Helynne Haffeninger's page

I think it would be best to move this idea to a new thread since it has nothing to do with the original anymore. I'll post it under "Sharing Scenario prep work in "Pathfinder Society GM Discussion"

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Are you talking about when a stat block isn't included in a mod? For the most part the information should be right there .. I know simple things like goblins, skeletons, etc., aren't always included, but stat block that are to be used are included if they are needed. Mark has answered the map question before in that they pay for the maps at a specific scale and to have them bigger means it isn't cost effective for the company as there is a higher level of detail that the map-makers need and therefore the price goes up.

My notes are all on notecards so I don't think those would upload easily anywhere

Maybe the little push that I am asking for to get more people to GM would be better solved by amortizing the cost of prep work across Player/GMs instead of credit.

What I mean is what if there were a place that GMs could upload/download digital content, eg. the stats/encounters notes, scaled maps, etc.? Since the maps and most of the content are not covered by the OGL, it would need explicit, written license from Paizo to modify and share scenario content, and they would probably want to restrict it to use by buyers of the scenarios exclusively for running the modules.

This is actually pretty exciting. If I could buy a scenario, pull organized encounter notes such as stats, spells, etc. (to save time flipping through books while running a complicated encounter), print scaled maps (color or B/W, depending on how much I want to spend), it would save me hours and I would actually buy more scenarios rather than fretting about what to do about the ones I've already prepped. As an added bonus to all of you, I would be Playing/GMing instead of posting in the forums!

All we would need to do this is license from Paizo to share our work derived from scenarios (with limitations mentioned) and somewhere to share them (Paizo could host, but wouldn't have to, I could provide a FTP server). Anyone from Paizo care to OK this or shoot it down?

Helynne Haffeninger wrote:

Maybe when I'm more experienced it'll take me less time to prep a scenario and it won't be such a big deal. I wish Paizo would make their excellent scenario maps printable as battle mats. Drawing or printing maps is the big pain point I have now.

Lol .. I've been Gming hard and heavy for just about a year now .. (ok hard and heavy in my mind) I still take about 2 hours to prep a mod -- tho I definatly admit some of that is my OCD kicking in.. I have notecards for each tier with major information for each monster, I have the mod highlighted in different colors for things that NPCs might say during the text of the mod vs. what is DC information and what I consider GM information. That two hours of prepping the mod doesn't include the time to handraw and color the map -- I refuse to spend the money to print the mod out at a Kinkos or whatever.

I love the liberal use of flipmats in scenarios, however, I don't buy mappacks, so those I still draw out.

...I can pick up a scenario, read through it in about half an hour and spend another half an hour prepping and be ready to run it for my group...

Maybe when I'm more experienced it'll take me less time to prep a scenario and it won't be such a big deal. I wish Paizo would make their excellent scenario maps printable as battle mats. Drawing or printing maps is the big pain point I have now. I spent $10 and a lot of time rescaling and printing maps for one scenario. The players loved it, and it really made play a lot smoother.

What I'm hearing though, and it's starting to sink in just a little, is that I can still re-apply that effort and re-run the scenario for the sake of happy players, and that if we were doing it for credit that would just encourage all sort of "Power playing" crap that has ruined other games.

Thank you for those of you who have patiently explored this, I've enjoyed this replay of meta scenario 46: "Pitfalls of Replay"

When do we run it again? *grin* *ducks*

GM credit is only earned 1 time, just like player credit. Repeated running of the same mod does count toward your star ranking though, which could yield you access to exclusive mods as well as-of-yet-unannounced 'good stuff.'

Right, I'm suggesting that there is no reason for only 1 credit, and good reason for more credit.

It's good to see a little bit of incentive, and I appreciate they are trying to help people who want to GM more. However, to someone who mostly wants to play, telling me that if I GM 100 sessions then I can GM more before anyone else doesn't do very much for me. As for the vapor "Good Stuff" I hope it comes out soon and rewards people who want to Play.

What I'd like to hear is that the 4+ hours I spent prepping the module, plus the stupid mistakes I made running it the first time can be used to take my new level one character to level 2. Every time I run the module I am doing a better job, navigating the nuances better, encounters have better flow, handling new directions easier. It's a better experience for everyone.

Of course I have to run it for players who haven't already played it, so I've now got more incentive to recruit fresh blood, and hopefully one of them will want to GM sometimes so I can play. Or it means that at a convention players who've run a scenario before are more likely to step up and run it again, not worrying that they are missing out on a chronicle and carrying their share of GMing more.

Again, I'm sorry for attempting raise on this particular horse. I'm relatively new here (PFSOP for just a few months), and maybe I just don't get it, but I keep hearing case closed and really don't see a direct, compelling, counter argument. I'm asking people to think about it, try the idea on. What would really happen if GMs got credit for each time they ran the same scenario.

The worst case I see is that Player/GMs(prefer to play willing to GM) would have a bunch of other Player/GMs more willing to run scenarios for them. I don't see to many people who primarily want to GM. I know you're out there, you are generally excellent GMs, we love you and wish you lived nearby. But you have to understand you are rare breed. A Player/GM will always step aside and ask you to GM when you are available.

Arnim Thayer wrote:

I know this might not be the norm, but if it happens enough it can really help PFS grow. YMMV.

And the lesson of this fantastic story (no sarcasm intended) is that without credit these guys wouldn't have done the same thing? They still wouldn't have played a great game? Still wouldn't have had fun? Still wouldn't have given this player a great experience? Your (collective) willingness to help the community is so strictly dependent on 1 XP and 2 PA?

The point is that offering credit can sometimes be the tipping point and that stories like this could happen more often with just a little added incentive. Credit is actually a motivator for some of us, especially those of us who would like to play multiple characters.

You can hate me for it, but I recently decided that going through the effort of promoting and GMing a local game wasn't worth the effort. Getting credit for running one I had already run might have made the difference.

As far as trying to take more HP out of this mount that is clearly negative and bleeding...

I also see that rewarding people to replay for credit means that they won't be doing it for the right reasons and that abuse will occur more frequently, but I still don't see that as a reason to not reward GMing the same module repeatedly.

It might just be a piece of paper, a gold start or whatever, but I prefer playing to GMing and I'd like to see some of my characters get off of level one a little sooner.

Sorry for the abuse of your carcass Deceased Equine.