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Pathfinder Society's regional coordinators—called "venture-captains" after their counterparts within the in-world Pathfinder Society—are vital to the success and growth of Pathfinder Society Organized Play throughout the world. We're always looking for more local and regional volunteers, many of whom have already been organizing Pathfinder Society Organized Play events since the very beginning. Below are the expectations of our Pathfinder Society Regional Coordinators.
The Pathfinder Society Organized Play Regional Coordinator is a volunteer position. Regional coordinators are not Paizo Publishing employees.
A Pathfinder Society Organized Play Regional Coordinator must be willing and able to fulfill a list of quarterly volunteer duties, including providing me with state of the region reports.
A Pathfinder Society Organized Play Regional Coordinator must always strive to act in a professional, positive, and outgoing manner when functioning in their capacity as volunteers for Paizo Publishing.
They help out stores with organizing game days, as well as answering questions for local players regarding Pathfinder Society. They also assist local conventions when they can.
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Hi,
Venture Captains get PDFs of all pathfinder stuff (scenarios, books, etc) and Venture Lieutenants get PDFs of all scenarios. There are some other perks as well. However, each VC or VL I know spends a lot of time doing stuff outside of playing/GMing. I know I spend time setting up gamedays at stores that are both PFS friendly and new to PFS, going to different conventions close and far, planning a release with a local store for the Beginnner Box Bash, and conference calls to go over stuff with the boss & other VCs.
As a player, if you have a question, you can always ask your VC/VL. These questions can vary from "where can I play a game next week?" to "when I roll a CMB to try and disarm someone, does it provoke an AoE?" The VCs/VLs are very open to talking to folks and would be willing to help you out as much as possible.
Do you have any specific questions?
Rene
I don't mean this in a negative way at all, but I've been curious for a bit. Not pointing fingers or saying this has happened but, what if:
1. The VC/VL doesn't know the rules well and makes no effort to learn them ?
2. The VC/VL purposefully excludes a store or ignores its efforts to host PFS games?
These aren't the kind of infractions that demand running to Mike Brock to report. They are more like a difference of priorities.
Venture-Captain, Missouri—Cape Girardeau
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Knowing ALL the rules is not a requirement for either a VC or a VL position, surprisingly. It is inherent that a working knowledge of the rules is possessed, since both positions require the individual to run at least one PFS session a month. I, for one, do not know ALL the rules... but I run a fun game and have learned how to improvise what I don't know, so as to not slow down the pace or exceed the time span for the game.
As for store interaction, again it is not required that a VC or VL run games at every store in their area. Communication with those stores is recommended, but since this is a volunteer position, you can't force a VC or VL to deal with every store. If a store has been adamantly resistant to allowing PFS play in the past, to continue to try to woo them into changing their mind. I had a local store that would not even consider PFS play, thinking that 4E and LFR would net him more in sales. I chose not to try to facilitate PFS play at his store after repeated attempts. Two years down the road, he now hosts an average of 4-6 PFS games a month in his store, gives the second biggest space in the local convention he hosts to PFS (Warhammer being #1), and recently just became a Registered Retailer.
I guess the question back is What do you, the players, perceive the role of the Venture Captains and Venture Lieutenants to be?
good stuff
This is exactly what I was looking for clarification on. Thanks.
I guess the question back is What do you, the players, perceive the role of the Venture Captains and Venture Lieutenants to be?
What I perceived at first was different than what I perceive now.
At first I thought the VC was the one that officially coordinated all the PFS content. That stores had to sign up with him/her and that he/she made the schedule of what scenarios/modules were going to be run. I thought that perspective GMs or stores would contact them and the VC would monitor what scenarios were being offered in the region to maximize the amount of play a Society member could participate in. (I learned long ago that first impressions can be deceiving so I waited to see what my VC actually did.)
Now I realize that the VC has nothing to do with the offering and scheduling of a PFS game, though they are a great asset to go through for such. A store with a volunteer GM can go to the Paizo site, register an event, host the tables, and report the event. The VC doesn't even have to know that the event existed.
