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Recently I participated in another thread on why do you like to gm?. It got me thinking on the different responses and a few people mentioned cons/conventions.
Now this is going to be probably a little stereotypical, it seems that there are some players/gms that only game at conventions. They might go to 2-3-4 a year, get in an OD of gaming and then none for another couple of months till the next con.
As a GM (and I cannot answer this for I have have never gm'd at a con), is there anything that separates a convention gm from a games day gm?
Im seeing the few obvious things
A)Overload on the gm to be able to get enough gm credit for free X( either lodging or other)
B) Being forced to accept poorly constructed parties
C) Having your game fold because of last minute no shows
D) Possibly not having a good location to store gm tools between sessions (ie having to carry everything around with you)
By the same token, are there any gms out there who only gm at Game days ? (Public/ Private). I fall into that boat because of the lack of local conventions although I think I would jump at the chance if it arose.
Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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As a GM is there anything that separates a convention gm from a games day gm?
Stress.
People pay a lot of money to play at conventions, prices that game days don't approach. The conventions are $20-$30 to get in the door, then $3-$5 to play each slot. This creates stress because the players are trying to get from game to game as quickly and efficiently as possible, and are additionally trying to play as many games as they can to maximize their return on the "gate fee."
So, I stress a little bit about providing a good time in those circumstances.
Conversely, my store's game day's are $2 per slot. At $2, no one is worked up about "expected value" and is simply happy that they gave SOMETHING to their GM (we use the money made to buy gift certificates for the GMs).
Also, GMing at a game day tends to be playing with people you know. You've either had them as players before, had them as a GM before, or played with them at some point. At worst, you've seen them at other tables, and at least know how they act within the environment of the store's game day.
At conventions, you are very likely to be sat with six people you wouldn't know from Adam. Moreover, they may turn out to be six people you would never even WANT to share a table with. But considering how much they spent to get the right to play with you, you are STILL going to show them a good time.
Of course, if you enjoy what you are doing, that stress goes away pretty quickly. (-:
Im seeing the few obvious things
A)Overload on the gm to be able to get enough gm credit for free X( either lodging or other)
I GM every slot locally, but not to get credit. I GM because otherwise I have rush from game to game, table to table, wolf down food between slots, and then try to figure out how to get time for the dealer room. By GMing every slot, I get handed a single game table for the whole weekend, and I become a bit of a celebrity. That's pretty cool. I've even had my picture taken with people. "Hey, you're that guy with the cool 3D tiles. Mind if we take a picture with you?" Highlight of my convention life. :-D
B) Being forced to accept poorly constructed parties
Nah. Don't have issues with this.
C) Having your game fold because of last minute no shows
Again, not an issue. If it does, you get 4 hours off to hit the dealer room. w00t!
D) Possibly not having a good location to store gm tools between sessions (ie having to carry everything around with you)
Kinda covered this, already.
Plus, I have a wife who loves that I do this. She doesn't necessarily want to play during the convention (she will if she has the time or inclination), but she loves "seeing me in my element" as she calls it. She happily grabs lunch and dinner for me, swings by to be sure I have water or snacks, brings terrain/props to me at set times, and otherwise enjoys a "vacation" at the hotel with nothing to do but read books and chat with friends.
I strongly suggest getting your significant other to go along with this kind of plan, if you really want to pursue convention GMing. It makes a world of difference.
So, I guess if I have to answer the "what sets apart a convention GM from a game day GM?" question, the answer is "A spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend who gets what you do."
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one of the things that becomes more of a focus at a convention is time management by the GM.
This.
Give them a game worthy of a paid experience and do it in a non-mutable time frame. Get it done even faster if you plan to ever eat or pee. (Not recommended to try to do those simultaneously).
I love GMing at cons because, to me, it feels like the 'big leagues', even if its a smaller local con. I like the pressure to try to be awesome in an intense situation.
The biggest challenge for me personally is that the spirit is willing but the flesh is tired, grumpy and has to be on some kind of a humane schedule or everything protests mightily.
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At what point then should a convention GM state that 'enough is enough' if given too little time to run a scenario properly ? Do Conventions need to have 4 1/2 slots for games (which might mean less games but more time to actually run the scenario in full)
Conventions are great sure, but if the end result is that a game feels cut down due to a lack of time, isnt that directly impinging on the likelihood that a player would want to return to play others?
