Tips for Running Third-Party Con Events


Third-Party and Fan Events


Hey, I'm considering submitting my first-ever con event, and I was curious on a few things. While searching for advice, I found this. It's a pretty great guide from Roleplaying Tips on running a convention game.

I thought others might find it useful. I'm getting a lot out of it.

Also, while I'm here, a question for those who have run before—when submitting, how long should I expect the game to run? What time is "standard" for a game? How much time should I expect cleanup and setup to take?

Any other tips you've picked up over the years and would like to share?

I considered whether to put this in Gamer Talk or TPaFE. Ultimately, I settled on the PaizoCon subforum, just because I think it'll be of more immediate use to people here. If the mods feel otherwise, I apologize, and they may feel free to move it.

Liberty's Edge

Starfinder Superscriber

Slots are either 4 hours. Aim for your game to run for 3.5 hours. There will be some delay getting started as people find your table and BS around a bit. You'll want to finish on time; there's usually passing time between sessions, so you don't have to finish early. Usually, your game will take longer than you think it will, so consider having optional parts that you can skip if it looks like things are going slower than you planned. (E.g, the "optional encounters" that are in a lot of PFS scenarios.)

As for cleanup and setup, that's all you. Expect to show up at a table that's sized so that six people can sit around it; you'll have one chair, *maybe* two (a second one to pile your GM junk on). How long does it take you to set up and tear down in this situation? Different for different people. I tend to be a bit on the slow side myself.

Lantern Lodge Customer Service Manager

You can make it as long or short as you want. I schedule in hour segments and you should round up to the nearest hour, not down. I recommend for a RPG game to be about 4-5 hours (this includes set up and clean up). You can run a longer game, but its harder to schedule and people may shy away from it if it overlaps other events they want to go to.

Average table size can technically hold 8, but 4-6 players is usually a good cap for a standard game. You can run events for more, but larger tables/areas are harder to schedule and may result in an event getting cut if I can't make it work.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Sara Marie wrote:
I schedule...

Hey Sara - for planning of third-party events, did we stick with the PFS-free afternoons this year? Probably the volunteer post will go up before the event deadline, but no guarantees.

Edit: Nevermind! Just saw the top of the event submission page talks about the afternoon slots and PFS.

Lantern Lodge Customer Service Manager

We are again doing the thing where we don't have officially Paizo run PFS from 1p-6p Friday, Saturday and Sunday. However, I am going to be working with the Seattle VL to better coordinate having PFS games listed during that time that other individuals are running.

If people (working with the Seattle VL or independently) want to run PFS games in the Grand Ballroom during the mid-day hours, I would prefer to coordinate those after the initial schedule goes up to ensure GMs all have an opportunity to see what events will be going on during that time. I'm happy to work with people to get those on the PaizoCon schedule so that all attendees can have an opportunity to sign up for them. To be clear though, that's just for PFS games being run in the Grand Ballroom during 1p-6pm time slot, Friday-Sunday.

President, Jon Brazer Enterprises

Sara Marie wrote:
Average table size can technically hold 8, but 4-6 players is usually a good cap for a standard game.

After having run games at paizocon last year for 8+ people, I highly recommend making the cap 6 with 4 being ideal. Should I return this year, that will be a change I make.

Sczarni RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

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My advice (and I need to take it too,):

If you aren't sure you want to submit and run an event, do it. It is fun and you get to meet new people.

Plan ahead and know your limits. I did two events last year and I should have only done one. One event was a big mess because I had to do a large amount of last minute planning. The other suffered slightly from a lack of polish because I had split my time up. On the other hand, the year I ran one event I was able to put together an amazing game with great visual props, custom rules, and painted miniatures I gave to the players.

Have fun. Don't let yourself get stressed out over the game.

Yeah, 6 people is a good upper limit.


CalebTGordan wrote:

My advice (and I need to take it too,):

If you aren't sure you want to submit and run an event, do it. It is fun and you get to meet new people.

Plan ahead and know your limits. I did two events last year and I should have only done one. One event was a big mess because I had to do a large amount of last minute planning. The other suffered slightly from a lack of polish because I had split my time up. On the other hand, the year I ran one event I was able to put together an amazing game with great visual props, custom rules, and painted miniatures I gave to the players.

Have fun. Don't let yourself get stressed out over the game.

Yeah, 6 people is a good upper limit.

All of this is true. If you think you might run one event, do it. I ran my first con game at last year's PaizoCon, and it was a great time. PaizoCon is a great, safe place to run a con game. I let in 7 players, and it was one too many. 6 is a great number.


The deadline is the 30th, right?

Lantern Lodge Customer Service Manager

My productivity for PaizoCon took a hit with the Humble Bundle promotion starting. I'll see where things lie on Monday and provide an update.

Liberty's Edge

Starfinder Superscriber

Oh, hurm, event submission deadline is today. I was hoping to get the PFS call for volunteers out and find out how many PFS sessions I was GMing (knowing that some tiers of PFS volunteers "sell out" quickly) before deciding if I was going to submit a 3rd party event.

Boldy Go, I guess.


Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

rknop: Given how dramatic the response has been to the Bundle, it sounds like that's been the focus, there may still be a bit more time for submissions?

Don't know, not in any way, shape, or form an authority but given how... glacial some things have been due to traffic volume?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
CalebTGordan wrote:

My advice (and I need to take it too,):

If you aren't sure you want to submit and run an event, do it. It is fun and you get to meet new people.

Sent mine in last night just... past... the {original} deadline! Woot!

So hurry up and Submit everyone, before the end is announced! :)


Damn! Damn! I knew I'd forget!

Think I still have time, or is it properly too late? I'ma go for Grimm, I think, and bring the Spell RPG as a pickup option.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Probably still time - get it in and find out!


I did exactly that!

Sczarni RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

I hate to admit it but I did not take my own advice. I am doing fulltime+ for my last semester at the good old university, and the work load I anticipate for the last half of it will be crazy. I tend to want to do big and impressive in my con games. I won't have the needed preparation time for painted minis, cool maps, and custom scenarios.

Which leads me to another piece of advice: Do not beat yourself up if you can't run a game because you do not think you can put the time and effort into it. You can always set up pick-up games if you find yourself with some extra time.

Lantern Lodge Customer Service Manager

Feel free to still submit things. I've been so swamped with a couple different projects I haven't even finished sorting the submissions I do have, in fact, I got about 1/4 of the way through emailing people who submitted last year to let them know submissions were open before that was derailed. -.-

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