Playing Organized At Gencon


Pathfinder Adventure Card Society


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So I am signed up for Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild play at Gencon, this is my first time playing in the Guild. I signed up for Season 1, Adventure 1; Season 1, Adventure 2; Season 1, Adventure 3.
I have downloaded and read the Guild rules so now I am asking, what is a good character deck to buy for me to use? I usually play the cleric in my home campaign and in Wrath of the righteous, it seems like a likely character to play.
Please give my your thoughts on this as experienced Guild players.


Class deck Kyra is a strong melee fighter, with ample healing ability. I haven't played her, but she seems a good choice for Wrath. Another poster said the B deck monsters hand out before/after damage like candy. I think healing will be crucial.

Keep in mind Keith Richmond said the most important skill in Wrath is Knowledge. Ezren in the Wizard deck has strong Knowledge. But on the other hand, many Season 0 veterans are going to be at Gencon playing Enora with the Wizard deck, so maybe a Wizard's not the way to go.

You want to avoid the Poison-focused Rogues. Many demons in Wrath are immune to poison, and all the undead are.

I've played Harsk and Arabundi from the Ranger deck in Season 0. I prefer Harsk. Fighting with d8s becomes difficult in the later seasons (perhaps through 3 it wouldn't be so bad). Arabundi does have Knowledge (d6+2). Be warned, however, that the dexterity-based Rangers have a poor choice of weapons in their class deck, which favors the melee rangers.


As an addition to Stormforge, I have a few questions about playing organized at Gencon. As this is the first time I'll be playing PACG organized.

If I'm reading them right, I can't actually make a character and play it using only those three adventures, right?

I'm signed up for the same three he is, but according to that rules document I downloaded I'd need to be at least tier 2 to play in Adventure 3. Is that correct?

Furthermore, my understanding is by just playing the first two won't be enough to get me to Tier 2 to make me legal to play that 3rd adventure.

So I guess my question is.... Should I sign up for more of Adventure 1? Gen Con has them listed in 2 hour blocks, is that time enough to get 2 scenarios in or is it just one?

If someone could please shed some light on this I would really appreciate it.


After you play four scenarios with a character, that character can advance a tier. If you complete an adventure with a character, the character must advance a tier.

So if you play all of adventure 1 with your Tier 1 character, the character will be Tier 2 at the end of adventure 1. And so on.

You shouldn't have a problem as long as you use the same character.


Isn't it the case that you can just use a pre-gen to play these if your own character shouldn't be able to? I think Tanis had said something about this and there's a document released for it.

We're in the same boat as @stormforge. We have OP characters, but we created them during GenCon last year for a couple S&S scenarios there, and haven't touched them since, and we also signed up for one session each of Adventure 1,2, and 3.


elcoderdude wrote:

After you play four scenarios with a character, that character can advance a tier. If you complete an adventure with a character, the character must advance a tier.

So if you play all of adventure 1 with your Tier 1 character, the character will be Tier 2 at the end of adventure 1. And so on.

You shouldn't have a problem as long as you use the same character.

Right, thanks.

I guess the next question would be in that 2 hour block, how many scenarios would my character conceivably go through?

Or put in another way, if I get two scenarios in one 2 hour block, would that mean I need to sign up for 2 of the Adventure 1 to get the four I need to advance?

Just trying to figure out how many tickets I'll need.

Pathfinder ACG Developer

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elcoderdude wrote:
Keep in mind Keith Richmond said the most important skill in Wrath is Knowledge.

Uhoh. I hope that my words don't prompt entire tables of Knowledge masters who don't have the other skills covered.

Knowledge is truly excellent in Wrath, but that doesn't mean you won't like some Acrobatics, Fortitude, etc now and then.

Shadai wrote:
I guess the next question would be in that 2 hour block, how many scenarios would my character conceivably go through?

Tanis is the supreme high answerer to all things OP, but in general you should expect to go through one scenario. Due to the nature of conventions there's a few minutes for setup, muster, and results, and tables often end up with more players, so it'd be pretty trick to do speed runs.

I suspect the Adventure 3 stuff is more geared for those playing SotR at Paizocon, Origins, stores, and/or the truly dedicated who are playing it non-stop the whole convention. If you're relatively new to it, Adventure 1 is probably the most valuable / best bet.


Keith Richmond wrote:


Shadai wrote:
I guess the next question would be in that 2 hour block, how many scenarios would my character conceivably go through?

Tanis is the supreme high answerer to all things OP, but in general you should expect to go through one scenario. Due to the nature of conventions there's a few minutes for setup, muster, and results, and tables often end up with more players, so it'd be pretty trick to do speed runs.

I suspect the Adventure 3 stuff is more geared for those playing SotR at Paizocon, Origins, stores, and/or the truly dedicated who are playing it non-stop the whole convention. If you're relatively new to it, Adventure 1 is probably the most valuable / best bet.

I wish they explained that in the description under the event for Gen Con. Perhaps a warning that Adventure 3 is for experienced characters only, or characters of Tier 2 or higher, like they do with RPG stuff (this adventure is for levels 5-10, for example).

Now I either get at least 2 more slots in prior to adventure 3 or be forced to play a pregen when I only want one character....


I just ran a lot of people through AD1 at PaizoCon. I didn't have any deaths at my table, but it is very possible to die (yes, even in 1-1A. Especially in 1-1A).

