Official(?) Gen Con 2016 Feedback


Pathfinder Society

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Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/5 ***

I am home from another fantastic Gen Con and want to give a huge THANK YOU to all the GMs, HQ staff, department heads, players, and my fellow HQ leads. Everyone did a great job! The enthusiasm and selfless willingness to provide players a great experience is amazing. Also, thank you to Tonya, John, and Linda who created/provided the awesome materials we used for the show. Everyone I have spoken to so far has said Pathfinder Society was the best it has ever been. From the marshaling, to the GMs and players at the table, to the overall experience, I have received nothing but good reports. What few problems and challenges HQ faced were largely invisible to the “public” which is exactly what we try to do.

As we all reminisce about Gen Con 2016, the HQ lead team has to start looking towards the future. Despite everything we got right this year, we know we can always improve. So, we would love to hear what you liked/disliked about your experience with Pathfinder Society and suggestions for improvement. Over the next few weeks, I will be accumulating all the commentary to be presented to the HQ Lead team (including Tonya/John/Linda) for evaluation and possible implementation. Gen Con is a huge event that takes many months to plan efficiently which means the process will be starting fresh in just a few months. I am already excited about the possibilities for 2017 and Gen Con's 50th anniversary!

EDIT--if you discover any errors in the reporting of events, like last year, Todd Morgan (Regional Venture-Coordinator, Midwest) is our point of contact. He is in possession of all the reporting sheets and has a direct line to Paizo if necessary. Please forward all errors to him.

Grand Lodge 2/5

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Some very quick feedback. Marshalling was the best it's been. I didn't have trouble hearing the speakers (though I was sat at a table towards the front of the hall this year so that may've made a difference), having the text on the screen was immensely helpful, and having the text pre-recorded was a wonderful idea. I also never saw a huge wait at the boon-roll table.

Some not so good notes. 1 a.m. was too late for me--that plus travel plus being back at the con in the morning was a huge pain. **** And then we still got full credit because everyone else in the room completed enough for us to be successful.

That last part is the exact opposite of last year. Last year my table was awesome and we destroyed every encounter quickly and skillfully but we didn't get full credit. That's not fun. Being "granted" credit for doing nothing is not good and not getting credit even while being awesome is still not good. Overall success shouldn't depend on the whole room but should be able to be achieved at an individual table.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/55/55/5 *

I know you guys did a bang up job on getting us scenarios as early as possible. The specials had so much prep time needed and two weeks before with also holding down a full time job and running local events really puts the pressure on someone to prep. Knowing that people pay good money to play these specials us GMS try and give the best experience possible.

I don't know and I highly doubt it but is there some way on the specials with the different maps could HQ provide them so maybe the GMS can spend more time prepping the other aspects of the scenarios.

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Cosmic Captive Success:
Just so you know, everyone got 2 PP and gold for participating in the special. There was no success levels like previous years.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/5 ***

claudekennilol wrote:
Some not so good notes

Constructive GM criticism can be useful to improve future player experiences, but we do not want to hash out the specifics in the public forums. The Gen Con lead organizing team (myself, Jon Cary and Todd Morgan) would like to hear feedback (good/bad) on any GM (or any other volunteer) anyone experienced at the event. Please drop us an email. It is especially useful if you know the GM's name, but if you at least know the table number and/or the GMs society ID number it is helpful.

Bob Jonquet
pfs.illinois@gmail.com

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/5 ***

Roy Lewis wrote:
I don't know and I highly doubt it but is there some way on the specials with the different maps could HQ provide them so maybe the GMS can spend more time prepping the other aspects of the scenarios.

I will certainly add that question to our after-action meetings and planning for next year. My initial thoughts are no, at least not with respect to flipmaps and map packs, since those are available for purchase from Paizo both in print and digitally. As far as custom maps go, I am looking into solutions to provide those to our GMs. We will be looking into the requirements needed to make it possible while still complying with Paizo's community use policy.

Liberty's Edge 2/5

Thanks guys,

I had a great time this year, I had nothing but great people at all of my tables, and I liked the fact that I only had a single module to prepare, even though I was scheduled to run it five times, it really allowed me to make my sessions better.

I initially felt great trepidation about the extra break, but I gotta say, it was pretty nice to be able to go away for lunch for an extra hour, really reduced a lot of stress for me.

One minor issue I'd like to see changed is perhaps a little different phrasing from the HQ staff on some requests. I know you guys are stressed constantly moving, and busy as hell, but could you folks phrase requests with some different language? There were several times when I or one of my colleagues would hand in a reporting sheet, and the answer was, in many cases: "Wait, I won't release you until I verify that this is correct", which made some of my colleagues feel very negative about running future games, as they are also feeling stressed out themselves (especially after some of the more complex modules). I'm sure there are better ways to relay information than that.

