CEO
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To all my fellow Paizocon convention goers!
From myself and all the staff at Paizo, we want to thank y'all for an amazing weekend of fun and games. I haven't had that much fun in a long, long time and look forward to seeing all of you at Paizocon 2010! We are truly honored to have such an intelligent, creative, and friendly group of friends and customers here on paizo.com. Thanks again for the amazing weekend!
-Lisa
Contributor
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To all my fellow Paizocon convention goers!
From myself and all the staff at Paizo, we want to thank y'all for an amazing weekend of fun and games. I haven't had that much fun in a long, long time and look forward to seeing all of you at Paizocon 2010! We are truly honored to have such an intelligent, creative, and friendly group of friends and customers here on paizo.com. Thanks again for the amazing weekend!
-Lisa
Right back at you, Lisa. I think it's a safe bet that every Paizo fan who attended was blown away. And thank you all for putting out such a high-quality product. Paizo wouldn't have so many "intelligent, creative, and friendly" fans without a product and company philosophy that encouraged those same elements.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Right back at you, Lisa. I think it's a safe bet that every Paizo fan who attended was blown away. And thank you all for putting out such a high-quality product. Paizo wouldn't have so many "intelligent, creative, and friendly" fans without a product and company philosophy that encouraged those same elements.To all my fellow Paizocon convention goers!
From myself and all the staff at Paizo, we want to thank y'all for an amazing weekend of fun and games. I haven't had that much fun in a long, long time and look forward to seeing all of you at Paizocon 2010! We are truly honored to have such an intelligent, creative, and friendly group of friends and customers here on paizo.com. Thanks again for the amazing weekend!
-Lisa
What she said!
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Right back at you, Lisa. I think it's a safe bet that every Paizo fan who attended was blown away. And thank you all for putting out such a high-quality product. Paizo wouldn't have so many "intelligent, creative, and friendly" fans without a product and company philosophy that encouraged those same elements.
Ditto a second time.
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To all my fellow Paizocon convention goers!
From myself and all the staff at Paizo, we want to thank y'all for an amazing weekend of fun and games. I haven't had that much fun in a long, long time and look forward to seeing all of you at Paizocon 2010! We are truly honored to have such an intelligent, creative, and friendly group of friends and customers here on paizo.com. Thanks again for the amazing weekend!
-Lisa
Thanks to you and all the great folks at Paizo for all the hard work y'all put in to pull this together this year. It was great meeting y'all and I look forward to getting back out here next year. You folks throw a hell of a shindig!
Thanks also to all the special guests. Wolfgang, Monte, Sue, Boomer and all the rest of y'all really made this a great experience and I hope y'all are back again next year.
Lou, Sharak (hope I spelled your name correctly man) and Boomer, if you are here next year, I would love to get into a game with y'all.
If you *don't* hold it next year I hope you've got room in the employee breakroom for a couple hundred fans to hang out for a few days. :) It really was a great show. See you next year.
M
To Lisa: I absolutely agree with Immora. There's a completely different vibe, philosophy, and "je ne sais quoi" that just sets Paizo and PaizoCon apart. A lot of it is how Paizo listens to its customers. It's also how your entire staff interacts with us. I also think the answers you gave in various panels about how Paizo has grown, your experiences over all your years in the industry, and Paizo's future plans for handling growth...all hammer home to me that the philosophy embodied by you and Paizo not only makes "sense"...it also feels "right"...and that attracts all of us to become fans, supporters, and ultimately customers.
You attract some of the best fans, freelancers, and customers, because frankly you're one of the best companies...and you have the best staff in the world. I know it's a business. And you guys run it well. But you run it in a manner that doesn't make it feel like it's just a business to those on the outside looking in. And everyone loves that about Paizo. Me especially. Here's to the continued success of Paizo and PaizoCon!
My two-cents,
--Neil
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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To Lisa: I absolutely agree with Immora. There's a completely different vibe, philosophy, and "je ne sais quoi" that just sets Paizo and PaizoCon apart.
