[PbP Gameday XIII] The Cosmic Captive (Inactive)

Game Master John Woodford

Given that we're running behind, I'm good with giving them the skill successes per round, with the 3-success maximum.

cmlobue, did your group have any puzzle box successes with the last success you reported?

My group also has someone doing in-combat skill checks on the prison, I'll go ahead and submit his round by round successes then.

Sorry, my table should have 3 total puzzle box successes so far.

In terms of information for the backup GM while I'm away, the link to the table is here. There are links at the top of that page to the maps and handout slides. The status of the current combat can be found in the initiative tracker at the bottom of my posts there and the status of the warding circles can also be found just above that in my posts. I've currently got one character (Jilla) who I'm botting while her player is away, for the current combat I'm having her mainly help with destroying circles and solving the puzzle.

I'll post again here once I've made my last post in the game before I leave later today.

I'm about to head off so I'm good to hand over to the backup GM from now until I'm back.

@GM Philippe Lam - Just to double check are you ok to GM my table while I'm away? The current initiative block was started just over 20 hours ago, so you will be good to bot anyone who hasn't acted yet in about 4 hours time.

If GM Philippe Lam isn’t available to cover my table while I’m away, would there be another GM who would be able to provide cover?

Sorry didn't think I would have to cover for another table so I didn't check this topic too often - safe travels Mike

Round 2 (solving puzzle) : UMD, 1 success

Round 2 (solving puzzle) : UMD, 1 success

Logged, thanks. If folks haven't checked the status board lately, I have a pie chart of clues/puzzle successes vs. what's left.

Round 3 (solving puzzle) : UMD, another success

Seven more puzzle box successes to go, and the next one will trigger the Winds of Restoration condition.

How are your parties coming along with the final combats?

Mine are about half way through their first combat for the final bit.

The 10-11 table have successfully slain the warlord and her companion asura, earning 3 successes!

Excellent!

My team should probably finish the first encounter in the next 24 hours. They are all up and there is only one enemy left.

I am thinking about maybe not starting another one for my table. With 5 tables, we need 6 or 7 successes (unsure on rounding), so with 3 from the leaders being slain all the other tables just need 1. At best we would end up cutting someone's fight short if they finished fast enough, and it feels anticlimactic to go from the boss fight to some minion cleanup.

I am thinking about maybe not starting another one for my table. With 5 tables, we need 6 or 7 successes (unsure on rounding), so with 3 from the leaders being slain all the other tables just need 1. At best we would end up cutting someone's fight short if they finished fast enough, and it feels anticlimactic to go from the boss fight to some minion cleanup.

That's reasonable. Mustaparta, cmlobue--how far along are your groups?

We are finishing first encounter soon.

Tier 1-2 will probably have the first encounter done today.

The reporting google form does not seem to be set up for reporting successes on this encounter, so I'm reporting here.

One success at the final encounter for my table.

I'm not starting another because it sounds like we'll have enough and be done in the next 24 hours.

Yeah, I should have split out the final combat or made it clearer that successes there would be reported as Vault successes without puzzle successes.

Or the dice may abandon them, at the end of all things.

Though DR 5/- is really incredibly nasty at subtier 1-2.

Subtier 1-2 is finished at last.

That's five successes. Mustaparta, Mike...R, how are you coming along?

My table completed the first encounter earlier today (It’s the Vault success I reported via the form).

And that makes 6--I must have checked it just before you entered the success. I'll get the closing post up shortly.

Thank you all for GMing the special. I realize we've got a few months to think about this, but are any of you interested in doing a 1e special for Outpost in the spring? If we do, I strongly recommend allowing more time than the 6 minutes=1 day rule of thumb, unless we have well over the minimum number of GMs. PbP by its nature is susceptible to RL events slowing things down; having a lot of tables makes it less likely that everyone will be slowed down at once, though.

I'll leave this "campaign" open for a few days, if anyone wants to discuss it further. Thanks again, and a special thank you for Philille Lam for filling in.

Unfortunately, we are not allowed to change that rule for timing; it was part of the agreement that allows us to run specials at all.

In this case, I think that running with such a small number of tables really made things hard. This particular special also has a bit of a reputation for throwing some things into combats that really slow things down (DR - on a tier 1-2 table?)

