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. . . but that is likely after cut off (January 2018)
Then you can run Version B.
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Solstice scar is a 'time locked' special that can only be run as part of a convention. The current instalment will run from July to Dec, then it will lock down and be no longer available for play.
In January the next iteration will be released, which will run until June, then it locks and so on and so forth.
Basically it is an ongoing story in which the next chapter opens every 6 months and the only one legal to play is the current chapter.
How does that work? Is each chapter a unique scenario (i.e. can players play in all chapters, or is that considered a replay?)
Is this upcoming chapter the first chapter, or are we stepping into an established storyline?
Many of those answers may be revealed once the scenario is out. Currently, we don't really know a lot. ;)
With the exception that it appears you can replay the scenario when it hits a different phase.
There is always slightly more demand for seats at the specials than we can fill. That said, just about every player who put themselves on the waitlist for Cosmic Captive got seated. It's a tough question as where to cap the number of tables in a PbP multitable special.
Part of the issue is a need for exceptional PbP GMs to sign up early. Why? It's not just for our planning.... It's also so that we can get Convention support in a timely manner. Some of these specials (Solstice Scar & Cosmic Captive in particular) can only be gotten through Tonya. If we're going to be able to get a GM a copy of the special, we need them to sign up early.
The Online region is lucky that it can draw from a lot of GMs who are looking for specials on their path to five stars. Unfortunately, sometimes I have to tell VOs from other regions "no" for GMing specials in PbP until they have run something else in PbP. I don't want a multi-table special to be any GM's first PBP experience. Instead, I have been trying to convince those GMs to run something else for the upcoming Gameday, so that they can apply for the next special down the line with the experience they need. Shifty, expect a ton of interest in Race for the Runecarved Key!
Multi-table specials are exhausting for our GMs and Backup GMs. By the end of any given special, all backup GMs are in constant use. The other issue is, quite frankly, Organizer bandwidth.
Shifty, smart man that he is, likes to do 15 tables for a special. I have gone up to 25, and I feel that 25 tables is going to be our hard cap for running non-Shifty specials, especially since Overseers have to post in three different forums -- with slightly different formattng tags in each. Thank goodness the basic BB bold and url codes are standard! I've discovered that everything else is not.
As it is... 25 tables was anywhere from 40 minutes to 2 hours of posting for each overseer announcement. Most of the time, I could do it in quickly, but there were times when I needed to transition everyone. Going into Part III, I included a lot of custom text including hordes of Pathfinders trampling enemies and stopping conversations to make certain that the players understood -- hey, this part is done, we're moving on now!
I monitored discussion threads, looked for any issues including sick GMs, made rulings, and dealt with other things that came up. If we add more tables to meet demand, we also add to the Overseer workload in an unsustainable manner.
TL/DR: Sign up for the Player Waitlist!
Hmm
For GMs online that do not live near or attend many conventions and do not have the hook up to GM sit down specials when they do, I appreciate you giving the PbP GMs who frequent the flaxseed forums first dibs on GMing for the specials.
One month to the gameday. :)
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Solstice scar is a 'time locked' special that can only be run as part of a convention. The current instalment will run from July to Dec, then it will lock down and be no longer available for play.
In January the next iteration will be released, which will run until June, then it locks and so on and so forth.
Basically it is an ongoing story in which the next chapter opens every 6 months and the only one legal to play is the current chapter.
How does that work? Is each chapter a unique scenario (i.e. can players play in all chapters, or is that considered a replay?)
Is this upcoming chapter the first chapter, or are we stepping into an established storyline?
I ran a table of Solstice Scar at PaizoCon. The scenario has 3 distinct Parts (labeled as such) in this Version which is currently 8-99A. It was explained that they would remove and replace one of those Parts, thereby creating version B, and then another part for Version C, etc.
On page 2 of the scenario, it says "This is Version A of an evolving storyline that is re-released regularly with updated content." (Small print on the Contents and Credits page.)