Everything that Neil said is right on the button, but this first statement made me think of one thing in particular. Jason B. was talking about the nutty flavor text for the marvelous pigments magic item, applied with bristles attached to a stick or twig... "LIKE A BRUSH?" said everyone who saw it. But then you looked back through the game, saw that for whatever reason it had been that way in EVERY VERSION OF THE ITEM EVER, and said, "yknow what, screw it, we're leaving it like that" - everyone laughed and cheered and I was sitting next to Erik Mona and I said to him, "See, that's why Paizo is awesome."
It's fundamentally a meaningless detail, just an amusing quirky little spot in the rules, something that could be said in one word rather than ten, but Paizo is okay with preserving some of the quirks and spots and little oddball wrinkles. In fact, they get it that those kinds of imperfections are what make the game perfect! It is BECAUSE of little bits like that that D&D the Paizo way doesn't feel over-cultivated, overproduced, sterile, whatever word you want to use. The game is perfect when it is lived-in, a real game for real people who like to have real fun. This is not a game to put in a glass case. This is a game to be played and that HAS BEEN PLAYED.
And I guess old-timers like me at least LIKE having those funny little nuggets in there, like a touchstone to the first time our imaginations swung a sword, conquered a kingdom, or looted a lair.
In the words of The Jade..."You rocketh mightily!"
It was fabulous meeting all of the Paizo staff, including some of the ones I hadn't before (yay PostMonster!) as well as the plethora of new folks from the messageboards I hadn't met before.
Hugs (and backrubs) for everybody - I hope you have a safe trip home!
Not at all. Complete agreement from me on that.
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CEO
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Thanks to you and all the great folks at Paizo for all the hard work y'all put in to pull this together this year. It was great meeting y'all and I look forward to getting back out here next year. You folks throw a hell of a shindig!
This is a good place to give a big shout out to Josh Frost for organizing Paizocon. None of us have ever thrown a convention before. Sure, I've been to many of them in the past, but not doing all the nitty gritty that putting on a convention of any size needs. Josh threw himself into this task on top of his normal workload AND on top of organizing GenCon, and I was very happy with the results. You couldn't see the late nights Josh put in last week making sure everything was ready. All in all, I think Josh deserves a level or two in the convention organizer class. :)
I also want to mention the hard work of other folks. Jeff Alvarez also put in some late nights and early mornings helping Josh wrangle things for the show. Erik put a lot of hours into the Interactive, the trivia contest, and of course, his own game that he ran at the con. The rest of the editorial staff wrote scenarios, painted miniatures, and organized panels on top of their already crazy, crazy schedules. Gary and Ross worked hard to get all the code in place so you could register for games, get tickets, get badges, and buy stuff in our store. Sarah and James made sure we had all the graphics we needed for the show. Chris and Dave made sure we had cash and change for the store. Our super-awesome Customer Service team made sure that games got switched, badges got to the right people, and that everybody was happy. And our warehouse staff packed up all the stuff that we needed to take to the show and had it ready for me on Friday morning. All in all, it was a huge team effort. Special thanks to Vic for manning the booth on Sunday so I could sit and smooze with everyone and drink some of that amazing Pathfinder beer!
Thanks to all for a great con. You can bet that Paizocon 2010 will happen and it will be even better!! Josh, you better get to work pronto! :)
-Lisa
A big GRACIAS to all Paizo Staff. I'm already planning our visit to PaizoCon 2010 :D
It wa awesoe, true, I was there
*sends $25 for LIKE A BRUSH T-shirt*
The ball is already rolling on PAIZOCON3: The Revenge. We have a meeting about it this week, in fact. And you can bet your asses I'll be the master of ceremonies for next year's banquet--start studying now, the questions will be HARDER.
