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The 8 am start time is ok. But ending at 1am is too much.This is unlikely to change, as the 150 GM who came to the after con talk were polled. About 140 raised their hand they prefer the 1 am end time to the midnight. Only about 10 raised their hand for midnight.
1 am should be here to stay, if it's a majority "prefer" thing.
That's fine James. But it would be better served to ask paying clientele what they think? A poll could go out to the registered ticket holders asking if they like the current time structure.
Just a thought.
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That's poor planning Thea. I understand the idea behind it, but over all, that's not the best way to handle people who had to race through traffic to make it.
I would recommend holding until ten minutes into the slot before seating generics.That's my own opinion, and only a suggestion, but hopefully one that holds merit.
I disagree. We have a limited amount of time for each slot, and you're requesting that tables seated with generics cut their time even shorter on the off chance that someone with a real ticket shows up late. We need to be mustering people and getting them seated as quickly as possible. Generic ticket holders already have to wait for the start time. Their tables shouldn't be cut any shorter.
Venture-Lieutenant, Indiana—Indianapolis
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That's poor planning Thea. I understand the idea behind it, but over all, that's not the best way to handle people who had to race through traffic to make it.
I would recommend holding until ten minutes into the slot before seating generics.That's my own opinion, and only a suggestion, but hopefully one that holds merit.
I disagree. We have a limited amount of time for each slot, and you're requesting that tables seated with generics cut their time even shorter on the off chance that someone with a real ticket shows up late. We need to be mustering people and getting them seated as quickly as possible. Generic ticket holders already have to wait for the start time. Their tables shouldn't be cut any shorter.
I'm not trying to make this a discussion, but as an FYI: I marshaled a couple of slots. We were told that generics could not be taken any earlier than the start time of the slot, and for the three slots I mustered, we waited until 5 minutes after the slot time to seat generics. Tables should feel free to start as soon as they have players to make a legal table, and not wait.
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Oh yeah, I forgot: The list telling us where to marshal should have been super clear about banner vs stand-up. Since the stand-ups didn't have the character's name on them, I figured they meant banner, but there was a moment of confusion there.
And a suggestion: since GenCon made Paizo move into the ballroom and out of the hall, there was nothing outside to indicate what was going on inside the Sagamore. Maybe a big banner over the entry doors or something? I know they don't want us mustering outside, and that problem has been dealt with excellently, but maybe add some advertising/exposure to the outside of the room.
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The 8 am start time is ok. But ending at 1am is too much.This is unlikely to change, as the 150 GM who came to the after con talk were polled. About 140 raised their hand they prefer the 1 am end time to the midnight. Only about 10 raised their hand for midnight.
1 am should be here to stay, if it's a majority "prefer" thing.
That's fine James. But it would be better served to ask paying clientele what they think? A poll could go out to the registered ticket holders asking if they like the current time structure.
Just a thought.
As an attendee and not a GM with a room provided by Paizo, the extended time slot was murder on me and my wife with wanting to get back to the Con as early as possible. However, if Paizo wants to also provide connected rooms for all of its players in addition to its GMs I'm sure I'd be more amenable to the idea.
Owner - D20 Hobbies
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In the "old days" when we ran 4 slots from 8 am to midnight, life was sucky. You were even more exhausted playing or GMing, you had not time for food, and you had to rush everywhere.
The new model of time between slots as much as possible, dinner break time, and more relaxed pace of games make losing the 1 game a day a joy.
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This was the first year I GM'd for PFS at Gen Con. I'm interested in doing it again, though I think next year I might step up to Tier 4 or 5 at the start of the convention.
It was an eye-opening experience, and despite the issues I had at my Interactive table because my organization fell apart forty feet from the Sagamore ballroom, I was able to keep it on track for the most part -- though through the first half it was a bit hard to get a good 'idea' of pacing.
GM-wise, there were a couple of GMs that were AMAZING to play under, and a couple that were 'okay'. Didn't have any truly obnoxious 'need to report' GMs.
Erick Mona's a great guy, and it's awesome to hear about all the stuff that's going on, but... that ate a good chunk of time during the scenario that would not happen at a local convention during the running of it.
While having the announcement at the signature event of the convention for Society is keen, perhaps it could be held until later in the scenario, perhaps after completion with an allocation for such?
Not saying such a thing shouldn't happen, but perhaps at a point where it does not interrupt the flow of play, such as in the 'interface' between chapters?
Sagamore and Layout
Tables and zones were amazing. Aside from the general 'loud' of a convention, there were very few times I had a problem hearing the other people at my tables.
AC: As some noted, it was frigid at points. As someone who can sweat a river under 'normal' temps, it was largely appreciated except for Thursday morning and Saturday afternoon, when MY teeth were chattering a bit despite layering up for the possibility.
