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One thing is for sure to me, if they want to shorten things this much, those Gencon Seat prices need to drop significantly.Please bear in mind that I have NO INSIDE INFORMATION about this, and this is JUST SPECULATION.
But, I would imagine that the ballroom that Paizo use each year at GenCon is exceptionally expensive to hire for the period, and that the games tickets sold have never covered that cost. Let alone all the others accrued in running such an event for four days.
In "normal" times Paizo would PROBABLY absorb the difference as a marketing(?) cost; but this year was FAR from normal times, and it may well have been price-hike or no ballroom.
^^ Bold to emphasize point ^^ Definitely not normal times; Paizo even cancled Paizo Con for this year.
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They also sold 30% more tickets with their shorter slots.
10+ blocks (40+ hours): Eligible for a shared hotel room (typically arranged with 3–4 volunteers per room). That averages out to 10 hours per day; the shorter blocks give GMs more breaks. GM breaks include setting up for their next game and time to see other things at the convention.
And I’m sure they don’t like players like me complaining about being screwed by their excessively short and overpriced tables.
There is no way Paizo is not aware of your complaint. There is also nothing any of us on the forums can do about it; even if Paizo fixes it for next Gen Con, that won't be until next Gen Con.
I also was not the only one complaining.
Everyone is aware of the problem; none of us on the forums can do anything about it.
The standard cost for Gencon seems to be fixed around &5 per seat per hour. at $22 for 90 minutes Paizo is charging me thrice that.
It wasn't just you; everyone got charged the same price for the time slot. I know GMs that ran the same scenario multiple times at Gen Con; they said some sessions they ran out of time and didn't finish the scenario, while other times it ran short. The big variable at his table was the players and Lucky die rolls. From table to table, add who the GM is as a variable, and how many times that GM has run the same scenario.
Paizo is already letting people write longer scenarios. One because Paizo knows people want longer scenarios, and two because Paizo had to lay off 15% of its workforce because of the Diamond bankruptcy 2 months before Gen Con. I'm not sure what other solution you are looking for from random people posting on the internet. But overall, I do think more sessions ran short.
If you want a response from Paizo, send customer service an email.
Or be the solution and write a longer scenario for Pathfinder Infinite. I'm having a lot of fun writing my first scenario, although it is for Starfinder.
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They also sold 30% more tickets with their shorter slots.10+ blocks (40+ hours): Eligible for a shared hotel room (typically arranged with 3–4 volunteers per room). That averages out to 10 hours per day; the shorter blocks give GMs more breaks. GM breaks include setting up for their next game and time to see other things at the convention.
I forgot the GMs also have to use that time to eat.
I love GMing, but honestly I don't have the endurance to volunteer for Gen Con. But 80 ACP in 4 days- that is a lot of ACP, and table credits; maybe I need to work on my endurance...
The real problem is trying to find a length of scenario that fits everyone's needs. Groups running at game stores on weekdays that start at 6 pm and run to 9 pm because the stores are closing need 3-hour scenarios.
Do they? Or do they need three one hour scenarios, or two one and a half hour scenarios, or a one and a two?
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The real problem is trying to find a length of scenario that fits everyone's needs. Groups running at game stores on weekdays that start at 6 pm and run to 9 pm because the stores are closing need 3-hour scenarios.Do they? Or do they need three one hour scenarios, or two one and a half hour scenarios, or a one and a two?
Really just don't know what to say...
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The real problem is trying to find a length of scenario that fits everyone's needs. Groups running at game stores on weekdays that start at 6 pm and run to 9 pm because the stores are closing need 3-hour scenarios.Do they? Or do they need three one hour scenarios, or two one and a half hour scenarios, or a one and a two?
I was too tired last night to reply or take this seriously. Several relevant parts of my original comments were not quoted. But your idea of several shorter scenarios actually has been done before and done really well, even, but not as several scenarios but as a repeatable scenario; the best example I know is Starfinder Society Scenario #1-32: Acts of Association.
