[UA] Promoting UA at Conventions

[Mark Baker]

Liam Astley <esp.horsepie at btinternet.com> writes
>well there's a pretty good chance you might get me and amit seeing as your
>gencon brainwashing seems to have taken hold...
>
Well two is a start, and I hope Dylan Craig will be a third: he was the
only person who signed up for the scenario I'd planned to run last
GenCon.

>on convention games, do you game-running-types find you get a better
>response when you do "basic" games (the characters don't really know any
>more about the background than the players do) or more "indepth" ones with
>PCs using magick, avatars etc? just curious.
>
For conventions , you really need to do the basics because you generally
have no idea who will be playing the game, whether they know the setting
or not, even whether they know the system. The tag "No previous
experience necessary" does seem to help get players around the table,
people who'd like to try the system because they've heard about it from
others but not seen it for themselves.
If you're providing characters that are more "clued-in", you have to
provide that information for the players too, unless you can guarantee
that they are already familiar with it. That's not to say that
characters shouldn't be adepts or avatars, even for inexperienced
players: but if you expect the characters to know more than the players,
you need to make them aware of what it means to the characters.

It also helps if you can provide a brief synopsis of the setting, and of
the system in five minutes: enough to give those unfamiliar with the
game a basic knowledge of what it's about, but not too long that it's
boring for those who already know.

-- 
Mark Baker
Web Pages: http://www.lange.demon.co.uk/Index.html

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