What Makes a Convention Game Great?

[WSmith]

Piratecat, (and the other versed Con GMs/DMs); I wouldn't consider this with a "standard" gaming system, but if the CON game you were going to run were a demo of an ultra-simple and ultra-lite game, for example RISUS, Dungeon Squad!, or Prince Valiant, would you ever think having the con gamers go through character creation? I ask cause the expedient character creation is one of the draws to some of those systems. Or, should you just make the characters pre-gens in all situations? I get the impression that one should never, ever create characters at the table for a Con game.

 

[The_Universe]

There are some games where character creation is an essential part of the session - Kobolds Ate My Baby, for example. It's a great con game, and character generation is easily half (if not more) of the game. If you take that out, you've got almost nothing left.

Dread (the Jenga one) is another great example where you pretty much have to include character generation...albeit not at the table, since it's a somewhat laborious process. Still, if you take it out of the equation, you've removed one of the major features of the game. As a result, IME, most people take care of it online before the event...but still leave it in Player's hands.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Piratecat, (and the other versed Con GMs/DMs); I wouldn't consider this with a "standard" gaming system, but if the CON game you were going to run were a demo of an ultra-simple and ultra-lite game, for example RISUS, Dungeon Squad!, or Prince Valiant, would you ever think having the con gamers go through character creation?

I ran a Risus con game, and I used pregens - I found it really helpful, because it meant I could say to someone "Give me a Mad Scientist roll", rather than "Uh... what cliches did you have again?"

-Hyp.

 

[barsoomcore]

There are some games where character creation is an essential part of the session - Kobolds Ate My Baby, for example. It's a great con game, and character generation is easily half (if not more) of the game. If you take that out, you've got almost nothing left.

Well, there's abusive amounts of alcohol. That's something.

 

[barsoomcore]

One other thing that I've found helps:

LOVE your game. Be incredibly happy to be running it, and say so. Enthusiasm is infectious. Have huge amounts of fun and the chances of your players doing likewise skyrocket. I've never seen a successful game yet where the DM isn't clearly having at least as much fun as the players.

 

[Piratecat]

One other thing that I've found helps:

LOVE your game. Be incredibly happy to be running it, and say so. Enthusiasm is infectious. Have huge amounts of fun and the chances of your players doing likewise skyrocket. I've never seen a successful game yet where the DM isn't clearly having at least as much fun as the players.

He knows of what he speaks: Barsoomcore is one of the best five GMs I've run into within the last ten years.

Interesting question about character generation, Bill. The only way I'd not use pre-gen characters is (a) I was demoing a game for a publisher, and character creation was a huge part of the fun (as in Kobolds Ate Me Baby), or (b) I was running a game like Dread that has to have player input, and I couldn't get it ahead of time. I think it's usually a disastrous way to start the type of games that I want to run.

 

[Chaldfont]

Finally, the super-secret one: have a ringer player.

I've used this one to great effect before. It's great when you need a traitor. The first time I did this, I wanted a game with a high body count where the players would really worry about losing their PCs. So I brought a friend and ruthlessly killed his character in the first hour.

My hint: Make your own character sheets and only put on them the most important things or the most likely things to come up in a game. As the game system becomes more complicated, this becomes more and more important.

I learned this the hard way. When 3rd edition first came out, I ran a D&D game at a local con. I tried really hard to balance the encounters and to make an interesting plot. I was so worried about timing. When it came to getting the materials ready, I just picked some random character sheet off the web and used it.

The players wasted so much time trying to find the information they needed! Now I use big fonts and only put the most basic stuff on the sheet. If you need more information, put it on the back or on a separate sheet.

Some of the stuff I've been reading about 4th edition monster design could also apply to PC design for a con game. These PCs are only going to exist for several encounters. How many of those cool abilities are they really going to use? Keep it simple. It reduces analysis paralysis during encounters and lets the players concentrate on the awesome.

 

[nerfherder]

Can I sign up now? I'm not missing playing in a game you run next year damnit.

You beat me to it!

I didn't check out the ENW Gencon signup forum until quite late this year, but was still lucky enough to get into some fantastic games. Next year, I'll be hammering at PirateCat and Barsoomcore's door

 

[Hypersmurf]

You beat me to it!

... by over a year.

The only way I'd not use pre-gen characters is (a) I was demoing a game for a publisher, and character creation was a huge part of the fun (as in Kobolds Ate Me Baby), or (b) I was running a game like Dread that has to have player input, and I couldn't get it ahead of time.

Out of curiosity... how badly do you think a game of Dread would suffer if you handed out pre-answered questionnaires at the start of the game?

The player input into the questionnaires is cool, but is it really vital... more so than in any other game?

-Hyp.

 

[Piratecat]

The player input into the questionnaires is cool, but is it really vital... more so than in any other game?

Yes. The reason is that there are no stats. The player needs to have a transparently clear knowledge of what the PC is capable of, and the best way to get that is to have the player create it.

The other reason is that it's much easier to become scared when you identify with, and are personally invested in, the character.

If I had to, I'd probably have a portion of the questions filled out already, and let the player fill out the rest -- but that's sort of half-assed. I'd probably just hand out 8 or 9 question questionnaires instead, asking that they be answered quickly.

You could still play Dread with totally pre-gen characters, of course, but I'd estimate that it'd lose maybe 15-20% of its impact. It's hard to underestimate the power of that emotional buy-in.