Nick Hughes 06/01/2012 21:37:59

We've had our first FGC games showcase evening and I was wondering what peoples' feeback for the evening were?  2 out of the 3 games scheduled were ran with Nic's game full and my game at 50% capacity.  Here is my thoughts on the evening.

The showcase idea is sound and I think we should do another one.  Despite the loss of the 3rd game and about 1/3rd of those who said they would attend not turning up, I think what games did run did so successfully.  It achieved the result of having two novel games being run and an RPG made up of players who don't normally game together.

It should be extended to include all areas of the FGC, not just the role-playing section.  I don't like the idea of club divisions where the role-players are over there, the board gamers are over there and never the twain shall meet.  The showcase night should be about novel and new games in general and by opening it up to the whole club you'll get a richer diversity of games and more crossovers with players.  I mentioned the showcase evening on the Crooked Dice gaming forum and people said it was a very good idea and they wished their clubs would do something similar.

Someone mentioned last night that they hadn't realised that the showcase night was happening; once again, people don't seem to read what's going on the website.  We can't rely on just the website to promote our games and, again, opening up the showcase evening to the whole club would help promote the event.

Next time, I'd like to see games that haven't been played at FGC at all:  New systems and rules.  To that end, I'm thinking of running the Duty and Honour diceless RPG game at the next one.

So, another showcase night?  Yea or Nay?

Gary Yam (07/01/2012 01:03:17)

In the sense that Nic got a chance to run his game and a good sized group, that was an objective achieved. I don't know what happened with the Rogue Trader - I have a suspicion that we should have asked if anyone wanted to jump ships to balance the parties more evenly, but that's how it goes.

 I say why not have more evenings like that, the only question being  - what are the criteria? Is it only for games that don't normally get played, and who exactly is a GM that doesn't normally run things?

NickH : On the subject of the club sans barriers - I have a feeling that it's a fool's errand. Regardless of what you may want for the club with all the best motives in the world, it's clearly something of a one-way street and a case of horses, water and drinking. The boardgames revolve very rapidly and there is always a selection of new games. If one of the regular RPG players wants to play a boardgame, at any given time there is nothing stopping them whatsoever. In that sense, there is no need for a "showcase" in that direction. On the other hand, I don't think I'm sticking my neck out by saying that very many of the boardgamers have absolutely no interest in playing the RPGs (at least not at FGC) and would not be persuaded to do so. Which is how it should be. People come to play what they want, and whilst I'm all for giving a bit of +ve discrimination for the new GMs, there's just no point in trying to get people who don't want to play RPGs to join in.

 

I do agree though that if anyone said "I didn't realise the showcase was on", then there isn't much that can be done in that regard. What other means of communication is there? How many times can you say "check the site"?

 

As for a next one - why not the first open date? 5th April?

Emma Hawkins (07/01/2012 14:52:10)

I thought all three games ran, one just with limited players... I think it was a very good thing to play with people that you dont normally cross with for whatever reason, and actually if it is done on any type of regular basis (half yearly, quarterly etc) it might naturally cause more of the role players to cross over and interact.

Anyway's big smiles from me, twas a very good idea!

Jon Burfoot (07/01/2012 14:54:20)

I can't say I've come across RPGers and Boardgamers being in a them and us situation, for years. I normally play RPGs, these days, but I have played my share of boardgames too. There are SOME boardgamers who prefer boardgames to RPGs, and I suspect the same is true in the other direction. As Gary says, people come to play the games that they want to. That's how it should be. Those that want to try other games/styles of games, that's up to them, isn't it?

A variety of boardgames turn up each week. That's the nature of that sector of the hobby. The RPGs that get played tend to come in ones and twos, because that is the nature of ongoing campaigns. Too many campaigns going at once tend to make (for me) less interesting RPGs, as you have to recall too many storylines/plots/characters etc. I appreciate the different systems, but in the end, system is secondary. The players and feel of the game are more important. Personally, I like the continuity of RPGs, and not too many of them going at once that I am in. 

On the subject of the Showcase Night, it was good to see a different pair of games being run. 7TV was good fun, and I'd recommend it to people (now I know the rules a little better, the bad guys will be better prepared and more effective, next time), and the Sci-Fi Cthulhu game seemed to go down well, too. 

I look forward to another Showcase night.

:-)

Nick Hughes (08/01/2012 16:29:57)

I don't think I made myself clear:  Instead of getting boardgamers to role-play, I meant that the showcase night for new games regardless of type should be extended to encompass all areas of the club.  This isn't a new idea, it's been one that's been kicking around for over a decade; all it's lacked is the impetus from the players to make it a reality.  In the past, it was left to 1 or 2 members to do all the work, this time around a lot of people made the first showcase night a qualified success.

So, the next one sometime in March/April or leave it a bit longer, or have one sooner?

Gary Yam (08/01/2012 19:56:31)

NickH:

I get exactly what you're saying, but surely it really only affects the RPGers. The boardgamers are constantly playing the newest, latest thing, anyway, and the games they play changeover very quickly. The variety and volume of what they play is much greater than for the RPGers. We play as many systems in a year as they do in two nights. Some of our rule sets are 30 years old and known off by heart. Some of theirs are played on the day of release.

