Flaxseed Lodge (PFS1)

Game Master Redelia

I had no idea chronicle credit only happened once! I'll keep it in mind for the future. I'll try and see what games people are interested in >.>

Watery Soup wrote:

GM Tyranius wrote:

You can GM the same scenario several times.

For PFS credit? I thought you can GM as much as you want but you can only get credit once.

Does that count for GM Stars? I thought that was just chronicles?

Maybe. I've never paid attention.

Truth be told, I don't understand stars. It's a vanity, right? The primary benefit is you look cool when you post? Maybe there used to be special "n-star GM only" scenarios released (the -EX scenarios)? "N-star GM" parties at Paizocon? But now, day to day, the only mechanical benefit is that you get a replay for every star?

There are some effects that give you a reroll once per session. Things like bringing a player folio that you own. You get to add your GM stars as an untyped bonus on whatever check you are rerolling.

Mostly, but there are indeed still scenarios that can only be obtained and ran by GM's with enough stars as well as there were additional replays. 1 per star. And other additional effects as Caps has stated.

@Bruno- Yes, You can run a scenario multiple times but can only earn a chronicle for it once per player and once as a GM. Hope that clears it up.

@Bruno- Yes, You can run a scenario multiple times but can only earn a chronicle for it once per player and once as a GM. Hope that clears it up.

Technically, as a player you can earn a chronicle twice, once in CORE and once in Standard.

Does that apply as well for GMing?

GM Tyranius wrote:

@Bruno- Yes, You can run a scenario multiple times but can only earn a chronicle for it once per player and once as a GM. Hope that clears it up.

Technically, as a player you can earn a chronicle twice, once in CORE and once in Standard.

Does that apply as well for GMing?

Yes - You may play a core character and gm for credit for a core character. Always, only one of any given chronicle per character.

Sorry, if anyone's able to help: I've finished by 10th GM game (through a combination of F2F games and PbP games), but a GM star did not pop up.

Checking my sessions, I find one scenario, in particular, came up with this note: "Player has already run scenario at session # 143 of event # 92612 Canberra Games Day on July 29, 2018." - this is because I ran that scenario in a face-to-face game during my time in Australia.

I was under the impression we could GM a scenario multiple times, but I'm at a loss on how to deal with this.

In my experience, of late stars and novas have been showing up one game later. I only got my fourth nova on my 101st game. I think there's something off in the coding of how they track such things.

Mostly, but there are indeed still scenarios that can only be obtained and ran by GM's with enough stars as well as there were additional replays. 1 per star. And other additional effects as Caps has stated.

@Bruno- Yes, You can run a scenario multiple times but can only earn a chronicle for it once per player and once as a GM. Hope that clears it up.

And when I do a reroll, I can add +5 to it, which makes it pretty potent.

The special scenarios are great -- but getting to be a 5 star is also an interesting journey, since you have to do 10 specials and a variety of adventures. My own journey allowed me to explore and grow as a GM.

Missed the start to a couple games I was recruited for. Unfortunately had to take a flight this weekend and quarantined myself waiting for test results when I got back. Pbp got away from me. Sorry if I left anyone in the lurch.

Would the double-plating armor mod, if applied to a light armor, necessarily cause it to impose a speed penalty? That is to say, does the condition of being medium armor itself lead to speed penalties, or is it just that all normally-medium armors impose a speed penalty, but a light armor that "graduates" to medium wouldn't pick that up unless that change were expressly stated?

Also, am I correct in assuming that the weight modifications listed for armor mods would be modified as normal for non-Medium suits?

I don't think so. But there are other issues, such as sleeping in it, and proficiency with it that would come into play.

That said, the rule about medium armour from the equipment section of the CRB says:

Speed: Medium or heavy armor slows the wearer down. The number on Table: 6-6 is the character's speed while wearing the armor. Humans, elves, half-elves, and half-orcs have an unencumbered speed of 30 feet. They use the first column. Dwarves, gnomes, and halflings have an unencumbered speed of 20 feet. They use the second column. Remember, however, that a dwarf's land speed remains 20 feet even in medium or heavy armor or when carrying a medium or heavy load.

So the implication is that all medium armour should slow you down, but it is up to the specific armor to state that.

This has come up before with the armored kilt.

So the implication is that all medium armour should slow you down, but it is up to the specific armor to state that.

I'm sorry, I'm confused; which is it, then?

I guess it is an oversight. One they should have picked up in editing, given the issues with the armored kilt, which works in a similar manner and has similar problems - and was not a PFS legal item.

