Play-by-Post GMing 101 (Inactive)

Game Master Hmm

*dot* :)

Oh hey, TOZ. Do you have anything you'd like to talk about as a fairly new PbP GM?

Hmm

Don't sign up for ten tables at once. It's a bad idea.

You're right! It's a terrible idea, at least until you have your feet wet as a GM and know what your personal bandwidth is. My personal GM bandwidth is 1-2. I can do 2, if both groups have great players who I don't have to prod or bot. Otherwise... 1. That's my personal limit as a GM.

Hmm

Is the Harrow over already?!

Bearington should close us out on Harrow, but the quest is complete. GM Hmm, do you have any advice on a closing post?

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?

^ Already gave some advice, here.

I saw my name and forget everything else in that post :P

I think you did a great job, Bearington. My notes have already been addressed by Hmm and other feedback during the run. I will echo Hmm's comments about the ending, but that's not a gripe that can't be fixed. In fact, I bet it's fixed already.

Choon, do you want to talk about summing vs acting something out?

One of the first pieces of advice to writers is "Show, don't tell!"

That advice drives me crazy. "Show" is great advice for important, pivotal moments. It's great for bringing out key NPCs, or moments of tension, or perhaps even an introductory post to set scene. But really, sometimes you can show way too much, and slow your game to a crawl.

There are lots of times when "Tell" is great too. If a scene is dragging, and they've already gotten all the information they're going they're going to get from interviewing the the gnomish purveyer of whoopie cushions, feel free to sum up, tell, and get the party out of there to close the scene.

For Example:

The party has fun trying out Whoopie Wally's Whoopie Cushions, making fart noises, moans, screams, duck quacks and the unmistakable retching sound of a puking cat. After about a good half hour of conversation and pranks, it's time to move on to the next suspect on their list... Elsa's Exploding pies.

"Welcome!" Elsa's shop is in a state of disarray. She herself is half covered in Jam and Meringue. Wiping the cream filling from her eyes, she says with enthusiasm, "That was a really good one! Want to try some?"

NOTE: Tell is especially effective if it is followed up by an action or dialogue hook to get the party posting again.

Do you have anything you'd like to talk about as a fairly new PbP GM?

Hmm

One thing I am having to unlearn is no-information-responses.

In face to face games, I often like to give non-committal answers, usually some flippant comments for humor when players ask about something they can't know or can't determine yet.

This doesn't work well in PbP, simply because it may be hours before the response is seen. Then further clarification has to be requested.

A good habit to develop is telling the players exactly what they know when answering questions and posting responses. The mystery should come from "what happens when I do this" not "what is happening".

Oh, that is such a good point, TOZ! Making every GM post count, and maintaining clarity is really important.

Hmm

Just got home, I'll be wrapping it up now. Did not realize that we would each be reporting our games! I'll get the player information from GM King of Anything's slideshow.

GM King of Anything, would you either post or send me your reporting information?

Show don't Tell: Walking that line is important, but don't dispair of you drift one way or the other a little. The degree of show vs tell you do defines your style in an important way. Granted, going extremely one way or the other is bad, but it's nothing to obsess over.

That being said, when show goes right it can make all the difference between "good" and "never forget"

No-info responses: This is something I'm still un-learning. TOZ is very right. Time is at a premium above all other things in PbP. Make wise use of yours. If you do really want a cryptic responce it can be beneficial to include a Sence Motive spoiler with some info or clue on where to go next. I love spoilers like that and am currently trying to use them more often.

Shouldn't have opened that spoiler. Should NOT have opened that spoiler.

Yeah, basically avoiding anything that's likely to increase the chances of the party dithering around and the game not going anywhere is a good idea!

Just got home, I'll be wrapping it up now. Did not realize that we would each be reporting our games! I'll get the player information from GM King of Anything's slideshow.

GM King of Anything, would you either post or send me your reporting information?

Once you've checked in with a character, Bearington, I'll be ready to go. I don't want to leave you behind!

I'm applying this series to 93593-21

Edit: Okay, first post is up for wilderness exploration. Still waiting for Bearington before advancing past the intro.

I aspire to be the GM behind GM Choon's spoiler.

OH HEY.

There was a HUGE update to the PFS FAQ today. The updated FAQ is required reading for all GM 101 students! Lots of nice changes and clarifications in there.

Your homework: tell me about one FAQ that makes you happy.

