Shalelu Andosana

GM Wageslave's page

468 posts. Alias of Wei Ji the Learner.


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1/5 5/5

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Speaking as someone who has to deal with a sick, infected customer base that doesn't give a rat's butt about my personal health and safety, I'm glad that both Gen Con and Paizo have taken a firm stance on protecting the health of others.

As someone who has had to wear masks for at least forty hours a week on the job, it's frustrating to see some folks go "Oh, everything's 'just fine' remember con crud? remember how it can lay a person out for days? Now add an incredibly lethal pandemic on top of it.. Stop cancelling my views!"

That being said, if I'm *lucky* at this rate I *might* get enough time off of work to help with the online version of Gen Con -- because ain't nobody stepping up to work so-called 'essential' retail gigs at 'essential retail gig' pay rates.

Footing a share of a pandemic-reduced room capacity room is a non-starter on my budget for August.

1/5 5/5

That's under 'Creative solutions', if memory serves.


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This thread actually helps highlight (and I hope it is preserved for educational purposes) what happens when someone is removed after making comments against TOS not TOZ, that's a whole different can of worms and may whatever Divine you follow have mercy on your soul if you go there!.

It removes the context for comments, and leaves the door open to someone to come along and say "Huh, they're arguing with SOMEONE, someone who might be JUST like me! I should carry on the Good Fight!

Not only should it be preserved, but it should be examined for any sort of way to fix the situation without losing the very important question asked at the top of the thread and the clarifications and positive discussion that's occurred since.

And yes, when someone comes right out and explains why they can't trust someone, I view that as a positive, because it explains more than a bunch of wishy-washy passive aggressive comments that bigots and worse use for 'nuance'.


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That perfectly captured the essence of the 'daily grind'.

Well done.


Time to traverse to ye olde essentiale workeplace.

1/5 5/5

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Can confirm. Was ignoring the tab because I hadn't GM'd lately due to tables not firing and RL issues, and one click...

...it's full of S-ACP! *bleeep*


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If I had a significant amount of money, space, and time, I'd totally get a speaker set-up, and the next time I GM'd a PFS game I'd have the 'demi-mini' sitting in my GM spot and run the entire scenario in kobold voice, tone, and attitude!

"You find trap! And YOU find trap! And you no find trap and oh no... you take twenty zappy hurts!"

EDIT: Bonus points for an exceptionally trap-laden or kobold-having scenario/quest.

1/5 5/5

On my play-through we had an unconditional party (human?, two kobolds, and a goblin.

Goblin was champion of Cayden Cailean, one kobold was a cleric of Kofusachi, other kobold a tempest oracle, and a really distributing yet interesting sorcerer.

The scene was going the route of talking through except A. Prisoner held in captivity. B. Realization that if Tascio escapes, he then reveals the Pathfinder presence in Cheliax.

Closest thing our party had to a conflict was clarified within the torturer continuing to work while the party was talking to Tascio. Whether that was a GM embellishment or scripted, those factors were enough to deal with him in a permanent fashion.

1/5 5/5

Can a GM play a boss 'slightly less lethally'? It feels like that would violate the rule of 'run as written'?

1/5 5/5

...and still no answer.

Puts on the big GM pants.

1/5 5/5

"Don't mind the worry-bird up there. They're just stressing because they haven't had anything resembling a 'vacation' for eight months and they didn't travel out of state for it. I am ready to run what I've been assigned and have a few back-ups in case those aren't working out."

1/5 5/5

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Steven Schopmeyer wrote:
Man, can I manage a three slot day? And manage three different systems?

Never go tri-system.

Stares into the middle distance...


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Welcome aboard!

UFCW 881


City of Golden DEATH

Everyone able to react in the surprise round is able to discern that this is a Haunt. Typical methods of dealing with it are finding the focal point of the negative energy emanation and dousing it liberally with positive energy OR vacating the immediate area while it discharges. Given the sheer massive scale of this particular haunt, it's probably better to do the latter.

