Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 128 - DMing at Conventions

Episode Date: June 5, 2022

If you've never DM'd at a convention or one night at a gaming store, it's just a little different.  While you could try to duplicate your gaming experience you give to your normal groups, there are some tips and tricks I've learned that have made my convention games more successful.  Here are 10 tips to make your convention game as good as it can be.

This week on the Taking20 Podcast. It is really tempting to schedule multiple games or sessions in rapid succession, but it is exhausting to run games for people you don't know. Add yourself a couple of hours between your sessions to give yourself a break and give you some time to walk around the convention, look to see who else is there, meet and greet, shake some hands, see what vendors are there, and so forth. there, meet and greet, shake some hands, see what vendors are there, and so forth. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode 128 of the Taking20 podcast, this week all about DMing at conventions.

This week's sponsor, remote controls. Cats love remote controls because they love to use the pause button. Before I start this episode, I want to take a moment to send a special thank you to everyone who sent me kind messages, well wishes, and even gifts while I recovered from surgery. While I'm not through all the dark woods yet, I'm a hell of a lot better than I was about a week ago at this time. My brain's becoming clearer, I'm getting stronger, and unfortunately for you all, I still plan on putting out content. I might schedule a few more breaks every now and then, since I've been putting weekly content out for more than two years at this point,

but I'll announce those breaks well in advance. Plus, I have, frankly, a badass scar on the right side of my head. Twenty huge stitches. I look like I've survived a hell of a sword fight. I'm going to tell everybody that the Minotaur I fought got the worst of it before drinking mead out of a large horn. But in all seriousness, it meant a lot to me to receive your kind words and well wishes while I was in the hospital.

You're all amazing, and I'm thankful for everyone who listens to my little podcast. I'm now lighter one tumor that's about 5 centimeters by 3 centimeters in size, and my wife estimates I've lost about 15 pounds through this whole process. That's not all tumor, by the way. Jeez, 15 cubic centimeter tumor weighs, let's see, 15 pounds, about 6 kilograms. No, no, what's that tumor made of? Depleted uranium? No, of course not.

Of course, if it was depleted uranium, that might explain why I had a tumor in the first place. Maybe I should call my doctor. Nope, just double-checked, and my doctor said it was organic and just abnormal tissue. Nope, no I should call my doctor. Nope, just double checked and my doctor said it was organic and just abnormal tissue. Nope, no weird metal except for titanium and that's only to hold my skull together. So if there's any other interesting developments about my skull and tumor and brain and anyone is curious as to what's going on, feel free to message me. My life's a pretty open book at this point and I'll be just as upfront about this as I was about my thyroid cancer back in the day.

Hopefully I'll have some sort of uplifting story to tell you about how everything is going wonderfully, and I'd be happy to share that with you guys later on down the road. Also, don't forget that we have a giveaway and a sponsor at this point. I once again want to thank 3D Crafts and Curios for sponsoring the podcast. Thank 3D Crafts and Curios for sponsoring the podcast. Their shop at 3dcraftsandcurios.etsy.com has 3D printed DM screens, dice towers, dice vaults, and more. Pick up some great gifts for the gamers in your life or even for yourself. Don't forget to use the code TAKING20, that's TAKING20, during the months of June and July to get 10% off any item.

And enter to win one of their gorgeous Artificers Workshop Dice Tower. Send an email to contest at taking20podcast.com with an accessory that you have or would like to have 3D printed for your table. A single email and you get a chance to win a beautiful dice tower, so send in your ideas. Before I ever knew I'd be taking a little bit of time off, I knew I'd be running a little bit of time off, I knew I'd be running some games at nearby conventions this year. In preparation for that experience, I hit up some nights at a couple of friendly local game stores and ran some one-shots for groups there and learned that the skills needed to succeed in one overlap like 90% with the other. So while this episode is named DMing at conventions, in a much broader sense, these tips

can apply anytime that you DM during short-term public meetings like public game nights or conventions or what have you. My good friend and GM Tom Robinson wrote a Pathfinder 2e adventure module called The Hive of Corruption. It's available in PDF and foundry formats at Pathfinder Infinite and DriveThruRPG. It's a great short adventure taking place on Galarian in the wake of a meteor crash that brings something unexpected to the planet. The reason I chose to run that adventure is because A, it's a great adventure, and B, it's the one shot that I'd run multiple times in preparation for convention season. After all, it's designed to be short, a drop-in module that could be run with very limited prep time.

