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Thank you for the help in making my rogue which i promptly got killed In the consortium compact but i need to go buy hero lab.
I'm sorry to hear that! I'm still convinced that dying like this is the very reason PFS is so rewarding and fun. I just hope I made sure you had a Dagger and Rope at the time of death, that way I know I did my job right. If you want some more time to play around and learn the program you can download the Demo to play around with the core system stuff. I always suggest people check out the "demo" program because it's the full blown feature and all you'll need to do is unlock it with a Lic. Key if/when you buy one. :)
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Made it home myself, though somewhat later than planned. I had a total blast this weekend though I spent much of it marshaling. Hanging out even more with the HQ team was quite an experience and I learned a lot and gained a certain respect for how much works it takes to pull off GenCon. I hope to see you all again in 54 weeks.
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The drive home ended for me right around 830pm cst, to an empty house and a fridge stocked with beer. Nice. Getting laundry done to go back to work and the real world tomorrow.
The good- Seeing familiar faces, it's always a pleasure to be around Walt Sheppard and Jon Dehning. Meeting new people, meeting Thursty was pretty cool, I haven't laughed as much in a long while. The games that fired for me were all really good, I ran 7-28 all weekend and had a great time, that scenario is really well put together. Getting to hang out at HQ during 8-00 was a pretty cool consolation prize for not GM'ing the special.
The bad- Not much to complain about here. I was less than crazy about the mustering, but that's mainly because half my tables didn't make. The actual seating process was pretty smooth, though. Only had two problem players, one was pretty creepy and the other had a halitosis problem, nothing too serious.
The ugly- Delta Airlines, hopefully those of you stuck in and around airports are able to make it home tomorrow without too many more issues.
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I'd like to give a big shoutout to all you lovely amazing folks in the Society for, yet again, making my GenCon experience so fantastic. Rincewind the Hero Lab tech checking in!
I guess outing myself intentionally here is probably prudent, I was helping run the Character Creation Station with LWD & Hero Lab for the room along with a team of crack experts. It's been on hell of a ride these last 6 years and I'm more pleased than ever to get to know and work with all of you Society GMs, HQ and Helpdesk staff, PF Academy workers, and pretty much everyone else I know I missed a few.
To the players in particular, I want to thank for all being so polite and patient, especially with very little sleep and a dozen people standing in line in front of you so you can get you game "rolling." I hope I was able to get your brand new PC's to the table in time for all your games.
Special Mentions to Tonya and Bobby for making us feel more welcome than ever, I hope you all get caught up on some much needed rest and refresh before the next show in a few weeks.
Thank you for the help in making my rogue which i promptly got killed In the consortium compact but i need to go buy hero lab.
Thanks for y'all's support appreciate y'all's effort. I observed it time to time as I was running around in an orange shirt.
Edit: forgive lack of full sentences. Just got home after 13 hour drive. Thanks Delta!
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to the people wearing large fuzzy pickachu tails, suddenly stopping in front of people walking behind you gets very awkward very quickly.
Tried to muster for my first time. you muster by the pregen listed on a sign. Make the dc 20 spot check to note that on the back of the sign is a pregen, and find another one with Seoni. Miss the dc negative 18 spot check to notice the giant 20 foot long banner of seoni hanging from the ceiling above me.
Pathfinder Society Lead Developer
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We recently boarded the flight home at 3 am after being delayed/rebooked four times, and after half an hour on the plane at the gate, they announced that there weren't any pilots—flight cancelled. The saga continues, and I am currently rebooked with a layover that might get me into Seattle 25 hours (accounting for time change) after it all started.
I was hoping to be at home and writing a more upbeat contribution by now. I'll try to chronicle my otherwise positive feelings on the weekend later.
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So I compiled my notes all into one post as I stayed off my computer for all of GenCon.
Locally, GenCon started on Tuesday as a number of materials had to be mad ready for GenCon and a trip up to the Convention Center was needed after dinner, then back home and to bed to get ready for the rest of the marathon.
Wednesday, got up a bit late packed and headed back to Indy. Got checked into the Westin and in the Sag (wow that walk is convenient). Then sat in the room with a couple of locals and handed out some maps while our VC went to the VC dinner. (Got to meet TOZ and Eric Brittain among others whose names I'm forgetting atm, sorry. I hear a BigNorseWolf sighting was also had on Thursday but I missed that one)
Thursday - Slot 1 - Went to the Paizo booth to pick up a couple of maps and Path of the Hellknight (which Wes Schneider was kind enough to sign and put up with my geeking out a bit). got to close to John Compton as he was selling things, and now I'm the proud (but unplanned) owner of Monica Marlowe's Down the Blighted Path looks pretty fantastic so far.
Slot 2 - Table didn't fire, ran into a couple of locals who recently moved up to Indy, went walking around the dealer hall, then caught an early dinner with them at Dick's Last Resort, food was surprisingly good.
Slot 3 - Serpent's Ire. Had a table full of people I knew which was pretty cool, I'll review the scenario separately at some point.
Friday - Slot 4 - Slept in a bit and then headed over to the Take N' Paint. It's one of my favorite haunts during the Con, free minis and a chance to paint them, also gives my voice a chance to rest.
