[NOTE: The following consists of postings to a thread on the Usenet newsgroup uk.games.roleplay, on the subject of the practicalities of organising an RPG convention in the UK. As I consider this to be an endeavour worth promoting, and as there was at that time otherwise no readily available guide to the subject other than hard experience, I posted it to the 'Web as a permanent reference document, with the permission of all the contributors. Each post should technically be considered copyright its original author, I guess, but by posting to Usenet they released their wisdom for effectively unrestricted distribution. The whole thing is probably rather well out of date by now, but some parts may still be of interest. Anyhow, thanks are due to all concerned.] [I would also suggest that anyone interested in this subject should look at the notes published from more recent experience by the organisers of Concrete Cow, at http://www.mk-rpg.org.uk/Concrete_Cow_howto .] ========================================================================= Subject: Organising a New RPG Convention Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 12:26:23 +0000 (UTC) From: "Rick Meints" Organization: Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG Newsgroups: uk.games.roleplay Some basic tips for starting a new convention: Form a committee: ----------------------------- Start with either 3 or 5 dedicated individuals. Odd numbers avoid voting ties. Having a chairperson. Takes minutes during your meetings. Assign tasks, document progress, and communicate regularly. If you are all internet enabled, set up a yahoogroup to easily communicate with the whole committee. Come up with a General Goal and Programme: -------------------------------------------------------------------- Start with a general goal, such as supporting X range of systems. Decide whether you want to make it a day or weekend event, and come up with a sketch of the programme needed to fill it. Most RPG conventions focus on RPG events, and add variety by supporting it with seminars, an auction, open gaming, and LARPs. Avoid events that require complex facilities or equipment, because they comes with a price tag. Try and think of a programme that can realistically attract around 200 people. Pick a Location and a Date: ----------------------------------------- Start with the venue where you'll be running the events. Surfing the web, via a search engine like Google.com, can yield a large number of university sites that will probably have most of the info you will need. Many list their room rates, charges for conference rooms, etc. Since most only offer their facilities during school breaks, picking the actual date for the convention is making a match between the facilities you require and the dates that they are available. Most places will require a deposit if you want to actual reserve the venue, with the possible exception of university clubs. Since most uni's have such a club, try tracking them down once you've found a good venue and see if you can work with them to the benefit of both of you. They can be a great source of volunteers. Make sure the location has good transportation links. A site visit is essential before making a final decision. Costs: -------------------- Each university has its own range of prices. Some give free conference room space if you book enough accomodation, others charge for it. Rates vary greatly. If you get 200 people at 10 quid per day, you should easily be able to cover at least the convention space rental costs and have enough left for printing, insurance, etc. Guests: --------------- Travel costs for big name guests can be very expensive if the guest isn't a UK resident. Fortunately, most RPGs have UK luminaries that you can tap into, many of whom are delighted to be invited. Usually, free membership and rooms, plus a train ticket are standard. Trade Hall: --------------------- Most smaller conventions can't really justify charging for dealer table space. It is usually better to ask dealers for a few free prizes or auction items. As long as you can get two or so to attend, you'll probably get by just fine. Do like Dragonmeet does and focus on getting demos of games run in the trade hall. Give people a chance to try new things without a huge investment in time. Volunteers: ---------------------- Be wary of unproven offers for help. Many are heartfelt offers, but many are just hollow and never materialise. The best kind of volunteer to get is one who will run an event, such as GMing a session, or hosting a seminar. Smaller conventions need to have con representatives from the committee available to handle the logistics, but don't need hordes of staff. Advertising: ---------------------- Thanks to the internet, there are numerous ways to get the word out to the masses. Set up a simple website once you have the place and time picked out. Have a dedicated committee member keep it updated. Set up a yahoogroup for the attendees so you can get announcements to them easily. Post monthly ads to various newsgroup like this one and the various rec. based groups. For those that aren't connected to the web yet, some avenues to get in touch with them are posters