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So you might have read my brief note here but let me go ahead and expand a little on my weekend.
First, a little background. Some people got to hear it already, but my first PFS game was DragonCon '08. (My Society number is 3217. I was amazed to see mid-five digits when I gamed.)
My second PFS game was June 30th. I arrived at the FLGS for a game and found out it was a Society game. Amazingly enough, I still had my chronicle and character sheet from four years ago. After updating to PF rules and playing First Steps: In Service To Lore, my halfling rogue was one point from second level.
Well I couldn't just come to PaizoCon and let that be, especially if I wanted an aasimar boon any time soon. (Little did I know aasimar and tieflings weren't available.)
So I resolved to skip the panels that I had added just to have a schedule for the day and show up for muster. The first event I got to volunteer for, along with my wife?
The Grand Convocation.
So here we are, thrown onto the mini adventure tables with no idea what's going on, maybe fifteen minutes to read our mods, and then the room fills and the madness begins. I ran the Into The Vault 1-5 tier, while my wife had The Menagerie 3-7 tier. (Oddly enough, my Shackled City party name was the Menagerie...)
I managed to run two groups through the vault despite the amazing gentlemen at the adjacent table hollering at the top of his lungs as he channeled the gods for his players. (His dark robe was an amazing touch.) I nearly murdered the party fighter the first game when the enemy went for the coup de grace, but luckily one AoO connected and slew it before it could tear the paralyzed bastard's throat out. (Then Mark Moreland stopped by and said not to use the CdG tactic for tier 1-2. Narrowly averted!)
The live action events were certainly flow breaking, but overall pretty enjoyable. The Ulfen(?) cleric of Groeteus had my vote, and the Hellknight played his character to the hilt. If you're on the board, major props.
Then, the players were ushered out and the GMs distributed over the tables. I read the finale and thought "should have volunteered for one of the high tier tables".
I enjoyed being a part of the convocation despite the rough edges. My players were never in any real danger, and we didn't feel quite a part of the rest of the battle, but hearing some group yell "HOLY WORD" was a unique experience, especially the brief moment of 'dude, tell me that didn't effect us!'
The next morning I managed to be fifth in line for muster, although I didn't know if I was going to be called to GM or play. It finally ended up that I went in and filled a slot at the Goblinblood Dead table. My newly leveled rogue/fighter performed admirably, as did the rest of the party with some close shaves and a very troublesome casting of obscuring mist.
After lunch I returned multiple times, asking if a GM was needed. Finally, I was told the Midnight Mauler table needed one, so I took the offered packet, found my table, and spent five minutes trying to absorb it before my players arrived. Despite some hiccups, I managed to get the players through it, largely thanks to Jack of Blades being hyper-competent. Sorry you got stuck with me Jack! Next time I'll actually have the map pack that goes with the mod.
Sunday was a pretty quiet day for me. I didn't volunteer for any PFS sessions to avoid getting an odd number of tokens when my wife finished her session. I mostly waited outside and harassed the staff. :) That night however was dinketry corralling me for We Be Goblins. Barring some group in the lobby or a get together Monday morning, we were the last group rolling dice at the con when we finished at 1AM. Major props for the excellent DMing and maintaining goblin character. I'm both amused and horrified at what I saw that night.
Well, its late, so I'll throw this up on the board and head to sleep. Thanks to everyone I met and I look forward to crossing paths again down the line.
Edit: Top of the page? Good thing this isn't FAWTL!
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I had a great time as well as Paizocon. I think my highlight was playing We be Goblins on Sunday night until about 1 am. What a great party we had. It was an awesome time.
I really enjoyed all of my DMing sessions. Andrew is far too kind about my running of Rats 2, but thank you. The most important thing to me when I GM is that my players have a good time.
Pain, I'm a little hurt that you didn't mention me anywhere. *sniff* I'm hurt!
Trevor
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Another successful PaizoCon, come and gone. I had a great time running games with the added bonus of somehow not losing my voice. Highlight was the use of meat flavored snow cones to bribe hungry goblins into behaving.
The Grand Convocation was a blast. Those wimpy Hellknights were too afraid to cross logs at dawn with Mak Brawney, Champion of the Arena. Perhaps a dueling table off in the corner next year.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010
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Met and played Rats 2 with Matt Goodall, which was a ton of fun. I think he was a bit frustrated though as he couldn't make a caster level check to beat spell resistance for anything... nevertheless, he was a fantastic sport about it, and it was great to meet him!
Hey Andrew, it was good to meet you, I definitely enjoyed the game. Sometimes your dice are hot, sometimes not. :-)
[Note to self: take Greater Spell Penetration and a higher level spell with no SR next level. :-) ]
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Well this was my first Paizocon outside of the UK and all I can say is wow! :)
What a great bunch of people to meet and play with. I truly had a great time and hope that money allowing I can make it back next year.
I had some great games and my thanks go out to all the other players and GM's that looked after us Brits :)
However I think I have to say that the highlight for me was my Saturday morning game of Portal to the Sacred Rune that Painlord has already mentioned..run by Majuba. The group just gelled together really well and to have the fun of actually being able to stealth was just fun. Sadly it overran, so we had to pack up and arranged to meet back at 6pm to try and finish it.....
It wasnt looking good....I truly think that Majuba (great DM) thought it would be a quick TPK and sort out the Chronicles...oh how he was wrong, 30 mins later after a successful grapple and we were victorious...truly something to remember :)
So special thanks to the table....
Judge: Majuba (great judge out of Texas)
Josh (ThreeEyedSloth, Bay Area), playing Locke (the Risen), lvl 9
Jeremy (Portland), playing Xorb, lvl 7
Garrett (WA local), playing DaNaio, lvl 8
Painlord (demiplane of Pain), playing Princess Isis, lvl 8
and myself Andrew B (Reading UK), playing Dakiir, lvl 8
Hopefully see some of you next year, I now have about 10 days before I inflict my learnings on the UK Paizocon.....
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The highlight for me I think had to be placing second (for all it mattered) in the footrace finals, and only reason I didn't win was I got thoroughly slaughtered at the initiative of the final round. Both of us on the last spot were capable of either taking 1 or really low rolls to succeed, but I couldn't beat his +15 to init.
The funniest part of it was the table was a monk 10, rogue 12 or something similar, and I forget the third but a rather high level and I'm sitting here with a level three ninja drunken brute barbarian drinking and ki-ing my way to the end as fast as I possibly can.
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Let's See... I met Pain the first night as I was running the Scrolls table. I also had a chance to meet both James Sutter and Patrick Renie and talk to them about development, which was awesome.
I played Red Harvest with... ah crap, the name escapes me. He was a Venture-Captain from Texas. Awesome GM, had a ton of fun with that game.
VC David Woodfin? I heard good things about his GMing all con.
Nice to meet you too, Sean H. Way to rock the sweet 'stache, too. Totally appropriate for a scrolls master.
-Pain
David Woodfin definitely sounds familiar... all I can say is probably? If other good things were heard, then likely? I could say for sure if I had a picture.
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Andrew my wife Chelle and I were at that Rats I table, and I concur Matt is a great DM. Too bad you missed the nail-biter we had during part II. Was great to meet and play with you, Al and Wade.
Yes, it was fantastic to meet you both! I wish I could remember names of everyone I ran into during the Con, but I think I'd need an eidetic memory for that.
A bit of a scare during the one encounter, but otherwise, it went great!
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Met and played Rats 2 with Matt Goodall, which was a ton of fun. I think he was a bit frustrated though as he couldn't make a caster level check to beat spell resistance for anything... nevertheless, he was a fantastic sport about it, and it was great to meet him!
Hey Andrew, it was good to meet you, I definitely enjoyed the game. Sometimes your dice are hot, sometimes not. :-)
[Note to self: take Greater Spell Penetration and a higher level spell with no SR next level. :-) ]
Yeah, I must have rolled 4 or 5 20's and followed that up with 4 or 5 1's.
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I had a great time as well as Paizocon. I think my highlight was playing We be Goblins on Sunday night until about 1 am. What a great party we had. It was an awesome time.
I really enjoyed all of my DMing sessions. Andrew is far too kind about my running of Rats 2, but thank you. The most important thing to me when I GM is that my players have a good time.
Pain, I'm a little hurt that you didn't mention me anywhere. *sniff* I'm hurt!
Trevor
Grolick, Pain might not have mentioned you but he was aware. When I asked him who just gave me the free minis he knew it was you. He had nothing but nice things to say as do I. Thanks for the minis my 13yr old and 6yr old will enjoy them (except the Glabrezu which i'll keep for myself).
That was extremely generous of you.