Still, it made stepping outside reasonably pleasant for the warmth for a change.
The boon table, LWD, Trapdoor Tech, and PSA were all crammed in on top of each other, or at least, that was the 'feeling' I got from it. With LWD having the possibility of lines to use their equipment, and the prize table likewise having that, they should perhaps be moved to opposite ends or at least not right atop each other.
For 'crunch' times, the boon table could use THREE attendants and one assistant to expedite flow.
Releasing the boons list digitally with VOID or some-such through them the night of the convention might also help with this, as several folks were looking at the list and it made the line a little bit confusing for a few moments.
Mustering:
Add me to the list of folks confused about the Iconics/banners, and I've been playing Society at GenCon for a couple of years now.
Making folks walk twenty or thirty feet INTO the convention center to see what banner they were mustering under meant that the 'mustering blobs' were creeping into the first line of RPG tables.
Despite that, it was also paradoxically the smoothest mustering I've seen yet.
DEFINITELY continue keeping it OUT of the hallway, please.
EDIT: Scheduling:
The new 'expanded break time' made it possible for me to play the afternoon slot on Friday AND get a brunch AND get my stuff from my hotel room to run my table of the Interactive.
I can't see it working under any other circumstances, now that the experience has been put 'in play'.
It just required a bit of responsibility and focus to make sure I got back to my hotel to get a goodly amount of sleep and curtailed my 'after game' activity on Thursday and Friday nights (which my wallet is eternally grateful for).
Of course, I lucked out and had a hotel nearby. I can't see doing that from 'far away'.
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Maybe a big banner over the entry doors or something?
To date, Gen Con will not allow any signage outside the room. We have been able to skate that with free-standing floor signs near/in the doorways, but we moved away from that to create more open sight lines into the room and through the doors. Unless policy changes, the best we can hope for is the size and scope of "happenings" inside to draw people in as they pass the open doors.
A side note, there were two of us in the hallway on Friday night directing people into the room. Although it was focused on getting ticketed players in the room (we did not close the room for the pre-event GM meeting this year) it was still bringing visibility to casual bystanders who could come in and observe.
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The 8 am start time is ok. But ending at 1am is too much.This is unlikely to change, as the 150 GM who came to the after con talk were polled. About 140 raised their hand they prefer the 1 am end time to the midnight. Only about 10 raised their hand for midnight.
1 am should be here to stay, if it's a majority "prefer" thing.
That's fine James. But it would be better served to ask paying clientele what they think? A poll could go out to the registered ticket holders asking if they like the current time structure.
Just a thought.
I wasn't at GenCon this year, but last year I ended up having a huge problem because the hotel shuttles stopped running about 15 minutes before the special let out. There had been no hint of a suggestion that those shuttles wouldn't function for the major events of one of the conventions major sponsors, and that ended up causing me a lot of grief and unanticipated expense.
Do what works best, but please keep that on your list of "logistical details that need to be considered" with scheduling.
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To add insult to injury, we were in some kind of acoustic dead zone; the speakers were forward facing and we were far enough away to not be able to hear the dialog echoing off the far wall, and too far away to hear it laterally straight from the speakers. Just couldn't hear a thing.Having sat there last year, I can attest to this. The speakers did seem better this year, and the addition of text on the screens was a great choice. But I was sat at a table closer to the stage so didn't know how the "far reaches of the room" compared. It sucks that those corners didn't improve much.
Also a little saddened that there was no "random roll for a table prize".
Huh. Can you all try to explain where this dead zone is, please? I went and stood in the far back corner, near where the quests were stationed, on purpose and I had no problems understanding or hearing the audio. I also had zero problems hearing the audio while standing in the card game area.
Thanks for the Marshal love. It is appreciated.
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Maybe a big banner over the entry doors or something?To date, Gen Con will not allow any signage outside the room. We have been able to skate that with free-standing floor signs near/in the doorways, but we moved away from that to create more open sight lines into the room and through the doors. Unless policy changes, the best we can hope for is the size and scope of "happenings" inside to draw people in as they pass the open doors.
A side note, there were two of us in the hallway on Friday night directing people into the room. Although it was focused on getting ticketed players in the room (we did not close the room for the pre-event GM meeting this year) it was still bringing visibility to casual bystanders who could come in and observe.
Also nothing over, what, eight feet in height in the hallway?
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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One minor issue I'd like to see changed is perhaps a little different phrasing from the HQ staff on some requests. I know you guys are stressed constantly moving, and busy as hell, but could you folks phrase requests with some different language? There were several times when I or one of my colleagues would hand in a reporting sheet, and the answer was, in many cases: "Wait, I won't release you until I verify that this is correct", which made some of my colleagues feel very negative about running future games, as they are also feeling stressed out themselves (especially after some of the more complex modules). I'm sure there are better ways to relay information than that.
