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Filling in the Ranks

Tuesday, October 11, 2011


Illustration by Craig J Spearing

I was always taught to deal with bad news first and then move on to good news. It is with a heavy heart that I announce the resignation of Doug Miles, the Detroit Venture-Captain. Doug was Pathfinder Society’s first five-star GM. He has been an avid supporter of Pathfinder Society and he will be sorely missed. I had the pleasure of meeting and GMing side by side with Doug at Dragon Con two years ago and was able to take some observations of watching his GMing style and incorporate it into my own. On a positive note, Doug has some very exciting life changes he is preparing for in the near future and the Paizo and Pathfinder Society wish him well.

"It's been a privilege to see Pathfinder Society grow year after year, and to have promoted a game that has exceeded expectations on so many levels,” said Miles. “If it weren't for the support and encouragement of the players and GM volunteers in this campaign, I would have never come as far as I have. I am most grateful for all the friends that I have made through the campaign, both in person and on the messageboards. Although I can no longer live up to my Venture-Captain obligations, and thus am stepping down, I hope to stay in touch with PFS and look forward to watching its popularity continue to expand."

It also saddens me to announce we are losing another member of the Venture-Captain team in Mark Garringer from Indianapolis.

"Due to family and personal reasons, I have to take a step back from my involvement in Pathfinder Society," said Garringer. "I believe in organized play and where Mike is taking things, and I want to thank him for all he has done already. I thank Paizo for the opportunity and friendships I've been able to make."

This is not the only change to our existing Venture-Captain corp. Bob Jonquet is moving south of Chicago to the southern area of Illinois. This does create additional opportunities for Pathfinder Society, however, as I have created a new region—Central & Southern Illinois. Bob has been named the Venture-Captain of this new region and I look forward to seeing how he can grow Pathfinder Society in a new area.

A final change to our existing Venture-Captains is the stepping down of Dane Pitchford in Seattle. Due to his life becoming even more busy and hectic, he did not feel he could devote as much time to the position as it deserves. I did not want to lose Dane from the Venture-Captain family and so I offered him a new position that he graciously accepted. He has been reassigned to his new position, Venture-Lieutenant (Seattle).

We are also adding 13 new Venture-Captains in 10 new regions! Please welcome the following:

Boise, Idaho – Clarence Garrett
Portland, Oregon – Alex Greenshields
Las Vegas, Nevada – Doug Daulton
Seattle, Washington – Chris Jarvis
Salt Lake City, Utah – Eddy & Stephanie Roberts
Central/Southern Illinois – Bob Jonquet
Chicago, Illinois – Rene Duquesnoy
South Carolina – Del Collins
Wisconsin – Sean Hanlin
Winnipeg, Canada – Scott Young
Perth, Australia – Callum Prior
Sydney, Australia – Alistair Rigg
Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia – Zrinka Znidarcic

For another exciting change, I am also instituting the Venture-Lieutenant program. As Venture-Captain in Atlanta, I learned quickly I could not run everything on my own. Trying to spread myself among nine stores, with more than 240 square miles, and still maintain a life was impossible. So, I choose to handpick store liaisons, or Venture-Lieutenants, to help me. They were my right-hand people who helped me ensure Pathfinder Society continued to grow, while meeting these needs of the players in the different stores. Each was assigned to a store or area in Georgia I could not get to regularly. This paid huge dividends in that we had tremendous growth in the region.

So, I have worked with the Venture-Captains to choose Venture-Lieutenants to assist them in their regions. If the region is spread out among many miles, or has more game locations than they can handle, I have let the Venture-Captains choose two Venture-Lieutenants to assist them.

This is not an inclusive list as more will be added, but as of the writing of this blog, the following have been chosen as Venture-Lieutenants:

Arizona – Jason Leonard
Atlanta, GA – Joseph Caubo and John Compton
Austin, TX – Bill Oppenlander
Chicago, IL – Garret Gottschalk
Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX – Marcus Mayes
Des Moines, IA – Derek Boobyer
Denver, CO – Scott Crosson
Dunedin, FL – Kristy Schweyer
Indianapolis, IN – Tracy Windeknecht
Missouri – Michael Von Hasseln
Omaha, NE – Clint Blome
Raleigh, NC – Joe Jungers
Seattle, WA – Dane Pitchford
Toronto, Canada – Robert Trifts
Winnipeg, Canada – Myron Pauls
Croatia – Maja Skvorc

Each of these new Venture-Lieutenants, as well as any chosen in the future, will receive a messageboard title to identify him or her as such. It is encouraged that you still work with your regional Venture-Captain for all of your Pathfinder Society needs.

