Hey guys,

What basic/specific advice do you have for running games at cons?

I'm running four games this week (3 games of 4 hours, 1 game of 8 hours) and I'm concerned about certain things.

Should I expect some players to quit halfway or in anyway disrupt the game flow?

Should I worry about mixing new gamers with seasoned gamers?

What is the best way to make sure every gamer is challenged within the range of their ability without designing separate groups/plot line/adventures? (do I even worry about game balance?)

Anything else I should be concerned about or know beforehand?

Quote from: Nihilistic MindHey guys,

What basic/specific advice do you have for running games at cons?

I'm running four games this week (3 games of 4 hours, 1 game of 8 hours) and I'm concerned about certain things.

Should I expect some players to quit halfway or in anyway disrupt the game flow?

Should I worry about mixing new gamers with seasoned gamers?

What is the best way to make sure every gamer is challenged within the range of their ability without designing separate groups/plot line/adventures? (do I even worry about game balance?)

Anything else I should be concerned about or know beforehand?

Hi,
Ok I'm no veteran at this, having just run my first game at a con (NYC Big Apple Con), but here it goes:

1. Stay flexible and relax
2. Don't try to arrange which players and how long they stay.  If they are having fun they will stay, or if they have to leave for some reason they will.
3. Keep things flowing, and don't get stuck on tricky points... just arbitrate and keep going, but make sure people don't disagree - if they do then breifly discuss and if the players have a good point, be flexible.
4. Have fun and enjoy yourself.

My idea was to stay relaxed and flexible and have fun.  It worked out great.  I'll do it again when I get a chance.

Quote from: VBWyrdeHi,
Ok I'm no veteran at this, having just run my first game at a con (NYC Big Apple Con), but here it goes:

1. Stay flexible and relax
2. Don't try to arrange which players and how long they stay.  If they are having fun they will stay, or if they have to leave for some reason they will.
3. Keep things flowing, and don't get stuck on tricky points... just arbitrate and keep going, but make sure people don't disagree - if they do then breifly discuss and if the players have a good point, be flexible.
4. Have fun and enjoy yourself.

My idea was to stay relaxed and flexible and have fun.  It worked out great.  I'll do it again when I get a chance.

Cool!
That's about what I figured to do. I have a very flexible set of adventure outlines meant to share the system with people new to the system...
I do need to spend more time preparing antagonists for one of the games.

Are you designing the scenario yourself? The most important element of con game design is the pre-gens. Making them interesting and playable goes a long way in getting the players involved. (This also goes a long way towards addressing your concern about player involvement. Give characters capabilities or roles that are useful in the campaign. Frex, if you have a scene with a social event, have some PCs with social skills. If you have a mystery, have some PCs with investigative skills, etc.)

Also, I've never run a slot longer than 4 hours. I'm used to games not finishing. To this end, I plan short, but add "optional scenes" that can be run if players make it through.

Here's some great notes I captured from old forum posts:
http://www.google.com/notebook/public/05459702402456288785/BDQQ4LAoQrbypzr8h#SDR03SwoQkaGmmdEh

A con game generally should be more structured than a standard session.  You are trying to complete a story arc and entertain each player at the table.  For the latter, Caesar Slaad's advice is excellent, but I'd take it even farther and suggest ensuring that each PC has unique skills and capabilities that will be needed at least once during the adventure.  This is a tricky art, because you don't want it to end up that if they don't use it the whole thing stalls or that it is so obvious.  Try and find ways that are organic to the adventure as you have designed it.

For structuring an adventure, I like to break it down into blocks and set a certain amount of time for each block.  For instance:

Intro and situation set up (1 hour):  here the PCs get to know each other and the scenario is presented to them.  Often there may be a smaller combat or conflict in this part so the players can test out their PCs skills and get warmed up for later action.  

Exploration/mystery solving (1.5 hours):  This is the bridge that takes the adventure to its climax.  Maybe more roleplaying goes on here or a few smaller skirmishes

Final fight (1.5 hours):  Pretty classic con design is to have the game end in a big battle.  Do it here.

That template is pretty standard, in my experience.  You can change it up however you would like.  The important point is to divide it up into chapters and have a sense of howw long they should be.  Then when you are playing and you see that you are an hour into the game and the first combat hasn't started yet, you can just skip it and move on to the next chapter.  This helps ensure that the con game experience for the players has a certain satisfying completeness.

Another idea as well (and this depends on how freeform you are going; con games tend to be a bit more railroady) is to have a lot of encounter components that can be easily removed or re-arranged and that the existence of one is not always dependent on the existence of another.  This gives you some flexibility to roll with the players actions and let them drive the game.

Most important thing is to be totally psyched.  You're the leader and the players are looking to follow your lead.  If you come fully armed for fun, they will sense that and get into it.

(bonus hint:  I often like to start my con games in medias res.  No meeting in a tavern or narrative explanations.  Just throw them in the soup and get them to react.)

Thanks guys! I knew I'd get good advice here! Much appreciated!

I'll give reports of how it went when the con is over.

>What basic/specific advice do you have for running games at cons?

