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PaizoCon 2015 has officially come to a close, and our staff is interested in what attendees thought of the show!
Please leave us your feedback (things you liked, things you thought could have gone better, or any suggestions) in this thread. If you have feedback that you don't want to post publicly, please email it to paizocon@paizo.com.
Thank you all for attending PaizoCon this year!
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I liked that I got to see so many fans, volunteers, players, families, and business partners all concentrated in one hotel! So much Pathfinder-related fun!
The snooze button on my alarm clock could have worked better by allowing me to sleep in just a few more minutes each time I pressed it.
I suggest next year that everyone who didn't go to PaizoCon go.
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I had a really fun time at PaizoCon.
My only "criticism" is likely something I could have remedied myself but I did not sign up for enough events because I was unsure how the lottery system was going to work. I only signed up for the things I wanted to get into but, it being a lottery, I should not have only signed up for the few events that caught my eye. I know now that I should have signed up for more then traded them.
Maybe have available the "Are you new to PaizoCon?" FAQ or some other step by step newbie guide for signups would be helpful.
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I don't know if its going to be helpful, but I'm writing a big blog post on PaizoCon tomorrow for Guidance, on the Know Direction Network. I'll try to remember to post it back here when it goes live; in the meantime, I need to get back to *writing* it. :-)
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As a good rule of thumb, if you present something negative, please also post something positive as well. Knowing what we did right is just as important as knowing what we did wrong!
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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Venue was fantastic, I had nothing but positive experiences with hotel staff. Everyone was courteous and extremely helpful. The food cart area by sign-in was a godsend to ensure I stayed well fed between panels and meetings and the food from that area was good for the price as well.
The convention was well-coordinated and extremely well staffed. Everyone in he store was super helpful and Chris was always his affable self. The store felt less heavily stocked than last year, but that might be a space issue.
The events were well organized and moderated. The attendees were all wonderfully behaved aside from maybe one or two rabble-rousers who (as far as I know) were addressed. The panels I attended were incredibly fun and everyone was in good spirits (especially Brandon Hodge, but those spirits were probably from somewhere else.)
My only criticism is that I was oblivious to where the event trade location was. I heard at the tail end of my last day that there was a place where people were pinning up their event tickets they couldn't use. Perhaps some better signage for that next year would be helpful to people with half a goldfish for a memory like myself ;)
Shout out to Chris Lambertz for recognizing me when I got to registration and making that go by even faster than it normally does. You all are wizards at con registration!
Excellent job, everyone. I'll be bringing more guests from home next year!
Loved the new venue. The hall for the PFS games was much more comfortable for all, plus removed the hassle in mustering for the regular PFS slots. Having some great restaurant choices a quick walk away helped as well. The temp food area was nice, but we had less time at dinner, so having it available then would be a possible improvement. Hopefully it was used enough that the hotel could extend the hours.
This is the first year I brought my son (12 when we arrived, 13 when we left) and I appreciated how everybody, Paizo and fellow attendees, went out of their way to ensure he was having a great time. He got a huge kick out of Mike Brock coming over and joking with him before the Friday special. The extra token Mike gave him ended up being used in his roll at the prize table that got him his personal core rulebook, so he'll remember this interaction for years to come. I appreciated the players and GM pitching in to help him when he struggled with the free-form encounters at the start of the Sunday special. It would have been easy for them to get frustrated, but they were all great.
Speaking of the Sunday special, hats off to John Compton for writing a great scenario. After Friday, we were hoping that Sunday was going to be the same plot, just flipping to Aspis, and we were not disappointed.
For the love of Abadar, could someone arrange for a Bulmahn-sized microphone at the banquet podium? He always looks so uncomfortable having to scrunch down for his part in the previews.
Please don't schedule slots that go past 5 in the main room on banquet night. The PACG had a 4-6 slot that was cut short by needing to be out of the room at 5. Less of a problem this year with PFS not having official afternoon slots scheduled.
I was leery of the afternoons free of PFS, but I ended up being OK with it since I just played the PACG instead. There was so much to do, I never made it to any seminars or the delves. Great to have choices. Maybe offer a limited slate of "official" slots in the PM?
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this was my third PaizoCon, and I liked the old format better. I missed most of Friday due to work, was able to make it in time for the special. I couldn't get into anything but CORE games Saturday due to a scheduling SNAFU, and had trouble finding a pickup game in the afternoon. I gave up and just went home, not having a ticket to the banquet and unable to find a mustering point for pickup games. Sunday I went back for the special, and skipped Monday due to Con-fatigue.
