Flaxseed Lodge (PFS1)

Game Master Redelia

That also means that if you have a character locked in a long PbP then you are unable to play that character in a real life game until the PbP is completed.

This is both the benefit and the drawback of PbP. Play from home or mobile device at your (reasonable) leisure, without as much pressure to travel to a given venue or such.

I have a character that was in a pretty swift-moving PbP, so I had him registered for some slots at a convention.

Unfortunately, one of the people in the PbP stopped posting regularly, dragged the action to 'glacial', and I had to withdraw from those slots, because I had no one in the level range and that was that.

Note, however, that per a new quasi-ruling from John Compton, GMs are permitted to apply GM credit to characters locked in PbPs, with the stipulation that the credit does not take effect until after the PbP in question is concluded, and if the character dies and can't be recovered then the credit is simply lost.

Unfortunately, one of the people in the PbP stopped posting regularly, dragged the action to 'glacial', and I had to withdraw from those slots, because I had no one in the level range and that was that.

Something I hate.

:(

I understand RL happens, and I let folks know when things crop up for me, that's part and parcel of communication with GM and fellow players.

It's no different than sitting at a table and requesting a few minutes to take a bio-break, or asking a fellow gamer to not smoke/vape at the table, or letting everyone know you might be on a timetable. Common courtesy.

This particular individual appears to not have a grasp of PbP dynamics or is overburdened with other things. I say appears, because I don't know what might be going on behind the scenes.

Here is a Scenario and character tracker that I have currently been made aware of if anyone is interested. registration is really simple.

Campaign / Scenario Tracker

Here is a Scenario and character tracker that I have currently been made aware of if anyone is interested. registration is really simple.

Campaign / Scenario Tracker

Thanks, looks useful.

It is highly useful, thanks again Simon for making it!

No problem! [/Simon]

Got a question for the PFS community.

Are the rules for Carrying Capacity and Encumbrance used in PFS?

Got a question for the PFS community.

Are the rules for Carrying Capacity and Encumbrance used in PFS?

Yes, they should be. I generally leave it up to the players to worry about, though.

Previous Thread

Here's a later one started by me

Got a question for the PFS community.

Are the rules for Carrying Capacity and Encumbrance used in PFS?

Theoretically yes, but it's mostly hand waved. If it's an issue for your PC, spend 5 gp or whatever it is for a mule. That even works in Core.

Thanks guys. I am having a hard time making a rogue with backpack of basic gear that is not medium loaded. It sucks

Yeah, this usually requires not having rope and grappling hook on you, since those are heavy. Or as I said, get a mule to carry those, your waterskin, and rations. Switch to a Handy Haversack by level 4 or 5.

There's also the tried-and-true method of passing the rope to the fighter to carry.

Or dropping the pack when you get into a fight.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but drop the rations (except 1). They're heavy. Few GMs seem to require them in scenarios without pack mules.

So. Where would I go if I really wanted to play a NON-Society adventure, ideally where I could satisfy my true desire of playing 3rd-party and/or backwards-compatible weirdness?

I'm assuming that you see the occasional campaign announcements of that sort that pop up in Recruitment (and get swamped with applicants in short order). Mentioning your interest here is a good idea, though, as a GM may realize that their ambition in life is to run a wide-open game.

Indeed, you can watch the recruitment boards and hope to get lucky but there are always so many applicants (and, sadly, so many of those games go belly-up before they get far) that really your best bet is to find a group you like to play with and try to organize a game like that on your own or find someone willing to GM and have them organize it.

I am running several APs on the boards which have been going for a few years. Most of them were private invite of people I liked playing PFS with here on the boards. Only one was open public recruitment but even then I watched out for names I recognized from my PFS games. It's easier that way because you have fewer drop-outs and you can hand-pick dedicated posters that you trust to stick with it.

As it happens, there are some troll users too, that offer up APs or other open worlds, string people along, and then drop the campaign without any word. Paizo has been trying to police the accounts that do this, but do your homework on the GM before applying. He/she should have a few thousand posts under their GM alias before trying something that significant, IMNSHO. (And I say this as a relatively new PFS GM.)