Kitterix, Shyla, and Khalaban can all see that this is a modified Betrayal haunt with a lot more power behind it (covering a far greater area as a result) and an unknown cause.

There are gold-covered skeletons at various portions of the area that seem to shimmer briefly and are replaced with images of cultists standing where the skeletons are at, attempting to set up an ambush aimed at where the party is standing.

Notes/Mechanics:
Normally, this would require a Religion roll to identify, but with Pathfinder training on this plus Khalaban's Haunt detector going bonkers it's pretty easy to figure out. It is also an assumption that your GM is making that this information is passed onto the party as a free action.

Round One: Bold can act!
Adriana
Shyla
Khalaban
Vixie
????????
Kitterix
Maxilla

EDIT: Shyla's Perception roll pushing it into the next tier was the determining factor on how much the party was able to discern, so it was crucial!

1/5 5/5

Just had a thought due to a different discussion about Bounties...

Would it be possible to designate L1-2 (1-4) scenarios as 'Adventure Mode' capable to help mitigate this without changing the incredibly difficult math retroactively and structurally?


City of Golden DEATH

Completely forgot between editions -- Shyla may make a free Knowledge: Religion roll (DC 18) as part of her Surprise round!


City of Golden DEATH

It wasn't supposed to take me a month to update.

*grumbles at self*

We're into some action now, though!


City of Golden DEATH

There's a tension building in the air as the party assesses the surrounding area -- unlike the negative energy storms outside, this is more... immediate, visceral. Definitely in keeping with this creepy dead city of potentially molten golden death.

Kitterix, Shyla:
Something about this area reminds you of Pathfinder training. It's a bit difficult to put a paw on it, but what you're seeing *isn't* how things are currently -- but it's not an illusion.

Khalaban:
The 'earth', such as it is here, isn't 'earth'.. but ash, a fine blend of gold along with bone and dust that just feels wrong. ALSO, your haunt detector is reacting to this situation.

Adriana:
That sense you had of vengeance being visited is MUCH stronger now, but something about it feels... off. Mindless vengeance? Greedy vengeance?

Vixie:
Your nose itches like a sneeze is begging to come out, but it's hanging there at the tip of your nose.

Initiative (Adriana): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16
Initiative (Khalaban): 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 1 = 11
Initiative (Maxilla): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6
Initiative (Vixie): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10
Initiative (Shyla): 1d20 ⇒ 16
Initiative(Kitterix): 1d20 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 4 + 2 = 7

Turn Order

Surprise Round
Shyla (Surprise round, 1 action)
Khalaban (Surprise round, 1 action)
Kitterix (Surprise round, 1 action)

Round One
Adriana
Shyla
Khalaban
Vixie
????????
Kitterix
Maxilla

Surprise Round is currently active round.

1/5 5/5

Leg o' Lamb wrote:
Jack Brown wrote:

There is no risk of this happening.

This is a charity convention, and we will do nothing to make it harder for "Walletbane" separating you from your moneys.
You know what we could do, we hook up Walletbane with some speakers and have her walk around pumping up the jams. People will pay her to go away.

I'll be honest, if you have Walletbane wandering the convention with speakers, I'm totally going to make a donation for sound effect time with the speakers so I can save my voice for GMing (and playing)....


City of Golden DEATH

With a general consensus among the gathered heroes to go render aid to the someone in need of help, it doesn't take too long to scoot through the city, avoiding a few traps and whatever the cause of the roar is for the moment.

As the party travels upwards towards the heart of the circular city, they cross past another thick wall, and the buildings are a great deal more intact, though still somewhat damaged.

The party approaches what appears to be a ruined colonnade that is coated in a thin layer of gold -- unlike most of the nearby buildings...

If you could put a token for your character inside the red box on the following linked map, that'd be awesome!

