Doug Benson's page

Hi, I was wondering if there is still a list of local venture captains. I’m running society games at my local store, Cosmic Games in Bellingham WA. I was hoping to connect with a venture officer close to my location.

Thanks all.

I would love to be considered to receive a goblin brain. I have missed those yearly treats and seeing the baker himself.

Majuba, may I reserve one for myself, Doug Benson, and one for my son, Zach Benson.

I have skipped the brains the last couple of years to give others the chance to reserve one, but I would really love one this year. Thank you for doing this and see you at the con.

We arrive Thursday and will be playing some form of Pathfinder that night with the Bellingham Crew.

I hate to jump in on this, but I also have not seen my Solistice Scar session reported along with another scenario I ran. I'm afraid I'm with rknop and did not save a copy of the reporting sheet.

Majuba, my son and I would love a goblin brain. It feels like home when your at PaizoCon and you get a great goblin brain. My badge will say Doug Benson and my son Zach Benson.

Thank you Sara, it looks like I received all the scenarios. Thanks again for the speedy help, your the best.

Hi, I'm just wondering if this months scenarios were sent out yesterday. I didn't seem to get the October scenarios in my download area. Is it just me or is anyone else having this problem.

Thanks in advance for any help.

If I may, I would like to request a green goblin brain for myself and one for my son. We will be at the Con on Thursday night and my badge name will be Doug Benson and my son Zach.

Thank you so much we have really enjoyed the brains througout the years, its one of the high lights of our con adventure.

This years con was outstanding. A large group of us traveled to Seattle for PaizoCon, and none of us left disappointed. We had some veterans to the con and some that had never been to any sort of gaming convention. Each of us had a different experience but in each case all had a great time.

We had power gamers that played PFS in every time block and if there was not one running in the grand hall, they started a pickup game. Some of us tried as many different events as possible and enjoyed the con for its many selections of Seminars and third party events. Of the 11 people who went to the con most of us got at least 1 or 2 lottery events. We all shared these events and made sure everyone had something to do.

All the GM’s we played with did fantastic jobs. Both special were fantastic and will be talked about, at our lodge, for the year to come. Already the players are gearing up to take on those evil Aspis agents. At my table the GM did a great job. He let us role play and have fun playing evil and killing pathfinders. Great Job by everyone.

Every Lottery event that we played in turned out to be fantastic. Most of us visited each night in the bar to share stories of the great games and GM’s we had gotten to play with that day. We all loved the Legendary Special “To Worlds Unknown” and plan on spending our money on the AP. Also a big thanks to Mark Seifter for running Anagnorisis. From what I hear from my son, it was the best game of the con. The Lottery games did give us our only bad experience this year. Saturday night a bunch of us had managed to get tickets for Midgard: Goblin in the Brewery. At this point some of our group had already played it and told us it was great. Alas, we will never know, as our GM decided he would rather go to the banquet instead of running our game. It was a disappointing, but as die hard gamers we pulled out a couple quests and went to town. As far as the Midgard games go, we heard they were good, but I don’t think I will be signing up for any of them in the future. Burn me once, shame on you, burn me twice, shame on me.

We all loved the new location. The service was great and the selection of restaurants around the hotel was a nice change from the last two years. Denny’s and Dave’s were our goto places for a late night meal to share our daily adventures. The hotel bar and restaurant also turned out to be a great hang out so we could meet up, grab a snack, and get ready for a pick up game. We also used many of the small lounges around the hotel to set up pick up games. All in all the hotel really worked out for our group.

I just want to thank the Paizo staff for all of their hard work. The Delves were fanatic and Cosmo’s clowns and McDonalds gang were terrifying. We all died with smiles on our faces.

All and all a great con and I’m sure we will double our number that travels to the con next year. Thank you all

Thank you so much for the Orc Brains, my son and I shared them with our friends at the Con. They were a big hit and everyone loved them. You're the best. Again thank you so much for enriching our con experience with your kindness.

Sounded like a fun scenario. Wish we could have played this. Won it on the lottery, but 6 people showed up to play, but no GM after 3 hours.

Sad,will not be playing Midgard any time soon.

I'll be your Huckleberry.

I would love an orc brain this year, if I may. Please and thank you. Your the best.

