Gen Con and Thanks for All the Fish

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Gen Con 2016 is in the books (and Delta's computer failure gave me and many other Paizonians a lovely bonus day or two in the fabulous airport waiting areas of Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and/or Salt Lake City) and what a show it was! Demos of the upcoming Mummy's Mask Base Set were a huge hit in the exhibit hall, with 10 tables of action running basically at capacity for four straight days. Many thanks to Dominick Trascritti and his skilled demo team for giving fans old and new an excellent introduction to Mummy's Mask.

Action in the Sagamore Ballroom was also hopping, with the Adventure Card Guild area serving up more tables of Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild play than ever before. We showcased the epic final adventures of Season of the Runelords. We debuted the insane Season of the Goblins, written by Tyler Beck, David Jacobson, and Keith Richmond... and let's just say that people were not expecting to eat that many slugs. (For those of you who didn't make it to Gen Con, these adventures will be available for sale soon!)

We debuted a multimodal special event, The Cosmic Captive, mixing RPG and ACG tables to great effect. We got a ton of great feedback on how to improve the ACG side of future such events, so thank you all for being our guinea pigs on that. Venture-Lieutenant Kevin Hanley and his phenomenal volunteer staff did a spectacular job marshaling and managing the area, as well as the trial by fire that was running multiple tables simultaneously. (The Cosmic Captive will be available exclusively to conventions for the next year.) It was a privilege and a pleasure to work with so many enthusiastic and talented Pathfinder Society folk this year. (To my Special GMs: JUMP!)

We also brought back the ACG Open for a second year, to the delight and chagrin of dedicated players. This year's tournament, "The Cayden Cailean Way," took 64 players through a variety of tests in honor of the Lucky Drunk. In case you need to be terrified, this year's event had rounds written by Chad Brown, Keith Richmond, and Mike Selinker, with a little synthesis done by yours truly. The final round featured last year's runner-up team, Level 5, against an upstart team of pick-up players called Team One. Both teams completed the final scenario within one minute of each other, but Team One won the day with a higher overall score. Level 5, I am rooting for you to level up next year!


The 2016 Adventure Card Game Open finalists.

This year's Gen Con (my nineteenth, yipes!) was bittersweet for me, because it marked an ending and a beginning for me. I'm starting a new adventure this fall: nursing school. Unfortunately, the demands of school and the demands of ACG players are a little too much to handle at once, so I'm bidding farewell to Paizo's hallowed halls. I leave the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game in the capable hands of Vic and the Sharks, and the Adventure Card Guild in the capable hands of Organized Play Coordinator Tonya Woldridge. Being a member of the ACG and Pathfinder Society teams has been a joy, and I couldn't ask for better stewards.

Thank you all for allowing me to strain your brains and add fun to your days with the Class Decks and the Adventure Card Guild. I've really enjoyed doing it, and I look forward to playing with you all at a convention soon. Onward to adventure!

Tanis O'Connor
Adventure Card Game Designer

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Tags: Adventure Card Guild Conventions Gen Con Gen Con 2016 Paizo Pathfinder Adventure Card Game
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Paizo Employee Pathfinder Society Lead Developer

3 people marked this as a favorite.

It's been great working with you, Tanis. Best of luck in the adventures ahead

Grand Lodge

Best wishes, Tanis.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Oh, no, not Tanis! :(

Grand Lodge

Tanis, very glad I got to meet you at Gen Con and best of wishes to you!

Designer

We'll miss you Tanis. Good luck in nursing school!

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Treat every day of nursing school as an adventure, and remember that you have all the right cards.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Thanks for all you've done for the card game Tanis. You've helped lay a solid foundation for the card guild. If you are even half as good to your patients as you were to this community, you will be an awesome boon for the medical profession.

Don't be a stranger and God bless in all that lies ahead for you.

Dark Archive

Thanks so much for the chance to bring a great game to new people. There were more than a few who went from the Dealer hall to play up at the Sagamore.

Best of luck in nursing school.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Thanks for everything you've done Tanis, and good luck in nursing school!


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Good luck, Tanis. Thanks for all you've done.

Grand Lodge

Best of luck Tanis!


Good luck to you Tanis! While I am blind and don't play the card game, I do enjoy reading your blogs. You will be missed.

Scarab Sages

Best of Luck to you as you take on this next part of your journey!! Thank you for not only everything you have done for the Adventure Card Game/Guild but for helping to change my opinion on the Adventure Card Game back at PaizoCon '14 (went from meh to This is Awesome!!).


Thanks for all you've done for launching the Adventure Card Guild - since my first scenario was with you and your Qualzar, I've had many characters and will hope to create many more.


Good luck Tanis.

Project Manager

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Love you and miss you already, Tanis. <3

Dark Archive

Aloha.


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

Congratulations on nursing school, it will be amazing.
You will be greatly missed. Hopefully still get to see you at PaizoCon or other events.

Silver Crusade

We'll miss you, Tanis!

In unrelated news, Rebel! You are the famous person in the blog!


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Tanis, thank you for all the work you've put into PACG and specifically the Adventure Card Guild. The last couple of years have been loads of fun. Good luck with nursing school, and see you around!


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I'm so sorry to see you go, Tanis. You've done marvelous work with PACG and PSACG. I've really enjoyed your presence here.

Best of luck in all that lies ahead.