Acts of Association is a pick-4-of-6 encounters type repeatable, plus it has a 7th optional encounter that can be added if you need something to add more time to the session. This could very easily be turned into a variable-length scenario to fill any time slot. Just run as many encounters as you need to fill your time slot, be it 2 hours or 6 hours. It even allows the GM to create a new NPC species and their home world, so you can go into as much depth as you like. Something like this would be great for Gen Con.
The only downside is that it's a 37-page scenario; it would have to cost more than the current 2-3-hour scenarios.
If Paizo is cutting back on how many scenarios they write each month, my suggestion is that Paizo should concentrate on variable-length scenarios used at conventions. And Infinite can fill in for everyday organized play. And/or make variable-length guidelines for Infinite.
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My god do I hope they aren’t going to use Infinite Scenarios at Gencon. The stated they will not be vetting the infinite scenarios at all, and fan made products often vary greatly in quality.
I mean, so do Paizo products. Lets not pretend otherwise. Even the AP line varies considerably in quality. That's just how creative endeavours are: some stuff will come out better than other stuff.
People say the same thing about 3pp rules products. It really irks me when they say stuff like "3pp isn't properly balanced like Paizo products are" as if Sacred Geometry wasn't published by Paizo.
I mean, a lot of people in this industry do contact work. Someone who writes AP chapters or scenarios in the past could easily write an Infinite scenario now if they wanted to.
Its totally fair to be concerned about all this. But lets not dump on the Infinite scenario writers before they've actually put enough content out to really judge.
(TBH - My bigger concern is that there just won't be that many scenarios because I'm not sure the financial math makes sense vs rules content or addon content for popular APs.)
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I mean, so do Paizo products. Lets not pretend otherwise.
I personally expect Pathfinder Infinite adventures to be better than current adventures :D
(TBH - My bigger concern is that there just won't be that many scenarios because I'm not sure the financial math makes sense vs rules content or addon content for popular APs.)
I already have a friend who wants to contribute because it's PFS material (he doesn't care about the money). I expect the exact opposite: a lot of contributions (and a need for triage).
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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I think for scenario length, there are good use cases for both lengths we've seen. People playing on a weekday night in a local store do well with 2-3 hour scenarios. People who take the time to travel to a game day in a different city in the weekend get more out of a 4-5 hour scenario.
I wish they'd kept up the scenario/quest distinction, and not gone all-in on making scenarios shorter too.
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I think for scenario length, there are good use cases for both lengths we've seen. People playing on a weekday night in a local store do well with 2-3 hour scenarios. People who take the time to travel to a game day in a different city in the weekend get more out of a 4-5 hour scenario.
I wish they'd kept up the scenario/quest distinction, and not gone all-in on making scenarios shorter too.
I play PFS online on evenings almost exclusively.
When we had bounties/quests, we would play only one in the evening, lasting often 3 hours. For 2 XPs.
When we had the longer scenarios, we also would play only one in the evening, often lasting 4 to 5 hours. For 4 XPs.
I am not eager to go back to bounties/quests that blocked my evening as much as a long scenario for half the XPs.
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The real problem is trying to find a length of scenario that fits everyone's needs. Groups running at game stores on weekdays that start at 6 pm and run to 9 pm because the stores are closing need 3-hour scenarios.Do they? Or do they need three one hour scenarios, or two one and a half hour scenarios, or a one and a two?
There are three great uses I've run into for running multiple things in one 3- to 4-hour slot:
- giving multiple GMs an opportunity to run
- giving new GMs a nice easy on-ramp to running
- having something extra to fill up the time if a game runs unexpectedly short
But I would almost always prefer to play a single, longer scenario that fits the slot. They're better, more satisfying stories, and logistically much easier to manage.
The new scenarios fit a 4-hour slot pretty well for me, actually, since I run scenarios like an encumbered dwarf tourist that forgot to take the Fleet feat! I was frequently under time pressure running the older scenarios.