|
Heya Vic!
Our area currently doesn't have a VC to ask, so I was hoping you could offer some insight-
I have located a local store that is cool with a weekly or every-other-week OP night, but they don't really do PFS now, and the owner hasn't heard anything on his end about how to get set up to run PACG events. The only PFS that happens is one or two GM's that show up sort of regularly with mostly preset tables, but as far as I can tell none of them are talking about PACG at all.
In lieu of a VC, should we contact you, or MB, or someone else to get the info on how to get the shop ready so that we can hit the ground running? Is this information coming soon? We don't want to miss the boat on this one.
(Wow, that's a lot of acronyms.)
And sadly, I don't understand the half of it...
What is VO and VL ?
On the other hand we have a local gaming club - which is not a store - where we play PACG regulary.
I would like to know if we can join the OP ? And since we haven't participated in Paizos OP prgram before, could anybody tell me what's the difference between joining the OP program, or simply ordering the scenairos from Paizo ?
VO = Venture Officer
VL = Venture LieutenantVC = Venture Captain
They organize the Pathfinder Society, which is the organized play for Pathfinder (RPG and PACG).
You can still participate in the Organized Play program. Here is how it will work:
Participating game stores (and they will verify that they are stores) will receive the scenarios each month to run in their stores. The following month, they scenarios will be for sale from Paizo for anyone to purchase and run where ever they want. Those sessions can be reported the same as the ones run in stores.
So you will be a month behind, but still fully participating.
That I'm not totally sure of. There is a short interview here with Tanis (who is the main person behind the OP for PACG). She says not stats or anything at least initially, but maybe eventually. So we'll just have to wait and see on that one.
By the way, here is a comment from Vic confirming what I said earlier.
So, looking over the PFS stuff, I've got a few questions.
1. I assume Regional Coordinators are Venture Captains and Venture Lieutenants (which combined are the two type of Venture Officers).
2. The requirements say the following:
Game Master a minimum of one Pathfinder Society Organized Play session per month.
I don't play the Paftherfinder RPG. I know you said PACG-only venture officers were welcome, so I'm assuming there will be a PACG way of fulfilling this requirement.
This requirement seems much easier to fulfill as written as a PACG-only VO:Organize a minimum of two Pathfinder Society Organized Play convention or game store events per month in your local or regional area of responsibility.
It is the GM part that I'm not sure of.
3. I'm also a bit concerned about these requirements:Be a Paizo Publishing product expert. Familiarize yourself with all of our product lines and be comfortable talking about all of them.
Keep up to date on rulings, answer questions, and participate on a weekly basis on the Pathfinder Society Organized Play messageboards and on the private Regional Coordinator messageboard.
Not the "participate on a weekly basis on the messageboards" part. But the rules and product expert part. I'd love to be more familiar with Paizo products, especially ones that have any relation to PACG (adventure paths, the NPC Codex or any source used for characters or cards). I just know that I'm not going to be as good at it as someone that does play the RPG. And I'm not going to be very good at all at understanding the rules for the RPG. PFS looks like a pretty awesome thing for the RPG and I wouldn't want to be bad at helping it grow. (Though from what I can tell the entire state of Delaware has only 1 FLGS, so I think any damage I might do would be limited.)
When I emailed Mike Brock a while ago, he said they were still working out the details of it and would let me know once that was done. I'm assuming a lot of those details to be worked out were these kinds of things.
Though, I also just now notice you said "a Venture Officer for the PACG" so perhaps you plan to distinguish the two types of VOs to some extent.
I also noticed none of what I said were actually questions, even though I claimed to a have some.
|
So, looking over the PFS stuff, I've got a few questions.
1. I assume Regional Coordinators are Venture Captains and Venture Lieutenants (which combined are the two type of Venture Officers).
It's possible that Regional Coordinators refer specifically to Venture Captains. The sheet mentions Venture Captains but not VLs; I'm not sure if the requirements (or the rewards) are the same for both.
I've spoken to my local VC this past weekend about a possible PACG VL post; he didn't give hard requirements on what would be required, but we talked informally about stores in the area that could hold hold game nights and the like.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
|
I'm also planning to become a Venture Officer for the PACG, though I also play the RPG so I'll probably be coordinating both types of events.
@hawkmoon: I wouldn't worry too much about not being up to date on the RPG information, but it really wouldn't be hard to BECOME pretty familiar with it. Just ask your local game store person to let you read through the core rulebook and an adventure path or two, to familiarize yourself with the very general rules of character creation and with a few of the monsters in the game (I would recommend reading through the first two books of Rise of the Runelords, which will familiarize you with goblins and other important monsters.)
But in the end, I'm sure there will be support for PACG-only officers, and you won't be expected to be an expert on the RPG.
|
|
I would imagine this is correct, although I'm certainly surprised with the lack of VOs in people's area. I know that we have 2 in Iowa, and that I and a friend of mine are going to be running/coordinating the PACG stuff here in Des Moines (hence the reason that my wallet is going to be crying in the shower come August).
|
VOs and whatnot is likely dependent not only upon people playing Pathfinder, but also upon a lot of other things: how much time people have outside of work + RPG play, the quality of the FLGSes in the area, even traffic can play a role. PnP RPGs take a lot of time to play, and quite frankly most of the people Hawk & I know simply don't have the time to dedicate to it.
