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sorry for the double post, but I'm a bit high and drunk right now. But skipping out to play the special to play with a GM you prefer is rude man. It's not like the GM you were assigned to hadn't traveled 1500 miles and spent the money time and effort to run this game for you and your buddies. In the future be more considerate please.
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Hey, shouldn't you mention how you bailed on your first GM for 7-00, and how she almost didn't get to run the special at all because of it?
Is that GM on these boards? That would be awesome if we got a chance to interact with her again to smooth that over if there is still any rough feelings.
That and it would be awesome to get to know someone else on here!
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First up, regarding the table mix-up.... all that was mostly my fault for misunderstanding... everything. Second up, she was AWESOME about it and understood the situation (thank you again, if you're reading)... and finally we made sure the table was open again immediately at the muster point. Couldn't possibly have done more to fix the mistake of being mustered twice simultaneously. So... enough said, yeah?
On to things I want to talk about! Aroden (sometimes know by drunken incautious half-orcs as 'Abadar') was truly with us this eve. He took 5 damage for me more times than can be counted. He demanded that we hit his people with less than lethal force... and LO, I finally hit.
GenCon has been amazing. Tonight's special has shown me that PFS can be less than awesome, though. It was quite linear and not paced as well as 6-97. The impact and importance was lost in the time travel and, overall, the impression that we could actually affect things was missing. On the other hand, it was an amazing feat of organization and technology, and our GM Jack (Silbeg) kept it together like the pro he is.
Thanks to all: Painlord, pH Unbalanced, Pirate Rob, PapaSteve and Acre for turning tonight's special into a wonderful thing. Playing with PbPers in real life has been a total gas for me. Playing at GenCon again has been an absolute privilege. Life on the message boards will never be the same.
PS: So cheesed off that John Compton came over to say "hello" and just ended up exchanging snipes with Painlord. Okay, cheesed off a little but amused a lot.
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Wow, where to begin. Been a busy week from Sagamore setup on Tuesday through last night's special. I was introduced to Painlord(thank you for your kind words), chatted with old friends and met new ones. Thank you Auke and Thursty, for making sure I got home safely. You're the best.
To all the amazing volunteers, cheers for your hard work. To my fellow leads - we rocked it!
Finally, for Mike Brock. Thanks for the opportunity to serve the PFS community as a VO and Gencon Co-Lead. Best wishes on your future endeavors!
Here's to two more fantastic days!
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So this is my first GenCon. I've been to plenty of conventions, including several WorldCons, so I thought I kind of knew the drill...but my goodness, the scale of GenCon is just off the charts.
For practical purposes, I've really shrunk the convention down, though, by doing the volunteer thing. I'm running Card Game demos during the day, and playing in the specials in the evening, so other than a few quick walkarounds I haven't really experienced the full breadth of stuff. Which isn't a bad thing at all -- it keeps everything at a manageable level of complexity. If you're wondering about whether or not GenCon is too big for you, that would be my advice on how to handle it -- give it a whirl, but keep a fairly narrow focus. Then if you like it, branch out a bit more your next time. (Oh, and don't try to do early slots more than once or twice. That's true at all cons, but doubly true here where the scale is so much...more.)
Probably the best part has been running into and gaming with so many people I know from the boards. This is such a great group of people. Last night's special was a total blast -- Acre, Painlord, PapaSteve, Pirate Rob, and Wilmannator and especially to our GM who ran a fabulous table.
What happens when a gnome monk, a loremaster, a golden statue, a ninja, an accuracy-challenged half-orc, and a returned god wander through time? Hijinx ensue...just as you might expect.
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First up, regarding the table mix-up.... all that was mostly my fault for misunderstanding... everything. Second up, she was AWESOME...
Table shenannigans aside, I've a couple of community yahoos to talk about their experiences last night with the Special. However, many of those I asked are running many more slots than I or volunteering at the event and so they might be delayed in describing their experiences. I would to hear about how other tables did.
I'm still not regretting favoring skipping the first slot in favor of 'fourth slot'. After the Special, I was one of many yahoos that ended up at Scotty's to discuss the fun of the night. The Minnesota crew, many of the local VOs, and hangers on were there and gabbing about everything.
I didn't get back to the hotel room until well after 3am. I don't, as a rule, close out many bars. However, it was fun talking and complaining and meeting new people (like Seth Brummond, and hanging with Chris & Amanda Hays, and Nathan King...and more lost to the befoggery of beer).
More than once people wished that Kyle Baird was around. We thought that beer would cure us of that sadness, but no. Clearly, we didn't drink enough to not miss Baird. More testing might be needed.
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This morning, I rolled into the game room to check out if my team advanced in the Adventure Card Game Open Semifinal. There are two slots today at 2pm and 4pm.
Saturday 2pm:
Blood Kings (Sean, Todd, Andrew, & Crystal)
Don't Trust Tanis (Eric, Joe, Pain, Robert)
Saturday 4pm:
On the Dot (Aaron, Dan, Jesse, Todd)
And in third place...(Chris, Matt, Leslie, Jason)
To warm up for that, I'm playing in 1-2A: The Frogs. It's getting interesting.
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Wow. Round 2, the Semifinals of the ACG Open were rough.
