Official PaizoCon 2013 Feedback Thread!


PaizoCon General Discussion

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Lantern Lodge Customer Service Dire Care Bear Manager

Every year we do our best to make the current PaizoCon better than last year's PaizoCon. So, here is an official thread which I will be reviewing for PaizoCon 2014 where you can leave your feedback for things you liked or didn't like, what worked and what didn't. I have my own little pile of changes I want to make for next year, but I would love to hear from attendees too!

Feel free to bring up feedback for all things PaizoCon 2013 including things happening from the point tickets went on sale last winter!

Thanks
Sara Marie

Lantern Lodge Customer Service Dire Care Bear Manager

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While I do love a good laugh, please keep this thread for realistic, non-joke feedback. Thanks :D

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

I really enjoy that the swimming pool area is protected from the outer elements, which allows it to be utilized under any weather conditions. I do miss the locality of the everything in easy walking distance from Redmond of last year. Though being able to utilize the public transit system has been pretty well worth it so far.

Denny's Restaurant is in decent walking distance, especially with using my walker, though the treck back up the hill is more painful. Thankfully there is the hot showers and pool and sauna to help me with that. I just wish it wasn't so difficult to walk around without support after getting out of the pool and hot tub. I am really thankful for the access to them.

I believe that I have been able to grow in the developments of my health from last year into this year and have gotten stronger in the management of using my walker and my surrounds for positive support and hopefully in the next couple years my son will me joining me to these events.

It has been wonderful to see and visit with some of people that I met last year, having been my very first con event. For the most part everything has been pretty decent.

The Exchange

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

I have to say I was a little disappointed to show up after getting off work, a little after 6, to find out registration was already closed. I understand there were only limited things going on tonight, but even so I wasn't able to attend any of them because I wasn't able to get my badge.


Minor thing, but it would be nice if the banquet tickets were the same size as the badges. That way they would easily fit in the badge holder that is provided. I like to keep all my stuff in one place.

Sczarni RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

I dislike my inability to attend, but you can't help that,

For us who are unable to be there, more updates on the blog and the Facebook would be great. I would enjoy even pictures of people having fun. Show us more reasons to come join you next year!

Be sure to keep us up to date after the banquet tonight. We grow restless until we have heard every detail.


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I wasn't able to attend due to lack of childcare - but I have to send a huge THANK YOU!

The Master of Coin signed my Core book for me! I sent it with a friend who was able to go and he tracked Chris down for me.

I wasn't sure where else to post this - but definitely grateful!

Master of Coin

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Celiwyn wrote:

I wasn't able to attend due to lack of childcare - but I have to send a huge THANK YOU!

The Master of Coin signed my Core book for me! I sent it with a friend who was able to go and he tracked Chris down for me.

I wasn't sure where else to post this - but definitely grateful!

/bow

It was my pleasure.

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Bullet list!

Pros:

- Paizo staff was awesome
- Close proximity to airport
- Hotel restaurant was pretty good (though some complained it was pricey, but I'm used to that from hotels)
- Preview banquet was fantastical
- Gaming is always great
- Good list of people as guests of honor
- Cheap/tasty Italian food that delivers until 4am
- Registration line actually moved pretty quickly

Cons:
- No restaurants really in walking distance
- Preview Banquet cut into game time for Saturday afternoon sessions, so in the future timed events like Bonekeep shouldn't be scheduled in that slot.
- Con did not seem like it had a lot of spare room. Gamers were overflowing in the lobby area, and there wasn't a whole lot of spare area for people to run side games/etc.
- Store & Registration closed early
- No Pre-Reg on Thursday
- Gaming area didn't have wifi freely/easily available even though the rest of the hotel did. Not crucial but sometimes like to check the PRD for some reference or another.

You're going to need a bigger venue than the Marriott real soon if Paizocon keeps growing!

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Sara Marie wrote:
While I do love a good laugh, please keep this thread for realistic, non-joke feedback. Thanks :D

To be more specific, posts that say "have it in my city instead" will be removed; realistically, for the foreseeable future, PaizoCon can only happen within a short drive of our office.

Also, PaizoCon 2014 will be in the same hotel, and on the same weekend, so keep that in mind when determining what's realistic feedback.


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- The Delve game was a lot of fun - I guess you're thinking of more tables of it going next year. I'd encourage that, and get the word out a bit more. I played a few times, and every time someone came by and saw it, they'd say "What's this? How does this work?" - so some more info on it for attendees would be good (though then I'd have more competition).

- Hotel restaurant was a bit expensive, and quite slow - a bit more information on what else is nearby would be helpful, so Paizoans don't swamp it at lunch time and risk missing their next session.

