Solstice Scar GM Thread - Session Two (Inactive)

Game Master Granta

Yep, take a break if you think that's better for your table.

Just finished up a fight about 5 minutes ago. Should/can I go ahead and forgo getting 1 (maybe 2) rounds into a fresh fight today since we're just going to move to Voice of the Shadow on the 15th?

I just started a new one this morning. I say give them a chance for another success!

But, you can leave it up to them as well... if they want a quick break...

I am going to be heading up to Jim Con in Winnipeg MB on Friday... wasn't worried about it until I realized that the extension put the game on that weekend.

While I would normally just post as I could, this will be the final encounter, so I probably should get a backup to cover for this weekend, if anyone is available. Dates would be 11/17-11/19.

Thank you!

Backup GMs, can either of you cover me this weekend?

GM Silbeg wrote:

I am going to be heading up to Jim Con in Winnipeg MB on Friday... wasn't worried about it until I realized that the extension put the game on that weekend.

While I would normally just post as I could, this will be the final encounter, so I probably should get a backup to cover for this weekend, if anyone is available. Dates would be 11/17-11/19.

Thank you!

Backup GMs, can either of you cover me this weekend?

I got you covered. Added in Backup gm calender.

Anyone else getting lots of disconnects again? Last 48 hours have been rough again from my side on Paizo.

GM Silbeg wrote:

GM Silbeg wrote:

I am going to be heading up to Jim Con in Winnipeg MB on Friday... wasn't worried about it until I realized that the extension put the game on that weekend.

While I would normally just post as I could, this will be the final encounter, so I probably should get a backup to cover for this weekend, if anyone is available. Dates would be 11/17-11/19.

Thank you!

Backup GMs, can either of you cover me this weekend?

I got you covered. Added in Backup gm calender.

thanks!

We are close to a success milestone, so I will wait as long as possible before advancing the schedule. We've got at most 10-12 hours from now.

Just reported one. Not sure we can do another in 10-12 hours...

My guys are almost done with Seeking Aid so I should have one or two successes to report soon.

Yeah, my table is unlikely to finish their current encounter. They blew by the first two combat encounters, and decided to play up to a 5-6 combat encounter. Been a little rough on them.

Still, they had three successes, so far.

My group elected to do Seeking Aid first, then just finished another encounter. They've been slow enough that there's no way we could get another one done today.

I have a 28 hp dragon in front of a party that can easily do 40-50 damage in a round. It's all a matter of who posts. So I might be able to get 1 more success in very quickly.

Do Seeking Aid diplomatic successes count toward the successes we need? I didn't think that they did.

Do Seeking Aid diplomatic successes count toward the successes we need? I didn't think that they did.

Yes, but a double diplomatic success only counts as a single regular success.

It looks like we've hit the mark, so I will advance us as soon as I get home.

My guys are still working on the first fight. Some confusion and a lack of damage ability has been hampering them.

Remind them that if a particular encounter is overwhelming them that they can fall back to the edge of the map and regroup. Some of these encounters favor different party compositions, and knowing when to fold is important.

Because of the site outages, we have extended the special past the end of Gameday VI. However, that means we need to report our games before they actually end. So, by November 17, please follow the directions below:

REPORTING LINK:

Report Here

This year, Lawrence Smith (VC Washington-SW) is helping me report games in PBP Gameday VI Headquarters. So don't be surprised if you and your players receive an email from him with your boons or questions about reporting.

GM BOONS:

If you GM PFS, you get a Samsaran.
If you GM SFS, you get a Legacy Race Boon, allowing you to play any of the pathfinder legacy races in SFS.

If you are GMing for both campaigns, you may choose one or the other. Please let me know which GM boon you wish to receive when you report your first table. I would love it if all GMs type Samsaran or Legacy into the note field when reporting their tables to make it easier for me to figure out which boon you get.

PLAYER BOONS:

At the end of your game, either have players roll a d20 for themselves or have the GM roll for everyone. GMs are always included in these rolls. Provide us with the player email addresses of all winners.

PFS: If you roll a 19 or 20, please roll a d4 to determine which player boon you receive.