I thought I sucked last round...this time I wish I could have been promoted to Commoner. The thing ate us and our decks. Our team of PirateRob, Doc76, Joe and myself all returned.
Much like last time, we had no idea what cards, sets, effects, APs, whatevers we'd be playing with. And it was a jumble of mished cards from all the sets (including some that don't exist for sale yet). Yet again, we had 4 crafted decks to deal with our challenges. The decks were fair and flavored, but seemingly underpowered for the challenges before us.
To me it seemed like they looked down the boards for cards players had complained about then put them in exactly the worst location for them. Tanis wouldn't confirm (nor deny) this hypothesis. But while it seemed random, it was good and tough.
Again, we had a top notch moderator eying us and making the scenario played right. This time badass Chad from the design keep had his chance to laugh at all our (mostly my) miscues and random throwing of cards around.
We scored slightly more than half the points than we did on Round 1. Ayep. Of course there was a different scoring system, but that's what we got. It is unlikely (but I am ever hopeful) of making it into the finals tomorrow at 10am.
I'm pretty sure all you have to do to prep for this tourney is know every card and every possible interaction with every other card and location for all cards in every set, including cards that have yet to see print. If you can do that, you're golden. Also, your MENSA application card is being directly thought into your brain for you to complete and transmit back.
It was fun, but the stakes were high and not sure our score was good enough.
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Ran the Special last night, my table seemed to have enjoyed it. Met Silbeg and a couple other people. Wandered over to Scotty's and had the pleasure of meeting Chris Hayes, Seth Brummond, Lucas Servideo, and Jon Denning and the Minnesota crew. (The MN guys are crazy nuts)
While at Scotty's got to meet Wilmannator and company. Found out they have there own PbP cabal that I was completely unaware of, and I thought I was fairly familiar with the majority of highly active PbPers. Had a nice conversation discussing the multitude of advantages and features of playing through the PbP format, i.e. ability to fully flesh out character personality, background, motives, and when run correctly, a deeper, richer immersion of character in setting amd story. Trying to figure out how to score an invite into their group...
Got to meet Nefreet and GM Trex (Andrew Trexler, another all stat PbPer that I have had the opportunity to play in games with).
So many more people to try to find and meet, but enjoying the community, stories, and camaraderie of PFS.
6 games in, a few hours to wander around the vendor area, (which is more than I have had for sleep since I have gotten here) and having a blast. I've met more people than I can remember, and will most certainly remember far more fun than what seems fair for a simple gamer like me.
There is something uniquely exciting about putting a face to a forum name.
Willminator and painlord are right on the money, if you aren't involved in pbp, start now. It's fun, immersive, and every bit the way I envision this game plays out in the imaginations of its players, except available for anyone to read and enjoy your story.
Then come here next year and meet the people who have inspired you to new heights of creativity and storytelling.
Cheers!
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Wow. Playing kobolds. What a beautiful opportunity to play this unusual race and a very well written and thought out scenario. If you get a chance to play, you owe it to yourself to do so!
Playing True Dragons of Absalom today, though, I have never had so much fun with players and so little enjoyment of a GM. Rather than complain, I will leave some key tips for budding PFS GMs:
- If you are not familiar with the rules, please do listen to your experienced players. If you are concerned or confused, make a ruling but ask for them to produce a reference for next time. Certainly don't tell them to "just shut up and take the damage".
- Don't cheer like a yahoo any time you've just beaten a player. They may not appreciate being beaten down as much as you enjoy doing it.
- When children - or teenagers - are at your table, realize that these are the future of PFS and try to make sure they have fun. If they are first timers, help them along with rules clarifications and the like. Certainly don't yell at them and tell them to hurry up at the first sign of them thinking about a decision.
- When a player has a pregen, realize that they may take a little longer to decide which spell to cast than for their own PC. 10-30 seconds is not an unreasonable time for a player to take with their first cast from a pregen. Harassing them about it, especially when everyone is in the same situation, is not the behavior of a good GM. Perhaps offer suggestions as to what to do in the given encounter, since as GM you have had more time to peruse the pregens for the special than the player has.
- Encourage roleplaying. Little enough of it happens during PFS random tables as is. Good ways to encourage this include joining in. A big "do not" is completely ignoring what the players have said and saying "okay, next map" without so much as a "good bye" from the NPC.
Okay, so I may have complained just a little. I know GMs spend a lot of their personal time voluntarily prepping for and running these games for us. All this awesome PFS stuff couldn't happen without them and the time they sacrifice in order to run games for us. However, their responsibility extends beyond just being there and rolling dice. After all, players are giving up their own personal time to play also.
Thank you to all GenCon GMs for your work in getting these four days to be so successful. So far, the vast majority of you have been absolutely wonderful.
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Day 3(? is that really all) some add-ons.
Got to spend a bunch of time with some VOs from other regions and had a great time both chatting and picking up tips from them. Bobby Harring (sp?), Lucas Servideo, Tim Statler, Auke Tenniga, Jeremy Chapman, Justin Peters and more (sorry if I forgot anyone, I promise it was more spelling and being tired not the people themselves). Everyone has been incredibly cool. The games I've run have been enjoyable, and the tables more so, but sometimes the slots that don't muster seem to be as much fun.
