Posting so that people can discuss, give their opinions and suggestions. We ran 30 scheduled games with only 2 as no shows, one because it was a 9am game on the 4th day of the con likely. We added 3 games due to demand and ran with 6 GMs plus me doing coordination. Exact player numbers to come later.

My goal for next year? 12 GMs and 3 tables a slot, Mark (D*C gaming coordinator) says if we can schedule 3 a slot we can have our own consistant area, though gaming will be back in the Hilton again next year so we likely can't have a whole room to ourselves.

Thanks to Voxuze, Gentoo, DoG Xinu, Adrian, Lawrence, and Ben for coming out and GMing and thanks to Adam and Thrache who had the best intentions to but had to back out for lack of a GM hotel room. Hopefully we'll see you next year!

--//[改]>

The rooms at the hilton are smaller (if memory serves me right) so it shouldnt be toooo hard to get the gameslots. The only hard part is recruiting enough GMs but that is always the hard part. If we start working now, well not not but in a few weeks once we all recover from D*C then we can line up everyone for next year.

There was lots of interest in shadowrun through out the con. One day I wore my CGL shirt and that was all but a mistake. I tried to walk down the dealer hall and every 2 feet I made it down the hall, someone one stop me and ask me questions about where the CGL booth was, where they could get the books (augmentation was the number 1 requested book), and where they could find games at. it is not that I mind answering questions and helping out but it made "browsing the hall" a little hard. I let many people look at my SR4, StreetMagic and Augmentation (working copies) books.

CGL has niced sized booth at GenCON. All that they needed (in my humble opinion) was the smallest booth that they could get. Put BattleTech and ShadowRun books/stuff in it and you would have been selling copies left and right. Most of the players in the one shots, pickup games, and the SOTAs were asking me where they could get the books.


The D20 Pro group heard lots of talk about shadowrun from the people playing DnD. Yes we were all in the basement of the Mariott but they were on the other hallway away from us. They thought we were the single biggest competitor to them (or the 2 D20 Pro guys that I spoke to said so).

I think there was two main types of players of shadowrun this year at D*C. The hardcore (not in a bad way) players that played in every slot of gaming in a shadowrun game. Either missions or one shots. The other group was the ones new to the game or new the 4th. Many of those kept asking if there were more games that they could get into after they played.

For me (and the few others that drove in each day) the traffic wasnt too bad and I was able to park right next door to the hilton/mariiot each day. That was good for me. The ones that used Marta were screwed slightly. they decided to do track maintenance on D*C weekend. so they were running on 50% of the tracks they normally run, so things were slower. Kai was affected by this.

I do want to thank all the fellow GMs. I know that we all worked hard and making sure that the players had fun. Thanks to Kai to make sure that I had my lattes when I was running on minimal sleep!!

I do have to make one more comment before heading to get ready for work tomorrow. Mark whom ran the roleplaying games made a comment to me when we were just standing around chatting that "I never worry about the shadowrun gms showing up, they always do and if they dont another one of you is around to make sure it is cover... but you always show up.. unlike some of the other groups..." now that is not verbatim since it is 2 days later from my memory. but pretty close to verbatim.

see all of you next year...

Thanks for all the hard work, guys!

Shadow Run at D Con was great this year. I have a feeling I qualify as one of the hard core gammers! I ran with the same people for each slot and we had a blast.
The commandos for the most part took one look at us and said these guys are up for a challenge. Joshua was great and enthusiastic, Ben was his normal self, good at running and laughing at us. Never accidentally giving anything away! Scott even was willing to run a pick up for us Saturday evening that we all loved. I am really glad that there is more of a showing of Missions at D Con. Can't wait till next year and doing it all again.

There was only one mission we hated. All I am going to say is talking panda. That mission was one no respectable team would have run. No contact with the Johnson that was reliable or trust worthy. The set up screamed trap don't do it. The only reason we ran it was we had paid the money to be there and wanted to play. And on top of it the faction loss was just not even handed. There were at best 4 points of unavoidable and unreasonable faction loss. The other option had you lose 2 points faction and gain notoriety. No matter how you ran the mission this would happen. Quite and discrete did not avoid it. noisy would have caused other problems. Our team ran this mission smoothly and quietly and it still was the most damaging mission the entire weekend.