The Thursday and Friday night specials from the gamer side of the table seemed really overly long, and somewhat complex to run, both of my GMs had a rough time with it (and they were both people known to me, and I'm confident of their ability). There wasn't a lot of forgiving parts of them, if you took too long in certain parts, you might be boned because you run out of time somewhere else...

Thank you again for a great weekend, hope to be back next year!

5/5 5/55/55/5

The special was very complicated, I don't think any amount of prep would have prevented people from needing to look it over for a few minutes sometimes.

The scenario had a few monsters out of place and most of them were new. If I need to fight a babazu, i know can look under devil, babazu. If the scenario tells me to add a AGHASURA , i have no idea to look under ASURA, AGHASURA

I got thrown for a loop when the status effects went from the front of the scenario to the middle, but that may be my penchant for just being completely blind to sidebars. there really wasn't anyone i could flag down to get unstuck.

More humorous than actual complaint: marshaling was done by a scheduel taped to the back of a paizo poster with iconics on it, and refered to iconics. I of course saw the small iconic on the back of the poster, but missed the giant 20 foot high seoni right over my head.

I had not heard of any kind of post Con meeting until the ride home.

You may want to hold onto a few Dm's for a little longer before releasing them into the wild. My first table collapsed but another table lost their DM for Labyrinth of hungry ghosts, we found each other because i was standing around looking for a game, but they would have had to split up if we hadn't gotten lucky.

These are very minor things though. Thank you for everything you do to make gencon happen. It was a blast.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 *** Venture-Agent, Nebraska—Omaha

My only complaint was that the signage was a bit confusing at first. I know that I and a few other people were waiting at a cardboard cutout instead of a banner 8am Thursday. The system was great once I figured it out, but directions needed to be more prominent.

Paizo Employee 4/5 ** Developer

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First and foremost, I loved Gencon. And being a tier-2 GM, I spent 90% of my time in the Sagamore/"Paizo Room", so it goes without saying I loved PFS at Gencon. The mustering was easy, the scenario choices were well done, the Players, GMs and HQ staff were all friendly, but I could make some suggestions.

Things I Really Liked: The pre-recorded special was genius. The multi-table special itself was super fun. The elemental special had some fantastic roleplaying moments. The Aspis special is something I'll never forget. I really liked the Horror Adventures table in the center of the room and playing a single-encounter adventure was really exciting and fun, especially as it gave us a chance to try the new pregens and it could be done between games.

I agree with BigNorseWolf and KingofAnything regarding the confusion having the small iconics set up beneath different big iconics. It made mustering just a little confusing on day 1.

Boons: Every (GM) wanted Boon 17. And I felt lucky to have rolled 17 three times in a row on the last day. Except they were all out of Boon 17. So I got none, which made me kind of disappointed. I know setting up even a small sized printer and laptop is not always an option, given there is not always electricity available. I suppose they could have printed more of the boons they were running low on off-site after the sagamore closed down. But, barring that, they could have at least had moved some boons into the empty bins so we didn't have to reroll and feel like we missed out (and delay the lines). Or brought a 21st boon specifically to fill out empty bins.

Into the Maelstrom:
Into the Maelstrom Rift: No fewer than a dozen GMs came to me concerned about the logistics of the debris encounter. Ultimately, it was a hit or miss experience trying to sort out how to track movement and distances, and illustrate these to our players. I wish there was a little more information in the module as to the best way to run the encounter. Even a photograph of how it was set up in playtesting. Ultimately, my table was successful and had a great time using some extra accessories I prepared in advance, but some GMs were a little stressed out preparing for the encounter.

Community Board: Having a whiteboard or community board for people to write or post things on could be helpful. Several people wanted to trade tiers during the multi-table special, for example. And lots of us were looking for pick-up games after the convention or because we've already run/played all the modules being offered in the tiers we are looking to play.

Hero Labs: I loved that HeroLab was there and it was a great way to give completely new PFS players an opportunity to experience PFS without having to play PreGens. That being said, I did have an issue wherein my table mustered with players playing things that were not at all PFS legal (mythic powers and one person with a level in Champion). It was easy to sort out and no one was salty, but I could see why it might be disheartening for less cooperative players. I think it'd help to have a small sign at the hero lab stations reminding people to check the "PFS Legal" option if they plan on playing the character at the convention.

