A "Convention" in my house

Warpiglet · Mar 1, 2019

Dear ENWorlders, I could sure use some advice!

I play D&D with friends of many years...decades. We are older now with careers, spouses and kids. And as it is, life gives and takes away. I decided we would do something big and silly. We decided to have a multiday convention in my house.

How out of control is it? One friend bought me a 3D printer! We are making things with foam and are talking about TABLES full of 3D dungeons. I have a nice recessed gaming table that will be full from rail to rail with walls and minis, altars, sconces and doorways.

I am working a little every day to make it great. My spouse offered to make badges and t-shirts. Things are getting silly.

The problem? I am not sure how to accommodate 10-12 players! I was going to be DM and treat everyone to fun but we started counting and do not want to leave anyone out!

I have had wild ideas about multiple DMs running at the same time...trading duties after milestones...and so forth.

We could have smaller teams play for 4 hour blocks and the other do video gaming or boardgaming...but I really do want some group fun.

I also thought of having two plots come together with a final battle confrontation where we all play together....

I think I have bitten off more than I can chew. So I ask you smart folks...how can I accommodate so many?

cmad1977 · Mar 1, 2019

I would do multiple tables. 2-3 tables of 4-6 for a few hours at a time. Play multiple different games so that there’s less burnout.

pogre · Mar 1, 2019

This is going to sound counter-intuitive, but invite more people and make it bigger. Set-up convention style slots and have people run multiple games at the same time. I do it, I have a couple of good friends who do it, and I will say from our experience 10-12 is the absolute worst numbers range. It is really too many for one big table, and too few to get multiple gaming going typically.

Keep shooting for big. I have never regretted the extravaganzas I have thrown over the years. They were the source of many of our best gaming memories. Just leave yourself a day to sleep and recover

aco175 · Mar 1, 2019

This sounds awesome, wish my wife would join in the fun, but I ruined her when I 'made' her watch Monty Python and she lost 2 hours of her life for that stupid thing.

I was a a convention recently and they suggested playing a Adventures League Epic event. The way it was described is that multiple tables play the same event and all work to the same goal. One table can unlock bonuses for other table by completing parts of their module. They made it sound like low-level parties can quest along high-level parties and that the lower parties are mostly helping the high-level groups get the BBEG.

I did not lay it, but played in another great event where the first 4 hours was a standard adventure where the 3 groups played in the same dungeon to gain treasure and try to be the first to complete it. The next 4 hours involved a giant arena where each team fought the others and tried to get magical apples that appeared in the middle tree. During each part teams could spend cash for a charity to throw problems like monsters and traps at the other parties or buy things like healings and such. The cast you found in the first part was used to get magic and advantages in the 2nd part to it did matter if you started the arena with a potion of giant strength or scroll of haste or magical armor.

It was fun, but took a long time to battle in the arena with 20 people. I think each PC only had 6-7 rounds over the 4 hours. Either way, I'm jealous and hope you post how it went.

Oofta · Mar 1, 2019

A couple of things. First, you need to treat this like a convention. That means multiple tables, multiple DMs, etc. You're going to need sign-up sheets, etc.

Next, like [MENTION=27385]aco175[/MENTION] I'd run it as an epic, or what we used to call an interactive. There are a lot of different ways of doing it, but the most fun ones I've had were when the different groups were all assigned to different tasks based on their level and capability.

So for example, several years ago I was at an event with a fairly low level group. The castle was being invaded by low level mooks and by big bads. Think cannon fodder giving cover for the dragon. So while the high level group was fighting the dragon (and a couple of purple worms if IIRC), we were in charge of defending the gate house.

At various points the "king" would make an announcement to the whole group, rousing if slightly cheesy melodramatic stuff. After the interludes we'd go off to our different corners and do our thing. Things got interesting at a certain point when we were being over-run and looking at a TPK for our group. But just in the nick of time the high level group came over and saved our bacon. It was pretty awesome.

So the mechanics were fairly simple: interludes where everyone gathers together in non-combat situations. While each group has their own set of encounters, there are always options to "help" other tables. In my example the high level PCs had a chance to look around, grabbed their character sheets and came over to help us out before literally flying off to help another group. In another case, a low level group was able to help a high level group by causing a temporary distraction.

If you want to get picky about timing, you can give each table a counter to keep track of combat rounds and delay help until the rounds sync up, but I don't think that's necessary.

So that's my 2 copper. Good luck and have fun!

Warpiglet · Mar 1, 2019

Oofta said:
A couple of things. First, you need to treat this like a convention. That means multiple tables, multiple DMs, etc. You're going to need sign-up sheets, etc.

Next, like [MENTION=27385]aco175[/MENTION] I'd run it as an epic, or what we used to call an interactive. There are a lot of different ways of doing it, but the most fun ones I've had were when the different groups were all assigned to different tasks based on their level and capability.

So for example, several years ago I was at an event with a fairly low level group. The castle was being invaded by low level mooks and by big bads. Think cannon fodder giving cover for the dragon. So while the high level group was fighting the dragon (and a couple of purple worms if IIRC), we were in charge of defending the gate house.

At various points the "king" would make an announcement to the whole group, rousing if slightly cheesy melodramatic stuff. After the interludes we'd go off to our different corners and do our thing. Things got interesting at a certain point when we were being over-run and looking at a TPK for our group. But just in the nick of time the high level group came over and saved our bacon. It was pretty awesome.

So the mechanics were fairly simple: interludes where everyone gathers together in non-combat situations. While each group has their own set of encounters, there are always options to "help" other tables. In my example the high level PCs had a chance to look around, grabbed their character sheets and came over to help us out before literally flying off to help another group. In another case, a low level group was able to help a high level group by causing a temporary distraction.

If you want to get picky about timing, you can give each table a counter to keep track of combat rounds and delay help until the rounds sync up, but I don't think that's necessary.

So that's my 2 copper. Good luck and have fun!

I think this is a great way to go! And as a group we could all roleplay and discuss the shared stories before going back out and doing our respective tasks!

Brilliant! I guess I better get to writing a good story....

A "Convention" in my house

Warpiglet

Adventurer

cmad1977

Hero

pogre

Legend

aco175

Legend

Oofta

Legend

Warpiglet

Adventurer

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