This time of year it’s easy for the Pathfinder Society team to focus so hard on the major conventions (all of the adventures for PaizoCon and Gen Con in particular) that we can lose sight of the smaller events. These might not have the same reach and exposure as the big names, but they’re all stronger in how they bring the community—both the players and the public—together. Venture-Captain Mike Bramnik of Bloomington, Indiana recently contacted me with an after-event report for the Convention of Stonekeep, which did exactly that. Let’s read it in his words.
Being the Venture-Captain for a Pathfinder Society lodge in a college town is usually quite predictable. You know what times of year to expect to run lots of introductory scenarios and quests, and when to plan for lulls in attendance. Something that you would never be able to foresee, however, is just how awesome and generous your lodge can turn out to be when given a challenge.
Our lodge here in Bloomington, Indiana boasts several current and former employees of a nonprofit facility called Stone Belt, as well as friends and family of clients who utilize the services. Stone Belt is a charitable organization dedicated to helping adults with physical and developmental disabilities. They provide a number of services from home care to employment services and even pass the charity on to others in need. When one of our local players who works in special education suggested teaming up with Stone Belt to have fun and give back to our local community, things came together in a really amazing way.
Preparing for Race for the Runecarved Key, presenting Ducky the Goblin to Lori (Stone Belt's Director of Development),
and a "thank you" card from several of Stone Belt's clients.As a challenge to our players, many of who wanted to experience a local-level convention before "con season" got into high gear (culminating at Gen Con next month!), we decided to create an event with all of the "hardest" scenarios available—an event we called the "Convention at Stonekeep." We offered all three Ruins of Bonekeep adventures, every scenario with a hard mode option, and a few other scenarios with deadly reputations. In addition, we held a charity auction with prizes donated by several local GMs, Sean K. Reynolds, and two local businesses (Common Room Games and That's The Rub Massage Therapy Center), as well as having our lodge's aspiring authors create two new unofficial adventures using PFS rules—one for the Adventure Card Game and the other for the Roleplaying Game—partially integrated with each other as well.
Two tables for the ACG adventure (written by Michael Johnson and me) assembled on their ships to bravely escort the PCs for the RPG scenario to their destination: the center of the Eye of Abendego. Once there, three tables of level 7th-level pregenerated PCs faced "The All-Seeing Eye of Abendego," written by Alex Ducey, Joe Ducey, and Justin McNeely. The convention was a nice-sized event, with 17 tables of PFS in addition to the 5 charity tables and charity auction over 2.5 days—part of which was a live auction held during the middle of Race for the Runecarved Key right before the PCs for the Season 4 Special went to the auction themselves!
Thanks to the generosity of our players, we were able to purchase $800 of equipment for Stone Belt's Lifelong Learning program, including mobility scooters, a variety of headphones, jump ropes, bubble machines, and over 30 lbs of kinetic "moon sand"—in addition to a Paizo goblin plushie immediately named "Ducky!" by one of Stone Belt's clients! Overall, our event was a smashing success, and our lodge is now looking forward to partnering with Stone Belt and possibly other organizations like it on an annual basis so we can continue to share the fun of being part of the Pathfinder Society as well as give back to our community that has produced so many amazing and kind people who are part of our lodge!
Mike Bramnik
Venture-Captain—Bloomington, Indiana
Thank you Mike, Stone Belt, and the Bloomington lodge for your hard work!
John Compton
Developer
