Designing a convention RPG tournament

[UselessTriviaMan]

I have... this... thing. When I come up with an idea for a game, it tends to be completely over the top. (I'm pretty sure it's a major disad. Just ask my wife.)

My next project: I want to organize and run a role-playing tournament at a local convention. I've got a little over a year to put it all together. I've never attempted anything like this, but I think it's the kind of thing I'd utterly love to create. I've played in the NASCRAG tournament at Gen Con a couple of times, and I'd really like to capture that kind of feel. Lots of humor, role-playing, puzzles, and action all role'd (see what I did there?) into a tasty, memorable event.

My questions:

• Have any of you ever attempted anything like this?
  
• What are the pitfalls or choke points I/we should watch out for when creating/running this kind of event?
  
• Which would you rather see - team advancements, or individual player advancements to the later rounds, or 'everybody plays all three rounds and best player/team scores win'?
  
• For those who have played in RPG tourneys before, what did you like most about them? What didn't you like?

I've already got an adventure (mostly) planned out. I also have a small group of quality GMs that I can call upon to help me run this beastie. I plan to playtest the hell out of this thing before we release it into the wild. We've got just over a year to bring it all together.

Am I nuts? Maybe. But it's gonna be a fun ride on the way to the sanitarium!

 

[Piratecat]

Good lord, man. I followed the link to the rotating arena, and I'm blown away. That's nifty.

 

[UselessTriviaMan]

Thanks! Y'know, if you can make it out to Iowa, you can even give it a try for yourself.

And maybe even sit in on a game with Frank Mentzer, too!

 

[grodog]

Some good advice on tourneys design and playing in tourneys, from Dragon:

Tournament play

"How Many Ettins Is a Fire Giant Worth?" by Bob Blake in TD# 19(6)
"How To Make the Most Out Of FRP Tournaments" by Ken Rolston in Dr# 70(48)
"Tournament Success In Six Steps" by Jon Pickens in TD# 30(26)

Tournament Adventure design

"10 Commandments of Tournament Writing, The" by Jonathan Evans in Dr# 201(76)

"Different Design, A" by Lisa R. Cohen in Dr 108(30)

Judging fairly

"In the Interest of Fairness..." by Dr. Allen Barwick in TD# 49(6)

Scoring

"Tournament Tabulation Formula..." by Jon Mattson in TD# 34(28)

 

[Piratecat]

So, I've written and run a ton of one-shot adventures, as well as three rounders. I've never attempted a whole-scale tournament like you're describing, though. Would advice on writing one-shots be useful, or are you looking for more macro advice on the tournament itself?

 

[UselessTriviaMan]

The adventures I can do, and I actually have them mostly written (they'll be based on a fun adventure I wrote for my home campaign a few years back); I'm more concerned about the administration side of things.

Examples:

Scoring: Should I go with best teams advance, or should we advance individual players? Or should we just let all teams play all three rounds, and whosoever scores the most points at the end wins?

Judging: How much time should I give my GMs so they can familiarize themselves with the material, and hopefully playtest? Is a month reasonable enough, or should I give them two months so we can tweak it afterward based on their test runs?

 

[grodog]

I'm more concerned about the administration side of things.

Scoring: Should I go with best teams advance, or should we advance individual players? Or should we just let all teams play all three rounds, and whosoever scores the most points at the end wins?

I think it depends on how you want to manage the events. It's probably easier for players to rearrange their schedules if they advance to the next round vs. an entire team advancing. But, that said, I also have a soft-spot for team-based advancement, since many tourneys are individual vs. team-based advancement and I think pulling together as a team (presumably of complete strangers) is a pretty noteworthy feat.

Judging: How much time should I give my GMs so they can familiarize themselves with the material, and hopefully playtest? Is a month reasonable enough, or should I give them two months so we can tweak it afterward based on their test runs?

I'd definitely allow for 1-2 playtest runs, if you have the time: playtesting always improves the scenarios.

If you're looking for some other general admin advice:

- create pregens, and provide the player background info along with the pregen (that way the players can select spells/etc. using the background details to help as appropriate)
- if pregens won't be handed out at random, provide a few copies of the pregen roster, so that players can reference those while selecting PCs from those available (the roster can be done away with if you're playing in a room with a white board or an easel and large paper pad)
- provide a list of your house rules/rules interpretations/tourney rules/etc. so that folks know them up-front; this is also useful so that everyone gets teh same reminders, and you don't forget anything important ("I use d6 for initiative, with the winner being the high number, and their actions beginning on the segment rolled by lower number side..." or whatever)
- if you're having the players map, provide a starting point on the map for them, along with a true North direction
- keep careful track of time as the event proceeds, so that you can close up, allow time for voting, and make the table available on time for the next event running in that space
- if you're creating your own scoring system, be sure to run through it with the DMs, and insure that they're all scoring in the same manner: consistency from event to event is critical to making your tournament a success