Then at the end, on page 41, it says "If this is the final Part, the Overseer GM should close the event, thank the Table GMs for their hard work, and thank the players for their support of Pathfnder Society Roleplaying Guild Organized Play campaign. Provide the GMs and players with instructions for submitting reporting sheets and exiting the event. Otherwise, the Overseer GM should begin Part 4. (Emphasis added.)
Conjecture at my table afterwards was in which Parts they could replace and with what, and how that might affect and change the storyline of the remaining parts. It was agreed that there are lots of ways they could do it while maintaining both replayablility and the story arc.
Lastly, it was stated by leadership at the Con (I think it was Compton, but not sure), that the new version(s) can be played or GMed for credit, even on the same character! They're distinct Versions, so the same character can play 8-99A and also 8-99B, etc. without it counting as a replay.
. . . but that is likely after cut off (January 2018)Then you can run Version B.
Might be a great opportunity for someone. I'll be overseering the Multi-table special 'Race for the Runecarved Key', should be interesting!
As GM Hmm alluded to, Overseering is a committment of 1-2 hours every day for the duration, and often as blocks of time. It is a tough gig, on one hand, I want to sign up to GM the PbP Multis, but on the other I Overseer them all locally so the forums are the only time I get to 'play'. Somehow I have jumped a shark and ended up running/Overseering them.
I stick to a 15 table hard cap as that is 'the edge of fun' for me, especially if we have to be cross posting into other forums (eg Mythweavers).
Without trying to sound like an ass through, it was Magabeus that gave me a nudge with the suggestion of running a multi here on the boards (which I think had been done once before?) because we wanted the fun of the events (and the gamedays were far between), we needed more specials for 5 star, and other GM's were equally struggling to get to the magic 10. So we set up the first one - Year of the Shadowlodge - and away we went. There was a lot of wailing and gnashing of the teeth on the forums because neither Magabeus nor I were VO's or part of the Online Play Crew, but once people understood what we were doing was legit we ran out of space really quickly.
If you really feel passionately, I would recommend grabbing one or two buddies and just launch a con/event. Hit up Iron-Helixx or Hmm and let them know what you want to do and I am sure they will help.
My only warning is that it is a gateway drug, and now I run cons locally.
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Sort of. Cosmic Captive can only be run at a complying convention (24 or 25 or more tables, and with RVC approval) but you could pump out 25+ tables of it to meet the convention size requirement.
A word of caution, pbp overseeing is significantly more difficult than face to face overseering.
Can Cosmic Captive be run as a Game Day special? As in, just that, no other scenarios?
Cosmic Captive as a PBP gameday* special? Who would be crazy enough to do that?
Hmm
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* Seriously, didn't we just do this? :)
Shifty is correct that we designed the Cosmic Captive Gameday to be its own Convention of 25 tables minimum. It's so complicated we wanted to do it by itself.
At the moment, we run three multi-table specials a year in Play-by-Post. There's the Shifty special in January, a multi-table in the Summer, and then whatever special we run for Play-by-Post Gameday. That's not leaving a lot of room for other multi-table specials, but I'm always open to people who are interested in helping out / volunteering with the process.
Do people have specials that they want to see next year? I need to decide what specials we're doing in 2018!
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I think we should try to do Scar version B if we can.
If we have Race already lined up (I think I heard something about that?) then that would leave one of
Siege of the Diamond City and
Legacy of the Stone Lords
OR whatever comes out for Season 9
as the third for the year.
I think it would be kind of nice to aim (in general) for
That years version of Solstice Scar,
That years new special,
And working through one of the old specials that has not been tackled in PBP yet (Race, Siege and Legacy).
Then we could start back at the beginning with Siege (I think that was the first PBP multi table. And I didn't GM that one, as I'd never even played a multitable special before and thought it might be just a little too confusing) - or one of the others that was popular.
Scar is 2x a year. version B will hit in Jan, Version C will hit July.
