Harsk

IronHelixx's page

***** Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online 1,319 posts (1,330 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 18 Organized Play characters. 3 aliases.


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Liberty's Edge

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Richard Lowe wrote:
Always awesome to see you all fighting the good fight and supporting those who need our help. We can all do better. <3

What he said

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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Online play does not, usually, have the time constraints of meat-space, in day-to-day play - so the time limitations are not as much of an excuse here - Beyond that, as stated above, it's our own regions requested SOP - there are no penalties for not doing it though - we are not going to be the chronicle sheet gestapo - ultimately, for day-to-day play, "you do you, boo"

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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It definitely gets missed for sure - no argument there - meat-space or online - and It's never been an "Online Thing", for sure - in fact Hilary likes to call it the "Omaha Method", or something along those lines, because it was more enforced there (I am assuming) - we're not going to be chronicle nazis about it though - we simply request cooperation on it within our own region, as a best practice - a lot of GMs gladly participate in that request, and we greatly appreciate it.

On the totals - I agree with Bob - recording of spending is not affected as it would be recorded at the next session on the next sheet, not the current one - so it has no affect there at all - and if people are keeping correct records those values would be recorded and available to total out on the next sheet - So, totaling out the current sheet would not be "incorrect way" or "detrimental" - that said - this very specific guideline is only for our own online region - the only reason it comes up more is that our region is so much more public and in the line of sight than other regions where only local eyes ever see anything - but we do appreciate people respecting our regional guidelines - if other VOs in other areas decide differently for their local or greater regions we will respect that in turn - in the end we're not the IRS here, just people playing games and volunteering to help others have fun.

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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Filling out chronicles completely is our suggested SOP and saves the community a lot of grief and heartburn down the line - forms like those mentioned above help collect data in the same way the sign-in sheets do in meat-space and leave a paper trail when (not if) questions come up later, and are very helpful in resolving those issues - we've been able to go back to those records to help resolve things on a number of occasions now and we really appreciate that GMs keep good online records. (The digital breadcrumbs are a positive aspect of online play that helps a lot.) Filled out chronicles save a lot of headaches down the line and we really appreciate the GMs who take the time and effort to help the player community maintain better records and experiences at events and in day-to-day online play.

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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Discord just posted this in today's update:

Discord wrote:


We’ve made several improvements to how Screen Readers interact with Discord. These include:

All the big parts of the main app screen are now region landmarks so you can jump between them more easily.

Things that kind of seemed like lists before are now actually marked as lists (whoops): Channels, Members, DMs, and Messages are more structured now. The whole server list is now a tree view to make it easier to find the server you want to view next.

You can now more easily tell when a server or channel has mentioned you or has unread messages, distinguish between different types of channels and categories, know how many people are in a voice channel, and more.

Liberty's Edge

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Regional Venture Coordinator - Online

If you do not see a session reported at this point either the GM has not reported the session to us, or it was reported and there was an issue, like your org-play ID was reported wrong, or what have you. (unless it is a VTT session reported in the last week.)

As far as the delayed reporting for PbP, it was a very specific, small set of PbP sessions that were not reported in the transition time between now and when Hilary stepped down. Those were hunted down and corrected yesterday. It, as stated, was a small set of sessions and only for PbP.

As far as winning OSP boons, a player has a 10% chance of winning a boon for playing and that is system "rolled" when the session is reported by the GM. Looking at stats, it's been roughly closer to 8% of actual players who have won. (and a number of those players did not provide an email address so that numbers drops a little more since that removes them from the stat pool since we have to look them up manually)

A lot of people have stated our emails go to spam, so it's possible some people have received boons and did not see them in spam.

If you're not seeing a session reported please talk to your GM, or email us the name(s) of the GM(s) , the scenario(s) played, as well as the date played (and include your org play number in the email)

As far as participating in OSP, it is optional.

Thanks

IronHelixx, RVC - Online Play

Liberty's Edge

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Regional Venture Coordinator - Online

Email has never been mandatory for players - the email field is only mandatory for GMs, and that's only so the GM can receive the confirmation email and so we know who to contact when there is an issue or questions.

If there is no email address for a player and the player wins a boon a single attempt will be made to contact the person via Paizo PM.

We're going to be moving to a different system - the current reporting tool is a stop-gap measure - the way the whole thing works will change soon enough. (The current process is very time consuming and needs to be streamlined quite a bit.)

Liberty's Edge

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Regional Venture Coordinator - Online

As a side note, we have learned a lot over the first month+ of the inaugural OSP season and will be adjusting accordingly.

Liberty's Edge

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Regional Venture Coordinator - Online

Prior to yesterday afternoon any games reported via the OSP form as of, roughly, ten days ago had already been reported to Paizo - as of yesterday everything more recent than that has also been reported to Paizo. If you are not seeing a session in your online records let us know so we can investigate.

PbP and VTT games count towards OSP boon rewards equally - there is no difference in that regard when it comes to the OSP.

Player boons have been going out in batches since it's currently a manual process - the last batch of emails went out today for those.

GM boons were originally to go out when a GM hit the minimum threshold for the initial reward on the boon, but we may change that and start sending them out after the first session is reported to make it more like meat-space RSP. [GMs are ultimately responsible for recording progress on the boons.] GM boons are also going out in batches and we should be caught up on them by this weekend.

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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Thank you, Tonya and everyone involved in bringing the OSP to Online play - it's greatly appreciated.

