Chipping in, briefly on the professional vs. amateur argument.... In summary: Fergal 'Me too!'
Yes we are all volunteers. But the people who put their bottoms on the chairs are paying. They are not paying the writers or the GMs. But they're paying their money. Any move away from scenarios written to a high standard (and yes, that does mean 'so that any competent GM can run them' because, if you are prevented by some horrible cause from attending at the appointed time and running your scenario at the appointed time and no one else can do it, you're going to have disappointed people who have booked that scenario) is, in my opinion, a bad thing. For the writers, for the Con and for the punters. And probably for the GMs as well. I would, oddly, suggest a return to pre-bookable games. I really don't like this new-fangled 'you can't book into a game until about five minutes before it's due to start' idea. Yes, I am pretty obsessive-compulsive. As a writer I like to get my scenarios out to the people who will run them weeks ahead of time so that they can ask me questions and get me to rewrite the bits where buses can be driven through plot holes. I actually quite like to get character sheets out to players ahead of time (so that they can be tweaked and customised). Why can't we aim for the highest possible standards? Hilary
