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I had a similar experience for PFS, thought it wasn't the worst muster I've seen (that honor goes to previous musters for the special.) The musterer didn't know where <gameX> was mustering, and directed me to HQ. HQ didn't know, and just said "ask all the musterers." Apparently the right musterer was either hiding or absolutely surrounded, as I asked everyone I saw from one end to the other, only finding them on the second loop. The surrounded aspect is why I try to stand on a chair most of the time ... I'm an orange traffic cone lol ... if you can see me standing you can find me
This is the reason I kill my knees and back every year climbing on a chair .. I'm short, I know I'm short and most gamers are taller than me. So therefore if I'm going to be able to scan half a room and watch for people flagging me down then I need to be able to see. **I was the one in the middle on the prize table side of the room for the Saturday night special (swapping off with another guy for breaks) It's the same reason Sunday morning I was on a chair over in the starfinder muster area hollering for people .. they could see me .. my voice would reach over them and I could project better to be heard (cause I'm also not that loud on the last day of the con).
They were new this year ... it makes it so that if we as marshals didn't do our job when collecting tickets at the table (i.e. make sure there were enough of them) then it's easy to go back to the table and see if we can figure out where the ticket snafu happened. I started telling the players to remind the GM not to lose the sticker (since it's small) so that the GM would be reminded that the sticker was there and might have a better shot of keeping it instead of losing it under the multitude of papers.
I think the problem is, juggling the space we want inside for gaming tables vs. the hall space gencon will let us use before they say something ... with the current configuration; putting anything more in the marshal area would (in my opinion) create more of a hazard as then you have something solid to have to navigate around vs soft gamers to bump into
Sin, If I remember correctly, a few years ago at a special table of mine you played a character with a animal companion with a shadow drain ability, I eventually handed you a copy of the stat block and had you make the changes each round. A GM in the middle of a session can have a hard time managing stat block changes (all the little minutiae that comes with changing stats every round) and managing the actions of 5 other players and the NPCs that they are personally running while in the middle of a timed event. Even a 5 star GM is going to have issues managing something like that when they are fatigued and probably hungry and more than a little stressed. So in that instance, my suggestions would be to have a card to hand to the GM with a brief (1 to 2 or so line) description of the ability and what the stat changes are so that they can reference that. Alternatively, if you don't want to have to explain something like that to the GM perhaps (and no I'm not telling not to play what you want to play) a consideration to a different character while playing in a timed event might be a possibility. A level 7 should never be allowed in a tier 10-11 special event. I would have suggested that you and your friends join him in the level 7 tier so that he would be able to play.
You only find out about the VC bump when you drink the kool-aid and join us
How does that work with hotels, anyway? Tier 1s are supposed to get rooms covered, but I'd guess a last-minute Tier 1 wouldn't get that.
ChaosTicket, dude, just accept that PFS might not be for you and move on.Well if I dont play the Pathfinder society Campaign I cannot play Pathfinder at all, and RPG groups are slim around where I live. When I said earlier this is what I can get, I meant it. But I have to face it that the only RPG available to me is too inflexible. It really is disappointing as I mentioned earlier when I joined the group I asked alot of questions about things I would be allowed to do, but havent been allowed to do so. Were they lying or was the context not about Pathfinder Society but Pathfinder as a whole? John asked you a bunch of questions to try and help clarify things and help you with your answers. You might try answering his questions so he can help you with this.
If you are out to "win" then you're possibly coming in with the wrong mindset. Try changing your mindset to "having fun" and "relaxing with friends" and see if that changes your attitude. My first character is a sorceress, with the exception of a couple of spells, she is 99% pure CRB. She was challenging, enormously fun and had I made different choices when creating her wouldn't have been as fun. A lot of times it's about your feat, or spell or whatever choices that can make or break a character. I've seen bards played as pure support character and stood there in combat with a glass of wine and a guitar being support and helping that way. Not every character has to be the special snowflake that takes the spotlight. Sometimes it's nice to let others at the table shine instead of always having to be the special snowflake.
Instead of simply saying you don't know. Ask the player if the have the reference for said "fluffy item". If they don't suggest they email the local coordinator with their question. If they do have the reference read over it quick, give a "this is my interpretation but you may want to ask Local VO for clarification" comment. Makes for better community relations between GM and players. It is true that GMs are not required to buy every piece of Paizo paper available, as GMs we are looked at as someone that is able to interpret what is written on the pieces of Paizo paper.