We are still in need of additional Venture-Captains in some regions and you can find the list here. If interested in applying, please contact me after reviewing the application process in the previous link.

Good-bye to an old friend and welcome aboard to all my new captains and lieutenants!

Mike Brock
Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator

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Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Congrats to all the new venture-captains and venture-lieutenants.

Farewell to Doug and Mark; you both did excellent work in your regions and Pathfinder Society is better for your service. Don't be strangers!
Grand Lodge 3/5

Welcome aboard every one just joining us.

Best of Luck to the VCs moving on to new adventures. We see each other somewhere down the road.
Contributor
Michael Griffin-Wade wrote:

Welcome aboard every one just joining us.

Best of Luck to the VCs moving on to new adventures. We see each other somewhere down the road.

In a Pathfinder lodge, no doubt, recounting tales of battles won and lost, treasures lost and found.

You guys were awesome to work with, and for the incoming folks, I'm looking forward to seeing you at PaizoCon or GenCon!
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

Doug and Mark and Dane, you will be missed as VCs, but don't expect me to stop making fun of you guys..;)

Congrats to the new Venture-Captains and Venture-Lieutenants!
Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Paizo invades Europe using Churchill's initial plan for hitting the soft underbelly of Balkans!
Grand Lodge 4/5
Gorbacz wrote:
Paizo invades Europe using Churchill's initial plan for hitting the soft underbelly of Balkans!

Shhh..you will ruin one of my opening strategies for Axis & Allies.

The Exchange 5/5 RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16

I'd like to note that Zrinka Znidarcic has one of the coolest names I've seen in years.
1/5

Sad to see everyone go, but glad to see that these people had the foresight to recognize that they could not do the position justice and chose to step back rather than see it suffer. You gentlemen are truly inspirational, I hope to one day mirror your excellence. :)
Grand Lodge 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Captain, Croatia & Slovenia
Gorbacz wrote:
Paizo invades Europe using Churchill's initial plan for hitting the soft underbelly of Balkans!

Mwahahaha! Where do you think croatoan..erm.. I mean croatian comes from? ;)

yes, PFS exists even in strange exotic countries of central/southeast Europe :) Hopefully more people will crop up in the neighborhoods cause the PFS European map looks even funnier now
Grand Lodge 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Captain, Croatia & Slovenia
Chris Mortika wrote:

I'd like to note that Zrinka Znidarcic has one of the coolest names I've seen in years.

Now I'm blushing.. and wondering how in the world are you pronouncing it :D (its missing certain diacritical signs - surname is written Znidarčić so last two letters are pronounced like 'ch')

Shadow Lodge

I'm sticking around in some capacity, at the very least. Time permitting, anyway.

And hmm, seems my swanky new title hasn't taken effect yet.
4/5 *
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber
SirGuido wrote:
Sad to see everyone go, but glad to see that these people had the foresight to recognize that they could not do the position justice and chose to step back rather than see it suffer. You gentlemen are truly inspirational, I hope to one day mirror your excellence. :)

Can't argue with a word of this.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/5

Grats to everyone!
Grand Lodge 4/5

Being 36000 feet in the air does wonky things with a person's head and much like I left off a huge contributor from Atlanta when I made my first blog, I did the same thing with this one.

I would like to sincerely apologize to Isaak Haygood for not mentioning his name above and would like to thank him and sing his praises about all the outstanding work he did in Las Vegas while Venture-Captain there. Sorry about that Issak.
Grand Lodge 4/5

Yay Perth and Callum! The State finally has a force to deal with Dire Magpies and Fiendish Blowfish.
Grand Lodge 5/5

It is inspiring to see so many new names ... well, newer than me. I hope to add a Venture-Lieutenant for Boston without too much delay.