Glad you had a good time jhallum! To touch on this, since I was the department head in charge of data entry, let me be 100% clear in that our intention was not to make anyone feel bad about their reporting sheet. The reason why GMs need to hang for a bit after dropping them off is, as you say, to verify that they're filled in correctly. If they aren't (and there are quite a bit that aren't), they can become impossible to correct if the GM has walked away.
Here are errors I saw: no prestige, no GM # or name, no scenario title, no success conditions, incorrect society numbers (7 digits long), duplicate characters (12345-1 & 12345-2). Some of these issues are correctable on our end, involving us to do some digging and figure out who GM'd what and get back in contact with them.
And with that being said, there are a lot of sessions to report.
We currently have 1,344 reported sessions for GenCon this year, with another ~150 or so that Todd has to do. So given that is easily 20+ hours of reporting, we can't be pausing all the time to track down GMs and fix errors. Which is why we catch you at the table. Also, some errors are not fixable by us: such as no GM# or GM name. Therefore, if we just let GMs leave after dropping them off we physically cannot correct some errors and the entire table gets no credit. Which means way more work for Todd later on.
So again, apologies if we came off as accusatory, next year we can try and work on the language and tone, but it really doesn't get any more direct than "please wait, I need to verify this is correct."
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One minor issue I'd like to see changed is perhaps a little different phrasing from the HQ staff on some requests. I know you guys are stressed constantly moving, and busy as hell, but could you folks phrase requests with some different language? There were several times when I or one of my colleagues would hand in a reporting sheet, and the answer was, in many cases: "Wait, I won't release you until I verify that this is correct", which made some of my colleagues feel very negative about running future games, as they are also feeling stressed out themselves (especially after some of the more complex modules). I'm sure there are better ways to relay information than that.Glad you had a good time jhallum! To touch on this, since I was the department head in charge of data entry, let me be 100% clear in that our intention was not to make anyone feel bad about their reporting sheet. The reason why GMs need to hang for a bit after dropping them off is, as you say, to verify that they're filled in correctly. If they aren't (and there are quite a bit that aren't), they can become impossible to correct if the GM has walked away.
Here are errors I saw: no prestige, no GM # or name, no scenario title, no success conditions, incorrect society numbers (7 digits long), duplicate characters (12345-1 & 12345-2). Some of these issues are correctable on our end, involving us to do some digging and figure out who GM'd what and get back in contact with them.
And with that being said, there are a lot of sessions to report.
We currently have 1,344 reported sessions for GenCon this year, with another ~150 or so that Todd has to do. So given that is easily 20+ hours of reporting, we can't be pausing all the time to track down GMs and fix errors. Which is why we catch you at the table. Also, some errors are not fixable by us: such as no GM# or GM name. Therefore, if we just let GMs leave after dropping them off we physically cannot correct some errors and the entire table gets...
We want to get out of the Sagamore at 1am just as much as you do, so I apologize if I was one of the volunteers that asked you to please wait in unpleasant tones. I will do better the next time. Thank you for the reminder.
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I can't speak about this year (2016) as I had good luck with seating up front for the special, but last year (2015) I had an awful time hearing and was along the back wall about 3 or 4 tables in from the corner from the escalator (NE corner along the north wall about 3 or 4 tables in from the east wall).To add insult to injury, we were in some kind of acoustic dead zone; the speakers were forward facing and we were far enough away to not be able to hear the dialog echoing off the far wall, and too far away to hear it laterally straight from the speakers. Just couldn't hear a thing.Having sat there last year, I can attest to this. The speakers did seem better this year, and the addition of text on the screens was a great choice. But I was sat at a table closer to the stage so didn't know how the "far reaches of the room" compared. It sucks that those corners didn't improve much.
Also a little saddened that there was no "random roll for a table prize".
Huh. Can you all try to explain where this dead zone is, please? I went and stood in the far back corner, near where the quests were stationed, on purpose and I had no problems understanding or hearing the audio. I also had zero problems hearing the audio while standing in the card game area.
Thanks for the Marshal love. It is appreciated.
One minor issue I'd like to see changed is perhaps a little different phrasing from the HQ staff on some requests. I know you guys are stressed constantly moving, and busy as hell, but could you folks phrase requests with some different language? There were several times when I or one of my colleagues would hand in a reporting sheet, and the answer was, in many cases: "Wait, I won't release you until I verify that this is correct", which made some of my colleagues feel very negative about running future games, as they are also feeling stressed out themselves (especially after some of the more complex modules). I'm sure there are better ways to relay information than that.Glad you had a good time jhallum! To touch on this, since I was the department head in charge of data entry, let me be 100% clear in that our intention was not to make anyone feel bad about their reporting sheet. The reason why GMs need to hang for a bit after dropping them off is, as you say, to verify that they're filled in correctly. If they aren't (and there are quite a bit that aren't), they can become impossible to correct if the GM has walked away.
