ShallowHammer's page

I tend to get lost and confused quickly when trying to run a published adventure. I've tried index cards, Roll20 (bought RoTRL on Roll 20), and several methods. The game play slows down as I try to look up various facts and info during gameplay.

What tips does everyone have to help organize running a published adventure? When I make my own, it's mostly sandbox with a few key events and locations prepped ahead of time.

Biggest challenges I have are:

1. NPC Info - Keeping it straight
2. Pre-Planned Events - Finding info when needed.
3. Large Locations - Keeping track of what's relevant and what's available.

The only thing I haven't done is create my own wiki for my game, which would be a pain to do and I'd like to avoid.

Thanks!

As a GM, I would allow it, but on the condition that I get to compensate for your actions in any way I choose for as long as I choose. I believe that would stop most players from trying. That's really what would convince me to allow it.

Now, assuming that this is a game where everyone is experimenting at that level, you shouldn't have to do any convincing.

I am curious how to came up with your formula. If I read it correctly, you're assuming that all followers continue daily with their job, but there are several effects that would basically cause someone to "go home sick." So you may not get the number of charges per follower per day that you're hoping for.

Bigger Club wrote:

As an example because I am finnish. "A bouque held while naked." Is vihta(bundle of birch sticks with leafs on it in sauna.) Now I am sure if I asked that riddle from a group of average north americans they are pretty unlikely to get it right.

That's a very good example, especially since you got the English translation wrong -- the word in English for a bunch of flowers is "bouquet," using the French spelling, because English spelling is not supposed to be understandable. So there's actually two cultural clashes buried in there.

That's the issue with the riddle I posted earlier: "To find the treasure room and advance the plot, Archie is in the sand." That's actually a UK-style crossword puzzle clue, but it hinges on US cultural assumptions to solve (and there's a big clue in the context -- it's a golf puzzle). Archie (Bunker) is a character from a rather famous US television show (All in the Family) and, of course, a "bunker" is also a term for the sand traps on a golf course..... so to solve that riddle, you need to be either an American who is fond of UK crossword puzzles, or a Brit who watches way too many vintage US shows.

Or, of course, we could just stop the game dead until I spoon-feed enough clues that everyone can finally do the right thing, without any sense of accomplishment at all.

Down with riddles!

I must say, I like the real answer. Being from the USA and having used to watch All In The Family, I should have figured that out. Glad you posted again, I would have gone all this time thinking of a Golarion reference. :)

My dwarf fighter, Axim, accidently killed his brother in a fit of rage. He adventures to try and atone for his actions, and refuses to drink alcohol because it fuels his anger. While others are drinking, he likes to play practical jokes on them. It reminds him of the fun he used to have, but also keeps his mind focused on how inattentive one becomes when drinking.

He's also pre-occupied with contacting his dead brother, to apologize and find out if he's forgiven. So whenever a medium gains some renown, he'll seek them out to try a saiance. He has yet to succeed. But will spend his gold on such services even if it means having inferior weapons.

In a campaign many years ago, one of my friends was playing a tiefling wizard and had dumped his Charisma down to 6. We adventured for a long time and became quite powerful. When we interacted with NPC the wizard would often act as the party face, because the player is much more charismatic than his ccharacter. The GM would try to RP the NPCs repsonses appropriately and it would be frustrating for the player, because his best efforts always felt wasted. One day the GM finally blurted out that his Charisma is really bad and that when the tiefling is next to the other party members, people are likely to think he is a servant. Much like dumping Wis or Int, dumping Cha can be difficult to RP, especially if the player's hypothetical mental characteristics are very different from the PC's.

Ciaran makes a great point. Play like you normally would, but ask the GM to frustrate your efforts at communication. So you get a sense of the frustration your character is experiencing. You could come up with great one-liners that the table still gets to enjoy, but that the npc stares blankly. You could give a compliment that offends the person. You don't have to be catatonic, just ineffective.

