New Judge for Free RPG Day, need advice

[Yubacore]

Hello,

I've run my first game/0-level funnel recently, we did Sailors on the Starless Sea. I had such a blast and was so psyched about it that I went right over to my local game store where I attend Free RPG Day every year and offered to run it on that coming up day. I'm excited, but I'm also a bit nervous, I realized, just because I've never done anything "convention style" like this. I'm pretty new to DCC and relatively new to GMing (maybe 35 sessions spread over the past 3 years). Dose anybody have any advice specific to what I'm getting into? Also, would Sailors be ok to run in this case, or should I look for something else? Anything would me most appreciated.

Thanks guys!

[finarvyn]

Welcome to the boards and good luck in advance with running DCC in public. I was in your exact position a few years ago, where I had run lots of home games but never a convention game. Then I was asked to demo "that new DCC RPG" for Free RPG day.

I think that a lot of my answer would be based on the length of your planned time slot. In a regular game convention you have a 4-hour block of time in which to run an adventure, but when I ran for Free RPG day I was thinking more like an hour block so folks could drift in and out faster.

If you plan a long block, Sailors is an excellent choice and a great introduction to the game. In that case I'd suggest you allow players to run through full character generation since rolling random professions, etc, is a lot of fun.

If you run a quick game, I'd suggest you look for a really short adventure or throw together one of your own. I think one of the old Free RPG Day DCC modules had a short one in it, but the name escapes me at the moment. What I did was to grab a module with one of Doug's maps in it and use the artwork as an inspiration for what might be in each room. I found a really small one with just a couple rooms in it (perhaps in the core rulebook, I forget) and detailed a few simple encounters so that players could get a feel for the game. Since I wanted things to be quick, I also provided a stack of pregens and handed them out randomly.

One final thing to point out is that you might want to throw together a simple DM screen. Put a few basic tables together such as a basic critical hit and fumble chart so that you don't have to thumb through the rulebook much during play.

Hope that helps a little!

[Yubacore]

Thank you for the welcome!

Thank you for such a wonderful response! It was good to hear about someone who was doing the same thing as I am about to, although I sure you had more GM experience than me overall.

The way this game store dose it is the 4-hour block route, so plenty of time for Sailors, good deal! And I was also wondering about weather I should bring pre-generated characters or not, so I'm glad you addressed it as I really enjoy the level-0 creation process and I feel like it's a huge part of the DCC experience that they would be missing out on.

The DM screen is a really good Idea, I'm totally going to do that!

Thank you for the great insight and support, finarvyn, I'm beginning to feel much more confident now.

[finarvyn]

Glad to offer assistance. Remember that there are a couple of key goals in a one-shot store session:
(1) Make sure folks have fun
(2) Give folks a look at the way the game plays so they can see how this game differs from others they might have played
(3) Try to finish the session at an "end" point so they don't feel like things are left hanging.

Beyond that is just the details.

[DM Marcus]

Glad to offer assistance. Remember that there are a couple of key goals in a one-shot store session:
(1) Make sure folks have fun
(2) Give folks a look at the way the game plays so they can see how this game differs from others they might have played
(3) Try to finish the session at an "end" point so they don't feel like things are left hanging.

Beyond that is just the details.

I would second all of this! To make sure #3 happens, look at the adventure to see what area can be trimmed in case you are closing in on the last hour of play and the players are not yet half way through. Consider this ahead of time.

[Yubacore]

Glad to offer assistance. Remember that there are a couple of key goals in a one-shot store session:
(1) Make sure folks have fun
(2) Give folks a look at the way the game plays so they can see how this game differs from others they might have played
(3) Try to finish the session at an "end" point so they don't feel like things are left hanging.

Beyond that is just the details.

I would second all of this! To make sure #3 happens, look at the adventure to see what area can be trimmed in case you are closing in on the last hour of play and the players are not yet half way through. Consider this ahead of time.

This is great advice, exactly what I need, thanks guys! I can see where trimming the adventure on-the-fly would be really important if I want to give the players a "finish" to the adventure. I do know how things can get bogged down really quick, especially if I have more than 4 players. I've already told them that I probably would prefer 4 or less but I know at these types of events you can see a lot of players at one table, which scares me.

I'm also wondering, if I may, about your guys' streamlining. How do you guys keep things simple or techniques you use to make the game a bit less work for you as a Judge/GM. Some things I've heard of is: people delegating keeping track of initiative to a player, and index cards with quick stats. Things like that.

[DM Marcus]

Yubacore,

You'll do fine. Just let the players have fun. When they finish having fun with one scenario, move to the other. The game really takes care of itself.

As far as initiative, I like to make little index card tents with the players names when the players arrive. Ahead of time you can already have the creatures. In the spirit of DCC, I usually doodle a picture instead of writing the name of the creature. This keeps them guessing when they look at the initiative cards. Remember to place the initiative tents in order right to left from your vantage point so that the players see them left to right.

[Yubacore]

Yubacore,

You'll do fine. Just let the players have fun. When they finish having fun with one scenario, move to the other. The game really takes care of itself.

As far as initiative, I like to make little index card tents with the players names when the players arrive. Ahead of time you can already have the creatures. In the spirit of DCC, I usually doodle a picture instead of writing the name of the creature. This keeps them guessing when they look at the initiative cards. Remember to place the initiative tents in order right to left from your vantage point so that the players see them left to right.

Thanks DM Marcus. That's a good Idea and I like it even more that you sketch the monster and don't name it.

So, I ran two sessions last weekend to get ready for this Saturday and I ran into a few things that I'm a bit concerned about.

The one I'm most concerned with is the business of leveling up; I had just 3 players but one with 4 and the other two with 3 each (they had replenished their ranks). We got to the point where they all leveled up and it took a good amount of time to do so and really killed the table momentum. I'm worried because I'm potentially going to be having 5 players at my table. I don't think i'll give them each 4 character (probably 2 or 3) but still i'm worried this will just take too long. How do you guys usually handle this?

Thanks guys!

[finarvyn]

I don't typically allow for characters to level up during a session. That stuff happens in between game sessions, which means not at all for a one-shot adventure.

As you noted, the level-up process can be very lengthy particularly if the players are novices.

[Blood Axe]

My local store had ZERO of the GM Screens. But I did get two copies of Dragon's Maw adventure. The Screen will be on sale now?

[Yubacore]

I don't typically allow for characters to level up during a session. That stuff happens in between game sessions, which means not at all for a one-shot adventure.

As you noted, the level-up process can be very lengthy particularly if the players are novices.

Thanks dude, I agree and that's what I did actually. I feel now, more than ever, that's how level-0 adventures are supposed to go.

Blood Axe:
Bummer! I've seen a ton of them on eBay for expensive prices (considering they were free). Goodman Games indeed are going to be selling them, so don't worry.