Everyone at Paizo helped me make this the best show possible and they all deserve accolades for their assistance, advice, and hard work. In particular, Jeff Alvarez was up with me and stayed late with me nearly every morning and night and he was a Big Damn Hero(Tm) in my book. When Erik quoted Kyle Hunter at the banquet and said, "Jeff Alvarez is responsible for everything at Paizo that is real and not hidden away in someone's head" he's right. Thanks, Jeff!
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Were I to detail all the Awesome Points of this Con, I would never stop writing.
Everyone was awesome. I am normally pretty reclusive when it comes to Cons, but I do not regret coming to this one in any way. Every minute was worth it, every lost hour of sleep (and there were many) was worth it, spending 4-5 hours in the same spot just bulls***ing with people was worth it (or schmoozing, as the awesome Cosmo would put it).
It was all. Awesome.
And now I know how many awesome people are in my area. I may have to move my Society games down to Genesis Games & Gizmos instead of hiding them at my house.
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Were I to detail all the Awesome Points of this Con, I would never stop writing.
Everyone was awesome. I am normally pretty reclusive when it comes to Cons, but I do not regret coming to this one in any way. Every minute was worth it, every lost hour of sleep (and there were many) was worth it, spending 4-5 hours in the same spot just bulls***ing with people was worth it (or schmoozing, as the awesome Cosmo would put it).
It was all. Awesome.
I am known to be kinda shy and I can honestly say, that I could not be shy there. Everyone was just too cool for words and I really don't know how to express my thanks for that honestly. It was the single best con experience I've ever had. Between having my little prestige class "published" in the wayfinder and doing all of the great game with Jason Buhlman, Jason Nelson, Boomer, and Lilith. It was a vast amount of... well, awesome. ^_^
And now I know how many awesome people are in my area. I may have to move my Society games down to Genesis Games & Gizmos instead of hiding them at my house.
3G always makes me feel as if I'm not welcome, so I don't go there anymore, sadly. And the place we did go got closed down for obscurity.
Our late summer east coast thing is Gen Con, unfortunately. While fans can certainly put something together (like the folks at PaizoCon UK have done) I don't see us doing a fan con outside of Seattle any time soon.
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Chief Technical Officer
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Jason B. was talking about the nutty flavor text for the marvelous pigments magic item, applied with bristles attached to a stick or twig... "LIKE A BRUSH?" said everyone who saw it. But then you looked back through the game, saw that for whatever reason it had been that way in EVERY VERSION OF THE ITEM EVER, and said, "yknow what, screw it, we're leaving it like that" - everyone laughed and cheered and I was sitting next to Erik Mona and I said to him, "See, that's why Paizo is awesome."
It's fundamentally a meaningless detail, just an amusing quirky little spot in the rules, something that could be said in one word rather than ten, but Paizo is okay with preserving some of the quirks and spots and little oddball wrinkles. In fact, they get it that those kinds of imperfections are what make the game perfect! It is BECAUSE of little bits like that that D&D the Paizo way doesn't feel over-cultivated, overproduced, sterile, whatever word you want to use. The game is perfect when it is lived-in, a real game for real people who like to have real fun. This is not a game to put in a glass case. This is a game to be played and that HAS BEEN PLAYED.
And I guess old-timers like me at least LIKE having those funny little nuggets in there, like a touchstone to the first time our imaginations swung a sword, conquered a kingdom, or looted a lair.
I was sitting with Monte and Sue Cook, and after Jason told that story, Monte said that they went through the exact same process and came to the exact same conclusion when they were working up marvelous pigments for 3rd Edition.
Our late summer east coast thing is Gen Con, unfortunately. While fans can certainly put something together (like the folks at PaizoCon UK have done) I don't see us doing a fan con outside of Seattle any time soon.
Speaking of Fan organised:-
If you are in Sydney on the 21/06/2009 there is a casual Pazionian Pub gathering at lunch time, at the Royal Exhibition on Chalmers Street in Surrey Hills near central station.
