Originally shared by Kira Magrann
Join Kira Magrann, John Stavropoulos, Evan Torner, and Mark DiPasquale for a discussion of some wonderful tips for new and seasoned GMs for both tabletop and freeform games.
Games on Demand at U•Con in Ann Arbor, MI
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.
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!
Organizing a Games on Demand Event
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.
Originally shared by Nathan Paoletta
Originally shared by Nathan Paoletta
Origins Games on Demand 2015 Info
This is a volunteer effort and transparency is one of our values! The organizing committee is still working through our internal conversation before opening up a formal feedback survey, but for now, here’s the numbers.
Overall Numbers
We seated 463 players in 103 games with a staff of 36 GMs (including non-game-facilitating Hosts).
Last year we seated 457 players in 101 games with a staff of 44 GMs.
A slight increase in butts in seats, but with that lower staff count we’re pretty sure that means that we served an appreciable amount of new faces! Anecdotally this seemed to be the case. We also saw a lot of groups come through who all wanted to play a game together.
Time Slots and Capacity
Our busiest slots were Saturday night and afternoon (62 and 61 players), Friday afternoon (59) and Thursday night (58). We had 10 tables in our room plus 2 official overflow tables elsewhere and 3 unofficial-but-often-available tables next door, plus the Larp room downstairs in the afternoons.
We basically got close to or met capacity (using those overflow tables) 6 of our 10 time slots.
Games Played
Games on Demand played 48 different individual game titles, 43 tabletop and 5 Larps, across the weekend.
Game Title – # of games player – total # of players – (system notes)
Infinite Galaxies – 5 – 24 – (PbtA)
Dungeon World – 5 – 23 – (PbtA)
Fate Core – 5 – 23 – (Fate)
The Warren – 4 – 21 – (PbtA)
Dogs in the Vineyard – 4 – 19
Urban Shadows – 4 – 18 – (PbtA)
Cartel – 4 – 16 – (PbtA)
Iron Edda – 3 – 21
World Wide Wrestling – 3 – 19 – (PbtA)
Laser Kittens – 3 – 18
Microscope – 3 – 16
No Country for Old Kobolds – 3 – 15 – (PbtA)
Kagematsu – 3 – 14
The Sprawl – 3 – 13 – (PbtA)
Save Game – 3 – 12 – (Fate)
OxCrunch – 3 – 8 – (PbtA)
Feng Shui 2 – 2 – 10
Mouse Guard – 2 – 10
Nights Black Agents – 2 – 10
Polaris – 2 – 9
Masks of the Mummy Kings – 2 – 9
Project: Dark – 2 – 9
Masks – 2 – 8 – (PbtA)
Fiasco – 2 – 8
Swords Without Master – 2 – 8
USMC Torchbearer – 2 – 8
The Mesopotamians – 2 – 7
Hour b/w Dog and Wolf – 2 – 4
The Tribunal – 1 – 8 – (Larp)
Firefly – 1 – 7
Warriors of Crown Heights – 1 – 6 – (Feng Shui)
Dungeon Crawl Classics – 1 – 6
Kayfabe – 1 – 5
Mobilize – 1 – 5 – (Larp)
Wrath of the Autarch – 1 – 5
Monster of the Week – 1 – 5 – (PbtA)
Neo Shinobi Vendetta – 1 – 5
The Fifth World – 1 – 5
Hope Inhumanity – 1 – 5
Traveller – 1 – 4
Durance – 1 – 4
Guards of Abashan – 1 – 4
Juggernaut – 1 – 4 – (Larp)
A Family Affair – 1 – 4 – (Larp)
Damned Love – 1 – 3 – (Larp)
Vault Hunters – 1 – 3
Misspent Youth – 1 – 3
Psi Run – 1 – 2
Thanks again everyone!
Origins 2015 Games on Demand: By the Numbers
This is a repost of Nathan Paoletta‘s excellent summary of the Origins 2015 data
Games on Demand is a volunteer effort and transparency is one of our values! The organizing committee for Origins is still working through our internal conversation before opening up a formal feedback survey, but for now, here’s the numbers.
Overall Numbers
We seated 463 players in 103 games with a staff of 36 GMs (including non-game-facilitating Hosts).
Last year we seated 457 players in 101 games with a staff of 44 GMs.
A slight increase in butts in seats, but with that lower staff count we’re pretty sure that means that we served an appreciable amount of new faces! Anecdotally this seemed to be the case. We also saw a lot of groups come through who all wanted to play a game together. Continue reading