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So, along these lines, there was something I was planning to revisit at the end depending on time, but now seems good. While on the first floor, a couple characters, including a certain circus-garbed rogue, successfully perceived the *color-coded secret panel*, and then proceeded to...do absolutely nothing about it. In-character, I find this quite implausible. To the point of possibly demanding a Will save if that was actually intentional. But I'm assuming it's an OOC issue with technology/interface/whatever. Since someone really did spot the thing, I want to make sure to give you a chance to follow up on it. So I'll post that in Gameplay now.
I think some of what is going on here may have to do with PbP and the subtle differences in how the game plays out. Pieces of things I'm recapping here is stuff that 1 or 2 characters are aware of, but not all the players are. Different styles of play have advantages or disadvantages. The biggest downside to PbP is how long it takes. IMO the biggest plus is the ability to actually roleplay. Sitting around a physical table, or using a live online tool like Discord, when a player says, "I search the body," and GM says, "You find a lucky widget!" now everyone knows/assumes there's a lucky widget available in the party. In PbP it doesn't happen that way. When a character interacts with the world, I try to use spoiler boxes to provide 'point of view' results. It's up to you to roleplay how your character presents that to the rest of your party. (Or IF you even want to disseminate the info.) I think that enhances roleplay. But it may be habit that players assume everyone knows everything that has happened. I assure you all, that is not the case.
some notes about speaking in 2e 'encounter' mode (or at least how I interpret what I've read) Once per turn, you can speak 'approximately 6 seconds' worth of words, *as part of another action*. So it's effectively a 'free' action with a little book-keeping to keep things reasonable. Note that if you speak while doing some other combat-type action like moving or drawing a weapon, then *mechanically* it has no effect on anyone else, it's just 'flavor'. If you want to say something that has a mechanical effect, then you have to allocate an action, usually Diplomacy or its ilk. Things like Intimidate, Improve Attitude, or even Sense Motive, etc. Things like "There's a ghost right there!" is typically an Aid toward allies' Perception. (there's prolly alot more GM variation here) There's almost always a way to incorporate it into something else. A notable exception is 3-Action spells. Since a 3-Action spell inherently includes a 'verbal' component, you can't speak at the same time. During 'exploration' mode you can have a more normal conversation and I try to respond to things as I see them. While in initiative, I prefer everyone speak on their turn, including NPC's.
We still need to pick up the pace. I'll suggest that you should explore independently. I won't penalize you for 'splitting the party'. In exploration-time I'll consider everyone to be everywhere. If something important happens, you can all instantly be there. After the thing is resolved, you can resume where you were.
so I got a friendly reminder email from HQ that we should be halfway done. Considering we haven't even encountered the first encounter, that's bad. So I'm gonna pull out the stops and try to get things rolling alot faster. For one, no more "secret rolls". It takes too long. So if you want to check out a door with the expectation of disabling any traps, or unlocking it, etc. Just go ahead and roll your own Perception and then Thievery and I'll let you know the final result as applicable. I was already planning to use the normal PbP method of doing combat turns in Initiative "clumps". I may make judicious use of NPC delay actions to further enhance that option. If anyone has concerns about clumping too many NPCs together, speak now. Also, I'll be rolling complete attacks as much as possible including any kickers like poison. These do not need to be set in stone. I realize many reactions and things like re-rolls are supposed to be used *before* seeing the result. Please ignore that requirement. I can't wait after each roll to give ppl a chance to respond. So if something is coming at you and you honestly think, I would have used XYZ reaction on that, then go ahead and do so. I'll retcon/update results at my next opportunity.
just below the box for making a post there's this line: How to format your text hit the Show button and there are examples for how to code dice as well as OOC, bold, etc The general conventions on formatting are: plain text is stuff your character is doing or thinking. "Bold!" is for things said out loud. is for "out of character" game specific stuff. These should typically be short in the Gameplay thread. Questions or rules discussions should be in the Discussion thread. Blue is not required in Discussion. italics are usually for spells or magic items.
