I've stepped away from Pathfinder a couple of years ago, but I'm curious about 2E and associated OP. The new website is horrible for understanding how the OP works. There needs to be a downloadable document. I also do not understand why this is now an offshoot, but this is all very unfriendly to getting new people involved.
I don't know about that... That was more of a temporary lifeless incapacitation. By Her Divine Light, Sarenrae brought me back.
It is my pleasure to announce that Jesse Davis (aka IronHelixx) is being promoted to Venture-Captain of Online Play. He currently serves as a VL in Houston, as well as a VL of Online Play. Jesse has plenty of experience and tons of involvement with the online community, even before the decision was made to have Venture-Officers of Online Play. His vision, as well as his deep connections with the online base, have been instrumental in realizing the rapid growth and success of Online Play. He is a natural leader and already fulfilling the duties of a Venture-Captain. Please help me in congratulating Jesse in his new role!
I would hold back on opening up races and limit the ones we have opened up on. To make things easier for all folks to access boons, each Season release a tracking sheet that allows the player to keep track of which scenarios they have played / GM'ed. After they get sign-off on all of the scenarios for a season (by your local VC so they can verify you actually did play those games), that sheet then becomes a legal race boon of one of two races. Each season could be its own separate race boons. Season 0 could be either a aasimar or tiefling. Season 1 could be an ifrit or undine. Season 2 could be etc. This makes it fair for old and new players alike, and circumvents needing to go to a convention for obtaining a race boon (but makes it easier if you do because of the # of games you can play).
20100, I was the generous one here (I purchased the PDFs for folks). I wanted to give the community something because I know we couldn't mobilize a gameday in time. It will be much easier now that we have the tools and the ability to mobilize people for large-scale gamedays. Things are finally coming together and I couldn't be happier or more excited for it!
How do you deal with GM initials on Boons after their use on regular paper? A person with a high quality scanner / printer can make replicas of their Chronicles prior to using a boon and replace it every time they play a new game. The rules have enough ambiguity to allow digital chronicle sheets on your device. And digital is far easier to maintain than physical sheets. /As a show of solidarity to my Online Community, I will be bringing only digital copies of my character sheets, chronicle sheets, and dice rollers. The only non-digital asset I will have is my figurine.
Hey everyone! So we are soon about to kickoff our first gameday for PbP, but that doesn't cover the extent of all Online Play. The Online VOs are happy to announce the first Online VTT Gameday! Right now, we are putting out the call for GMs only right now. Please stay tuned to this thread for updates on when we will release registration to the Warhorn. How many games can I GM? You can either 2 scenarios, 1 module, or 1 Sanctioned AP. Will there be product / boon / prize support? If we meet the minimum number of tables (which I do not see why we would not), then we will have all of the above. What are the time slots for this gameday? All games are listed in EST. They are as follows:
By having more than 2 slots, hopefully these times will be conducive to folks from all over the world. I do not like open seating. Can I pre-muster my table? Yes, you may pre-muster your table (there is an option to in the form). After you submit your GM information, you will need to submit the Warhorn usernames of all your players at the e-mail at the end of this post. Till when can GMs sign-up? GM sign-ups will close either:
We want to make sure we can fill tables. If we hit 60 sessions quickly and they all fill up, we will re-open GM sign-ups. Please stay tuned to this thread for updates regarding GM registration. Where can I get in contact about more specific questions? Send the Online VO team an e-mail at PFSOnlineVOs AT gmail DOT com.
I use Natural 20 app at in-person games. The VTTs have their dice rollers programmed into the application. The less I physically have to bring with me to the table, the happier I am. I relish in being able to one day not even have to print chronicles and can e-mail them instead. /Dreams
You could also use dice that are weighted to give more of a chance at 20s. Or you could have a d20 with no 1s that look exactly like another dice that you have. If someone is going to cheat, they are going to cheat. The way you roll doesn't matter, it's the integrity of the person rolling them.