Second, the HQ staff is just killing it. The runners I've had/seen have been amazing and HQ has been on the ball about any issues I've had come up. It can't be stated enough from my perspective how awesome that is and how much easier it has made my con.
Third, I'm pretty sure you can get any GM to love you forever for something to drink or some food from the food trucks downstairs.
Fourth, Paizo staff has continually impressed me with their openness and the small snippets of time I've had to talk with a variety of them. (Also, watching John Compton explain literally every hardcover to a couple of interested players was pretty damn fun - I swear he must have been a salesman in a former life - and when he went right from that to answering a couple stupid GM questions like: hey, while I'm here what maps does this scenario use was even more impressive.)
Highlight of the day though for me personally was watching Wayne A. Reynolds quick sketch a VC as a goblin in his artbook (book of Wayne's art that is), and then getting to show it to a local player who adores goblins.
Also, I have to say I'm blown away by how a giant con like this feels small. For someone like me, it has turned a good experience into a great one.
Oh and Thurston Hillman's Kobold special was really cool and very different from anything else (at least I) have done PFS-wise, so kudos to that.
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Ronald amazing role playing opportunity iTunes are delayed and usually missed for encounters showing that a party of six level 4s built well can demolish 6 way low cr monsters. But on a large map that takes a lot of time (to setup and to run). I had a preprinted map but even so setting up each wave took a lot of time and the monsters had just too enough hp to stay up for quite some time yet were clearly outclassed (missing on 16+ die rolls is a clear sign a monster is far below a level that would challenge the team.
I've been trying to parse the first sentence and figure out what it said before autocorrect got a hold of it. No clue.
The point of this encounter was to show off the "sneaky, underhanded" aspects of the pregens. They have ample opportunities to set up traps and ambushes and totally brutalize the NPCs. If you make it to the 5-star ranks and get a chance to run this again, encourage them to get more and more creative and dirty with each wave. It's a fun role-playing opportunity.
That being said - yes, this can be a ton of role-playing. Which is great but can also take a very long time. I don't know that it needs to be cut but the GM really does need to keep an eye on time. Multiple runs will really help get a better sense of how much to allot to each section.
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Well, my AM slot of Serpent's Rise didn't make, which ismprobably a bit of a boon. As eager as I was to run, I felt a little dehydrated and a lot hoarse, so the chance to rest my voice and my everything was good. So naturally, I wandered the dealer hall instead of resting. I found some neat small things, then spent more than I should have at Tony Diterlizzi's booth. It was worth it though, as his art from M:tG ended up getting me interested in looking at the rest of his art, which put D&D and RPG's in general on my radar. He ended up being a super nice guy and sketched a shambling mound in the copy of his art book that I bought, which was a nice bonus.
While in the Sagamore after my slot didn't make, I asked a nearby GM whose table also failed to fire if he needed an extra coin. I gave him mine and introduced myself as Mitch, and he ended up recognizing me from online, which was very cool (Hi James!). I'm back at the Marriot now, thinking it's time to rest and get a meal.
My table of True Dragon's last night was excellent, and my player's had a good time, despite their master plan backfiring in a truly spectacular manner. By the end everyone was laughing and in hysterics, on both sides of the screen. All in all, it's been another excellent Gencon.
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Jack ran an amazing conclusion to our GenCon. Playing the Aspis agents who
For my part, I'm rolling up an eldritch scion magus in honor of my Aspis pregen. Can't wait until the build kicks in (at level 4 or so, most likely).
Thanks again GM Silbeg, PapaSteve, Acre and also to my favorite group of randoms at the Con yet: Neil, Andrew and Dave. You guys made my Sunday morning hangover disappear.
Finally, to all my PbP friends made flesh: you boys (and PH unbalanced) make me really look forward to another year on the boards and to meeting you again at GenCon 2016. If you missed it, PM me for my cell and come see me in Houston! If you thought Indy was hot and humid... :-)
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Crickey, have I really not posted here in 24 hours!? Pretty much having a good time.
Saturday night, I played in the We Be Kobolds with David S. (VC Athen GA), Dan C. (VC Atlanta GA), Auke T. (VC of the NL), Derek (also from GA) and a much newer pathfinder from Michigan. GM was Andrew Hoskins (VC Pittsburg). The new player literally had no more than 7 or 8 PFS sessions under his belt (playing a sorc in Society) and he was worried about all the stars at the table.
No, the new player was just great and we had a fine time expanding the domain of the Sewer Dragons. We laughed our butts off and David, as the kobold bard, had me rolling all night long. Derek had facial expressions to appropriately convey pretty much every known emotion in the most comical way. Damn, these guys could RP. I hit an slow stretch in terms of energy, but contributed as I could with the holy kobold of Sorrowmaker.
I liked my build and had tons of fun with the main NPC of the adventure...who was amazing in terms of flavor. GM Hoskins really brought the NPC to life in ways I hadn't even considered possible. He was top notch.
I crashed after that, stopping only briefly to chat and eat before bed.
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Well, this seems like a fitting time to conclude my posting for Gencon 2015, I'm sitting in the hotel lobby once more using the free internet and catching up on messages. While I managed to remember to pack all of my prep materials, I forgot a charger for my clunky old phone and am down to just whatever internet access I can scrounge up.
