Gen Con Preview

Glad to read that Gencon is supporting a charity with the ticket sales ^^

Edit. And for those that are not familiar with discord, I usually suggest for players to consider installing the actual software, as the browser version can be a bit tricky. If you want to test your microphone setup before your games, there are plenty of org play discords available ^^

You really do not want to learn the finer points of that program when you are about to start your session ^^

Our system is fighting us a bit on making the new sections for PFS season 2 and the Bounties live, but we're working on it. Thanks for your patience, folks!

Like Sebastian said, load up the Discord. If one of the GMs is going to use Syrinscape for in game sounds, get that free account as well. For that matter, be sure to have an account for every VTT that you will be playing on. Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, D20Pro, Astra, whatever other ones, all need to be ready at game time, not 45 minutes later. We've got a defined time window for these sessions.

I will stress this for the specials. We have to start on time with everyone else.

Glad to read that Gencon is supporting a charity with the ticket sales ^^

Edit. And for those that are not familiar with discord, I usually suggest for players to consider installing the actual software, as the browser version can be a bit tricky. If you want to test your microphone setup before your games, there are plenty of org play discords available ^^

You really do not want to learn the finer points of that program when you are about to start your session ^^

Seconded. Just nope out of the browser-based discord and install the program. You'll be much happier.

Does anyone know what time on Monday registration begins? Or how the payment for slots works? I have a tentative schedule worked out but would like to be a little more prepared. If anyone has any advise, thank you!

I am only a little concerned as I am trying to play all my games in Fantasy Grounds as it is by far my favorite VTT. (Classic or Unity)!

For those that are interested, I am running PFS2 1-21: Mistress of the Maze on Fantasy Grounds Classic the first day of the con in Block number 3 (the last slot of the day), just FYI.

Thanks all and have a great time at the Con!

Anyone know of a way to search for Gen Con Pathfinder 2nd games exclusively? The search menu seems a little awkward and I'm a little dim.

The best way I found was to use the filter to restrict
Category: Role Playing Game
Game: Pathfinder
Host: Paizo
and then in the search field enter "2nd" which will filter out Starfinder, PACS, and PFS1 events, leaving just the 2E scenarios and quests.

--EDIT--simply entering "Pathfinder, 2nd" in the search field also seems to be effective though I didn't search the entire results to see if any 3PP events popped in among the list

Good luck!

Thank you! I was a bit too dense to notice the filter, and then let down it doesn't divide 1st and 2nd edition Pathfinder. But least with both I can just scroll through.

I hope they will be minimal, but I fully expect there to be some confused players since the 1E season one scenarios look an awful lot like the 2E season scenarios. This was a concern I had when it was decided to reset the numbering sequence instead of just continuing on with season 11. For regular players this isn't going to be an issue, but for casual and/or new players it is certainly going to create issues.

Does anyone know what time on Monday registration begins? Or how the payment for slots works? I have a tentative schedule worked out but would like to be a little more prepared. If anyone has any advise, thank you!

I am only a little concerned as I am trying to play all my games in Fantasy Grounds as it is by far my favorite VTT. (Classic or Unity)!

For those that are interested, I am running PFS2 1-21: Mistress of the Maze on Fantasy Grounds Classic the first day of the con in Block number 3 (the last slot of the day), just FYI.

Thanks all and have a great time at the Con!

Noon Eastern Time on the 13th!You can create your wishlist now though, so when time hits your submissions will go smoother.

Just curious, there seems to be no mention of the quest Putrid Seeds. Is it still going to to be released at the end of the month?

And what about the release dates to the general public for the Season 2 scenarios/quests, they are listed in the product descriptions as end August on the site. Correct?

Sean Montgomery 7819 wrote:

Does anyone know what time on Monday registration begins? Or how the payment for slots works? I have a tentative schedule worked out but would like to be a little more prepared. If anyone has any advise, thank you!

I am only a little concerned as I am trying to play all my games in Fantasy Grounds as it is by far my favorite VTT. (Classic or Unity)!

For those that are interested, I am running PFS2 1-21: Mistress of the Maze on Fantasy Grounds Classic the first day of the con in Block number 3 (the last slot of the day), just FYI.

Thanks all and have a great time at the Con!

Noon Eastern Time on the 13th!You can create your wishlist now though, so when time hits your submissions will go smoother.

