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> Some friends are organizing a local gaming con.  Mostly RPG with
> a smattering of board, card and miniature action.
>
> Any tips, pointers, or links to same?  

     Well, start by reading Eric Raymond's article on running
conventions, it has a fair number of practical tips.  Sorry I can't
be more specific about the URL, I don't have a browser handy.
It's in his articles section under www.tuxedo.org/~esr

     A lot of the issues will depend on the size of the con, of
course.  I've worked security for a con or two - never a gaming con,
though.  In general, security aspects probably won't be an issue for a
small con, particularly of gamers.  

     Most of the security problems we had were with media stars.
Needless to say, they had *real* security teams to keep them
physically safe most of the time. We just ran crowd-control
interference and calmed down the occasional clown who wasn't paying
enough attention to where he was swinging his sword.

     That said, I'm gonna name drop for a bit :-).  The media stars we
dealt with were from the _Highlander_ tv show. Adrian Paul is an okay
sort from what I saw, but the red-headed guy who played "Richie" on
the series is a real trooper - he gets my vote for
real-human-being-who-plays-a-tv-star of the year.  Both cons I helped
with, he signed autographs for something like eight hours straight.
The older guy on the show, the "watcher", who walks around with a cane
all the time, really doesn't have any legs from about the knees down.
He has great taste in scotch and a pretty bitching jazz band; you
haven't worked con security until you've worked a room full of 3000
highlander fans watching a jazz concert and the stars duck their
security team and show up :-).

     I've found that most con-goers will be very cooperative, if your
security people are:

     1) basically physically intimidating; i.e. not too skinny and
know how to stand and move - though one of our guys was a rail, he
still had the right body language.

     2) courteous but firm; i.e. know how to ask people politely while
at the same time sort of conveying via body language that 

     a) they assume the hearer will cooperate
     b) are ready to enforce their request

     Simplest example; when we had a huge line for the autographs, we
had to keep the line in order and make sure everybody knew that flash
photography wasn't allowed.  

     First, we figured out the pitch.  Instead of just telling people
they had to stay in line, we explained that the fire marshal would
shut the con down if we didn't keep the hallway passable.  Instead of
just telling them "no flash photography", we explained that the stars
were going blind from thousands of flashes, and that there was
adequate light for non-flash photography.  We also explained that if
there were any flashes, the stars would leave and the autograph
session would be over.  On reflection, I wish we could have promised
to confiscate the camera in question; I think some of those people
really wouldn't have cared once they got *their* autograph and photo :-).

     I don't get the mentality, but apparently a *lot* of the
con-goers considered the whole "autograph & photo with the star" thing
to be one of the major factors in deciding to spend a fairly
significant amount of money to attend the con.

     Second, when talking to people who were spreading out and getting
them to move back in line, I always assumed that they in fact had not
heard me at all talking to the person in front of them. I repeated my
entire spiel in a courteous but firm voice and I kept a friendly
expression on my face.  At the same time, particularly when I had to
make sure somebody moved *back* into line, I would gently press my
palm against their elbow - sort of nudging them, but without really
shoving, just making enough contact and pressure that they could tell
I was there, and I looked *past* them, at the location they had to
move to, as if we were working *together*, as opposed to me shoving
them around.  

     I *always* kept a good sense of humor evident in my demeanor.
Assume that everybody is here for the same basic reason, which is to
have fun.  Make sure that shows on your face and in your body language
Doing this while at the same time conveying that you are not kidding
about this is the tricky part :-).
     
     Really, if you think about it, most con-goers are a paradox;
typcially very smart, and very cooperative, not likely to become
drunken obnoxious assholes, but at the same time used to thinking for
themselves and usually not terribly friendly to authority (and often
not good at managing socially awkward situations).  On the other hand,
they are the least likely people in the world to start a violent
confrontation (mostly because they're used to thinking their way
through problems, and because they tend to be highly civilized, if not
necessarily highly socialized - and that right there is an interesting
little conundrum).

     Keep your security people in the loop as much as possible,
particularly during crowd control scenes.  They'll have to talk to
people and persuade them to cooperate, therefore keep them informed
about what is happening and why.  This may be extremely difficult to
do in a timely fashion, particularly when you're dealing with
last-minute changes or minor catastrophes, but it's worth it.  Let's
put it this way: the better informed the security staff are, the
better they'll do at screening the hundreds of fairly trivial but
persistent information requests from the general public.

     Reading _Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion_ is highly
recommended for con security and staff in general.  This is *not* the
same book as Suzette Elgin Hayden's _The Gentle Art of Verbal
Self-Defense_, though I recommend that book as well. _Verbal Judo_ was
written by a cop who now gives seminars to police forces on how to
deal with people in confrontational situations.  Obviously it's geared
towards tense confrontations, but it's very generally applicable.  