Great convention. Great time. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know. Most of these are minor nitpicks!

Grand Lodge 2/5

KitsuneWarlock wrote:
Into the Maelstrom Rift: No fewer than a dozen GMs came to me concerned about the logistics of the debris encounter. Ultimately, it was a hit or miss experience trying to sort out how to track movement and distances, and illustrate these to our players. I wish there was a little more information in the module as to the best way to run the encounter. Even a photograph of how it was set up in playtesting. Ultimately, my table was successful and had a great time using some extra accessories I prepared in advance, but some GMs were a little stressed out preparing for the encounter.

My GM did a good job visualizing it. He put post it notes on different "corners" of the center of the table and we were in the middle of the map and then moved us a relative distance towards our goal. Overall, I felt this part of the scenario took too long, though.

Spoiler:
I picked the inquisitor because I've never played before but was disappointed that there was only one combat. My +7 to kn: planes was more important than every class ability I had (combat oriented, that is).

The Exchange 4/5

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I think it'd help to have a small sign at the hero lab stations reminding people to check the "PFS Legal" option if they plan on playing the character at the convention.

They actually did. As well as having things turned off. I asked cause heard same thing. I love HL so wanted it to get good reviews. Now, they could just hook up all the computers to an account that only has PFS legal stuff, I guess.

Grand Lodge 5/5 5/55/55/5 *

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Adventure, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Society Subscriber

I have to agree. Best Marshaling yet, especially in allowing seating and marshaling inside the room rather than the cluster in the hall.

Kudos for the marshals for doing a great job.

My table also had a problem with an unprepared GM for the interactive at level 10-11. Waiting around while a GM reads under limited play time is very unfulfilling. Getting less the one round of action for the final battle was unsatisfying.

The one AM finish with 8AM start plus commute each way lead to very short nights. If the same schedule is used next year, I will have to leave an open evening or morning slot to clear the fatigued/exhausted condition.

My only personal minor issue was that I had Maelstrom's Rift thoroughly prepared with printed color maps and all support materials, when I was pulled at the last minute to run wounded wisp. The evergreen went great, having run it about a dozen times, but would really have preferred running the scenario I had spent so much time preparing. I found out the next day that many GMs would have traded.

Overall, the convention was great and the hard work of all involved was very much appreciated.

Grand Lodge 5/5

KingOfAnything wrote:
My only complaint was that the signage was a bit confusing at first. I know that I and a few other people were waiting at a cardboard cutout instead of a banner 8am Thursday. The system was great once I figured it out, but directions needed to be more prominent.

Signage was something discussed heavily at our debreif on Sunday. It sounds like they're already working on solutions.

Grand Lodge 2/5

Jeff Morse wrote:
They actually did. As well as having things turned off. I asked cause heard same thing. I love HL so wanted it to get good reviews. Now, they could just hook up all the computers to an account that only has PFS legal stuff, I guess.

Having never used herolab before, I now know why new people that show up with it have no idea how to play. I don't want to bash herolab, but it makes it "too easy"* to just add stuff without knowing how anything works.

*I found the UI to be confusing and I'll just leave it at that to not derail the thread.

4/5 5/5 * Contributor

Disclaimer—My friends and I were first-year Gen Con GMs at the Tier 1 level. Our experiences might not match those of Gen Con veterans. We're still cooling down from Gen Con and figuring out our opinions, but the #1 thing that we agreed on was that there is a lot of stuff that Veterans know that wasn't in our information packet.

1) Of the four of us (Robyn, Tim, Tom, and myself), I was the only person who knew at what time each of the slots started and ended, and that only happened because I reached out to Bob a few days before the convention. Next year, including slot times directly in the nifty e-mail updates that we got would be helpful.

2) We all generally agreed that the 8-1, 2-7, 8-1 schedule was awesome. Since it gave us five hours to run a scenario and most scenarios lasted 3-1/2 to 4 hours, it meant that we could go upstairs to our rooms, relax, or even sleep if we wanted to.

3) No one told us about the Post-Gen Con meeting until the day of. We had already made plans to leave, so we couldn't stay. It would have been nice if we were told about it in advance so we could have hung around, met with everyone, and possibly helped with breakdown.

4) We actually had no idea that the Sunday slot was 1 hour later than the other slots. It was probably on our schedule, but we sort of assumed that Sunday followed the pattern of the other days. It would have been nice if that was clearer.

5) Robyn thought the Sagamore was too cold. I am a polar bear so this was of no concern to me, personally. I don't think Tim or Tom had strong opinions about the room's temperature, and none of us are sure if that's even in PFS's power to control. Just a bit of feedback.

