The Future of Pathfinder Society Organized Play, Part XIII: PaizoCon Success!!!

Monday, June 13, 2011

For hundreds of avid Pathfinder Society players, this past weekend likely produced countless memories that won't soon be forgotten. This weekend, after all, was PaizoCon, and one of the pillars of the show was the wide array of Pathfinder Society games and special events being run from Friday morning through Sunday afternoon.

We planned for 16 active tables each slot and ended up pulling in extra GMs for nearly every one, filling as many as 21 tables on Saturday morning. While there were lines of hopeful players filling the hallway outside the four PFS gaming rooms each slot, Hyrum and I are proud to say that not a single gamer was turned away from Pathfinder Society play who showed up within 15 minutes of the start of a slot. In total, we had nearly 80 tables go off, most of which were for brand-new 1st-level characters created by participants new to the Society.

On Friday night we ran an exclusive event called the Grand Melee, in which the Decemvirate tested the participants to find the most skilled and most promising agents for future endeavors. Over five continuous encounters, each tiered table was put up against increasingly powerful foes, culminating in a combat rated at CR +4 for the lowest tier and CR +5 for the higher tiers. In the end, the winning table scored 173 points in Tier 1–2 (followed closely by a Tier 5–6 table with 164 points.

Not only did players compete with one another for special prizes in the Grand Melee, but all of the event's GMs were battling to provide the hardest challenge and the most enjoyable experience for their tables. In the end, the running was close, but San Diego Venture-Captain Eric Brittain came out ahead. As a reward for his GMing performance in the event, he will receive his next GM star for free, bumping him from 2 to 3 in a single event.

Speaking of GM stars, Hyrum and I were proud to see two active 4-star GMs earn their 5th stars during the convention. Congratulations are in order for Kyle Baird and Missouri Venture-Captain Jason Roeder. Welcome to the ranks of our most valued GMs, guys!

On Saturday afternoon, Hyrum and I announced the five new factions, the names of which were quickly tweeted and leaked onto the messageboards. We'll be covering all five of these new player options in the coming weeks starting with the Grand Lodge faction next week, so be sure to check the blog on Monday morning to see more details than simply the basic premise and name of the first of our five new factions.

Mark Moreland
Developer

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Tags: PaizoCon Pathfinder Society

Thanks everyone for making it such an awesome show!

The Exchange 3/5

Hyrum Savage wrote:
Thanks everyone for making it such an awesome show!

Meh. It was okay. Whatevs.

-Pain

Speak Abyssal?:

It was awesome. Duh.

Thanks to all who made it rock so piddlespottingly good.

5/5

Even though they didn't win, I wanted to salute my table of players for the Grand Melee. By working well together, they were able to defeat the final encounter with "only" one death (sorry Qstor). When I was reading the scenario, I couldn't have imagined a tier 8-9 table making it through to the end; especially at my table ;-) Thanks for proving me wrong Pathfinders!

My table for the Midnight Mauler chose to split up often, nearly costing them their lives. But in the end, their perseverance paid off and they caught the Mauler at literally the last second before he could kill again. They succeeded in every possible way and The Society rewarded them well.

I was extremely happy to have two tables of great players this weekend. Players such as these are the backbone of why I love to GM for Pathfinder Society. Hope to see you all again next year (or sooner)!

p.s. Eric Brittain IS that good.

Dark Archive 1/5

I'm sure Hyrum, Mark and all involved pulled off a great Con !

Sláinte Kyle Baird and Jason Roeder !! And Kudos to Eric Brittain !

Shadow Lodge

The show was awesome, and it certainly wouldn't have run as smoothly without the major efforts of Hyrum and Mark. You guys seriously rock, and I know the Society is in good hands with you guys at the helm.

A big congrats, too, to the new 5-stars! You guys really deserve it. :)

Grand Lodge 5/5

Best damn PaizoCon I ever had!


Michael Azzolino wrote:

Best damn PaizoCon I ever had!

True that! I'm already planning my trip for next year, and campaigning to get the rest of my gaming group there.

Scarab Sages 3/5

Michael Azzolino wrote:

Best damn PaizoCon I ever had!

+1 on that! Me and the lovely spouse b

Had a great time.

The Exchange 5/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Kyle Baird wrote:
My table for the Midnight Mauler chose to split up often, nearly costing them their lives. But in the end, their perseverance paid off and they caught the Mauler at literally the last second before he could kill again. They succeeded in every possible way and The Society rewarded them well.

