Stars, Volunteers, Conventions, and More!

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Wow! What a year we had in 2017. Thanks to you, our community, for supporting us in bringing the joys of roleplaying to more players than ever before. I look forward to seeing what we can do in 2018!

I'm currently on the road, enjoying the holidays with my family, then gearing up for 2018 convention travel by heading out to MarsCon. More on that below! The rest of the team is at Paizo HQ, working hard on upcoming scenarios, updating additional resources, and a few other projects we will expand upon in upcoming blogs. We've got lots planned and are hard at work making those plans become reality.

Stars and Novas

Over the course of 2017, several of our stalwart GMs reached their 5th star milestone in PFS. Requirements to achieve 5 star status include running 150 games, of which at least 50 must be unique scenarios and 10 be special scenarios, but are not indicative of hours spent preparing for events. A conservative estimate of time needed to reach 5* is 650 hours! To our GMs listed below, thank you very much for the time and energy you spend running Pathfinder Society games! Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

  • Herman V Abelarde Jr
  • Timothy Mace
  • Miguel Madrid del Ama
  • Stephen Ross
  • Andrew Bourne

When we launched Starfinder Society, the organized play team chose to track GM activity for the two campaigns separately. As they are different systems and running one doesn't grant automatic familiarity with the other, it made sense. To keep the star theme, but make it different, we chose novas. At the time of announcement, we outline the requirements for reaching 5 novas, as we didn't expect any GM to reach that point in the first few months. Now that the campaign has a few months under its belt, and with the announcement of two scenarios a month, we are revisiting the topic of what milestones a GM must achieve to be recognized with the 5 nova status.

As this isn't just the org play teams campaign, it belongs to the players too, I wanted to give our community a chance to weigh in on what they would like to see the 5 nova status represent. Any criteria we use needs to be objective, measurable, obtainable, and equitable. As this can be a very hot topic, and one that may elicit polarizing opinions, I would ask you to send commentary via email to organizedplay@paizo.com. The team will read all commentary and use it in our discussion of policy.

Conventions

Our community hit the ground running in 2018 and has put together quite a few events spanning the globe! If you've wanted to travel to an event, but are unsure if there are Paizo organized play activities, this list should help you out!

Convention NameLocationStart Date
MAGFest 2018 Washington ,DC 1/4/18
Start of the Year 2018 Geneva, Switzerland 1/4/18
PbP Community Multi Table Special III - Race for the Runecarved Key Online 1/5/18
ShadowCon 2018 West Memphis, AR 1/5/18
SacAnime Winter 2018 Sacramento, CA 1/5/18
Midwinter Gaming Convention 2018 Milwaukee, WI 1/11/18
Arisia 2018 Boston, MA 1/12/18
MarsCon 2017 Williamsburg, VA 1/12/18
Niu yia 2018 León, Spain 1/12/18
Paradise City Comic Con 2017 Miami, FL 1/12/18
SCARAB 2018 Columbia, SC 1/12/18
PAX South 2018 San Antonio, TX 1/12/18
The Grand Lodge Parties On Fresno, CA 1/13/18
Swampcon 2018 Gainesville, FL 1/13/18
Contingency 2018 Fordingbridge, Hampshire, UK 1/17/18
Mammoth Con 2018 San Diego, CA 1/19/18
Winter War 45 (2017) Urbana, IL 1/25/18
3rd Convention Pathfinder France Paris, France 1/26/18
Cancon 2018 Canberra, ACT, Australia 1/26/18
Polar Vortex 2018 Glen Ellyn, IL 1/26/18
B-CON Winter 2018 Frankfurt am Main, Germany 1/27/18
Manaleak 2017 Birmingham, UK 1/27/18
AtomiCon Mini II Durham, NC 2/2/18
CaptainCon 2018 Warwick, RI 2/2/18
FlintCon 2018 Flint, MI 2/3/18
GalaxyFest 2018 Colorado Springs, CO 2/9/18
LodgeCon 2018 Peotone, IL 2/10/18
GenghisCon 2018 Aurora, CO 2/15/18
BASHCon 2018 Toledo, OH 2/16/18
Con of the North Minneapolis, MN 2/16/18
George WashingCon (2018) Bloomington, IN 2/16/18
Dreamation 2018 Morristown, NJ 2/22/18
TotalCon 2018 Marlborough, MA 2/22/18
2nd Annual Boys and Girls Club Con Bellevue, NE 2/23/18
OwlCon 2018 Houston, TX 2/23/18
ImperiCon 2018 Wixom, MI 2/24/18
CoNfUsIoN 2018 Utrecht, Netherlands 3/9/18
CosCon XXX 2016 Butler, PA 3/16/18
PFS MANCon 2018 Manchester, UK 3/23/18
Marmalade Dog 23 Kalamazoo, MI 3/30/18

