rknop |
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Do you know, will the restrictions on 6-98 be lifted after GenCon? Or will that remain an Exclusive for at least another year?
I remember Tonya made a post a while back laying out exactly what were Exclusives and what were Specials, for these purposes, and for purposes of "must be at a Con at the moment". It would be awesome if somebody somewhere (ideally at paizo.com) maintained an up-to-date FAQ that we could reference at any time to figure out what was what.
-Rob "closing in on 150 tables" Knop
TriOmegaZero |
Yes. Any run of a special counts, as long as it was considered a special. (Day of the Demon and The Midnight Mauler were considered to count while they were exclusive scenarios, but their non-EX versions do not.)
Preston Hudson Venture-Captain, Washington—Spokane |
Hmm Venture-Captain, Minnesota |
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Does it (or 7-99) still count as a special if we're running it at GenCon without the required GM stars?
I don't need to worry about special count for quite a while, but grabbing a few early is nice.
How do you run it at GenCon without the required GM stars? Am I missing something here?
Hmm
Hmm Venture-Captain, Minnesota |
nosig |
Oh! So if I make it to PaizoCon, there'd be a chance I could run something like True Dragons? I would love to have a chance to run some of the Roleplaying specials!
Thank you, this is great information!
Hmm
yeah, be sure to get in on judging some of the Specials - otherwise you'll end up like some of us with 150 games judged - but not enough "Specials" to get our 5th star. ;)
it only took me 6 years to get my first 4 Specials, so at this rate I should have my 5th star late in Season 15? or maybe Season 16?
TriOmegaZero |
IIRC, Paizocon and Paizocon UK also waive the star requirements.
Yes, but the question was about GenCon, so I spoke only to that. ;)
Oh! So if I make it to PaizoCon, there'd be a chance I could run something like True Dragons? I would love to have a chance to run some of the Roleplaying specials!
It is possible, if the special is being offered at PaizoCon.
BigNorseWolf |
yeah, be sure to get in on judging some of the Specials - otherwise you'll end up like some of us with 150 games judged - but not enough "Specials" to get our 5th star. ;)
it only took me 6 years to get my first 4 Specials, so at this rate I should have my 5th star late in Season 15? or maybe Season 16?
Hold your nose find some munchkins and run the bonekeeps.
nosig |
nosig wrote:
yeah, be sure to get in on judging some of the Specials - otherwise you'll end up like some of us with 150 games judged - but not enough "Specials" to get our 5th star. ;)
it only took me 6 years to get my first 4 Specials, so at this rate I should have my 5th star late in Season 15? or maybe Season 16?
Hold your nose find some munchkins and run the bonekeeps.
nah. spent years teaching my kids:
"if it's not fun, don't do it".I try to take my own advice sometimes... and the way Bonekeep was introduced/explained to me... I prefer not to play that way. Not fun. So I don't play/run them. (which is also why I am looking closely into 7-98 "Serpent's Ire").
Fromper |
Bonekeep's not terrible. I prefer adventures with more plot and social interaction, rather than just dungeon crawls, but they're not that bad. With a good group, they can be fun.
And they're nowhere near as deadly as everyone goes on about, either. I just played the 3rd one this past weekend, so I've now been through all 3 of them, and we only had one PC death in all 3. And even that was a lucky crit by the GM against a level 7 playing up to subtier 8-9 in the 3rd part.
But I'd prefer to do other specials, for the most part. I've already GMed 3 of the multi-table specials, and I'll probably be GMing another 1 or 2 of them in the next 2-3 months. So I'll probably have 5 specials GMed before I even hit 4 stars.
chris manning Venture-Captain, Isles—Online |
Hmm Venture-Captain, Minnesota |
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If you do volunteer for multi-table events as a new GM, please prep the heck out of them. Nothing is worse for a player than losing time at a multi-table special while the GM frantically reads the scenario, trying to figure out where you're supposed to be now. They're timed, so anything you can do to keep your players on track and ready would be great!