As it happens, there are some troll users too, that offer up APs or other open worlds, string people along, and then drop the campaign without any word.

...and a lot of flakes who pretty much do the same thing.

Bummer. There's things - classes, campaign settings, homebrewed or modified ideas - I've wanted to do and play for YEARS, and have never gotten to for various reasons. What can I do? Where can I go? There isn't really anyone to play with where I live (either they don't like 3.X, and/or they don't like ME).

As explained: try to get into games on the recruitment board. Yeah, they are full of flakes (I disagree with the assessment of "trolls"; it's usually just people who wash out because they underestimated the commitment it takes to run a PBP game, but I wouldn't characterize anyone I've seen as 'intentionally stringing players along'), and yeah, you'll have stiff odds of getting into one at first, but if you keep trying you'll luck out.

One way to improve your odds of getting into games is to actually GM them. By GMing, you put yourself in the position to pick a group of players you think you'll like to play with-- essentially screening for people who match your play style-- and the PBP gaming community is very reciprocal: at least half of the games I'm currently involved in, I was invited to join because people had played with me in other PBPs (some of which I had GMd), so they knew me enough to want me on their list of desired players.

To a new player, I guess it seems like exclusivity; but from the other side of the coin, it's the best way to try and avoid gaming with flakes (because plenty of players drop out as well; I'm GMing one game where I've had to replace half the original party. It's frustrating to do that, so you start to gravitate towards picking players you either can personally endorse for reliability, or players who the other people in your campaign can vouch for, or players you've seen posting regularly and faithfully on the boards). So, it boils down to building a reputation, basically; and you have to either start applying for games in order to do that, or start GMing them as a sort of a shortcut.

If you want to try the GMing route: I'd suggest you use a published PFS scenario but run it not for credit. In your pitch for it, explain you're opening it up to all the 3PP non-PFS legal stuff that people wish they could play-- in other words, exactly what you want to to play-- because that will draw the sort of players you're accordingly interested in to GM something like that for you, later. Also, the PFS scenarios are short and are a good way to dip your toes into PBP GMing.

It seems like there's a "guilty until proven innocent" ethos under all this. I hate it. "Exclusivity" isn't the complaint I'd use - rather, "securitarian xenophobia."

I wouldn't characterize it that way; it's just the direct function of two factors:

1) There are always more prospective players than there are GMs, making it a 'buyer's market' for GMs;
2) People flake out a lot on the Paizo boards. It's regrettable. I wish it didn't happen. But I'm on my third WoTR campaign via PBP now because the first two died, without any explanation or message from the GM, before we ever hit level 2. I had the aforementioned 'had to replace half the party' in a homebrew game, where I had done a lot of extensive work tying in the original PCs to the story and to the plot; all of that went out the window. I've lost GMs in the middle of for-credit PFS play. I've lost players to the point where I just shelved an entire table rather than try and recruit more new players than there were still remaining PCs in the group. Etc., etc.

If you want to call it 'xenophobia', fine. It's just the pain of having been burned a lot, and choosing now to actively recruit players who I know won't burn me and make me waste my time.

And I do still actively seek out new players and try to round out my tables with them; I just start with a core of people I know won't disappear halfway through the game.

It seems like there's a "guilty until proven innocent" ethos under all this. I hate it. "Exclusivity" isn't the complaint I'd use - rather, "securitarian xenophobia."

When you're a player (or a GM) that is faithfully keeping up with productive lengthy posts on a daily basis the reasonable expectation of everyone else in a given PbP is that they, too, will be doing the same.

One would not be posting once every couple of weeks with actions that are not appropriate to the current status of the scenario and criticizing the decisions that the GM has made to keep the scenario moving.

Exclusivity, xenophobia, or just plain life experience rearing an ugly head? Probably a combination of all and more.

Moral of the story: If one's in a PbP and the GM says 'please post at least once a day, at the very least every two days, please do that. If one can't, at least leave semi-detailed instructions that the GM can use as guidelines for moving one along in the story.

I suppose you could see it that way.

It isn't how it is though, it's more a case of every one of us GM's has been burned repeatedly, some of us more than others, and so we want to make sure that whilst we are investing our time (and for the GM it is a big time sink) we want to make sure the players are equally committed. When a player vanishes I get disappointed as a GM, but more so I feel bad for the party that now has to struggle on.

