I’m on blogging holiday until next week. During that time I will re-post old articles of mine or feature guest posts.
This article was written by Kameron M. Franklin who generously offered to step in during my break. Thanks man!
This past weekend I had the privilege of DMing a 4E session for charity. The Portland D&D Meetup group put together a twelve-hour event with several different tables running games. I’ve run games at GenCon before, so I knew that the experience would be quite different from gaming around the kitchen table. If you’re interested in GMing for a convention for the first time, or looking for some tips to help make your game part of someone’s memories from GenCon 2009, here are some things I learned that I’d like to share.
Double Your Prep Time
Convention games are generally schedule in neat, little 4-hour blocks. I’ve found it takes me at least two-hours of preparation for every one hour of playtime to put together a suitable adventure. I should mention that this is based on using a published adventure, though with some pretty heavy modifications. You may need to tack on some additional time if you’re building an adventure from the ground up.
Keep it Short and Sweet
Structure your adventure around 4-5 scenes. The adventure I ran at the charity event included 3 combat encounters and two skill challenges. Well, 3-and-a-half combat encounters. (There was technically a short rest between the two battles that comprised the climactic scene.) Do NOT use random encounters, but keep 1 or 2 in your pocket just in case your players are setting a fast pace. Also be willing to cut a scene if time is running short.
Focus on Action
A convention game table is not the ideal setting for a roleplaying-rich game. There is a lot of ambient noise from the fifteen other games being run in the same room, which is very disruptive to most attempts at immersion. The players are typically strangers to each other, and being the introverted geeks we are, that’s not the ideal audience for encouraging in-character development. If you’re a GM who favors character interaction over combat in your game, you might find yourself disappointed.
Pregenerate PCs
I can’t emphasize this enough, and for several reasons. You won’t have time to review characters the players bring, and there won’t be time to for the players to make one during the session. You know what the adventure calls for and what will give the players the best chance for success and a fun time. Therefore, you should generate the PCs the players will use as part of your prep time. Create one PC for each player you expect to participate in your game. Be sure to give each PC abilities that will allow them to shine at one point in the adventure.
I’d love to hear from other “convention” GMs about their advice for running a successful game in this type of environment. Thoughts from the players’ side are also welcome. Perhaps the best piece of advice I got came from a player after one of my sessions at GenCon (no random encounters).
About the Author
Kameron M. Franklin is a published fantasy fiction novelist who likes to dabble in game design. He has been playing D&D since the 3rd grade and DMing for twenty-some years. He blogs about fantasy fiction at www.pensandswords.com.
Nice article! I, like probably many others, wonder how my GM-ing skills would serve me if I were to host a game at a convention. Already by reading your article I can tell it’s very different from playing with friends. I like to believe I’m a well-to-do GM, but this would be a real test! Hats off to those who manage!
I really, really love DMing at conventions. I love playing for relative strangers as it allows me to do silly stuff as a DM that I refrain from doing with my friends.
Heck, at Gen Con, I DMed for 12 hours one day!
(Never again!)
🙂
Interesting article!
I’m not sure I’d do too well GMing at a convention… I still have way too much problem describing action.
@ChattyDM: What kind of silly stuff do you refrain from doing with your Friday night buddies? Would you have hesitated throwing Grandma Kobble’s World Famous Cookie Dough trap? (Grandma Kobble – now there’s a powerful brand…)
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I did four 4-hour games over 2 days (2 per day) for one GenCon, and not much else that year. One session per day, and 2 sessions per convention, is now my limit. I like to be able to visit with friends and check out other games/seminars.
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