Welcome folks!
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
Michael Brock wrote:

Being 36000 feet in the air does wonky things with a person's head and much like I left off a huge contributor from Atlanta when I made my first blog, I did the same thing with this one.

I would like to sincerely apologize to Isaak Haygood for not mentioning his name above and would like to thank him and sing his praises about all the outstanding work he did in Las Vegas while Venture-Captain there. Sorry about that Issak.

Totally missed that Doug Dalton was new VC of Los Vegas... Isaak you will be missed, I hope to still see you at Cons!

Grand Lodge 1/5

Good luck Rene and Garrett in the Chicago region! The Obsidian Portal Windy City Pathfinder Society is hopping!
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
sozin wrote:
Good luck Rene and Garrett in the Chicago region! The Obsidian Portal Windy City Pathfinder Society is hopping!

If you need some stuff to update that page, feel free to steal stuff from the San Antonio PFS Obsidian Portal Page!

Edit: Reboot...Booting up... ok Now ready for your Perusal.
Grand Lodge *

Greetings all from Salt Lake City, Utah.

Stephanie and I are excited to be on board and we are equally excited to see the names of so many of our friends from other organized play campaigns. We are going to actively be looking for a couple of Lieutenants, and hope to hear from players in the Northern Utah area who might be interested.

There are some cool things coming up from the Salt Lake Chapter House and we'll keep you all informed as they develop.

We look forward to getting to know you all and renewing friendships from old.

-Eddy and Stephanie Roberts
Shadow Lodge 3/5
Michael Brock wrote:
Being 36000 feet in the air does wonky things with a person's head

I resemble that remark.

Thanks folks I hope to live up to your expatiations.

Scott Crosson
Venture Lt. Denver
5/5

Well it makes me a little sad that my VC, Mr. Mark G. is retiring. He has done a great job. As well as being a guru on these message boards.

Good luck to the new VC's, and Lt's.
Silver Crusade

Hmm...we need a Venture Captain of the High Seas....Since my job has me moving around on Large and small nuclear powered Vessels...
Anyway Congrats to all the new Venture Captains and Lieutenants!
I need to find a game in Seattle, Chris you need to contact me! We met at PAX...
The Exchange 4/5

It is good to be aboard. I have big plans For southern Idaho, also I am available to assist any of the neighboring state's VC's. just send me an email.

I am a full time student with the ability to travel and enjoy my mid life crisis years by gaming. Look forward to meeting you all again at PaizoCon next June. Boise PFS is going to caravan up there!
Scarab Sages
5 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

Greetings to everyone from Portland, OR aka Stumptown aka PDX aka the City of Roses.

We run a biweekly game every other Friday at Portal Games. To signup, please visit BigTent.com and look for Portland Pathfinder Society. You can also follow us on Facebook (Portland Pathfinder Society) and on Twitter @PortlandPFS.

In honor of my elevation, I have written a little ditty to be sung to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's "I am the very model of a modern major general". Enjoy!

"I am the very model of the modern Venture Cap-i-tan,
I inculcate the newbies with the game rules I am rapid in.

I quote the rules both ancient and the new ones from the eff-a-queue,
I know the cost of +2 mithral elven chain, why didn’t you?

I’m often found at gaming stores, both friendly and deplorable,
at cons I make appearances, those cos-play’s are adorable!

I play ‘til I am insensate by running games at tables round,
And make damn sure that all side quest maguffins always can be found.

I keep the factions cordial, I brook no malicious mummery,
I stay away from all boxed text, and paraphrase a summary.

In short in matters prestige, fame, shirt rerolls, magi murderous,
I am the very model of a V-C in the PFS!"
Silver Crusade 2/5
Alex Greenshields wrote:

Greetings to everyone from Portland, OR aka Stumptown aka PDX aka the City of Roses.

We run a biweekly game every other Friday at Portal Games. To signup, please visit BigTent.com and look for Portland Pathfinder Society. You can also follow us on Facebook (Portland Pathfinder Society) and on Twitter @PortlandPFS.

In honor of my elevation, I have written a little ditty to be sung to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's "I am the very model of a modern major general". Enjoy!