1) This is not your home campaign.   There is no finishing next month or even continuing next week.   Your beginning / middle / end must occur in 4 hours.

2) Think 30 minute TV show, not 2 hour movie.  Con games are not the place for subplots or in-depth character development.  It's GO TIME for the main plot from the first minute to the last minute.

3) Advertise your event.  Nothing sucks like an empty table.   Make up flyers with some art and a cool blurb about your game with the day / time and tape them up at the con.  The best spot is close to wherever the players sign up for their games.


>I'm running four games this week (3 games of 4 hours, 1 game of 8 hours)

Hmm...be careful plotting that 8 hour event.  I hope it is something popular for your area because players often avoid the big time slot events.   Gotta do some good advertising for that one.


>Should I expect some players to quit halfway or in anyway disrupt the game flow?

Usually players have the decency not bail out midway and usually say, hey I've got another game at X hour.  But cons involve the public so assholes happen.  I would definitely ask the players in advance if anyone has any time conflicts, especially for that 8 hour game.


>Should I worry about mixing new gamers with seasoned gamers?

1) If you are running anything outside of D20 or AD&D, be ready to teach the rules.  Just because your home group and your favorite internet board are quite sure that everyone knows Game XYZ, you will be shocked how many people at the convention never even heard of the game.

2) And ALWAYS bring pregens.   If you have time, create a 1 sheet with everything the players need to know to play the game.  


>What is the best way to make sure every gamer is challenged within e range of their ability without designing separate groups/plot line/adventures?

Running con games is like cooking for a big group of strangers.   You make the best dinner you can, put out some salad, bread and a dessert and hope everyone enjoys the meal.   Most will eat it all and be pleasant and gracious.  Some will pick at their plates and eat more of what they like and less of the other stuff.  

And if you get some lactose intolerant militant vegan who bitches that your dinner doesn't cater to their exact desire, please just shoot them and do auguries with their entrails.  

Lotto numbers via asshat entrail augury!! Woot!


>do I even worry about game balance?

Do whatever it takes to make the game as fun as possible.   If that involves wild imbalance and off the cuff improving, then do it.   You can only commit one sin as a GM and that is being boring.

Quote from: Nihilistic MindCool!
That's about what I figured to do. I have a very flexible set of adventure outlines meant to share the system with people new to the system...
I do need to spend more time preparing antagonists for one of the games.

Good idea.  

Also you might want to read this: The spiral method of Gamesmastering...
http://www.roleplayingtips.com/readissue.php?number=397

While simple it is effective as a GMing technique.  Worth a read.

Best wishes!

Quote from: Caesar SlaadAre you designing the scenario yourself? The most important element of con game design is the pre-gens. Making them interesting and playable goes a long way in getting the players involved. (This also goes a long way towards addressing your concern about player involvement. Give characters capabilities or roles that are useful in the campaign. Frex, if you have a scene with a social event, have some PCs with social skills. If you have a mystery, have some PCs with investigative skills, etc.)

Also, I've never run a slot longer than 4 hours. I'm used to games not finishing. To this end, I plan short, but add "optional scenes" that can be run if players make it through.

Here's some great notes I captured from old forum posts:
http://www.google.com/notebook/public/05459702402456288785/BDQQ4LAoQrbypzr8h#SDR03SwoQkaGmmdEh

In reference to Pre-Gens here is what I did:

I created a group of six characters who are members of the Adventurer's Guild and already an Adventure Group named the Oakenwode Brigade.  These are the Characters (all human):

Eric Redford, Male Paladin, Level 1
Allen Galloway, Male Outlaw (Thief-Fighter), Level 1
Carmen Whitestone, Male Fighter, Level 1
Delilah Galloway, Female Witch (Fighter-SpellChanter), Level 1
Ellen McFearson, Female Warrior-Mage (Fighter-SpellChanter-Cleric), Level 2
Bernard Oakenwode, Male Fighter, Level 1

Notice the evocative names.  That was enough for background, actually as the players used the names to fill in the blanks for themselves.  Background was discussed but only in reference to the town, and that was brief:  A tiny pioneer farming village named Lentilsville on the edge of the wilderness.  They've been having mysterious troubles with strange creatures doing odd things lately, and so an outpost of the Adventurer's Guild was formed and one group initiated - the Oakenwode Brigade.  I let them pick the characters they wanted to play, and so the split the party into two groups of three (I had two players).

Their first mission:  To help farmer Jones protect his "unblemished" Black Ox from an old hag who came to buy it for a bag of sticks, stones and crushed up leaves (it was in fact a fair deal as the bag's contents were all magical, but Jones didn't know that).  As she left the old woman cursed him and marked (black crescent moon on the left horn) his Black Ox, and this worried him.   So he went to his nephew (sister's son), the young Paladin Eric, and asked if he and his group would guard the Ox for a week.   They agreed and we launched off into the adventure.

The adventure entailed three parts:

1.  3 kobolds came to steal the Ox at midnight, and used a shrinking spell to vanish into the grass with it.   Amber, an NPC, who happened to hear the commotion and knew what happened, came to their aid and agreed to shrink the party down to ant-size so they could track the kobolds with the Ox.   They followed them through the grass forest to an Ant-Hill and had a battle there where they killed one kobold, let one escape, and captured the one with the Ox.   They returned to normal size with the Ox and their Captive and went to farmer Jones.   1 hour.