Meeting new people and seeing familiar faces again is always a pleasure. Meeting up with Jack/Silbeg and the rest of the Minnesota crew and GM'ing his PBP group. Meeting Andy Christian and getting to put a name to the face and talking shop. Meeting and talking to members of the Paizo team, it's always good to know that we're in good hands. Talked briefly with Painlord, who is as decent a person as they come. Along with many others, who I can't all think of at the moment.
Hitting the food trucks with Walt Sheppard and Steven Huffstutler was probably one of the better calls I made this weekend, A Taste of Heaven was pretty much spot on, and hanging out in the Sagamore while eating and meeting people made for some good times. Getting to drink Mike's beer was pretty great, and made the GM wrapup meeting after the final slot much better. A lot of good points were brought up during it, along with some head-scratchers.
The boons from Gencon (and by extension the entire coming year of cons) are all very cool. There are a variety of cool Occult and Aspis related boons incoming (along with one that will let a ranger swap out his favored enemy with Aspis Agents!) and the GM boon from this year was pretty awesome (Skinwalkers, Changelings, Samsarans, and Grippli in descending order).
I can't really think of any bad moments from the entire weekend. The only awkward bits was some random GM eavesdropping on my conversation with a different GM then jumping me for letting my party of six (APL 9) choosing to play up or down during Siege of Serpents, but it was easy to shrug the guy off, no big deal. The only other awkward moment was when I started laughing during the True Dragons GM meeting when they had to tell GM's to use their actual names on the reporting sheets and not their Paizo forum handle, I couldn't help it.
All in all, it was a great GenCon. Many excellent games of Pathfinder were played, many wonderful people were met, and good times were had all around.
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Okay let's see GenCon wrap up today. I had no tables running, but I came in early anyway. Most tables seemed to fire, so I made my way down to the exhibition hall to wander further afield than I had done in the previous days. Walked by the Paizo both in time to catch a couple of my local (and home game) players being sold a Strategy Guide by John Compton (I think I mentioned he was good at it already) so I walked up and thanked him for making my home game better. Chatted with my players for a bit before explaining that next to them was Mark Seifter (a.k.a. Rogue Eidolon) whose guides I knew they had used. They geeked out for a moment (admittedly I already was) before one asked me how much Mark would know about the Kineticist. I said he'd likely done a bunch of optimization with the class (knowing he was the designer) and they asked if he would answer a question. Got into a discussion with Mark about creating a character (based on the whistling dart guy from guardians of the Galaxy whose name escapes me at the moment) to which he described how he would do it. 1 extremely happy player later, we ran up to the Sagamore Ballroom. First we thought about doing the Paint and Take (just outside the room), but unlike previous days there was a pretty solid line.
So instead we played one quest and one Goblin Invasion. Both were cool, and I got the chance to check out the Iconic Kineticist in action. She was cool and useful - though maybe less so in my hands since I spent three consecutive full round actions playing with Gom Gom (her owlbear doll). My take away from the class and the other couple of the other Occult classes I looked at, is 1. they are not for brand new players, they are a bit complex, and 2. they seemed a bit more specialized (a thus more powerful in their specialty) than most (all?) of the previous pregens. I'm looking forward to getting a better look at them. The Goblin Invasion was amazing and had I known I might not have ever left that table. Short kind of free-from adventures featuring goblins count me in. Also, our GM was incredibly accommodating to our wacky tactics - like trying to build a goblin pyramid to get into a second floor window. And me alternating between heals on my player (who was down) and channeling to harm (yes, I played Poog, since Poog wins all the things).
Then got ready for the wrap up meeting. Mostly just packing up some stuff and waiting around for it to start. In the wait I met Andrew Christian, Steven Huffstutler, UndeadMitch, and Walter Sheppard. All of whom were pretty nice guys, drank one of Mike Brock's beers. All and all a pretty enjoyable wait.
The wrap up meeting ran a bit over an hour, but easily could have run longer I think calling it when they did worked out pretty well. Some comments celebrated what worked well and what improvements we liked (there were a lot and things did go really well IMO). Next there were questions and comments from all of us to HQ and Paizo staff. Some were good, some were bad, and some were semi-nonsensical. (It has been a long 4 days) Overall, I thought there were some good answers and some good suggestions thrown out, and felt like I was getting a pretty cool peak behind the GenCon curtain.
From there I had to say my goodbyes to some of the people I had met and head up north to meet my Mom for dinner (though a bunch of others were headed off to eat together) before heading back down to Bloomington and work (later tonight, blargh).
All in all it was an incredibly cool experience. I went for feeling like some yokel who runs and plays some game in Bloomington/Nashville Indiana to a real member of a community of gamers who are passionate about the same game. (As I type this I'm still geeking out over the experience). If you get a chance to come down to GenCon, I'd say do it. If you're think about volunteering do that too. Introduce yourself around, it'll be worth it.
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Okay...back home now and able to post without paying a kidney for internet access.
Over the course of the week I ran 5 tables of Wounded Wisp (the first on Thursday morning didn't fire), one session of Quests and half a session of the Beginner Box Kids Track (a migraine took me out midway).
