[PFS] GM kuey's Fate of the Scoured God (#2-00) - PbP GD VIII (Inactive)

Game Master kuey

2. Please post at least once a day, including on weekends. Honestly, though, as a special, more frequent posting is definitely better. I’ll personally target at least 2 posts a day for myself. If you have not played a special before, generally each encounter is timed, so we would have a fixed number of days to clear through each. Also, very often, not only would our progress contribute to our individual table success, it would also contribute to the success of all the tables. If you would be away, please let me know in advance where possible, and we can work something out. Otherwise, if you go missing, where necessary, I will bot your characters for the sake of the rest of everyone else. Thus, please leave botting instructions for combat (with dice rolls), space combat and non-combat in your profile page beforehand. Otherwise, I’ll just skip your turns.

3. If you have any disagreements over some of my GM calls or interpretation of the scenario, please take it to the discussion thread or, even better, pm me.

4. If you have played and/or GMed this scenario before, please do not metagame or spoil the plot. And please let me know.

5. I would have thought this would go without mentioning until I encountered this, so… It is the responsibility of the player to keep track of the game, including referencing the map on google slides. I understand that there are times where it is inconvenient to do so. In that case, please be as specific as you can as to where you wish your character to move, what actions to take, etc. If you regularly have issues with accessing the google slides, you might want to reconsider playing via PbP PFS/SFS, as there is always combat, and thus map dependent.

Normal Combat
6. Once surprise (if any) and initiative is determined, for the group of characters who can take actions, I would resolve actions in posting order, NOT initiative order. I used to do the latter but it doesn’t work that well in PbP, so am going with the former instead.

Space Combat
7. I run space combat somewhat differently from the RAW to facilitate posting rate. I’ll roll the initiative at the start for all ships based on the respective piloting checks. Then, once it reaches your ship’s turn, everyone will post but I will resolve the actions in the Engineering – Helm – Gunnery phase order. As such, while you can declare your actions in the open, please have your dice rolls in spoilers. The one exception are the gunners. Gunnery phase might need to wait for all the ship movements to finalise to determine which weapons are available for firing. So Gunners might want to hold your posting until then or set up a series of contingency actions depending on the final facing and positioning. And if you’ve read so far, mention your favourite dog breed. If you can do it surreptitious, kudos to you.

Character Choice
8. In PFS, I’ve pretty much left the players to sort out what characters to play because only in very rare scenarios do an unoptimized party spread have a significantly adverse effect. And players do generally sort it out among themselves. However, due to the nature of space combat, it is beneficial that there are characters who can cover each of the following: (1) charisma-skills, (2) piloting, (3) engineering, (4) computer, and (5) BAB/piloting rank + dex. Of course, it is not detrimental to be lacking in one or other, but if there are 6 mystics, then we might have a problem.

Rolls and Skill Checks
9. I would do your initiative rolls, as well as perception rolls for the purpose of determining surprise (if any).

10. On knowledge checks for general information, I would usually put them in spoilers with the necessary DCs. Just go ahead to roll, and I'll trust that you would resist reading them if the roll fails (or least not to metagame). (Don’t forget that you can make knowledge checks untrained for DC10.) There might be exceptions for plot-critical information though, where I would explicitly ask for checks and only reveal based on what was rolled. As for knowledge checks to identify creatures, I would put the most basic information in spoilers as well, i.e. identity and creature type, as well as one piece of useful information. If your roll would reveal more, I’ll provide in the next post. If you wish, you can ask for what information you want, e.g. DR, resistances, special attacks, etc.

11. On skill checks where there could be team effort involved, e.g. finding a hidden trail with survival, influencing attitude of NPCs with diplomacy, please be explicit when making the rolls whether you are attempting the check on your own, or whether you are aiding. (And take note of the pros and cons of either.) There might be situations where only one character is allowed to attempt the check (and the rest to aid) – I’ll state so explicitly if that’s the case.

12. On skill checks in general, if I feel you have roleplayed well, e.g. gave a good description of what your character does to search for a trail, came up with creative ways to befriend a hostile NPC, gave a very rousing speech, I would give bonuses, or even waive the DC altogether. :)

Roleplaying Matters
13. The maps and handouts link (at the top of the page) would display all the maps, handouts, pictures, etc as the scenario progresses. The most current page would be right on top, while previous ones would be left there for your reference. (Incidentally, Android and IOS has the Google Slides app in case you work off mobile devices.)

14. Please have your full character information up on your character's profile page for my vetting. Also, please have your stat block updated with the key information. I’m most inclined towards this particular template.

15. Finally, playing by PbP provides many advantages compared to face-to-face games, the chief one being having the time and space to flesh out your thoughts and actions. So please make use of this and have posts that are more than simply dice rolls. :)