Volunteer Opportunities

As we spin up 2018, watch for a few more Call to Vol blogs. We will need GMs/HQ personnel for Gen Con and Origins . We are also looking for volunteers willing to help demonstrate games in the Paizo booth at UK Games Expo and PAX Unplugged. Calls for Gen Con, Origins, and UKGE should go out within the first quarter, with PAX arrangements occurring in July/August.

I've got the list of PaizoCon volunteer registrations and will be working to match volunteers to tables over the week or two. I will send emails to all registrants regarding their status. For those that hadn't completed the form but wanted to volunteer, you can still register by completing the PaizoCon 2018 Volunteer Registration.

2018 Organized Play Staff Travel

Last month, I added a column to the convention list to show which events the organized play team planned on attending. While helpful, it didn't allow for much pre-planning, since event support requests submissions tend to be 1-2 months before the event. So this month, I've pulled together a list of all events in 2018 that will have an organized play staff presence. A few are listed as TBD and there may be some changes, as who attends depends on workloads and availability, but this is our currently planned itinerary.

If you are an event organizer and want to invite us out at your event in 2019, drop an email to organizedplay@paizo.com before next summer. We review our schedule in the fall and try to get all decisions wrapped by the end of the year.

Convention NameLocationStart DatePaizo Staff Attending
MarsCon 2017 Williamsburg, VA 1/12/18 Tonya
SCARAB 2018 Columbia, SC 1/12/18 John
OrcCon Los Angeles, CA 2/16/18 John
TotalCon Marlborough, MA 2/22/18 TBD
OwlCon 2018 Houston, TX 2/23/18 Tonya
Emerald City Comic-Con Seattle, WA 3/1/18 Tonya, John, Linda
GaryCon Lake Geneva, WI 3/8/18 Tonya
Gama Trade Show Reno, NV 3/12/18 Tonya
GameStorm Portland, OR 4/5/18 Linda
Quad Cities Game Fest Quad Cities, IA 4/27/18 Tonya
PaizoCon Sea-Tac, WA 5/25/18 Tonya, John, Linda
UK Games Expo Birmingham, England 6/1/18 Tonya
Origins Columbus, OH 6/13/18 Tonya, John
ALA Annual Conference New Orleans, LA 6/20/18 Tonya
PaizoCon UK Birmingham, England 7/20/18 Tonya
Gen Con Indianapolis, IN 8/2/18 Tonya, John, Linda
DragonCon Atlanta, GA 8/30/18 John
Fan Expo Toronto, Ontario, Canada 8/31/18 TBD
SkalCon Minnaepolis-St. Paul, MN 9/14/18 Tonya
Hurricon Tampa, FL 9/27/18 Tonya
PaizoCon OZ Brisbane, Australia 10/19/18 Tonya
U-Con Ann Arbor, MI 11/9/18 Tonya
PAX Unplugged Philadelphia, PA 11/30/18 Tonya

Spotlight Blogs

Some of my greatest enjoyment being part of organized play stems from sharing stories and experiences with our players. For those that garner the same enjoyment from sharing, I would invite you to submit a blog for the organized play team to highlight in our Wednesday blogs. Topics are flexible, as long as it relates to organized play, though we reserve the right to edit for content and clarity. Please send submissions to organizedplay@paizo.com with the subject Spotlight Blog.

