RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32
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still waiting to see if I was accepted. I just hope Paizo does not pull on me what they did last year.
What did they pull on you? And if you wish to GM PFS at GenCon, you might want to start GMing elsewhere to gain some experience. I'm not seeing any GM Stars on your profile.
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still waiting to see if I was accepted. I just hope Paizo does not pull on me what they did last year.What did they pull on you? And if you wish to GM PFS at GenCon, you might want to start GMing elsewhere to gain some experience. I'm not seeing any GM Stars on your profile.
No offense intended, but having stars or not having stars isn't an indicator of being a GM :) Just someone who may not have GM'd much.
I'm sure anyone of any experience level will be welcome to join the ranks of Gencon GMs, we all had to start somewhere
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And if you wish to GM PFS at GenCon, you might want to start GMing elsewhere to gain some experience. I'm not seeing any GM Stars on your profile.
Maybe you can phrase that a little better, as could his own phrasing which did seem a bit belicose. Certainly having some con experience is definitely a plus and can only help but the Society stars are hardly the sole indicator of how good a game master has the potential of being.
I have been a part of Paizo's exemplary team of volunteers for a decade as a Tier 1 or 2 volunteer and helping run an incredibly organized and successful Gencon these last few years has been a privilege. It started with helping Nick Logue briefly before Pathfinder was even PFS then a year later Josh Frost at the PFS HQ for the first two official PFS Gen Cons and one NeonCon, and after that with Mark Moreland and Liz Courts when it was their turn at bat. And of course all of Mike Brocks years as well. I have also coordinated smaller but well attended gaming events both at the San Diego and New York Comic cons on several occasions. I also assassinated Tim Hitchcock during a Gen Con special.
I actively help Josh Frost solicit Venture Captains the first year the call was made and I think I know almost all the original Venture Captains. Since the start of Year 0 I was active preaching Society play in New York and the Tri State area. Fortunately for me, I still have many friends from this time. For a year I even hosted GMs in my area to run a Slot 0 so they themselves got to play scenarios.
I think I have completed 63 slots as a volunteer for Paizo and I still have one star to my name. But while I am not the rules lawyer some are, I would like to think any player who sits at my table has had at least as good a time as I had running it for them.
Just saying.
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Indeed, I could have phrased it better! Chalk it up to a Monday.
I volunteered to be a level 1 HQ as I was new to PFS and wanted to help and learn last year. I been in the hobby from 1982. Have done similar stuff at other cons before,ie working booths handing out tickets and other stuff.
Was told not needed was like okay. Then 2 weeks before Gen Con I was contacted and told "Hey,we had people bail on us would you do the level 1 but we can't give you the hotel room." I was like um can you compensate me any other way and was told no. So I was like sorry but can not help you guys out.
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I don't see how anyone "pulled" something on you last year?
Tier 1 filled ahead of you. It happens. There is a very limited roster for HQ volunteers.
We have people bail right before the con. It happens. For most, real life is more important than playing games.
We tried to find replacements. It happens. When volunteers cancel, those roles still need to be filled.
As far as the room, that is not Paizo's doing. We were told that once the reservation names were submitted to the convention and processed, we could not change them even if the person cancelled their plans. We could consolidate people, but not add names. All that meant is if tier 1 volunteers cancelled in groups of four, we could cancel the room reservation.
There is not much Paizo or the PFS organizers can do about this situation.
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As far as the room, that is not Paizo's doing. We were told that once the reservation names were submitted to the convention and processed, we could not change them even if the person cancelled their plans. We could consolidate people, but not add names. All that meant is if tier 1 volunteers cancelled in groups of four, we could cancel the room reservation.
There is not much Paizo or the PFS organizers can do about this situation.
Yes, but I could see how it would have a 'chilling' effect on folks who wanted to volunteer.
Having to "Hobo-Con" (because one can't get a close place to sleep with the amount of time they are volunteering) to Tier 1 HQ doesn't sound very hygienic, safe, or customer-friendly.
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Having to "Hobo-Con" (because one can't get a close place to sleep with the amount of time they are volunteering) to Tier 1 HQ doesn't sound very hygienic, safe, or customer-friendly.
With this many geeks there has to be some way to get a ortable booth sized "geek wash" to run people through...