Basically, we had a blast and thought everything was great—scheduling and increased transparency for newbies like us is our only bit of feedback. (For now.)

Liberty's Edge 3/5 5/5 **** Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Omaha

I really like the marshaling process. This was my first year so I thought it was great.

This being said, it would have been nice to have the level range of the scenario included on the paper so players who may have generics can more easily see the what levels the scenarios cover.

5/5 5/55/55/5

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5) Robyn thought the Sagamore was too cold. I am a polar bear so this was of no concern to me, personally. I don't think Tim or Tom had strong opinions about the room's temperature, and none of us are sure if that's even in PFS's power to control. Just a bit of feedback.

Too cold= Grab a sweater. Too hot= geeks taking off more clothes and sweating more.

Sweater is by far the better option!!! :)

Sweater > sweatier.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/55/55/5 *

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Bob Jonquet wrote:
Roy Lewis wrote:
I don't know and I highly doubt it but is there some way on the specials with the different maps could HQ provide them so maybe the GMS can spend more time prepping the other aspects of the scenarios.
I will certainly add that question to our after-action meetings and planning for next year. My initial thoughts are no, at least not with respect to flipmaps and map packs, since those are available for purchase from Paizo both in print and digitally. As far as custom maps go, I am looking into solutions to provide those to our GMs. We will be looking into the requirements needed to make it possible while still complying with Paizo's community use policy.

The flip mats are not the issue the custom maps for the specials can be a bit crazy the other suggestion and I'm not sure how feasible that is but maybe getting a custom map download to the Gen Con GMs for the specials so they can recreat them and prep the maps earlier then we receive the scenarios.

The Exchange 5/5

BigNorseWolf wrote:

5) Robyn thought the Sagamore was too cold. I am a polar bear so this was of no concern to me, personally. I don't think Tim or Tom had strong opinions about the room's temperature, and none of us are sure if that's even in PFS's power to control. Just a bit of feedback.

Too cold= Grab a sweater. Too hot= geeks taking off more clothes and sweating more.

Sweater is by far the better option!!! :)

Lol .. it was a bit nippy .. even with all the people in there .. but for all the years we've complained about it being too hot, this was an improvement-- granted an over-improvement.

We found cloaks which worked down in the vendor hall; but next time we'll have hoodies or something to throw on

Sovereign Court 5/5 5/5

I had a great PFS experience playing 5 slots at Gen Con this year. Having the full list of scenarios and mustering points made finding my muster points very easy. One of my GMs was marginal, but he made up for it in improvising something interesting from the Medium's haunt channeler ability.

My only complaint is in how solo tickets were handled. I was told to wait until the same time as generics to be seated despite there being tables with 1 or 2 seats available. I mostly used generics outside the specials, but I bought an actual ticket for one scenario thinking that would take off some of the rush of getting seated at the start time. Once a table of 4 is seated, it seems like actual tickets should be sent as soon as possible to an appropriately sub-tiered open table. It's not a big gripe, but it is one worth consideration I think.

Grand Lodge 2/5

BigNorseWolf wrote:

5) Robyn thought the Sagamore was too cold. I am a polar bear so this was of no concern to me, personally. I don't think Tim or Tom had strong opinions about the room's temperature, and none of us are sure if that's even in PFS's power to control. Just a bit of feedback.

Too cold= Grab a sweater. Too hot= geeks taking off more clothes and sweating more.

Sweater is by far the better option!!! :)

Most definitely. We were prepared for this because we'd been before. To be specific on how cold my wife thought it was.. She brought leggings to change into under her jeans and a long sleeve shirt to put on (in addition to the shirt she was already wearing). She brought a hooded jacket and mittens. She also used my jacket as a blanket. Saturday, we additionally brought a robe for her to also wear.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/55/55/5 *

BigNorseWolf wrote:

5) Robyn thought the Sagamore was too cold. I am a polar bear so this was of no concern to me, personally. I don't think Tim or Tom had strong opinions about the room's temperature, and none of us are sure if that's even in PFS's power to control. Just a bit of feedback.

Too cold= Grab a sweater. Too hot= geeks taking off more clothes and sweating more.

Sweater is by far the better option!!! :)

Me I like it cold but Sunday morning that AC was kicking and I actually was a bit chilly maybe it helped me wake up

Silver Crusade 4/5

Echoing a few other people's thoughts, before adding my own.

1. Kudos on a well run convention. This was my 4th Gen Con, and the PFS stuff did seem much smoother overall, which is great.

