Gareth Hanrahan on Writing Convention Games
Gareth Hanrahan, contributor to a number of roleplaying game lines — including Traveller, RuneQuest and Paranoia – has a five part series on his blog Figures of Text describing his methods for writing convention scenarios. The first article, “How to write convention scenarios the Gar Hanrahan way,” is here.
He notes that his experiences are largely of Irish gaming conventions, namely Warpcon and Gaelcon, which use a different process than most American conventions for screening and presenting adventures, so his advice tends to be oriented towards that style. Aside from that, most of Gareth’s advice on creating characters, generating core scenes and tying everything up in a finale can easily be utilized in any roleplaying situation with a set time limit, whether it’s at a convention or a one-shot with the regular gaming group.