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Pathfinder Society returns to the Omaha area's biggest convention!
I am in the process of working out the schedule of events for PFS in order to make their prereg book which told me it was time to let those Paizoites who visit these forums aware that Nuke-Con is just around the corner.
I plan on having 4 tables/slot scheduled but generally have room for more or less tables as need be. Looking for a particular event? Let me know and I will try to work it into the schedule!
The big thing is, we would love to try and have the Pathfinder Special event from GenCon. However, in order to hold that this year, we will need at least 5 tables of players. If you'd like to come down and play the special and/or judge it for credit towards that ever elusive 5th star, we'd love to have you.
Many other Organized Play campaigns will make an appearance as well.
~Clint
Go to Nuke COn.
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I should have a general game schedule by Thursday morning that I can send out to those interested.
The GM compensation offered at the con comes in 2 forms.
1) If all you do is judge, you get your badge for free. If you want to play you will need to buy a badge at full price.
2) For every slot you judge you get con bucks (I believe its 4) which can be used at the concessions or at the dealers that will be there.
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**Friday 8:00 PM
3-05 Tide of Twilight
3-03 The Ghenett Manor Gauntlet
3-04 The Kortos Envoy
**Saturday 8:00 AM
3-06 Song of the Sea Witch
3-01 The Frostfur Captives
Intro 1 First Steps - Part 1: In Service to Lore
**Saturday 2:00 PM
3-02 Sewer Dragons of Absalom
2-23 Shadows Last Stand - Part 1: At Shadow's Door
Intro 2 First Steps - Part 2: To Delve the Dungeon Deep
**Saturday 8:00 PM
3-04 The Kortos Envoy
2-24 Shadows Last Stand - Part 2: Web of Corruption
Intro 3 First Steps - Part 3: A Vision of Betrayal
**Sunday 8:00 AM
3-02 Sewer Dragons of Absalom
3-05 Tide of Twilight
2-25 You Only Die Twice
**Sunday 2:00 PM
3-01 The Frostfur Captives
3-06 Song of the Sea Witch
3-03 The Ghenett Manor Gauntlet
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So I registered for Nuke-Con and am trying to figure out where to sign up for the Pathfinder Society Events.
http://www.nuke-con.com/gameevents still talks about 2010
http://warhorn.net/nukecon/ doesn't have any PFS events listed.
The link from Warhorn "Listing of All Events" times out.
The Yahoo group is restricted to members only.
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So I registered for Nuke-Con and am trying to figure out where to sign up for the Pathfinder Society Events.
http://www.nuke-con.com/gameevents still talks about 2010
http://warhorn.net/nukecon/ doesn't have any PFS events listed.
The link from Warhorn "Listing of All Events" times out.
The Yahoo group is restricted to members only.
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Well I can't sign up for the 2pm PFS #3-03: The Ghenett Manor Gauntlet due to overlap. Which may now be full at 6 players?
Argh.
I can add you as the 7th if need be (though most people don't like the 7-manners) or I can split it to 2 tables. Or we can see how the table sets up. We usually have low showing for that slot on Sunday. Don't worry, I'll work with you.
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Con went off fairly well. 13 tables ran which is 2 up from last year. We even had a surprise running of The Harrowing.
Special thanks to Chris Mortika for coming down and judging for us from Iowa City. The judges in Todd Morgan's crew continue to impress me with their willingness to volunteer to come out to Omaha.
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This yahoo's thoughts/expirences at Nuke Con
cblome59 clearly put a lot of work into making PFS the best it could be for this Con and it showed. Lots of simple logistical things that needed to happen did like having the organized play guide printed out and having pregens for all 3 levels etc.
Here's what I can remember/cobble together for my notes regarding the individual tables and other assorted things. (Warning: there are lots of nit-picky complaints here, in general I enjoyed myself)
The schedule at Nuke-Con is a little awkward, With slots only starting at even numbered hours there's a two hour break between slots. I did take advantage of the extra time to do things like walk around Omaha for an hour but in general it was a little too long. There's probably not much that can be done on this front but it may be something to think about.
Comments on individual slots (No Spoilers):
Friday 08:00 PM PFS #3-05: Tide of Twilight : Judge Chris Mortika
The game gets started almost 30 minutes late but most of that time was time well spent explaining the world and PFS in general to the several new players at the table. Right when we're finally getting started Clint (cblome59) send us over a 6th and asks our judge if it's okay to add another player still. (Big props to Clint for asking). Chris says yes and the player says he doesn't have a character but doesn't want to play a pregen and that he can whip up a cleric (using the 3.5 PHB) in no time. Chris wisely requires him to play a pregen and we get started. The latest player grates on me a bit with a lot of out of character comments and by saying derp about every 2 minutes. After about an hour or so he leaves since his ride for the night is leaving and I quite enjoy the rest of the table and apparently people really loved my sports athlete by day / pathfinder by night character: Griff.
