So I'm interested in some pick up games during the con as well as the scheduled events. Do people bring their characters from home as well? I have three or four or different levels that I think are appropriate and wont ruin any regular games I'm in already. Of course I mean AD&D...lol
I would venture to say most referees for scheduled games bring pregens to limit time wasted at the table on prep, but for pick-up games, rolling up PCs is more common. Still, if I wanted to run a pick-up game, I would have some pregens ready just in case.
Cheers! Most of the scheduled events I looked at seemed to indicate they would provide pre-gens, which makes sense. I assumed the ones that didnt, like mine, will have them in any event. But I wasnt sure how people handled casual games... I'm somewhat embarrassed that in my 33+ years of gaming, this is my first real gaming Con...
For unscheduled games, it really varies. Sometimes some people standing around say, "Hey, let's play" and roll up characters. Other times, someone's walking around recruiting people and part of the sales pitch may be "I got pregens, all you have to do is sit down and play."
I always bring my pack of characters, but haven't used any of them at Garycon since the first one. Being prepared is the name of the drink!
For some pickup games, I'll go ahead and write an adventure, in which case I also bring pre-gens. For impromptu, made-up-on-the-spot stuff, I usually say "all stats start at 10, and you have 12 points to allocate between then, nothing higher than 18, max HP for 1st level, 1/2 hit die for remaining levels + CON mod", and roll with it.
If you plan to run a pick-up game in open gaming, I recommend either having pregens ready to go or else run an event at low enough level (for a D&D paradigm game) that char gen can be done really quickly. No one wants to sit around while Bob the Magic User rolls his % chance to know each spell he wants.
For off-grid games I'm running (or will have prepped to run; who knows where the evenings will go), I'll have pregens, but I'm also happy to FLAILSNAILS it and let you bring in a character you have with you that fits the power levels of the game.