2. I heard quite a few complaints about the Sagamore being too cold. Having experienced the other extreme in past years, I'd much rather have it too cold than too hot. But if you're going to crank the A/C like that again in future years, you may want to warn people in advance to bring a jacket.

3. I also didn't realize the Sunday morning session would start later than other days until I got my schedule and table assignments from HQ the first day. I actually thought it might be a typo, so I asked around, and a lot of people weren't sure. Pointing slot times out more prominently and frequently in advance would avoid this type of confusion. Not major, but worth noting.

4. While I liked the extra time between slots, I also need sleep. But that's also part of why I don't do tier 1 or 2 volunteering. I need to schedule things so I don't have back to back evening-morning sessions.

5. It's good that new scenarios were distributed to GMs earlier this year than in past years. But as the above comments reflect, the big specials, especially the multi-tables, really need a LOT more prep time for GMs. I'd recommend that Paizo try to focus on getting those specials out to GMs before the other new scenarios, if there's any way that'll give GMs more prep time.

6. I'm surprised to hear about the boons running out. Given all the computers and stuff in the room, why not have a printer to make more?

The Exchange 5/5

Mike Bohlmann wrote:

I had a great PFS experience playing 5 slots at Gen Con this year. Having the full list of scenarios and mustering points made finding my muster points very easy. One of my GMs was marginal, but he made up for it in improvising something interesting from the Medium's haunt channeler ability.

My only complaint is in how solo tickets were handled. I was told to wait until the same time as generics to be seated despite there being tables with 1 or 2 seats available. I mostly used generics outside the specials, but I bought an actual ticket for one scenario thinking that would take off some of the rush of getting seated at the start time. Once a table of 4 is seated, it seems like actual tickets should be sent as soon as possible to an appropriately sub-tiered open table. It's not a big gripe, but it is one worth consideration I think.

You should have been seated right away as soon as there was a table for you to go to .. sorry that you were mis-informed. The caveat to that being if you had a ticket for scenario Y and were trying to get into scenario Z those we treated as generic tickets.

Liberty's Edge 3/5 5/5 **** Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Omaha

My other BIG problem is with GMs just "throwing" the chronicle sheets at players without following the Guide.

I had two players who played Serpent's Ire applying the chronicles to a level 3 and level 1 characters not realizing that they did not get 5000 gold. The GM never took the time to explain how the applying of the chronicle would work to them.

In fact, these two players chronicles where a complete mess. I was only able to help the 1st level player. The 3rd level I could not and suggested she go to the front to seek help. It did not help that she did not have all her chronicles with her. Fortunately another GM sat at my table to eat and gave the player her email to help the player get in contact with a VO in the Delaware area.

This is a HUGH problem in my eyes. As GMs, we need to follow the Guide. Simply putting on the sheet what we need to put it and tossing it back to the player is not acceptable. Especially at a con where players may be very causal and don't know all the fun rules in place about chronicles.

And I don't accept the argument that there is just not enough time to complete. We have to MAKE THE TIME to do OUR job correctly.

Sorry for getting a little excited but I see this as a major failing of the GM community as a whole. It needs to change. The attitude needs to change. If you are not doing what the guide says we need to do as GMs than you are wrong. Period.

It may not be a big deal on the local level but on a con level, it is a huge problem.

5/5 5/55/55/5

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Gary Bush wrote:
This is a HUGH problem in my eyes. As GMs, we need to follow the Guide

No.

The process outlined there takes too long and has too little benefit for at a minimum tripling the amount of time a chronicle sheet takes. Definitely hold a new players hand but people that have been a round a while know how to fill out their own chronicle sheets.

Silver Crusade 4/5

Now for my own comments and suggestions (decided to make a separate post to avoid a wall of text).

1. I printed my own chronicle sheets for the sessions I ran, so I could mostly fill them out in advance and save time at the event. My players kept bringing me stacks of chronicles from the marshalls that I just returned to HQ at the end. In order to save on Paizo's printing, paper, and shipping costs, you may want to ask your GMs to let you know if they're printing their own, so you can print less copies and waste less paper. Again, having a printer on hand in case of a shortage will probably be necessary, but it would avoid waste.

2. I played a 5-9 scenario during one session. Apparently, there were 5 tables scheduled for it, but only 2 tables actually happened, and they were both high tier. At least, that was the case at start time - I don't know if any other tables came together 5 or 10 minutes late. But it resulted in a level 5 at our 8-9 table, because there was no low tier table that would be more appropriate for him.

