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I feel the most common expectation I've seen at online conventions is by the end of the following slot. For the convention I ran last weekend that was the requirement I gave my GMs. And with one exception they all made it (one had a computer crash and was delayed a couple of hours).
My personal standard for myself is within 30 minutes of slot session end. I think I've missed that once and it stretched out to an hour.
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The online rule is to get the chronicle to a player with an hour of the end of the game. This gets pushed more for Paizo Supported Cons. If you can't get it to someone a chronicle in an hour, the gm has to give a reasonable timeline. (ei.. like before lunchtime the next day or something)
Tabled games should be given before the players leave the table.
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The chronicle is often not "filled out completely before leaving the table" because no one wants to wait while players search through thousands of pages of material to decide what they will spend their gold on, and what faction boons they might buy with their fame.
If you follow the changes to the new Guide and the numerous threads regarding them, the idea of a detailed sign in sheet will be obsolete. The chronicles are going to remove the boxes for starting values and the GM will just have to enter the rewarded values. Additionally, Fame as a spendable resource is being eliminated.
So, moving forward the sign-in sheets should be stripped down to just the character name, PFS#, faction, and level. Most will probably ask for class, but its not necessary.
Additionally, you don't really need the actual chronicle to play the next session. You just need the GM to tell you the rewards so you can properly prep for the next game. Most Paizo-sponsored conventions expect the GMs to provide the chronicles within an hour of the session, but if they are running in the next slot, it may not be possible. Though 24 hours is probably a reasonable amount of time for most circumstances.
If you do not think your chronicles are being delivered in a reasonable amount of time, the first step is to take your concern to the GM. There might be a good reason for the delay. If that goes nowhere, escalate your concerns to either the event organizer or the local Venture-Officer. Ultimately, no one can "force" a GM to distribute chronicles in a timely fashion, but if they demonstrate a repeated lack of regard for the players, the organizer/s may want to reconsider using them.
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The online rule is to get the chronicle to a player with an hour of the end of the game
Might be more a guideline than a rule given the frequency at which it is violated.
Tabled games should be given before the players leave the table.
This rule does not actually exist. Historically it has been pretty obvious. However, there is a growing number of GMs that are considering distributing chronicles digitally even for live games once that format becomes available again. It supports the pursuit for a more digital Society and saves trees. These GMs may ask the players for their email address, Discord name, or other acceptable digital communication method to receive their official chronicle.
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It really depends on the situation, I think. Sure, it's okay to presume finishing up a chronicle within an hour (and that's the standard most apply online these days), but there can be reasons. Some as simple as "it's 3am my time, I need sleep before I can fill these out." Some as complicated as one this past weekend: "My router went kablooey, it's gonna take me a bit of time to replace it." (In this time of lockdown, not everyone has backup Internet connections.)
Generally speaking, I've found GMs are fairly open to this issue. If you don't have the chronicle, you don't fill out the relevant information... but you also don't have any other rewards either, including access to magic items ahead of time.
Thank you, I have follow-ups what if some of the main perpetrators for this are the Venture-Officers in an area?
You escalate. If the people who haven't filled out your chronicles after a certain amount of time -- and you should consider that time on the longer side than the shorter -- are venture agents, go to the venture lieutenant. If it's that person that's the issue, you move on to the venture captain of the area. If THAT doesn't work, you go to your RVC. And if that doesn't work, you go to the top and start talking to people like Tonya. But I highly doubt it will get that far. (If it does, you can likely just expect it's not going to get done.)
I know that a few times I've waited over a week to receive chronicles.
I usually don't start getting antsy if it's a character I'll be playing unless it's been a week or so since the game and I haven't heard anything from the GM. I have (am currently) waited on chronicles for over a month, but those are generally for characters in inactive campaigns (PFS1, in short) and I have other characters I can play in the meantime.
Venture-Captain, Online—VTT
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The online rule is to get the chronicle to a player with an hour of the end of the game. This gets pushed more for Paizo Supported Cons. If you can't get it to someone a chronicle in an hour, the gm has to give a reasonable timeline. (ei.. like before lunchtime the next day or something)
Tabled games should be given before the players leave the table.
Not quite.