Although I don't know how much more or less traffic the GenCon server will have with it being online this year, here is my advice for getting as many of the games you want:

1) get a badge and make a wishlist; be sure to select multiple copies of the games you want in each timeslot, as well as alternate games you may want in those timeslots-you can order your priorities on your wishlist from there

2) get on the server early and be ready to hit submit as soon as the countdown expires

3) expect to be put on a waitlist and let the computer sit through it; expect this to take awhile. Once queued up, it will apply for your games in priority order. It should filter out any games whose timeslots conflict automatically, signing you up for your highest priority game with an open seat left first.

4) about a week before the con, search for open games that may have had players drop; you can filter out games that have sold out.

Just hope I can get into a game. The slot times make it rough.

I saw that a lot of the Pathfinder/Starfinder events at Gen Con said that you had to bring your own supplies... Is this just Dice? Are characters provided if you are new and have no clue what you're doing?

I saw that a lot of the Pathfinder/Starfinder events at Gen Con said that you had to bring your own supplies... Is this just Dice? Are characters provided if you are new and have no clue what you're doing?

There are pre-generated iconic characters available for both. Most GMs will have some available, but it can be tough with the digital format. Communication is the key. Let the GM know early on that you'll be wanting a pre-gen.

This is a link to pregenerated PF2 Characters so you can look at them ahead of time and decide which you may like to play.

The same thing for Starfinder.

First Edition Pre-gens

Adventure Card Game Pre-Gens

Gary Cahill wrote:

I saw that a lot of the Pathfinder/Starfinder events at Gen Con said that you had to bring your own supplies... Is this just Dice? Are characters provided if you are new and have no clue what you're doing?

There are pre-generated iconic characters available for both. Most GMs will have some available, but it can be tough with the digital format. Communication is the key. Let the GM know early on that you'll be wanting a pre-gen.

This is a link to pregenerated PF2 Characters so you can look at them ahead of time and decide which you may like to play.

The same thing for Starfinder.

First Edition Pre-gens

Adventure Card Game Pre-Gens

Thanks!

Gary Cahill wrote:

I saw that a lot of the Pathfinder/Starfinder events at Gen Con said that you had to bring your own supplies... Is this just Dice? Are characters provided if you are new and have no clue what you're doing?

There are pre-generated iconic characters available for both. Most GMs will have some available, but it can be tough with the digital format. Communication is the key. Let the GM know early on that you'll be wanting a pre-gen.

This is a link to pregenerated PF2 Characters so you can look at them ahead of time and decide which you may like to play.

The same thing for Starfinder.

First Edition Pre-gens

Adventure Card Game Pre-Gens

Thank you, Reckless, for this helpful rundown!

How does paying for games work? If I use a wishlist, do I have to buy enough tickets for all my games first or can I wait until I see what I actually get into?

Basically, your wishlist is just a wishlist and you don't get charged until you actually get tickets for the games. So, come Monday once you get through the queue and it picks your games from those you wanted that are still available at that time, it will list the games and cost and ask you to approve the invoice, I believe.

I've got a huge wishlist lined up because I know games fill up fast, and I haven't been charged for anything yet. Pretty sure I've always paid for my tickets when they were finalized.

Not too surprisingly, the 7-8 tables of the PFS2 special sold out VERY, VERY quickly :-(. At least I got into the 3-6 table :-).

Is there any chance that more 5-8 tables will get opened up or is it now too late?

I'm guessing that Paizo will somehow level balance tables? Ie, my 3-6 table will hopefully be all 5-6 characters. Or is this just beyond their power at an online con?

I'm guessing that Paizo will somehow level balance tables?

Doesn't look like it. Given that the tables are all specific, meaning we are already mustered to them, Paizo/HQ wouldn't have anything to do with what levels are at your table outside of the description (3-6). Though the GM should have the ability to contact their players and could work this issue out in advance. short of that, whatever levels show up is what you get.

Hopefully more tables will be added to the 2-00 special. 70 tables is an extremely low count and would be the lowest we've had since the early years of PFS

I missed 3-6, barely got 1-2. Bummed. Any chance they'll add more tables?

I hope so!
I struck out on the 7-8 and 3-6 had to settle for a 1-2 of 2-00 Special. Really wanted to play my 2001 but I guess I will have to play one of my alts. Or start a new one if the APG comes out soon enough!

This breaks my three year streak of GMing both PFS and SFS Specials at GENCON. I just don't feel comfortable with Roll20 and really don't want to give a subpar experience to my players. Hopefully next year we will be back in the Sag and it will be bigger than ever!

Based on the GM response so far, I would doubt we'll see much in the way of additional tables. Might be more likely to catch a seat from a cancelled player if you are attentive

Quote:

I'm guessing that Paizo will somehow level balance tables?

