[DunDraCon] Advice on starting up a Games on Demand

[WildElf]

So, there's a big annual RPG convention in the bay area, DunraCon, that I want a greater indie game presence at. The main hurdle to running games is that they ask for a 6 player minimum, something that dooms many (at least many of the best ones I'd pick from) from being an option.  They also tend to have slots go from 6-8 hours, which is longer than necessary.  But there's another functional aspect that seems like a ripe opening. You find out if you are in a game no more than a couple of hours before the game is set to run. So, you might drive in at 8am to sign up for an 11am game and discover at 10am that it was cancelled or you didn't get it because it was full.  I think something like Games on Demand could capitalize not just on people who are interested in checking out the indie/story game scene, or trying a particular game, but also people who might be coming for a specific game and find themselves out of luck. There tend to be a few demos, but something longer than 15 minutes could be very appealing.  Not to mention that EndGame, a local game store that's been the indie game nexus in the area for a couple of years (the owner also recently joined the IPR team) is usually a vendor there, so there's already a vector for gamers to buy some, if not most, of the games being "demanded" if they are moved to, which is nice.

That said, I could just email DunDraCon and find out, and will be, but I wanted to pick the brains of people involved in setting up GoD at GenCon, particularly the first time around, as well as people who have done similar things at other cons before I open up communication with them.  All I know is from what I saw as a player at GenCon at GoD (which was 2007). I certainly do want details on how to execute one, but that can wait. Right now, I'm more concerned about my general ignorance, like:

Do I need to do some "selling" of the idea to organizers? If so, what's a good way to do that (above and beyond my, I feel, pretty good selling points above)?

Should I try to hook in volunteers before pursuing an official space?  Is there a good number to aim for as a minimum (accounting for people needing to drop out)?

Space at the Con tends to be limited as it is, so that's the biggest risk. But ignoring possible logistical limitations, is there an ideal placement? GoD's placement in a hallway in 2007 seemed great to catch the eye of passers by, although I'm not sure if it actually did so. Was that on purpose (and did it happen again in 2008)?  Is a private room better? Or a series of private rooms? Or one room for all?

Now, no longer ignoring potential limitations, is there an amount of space that might be just too small to bother? Like if we could only get a single table large enough for one game at a time, would it be worth it? (Game On Demand doesn't have quite the same ring.) Or being too decentralized?  Ways to work around that? What about

Any other points of advice or words of experience on doing this would be welcomed as well. The con is in February, and they start taking event submission next month (a few days).

-Alvin Frewer

[Willow]

Last year at OshCon I ran a Games on Demand.  Nominally it was me and my boyfriend, but I ran all the games but one.

I don't think you need to worry about selling your game to organizers, and practically speaking, I don't think they'll shut you down if only five people are playing.  If you have someone else to help you run games, you could have two games running at once, and count that collectively as the 'event.'

If you can block games in 4 hour chunks, you may want to.  Otherwise, go with whatever everyone else is going with- in 6 or 8 hours you could easily get two games back to back, or have more time to flesh out a game you're squeezing into a one shot.  As you note, the lack of hard event scheduling for players is a boon for you, if you can rope enough of them in- and your event slots line up with other events.

I'd want to be visible and in the middle of event space, but a private area has it's charms.  Take what you can get- one table is better than none, and you might only have enough turnout for one game.

My other big spot of advice is advertising.  Tim and I printed up a flyer of all the games we were willing to run, with a short synopsis of each, and posted it in a few spots in the gaming area (with the ok from the con organizers.)  We got two guys who wanted to play Mountain Witch, having never heard of it or indie games before, and it was great.

[WildElf]

Hmm, good tips.  There is one person who has expressed interest in helping to run, and I expect I might be able to get one or two others from the discussions I've had so far.

Did you have a spot assigned by the con organizers, or did you only talk to them when it came to posting flyers?

[Willow]

We had an assigned event table.  The day of the con I asked for permission to post a few fliers, and kept a few handy for picking games.

[WildElf]

Cool, thanks. 

At another con (ConQuest) this weekend, I chatted with some folk about it, and one guy said it's really easy to get people to playing. Just hang out around the games postings and when 75% of them are turned away (yeah, it's a problem at DundraCon) simply give a holler and you'll easily get a few of the 30 dejected gamers who are interested.