One Week 'Til Gary Con IV

Gary Con IV in Lake Geneva, WI, starts one week from today on March 22-25! This celebration of gaming's roots, held in the town where it all started, seems to be attracting its biggest turnout ever this year. It's all about the Old School, as the designers and creators of yesteryear rub shoulders with the fans and gamers of today. You can NOT call yourself "OSR" without a pilgrimage to this event, folks!

And here are the games I'm running this year as part of The Dead Games Society:

DGS Presents: Ghostbusters - How Dry I Am
Thursday, 2 pm – 6 pm
Several class 5 free-floating vaporous manifestations are tearing up a college kegger. The Ghostbusters are called in to dispatch these Prohibition Poltergeists. But is this a single case of ‘spirits' versus 'spirits,' or is there something more malevolent trying to end drunken debauchery in our dimension?

DGS Presents: Ghostbusters - The Shadow Over Yonkers
Thursday, 8 pm – Midnight
Random citizens of Yonkers, NY, are waking in the middle of the night to wander mindlessly and wide-eyed into the Hudson River, never to return. The Ghostbusters are contacted by Prof. Clark Olmstead of Miskatonic University (Yonkers branch) to investigate the phenomenon. Is it Innsmouth all over again?

DGS Presents: Timemaster - Postage Due
Friday, 10 am – 2 pm
An undelivered letter in mid-1800 America has thrown the timeline into chaos. What does this single piece of correspondence contain that makes it so critical to future events? Time Corps agents will be dispatched to the point of incursion to ensure the mail goes through!

DGS Presents: Mutant Future - Weed World
Friday, 4 pm – 8 pm
Within the last month, the growth of all forms of vegetation has visibly accelerated, threatening to overrun and choke off your tiny post-apocalyptic village. Does an Ancient children's bedtime story of "The Devil's Greenhouse" and the mutated plantlife lurking within hold the key to surviving this floral horror?

If you're going to be there this year, sign off in the Comments below. Introduce yourself if you get the chance! Mention The Savage AfterWorld and get yourself a nice bit o' swag for your dicebag! See you there!

Best Advice Ever On How To Design And Write Con Scenarios

Ever since I got involved in role-playing way back in Ye Olden Tymes, I've enjoyed running games more than playing. At the neighborhood FLGS, I was the guy running demos, and at the local cons, I was the one who inevitably GMed most of the events. But running a one-shot game at a con is a much different animal than an on-going campaign for your pals. You have a limited amount of time to introduce, set up, and run the game; you want to make sure everyone gets his (or her) chance to shine during the event; and you want to ensure you're able to reach The Big Finish before time is up.

Con games are all about timing and planning, while still making sure everyone has fun.

About two years ago, I was looking for some advice on how best to pace a con one-shot. In four hours, how much combat should you plan for? What kind of scenario works best and how involved should the plot be? While looking for some answers, I stumbled across the best advice on writing and running con games I've ever read. Gar Hanrahan of Figures of Text (a sub-blog of That's Not My Squid) had a five-part series in 2009 on How To Run Con Scenarios The Gar Hanrahan Way. Each of these posts addresses and explains the best approach when designing and running con one-shots:

1. Getting Started: Establishing the task for the players, forming a game outline, and writing your program/flyer "blurb."
2. Characters: Designing the pre-gens, establishing the group dynamic, and giving everyone a hook.
3. The Opening Scene: Engaging the players from the beginning, setting the tone of the game, and getting them pointed in the right direction.
4. Core Scenes: Timing the encounters, transitioning from scene to scene, and planning for your timed/triggered events.
5. The Finale: Drawing the players to the finish, providing an appropriate end challenge, and wrapping up with a dramatic conclusion.

The information and tips provided by Gar in these posts has been invaluable to me over the years. I suggest that anyone who plans to write and/or run a convention scenario read through these posts as the advice within is spot-on and crazy-useful. (It's also good advice for anyone wanting to run an evening one-shot game for their own players!) For my own use, I grabbed all of Gar's posts, formatted them into a PDF, printed them out, and put them in a binder for future reference. I've placed the PDF for download at Google Docs. Grab it here.

Not sure if you'll ever see this, Gar, but many thanks for your good advice. My con games have improved because of your help.

Issue 6 of Wisdom From the Wastelands Released

Issue 6 of Wisdom From the Wastelands, the new weekly Mutant Future missive from Skirmisher Publishing, has been released. This issue's theme is "Factions," which introduces new organizations and alliances vying for power across the blasted landscape. Issue 6 is only 99 cents and available at Drive Thru RPG.

Two Weeks Until Gary Con IV

We're at two weeks away and counting folks.

Here's what I'm running...
Here's what I'm scheduled to play...
Here's me on Monday when I get home...