Saturday 8 AM PFS #3-06: Song of the Sea Witch : Judge (I failed at catching his name, sorry)
We sat around at the table while the judge prepped the mod until almost 9am. We had a brand new player who basically got no explanation of what was going on and barely participated. I was feeling pretty glum at this point having skimped on sleep to be at the table bright and early. Somehow we still managed to finish this slot early
Saturday 2 PM PFS #2-23: Shadow's Last Stand Part I : Judge Carl Burgdorf
I think Clink mentioned to us that this was his first time judging pfs. I thought his strengths outnumbered his weaknesses and that he went out of his way to be fair and make the adventure interesting. I think he had some problems dealing with the free flowing nature of answering flavor questions not explicitly described in the mod but I think that's something we can all struggle with from time to time when the players ask questions that the mod doesn't do a good job of describing.
Saturday 8PM PFS #3-04: The Kortos Envoy Judge : Clint
I have some delusion that we're going to be able to play this 10-11 and had planned to play my 11 cleric who only needed 1 more XP to hit 12. It's clear we'll be playing low but in the end I make the selfish decision to play my cleric anyway. I think I preformed poorly at this table, my cleric never ended up with a whole lot of personality but once he got his flying carpet part of his shtick became making fun of all the big folks on the ground (he's a gnome). Myself playing a level 11 with everybody else 7-8 I think this grated on people a bit, by the time I realized the issue we were already half way through the adventure but the damage had been done. Eventually Clint disabled my 125hp ~30AC lvl 11 cleric playing 7-8 out which made me feel a little better but I think I contributed negatively to the atmosphere at this slot and feel bad :(
Sunday 8am PFS #3-02: Sewer Dragons of Absalom Judge : Chris Mortika
After being early Saturday morning I decide to sneak in an extra 15 minutes of sleep and arrive at the table a few minutes late. It turns out we don't actually have enough people for this adventure but we do manage to scrabble together 4 players for the Harrowing which Chris seemed to do a good job with. I generally prefer playing with real characters over pregens (my 3 table companions played leveled up versions of Merisiel, Valeros and Kyra) but I thought the players did a good job with the table. Our Valeros player had a lot of fun with the Harrow deck and figuring out what was going on. We had to skip some of the combats towards the end but it seemed pretty clear by that point that the fights weren't going to be too challenging for us so I was glad to get the flavor of the mod over some of the combats of the mod.
I picked up some art prints from the Nuke-Con art exhibit and made my way back to Ames where I probably should have gone to sleep an hour ago.
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This yahoo's thoughts/expirences at Nuke Con
cblome59 clearly put a lot of work into making PFS the best it could be for this Con and it showed. Lots of simple logistical things that needed to happen did like having the organized play guide printed out and having pregens for all 3 levels etc.
Thanks Rob. I've been Organising a good chucnk of the games at Nuke-Con for the last 3 years and am always learning new things (Have extra low level mods that may not be advertised just in case!). It's nice to hear that you are doing something right. :)
Here's what I can remember/cobble together for my notes regarding the individual tables and other assorted things. (Warning: there are lots of nit-picky complaints here, in general I enjoyed myself)
The schedule at Nuke-Con is a little awkward, With slots only starting at even numbered hours there's a two hour break between slots. I did take advantage of the extra time to do things like walk around Omaha for an hour but in general it was a little too long. There's probably not much that can be done on this front but it may be something to think about.
This has been a pet peeve of the local game club since we started running at Nuke-Con (back in the Living Greyhawk days). They have absolutely refused every year to changs their 2 hour slots so that we could ahve a more reasonable schedule. The other local cons don't do things that way. I hope you'll come down to PretzCon in the spring as it was a LOT more fun and we had a reasonable schedule.
Comments on individual slots (No Spoilers):
Friday 08:00 PM PFS #3-05: Tide of Twilight : Judge Chris Mortika
The game gets started almost 30 minutes late but most of that time was time well spent explaining the world and PFS in general to the several new players at the table. Right when we're finally getting started Clint (cblome59) send us over a 6th and asks our judge if it's okay to add another player still. (Big props to Clint for asking). Chris says yes and the player says he doesn't have a character but doesn't want to play a pregen and that he can whip up a cleric (using the 3.5 PHB) in no time. Chris wisely requires him to play a pregen and we get started. The latest player grates on me a bit with a lot of out of character comments and by saying derp about every 2 minutes. After about an hour or so he leaves since his ride for the night is leaving and I quite enjoy the rest of the table and apparently people really loved my sports athlete by day / pathfinder by night character: Griff.
I felt horrible about foisting the new player on the table. Especially as it became clear he had a poor attitude. Chris did a great job of rolling with the punches.
Saturday 8 AM PFS #3-06: Song of the Sea Witch : Judge (I failed at catching his name, sorry)
We sat around at the table while the judge prepped the mod until almost 9am. We had a brand new player who basically got no explanation of what was going on and barely participated. I was feeling pretty glum at this point having skimped on sleep to be at the table bright and early. Somehow we still managed to finish this slot early
I was rather annoyed with my judge for this. I'm glad it worked out. Unfortuantely as the mods came out just 2 days before the con he got this one on short notice. I wish he had had time to prep it more (a fact that I wish all my judges would have had, another lesson for next time).