Slot 5 - Beyond Azlant Ridge fired, low tier all 4th level pregens, all new to fairly new players, it went well til the end, then not so much. Gunslinger I just finished playing ended up paying off right away.
Slot 6 - Cosmic Captive - had a table of very nice people, one of whom I had GMed for the previous year. (4 out of the 7 were playing pregens plus two animal companions made combats go fairly long, but otherwise a good experience) The new AV set-up was freakin' great.
Saturday - Slot 7 - Sleep
Slot 8 - Beyond Azlant Ridge, this time high tier 4 player adjusted.
Think I had 2 pregens in this one, but the table did really quite well. Also, they did something next to impossible to the BBEG, right after I had talked to Linda Zayas-Palmer about the unlikelihood of it happening.
Slot 9 - Through Maelstrom Rift. Ran for 4 players - all fairly new, but they picked it up well. Gave them a good 15-20 minutes before the briefing to let them familiarize themselves with the characters and had James McTeague's cheat sheets, both of which helped immensely. Probably my favorite of this year's specials - seems highly variable on run time depending on your table's interest/abilities. Combats can be pretty tough depending on how you handle them. Overall a really good experience - also my favorite question/answer in all the scenarios I've seen. Had a blast running this table. Got to chat with Mark Seifter about a number of things between games.
Sunday Slot 10 - Beyond Azlant Ridge. Ran it one last time, no pregens. Saw some really interesting builds and it ran really well.
Overall - 6/7 tables fired, 21/32 pregens (though to be fair 2 scenarios were pregen only), 6 or 7 new player numbers given out.
Not sure if it was the mornings off or the longer breaks, but my voice (and many others) seemed to hold up better this year than in the past. It was a ton of fun meeting people for the first time or talking to people I hadn't seen in a year. There are some people I missed, which seems to always happen, though I regret it. Already looking forward to next year.
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Oh to recap the whirlwind that was GenCon...
First off - the Minnesota crew had a great time one and all. Top notch execution by all of our members (Jon Jack Ray Daniel Keith Andy Ryan Danny Alan to name a few...). Closing down Scotty's and/or O'Reilly's at 330 every night was amazingly fun.
Me personally: DeepMarket Deception is a mean scenario. Thursday saw two tables of it go with the party at high tier squeaking by, while the party at low tier executed teamwork to perfection.
Follow those up with Serpent's Ire... I enjoy the scenario... i really do... But as a GM - I had essentially 3 new(ish) players to pathfinder... This is not the scenario I want to be teaching on - but they managed to get past some struggles and have a good time.
fast forward - Closed down the bar at Scotty's at 330. asleep by 4 (yay!)
Friday: Morning slot off - so Jack and I play a table of Captives of toil at 8am. Really fun scenario! *redacted* this and *redacted* that. Afternoon slot saw a high tier of Deepmarket deception. this party really struggled... tried to tell them to walk away from the final boss.... "take your loot and go home"... *sigh... ritual suicide it is. TPK.
Friday night Cosmic Captive - Tier 3-4. no comment.
fast forward - close down O'Reilly's at 330 as Scotty's was already closed by 1am. very disappointing. Return to hotel and stay up a few more hours bantering with the crew.
Saturday : "where am i? why are you ... let go!" Jack drags me out of bed after an hour of sleep... on to a game of Portent's Peril. Run into our good friend Alistair Rigg looking for the same game as me and Jack! fantastic coincidence! Sit down and Thorval son of thorval son of thorval son of... *etc and the other two players chime in... "Son of who?" *tear these are my kind of people. GM was great. easy going, not too serious and well prepared. really memorable (after the first hour of waking up of course).
Saturday afternoon.... Deepmarket again.. Five level 3 players at the low tier. Another struggle with the perfect storm of bad luck and bad choices. another case of don't go in there... tpk. This one i still feel bad about killing an unconcious pc... but as the 6th or 7th time someone was going to stand up again after falling down... the bad guy's gotta do it.
Saturday night: Maelstrom's Rift. a cute whimsical scenario. don't take it too seriously and it is kinda fun.
Saturday night 1 am. One year ago on Saturday night, the Minnesota crew rolled into O'Reilly's with every brother and sister in pfs we could find. It was THE highlight of GenCon 2015. There was no chance we weren't going to do our best to match it. The staff took care of us again (as they always do), and we took over the place buying pitchers after pitchers. Lotta people there famous or not and good times were had by all. Post-party celebration lasted only another hour.
Sunday morning rolled in and every deepmarket table folded. that 10am realization that GenCon is over. there's a wander through the halls, and another stop at the Paizo store... run some coffee for gm's i know... but it's over. where did it go? why is it more than 365 days away to start again!!!
One last afternoon at O'Reilly's. They are out of food across the board.... 3 burger patties left. Mission Accomplished. and depart the hotel Monday morning at 630am for the return to the real world... Until next year everyone!
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GenCon isn't over yet! I've made it all the way to Atlanta, so only one more leg of my flight home to go. Too bad it's been delayed 6 hours (so far).