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With this many geeks there has to be some way to get a portable booth sized "geek wash" to run people through...
Oddly enough, the *convention* doesn't allow it, for safety and... health reasons.
*may have been behind an effort or two in the past to try and get such a thing created...
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32
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I volunteered to be a level 1 HQ as I was new to PFS and wanted to help and learn last year. I been in the hobby from 1982. Have done similar stuff at other cons before,ie working booths handing out tickets and other stuff.
Was told not needed was like okay. Then 2 weeks before Gen Con I was contacted and told "Hey,we had people bail on us would you do the level 1 but we can't give you the hotel room." I was like um can you compensate me any other way and was told no. So I was like sorry but can not help you guys out.
That is unfortunate. I don't think it's the norm, though, more of an exception than the rule. But you do get other compensation than the hotel room. There's the free book, the credit in the store, the experience itself. The hotel room is great and missing it would be disappointing, but it's not the only perk!
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I don't see how anyone "pulled" something on you last year?
Tier 1 filled ahead of you. It happens. There is a very limited roster for HQ volunteers.
We have people bail right before the con. It happens. For most, real life is more important than playing games.
We tried to find replacements. It happens. When volunteers cancel, those roles still need to be filled.
As far as the room, that is not Paizo's doing. We were told that once the reservation names were submitted to the convention and processed, we could not change them even if the person cancelled their plans. We could consolidate people, but not add names. All that meant is if tier 1 volunteers cancelled in groups of four, we could cancel the room reservation.
There is not much Paizo or the PFS organizers can do about this situation.
I would have gotten another hotel room. I didn't ask Pazio for cash. I asked for a boon or something else in that vein. you know a little show of appreciation for me dropping everything at last minute and helping them out.
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With this many geeks there has to be some way to get a ortable booth sized "geek wash" to run people through...
Having to "Hobo-Con" (because one can't get a close place to sleep with the amount of time they are volunteering) to Tier 1 HQ doesn't sound very hygienic, safe, or customer-friendly.
I pretty sure this is why Paizo gives us 1 shirt / day for volunteering.
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Has anyone heard back about judging this year?? I have Judged the Last 3 years. I hope to judge again this year.
If you are referring to a schedule, it will be some time before that is distributed. We have to decid on the proposed schedule, submit it to GenCon, apply the list of volunteers which numbers in the hundreds, and verify accuracy before we send out emails. We even have a number of events that haven't yet been announced yet. There is plenty of time to get everything done, please be patient.
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If you have not yet received a response email, it might be a few weeks. Tonya is coming off three consecutive travel conventions which can put a serious wrench in staying ahead of emails, convention support requests, new volunteers for GenCon, the upcoming PaizoCon call, etc. At this point, most of the time sensitive issues are past or not yet a concern. Please be patient and that information will be forthcoming.
Any news on the GenCon volunteering front? Curious minds want to know.
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Contributor
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And if you wish to GM PFS at GenCon, you might want to start GMing elsewhere to gain some experience. I'm not seeing any GM Stars on your profile.Maybe you can phrase that a little better, as could his own phrasing which did seem a bit belicose. Certainly having some con experience is definitely a plus and can only help but the Society stars are hardly the sole indicator of how good a game master has the potential of being.
** spoiler omitted **
Just saying.
I don't normally chime in on such threads, however...
The Baron has been steadfast for many many years. Anyone who thinks he needs more stars hasn't been paying attention. Not for nothing, anyone can collect stars, not anyone can be the Baron.
He was quintessential in helping me run both of the very first Gen Con specials before there was a Gen Con special and some how managed to retrieve a manuscript stolen from my personal belongings during the special which (perhaps ironically) happened to be the near final draft to Stolen Lands.
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You can understand someone trying to be helpful by suggesting a person with 0-1 star not sign up to GM 7+ games at GenCon. It's a bit crazy, some players are more knowledgeable than the GMs, and some people are rather stickly about the rules. You should have a good time at GenCon, get a good night's sleep, take daily showers, and eat regular meals... lol...
In general from a scheduler/coordinator's viewpoint would you really slot a 1 star GM to run a high level table or difficult scenario like 4-26? Most coordinators would want to know more about the GM before they did something like that. That's just common sense as on the surface it looks like a bad decision. I don't envy Jon's or Bob's role as they have to make a lot of decisions based on very limited information. Communication is key when there's a lack of information.
