The whole thing devolved into speed runs, not enough time for anything. Very disappointing. I'll keep the rest of my opinions to myself, but I'm sure they know they can do better.
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Agreed. Need to muster sooner, especially for the generics.
The event was scheduled to start at 8 and was completely sold out (real tickets). That means if a real ticket holder shows up at 7:59 they have to get a seat. So you can't seat generics until after 8. (I think that's actually a GenCon policy.)
There are always "start earlier" suggestions but there are so many moving parts that eventually the only thing that works is to say "we're going to do less slots."
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And I'm pretty sure GenCon would refuse that solution, as they want to maximize use of available space. Paizo has the largest footprint at GenCon, and leaving tables unused is not good business for the con. I had the same problem trying to leave longer breaks at PCC. The convention does not want a table to sit empty for hours.
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Agreed. Need to muster sooner, especially for the generics.The event was scheduled to start at 8 and was completely sold out (real tickets). That means if a real ticket holder shows up at 7:59 they have to get a seat. So you can't seat generics until after 8. (I think that's actually a GenCon policy.)
There are always "start earlier" suggestions but there are so many moving parts that eventually the only thing that works is to say "we're going to do less slots."
A huge solution is to make sure you have enough HQ staff and musterers to handle 1500 people plus generics.
I wasn't at this Gen Con, but I know in the past, musterers have often been left on an island where its easy to get into the weeds, with nobody to help them when they need it many times.
But seating Generics 20 minutes into the slot means that time becomes condensed and you don't get to really play the special.
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The announcements by Erik Mona mid-stream on Friday and the break on Saturday seemed to time out reasonably well, speaking from marshaling experience.
The problem with mustering at specials is the same one that happens every year, and shows no signs of changing any time soon.
1. Larger groups of pre-formed real-ticket groups get seated first, for ease of marshal sanity. No Generics allowed prior to scheduled slot time
2. Marshals having to take time out to build said groups delays the process. Again, pre-building parties before having one person approach the marshal helps everyone.
3. Having ALL real-tickets out, with the player they belong to present helps with marshal sanity and expedites the marshalling process. ie, 'My girlfriend is parking the car'; 'My friend is getting his ticket from the room'; 'I have two friends getting back from getting something to eat'; etc does NOT help. By GenCon rules (not Paizo rules) marshals *NEED* to seat all real-ticket holders first. If they can't see the person and the ticket, then they're forced into a time-burning 'judgement call' territory, or have to call over their supervisor to handle the situation. Or they have to do the exceptionally frustrating thing for all parties and ask the group to wait until their friends are there and hope they make it before event start time.
4. Trying to get into a tier for the special that is not designed for one's ticket turns that real-ticket into a 'generic' ticket. That means one cannot sit until generics, if one is not willing to go to the tier of the ticket.
5. A lot of people try to walk behind the marshals. Please understand that any time a player does, they have to stop the process of seating players and address that concern. It slows things down. Please don't do this.
6. Several pre-formed groups had members with generic tickets in them. As much as marshals like to keep groups together, by GenCon rules they CANNOT seat the generics until the time of the event. They don't have a choice in the matter.
As far as scenario size?
Seriously, if the writers and developers don't see it there, they probably will not see a thread on a forum that they aren't hard-wired into 24/7.
It seemed, at least from my limited perspective as a signal-runner, that it was less-clunky and shorter than Cosmic Captive last year, but length still needs a bit of work, especially for Solstice Scar. But as someone who has NOT played the scenario yet, I cannot offer a review.