GoD and IGE : after Gen Con Impressions

[Kat Miller]

The Games on Demand experiment was a huge success.
Over the Course of the Con we collected 147 tickets and entertained 89 players in a number of 2 hour and 4 hour games.

When I arrived on Thursday morning I was shocked to find that there were no Long tables for the GoD games. 
We adapted.  Luckily the GoD tables were in the Indie Games Explosion room and we occasionally assimilated unused tables as the need arose.  Hero Quest, Capes, Dog in The Vineyard, With Great Power and The Shab-al-Hiri Roach were among the many games that happened spontaneously at the Tables.

I would Like to Thank My table Custodians.  I would not have been able to run those tables by my self.  As It was Thanks to Thomas, Hans, Andrew, Mike and Thor the tables were manned and games were played.

I would also like to thank everyone who volunteered to run a Game in the Indie Game Explosion. 
It was great to go to room 205 and look around at the different indie games in motion. 

I hope that both The IGE and the GoD at Gen Con continue to grow in ways that are helpful to the Booth.
aside for more space I'd like the impressions of those who were involved in the God Tables, Custodians and Player and those that were involved in the Indie Games Explosion at Gen Con, for their impressions and and suggestions for improvement.

thanks, -kat miller 

[Iskander]

I know that I rang up at least six sales directly attributable to GoD. There may have been many more, but I recall at least six distinct people who mentioned the GoD tables specifically, and a few of those were almost quivering with excitement about the game they had played. Kudos to Kat for all her work, and to the most excellent folks who ran games there.

[Bankuei]

Hi,

GoD was excellent.  You might want to aim towards trying to keep 3-4 GM's around so you can have 3-4 medium size groups instead of 2 large groups depending on the logistics.  This is pretty much a carry-over from my experiences from running an apartment con in the same fashion- in which more groups meant switchover times came quicker and it was easier for someone to find a game to hop into.

Chris

[Andrew Cooper]

Games on Demand really was the highlight of the Con for me.  I admit to being a little nervous running games for the GenCon crowd.  Especially since the game designers for most of the games I ran were right there in the building somewhere and might actually wander into the room.  That nervousness settled down and some good fun was had.  Here are some good things and some things to work on, I think.

1.) Two table custodians per session would be advisable.  I loved helping out but let's face it... my repertoire of Indie Games is not keeping pace with the number of games being produced.  I'd have loved to be able to say, "I can run Roach for you guys!" to gamers that walked up but I couldn't.  I had a small number of games I could run and that was that.  Having another person scheduled there with complementary skills would have been really helpful.  Don't get me wrong.  Lot's of Forge folk that were just hanging out in the room helped out.  Alexander ran Fastlane and Dogs.  Someone was running Roach.  Emily ran some Breaking the Ice and Shooting the Moon.  Lot's of people were there.  But that's not like *knowing* someone else is going to be there to offer more games than you could run by yourself.

2.) More tables would be great, if we can get them.  I know I had to turn at least a few gamers wandering in away until the next session because I was just flat out of table space.  Snagging empty tables is all well and good but you can get kicked from an empty table that suddenly becomes scheduled and that would suck.

3.) As busy as we were at times, there were some points that were pretty slow.  More advertising would be great.  If I'm sitting there at the table, I want to be playing something.  Plus... sitting there isn't nearly as effective in getting players hyped about a new game and motivated to head down to the Forge booth to buy that game.

[Jason Morningstar]

GoD must be an adjunct to the traditional demo next year, moving players in both directions.  The booth needs to have prominent and ubiquitous signage directing people to GoD, and we need to be ready and able to throw down with any game we're offering for sale, at least in some limited capacity.  It'd be great if we were organized enough to say "hey, if you liked this demo, go up to GoD at five and I'll be there running a two-hour session."

[Christopher Weeks]

GoD rocked.  Demand for it will grow a great deal next year.  It would suck to not be prepared. 

[iago]

I wanted a big poster saying "Liked the demo?  Ask about Games On Demand for a longer play experience!"

[L Willy Wick]

As part of IGE, I was in Room 205 for most of the con - so for me it started to feel like home (or at least my second hotel room). All said and done, I ran 10 WEGS games over the course of the con, for a total of 51 players (if I recount correctly). I had a great time doing it.

We generally had room to spread out. Even if the assigned table was taken, it was easy enough to find another table in the room with the help of the GenCon staffer (we just had to keep an eye out for folks who were looking for our game). As far as I can tell, we didn't lose any players from impromptu table shuffle.

From a GM standpoint, it was neat to look around and see familiar faces running indie games at the tables nearby. It was just as neat to see folks playing the games for the first time and observe their excitement of learning the rules/system. I just wish I had time to jump into some of those games!

