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I guess this is a question equally for the staff of Paizo and GM's from last years PFS at GENCON. I'm starting my preps for GENCON 2010 as a PFS GM, and I've got some questions.
1. Are we required to print up our own session sheets for all adventures we may run? If so, by my calculations, assuming siz players a game for some weird reason, I'd need 60 sheets for each possible adventure, for a grand total of 720 sheets of paper. This, of course, assumes I only play one PFS adventure the entire time.
2. Speaking of which, to the GM's, when did you find out which scenarios you were running? Obviously, Josh and staff have some way of determining this, but I'm curious when you found out.
3. Do I need to provide my own faction mission sheets? Again, see question one for the # of paper's issue, but this time 1440 sheets of paper, since there are always at least two sheets for faction missions, and there's always the odd chance that everyone will be the same faction and want their own copy to read.
4. To the GM's, any general suggestions for running at the CON? I was there playing last year, and I noticed that GM's varied greatly in how they played, what material they brought, etc. I've been running 20+ years, but I wanted to get insight from people that have already run at the CON. I was planning on packing a rolling tote bag with what I'll need, and run from my laptop like I do at home to save on books and weight.
Thanks for the info.
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2. Speaking of which, to the GM's, when did you find out which scenarios you were running? Obviously, Josh and staff have some way of determining this, but I'm curious when you found out.
Last year we found out about a week or so before hand. We might have a little more time this year.
1. Are we required to print up our own session sheets for all adventures we may run? If so, by my calculations, assuming six players a game for some weird reason, I'd need 60 sheets for each possible adventure, for a grand total of 720 sheets of paper. This, of course, assumes I only play one PFS adventure the entire time.3. Do I need to provide my own faction mission sheets? Again, see question one for the # of paper's issue, but this time 1440 sheets of paper, since there are always at least two sheets for faction missions, and there's always the odd chance that everyone will be the same faction and want their own copy to read.
They will hand out session sheets. Mission sheet you will have to have, though what I did was print out those sheet and hand them out to the players at the beginning of the game and collected them after the introduction.
4. To the GM's, any general suggestions for running at the CON? I was there playing last year, and I noticed that GM's varied greatly in how they played, what material they brought, etc. I've been running 20+ years, but I wanted to get insight from people that have already run at the CON. I was planning on packing a rolling tote bag with what I'll need, and run from my laptop like I do at home to save on books and weight.
Be aware you may not have power to plug your laptop in, so that may not be the best idea depending on how long your battery will last.
I printed out the scenarios and put it in a small binder. I also scratched some notes from these message boards of things that people pointed out. I brought extra pencils and some paper and a small set of extra dice, though most people seemed on top of that stuff. I brought plastic minis for the monsters and a couple extras for the players just in case. Some sort of map(either a chessex mat, a flip-mat from Paizo or some of the gaming paper which can be re-used and will save time)
Other than that, Rulebooks, which is where the laptop will be useful if you have the pdfs as even just the Core, Bestiary, and APG will be a lot to lug around.
Also when Gen Con comes, don't be afraid to ask other GMs if you are missing something as everyone is really helpful.
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I guess this is a question equally for the staff of Paizo and GM's from last years PFS at GENCON. I'm starting my preps for GENCON 2010 as a PFS GM, and I've got some questions.
1. Are we required to print up our own session sheets for all adventures we may run? If so, by my calculations, assuming siz players a game for some weird reason, I'd need 60 sheets for each possible adventure, for a grand total of 720 sheets of paper. This, of course, assumes I only play one PFS adventure the entire time.
2. Speaking of which, to the GM's, when did you find out which scenarios you were running? Obviously, Josh and staff have some way of determining this, but I'm curious when you found out.
3. Do I need to provide my own faction mission sheets? Again, see question one for the # of paper's issue, but this time 1440 sheets of paper, since there are always at least two sheets for faction missions, and there's always the odd chance that everyone will be the same faction and want their own copy to read.
4. To the GM's, any general suggestions for running at the CON? I was there playing last year, and I noticed that GM's varied greatly in how they played, what material they brought, etc. I've been running 20+ years, but I wanted to get insight from people that have already run at the CON. I was planning on packing a rolling tote bag with what I'll need, and run from my laptop like I do at home to save on books and weight.
Thanks for the info.
1. I am not sure where your numbers are coming from. A session sheet is the tracking sheet for the players' PFS numbers. HQ provides each GM with one session sheet every slot. HQ also provides Chronicles for each table. You hand in your completed session sheet at the end of the slot.
2 & 3. Josh will determine what scenarios each GM will run. He will inform you via e-mail when the decision is reached. He will ensure that the scenario is in your downloads when it becomes available. It is your responsibility to print off the scenario and the faction missions for whatever scenarios you are assigned. Josh tries hard not to spread out the GMs over too many scenarios. I GMed 7 slots last year and he assigned me two scenarios. This really helps.
4. My advice is to come prepared but travel light. There's not a lot of room around the tables to store bags and boxes. Bring appropriate minis and bring extras for the players, who inevitably don't bring theirs. Drawing your maps ahead of time or having some sort of pre-printed map is wise. Get as much sleep as you can, your voice will be hoarse by the end of the con because you have to talk over the din. Be prepared for the players to be creative and to try and go off the script.
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1. I am not sure where your numbers are coming from. A session sheet is the tracking sheet for the players' PFS numbers. HQ provides each GM with one session sheet every slot. HQ also provides Chronicles for each table. You hand in your completed session sheet at the end of the slot.