- I brought my 12-year-old son, to what was a first con for both of us. Everyone was sooooo nice to him - folks running the critical-roll-booth (he won Ultimate Equipment and was thrilled), other gamers at the table, the folks at the Delve table who let him GM a combat, and Jason Buhlman, SKR and Rob McCreary, who took time to talk to him about how they got into the gaming business. Best father/son activity we've ever done, I'll look back on it fondly for a long time to come, and we'll be back.

I know you folks at Paizo hear this a lot from your devoted fans on the boards, but you really do rock, and you made my boy very happy indeed.

Sczarni RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.

While I wasn't there this year, I do plan on being there next year. Maybe one of the solutions to the food issue is to invite food trucks to come by at lunch time. If you can't get people to the food places, bring the food places to them.


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This was my third PaizoCon and I thought that the mustering for PFS was brilliant and well done.

The Diversity in Gaming panel was fantabulous.


Saturday afternoon slot being cut short at the last moment was problematic. Also mustering for PFS was done a little different each session without prior Instructions to players. This caused numerous players with tickets on Sunday morning to be bumped from their tables for walkins.

Shadow Lodge

Really enjoyed it. My first Con of any sort (started PF late last year). The Siege of Diamond City was excellent, I really hope to do something like this again.

As I'm new and have played with several people who have received racial boons I was a little disappointed with two of the three boons I received (possibly just rolled very poorly) as I felt they seemed lackluster.

Hope to attend next year!

Contributor

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I liked the hotel, the staff were great and the pool area was very cool. The free WiFi was a huge plus for me. The restaurant was a little pricy, but that just made me eat less... We actually requested a fridge for our room, so we had some food there which saved cost. From the point of view of someone flying in for the con, this venue could not have been more convenient. A free short ride from the airport, a short walk to the light rail into town.

The seminars were very good, though one room that was scheduled for seminars, readings, etc was taken over by gamers... That turned out to be a non-issue, as we simply redirected the attendees to a new venue.

It was a huge treat for me to meet the Paizo staff, and I want to thank everyone for their hospitality, friendship, and camaraderie. Thanks also to the people who bought out all the copies of Pirate's Honor from the store...you made my day!

Extra special thanks to Kyle for an awesome Meet and Eat, although that was not a "con event", it really started things out right.

Well done, Paizo!

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games

CalebTGordan wrote:
While I wasn't there this year, I do plan on being there next year. Maybe one of the solutions to the food issue is to invite food trucks to come by at lunch time. If you can't get people to the food places, bring the food places to them.

That's actually a very interesting solution. Seattle does have a pretty good number of roving food trucks, and they could potentially make a bundle if they were able to set up nearby. I'm sure WHERE exactly would be a good spot that's close to the hotel; maybe in the back side of the Marriott hotel.

I'd second that as an idea to explore.

Liberty's Edge

Starfinder Superscriber

Mostly things were quite good. One bit of negative feedback, and one thought. This is going to be a message all about bad things, which makes me sad because overall I had a great time, enjoyed it, and was impressed with how both Paizo and the hotel staff ran things. Actually, I do have to give one specific bit of positive feedback: when I got to the registration line not long after 7AM Friday morning, I saw a huge line all the way down the hall and around the corner. I thought, d'oh, not gonna get any breakfast today before my 8AM game, if I even make the game. However, I was through the line by 7:20. The reg folks were doing a great job of moving a massive and overwhelming line.

OK, first, the negative feedback: the PFS mustering was screwed up on Sunday morning. I think it mostly worked out, but I don't know how bad the chaos was for games other than the one I was in. There was some confusion about the times; I guess in the program it said the games started at 8, but online and on the tickets it said at 9. I didn't look at the program book, I just looked at my ticket. As such, I showed up at 8:50 (having learned from previous slots that they weren't going to let players in early), and found out that the PFS game I was in was already full. The guy mustering told me to go kick out one of the non-ticketed players there. While the table said that they would play with 7, a few minutes later a pair of people with tickets showed up. That was too many... but those two people just decided not to play. That was nice of them, but they shouldn't have been put in that position; they weren't late for the game! (The GM also said that GMs in general weren't too excited to have players coming in at 8:30 when they thought they still had another half hour to get set up.)

If there is a printed discrepancy between starting times, you should stick with the times that the ticketed people think that they need to show up, or you should be careful to announce as widely as possible that the times are different.

Second, the thought: except for the time screw-up Sunday morning, the only real negative about the convention (well, OK, other than the condition of the men's room near the convention rooms on Sunday morning... YUCK!) was the utter and overwhelming din in the PFS room. People had to yell to be heard over the din, which of course just made the din worse. It's the classic snowballing of being in a large party room or restaurant. Many people were having trouble hearing what GMs and players were saying, especcially if they had a quiet voice, and many people were losing their voices over the weekend. While it would mean that fewer tables would fit, I wonder if it might be possible to put in some sound-absorbing dividers in the room, partitioning the room into several sub-rooms, that might mitigate the din? It is worth thinking about. I know it's a tradeoff -- it either means having fewer PFS tables (and, looking around, they were all full, so that's not great), or having to rent an additional room or more in the hotel, but the loud din was a bit of a damper on general enjoyment (and the second most exhausting thing-- sleep deprivation being the most-- about the convention).