I understand the mid-day gap to allow the volunteers to attend panels and such, but I wonder why the break was so long? I didn't see any games being played in the main room during the days, and the panels weren't that long. I'd prefer to see a morning slot beginning at 8 or even 9am, a 3-4 hour break and then start the evening slot earlier. as others have mentioned, having less than eight hours of downtime between days is rough.
my biggest complaint was the lack of availability for PFS scenarios. by offering 2-3 tables of each scenario during the same block, rather than offering one table at different times, it made it difficult to get into everything I wanted. CORE was also over-represented to a large degree, especially the higher tiers. it would have been nice to see a ratio closer to 3:1 for normal to core. towards the end of signups, core tables were empty and normal tables were full.
I enjoyed the specials. it was fun playing as Aspis, although some of the objectives weren't clear (for instance, I played 322 but had no idea what to do with my first success condition, because my table Friday didn't explore that part of the special). the bar open during the specials was GREATLY appreciated.
it was a nice venue, parking wasn't *that* unreasonable (though a re-entry per day would have been nice) and it was good to have food options within walking distance off site.
for someone like me, who goes to cons primarily to play PFS, it was disappointing. across four days, I managed to play two specials and a single season 6 scenario. as painful as past years were when I'd try to play eight scenarios in three days, they were also a lot of fun. the panels weren't very interesting to me. it would have been nice to have a designated area to muster for pickup games.
EDIT: as billythebrick mentioned, the swag bag, especially the second box of minis, was appreciated and helped soften the blow of the higher price for entry this year.
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I have to say, GREAT SHOW! Syrinscape out with the delves made things quite nice, alongside with the food cart being in the area. Seeing as how the lines for the specials and the banquet were formed, I believe we had a good system going on there. Also, being randomly hugged by Drunk Thursty was pretty cool.
My only regret was not bringing enough money to get Mike more beer.
Also, ask Crystal about her dragon voice. Both adult, and baby made me crack up for various reasons.
This was my first PazioCon and I had a great time.
I loved that I was able to see and talk to all the Paizo staff through out the Con.
The Coin/Prize support for official Paizo events was cool and not something I had seen. I would say as a person that does not do PFS it would have been nice for some of the lower die roll boons to have been usable in PACG Guild play. Even something as simple as a reroll or something similar. I ended up earning 5-6 PFS boons that I passed on to PFS players I gamed with in different events.
The hotel was nice and the fact it had a shuttle for the airport saved me a lot of money on renting a car. I was happy with the quality of the hotel for what I paid under the PaizoCon group rate.
As mentioned above the concession stand was a great option for a quick meal or snack between events. I would suggest that inquires be made with the hotel for the following adjustments.
> Longer Hours - 7am - 9pm - I think would be a good fit for the timing on the events at the Con. Being able to grab stuff before my first event at 8am would be a boon as well as between my afternoon and evening events. My friend and I wandered out of an event a 5:45pm Sunday evening planning to grab dinner and it was already shut down and resulted in us having to leave the hotel for food. This was not the end of the world for us, just a minor annoyance.
> Bigger Menu - The food they had was good and reasonably priced for that type of event, but it would have been great to have more choices. For my self I'm not a cheese burger fan, which meant I was doing hotdogs every time I wanted food. Along with my longer hours request breakfast items in the mornings would be great. I attend DunDraCon in the San Francisco Bay area every year and the hotel provides a similar concession stand the entire Con from 6 or 7am till at least 11pm. They have a variety of snacks, as well as Hot Dogs, hamburgers, cheese burgers, pizza, chili and even some vegetarian options. At breakfast they have muffins, bagels (with a toaster), donuts and I think some breakfast wraps. They also have chips, cookies, candy, soda and fruit available through out the day.
I will say that DDC has been at the same hotel for 20+ years and the concession stand has been a constant work in progress to get to what I described above.
The lottery system was a different process for me, but it resulted in the same number of "official" (non-PFS) games as what I normally get at other Con's using different systems for game sign up. I liked the fact that I knew several weeks prior to the Con exactly what games and events I was guaranteed to get in to, while still having the freedom to make changes as I wanted as the Con progressed. For example I opted out of the Sunday night PFS Special for a chance to do the ACG Playtest (well worth it for me) as well as another PFS game for more ACG Guild play, as I liked it even more than I expected.
I would suggest that if possible you put up PDF's of the previous years Con's for people to look at. This would be helpful in several ways. First it provides a history for people to look back at and see how the Con has grown and changed. It also allows a returning player to look back for the details on an event they played and want to do again or maybe one they want to pass on. For new players while not exactly the same it can provide some direction on what kind of events to expect to be available prior to the events being posted for the lottery.
Over all it was another great weekend of gaming for me. I got to play a lot of great games (none of them were bad and only really had issues with one player in one game) meet a ton of cool people including a number of Paizo staff, volunteers and freelancers. I hope to continue to attend as life allows in the future.
Thanks for putting on a great Convention!!
JD
This was my first PaizoCon AND my first time playing Pathfinder ACG. I had an absolute blast. The Reaper paint and take was great as well and not something I expected. Nobody has mentioned it yet but the swag bag was AWESOME.
