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I am fairly new to PFS play but have been playing Pathfinder on roll20 for quite some time now and I love all the nifty features it offers, like music, dynamic lighting and so forth.
When I set up a game, I like to make sure the maps look nice, the NPCs use the right tokens, proper music is queued in the jukebox and just generally get the most out of the experience.
This of course takes a bit of time and effort and I thought PFS would be perfect for that, because you could play each scenario with a different group several times!
However, I learned that this is only true for the evergreens and usually they really are just one-shots that you could run again, but not for credit.
I've played in a few games now where that apparently led to the GM not caring about the "production values" and most fights were on completely white maps versus generic tokens.
And I don't want to criticize them for doing that, I totally get it.
So I thought, how about a place where GMs who hold their games to higher standards could swap tables?
I am not entirely sure how this could work mechanically, but you can invite someone to a game you created and then promote them to GM so they gain full control.
Is there something like this already out there?
If not, I could start a list where people enter the games they have ready and some contact information to get in touch.
What do you guys think about this?
Venture-Captain, Isles—Online
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I have played many online ROLL20 PFS games, and the vast majority had proper maps and tokens, although the use of music and sounds effects is limited.
To be honest I over engineer my own tables, spending lots of time to get the maps I want, and the correct tokens etc.
I have been able to get copies of ROLL20 tables from other GM's on the pathfinder society online collective, and have also shared my own tables if asked. Roll20 already has this functionality, its just a matter of asking on the online collective Google group.
Venture-Agent, Virginia—Hampton Roads
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I wouldn't mind doing this at all. Chris is correct that those with a free account would be limited to what they could share for long term not to mention free accounts are missing some of the popular features such as dynamic lighting.
Plus or Pro have more freedom to what they can do support wise but there is a small issue.
Certain scenario's (like new ones) or modules especially Thornkeep / Emerald Spire are popular. You would likely need a few people to donate as you may have multiple groups trying to play on one game location.
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I fully support this idea. I've put out game requests several times and been told that the scenario I was asking about was just too hard to set up and not worth the effort to just run once. And for myself, the big thing holding me back from GMing is the extensive set up time for something you can only run once for credit.
While I believe this is a systemic issue, (And one that truly mystifies me. Why does pathfinder society want to disincentivize GMing?) the idea of sharing tables in a simple and easy manner would definitely help.
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you might find that those without PRO accounts only keep scenarios for a short time, due to limited basic storage space (100MB) on ROLL20.
I think that is actually a good argument in favor of sharing tables!
In a minimum example, you would just need one nicely set up table and have another "rotating" table that you borrow from other people in exchange for letting them use your nice table.
If people like the idea, I would offer to open the sheet I linked above for editing so it can be stickied over at the Online Collective?
I'm also open to suggestions what other information would be useful to store make available on the list.
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Certain scenario's (like new ones) or modules especially Thornkeep / Emerald Spire are popular. You would likely need a few people to donate as you may have multiple groups trying to play on one game location.
You can copy entire games on roll20 so you are only limited by the storage capacity. A single setup could supply plenty groups, even at the same time!
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Venture-Captain, Isles—Online
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I currently have 3 copies of 7-15 Deepmarket Deception, the additional tables take no extra storage space.
Copied tables will inherit the ROLL20 features of the original, i.e i have a 'backer account' which includes dynamic lighting - copies of my tables also have this.
If a PRO subscriber shares his table with you, it will have all the PRO features enabled (API, dynamic lighting etc).
But to keep my ROLL20 dashboard tidy, I delete old tables when I think I'm finished with them, although I keep any files, tokens, maps etc on my PC so I can rebuild them easily if required.
The only PFS sanctioned game that I struggled with in ROLL20 is Dragon's Demand, and that's purely because of the massive amount of content.
Most PFS scenarios can be built in 3-4 hours
Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant
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I would think as long as you make your own maps and aren't using the ones directly out of the scenarios it'd be ok to share them. If you are using maps copied from the scenarios I think it'd be as much of a no-no as saving them to PFS shared. We can use Paizo's artwork for our own personal use, but we can't share it with others.
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Sharing Roll20 tables is okay because we're not actually transferring ownership of the tables. If I lent you a Roll20 table, then you can't download the artwork from it. It's the equivalent of printing out the maps from a scenario and letting someone borrow them for a session.
Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online
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As James pointed out - "Sharing" in Roll20 is not actually Sharing. You are just giving someone else the ability to GM a table you setup, but the "table" stays in the creators account and the person GMing the "shared" table only has just enough control over the table to run it, but nothing more. So the content never changes hands - it stays with the original creator in their account.
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Venture-Agent, Virginia—Hampton Roads
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I have a Dragon's demand on roll20 completely setup on a pro account. Just finished session #5. I am willing to share it. Will add it to the spread sheet.
I am running it with session about 4-5 hours long and I think it will take 8-9 sessions to finish. I am running this in "campaign mode".
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Venture-Captain, Isles—Online
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I would think as long as you make your own maps and aren't using the ones directly out of the scenarios it'd be ok to share them. If you are using maps copied from the scenarios I think it'd be as much of a no-no as saving them to PFS shared. We can use Paizo's artwork for our own personal use, but we can't share it with others.
Mike Brock gave permission for the Fantasy Grounds (another VTT) to share prebuilt tables detail here as long as we check ownership of the scenario with the recipient (word X from page Y will probably suffice)
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I (along with everyone and their brother) donated to Humble Bundle and received all of season six. If anyone has any tables of season six they are willing to share I would be interested. Thanks.
As you can see here I have prepared The Wounded Wisp and it is ready to be played!
Marked for future reference.
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While I like this idea he one issue you will come across is that as a GM only you do not have access to certain features. The main one is that you cannot clear the cha archive which is a bit of an issue if you plan to run something more than once.
I always make a "master table" that I then copy when I want to run a new game or when i want to share it with someone. So it is always fresh, clean, and smelling slightly of vanilla! (Some of that is not true).