This means that every single game is in its own slot, meaning you sign-up to GM and play multiple sessions. A couple of things to note:
I am closing GM sign-ups right now. There are 53 games for folks to sign-up for, and I want to make sure all those tables can be filled (To be honest, I am amazed by the willing support of everyone who has signed up so far). That being said, GMs will not be receiving the product support for what they are running if they do not have a legal table. You cannot play one character in multiple sessions. This means that 1001-3 can only play in one session. But, that does not stop 1001-4 from playing in another session. When I report this information, I will be looking for folks who played one character multiple times. If you do this, you will not be allowed to sign-up for the next PbP gameday. Boons and prize support will be given out at the end of the gameday after I get all the reporting back. This means GM boons, player boons, and product prizes will only be available to those folks who complete their session and get the reporting to me. If, for some reason, your PbP fizzles and I get no reporting back, those folks will not be eligible receive prizes and boons based on that session played. If we manage to fill all the tables and they all get completed, we can offer even more exciting scenarios next time. Meaning, Bonekeep Levels, Specials, etc. Please donate to Warhorn so they can better support us. We have learned a lot about Warhorn and how they can better support PbP Gamedays. But in order to make sure that happens, please donate to them. I have been talking to the Warhorn folks about how they can make changes that will make scheduling run a lot smoother. I will be donating some money to them, so I hope you will too. NOW GET TO SIGNING UP!
A note to all GMs. The scenario / module / legal AP portion you have signed up to GM is now on the Warhorn. Please fill in your GM spaces as soon as you can. I will also e-mail this announcement to you guys ASAP. A note to all PbP Players. Sign-up to play! And remember, you can only play 1 character in one scenario / module / legal AP at a time. This means you CANNOT play a character in simultaneous sessions. In case you forgot: SIGN UP HERE!!!
Will GMs be given the scenarios / modules they sign-up for in advance of the gameday? Yes. I will submit the information to Mike Brock so he can support the PbP GMs and make sure any scenarios / modules will be added to their respective Paizo.com accounts. Will there be prize support for this gameday? I am happy to announce that there will be boons and prizes for this gameday! I will work with Mike to make sure this avenue of play gets the same level of support as your real world counterparts. So please make sure we get GMs to sign up! Thanks everyone!
Hey Everyone, I know things have been quiet for a while, but we are now getting ready to really start mobilizing the Online Pathfinder Society Community. I, along with the Online VO team, is happy to announce our very first Online Gameday for Play-by-Posts! Now, you may be asking yourself “How does a gameday happen for Play-by-Posts? You can’t finish those in a day!” Our answer is this: any game registered with the Online VO team will have between Saturday, Oct. 5th, 2013 and Saturday, Jan. 4th, 2014 to complete their scenario. From our experiences with the community, most scenarios can easily be completed within 3 months. What we currently need are GMs. GM registration is going to be open until Saturday, Sept. 21st, 2013. If you would like to GM, please make sure to fill out this GM Registration Form. After we have your information, we will create a table for you on our Warhorn, which we will be using to manage player sign-ups. As we get tables all setup on Warhorn, players will be free to join tables. We will close player registration down by Wednesday, Oct. 2nd, 2013 in order to give us a couple of days to finalize the event details for players and GMs. If you have any questions, please reply to this thread or e-mail us at PFSOnlineVOs AT gmail DOT com and we'll make sure to get you an answer. We look forward to bringing you this gameday, as well as other VTT gamedays in the very near future. And always remember: Explore, Report, Cooperate! Sincerely, The PFS Online Venture-Officer Team
Hey everyone, I know I have been quiet recently, but the Online VO team is busy planning some exciting things that we will release in the very near future. In the meantime, I want the Online Community to help celebrate a very important holiday that happens on Sept. 19th: Talk Like A Pirate Day!. In order to help celebrate this most amazing of Holidays, I encourage ya landlubbers organize tables of the following scenarios: - 4-15: Cypermage Dilemma (1-5)
And for every scallywag GM and rapscallion player who participates in Online Play, you will be entered into a chance to win some booty: a PDF copy of Pirates of the Inner Sea. In order to join me crew and win yourself this prize, have your GM e-mail the event number and session number of the game to PFSOnlineVOs AT gmail DOT com so we can verify and generate the list of everyone who played. You have until Monday, Sept. 23 at 12:00 PM EST to submit the information. Ya best be on your way and plannin' a game. And don't be so greedy, let others in the Community know about this chance. Otherwise I'll have ya walkin' tha plank to sleep in Davy Jone's Locker.
