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Greetings Mortals--
As many of you know, PaizoCon is this weekend. It is being held not far from the Paizo HQ at a hotel in Bellevue, Washington.
I was lucky enough to attend last year and this year I'm back again. I'm expecting a lot of fun and random stuff.
As many of you know, I consider (right or wrong) PFS play to be a social game, a common pastime that I can enjoy with friends. Last year, I was somewhat new to PFS play. Over the last year, I've been to two out-of-state conventions (BashCon in OH, Neoncon in LV) as well as hosting Kublacon locally. I've met a lot of new friends at those conventions and now that I'm back at PaizoCon I'm looking forward to meeting new friends and old friends that I haven't met yet (like DragnMoon and Kyle Baird).
Hopefully, some of my fellow PFSers at PaizoCon will want to join me in jotting down notes and thoughts about the PFS players and PFS games as they can.
Obviously, it's not a blog. Nor will it be live, but maybe it will be interesting. If you have any questions or thoughts, please share them. I'll be visiting this page as things happen during the Con.
I, like usual, promise nothing...except that I'll be twisting some arms of people here to join me in describing their experience playing PFS this weekend and the people that make it happen.
-Pain
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You sir, are mistaken. I am no one's friend.
That's probably true...but until I meet you and hate you in person, I won't say otherwise.
Just walked downstairs...met a slew of people!
VC Eric Brittain (San Diego)
VC Mr. Slanky (Ryan)
Aaron Koelmann
VC Auke (great hair! from Europelandia)
Kevin Andrew Murphy
Bruce Higa (an LA player who I met at Neoncon who came up and judged at Kublacon)
Dang!
Now I have a face to go with VC Ryan Bolduan (MisterSlanky). He's a quiet unassuming guy at first look. I hope to get into a game with him tomorrow.
Sweet.
-Pain
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Note to future self: If PaizoCon is at the same hotel next year, be reminded that there is a Whole Foods across the way that you can use to stock up on gaming 'necessities'.
I've been already and bought provisions:
Fresh Fruit
Baked Goods
Sushi
Bagels
Beer (lots of good microbrews here)
More beer
I'm set.
-Pain
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Okay...what is the proper protocol?
I'm meeting a slew of yahoos who I only know from the boards and don't always know their real names. And I'm meeting a bunch of yahoos who may or may not know who I am. Do I introduce myself as Painlord, my yahoo board presence? Or by my silly real name?
Another thing, I'm introducing other people that I have just met? First names if I know it? Board name?
When do I use which?
-Pain
p.s. Life is confuzzling.
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Holy piddlespot!!
At Crab Pot for "Meet and Greet" dinner, there must be over 80 Pathfinder yahoos in this joint. Beers (1 liter size) and soda flow freely.
Talking with Waltero. He's from New Orleans. Nice guy. We agree about the pedanticness of my posts and how to build a PFS community in NO. I'm in heaven.
-Pain
P.s. There are nametags at the food events...the instructions are to put both your real name and board name thereon.
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The selection of good beer - both the variety available at Whole Foods and the tasty pints/liters on tap at the Crab Pot - was definitely a topic of conversation at our end of the "Meet and Greet" (along with plenty of RPG shop talk, PFS mods, and even favorite Shakespeare/and fantasy authors).
Gotta love a conversation that runs from the Shadow Lodge to "A Midsummer Night's Dream"...
Oh, and PainLord saying I'd never post anything.
To that, I'll just say "Piddlespot" myself. ;)
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Awesome.
Yeah. You rock.
So I leave the big party in Ogre's room (People! It's first night! Pace yourselves! Meh...they never listen.), and wonder the hotel looking for trouble.
I find it in the hotel bar: a table of newer PFS players (drinking nicely) about to play Master of the Fallen Fortress. I sit and hang out. Chris Ballard from NC (I offer to intro him to VC Mr. Slanky) playing his FIRST PFS game.
Ed Murphy (New Orleans) and Glenn (new player!) and a DMPC round out the table for GM Waltero. They start at 10pm. Wow.
I sit and listen and offer my wisdom as new PFS players are born. Couldn't be happier.
-Pain
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Awesome.Yeah. You rock.
So I leave the big party in Ogre's room (People! It's first night! Pace yourselves! Meh...they never listen.), and wonder the hotel looking for trouble.
