Rules for Running a Good Convention Game

Today I head for DunDraCon 2016 to run and play games. Before I go, I want to outline some rules for running good convention games. These are things I learned the hard way: either in the process of becoming a skilled game master or by playing in a game that failed one or more of these rules.

Rules for a Good Convention Game

1. Get To The Action! The number one priority for a convention game is to show what is great about this game system and to do it quick. Unlike a session with your local group, you only have 4 (or 6 or 8) hours to get the characters into the action and tell a complete story. Anything that slows down this process, even including the rules themselves, needs to be ditched.
• Use Pregenerated Characters. If possible make the characters ahead of time. This allows you to craft them to the story you intend to tell both in terms of motivation and abilities. Pregens ensure no character ends up with a set of useless skills.
• Make Character Generation Quick. If you don't use pregens, use a system that allows characters to be built quickly (preferably under 15 minutes) or one where character creation itself is part of the game (like in Fate where the players weave together the party and establish some of the world). 
2. Schedule Your Scenes. You have only so many hours to complete your story so when planning your game, make sure you have the right number of combats and social scenes. When in doubt of whether you can fit it in, remove the scene. It is better to finish the narrative early than finish the session with no resolution. Don't expect players to stay longer or come back later to see how it ends. They will not.
• Adapt Your Pacing. If early scenes run long be prepared to remove later scenes, shorten conflicts and streamline the adventure on the fly so you reach the conclusion on schedule. If however your players are steam rolling the opposition you can spare some time to try that optional rule set or allow them to argue in character about their final plans.
3. Simplify the Mechanics! Ideally you want people to grasp the basic mechanics in under 15 minutes. Trim down the system to the bare minimum. If there are optional systems you want to highlight (such as a chase system or some aspect of combat) save that explanation for the relevant scene and keep it simple. You may also need to alter mechanics that are geared toward longer games such as experience for certain actions or long-term fatigue rules.
• Make the Rules Easily Accessible. Once you've distilled the system to minimal complexity you might give players a handout containing the important parts. This is most helpful in the case where only some characters have certain powers or abilities. Try to keep these rules packets short as well, a page or two is sufficient without being overwhelming.
4. Plan For Breaks. If your game is scheduled through a meal time (like Noon or 6 PM), plan to have at least a 15 minute break so people can eat and refresh. A short 5 minute break every few hours is a good plan in general. In line with adjusting your pacing, try to avoid mid combat or social conflict breaks. End on cliff hangers if you want but make sure you can pick up quickly even if you have a straggler or two.

Then there are a few guidelines which while optional can greatly improve the gaming experience:

• Include Customization. This runs a bit counter to the advice above but if you can give your players a few options in defining their characters it can help invest them in the game. Allowing them to choose the name and gender of the character is a good option. Other ideas I've seen include providing a few unspent points to raise skills or abilities and the choice between a lighter and darker version of the character.
• Control the Atmosphere. This is highly dependant on where your game is set. If you are in a massive hall with a dozen or more other games there isn't much you can do. However if you've got some privacy, ambient or immersive music can be a nice addition. Handouts are also a nice thing to include.

Hope this helps all of you tempted to run a convention game!

KublaCon 2013

Originally published June 12, 2013 

A few weeks ago I went to KublaCon for the first time. A four day gaming convention near the San Francisco Airport, it is the second local convention I've visited since moving out to California and I was pleasantly surprised.

The location was reasonable: the Hyatt Regency hotel by the Bay. The hotel itself had good amenities. Most of the roleplaying games (RPGs) had an separate hotel rooms. However there seemed to be some poor distribution of rooms for the games, which meant some nearby guests were disturbed by the late night games. Luckily for me the, RPG rooms were all on the 2nd floor while mine was on the 3rd, thus I avoided any disturbances in the night. On the downside the food was fairly expensive and most of the alternatives required some driving. The quality of the food however was reasonable, even good in some cases.

The dealer's hall was filled with a good selection of board games, dice, RPGs and some interesting odds and ends. Of particular note was a booth for Cheap Ass Games (where I almost bought Unexploded Cow) and Geek Chic which sells custom gaming furniture. I've been eyeing one of their tables for some time. Thanks to my wife I have some credit in the form of some gift coins. So I'm obligated to buy something at some point.

There was also a booth "selling" prizes. This was a part of the RPG program at the convention. Each gamemaster (GM) was given a pin and about 10 dollars of "Kubla" Bucks to award to the players. these could be used to buy books, games and other knickknacks at the Prize Vault booth. It was pretty fun and my wife and I were able to pick up an Italian board game called Gonzaga about controlling medieval fiefs for free as well as a small art book.

My Con Haul

Now for the games. As normal I spent most of my time playing RPGs. I had the opportunity to play in five games over the weekend including Apocalypse World, Dungeon World, Don't Rest Your Head, Microscope, and a variant game of World of Darkness. I also got a chance to run a game of my own, a crossover game of Prometheans and Vampires investigating the God-Machine. It seemed to be well received and I posted a synopsis here. There were also a number of FATE games over the weekend but unfortunately I was unable to get into any of them. It is too bad, FATE Core came out that weekend.

Overall the games were great. The Don't Rest Your Head game run by Wilson Zorn was perhaps the best. In the game we played people in a small town who were unable to sleep. After days without sleep we found ourselves in a twisted mockery of our home town where it seemed our psychoses had become reality.

Some games I played

Most of the other games were equally great. The Apocalypse World game was fun and I was able to play a Hardholder for once. We even managed not to burn down the place. In Dungeon World, we constructed a world, saved a town and defeated a demon. Microscope was a game I've been hoping to play for a long time and we had a great time building a timeline for a race that discovered they were living in a cave. We had dinosaurs, oracles, cursed living obsidian, and a dynasty running from the first explorers to a cruel tyrant who destroyed art to the first astronauts.