I thoroughly enjoyed the tables I ran, but especially enjoyed my final table in spite of the encroaching headache. I had two pairs of young sisters (and supervising parents) playing Kyra, Amiri, and twin Merisiels. Especially in light of a friend's earlier comment at the gender disparity in the line-up for one of the specials, I was very pleased to see some young girl gamers having such a good time. And it really drove home to me how important it is to have iconics that new players can identify with to allow them to feel welcome. As a straight white male, I'm extremely spoiled when it comes to representation in all forms of media.
On the player side, I had the distinct pleasure of playing with a wonderful group of Canadians for the Friday and Saturday specials, including some of our distinguished VOs from the country to the north.
I'm still unpacking my feelings on the content of the two specials. Friday's "Sky Key Solution" left me feeling like I'd just watched "Jurassic World." I enjoyed it in the moment, but upon reflection I'm not sure if was just empty calories.
I also learned that this special was timed, rather than triggering off the players' actions. I think that might be unintentionally punitive on the higher level players, whose encounters often take longer. I do understand, though, that lower tables often run through all available encounters early and are left twiddling their thumbs. I don't have a solution for this off the top of my head.
I think one particular criticism runs across many of the interactive specials: while I eventually see progress from my actions, I'm never sure if we're doing well or falling behind as a group until the end. I'd like there to be more cues to let us know how we're doing overall.
To be fair, the Canadians and I spent a lot of time roleplaying our kobolds and grilling our captive longlegs. But I think that time needs to be accounted for in the pacing of the scenario.
I agree with others who think three waves are too much as written. I know that for us, our GM (who was excellent) spent an inordinate amount of time moving large groups of NPCs through traps.
I do look forward to reading about Varagon's eventual and certain rule over all of Absalom.
And with that, it's time to start planning my skinwalker Vigilante: mild-mannered beast-man lawyer by day, heroic human by night!
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My short summary of GenCon started on Tuesday, helping to set-up the Sagamore. On this day I got to meet Mike, Allison, Bob, Jon, and a few others that I can't recall. It was work, but I enjoyed looking at the Space while it was empty :) On Wednesday, I ran the Scions of the Sky Key Part 1 at Scotty's for Pre-GenCon, I had a blast running this one, and it was the first time I saw a Kineticist in action. After the slot, I helped Mark report those scenarios and then had to drive home that evening to get my son registered for school on Thursday (How dare they schedule the first day of school on GenCon! :) ).
For GenCon proper, I ran only two scenarios, Confirmation and Wounded Wisp, once each day, Thursday - Saturday. This would be the first GenCon where I ran scenerios and I was excited and nervous at the same time. After arriving to pick up my badge on Thursday Morning (and being chided by Mike for wearing a Colts shirt.) I quickly changed into my volunteer shirt and prepared for my first table. In the six slots that I ran, every table was unique. Some of the players had no experience in pathfinder while others only played society once a year (at GenCon). My last table on Saturday was a group of three very young children with their father and one child about fourteen with his father from Portsmouth, England. Fun group, and I had fun trying to guide them in figuring out the puzzles. I met a few others , but my normal introverted self finds it difficult to recall all of their names. (Sorry!)
Having NEVER played a pathfinder game at GenCon (I usually try other games when I'm at the convention) I purchased a ticket for the Saturday Night Special. I had a blast playing as a Kobold, and the entire table role played, some of us with our funny kobold voices, or in the fighting tactics of the kobolds themselves. (hit n' run, traps galore). It was also a privilege to share the table with Sam Polak, author of the Stranger Within, one of my favorite PFS scenarios.
On Sunday, I took the day off and slept until Noon.
Venture-Lieutenant, Indiana—Indianapolis
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I first ran games (not PFS)at Gen Con back in 2012. In 2013 and 2014, I decided to run 5 games of PFS. This year, I felt that, as the VC of Indianapolis, I needed to invest more in the con, so I served as a Tier 1 GM - I volunteered for 8 slots, but only ran 7 as my Thursday morning game didn't go off.
On Tuesday, I helped set up a the Sagamore a bit (and special thanks to Indy VO Richard Webb and Muncie VO Jay Zicht (and to Jay's son, Asher!) for helping, too!) On Wednesday, I oversaw the 20 tables (!) that went off at Scotty's Brewhouse (and thanks to those who GMed, played, or just dropped by - you all made it a success!) Wednesday night, I got to attend my first VC dinner, which was a great time to meet some fellow VCs and have some downtime before things got too hectic.
I organized a VO and Others dinner tonight for some post-con fellowship.
Without a doubt, the best part about Gen Con is the people. I got to meet a LOT of folks from here, and it IS great to put a name with a face: Chris Mortika, Andy Christian (my arch-nemesis!), Martin Shelby, Dick Gilbert, Lucas Servideo (and seriously, man, I don't know a workhorse who can do what this guy can do!), Michael Meunier, Dominick Trascritti, Thurston Hillman, Jon Cary, Pirate Rob, John Dehning, Jack Brown (mercy, that Minnesota group!)and Lord knows how many others (and I apologize if I missed you - I am extremely tired at the moment!) And, reconnecting with old friends and fellow VOs- June Soler, Michael McNearney, Michael Costello, Kevin Ingle, Bon Jonquet, Mike Bramnik, Andrew Hoskins, Leslie VanderHart, Jeremy Chapman, Chris Bonnett (my predecessor as Indy VC), and so many, many others.