I played two non-PFS games in the room accross the hall. The din there was pretty bad too... but in comparison, it was not nearly so bad. (I'm told there were some games in private rooms... lucky!)

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6, Contributor

Liked the hotel. Had a great time. Banquet was just about perfect this year. So thanks for all the hard work and the big success :)

Venue - agree that outside food would be nice, but this location has a lot going for it, and did a better job.

Date - the 4th is a hard holiday for me to miss. So I didn't show until Friday afternoon. Next year, I'll miss Friday entirely. If it stays on the 4th in 2015, that'll put the holiday on the Saturday, which is a really tough call as far a going at all. So I'm hoping that the con shifts a week two years from now.

Gaming Space - I never played in the big room, but in the smaller rooms, I thought the noise was pretty manageable.

Social - the layout for the bar and lobby meant I constantly ran in to people to chat with. Nice.

Thanks again.


I kinda wish the Store opened and shut later, but this con was awesome.


Pros
-------
* Proximity to the airport was a big plus.
* The swag was very generous, greatly improved from my last Paizocon (2011).
* The Preview Banquet food was amazing.
* The central atrium environment was awesome for gaming, or for just hanging out.
* The Special on Friday night was awesome – loved the dynamic flow of the battle.
* The Delve was great fun, and should be dramatically expanded to include more tables and minor prizes – Convention mini repaints, Paizo D20s, etc., building up to T-shirts, etc. for enough successful runs. Move the chips from PFS to the Delve?

Cons
-------
* Lack of registration window on Thursday night, especially for slot 1 GMs. At the least, get the convention program in attendee’s hands on Thursday.
* Noise level in PFS room.
* 4th of July scheduling made it tough to attend, and impossible (for me) in 2014.
* Too few dining options in walking distance of the hotel.
* Excess chairs (2-3 per table!) in the PFS room wasted precious space.
* Lack of planning/information in general. For example, no one seemed to know when/where the banquet line was forming, and when it did form it went directly through the lobby(!).

Grand Lodge

Disclaimer: This was my first PaizoCon so I can't compare it to previous ones.

Location: Great location for getting to it via transit, possibly a bit to small of a hotel. I know for 2014 it's already set for there again, but you might want to look at a larger location for 2015. The Double Tree just down the street a ways is bigger, better pricing on food at their restaurants and closer to other food options. I don't know if it would be considered too big though. (That is where Norwescon has been held as long as I can remember.)

Mustering: While I find it great that I was able to get into every slot despite not being signed up for anything, on Sunday I noticed they totally changed the procedures. On Friday and Saturday everyone without tickets had to wait till the actual "start" time (8am) before empty seats were given away. On Sunday they were already giving them away almost half an hour before the scheduled start time (9am). There needs to be some clear and posted rules for mustering and it should be followed consistently.

Volunteers: I think the way Volunteers were treated in regards to them finding slots to play needs improved. Perhaps spot 7 of every table should be reserved for Volunteers first, and non-ticketed only after there are no Volunteers wanting the spot. (Even though this might have kept me from playing in a slot as I hadn't Volunteered this year.) This would basically mean no tables start out "full" so even non-ticketed might have a better chance.

Banquet: While I loved attending the banquet, there are others who did not attend and we took the space of where the official PFS games were being run. This is probably more related to space/location for the convention, but I believe there needs to be at least some space dedicated to run official PFS games during the Banquet (there are bound to be a few GMs who aren't going to the Banquet.) I think it was stated there were somewhere around 700 people there and only half were at the Banquet.

All that said, I had an awesome time, despite my highest level character (ok, only level 4) dying in the first slot of the day on Friday. At least my other character lived for all the rest of the convention and is now level 4.

See you all next year.

Dark Archive

rknop wrote:
OK, first, the negative feedback: the PFS mustering was screwed up on Sunday morning. I think it mostly worked out, but I don't know how bad the chaos was for games other than the one I was in. There was some confusion about the times; I guess in the program it said the games started at 8, but online and on the tickets it said at 9. I didn't look at the program book, I just looked at my ticket. As such, I showed up at 8:50 (having learned from previous slots that they weren't going to let players in early), and found out that the PFS game I was in was already full. The guy mustering told me to go kick out one of the non-ticketed players there. While the table said that they would play with 7, a few minutes later a pair of people with tickets showed up. That was too many... but those two people just decided not to play. That was nice of them, but they shouldn't have been put in that position; they weren't late for the game! (The GM also said that GMs in general weren't too excited to have players coming in at 8:30 when they thought they still had another half hour to get set up.)

rknop, I think I was the person mustering for you on Sunday morning (tier 1-5?). The mustering began when I asked to start. The issue I ran into was several GM cancellations along with a seminar that was cancelled that morning. I tried to seat everyone with a ticket, but if there are 12 people with a ticket for the same scenario and only one gm, there is not much I can do about that. That said, everyone (and I do mean everyone) who rolled up to the tier 1-5 mustering station was seated at a table playing a game. I am sorry that it may not have been the game for which you registered, but all had a game to play.