For those of you wanting to participate in OSP, we will have a post with links and details tomorrow.

Please check out http://orgplayonlinechat.com for more discussion and details as well. (We'll also link here in this thread.)

If anyone has any immediate questions before tomorrow, please contact me on Discord, or via the email address linked below.

We look forward to the OSP program and thanks again to everyone involved in making it happen.

Thanks!

- Jesse [IronHelixx]

Regional Venture Coordinator, Online Play
ironhelixx@orgplayonline.com

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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Valid point - I had added something about the RSP in my post above but took it out before posting - while I can't go into all the details on the delay - I will say that we should see something in place soon for RSP.

Shaudius wrote:

While I'm not really all that perturbed with the number of OP online conventions, what I am a fair bit perturbed by is the promise of the Regional Support Program for the online region back in November of 2017 and the fact that it is not yet available. See http://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo5lk8k?Extra-Life-New-Regions-and-Vo lunteer-Recognition

Back then it was stated that regarding the RSP for online "[w]e are currently fleshing out the details and will post them in the next few weeks." It has now been seven months.

I think that extending the RSP to online events beyond the nine which are authorized for convention support a year would do a lot to alleviate some of the concerns with the number of convention events in the online region.

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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Howdy - your concerns are not just your own - it is something that has been discussed and brought up a lot - luckily it has proven out over a goodly number of years now that Online Events have little to no (heavy on the "no") affect on meat-space events, at all. So, while I do understand the concern, it is not something that is an issue in reality. Online Play serves a community that, in many cases, has no access to other play opportunities at all. Many of the members of our community live in remote areas, live in an area of the world that has no organized play presence in any reasonable travel distance at all, many are deployed military who could not otherwise play, some have health reasons or other things that keep them from traveling or even leaving the house at all in some cases - a portion of the community are meat-space GMs who otherwise would never get to play because they only run in their local areas for various reasons - and of course a sub-set of the community plays both meat-space and virtually. So its a very diverse community with all kinds of reasons for playing online, and we love them all. :)

As a side note - while an internet connection is needed to play online, obviously - the only other "tool" needed is a web browser - so that is something that most people with an internet connection have already - and the web-based VTTs are free so there is no extra cost there, as a player. (And PbP is simply access to the forums) GMs do tend to incur extra costs, just like meat-space. (And there will always be limiting factors for any region, meat-space or virtual.)

Also - We, as Online VOs and GMs, incur a lot of expenses each season too - just like meat-space VOs/GMs, there are a lot of costs we eat on a bunch of different levels.

(We also help online conventions cover other organized play systems and non org-play game systems at events, helped bring in sponsors, and a ton of other things.)

I would not worry to much about Online Play messing anything up for regional events in meat-space. The two really have no affect on each other.

Wei Ji the Learner wrote:


After seeing the earlier days of certain chat clients and the approach therein, I humbly request that the investment that folks who make in 'meatspace' convention work be considered in any such consideration.

Not only do volunteers sacrifice their time and effort to travel to physical conventions, but they also have to cover whatever bases the OPF is NOT covering for the larger conventions, or the convention is covering for smaller ones, usually on a very tight budget.

Too many VTT conventions will dilute the physical pool of conventions as well as discourage the investment in time of such a venue by players.

Please note I am NOT against VTT conventions.

However, they do not bring in all players, but only those who have the Internet, a means of accessing said Internet, and the time to do so.

The gaming community is a large and diverse group, and setting an arbitrary goal-post of 'Must have Internet' and 'Must have Internet capable of running 'X' system' is a hurdle that some folks cannot breach.

Sure, it's easier to access -- for those who have the means.

Please weigh carefully the needs of the entirety of Organized Play, and not one particular subset when laying out future concerns, but likewise please do not penalize or overly reward one means over another.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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Howdy - thanks for your post, CFoot - This is something that has been discussed on a number of occasions over a long span of time behind the scenes - so it's good to have a chance to discuss it with the community at large.

A few quick notes:

1) Indeed :)

2) The cap is actually nine total/combined online events per season.

VTT and PbP are already handled as separate entities in those decisions/counts. VTT has been allotted six events and PbP three.

The reason for three for PbP is that the PbP events can take anywhere from two to three months from start to finish, so that means six to nine months of the year the community is in "event" mode as-is. That's a lot of time and work invested by the community and venture officer crew in those events already - too much more than that would be perpetual event mode.

For VTT, seeing that those events run in real-time like meat-space events over a given weekend, it was decided six was a good number. Prior experience has shown that if you start running more than that each season there tends to be community fatigue and attendance numbers start to drop off. So six seems like a good number for VTT right now. That is basically a VTT event every other month, on average.

3) I could not agree on this point more :) - James, Richard, Helen, and the whole online community has done an excellent job organizing and running TPKon, and you will be seeing more focus on those in the coming season.

Once again - I appreciate the opportunity your post allowed - so thanks for putting it out there.

If anyone has any questions or concerns, please feel free to ask them here or email me HERE and I'll be glad to discuss further.

- Jesse

Jesse R. Davis [IronHelixx]
Regional Venture Coordinator, Online Play
IronHelixx@OrgPlayOnline.com
Discord Chat: PFSChat.com/SFSChat.com/AdventureCardGameChat.com

Our Mission: To Champion, Serve, Support, and Build the Online Community.