Oliver Willis (09/01/2012 13:01:23)

I can confirm that the third game (Dark Heresy) did run. I had a blast running it, and Alex and Henry seemed to enjoy playing. A couple of other players had signed up but had to drop out due to unexpected real-life stuff. From my point of view the showcase night worked well. If we do it again I look forward to playing something new.

Gary Yam (09/01/2012 13:36:55)

Thanks for running that and taking part, Oliver.

Personally, I think the first available date might as well be used - 5th April. Can we hear support or alternatives, please?

The next question is - what should the criteria be for the showcases?

At the moment, it's either:

a) Any game run by a GM who doesn't normally run things

b) A game that doesn't normally run, run by any GM.

Shall we just go with the same idea again?

Ben Gander (09/01/2012 18:13:00)

The boardgamers are constantly playing the newest, latest thing, anyway, and the games they play changeover very quickly.

I'd agree with this - only type of showcase that we could do would be for old games.

Ian Pearson (10/01/2012 09:26:17)

 The boardgamers are constantly playing the newest, latest thing, anyway, and the games they play changeover very quickly.

Ah, but the 'style' of games is often the same. The moment a new mechanism is released, the boardgamers are all over it and if it's any good, nothing else is played for weeks. Eg 'Puerto Rico', 'Endevor', "Settlers of Caatan', '7 Wonders', 'Ogre' and so on

Gary Yam (10/01/2012 17:16:30)

Ah, but the 'style' of games is often the same. The moment a new mechanism is released, the boardgamers are all over it and if it's any good, nothing else is played for weeks. Eg 'Puerto Rico', 'Endevor', "Settlers of Caatan', '7 Wonders', 'Ogre' and so on

Which is about the length of time it takes to play a single RPG.

I'm not sure what the debate is here. Anyone is of course welcome to do anything on a showcase night, but I find it wholly irrelevent to the boardgames. The RPG showcase is to introduce "new" games or "new" GMs. There are no GMs for boardgames, and the way the boardgames are chosen is very different - people bring the game on the night and if enough people want to play, it gets played. This doesn't really have any application to the showcase - it would be no more than saying "we haven't played x for ages -let's give it a go".

Alex Dickinson (10/01/2012 20:00:37)

I enjoyed it. Though I didn't get to play with new people I did get to play a type of game I wouldn't have encountered otherwise - and was impressed. Given that we got one new game played and two new(ish) GMs, I'd say it achieved its stated aims. Like Jon I'm interested in playing in a small number of long-running campaigns and see changing systems as an annoyance rather than something fun & interesting, but I realise not everyone's in the same boat as me - particularly people who may be playing in long-running campaigns elsewhere and for whom FGC may provide a perfect opportunity to check out what they might be missing out on. So I think I can put up with losing one week's campaign play a quarter to try someting new!

As for the fact that some people didn't know it was happening, there's no point in posting about that here as those people aren't checking the website. The only solution would be next time to announce it in person at club in advance.

And on that note might it be useful to hand out a short written questionnairre to each member to ask them about their website-viewing habits: to find out how many never check the website, how many do but less than once a week, and how many check it without ever logging-in?

Nic Antoniou (10/01/2012 21:29:46)

 

I’m up for another one, but having had my go at DMing will be playing as a PC in the next, quite fancy something Sci Fi or super hero, why don’t people put up wots on offer and we can go from there.

Advice to DMs based on my observations of last session

Have pre Gens(To save time)

Keep plot as linear and short as possible in order to complete in the one session, avoid too many sidelines or have optional encounters that you can leave out if pushed for time.

Keep players to max of 4 again to aid in ease and pace of play,

Have an NPC to jockey players along or cut corners with in case party missed something and u r again running out of time, u can always give them a glorious death near the end.

Avoid Emma’s bag of Haribo, it will give u a sugar rush for the next month

Nic (The Third)

Nick Hughes (12/01/2012 21:01:11)

Ian gets where I'm coming from.  Not to disagree with your basic points, Gary, but Ian has expanded on the point that the boardgamers tend to play a run of peaceful trading games, then city building games, then sci-fi political games etc.

What the boardgamers can bring to the showcase night is a break from the genres they regularly do:  Call of Cthulhu was hardly a new game and yet it was played.  7TV is a new game but it has been played twice before at FGC.  The role players hardly brought anything really new and untried into the club the other week.  The point here is that the showcase night is for games aren't the usual suspects:  They're the new, or hardly played, the one-offs, the forgotten about, the lost classics, the genre-busting, the home brewed and then you have the chance for new GMs to try their hand at running a game as well.

What can the other areas of the FGC bring to the showcase night?  Well, Ian and Alan both have wanted to try home brewed games to the club (Bottletech or Battleted)...I'm not committing them to running those by the way!  Steve wants to try General Du Brigade as well.  It's up to boardgamers, wargamers and CCGers to decide whether they want to be a part of the showcase evenings or do something more familiar but I feel that these evenings can be a club-wide thing if people are willing to get involved.  It can start with the role players but expand from there.  As I count myself as a role player, a wargamer and a boardgamer I'm all for something that the whole club can opt into.

Yep, let's go with the 5th April.