The best costumes this Halloween weekend will be at Bakuretsucon, Burlington, VT’s own anime convention. In addition to the annual masquerade, screening rooms and panels on anime-related topics, Bakuretsucon also hosts a tabletop gaming room, a video game room, complete with tournaments, and even their traditional LARP event, Fast Times at Bakuretsu High.
Draconis, formerly RoyalCon, is Montreal’s bilingual gaming convention. They host a broad spectrum of gaming events for both Anglo- and Francophones.
Special guests in the offing this year include Ryan Sohmer, author of Looking for Group; Sean “Dr. Kromm” Punch, line developer for GURPS; and Philippe-Antoine Ménard, titular author of the blog Musings of the Chatty DM.
The preregistration for Carnage 12, in Fairlee, VT, is now available for download from the front page of the convention’s website.
Preregistration forms — found at the back of the book — must be postmarked October 23rd, less than a month away now. Naturally, early respondents get first dibs on the games they want to play, so don’t delay.
Columbus Day weekend, fans and creators of science fiction and fantasy will gather at the Sovereign Hotel in Albany, NY for Albacon. Events include discussion panels, film screenings, a writer’s workshop and even a vampire ball. Meet fellow fans, chat with writers and get all vamped up for a midnight dance. Sounds like a full weekend to us!
The thirty-second Council of Five Nations, the Capitol District gaming convention sponsored by the Schenectady Wargamers Association, is a mere two weeks off now. They’re back in Proctors this year, a historic vaudeville theater and, now, conference center, in downtown Schenectady. Those are some nice looking digs there.
In addition to the plethora of gaming options offered all weekend long, Council is also offering a tour of the location of the Battle of Saratoga, a historical moment in the American Revolution. There’s also one of the largest Star Fleet Battles Rated Ace tournaments in the country, plus a game auction.
Sounds like a pretty fun weekend!
North of the US-Canadian border, in the city of Montreal, fans and hobbyists converge on the Days Hotel for a weekend celebrating science fiction, fantasy, art, gaming and more at Con*cept. Their website shows some pretty impressive costuming in years past, as well as big name guests like David Brin and Tanya Huff. Other attractions include the sci-fi garage sale and modeling — miniatures, not people — competition.
Over on the Schenectady Wargamers Association site, the reg book for Council of Five Nations is available for download. After checking out the games on offer — including their annual Starfleet Battles tournament and the children-friendly game track — you can also pre-register for the convention right there on the SWA’s website. Now that’s service!
As part of August’s RPG Carnival, a communal blogging topic, NiTessine, Master of Game Masters for Ropecon, a Finnish gaming convention, imparts more than a few good ideas for convention game masters to keep in mind. For example, on the topic of promoting your event to attract like-minded players:
Second, write up a decent description of your game. Nobody will sign up for a game that’s only billed as “D&D 3.5″ without any information as to the actual content. You want to grab your players’ attention with it. Tell them what the game is like, not about what your ruleset is (though it is a good idea to mention that, too – I would be most unhappy if I found myself at a 4E table by accident). This should also get you the kind of players you want – the people playing RPGs at conventions are a myriad bunch, and the wrong sort of player in the wrong sort of game can lead to disaster. A Nordic-style immersionist in a Living Greyhawk table or a hack & slashy D&D player in a World of Darkness game are unlikely to lead to good gaming.
It’s a good rundown of good practices for GMs running games in the convention environment. You can read it in full at Worlds in a Handful of Dice.
The venerable gaming institution, TotalCon, is now accepting event submissions for its twenty-fourth year of gaming. You can find out more about GM perks and more, as well as admire their newly redesigned website.
Held the weekend after Presidents Day every year, TotalCon takes place over four days at the Holiday Inn in Mansfield, MA. They cover all genres of gaming, including miniatures, roleplaying and board games. On their website you can learn more about the history of the convention, including the coveted Puppy Masher award.
Every month, members of the RPG Bloggers Network participate in the RPG Carnival, which is a way to collect a lot of different viewpoints on a particular topic. This month of August, the topic was conventions. The links are collected on Chgowiz’s Old Guy RPG Blog.
One carnival post in particular by Johnn Four lists a number of articles from Roleplaying Tips. If you’re looking for a jumping off point in finding new techniques and tips for running games in a convention environment, this is a fine place to start.