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What goes into organizing a Gameday?
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EricNoah
Adventurer
Gauge interest not only in attending but see if you can get some volunteers to help and of course volunteers to run games. Maybe find some kind of incentive for those who run games?
Nailing down a date early would be an important step.
A way to sign up for events. And a way for attendees to change their minds as events appear.
Having some kind of web page might be helpful. Info beforehand, photos afterwards. Never hurts to include obvious info like where (a map is handy), when, what restaurants are around, how to get here, etc.
Nailing down a date early would be an important step.
A way to sign up for events. And a way for attendees to change their minds as events appear.
Having some kind of web page might be helpful. Info beforehand, photos afterwards. Never hurts to include obvious info like where (a map is handy), when, what restaurants are around, how to get here, etc.
guedo79
Explorer
Eric hit it on the head.
1.You need to see if their is interst.
2.Find a time and place.
(This can be tricky if you get a large amount of people)
3.Give people plenty of time to hear about it.
(I would suggest 2 months for a new gameday)
4.Organize dms and players enjoy yourself
(It's easy to forget you're suppose to be having fun too)
1.You need to see if their is interst.
2.Find a time and place.
(This can be tricky if you get a large amount of people)
3.Give people plenty of time to hear about it.
(I would suggest 2 months for a new gameday)
4.Organize dms and players enjoy yourself
(It's easy to forget you're suppose to be having fun too)
Get Some Help...
Try to get 2-3 others that you trust to help handle the details (nametags, signage, sign-up, etc). If you are a control freak (like I tend to be) and try to handle too much of everything yourself, you will violate Cardinal Rule #1 - to have fun.
Depending on gamer "critical mass" in your area, your choices of location might be gaming store w/gaming room, somebody's house or a university student union. If you expect significant numbers, I suggest going the university student union route via contacting the local university gaming group.
That worked very well for us at the first MD-DC-VA Game Day and has been successful for the NC Game Days (now up to NC Game Day VIII). Having lots of elbow and mingling room was nice.
Bug EN Worlder Rel for more specifics...
~ OO
Try to get 2-3 others that you trust to help handle the details (nametags, signage, sign-up, etc). If you are a control freak (like I tend to be) and try to handle too much of everything yourself, you will violate Cardinal Rule #1 - to have fun.
Depending on gamer "critical mass" in your area, your choices of location might be gaming store w/gaming room, somebody's house or a university student union. If you expect significant numbers, I suggest going the university student union route via contacting the local university gaming group.
That worked very well for us at the first MD-DC-VA Game Day and has been successful for the NC Game Days (now up to NC Game Day VIII). Having lots of elbow and mingling room was nice.
Bug EN Worlder Rel for more specifics...
~ OO
Exactly what you need to do also depends upon the size of the event.
If you're going to do two games in the gameday, you hardly need any organization beyond what you'd use for a normal game at home.
IIRC, Piratecat's gamedays usually have two sessions, with four or five games running each session, probably averaging about six players in each game. No nametags and the only signage being a list of who is in what game where. No webpage - just a thread on the boards to handle signups. Never needed an incentive to get GMs, though often enough someone brings swag for those who volunteered to run games. But all this fits into his home.
If you plan on a 100 person event, you'll need more space - which may mean rentals, and that means money changing hands, and coordination with the people who own the venue, and so on. Here you're going beyond "gameday" and getting into "small game convention" territory, with attendant organization required.
If you're going to do two games in the gameday, you hardly need any organization beyond what you'd use for a normal game at home.
IIRC, Piratecat's gamedays usually have two sessions, with four or five games running each session, probably averaging about six players in each game. No nametags and the only signage being a list of who is in what game where. No webpage - just a thread on the boards to handle signups. Never needed an incentive to get GMs, though often enough someone brings swag for those who volunteered to run games. But all this fits into his home.
If you plan on a 100 person event, you'll need more space - which may mean rentals, and that means money changing hands, and coordination with the people who own the venue, and so on. Here you're going beyond "gameday" and getting into "small game convention" territory, with attendant organization required.
buzz
Adventurer
I took over organizing the Chicago Gameday from MattyHelms (who took over for Mark), so I haven't had to go through the initial start-up rpocess. Still...
Yes, gauge the level of interest so you have a rough idea of the amount of space and number of events you'll need. This is the most important step. Being able to mention the expected number of attendees in your "pitch" when looking for a venue is a good thing. Mentioning ENWorld probably can't hurt, either.
Chicago Gameday attracts about 30-40 people on average; definitely enough people to make it worthwhile for our host, Games Plus. We start at 9:30am and go until 9pm or later. The day is divided into morning and afternoon sessions, with 5-6 events in each. Each event sits six players plus a GM by default. Cancellations or scheduleing will sometimes reduce this to 4-5 events in each session. We also meet up for breakfast at about 8am (for those that are interested), and break from 2:30pm to 3:30pm for lunch. At 4pm we do a prize drawing; prizes are donations from gaming publishers, as well as items attendees donate from their own collections.
