>From Anton:
>> So how do we bridge that gap between the new blood and the elders?
>Diablerie seems appropriate?
Now, that I can get behind!!!
>From Gar:
>Out of curiosity, are the _current_ con directors or rpg co-ordinators of
>any con on igaming these days?
I've been watching the debate closely on LJ and on here and wow, there are a
lot of opinions. Lots of sense being spoken and lots of things to consider
from the old blood of gaming.
It looks like most of you haven't donned the horrid hat of being an RPG
co-ordinator, and believe me its a horrid hat indeed. And honestly, I can't
blame you. First time I got into it, I found it a positively lethal minefield
of planning, organising, harrassing, and even sometimes blackmailing people to
get blurbs, scenarios and characters in on time. I had to proof the scenarios
and then check them against previous years scenarios to make sure that it
wasn't a resubmission that had already been run - and yes, that did happen -
and because it was a college con, we were crying out for scenarios to fill all
the slots.
At that stage, Dominicon was tiny and we didn't attract the "big name writers"
but a couple of people on the committee knew enough people and had the requisit
'word in someone's ear' and we got 12 scenarios.
It is nerve-wrecking (and yes, I mean wrecking there). But for some reason, I
seem to have stepped back into that role again years later and am helping
Graham out with regards to Gaelcon's RPGs.
I've written games, GMed games and organised the crap outta cons for many years
and eventually, I pushed myself away from Dominicon after 4 years of being the
person in the background who did almost everything and ended up getting
massively drunk at the end of it on more whisky than you can shake a reasonably
sized tree at.
If people have been watching the LJ comm, then you've already seen that I'm
opinionated about what I think should be in place and what I think could be
done to improve the experience for players who pay (a lot more now than they
did a couple of years ago) for games. But an RPG co-ordinator can't do it on
their own. Most of the people who have replied to this have written scenarios
for cons and yeah, the deadline thing is just one of the things that can help.
But making sure that you don't need a degree in cryptology to run the damned
thing is another.
The biggest thing that I disagree with is being handed the scenario five
minutes before you have to run it, oh and by the way your players are already
sitting at their table waiting for you so get a move on. I want to bring in
new blood to the world of writing and running games at cons. I want more game
choices at cons. But those are personal things. I go to con's to play games,
but end up running them instead. (I'm too nice, I know that. I'm working on
it.) And the games that I want to play are either older games that I haven't
played in years, or new games that I haven't had a chance to play yet. I don't
want to see four time slots filled with just D20 games no matter how good they
are. Sure, it's a plug and play system but it doesn't fit EVERY scenario.
>From a reassurance point of view, your comments will be taken on board.
>Honestly, they have to be. I'm not the only co-ordinator on the list, I'm
>probably just the first one to post in detail. But what we can do depends on
>you guys as well. I'm available off-list, so just send me an email with ideas
>if you have any. Not everything is workable in a con setting though. Just
>bear that in mind. But I'm not opposed to talking things out with people and
>championing ideas. (Christ, it sounds like I'm a bloody business manager
>doesn't it... Just goes to show that work sneaks in everywhere, doesn't it!)
Anyway, don't let me stop the debate...
Bon
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