My thanks to the whole of the HQ staff - you guys were just amazing, and honestly, next year, I'm willing to step into the Orange if you think I can be helpful!
Until next year, folks - hope to see some of you at local cons (and I'm going to try to get to PaizoCon next year!)
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May I ask about this Goblin Invasion? Is it a quest where you get to play the goblin pregens?
I ask because I've got one character who is a self-procaimed goblin expert, and I've been trying to play or apply credit to her from every goblin adventure that I can find.
It's a quest style thing where you play the pregens (from We Be Goblins) but my completely sleep deprived mind seems to remember that they're only running at GenCon as a promo both for Paizo and the company that produced the amazing terrain (whose name has slipped my mind). I could be wrong though.
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There won't be a lot of name-dropping on this, as my initial plan of 'play only the four specials plus get my -1 in the last two Scion modules before leveling out of them' then take time off failed somewhat miserably in a good way (for the most part). As a result, my memory of the weekend is resembling fine Swiss cheese at the moment.
Wednesday:
After spending most of the day Tuesday waiting to get to Indy and spending half an hour checking in to my hotel, the early wake-up was actually rather invigorating to make the mad dash over to Scotty's.
I had wait-listed with the sign-up in both slots and had a list of alternative options available for Mark if he needed to move me to another table to balance them out.
In the first Scotty's slot (From Under Ice) I had the distinct pleasure of both playing 'up' with three other players AND being significantly effective due to use of an exceedingly common magic item. With all honesty, I hadn't anticipated being nearly that effective. And... we all made a very good friend in Irrisen, even! Mad props to the GM (whose name eludes me after four days of con--note to self, take better notes next time!)
Hellboy was playing in the background about halfway through the first slot, but it was subtle and moody enough that it didn't really distract too much. The Golden Army wasn't too bad, and kind of bridged between the first and second slots...
The second slot was a bit tighter, but we managed to fit all six of us around the table, and our adventures into the Kaava Quarry were moving along splendidly -- that is, until the (now very campy and somewhat disturbing) Ice Pirates started playing on the large screens. Our progress would grind to a halt at odd intervals as we found ourselves discussing a plethora of issues that the movie presented.
However, even with that rough distraction, we were able to refocus on the task at hand and end our mission with a rousing success. That's when some fatigue started kicking in, and the rest of my night was spent sleep-banking for the weekend ahead...
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Alright, seeing as I'm sitting in a Starbucks waiting for my next bus, I think this is a perfect time for my write up.
Got into Indy at 4:30 am on Wednesday, the had a half-mile walk to the hotel (it was surprisingly relaxing) followed by collapsing, and trying to get a few hours of sleep.
After getting significantly more than a few hours, I headed over to Scotty's in an attempt to snipe an opening at one of the tables. Fortunately, Fires of Karamoss fit the bill, and I sat down with my Witch. Props to the GM for overcoming a high-distraction environment and illness to still give us an enjoyable table.
Armed with a shiny new(ish) Zero Pistol and the ability to phone-a-god, she was (hopefully) ready for 7-00.
My memory is a bit hazy, between my memory, three tables of Scions of the Sky Key 1, and many, many, tables of quests, I don't remember the specifics, but you all were awesome. This is the first con in a long time where I enjoyed every table I ran, seriously, all of you were awesome!
I ended up running tier 1-2 of Siege of Serpents for two players who had been taking a break from PFS for a year, and for a family with 2 ten-ish year old kids. Since the first question the kids asked upon sitting down was if they were going to fight a dragon, I chose to use Riddywipple as the intro NPC, which the kids seemed to love. All the characters were fairly low-key, so it was a fairly difficult session, but they all managed to pull through.
I got to play Sky Key solution at 10-11 the next night with my Technologist Witch and her dutiful companion Riddywipple. Our GM did his best, but we were unfortunately seated in a far corner where we were unable to see the screen or hear the announcements. That, combined with the GM being shunted from 5-6 to 10-11 with no prior notice, led to a less than enjoyable table. I understand organizing an event of this scale is difficult, but this is the 6th interactive Paizo has run, these issues shouldn't still be coming up, especially when the players paid $10 to be there, and the GMs put in a ton of prep work. It's just disrespectful to the GMs and the players, and reflects poorly on Paizo.
Saturday afternoon, I got another slot off and was able to jump into a 10-11 game of Returned to Sky with the same witch. That table was hilarious, props to the guy playing Leslie for being a joy to play with (so sorry I forgot your name!) and to the GM for putting up with the madness.
I ran True Dragons that night for a group of old-school DnD players, who were overjoyed at the chance to actually be kobolds. They all got into character immediately, and stayed that way for the entire slot, even their tactical discussions were 100% in-character. Overall, a fantastic group, and my pick for best slot of the con.
I also had the privilege of running We Be Aspis on Sunday, for an organized group. They all embraced the chance to be evil, and did a great job of RPing villains, without losing sight of their goal. I just wish the slot had been longer, so we could have spent more time roleplaying.
Props to Nefreet for being a great roommate and an all around nice guy, and props to someone who's forum name I don't know, for going above and beyond as a marshal; the axe was a great idea!