But as short as that adventure was designed to be, I still had a lot of work to do to get it ready in order to run it in the three- and four-hour time slots that I was allotted. In so doing, it made me think about the unique challenges of gaming at conventions and at one-night events in game stores. So, for convenience, I'm just going to refer to these types of games as quote-unquote convention games, but just know that this same logic would apply to any sort of short-term game in a public setting.

So, with that being said, here are 10 tips that I have for running an adventure at a convention or one-night at a game store. have for running an adventure at a convention or one night at a game store. One, cut your content and then cut your content again and then go ahead and cut it again and then go ahead and cut it one more time and then maybe cut it one last time. You have far less time than you think you do and players are going to spend more time on inconsequential things that you really didn't expect and more than you'd like them to, nosing around and searching and querying and finding out and the like, and it's just going to take longer than you expect. So cut your content to the bone and then maybe cut it a couple more times. Two, keep your plots simple.

No, no, not that simple. Simpler. Maybe even simpler than that. A convention game is not the time for a detailed political game that requires remembering 35 major players in a game, that all these complicated NPCs with backstories and interrelated know. Keep it simple. Something quick, like a quick investigation of a problem or an area, capture the flag, breaking and entering, cleaning out a problem area.

Avoid those complicated plots that require a huge cast of thousands. 3. Use the 25-50-25 or the 1-2-1 rule when it comes to running your game. This rule means that 25% of the time should be spent on the initial encounter, 50% of your time should be spent in the main adventure, and the last 25% of the time spent on the boss fight. This helps keep you on pace and on time to wrap everything up in the time window that you have allotted, and yet it still feels like that you're giving proper weight to everything. Tip number four.

The initial encounter should begin in the middle of the action. Have you ever started a movie or a book or any other piece of media where everything starts in the middle of a fight with no setup or explanation? That's exactly how your game session should start. It's a narrative technique called in-media res, literally in the middle of things. Start your adventure in a combat or an encounter of some sort. That way the excitement builds almost instantly. Whenever I'm running a convention game, my first words are usually, I need everyone to roll initiative please. There may be a little bit of wait, what are we doing and why are we here and who are we and that kind of thing. Who gives a crap? Focus on the action. Don't worry about why

the characters are there, the backstory that led to this point, the choices and motivations and the like. Focus on the action because the time that you have to game will evaporate very quickly. Since you are tight for time, keep a close eye on that clock. I use my cell phone to buzz me every 25% of the allotted time. So for example, when I was running a four-hour session, I configured the lap feature of my phone to vibrate me every hour. That let me know without even looking at my phone that we were one hour, two hours, three hours, or almost to the end of our four-hour session. That let me know where I should be in the story and how far the adventure should have progressed by that time.

It helped keep me on pace. Tip number five, you will not know your players. Have ways for them to signal when content is becoming problematic for them. We've discussed on this podcast multiple times things like the X card or having a really good session zero to discuss the contents of an adventure. or having a really good session zero to discuss the contents of an adventure. But have some method, some way for your players to signal, this is a problem, this is something that could trigger me,

this is something that could bother me. That way they know that they can back out of a problematic game and not get trapped going through something that may trigger PTSD or some other problematic reaction. Six, grab a time slot as early as you can to give yourself the most flexibility and possibly the best table to sit at for your game. Not all tables at conventions are created equal and the game may be better in a quieter side table or maybe even in a gaming room. Alternatively, of course, you may want your game in the middle of everything so everyone can see it, increasing walk-up traffic and maybe even more players to participate in your game. No matter what you prefer, reserving a table earlier is a more definite path towards the environment that you want your game to be in. 7. Limit the stuff you bring. At first,

I thought I was going to run a duplicate of how I run my games at home. Digital battle map, atmospheric sounds like rainfall, customized miniatures, battle music. But having run sessions a few times, cut all that unnecessary crap out of your game. You don't need all of it. For my later convention game this year, I was down to cardboard monsters from the bestiaries, plastic bases, and maybe even some replacement monsters for some non-standard monsters from the adventures that I was running. Is it cool to have all that extra stuff? Absolutely.

