Ill Made Knight, typically speaking the PbP games here run on an honour system. However, should a GM ask, you should understand that it is your responsibility to provide photographs or scans of any Chronicle sheets you may have.
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I have tried to follow the same approach as Joseph. I am planning to scan copies of all my chronicles and create a folder for each character on Dropbox. I can then share a folder with a GM whenever needed. I've done this for 2 characters and it's worked well.
As for proof of source material, I've always just had to trust my players. Any other thoughts on that issue?
Derek, I think that it's pretty difficult to prove, especially when some people have physical copies and so forth. But I know I have caught some of my players using the "genericised" names as published on d20pfsrd, so you can be sure plenty of PbP/Online players are breaking the rules.
For absolute best practices, here are my thoughts.
For PDFs,
1) Providing a screencap of your Paizo.com downloads list, plus a link to an online source of the rules text in question (whether typed out on your own or linked to one of the online rules databases)
2) Providing a screencap of an invoice from Paizo.com, plus a link to the rules
3) Providing a screencap of the page of the PDF the rules come from, with the Paizo watermark at the top
For hard copies,
1) Providing a photograph of the hard copies, plus a link to the rules
2) Providing a screencap of an invoice, or a scanned or photographed copy of a receipt of purchase, plus a link to the rules
I will usually just trust my players unless something is really amiss or odd, just because of the time and effort involved in doing otherwise. You can't expect a player to be able to immediately scan something you need, but at the same time you can't hold up a PBP for days waiting for evidence that they own the resource ever.
To players... for god's sake, please stop using d20pfsrd as a resource for rules you don't own. :)
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Of course! I just meant that to get started, we can't until Oct 5th. What I did is place a Recruitment Thread on the Paizo site. But if your table is full, set it up in the Discussion thread, and maybe you can let them know here... for the time being...
At least that way you can start getting PFS #s and do whatever audits you would like.
I think most DM's that have set up threads in the Recruiting forum have had success in getting their players lined out already. One of my games has already done so, and just one player has yet to comment, iirc.
Might be a good idea for all the DM's to consider doing so.
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Warhorn is a tracking tool for the Venture Officers. It gives them ways to contact all of the GMs and Players, especially since the games are held on different venues. (i.e. - Paizo.com, RPGGeek, etc.) Posting a Recruitment thread on Paizo.com is just going to attract players that are a little more comfortable with Paizo's gameplay setup.
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Aeshuura is correct. It allows us to better manage and keep track of our outreach. It allows us to gather contact information so we can send a blast out for the next Gameday. It allows us to know who to give product / boon / prize support to. Not everyone runs games from Paizo.com, etc.
And most importantly, we need to know what type of draw we can get so we can offer to run Special Event scenarios, but we have a couple of months before we will release what that means and how that's going to work... :)
/You may think Warhorn is useless, but don't complain when you aren't included in receiving support and getting to be a part of some of the most unique events to ever come to PbP...
//Just Sayin'
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I don't use it for any official rulings, but what I do use it for is to find out where a specific trait, spell, ability, etc. is found. Especially if it is from a Player's Companion, AP, or Campaign Setting.
Aside From not being as easily searchable, archives of nethys tells you this information as well, using official names and even tells you if it is pfs legal.
I use d20pfsrd for reference ONLY when I am sure that the rules are correct and can verify it with my own copies of the rules. I do prefer to use Archive of Nethys, but it is much harder to search.
The main problem with d20pfsrd is the fact that they change names and often-times change rules text based on unofficial messageboard posts or editor personal opinion. That is not valid for PFS. The names change is the absolute worst, although it is handy to know when someone doesn't actually own the book (because they use one of the genericised names there!)
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I am sending this to my local group and thought I would post it for others to c&p if they have an easy way to email their home tables.
