A Modest (Convention) Proposal

You know the scene, you and about 4 or 5 other people are ready to start a convention game, with prizes at stake. You're on time. The GM is half an hour late, hasn't even read the adventure, on top of which, he's game green to the max. (I.E. is barely past the introduction and doesn't even know the mechanics.) Besides which, the con organizers themselves just got the adventure, so they have no idea what's going on.

Annoying, isn't it? So here's my proposal. Please note that the following are for official RPG events at a con.

1. The deadline for volunteer GMs at any convention is one week prior to the convention itself. No volunteer GMs shall be accepted after the deadline.

2. All scenarios will be ready one month prior to the convention. This way they can be vetted and ready for the volunteer GMs.

3. All scenarios will be provided to the volunteer GMs at least 3 days before the convention.

4. All volunteer GMs shall be ready at least one hour prior to the official start of their event.

5. All volunteer GMs shall know the adventure, and shall be tested on said adventure before they will be allowed to run it. The testing to be done prior to the start of the convention. Those who fail the test will forfeit their membership

6. Any volunteer GM who is not ready to run the adventure shall forfeit his membership, and shall be fiscally responsible for any days he attended for free. Or, he shall forfeit any refund that may be due he for volunteering.

7. Anyone who fails to live up to their obligations regarding running an official scenario at a con shall be placed on probation. He shall remain on probation for two official events. Should he live up to his obligations for those two events, then probation shall end. If he fails to live up to his obligations for even one event, he shall be barred from running an official event at that convention.

8. A database of bad GMs is to be established and made available to other event organizers. That way people can know who is on probation with, or barred from GMing at a convention.

Obviously, this is tentative and preliminary. It is intended to be a springboard for courteous discussion.

Yes, it means no more volunteering to GM at the door. Yes, it means taking time out of a busy schedule to learn the adventure. Yes, it means taking time out of a busy schedule to write the adventure. Yes, it means setting up a data base, which can be a royal pain since most database software is written by idiots who think only software engineers use computers.

Yes, it means a big change in how things are done. But, in the long run it will mean better official events at conventions.

Until the changes go through keep this advice in mind.

For Convention Organizers

1. Have volunteer GMs lined up at least a week before the con starts.

2. Have the scenarios ready before the con so your volunteer GMs can learn them before the start of the event. Ready meaning ready to run, at least three days or more before the convention.

3. Establish a firm policy concerning volunteer GMs who are unprepared or late for, or decide they don't feel like runing the scenario anyway. Ouster from the convention in such cases sends the strongest message.

For the Volunteer GMs

1. Know the material. Know it well enough to be able to run the adventure even though your dog ate it.

2. Be ready to run the event, even when your favorite author/game designer/booth babe/long anticipated supplement is signing authographs/demonstrating a new game/going topless/about to sellout and will only be available for the next hour. You make a commitment, you live up to it.

Harsh? Yep. Will it get some people upset? Some people deserve to be upset.

I know San Diego has a lot of blue sky, but this is really unrealistic. The exigencies of running a convention means that most of these guidelines are simply not viable. Worse, they'll keep away judges - and with no judges, you have no games, which means your convention fails. In particular, number 4-7 are problematic.

Interesting ideas, though. You may be able to get away with a few of them if you actually paid your judges.

If a full time nationwide convention game company (RPGA) can't guarantee consistent, good judges, there's no way convention organizers can hope to do so.

When I was in college, the campus game club used to put on at least one con per year. I never organized the thing, but I did do (non-GMing) volunteer work and have a couple of friendly comments to make:

1. None of the con organizers I knew ever wanted to do stuff at the last minute. Unfortunatly, stuff happens. Modules get lost in the mail. People don't show up when they promised to and things like that. They're not _trying_ to make anyone have a bad time. It just turns out that way. Yes, sometimes problems are their fault. That happens too, but it leads into my other comment.

2. I know Gencon, Origins and maybe a couple others are professionally run cons, but most cons are put together and run by volunteers. They take on a LOT of responsibility and work for months to put these things together and get little, if any, compensation for their work. Even the GMs are volunteers and aren't getting paid. The guys who volunteer at the last minute are offering to give up their plans to help out someone who probably just found out someone who had promised to be there wasn't coming (which happens a LOT). They're not getting paid either. Con organizers/GMs get free admission and that's about it.

I know it sounds like I'm making excuses for people, but that's not where I'm heading. I believe people ought to live up to their obligations. However, the fact is that most of the people doing this are volunteers who aren't getting more than a few bucks compensation (and then only in the form of free admission) and the satisfaction of organizing a fun weekend for a bunch of fellow gamers. If you start imposing a bunch of obligations and penalties on these people then volunteers are going to dry up. The hassle and potential risks are going to outweigh the benefits and they'll just not volunteer. That's bad because, as anyone who has organized one of these things will tell you, volunteers are hard enough to come by as it is.

Again, no hostility or anything like that. I'm just making an observation.

Piratecat said:

I know San Diego has a lot of blue sky, but this is really unrealistic. The exigencies of running a convention means that most of these guidelines are simply not viable. Worse, they'll keep away judges - and with no judges, you have no games, which means your convention fails. In particular, number 4-7 are problematic.