Cfoot wrote:

I became aware in the recent locked thread that the online region has a hard cap of 8 conventions that the VOs can offer. I would like to see this expanded.

1. The region covers the entire world and I would guess has one of the largest player bases in PFS.

2. PBP and VTT are different animals and each should be considered separately when determining the amount each should be allotted.

3. The online VOs have demonstrated a high level of quality in their TPKon conventions. Quite frankly, they put the other online conventions to shame with their organization and execution. They should be allowed to do as many as they would like. (They were doing them quarterly, which I always looked forward to.) I would much rather participate in TPKon than Roll20Con, Aethercon, etc.

Liberty's Edge

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Regional Venture Coordinator - Online

Catching up on the forum back-log, been a busy few weeks. So forgive me for the late responses on a few of these topics. But I wanted to cover a few points...

On "Splitting" the Online Region:

Online was already split into three different regions.

PbP, VTT, and ACG (with ACG being an interesting Hybrid of VTT/PbP)

That's why three different Venture Captains were assigned, one to each region - so that has already happened.

PbP/VTT currently operate completely independently from each other.

ACG paddles around in both ponds. ;b

On Online "Boon Factories":

PbP, nor VTT, is anything near a "Boon Factory" - if you look at the total amount of boons given out from VTT and PbP each season, they are pretty much on par with each other - and FAR below the number of boons given out at large regional event like Gen-Con and Origins (with VTT/PbP combined).

[Much of that total is due to artificial limitations put on the online play formats and the caps put in place by campaign leadership- it could frankly be wildly higher.]

Comparing VTT to PbP event counts:

All four supported VTT events that we know will be supported this season, totalled together, will not have as many games offered as the PbP events will. (There are actually more artificial limitations placed on VTT events than PbP events.)

SIDE NOTE: The schedule posted above for VTT is not correct, btw - that was apparently taken from a draft of possible events - not the actual schedule. FGCon12 was not officially supported, and Roll20Con is probably not being produced by Roll20 this year for some reason (and if it does get announced it will likely not be supported, unless something changes real fast.)

On PbP event counts:

Shifty and Hilary, et al, touched on a lot of the issues already.

The bigger PbP Gamedays tend to run for three months, the shorter ones run for a month-and-a-half to two months.

Moving from our original one PbP event a year to two big PbP events a year meant three months on / three months off, per season. Adding a third big event would mean running events nine months out of the year with only 1.5 months off between them - which is rough, all around.

If switched to only running the smaller one-and-a-half month long events, if you ran four a year, that would be 1.5 months on, and 1.5 months off, year round, non-stop (running six months out of the year, but leaving very little time for non-event games in between and conflicting with all kinds of meat-space events and holidays to fit it all in).

For those reasons the decision was made to have a max of three PbP events per year. Which means a minimum of 4.5 months (roughly a third of the year) of total event time up to a possible nine months (three quarters of the year) of total events time, depending on what is scheduled.

Side Note: Scheduling these events around holidays, summer breaks, large/regional meat-space events, et cetera - and having some "down time" for the community between events - is the really hard part.

On The Regional Support Program:

A proposal for PbP (and a separate proposal for VTT) was submitted to Paizo months ago. We've not been able to get either approved as of yet. We hope to get a final decision made by campaign leadership by after PaizoCon. We're trying.

Liberty's Edge

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Regional Venture Coordinator - Online

(And Thanks, Dire, for helping out)

Liberty's Edge

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Regional Venture Coordinator - Online

Ouch - Hope you get to feeling better quickly, and glad it was caught early enough. Best Wishes

Grand Lodge

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Regionally Appropriate Greetings, Pathfinders - it's our understanding that a certain Grippli is having an identity crisis at the moment - your plight has been heard and the appropriate boon has been donated to help resolve this identity issue.

[On a more serious note<puts on official hat>: Please refer to the guide for legal races prior to creation in the future to avoid such issues - all the legal races are listed there on page 25.<takes off official hat>]

Please PM me your email address and we'll get the boon to you to make your PC legal.

May your adventures be many and your dice always roll true.

Liberty's Edge

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Merci

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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Regionally appropriate greeting, everyone.

There is no "double standard" when it comes to Online Play - and there is, and should not be, any special rules for Online Play when it comes to proving ownership for material and providing GM the necessary references for materials used.

The following methods are allowed to prove ownership of materials for Online Play sessions:

* Use Webcam to display books to GM during the gaming session.
This is no different than showing the GM the physical books at a "meat-space" table.

* Send screenshot of ONLY the watermarked pdf cover of the rulebook.
This is no different than showing the GM the physical book(s) [or watermarked PDF(s) on a tablet] at a physical table, and book covers are covered by the community use policy, and have your watermark on them showing ownership.

* Send snapshot of your Paizo downloads page showing the material being used. (Your name is at the top when logged in and you have to be logged in to show the page.)
This is no different than a receipt created in a physical retail location and even more specific and clear as to ownership, and it is already allowed in the relevant FAQ.

* Send scanned copies of physical, itemized receipts of purchases.
Also allowed by the relavent FAQ mentioned above .

* A contemporized photo with the physical book(s) in question (meaning made for that specific identifiable session - with session specific info in the picture to prove when it's taken).
The above methods should all be exhausted before this option is used, and a GM can chose not to accept this if they so choose not to allow it as proof in the same way as physically presenting the book(s).

