This is the Discussion thread for the table of Bounty #12 for GM School.
This Pathfinder Bounty is designed for 1st-level characters and each of you will need to select or create a legal PFS character to play in this adventure.
I selected this bounty because it has a number of elements that I have found that can be particularly challenging and/or interesting in PbP, including: 1) exploration, 2) a dungeon crawl, 3) an interactive NPC, 4) randomized elements, 5) multiple combat encounters, 6) multiple hazards, 7) opportunities to add additional world lore, and 8) instances requiring GM discretion.
I will be running this scenario a bit differently than I usually do, in order to sort of "pull back the GM screen" and showing the decision making processes for GMs.
This is also a great place for askinig questions!
This is also a great place for askinig questions!
It is an even better place for asking questions! (You were warned that something like this could happen.)
A few others items as we prepare:
• It is not necessary to own a copy of Bounty #12 for this table, but you may find it helpful to do so and to follow along.
• If you wish to receive Society credit for this table, then please fill out the requested information on RPGChronicles, which can be found here.
• For ease of play, I request that you please fill out the requested player and PC information on this this Slide.
• For ease of play, I also request that you please create a token and place it in the appropriate place within the marching orders on this Slide.
• For your benefit, I have already made one of the mistakes that I make most frequently. This time on purpose. See if you can figure out what it is. WARNING: I may have also made one or more mistakes unintentionally; be careful not to let them throw you off!
Well done! You have found my "intentional mistake'!
Well done! You have found my "intentional mistake'!
The Slides should now be accessible to all.
4 glyphs, btw. We should all start with 2 HPs each (assuming the GM allows sharing of glyphs) :)
4 glyphs is quite impressive. During initial Hero Point distribution, players who have GM Glyphs receive Hero Points equal to their Glyphs to distribute to the table.
I note that ALL of you have experience GMing PbP games on these boards, so I expect to focus less on basics and more on advanced styles and techniques for this table.
It looks like all of the students have now checked in. We may be getting a fourth player for the table, but if not, we will play with 3 and a pregen.
Among the three students, please confirm (yes or no) whether Pathfinder Bounty #12: Somewhere Below is an adventure that you:
1. Have played?
2. Have GM'd?
3. Read and/or own?
Not played or GMed before but I do now own it.
Unless you are eager to read through it ahead of time (which is perfectly fine), I will do my best to limit spoilers and hold off explaining somethings until more "after the fact" or keep some comments in spoilers so you can go back and look at them later (in which case, you can comment better on the players' perception).
I have attached the link for the GM rubric to the campaign tab for reference. It covers preparation, rules knowledge (game mechanics, PFS org play, and GMing), and making the game distinct.
As preparation is usually the best place to start, I will begin with that. I will present the process that I went through/am going through to prepare this Bounty for play. I don't plan to present a required method of preparation that must be followed nor even a preferred method that I recommend for all tables. Indeed, my methods of preparation depend on a variety of factors, including familiarity with the scenario, the age and experience of the players, available time, etc.
However, I will outline techniques that I have used and that I think can benefit GMs depending on the adventure they plan to run.
Before running a table, I select an adventure to run. For, a game day or convention, the selection may already be made for me. Sometimes, it is the players who suggest a particular adventure. How the selection is done will also affect my preparation. I find for a convention or gameday, where the adventure must be completed within a set amount of time, more preparation is required to ensure that the game keeps moving and comes to a satisfying conclusion within the time permitted.
The nature of PbP can be rather limiting. Many of the typical techniques used for immersion in face-to-face games, such as vocal intonation, body language, props, etc., are unavailable for PbP. Roleplaying is hindered by the fact that dialogue, and sometimes actions, are usually asynchronous. The timing of interaction is also stretched out over days, weeks, or even months, making it more difficult to keep players engaged.
One of the strengths of PbP, however, is the ability to provide strong narrative. PbP is literary in nature and, thus, I suggest for memorable PbP to lean heavily into literary genres and techniques.
Settling on a “theme” for the adventure is a great way to do so. A good theme allows a run of the game to be more immersive, to set the atmosphere, to guide expectations, and to be more distinct (which is also part of GM rubric).
Sometimes a theme is evident from the description of the scenario or from a reading of it. Other times, the theme is left to GM. The description for this bounty suggests to me a theme of survival. The adventure is set in the orc-filled lands of Belkzen, located within the Eye of Dread. The harsh environment, rugged inhabitants, and ominous name all feed into the idea of survival and suggest an element of horror.
