I agree that flaky players and GMs can be frustrating. But personally, I haven't found folks in organized play (Encounters or PFS) to be any more or less flaky than average. Often when I join a new group (organized, non-organized, whatever), there will be one or two wingnuts. Maybe it's just more noticeable in organized play because you don't really get the chance to "settle down" when you finally find a group of players and a GM you like.
"I Quit" Public Play - Am I just an impatient jerk? (LONG)
Part of the problem is.....you rarely see posts like steelwind posting awesome experiences on something, where as there are many many threads on problems and issues with the same items. So more often you'll hear the bad, but rarely hear the good.
I've had a mixed bag. For LFR, it started good, but over time the fun local players stopped coming and it felt that all that were left were the stereotypes no one wants to play with Rules Lawyers who wont let things drop, Players of anti-social characters, Loot Farmers, Players that tell you how to run your character. LFR had lost it's luster for me.
After a short timeout, I decided to try another store for Encounters to see if I could find some new blood and fresh faces. This turned out to be a wonderful experience. Mike, our awesome organizer, had a team of great, friendly DMs, and the new faces made for lots of fun. With the short run times of encounters, sessions didn't turn into slogs.
There was online sign-ups for tables at different times w/ specific DMs on the store forums, which worked well, and was still able to accomodate walk-ins. The most recent season, anyone that had previously gotten 60 renown points could "perm reserve" a seat at a specific time/DM slot. There were rules in place where you'd forfeit your slot for 2 weeks if you didn't let others know you couldn't make it, and atleast 1 slot had to remain open for walk-ins. For our table, this worked great and our table rocked. Players whose first time playing DnD had been when I started Encounters learned thier characters quickly. Everyone was poilte and offered advice only when asked.
We decided to skip Encounters this season, most of our table organizing into a home game since we get along great. I've dusted off those LFR modules to quickly get started and re-worked some of them into a coherent campaign with my own plots mixed inbetween as glue. The mods are now fun again and we can play them at our own pace in our own style.
After a short timeout, I decided to try another store for Encounters to see if I could find some new blood and fresh faces. This turned out to be a wonderful experience. Mike, our awesome organizer, had a team of great, friendly DMs, and the new faces made for lots of fun. With the short run times of encounters, sessions didn't turn into slogs.
There was online sign-ups for tables at different times w/ specific DMs on the store forums, which worked well, and was still able to accomodate walk-ins. The most recent season, anyone that had previously gotten 60 renown points could "perm reserve" a seat at a specific time/DM slot. There were rules in place where you'd forfeit your slot for 2 weeks if you didn't let others know you couldn't make it, and atleast 1 slot had to remain open for walk-ins. For our table, this worked great and our table rocked. Players whose first time playing DnD had been when I started Encounters learned thier characters quickly. Everyone was poilte and offered advice only when asked.
We decided to skip Encounters this season, most of our table organizing into a home game since we get along great. I've dusted off those LFR modules to quickly get started and re-worked some of them into a coherent campaign with my own plots mixed inbetween as glue. The mods are now fun again and we can play them at our own pace in our own style.
MichaelSomething
Legend
Ironically, a while back my local LFR group took steps to curb lateness. A couple of people ended up quitting LFR because of it. I later quit due to the cancelling of the DM rewards 
. As far as I know, LFR is still going strong at my FLGS.
. As far as I know, LFR is still going strong at my FLGS.I pretty much stopped DMing public LFR games when the Rewards program ended. I'd already missed out on the Ship Tiles and Tomb of Horror because the coordinator wasn't reporting sessions. (Nice guy, good friend, he was tied up with life, so I don't fault him) There was no more incentive to put up with the bad gamers, and the regular good gamers were becoming scarce.
