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Topic: NWCon 5 DMs/Event Organizers (Read 299 times) |
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Greywolf McGrowler
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I did the same for my Friday game of the Labyrinth. Only had one player signed up. Need at least two to play. Saturday's games look like a go though.
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Mulu
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I had up to 6 signed up at one point, ran with 4 ultimately (and one player trying to get in with a late emailed bic that I didn't notice... )
Looks like other than me only Annakolia had a game go forward, and they had most/all Annakolia players.
Tomorrow is looking better, but still a bit thin. I wish I could play myself, but I maxxed out my family free time pass by running a game and joining the DMTS session.
It ain't the old days, that's for sure.
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karvon
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My Pillaging of Waycrest event ran on Friday and I have another one later today which will likely go.
Even last year, we had a fair number of events which failed to draw enough/any people. Some PW events actually have more people then what sign up here, as their regulars simply show up and join directly, if there's space to play.
The moral of the story seems to be, your event needs to be well-advertised and have something which attracts players.
Karvon
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Lazybones
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Have to admit, I took a look at the stats yesterday. I think for once we have more DMs than players!
Of the 18 games scheduled for the first two days, 9 were PW events. One of the 18 was full, and of the rest, only Mulu had as much as 50% of the slots full. Most had 0, 1, or 2 signups. I didn't look at Sunday. I think most of the NWC non-PW events will have to be canceled unless people want to run with 1-2 players.
NWN is really showing her age; the player base just isn't there any more, at least for open games. Hopefully folks will continue to seek and find campaigns; once we "regulars" can't find new blood I suspect our campaigns will start to die out one by one over time. I can't really complain after a seven year run.
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| « Last Edit: on: Oct 31, 2009, 2:21PM » |
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Mulu
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I was telling Mirgalen the other day that as DM's we used to boot players that didn't show up for 4 out of 5 games. Now showing up for 1 out of 3 is acceptable, since I know that if I boot them, I'll probably just lose that slot for good.
Not writing the epitaph yet, as I think we have another year or two of campaigning left. Still, it would be easy to watch the old girl lay to rest if I knew a similar game was coming out afterwards.
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Mulu
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Anyway, if we run a NWCon6, some observations:
1. Build something new: All my players were old-timers, two were from my regular campaign. We're not drawing new players with any significant frequency, so a game needs to appeal to the old folks around here. I advertised and bumped the thread on the Bioware forums, but didn't even get a nibble. Looks like we're just running this for ourselves now for the most part, and for whatever PW's want to get in on the act, and they bring their own players. That of course means that next time we can skimp on the marketing. Maybe a couple of forum posts at Bioware and the Vault just in case, otherwise keep it in house. This has become a guild event rather than a community event.
2. Keep it Open: Vanya had a legitimate concern over d20 Modern needing prerolled PC's, and that an open game would result in folks trying to join at the last second without a bic file in place. In fact, that did happen to one potential player for my session, but I still had enough to run the game. My solution was reminders to send in bics.
3. Design the game for a small group: I could have run the War of the Worlds mod with two players, no problem. They spent most of the session running away anyway. That was on purpose. A mod designed for two or more players can run with two successfully. I was pleased to get more, but I was expecting and prepared for a low turn-out. I've actually redesigned my campaign the same way.
4. Consider consolidating: Looking at all the games with only one or two sign-ups, I wonder if we wouldn't have been better off trying a Fleet Street approach and have a team of NWC DM's running fewer games. Just a thought, it may not have made a difference if the issue was time zones and such. And of course, that DM pool is also the primary player pool anymore.
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NWN DM
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on Oct 31, 2009, 2:57 PM, Mulu wrote:I was telling Mirgalen the other day that as DM's we used to boot players that didn't show up for 4 out of 5 games. Now showing up for 1 out of 3 is acceptable, since I know that if I boot them, I'll probably just lose that slot for good.
Not writing the epitaph yet, as I think we have another year or two of campaigning left. Still, it would be easy to watch the old girl lay to rest if I knew a similar game was coming out afterwards. |
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Agree with all you said.
This year I've noted a roughly 60% 'no show' rate among players, including people who've been invited, and accepted.
Very discouraging considering how long it takes to put something together.
Perhaps, if you are right, we are now making/scheduling/running games for essentially a closed group (i.e. ourselves in a collective sense), we need to change our approach.
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karvon
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Actually, the ratio of players to games was pretty low last year as well, so nothing new there. Quite a few events went begging for players and were canceled then too.
I'll wait till the con's over before declaring a full verdict.
Karvon
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