Until the FUBAR with 20. (Mission writing, not the GM's fault.) You should be glad you and Chromemonger didn't play that one. Sheesh. 'nuff said.

Robert (aka Spanner)

Missions, right, we ran every mission from 15 to 20 twice, please post feedback on them in the Missions forum, cause the more teams that can relate their experience on it, the better the Missions people can find and fix problems, and especially when its at the same event and we still remember who the GMs were to see what their thoughts are on it as well!

--//[改]>

1) All the GM's did their best to entertain given the module. I'll respond in the Missions forums later today with particulars about elements of missions that really impacted player enjoyment. My point here being that the GM's all did their dam**est to entertain us players. Some of it worked great and some, like the Panda thing, flopped but consistently the GM's did their best to entertain.

2) Pickup Non-missions games by SRM GM's should be identified as such. My enjoyment of GM-roulette has diminished. In years past some of the Pickup Non-missions games NOT run by SRM GM's were horrendous and if I knew a Pickup Non-missions game was run by a SRM GM I'd be predisposed to playing it.

3) Please put a cross-linked (and locked!) post in the SR4 forums when pre-convention info is released. Such things to include could be which missions will be offered, which pickup games are being done by SRM personnel, and other general info. Dumpshock is too big for working stiffs to stay up to date on every subforum. The SR4 forum seems to be the most frequented. Subscribing to the conventions forum is a better idea. Thanks, the_dunner!

4) Shoutouts: Thanks to Adrian for his valiant attempt to make mission 20 fun. Kudos to Joshua for making Watcher spirits paralyze us with laughter. Thanks to Kai for being available all day, every day for questions and feedback despite somehow miracling herself to and fro. Kudos to Larry and Scott for grinding faction with new players via the 101 and SOTA missions and somehow remaining upbeat. Man that musta been repetitive! Thanks to Joel for comical portrayels of animals and one especially silly Orc, and kudos to Ben for making the module "A very bad day" into a very fun game.

5) To Catalyst: Who are you? I hope the Commandos like you because they are the only link you have to players right now. [/sarcasm]

6) To every GM who offered to run last years missions or to run unscheduled pickup games the 'extra mile' really makes a difference.

7) To SRM schedulers: It'd be swell if getting older missions could be facilitated. Not everyone has a Firebase near them or all of their friends local. I'll wager players would be willing to coordinate 4-8 man games and pre-reg with the con in that period between when SRM schedulers know when they will be running and before open gaming pre-registration. That way players who organize their own table could get a slot for a mission the players lack. Its not a simple matter but C&C for missions is pretty tight so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Thanks again to all the players and GM's who made D*C fun again this year!

Matt (aka Chen)

Hm.... how badly worded CAN I be? Apparently a lot. Oops!

By pickup games I should have said 'non-missions games'. My bad. I meant to say which 'non-missions games' are run by SRM GM's.
[Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!]

As for the suggestion of cross posting I was unaware of the ability to subscribe to forums instead of just certain posts. Thanks for the tip!

Lastly, I didn't write to disparage the offerings, HONEST. Our SR4 crew is spread out over 3 states and we only see *everyone* at Dragoncon. That makes us playing via a con game much more attractive than a local game even if its so we can play an older module.