All the above was approved by Mike Brock when he was the OPC and has not changed under Tonya; all of it is consistant with the Paizo Community Use guidelines; and the relavent FAQ.

The intention of Paizo's guidelines are two fold at the table: to show ownership of material used in the creation of the PC, and to provide the GM access to the rules at the table should they not own, or not have on them, all the material used at the table by the players.

The above guidelines allow GMs proof of ownership, satisfying the first need.

Being Online intrinsically allows GMs access to the rules in it's full breadth and width, so the second criteria is also met. (The Additional Resources page is also available to Online GMs in the same way.)

There is no conflict with existing rules, FAQs, or guidelines - nor any "special cases" for Online Play.

If any one has any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at the email address linked below, or on Discord (also linked below).

- Jesse

Jesse R. Davis [IronHelixx]
Regional Venture Coordinator, Online
IronHelixx@OrgPlayOnline.com
Discord Chat: PFSChat.com/SFSChat.com/AdventureCardGameChat.com

Our Mission: To Champion, Serve, Support, and Build the Online Community.

Liberty's Edge

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Regional Venture Coordinator - Online

Image files are already "flattened" by their very nature - so you're good. The issue mentioned above is related more to the distribution of fully editable PDF forms. Open PDF forms are, basically, like a chronicle written in pencil.

GM Batpony wrote:

So.. I'm very crude with technology, used to print and scan all chronicles but found that tedious and moved to Microsoft paint, files saved as png. How do I make those files ineditable after completed?

Liberty's Edge

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Regional Venture Coordinator - Online

As you mentioned, you can use "Sign&Certify" and then select "Lock Document After signing" in Foxit's tools.

You can also simply "Print to PDF" the PDF form and it flattens and optimizes the PDF - that works from, pretty much, any PDF editor and is straight forward.

GM Aerondor wrote:

Does FoxIt have a way to flatten things easily? How do others do this?

And to answer my own question: If I add a small signature and apply it, that does the flattening.

(yes, I know I add a sig, but I typically do this first into a blank chronicle which I then customize for each character in the scenario - one of those small efficiencies that reduce paperwork time)

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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Regionally Appropriate Greeting, Astarotte - drop me a line at HERE and we can help you get things worked out.

EDIT: If local VOs are available to you, I am sure they will be glad to help too. Just let us know.

- Jesse

Jesse R. Davis [IronHelixx]
Regional Venture Coordinator, Online
IronHelixx@OrgPlayOnline.com
Discord Chat: PFSChat.com/SFSChat.com/AdventureCardGameChat.com

Our Mission: To Champion, Serve, Support, and Build the Online Community.

Astarotte Cơn Thịnh Nộ wrote:
I have played a total of seven online games (Roll 20 - virtual tabletop), and the rest (29 based on Paizo website) was played in person for the character in question. The Slave Pits of Absalom scenario is one of those on the virtual tabletop which was played early on in this life. However, if I print out the chronicle sheet now and make all the necessary corrections, one of the chronicles from one of the tabletop games would be considered illegal (due to being out-of-tier) much later in the character's life.

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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I think I can speak for all of the Online Venture Officers in saying that we are super excited and very appreciative for this opportunity to serve the Online community in this new expanded capacity. And we all want to thank Paizo for their continued support for the Online Community - you guys have always been amazing.

And many thanks to the Online Community for being an Amazing Community to serve and support - you guys make our jobs a lot of fun.

All that said, It is with great pleasure, and excitement, that I present to you the Venture Officers of the New Online Play Region directly

Adventure Card Game (ACG)

VC-ACG: Tyler Beck (CartmanBeck) [email]

VL-ACG: Andrew Warner (Hawkmoon) [email]

Play-by-Post (PbP)

VC-PbP: Hilary Moon-Murphy (Hmm) [email]

VL-PbP: Gerard vanKonijnenburg (Magabeus) [email]

VA-PbP, Paizo (Flaxseed): Christine Bussman (Redelia) [email]

VA-PbP, MythWeavers: Michael Hallet (MichaelHallet) [email]

VA-PbP, RPGGeek: Phillip Wood (Woodenman) [email]

VA-PbP, Pathfinder-FR: Sylvain Corbaz (Zinou) [email]

Virtual TableTop (VTT)

VC-VTT: James Bartlett (Imhrail) [email]

VL-VTT: Helen Yau (Hels) [email]

VL-VTT: Richard Lowe (Suthainn) [email]

VA-VTT, German Language: Hannes Schunk (Bakamono) [email]

I could not be happier with the team assembled for the New Online Region - we are very, very fortunate to have such an amazing team of VOs and I look forward to the days ahead.

- Jesse

Jesse R. Davis [IronHelixx]
Regional Venture Coordinator, Online Play
IronHelixx@OrgPlayOnline.com
Discord Chat: PFSChat.com / SFSChat.com / AdventureCardGameChat.com

Our Mission: To Champion, Serve, Support, and Build the Online Community.

Liberty's Edge

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Regional Venture Coordinator - Online

Etude Mirolo, Congrats - I'll have Hilary, et al, contact you to get you email info to send the boon to. Thanks for participating in PbP Gameday VI.

- Jesse

Jesse R. Davis [IronHelixx]
Venture-Captain, Online Play
IronHelixx@OrgPlayOnline.com
Discord Chat: PFSChat.com / SFSChat.com

Our Mission: To Champion, Serve, Support, and Build the Online Community.