In that case, for Outpost we should take more care in scenario selection, and maybe not run at all unless we have at least a couple more tables than the minimum.

It looks like this adventure is not available in the scenarion drop-down on RPG chronicles. I've let bigrin know, and I'll share what I find out.

I might be down for Outpost too - long time I didn't either play or GM around a PbP table, and it's a nice exp

@DM Carbide : no need to thank me but tyvm ! Probably I was a bit too slow at the start to grasp when to bot or no

I'd be up for doing another 1e special, especially if it's one I've not GMed yet.

Thinking about the timescales, one thing which really slowed down my table was players repeatedly disappearing and not letting me know they need botting (I think the majority of my initiative blocks ended up running to the full 24 hours due that). So I think anything which can be done to make sure players are on board with the expected pace before they sign up could also be beneficial.

Here's the list of specials, with the last time they were run on the boards:

Season 2 Year of the Shadow Lodge (GameDay XI, fall 2023)
3-99 Blood under Absalom (GameDay X, 2021)
4-99 Race for the Runecarved Key (GameDay XI, 2022)
5-S Siege of the Diamond City (RetroCon, early 2019)
6-00 Legacy of the Stonelords (RetroCon, early 2019)
6-97 Siege of Serpents (Outpost VII, spring 2024)
7-00 The Sky Key Solution (GameDay IX, 2020)
8-00 The Cosmic Captive (GameDay XII, 2024)
9-00 Assault on Absalom (GameDay VII, 2018)
10-00 The Hao Jin Cataclysm (GameDay VIII, mid 2019)
10-98 Siege of Gallowspire (Outpost III, early 2020)

It'll have been seven years since Assault on Absalom, but there's a few in the five- or six-year range. What do people think, and of the ones that haven't been run in a while which are more straightforward?

The retrocon ones you are probably most likely to find enough GMs and players, since that was several run at once and people had to choose between them.

Got a player asking if Ranginori is a rescued outsider with the good subtype, and if so, does their contribution count toward the faction goal?

I might be willing to GM, but I like to play in specials first if I can. I've played in The Cosmic Captive, the Sky Key Solution, and Year of the Shadow Lodge. I would love to play in the Assault on Absalom though.

There's also the Solstice Scar, though that one is interesting in that its not listed as available, so I don't know if its still possible to run any of the versions of that?

Each part of Solstice Scar was only available for a limited time, except maybe the last one. Let me investigate if that is still available.

Solstice Scar D is still available. It has a three table minimum.

Got a player asking if Ranginori is a rescued outsider with the good subtype, and if so, does their contribution count toward the faction goal?

I think that qualifies. Redelia, your thoughts?

The only other ones I've already run are Year of the Shadow Lodge, Blood under Absalom and Siege of Gallowspire, so any of the others on the list would be great from my perspective.

Interestingly with Solstice Scar D, although it is listed as one you can still run, the PDF hasn't been available on the Paizo website for quite a while (I think when I checked a year or so ago there was still a page for it but it said the PDF was not available, but now the page seems to have disappeared as well - Either that or my search skills are just failing me).

If there is serious thoughts of wanting to run Solstice Scar D, I can investigate a bit. In particular, I can check it's available as scenario support.

Let me know if this would be helpful.

cmlobue wrote:

Got a player asking if Ranginori is a rescued outsider with the good subtype, and if so, does their contribution count toward the faction goal?

I think that qualifies. Redelia, your thoughts?

Makes sense to me.

If there is serious thoughts of wanting to run Solstice Scar D, I can investigate a bit. In particular, I can check it's available as scenario support.

Let me know if this would be helpful.

Yes, please.

Pending that, and before everyone sets their games inactive, could you ask your players if there are specials they'd be interested in for Outpost?

It looks like this adventure is not available in the scenarion drop-down on RPG chronicles. I've let bigrin know, and I'll share what I find out.

Have you heard back from bigrin yet?

It's not resolved yet, but we know what to do. I just have to be at my computer rather than my phone.

OK, good. I ask because per bigrin I get a chronicle for being the House GM, and last time I filled it out myself.

Yep, house GM and backup GM both need to report an empty table with themselves as GM to get credit.

I've sent what I need to bigrin, so at this point we're waiting for him to be able to update some things.

Trying to setup rpgchronicles for that purpose, waiting for mail confirmation