Venture-Lieutenant, West Virginia—Charleston
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So, I have to say, this was a great con experience. I had a fantastic time and really enjoyed meeting so many great people.
First of all, I'd like to make a special shout-out to Noel Anthony de Joya and Alex Greenshields, both of whom were very welcoming to me - I really appreciated them being willing to chat with me, a relative newcomer to RPGs, about things they've probably talked about hundreds of times.
Moving on to the adventures themselves, I have to say that 5-02 is quickly becoming one of my favorite scenarios. It has a really strong central character and a fascinating plot that is a bit more dark than your average scenario. One table loved it, one table hated it - even though it's a bit polarizing, I think it was well worth it.
I had a really great table of Gods' Market Gamble, too. That's always been one of my favorite scenarios, and the new-ish players at my table got really into the investigative portions. Fantastic experience.
The special was a blast. I GMmed for two VOs (One of them, I think, was Brett Sweeney? Sorry, I didn't catch your names.) who completely trounced the final boss at tier 14-15. I've never seen so much damage come from a single arrow. It was a fantastic experience, and I hope that my players had as much fun as I did.
Overall, GenCon was a great experience for me. I had a great time, met up with some folks I knew here on the forums, and learned an awful lot about how to improve as a GM. There were a few rougher tables, but by and large, I'm happy that I was there.
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I personally had a blast being an HQ monkey this year.
*GMs were patient with our new musterers that were helping us out
*Players for the most part were patient while we figured out GM seating and then getting players into seats.
***** Neto .... I just realized that I gave you your table assignment for the special.... saw the name on the sheet but it didn't click hehe
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Venture-Lieutenant, West Virginia—Charleston
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I personally had a blast being an HQ monkey this year.
*GMs were patient with our new musterers that were helping us out
*Players for the most part were patient while we figured out GM seating and then getting players into seats.
***** Neto .... I just realized that I gave you your table assignment for the special.... saw the name on the sheet but it didn't click hehe
Yep! You also seated me for Price of Friendship, as I recall. I said, "Oh, hey, Thea.", and you looked up, said, "Hey", and moved on. Figured you were too busy, then I didn't see you again the rest of the con. :P
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Yep! You also seated me for Price of Friendship, as I recall. I said, "Oh, hey, Thea.", and you looked up, said, "Hey", and moved on. Figured you were too busy, then I didn't see you again the rest of the con. :PI personally had a blast being an HQ monkey this year.
*GMs were patient with our new musterers that were helping us out
*Players for the most part were patient while we figured out GM seating and then getting players into seats.
***** Neto .... I just realized that I gave you your table assignment for the special.... saw the name on the sheet but it didn't click hehe
Lol .... I felt like a chicken w/out my head most of the mustering times with trying to get everyone seated and make sure that everyone was on a table.
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This was probably the best Gen Con for me since I started going for Pathfinder Society.
Every Gen Con since 2011, I’ve had some fantastic experiences, and some experiences I’d rather have not had (you know, there is always that guy who feels entitled to something, or doesn’t like the scenario, or for whatever reason he and I don’t click as GM to Player.)
But this year, I can honestly say, I had no bad experiences.
I was really looking forward to running High Tier (12+) for the Special, but there weren’t enough high level characters, so I ended up running a Tier 1-2 table. Fortunately they were very understanding about the fact I hadn’t prepped for that tier, and all 6 players were fantastic (4 of which were brand new from Brazil—1 who seemed to also be Brazilian and friends to the 4 new Brazilians was actually from Canada and a somewhat experienced player). They seemed to have a good time, nobody died, and so overall, it was a good experience. I’ve been assured by Mike and Jon that they already have a plan in place to assure that GM’s who were scheduled to prep particular tiers will not get shunted to a different tier ( I imagine this will be completely possible in all but the most extreme of exceptions).
Now that I’ve gotten the one minor disappointment out of the way…
- That guy who played Morton the Gnome Cavalier at 5-02: The Wardstone Patrol (GM’d by Hilary Easton—awesome job of GM’ing by the way)—Dude, I had so much fun roleplaying with you on crap that really had nothing to do with the scenario… Hope I get to again someday.
