Redelia's GM school (Inactive)

Game Master Redelia

That's a great story. Wish I had an equivelent.

Thanks! If you’re in the Sagamore and see a middle-aged couple with their two teenage kids at a tier 5-6 table during either of the PFS specials, or a tier 1-2 table at the Saturday night SFS special, there’s a good chance that will be my family and me - come say hi!

I may catch you for that Friday special then, as my ticket is for the 5-6 tier that day too, and one of the regulars at the site I play at has asked me watch/play with his daughter, (she's also a regular) since he and his older daughter want to retire their lvl11 characters on the special.

The Basilica quest has concluded. Handing off to whoever is running Blade. I imagine we'll want to wait until after GenCon?

That's up to GM Wageslave.

I dotted into the 'Blade' Gameplay thread, and it looks like Dol Stormmaul and Maskini have, too.

If our GM is up to starting now, I'll post as often as I can, though it might not be every day during Gen Con.

I don't know if this particular resource has been pointed out here, but Redelia reminded me of PFSPrep, for resources organized by module or scenario.

I'm using it to fill out what is a very weak, non-PFS-like intro to Master of the Fallen Fortress. People have written up some fantastic alternates there.

The Honor's Echo resources appear to have consolidated stat blocks and worksheets for the social encounters. Maybe not quite as useful for this scenario, but a resource worthy of keeping in mind anyway.

For the last question, I actually need to post things with two different hats, so I'll make two posts. In this post, I'm wearing the hat of running GM school.

In terms of what to roll for players, I do roll initiative for everyone, and I will roll a block of perceptions for everyone when they enter a new area. I very rarely roll saves (and if I do, it's only reflex saves). I also almost never roll AoOs or anything like that. The only time I can think of, I took a characters parry/riposte rolls and used it for an AoO for moving away.

The above is when a player is posting regularly, of course. For games running at standard speed, I expect one post a day, one post a weekend. If someone has not posted and it has been at least that long since my post requesting something from them, I roll for them and act for them. I read and listen to any bot me spoilers they have. If they don't have them, I do the best I can from observing what they have done recently. I don't use up precious resources, although I've used a CLW charge if it's badly needed.

I don't think you can refuse to bot if someone doesn't have a bot me, because then the game comes to a screeching halt. You can have them delay, but that is still a bot. The point of a bot me isn't that you can't otherwise, it's so you can be more likely to bot the way the player would choose.

Now switching to my Venture Agent hat.

It has been made clear from statements made by those above us that in PFS, we cannot bot players unless we tell them ahead of time we might, or they have bot me spoilers. Having a botting policy in your GM profile is usually considered the best way to do this.

**************ASSIGNMENT**************

I need each of you to include a botting policy in your GM profile. If you look at the profiles of other GMs, you'll get some ideas for your own. Feel free to discuss or ask for input on your policy here, if you want.

done.

Done:

Relevant: Bot Buddy’s Guide to Play-by-Post Character Botting

For some reason, the Edit Profile button isn’t appearing for me. But here’s the botting policy I’ve worked out;
Botting Policy
If it is combat, and it has been over 24 hours of you being the only one left to act, I will bot you. The same applies to skill checks that you need to make.
If you do not have a Bot Me spoiler in your profile, I will use my best judgement as to what your character would do. However, unless you give permission in your Bot Me spoiler, I will not use up limited-use items, spell slots above 0, or abilities.
To help separate botted players from my GM posts, I will be using this alias to post botted player actions.
Edit: Now the links are acting up. The link to my bot alias is paizo.com/people/PlayerSimulator.

Tangent Talk!

I was just talking to a few Grognard friends coming back from Gen Con. Like a lot of people here, there are some 1e and 2e alums. We were discussing GMing, the playtest, etc. and we hit on a thread that we haven't discussed much here.

Rules mastery.

What's in vogue for GM skills can change over time, and like most things, it's a pendulum for individual skills. Right now there's a big upswing in fluff skills (over crunch skills), but a great GM needs both. In the crunch category, one thing that we all agreed was key is rules mastery.

It's an extra responsibility, but it's worth knowing the game inside and out. You get there by playing the game obviously, but you also get there by testing, talking, and reading.

Play by post gives us a unique safety net over face to face play in that we can look stuff up and take our time. Still, it's worth it to make an effort into spending a real life feat on Skill Focus (rules.)

So, is having a bot alias rather than simply stating with your GM post that you are botting a particular character (and the reasons for it) really preferable?

