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Hi- I'm an awesome GM who wants to run PFS-legal games on a regular basis. I'll be using the Roll20 environment and voice chat, for an experience very like face-to-face tabletop play, only better. This works really well! I'll start by running every few weeks, but I'd love to eventually make it a weekly or twice-weekly thing (often with a different group). I'll run PFS-sanctioned modules, but with extra flair and outside-the-box creativity. Again, I am NOT offering play by post, I will run only real-time online table top play, just like face to face gaming sessions.
I seek guidance on which PFS adventures in which to invest my time, energy, and money preparing for online play. Which modules do people want to play, and which ones are recommended? I need to redo ALL the maps in EVERY module I run, as well as preparing additional text and graphic handouts, all of which means many extra hours of prep time. I really wish they would make a 'player visible' version of all maps and handouts (suitable for use with Fog of War), but they don't. You know, a version of the map that does NOT have the room numbers, pits, ambush points, and secret doors marked in red ...
So, I'd like people to post several things in this thread. Please number your response, so we can all tell at a glance what you are posting about:
#1 Recommendations on which modules to run. Please mention both adventures you would like to play in, as well as adventures you have played and can recommend. While I initially plan to run Tier 1-5, I'm totally open to higher level stuff as well. Paizo has many PFS adventures, very few of which I know, so I need help choosing the right content. It does no one any good if I spend 12 hours prepping an adventure that no one wants to play. I plan to run each one SEVERAL TIMES, for different PFS groups, so I want EACH ONE to be pretty good or better.
#2 Players who wish to participate. That way I can put you on my 'prospective PFS online players' list and contact you separately when I have something to schedule. Note that, in order to be a 'prospective player', you will need to have your act together. You MUST have voice chat working cleanly and well in Google Chrome, as all games will be in Google+ Hangouts. I will NOT waste time at the start of each game providing tech support to get your voice chat working. Use a headset, and learn to mute your background noise when you are not talking! In addition to posting a reply with "here I am I want to participate in online PFS play with Roll20 and Voice chat", I encourage you to ALSO send me an email to awesomegamemaster@gmail.com . Please also mention your time zone, when you are available to play, what levels you want to play at, and feel free to include a link to your favorite character(s). I will compile a list of interested people, and send out a mass mailing when I schedule new events. I will compile my list based on the people who contact awesomegamemaster@gmail.com , not based on posts to this thread. Chronicle Sheets will be available within 24 hours of the end of the session.
#3 Do you think it will ever be viable for me to charge a few dollars for admission, once I have the process down really well? I love GMing and have done it for free for the past 35 years, but I could eventually see reaching a point where running the same adventure over, for new players, began to take its toll. e.g. Would you consider paying $10 for e.g. a 4 hour Tuesday night PFS session with an awesome game master and all the bells and whistles? I'm not interested in buffing up my own PFS characters, they will have to be on slow advancement anyway. I'll run a lot more games if I can get compensated for my time ...
Thanks for your time and attention, all. I look forward to your posts and your emails to awesomegamemaster@gmail.com .
Bruce
P.s. I am especially open to couples or groups of friends wishing to participate. It works better for everyone if the players know each other. For that matter, I am totally open to a group of friends requesting/hiring me to GM their regular Friday night PFS session.
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Join the chat room linked on pfrpg.com.au, we need more GMs like yourself and we only play realtime and almost always with voice chat (GM dependent). We'll point you in the right direction to answer everything you need to know here too.
It's an Australian server ("local" time is UTC+10), but half the players/GMs in there are non-Australian.
Take a good look over the site to see what kinds of options are there.
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Myself and potentially two friends of mine would be available for play but we can only do Mondays and either every other week or once a month. I was the GM for them before and we were playing Rise of the Runelords via Roll20 but some of the other group fell out so there was only my two friends and we couldn't continue. As such we are already setup and knowledgeable with Roll20. We are all US EST.
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Hello Awesome GM. Seems you need a bit of guidance on modules to run and other issues. I have run and played in a number of online games before and thus can give some advice.
As for modules to run, I'ed probably stick to published adventure paths (Either the Paizo stuff, the affiliated stuff or 3.5 adventure paths). Currently I am running on RollD20 the Way of the Wicked game and its gone well so far as I've got good guidance from the materials to run the story. What isn't working as well is my Tephra game where the low amount of setting materials is starting t make it difficult to design adventures for the game. So using a resource of some kind is a good idea.
As for charging, it depends on the situation. Charging 10 dollars per session can add up and drive people to stop coming. If you need money to cover game materials, then asking for some "Up Front" payment may be an OK request if people are interested in helping cover the cost. But if you want to run a game, you really should not charge to make a "Profit", you should charge only to cover the materials you need to run. To save money stick with Digital Materials and don't get scammed into paying for images or monthly fees, its not worth it in the long run.
As for being involved in your game, I would be interested although currently Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays are taken up on my schedule. I also work much of the week and like to get an early night so 7-11 eastern on Weekdays work best for me.