Venture-Captain, Minnesota
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Everything is reported! If you see issues, let me know I can fix them. See you all again in 2018 or before!
James is a mensch! He's one of the most considerate people I met at GenCon! Thanks for making these tables happen for us, James!
Let me just say that the GenCon Sunday Night tradition of following up non-stop GMing in the Sagamore with MORE GMing somewhere else with a group of people that you enjoy now totally makes sense to me! After all that stress, we were all slap-happy, giggly and ready for fun.
My table of Ironbound Schism was absolutely awesome. Thank you guys for the roleplay and the finger food.
Hmm
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Thanks to everyone involved, especially James for organizing and Hmm for GMing. That was one of the silliest Pathfinder sessions I've ever had, but it was a lot of fun. I guess this is what happens when everyone at the table has the exhausted condition.
...what's the condition PAST exhausted, again?
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Thanks to everyone involved, especially James for organizing and Hmm for GMing. That was one of the silliest Pathfinder sessions I've ever had, but it was a lot of fun. I guess this is what happens when everyone at the table has the exhausted condition....what's the condition PAST exhausted, again?
I'm too tired to remember.
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I'm too tired to remember.Thanks to everyone involved, especially James for organizing and Hmm for GMing. That was one of the silliest Pathfinder sessions I've ever had, but it was a lot of fun. I guess this is what happens when everyone at the table has the exhausted condition....what's the condition PAST exhausted, again?
Ded.
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Venture-Captain, Minnesota
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Yeah, thanks to everyone who put in work to make these 2 tables happen. And especially to James R. It still seems wrong that you helped organize this, but didn't get to actually play.
Agreed! I'm not even sure how that happened... If I am ever coming to GenCon again, we're going to arrange a way for James to play and make that a priority.
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1. Know what the heck you are getting into.
Ask other experienced GenCon GMs about what GMing at GenCon is like, and listen. Do your research.
2. Plan ahead.
The main key to surviving GenCon is to plan ahead. Overprep.
Flip Mats. If you are doing flip mats for your maps (recommended if you are doing lots of different adventures because they are fast to switch out and attractive), do map triage. There were cases where I had the exact map that a scenario called for, but I did not bring it because another map that I was already bringing would do just as well. Can you reuse and substitute so that you can bring fewer flip mats?
Plastic Sheeting. If Eric and A.J. Clingenpeel ask you if you want to purchase a plastic sheet from them for five bucks, say YES. It will hold down your flip mats and keep them nice and flat. It will keep the little annoying cards of the map packs from sliding around. If you print off your maps, it will protect them. I bought one, and then gave it away at the end of GenCon to someone who was driving.
Terrain. If you are going to bring terrain to GenCon, make sure that it can come together and apart easily. While I think it's unlikely that I'll ever bring terrain when traveling by plane, I really admired how clever and modular the terrain that both Gino Melone and Quinn Shannon brought. They had light and awesome builds that came together and apart easily.
Minis. Go light if you can. I have paper folding ones that are very light and easy to carry, but starbursts or abstract minis also work well. You'll be happier if everything you carry can fit in a backpack. Still, there are GMs here who go whole hog. If you are bringing your own fancy minis from home, then have them organized and make sure that you have a rolling cart for all that you're hauling.
Create cheat sheets and handouts, or use PFS Prep. Have index cards for magic items for your players, and cheat sheets for rules like starship combat. Print out the box text of the mission briefing. Make it easy for your tired players to learn and remember. The bonus to all this work is that it will help you remember as well.
Read, read read! Come up with character voices, Understand the story. Look at the GM Forums to see how others handle this scenario. Look for special monster abilities!
3. Create your Social Support Network.
It takes a village to keep a GM afloat. Stay with other GMs who are friends if you can pick your roommates in advance. Plan to connect with friends. Fill your cell phone with contact information so that you can text back and forth. There is no reason to be lonely and lost at GenCon. Make friends, make contacts and reach out!
4. Self Care.
Have a food plan. Pack lunches / breakfasts / dinners. If all your slots make, there is almost no time between slots to get food from the food court, the Circle Mall, and the food trucks. (There is time to go back to your hotel room and eat, though. I could get to my room in under 7 minutes from the Sagamore.)
If you are driving in, pick up groceries on the way to GenCon. I admired what my fellow Minnesotans did in Room 905. They brought crockpots and coffee makers so that they could have real food in their rooms in between slots. In my case, my roommates and I could not share a food plan because we all had diverse and differing dietary requirements. Still, I survived pretty well on a monotonous diet of carrots, peapods, apples, peanutbutter and bagels.
Treat yourself to a few good real meals in slots off. Budget for a little social time, and plan ahead so that you can eat them with good company. There is nothing more restorative than having the chance to have a hot meal with friends.
Exercise. I visited the Gym on a few mornings, and it really helped. I did about 15 minutes of either yoga or weights and felt better all day. I also did a sanity swim in one of my off slots. The other possibility is going for short walks. Stretch. Do something short that makes your body feels good. Stand up when you are GMing and move.
Get some sleep. You will never get enough sleep on a Tier One schedule at GenCon, but try to get as much as you can.