Interesting ideas, though. You may be able to get away with a few of them if you actually paid your judges.

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Ever consider the possibility you might draw more judges to your event? More responsible, able people than before? Expect professionalism from your people and they tend to be more professional.

BTW, they do get in free, don't they?

d20Dwarf said:

If a full time nationwide convention game company (RPGA) can't guarantee consistent, good judges, there's no way convention organizers can hope to do so.

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The RPGA has more problems than slacker judges. For that matter, I don't think they actually use anything such as I've proposed.

I thought you were going to talk about eating babies at a convention.

MaxKaladin said:

When I was in college, the campus game club used to put on at least one con per year. I never organized the thing, but I did do (non-GMing) volunteer work and have a couple of friendly comments to make:

1. None of the con organizers I knew ever wanted to do stuff at the last minute. Unfortunatly, stuff happens. Modules get lost in the mail. People don't show up when they promised to and things like that. They're not _trying_ to make anyone have a bad time. It just turns out that way. Yes, sometimes problems are their fault. That happens too, but it leads into my other comment.

Click to expand...

If the scenario and/or the judges aren't ready, cancel the event. When an event is canceled, the players who signed up for said event get either a one day refund for that convention, or one day free at next year's event. At the post con wrap-up meeting be sure to mention everybody who cost you money. Among them, judges and scenario writers who were lax in their duties.

One additional bit of advice: Never trust anything important to the U.S. mail. Schedule a pre con meeting where the scenarios are handed out. Anybody who doesn't show up for that meeting gets taken off the list of volunteers and forfeits his membership.

2. I know Gencon, Origins and maybe a couple others are professionally run cons, but most cons are put together and run by volunteers. They take on a LOT of responsibility and work for months to put these things together and get little, if any, compensation for their work. Even the GMs are volunteers and aren't getting paid. The guys who volunteer at the last minute are offering to give up their plans to help out someone who probably just found out someone who had promised to be there wasn't coming (which happens a LOT). They're not getting paid either. Con organizers/GMs get free admission and that's about it.

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Running an RPG session is too important to be left to last minute volunteers. An adventure is not something you can run well with only an hour or so to learn it. It takes time. Time to study the scenario, time to make it come alive. Frankly, somebody who's not responsible enough to plan ahead is not responsible enough to run a good game.

Besides, there's always something else a volunteer can do at a convention. Conventions always need volunteers for something or other, that doesn't involve anything as important as running a game.

I know it sounds like I'm making excuses for people, but that's not where I'm heading. I believe people ought to live up to their obligations. However, the fact is that most of the people doing this are volunteers who aren't getting more than a few bucks compensation (and then only in the form of free admission) and the satisfaction of organizing a fun weekend for a bunch of fellow gamers. If you start imposing a bunch of obligations and penalties on these people then volunteers are going to dry up. The hassle and potential risks are going to outweigh the benefits and they'll just not volunteer. That's bad because, as anyone who has organized one of these things will tell you, volunteers are hard enough to come by as it is.

Again, no hostility or anything like that. I'm just making an observation.

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None taken. I do agree about the importance of volunteers. Helpers are useful in most any area, and conventions for the most part don't have enough.

But, running a game is one area where you want things ready for the players long before they meet at the table/room/cubicle/restaurant booth/hotel room/picnic table/local saloon/wherever for the game.

You want the players to have a good time. You want them to go home and tell other people how great the GMs were at WhateverCon. You want more people to show up at WhateverCon to fill up more room nights, buy more stuff at Huxter Hall, and patronize the local establishments. Judges and scenario writers who take their jobs seriously and do what it takes to present good adventures can be a big help there.

Folks, if you're not willing to take volunteering seriously, don't volunteer at all. As a volunteer you represent the convention, you can make it or break it for many of the people attending.

ShadowX said:

I thought you were going to talk about eating babies at a convention.

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If you're going to the San Diego Comic-Con the Ralphs up the street has baby-back ribs at the service deli.

(If you're kosher, they are pork. But the store does carry kosher items in a special section.)

mythusmage said:

Folks, if you're not willing to take volunteering seriously, don't volunteer at all. As a volunteer you represent the convention, you can make it or break it for many of the people attending.

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Alan, you're dreaming here, my friend. I take volunteering extremely seriously - I just counted, and I've done so at 45 conventions in the last dozen years - but some of your proposals are simply unworkable.

I think it's important to remember that the volunteer is doing you a favor by running events at your con. Treating them like a slave, an employee or an object of ridicule ("these are the people who cost me money") is going to leave you with a distinct lack of volunteers; I would stay away from such a person, and urge all my friends who judge to do the same. I certainly agree that it's important for judges to be prepared and professional, but there are much easier ways to do so without such a heavy-handed approach.

For instance, the best thing an organizer can do is have more judges than needed. This accounts for folks who have to cancel, provides flexibility, and makes sure that everyone who wants to play can do so. In my experience of 50+ cons, problems are usually traced to poor organization on the part of the con staff, not the part of the judges.

But this is a modest proposal, right? So maybe we can EAT the no-show judges....

I'm curious. What prompted this?