I find it in the hotel bar: a table of newer PFS players (drinking nicely) about to play Master of the Fallen Fortress. I sit and hang out. Chris Ballard from NC (I offer to intro him to VC Mr. Slanky) playing his FIRST PFS game.
Ed Murphy (New Orleans) and Glenn (new player!) and a DMPC round out the table for GM Waltero. They start at 10pm. Wow.
I sit and listen and offer my wisdom as new PFS players are born. Couldn't be happier.
-Pain
Wisdom? LOL
btw, it dd just get hotter in the greater Seattle area. The abyssal lord has landed!
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Hmmm...
While watching the MoFF game, I meet Doug, a local gamestore owner from freaking Alaska.
DJ Archer and I talk to him for a bit about his store and how he can build up PFS in his area. I envy him...he is just starting his journey towards being a local coordinator. Sweet.
-Pain
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I wander back to the Ogre party for a bit but flee after a while. I did meet a user named "Taig" who has near 20k posts on Paizo forums. That's a lot.
I hike back to the bar...get into a convo with VC Azmyth, DJ Archer, Adam Daigle, and Hyrum Savage. Chatting about PFS.
We argue about Throaty Mermaid, Fortunes Blight and powergaming in general.
Good times. I flee at midnight for bed. I play in Eyes of the Ten, Part 1 (by Erik Mona) tomorrow from 9 to 5. DougDoug judges. I must be ready.
-Pain
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Sheesh.
The night passes a bit too quickly...I haunted by visions that I cannot define. The shower helps me wake up and shake the visions from my eyes, but caffeine is needed. Especially for the trials ahead.
I know that somewhere in this hotel there is a Vyle Bard and FlagnGoon awaiting me.
Oh, they are out there.
-Pain
ps: Sheesh. At 8am, there is already a huge line to sign in and get badges. I flee to go get coffee instead at WholeFoods.
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8:23 - I was at the end of the line, but it's nearly doubled behind us. To the left, intense discussion of Throaty Mermaid, tactics, and whether or not spellcasters are underpowered or not. Occasionally, Jason comes by, keeping spirits up, greeting those at the back of the line. And now, we move, inching closer, as much of the line now behind us as in front of us. I hope.
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**sadness**
No, no Eyes of the Ten for me this weekend. Game collapsed. Bummer. Instead I pass the slot talking to VC Brittain and VC DougDoug (who is also free because he was supposed to judge the slot).
I finally meet Dragnmoon and Kyle Baird. Kyle did not maul me into a bloody pulp. This is an encouraging development.
Dragnmoon talks like he posts. We're going to have a good game on the morrow.
-Pain
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Hanging out at the hotel bar last night, we met up with a small business owner who happened to be staying at the Coast on business. He picked up a copy of the Core Rulebook that night and wanted to play. We recruited a couple more players and I ran them through Master of the Fallen Fortress. Everyone had a good time and another new PFS player has joined the ranks!
Thanks for the paper-pushing guys - it means a lot! :D
Edit: There will be rewards for the assist. ^_^
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@LizCourts: Yay! I love rewards!
@Archer: Rockin.
Friday, 12 to 4: I'm playing in Mantis Prey (2-26) with:
Verdigris (judge)
Ogre (yes, THE Ogre): Zorlon, a bomb lobbing fiend
Mattastrophic (yes, we asked to audit his chrons ;) ): Gabrielle a quick fighter (Portland)
Todd playing Shala, a murderous diviner frontliner (Portland)
Nick Louie playing Brom, a battling bruiser
Painlord: Balkira the Traveler, follower of Abadar
I love going to cons and playing with new people...and Todd and Mattastrophic are both new to me. Since we are playing 7-8 tier, I'm anxious to see what things these guys pull out.
We have 3 strong melees and a dancing meleer. We tried to approach the "Bardic" college diplomatically by pretending to be a party bus from rival Absalom City College, but the thugs attack immediately. We're a pretty pretty party (3 females with CHA >= 14), but the thugs behind the waterfall refuse to party with us.
So we kill them all. The alchemical stinking cloud into the middle of them made the combat go quick.