We could keep up no worries, just means there would be the ongoing story for two multis, and one from the archives for the other
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Having played solstice A at PaizoConUK the story looks to be keyed to events happening at solstice times. I suspect some season 9 content may lead towards solstice B unless the lead up events mentioned at the end of A are all contained in Solstice B. Sorry if that's a bit vague but anything more will be spoilers territory
Yes, up until Solstice Scar I was worried that we might run out of specials at some point... No longer! I am a little worried that not enough will change between versions. Nothing sears a special into your memory more strongly than having run it in Play-by-Post. Seriously, every section of a Play-by-Post is scrutinized and read and reread multiple times by our players and GMs.
Though I think that worked to our advantage in Cosmic Captive. When I GMed this live, half the story was lost. Our pre-recorded soundtrack would not play through the speaker system. The only people who could hear the Overseer were the me (because I was right next to her), my table who had all GMed it before, and the two ACG tables!
Our tables raced from combat to combat, most of them with little clue about what they were doing. In this version... the story came out. The players had time to roleplay and fight. I think that we had a far better time with it than any live table would have. It helped that all our GMs kept up a tremendous pace... Though I think that every one of them was glad that it was over. The pace that these required could lead to burnout.
I started GMing Specials because playing them sucked for me when we did it live. In PbP though... We have time for story and combat, and that has made all the difference.
Hmm
Yes, up until Solstice Scar I was worried that we might run out of specials at some point... No longer! I am a little worried that not enough will change between versions. Nothing sears a special into your memory more strongly than having run it in Play-by-Post. Seriously, every section of a Play-by-Post is scrutinized and read and reread multiple times by our players and GMs.
It's certainly a great way to playtest - the vast number of faults that were found in YotSL and BuA were quite surprising. We could have given some really good feedback by the end.
With that said, I would really really strongly suggest that the players also take things with a grain of salt/face value, because yeah sometimes there ARE issues, but the GM has to run it as written :p
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It's certainly a great way to playtest - the vast number of faults that were found in YotSL and BuA were quite surprising. We could have given some really good feedback by the end.
With that said, I would really really strongly suggest that the players also take things with a grain of salt/face value, because yeah sometimes there ARE issues, but the GM has to run it as written :p
Blessed are Creative Solutions, for they make a scenario Vibrant and Alive!
Blessed are Creative Solutions, for they make a scenario Vibrant and Alive!It's certainly a great way to playtest - the vast number of faults that were found in YotSL and BuA were quite surprising. We could have given some really good feedback by the end.
With that said, I would really really strongly suggest that the players also take things with a grain of salt/face value, because yeah sometimes there ARE issues, but the GM has to run it as written :p
Up until creative solution gets shut down because module says "absolutely not allowed" with no good ic explanation.
Probably the biggest reason why I've avoided gming pfs or gamedays till now.
Up until creative solution gets shut down because module says "absolutely not allowed" with no good ic explanation.
Probably the biggest reason why I've avoided gming pfs or gamedays till now.
I've GM'd a few scenarios (under ten) but so far haven't run into this particular situation once?
I think the biggest part of it is that there is a common style subconcioisly ascribed to by many players and the the scenerios get designed under that style. Thus when you get a player that isn't quite the right playstyle, they end doing things the designers never expected and never came up in test plays as the test players are all part of that common style and possibilities outside that style never occur to them, so such issues rarely come up even after print.
That is my thoery anyway.
Edit: For example, I shortly played with a group that literally had trouble comprehending the idea I might have spent nearly two decades gaming without knowing that every party must be tank, trap-disabler, healer, and caster, and that casters must be the ones to identify potions. In that game, my caster had spellcraft untrained since she had no formal training as she was a sorceress. Didn't go over well with that group.
Hey Alicorn --
So let's discuss the infamous GM Shackles of PFS. People coming in to PFS from the outside have the rather odd expectation that GMs have no freedom, and that all scenarios have a single solution to them.
Although there are a couple of scenarios in PFS that railroad the party in a rather rigid fashion, the vast majority of scenarios do allow for creative solutions. Also, if parties do something so unexpected that they break the pre-written tactics of an NPC... Well then GMs may respond accordingly.
