Are All Demo/Con games like this?

Rechan

Adventurer
I've only been to two cons where I gamed. I've also played in several Game Day events. All of it has been D&D. 3e and 4e.

And all of it has made me want to tear my hair out.

The adventurers are very, very, very dry. Just 'here's some monsters, hack at them'. The DMs, nor the adventures, encourage any sort of roleplaying - which is why I thought people went to Cons to play. My hands feel tied; unless I do exactly what the little booklet says I should do, then the DM just doesn't seem interested in it. I tried to get into character and felt like a sore thumb.

Then you have players who are very, very slow to understand the rules. The "I wait all round, and then on my turn I perouse my options and try to discern them." For someone who knows the rules, and just comes to play, this is disconcerting.

Every single time I have done it, with the exception of one, someone at the table has really gotten under my skin. Either a bad DM, or a player. The most recent example was Yesterday at D&D Day; there was a full fledged mentally challenged person at the table. Not incapable of understanding, but utterly unable to verbally contain himself.

Is this just what I should expect at Con/Event games? If so, where is the draw/what is the benefit here?

Am I simply having a run of bad luck?

Or am I just too negative and should button my trap?
 

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No, they are not all like that. I don't even have to read what you wrote to know that. Con games depend on the game being run, the GM, and the players. Heck, even the place it is being run at can have an effect on how the game is. I've had great con games and lousy ones, I've seen good players and bad, good GMs and bad. Every game is a least a little different.

That being said I for the most part do not play D&D games at cons. There are other games I don't play, but this being a D&D message board I'm using it as my example. As we see from different threads there are different play style of the game and usually what I enjoy most about D&D is not something I see at con games. I'm sure there have been and will be D&D games I'd like but after ten years of looking and finding frustration in those games it is not worth my convention time especially for a game I am usually playing weekly.
 

Yup, you had bad luck. The last con I went to (Anonycon, in Stamford CT) was superb. I ran two MnM games, both of them really fun, and played in two D&D games and a Call of Cthulhu. I had a blast in each of them. The DMs allowed for player plot-bending and there was a ton of roleplaying.
 

Just last night at ConQuest in Sacramento, I ran a game that lasted until about 5 a.m. this morning. It was a 4e game that included two guys who hadn't played 4e and two guys who hadn't played more than a few sessions of it (one of whom was pretty "meh" about it at the start).

We had a blast- it was a good enough time that we kept playing all night and were the last ones in the Open Gaming room this morning. There was tons of good roleplaying, some problem solving, and three good combats. We had a really good time, and the fun flowed pretty freely.

Dry? Just combat? Heck no! Not my con games! :D

The pcs were 15th level heroes returning to their original home town, Dilfong, where they found that the mayor had been turned into a pig. They had to puzzle out who did it- a local prankster faerie dragon named Smiley- and track him down into the Feywild, dealing with a marauding party of salamanders on the way. When they reached Smiley's cottage, they found that he had been kidnapped by enemies, which led the chase into the heart of a volcano where they were trying to awaken a beast at its heart- and then keep it pacified and under their control using Smiley's euphoria gas breath weapon.

It was a blast. :)
 

The DMs, nor the adventures, encourage any sort of roleplaying - which is why I thought people went to Cons to play.

Well, let's be clear about something - people play at cons for the same basic reasons people play in general. Some are just for the tactical game, some are to pass the time, and others are for playing a role.

I'd not say that you found a bad game, so much as you found games that didn't fit our tastes. That can happen at a con or in someone's livingroom.
 

Well, let's be clear about something - people play at cons for the same basic reasons people play in general. Some are just for the tactical game, some are to pass the time, and others are for playing a role.
Well, believe me it's not that I don't like my combat. It's just that I thought that part of the fun of a pick-up game was "Let's do something kinda wacky and funny." (Unless you're playing Cthulu)

This is what I see a lot when people talk about Indie games at cons.

The DM also really made me yesterday angry. He said, "I ran lots of con games back in 2e. Back then, it was all ROLEplaying; we'd rolepaly the heck out of those games. Now, it's much different; it's all about ROLLplaying." So I said to myself, "I'll show you," tried to roleplay, and got nothin'. It was frustrating.
 

The problem with roleplaying in con games is that your character is often a bit of a blank slate. So is everyone else's character. Its hard to act without a motivation, and its hard to roleplay without an established personality. Its particularly hard when you want to interact with other characters who are just as empty as yours.

I think con games work best if there's some established, known baseline against which you can envision yourself. For example, I know one person who runs con games that almost always have a Scoobie Doo theme. Everyone knows Scoobie Doo, so they know what's appropriate for their particular character, and the sorts of actions that are appropriate for the genre.

If you've got nothing to go on, its easy and kind of obvious to just fall back on tactical thinking as the core of the game, and leave roleplay to the side.
 

Another thing is that demo games are going to showcase the game and not the role playing. Role playing is what the people do, the game does mechancis and a demo needs to emphsis that. A good demo features both but I've played some demos that while fun because of the people and the role playing left me with little to no idea on the actual game.
 

The problem with roleplaying in con games is that your character is often a bit of a blank slate. So is everyone else's character. Its hard to act without a motivation, and its hard to roleplay without an established personality. Its particularly hard when you want to interact with other characters who are just as empty as yours.
I'm holding a moment of silence for the RPGA's late, lamented Classic games - the ones where the pre-gen characters all had detailed, interlocking personalities that were tailored to the adventure. Not everyone loved them, but I sure did.
 

I'm holding a moment of silence for the RPGA's late, lamented Classic games - the ones where the pre-gen characters all had detailed, interlocking personalities that were tailored to the adventure. Not everyone loved them, but I sure did.

I agree! Even if there's only minimal suggestions on a character sheet, some guidance for personalities makes a huge difference.

That said, it sounds like immersive roleplaying is more your thing than killing things and taking their stuff?
 

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