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You mention having a printed copy of the Guide to PFS Organized Play - I've noticed it's handy to have multiple copies of this if possible, especially if there might be multiple players making characters for the first time. I generally keep two or three in my pack.
It sounds like you're off to a good start! The only other thing I can think of would be to have the event number handy.
Happy gaming!
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Don't forget a pen for signing those chronicle sheets.
Also you can save time at the end of the session by prefilling out info such as date and your PFS # etc on the chronicle sheets.
Sometimes mods (not sure about the intro ones) make figuring out monster stats a little tough, they'll be split between 3 pages or have you reference the bestiary. Especially if you're going to be running form the laptop I recommend a printout with the stat blocks of the different monsters so you can easily access their stats without having to flip too many pages.
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If you have the materials, predraw the maps that you don't have the preprinted copies for, I believe one of the maps uses some of the card maps. I actuallty pulled unlabeled copies of the maps from the scenario, and wound up showing them or even having the players draw them, since I didn't have a chance to predraw them myself.
I have the pictures of the various folks in the scenario pulled out and stored on my tablet, and showed them to the players as they met the person. Nothing makes a stronger impression of Auntie than her picture in color. Heh. Why should the GM be the only one who gets the full impact of that drawing?
I am neutral on GM screens, as they can have a negative impact on RP. Although I did use one once to prevent killing a party during their first adventure in a Star Wars game. Getting a critical with a grenade when the whole party is standing in grenade formation would have sucked, since they were already down to single digit hit points....
You definitely need the sign-in sheet for your scenario, so you can report it later. I also assume that you have created the event already on the Paizo web site. You should also have your new 1st level PC for your GM credit created.
On your woo0den nickels, make sure there is some way to differentiate them, so that you can easily track which one(s) have taken damage without being killed yet. Also, don't forget some need to be smaller or larger than a single square. And that some PCs might have an animal of their own with them, either 25 gp guard dogs, or animal companions, mounts or familiars.
I am also assuming that you have read the scenario at least once through, and that you have looked up the stats for the monsters from the Bestiary, and highlighted anything you need to see on the fly during the scenario. And yes, I do recommend having a printed copy, just in case your battery dies.
Besides, the laptop adds another layer of isolation in.
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From my experience, you'll want to print out all things associated with the adventure rather than having to look at a PDF or book. Pretty much every PFS scenario has one or two stock critters from the beastiary, so printing those couple of pages and having them sitting there ready to reference can really speed things up over flipping through the book. You will also need to get the faction mission handouts (and any other handounts that are in the scenario) cut out and trimmed up in advance, on cardstock if you can to make them more easily handled. And don't forget to have at least 7 copies of the Chronicle sheet (I do 8, because I make mistakes) and to have a pen (NOT pencil) on hand to fill the GM sections out and sign them. Also make sure you write down the event ID and event code so you can fill them out on the Chronicles; you can get them from the event organizer if you aren't the one who created the event. Make sure you report the event promptly if you are the organizer so players get the feeling for what it's like to get the responses they should.
Try to minimize all of the table slowdowns that you can by having all the things you know you will need ready to be referenced in the easiest possible way before you begin. This includes (as has been said) having the maps ready ahead of time, either by hand drawing them in advance (www.gamingpaper.com is your friend) or by buying the recommended Gamemastery Flip-Mats if you want to get fancy and can afford them. Our home game still uses wet-erase, and it slows things down to a crawl 2-4 times a session - great for potty breaks, not so great for getting done in 4 hours.
I also find that if you have to look up a rule, searching the PRD or PFSRD on a laptop is a lot faster than searching either the PDF or the book (if you have internet access, that is). You won't want a laptop sitting there in front of you all the time as the GM; it hides you from the players, blocks you from being able to easily see the map and move the tokens/minis, and in general is just a PITA - but it's invaluable when you need to look up a rule in a hurry. There's a PRD app on the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch that is really nice for looking things up as well, if you have one and feel like buying it.
When playing PFS, a lot of GMs don't use a screen and make all their die rolls in the open. The main purpose of screening your rolls is so you can fudge them in one direction or another, and you really shouldn't be doing that in a PFS game. I actually went out and got some new dice that were much more readable to enhance my open rolling, and my players seem to really like it more than when we played non-PFS and I used screened rolling.
I guess the last thing to say is to make sure you have read the PFS guide book and really understand how the both the player and GM sections work, because your players are going to have a LOT of questions for you; seriously, take how much you think they are going to ask, and triple it at least if it's a new event with players predominantly new to PFS. And get the little table tents if you are running in a multi-table event - they really do help :)
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Hmmmm... maybe I missed it, but I don't see printed Faction Missions. I prefer to print 2 or 3 copies, to keep people guessing a bit more about who is in which Faction.
Depending on the venue/event, I will often bring a travel alarm clock and set it out where the players can see it and be aware of the time remaining.
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Great thread - I'm in the same situation, running the Intro series at a local con in a few weeks.