and A5 flyers in gameshops, and free convention listings in various magazines. Snail mailings are too expensive. Word of mouth can also go a long way towards filling up the numbers too. Thus endeth part one. Comments welcome. Much of this is based on my experiences (and my mistakes) from helping run Convulsion 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2002. Rick Meints Convulsion 2002 (CO2) committee www.glorantha.co.uk -- Posted from ncache1.ford.com [136.1.1.101] via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG ========================================================================= Subject: Re: Organising a New RPG Convention Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 17:08 +0100 (BST) From: news@davidbrain.co.uk (David Brain) Organization: Nextra UK Newsgroups: uk.games.roleplay In article , rjmeints@cs.com (Rick Meints) wrote: > Some basic tips for starting a new convention: > (excellent advice snipped) Smofcon 19 is being held at York Unversity in early December, and is essentially a convention about running conventions. Although targeted at those running SF cons, the pool of experience there will be huge and I would recommend anyone interested to get in touch with them. smofcon19@hotmail.com I think. -- David Brain London, UK ========================================================================= Subject: Re: Organising a New RPG Convention Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 17:46:31 +0100 From: Phil Masters Organization: P.J.Masters Newsgroups: uk.games.roleplay A good post; I'll add a few note from my own experience and opinionated standpoint. (Pinches of salt all round never hurt, of course.) Rick Meints helpfully wrote: > Some basic tips for starting a new convention: > > Form a committee: > ----------------------------- > Start with either 3 or 5 dedicated individuals. Three may be okay if you're only aiming for a small event (heck, one or two people can organise some types of event very well), but I'd strongly recommend more if you're being at all serious and especially if it's a new committee. > Odd numbers avoid voting ties. Having a chairperson. If you're seriously worried about tied votes, ask yourself if all of the committee really have the same goals. What I would say is that having more people means that, if one or two people turn out to be time-wasters, or suffer health problems, work crises, or bereavements, you're not totally stuffed. > Takes minutes during your meetings. Recruit at least one person with the soul of a good secretary. Value them as you value your lives. (Or at least, say, as you value your major organs.) > Assign tasks, document progress, and communicate regularly. See above. Note; good secretaries are not afraid to nag. > If you are all internet enabled, set up a yahoogroup to easily > communicate with the whole committee. For five or six people with enough neurones to serve on a committee, using half-decent mailer programs should obviate this. > Come up with a General Goal and Programme: > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > Start with a general goal, such as supporting X range of systems. In my experience, the membership will define what systems get supported. But of course, if you sell yourselves to, say, long-time Chaosium fans, then *Call of Cthulhu* and *Hero Wars* are likely to be well supported... > Decide whether you want to make it a day or weekend event, and > come up with a sketch of the programme needed to fill it. That should come before you've even pulled the committee together, really; it defines the scale of the task you're taking on. Some cons are programme-heavy; others don't bother. Irish-style cons involve a lot of heavily pre-organised scenarios. And so on. > ... Most > RPG conventions focus on RPG events, and add variety by > supporting it with seminars, an auction, open gaming, and > LARPs. Avoid events that require complex facilities or > equipment, because they comes with a price tag. Try and > think of a programme that can realistically attract around 200 > people. Note; the numbers are up to you, once you've got some idea of your budget. 200 is a bit on the high side by independent UK con standards, but not unthinkable. Do decide if you want lots of RPGA (and DCI) tournaments all over the place, or not. > Pick a Location and a Date: > ----------------------------------------- > Start with the venue where you'll be running the events. > Surfing the web, via a search engine like Google.com, > can yield a large number of university sites that will > probably have most of the info you will need. Many list > their room rates, charges for conference rooms, etc. University sites are usually the best bet, though hotels and such aren't necessarily unthinkable. You may well start with a local site to which you have helpful connections. This is great, provided that it's genuinely a decent con venue. Hopefully, you decided *before* you picked a venue whether you'll be residential or not... > Since most only offer their facilities during school breaks, > picking the actual date for the convention is making a > match between the facilities you require and the dates > that they are available. Also; please