Hello All,
For those of you interested in a little more PFS game time, with a lot smaller (daily) time commitment, Paizo is running the first ever Official PBP Gameday. If you are not familiar with Play By Post it works using an online bulletin board format. You post an action, the GM/NPC/other PC posts a response. Because of this it can be very slow (one action per day....) and is not for everyone. Most of my first chronicles are from PBP before I could get games locally. This is the advantage: getting to play a PFS scenario when there isn't a game around.
Aside from getting to play, the primary reason for trying this is because Paizo is offering prize support as if it were a Con (boons will be given out). The primary reason for NOT trying this is that you can only play a character in one scenario at a time, and PBP can last 2-3 months.
If you DINNAE want to do this you can stop reading now.
If you DO want to try this out you can stop reading now, but check out the links below and get signed up.
If you MIGHT want to try this keep reading.
Here is the official thread:
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2q57h&page=1?20131005-First-Official-PbP-Ga meday
Here is the Warhorn thread (for recruitment and such):
https://warhorn.net/events/pfs-pbp-online-gameday/schedule/2013/10/05
My (about to end) Mists of Mwangi PBP (spoilers)
http://paizo.com/campaigns/MistsOfMwangiPFSPbPByCuraigh/gameplay&page=f irst
*This follows all the normal rules for Organized Play.
*PBP cannae have a character you plan to play somewhere else. This ties up that character for 2-3 months on average. In some cases you will need to create a second character. I do not recommend pre-gens for PBP, after months of running them you will have had time to create your own and dying to try out your new creation. But pre-gens are a legal option.
*Boons are hard to guess ahead of time, but they often come in the form of a bonus feat, skill, or some other option (One of my favorites gives me a bonus to day job check and sets the maximum roll a lot higher). The most coveted boons offer chronicles to play non-standard races (dhampirs, gripplis, suli, nagaji, etc..)
*PBP can be too slow for most folks, you will have to commit to post at least daily.
*PBP gives more time to explore things such as character background, faction missions, and Golarian history than most table-top scenerios.
*GMs cannae use funny voices on PBP (I'll let you decide if this is a pro or a con :)
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Yeah, I usually use Archives of Nethys, but not if I am looking for something in particular (because of the search options...)
I use d20pfsrd for reference ONLY when I am sure that the rules are correct and can verify it with my own copies of the rules. I do prefer to use Archive of Nethys, but it is much harder to search.
The main problem with d20pfsrd is the fact that they change names and often-times change rules text based on unofficial messageboard posts or editor personal opinion. That is not valid for PFS. The names change is the absolute worst, although it is handy to know when someone doesn't actually own the book (because they use one of the genericised names there!)
Just out of curiosity, were either of you aware that I added a Search function to the site? If so, what about it makes things difficult to search still? What kind of improvements would you like?
The more feedback I get, the better I can make things on the site. :)
I was aware, and have used it, but it's a bit of a pain to use...
- Checkboxes to select search areas is completely unnecessary imo. If you know what area something is in already you'd probably just go to that page. I have never done anything than click "Check All". And that's an extra unneeded step.
- Because the "Check All" and "Uncheck All" buttons are at the top, if I type something in the search box and hit enter... it actually submits that form rather than the search form. A second minor inconvenience.
- I like to search d20pfsrd in Chrome just by typing d20pfsrd (TAB) (search term) - bam, done. This is, of course, one of those Google things, but it's really handy.
- When your search results come up you still have all the checkboxes in the way. Annoying scrolling.
- This is perhaps a bit of a personal thing/even more of a nitpick, but I don't like how the search results are formatted. If you have more than a couple of things in one category it all blurs together into one. Having each result on a newline would probably make it easier to read. I also like Google-style previews of the text on that page; it helps me decide whether something is relevant or not.
For example, if I search "familiar" (something I've done before), I get a whole swathe of archetypes that don't mean much to me. If there was some preview text that let me know, for example, that this was a Bard archetype and that was a Witch archetype, it would be a lot more useful.
- Another 100% personal thing is that I hate white-text-on-black and find it hard to read, although I know a lot of people are the opposite :)
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I was aware, and have used it, but it's a bit of a pain to use...