We ask that GMs running on our lodges get their chronicles out immediately after a game ideally, however, we recognise that time zones are a thing and sometimes a GM may be running at a very late/early time for them to accommodate players so we understand sometimes there may be a delay. If this is the case the GM should let them know when the chronicles will be sent out and it should always be within 24 hours. If that's not possible then, excepting unforeseen emergencies, the GM probably shouldn't be running if they can't make the time to fill chronicles and we encourage players to let one of the Online VOs know so we can work with the GMs to get chronicles out asap and ensure it doesn't happen again.
For our Online region cons we ask GMs to get chronicles out immediately afterwards since players may be going to another game right away, to help with this we build an hours downtime into each slot and run 6 hour slots which should allow GMs the time needed.
We'd encourage other cons that have moved online to consider a similar arrangement but ultimately that's up to their VOs, as mentioned above if you've not received a chronicle within 24 hours I'd certainly recommend that you contact the GM and ask for an update, if that's not helpful then the VO, or if it's a VO that is the problem, their VL/VC, etc.
Good luck getting your chronicles soon!
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As a player - in the past, if I've needed the Chronicle / information for an upcoming session, I've made certain to ask for it / tell the GM when I need it by.
If I'm playing games close together, I either have planned in advance for anything I want to spend gold on, or figure I'll worry about after all the games are done.
As a GM, I try to make it clear when I will have the chronicles out. I will be doing my first convention GMing this coming weekend, the convention's guidelines is 'before the end of the next slot'. I expect I'll be working on them directly after the sessions - I'm running Bounties 1 & 2, so I should have time.
For my regional GMing, I've only done Quests / Bounties, and have tried to get them done that evening. When I run a full scenario, they're going to finish up late enough that I will be needing to go to sleep to be ready for work the next morning - in that case, I'm going to be promising 'in under 24 hours'.
We're (practically?) all volunteers at this, and we have lives - as GMs and as players, we need to make it clear what our expectations, needs, and resources are, so that we are working from the same starting point.
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Standard practice is usually for the DM to fill out the parts they have to fill out and let the player shop in between sessions. If some regions insist on doing things exactly as the guide says, you very often get those kind of delays.
For a con, it needs to be done by the next slot.
For online right then is nice, the next morning works, I think a week is about the limit.
Some tips for filling it out quickly with foxit TLDR:
1) Fill out as much of the chronicle thats the same for everyone. The bottom of the sheet. Darn near everything if everyone was in the same tier.
2) THEN copy the file 6 times. its now half filled in
3) Rename the files 1Bob 2Jim 3Jill 4Ragnar 5Billy in the same order as your sign in sheet. This keeps them in order
3) Fill your sign in sheet out in the order that the sheet asks for things. Then copy paste things over
4) Save all the files.
5) Send all the files.
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You want the reporting to be done almost immediately. You want the chronicle sheets to be issued almost immediately. So, I guess it is reasonable to expect the players to have their character sheets complete and up to date before we start. That means ALL your inventory, ALL your feats, ALL your spells, etc. Thanks.
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4) Save all the files
Minor recommendation. Don't save the files, print them to PDF. That will flatten the text boxes you entered and incorporate them into the image of the page. If you just save from the original, the boxes will be editable when distributed which would allow the player to change the values if they wanted to. Sure, we are supposed to expect good faith, but there is no reason to empower the cheaters. YMMV
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30 minutes after the end of the slot is not reasonable. It takes a lot of work to fill-out a chronicle for each player. Remember, this has to be duplicated up to 6 times! and this players give imcomplete information. Makes it difficult.
With the changes that Bob has say are coming, it will make it easier. But I have not see nor hear anything about it yet.
I am troubled by the constant push for "immediate" satisfaction getting a chronicle AND reporting the table.
Come on folks. Give the GMs a break!! This push is going to drive GMs away.
And please, don't tell me how great of a system you have for getting chronicles out. Your systems works for you, it might now work for me.
24 hours is a reasonable time to get chronicles out.
Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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Not everyone is as quick as the players would like, and honestly, GMs are absolutely deserving a break after the session. Fortunately, as long as the GM communicates what the players have earned, getting a chronicle sheet in time is not all that critical.
The main challenge is communication, but at least for PFS2 with the current guide chances, getting it quickly is not a huge deal.
Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant
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Am I missing something? Other than fame I'm not seeing anything missing.With the changes that Bob has say are coming, it will make it easier. But I have not see nor hear anything about it yet.You have to fill out significantly less information.
Click on the season 2 box. A lot of GMs feel the need to fill out the starting numbers for xp/gp/fame. There's also no longer boxes for earned income, that just gets added to gold gained. No player name, no faction area, no signature. There is still a rep gained section, but there are definitely less things for those completionist gms to fill out.
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Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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The main challenge is communication, but at least for PFS2 with the current guide chances, getting it quickly is not a huge deal.Given that gold is now standardised based on character level and fame doesnt exist all the GM needs to tell the players is how many bundles they earned and players can work it out for themselves.
Telling players how much GP they have earned will likely still be the better choice, particularly if players are easy to confuse...
And of course, there is also the rep players might have earned.|
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No player name, no starting or end value boxes. I know hardly anyone ever filled out the starting values but it at least gets rid of the fiction that we were doing so.Am I missing something? Other than fame I'm not seeing anything missing.With the changes that Bob has say are coming, it will make it easier. But I have not see nor hear anything about it yet.You have to fill out significantly less information.
Ah. I had so internalize that I didn't have to bother with them that I'd completely missed the fact that they were gone :-) :-)
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4) Save all the filesMinor recommendation. Don't save the files, print them to PDF. That will flatten the text boxes you entered and incorporate them into the image of the page. If you just save from the original, the boxes will be editable when distributed which would allow the player to change the values if they wanted to. Sure, we are supposed to expect good faith, but there is no reason to empower the cheaters. YMMV
I make my chronicles editable and lock once I sign them.
Edit: Oh they are taking out the Signature for Season 2. That said I can still lock them.
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With the reduction of what is required to be filled out by the GM, it can go fast.
Just concerned by how much is being given up. Yes, I am worried about cheaters but the now system is open to that as well. I don't know if Johnny Appleseed really GMed the 7 adventures for this guy. Besides, with online play right now, I can't even look at the chronicles. Already trust the players to have them.. and to be wearing a Paizo product for the re-roll/+1 to Hero Point re-roll.
Still think a reasonable expectation is 24 hours.
Paizo is building themselves a hole shifting to digital because Paizo is not a technology company.
We will be talking, and complaining, about this for at least the next 5 years.
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I need to have that chronicle for the next slot
You don't need the chronicle, you just need to know what the rewards are so you can update your character. Now that the chronicle sheets won't be tracking starting/ending values, the GM for the following game is not dependent on those starting values to complete their sheet.
It’s not fair to me to not have the boons
Since boons will no longer be part of the chronicle sheet, this doesn't matter either. It might be important to you to have immediate access to your AcP awards, but at conventions that is not determined by the GM since they are generally not reporting their own tables. You have to wait for the HQ team to do the reporting which could be a day or more afterwards depending on the size of the event.
Maybe as a compromise give out the values so we know. Most of the sign in sheets are in Excel/Google Docs anyway, just make them do some math, so the appropriate information can be given.
This is the compromise. With the new chronicle sheet format, most "ledger balancing" will be done with an alternative program like Excel or whatever the player prefers.
Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Bellevue
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Hello,
I just finished the last a slot in a local convention. In 2 of the games I played this weekend, players could not fully fill out the sign in sheet because they were still waiting on the chronicle for their last game. In fact in my last slot, had I not pushed forward with a tool I made to create chronicles easily, myself and my wife would have been 2 more (making it 3 at that table) that would have been in that situation.
As someone who just organized a "local" online convention .. Nuke-Con, if you played with us, PM me and I'll be happy to have a chat with your GM. If I'm the problem, PM Gary Bush, he posted above. He's my local VC and he'll happily point out my mistakes to me.
My question is this, knowing that in person The Chronicle must be filled out completely before leaving the table, what is an acceptable delay to not have the Chronicle after the game? Or should the GM keep the players at the table, logged in to whatever communication system until they are complete and delivered, thus satisfying the requirement of being complete before leaving the table?
As others have said, As a GM one of the things I make a point of in an online game ... I end with a discussion of when I plan to make the chronicles and when they can expect them from me. I then ask if anyone needs them sooner, please let me know and I'll make a priority of getting yours to you. Our normal online games end around midnight. Players and GMs are tired. I will strive to get my chronicles out by noon the next day. Faster if you need it sooner.
Online conventions can be tough as both GMs and players often have back-to-back slots. But I know if I were the player, I'd appreciate not having to wait and wonder.