Having Gameday in a FLGS is a nice synergy. The attendees are surrounded by swag, which definitely sets the mood, and the proprietor gets a bunch of potential customers as incentive to host the event. It's also nice that, in our case, the store is located within walking distance of many restaurants and a commuter train station. People can get out and stretch their legs between sessions, get some food, etc.
I created a site for Chicago Gameday, http://gameday.buzzmo.com, though it doesn't really get all that much traffic. Still, it's a good place to archive info about Gameday, and it presents a good "face" when advertising the event (as opposed to sending ppeople straight to the sign-up thread).
More importantly, I set up a mailing list. Every attendee signs in on a sign-up sheet that is pre-printed with their ENWorld handles (so we know who is eligible for prizes; walk-ins don't get free stuff until the people who registered do), and has fields for email address and name. I keep those addresses on a master mailing list that I use for announcements. This is a good, proactive way to inform people of upcoming Gamedays or schedule changes, etc. Otherwise, you have to rely on people checking the sign-up thread. Also, this way I have a list of everyone who has ever attended a Chicago Gameday, i.e., a body of "regulars" who are likely to attend again.
When it comes time to plan the Gameday, I usually start separate planning and sign-up threads. The planning thread usually gets started 2 months or so in advance of the Gameday. We use it to settle on the date of the Gameday, throw ideas around, and allow GMs to submit events.
Once we have all our events scheduled, I have the mods close the planning thread and I start the sign-up thread. The first post in the sign-up thread has all relevant info: location, schedule, policies, and registrations. It's kept updated as people sign-up or if cancellations occur.
(You can search the boards for past threads for exmaples of all this.)
Come actual Gameday, I arrive for the pre-game breakfast, and then head over to the host FLGS about 20-30 minutes before the morning events are supposed to start. I lay out the sign-up sheets and event/registration list, start collecting all the prizes together, and make name tags and markers available. I then commiserate and greet people, and help anyone trying to find their event table. Just before the "official" event start, I get everyone's attention, welcome them to Gameday, remind them of the schedule, and see if anyone is still looking for a game to join. If so, I help them (or find someone to help them).
I'll usually get everyone's attention again when the "official" lunch break starts, reminded them to be back in time for the prize drawing. During the drawing, thalmin (owner of Games Plus) and I lay out all of the prizes for display and then start picking winners; usually we roll dice (I number the sign-up sheets from 1-20
). We recently decided to give the event GMs first crack at the prizes.
Anyway, once the drawing is done, I thank people for coming, and then head off to whatever event I signed up for (or am running). At the end of the night, I walk around and thank anyone who's still there. thalmin and I usually get together for a few minutes to talk about how the day went, too.
And that's it.
Hopefully, attendees will post pictures, stories, and thank-yous to the sign-up thread.
Oh, lastly, I would give some thought to various policies you want to have in place. E.g., do GMs need to approve sign-ups before they get added to their events? (We don't by defualt.) Are attendees allowed to switch games after their initial sign-up? (Again, we don't, unless there's a good reason.) Is there a cut-off for cancelling an event that hasn't seen any sign-ups? (We set the scheudle in stone the last week before Gameday, again, barring special circumstances. GMs are expected to come prepared to run their event, no matter how few poeple signed up, after that point.)
Yes, gauge the level of interest so you have a rough idea of the amount of space and number of events you'll need. This is the most important step. Being able to mention the expected number of attendees in your "pitch" when looking for a venue is a good thing. Mentioning ENWorld probably can't hurt, either.
Chicago Gameday attracts about 30-40 people on average; definitely enough people to make it worthwhile for our host, Games Plus. We start at 9:30am and go until 9pm or later. The day is divided into morning and afternoon sessions, with 5-6 events in each. Each event sits six players plus a GM by default. Cancellations or scheduleing will sometimes reduce this to 4-5 events in each session. We also meet up for breakfast at about 8am (for those that are interested), and break from 2:30pm to 3:30pm for lunch. At 4pm we do a prize drawing; prizes are donations from gaming publishers, as well as items attendees donate from their own collections.
Having Gameday in a FLGS is a nice synergy. The attendees are surrounded by swag, which definitely sets the mood, and the proprietor gets a bunch of potential customers as incentive to host the event. It's also nice that, in our case, the store is located within walking distance of many restaurants and a commuter train station. People can get out and stretch their legs between sessions, get some food, etc.
I created a site for Chicago Gameday, http://gameday.buzzmo.com, though it doesn't really get all that much traffic. Still, it's a good place to archive info about Gameday, and it presents a good "face" when advertising the event (as opposed to sending ppeople straight to the sign-up thread).
