Scenario Building

So how do you write a scenario for a convention or one-shot?  Simply don’t know where to start?  Well, if its 4e there’s a ton of things you can buy or download, so just boiler plate one of them and change the baddies round.  If its a left field hippy game then you probably make it up with the players along the way.  But if you want some on advice on how to knock something together, with some interesting bits on the way then you might find the following useful.  Its a method I’ve been using for some time, maybe it’ll help someone else with a place to start at least…

Background Noise

Actually I’m a fan. Some people want silence in their games, no distractions, abhor the convention gaming hall and anything other than character interaction. I on the other hand like a bit of hubbub. Not to much, so you can’t hear or talking is a struggle, but I like something to be there. I played a game at Conception last year and we got a large room to ourselves. It cut out most of the sound from anywhere else and left us focused on the game. But you know what the issue was? In the words of many a hackneyed film, it was *too* quiet.

Tentacular Preparation

It was with an invasive sense of horror that I realised I’ve less than a week until Tentacles and my preparation for four (count ‘em) Pendragon games is not even really started, never mind complete. I’ve got characters to write out, baddies to stat, plots to configure, props, maps, all sorts I could do… so why have I waited so long? Laziness? Partially. Hoochie leading me astray. Sort of. But mainly because I know it’ll all work out fine. How do I know this? Read on dear readers, read on…

Earthdawn Dawn Again?

It is with some interest that I keep an eye on the Earthdawn brand.  A great game picked up some time ago by Redbrick on the other side of the world, they announced recently a third, revamped edition of the game, with Mongoose and their Flaming Cobra project.  Still wondering how that’s going to work out, and indeed if it’s going to produce something more user-friendly to newbies at conventions, because a one-shot really doesn’t show this bad boy off properly.

The official dice are out as well, which look funky.  Q Workshop are going to be at Tentacles next weekend too, so I might have to buy the dice and then run the game.  Earthdawn at Furnace maybe?

Secret Squirrel

I’m back from an inaugural meeting of a convention committee, as one of the nascent organisers.  Early days yet, but a one-day Con is set up for spring next year, with a household (to the con going public anyway) name attached to it.  I think it’s got the making of something awesome, a fun, game-filled event for all the family.  Can’t give any details away yet, but give it a month or so and there’ll be some comms going out like a rash over the UK forums.  Stay tuned.

Furnace prep diary

So I’m getting down to organising my D&D games for this year’s Furnace convention. I’ve got my plot all done and I’m fleshing out a series of encounters. As suggested by Lemur in a previous comment, I want to show off some of the bells and whistles of the game. I think it’s really important to do this. A great many punters at Cons will want to try out new games, to get a flavour of what’s going on without having to commit time and money to a game that isn’t for them. Even existing fans of your system or storyline will want to play something they are less likely to get at home, otherwise why bother coming out to play at all?

The Irish method

For those that don’t know, The Smart Party are based in the UK and as such most of our Con attendance is here, plus the occasional European jaunt. We have a lot in common with the US in the way that our Con gaming is generally set up and run, but it’s not the only way. Over in Ireland they play by a very different system indeed, and recently there has been lots of debate about it. Will it stay, will it change, and to what? Here’s a summary from this discussion:

Support Your GM

It’s easy to go to cons and think that the GM is there to offer you a service and should be great at what he’s doing and deliver a fantastic game with control over all elements, including other players (who he doesn’t know).  It’s also easy to forget that most people running games are doing it for the love of the hobby, that they’ve paid to be there and if they do get some kind of reward, a five pound gaming voucher doesn’t really cut it when compared to the normal out-of-hours rate they could be getting on a weekend…  So what can we do to help?

Pick A Pocket Or Two

Why volunteer to run something?  You’re going to a convention and want there to be good games on that you want to play, but somehow there never seems to be what you want.  The solution is to pick up the gauntlet and run it yourself.  If you expose other people to your New Favourite Game, the chances are more people will buy it, play it  and run it and by extension, there’s more chance it will appear at a convention somewhere near you.  If delegates don’t volunteer to run things, its going to be a pretty shoddy convention…  but how do you know what to run?