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Running events
RMcKnight
Registered User new member
Registered User new member
I'd like to run a event at PAX Unplugged. How would I register this?
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Unlike cons such as gencon or origins, PAX usually doesn't have GMs register to run things. They tend to leave it up to developers to supply GMs for their various games being shown at PAX, or people can set things up in the freeplay area on their own without any special support from PAX. We shall see whether or not this works well for a tabletop only PAX.
I don't currently have any more information than you do on the matter, other than my history of experience with PAX, so I can't say one way or another. "We shall see" means that I personally expect it to be without event registration, and through experience we will find out how well that works.
It should also be noted that the scheduled events done by the Enforcers have been sign ups on day of the event only, which has its own positives and negatives to the pre-registered sign ups at Gen Con and the exhibitor demos will also be similar to Gen Con's expo hall where it's first come, first served as long as you're willing to stand in line until it's your turn. It will be interesting to see if a move towards more scheduled events will happen, but don't expect any shifts like that until next year at the earliest, but likely 2-3 years after this year's events to actually show a preferential trend.
PAX shows have a single price for entry, but a very à la carte experience. What you do while you're at a PAX really depends on what you're interested in and how you want to engage it. We won't know specifics until they release the schedule a few weeks before the show date. There's a lot to do, and you're pretty free to focus on whatever interests you. In broad strokes, here's what you can expect based on what I've seen at East for the past four years:
I saw Jerry describe the PAX experience as "lines punctuated by fun" once and that's been true for me. Be prepared to wait in some lines - the security line to get in in the morning, the queue line before the expo floor opens, lines for panels, lines for game demos, lines for food, etc. But it's still fun. Lines are a great time to get to meet people. Everybody is there to share in the same cool stuff you came for, so it's remarkably easy to just start talking to the person next to you. I can't tell you how many times I've seen someone at East pull out a quick group game like Coup or Werewolf and start playing with a group of strangers while waiting to see a panel.
Also, if you have some time watch the Welcome to PAX series on the Penny Arcade YouTube channel.
Pastymage, it sounds as though you're like me in that you prefer to plan ahead and schedule your games/events. A Game Scheduler Geeklist has been set up on boardgamegeek.com (https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/225219/pax-unplugged-2017-organized-play-post-your-bigger) for PAX Unplugged. You can add games you're interested in playing, typically longer and/or heavier ones, in the comments at the bottom or add a new item for each game you'd like to bring and run/teach. It's a pretty effective system; I've done this at a few cons. I prefer having my con booked up in advance.
I will grant it is certainly a different system than the one I am used to at uh... every other convention I have ever attended. And I am always glad to try new things at least once
I am guessing they will likely increase the throughput of the boardgame library area by adding more checkout stations, which should help that part a lot.
The wait-and-see will be more around whatever WotC does for their scheduled D&D events and similar.
For attendee-generated content, the difficulty will be in organizing a group to play a thing, which hopefully the bgg thing will help with some.
I personally really dislike the "register for a game" setup of other conventions, but I know it's the norm for tabletop specific shows. I don't think I expect any insane lines to wait in at Unplugged, but my guess is that if there are, and there's enough feedback about it after the show, there might be an opportunity to change things. One really big advantage of a show like Unplugged is that the feedback from it after the show can be more targeted to a specific type of experience, since the show won't have giant AAA videogame devs and huge rooms full of PCs and Consoles to think about too.
Thank you for the follow-up, but unfortunately Friday is out for me. I was hoping to run a session during the convention, beyond just using the open gaming area, hence my initial interest.
For specifically D&D, a third-party (non-Enforcer) group will be running the Adventurer's League sessions at Unplugged. When they put out a request for DMs, we will relay that information here. Their requirements may be different than Enforcers, and may have need of DMs that do not include Friday.
I'm making a note to provide that info here, once I have it.
Check out TRI's twitter feed, (at)_RoleInitiative, for more information on D&D at PAX Unplugged.
They put out a call for GMs in July and their volunteer form has been closed. The volunteer form was cross posted to at least 2 different AL Facebook groups that I follow (Philadelphia Area and Eastern PA), probably to many others as well.
I can tell you the D&D Adventurers League season 7 Epic is scheduled for Saturday from 1 to 5pm.
Beyond the epic they are running AL games from 11 am to midnight on Fri & Sat, and 11am to 5pm on Sunday.
mod edit: removed kickstarter
I guess it is what it is, and maybe I'm misreading the vibe based on an outsiders' read of the materials they've put out so far, but...
A very special part of PAX in many people's mind is that a huge portion of the space is dedicated to free play, Table Top, Console, Handheld, PC, VR, etc. And also that (with a few exceptions) once you buy your ticket for the day, you are free to go and play anything in the building, on a first come first served basis of course. That allows those who are willing to put in the time on a thing, to get to experience it. In addition to the community submitted panel system, this allows the community of the show to have a lot of input and control over what happens at the show. Sure it means that sometimes you might not know about an opportunity to play a game, or be able to schedule the show out as you might like, and as a person who likes schedules I appreciate that. But a lot of great things have been built by people who are "on their own" and and I am excited to see what kind of systems we all develop to play games.
Unplugged is not going to come out of the egg fully formed in a perfect format. We know a lot about PAX, but this is a little bit of a different take, and is bringing in a lot of people like yourselves who are used to a different kind of show. We have some ideas on how to do things, we have been thinking about it a lot and checking out how others do it. We think its going to be a great show. I hope you leave your expectations behind and experience this new thing we are building, and then at the end, please do let us know what you think. There will be a thread in these forums for feedback, and an email sent out to ticket buyers as well, we will read them all, and then tweak things to make them even better for the second round of PAX Unplugged in 2018.
tldr: don't think of "you're on your own" as a glass half empty kind of thing, think of it more as "You can make PAX what you want it to be"
I think expecting the tabletop community to organize and schedule their own RPG sessions, without any scheduling support from PAX will never happen. The free play area seems like it may work for board games, but not so well for role-playing games, which have a bigger commitment.
The schedule came out today and it seems like many games only have a few scheduled sessions available, and that you have to, I assume, stand in line to get a chance to play in them.
This could be accomplished the same way they get panel requests. Announce it to the public and accept submissions. Or they could do it similar to how restaurants take reservations. All PAX would have to do is set up the reservations system and have an Enforcer on hand to keep people on time.
This would assist GMs in planning their adventures and filling seats. It can be difficult to say, "I'll be running this event, who wants in?" but not have a date or time they know they will be able to do it. I know they could utilize the Free Play area but that does not always ensure a table will be open when they try to plan.
I have been to PAX East since 2011 and I love the style of PAX. PAX is what you make of it, but I do understand that RPG is a HUGE part of tabletops and take more planning then a pre-set board game. Maybe a reservation only type space specifically for this would help people experience new adventures!
"You want to kill me? You couldn't even kill my boredom" - Roronoa Zoro (One Piece).
Attending PAX East since 2011.