From Gencon Events - "All D&D games at Gen Con being placed with RPGA"

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Our games run in 4 1/2 chunks (really 4 hours and some paperwork) starting at 8am, 1pm, and 7pm each day (just 8am on Sunday). So if your game starts at 9am and wraps up at 1pm you'll find tons of fill-ins from people showing up late but still having something to play at 1pm. If your game runs to 3pm you'll lose players because it will crossover into another game they have scheduled.

It's been a while since I've made it to GenCon. Has the Con disposed of set times slots in general? Or does the RPGA area run on a different schedule. It seems like it would cause a nightmare to register if the whole Con didn't follow the "4 set slots per day (2 on Sunday)" schedule of the past.

 

[darjr]

Table herding is hard enough even at just the FLGS during game days, I can't imagine what it'll be like at GenCon.

Hmmm... so if someone were to schedule their game just so, they might be able to get some folks with nothing to do that wouldn't have normally given an older edition a try... hmmm...

What if I show up with a retro clone in hand?

 

[pedr]

I'm pretty sure that GenCon does not have any kind of unified slotting system.

I think that Paizo are aligning their Pathfinder Society slots with the RPGA ones this year, having found last year that being out of sync just didn't work, and generally its up to event organisers to choose when they want to run their game, subject to suitable space.

The vast array of activities at GenCon - from spending time in the trade hall/auction/RAM/locked up in the Klingon Jail/etc through 30 minute card-games and 2-hour events up to all-day LARP/immersive games would, I think, mean that you'd lose a lot of necessary flexibility if there was an imposed slotting system. That does cause problems for people who want to play in different types of event and can force some hard choices - but GenCon does that anyway, with all the equally awesome stuff going on at the same time!

 

[billd91]

I'm pretty sure that GenCon does not have any kind of unified slotting system.

<snip>

The vast array of activities at GenCon - from spending time in the trade hall/auction/RAM/locked up in the Klingon Jail/etc through 30 minute card-games and 2-hour events up to all-day LARP/immersive games would, I think, mean that you'd lose a lot of necessary flexibility if there was an imposed slotting system. That does cause problems for people who want to play in different types of event and can force some hard choices - but GenCon does that anyway, with all the equally awesome stuff going on at the same time!

Don't be so sure of that. Gen Con started using a unified slotting system back in the mid 1980s using 4 hour blocks of time. A game could be one slot or multiple slots long for longer board or war games. I believe they loosened things up so at least some events could be more easily scheduled in multiple 2-hour blocks of time. But I think I'd be surprised if the scheduling of times had gone completely free-for-all like it was back in the days before the convention moved to Milwaukee.

 

[Lanefan]

Most things in the events list seemed to be in 4-hour (or multiples/divisors thereof) slots last year...not that I really noticed once I got there, as I ended up doing almost everything freeform anyway.

Lan-"can't wait for 2011"-efan

 

[Truth Seeker]

Something like this?

Table herding is hard enough even at just the FLGS during game days, I can't imagine what it'll be like at GenCon.

Hmmm... so if someone were to schedule their game just so, they might be able to get some folks with nothing to do that wouldn't have normally given an older edition a try... hmmm...

What if I show up with a retro clone in hand?

 

[Mark]

I can see my house from here.

 

[The_Baldman]

Table herding is hard enough even at just the FLGS during game days, I can't imagine what it'll be like at GenCon.

Well we are pretty good. We usually have a 1,000 or so players and judges sat and playing within about 10 minutes of start time.

 

[pedr]

Most things in the events list seemed to be in 4-hour (or multiples/divisors thereof) slots last year...not that I really noticed once I got there, as I ended up doing almost everything freeform anyway.

Well, it might just be that the RPGA runs a separate slotting system, given that they need a five-hour slot to get everyone mustered, sat down, play, and then moved away for the next slot. It may be that the Pathfinder Society aligned themselves with the general GenCon roleplay slotting last year but have realised for this year that they need to be in line with the RPGA instead.

 

[kenmarable]

Don't shed a tear for Pathfinder, folks.

We have our own rooms that we expect to be packed to the gills. The Sagamore is a HUGE room, and I think this is a way for WotC and Gen Con to better utilize the limited space available in the convention hall.

Good on them, I say.

--Erik Mona
Publisher
Paizo Publishing

Oh man! there's goes the informed voice of reason undermining another perfectly good conspiracy theory. And here I thought it was going to be a good day.

All kidding aside, even though I can't go again this year unfortunately, the biggest question I had when I first read this was, "So, will the acoustics be better?"

Beyond that, it don't matter to me. Whether it's in the ballroom or some conference room or around my kitchen table - a game is a game.