As a first timer, some of the mechanics around signing up for the lottery and events were a little confusing, but I did manage to get into almost everything I wanted to.
My suggestions for next year:
More ACG stuff. I might be in the minority but I would have loved to see even more ACG play.
Turn down the A/C. Everyone at my table was freezing in the main hall.
This is probably out of your control and something the hotel is in charge of but more food options for different diets. I'm vegan so I don't ever expect to be able to eat the food at things like this BUT when I see options I can eat, it really makes the event stand out.
I would really of liked Pathfinder Society to be towards the afternoon and not so early in the day just for the sake of sleep but pretty much everything about Pathfinder was fun. The one thing that wasn't, I already talked to Sarah Marie about it. However I look forward to coming again but this time I will make sure I either have a Hotel or something and my car so I don't have to haul my stuff around everywhere.
I do want to see higher level specials for those characters lvl 12+ there isn't many of them and I would love to be able to continue playing my Aasimar Druid with Ape companion when she can no longer play in society.
The food was delicious especially Saturday night's food. All the staff were super nice despite all the super tired. I was kind of hoping for more Society games for more token chances so I could do a bit more at rewards table. Mike Brock is awesome and so were the volunteers that helped out. Reaper Bryan was awesome and so were the volunteers that helped him. The miniature trade thing I have to put stuff together for to do more trading because I didn't want to part with most of my miniatures.
Liz Courts is awesome and very helpful!
I also liked the employee with the green and blue mohawk he was super helpful and awesome!
Really, really enjoyed the con. I think the venue worked nice (the Cascade and Evergreen rooms) for gaming- seemed the right size and it worked well if you were going from one game to another.
I was glad to see more 3PP games- I played in the awesome Legendary Games special and I know Kobold Press and Jon Brazer Enterprises ran quite a few games. The players in my Shadows over Vathak game remarked how they enjoyed getting to play in these different type of games so next year, I might try running a few more events.
The scheduled signings were a great idea as I was able to get James Jacob's to sign my two Dungeon mags (his first two adventures!) without awkwardly stalking him.
I was happy to see a number of large tables from the local 3PPs but I would have liked to have seen more 3PP products from the companies that couldn't make it. For example, there were a number of Adventure A Week mods but I would have liked to have picked up stuff something like Primeval Thule, Thunderscape stuff, etc.
Also, the venue is close to Jack in the Box which has a 24 breakfast, so that's awesome.
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I really wish the panelists would all put a name card in front of them that could be read from the back of the room. Being new to PaizoCon, and a tad sleepy at times, I often forgot or didn't catch the names of the folks on the panels.
If there is any way to start the Specials earlier that would be really great! Every Special I have ever played results in the table getting pretty loopy around 10pm and things just go downhill from there. The late night also affects the gaming slots the next morning when we lose people who decide to sleep in. This is quite a bummer because tables lose players and there is too short of notice to get someone else to play in their place.
Over all I was quite impressed with my first PaizoCon! I found the staff to be receptive to ideas and completely friendly. I look forward to returning next year!
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Event Scheduling: I’d like to see at least 10 hours between evening and morning events. Ending at midnight and being at a morning event at 8am didn’t leave much room for sleep. This impacts enjoyment of each event and caused me to skip out on slots because I was desperate for a nap.
#6–97: Siege of Serpents: I was not a fan of this multi-table adventure. It continues to follow a formula that I don’t enjoy as much as a standard scenario. The only reason that I continue to show up at the specials is that I cannot experience the plot any other way. I would like to see Paizo do something more creative with the multi-table events.
#6–98: Serpents Rise: I had a GM who was unfamiliar with the particulars of #6–98: Serpents Rise. I’m not exaggerating when I say that we spent long stretches watching him read the scenario at the game table. This made a huge impact on the table’s enjoyment of the scenario. If this comment from John Compton is any indication, it appears that GMs received the scenario a week before PaizoCon started. It is hard to say whether this particular GM would have been more prepared, but I would have been unhappy to receive a scenario as I was feverishly preparing to travel. I could be wrong though.
I provide this feedback to be honest about particulars, but it is so important to understand that I love attending PaizoCon. I look forward to it each year and make preparations months in advance. A couple of weeks before I get giddy. It’s obvious to me that Paizo does a tremendous amount so well. I can’t thank you enough for that.
- Quick Notes:
- The venue is solid. I’d happily return.
- I felt very supported by Paizo staff. The events were well organized.
- #6–98: Serpents Rise is awesome and I encourage Paizo to sink its teeth into creating adventures that put a spin on the standard scenario.
- Mark Moreland stole my pen while playing Legendary. Who can I talk to about this? :P
- I'm proud to participate in the Pathfinder community and to run games at my local game store because of how awesome all of you are.
