Will there be non-gaming events this year?
I imagine like any gaming event, any non-gaming event with sufficient uniqueness would have a shot. So "yes" to "dwarven cooking," "no" to ... "dwarven beardcraft" actually I cannot think of any specific dwarf topic that would not sound awesome
Hmmm, I will be interested in seeing how this affects larp events.
Am I reading between the lines correctly that there'll be a ton more open gaming areas available then? Basically a return to the good old days when there'd be open gaming spots all over the place (as opposed to "if an event isn't running you can use the table")?
That could be one positive I guess.
It's not quite "between the lines" - we explicitly stated that we will be expanding open gaming space this year. We are still working on the exact parameters of that, but are trying to keep it collected together to make it more likely games and players will find each other.
But dedicated open gaming space isn't new this year, either - we've had pretty significant space set aside for that before, just usually in a hotel. That may still be where it is located this year, depending on how many groups confirm and what space they need.
- Derek Guder Director of Events Gen Con LLC
I normally run games with a group that normally run games at Gencon. I don't think the group is running events at Gencon, but I was thinking of still running something. Does this mean I would need to do it as an individual and that I probably will not be able to run them at Gencon Indy, but could only run games online?
Probably not news -- but I'll say it anyway.
I'm really hoping open gaming space exists in hotels, which has been a major way my group has spent the 'after hours' portion of the Convention. In a lot of people's case (like mine), there is less of a concern about games and players finding each other -- because it's an existing group that travels together.
And -- if there are still significant public health concerns, I'd be more likely to do more of this, not less, because it is my existing group of travel companions.
In the past, hotels have done a good job of providing this stuff. Some of it what Gen Con arranged, I imagine. But, some seems to be just the hotel providing for it's customers.
You'd think this is likely to be a thing as it has been in the past. But, 2020/2021, it is hard to know what people are thinking.
Everyone is welcome to submit events for Gen Con Online, of course.
IF you are thinking about space that was inside any room, those were coordinated and planned by Gen Con. The details on how and where designated open gaming will be set up for this year will be confirmed once we have worked through space assignments for scheduled events.
As an FYI for folks here:
Very shortly I will be putting up a couple channels in the Gen Con Community Discord, one of which will be a GM HQ channel. Feel free to use it to help with connecting with each other and planning.
discord.gg/GenCon
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Kelsey Desrosiers (they/them) Community Manager
Perfect! Thank you!
If we come this year it would be a greatly reduced footprint. How many tables/slots would be required to qualify?
For groups that are already established, the best thing to do is to just email us directly with an outline of what you want to do this year and we can get you squared away.
We want the tables reasonably used through the weekend, so for 4-hour RPGs we would expect a minimum of 2 per day, covering most of at least 10 am - 6 pm.
I'm wondering with possible social distancing requirements, will GM's be restricted on the number of players per event? In past years, most of the rpg's were at a table that could sit 8 people, resulting normally a GM and up to 7 players (normally 6). Should GM's plan for the maximum at a table to be reduced, therefore limiting the number of player to only 4 per table, or should we not worry about it? If the max number of players is limited, we need to know ASAP in order to plan adventures and number of games accordingly to get the required number of hours as a GM (e.g., 70 hours for GM badge).
We are planning for games to be run largely as normal on an individual level and focusing on keeping them spread out and crowds to a minimum in general, hoping that guidelines will continue to improve over the next several months leading up to the show.
We will continue to monitor progress and developments each month, adjusting course as needed. In general, it will be more feasible to dial back plans than to try to open things up at the last minute. You'll want to keep an eye on our blog for more updates, like our first April Health and Safety Update.
Derek, does this apply to seminars as well?