Our Microscope Timeline

I also found some time to hit the board game area. There seemed to be a fair assortment of games available as well as a lending library. One helpful item were flags at the pickup game tables for groups looking for players. I hit one of these to play a couple rounds of Avalon. This game is like Werewolf or Mafia where you play the knights of the Round Table trying to complete quests or (secretly) an Assassin trying to sabotage it. I also played Bump in the Night where you run monsters trying to scare the most children. I managed to win in a way the developer had never seen. It was pretty fun.

As far as getting into games, things were pretty straightforward. Their shuffler seemed pretty balanced and transparent. I got into four games, failed to get into two, crashed two board games and an RPG. The site lets you see your current weight in the shuffle so you tend to have a good idea of when you are likely to get into a game. As a GM you get a lower starting weight which probably explains my luck at the con.

There was a lot of other thing to see and do that I didn't have time to go to. There were war games including a massive set up with dinosaurs and a crashed saucer; tournaments a whole section for kids and teens, including a huge war game of horsemen, musket men, and cannons; plus seminars.

Kids at play or war?

In the end Kublacon surprised me with how much it had to offer. In many ways (hotel quality, the shuffler, the diversity of games and vendors), I found it superior to DunDraCon. I would heartily recommend going to the convention if you are in the Bay Area, though I might recommend bringing your own food.

DunDraCon 37

Originally published March 6, 2013

For the second time I went to San Ramon for DunDraCon 37. A primarily role-playing based convention, DunDraCon is a great place to try new systems. This year I also tried running a game at the convention. This time around had some ups and downs with unexpected finds and some bitter disappointments.

The Bad

I'll get the complaining done first.

Once again the convention was held in the San Ramon Marriott. My stay at the hotel was not as nice as last year. There was an issue with some noisy gamers next door as well as some lost room service. Still the amenities were nice for the gaming sessions. Each roleplaying session had its own room, well insulated from others.

There were issues with the registration system for the games that meant I was only involved in 5 sessions of games instead of the 7 my wife managed. The issue was that they introduced an advanced registration for priority tickets. Those who GMed or volunteered for the convention gained priority slips (a big reason why I decided to run a game this year) for getting into games. Even better (it seemed) you could use your priority before the convention began locking in one game. unfortunately a software glitch then caused everyone who did that to be given lower priority on all registrations until they had their priority game (Sunday night in my case). I'm told this will be fixed but it was rather frustrating not to get into games.

That brings up my last down note, which is that my priority session: a 10 hour Dresden File game was not what I hoped. The game suffered by pacing issues (partially brought on by a friend of the GM) and we didn't get close to resolving the plot. Worse from my point of view is that we never really used the game system which was the whole reason I wanted to play it. All in all it was 4 hours of cracking jokes and 3 hours of sleepiness.

The Good

The dealer’s hall was again small but with a good selection. I picked up two new Trail of Cthulhu books which have been rather entertaining.

My Haul

Also this year I tried out the board game room and anime showings, partly due to the technical glitch with signing up for games. I only watched a couple shows in the Anime room but they were intriguing and I'll likely look for more episodes at some point. As for the board game room, I managed to jump in a couple of sessions of an indie game called Golden Wilderness. I'll try to get a review for this up soon, but it is basically a game modeling the settling and exploration of California. The game-play is pretty fun, mixing competitive and cooperative aspects and with a nice range of options for victory.

Golden Wilderness

I unloaded more stuff at the Mike Nebeker Memorial Freecycle Table this year, this time eliminating some of my most underused D&D books.

The other roleplaying games that I did end up playing were really good.

The first was While Rome Burns by Cassady Toles on Saturday using the Unknown Armies system. I had to crash the game to get in but the game was an excellent game in pretty much every respect. It was a nice bottle episode of the strange aftermath of a heist gone wrong. I thought there was great use of the madness rules, leading to many memorable incidents. The only critique was the end narrative didn't lead to many options for the surviving PCs besides life in prison and death. It subtracted a bit from our accomplishment of overcoming the game's obstacles. But that was the only thing I didn't like and even that wasn't so bad.

My final game was Calling Call All Stations!! This is Attu!!! by Frank A. Figoni which used the Dread system. I had heard of this system but never had a chance to play it. It was a great way to end the convention. The GM did a terrific job. We were naval officers heading to an island radar station when things went weird and bad. I loved the Thing soundtrack playing the background. Playing expandable naval crew stranded on an island being stalked by ghosts was awesome. I can see why Dread is the perfect system for this setup as we all on edge as the Jenga tower grew taller and taller. Character creation consisted of a questionnaire which led to get dynamics among the group. It was the best game I played at the convention.

As for the game I ran, a Mage: the Awakening game that serves as the denouement to my long running online game, it was a success. Most of the players who signed up showed and we had a lot of fun trying to escape a dying alternate world. Along the way some characters used the damaged nature of space and time to rewrite their history and thereby alter the game as a whole. I was surprised by some decisions and had a great time. I plan to run another con game in May at KublaCon.

Also on the plus side were the seminars. DunDraCon is a highlight for me because one of my favorite game writers attends: Kenneth Hite. His works of weird conspiracies have inspired many of the campaigns. He was part of the panel on the long running City Building panel which gave me many ideas for scifi dying cities as well as insights into common criminal structures. There was also the Alternate History panel where we came up with several different 1940s Germanies among other ideas.

The Eh

The hotel food was edible but not very tasty. The burgers in particular were rather bad. I think in the future I'll stick with hot dogs and pizza.

So overall the convention was a great deal of fun. I'll almost certainly go again next year and probably run a game as well (though I will use my priority slip more carefully).