Do you play RPGs at conventions?

[cdrcjsn]

Do you play RPGs at conventions? What types of games do you play and why?

The reason I ask is that I play a lot of WotC RPGA Living Campaigns. It's a good alternate to home games for those with busy schedules. I can play one character and go anywhere in the world and find a table relatively easily.

I'm aware that there are tons of people who play independent games and one-offs at conventions. After talking to a player at one of these, she informed me that she prefers one-offs to any sort of organized gaming (including that of home games).

I thought this was rather strange, since advancement is a large part of what attracts me to RPGs in general.

How common is this attitude?

 

[maddman75]

Well, I don't know about only one-offs, but my group seems to like short runs so we can play lots of different games. Most of the games I play aren't really about the hero's journey, so advancement is much less than in D&D. I'd rather play a short term gritty survival game, another short term exploration game, and a third short term superheroic game than play a long term D&D game.

Only playing one-offs I suppose would free you from the scheduling trauma that is trying to keep a game group going.

 

[coyote6]

Do you play RPGs at conventions?

Yes.

What types of games do you play and why?

I mostly play games I don't get to play at home, especially as a player (since I almost entirely GM nowadays, that's pretty close to any game ), and also games I'd like to try before maybe buying. So, for example, next time I go to a con, I'll probably be looking for a CthulhuTech game, because the game sounds interesting, but I want to see how the system plays.

There are also games that I don't regularly play at home (mostly because my group(s) haven't been interested in playing 'em) but often play at cons, because they're just fun -- Buffy, Savage Worlds, & Spirit of the Century, for examples.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I play RPGs at conventions. Since I gave up DDM (and before that, Magic), playing RPGs is primarily what I do at conventions. (I also GM, wander around looking at stuff, and occasionally play games like BattleTech.)

Typically, I play games that I really like, but don't get a chance to play at home. This past GenCon, for instance, I played Buffy, Shadowrun, and Mutants & Masterminds.

I prefer one-shots with pre-gen PCs. I don't like playing in BYOC games because either a lot of time is wasted while the GM audits the PCs, or some of the PCs have abilities given them by players with, uh, a loose interpretation of the rules. I don't like Living games because every time I've tried it, the players have been monumental douchebags far more interested in getting phat lewt and XP for their PCs than in roleplaying and having a cool adventure. (Once, BTW, one of these players was someone very high up in the RPGA, and he was by far the worst offender.)

 

[karlindel]

Although I haven't been to a convention since I moved, I played a lot of rpg games at conventions. I usually played some RPGA games (as I agree that having a character and advancing that character is fun). I also played several one shot games (I agree that pre-gens are the way to go), to try out new games or to play old favorites that I don't get to play often.

I tihnk a better question, given the story, might be: Do you prefer one shot games or campaigns?

I personally prefer campaigns, as one shot games rarely have much depth to them. Although they can be fun once in awhile, I really prefer to have more time to get into a character, and to tell that character's story. Short campaigns that last only 4-6 sessions have worked out well in the past for me, and I sometimes think I prefer those to long term campaigns, as long campaigns can seem to drag on, and there are constantly shiny new games calling out to me to play them and old favorites asking why I don't love them anymore.

 

[Crothian]

Origins is the convention I play games out. Mostly I play CoC and Delta Green games though I try to find some lesser known ones that sound interesting. I stay away from the organized play games.

 

[kitsune9]

Do you play RPGs at conventions? What types of games do you play and why?

I can only say that my convention philosophy is to play any other game other than D&D. It's not that I don't like D&D, but it's the game that I play in my home campaign all the time and my players are strictly a "it's D&D only" group.

So, when I use to go to cons, I try to play everything else.

For the most part, there were some great games, some okay ones, and some games that made me want to pull my hair out (usually because of poor GM organization or lack thereof).

I did play a lot of RPGA, but I avoided it at the "big" cons because I could do game days at a friends' house or there were a couple of minicons that used to be ran here in the SF Bay Area that would completely dedicated to metaregional or core mods. I would do that to get my RPGA fix.

Overall, I would encourage people to game and play with anything they haven't done before. If you all you do is play D&D, try a Call of Cthulu game or a Herosystem game. If all you do is fantasy, play in a Western game and have a shoot out. The world is yours for three to four days, make the most of it!

Happy Gaming!

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Not just "no", but "hell no".

I don't enjoy playing with people I don't know, and I don't see the point of taking a group of friends to game at a convention when we could game on our own time for free.

 

[kennew142]

I play RPGA living games at conventions because my daughter and I can play together, and because I can play with people who aren't part of my regular gaming group.

 

[Stormonu]

I'll play just about anything at a Con but an RPGA game. I've tried RPGA on three different occasions ('92, '02 and '07), and I have no love for it. I got off to a bad start with the 1st RPGA game being about some sort of (very lame) turkey drive (with premade characters and a DM who had no prep time). In the 2nd game, the entire story took place in a section of cave-in and half the players were buddies who were in-fighting against one another for some reason (or not paying attention). In the last one, most of the group was over 7th level (me and one other person was 1st), and the entire adventure didn't seem to account for non-standard classes very well - between my druid, the ranger and the bard, we beat the adventure easily with only one fight - at the very climax of the adventure (and it was the 1st level wizard that cinched that fight with a sling bullet vs. an invisible bugbear). In each case, it was the actions of my fellow players - and their overall attitudes - in each of these games that just bugged me more than anything else.


I much prefer one-off games, and I've found I generally have more fun with systems I'm not too familiar with - but have some knowledge of. These games seem to come off more relaxed and social, where the RPGA games seemed to have a "get on board and do things right" or "gather-power" driven attitude. Not to mention they felt rushed.