Though I attended two conventions recently, I only refereed events at one of them – CleriCon. At Gamehole Con, I was there solely as a participant, playing in several games run by others. Partly, I did this out of superstition. The first time I signed up to referee at GHC was back in 2019, when I was hit by a car the day before my flight was scheduled to head to Wisconsin. Though I was able to literally) walk away from the accident with only some superficial lacerations and a non-displaced fracture of my fibula, I was forbidden from traveling for at least 48 hours out of concern that I might have suffered a concussion. Fortunately, I hadn't, but I was also unable to attend the con that year or run any of the events I'd signed up for. The incident left me with a strange worry that, were I ever to offer to run sessions at Gamehole Con again, misfortune might befall me.
CleriCon is a completely different matter. The reason I discovered the con in the first place was that I was trying – ultimately in vain, alas – to start up a small RPG gathering here in Toronto. In looking online for resources to aid me in my Quixotic quest, I learned about the existence of CleriCon, then entering its third year. As soon as I learned about it, I immediately offered to run some games there and did so without any injury to myself. So emboldened, I offered to do the same again this year, refereeing sessions on both Friday night and Saturday morning.
Though both sessions were well received and everyone involved had fun, it was the Saturday morning session that, in my opinion, was the better of the two. On that occasion, I ran the first level of my Dwimmermount megadungeon and provided the players not just with pregenerated characters but a very specific and narrow goal, namely, the location of the Dwarven cemetery reputed to be somewhere on that level. The players were able to do some exploration, fight some monsters, and eventually discover the cemetery, all in the course of the time slot. It was pretty much perfect.
On Friday night, though, I ran them through the revised version of The Cursed Chateau that I've been working on throughout this year (not as much as I'd hoped but that's another story). Once again, I gave the players pregenerated characters and a goal. However, the goal this time – determine what happened to previous groups of adventurers who'd entered the chateau and not returned – was much too broad. Combined with the fact that the adventure includes lots of random elements so that each playthrough is intentionally different and it was pretty much guaranteed the players wouldn't complete their mission in the time allotted.
Now, as I said, everyone enjoyed themselves. Indeed, some of the players from Friday night returned on Saturday morning to play with me again. Even so, I personally felt as if The Cursed Chateau session was not quite as "complete" or satisfying as the Dwimmermount one the next day. The former simply ended when the clock ran out, while the latter came to a conclusion that made sense, if you can understand the difference. In fact, the Dwimmermount session made so much sense that, while I was having lunch with some of the players later, one of them asked me how I'd arranged things in such a way to ensure the session ended on a "high note." I confessed that it was pure chance – a combination of good choices on the part of the players and the luck of the dice. I'd love to take credit for how well the session ended, but I can't.
This got me to thinking about what makes a good convention scenario and how best to write one. I most definitely plan to run more sessions at next year's CleriCon and, despite my superstition, I am also planning to submit sessions to next year's Gamehole Con (likely playtests of both the second edition of Thousand Suns and Secrets of sha-Arthan). But with only four hours to play, I find myself pondering how to ensure more satisfying sessions and fewer that just peter out when the time elapses. I had so much fun with the games I played this year that I'd like to do whatever I can to increase the odds that my own sessions will be just as enjoyable for potential players.
So, if anyone out there is more experienced with writing and refereeing con events, I'd love to hear what you have to say about this. For that matter, I'd love simply to hear the observations of anyone who regularly plays con games. What makes a good convention scenario? Are there any common elements that you think increase the odds of their being fun for everyone? Any insights you can offer in this matter would be greatly appreciated.
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