Convention Basics in 2015

A new attendee recently asked a question about how attending and being a gamemaster works.  Here’s the answer.

Thank you for submitting your event to U-Con! Your event has gone into the ‘black hole” known as event submission. We at U-Con will now put our scheduling wizards to work, magically incorporating your events into the schedule.  This involves a lot of prodding, caffeine, and sometimes stronger beverages.

Hehe, seriously, we need to get in as many events a possible by Aug 31 and then we will create a schedule out of everything we receive. We will post a preliminary schedule online a few days before prereg in order for gamemasters to let us know if we screwed something up. Prereg is scheduled to open in mid-Sept, but if we are missing expected events or have issues when scheduling, things can sometimes be delayed. We’d rather open late with a good schedule than on-time with a bad one. Once the schedule is ready, preregistration will open. At that time everyone will be able to reserve tickets to events. If you have a critical need to reserve tickets for the event you are gamemastering then you can contact us.

To attend the convention, everyone needs to register for a badge. If you submitted events, you will have a gamemaster badge.  The gamemaster badge is free but we ask for a $10 deposit (as long as this is not a hardship).  Others will need to purchase a badge via our registration system when preregistration opens.  (Or become a volunteer!) We try to keep our prices low and all proceeds go to covering convention costs.

To attend a game or event within the convention, you need a ticket. We have tickets to each game that reserve your spot for a small (refundable) fee. We also have “generic” tickets, which you can use at most games that have empty seat. If you are playing primarily RPGs or you have specific games where you want a guaranteed seat, then you will want to reserve tickets. Otherwise, you can get generic tickets and see what games have seats available. As a gamemaster, you do not need a ticket to your own event, however others will be using tickets to reserve their seats in your game.

There will be a few more specific instructions to gamemasters when you arrive, however we try to keep things as streamlined as possible.  Our friendly staff is excellent at dealing with problems as they arise.  Please do not hesitate to ask questions.

We’re so glad you’re coming to con!  Attending and/or gamemastering is easier than you imagine.