As I don't know a lot of folks personally, sometimes I had to guess that a table was part of the IGE or GoD. As we were all jumping from table to table, it's hard to keep track of who is who. Just an idea - use some distinct color table cloth (red or gold) that we throw down on top of the white ones. This will instantly set those tables apart from the other tables in the room. "Go to Room 205 and look for the gold tablecloths". From there, the table custodians can direct the folks to the correct table. I might start doing this for my future con games.

Just one note for next year: GenCon was demo-ing their "rpg rooms of the future" on the main level. They seemed to be room divider/cubes of some sort. I did not get a chance to look at them, but am wondering how/if this will affect next year's set-up. It was nice to be able spread out when the table next to you was free. It is also a huge benefit to be able to see the flow of traffic in/out of the room.

Lastly, I just want to say thanks to Kat for her help and assistance from the start. It was great to be a part of the Indie Game Explosion. I wish I could have helped out some more on that front.

[Hans]

1.) Two table custodians per session would be advisable.

I agree completely with this.  There was a moment on Saturday morning where I was the only person, and there were about 12 people all looking at me for entertainment.  A bit intimidating.  Of course, it worked out in the end; people showed up who could run other stuff.  But it was a moment of worry for me, let me tell you.

2.) More tables would be great, if we can get them. 

Agreed.  That way you don't have to feel like you are going to be evicted at any moment.

3.) As busy as we were at times, there were some points that were pretty slow. 

Never saw any slow moments in my sessions; it was go, go go.

The organization of the things was excellent; I'm afraid my implementation of it was less than stellar.  I don't think I filled any of the paperwork out correctly, and people were throwing tickets at me so fast on Saturday morning I was sort of shoving them in my pocket and trying to sort them out later.  This just increases my thought that two custodians are a good idea (one to start GM'ing immediately, one to deal with all the paperwork and pick up GM'ing a bit later once things have settled down).

The only other suggestion I would make is that we should have some kind of table banners or similar that let people know they are in the right place.  It would be nice if we could get space near a wall, to put a banner up.  Maybe with the attendance this year, GenCon will be willing to give us better facilities. 

Kat did a bang up job organizing all of this, and is truly worthy to be praised. 

[Kat Miller]

These are some great ideas here!

1.) Two table custodians per session would be advisable. 
2.) More tables would be great, if we can get them.

I agree, We'll need 2 Table Custodians per shift next year and I'd like to get six tables if I can.  By word of mouth and design I'm sure we'll be able to fill those tables.

As I don't know a lot of folks personally, sometimes I had to guess that a table was part of the INGE or G.o.D. As we were all jumping from table to table, it's hard to keep track of who is who. Just an idea - use some distinct color table cloth (red or gold) that we throw down on top of the white ones.

This is a great idea.  Since I think we're going to be working with round tables as they can only place round tables in those rooms then a table runner marking G.o.D. might help out a lot.  This year I'm going to look into T-Shirts as well.

The only other suggestion I would make is that we should have some kind of table banners or similar that let people know they are in the right place. It would be nice if we could get space near a wall, to put a banner up. Maybe with the attendance this year, GenCon will be willing to give us better facilities.

I wanted very much to put a Post-it note with the word G.o.D on our tables  on the poster outside the room.  I'll have to check if that's allowed.  If it is then I'll make post-its for the INGE games as well as the G.o.D tables.  It's not a banner but it would have been helpful.

-kat

[Emily Care]

Many thanks and kudos for Kat and all for organizing GoD. I appreciated having it there and getting to play in depth with a few people who had gotten a demo, or who wanted to really see what it was like to play my games.  I started off one demo of Breaking the Ice with two players and we were having so much fun during a really busy time at the booth, that it was awesome to be able to "get a room" and play out a couple dates for real. : )

Just an idea - use some distinct color table cloth (red or gold) that we throw down on top of the white ones. This will instantly set those tables apart from the other tables in the room.

This is a great idea, along with the increased visibility we will be sure to provide at the
Forge Booth. I'm looking forward to seeing GoD grow next year. It was a grand experiment, Kat. Thank you!

best,
Emily

[LordSmerf]

Games on Demand was hot stuff.  Thanks and more thanks are due to Kat for making this thing happen.

I know the one thing that kept coming back to bite me in the butt were games that people wanted to play that I was only sort of familiar with.  That is, I could run them, but only if I had the book with me (and some character sheets and stuff would have helped).  Unfortunately I didn't bring most of my library, so most of the time I was falling back onto stuff I knew really, really well.

It would be awesome if indie publishers could manage to donate a single copy of their books to the Games on Demand project.  I realize it might not be feasible, but having books around would have let me run Shooting the Moon, Nine Worlds, Burning Wheel, Shock, etc.

Thomas