PFS set up

[Feeroper]

Hey everyone,

Im curious as to what is involved in setting up a PFS game in a town with no PFS game? I know there are venture captains and whatnot so I wasn't sure what is involved beyond finding a willing store.

How about setting up a game In a city that already has a couple games
running? I'm in Toronto, and we do have a couple stores that run PFS games, but there are a couple other stores that might be good spots to run it. It's something that I would talk to our PFS organizers about, but I was just curious if there is a formal process to set that up or not.

 

[IronWolf]

There isn't a whole lot to setting up a PFS game. Get familiar with the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play, pick out a scenario to run, advertise the game as you see fit and once the session has been run be sure to report the event at Paizo's site. You do not have to be a venture captain to run a game or even get approval to run a game. Venture captain's would likely be able to provided advice for you though if you have an active one for your region.

If you are in Toronto, then lets see if we can summon [MENTION=20741]Steel_Wind[/MENTION] . He is pretty active in PFS play in Toronto if I recall correctly and he frequents these boards. I am sure he can help get you pointed in the right direction.

 

[Feeroper]

Ah I see, that's pretty easy then. I thought there was more to it.

Yes Steel_Wind is in my region, he frequents one of the PFS sessions, and we added another store in Toronto as a bi-monthly location just last September. It has grown pretty fast at that new store so we will be moving that one to every week starting in May.

The reason I bring it up is that I play in some other public games of 4e at other stores that don't do PFS at the moment, and I think they'd be great spots for a whole other audience in Toronto. With the success of PFS in the 2 Toronto stores presently, I was thinking it could easily be expanded.

 

[Steel_Wind]

My far and away preference for a new game store running PFS in the GTA is the Comic Warehouse and Cafe in Brampton. The owner is a Pathfinder fan, the venue is great and -- unusually -- they have Sunday afternoons available. That would be absolutely ideal.

If you -- or anyone else -- would be interested in getting PFS going there, I'd be happy as hell.

I am more reticent to start something on a weeknight at HairyT North right now as I am concerned that it may bleed too many players off from the existing stores, neither of which have been running for a year. I would prefer matters normalize and the weekly game at DG becomes more entrenched before starting a new venue at something reachable on the TTC.

PFS Venture-Captain (Ontario)

 

[Feeroper]

My far and away preference for a new game store running PFS in the GTA is the Comic Warehouse and Cafe in Brampton. The owner is a Pathfinder fan, the venue is great and -- unusually -- they have Sunday afternoons available. That would be absolutely ideal.

If you -- or anyone else -- would be interested in getting PFS going there, I'd be happy as hell.

I am more reticent to start something on a weeknight at HairyT North right now as I am concerned that it may bleed too many players off from the existing stores, neither of which have been running for a year. I would prefer matters normalize and the weekly game at DG becomes more entrenched before starting a new venue at something reachable on the TTC.

PFS Venture-Captain (Ontario)

Hairy T North was what I had in mind. The reason is this: I am involved with the 4e Encounters program there, as well as at DG. I know there is also 4e encounters at Silver Snail and LFR at 401. These locations dont have much bleed through effect - that is mostly between 401 and DG. That said, Hairy T North and DG/401 have almost completely seperate groups. The reason behind this is because Hairy T attracts alot of its players from the Newmarket/Aurora/Richmond Hill areas. Now i dont know if there is already a PFS setup in any of those regions, but some of my 4e players have asked me if we are going to start PFS up at the Hairy T North locaton as they are interested, and they know I attend PFS downtown. I advised them already about the 401 and DG locations but no one is interested as it is too far for them coming from Newmarket/Aurora/Richmond Hill.

So although Hairy T North is TTC accesible, its basically right at the end of the line up there and could be a convinient spot for those North of Toronto who dont want to trek that much further into the city, and also help them save on extra transit fees by just making use of the YRT or Viva - not needing to transfer to the TTC.

I think that location could be a good venue that would have little impact on the downtown locations (although admittedly Im not sure if there are other current Toronto PFS players from the northern regions of Toronto that this would intere with, I just got this idea based on the other game I run up there with players that dont want to venture any further into the city before it becomes too much of a hassle for them). Let me know what you think.

 

[Feeroper]

Okay, so what I'm going to do is offer to run a PF module like We Be Goblins or some other simple mod for these guys to try out the system. If they enjoy it and want more Ill see about setting something up regarding PFS myself.

 

[Nebten]

I would not run We Be Goblins for an introduction to PFS. You want to run something that people will expect out of PFS. If you run something way out of left field like WBG, you are going to get mixed reactions when you try to run a steady games.

People who like to play goblins and be silly will feel as if the rug got pulled out from under them when they can't play them in PFS and have a more serious tone.

Others may be turned off by the silly nature of WBG and be turned away.

Give them what is going to be expected for future games, that way you give a proper advertisment of PFS. You won't satisfy everybody, but at least they know what they are getting the next time around.

 

[Feeroper]

Yeah I guess that's a good point. I suppose I could just run one of the actual PFS scenarios then as a test run for them and go from there if it is well received.

This won't happen for a bit I imagine, and I certainly don't want to step on any toes in regards to the other 2 stores, but these guys up at Hairy T North are asking about it, so I don't want to just send them away.

 

[IronWolf]

This won't happen for a bit I imagine, and I certainly don't want to step on any toes in regards to the other 2 stores, but these guys up at Hairy T North are asking about it, so I don't want to just send them away.

I'm not from the area, but if you have a game store asking about PFS play I would probably run for them based on that alone. Especially since as you outlined above they might attract from a different player base. I agree that sending them away isn't the greatest thing.

I would consider starting with the First Steps scenarios if you are running for new PFS players.

 

[Feeroper]

Oh yeah! I completely forgot about First Steps. That is perfect for what I need. I can't believe I completely overlooked them!