LoboStele's page

Having played PFS at GenCon for several years now, I decided to bite the bullet, and signed up to be a GM this year. Overall, I'm glad I made the decision, but I'm not 100% sure I would choose to do so again.

Prepping for the specials....even though, yes, we got preliminary copies about 1.5 weeks before the con...was absolutely brutal. I got lucky in that 3 of the 4 scenarios I had to prep, I was given more than a month before GenCon. But even taking that into account, trying to squeeze in prep time on top of real life was tougher than I realized. I have immense respect (and probably some pity!) for GM's who had to prep 3 specials in that last 1.5 weeks.

But the prep itself wasn't what bothered me so much about the specials, I suppose, and I'll take my specific comments to the specific threads. Overall though, the pace of the specials made them VERY tough. I felt terrible for my players, as I tried my hardest to strike balance between letting them enjoy the encounters and play through the game at their pace, vs. pushing them fast enough to get through things. Even so, we probably only played 2/3 of all the encounters in the Thursday/Friday night events. This further irritates me as it means I spent precious time prepping, printing, reading, etc. for maps, stat blocks, and RP-encounters that we didn't even come close to getting to.

So for those reasons...If I GM at GenCon again in the future, I will likely request to not be scheduled for any of the special events.

Other thoughts...

Mustering.
I walked by the signs out in the hallway at least several times in the weekend, and it was clear to me that they were NOT updated correctly. I only played in 3 slots, and at least 2 of those, I walked back and forth the hallway twice, looking at the signs, before I finally went inside and just started asking people in orange shirts.

Those mustering signs have 10 lines on them. There are 10 slots in the GenCon weekend. Those signs should be filled out with Wet Erase marker (Not dry erase that can easily be accidentally wiped off) for EVERY slot for the weekend, before even the first slot on Thursday. If necessary, use a cheat sheet somewhere to show that "Slot 5 = Friday 1pm" or whatever. But generally, I think this is obvious to most players. For the specials, split up the mustering locations by tier (for the aforementioned 3-7 vs. 3-4/5-6/7-8 confusion, having the correct tiers on the boards would help with this).

Secondly, for the mustering signs....make them higher, somehow. Once the halls get packed with people, there's no way to read them, and its often tough to muscle your way past people to see the signs.

I saw aid tokens mentioned a few times in the thread. Thursday night, my table never saw one of them. Friday night, we were almost never without one. Probably just depended on how they got distributed in the room to start with. I thought it added some cool flavor to the special, so I definitely like the idea. Maybe better regular next year how they get handed out around the room, so as to spread them out as much as possible.

OK...the good! :)

Every one of the tables I ran, I had a blast. I hope my players did as well.

The use of the screens with the text on them was genius, and while not perfect, I can't add anything that hasn't already been noted. More speakers, or projectors with long-throw lenses (to display on back walls, etc) aren't cheap. Do what you can, I suppose. One of the big issues with sound though was that some people just simply didn't hold the microphone close enough to their mouths. I think people are often afraid of being too loud, but in that room, that wasn't a problem. My table Thursday night was relatively close to the speakers, and it was never too loud. Friday night, we were only about half-way across the room and it was tough to hear. I feel for those who were in the far back.

The Pregen packets were pure genius, and I said as much to any of the HQ or Paizo people I saw. That was huge for the newer players I had at several of my tables.

Bringing around the daily buttons for the GMs was a nice touch I wasn't expecting. I'm not crazy about collecting all that stuff, but it was a really nice 'thank you' gesture. :)

Overall, I definitely look forward to playing more PFS, and playing more PFS at GenCon!

OK, thanks! Been a few years since I was a GM, and the last time, my arrival time wasn't an issue. Looking forward to it!!

I think this is a really cool class overall. I'm completely underwhelmed by the Zealot though. Maybe I'm just missing it, but I don't see any advantage to playing that specialization, unless you're going to be doing a really RP heavy campaign and the flavor just seems to fit. It's 100% sub-par to the other 3 for PFS in my opinion, and I'd say it's sub-par to a standard Cleric or Inquisitor for PFS as well. Granted, this is just based on my reading of the abilities and not actually playing it, but there's nothing about it that makes me say "Oooh, cool."

It would seem to me that an actual Vigilante with a divine slant would be more akin to a Paladin than a Cleric. Someone with a burning desire inside to right the wrongs of the world. Seems like they should, at a minimum, get some bonuses when going after targets that are opposite in alignment from themselves.

Outside of this....I was kind of surprised that Acrobatics was not a class skill across the board, but I think I understand the flavor for that choice.

I'm kind of curious how the designers expect the Social/Vigilante identity business to play out in a PFS scenario. PFS adventures so often occur all over Golarion, and it's not unusual to start in one city, travel all across the country side (well out of the several mile radius for Renown) and have essentially an all-day long adventure without an easy way to handle the 5-minute re-disguise stuff. So there likely won't be any way for PFS Vigilantes to take advantage of Renown. They will most likely end up stuck in Vigilante mode all the time, because you don't know when combat is going to break out, and they won't ever get to take advantage of the Quick Change ability (lvl 13). I'm on board with Dual Identity, and I love the RP flavor of it. I just think it will cause so much hassle for PFS players, that you will see people mostly ignore it. Perhaps instead if the class had penalties to combat abilities while in Social mode, or penalties to social abilities while in Vigilante mode. Would allow you to still utilize them, but you'd have to plan appropriately.

As for playing in a PFS table with a Vigilante....How would people plan to handle this? If you are the Vigilante PC, would one of your identities need to be hidden from other Pathfinders? Should Venture Captains know who you are in either guise? If you try to hide one, but not the other, would that even work?

I'm picturing the scene from the live action version of The Tick where he doesn't recognize fellow super hero The Champion when he dons his glasses. :P

Getting ready to launch into the Cheliax Spy Investigation part of the storyline in this chapter of the AP.

Prepping for the fight with Vakarla and her tricks....I don't understand how the combat tactics are supposed to work. In one part it says she is "using her invisibility field to stay invisible." It took me a bit before I noticed her Invisibility Field ability that allows her to attack without becoming visible.

I haven't fought or played with Invisible characters all that much (somewhat new to Pathfinder/played mostly lower level games). How are my PCs supposed to deal with this? Glitterdust or See Invisibility are options, clearly, but with Vakarla flying around, she could literally be anywhere.

Is it reasonable to allow the spellcasting PCs some extra opportunity to spot Vakarla based on where she is when she casts her spells? Just want to make sure I don't make things too tough for my PCs.

Nice! I've always enjoyed the Pathfinder vs. Aspis arcs.

With the serpent theme....can we get Vishkanya added to the race list? Or at least as a convention boon or something? :)