Good Morning All,
I did the Cosmic Captive Special last year at Gen Con and had a blast. It was my first organized play ever. I'm looking to do a lot more organized play this year, and I'm hoping someone with some experience can help me understand the process.
If I, for example, want to run the season of the shackles, I see sixteen identical events listed at different times, all of which mention the seven available adventures (including the prequel). Would I sign up for multiple sessions of that event, then just choose an adventure level when I arrive at each session? So my first scheduled session I would sit down at the 0-1 (or 0-0, depending on my mood) table, then when I come back for my next session I would sit down a the 0-2 table, then 0-3 at the next session, and so forth?
Is it reasonable to get through a full season in one Con, while still enjoying the Con? Or would I be committing myself to all PACG all the time if I want to run an entire season? (Not that it would be a bad thinig...)
Finally, any thoughts on character class? I ran a Cleric in the special last year, and it was fun enough that I would play it again, but I'm also open to other classes. Are there any classes/roles that seem to be in short supply, or seem to be the most appreciated at conventions?
Thanks for any thoughts, tips, tricks, you can offer!
|
One common theme in Skull and Shackles is ship combat. Almost all ships can be defeated with Survival. Almost all ships can be repaired with Craft. Grazzle in the Oracle Class Deck is a kick-butt master gunner/shipwright. He's also a powerful healer, especially with his Bog Medic role, where any cards he discards to heal people which have the Divine trait recharge instead. He can have up to six blessings and eight spells, and they are ALL likely to have the Divine trait, so you can do a LOT of healing with few or no actual discards...
Starting spells should involve lots of attack spells (which automagically recharge) since you only get one weapon, and at least one Cure. My fiancee would wait until she had the Cure (which ALSO auto-recharges) in hand, then offer to heal with her ability so she could undo the damage she did to herself.
Plus, Lizardman with a large leaf for a hat!
|
Would I sign up for multiple sessions of that event, then just choose an adventure level when I arrive at each session? So my first scheduled session I would sit down at the 0-1 (or 0-0, depending on my mood) table, then when I come back for my next session I would sit down a the 0-2 table, then 0-3 at the next session, and so forth?
You'll group up by the headquarters table and all of the players who signed up to play in a particular set work together to choose a Scenario to play based on their available characters and what those characters have already played. If there's enough players, you may end up splitting into multiple tables. (Gen Con seems set for two tables per Season for the early Seasons and 4 for Mummy's Mask.)
Is it reasonable to get through a full season in one Con, while still enjoying the Con? Or would I be committing myself to all PACG all the time if I want to run an entire season? (Not that it would be a bad thinig...)
Since each of the mainline Seasons are 25-30 Scenarios long and you'll only play one per event, you're not likely to be able to play through a whole Season at Gen Con. (There's also times when your group may fail a Scenario and times when you can't play a Scenario your chosen character hasn't already played.)
I personally would never sign up to play just one thing for an entire convention, especially not at one as large as Gen Con. I try to do a variety of things I don't get to do at home or I haven't gotten to play yet, along with a special event or two.
Finally, any thoughts on character class? I ran a Cleric in the special last year, and it was fun enough that I would play it again, but I'm also open to other classes. Are there any classes/roles that seem to be in short supply, or seem to be the most appreciated at conventions?
I haven't played much outside our own group. My recommendation is pick something that looks interesting to you and have fun. :)
It is extremely possible to play multiple events in one time slot, so you could conceivably make a ton of headway into a season. Especially if you can find a couple other like-minded souls to really buckle down and get through it together. That said, I'd encourage you not to overdose too heavily, personally :)
Yeah, at PaizoCon we took a group through to early tier 3, it was great!
I think two scenarios per two-hour slot is ambitious but doable, especially if it's a smaller group and/or you all know what you're doing.
Plus, it looks like the Gen Con schedule is designed to have bleedover before the next slot starts. Not sure if that means that if you're ticketed for 2 in a row that you could play for a solid 6 hours, or if the HQ folks want/need/will-enforce that break between slots.
At Origins last year, some slots were very busy and they had to keep mixing people together or changing table composition (at each break), while others were very light and they just handed a table the box and said, "have fun."