warfteiner's page

Falling attendance can be very worrisome, and there have been some awesome ideas up - it's great to see so many voices chime in.

The small village where I live and run most of my games has a permanent population of less than 3,000. We have one stoplight downtown, 5 bars, and - at last count - 7 churches all within about ten minutes of each other. I don't think that your immediate-vicinity population is super-important, to be honest. It's all in how you work with your community; the schools can be a huge boost if you address them respectfully and appropriately.

That said, we run the following in my store:

*) 1 table of PFS every Sunday (sometimes 2)
*) 1 table of Kingmaker, twice a month
*) 1 table of Shattered Star, twice a month
*) 2-3 homebrew games every week

*) plus all sorts of other systems several times a month

Creating tracking tools, like what nosig pointed out (nice description, btw; happen to have a doc you can share?), can be incredibly helpful. Some other things that I've discovered that have really helped us:

*) run We Be Goblins! at least once per quarter. It's a great "learn to play" tool, especially or younger players or for spouses that aren't quite sure what this gaming thing is all about
*) run WBG2 soon after if possible - this helps show that these games can maintain a narrative continuity
*) talk to your gamers, encourage them to bring snacks; this promotes social interactivity!
*) if you are the store owner or organizer, take time to sit with the players and play every so often, it's a huge morale boost

I've done some crazier things, as well. For example, when we were running a ton of D&D Encounters (5-6 tables each slot, 2 slots, for an entire season) I challenged my players to not miss a single game. They didn't. I picked up a pizza party, and a local pizza shop actually chipped in at $4/ pizza. For Pathfinder stuff, I challenged my players to help me set up a local miniconvention: last year, I scheduled 15 tables thinking I'd run 11 of them (ran 30!!); this year, I've got 50 tables scheduled.

If you work to build the community, the social side of the game, the players will flock to you. You need to ask yourself, though, how you plan to define that success:

are you successful when you run ALL THE TABLES in EVERY SLOT?

-or-

are you successful when your core group shows up regularly?

Good luck, all!

If we listen carefully, we may yet hear Sin's lilting cant. (nevermind that he lives several area codes away)

AND!

I promise that this will probably be the last time I bump this thread, what with Linkscon kicking off in less than 22 hours. ;)

See you all there!

Some of my most vocal, and regular, gamers are women. My wife, for example, gets incredibly perturbed when she misses a play opportunity ;)

The thing that I've found that works best is:

Remember that women who game are gamers.

They're not "one of the guys", or "unicorns", or "a minority in the industry". It's a throwaway to consider our gamers in terms of "young", "old", "male", "female" and so on - just treat them like they're gamers. The dice will roll, I promise you!

Recruiting female players for your table should take absolutely no special attention. As with any curious or reluctant potential dice-chucker, run a fun game with a great GM; "We Be Goblins!" has been instrumental in building my store's gaming group.

Hey all!

After the shenanigans of last year's LinksCon event, it is with no small amount of joy (and trepidation) that I am announcing...

LinksCon part 2: Even More LinksCon! (now with 51 tables)

If you find yourselves in the wilds of mid-Michigan in mid-May, we'd love to have you stop in and join us for a fantastic weekend of PFS gaming. Fowlerville, our base of operations, is a small town with great food, weird people, and a pretty sweet little candy shop right downtown.

WHAT: LinksCon
WHEN: May 8th - 11th, 2014 (Thursday night through Sunday night)
WHERE: Game Links, 140 E. Grand River Ave, Fowlerville, MI 48836
WHO: you, me, and a bunch of other dice-chucking people

Event summary on the Paizo calendar

THE WARHORNS! ALL OF THEM!

We're running a wider range of adventures this year than we did last year, but we're also going to be running the Battle Interactive on Saturday night. There is no door charge, but a $2 fee per slot played is required - $1 of that goes into store credit for you, and the $1 goes into your DM's store credit.

We are NOT collecting table fees from within Warhorn. Warhorn is merely a way to reserve a seat... so if you find that you cannot attend after you've signed up, please be so kind as to log in and remove your name from the list. We will be endeavoring to provide games to everyone throughout the weekend, so even if you're waitlisted please give us a shot - you might be surprised what our team can cook up.

FowlervillapaloozaCONamania!!!! (that one's just for you, Eric C.)

Hrm. Airfare to Florida isn't cheap, but this sounds like a blast. I love unexpected formats like this :)

.... oh wow, this means people are thinking of me? I MUST HIDE!

(and by hide, I mean run the games and make the words.... do stuff... for players... and whatnot)

Much appreciated! I'm very much looking forward to additional development here in central Michigan :)

Can our state of Michigan make touch attacks on Canada?

--> Yes, Michigan can make touch attacks on Canada. However, Canada can - and almost always will - respond with an opportunity action to chuck a member of Nickelback at us.