2 & 3. Josh will determine what scenarios each GM will run. He will inform you via e-mail when the decision is reached. He will ensure that the scenario is in your downloads when it becomes available. It is your responsibility to print off the scenario and the faction missions for whatever scenarios you are assigned. Josh tries hard not to spread out the GMs over too many scenarios. I GMed 7 slots last year and he assigned me two scenarios. This really helps.
4. My advice is to come prepared but travel light. There's not a lot of room around the tables to store bags and boxes. Bring appropriate minis and bring extras for the players, who inevitably don't bring theirs. Drawing your maps ahead of time or having some sort of pre-printed map is wise. Get as much sleep as you can, your voice will be hoarse by the end of the con because you have to talk over the din. Be prepared for the players to be creative and to try and go off the script.
1. My bad, I met the Chronicle Scenario Sheet. Good to know that Paizo supplies these. I thought they did, but best to ask.
2&3. Very helpful. My friend and I were discussing how we were going to go about this, since there'll be 12 scenarios this year, and that'd be a lot of mini's to prep.
4. Thus why I'm sending out the request for info. I don't want to travel heavy. I was planning on using the Chessex map except where flip-mats will be useful. I'm curious what size I should bring, since I remember the tables were a decent size last year. I'm think my standard map might be too big, though. As for sleep, looks like I'll be going back on caffine for the CON, as I volunteered for all 10 slots. I think I'll be regretting that later on, but hey, I'm a glutton for punishment, and I enjoy running. As to creative players, my group makes me flex my brain and creativeness continously, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue.
Tangible, yeah, I don't remember many power plugs. I'll just have to bring my books, and gamble that I can get a table next to the wall. Four books will be very heavy (Core, GM, Beast, Advanced PHB) to carry every day. I hope I can use the laptop though. It's my brain for playing , and SO incredibly useful.
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All good advice,
I would like to add, if you are flying in from Europe, and arriving late Wed, don't go out with Daigle, Boomer and crew and get drunk when you are still on Europe time, the morning is a b**%@! * Still made my game and ran beautifully!*
LOL!! No, coming for Norfolk, VA. No time shift necessary. And I'm not a party person. Sleep is WAY too valuable.
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Four books will be very heavy (Core, GM, Beast, Advanced PHB) to carry every day. I hope I can use the laptop though.
What I recommend doing is to print off (draft quality) a page for each monster in the Bestiary you will need for the scenario. This might add to your printing costs but it will spare you from having to open up the Bestiary each time you need to look up a monster. Heck, if you're super-tight you can just cut-and-paste the stat block onto a single Word document. You will spend more time throwing dice instead of navigating between PDF screens.
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Hmm...
I was trying to remember how big the tables were last year.
I recently discovered how clever paizo was at making their maps
a) layered in pdf so that you can pull it out without the spoilers
b) easily scalable in gimp/ps
c) absolutely beautiful (okay, I already knew that one).
What that means is that it is easy to clip those maps out, scale them up in gimp/ps, and print them out using something like poster razor that breaks them up into several 8-1/2 x 11 or 11 x 17 sheets for easy connecting.
The other thing, though, is that those nice big set pieces can take up a LOT of table space.
I ran a few at a local con last weekend, and found that some of those maps (Pallid Plague, I am looking at you) can eat up a lot of real estate.
On the other hand, they look FANTASTIC when scaled out and printed, and the players really seemed to respond to those maps.
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Four books will be very heavy (Core, GM, Beast, Advanced PHB) to carry every day. I hope I can use the laptop though.What I recommend doing is to print off (draft quality) a page for each monster in the Bestiary you will need for the scenario. This might add to your printing costs but it will spare you from having to open up the Bestiary each time you need to look up a monster. Heck, if you're super-tight you can just cut-and-paste the stat block onto a single Word document. You will spend more time throwing dice instead of navigating between PDF screens.
That is a most excellent suggestion!
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If you have the time, some spare cardstock, and glue, you can use the paper fold-ups from Fat Dragon Games to create some custom battle maps. They have both 3D and 2D product. I started using some of this for my weekly society game and the feedback was positive. The visual affects helped keep everyone focused on the game and reduced the amount of unrelated table talk. Really saves those of us with limitied artistic ability from having to draw (hack) something out on a blank map.
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What that means is that it is easy to clip those maps out, scale them up in gimp/ps, and print them out using something like poster razor that breaks them up into several 8-1/2 x 11 or 11 x 17 sheets for easy connecting.
gimp/ps?
poster razor?Like the idea of print maps up, and then putting them on card stock. If I'm careful enough, I can piece them together like a puzzle as the players explore...
Director of Narrative
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What that means is that it is easy to clip those maps out, scale them up in gimp/ps, and print them out using something like poster razor that breaks them up into several 8-1/2 x 11 or 11 x 17 sheets for easy connecting.
gimp/ps?
poster razor?
GIMP is a free photo manipulation program. PS is short for Photoshop
I’ve never used this, but I googled PosterRazor, and now I want to play with it.|
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What that means is that it is easy to clip those maps out, scale them up in gimp/ps, and print them out using something like poster razor that breaks them up into several 8-1/2 x 11 or 11 x 17 sheets for easy connecting.
gimp/ps?
poster razor?GIMP is a free photo manipulation program. PS is short for Photoshop
I’ve never used this, but I googled PosterRazor, and now I want to play with it.
Poster Razor is really handy for these big maps. It takes most image formats (.png, .jpg, et cetera) and breaks them into manageable chunks, then spits them out to a .pdf file for easy printing. You can fiddle around with the overlap and the scale, and the output is nice and clean.
Once you print it out, it's just a little work with tape and you have nice maps.