I think that happened because every normal scenario was on the schedule in every non-special slot. Instead of having 5 tables scheduled in each of 7 slots, maybe you could vary the schedule a bit, to have 7 tables of an adventure in each of 5 slots, for instance. That's the same total number of tables for that adventure, and still plenty of slots to choose from for players looking for that adventure. But having more people showing up at once for a particular adventure will make it easier for players to find other players in the same tier to mix and match groups more appropriately.

Liberty's Edge 3/5 5/5 **** Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Omaha

BigNorseWolf wrote:
Gary Bush wrote:
This is a HUGH problem in my eyes. As GMs, we need to follow the Guide

No.

The process outlined there takes too long and has too little benefit for at a minimum tripling the amount of time a chronicle sheet takes. Definitely hold a new players hand but people that have been a round a while know how to fill out their own chronicle sheets.

I simply disagree.

This issue was raised and we have a lively discussion but leadership did not change the process in season 8. We ALL need to follow guide.

Period. End of Discussion.

(Edit because of suggestion by Bob.)


I'm not usually a super-rules-lawyer guy, but Gary as a great point. I think there was an assumption during the specials that people who showed up to play (and especially the level 8 pregens) were seasoned PFS veterans.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/5 ***

Let's not turn this into an argument. Please keep this thread focused on expression of personal experiences and suggestions and take ongoing back and forth conversations about specific topics to another thread.

1/5 *

1- Marshalling was better this year than any of my previous experiences, one suggestion I might make would be to not reference the banners, rather use the cardboard cut outs, or some other more easily identified marker

2- Theinteractive special went well, and I was marshaled into the most balanced group I have ever had for a special. I was pleasantly surprised after my outspoken criticisms earlier.

3- Maybe we could delay the annual "We have won the Ennies" announcement could be delayed until the end of the scenario. I have felt, each and every year, that this is detracts from my enjoyment.

4- my GM for Maelstrom was a very pleasant 1 star GM who brought a ton of energy and worked us through a scenario that would have had me pulling out my hair if I needed to prep it. She had to deal with an exceptionally crude table, but my friend and I both left remarking that she has what I consider the perfect style and energy for kids track. Hats off to you ma'am.

All in all great job guys!

Silver Crusade 5/5

BigNorseWolf wrote:
Gary Bush wrote:
This is a HUGH problem in my eyes. As GMs, we need to follow the Guide

No.

Definitely hold a new players hand but people that have been a round a while know how to fill out their own chronicle sheets.

Now, you say that, but I have seen time after time after time where "experienced" players playing there -5 or -6 in ine of the 7-11's I've run the past two years give me a blank stare when I told them to fill out there chronicles. Then find out that either a) they didn't have their chronicles with them (thanks, local GM!) or that their GM's have never had them fill out chronicles before (thanks again!). Especially this year and next year, and given the overwhelming positive response at the GM debriefing, with the extra time we're getting there is no reason that experienced players at Gencon should be allowed to bounce around between GM's with blank or missing chronicles.

EDIT: Just saw Bob's post. I'll leave it at this.


Pros:

Marshaling was fast.
Boon/Prize table was no wait.
AC was just fine.
The pre-recorded dialog for the special was a good idea.

Cons:
Boon/prize table had no bling! No easel explaining the process (that I noticed), no overflowing treasure chest!

The modified slot hours. 1 AM end and an 8 AM start the next morning is just untenable for anyone not in a skywalk connected hotel. God forbid you have to take a bus out to the airport and back!

The Friday Night Special: This was 100% a bust for my table. We had the misfortune of being seated on the back wall to the left of the main stage. This meant that we could not see the screen AT ALL. To add insult to injury, we were in some kind of acoustic dead zone; the speakers were forward facing and we were far enough away to not be able to hear the dialog echoing off the far wall, and too far away to hear it laterally straight from the speakers. Just couldn't hear a thing. Our GM was great, but the scenario seemed really disjointed. "Look, there's a comet! Let's check it out!" "Stop the elementals from coming through the portals!" "Pick an element to run around in." Maybe it was because we couldn't see the screen nor hear the dialog well, but it just seemed almost like a series of random encounters. It didn't seem like anything we did (or tired to do) contributed to an overall team effort, and more than once we were halfway through a fight when an announcement was made and the board was magically wiped clean and a new fight started or a new set piece/cut scene began. Then, "time" was called and they said "good job" and boom, it was over.

Overall, the GMs were well prepared and we all had fun (except as noted), but maybe putting up video on multiple walls and fixing the speaker coverage would definitely help.

