Flaxseed Lodge (PFS1)

Game Master Redelia

Look who's gotten big time! You're not even asking Paizo to give you work, they're asking you to do work for them!

I'd roll a save vs. jealousy, but the DC's so high I'd never make it, anyway.

No, I still have to look for work. :)

Here's what I do. I have gotten to the point where designers I've already worked for might ask me to do a project, but most of my assignments have happened because I've passed out business cards and done follow-up emails.

Hmm

By the way, if we're talking BIG TIME, they just announced our very own Kate Baker as the PaizoCon guest of honor. Go, Kate!

Yay! Congrats Kate Baker!!! That is a great announcement. :)

Congratulations, Kate!

Moving to Discussion from Recruitment:

EbonFist wrote:

Watery Soup wrote:

If I run a 7-11 campaign, can I apply the GM credit to a 1st level character, or does it have to be 7-11?

You can apply it to a first level character but you only get 500gp for it.

Alternatively, you can apply it to your 1st level character and not benefit from it / hold it in reserve until Level 7. Then your character will get full gold + boons (instead of 500gp & no boons).

In either case your character will get the boons, but only when they're high enough level to qualify for the chronicle.

By the way, if we're talking BIG TIME, they just announced our very own Kate Baker as the PaizoCon guest of honor. Go, Kate!

Whoot! Congratulations, Kate!

You certainly deserve it!

Aw, thanks, all! I am super excited!

Kate is awesome, just sayin'.

Quick question: Do saving throws count as a "check" for purposes of things like Circlets of Persuasion?

Quick question: Do saving throws count as a "check" for purposes of things like Circlets of Persuasion?

No saving throw is a “Charisma-based check”, even if you have a way to get a bonus to it based on Charisma.

Yes, if you use your Charisma for a save, it is a Charisma check and the Circlet will add to it. If you add your Charisma to a saving throw as a separate bonus, such as with paladins, it will not count, as it is still a Con/Dex/Wis check respectively.

So, how about in the case of the Steadfast Personality feat, which has...rather interesting wording in light of what you say?

In the first case it would definitely apply.

It changes what modifier you use. It does not change what type of check it is. Note there are cases where both attributes would be used if your Wisdom modifier is negative.

I would not allow the circlet bonus to saves.

There is an FAQ on this. Circlet of persuasion would apply to saves if you used charisma to saving throws.

Did y'all see the most recent Lost Omens Humble Bundle? It's awesome for 1e books.

Purchased yesterday. I'm not usually one for Campaign Settings (I had maybe 12 prior to yesterday - and they were mostly acquired from other Humble Bundles) & I don't have any of the old PF Chronicles so it's amazing value for me.

Quick question: Do saving throws count as a "check" for purposes of things like Circlets of Persuasion?

"Saving Throw" and "Check" are two different types of rolls, just like "attack" and "damage". Note that conditions such as frightened, panicked, shaken, and sickened use the phrase, "saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks."

"Check" is not a synonym for "d20 roll".

A check is a d20 roll which may or may not be modified by another value. The most common types are attack rolls, ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws.

Source.

Check wrote:

A check is a d20 roll which may or may not be modified by another value. The most common types are attack rolls, ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws.

Source.

Yep, I had a character with about -16 to initiative because he was using a tower shield and full-plate, neither that he was proficient with and initiative is a dexterity check. That was pretty funny actually;

GM: "What are all your initiatives?"
Everyone else: "23, 31, 16, 9"
Me: "Last...I promise."
GM: "Well whats the number, because I rolled really low"
Me" "If they have a positive number, they beat me. I have -12."

Many thanks to numbat1 and the Devs for sorting out my mess. Sorry for the trouble. Philip.

I have a core character that seems to have been converted to classic. I need someone with the ability to peek behind the scenes of the chronicle allotments to figure out where it all went wrong and how to fix it.

The character is Cloudia, 141936-15.

Unfortunately, there is no current way to undo this from a VO or GM standpoint. You will have to write to organizedplay@paizo.com.

I've tried doing this, and never had any success.

But really, it is just a reporting backend. If you are core legal, and thechronicles say CORE, you are core. The backend system messed up a whole lot of characters early on, and we've never had a good process for fixing it.

I just gave up on worrying about it.

I do think that is the best route forward, but it doesn't hurt to send the email. I keep hoping that someday that list will receive attention, but if you never played intentionally in a non-core table, just treat yourself as core.

Exactly what all has been said. The reporting systems is definitely borked so as long as you have the chronicles that is what is important.