Does Michigan flank the Mackinac Bridge?

--> This is correct.

Do we get a bonus for higher ground against Ohio?

--> In spirit, yes. To be fair, everyone gets a bonus against Ohio. The reason really doesn't matter.

Is the upper peninsula the lower peninsula's eidolon?

--> Actually, no. Eidolons can improve over time by adding new abilities, features, and even spells (or spell-like abilities). As the upper peninsula is already maxed out on snowmobile trails, wolves, and drunken Michigan Tech students, there can be no further improvements to the peninsula. Maybe when Mythic Landmasses releases at some point in the future, though?

Is the Toledo Strip our familiar or animal companion?

--> The Toledo Strip is neither familiar nor natural. It is, in fact, a soulless aberration that even Ohio does not want back.

Can Michigan use Lay on Hands?

--> ... Michigan only has one hand, but it can high five Canada. In the face!

Is Michigan the karate chop of America if America was a monk?

--> It's more of an open-hand slap. Nonlethal damage, of course, but it has some severe stopping power if we invoke our Autoworker's Union Strike.

Do the great lakes give us a caster level bonus for water spells?

--> Even better: our water spells ignore SR, DR, and even common sense. Plus, they deal +1d20 zebra mussels per casting.

Hey all!

With Eric Clingenpeel recently being promoted to VC for central Michigan, I wanted to reach out to the community and share the fact that PFS is alive and kicking here in the middle of the mitten!

I had been running regular games at Game Links in Fowlerville (east of Lansing), and once I hit my 4th star I decided to take a couple months off. Now that that's done, we're screaming to go once more. We're looking to re-up our PFS GMs and keep the dice rolling.

There are a couple gameshops in Lansing that are also looking to expand their player and GM bases. While I can't speak for them directly, I do casually keep in touch with a couple of other organizers via Facebook and would be happy to get new, newly-returned, or curious gamers in touch with people that can make things happen here in our area.

Our events aren't always posted in this board, but if you check out the Michigan PFS site you should see what we have going across the state:

http://michiganpfs.org

I'm no VC, VL, or anything else (though I have other random letters that I can put on a business card, heh)... I'm just a guy with some books, some dice, and a desire to help people have a good time with other like-minded nerds.

Take care, and I hope to see more new faces at our gamedays. I'm open to scenario and module requests - keep in touch!

Hey all!

I've recently had a request to run some more Pathfinder Societies games in our shop (I guess 4 ongoing adventure paths and two tables of homebrew content aren't enough), so here's a public call for some upcoming level 1 and 2 events:

Sunday, February 3rd:
http://paizo.com/events/v5748mkg0aajl

First Steps, Part One

Sunday, February 17th:
http://paizo.com/events/v5748mkg0aakw

Crypt of the Everflame (pt. 1 of two)
NOTE: this is a module and will likely require two days of playtime, but yields 3xp to people that complete it!

Our games are held in the store in downtown Fowlerville, and are always free - unless of course we are holding a prize-laden event. This is a great opportunity for people to check out PFS and perhaps even play a module that you may have missed!

Game Links
140 E. Grand River
Fowlerville, MI 48836

PM me directly or respond to this thread if you have additional questions :)

I have to admit that I have some strange feelings about this contest, as well. I'm still fairly new to the whole "let's write stuff for world-wide organized play" game, and I'm excited to see how my own contribution ranks up against the rest of the competition.

I was really pleased to see such a wide variety of items, though I have to admit that that some really caught my eye more than others.

Winter Fantasy - D&D/ Pathfinder convention in Fort Wayne, IN - starts this week, and although the Top 32 are announced tomorrow at 5pm I have to leave for the 5 days of the show the next morning at 9am...

Gonna be a tough couple days if I actually make the cut. Not that I think I will, but still - it's fun to dream, eh? ;)

I'm very much looking forward to the voting period, for sure.

I submitted an item of my own - is the system intelligent in that it will not show you your own item, or does that not matter?

Also, if my - or any user's, really - item is disqualified for whatever reason, will I be notified prior to voting?

It would suck to be excited for the contest, only to never see my own magical doodad roll out.

Hey all -

The PFS presence in central Michigan is gathering traction, and I'd love to see some of the local GMs show up and swap stories - perhaps over dinner at a local buffet-style place? The target for this is Saturday, September 29th (5pm) in Lansing, Michigan.

I've organized events like this in the past and most venues are ok with us running a game as well, provided that we're courteous and we've all purchased our meals. Please get ahold of me directly if you're interested in attending so that I can make appropriate reservations.

I'd love to get at least a half dozen of us (more, actually - but as a first outing I'll take what I can get!) for a fun evening. Players are certainly welcome; players with an interest in GM'ing are encouraged to attend!

I'd love to get my regional VC/ VL people to come out as well and will be sending direct messages to them too.