My initial thought is that adds an unnecessary layer and drain on time to switch back and forth. Am I alone in this? Is there a benefit beyond simply distinguishing posts (which in my games I've done with BOLD CAPS to indicating botting) that I am missing?

Here is my botting policy

I don't have a bot alias, because I don't want to separate out my botting from everything else I do. I normally narrate back to players what they did, including the results. I include any botting mixed in with this, because I find that least disruptive to telling the story. I think this is definitely an issue where you should do what works for you.

Play by post gives us a unique safety net over face to face play in that we can look stuff up and take our time. Still, it's worth it to make an effort into spending a real life feat on Skill Focus (rules.)

I couldn't agree more.

Question 1: How do you deal with a character who has a feat/class/item that you have never dealt with before and you suspect they are interpreting the rules incorrectly?

This must happen all of the time in PFS, especially with all of the Power Gamers around.

Question 2: As a player, how do you handle when you are playing with a GM who clearly does NOT understand the rules?

Indeed, it does happen a lot. Often at F2F conventions I take tables on with those players.

Question 1: How do you deal with a character who has a feat/class/item that you have never dealt with before and you suspect they are interpreting the rules incorrectly?

F2F and PbP I ask ahead of time if there's anything "weird" about a player's character. If possible I then research it ASAP. Via PbP I will also search FAQs, etc.

Question 2: As a player, how do you handle when you are playing with a GM who clearly does NOT understand the rules?

I won't lie, I'm extremely picky about who I sign up to play under. I typically research someone first, or go based on the recommendation of fellow players who have a similar style as my own. When playing under a newer GM, often I switch to teacher mode. For right or wrong, playing this game nonstop for 30 years gives me a little leeway when it comes to privately talking to a GM about their rules application. That's not a great answer, but it's an honest one.

Indeed, it does happen a lot. Often at F2F conventions I take tables on with those players.

Quote:

Question 1: How do you deal with a character who has a feat/class/item that you have never dealt with before and you suspect they are interpreting the rules incorrectly?

F2F and PbP I ask ahead of time if there's anything "weird" about a player's character. If possible I then research it ASAP. Via PbP I will also search FAQs, etc.

Quote:

Question 2: As a player, how do you handle when you are playing with a GM who clearly does NOT understand the rules?

I won't lie, I'm extremely picky about who I sign up to play under. I typically research someone first, or go based on the recommendation of fellow players who have a similar style as my own. When playing under a newer GM, often I switch to teacher mode. For right or wrong, playing this game nonstop for 30 years gives me a little leeway when it comes to privately talking to a GM about their rules application. That's not a great answer, but it's an honest one.

I've got a few PbP sessions under my belt now and given the time investment, picking the right GM is so crucial. I've had a couple super amazing GMs and a few that just ran awful games devoid of RP or just handled games badly.

I love that PbP allows me to research and reference different mechanics to interpret character builds correctly.

Agreed. I like my games to have a solid balance of role-play (there's definitely such a thing as too much, not just too little, for my tastes) and tactically sound combat. I like GMs who know the rules, know the setting, take the game seriously, but not themselves, and who post with some speed.

I enjoy multiple different styles of games, so I have a long list of GMs who I enjoy playing with who run those different styles well. I also have a very high bandwidth, so I do sometimes sign up with a new GM just to try to get to know more people in our lodge. However, I have a few favorite characters, and they only play under GMs who I believe will do justice to my favorites.

To answer one of the questions above, if I am playing under a GM who I think is misinterpreting rules, I politely raise the point in discussion. If it needs to be discussed further, I use private messages, since such things are much easier to take in private than in public. I also first make sure that the GM is actually wrong, rather than disagreeing with me on a grey area.

I updated my profile with my botting policy.

For the rules questions: in face-to-face I have a GM policy with my players. When encountering a rule that I'm not familiar with, I make my best guess/judgement about how to handle it and then move on. However, I tell the players that my handling of that rule is subject to change in future sessions after I go review the rules. This compromise allows me to keep the game moving.

I suspect in PbP I will do something similar. If I can't figure out the rules after some basic research, I will do my best but allow myself to adjust later if needed.

When I'm playing with a GM who doesn't understand the rules correctly, I try to figure out if the GM is open to suggestions. If the GM is not, then I just avoid the situations that involve the iffy rules.