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Mark Moreland stole my pen while playing Legendary. Who can I talk to about this? :P
I didn't steal it, you walked away before I could give it back. If you would like, I can have it placed in your sidecart and it will be returned along with your next subscription shipment (that's totally not a hassle, right Customer Service team?). In any case, the pen served me well for the rest of the con, and for that you should feel nothing but pride.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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This was my third Paizo Con, and it was by far, the best. The venue had lots of space for everything, the cascade rooms in particular were great, often having one table per room, which made extraneous noise non-existent. Even when there were two games in a room, it wasn't hard to hear or move around the table at all.
Everyone at the con was super friendly and wonderful to talk to. The dealers room had more vendors than ever before, with space for their own tables/booths, and that was fantastic.
I was very pleased being able to get into 6 different lottery games during the con, even if none were ranked as a 1. I'm assuming that this was due to having a lot more events submitted, and hope to see this continue in future years. The only change I'd suggest would be finding a way to have a few more board/card games in the mix. They're great for filling in time between longer RPG events.
The very few complaints I had were about the hotel as a guest:
1) The Doubletree is vast, I, and many others had rooms roughly in northern Siberia compared to the convention. It would be great if the convention block could be made closer to the conference rooms/event space.
2) The main restaurant had a limited menu. In April they had a full menu during Norwescon, and I think the prices were higher as well. Wound up eating elsewhere instead.
3) Service from the hotel staff as a guest wasn't great. Housekeeping took the glasses from the room and never replaced them. They never replaced tea or coffee that was used. On Monday when I was checking out there was only one front desk employee for over ten minutes until someone else finally showed up to handle the line of 5-6 people. None of these were huge deal breakers, but it seemed that they should know that the last day of a convention would require better staffing levels.
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Mark Moreland stole my pen while playing Legendary. Who can I talk to about this? :PI didn't steal it, you walked away before I could give it back. If you would like, I can have it placed in your sidecart and it will be returned along with your next subscription shipment (that's totally not a hassle, right Customer Service team?). In any case, the pen served me well for the rest of the con, and for that you should feel nothing but pride.
Hehe, how about you keep it until next PaizoCon ;)
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I'm impressed that the folks who work at Paizo can be so positive and outgoing, when they're probably exhausted from getting ready for the con. (I'm guessing that the warehouse and customer service people in paricular have a huge crunch a couple of days right before the Con, as the last-minute logistics of getting stuff moved over all of a sudden has to be done in a very short period of time.)
I am also impressed with the job that the PFS HQ folks do. Coordinating and organizing the zoo that is mustering for all of the PFS tables all at once, and having it go so smoothly, was nice.
The PFS room was much better than last year. Space between tables was great- so, so, so much nicer than last year. On the down side, it was still too loud in there, although not as bad as what I remember from last year (and particularly two years ago although two years ago was my first and it may have been the shock of it that made an impression). I was hoarse after the first day, and it was worse by Monday morning. Most tables, there were one or two tables with players who had quiet voices (some people just do) that I had to cup my hands over my ears to hear. I'm really not sure what could be done about this; perhaps give everybody who comes to the con a $1 discount if they bring an empty egg crate, and paste them all over the walls.....
Were I smarter, I probably wouldn't have scheduled games in the afternoon. Friday, I just went to a couple of seminars, and that gave me some time to do some hurried last-minute rereads, and map drawing, for the Special. That led me feeling a bit less harried than I did other days. Going to bed at 12:30 (assuming one beelined to bed after the night PFS special was up) and getting up in time to shower and eat before being compulsively the first GM at the PFS room at 7AM each morning meant restricted hours of sleep every night except Saturday night. It was worth it, but I was wiped out on Monday afternoon. I don't know that there's a way around this. If you schedule the PFS games so that tier 1 GMs can get enough sleep, then there won't be enough time in between them for people playing morning and evening to get in another game, and this is a gaming convention where people are coming to do that over and over again. More hours in the day might be the only solution; I'm thinking that since we managed to avoid completely losing the Sky Key, this could be possible. If at all possible, it'd be good to find a way for folks to have the ability to choose to get more sleep. (If you hang out after the night PFS game and don't go to bed for a few hours, then, no, you wont get enough sleep in any event.)
Winslow's "Kill them with Kindness" game on Saturday afternoon was a lot of fun. There were five players, and we were an extremely quirky group of people. (I think Winslow's game advertisement encouraged us all to make characters that way, and indeed the pregens he presented us were in a similar vein.) It was quite fun, and quite silly, but the dilemma at the end was a tough on. Player-wise, to my left, I had a father and his 13-year-old son; to my right, I had a mother and her 14-year-old daughter. I was afraid I wouldn't be allowed to play, since I don't have a kid...!
