Gen Con 2016 Call for Volunteers!

Thursday, January 21, 2016

As we gear up for this year's convention season, it's time again to solicit volunteers!

Paizo is once again a co-sponsor of Gen Con 2016. As with last year, we will have a booth & card game demos in the Exhibition Hall, seminars in the Convention Center, and Pathfinder Society running in the Sagamore Ballroom.

Last year saw the culmination of several years' growth, during which Pathfinder Society at Gen Con expanded from a side room to all of the Sagamore Ballroom. While we aren't adding any space this year, we're changing up some of the programming. The Adventure Card Guild (ACG) will have 20 tables in its own area of the ballroom, where they are going to run Season of the Runelords. In addition, the ACG Open returns to test the mettle of our Card Guildees, and the Friday night interactive will include an ACG component. There are a few other programming related plans to finalize, and we'll reveal more information on those on the blog sometime in Febraury.

On the Roleplaying Guild (RPG) side, we're offering scenarios covering the second half of Season 7 and the first few of Season 8, as well as bringing back a few favorites. We have several special events planned, including an all-new interactive on Friday evening! In addition, a new series of quests will debut, and there are a few other things up our sleeve to be announced in February.

One of the biggest changes this year is the new "Pathfinder Society Academy" (PSA). Encompassing the Kid's Track offered in prior years, it expands to a third lesson track focusing on transitioning to full scenarios. With 10 tables in their own area of the ballroom, the PSA includes space for our younger GMs and players to have an experience tailored just for them. Games in PSA are family-friendly and sure to bring a smile to our younger players' faces.

The Gen Con lead volunteers and the PFS team worked together to determine a scheduling method to cover volunteer needs for slots while also maximizing free time (allowing folks to join in some of the fantastic Gen Con activities). One of the changes you'll see is the additional of a break between the morning and afternoon slots. This year, games in the Sagamore Ballroom will be run in three slots (8:00 AM to 1:00 PM, 2:00 PM to 7:00 PM, and 8:00 PM to 1:00 AM), with the exception of Sunday (9:00 AM to 2:00 PM). The Exhibition Hall demos will be run from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, with the exception of Sunday (10:00 AM to 4:00 PM).

Volunteer slots are scheduled as follows:

SlotRPG/ACG GMsPFS HeadquartersAdventure Card Game Demos
Thursday Morning7:30 AM to 1:00 PM7:30 AM to 4:45 PM9:30 AM to 2:30 PM
Thursday Afternoon1:30 PM to 7:00 PM1:30 PM to 6:30 PM
Thursday Evening7:30 PM to 1:30 AM4:15 PM to 1:30 AM
Friday Morning7:30 AM to 1:00 PM7:30 AM to 4:45 PM9:30 AM to 2:30 PM
Friday Afternoon1:30 PM to 7:00 PM1:30 PM to 6:30 PM
Friday Evening7:30 PM to 1:30 AM4:15 PM to 1:30 AM
Saturday Morning7:30 AM to 1:00 PM7:30 AM to 4:45 PM9:30 AM to 2:30 PM
Saturday Afternoon1:30 PM to 7:00 PM1:30 PM to 6:30 PM
Saturday Evening7:30 PM to 1:30 AM4:15 PM to 1:30 AM
Sunday Morning8:30 AM to 2:00 PM8:30 PM to 5:30 PM9:30 AM to 2:30 PM
Sunday Afternoon12:30 PM to 5:00 PM

Based on the above schedule, volunteer time commitments are:

TierRPG/ACG GMsHeadquarters VolunteerAdventure Card Game Demos
Tier 18 Slots5 Slots7 Slots
Tier 27 Slots
Tier 36 Slots4 Slots6 Slots
Tier 45 Slots3 Slots5 Slots
Tier 54 Slots2 Slots4 Slots
Tier 61 Slot1 Slot

The breakdown of what benefits are available for each tier are:

TierBadgeHotelHardcover BookT-ShirtsStore CreditBoon/Reward
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
Tier 4
Tier 5
Tier 6

The details of each benefit are as follows:

  • Badge—A free 4-Day Gen Con 2016 badge
  • Hotel— 1/4 of a room at the Westin in downtown Indianapolis
  • Hardcover Book—A free copy of Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Horror Adventures
  • T-Shirts—4 limited release t-shirts in purple (GMs)/orange (HQ) for new volunteers
  • Store Credit—Paizo.com store credit per slot volunteering ($10 per slot GMed slot and $20 per HQ slot)
  • Boon/Reward—An exclusive tier-based boon (RPG) or reward (ACG)

Gen Con badges go on sale Friday and the housing lottery starts Sunday. As in prior years, housing in downtown Indianapolis is at a premium. Gen Con works to house as many people as possible through their housing lottery. We are opening registration today so attendees that plan on volunteering may plan badge purchase and housing lottery involvement accordingly. All folks that complete the registration process by midnight Saturday will have an answer before the lottery goes live Sunday morning.

To register for volunteering, complete this Gen Con questionnaire. You can send any questions to genconpfsvolunteer@paizo.com.

Thank you to all our volunteers and players who make the Pathfinder Society so fantastic! The team and look forward to seeing you at Gen Con 2016! Let's roll some dice!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Coordinator

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Tags: Conventions Gen Con Pathfinder Society
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Grand Lodge 4/5

10 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Huzzah! My first GenCon!

Dark Archive 5/5

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Wonderful to see this posted so early this year.

GMing GenCon the last few years has been a blast. My app is in. I hope to see you all again this year!

Sovereign Court 3/5

All my papercuts have healed so I signed up to play with thousands of chronicle sheets again.

Dark Archive 5/5

After filling out the questionnaire, should there be a confirmation email or no? How do we know we successfully signed up?

See you all in Indy! :)

Dark Archive 4/5 5/5

Excited!

Silver Crusade 4/5

Woohoo!

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ***

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I'll be excited to see y'all there. GenCon is a great time!

Liberty's Edge 5/5

Wife and I will be there with bells on!

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

2 people marked this as a favorite.

No GenCon for me this year, but you'll see me at PaizoCon =).

Silver Crusade 1/5 Contributor

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Nefreet wrote:
No GenCon for me this year, but you'll see me at PaizoCon =).

Same for myself... I hope.

I'd really like to meet a lot of the people I know here, and to volunteer for stuff like PFS.

3/5

holy crap, this is early and unexpected. I haven't even started thinking about summer yet.

How do we answer the questionnaire if we don't have a gmail account? It wants me to login to Gmail.

Is the questionnaire asking for slots yet? If so, is there more info about the specials?

Grand Lodge 4/5

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

The slots are listed, but we haven't had public announcement of scenarios beyond this blog post. As mentioned in the post, Friday night is the interactive special.

But oh, the secrets I know...

Silver Crusade 5/5

I'm filling out the survey now! Kind of weird this went up on a Thursday though. This'll be three in a row!

Edit: ...And done! Woo, I'm excited!

1/5 Contributor

Cool! I'll be busy with Writing Track stuff for most of the con, but I hope they'll offer The Consortium Compact and I get the opportunity to run a session of it with my terrain. We're driving up so it wouldn't be a hassle to bring.

3/5

Also,

I think the shifting of the times is not beneficial.

1) I've attended GenCon the past several years as a Tier 2 GM and watched PFS grow to fill the Sagamore. I have only seen a few problems with morning slot tables not getting done in 4 1/2 hours.

2) Pushing back the afternoon slot and therefore the evening slot means we all get one less hour of sleep each day.

3) Ending at 1:00 am is even more family unfriendly then ending at midnight. I've seen and been at evening tables with teens and kids.

Sovereign Court 4/5 * Organized Play Coordinator

Swiftbrook wrote:

Also,

I think the shifting of the times is not beneficial.

1) I've attended GenCon the past several years as a Tier 2 GM and watched PFS grow to fill the Sagamore. I have only seen a few problems with morning slot tables not getting done in 4 1/2 hours.

2) Pushing back the afternoon slot and therefore the evening slot means we all get one less hour of sleep each day.

3) Ending at 1:00 am is even more family unfriendly then ending at midnight. I've seen and been at evening tables with teens and kids.

We've had long discussions on the schedule and decided to try something new this year. It is not just consideration of games finishing on time, it is the GMs needing a bit of a break before jumping into a second session. Trying something new this year. If it doesn't work, we can go back to the other way in 2017.

Silver Crusade 5/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Change is good, this seems worth a shot! It'd be nice to have a break scheduled in to give people a chance to food/drink.