So ultimately now I'm confused at what they are. I know what they get (red shirt, free pdf's, VC forum access), which I'm sure makes it easier to schedule Society game. But what actual requirements do they have?
So far I see from Mike and Rene:
- MUST report to Mike
- MUST have good conduct
- May help schedule game days
- May PR the Society
- May help at conventions
- May teach others the rules
That's much fewer MUST's that I was expecting. I guess I'm used to a less volunteer-approach were there are more absolute responsibilities given. Not that I'm complaining in any way.
Everything seems to be working fine.
to be willing to look that rule up
This is what I was referring to. It was not knowing AND not attempting to learn. I was trying to kindly say 'lying, making rules up, saying I don't know, look it up' without shading VCs in a bad light. I don't think any would, but my point was there was no official MUST about learning and teaching the rules to the GMs and players in an area.
With Society being a RAW-driven group with no leeway for GMs to modify scenarios, I just expected to see something more absolute in the way of VCs knowing and enforcing the rules.
(Then again, I'm LE by nature so don't mind me.)
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Venture-Captain, Missouri—Cape Girardeau
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I think I found what you were looking for in an old Paizo Blog. Here is the official stance on what is required of Venture Captains. Venture Lieutenants are held to a less strenuous set of requirements. Please remember that this is still a volunteer position
- Organize a minimum of two Pathfinder Society Organized Play convention or game store events per month in your local or regional area of responsibility.
- Attend PaizoCon or Gen Con and work for Paizo at one (or both) of those conventions annually. Non-USA regional coordinators will be expected to attend large local conventions to be named later.
- Maintain and update monthly a full report of local game stores including contact information, manager's name, what Paizo products they carry, and whether or not they're running Pathfinder Society Organized Play events (with or without your assistance). Work with these stores to ensure they are registered on paizo.com/paizo/about/retailers.
- Build a positive rapport with all local game store managers and employees.
- Provide the campaign coordinator with frequent feedback from game stores, volunteers, and players in your local area or region of responsibility.
- Be a Paizo Publishing product expert. Familiarize yourself with all of our product lines and be comfortable talking about all of them.
- Game Master a minimum of one Pathfinder Society Organized Play session per month.
- Participate daily on the Pathfinder Society Organized Play messageboards and on the private Regional Coordinator messageboard.
- Build and maintain monthly an email list of local volunteers.
- To the best of your ability, ensure that all Pathfinder Society Organized Play sessions run in your local area or region of responsibility are reported and reported accurately.
- Be the go-to contact for your local area or region of responsibility; assist local game days, game clubs, conventions, or any other such group wanting a Pathfinder Society Organized Play presence at their event.
- Ensure that all Pathfinder Society Organized Play events in your local area or region of responsibility are entered into the event-finder at paizo.com/pathfindersociety.
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Venture-Captain, Missouri—Cape Girardeau
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Looking at that list makes the task seem very daunting, doesn't it?
Presently, I work with our local organization to provide PFS play at least once a month at our local library. I do the scheduling (with help from the local PPFS groups GMs), registering the events on-line and completing the reporting. I help with the organizing (again, scheduling, registering, reporting, and GMing!) of 3-4 local conventions annually throughout the year, as well. The loss of out FLGS was a huge blow to our organization, costing us out host store and main source for Pathfinder product. I keep a file of all the reporting sheets, as well as files of all the current PFS scenarios, complete with maps, hand-outs and 10 ready-to-go Chronicle sheets. I maintain contact through e-mail and Facebook with the majority of our players in order to keep them informed of rule changes and scheduled events. I also run at least once a month at another game store an 90 minutes away in order to give their GMs a much needed break; they, in return, help provide GMs to the conventions I coordinate with to take some of the pressure off of my local GMs. I maintain a good relationship with the RPG group sponsored at our local college also.
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Since I don't know the specifics, I can't really explain your experience, but here are some thoughts based on my own experiences.
