First of all I would just like to say the Dundracon Staff did a fantastic job this year! Congrats to them for pulling off a well organized convention.
I have been coming since Dundracon 18. In the last 4 years my friends and I have rented rooms and enjoyed the festivities. This year however, I do have a complaint. This complaint is not about the staff or the con, but about a trend I have noticed with some of the games being run.
One of the great things about running a game at Dundracon is that you participate in the convention on a whole new level, and of course, you don’t pay registration fees. The idea behind this is that the con wouldn’t be a con without the games that people organize and sign up to run.
However, when you sign up to run a game at the con, this implies that you are PREPARED TO RUN A GAME AT THE CON.
I was in two games at this convention that were “on the books”, so to speak. This means I was drawn to play in the game and it was in the Dundracon Guide. These were NOT open games. These games were two very different experiences.
The first game I attended was quite obviously not well planned for. As I walked into the room I noticed that everyone was rolling up characters even though the GM listed ‘Characters may be provided by the GM’ in the description of the game. As I gave my name and started to sit down, it became quickly evident that the GM had a concept in mind for the game, but that it was not fleshed out or detailed in any way.
The second game I joined was obviously well thought out and planned. However, the DM brought no miniatures and in fact asked the players if the had brought any. He had intended to use dice for monsters, etc. Now, this is a bit picky on my part and I will admit that but bear with me here…
Now, I paid my admission fee for Dundracon. So basically I PAID to participate in games. I didn’t pay to go to the dealer room (Why bother? I can order everything there online or go to my local game store.). I didn’t pay to get into the flea market (which was pretty sparse this year but that is another matter) since I can pretty much do the same thing on ebay.
I paid to play in games outside of my normal group and to hang out with my friends.
When I pay for a game I would expect that the GM be well prepared and, in fact, go above and beyond. I expect a bit of effort to be put in. I expect the game to be well thought out. I expect if you say you’re going to have characters, you have characters.
I don’t want to sit around for an hour of the game making characters. And most of all I don’t want to play in a game that you haven’t detailed out. Your reputation as a Game Master is on the line in these conventions. I see some of the same people year after year in attendance and at least I know now that if I see certain people running games I won’t bother to sign up for them. Not only that – you are getting in FREE. In other words you are basically being paid to run your game here at the con. Earn your keep.
I think a good addition to the Con by the staff would be a follow up questionnaire to each player that played in a game. This could include what you thought of the game, its preparation, its execution, etc. These could be taken into account for future cons that people try to run games at.
I will be running a 3.5 D&D game at Kubla Con this year and you can be assured that I will be well prepared, thought out, and ready to put on a bit of a show for those players that sign up to get in my game. It’s the only right thing to do.
Since it would be rude to make such comments and not sign with my name…
Carl Tuttle