Saturday 2 PM PFS #2-23: Shadow's Last Stand Part I : Judge Carl Burgdorf
I think Clink mentioned to us that this was his first time judging pfs. I thought his strengths outnumbered his weaknesses and that he went out of his way to be fair and make the adventure interesting. I think he had some problems dealing with the free flowing nature of answering flavor questions not explicitly described in the mod but I think that's something we can all struggle with from time to time when the players ask questions that the mod doesn't do a good job of describing.
Carl has the potential to become a good judge. Better yet, he wants to judge. A rare combination. I felt confident putting him at your table as it was a mod he had played and there were 2 experienced PFS judges and a fairly local guy who has been running Mage-Con in Sious City Iowa for years (since Greyhawk). It was nice to get Chirs's and your opinions on how to develop him as a judge.
Saturday 8PM PFS #3-04: The Kortos Envoy Judge : Clint
I have some delusion that we're going to be able to play this 10-11 and had planned to play my 11 cleric who only needed 1 more XP to hit 12. It's clear we'll be playing low but in the end I make the selfish decision to play my cleric anyway. I think I preformed poorly at this table, my cleric never ended up with a whole lot of personality but once he got his flying carpet part of his shtick became making fun of all the big folks on the ground (he's a gnome). Myself playing a level 11 with everybody else 7-8 I think this grated on people a bit, by the time I realized the issue we were already half way through the adventure but the damage had been done. Eventually Clint disabled my 125hp ~30AC lvl 11 cleric playing 7-8 out which made me feel a little better but I think I contributed negatively to the atmosphere at this slot and feel bad :(
Don't feel bad at all, everyone still had a blast. It was fun for me as a judge. First time I've actually had a chance to run a 7-11 as we don't usually have the levels for it. I'd love your opinion as to my running of the mod :)
Sunday 8am PFS #3-02: Sewer Dragons of Absalom Judge : Chris Mortika
After being early Saturday morning I decide to sneak in an extra 15 minutes of sleep and arrive at the table a few minutes late. It turns out we don't actually have enough people for this adventure but we do manage to scrabble together 4 players for the Harrowing which Chris seemed to do a good job with. I generally prefer playing with real characters over pregens (my 3 table companions played leveled up versions of Merisiel, Valeros and Kyra) but I thought the players did a good job with the table. Our Valeros player had a lot of fun with the Harrow deck and figuring out what was going on. We had to skip some of the combats towards the end but it seemed pretty clear by that point that the fights weren't going to be too challenging for us so I was glad to get the flavor of the mod over some of the combats of the mod.
Chris did an amazing job with this on short notice. I had fun playing Merisiel and stabbing :) Between you and I, there wasn't a bad guy that could survive much longer than a round.
Overall it sounds like you had a good time, I did too. I've recently gotten excited about PFS again after a bit of a lull round GenCon. You helped to make my experience at the con better.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Well, I spent a couple hours last night actually prepping the Harrowing. Any enjoyment you folks had from it was due to (a) 4 great players at the table, and (b) Crystal's inspired adventure plot, characters, and setting.
If I ever get another chance to run that module in PFS, it'll go much more smoothly.
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I want to proclaim to the rafters that Omaha has a terrific bunch of gamers. Our hobby has a reputation for collecting socially awkward folks, but I didn't meet a person at the con who wasn't pleasant, personable, and looking to have a good time. It was a wholly positive experience for me, and I'll be banging the drums here to get folks to head west nest year.
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By the way, did I leave my roll-up map?
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Well, I spent a couple hours last night actually prepping the Harrowing. Any enjoyment you folks had from it was due to (a) 4 great players at the table, and (b) Crystal's inspired adventure plot, characters, and setting.
If I ever get another chance to run that module in PFS, it'll go much more smoothly.
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I want to proclaim to the rafters that Omaha has a terrific bunch of gamers. Our hobby has a reputation for collecting socially awkward folks, but I didn't meet a person at the con who wasn't pleasant, personable, and looking to have a good time. It was a wholly positive experience for me, and I'll be banging the drums here to get folks to head west nest year.
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By the way, did I leave my roll-up map?
Thanks Chris. We have a larger group, but for the life of me I can't talk some of them into going to the Con. Makes it easier the next game day as I am out of new mods. :P
I certainly didn't see your map and I cleaned it up afterward. Hopefully you will find it. I can check with the lost and found for you tho.
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I'm glad you appreciated the feedback, I'm probably sounding too harsh about the player that joined us at the first table, I found him a bit grating but there wasn't really anything wrong with him and I had a much better time with him when I played with him again later.
Hopefully I'll be able to get more of my gaming supplies when I visit home in November and actually get around to running a few tables out here.