The Mothman, Flash, Dementrius, Chubbs, and myself are going. All are welcome if you can make it please come along.
Attended Paizocon and truly had a wonderful time. Was great meeting all the talented Paizo staff, Erik (spelled it correctly), Joshua, Jeff, Cosmo, Chris and especially enjoyed my chat with gregarious Lisa Stevens.
My son and I, gamed, painted minis, and sat in on conferences with Wolfgang Baur, Sean K, Reynolds and also a real special thanks to James Jacobs for signing the fiendish T-Rex!
The Previews Banquet was a wonderful event, a lot of fun – the trivia contest a hoot, our table “Hot Cross Buns” contributed a memorable answer: not the RED Revolution, but aptly suggested as “Dance, Dance”. We’ll get them next year guys!
I was able to peruse Hugo Solis’ amazing portfolio, what a talented artist. Thanks for sharing!
And thanks for showcasing the Combat Tiers, truly a pleasure doing business with Paizo. We had a great four days, and we will make plans to make Paizocon an annual event we will not miss.
Thanks to everyone that really put in the effort to make a memorable, fun and well organized event.
J.
Tinkered Tactics
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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I was sitting with Monte and Sue Cook, and after Jason told that story, Monte said that they went through the exact same process and came to the exact same conclusion when they were working up marvelous pigments for 3rd Edition.Jason B. was talking about the nutty flavor text for the marvelous pigments magic item, applied with bristles attached to a stick or twig... "LIKE A BRUSH?" said everyone who saw it. But then you looked back through the game, saw that for whatever reason it had been that way in EVERY VERSION OF THE ITEM EVER, and said, "yknow what, screw it, we're leaving it like that" - everyone laughed and cheered and I was sitting next to Erik Mona and I said to him, "See, that's why Paizo is awesome."
It's fundamentally a meaningless detail, just an amusing quirky little spot in the rules, something that could be said in one word rather than ten, but Paizo is okay with preserving some of the quirks and spots and little oddball wrinkles. In fact, they get it that those kinds of imperfections are what make the game perfect! It is BECAUSE of little bits like that that D&D the Paizo way doesn't feel over-cultivated, overproduced, sterile, whatever word you want to use. The game is perfect when it is lived-in, a real game for real people who like to have real fun. This is not a game to put in a glass case. This is a game to be played and that HAS BEEN PLAYED.
And I guess old-timers like me at least LIKE having those funny little nuggets in there, like a touchstone to the first time our imaginations swung a sword, conquered a kingdom, or looted a lair.
That's an amusing and wonderful concidence. Alas, that mindset and love perhaps left along with the folks who were there at the time, and are now mostly off at other companies (including starting their own), and that legacy that some of us wish were still at the heart of the World's Most Popular Role-Playing Game (TM, All Rights Reserved), Pathfinder is ready and waiting to carry it on. You could do a lot worse than to follow in Monte's footsteps...
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Director of Narrative
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Thanks for throwing such an amazing con and thanks, of course for making the games that drew us all there to begin with. There's not much I can add that hasn't already been said, but I think that this weekend was the perfect convention. The size was spectacular and was something I heard people saying the whole weekend.
It was great putting faces with the names and getting to talk to everyone. I couldn't make it 20 feet down the hall without ending up in a conversation with someone. I'm already looking forward to next year and PaizoCon served as a delicious appetizer to seeing a number of familiar faces at GenCon this August.
...as Pathfinder is ready and waiting to carry on that legacy of awesome.True.
I was there
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My absolute only regret is that during the "Building a Pathfinder Scenario" session I didn't quite get my earmuffs up in time when Joshua Frost said something to the effect of "....like how at the end of Rise of the Runelords you find out that the whole thing **** **** *** ****<insert evil villian's name>."
Guess I should have found out about Paizo sooner so I could have finished playing through that scenario.
And it isn't even a really big regret because I can't remember the name he said. I know it wasn't Scott though.