Here are errors I saw: no prestige, no GM # or name, no scenario title, no success conditions, incorrect society numbers (7 digits long), duplicate characters (12345-1 & 12345-2). Some of these issues are correctable on our end, involving us to do some digging and figure out who GM'd what and get back in contact with them.
And with that being said, there are a lot of sessions to report.
We currently have 1,344 reported sessions for GenCon this year, with another ~150 or so that Todd has to do. So given that is easily 20+ hours of reporting, we can't be pausing all the time to track down GMs and fix errors. Which is why we catch you at the table. Also, some errors are not fixable by us: such as no GM# or GM name. Therefore, if we just let GMs leave after dropping them off we physically cannot correct some errors and the entire table gets...
From my perspective as a player, reporting went much better. As far as I could tell, my sessions were reported "immediately" (as in they were already there when I went to look next) and all of them are on the proper characters.
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I can't speak about this year (2016) as I had good luck with seating up front for the special, but last year (2015) I had an awful time hearing and was along the back wall about 3 or 4 tables in from the corner from the escalator (NE corner along the north wall about 3 or 4 tables in from the east wall).To add insult to injury, we were in some kind of acoustic dead zone; the speakers were forward facing and we were far enough away to not be able to hear the dialog echoing off the far wall, and too far away to hear it laterally straight from the speakers. Just couldn't hear a thing.Having sat there last year, I can attest to this. The speakers did seem better this year, and the addition of text on the screens was a great choice. But I was sat at a table closer to the stage so didn't know how the "far reaches of the room" compared. It sucks that those corners didn't improve much.
Also a little saddened that there was no "random roll for a table prize".
Huh. Can you all try to explain where this dead zone is, please? I went and stood in the far back corner, near where the quests were stationed, on purpose and I had no problems understanding or hearing the audio. I also had zero problems hearing the audio while standing in the card game area.
Thanks for the Marshal love. It is appreciated.
No floor speakers were used this year. It was all ceiling mounted speakers from what I understand.
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Marshaling was better this year than ever before.
The interactive special was fun.
I was hoping that we would be seeing a change toward 4 hour blocks. I would be fine with 8pm to midnight for the specials.
I feel like the pregen specials have been hit or miss or the past couple years.
The pregens on Saturday night had a lot of potential, but the first part of the scenario ended up taking so much time it lacked being fun. I'm not sure if this was caused by how the scenario was written or how it was run.
I personally like the yearly Ennie's update on Friday night.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32
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No floor speakers were used this year. It was all ceiling mounted speakers from what I understand.
Fun fact: this year John Compton was suspended from the ceiling by the same team that does Cirque du Soleil. He did all his speeches while wearing sparkly spandex and executing an acceptable four-point front flip with a half twist.
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Slot Times
The new times for slots, ending at 1:00 am, are a killer. I just didn’t see the benefit having one hour between slots. It seemed like most morning and afternoon games finished in 4 ½ hours or less. The Thursday and Saturday night games seemed rushed. I suggest a compromise of thirty minutes between slots. So 8:00 am, 1:30 and 7:00 pm start times. With a typical 4 ½ hour game, this give one hour between slots for food and necessities. Again, the loss of the one hour sleep really impacted my GMing skills.
Hotel
Mustering
* Minimal Margins
* Larger Font
* Print on Two Pages
Getting Scenarios
Ticket Pricing
Released GMs
Morning Slots
Finally, I had a great time and I think the HQ staff did a great job. Bob was on top of things keeping us up to date with his emails and scheduling our slots. Thank You!
-Just My Thoughts
P.S. Did I mention that the slot times and ending at 1:00 am was a killer?
To add insult to injury, we were in some kind of acoustic dead zone; the speakers were forward facing and we were far enough away to not be able to hear the dialog echoing off the far wall, and too far away to hear it laterally straight from the speakers. Just couldn't hear a thing.Having sat there last year, I can attest to this. The speakers did seem better this year, and the addition of text on the screens was a great choice. But I was sat at a table closer to the stage so didn't know how the "far reaches of the room" compared. It sucks that those corners didn't improve much.
Also a little saddened that there was no "random roll for a table prize".
Huh. Can you all try to explain where this dead zone is, please? I went and stood in the far back corner, near where the quests were stationed, on purpose and I had no problems understanding or hearing the audio. I also had zero problems hearing the audio while standing in the card game area.
Thanks for the Marshal love. It is appreciated.
