28 ideas for running RPGs at conventions

I attended GaryCon XVII and played a whole bunch of games. I watched a bunch, too. And I talked to many brilliant people. All in all I learned a ton about running games at cons and I was taking notes the whole time.

1. Provide nametags or table tents so players can display their own names and their character names.
2. Start at the coolest part. That might mean starting inside the dungeon. If the adventure is called The Dread Dungeon of Kortek Mountain, don’t spend an hour on the road to the mountain and looking for the door to the dungeon.
3. Do some sort of intros/getting to know you with the players, even if it seems cheesy.
4. Definitely introduce yourself. Be vulnerable, let the players know you. Build up some credibility, be friendly, and give them reasons to trust you.
5. Bring the energy, especially at the beginning. But also build rapport by matching the players’ vibes.
6. Have a plan to deal with the player who’s on their cellphone all the time. Put a stop to it and don’t waste game time telling them what they missed.
7. Have a list of potential character names, maybe a rollable table like in Knave or Shadowdark, it will just make things easier. And if you have a table, it’ll get the players rolling dice right away. Who doesn’t love that?
8. The players want to learn about THIS system. Make sure they get to do whatever makes THIS game special and fun.
9. You will have some people who have never played the game and know nothing about it.
10. Expect that someone will leave the table and return (with no explanation) at some point. Don’t let it throw you off.
11. Your best bet is just to make sure you know the adventure well. (As opposed to reading it once the day before.)
12. Think about the usability of your materials. A stack of double-sided pages with 10pt type will not make it easy for you to quickly find the info you need.
13. Have a plan to deal with that one player who wants to take over the game. Keep including everyone.
14. Have a really cool map (which could mean many things.) Unless maps just aren't your thing.
15. Make everything relate to THIS four hour game. Even a chest of gold can be kind of a bummer if you don’t get to spend it during the session.
16. You might want to stand up if you can. It’s better for your back and will help you keep their attention.
17. Take care of your voice, you’ll probably be in a VERY loud room.
18. Do whatever you have to do to get the players to talk to each other – ask questions, do getting to know you games, whatever. Don’t spend the whole game with them just talking to you.
19. Keep it moving, control the pace. Calm is okay. Sometimes slow is good. But there should always be presence. Dead air is the fun killer.
20. Push hard for the first sixty minutes, even if they don’t seem to be into it. It might take an hour for them to settle in and start trusting you and each other.
21. Put the rewards behind the verbs that are important to THIS game. (e.g. solve, fight, explore, lie, entertain, negotiate.)
22. Do take a bio/bathroom break in the middle.
23. Make them do things, hold things, get physical – hand outs, props, etc., really take it to the next level. What if the player with the torch has to hold up a torch? (Or a pen?)
24. Do not play loud music in a crowded room, you will be interfering with other games.
25. Do not do obnoxiously loud voices in a crowded room, you will be interfering with other games. (A game of “Who’s the loudest GM?” has no winners.)
26. It’s perfectly okay to just take a moment and look at the rules – it’s better than spending five minutes hemming and hawing about something you can’t remember.
27. Be prepared to skip to the final boss or the big ending. Don’t just let the game fizzle out.
28. Do a "where are they now" wrap up at the end and let the players talk about how their characters’ lives turned out.