Tentacles Omega Con Report

How can you not be tempted by a journey to play games in a castle on the Rhine? I was there for my third year and it was as great as ever.

The journey to Bacharach was as easy as ever, with only a slight delay at the airport on the Deutschland side while the bus turned up, but the sun was shining and a free beer on the journey over was most welcome. Everything about the con was ruthlessly organised as always, with the notable exception of games, for which there seems to be an almost masochistic desire to make it a scrum to sign up for things. I took to my usual method of avoiding troubles by taking lots of games to run. Apparently I now hold the record for most games played at a Tentacles, and as that was the last one…

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.

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?

How Much Is Too Much?

I went through a phase at conventions of writing stacks of info for players, big ass descriptions, things they thought of the other characters, world background, organisation information etc.  But frankly, that’s all too much.  Anything over a side of A4 just ain’t going in, with the best will in the world.  Typically I’ll have some flavour on one side and the stats on another.  I’ve even been paring down to A5 in some cases for things like Savage.  On the other hand I’ve also just given people the raw stats.  Now, in things like Pendragon, that’s fine.  You’ve got personality traits and all sorts right there.  In other games though, you might be selling your players short, especially if they’re new to all this.

Wimmin

Strange beasts aren’t they, with their funny smells, crazy ways of dressing and odd ways of thinking about things.  But enough about mad hermits in roleplaying games, how do we deal with the fairer sex?  Well from a player point of view that’s easy isn’t it?  Treat them like everyone else – what’s wrong with you you chauvinist pig!  Female characters however are often neglected.

All my own work

When you consider all the things that can go wrong with running a Convention game, why do the vast majority of GMs potentially exacerbate that by writing their own scenarios?

Writing your own stuff has it’s pros and cons to be sure. You’ll have a better understanding of it from the off. You’ll be better placed to improvise around it. You won’t (usually) have to write it all down so tht it makes sense to a stranger. On the other hand, you’re very much an amateur right? Well intentioned, and possibly very talented, but at the end of the day you’re a hobbyist.

I once suggested that more ‘modules’ could be offered up at Cons and the reaction was one of shock and horror, maybe it will be again. But I still remain convinced that there are some great published adventures out there just perfect for the Con experience. I’ll be reviewing some of them in future posts. Obviously, just because it’s published, doesn’t mean it’s any good, just as home cooked stuff could very well be genius. But lets play the odds here. Why run your own Unknown Armies confection when you could run Jailbreak? Will your three room dungeon be able to match one of the better Dungeon Delves?

Maybe the answer to those questions is ‘Hell, yes!’, in which case congrats, go ahead, knock yourself out. But then again, whenever you’ve had a poor Con game, ask yourself why that is. most often we get personal about it and look at the GM or the player dynamic. Couldn’t the scenario have a large part to play? and if so, might it not help to have professional help?

Its better to give than receive?

One thing that it rarely done regarding convention games – and even more rarely, done *well* – is criticism. First things first, its probably best to ask someone if they want to chat about their game. A GM may well have just had a bad game from their point of view and be feeling down about it anyway, and in no mood to be told by someone else that it was poor also. They might have other things going on in their lives and have struggled through to run a game anyway so they don’t let people down who’ve showed up. There could be all manner of other reasons – perhaps they just don’t like talking about games? So, the best thing to do, before we even start, is make sure your GM wants to hear what you’ve got to say.

Party of Smartness

Sometimes Con game prep is all about the scenario. However, let’s not forget that the scenario is only half the game at best. It’s the characters that really drive the game. As it’s a Con game, you have enormous power when you’re putting together your pregens. A great way of getting a coherent group is to think about the relationships they have with each other. I’ve pulled together some thoughts from other GMs who tried this, and am blatantly passing it off as my own work. See what you think.

Who Brings The Fun?

I saw a heated debate online about who’s responsibility it was to bring the fun and what lay with the GM. As with all these discussions, that can be a thousand and one things depending on which game you’re playing and who you’ve got round the table, but lets assume we’re talking about a reasonably middle of the road (“Trad”) game like something Savage or White Wolf or Cthulhu even. Lets also assume that people are their to try and have a good game and not just hanging about like a friend of a friend on a double date who got dragged along even though convinced the whole night is going to be a waste of space. If you think something is going to be rubbish going in, there’s a good chance it’ll be a self fulfilling prophecy. Spend your time more wisely and don’t risk spoiling everyone else’s fun by filling a space in a game you don’t want. Someone else might want it for starters, and they could be really interested in what’s on offer.