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This Gen Con like all the others has come and gone so fast. I don't get much time during the show to get on the boards and post. Now that I am finally home I have a few minutes before I am off again to run another PFS game tonight at my FLGS.
What a great Gen Con this year was. It was amazing to get to meet people like Painlord, all my players I had at my table, Janet and Sarah Brock and all the great people that I am lucky enough to call friends. Every table I ran was full of amazing people. I enjoyed every table I was a part of (player or GM), all my players loved my 3d maps and that made it worth the 104 hours I put into making them for this years show.
As it is every year, its the people I got to meet and spend time with that really make the convention what it is. The late night drinks, food and shenanigans are what give the show life, flavor and fun. I raise my glass to all those that I crossed paths with this year and to all of those I will in the years to come.
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Most of my GenCon was spent Demoing and helping Organizing the Demoing of the Card game near the Paizo Booth. I had very little free time to socialize.
I GMed 3 games.
Thursday night I GMed #6–97: Siege of Serpents with this group of players. They had fun but I thought the Special was way to Combat heavy.
Friday night I GMed #7–00: The Sky Key Solution with this group of players, myself and the players had a great time, I think it was one of the better games I have ever GMed.
Saturday night I GMed #6–99: True Dragons of Absalom with this group of players, the players loved it, especially the new mechanic added. Myself not so much, the new mechanic took up way too much time and I had to cut out all the Roleplaying interactions I was looking forward too.
By the end my feet hurt my voice was gone and decided the Convention has gotten too large for me. I think this will be my last for awhile. But I will be going to PaizoCon again in the Future.
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First time at Gen Con any Con of any kind not organized by the PFS Online VOs. Had a blast running seven slots and picking up some impromptu play on the side. Special thanks to the Jeremy Chapman (VC Southern Indiana. aka Tektite, aka the incredible guy who pulled off a Tier 1 schedule and then volunteered to cover missing tables besides), Chris Marsh (VL New Hampshire, aka Dungeon Master S), and Bill Tobin (VC Vermont/NH, aka Harpwizard) for the many introductions to many awesome folks I've PbP'd with or seen around the boards in one fashion or another.
It was also a great opportunity to finally put a face to some of PFS's most mythic online personalities. Among them John Compton, who among other things was fantastic on the mic for the specials, and Mike Brock, whom I was glad to be able to thank before he departs. Not yet Painlord, for now... Some day, Pain!
Great job and a huge thanks to everyone who made/makes PFS possible at Gen Con. Hope to see you all (and more) at another before long.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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As tradition was, GenCon was a blast. I had an awesome time and so did the folks I came with. To turn things on their heads, I HQ’d this year instead of GMing, and let me tell you how much respect I got from seeing behind the veil. Marshaling, data entry, ticketing—it feels like I was herding cats! So mad props to everyone at HQ, and extra mad props to the HQ leads this year. Without them, none of PFS GenCon happens.
I got to mingle with the best of the best: Brock, Compton, Thursty. Hung out at HQ my boys T-Mo, Bobby-JQuet, and JCary and the Convention Mommy. Toasted glasses with the Canada crew (and insulted their noble nation): Shackleton and Shackleton, Angus, and Bethany, among others. Roomed it up with UndeadMitch, Glav, and Pullman's own Steven Huffstutler. I helped invent the schvomitz, gorged myself at a little Piece of Heaven (twice!), tried to make Pazuzu a thing, and introduced Brock to Bobby Bobby.
In addition to having a monster fun time during the slots, the pre and post gaming all the volunteers did was extraordinary. I don’t think I got to bed before 3 any night I was there, but each time it was well worth it: drinking at Scotty’s, meeting up with Jon Denning and his crew for a nightcap, closing out Champions, etc. Then I topped it all off with a Sunday night game for Sean Goodman and his gang: Amir, Chris, and the Gores, Athurva and Joanna. Easily the craziest table I’ve had the privilege of witnessing since my last 13+ module.
Stupid rat warren, stupid Desna, stupid Champion of Time.
Cannot wait for next year.
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Then I topped it all off with a Sunday night game for Sean Goodman and his gang: Amir, Chris, and the Gores, Athurva and Joanna. Easily the craziest table I’ve had the privilege of witnessing since my last 13+ module.
Stupid rat warren, stupid Desna, stupid Champion of Time.
Wait a second, I thought Sean Goodman, Amir and the Gores were my gang?
Had a great time playing with you Bobby, and Steve!
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It was my first GenCon and was finally able to put more faces to names, including Painlord, who asked for some feedback. I met many new folks and many familiar faces from my three visits to PaizoCon.
The Sagamore Ballroom room is very large and when full of Pathfinders, quite impressive. I prefer the more intimate feel of PaizoCon. Odds are I wouldn't come back to GenCon, as the event is too large for me and I am not a fan of the 3 slot format, there is too little time for anything else. IN what is now retrospect, I am glad that Mike's persistent, interrogation-like prodding at PaizoCon for us to attend GenCon was successful.
I had some great characters at my tables: An archaeologist who was playing an archaeologist, a Wayang Prince, Taldan nobility (Baron and Baroness), a Goblin (a personal highlight, being able to GM for one of the few Goblins in PFS) who was hauled into Society HR for let's call them, incidents, with other NPC Pathfinders during the Siege Special. Good times. So many great characters and players behind them all. I was quite pleased that I did not run into a single player whose character was simply a set of numbers. Each and every one of them had a good story which created depth and made it easier for me as GM to play off of them.