I know that I hardly get any time to myself when I show up to a game night, for all the questions I get. Sometimes, the best answer *is* "I don't know, go look it up", because I have 8 people in line who want to ask me a question, and the guy behind you wants to GM next week, and the guy behind *him* lost his character and needs new Chronicles, and the girl behind *him* is the store owner who wants to go over the Beginner's Box Bash we're running next week. I don't mean this to sound rude, but most rules questions can be answered by other people besides the Venture-Captain, and often by looking it up yourself. Now, if it's a ruling on one of those grey areas, that's a different story... but usually those get answered promptly, since they're often in the middle of a game.
If you feel you need a bit more of the Venture-Captain's attention, try contacting them outside of a game night. I have a few folks that email me rules questions regularly between sessions. Even though some of them are "just* looking things up, I can do it and respond without an issue. It's also a better way to talk about in-depth issues, rather than in the public forum of a game night.
Hope this helps a bit.
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I just expected to see something more absolute in the way of VCs knowing and enforcing the rules.
The Venture-Officers do (or at least should) enforce all the rules. As far as knowing them all, I think that is a bit of a reach. With Bestiary 3, there are at least eight hard cover books, dozens of soft-covers, plus more obscure rules spread throughout Adventure Paths. That is a huge amount of material to expect anyone to memorize everything contained therein.
more good stuff
I didn't originally start this thread and the OP hasn't replied yet, but thank you very much for this insight. 'Duties and Expectations' is the wording I was figuring I'd see. It's good to have a point of reference to know what a VCs should take care of.
Next up: GM Duties and Expectations :D
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Beyond what Mike listed, and the obligation to GM at a major national convention, what a Venture-Captain focuses on as part of their volunteer position may vary due to a lot of factors.
- What real-world obligations does the V-C have?
- What are the V-C's personal strengths? (co-ordination? GMing? Communicating on boards?)
- What is the population of the V-C's region?
- How many game stores/conventions/game clubs/colleges are in the V-C's region?
- What is the physical size of the V-C's region? (Australia vs Seattle, for example)
- Is there a history of Organized Play in the region?
Some of us will GM and run a large number of conventions/game days, others maintain an extremely active presence on the boards, still others work more behind the scenes...
I believe that actual PFRPG rules knowledge is a relatively low priority. Yes, a working knowledge is important - but knowing the nuances of a particular archetype, spell, corner case,... are less important than understanding the way Org Play rules differ, or being able to communicate a region's needs to Paizo, or being able to pass on information to a player or venue.
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Some of the players I normally run games for went to local game store to an event being ran by a VC. They to say the least have no interest in attending a PFS game in the future.
This is likely due to the players never playing PFS before and use to more open game style and players being allowed to discuss the rules with the GM vs being told no.(rules knowledge not being a priority)
Regardless it appears that it is simply a conflict of personalities which is easy enough to avoid.
I am curious how do one of you tell what a region needs? NVM I started to write a long paragraph and then I realized they only need to know what the PFS players need. Which is far easier than worrying about all the players who play the game locally.
Thanks again for all the responses.
I was simply curious on what someone should expect from some guy who says he has some title or another.
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Some of the players I normally run games for went to local game store to an event being ran by a VC. They to say the least have no interest in attending a PFS game in the future.
A Venture-Officer's most important (perhaps the only "real") task is to foster Organized Play in whatever form that takes for their region. Sometimes, that will be GM'ing. Othertimes, it will be organizing games. Still others it will simply be contact with the FLGS or local organizer to if they need any support.
Not having attended the session, nor being privy to any details, is it possible that the presence of the VC had no impact on their decision? Perhaps the more structured nature of Organized Play is what they object to and the VC was just ancillary?
I have had a few players over the years, who quit PFS simply because they preferred a more open-ended game with the ability to use more of the rule-set or even customize their own "house-rules" to support their play style. There is nothing wrong with that and I wish them well. They are just not interested in PFS OP.
That said, GM'ing PFS still has a lot of adjudication so I wonder what they were simply told no about. But I am not expecting a laundry list of complaints that could be taken out of context. My best advice is that you (or them) address your concerns directly with the Venture-Captain who was there. If you feel his/her actions are not not appropriate or do not foster OP, send an email to Mike Brock (campaign director) for review.
