Gen Con was a just a few weeks ago, marking the height of the convention season. This year, I was fortunate to play in a number of games, run by some great GM’s. But as with other years, I heard numerous complaints from people about games that were less enjoyable, and in some cases downright painful. After talking to different people about the games they played, and talking about what worked and did not work, I realized that a number of the issues that caused so much pain were only issues because the game was being run at a con, and would have been perfectly fine at a home game. This lead me to the thesis of…
Your Con Con Game Is Not A Home Game
The most common mistake people seem to make when designing games to be run at conventions is that running a convention game is the same as running a home game. It is not. You may be an established GM at your home game, but convention games are different creatures, and require emphasis on different skills. Now don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of GMing skills that are forged at your home table that work when you are in a convention, but you have to acknowledge the unique constraints of a convention game. Some of which are:
– Time – Convention games are typically four-hour slots, but don’t be fooled, you don’t get four hours to run your game. That four hours covers everyone coming to the table, picking out characters, asking questions, taking a break, packing up. In truth you really have three hours of good gaming time. This makes story structure and pacing key.
– Unknown Players – In most cases you will not know any of the gamers for which you are running the game. This means you cannot anticipate, with any accuracy, what they are going to do, how they will react, etc. This means that your session has to have a strong hook and a clear direction.
– No Group Cohesion – Because you are working with strangers, there is no immediate group cohesion, which is key for getting a group to be effective and productive. This means that even simple things will take them longer, because they are not comfortable working as a group.
Understanding those constraints, you have to design the game you are going to run to deal with those issues. The better you handle the above constraints the better your game will be.
Elements of a Good Con Game
So let’s take a look at some (not nearly all) of the ways that you can structure a convention game to deal with the above constraints and make it an all-around enjoyable experience.
Straight to the Action
Time is precious, and your three-hour clock of usable game time is ticking away, so have your game open up with action and get those players rolling some dice and taking out some opposition. Avoid starting your game with a lengthy exposition about the world, the setting, etc. If you need to do that, flashback to it after you have some action. Also, consider a handout as a tool for providing more information without saying it.
My preference when designing a con game is to use the in media res technique of starting right in the middle of a conflict. This is the fastest jump into the action and it does a good job of capturing the players attention, and setting the tone for the rest of the game.
Simple Plot
Because you do not know the players and time is short, the plot for your convention game needs to be simple (i.e. get the McGuffin, kill the vampire in his lair, survive until morning). In the first scene or two the players should know exactly what they are doing for the rest of the game. All of your major scenes in the session should drive to this point.
Anything more complex than this is going to take too much time to develop and for the players to digest. Convoluted or obscured plots are also a bad idea, convention gamers are often operating on less sleep, and may not be as quick to pick up on your subtle clues ,which may result in them figuring things out too late. Avoid multiple objectives in your plot, as it can lead to analysis paralysis in the players, burning valuable gaming time.
It’s About the Players
When using homebrew games or designed worlds, there is a temptation to have the session be about showing the players how cool your world is and how awesome your NPC’s are. This is the wrong approach. Your goal in a convention game is to give the players a great and memorable experience. So when you design your game, avoid making it a travelogue of your world, and do not go into deep detail on facets of your world or NPCs. Seed your game with some interesting parts of your world, but use the rule of spice: a little goes a long way.
The only information you need to provide is what is pertinent to the session, and will assist the players in completing your Simple Plot. If the players have a great time in the session, they will be interested in your world afterwards. After the game, feel free to get a drink and tell them all about the world.
Make the Characters Shine
As an extension to the point above, your goal as the GM is to make every character shine during the game. If you are creating pre-gen characters, then gear them to all be awesome within the game you are creating. Create backgrounds (simple and short) that give the player a few things to grab onto and use in play. Design the adventure such that every character has a way to give a meaningful contribution during the course of the game. If you make a pre-gen that is loaded in social skills you had better write a scene where the characters need to use social skills to progress.
When you are running the game, make sure that you are moving the spotlight from character to character throughout the game. When a character does something awesome in the game, make a point of acknowledging it. I like to replay those moves with exaggerated gestures and sound effects.
Nothing Exists Except This Session
If I have a personal peeve in a convention game it is this right here, and the reason I have made it last in the list. The convention game exists unto itself. There is nothing of importance that happened before it, and nothing after the game matters. I have heard stories of players getting into games where the GM is planning on running multiple sessions for the next few years, and that the outcome of the game will stretch on for years to come. In most cases (and I will explain some exceptions below), the players who play the game are not going to come back, and so if they have a mediocre time in the game because this was rising action to a conclusion that is coming in the next session, then you have done it wrong.
The same is true about the events leading up to the session. Avoid spending a lot of time talking about the things that happened before this session. If it is directly connected to the adventure, then put it in a handout and make sure the players have it nearby. Put all the focus on what is happening in this game. Think of a con game like a movie, it is the most important day of those character’s lives.
Now the few exceptions to this point, because they exist. Dedicated groups who meet annually for the game, can have lengthy plots that span sessions. If you are running multiple games in the same con, you can get away with this a bit, but factor into your design that not everyone is playing all the sessions. If you are a large organized play group who sponsors events to create outcomes for your larger meta-plot, then you know what you are doing. If you are not any of these, then see the start of this section.
Designed for Convention Play
Gaming conventions are awesome. They are a chance to play new games, play with people you have never met, and forge new friendships. Designing a convention game should be a deliberate process, and one that is much different than designing a home session. If you use some of the tips above, you will make a more enjoyable game for your players, and they will be more apt to seek you out in future conventions.
What do you do in your convention games that is different from your home games? What are some things you have put into convention games, that should have stayed at your home table? What is your secret ingredient for a good convention game?