More importantly, I set up a mailing list. Every attendee signs in on a sign-up sheet that is pre-printed with their ENWorld handles (so we know who is eligible for prizes; walk-ins don't get free stuff until the people who registered do), and has fields for email address and name. I keep those addresses on a master mailing list that I use for announcements. This is a good, proactive way to inform people of upcoming Gamedays or schedule changes, etc. Otherwise, you have to rely on people checking the sign-up thread. Also, this way I have a list of everyone who has ever attended a Chicago Gameday, i.e., a body of "regulars" who are likely to attend again.
When it comes time to plan the Gameday, I usually start separate planning and sign-up threads. The planning thread usually gets started 2 months or so in advance of the Gameday. We use it to settle on the date of the Gameday, throw ideas around, and allow GMs to submit events.
Once we have all our events scheduled, I have the mods close the planning thread and I start the sign-up thread. The first post in the sign-up thread has all relevant info: location, schedule, policies, and registrations. It's kept updated as people sign-up or if cancellations occur.
(You can search the boards for past threads for exmaples of all this.)
Come actual Gameday, I arrive for the pre-game breakfast, and then head over to the host FLGS about 20-30 minutes before the morning events are supposed to start. I lay out the sign-up sheets and event/registration list, start collecting all the prizes together, and make name tags and markers available. I then commiserate and greet people, and help anyone trying to find their event table. Just before the "official" event start, I get everyone's attention, welcome them to Gameday, remind them of the schedule, and see if anyone is still looking for a game to join. If so, I help them (or find someone to help them).
I'll usually get everyone's attention again when the "official" lunch break starts, reminded them to be back in time for the prize drawing. During the drawing, thalmin (owner of Games Plus) and I lay out all of the prizes for display and then start picking winners; usually we roll dice (I number the sign-up sheets from 1-20
). We recently decided to give the event GMs first crack at the prizes.Anyway, once the drawing is done, I thank people for coming, and then head off to whatever event I signed up for (or am running). At the end of the night, I walk around and thank anyone who's still there. thalmin and I usually get together for a few minutes to talk about how the day went, too.
And that's it.
Hopefully, attendees will post pictures, stories, and thank-yous to the sign-up thread.
Oh, lastly, I would give some thought to various policies you want to have in place. E.g., do GMs need to approve sign-ups before they get added to their events? (We don't by defualt.) Are attendees allowed to switch games after their initial sign-up? (Again, we don't, unless there's a good reason.) Is there a cut-off for cancelling an event that hasn't seen any sign-ups? (We set the scheudle in stone the last week before Gameday, again, barring special circumstances. GMs are expected to come prepared to run their event, no matter how few poeple signed up, after that point.)
Henry
Autoexreginated
The North Carolina Gamedays got lucky in one sense -- after the first two gamedays, two organizations were interested and got involved -- TriNoCon (a convention-organizing body in North Carolina), and GAMER (the student gaming group at NCSU). The three groups partnered up, and the whole thing has been stronger for it ever since. We went from one meeting room of about 20 people, to anywhere from 50-100 people participating three times a year. Next April, we're starting something new -- a gaming weekend (Saturday and Sunday), and we're going to see how a 2-day event works for the future.
What's the Lesson in all this? We miss Mulkhoran and Drowdude, and Rel is a good decision maker. Seriously, one thought is (if just an "ENWorld" turnout is too small for your area) to see if another organization might be interested in partnering with you, to get a larger draw into the event.
Past that, if you have no one besides you, you can always arrange to have a meetup with fellow ENWorlders at a more established regional con. I'd be surprised if there was nothing in Omaha or even as far as Lincoln.
Good luck, for sure!
What's the Lesson in all this? We miss Mulkhoran and Drowdude, and Rel is a good decision maker.
Seriously, one thought is (if just an "ENWorld" turnout is too small for your area) to see if another organization might be interested in partnering with you, to get a larger draw into the event.Past that, if you have no one besides you, you can always arrange to have a meetup with fellow ENWorlders at a more established regional con. I'd be surprised if there was nothing in Omaha or even as far as Lincoln.
Good luck, for sure!
fett527
First Post
Interest and interest in location. Our last Ohio Gameday was pretty much a bust because we tried to have it in a locaiton that got lukewarm response. Dayton just wasn't central enough to the state. Although our Dayton-based group did a lot of gaming that day. 
Just make sure you get commitment to your location as interest in the concept itself is usually not lacking.
And Crothian, you know were there if you can cook something up in Columbus!
Just make sure you get commitment to your location as interest in the concept itself is usually not lacking.
And Crothian, you know were there if you can cook something up in Columbus!
der_kluge
Adventurer
One thing to keep in mind is that hotel conference rooms are HIGHLY negotiable. Don't be afraid to haggle over the price. Chances are, no one is going to book a conference room on a Saturday, so they can either book it to you, or no one at all. When I've done this in the past, I can usually get them for a steal.