[QUOTE=the_dunner][QUOTE=Wasabi]3) Please put a cross-linked (and locked!) post in the SR4 forums when pre-convention info is released. Such things to include could be which missions will be offered[/QUOTE]
This information is posted on the appropriate convention's web site and in that convention's program guide. If you're attending the convention, it should be readily apparent in the pre-registration process. I generally echo that information into the Shadowrun Missions forum (Though, not with DragonCon, as I'm only marginally involved with that show.)
[QUOTE], which pickup games are being done by SRM personnel, [/QUOTE]
Pick-up games are, by their very definition, not scheduled. That makes it pretty much impossible for us to notify you of them.
[QUOTE]Dumpshock is too big for working stiffs to stay up to date on every subforum. [/QUOTE]
If conventions or Missions are a high priority for you, you can subscribe to those forums. You'll receive an automated e-mail when a new posting appears. Posting about convention scheduling or the missions campaign in the SR4 forum is off topic.
[QUOTE]Shoutouts: Thanks to Adrian for his valiant attempt to make mission 20 fun.[/QUOTE]
Could you please e-mail me ( shadowrunmissions@gmail.com ) to clarify what the issue was with Mission 20? (This is directed to RobertB as well.) That scenario ran well in playtest and at GenCon. I'm extremely surprised to see folks complaining about it.
[QUOTE] To SRM schedulers: It'd be swell if getting older missions could be facilitated. Not everyone has a Firebase near them or all of their friends local. I'll wager players would be willing to coordinate 4-8 man games and pre-reg with the con in that period between when SRM schedulers know when they will be running and before open gaming pre-registration. That way players who organize their own table could get a slot for a mission the players lack. Its not a simple matter but C&C for missions is pretty tight so I'll keep my fingers crossed. [/QUOTE]
All of the old SRMs are publicly available at the Shadowrun web site. This year we had exactly 6 GMs available to work DragonCon. With the resources we had, it was not feasible to schedule more than what we did. While organizing players is a nice notion, the number of players isn't the limitation. It's the number of GMs. If you want the situation to improve, please help us to recruit gamemasters.

In the interim, if you want to play the old scenarios, download them, and sucker somebody into running them at your FLGS. We make them available to promote Shadowrun and the Missions campaign. That's also why we don't promote the older scenarios at big conventions. SRM02-07, for example, has been publicly out on the web for 12 months. In my mind, if somebody wants to play it, then they will have by now.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]In the interim, if you want to play the old scenarios, download them, and sucker somebody into running them at your FLGS. We make them available to promote Shadowrun and the Missions campaign. That's also why we don't promote the older scenarios at big conventions. SRM02-07, for example, has been publicly out on the web for 12 months. In my mind, if somebody wants to play it, then they will have by now.[/QUOTE]

I would agree with you but some people that I was running games for said to me "the only place I can find to play shadowrun (especially missions) is at DragonCON since no one around <fill_in_city> will run it". I dont know how many commandos/missions gms are out there, but I get lots of requests from people all over ga for me to run the "older" games. We (a full table of players and myself) spent a month prior to DragonCON running all the missions in between last year's D*C and this years. The so called "catchup". Between the two events there was no where for them to play the missions.

I can see both sides of the fence.

After a small break (to recoop from GenCON and DragonCON), if there is missions that are 01->20 that people need in our area (altanta area), please let me know and I can see what I can do about running them for you. Wasabi, I know that you have some players that need some run. We can talk offline about those.


[QUOTE][QUOTE], which pickup games are being done by SRM personnel, [/QUOTE]
Pick-up games are, by their very definition, not scheduled. That makes it pretty much impossible for us to notify you of them. [/QUOTE]

I do not want to put words in his mouth (I know him and I think what he was trying to say here), is that the "one-shots" are done either by Missions GMs or by random people off the street. He would like to know which ones are the ones run by Missions GMs. Wasabi, If I misrepresenting what you mean, please correct me. This is what you and I discussed at D*C in the hallway.

Personally when I played this weekend (I got some free tickets for games from some fellow player - THANKS!!) the two games were run by Missions GMs and that is why I was all for it. 2 reasons. first I knew it would be run by someone that was a good gm. second I got to see how other good gms run games to get pointers on how I could improve myself (and since none of us are perfect we could use improvements). there was at least one GM running shadowrun games this year (one-shots) that was, how do I put this poltiically correct? not upto the caliber of the missions gms (or even close). I heard some less-than-positive comments about there games.