Liberty's Edge

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Regional Venture Coordinator - Online
GM Hmm wrote:

PLAYER BOONS:

...
PFS: If you roll a 19 or 20, please roll a d4 to determine which player boon you receive.
The player boons this year are flavorful. We have two that are tied strongly to factions, a mounted tradition boon, and hang in there -- a boon that gives you a bit more time for another party member to revive you with breath of life.
...
That's it! Hope all your games are going swimmingly!
Hmm

gm: 1d20 ⇒ 71d4 ⇒ 3

calephe: 1d20 ⇒ 101d4 ⇒ 2
etude mirolo: 1d20 ⇒ 201d4 ⇒ 3
azadeh talat: 1d20 ⇒ 181d4 ⇒ 1
scuttlebutt.: 1d20 ⇒ 41d4 ⇒ 3
wayang warlock vigilante: 1d20 ⇒ 151d4 ⇒ 1
hskrota: 1d20 ⇒ 11d4 ⇒ 3
**Names from reporting

Liberty's Edge

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Regional Venture Coordinator - Online

Howdy

Boon for Boon trades should be the only exchange.

Paizo has added "Not Intended For Sale. No Cash Value" to all new boons in an attempt to clear up any confusion in that regard going forward.

Boons should be marked "Originally Issued To: <PFSNUM>" when you get them.

For older boons, they should be marked "Traded To <pfsnum> on MM/DD/YYYY>" when traded, or "Given to <pfsnum> on MM/DD/YYYY>" if given away.

Or, if they are the newer boons with the trade boxes at the top, those boxes should be filled out if traded or given away.

It is highly suggested that online trades occur through the trade forum here on Paizo so there is a record of it.

If you get PMs from individuals and they insist on doing things "off the books" it is probably correct to assume they are not legit.

If you ever feel like a trade needs to be examined before it goes through, we will also be happy to function as a VO boon escrow service of sorts too - just let us know.

If you ever have any questions feel free to drop us a line any time and we'll do our best to help keep things on the up-and-up.

- Jesse

Jesse R. Davis [IronHelixx]
Venture-Captain, Online Play
IronHelixx@OrgPlayOnline.com
Discord Chat: PFSChat.com / SFSChat.com

Our Mission: To Champion, Serve, Support, and Build the PFS Online Community.

Liberty's Edge

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Regional Venture Coordinator - Online
Rei UlSkadi wrote:
besides i thought it was only boon for boon.....

Unfortunately, the person above tends to duplicate and trade the same boons over and over again to build their boon roster to then turn around and sell those boons on eBay or via private deals in PMs and such - often modifying dates, events numbers, and PFS #s, as well as removing trade notes, to obfuscate the sources/history. So it is an issue on multiple levels, sadly.

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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Concur on your choice of writers - that would be pretty awesome - and Harsk is always the correct answer. :)

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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Q.) If you could co-write an adventure/campaign with, or have an adventure/campaign bespoke written for you to play in by, any writer who has ever written (alive or not - and they are guaranteed to say "yes", even if from the great beyond in ghost form ;b) - who would that writer be?

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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When I feel burnout I turn to other things for a bit - Play some Savage Worlds, try Fantasy Flight Star Wars, attempt a Fiasco - play an old school cRPG for a bit - whatever catches your fancy - not only does it give you a change of scene, it opens up new ideas for running/playing org-play sessions when you come back. Diversity is the spice of life after all.

Liberty's Edge

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Regional Venture Coordinator - Online

Hmm wrote a thing:
http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5lk5b?Gaming-From-Afar20-Rova-4716

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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For the individual Tales boons that can be applied to multiple PCs you simply make multiple copies and apply the individual copies to the PCs. So each PC would apply it's own copy.

The Pathfinder Tales, Vol 4/5/6/7 boons are only a wee bit different.

Those you get initialed as you use the individual one-time use boons, without assigning the sheet to a PC, at first - then when it comes time to assign the Prolific Reader boon to the one chosen PC you then would then assign the sheet as you would a chronicle sheet to that specific PC, giving it a chronicle # and filling out the PC info, et cetera.

It's explained in the "HOW TO USE" section of the sanctioning document.

CraziFuzzy wrote:

Or more specifically, we'll use Volume V as an example. It says that you can apply each one once per player for any of his or her characters, then if all four are initialed, the prolific reader boon can be applied to any one of his or her characters.

The issue is, if this is a chronicle sheet, then it should be recorded in a specific character's record, so how is one able to use a different boon from this sheet on different characters?

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Thanks for letting us know - we actually did renew the SSL certificate a week before it expired, so I am not sure what happened - I have contacted the certificate authority.

- Jesse

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2017 State of the Union Questionnaire

Howdy, and regionally appropriate greetings, everyone

Once a year, before each season starts, we like to get feedback on how things are going, as a community and in regard to the Online VO positions.

This year we are doing it a little differently and we would like to get a broader and deeper response from the community as a whole.

If you would be so kind, please fill in the following, short, questionnaire with your thoughts on Online Play - it will be immensely helpful as we plan things for the new season.

https://goo.gl/forms/xuPeXQYKXYPGX4yx1

The questionnaire is completely anonymous - so you can really let us have it, if you so feel like it (we have thick skin, so it's all good). ;b

Thank you all for all that you guys do - it is much appreciated.