     My favorite example from _Verbal Judo_: explain carefully, firmly
and gently to the person WHAT THEY HAVE TO DO to get out of the
situation.  Don't assume that they know; obviously if they knew (both
on an intellectual and emotional level) then they wouldn't have gotten
into this situation to begin with.

     Be proactive in liasing with local authorities; obviously start
with whomever you're renting the location from, but ask them to
introduce you to anybody else; hotel security folks, local cops, local
fire marshals.  If you have a large enough staff, delegate somebody
with good diplomatic skills specifically to contact these people, get
their names and contact information, provide them with appropriate
contact information for the con staff (cell phones make a lot of sense
here), and ideally have somebody at the con suite acting as a sort of
communications center.  

     There are some trade-offs there; on the one hand, it's good to
make contact with them, that makes them feel like you're on the ball
and have it under control.  The authorities do NOT like surprises.  On
the other hand, you run into the whole "it's easier to ask forgiveness
than to ask permission" syndrome.  By contacting them you raise your
profile, when depending on the circumstances you might rather just not
contact them at all.  I don't know.  I'd say ask people who are more
experienced at the con biz, and ask the hotel managers involved (who
may have relevant experience from past cons) about the local
authorities' attitudes.

     Usually the liason is the con staff security head.  If you have
enough people on staff, ideally you want one guy as roving security
head and another guy at the con suite being liason between security
and the rest of the world - the con staff, the hotel staff, the
celebrities' staff, and the local authorities.

Gaming Cons

     Running games is a whole 'nother topic.  I have no experience
GMing at a con, however.  If you're running any sort of competition, I
would generally advise you review the scenarios submitted and watch
out for:

     a) complicated puzzles that the GM thinks are obviously solvable;
have them reviewed by three or four objective outsiders to make sure :-).

     b) boolean and/or arbitrary situations that will dictate the
success or failure of the entire scenario.  I'm thinking here of a con
game I watched where the GM had set up some sort of funky
teleportation maze with a color-coded switch, and a rhyme of some sort
giving clues.  Unfortunately, the players didn't _realize_ it was a
maze, because the GM never made it clear to them that they were
actually moving.  Eventually they got to the black key ("Once you go
black, there's no turning back") whereupon the GM told them they were
all dead because that's what the black key did.  Duh.

     c) look for scenarios that accentuate specific qualities, and
make it clear that's what the winners will be judged on.  For example,
if a scenario emphasizes tactical thinking, or role-playing, make it
clear that's what the players will be judged on.

     d) Avoid having too simple a criterion for selecting the best
player, etc.  For example, avoid having the players vote on who played
the best.  If you do have them vote, make that only a part of the
criteria and weight it accordingly.

     I'm remembering a con game (this one I played in) where we had a
team of Traveller characters assaulting a group of terrorists holding
an embassy.  The person who ended up winning, won because in the
random draw he got the character who was actually a spy, who stole
something from the embassy safe and took off.  The other players all
thought this was cool and voted for him as the best role-player - even
though he commented later that one of the other players, with a more
straightforward role, was far more effective.

     e) try to look for scenarios that will lead to timely
conclusions, so you can get them over in the course of the con.  This
one I can't really offer any advice for; when I GM I like long-running
plot threads that develop over the course of several sessions and
overlap with other plot threads.  This may be one reason I've never
GMed a con game :-).

     f) since you're going to have players sitting down with a group
they've never gamed with, with a GM they've never gamed with, playing
pregenerated characters they've never seen, do everything you can to
counteract this by creating the right atmosphere: 

     Well-painted miniatures to represent each character.

     Well-drawn sketches of each character to go with the character
     sheet.

     Well-written half-page narratives of each character for the
     players to read upon receiving the character.

     If you can come up with some way of setting up the gaming area
itself to improve the atmosphere, even better.  Ideal wold be
semi-private lounges for each game to run in, instead of one huge
crowded hall.  Semi-private meaning it creates the feeling of
separation from the main space without actually being separate,
because too much privacy would create another security headache
(possible liability issues, particularly at a gaming con with a lot of
young people).  Of course, figuring out how to reconcile all of those
different factors is another question...

     Which brings us to our last topic, which is that the physical
layout of the con space will greatly affect the security aspects, the
management aspects, and the atmosphere.  You need a balance of
choke-points - if there are too many entrances, you'll have problems
maintaining security, collecting door fees, etc.  Too few, you'll have
congestion and maybe even one huge hall with everybody crammed into
it, whereupon you'll get the dreaded "cafeteria effect" of crowd noise
drowning out everything.  

     Besides noise, lighting can also be a major factor.  Keep that in
mind.

     You also ideally want to have a separate space for the vendors,
preferably with lockable doors, so you can empty it out and lock it
down, which will make it much, much easier to avoid pilfering and
prevent you from having to have somebody stay there overnight for
security.  Unless you're running a one-day event, in which case the
vendors will be with their stuff the whole time.

Puff