Come check out the Online Play forums. We have a lot of games being organized. Also, we are going to announce shortly official online gamedays...so keep tuned in to the forums for other announcements.
Please help me in welcoming Arthur Perkins & Brandon Cecil as our first two Online Venture-Lieutenants! Both are great organizers of the online community already and will be working with me to bring Online Gameplay to the forefront of Pathfinder Society. Congratulations to both Arthur and Brandon!
David, I think a lot of folk's impressions are guided by the room size and the time of day that they pop in. I dream of a day when folks can look into a room as large as the Sagamore, see Pathfinder Society filling "only" half of the tables, and complain that the turn out seems down. :-) Great to see you cruising by the Paizo boards--wish I'd had time to stop by and say hi at Gen Con. No guarantees are forever. Can't wait for PFS in the Sagamore!
I not only put out a call on these forums, but other online places as well. And not to mention, a lot of word-of-mouth got out about this. I would venture to say that 71 Online PFS GMs is a pretty decent sample size. I doubt any single region could put together a list of 70+ GMs (mainly due to the fact there aren't 70+. And these GMs are going to the first ones I ask to sign-up to GM on our official Online gamedays and Online conventions. So it is important for folks to know what they can expect. As I get more Online GMs I will update this information, but this is a great starting point. So could you please tell me how you came to the conclusion this is misleading and dangerous? What basis do you have to go off of?
Stat blocks do not contain the hardness / HP for every item an NPC has. It is a tedious calculation that slows down gameplay when the player expects the GM to calculate this. You example of grappling is different because that is a value GMs do not have to calculate. As a GM, if I have a sunder player at the table, I give them the item and the item's characterestics they are sundering and expect them to calculate the hardness and HP. I have enough to track between my NPCs and the actions of other players, as well as keeping the game flowing smoothly.
Just because Mike intended to get feedback does not mean it did not get out of hand. It did quite the opposite, and very few needed clarifications came from the feedback. If you look at the FAQ, look at the number of one word responses to the questions listed because folks decided to be nitpicky. All it does is create clutter and wastes time just because a select few of our number fail at reading comprehension. /We do not need to cater to the lowest common denominator.
Online GMs have every right to ask for character information from players as much GMs from stores and conventions have. GMs do not have to exercise this right if they do not wish, but I will back up any GM who wishes to do so. As I said in another e-mail to a fellow online player:
I will soon be rolling out a system to be used by Online VOs to track players who do not wish to comply with campaign stated rules of having copies of their character sheets and chronicles. This will coincide with the coming organization of online gamedays and convention support that is very near on the horizon. Players who are known to not maintain digital copies of character records will be subject to all of the following (I will spell out rules how a player ends up on this list as I roll out the system): - Denied access to prizes for officially supported Online events until digital records are shown
It is not the concern of the Campaign how you make digital copies of your character records, just that you have them. If you have a personal scanner, that is one way. You can also go to your local printing store (ex. FedEx, Office Max, etc.), you can always have them scan and make PDFs of those files. Cameras also work. Just make sure that your digital documents are readable. While there is no way to ensure that all online games are following these rules, we will make sure official Online events are. We will also back any Online GM adhering to these rules as well. Note: This is not to say we are going to audit every character, but we will enforce to right to audit should it be desired. Online GMs do not have to audit all their characters, but should players not respect that right, then further actions outlined above will be taken for officially supported events. Also, GMs have every right to refuse players a seat at their table, should the player not wish to comply.