Save your voice. Pack cough drops. I saw GMs with microphones and bluetooth speakers. At least one GM printed off his box text and had his players read it aloud if they were theatrical types.
Keep up your morale, however you can. So... Maybe you won't do what I do and enter the Sagamore at 7:30 before your slots dancing and sing Show Tunes as you skip past the HQ staff. (I think that technique is one that mainly works for me.) But wave to your neighbors. Greet them and smile. Smile confidently at your players, and promise them that you'll all have a great time together. If you are having fun, they will too!
Manage your expectations. If you are running day slots, assume that you will have trouble getting into the store. I got into the store only once, and then had only about ten minutes to look around before I had to run to my next slot. So I looked on the bright side and decided that I would have less to haul back on the plane this way, and plenty of money in my account to cover my subscriptions. Don't ever plan on picking up subscriptions at GenCon. Pay for priority shipping and have it shipped ahead to you at home if it's something you need for your GenCon Games.
5. Be nice to HQ and thank them for all the work that they do! Seriously, they're awesome!
That's my tips. What are yours?
Hmm
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That's my tips. What are yours?
I really have one thing to add to this and it's about mindset: be professional. That doesn't mean we can't have fun but, at the end of the day, we are the primary face of Paizo to thousands of paying customers every day at GenCon. Fortunately, most of us are driven to make sure we provide a fantastic experience but every year there are some among us who don't seem to realize that when we volunteer we are making an agreement to sacrifice our autonomy to ensure that others get to have an awesome GenCon. When a GM shows up completely unprepared to run a scenario, that's a problem. When a GM has ignored half of the correspondence coming from HQ, that's a problem. When the GM acts like a jerk, that's a problem. When a GM shows up to a slot too hung over to run well, or doesn't show up at all, that's a problem. And when these problems crop up, it falls to others to shore up the failures; it drains resources and reflects badly on Paizo, GenCon and the rest of us. My point is: make sure you are ready to do what you have signed up for. There's nothing wrong with having a fun time at GenCon, but when you are volunteering then others come first.
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Venture-Captain, Minnesota
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Ourobouros, you might want to share that on the Official GenCon Feedback Thread. I agree that there were some bafflingly ill-prepared GMs at GenCon this year, and I don't get that. Why go to the big show prepared to fail?
Hmm
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Ourobouros, you might want to share that on the Official GenCon Feedback Thread. I agree that there were some bafflingly ill-prepared GMs at GenCon this year, and I don't get that. Why go to the big show prepared to fail?
Hmm
Not all GMs have the same level of preparation.
Part of the reason I don't run a lot is because I want to be able to 'live' the scenario for my players, and that requires knowing the thing inside, out, left, right, front, center, hyperspace, etc.
To give that kind of treatment to a scenario requires a lot of time and effort, and it also isn't the kind of treatment I can provide very well with scenarios that drop two weeks beforethe convention.
To prep a scenario to a level of 'comfort' I like, it takes me about a month-ish minimum.
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So a mad belated shout-out to the folks who came to play Lyrics Of Extinction on Wednesday.
You folks were great, and whoever was playing Shardra... man, you were even more terrifying than any time I'd ever played her.
Thank you for making my first GM run of a 7-11 scenario an amazing one!
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on the trip home
See eyes on the side of the road
"CRITTER!"
Skid to a stop. Possum runs circles in front of the car and then trundles off to the side of the road
"Someone needs to tell them the druid isn't driving"
Bat flies up to my window and starts flapping around
"Oh come ON...."
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Thanks for all who came out and played two sessions tonight!
Thanks for organizing, James. I'm sorry you didn't get to play, but another player got to sit in your place. You are a gentleman and a scholar.
If you decide you want to set a firm location for playing next year...the manager of Rock Bottom would still be willing to work with you. It's your call.
Just as a reminder...whatever scenario you want to play next year at Gen Con 2018 Sunday night, I will run it for you. Just remind me. <grin>
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Since Wei-Ji makes good points about "what is prepped enough varies between GMs", I'll point out that ANY prep is more prep than some GMs I've tried to help get from "what happens in this special I'm running next slot" to something that won't embarrass me to be wearing the same color volunteer shirt as them in the past.
Please at least be able to make a convincing Bluff check that you've tried, eh?
A good chunk of gamers took Charisma as a 'dump stat'. This makes getting a convincing Bluff check difficult.
What disturbed me on the Specials was GMs coming to me and asking me questions about the scenario that I had not played, prepped, read or GM'd at any point.
What disturbed me more was the fact that my advice to them, while nearly identical in most cases, was spot-on for the situation being asked about.
Do we go to Part 'x' now?
"Use your best judgement, I don't think they've announced Part 'x' yet."
We did have one situation where there was a real *outlier* question and we got an answer from John about it from HQ. Darned if I could remember what it was now, that's all a hazy dream.
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To give *you* a little insight into GMs this year. Because of the late schedule for Gen Con, it meant a lot of our regular volunteers who are in the education industry could not attend. Couple that with the four-day badges selling out, it meant we were short a lot of experienced GMs. It also meant in order to fill our tables, we had to allow less experienced GMs to volunteer. It all came together in a "perfect storm" of challenges. We are largely treating this as an anomaly and not taking any major actions to adjust to it.