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I had a great time as well as Paizocon. I think my highlight was playing We be Goblins on Sunday night until about 1 am. What a great party we had. It was an awesome time.
I really enjoyed all of my DMing sessions. Andrew is far too kind about my running of Rats 2, but thank you. The most important thing to me when I GM is that my players have a good time.
Pain, I'm a little hurt that you didn't mention me anywhere. *sniff* I'm hurt!
Trevor
Grolick, Pain might not have mentioned you but he was aware. When I asked him who just gave me the free minis he knew it was you. He had nothing but nice things to say as do I. Thanks for the minis my 13yr old and 6yr old will enjoy them (except the Glabrezu which i'll keep for myself).
That was extremely generous of you.
I'm glad they are going to a good home then! If I'm able to attend next year, there will likely be more! :)
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Met and played Rats 2 with Matt Goodall, which was a ton of fun. I think he was a bit frustrated though as he couldn't make a caster level check to beat spell resistance for anything... nevertheless, he was a fantastic sport about it, and it was great to meet him!
Hey Andrew, it was good to meet you, I definitely enjoyed the game. Sometimes your dice are hot, sometimes not. :-)
[Note to self: take Greater Spell Penetration and a higher level spell with no SR next level. :-) ]
Yeah, that SR was killer. And the only time it got through, I made a killer saving throw. It was great to meet you. Loved your character, even if I did botch the name for a bit at first!
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Sunday was a pretty quiet day for me. I didn't volunteer for any PFS sessions to avoid getting an odd number of tokens when my wife finished her session. I mostly waited outside and harassed the staff. :) That night however was dinketry corralling me for We Be Goblins. Barring some group in the lobby or a get together Monday morning, we were the last group rolling dice at the con when we finished at 1AM. Major props for the excellent DMing and maintaining goblin character. I'm both amused and horrified at what I saw that night.
why I do feel like i might have been responsible for the things that horrified you?
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Yeah, I must have rolled 4 or 5 20's and followed that up with 4 or 5 1's.I think we need to add to the FAQ that you're not allowed to roll your own dice. You were on fire! Most of us were playing down and still there was almost wholesale murder at our table.
Yeah, but I think I rolled two natural 1's at the most opportune time for the group.
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Back home, had a good nights sleep.
Unfortunately I'm horrible at remembering names, so half of my mad props will not be properly attributed. If you think I'm talking about you feel free to step up and claim all the glory.
After arriving Thursday afternoon, having spend 14+ hours in a van with Amenopheus, Azymth, ThreeEyedSloth, Lady Blackros, and Andy.
I managed to find a pickup game of the GoblinBlood Dead, run by the wonderful Katie Gonzalez (VL San Diego), who did a great job. Eventually I managed to bribe her with a chocolate martini but that was well after she started. Finding a complete stranger to judge a scenario on Thursday night? Winning!
I also got to meet my roommates Caleb&Wife who were quite nice and offered to share their yummies with me. When I did not eat enough of their food they left more on my bed while I wasn't looking to be consumed later.
Friday morning I played Sewer Dragons of Absalom with a table of people I had never met before. We had a fun but rough time. We got destroyed by some Kobolds. Luckily we all lived, but there were some rough spots. Scenario was great though. Rene Duquesnoy (VC Illinois) did an amazing job keeping the adventure going despite our floundering and the GENERAL LOUDNESS OF THE ROOM.
Friday afternoon Scott Young (VC Winnipeg) strikes fear into our hearts during the Golden Serpent. He does a great job balancing the intrigue bits going on with fun cinematic action and provides a memorable final fight.
Friday evening I played the Grand Convocation. There was some really cool stuff and some really lame stuff. That is deserving of its own post, perhaps it's own thread. As to not spoil thinks for our UK fans my opinions on that will wait about 2 weeks. I will however give a quick shout out to our GM for the 7-11 sidequest we played, who also wrote it and did a great job of getting us through it despite the very limited amount of time. Along with Nani (VC Georgia) who ran the finale for my table and did a great job as well.
Saturday afternoon I went to playtest Swallowtail. I got permission to take some pictures, and will post them eventually. It was a neat little game. Fiddly in places and I wasn't super impressed by it, but my opinion seems to be in the minority. Most people who were exposed with it seemed to love it. A quick little co-op adventure game set in Golarion made it a winner to a lot of people.