Also, you may be getting to this, but I wanted to mention that I'll be using the Convention Hero Boon and have a Glyph to hand out. I'm not familiar with Convention Hero so might need a quick recap. Hero Points and Glyphs are indeed on my to-do list. I'd like to have everyone get their profile/stat-block setup before we hand them out. I also realized today that I'm still gonna need a spreadsheet for ppl's Perception, Knowledge, and other secret stuff, so hopefully I'll have that up tonight.
Didn't know there were guides. Could you post a link, please? Thank you all, I'm looking forward to it! the online "Lodge(s)" is a great place to ask questions from the wider group and get quick responses. Flaxseed (and Cottonseed) Discussion - This guide is frequently recommended as a starting place, tho being from PFS1e era it has grown a little dated. But the PbP aspects are still the same.
HAT TRICK!!!
I need Luna, CamL, and PaulB send me a DM with your paizo#/name/email ASAP ...or just fill it in on the Sign In Sheet
the red and blue lines have to do with alignment and spacing to other icons on the page. Snap to Grid mode is prolly better, unless it's really far off from the map. using the menu: View, Full Screen is somewhat bigger, but still can be manipulated. The "Presentation" button makes it true full-screen, but no longer editable. Also, for anyone who needed dice, there's a d6 icon [::] in the menu now. It has all the d#, not just d6. But it only mimics the die itself. Still have to add whatever modifier in yer head, same as real dice. I do not know yet if everyone sees the pop-up. Either way, it's likely you'll still need to announce the final result over Discord (or chat?).
The scenario includes a handout for players to keep notes on. I think that indicates it's intentionally part of the challenge of the scenario that players need to collect all the 'data' and then figure out what to do with it. That said, I can totally see that sifting thru hundreds of posts to find stuff is not the best way to go about it. How difficult is it for everyone to add notes to a google slide? Any difference between phone vs desktop? A dedicated slide for notes (or maybe 5, one page per NPC) would help organize stuff in an easy to find place. I'm not sure if people would use it though. But I don't think the GM should 'spoonfeed' all the info. Keeping a running 'turn summary' in every post, like combat, seems reasonable though.
There's a minimal debriefing w the VC's remaining but this is basically a wrap. I'll try to get some Chronicles out as soon as I can. You did successfully influence everyone so you'll have access to all of the items. Vayde's defection was just plot flavor. Do people prefer the 'black box' to cover what isn't available, or do you want to 'see' Myrosype's offer (that you didn't take)?
The information overload can be overwhelming at a live table, especially if you have a rigid time slot. But I think one of the issues here is that I've gone too far the other way and it's taking too long. I provided too much fluff early on, so my apologies for that. We should have wrapped up awhile ago. FWIW I'm in Holiday mode as well, so if folks need a breather, no complaints from me.
Firstly, let me apologize. I think I gave you misinformation way at the beginning. Temel's event is specifically the only one the works the way I described with the two actions. The default is ONE action per person per event. That action can be Influence or Discovery. Temel's event gives a bonus Discovery action. If anyone was budgeting actions based on this let me know and we'll fix it. But your party as a whole will have 36 actions (max 30 Influence) which is still WAAAY more than necessary. The 66 actions would have just gotten tedious. ----------- Now to answer some questions: You can generally roll whenever you feel comfortable that you have said everything you wanted to say. If you wish to Influence someone into bidding you need to tell them what they should consider bidding on. You pick which skill you want to roll. You do need to tie that into the conversation to use it. And on rare occasion I may butt in, for example if you've told a bunch of lies, I may say "that was a Bluff not Diplomacy". But generally you decide. Exceeding the DC works a little different whether you are attempting an Influence or a Discovery.
Discovering a person's likes/dislikes is less difficult than influencing them to spend an absurdly large amount of money. Since Kaepora may still be afk, I just share with the group that he discovered that Myrosype can not be influenced.
further food for thought:
The phoenix cannot take possession of the bow from that distance. Even if the disarm grants it a generic opportunity to do so, the weapon cord specifically makes that impossible. It doesn't matter what the item costs. This is exactly the sort of thing it prevents. The disarm succeeds. The steal fails. Nobody's movement is restricted.