Hmm
BigNorseWolf |
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If you do volunteer for multi-table events as a new GM, please prep the heck out of them. Nothing is worse for a player than losing time at a multi-table special while the GM frantically reads the scenario, trying to figure out where you're supposed to be now. They're timed, so anything you can do to keep your players on track and ready would be great!
Hmm
I expect to be saying "close enough for state work" a LOT next weekend...
Jessex |
Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:Oh! So if I make it to PaizoCon, there'd be a chance I could run something like True Dragons? I would love to have a chance to run some of the Roleplaying specials!
Thank you, this is great information!
Hmm
yeah, be sure to get in on judging some of the Specials - otherwise you'll end up like some of us with 150 games judged - but not enough "Specials" to get our 5th star. ;)
it only took me 6 years to get my first 4 Specials, so at this rate I should have my 5th star late in Season 15? or maybe Season 16?
Locally we get at least a couple of the multi table specials run each year. You should try and get that organized.
RealAlchemy |
nosig wrote:
yeah, be sure to get in on judging some of the Specials - otherwise you'll end up like some of us with 150 games judged - but not enough "Specials" to get our 5th star. ;)
it only took me 6 years to get my first 4 Specials, so at this rate I should have my 5th star late in Season 15? or maybe Season 16?
Hold your nose find some munchkins and run the bonekeeps.
Hey, I played Bonekeep 2 without being a munchkin, I just brought my underground specialist dwarf ranger because if it involves going down a hole in the ground he's right there volunteering :)
Wei Ji the Learner |
Also, volunteer for all the multi-table events, even if it is your first time GMing.
** spoiler omitted **
Mulgar |
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Soluzar wrote:It might be a good idea to put this list in the next Guide.by the time you're nearing star 5 you should be able to dig it up on the forums
But you shouldn't have to dig it up. Just like the list of evergreens.
It seems to me to be quite easy to put a link up for both of these.
Sebastian Hirsch Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria |
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If you do volunteer for multi-table events as a new GM, please prep the heck out of them. Nothing is worse for a player than losing time at a multi-table special while the GM frantically reads the scenario, trying to figure out where you're supposed to be now. They're timed, so anything you can do to keep your players on track and ready would be great!
Hmm
They are really prep heavy and the GMs should be very well prepared since costing your players time has serious consequences.
Majuba |
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Also, you should not walk up the day of the special and offer to run a table. It's suboptimal.
But the guilt may motivate you to give your all to GM'ing for the next four years and see you earn your 5th star in record time! *wink*
Zach Davis |
I volunteered for a special the same day once, but served as a runner collecting all the success data from table GMs and taking it to the overseer. It was a still a lot of fun. However, TOZ is correct that it would be a bad idea to run a special under those circumstances. I GMed a special for the first time the next con after serving as a runner, and even having prepped for it I felt under prepared in the moment. The players all told me they had a great time though so I guess it was just me feeling stressed. Now I'm about to run my sixth special so I think I'm way ahead of the game on that requirement though I don't know if I'll ever reach the 150 games.
Z...D... Venture-Lieutenant, Maryland—Hagerstown |
Zach Davis |
The higher tables are even harder to prepare for, and to get them in on the time crunch. The table i was at during a smaller con, had a hard time keeping up, just do to the epicness of the battles.
Indeed. That first special I mentioned GMing I had asked for more tier, was told I would be receiving lite tier, and then got a table of 8-9(I think...maybe it was 7-8 I forget the specific tier range on that one). I've yet to run a 10-11 special, but I'm sure it's challenging to keep pace with the other tables.
sanwah68 Venture-Captain, Australia—NSW—Greater West |
Back to the OP, this question gets asked quite a lot, and sometimes what constitutes a special may not be clear to all. Would it be possible for campaign management to have a stickied forum post that can be updated and easy to point to. Easier that putting it in the guide and a lot easier to update. A lot of forums I am on would lock that thread so there is no chatter on it, so only pertanent info is on it.
Keirine, Human Rogue |
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If you do volunteer for multi-table events as a new GM, please prep the heck out of them. Nothing is worse for a player than losing time at a multi-table special while the GM frantically reads the scenario, trying to figure out where you're supposed to be now. They're timed, so anything you can do to keep your players on track and ready would be great!
