First Paizocon - To Volunteer or To Wait Until Next Year...

[Preston Hudson]

This is my question. I will be attending my first Paizocon this year and I just saw the blog call out for volunteers. Now I am contemplating if I should volunteer for a couple of slots and still enjoy the convention or if I should wait until next year and possibly pick up more than just a couple of slots. I did purchase my badge and banquet ticket for the event and am looking forward to it no matter what my final decision.

Thank you in advance for your input.

[CalebTGordan]

Volunteer for at least two slots, it will let you see how things are run firsthand and you get a free shirt.

Additionally, there is a lottery for games that will be posted in a few months. You can submit a game to be placed in the lottery that you will then run. It can be any system, any setting, and totally written by you. If you don't want to run PFS, the lottery games are just as fun.

[The Great Rinaldo!]

I would recommend just sitting back and enjoying your first time. There will be plenty of time to volunteer at future cons.

[Silbeg Cailean]

Just a question...are the lottery games separate from the volunteer program? i.e, you do not get the benefits of the volunteer program with lottery games?

Just curious... haven't even broached the subject about going to my wife yet.

[The Great Rinaldo!]

The volunteers are to GM the PFS games, plus do a few other jobs.

The "lottery" refers to the fact that more people sign up for certain scenarios than there is room for, so they do a lottery to assign which players get to their chosen tables.

So, related in that they refer to the same games, but not the same thing, since the one is about GMing and the other about playing.

[zylphryx]

Also, folks can submit games to be listed to the lottery that they will run. I think the volunteer benefits are tied to PFS game slots, so you do not get the benefits of the volunteer program from lottery events (if my understanding is correct that is ... I could be wrong).

[Pat Luther]

zylphryx wrote:

Also, folks can submit games to be listed to the lottery that they will run. I think the volunteer benefits are tied to PFS game slots, so you do not get the benefits of the volunteer program from lottery events (if my understanding is correct that is ... I could be wrong).

Unless they've changed things this year, you are correct. Lone Wolf has been giving away copies of Hero Lab to the rest of the DMs, which is awesome. Also, while I've been to other cons where they give extra swag to their DMs, the standard bag o' stuff that PaizoCon gives out tends to be even better than the DM awards at other cons, so there's that.

It's still a lot of fun to volunteer to run the non-PFS games. The reason for the lottery is that there are never as many games being run as there are people who want to play in them, so the more people running them the better.

I've run two games each for the last three PaizoCons and haven't regretted it. I plan to do so again this year. I love trying new systems or systems I never get to play at home, so that's another plus.

[Majuba]

Pat Luther wrote:

I've run two games each for the last three PaizoCons and haven't regretted it. I plan to do so again this year.

Ditto (and four years) - there is nothing better than running a game for the best fans of the game there are!

[Kassil]

Everyone should volunteer, whether it be running for PFS events, helping out a 3pp that wants to showcase their stuff, or an open-call volunteer event. Even /one/ volunteer slot for every 3-4 people would make it amazingly rich with gaming potential, and increase the odds of people being able to get into awesome events instead of having to lament /not/ getting into events they were hoping for.

If you can GM, volunteer. Make the con better for everyone.

I've volunteered to run a slot for the Kobolds, and I'm planning to do an open-call volunteer FATE event.