Running Events at Games Day

Here are some of the kinds of special events that we have held successfully at Games Day in the past:

Playings of hard-to-schedule games. This includes:
Especially long games, such as Civilization or Titan.
Games that take a lot of space, such as miniatures battles.
Complex games for which it's hard to find enough interested players, such as Avalon Hill multiplayer games.
Playtests of forthcoming games. Some playtests have been run by publishers, others have been run by volunteer playtesters.
Tournaments for popular games such as Settlers of Catan. Some tournaments have had prizes, some haven't.
Demonstrations of new games, such as CCGs and Mage Knight.

If you wish to run a special event that fits into one of these categories, please follow these steps:

Join the mailing list if you haven't already.
Send out a query to the mailing list asking how much interest there is in your event. Ideally, it should be a multiplayer event, and to proceed with scheduling it you should get as many positive responses as the number of players you need to run the game.
If there appears to be sufficient interest, let Dave know what time you'd like to run your event, and any special requirements for your event (e.g. extra table space).
Dave will add your event to the event schedule and to reminder messages.

Based on past experience and constraints imposed by library policies, the following kinds of events don't work well or aren't allowed:

Role-playing games won't work because the room is too noisy and the level of interest in RPGs is low.
Game sales, auctions, and trades are not allowed because library policy prohibits using the room for commercial purposes.
CCG tournaments haven't worked well because there isn't enough interest in CCGs.
Prizes for tournaments make little or no difference in the level of participation. As a result, I recommend that you don't bother with prizes.

Finally, please keep in mind that Dave usually does not have time to do anything more than schedule and publicize your event. If you want to sign people up in advance, schedule multiple rounds of play (heats), get official support from the game's publisher, or anything else, you generally have to take care of these things yourself.

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Last updated August 24, 2001 by DRK.