Shadow Lodge 3/5

Has it been considered to have 2 sessions a day instead of 3? Should solve both of those problems.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I have a feeling GenCon would object to that.

3/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Tonya Woldridge wrote:
Swiftbrook wrote:

Also,

I think the shifting of the times is not beneficial.

1) I've attended GenCon the past several years as a Tier 2 GM and watched PFS grow to fill the Sagamore. I have only seen a few problems with morning slot tables not getting done in 4 1/2 hours.

2) Pushing back the afternoon slot and therefore the evening slot means we all get one less hour of sleep each day.

3) Ending at 1:00 am is even more family unfriendly then ending at midnight. I've seen and been at evening tables with teens and kids.

We've had long discussions on the schedule and decided to try something new this year. It is not just consideration of games finishing on time, it is the GMs needing a bit of a break before jumping into a second session. Trying something new this year. If it doesn't work, we can go back to the other way in 2017.

Well, the only way to see if something is better is to try it out. I'm in.

4/5

This looks great! More time is definitely a good thing in my book. I'm really looking forward to it, but definitely don't want to run three in a row on that schedule.

(Hey, this will be my first post with my new reduced rank. Cool.)

5/5 5/55/55/5

Not sure if I'll be living on the Adirondack trail or under a bridge by that point...

Liberty's Edge 5/5

Starfinder Superscriber

Hurm, now I have to decide if I'm going to go.

Benefits: (a) I get to go to GenCon and do an orgy of gaming. (b) It's within driving distance.

Drawbacks: (a) Pictures I've seen of GenCon make it look like OMG an unholy crowded zoo, which is a bit of a turn-off. (b) I'm already going to PaizoCon. I have to consider costs in both time and money.

Hmm, hmm, hmm, all very hard to decide.

Liberty's Edge 5/5

Starfinder Superscriber

Interesting that the GenCon call for volunteers is coming before the PaizoCon call for volunteers, given that P is two months earlier than G. (Or did I miss the PaizoCon call?)

1/5

rknop wrote:

Hurm, now I have to decide if I'm going to go.

Benefits: (a) I get to go to GenCon and do an orgy of gaming. (b) It's within driving distance.

Drawbacks: (a) Pictures I've seen of GenCon make it look like OMG an unholy crowded zoo, which is a bit of a turn-off. (b) I'm already going to PaizoCon. I have to consider costs in both time and money.

Hmm, hmm, hmm, all very hard to decide.

GenCon is always great fun but it has gotten really crowded the last few years. The board gaming boom has swelled the size of the con a lot. It really is as big as Indy can handle at this point.

Silver Crusade 5/5

Gencon is crowded, but the Sagamore has usually been better than most of the other areas, especially once we took over the entire Sagamore.

Dark Archive

Hard cover of horror adventures? Did I miss somethings?

Dark Archive RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.

The husband and I have signed up. First Gen Con, and first year where we both have the vacation time to go ^_^

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/5

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Maps Subscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Mine all mine...don't touch wrote:
Hard cover of horror adventures? Did I miss somethings?

It was announced at GenCon last year but to be honest with the new Adventure paths, both the ones we knew about and the one we didn't, the new GenCon release has sorta slip under the radar compared to everything else that was talked about.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/5

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Maps Subscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Jessex wrote:
rknop wrote:

Hurm, now I have to decide if I'm going to go.

Benefits: (a) I get to go to GenCon and do an orgy of gaming. (b) It's within driving distance.

Drawbacks: (a) Pictures I've seen of GenCon make it look like OMG an unholy crowded zoo, which is a bit of a turn-off. (b) I'm already going to PaizoCon. I have to consider costs in both time and money.

Hmm, hmm, hmm, all very hard to decide.

GenCon is always great fun but it has gotten really crowded the last few years. The board gaming boom has swelled the size of the con a lot. It really is as big as Indy can handle at this point.

This year GenCon is expanding into Lucus Oil Stadium as well.

Shadow Lodge 4/5

Huh, this really caught me by surprise. Didn't expect this to show up so early, and on a Thursday at that.

Shadow Lodge 4/5

3 people marked this as a favorite.

Nobody expects the Paizo inquisition!

Grand Lodge 3/5 Venture-Captain, Illinois—Kakankee

In for a penny, in for a pound!

