JP On Gaming

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Pathfinder Society at Genghis, Part 3: The GM scores

For more info on Genghis Con, read Part 1, Part 2

Something that I find interesting every con is to look at the evolution of GMs, and I'll admit, check out my own numbers and see how the players enjoyed the game. Although, I do have a few issues with the DGA's rating sheet, I haven't come up with a good alternative.

For those who don't know the scoring, it scores Preparation (0-2), Positive Energy (0-2), Fairness (0-1), Focus (0-2, split between GM focus and player focus) and fun (0-3). Comments are also encouraged with the goal of improving the GM. I always read them carefully to get some insight into players' minds. I like to think that I improved as a GM with the help of those comments.

While some consider scores of 9s and 10s to be "easy to get", I strongly disagree. Those top two scores are given to GMs who really pushed the envelope and put up a great and exciting game. Getting a table of "Perfect Tens" is an achievements in itself, something worthy of praise.

Looking at the recorded info I have, I KNOW that some of the tables were not compiled (I am missing one myself, that's how I know.) But out of 25 recorded PFS GMs, only *ONE* did not reach a 9+ average.

Looking at the list below, we can see a number of names return to the top of the leader board, namely Jeff "Mr Perfect" Kokx, and my new Venture-Lieutenant: Bryan Critchfield. This is an accomplishment and something to be proud of. I don't want to identify everyone who had went up or down by a few points (Scott, you're slacking, you had 9.633 and now you are in a free fall)!

Thanks guys for the great efforts you did and for coming out stronger than before. Pat yourself on the back and know that you now need to keep up the bar you raised yourself.

GM NameAverage
Burke, Josh
Kokx, Jeff
Clark, Sean
Critchfield, Bryan
Hardy, Bruce
Sturkie, Jessica
Sturkie, Sam
Wiseman, Orion
10.000
Reynolds, Jason9.833
Lutz, Michelle9.800
Johnson, Derek9.750
Spears, JC9.639
Nelson, D'Anne9.622
Peters, Jeff9.617
Crosson, Scott
Woods, Bill
9.600
Latta, Troy
Seifert, Andrew
9.500
Wong, Daniel9.333
Willey, Nic9.223
Morrow, Everett9.156
Garrett, Clarence9.133
Williams, Kerney9.125
Picone, Joe9.089

JP

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Pathfinder Society At Genghis, Part 2: The Interactive

Part 1

The interactive dealt with the PCs having to open up a dig in Osirion. But as they did so, they had to perform a number of tasks, and "typical" Pathfinder tasks for VC Norden Balentiir. The finale had the pcs explore a region around the lair of a long-dead red dragon.

From an organizer's perspective, the interactive suffered from three major issues:

1- I was not able to pre-muster players until they were in front of me.

To resolve, I would create a sign-up where players have to pre-reg for a specific tier. This would allow me to have my GMs ready for specific levels with less need for GM re-alignment between parts. Also, limiting the tiers would've helped a LOT with that issue.

2- The room we were supposed to have was changed on me. For the mingling, I was supposed to have a closed room, instead I had to put players in a common area in the entryway to the restaurant (and in fairness, I approved the switch but I did not think it would be as much of a problem as it proved to be, this one rests solely on me).

To resolve, When writing, plan for a possible venue change. Account for it and be ready to change things on the fly.

3- Two of my GMs dropped out at the last minute, so I had to recruit unprepared GMs at the last minute. This led to having to on-the-spot prep.

To resolve, well having organized enough cons, I don't really know what I could do to change or address this. Still, my replacement GMs did a great job IMO.

There are a number of lessons learned during this interactive.

- When writing an interactive, design an interactive for itself, with the restrictions and realistic number of GM/ location in mind.

- Interactive should have a clear overarching idea and plot.

- 1-7 or 5-11 would be a good range for interactives. It would limit the number of table/ tiers to design and allow for a tighter storyline, while allowing for a higher/lower tier split. A single range (per usual adventures) may be a little too focused to give some added high-level goodies.

- It would be great to have one location on Golarion where our interactives could be set without interfering with the main Society plot. The Mwangi Expanse or the Shackles would be great... Alternatively, the Dragon Empires could be used... I expected to see things in the comments, but no one reported this. In person however, a number of guys shared my opinion of Absalom as an adventure location: overdone.

- Although some players want to have missions that leads "player vs player" or where one faction must mislead another, I would advise against it.

- The problem with the lack of a chronicle meant that a number of players did not take the adventure seriously and simply ignored all the interaction between players. That did not help. Without a chronicle, I do not think interactives are worth the effort from the writers and the players... The "it doesn't count" really turns them off.

There, my thoughts and comments on the interactive.

Will I do another one at Tacticon? Maybe.

