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Yes, we are at the Westin this year. It may be a tad quicker to access from the Sagamore, but not hugely so. Between the walk, the speed of the elevators, etc. I would still estimate a round trip to take between 20 and 30 minutes.
We still need some more GM volunteers, but I am hesitant to boost anyone to 9 or 10 slots. With the extended slot times and reduced sleep, I am going to avoid it if possible. There are a few tier 1 GMs who have graciously offered to run more than 8 and I truly appreciate it, but for now those additional slots are "standby." I am hoping that between additional volunteers joining the ranks and the lower tier GMs taking on more slots, we will have what we need. If that is not enough, we will revisit adding extra slots to the tier 1s.
EDIT--I know that for some, the idea of GMing 10 slots is a badge of honor. If you've been around for any length of time, you'll inevitably run into one of the "old guard" who will tell you how they "marine'd" GenCon (first one in, last one out) and ran all ten slots. I myself had a marathon a early on where I ran 2 slots at a local GameDay on Sunday, a slot zero on Monday and Tuesday before heading to Indy. the players were trying to level up for events at GenCon. Ran two slots at Scotty's Brewhouse on Wednesday, all ten slots, and followed it up with a pick up table on Sunday evening. 17 slots in 7 days was WAAAAY TOO MUCH. I do not recommend that kind of thing for anyone.
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While ten slots is tempting, I would recommend not doing it if you can avoid it. Give yourself some time to recharge and enjoy the convention. :)
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In a different campaign (but the principle applies) I had volunteered to run Slot 0 scenario-equivalents to qualify judges. That was eight hours on Wednesday before GenCon
Thursday morning, the event coordinator came to me desperate because one of his heavily committed judges had a critically serious health issue, and wondered if I could pick up a slot or two on Friday.
No problem.
And then another judge had an even more dire situation and couldn't judge the first two slots on Saturday (campaign was running four slots a day).
Figured 'what the hey, I can do sixteen hours, I've done eight a couple of times now...' (was on the hook for the two last slots)
I have no idea what sort of gibberish I was spouting at the end of that. Needed two people to guide me gently over to Scotty's to get something to eat and the next day I slept the remaining eight hours of the convention...
Ended up with concrud.
Do not be me.
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Those of you that have managed more than 8 slots from Thursday to Sunday are my heroes. That said, I am a 51 year old diabetic. Sleep is a mandatory requirement so I'll stick to 8 slots.
This 48-year old diabetic signed up for 8 slots last year, including all 4 specials. It was just too, too much for me.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 8
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Last year I volunteered for all 10 slots (including all 4 specials). I was released from three of those slots, but in two of them I stepped in to run tables in need of a GM. One of them was Scions of the Sky Key Part 1; the other was during Serpent's Rise when I ran various Phantom Phenomena quests cold.
I believe that I used my other released slot to take a nap! :)
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Last year I volunteered for all 10 slots (including all 4 specials). I was released from three of those slots, but in two of them I stepped in to run tables in need of a GM. One of them was Scions of the Sky Key Part 1; the other was during Serpent's Rise when I ran various Phantom Phenomena quests cold.
I believe that I used my other released slot to take a nap! :)
I was the one organizing those tables. I appreciate very much your willingness to step up like that. It helped us a lot in speeding up the process in getting players seated with the quests. :)
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Last year I volunteered for all 10 slots (including all 4 specials). I was released from three of those slots, but in two of them I stepped in to run tables in need of a GM. One of them was Scions of the Sky Key Part 1; the other was during Serpent's Rise when I ran various Phantom Phenomena quests cold.
I believe that I used my other released slot to take a nap! :)
There is still a large core of GMs that do what needs to be done to get the Con to go off -- I remember my early days of conventioning and stepping up to make sure it happened.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 8
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I was the one organizing those tables. I appreciate very much your willingness to step up like that. It helped us a lot in speeding up the process in getting players seated with the quests. :)Last year I volunteered for all 10 slots (including all 4 specials). I was released from three of those slots, but in two of them I stepped in to run tables in need of a GM. One of them was Scions of the Sky Key Part 1; the other was during Serpent's Rise when I ran various Phantom Phenomena quests cold.