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After spending a restless night with this very topic on my mind, I had many thoughts bouncing inside.
One of the "loudest" thought was why am I putting myself though this? What am I getting out of this for running a table at a con, only get "yelled" by a player who now thinks that they are to get their chronicles within minutes of the slot ending AND the table reported!! Why am I feeling like I am an halfling living in Cheliax??
Am I bad a GM because I'm trying to get to the next table? Or as a VC because I am managing an event? Or fielding concerns from players? And I can't get the damn chronicle out in 30 f'ing minutes!
Give the GMs a break people. As Bob has said, get the basic information you need if you're playing the same character in the very next slot. Or better yet, play a different damn character!!!
The GMs, and VOs, are the backbone of organized play. Temper your expectations!!! GMs, and VOs, are human. We will make mistakes. Will work at a pace that is comfortable for us. That pace may be different than what you "believe" is acceptable.
Especially since what is acceptable is not even defined.
Now for the second "loudest" thought: Why is Paizo not doing more to help the GMs here? Sure, "digitization" is a great concept. But give us the damn tools! Give an online tool to organize a table. Maybe interface with Warhorn so that information can be feed into Paizo for reporting and for chronicle creation. Or finally just do away with chronicles. Make everything online. But make that online information available to GMs to see. We need more than we have now.
And give us the hard number of what a reasonable time is!!!
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<<snip>>As someone who just organized a "local" online convention .. Nuke-Con, if you played with us, PM me and I'll be happy to have a chat with your GM. If I'm the problem, PM Gary Bush, he posted above. He's my local VC and he'll happily point out my mistakes to me.
Yes John, this was about Nuke-con.
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I think the "standard" online convention setup of 5 hour slots, with an hour gap between end of the slot and start of the next (ie so actually six hour slots), should be enough for GMs to get chronicles out before the next slot. If it takes you more than an hour to do chronicles AND you know your scenario is likely to run long (5+ hours), my advice is not to GM back to back sessions. And I put that in my call for GMs/information to GMs when recruiting. To me its the same for late night sessions, if you know you can't finish chronicles after your session, are you sure you're awake enough/on top of your game during the last hour of your session?
Players should also expect that there is normally a one hour lag between end of session and chronicles. And shouldn't sign up for back to back sessions at different cons/lodges/private Warhorns that don't provide that buffer.
Those are what GMs and players can do, under their own control to make things better.
The early "newly online conventions" (PaizoConOnline, Concurrent, GenConOnline) all used the "before the end of next session" which maybe was appropriate when everyone was still learning tools, but if you were GMing back to back sessions, it was no extra time in practice and I don't think helped GMs establish effective workflows and lead to the SLA being broken more often. I'm happy to see some of the newer newly online conventions starting to pull that direction to GMs back in to a shorter timeframe.
Regarding reporting, I still think 24 hours is a lenient deadline and more people should try to work towards it, especially now that it matters for ACP and Chronicle Boons. If your region/con's workflow doesn't support it, figure out why and work towards improving it. I'm happy to talk with VOs about how we ensured BostonMetroCon was fully reported within 12 hours of the last session. We had an asynchronous, distributed workflow that made it easy for a team of three reporters to report when they had time, without worrying about double reporting/wasted work. Most tables were reported within ~5 minutes of us getting the report from the GM.
If your region is currently monthly because of reasons, figure out what it would take to get to bi-weekly and run that for a couple of months. Then try to move to weekly, etc. Take in in steps, learn processes that work for your region, that accelerate reporting, without causing undue burden.
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If I need to have that chronicle for the next slot of a game, at a con I can’t wait 24 hours. It’s not fair to me to not have the boons for the scenario I just played, nor is it fair for the next GM to be forced to wait for 24 hours while I get the chronicle, multiply that by 6 for each player at the table and you have a giant cluster. Do that for every slot of a con... No there needs to be more efficiency.
Or just a little more flexibility on your/the other DMs end. All you need is the amount of gold you're getting, which unless you're planning on going broke down to the last copper you should have a close enough estimate for. you know you get 1 xp and where that leaves you levelwise. You can go a session without a boon (in fact going a lot of sessions without boons is going to become the new normal). Just leave the starting gold blank and work it out later. No, its not by the book. But its close enough for state work.
