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Well, the fifth FG Con is nearly over... :(
Damned and I are always looking for constructive feedback on how the convention went for you and any ideas you might have for future conventions.
If you'd like to give feedback, please do so in this thread or PM damned or me if you'd like to keep it private.
Onward to FG Con VI! :)
I had an awesome time. The network issue caused some headaches at first, but it was all ironed out fine in the end.
Each session worked very well. I played/ran PFS exclusively so can only praise or nit-pick about that.
One thing I noticed right off is that the sessions didn't seem to be staggered in even blocks. Some were scheduled to start right on the tails of others, which sometimes resulted in sessions starting late as the ones before were late in wrapping up. Perhaps something akin to a format like:
0000-0500
0600-1100
1200-1700
1800-2300
in the future. This gives an hour cushion between each to allow for run-overs or players that need to run a quick errand, grab a nap, fix something to eat, etc.
My only other nit-pick (and I know it's totally up to the individual GMs as to how they want to run this), is to urge again the importance of showing up early to work out issues and get questions out of the way before game time. I know this was already covered and most people do this already, but I figured it was important for folks to try hopping in at least 30 minutes prior just to make sure everything on FG and TS were connecting properly. For those in my session that were new to FG, I was asking they show up even earlier so we could go over questions, make sure their Actions Tab was set up properly, and maybe run through a quick skirmish just to familiarize themselves with the interface, as combat would tend to drag the game down when folks (some very highly talented veterans of PFS) were picking their way through all the buttons, effects, targets, and options that they were not familiar with.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking anyone. I was new once too and I'm still learning loads about the ins and outs of FG, so that's understandable. And I think it's awesome that we have new folks at each of these CONs. I just figured it deserves repeating about the importance of getting to a Starter session if you're still learning the terrain and to show up early (if possible) to work out the kinks so that sessions can start on time and run smoothly.
Other than that, all my GMs were ace and the other players contributed HUGELY to making each session very enjoyable. It seemed like everyone worked well together and had fun. No arguments, no bad feelings, nothing along those lines at all.
Now if only Logus could just get Ms Feathers out of his mind. *sigh* .......
Thanks for organising this Trenloe and Damian, I can only imagine how much work it must be. I had a really good weekend, I got my pfs fix, met lots of cool new players and got to try out different game systems. At the end of they day, that's what its all about :) All conventions have unforeseen problems and any issues that occurred weren't due to lack of organisation. Unexpected last minute stuff is just part of it.
Just thinking out loud here:
Perhaps it could be a requirement for players to log in half hour early to confirm their place? Just log in, pick up their character and check TS and everything is working? It would also mean that I could find and take on players in that last half hour if there is someone who had a game cancellation etc. I would only do this provided that they play a pregen so they can just drop straight in. It might be cool if I could advertise this availability somewhere? I know some gms wouldn't want to as it could be a headache and that's totally understandable
Overall, great work. Had an awesome time. looking forward to the next one!
And perhaps somewhere on the FG site for players to add their character's class and level :)
I also had tremendous fun and a great experience.
If you change nothing, I'd still look forward to the next convention.
TeamSpeak worked flawlessly for me the entire weekend.
- I agree with the time slots. Most of the PFS games did have an hour buffer but there were some outliers.
- I agree with just logging in early to make a connection and then toggling AFK. Perhaps in the Booking auto reply confirmation add some "etiquette" encouraging some good practices.
- Identify players coming directly from pen and paper or new to Fantasy Grounds ahead of time and encouraging them to join one of the "New Player" sessions to help them set up. Getting their character effects and players oriented prior to the session saves 30-45 minutes meant to be used starting the actual session. I was in a few games where this dragged on... throughout the session...
- In conjunction with the above, recruit a few more "Player Orientation Sessions" each day. Just 30-45 minutes each which fits conveniently in the hour "buffers" between Pathfinder games. Just to help people build effects, figure out hotkeys, and get them oriented on /ooc /e /m /a /w and hotkeys. And some good etiquette standardization like saying something in TeamSpeak at the beginning of your turn to confirm that you're actually there and thinking about what to do. Everyone's experienced that uncomfortable silence... are they there? Are they on mute? Are they watching TV? Is this thing still working?
Yes, I will volunteer for a few of these sessions and join anyone offline in putting together a topic sheet for any such session.
Edit: It's been pointed out that an hour buffer between sessions leaves only 6 hours to sleep if you chose three sessions a day. A 30 minute buffer might work. I would also poll to see how many folks played more than 2 sessions a day. Also poll the GMs as to how many had no shows for players trying to sign up for too many games/day. I want polls!
I'll second these points.Quote:
Originally Posted by cmdisc
This was my first FG Con and my first PFS sessions even though I am an experienced rpg player.
I attended the player intro, and then several sessions over the weekend.
The lack of time during the sessions meant that saturday, I played for nearly 15 hours nonstop.
A break between would have been great.
That meant I couldn't appear 30 mins earlier and it delayed the whole thing.
The people were great, very helpful and I had a blast.
Also Ms Feathers will give me endless amusement... ;)
As GMs you can communicate to your players that you would like them to log in early. Or (for the non PFS timeslots) you could extend your advertised session by 30mins.
@Trenloe - the timeslots seem to make sense strictly from a spacing - possibly they are awkward elsewhere?
We did have 2 Pathfinder Intro sessions unfortunately the Character Creation session players cancelled and the GM for the other session was taken ill. Im trying to organise a Pathfinder Combat Tracker hangout session to happen in the very near future which will show some of the awesomeness of FG in action with a really full featured ruleset. d1wright I will contact you offline regarding running a session if you like - or you can email me to get things started when you are ready.
I know the times I run the Intro sessions dont work for everyone but it is hard to juggle it all!
15 hours! I hope you have recovered!
The bottom line is that it was a really successful con :)