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My experience with Paizo and Pathfinder has been well...I'll just relay it :)
I played Pathfinder extensively during Alpha and Beta testing and was hopeful for
the release. The system showed a great deal of promise. More importantly, we were
informed of the promise of support, far superior to that 'other organized-play' game.
Then I'm not sure what began to happen:
I stopped by the Paizo booth at several conventions (Gencon, PAX, etc.) and I guess
each time the staff on duty were having a bad day because they had an extremely hostile
attitude.
Chalking it up to bad luck, I nevertheless attempted to get into a regular game (Pathfinder Society). I have managed exactly once. This is locally and at conventions.
I have made repeated requests (for setting up a group, getting certified, etc.)
to various representatives about PFS over the years. I guess all the requests have gotten misplaced or I have been using the wrong contact info from the website.
I have run out of ideas on whom to attempt to contact and was hoping for suggestions.
I guess the bottom line is if possible, I'd like to play/run sometime? I am still a regular GM in a variety of other systems. Even in the 'dying' ones it is still easier to get an organized group going which is frankly quite odd.
Thanks!
Hi, I'm not sure where you are, or why your experience is so different from most that I hear about, but there is a lot of support on these very boards for getting started.
Pathfinder Society area is probably the best place to start. I noticed that you mentioned getting certified, which bothers me as there is no real certification process just to run games and report them.
Have you read the latest Guide to Organized play? It's an excellent read for anyone wanting to get into Pathfinder. You will also want to go over the Additional Resources page to know what is legal and not legal out of each book.
Again, I'm not sure who you have been talking to, or where, but the Pathfinder area of the board would be a better place to look for help on this. As you don't say what geographical area you are in, I'm not sure which Venture Officer is closest to you, but you should be able to find the closest on The Regional Coordinators Page. Even if they do not seem all that close, they may know of games closer to you. If there aren't, you can do as many of the rest of us have donw and start your own in your area.
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rerednar, I'm sorry to hear you have had such a difficult time with Pathinfer, their staff etc.
Verdigris has made some excellent suggestions about getting involved with Pathfinder Society Organized play.
I just wanted to second what Verdigris said, you don't need to get certified to GM a game.
If you have any questions I would be happy to help you as I can. I am the "Venture LT' for Vermont. My Email is: Brattleboropfs@gmail.com Good luck and I hope your future contacts with Paizo and Pathfinder are better then your previous ones.
Good luck,
Myles Crocker,
Vermont VL
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Rerednaw,
Beyond trying to get a game going in your area, you might consider one of the online sessions. I am just starting with The Pathfinder system, so I have had many questions. Like you I have gm/dm many different adventures in many different worlds. This system is much simpler than most of the old ones.
What part of the country are you in?
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It seems the primary point of this thread is about PFS. It might be better it if was moved there.
If you are having problems with GMs not showing up for posted games*, you should let the local venture officers know.
* Is there a local forum/group where the GM may have posted that they could not make it, but they forgot to take their name off Warhorn?
If you don't get a response from your venture officers after a week or so to an email that requires a response, you should post a message to the local forum/group. It might be that your email is going into a spam folder. If there is no response after a good faith effort to contact them, you should email Mike Brock to see if he can help and to let him know of your difficulty in getting a response from your local volunteers.
There are many valid reasons beyond a VO just ignoring you, but if you can't get a response after repeated attempts and a few weeks, I would contact Mike Brock at that point.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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For the record, Don is absolutely right. He is the venture captain for my area. He is very receptive and quick to return inquries. If your local organizer is not responding you need to keep trying and then run it up the chain of command. Someone in PFS ill respond and help you.
Here's a thread for Vegas by their VC. Should be of use to you. http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2nssi?The-Las-Vegas-Lodge-welcomes-4-Venture
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Thanks for the responses. Trying to address the replies at once.
I am in Las Vegas.
I have contacted the regional coordinators via the list on the updated Society guide for Las Vegas and Henderson.Neither have responded. I will try again though.
By certified I mean getting a society number.
I am subscriber on roll20.net, have teamspeak and ventrilo installed, and signed up for online play via warhorn. Last game was yesterday and the DMs did not show.
Still I am open to doing sessions online since it seems like a better option.
Rerednaw,
I am sorry to hear that the venture officers did not respond to you; I will bring that to the Venture Captain's attention.
I am the organizer for the local Game Day here in Las Vegas and we have PFS on a monthly basis. We have another event scheduled for April 20. The venture officers will be running a couple scenarios at the event. I will be running a PFS scenario as well.
The warhorn page is:
http://www.warhorn.net/lasvegas/
Our meetup site is:
http://www.meetup.com/Vegas-Game-Day/
I believe Marty is coming back to run PFS and the Shattered Star AP at Little Shop of Magic. You can message Marty via the meetup site.
If you would like to contact me offline, I can be reached at:
snowfrost571 AT yahoo DOT com
-Perry Snow
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Sorry I posted this in the Pathfinder Society General Discussion...if there is another board for that please what is the name?
Originally, this thread was actually posted in a different forum (Paizo Publishing General Discussion, IIRC). It looks like the Paizo web team moved it into the proper forum (I know I flagged it for moving; others might have, too).
Uh, what/who is a venture officer? Where may I find them please?
Venture officers are the volunteers who work with Paizo and local event organizers to develop the PFS community in a particular area. Venture Captains lead this effort (and are appointed by the PFS campaign administrators); Venture Lieutenants work with their local Venture Captain (and are appointed by the Venture Captain).
In the Guide to Organized Play (which Andrea Brandt linked to above), there's a list of Venture Captains, with their regions of responsibility...but it sounds (based on your earlier posts) like you already found that list, and used it to try getting hold of your local Venture Captain (you indicated "I have contacted the regional coordinators via the list on the updated Society guide for Las Vegas and Henderson" -- "Venture Officers" is simply the PFS term for "regional coordinators").
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Besides public game days, you should note that anyone can run a PFS game. Just register on the web site to get a PFS id #, download an adventure (the three "First Steps" adventures for level 1 are free), get some friends together, and play. Afterward, someone has to log on to the Paizo web site to register the session, which is pretty easy. And that's all there is to it.
So you really don't need anyone from Paizo, or your local venture officers, involved. But it's always good to go out and visit the local game days to join a game and meet some people, too.
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Rerednaw, I am sorry you have not been able to participate, so far, in PFS gaming in Las Vegas.
As Perry mentioned above, the Vegas Gamers organization runs a monthly Game Day, currently held on the third Saturday for most months, in the downtown area. There are currently two PFS scenarios scheduled each of the two slots that day, and both slots include at least on e of the Tier 1-5 scenarios, which are open to first level PCs.
As Perry mentioned, I run some PFS, currently only once a month or so, at one of the local game stores, the Little Shop of Magic, which is located at Flamingo & Durango roads. Unfortunately, while I was running a Tier 1 module this month, my game was actually this past Saturday. I am planning on running a Tier 2-4 module next month, but we do have plans to try and complete the scenario before the end of the month.
Currently looking at trying to finish on January 27th at Little Shop, but send me a PM or email me at kinevon at gmail dot com, and I can add you to the list. Note, if you join the ongiong module, you won't get the full rewards, since we have had one session,but, hopefully, if you manage to get to Vegas Game Day, you can get your PC to second level, and join in my May game.
As a GM, I tend to run a bit slow, and have difficulty completing scenarios or modules within the "normal" time allotment.
As Perrya lso mentioned, I am trying to run the Shattered Star Adventure Path from Paizo, and am currently trying to promote getting a few more players. My original group is down to two players, and that means I have some slots open. The time slot can be a bit difficult for many people, though, since I am currently scheduled to run the game on two Friday afternoons a month, from 2 pm to about 8 pm per session, usually on the second and fourth Fridays.
If you go to the Vegas Gamers Meetup site, you can go to the Discussion area, and I have two posts up, about the monthly PFS games, and on the Shattered Star AP, with the nominal dates posted.
On Venture Officers, the Venture Captain is in charge of promoting and organizing PFS play for a fairly sizable geographical area, and he usually nominates Venture Lieutenants who do the promotion and organization wihtin a smaller subset of the VC's area.
Vegas has a fairly new VC, Chris Clay, and two VLs, Adam Mickelson and Rob Fain, IIRC. Both Chris and Rob are scheduled to be GMing at this month's Vegas Game Day, so you can probably get a few minutes of their time there. Chris has also been running impromptu First Steps sessions at Game Day, since there have been a bunch of new players showing up.
On my PFS sessions at Little Sho, while I usually have some idea of what game I am going to be running, I am always ready to hear back from my players and prospective players if they have a request I could fulfill.
Since I own all of the PFS scenarios and most of the sanctioned material, as long as I have some time to prepare, I would be happy to run most anything available.
As mentioned, as long as you have a Paizo account, you can go to the PFS section of the Paizo website and get yourself a PFS number, or ask your GM, and he should have an unassigned number available to give you.
Let me know if you have any questions a local GM can answer. Also note that I try to get to the Little Shop games early, when I can, so I can provide any assistance I can.
Chief Technical Officer
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I stopped by the Paizo booth at several conventions (Gencon, PAX, etc.) and I guess
each time the staff on duty were having a bad day because they had an extremely hostile
attitude.
Rerednaw, I see that many of your other questions have been answered—or at least, are on the way to being answered—by the community, but I'd like to address the quoted bit.
First, I'd like to apologize for any issues you've had in dealing with us. The Paizo staff doesn't attend a lot of conventions, and we view events like Gen Con as major opportunities to put our best foot forward with our audience; I'm very surprised that anyone would describe any of our employees as "hostile." And given that Paizo hasn't actually had a booth at PAX since releasing Pathfinder, I'm actually wondering if perhaps your interactions were with someone other than Paizo.
At Gen Con, we have a big purple booth that looks like this, which is staffed mostly by employees with a few trusted non-employee associates. We also have a big Pathfinder Society area, which has changed quite a bit over the years (2010, 2011, 2012); the PFS area is staffed mainly by volunteers, with a few employees. Volunteers wear shirts that look like this, while employees wear shirts like this.
You didn't mention which PAX you attended. We've had volunteer-run Pathfinder Society areas at both PAX East and PAX Prime, and we've made arrangements with local game stores to sell our products in their booths at PAX Prime, but we haven't had an employee-run booth at either show in the last several years.
Now, whether you were interacting directly with us or just with someone representing us, we still don't enjoy hearing that that you had a bad interaction, and if there are any details you can provide about that, I'd like to hear them so that we can take steps to prevent it from happening again.