To the left of the main stage, behind the front of the stage (looking up at the screen, it was at a 90 degree angle from my seat, so that I was looking at the screen's left side edge on), about halfway between the left side of the stage and the left hand wall. Not in the corner, but just in front of a pair of double doors in the back wall (less than 5 feet from the back wall). There were 3-4 more tables between us and the corner.
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Another great con. Many welcome improvements.
As others have mentioned, mustering felt much smoother and calm with seating people early and having the boards in the ballroom. I also liked that the sheets posted at each door listed all of the games where as, in the past, you would have to hunt for your door. Seating early and seating groups of 4 helped with congestion at check-in significantly. There was one instance where I had to cross the entire ballroom to go from the mustering point to my assigned table but not sure how manageable such logistics are so just fyi.
HVAC, I'm typically very tolerant of heating and cooling but Friday night and Sunday morning felt uncomfortably cold. Being the heat of summer I did not bring hoodies or layers and was just shy of shivering. I understand the argument of sweater is better than sweat as my most *potent* memory of my first GenCon was the smell; however, I would hope there could be a better medium than boil or freeze. Other slots felt comfortable so I don't know if it was just positioning (under vent).
Regarding 1 am, I greatly appreciated the extra time between sessions to grab some food with friends and not feel like I'm in such a rush. Plus, when a table finished early, it gave me additional time in the exhibit hall. Food options can be limited in a rush and after several days can definitely add to feeling unwell. That being said, the 1 am finish leading to an 8 am start is rough and therefore a noteworthy trade-off. No good answers on this, just not enough time in the day to game! ;)
Tiered special. Having the special tiered, definitely made the time leading up to the event a little more stressful in regards to planning out what level a character can get to months in advance and hope that they don't die somewhere in the process. I'm assuming it helped with the prep for some GMs as the one I had last year was prepped to run low but had to run high for our table at the last minute and, let's just say, the transition was not the best. Special this year went smoothly. Greatly appreciated the pre-recordings and the word captions! I was able to enjoy more of the content this year as I had no difficulties seeing or hearing what was going on. Last year I had a table in the corner and it was like trying to understand an adult from Peanuts (Charlie Brown and Co.). The timing of the Ennie announcements does continue to feel disruptive to the special. Perhaps kicking off the event with the announcements would improve the flow and build excitement for the special.
Definitely a great job this year and Paizo's efforts for continuous improvement have not gone unnoticed!
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Has anyone else's Through the Maelstrom Rift not been posted yet?Most likely most of those tables have not been reported. We got through some reporting but there is still a lot to do. Give it a few weeks.
I am guessing that Saturday night and Sunday morning sessions are on hold due to the end of the con. Once Todd is back from return travel and can reset, those tables will be reported. I feel that having 4/5ths of the convention reported by the end was a satisfactory result, given the volume of reporting to be done.
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5) Robyn thought the Sagamore was too cold. I am a polar bear so this was of no concern to me, personally. I don't think Tim or Tom had strong opinions about the room's temperature, and none of us are sure if that's even in PFS's power to control. Just a bit of feedback.
Too cold= Grab a sweater. Too hot= geeks taking off more clothes and sweating more.
Sweater is by far the better option!!! :)
Me I like it cold but Sunday morning that AC was kicking and I actually was a bit chilly maybe it helped me wake up
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Me I like it cold but Sunday morning that AC was kicking and I actually was a bit chilly maybe it helped me wake up5) Robyn thought the Sagamore was too cold. I am a polar bear so this was of no concern to me, personally. I don't think Tim or Tom had strong opinions about the room's temperature, and none of us are sure if that's even in PFS's power to control. Just a bit of feedback.
Too cold= Grab a sweater. Too hot= geeks taking off more clothes and sweating more.
Sweater is by far the better option!!! :)
With as many gamers as there were from Thursday to Sunday, I think too cold was definitely better than too hot.
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Beds: not enough room in those for 2 geeks unless you want to be legally married in some states. They do not add roll in beds (its a fire hazard) and either thought i was joking when i asked for 2 dog beds or won't bring them into non pet rooms. I did get some extra bedding and someone lent me their sleeping bag to make the floor comfortable enough to pass out on after a day of gaming.
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Glad you had a good time jhallum! To touch on this, since I was the department head in charge of data entry, let me be 100% clear in that our intention was not to make anyone feel bad about their reporting sheet. The reason why GMs need to hang for a bit after dropping them off is, as you say, to verify that they're filled in correctly. If they aren't (and there are quite a bit that aren't), they can become impossible to correct if the GM has walked away.Here are errors I saw: no prestige, no GM # or name, no scenario title, no success conditions, incorrect society numbers (7 digits long), duplicate characters (12345-1 & 12345-2). Some of these issues are correctable on our end, involving us to do some digging and figure out who GM'd what and get back in contact with them.
And with that being said, there are a lot of sessions to report.