Again, I apologize for the chaotic nature of Sunday morning and I too wanted things to go more smoothly. I tried to do the best with what I was given. If this fell short of your expectations, I'm sorry.

jon dehning
VL Minneapolis MN

Sovereign Court

I had a great time at the convention myself. Mustering didn't feel that organized to myself. I know a few people who would be sent to a high table then others joined that were lower levels. I feel just having a board outside saying like 4-18 (high) table 20 would be enough as we should be able to find something. This was how most people got to tables on Friday before we all got asked to leave then got sent the mustering started. The hotel itself was nice and the staff was great there!

Dark Archive

Bullet list! (Nicks good idea)

Pros:

- Paizo staff was awesome... I had a great pull of GMs most were venture captains or venture lieutenants. The GMs are usually good at Paizo con, it was just one step higher, the only thing I missed was the usual Dragonmoon GMing Session.
- Preview banquet was good, better than last year. Lisa took her constructive criticism to hart.
- Registration line actually moved pretty quickly
- SWAG was great

Cons:
- No restaurants or markets really in walking distance (I know it is unrealistic for next year but when you can take it into consideration please do)
- Noise not good but still better than last year and much better than Gencon
- Preview Banquet cut into game time
- Store & Registration closed early
- Gaming area didn't have wifi freely/easily available even though the rest of the hotel did. Not crucial but sometimes like to check the PRD for some reference or another.
- I miss the 2nd and 3rd years of Paizo con location but those years of a smaller con in sub divided rooms are long gone.

Sovereign Court

Pros: the hotel was really nice (definitely not the concrete box one might expect when the phrase "airport hotel" are heard) and the staff was great.
The spread at the banquet was really quite good ... Definitely better than the Coast in '09 and '10 and a better than last year as well.
Plenty of space for off schedule gaming.
Had a blast with all the games I was in, even the scenario where my PC was unconscious for about 80% of the time.
And it was great to catch up with folks from previous years and to meet some more folks from the boards.

Cons: no food options in the immediate area ... Not a big deal if you had a decent break between events, but not so hot for back to back events.
Requested a fridge, but no dice. :( Not a biggie though.
There was no dresser in the room. Again, not a huge thing, but something to be aware of.
And seconded on the men's room by the pfs hall by Sunday. :p

THE BIGGEST PRO: getting word for the dates and location for next year now as opposed to December or January ... Makes planning so much easier!

Grand Lodge

I would like to see early registration for Thursday night, if possible. The line would be smaller and people would have more rest before starting a long Friday. I will say this year's registration was swift compared to PaizoCon 2012.

This venue was just fine. There are always going to be trade-offs. I personally bring all my food for the weekend so that I don't have to worry about what I'm going to eat in a pinch, or paying high prices. Is reasonably priced catering a possibility? What about inviting food vendors? I'm a big fan of the path of least resistance and would certainly hate to see significant burden placed on Paizo to organize food options in addition to running the con.

Lastly, I just want to say GREAT JOB to all Paizo staff. You are incredible people and I'm aware that this event must be exhausting. We appreciate you all!


A very minor thing:

The badges made it easy to read people's real names, but much harder to read their forum names. Maybe they could both be large-ish font in black, rather than the forum tag being smaller and greyed out?

I had a couple of encounters where I thought I knew who someone was and was trying to subtly read their forum name and couldn't do it. I did meet some new folks that way, but it would be great to be more easily able to read forum names, so we can meet more people from these wonderful boards.


xebeche wrote:
What about inviting food vendors?

This is an intriguing idea, depending on the availability of space. If there were, say, nearby areas for food vending trucks to set up, they'd have several hundred people more likely to go to a vendor parked on a corner nearby rather than walking four or five blocks to Denny's and back again. Might come down to availability of space and the limits of local laws though.

My suggestion is directed at those attending the con rather than Paizo. Please, please, PLEASE be considerate of your fellow convention attendees. Standing in big circles and knots in the halls talking while others are trying to get to or from events is a real pain. Move your conversation to the side, or perhaps outside. It's one thing when PFS has a crowd of people waiting outside a room for tables, but there were many times when there was a main thoroughfare blocked by people just standing around shooting the breeze and not paying attention to much else. Try not to leave your game bags lying around for folks to trip over as well. Who wants Paizocon ruined by a sprained ankle or the like from a bad fall?

