What are the odds of getting a good GM at Gencon?

[Rugger]

We lucked out (for the most part) this year...3 DM's and all were decent.

BUT, what I really want to know, is why people with NO personality, no rules knowledge, and missing the correct muscles needed to smile, even bother to DM.

I've sat a numerous tables where the DM acts like it is a CHORE to run a game...no roleplaying, no emotions, lotsa deep sighs when we try to liven things up...

Why?

It's those folks, though, that are becoming my motivating factor in deciding to DM at Cons. I really don't want others to suffer with cardboard DM's...

-Rugger
"I Lurk!"

 

[Drew]

It's those folks, though, that are becoming my motivating factor in deciding to DM at Cons. I really don't want others to suffer with cardboard DM's...

-Rugger

I totally agree. I would love to run some D&D sessions at a convention. The trouble is, there really isn't a lot going on in my neck of the woods, and I don't have the means to travel a lot. I only attend Gen Con every other year. I'd like to start some stuff on my own, but the damned RPGA is so disorginized that I don't know where to begin.

 

[Leopold]

As a DM for such a large group (8-10 players) the key here with this is to make sure the PC's are having fun, enjoying themselves, and moving along the path. Knowing the rules is all well and good, but sometimes you just have to shake your head and smile and just go with the flow.

Key to DM at the con with random people is to just have fun and hope they are enjoying themselves, if not, quit DMing.


That's another reason I won't GM at the RPGA, i hate being railroaded into an awful module that I don't like and can't improve on...bleh.

 

[Rickg]

I was at about 50/50.

The intro to Cthulhu game that I played on Thursday Night was a blast. Had a hard time finding the table but the DM was great, the scenario was fun and the people at the table were all involved and really getting into it. I don't remember the DMs name but if you read this, thank you for a great game.

I tried to catch various Deadlands and DnD games over the next couple of days but there were no DMs at the listed tables at the listed times. This was very frustrating. I'm not sure if this is normal.

I did manage to catch a Champions game that started out fun and then dragged. The DM should have given us a few clues to move things along. It would be fine to make a huge mystery out of the campaign in a home game but we only had a few hours.

My plan for 2003 is to check out the RPGA games. They always had full tables at the Arena.

 

[Lurch]

Here are my recent GenCon experiances:

On a related note, the D&D Open was a terrible adventure! Part two involved us fighting our way through regular zombies (we were a party of 8 9th-11th level characters) and regular skeletons (there were something like 40 of them). A large part of the adventure was spent in a large empty mansion. It was designed to suck up game time (since the open rounds are timed) until we figured to leave the stupid place across a graveyard.

It was the most boring thing I've done in D&D. The DM was mapping out all these long, empty corridors that lead to empty rooms and meaningless staircases. Then we fought skeletons. I was nearly asleep!

I was a DM in the Open this year (my first time judging the event), and I must agree that it was not a terribly well-written adventure, particularly the semi-final, which amounted to little more than a linear hack-n-slash gauntlet with a couple of non-combat tidbits thrown in for variety's sake. I found the pointless mapping tedious as well, and in retrospect I should've skipped it entirely until it became relevant to do so. The judges were further hampered by being required to stick to scripted actions to give all the players equal footing; if it had been up to me, I'd have handled things a LOT differently.

Nevertheless, I must once more congratulate the teams I judged for; you guys really showed great teamwork & tactics, and your spell combos really had me on the ropes fair & square (although I did make one serious rules error to my detriment). Be warned, though -- I may not be so easy to thwart next time...

 

[King_Stannis]

the only convention game i've played in was run by scott aniolowski, who has written a bunch of stuff for call of cthulu. needless to say, he did a cracker-jack job.

however, one of the players was a 14 year old kid who cheated his ass off. he would "roll" his D6 about 6 millimeters off of the table and, wouldn't you know it, it always gave him a 6! plus he was kind of rude, talking when the DM was talking, etc. Scott did a good job, in that he just marginalized that kid's character. the rest of us just kind of ignored him. oh, another player was one of those "I'M TALKING IN CHARACTER AND I'M DOING IT AS LOUD AS I CAN SO EVERYONE CAN HEAR ME AND MARVEL AT MY ABILITES" players. i was disappointed that everyone took the bait and voted for him as best player, and he got a nice CoC supplement for free.

 

[DynaMup]

Okay, well, I'm about to go DM'ing in my first convention (Gen Con UK - look out for me if you're there!), and I'm very nervous. The last thing I want to have happen is for people to have a bad time, and for me to go down as a bad DM. Reading some of your stories on here makes for grim reading!

Any advice someone wants to give me?

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Okay, well, I'm about to go DM'ing in my first convention (Gen Con UK - look out for me if you're there!), and I'm very nervous. The last thing I want to have happen is for people to have a bad time, and for me to go down as a bad DM. Reading some of your stories on here makes for grim reading!

Any advice someone wants to give me?

Try to help the players have fun. (Some, you just can't help--they won't have fun no matter what.) But most want to have fun. If you meet them halfway, you'll all have a great time.

Don't get bogged down in rules. If you trust the players, go with their interpretations. If you don't (you're sure you're right), have them look it up while the game continues.

If you make a mistake, admit it, fix it, and move on. If it's too late to fix it, just move on.

Reward creativity. Two recent examples I know of....

(1) Party is in the frozen north. Two PCs die. No cleric around with "Gentle Repose" so the party sticks the dead PCs in a snowbank to preserve them until they can get raised. DM said o.k.--rewarding their creativity in face of adversity.

(2) Party is in the lands of Iuz (spit!). Two dead PCs. One PC is a druid with cursed "Pox mask" (made of dead elf skin) on his face, which causes nasty pustules and boils on his skin, not to mention the horrifying stench. He also carries a boon of Iuz (spit!) with him. He marches to the local temple of Iuz (spit!) and demands that the cleric raise his two minions, because he's on a special task for the evil one himself and needs these helpers. The temple cleric is hesitant, but then spots the boon of Iuz (spit!) and demands it in payment. The PC refuses to part with it (because it means so much to him--ha!), and eventually the cleric agrees to raise the two PCs--but at about double the cost, since the druid wouldn't give up the boon. Totally outside the module, really shoud never have happened, but the judge let it occur. It was a great role-playing encounter and the judge rewarded the creativity by letting the druid get away with it (at a hefty penalty in g.p.).

 

[Piratecat]

oh, another player was one of those "I'M TALKING IN CHARACTER AND I'M DOING IT AS LOUD AS I CAN SO EVERYONE CAN HEAR ME AND MARVEL AT MY ABILITES" players.

Ohhhh, man! I try not to be that sort of attention hog, but if we ever have the chance to game together, you're gonna want to punch me in the nose.

 

[King_Stannis]

Ohhhh, man! I try not to be that sort of attention hog, but if we ever have the chance to game together, you're gonna want to punch me in the nose.

PC, how could you?