I just wanted to thank everyone who worked really hard on making it a great PAX experience. I worked as a GM on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and everyone seemed to be having a great time. The guys and gals in the front did a fantastic job of getting everyone seated and happy. All the GM's went above and beyond the call. Every time I heard a table of new players cheer, it was a victory.

Most of all we should all thank Big Kyle, without his leadership and force of personality none of this would happen. He is a great Venture Captain and I am personally proud to work for him.

Thank you Kyle for being a leader and a good example for us all.

Please help me in welcoming Stacey Buxton as our newest VL in the greater puget sound region!

Stacey has been with PFS since the beginning, GMing and making awesome things happen where ever he was needed.

Finally he takes up the mantle of the north end of our region, Everett. Where he will be focusing on 3 new stores, including the infamous AFK Tavern! A gamer themed and run diner/bar.

Welcome Stacey and congratulations. Hopefully we can work together and grow the north and far north of the region.

Thanks everyone for the kind thoughts. I'm honored to become the Bellingham Venture Lieutenant. I will do my best to support and grow the society up here in the great northwest.

I do want to thank Samish Lakefinder and Andrew "The Great Kilt", both are the core of our GM corps up here in Bellingham. Without these two I don't think we would have the drive or the growth that we have experienced. Their knowledge of the rules and willingness to GM has been and example to all our players and GM's. If there was a rank of Venture Sergeant, these guys would be mine.

You can find out more about our Lodge and what we are up to both on the great website

www.nwpfs.org or on facebook at

https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/bellinghampathfindersociety/

Please feel free to stop by and have a look.

I hope to see many of you at PaizoCon this year and thanks again to Mike and Kyle for this honor.

If its ok, my son and I would love us some goblin brains.

Doug and Zach Benson

Thanks Finlanderboy, I'm just trying to make our little area of the society a great place to play. We also have some really great players and GM's. Some of the players who don't GM will bring snacks and soda. That is always really appreciated. I'm glad to mentioned that, because I don't think I thank them enough. I can see another round of thank you cards going out. I really do love that the community up here has really bonded together and we all do little things that make our game days great.

I was thinking of using warhorn but I'm not sure we are big enough to need it. I did make a facebook group and most or the local players really like using it. We can post pictures and have a more relaxed area that we can talk and instant message. We are a small group, so I'm not sure I need anything so formal as a site to sigh up for events. I admit I have controlled our growth, as we only have a small game area, and it seems we are about to reach our limit. I think if we grow any more I will have to start another weekly game day. We meet both Sunday and Monday night as it is, and with my real job, that is about all I can do. I can see getting another person, who is willing to run a game day, pick up a third day. If we do that, I will need to use warhorn.

So do I just go to the warhorn web site and make an account, or is there more to it. I really have only used it to sigh up events at local Seattle Cons.

Drogon, it's probably a good thing I don't live to close to your great store. I don't think I would ever leave. My wife jokes that she can't tell which I spend more money on, games or coffee.

Its funny I have been running public play games for a long time. I started with living city way back in the hay day of the RPGA and have been going ever since. One of our big things was the zero slot for GM's. It seems that I have forgotten my roots and let that practice slide. When I read your post I had to laugh, why didn't I think of that. Man I'm getting old. Thanks for bringing a true and tested practice back into my thinking.

Thanks for the offer to help out our store owner. I may approach him with this and see if he is receptive to a little friendly advice from a fellow store owner. I think it would be great, but I don't want to overstep. Thanks again.

lastblacknight, thanks for the response, yes I agree the venture officers are a great asset that any store coordinator, should use. I have been in contact with them, and I'm hoping we can work something out, for them to travel to my location and run the day of the demon. I know they are all very busy and my location is over 100 miles from all of them, but they have talked with me and I'm pretty sure some time in the future that will happen.

Drogon, let me just say wow, it would be great to have a store owner so into the promotion of pathfinder society. I see from your store's web page that you are very active in all sorts of games. You are to be applauded and I hope your local players base knows how lucky they are to have someone like you.

The owner of our local game store is semi active. He lets us use the game room, which I think is a blessing. We have four tables which helps us run multi game days. It would be nice to see a little more activity with the GM's promo stuff, but I can handle it for now. We are a small group so my cost is not so large yet. We are looking a doing T-shirts for the group and one of my GM's has taken it and run with the idea. He is working on a logo now. I hope to have them made before PaizoCon, so we can represent.

