As you guys may have guessed from another thread in this forum, I'm starting to get involved with the convention scene. I first started going to game cons in the hopes of finding playtesters for my games (back when I was convinced I could make an easy five-figures a year selling my own games without breaking a sweat - HAH!). Now I'm in it only because I love games, and I especially love to teach games.
Anyway, I was thinking that as one of the slots in the boardgame division of our con, I could run a playtest session. Every once in awhile, we get people who GM their own homebrew variant of games; but this would be slightly different, as it would be more of a "playtest" setup than a "prototype" display. In other words, we'd be offering criticism of others' games, rather than showing everyone what we made. The idea being that perhaps local game designers can meet and start to network.
The way it would probably work is that since it would be a four-hour time slot, I could guarantee the first four people to sign up an hour each. Maybe I'd start the session by making sure everyone was familiar with a workshop environment (expect criticism of your game; be sure to have skin thick enough to handle potentially tough dialogue; you don't have to implement everything that is suggested; when offering criticism, be tactful, or you may be ignored), and then I'd step aside and let the others take over.
If you went to a con and saw this in the program, would you sign up? Do you have any suggestions?
It sounds like a good idea, but four hours is on the short end. My unofficial rule of driving is that if it takes less time to do than it takes to drive there and back, it's not worth doing. There may be some exceptions (weddings, funerals, appointments) but by and large this is a stable rule. Who lives two hours away from north Georgia?
This being a convention, I'm counting on the fact that the participants will be spending the rest of the weekend doing other stuff... role-playing, LARPing, fragging each other on the LAN, buying plush Cthulus, and of course, playing board games. :)