NostalgiaCon Fate GM Thread (Inactive)

Game Master Dennis Muldoon

I have a roster problem at my table.

Yesterday I started mustering, and six players all started posting, I handed out rewards, roleplaying began, all good.

This morning, I got a "sorry I'm late" post and a 7th player showed up. Turned out this was someone who had signed up, and one of the people who posted earlier was is not signed up. My fault for not checking tickets at the door, but now I need advice about how to handle the situation.

Bina Sevencloaks is the player who was signed up and showed late. Igni Iron-Aegis is the one who posted without being on the spreadhseet.

Arguably, the person that signed up has precedence, mustering is not “I posted so I get to play”

There is still a seat at GM Zoombas. Does your seventh player have a level 3 character or are they willing to do a pregen?

EDIT I just checked Igni... They are brand, spaking new and got used to the idea that they just show up to muster for games from bounties. It's an honest mistake. They have no 3rd levels, so ask them about how they feel about trying out a pregen on Zoombas.

And then make sure they sign up so that Zoomba does not have a similar problem a day from now!

Yeah, the people that signed up should definitely get first priority for the seats. Thanks for helping to coordinate that, Hmm! If you've already messaged them, I'll hold off on doing so for now.

Thanks all! I just messages Ingi the suggestion to move to another table (hopefully at higher than my usual charisma of 5), so hopefully they will get there and enjoy the convention.

I also messaged Igni, with links to the following:

How are other GMs planning on running the entrance chamber? There's a lot to do in there that could eat up DAYS in a PbP.

I am planning on rolling checks for my PCs for the simple side-chambers (Identify magic is Secret anyway), and spending a day RPing in the Ovoid Chamber as it's far more complex (and interesting!) than the side rooms' simple checks. I will probably add a little misinformation on the arch if someone crit fails it, but have Ashasar correct them gently.

Interested in other thoughts here, though.

Scenario said move them along if they try to spend more than 10 IRL minutes there, so 1-ish days and then have an in-character VC push them onward.

EDIT: But, yes, secret roll the investigation checks in the 1-check rooms and let them puzzle over the Ovoid Chamber a little.

That was my plan, Doug! Why waste time in a place where the PCs cannot do much when there are missions to accomplish elsewhere?

Right. So what's your strategy for maximizing that time? Automating the checks? My concern is that some groups might spend a day in PbP simply deciding where to go, or a whole day on one thing.

Edit: looks like Hmm and Blake and I are on the same page. Glad to hear I'm on the right track and appreciate the sanity check!

I just saw the last seat on Zoomba's table go... but it wasn't to a Level 3 pregen. Did Zoomba's table fill with someone else?

There is a spot still on GM Blake's. Should I direct him there?

Agreed...
work with the secret checks... and then just giving the information in exposition.

Live (in person or VTT) this section doesn't work that well, anyways, as each team will likely be making all of the checks, anyway.

So, I say, GM fiat!

Entrance chamber:

I'm already planning to open everything (letting them know the four options), present them with the checks needed, and put in spoiler tag what happen if they touch the door and if they want to roll for it, then they can roll.

I don't want to spend too much time here as when I was experiencing this special in VTT, there is not enough time to do things per part.

There is a spot still on GM Blake's. Should I direct him there?

I won't say no, but they should really want to play it in upper tier with a pregen.

Might be a little bit too late for this.
If anyone want to have named tokens for Part 1 encounters, I created the Tier 1-2 in >>this gslide<<

I am too-last-minute kind of person :(

I should be able to post the transition to Part 1 in about an hour. Please don't begin until I've posted the House GM transition at your table.

Transition posted! Please begin part 1.

What skill would it be to Recall Knowledge about Akiton? Things like the reduced gravity that one of my characters found when they fell.

Right now I’m leaning towards Nature since that covers geology, Ratfolk lore, and maybe some other lores.

Occultism would also likely work since that covers some knowledge of Astronomy.

It wouldn't be unreasonable to use Nature. Interplanetary travel has been used by elves for ages, so records of such knowledge could conceivably exist. Lore (astronomy), maybe Lore (physics).

