DM Opportunity - PAX Online - FG DMs - Let's represent! :)

[viviolay]

PAX Online is next month and will have 9 days of D&D. This is a great opportunity to DM and teach newer players about D&D and spread the joy of the hobby! It also is an opportunity to introduce new people who've never used Fantasy Grounds to the software and all the great things it can do. It'll be 2-hour intro games with BMG's Moonshae Isles adventures with some 4 hr T1 and T2 games.

To Signup to DM at PAX head here - https://heraldsguild.com/pax-online-2020/ (https://heraldsguild.com/pax-online-2020/)

I got asked in another thread how one gets opportunities to participate in DM-ing events like the D&D Celebration that is happening in September. For events like D&D Live and D&D Celebration Baldman Games hosts - they pull from a pool of DMs they've had run for them before - so it isn't open invite.

The way to get into this pool of DMs is to run at events like PAX Online or Gencon (already past) and knock it out of the park! The signups to run at PAX are open to existing DMs already in BMG's Herald's Guild as well as new/potential DMs to their Herald's Guild System.

Happy Gaming!

[LordEntrails]

Thanks! Let's see what we can do to represent FG :)

[Granamere]

I reached out to Heralds Guild but I have not heard anything back. Any idea how long it takes for them to reach back out?

[viviolay]

I reached out to Heralds Guild but I have not heard anything back. Any idea how long it takes for them to reach back out?

Just verifying, you submitted the form?
I did not sign up for PAX this year, so do not know when a confirmation will be sent. I did check Baldman Games' facebook (https://www.facebook.com/baldmangames/), and it seems like they're working their way through the PAX applications now based on the recent comment on their recent post.

I recommend following that FB page to keep on top of updates or reach out :)

[Granamere]

I filled out both the join the guild https://heraldsguild.com/join-the-guild/ and DM at PAX online https://heraldsguild.com/pax-online-2020/. I have not heard back anything on either of them. I figured since it is a business I might not hear anything back on the weekend. Hopefully I will hear something back soon.

Thank you for the Facebook link info. I will check their post on Facebook but do not have an account and not making one only for this so I can not really post or ask questions there.

[erjohns]

When is PAX Online?

[Granamere]

September 12-20

https://online.paxsite.com/schedule

https://online.paxsite.com/#message

[LordEntrails]

I also filled them both out on the 28th and have not heard back. So, you are not alone :)

[Granamere]

I did get a response back yesterday.

[viviolay]

I also filled them both out on the 28th and have not heard back. So, you are not alone :)

Any word now?

[Granamere]

I did get a response on Wednesday and I responded back but I have not heard anything back from that.

[LordEntrails]

Any word now?
Yes, I do have an email. Haven't read it yet. Looks like my sessions have been scheduled. Plan to work through the email today and do any needed prep.

Thanks for checking!

[viviolay]

Yes, I do have an email. Haven't read it yet. Looks like my sessions have been scheduled. Plan to work through the email today and do any needed prep.

Thanks for checking!

Glad to hear


I did get a response on Wednesday and I responded back but I have not heard anything back from that.
Any more updates? Hoping you're all set up now :)

[Granamere]

Glad to hear


Any more updates? Hoping you're all set up now :)

LordEntrails might be but I am not. I have exchanged a few emails and I find that working with companies is more challenging than I have patience with at my age. I think in the future I should either plan to do the event myself or maybe do something just with the Fantasy Grounds community.

[felgolos]

I also volunteered, lets see what the response is.

[viviolay]

Hopefully you all hear back soon. I think since it's been a few days since I posted the announcements, I'm not sure how many more DMs they may be looking for.

I'll continue to post these opportunities right when they pop up to give everyone enough time to get in.

[LordEntrails]

Thanks viviolay.

Well, I have to say so far it's not as organized as I hoped. I'm doing rush conversions to FG of the modules I've been assigned. Another guy is doing the ones he is assigned. Still don't know how player marshalling is going to happen or audio, but I can do all that on the fly if I have to. Just would have thought it would have been centrally organized. (Maybe it is, I just haven't found any info yet.)

[viviolay]

Thanks viviolay.

Well, I have to say so far it's not as organized as I hoped. I'm doing rush conversions to FG of the modules I've been assigned. Another guy is doing the ones he is assigned. Still don't know how player marshalling is going to happen or audio, but I can do all that on the fly if I have to. Just would have thought it would have been centrally organized. (Maybe it is, I just haven't found any info yet.)

I recommend (assuming the modules have been sent to you by the event and/or purchase has occurred) people share here (or on the event discord) what mods they're running so they connect and maybe you can split the work/exchange prep.

Usually if you can find other DMs running the same VTT you can connect and lighten the workload when possible. In the future, I'll see other ways I can help support with helping with conversions/prep (but I'm not able to make PAX this year as I'm focusing on running at D&D celebration).

At SDCC, I did prep the files for Black Road and a couple other mods that weren't converted for FG that I shared with the DMs for the event. (The SDCC HQ staff made sure to purchase a copy of the PDF to make sure the writers still got what they deserved tho).

[Granamere]

LordEntrails did you get everything worked out? Did anyone else get setup to DM with Baldman Games?