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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After attending the last three PaizoCons, I can easily say that 2015 was definitely my favorite. I really appreciated the change in format this year, and while I understand wanting to allow folks to play three scenarios a day, I actually wish Paizo would go all the way and make two scenarios the norm.
I'd prefer to see 9am-2pm and then a 6pm+ slot. With so many cool panels, outstanding delves, and the always popular ACG, we've got lots to do during that afternoon, and it keeps us with plenty of time for sleep or meals or whatever else.
Anyway, super amazing. I loved the whole thing. The Sunday special is the best I've ever played, and my lottery game with James Jacobs was an impressive highlight to the whole weekend. If you just put this whole convention on repeat, I'll happily attend in 2016.
As Arkos mentioned, getting to play "A Song of Silver" was an incredible experience. That alone was worth the trip for me. I also really enjoyed being able to do pick-up delves between other events.
The Paizo staff were unbelievably accommodating and helpful--the warehouse team in particular are fantastic folks who went out of their way to help me with a special request. (Thanks again, Kevin and Mika!)
Overall, I thought the entire con was very well organized. I can't think of any specific complaint or major missing element that would make it better. A better method of syncing up gamers with nothing to do or folks seeking to run/play pickup games might be nice, though. I know the message boards were touted as one way to do that, but I suspect most folks are either too busy to check for such threads or have limited internet access with which to do so.
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Well, I was right that this thread had already started. I told Erik and Mike both some of my thoughts, but I wanted to make them official.
The venue was awesome. Close to the airport (and easy access to downtown Seattle if you wanted) was great. Also, there were some food choices around.
I was a HUGE fan of the format for events, having the afternoon free. I generally run almost every slot available at a con (GenCon, PaizoCon, etc). I really appreciated having a break. I could get food, prep for another scenario if I wanted to re-read some material, attend seminars or power nap if necessary.
The variety of seminars was great. I hope we see a lot of these again next year.
I think we may have over-worked the bar staff at the hotel, as service was sometimes spotty, but that wasn't your fault.
I had a great time being able to talk to Paizo staff. The HQ people were awesome to work with, and really helped me out a lot when I needed it.
My biggest complaint was the temperature in the ball room, especially at dinner. We were dying at my table from the heat. It was very hard for us to sit there. Hopefully next year you can work with the staff on that. I think leaving the doors open would have helped a lot, honestly.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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I had a seriously great time at PaizoCon. I got to talk to a lot of the Paizo employees, all of whom are excellent and fun people. I very much enjoyed the schedule format and the hotel was pretty excellent. The location was nice for being able to go downtown easily. I'd say my only real complaint would be the cost of the food (which is always high in a hotel) and the length of the lines for the coffee shop!
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I had a fantastic time. I wish I had been more alert for some of my slots. Getting back done with the specials at midnight and having to be back at 8 was fairly rough with an hour commute both ways. (My fault for not having friends closer to the convention I guess lol)
I know I would be interested in scheduling morning slots being regular scenario play, afternoon slots being specials, and then evening slots being casual/panels. Just spit balling. It really was a fantastic experience.
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Going to come up with a longer post later, but as dinketry and I were checking out this afternoon the hotel staff complimented us on the quality of our patronage this weekend. The desk clerk said our group was incredibly well-behaved, which I hope means that they will be glad to have us next year.
This year was easily the best paizocon I've been to so far (4 total). The extra space made running and playing in games far more fun. The relatively sparse schedule made it far easier to find time to meet up with Paizo staff, freelancers, 3PPs and everyone else.
Like I assume most hotels near SeaTac, prices are a little high in the bar/restaurant, but it was nice to see it alleviated with the concession area (even if I never used it...). I might have managed to use it if it was out a bit longer, but I'm not sure where that restriction comes from.
It would be awesome if there was a toggle during registration to hide all PFS events. I know some of us have no interest in it and having to skim past 25 or so games to find other games, seminars, etc during registration is a bit frustrating.
The signing table would have benefited from better signage and a bit more of a call out in the program. If you happened to stumble across it in the store and put together exactly what it was, I'm sure it was a great boon.
I was a first-timer (just started playing in Oct. RPG & ACG... Never even played D&D before) and had a great time.
The PFS room was noisy to me, having some of the internal dividers in place might have helped, maybe partially separating the RPG & ACG areas?
The banquet was fun. Lots of great information reveals, and the food was delicious. The line to get in was a bit much after a long day of gaming, though. Avoidable? Unknown. Certainly better organized than airport security on the way home.
The prize roll was great fun, and netted us our first hardcopy rulebook. I even got Jason to sign it for +2 to Rules Enforcement.
Staff and volunteers were amazing. Now I have faces to put to names.
Having the 3rd party folks present was fun. getting to meet and talk to the people behind Syrenscape & Lonewolf was fun and informative, especially as I am putting together a run through Rise of the Runelords using their tools ( and d20Pro... missed you Matt).