Ultimately, I'm playing to have fun. I can make almost any situation fun as long as I don't get myself worked up over it.

Indeed, it does happen a lot. Often at F2F conventions I take tables on with those players.

Quote:

Question 1: How do you deal with a character who has a feat/class/item that you have never dealt with before and you suspect they are interpreting the rules incorrectly?

F2F and PbP I ask ahead of time if there's anything "weird" about a player's character. If possible I then research it ASAP. Via PbP I will also search FAQs, etc.

Quote:

Question 2: As a player, how do you handle when you are playing with a GM who clearly does NOT understand the rules?

I won't lie, I'm extremely picky about who I sign up to play under. I typically research someone first, or go based on the recommendation of fellow players who have a similar style as my own. When playing under a newer GM, often I switch to teacher mode. For right or wrong, playing this game nonstop for 30 years gives me a little leeway when it comes to privately talking to a GM about their rules application. That's not a great answer, but it's an honest one.

I've only been back at this for roughly 2.5 years after a many years absence that began after AD&D2e, so at this point I think I'm still up for an ample amount of guidance and would welcome it.

I'm currently running with the DamonLuos version, will adjust as gameplay dictates.

ALSO:

Players in GM Wageslave's 'Blade' run, please pick up the White Courtesy Phone

Adopted a simple and straight forward botting policy rather than reinventing the wheel.

ASSIGNMENT:

The new version of the PFS guide has just been releases. Please read it carefully, and ask questions about anything there which is unclear to you.

Okay, how is the reporting section to be handled for online?

Ah, you mean the change being able to buy stuff after the adventure? It's too early to answer that one. We (i.e. all the PFS players and GMs) are waiting for them to clarify that section, because it doesn't seem to say what they think it does.

Okay, how is the reporting section to be handled for online?

It's currently pretty messily explained, but in practice for now, don't change what you're doing until you get an update. For better or worse, the shift in buying stuff has been de facto for years. So, just do your thing until clarification is given.

---------
If you're asking specifically for GM school, each person will do one other player's complete chronicle.

@GM Wageslave,
Regarding the GM school, I agree with Dungeon Master S.
If each of us reports the quest we GM, everyone will gain the practical experience of putting together a Chronicle sheet in PbP and set up an 'event' online that each can use for reporting future PbP sessions he or she GMs.
This would be a useful takeaway from the GM School.

There is one event for the GM school to which everything needs to be reported.

It is indeed the intention that each participant will prepare one chronicle.

In terms of reporting, the entire quest series can only be reported once, and only the table mentors can be reported as GM. I'm working on a way to give each person as much experience with the system as possible.

I'm counting on learning how to fill out chronicles before gameday session 1 ends :D

noted. :)

Indeed, it does happen a lot. Often at F2F conventions I take tables on with those players.

Quote:

Question 1: How do you deal with a character who has a feat/class/item that you have never dealt with before and you suspect they are interpreting the rules incorrectly?

F2F and PbP I ask ahead of time if there's anything "weird" about a player's character. If possible I then research it ASAP. Via PbP I will also search FAQs, etc.

At Gen Con, my wife, daughter, son, and I played both PFS specials and a Friday afternoon game at the 5-6 tier; my character leveled up to 6 after the Thursday nigh special. The character I was playing is a little unusual - he is a librarian/halfling jinx/oracle of time, built for knowledge skills and diplomacy out of combat and as a debuffer in combat. Between Kepli and Lucy, my wife's cleric of Desna (luck and travel domains), plus some funky choices my daughter's barbarian has taken, when we sit at a table together, there are a lot of recolls or roll twice and take the best/worst, etc. (and that is without my oracle taking misfortune). Lucy's abilities are pretty straightforward, but I've made some offbeat choices with Kepli, and to help our GMs (and me) keep everything straight during the games, I made these cards with a summary of his main special abilities on one side and the details of his jinx ability on the other (I had to print two versions, one at level 5 and the other at level 6).

That reminds me - I want to give a shout-out to GM Blue Moose and his young friend - my family and I had a terrific time playing 8-99C with them on Friday night.

Bottling policy added to my profile page.

Hi, everyone. Since we don't really have a time pressure to complete our discussion here, I'll wait until the site is dependably up to start another topic of conversation. If you have any questions or topics you want to talk about before then, feel free the bring them up.

Have any issues come up in your games for school that you would like to discuss here? Is everything going OK?

my PM box is open, if you would like to raise a topic of discussion anonymously, too

Still plugging away, but I've struggled lately to give this important effort the attention it deserves with the ongoing Special and the rest of PbP Gameday events.

