[GenCon 2007] Helping Me Help You.

[spaceanddeath]

Hi.

I am new to the booth and to Gencon in general. I have limited GM experience and as such have some serious concerns about demoing your games. Even where games are considered GMless, I have found that many Forge-style games demand (implicitly or explicitly) a particular amount of GM experience or skill to play. To demo your game, I'll need a well put together demo pack in advance of the con, and some pre-con support to ensure I'm on track. Publishers that do provide these things will receive considerable more attention from me when I work the booth than those who don't. I will, of course be providing one in upcoming months for Crime and Punishment.

Also:

What has been done in the past to help people ramp up to doing demos?
Any advice on writing a killer demo pack?
How many games are people expected to be able to demo (I know the answer to this is "as many as possible", but would like to have a base line to work beyond).
Any recommendations for games that would be easier for folks who have limited GM experience?

[Nathan P.]

Hey Mo,

There's links to a couple of demo scripts in this post, and I think that there's good info about building 15-minute demo's in general in this thread and this thread.

What has been done in the past to help people ramp up to doing demos?

Demo festival Wednesday night. I believe it was at the Embassy Suites last year. I was helping count stock, so I wasn't there, and I felt the burn a little over the rest of the Con. Basically, everyone throws down their demos for everyone else, and plays in other people's demos, in a fairly informal environment. You both learn other people's demo's, and get feedback on sharpening your own.

Any advice on writing a killer demo pack?

I dunno if my demo materials are killer, but what I tried to do was write step-by-step instructions for how to do what I do when I run the demo. It may help to compare the audio clip to the script, see how close I got. I'm very happy with my demo, but I don't know if the pack is particularly good, really.

How many games are people expected to be able to demo (I know the answer to this is "as many as possible", but would like to have a base line to work beyond).

Last year, I didn't run a single demo of someone else's game. I was capable of running demo's of probably two other games, if I had had to.

Now, I suspect that I will be focusing on other people's demo's more this year, now that it's my second year at the booth. But, really, I don't know.

Any recommendations for games that would be easier for folks who have limited GM experience?

1001 Nights is my top pick.

I hope some of that is useful!

[Jason Morningstar]

What has been done in the past to help people ramp up to doing demos?
Any advice on writing a killer demo pack?
How many games are people expected to be able to demo (I know the answer to this is "as many as possible", but would like to have a base line to work beyond).
Any recommendations for games that would be easier for folks who have limited GM experience?

The Wednesday night demo frenzy was useful, but not that useful.  I'd like to make it more aggressive this year, and encourage people to come super-prepared with an organized 15 minute demo. 

Advice:  Think about the feeling you want to impart rather than the actual rules.  In 15 minutes you'll show off one thing, and your existing rules may not address that perfectly.  Other than that, practice it until you want to hurl.

I only demoed a few games other than my own but, like Nathan, I'd like to branch out this year.  If I were going to target games to be proficient at, I'd look to the primary sponsors, who have popular products and will also be busy.

Demoing a game isn't correlated to GMing chops, in my mind.  You are illustrating why a game is cool and then selling it rather than facilitating genuine play in most cases.

[spaceanddeath]

Thanks Nathan,

That's very helpful. I'll have a look at all of that in the coming week.

I hadn't been thinking of games that were there last year, because of the new format. If that's the case, I could do Dogs, and probably BtI, and likely 1001 nights, though I haven't had the chance to play it yet. I could probably do TSOY pretty well too.

Jason,

Good advice. I'd still like designers to give me pitches to sell me on what I should be selling the customers on.

Comforted to know, though, from both of you that if in my first year out, I'm not the most versatile demo-er that I'll still be OK. Takes the pressure off a little.

Cheers,

~Mo

[Michael S. Miller]

The ever-alert Sons of Kryos also recorded some half dozen demos that are available in the "Other Recordings" section of http://sonsofkryos.com/