This shouldn't be SOP, but its going to happen sometimes. (The dm has to run to the bathroom right after the game, they have low blood sugar and HAVE to go to dinner, the DM is new or just new to online and really slow, a family emergency comes up etc. ...)
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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I think the "before the end of the next slot" norm from the big cons earlier this year was actually a pretty reasonable norm to go with.
I think postponing too much ("sometime before next week") risks it getting lost in the shuffle. So an upper bound on the timeframe is good to have.
On the other hand, if you insist on "immediately after the session" you're setting an excessive expectation. If Paizo made form-fillable PDFs that work across all operating systems, then sure, this would be fine. But they don't. Filling in PDFs still takes me more time than doing it on paper, even with heavy automation in spreadsheets to prepare all the data.
If we had a session that went smoothly because everyone showed up on time with no technical troubles and nobody needs extra handholding and the scenario doesn't run long by itself and we're done in four hours, then sure, getting you your chronicle is no problem. But if we start an hour late, and then have a two-hour starship combat, and one of the players gets grouchy and then in a combat someone picks up an awful curse that needs resolving - hey, that session is going to run long and when it's done I need a break.
So yeah, there also needs to be a reasonable amount of time a GM can take to get you your chronicle. For convention purposes I think before the end of the next slot is reasonable, but mostly, I think within a day is a good norm. That allows you to run an evening slot that runs a little late to accommodate play across time zones, and then you can do the chronicles the next day with a clear head. Instead of rushing it out, and then having to fix errors the next day.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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To add to my points - I think it's good to have an explicit assumption for cons that players might not have their chronicles from last session yet, because it could take a whole slot to make them. That way, players don't have to panic that the next GM might throw a fit over it.
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Frankly I am astounded that Paizo has decided to use its creaky old website to manage chronicle boons.
Personally I'm not remotely surprised. Utterly aghast and appalled? Yes. But not surprised
<ironic factoid>
When I just clicked on this thread a minute or so ago I got a server error. It went away 10 or 15 seconds later. But I did find the timing amusing
</ironic factoid>
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Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area South & West
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As a regular con organizer, I know how much work our GMs put into preparing for a table.
We schedule games for a 4-hour play time in a 5-hour slot, but as I'm sure everybody knows games can sometimes run long, too.
That one-hour gap isn't for filling out chronicles; it's for the GM to catch up on things like grabbing a bite to eat, visiting the restroom, or just relaxing for few minutes before preparing for the next table (as either a GM or a player).
If players are going to insist that they have their chronicles filled out in time for the next slot then I'll just have to tell my GMs to call the game before four hours are up so they have time to fill out the chronicle during game time, not in that one-hour break they get between tables.
As far as getting games reported before the next slot (or even in the next 24 hours) - that won't happen, either, unless more of the player base are prepared to step up and offer to take care of that job. I'm often the only person doing the reporting, and I just plain don't have time to report 100 tables during the convention as well as all the other organizer duties. I'd love to have a dedicated three-person reporting team, but that's not a realistic expectation - people pay admission fees, and pay for hotel rooms, to play, not to be admin staff.
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People defending how much work it is to be a GM have a point. It's a lot of work. But for PFS2, they're getting double AcP plus applicable credit, so let's not go overboard.
Here's my gripe (and I'm a regular GM, so this isn't a "you people" thing, it's a "us people" thing): there's a significant amount of unnecessary delay.
1. When I GM my own games, as someone pointed out above, I pre-fill Chronicles. The Event, Event number, GM PFS#, etc can all be filled in advance. I also fill in names and factions and also downtime and 10 TB rewards. I then save (not print, as explained above) the files so I can edit it later. Because I primarily GM PbP, the date is actually the last unfilled field. The file sits on my computer with a file name like "1-01 Watery Soup (no date, 10 TB).pdf" as a reminder of what's missing. At the end of the game, I edit in the dates, revise TBs muhahahaha, print/flatten them, and upload the Chronicles to Drive. The Chronicles are usually in Drive no more than 15 minutes after my wrap-up post. And I have an unflattened version so that if anyone needs corrections, I can do it without having to fill in everything again.
Concrete suggestion: Work with Paizo to remove whatever copyright barriers there are to the Chronicle sheets. Allow people to make fillable PDFs of Chronicles.