Hmm

That first bit in red that has nice how-to's makes me very happy. :)

I like the one about adding spells to a spell book. I have never played a wizard, but Mathos technically has a spell book and so I can add spells to my book next downtime.

Here's my 'happy faq' - Pregens have the same faction as the character the xp is going to be assigned to, which means you can fulfill faction tasks with the pregen... I've always thought until now that pregens all had to be GL... not sure WHY I thought that, but I'm glad it's not true.

^That's a good one to know and to be honest I would've assumed pregens to be Grand Lodge too.

Another one that makes me happy is the ability to retrain companion creatures if we wish!

I have a deaf oracle, so lip reading is good to have!

The bit about spellbooks is my favorite, I've always wanted to make a rogue utilizing the bookish rogue feat, but PFS was always unclear on how to get one.

For versatility within this discussion , another favorite is that animals know how to use there feats!

Many of these were former clarifications scattered across many, many message board posts. It is nice to see them united all in one place. I was also delighted by the spellbook clarification. My studious librarian bard, Cup, can now get a spellbook without dipping wizard or arcanist. She can even scribe her own spells! This is so exciting!

The one that I find most interesting from a theory crafting point of view is the one that allows you to combine a race boon with racial heritage feat to unlock racial options. Does this mean that racial archetypes can be unlocked with boons and the right feats? Very interesting, indeed. How about racial only spells, like Windy Escape? That is one that I expect to see more questions on in the future, frankly, but given that it requires the expenditures of a race boon, I don't suspect we'll see much of that in Flaxseed. It'll likely only happen with the GM Hardcore crowd (*cough* Minnesota *cough* Gen and PaizoCon *cough*.)

Still interesting, though!

Hmm

^Yeah, I expect you're mainly likely to see that with folks who happen to have a bunch of race boons to burn. Speaking for myself I'd probably keep any that I had to actually make a character with or trade them for a different race that I wanted. You're right though, still interesting!

And of course I'm always happy to see more clarifications one way or another regarding familiars and the like :)

One thing that fascinates me is that Paizo keeps creating ways to use up race boons: ganzis and super sulis (those made up from the four elemental boons), and the xenophile and xenophobia boons. To me, it's special enough to just get an option to play some of these races. I cannot imagine choosing an option that will use up multiple race boons on a single character, but there are GMs who get far more race boons than they'll ever get a chance to play. This is likely a way to keep that group engaged and still excited about the boons they earn.

Hmm

I think you're right; I've seen lots of folks posting in the Trade thread and elsewhere that reference having tons of boons to play with so something like the Ganzi option, etc. give folks like that something else to do with their boons instead of letting them pile up. I'm with you though, if I ever end up getting a race boon I'd almost certainly use it unless it's something I really, really don't have an interest in.

This makes me happy:

What are the rules for upgrading weapons, armor, and wondrous items?

You may upgrade one weapon, armor, or wondrous item to another as long as the new item occupies the same slot, is made of the same material, has the same general shape, and has all of the abilities of the original item. For example, you can upgrade a +1 longsword into a +1 frost longsword or a cloak of resistance +1 into a cloak of resistance +2. You may also upgrade a magic weapon or armor into one of the named weapons or armors, such as upgrading a +1 banded mail into a banded mail of luck. As another example, you can upgrade a belt of incredible dexterity +2 into a belt of the weasel from Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Equipment , which grants a +2 enhancement bonus to Dexterity as well as other benefits.

To upgrade a magic item, pay the difference in price between the new item and the original item.

No arcane spell failure on scrolls is pretty sweet, too.

Scrolls: We've cleared up the rules around scrolls, such as codifying their arcane spell failure chance, the rules for scrolls with multiple spells, and the rules for determining which ability score is appropriate to use when activating a scroll with the Use Magic Device skill.

Glad to see you all doing your homework!

Speaking of homework, I'd love to have you all comment on GM ofAnything's game. So far, it looks pretty good. I am enjoying your take on Professor Qlororum and the pacing is nice!

Hmm

Of Anything is going well. The professor being his own entity is a nice touch. I recommend, however, that you only use that method for NPC's that will be very present in the game. If you make aliases for everything you will soon have more aliases than you know what to do with.

Also, good use of strong adjectives.

At a table, I generally put familiars on the same initiative as their master. It's more effort than it's worth tracking separate init for a creature that likely won't meaningfully participate. No offence to Mr. Sunshine

The game is rocketing along. I woke up this morning at 14 posts in the gameplay thread.