NaniOPratt
First Post
Hello everyone,
I am a PFS organizer in Atlanta, Georgia. I have read all of the negative feedback on this forum and I wanted to know that I completely sympathize with you. I know there is always the risk of having bad experiences when you are walking in to a game at a FLGS. All I can tell you that the kind of behavior that you see is NOT acceptable everywhere. Atlanta has had a huge boom in PFS, I think it's largely because we have a venture captain who has held both poor players and poor GMs accountable. I hope you don't let these bad experiences that you've had stop you from organized play forever. For everyone here, I recommend hooking up with your local venture captain if your region has one, or contacting a group on the boards (here or on paizo.com), to feel them out. Please know that these kind of bad experiences are not everywhere, and there's a lot of GMs who will do everything in their power to serve their players.
I am a PFS organizer in Atlanta, Georgia. I have read all of the negative feedback on this forum and I wanted to know that I completely sympathize with you. I know there is always the risk of having bad experiences when you are walking in to a game at a FLGS. All I can tell you that the kind of behavior that you see is NOT acceptable everywhere. Atlanta has had a huge boom in PFS, I think it's largely because we have a venture captain who has held both poor players and poor GMs accountable. I hope you don't let these bad experiences that you've had stop you from organized play forever. For everyone here, I recommend hooking up with your local venture captain if your region has one, or contacting a group on the boards (here or on paizo.com), to feel them out. Please know that these kind of bad experiences are not everywhere, and there's a lot of GMs who will do everything in their power to serve their players.
Steel_Wind
Legend
The list is in the Guide to Pathfinder Organized Play
Not every major area in the USA or Canada has a VC. More will be appointed. Boston, Washington D.C. are obvious holes in the USA (there are obviously others) as are Vancouver and Montreal north of the border.
United States
Atlanta, GA.........Mike Brock............mbrock @Georgiapfs.org
Austin, TX...........David Woodfin .......texasvcwoodfin@gmail.com
Chicago, IL ........Bob Jonquet ...........pfschicagovc@gmail.com
Cincinnati, OH.....Russell Akred .........russ_akred@yahoo.com
Columbia, MO .....Jason Roeder .........kikai13@yahoo.com
Denver, CO ........JP Chapleau...........jp@chapleau.us
Detroit, MI .........Doug Miles ............pfs.rc.detroit@gmail.com
Indianapolis, IN... Mark Garringer.......zizazat@gmail.com
Las Vegas, NV .....Issak Haywood.......PFSTheocrat@gmail.com
Los Angeles, CA ...Robyn Nixon ..........pfslacoordinator@gmail.com
Minneapolis, MN ...Ryan Bolduan ........vcbolduan@gmail.com
New York City, NY..Art Lobdell ...........PSRDNYC @hotmail.com
Phoenix, AZ ........Rene Ayala ............pfscoordinatorphx@gmail.com
Raleigh, NC........ Steve Miller............raleighventurecaptain@gmail.com
San Diego, CA...... Eric Brittain...........sdpathfinder@gmail.com
San Fran, CA...... Michael Azzolino......pathfinder @justiceradio.net
Seattle, WA....... Dane Pitchford.........SeattlePFS@gmail.com
Tampa, FL .........Michael Griffin-Wade..michael.griffinwade@gmail.com
International
Australia .............Stephen White........PathfinderSocietyOz@gmail.com
Belgium/Nether....Auke Teeninga ........pathfinderbenelux@gmail.com
Can/Ontario........ Neil Shackleton........VCNeilOnt@gmail.com
Denmark............ Diego Winterborg.....pathfinder.society@Live.dk
United Kingdom..... Dave Harrison........paizoconuk@hotmail.com
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IronWolf
blank
And there is also this cool Venture Captain Google Map that shows Venture Captain locations created by zizazat a Venture Captain for Indianapolis.
AncientOne
First Post
For what it's worth, I played my first Pathfinder Society game at Dragon*Con just last weekend, and it was fine... good DM, good players. My only "complaint" (and it isn't much of one) was that the group wasn't challenged by the specific adventure -- it was a cake-walk for first-level characters.
The other players (excluding the DM) at my table were a group who normally game together, while I was a last-minute drop-in with a pregenerated character.
The other players (excluding the DM) at my table were a group who normally game together, while I was a last-minute drop-in with a pregenerated character.
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