Welcome! This is a page discussing a new workshop being offered, this year, at GenCon 2008. It is listed as event WKS00047. Below is the description of the workshop, from the event catalog:

Successful session planning requires inspiration and execution. We will help with both! Through demonstrations and small group interactions, led by seasoned GMs, learn how to foster ideas, mine tropes from TV and movies, and tailor content to your players. Then we will show you how to take those concepts and compose your session notes by creating a development cycle and packing your notes with the essential elements. A workbook will be provided.

This workshop is being hosted by:

• DNAphil (Phil Vecchione) of Encoded Designs (this site)
• Philippe-Antoine Menard (aka The Chatty DM)
• Vicki Potter of Tabletop Adventures
• Zachary Houghton of RPG Blog II

News
18mar2008– We have not “officially” heard that the workshop has been accepted, but we are listed in the Event Catalog; so that is a good sign. We are listed as being in the Embassy Suites in the Ambassador III room. I have given a few talks in the Embassy and it’s a good location. It’s a little off the beaten track, but you can get to the Embassy from the street, or through the mall.

Stop on by from time to time, to see what updates we have, from now until GenCon 2008.

22Apr2008– 23 of the 25 seats for this are taken.  If you are one of the 23, then congratulations, you are in for an informative two hours.  For those that can not make it this year, we hope you can make it next year.  For those attending this year, we will be putting up information from now through August to give you food for thought before you arrive at the workshop.

01Jul2008–As promised so long ago, here is the outline for the Workshop.  There is still some discussion going on at the lower level of the outline, but the two main topics as well as the major sub-topics are settled.

· Brainstorming/Idea Generation

§ Using Tropes

§ Definitions

§ The Essence of a Trope

§ Stealing/adapting tropes to a RPGs

§ Show how to adapt them for your campaign

§ RPG trope Examples.

§ Tailoring Content To Players

§ Player Types

§ Understanding your players

§ Making content to fit your players’ tastes

§ Working with players backgrounds, motivations, etc.

· Execution/Getting notes written

§ Essential Elements

§ Things needed to make a scene go off smoothly

§ Making notes that enhance GMing

§ Purpose statement

§ Things to remember to tell your players

§ Things often forgotten in framing scenes

§ Understand what you need to figure out what should go in your notes

§ Development Cycle

§ How to fit writing into your schedule

§ Understanding high and low creative moments

§ Giving yourself enough time to get notes written without feeling stressed

§ How to fit cycle with GMing style

§ Prepping maps and props

§ Setting the stage - physical location of game

The authors are writing their sections right now, using Google Documents as a collaboration tool.

24jul2008– We have made a few updates to the timeline, mainly we dropped, from the talk, not the workbook, the Brainstorming section of the notes.  Honestly, there are a lot of sources for brainstorming information, and with the timeframe of the talk, we wanted to focus more on the more unique techniques  that we have some expertise in.

In addition, we have finished up all the draft writing, and the sections are being put together now into the workbook format.  We have also finished up developing the group activites that the participants will be working on as part of the workshop.  I really like the way they have come out.

There are also a few more surprises that Philippe and Vicki have been working on, and it will make for a quite enjoyable workshop.  I won’t say anything more about that for now.

Not much time left before GC, so there will be only a few more updates.  If you have any questions about the workshop, feel free to leave a comment or contact me using the contact link on the right column of the page.