Final PFS Numbers Count

Sun, Aug 17, 2014 at 11:32 AM Pacific

We have our final tally of PFS RPG OP over the course of the four days at Gen Con.

Total tables - 1,476
Total seated players - 8,736
Total quest tables - 211
Total seated quest players - 842
Total new PFS numbers issued - 1,758

A huge thank you goes out to all HQ volunteers, VOs, GMs, and the player base. As I tell the VOs all the time, they are the best group of volunteers in the world and make my job much easier. Without the volunteers, we could not make PFS as awesome as it is. We have the best group of GMs and players as well. With the coordinated effort, we sat all real tickets among the 160 tables by nine minutes past the hour at the latest, and all generic tickets by 15 minutes past the hour.

I hope everyone had a fantastic time at Gen Con. Please feel free to provide feedback so we can improve next year's Gen Con experience. Finally, if you have any thank your or similar to pass on to the volunteers, please do so. They did a superior job and PFS went off with very few problems this year.

Mike Brock
Global Organized Play Coordinator

More Paizo Blog.
Tags: Gen Con
Grand Lodge Global Organized Play Coordinator

9 people marked this as a favorite.

I forgot to mention that of that total of 8,736 players seated, just over 500 of them were kids seated for Kid's Track!

The Exchange

Congrats Mike! Your team continues to grow the already excellent PFS community.

Liberty's Edge

Congratulations to everyone who made this happen. Did the 8,736 players seated include the same people showing up for multiple events or were these individual players? Either way, it is an impressive figure.

I am also pleased to see that the kids track went well!!

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Yeah ... "Unique players" would be interesting too.

Wish I could be there ... I love con play!

Edit: You know what would be cool ... get Roll20 and/or D20Pro to sponsor 2+ tables worth of virtual players. I'd love to get in on the action from afar. Especially for the special.

The VTT co's would get to show their product. People that don't get to go to cons would get a chance for some con play, etc ..

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
William Ronald wrote:

Congratulations to everyone who made this happen. Did the 8,736 players seated include the same people showing up for multiple events or were these individual players? Either way, it is an impressive figure.

I am also pleased to see that the kids track went well!!

Given the table to player ratio there (5.9187 players per table) that it's raw players for each session, rather than unique players - it also makes sense as you would only be able to tell people apart once you entered all the table reports, which isn't something that's going to happen in the couple of hours since the show closed...

Paizo Employee

Michael Brock wrote:
I forgot to mention that of that total of 8,736 players seated, just over 500 of them were kids seated for Kid's Track!

Yay! That makes me so happy :)

Cheers!
Landon


1,476 tables..

That's an amazing number. The level of organisation involved to pull that off is incredible. A huge well done to everyone involved.

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Maps Subscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

But Mike, was lichdom achieved?


1 person marked this as a favorite.

What was the final count for dead PCs in Bonekeep?

Grand Lodge Global Organized Play Coordinator

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Kadasbrass Loreweaver wrote:
But Mike, was lichdom achieved?

I don't need lichdom. I know what the Test of the Starstone is all about now ;-)

Lantern Lodge

Congratulations to everyone involved. I wish I could have been there to be a part of the glorious battles waged by our fellow Pathfinders; alas, the needs of a grieving family required me to stay home. I look forward to returning next year to help bring even greater glory to the Pathfinder Society.

MC1 Donald P. Rule, USN(FR)
Commander, VFW District 9 (Michigan)
Commander, VFW Post 5065 (Sheridan, MI)
1st Vice Commander, American Legion Post 101 (Greenville, MI)
Authorized Agent, MI Veterans Trust Fund (Montcalm County)

Paizo Employee Developer

Michael Brock wrote:
Kadasbrass Loreweaver wrote:
But Mike, was lichdom achieved?
I don't need lichdom. I know what the Test of the Starstone is all about now ;-)

Quietly alters canon to delay Mike's apotheosis

Shhhh! You weren't supposed to tell!


1 person marked this as a favorite.

DID I KILL ANYONE?