2.  They interrogated the kobold captive and made him spill his guts on the location of the witch.   He agreed (with little choice) to take them to the hut, but could not remember the way at his current size as he had few landmarks he could recognize.  However he could only shrink one person.  The party chose Ellen.   She was shrunk with the kobold down to ant-size and they took a tiny leaf-boat down stream to a rock.  They climbed a tiny stairway to the top where they found a moss maze with hovering mosquitoes, worms, and pill bugs.  They came to a pillar-stem on which was created a spiral stairway going up to the top of a dandelion where they took one seed puff each and parachuted the rest of the way across the stream to the other shore.   There they found a group of dragonflies tethered to a rock by spider web ropes and rode them into the forest for a far distance till they came to the witches hut.   Ellen reconned a bit and then decided to head back to her friends to report.  She erred in growing to her full size at that point instead of flying back via the dragonfly to the stream, and accidentally alerted the dog who started barking and woke the witch.   Ellen, who has a flying spell, cast the spell and flew away, but the witch persuaded on her broom, and was a tad bit faster (being a two levels above Ellen).   Ellen was captured by being polymorphed mid-flight (witch has a wand of polymorph) into a small white mouse, just before she was able to make it across the sream to he waiting friends on the other shore.  The witch, with Ellen-Mouse in hand, went her friends and engaged in a negotiation with them for the Ox.  1 hour.

3.  The witch agreed to give them Ellen in exchange for the Ox, if the witch would agree to replace the Black Ox with another one of equal value to Farmer Jones.   The witch agreed and with a wicked cackle flew away with Ellen back to her hut, the whereabouts of which the party still did not know.   Amber again helped them by following the spoor of the witch's flight and gave them magic ointment of silent walking for their shoes.   They went to rescue Ellen, and arrived at the hut.  Two went in, three remained outside.  Inside they tried to pilfer Ellen-Mouse from the sleeping witch's bony hands, but fumbled and woke the witch who put them into a Sleep.  Meanwhile outside the party distracted the dog, who attacked them after eating a magical bone from his collar-pouch which polymorphed him into a savage dog-beast with steel teeth and leather fur.   They managed to defeat the dog, and rushed the house, ran up the stairs to the bedroom in the nick of time, and in a blaze of good luck scored a critical hit on the witch with maximum damage and chopped her head off just before the witch's black cat could pounce on Ellen-Mouse.   All the spells were broken and the party rescued Ellen and saved the day.   Farmer Jones was well pleased and Amber received a magical mirror that the party took from the hut for her.  1 hour.

And so concluded the first adventure of the Oakenwode Brigade.

Note:  At several points in the adventure I improvised, and made extensive use of the Spiral Method.

It was a lot of fun.

Mark

A constrained environment, like a space ship, or even a dungeon, can provide a place for the players to really run amuck. Plan the place as a place, not a set of plot points, that'll be a railroad and trip you up when they figure out a way to short circuit it, and they will.

If you can, give each pregen a little secret, nothing elaborate if it isn't central to the game, but something they can ping off of. A short sentence should do it. The players will make up the details.

Put the rulebooks away. Seriously. Most players will go along with your winging of things if your fair, cause they wont want to wait while you go through the book, every bit as much as you wont like it.

When the players get stuck you can interrupt them. Have the bad guys stumble upon them. Have some disaster or malfunction take place. The D&D game day adventure had a great idea for when players couldn't figure out the first secret door, have one of the bad guys stupidly open it from the other side.

Edit: almost forgot. Include a statement up front that your running a sandbox and the players can and should go off the rails. I had a player tell me one time that he kept waiting for me to prompt him for what to do next until he figured out that I wasn't about to. He was waiting for the rails to take him places. When he just decided to to play and explore, he had a blast.

Things went extremely well and I'll soon post a full report on my experience at Phoenix Con Games.

I only used Pre-gens in one of the games, and even there, I left some points for the character to spend and items to generate.

I also got to play John Wick's new game 'House of the Blooded' (housesoftheblooded.com has a preview) and had a blast.

Like I said, report to come soon.

Quote from: Spinachcat ;2152511) If you are running anything outside of D20 or AD&D, be ready to teach the rules.  Just because your home group and your favorite internet board are quite sure that everyone knows Game XYZ, you will be shocked how many people at the convention never even heard of the game.

2) And ALWAYS bring pregens.   If you have time, create a 1 sheet with everything the players need to know to play the game.

I see that Nihilistic Mind has already run his/her events, but on a general note, I feel GMs should try to make the character sheets easy to read, and/or (ideally 'and') spend at least a few minutes explaining how to read them.  I've played some fairly obscure systems at cons, and it often feels like a lot of time is wasted while players flip back and forth between multiple sheets, trying to figure out where a given stat is hidden, which is frustrating when time is so short.

http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=10918

Here you go!
Next time, I'm planning on running more playtests, since there seems to have been a lot of attendees looking for new and original games to play!