Gencon specials:
Both were ill-timed or perhaps not weighted correctly. We finished exactly 1 battle in both specials before the announcement came to move on to the next encounter. I timed one, 11 minutes from 'go' and we had to move on. Our group plays together often, with characters designed to handle the 'big' specials... we move through turns quickly. Still, in more than one case - we didn't get to the end of round 2 before the bell tolled. I suggest fewer 'required' scenes, and more optional encounters 'if a table finishes early'. The specials used to do that, but not so in recent years. I heard, unofficially, that the story is advancing when 30% of the tables report successes. If that is true, 70% of the tables will be interrupted mid-story, mid-combat, or mid-puzzle?? Crazy!
The overly long introduction speeches made me feel like the person giving them would rather listen to his own voice than allow us to advance the story, beat on bad guys or solve puzzles (see the first point above)
Stop with the extraneous announcements during the specials. Wasting what little time we have with 'we didn't win any Ennies' or watching somebody propose is a waste of precious game time (see first point above)
Bathroom breaks are not needed! We are all adults and can take care of ourselves. Scheduling breaks only creates long lines and delays in moving the story along (see the first point above)
The background music/effects made an already difficult to hear GM, impossible to hear. I actually had to complain, and they were nice enough to reduce the volume from 11 down to maybe 5, a slight improvement but our GM was still all but impossible to hear.
Boons:
Good gravy - I really appreciate the boons, and hope they continue but the way they were handled is just, plain, crazy. If the cost of boons is an issue, raise the price of a ticket by 25 cents to cover the printing cost and stop this nonsense.
At Paizo con this year, they removed the paper boons before the end of the con. No problem, says I, I'll turn my tokens in at GENCON (2:1 instead of 1:1, alas). Then we find out that it's really 4:1!!! Now, they tell us that starting next year, they will only accept 'this years' tokens. Everybody who has left them at home is screwed.
Last day, they go on sale back to 2:1 - screwing everybody who turned them in earlier in the con.
How do you think this makes us feel?