Yeah, my players don’t have any that specifically match those lores. Fortunately they do have a Loremaster and two people with a decent shot with untrained skills.

Sounds like people agree that Nature or an appropriate Lore should work.

Nature or Occultism. I would allow both.

Yeah, I guess this could count as an ancient mystery.

I think Nature makes the most sense to me, but all of the suggestions above are reasonable.

Well, I opened with 66 damage to a single target... at Tier 5-6. :|

Oof.

My foursome is just realizing none of them can handle a trap the normal way.

Isn't the "normal way" triggering it?

Is for the oblivious barbarian...remember once upon a time they had a bonus for that...

My goodness, Fi's group is really tearing through the successes so far! My group is still battling the darn constructs!

Fi runs a tight/fast game on Discord. She must have a pretty responsive group of players as well.

They are responsive during my update time indeed. And it being level 1-2 haha. They tear my precious enemies T.T

If anyone wants to take a peek at my table, please feel free to tell me and I can give access :D

My table figured out a very ingenious way to disarm the traps, but I'm in Zoomba's game so I don't want to spoil it.

Oh my gosh, those mad scientists and their exploding bombs are such fun!

Just noticed this on the scaling sidebar for Encounter E.

Scaling Encounter E To adjust for the PCs' overall strength, make the following adjustments. These adjustments are not cumulative.
19–22 Challenge Points: Give the quatoids 20 additional Hit Points.
22–27 Challenge Points: Add one quatoid to the encounter.
28–32 Challenge Points: Add one quatoid to the encounter and give all three quatoids 20 additional Hit Points.
33+ Challenge Points: Add two quatoids to the encounter.

Note that at exactly 22 challenge points you have two different adjustments. I used the first (lesser) adjustment.

It might be split on tier: lesser 22 on low tier, greater 22 on high tier.

I took that from the Tier 7-8 Encounter E page 54.

Tier 5-6 ends at 18 challenge points.

Just go with the lower value. 22 seems to be the break-off point for most of the tier scaling adjustments.

Hmm

PS I may have had a little too much fun with this Library Description. Write what you know, right?

Wow Hmm. That's wonderful :D Now you make me miss Libraries!

Question: what have you all found is the best way to distribute Hero Points during the course of a Special?

I haven't GM'd a PF2 multi-table before, and especially with PbP making each 'hour' of gaming trickier to mark was just curious if others who've done so for this or 2-00 have some experiences or thoughts on what seemed to work best.

I'm following the guideline of 1/ hour as it appears in the CRB and the timeline as it appears on page 4 of the scenario; it works out to 1 point for each part.

Part 1: 90 minutes: Distribute 1 point

Part 2: 80 minutes: Distribute 1 hero point
Part 3: 30 minutes: Distribute 1 hero point
Part 4: 60 minutes: Distribute 1 hero point

Since the special has such strictly timeboxed sections, it's pretty safe to just follow along. Reasonable to also err on the side of a 5th hero point if your group is struggling, as the special is over 4 "hours" long.

Our standard scaling for PbP is 1 day = 6 minutes, so roughly one every 10 days would be my suggestion.

Thank you both!

We are almost halfway for Rescue success!

Just finished area B, Pathfinder Found / Rescue on tier 1-4. Now me and my whole table are sad :(
Didn't really think about it much during my VTT time as player. But in PbD. That feel.

Yeah, I have put myself on slow down mode so that I would not run out of special. This is not like the former Starfinder Specials where completing a few copies of a section would unlock another and you can keep cruising because there is way too much content for a live table to get through. I still think that even slowed down I am also going to run out of Part 2 content before we switch to Part 3!

So... Fi. Can you run Bounties for this group while they are waiting?

EDIT:

Or did I completely miss what you and your group are sad about? Is your group sad for the one dead Pathfinder?

I think my table has been scarred by the flensing trap and are afraid to manipulate anything...

Oh no!

Running bounties, that is a good idea. I will pitch that to the group, thanks Hmm!

Yup. Sad for the one fallen Pathfinder.

Halfway for both Construct and Rescue! Go, House!

Fi's table reporting to have completed all our missions and cheering all other groups of Pathfinders!