Until later - May your adventures be many and your dice always roll true.

- Jesse

Jesse R. Davis [IronHelixx]
PFS Venture-Captain, Online Play
Jesse@PathfinderSocietyOnline.com
http://PathfinderSocietyOnline.com
Discord Chat: PFSChat.com

Our Mission: To Champion, Serve, Support, and Build the PFS Online Community.

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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Howdy!

For Online Play there's ...

* A single Venture Captain [VC], which is the position I fill. I report directly to the Org-Play Coordinator [OPC], Tonya, and handle the "Big Picture" of Online play and support the Venture Lieutenants [VLs] and Venture Agents [VAs], as well as the online play community at large. (VCs, VLs, and VAs are collectively called Venture Officers [VOs])

* There are two VLs, one for PbP and one for VTT. VLs work directly with the VAs to organize regional events and conventions for the online community, as well as supporting the VA/Community needs in their given region on a daily basis. (VLs report to the VC.)

* And there are currently three VAs for PbP- those VA positions are tied to a specific community (IRL VAs are tied to a specific location, like a store - PbP VAs are tied to a specific PbP community - in our case Paizo, MythWeavers, and RPGGeek). VAs are the front line "boots on the ground" for a specific community and will handle the day-to-day operation and organizational needs of that specific community.

VA positions are filled on an as-needed basis. If there is an active, growing Pathfinder Society [PFS] (and soon Starfinder Society [SFS]) PbP community, that is not already represented by a PbP VA, we can always discuss a VA position for that community. (The community needs to be an established PFS[/SFS] PbP community with regular, ongoing play, with a unique community membership.) Talk with GM Hmm and I if you are a member of such a community and we can discuss further to see if a VA role is warranted in that community.

- Jesse

Jesse R. Davis [IronHelixx]
PFS Venture-Captain, Online Play
Jesse@PathfinderSocietyOnline.com
http://PathfinderSocietyOnline.com
Discord Chat: PFSChat.com

Our Mission: To Champion, Serve, Support, and Build the PFS Online Community.

Gayel Nord wrote:
And how do you become an online venture captain?

Liberty's Edge

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That is beary correct.

GM Bearington wrote:

This all makes sense to me! I think it is easier to to fill out the chronicle sheet fully as a GM during a PbP game since you can ask for all that information up front.

As far as I can tell, filling out the sheet fully puts the character purchases on a chronicle one after the one it would be on if they did it themselves at home. They would still receive the equipment at the same time though, so it shouldn't matter on the player end of things while helping to insure accurate chronicles.

I'll definitely be trying to do this more often. I had always thought that it would either force people to some how know their post game purchases in advance, but you can still do all your shopping post game and then at the start of the next game have it officially recorded on the chronicle sheet you will (hopefully) be receiving at the end.

Is what I'm saying correct?

Liberty's Edge

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Regional Venture Coordinator - Online

** Note: Rereading this now, it is WAY more rambly than it should be – I apologize in advance of you reading it – I guess I should not type such things up at 3 AM in the morning - But I wanted to make sure and answer things as best I could while I had the time, since Paizo.com has been wonky all day. Hopefully it will not cause more questions than it answers and it makes sense to you guys. **

It is very true that you see a number of GMs who erroneously leave the player sections of the chronicles blank, both in IRL and Online games.

A new GM, usually, learns from the GM(s) prior to them – most often as a player - and if they see the GM(s) leaving those sections blank, they will probably do the same when it comes their turn on the other side of the GM screen. (Heck, in the very beginning, years ago, I did too – that’s what I saw locally.) It’s like chronicle herpes - it infects each new generation of GM as they are born. ;b It was not until I got more involved in PFS regionally, read the guide fully, and started seeing what the OPC at the time and other VOs were doing at national events that I learned the error of my ways.

That is why it is important to break that cycle now - so it does not keep spreading to the next generation and then the next, and so on.

I had typed up a big formal guide for online chronicles to share here – but I don’t think it is appropriate to the conversational nature of this thread on second thought – so we’ll just wing it right now and I’ll save the big long dry post for a more formal PSA to the whole community later on. (Sans Chronicle Herpes references.)

You may ask “what does it hurt to leave those sections blank?”

Most people do not get the “pleasure” of auditing as many PCs as Venture Officers do. Especially in the online region where there are people from all over the world with a mix of IRL and Online sheets – so they do not see just how important filling those sections out with the PCs are to correct record keeping and just how wrong things can go when they do not get filled in correctly.

We’ve spent many, many hours walking through chronicle sheets and purchase records with players trying to fix their PCs that are broken due to bad record keeping. And it almost always comes down to poor chronicle practices as the root issue.

You may also ask “how will players mark purchases if I fill in all the gold/prestige spent sections now?” (I get that question a lot when this topic comes up)

Players should only buy things at a table during a game sessions. Technically, players are not allowed to make purchases between sessions out of the sight of a GM at all.

The Season 8.0 PFS Guild Guide says that GMs “...must be present in order for you to purchase items. This can be done before, during, or after the adventure. All transactions that occur must be recorded on the character’s Inventory Tracking Sheet and the total cost reflected on the Chronicle sheet.”

This does not mean that a player cannot make a list, between sessions, to bring with them to the next session so it can be added to the next chronicle sheet.

It does mean that the chronicle of the current session must be completed and finalized at the end of each session though – nothing should be added or changed after the GM signs off on it.