"I am the very model of the modern Venture Cap-i-tan,
I inculcate the newbies with the game rules I am rapid in.

I quote the rules both ancient and the new ones from the eff-a-queue,
I know the cost of +2 mithral elven chain, why didn’t you?

I’m often found at gaming stores, both friendly and deplorable,
at cons I make appearances, those cos-play’s are adorable!

I play ‘til I am insensate by running games at tables round,
And make damn sure that all side quest maguffins always can be found.

I keep the factions cordial, I brook no malicious mummery,
I stay away from all boxed text, and paraphrase a summary.

In short in matters prestige, fame, shirt rerolls, magi murderous,
I am the very model of a V-C in the PFS!"

Brilliant! I believe I'm going to need to make a sign of this for our FLGS.....

Grand Lodge 4/5

Welcome to all the new Venture-Captains and Venture-Lieutenants. I'd like to personally take note of Marcus Mayes, my V-L. He was instrumental in getting PFS started in the DFW area and I'm very happy to have him participating in the campaign in an official capacity.

I haven't been a V-C for very long myself, but I'm sure I'm going to miss all the folks who have stepped down in the past couple of months.

Alex, that's brilliant!
Wayfinders 5/5

Aaah...song stuck in head now - but still awesome.

Very happy to be the Venture Lieutenant for Dunedin (Clearwater-area), FL and looking forward to increasing PFS activity in the area.
Liberty's Edge 4/5
Michael Brock wrote:

Being 36000 feet in the air does wonky things with a person's head and much like I left off a huge contributor from Atlanta when I made my first blog, I did the same thing with this one.

I would like to sincerely apologize to Isaak Haygood for not mentioning his name above and would like to thank him and sing his praises about all the outstanding work he did in Las Vegas while Venture-Captain there. Sorry about that Issak.

Was going to ask about this, but it explains something Issak said Saturday, about Doug doing the organizing for NeonCon GMs.

Congratulations to Doug D!
Lantern Lodge

Cosmo tried to sing it out loud.

I made him stop.
Paizo Employee Malaise-Inducement Construct
Sara Marie wrote:

Cosmo tried to sing it out loud.

I made him stop.

This is true. I told her that I have many delightful facts about the square of the hypotenuse, but she seemed uninterested in that as well.

Scarab Sages
Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber
Sara Marie wrote:

Cosmo tried to sing it out loud.

I made him stop.

Awww, let the poor lad sing!

Grand Lodge 4/5 *

Greetings from the new Venture-Captain from Winnipeg! Thanks to all the outgoing VCs for setting the bar so darn high... Looking forward to working with this great community!
Here in Winnipeg, close to the geographic center of North America, we run a weekly game instore with plans for two more locations. We also have some decent cons nearby. If you're nearby, drop in!
Silver Crusade 5/5

Congratulations to everyone. I also wanted to say Congratulations to Joe Jungers.
Myles Crocker
Shadow Lodge 3/5
Alex Greenshields wrote:
Sara Marie wrote:

Cosmo tried to sing it out loud.

I made him stop.

Awww, let the poor lad sing!

You scare me. :)

Liberty's Edge 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Missouri—Cape Girardeau

Congratulations to those new Venture Captains and my fellow Venture Lieutenants! I look forward to working with all of you eventually. In the mean time, my plan is to focus on the east side and southeast corner of Missouri in an effort to help preserve the sanity of Jason Roeder!
Scarab Sages 4/5

Thank you for giving me the excuse to make the SCARAB staff work more. Mwaaa Haa Haaaaa!!!!!!
Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/5 ***
Arnim Thayer wrote:
Congratulations to those new Venture Captains and my fellow Venture Lieutenants! I look forward to working with all of you eventually. In the mean time, my plan is to focus on the east side and southeast corner of Missouri in an effort to help preserve the sanity of Jason Roeder!

Feel free to take care of Carbondale as well ;-)

Dark Archive 4/5

Welcome to the Cauldron
Liberty's Edge Contributor

Welcome new Venture Captains!!!!!