Summary: people were great, venue was great, organization was great. I'm already planning for PaizoCon2016.
The only criticism I have is that damn walk from the room block.
Great things:
- Banquet (the food was a ton of tastiness, and we had a lot of fun talking to our Paizo employee)
- Food (it was great having such easy access to noms at the hotel)
- Syrinscape (maybe a somewhat weird note, but it was really cool having those guys there providing atmosphere and the occasional highly startling scream)
- The Delves (I didn't have a super experience in the one game I attended, but I love the concept of these Delves, and I could tell a lot of people were having fun at them. I think I just got a less energetic table)
- The events (as always, so much fun, especially with the huge wealth of seminars! Crayon of Vecna and GMing on the Fly were particularly awesome, and getting my own copy of Visions of WAR made my day)
- The goodie bag (Wayfinder, novel, and eee! My very own Squealy Nord! Also, a will o' wisp, which is now my favoritest miniature ever)
- Orc brain (orc brain!)
- The presence of two whole pickup game rooms (a big help, though sadly I never did manage to find a game there)
- Lots of rooms to play in (as someone with poor hearing who can't understand half of what people are saying in crowded rooms, thank you)
- Everything else
Can't wait for next year! This was probably the best PaizoCon yet, or at least very high up there. It's hard to say the "best" personally because I've had some really great games here in the past, and this year I only got into a few. That said, Bill Webb's Swords and Wizardry was a huge blast, as ever (I knocked three children unconscious! Uh, it makes sense in context), and The Foehammer Promise was some of the most fun roleplaying I've ever experienced during my years attending this con. Great players, great GM, and a clever little scenario to back it up. Also, the best race. What fun!
I still hold that Erriga got robbed when it came to selecting the new chief, though. My d20 let me down there. Still kinda stings.
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Loved the new venue. The hall for the PFS games was much more comfortable for all, plus removed the hassle in mustering for the regular PFS slots. Having some great restaurant choices a quick walk away helped as well. The temp food area was nice, but we had less time at dinner, so having it available then would be a possible improvement. Hopefully it was used enough that the hotel could extend the hours.
This is the first year I brought my son (12 when we arrived, 13 when we left) and I appreciated how everybody, Paizo and fellow attendees, went out of their way to ensure he was having a great time. He got a huge kick out of Mike Brock coming over and joking with him before the Friday special. The extra token Mike gave him ended up being used in his roll at the prize table that got him his personal core rulebook, so he'll remember this interaction for years to come. I appreciated the players and GM pitching in to help him when he struggled with the free-form encounters at the start of the Sunday special. It would have been easy for them to get frustrated, but they were all great.
Speaking of the Sunday special, hats off to John Compton for writing a great scenario. After Friday, we were hoping that Sunday was going to be the same plot, just flipping to Aspis, and we were not disappointed.
For the love of Abadar, could someone arrange for a Bulmahn-sized microphone at the banquet podium? He always looks so uncomfortable having to scrunch down for his part in the previews.
Please don't schedule slots that go past 5 in the main room on banquet night. The PACG had a 4-6 slot that was cut short by needing to be out of the room at 5. Less of a problem this year with PFS not having official afternoon slots scheduled.
I was leery of the afternoons free of PFS, but I ended up being OK with it since I just played the PACG instead. There was so much to do, I never made it to any seminars or the delves. Great to have choices. Maybe offer a limited slate of "official" slots in the PM?
Speaking as the GM for that game, please tell your son he did a fantastic job. We've all been at that point as a gamer, so I'm glad we were able to help him along. I'm not so sure he needed us though, he seemed to get into the spirit of things well enough. Hopefully we'll see you both next year, I'd be happy to have you at my table again!
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Feedback
* Venue was fantastic: the staff was great, the hotel was nice, the price was on the high side but still reasonable, and the food options were awesome (I'm pretty sure I'm addicted to the Thai Mango's sticky rice with mango).
* The PFS/ACG gaming space needs to be better spaced out. The noise overload was unnecessary in a lot of time slots due to all the games being crowded into one half of the room while the other half was unused.
* I was initially happy about the dead space in the afternoon slot (for PFS at least) but it kind of grew on me. Still, I'd like to see something to help folks muster games on the site's end. Maybe a generic 'Open PFS' event that folks can sign up during the afternoon slots. Also, the five hour slots and the dead slot in the afternoon seems like overkill (and creates the need for early starts/late ends). I'd prefer to do away with one them.
* The Paizo staffers were great and helpful. At one point there was some confusion with the prize tokens and the staff fixed it for me no questions asked. Thanks guys!
Y'know, this may be a lame suggestion, but it would be nice if there was a way to make it easier to advertise a game being open to players. Maybe a little foldable sign that comes with the goodie bag that we could put at the table to say to prospective players, "Yes, we have room for one more". Pickup games are tricky enough without requiring players to go from table to table asking, "Hey, are you guys just starting, or are you too far in to accept a new guy?"
