Does running at GENCON sell games?

[Matt Gwinn]

The game submission forms are up at the GenCon web site and I've been contemplating submiting a couple sessions of Kayfabe.

My problem is that I'm not sure if it's worth using up that 4 hour slot each day for what may or may not result in additional sales.  Would my time be better spent running demos at the booth?  Are people more likely to sign up for a scheduled game than they are to play a demo at the booth?  Is simply having your game listed as being run effective in drawing additional attention?

I could, of course, do both and schedule a game after the dealer room has closed.  The problem I have with that is that would mean starting the game at 7:00 or 11:00 (they switched start times this year).  At 7:00 everyone is at dinner and I don't really want to miss out on that because we had some great times last year doing the dinner thing together.  And how many people actually sign up for 11:00 games?  I also don't like being locked into a specific time frame, especially since I already have the daytime hours devoted to the booth.  That's why I haven't signed up for many games the past two years.

I think what I really need is a staff that I can rotate between working the booth and running games.

By the way?  Where do we stand as far as booth space, payment arangement, badges and all that stuff?

,Matt G.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

I'm a tad confused by this, Matt. Are these "submitted session" a demo or something? If so, then I say try it. It will be like a demo at your booth, but you'll have the added advertising of being on their session schedule. People will look and go "what the hell is Kayfabe?" and then find out and at least a few of those people will buy.

[Adam]

I'm a tad confused by this, Matt. Are these "submitted session" a demo or something?

They're the standard GenCon event slots; you can put virtually anything you want in them - a demo, a game for experienced players, a tournament - whatever. Are they allocating two hour slots this year? I know FanPro typically sponsors 4 hour Shadowrun 'games' and 2 hour 'demos' - some of the demos take place at the booth, some in the regular gaming rooms. You're likely to get more casual traffic with booth demos, and people who had no idea Kayfabe existed until they saw it at the con.

Events that are listed in the on-site booklet are more likely to attract people who are specifically looking for Kayfabe games. The booklet is typically so packed with text that nobody takes the time to actually read it all - I know I rarely look at more than the seminars.

[Matt Gwinn]

I'm a tad confused by this, Matt. Are these "submitted session" a demo or something?

Well, I was intending to run a full 4 hour game session, but now that I think about it running a 2 hour demo for 4 or 5 people might be a better way to go about it.  That way I can get Kayfabe listed in the book and I don't have to worry so much about missing anything or neglecting the booth.

Did any of you that demoed at the booth last year run scheduled games elsewhere as well?  Do you think that led to additional sales?  Did you already know the people that signed up to play?  Meaning, had you seen them at the booth already and/or run a demo for them?  

,Matt G.

[Michael S. Miller]

The first year FVLMINATA came out, I ran nine 4-hour scheduled sessions at GenCon. I don't remember how many books we sold, but it wasn't too many. Part of that is 'cause we gave one out as a prize for each session. You live, you learn.

We've been running sessions at our local conventions for over 2 years now and have developed something of a following. People look for our events, and, after one session, every player went down to the dealer room and bought a copy. So, you win some, too.

However, some of the players from the first set of GenCon demos still boost the game on-line, contribute to the mailing list, etc. Plus, they come back year after year, dragging friends along to play, and sometimes buy.

I'll be running scheduled FVLMINATA events at GenCon again this year. Not only to support the community of players we've created, but I've gotta disagree with Adam that people don't read the event listings. I've had people walk into my games saying "I don't know this game, but I like Rome, so ..." Personally, I skim down the list of game system each and every year, looking for something new and different. Even the year that I was running full-time and knew I wouldn't be able to play in anything.

I think the scheduled events reach a whole slew of people that might miss the booth, either because they're too busy to sit in on a demo, they don't know what we're doing at the booth, or just skip going down whatever aisle we're in because they're tired of walking. PLus, -- this is, again, just my impression -- I think that some people view a game as "more established" if it is mentioned there in the program book, in black-and-white, as opposed to the pitch of "some guy" in the chaotic mess that is the exhibit hall.

If you do schedule events, be certain to include your web site (and keep the whole thing under 30 words or it might get cut). Someone might miss you at the show, but decide to check out the website weeks or months later. And look into the 2-hour time slots. If we can demo our games in 20 minutes, 4 hours shouldn't be mandatory.

Also, from what I saw of the booth last year, there wasn't much reason you couldn't leave for a 2-hour session in the middle of the day. There are plenty of people on hand to run demos. There were almost more people than tables. Maybe we should have some kind of rotation this year?

[wraeththu]

I've only run one set of games at a Gen Con, but I thought I'd put up my experiences for ya.

I ran two sessions of a Fading Suns LARP for Holistic at GC.  The games were both fairly well attended, with about 20 - 30 players each time.  (game was set to handle upwards of about 35 or 40, so we were over half)  After each game, the booth guys said they got a few folks coming over and buying the game, but not tons.  People generally left the games saying that they had a very good time and enjoyed the setting/rules.  

So, did it translate directly to sales?  Not in my experience.  Did it perhaps show a few new folks to the game - definitely.  Overall, I'm not sure it's worth it, but I'm somewhat biased against Con games.  I don't care for em.

I also ended up running some TT games for White Wolf at a DragonCon and I had roughly the same experience there, except that everyone that played at the table already owned a ton of WW stuff.

-wade jones
dialectic LLC

[Pramas]

Seven or so years ago, back when I was the publisher of the Whispering Vault RPG, I used to run these 4 hour demos of the game at cons (both big and little). Since character creation was one of the neatest things about the Vault, I would run the whole group through character creation (which took between 1 1/2 to 2 hours depending on the group) and then run their brand new Stalkers through an adventure. At the end of the game, I gave each person a coupon good for $2 off the game. This was not only to encourage them to buy it after a (hopefully) positive play experience, but also to let us track the effectiveness of the demos. At most cons, we found 20-30% of the demoers came by the booth to buy the game. We thought that was good enough to keep running demos like that until the company breathed its last.

[Michael Hopcroft]

When i was at GenCon last year I had five interested players in my demo of HeartQuest. They all had a blast. Of course they were playing the Slayers cast, which for those of you who don't know the anime is a hard group of characters to go wrong with unless you're not paying attention. The girl playing Amelia was actually dressed as Amelia. I think three of the players there bought the game at the show.

This year I'll be debuting HeartQuest D20 with a more serious adventure, "The Terror of Little Kyoko-chan" from the Ghost Tamer Miyaki setting. But I'll also be running brief demos of both versions of HeartQuest at the Forge booth. I suspect the booth demos, if done right, will generate more sales. In fact, I'm wondering who'll play in the scheduled adventure (which will take place after the dealer's room closes).

And I'm also running a Slayers game, using the Guardians of Order book that should be out by then. If both events are approved, that is. If I can get a group that's into the anime, I always have a lot of fun with Slayers. And I'm entitled to a little fun if I go to a game convention, don;t you agree?

A good demo is fun. A fun demo makes people think they can run a fun game. People who think they can run a fun game with your game buy your game.

[Dan Geyer]

Hello all;

We ran 21 seperate 4 hour events and offered a couple of bucks off the price of the game to all players at Origins and Gencon 2002. We had a few people come by to get the game after that, but not as many as I would have liked, and I'm thinking now that shorter events will work better. I don't have enough experience to advocate this yet, but I'm thinking either two hour sessions or half hour in-booth demos will work best. The idea is to give people a taste of the game without giving them enough to thoroughly satisfy them, and hence leaving them with a craving for more. That's the theory, anyway.