-Pain
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Spirits are rising as I play The Mantis Prey run by Verdigris and playing alongside Painlord, 0gre, Mattastrophic, and Todd. We have some surprising synergy with Matt's 'noble' sneak attacking everything Brom (my savage thug) frightens with his Orc warcries. Painlord is playing some sort of half-orc hussy but I'm pretty sure she's just here to look pretty.
I'm still sore about missing out on Eyes of the Ten but gaming is helping ablate the frustration.
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Spirits are rising as I play The Mantis Prey run by Verdigris and playing alongside Painlord, 0gre, Mattastrophic, and Todd. We have some surprising synergy with Matt's 'noble' sneak attacking everything Brom (my savage thug) frightens with his Orc warcries. Painlord is playing some sort of half-orc hussy but I'm pretty sure she's just here to look pretty.
I'm still sore about missing out on Eyes of the Ten but gaming is helping ablate the frustration.
Pain and Feral were there only 3 that showed for the Eyes of Ten?
Nathan Meyers
NYC
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Pain and Feral were there only 3 that showed for the Eyes of Ten?
Nathan Meyers
NYCYo Nate--
Nick and I remember you from Neoncon.
We were the two players...and we had 2 brand-new-to-PFS players who showed up wanting to play. We got them into other Intro PFS play.
-Pain
Well I am glad you two are having fun at Paizo Con. Hope to see you and Nick at either Neoncon or Gencon, or both.
Nate
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More from our running of Mantis Prey. (Don't spoil this for yourself!)
0gre yanks out a wand of Detect Secret Doors. Sweet play? First lvl spell...bought with PA?
How good is an alchemist tossing stink bombs with Fort saves DC20 or nausea?
Combat #2:
We suss out the combatants pretty early. A few early high sense motive rolls gets us feeling the need to be extremely careful. We don't complete figure things out though...
GAH! Lots of saves were made in round 1.
We pound the bad guys...focusing on the Ugly and take it down so...yeah, ya know.
Fun fight. We didn't really know what was what but knew something was off...even such, they managed to spring some funness upon us.
GM Verdigris did a good job on this fight.
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Dang!
Finishing up Mantis's Prey...
Wow.
Good module. Nice quick 'boss' fight.
Great twist at end.
Yeah...not really a spoiler. I suck.
I had a good time playing with Todd and Matt (new to me players), Nick and 0gre, and pleased by my first chance to be judged by Verdigris, a Bay Area local judge.
-Pain
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Played through The Dalsine Affair with my Taldor bar(d)barian this afternoon -- what a fun surprise that the author himself was running it! Really enjoyed the style of play in Branding Opportunity's game. Lady Scatha got to demonstrate her patented style of interrogation to great effect, and it was a blast to be able to throw around her nobility a bit there at the end. Looking forward to the Grand Melee...just a little over an hour now! :)
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Friday night: Grand Melee (PFS) 6pm to 11pm
Sweet. The Grand Melee is a scenario written by 4 VCs (Brittain, Miles, Auke, & JP). I believe is the only PFS scenario for the slot...by my count there are 12 tables or so.
My table, playing tier 5-6:
GM Doug Miles (name drop)
Chad (Kentucky) - Anneke, frontliner
Josh Blazej (SimiValley, CA) - Silen, spellcaster
Josh (Seattle) - Roj, a beatstick
Matt G (Utah) - A healer of sorts
Jon (Panama City, FLA) - ranged attacker with puppy friend
Painlord (yahoo) - hexcaster
It's a good table.
Without spoiling anything, this is not a PVP scenario. We Pathfinders are being challenged to find the best of the best of us.
We have a few moments to talk strategy together. We agree to act with complete chaos, without teamwork, rejoice when each of us fall, then bathe in their blood or taking their magic items. Oh wait, no, we are going to work together. I mispoke there. Sorry for any confusion.
We start in the Irorium, the grand arena in Absalom.
We handle the opponents easily. I scored an easy kill by putting a flyer at 40' to sleep and it falls. Chad and Josh rake some good damage while the ranged attacker takes deals a bit more.
We have a bit more trouble with this one. 2 baddies from far away come in.
The first is made dead in one round by Roj. The second lives a bit longer, but I'm feeling good about our table.
-Pain
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Grand Melee
We start to get wrecked here.
The opponents win initiative here and immediately take out (temporarily) 2 of our big hitters. Dang! With 4 of us left against 8 opponents, it looks bleak.