If you were using this in PFS, I'd suggest that you need medium armour proficiency, but there was not movement penalty.

If it were a homebrew game, I'd suggest that there should be a movement penalty.

I think Aerondor's got the right read on it, but I would say that you should expect to have a lot of table variation/pushback on the movement penalty if you're not taking it.

Definitely something I'd bring up at the start of an adventure with a new GM to avoid it needing to be resolved when it's crucial!

Why not just okay safe and take the Armor Adept feat?

hey guys...a question. I won a boon for the Gameday VIII...but hadn't received it. Completely forgot about it. Now, I got a gift voucher about the same time...was that the boon?

hey guys...a question. I won a boon for the Gameday VIII...but hadn't received it. Completely forgot about it. Now, I got a gift voucher about the same time...was that the boon?

Grimdog, I would check your email for your boon. You were sent a moment of Glory Boon during Gameday VIII. PM me your email address again and I can resend it.

I have a goal to get to 4 stars. The problem, I don't want to DM tons of scenarios. What is the easiest repeatable to DM like a zillion times?

That is also the easiest way to get thoroughly bored. Which is not a good experience for either you or the players.

That said, I've GMed Confirmation about a dozen times.

I would gently recommend to try and offer at least some variety to the scenarios you GM. Not only to avoid burnout and/or boredom as GM Aerondor suggested, but also because you (a general you) will learn and grow more as a GM if you give yourself the chance to experience a variety of scenario 'styles' as well as different mechanics.

Aside from the points above, there is the purely practical barrier of not having 400+ characters to run it for - you'll drain the character pool at some point.

I will confess I am morbidly curious about how deep the player pool is. The PbP conventions launch 20-30 games at once and they seem to fill up at 6/table. If one were to announce DoubleGoldCon and launch 50 4-player tables all at once, would the limiting factor be DoubleGold's willingness to run 50 games at once, or getting people to sign up?

Aside from the points above, there is the purely practical barrier of not having 400+ characters to run it for - you'll drain the character pool at some point.

:)

One thought could be to run two tables at the same time. Then a decent amount of your posts could be recycled, while still responding to PC actions.

I've tried running Classic and Core tables at the same time and it generally went fairly smoothly though it does require being pretty organized to make sure you don't mix up one with the other. After doing it two or three times I think I've decided I prefer not running them concurrently.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!

Congratulations on all those campaign coins to the online team! You guys totally deserve this!

You stepped up to help all the in-person lodges run their games virtually, and then made PaizoCon Online possible. But really, I think you deserved them for all the work you do every day keeping our lodges running.

Hmm

Very well deserved. Congratulations.

On another note, when will there be chronicles for Tyrant's Grasp and Return of the Runelords? I ran the first book of Tyrant's Grasp a while back in campaign mode and I said to my players, as soon as chronicles become available, you'll get them and the game reported. It's been a year since Paizo published the entire campaign.

I have a goal to get to 4 stars. The problem, I don't want to DM tons of scenarios. What is the easiest repeatable to DM like a zillion times?

This is going to sound weird... but I am going to ask you to look at your star journey in another way. Don't make it only about quantity... that won't help you grow as a GM. What I would suggest is setting a different goal for each star that you earn.

Here's what my own five star journey was like.

Star One -- I learned to GM in both PBP and in person formats. I had fun. Wheee!

Star Two -- I wanted to learn to get better with GM Prep. I spent time trying to figure out how scenarios were organized, learning a lot of mechanical things, and I started to GM my first specials in PFS.

Star Three -- I started to give back to the community, train other GMs, volunteered organizing conventions, became a VA at my local game store, and then a VL online here at Flaxseed. In helping others, I learned a lot, and grew still more as a GM.

Star Four -- I tried to make sure that every game was memorable. I researched settings, and tailored the stories of 3-7 evergreens to the parties that are playing them. Whenever I could hook in a bit of a player's backstory into the scenario we were playing, I did.

Star Five -- Wanting my fifth star to be a badge of quality as well as quantity, I continually stretched myself. Get better at running combat? Check. Run a seeker level module? Check. Acted as overseer for a special? Check. GMed specials on every tier from 1-2 to 10-11? Check. Learn how to communicate crazy one shot mechanics and make them fun? Check.

★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★

Now that was my journey. Your journey and goals should be different. You're sitting at two stars. I think that my period as a two star was in many ways the period where I developed most as a GM. I think this could be your own renaissance period. Take your time. Stretch out. You are a prolific GM. The table count will come. By doing different scenarios and trying new things, you will grow with your stars.

Hmm

WOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!

