If an event is not getting any hits, meaning no interest, how long should one wait until it is polite to consider pulling the event to perhaps replace it with an event that might be more popular or give the GM room to run a pick-up event in that time-slot? I'm beginning to think that perhaps Vampire is not a game that is best suited for Gary Con.
I was thinking the same thing. My "Late Late Show" game has had no interest, but "Ghostbusters" seems to be hot. I'd love the chance to swap a "no interest" game for a "rather play in this" game.
Agreed. No point in finishing my Brother Maynard costume for my Monty Python romp if only one person shows. MoT
Well, just keep one thing in mind, the game I am dropping is one no one has bought a ticket for so no one is going to be adversely affected by my dropping it. If your event actually has sold a ticket or two, you may still want to adopt a wait and see approach, at least a little longer as those few--or one--may have made a hard choice and by dropping the event, they may now be left with neither of the events they had to choose between. Something to think about at this early stage...
I've noticed that the "Big Hitters" are running early/late afternoon games, so any games running 10a-2p may have had players pulled by those events. (Although my Late Late Show game runs 8 to midnight with no takers, so it may also be the obscurity of the system...) Maker, I'd totally play in your MPATHG game, but it collides with the Jim Ward Meta. Alpha game I specifically earmarked time to play in. Perhaps our unchosen games might be better served as off-hour pick-up games for the curious and "up anyway at this hour" folks....
I don't remember just how many "walk-ins" I had last year, but games that only had 3 or 4 pre-regs wound up pleasantly larger than that at game time. It helped that mine were at 8:00 a.m. so there weren't many games rolling yet.
My D&D game had 4-6 no-shows last year (I don't remember how many tickets were actually "sold") and within 10 minutes of the scheduled start I had a full table of walk-ons, so you never know. Good thing I didn't cancel when the start time came and went and I still had an empty table.
I am hoping I get more sign-ups for my games I have only 2 signed up in my Call of Cthulhu one in Hercules and Xena and none in Indiana Jones I can probably run pick-up games if necessary ...
Colin, I want to play in your C of C game with Nancy Drew and the Hardy boys. I haven't signed up yet because it is not certain that I can go yet.
So far just 2 for my MERP event Thursday night at 6PM, but I can easily run it with 4 (probably better) and I'm optimistic I can pick up 2 more players by the time dice start rolling. I can always trip people as they walk by the table.
Hmm...you should have two in that Hercules & Xena game if it's at 10AM. I thought I signed myself and my wife up for it.
To be fair, it's still over 7 weeks to the show. And event registration has only been up and running for a bit over 51 hours. Last year we had over 100 on-site registrations. That's a lot of people looking for games. Under consideration are two things: 1) Reducing the cost of events that are mostly unsold on February 12th 2) Possibly allowing attendees to acquire additional GPs between now and then (to be used on/after Feb 12th) What say my fellow forum members to these ideas?
I'll just hold tight and finish my Brother Maynard vestige. If the attendees knew how much swag they are going to miss out in by not signing up for my games, tee hee more for me! MoT
Jedi: you are correct, I have 2 people right now in the Herc and Xena game I ran this game at GenCon last year and we had a blast: rules light, fast and furious I am also planning to break out the custom pieces designed and molded by makerofthings (Michael) for this
Crazy Jeffery jes' got crazier!!! He's got rock bottom prices.... Actually, I'm fine with it - unfortunately my issues were: missing out on full games because I missed the beginning of registration, and deciding between two games that will run simultaneously. But I think folks who ran out of GPs will greatly appreciate it.
Yeah, do realize that a lot of people (unlike me) like to be spontaneous about what they play and decide at the moment. And there's the onsite/non-preregistration crowd, too, as noted. And there's probably a number of people who are interested in some of these games, but are out or nearly out of points and have to wait for onsite (unless the 'price cut' or 'bonus point' process gets implemented). For example, I want to play the Late, Late Show event, but most of my points are gone, and I'm deciding where the last few may go - which will be partly determined by what events and slots look like they're in danger of selling out and which ones I think I could get into something as a walk-on.
Both good ideas. Still, better to have too many events ready than too few. Cancelling an event on site and finding something else to do really isn't hugely problematic. There are tons of pick up games to join and plenty of great people to meet and even just walking around and checking out the other games being played can wind up causing the time to fly by if you're not careful.
I'm happy with any option that does not involve my paying more money (I do not know what "acquire" means).