As all good things end, we said goodbye to not only a great Campaign Coordinator, but also a great person in Mike. (His only flaw, his hyperbole in continuing to describe what was only 5cm of snow on the ground as though it was an Apocalypse only rivalled by the falling of the Star Stone).
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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Then I topped it all off with a Sunday night game for Sean Goodman and his gang: Amir, Chris, and the Gores, Athurva and Joanna. Easily the craziest table I’ve had the privilege of witnessing since my last 13+ module.
Stupid rat warren, stupid Desna, stupid Champion of Time.
Wait a second, I thought Sean Goodman, Amir and the Gores were my gang?
Had a great time playing with you Bobby, and Steve!Well Bubs, you didn't talk much so I assumed the inquisitor was in charge. :P
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So this was my second GenCon and at the the GM after action meeting I got to meet Painlord himself, with only a moderate amount of squeeage on part I think, and he asked if I would post my thoughts on the thread.
I'm the Venture-wife to the Knoxville VC and we drove up late Tuesday night after I got off work to make sure we could participate in the precon event at Scottys. Mark Stratton did an awesome job putting that together. It was actually the only time I was supposed to get to play at GenCon this year. It was worth the trip up and 3 1/2 hours sleep to participate in the shenanigans.
I spent all my time over running tables and such at kids track. Lucas Servideo did a great job getting that organized this year and I had a blast teaching the kids about the game. When things started clicking with the kids and they figured out what was up it was awesome. My big bad was getting his butt kicked so I went to withdraw, the girl playing Amiri didn't miss a beat, she said "I have no escape, I follow." I blinked at her for a second. I expect that from my local players. Wasn't expecting it from a 4th grader. I grinned, said well alright then, and watched as she took great delight in destroying my big bad on her next turn. I met a young boy on another table who immediately figured out the mysterious backstory regarding the female werewolf. He was guessing, but it was correct. Another boy said perhaps it was a soldier who was bitten and turned after he got back to base. Boy #3 in this situation said that couldn't be it because the werewolf was a girl and soldiers aren't. Before I could speak up on behalf of my gender and Golarion's forward thinking, the lone girl at my table jumped in "Hey, that's offensive. Girls can be soldiers too!" It was all I could do not to channel my paladin of Falayna (Empyreal Lord of femininity and war) and shout GirlPower! The boys agreed she was right and went on to set a very well laid trap for the poor werewolf. Based on what I saw, I think the future of our hobby is in good hands. Those kids were great.
The only game I spent with adults was Siege of Serpents and it is now my second favorite special to run. Excellent work to the developers and organizers in that one. Wow!
We hung out with the crew from Asheville, NC and Birmingham, AL. We invited the VC from Kentucky down for a minicon or two, and I spent a little time with Del Collins over at the kids track headquarters table. I think there might be an SEC of gaming forming as it seems we've all become friends and are making plans to attend each other's events for the next year.
I finally got to meet PirateRob and say thanks for all the hard work over on the GM prep boards. I ended up rooming with TriOmegaZero's wife and her brother. You guys were great! I also discovered that Mike Brock and I share a love of country music. That was cool for me. I'm really sad he's leaving us and wish him the best.
I skipped out on the other specials as I'm going to a bunch of events this year and wanted to save some for those cons. Ended up in my hotel room with some people as Zach Hall ran Feast of Sigils. That was great. Sunday evening we did another pick up table of Kirin and Kraken. I find it awesome that after running 7 or more tables of PFS all week, people still wanted more.
Friday, I earned my 4th GM star. That was pretty cool for me. I also got meet Bob Jonquet and put a face to name on all my emails. Great job organizing this year.
Overall, my second GenCon experience was the best. I saw some interesting people, had fun running games, spent way too much in the vendor hall, and some epic cosplay of the iconics. Seeing Wayne Reynolds squee over someone dressed as Lini and ask if he could have his picture taken with her was a real treat. The people involved in Paizo and PFS truly seem to love the hobby and it shows especially at GenCon. I'm already looking forward to next year!
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A full night's sleep. that is what was needed. As promised - my bloggery contribution.
First off: It's nice to see we Minnesotans earned our stripes and left a memorable experience.
Ran into Rand at Champions day 1. Had a nice bit of an argument about whether PaizoCon 2013 counts as 2 years ago or 3. The food there was great - and the off menu beer sizes were perfect :D.
Everything else is already a blur. 3 nights of closing out Scotty's, switching to O'Reilley's for two nights (and that fantastic PFS crowd on Saturday).
not sure i can list all the people i met for the first time - Tanya, Lucas, Brett Sweeney, Nefreet, Undead Mitch, Pheobe, Mark Stratton, Wilmanattor and his Canadian crew, and many others.
Me personally - 5 games played, 7 Gm'd. Only one of my tables i ran do I wish i had performed better - very happy with the other 6. Both pre-gen specials were amazing to run and i'm really sad I can't run them again for at least a year or more :(.
Sadly Monday morning came and though burnout had not set in, it was over like that. Cannot wait for GenCon 2016!
-AJ Torgerud