But having to set all that stuff up, get it all configured, and run the risk of possibly interfering with games around you, I think it's not really worth it. So I'd say cut things down to the minimum that you need, limit the stuff you don't want to bring. But that being said, I want to caveat that by saying bring a few decorations for your table. A few things. Fake doubloons for a pirate adventure, a small monster for something for the players to look at, or little things to give your table a bit of ambiance. It really helps set your table apart from the other games that are running

at the time. So take a little bit of time, set up your table with a few knickknacks here and there. Later on this week, I'll post what my table looked like on social media, so keep an eye out on the official Taking20 Facebook and Insta pages for some pictures of what my setup looked like. taking 20 Facebook and Insta pages for some pictures of what my setup looks like. Tip number eight, be careful about running back-to-back games. It is really tempting to schedule multiple games or sessions in rapid succession, but it is exhausting to run games for people you don't know. Add yourself a couple of hours between your sessions to give yourself a break and give you some time to walk around the convention,

look to see who else is there, meet and greet, shake some hands, see what vendors are there, and so forth. It really will help you keep you fresh for that second game that you're running. Tip number nine. Before the game ever begins, be very descriptive with your game that you're going to run. When you submit a description of your game to the convention staff, give it two to four sentences that sets expectations for the game. I call it teaser text, and it basically just makes sure it very simply explains about the game that you're going to run. I have a recipe that I use, and my simple recipe is this. Name of your game, the game system it's going to be, start time and duration, whether the game session is safe for new players, and the play style of the session. Finally, if there are any age or maturity

restrictions for the game that you're going to run, make sure you list them there. So for example, mine would sound like, in this three-hour Pathfinder 2nd Edition session, players will explore a town in the wake of a devastation. This new player-friendly session will have multiple opportunities for roleplay and combat as a previously veiled kobold master reveals itself to the world. Simple, clean, players know what they're getting into, no surprises there, that's what you're going for. And finally, tip number 10. Bring the little things for your players. Players may not have dice, pencils, characters,

so make it easy on them and bring all that shit with you. It should go without saying, but bring pre-built characters. I've been making 5th edition and Pathfinder characters for years, and it would still take me a significant amount of time to make one from scratch in accordance with all the rules of a one-shot that I sat down to. You definitely don't want to waste a significant amount of time making characters when you can do all of that well before game day. Since I was running Pathfinder 2nd edition, I brought about 9 or 10 of the level 1 iconic characters provided by Paizo. or 10 of the level 1 iconic characters provided by Paizo. They were freely available to print and download from online, they had all the rules for their classes on a separate sheet behind them, and it just made life easier for every player and for myself. The other thing I did, I brought 10

different dice sets in various colors to try and have something that would appeal to a wide variety of players, and honestly, all I did was buy a couple of those multi-set dice bags that had a bunch of different full sets of dice in them. It cost me a total of, what, $10, and a couple of the players went home with their very first dice sets. It cost me so little, and sincerely, I hope those players will always remember their first game at an RPG table, and I hope they're playing years from now with those same dice. Being a DM, especially at a

convention, is servant leadership in a lot of ways. Many of us are taking on this extra work and expense because we love our friends and we want to run them through adventures. We want to see people that we know and just met have a great time. We want to give these people an introduction to the game that we know and love. That was largely the reason why I wanted to run an adventure through multiple conventions this year. I wanted to introduce people to the Pathfinder 2nd Edition play system. Don't get me wrong, I love 5th Edition, I love Starfinder, I love Pathfinder 1e, and I even love Delta Green. But I wanted to get more 2e games on the floor because they were very much underrepresented in the initial schedule for the conventions that I attended.

Running a convention game, even if it's just on a random Saturday at your friendly local game store, is an opportunity for you to be an advocate for tabletop gaming. It's an opportunity for you to be an example of what the hobby looks like. You may have someone come by your table who has only ever seen the Critical Role cartoon, or maybe only watched a stream or two and has always been curious about the hobby. Convention games are the ultimate opportunity to be an advocate for the hobby, to bring new people into the fold, and show them the fun that can be had with friends, colleagues, and even complete strangers around a table, rolling dice, making bad jokes together, and yelling at the dice for rolling the wrong number even though we all know it's really not their fault. If you get the opportunity to do so, just trim your content down, focus on the

necessities, and find an adventure that will be fun for your potential players. Provide the necessities for those players who would attend, do as much as you can ahead of time, and I promise you and your players will be having fun doing it. Short episode this week, I'm still a little bit weak and easing back into things. Next week though, one of my listeners has asked about Pathfinder Nexus, so I'm going to discuss what I know about this new Paizo digital platform and some of the details that have been released. Before I go, don't forget to head over to 3dcraftsandcurios.etsy.com for a 10% discount on a single item the entire months of June and July. Use the code TAKING20, TAKING20.

But before I go also, I want to thank our sponsor, Remote Controls. I'll never forget the first time I picked up a remote control and I thought, this changes everything. This has been episode 128, Running Games at Conventions. My name is Jeremy Shelley and I hope that your next game is your best game.

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