Wow. That's a lot of information packed into the above paragraphs. I'll leave it there for now and continue on next week.

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge

Organized Play Manager

More Paizo Blog.
Tags: Community Conventions Organized Play Pathfinder Society Starfinder Society
Grand Lodge

8 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

SKALCON!


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

Yay, new five-stars! ^.^

Also: w00t! Tonya gonna make an appearance at Winter War! :-D

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

GameStorm is in Oregon, not Washington.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Hah! She's coming to my town!!!!

Guess I'll have to go to that convention.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Thanks for the repost for the volunteer link (but the link is broken FYI).

Blog wrote:
A conservative estimate of time needed to reach 5* is 650 hours!

I've heard this a couple times, and it seems to me a rather conservative estimate.

Hmm... That would be 1 hour of prep for 50 scenarios, run three times each, in an average of only 4 hours.

Attempt at a minimum calculation:
Okay, so absolute absolute would be something like always running pre-printed scenarios cold in 3.5 hours, x46, plus running We Be Goblins 1-4 and Master of the Fallen Fortress 52 times in ~2.5 hours. That would be 291 hours, and a travesty.

More reasonably: let's say run each scenario an average of two times, with three hours of prep time (including reading, minis, maps, travel, setup), so 225 hours of prep. 150 runs at 4.5 hours would be 675 hours, for a total of 900.

If you take three hours to read, two hours for minis and maps, and run 100 different scenarios, that's 500 hours of prep. If you tend to run up to five hours, that's another 750, for 1250 hours.

If you run each scenario just once, spend an extra two hours building/selecting terrain (on average), and one hour painting/modding a miniature, you're up to 1200 hours of prep. If you run on leisurely gamedays/homegames and spend a good six hours average per scenario, that's 900 hours of running, for 2100 hours total.


Quite the potential range!

Grand Lodge

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
TriOmegaZero wrote:
SKALCON!

SkålCon!

We’ll have Tonya there! We’ll have Thursty there! Now, all we have to do is lure John, Linda and Mark there sometime!

Hmm pulls out a can of Leshy treats, and shakes it. Shake-a-shake-a-shake!

(Yes, I know that may only work for one of the three... But maybe we can promise John and Mark lots of scheming, fabulous roleplay and chances to torment Minnesotans and our guests at a singularly delightful charity convention.)

Congratulations to the new Five Stars! It was a long journey but think about how much joy you’ve given all of us players!

Hmm

Grand Lodge

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Don’t forget about DunDraCon, starting February 16th in San Ramon, CA (Bay Area)!

Scarab Sages

congratulations Andrew & the other new 5 Stars


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Tonya.

You forgot to add Andreas Frederiksen from denmark, who also turned 5 star, around november, :D

Sovereign Court Organized Play Manager

I'm getting a few things updated, as I posted some wrong information! My apologies and thanks to everyone who gave me a heads up!


    GameStorm is in Portland, OR, not WA
    PaizoCon OZ is in Brisbane, not Melbourne
    U-Con is November 9-11, 2018, not Nov 16th.
    Fixed the PaizoCon volunteer link.

Sovereign Court Organized Play Manager

1 person marked this as a favorite.
David P. Møller. wrote:

Tonya.

You forgot to add Andreas Frederiksen from denmark, who also turned 5 star, around november, :D

I didn't forget. He was blogged last month! Blog link

Sovereign Court Organized Play Manager

Dennis Muldoon wrote:
Don’t forget about DunDraCon, starting February 16th in San Ramon, CA (Bay Area)!

I don't have DunDraCon's event support request, which is where I get my list of upcoming events. Can you chat with the team and see if it was submitted (if so, please resend) or if it is inbound? Thanks!

Scarab Sages

Congratulations to all the new 5 star GMs!!

Tim Mace, special congratulations on adding yourself to the ranks of 5 star GMs in Pullman!!