- The table of players who played at my 5-03: The Hellknight’s Feast table were absolutely fantastic. I don’t remember the player’s names, but the characters were Cmix, Captain Lawson, Condign, Dominas, and a couple others I can’t remember off the top of my head. You guys rock! The Hellknight’s Feast:It turned out to be quite awesome to roleplay with these guys, and if I ever get a chance to either have them at my table again, or sit with them and play at the same table, I would jump at the opportunity.Dominas, as you might guess, was a Cleric of Calistria. So the roleplay between him and Lady Dyrianna (the High Priestess of Calistria in Absalom) was absolutely fantastic. When we were in the moment, I’m sure he and I did not feel uncomfortable (even if we were making the other guys at the table uncomfortable).
- The team I played with won The Waking Rune, on Hard Mode. We literally owned the scenario. Not sure how it happened that my Druid only took 8 points of damage, but that’s what went down.
- I also seemed to provide a good time for the folks who played 5-01: The Glass River Rescue and 4-25: The Secrets Stones Keep.
One thing I noticed, is that most often, the lower sub-tier was being played at the tables I ran.
Another is that there was mixed reactions to the way the new faction missions are done. Some really liked it (I’m one of them, from both a GM and player perspective) and some did not. They felt that people would only ever play the scenarios that pertained to their factions (I disagree, while folks might try to play faction characters in those scenarios, if they don’t have a faction character in Tier (or a faction character at all) , they will continue to do what they always do--play everything offered at the game days). Others who did not like them, did not like the way they were presented.
All in all though, this was a spectacular Gen Con.
Oh, and before I forget, thank you to Venture-Lieutenant Jeremy Chapman for picking me up at the airport and giving me a ride to the hotel. I realize now I forgot to give you any gas money, so next time we see one another, I’ll buy you a beer or lunch or something.
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This is just an observation to Mike, and campaign leadership.
The Siege was fantastic, but if you can next year, have one or two people outside, to keep people out of the hallway. We completely stopped all traffic going through the hallway, to the determent of a gentleman in a wheel chair who had to use the bathroom.
Thankfully Im a big guy and I just pushed people out of his way so he could access the elevator, but this is something to watch for next year for premuster area.
Otherwise, thumbs up, solid con.
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It just so happened that for most of GenCon I ended up with some combination of midtier parties/low level playing up into midtier/high level playing down to midtier/etc.
I am quite pleased with how that all turned out. The rewards were suffiecient that I didn't mind playing down or feel cheated when I played up. The challenge adjustments for APL midter parties provided sufficient challenge as well.
In short, I am a fan of how the new out-of-tier system worked out. Good job!
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The table of players who played at my 5-03: The Hellknight’s Feast table were absolutely fantastic. I don’t remember the player’s names, but the characters were Cmix, Captain Lawson, Condign, Dominas, and a couple others I can’t remember off the top of my head. You guys rock! ** spoiler omitted **...
I am exceptionally pleased that we stood out in your memory, as you definitely stood out in ours.
We are "Old Dominion" and our characters are:
Our 6th member was played by a guy named Bryan, who we were trying to get levelled up to join us for Bonekeep 2, but his main was too low, so he played the Gunfighter Iconic.
Please note that my review of The Hellknight's Feast done under the name Zahir was surely influenced by your awesome GMing for us! You made the module great to play. The voices, the characters, it was awesome.
It was incredibly uncomfortable watching you and Mike making googly eyes at each other across the table. I'm glad you weren't next to each other, but really, guys GET A ROOM!
CMIX and Captain Lawson also loved meeting Major Colson!!!
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It was incredibly uncomfortable watching you and Mike making googly eyes at each other across the table. I'm glad you weren't next to each other, but really, guys GET A ROOM!
I can't believe how smoothly that actually went. Usually when I roleplay the female NPCs provocatively (as per their write-up--i.e. Zarta Dralneen) it usually ends in an uncomfortable chuckle from both of us, we move on, and everything is good.
But Mike dove head first right into his role, opposite the NPC's role, and it just worked out organically I think.
But yeah, it was definitely funny watching a bunch of veteran gamers who are all family men (including Mike) squirm a bit on that one.
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With a little luck, our full time 6th player will make it to GENCON next year, but when we do alts, I'd love to play something with you!
I can introduce you to Milton Smithson who in another thread I apologized to some Canadians for his being a bit of an @$$. What can I say, his Charisma is 5, and he is a Chelaxian Oni-Spawn "Paladin" of Asmodeus?