I was totally teasing... And letting you know I was still there and reading!

Hmm

I really tried to balance the pacing. On one hand, we have seven players and there is only so much information to learn. On the other, I wanted every character a chance to say something to the professor.

How to handle animal companions, eidolons, phantoms, and familiars in initiative is a good thing to know, though! In the future, I plan on putting Fran + Mr. Sunshine on the block.

Also, I'm curious what stood out about this post for the three of you that hit the favorite button.

you can put Honaire and Estra on the same init... that's fine with me, and easier to handle for me as well as you.

Also, I'm curious what stood out about this post for the three of you that hit the favorite button.

Dr. Quolorum looks down his glasses and generally upward at the indignant Mathos. "You are out here with me. You'll have to tell me about what happened in Dunhab, but you were clearly up for the task. As you are this one."

His face brightens at Estra's questions, "Well, you se-" he cuts off when he notices her ectoplasmic companion. "Oh! What have we here?" Dr. Quolorum circles Honaire and mutters while he examines his instrument. "I should be able to account for the presence of this gentleman. Don't worry about the readings going off."

He pauses seeming to wait for more questions before suddenly remembering he hadn't yet answered Estra's, "When the lightning strikes, we will hurry to the strike crater. At the top of the hill, see? You adventuresome folk can protect me on the way and make sure the site is safe when we arrive. When you give the all clear, I will use my ectoplasm containers to gather some samples from the crater. After that, we can all head back to our warm beds."

He turns to Fran and continues, "Good question! I don’t know. I suspect that ectoplasmic residue from red lightning imparted this area with necrotic energy after it struck long ago. Of course, we will find out if this theory is true when the next strike occurs. Exciting, isn’t it?"

Why I liked your post:

For me, I liked it because it gives us a good idea of Dr. Q's personality and demeanor in only a few short sentences. He comes across as very serious about his work but not so full of himself that he can't be bothered to answer some questions about what we're supposed to be doing. Not to mention unwilling to let himself be pushed around by folks like Mathos ;)

Regarding familiars and such, I'm absolutely fine with having Fran and Mr. Sunshine on the same initiative and it's generally what I do/assume anyway unless the GM says otherwise (when I remember to ask, anyway).

I think I may be breaking the rules for this PFS format. It says all the characters have to be pregens? Elena isn't a pregenerated character. I just read the first page of the PP document. How should I proceed?

It used to be that for Phantom Phenomena and Silverhex that you did have to use pregens but that rule was changed last year to allow you to use your own 1st level characters! The change was announced per this blog post and was largely thanks to Hmm's efforts here last summer!

The newest quest series, Honor's Echo, does still require pregens though. I imagine that with each new quest series released, the older ones will eventually be decoupled from the pregen requirement.

GM of Anything made a good catch here, so here's the next discussion question: what do you do in PFS when you find someone who's made a build mistake and unknowingly picked an illegal option?

Hmm

No idea... Bring out the eraser or a bottle of white-out?

I guess the answers would vary a bit F2F versus PbP and also when the error is caught. For PbP if the error was caught prior to the game then I'd just advise the player on changing the option for something legal and give them the time to do so before the game started. If I or someone else caught an error mid-game...I guess it depends on how big of an error. Anything particularly minor I'd let them change mid-game but if it was something that would involve a lot of character rebuilding then it might have to wait until after the game?

Heh.

Generally speaking, if someone has brought an illegal character option and it's an honest mistake, let them fix it if there is a legal option that can be traded out. Don't charge the retraining cost, just fix it.

One of my former VCs wrote this:

There is a huge difference to having something that's illegal when you don't realize that it is. Nobody is suggesting tearing up chronicle sheets and invalidating the table.

Those are teachable moments. You learn from the mistake, and hopefully don't make it again. And you take the time to correct things immediately.

But noticing someone has an illegal character prior to the start of play, you do something to correct the situation as best you can at the moment. There are many options to correct things.

"Ok, well for now you can't use that item. We can look at the rules and see if we can help you find an item to replace it with after the session."

If its an item that is integral to a character, like they made their weapon +2 at 22 Fame instead of 27 (an easy mistake to make) you just have them erase a +1 from their to hit and damage for the duration of the session.

"Ok, well you don't have that archetype for now, assume you are playing a standard Bard until after the session and then we can go over your character and get it legal."

