RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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I has taken me about half a year to do this, but I am organizing Pathfinder Society in Monterey, CA at the store Game Habitat. I will reserving two tables to start and adding more each week as our needs grow.
Time starts at 6pm and goes no later then 11pm.
If you are interested, there is a Facebook group page, you may post here, or you can message me for additional information.
I am looking for GMs. As of right now I am on my own.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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Okay, went into Game Habitat to offically schedule this and found out that I had heard wrong about how late they are willing to let people stay for gaming. They close the register at 9 and want people gone not long after that.
This means I need to find a new location. Stay tuned.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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An earlier game time isn't going to work for me, my wife, and a few others who want to do this. I have a few people helping me out in finding other locations, so I am confidant we will find something soon.
Also, I am looking forward to having you guys drop in! Here is hoping we can make this work.
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If you could manage to start an hour earlier you might be able to work 5-9. Other than that game stores look rather thin in that area. If you manage to get something up and going this summer I'll see how many BAPS folks I can drag with me on an epic journey to come visit you.
Word to that, Rob. I'll come down to help get things started.
Also, Caleb, when you get this settled out, please send along your info so it can be added to the Bay Area Pathfinder Society Yahoo Group and BAPS website.
-Pain
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Welcome to the crazy awesome BAPS Family! We at the Solano/Yolo society wish you welcome, and once you get settled, will find a great excuse to go down to Monterey and not only take in some beach and sun but some good old Pathfinder Society. Beachside-ish..
Till then, sending our good vibes with you!
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Monteray - this has been a long time. Maybe 15 years ago - visiting a fellow gamer (German). My first visit to 'sunny California'. It did rain most of the time, I still have pictures from part of town being flooded. Did drive back half a day early to avoid being cut off due to flooding.
So if you have a German player your group - (20+ years in Monteray now) in say hello from me. Chance is low - but who knows. Once a gamer ...
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I will make the trip as well. As far as locations, you may want to see if a local community center has rooms available or if the library has rooms that could be used for this. Another possibility is a restaurant with a larger "banquet" room, such as Coco's or IHOP. I know from going to networking groups that meet at such places that often you just need to agree to buy dinner and they will give you the room.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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Monteray - this has been a long time. Maybe 15 years ago - visiting a fellow gamer (German). My first visit to 'sunny California'. It did rain most of the time, I still have pictures from part of town being flooded. Did drive back half a day early to avoid being cut off due to flooding.
So if you have a German player your group - (20+ years in Monteray now) in say hello from me. Chance is low - but who knows. Once a gamer ...
I remember that year well. My school, which was on top of a tall hill, was flooded. I was like, 8 or 9 at the time. More then 15 years ago, but memorable. It has never rained like that ever since. What an unlucky trip!
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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What happened to all the game stores in the area? Last time I was there there were three or four stores.
Game Habitat has been the only one for a while now. The others closed down a while ago, with the last of those being Pacific Grove. Game Habitat would have closed too, but the owner hung on until it was sold to the current owners. The new owners have been there for a year, and while the store has great ratings on Yelp now that the owners are making some changes, I really feel like they focusing on the miniature wargaming market and almost ignoring the RPG lines entirely. They have a D&D section, but it is the smallest one I have seen in any store. They have only the most recent releases for Pathfinder, with a few soft covers that just haven't sold yet. That amounts to half a shelf for Pathfinder.
The owner is friendly, and seemed willing to let us use his tables, but made it clear that he wanted the store locked up and everyone gone around 9pm. "By 9 we are done and just want to be home," were his exact words. Both he and his wife (who scares me, but don't tell them that,) work there almost every day, all day. I think they have two other employees, and are unwilling to pay them extra to stay late and watch the shop.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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CalebTGordan,
Check you private messages.
I sent you my cell #.Let's plan. :)
Sent you an email. I will call you if you want, just email back times that work for you best.
Also, if you don't remember me, and you are in fact the person I am thinking of, we shared a ride to the airport the Monday after PaizoCon. "That was the best Chandelier," has been a favorite line from that week.
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This is why Azzmyth is our VC and the rest of us are just a bunch of yahoos.CalebTGordan,
Check you private messages.
I sent you my cell #.Let's plan. :)
No it's not that. It's more all of us fellow coordinators all live kinda far away from each other.. So only big society launches and conventions many times are the only times we see each other. We're not lazy, we're all just super far apart. :D
Contributor
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I'm up in the Santa Cruz area and have been looking for a PFS game I can regularly join.