Silver Crusade

I didn't attend, but I do have some feedback on getting convention news to non-convention-goers.

The banner posted at the top of the site during the Con said that news from the convention would be posted on the blog. But the blog ran only pictures, no substantive news. Not even a recap of the major announcements after the Banquet.

That's a problem of expectation-setting. I suggest that you either change blog practices (a list of main points from the Banquet could easily be prewritten) or change the banner (we're at the con! watch the forums for news and we'll recap everything on the blog next week!).

Liberty's Edge

So, had an awesome weekend at Paizocon. Kudos to everyone at Paizo for a fantastic show. My 3rd Paizocon and by far the best so far. I'm eager to see if you can top it for next year.
The hotel was good, and a significant number of the staff went above and beyond to make me and the folks I was hanging with feel really welcome. I hope they were like that to everyone.
I felt sorry for the hotel security guy who came into the pool area Saturday night after the banquet to tell the 10-12 of us having a few drinks that we were too noisy. He was obviously not sure how to raise the issue - but we bailed him out cos there was no other reason for him to be there. Could you maybe ask the hotel for next year to reserve rooms that open onto the pool deck for con attendees. I'm assuming the noise complaints came from "muggles" but have no hard facts to back it up.

Registration was a bit chaotic, as it is at every con I've ever been to. There seemed to be a lot of Paizo people around on Thursday, so would it be possible to open rego Thursday evening, if only for a couple of hours, to reduce the Friday morning chaos? Also on that note, if there's going to be a priority line for people running events in the 8AM Friday slot, would it be possible to have it clearly marked? Having a town crier or two walking up and down the line was a bit hit and miss.
That said, the line moved much faster than last year.

Banquet. Wow is about all I can say. So much better than previous years and I'm glad I decided to turn up after all. And the line moved really quickly compared to last time. I hope Jeff wasn't too inconvienced by being stuck in the hall the whole time. And huge thanks to the mobile bar staff for running to the main bar for us.

The PFS room could have used a little more space between tables. I guess the hotel isn't used to "gamer sized" people trying to move between tables. Is there a bigger room available? Or a second room, so we can have a little more room to move?

As has been mentioned already, the location of the bar/lounge made it really easy to bump into people to be sociable. For me, the social aspects of a con are the main reason for going.

Best summing up I can think of is - when can I get a badge for next year?


Sorry, I was in a hurry when I posted that. To clarify, it was a pain not being able to get into the store until my events had already started. I'm not sure if anything can be done about that, but it's the only problem I really recall with the con. Well, aside from that restroom.

Oh, there was one other thing: Price tags! I kept having to bring things to the desk at the store just to work out how much, say, the Terah World Guide cost. Pain in the arse.

I'm writing this in the car and plan to post it when I get home, so sorry if this point has already been covered by that time.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Pros:

- Hotel is very nice. Good/Clean Rooms. Nice pool (no time to use!). Friendly service
- Paizo staff/volunteers were awesome. I was with my 10 year old, and he was made to feel welcome, players and GMs listened to and welcomed his ideas. We played 4 PFS sessions and all were great experiences. He had great luck at the loot table! In short very good experience and a great place to bring my child.
- I only got "paint reaper" for lottery and that was a great session. I look forward to one day getting into one of the gaming sessions!
- PFS was great. (Again, our GM's were awesome. Every game was a unique and wonderful experience).
- Banquet food was good (my kid found stuff to eat, especially dessert).
- Banquet presentations were lively, entertaining, and content rich. My 10 year old said, "We are definately doing that next year". When you announced Bestiary 4 he said, "Yesssss!" (He studies them ... very useful at the gaming table.)
- Was great getting a sketch and meeting Jim Zub. Definately keep the artists, etc coming as guests!
- Registration line was smooth and fast.
- Registration loot was Awesome. (<b?Best loot bag of any Con fun or professional I've been to.</b>)

Cons:

- The biggest problem was mustering. In one case we showed up Sunday morning 10 minutes early (with tickets), and found the table already seated. I see an earlier post with this problem explained. <b>Though I think there should be a specific well documented/communicated window that ticketed people need to be there before the tickets spots being given up. There should be no deviation from that (at least don't go EARLIER.</b>. Maybe if there was a way to pop out during a session and confirm you were going to be at the next, that might help prevent a ticketed spot being given up and then taken back when they show up with their ticket. Note: Every session I had tickets for, I did get a seat and Paizo staff/volunteers were great about dealing with that. I do feel bad for non-ticketed people that I saw getting spots, and then losing spots to ticketed people.
- Very noisy (Don't know how to deal with that ... a quick search for an area effect noise cancellation device does not bring anything up. :) )
- July 4th as the date is a negative for me. I know the day off is a boon for many that are coming to PaizoCon. Would be interesting to take a survey to see how many people prefer July 4th over non-4th.