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I don't know if its going to be helpful, but I'm writing a big blog post on PaizoCon tomorrow for Guidance, on the Know Direction Network. I'll try to remember to post it back here when it goes live; in the meantime, I need to get back to *writing* it. :-)
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Y'know, this may be a lame suggestion, but it would be nice if there was a way to make it easier to advertise a game being open to players. Maybe a little foldable sign that comes with the goodie bag that we could put at the table to say to prospective players, "Yes, we have room for one more". Pickup games are tricky enough without requiring players to go from table to table asking, "Hey, are you guys just starting, or are you too far in to accept a new guy?"
That sounds like a really good idea!
Good:
* long walk to room. Yay, exercise!
* I enjoyed having an opportunity to game with some of the special guests. Kurtis Wiebe running the delve was quite fun, and he is a very creative storyteller (and now I want to read his comic)
* I really enjoyed Serpent's Rise. This is more PFS commentary then con commentary, but PFS often lacks a solid method for appreciating their antagonists. This adventure helped address that. Walk a mile in my shoes...
* goblin brains!
Neutral:
* Pick up game organization was reasonable towards end of game, but suffered early on.
Needs improvement:
* To me, PFS Normal and Core are two separate campaigns, campaigns that were given competing slots and equal footing regardless of maturity or interest. My little group finagled 3 core slots into Normal tables so we could game together, but gaming the system to game together is unsatisfying.
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2nd Paizocon, and frankly the best con I've attended anywhere.
First - Thanks to all the Paizo staff, you are the most courteous and approachable celebrities anywhere! I'd especially like to compliment you for your registration line awesomeness on Friday morning, I appreciated it last year and while I didn't use it this year the speed and accuracy was truly amazing. Also as mentioned above, your timeliness to the panels and events you were scheduled for shows us how much you care for your fans, though sometimes I wish you would have let panels run a little long since I was enjoying them greatly.
Scheduling
As a Tier 1 GM, the middle slot open was very appreciated. This allowed me to attend multiple panels and still have time for lunch and some last minute review/prep. Unfortunately there were still some panels I really would have loved to attend which overlapped with PFS time.
My request has also been mentioned above - but either a hour later start time or early end time, would have been greatly appreciated. As the weekend wore on that lack of sleep begins to catch up.
PFS
I enjoyed all my players at the events I ran. I hope I made your table experiences fun if you sat with me. Headquarters staff had a difficult job and incredibly long hours and they were amazing and patient and caring throughout, I am very thankful you were there and I wasn't!
I do however have suggestions. The even/odd scenario schedule was odd(didn't really effect me much as GM) but it created a bit of tension for players which they've covered more full above.
Both my midlevel core games were cancelled for no players, there was an over representation of core at this con, i do not think it will be nearly as bad next year as the core campaign matures.
If the room is that big, maybe an even bigger spread out of tables would have helped with noise issues which were admittedly only tough during the specials.
Banquet
Top notch. Was in the first 10-15 people in line and while it was a long wait, had great conversations with others and Jeff Alvarez as he patrolled the line area to chat with people. The food was excellent especially the beef. Our Paizo staffers were entertaining and fun to chat with during dinner.
I had heard that banquet tickets were available in the store for a while after con started, some sign or indication at the registration table may have helped with some of those frustrated to not get to attend, since it sounded like it wasn't a complete sell out.
Location
Being in the hinterlands while providing a brisk walk was a little rougher on GMs. Maybe another perk that could be offered for GMs is a special room block nearer to the convention space. Space was great, food was expensive, and the special con food was never open when I was hungry or had opportunity to visit. The restaurant options nearby were great.
Other stuff
Kobold Press and Wolfgang, I played another Midgard game and it cemented the setting as somewhere I want to explore as a player and GM a lot more. I purchased the campaign setting book and it was really the only truly for me purchase at the store. and for the love of Shelyn, Paizo and all 3rd party press need to give Bryan Syme a lot more work.
Store
Chris and Cort, thanks for manning the store and making every transaction easy and pleasant. Only issue here was, I was hoping to pick up a specific book that was available last year but this year you didn't have other systems books available. Things that were missing was FATE based stuff and Monte Cook Games stuff in particular.
Last but not least
Two particular Paizo staff made this convention extra special for me. Crystal Frazier and Mark Seifter thank you for the entertaining game and entertaining conversations. Crytal's Goblins and Dinosaurs was by far the best several hours of gaming ever and Mark's hallway conversations and panel talks were enlightening and remarkably informative. Thank you both for making a great con, even more memorable.
Events:
Well organized and well run. All the GMs were fun, positive and it's what makes me keep coming back to PaizoCon.
