Repository of Knowledge from GenCon 05'

[Rel]

I had quite a few people ask me about some of the stuff that I had at GenCon and I wanted to make it available to them and the rest of ENWorld. In addition, I learned a LOT of stuff about making one's GenCon experience easier and better and I learned a fair bit about being a better "one shot" GM too. I'll start off with the stuff that people asked me about:

A few people asked me about the "aerial gunboat" model that I used for Sky Galleons of Mars. It was made from this set of snap-together tiles called a "Hexagon Construction Set". This thing is awesome. I've had it tied up in my Indomitable model for a while now but I made some really neat scenery with it for my games. It is perfect for any sort of small, multi-level structure like a scaffolding or the interior of a ruined tower.

Some folks also asked for copies of my Aerial Battle Rules for Sky Galleons. I posted them in the NCGDVII thread back in April in this post. Hopefully it is relatively self explanatory but feel free to ask questions.

A bunch of people asked me about the Modern character sheet I'm using. It is called the "d20 Modern Character Sheet Generator" by Soldarin Andrinias & Richard Green. I am using v1.06 but it looks like 1.07 is available as well. It is a great d20 Modern sheet and very easy to use for the most part. You can find it here.

Then there is Orcz! Unfortunately I don't have all of the information for the original Orcz! game on my computer anymore. That's why I collected up the character sheets like I did at the end of the session (that reminds me, I'm going to make some copies of those in just a few minutes). I do have some info I can make available about the follow up adventure I ran with the same characters, Orcz Reducz! It includes the background and basic outline of the adventure as well as the chart for Mugnutz the Blue's Orcish Wand of Wonder. I also have character sheets for the Orcs as they are at 5th level. I'll make any and all of that available on request.

That's enough for the first post. I'll post some stuff I learned about GMing at GenCon next in a few minutes.

 

[Rel]

Ok, now some stuff about GMing at GenCon that I learned (mostly the hard way):

• If your game uses a lot of props remember that you're going to have to carry all this crap around the convention center. Think about how close or far your hotel is and whether you really want to lug a whole bunch of stuff that far. Keep the props to a minimum if you can.
• If you're like me and just can't resist having lots of huge props then at least try to fit everything into a single (if necessarily large) backpack.
• If you can't even muster that much willpower then at least try to run all the sessions of a single game in a single day. Lugging everything for Sky Galleons AND everything for Orcz! to the convention center on Thursday was a huge pain in the butt (and big thanks to PC for letting me stash the stuff in his room overnight instead of lugging it back to the Best Western.
• Another good reason to run all your sessions of a game in the same day is that there is less of a mental adjustment to make. The facts of the game are still fresh in your mind from having run it once so you don't have to shift gears so much. It was rather difficult for me to go from running Sky Galleons from 2:30-6:30 and then immediately run Orcz! from 7:00-11:00.
• Which reminds me, leave yourself more than a friggin' half an hour between games if possible. A man's gotta' eat! And sometimes he has to eat while he's making a new character because he accidentally overbooked his game! This is a lot easier if you have more than 30 minutes.
• To be totally honest, you'll probably be happier if you don't GM more than one game a day. Try to GM a session and then play a session or vice versa.
• Allow yourself some time after the game to chill out. I tend to go into a sort of mental high while I'm GMing. My mind is going full throttle in order to handle all the ins and outs of running a intense one-shot game. It was tremendously helpful to be able to hang out with some of the players and soak in a bottle of scotch and a hot tub (on Thursday and Saturday nights respectively) in order to let my brain slow down a bit until I could sleep.
• Plan a break in the middle of the game and tell the players about it beforehand. I noticed that folks had to get up to go to the bathroom a couple times during games (entirely understandable) and my Saturday night game was full of very tired gamers. I wish I had told them at the outset that we would take a break half way through and then had one. It would have caused fewer other breaks and given everyone a chance to walk around, stretch or close their eyes for 5 minutes to recharge their batteries.

That's the logistical type stuff. I'll talk about a few stylistic things I learned in the next post.

 

[Aaron L]

Hopefully next year I will be able to join you in this magical Gen Con place you describe. Is it near the North Pole with Santa? I've heard that elves are involved somehow.

 

[Rel]

Hopefully next year I will be able to join you in this magical Gen Con place you describe. Is it near the North Pole with Santa? I've heard that elves are involved somehow.

Elves AND Faeries! Furries.

 

[BOZ]

oy!

 

[Rel]

And here is the other big thing that I learned that will impact the way I plan and run one-shot games in the future:

So after having played in both my Orcz! and Sky Galleons games, Piratecat says to me, "Rel, YOU are a great GM." (and my heard did go pitty pat, yay verily) "But with such interesting characters, I'm just a bit disappointed that we didn't get to have more roleplaying encounters with NPC's."

And so I replied, "That's because I'm more than just a bit scared of roleplaying encounters in a one-shot game."

"Why," wondered Piratecat, "is that?"

"Because I feel like I lose control over the pace of the game. I'm happy to let people talk to the NPC's and ask questions and so forth. But what if a roleplaying encounter that I thought would last 30 minutes lasts 5 minutes. What if it lasts an HOUR?"

The answer to this problem was supplied by a combination of Piratecat and Ethernaut and the answer is twofold: First, you build in some extra "filler" that can be dropped if pressed for time. I do this already because you never know when you might get a late start on the game or a combat that you thought would go fast takes a long time. Why it never occurred to me to apply the same philosphy to roleplaying encounters I do not know.

The other thing that you can do to mitigate this issue is to place a sort of hard limit on how long a roleplaying encounter can last by inserting some sort of triggering event for the next action sequence. Another NPC can interrupt the conversation. Bad guys bust down the door and attack. A bomb goes off outside drawing their attention that way. Friggin' sharks with lasers on their heads swim up out of the toilet and start blasting the place apart. Whatever. Just have in mind a set amount of time before this event trigger takes place and you have just solved the problem of what to do if it runs long.

And if it runs short then you'll get a chance to use those "filler" encounters that you had planned. Problem solved. So expect to see a bit more roleplaying and a bit less action in my next one-shot game.

But only a bit.

 

[shaylon]

Rel, this is all excellent advice. I am bookmarking this thread for future cons. Who knows, maybe I will DM something at GenCon 06.

-Shay

 

[reveal]

Rel, I think next year I'm just gonna follow you around like a puppy.

 

[DaveStebbins]

Rel, I think next year I'm just gonna follow you around like a puppy.

He's already got a bunch of us for that. Welcome to the group. Try to have your accidents on the paper.

 

[Capellan]

An important one:

Do not book all your time in registered games. The quality is often so-so (all three tabletop RPGs I played were "poor to average" in quality. Hopefully people did not feel the same about the Iron Heroes games I ran). Pick-up games with ENworlders are a much better bet for entertainment value.

Not that I played in any this year, because I'm an idjit, but I know some of the people running them, and they do Good Stuff.