I saw it a couple of weeks ago. I liked it ok. Although I didn't get one part of it:

John Kretzer wrote:

For instance I know a lot about PF and Golarion...I could probably figure most riddles based on those...but I have no idea about golf...so a riddle based on golf would just annoy me and frustrate me.

"To find the treasure room and advance the plot, Archie is in the sand."

Where do you look for the next clue? [An open challenge to everyone on this thread.]

I'd look either in Sandpoint or on a beach or in a desert, depending on the context of the adventure.

have your character continue to be confused by good versus evil. The curse is broken, his teammates are obviously evil-inclined, and he is no longer confused by the misconception that he is not redeemable. However, now that he has felt the effects of having evil committed against himself, he is not as ready to commit evil deeds without a good reason. Thereby making him partially reformed, which was the point of the curse to begin with.

Peacefully in bed of old age/boredom, surrounded by your friends, family, and trophies.

A real man would survive everything else with style.

I like that, but it doesn't fit with the game well :)

Ok, I'm playing in a silly-themed campaign. ALl of us have agreed to die for a TPK in our last session, but we get to come up with the method. I chose to model my character after El Macho from Despicable Me 2. Short of using the shark and explosives as depicted in the movie, what would everyone say is the most macho way to die in a vanilla, silly-themed, game? I'm not coming up with anything I feel is worth mentioning. He's a level 6 Fighter.

Bonus points for making it cliche!

Craigslist would definitely look different: For Hire - 4-6 people who like to hunt tough-to-kill enemies. The ideal candidate will have multiple weapons within easy reach, carry said weapons with them everywhere, and have no problems asking complete strangers for information about said enemies. Pay is low but you get to keep whatever you find on said enemies including clothes, weapons, jewelry, and cash. This is sanctioned by the police and they will help you wherever they can without getting directly involved.

I'd say keep it bb. I believe there is no Survival skill in BB rules, but I've always substituted Knowledge Nature and it's worked out well in my games.

For communication, you might want to consider entangled particles. I forget which particle it is (I think electron) but once they're entangled, what is observed in one inversely affects the other in the pair, instantly, regardless of distance. In theory this could make FTL communication possible. The down side is you need relay stations and your end must have a matching end (which means that for home base to communicate with 5 ships, there needs to be 5 pairs of communicators). This can create a situation where you have regional ships which have FTL communication that act like post offices. With local ships using something else and relaying anything really important using the regional ships. You still get the isolation with that system, but have the option of communicating with home.

I don't see PF going away any time soon. I think Unchained is Pathfinder 1.5. I'd say that, unless Mt. Raineer erupts, we'll see lots more stuff going forward.

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who posts on these forums. I have learned a lot by reading them the past few months and have become a better GM because of it. Last night during my bi-weekly game with my daughter and son, I used several suggestions I got from the forums to build suspense (like rolling a d20 and saying, "really? Wow, ok" and such). The kids loved it and it was one of the best sessions ever. So thank you to everyone.

ShallowHammer wrote:

I came up with a FTL technology that I felt was interesting. Instead of just traveling through space, you also modify the speed at which you're traveling through time. So for example, relative to earth, in normal speeds (sublight) you travel at 1 sec/sec (I know this changes as you go faster, but bear with me). Then at ftl you're traveling at 10 sec/sec relative to earth. so by the time you've traveled through 10 second at whatever sublight speed, you've effectively gone FTL.

If I'm going 188,000 miles per sec, for ten seconds, that 1,880,000 miles in one second earth time. So from earth you went faster than light, but in your terms you remained sublight.

Kinda like a warp field, but with time instead of space. A danger with this technology is getting the time speed correct. If you modify it incorrectly, you may travel through time farther than you intended (Maybe go .01 sec/sec which effectively transports you to the future). Interesting work for a saboteur. Gravity fields could affect this because of relativity, and have to be planned for in the equations.

Interesting thought. Time travel would effectively accomplish FTL travel. You simply launch the ship and put the crew into hypersleep. Then once you reach your destination you jump back in time to the moment you left.

Practically speaking it's probably easier to build a wormhole generator, but the idea opens up a lot of potential for cool story lines.

