in Windows or other systems.

Here is a snapshot of my Blood Under Absalom Google Drive folder. You can see some of the things that I shoved in there:

• The Scenario
  
• The PBP Conversion of the Special, so that I can make sure that my group is keeping pace with the action
  
• My slide show
  
• Various Docs I grabbed from PFS Prep
  
• The Google Doc on which I keep my most commonly run dice expressions and that I use for pre-composing posts.

Not every folder is this full, but they all at least have a document in which I compose posts and a copy of the scenario.

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SPOILERS from GM to Player and Back Again

I think everyone reads these, and that's okay. I don't mind transparency. If it is TRULY private, take it to PM.

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WHEN PLAYERS FAIL TO CHECK IN

Ping them to see if they are seeing forum updates, and have a botting policy as a backup.

Those were my take-aways. What were yours?

Hmm

Block initiatives are standard practice for me in PbP games as it frees me up from having to constantly check in to see if that one person has finally posted. It also makes things run much smoother and faster than traditional init. However, I don't know if block inits are allowed in PFS PbP.

Have you looked at my games, Choon? Blocked initiatives are totally allowed. I do them all the time. It's like a preagreed upon delay system.

Futhermore, once the last monster has acted, I lump together regardless of round if they act before the next one.

Hmm

RE: GM 101 Kit - Sorry, I did download it all and I'm happy to have the handy-dandy charts for the Combat Maneuvers and Sundering as well as the miscellaneous charts. The bits about the Subtiers and such will probably take me a read or two to really digest but it'll be good to have all that stuff in one place so I don't have to comb the forums for answers to some of it later :)

RE: Daily Lessons - The big one for me is about composing posts ahead of time. Several of the GMs I know do this and I plan to do the same, especially since my work schedule is funky and I have to take my spare time to get this stuff done where I can. Blocked initiatives are also handy and help to keep things a bit easier to manage when there's lots of bodies acting during a combat!

I honestly haven't had the time to look into your games. My life is... hectic at times. Thanks!

Heh. You don't have to. I know about hectic times! I just know that I calmed myself about the process of GMing PFS by glancing through a few PFS scenarios in PBP.

We were talking earlier about PFS and "Go with it." Some PFS scenarios can be tight littlle railroads. Others are much more flexible. There is some room for interpretation and improv even within PFS.

Maybe we can talk a bit more about that tomorrow.

Hmm

GM Bearington, a suggestion: make the current battle map the first slide of the slideshow.

GM Hmm, I didn't respond at the time, but the GM101 Kit was very well received. Bookmarked immediately for future use.

same here, re: the GM 101 Kit... couldn't bookmark it for some reason... firefox wouldn't let me, so I downloaded all the pages.

Okay, so it is time to wrap up Harrow!

You can wrap it up in a number of ways... You can summarize the searching.

After searching the place, the party finds old, undrinkable beer, some decent scotch, a rusting set of lockpicks behind the bar, and a psychically charged harrow deck.

You can also summarize the Professor's reaction, or act it out.

When you get back to the Professor, Dr. Qlororum is delighted by your finds. [Add your own text here.]

So, GM of Anything, ready to get us started with Lightning?

I'd appreciate if everyone checked into the discussion thread and filled out the table on the first slide. Thanks!

how does this work exactly with reporting... since we get a separate chronicle for each quest within the whole scheme of things, does that mean each one has to be assigned to a different character?

how does this work exactly with reporting... since we get a separate chronicle for each quest within the whole scheme of things, does that mean each one has to be assigned to a different character?

So here is my plan. At the end, everyone is going to make up one chronicle for someone else in the group.

However, for reporting... You can keep the same character number all the way through. It's going to give us error messages, and that's okay. This would be the same thing as what would happen at a con if someone signed in one hour with one GM and the next hour with a different GM. (Or if a player has played the same evergreen with different characters.)

Just report it.

I'd appreciate if everyone checked into the discussion thread and filled out the table on the first slide. Thanks!

Will do!

Hmm

I had problems editing the slide from my phone. It seemed that I could do anything except enter text for some reason. So I copy/pasted stuff. :)

The "delete" part of "dot and delete" is a good thing to remember.

I like the playpen that you are using for minis.

Hmm

The "delete" part of "dot and delete" is a good thing to remember.

Sorry. I dotted at work and couldn't get back in time to delete it.

Just a pet peeve of mine, no worries. I like the top of the gameplay thread to look nice and make sure to delete my dots.

Heh. That's one of mine too. I think all GMs are neurotic about their gameplay threads in different ways!

So, while Harrow is closing out, let's give some feedback to GM Bearington to finish up.

Bearington, I want to give you props for telling us you were going to be out of town. That is an important thing to tell players, so that they're not left hanging. Furthermore, if you say something like "I'll be back Monday", and then return on Monday, that can build trust.

I would have liked it if we could have closed out once we found that deck, but it can be hard to know where to put your ending at times.

____

So... Another pacing question that occurred to me. When do you sum up something, and when do you act it out?

Sometimes, it's useful to just sum up and move things forward. At other other times, it can be great to give your players a moment of interaction, just for fun. What things do you think are best summed up vs played out?