Speaking from personal experience, returning to higher education after a while can be an exhilarating and frightening experience. I wish you the best of luck in school, and it was a true delight to have the privilege of meeting you these last two years at PaizoCon. Best of luck and I second that hopefully you will have time to make PaizoCon again, it won't be the same without you! :)


Good fortune on your new adventure Tanis! You will be greatly missed, but your future patients will benefit from your hard work and dedication if you are half as passionate about nursing as you have been with the adventure card game. Thank you for all you have done to help grow the game to what it is today.

Dark Archive

Best of Luck Tanis

Vigilant Seal

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Best of luck in Nursing School. It was great meeting you earlier this year Tanis.


Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

That is so great for you Tanis! Nurses are true heroes in this world, go be a SUPER one!


:(

Silver Crusade

Mahalo Tanis~

Wishing you fair winds as you move forward into an exciting new adventure! It was great to meet and work with you this year at GenCon.


I'm increasing my levels in cleric too! I start nursing college at the end of the month.

Pathfinder ACG Developer

1 person marked this as a favorite.

<3 <3 <3

Also, this is the best blog title.

Adventure Card Game Designer

13 people marked this as a favorite.

Everyone should know by now how much Tanis has done for the creation of this game. She was there playtesting at the outset, when her husband Chad, Paul, Gaby, and I started fleshing out the skeleton of the then-horror game that was in my head. By the time it was a Pathfinder game, Tanis was invaluable in making it feel like Pathfinder. She made all the words in the Runelords version work, at least before they got to Vic. She gathered our playtester feedback at that first PaizoCon when we showed off a hand-typed version of the game. She told us when we were wrong when everyone was telling us we were right.

When Vic proposed that someone from the Lone Shark team move into the Paizo offices, I thought nobody would be interested in making the jump. Tanis volunteered because, more than any of us, she saw the nature of what she could build. This game, still in its infancy, could support a massive network of organized play scenarios and auxiliary products built around expanding the character mix. No one had ever built an organized play system around a persistent co-op card game. This was going to be very, very hard.

You know the rest of the story. The Adventure Card Guild launched with seven class decks of Tanis's devising, with an adventure path of Tanis's devising, with an advancement system of Tanis's devising. The rest of us helped, of course, but Tanis led us there. Over time, she learned from player feedback, modified the program, and advanced the science of game design. Twenty class decks, four adventure paths, a bunch of special events, and thousands of play sessions later, Tanis helped us learn much more about how people play games than we did before.

She's not the kind of person to wave a "Mission Accomplished" banner, but I think she deserves quite a bit of congratulations for what she's made. With her taking on nursing school full time, I expect you'll see her still involved in our game projects when her increasingly busy schedule permits. I am certain you'll still see her at our game table, telling me when I'm wrong when everyone else tells me I'm right. You'll forgive me if I listen to her first.

<3 you, Tanis.

Mike


<3

Will miss you.


Now you just have to design a new game to teach the ones you'll be nursing how to keep smiling no-matter-what.
From what I remotely discovered about you over the last years, I'm sure you'll come up with the best one can think of.

Enjoy your multiclassing.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

We will miss you.
You are awesome.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Good luck, Tanis, with all your future endeavors, and thank you for what you have done with the Pathfinder ACG!


Thanks for all your work, Tanis! Good luck!

Shadow Lodge

It was great meeting you Tanis, best wishes!

Grand Lodge

Very glad I got to meet you at GenCon. Good luck in nursing!

Shadow Lodge

It was good to get to talk to you for at least a little bit at Gen Con.

All the best to your new endeavors! :)

Dark Archive

Oh noes! I'm going to miss you, Tanis! It was a blast working with you last year at GenCon and reading all of your wonderful and amusing blog posts. Best of luck in your adventures ahead in nursing school!


Best of luck!

I think the minutiae of working on the ACG will serve you well when you begin (or continue) your DX code & ICD adventures in nursing school.

Paizo Employee Customer Service Representative

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Tanis! You're going to be so missed around Paizo HQ. The selfish part of me wants to beg you to stay, but I know that you're going to be an amazing nurse. (I *guess* that helping other people and saving lives is kinda important...)

Seriously though, you are a fantastic human being and you're going to do a lot of good in the world. Miss you already! <3

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Best of luck to you Tanis. Please come back to Indy & visit when you have some time.

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I am sure that nursing school will be a great adventure. Maybe while you are there you can find someone to clone you and then Taniis can lead the card guild?

Best of luck and thanks for taking this card game to 11 with the card game guild!


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Getting a forum post favorited by Tanis always made me feel like I was doing something right.

Thank you for your support of a fledgling VO, and thanks for all the amazing stuff that came out of your head. Figuratively speaking, of course.

Tanis O'Connor wrote:
These particular sorts of wording issues make me want to punch myself in the head until my brains leak out my ears.

It's very apparent to all of us that caring is in your nature, Tanis. You're going to make a superb medical professional.


Best of luck in your Nursing career!


Thanks for all the effort you put into the game. I enjoyed the open session you ran this year. Good luck with the new career.


Thank you for a great con. One of the better ones in recent memory.

Thank you for everything you have done for this game and community.
It's been a pleasure seeing you at the conventions and reading your stuff online.

And may your new endeavor bring you all kinds of joy.
-Vic

Liberty's Edge

Tanis, thank you for all your hard work. Good luck as you pursue your nursing career.


Thanks for everything you've done for the game and the hobby; and best of luck in the future.

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