Having attended a handful of conventions in recent years and come away impressed with the quality of games, I have mulled recently taking the plunge to develop a convention-worthy game that I could run at some future date. This has led me to ponder what qualities a good convention game should strive to attain. The following are my thoughts. They are the thoughts of a player who has never been a game master. I would encourage some our experienced GMs to write with their observations and suggestions.

A convention game should:

1. Have beautiful terrain

The pretty tables, not the pretty miniatures, have been what have attracted me to games in the past. This is not to say that high quality paint jobs on miniatures are not also necessary. It is to say that if you have to skimp on one, I'd go for acceptable miniatures and gorgeous tabletop terrain.

2. Have simple rules

Any convention game that is going to be welcoming to newcomers needs to have rules that can be reduced to one page that can be easily skimmed. Playability is of vital importance here. Even simple rule systems can be pared down further in the interest of faster play. In our local club, for instance, Jim Morrison has taken Battleground WW II rules for Vietnam and smoothed them down even further to increase playability. The playtests he ran at our club before taking the games to Origins were quick and fun. That is the goal. Convention gamers want to move troops, roll dice, and be able to tell who won and who lost in four to six hours of playing. Lots of table checking and rules searching doesn't help.

A corollary to this rule is to have plenty of supplies. Don't skimp on reference charts, rulers, dice, and whatever other equipment players need. Time fumbling for gear is time taken away from playing.

3. Give players lots of decisions to make

Over the years, I have played some games in which all sides knew what was going to happen fairly early in the game. You look at the setups and you know what the rules will allow. Even with bizarre dice the outcome is more or less set. This kind of game has its virtues, particularly for those with an interest in historical recreation. But in my experience, the best convention games require the players to make a lot of decisions and give them many chances to screw things up for themselves. Sometimes decision points are built into the rules -- when a player can do a limited number of activities and must choose which. But however you get there, keeping players thinking is a good way to keep them happy.

4. Give all the players something interesting to do

No one drives hundreds of miles, ponies up bucks for hotel rooms and beer, and clusters in close company with poorly bathed gamers for the opportunity to sit around and watch other people push troops and roll dice. For my money, one of the hardest game designs to make really interesting is the attack on a defending force. If the defenders are more or less static and have little chance to do much other than defend, you are risking having players wondering what is going on at the next table over.

In addition to designing the game so both (or all) sides have interesting things to do, GMs should build in mechanisms to keep players playing even if their forces get wiped out. If my plucky forlorn hope gets mowed down an hour into the game, I am going to be mighty disappointed if the GM looks me in the eye and tells me, "Thanks for playing."

5. Focus on fun

The GM can't do much about this one if he gets saddled with a bunch of players who'd rather argue over millimeters or go into manic fits over bad dice. But a good GM who believes that convention games are meant to be fun for players can overcome nearly any other problem. This is a social enterprise we pursue. Perhaps much of the time we find ourselves trying to explain to perplexed friends and family why we play these games with little lead soldiers. At the convention, we get to have fun (and at Origins, we miniature gamers can even gawk at the really weird people who dress up in costumes and speak in verse!). So, let's by all means focus on the fun. I've never taken part in a game at a convention when the GM didn't understand this, but for novices like myself, it is a rule worth remembering and restating.

There are doubtless important aspects of games I have missed. I would be particularly interested in hearing what experience GMs wished they had known when they ran their first games. At the very least, I hope this little list stimulates some others to think about running good games at conventions, if only to give our current crop of very busy game masters a chance to play a few themselves.