During the banquet I try and find a pickup game. The only thing I can find is Portal of the Sacred Rune, being run by FourEyedSloth. Having enjoyed it so much on Friday and already having a player that had run the mod I sit in for no credit and have yet another great time.
Saturday morning WalterGM (VL Pullman & Spokane) runs Portal of the Sacred Rune and had to put up with not only Farak, the Most Powerful Mage in All Absalom, but Lady Gabrielle d'Apcher. Walter does a phenomenal job and it is probably my favorite table of the Con.
Sunday morning Gornil runs The Ghenett Manor Gauntlet. I forget where he's from but if you're his VC/VL bribe him with all you can to teach his fellow GMs how to be awesome. I enjoy both the combat and the RP aspects of Pathfinder. Here, a battlemat was never drawn and initiative was never rolled. We all had a fabulous time. It wasn't one of these things where oh a high diplomacy guy rolls a 47 and everybody talks instead of fighting. It was a party making smart tactical decisions, paying attention to the clues present in the adventure and choosing to solve problems in interesting ways.
Also on a side note I was playing a Chelixian Wizard, and at the beginning of the session there's a Paladin declaring himself to be full of holy paladinyness and insisting we do things the paladiny way. My character strongly objected, suggested to the Paladin that he should take his morals and leave the Society if he wasn't willing to do what needs to be done to get things done. After a couple of minutes of this, the player drops character to tell me to back off etc. As soon as he starts my tone changes completely and I explain that the complaints are only in character and that OOC I thought he was fine etc. He and the player next to him both breath a sigh of relief, compliment me on my roleplaying saying that they were worried I was mad due to the viciousness of my complaints. That established I went back to insulting the Paladin who got to enjoy having the Chelixian complain about his decision making, despite being totally right about the way to accomplish things in the end.
After the Con proper, I find a table of 6 lvl 1/2 new players sitting around hoping to find a GM. I bust into action with Ambush in Absalom. While this is going on Mike Brock & Painlord come by with stacks of books to reward people still playing Pathfinder. Everybody at my table walks away with a shinny new hardcover. Amusingly enough, most of the players already own most of the books, making it hard to find appropriate gifts for them. It's pretty amazing when it's hard to give stuff away to your customers because they've already bought it all.
After this I catch up with FourEyedSloth and we go in search of a pickup game, hopefully of Storming the Diamond Gate so that we may catch the first half of the Portal of the Sacred Rune story.
We find a table that wants 2 players, we ask them when level and what scenario and it turns out to be Storming the Diamond Gate! WINNING!
We spend a bit of time shuffling locations until settling in a fancy boardroom, where Ace Smith (VC Austin) runs yet another great table.
Then there's all the other stuff that happened, like the meeting of people and the having of foods etc. This post is already far too long so I'll leave that other stuff for another time
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Also on a side note I was playing a Chelixian Wizard, and at the beginning of the session there's a Paladin declaring himself to be full of holy paladinyness and insisting we do things the paladiny way. My character strongly objected, suggested to the Paladin that he should take his morals and leave the Society if he wasn't willing to do what needs to be done to get things done. After a couple of minutes of this, the player drops character to tell me to back off etc. As soon as he starts my tone changes completely and I explain that the complaints are only in character and that OOC I thought he was fine etc. He and the player next to him both breath a sigh of relief, compliment me on my roleplaying saying that they were worried I was mad due to the viciousness of my complaints. That established I went back to insulting the Paladin who got to enjoy having the Chelixian complain about his decision making, despite being totally right about the way to accomplish things in the end. [\endquote]
That was pretty awesome. I can't believe we never had to fight anyone.
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While I'm sure that didn't hurt, Tom McQueen is by far the most knowledgeable player in the DFW area (not that Cass is any slouch!).N umerous VCs at your table.
Did you make your linguistics and/or perception check to find the hidden message in that post?
-Pain
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The Grand Convocation was the best single "Special" I've ever played in. I played tons of LG, some LFR, and years of PFS and this even takes the cake. While I understand that there were some parts that weren't perfect, to claim that the event wasn't anything but an amazing accomplishment and a worthy kickoff to the Brock's plans for more story, more scenario diversity, and better community engagement is just plain wrong.
Admittedly, I'm not a LARPer, but I do like to RP so the previews during the run up to the GC had me a bit worried. However, it wasn't a LARP necessarily and I was just able to RP my yahoo and enjoy those interactions.