As the frequently unconscious rogue in that party, I think "succeeded in spite of themselves" might be a bit more accurate, but regardless, it was so much fun! Thanks for running a great table, Kyle!

PaizoCon was awesome!! Thanks to everyone who worked so hard on it.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

It was an outstanding con and thanks to all who was behind it. I am looking forward to the next year Piazo-con. I got a great deal of information out of it and I hope my games in the near future will show it.

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

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

Great time all, even if my tier 10-11 grand melee table I was runnig lasted 6 hours! If I ever see a Strix again I will scream! ;)

Shadow Lodge 5/5

First off a hearty congrats to Erik, Kyle, and Jason for their achievements. You guys are all awesome.

Secondly, I want to thank my Grand Melee table for surviving as long as they could. You guys made a great event even better.

Finally, thanks to all the faces now put with silly avatars. Paizo Con was an absolute blast.

Dark Archive 1/5

Congratulations Eric on an epic win!! Thanks for representing us down here in San Diego. See you at Game Empire Mr. Triple Star GM!! Awesome achievement pal...

The Exchange 4/5

Should I be afraid if I imagined Mark talking about the success of the PaizoCon as if he were GLaDOS?

5/5

Dragnmoon wrote:
Great time all, even if my tier 10-11 grand melee table I was runnig lasted 6 hours! If I ever see a Strix again I will scream! ;)

It trully warms my heart to hear! My only regret is that I was not able to be there with you.


While I have no idea what any of this means, congratulations to Eric, Kyle, and Jason. It certainly sounds impressive.

5/5

Devastation Bob wrote:
While I have no idea what any of this means, congratulations to Eric, Kyle, and Jason. It certainly sounds impressive.

It mostly means this: Eric is an amazing GM. Jason and Kyle GM a lot, regardless of quality. :-)

Grand Lodge 5/5

Congrats to Eric, Kyle, and Jason.

I wonder if the Grand Melee will ever be made available for purchase, for those of us who werent lucky enough to go to the con to play???

5/5

godsDMit wrote:

Congrats to Eric, Kyle, and Jason.

I wonder if the Grand Melee will ever be made available for purchase, for those of us who werent lucky enough to go to the con to play???

My guess, and hope, would be no. There were some pretty amazing boons, with one focusing on the winning table. FWIW, it wasn't edited, so Paizo would have to spend more time developing it, and the judges for the event never received an electronic copy of the chronicle sheet.

It was incredible to see a couple of first level characters at my table on Saturday use one of their boons and start flying!

Liberty's Edge

Insanely jealous that I wasn't there. :-( Glad to hear that it was a success though. Looking forward to some video of the event.

Sovereign Court

The Grand Melee was great! And, winning it was even better! :-) The boons were excellent. Robert, our GM, made it a ton of fun and kept it moving along at a snappy pace. Loved one initiative roll that just went on and on and on and on.

The next afternoon I played in Shades of Ice Part III. Unfortunately I had a 1st level character playing "up" with 3 4th levels and 2 2nd levels. Let me tell ya, having that final resurect boon in the back pocket made it *much* more relaxing than it might have been.

At one point there's a very large chance of death bearing down on us with everyone scrambling out of the way. ZIP - the 1st level character is flying 60' feet up. Even helped get a rope secured for those high level guys. Woot. :-)

-Pete

5/5

Dragnmoon wrote:
Great time all, even if my tier 10-11 grand melee table I was runnig lasted 6 hours! If I ever see a Strix again I will scream! ;)

Would you care to provide a more datailed summary of the action?

Dark Archive

Diego Winterborg wrote:
Dragnmoon wrote:
Great time all, even if my tier 10-11 grand melee table I was runnig lasted 6 hours! If I ever see a Strix again I will scream! ;)
Would you care to provide a more datailed summary of the action?

Note: There was only 4 of us, we had no level 11 and one of us was level 9. 2 huge dragons and getting breathed on 3 times in 2 turns (i remember the 1 discussion), we had to enact attack plan delta... and with the help of a breath of life we all made it out. I am getting emotional over the event I am going to go and sit invisible in the corner and pray to my dwarven god.

Maybe more to come...

Note the first encounter took 30% to 40% of the time

Thanks Dragonmoon it was a fun run, are little team danced as long as we could.

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Chot wrote:

..

Note the first encounter took 30% to 40% of the time

And this is why I never want to see a Strix Again!!!


The Con was great and the staff is terrific! Always found people a table to play.

Great job everyone - thank you so much for a memorable weekend!

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