The Flaxseed Pathfinder Lodge: Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Game Master Redelia

Cheers to Redelia and Tyranius! (I hope this won't make you too busy to keep running great games!)

posty post works?

HUJK

*edit: Random keyboard smashing post works!

Huzzah!

I can has post?

I can post, but I do not see forum notifications.

Everyone, this would be a good time to set up backup communication channels for your games on hangouts in case we go down again. I am waiting on the email blast, because some people are telling me they still can’t post.

Let’s cross our fingers that we get to all come back.

Hugs,
Hmm

Testing~

I can post, but I do not see forum notifications.

Everyone, this would be a good time to set up backup communication channels for your games on hangouts in case we go down again. I am waiting on the email blast, because some people are telling me they still can’t post.

Let’s cross our fingers that we get to all come back.

Hugs,
Hmm

Does Paizo outsource their web servers? Just curious...when I tried to post Sunday morning, got that error saying the sysadmin had been notified...and then I later sent an e-mail to their webmaster. Then I read a Paizo reply to a post on their Facebook site Monday morning thanking a user for letting them know that there was a posting issue...just wondering if it really took them that long to know there was a problem or if it was just a generic reply...

Is there a discord for Paizo's PbP?

Not a dedicated server, but we do have a channel on the PFS discord.

Is there a discord for Paizo's PbP?

pfschat.com

Fair warning: The Discord channel is HUGE with a ton of different channels. Once in the Discord, scroll to almost the bottom. It's listed under "events." It is called "#pbp_gameday_vii"

The site seems to be working everywhere except for the the one game I am GMing.

Is there someone I need to notify? I probably just need to wait another day or so, but figured I would ask just in case someone has some inside knowledge.

♫ Mes chers Flaxseed friends, it is with deepest pride
And greatest pleasure that we welcome you tonight
And now we invite you to come back, reopen your games
As the Venture Crew proudly presents
Your Adventures!

Fight by fight, one by one
'Til you shout, "enough I'm done!"
As we all claim to have done our utmost
Tonight you'll prop your feet up
But for now, let's feat up
Play-by-Post
Play-by-Post
Play-by-Post
Please, Play-by-Post! ♫

And let’s cross our fingers that it stays that way.

Hmm

Bravo!

Yay! Welcome back, PbP friends!

Good to be back! Thank you all for the fun we had on Discord, it was nice to get to know you a bit better out of game!

Wheeeeee!

Hooray!

We're back!

"Aaaaaaand we're back!" Perram exclaims.

In the voice of Brian Blessed...

"FORUMS ALIVE???"

"Once upon this past week dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious Pathfinder sessions, I could post no more.
While I nodded, nearly drowsy, dreaming posts that were not lousy,
Came an error on my browsy, 'Paizo's down,' which makes me roar,
'When will this freakin' site be fixed' as I sink back upon the floor.
Quoth my ranger, 'Nevermore.'

Now the website's up I'm happy, I no longer think it's crappy,
No need for me to be sappy, I've got to run and post some more,
I can't let my ranger Flyn be slackin', last I heard he was a trackin'
Foul Razmirans that were lackin' a treasure behind some hidden door,
All things in Golarion are up and running, back to business as before,
Hopefully, forevermore..."

By the way - and as always - be sure to check your Gameplay tabs because I've already spotted a game or two of mine that aren't updating when there's a new post!

We have overcome The Gap!

I missed everyone.

found the Men Without Hats fan....

We missed you, too!

I tried to get news out through alternate channels — facebook, the PFSchat discord, and GM emails — but it’s not the same as being able to talk while here.

Gang, if we go down again, we have a channel #pbp_gameday_vii on the PFSchat.com discord. That’s our emergency blackout news center and gathering spot.

I hope we don’t have to use it again, but it’s there as a backup if we need it.

Hmm

For time beyond the event, there is also the #play_by_post_chat channel.

Perhaps lodge (and station) channels would be good to? (this feels like talking to your family about where to meet outside in case of a fire)

I think lodge and station channels are not needed. We can find each other in the #play_by_post_chat channel when needed. If there are too many channels it is easy to miss something.

