Troll Lord Games

I have done this once, and I will be again in a couple of weeks.

What are some things you look forward to in a con game?

What are some of your pet peeves?

Please share some of your good or bad experiences.

If a Troll Lord is reading this, is their a module that you would suggest?

What level should the adventure be? I was thinking fourth to fifth level.

Thanks.

Level-wise I've found 5-8 to be a good range for con games.

Twice I've run "The Crypt of Istaris" from Dungeon #9 and re-printed in Dragon #155 for 2e. It has a 4-hour game time deadline before bad things happen, which helps keep the pace brisk and makes it great for a 4-hour con event.

I've also run "The Curse of the Witch Head", an OSRIC adventure by Expeditious Retreat Games. This is another good convention game module as it has only 20 dungeon rooms.

I recommend Dwarven Glory(found in Troll Lord's online store). Contains three adventures that fit the 4 hour limit(per each adventure)or pretty close. Shouldn't be over 9.00 in print form. I ran all three of the adventures a time or two, and they're among the shorter offerings. Others that I recall approximately fitting th 4 hour timeframe...Wizard's Tower, and Cloud Giant's Tower(pdf only from TLG as well).

Ruins of Ramat by Brave Halfling Publishings works great. It is short, but still has a bit of a puzzle to solve. I think convention games need that bit of a puzzle or goal.

I like A1 for a nice convention module, but you will have to "fill in the blanks" a bit to run it properly at a Con. Stuff like keeping NPCs around that will help guide the PCs along the adventure path and keep them stocked up for maximum efficiency. Rising Knight might be a better choice for simplicity. Things I look forward to: Meeting new gamer friends, seeing people do things I would never have thought of and that I'm pretty sure my normal group wouldn't have either. Things I dislike: Gamers who treat con games like complete throwaways and don't even try to maintain the tempo or feel of the game that I've worked hard to provide, (and in the same vein) gamers who seemingly join con games for the sole purpose of grandstanding and disrupting the game.

Dark Okie wrote:I have done this once, and I will be again in a couple of weeks.

What are some things you look forward to in a con game?

First and foremost, FUN!!!! OK, that is obvious...

• A large enough selection of pre-gen's to allow everyone to get a character that they will enjoy playing with
  A cool background to set the stage
  A mix of combat encounter difficulty levels
  A puzzle/riddle or two to figure out
  Meeting new friends

What are some of your pet peeves?

• A GM that is not prepared
  A GM that is not on time, this extends to players, if you aren't there on time, and the game starts, your bad!
  Trying to push a story, instead of letting one develop
  A 20 minute introductory speech
  GM or Players acting as rules-nazis

Please share some of your good or bad experiences.

To go off of the first two of my pet peeves above, a few years ago at the D&D Open, it was obvious the GM did not read the module, nor had he prepared by detaching the geomorphs (sp?) from the card sprue. We were unable to finish the last room (and that turned out to be a difference maker in advancing or not) because we ran out of time. We lost 10 minutes since he was late (and hung over), it was the first session of the day, another 10 minutes to him unpacking, probably 30-45 minutes for him to read the intro for each room, then pause to read the rest of the description and punch out the required elements for the room itself. Needless to say, we complained at the RPGA HQ and were basically told, "Sorry, don't book the first session next year." Heh, right, there has been no next year ever since.

To go along with running late, I was in a game where a player got there 30 minutes after the start, his slot was filled with another player that had generic tickets. The late comer was mad that he could not get in the game, and went to talk to the coordinators at the hotel. We never saw him again, but it chewed up about 15 minutes of time. Later I found out he did complain, and was told the GM was in the right in offering the slot to someone else to insure he had the proper number of players

If a Troll Lord is reading this, is their a module that you would suggest?

I thought I would comment, not on TLG modules, but two 1st Ed. modules that can be easily converted for C&C. The TSR "A" series, the Slavers series, is great convention fodder, especially if you want to run a tournament as it has four interconnected parts. Otherwise A1 "Slave Pits of the Undercity" or A3 "Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords" would be my recommendations.

If you wanted to try something different, wild and out there, and you can get your hands on it, "The Mansion of Mad Professor Ludlow", Dragon #42, but, this is a module in modern days with the players as boy scouts (if I remember correctly 1st level fighter equivalent) that are drawn to the mansion while on a camp-out by the screams of a lady... (OK I did say it was something different)

For that matter, if you wanted to run a low-level module U1 "The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh" is prime candy, as is L1 "The Isle of Lendore".

Higher level, any of the Giants "G", Drow "D", or special "S" modules are great. Though the S series tend to be deadly!

Delving into the BECMI realm, X1 "The Isle of Dread" is an all time classic that would be a great Con module.

What level should the adventure be? I was thinking fourth to fifth level.

I like the 4th-7th range, it gives you a character that has a decent amount of capability, without bogging the players down in a million choices for something they are not intimately familiar with.