So, Gaelcon then. We had 14 timetabled slots, 1-3 hours each, run by seven people. The con as a whole was felt much busier and better organised than last year, and they managed to avoid the massive Saturday mornings queues. There was some initial confusion over table space as they'd given one of our tables to wargames, but the replacement space downstairs was actually a quieter and more pleasant place to play (probably because of the aforementioned wargames).
We had no problems filling spaces at games, in fact quite the opposite for a number of games the table was overfull by the time we turned up to look for players. We resolved this on Saturday afternoon by starting Grey Ranks early, and Poison'd overran so that at one point we were running four tables simultaneously. The only games that didn't run were on Monday afternoon - Maid and Burning Empires. We had a large turn out for Inspectres, and I was too tired out to do a proper recruitment drive - I also got the impression that Shane wouldn't be too upset if Burning Empires was skipped.
The one thing that worries me, is that despite a full page in the programme we would have been very difficult to find if you didn't know us. The timetable got shuffled about as needed, which is great for those in the know, but makes it much more difficult otherwise. There was only one announcement made (on Saturday morning) because there was no real need otherwise. There was no formal sign up sheets, so it was easy for someone to lose out on a place in game. As a side effect, we got away with not charging players for entry to games - it was great not to have to mess about with money.
I think there are two conflicting agendas. What are Gaelcon Indie RPGs? Is it an accessible public event, with full Gaelcon publicity, timetables, tickets and sign ups? Or is it a chance for those already interested to play a tonne of new games in quck succession, introduce their friends and quietly have great fun without too many people noticing?
Anyway, I'll post this up now and maybe come back to it. In case it seems too negative, all this musing is driven by a great con. I was getting somewhat apathetic in the lead up to the con, and now I'm wondering how best to structure next years.
Many thanks to Joe, Pooka, Debbie, Brian, Kevin and Shane.
Adam.
Oh, the other thing I was
Submitted by cthulahoops on Sat, 01/11/2008 - 22:20.
Oh, the other thing I was going to do with this thread was collect links to AP reports:
The Hammer Falls: http://www.story-games.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=7996
IAWA: http://www.story-games.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=8013
Thank you very much indeed
Submitted by Joe Murphy on Sun, 02/11/2008 - 05:18.
Thank you very much indeed for organising, Adam. The schedule sheet was great.
Veering away from the schedule suited me over the con, as we had many more people than I expected at some times (so we got a Polaris game in) and fewer at others (so The Hammer Falls and one of the Poisond games were more for 'veterans' than strangers. Mostly, my goal is to get strangers to try some of these games - so while Gray Ranks wasn't entirely effective, the feedback was superb.
In future, I'd like to find some way to offer specific schedule touchstones for new players ('We'll be available at 1pm and 4pm') and flexibility ('Show of hands for Polaris vs Poisond?').
I thought we did really well considering how few GMs we had compared to Conpulsion.
Yes, I was thinking of
Submitted by cthulahoops on Sun, 02/11/2008 - 10:36.
Yes, I was thinking of "flexible touchstones" too, but I think we should have a list of possible games to encourage people in and allow people to plan slots where a game they are interested in is likely to be on.
In addition, I think we should look into running a couple of games in the main rpg timetable - let front desk handle formal ticket sales and starting times, and use that to reach a wider audience and advertise the less formal parts of the timetable. The difficulty might be the minimum number of tables we have to run to qualify.
It would have the nice side effect of earning more entry tickets. :)