Month: February 2019

February 2019 Play Profile: Kevin Baumann

Kevin Baumann

Let’s start with the basics: who are you, and what’s your role within the organized play community?

I’m Kevin, an avid dice collector and gamer. I’ve been playing RPGs since 1981 and I am a Venture-Lieutenant in the Boston – North Shore Lodge. I mostly run PFS at the Hobby Bunker location in Malden, but I show up to other locations from time to time.

You oversaw demos at Gen Con last year (2018) – this was just after the Pathfinder Playtest was released. What are demos, and how do they differ from regular Organized Play at Gen Con?

Last year I was the department head for the quests and demos at Gen Con and it was a blast. Demos are very different than the normal Organized Play sessions in several ways.

First, they are geared so that anyone can just sit down and play. There is no need to know the rules, have a character, or anything like that. Players just sit down, grab a pre-generated character, and play – no ticket needed.

Second, demos often get brand new players, players who have no experience with Organized Play. It’s often not a regular PFS player comes to the demo tables. PFS players already know rules, character generation, and they will play the scenarios or quests that are offered during the convention and can usually be found playing regular Organized Play in the Sagamore Ballroom. The GMs that are chosen to run demos need to be good at explaining everything from “What is a role playing game?” to the rules of how everything works because people will ask.

Third, the demos (but not quests) are located in the Vendor/Expo Hall instead of the Sagamore Ballroom. It’s easily two football fields wide and ten fields long – it’s probably bigger, but that’s how I see it. They have about 10,000 people that go in there daily. The rush when the doors open is something to be seen for sure.

Speaking of Pathfinder Second Edition, what are you most looking forward to about it?

Getting in at the beginning. Like most, I have some concerns, but I am excited to see how the new edition plays out. Who doesn’t like the new action economy – three actions, easy!

How is the Boston North Shore Lodge going to support 2e when it’s released? What about players who want to continue playing 1st edition?

We will be running Second Edition as the scenarios come out and we will fully support 1st Edition, both in regular play and core. We will pretty much run what the players want. We are looking into running sanctioned Adventure Paths (APs) and modules as well.

What are you looking forward to for 2019 for both your lodge and organized play in general?

For the North Shore Lodge, I’d like to have more total games run and more locations. The tougher part for us is, other than Hobby Bunker, it’s not as easy to get to some of the locations via public transportation, and that can be an issue for getting some of the more transit-reliant players to our venues.

For Organized Play overall, more players! There is a huge player base in the Boston area, and I hope everyone continues to play both 1st and 2nd Edition Pathfinder as well as Starfinder.