I HOPE I DID. I DO NOT ACTUALLY REMEMBER.

I THINK I HAD TOO MANY BOTTLES OF SAMAEL ADAMS.

Liberty's Edge

I wish I could also have been there to be a part of these big PFS party like last year !!!

I wish I could attend next year for the GenCon or PaizoCon UK.

CU


Congrats, Mike and all the volunteers and staff, for such a huge success!

Silver Crusade

I almost killed someone but fortunately another player at the table did it for me. 1476 tables sat is pretty awesome considering the room could sit 150 tables at once for 10 slots each. In other words, it was almost max capacity for the entire timeline. Most of the tables that didn't seat were the 8:00 AM slots, poor drunks couldn't roll out of bed:)

It was awesome meeting other VO's. Now I can put a face to many I may or may not have argued...debated with on the message boards. I can think of them as real people now instead of "that guy who's out to get me":) We tend to read text from people we haven't met with the neutral filter turned off. That is to say, I didn't meet a Pathfinder I didn't like this weekend:)

A shout-out to my roomies who put up with my snoring, farting, butt scratching, 3:00 am last minute preparations, 5:00 AM alarm clock, war stories, whining (for nothing), and finally the more embarrassing stuff I don't even want to mention...

P.S. Especially the butt scratching since it wasn't my butt...

P.S.S I hope you were reading the last paragraph tongue-in-cheek mode:)

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.

This was my second Gen Con, and all of the players who sat down at my tables and all of the GMs at whose tables I sat were excellent.

I don't know if I just got lucky, or if it's a reflection of the people who come out to play at Gen Con. :) Either way, I'll take it! So much fun.

The collective energy present in the Sagamore during the slots (and especially the specials) was palpable , which just makes it an exciting atmosphere. Thanks so much for involving the community and letting us help out. It will keep me coming back, for sure!

Grand Lodge

I had the pleasure of GMing seven slots this year at Gen Con, and the greatest thing to see was the surge of not only younger players getting really interested in the great campaign that is PFS, but also the number of returning RPG players who had left the hobby years ago.

Personally, I have to issue a million thanks to the awesome volunteer staff that was present at the event. Seeing all those orange shirts flash around an enormous ballroom catering to anything and everything that needed to be done was inspirational. From one "purple shirt" to all of the "orange shirts", thank you so much.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Since no one has asked....

How does this compare to last year?

Grand Lodge

I don't have the actual numbers, but we passed last year's table count in the afternoon slot on Saturday, so we had two full slots of record-count tables.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Considering that there was 160 tables, 10 slots- over 92% of the slots ran. Freaking awesome.

-- Steve

Shadow Lodge

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

While I'm grateful for all the players who came and made it a great experience, I'm irked by the number of empty seats I saw on "sold out" events. I understand that different people have different reasons for not making it to there scheduled events, but when I see over a dozen GMs get bumped because of players not showing up to the sold out pre-sale only special, something isn't right. those seats/tickets could have gone to players who actually are invested in PFS characters that wanted to be a part of the event.

Liberty's Edge

It was really fun getting to GM for a lot of people who were trying out PFS for the first time. I hope to see them next year with all-grown-up characters!

Great job Mike, John and all the other GMs I got to chat to inbetween games.

Paizo Employee Developer

Thanks to all the volunteers, GMs, and players for making this such an awesome GenCon! Seeing that room in action was certainly a highlight of GenCon for me!

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

It was my first time at Gencon and I spent most of my week-end playing PFS. I had a great time! Thank you to Paizo, the volunteers and the GM foe a great job. And all the players I met were great too. :0))))))

Paizo Employee Publisher, Chief Creative Officer

5 people marked this as a favorite.

Thanks to all the players and volunteers, and especially to Mike Brock and his HQ staff. I was able to pop into the Sagamore a few times this year, and those visits were among the highlight of the convention.

I'll repeat the endorsement of the "energy" in the room Friday night. It really is special. It's hard for me to imagine a more exciting room than the ENnies with Paizo having such a strong showing, but getting to head over to the Sagamore immediately after to share in our victory with the folks who make it possible is one of my most cherished show highlights!