We currently have 1,344 reported sessions for GenCon this year, with another ~150 or so that Todd has to do. So given that is easily 20+ hours of reporting, we can't be pausing all the time to track down GMs and fix errors. Which is why we catch you at the table. Also, some errors are not fixable by us: such as no GM# or GM name. Therefore, if we just let GMs leave after dropping them off we physically cannot correct some
Thanks for the response! You guys really have a ton to do, and I do really appreciate the double check, in adverse circumstances, even.
And I know you personally helped us get seated with our buddy as GM at least once, which we definitely appreciated. Thanks!
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I definitely prefer the Marriott/JW Marriott that we've stayed in last few year's to the Westin. Queen beds, in-hotel launndry, generally nicer lodging, etc.
Whether or not that is something that is negotiable, I feel like the hotel was a step down in quality.
Stayed at the Marriott 2 or 3 years with Paizo. Never had a queen bed. YMMV.
AC - It was very cool in the Sagamore. I also didn't bring a sweatshirt or long sleeve shirt. I don't know if Paizo can do anything about the AC.
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AC - It was very cool in the Sagamore. I also didn't bring a sweatshirt or long sleeve shirt. I don't know if Paizo can do anything about the AC.
I wish I brought a jacket and I will likely bring a jacket next year. On the other hand, keeping the room that cool minimized the sweat. The Sagamore was not as funky this year as opposed to previous years. Even on Wednesday afternoon it wasn't the unbearable sauna that I've come to expect.
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Another suggestion is to somehow have people able to help new players figure out how the whole chronicle thing works with their characters, especially those casual players who only play at cons.
There is always the giant info booth at the front of the room; I know there was a challenge in having enough HQ and GM volunteers since we couldn't split out time and do both this year; setting aside more volunteers to just sit and wait for someone to come over isn't time/labor efficient
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In regards to mustering, I think it would have been helpful to stick a large number on each of the iconics around the room. (I assume there wasn't one, but not 100% sure since I didn't actually play any PFS at the convention.) I heard HQ volunteers explain to people a number of times which iconic they needed to go to along with a description of the iconic. This seems VERY confusing, since I wasn't sure exactly what they were talking about on at least one occasion when the Iconic in question was new and I was unfamiliar with their name. From the POV of a new player, not knowing any of these characters, I imagine finding where you are suppose to be was quite arduous.
Re: Numbers
I believe this is the plan for next year. The iconic banners are not expected to be used in mustering at all next year.
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Venture-Captain, Massachusetts—Boston
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First, thanks to Bob and the HQ staff for all the organization and time you guys took to have GenCon 2016 be a great experience. All the emails before the con were fantastic. Thanks for those. This was my first GenCon and I was a tier 2 GM - I'll be back for sure!
General comments:
- The sagamore was great. Big, tons of Pathfinder signs, etc. Looked good.
- AC was perfect. I'd rather it be a bit chilly for some people that can wear a sweater than have it roasting in there.
- The marshaling crew did a great job, kudos.
- Having a GM meeting on Sunday night is a good idea. That ran well.
- Getting the scenario out to the GMs early was awesome. Gave me plenty of time to prep. Thanks!
- On that note - some GMs didn't really prep. That is just not cool - if you sign up for it, please prep and make it a good experience for your players.
- HQ was always there to help. Always felt welcomed there.
- Hotel was fine. The location was awesome! Queen size beds would be better but that is not under control of Paizo. I lucked out as my bunkmate ended up not showing.
- Boons - maybe have a couple of poster boards with them on it to the side so people can look at them before if they have to choose?
- In my opinion it's OK that there is a possibility of boons running out - don't print extra, just get a different one and move on.
Specific comments:
The thing that was rough for me was I had quests. That is a grind! We had a 5 hour slot and they ran just about all 5 hours. At certain points I was envious of the GM's that had slots that were either cancelled (time off=good) or could finish in 4/4.5 hours and then have some time free. We all love to go to the dealer hall but I had to take time out of my lunch to do that because of the hours - GM from 8-1, 2-7. The hall hours are 10 to 6. Maybe have quests run from 8-12 and 3-7? Or even some Thursday/Saturday night ones? Other than the special I can't see why they can't be run nights.
Also, while the quests tend to run shorter (~1 hour), there were no real breaks. The lines were huge on Saturday and when I asked for a 10 min break they still sat down players at the table. I'm not going to have them sit there with no GM - for many this was their first Pathfinder experience.
It seemed to me that the quests should at least be a generic ticket. Having it be free seems silly for an hour slot. Maybe there is an opportunity to have a Pathfinder Academy for adults? Something free, ~30 minutes with a quick social encounter and combat encounter? Then they can go to quests, then play in an evergreen? Just a thought.
