I'm the fool who got the ball rolling on the NC Game Days and they've gone really well for the most part. I was just talking about this issue today over lunch with Morgenes, the other guy who has teamed up with me in recent years to put them together.
My number one bit of advice, and I cannot stress this enough, is MAKE IT FREE. Find a free venue somewhere. Game stores work well as does space at the local university if you can get some kind of student sponsorship. If you have to, have it in your home. But by all means, secure free space and make the event free.
I give this piece of advice all the time and people seldom seem to want to hear it. But I'm telling you that once you start having to shell out money for your venue, you enter a whole other world of
that you just don't want to deal with.
Pretend that you get a nice chunk of space, all day, for $200. Let's say you anticipate having 20 people attend. So you tell them, "We're charging $10 a head to pay for the space." Sounds simple enough. But what if 3 people show up? Now you get to be pissed at a bunch of (former) friends on the boards for leaving you holding the bag. What if 43 people show up? Are you looking to make a profit on the deal? What if 6 people show up to play in a game and the GM no-shows? Are they going to ask for a refund? What if the GM shows up and runs a really crappy game? THEN are they going to ask for a refund? Are you going to spend all day running around taking money from folks as they show up instead of running or playing the games you want to be in?
that.
Find someplace to have it for free. Get somebody with a big house to host it. Have everybody bring a bag of chips and a soda as the price of admission. Maybe you only have room for 15 people. So what? If this is the first time then you're not likely to get a lot more people than that anyway. Invite as many people as your house will hold. If you've got more people than that begging for an invite then you'll know that the next time you will need a slightly larger space. Show the thread to a Game Store owner nearby and say, "These forty people COULD be gaming and buying products and snacks in YOUR STORE. We just need to know what date you can accomodate us on."
The only other advice I'll offer is to have fun with the event and don't be afraid to expand it beyond the simple act of gaming on a Saturday. Since NC Game Day II we've been getting together on Friday night for a dinner and we've always gone out for dinner at a nearby restaurant after gaming on Saturday. It is a great chance to talk without people away from the game table and just shoot the bull about stuff aside from gaming. I've been told by several people who have attended other Game Days that the social aspects really help make the NC Game Days a lot of fun and feel more like a group of friends than just some people you're getting together to game with.
I hope that helps.
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