The next comment I usually get is “but it adds so much time to the process.”

I can only say to that “Not Really.” Once you’ve been doing it for a while it goes quite quickly and adds only seconds to each sheet in comparison to leaving the player sections blank. (I’ve, literally, done thousands of chronicle sheets and boons at this point and I can say with certainty that it barely adds any time at all to the process.)

PFS has a ten step process mandated for filling out chronicle sheets after a session. [See pages 13-15 of the current guide for details]

Steps 1, 8, 9 in the guide would normally have a player physically fill in certain sections of the chronicle sheet before handing the the sheet back to the GM to fill in the GM sections and signing off on it.

As you can all imagine - filling in a sheet at a physical table, with the players physically sitting around it, is a little different than filling out sheets for online games. You cannot hand the sheet to players to have them fill it in as directed by the guide, before you verify and sign off on it. (And sending sheets back and forth to fill out each section would be time consuming and problematic.)

So, for online play we have to do thing a little differently.

Pretty much all of the information you need will be available on the PCs prior chronicle sheet, if they have played anything prior to your session. So asking for the last chronicle they have prior to the start of the game serves a few purposes. It gives you a chance to verify the PCs level and available resources, a mini audit of sorts. It gives you a copy of all of the PCs information – PFS #, PC #, Faction, et cetera. It also shows you all the gold prestige and other numbers you need for filling out the “starting” values of the sheet you will be filling out. (You can also ask for any purchases they would like to make at the start of the session so you have that information as well.)

Then when you send the sheet for your session every section should be filled in and locked down before sending the sheet to the player using the information the player provided prior to that start of the game and the information you collected during the game session. (With steps 1, 8, and 9 completed by the GM getting the information off the prior sheet instead of having the player fill them in themselves prior to signing.)

Finally, see step 10:

Step 10: Review the completed Chronicle sheet and check the player’s math. Ensure that the character has access to any items bought and that the correct costs were paid. Verifying this information now helps prevent errors from going unnoticed on future Chronicle sheets. Once you’re satisfied with the information on the Chronicle sheet, fill in the gray box at the bottom of the sheet and sign (W). For “Event,” write in the name of the event you are playing at—if this is a home game or in-store game, just write “home game” or the name of the store. If it’s a convention, write the name of the show and the year. For “Event Code,” write in the event code associated with your event found on paizo.com/pathfinderSociety.

As you can see, the final step is to verify that all the information is on the sheet is correct. By signing your name on the sheet you are saying “I checked this and it’s all good”. So you don’t want to leave a bunch blank spots for the player to fill in later since you won’t be able to verify it at that point (and your name will be attached to the incorrect data if they mess up since you already signed the sheet).

I know that paperwork is not the fun part of GMing – running the game is – but paperwork is the necessary side effect of a well run organized play system – and a proper chronicle sheet is an important part of making things run smoothly.

We can’t make you do it, frankly – but I promise your little bit of extra effort will go a LONG way if you do.

Liberty's Edge

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When a GM delivers the chronicle to the player, every section should be complete.

That's a good segue to the next chronicle discussion topic I mentioned earlier... let me go ahead and start typing that up now. ;b

GM JAFO wrote:
Here's Choon's chronicle... did I do it right? I didn't put down some of the info because tbh, none of my online chronicles have had that info filled out for me (chronicle #, starting xp, pp, gold)... should I have done that? If so, let me know and I'll change it. Easy enough to do.

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Looks pretty good, GM Ietsuna - the Prestige Spent, Current Prestige, Final Fame, Gold Spent, and Total should also be completed before sending, as well as the Character Chronicle # - Otherwise, it looks good and seems to be a good resolution for printing and such.

GM Ietsuna wrote:

Ok, I have done JAF0's Chronicle. Can someone check it please to make sure I did it right?

Chronicle

Thanks

Liberty's Edge

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Regionally Appropriate Greeting Everyone.

Thank all of you for participating in the inaugural PFSO PbP GM 101 session.

GM Hmm asked that I stop by to talk with you guys about Chronicle Sheets.

( I know. I know. Please try to contain your excitement. ;b )

The Season 8 Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide covers the basics of filling in chronicles on pages 13-15, so it would be a bit repetitive to cover every single detail here, so we will instead focus on the parts that are a little different for Online Play. We will also discuss tools very briefly – as well as some best practices too.

Let’s start with tools.

What tool(s) you choose to use for chronicles will, ultimately, be totally up to each of you to decide. There won’t be a single tool that fits everyone and every situation. The end results all needs to be the same though, whichever tool you choose to use in the end – and that is each GM should provide the players, and themselves, with a chronicle sheet that is 100% completed, uneditable, high quality, and printable.

One option is to physically print out the chronicles, fill them out by hand - and then scan them, in color, at a high enough resolution that the player can in turn print them back out themselves when they receive them and the sheet won’t look pixelated or wonky.

Another option is to use an image editor to fill in the sheets. An example of such an application would be MS Paint, the program included in Microsoft Windows installations by default. This is a simple, no cost solution that most people can figure out very easily. The key to using Paint, and other image editing programs, is making sure the image quality is high enough so that the image can be printed and still looks clean, yet not go too high resolution that the image file is huge. Other image editing tools would include applications like G.I.M.P. on Linux/Windows, or the high-end Adobe Professional Image tools that can be purchased for Windows and Mac.