Strange Golden Colonnade

1/5 5/5

Alex Speidel wrote:
GM Wageslave wrote:

A situational update: I may be able to help with 'overflow' tables on Thursday and Sunday depending on how the scheduling holds out. Should I contact HQ on the server or send in a late application?

That is, 'Repeatable' Starfinder/PFS1 tables I have prepared on R20 that could be adjusted at a few moment's notice to provide a play experience.

Email genconleads[at]gmail[dot]com if you're interested in being a Backup GM in the event of last-minute drops or overflow.

Understood, thank you!

1/5 5/5

A situational update: I may be able to help with 'overflow' tables on Thursday and Sunday depending on how the scheduling holds out. Should I contact HQ on the server or send in a late application?

That is, 'Repeatable' Starfinder/PFS1 tables I have prepared on R20 that could be adjusted at a few moment's notice to provide a play experience.


City of Golden DEATH

I will update things tonight after I get home from work, the past couple weeks have been pretty rancid with both managers deciding to take time off/vacation at the same time and the presumption that a handful of part-timers and full-timers can do ALL of their work.

1/5 5/5

Or, in other words, with only 240-300 minutes to run an event, spending thirty of them auditing every single spell is incredibly counter-productive and un-fun.

And that's as a GM with the resources to verify the audit.

In addition, it might be viable to do that for online play where things are a lot more accessible, but I cannot see that happening in the typical physical convention setting with spotty (at best) wi-fi coverage and that's if the GM has a data plan that allows for such things.

I Do Not like this rule, because it presumes that GMs have Plenty of Time at their tables to do audits of characters to ensure compliance which has NEVER been the case when I've been running The time to do something like an audit, that is.

Heck, some scenarios are hard-pressed to end in a timely fashion for all the bells and whistles that are crammed into them with no good 'optional' encounters.

The above thirty minute figure is for one character, and predicated on the idea that the player has kept meticulous notes about their spell acquisitions.

If there's more than one character that needs that kind of audit at the table, you're going to have incredible time management issues with the scenario and that's presuming an efficient muster of the table before the time for the event begins.

Given my last few online conventions, that has not been a solid wager.

Imo, Organized Play should be here to encourage a sense of community, growth, and fair play. It should not be here to be a Rules Inquisition to ensure Maximum Compliance with the Rules Or Else.

1/5 5/5

The closest I've ever seen Infamy happening to a character was at a table where one player was 'acting out' their OOC frustrations IC, and hindering the party mission to nearly debilitating points in PFS1.

Fortunately, our GM saw the issue, saw how the rest of the characters were ready to handle it in-character, and let us have some roleplay time to resolve the issue to the satisfaction of all party members, including the one with the bruised ego.

I could easily see a player subset of Organized Play attempting to 'force' the rest of the team to either A. Take Infamy or B. Not Take Infamy -- and not because they particularly care either way, but because there are people who love to have wedges to shove into things. And no matter which way that went, someone is going to be grumbling and/or hollering about it.

If there is a warning or hint about how 'dark and dirty' a situation can get, and one player takes it upon themselves in-character without letting the rest of the table know they are about to go that route, the other players should have some means of mitigating that without torpedoing the party's chances for success.

If most of the party wants to go the 'dark and dirty'/hang the consequences route, but there is a reasonable objection from one player, then as a GM I wouldn't penalize the player who spoke up and did everything in their power to prevent the dirty deed done dirt cheap without hampering mission success.

Could this stance be 'gamed'? Potentially, yes.


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As an 'essential' retail worker under normal operating conditions it'd be difficult to F2F.

With a pandemic resurgence, it's even more difficult, and that's before assurances of social distancing, vaccination status and masking.

If I get sick there's No One to do everything I do at work. As it is, some of the work I should be doing gets put off for months because we don't have the bodies.

EDIT: Miss F2F and going to conventions. Don't miss 'con crud'.


