Fear the Con 3: Reflections

First, apologies for failing to post last week. Between the launch of Final Fantasy XIII and the convention that weekend, I was thoroughly distracted from blogging. Here's to getting back on the wagon.

Fear the Con 3 was very enjoyable. Festivities started on Thursday evening with me knowing only two attendees, and ended (for me anyway) after some post-con tourism with visitors on Tuesday with a lot of fun behind me and a lot of new friendships.

I mentioned in my last post that I was signed up for all but one gaming slot at the convention, and that ended up getting me just about as much gaming as I wanted, but did so because one GM canceled and another no-showed at game time. Three slots of scheduled gaming ended up being enough for me, and gave me time to mill around, join pick-up board games, and watch a lot of play as well.

I definitely took home some good observations about RPGs for convention play. Con games are a very different animal compared to a one-shot game with close friends. If I end up running something at a future con, here are two of the factors I'll consider during prep.

Have events suggest a clear course of action - For one of the games in which I played, the GM gave our party a mission without providing clear direction on how to achieve our goal. We infiltrated a space station held by two factions while disguised as members of one of the factions. Our goal was to disrupt peace negotiations so that the two factions wouldn't trust one another, and would be easy for our true masters to subjugate. Unfortunately, we were given so much latitude in how to achieve our goal that we became paralyzed by indecision. When I prep for convention play, I'll make sure that a course of action is always suggested, so that if the players fail to be proactive, they don't flounder on account of that alone.

Be prepared for wacky play - At a convention, you'll often be roleplaying with people who you don't know very well. When people first meet, it's common for them to make small talk, and the RPG equivalent of small talk seems to be craziness. Expect players to play their characters in a one-dimensional fashion, blowing the smallest hints of personality into behavior-defining characteristics. If you're using a system that shares a lot of narrative control around the table, the story will likely take a turn for the comedic very quickly, and if you're playing an action packed game, don't be too surprised if the characters die in a blaze of glory. After all, the players have no long term investment in their characters since they won't see a second session.

I'm still turning over the events of the con in my mind to see if I can produce any more nuggets of wisdom. If I come to more conclusions, I'll make sure to post them.