I hope to avoid all spoilerific details in this thread (mostly the crunch of the tables and encounter), but do want to give everyone a great overview of the event. I apologize now for all the mistakes I'm going to make for misspellings, bad grammar, getting people's names/hometowns wrong, story detail, and whatever else. Forgive me. I guarantee nothing but that most of the following events happened but are tarnished by an imperfect memory.
Thankfully, VC Robyn Nixon (LA) has offered her Facebook photo sets to help detail the event. Thanks, Robyn!
* * * *
The start of the GC was, of course, chaos. Players were asked to help by self mustering by tier (trying to be within 1 level of each other). And since there must have been 30 or so tables worth of yahoos, it was a fun experience to have 180 people, not including cast and crew milling about trying to muster up.
I already knew that I wanted to play my goofy yahoo, Aroden Reborn (lvl 6), in the event. I quickly found AaronK (Minn.) and my two new/old friends Balodek* & his wife, Becky. We roped in Joshua B (LA/Sea) to give us 5 yahoos. It was unclear if they wanted us to have 6, but we were happy to only have players.
Balodek (aka Bryan) = Meloric, Human Pistoleer lvl 5/6
Becky = playing Keiran Human Holy Warrior lvl 5/6 of Iomedae (or Sarenrae?)
Joshua Blazej = playing Littleshins, Halfling Lucksack lvl 5
Aaron K = small person grappler/bullrusher/respositioner lvl 5
Painlord = Aroden Reborn, yahoo lvl 6
As our party moved up to gain entrance into the event, it became clearer and clearer how many cool actors/VCs/volunteers had come out in costume for the event. Both behind us in line and in front of us, there were LOTS of people playing their characters. Twas really cool to see.
At the front of the line, we were handed our Faction Missions and our a card that was used to show what mini-events you've been to.
The GC was held in the main hotel gamescape: a giant ballroom that held about 30 tables. For the Grand Convocation the tables were divvied up thusly: 10 mini-quests (1 table each), the main Quests (2 or 3 tables per tier), and 1 live auction table.
In addition to the mini-quests and quests, there was the live-acting storyline going on at the same time. It was very ambitious. I'll try to describe all 3 as best I can.
1) Mini Quests
2) Quests
3) The OverStory
* * * The Mini Quests * * *
Each mini-quest table had an in-character “GM” running it. Their job was to run the mini-quest and ‘award’ boons for successes based on what happened at the table. Everyone in our party had the option to participate in each mini-quest that we could get to. No one in our party declined the chance to try each challenge even though they could get 'bad' boons. Our table roleplayed everything as best they could and every “GM” was more than willing to RP back. Such things made me happy.
With limited time (I believe we had about 3 hours for this part of the event), we could not make each and every mini-quest: often another party was at the table and we were not rushing to complete them, rather than enjoying each in turn. We completed 6 (or 7?) of the 10. Most took no more than 10 minutes or so.
The 10 mini-quests were:
There were few tables that we didn’t get to:
Archerfeast: <anyone got this?>
Fortune's Wheel: <anyone got this?>
Frostfur Folk Songs: <anyone got this?>
Faction Mission: I don't know if this was a special table or just the act of doing what the slip of paper we were handed said to do. So we might have done this.
There were 5 tiers for the Quests (with appropriate subtiers: 1-5, 3-7, 5-9, 7-11, & 12+). They were designed to run in 45 minutes, however, those times might have differed by tier and GM. I heard repeatedly that the high tiers took longer which was frustrating for some groups. We played 5-6, had good teamwork, and even roleplayed through most of it, finishing quickly.
At first, our group only saw the 3-7 tiered tables and I worried privately that our group of 5 5-6s might have trouble with a subtier 6-7. Thankfully, we were able to squat at a 5-9 tier and took the seats almost as the previous party was leaving.
Our GM was VL Todd T (Portland) and ran us quickly and smoothly though our encounters. We RP'd effectively as Aroden Reborn tried to convert more followers from among our human adversaries. In retrospect, they were good combats to have to help us with our teamwork for the later last Act of the GC.
We learned that Littleshins was a great enabler, that when Meloric hit, it really hurt the bad guys, and that AaronK's repositioner did, in fact, move foes around the field setting up flanks, and the holy warrior (Keiran) loved to spend time in pits. It was a good warm up for us.
We got a nice boon sheet for our efforts.
