Do you play RPGs at conventions?

[Piratecat]

At cons I vastly, vastly prefer to both run and play one-offs with pre-gen characters that are customized for the scenario.

 

[Cadfan]

I never play RPGs at conventions. Conventions are a place to experience new things I haven't experienced before. Playing a new RPG might be a new thing, but unfortunately it tends to be a new thing that takes hours and hours of time, preventing me from experiencing many other new things that wouldn't take as long.

You're more likely to find me near the boardgames, miniatures, or the random smattering of independent GMs and indie games.

 

[Mallus]

I haven't been to a gaming con in 20 years. If I do ever go again, I'll play some RPG's.

 

[Piratecat]

I'll elaborate a little:

I started going to cons in 1989, back before the RPGA "Living" campaigns ever started. All the RPGA tournaments were "classic" style with pre-gen characters customized to the adventure. I tried Living City (and later, Living Jungle, Living Greyhawk, Fiving Death, Living Force, and several other continuing campaigns) but they didn't work well for me. It turns out that I greatly enjoy playing with strangers but that I'm driven by heavy roleplaying. I was finding less of the latter in the Living events.

As a result, I played or ran about 300 RPGA adventures, 90% with pre-gens. I got decent at it; I took best RPGA judge at GenCon for two or three years in a row, and had a lot of fun as a player as well. My participation waned as Living events rapidly grew in popularity and classic-style events were phased out, despite some decent (and some extremely ill-advised) attempts to keep them going. Nowadays I'm largely out of the RPGA loop.

My con attendance is limited nowadays to cons with strong "classic"-style support: GenCon (via other EN World members), the superb Anonycon (early December in CT), OGC Con (NH), and sometimes ConnCon (March, also in CT.) I tend to write and run my own adventures as well, as I usually have more fun doing so than I do running adventures that other people have written.

I have a heck of a lot of fun meeting people for the first time at the gaming table. How they roleplay tells you a lot about them, and it's a blast to finally meet the people we've been talking with online for years.

 

[Greg K]

I almost never game at cons as I am just not a fan of one shots or tournaments. I prefer long term campaigns where I can develop my character and see him grow.

My primary reason for attending cons is to a) attend the flea market and dealer's room; and b) to hang out with friends from my weekly group until they go off to LARP.

On the rare occassion that I do game at con, it is to participate in a demo of a game that interests me (e.g, when John Wick was demoing L5R 1e), play a game with some friends whom I don't see often, or, at one time, to help friend running his Vampire LARP.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

I came close to playing MaidRPG at Fanime last year (with the translator of the game, no less!) but it fell through

 

[joela]

Do you play RPGs at conventions? What types of games do you play and why?

Yes. Whatever catches my interest. At a recent convention, I played the Pathfinder RPG, GURPS Resident Evil, Heroquest 2.0, and a homebrew (RuneTank!).

I'm aware that there are tons of people who play independent games and one-offs at conventions. After talking to a player at one of these, she informed me that she prefers one-offs to any sort of organized gaming (including that of home games).

I thought this was rather strange, since advancement is a large part of what attracts me to RPGs in general.

How common is this attitude?

I don't think it's very common. However, it could be she prefers variety over indepth development. I can understand that: there are a lot of cool shines out there

 

[game.jock]

playing at conventions..

when im a bit younger, my friends and me usually play at conventions..

our favorite game is counter strike and dota..

im really enjoy playing at convention because i get to play with different types of people and get know of different tactics in playing..

 

[cdrcjsn]

I don't like Living games because every time I've tried it, the players have been monumental douchebags far more interested in getting phat lewt and XP for their PCs than in roleplaying and having a cool adventure. (Once, BTW, one of these players was someone very high up in the RPGA, and he was by far the worst offender.)

I won't deny that there's people that I too would avoid in the local RPGA scene, but I wouldn't let a few bad apples sour me from an entire group. The RPGA scene covers the entire range of players, from casual, RP intensive groups to hardcore, tactical optimizers. It pretty much runs the full spectrum.

And I hope you're not talking about me when you mention a higher up in the RPGA. I was a local Triad for a while, but I don't think I'm douchebag player (at least nobody's told me so to my face).

Cedric