The Flaxseed Pathfinder Lodge: Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Game Master Redelia

.... *stares at Crunch in awe for a moment*...

Wow! That's so bad! But really pretty funny too! I'm going to hell for laughing at this, but I really don't care right now!!!

-Posted with Wayfinder

.... *stares at Crunch in awe for a moment*...

Wow! That's so bad! But really pretty funny too! I'm going to hell for laughing at this, but I really don't care right now!!!

-Posted with Wayfinder

I have that effect on people. I assume it's a problem, but I don't care.

Petition to start a cadre of Pharasmin pirates.

Seconded without hesitation.

We need a GM to run two tables of the same scenario(s), one with all pirates the other with all ninjas, and see who does better.

Petition to start a cadre of Pharasmin pirates.

"Ah may be 'spectful t' Pharasma now 'n' then, but ah'm still a cleric o' Besmara."

What if your a ninja pirate?

Would that be a nirate or a pinja?

Would that be a nirate or a pinja?

Definitely a pinja.

A pinjama would be the mother of a pinja, then.

Fromper wrote:

Would that be a nirate or a pinja?

Definitely a pinja.

A pinjama would be the mother of a pinja, then.

Or it's what a pirate-ninja wears to bed.

We need a GM to run two tables of the same scenario(s), one with all pirates the other with all ninjas, and see who does better.

I'd run the ninja table if I get a spot for Dean on that pirate table.

Ushaka (Oo-shah-ka) pulls back his hood revealing an older dusky-skinned Garundi man with many tattoos, scars and piercing.

Ushaka wears loose sailor's clothes with a prominent leaf broach on his shirt.

Ushaka nods to Greenbeard
"Aye, Pharasma may help ya sail to tha boneyard when the time comes, but I speak for Gozreh, the Wavefather. Without him we wouldn't have the seas for Besmara's glorious ships to sail upon."

Tome of the Righteous Repose? It's replayable so more likely to have it as an available adventure to a large group of people.

Was thinking of the sequel to labyrinth of the hungry ghost! It's the perfect theme! Ushaka and Dean are within the tier

That doesn't seem to fair to the ninjas, but we may not actually have a ninja table.

Was thinking of the sequel to labyrinth of the hungry ghost! It's the perfect theme! Ushaka and Dean are within the tier

I've already played all the parts of that. Besides, I'm mostly saving Green Beard for play at my local store, since I don't have as many PCs to choose from after level 7.

The Ninja table should totally be House of Harmonious Wisdom!

Hmm

If we do get an all-pirate table to run, I've got a level 4 Besmaran (assuming Malachi survives Tome of Righteous Repose this weekend) as well as my level 9 Lamashtan, Nana.

I haven't played the latest part of the Gloomspires trilogy but have played Hall of the Flesh Eaters and Labyrinth of Hungry Ghosts.

To me, Tome of Righteous Repose is the perfect scenario for this. One, it is an evergreen. Two, the background easily allows the two teams to actually be set against each other in a friendly competition.

House of Harmonious Wisdom could work as well. It's an evergreen on level 1, or each group could do it once on Level 5. I could totally see pirates having fun with the HHW adventures.

If you do From the Tome of Righteous Repose, you should have a random rolling that would be the setting for both teams, with both GMs agreeing on the same monster / trap placements.

One caveat: you need a pair of experienced GMs for both teams if you go Tome. It can be very deadly -- some of the things that show up in Tome are terrifying. Another consideration: it has many rooms and many decision points. It is very possible for PbP groups to dither in dungeons. "Doors" (the moment before you enter rooms) are one of the worst enemies of PbP. Faced with so many decision points, many groups will stall out as they wait for other players to decide directions and test for traps.

No group should go into a dungeon without a standard door opening procedure so that the GM can roll you automatically into the next rooms. I also suggest that groups plan their routes 5 rooms ahead, so that the GM can stop them when they hit something, and push them ahead when the room turns out to be empty.