City of Golden DEATH

Once again stirred to activity, the forge rumbles and roars in an almost primal sort of fashion as captive flames and energies wrap around Vixie's bill. Despite the vast and incredible heat, the flames do not incinerate the pole of the polearm.

Similar to the refinement of Adriana's elven curve blade, the head of the bill becomes thicker, blockier, yet also bearing the same sort of elegance as the previous weapon. The filigree that erupts upon it bears markings of a bygone age, but the golden markings do not stop there.

Somehow, without turning the wooden portion to ash, the filigree marches down the lengthy wooden haft, leaving a complex interwoven series of shield-like symbols and threading.

When it cools and Vixie retrieves it, it almost melts into her expert hands, but does not feel any less solid or durable for the slightly odd experience.

Vixie now has a +1 Defending Bill

After a few more minutes, the resounding roar from somewhere else within the ancient doomed city echoes through the streets once more. Closer, this time, but not by a large factor.

Adriana:
The brief feeling of 'need for vengeance' is weird -- it's almost like someone GOT what they had earned, but there are others that still need attention. And it's also sort of odd that you can 'feel' that more-so than usual.

1/5 5/5

When I start running PF2, (if the rules do not change) Dhampir will be healed by the Heal spell, and if the characters role-play and react accordingly and try to get out from the 'bad feeling', they may just get a Hero Point for that.

If barbarians that are superstitious want to waive the bonuses from things like Stoke the Heart, Inspire Courage, etc, then I will let them.

Being told what one's character can and cannot deny from someone other than the GM smacks of being treated like a 'gamer partner' and having had that incredibly rotten experience in two other organized-type plays do not wish to visit that on my players.

Explore. Report. COOPERATE


City of Golden DEATH

It is a small post, to get the action moving again. Apologies for not just dictating whatt the party does, that should be a player decision, and not the GM's.

As the party attempts to figure out which item to enhance next, there is a different roar, but from quite a distance. The ruined buildings and streets funnel the sound to the team, despite the seemingly vast distance from the source.

Kitterix looks around nervously. "Not sure WHAT you are planning on doing but that didn't sound like someone using another forge like this! It sounded big, scary, and... maybe made of metal?"

Max glances to Kitterix and then the rest of the party.

"Dad just told me that there's someone here who's trapped in-between that...needs our help. The 'not moving anymore' kind of help. We should probably finalize what we want to have upgraded and quickly."


City of Golden DEATH

"Good Initiative!"

That being said, we kind of got stuck on the 'Door' that is item upgrades. Aside from Adriana, are there any other things that the party wants to enhance/upgrade (don't worry about Max, I've got a story idea for them) at the anvil?

1/5 5/5

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Leomund "Leo" Velinznrarikovich wrote:

I've written off the Superstition Barbarian along with evil champions and other evil character options. Such characters either cannot be played or would cause too much headache at a table to play. The headaches normally caused by the other players at the table being unable to handle the character.

Is this unfortunate? Yes.
Is it for the best? Also, yes.

The chances of the character being disruptive is high. As such I would discourage the play of Superstition Barbarians in society play.

If someone sat at my table I'd let them play it, and monitor to see if they were being the disruptive party or if someone else at the table was.

Back in PFS1, there were a couple of paladins that played at tables I ran. They were generally 'on point' and aware of their potential table disruption character issues.

Unfortunately, there were a few other players who felt it was necessary to 'poke the tiger'. Politely I shut that down real quick.

Explore. Report. COOPERATE.

1/5 5/5

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It is also critical that V-tier entities schedule well enough so GMs that do prep and are ready to run don't get ignored because 'don't want to play THAT'.

When an over-scheduled Repeatable is at one table (because that's what the backup GM is comfortable running (with a player) and the other table is overloaded for the 'new hotness', it can be incredibly demoralizing for the backup GM.

Again, speaking from personal experience in the past.

