Does Anyone Else Find Con Games To Suck?

[Fieari]

I've only ever been to one convention, and I had an absolute blast there. I ran some Paranoia XP for a bunch of people who'd never played before, and they all really got into the spirit, even bursting out into spontaneous applause when a fellow clone was actually vaporized, as opposed to merely killed. And then later that day I got to play some fascinating indie games, like Capes. And I got to watch some other people play Mutants and Masterminds, and I found that to be cool too. I'd never been exposed to half the games I saw there before, and it really expanded my horizons.

 

[francisca]

I've mostly found that I enjoy Conventions more if I largely avoid RPG's and just play strategy or Miniatures games.

Jerks can screw those up way less.

True. The absolute best games I have played at GenCon have been Reaper's Warlord minature skirmish game. Car Wars, run by Rogue Judges, was kick-butt-erific as well.

 

[derbacher]

The only Con games I've had that "sucked" were the two at this year's Origins when the GM just didn't show up. Not having a game run that you paid for sucks. At GenCon, all my games rocked. (But then again, I ran all the games but 1 )

 

[KaosDevice]

I've had some fun at con games, mostly the RPGA events, but man oh man does that depend on the players. I've had some fun running events there as well. I whipped up a Delta Green game that the pyrotechnics inclined players enjoyed.

 

[Threedub]

I try not to play D&D at cons. I like to play new games.

I'm with Dagger75 on this one. I play D&D all the time, I purposely stay away from it at Cons and play games I've either never heard of but sound interesting, or ones I've been itching to try out.

 

[Dagger75]

What was the point of the game then? What could possibly have happened?

He was looking for a PC vs PC Fights, the 2 mages vs 2 werewolves vs 2 Vampires type of fight. Instead the Werewolf said we all captured for a reason and I for one don't want to be part of what ever this is for. I stepped up and said we work together we get outta here, then 24 hours later we can all hunt each other down and kill each other then. I thought it was pretty neat. When we all worked together is was pretty easy to get out. Like I said this GM had in his mind we would be killing each other off for whatever little rise he would get outta of it. It was pretty boring and stupid.

 

[amazingshafeman]

Unfortunately, I've only ever played in two convention games (both AD&D several years ago) at the same convention. In the first, we provided our own characters ahead of time. It turned out rather boring as the DM was dry and two of the characters would rather discuss the physics of a fireball than RP. The highlight of that game was fighting off zombies with nothing but a spice grater and a shin plate from some magical platemail my thief couldn't wear, aided by a dwarf weilding a meat mallet. About five minutes of fun.

The second game we were provided characters, I drew the short straw and had to RP the party's younger sister, which meant I posed as a boy in that world's masculine society. Some very interesting situations arise when you're a dude RPing a girl pretending to be a pubescent boy, especially when your employer is the madame of a brothel. That game rocked, and apparently the DM loved my RPing, because she gave me a Ravenloft box set and her phone number. (Some would argue that a college girl giving a 17 year old dork her phone number is enough to make any convention game excellent. I stand by the statement that the game rocked. )

So yeah, 50/50 here.

 

[Pielorinho]

My gaming at Dragoncon the two times i went averaged out as pretty lackluster. My gaming at Gencon the two times I went averaged out as pretty rocking.

Daniel

 

[scourger]

On reflection I realize that the fun part of cons for me is not the gaming. I DMed my first con game and it was a complete bust. GenCon was a blast, but the gaming was mediocre to poor overall. The last few local cons have had little or no RPGs that I could play--the couple I did play were interesting for new systems or settings but again mediocre to poor overall. Maybe I'll just skip the cons next year. It's too much investment for not enough return. The one that's just an hour away may still be worth it, though, if gas doesn't get prohibitively expensive.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

One of the secret projects I am working on for next year's Origins/GenCon is a 'gimmick' game that I think can be popular.

I intend to get a game for 12 players. 6 get Batman 'heroes' and 6 get Batman 'villains.' I'll write them up in M&M stats and get the Hero Clix for each one and have a giant RPfest/fight for a few hours, hoping that the bad guys can really play up the bad guys and that the good guys can do the same. I will have a big map and some special rules to ensure that nobody is taken out too early (like special versions of hero points that will allow you to awaken from being unconscious).

I will be playtesting it in a couple of months at my local FLGS and if it looks like a good game I will run it at Origins/GenCon and then maybe the next year do one for X-Men vs. Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

This would fit nicely into the gimmick catagory, as well.