Oh and Portland is about to find out how lucky they are to get Alex Greenshields!
4/5 *
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber
Bob Jonquet wrote:
Arnim Thayer wrote:
Congratulations to those new Venture Captains and my fellow Venture Lieutenants! I look forward to working with all of you eventually. In the mean time, my plan is to focus on the east side and southeast corner of Missouri in an effort to help preserve the sanity of Jason Roeder!
Feel free to take care of Carbondale as well ;-)

Absolutely. No one ELSE wants it. ;-)

Silver Crusade 3/5

I certainly hope those that had to step down from the VC positions will still be able to contribute to PFS in whatever way they can.

Congradulations to all the new VCs and VLs. Especially to John and Joe in the Atlanta region!
Grand Lodge 3/5 5/5
Alex Greenshields wrote:

"I am the very model of a modern major general". Enjoy!

"I am the very model of the modern Venture Cap-i-tan,
I inculcate the newbies with the game rules I am rapid in.

I quote the rules both ancient and the new ones from the eff-a-queue,
I know the cost of +2 mithral elven chain, why didn’t you?

I’m often found at gaming stores, both friendly and deplorable,
at cons I make appearances, those cos-play’s are adorable!

I play ‘til I am insensate by running games at tables round,
And make damn sure that all side quest maguffins always can be found.

I keep the factions cordial, I brook no malicious mummery,
I stay away from all boxed text, and paraphrase a summary.

In short in matters prestige, fame, shirt rerolls, magi murderous,
I am the very model of a V-C in the PFS!"

I think every perspective V-C or V-L should be required to post themselves singing this...

Sovereign Court 3/5
Callarek wrote:

Was going to ask about this, but it explains something Issak said Saturday, about Doug doing the organizing for NeonCon GMs.

Congratulations to Doug D!

Doug Dalton is the owner of NeonCon and Society Coordinator for the convention and thus why I suggested you discuss the GMing possibilities with him and not because of any other status.

Issak Haywood
Theocrat Issak

I personally know, and have worked with, Sean Hanlin, Derreck Boobyer, and (I think) Garret Gottschalk. They are all excellent choices who will help the Pathfinder Society continue on to great things.

As for Clint Blome . . .. You can't have him. I need him. He's been helping me keep our gaming club here in Omaha active and inviting to new players. True, he's not been doing much but peddling Pathfinder for awhile, now, but, he's going to have trouble supporting our club and covering the other stores in the area as well. A LOT of trouble, actually.
Dark Archive 4/5
hustonj wrote:

I personally know, and have worked with, Sean Hanlin, Derreck Boobyer, and (I think) Garret Gottschalk. They are all excellent choices who will help the Pathfinder Society continue on to great things.

As for Clint Blome . . .. You can't have him. I need him. He's been helping me keep our gaming club here in Omaha active and inviting to new players. True, he's not been doing much but peddling Pathfinder for awhile, now, but, he's going to have trouble supporting our club and covering the other stores in the area as well. A LOT of trouble, actually.

Don't worry, he just needs to be there to roll out the red carpet when I come to town.

Dark Archive 3/5

Thanks to all for the welcome. I am looking forward to helping out here in DFW.

Marcus Mayes
Dallas Ft. Worth Venture Lieutenant
Sovereign Court 4/5

Oh poo. Seems like I need to recruit a lot more players and GMs to get closer to that position...

Also congrats to all the new venture-captains, especially Croatia! I can't say anything but "Bok".
3/5
hustonj wrote:

I personally know, and have worked with, Sean Hanlin, Derreck Boobyer, and (I think) Garret Gottschalk. They are all excellent choices who will help the Pathfinder Society continue on to great things.

Hey Jeff how have you been? Wanna come up for a couple of game days here in sunny and "warm" WI over the winter... lol.

Hello everyone, I am looking forward to meeting each and everyone of you!!! I plan on building the game here in WI to towering heights!!! Thanks for all of your well wishes.
Grand Lodge 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Captain, Croatia & Slovenia
Deussu wrote:

Oh poo. Seems like I need to recruit a lot more players and GMs to get closer to that position...

Also congrats to all the new venture-captains, especially Croatia! I can't say anything but "Bok".

:D Bok right back at ya ;)

I was also really hoping you'd be on the list. I'm sure it won't be too long, Europe needs more VCs badly.
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