[LordEntrails]

Yea, I think so. I've got the modules, MOON1-2 thru 1-5. I'm actually only scheduled to run through 1-4. So far I've converted 1-2 and 1-3 (just final touch up on both).

I will say I was kind of hoping for a document outlining everything like expectations, where to find what, how mustering works on game day, etc. It's not that I can't figure things out, but that's only because I've DM'd at other online cons and am comfortable with the technology and such. But for someone new to DMing or new to online cons I think it would be more than overwhelming.

So far, most of the info seems to be tribal knowledge, stuff picked up from experience. Which I understand in a volunteer organization. Heck, I see it at a lot of companies I used to consult at. But I know how inefficient it is and how it leads to quality issues, so I was hoping for better :)

[viviolay]

Yea, I think so. I've got the modules, MOON1-2 thru 1-5. I'm actually only scheduled to run through 1-4. So far I've converted 1-2 and 1-3 (just final touch up on both).

I will say I was kind of hoping for a document outlining everything like expectations, where to find what, how mustering works on game day, etc. It's not that I can't figure things out, but that's only because I've DM'd at other online cons and am comfortable with the technology and such. But for someone new to DMing or new to online cons I think it would be more than overwhelming.

So far, most of the info seems to be tribal knowledge, stuff picked up from experience. Which I understand in a volunteer organization. Heck, I see it at a lot of companies I used to consult at. But I know how inefficient it is and how it leads to quality issues, so I was hoping for better :)

It might also be they capped out at their needed DM quota for those who haven't heard back. And I understand the concern, LordEntrails, but I hope you have fun running once the event gets going :)

[LordEntrails]

I'm sure I will have fun and the players too!

Thanks :)

[Granamere]

So how did it go?

[felgolos]

I didn’t DM, but I was pretty impressed with Baldman’s ability to run two major events online simultaneously.


So how did it go?

[LordEntrails]

So how did it go?
I don't know numbers or anything else, but my experience was okay. I got positive feedback from all of the players, and even had several that had to install FG to play and it went well enough.

I felt it was horribly organized. But I also found out that Baldman Games was given very little advance notice and no infrastructure to support the event. Also, WotC/AL changed the AL rules in the middle of the event. So, from that aspect, Baldman games and the AL folks did a great job getting things to work and getting players to play and have fun.

[kmalsom]

I played (not sure if I was at one of your tables) and I think it went pretty good overall. Would have been good to have more options for games was my main thing (very hard to find a spot to play in the game you wanted to) and some of the games didn't have an opportunity for any breaks between. I played 8 hours over 4 sessions with no breaks between.

[Granamere]

So what would it take for the next event to have a community run event and getting rid of the middle company? I would think we would need a schedule of events we wanted to support. Then have someone reach out and find how to submit events then post on here and find DM's and players.

Does this make sense or would it make more sense to just run events through something like fgpug.com?

I like the idea of DMing at cons and I had fun at DMing at Gencon but I do not want to have to deal with companies that have weird or no rules and take days to get back to you. Then there is the other part of me that says this is too much trouble to have fun so I should just keeping running my games and let other do this. :)

What is everyone else's thoughts?

[LordEntrails]

There is already the community run FG Con & FG Daze. Hopefully they will start back up soon, but it is a lot of work. There are also the FG/AL combo's that Viviolay has started doing, I haven't looked into those yet.

I know this one was challenging, but I don't think most cons are going to be as tough, at least not if they wish to be successful (and other cons I have DMd at were not).

So, just running games through FGPUG etc is great, but it doesn't "spread the word" since those folks are already part of the FG community. Cons is certainly the way to do it, and perhaps if those cons run AL events we can get Viviolay to help with the admin side of things so we won't have so much to do ourselves.

[GregRex]

We just wrapped a very succesful Adventurers League on Fantasy Grounds Game Day event yesterday. I believe we had 17 tables of games spread out throughout the day. Check out the event on Warhorn as it will be a monthly event.

https://warhorn.net/events/dnd-adventurers-league-on-fantasy-grounds

[LordEntrails]

We just wrapped a very succesful Adventurers League on Fantasy Grounds Game Day event yesterday. I believe we had 17 tables of games spread out throughout the day. Check out the event on Warhorn as it will be a monthly event.

https://warhorn.net/events/dnd-adventurers-league-on-fantasy-grounds
Great to hear!

[viviolay]

So what would it take for the next event to have a community run event and getting rid of the middle company? I would think we would need a schedule of events we wanted to support. Then have someone reach out and find how to submit events then post on here and find DM's and players.

Does this make sense or would it make more sense to just run events through something like fgpug.com?

I like the idea of DMing at cons and I had fun at DMing at Gencon but I do not want to have to deal with companies that have weird or no rules and take days to get back to you. Then there is the other part of me that says this is too much trouble to have fun so I should just keeping running my games and let other do this. :)

What is everyone else's thoughts?

We already have a monthly event hosted by Fantasy Grounds - As Greg said, we just did 17 tables of games across the whole day on Saturday. Our next will be Oct 24th :)
I posted about the last one in this AL forum and will do so again for the next. (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?61539-1st-FG-AL-Monthly-Gameday-9-26&p=545930#post545930)

Check out our warhorn page and join our discord so you can come join next time :) (https://warhorn.net/events/dnd-adventurers-league-on-fantasy-grounds)