Thanks. I'm going to go with not worrying about it.

It's worth sending customer support an email. It may take a while, but they'll fix it eventually.

How do I use one of my Replays I got from GMing tables a while back? Do I wait for the GM to report the game? Do I have to do something first?

How do I use one of my Replays I got from GMing tables a while back? Do I wait for the GM to report the game? Do I have to do something first?

You should have told the GM of it before you started the adventure,

The GM should note it on the chronicle.

Please be clear as to if it is a GM Star replay or one of the limited replayed earned. It doesn’t appear that you have GMed 10 times for a GM Star, so I assume it would be one of the limited replays earned.

Ok. I let him know at the beginning. I'll remind him.

Thank you.

It's December 25th!

(In this time zone, anyway.)

So...Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals ;)

Or Happy Holidays! Or Happy Wednesday, if you prefer.

I hope everyone has a fantabulous day today :)

I just finished GMing a scenario. Can someone walk me through how to report the Chronicle Sheets? I've done this live, but the VO was around to give me the Event and Event Code, and then take the signin sheet.

I just finished GMing a scenario. Can someone walk me through how to report the Chronicle Sheets? I've done this live, but the VO was around to give me the Event and Event Code, and then take the signin sheet.

No problem! Unless the game is part of a convention, you’ll want to use the Online Support Program to report. The link can be found at the top of this campaign thread or here: https://onlinesupportprogram.com/

Event and Event Code can be found on the GM page, then the game reported on the Report page. The biggest thing that might be confusing is the FORMAT field. If the game was run on the forums, I believe you should select the PBP option.

Give a holler if you have any more questions, or check out the FAQs on the reporting site.

One additional comment to GM Hawthwile's statement: you can only report games that are publicly recruited as part of the Online Support Program. Now, if I recall, you did recruit your game publicly, so you can use the OSP link above. But if you had done an invitation-only game, you wouldn't be able to do so.

^In that case, you would go to My Account>OrganizedPlay>GM/Event Coordinator and create a new event to report your privately-recruited PbP games, just like you would for a home game.

I'll add to that with my personal stance. I'm not a fan of botting PCs unless I absolutely have to or I know the current situation is trivial. My main concern is if my botting of a PC causes them to suffer a serious setback, such as a permanent condition or death, there will always be the feeling that it might not have happened depending on how the GM played the character vs how the player would.

Basically, it sucks if a character dies because of GM botting; feels kind of cheap.

Oh, if only.... ;)

Happy (Post-)Crystalhue everyone.

The one holiday I'm sure that everyone here celebrates.

Lady Ladile wrote:

OutPost III: Title Yet to Be Determined will be coming to this space in early 2020 (other details also TBD).

We should totally hold a contest to name OutPost III's subtitle. Maybe I can write a filk for the winner.

Alright folks, I made a contest to help name Outpost III! Please give it a look over.

Outpost III Contest

Announcement concerning Outpost III

Outpost III Dates: March 30 - May 18, 2020

Speaking of Outpost III's contest we have generated the form for GM's to sign up for the Specials. While the actual announcement for Outpost III has not been posted yet I would like to offer the opportunity for GM's to toss their names in the hat for GM'ing the Specials. (Expect the actual announcement beginning of February)

Why are you posting this so early?
I am posting it early so that the GM's will be identified and notified a week before the announcement is made so that you may plan your other submissions accordingly.

What Specials are being ran? (Keep in mind you may only GM one during the Con)

I just want to post here in a single central location to apologize for my sudden prolonged absence from the various games I'm presently in.

I'm not entirely sure what to say. I want to want to keep up and go on, I STILL have neat new ideas for characters I want to field, but another big part of me just...isn't feeling it. I've started getting that awful "chore" feeling about it all.

A recent ruling made in one of the games that I've been too fatigued and frustrated to press the issue on (despite still having good reasons to) doesn't help - but it's more than that: Paizo no longer feels like the "fun and friendly" place it used to be, it appears to have forgotten many of the lessons that made Pathfinder a godsend in the first place (not to mention a trend of choosing to shack up with a variety of extremely misguided social currents), and I'm pessimistic about the future of the game.

Welcome back IHIYC.

Sometimes the universe just slams in the brakes, we don't get to pick the timing, and sometimes people don't even let others know it happened. Welcome back, I am sure everyone will be fine and you can get back to the enjoyment.

The thing I would point out is that the Lodge (and your local PFS) is not 'Paizo', it is your group of buddies who are always there for you to grab some dice (physical or digital) and there's almost always a seat going for you to come play at.