Edit: You could have immortals (through whatever method) drive the thing and act as caretaker for the million year journey. Lots of time to read I suppose.

You could have the ship go to a destination sub light. Then travel back in time and start the colony. The trick is that the colony builds the time travel machine in orbit so when they arrive they can use it to go back and start the colony. But what happens if you arrive and there's no colony or time portal.....

I came up with a FTL technology that I felt was interesting. Instead of just traveling through space, you also modify the speed at which you're traveling through time. So for example, relative to earth, in normal speeds (sublight) you travel at 1 sec/sec (I know this changes as you go faster, but bear with me). Then at ftl you're traveling at 10 sec/sec relative to earth. so by the time you've traveled through 10 second at whatever sublight speed, you've effectively gone FTL.

If I'm going 188,000 miles per sec, for ten seconds, that 1,880,000 miles in one second earth time. So from earth you went faster than light, but in your terms you remained sublight.

Kinda like a warp field, but with time instead of space. A danger with this technology is getting the time speed correct. If you modify it incorrectly, you may travel through time farther than you intended (Maybe go .01 sec/sec which effectively transports you to the future). Interesting work for a saboteur. Gravity fields could affect this because of relativity, and have to be planned for in the equations.

OK. As I write them I'll post them.

I liked the BASIC Paths series from 0One Games. I've only played a few published adventures though.

Thanks. That's what I wanted to know.

Ok, so my son decided to try a MLP FIM (pony) race he found on the internet. We came up with a situation where my character is riding his character. We agreed that the rules for mounted combat would apply for me, but would he still get his turn in the initiative order? Or would it be used doing whatever I did as his rider? Looking for ideas on how to handle this.

Not PFS, but I think this fits the mood:

I'm gming a online game. One of my PC's has spikes on his armor, and is being attacked by a shadow creature (custom build for this game). Well, I have this policy of critical fails for monsters, designed to add a little humor to some tense moments. Which leads us to the PC grappling with the shadow creature, and the creature not only failing its CMD defense constantly, but critically failing. So I had the creature keep piercing itself on the pc's armor spikes. Well, none of the other PC's were able to land a hit on this thing, but the grappling pc manages to kill it using his armored spikes and my bad dice rolls.

This might be a bit late, but I created spell cards for both Cleric and Wizard spell lists, customized for BB. If you'd like them I can email them to you. Just send me an IM with your request and email address. They're in PDF format.

I'm glad this took off. Here's another one:

A group of heavily-armed strangers walk into a library and start doing research using the oldest books in the place....what do the other people in the library do/think?

I know a guy who takes off and puts on his Mask of Stony Demeanor depending on whether he needs to lie. I'd love to see that play out in real life.

Go to neighbor's house, check for the door for traps, check to see if the door is unlocked, barge in with weapon drawn.

Cemetery? JACKPOT! I pull out my crowbar and pry open the tomb door.

Bashes the corpses at funerals with a mace just to make sure.

That's awesome! Exactly what I'm looking for!

A group of strangely dressed people open a manhole cover, and climb down to explore...

I like when players try crazy things. Even in failure, I try to reward their efforts with a great description of the failure. For example, when some PC's tried to scare away a baby dragon with burning pieces of wood, I had the dragon stop, raise himself up on his hind legs, look curiously at them, and let out a loud, roaring laugh. Then proceed to teach the PC's a lesson in fighting dragons.

So a great DM lets the PC's do whatever they want, but makes entertaining consequences if they want to do something silly.

Why don't we make a list of how things would work out if we did things our characters do in real life? For example:

A group of heavily-armed people walk into a bank...

Maybe we can turn this into a thread where people post links to adventures they've created for bb?

I live out in Goodyear, but I'm willing to commute (especially since I'll be moving to the east valley in about December). I've only GM'd so I'd like to be a player (for a while at least). I'm still new to the rules, but have a good basic understanding.

I'm game to form a new gaming group.

Can anyone tell me if any 3pp make products like Flip Mats? I've seen Map Packs (Tiles) and I've bought some, but I'd like more options for flip mats like 0One Game's Boxed Sets.