People like Wasabi go to <fill_in_con_name> to play shadowrun and have fun. Nothing shocking. He and his group bought tickets for *every* gaming slot for the con that had shadowrun in it. every slot. Now they would check to see whom the GM was before playing. Any of the missions gms they were right there. Otherwise it was very iffy.


[QUOTE][QUOTE] To SRM schedulers: It'd be swell if getting older missions could be facilitated. Not everyone has a Firebase near them or all of their friends local.[/QUOTE]

This is a schedule nightmare due to lack of GMs and slots. If we can get more GMs to come to <fill_in_con_name> we can get more of the older ones offered. Lucky for me, one of the other missions gms had the older missions printed off and with him so I could run the older missions for you guys (the D*C players). Plus since most people have played the older ones, it will be hard to fill a table (enough) to run the games. Or the possibility is higher with the older games.

This year we ran 2 games per slot (minumum) with the prime time slots running 3-4. With more GMs next year we hope to make that even larger.

So if you know any GMs that want to help out, have them contact us about helping run games. the more gms the more games we can run</plug>

From what I heard at the con and what I have read so far on the boards it seems that most people had lots of fun and enjoyed themselves. that was my goal.

thanks

Nope, that was what I meant, dog_xinu. :-)

Really, as hard as it might seem to believe, there *is* a method to my madness.

Dragon*Con is unusual in that anyone who walks in off the street can GM anything they volunteer for, so if say Dog decides he doesn't want to do stuff with the ConTeam, there's nothing saying he can't just walk in and sign himself up to run things, there's nothing the ConTeam or Catalyst can do to prevent that

Dragon*Con is also the only con I know of that lists a GM name with the game, which, considering we didn't know who was GMing what at that point, was completely uninformative. That said, I asked Mark about it and next year all the ConTeam's events will be listed in the program/on the website with a GM of 'Shadowrun ConTeam' to ease the confusion a bit.

Another question for players, assuming we could get the GMs and a writer, would there be interest in a 2 day/8 to 10 hour mini tournament?

[EDIT] - Also, we make no distinction within the ConTeam, if you are a GM, you are expected to be able to GM one shots, Missions, and if applicable, tournament. We try to honor preferences, but sometimes it doesn't work out. So technically anyone under ConTeam is a 'Missions GM'

--//[改]>

Numbers!

30 games scheduled
28 games ran
3 games added

2 games with less than 4 players
18 games with 4 to 6 players
11 games with over 6 players (the listed table size)


172 ticketed players over the con
114 on registered tickets
58 generic tickets

--//[改]>

Oh I was just giving you hell, Adam. We'dve loved to have seen you guys. :-)

And barring something crazy, next year you will!

[I suspect there will be a bit of a staff rumble to figure out who gets to go, because we ALL want to. ]

I'd like to say thanks to all the Players you guys rocked I had fun running Games for you.

To the other GM's and Kai it was fun long hours and all I was happy to fill in where I could and where I was needed.

TO ALL PLAYERS HERE:

Please if at all possible come to Megacon in March Megacon

I'd love to see you there I am at this time solo but will try to get other GM's to run games as well.

I am as I always do willing to run a 9am, 1pm, & 6pm slot on Fri. & Sat. and a 9am & 1pm on Sun. that makes 8 slots for you to get your games in.

I am talking to Megacon to get things rolling ASAP so keep an eye on the site and I hope to see you there.

Other conventions I will be at or I am attempting to be at are as follws.....

Florida Fall Fantasy Nov. 9 -11 I will post a link ASAP.

Oasis next Memorial Day weekend again I will post a link ASAP.

Talking to F/X to set up gaming there F/X

And as said Megacon.

All are in Orlando hotel rooms are not too badly priced here so Please Please come down and have some fun ok I'll stop pimping conventions in my area now have fun play nice I'll attempt to see you all next D*C.

Pen and I had a great time, and hopefully I'll have her drawing AND GMing next year

Kai,

You did a great job, and thanks so much for being available all the time!

To all my fellow GMs,

Great job!

To all the players, thanks for making my first D*C an awesome one!

- Gentoo