It would be ideal if people knew some RPG basics but that wasn't the case some of the time. A "Pathfinder cheat sheet" would be a ton of help. I will most likely scour the web for one or just make one.
Also, there was not a packet for me during check-in on Wednesday. HQ had the badge but I had to ask for the boon and that is all I got. However, check-in was pretty smooth. Shirts were ready, packets for most people were there, etc. The line moved quickly.
It was brought up at the GM meeting of possibly having people help the Tuesday/Wednesday before the con. I love that idea.
Again, great time at GenCon 2016!
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A few observations as a player
1- Room was very chilly, even to someone like me who thinks a 65 degree hotel room is perfectly fine. Will bring a hoodie next year.
2- For the Friday special we sat directly under the screen so I had a crick in my neck Saturday morning. If there was a way to have a screen on the other side as well that be awesome.
3- The musterings were very well done this year. We've come a long way from Josh standing on top of a milk crate.
4- This was also the first Gen Con in which I had no problems with any of our GM's. That in and of itself was worth the cost of admission.
5- The Friday night boon was kinda odd, as it is basically worthless save for money for my character. I also recommend a better boon. A race or prestige class or some such.
This is the first year we've done the specials since year 1, cause of how terrible the year 1 played out for us. I am very happy to see they have improved tremendously and our group plans to do them next year.
Venture-Captain, Netherlands
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It would be ideal if people knew some RPG basics but that wasn't the case some of the time. A "Pathfinder cheat sheet" would be a ton of help. I will most likely scour the web for one or just make one.
There used to be one. I have several downloaded and laminated for game days. But I just cant find them anymore with the site re-design.
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From a purely player perspective:
-AC: it was cold, but manageable. I understand that not all people have my tolerance for cold, but you can always layer on, you can't always (legally) pull layers off.
-Slot Scheduling: I was really skeptical of the new slots. As a player I planned on 3 sessions Thursday, then skipping the morning slot the rest of the con as I had managed special tickets. The extra breaks between slots made it possible for me to go do other things between games when a table got out early, and all but the most delayed scenarios left me with at least an hour and a half between games. I loved this. One game got done in 2.5 hours and I was able to check out a bunch of other stuff... that was cool. I totally understand how the 1am-8am sleep schedule would be brutal to play/GM though. I hope nobody had to do more than one of those. My net take on the new schedule went from expecting it to be bad to it being very positive. I loved the extra time between slots so very much.
-Double Coins in Morning Slots: Great idea. Helps soften the blow for those who didn't get tickets to specials or who attempted the half-crazed idea of playing at night and in the morning the next day. A really nice surprise in my Thursday morning slot.
-Mustering: It was great. Smoothest I've ever seen it. Keep up the amazing work! Note: I avoided generic tickets, so I can't speak to anything regarding how that was handled.
-A/V for the Friday Special: That was pretty great. The special is hectic as usual, but I loved it. Even with the...
Overall Impression: It was amazing, and I had a lot of fun. Easily the smoothest and best experience playing PFS at GenCon so far (this is my third GenCon).
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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I was Tier 1 on the ACG side so I can only comment on that, and most of my feedback was added to the post-Con meeting that was held in the room. I only have two points that I'd like to reiterate again for emphasis. The first is a dedicated ACG musterer. With 4 seasons offered and multiple tiers within 3 of those seasons and multiple levels of scenario progress within each tier it was a mess at times getting people where they needed to be. Someone solely dedicated to finding out what people needed and grouping them together would save pulling GMs to do that rather than get people started on their games, especially since the ACG has a hard time stop for session.
And secondly, shifting more towards allowing GMs for the card game to be allowed to sit with a table and help them with the game. I felt REALLY bad when I had to set up and oversee multiple tables and end up basically asking an experienced player to teach the game to the newcomers and run it while the GMs bounced from table to table or tried to get tables mustered.
If I was paying to come to a convention and paying for an event, I would not be happy with defaulting to teaching and running the game myself. I could stay home and do that for free. Thankfully, the players were very understanding but it's still not cool to do that to them.
Oh, and I guess thirdly, schedule a larger number of GMs the morning after the Friday night special if the ACG will tie in again, and especially if we will need to the reset boxes because people and cards have been shuffled about from table to table. Alternately, setting aside 5 or so dedicated untouched boxes for the morning which gives us time to reset more of the other boxes would also work.
Oh, lastly, not sure if it was brought up but we had A LOT of people coming and asking to play Season of the Shackles and Season of the Righteous and I think the demand was way under estimated. We were running out of Chronicle sheets by the second day. I think some of the suggested changes Kevin took back for ACG should...
