mamaursula's page

There are so many great voices represented in this resource, I'm glad I apparently backed it while I was working today looks at Locke1520

In all seriousness, if you are looking to take your gaming or game design to the next level, you need to be looking at what the true gaming masters are doing. I learned a lot reading advice and commentary from the best, I am looking forward this to collection.

Crystal had a giving heart and a deeply talented creative, I wish her all the best.

Also, just in case it wasn't clear, I'm moving on to exciting new opportunities and—while it does leave me misty eyed—this is an amicable parting. :D

Very best wishes to you! Don't be a stranger, we have a dedicated warning label for you and I'd hate to see it go to waste!

I wish I had the funds for this. If only it were a few months down the line...

That said, I hope some quantity of these minis can be made available to us here. If there's anything that can be done to help make this happen, I'd love to know more. ^_^

You can back at $5 and then get access to the add-ons later. That's how I'm planning to pick up these amazing minis.

B'aww. I'mma go cry now. :')

I wish you the very best of luck. While I know you aren't leaving the planet, it is going to be strange to think of a world without Liz Courts at Paizo. I'm excited to see what you do next, it's certain to be epic!

I have a question about etiquette and triggers based on my experience at this year's Paizocon.

At Paizocon I played in a PFS scenario that brought the party to a situation where we were considering killing some stabled horses in order to disrupt operations within the enemy base that we'd infiltrated. One of the players at the table immediately got upset and vetoed the idea. He didn't cite any real argument so we were confused - is your character opposed to this plan or are you as a player opposed? The player made it clear that harming animals was one of his triggers. We had a brief discussion, mostly based around the fact that in-character killing the animals would help with our mission but the triggered player's friend jumped in - you cannot violate someone's triggers without explicit consent.

The GM was puzzled. The rest of the players were puzzled. Not interested in forcing the issue we abandoned the plan and did other things. Fortunately, killing the hostile forces' horses wasn't necessary to achieve success in the scenario.

But what if it had been? What if the scenario specifically required us to kill those stabled horses to get our second prestige or unlock some boon? What's proper etiquette when the scenario's objectives directly conflict with a player's triggers? Are GMs in PFS scenarios empowered to reflavor things to avoid triggering players? Are they empowered to hand-wave things that are offensive to people when it comes up?

That can be super tricky, because no player is going to sit down at a table and say "I don't do giant spiders, heights, or killing horses." We are all "surprised" by what is about to be laid before us, so when something that triggers a player at the table it can be really uncomfortable and awkward for everyone. Hopefully the GM and players are understanding. If it's a scripted scenario, there really might not be an easy way around the trigger, and every reasonable accommodations should be made whenever possible. If that isn't possible then it falls to the player in question to decide whether they remain at the table or not.

I would assert that a good GM could come up with an alternative on the fly, but I am not always that kind of GM, due to lack of experience. Sometimes the best answers come from poling the table for alternatives. From my very limited experience with PFS, there is a lot of autonomy on the part of the GMs though, since no scenario goes unscathed through player interaction.

And just to try it out, here are the alternatives I came up for to killing the horses - hobbling them to slow their riders down, chasing the horses off, damaging the saddles/riding gear, mild poisoning to make them ineffective mounts. Thinking fast at the table is what we pay the volunteer GMs the big bucks for...wait, that's what they live for, thinking fast at the table.

Our greatest assets as role players is thinking on our feet and improvisational storytelling.

Before I give being a DM for PFS a try I'm curious about other people's opinion on this matter.

I'm the kind of person that if I were to run a scenario that involved Kreighton Shaine I would absolutely need to have a plastic rose before I would feel comfortable running the game.

However with all the 'Speed-Run', let's go, we can get This Evergreen done in less than three hours... I'm curious on this topic.

I'll throw in two examples to start things off.

The Bard who sings: You have a player with a Bard character and every round he is using Inspire Courage he sings two sentences from an altered IRL song.
"Smelly Scale-Man, lurking in the tower. Smelly-Scale-man the kind I'd like not to meet".
Might get a grin out of a few people but you know some others might not like this.