I believe that I used my other released slot to take a nap! :)
My motto last GenCon when released was, "Once more unto the breach!" :)
Seriously though, I was happy to help and doubly happy that I made a difference! ;)
Organized Play Coordinator
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Update -
We are at the Westin, just across from the skybridge.
Hotel opens up Wed afternoon and checkout is Monday morning.
Blog with adventures being ran is here
Badge drop started yesterday and is finalizing today.
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I have a bunch of the evergreens and tier 1-2 scenarios pre-prepped so I can bring those with me just in case. Though I was serious I would be very interested in running seeker scenarios :):)
If so, you should follow Bob's instructions in this post.
If you are GMing at GenCon and would like to be considered for the new Seeker tables, please send me an email. Due to the complexity of the scenario and the rigid time window we have available, it is highly recommended that you run the scenario/s at least once before the convention to get a feel for the flow and become better acquainted with the material. When submitting your email, please let me know if you are planning on running the scenarios prior to GenCon. Thx
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Update -
We are at the Westin, just across from the skybridge.
Hotel opens up Wed afternoon and checkout is Monday morning.
Blog with adventures being ran is here
Badge drop started yesterday and is finalizing today.
Tonya, how do badges work if I already got one through the Gencon Portal? Originally I was not planing on doing enough tables to qualify for a badge but I have now upgraded to tier 4.
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Update -
We are at the Westin, just across from the skybridge.
Hotel opens up Wed afternoon and checkout is Monday morning.
Blog with adventures being ran is here
Badge drop started yesterday and is finalizing today.
Tonya, how do badges work if I already got one through the Gencon Portal? Originally I was not planing on doing enough tables to qualify for a badge but I have now upgraded to tier 4.
If you contact GenCon customer service before preregistration ends in June they should be able to issue a refund for your now-extra badge.
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GM schedules are complete and emails are going out. It'll take me a few hours to get them all done.
The first few emails I send, I forgot to add text asking for a reply. Please be sure to reply with a confirmation that you received the schedule so we can record it. Don't want anyone's schedule to disappear into a spam folder or something. I will post again when they are done so you'll know if something is wrong if you don't see it.
Thanks for your patience through this arduous process
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I love that we aren't prepping eight scenarios. With the specials likely coming out near Con time, it's nice to be able to concentrate on all the prep, terrain and NPC work for one scenario now.
I did eight unique preps for Gen Con my first year. The convention itself wasn't bad, but the prep work almost broke me the week before the convention.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Virginia—Norfolk
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I love that we aren't prepping eight scenarios. With the specials likely coming out near Con time, it's nice to be able to concentrate on all the prep, terrain and NPC work for one scenario now.I did eight unique preps for Gen Con my first year. The convention itself wasn't bad, but the prep work almost broke me the week before the convention.
Rigby - are you there this year??? That's exciting!!
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Got The Sun Orchid Scheme all weekend. Already ran it once local. Gonna love seeing peoples reaction to this scenario.
Me too, on having to run it repeatedly at GenCon (4 sessions). I hope it's a good scenario.
Unfortunately, I missed playing it at my local store last weekend, so I haven't seen the scenario yet. And I didn't sign up to play it at an upcoming local con, because I was intentionally saving it to make sure I'd have some season 7 stuff left to play at GenCon. I tried to change that registration this morning, so I can play it later this month, but that table's already full.
Got The Sun Orchid Scheme all weekend. Already ran it once local. Gonna love seeing peoples reaction to this scenario.
I got Bid for Alabastrine all weekend. Hasn't even come out yet.
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Being my first Gencon and first time GMing at Gencon, I have many (likely dumb) questions about how the whole process will work. Should I ask my questions here? Start a new thread so as not to clutter this thread? Get my search-ninja moves going and look for information from past years? Pester my local Venture Officers (which could be fun...)?