Reading some of the relatively spoiler-free background for the adventure and drawing on its references to other source books, not only supports these conclusions, but include references to the Whispering Tyrant and undead forces, suggesting ways to include more horror elements from the established lore (using setting specific terms and lore to increase immersion being another component of the GM rubric).
With a “survival horror” theme in mind, a read over of the adventure and the encounters within it confirms that such a theme should work well for this bounty.
The theme will guide future decisions in how I run the game. The first will be how I start the game. I want an introduction that begins in the middle of the action, using short, driving sentences that set the theme and leave the players with a sense of uncertainty, harsh conditions, and foreboding danger.
Using words with imagery to describe the environment is another part of the GM rubric. By drawing on existing lore, whether from the the adventure and setting books or free internet sources, a lot of the work is done for me and you can try to make the setting more immersive.
With all that mind (and I hope all this text isn’t too overwhelming), go ahead and read the intro I presented in the Gameplay thread and then introduce your PCs there.
After this table is completed, each of you will be asked to prepare a bounty to run with myself and your fellow GMs as the players.
Please give some thought to what you would like to run and in what order you would like to run.
Great choices!
Just waiting on our fourth student/player to arrive and then will can move ahead!
I'll volunteer to run Bounty #3: Shadows and Scarecrows
I'm focussing on my prep for my Outpost game this weekend so it will be a bit until I can get to prepping the bounty. I have run it before though, but on VTT.
Brenael is your Sewer Dragon table full?
On paper yes, but one person hasn't checked in yet, so a spot may open up. I'll PM you.
Sorry for the delay folks!
I have reached out to the potential fourth player/GM and requested a response within 48 hours. If none is forthcoming, then we will proceed with a pregen.
Sorry for the delay folks!
I have reached out to the potential fourth player/GM and requested a response within 48 hours. If none is forthcoming, then we will proceed with a pregen.
And, so, you have just learned the first rule of GMing: "Things don't always go as planned and/or anticipated."
(or is "Have fun" the first rule? Anyways, I am pretty sure that it is somewhere among the first five rules.)I will ask you all to settle on a 1st level pregen for the table and who you would like to control the pregen. Once we settle on our iconic "fourth", I will move us along.
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Sorry for the delay folks!
I have reached out to the potential fourth player/GM and requested a response within 48 hours. If none is forthcoming, then we will proceed with a pregen.
And, so, you have just learned the first rule of GMing: "Things don't always go as planned and/or anticipated."
Sounds familiar... like one of my tables... :)
Just noting that I have read through the bounty I'll be running.
Dungeon crawl adventures, like this one, can be some of the most difficult to run in PbP mostly because they can get bogged down as players are not sure where or how far they should move their tokens, PCs search for traps, some rooms are empty, etc.
This is one of the reasons why I chose to run a dungeon crawl adventure. Dungeon crawl adventures usually provide a large map with a variety of encounter locations, traps, etc. marked on it. If you allow PCs to move their own tokens, there is a risk that the party may get split, that multiple encounters are triggered at once, or that things have to be retconned due to a later posted action or skill check. 2nd edition handles/avoids these situations better with exploration activities. However, sometimes NOT using the map provided is the best way to run a dungeon crawl, describing long hallways and empty rooms as PCs go through them and only going to the map when particular encounters are triggered.
Due to the asynchronous nature of PbP, trying to figure out where one PC was when another "triggers" a trap or encounter can be difficult. The best way I have found for that is to ask the PCs to establish a default marching order. The GM informs hat party that it will be assumed that the party proceeds along a path of their choosing (perhaps using a predetermined protocol for checking doors, etc.). That way, the GM can resolve a trap or hazard quickly without having to pause or retcon where a particular PC may be or have been.
Looks like all of the "students" have completed the pending assignment.
It is good to be prepared, however, the bounties you have reviewed will not be run until sometime after this present adventure has concluded. There is also some additional game preparation classroom lessons to be done.
Best exploration mode for Lem is probably Search if Scout is already covered.
and I'm happy to run Lem but equally happy for someone else to.
I've created my Bounty 3 campaign for the GM school.
Feel free to dot in and delete but I assume there is no rush right now.
OK, looks like all student campaigns are created. Nice job.
Assignment #8: Maps
The next assignment is the final preparation one: Create your map deck in google slides and link it in your campaign.
RPG Chronicles, slides and macros are up for my Bounty 3 campaign - this will be where my influences are pretty obvious as I have borrowed stuff from GM Tiger, GM Frost and GM Watery Soup in preparing my own documents. :)
I often run with a second slides deck with the NPC art, maps etc ready that I copy over. I'm still not sure if that is worth the extra effort over having just the one deck and trusting people not to reveal in advance.