The Tobacco User: The player who brings a cigar to the game. It it is not bubblegum or chocolate and it is out of the cellophane wrapper. It is not lit and never has been. He chomps on it during the game because his character smokes cigars and will show you his sheet where he purchased the 5 silver one pound of tobacco trade good to justify it. This situation sounds simple enough but you know that you will get that one player. The one who sits next to someone with a pack of cigarettes obvious in their shirt pocket and not bothering them but the fact this player has a cigar in his mouth is the 'worst distraction' in the world.

These two examples from my experience from DnD 3.0/3.5 might sound silly but I'm still curious about other people's views.

Please feel free to add your own experiences and examples.

So back to the original post. If you find something distracting as a GM or it seems to be derailing the game (especially if you are on a tight time table) it falls to you as the GM to control the table. I don't mean with a chair and whip, but there are circumstances outside the GM's control that must be maintained. If someone brings a cigar to the table or other character affectation and it takes on a life of it's own, the GM can call a quick break and speak with the player in private. There are ways to lay things out for a player without making it personal. "Hey player, I really love that you are into your PC and you have brought the cigar, but for some reason it is really making it hard for me to focus on the game today. We only have 3 hours to get through this scenario. Can I get you to put the cigar down and get through this on time?"

For the bard - After the first couple of rounds, especially if the bard player can't sing, same deal - "It's great that you've got a bunch of songs prepared. We only have 3 hours to get this scenario run, so, let's get our actions prepared for each round and if you are going to continue singing, we know what that sounds like, we're going to have to go with 'I keep singing'."

This works best when you have a limited time slot and something is distracting and keeping you from moving through all the parts quickly. Get everyone on in the same out of game party - "We have a scenario, we all want to succeed at getting through this, right? This is what we need to do to get there." Buy in is key. Players sit down to play, let them know that their play is going to be negatively impacted over all if they "play around" at the table.

As a rule I try not to be too personal on anonymous message boards because quite frankly, I'm not too interesting. I mean yes, it's true I'm incredibly smart and sexy, have excellent taste, and my opinions are pretty much facts, but other than that I'm just a regular dude who's super cool.

Seriously though, as a psych major (who is presently in a field that has zilch to do with psychology, but oh well) I am interested in the mental state of my peers. With that said!

Is anyone else as screwed up as me?

While I cannot say if I am as screwed up or more or less so, I can say that I also suffer from mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, and panic attack disorder. I have been to therapists, been on medication, and generally am fortunate enough to consider myself in remission from the worst of my issues. I have had some very serious situations in the recent past though that make me nervous every time I feel down or nervous...because that's always a horrible feeling and gives me a little kick in the gut that says "maybe this remission is over".

thecursor wrote:

Okay so here is what we now know about a possible SFS Organized Play:

They want to do it, it's just gonna be hard to pull off so they can't say yes or no that it will happen.

I'm all in favor of an SFS OP, as long as it's a separate campaign from PFS. Trying to incorporate Starfinder into current PFS play would be waaay to jarring and profoundly alter the feel of PFS in... polarizing ways.

That being said, I could get behind a multi-table convention special featuring a meeting of PFS and SFS, kinda like a DC/Marvel special. But not regular scenarios, or even single-table specials.

Very interested in seeing how this unfolds!

From what was said during the Starfinder panel, it seems that they would be completely rules and societally incompatible in a backwards sort of way. You could use PF rules stuff in SF, but there appear to be some things going on in SF that would make going back in time (in game) to PF era impossible.

It also seems to be a case of Paizo buying an outfit called Aethera which may have been working on a space-based setting for the Pathfinder society.

Our little baby Paizo has grown up and become Apple. They've bought someone else's work to brand as their own.

Paizo is not purchasing Aethera at this time. If they are in negotiations with Robert Brookes for that IP, it is being played very close to the vest. However, as one of the freelancers working on the Aethera project, it is my understanding that at this time there is no designs for Robert to sell or Paizo to purchase.

Edited to add There is also NO collaboration going on between Paizo and Aethera to make the two games compatible beyond Aethera working within the OGL and using Pathfinder rules as can be used. Aethera's rules are written and the space flight rules were written by Thursty, who is a freelance writer for Paizo at times. Aethera was conceived by Robert Brookes, who is a Paizo freelance writer at times, and written in part by numerous freelance writers, who also freelance write for Paizo at times. But there is NO joint work going on between Paizo and Aethera at this time.