What Jack said. We cannot, as GMS and coordinators, refuse a player a seat based on the GMs not having the references for the character they are playing. The GM is required to have the core assumption at the table. All other resources needed for a player to play his character is the responsibility of the player to provide should there be a question by the GM. The GM can always look at the PRD to bone up on the basics of the class; and if he has questions ask the player for the Occult book (or whatever book) reference for the class/feature. If the player cannot provide the reference then the GM can refuse to let that character be played or feature to be used. But as long as the player has the appropriate resources he should be allowed to sit and play
You might contact your local VC/VL/VA to see what is going on in the area that might have racial boons available. Smaller conventions get them, larger gamedays can get them. It's not just all about the larger conventions. But the local people will know better what's available in your area than I would. Thoughts about not liking crowds: My sister-wife hates crowds; with a passion beyond belief. She has massive social anxiety and doesn't like new people, let alone crowds of new people. I talked with her about Gencon when she showed a minor interest. Explained how it worked, how the crowds wouldn't be that overwhelming; etc.
She agreed to go, and did just fine (aside from some knee pain from not being able to find her brace). She marshaled so was constantly having new people coming up to her and she was having to interact with them. Her report was that Gencon "wasn't as bad as she thought it would be" which I'm taking as a win lol. I understand not liking crowds of people, perhaps getting together with someone local who has been to the convention that can explain what you're going to be facing when walking in may help in getting in there and going for it. It may not (depends on your psyche I would suppose), but it may and that would open up more options for you than just what is available from the core and the guide (have you checked out the additional races available in the guide?
Eh, now that I look over it, we scheduled 36 tables (not sure if all of those fired) for Ropecon this year, inclusive of the 7 tables of Sky Key Solution - which took place a literal week before GenCon, by the way. We always miss out on the juicy new stuff because our big annual event is right before GenCon, so it actually feels really familiar to lose out on this special until next GenCon as well. I would have your local VC or coordinator talk to the region RVC. I'm not promising anything on behalf of the RVC, but it never hurts to ask; worse they can do is say no, best case exceptions can be made due to area. But you won't know until you ask
Another suggestion is to somehow have people able to help new players figure out how the whole chronicle thing works with their characters, especially those casual players who only play at cons. There is always the giant info booth at the front of the room; I know there was a challenge in having enough HQ and GM volunteers since we couldn't split out time and do both this year; setting aside more volunteers to just sit and wait for someone to come over isn't time/labor efficient
I'll let Bob, Jon, or Todd respond as I don't have the official answer for you.
Generics were held and seated on the hour .. any real tickets that came up after the slot start time (again on the hour) were considered late and were seated with the generic ticket holders.
You should have been seated right away as soon as there was a table for you to go to .. sorry that you were mis-informed. The caveat to that being if you had a ticket for scenario Y and were trying to get into scenario Z those we treated as generic tickets.
Lol .. it was a bit nippy .. even with all the people in there .. but for all the years we've complained about it being too hot, this was an improvement-- granted an over-improvement. We found cloaks which worked down in the vendor hall; but next time we'll have hoodies or something to throw on
One of the things I had started to bring with me was session sheets for everyone to sign, instead of printing the ones at the end of the scenario. These allowed you to do three at a time, instead of just one. Saves so much paper. Unfortunately, I can't do that any more. Recently, whenever I make an event, no session pages are made for me. I thankfully saved one from back in 2015, and I just cross everything out that's not relevant, but I liked having those available. If we change up factions again, I'll be doing a lot more crossing out. Also, once you have reported the "fake" table, save the pdf copy of the tracker sheet to your desktop or another appropriate folder and then you always have it available to print out and don't have to continually re-download it lol
I tend to have different needs depending on the role As coordinator: I have a tote box with all my books
My GM stuff fits in a large military pack my binder of characters
So if I don't buy all the needes flip maps (for I think 3 scenarios, that'd get expensive), I should bring a blank grid then? Haven't looked to see what maps are used in mine, but my luck not a single flip map will be used in multiple scenarios lol You'll need to make sure you have all the maps you'll need either hand drawn or flip-map/map-pack format. Don't plan on being able to get into the vendor hall on Thursday to pick up what you don't have; that's generally the worst day lol and the Paizo booth will be uber busy.