I've decided this counts as starting my "Extended Travels" boon and I will be gaining much XP and Fame when I finally return.
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Two truths and a falsehood:
1. A VC got married to a VA at the con
2. HQ leads were rewarded with boons to play drow
3. I started my day drinking yesterday morning at 7 AM
My VC and I each have a 'Glutton for Punishment' boon that we'd be willing to package to trade for your drow boon.
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walking into the hall: Walking into the room was amazing, there was a definitely holy s#!# moment at seeing something the size of an indoor football field filled with geeks and 20 foot high banner's from the ceiling and knowing this was just ONE game in one building across an entire complex was amazing.
But once the games started there was nothing but the game. They were some amazing games, absolutely no bad games at all (at least on my end) . could have been a big con, small con, and if i was in the zone and didn't hear the crowd anymore, a table at the local store. A games a game.
First slot: Supposed to be running Abducted in Aether. Morning slot, high tier, not enough high level geeks wake up. I get released. look for a game. A table of people lost a dm for labyrnth of hungry ghosts. I ran that six months ago... sure I can run that. Get a bound paper copy from a very helpful HQ staff and run it on the fly. I don't know what the rules for a controlled ghost like thing grappling another ghost inside someone's head are, but as we have clearly left the established rules with a rocket powered ski jump I don't feel bad ad hocing it..
Second slot: Abducted in Aether goes off hitch.. i think is a really good fit. It's weird, it's whacky, it's pretty deep, and players will leave you trying to come up with details on the fly. Everything in the scenario has a lot of hitpoints and good saves, so very few of the combats descend into the high levels of rocket tag. kind of gave myself a minor headrush acting out a possession so i had to tone that down a little for the other tables.
Third slot: Serpents Ire AKA we be aspis II gets canceled. hop into another table, had a blast. Got to be zurnzal again and he's a blast: pragmatically ruthless, smarter than anyone gives him credit for, and if you know how to brawler incredibly versitile. had a lot of fun knocking out the the named NPC and chucking them into their friends with throw anything, playing koolaid man, feeding NPC's to the monsters to get them out of the fight. The dm was great for going along with the insanity.
Two more abducted in Aether tables. Had a lot of fun playing Zeys soul in a lantern.
Cosmic captive: despite prepping the heck out of this i did keep getting lost. The parts i'd prepped better and knew there was a rule seemed to make it HARDER to find to look up exactly how it worked for some reason. People complained that everyone seemed underprepared but you simply CAN"T prepare a scenario this complicated without taking it for a test drive to see what shakes loose and this was the test drive for most people. At the high tier anyway a lot of the monster fights were pretty samey: it was a large monster and it hit you hard. The party tried to murderhobo the social encounter. "DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO GET TEAK UP HERE!?!?!?!?" We somehow had a pregen valeros in the 10-11 special but he did surprisingly well.
Some of the monsters were misplaced in the back, and that's NOT a good thing in a special that big.
I was 10 minutes late to a morning slot and when they say they start at 8 they are NOT kidding. Mustering is OVER 10 minutes it. It was a bit of a scramble to find another table but it was a fun little session. They flew my levitating kitsune around like a kite.
We be elementals was a blast. I think I almost gave the DM an aneurysm. I had two people independently say they wanted to see me play Rhole and it went even better than expected.
I got to play Captives in toil on the perfect character for it, and my adorable bundle of fluffy death had a lot of fun shredding things and interacting with the goodie two shoes they sent him with.
no one told me about the after con meeting (i wondered where everyone was, thought another pickup game would be easy at that point) after some loby blogging and french fries got into a game with Toz and Wei ji. Flutter cuddled the Kortos mountains into submission , the horse turned into the killer of bees, kept her arms at her sides to shake on a deal with a troll, and showed up riding a horse riding a dinosaur.
The horse: I'm not trapped in the maze with you. YOU"RE trapped in the maze WITH ME!!!
Things to do better: more mapping in advance. maybe get some gamer paper. have larger minis or buy the bases: i have an extensive collection of minis but as i'm of the "lead poisoning or death" variety few if any of them work as huge or gargantuan. The piece of paper or peanut cap shows where the monster is on the map but detracts from the immersion a bit.
More highlighting/notes.
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Contributor
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This year was my first Gen Con and I loved it. Playing PFS, attending seminars, and hanging out with my friends & colleagues from Michigan, Minnesota, Seattle, Australia, and elsewhere was amazing. My only minor gripes were the long queue to get the badge and the insanely cold Sagamore ballroom, I was shivering most of the time. I mean, I'm from Finland! We have snow and stuff up there! :D
I had a great time at Gen Con this year. I ran 8-02 Ward Asunder five times (outta six) and it was just as fun to run the last time as it was at the beginning.
I'm very glad to hear that! Thanks so much for running my scenario! Any PC deaths, by the way? (I was a bit worried it ended up being too challenging.)
And thanks to everyone else who ran and played Ward Asunder or Ancients' Anguish! I was lurking behind your backs while you were playing. ;) I saw a few 3d terrains built by GMs for those scenarios. Seeing those was definitely one of the biggest highlights of my Gen Con!