While that might change, I do not see that happening. Paizo has a team who will be writing Starfinder, but it is very much in the conception stages if the panel at PaizoCon was any indication. Aethera is in its editing process now, which means it is almost ready to roll to the publisher, rules are written. These are two separate and unrelated products.

GM Lamplighter wrote:

Wait... the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices isn't there anymore? >:(

Sadly no, it closed a number of years ago.

"This is incredibly disappointing," said the gamer nurse.

This year, I'll actually stumble down! :)

Well if Thursty's going to be there, maybe I wander up.

Now that you've survived Horrendous Wound, which of the many horribly debilitating things do you think has given you the most off the way, crazy cakes, creative insights? HW, sleep deprivation, the flu, ConCrud, or something else that we haven't seen in recent history but you have experienced?

Congratulations, Monica!

...

So, what's next from you?

I'm working on more fey for Zombie Sky Press for the immediate future. After that I believe there are some superheroes on the horizon. Somewhere in between I have some yarny projects to finish! And whatever Paizo has laying around that they need someone to write ;-)

It's like there was a plan or something :-) I can't wait to see this, will you sign my copy!?

They're all from the Superstar Top 8:

Coryphae
Deeplit
Geomaw
Gloomwasp
Occulari (name changed slightly from the original submission)
Spiroskek

Looks like Kalervo's dread glutton is missing, but I think that may have made its way into the Occult Bestiary or another book?

Yes, Paizo was able to squeeze both of my monsters into my adventure. I have seen the monster art, I'm very pleased.

...

Question 2: How plausible would it be for asexual people to display themselves as overly sexualized like Seoni? (in a middle-age setting; not a modern setting) Wouldn't that engender a stream of useless attention towards them? Wouldn't such people get really fed up or angry at all the people hitting on them? (I'm guessing everyone would display their asexuality differently, same as straight of gay people have different styles; but I'm wondering about the plausibility of such a thing in a harsh, ancient world where Erastil is a thing...)

(I'm just trying to understand; not judging; I'm mostly trying to see how they would fit within Golarion's population and to a separate extent, vis-a-vis Golarion's faiths, especially those with vested interest in sexuality or gender roles i.e. vs. Erastil, Arshea, Calistria, etc.)

I think the answer to this one is "just as likely as anyone else is to dress in a manner in which makes them feel good about themselves." People do not normally get up in the morning and put on clothes while thinking to themselves "I hope the rest of mankind/orckind/elvenkind/gnomekind/koboldkind thinks I'm super sexy and falls over themselves in dying adoration and approval." Nope, we usually get up, put on clothes and think "I like the way this looks on me" or more often, in my case, "Oh thank goodness something is clean and fits."

It takes all kinds to make any world go around and I hope that as a matter of course that Golarion is the same way. Sexuality may or may not have a place in a specific table's dynamics, but allowing for the option for those tables that do want it is something that I personally would like to see as an option.

I always assumed it was Seoni, since it makes such a great counterpoint to her visual design vis-a-vis peoples' assumptions and stereotypes.

I always kind of felt that way as well, that despite her appearance she was either asexual or chaste, for some personal reason.

I will be very interested to see which monsters/items make it into the appendices of the module.

In addition to seeing the adventure itself, of course!

Monica, did you use any of the RPGSS monsters or items in the adventure itself? ~Asking for a friend.

Rusty I wish I could tell you what we're going to see in the finished product, this has been through development and editing now and the contents are as much a surprise to me as to the rest of you! I did include a few things and I'm pretty sure they will still be there. Now that I've seen the cover art, I can't wait to play this adventure! ;-)

THUNDERLIPS! THOROUGHLY ENJOYED SPELUNKING THE CRYSTAL WOMB AND SPIKY BUSH. THUNDERLIPS! WAS DISAPPOINTED THAT THUNDERLIPS! ONLY HAD TWO MINUTES TO GO IN AND OUT OF WOMB THROUGH THE BUSH.