You will need healing (but actually you will need healing in any 3-4 player scenario in general. You can generally get by without it in 2p because you can explore slowly enough, but you want at least 1 healer in 3-4p), since a lot of stuff in WotR likes to damage you even when you squish them. I'm actually going to nickname Season of the Righteous "Season of the Damage" (and Season of the Shackles "Season of the Barriers")

I would say 2 hours is actually plenty of time, but don't expect to be able to squeeze 3 sessions in 4 hours unless you get really lucky.


elcoderdude wrote:

Class deck Kyra is a strong melee fighter, with ample healing ability. I haven't played her, but she seems a good choice for Wrath. Another poster said the B deck monsters hand out before/after damage like candy. I think healing will be crucial.

Keep in mind Keith Richmond said the most important skill in Wrath is Knowledge. Ezren in the Wizard deck has strong Knowledge. But on the other hand, many Season 0 veterans are going to be at Gencon playing Enora with the Wizard deck, so maybe a Wizard's not the way to go.

You want to avoid the Poison-focused Rogues. Many demons in Wrath are immune to poison, and all the undead are.

I've played Harsk and Arabundi from the Ranger deck in Season 0. I prefer Harsk. Fighting with d8s becomes difficult in the later seasons (perhaps through 3 it wouldn't be so bad). Arabundi does have Knowledge (d6+2). Be warned, however, that the dexterity-based Rangers have a poor choice of weapons in their class deck, which favors the melee rangers.

Thanks Elcoderdude. I figured healing would be essential in WotR. I wish the Paladin deck would be out at Gencon so I could use that but they said that it wouldn't be out until after.

Adventure Card Game Designer

Sorry for the confusion, Shadai. The event descriptions for Gen Con were due well before the new version of the Guide was final, so the wording was required to be a little vague.

Each 2-hour slot is expected to be one scenario. Adventures 1 and 2 have 5 scenarios each; Adventure 3 has 4.

If you've got a full (4 people unless things get weird) table that has tickets for multiple slots, it is likely you can just keep sitting there and playing as many scenarios as you can get through in your allotted time. We aim to please.


I wish I had found this thread a month ago. I signed up for one event from each Adventure, and now I wonder if that was a mistake.

Hopefully there's some flexibility in the availability of the tables.

Adventure Card Game Designer

Fydar wrote:

I wish I had found this thread a month ago. I signed up for one event from each Adventure, and now I wonder if that was a mistake.

Hopefully there's some flexibility in the availability of the tables.

I assure you that you will be fine. :)

Gaming Coordinator - Alien Worlds

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I made the mistake of signing up for sessions of Adventures 1, 2 & 3. It wasn't a problem. The staff/volunteers were awesome, and I was able to complete all of the first Adventure. Now to take on Adventure 2 (and maybe 3) and Anime Fest.

* Contributor

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I found everyone involved to be exceedingly flexible, especially when I brought a group of players that were all Tier 1, with Adventure 3 tickets, and each with unique lists of scenarios they'd already played. I can't imagine the logistics to pull that off, but it was well and skillfully done all three times we came by to play.

Thanks!

Ron


Tanis O'Connor wrote:
Fydar wrote:

I wish I had found this thread a month ago. I signed up for one event from each Adventure, and now I wonder if that was a mistake.

Hopefully there's some flexibility in the availability of the tables.

I assure you that you will be fine. :)

You were 100% right. Ah hindsight! :P

Scarab Sages

Indeed, all the GMs were focused on folks having fun. I did exactly that, in spades.

Have all of the sessions been logged? None of the sessions I played in Saturday, 8/1, ended up showing up here on the website...

Thanks,

TT

Silver Crusade 3/5

Hey Timky,

I just sent Tonya, one of the main HQ people a message to see if she could provide us some feedback on those sessions for you. I know I turned in a bunch of reporting sheets numerous times on Saturday, so hopefully they'll get them reported soon.

Thanks!


It takes a while. There are a lot of sessions to enter :)

That being said, having your sessions on the website is mostly irrelevant because your chronicle sheets are the system of record.

Sovereign Court 4/5 *

Hi Timky & other PACG players,

There was a stack of PACG to enter when we left Gencon. I have queried the holder of the forms to get an updated status.

I will keep you updated!

Cheers,
Tonya

Sovereign Court 4/5 *

zeroth_hour wrote:

It takes a while. There are a lot of sessions to enter :)

That being said, having your sessions on the website is mostly irrelevant because your chronicle sheets are the system of record.

While it is true chronicles are the primary system of record, the online system has been invaluable to those whose paper chronicles were destroyed. Have had players hit by a variety of tragedies, including fire, flood and theft. Their records were replaced based on the online sessions reported. So making sure both are accurate is not a bad thing.

Silver Crusade 3/5

Tonya Woldridge wrote:
zeroth_hour wrote:

It takes a while. There are a lot of sessions to enter :)

That being said, having your sessions on the website is mostly irrelevant because your chronicle sheets are the system of record.

While it is true chronicles are the primary system of record, the online system has been invaluable to those whose paper chronicles were destroyed. Have had players hit by a variety of tragedies, including fire, flood and theft. Their records were replaced based on the online sessions reported. So making sure both are accurate is not a bad thing.

I personally like having all my chronicles up to date, that way I can see what levels my characters are at on the RPG side or having an idea of how far along we've played in the ACG side in our group.

Thanks for checking in on us here Tonya.

Dark Archive 4/5

All of the PFS RPG side of things has been entered. The PACG isn't fully entered because the scenarios weren't available to be added to the event at the time of GenCon. It looks like they are available now so this should be done shortly.

4/5 ****

Thanks Todd,
if you run into any problems with the sheets feel free to blame me.

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