Congratulations on all those campaign coins to the online team! You guys totally deserve this!

You stepped up to help all the in-person lodges run their games virtually, and then made PaizoCon Online possible. But really, I think you deserved them for all the work you do every day keeping our lodges running.

Hmm

Thanks for your great work and dedication! This community is thriving because of your volunteering! :-D

WOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!

Congratulations on all those campaign coins to the online team! You guys totally deserve this!

You stepped up to help all the in-person lodges run their games virtually, and then made PaizoCon Online possible. But really, I think you deserved them for all the work you do every day keeping our lodges running.

Hmm

Thank you all! Definitely unexpected and still a bit in shock. The team put in an immense amount of time and effort into that monster of an event and I am glad that it went off as well as it did. Over 3000 people on discord, over 1,200 events with 364 GMs! I believe Tonya said a face to face Paizocon is capped at around 800 people to give a bit of perspective of the size.

On another note, when will there be chronicles for Tyrant's Grasp and Return of the Runelords? I ran the first book of Tyrant's Grasp a while back in campaign mode and I said to my players, as soon as chronicles become available, you'll get them and the game reported. It's been a year since Paizo published the entire campaign.

Sometimes that process can take quite a while though it should be getting very close now.

I have a goal to get to 4 stars. The problem, I don't want to DM tons of scenarios. What is the easiest repeatable to DM like a zillion times?

There is not much more I can add into Hmm's great post on this process. But by doing many different scenarios you will come across numerous other rules that are often not used that will help shape your GM'ing process. Different NPC's will give you different ideas to use and build off of. More Lore than you can incorporate into you games that will help breath life into your games.

I thought there used to be 5-star requirement to GM at least 50 different scenarios/modules. Am I losing my mind or did that change?

That is still a requirement as well as a few evaluations now.

I thought there used to be 5-star requirement to GM at least 50 different scenarios/modules. Am I losing my mind or did that change?

You're right, but I'm more of a Starfinder DM, so that fifth star isn't important to me. But if I can someday show my players, 4 stars and 5 Novas, then they'll look at and say wow, he must be a good DM. Not all players know how you got your stars or novas. Or even 4 Stars 4 Novas gives the players the illusion that I look really excellent, even if I sucked. Not that I do suck, I'd consider myself average or better than average. People will convince themselves that I must be good cause I have X stars and X Novas. He messed up this one scenario, but he has 4 and 4, so he must be good, maybe he just had a bad day, or something. I go to a real tabletop or a Rolld20 and I show them 4 stars and 4 novas or 5 Novas(what I'm really aiming for)..

You show people your stars/novas when you sit down to GM for them?

I sure don't. In PbP it can't be helped, but I never bring it up.

I think Hmm and a few other talented and experienced folks gave you some excellent advice, DoubleGold.

I think I've played at a few tables with 4+ star GMs who might have pursued a path similar to the one you're considering. Never more than once.

Wish you much success, whatever your chosen ambition and method for getting there.

GM Lorenzo wrote:

I thought there used to be 5-star requirement to GM at least 50 different scenarios/modules. Am I losing my mind or did that change?

You're right, but I'm more of a Starfinder DM, so that fifth star isn't important to me. But if I can someday show my players, 4 stars and 5 Novas, then they'll look at and say wow, he must be a good DM. Not all players know how you got your stars or novas. Or even 4 Stars 4 Novas gives the players the illusion that I look really excellent, even if I sucked. Not that I do suck, I'd consider myself average or better than average. People will convince themselves that I must be good cause I have X stars and X Novas. He messed up this one scenario, but he has 4 and 4, so he must be good, maybe he just had a bad day, or something. I go to a real tabletop or a Rolld20 and I show them 4 stars and 4 novas or 5 Novas(what I'm really aiming for)..

The point, what difference does it make if I'm actually an excellent DM or if I gave everyone the illusion that I'm an excellent DM? Although, on the Starfinder side, I do want to be an excellent DM.

This explains some things. You've certainly given us all plenty to think about here, DoubleGold.

Judith Martin would be so proud of you all!

Had to Google that. Gave me a chuckle. Thanks.

I think Hmm and a few other talented and experienced folks gave you some excellent advice, DoubleGold.

I think I've played at a few tables with 4+ star GMs who might have pursued a path similar to the one you're considering. Never more than once.

Wish you much success, whatever your chosen ambition and method for getting there.