Yep the #play_by_post channel is a great meeting place. We started it just to give the discord players a place where they could ask questions about our format, but it turned out to be very helpful.

There were many amazing jokes and photos of some of your favorite PBP people posted in the #pbp_gameday_vii channel during the blackout. So it's well worth a look.

Hugs,
Hmm

PS We really need to get player emails when we register for PBP Gameday. That way we can email everyone in the case of site issues. Somehow, we're doing this for our next con.

might i suggest adding it on to the sign up sheets? makes sense to me...

Thanks for the suggestion, grimdog. I'm not sure everyone is willing to post their email address publicly, though, with all the spam-sending (insert choice of bad names here) on the internet.

Yeah, I've been hesitant to ask for player emails, even sent through PM, as I know some people are intensely private and do not like sharing such things with someone they don't personally know in the real world - no matter how much positive interaction we might have together on the forums.

I've been wondering if we should offer a player registration google form. Just so that we VOs can contact people. This is something to really consider for RetroCon!

Hmm

and i reckon it would be a pain to create a semi disposable email for this eventuality. what about a site like roll20? create an account and use that in case of site outage? maybe create a forum for info and contact.

In my opinion the discord worked great, we just need to include the discord address in more places so people can find it.

Hello All —

This went out in an email to GMs:

UPDATES TO OUR 8-99 C SPECIAL

I have been in consultation with Tonya and John Compton about Solstice Scar, and all of our missed days. John Compton has given us his blessing to skip entirely the first section (aka ‘Part 3’) of 8-99 C. Most of your players have played it already, and given our extraordinary circumstances, he’s letting us drop it! When we restart again, we will magically fast forward to Part 4! GMs, this is something that you can prep while you are waiting for us to come back up. This should get us all back on track for the PFS Special.

BUT HILARY, WHAT ABOUT THE SFS SPECIAL, 1-99?

We’re in consultation with Tonya, John and Thursty to see if any adaptions can be made. It’s much trickier, and I am reluctant to skip any of it. So we’re talking through ideas.

YOU SAID SOMETHING ABOUT A SAMSARAN CONTEST?

Well... To be truthful, I didn’t. Debug Amp did! He wants to throw a Samsaran contest on #pbp_gameday_vii channel of http://pfschat.com — our Paizo Blackout News Station.

Since we are all in dire need of something to do.... Time for another episode of Win Debug's Unused Boons! This episode: Past Lives!

Do you have any dead characters? As in PFS/SFS marked as dead? Tell me about their deaths! Do you have a horrible living/dead ratio? Do you have any glorious ends? Embarrassing demises?

A Samsaran boon awaits you! I intend to keep this one open for a while, so put WDUB in your message so I can search on them.

And... that’s it for this update. I am, as always, your VC.

Love you folks.

Once again:

PFSchat.com

^ Go there to #pbp_gameday_vii for all your Paizo blackout news, and for a chance of winning a cool boon or seeing photos of your favorite PBP’ers.

Let’s hope we no longer need it, but there it is. Please record it somewhere.

Thanks
Hmm

Not terrifically interested in more online accounts (that goes for Roll20 too) so, I'll take a pass. It seems to me to be easier to just try to log in here and see if the site works or not. If it works, it works. If not, you don't have to sweat it much (unless CNN runs a story on a series of North Korean nuclear strikes targeting the US gaming industry). If there is a site "black out" go outside, and take some sun so you look nice, and healthy for your pictures on the chat site. Folks will understand.

Patience, they say, is a virtue. ;)

I just send this to all Gameday VII GMs:

Hi there!
You must be getting tired of getting mails from Hmm, which is why I am mailing you.
The Paizo forums are up, and we are all hoping it will stay that way. We see players returning to their games and hope everyone is resuming their games. In this mail I will answer some questions we have been getting about games that are not part of the specials.