The player boons this year are flavorful. We have two that are tied strongly to factions, a mounted tradition boon, and hang in there -- a boon that gives you a bit more time for another party member to revive you with breath of life.

Nightdeath and TMBTC, please PM me the information for your chronicle sheets, as I'll be issuing yours. You may choose either campaign.

Granta: 1d20 ⇒ 11 1d4 ⇒ 1
Nightdeath: 1d20 ⇒ 15 1d4 ⇒ 2
TMBTC: 1d20 ⇒ 19 1d4 ⇒ 1

It's not clear to me from the text: What time of day is it? What is the ambient light condition? Is the light different inside the circle?

It's not clear to me from the text: What time of day is it? What is the ambient light condition? Is the light different inside the circle?

The red block text on page 31 mentions hurrying to "get there by midnight". And since the red block text on page 38 mentions starlight rather than moonlight, I would assume darkness. If you do treat inside the circle as different than outside, I would keep the same light level, but make it magical rather than normal, i.e. a torch wouldn't help but a spell could.

Thanks, I had forgotten the "get there by midnight" bit. Given that it's not a cloudy night (since we can see stars), and I'm a softy in low-level games, I'm going to go with low-light outside the circle and dark within.

I'm having a difficult time with party post rate. We have been barely able to finish a fight this whole time. Right now the party (10-11) brought very little to deal with the light level.
Most of the fights have been quite difficult for the party and I feel that they feel burnt out. Any thoughts on how to get them moving? and if they can't finish the fight, what are the consequences?

There are no consequences for not finishing, and probably little you can do this late in the scenario--except be glad it is almost over.

Thanks for overseeing, Granta! Making sure all the prep work was available right from the start was a huuuge time saver!

It was a big time saver. I just wish we had more time. My players only finished one fight the entire module and they ended up skipping encounter “I” because they never got pass “H”.
Part of it was that their builds were not suited to rapid combat, more about negating enemy attacks than doing damage themselves. In the future I think I will discourage these types of options for PbP game days, especially if they make up a big portion of the group.
Thoughts?

Thank you Granta, GM Lorenzo, and everyone else who worked behind the scenes to provide maps, tokens, pre-formatted posts, etc. They really did save quite a lot of time and I think it's something that should (and hopefully will) be done again for future Special runs.

Regarding individual table experiences, my group were mostly slow-moving melee fighters without much in the way of ranged options besides one dedicated archer PC. When they were able to close with the enemy, such as during the museum and some of the orc ambush fights, they mowed things down pretty quickly. A couple of the later fights and especially the end saw a lot of time being spent simply moving forward, enough so that in the last battle I tried to speed things up by just allowing them to take two to three turns of movement actions at once so they could close the distance - especially since I understood it as the bad guys wouldn't leave the circle at all or at least not until someone got pretty close to it.

Skill-wise, they had a Lore oracle who absolutely blew most of the checks she attempted out of the water. Between that and a smattering of skills between the rest of the group, they didn't have too much trouble with chatting up the orc leaders or the Twinhorn council.

I'm tempted to encourage future Special tables of mine that they might want to form up with a little more of an eye towards party balance than they would for a normal scenario. Most of the Specials I've participated in as a player have quite a lot of combat focus and the more recent ones also feature some heavy skill sections as well. Having some capability to tackle both seems to make group's lives much easier - and the experience more enjoyable.

Of course I also learned a lot myself as a GM since this was my first time running a table for a Special. My group seemed to enjoy themselves, thankfully. However I do have to wonder if my general schedule makes me a poor fit for GMing one of these, as the nature of my work schedule (10 hour shifts, usually 4 days a week, plus the drive being roughly 2 hours round trip) often leaves me unable to check the forums and make posts for extended periods of time some days. For a normal game, even a normal Gameday game, it's not much of an issue. For a timed Special though, I have to wonder. Something for me to chew on, I suppose.

My group had the same issues with distance, and having run this F2F on Saturday, my group there had the same issue. The last battle, in particular, took forever for them to even get over to the circle. They didn't even engage the enemies there until Sunday, even with me posting every few hours and botting people as double moves forward.

I'll close the thread down after Thanksgiving, assuming there's no new posts.