Writing and Running a Con Game - How?

[Rechan]

Thanks Fickle, Ashockey!

Instead, I try to think cinematically. What seems really heroic? For your first con game, stick to a format that you know is fun for you.

I actually think the ol' "Busting through skylights, blowing holes in walls, continuing a fight while falling" and other Utterly Cinematic and Over The Top action would be just fantastic. But how to 1) get a plot or a situation appropriate for that, and 2) Encourage that from the Players, seems very difficult.

 

[Piratecat]

1. Consider running the game using Feng Shui instead of D&D. It's designed for that sort of action.

2. Get used to making your default response 'yes' instead of 'no.' Can I swing from the chandelier onto those bad guys? Sure! Get +2 for charging. The trick here is "don't give a mechanical penalty for anything cinematic." (This isn't default D&D, of course, but it is really fun for a one-shot.)

3. Make the characters competent enough that their skills will succeed at normal tasks. Anything over 8th level should be good.

4. Talk to your players about the style of game. Flat outright telling them "Think of this game as an action movie! Thus, I'm going to be more forgiving than normal if you do something cool" will help a ton.

5. Use action points. If someone wants to do somethign utterly improbable, ask for one or two APs in exchange. Give out more APs during the game when players say something really cool in character, or do somethign really fun and cinematic. Players will play in the style that you end up rewarding.

As for the cinematic plot, well... give us a starter idea, like a type of game and a place. Let's brainstorm a bit.

 

[BSF]

Feng Shui is a blast! If you decide to go that route, and haven't had much experience with it, I offer bit of caution: Named characters are tough - both PC and NPC. Be careful with how you use them. If you don't intend for that scene to bog down and take a long time, use unnamed characters instead. Unless you want a named character that will be interrogated, in that case, don't forget to have the named character surrender quickly.

Subscribing thread for future reference as the same ideals will apply for any one-shot type experience.

 

[bento]

One mistake I made the time I ran a True20 game at our regional Game Day was letting the villain get away. I regret not giving the heroes the victory after they had already accomplished some great things in the game.

I guess my suggestion would be to giving the players the satisfaction of playing a great game by having them frustrated during the early or middle parts, not the end!

 

[BSF]

One mistake I made the time I ran a True20 game at our regional Game Day was letting the villain get away. I regret not giving the heroes the victory after they had already accomplished some great things in the game.

I guess my suggestion would be to giving the players the satisfaction of playing a great game by having them frustrated during the early or middle parts, not the end!

Yeah, having an end without any reward is going to be frustrating for a one-shot. Though, you could go the D&D path and have the end geared up for the TPK. Then if they still get the villain, and escape with their lives, the reward is doubly sweet.

 

[grodog]

Some excellent advice from Ken Rolston appears in Dragon 70's ""How To Make the Most Out Of FRP Tournaments"---well-worth digging up, if you have a copy or the CD archive.

 

[ashockney]

I agree that a dungeon crawl isn't the best use of a one-shot. They're too static for my taste, so I try to stay away from location-based scenarios unless I have a really, really good plot behind them.

Instead, I try to think cinematically. What seems really heroic? For your first con game, stick to a format that you know is fun for you.

One example (riffing off the dungeon-inspired-by-aliens) is a rescue mission for the Princess. Posit: a rival group of adventurers to the PCs brought a bizarre item as a gift for the King. It turned out to be an alienist seed for the Far Realms, and now the entire palace is taken over by a revolting and unnatural pocket of kaorti-reality. The King's advisor, innocent for once, tells the group that according to divinations they have a very short time to save the "flower of the nation" - the princess. They're snuck in through the dungeons, and need to make a run to the Princess's room. the advisor gives them keys and a map to the castle's secret passages, but the rival adventures (and the now transformed royals) try to stop them along the way.

It's a reverse dungeon!

And meanwhile, the far realms affect gets worse and worse as the castle slips away, and time's awasting.

As usual, PC is full of really, really good ideas. Would anyone NOT want to play in one of these games???

That's a great point about a con. You have four hours to blow their doors off, so do it! Put in all the coolest, funnest, and best stuff you've seen. Bounce ideas off the boards and your friends to spice them up and make them even cooler.

PC mentions Feng Shui below. That's cool and all, however, I'll warn you that D&D is pretty much what fills up at most cons. Go with your comfort zone, either way, and you can't go wrong.

 

[Psion]

I'm not sure if I mentioned it in the thread Pkitty linked to, but here's one of my major tricks.

The "extra" scene

I often find that different groups solve early problems at a different pace. It's really unsatisfying (and all too common) to not finish up the game.

To this end, when I do con game design, I try to make the basic adventure design short, put in an extra optional scene.

The two approaches I use here are either:
Scene 1
Scene 2
Bonus Scene ("extra obstacle")
Finale

or

Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3 ("apparent finale")
Bonus scene ("true finale")

The second structure is easier to do... all it really takes is a few extra clues in scene 3 that the supposed endgame was a ruse.

The first requires you keep and eye on your watch and judge how much time the rest is going to take, but it might avoid some problems with player disappointment if they feel you are yanking the rug out from under them in the second structure.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

PC mentions Feng Shui below. That's cool and all, however, I'll warn you that D&D is pretty much what fills up at most cons. Go with your comfort zone, either way, and you can't go wrong.

Actually, in my experiences with pick-up games at GenCon and the ENWorld gamedays, stock D&D is in the minority. Gamedays are a chance for DMs to run stuff that their normal group wouldn't touch and for players to try something new without a monetary and time investment.

For gamedays, it's as much the game as the system. If you have a game that sounds like fun, people will want to play regardless. There's some advantage in that most regular gamers are probably fairly familiar with D&D, but on the other hand, there's a lot of rules-light games (Dread, HeX, Savage Worlds) that are easy for noobs to pick up.

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

Actually, in my experiences with pick-up games at GenCon and the ENWorld gamedays, stock D&D is in the minority. Gamedays are a chance for DMs to run stuff that their normal group wouldn't touch and for players to try something new without a monetary and time investment.

For gamedays, it's as much the game as the system. If you have a game that sounds like fun, people will want to play regardless. There's some advantage in that most regular gamers are probably fairly familiar with D&D, but on the other hand, there's a lot of rules-light games (Dread, HeX, Savage Worlds) that are easy for noobs to pick up.

I'd go so far as to say that it is 3/4 the game and only 1/4 the system (even that may be conservative). At least in my experiences.