What are the odds of getting a good GM at Gencon?

[The_lone_gunman]

My otherwise great time at Gencon was mired by two games I was in (I will not name names) that were by far the worst gaming experiences of my life. The first one was just a hair better than the worst game of my life, the second one made the first one look like Grand Master DMing. That second one was so bad that I continuously and unsuccessfully tried to get my sorcerer killed so that I could leave the table without making the DM feel bad. For the life of me I couldn't die though. I finally had to make the excuse that I needed to get to another event. I feel bad because the guy was trying hard but man it was like someone was pulling my toenails off one by one.

So anyway, my question is what are you guys experience with finding good games at Gencon? I am seriously considering not going next year due to the caliber that I experienced this year. Did I just get totally unlucky or is this a common theme? Someone told me that you have about a 50% chance of getting a good GM for your game, is this accurate? Where are the places to find good GM's? RPGA? some other group?


TLG

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I had two poor gaming experiences this year and two good experiences - although the two good ones were still not all that great. I'd say that in my three gaming groups (about 18 people) there are at least 6 DM's who were better than any of the four - and the two good GM's were ones who were affiliated with game companies!

Maybe I'm just lucky in that regard.

On the other hand, the players I played with were generally really good, a few excellent.

I should really run a game next year, if I go...

 

[Dinkeldog]

I didn't pre-register. I played in two excellent games, but I knew the DMs beforehand. From here oddly enough.

One was Call of Cthulhu, the other D&D. The players in both games were excellent, as well.

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

I usually wind up playing about one thing a year up at GenCon (soon that will change hopefully!) but I've never had a horrible experience because of the DM. As a matter of fact all of my DMs have been at the very least moderately entertaining, if not excellent.

The events however, sometimes were very dull. The first event we ever played in was a Living City event called approaching doom.... there was no combat...there weren't any particularly great opportunities for roleplaying...it...was....like....wading.....though... knee....deep....mud.

I dont' think it was jsut the DM either, a friend of mine refused to judge the event after just one slot of doing it.

 

[bolen]

The best game I played in was run by green ronin. I think if your play a game run by a company you have a good bet of finding a good DM. Indepent GM's are hit or miss and there is no good way of telling?

 

[Leopold]

what none of my Against the Giants have come in here to my defense!!! Let's see if they survive next year!!

 

[Black Omega]

A tuly fine game, Leopold, truly fine.

I was pleasantly surprised by how good the Seven Seas game I got into was. And Unpleasantly surprised the only Rokugan d20 game was more an intro. I plan to change that next year.

In my experience you have about a 50% chance of a good game. The odds improve if you play a game run by the company, the only bad one of those I was ever in was from White Wolf. A good thing to do is remember a good game and look for that guy the next year. Or see who from the boards is running games.

 

[mattcolville]

So anyway, my question is what are you guys experience with finding good games at Gencon?

I Have No Answer But I Must Post.

I'm a good GM. We have to take that as a given, otherwise this story won't make sense.

I liked the local Cons put on in L.A. by Strategicon, and I wanted to become involved. I wanted to help make them better. I volunteered to GM for them. They were happy to have me. They asked me what I needed. I said "I just need to see the adventure at least a week before the Con." They promised me I'd have it well before then. Months in advance.

I got the adventure 20 minutes before I was supposed to run it. This upset me and further mismanagement of the entire operation caused me to say "bugger this."

When I see bad GMs running games (and, to be fair, most of the GM's I've had at cons were, I'd say, above average) I always place my blame on the known tendancy of organizers to screw things up and make things hard, rather than on the unknown skills of a given GM.

 

[SJ]

I'm in a ranting mood tonight.

I've had really good luck at GenCon. I DM alot, and I appreciate those who take on the thankless task to let 6 or 8 others have a good time.

But this year I had some pet peeves that got, well, peeved.

1) know the rules. At least some of them. If you don't, say so. If presented with the rule from the sourcebook, don't say it's wrong, at least if it's not in the interest of making the game more fun.

2) the point is for everyone (esp. living campaign players) to enjoy themselves. It is not a demonstration of "this is how you should play this game in my house campaign, because I'm not the DM, I'm GOD!!!" (Oh, wait...that was me... )

BTW TLG, these were both RPGA games. Like bolen (what's up, dude? Saw Ed and Tod at GenCon, where were you?) said, game co's are a better bet. All 3 game co. DM's I had were good. They really seemed to enjoy the game and product. But especially in RPGA, you roll the dice so to speak, and get what you get.

SJ

 

[Piratecat]

I'll offer an alternative opinion. In my experience RPGA GMs in Classic events (ie pre-gen characters) tend to be significantly better than average. I don't tend to care for the gaming style of Living City GMs, and Living Greyhawk is a tossup. Living Death GMs tend to be excellent. This is compared to non-RPGA GMs running their own games.

If I'm playing at a con, I usually expect one great game, one blarrg game, and the rest to be decent. If I get more than one great game, I count myself lucky.

That's why I like to judge at cons. I always have fun when I judge, and I can hopefully make the game fun for my players. That's a great feeling!