1/5 5/5

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Watery Soup wrote:
Nefreet wrote:
After it happens once, it shouldn't happen again, so long as the policy is clearly communicated the first time.

New players aren't robust. There's 10,000 reasons not to play and only 1 to play. You might lose a walk-in sitting at your table if you start at 6:15 and a DDAL game at the next table starts at 6:00.

I would ask a trusted regular to give up their seat before I sent a new player away. The trusted regular will sign up the next week; or I can offer the trusted regular a make-up game the following day; or any one of multiple alternatives that aren't alternatives to the new player.

Unless this is the second, third, etc, time this has happened to the same 'trusted player' after they have consistently signed up each time. Speaking from personal experience in the past, that is beyond frustrating.

1/5 5/5

pauljathome wrote:
Lau Bannenberg wrote:


Pretty often, you can also see why something is or isn't working. If a plant monster takes extra damage from fire you see it light up. If your rapier doesn't work on a skeleton with spare room in its rib cage, that's easily visible. You can probably figure out the next step from there even without a knowledge check.
Just a note that GMs differ greatly in how much information they give out "for free". Some GMs will tell you that your weapon does less (or more) damage than expected, some won't.

Playing the "Well, these seem really tough" and not giving any sort of hints sits poorly in my decades-honed fairness assessment to players.

I've only run into a handful of GMs over the years who don't impart some sort of indication of what a weapon is doing (or not) to a target.

They were also the sorts of GMs that loved marathon sessions of one or two encounters running long because it meant they didn't have to prep as much material for the session.

It is in the best interests of the GM to expedite combats in a seamless fashion based upon IC empirical evidence.

In Organized Play, there is a finite amount of time to get through an entire scenario. As a GM, part of the job responsibilities is to 'keep the train running on time'.

NOT telling players what sort of impact their actions are having doesn't help that.

1/5 5/5

As a GM, if someone sees a construct (for example) and their first response is to whip out adamantine weaponry without a knowledge check I try to balance that with the idea that such a weapon (even moreso for PFS2) is pretty expensive.

As a result, someone *isn't* going to be buying a piece of equipment like that unless they have a reason TO be doing so in the first place.

So too with cold iron, silver, mithril, etc.

Recently had the experience of playing one game with constructs in it -- and my character was the only one that had any sort of weapon -- bought as a precaution based on previous experience -- for dealing with them effectively.

As a result, they bought *another* type of weapon 'just in case' the situation came up again.

If a player reasonably presented either a particular scenario or encounter that I'm familiar with either as a GM or as a player as their rationale for having item 'x', I'm going to understand that reasoning and be a lot more understanding than someone just quoting the book at me -- that scenario or encounter was 'lived through'.

Quoting the book -- not so much.

1/5 5/5

Tineke Bolleman wrote:
Aw, look at him, he clearly wants a hug.

And here I was thinking he was just throwing up his arms in an 'out of effs to give' tier of frustration...


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City of Golden DEATH

In case my player-aspect was unclear, to clarify I am willing to purchase for a GM what is needed for a GM to run 1-34 and provide other things I've come up with along the way running it.

In no way, shape, or form was it going to be illicit/illegally obtained material.

1/5 5/5

Just remember that while it's great to have the resource, having an army of ninja-scholars tagging along on a mission is highly impractical.

1/5 5/5

The other drawback to having a plethora of higher-level options is needing a GM base that's capable (and comfortable) with running them for an optimal play experience.

My play experience (and GM style) is currently capable of handling up to 5-8 scenarios -- typically I need to play something first before I can run it in an effective and enjoyable fashion for my players.

Thankfully there are a lot of options now for getting lower level characters *into* that comfort area, but it is still time spent.

With all that being said, I'm hoping to start running more once some technical issues are sorted out -- online is currently a more viable environment than in-person personally.

1/5 5/5

I would also go so far as to say as a GM that *if* you have a table of 'x' +pregen, if there are any GM glyph overages after helping players that the pregens would be valid candidates for them.