2. When I report my own games, the process is ridiculously easy. I copy-and-paste in PFS numbers, and the names and factions are autofilled. I double check all the information on the spot, and usually the reporting takes less than 1 minute. On occasion, people give me the wrong PFS numbers - and I can often guess the correct one by incrementing the character number or incrementing/transposing the PFS numbers. The problem with convention reporting is that the immediate feedback is lost - the GM hands a sheet to a volunteer who hands it to the VC who puts in the data days later. But it doesn't need to be like that; a tablet can be passed around the table with each player putting in their own data directly into Paizo's website.
Concrete suggesetion: Decentralize reporting by allowing GMs to report their own games; alternatively, solicit a volunteer to rapidly report in between sessions (they'll give up a meal break).
3. I've GMed at a convention, and of all the barriers there are, reporting is probably a speed bump at worst. The logistics are the worst - finding the room and table, the time pressure of finishing in time, etc. VC aid is critical - which is why I cringe at the idea that "this has to be done in an hour" equals "the VC has to do this in an hour." The VC has much more important things to do, so let's decentralize reporting.
As an aside, here's what helped me as a first time convention GM - I showed up early to redraw all the maps on my flip-mats, the VC saw me and informed me that he had pre-printed all the maps, they were on a table in the corner. Boom, saved. Then I realized I only printed 2 copies of the reporting form, I asked him if the hotel had a business office and he told me he brought a printer with him. Boom, saved.
Society can't make it any easier to prep a scenario. That's the hardest part and it's unavoidable. But for all the extra parts - logistics, reporting, etc. - there's quite a bit of fat that can be trimmed.
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3. I've GMed at a convention, and of all the barriers there are, reporting is probably a speed bump at worst. The logistics are the worst - finding the room and table, the time pressure of finishing in time, etc. VC aid is critical - which is why I cringe at the idea that "this has to be done in an hour" equals "the VC has to do this in an hour." The VC has much more important things to do, so let's decentralize reporting.
Even decentralized, you're going to have all of your DMs showing up at roughly the same time looking to report.
If you have a large convention where the DM has to be in place half an hour beforehand, you're eating 10 15 minutes out of the half hour they have in between slots.
I'm not sure whats trying to be gained there to warrant that. Why does the reporting matter that much?
If its a new scenario its not going to have the boons available anyway.
If the scenario has been out for a while, you print 5 copies on piece of paper and hand them out
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Why does the reporting matter that much?
Because once the players are out of earshot, every problem with reporting gets magnified 10x in severity.
Let's say that three weeks after a convention, a player notices that the credit hasn't shown up on Paizo.
1. Is the VC just swamped?
2. Did someone lose the sign-in sheet?
3. Was the PFS number mistyped?
4. Was the PFS number illegible?
5. Did they fill out the sign in sheet wrong?
And worst of all ...
6. Who do they contact to get it fixed?
Now, for those of us who post here, (6) is easy. For others, some even regular players, (6) may not be easy. They may start by E-mailing their local GM, who will then instruct them to find the GM at the convention, which may involve E-mailing the VC (or someone else with a publicly posted E-mail address), who will then send them to the GM, who will 99% of the time send them right back to the VC.
It's a mess.
If these problems were identified while they were still in the room, the process takes about 30 seconds to correct ("Hey, is this a 6 or a 5?" "It's a 6." "Cool."). If these problems were identified after they leave the room, it takes days to infinity to correct.
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If these problems were identified while they were still in the room, the process takes about 30 seconds to correct ("Hey, is this a 6 or a 5?" "It's a 6." "Cool."). If these problems were identified after they leave the room, it takes days to infinity to correct.
I don't think by the time the DM gets to the reporting terminal and starts to type things in people will still be in the same room: they're going to be at the food court/bar / bar court
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I don't think by the time the DM gets to the reporting terminal and starts to type things in people will still be in the same room: they're going to be at the food court/bar / bar court
If these problems were identified while they were still in the room, the process takes about 30 seconds to correct ("Hey, is this a 6 or a 5?" "It's a 6." "Cool."). If these problems were identified after they leave the room, it takes days to infinity to correct.
Even if walking over to "the reporting terminal" and "type things in" were the way to do it, having players at the food court is still better than having players at home.
But let's backtrack a little bit. How long do you think it takes to report a game? I don't know why so many people think this is some sort of arduous process - it only takes weeks for the VC to do it because the VC is doing 300 at a time. When I do it for myself for one game, it literally takes less than a minute unless there's a PFS number error.