Btw, as I type this, I really can't give full justice to the entirety of the Grand Convocation. While everyone was running around completing quests and mini-quests, there were a literal horde of in-character actors interacting with everyone and roleplaying up their characters as every faction tried to 'win' the hand of Lady Blackros.
See this picture here? That's the lovely Lady Blackros (played incredibly well by Elizabeth Miller, aka Cherry). Also in the picture are Colson Maldris and Amara Li (well played by Kyle and Nani Pratt). This party was all about her and her connections to the historically important Blackros museum.
There were many suitors for her hand and guests invited to the party in addition to all the Pathfinders. You can read about them all in Rumors Post 1 and Rumors Post 2.
It was truly stunning how many costumed actors there were. And they were really good too.
Take Theodric, for instance. He was *infinitely* believable as a Taldan suitor for the Lady Blackros (of course, Mr. B is a drama teacher from Portland, so it's no surprise). I had an opportunity to RP with him and I knew immediately that I couldn't come close to the rock that he had. I should have been taking notes. I tried to roleplay my yahoo of Aroden Reborn and my support of his candidacy for the hand of Lady Blackros, but couldn't keep up.
At the same time I'm RPing with Theodric, there are several other costumed characters RPing as well, slowly doing introductions and discussing the big matter at hand (Lady Blackros).
And Olafs. Olaf was great. He was played by the operatic PFSer Dale Friesen. Olaf was a show stopper as a suitor for the Lady B.
Ambrus (next to Colson) was on fire and in character the entire time. (DCJester you rocked all con.) He, like many others in attendance, really looked the part.
Lady Blackros & Ambrus again.
Lady Blackros & Olaf.
Vignettes:
About every 15 minutes, the GC was paused so that a story-pushing vignette could be acted on the stage, mostly allowing the suitors to tell why they would be the best fit for the hand of Lady B. Each vignette lasted about 5 minutes during which most quest and mini-quest play stopped.
There was some good and some bad with these vignettes. The good was that they were acted RP telling the story of why we were there. The bad was that they were interruptions to our quest and mini-quest time (which felt precious) that felt more annoying as the interruptions kept happening and that sometimes it was difficult to hear and follow all the dialogue. Though I tried to listen and pay attention, there is no way I could have followed *all* the story lines going on.
More pictures of the vignettes and actors:
A vignette, multiple actors acting out the story to a mostly rapt audience.
Ezren (VC Clarence from Idaho), VC Sean Hanlin (redbeard playing ???), the young Hellknight, and Lady Blackros.
Theodric and ??? (Can anyone enlighten?)
VC Chris (WA) as ??? (Forgive me...lots of new *real* people to meet this weekend, let alone new people who are playing other characters!)
After about 3 hours of mini-quests, quests, and vignettes, the players were ushered out of the party room and back into the hall as the organizers set up for the next and final Act.
We had 175+ PFSers and actors shoo'd out into the main hallway while the party room was set up for the final Act.
During this time, a few more vignettes happened, but since it was so loud and crowded, it was difficult to figure out all that happened.
I do know that Amenopheus, aka the Sapphire Sage (played so well by VL Josh Archer, Bay Area), was in the heart of the action.
We hung out, talked, compared boons, and discussed for a bit before returning to the party room for the last act.
You'll notice that I haven't given you too much detail about the story. There are three reasons for this:
- I don't know all of it.
- I don't want to spoil anything for PaizoCon UK.
- I hope Brock/Mark/the authors will do a full and real rundown after PaizoCon UK and the results of the events are known.
This time when we were brought back into the room and assigned a GM based on our tier. It was clear that the main RP portion of the event was over.
The Elder Blackros took the stage...and then trouble ensued. It was up to us Pathfinders to save the day in what could have been a very bad scene.
There was plenty of action both on stage and at our table as the teamwork we built up during our previous quest carried over into the challenges before us.
The foes were not easy and had tricks by which to thwart each of us in turn. However, Meloric's sharpshooting was not to be denied. And Keiran's smitetastic power felled one big baddie and her second was on the verge of wrecking the other one before time was called. Littleshins sang and healed and helped, even got in a few rapier strikes. And AaronK's repositioner, took blows and helped set up the battlefield for us.
It was nice that there was a mechanic for nearby tables to help other tables when they <redacted> or <redacted> or <redacted>. I liked that, though the benefits were sometimes confusing, but helpful. Our party enjoyed shouting when we had benefits to share and made efforts to do it as often as we could.