The con was well run, went very smoothly, and was a load of fun for both my 10 year old and I.

Thanks Pazio

Contributor

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Pros--
Paizo staff members were wonderful!

Hotel staff great.

Panels were very interesting.

Cons--
I had banquet tickets but could not get a seat. Husband has back problems, so we could not stand in that long line, and by the time we got there, after waiting for the line to die down, no seats were left. I would have liked to have seen the preview, as that was what I paid for. We had to eat In the gaming room across fom the banquet. That was crappy. Can folks with health issues not get in earlier?

No restaurants close by. We ended up eating from 7-11, as we could not afford the hotel restaurant's food.

Hotel charged for wifi.

Fun con!

The Exchange

Premustering. Can't emphasize it enough. PFS is supposed to be ORGANIZED play. :)

Webstore Gninja Minion

Christina Stiles wrote:
I had banquet tickets but could not get a seat. Husband has back problems, so we could not stand in that long line, and by the time we got there, after waiting for the line to die down, no seats were left. I would have liked to have seen the preview, as that was what I paid for. We had to eat In the gaming room across fom the banquet. That was crappy. Can folks with health issues not get in earlier?

Please, please, please let us know if you need assistance getting seated—we will happily give you priority seating if you have a physical impairment, but we can't help if we don't know. I had two empty seats at my table too! :(

Contributor

Oh, and our banquet tickets weren't in our packet again this year. We had to get Vic to hand write them. I don't know if it had to o with us having Kobold Press badges and not regular ones, but this is the second time it has happened.


This was our fourth paizocon, and each year it gets better. The GMs were all fantastic and I learned a lot while sitting at their tables. Next year I will need to bring along some groceries so I can eat between games, and my one problem is solved.

The banquet was a dramatic improvement over previous years!

Thanks to the wonderful volunteers and brilliant GMs who made this a great event!!


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber
zylphryx wrote:
THE BIGGEST PRO: getting word for the dates and location for next year now as opposed to December or January ... Makes planning so much easier!

+1 to this. This is huge.

zylphryx:
Sorry I didn't make it this year and missed ya, Dain. Planning to get there next year, though!


Well this was my first Paizocon so I can't compare it to any others so here were my impressions

Pro
-hotel was nice and very close to the airport
-THE MEET AND EAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-The Banquet. Got to sit with SKR, big highlight, and exciting upcoming products.
-Getting to meet so many people an put faces to names. Painlord (truely a pleasure to speak with though only briefly), Rogue Eidolon, SKR, Denis Baker, Todd Morgan, Big Kyle, Gary McBride (So many fantastic stories), Mike Brock and so many others.
-Flying to and from the con with Thursty. Bonus of living in Winnipeg he was a great travelling companion.

They say that people make a con great and these people any many more that I meet really were the key to that.

Con
-food options were somewhat pricey and limited to just the hotel restaurant and a Denny's. Food Trucks would have been a nice option.
-Store was not as accessible as I would have liked, I was running alot of games and would have been nice if the store stayed open after the game slots a bit more. I was able to do some shopping but it was rushed and would have liked more time.
-Being able to pick up my orders at the store and saving myself shipping costs. From what I was told this was something that was done at other Paizocon's and would have been nice to do.

Looking forward to next year


The Paizo staff was great! It was my 3rd year in a row at the con and they've been approachable and friendly every single time, that makes a huge difference when deciding to attend the con next year.

More food options closer to the hotel would be great, but maybe that's something we the attendees can address with a message board thread of good delivery places. I saw a post above from Nick mentioning a place that delivered tasty Italian food until 4am, even a few good recommendations like that would be great to have listed in one location.

Liberty's Edge

This years PaizoCon was interesting to say the least. I've attended every one except the very first one and I enjoyed myself immensely. All of the PFS games were run with imagination and the players were equal to the task at hand.

I thought the hotel was fine and as far as the cost of the meals I had anticipated that as part of the cost of the Con. The only minor squibble I had was simply the location of my room. On the fifth floor and clear around the other side of the hotel. I could not believe how far I had to walk. ;) Frankly I went to the Con to eat and drink. Not to have to think about exercise, I do that all the time in my other life!

Look out though as here comes the other shoe.

The mustering was horrible (sorry not going to candy coat it). People yelling and way too much chaos. Friday morning I was met with confusion and frustration and it didn't get better. Except for Sunday morning, which for me seemed to be the best day. Other than the fact that I was sent to a high level table (good) and then low level players showed up. There was no GM and another table (same game) had a GM but no players? The first table I was seated at ended up (before WE figured it out) trying to seat 9 players. It was a 3-7 and we had every level from 3-7 and again the other table didn't have one player.