Let me say this about the “multi-year track” line of thinking.
You can do both.
One of my favorite events/GMs at Gen Con each year is a running story-line which both [a] resolves itself satisfactorily each year with a strong “ending”, but [b] the outcome of events of previous years dictate the story-line of next year’s event.
In other words:
– There’s a bunch of history leading up to the event your playing in, in Year 2015
– You don’t need to know much of it (and the parts you might are readily explained during the game setup as background would be anyway)
– You get a payoff at the end of the 4-hour block that you’ve accomplished something
Which is all you want/need for a stand-alone game. IN ADDITION, if you play year to year, you get a “added perk” of seeing the story-arc develop. But it’s certainly not a requirement.
Time management is so important, and you’ll get best results from ruthless streamlining.
It’s very easy to, like a home game, get wrapped up in following the PCs where they lead, where they’re excited. But if that’s going to result in you ending on a shopping trip instead of the exciting final fight with the big bad, even though everyone enjoyed the moments of exploration, the session as a whole will feel like a failure. Time!
Con games are difficult for me to manage due to my GM style. It is very easy for me to get wrapped up in character interactions and players immersing themselves in the world. Linear frameworks just aren’t a good fit for me as a GM but linear frameworks are really the only thing that will work with about 3 hours of game time. The sandbox or matrix approach must be tossed out.
Keeping things moving is so important. Pacing is probably the foremost thing to be mindful of other than making the game a fun game for all. It is probably better to end 15 minutes early than 5 minutes late. Players might have another game they need to run to. At a large con, this can be quite a distance away.
I’m curious what other GMs think about deliberately seeding conflict between pregen PCs. As in, specifying reasons in-character why PCs dislike or distrust each other; or specifying personal goals that conflict and are mutually exclusive with goals given to other PCs.
In my experience as a player, event GMs are too bent on routinely building in this conflict. They always tout how it “helps with roleplay” and “encourages competition”. But all too often it simply causes the game to degenerate into infighting and backstabbing.
In my own GMing I seed conflict from time to time but I do it very carefully. It can easily trainwreck an otherwise successful story if not used sparingly. Also, I prefer to warn players when dissension amongst the ranks is a planned part of the game, as lots of players really dislike PvP elements.
What do you think?
I think it depends on HOW the GM wrote it up for the pregens *and* which players get the characters. If the GM put too much focus on inter-party conflict in writing the characters, then that’s what the focus of the game is going to be. In addition, immature players can often fixate on character bits like that and turn the game into what it’s about.
When I create pregens that have a backstory together, I like seeding some things into their backgrounds that can make interactions interesting, but I also try and do it in such a way that the characters can still work together. One set of Supernatural characters I wrote up had a married couple that were on a break. Her background specified that she loved him, but was angry that he wasn’t willing to be serious about discussing the possibility of starting a family. His background basically said that he desperately wanted her back and didn’t know why she left. It seeded in some conflict, but not in such a way that would completely detract from the game’s plot or the other characters.
All of the con experiences I’ve had have been in an Organized Play paradigm, and I find your article to be have a lot of insight regarding those situations. Unlike a lot of other convention gamers, Organized Play participants are sort of a special “breed” of gamers that enter into the convention context expected to know a sort of “language” of rules and parameters that in effect enable con games to happen without the burden (temptation?) of needing to share one’s campaign ingenuity.
But there are common elements that your article speaks to, and it’s very useful for OP GMs. Some things I would add:
1) Consider using imagery. Both for NPCs and Monsters and for environments. Players understand quickly the appearance of those they’re interacting with. The more “accurate” the image is, the less the GM needs to describe, so if something can be found that has the accurate weaponry or costuming/attitude an NPC/Monster might require, the more useful it is.
2) For Organized Play games at cons, strongly consider providing table tents for each player to fill out for their PC. We often gloss over this and forget it, but it helps players not be burdened with remembering names, classes, alignments, or other character-specific information. This can go a LONG way to saving time if it’s all out there all the time for them to refer to when they need to.
3) It’s okay, as a GM, to briefly articulate at the top of the session what the event needs to be like to get done on time. This gives tacit permission to the players to concentrate on certain aspects of the game without having to “feel out” the nature of the play experience, and also lets them feel okay if they’re not going to be able to share every aspect of the PC they’ve brought with them to play. It helps manage expectations so players don’t leave feeling somehow slighted.
4) In OP games in particular, for some reason combat has become a heavily emphasized element probably because it is a more “concrete” language that isn’t as “fluid” as role-playing elements seem to be for so many GMs and players. It’s okay to articulate to the players what you’re looking for out of the role-play paradigm, and how they can help you recognize their role-playing efforts, especially if it’s a table of strangers playing together for the first time.
5) Never be afraid, as a GM, to apologize. One of the worst elements of convention play is that often no one knows each other and everyone comes to the table with their own expectations of what the game should be like. Setting a tone of confidence enough to easily and breezily admit mistakes and then build on their correction will go a LONG way to engendering trust and ease the players into trusting your facilitating skills. No one, player or GM, is perfect. So don’t set that expectation for them or yourself and let yourself and them off the hook. Everyone will have a higher quality play experience when that pressure is released and play can move forward. In short, be personable, and that will go a long way to making the con game more satisfying.
Good Article, Phil! Thank-you so much!!!
5)
Phil, loved your point about This is all there is.”
One fellow I have played with is an OUTSTANDING GM during the game. Top shelf all the way on rules, acting, and letting us make our choices.
But he has a predetermined end-point that we never reach. Good guy, but the sessions would be a lot more satisfying with a real ending.
At a Con Game, you have to give them a conclusion. At about an hour or so away from the end, the GM has to decide what to keep and what to scrap. I’ve even done it for the home game when necessary.