After about 45 minutes it was clear that the brave Pathfinders were able to stand against the challenge before us and win the day. Time was called and yet a final vignette closed the event.
It was really freakin' good.
I'll be adding some more good/bad commentary on The GC Discussion Thread. I believe the event took about 5 hours...and managed to pack in a TON of stuff.
End GC Thoughts:
- It was an amazing success. In terms of reaching a near impossible audacious goal: it succeeded. It blended in an amazing array of PFS community members, Paizo staff, & outside actors into a very fun, creative and satisfying event.
- There are things that could have been done better, but those are mechanical/execution issues and those don't matter much to me as they will always happen in any large-scale event.
- The hordes of volunteer writer, actors, GMs and whomever else deserve infinite praise and credit for the event. I can't thank them all, but would love to. Thank you.
- I hope that Specials like this become more common within PFS play at conventions or where they can be run. Giving members of the PFS community chances to act, shine, and contribute is infinitely important to growing the enthusiasm for PFS. (For instance, I won't ever forget the joy I had watching Shivok rock the Oracle...it's amazing because I know him and felt all the passion and energy he was putting into his role. And Cherry as Lady Blackros? Amazing.)
- It's clear from how many 'regular' PFS players who showed up in costume that we have a good portion of our PFS play base who gets really excited for events like this and responded in kind and helped build the enthusiasm. I need to get a picture of the Bloat Mage up to better illustrate this and some of the other costumes.
TL;DR: It was awesome.
-Pain
*=Balodek = another story altogether
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Thanks for the amazing write ups one and all. For those of us at home, they let us (or at least me) share in the energy and excitement of the wonder that is PaizoCon.
As for the write up of the Grand Convocation, all I can say is "wow!" It sounds amazing. I do hope it's something that gets revisited in the future. Thanks, Pain, for sharing healthy dose of GC goodness!
Looks like you missed my table Painlord (Frostfur Folk Songs). I was Ulfrica Stormchild, Ulfen skald (and Pathfinder Society agent) sent to judge agents on their understanding of goblin culture and folk songs. BECAUSE SINGING WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE SOMEDAY.
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Thanks for the kind words Painlord. We had approximately 40 volunteers for GMs, NPCs, etc... Seattle VC Chris Jarvis and Seattle VL Kyle Elliott did a great job of wrangling together a solid cast. Thursty and his crew did a super job of writing the GC.
The guy with the red splotches on his face is GMT.
The actress who played Zarta Dralneen fit the part to a tee and she is only partially in one of the above photos so I hope someone else has a great photo of her.
I don't want to spoil anything for the UK crew so will wait to advise anything about the GC until after that.
What I will spoil is that the current votes between 1st and 2nd suitor is less than 5%! So, it is going to be very close going into PaizoCon UK. I've already sent several pointers to VC Dave in the UK to help with the GC there in a few weeks.
This event was definitely a learning experience for me as it was my first time organizing something like this, and I appreciate everyone's patience as we learn from it to make better events in the future.
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I was costumed as Drendle Dreng in his full festival garb.
Mostly I was trying to make sure nothing exploded. ;)
CJ
WA VC
Oh duh. That, in retrospect, should have ben obvious.
In my limited defense, it could be that I've never seen you before outside of the Grand Lodge. I would have gotten it more easily if you had awakened me at midnight and summoned me in for tea.
-Pain
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010
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Yeah, that SR was killer. And the only time it got through, I made a killer saving throw. It was great to meet you. Loved your character, even if I did botch the name for a bit at first!
Not a problem, the name thing happens all the time, and it makes a good roleplaying moment when Mannush tries to get other PCs to pronounce his name with a 'Vudrani' accent. :-)
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So I have about...350 pictures from the grand convocation that one of the many gracious volunteers assisted in taking. Some of them are a bit too blurry...but much like volumetric firepower, all you need is a few good shots.
Thank you to all the volunteers who participated in this endeavor, be it through NPCing, GMing, costume building, writing, organizing, and last minute touch up details that many people will never truly know the full extent of.
Thank you to those at Paizo who put their faith in the team that assembled and developed this event. Alot of faith was given to us, and that trust is an honor. I have to thank Thurston Hillman, Mike Brock, Chris Jarvis, and Mark Moreland for bringing me in on this huge undertaking as my first endeavor behind the curtain of PFS.
This event would not of been a success if not for those great volunteers. I wish I had a full list, and maybe one day I will...but so many step up at the end, the final count was over 40 individuals who stepped in from all parts of the country to make this such a fantastic event.