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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Our game days and conventions both have four hour slots. I've found that most conventions in the States actually have four hour slots, as well. For instance, our slots start at 9:00 AM, 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM, and games are supposed to be done within four hours. Muster happens at 8:45, 1:45 and 6:45, and it's pretty unusual to start late. Plus, with the hour in between slots, you have about 15 minutes of wiggle room before players get antsy.
Larger conventions, I have heard, have five hour slots. They don't. Their slots will start at 8:00 AM, 1:00 PM and 6:00 PM. Muster starts on the hour, and often tables don't get fully seated until a half hour past the time slot starts. To me, that sounds like a four hour slot.
So, I wouldn't sweat that detail. Just know that you are very unlikely to run the optional encounter, and if you get that guy who has no idea what to do every turn, and spends 5 minutes thinking about it before acting, you need to know how to push him along toward making faster decisions (meaning, be ready for his turn).
And, no, if you've cut down on "fluff" a bit to make the game run faster, most players will not notice. It is better, however, to know how to run a combat efficiently.
I have heard that Netopolis is known for running good games in near-record times. Perhaps you should PM him, if you're wondering about this aspect.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32
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I have heard that Netopolis is known for running good games in near-record times. Perhaps you should PM him, if you're wondering about this aspect.
Heh, I was actually just about to comment on this thread when I noticed this. I don't know that I'd call them record times, but I do generally run pretty quickly. If I'm running Tier 1-5, I generally run scenarios in 3 hours.
Here's a few points about how I do it:
1) Prep! The less you have to look up during a scenario, the more time you have to run the scenario. Look up any spells, feats or classes that you may be unfamiliar with.
2) Pre-draw maps. I know that a lot of people prefer to draw as they go, but it takes a *lot* longer. In most scenarios, fog of war isn't a huge issue.
3) Pre-fill chronicles. You can fill in everything at the bottom of a chronicle before the event even starts. This will save you lots of wrap-up time.
4) If you are running short on time, don't be afraid to prompt your players. "Alright, you are in a dungeon. You came in from the west, and there is a door to the North and to the South. Which door do you want to go into?" Unfortunately, if you let your players go at their own pace, healing sessions will often turn into rambling discussions of popular culture. This isn't a problem if you're not on a time crunch, but you don't have time for that at a con.
5) Don't sacrifice RP in favor of time management. You may have to cut some of the RP shorter than you normally would, but at least do a little bit of it. Failing to do so will be a supreme disappointment to your players. The most disappointing table that I have played in to date was one at GenCon where we had a very, very social scenario, but the GM insisted that we just roll diplomacy checks rather than interacting with the characters.
6) If you have to cut anything, watch how the table interacts in the first couple of scenes. If they don't care so much about the combat, feel free to start calling combats once they are practically won. If they don't care as much about the RP, get the point across and move on.
7) Use an efficient initiative tracking system. When I started, I used initiative cards, which are simply cards with numbers on them. You start calling out numbers at 25 and go down, and players raise their hands as their initiative is called. Then, to run combat, you just call out "Number 1", "Number 2", etc.
I switched later to a combat pad, because I like referring to characters by names, and it makes delaying/holding actions a bit easier. The point is to pick an initiative system that doesn't require you to look at a bunch of numbers every round - make it simple for you to just glance down and see who's next.
Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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1) Prep! The less you have to look up during a scenario, the more time you have to run the scenario. Look up any spells, feats or classes that you may be unfamiliar with.
+1 this. The slowest games I have been in are the ones where people are having to flip through books and scenarios to figure out what is happening next.
I have noticed that Paizo has a bad habit of spliting stat blocks across pages, or doing things like "see appendix"
So part of my prep is copying each room onto a single page, with a quick reference of the DCs of any checks in the room, any creatures in the room, etc. And I prepare a seperate one of these for each tier so that a) there is less info on it. and b) I don't wind up using the wrong number for the tier people are playing. (Which has happened to me as a player.)
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Slightly maybe unrelated with a topic, but I noticed that it's often easier to speed up scenario by ending those "easy" combat encounters by letting the enemy surrender if it goes badly for them and considering it's in their nature to do so. This adds additional social talk with NPCs, which is also nice way to enforce roleplay.
Adam
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Off subject....
Drogon why have you not moved to 5 hour slots for your game day? I am curious because I know ours got much better once we moved to 5 hour slots.
Dragnmoon:
Are your 5 hour slots back-to-back, or with an hour between?Drogon's list shows 4 hour slots, but with an hour of downtime between, which makes them act, in some ways, as though they were 5 hour slots.
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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Off subject....