Is there really no creative solution for speeding this up? Here are mine:
Pass around a tablet; have people put in their own information into paizo.com. This doesn't need to be done at the end of the game, and then at the end, all the GM needs to do is push "Save and Exit." This is definitely what I'm doing if I ever need to self-report a live game.
If I'm not allowed to self-report, then I'll pass around a tablet with a Google Doc opened. People punch in their own PFS number, and then when the GM gets to The Official One and Only Reporting Terminal, they just open up the Google Doc and C&P. This at least eliminates all the handwritten transcription errors. If I have a few minutes during a break, I might even punch in their PFS numbers into a dummy event just for the autofill (and then cancel the dummy event) so that I can ask someone about discrepancies before the game ends.
If people really don't like the idea of shaving a few extra minutes out of their lunches (which, incidentally, is ridiculous because the amount of time the games run overtime completely dwarfs the time it takes to report - if an extra 15 minutes matters that much, VCs/convention organizers should be very proactive about giving tables 60/45/30/15 minute warnings), have the first GM completed (which is usually 30-60 minutes early) pass around the tablet and have the players verify their information on an electronic document before they leave the table. Or, if that's deemed too much work, limit the double-checking to non-regular players, walk-ins, and anyone else who you're less than 99.9% confident of seeing again. Those 20% of players who don't know their PFS numbers off the top of their head are going to cause 80% of the reporting problems.
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You sound very efficient in your process. Here is a star for your fridge.
What works for you doesn't work for others.
When online play became the ONLY way to play, I made changes to my process. I do prefil the chronicles but only the bottom. Only after the game, when I have had a chance to verify the information on the reporting sheet, do I start to fill out the chronicles. This takes time. For me, between 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the amount of information I need to record on the chronicle because of downtime activities. Best case, that is 10 minutes for 2 players. Worst case, that is 60 minutes for 6 players.
I don't do Play by Post, but that does allow for ALOT more time to work with chronicles. One doesn't have to deal with players dropping, adding, changing characters at the last minute as much as a game night or con. All of this impacts just how much pre-filling can be done on a chronicle.
Season 2 chronicles will be much easier as GMs don't need beginning balances any more. This will shorten my time completion time of chronicles. But I still think it will take 30 minutes to get 6 chronicles out at the end of the session.
For cons, I make the extra effort to get them out. For game nights, when most of the time we are finished between 10:30p and 11:00p, the next day is a reasonable target to get the chronicles out.
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Is there really no creative solution for speeding this up? Here are mine:
Pass around a tablet; have people put in their own information into paizo.com. This doesn't need to be done at the end of the game, and then at the end, all the GM needs to do is push "Save and Exit." This is definitely what I'm doing if I ever need to self-report a live game.
If I'm not allowed to self-report, then I'll pass around a tablet with a Google Doc opened. People punch in their own PFS number, and then when the GM gets to The Official One and Only Reporting Terminal, they just open up the Google Doc and C&P. This at least eliminates all the handwritten transcription errors. If I have a few minutes during a break, I might even punch in their PFS numbers into a dummy event just for the autofill (and then cancel the dummy event) so that I can ask someone about discrepancies before the game ends.
Are you providing tablets/solid wifi connections to all GMs in Organized Play at physical conventions?
If not, this seems a bit narrow for who can do it, and ignorant of the realities that at least some GMs can face at a meatspace convention (myself included).
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Season 2 chronicles will be much easier as GMs don't need beginning balances any more.
Are you providing tablets/solid wifi connections to all GMs in Organized Play at physical conventions?
Also, the time it takes for six people to input and pass is likely to hit the reporting timeout that happens fairly often in my experience.
If these are now the biggest barriers to fast, online reporting, I don't know what to say. These all seem like pretty trivial problems. Maybe I'm just an expert problem solver who deserves not one, but two stars for my fridge.
I could post the solutions for these but it's going to start getting condescending to explain the details at this point.
This problem is a problem that can be solved multiple ways with current technology and no structural changes required on Paizo's end (the latter is admittedly a huge barrier). If people are more interested in getting a decent system up and running, I'm happy to help (including lending my $79 smartphone). If people are more interested in complaining about how Paizo hasn't spoon fed us the perfect system, I'll shrug and walk away.