ALSO, THUNDERLIPS! COULD HAVE DONE WITH OUT THAT WHOLE VEINEY SHAFT PORTION. NOT THUNDERLIPS!'S KIND OF PARTY.

I assure you, this party is for everyone, no matter how long they require, THUNDERLIPS! I am glad you enjoyed yourself, please spelunk again ;-)

Congratulations on reaching 100!

I imagine running this... module in hand, Pestering Monica in IM on the laptop :-)

You will be sadly disappointed in the response you fail to receive ;-)

Given the ISBN # and updated description I imagine the likelihood of the title changing is incredibly slim, oh well. Any idea on when we might get a glimpse of the cover art?

I have not seen the cover art myself, but I have seen a couple of pieces and I am personally thrilled.

Any chance the name of the module could change based on the feedback from the judges? Down the Blighted Path just doesn't seem to capture the essence of the module for me.

Now that it is written and out of my hands, I hope that you feel the title and the story are more in line with one another once you (and I) see the final final product.

So she finally scrapped together 5 PP For that body recovery...

What a dull scenario that would be ;-)

Congrats Nick!

Congratulations to Nick on being this years RPG Super Star! You fought the good fight, and were rewarded for your hard work.

Along those same lines, congrats to everyone who participated this year, I think the bar got raised a bit, so next year is going to be even more interesting.

Sincerely,

The Flying Pincushion Games staff

Nick is the Season 9 RPG Superstar. I am the 2015 RPG Superstar, this season's contest changed the nomenclature for the winners.

... At this point we are disrespecting Crystal and the other contestants. Let's focus on their hard work...

Thank you for pointing this out. The comments on this and the other pitches are, in my opinion, inappropriately distracting for the context of this contest.

I just want to say something to the Top 4 -

Do NOT take the comments on your pitch threads personally.

To the voters and those commenting on those threads -

How about not hitting below the belt? You guys are getting rough and it's not cool. No one says you have to like the pitches, no one expects you to like all the contestants, but for heavens sake, act like you care about the people sitting on the other side of the computer screen.

Congratulations Charlie, good luck in the voting!

Congratulations Jason, good luck in the voting!

Congratulations Crystal and good luck in the voting!

I expected nothing less from the other Wasko. Good luck in the voting!

Dear Season 9 Top 4,

Congratulations, you have done something that only 32 other people have done before you, you have turned over your first adventure pitch to Paizo after having been scrutinized by every person who felt the desire to speak their mind while you had to sit all alone, in your own mind, second guessing yourself, wondering if you screwed up, hoping your super star was shiny enough, and waiting the final reveal of the last voting round of RPG Superstar you will ever compete in. Your work here is done. You have completed all that you can and now you need to take this weekend off. Go hug your family members, hang out with your friends, do some long abandoned laundry, probably clean the bathroom, because who had time to do all of that while you were wracking your brain coming up with amazing things to catch the fancy of the judges and voting public.

You are all awesome, regardless of who holds the title at the end. I hope you have taken the time to get to know your fellow Top 4, because they are the only people who have had as close to the same experience as you have had.

Welcome to the survivors club, welcome to the Land of Freelance Writing. You walked through the most public gateway into the realm. Hold your heads high and be proud of all that you have accomplished. You are all amazing. Rest well. When this is all said and done, if any of you have any questions or are looking for guidance on where to go next and how to continue your freelancing career, you have only to ask, there's several of us around who would be happy to help you get as much out of this experience as you can handle.

Maybe it's all the Harry Potter my wife and I have been watching, but I'm getting a serious Triwizard Tournament vibe being in the Top 4.

That's because only the other Top 4 can really appreciate what you're going through. It's sort of an ever narrowing field of people who understand. There is a support group for the RPG Superstars. :-)

Congratulations Top 4! Good luck to all of you, this is going to be a rough week, take care of yourselves while you're working hard.

Congratulations Top 4!

Let's not forget the smattering of items incorporated into Ultimate Equipment!

And one monster in the Occult Bestiary ;-)

I will also point out that by including items from each of the Top 32, it affords them each a publication credit with Paizo and when a person has three of those, they are no longer eligible to compete in RPG SS.

Monica Marlowe wrote:

I'm going to go play video games or pass out. Quite possibly both.

