Does Anyone Else Find Con Games To Suck?

[trancejeremy]

Well, by it's very nature, con games are different than games played at home with friends. Because it's pretty much a one shot, and not too long, the focus is largely on the "scenario" itself, rather than role-playing or character development or whatever. So there is a larger sort of detachment, and so people are easily distracted by outside people/events.

It's sort of like the difference between sleeping with a hooker and your wife/girlfriend

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

It's sort of like the difference between sleeping with a hooker and your wife/girlfriend

This is one of the strangest gaming analogies I have ever seen.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Don't expect a deep role playing experience in most con games either. If you are playing D&D you may have 2 power gamers, a role players and three hard core hack and slashers at one table. Just relax and have fun. Now when I played GURPS a few years ago in a Hellboy game it was a lot of roleplaying. You may also find that you can have too much roleplaying and you get to the end of the time slot and you haven't gotten to the end of the adventure due to excessive banter between the players. That happened in the Hellboy game and we had to rush to finish and it was kind of a letdown, but overall the game was great.

 

[billd91]

You just have to set your expectations correctly. The big deal about going to Cons to game is to play different things, in different situations, with different people. Otherwise, you might as well stay home. And playing under those different circumstances bring its own baggage as well as its own reward. Set your expectations correctly, plan to go with the flow and have a good time, and you will do alright.
Sure, there are some con games that suck. That's probably because the GM didn't set his expectations correctly. But even at a sucky game, good players can make it fun for nearly everyone.

 

[RodneyThompson]

I've run some pretty crappy games at GenCon before. A while back I ran some Star Wars adventures that were just short and pointless, mostly because I had no idea how long to make an adventure for a con.

However, I've run a moderately successful Mutants and Masterminds game the last two years in a row, with requests to run again next year. Unfortunately, we are all worn out from the con by the time we start so about halfway through either my players or I fall asleep! This past year I ran a futuristic DC comics game set in the world of Batman Beyond, which went over well.