Can I move my table (not a special) that is in progress to another official lodge?
We understand it if you and your players are fed up with the situation at Paizo. So if all your players agree, feel free to move to another official lodge (i.e. Mythweavers, RPGgeek, RollforCombat) . Please forward your original sign up mail (you know, the one that said "PbP Gameday VII - GM Session Submitted | Session ID: ....") to me and let me know where you are going. If you can not find that mail, please inform me anyway on this mail-address. We ask you to stay on the Paizo forums if there is even one player who does not want to move. Please be respectful of their opinion.

Can I move my table (not a special) that has not started to another official lodge?
Yes you can. Please contact all your players and tell them (and me, same as above), where you are moving. If a player does not want to play in a relocated game they can off course choose not to do so.

Can I move my table of a special to another lodge?
We request that for right now, special tables stay where they are. If there continue to be more outages, we will look at this again.

Will slot 2 be postponed for non-special games?
No, we will not do a central postponement of the slot 2 games. But you are free to postpone the start of your games a bit. Keep in mind that we plan to end Gameday at 30 November. If you want to postpone a couple of days inform your players and you are fine. Please be considerate of any of your players whose characters are in a slot 1 game that ends a bit late due to the site outages.

I was scheduled to play in slot 2 and I am not sure if my character will be free at the time, what should I do?
I will start by saying that is best practice not to sign up for a future game with a specific character if you are not 100% certain your character will be available. But that does not solve your problem. Maybe you can switch characters or play with a pregen. It could also be that the GM is willing to wait a couple of days to start. And finally it might mean you have to withdraw from that specific table.

Gerard, I have another question that you did not answer, what about....
I am sorry I did not answer that question, please let me know what the question is and we will get back to you.

Happy gaming!

Patience, they say, is a virtue. ;)

Of course it does have its limits. ;)

I have yet to reach mine, at least!

Hello Awesome GMs —

Sorry for the length of this email. I promise it’ll be worth your time!

This has probably been the most challenging convention that we’ve ever run — rolling Paizo outages, uncertainty, delays in specials and other games and howls of frustration every time those goblins or that ysoki mechanic have been seen.

Perhaps even more frustrating have been those bits of brief and tantalizing up-time. If you’re in the wrong time zone, it is easy to miss those rare moments of up.

We’re up right now, which is great! But we need to lay plans for what happens if Paizo goes blank on us again.

★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★

EXAMINING OPTIONS

With so much downtime, we’ve been looking at a bunch of options that suck.

Cancel the special? Make specials from two sessions overlap? Extend this convention past Thanksgiving? Organize a mass exodus off Paizo — and then where? And what about those who refuse to leave? How many players and GMs do we lose? Or worse, the question we’re asking already: are we losing players and GMs now? None of these were good choices.

I’ll tell you what we’re not doing. We’re not cancelling the specials and we’re not giving up. We need to find a way to keep gaming through the downtime, and stay engaged.

★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★

WAIT. DID YOU SAY ‘KEEP GAMING’ THROUGH THE DOWNTIME, HILARY?

Yep. Redelia (aka our VL) came up with an amazing idea that we in PBP Gameday VII are now suggesting to you.

Remember those alternate modes of communication that I asked you all to set up? I am hoping that most or many of you have a group Hangout, email group, discord or some other backup for your group.

I also figure that most of you GMs have a backup Google doc where you keep posts in progress.

We’re going to relax the rule that says you can only game on our forums, and encourage all groups to keep moving even during downtime. Most gameplay is expected to be on Paizo forums, but google hangouts or discord channels can be used to keep posting during the outages. As soon as Paizo is back up, the GM is expected to summarize what happened in the chat on the Paizo forums. (I’ve been experimenting with this with one of my groups, and they even sometimes copy their posts from the hangout to a shared google doc for me, making such summaries easy for me to edit and post back on Paizo when we go live.)

Hangouts allow dice expressions (except in mobile) and Discord can do dice with various dice roller apps. Other players can roll for mobile-only players if needed.

★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★

BUT HILARY, WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE WHO AREN’T ON GMAIL AND THUS DON’T SEE HANGOUTS?