I've run Master of the Fallen Fortress once before, with my local Venture Captain present to handle most of the paperwork, but this time I will likely have to take care of everything myself.
Lots of good tips already. Here is a few things I plan on doing to prep:
- Print out stat blocks of all critters/Npc, perhaps even going as far as making a 1-page "cheat sheet" for each encounter.
- Make small tokens of all critters/npc (laminated images that have been through TokenTool and mounted on round 1" mini-bases)
- Make a small index card of all the Faction leaders, with image, name and faction. Should be a good way to make the players remember who they have talked to, and can be re-used for future scenarios. If time permits, also do this for various NPC's.
- Print, cut, bring and pre-fill the various paperwork
- Pre-draw maps or bring appropriate MapPacks/Flipmats
- Print and bring a collection of pre-gens.
- Bring DDM minis for PCs and notable monsters
Before the session, if time permits, I'll sit down with HeroLab and a printer and offer to help people register to PFS and make a legal lvl 1 char, so they won't have to use a pre-gen for their first adventure.
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- Make a small index card of all the Faction leaders, with image, name and faction. Should be a good way to make the players remember who they have talked to, and can be re-used for future scenarios. If time permits, also do this for various NPC's.
The faction leaders are hardly ever in the scenarios themselves, so not a really useful thing. They do sign the faction missions, but the mission handouts themselves are as good as anything you might prepare for handouts. In the Season 3 scenarios they even have the pictures you mention.
- Print, cut, bring and pre-fill the various paperwork
A good idea, but the only thing you'll be ablle to fill out in advance is the scenario ID section at the bottom. If this is a public event, I'd avoid even doing that.
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- Make a small index card of all the Faction leaders, with image, name and faction. Should be a good way to make the players remember who they have talked to, and can be re-used for future scenarios. If time permits, also do this for various NPC's.The faction leaders are hardly ever in the scenarios themselves, so not a really useful thing. They do sign the faction missions, but the mission handouts themselves are as good as anything you might prepare for handouts. In the Season 3 scenarios they even have the pictures you mention.
- Print, cut, bring and pre-fill the various paperworkA good idea, but the only thing you'll be ablle to fill out in advance is the scenario ID section at the bottom. If this is a public event, I'd avoid even doing that.
I just noticed that the inside cover of the Field Guide has all of the faction leaders with name and image - so it would be easy to just copy that, and cut it out if needed.
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The most important prep I do is creating a "cheat sheet". The cheat sheet is a single sheet of paper contains everything important about the scenario, so (if I had to) I could run the scenario with only the cheat sheet. Of course, I also have the scenario, but the cheat sheet ensures that I don't miss anything, and in addition I never make my players wait while I read something.
Maps are the other important item. A lot of GMs like drawing their maps and reading the scenario (during the session), but I really dislike this as a player (I find that waiting around for 2-5 minutes, waiting for the GM, kills the momentum of the game), so when I GM I have everything prepared. My players are never waiting on me for more than 10 seconds.
To track combat, forget about initiative trackers or writing everything on paper, it's a nightmare. Get recipe cards, one for each PC and 1-3 for each enemy, write their names on them, and use them for tracking initiative and conditions (using pencil). This way you can handle delayed actions much easier, you just pull their card out to change the order. Also, it's easy to keep things moving when you're flipping through cards compared to every other method I've tried or seen used.
Handouts are awesome, for some scenarios I'll create extra handouts because they explain the problem a lot better and you can distribute complex information a lot faster. For example, in "The Darkest Vengeance" in one room I had 6 handouts, 1 for each player! The handouts were not provided by the scenario, I made them myself.
I personally never use labtops or other devices to look up rules during a game, I get players to do that (either hardcopy or using a device). Whatever slows me down, slow everyone down (which is bad).
I don't like open rolling because I want to hide some rolls. For example, I make perception and sense motive checks for players. (Why should they know if they made a result of DC 20 or DC 5?). Also, I find it's just too easy to game GMs who roll in the open.
I also don't like GM screens. I used them for years but I find they impair roleplaying. So I use a "cut down" GM screen to at least partially hide my dice but not impair roleplaying or hide combat dice. It's a standard screen but it's only 3 inches high.
I also try to play out the scenario in my head beforehand (so that it makes sense and it flows).
And if you have time, maybe practice your speech for the introduction (or other RP moment). I have mine memorized basically and I ad lib, I never read boxed text.
Other PFS items you might need:
- Faction missions (preferably in color).
- Create an event so you can get an event # for the chronicles.
- 8 copies of the chronicle sheets (1-2 extras are a good idea).
- A printout summary of the event so people can write their character #s, so you can report.
- A sheet of temporary player IDs, so that players who don't have one yet get credit for the event.
- Pregens characters for levels 1 and 4 (preferably in color).
- Minis. A lot of new players don't have minis and it's nice to have appropriate minis for opponents. I like paper minis for monsters, they're more affordable.