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Being my first Gencon and first time GMing at Gencon, I have many (likely dumb) questions about how the whole process will work. Should I ask my questions here? Start a new thread so as not to clutter this thread? Get my search-ninja moves going and look for information from past years? Pester my local Venture Officers (which could be fun...)?
While I am not the voice of authority on this, I think asking the questions here would be best since I doubt you are the only one new to GMing for Paizo at GenCon. So having the information here for all the other newbs would be the most useful.
Last year was my first year GMing for Paizo and I learned that at least some of my questions could really only be answered by the organizers at the event as they were the only ones in the know for those specific events, and some things simply can't be decided until the last minute. But there are still plenty of generic questions that can be answered here.
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I have a question that's probably more for Bob and Tonya, but maybe others here will happen to know. Bob's email from last night said:
In addition to scheduled events, we are asking all GMs to be prepared to run the evergreen scenarios (5-08 The Confirmation, 6-10 The Wounded Wisp, and 7-10 The Consortium Compact) should the situation arise.
Does this mean we have to be prepared to run ALL of these, or can we just pick one, and use that as our "go to" should we need it?
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I have a question that's probably more for Bob and Tonya, but maybe others here will happen to know. Bob's email from last night said:
In addition to scheduled events, we are asking all GMs to be prepared to run the evergreen scenarios (5-08 The Confirmation, 6-10 The Wounded Wisp, and 7-10 The Consortium Compact) should the situation arise.Does this mean we have to be prepared to run ALL of these, or can we just pick one, and use that as our "go to" should we need it?
I had thought that it was only, "pick one" from last year but I went back and looked at the GM Guidelines and Instructions and now I am not so sure.
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That's what you get for having 5 Stars.
Of course, I am running all 3 PreGen, gotta have 4-stars to GM, Specials. So I guess that's what I get for having 4 Stars.
1. Stars are not always a good indicator of quality. That's not me calling out anyone in particular, but a lot of starts =/= a good Gm automatically.
2. Unless they've changed how theyre assigning scenarios this year, Im pretty sure at PaizoCon and Gencon you don't have to have 4/5 stars to run the 4/5 star Special scenarios. That would be too limiting on the schedule and people.
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Got mine. Running the special at tier 10-11 was unexpected, but will be a good challenge.That's what you get for having 5 Stars.
Of course, I am running all 3 PreGen, gotta have 4-stars to GM, Specials. So I guess that's what I get for having 4 Stars.
I'm running the three pre-gen specials as a two star, but at least you will be able to run them again after the con; I'll have to wait a few years.
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At this time, all GM-related emails have been distributed. Jon is working on the HQ volunteer schedule and will have that out soon (if not already). I did my best fulfilling the special requests from all volunteers, but due to the huge amount of moving parts with this process, some may not have worked out. Sometimes, due to the needs of the event, I just could not make it happen for you.
I will continue to watch this thread and try and answer questions as they come up, but if you have specific questions regarding your schedule, please help us keep this thread as clean as possible and address those to me by email. Questions in the thread should be more of the general type as you may not be the only one wondering the same thing.
I have a lot of email responses to read through, so if you sent/send a question, it might be a day or two before I can respond.
Again, thank you for you patience during this process and good luck with open registration. Roughly 48 hours and counting!
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1. Stars are not always a good indicator of quality. That's not me calling out anyone in particular, but a lot of starts =/= a good Gm automatically.That's what you get for having 5 Stars.
Of course, I am running all 3 PreGen, gotta have 4-stars to GM, Specials. So I guess that's what I get for having 4 Stars.
You are correct in that it is not always a good indicator of quality, but it is a better indicator of quality than no indicator at all. And the people making these decisions don't always have a lot more to go on than that. Personally, I look at stars as an indicator of experience rather than quality.
Of course, when it came to assignments at GenCon, I suspect my availability weighed more heavily in the decision making process then my stars.