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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 9734288" data-attributes="member: 467">Thanks!So, I run a lot of con games. There are three basic types that I run:The One Shot: Usually I try and reserve a slot for a one off game of something I think is popular AND I really want to run, or is thematically appropriate (a horror game at the con I regularly attend that always falls right around Halloween). For these kinds of games, more often than not I am not an expert in the game (it is new or not something I run regularly). In those cases, I lean on the internet: I find good cheat sheets for both myself as GM and for the players, I look at analysis from those who do run it, and I watch some people playing it on YouTube. I also make sure the idea is pretty simple and easily communicated in the blurb. Although this has relaxed in recent years, for a long time you had very little room to pitch your game in the con book. So, for something like my go-to zombie con game "Clean Up In Aisle 13" I keep it to a couple core sentences: "It is 2 AM and you are in the BigMart: worker, customer or potential robber. But when the old lady die in aisle 13 just before getting back up hungry, everything goes awry." Like that.The Con Campaign: I also run 3 to 5 slot "con campaigns." These are built to be episodic, to accommodate folks that only sign up for one slot, but also have a big story to tell. Exactly what that looks like changes every con (although I have run a couple that have continued for a whole year aka 3 regional cons). For these, i definitely pick a game I am comfortable with because I am going to need to improv. I have a defined setting and situation -- tropey stuff that, again, can be easily communicated in limited time -- and I do have an idea of where it is going to end up, but I expect to roll with whatever happens at the table. I use the time between slots to revise "plans" for the next slot. When I am lucky, I have a lot of continuity of players between slots, which really helps in making it feel like a campaign. By way of example, a recent con campaign was a Sahdowdark game called The Arclands, which was basically a riff on Barrier Peaks. The Arclands were a place where "wells" would open up following electrical storms originicating from the ground. inside were technomagical ruins, mutants, robots and treasures. A whole economy existed to mine those wells for "manacruystals" (the only things the yokels up top could actually do anything with). I leaned heavily on the Shadowdark dungeon generation system (flavored for the setting, obviously) and it turned into the riff on The Space Seed Meets The Morrow Project thing. It was GREAT.Finally, a bunch of fellow GMs and I do at least one charity game every year -- a big themed multi-table event that raises money for Children's Miracle Netowrk by allowing folks to purchase (with real money) advantages or (more often) F-Us to other tables. A great time is had by all and we raise a lot of money typically. There are usually 20 or 30 players at 5 or 6 tables. Recently, every table was a different saturday morning cartoon cast translated to D&D.One thing I HATE is creating pre-gens. I am lucky though that one of my regular players at 2 of the 3 cons I always run con campaigns at LOVES making characters and goes all out, with great looking sheets and table tents, and reference packets. Love you Rob!</blockquote>

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