Hmm

Sorry its a little late but will the following please report Here for the tide of morning game

Dennis Muldoon
nejustmo
Andreww
supervillan
Will Huston

Another consideration: it has many rooms and many decision points. It is very possible for PbP groups to dither in dungeons. "Doors" (the moment before you enter rooms) are one of the worst enemies of PbP.

Godsmouth Heresy - the lair of a thousand doors.

CAN be terrible PbP for that reason.

When it came to Tome, For that exact reason, I streamlined the dungeons.
Made it linear exploration (rightly or wrongly), but it helped so much with the pace and the flow of the game. Didn't seem to add value to the game if all they are going to do is hit empty rooms on PBP!

Yeah I did Tome once in PbP, I can't see myself rushing back to it.

I like how Batpony did it for PbP. I was one of his players. Instead of lots of posts of us going up to a room or turning a corner to find nothing, he just set it up so he guided us from one encounter to the next. Kept it from just dragging in PbP.

I second that. I was also at one of his tables, and he did very well keeping us on track and engaged. This is one of those rare things that if ran as per societies "must be played as written" rules, it would tank hard in PbP.
Instead he streamlined the rooms and set the encounters in such a way as to provide a challenge without it being brutal, all while keeping the pace regulated.

-Posted with Wayfinder

I think that autorolling groups through the rooms of Tome would be the smart way to go for the future. Batpony, I think I'm going to read through your gameplay of it. I'm always trying to learn to be better, and it sounds like you have much to teach me. I finally found a way to move my group through, but there are still way too many dither moments happening for my tastes.

"Dungeon crawl" = A PBP where the pacing can slow to a crawl if the GM is not careful.

Hmm

Yeah, it does seem like dungeon crawls work better OTB than PBP, while more social scenarios are the opposite.

I think that autorolling groups through the rooms of Tome would be the smart way to go for the future. Batpony, I think I'm going to read through your gameplay of it. I'm always trying to learn to be better, and it sounds like you have much to teach me. I finally found a way to move my group through, but there are still way too many dither moments happening for my tastes.

"Dungeon crawl" = A PBP where the pacing can slow to a crawl if the GM is not careful.

Hmm

I played in one of his Tome games, and it worked very well. The map in person took us over the allotted time to finish when I GM'ed it at an in person game. My fault. I put lots of stuff at the back end of the map.

Hmm

In my experience both playing and GMing, it runs about 2.5-3 hours on tabletop or on roll20.

Yeah, it does seem like dungeon crawls work better OTB than PBP, while more social scenarios are the opposite.

That aligns with my observation! :)

I have to admit though, I was very experimental! Each time I ran it I found a better way to improve on it. I'm keen on running it again in future! The nature of it being so open ended makes it fun to try to put together a pbp experience that is fun but does not take away from the core story.

Yeah, it does seem like dungeon crawls work better OTB than PBP, while more social scenarios are the opposite.

It depends on how open-ended the dungeon is--in general PbP dungeon crawling works best, in my experience, when the choice space is tightly constrained. I also speed things up by following a rule of two (or three). If half the players agree on a path to follow, I'll go with that unless it's going to be a disaster (in that case, I'm not going to screw over someone's character for a choice they didn't get to make).

I posted this to my GM 101 Class, but I'm also cross-posting it here:

As of April 29th, it has been clarified that people can have potions and scrolls in their spring-loaded wrist sheaths.

Now folks can carry those Breath of Life scrolls in their spring-loaded wrist sheaths without fear of table variation. However, your rods won't fit in there. Find someplace else to stow them!

*Sprong!* *SPLASH!* "Damn! I didn't want to enlarge the enemy!"

A potion in a wrist sheath does seem a little suspect....

Hey. It's magic.

Unless of course you are an alchemist (in which case it is just supernatural).

A potion in a wrist sheath does seem a little suspect....

Many people think of potions as being in substantial flasks, a bit like the classic video game image of a healing potion. In Pathfinder though, potions resemble stoppered test tubes.