Hey everyone, I want to first thank all the Pathfinders who have taken up the call to give to build our foundation of online GMs. I currently stand at 71 online GMs and counting. This will make the upcoming planning of game days and online conventions much easier (more on this to come...). That being said, I want to offer some statistics to the community, for both GMs and players alike, to try and understand what the common VTTs for play and the communication tools used are currently. Along with GM information, I have also collected how each GM runs their games online. The following are percentages, based out of 71 GMs (so if you want to know a count, just multiply the perccentage by 71). For VTTs:
For Communication Tools*:
*It is assumed that the same percentage of GMs running PbP will use the same method they are running their game - AKA 42% So what is the point of all this? Well, it is my hope that both GMs and players, but especially players, will use this information to plan accordingly for setting up accounts for the respective popular online VTTs and communication tools. Stay tuned, because there is a lot more to come... :)
As this message board gets more traffic for Online Play, we need to make sure we standardize how we type the subject line for our games. There is a lot of information that players need to know about the game a GM is running. From now on, please style your subject lines as follows: [VTT Type / Comm. Type] #XX-YY Scenario or Module Title - Date @ Time (w/ Time Zone) VTT Type: There are about 6 different types of VTTs that folks utilize for online play (PbP, Roll20.net, FantasyGrounds, D20Pro, MapTools, mIRC). Players need to know what online tabletop they can expect the game to be played with. Comm. Type: Just like VTTs, there are a plethora of communication tools to use online. They are, (but not limited to) PbP. Skype, Google Hangout, TeamSpeak, Ventrilo, Mumble, TokBox, and mIRC. #XX-YY Scenario or Module Title: This is to make sure the players know what game they are signing up for. Date @ Time (with Time Zone): This helps players for fitting the game into their schedule. Also, since Online Play spans the globe, it is important you put the time zone. An example of the type of header we would like to see is: [Roll20.net / Google Hangout] 04-26 The Waking Rune - July 18th, 2013 @ 11:30 PM (EST / GMT -05:00) This subject coneys all the information players need to know what they are signing up for in this game. PS. Thanks to Sior and members of the Pathfinder Society Online Collective for the prior discussions on this.
I have about 20 GMs who say they run PbP. I am sure there are many more who haven't heard about me yet, nor that I'm trying to gather information for an Online GM database. My plan, in the very near future, is to offer a PbP "gameday" (which is really just a game that starts and should finish by the end of a certain month to qualify) that would see boon support. More on this to come shortly. :)
Welcome Pathfinders! The Web is a pretty big region to cover, with many different websites, modes of playing (through Play-by-Posts (PbPs) or virtual table tops (VTTs) to name a couple), time zones, and languages. Instead of trying to traverse the Internet and message all the groups, Pathfinder Society saw it befit that we create an exchange on the Paizo forums. This forum is meant to...
Please make sure to spread this message amongst online communities and let everyone know this is the one-stop shop for all things Pathfinder Society Online. I have no doubt that this 'region' will be one of the biggest for Pathfinder Society. Thank you, and happy gaming! I look forward to playing and GMing a table online with you soon!
I am putting out a call to all online GMs! I am wanting to put together a list of online GMs that I can call upon when we schedule game days or supporting an online convention. I will not be giving out this information to anyone but other Online VOs (when we designate more). If you can, please Private Message me the following information (or look at my Paizo profile and get my e-mail): Name:
I appreciate you filling out this information. As an Online GM, you will be given access to scenarios you run on officially supported game days (of sufficient size) and conventions, just like your analog counterparts (and I will run separate 'gamedays' for PbPs). I will also be working with Paizo to offer prize support, in the form of downloadable PDFs to your Paizo account, for both GMs and players. I look forward to working with the online community to promote current channels for gaming and expand the digital presence of Pathfinder Society. If you have any other questions regarding this or Online Play, feel free to PM / e-mail me. Thanks!
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