Actually the Season 5 Special mustering was fine also. Other than the group of players who didn't have a full group standing in the doorway as we (with a full table of players) were trying to get in, it was fairly well organized. But again we were prepared for that specific event.

Not sure why the mustering changed from the way it had been for the previous years? It seemed to work. You went to the board, found your game and the table it was at and you sat down. The GM then waited until the appointed starting hour and if the table wasn't full, went to the hall and pulled from non-ticketed players, who were patiently waiting in the muster area. No muss no fuss. Certainly no frustration for players with tickets. And maybe less frustration for non ticketed players wanting to play.

Now comes the hard part. Do I have a solution? Unfortunately, no I don't. Other than going back to the old system and I have a feeling that's not going to happen. It's too bad as the Con has been fun but a headache every 5-6 hours just doesn't seem like a healthy way to spend your weekend. Especially when it really shouldn't be that bad.

As I said the games were great, once I was able to sit down and get my blood pressure under control.


This was my first year attending PaizoCon. I found all of the lectures absolutely wonderful; interesting, informative, and entertaining. My friends and I especially enjoyed the one with the former TSR employee's who told us interesting stories about days long ago.

Unfortunately, we were greatly disappointed with the Banquet. We had purchased tickets with the understanding that this was to be a dinner with a Paizo employee or special guest at our table. We were really looking forward to asking some questions about Paizo products, and hopefully hearing some more great stories.

However, we did not have an employee or a special guest at our table. A volunteer GM sat with us for about 10 minutes at the beginning of the banquet, but he spent the entire time talking to the one player he already knew. Once he left we did not receive any other visitors.

This was not what the banquet advertisement had sold us on, and we were left feeling disappointed and sort of robbed. It would have been nice if Paizo had come through on this, since it was really the only reason we went to the banquet in the first place.

Overall, the convention really was fun. We chatted with a lot of players, debated some rules theory with a DM, and bought some great new additions for our Pathfinder library. Unfortunately, we are not sure if we will bother buying tickets to the banquet next year since we don't really trust Paizo to uphold their end of the arrangement anymore.


AAAllen wrote:


Unfortunately, we were greatly disappointed with the Banquet. We had purchased tickets with the understanding that this was to be a dinner with a Paizo employee or special guest at our table. We were really looking forward to asking some questions about Paizo products, and hopefully hearing some more great stories.

However, we did not have an employee or a special guest at our table. A volunteer GM sat with us for about 10 minutes at the beginning of the banquet, but he spent the entire time talking to the one player he already knew. Once he left we did not receive any other visitors.

This was not what the banquet advertisement had sold us on, and we were left feeling disappointed and sort of robbed. It would have been nice if Paizo had come through on this, since it was really the only reason we went to the banquet in the first place.

I believe they did say somewhere that with the banquet being expanded that not every table would have a Paizo employee this year, though I can understand the disappointment you felt. I think anymore, getting to sit with someone from Paizo is going to be luck of the draw and how early one begins standing in line for the banquet


For my first Paizocon ever and my first con in 2.5 years that I didn't GM I had an absolute blast. From the meeting of people that I only know from the forums to the just overall feel of the convention. So many things were positives, the only negative I would have from my perspective would be the lack of available food choices -- though I wonder how much of that was because the hotel wasn't used to the overtaking us gamers can do and budgets that we have.

Shadow Lodge

This was my first PaizoCon.

Pros:
* Great people
* Exceptional GMs
* Amazing Paizo staff
* Hotel was clean, beds were comfortable, bar staff excellent

Cons:
* Hotel is remote from the "best of Seattle", very little within walking distance
* Costs $80-100 round-trip from hotel to downtown area via cab/towncar and a pain to use public transit with little limited time, which is part of...
* Time slots fixed. 8p-1p, 1p-6p, 7p-12a. No real option to get away for 2 hours and be able to come back and get into a game (say if you went offsite from noon to 2pm) until many hours later. Would be great if the PFS event start times were more staggered to allow offsite activities for a few hours without giving up a 6 hour window. Or a later starting slot (10am?) for those of us who ended up staying up too later carousing.
* Food access at the hotel! With little time to spare since you HAD to make a session on time or miss PFS for ~6 hrs, the little deli RAN OUT OF FOOD. This mean really "roughing it" or giving up on gaming in order to eat.
* The banquet. By the time we got our plates and food, there was nowhere to sit, so we ended up giving up on the banquet and heading offsite to eat instead. Encountered almost a dozen folks in the same boat. I'd call this the lowest point of the con.
* Gaming hall noise. Some exceptional GMs and players were hurt by having to repeat themselves 2 or 3 times in the big hall. Not sure if it's coincidence, but all my games in the smaller side hall or private rooms had *HEAPS* better role-playing. I could see for a first-time player how this could make PFS "not as good" as the alternative games offered.

