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There is one other thing we need to determine. Since this is repeatable, there are three version of the encounters:
[color=red]Red[/color]
[color=Green]Green[/color] and
[color=blue]Blue[/color].
Anyone who has played this Quest before, please let me know what color(s) you have played, and I will do my best to find the version that maximizes the new experience for the most players.
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I appear to have attracted the attention of a number of (in)famous people. It's a good thing it doesn't bother me. If I recall correctly, when I ran this at Paizocon 2020, everyone also started with two Hero Points, I think there were two VCs and a Campaign Coin holder.
Oddly enough, I think we ended up with the [color=Green]Green[/color] option that run through as well.
Ember's song just kind of popped into my head as I was writing the post, so it wasn't brilliance, just dumb luck. Half Gilbert and Sullivan, and half Pop Culture.
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I appear to have attracted the attention of a number of (in)famous people. It's a good thing it doesn't bother me. If I recall correctly, when I ran this at Paizocon 2020, everyone also started with two Hero Points, I think there were two VCs and a Campaign Coin holder.
Same thing happened to me for Gameday. First time GM'ing and my offer of 03-01 attracted 3 VOs, all of whom had campaign coins. Great experience and learned a lot... :)
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@Kavin, the only other things I would like to see in your header is your Perception bonus and Exploration activity.
For everyone else, I would appreciate it if you would post or PM me your location, at whatever level of precision you are comfortable with. Since I started GMing over VTT, I have been collection Player locations, kind of like HAM radio operators collect contact cards from distant stations. Since I normally run VTT in the morning US time, I collect a fair amount of European players.
Looks like we are waiting for The Great Drake with Nosaj Morsheeba to check in.
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@Kavin Berger, I am always willing to listen, and with the group we have here, I am sure we can have a good discussion on how the game plays while we play the game.
I have read what I can find, and have been playing PbP for most of this year. I will admit that I did my first PbP because I just needed one more season 10 PF1 scenario to have unlocked all the Legacy ancestries for PF2, but it has grown on my the more I have played.
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Alright, if you’ve been playing a while then you’ve probably already seen these things.
The biggest difference to me is in initiative.
When I run a PbP, I do what I refer to as grouped initiative. Monsters separate groups of players actions. All the players between two monsters act in posting order unless they request to act after someone else. This keeps things going and reduces the incidence of retcons. Everyone has different schedules so it can really slow a game down if you wait for each person to post in exact initiative order. In game, it is as if people went into delay until they could post.
I have seen others that have several people post in groups but apply it in initiative order. I don’t like that solution because it is more likely you will need to retcon someones actions because of changes caused by others that act before them but posted after them.
The other thing is having a clear status block showing who may act and what the status of each player and NPC is. It probably lists what round number it is, some of the buffs, debuffs, and conditions, and may have reminders of special terrain or hazards.
I use bolding of names to indicate which players may act. I tend to list damage totals of both characters and NPCs. I have taken to listing the player damage totals as XX / YY where XX is damage taken and YY is maximum HP so as to clearly indicate how close they are to going down. I do not list the max HP for monsters, but I try to indicate in the descriptive text when a monster is close to dead. When an NPC dies, at least for the first time I will use strike-through in the initiative block to indicate they have gone down. After a while I will clear them out of the initiative block.
Some GM like to hide monster HPs more than that. That is fine with me as long as you give some sort of general indicator of how badly injured they are.
Since I do enough GMing of PbP, I have also put together a general discussion post for how I run things. Here is a recent example for PF2 that I customized a little bit because the scenario involved (Headshot the Rot) had special rules for apply8ng credit and use of pregens.
Note that I put the chronicle information high enough in the post that replies to the post have all the requested fields. Since you are using RPG Chronicles that is less important, but you may want to keep it in mind any time you request information from players as part of a long post.
I have versions of that introduction for PF1, PF2, SFS and specials for each of the systems. I put much more focus on the need for speed in the specials.
For each game I run, I create a Google doc with various bookkeeping notes in it. I keep the most up to date version of the turn status block there and edit that before posting. This is partially because of the Paizo forums historically going down at the worst possible time, and partially because it helps me track things. I also keep notes on status that the players do not see. I generally have pre-formatted text to do search/perception checks. If the group defines a standard procedure, I will have pre-formatted and spoilered text for handling that. The Google doc is more loosely formatted and tends to vary depending on the adventure since I am generally the only person who sees it.
Hopefully some of the above is useful to you. I’m sure others have their own list of things that are specific to PbP.
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@Teki Stronggut: I did not notice that the colored text required the extension. I won't be using it any more. Would it help if I reposted the post that has the colored text?
@Kavin Berger- Most of the points in your post line up with what I had in mind. I need to decide on strict initiative or block initiative before you get to combat. Can I steal a copy of your "How I run things" text? I consider plagiarism the sincerest form of flattery, as I liked it well enough to steal copy it.
How do the other players feel about strict initiative order versus the block initiative? Most of the PbP games I have done so far have been strict, but I can see the advantages of the block approach, especially with players spread across many time zones and out of sync in posting times.
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Likewise. I've worked with either form of initiative.
Something that GM Doug created that I modified with his assistance:
Similar to your slides for skill modifiers, but this is also formatted for Paizo dice expressions, as well as taking into consideration Exploration Activity - Scout (+1 to Init) and Avoid Notice (uses stealth vs Perception). Also for folks who are insane enough (like me) to GM on Discord as well, it can format the mods to accommodate the Rollem dice roller.
The doc in the link is read-only, but if you make a copy you'll be able to edit it.
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Mechanically, the actuators are blocked and each of the four actuators requires three successful skill checks to unblock it. You each have time to perform two skill checks before time runs out.
Six characters each with two checks is a dozen skill checks.
Four directions each requiring three successes is a dozen successes.I’m hoping that a crit success counts for two successes.
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On the question of should you give the DC of a check, I seldom did that in PF1 or Starfinder. When I did, it was generally a combination of laziness and wanting things to run faster.
PF2 changed things and I am coming of the opinion that the DC should be given, especially in PbP.
The reason is that the player knows if they fail at a check and has a chance to use a hero point. If you wait to tell them it is a failure, that slows the game down as the player then needs to have a chance to decide if it is worthy of using a hero point.
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I can dogpile.
In general, I'd say I trust my GM to make these decisions ("block init?", "give DC?"...) for themself, as it is primarily upon them to keep the game running. Also. Because GMing is challenging!
When I am GM, I tend to shy away from absolutes ("I always" or "I never"), instead viewing every decision point as something in my toolkit (ex. "will block init advance the story best here?" or "will giving DC advance the story best here?").
Here in PbP, juggling IRL becomes yet another parameter to play within. When I have more free time, I will take longer to craft posts, and sweat those decision points to a greater extent. When I have less time, the opposite is true.
All said so far, I am having a fun with this game - even failing all of my checks! - independent of whether you use Block, Share/Hide DCs, etc.
=)