I have put in my questionnaire. Either way I'll see you at Gen Con!

Liberty's Edge 5/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
rknop wrote:
Interesting that the GenCon call for volunteers is coming before the PaizoCon call for volunteers, given that P is two months earlier than G. (Or did I miss the PaizoCon call?)

Seems like they pushed it forward so GMs getting comped badges but not hotel rooms can get into the Gencon housing lottery.

3/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber

No GeonCon this year :(
But I'll make it to PaizoCon :)

Sovereign Court 5/5

sadly no way i can afford the hotel so no gen con for me

Scarab Sages 5/5 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Washington—Spokane

David Setty wrote:
rknop wrote:
Interesting that the GenCon call for volunteers is coming before the PaizoCon call for volunteers, given that P is two months earlier than G. (Or did I miss the PaizoCon call?)
Seems like they pushed it forward so GMs getting comped badges but not hotel rooms can get into the Gencon housing lottery.

I am pretty sure you didn't miss the PaizoCon call for volunteers as I know myself and other would be all over that announcement.

Dark Archive

Sadly I will be unable to make either one, maybe next year for PaizoCon.

4/5

Do we know if the Go Express shuttle buses will accommodate these later hours for those staying farther away? I don't think they ran all night.

1/5 5/5

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

The form doesn't seem to be working for me?

EDIT: Oh, have to click *on* the text... *headdesk*

Form entered and sent.

I just hope that my availability doesn't reduce my chances...

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

Sarvei taeno wrote:
sadly no way i can afford the hotel so no gen con for me

Go Tier 1, and you don't have to pay for it =D

Speaking of... when will the official call for PaizoCon volunteers be announced? I was expecting that to be announced before GenCon would be.

Scarab Sages

Nefreet wrote:
Sarvei taeno wrote:
sadly no way i can afford the hotel so no gen con for me

Go Tier 1, and you don't have to pay for it =D

Speaking of... when will the official call for PaizoCon volunteers be announced? I was expecting that to be announced before GenCon would be.

I was just wondering that myself Nefreet. I even checked the blog thinking I missed it.

1/5 5/5

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

As they noted above, the stated reason they posted was that folks who are looking at the housing lotteryscam and the badge registry could make those plans knowing in advance what they can and cannot do.

As PaizoCon is an 'in-house' sort of creation, Paizo is not beholden to Gen Con or otherwise to worry about getting enough rooms for their judges, etc, so it gives a bit more 'breathing room' to prepare.


Fingers crossed!


Did I read the tiers description correctly, in that only tiers 2 and 6 have zero ACG slots?

The Exchange 4/5

The Form said "shirts every 2 years" Does this mean can get new ones if you had gotten the purple a few years ago?
Hope we can choose what we would like to run, when scenario list is published.

Grand Lodge 4/5

UndeadMitch wrote:
Change is good, this seems worth a shot! It'd be nice to have a break scheduled in to give people a chance to food/drink.

That's been a frequent complaint in previous years between the morning and afternoon slot, this is our attempt to make things a little more comfortable for our GMs and players, both.

Grand Lodge 4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
rknop wrote:
Interesting that the GenCon call for volunteers is coming before the PaizoCon call for volunteers, given that P is two months earlier than G. (Or did I miss the PaizoCon call?)

You didn't miss it. Tonya posted this first due to the Gen Con badge/housing schedule and finalizing some details for Paizocon.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Swashbuckles wrote:
Did I read the tiers description correctly, in that only tiers 2 and 6 have zero ACG slots?

You're looking at the ACG Demos, which are run in the dealer's hall at (or next to) the Paizo booth where they sell the merchandise. The hours are different from the Sagamore's, and the shift lengths are different from the ACG GMs that will be in the Sagamore running the Card Guild games. With that, just like with HQ, some adjustment to the tiering levels are necessary to make everything work out in terms of total hours volunteered vs. compensation.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Nefreet wrote:
Sarvei taeno wrote:
sadly no way i can afford the hotel so no gen con for me

Go Tier 1, and you don't have to pay for it =D

Speaking of... when will the official call for PaizoCon volunteers be announced? I was expecting that to be announced before GenCon would be.

Tier 1 & 2 both get hotel room space at Gen Con. I wouldn't recommend Tier 1 GM for a novice at Gen Con, it's a rough run spending 80% of the con running games.

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