Although we are one campaign with shared stories (our scenarios) there can be tremendous variation at times to how those stories are interpreted by GMs and their players.
Edit: For example, I shortly played with a group that literally had trouble comprehending the idea I might have spent nearly two decades gaming without knowing that every party must be tank, trap-disabler, healer, and caster, and that casters must be the ones to identify potions. In that game, my caster had spellcraft untrained since she had no formal training as she was a sorceress. Didn't go over well with that group.
This is one area where PFS will surprise you. Parties balance (or don't) in odd ways. I've seen parties with three paladins, or that were entirely casters get through a scenario by being creative and clever. There is no one right way to build a character or to put together a party. I've seen crazy combinations, and I've had fun with them.
PFS throws different people together on missions and gives you a chance to explore oddball character concepts and see if they'll work. One of the things that I love about PFS done Play-by-Post is to see the sheer amount of self-discovery that players do as they learn who their characters are.
On the whole, I've found PFS less railroady than some of my home games. (I had some clunker GMs in the past.). Your mileage of course may vary.
Hmm
Can Cosmic Captive be run as a Game Day special? As in, just that, no other scenarios?
This is how much I've had Cosmic Captive on my mind. I meant Solstice Scar!
Yes it is, as part of a Convention. The good news is that the table count for a con is lower at 15, mysteriously happening to be the max table count I run for my days (though that said last time I relented and ran 17).
So yes it is, 15 tables or more to qualify.
Blood under Absalom would be a good example of what I refer to, (mostly because it is recent and the worst offender I've played).
It was a martial tourny, but what surprised me was the wisdom implied by the text told to the players, but the mechanics and back side didn't support the wisdom at all. Namely, anyone from a real life warror tradition knows that skill in sticking your opponent with a sword without getting stuck in return is not enough to be a warrior. One must also know when and how to apply that skill and the place the fight holds in the larger picture of trying to achieve an objective. One of the hardest lessons to teach is to keep one's eye on the objective, but the scenerio tells the player an objective them tells the gm the players are outright not allowed to achieve it until some arbitrary limit is achieved (my gm actually gets a stamp of approval from me for how he handled things, but he shouldn't have needed to). Blood Under Absalom is a tease, as many of the wise things it seems to be testing the players for were subverted in the mechanics, in a way that most players probably never even knew there was a lesson there. Players got to go straight through the whole thing without ever being pushed to attempt the lessons implied in the setup.
Makes it a big sham in my eyes, yet I can see how the common munchkin playstyle of focusing on killing enemies and dicerolling through everything would never notice the issue. It makes me wonder if the author took cool sounding ideas from somewhere without understanding the underlying purpose.
This is one area where PFS will surprise you.
This is something I've knowm from day one. What surprises me is how many people don't get this.
It is also a bit surprising how much people don't want to see rpgs as a wide array of different games that use the same mechanics and that could greatly benefit from players being able to more distinctly and clearly discuss the style of game they want. For example, some see the game as a game of overcoming obstacles, while others (clearly a minority) see the game as a game of exercising character agency. The effect this has on the experience is massive, yet is one of those things that takes a few years of contemplation to really understand, if you are trying to understand. And most seem happy to ignore it and just accept things when they break down.
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My favorite story for party diversity (or lack thereof) was the PFS scenario where the team was sent on a spy mission during a fancy party at an embassy. When I played it, my group had three barbarians. We thought we were doomed, but it turned out great, and we succeeded at the scenario's main objectives easily.
Of course, our other three PCs were social/skill guys (bard, sorcerer, rogue), so that helped immensely. But the skill guys without the combat firepower of the barbarians would have failed, just as much as the combat guys would have without the help of the skill PCs. It turned out to be a great balance, and the lack of the traditional "healer" role didn't hurt at all. My bard and a wand of Cure Light Wounds was more than enough in that regard.
That's still one of my favorite PFS adventures. I've GMed it 4 or 5 times, just because I like it so much. I even downloaded the Mission Impossible theme song to my tablet to play during the opening mission briefing. The creative solutions the PCs come up with are always lots of fun.
