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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 7678138" data-attributes="member: 5143">Dave does not like to do "on the fly" organizing.  I don't blame him.  Once you start along that path, it can cause a LOT of problems.  He allocates the DMs he has to events before the Con even starts.  Which means that there will be X number of DMs dedicated to running the Intro Adventures during that slot.  If he runs out, he runs out.  If a bunch of players didn't show to a different adventure he MIGHT have an extra DM that he can get to run another table.  But it's unlikely.That's why all of the events are ticketed and available for order pre-GenCon.  To make sure everyone who wants to play gets a chance to and to not provide false hope to people when they go beyond the number of tables they have or the number of DMs they have.Dave is also very picky about who he allows to DM at his conventions.  Anyone who has DMed for him in the past knows that his rules are strict(but fair).  If you get a lot of complaints about your DMing, you will not be allowed to volunteer again next year.  If you are late for your games, you will not be allowed to volunteer again and so forth.This is why he doesn't just let anyone who walks up and asks to DM grab a table and run a game.  He wants to vet people.  He wants all of their information well in advance and wants them to read through his e-mail of convention rules and get written confirmation from them that they agree to follow them before they can run.  This way he also knows where to contact them for various other reasons.DMing at GenCon is serious business and Dave treats it that way.  People are paying to play and he wants them to get their money's worth.Though, I'm guessing that this year the number of first year volunteers might have been greater than in previous years.  With first year volunteers, Dave doesn't know what to expect since there's not a lot you can do to verify how good of a DM someone is.The DM had to follow the rules of Adventurer's League in terms of how much they can scale the encounter.  If you haven't ran one before, this is the way it works:The adventure says at the beginning that it is designed for Level X characters.  So, for example, level 6.  It then has a chart that says if the Average Party Level is above 6, then play the game at "Hard" difficulty.  If there are 7 people and the Average Party Level is above the level the adventure is designed for, then play at Very Hard.All of the encounters in the adventure have a side bar that says something like "Very Hard: The monster has 180 hp instead and his attack bonus is +7 instead of +6"Beyond that, you need to run the adventure as written.  Though you are allowed to add or remove enemies from an encounter if you feel it is too easy or too hard.  But the monsters need to come from the encounter itself.  For instance, if there are 5 Orcs in an encounter you can add or remove Orcs but you can't add a Dragon.However, figuring out when to use your ability to add or remove monsters can be very difficult.  Some encounters are much more deadly than others and figuring out which are which on the fly can be difficult.  Not only that but encounters that one group can breeze past can be extremely difficult for another simply because of the composition of classes or spell choices...and sometimes by pure luck.Once monsters have been described and are in the encounter it can be difficult to remove them.  You need to have them run away or make them start taking useless actions in combat.  Adding monsters can be a little bit easier but how they show up still needs to be explained logically.  Not only that but if the encounter is against ONE really powerful creature then all you can do is add a second one.  Which could possibly be enough to completely kill everyone.Sometimes, you just need to run that anti-climactic encounter and watch the PCs win without any problem.</blockquote>

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