There are a lot of opportunities for new players that come up and new blood is coming in all the time, and those are great spots to build a rep - which is what you are looking for if you REALLY want some funky experimental PbP.

I exclusively run PFS PbP, and the short nature format means it is a great chance for me to meet new players. I also do like to join new groups as a player to also build new adventuring companions.

Play some, run some, and find a GM who you gel with.

I don't necessarily see eye to eye with all my PbP GM's, but the upside is I have learnt some great stuff off every single one.

I'm also a bit of a PITA player and postpostpost which probably drives some crazy, but also means I do get in groups because momentum=life in PbP.

One would not be posting once every couple of weeks with actions that are not appropriate to the current status of the scenario and criticizing the decisions that the GM has made to keep the scenario moving.

LOL I recognise this phenomena...!

Bear in mind that what I say has at least as much to say with my experiences prior to coming here. My experience here has been pretty great; it's just that that's the first time that that's been the case. Up until Pathfinder Society (which I've made do with, but isn't what I really wanted) I'd been feeling kind of like Kyle in the "Chinpokomon" episode of South Park where every time I was ready to get in on what was happening, excited and full of ideas, everyone else had moved on and the winds seemed to have once again turned against me.

That's to say nothing of the stupid, organized "gamer culture" that didn't used to be there (or at least left way the hell more room and respect for independent and innovative thought), being mistreated for being different by people who I'd previously expected to be 'my kind of people,' etc.

Fair commentary :)

I've been doing PbP for like 8 years or so and while I prefer a full fledged campaign to PFS one just has to accept that it's rarely gonna work out.
PFS PbP scenarios very rarely die (have had that happen twice in 3 years) and you actually get to meet folks and find people to game with. The long term campaigns I'm in here are all run by folks whom I met via PFS.

I'll echo the comments above--if I were going to run something off-the-wall like that, with lots of 3PP and old 3.5 elements*, I'd hold at least a few slots for people I've seen in other campaigns. Like IHIYC ;-), who's been in two of the PFS games I've run here.

*NB: I don't have the time to do so now, and probably won't for some time. It also doesn't help that all of my 3.5 books are hard copies, which makes it a little tougher to run online.

*NB: I don't have the time to do so now, and probably won't for some time. It also doesn't help that all of my 3.5 books are hard copies, which makes it a little tougher to run online.

As far as that goes, it seems like you can find many of those books for free online somehow.

It can make things difficult for the media-impaired, though.

I have a heckuva time trying to parse .pdfs, for example? Give me a book any day over a .pdf, please?

I'm not saying there are many trolls, just that it is (was) a phenomenon, and the powers that be are aware of it.

I concur with the comments above. Find a GM you trust, first, and then campaign. I've had some great PFS GMs, and continue at their tables (feels like a campaign!), and some that ... let's just say I'm glad I tried them, and also glad the scenarios were short.

Troll or victim of schedual change, I can attest that games dying out in a couple weeks, or at least far short of any stopping poing is not limited to these forums. I spent nearly a year PbPing over at GiantITP forums. Of maybe 5 games I got into, only one made it past the initial stages.

Speaking as someone who has PBPed for more than a decade on a number of sites... this is a feature of PBP rather than any given board.

GMing takes a lot of work, and doing it on a board takes even more than around a table, as you don't get a weeks R&R in between. There is the fatigue of posting every day, but the frustration of only small amounts of progress. Player drop is an even more common problem than GM drop, but certainly contributes to GM drop.

Don't get me wrong, games can run for a long time (I ran one that lasted for around ten years over at rpgcrossing, although there were probably five or six complete changes of players/characters in that time) but that is the rarity.

That is one of the reasons I like PFS these days, it is like it was built for PBP. Scenarios are short, so keep up interest. Big pool of GMs, so if you don't like my style you can take a (standard) amount of xp/gold/items from my game and use them elsewhere. Yeap, it lacks some of the feel of a home game, but fits the medium really, really well.

Every now and then I think of starting up a new non PFS campaign, but I have several kids now, and family takes up a lot of time. I suspect a lot of GMs start to feel the same way.