As a "bonus", you may see the Interactive in action! Yep... while you guys were playing, I was being interviewed by iAntique.Com. You can see some local folk: Everett, Corwyn, Dallas, Sean-C, Kerney and of course myself! The Video is here. I am on from Minute 15 to Minute 32 talking about Pathfinder Society, the interactive, local cons, shops and events. You know me... I'm talkative! (to see the video you will have to register on iAntique.Com)

At this time I'm still in "Post-Genghis" mode, so I'm not thinking about that. I have to finish writing my Free RPG Day NeoExodus adventure.

JP

PS: Shout-out to Ed Healy from the Gamerati for the pictures.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Pathfinder Society at Genghis, Part 1

Now that we all had a week to rest and put our lives back in order, sleep off the con, and start looking at other things. Now is also the time to think back on the con and how to make it better for the next one... in my case, Denver ComicCon in June.

First some hard facts: Without the interactive, I reported 65 tables (and I believe there are some tables that were not turned in to me, so I did not report them). I had about 20 GMs who did a great job of allowing a lot of people to play, often at the last minute "Can you run this for me?". With the interactive that's a total of 74 tables of Pathfinder Society! We busted our numbers from Tacticon by more than "a few"... Last Genghis Con, we had a total of 58 sessions (including the slot zeroes), then Tacticon also had 58... meaning that we smashed our numbers by no less than 26 tables!

Thanks to all the GMs and players who made the con great!

About the reporting... Two things: I cannot stress enough how important it is to write so that *I* can read your writing. Also, whatever character number you enter, is the one that I enter. I don't guess, think or change anything. If your character has a faction in the system, that's the one that I enter. I enter everything as soon as possible, and when things are unintelligible, then you end up with invalid entries, forcing ME to work double-time. That's not something I enjoy. That's good for GMs AND players.

Now for the Fame gained at the con. Once again, murder, chaos and mayhem rules... by a HUGE margin! Andoran has about a 50 point lead on the Grand Lodge.

Closing the pack are the Sczarni... whose many points were gathered by GMs...

Total for Andoran162
Total for Grand Lodge118
Total for Osirion92
Total for Lantern Lodge62
Total for Cheliax57
Total for Silver Crusade57
Total for Taldor51
Total for Qadira43
Total for Shadow Lodge38
Total for Sczarni20

In part 2, I'll talk some more about the Interactive, and the GMing scores.

JP

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Northerns Plain Indians

When I moved to Colorado, I naturally began looking at the history of the state and its history. Then at a Gamers' Haven's Auction years ago, I won a set of Warhammer Historical's Legend of the Old West and its Blood on the Plains supplement. BotP has rules to play Indians, which called to me. This lot I gathered and painted long ago, but left them on my "done" table for a while. My friend Nathan really hated me fielding any of the natives.

This is a band that includes mounted and dismounted versions of the characters that I plan to sell on Ebay in the next few days.







JP

Friday, February 10, 2012

Commissions: More Malifaux

More goodies for Stephen's Malifaux Tournament at Genghis Con. The first two Sonyas are weaker versions of the Avatar of Conflagration I painted last month

The others don't have much of a story. The witchlings I painted inspired and in the way I would do ringwraiths for Lord of the Rings. I just don't like to paint blacks so they were painted dark blue, then inked black then highlighted with grey. The result accomplished the effect better than I expected. I'm not used to black (I hate it), but this blue-to-black-to grey looks like dirty, dusty rags.

I hope he'll enjoy them and if he wins a prize for painting that he'll pass it on...





JP

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Commissions: Malifaux Cowboys

More goodies for Stephen!

So I started painting these guys for him. Stephen sent me a long email describing what he wanted and want he did not want...

So I painted and painted. After a first coat, I went back to his email and... I painted the guys the color he did NOT want (red). GAH! So I repainted the red highlights to a dirty green. I'm not sure what these guys do but they look to form an interesting war band. The green gives them a "natural" look and feeling right at home on the range (or the graveyard)...

I really like this effect, which is similar to my Eyriss for Warmachine. However these guys have more depth in the color and texture than Eyriss (this one is not for me).

The Lady Justice I painted with a mauve/pinkish tint to her unlike the guys, I did not repaint her. I kept the red undercoat and did one of my patented mauve treatment to her lingerie. The reddish/mauve effect looks very nice. I like the effect and how it plays with her hair. The hair is a multi-layered look with mid and lighter shades of purple... I keep thinking of a Malifaux version of Jem... Cuz she's totally outrageous!

Tomorrow I'll have even MORE Malifaux to post! (Yes, Stephen, the rest of your models!)






JP

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Warmachine: More Mercenaries

Today I am posting pictures of a number of Warmachine Mercenaries.

Mercenary Characters

Two characters: Viktor Pendrake and Taryn de la Rovisi. I added a picture of Taryn with her adventuring buddy, Rutger Shaw.



Mercenary Objective

Here is an objective I did with the Pirates in mind... My kids enjoy the monkey a lot!

Iron Kingdoms RPG

Some of the Minis I painted are Iron Kingdoms (RPG) miniatures. With the announcement of the new IKRpg, I am interested in seeing more of it, but feel this may be little more than a curiosity.


JP