I can appreciate that there are many different points of view in the world, and I am not sure which ones Paizo holds that you find yourself at odds with, but divergent views are part of life and we can all respectfully disagree if we feel so inclined.

As to the future of the game, well in one sense (maybe more!) you are right in that the PFS organised play construct that we have enjoyed for PF1 has ceased producing material - but the good news is that there is a pretty deep body of work there that should keep us occupied for quite some time yet.

My 2c is to not lose sight of the fact that we are a diverse and interesting bunch with a common hobby that I hope you continue to enjoy - and if there's ideas you still want to try out then I'd encourage you to wade back in and try them out.

FWIW I'm enjoying a retirement from GMing PFS as I have my new passion which is Starfinder. I still play Pathfinder, but my GMing is all SFS.

Welcome back IHIYC.

Sometimes the universe just slams in the brakes, we don't get to pick the timing, and sometimes people don't even let others know it happened. Welcome back, I am sure everyone will be fine and you can get back to the enjoyment.

I appreciate it.

The thing I would point out is that the Lodge (and your local PFS) is not 'Paizo', it is your group of buddies who are always there for you to grab some dice (physical or digital) and there's almost always a seat going for you to come play at.

True enough; I've accumulated some bad memories on this site, but none really from Flaxseed - trouble is, you know, it IS on Paizo.com, and I've kind of developed a minor 'allergy' to the site format - speaking of which, anyone know if this thing has a "DarkMode" like I've noticed Reddit and certain other sites have caught onto? I've discovered that to be an appreciated innovation for a certified haunter of the dark like myself, it would probably help.

I can appreciate that there are many different points of view in the world, and I am not sure which ones Paizo holds that you find yourself at odds with, but divergent views are part of life and we can all respectfully disagree if we feel so inclined.

That's kind of the hitch, unfortunately - I'm talking about encroachments by social currents that have discovered novel and wholly unwelcome ways to be dogmatic and intolerant, in large part by smoothly projecting those very behaviors onto others. I have actually seen people on here argue in favor of presumption of guilt. Note also how the admonition just below the post-typing screen has changed from simply "Don't Be A Jerk" to a link to an actual list of rules. This actually strikes me as a bigger and badder deal than it would appear, especially since I found Paizo's Zen-simple behavior credo, which treated people with respect by assuming most of us to be fundamentally good and mature, to be one of the first things that appealed to me when I first joined, as it came at the end of a long period of online conduct codes becoming increasingly bureaucratic, tedious, and, shall we say, Asmodean.

As to the future of the game, well in one sense (maybe more!) you are right in that the PFS organised play construct that we have enjoyed for PF1 has ceased producing material - but the good news is that there is a pretty deep body of work there that should keep us occupied for quite some time yet.

Certainly. Fair enough.

I share many of your sentiments, IHIYC, so you're not alone. Recognizing a growing personal sense of disconnectedness from the game and its evolving community, I tendered my resignation as VC a year ago, scaling back my involvement and participation, especially in F2F play and cons.

I continue to enjoy GMing and playing 1E with some friends I've met here in the Flaxseed Lodge, and I'm grateful for their fellowship.

I wish the community all the best, as it goes its way, and I go mine, with no hard feelings or regrets.

I imagine the reason the list of guidelines has expanded from "Don't be a jerk" is because that is a very subjective and unhelpful standard. Everyone's interpretation of being a jerk is different, and it's best to make the site's expectations of behavior as clear and objective as is reasonably possible. A person upset their post was deleted for using a homophobic slur may not consider that to be a jerk move, but the listed guidelines on the page make it clear that's unacceptable.

At the sake of the discussion, what some view as 'draconian overbearing rules' even though some dragons are pretty gosh darn cool and get a bad rap here have been brought to the fore because people forgot the underpinnings of the simpler 'don't be a jerk' and tried to leverage unwanted playstyles onto a group by 'reverse-jerking' the accuser.

So the opposite direction was headed in, with folks walking on eggshells and not wanting to point out that hey, 'owning slaves is kinda jerk move' or 'hey, engaging in rapine activity during a scenario for a class requirement is squicky'.

The problem, of course, is that once one starts to codify a thing, then *all* the things need codified, because Edgy McEdgerperson is going to go for that thin slice of "Oh, hey, the rules say I'm not a jerk!". ...when that activity, in a reasonable, sane, mature setting would be avoided.

Have I treaded on that line, and potentially alienated folks? Yes.

