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Welcome to the wide world of spo--- erm, Pathfinder Society! Are you going in with a new level 1 to start off your PFS career or will you be using a pre-generated character?
Just be sure to download the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play and you'll be set!
Venture-Captain, Washington—Spokane
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Good luck on your first game tonight and Welcome to the Society!! As Sior stated, the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized play will be a great tool. I will add that if you are going to be using any other Pathfinder sources, the Additional Resources will be and excellent tool to add to your guides.
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It was OK.
The people were nice, accepting and helpful of the newbie.
The venue had 40 people in a small room (the store has a huge unused room right next to the small one and it's loaded with tables I am not sure why nobody used it all night) and in short order you had to shout to be heard and I missed almost all the module because I'm a bit hard of hearing.
I also had to leave before it was finished. I had thought that since my job does not start until an hour after the event is supposed to end I'd be OK, but found out when I got there that the events rarely end just an hour late and usually are multiple hours late.
So overall it was fun, but I'm not sure I'll be going back to that venue again.
It was OK.
The people were nice, accepting and helpful of the newbie.
The venue had 40 people in a small room (the store has a huge unused room right next to the small one and it's loaded with tables I am not sure why nobody used it all night) and in short order you had to shout to be heard and I missed almost all the module because I'm a bit hard of hearing.
I also had to leave before it was finished. I had thought that since my job does not start until an hour after the event is supposed to end I'd be OK, but found out when I got there that the events rarely end just an hour late and usually are multiple hours late.So overall it was fun, but I'm not sure I'll be going back to that venue again.
Thats a pity. I can't say much regarding the venue, but regarding the modules/scenarios it really depends on how the loval venue advertises them. In most cases if they say it will be 3 hours they are probably really underestimating it. In my own experience 4 hours is average with some running 5. Either plan for this or else find a group that values effeciently plowing through the scenario in less time.
Hope you stick with it and enjoy it more next time :)
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Sorry that it wasn't an awesome first game. As CathalFM said, I do hope you stick with it. Did you let them know about your hearing problem? Is there another PFS venue convenient to your location? If not, there are also online and play by post games. You can also run PFS-legal home games. But you'd have to recruit players.
Good luck!
R
I'm going to give them another try next week and be a bit more vocal about my needs. I don't have to work that night so I can stay as long as needed. I'd hate to write a group off from one mediocre experience without at least trying to address the issues.
Great attitude, and I recommend if you have hearing problems asking if you can sit next to the GM (If you werent already), most players wont mind, we have all had problems hearing some games or GMs before, so we can all imagine how bad it must be if you have a hearing problem on top of that!
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I'm going to give them another try next week and be a bit more vocal about my needs. I don't have to work that night so I can stay as long as needed. I'd hate to write a group off from one mediocre experience without at least trying to address the issues.
If at all possible, I also recommend requesting a table at the periphery of the chaos. Perhaps in a corner where you can use the local acoustics to your advantage.
I also have a bad ear, and the "corner technique" is one that I use often.
Hope this helps,
R
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It almost sounds like you might be describing the local group in my area. Was this at the Dice Dojo in Chicago?
The Dojo a gaming store with a nice sized playing area, but we have 4-6 tables of Pathfinder going every Monday night, along with occasional other gamers, so the noise level is pretty bad. GMs really have to speak up to be heard, and not all of them are that great about it. Usually, if you make a point of sitting next to them and/or letting them know if they're not being loud enough, they'll try to correct the problem. I'd think GMs in other areas would probably be good about this if you point out the problem, too.
We also try to spread out the tables a little, but the place really isn't THAT big, so it's tough, especially if there are non-Pathfinder gamers in there that night. We have the main room pretty much reserved, but there are often one or two tables taken up by other groups of random gamers. And there's a side room that's often unused on our nights, but it's sometimes reserved for other things, so we usually don't even ask if it's available.
As for the time issue, I agree that games usually take around 4 hours. In our area, we sometimes starts a little late, as players trickle in. And we occasionally have sessions that just run long.
Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area South & West
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I believe he's one of our group (Game Kastle, Santa Clara), although it sounds as though the issues faced by Fromper's group are similar to the ones we see.
We play Pathfinder Society games on Monday nights. The event calendar shows that the game slot is from 6:30 to 10:30, but that's mostly because that how it was set up in the first place (at least three years ago). It would probably be a good idea to push the advertised ending time a little later, especially now we usually end up with six-player tables, and Season 5 scenarios often need a little longer.
We play in the main game room. There was plenty of space when we only had one or two tables, even if we had to share the space with other activities. But now we regularly get four tables, as was the case this week. We were also sharing the space with at least two other groups, so we were a little cramped for space. The acoustics of the room aren't great, so with that many people packed in it was indeed fairly loud (especially since one of the other groups was making quite a bit of noise).
The side room that was mentioned is shut and locked when the store closes at 10:00, so it isn't an available option for PFS night. Even if it were, though, it wouldn't be a good choice; it isn't air-conditioned (not good in California during the summer), and by the time you have two or three tables of players in there it is noisier than a full main room.
I'm not at the event every week, so I can only talk of what I know. Just as with Fromper's group, players are not always punctual; there are generally one or two who show up at the last minute (or even later). That means a table might not actually get started on time. That can be a problem, particularly with a six-player table, if the scenario is packing a lot of non-combat activity into the time-slot. But while it might be common to see a table not finish by 10:30, it's unusual in my experience to see one run over by longer than a hour (and if it does, it's likely to be my table; I'm probably one of the worst offenders).
Last night we were running two tables of the Season 5 scenario "Destiny of the Sands part 2: The Race to Seeker's Folly". I was running the high sub-tier table, and what with one thing and another we did indeed end up taking nearly five hours; the other (low sub-tier) table finished slightly earlier. The other two tables were running an earlier scenario - "Murder on the Silken Caravan". One (a four-player table) was probably finished within the four hours. The other did run longer, but it was a full table. Both of those tables were being run by GMs who had stepped up at the last minute; I don't know how much time they had had for advance preparation.
Still, I'm glad we got at least one thing right, and came across as helpful and accepting of a new player. I'm sure the GM would have been accommodating at a table seating someone with hearing issues; with the advancing years my hearing isn't what it used to be, either, so our PFS group are quite used to that kind of thing :-)
I can only encourage the original poster to come back again next week, and make sure the GM knows of any concerns about hearing (or timing).
Welcome to the PFS community - please don't give up on us now!
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Yes John, it was the Santa Clara group. Too bad about the larger side room being closed, and I definitely should have communicated better about my time commitments and hearing issues.
In the long term I think time is going to be an issue as I work at 11PM on Monday nights normally, just not for the next two weeks.
I did sign up for another event on the 23rd and am looking forward to it. Thank you all for being so welcoming.
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Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area South & West
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If Monday is a bad night for you, there are other options around the South Bay area, depending on where you can get to easily.
- Legends (in Cupertino) plays PFS on Friday nights ($4 table fee)
- The Comic Collector Shop (Sunnyvale) is trying to start up a Thursday night group (probably 5 - 9 or thereabouts)
- A little further afield, Ronin Games in Castro Valley plays on Wednesday nights
Links to other stores in the larger Bay Area can be found on the Bay Area Pathfinder Society website
And, of course, our local convention - PacifiCon - is coming up soon (Aug 29 - Sep 1 at the Santa Clara Marriott)