Because we are a small group with many new players, most of my GM's have higher level characters. This way I can hold back a higher tiered scenario and run it for them. Most of they newer players can't play in that scenario yet, so I don't loose something to offer on game day. I know that I may run into a problem, now that many new GM's are stepping us and wanting to run. I will have to think of something for them, maybe a module for them.

I also wanted to say that my players and GM's also thank me for my time and effort. They went out and got me a gift card for our local coffee shop, I drink may to much coffee. They presented it to me during one of our game days with a really cool thank you card. Stuff like that keeps me going.

Thanks for the insight on how a larger group runs their active player and GM base. I find myself modeling my group and how I run things with what you do in mind. Also thanks for being such a great example on how an owner can be active and promote our hobby.

So here in Bellingham WA, I've started a new GM inventive. When my GM's run a society scenario, I will reward them with a 1 dollar gift certificate from our sponsoring game store, Eagles Games. I started this with the month of April and gave out 25 bucks. We are a small store and just started running three tables on both Sunday and Monday. I'm trying to spread out the GM time so no one person will get burned out.

As of this time I have 10 GM's that I have in the GM pool. I have started some of these GM's with quests. From there they start with easy scenarios, that I will sit in as a player. After the game I give them pointers, and we do this for their first three games. I don't always have to sit in on all the games, a lot of the GM's pick it up quickly.

After passing out the bucks, all the GM's told me they wanted more behind the screen time and I had two players ask how they could join the GM pool.

Other things I've done is having a private pizza party for GM's, run GM only scenarios, that I will not put into the scenario rotation, and now I'm going to start a Monday afternoon campaign, with GM's getting first choice at the table.

I have a few other ideas, but I was wondering what others are doing in their stores.

So I was wondering if anyone is planing something for international GM day.

We will be having our game day on the same day, so I'm hoping all the GM's can get together for lunch. I just want to do something for the guys that work hard and make our game days great. Without those dedicated GM's it would just be me and 20 players.

I hope I say it enough but I'm really thankful for our GM's up in Bellingham, WA. They do a great job and bring fun and enthusiasm to each and every table they run.

Thanks again guys and Happy early GM day.

Tickets purchased. Hotel taken care of, now we just have to wait.

Just wanted to jump in here and thank Gornil for a great game. My son, friend, and I played in his no combat game. You did a great job of room description and role-playing with us.

I have read your posts and I think you did a great job. I know they say hindsight is 20/20, but I really don’t think we missed any of the excitement with no combat.

Oh, and I wanted to thank Pirate Rob for his role-playing. I really thought he hated me when we were introducing out characters. I was the Paladin, and he did a great job with his venomous words. Thanks for making us all better players

Thanks Majuba, the goblin brain were fantastic. It has become one of the highlights of the con, to get and eat the brains. We saved our for the drive home, eating them and laughing at all our stories of the grand adventures we shared.

Thanks for being part of our con.

Doug Benson wrote:

My son and I would love one this year. We will be getting to the hotel on Thursday.

Is that one each, or one to share?

oh - I'd like to reserve one for Wade - whether or not he's rooming with us.

If it's ok, I would like one each, if you have enough. But if not, we can share.

Thanks again.

My son, friend and I are signed up for the Saturday afternoon game. We all have first and third level characters, so no sweat on what level we play.

My son and I would love one this year. We will be getting to the hotel on Thursday.

Getting the brains last year, was one of the high lights of the con.

Our badge names are Doug and Zach Benson.

Nobody?

The guys I was going to have help with are not going to be able to make it to PaizoCon. If I can't find willing GMs, I will just cancel the event.

I'm up for helping out. I missed my chance to volunteer for the Society events, so if your in need of DM's, you can count on me.

Do you have an idea of when you'll be running. Also will you be able to work around our gaming schedule. I know I would like to play a few games with my son.

I'm sorry if this has been asked before, somewhere else, but for those of us running a PFS game, when do we get a copy of the module. I ran a couple last year, but I had already purchased the modules I ran. Now I'm running something that comes out after PaizoCon and would really like to read it and process it.

Again, I'm sorry if this has been asked and answered somewhere else, I just couldn't find it.