I don't know how my wife is going to feel about me farting in bed with another while alseep, I think that was even in our wedding vows.So how does the four-volunteer-GMs-to-a-room at the Westin work? Do they roll in a couple of sleeping cots or do you have to cozy up in one of the double beds with one of your just-met-five-minutes-ago roommates? Do I need to bring a sleeping bag? If you're wierded out at the thought of sharing; then bring a sleeping bag or air mattress. One can request a cot; but with the number of people they may or may not have enough to accommodate everyone and you may be left in the lurch if you don't plan ahead. In general though; by the time everyone gets to the room to crash for the night -- doing anything funny isn't even a thought as you are exhausted and just want to get your 3 hours of sleep before you get up to hit it for another day
If you buy a slotted ticket, they have the game that you are playing (i.e. 3/1 FrostPaw Captives Tier 15). If you buy generics they are just that you can use them for any event held at Gencon you aren't just limited to PFS events
I think you'll find a wide variety of acceptance within the larger PFS community. You asked us a question about what we would do. Several people told you they try to tailor their games or their gameplay to those at the table. I don't think a single person has told you that you are wrong in not creating a backstory, or wrong that you prefer the more tactical aspects. Personally when I first started GMing I really shied away from role play heavy social scenarios to GM because I wasn't good at it. I eventually got over it; but for a long time I much prefer the combat heavy scenarios because I was good at that. We would have gotten a long great then and we would get a long great now because I've grown as a GM and can tailor things better for the overall party make up. If you want to think that people are telling you that you are wrong then feel free, but no one has told you that you are wrong nor would they or should they in my opinion. People play differently, if we were all the same it would be pretty freaking boring. The one thing you have to remember going into PFS or any other organized play. The company is the ultimate GM and we are just players in their home game. They have rules for their home game just as any other home GM would have rules. To play at the table you have to abide by the rules. If you feel the rules ruin your gaming experience you have the option of walking away from the table.
The nature of the public forums (including facebook) is that if you ask an ambiguous question you are going to get more than you bargained for for as an answer. With that in mind with so many people that play this game and read and respond to posts on these forums (and facebook) you are inevitably going to come up with answers that either you don't like or cause you to question your original point of view. The best answer any one can give you is going to be from their personal experience and then simply to say that your personal mileage may vary as different GMs have different ways of handling things. No two GMs are going to give you the exact same answer or handle things in the exact same way. Asking for a black and white answer is going to get you all the grey in the world and never be clear; take what you want from the answers you were given to your question; but in the PFS side of Pathfinder things will vary, in the Pathfinder side of Pathfinder things will vary -- it's the nature of the game
I'm assuming we'll get the scenarios we're supposed to GM added to our downloads for free. When can we expect that to happen? I've got one that's already available, and pretty complicated, so I was hoping to start reading it very early, hopefully within the next week or two. Generally; in the past, it's happened w/in a couple weeks of the show. That might change this year, but err on the side of caution and assume it won't happen early
This is handy advice for players as well ... especially now that the paper copy requirement has been waived I'm sure we're going to be seeing a lot more players with only electronic character sheets -- but w/out that paper copy they could be in trouble.
hrm ... just cause I was curious .. I was doing some maths ... you might fight it cheaper to drive by the time you figure roughly 3 days on the road (2 nights in hotels); roughly 140 gallons in gas, food and drinks on the road -- and when I did the google search for distance it said flight started at 584 -- that's like an extra 200 you save by flying you can spend in the vendor hall lol
One thing; drinking is HUGE at Gencon -- and I'm sure I'll be contributing my share of the money, however, I do caution to pace yourself -- Doing anything (GMing, HQing etc) at Gencon while still hungover sucks.. I've done it (and like the ones that suggest not GMing ever slot) I don't recommend it lol
There is still a large core of GMs that do what needs to be done to get the Con to go off -- I remember my early days of conventioning and stepping up to make sure it happened.
Venture Officers can have private home/store games just the same as any other player can have private home/store games. They can also play PFS scenarios during these private events as well. The problem with this would come in if they were doing the private invite-only games in lieu of public games. As long as they are still supporting public games there should be no problems.
The major reason is that they fixed a lot of things with the Summoner class. If that is the one that you really want to play the best advice is going to be buy the book; you can get the PDF for not a whole lot of cash. Without knowing which books you got as there were different levels. The sorcerer is an awesome class and has summoning as well as the wizard.
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