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Tonya Woldridge wrote:
Dennis Muldoon wrote:
Don’t forget about DunDraCon, starting February 16th in San Ramon, CA (Bay Area)!
I don't have DunDraCon's event support request, which is where I get my list of upcoming events. Can you chat with the team and see if it was submitted (if so, please resend) or if it is inbound? Thanks!

Will do.

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Maps, Rulebook Subscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Have fun at MarsCon. I have been twice and it is a nice little con that keeps growing. The PFS Group there is awesome and even though I am no longer in that area, I still keep in touch with them. They also run games at the local anime convention NekoCon each year as well. I have been wanting to visit friends in that area and I plan to attend that con as it crosses over for most of my friends.

Paizo Employee Developer

SCARAB is going to be amazing this year!


Is there a website available for ConFusion con in Utrecht, Netherlands? It's within traveling range for me, but I hadn't heard about the con before seeing it pop up in this list, and can't find it on Google.

Liberty's Edge

I see the Omaha Pathfinder Society con is listed: 2nd Annual Boys and Girls Club Con!

Thanks Tonya!

Liberty's Edge

Hmmm I see that Thurston wrote 9-13 The Lion's Justice.. I wonder if I could somehow entice him to take the long way home and run it in Omaha.. Only a few short hours from SkalCon....

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

I believe copious quantities of alcohol will help in that regard.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Gary Bush wrote:
Hmmm I see that Thurston wrote 9-13 The Lion's Justice.. I wonder if I could somehow entice him to take the long way home and run it in Omaha.. Only a few short hours from SkalCon....

MORTAL! HEED MY WARNING AND THINK LONG BEFORE YOU ENTER INTO CONTRACT WITH THAT BEYOND YOUR UNDERSTANDING!

Liberty's Edge

TriOmegaZero wrote:
I believe copious quantities of alcohol will help in that regard.

We do have some really good small brewers in our area....

Liberty's Edge

A little curious as to why this blog does not appear on the Pathfinder Society forum.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

It addresses both PFS and SFS, so it falls under the Organized Play forum rather than the subforums.

Scarab Sages

allvaldr wrote:
Is there a website available for ConFusion con in Utrecht, Netherlands? It's within traveling range for me, but I hadn't heard about the con before seeing it pop up in this list, and can't find it on Google.

Relevant info is up on PFSnl.nl

I'll shoot you a private message too.


Congratulations Tim!
And thank you!
I remember when you were just a 1 star...

Also, congratulations to Herman, Miguel, Stephen and Andrew!
Thank you all for your time & dedication!

Dark Archive

Woran wrote:

Relevant info is up on PFSnl.nl

I'll shoot you a private message too.

Fixed that link for you.

Dark Archive

Woran wrote:
allvaldr wrote:
Is there a website available for ConFusion con in Utrecht, Netherlands? It's within traveling range for me, but I hadn't heard about the con before seeing it pop up in this list, and can't find it on Google.

Relevant info is up on PFSnl.nl

I'll shoot you a private message too.

I look forward to help spread the crazy at ConFusion.

Grand Lodge

@Tonya - I sent an email last month regarding this and other things pertaining to Organized Play, but never received a response. Should I resend it? If not in 2019, we’d definitely love someone to come visit one of our cons in 2020.

Sovereign Court Organized Play Manager

kevin_video wrote:
@Tonya - I sent an email last month regarding this and other things pertaining to Organized Play, but never received a response. Should I resend it? If not in 2019, we’d definitely love someone to come visit one of our cons in 2020.

I've had some email issues due to some infinite loop auto-replies. Please resend.

Grand Lodge

Tonya Woldridge wrote:
kevin_video wrote:
@Tonya - I sent an email last month regarding this and other things pertaining to Organized Play, but never received a response. Should I resend it? If not in 2019, we’d definitely love someone to come visit one of our cons in 2020.
I've had some email issues due to some infinite loop auto-replies. Please resend.

Will do. Appreciate that.

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