Category: Games On Demand: General Discussion

GoD at PAX South

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GoD at PAX South

Hey everyone! Who here is interested in seeing Games on Demand at PAX South? Andi Carrison would like to help us make that happen!

“I manage the Tabletop department for PAX South, and I’m looking to find the right folk to lead and coordinate a Games on Demand presence there. Last year (its inaugural year), there was no GoD at PAX South. I want to remedy that going forward, as it’s important to me that GoD has a presence at PAX. In short, I’d like to invite GoD to PAX South.

PAX South is January 29th-31st in San Antonio, TX at the Henry B

Gonzalez Convention Center. I’d love to talk about what this could look like.”

So who’s interested in stepping up to make this happen? 

Games on Demand at U•Con in Ann Arbor, MI

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Games on Demand at U•Con in Ann Arbor, MI

Shane Harsch is part of the U•Con event staff and is currently trying to recruit volunteers to organize an instance of Games on Demand there.

https://www.ucon-gaming.org/

Are you a local, or someone interested in attending to help make this happen? Have you volunteered (or even organized) for one of the other shows? 

This would be a great opportunity to create a fun, new event and broaden the exposure for a bunch of great, small games. If you’re interested in helping to lead this effort, Contact Shane and sign up!

https://www.ucon-gaming.org

Organizing a Games on Demand Event

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I get asked regularly about how to start up new instances of Games on Demand for other conventions. I thought I’d write up some of the most recent advice for getting things off the ground as a first lesson, with more to follow.

Other organizers, feel free to comment with your own wisdom and experiences!

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My assumption is that you are an enthusiastic attendee who wants to organize a Games on Demand event (rather than a member of the convention staff).

In that case, my first suggestion for getting started is to talk to the convention events staff to see what they can offer to help you run the event- quiet space in a good location, free badges for GMs, maybe hotel rooms to encourage volunteers to come help, etc. 

If you have trouble selling them on why they should help you, point out that you want to assemble a team of enthusiastic volunteers and run an event for free to entertain attendees at their show. 

After that, make a guess about how many volunteers you need for the size of the show and start recruiting. How big is the show? Do you have any idea how many attendees to expect for the event based on attendance?

For a first-time event, 4-6 tables is a reasonable starting point. You’ll need to decide what the hours for the event will be and break that up into shifts for a volunteer schedule. You may not be busy enough to keep all the tables running for all shifts, but start with that assumption. 

If you have the option, the Origins model is a great one to follow- 2 or 3 four-hour shifts with breaks for meals in between. 

So assuming you run three four-hour shifts a day over 3 days — probably less on the last day, so let’s call it 8 shifts — with four tables at a time, that’s 32 shifts for GM volunteers. Add 8-16 more for a host or two to coordinate getting players into games during each shift, and that’s 48 shifts for a total of 192 person-hours.

At Gen Con we typically ask volunteers to work 16 hours to get a free badge. Some people do part-time and work just a shift or two. You can set that dial wherever you like, but if we assume a 16-hour commitment, that means you’ll need about 12 full-time volunteers.

Gottacon in Victoria, Canada just had a really successful Games on Demand event, and I think it deserves a mention.

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Gottacon in Victoria, Canada just had a really successful Games on Demand event, and I think it deserves a mention.

It was run by Mike G and Angela Gruber, and the GMs were myself, Patrick Riegert, Todd Nicholas, and Riley Vandall.  Mike stepped in as well when he could.

Mike tells me we had 70 people go through in three days.  Because of some really effective advertising, many of these were first-time roleplayers.  It was extremely successful, and will have to be happening again next year.

And on that note, anyone in the Victoria-Vancouver-Seattle area, or willing to visit next year, you should highly consider going us.  It’s a great time, and I’m sure Mike would agree that we could really use you.

And heck, failing that, if you know someone in our area who might be interested next year, let them know about it.

https://www.gottacon.com/