TRY not to clash with any other RPG cons. Check the calendars on the Web. Ask around. Ask on this newsgroup. We are thinly enough spread as it is, without anyone making it worse. > Guests: > --------------- > Travel costs for big name guests can be very expensive if > the guest isn't a UK resident. Fortunately, most RPGs have > UK luminaries that you can tap into, many of whom are delighted > to be invited. Usually, free membership and rooms, plus a > train ticket are standard. If you can genuinely hit 120-200 people for a weekend con, and your venue isn't a rip-off, you can probably afford a US guest. Of course, having committed to things like that, the committee's personal funds are on the line. So don't get cocky... (I'm not sure how far UK guests help recruitment. Having been such a thing myself, I won't knock the concept, but I suspect that many potential names are over-exposed and under-known. Still, don't let me stop anyone.) > Trade Hall: > --------------------- > Most smaller conventions can't really justify charging for dealer table > space. It is usually better to ask dealers for a few free prizes > or auction items. As long as you can get two or so to attend, > you'll probably get by just fine. Do like Dragonmeet does and focus > on getting demos of games run in the trade hall. Give people a > chance to try new things without a huge investment in time. All good advice. If you've got space in a large enough room, you may be able to get a friendly local shop owner to show up for the cost of a membership plus a fairly nominal amount to cover the use of the tables. If so, it's worth it; it creates a good feeling among many members. However, many game shop owners are weirdly nervous about showing up to sell stuff to a room full of demonstrably keen gamers, and will back away like nervous kittens if offered the choice. Go figure. There are also one or two people in the second-hand games business who are less nervous of the idea of travelling a bit. But whatever you do, sort this out well in advance. Retailers don't tend to be impressed by attempts to recruit them at the last minute. Anyway, having someone booked may help your recruitment efforts. > Volunteers: > ---------------------- > Be wary of unproven offers for help. Many are heartfelt offers, but > many are just hollow and never materialise. The best kind of > volunteer to get is one who will run an event, such as GMing > a session, or hosting a seminar. Smaller conventions need > to have con representatives from the committee available to > handle the logistics, but don't need hordes of staff. Though genuine gophers can take the strain off the committee most pleasantly. People you know and trust, at least slightly, shouldn't always be ignored if they offer. > Advertising: > ---------------------- > Thanks to the internet, there are numerous ways to get the > word out to the masses. Set up a simple website once you > have the place and time picked out. Have a dedicated committee > member keep it updated. Set up a yahoogroup for the attendees > so you can get announcements to them easily. Post monthly > ads to various newsgroup like this one and the various rec. > based groups. For those that aren't connected to the web yet, > some avenues to get in touch with them are posters and A5 flyers > in gameshops, and free convention listings in various magazines. All good advice. As ever, 80% of your efforts will be wasted - but you won't be able to predict which 80%. Anything seriously expensive in the way of advertising should be avoided though. It just won't make back its cost. And be prepared to spend a year sweating your brains out on advertising, only to have some individual who should have seen all of it turn round and say "Oh, is there a convention on?" You'll have to forgive them; they know not what they do, and the more satisfying alternative is highly illegal. > Snail mailings are too expensive. But not the worst option. If you have a decent target list from somewhere, they *may* be justifiable. > ... Word of mouth can also go > a long way towards filling up the numbers too. Once it's moving, at least. -- Phil Masters * Home Page: http://www.philm.demon.co.uk/ "Battle not with flamers, lest ye become a flamer; and stare not too deeply into the 'net, or you will find the 'net staring into you." -- Friedrich Nietzsche (loosely translated) ========================================================================= Subject: Re: Organising a New RPG Convention Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 18:42:59 +0100 From: nick@pheasntDOTdemon.co.uk (Nick Eden) Newsgroups: uk.games.roleplay On Mon, 10 Sep 2001 17:46:31 +0100, Phil Masters wrote: >(I'm not sure how far UK guests help recruitment. Having been such a >thing myself, I won't knock the concept, but I suspect that many >potential names are over-exposed and under-known. Still, don't let me >stop anyone.) Agreed. Phil is someone I only know from conventions (apart from having read his White Dwarf stuff when I was very young) and whenever I see him being put forwards as GOH I assume that the con couldn't get a 'real' guest and so was forced to promote the best known member it had available. Obviously, if