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Ok, my impressions of the game and the weekend!
First of all, some background, long time RPG guy and Pathfinder Society member. Kickstarter for the MMO, heck some of that history is on my profile here.
NEVER played PACG before this weekend, did not pre-reg for anything for GENCON, wife is coming and I love the dealer hall and then figuring out what I want to do once I am already there.
Thursday, dropped into a PACG demo while wandering around and I am more of a ROLL playing guy than a ROLE playing guy. So this was right up my alley, my demo GM was the shaggy, HAGRID like one (I am terrible with names) Great presentation of the material and I sorta understood where I was headed.
This was enough that I decided to ditch my plans to play PFS on Friday morning and try and get in on PACG. There was 2 tickets left on the event website but it mentioned I already had to have a class deck in the description. So I was not sure whether I could play or not, I decided to not buy those and just show up and see. (Dealer hall had closed, could not run out and buy a deck...)
Friday, 8am session, I showed up EARLY and hung out and found that they had stacks of class decks for borrowing and I got in on a Scenario 1. I grabbed SORCERER deck and played Seoni.
I did not understand how to build my deck (not really part of the demo) and I thought the "B" in the upper right corner meant "Basic" and so I had several incorrect cards in my hand. The GM at the table was able to help me sub them out when they came up and had a good time though we did lose due to running out of blessings. (I got my sheet showing that I had played and could use a Blessing B for my next build)
Friday, 10 am. I am just using Generic tickets and yet they worked me into EVERY time slot, KUDOS PACG staffers!!! Built my deck with BASICS this time and my one precious Blessing B and we won!!
HAVING LOTS of fun, but lunch time, I skip the next session but tell my wife I want to go back for the 2-4 pm session. I also spend $190 at the Paizo booth before the 2 pm session so yes this is all working as planned for Paizo!! (S&S base, Add on, Sorc Class deck, Mat, 2 tshirts)
Friday 2pm, Scenario 2. I actually thought this was insanely tough the first round or two, but then our table got in a rhythem where we all stacked up on one location and usually that gave us all a break where we did not have to fight an opening shark (pre-exploration) and would all jump in and crush when the henchman came up so we could close the location. So it actually ended up easier once we had a plan.
Friday night, supper and then invited my friends to play a session at the hotel that night. My first ever as GM/player, 5 of us playing, we muddled through and ended up losing due to running out of blessings, but some good experience/knowledge now.
Saturday..8 and 10 am, knocked out Scen 3 and 4... went to lunch, was telling wife I would really like to "FINISH" and so she allowed me to change our plans and skip watching the parade so I could play at 2 and 4!!!
What a great wife, 15 years of marriage next year! She is sporting HER Pathfinder t-shirt today just because she liked the look of the new year PFS campaign drawing (Sky Key or something). I am sporting my freshly acquired Seoni shirt though I had decided to switch to Amaryllis the night before when I looked at my class deck.
Saturday, 2pm...cannot get into a Scen 5 game..no one else ready to go. Was actually hoping Doc and myself could do Scen 6 instead but he was worried about the timer on that Scen and it is already 215pm by now. So he and I end up going in on a Scen 4 game again, I grab a FIGHTER deck from the demo units and start my second character!
We knock it out pretty quickly, and between sessions I run down and spend another $20 to buy my OWN Fighter Class deck for my 2nd character (this works alot like crack cocaine I have noticed)
Saturday 4pm, I get in on a FULL six player slot of Scen 5. I have to admit this was my least fun game of the weekend. Out of the 7 slots I played, this one we had 4-5 "experts" at the table including a "rules lawyer" and the play was SLOOOOOOOOW.
They disagreed about strategy, how the rules were "supposed" to be working, the henchman were all buried pretty deep at every location it seemed and it came down to the last 2 blessings.
Honestly, I zoned out on the final round after my turn. I thought we had lost, we had 2 locations, the villein was buried pretty deep. I had no blessings or cards I could contribute and the cross talk, rule lawyering had reached critical mass.
NO idea how we "won" but literally they spent over 20 minutes on the last two characters; Blessings 3 and then 2, at the final two open locations and some miracle of cards, obscure rules, interventions from space or something apparently they found the villein, dug him out, temp-closed the other location and killed him.
That was it for me. I could not make the later sessions that evening, had plans with the wife, took her to supper and the 80s dance!
So I am one session shy of finishing the first adventure. I have spent LOTS of time on here since then reading every post, downloading all the rules and trying to find FLGS that I can support. Nearest is an hour away, I may have to see if can get some interest going, hard to believe an area as large as Greensboro, NC does not have a regular game (PFS or other)
That is my impressions as a total newbie to PACG! From a marketing stand point, I spent just over $200 to date. I am now a PACG subscriber and reading EVERYTHING. SO a job well done Paizo!
Fingers crossed, hoping I win a third class deck maybe here!! (Tried to convince the GMs that 7 generic scenerios played = 4 pre-reg and thus I deserved a class deck, but failed my Charisma roll!!)
Sam