You are a member of the pathfinder society: a lose collection of murderho..erm.. adventurer archaeologists, explorers treasure hunters, adventurers and vagabonds from across golarion. You make a character. Go on an adventure, get a sheet. Get three sheets you level up.

Character creation rules.

20 point buy , so no one in new york shows up with the all 18s that "Their brother saw me roll fair and square in california". No item creation. Start at level one. You can redo your character in between sessions till level 2. Jacks and one eyed kings wild. Start with 150 gold... you know what you have your weapon some scale mail a sling and a rope. Someone else is carrying the rest.

Show up early and have some way of making sure they know you're there for pfs: ask, or if you're the shy type print out the first page of the guide and carry it on a pile of papers.

** spoiler omitted **...

That's exactly what I was hoping for. Thanks.

In my area, we do everything we can to seat new players, and we have one or two every week. It's nothing unusual. The big stuff has already been covered. I find it helpful to think of Pfs as a giant home game with one set of rules worldwide.

So really I'm nervous about nothing. Thanks. I'm the GM in my home games and nobody wants to trade with me so this is my only option to play as a player.

is there more information about the event?

is there an online sign-up listing the games available?
have you read the guide to organized play?

See, I didn't even think to ask those questions. The guy at the counter said to just show up with a character and my PFS card and to not worry about it.

Go, play, have fun, don't stress.

If your character has an inaccuracy, it can easily be fixed. If the error is something super systemic that necessitates a full rebuild from the ground up, you can grab a pregen for the session and try again (this is probably never going to happen.)

Read through the Guide to Organized Play, at minimum the chapter on building characters. Ask questions. Everyone starts somewhere, and there's no shame in being new. Quite the opposite, in fact, as a fresh face helps keep things interesting and dynamic!

Two caveats: You do need to own any supplements your character uses; Hero Lab sources isn't enough. Watermarked PDF's work fine, hard cover books also work fine. It's one of the major reasons I don't use HeroLab, as I'd have to buy my rules supplements twice and I use a lot of rules supplements in standard play.

Additionally, Paizo recently started up the Core Campaign initiative, which restricts rules sources to just the core book, the traits web enhancement, and the guide to organized play. I recommend double checking to see the games you're attending are standard games and not core games, or possibly making a core character up to play if you do get surprised.

Welcome to the society!

Lots of good things to consider. I hadn't thought of the difference between Core Campaign and other. I better check with the shop. What happens if I am the only Level 1 player who shows up? Do I end up playing a pregen or do a 1 on 1 solo game?

So I have a local hobby store that hosts PFS events. I've come up with a lv 1 shield fighter that I want to play with an interesting rp twist (dwarf you can't grow a beard and doesn't drink alcohol). However, I'm not real familiar with the rules yet. I've relied on Hero Lab in making my characters up till now. My home games are a mishmash of rules I remember to keep the story going. My home players are fine with that.

Now, I've been told that PFS by necessity sticks to the rules (that makes sense). However I'm nervous because of my lack of understanding. I'm also nervous that I'll be the only level 1 PC at the event. Can I get a pep talk from anyone who's been to these events? I just don't want to feel like I have no idea how things go at these events.

I personally have the most fun when my players have that "aha!" moment. I also enjoy when they try ludicrous solutions to problems (I don't shut them down, but going after a dragon by trying to scare him with burning pieces of wood taken from a wagon is ludicrous in my opinion). Or the time one of my players reacted to a flirting npc by flirting back (it just didn't fit the moment), causing me to laugh so hard I nearly fell out of my chair!

Those are the things that give me the most enjoyment.

Str: 3d6 ⇒ (2, 3, 2) = 7
Dex: 3d6 ⇒ (3, 2, 4) = 9
Con: 3d6 ⇒ (1, 5, 6) = 12
Int: 3d6 ⇒ (4, 1, 5) = 10
Wis: 3d6 ⇒ (1, 6, 4) = 11
Cha: 3d6 ⇒ (6, 2, 2) = 10

A dwarf cleric. I'd say he works on buffing out others so the strong guys want to protect him.