"Ok, well you can't play a Gnoll. How quick do you think you could change it to Human or Half-Orc for now, and then after the session we will work to help you create a character that fits your concept and is legal."

If the fix will take more than 5 minutes and time is tight, then you can have someone help them make changes as game play progresses. If its too complicated and difficult and/or the scenario is too complicated for that player to be distracted, then you offer a pregen.

There are many other ways you can handle things to make sure they are presently legal and that you ensure they will get a character they are happy with before the next session.

If the player is completely unwilling to do any modification or play a pregen and insists on playing their illegal character. Then I won't just let them walk away, I'll tell them to go.

There are mistakes, and there are willful actions. Mistakes are usually just that, mistakes. They are honest, and not malicious. People make them. We have to make allowances for that.

Most illegal options are things that have simple fixes or exchanges. A lot of times it's a single spell or a trait or something else that might be slightly off. Or they have an illegal archetype. You do what GM ofAnything did, and gently point out the issue, and offer an alternative.

Sometimes those fixes can be in a character's favor -- Hey, you built this character with 15pt buy. We owe you more attributes!

Don't worry about scanning your characters for illegal options. You're not here to be the character police. But if something strikes you as genuinely off, don't be afraid to ask or gently point it out.

Hmm

Speaking as the scofflaw in question here, I can say that the way OfAnything handled it was spot on. I didn't feel attacked or degraded, I mostly felt embarrassed that I'd let those mistakes slip through and motivated to remedy them.

Which is block posting and which is vertical posting?

QUESTIONS: INITIATIVE FORMATTING

Which is block posting and which is vertical posting?

Vertical posting looks like a drop-down menu, with all the initiative names in a column.

By block posting, I am guessing that GM ofAnything is referring to an initiative tracker that is one horizontal list of names, like this:

ORDER: Ventiine, Ietsuna, Writer's Block, Rest of Party

Ventiine and Ietsuna are up!

I am intrigued that most people find vertical lists easier to read. For aesthetics, I prefer the less cluttered-looking (to me) horizontal line. Obviously, go with whatever works for you and your players!

QUESTIONS: SCENARIO RECOMMENDATIONS

Hi GM Hmm,

I am really digging the GM101 and look forward to my turn in the captain's chair.

What would you recommend for the PbP game that I have committed to running once this is done. I am looking to start prepping. Would you suggest a quest series like this one, or something else? I have all of season 5 and season 6 thanks to humble bundles.

Thanks
Ietsuna

I am opening this question up to the main thread. I think that the best scenarios to get started on are low tier and uncomplicated. For PbP, they should also have lots of opportunity for roleplay!

Evergreens will always see players. So if you want to do a quest series or the Confirmation or Wounded Wisp, you will always get players.

But... Let's look at other options in Seasons 5 & 6.

___

5-01 Glass River Rescue -- straight forward, and I had fun.

5-04 Stolen Heir -- This one is thin, and a bit too simple for my tastes. Still it is easy to run and might be a good one to enrich in PBP and to bring out the hoky mock Galtan accents for. "Die, 'ounds of the Aristocracy!"

5-11 Library of the Lion -- Great for RP.

5-12, 5-15 & 5-16 Destiny of the Sands -- As much as I like these, I'd skip them. You don't want to mess with mythic rules yet.

5-14 Day of the Demon. Simple, creepy, classic.

5-19 Horn of Aroden. Simple. I found it a bit too simple, and wanted more "there" there.

5-22 Scars of the Third Crusade. This will take tons of work for a new GM, so skip it for now. HOWEVER, it is sand boxy and awesome. This could be a great thing to run in PbP.

___

6-01 Trial by Machine. It's cool, but DEADLY. Robots, hardness and all sorts of other things that can TPK a low level party. I would not do this as my first one out. (This was my very first adventure in PFS. Somehow, my tier 1-2 party survived it with great teamwork. Amazingly, I came back to PFS afterwards.)

6-06 Hall of the Flesh Eaters. Also deadly, but kind of awesome too. It stars my favorite VC, Calisro Benarry.

6-09 By Way of Bloodcove. Actually a fairly straight forward adventure with some good local flavor.

6-15 Overflow Archives. One of my favorite adventures of ALL TIME. My bard Nixie, wants me to burn a star for that one.

There are actually a lot of great adventures in Seasons 5 & 6, but I will let others chime in with their recommendations.