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What is the procedure for becoming a society GM and is there a submission? I recently attended 2010 Gencon and Mr. Frost seemed like he could use more GM's. What is the procedure to become an event GM for example say Gencon 2011? How do I volunteer for other cons to GM society in other places? I live in Prescott Arizona and may be ignorant but do I have a regional quardinator I would direct this line of questioning too?
Any information is greatly appreciated.
Page 26 of the Guide to the Pathfinder Society details your duties as a GM for PFS games. Becoming a Society GM is basically the same as GMing a regular game for your home group or for a group at a local game shop. If you go to the Pathfinder Society main page, there are links there for creating and reporting events and for purchasing the scenarios.
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I live in Prescott Arizona and may be ignorant but do I have a regional quardinator I would direct this line of questioning too?
In addition to the information provided by others already, initial appointments of Regional Coordinator positions should be announced my mid-September, and Phoenix is on the list to get one.
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What is the procedure for becoming a society GM and is there a submission? I recently attended 2010 Gencon and Mr. Frost seemed like he could use more GM's. What is the procedure to become an event GM for example say Gencon 2011? How do I volunteer for other cons to GM society in other places? I live in Prescott Arizona and may be ignorant but do I have a regional quardinator I would direct this line of questioning too?
Any information is greatly appreciated.
The procedure for becoming a society GM is to read the OP Guide and start GMing. Quite seriously, it's that easy. I run a regular home game and will be branching out to running another local game this weekend and my only qualification is that I wanted to GM (and I read that guide).
As far as running at Gen Con, it's all up to Josh. He will ask for volunteers to run games about five months early and then make his picks almost immediately. When Gen Con rolls around, you show up, Josh assumes you know what you're doing, and you GM. It really is that simple. As far as other cons with OP not run by Paizo, it's best to find out who the coordinator is for that con and work with them. If there is no coordinator, that's a perfect opportunity to become one! Again there's no real interview or qualification process; if you want to run a convention, you simply run a convention.
As far as the regional coordinator goes, Josh will be picking those mid next month. Once we know who our regional coordinators are, working with them to GM is going to be a great option.
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+1 to what Mr. Slanky said, same process for me.
I'll make that a +2.
If you've never GM-ed Pathfinder before, you might want to try running a few non-society 'home games' with some of your buddies, just to get a good feel for the rule-set before things become official.
Aside from that, the more GM-experience you build-up BEFORE Con season, the better. Things can get hectic at cons, and you'll want to be prepared and confident to handle all the possibilities that can come-up.
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+1 to what Mr. Slanky said, same process for me. I'd guess that in the future that a one of the criteria for choosing Gen Con GMs will be amount of PFS games reported. And if that happened then that would be a good thing IMHO, it just shows that you have become comfortable running PFS games.
Which when you aren't the coordinator for you home games you're dependent upon someone else reporting for you that may or may not report.
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+1 to what Mr. Slanky said, same process for me. I'd guess that in the future that a one of the criteria for choosing Gen Con GMs will be amount of PFS games reported. And if that happened then that would be a good thing IMHO, it just shows that you have become comfortable running PFS games.
Wow, I hope not. I don't have time to participate regularly, but I usually do Gencon. It would suck to be frozen out because I don't have enough stars.
Quantity != quality.
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+1 to what Mr. Slanky said, same process for me. I'd guess that in the future that a one of the criteria for choosing Gen Con GMs will be amount of PFS games reported. And if that happened then that would be a good thing IMHO, it just shows that you have become comfortable running PFS games.Wow, I hope not. I don't have time to participate regularly, but I usually do Gencon. It would suck to be frozen out because I don't have enough stars.
Quantity != quality.
I would also imagine that working for Josh directly would also count for something. I know you bugleyman have done it for a couple of years.
But if we have more GMs than slots, I think that some experiance should count for something over those that have never run anything. IMHO, it would be a some stars over no stars rather than not enough stars.
And I have to say, this is just me guessing, I can't speak for Josh.
And while I don't think that Quantity != quality, I do think that
quantity = comfort, and that helps quality.
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I know that Josh was stretched thin for GMs this year, and this is nothing new. I know at least one GM who walked up & volunteered right at HQ. He was used. Josh always needs GMs. He'd prefer to use GMs who are well-versed in the rules, familiar with the OP system and have a star or two to their name but there's not a large enough supply to get that discriminating.
As an aside, I heard that the RPGA had 14 GMs fail to show at GenCon. Poor Dave! He doesn't deserve that.
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As an aside, I heard that the RPGA had 14 GMs fail to show at GenCon. Poor Dave! He doesn't deserve that.
Nobody deserves that... :-(
I would hope that someday we have more GMs than we need, but I'm guessing that as society play grows, that isn't likely to happen.
I think Josh will look at stars for people he doesn't know very well, but I would assume (which he will correct if I'm wrong) that he will look to other less quantitative factors. I'd suspect that people who have shown an interest in society, are (generally) helpful on the forums, and who he knows he can rely on due to other experiences with them GMing will get a nod over a stranger.
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Like staying up drinking when you should be sleeping. *glares at Quasi-Human*
I take offense at your accusations sir, and I demand an apology.
I never once stayed-up drinking when I should have been sleeping. I've stayed-up drinking, carousing, and talking waaayyy too loudly in your hotel room when YOU should have been sleeping.
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I know that Josh was stretched thin for GMs this year, and this is nothing new. I know at least one GM who walked up & volunteered right at HQ. He was used. Josh always needs GMs. He'd prefer to use GMs who are well-versed in the rules, familiar with the OP system and have a star or two to their name but there's not a large enough supply to get that discriminating.
Good to hear. I had to skip the con this year 'cause of school, but I'll be back next year. Not sure I'll do the eight slot thing again, but a slot or so a day would be about perfect.
As an aside, I heard that the RPGA had 14 GMs fail to show at GenCon. Poor Dave! He doesn't deserve that.
Ack. Agreed, no one deserves that. I wonder if it has anything to do with displeasure over the recent LFR changes?
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+1 to what Mr. Slanky said, same process for me. I'd guess that in the future that a one of the criteria for choosing Gen Con GMs will be amount of PFS games reported. And if that happened then that would be a good thing IMHO, it just shows that you have become comfortable running PFS games.Wow, I hope not. I don't have time to participate regularly, but I usually do Gencon. It would suck to be frozen out because I don't have enough stars.
Quantity != quality.
I would also imagine that working for Josh directly would also count for something. I know you bugleyman have done it for a couple of years.
But if we have more GMs than slots, I think that some experiance should count for something over those that have never run anything. IMHO, it would be a some stars over no stars rather than not enough stars.
And I have to say, this is just me guessing, I can't speak for Josh.
And while I don't think that Quantity != quality, I do think that
quantity = comfort, and that helps quality.
I guess I need to build up a few stars... :P
I have only ever turned away one GM from Gen Con volunteering and that was the result of player feedback from the previous year. While I will keep this avenue of determining my volunteer GMs open, I won't be applying any kind of test whatsoever to who GMs for me at Paizo Con or Gen Con.
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I have only ever turned away one GM from Gen Con volunteering and that was the result of player feedback from the previous year. While I will keep this avenue of determining my volunteer GMs open, I won't be applying any kind of test whatsoever to who GMs for me at Paizo Con or Gen Con.
GM Test:
Question 1: Are you Kyle
A) Yes
B) No
If A you Fail!
If B you Pass.
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Kyle's an amazing GM. :-) I give him a hard time (and he loves it!) but he's as solid as they come. And he's not a robot.
Kyle (cold) is the worst.
Kyle (incorporeal, extraplanar) is the best.
;-)