Having been a scheduler/event coordinator for a different campaign, I'd take the 'green' GM that was zealous about running a difficult scenario over the 'jaded' GM that's run 100+ scenarios and might 'milk run' the thing, because they've been judging so much that they've started 'dialing things in' subconsciously.
Not saying the latter is a bad GM, by any means, but the big danger when one starts hitting the high double and low triple-digit levels of running scenarios, burnout DOES happen.
To be honest, that's why I'm starting *slow* with PFS, and not burning an entire GenCon weekend for fear I'll burnout. Could I run enough for the top Tier?
Possibly?
Would it be healthy, happy, sane, or wise for me to do so? That much I can give a firm *negative* to.
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Have the gm/hq lists been made? If you applied, should you have a response by now?
PaizoCon has been the focus over the past few weeks. All the volunteers have been notified, so we will be turning our attention towards GenCon. Tonya should be back from vacation on Tuesday and we can discuss the next steps in convention prep. I expect (hope) that the remainder of the volunteer notifications will go out soon after. They may not include GM schedules as that has not been completed and is one of the most labor intensive parts of the prep process.
Keep watch on this thread for more information.
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I agree with Tim that stars are not the only way to determine a GMs "quality." I know GMs who have zero PFS stars who are much better GMs than most, but just choose not to judge OP. However, when planning on something so comprehensive as GenCon, unless we have first-hand experience with a specific GM, the stars are one of the few ways for us to gauge where a GM "best" fits the schedule, especially for special events like pregen exclusives, interactive specials, seeker-level play, etc. The online application form has provided us with a little more information than previous years which will help in the assigning of events.
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I also agree that stars doesn't necessarily equate to skill or quality. However that is one of the only metrics other than past convention experience that we currently have. And it helps alleviate some of the problems we had last year where brand new folk were thrown on the special at sub tier 10-11 virtually cold.
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One huge piece of good news is, for the first time, we will be listing the interactive special by sub-tier in the event catalog. This means players will be able to buy a ticket for the specific level of their character (1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 10-11). That coupled with some minor changes to the marshaling process, learned over the past few years, the seating process should be the smoothest ever.
It also means that since we will know precisely how many players are registered in each sub-tier, GMs will know what specific sub-tier to prepare. One of the struggles in past years has been we did not know the distribution of characters by level before the event. Typically we would see a small demand for Sub-tier 10-11. However, last year we experienced a spike in demand and were not prepared for it. Many GMs had to judge sub-tiers they had not prepared which led to some less than ideal conditions and poor experiences. By eliminating this uncertainty, the GMs will be better prepared to run their tables and can provide a better experience for the players.
I cannot properly express my excitement towards this development!
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I think the tickets by sub-tier are mostly a good thing.
But (you knew there had to be a but, right?), given that tickets will go on sale (and probably sell out) months in advance, the most active players may not know what PCs will be what level when they're buying tickets. So it could cause some minor issues in that regard, with people having tickets that don't match their PC levels by the time the convention happens.
Definitely a minor issue compared to GM's not being prepped for the right subtier (which happened to me as a GenCon GM once in the past, so I know the feeling), but still an issue to watch out for. Hopefully, Paizo will come up with a more perfect solution in the future.
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I think the tickets by sub-tier are mostly a good thing.
But (you knew there had to be a but, right?), given that tickets will go on sale (and probably sell out) months in advance, the most active players may not know what PCs will be what level when they're buying tickets. So it could cause some minor issues in that regard, with people having tickets that don't match their PC levels by the time the convention happens.
Definitely a minor issue compared to GM's not being prepped for the right subtier (which happened to me as a GenCon GM once in the past, so I know the feeling), but still an issue to watch out for. Hopefully, Paizo will come up with a more perfect solution in the future.
Yep, 3 months so that causes some worry about whether my preferred character will be available. Even worse, what happens if I plan accordingly, buy a certain tier ticket, but my character dies in Slot 1 or 2 or 4 or 5 and I can't bring him back. Now I am likely stuck with a ticket I can't use or participate in the Special.