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Gencon 2013
The Good
1) The mustering was excellent; it’s never been this good. Kudos. The only thing that was off was having a table of 5 real tickets to go and having to wait 15 minutes past start time for a table. Sometimes we found a generic to fill in the 6th spot and they still wouldn’t seat us.
2) The noise level was excellent. I could hear in all circumstances, even during Bonekeep 1 and 2. Awesome.
3) All of the GMs were friendly (in their own way).
4) HQ was especially friendly and helpful. Thank you. A special thank you to Jonathon Carry.
5) My entire group enjoyed Bonekeep part 1. It was extremely hard but fair. Almost died several times. Completed all rooms with literally no time left.
6) Having no explicit faction missions was great. We were able to focus on our PCs and the scenario, not the side/faction missions. I’m hoping that gear will no longer be tied to Fame in the future, which will allow for more failure of faction missions. PP alone (as a currency) is enough incentive imo.
7) The new out-of-subtier gold system worked out great for us, since our group varied across levels. Sometimes we played up and sometimes down.
The Neutral
1) The boons this year were extremely weak. (Please note I didn’t say all of them were weak, but most. And yes I read them all.). In prior years, it seemed the vast majority of boons were at least useful in some minor way (and the race boons were always useful). But this year, there weren’t any race boons and the boons seemed watered down. I guess that’s one way for people to complain about them less.
Many of the boons take PP, gold, and require several scenarios to activate. In several cases it’s just not worth it, we received the same boon (for free! as opposed to 2000 gold) from a scenario (Wardstone Patrol).
2) As I predicted, almost every table GM had no idea about the new APL play up and down rules, and didn’t understand that faction missions (in season 0-4) no longer apply and were for flavor only. Or the new season 5 missions. But they were good about it once it was explained to them.
The Bad
1) Some GMs would “call the fight” far too often and seemed “depressed” when they knew an encounter was too weak to challenge us. As a player, I don’t care if we’re going to blow through an encounter, let us do it, it’s still fun. And don’t remove the dragon when he’s down to his last 5 hit points, let us get the satisfaction of killing it.
2) One of the GMs made my friends feel bad about not knowing Golarion/PFS lore at the table, several times in the session. They only play a few times a year, so it’s no surprise. GMs should teach, not taunt.
3) I guess I should be impressed with some player’s ability to min-max their PC (using several obscure source books to do so), but doing 40-60 damage (60 was with bane arrows) per ranged arrow/bolt/shot at level 8 is just obnoxious and certainly pushes the envelope. No kidding the scenario isn’t hard, you just did 180 damage by yourself.
It’s impossible to balance scenarios when you have one player doing 60 damage per hit and a PC with the same class/role doing 15 damage. To me some of these outlier builds should just be banned.
4) In general, I think Bonekeep made some GMs a little too adversarial, competitive, and un-fun.
Before someone says something like "we don't like challenge", we actually completed both part 1 and 2 without anyone dying, and it still doesn't change what I said above.
5) My group did not enjoy Bonekeep part 2. Without reading it, it’s hard to tell what was run as written and what was GM fiat. After Bonekeep I traded stories between several player groups and there was a lot of variation in this scenario, even within the same subtier. There was almost no consistency at all in how this was run, which made it a lot easier or harder for some groups, well beyond the scope of the scenario.
Except for Bonekeep part 2, it was a good experience. The room, the staff, the GMs, and the mustering in general were fantastic. Thanks!
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Venture-Lieutenant, Massachusetts—Boston
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My first GenCon was a blast. It was great meeting everyone!
I helped out with HQ 5 times… assigned to it 4 times and helped count tickets with my friend Tersha (the wonderful woman who's insane enough to spend 10 slots of GenCon counting tickets) on my off slot. My voice was blown out by marshaling for the Special Friday night… and the lady who said yes was in my section of tables!
I ran Veteran's Vault 5 times. I made custom minis (because Bestairy 2 & 3 minis aren't available) and ephemera for applicable faction missions. I received some lovely compliments from a number of my players.
And I was quested by Mike Brock… GMs, remember to hand in your table reporting forms *before* HQ has closed down… or you too could owe 12 slots to Mike for next GenCon and the one after that. (I wonder if GMing at PaizoCon could be applied to the number of slots I owe…).