Galahad wrote:Ok, here are my notes from a seminar last year that was about GMing at a convention. At least, that's what I think it was about. Two guys from Gnome Stew, Patrick and Kurt, gave the seminar. Dan, if you remember any other details, post them.
- Allow 1hr between each game. Don't schedule the games you're going to run back to back, because you could be given rooms that aren't even in the convention center and that require a 10min walk.
- It is exhausting. Meaning, running games at the Con are a lot of work
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Leave DMing baggage at home. I personally think this is a really important one.
Mistakes, Don'ts, & other advice
1) False advertising - if running a game, you have to write a description of it to submit to GenCon. You have to stick to that description
2) Don't run a complex game/system and expect everyone to have fun. Choose the best part of the game/system to explore the game. Get rid of the fluff material of the game/system
3) When you say "characters provided" you MUST provide characters.
- The GM must engage everyone in the game
- Make extra characters, meaning if you've only said that there are supposed to be 4-6 players, make more just in case
- Ask them if that's what they want to play, after they've picked one of the pre-gen characters
- Don't have special characters for people
- make 9 characters at the max, meaning don't have 20 pre-gen characters to pick from
4) Don't treat it like your home game. Don't run i ti like there is going to be a game next week.
5) If something doesn't work (like a rule), ignore it and move on
6) Don't cut the scene; give them the closure and provide an end to every scene. Also, have a "kill switch" if need be
7) As the GM, bring everything the players will need (dice, pens, pencils, paper, etc)
Rock Star Effect - can give out big rewards, but make the players work for it
9) Can't stop stupidity
10)Give them something worth dying for
- make death noble and memorable
- make it fun as hell to die
11) If you have a problem player, take that player away from the table to give them a few mins to cool down. Ask them if there is a problem and then if they'll work with you to help make sure everyone has a good time
12) Must be prepared
- prepare 4 encounters, but only run 3
- encounters should last 30-45mins (the length of a Con game is 4hrs)
- don't over-prepare
13) Choose a good objective for PCs to complete
14) The breakdown of the game
- act 1: role-play and good NPC
- act 2: first encounter threat
- act 3: scoundrel NPC; can ditch this act to make up for time
- act 4: big bad evil; go all out in this part
15) Remember, it's the player's game, not the NPCs
16) Really, out of a 4hr game, probably only 3hrs will be spent playing. Should wait 5-10mins to start to make sure everyone is there, then generally 30mins to explain the system, 15mins or so of Monty Python jokes and other geek related topics, and so on.
Ok, so not the best notes in the world, but it was a really neat seminar and there is some pretty good advice in there.