Best and worst con' practices

[Joshua Randall]

Best Practice:

For local RPGA / LFR events, a con organizer uses a bar code scanner on your RPGA number. This is how players check in for games, and how tables get mustered. The system displays the table number you're sitting at, so there is no confusion.

(Yes, there is manual override, if necessary.)

It's a very slick system.

= = =

Worst Practice:

At Origins last year, I signed up for what was advertised as an RPG event, but turned out to be a demo of an online game table. Classic bait and switch, and I ended up paying X dollars for a sales pitch! Needless to say, I complained about that and got my money back, but I'm not sure how those clowns got past the con organizers to begin with.

 

[Wycen]

People want to sign-up to play games with their friends. They expect (and rightfully so) to show up, have the game run when it said it was supposed to, with a judge that is prepared, and with the people they wanted to play with.

This was something I thought about bringing up in my previous post, but decided to stay on the OP's topic.

Imagine my surprise, having difficulty getting my friend to sign up for the games I thought were cool. I'm thinking of one dude in particular, but it may have been somebody else as well. Basically, we'd get the convention booklet, go to somebody's room to drop off our stuff, meet up with other friends, look through the game listings, etc. What I did not expect was that he considered conventions basically a vacation from his family. His kids weren't gamers and his wife has no concept. And it took the bastich 2-3 years before he fessed up to that. He did play in certain games, but they were run by 2 or 3 particular people we knew, never random games.

 

[Zhaleskra]

Only a couple years ago, I had an RPG I was running scheduled to start precisely when a card game I was running ended. Because I only had limited control over scheduling (preferred times), this was unavoidable. What made it worse is that at the convention in question, board and card games are held in one room while RPGs are in another. Thank goodness for the 15 minute grace period (which is primarily for the GM to wait for players)!

 

[Dedekind]

The con's success may ride on getting people into games in an orderly fashion, but my enjoyment mostly relies on the DMs. I wonder how good cons are about managing their judges?

For example, only once have I've been asked to give feedback on a judge. Bad judges shouldn't be invited back and the con should track that. (It might be useful the DM to get feedback, too.)

Similarly, judges need to be backed with the power to deal with bad player behaviour. As a player, I can't do anything about an argumentative or disruptive player, but the DM can (but often doesn't).

 

[Mark Chance]

Similarly, judges need to be backed with the power to deal with bad player behaviour. As a player, I can't do anything about an argumentative or disruptive player, but the DM can (but often doesn't).

That's not entirely true. At the last NanCon (IIRC), our group got stuck with a bad player in a Living City event. This fellow ended up nearly causing a TPK during the initial roleplaying to set up the adventure. This then led to about 10 minutes of blathering wherein he tried to justify his stupidity. A friend in that game and I flat-out told the other player to get his act together or else our characters were going to kill his character and then he could just leave the table entirely.

Probably not the most mature solution, but it worked.

 

[Zhaleskra]

For example, only once have I've been asked to give feedback on a judge. Bad judges shouldn't be invited back and the con should track that. (It might be useful the DM to get feedback, too.)

Tooting my horn here: at a con I frequent, I was once refunded my GM deposit before I ran my games because the con trusts me to show up. The deposit is to discourage no show GMs: losing 10 bucks for not showing up is a good incentive to show up.

Similarly, judges need to be backed with the power to deal with bad player behaviour. As a player, I can't do anything about an argumentative or disruptive player, but the DM can (but often doesn't).

At an instance of the same con mentioned above, I was in a game with one player who just would not shut up, thus denying input from other players. Eventually the GM flat out told him that there are other players there.

 

[A flannel shirt]

As a GM what would you guys do if you had a problem player at your table during a con?

 

[R-Hero]

I've only been to one.
Does not setting up some sort of portable shower station count.

Day three, the air had body and viscosity. The odor of Funions and feet were a bit much.

Note to maintenance: turn on the buildings air handlers!!!

 

[Thunderfoot]

I have to admit I'm not the most experienced convention goer - I get to GenCon every year and have been to Winter Fantasy (now D&D XP) once and a couple of regional game days.

However, there are certain things as a professional musician/roadie that I have noticed make things work at ANY convention.

1) A comprehensive schedule managed in a central location. Regardless of the number of sub-coordinators, the ultimate smackdown lies on the head coordinator. If they don't know where an event is, who is running it or where it has been moved to in the case of a re-schedule, something has failed and that would be the HC. They don't have to micro manage, just have the info available to them.

2) Reliable staff. Okay, stuff happens. Vehicle break downs, sickness, missed flights, event location mistakes (the locations personnel not the conventions) and a host of other things. These are things that are controllable, having a DM/GM that has stayed out drinking with his buddies until 5 a.m. and then has an event scheduled at 8 a.m. is NOT considered an acceptable application of "stuff happens". Staff personnel that have consistently or heinously erred in judgement should either be replaced or removed from their current position. It doesn't happen enough and when it does, they usually end up back in that position next year. (Also, as stated earlier if you do relieve someone of their position, make sure you fill it with someone else.

3) Make sure you have enough room. Nothing is worse than booking forty events for 12pm only to find out you have 28 rooms available at that time. It doesn't happen much at larger cons, but at some of the smaller ones a hosting company will schedule events before confirming the space. That is never a good idea.

4) Know the local labor laws, specifically, if you want that light fixture turned off can you do it yourself or do you have to have a union electrician to come in a do it for $40 an hour. This usually isn't an issue for most events, but if you have sound, lights or video, in most places, you better budget for a union contractor or bring someone along who has a union card in that state.

 

[thedungeondelver]

Local RPG club constantly shows up at a local RPG con and the GMs run games for...their weekly gaming group. No outreach. None. If I were the club president (who is unfortunately also now the RPG director at the con after I quit) I'd tell them to open recruit for God's sake. Quit bringing your weekly or monthly game to the 'con.

The guys who play SEEKRIEG are more than happy to welcome anyone - anyone - into their suite/game area and teach them to play.

When I ran WGH3-5 over the course of a couple of years (I initially ran a cut-down adventure that eventually became WGH2), I actually built up a "usual" gaming group of 8-10 players and I'd usually have 4-6 additional sign-ups on top of that.

The other guys? Yeah not so much.

That and they refused almost to a one to include any visual element in their games, despite my asking them to (because the RPG part was piggybacked onto an Historical Miniatures gaming club and the powers-that-were at the time asked me to ask them because...well, miniatures).

It got frustrating.

Oh...another thing: unless your game is a demo of an heretofore unreleased RPG have characters ready. Seems like a simple thing, but wasting two of four hours of a game creating characters and explaining the rules as you do it, and all with ONE FREAKIN' RULEBOOK for the game (I'm speaking of WARHAMMER FANTASY ROLE-PLAY) is bad GMsmanship.

By the time the game's ready to go, half your players are off in la-la land.