Guest Post: Is North Texas RPG Convention Still Happening

Ok, right off the bat big disclaimer: I'm not Erik. He's busy doing things none of us would want to be occupied doing and I volunteered to post on his behalf until he can resume.

I apologize in advance.

Yeah..right. I've finally got a captive audience of more than 12 13 readers and you'll just have to suck it up.

So here we are, mid-May, with a scant three weeks before North Texas RPG Con and the big question is really if the con is going to happen or not this year. It's obviously a complicated question and the answer is a definitive Yes and No, which I personally find a bit infuriating.

Nothing on the con at all, but really the hotel. Now I used to travel a lot for work, allegedly still do, and I'm very much a Marriott guy. I used to be Hilton all the way, but one horrific stay and I turned my back on them. I'm fast on my way to Lifetime Titanium with Marriott and if I never stay in another Hilton again in my life, I'm good.

Yeah, I know...you don't care. You probably shouldn't. I mention this because as a frequent business traveler Marriott is bending over backwards to cater to it's individual guests. I haven't spent a night on the road this year (unfortunately), but Marriott is carrying over my status, my earned rewards, and I can cancel any of my upcoming reservations as little as 24 hours prior to a visit.

Business (Corporate) events have their own set of rules events are under contract with deposits, along with fees and fines. Marriott is NOT catering to these guests, which makes little to no sense to me. As a business client, NTRPG cannot simply cancel or move back the con because of the contract, which makes sense.....in a normal year. As of now nobody knows if Texas is even going to allow events like NTPRG to occur.

I get that, BUT........Marriott is already catering to some guests and let's be blunt, they largely cater to travelers and allegedly have a clue about travel. I mean, this location is an airport hotel for a reason, right?

For those of you who do not travel frequently, or travel by air frequently. There are normally specific gates (as in timelines) when it comes to purchasing airline tickets. You'll generally see a price spike a two months to six weeks before the date of travel, again a month out, two weeks out, three days out....you get the point. Realistically we've already approached the appropriate gate for deciding to get tickets to NTRPG Con. If people were going to come, they need to have made the decision already. You cannot count on last-minute plane tickets.

Now I'm still online to come, but I'm within driving distance. I'll be cancelling one of my reserved rooms, because the guy I reserved it for isn't coming. Marriott is taking care of me because they want my future business......

See where I'm going with this? Marriott has to know that realistically NTRPG Con isn't going to happen, but instead of taking care of this customer, and their future business, they seem to be more concerned with this single transaction. This is the kind of thing that can make or break a convention.....and any decent Business Manager (basically the Hotel's Business-to-Business liaison) is going to know this.

Now Bad Mike and NTRPG really hasn't been complaining (I've seen none), but they have been clear what is going on. From today on Facebook (about an hour ago): "The state of Texas is unclear at this time whether gatherings of over 10 people who are not relatives are allowed, so we are proceeding with both virtual and face to face cons. If the face to face con is cancelled, we will have games virtual. If not, we will still have games virtual, with some at a tabletop. Flexibility."

Clearly they con is going on in some capacity, but the staff is having to jump through a bunch of hoops needlessly. If there is no call now, when really the majority of travelers have already had to make the decision to go/not go, Marriott should really step up and take care of their business partner. You want to now what is harder than organizing a convention? Organizing two conventions, one physical that may or may not happen, and a virtual convention.

Now all this is clearly my opinion, but I'm guessing a few people would share my sentiment. It's really a shame that Marriott would do this to a business customer and through them, to all of the other customer who would otherwise be spending time & money on their properties. Sure you'll take care of my room this year, but you're ok with making it so I don't need a room next year or the years after that because you ran the con into the ground?

I'm thinking someone needs to re-read The Spirit to Serve.

Guest Post by Kabuki Kaiser - Playtime

My first box was the blue box from Holmes, with a typed French translation which came on stapled sheets. It was a birthday present, you know, something suitable for an 8-years old kid. Yes, I have been called «the midget» in all the clubs I went to for about 8 more years after that, we should create a new word for this, «ageism» maybe. Anyway, that was bad. Especially since I was all about Dungeon Mastering, and designing my own adventures, which I won't show you — ever. Turns out adults rarely like having a kid DM them badly.