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Not sure if this has been covered yet, but I like to have a little tracking sheet, sometimes just a post it note or something. On it I list all of the factions, so when a player completes a faction mission I can check them off. This is also handy for scenarios that track any other form of success, but doesnt come with it's own sheet. Shadow's Last Stand part 2 and Throaty Mermaid come to mind for this.
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Dragnmon and I were bot running the same module at GenCon. Our prep 'bags' were vastly different. I have no clue as to what he brought - but I tell you I could never have run a good game with it.
But I like to have the maps, the map packs, minis, extra minis, and a bunch of stuff I don't really need.
When I run, I not only print out the module, but I also print out the monsters and any special rules they may utilize. One module had the Red Mantis PrC, as well as two archetypes from APG. So I printed those out as well and added them to the module. I usually prepare the highest tier possible, it's easier to limit and not utilize some of the feats, spells and tactics that the higher tiers use. I try to write down what potions, spells are done in round -3, -2, -1, 0 if they would have time to prepare and what round those would potentially wear off.
One thing that I don't see is the use of Item Cards. I pass them out for faction missions when Cheliax is given a book/fetish or whatever that goes along with their mission handout. This way if the player has the card and has to leave the item behind, they can actually hand it to me. I also have ones for the faction missions that need to find something. If they need to find a book, there's a book item card. But when I know more than 3 days before that I'm running a particular module, I usually do item cards for items that can be taken from the dead guys. I first do the potions and other items that will most likely be utilized. If more time persists, I do it for the mundane items (basic studded armor, short swords, etc.). I think it adds something to the game and also explains my need to collect those damnable cards.
Some of the Urban NPC's are also VC's or otherwise listed in the SoS/PFS Field Guide. So I use them. The most important thing about using the cards is that I don't actually write on them in the little area - I put them in clear sleeves and write on a little card the information regarding the item (usually the description provided, esp. with potions) with a note regarding Tier level and possible adjustments. I even go so far as to use multiples of the exact same card if there are muliples of that item. If there are three cure light wounds potions, I'll make sure I use three exact same cards. If at tier 1-2 they are CLW but at a higher tier they are Cure Moderate Wounds, I'll mark that on the little card. Sometimes a tier will have something that another tier will not, and I'll make sure they are not passed out.
But I'm a prep fiend and I suck at running right off the bat without much prep. I can do it - like with Throaty Mermaid that I did at GenCon - but I don't like it.
So a bag full of extra mini's of various classes, races and generic things is always a good idea.
Theocrat Issak
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I usually record on a piece of graph paper,
Player name, Character name, Pathfinder #, Class/ Level, and Faction and prestige points they earned. It then helps me to keep track of who played what and when on my spread sheet, and to report the game afterwards.
I also usually have a printed copy of the scenario to reference, and on my lap top, i keep the Scenario PDF open to the main map. Makes it easy to reference back and forth.
I hope this helps
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Dragnmon and I were bot running the same module at GenCon. Our prep 'bags' were vastly different. I have no clue as to what he brought - but I tell you I could never have run a good game with it.
But I like to have the maps, the map packs, minis, extra minis, and a bunch of stuff I don't really need.
When I run, I not only print out the module, but I also print out the monsters and any special rules they may utilize. One module had the Red Mantis PrC, as well as two archetypes from APG. So I printed those out as well and added them to the module. I usually prepare the highest tier possible, it's easier to limit and not utilize some of the feats, spells and tactics that the higher tiers use. I try to write down what potions, spells are done in round -3, -2, -1, 0 if they would have time to prepare and what round those would potentially wear off.
One thing that I don't see is the use of Item Cards. I pass them out for faction missions when Cheliax is given a book/fetish or whatever that goes along with their mission handout. This way if the player has the card and has to leave the item behind, they can actually hand it to me. I also have ones for the faction missions that need to find something. If they need to find a book, there's a book item card. But when I know more than 3 days before that I'm running a particular module, I usually do item cards for items that can be taken from the dead guys. I first do the potions and other items that will most likely be utilized. If more time persists, I do it for the mundane items (basic studded armor, short swords, etc.). I think it adds something to the game and also explains my need to collect those damnable cards.
Some of the Urban NPC's are also VC's or otherwise listed in the SoS/PFS Field Guide. So I use them. The most important thing about using the cards is that I don't actually write on them in the little area - I put them in clear sleeves and write on a little card the information regarding the item (usually the description provided, esp. with potions)...
You know, I never thought of using the item cards like that. Thanks for the tip!
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One thing that I don't see is the use of Item Cards. I pass them out for faction missions when Cheliax is given a book/fetish or whatever that goes along with their mission handout.You know, I never thought of using the item cards like that. Thanks for the tip!
I'll second Theocrat on that one! I love using the item cards for faction missions and consumables. Especially consumables, it's a better way to remember something you found but aren't going to keep :)
And more face cards! Like all 10 faction heads and in-game Venture-Captains! I love using them when possible too! I usually clip the face card on the front of my screen when the PCs are interacting with that person.