Thanks

I know my son, friend and I would love to play both or either. Would you like us to sign up for the games, or will it be first come first play, on the time and day of the game. I dont want to be greedy, so we are up for either game.

My son and I would love some. If you have enough.

My friend, son, and I will also be looking for a game during the banquet. If there is room, we would love to join in. We have played COC, but we are new to both Star Wars game systems. We do pick up rule systems quickly, and love to role play. My son also has some Star Wars minis, if needed.

I would really like that. I agree that I would pick them up, if they were priced right.

I would also love to get an official clarification on this. We have been going round and round with this at my home table.

I would love 2, if possible.

Eric Tillemans wrote:

Doug Benson wrote:

I would love to have a look at Kieran or Ithrin. I know we can't pick now, but it would be fun to look over the characters.

I'll send 'em tonight when I get home.

Sent.

Thanks Eric, I got them, and they look great.

I have PDFs of the character sheets ready, which I can send to anyone interested in playing a particular character (or characters).

I would love to have a look at Kieran or Ithrin. I know we can't pick now, but it would be fun to look over the characters.

You can e-mail me at zfolks1 at comcast dot net.

I can't wait to play. The game and all the pc's look great, but if we get to pick a pc now I would love to play Kieran or Ithrin.

By the way, thank you for running a game.

"The factions of Absalom have long despised one another. History is fraught with their bloody feuds, brutal wars, and oppressions. At the end of Season 0, one faction shall stand higher than the others, their talons sunk deep into Absalom's affairs reaping grand rewards. With each new season, though, come new opportunities."

Ok, I was wondering which faction came out on top. I might have missed it on the message boards. My players are also really interested in what the grand rewards will be and how it will effect their characters.

I was wondering if the scenarios for PaizoCon have been reported. I have not seen them on my list of sessions. Just wondering.

You can print out a pdf of reserved PFS account numbers that will allow you to give walk-ins a card to register for future use and to get credit for the scenario you're running.

I usually try to encourage players to make a character ahead of time and familiarize themselves with the Guide to PFS Organized Play, but often someone didn't see my ads about the event and comes empty-handed. You might make up a few pre-gens (a fighter, sorcerer, cleric, and rogue to cover your bases) and leave a few things up to the player, like their faction/faction feat, deity, spell selection, etc. so that they can feel like the character is theirs and so they want to play with it again, but doing most of the point-buy, equipment buying and skill purchasing will save a ton of time at the table.

Also, it makes a great impression on people to play in something that looks pretty. Some of the scenarios incorporate map packs and flip mats and choosing one of those might make the adventure stand out among the 4e ones that have maps as part of the WotC distributed materials. Slave Pits of Absalom comes to mind as one of these (Waterfront flip mat), as do The Third Riddle (caravan map pack) and Eye of the Crocodile King (sewers map pack).

I have a question about the pdf of reserved PFS account numbers. I will be running a few Society games at our local con this weekend and I know most of the people will not be members. Where do I find this pdf. Sorry this is a stupid question, but some of my players are members and can't advance their characters because we don't have enough players. Thanks for all the help.

Wow, after reading some of the stuff people had to do for free RPG Day, I feel real lucky. My local game store let us pick an item each. My son, friend, and I each got an item. I also ran a game and got to pick two more items.

Eagles in Bellingham, WA is great. He will use anything left over for door prizes at our local mini con, PoorCon, next weekend. The owner also saves all the special dice and lets each of his DM's pick from them.

If anyone is ever up in Bellingham, WA make sure to stop at Eagles. It had a great game room and the owner is an old time gamer.

My friend and I will be playing. My son also wanted to play but didn't get the time slot. Between the three of us, we have two tickets, so two of us will be there.

It sounds great and we are all excited. It says characters will be provided, so do we need anything besides dice and maybe a snack for the DM.

Oh well, I'm a little slow also, I got 1746.

Hi, I was just wondering why Paizo will not be at PAX this year? I checked the list of dealers and didn't find Paizo listed. I was hoping to see them there, and running some new Pathfinder games. It would also be nice to pick up a few items I have not purchased on line. Anyway, just wanted to check to see if I missed them.

I've never posted but I wanted to have this be my first. I'm up in Bellingham, Wa. Next to the Canadian border.

Oh by the way great work guys on the Pathfinder stuff. I love everything.