In the future, I'll probably volunteer support to GM Schools in the windows between major events.

Admittedly, the site issues have been a huge stumbling block.

Yep. The site issues slowed my momentum a lot. I'm getting back up to speed on all my games and also this thread.

I think out group has been plugging along well. The site issues naturally had an impact, but the result was primarily a truncation of the denouement of one session.

We entered the next session with renewed vigor.

@Lorenzo, I wouldn't worry about any perceived inattention, I didn't see many needs for you to step in with advice until recently (when you did step in and provide much appreciated advice).

Admittedly, the site issues have been a huge stumbling block.

Same here, plus a rough patch at work (which can happen anytime).

I'm counting on learning how to fill out chronicles before gameday session 1 ends :D

So, on this topic: The society guide has a pretty good writeup on how to actually fill out the chronicles, so this seems simple enough.

However, the discussion on "reporting" assumes you have an event assigned to you to report on. When I go to my GM/coordinator tab I don't see anything to report.

If I were to recruit an ad-hoc PbP session, I would assume I do need to create my own event to report against.

However, if I'm running a game for GameDay VII, do I wait for it to be assigned to me by the coordinators?

Redelia has answered this as far as the GM school is concerned.

Reporting is a problem. Or it ought to be. (I'm still missing player and GM sessions from PaizoCon and GenCon. Another con, Gamestorm, I attended in Portland this spring, NONE of the sessions got reported. Unbelievable.)

During a previous PbP Con, I collected the session reports from the GMs via the online reporting system set up for the event, and then I did all the reporting to Paizo for the event, as GMs submitted them. Thank God, I didn't wait till the end. There were a LOT of sessions, and the Paizo system is notoriously fickle, sometimes failing to log a session you thought you successfully reported. Doing a dozen or so a day as they came in, I was able to confirm each one 'took.'

I'm not sure if that's how reporting to Paizo is being handled this time, but here's the link Hmm set up for reporting Gameday VII sessions you're running.

Re Chronicles, the event is Play-by-Post Gameday VII, event #686641.

Does this answer your questions?

Right, I recall she'd stated only the mentors would report GM school.

Yes, this answers my question for gameday (thanks!)

I assume, since no comment, that my intuition was right about ad-hoc PbP games: just create a custom event. Additionally, do GMs keep long-running events to report many sessions under, or have to create one per session?

Most GMs do use one event for years at a time for their games that aren't part of a convention. I have two events, one for PbP games I GM, and the other for home games with family. (I also have a GM school event I plan to use for this and future GM schools, but that's not really relevant here.)

I keep a few open:

Home Game (APs)
Unofficial Lodge (F2F, VTT, and PbP games)
Random Pick up games (Any setting not otherwise attached.)

Excellent. Thank you all for the input!

Hi, everyone, I'm not feeling well, so probably won't be checking on this thread for a few days. Hopefully one of the table mentors will answer any questions you have.

Get well soon. Rest. Drink water. Binge watch a favorite show on Netflix.

Just a heads up that I leave for an 11 day trip out of the country on the 19th. I'll have an ipad and can post some but will not be reliable.

New discussion topic: What can we do when the players begin to wander off the path in the adventure?

Here is the relevant text from the 'GM 101' free resource:

"In Pathfinder Society Organized Play, the GM has less freedom
to go where the players want to go, leading to “railroaded”
scenarios. There are several things that you can do when the
players wander off the proverbial path.
Out of Character: “Hey folks, that’s really beyond the scope of
this scenario.” Politely ask for your players to get back on track.
This is the most straightforward and least time-consuming
method, but it breaks verisimilitude.
Improvisation: “Sure, you can do that!” Doing what your
players want is encouraged; however, remember to keep
an eye on your time, and use the improvisation to lead the
players back to the adventure.
Don’t Stagnate: However you choose to handle player
choice, remember that the worst thing that can happen
is the adventure going nowhere, especially with PFS time
constraints. You are in charge of the table; do whatever you
have to in order to keep the story moving and to prevent your
players from growing bored."

In PbP, we have a bit less time pressure, which makes it more possible to follow where the players want to go, and then find a way to pull them back to the path. The issue is that can still use up resources and leave players confused about what else is supposed to happen.

What do you guys think? Have you faced a situation like this, or been a player in such a situation?