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I am pretty disappointed with Paizo for GenCon 2022. The PFS presence in the Sagamore was a quarter what it used to be. Hardly no personalities were there. I did see John Compton and Luis, who are of course shining examples of Team Paizo and do fantastic work in setting and out.
No hype whatsoever at the Con. Only time all tables were full was for the special Saturday night. Quality of GMs I had were poorer then past Cons.
I won't ever play an interactive special again. Combat all night is just plain boring, and stopping in the middle of a combat to move onto the next area just breaks the story.
It is my understanding there were a lot of GM no-shows as well. Doesn't seem to bode well. I get the bad feeling Paizo is now on the downslope of success.
I hope I'm wrong.
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I wouldn't try to determine much from this years gencon. It's one data point and its a very atypical datapoint.
This was done on the tail end of covid (and the plans were made with the idea in place that we could still be in a covid crisis). Paizo couldn't also stack 4 DMs to a room like usual , so if you need twice as many rooms per dm and you halve your games well.. thats going to result in a lot fewer DMs.
Venture-Lieutenant, Indiana—Indianapolis
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I am sorry that you were disappointed. I am. It wasn’t the usual presence we are accustomed to, but there are number of factors. First, a lot of people still aren’t comfortable gathering with thousands of other people in such close proximity. Second, Gen Con Online certainly took a fair number of players and GMs, some of whom might otherwise have been in attendance in Indy. Third, as to the content of the special, no special appeals to everyone - I have played most of the specials, and this one was one of my favorites. YMMV. And, I am sure there are likely other factors, as well. If Paizo thought or knew attendance was going to be significantly lower, then they may have decided the financial expense of renting the entire Sagamore wasn’t justified - if you thought there were a lot of empty tables in the room as it was, imagine if we had been in the entire Sagamore.
On a more personal note, I volunteered roughly 48 hours at HQ to help out and to try and make sure people had a good experience. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m sorry that, as a volunteer, I failed in that attempt in regards to you.
BNW is right - it’s an unusual, single datapoint. I wouldn’t read too much into it. Hopefully next year things will be closer to normal.
Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Turku
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The special was pretty fun, the boon on it was absolutely amazing, at least compared to the first multitable special we had (which, at launch, had an empty sheet, and to this day it hasn't been clarified if the boon applies to the ritual or the spell >.<). Closer to awesomeoness of some 1e MTS boons.
I'm a bit disapointed at the charity auction, though. After teasing about undead archetypes possibly making an appearance in charity boons, having just 2 boons for PF2 and both for very limited kinds of characters (witch patron and animal companion, nothing that could fit "most characters") was bit of a let down. I'm happy that others saw them at a more valuable light, determining from the price they got auctioned off at.
Likewise, the key rings and earrings were gorgeous, it's just a shame that they were limited for bidding by those physically attending :(
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Regional Venture-Coordinator, Massachusetts—North Shore
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As someone who was in the Sag the whole time, the numbers I heard were close to or over 300 tables of Org play being run/reported. That doesn't count the number of demos being run in the Sag and the Exhibitor Hall.
I can't answer for the reason we had part of the Sag or no hype on Paizo's part I can say all tables we had at GenCon ran and were full of players.
Organized Play Coordinator
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I'm sorry to hear you were disappointed with our offerings. If you would like to provide additional feedback on the convention (either online or in-person), you can use this feedback form.
You can also email me directly at organizedplay@paizo.com.
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I am pretty disappointed with Paizo for GenCon 2022. The PFS presence in the Sagamore was a quarter what it used to be.
Yeah, there's still a highly infectious disease that's ongoing and that means limiting the scale/scope of everyone's physical presence at the convention.
Heck, there are actually two now! So, maybe dwell on that for a little while and consider why things may have seemed smaller than usual.
Edit: You do know there were *GAP* tables specifically to keep tables at safe distances right? Are you "disappointed" that there were enforced safety precautions???
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Second, Gen Con Online certainly took a fair number of players and GMs, some of whom might otherwise have been in attendance in Indy.
I'm pretty sure at this point in the pandemic it was at least as much "If I don't go to gencon I get to run online" so much as "If I don't go to gencon then I HAVE to run online...." :)
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Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Turku
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I didn't notice a "boss" or necromancer in the higher level table either, just some
Specifically, I don't think the choice in the second part of the pallid series
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Venture-Lieutenant, Indiana—Martinsville
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I did not attend Gen Con this year. Though the reason is quite apparent, I will not go into it here.
I do think I will echo the sentiment in the earlier post, that things should be back to normal next year. I still think Paizo may not have the whole Saga Ball Room, but hopefully will have a bigger area than this years' offering.
I look forward to volunteering next year to GM, and hope to improve my little corner of the con.
Keep in mind what else has been happening the last few years with COVID. After speaking with some employees, Paizo was more cautious this year in the amount of participation coupled with the amount of GM's that were able to attend.
When I spoke with Erik, he indicated where the Sagamore will probably not increase to it's full size next year, they are going to expand the amount of tables available (barring GM availability).
It just sounds like they are going to take it slow after everything that has happened, and it's understandable. They don't want to go full bore like 2019 where it could hurt them (financially).
I will say it was disappointing for me too as it was the first year I had issues finding PFS events. I wasn't able to sign up for any of the 2e scenarios on my wishlist, all sold out before it processed. The special was the only thing in prior years where that ever came close to selling out for me.
But again, I understand with everything that has happened and hopefully within a few years Paizo will be back to it's full participation/space in the Sagamore.