Hawk and I are in an area where the FLGS certainly seems to have a few Pathfinder gamers, but all sorts of other board games are also really popular, and there is I believe a strong contingent of wargamers. There's only the one FLGS within easy driving distance - there are no other ones within a 35-45 mile radius (which would easily translate into 1 hr, given traffic conditions). There may not be enough "critial mass" of gamers in the area for someone to really rise up and want to be a VC.
Yeah. That is my one fear. I have no way to know how many other PACG players are in the Northern Delaware area. It could totally flop. But we are at least going to give it our best shot.
It can't flop; we already have two. You only need two for it to be a success.
That's true. And we do have 4 other guys that play with us that might join us for organized play too.
I just mean it might flop in the sense of not turning northern Delaware into the epicenter of PACG organized play as I'd hoped. Or at least introduce more people to PACG.
I do really hope it can be a way for more people to discover PACG.
Heh. Westerners: Never too far. Easterners: "If it's more than five miles, I ain't going." :-)
|
|
We're very, very close to making some formal announcements. What I can tell you now is this—if you are interested in being a Venture Officer for the PACG in your area, contact mike.brock@paizo.com.
Shot MB an email, looking forward to more information as you guys have news to release. Thanks as always and keep up the good work.
Heh. Westerners: Never too far. Easterners: "If it's more than five miles, I ain't going." :-)
Having lived on both coasts, I can confirm this is true. No idea why.
|
Heh. Westerners: Never too far. Easterners: "If it's more than five miles, I ain't going." :-)Having lived on both coasts, I can confirm this is true. No idea why.
Here in the west our towns are more spread out in general.
In the game of the West, you travel or you die (well, become lonely, but something had to fit the original line!)
|
Heh. Westerners: Never too far. Easterners: "If it's more than five miles, I ain't going." :-)
We're not lazy, we're conserving fossil fuels. :)
Seriously, it's probably true in general, but I have had folks travel an hour to our PFS games, and my neighbor's Pathfinder group in NY state at one point had people coming from Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts (and not western MA either - he was on Cape Cod) to play once a month.
Heh. Westerners: Never too far. Easterners: "If it's more than five miles, I ain't going." :-)We're not lazy, we're conserving fossil fuels. :)
Seriously, it's probably true in general, but I have had folks travel an hour to our PFS games, and my neighbor's Pathfinder group in NY state at one point had people coming from Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts (and not western MA either - he was on Cape Cod) to play once a month.
That's dedication!
Out of curiousity, where in NY was this? I'm in Rochester, and I don't think there's any OP here. Closest I've found is Syracuse. I grew up in the East, but I spent most of my adult life in the West, so I guess I'm conflicted. Plus I am lazy. :-) My first reaction is "Syracuse? Too far." OTOH... :-)
We're very, very close to making some formal announcements. What I can tell you now is this—if you are interested in being a Venture Officer for the PACG in your area, contact mike.brock@paizo.com.
How long should we expect before getting a reply from Mike? I realize that a formal announcement hasn't been made yet, but it would be nice to at least receive a canned reply along the lines of "We've received your request/inquiry about becoming a coordinator for PACG. You will be contacted when we have all the details worked out."
Otherwise I have to wonder if my e-mail to mike got ate by a spam filter or other e-mail issue.
|
|
Out of curiousity, where in NY was this? I'm in Rochester, and I don't think there's any OP here. Closest I've found is Syracuse. I grew up in the East, but I spent most of my adult life in the West, so I guess I'm conflicted. Plus I am lazy. :-) My first reaction is "Syracuse? Too far." OTOH... :-)
We're in the Hudson Valley (New Paltz, across the Hudson from Poughkeepsie). So not local to you, sadly. ;)
If you do make it out to Syracuse, I think that Chris Donnangelo is running out that way at Comix Zone, and I've been at a table he ran in the Albany area once, and he's a good GM and good guy. I believe Syracuse is now part of what was the "Capital Region NY" Lodge (now "Upstate NY PFS Lodge").
We're in the Hudson Valley (New Paltz, across the Hudson from Poughkeepsie). So not local to you, sadly. ;)
If you do make it out to Syracuse, I think that Chris Donnangelo is running out that way at Comix Zone, and I've been at a table he ran in the Albany area once, and he's a good GM and good guy. I believe Syracuse is now part of what was the "Capital Region NY" Lodge (now "Upstate NY PFS Lodge").
I'm familiar with New Paltz. My folks used to live in Saugerties. :-)
I'll think about trying Syracuse sometime.
|
|
I actually contacted the nearest VOs in Pennsylvania. One of them did respond to tell me that my area fell under his zone of influence. The store I'm working with is contacting Paizo through the retail path (as stated in the press release) so that he can get the OP materials. We're going to set it up as a weekly session.
Still going over cost stuff since we'll have one at the store and I'll have a copy and both will be sleeved for play.