This is how you end up at the edge of the map in Skyrim surrounded by enemies...

Yeah...I've done that before :-) Thank goodness for my follower and the ability to summon a dragon.

Monica Marlowe wrote:

Then I remembered there's this contest going on. So now I'm over here wasting time.

Welcome back! I'm sure you're in good company with approximately 8 other people who refresh this page approximately every 10-15 minutes, or at least that's what I do.

I've given up hope on any serious work getting done on the first of my days off after working a three day weekend (Sat-Mon), it's always a struggle to remain upright and coherent on my Tuesday off. I'm going to go play video games or pass out. Quite possibly both.

Incoming non sequitur-

I have had to resort to using Cold Turkey to avoid distractions while I write. But I can't put Paizo on the list because I need access to the PRD. Then I remembered there's this contest going on. So now I'm over here wasting time. This freelance and working a full time job thing is just not working very well. I'm going to have to quit my day job so I have more time to play on the forums and still write.

Nice blog! And Stephen is a master monster maker. Say that three times fast.

Good luck, top 8, and congrats!

Some unsolicited and probably entirely unnecessary advice, but just in case---do make sure you hit that "preview" button before submitting on this one. I noticed last season, the higher the word count, the greater divergence between Word's word count feature and the submission tool's.

Seriously, if you do not know how to check your word count with the formatting coding by now, PM me, because you do not want DQ yourself by not hitting your numbers.

Feedback is critical to all designers, freelance or otherwise. Sometimes the designer fails their communication check and sometimes a reader fails their comprehension check . It is a smart designer who looks at what is said about their work and tries to learn something from the feedback, even if the failure to accurately communicate doesn't really fall on the writer.

Readers have a reasonable expectation that the writer will convey information easily and clearly. That kind of skill comes from practice. RPG Superstar is Paizo's way of finding people who are creative and untried, so as a by product of the design of the contest, the contestants are not going necessarily going to have honed this skill. But, they also cannot defend the choices they've made, by the contest rules. It does't make their design weak, it may simply mean that their communication skill is not as high as it could be.

There is no shame in having a reader not understand your work, the shame is not listening to that feedback and not trying harder the next time. I have sighed more than one sigh of relief for some stranger coming to the defense of my work during the last season because someone didn't understand something I did. I don't feel it made my design weak, it just meant that a misunderstanding was cleared up and I didn't have to sweat it. I may not be so lucky when my adventures get published, so I take all comments to heart and I hope that this season's contestants and voters do too.

"Altogether, your entry must be at least 1,300 words and no more than 1,400 words. You may divide this word count as you see fit between describing the Location and the Encounter (for example, you may spend 300 words describing an old castle Location, and 1,200 words describing a specific Encounter in the castle)."

1,200 + 300 = 1,500 > 1,400 words.

Likely a typo, but it would be nice to have a confirmation of the upper limit on words ;-)

So, using your best judgment is part of participating in the contest. There have been 9 seasons now and some of the rules sets get edited and reused, when in doubt - ask a question, if you don't get an answer in a timely enough manner, use your best judgment and err on the side of caution.

Congratulations Top 8!

Taylor Hubler wrote:

Once again, we are just 24 hours away. If you haven't taken the advice above and started thinking about and writing down encounters you will be behind in the next round.

Good luck to everyone. I hope to be moving on but if I don't I am still looking forward to reading through some excellent encounters.

I just came down with a nasty case of gastroenteritis, so this advice is unfortunately far more stressful for me. I have a couple ideas, but I haven't been able to get them on paper yet because of my illness.

Aren't you a doctor? Why didn't you fix that sooner? :-)

I know the waiting is almost over, but if you have squandered your time just sitting around thinking about how hard it is to not talk about your monster, you're not taking advantage of the gift of silence. You must to be working on your next project/round. I've talked at length on what I did during the voting periods, if you really want to make this work, you need to be working ahead on what you know and not worrying about what's already out the door. Good luck Top 15.

Mark Griffin wrote:

If at some point my tv turns to static and Neil crawls out of it, I'm quitting Superstar for good.

Dang, there goes my "Round 4 Twist" plans. :P

Well, there goes anyone using that in their Round 5 pitch.