It wasn't quite clear at the time, and sadly, the Internet being the Internet everything is forever and there are no take-backs.

Do I regret this? Yes.

Do I think the new rules would have helped in this regard? No.

Has the regret caused me to step back and reconsider my characters and actions? Yes.

The white screen is a bit rough to my aging eyes, but with the use of f.lux (seriously, it's a computer-changer) to adjust the lighting level of the monitor helps. I don't know if there's a version for tablet/smartphone or not.

IHIYC, I won't try to guess which social currents you're referring to specifically. But I would encourage you to figure out a way to coexist amidst them. They will evolve (as social currents do) but they will never go away. The core principle of treating everyone with dignity and respect will go along way.

As for community guidelines vs. "don't be a jerk" I also prefer the latter, but I imagine it doesn't scale well once you get to a community of this size.

--

I identify with what you're saying about being burnt out on the game. I went in way too deep the last game day and haven't quite recovered. I'm sticking around; like me I encourage you to evaluate which games/scenarios/groups are giving you the most joy and stick with those but drop the others. When you're ready for more than that, you'll know.

I have a few tips for the whole "white site" thing. Try *reading* your games with an RSS reader app that has a dark mode (I recommend Aggregator for Android). You'll still have to post on the regular white site (and read spoilers there).

For making the site itself dark, there are Firefox browser add-ons (I know of at least two, "Stylus" and "Stylish", I think I've seen the latter in Chrome) that can change the css for specific sites. In addition to the add-ons that will invert all sites for you, but those don't work as well.

I imagine the reason the list of guidelines has expanded from "Don't be a jerk" is because that is a very subjective and unhelpful standard.

Not at all; people know right from wrong if they're honest with themselves (as opposed to disingenuous, which is upsettingly what drives a great deal of online "debate"), and there's no helping those who don't. The best results come from taking a generous, rather than paranoid/securitarian, view of the world and the people in it, and I daresay the history of this site, for better and for worse, reflects that very well.

IHIYC, I won't try to guess which social currents you're referring to specifically. But I would encourage you to figure out a way to coexist amidst them. They will evolve (as social currents do) but they will never go away. The core principle of treating everyone with dignity and respect will go along way.

That's the problem, though; they don't want to co-exist, and "treating everyone with dignity and respect" is precisely what they don't do; they presume the worst of everybody who doesn't think and behave as they do, and they're grounded not only in unreason, but ultimately in a conscious rejection of reason, so we all have very good reason to want them to go away as soon as possible. The social currents I speak of are about as antithetical to "Fun and Friendly" as you can possibly get.

Perhaps I should point out that I happen to have a college degree in psychology/history/social studies/liberal arts; when I say a social current is pathological, I know what I'm talking about. I've worked hard for a long time and in spite of chronic adversity to become an accredited expert, and deserve to be regarded with infinitely more gravity than social media groupthink.

Then may I suggest that your visits to the Forums be focussed on the Lodges and your game threads?

I read the Lodges, the game threads I am involved in, and the Organised play sections but I don't bother with the general lounges as I don't get much value out of them. I would say that they are also fairly quiet anyhow since people splintered off to Discord.

Anyhow - now you are back, start rolling something fun and dice down :)

Not at all; people know right from wrong if they're honest with themselves (as opposed to disingenuous, which is upsettingly what drives a great deal of online "debate"), and there's no helping those who don't.

People don't agree on what's right and wrong, and what's rude to one person wouldn't necessarily be seen as such by another. This doesn't require one or both parties to be deliberately dishonest. I find that to be a very strange position to take. I'm also finding it very difficult to reconcile this and your assertion that a vague "they" are consciously rejecting the concept of reason with your insistence that people take what you consider to be a generous view of the world. You are assuming the intent and motivations of people you disagree with on an as yet undefined issue while insisting no one do such a thing.

People don't agree on what's right and wrong, and what's rude to one person wouldn't necessarily be seen as such by another.

This is completely true - indeed, foundational to where I'm coming from - but to say the least, you appear to be stringing words and concepts together differently than I am. We're not communicating.

You are assuming the intent and motivations of people you disagree with on an as yet undefined issue while insisting no one do such a thing.

This sounds like it's assuming I'm operating in the total absence of any specifics or facts; I'm not. Believe me, I would never believe a lot of what I've seen these past few years if I hadn't seen it myself.

Also, it sounds like you are doing this to me with the very above statement ("You are assuming" is very much a "mind-reader" kind of assertion under any circumstances, and doesn't jive well with your having already said that you don't understand my position).