Doesn't look like it. Given that the tables are all specific, meaning we are already mustered to them, Paizo/HQ wouldn't have anything to do with what levels are at your table outside of the description (3-6). Though the GM should have the ability to contact their players and could work this issue out in advance. short of that, whatever levels show up is what you get.

Hopefully more tables will be added to the 2-00 special. 70 tables is an extremely low count and would be the lowest we've had since the early years of PFS

Would it be possible for Paizo (or individual GMs, for that matter) to sort of sidestep the problem by swapping players?

Did that happen at GenCon?

Note, genuinely curious. I'm NOT trying to be a pain and I'm NOT complaining. Just wondering if it would be possible to do something. I presume that most of us agree it would be "better" to have tables completely at tier 3-4 and tables at 5-6. I'm assuming that there will be some form of scaling but I know that I much prefer to be in balance with the rest of the group, neither too powerful nor too weak.

At in person GenCon, yes the Marshals made an effort to help balance tables -- and players made the marshals jobs easier by doing their own pre-mustering in the muster area. But it is much easier to handle that in person, when the post-marshal process is 'go to your table number and play'.

In online play you have the extra level of which table is which VTT, and in some cases getting people to pre-upload their character, pre-fill out a sign in form, etc. There's more technical issues/administration that if you're delaying because you're delaying for mustering it really eats into the slot time. Specials are already squeezed usually.

If it had been a Con fully run/mustered within Discord, I think HQ might be able to pull it off (but it would be a very stressful thing to ask them). With the combination of GenCon ticket system, personally it sounds likely to end up with mistakes, problems, and delays.

I hadn't considered all those issues. I think that you're probably quite correct.

Any balancing of tables would have to happen at least an hour or two before a slot started. And it likely would be way too much hassle for too little gain.

Oh well :-). I've played and run unbalanced tables before, guess I can live with it this time too :-).

At this point, it would probably require the GMs to share in some community (but probably not public) space like a closed Discord channel. They could find out from their players what levels they are playing and if they have a disparity, like level 3s with 6s, could post that. Those GMs could swap players. It does create some manual handling and the chance for errors, since none of us/them have access to the Gen Con ticketing system to officially switch the tickets. Waiting until an hour before the event is probably not the best idea given the variety of VTT platforms, and having to set your character up in advance. HQ might decide its too much hassle for too little gain, but the GMs could always do it on their own

It also requires players to know what they want to play and report that on the requested form. From experience with PaizoCon online, I was playing SFS tables that I was not sure what character, and thus what level, I was going to play until I "sat down" at the table.

The PFS 2e scenarios soubd great!

All the PFS2 Special tables were sold out within 2 hours. Except for the French, Portuguese and Russian options :-) Are more tables going to be scheduled?

As Bob said up higher, unless more GMs step up it is unlikely that more special tables will be added.

Even if more step up.

However, if you are interested, you should let GenCon leads know

I did not initially have a table to gm the PFS special, but let Heather know I was interested. An opening came up, and I had my table.

The Gen Con committee has a (very short) waitlist of GMs that they are using to cover GM drops. They would appreciate any GMs that may be willing and able to assist. Use the OPF Major Events Discord server or genconleads@gmail.com to register your interest.

Will the Advanced Player's Guide be PFS legal for Gencon weekend for newer characters? Is the blog post with the PFS legal resources being updated with the newest stuff regularly or is there somewhere else I should be checking? I'm rolling my first character for 2nd edition at Gencon and with that book coming out I wanted to possibly have the option to roll a new class or at least roll a character that is going towards an archetype I would like. Thanks in advance for any info. :)

See Mark's post on a different thread.

So all that is required is to show ownership of the resource in case the GM asks for it.

Will the Advanced Player's Guide be PFS legal for Gencon weekend for newer characters? Is the blog post with the PFS legal resources being updated with the newest stuff regularly or is there somewhere else I should be checking? I'm rolling my first character for 2nd edition at Gencon and with that book coming out I wanted to possibly have the option to roll a new class or at least roll a character that is going towards an archetype I would like. Thanks in advance for any info. :)

The sanctioning for the Advanced Player's Guide is up as of yesterday! You can see the announcement here and the character options themselves here. Note that while the sanctioning is up a bit early, you still need to wait until the book's street date (July 30th) to use these options in Society play... but that's the first day of Gen Con, so as long as you have the book, you'll be able to play there using the APG options!

Are there Paizo panels at Gencon? I can not seem to find them in the events? Just wondering those were awesome at PaizoCon

Are there Paizo panels at Gencon? I can not seem to find them in the events? Just wondering those were awesome at PaizoCon

There will be, and we will have a schedule up soon!