What can you do at a convention that you can’t do elsewhere?
It’s a unique opportunity that differs from most of our gaming tables. An extended period of gaming with a larger pool of gamers. As I ran one shots at my local gaming convention last year, I thought about what I could run that is only really feasible to run at a convention.
Here are some of the kinds of things I’m thinking about:
Tournament module - As it was in the old days. Multiple groups play through the same module and are assigned a score based on their actions.
Multiple tables simultaneously - A game with multiple GMs and maybe an arch-GM orchestrating a larger scenario (e.g., multiple parties with different objectives in a city during a siege).
Evolving setting - Over the course of the convention multiple groups have adventures within the same setting. If you have a player play at the table multiple times, they could play the same character (unless there are large time skips between sessions). This one may be easiest with a megadungeon.
I’m interested in hearing about your experiences and ideas.
Once at North Texas RPG, two DCC judges ran two competing tables simultaneously. It was pretty fun although I did kind of pull a cheesy tactic by spell burn dumping on them.
Speaking of DCC, look up the tournament games they run at GenCon. Some interesting mechanics and scenarios that would mostly just be fun at cons.
Clubhouse play is kind’ve going thru it’s own revival right now and I’ve been playing in a couple so far. Really fun play style.
Essentially it’s a lot of people playing in a shared world, often at different levels of play and with competing or cooperative goals.
You could have Zach, a Lord (fighter 9), who needs a monster lair dealt with so he can keep collecting taxes but his army is across the map trying to wipe out an orc horde. So, Lord Zach puts out a rumor this week to pay 1000gp to the party that clears it.
Alice, Bob, and Charlie are planning on going to a dungeon this Saturday, but Dave, Eddie, and Felicia don’t have plans so they go clear that lair, helping out Lord Zach who can now collect rqxes this month to payforr a spy NPC to go get info on Patriarch Will’s army movements.
It harkens back to 60s-70s wargaming clubhouses, but with RPGs. Most popularly (for now) OD&D or AD&D since they readily have the tools to support this style. It may seem daunting, but its actually very easy to run and keep track of. Its also very very flexible with schedules as the only thing you need to do to play is give a sentence or two monthly order to a referee who moves your men around. That’s why I enjoy it, as a busy parent I’ve been able to play a ton just with a quick discord post here and there or I can pop in and run a dungeon dive when I can.
Thanks for sharing the info. While I haven’t heard of this style, a lot of the elements you describe are similar to a West Marches style game.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure how well it would fit the convention format. I think an existing clubhouse game could use a convention to pull off a larger event or attract new players, or I guess you could use it kick off a new clubhouse game. Otherwise, it feels like only the GM would really benefit from a game that only exists for the duration of the convention.