And lastly, you can use PDF editing tools to extract, manipulate, and fill in the chronicle sheets directly from the scenario PDFs. (This is the most common method of chronicle distribution for online play and it gives the players a chronicle that is at the native resolution and format of the original chronicle sheet in the scenario.) Examples of such tools would be: PDFill, a personal favorite; Master PDF Editor; Adobe Acrobat Pro; Foxit PDF Tools; or a ton of other PDF tools you can easily find on the internet. The major thing to watch out for with PDFs is to make sure you lock them when they are sent to the players so that they are no longer editable (often referred to as “flattening” the PDF), and that you do not increase the file size by too much when creating the PDF chronicle.

The next choice you will have to make when it comes to tools is what tool you will use to deliver the chronicle sheets to the players once you have filled them out. This can be email, or a Dropbox/Google Drive folder you share with the players, or a direct message through a chat tool like Discord, or any other method you choose that is freely/readily available to the players and is easy for you and them to use.

Ultimately you should choose what methods and tools work best for you and your own style.

I suggest you try and experiment with a few different tools in the beginning so you can get a good feeling for each method and choose what works best, and is fastest, for you.

I’ll be back on later today to discuss the actual process of filling in the sheets, and will cover some best practices then as well. (We can discuss any questions you have on tools then too.) For now I suggest thinking about what tools you would like to try first and we’ll go from there.

Talk to you all soon!

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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Official Pathfinder Launch Event for Fantasy Grounds

Excerpt:

3.. 2... 1.. blast off! Okay, maybe living on the Space Coast is starting to rub off on me. Either way, I think you'll agree that this is an exciting new chapter in the history of SmiteWorks and Paizo. Fans of Fantasy Grounds and Pathfinder can look forward to a steady stream of great gaming content to play online or to enhance their in-person play.

Three ways to buy!
All new releases will be available from our website, from Steam, and in the near future, from paizo.com. In addition, you can get a PDF for free with your purchase if you buy from fantasygrounds.com or from Paizo. To do so, check the instructions below. ...
If you already own the corresponding PDF from Paizo, and you purchase the add-on for Fantasy Grounds on paizo.com, you'll get a discount equal to the price of the PDF. Then follow steps 2 and 3 above and Retrieve paizo.com Purchases. Once you do that, those purchases will automatically be linked to your account and will get picked up and installed when you run your next update.

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Play-by-Post and Pathfinder Society Exclusives/Multi-Table Specials

Regionally appropriate greetings everyone.

We wanted to take a moment to address some questions that have arisen recently about PbP format Specials and Exclusives.

The intention of Paizo and the PFS Leadership, as well as the PFS Online VOs, is to always make the running of Exclusive and Multi-Table Special scenarios a memorable experience for both GMs and Players.

In light of that, it is the intent of PFS Leadership that such scenarios should always be run with a “Quality over Quantity” mindset. (This is a viewpoint voiced and supported by our PFS OPCs and PFS Devs.)

With that in mind, the PbP guidelines for Multi-Table Specials and Exclusives are...

For Official PbP Gamedays GMs are limited to:

One Multi-Table Special table or Exclusive table at any given time during the event.

For general, non Gameday, PbP PFS play GMs are limited to:

One Multi-Table Special table -or- two concurrent Exclusive tables at any given time.

In regard to the Bonekeep series of Exclusives:

Bonekeep is currently limited to “real-time” sessions only due to it's tight time restrictions that cannot be emulated effectively in a PbP format. Therefore all Bonekeep scenarios are not legal for PbP play for PFS credit at this time.

We do understand that sometimes unintentional session overlap will occur, and exceptions will have to be made for them. For example, if you are running an Exclusive and it happens to run longer than you expected and the tail end of it overlaps with a Gameday you signed up to run a Special table at, we understand there may be a little overlap in that situation. Another example may be a GM running a table during a Special and then another GM dropping from that Special and no other replacement can be found – that remaining GM running a second table would be allowed as a necessary solution to an unfortunate event. But both of these example situations should be the exception out of necessity and not the rule.

If you have any question or concerns please let us know.

- Jesse

Jesse R. Davis [IronHelixx]
PFS/SFS Venture-Captain, Online Play
Jesse@PathfinderSocietyOnline
http://PathfinderSocietyOnline
Discord Chat: PFSChat.com and SFSChat.com

Our Mission: To Champion, Serve, Support, and Build the PFS Online Community.

Notes:

For clarity on the terms “Special” and “Exclusive”, as used here:

Specials” mean the Multi-Table scenarios like Year of the Shadow Lodge, The Cosmic Captive, and the like.

Exclusives” refer to scenarios limited to 4 and/or 5 Star GMs and/or limited to official Paizo supported events. These would include Serpent's Ire, True Dragons of Absalom, and the like.

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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For SFS Online Play:

Starfinder Society Discord Chat Server here:

http://SFSChat.com

Starfinder Society Online Collective Here:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/starfinder-society-online-collectiv e

I imagine things will be pretty slow and quiet up until the material releases

Liberty's Edge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online

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Sorry you are having issues in a game, Riceak Hawklight - please drop Hilary a line at HMM@PathfinderSocietyOnline.com, and we'll help you any way we can when she is back from her event this weekend.

(Feel free to drop me a line at Jesse@PathfinderSocietyOnline.com if you need immediate assistance.)

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