AFAIK Exchange members have access to any legal Qadira/Scarni options. The issue seems to me to be that the source material for this trait is an obsolete version of the PFS Guild Guide. HeroLab includes it for ppl who want to make digital versions of characters created at that time. Given the particulars of the your specific situation, and a generous interpretation of "...played at second level..." I would recommend replacing it BEFORE this scenario ends. Once you receive a Chronicle for this you will have indisputably played at second level. Then you can only use reTRAINing to fix things, and traits aren't even an option iirc. But since the act of playing 2nd level isn't yet complete, I'll say you're still able to reBUILD your level 1 char, update it to level 2, and bring that into this adventure. It's a little metagamey to do that mid battle, so I'll ask that you wait until after this encounter. By highly recommend that you fix this before the next.
Exchange Faction Members: You may use a "Discovery" action to try to determine an NPC's "trade interests", necessary info to broaching a trade alliance. Attempting to create a trade alliance with one of the NPCs is a special action that neither interferes with, nor contributes toward, your Influence on that NPC's bidding. It works the same as an Influence action but only requires as much time as a Discovery.
so, for the mechanics side of things. This scenario uses a slightly modified version of the PF "Influence" system. Throughout the social events there will be periods of time where you can rub elbows with the NPCs-of-interest. ("Temel will tell you more about the timing and NPCs") The important part of the mechanics are that during each of these periods every PC gets to do two things. Much like combat, the action is the equivalent of a standard action in that you can do at most one of these in a period. The other option is called and is roughly equivalent to a move action and can be done once with an Influence, or twice without. If you wish to do something else like casting a spell or performance, this can usually be done between or as part of these other actions, 'within reason'. Actions can be performed in any order. Discovery: Typically this involves engaging an NPC in chit-chat hoping to uncover their likes/dislikes or motivations. After some roleplay it culminates in a skill check, such as Diplomacy. You do NOT need to declare what skill you intend to use when you initiate conversation. So you may use what you learn to decide what to attempt by the end. DC's vary. Successful Discovery can result in learning an NPC's "strengths" or "weaknesses" (the skills with the highest/lowest DCs), or circumstance bonuses for a specific PC, or circumstance bonuses for everyone, or even 'plot devices'. Multiple PCs may engage one NPC jointly, which might carry its own consequences. One PC must take the "lead" on the skill check and any other contributing PC provides the Aid action. A given NPC can be the subject of multiple Discoveries in a single period, within realistic conversation limits. With 'some creativity' you may Discover things about NPCs without directly interacting with them. Influence: This is what ultimately 'wins the game'. You may begin with as much, or as little, small talk as you wish. The important thing is to in some way tie together a certain skill check AND a specific District that you want to convince the NPC to buy. Math happens and the NPC will take your advice into consideration. Do not feel obligated to use Influence every round. If the skill check exceeds the DC by 5, or 10, it counts as multiple successes. So lining up the right components can be just as effective, if not more so, than pestering NPCs at every opportunity. Multiple PCs attempting to Influence one NPC simultaneously must pick a "lead" PC to make the skill check while the others Aid. Aiding PCs must contribute to the conversation, and therefore must be able to converse with the NPC. ('crit-fumbles' exist too). An NPC cannot be Influenced indirectly. Each NPC may be Influenced at most once per period. You do NOT need to declare if you wish to Discover/Influence when initiating a conversation. But if you start a convo then you must do something by the end.
If folks aren't yet aware: GamedayVIII is being delayed by 2 weeks:
Yes, only because of GamedayVIII. IDK how strictly the qualifications are enforced, but to be sure I'm leaving Gameplay empty until the official start next Monday. Character Intros aren't specifically scripted into this scenario (like say, Confirmation). It's more of a common practice, so I figured we can start that ahead of time. We don't need Recruitment for recruiting anymore, seemed like a logical space to me. Sorry for the confusion.
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