A big hit from Anneke takes down a bad guy in one hit. I take out two with one sleepy wink. (Yeah, figure that out. It's true.)
We were slowly able to right ourselves and take back the momentum.
At this point, we're starting to get hit a lot more and harder. Saves are more difficult and bad guys are getting badder. However, we've still used little resources.
I made sweet use of a levitate spell to help a fellow Pathfinder.
Sheesh. The Grand Melee is grand.
What next?
Ugh. Again we lose initiative...a big burny spell burns. Hits at least half of use for many D6s of hurtie. FIRE HURT!!!!
Another opponent considers a suggestion from me to switch teams. After a moment of contemplation (GM Doug Miles contemplates), he decides that the suggestion is reasonable.
We win the fight in one round.
On to Round 5.
Crickey.
Round 5 started out really ugly...we died in one round...all of us. However, the wrong tier was run and summarily fixed and we quickly forgot all about it.
In the real Round 5, we stand and fight strong. We take a many early hits and immediately need healing. This time we are able to fight better.
The healer does some healing and I cast haste from a bought scroll.
We're giving and getting strong full attacks.
The ranged attacker crits a bad guy with an arrow. Roj smites (against chaos no less!) and does a slew of damage. We whittle the bad guys.
If we had focused fire better, we might have taken down an opponent quickly, but as we were spread out, we fail. Both baddies are hurting the hurty hurt.
Anneke dies outright to a second full attack. She will be missed. After that, we rally a bit.
We kill the first, then the rest.
We are victorious.
EDIT: So there is a point system for this...I don't the rules, but DougDoug is keeping track of our score and eventually it will be compared against other tables. I think we scored well, but unsure if we are good enough to win. Since we finished quickly and need to wait until every table finished to get our scores.
Although we scored well, not nearly enough to win. Wow. Some tables rocked.
We waste time by playing the scenario again at a higher tier. We start the 8-9 tier and begin to get face smashed to start.
I get crit and taken down to -1 before I can act. I am revived, but I realize how outclassed we are.
-Pain
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If anyone was at the winning table, would you please post the names of the heroes so we can properly 'honor' them, as Pathfinder tradition would dictate?
::Painlord hands out tomatoes and rotten fruit.::
(Little known fact: according to Year of the ShadowLodge scenario, throwing things (like rotten fruit) is the sign of honor and merriment within the confines of the Irorium. It's tradition. True story.)
-Pain
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Grand Melee. Played the 8-9 level table run by Kyle Baird. We all fought for the glory of Taldor, and much glory did we bring! Not quite enough to take the field (by 14 points), but it was an excellent showing and a great time. The cleric made the ultimate sacrifice (buh-bye 10 points) and Lady Scatha was taken down to -20 hit points...yep, that's not a typo. Fortunately she didn't quite cross over thanks to the short walking spiked armor that I'm told housed a gnome (and judging by the purple hair wildly poking out the top, I'm inclined to believe this story).
Amazing. Boons.
Enjoyed the bubbly courtesy of Alex aka Branding Opportunity.
Time to rest up for The Midnight Mauler and You Only Die Twice! :)
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It was a harrowing battle but in the end team Taldor came out ahead!
I played the Grand Melee with Elora, Mattastrophic, Todd, Bruce Hilga (a local buddy from So Cal), and other other guy (sorry!). It was touch and go and our cleric died from a series of brutal breath weapons.
Highlights of the adventure:
1. My barbarian sister going down but surviving at -20.
2. Brom roaring and frightening away an adult white dragon.
3. Kyle's look of defeat when his monsters were slain with only one more PC skull to add to his mantle.
You guys all rocked! Thanks for being a part of this event. :)
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At the bar, enjoying drinks with new friends, recalling our common experiences during the Grand Melee (excellent). Talking with Vyle Bard, DougDoug(name drop), VC Auke, James Register (Lynn), and others. Freakin' A, Baird makes me laugh. He's an ass...but my kind of ass.
Also met LtlBtyRam (Angela from WA). Nice to discuss the finer points of the replay rule with her.
It's been a good day...and that's not just the beer talking. It's also the "Purple Potion", a concoction made and designed for PaizoCon. I drink two...so that is also doing the talking for this post.
When Baird (the lightweight) finishes his beer, I go to bed. Also the Red Wings suck.
-Pain