I concur with my esteemed colleague GM Aerondor. I have 2 APs that are 3 years running, and another that is only a few months old. In that time, I have had 2 campaigns that I was running collapse under me, and a dozen or more that I was playing in faltered and died, most within the first month or so.

It's one of the reasons I like the PFS format in PbP so much, and why I am glad that there are so many GMs willing to run scenarios.

Unfortunately, on any forum, first come first serve games are typically overrun by the people who have 5+ characters and plenty of time to trawl the forums on a regular basis, while those who only show up once a day or less get shorted. GMs who run multiple tables help overcome this, and they should be praised to the high hills for their commitment.

Much call for Serpents Rise at the moment?

A couple of my tables are finishing up so I have GM bandwidth :)

I'd play Serpent's Rise. Pre-gens right?

Yeah its pre-gens.

I'd also be down for serpents rise!

Core Serpent's Rise or regular/classic?

I'd be down for Core, but have already played it in 'normal mode'. Still a great scenario either way, so if 'normal' I highly recommend it to the rest of the lodge!

Core? I'll be interested in Core......

ladies, gentlemen...

due to a very, very unfortunate event, a series of evil's games on the forum was cancelled. several players are now in limbo in the thread, and since there are more than enough for a working table, i have decided to dust off my gm screen and run the scenarios myself. can anyone give me a few pointers to speed up the starting process? i did see several guides here on the boards, and i don't think it will be much trouble, but - there's a few things i am interested in.

specifically - i am yet to create my first thread on these forums, and would rather not make one just to test stuff on it. that would simply be a bit awkward. so to get to the point - how does one put links to maps / handouts / and initiative rolls code into the thread header?

this is what i am mostly interested in. after that, i am pretty much ready for the deed.

additionally - though i have read a few guides on how to gm a pbp on the forums, other tips are welcome of course. for streamlining purposes.

cheers

edit: oh yeah - are there any specific rules for nomenclature, when creating a thread? it seems to me there's a format to all games i've been a part of here:

<insert gamemaster's forum name here>'s <insert scenario name here> - <standard/core>

i assume this is not actually enforced, but a common courtesy rule. i just want to make sure i got it right.

thirdly - making threads active/inactive. how to?

that's about it for now. thanks for your input.

Most of what you're looking for can be done in the Campaign Tab under "Edit"

To make a new thread, just go to the PbP subforum and "add new thread".

From there at the top left it'll ask you if you want to make a campaign for this thread. You do. There's no rule on Thread titles, but your assumption is pretty standard. The first box is where you put the quick post and map links.

My handouts and maps are used in Googledocs with sharing on. Once you go to edit the campaign.

The GM alone can deactivate the thread on this tab too. There's a small box near the top to do so.

This should get you started. If you need more I know other people here will help, but you can also PM me with questions.

Did Evil have any in-progress tables that need handling, or are they all covered?

... and if you need GM powers to inactivate a thread (or finish an adventure), Paizo's Customer Service can help transfer thread ownership.

Most of what you're looking for can be done in the Campaign Tab under "Edit"

To make a new thread, just go to the PbP subforum and "add new thread".

From there at the top left it'll ask you if you want to make a campaign for this thread. You do. There's no rule on Thread titles, but your assumption is pretty standard. The first box is where you put the quick post and map links.

My handouts and maps are used in Googledocs with sharing on. Once you go to edit the campaign.

The GM alone can deactivate the thread on this tab too. There's a small box near the top to do so.

This should get you started. If you need more I know other people here will help, but you can also PM me with questions.

thanks for those. that pretty much covers what i needed for the time being.

Did Evil have any in-progress tables that need handling, or are they all covered?

... and if you need GM powers to inactivate a thread (or finish an adventure), Paizo's Customer Service can help transfer thread ownership.

we were just starting the first adventure. introductory posts and all that, so i doubt it.

as for thread ownership transfer, that won't be necessary. might as well start a new one, since it was supposed to be a chain of games, starting with the confirmation. unfortunately i don't have that one so i'll substitute it with a different level 1-friendly scenario.

I am happy to help out should your players want to try Evil again...