Encourage them to get the Hangouts App. It works on almost all smart phones. You can even enable a link (under the add people icon) that you can email to them to help them join you.

Or if you have a group with old tech, do the game via email and a shared google doc to record everything. Hangouts is just preferred because people can see / hear notifications, and it seems to speed groups up that have and use them. Discord is also acceptable, though some works ban it. Find a solution that works for your group.

★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★

HOW DO YOU ROLL DICE ON HANGOUTS?

In Google Hangouts on desktop type /roll2d6 for two 6-sided dice - you can set how many dice and how many sides (including d20).

Note this does not work in mobile, so you may have to have players bot each other. It’s clunky, but it’s an option. (Or... If you trust the player, you can even let them roll real dice and report the result back. I trust that you will use this option wisely and only in more challenging circumstances.)

OTHER LOGISTICS while we’re still up

Ask your players to make off site copies of their character sheets!
Create a shared google drive for your players where those can be stowed, if needed, along with your google slides.

★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★

HOW DOES THIS WORK WITH THE SPECIALS? WHAT ABOUT SUCCESSES AND OVERSEER ANNOUNCEMENTS?

We are likely going to create GM channels for the special off Paizo on to Discord so that we can have our HQ for the specials somewhere stable.

Meanwhile, the reporting of successes is on a google sheet. You can still report your success in downtime. We will send special condition announcements out through email, and then follow up with posting on individual threads once the game is up.

★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★

LET’S KEEP GAMING

I say, let’s keep gaming. You don’t have to move off Paizo completely. Many of us are attracted to feature of having a different alias for each character. But let’s use those backup channels and keep going. We can keep our players engaged. We can keep ourselves from bouncing off the walls. We can make progress, and make the most use of uptime.

Questions? Comments? Tell us on our downtime channel, #pbp_gameday_vii at http://PFSchat.com.

I am your VC,
Hmm

Hey All —

Traveling out of town on a sudden family matter. Please send all inquiries or requests for help to Gerard, Redelia or our new VA, Elinnea!

Hugs
Hmm

I'm posting right after our Great and Fearless Leader so that I'm easy to find if anyone needs anything while she is away.

Good idea Redelia!

Another thing: we have had these terrible outages the last couple of weeks and it might be that your GM has not returned yet. If this is the case please allow for a bit more time than usual.

If your GM has not posted something this Friday please contact let us know so we can find a replacement GM for you.

If you might be in one of the specials with a missing GM: please let us know ASAP, the specials are on a strict schedule.

(I hope this is the right place to ask this question)
I'm GMing my first PFS PbP scenario (as part of Gameday VII, link here) and two players haven't posted at all in the gameplay thread. What's standard best practice as far as how to proceed when combat eventually occurs?

GM Picatrix, this is a perfect place to ask that question!

I see you still have four players. Did you send a PM to remind the missing players?

If you did not, please do so now and inform them that you will assume they have no interest in the game if they do not show up in 48 hours. Normally I would put this to 24, but with the recent site outages it is reasonable to give everybody a bit more time.

Given where you are in the scenario I would proceed without them with the four player adjustment. If the other players show up you can roll initiative at the time for them and proceed with them entering the map on their turn.

Hello Flaxseed! Elinnea here, your newly-appointed Venture-Agent.

We have an upcoming game for part 2 of the Gameday that is in need of a replacement GM.

What? 9-22 - Grotto of the Deluged God (subtier 1-2)
When? Should begin circa October 6th as part of Gameday VII Part 2
Who? Players are already recruited... and you as the GM!

Who would like to give this game a friendly GM home?

Hello Flaxseed! Elinnea here, your newly-appointed Venture-Agent.

We have an upcoming game for part 2 of the Gameday that is in need of a replacement GM.

What? 9-22 - Grotto of the Deluged God (subtier 1-2)
When? Should begin circa October 6th as part of Gameday VII Part 2
Who? Players are already recruited... and you as the GM!

Who would like to give this game a friendly GM home?

Send me a copy of the PDF and I'll run it. Sounds like fun and I have the bandwith to pick up another game.