GoD at PAX South
Hey everyone! Who here is interested in seeing Games on Demand at PAX South? Andi Carrison would like to help us make that happen!
“I manage the Tabletop department for PAX South, and I’m looking to find the right folk to lead and coordinate a Games on Demand presence there. Last year (its inaugural year), there was no GoD at PAX South. I want to remedy that going forward, as it’s important to me that GoD has a presence at PAX. In short, I’d like to invite GoD to PAX South.
PAX South is January 29th-31st in San Antonio, TX at the Henry B
Gonzalez Convention Center. I’d love to talk about what this could look like.”
So who’s interested in stepping up to make this happen?
I would be willing to consider it… :D
Gleeeeeeeee. Let me know how I can help you in your considering.*
(* true for all parties. holler if I can field questions, clarify, yadda yadda..)
Do we have a list of interested parties or are we just starting from scratch?
Scraaaatch, alas.
I hear tell there are folk who have inquired after it being present at PAX South, and my – perhaps overly optimistic? – take is that there are many wonderful folk who’d like to contribute to the success of GoD at PAX.
Nathan Black
I’m interested, and we have a small crew in Austin that I bet would be down.
Good call, I was going to tag Nathan this morning. In addition I know that David Schirduan and Bryan R Shipp were talking about going to the show.
Andi Carrison, can we assume that Guest/Exhibitor badges will be available for volunteers?
Is the space more like East or Prime? At East we’re usually on the floor with the retail booths (which is good for sales, and grabbing players) but it’s pretty loud there.
Absolutely yes to supplying badges for volunteers.
The space is like East, not Prime. So, one big open hall that is – alas – indeed on the loud side. Because the show is just now going into its second year, it will be less crowded that what you currently see at PAX East. I also expect that the volume and press of attendees will increase notably in the next few years.
Awesome! I’m going to step back here; my schedule looks pretty jam-packed for January, but if you take the lead, Nathan Black, you should let me know what you’re planning!
I plan on going to South and would like to help.
I don’t know what I’m planning. I’ve only ever seen GoD run at BBC, and not organized it myself. Are you and Marissa Kelly going to be at PAX south Mark Diaz Truman?
Tresi Arvizo, that would be awesome. I’ve got a small group of (potential) Austin GoD runners that I can add you to.
Nathan Black Signed up, thanks.
Love it.
Andi Carrison if you want to get ahold of me directly I’m at my name at gmail.
Nathan, feel free to email me with questions about how the event usually runs in other places.
Steve, I can start with: How does it run in other places?
Nathan Black Will do.
Oh, we’re gonna do this here?
moves the furniture out of the way, takes off his glasses
Nathan Black I’m sure that Morgan Stinson and Christopher Corbett would be delighted to offer you a bit of insight from their experiences running GoD at PAX (Morgan at Prime, and Chris at East), tooooo.
So it varies from show to show, but it sounds like PAX East is your best model. You can get started with the more general advice I posted here:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+SteveSegedy/posts/WPHPCzJKpyn
Tresi Arvizo and Mark Diaz Truman are veterans of PAX East, so either of them (or the rest of that crew) would be a huge help. You can also talk with Christopher Corbett who has been organizing that event for the last few years.
The big picture is that GoD serves three purposes:
1) introduce new players to lesser known and/or small press games (or in the case of PAX, to tabletop RPGs in general that are not D&D);
2) promote sales of those games by providing fun play experiences and pointing people to the retail booths/websites where players can buy them;
3) provide a central gathering place – a con within the con – for the people in our (indie/small press/etc) gaming community.
I guess I need to write a part 2 in that series!
My experience with the PAX crowd is that they are young, enthusiastic nerds looking to have fun. You’ll need to be prepared to pitch the games starting from “it’s a pen-and-paper, tabletop role-playing game” (i.e. not a video, board, or card game) “that plays in about 2 hours” (a slightly bigger time commitment than they want) “that will be a lot of fun.”
The game menus we’ve developed for other shows work great for this, but require someone to survey your GMs to find out what they want to offer and then do some layout, printing, and laminating work. It’s worth the effort!
Yes, if South is going to have a tight, main floor location you will need to approach it very differently than the Ponderosas that Prime and Origins work with. [not, bitter, really. ;-)] Nathan Black I can share with you my organizing spreadsheets from the last couple of years if you like. We approach it less like a restaurant and more like a museum. We schedule the tables on a staggered schedule so that there are games starting every hour on the hour. What games are offered is contingent upon which GM’s are on and what games they are willing and able to offer. We got away from trying to fill the demands of the punters as they showed up. That method didn’t go so well within the space constraints we work under.
Aside: I am so very grateful for everyone’s enthusiastic support, insight, and energy.
#gratitude
South’s huge, half-empty tabletop space is a wonder beyond imagining compared to what GoD faces at East. It almost brought a tear to my eye.
Christopher Corbett I would really appreciate any spreadsheets, advice, recommendations you can provide.
I’m still looking for more game runners that will be at PAX South, please send people my way if you know anyone going.