Hey guys!
So I was thinking about rounding up my wife and flying from Dallas, TX to the dreary land of Seattle to attend my favorite RPG System's big day(s)! I would also be bringing with me in-tow two native Seattle-ites to this shin-dig.
My questions are thus;
*What kind of things are there to do at PaizoCon?
Yes, I've seen the events page. Are there only Pathfinder games going on? The events page isn't really... clear... (Big block text, no navigable time-frames/categories to search by)
My 2 friends are relatively new to the whole D20 thing, so I don't want to 'lose' them. Which leads me to---
*What would you guys recommend we attend?
Given my circumstance, that is.
.... I have a lot more questions, but let's start from here. It's an expensive flight, but I love Pathfinder so much that -=I=- think it will be worth it. I just want it to be worth it for the 75% of the people coming with me.
Well, you've missed entry into the lottery for the official events, at least until people have been chosen for games, then you'd have a shot at unfilled positions.
On the bright side, there's lots of open gaming as well. If you've got people that aren't into Pathfinder you'll likely find more to do there as all sorts of games are run.
If you do want to do Pathfinder, there's also the official Society games which go on all weekend.
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Lots and lots and lots of Pathfinder, but it looks like there are some other things too.
However, this being PaizoCon, and that being the system for all of the RPG material they publish, I'm not too surprised that it's mostly Pathfinder :)
I've never been before, but I'm going in hopes of having a hardcore weekend of Pathfinder immersion. I love playing other RPGs too, and may indeed grab a session of something, but I figure that this is the event for Pathfinder immersion.
Hey guys, thanks so much for the replies. I really feel lost about this whole thing and I balk and spending $1,000 on airfare.
What do you mean by lottery official events? Is there some reading material I've missed?
Hey guys, thanks so much for the replies. I really feel lost about this whole thing and I balk and spending $1,000 on airfare.
What do you mean by lottery official events? Is there some reading material I've missed?
If you click on the "events" button on the Paizocon page, it takes you there. Lottery events. There are only so many official games with only so many seats available. In order to be fair about who gets in on the games, a lottery is held. Each person attending goes through the list of events and rates them from 0 (not interested) to 4 (most interested). Now that the lottery is closed, they'll select people for the games based on their interests.
Come Friday at 2:00, any remaining open slots in the games will be up for grabs. First come, first served. During that time, people can also trade with other people to get the events they want.
That aside, there are tons of Pathfinder Society organized play games going on available to PFS members. If you're not a member, I do believe they can register you on the spot and they have computers available to roll up characters on using one of the popular software programs.
And like I said, lots of open gaming of various sorts, plus just being able to hang out with a whole lot of good people. I can understand your reservations though, that's a lot of money to shell out. You could always see about finding a convention closer to home this year and make plans for Paizocon next year. That way you're better prepared, better informed, and you'd have a better chance of getting into games that might interest you and your friends.
Hi Brad! I'm local to Dallas as well, and I've been to PaizoCon 4 times so far. It's always a blast! The people who go are as enthusiastic as you can imagine which makes the whole experience wonderful.
Echoing Shadowborn, if you grab a ticket by Friday you can still signup for the Open Events (and any Lottery events that didn't fill up).
Other things than Pathfinder games - seminars on Golarion, Paizo, the Rules, how to be a better GM, gaming history, upcoming products and events. Open/pickup gaming is pretty easy - I'd suggest come ready to run something and you can find a good crowd to play something with!
For your friends not current with d20, this is a great time to teach 'em, with some awesome, friendly, and helpful players filling the table. Since you're familiar with the Beginner Box, that would be a pretty good self-contained game to run. Maybe have a twist to offer anyone playing.
More than anything, just talking with the fans and staff you'll meet is the best part of PaizoCon. Definitely worth the plain tickets. We've got quite a crowd coming this year from Dallas, hope to see you there!
Hey guys!
I just got back to Dallas from Seattle. I wanted to share with everyone my experience with PaizoCon.
I went to the Registration desk with my friends and put them to the same questions that I asked here. (Not that I don't appreciate your responses, mind you. I just wanted to hear it from the 'horse's mouth')
Let me now comment on just how incredibly helpful the two that worked with me on Friday were. Whomever that bearded man and nice lady are are heroes of Paizo and deserve to be commended. They went out of their way to answer any questions I had, flagging people down from various rooms just to make sure their answers were correct.
Unfortunately, it was a lot of what you guys had said earlier. My friends who were newer to role-playing seemed put off by the fact that nothing was really 'newbie-friendly'. This resulted in my wife and I not going as well.
I was super upset because I wanted to go and got out-voted. That said, I hope there are things that the awesome folks at Paizo can do in future conventions that can help new players get a decent understanding.
Granted, the d20 system is inherently difficult... it just seems that an entire demographic for this convention could be attained if some effort was put fourth to help welcome newer players.
There was a distinct lack of Beginner Box games, it seems...this is a lack that I will put in mind for next year for sure. :D
There were a few 3rd party games (like Swords & Wizardry) that are more new gamer friendly than Pathfinder. Some were lottery events that had to be 'won' ahead of time.
Other events for kids and newbies included Christina's Faery Tale for kids and Paris Crenshaw's demo game that was geared more towards the Beginner Box gamer skill level.
Bearded man? Did you perhaps run into the dreaded Cosmo? :)
It is unfortunate that you didn't get the chance, as there was a cork swapboard with free tickets to events that people no longer wanted or could not attend.
It WAS Cosmo, actually. I remember the badge name.
I did see the board, but there were essentially 4 of us and there were like 5 papers for 4 different events.