PFS at FG CON 9 - Oct 14th - 16th

[cmdisc]

As many of you know, our next Virtual Convention is quickly approaching. The weekend of October 14th to 16th has been deemed the time for us to let our inner gaming fanatics out and play as many or as few sessions as Real Life allows us.

I'm putting a call out to any and all folks who have GMed PFS (or who want to try GMing) to get an idea of who is interested and available in running 1 or more sessions during the upcoming FG CON. If you are looking to run something, post your interest here along with how many sessions you think you might be able to commit to. In order for us to have Paizo support (free PDFs for the GMs, GM and Player Boons, and table roll-offs), we need to secure a minimum of 15 tables. The goal is always to overshoot this number to account for tables that end up not running for this or that reason.

During past FG CONs, Player interest in PFS games has varied. We had new players looking for low subtier games as well as veterans looking for chances to play their high level characters. So we can discuss the options of either having GMs run whatever they want or see about coordinating a spread of subtiers (or even a running theme for the CON). Any thoughts on this are welcome.

Once we get an idea of who we have and how many sessions are possible, we can go from there to hammer out the details.

As a reminder, the Time Slots used in past CONs (and that I think we should stick with) have been:

Slot #1. UTC 0: 07:00 to 12:00
Slot #2. UTC 0: 13:00 to 18:00
Slot #3. UTC 0: 19:00 – 00:00 (next day)
Slot #4. UTC 0: 01:00 to 06:00


PFS GMs - Sessions
cmdisc - 2 - #6-21 Tapestry's Toil (5-9) and Season 3 Special: Blood Under Absalom (1-11) [1 of 5]
Blackfoot - 2 - #5-15 Destiny of the Sands Part II (1-5) and Season 3 Special: Blood Under Absalom (1-11) [2 of 5] (and/or #5-12 Part I?)
Farnaby - 3 - #8-01 Portent's Peril (1-5) and #8-02 Ward Asunder (3-7) and #8-03 Captives of Toil (5-9)
JWMK - 1 - ?
d1wright - 3 - ???
xazil - 2 - ??
keven_simmons - 1 - ?
Jay - 1 - ?

[Blackfoot]

I don't want to run the minimum 15 games.. I want to run 30 or 50 games.

What do we need to step this whole thing up a level? We have 12 potential time slots during which we can run as many games as we have GMs and players. In the past, we've lost players because there weren't enough games or enough new/different games for them to play in. I'm considering not just reaching out to the former GMs but also to the new/current players and asking them to step up and run a session. If EVERYONE involved in PFS ran 1 session.. we could easily have 48 sessions... and everyone would have games the opportunity to play in lots of different games.

I think we need to look at which scenarios folks are signing up to run as well. In the past we've taken anything anyone wanted to run.. and offered very little in the way of suggestions as to what we'd like them to run. Some folks have specific things in mind which is great.. but others do not and don't really care which scenario they run (to some extent). We can probably do some steering there and improve the mix of games/tiers/subtiers that are offered.

I would like to offer games in every subtier and specifically lead off the Con with a few starter games early on Friday and Saturday to get new people started and ready for more by later in the Con. I've done something like that myself in the past and it has proved very successful.

[Blackfoot]

We are also talking about trying to run the Season 3 Multitable which ties into all the Season 3 sessions we've been running this year. Hopefully we can get that off the ground (it is very likely that we can).

Story arcs have been very successful in the past although running a whole arc takes a pretty significant GMing commitment.. perhaps we could coordinate 2 GMs to run different parts of the same arc... for example.. I could run the 1st 2 parts of Season 5's Destiny of the Sands and Lord Kavos could run part 3... (I'm not sure this could/would actually happen.. but it's an example).

There's a lot we can do by coordinating scenarios. It will be great if we can offer a variety of subtiers at the same time so folks have lots of options as to what to play.

[Blackfoot]

One other thing, GMs should have no concern about running games in the time slots that best suit THEM. Xazil & Lord Kavos have run Aussie friendly games with great success. It's more about the games offered than the time frame.. the players really want to play and are willing to treat this as a 'real con' where sleep is optional.
Slots 3 & 4 'are' generally the most popular.. at least as far as GMs go but I almost always have my Slot 2 tables completely full as are Xazil's Slot 1 games.. so don't sweat that piece.

[Talyn]

Slot 1 is outta the question for me, being in US East. Slot 2 would certainly be... doable, though at a glance it seems rather inconvenient to run through both breakfast and lunch. That's a (virtual) table full of players with hunger headaches waiting to happen. LOL Wouldn't surprise me if those sessions run longer so people can AFK to grab coffee, food, whatever.

[Blackfoot]

Running longer is 'out' during the con as both players and GMs have other games to get to afterward. Does it happen? Yes, it has.. but generally there aren't any breaks during Con games. There is an hour slotted between each session for folks to grab food, visit the Necessary, kiss the girlfriend, or whatever needs doin. Generally speaking since con games are on this tight schedule there's a lot more drive to complete them in a timely fashion than a normal game.

[cmdisc]

Slot 1 is outta the question for me, being in US East. Slot 2 would certainly be... doable, though at a glance it seems rather inconvenient to run through both breakfast and lunch. That's a (virtual) table full of players with hunger headaches waiting to happen. LOL Wouldn't surprise me if those sessions run longer so people can AFK to grab coffee, food, whatever.

These Slot times have worked just fine in the past. Sessions usually include a small break in the middle to allow for bio/smoke/drink/snack breaks. That way folks aren't having too much trouble during a game.

FG CON involves people all over the world from various time zones. So what might work for someone might not be too convenient for someone else. But then, that's why there are 4 different slots for folks to choose from. During a Convention, people generally dispense with any real sleep (or comfort for that matter) to indulge their inner gaming nerd.

[Talyn]

During a Convention, people generally dispense with any real sleep (or comfort for that matter) to indulge their inner gaming nerd.

I know. On that note, though, the (video) Gaming Industry is just now (barely) starting to get on board with having on mind on their customer's and employee's health so hopefully the much smaller RPG Industry follows suit someday.

[Farnaby]

I'll run a game each day in slot #1 if that's okay with you.

[Blackfoot]

I'll run a game each day in slot #1 if that's okay with you.

Sounds great.