Hmm
So, funny story about this!
Earlier this year, I was running a table of Legacy of the Stonelords for a local convention. I checked in my downloads and it arrived, but this was the same time as the Humble Bundle, so I wasn't able to download my copy of it. But that's not a problem, because I'm friends with a couple of people, one of whom is a VC, and I asked if he could get me a copy so I'd have it all set and ready to go.
So I read through it, highlighting stuff, knowing that I'm going to be doing one of the higher tier tables. I go through it a few times, make up sheets for the monsters so I'll have easy reference, get initiative cards made, the whole she-bang.
Everything runs perfectly, I'm prepped, I have maps, I have everything all set up, we get to the throneroom and I'm about to hand out...
Wait.... why is he continuing? I'm out of scenario. I don't have any more scenario to run. There is literally nothing left in my packet.
Turns out my friend hadn't updated his download since Paizocon... So I only had the first half of the scenario...
Thankfully, I was able to get the second half printed and I managed to run that cold. Turns out it was just using a lot of the same maps that we already used, and a good portion of it was RP, so that was nice too.
My players seemed to have a good time, regardless of my screw-up, and it seemed like there was fun had by all, so it wasn't a big deal. But I still find it funny. One of my favorite PFS moments.
Me: Joe, what's going on? What am I supposed to be doing now?
Joe: You run it like it says in the scenario. Jeez, this isn't your first GM table.
Me: Joe, this isn't in my scenario. My scenario is over. It says I should be giving out chronicle sheets.
Joe: Oh... Oh damn... Uhhh... We'll print out a new copy, and just run with it from there. Good luck!
GreySector RPG Superstar 2013 Top 8 |
Earlier this year, I was running a table of Legacy of the Stonelords for a local convention. I checked in my downloads and it arrived, but this was the same time as the Humble Bundle, so I wasn't able to download my copy of it. But that's not a problem, because I'm friends with a couple of people, one of whom is a VC, and I asked if he could get me a copy so I'd have it all set and ready to go.
I don't recall getting that request. IIRC you got that incorrect copy from one of our VLs.
Keirine, Human Rogue |
Keirine, Human Rogue wrote:Earlier this year, I was running a table of Legacy of the Stonelords for a local convention. I checked in my downloads and it arrived, but this was the same time as the Humble Bundle, so I wasn't able to download my copy of it. But that's not a problem, because I'm friends with a couple of people, one of whom is a VC, and I asked if he could get me a copy so I'd have it all set and ready to go.I don't recall getting that request. IIRC you got that incorrect copy from one of our VLs.
You are correct. It was the VL, mainly because I ran into him before I ran into you. C'est la vie.
Jayson MF Kip |
I'm going to have 5 Specials before I get my third star. I'm not sure if that means the Master of Schedules has confidence in me or has it out for me. Possibly both.
Every time this thread pops up I wonder what it must be like to have to accrue specials/exclusives. This GenCon I'll finish specials 14,15,and 16. (But I'll still be 2 tables short of 150 after adding GenCon's eight.)
Do most people not have a special before their first star?
Fromper |
Very much depends on how many conventions you go to. The UK has a relative dearth of big cons where you might expect to be able to run a multi table special which is why I ended up running Bonekeep until my eyes started bleeding.
We've been doing the multi-table specials at our local store recently. We usually take up 2-3 tables every Sunday, but the store has 8 or 9 total tables. We just reserve 5 tables for one Sunday every 6 months or so for the special event, and we easily have enough people who played them at GenCon who volunteer to GM, and enough people who missed GenCon who want to play them.
We did both of last year's multi-table specials that way in the past year, and we're already starting on plans to run 8-00 that way in September.
So I've only GMed one of the multi-table events at a convention, and two at our local store.
TriOmegaZero |
Do most people not have a special before their first star?
Indeed, most do not, especially those who cannot attend conventions. Online conventions helped me get to ten as fast as I did. (My first GM table being a special also helped.)