- Checkboxes to select search areas is completely unnecessary imo. If you know what area something is in already you'd probably just go to that page. I have never done anything than click "Check All". And that's an extra unneeded step.
- Because the "Check All" and "Uncheck All" buttons are at the top, if I type something in the search box and hit enter... it actually submits that form rather than the search form. A second minor inconvenience.
- I like to search d20pfsrd in Chrome just by typing d20pfsrd (TAB) (search term) - bam, done. This is, of course, one of those Google things, but it's really handy.
- When your search results come up you still have all the checkboxes in the way. Annoying scrolling.
- This is perhaps a bit of a personal thing/even more of a nitpick, but I don't like how the search results are formatted. If you have more than a couple of things in one category it all blurs together into one. Having each result on a newline would probably make it easier to read. I also like Google-style previews of the text on that page; it helps me decide whether something is relevant or not.
For example, if I search "familiar" (something I've done before), I get a whole swathe of archetypes that don't mean much to me. If there was some preview text that let me know, for example, that this was a Bard archetype and that was a Witch archetype, it would be a lot more useful.
- Another 100% personal thing is that I hate white-text-on-black and find it hard to read, although I know a lot of people are the opposite :)
Problems 2 and 5 should actually be relatively easy to solve, I'll add those to my list. I don't want to take over the thread with any more discussion on it, but if you want to talk more about these, feel free to shoot me a mail: asknethys at karuikage dot net
Edit: Oh, and forgot to mention, but in regards to problem 5, you can already sort results by newline. It's one of the choices in the initial search. :)
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More likely than not, they might have been a group that had plans to run together, and once the DM initiated the game, had the players join and didn't realize that they needed to claim the game, or it had gotten reset, and just haven't been back to the warhorn site. I wouldn't think that they have just abandon the game, but probably just working through their game's discussion thread.
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Ok,ok. I get it.
Speaking of contact information, can we get the contact information of our players?
How will I get contact information of my players?
I will be e-mailing the individual tables the contact information for their group. But this will not happen until the start of the gameday to help us account for any drops that happen between now and then.
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Wow, this looks like the response is going great!
1-5: 0 spaces left
1-7: 2 spaces left
2-4: 0 spaces left
3-5: 0 spaces left
3-7: 2 spaces left
4-6: 4 spaces left
5-9: 12 spaces left
7-11: 7 spaces left
only 27 seats remain of the 300ish and only 4 tables of 50 currently too small to play.
Congratulations and thanks Joseph et al!
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Ok,ok. I get it.
Speaking of contact information, can we get the contact information of our players?How will I get contact information of my players?
I will be e-mailing the individual tables the contact information for their group. But this will not happen until the start of the gameday to help us account for any drops that happen between now and then.
The fact is the players are already contacting me. I will understand the answer as "do it on your own".
Thanks anyway.
Some GMs have campaigns set up already, some don't. I presume you'll be contacted before the event by the GM who will provide you with the link to the campaign.
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My "tables" are set up and ready to go. I've been contacted by two players (one from each of my games.) Word has it that on or close to the start date GMs will get the email addresses of their players. Regardless you need not worry about Pirate Rob...he's an outstanding GM and I'm sure his games will go off without a hitch.
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I had (and PM'd) for my Voice in the Void game which had only had 1 player until a few days ago. I didn't get any answer, and still haven't about my request to switch scenarios, but now have all seats full. Not complaining, mind you, just saying I had a similar issue and never got any word back. Figure that they might be pretty busy, and I also noticed that they started up a VTT Game Day event, too.
I don't think that they game needs to start on the 5th as much as can not start before, and it might be a deal where they just want to wait until closer to that date to see if last minute sign ups roll in.
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I'm kind of curious where some of these tables are going to be set up, some games like the one I'm signed up for have the gm listed as a certain user name, but no threads have been set up yet in the recruitment area with the GM name Pirate Rob
My thread is up under my GM alias, Pirate GM, I would link you but I am currently at a con just checking in real quick.