Comments on: I Was a Virgin Convention GM

By: Introducing RPGs to New Players, Part 1 - Treasure Tables

Introducing RPGs to New Players, Part 1 - Treasure Tables — Mon, 14 May 2007 15:00:16 +0000

[...] In the same vein as I Was a Virgin Convention GM and How I Lost My Play-by-Post Virginity comes Part 1 of this detailed after-action report on starting a group with new players, written by TT reader bignose (Ben Finney). Thanks, Ben! – - – - – After talking with some friends about getting a role-playing group started, and gathering a small group of interested players, I planned an adventure to introduce them all to the game and find out their play styles. [...]

By: How I Lost My Play-by-Post Virginity, Part 1 - Treasure Tables

How I Lost My Play-by-Post Virginity, Part 1 - Treasure Tables — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 18:49:13 +0000

[...] That’s it for the guidelines — stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, “How I Lost my Play-by-Post Virginity, Part 2,” which covers the ups and downs of the actual game. My thanks to Troy E. Taylor, whose excellent guest post I Was a Virgin Convention GM inspired me to write this post — and helped me choose the title. [...]

By: Walt Robillard

Walt Robillard — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 11:23:42 +0000

Great accounting of the story and way to go at the Con.

Regards,
Walt

By: Troy Taylor aka Carolina

Troy Taylor aka Carolina — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 05:46:02 +0000

Dan:
That look in new players’ eyes is priceless, as you describe.

I GM in a game store with an open game for newcomers, so I often get rewarded for my efforts that way.

Keep teaching the rpg games you love the most … sharing the love of our hobby with others is a wonderful experience.

By: Dan Shiro

Dan Shiro — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 02:20:51 +0000

I´m Brazilian and I usually run Convention Games at the E.I.R.P.G.(International Convention). I also love to play in quite unusual settings like AD&D´s Dark Sun or TOON! Setting which I´ve never played or even heard about before, so I think what Troy did was fantastic! Players love unexpected things from a GM!!!
I always try to GM to people having little or no previous contact with RPG (newbies). I think that it´s just AWESOME when you look at one of these player´s eyes and see, you know, you notice they are just overwhelmed by your descriptions of the battle or your roleplaying as the dark villain!

I believe that if you can “bewitch”, I mean, amaze new players, they´ll start spreading this fever called RPG which is good for everybody isn´t it?

One thing I learned from this: KEEP THINGS EASY for everyone!
(if things are easy for them to understand… they´ll enjoy more… and for the GM… it means more time having fun!)

Preparation is also essential, since you gotta have everything under control… even if you have to improvise, which I had to do many times!

One last thing I´ve learned from Conventions: If you spend less time worrying about your game session, you can spend more talking to other GMs and getting to know people! Which ROCKS!!! isn´t it???

By: Carolina aka Troy Taylor

Carolina aka Troy Taylor — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 19:27:05 +0000

Sorry you couldn’t make it VV_GM …but I’m glad you didn’t risk it in the bad weather … hopefully the photos give you sense of what it was like.

By: VV_GM

VV_GM — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 17:46:57 +0000

Troy/Carolina,

I was upset that I couldn’t make the game due to the ice storm. After reading reading this I am even more upset about the weather that day!

Way to go! I’m glad you had good players too. GMing a con event is tough, but good players make it worthwhile.

VV_GM

By: Martin

Martin — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:29:06 +0000

(John Arcadian) Martin, thanks for popping up the links. I was going to start trulling the back posts and the convention section of the archives, but this puts them all at my fingertips.

I nipped back in and added a link to my list of links in Troy’s post. I’ll take any opportunity to get people into the archives!

By: ScottM

ScottM — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:20:38 +0000

It sounds like a great pair of games, and not a bad last one either. I admit that my advice was geared toward scenarios provided by others– designing three unique adventures is a lot of work. It sounds like it really came off– a tip of the hat to you.

By: John Arcadian

John Arcadian — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:16:51 +0000

Rock on with the post. Its timing is perfect as I’m starting prep for running games at Origins. Going that in-depth will really help me to look at my process for prepping.

Situations like the player not wanting to get captured in your d20 modern game always have the ability to derail a game, but it was cool that the other player smoothed it out. You can’t ask for a better group of gamers than that.

Martin, thanks for popping up the links. I was going to start trulling the back posts and the convention section of the archives, but this puts them all at my fingertips.

By: drow

drow — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:54:50 +0000

roused the zombies! by the gawds, that rocks. it sounds like it was a fantastic time, well done!

and thanks for the report. i don’t expect to ever run a con game myself, but its good to see how it can be pulled off so well.

By: Martin

Martin — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:43:34 +0000

Links to the TT posts and threads that Troy mentioned above: Lead With the Cool Stuff How to GM a Good Convention Game (from a Player's POV) Convention GMing with Pre-Gen Characters: Why and How Convention GMing on the Mind: Linear or Loose More Fun, Less Work Bad GMing Thanks for mentioning which ones you had in mind, Troy.