I even had a druid who insisted on bringing her elephant companion to the party ("He's just a baby!" - medium size at low level). She put decorations all over him and pretended he was part of the entertainment. It was awesome.
I like my Seeker group for this reason. It doesn't fit the standard mold. Our only Melee character is a knife master rogue who can't do traps or tank. Our group is all about control and killing fast, and relying on the casters to figure out any other problem mechanic so the dps can dps before we die. Leads to some scary moments when there's a lot going on, but tons of fun.
No tricks or anything different. You just level like normal. Any "tricks" that existed in the past are long gone.
Just there are FAR fewer adventures you can play with a level 12+ character than any level under that, but that's it.
Well, I guess if there are any "tricks," the only one I can think of is about scrolls. You can start purchasing 7th level scrolls at 13, 8th at 15, and 9th at 17.
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The main "trick" I know about is that there's only one path (correct order to play available modules/adventure paths/scenarios) in order to reach level 20. It revolves around the fact that Race for the Runecarved Key is the only adventure playable at ANY level, so I think you have to wait until you're 19+2 to play it if you want to hit 20th.
And then you have nothing to play at 20, but at least you can claim you got there. I never understood the appeal.
If you can get hold of an extended travels boon, you can play Race at 20th level. I think the appeal of this would be finally being able to use capstone powers... Even if they're completely wasted on the high tier adversaries in Race for the Runecarved Key.
Hmm
If you can get hold of an extended travels boon, you can play Race at 20th level. I think the appeal of this would be finally being able to use capstone powers... Even if they're completely wasted on the high tier adversaries in Race for the Runecarved Key.
Hmm
I oversaw a Race game in which a team of 19.2 played. They actually started buffing the monsters just to keep the fun going. It was a lot of fun to watch!
The only "trick" that I know of is making sure you have the correct starting XP for the specific arc. Although, now, there are a few higher level regular scenarios, I think.
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Cosmic Voyagers --
I believe that I have finally finished with all your boons. If you were owed a boon, and have not heard from me, send me a link to your boon roll and tell me!
Thanks so much.
Hmm
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Does a character who plays "Eyes of the Ten" have to retire at the end of it? That's the "retirement arc," so I understand.
Nope. It is a retirement arc because it is played at the point that most PFS agents retire to run their lovely Tiger Farms. I vas planning to return to my Tiger Farm vhen I got called up for vun last mission...
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Does a character who plays "Eyes of the Ten" have to retire at the end of it? That's the "retirement arc," so I understand.
No. It was originally called "the retirement arc" just because it was the ONLY set of adventures available for PCs over level 11 in PFS. Then, they started sanctioning modules, adventure paths, and having a few newer PFS scenarios available for level 12+ PCs. But it doesn't force you to retire the PC.
More seriously...
PFS play used to end at level Eleven, with the one exception being Eyes of the Ten. Now there are lots of options that will take you past Eyes of the Ten, including modules, APs and other seeker-level scenarios.
Hmm
Ya, higher level play has been available for about 5 years now. Longer than it wasn't available.
Pretty much forget everything you learned about level 12+ play in the past. It's the exact same as normal play now... just with less scenarios/modules you can do than the lower levels.
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Tastes Great!
Err...
I go for my capstone in January with Shifty's Race for the Runecarved Key! Been waiting for over a year at 19.2! Excited, but at the same time saddened that unless there 20+ scenerio's made it will be her last mission.. Hard to believe it's been 5 years since I made her.
Wow...I gotta play more. I made my highest level character almost 2 years ago. He's sitting at level 3.2.
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When I first started PFS the town I lived in had a pretty robust gaming sceen and I was able to play a session with her 2-3 times a month. I had her to 10th or so level before I ever started playing online. Since, I've moved to an area that has no face to face games so her last 7 or 8 levels came strictly from the boards.. Funny fact she was my 3rd character made, I just had more fun with her so she became my main.. My 1st character is level 11, 2nd is 8th..