you're pitching to fans of a particular game then this doesn't quite count. The creators of SLA industries would be sensible GOH's for a SLA Con, no matter where they live. ----------------------------------------------------- Hero Wars Resources, fonts, breifings, cults soon http://www.pheasnt.demon.co.uk/HeroWars/HeroWars.html ========================================================================= Subject: Re: Organising a New RPG Convention Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 19:12:44 +0100 From: usenet@dchart.demon.co.uk (David Chart) Newsgroups: uk.games.roleplay Nick Eden wrote: > > Phil is someone I only know from conventions (apart from having read > his White Dwarf stuff when I was very young) and whenever I see him > being put forwards as GOH I assume that the con couldn't get a 'real' > guest and so was forced to promote the best known member it had > available. > This is depressing. Phil is probably the leading RPG author in the UK. -- David Chart ========================================================================= Subject: Re: Organising a New RPG Convention Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 20:00:06 +0100 From: Matthew Bloomer Reply-To: mjb135@york.ac.uk Organization: I like to spell it with an s Newsgroups: uk.games.roleplay On Mon, 10 Sep 2001 19:12:44 +0100, usenet@dchart.demon.co.uk (David Chart) wrote: >This is depressing. Phil is probably the leading RPG author in the UK. And, I quote (from http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_5047.html ): '...this sourcebook has been written by the British author Phil Masters, one of the veteran game designers in RPGs and viewed by many (myself included) as one of the best in the business.' -- Matt Bloomer * mailto:majabl@btinternet.com * http://web.ukonline.co.uk/m.bloomer * ========================================================================= Subject: Re: Organising a New RPG Convention Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 09:56:26 +0100 From: Jane Simpson Newsgroups: uk.games.roleplay Is that a good idea? Last I heard, one of the creaters got imprisioned for carrying an offensive weapon... that was a while ago, though. I'm sure he is out by now... Jane > Obviously, if you're pitching to fans of a particular game then this > doesn't quite count. The creators of SLA industries would be sensible > GOH's for a SLA Con, no matter where they live. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jane Simpson Tality Corporation, The Alba Campus, Livingston Consulting Engineer mailto:jsimpson@tality.com Phone: +44 (0)1506 595079 Fax: +44 (0)1506 595959 ========================================================================= Subject: Re: Organising a New RPG Convention Date: 11 Sep 2001 10:58:27 GMT From: Lynne Hardy Organization: University of Newcastle upon Tyne Newsgroups: uk.games.roleplay Jane Simpson wrote in article <3B9DD1BA.CD5247A9@tality.com>... > Is that a good idea? Last I heard, one of the creaters got imprisioned > for carrying an offensive weapon... that was a while ago, though. I'm > sure he is out by now... > The only one I knew about that got pulled up for an offensive weapon was many years again, when Nightfall was still owned by WOTC. He was one of the staff, not one of the creators and he spent overnight in the cell. And he was a good bloke. Hard as nails, but really friendly. The vast majority of the Nightfall crew were/are great people and would certainly make interesting guests at any convention. And one or two of them are very good at making LRP Vampire what it should be - bl**dy creepy. Lets not forget that at least one TV celebrity that is happily invited to book signings, store openings and other such gubbins is a convicted murderer, so you might be over-reacting a bit there. Lynne ========================================================================= Subject: Re: Organising a New RPG Convention Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 00:14:23 +0100 From: Tim Ellis Organization: may not be left blank Newsgroups: uk.games.roleplay Phil Masters has previously posted > >> Do please try for a guest who wouldn't have been at the convention >> anyway! > >I dunno about that. On the one hand, picking people who don't have any >interest in conventions - who aren't really part of the core of the >hobby - strikes me as a good way to get semi-detached guests. There is a difference between "Wouldn't have been at the Con" and "Not interested in the Con" - I think people like Robin Laws (at Rocococon), Steve Jackson (US) and Greg Stafford (particularly at ConJunction, which wasn't as "Glorantha/Chaosium focused as Convulsions) - have all been very interesting guests, but they are not necessarily very likely to come over to the UK for a small convention other than as a guest... > Sometimes, >they'll be worth having anyway, sometimes their disinterest will show. I >personally dislike that rather strongly. Steve Jackson (UK) immediately springs to mind... -- +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Tim Ellis EMail tim@timellis.demon.co.uk | | Everything I tell You Three times is true | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+