Physical Description: A typical potion or oil consists of 1 ounce of liquid held in a ceramic or glass vial fitted with a tight stopper. The stoppered container is usually no more than 1 inch wide and 2 inches high. The vial has AC 13, 1 hit point, hardness 1, and a break DC of 12.

I'm Hiding In Your Closet wrote:

A potion in a wrist sheath does seem a little suspect....

Many people think of potions as being in substantial flasks, a bit like the classic video game image of a healing potion. In Pathfinder though, potions resemble stoppered test tubes.

Paizo PRD wrote:

Physical Description: A typical potion or oil consists of 1 ounce of liquid held in a ceramic or glass vial fitted with a tight stopper. The stoppered container is usually no more than 1 inch wide and 2 inches high. The vial has AC 13, 1 hit point, hardness 1, and a break DC of 12.

I did consider that possibility. That does work a little better.

Yay! I asked Customer Service to sticky the Flaxseed Recruitment thread, and they did! Yay!

This should help our visibility as the go-to hub for PFS recruitment!

Hmm

Is there specific rules regarding specials in PBP? Or somewhere these rules are referenced that I'm not seeing?

This will be my first special, just want to know how much bandwidth it will take up.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Is there specific rules regarding specials in PBP? Or somewhere these rules are referenced that I'm not seeing?

This will be my first special, just want to know how much bandwidth it will take up.

-Posted with Wayfinder

As a player, there's not really anything you need to worry about regarding special rules. The Overseer and GM's do most of it behind the scenes. The main focus as a player should be consistent posting and keeping up with the game. Because there are time limits throughout the scenario, it is imperative to make the game a bit of a priority and stay active.

Yes, this special is not anywhere near as taxing on players as it is on GMs. I hope you have a great time with your first special!

Hmm

A while back, there was some discussion about tracking and compiling PFS statistics. I just got an idea for how to accomplish that, and am wondering what people think. Would any of our tech savvy members be able to do this?

The <Players> tab of this campaign shows every account that has ever dotted in the Flaxseed Lodge, even those who have since left. The <Campaigns> tab for each of those players shows all of their active games, and includes the formatted content "GameMaster <name>".

Could a script be written that uses the above information to gather a list of all campaigns currently being run by members of Flaxseed, then compile that information over time?

It wouldn't tell you which games they were running were PFS or not.

It wouldn't tell you which games they were running were PFS or not.

A human being can easily tell that information though. Somebody could probably mark all of the PFS games in 5 minutes, and would only need to check the list once every 2-3 weeks. And after the first time, they would only be checking the new campaigns, which might take 2 minutes at most.

Granta (and others) if you are interested, Oladon's got a project where she has scraped data on active campaigns and is looking for people to mark whether the campaigns are completed, whether they are PFS, etc. If there are people interested in reviewing the data, I'd love to send her volunteers.

____

Meanwhile, everyone should check out the Lastest PFS Blog. In it is a survey where Leadership is asking you for some details about your characters and what your favorite PFS Season is. If you complete it, there is a nice thank you boon at the end.

We all love boons, right?

Go, forth and fill out John and Tonya's survey!

Hmm

Granta (and others) if you are interested, Oladon's got a project where she has scraped data on active campaigns and is looking for people to mark whether the campaigns are completed, whether they are PFS, etc. If there are people interested in reviewing the data, I'd love to send her volunteers.

Sign me up. My totem animal is a guinea pig.

My, that is one handy Boon we get for doing that survey! Question is, how do we file it? Do we give a copy of the Boon to each of the 2 characters who benefited from it, perhaps after they've done so or just when they do so?

You only get one copy of the boon, IHIYC.

So, I think I get it, but to clarify for others:

• One survey, you pick one of the two boons. The first one applies to tier 1-5 only.
• Two surveys, the first boon can apply to tier 3-7 adventures.
• Three, it applies to 5-9.
• Four, it applies to 7-11.
• Five, no extra benefit.
• Six, you get both boons or can choose one of them twice.

Regardless of how many times you did the survey, you only get one. Is this all correct?