Dark Archive 3/5

I mentioned to John previously that I appreciated the early listing of flip maps and map packs needed for the later year 7 and year 8 scenarios, as well as which would need custom maps.

I had also mentioned to a Paizo staffer at PaizoCon that having the appropriate maps in the booth would likely be helpful at the con. I was thrilled when I walked into the Dealer's Hall on Thursday morning and the first thing I saw was a rack of maps for The Cosmic Captive. Particularly since I was short one!

I have very mixed feelings about the 1 am end time. It meant I often didn't get to sleep until 2am or close to it, only to be back in the room to game again by 7:45am. That extra 30 - 60 minutes of sleep is precious. I know that by Saturday night I was NOT at my best.

5/5 5/55/55/5

twowolves wrote:
, and more than once we were halfway through a fight when an announcement was made and the board was magically wiped clean and a new fight started or a new set piece/cut scene began.

That happens a LOT in specials.

Dark Archive 4/5

Bob,
The 8 am start time is ok. But ending at 1am is too much. Less than six hours of sleep will drag on people. Please end at midnight.
The boon for the interactive felt bland, and wasn't worth the ten dollars for the slot to be honest. If we're going to make people stay up until almost 1am, can we start to have exciting unique boons available for the special? I'd really love to see a special race boon available for playing premiere events at Gen Con.
Hopefully that's something you folks can look into.
Also. Mustering. What times do generics go out? My room got double booked and I ended up staying thirty minutes north of Gen Con. So getting to the morning slot at 803 am and being told that I couldn't be seated with a real ticket was a kick in the pants that got resolved but shouldn't be happening.

The Exchange 5/5

Sin of Asmodeus wrote:

Bob,

The 8 am start time is ok. But ending at 1am is too much. Less than six hours of sleep will drag on people. Please end at midnight.
The boon for the interactive felt bland, and wasn't worth the ten dollars for the slot to be honest. If we're going to make people stay up until almost 1am, can we start to have exciting unique boons available for the special? I'd really love to see a special race boon available for playing premiere events at Gen Con.
Hopefully that's something you folks can look into.
Also. Mustering. What times do generics go out? My room got double booked and I ended up staying thirty minutes north of Gen Con. So getting to the morning slot at 803 am and being told that I couldn't be seated with a real ticket was a kick in the pants that got resolved but shouldn't be happening.

Generics were held and seated on the hour .. any real tickets that came up after the slot start time (again on the hour) were considered late and were seated with the generic ticket holders.

Grand Lodge 2/5

TwoWolves wrote:
To add insult to injury, we were in some kind of acoustic dead zone; the speakers were forward facing and we were far enough away to not be able to hear the dialog echoing off the far wall, and too far away to hear it laterally straight from the speakers. Just couldn't hear a thing.

Having sat there last year, I can attest to this. The speakers did seem better this year, and the addition of text on the screens was a great choice. But I was sat at a table closer to the stage so didn't know how the "far reaches of the room" compared. It sucks that those corners didn't improve much.

Also a little saddened that there was no "random roll for a table prize".

Dark Archive 4/5

That's poor planning Thea. I understand the idea behind it, but over all, that's not the best way to handle people who had to race through traffic to make it.
I would recommend holding until ten minutes into the slot before seating generics.

That's my own opinion, and only a suggestion, but hopefully one that holds merit.

The Exchange 5/5

Sin of Asmodeus wrote:

That's poor planning Thea. I understand the idea behind it, but over all, that's not the best way to handle people who had to race through traffic to make it.

I would recommend holding until ten minutes into the slot before seating generics.

That's my own opinion, and only a suggestion, but hopefully one that holds merit.

I'll let Bob, Jon, or Todd respond as I don't have the official answer for you.

Lantern Lodge 5/5

'Re: Schedule

I'm a big fan of the longer lunches, even though the nights were shorter. It was nice to be able to walk to real food instead of settling for the cheese-covered cardboard the concession stands call 'pizza.'

Dark Archive 4/5

Thea Peters wrote:
Sin of Asmodeus wrote:

That's poor planning Thea. I understand the idea behind it, but over all, that's not the best way to handle people who had to race through traffic to make it.

I would recommend holding until ten minutes into the slot before seating generics.

That's my own opinion, and only a suggestion, but hopefully one that holds merit.

I'll let Bob, Jon, or Todd respond as I don't have the official answer for you.

No worries. 8)

As always nice chatting with ya bunny.

The Exchange 4/5 Owner - D20 Hobbies

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Gary Bush wrote:
BigNorseWolf wrote:
process outlined there takes too long and has too little benefit
lively discussion but leadership did not change the process in season 8. We ALL need to follow guide. Period. End of Discussion.