In part because the pregens need all the help they can get (but better off than they were in PF1, I think?) and in part because they are 'filling in' as agents of the Society.

1/5 5/5

EXP doesn't change for a scenario?

Still 1 for Scenarios, 'x' for Modules?

1/5 5/5

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Interesting.

Today I (re)learned that Horizon Hunters are the 'default option' after having forgotten that.

As a GM, though, I'd probably suggest PFS2 #1-06 Lost on the Spirit Road -- despite being in Tian Xia, it'd be a lot easier to get three other players to show up to fill out the table. :)

1/5 5/5

So someone whose 'dayjob' is Acrobat needs to sink points into various meaningless skills in addition to the Feat?

Seems rather arbitrary and punitive to folks who may be lacking...

Do characters who chose that get a free retrain out of it?

1/5 5/5

John Mangrum wrote:

I don't know if this will be of use to anyone else at this late date, but I'm running Year of Scoured Stars as a campaign and compiled what we know of the Scoured Stars system itself from across a handful of sources. Not a lot of true spoilers here, and this is the GM's forum, but I'll tag the planets with spoilers anyway.

Agillae
An orange dwarf star with five terrestrial planets, all of which are in the star's habitable zone.

** spoiler omitted **...

That's actually pretty handy to have, thank you!

1/5 5/5

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BigNorseWolf wrote:

Dammit NOW how am I going to get enough Player tears to make 5 novas?

ow ow ow kidding ow ow ow the cursed datapads hurt..ow ow ow stupid paperless office ow ow ow...

I'm now picturing the contamination scene from monsters inc. when the party walks back into the lorespire complex with that curse on, triggers the alarm and gets tackled by security guards who have rapidly thrown off all of their techno gear and tackle the party in their t shirts boxers and socks (about the only things in the game that DONT have a computer in them)

You forgot tactical pikes and a whole slew of basic melee weapons. ;P

Thank you Linda, that puts my mind at ease a small bit -- and it also helps promote the Starfinder Society if someone runs the numbers and goes "Oh, crud, we're hosed".

"This one is on the Society, we should have known better."

1/5 5/5

The group I'm rounding up for a romp through the setting have been calling the game 'Spehs-wagon' for years now.

1/5 5/5

I haven't run this yet, but since the basic premise is 'gladiatorial game show', my head-canon is that these are the prizes being awarded from immensely grateful corporate sponsors?

That would easily be a good explanation for why things show up that weren't encountered in-scenario?

1/5 5/5

So, in the future when running as a GM in PFS2 the 'normal'-ish things about a 'Unique' character are a lower DC, and the actual honest-to-goodness 'Unique' items are a higher number?

Just want to make sure, don't want someone either accusing me of 'softballing' or 'Hard Mode-ing' a run.


Despite my alias here, typically speaking no cash trades hands when I GM.

Grateful venues or organizations may provide some consideration or compensation for my time, even if it technically isn't 'getting paid'.

Had a GM back in the day whose rule was if you wanted to bring in something new or different, you had to buy them a copy of the rules for that thing and give them a month to review it.

What Reddit and other venues may be running into is a legal obligation to recover taxes from paid services, which is actually a thing that some government bodies are working hard to enforce in this pandemic time.

1/5 5/5

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In the event of 'fight to the death' I make darn sure to highlight that the differences in opinion are irreconcilable and no amount of Diplomacy is going to change that.

Now, if *despite* that the party attempts to take them alive, I'm not going to punish the party for being moral *if* they don't make the mistake of securing their new prisoners.

And cannot agree enough with the 'have something beyond the character hook'. Ironically in two SFS scenarios I've played in recently, my custodian has *really* gone outside her normal 'box' with her off-skills and capabilities to great benefit to the party.

Things that still fit her concept, but aren't the sorts of things that one would normally think of.

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