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Rulebook Subscriber

Erik it means a lot to our player base that you come and thank them, especially this year when you came to many tables to hand out minis. You have no idea how excited many of them get to meet you guys.

I would personally love to see a rotation of Paizo staff visits to the Sagamore over the course of the con, perhaps with one of us VOs to take you around and introduce you to a few tables (maybe we could even introduce an aid token you could give out with an in-scenario benefit- Paizo loves you so here's a cure light wounds potion!). I know you are all ludicrously strapped for time but it would provide staff with a break from the dealer room and to see PFS in action, and would really help increase that visibility from both angles.

Just a thought.

Thanks for always taking the time to do that yourself, as you have for many years now.


Kadasbrass Loreweaver wrote:
But Mike, was lichdom achieved?

I think we need to ask Jason Bulmahn that question.


Michael Brock wrote:
Kadasbrass Loreweaver wrote:
But Mike, was lichdom achieved?
I don't need lichdom. I know what the Test of the Starstone is all about now ;-)

At least *your* Test of the Starstone. IIRC there's a lot of flexibility & GM discretion on that scenario.


hxcmike wrote:
While I'm grateful for all the players who came and made it a great experience, I'm irked by the number of empty seats I saw on "sold out" events. I understand that different people have different reasons for not making it to there scheduled events, but when I see over a dozen GMs get bumped because of players not showing up to the sold out pre-sale only special, something isn't right. those seats/tickets could have gone to players who actually are invested in PFS characters that wanted to be a part of the event.

As I was leaving the Sagamore Friday afternoon a few people told me that they had been able to pick up tickets that day for that night's special at the GenCon booth, presumably from tickets that people had swapped or cancelled through the GenCon ticketing system. Heck, if I had any of my characters with me I would have picked one up. So while it was sold out, it makes sense to keep checking to see if tickets have been made available (work/travel plans change, people get sick…).

I know that when I was up at the HQ table, I encouraged everyone who expressed a concern about not being able to play in a special to make sure they had generic tickets and stuck around through the entire muster process.

I wasn't there for Legacy, but I know for Paths and Bonekeep 3 we were able to seat most (90+% if not 100%) of the generics and still had extra GMs. Although I don't see that having those loose GMs as a bad thing; it would have sucked more if we had to turn players away. It also allowed us to move some GMs to the Quests tables when they exploded on Saturday.

Shadow Lodge

mgcady wrote:
hxcmike wrote:
While I'm grateful for all the players who came and made it a great experience, I'm irked by the number of empty seats I saw on "sold out" events. I understand that different people have different reasons for not making it to there scheduled events, but when I see over a dozen GMs get bumped because of players not showing up to the sold out pre-sale only special, something isn't right. those seats/tickets could have gone to players who actually are invested in PFS characters that wanted to be a part of the event.

As I was leaving the Sagamore Friday afternoon a few people told me that they had been able to pick up tickets that day for that night's special at the GenCon booth, presumably from tickets that people had swapped or cancelled through the GenCon ticketing system. Heck, if I had any of my characters with me I would have picked one up. So while it was sold out, it makes sense to keep checking to see if tickets have been made available (work/travel plans change, people get sick…).

I know that when I was up at the HQ table, I encouraged everyone who expressed a concern about not being able to play in a special to make sure they had generic tickets and stuck around through the entire muster process.

I wasn't there for Legacy, but I know for Paths and Bonekeep 3 we were able to seat most (90+% if not 100%) of the generics and still had extra GMs. Although I don't see that having those loose GMs as a bad thing; it would have sucked more if we had to turn players away. It also allowed us to move some GMs to the Quests tables when they exploded on Saturday.

To the best of my knowledge, we didn't have to turn anyone away for any slot this year, normal or special. We took about 33% more tickets than we did last year, and released FAR fewer GMs per slot (10ish as opposed to 20-25ish last year).

Community / Forums / Paizo / General Discussion / Paizo Blog: Final PFS Numbers Count All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in General Discussion