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to be willing to look that rule upThis is what I was referring to. It was not knowing AND not attempting to learn. I was trying to kindly say 'lying, making rules up, saying I don't know, look it up' without shading VCs in a bad light. I don't think any would, but my point was there was no official MUST about learning and teaching the rules to the GMs and players in an area.
With Society being a RAW-driven group with no leeway for GMs to modify scenarios, I just expected to see something more absolute in the way of VCs knowing and enforcing the rules.
(Then again, I'm LE by nature so don't mind me.)
VC's actually go through an interview process with Paizo/Mike Brock before they are given the title and responsibilities.
I expect that those with ego issues like you suggest are weeded out during such an process.
Director of Brand Strategy
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I am very glad to see that Paizo has not turned any portion of adventure creation (writing, editing, anything) over to the VCs (the way LG was).
I just wanted to address this, as it's more my purview than Mike's. Who writes what for us is entirely based on their strength as a writer and adventure designer, and not on other factors. While we do consult VCs and VLs on rules issues and they assist us (very well, I might add) in fine-tuning wording on campaign rules and helping anticipate corner cases, the creation of scenarios is something we treat as a professional, paid job. So you may see, from time to time, a scenario written by someone who also holds a volunteer position within the campaign, but the two are not related. We appreciate our volunteers, but working for us in a volunteer capacity is not necessarily a foot in the door for writing for Paizo.
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Nosig, thanks for your comments. As you can imagine, sometimes, Venture-Officers, especially those who are active in the forums feel like there is a target on our back and that our every word is a precursor to a flame-war.
I may not know all of the Venture-Officers personally, but the ones I do know work very hard to try and make PFS the best it can be. We try to keep things as "fair" as possible, sometimes compromising our personal desires in favor of those that are better for the society as a whole.
Some of us have experienced bad situations in previous organized play systems, but I hope that our more centrally controlled leadership will keep issues to a minimum. I encourage anyone who encounters problems to address them to their local Venture-Officer. If you have issues with your V-O, forward them to Mike Brock for review. I expect most/all V-O's would welcome any direct emails regarding our performance from players.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Nosig, thanks for your comments. As you can imagine, sometimes, Venture-Officers, especially those who are active in the forums feel like there is a target on our back and that our every word is a precursor to a flame-war.
Hold still for a moment, your target is slipping....
There you go.
even when they are getting stressed by ... less then helpful players.
My VC loves the abuse and he knows it. :D
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Nosig, thanks for your comments. As you can imagine, sometimes, Venture-Officers, especially those who are active in the forums feel like there is a target on our back and that our every word is a precursor to a flame-war.
*Puts his Musket down that was aiming at Bob's Target on his back*
ummm, nop... no target back there..
It is not as fun When our VC does not visit the boards as often... :(.. ;)A quick and brutal death for your PC.
(Really, two days and no one has made this joke? I'm shocked and appalled at you all.)
Tisk, tisk. He should. :P
- Participate daily on the Pathfinder Society Organized Play messageboards and on the private Regional Coordinator messageboard.
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Venture-Captain, Missouri—Cape Girardeau
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Tisk, tisk. He should. :P
- Participate daily on the Pathfinder Society Organized Play messageboards and on the private Regional Coordinator messageboard.
This is something that Mike has let be a little more lax, as constant participation on these forums from ALL of us would constitute every thread being 3-4 pages long. Most of us are more of a presence on the forums, while others participate on the Coordinators Forum Boards more. We are constantly keep updated on important issues by e-mail from Mr. Brock, especially ones that have a major impact on PFS.
Of late, a lot of Venture Officers have taken a huge amount of flak from certain forum participants, causing some of them to retreat to a more minor presence, at least when it comes to posting. In whole, it DOES seem like having that title puts a target on our backs. So any perception of a diminished VO presence might be true, thanks in part to a strongly vocal minority of the PFS players
I was joking. My VC is never on these boards and I'd personally rather him be doing what he's doing. There are enough fine VCs and VLs to help the members and promote a professional view of the volunteers in charge.