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Chief Technical Officer
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My absolute only regret is that during the "Building a Pathfinder Scenario" session I didn't quite get my earmuffs up in time when Joshua Frost said something to the effect of "....like how at the end of Rise of the Runelords you find out that the whole thing **** **** *** ****<insert evil villian's name>."
Guess I should have found out about Paizo sooner so I could have finished playing through that scenario.
And it isn't even a really big regret because I can't remember the name he said. I know it wasn't Scott though.
I think it was "Skot."
OR CKOTT.
ROAR.
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Director of Brand Strategy
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Guess I should have found out about Paizo sooner so I could have finished playing through that scenario.
What's important is that you know about Paizo now. And I can say, as someone GMing RotR at the moment, the AP is still 100% mysterious, fun and dangerous even if you know the BBEG's name. Getting from point A to point Z requires much more than a nametag. This isn't Rumplestitzkin. ;-)
+1 to all sentiments. It was worth the 2433 mile round trip, driving a manual transmission with one foot for all 3 pedals (yeah, I had the broken leg)! An adventure in itself, to say the least.
It was like making two hundred friends at once. I wish you all great joy with the new PRPG, and I hope we can all meet again next year!
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I wanted to echo what everyone has said here already. Thank you, paizo, for being so absolutely intelligent, real, awesome, and inspiring. I think this year was an unique experience, and simply getting to meet all of the Paizo staff, special guests, and other con goers (conmen? Con enthusists? Paizo fans?) has made it all worth it.
Thanks All! had a blast looking forward to next year, Amazing job Jeff and Josh! Erik, next time I get you and your little shadow boy too!
Another +1 (I hope they stack). I had a great time, and I look forward to being at next year's PaizoCon.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Thanks All! had a blast looking forward to next year, Amazing job Jeff and Josh! Erik, next time I get you and your little shadow boy too!
Larry, you also get a thumbs-up for me for surrendering your seat at the Meet & Eat so I could sit with my fiancee. Electronic high five!
Larry was awesome cool like that the whole convention.
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Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder
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I must echo the sentiments of everyone before me...I had a blast. That was the most fun I have ever had at a con. Sets the bar at an unreal level now.
This was more than I could have ever imagined. When Josh took me to lunch and told me that Paizo wanted to run Paizocon, it took me a whole 3 seconds to say, "YES!!"
When we met again at a later date, and he told me the guest list, and said, "Monte and Sue Cook" I was simply stunned (only 1 round though). At the first Paizocon, several of us were actually joking that maybe 10 years or so, we'd maybe get Monte Cook to come.
Year...2.
And the whole thing just got bigger and better and better and better. Paizo has a habit of doing that. ;-)
Thanks, Josh. And Jeff. And Gary. And Lisa. And Vic. And Erik. And Jason. And James J. And James S. And Wes. And Sean. And Cosmo. And Alison. And James D. And Chris. And....well, OK, and everyone else at Paizo. I do mean EVERYONE.
It's true.
And, as I said at the banquet, and to many of you I chatted with this weekend, THANK YOU for coming. Every year we do this, the Paizo community gets closer and closer. We are no longer avatars, or virtual friends, or "chat buddies". We are a community of bright, talented, and HIGHLY entertaining people that add to each other's lives.
I made a lot of new friends this year...one could say some AWESOME friends. I can't wait to see them again next year.
Aww Sucks Jason and Niel! It was amazing to meet you guys in person, I am serious everyone was amazing. A shout out to Sean, Russ, [Niel S (who saved my butt for my Dming!), Kortes] [Canadian Mood], Lilith, Tim, Hugo, god I am going to be here for ever. Boomer's GF a BIG thank you!!!! Also Lou A. I appreciate the talk we had! oh ya I guess Boomer too. Rob M, sorry I spent so little time with you at the con.... Erik thanks for the Nex memories, an honor to maybe one of the first to pierce the spire....James Jacobs,I am sooooo getting in touch with you, Monte for your Texas prison story, Bulhman, for the "like a brush, and old friends on facebook stories, Sue for the amazing tips on writing, and also to Josh Frost, thank you for telling me like it is and pushing me, also, kudos to your MC skills! Everyone thanks, Ted you are very gracious and I think a cyborg, did you ever sleep? Oh and Vaughn I think I answered your question on why the blue man does not conjure pants...eh? Chris we HAVE to play CotCT together one day! da ogre family thanks for the chats. Hugo wow amazing job, to the peuruvians (you know ronnie james dio and his princess!) sorry I forgot your names.
