Games on Demand for Gateway 2014

[plusx2a]

I am excited to announce that we are introducing the Games on Demand format to Strategicon RPGs starting at Gateway 2014. I already have some excellent GMs who are prepared to run some great games for you using the GoD format.

What is the Games on Demand format you might ask? Well let me enlighten you as to how it works.

During a three hour track of time, I will have a pool of GMs offering to run several different games. If you find anything interesting you can sign up and as soon as you have enough people to play, you and the GM go into one of our rooms and sit down to play. The games will generally run for two hours a pop. These tracks will run deliberately off the regular schedule of games we have at RPGs on Saturday and Sunday (11 pm - 2 pm, 4pm - 7 pm and 9 pm - midnight). Games may start up right at the beginning of the track or towards the end depending on, well... you know... demand and can actually go over the allotted time on the track.

This format allows for me to offer a greater variety of games in a shorter format and gives people an alternate time schedule in which to simply pick up a game at any given time. This has been a very popular convention format for quite some time at other convention venues like Gencon and Origins and I have been looking forward to implementing it here.

I welcome any and all feedback and advice you might have. I am intentionally starting this dialogue early and have made my plans relatively fluid as far as format and content. Until August, stay awesome.

Best regards,
Jim Sandoval
RPG Supervisor
Strategicon Gaming Events

[mook]

I had never heard of Games on Demand, exactly, but after reading up online it sounds pretty cool. Looking forward to seeing how this goes at Gateway -- seems like it could be a great boost to an RPG presence already suffering an embarrassment of riches. More games, more variety is more players enjoying themselves, so win-win all around!

Not sure if I'd like 2-3 hour games more or less, though... 4 hours seems like a good sweet spot to me, plus the games I've already run are written that way. One thought I had was to use the Monday morning slot for "GURPS-Roulette," where the players could vote Yes/No/Maybe on the last five games I ran (Jem: License to Kill, Cynosure Romp, D&D Requiem, Operation: Needle, and The Vargon Trials). I would need a suitcase just for all the extra paperwork! And the printing/cutting time, OMG.

Anyway, I'm totally curious to hear what GMs are offering for these slots! Any preliminary teasers?

[tomes]

Yes very interesting. Wondering if people interested in this may be open to a more "gaming 101" style game, similar to the 101s in the board game room.

Regarding the shorter timeframe, perhaps instead of the expectation being that they'll play some very tactical or well thought out complete adventure, maybe it's more of a quick learn-how-to-play and have a short scenario, combat, whatever. Or at least is the session is marked as "101"

[yojimbohawkins]

FFG's Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion boxsets would fit very well into Games on Demand. All the materials are in the box, with step-by-step instructions for GM and player. They are very high quality and I couldn't recommend them enough as an intro to the game and gaming in general.

[plusx2a]

The purpose behind the Games on Demand model is to expose people to new games with a small investment of time. If you have a couple of hours to fill why not try Monster Hearts right? My main goal with both GoD and the games library is to expose people to as many games as possible. My idea if what Strategicon should be is a place to explore and experience things you wouldn’t otherwise have access to in your game room or FLGS. These games are intended to give you a taste of the type of stories the RPG is intended for and some experience with the system. So, in essence it is a 101 for the game. Hopefully I can get the RPG library going and have the books available for people who want a more in depth look at the game they just played on the GoD model.

GM’s will have more than one game available for play. This means that there is a broader array of opportunities without needing a whole new grip of volunteers. Don’t worry about the idea that this model will replace the old one. Hell NO! The four hour convention RPG game format will never go away. It’s the life blood of this department and I am not intending to fix something that isn’t broken, just adding something new.

There is an outstanding Facebook community for Games on Demand that posts a bunch of information for you to familiarize yourself with the concept. You can find that here.

www.facebook.com/GoD.RPG

As far as a teaser, here is what my GM’s have expressed interest in running for GoD.

Always/Never/Now
Apocalypse World
Barbarians of Lemuria
Call of Chuthulu
Classic Marvel Super Heroes
DnD Next
Don't Rest your Head
Dread
Dungeon World
Eclipse Phase
FAE.
Fate Core
Feng Shui
Fiasco
GURPS
Inverse world
Iron Edda
Mindjammer
Monster of the week
Monsterhearts
Monsters and other Childish Things
nWoD
Out Last Best Hope
Pathfinder
S/Lay w/Me
Sagas of the Icelanders
Savage Worlds
Sprawl
Star Wars EotE
The Quiet Year
Tremulus
Wild Talents