And the biggest con:
* The blasted WI-FI!!! Bad even if it was paid for.

Scarab Sages

I had an excellent time at PaizoCon this year. Thanks to all of the Paizo staff for putting together a tremendous convention.

I also have to say a big thanks to Kyle for giving me one of the most memorable 4th of July celebrations in recent memory. The fireworks display and the ice sculptor of the Goblin were fabulous.

I took advantage of every moment it seemed to play games and run games leaving very little time for sleep, but it was well worth it.

Having never been at a PaizoCon before I can only compare my experience to my local convention experience. Many things are very similar like the lack of sleep and the issue with easy access food, but there are a few things that were less convenient and some things that I will be bringing home to our local convention since I liked the ideas.

I want to preface the following by saying that I really appreciate the awesome swag that Paizo gave it's GM's, I was very want to thank Mike Brock and everyone else at Paizo for the tremendous gifts you gave us GM's. My following complaint is more of a logistical issue that I saw as I am sure that Paizo does not intend to gouge their 4 and 5 slot volunteers by charging them for a full badge when in many cases they only had time to play in one game which at most was worth $10.

Initially, I had a gripe about not being able to pre-register for a single game slot that I had open as a volunteer. I thought the $50 up-front [redacted] I still think that is lame and and I hope that not too many GM's actually did that since I found the problem to really be mute when it came time to muster on Saturday morning with my friends. I was able to be seated with no problems. No I decided NOT to pay the extra $50.

As a solution to this problem, I think that when Mike Brock assigns GM's to the scenarios they will run, it is possible to give the GM's first choice at a game for their open slot or to pre-pay a reasonable price (i.e. $5-$8 per open game slot they are going to play in rather then run) for a game slot up front so they can participate in the lottery and such. I think this would give GM's especially those running the HQ or running 5 slots an extra little thank you for making the convention run. Where would you be without volunteers?

For registration, I thought it was WAY better than my home convention, which would not be hard to do, but it was really fast as I over slept on Friday morning and never thought I would get to my game on time as a GM. I was through the line in about 5 minutes, IT WAS AWESOME!!!!! Thanks Paizo staff for your efforts there.

With that said, would there be a way for GM's to get their badges and shirts before the convention actually starts(i.e. hand them out at the meet and greet or something)? We sign up to run the games WAY in advance so it would be one less thing a GM has to think about at 7 in the morning on the day of the convention. I am sure if you took a raise of hands, ALL of your GM's would agree with me on this. We have enough to think about on the morning of the convention.

As far as the hotel went, I really liked the facilities and the staff went above and beyond which I have grown to expect from Mariott. The food and the rooms were much better than the hotel we are currently using for our convention, BUT THE PRICE of the food was out of this world. I found myself trying not to eat since I really did not want to eat greasy 7-11 junk or walk to Denny's which had lame service and food. Since I was running 5 games this was most likely not the smartest thing to do.

As a solution, it would be cool if Paizo could contact some of the local places that offer delivery(and hopefully a selection other than just pizza) and get them to offer a special "PaizoCon" deal to deliver to the hotel since you have so many willing participants staying in the hotel and a great opportunity for the places to make a killing while having some very happy gamers. After the list is together put it in the swag bag with all the other goodies, the players will thank you.

The next issue was the with the room block, please get a bigger one next year. The hotel forced me to make two reservations at two different room rates and then proceeded to put $1000 hostage hold on my credit card which I am still waiting to be released(I paid cash for the room on both reservations).

I had two reservations because I had to reserve my room a couple of months before I could finalize my flight plan and sometimes it is cheaper to fly out on Monday morning than to fly out on Sunday night. I would love to be able to change my reservations at the hotel without having to be penalized and pay $200 a night or more for a room.

I hope I don't sound like a complainer as that is NOT my intention, I really enjoyed myself and even though I am tired right now typing this, it was a great experience and I hope I can do it again next year.

Liberty's Edge

Starfinder Superscriber
RyanH wrote:
- Paizo staff/volunteers were awesome. I was with my 10 year old, and he was made to feel welcome, players and GMs listened to and welcomed his ideas. We played 4 PFS sessions and all were great experiences. He had great luck at the loot table! In short very good experience and a great place to bring my child.

If your 10-year-old is the one I think he is, he was a great 10-year-old. I was at a table with a 10yo. It was a Tier 1-5 scenario that came in at APL 3.something... and we played up, but the 10yo had a 2nd (or maybe even 1st?) level druid character. He indicated he was cool playing up, but then he died partway through on a nasty encounter. However, he seemed to be fairly unfazed by it. It helped that he had a rare and awesome boon that allowed him to insta-resurrect... but, still, he was cool about the dice falling where they may.

I'm happy to have 10yos at the gaming table if they're like him!

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