You found the blue box in game stores. There weren't any hobby stores back then, and in game stores, you found Chess, checkers, 2-3 wargames, and a couple of card games. You had to look for players then, your neighbors, and classmates are a-okay, but if you wanted to find people as passionate as you were about it, you had to go to clubs. Roleplaying games started in clubs. We all know how they (possibly) came as either a spin-off or a discovery in the Wargaming community, and found their audience there.

In clubs, you found scores of people, all wanting to join your game, and eager to spend 12+ hours playing it. That explains why you needed megadungeons, and the blurb on Metamorphosis Alpha that says «for 2 to 24» players [http://www.headinjurytheater.com/gammaworld.htm]. You needed it to last, and to cater for a small crowd. I've ran high level AD&D adventures for 16 players during 14 hours, that was common.

In a second phase, people took it to the Family & Friends zone, and started to play with smaller groups, and for shorter duration. That's where your average «5 players, 8 hours» comes from. Because of this, the adventures' format had to change as well. A challenge for 16 players is a death trap for 5, and a megadungeon of 300 keyed locations, and more, is something you'll never finish exploring, leaving you unsatisfied. We all have dozens of characters in our drawers, who will never get to know the end of the campaign. The reason we have them is that we've kept on playing adventures that have been designed for another format, and game culture, and sometimes because shit happens, like moving places or being not friends with people anymore. Oddly, the RPG productions did not adapt very well to the new format at first. I can't think of a single RPG (counter-examples welcome) with mechanics telling you what to do with those lost characters, or when moving houses. But they did adapt eventually, and adventures came divided into smaller, more manageable chunks. From D&D3 onwards, everything is designed for your average «5 players, 8 hours», and caters to the Adventure of the Week format.

We're now getting in a third phase, where people have even less time, and smaller groups. We get old, and have kids, and jobs, and stuff to do. Everybody's busy with something, and the internet, as well as the rise of MMORPGs has taken a heavy toll on the average gamer's time. Some people play online, others at the office after hours or with the good old friends who haven't moved houses, so that the average format is rather «3 to 4 players, 4 hours». The problem with the format, and I think that's the main reason why major publishers keep pretending that the former is still on, is that you can't shove a lot of narrative content in 4 hours, especially when combats take up 2/3 of this time. It's a paradox but the solutions all come from the founding phase, the clubs' era: sandboxes are perfect for this, you can join, and drop them anytime. Goodman Games [http://goodman-games.com] have rebooted the 2 to 24 players paradigm with the Funnel [http://goodman-games.com/dungeon-crawl-classics-rpg], that lets you have 24 characters at the game table with 6 players. No wonder the funnel is so successful, and has inspired many, including myself [http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/168001/Seven-at-One-Blow]. That's what I did as well in Castle Gargantua [http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/149190/Castle-Gargantua]. You know this megadungeon you'll never get to complete? Well, it's a sandbox now so don't worry, you just keep on playing, and there's not much of an upkeep.

What we don't have yet, and is becoming necessary, is narrative arcs, and adventures divided in chunks of 4 hours, side treks, and mini-dungeons weaved together meaningfully so that they bring a sense of fulfillment, a story arc, and fun bit after bit. We don't have them in New School systems such as D&D5 because the mechanics take too much time, and get in the way, and we don't have them in the Old School Renaissance because everybody, including people who want to do new, and different stuff, still think with the game culture of the clubs' era, and seem keen to publish massive things nobody will ever play as is. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is what we play, and it's about time we adjust the games we design to what our lives have become.

Kabuki Kaiser

[www.http://kaiserkabuki.blogspot.in]

As stated in the past, The Tavern is open to guest posts and guest posters. Play on!

I'm Guest Posting Over at the Frugal GM Blog

+Christopher Stogdill asked me to make a guest post or two over at the Frugal GM blog and I'm happy to oblige him. Chris has guest posted here at The Tavern a number of times and it's about time I return the favor.

Join us at the Frugal GM as we talk about Go To GM Resources.