I was discussing the situation for a Hot War demo with the estimable Mr Gow of this parish. We brainstormed some thoughts on it, but I'd also like to through this open to the floor. Not only to help create the demo itself, but also to show the process of creating a 15 minute demo.

So we've already discussed running 15 minute and 1 hour demos in some detail, but we've also started to run one-shot games at conventions over the past year. I thought this might be a good place to collate some advice for running our games as one shots at conventions, as they can sometimes require a little tweaking.

I admit there's an alterior motive - I'm running one-shot games of Best Friends and Covenant at Conception in a few weeks and want some advice!

So, I'll start:

So I ran demos of Agon and Umläut at Gaelcon. They went well and I want to try and consolidate what I learned before I forget.

These were one hour demos. With a game like Agon, I've had difficulty covering all the rules in even a 4 hour con slot, so I knew this was going to be a tough one to demo in one hour. It's fiddly as hell until you understand it, but getting players to that point is non-trivial. I decided to show off the bits I like best: The basic challenge resolution, Combat and the structure of Quests.

Everyone who's coming to Concrete Cow: how about you come prepared to demo your game? Then we can all go to the pub and demo games at each other.

And then I'll know more about your games and can be genuinely enthusiastic about them.

Just an idea, but not a bad one, I think.

Personally, I will demo Blackguard at anyone who returns eye contact, until the dice are forcibly shoved up my arse.

Graham

OK, so I've started a new web page to collate 15 minute demos texts. This will make it easy both for us and for people want to demo or just wanting to get a feel for the games.

The page can be found here.

I've not linked it to any other pages yet, I feel it would be better to have it populated and expanded before doing thing. So get your demos up there!

Cheers
Malcolm