SC has two game stores - Game-alot (Frank, the owner, is a really nice guy) and a Magic Card-oriented store near the Trader Joe's downtown.
Unfortunately Game-alot has limited space - the table for gaming is not very roomy.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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Just finished up the first meeting and it went well. Six people showed up, two of them late. The four that were on time didn't have characters ready so I ran them through We Be Goblins. We finished early enough to work up characters for those who didn't have them and I checked out characters that were created. Two people were not able to finish their characters but I told them where to go online and what to do to finish their character. I also told everyone to show up a half hour early next week so we can finalize characters and start.
I was surprised that everyone already had a PFS number. Unfortunately, one of them didn't bring it with him and I am waiting for it so I can properly report We Be Goblins.
Next week will have at least four others from what I have been told by the those that attended and a few other sources. I also plan on doing a bit more promoting at the collages here to see if I can encourage more players.
Game Habitat was very accommodating and helpful. They don't have power outlets available in their gaming room, so I wasn't able to use my laptop like I was planning, but it that was really the only set back and I can easily prepare for that in the future.
The owner had some questions that I couldn't answer. Mostly he wanted to know if there were any incentives for him letting us play PFS there. I told him I didn't know but that I was sure he could find out by checking out paizo.com.
They easily have room for PFS taking up three or four tables, possibly five or six. They do have D&D encounters going, but it only took up one table (and it looked like we out numbered them 2-1) Besides that, there was one Warhammer game going and one Magic game while we were there.
We do have to leave at 9, but there is a Denny's across the street that tables could go to finish things off if need be.
Overall, an encouraging start.
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Glad it went so well.
Benefits to the store:
People in there might buy stuff.
At least here closer to the bay a lot of stores charge a nominal fee to the players for using the space. I've seen it run differently in different places, but some examples are a couple bucks, or a larger fee (say $5) that's returned in a gift certificate (basically forcing $5 of expenditure from each player). Of course whoever is GMing doesn't pay anything and may even receive some sort of additional incentive.
Keep letting us know how things go and I'll try and bring some yahoos down with me this summer one night.
Also in the GM/coordinator of your PFS account you can reserve cards that you can print out and give to players who don't have PFS #s
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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The second meet had six players. They didn't come fully prepared and we started 45 minutes late because I had to keep checking things and approving things. I am still not sure about Gunslingers and any exceptions they have with gunsmithing, but I will be looking into that.
We started playing the introductory scenarios, but because we started late we were not able to finish up before being kicked out of the game store. Still not sure how I should handle that. We would have gone to a Denny's to finish, but my wife and I were involved in an accident the day before and were not feeling up to another hour.
I expect six players next week. I hope to recruit three more so we can have two tables going next week. I have one player willing to GM, so if I can't make it or if we need a second GM we have one.
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Caleb--
That's an interesting start. Things will get easier as you and your players get into a rhythm.
If there is anything I can do for you, please let me know. I think setting the right tone is really important when starting a new PFS group: and that tone should include hints that people will eventually need to judge. Don't be shy about asking a new player to judge...don't take the load on all yourself (unless you really want to!).
That said, these posts might help:
Painlord's What We Teach New PFS Players
Painlord's Judge Recruitment
Best of luck.
-Pain
p.s. If you can make it to Kublacon, I can introduce you to some South Bay players who might want to be a part of your community too.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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Wow, good guides. I honestly did little homework before jumping into this. These guides are already helping me plan on how to move forward.
I will not be making it out to KublaCon. I unfortunately did not know about it until recently. I will be attending PaizoCon with my wife, but I doubt there will be very many people you could introduce me to there.
I like how you keep bring up community and building one. That was actually one of my goals from the beginning, and I hope to be a big part of building one in this area.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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I ended up making a nearly last minute change of schedule due to a blunder of mine. I was told there was someone who might check these boards, and who also moved into the area. If you find this, there is a game tomorrow, Wednesday the 8th. The next game after that is on the 22nd.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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Wow, somehow I missed your post Synedra. I actually have a regular who comes to both your games and mine! It is very exciting to see things grow in this area. One of these days I will try to make it over there for a game.
I had a Facebook group for Monterey PFS but I just switched things over to a Facebook page. They are more visible and easier to find, so I thought the switch would be good.