I have to say my highlight for PFS was getting to DM a family and an aberduke through PFS #24 it was great, you players made my GMing experience fun!!!!!
Kat and I just staggered in the door and settled in. Once we assured the dogs that we were back and not going to leave them again any time soon I had to jump on here and check in.
I'd also like to extend my thanks to Joshua and the entire Paizo crew for one hell of a weekend. We arrived with one check-in bag and one carry-on and left with twice that, thanks to all the free swag, prizes, and of course all the stuff that's much easier to resist buying when I don't have it sitting in my hot little hands. Add friendly folks, great gaming sessions, and an amazingly fun banquet, and I can safely say its the best weekend I've had in a long, long time.
Got home myself about two hours ago, after avoiding all the rush hour traffic in both Seattle and Portland area (woot!). Made great time getting back. I miss all you guys already!
I had a great time in the half-dozen hours I was there. It was one of the most relaxing and enjoyable conventions I've been at in some time. I especially liked meeting Adam Daigle and Lilith and Friadoc and the other folks I only knew as their screen names. Good times.
And special kudos to the Shackletons for teaching me the three words I didn't know I desperately longed to hear: LIVE ACTION YETISBURG! (I got a hobby horse!)
Thanks to Josh for letting me in the door, and Jason for not chasing me back out through it. But not for lack of trying.
Mike
Best Convention Ever!
While I enjoy the size and diversity of Gen Con, it was truly awesome to spend a few days with a couple hundred friends who all love the same game, setting, stories, and adventures.
Thanks to Greg for Black House (Call of Cthulhu with only one character death) and Tomb of the Sleeping Knight (where he made up for it with 5 PC deaths). Thanks to Jason for Cursed Lot (I don't remember what happened, though, and I keep hearing this barking noise behind me). Thanks to DragonBelow for Terminator True20 and Majuba for Tide of Morning (and goblin brains). Thanks to all my fellow players for the good fellowship and entertaining memories.
A huge thank you to the Paizo staff and volunteers for the Interactive, the Banquet, and organizing the convention. You all are Big Damn Heroes in my book.
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God, I'm just happy to be back at work so I can get some rest! ;)
It was a phenomenally great time and wonderful to meet you all! Thanks for so much fun! On the pro end: Lisa, EriC (heh heh), Jason, Vic, and y'all, and on the pro fan end: Liz, Tim, Immora, and everyone else who got this together... you are all awesome!
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I just thought I should pipe in as well and thank the entire crew of Paizo and the entire non-crew of Paizo that helped to put this together. My only experience with cons so far has left me with a bit wanting after leaving... well PaizoCon '09 was absolutely nothing like that. It was amazing to meet gamers that actually knew what they were doing, and even better to meet the people that are putting together the products that you absolutely love. It also is great to sit down and talk with someone for a few minutes without even realizing that the person you're talking to wrote your favorite things! (Yeah, I sucked at recognizing people...)
I'll definitely be coming next year, and can only hope we can have the same kind of small gathering next year as it was this year (even if not... it'll still be worth it).
Oh and ditto on wanting a "Like a Brush?" T-shirt.
Yes, thanks to all the Paizo staff! I'm new to Paizo and Pathfinder, but am enjoying it immensely. It's been years since I went to an RPG con, and this was 3 days of true fun.
Thanks and I can't wait 'til next year!