Guide to Event Submission

So you want to run a game at U-Con?  Be sure to think out your answers first before filling out the submission form.  If you have any questions about how the game entry will run in the book, contact the event coordinator.  There is information here useful for all event submissions, even though I did use many RPG examples.

Your contact info.  Be sure to include your correct contact info.  If we have any trouble scheduling your event, we will contact you.  If your email doesn’t work, this will present a serious problem.

Title and System.  You should indicate both the game system and a title for your event.  If your game system has editions, include the edition in the game system field.  If your game will use a setting from a fictional universe, include the universe as part of the title or game system.  For instance, use a system like “BESM 2.0 – Avatar the Last Airbender” or a title of “Avatar the Last Airbender – The Long Walk Home,” but there is no need to include the setting in both fields.  Please use a dash ( – ) rather than a colon ( : ) as we use a colon to separate the system and title.  Do include keywords because these fields are searchable online.

Description.  Figure out who your target audience is and engage them with your description.  Remember that your title, game system and description will be searchable online and provided onsite in the convention book.  For board games, consider borrowing description content from boardgamegeek.com.  Use your description to set expectations for the players.

Some information you might want to include in your description:

• Tournament format and information about the rules, where applicable
• Information not specified in other fields, such as “Bring a 5th level character, base books only.”
• Indicate whether the focus of your RPG game is on action (e.g. a dungeon crawl), story, characters, etc.
• External links where you can to provide additional information.
• Keywords that will help players find your event using the online event search.

Experience and complexity.  Specify experience and complexity ratings.  Many GMs forget this step, or assume that the default 1A is exactly what they want.  Specifying 2A or 1B is an indication of thoughtfulness on the part of the GM, since most events say 1A.  If you want experienced players, then specify a higher experience of 4 or 5.  You might use 3 to indicate that experience with similar systems is helpful.  On the other hand, complexity is a measure of how intricate the game is, which can also indicate how long it takes to explain the rules from scratch.  If you have very complex game but expect no experience (1E), players might end up spending the first hour listening to the rules!

Comments for the event coordinator.  If you have constraints about where your event can be run, this is a good place to tell us.  Also, if you want to run the same event multiple times, just say so in this comments field.  We can duplicate events quickly and easily!

Scheduling constraints.  We need to know if you will only be around on Saturday.  We want to know if there is a game you absolutely shouldn’t conflict with.  We’ve had folks request that their game not be scheduled at the same time as the Abstract Games Tourney or the Smithees because these are part of their normal U-Con experience.  We also don’t want to schedule (for example) the Buffy RPG against the Buffy Board Game.  We will do our best to meet such constraints, but this is much easier if we receive your event submission earlier.  After preregistration opens, we can no longer move events around to meet detailed constraints.  We will contact you for guidance if we are absolutely unable to meet your constraints.  Additionally, if you run games in many time slots, you are welcome to set your schedule for us.

Contact us about mistakes.  If you complete your submission, and want to change something, use our contact form to send a message.  We won’t get to it right away, but we can make any necessary changes for you.

Check your email after submission.  After you fill out the submission form, you’ll receive an email from us with the details.  If you do not receive an email, then either your contact info was wrong or the submission didn’t complete!  Please contact us to check for it.  If the message contains mistakes, like missing events or incorrect information, please contact us to correct it.  We do our best to streamline our process, but mistakes do happen.  We’ll do our best to square them away quickly and efficiently.

We also collect a gamemaster deposit, which we need before we finalize your events.  The deposit is only $10, and registration will refund it when you complete your events.  We ask for this to discourage no-show gamemasters and therefore keep costs (especially space!) low for attendees.  Instructions for sending deposits are provided after your event submission is complete.

We hope to make the process for gamemasters as smooth as possible while helping you to recruit players to your events.  Please [[contact us]] if you have any questions.