Drogon why have you not moved to 5 hour slots for your game day? I am curious because I know ours got much better once we moved to 5 hour slots.
What Kinevon said is accurate.
Also, being a coffee shop sees me draw a pretty diverse crowd. The space I have gets booked pretty quickly, and I have to work the availability in chunks of some sort. The four hour "slot" made popular by the local conventions (with a one hour break in between) works pretty well. It caters to RPGs, board game groups, miniatures war games, business meetings, book discussion groups. Most everything can fit into that time slot, and booking events and groups is really easy when everything is unified.
At the conventions in Denver we tossed around the idea of departing from the rest of the time slots and running 5-hour slots. But after polling players (many of whom wanted to play other games along with PFS), we came to the conclusion that we would lose a lot of players due to our making it inconvenient for them to explore everything else. The conventions, of course, do 4-hour slots for the same reason I do.
And, like I mentioned, by mustering 10-15 minutes before the slot starts, games actually start on time, giving you the full four hours (plus a few minutes leeway for overtime or paperwork) to play. The local players I know who went to Paizocon this year said they actually prefer the way we do it, locally, as the "faux" five-hour slot wasn't really a five-hour slot, they felt. It resulted in them feeling more rushed, as GMs felt they could push their games all the way to the end of the slot (when the next muster started). As a result they were always hungry and rushing around to get to the next game, and ended up ditching slots because of it (which irritated them, of course).
This, too, had a lot to do with our decision to stick with what the local conventions do when running PFS there.
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As a GM (and I cannot answer this for I have have never gm'd at a con), is there anything that separates a convention gm from a games day gm?
1) A willingness to play with a large variety of players and PC builds.
2) The ability to run a game within stricter time frames.3) Fortitude to handle multiple slots without much rest.
The only time I get to play is at bigger conventions, and I definitely like it. Variety is the spice of life. Having different players and GMs allows you to see different styles and grow. It also breaks up the monotony of seeing the same people day-in day-out.
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I GM a lot at cons. Some cons, I'll GM 7 slots, others only 3, but I never go to a con and not GM. So, here are my tips for GMing at a con.
1) Know your scenarios. If the level range is higher than 1-5, look at it from a player's view and figure out how they are likely to come at it. Anticipating flight, dimension door, etc, can really speed up a scenario and make it more fun.
2) Get to know your players. Make them feel welcome, try to remember their names, and wish them a pleasant convention. You are the public face of PFS, and a smile and a handshake makes the whole con go better.
3) Schedule scenarios you like. If you love social scenarios, load up on Blackros Matrimony and the like. If you want challenging combat, sign up for Waking Rune. If you don't like a particular type of play, you'll burn out faster and the players won't have as much fun.
4) Spread out your schedule. Make sure you have time to play, to have fun. Don't GM the first 6 slots, you'll burn out. If you're GM'ing a lot, put some of your favorite scenarios in the mix when you think you'll need a mental pick me up.
5) Be flexible. The organizer may need to move your table. You might need to run a different scenario. Your table might no show. They might show up with a crazy build that confuses you to no end. Pause, breathe, adapt. Ask the player to briefly explain their build, and what sources it comes from. If you still aren't sure of it (or if its legal), call over the coordinator/organizer, and ask for their ruling, and go with it. If your table gets swapped, its not fun, but help the organizer out and be flexible. They've got 20 different plates to spin, so any help you can give them is great.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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When I run at a convention, I am almost always teaching the game system, the campaign rules, or the world setting. If there are new-ish people at the table, I am also selling the game experience.
In a game store, that doesn't come up nearly as often. Whether it's a regular one- or two-table game meet-up or a three- or four-table gameday, most of the people there know one another, have a history, and have an expectation that they'll have a continuing relationship.
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Have people noted a difference at a small (3- or 4-table-per-slot) convention, between the interactions among regular locals versus visitors who've traveled in?
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Here in DFW, no one pays to play a slot of PFS. Conventions do have admission costs, but I can't think of any that require payment per slot. None of our gamedays charge anything either. We have also moved to exclusive 5+hour slots. I think we had 7 hours between start times at our last con, and we have 6 hours between starts at our gamedays. And still run over.
I mostly GM gamedays, but will pick up a single day at conventions as well. More than that is simply not worth it for me to participate in. Seeing my friends burned out for months from being Tier 1 at Gen Con confirms it for me. I honestly wish it wasn't even an option -- I like to see the really good GMs playing their characters, and not being dead in their final slots of running. I wouldn't run in a four hour slot either.