Northeast Wars X

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.

This upcoming Worldwide Dungeons & Dragons Game Day is a little bit different from previous outings. As the website describes:

In the spirit of Dungeon Mastering, we’re giving you the opportunity to create and show off your very own adventure! Work as a team to build encounters using the materials provided. After your team has finished, play another team’s adventure or DM the one your team created. We provide you with everything you need — maps, miniatures, monster stats, and how-to instructions. Just bring your imagination, a pencil or pen, and some dice!

As is becoming a tradition with these days sponsored by Wizards of the Coast, players get a souvenir in the form of the miniature of the character they played. The GM also gets a pack of monster miniatures and map of the encounter areas.

To find a game day near you, consult either Wizards’ own store finder, in the sidebar of the page linked above, or try a third party site like The Master List.

Go forth and prod buttock!

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.

Matt McFarland is a long-time writer and developer for White Wolf’s roleplaying games. In addition to contributing to a number of game lines — including Changeling: The Lost, to name one — Matt helped design Werewolf: The Forsaken and served as developer for the Dark Ages line in the days of the original World of Darkness.

Over the years, Matt’s also run a lot of games, as well. So he’s built a fair store of experience and advice that GMs can draw on. Lucky for those GMs who against scooping out delicious brains to absorb their knowledge the old-fashioned way, Matt has posted a series of essays to his website about gamemastering in general, as well as for specific games. Of especial note to the discerning convention-goer is Con Artistry, Matt’s essay on tailoring the roleplaying experience and one’s GM style to fit the convention environment.

It’s Free RPG Day, everyone! If you haven’t already, hustle down to your local game store for all manner of free adventures and quick-start kits. We mentioned it’s free, right?

If you’re not sure if your local store is participating in the promotion, be sure to visit the website, linked above, for a list of retailers taking part. And if there’s no such business in your area, don’t despair. Free RPG Day publishers often make the material available for download sometime after the day in question.

But, if you have the opportunity, do turn out for Free RPG Day. It’s as much about getting people into stores, talking about roleplaying and even getting into pick-up sessions as it is anything else. Show up, break out the lucky dice set and have fun storming the castle — or megacorp, as the case may be.

Wil Wheaton, actor, podcaster, novelist and nerd, has blogged about running a Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition game for his son and friends. In this post, he talks about leading the group up to the beginning of The Keep on the Shadowfell module.

In addition to talking about how the game itself went, Wil goes on to enumerate elements of good gamemastering, like “Whenever you can, say yes,” and “Everything is important to the PCs.” There’s good advice there, much of which has been heard before, but it’s timeless and widely applicable enough that it bears restating, particularly from such a prominent spokesman for geek culture.

2009 marks the third year of Free RPG Day, an occasion not dissimilar to Free Comic Book Day, intended to get people trying out new games and worlds, as well as giving newcomers a taste of the hobby. On June 20th, friendly local game stores all over will offer a selection of free RPG materials to customers and visitors.

The goodies typically consist of short adventures and quick-start kits donated by a variety of game publishers. Past contributors have included White Wolf Game Studio, Goodman Games and Troll Lord Games, makers of fine products all. For a list of this year’s contributing publishers, visit the Free RPG Day site.

While at the site, you can also find a list of participating game stores. If your local establishment isn’t on the list, don’t despair. Many publishers make their Free RPG Day materials available for download a short time after the day in question.

A few episodes back on All Games Considered, host Mags the Axe began a discussion on the hows and whys of running a game at a convention. While Mags’ background is that of a roleplayer, much of what her advice is broadly applicable to all kinds of games. The Le Havre enthusiast and Warhammer tournament organizer both have to deal with no-show players, fitting into established time slots, explaining rules to newcomers and all that. Plus, All Games Considered is an all around entertaining show; give it a try.

The series spans three segments:

• Episode 99: know your convention’s format and plan accordingly.
• Episode 102: structuring your game for the convention environment.
• Episode 103: scheduling and advertising your game, GM niceties.

With episode 103, the hosts announced that the Mags the Axe School of Game Mastering will become a recurring segment, so keep an eye on future episodes as the various faculty members elaborate on weighty topics.

This Saturday, May 23rd, Worldwide D&D Game Day comes around again — mere months later! — to mark the release of Monster Manual II for Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. All over the world, friendly local game stores will host sessions of the special adventure Journey Through the Silver Caves:

A kobold wyrmpriest has stolen an ancient book of prophecy from the people of Albura, a fortress on the borderlands. The kobold has a dark plan for the book – and only you can stop him in time! An adventure for 5 pregenerated 5th-level characters.

Wizards of the Coast’s website has details on the whole shebang, including character sheets for the adventure, and most importantly, store location resources for the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union.

[Originally spotted on The Escapist.]

Still not sure about the finer points of running a convention game? The podcast Fear the Boot recently posted an episode all about different takes and methods of customizing your game for a convention setting. Moreover, they recorded the episode live at the close of their own convention, Fear the Con, so you can hear from GMs themselves coming fresh from their experiences that weekend.

Once you’ve listened to that sage advice, hustle over to the Event Submission page. We’re taking events right up to April 3rd, and there’s still time to get into the official convention book.