I do wish to grow as a DM yes, so I know dming different games would set me up for different things, which I do plan on doing. As far as seeing the 4 stars or whatever, you could show them your PBP profile, though only needed if they ask, unless you are already doing PBP. Most 4 star DMs however, we don't really know how they really got there, unless everything was play-by-post and you can see all their games. What did they really DM? In other words, you go to a convention or a real life table top, you've Dmed a scenario so many times, you can DM it really well, tell the story by heart, find ways to hook in their backstory, roleplay the NPCs really well, know the skill checks and DCs by heart, etc. You Dmed one scenario really well at a convention, but you Dmed it five times, or maybe two scenarios. In other words, specialize. Or you can DM a variety of scenarios, and still be good at it, but you won't be specialized at it. You can also, Dm one scenario 30 times total, or 2-3 scenarios about 10 to 15 times each and 70 other scenarios, which is somewhere along the lines of what I want to do.

Another thing I'd like to know, are there 200,000 players? I'm assuming that Paizo has 200,000 players because a few of my friends joined organized play back in September when I introduced them to it, and they all got numbers in the 200,000s all counting up as they registered within minutes of each other. Like I'm 135676, so I'm the 135,676th player to pick up an organized play number? Unless the first registrant didn't start a 1, and instead started a 100,000, or many numbers are skipped.

I think based on what I've seen with sign in sheets that the numbers started at four digits, but I am not sure. I am sure there are four digit numbers, I am just not sure if they indicate anything other than joining early.

Campaign Coins are all three digit numbers.

I believe that Paizo employees and OPF staff are the only ones to have less than three digit numbers.

The spambots caused numbers to jump such that Paizo reset the numbers to seven digits.

Low numbers were reserved for Paizo staff and special members. Initial registration numbers at GenCon started around 1200 or so at launch.

I imagine there are a lot of GMs/VOs/etc. that have partial sheets of unused PFS numbers lying around, and many more partial sheets that got trashed at the end of a con. I suspect many of those numbers have never been used, or used once at a con and then forgotten (I know I frequently have players at cons saying 'Oh, I got a number at a con years ago, but I have no idea what it is. Can I have a new one?')

There was also some sort of technical glitch with PFS numbers about a year ago, and afterwards the numbers jumped up a lot, but I don't remember what numbers those were.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!

Congratulations on all those campaign coins to the online team! You guys totally deserve this!

You stepped up to help all the in-person lodges run their games virtually, and then made PaizoCon Online possible. But really, I think you deserved them for all the work you do every day keeping our lodges running.

Hmm

I still have no idea what campaign coins are.

I still have no idea what campaign coins are.

They are personalized coins given out to very select individuals for service to Paizo/OPF.

I'm pretty sure they come with benefits (rerolls, extra boons, discounts on Paizo branded bubble gum, etc) but I think the primary benefit is recognition for good deeds done.

That bubblegum discount... nice. Which upgrade slot do you need to fix it into for that?

A holder of a campaign coin is allowed to 'loan' their once per scenario merchandise/GM reroll to any player at their table - including any GM star bonuses that they have on the reroll.

But mainly they are a token of recognition of service to the campaign and organised play.

I assume it also makes for an easier number to record for those who weren’t with us at the start.

My old number, 149000, was pretty easy to remember. But I must say that it is nice only having to write 820. I do like being able to loan out my reroll with novas or stars attached, but yes, the campaign coin is primarily a service award. I was so proud of our online team for all their work, and overjoyed to see it recognized here.

Back to the question of stars and novas -- yep, it is completely possible to do a hundred games with the same scenarios over and over. But is it worth it? Much is made about the 10,000 hours it takes to become an expert in something, but little is said about the quality of those hours. Active practicing in which you strive to master things you are struggling with is far more effective than retreading material that you feel confident with.

I am better the second time I GM a scenario, no doubt. But there are diminishing returns after that!

One thing that is cool about playing in other people's games is that I see different techniques and I get the opportunity to say, 'oh, that's an amazing way to handle something.' I'm still learning and improving, too.

The point, what difference does it make if I'm actually an excellent DM or if I gave everyone the illusion that I'm an excellent DM? Although, on the Starfinder side, I do want to be an excellent DM.

Illusion vs substance is a huge difference. No amount of stars is going to remove a player's reaction to a poorly done game. Even more importantly, when you have a GM who is completely new who gives you an AMAZING game, the stars and novas don't seem to matter.

Quality will show itself. I know you want excellence and recognition. Both will come as you grow, and -- let's acknowledge this publicly -- you have been growing as a GM. You're seeking feedback, and in Starfinder, I've seen you try new things to stretch yourself.

Keep striving, and you will get there.
Hmm