Peter Saloom and Jonathan recorded this episode LIVE in the seminar room at TotalCon 2024. The two of them have over 50 combined years of gaming experience & decades of running games at conventions.
Peter published his first licensed adventure. It is Shadows of the Sacred Hills for the RPG system Savage Worlds. Buy Shadows of the Sacred Hills (affiliate link).
Tips
- Be prepared
- Be welcoming
- Engage the players
- Make the game visually appealing
- Be kind
- Know the rules (or at least the core rules)
- Be succinct with initial explanations (say what the players need to get going, leave everything else for when or if the situation arises during the game)
- Adhere to the time slot times
- Playtest your game at least once
- Provide enough player aids for each player
- Have helpers/assistant GMs if needed
- Practice good hygiene
- Make sure players have something to do at all times
- Take breaks
- Let players know they can leave the game at any time if it isn’t for them
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Credits
Our theme song is “Downtown” by Matthew Ebel. The podcast logo was created by Peter Bryant. Audio editing was done by the incomparable Joshua Shoobridge. Show notes for this episode were written by Jonathan J. Reinhart.
This recording is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.
Disclosure
This post may contain affiliate links, and I may receive commissions or bonuses from your interactions with those links.
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Great episode. The last piece of advice is great for all attendees. Bars of Deodorant are just for kit-bashed 40K vehicles!!
We run a “How to run your first convention game” at the HMGS cons. It’s focused specifically on minis and covers soup to nuts, from idea/era, research, and miniature acquisition, to painting/playtesting, and ending in presentation and player interaction. We’ve had some attendees present some great premiere games at Cold Wars, Fall-In, and even Historicon.
Outside with the Dwarven Forge set-ups, a typical RPG “extravaganza” will involve an easel with a pad/whiteboard with helpful game hints, physical props/clues/pictures. An insane amount of energy from the GM is also mandatory. Run a few games for kids (RPG or minis) and you quickly learn what’s necessary for engagement.