Family Friendly:
My 11yr daughter came for the second year in a row and this year she was able to sustain 2 events per day. We have plenty of games that were age appropriate and in general the Pathfinder community is great at getting young players involved. My daughter said to me Monday, "everyone is just so nice and friendly".
Store:
The store is getting bigger year over year and I love that! I hope more vendors continue to show up.
For the marketing staff - if possible you really should consider making t-shirts with the iconic characters. These would sell like hot cakes! I have to think there is some IP reason you can't do this because I'm sure someone else has thought of this. I can tell you that it would be an incredible marketing tool for Pathfinder.
Hotel:
While I understand the space for the events is better. The hotel was a super big disappointment. I travel for a living and have never paid a higher price for such lack of amenities and service. Room service was the worst food I've ever had (normally I like to treat myself to room service because while it's expensive, it's usually good food and getting it served to your room at the end of a long day is a nice treat. At the Double Tree I paid $18 for 5 tiny, barely edible buffalo wings, and $28 for a frozen pizza).
The previous hotel had an indoor pool and movie service in the rooms which made it nice for those that treat PaizoCon like a vacation and bring family.
Not a deal breaker, but there are other great hotels in the area.
Overall:
Wonderful time! I'm ready to book plans for next year! :D
One more remark. The difference between Core and Normal I think adds an unnecessary complexity to the PFS events.
Even though I signed up for Normal, I ended up having to play some Core games, which meant I had to keep re-tooling my character to fit Core, and now the same character is logged across to PFS numbers.
The reality is I really don't care if I'm playing Core or Normal - I just want to play a PFS character (a single PFS character) through the con.
If there was just Core *or* Normal, then there would be a lot more flexibility in putting tables together.
For the marketing staff - if possible you really should consider making t-shirts with the iconic characters. These would sell like hot cakes! I have to think there is some IP reason you can't do this because I'm sure someone else has thought of this. I can tell you that it would be an incredible marketing tool for Pathfinder.
Like these ones here? T-Shirts are kind of weird to merchandise at the store for us, and we haven't quite figured out the best way to handle them quite yet.
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For the marketing staff - if possible you really should consider making t-shirts with the iconic characters. These would sell like hot cakes! I have to think there is some IP reason you can't do this because I'm sure someone else has thought of this. I can tell you that it would be an incredible marketing tool for Pathfinder.Like these ones here? T-Shirts are kind of weird to merchandise at the store for us, and we haven't quite figured out the best way to handle them quite yet.
more variety of goblin shirts would be great too. never hurts to have extra shirts for cons when laundry time is at a premium.
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My 3rd Paizocon ever (2nd year as a volunteer) was awesome!!
Venue was great, the staff were helpful and quick to resolve even the simplest of issues.
It was a relief to have food options so close by the hotel.
Game space in the main Ballroom was by far better than previous years in where one could actually navigate around tables.
The scheduling was ideal as it gave the option for either the gaming activities or just some quiet preparation time. Please keep the afternoon slot open next year!!
Paizo staff was awesome as always. Sara Marie, my thanks again for the minor issue you rapidly resolved.
HQ staff, thank you for all your help this weekend. Thank you to all my fellow volunteers for stepping up for an event like this. Big thanks to the ACG volunteers for your help on Monday morning.
Already planning for 2016 so see you next year!!
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My roommate and I had a great time this year. There was a lot more space around the gaming tables and the room was larger, which is great for future growth. Neither of us felt our claustrophobia setting in this year. The preview banquet was awesome, even with the stress to the start, everyone was seated and there was plenty of food for everyone to enjoy, which is really awesome.
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While I was a huge fan of the previous hotel, being a Marriott rewards member with a bazillion points, even I have to admit that the Doubletree Hilton was a major step up. You have room to grow into, and the service from the hotel staff was much better. Please give them as much positive feedback as you can.
Banquet: Please ask the hotel staff to come up with something better than putting the coffee and desserts in a place where we're forced to stand in front of Eric. That could have been handled better... but hey, it was their first year.
Games: I'd love to see more non-PFS Pathfinder events. I've tried PFS play and it just doesn't scratch the right itch for me. I did get into one of the Emerald Spire events, and that was fun... we even managed to avoid a TPK.
Seminars: I like that there were some miniature related seminars. Dallas' mini basing seminar was helpful. I really enjoyed the Games for Kids, and the Cartography seminars as well. The Cartography people seemed surprised to find out that they had projectors available to them, so they didn't come prepared to take advantage of them. Live and learn.
Store: The new space is MUCH bigger, but it felt like there was less third party product than the year before. No Green Ronin, which is a damn shame... Advanced Bestiary is one of the best third party books for Pathfinder ever. Also, the new Freeport book is just amazingly gorgeous. There was also no Raging Swan product, where there was the year prior. Creighton's stuff is great.
Not sure how to encourage more cosplay...