Reflections on Origins Game Faire!

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

My travels take me to many conventions during the year. I enjoy them all, mostly because I get a chance to meet our volunteers and fans. But Origins holds a special place in my heart. I had never attended Origins before joining the organized play team at Paizo, but I'm glad it is now a staple of my convention tour.

Why do I enjoy it so much? Several key reasons, I think. First, while it is one of the biggest conventions in the United States outside of the Comic Cons and PAX events, it still has a small convention feel. I believe this is due to the compact nature of the hotels and convention center that make up the core of the event. It is a 5-minute walk from my hotel room to the Franklin Ballrooms, where we hold most of the Paizo events. I can get to the food court in 5 minutes. Ditto to getting to the Exhibit Halls, where the vendors and open gaming tables are located, to the Drury meeting rooms for GAMA meetings, and to the show offices. Oh, and the Starbucks is just across the hall from the Org Play space. Great for my coffee needs!

My second reason is the volunteers. Our volunteers at Origins are among some of the best. We had a few scheduling issues and the volunteers stepped up every time to cover tables. They flexed on what games they ran, which allowed us to respond to shifting demand for Starfinder and Pathfinder games. The HQ staff works well together, using their skills to compliment each other and support the GMs.

Finally, I love the convention attendees. I view our players as friends I haven't met yet and love the fact I got to add a few more names and faces to my friends known list. We talked characters, scenarios, likes, and dislikes, favorite things… this list goes on. Getting to talk to our players recharges my batteries and makes the hours of back office planning and work worthwhile. Thank you, everyone, who came and shared your stories. I look forward to continuing our conversations at events in the future.

I'm not the only staffer that attended Origins 2018. We had a team of 5 running games and introducing the Pathfinder Playtest to attendees. Cosmo went on to the American Libraries Conference the weekend after and so didn't get a chance to chime in and Thurston put his thoughts into last week's Starfinder Society scenario preview blog, but both designer Mark Seifter and organized play lead developer John Compton share their thoughts.

From Mark:

This was my first Origins ever, and it was quite an exciting show! With nonstop Pathfinder Second Edition demos layered on top of runs of The Rose Street Revenge, Origins gave me my first chance to show the new game to gamers of wildly disparate gaming backgrounds and play experiences (as opposed to the deeper Pathfinder fans who tend to attend PaizoCon) and to learn…they all like this new game I've been working on, they like it a lot. The universal excitement was contagious, and an important reminder to me of just why I love what I do. One of my highlights was hearing from our crack team of volunteers (who did an amazing job!) how their demo runs had turned out, only to discover that they and their players were as excited as I was; in fact, one of the volunteers for 3 out of 5 days enjoyed the Pathfinder Second Edition demos so much that she asked to fill up the rest of her days with demos instead of playing.

Finally, as Owen pointed out when I returned to the office, Starfinder's victory as fan favorite at the Origins Awards means I am now an Origins Award-winning designer. I hadn't thought of it because to me, the ultimate reward is having people love the games and books I work on, and the award is just a manifestation of that.

John's thoughts on the event:

This was my first Origins since 2006, which was far before I knew anything about organized play. Columbus puts on a fun show with a great community, and it was a delight to meet the Ohio crew as well as Paizo enthusiasts from many states beyond. I split my time between running shorter demos of Pathfinder's second edition, running preregistered tables of the 5-hourRose Street Revengesecond edition quest experience, and wandering the Franklin ballroom to check out the action. Particularly impressive was all of the Starfinder Society energy, especially when we debuted the first ever Starfinder Society multitable interactive special #1-99: The Scoured Stars Invasion by Mikko Kallio. He and Thurston Hillman put together a great experience, and the Origins GMs and HQ volunteers made it all possible.

So if you haven't been to Origins before, I suggest you consider coming out to Origins 2019! If you're already planning on attending, I'll see you there!

Check back next week for our first of the month "Stars, Cons, and More" blog!

Until next time - Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager