First Con as Publisher, Looking for Advice

[Adam Riemenschneider]

Hello all. Well, I've sprung for my first table at my first con (Con of the North). I'm seeking general advice as to make the most of the experience. My goals are, in order:

1): Get people interested in the game
2): Familiarize people with the game
3): Sell the game

I'd *like* to sell a bunch of books and turn a profit. I'm not really expecting to, and this is a small enough Con that I'm not out a lot of cash even if I don't sell a thing. Regardless, I'm going to gain experience and know what I need to do better next time.

Here's how I plan on achieving my goals:
1): Generate interest
A): A guerrilla handbill/poster campaign 1-2 weeks before the con, near likely gamer watering holes (coffee shops, book and gaming stores, university commons).
B): Flyers for the Con's "Freebie table"
C): Have a simple, appealing booth with good signage

2): Familiarize People
A): Run short demos at the booth
B): Chat with people about the game
C): Run "off the grid" longer demos when the vendor area is closed, if people are interested
D): Have free handouts at the booth that describe the game in further detail than you'd find in a Flyer

Things I'm bringing/have already thought of:

Folding chairs
Tablecloth
Signage
Signage stands
Laptop (we get free wireless, so access to Paypal will be handy)
Cash change bank
Calculator
Lots of Flyers
Heavy tape
Lots of Handouts
Product to display and sell
1-2 people to help me out, give breaks, general support
Short demo writeups, sample characters
Business cards
Product Spec sheets
Materials for running a longer demo
Maybe a handcart

I know that running in-Con demos is very helpful, and that not having folks out there running the game is going to be a detriment. Sadly, I don't have the time to develop one, and I'm past the deadline anyway. I'll be okay with myself running "off the grid," as I'm a very experienced GM with a lot of improvisation skills; I just don't have a game slot-ready Adventure to hand off to someone else to run.

What am I missing? What have I overlooked? Thanks folks, in advance. Looking forward to hearing advice and "First Con" horror stories (so I hopefully won't have to make the same mistakes you might have).

Cheers!

-adam

[M. J. Young]

Here are some thoughts.

First, the thing that sells games is good demos.  Sure, you'll get some sales from good promotional materials, cover art, descriptions--but ultimately, the games that sell either already have buzz before the convention or get it from people playing the game at the convention.

You say you're too late to get in to play a game, but I'll bet that's not true:  you're only too late to be included in the program book.  Find out who the RPG Coordinator is, and talk to him about whether it's possible to be slotted in anywhere during your free time.  It might be odd hours, but only the largest cons really are booked solid.  You won't be in the program, but there will probably be a sign and a sign-up sheet.  Getting people interested in playing it is then up to you.

Now, about designing the demo, here are some things I've learned.

First, this is a big one:  figure out what it is that really sells your game, and then figure out how to guarantee that this will happen within the first twenty to thirty minutes of play.  Using Multiverser as an example, I ran many demos where I dropped everyone into the first world, and sometimes these worked really well and sometimes they didn't--because what really makes the difference for Multiverser is having players get killed and move to new worlds, and that didn't always happen when I left it in their hands to choose their destinies.  Thus I developed a world which was effectively about to come to an end, at least as far as being inhabitable was concerned, and used that as the starting world. This gave the players the opportunity to get oriented to their characters, and it gave me the opportunity to bring in one non-player character who could answer their questions and get them pointed in the right direction, and then I could kill them all and bring them all into new world just about when they were getting settled.  I had to figure out how to make that happen--and once I did that, all my demos worked, and people talked about the game after they left, sending more people to the next game.

I observed something else at one of my early conventions, and I found a solution to that, too.  It was often the case that a referee would show up to run a game, and he would have no players--even if people had signed up.  He would wait, and it didn't look good, because it looked like no one wanted to play that game.  On the other hand, there were also occasions when players showed up and the referee had already left or had not yet arrived, and this, too is a loss.  You already have the tools available for the solution I used:  I took someone with me to the table, someone who knew the game, played the game, and could answer questions about it.  We sat down at the table and as the time for the game began we started playing.  Whenever anyone appeared, they would invariably ask what we were playing, and we would invite them to play.  Because Multiverser is so strongly character-oriented, it was no problem bringing it players one at a time; and when the game got too big for me to manage everyone and bring in new players, my assistant took over part of the load, setting up the new characters or running some of the overflow players.

Two more things help that spring to mind.

One is Convention Pricing.  We always knock 10% off the core book at public appearances, and about 5% off all other books, and another chunk off any sales of multiple books.  The perception that a book purchase right now will be cheaper than the same book purchase over the Internet next week often means a sale now that you might not make next week when the buyer finds he doesn't have the money he thought he would have.

The other is autographing.  There are a lot of people who will buy a game they will never play simply to have a collectible autographed copy.  There are some people who will buy two copies of any game book they like if they can get at least one of them autographed for their collection.  Making it clear that the author and/or artist is available to sign books on request will sometimes sell books to people who might not have bought them, or might have thought they would buy them later.  Personalize the autographs, if they want--don't just sign it, include a note thanking them for their interest or support, or if they played the game calling attention to some part you think particularly interested them.

Another thing I do at conventions that makes a difference is I fully support the convention staff and scheduling:  I do panels, on game design, on writing, on meet & greet, on anything and everything I can justify and fit into my schedule.  When you participate in a panel, there are several benefits.  First, people who did not know you were there find out that you're running games and signing copies.  Second, you are perceived as a peer of others on the panels.  I've been on panels with Tony DiCandido, Mike Stackpole, C. J. Henderson, Kevin Siembieda, and quite a few others, and they always treat me as an equal.  It also means you've been introduced to these people, and that builds your credibility through the RPG community generally, among other creators, other conventions, and gamers.  Make yourself available for such things.  This usually means finding out who is the events coordinator, what events are being run, and how you can participate.  It might not be too late to be added to a planned event, particularly if it's something like game design and you're a game designer.

Those things come to mind.  If I think of something else, I'll try to remember to post it.  Hope they help.

--M. J. Young

[Adam Riemenschneider]

Oooh. Convention pricing. Hadn't thought of that, and you are very right. And yeah, a game would have to be designed to highlight the product's strong points. If I can't somehow arrange an official Con game slot, I'll just run one off-the-books, and just have people sign up at the booth for playing later that night.

For the at-table quickie demos, I was thinking of 3-4 different ones, just a couple of minutes each, to show how a): Special Abilities, b): Ritual Magic, c): Combat, and maybe d): standard static mechanics work.

Thanks for the advice!

-adam

[JustinB]

Hi Adam,

As far as table demos and whatnot, I think that a 10-minute demo that displays a good cross-cut of your game is going to serve you best. Very few people are only going to care about seeing a demo of Special Abilities or Ritual Magic and not be interested in seeing a test-drive of the whole system.
That said, when you put your 10-minute demo together, be sure to play-test it a couple of times to get your patter down and make sure it fits in time. When I put the FN 10-minute demo together the first time, it took 45 minutes. Second time it was down to 10 by dropping a lot of the extraneous bits and taking away some degree of player choice, while maintaining an interesting scenario.
Running full demo adventures is also extremely important. That's where a lot of a game's initial buzz and sales come from. I've also learned that any scheduled demos should be supplemented by 1 session that is sign-up at the booth only. People will come and get excited about your game and want to play a full adventure but not have known about it beforehand. These people need to be put into an adventure, so PLAN on having that "extra" slot for them.

Finally, about game patter. It's important to be comfortable talking about your game and to be relatively polished about your major talking points. I've found that as far as specific patter, you need:
1) A 1-sentence hook. (Fae Noir: gritty fairy-tales set in the 1920s. Or Carry: A Game About War)
2) A short pitch about what makes the premise of the game exciting. Something that takes a few sentences to get through, but probably not more than 30 seconds or so.
3) The full pitch that lasts a minute or two and delves into more of the details of your game for people who are super-interested and becoming moreso.

In my experience, that's most of the talking you're going to need to do to people at the booth and you need to be practiced at it so that it sounds good. Obviously, as the convention goes by, you'll adjust to what people are asking, but be prepared before the convention, too.

[GreatWolf]

That said, when you put your 10-minute demo together, be sure to play-test it a couple of times to get your patter down and make sure it fits in time. When I put the FN 10-minute demo together the first time, it took 45 minutes. Second time it was down to 10 by dropping a lot of the extraneous bits and taking away some degree of player choice, while maintaining an interesting scenario.

Quoting for truth.  Don't assume that your demo will work.  Playtest it.  Get some of your friends to pretend that they don't know anything, and have them "roleplay" being new players trying out the demo.  Have them ask the dumb questions.  Make it happen.

Then, write the entire script down.  That way, you can remember what you're doing and teach someone else to do it.  Don't assume that you'll remember it.

I did this for my GenCon demos last year, and it was invaluable.  My 10-minute demo was perhaps 25 minutes, so it wasn't quite as drastic as Justin's experience.  Still, I was able to find the areas that took too long and hone them down.  Go and do likewise.

Also, just do one demo.  Really.  Shaking them up won't help you out.  Think of your demo as the shareware release of a computer game.  It has just enough nifty bits to draw you in without showing everything.  Don't run a complete game.  Run an incomplete game.  Stop the demo at a cliffhanger.  Leave the situation unresolved.  That way, if the player wants to "know more", he will want to buy the game.

Oh, last thing.

Have fun!

Seriously.  If you're not excited about your game, then no one else will be, either.

This means that you need to be sure that you rotate through your booth staff, so everyone can have lunch.  This means that you need to have water or Gatorade or something on hand, plus some pick-me-up snacks.  This means that you need to have comfortable shoes.  This means that you need to be sure to have rotating breaks, so that you can get away for a bit and recharge.  Because, when you're in the booth, you have to be "on".

We've all heard horror stories about that n00b publisher who has a stack of books to sell but can't be bothered to communicate either content or enthusiasm to the customer.  Don't be this person.

Let us know how it goes!

[Adam Riemenschneider]

Re: have fun, I will, I will!

Thanks for the wise words. On the bright side, I've been in customer service/sales for years now. I can blabber about products that I couldn't care less about... my games are easy. I've found that in running around to game stores to pitch it, I'm a lot more nervous than I expected to be (attachment to the product and all), but I know tricks to relax myself in these situations.

I wasn't thinking of running that long of a demo (10 minutes), but you guys have talked me into it (and an Idea just came to me). So, my plan now is to run a demo that has the three major mechanics in it (in this case, a Ritual, a Special Ability, and a brief Combat exchange). It'll be a quick "hunt the bad guy" scenario.

Go to meet a contact, learn that your enemy is in town. Go home and use a Divination Ritual to learn more about where enemy is hiding out. Go to enemy hideout, use two Special Abilities to get inside, go a round or two of fighting with enemy. Then the enemy's Astral guardian makes itself known. End demo. This would be fully scripted/railroaded, not a lot of player decisions to be made against this plot.

"You got a call from Jimmy Snails this morning. He's a contact of yours, good for giving you the skinny on what's going down on the street. You meet him at the usual place, a run-down strip club on the rough part of town. (as Jimmy) "Hey man. You're not looking too good. Maybe you're not in shape for this kind of news."

(player makes some kind of noises)

"Jimmy tells you that Martin Whitney is back in town. Your heart forgets to beat for a second. Last time Martin was around, he was working as a hit man hiring out to an Order black ops unit. And on the side, he liked to hunt local Gifted for sport. Some decent people died. A couple were even friends of yours. You would have taken care of him if you could, but Martin had one too many tricks up his sleeve. You promised yourself that you wouldn't let him get away again.You pay Jimmy his usual rate and give him a tip, then head out. Make a Streetwise roll."

(run player through Streetwise roll)

Well, you call around, but either Jimmy was lying, or Martin is keeping himself below radar. This isn't as big of a problem as it would be normally, because you have some of Martin's blood saved from the last time you dealt with him, and know a new Ritual to help you find him. It's called..."

And I like the idea of tying the booth demo to the "after hours" pickup game.

Thanks again, guys.

-adam

[JustinB]

Good stuff. Don't forget to make your demo scalable for up to 4 players. People will often want to demo more than 1 at a time.

Do you have a link to your game?

[Adam Riemenschneider]

It's the first link in my sig, www.othercourt.com

-a-