When the seems of this giant undertaking started stretching and stressing under the weight of going live, with only 30 to 60 minutes of preparing on site, over 200 players pouring into the grand convocation, and prepping up to 2 to 3 different scripted parts of the grand convocation each...last minute changes, last minute cuts, last minute additions, last minute worries and concerns...I left only one instruction as the social coordinator to my NPC's and all volunteers in the room:
I have complete faith in each and every one of you to take what you have read and what was written for you and make it better then just words on a page.
They did not disappoint me, and most of all the fans who came to this event.
We were by no means perfect, but we pulled it off because of these great and amazing volunteers. There are some I know I have forgot to mention here...and for that I apologize, please email or PM me and I will make sure to add you to my list of folks I owe a favor to.
Last, and by no means the least, I would like to thank the players. You all came with faith and an open mind to try something new, to try something that wasn't the same and to come with and work through the bits and bumps. You all suspended your disbelief long enough to fall into an event that was filled with the heavy weights of the PFS world and scenarios. Some came in costume, some stood up from tables to role play live with their suitors to determine who they should vote for, others rushed from table to table trying to experience as much as they could.
I am certain there is more I could expand upon, but that I will save for another day and time. Without further ado...below is the pictures.
SO...
Here is the overall link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82384986@N06/
Suitor Damian Kastner (Local Seattle Actor/RPer Rob Bennett)
Lara Messay (I hope I spelled that right) Wrangling gamers together with amazing skill and ability
Lara and JP doing his super sekrit NPC role (VC of Colorado)
GrandMaster Torch (Kelly Gragg) and the others we know
Drendle Dreng (Chris Jarvis, VC of Washington State)
The ladies pre-GC preperations
Suitor Alexander Bedard, member of the Andorans People Council (John Compton - VL of Georgia)
The Harrow Reader (Paizo's own Krystal Fraiser)
The Ulfen Song Spinstress (Paizo's own Liz Courts)
Amenopheus (Joshua Archer - VL of San Francisco)
Suitor Olaf Kvaran (Dale Friesen)
Suitor Theodric Alverteen (Mr. B from Portland)
Michellia Blackrose (The infamous Cherry Pie)
Above, while jumbled, is a picture of all 10 faction leaders and all 7 suitors. The link to the flickr account is the best 57 images that could fit, including a few pictures that are my own personnel favorites.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82384986@N06/7547203852/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82384986@N06/7547204676/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82384986@N06/7547205112/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82384986@N06/7547172880/in/photostream
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Is that a one-use item? Seems a bit pricy if so, but still might be worth it for those occasions when something NEEDS to work.To the people dealing with killer SR:
Dweomer's Essence, from the PFS Field Guide. +5 to overcome SR.
It is indeed one use, but like you rightly point out...if something needs to work, its as good as the equivalent AK47 for clearing a room :D
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Did you make your linguistics and/or perception check to find the hidden message in that post?
It wasn't exactly subtle, Pain. :)
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Is that a one-use item? Seems a bit pricy if so, but still might be worth it for those occasions when something NEEDS to work.To the people dealing with killer SR:
Dweomer's Essence, from the PFS Field Guide. +5 to overcome SR.
Every pathfinder should have a Handy Haversack full of gadgets and tricks for all those nasty "What If?" Situations.
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So I have about...350 pictures from the grand convocation that one of the many gracious volunteers assisted in taking. Some of them are a bit too blurry...but much like volumetric firepower, all you need is a few good shots.
... And Awesome.
Wow, Kyle. Thanks.
Great pictures and names to help fill in the blanks.
And now I have another web series to watch?
* * *
I gotta admit that I didn't care a lick about who was going to be who's suitor before I attended the event. I didn't care at all...but after attending the GC, I do.
And that, to me, is the why I'm sure it was a huge success. You've made me care. And I thank everyone for that the story and some NPCs that I can begin to care about. It's all I've ever wanted out of PFS.
-Pain
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Every pathfinder should have a Handy Haversack full of gadgets and tricks for all those nasty "What If?" Situations.Is that a one-use item? Seems a bit pricy if so, but still might be worth it for those occasions when something NEEDS to work.To the people dealing with killer SR:
Dweomer's Essence, from the PFS Field Guide. +5 to overcome SR.
Yeah... Like, oh I don't know... Rope, maybe?