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I am working toward setting up a one or two day, open to the public, mini-con for Pathfinder RPG. This is not being done to make any sort of profit and will be relying on volunteers to make it happen. I have some experience with organizing events- having done one mini-con and many Magic: the Gathering tournaments back in the day prior to DCI, but I am feeling a bit overwhelmed and looking for feedback/advice.
The local game store is not a very good choice for this kind of event due to the sheer mass of TCG related activities and lack of room. I am hoping to essentially start off with banquet-style tables able to accomodate around 30 players (5 tables of 6 players each).
The thing I have run into is that after submitting several proposals to hotels in the area is that the cost is very high- $400 a day or more for the smallest banquet room. I doubt I can charge players more than $5 per day of play to cover costs... maybe as much as $10, I suppose, but even at $10 it is not enough to cover costs for most of these venues.
Anyone have experience with this and can give suggestions? I thought about utilizing the Kickstarter website and Warhorn for this, but I don't think Kickstarter would consider it to have "artistic merit".
Thanks in advance for your advice and insight,
WJ
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Do you even know if there would be that many players who would come? I would be very cautious about spending any of my own money unless I felt assured that the player population would support the event.
What you might want to consider are your local veteran's clubs as a location. I don't know what they call them, my impression is they're a bunch of local guys who like hanging out and drinking cheap beer so much they pooled their money and bought a clubhouse. Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) or American Legion halls. Even Knights of Columbus, Fraternal Order of Eagles, etc. Some union locals own large halls that you can rent out. All of these organizations are far more reasonable than hotels when it comes to renting their facilities. The local good ole boys will be a lot friendlier to an average joe than a hotel manager will. And they have cheap beer.
You might also check out your local college and see if they have a student organization who might sponsor your event. If the mini-con goes through the student group you can save a lot of money and get access to a whole new pool of potential gamers.
I've rented a hotel banquet hall before and in hindsight it was a big waste of money. I've also rented rooms at a university's student center. That was much cheaper but since I wasn't a student there I had to provide a $500,000 certificate of insurance. Your best bet is to find someone on the inside of a veteran's club or a student organization. Have your facts & figures worked out before, they will want to know you're serious. Finally, know beforehand where your players are coming from and go to them. Don't expect a lot of players to travel to a mini-con.
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Do you even know if there would be that many players who would come? I would be very cautious about spending any of my own money unless I felt assured that the player population would support the event. <snip>
Have your facts & figures worked out before, they will want to know you're serious. Finally, know beforehand where your players are coming from and go to them. Don't expect a lot of players to travel to a mini-con.
Good advice. I am not sure how many I would get for certain. I may just be dreaming that I could get five full tables between the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale/Orlando area (I am in West Palm Beach). I was thinking that some form of "crowdfunding" by the people who would be attending would give me an idea of how many to expect.
The local good ole boys will be a lot friendlier to an average joe than a hotel manager will. And they have cheap beer.
By George, that is a good idea! I can think of one such organization I could call upon.
Thanks, Doug!
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Start small. As Doug said, know your player base so you don't get stuck overpaying for space you won't use.
In Atlanta, I wanted to do this when I was a Venture-Captain. However, it was always cost prohibitive and that was with 120 active PFS players at the time. Now that region has 170+ active players and could probably pull it off.
But, be careful not to overextend yourself. I applaud you on high expectations. Everyone who knows me knows I have the same. I eventually want a Venture-Captain in Miami. You may want to talk to the stores. They may have a slow day or slow time of the year they would provide space when TCGs weren't running. Build from that and see where it goes.
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Welcome to the crazy-state Pathfinder Scene!
I am based out of Tampa, and I am getting to Orlando for some PFS gaming in 2012. I do go down to South Florida on occasion to visit the in-laws, but not reliably enough to run PFS.
However, if I knew when you had something going on, I would certainly try to make it down and run a scenario or two...or at least say 'hi'.
Email me at tampabaypathfinder (at) gmail (dot) com if you would like to talk more about Pathfinder in Florida and definitely let me know if you are ever up our way - we'll get you in on a game or two!
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Kristie and Mike,
Thanks! Mike, what you wrote about "cost prohibitive" even when you have a large pool of players to draw from and also the "start small" are two things I am taking to heart in trying to plan something. My fiancee (who is an avid player herself) thinks I am dreaming if I think that 1. I can get players to commit to doing something like this and 2. get them to cough up the money for it. :-| But I have a dream, I suppose, of someday hosting something largish.
In the meantime, I have a nice group and we are meeting regularly... we just did Feast of Ravemoor (part I) last night and eveyone had a good time. For now, maybe I should just concentrate on refining my own DM skills (after at 10 year haitus) and keeping my small group going, adding folks as I can. Mike, I wish I had the time to be a VC, but my job is somewhat demanding and my social calander is pretty full- I just don't think I have the time for that (at the moment). I have read the requirements and understand the commitment involved.
Kristie, I will let you know if we get something together... my group meets almost every Sunday afternoon/evening... but if something bigger is brewing, I will definately let you know. :-)
I know there are groups in the Miami area, as I am on the mailing list for a couple of them via MeetUp.com, but I haven't followed up on it as of yet. Maybe finding a store in the Fort Lauderdale, Miami area that isn't crawling with CCG "kids" that could be a good beachhead- allowing me to bring in the gamers I know of in the West Palm Beach / Lake Worth area and combine them with those in the greater Miami area. We will see.
WJ - Jason
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Have you tried talking to the Venture-Captain in Tampa? He is a nice guy, name is mike. They have a group thing going on this weekend at a local gaming store. They have been real active in going to the different stores in the Tampa/St.Pete area. They have a weekly game or two going on. They are on meetup.com as well. Im in the Jacksonville area and travel across florida to game at different stores. I use to live in Port Charlotte and would travel to Miami or Orlando. Its a hell of a drive.
Network. Talk to your local gaming store. Put up fliers. Talk with the other Venture-captains. Go on meet-up and join the other Pathfinder groups on there. Go on facebook and join the two groups there. Put in Pathfinders of Florida and there is another one as well for Florida. Check out the local Cons of Miami. In Jacksonville we have two of them. Anicent city Con and Rapier con. Last year some of the guys ran an event or two each day at them. One of the guys ended up with a new gaming group because of it. Never know :) Talk to the guys who set up your local cons.
Dominick who runs War-Horn.net would be a good guy to talk too! He does the events for Mega-Con and a ton others. If you can get in with a Gamers society on a Campus that would be great! Doug Miles is spot on with that!
My hope is to get enough people interested in gaming at my local cons so we can run an Interactive! Its my favorite thing to do at Gen-Con.
Good Luck Man! Network! :)