I wonder of PFBeginner would be interested in hosting the items when they're written....

So I'm thinking about writing a multi-level campaign for the BB ruleset. Taking the PC's from lv 1-6. At first it was just for my own use, but I'm wondering about the community:

There used to be a vibrant set of discussions on the BB forum, now not so much. Would there be any interest in me putting these on the internet as I write them? I remember when I first got my BB I struggled to find good material designed for it.

Ever read a fantasy novel where the characters switch out a lot? The Belgariad series was like that. Or practically any Final Fantasy game? This is how I view my games: you are more than free to switch out characters if you're bored with it, but it's up to you (and I'm willing to assist) to explain why your old character is out and your new character is in...

...I say, embrace your player's changing desired and turn it into a strong suit. Make old characters into NPCs that they later face (whether ally, enemy, or random happening). Your players will get a kick out of it.

I second this. Although it depends on the timing of the exit, you can have a PC leave the party with a good enough reason. Perhaps they get a message in a dream about someone important to them that they need to help immediately. Then you don't have the looting of the old PC. OR you can cast the new PC as a hireling for the party. This works best if you limit character switching to being in town where hiring the new PC is more likely.

You don't have to be a professional writer to do the switch, but I agree it can get annoying if it happens a lot. I would try the hireling approach and limit switching to being in town where replacements can be hired.

I concur. GMing is very rewarding. My players decided to try to scare a dragon away using burning pieces of wood. It was all I could do not to laugh as they discussed it early in the game and got materials together and then keep myself together as they go through all they had to to reach said dragon. They learned a valuable lesson that night, I tell you.

Is it safe to say you're moving forward towards the temple?

My homebrew kept spells per day, but it was a sum total. So you could cast that number of spells up to your level (no prepping ahead of time). So if you have 10 spells per day, you can cast 10 Level 3 spells or 10 level 1 spells, etc... I had to reduce the number of spells per day overall because things got unbalanced as levels got higher.

I was looking too and didn't find anything new other than what is already out there:

I do know that PFBeginner.com has an adventure for free download along with a free map pack. So if you're looking for new adventures, there's that.

These dice rolls are suspect :) We should have a new player joining us soon.

As it tries to get up, Kromlite and Karim both impale the thing's body. It lets out a roar and falls to the ground, dead. On it's body, you find:

gold: 2d20 ⇒ (14, 5) = 19 gp.
An amulet with the infinity sign
A scroll that, upon opening, you find is written in common and says,

My dear Porbos, I wish you had avoided sending those heroes to the temple. It really inconveniences me, and the loss of one of my messengers is not desirable. However, your services have proved valuable, so I can overlook this mistake for the time being. Keep moving forward with your preparations and you'll be paid accordingly. - Anonymous

Yes, it is actually signed "Anonymous"

The cramped area now has a putrid-sweet smell floating around. During the battle, some of the brush was trampled on and you can see the path continue onward. It is late afternoon and you notice that there's still several hours of sunlight left.

I'm looking forward to it. I had to learn the CRB without anyone to help me and I'm sure I overlooked some "obvious" things that this will point out to me. Great for my son and his friends too (he's 11). So I'm thinking it will be good for me. I agree though that if you're already familiar with the game it will be a bit redundant. I'm looking at it like a link between BB and CRB.

As the creature bends over, Karim stabs it's side, causing more black blood to ooze out. While Kromlite's blow merely scratches it's leg.

Ok, regular attacks now.

Karim manages to strike true. His blade piercing the creatures side, and black ooze starts dripping out of the wound. It lets out a loud growl and says, blik gru men Nammuz!. As it says this, it draws its sword and strikes at Karim

Longsword: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

and again strikes only air.....

acrobatics: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11

and manages to lose footing, stumbling forward.

Karim and Kromlite you each get an attack of opportunity here

I got one person at work who's rolling up a character and should be joining soon. If he decides otherwise, then I'll open it up to new recruitment.