In any case, I have lots of questions but not sure if Mike, Tanis and Vic know the answers yet. Also, need to find out if PACG will fall under the VOs and what we have to report to them.
We're in the Hudson Valley (New Paltz, across the Hudson from Poughkeepsie). So not local to you, sadly. ;)
If you do make it out to Syracuse, I think that Chris Donnangelo is running out that way at Comix Zone, and I've been at a table he ran in the Albany area once, and he's a good GM and good guy. I believe Syracuse is now part of what was the "Capital Region NY" Lodge (now "Upstate NY PFS Lodge").
I'm familiar with New Paltz. My folks used to live in Saugerties. :-)
I'll think about trying Syracuse sometime.
I'm from the Utica area, but my sister lives in Rochester and I visited Millenium Games... I would think that place could get set up for OP pretty easily. As an aside it was a great shopping experience as well.... I was late to subscribing and I asked them if they happened to have any of the PACG promos and they hooked me up with a complimentary Grindylow and Blessing of Zarongel, leaving me only three promos shy of a set. I would recommend that shop for anything at this point after that experience.
I've spent a small fortune at Millennium already. :-) I'll ask them about OP.
I've spent a small fortune at Millennium already. :-) I'll ask them about OP.
I could see how, the selection is pretty comprehensive. I might consider relocating to Rochester for that store alone...
Millenium apparently had a bad experience with a local ... Venture LT? Anyway, the guy who was supposed to run things here. I didn't get details, but I guess the guy just didn't show up a few times, so they stopped supporting OP. They do a lot of Magic: The Gathering (and, I think, other card games) so I asked specifically about PACG. "We'll think about it," they said. <shrug>
Buffalo is closer than Syracuse. :-)
|
|
Supposedly, we are supposed to be starting Organized Play in two days, Wednesday September 3rd.
I've put together a poster and event info for my local retailer. But there's a small issue about everything else. I've already started another thread asking to remove the watermark from the class deck PDFs (as well as any of the character sheets!). Besides the scenarios to be released on Wednesday along with the new chronicle sheets, will there be temporary PFS numbers we can hand out for new members? We'll need these to report sessions on the PFS page. I've looked at the GM tab on the PFS page. Are we able to simply report sessions from there without authorization? (I am still working with my VC on what I need to do or if I can become a VL for this.) And will the demo be released on Wednesday as well?
Obviously there is the question of products. The base set is starting to hit stores and distributors. Locally, they're still not available but probably next week. Then there's the Add-on deck and the Class Decks that look to be available Sept 9th. (We kinda need the Class Decks for OP. But I have mine to use for now.) Is that still true? Or is that when you first think they'll start to trickle to distributors?
Now I'm happy to start doing stuff this week (we are going to be holding weekly sessions on Thursday nights). But it just seems like we're still behind schedule with Organized Play elements.
|
|
Vic posted in another thread that OP is likely being pushed back again, but I have not yet seen an update as to when that is going to be (or even a confirmation that this is still the case).
I suspect that when folks are back at the office tomorrow we should get some sort of update. I am holding off on planning anything until I have more information, I would personally guess we are looking at the 10th at this point as the earliest possible date. My order is still pending, it is going to be hard to help host OP games until the base set at least arrives.
As far as I know there still hasn't been any communication from Brock with the VO's about PACG OP officers yet either.
|
|
Vic posted in another thread that OP is likely being pushed back again, but I have not yet seen an update as to when that is going to be (or even a confirmation that this is still the case).
I suspect that when folks are back at the office tomorrow we should get some sort of update. I am holding off on planning anything until I have more information, I would personally guess we are looking at the 10th at this point as the earliest possible date. My order is still pending, it is going to be hard to help host OP games until the base set at least arrives.
As far as I know there still hasn't been any communication from Brock with the VO's about PACG OP officers yet either.
I saw that post. But I figured I'd ask all my questions here so that Vic or Tanis could let us know. No official word and two days to go just gets me a bit anxious. And my VC said he'd try to get back to me by tomorrow about info. As far as planning, I already told my retailer partner to push back to next Thursday as far as start. He's supposed to post stuff tonight on their webpage and FB page as well as print my posting to hang in the store.
|
|
I saw that post. But I figured I'd ask all my questions here so that Vic or Tanis could let us know. No official word and two days to go just gets me a bit anxious. And my VC said he'd try to get back to me by tomorrow about info. As far as planning, I already told my retailer partner to push back to next Thursday as far as start. He's supposed to post stuff tonight on their webpage and FB page as well as print my posting to hang in the store.
Sounds like we are in the same boat, please post up here if you hear anything on the coordination end from your VC.
Chief Technical Officer
|
The launch has been moved to 9/24.
Mike has to have one more meeting with Tanis before he appoints VLs. Hopefully that'll happen this week.
I'm pushing on the ability to add ACG events, but I don't think it can happen today.
I don't have any VC's near me either. None of the stores are even hinting at the idea of running this, which is really a downer. I would be all for running the events myself as I have a group of people who are interested, but when I sent an e-mail to Mike, he told me I would need to contact my VC. I contacted the closest VL I could find on my list, but no response yet.