I played in two sessions of the ACG. I was one of those experienced players who had to teach the game to some newbies. I don't mind doing so, but if I had had to do it, say, six or seven times I might have gotten tired of it. My first table had someone who came straight up from the demos in the exhibit hall, and my second table had someone who hadn't even done that. While there were loaner decks available they weren't preconstructed, so I also had to walk the player through deckbuilding. It would have been nice to have some ready to go Tier 1 pregens, especially for goblins.
ACG mustering was more chaotic this year than I remember from last year, more "stand over there with everyone else," plus "show of hands of who wants what season." Tiers were not even mentioned so I gave up on playing my tier 5 Runelords character and just went for goblins. The volunteers seemed a bit harried.
It would also be nice if the prize table had some more ACG specific boons - my wife and I ended up with 4 tokens; my wife scored a crit and got a prize from the side table. I got a normal roll and got an RPG boon - and while I do have RPG characters, it would be nice to have some ACG boons for those of us that primarily play the card game.
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My observations from this year...
Good:
Mustering - I think this year was the smoothest I've dealt with in the Paizo room. Good job with that. The only issue I saw was the whole banner thing...but I understand that's being worked on.
Scenarios - Fun games, no major complaints.
GMs - All my GMs were good, no major complaints. I imagine the extra prep time that GMs had with their scenarios went a long way towards helping with that.
Boon Table - Went fast for me, I never saw it too bad (although the suggestions for having 3 people during crunch times isn't a bad idea).
Double Coins for Morning Slots - Good call.
Room for Improvement:
Temperature - This is a tough one. Like most people, I am in agreement that there were times it was too cold in there (particularly if you were under a vent), but better to lean towards cold than hot (and the inevitable smells that come with it). If y'all can manage changing the temperature during the day, I would suggest opting for a little warmer on the first slot, when there aren't as many people there (hence, fewer bodies to warm the room). In lieu of that, at least make some suggestions of warm clothing/layers during the DM meetings, emails, and hand-outs. You could even include the 'bring an extra light jacket' suggestion in the weekly PFS Blog.
Slot Times - I have three friends who did not play either morning or evening PFS slots because of the bad time slots. Among most of my gaming friends (about 8 of us), our opinion is that 8am-1am is too long. We don't mind having time for supper, but going to 1am is going to mean lack of sleep - a bad things for GMs and players alike. Or, in the case of some of my friend, just caused them skip out on slots (and instead, get more sleep, and play something other than PFS). I still like 5 hour slots, so my suggestion is to go with 8-1, 1-6, 7-12. There will be one good break for sit-down food, and for lunch, players can just aim for a quick bite to eat (or have a friend make a food run during a free moment).
Other suggestions:
A/V for the Friday Special: That was pretty good, from what I hear from friends that played (I did not make it). I like the suggestions that putting a second screen across from the first screen would allow for everyone in the room to see a screen at a reasonable angle. Of course, that requires more hardware...so I don't know if it's feasible.
Overall:
A fun time was had by my friends and I during our time in the PFS hall. Thanks to everyone involved that contributed towards a fun weekend!
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I still like 5 hour slots, so my suggestion is to go with 8-1, 1-6, 7-12..
If they did something like that they would have to set up some sort of delivery service or feed trough for the dms.
Mustering starts half an hour before the slot, when dms are supposed to be at their seats, so you're giving Dms half an hour to finish up a long game, walk to, stand in line, AND eat lunch. That's not remotely feasible.
Lunch is required to prevent player deaths.
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I still like 5 hour slots, so my suggestion is to go with 8-1, 1-6, 7-12..If they did something like that they would have to set up some sort of delivery service or feed trough for the dms.
Mustering starts half an hour before the slot, when dms are supposed to be at their seats, so you're giving Dms half an hour to finish up a long game, walk to, stand in line, AND eat lunch. That's not remotely feasible.
Lunch is required to prevent player deaths.
As far as the 1/2 an hour lead-in times DMs need to find their seats (if you can't keep GMs at their same spot), then go with 1/2 an hour breaks between slots.
If the GM has to have lunch, and they can't get a friend to pick something up for them (I offer to get food for GMs at each game I play at), then bring something to snack on. That kind of stuff is listed in every 'Con suggestions' post I've seen on how to survive the weekend. You know what your schedule is like, so you plan for it.
I simply think that's it is a better alternative than 6 hours of sleep (less for many GMs, since as you pointed out, they need to get to their slot early).
Sleep is also required to prevent player deaths.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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Since the ACs come up a bit, here's what I know about that.
The AC was left on even during the slower times (when it was cold, I agree) so that when we did get 1000+ people in there for 5 hours at a time we wouldn't be waiting for it to kick in. I also echo the sentiment of packing a sweatshirt if you're prone to chills in a colder room. I know mine was a good call. Having the AC running also helps keep the funk down a bit. For me, it was a noticeable difference in the Sagamore versus the dealer hall in terms of funkage.