Just saw Bob's message, edited.

I'm a huge fan of following the guide. 2 of my 170 GM's for previous games follow the guide. It burns too much time, so people don't do it 99% of the time in my personal experience.

I had a great time this GenCon. Better than last year, and in large part that is because the 6 games I played the GM didn't burn 1 hour of our slot "following the guide" (audit everyone and spend extra time filling in all the slots of info such as previous PP, XP, etc.)

It ran way smother over all, marshalling, space, organization, available scenarios (I played all specials because I generally can't play anything for credit at a con.)

The Exchange 4/5 Owner - D20 Hobbies

Sin of Asmodeus wrote:
The 8 am start time is ok. But ending at 1am is too much.

This is unlikely to change, as the 150 GM who came to the after con talk were polled. About 140 raised their hand they prefer the 1 am end time to the midnight. Only about 10 raised their hand for midnight.

1 am should be here to stay, if it's a majority "prefer" thing.


BigNorseWolf wrote:
twowolves wrote:
, and more than once we were halfway through a fight when an announcement was made and the board was magically wiped clean and a new fight started or a new set piece/cut scene began.
That happens a LOT in specials.

Oh yeah, I know. It just seemed to happen a lot more (maybe because we were high tier and the fights were tougher) and they were replaced by... another nearly identical fight.

The Exchange 4/5

one thing I heard some about was mustering, or lack of players more often than others. maybe change up the alphabet selection or rotate it. I had all, but one table go off, but went and got 4 players in the generics line, while Bob was sorting them, since preferred to run what I had laid out on the table.

Liberty's Edge 4/5

The organization this year was a lot better imo: the ability to get groups together and get a table well before the slot actually started meant there wasn't much wait or congestion in the lines outside. I imagine the extra time between slots made that possible, since people wouldn't run late and keep the tables full.

I had no problem with the AC myself, though my brother said he was cold. But as others have said, it's easier to get warm than to cool down.

Liberty's Edge 3/5 5/5 **** Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Omaha

James Risner wrote:


I had a great time this GenCon. Better than last year, and in large part that is because the 6 games I played the GM didn't burn 1 hour of our slot "following the guide" (audit everyone and spend extra time filling in all the slots of info such as previous PP, XP, etc.)

Not calling for an audit at a convention. And if it take an hour to do the rest than it is not being done right. Once you get in the habit, it does not take long.

And it is in the Guide. Leadership has given us the process to use. We need to use it. Period.

Silver Crusade 2/5

4 people marked this as a favorite.

I was Tier 1 on the ACG side so I can only comment on that, and most of my feedback was added to the post-Con meeting that was held in the room. I only have two points that I'd like to reiterate again for emphasis. The first is a dedicated ACG musterer. With 4 seasons offered and multiple tiers within 3 of those seasons and multiple levels of scenario progress within each tier it was a mess at times getting people where they needed to be. Someone solely dedicated to finding out what people needed and grouping them together would save pulling GMs to do that rather than get people started on their games, especially since the ACG has a hard time stop for session.

And secondly, shifting more towards allowing GMs for the card game to be allowed to sit with a table and help them with the game. I felt REALLY bad when I had to set up and oversee multiple tables and end up basically asking an experienced player to teach the game to the newcomers and run it while the GMs bounced from table to table or tried to get tables mustered.

If I was paying to come to a convention and paying for an event, I would not be happy with defaulting to teaching and running the game myself. I could stay home and do that for free. Thankfully, the players were very understanding but it's still not cool to do that to them.

Oh, and I guess thirdly, schedule a larger number of GMs the morning after the Friday night special if the ACG will tie in again, and especially if we will need to the reset boxes because people and cards have been shuffled about from table to table. Alternately, setting aside 5 or so dedicated untouched boxes for the morning which gives us time to reset more of the other boxes would also work.

Oh, lastly, not sure if it was brought up but we had A LOT of people coming and asking to play Season of the Shackles and Season of the Righteous and I think the demand was way under estimated. We were running out of Chronicle sheets by the second day. I think some of the suggested changes Kevin took back for ACG should help with this, but something to keep in mind.

I know this was the first time ACG went this big at Gencon and I'm all psyched to see it growing and expanding. I had a great time getting new people into the game and especially seeing people try out the new Goblin decks. I'm down to sign up as a Tier 1 again for the ACG next year, but with at least one more base set coming out for next Gencon these problems will only get even worse if we don't look for solutions now.

Sorry for the long wall of text. :)

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