For librarians who want to run D&D or some other game as a library event, here are some considerations to keep in mind as you plan:
- It’s time intensive. Planning encounters used to be a lot worse in 3rd Edition D&D, but it’s still no picnic. I can personally recommend that you let your players worry about their character sheets and keeping track of their equipment and level and so on, because it’s really time consuming. One way to cut down on preparation time is to use published adventures like Keep on the Shadowfell, or those published in Dragon and Dungeon magazines (since last year only available online).
- Know the rules at least passably well.
- Be prepared to teach the game, but also to learn from players who know it better.
- Be prepared to make snap rules decisions (instead of looking things up – takes too much time), but base your decisions on common sense. And also be willing to admit that your decision might not have been the best and try to fix it if warranted.
- Insist that your players focus on the game, since you’ll probably be playing for a relatively short time. I can usually manage to get 2-2.5 hours in before other duties, staffing considerations, etc. get in the way.
- Limit your band of adventurers to 5 or 6. I’ve been playing and running the games for a long time, and I have the cooperation of (most) of my players, so I set my limit higher – when you get above 10, it’s hard to keep the focus.
- Don’t let anyone attend who’s not playing. They don’t have anything invested in keeping the group focused, and often are more interested in the opposite.
- In a regular D&D game, it’s often possible for a player to go off and do his or her own thing for a while, and the other players don’t mind because there’s plenty of time. Not so in the library setting! Make sure people know up front that “focus” also means “advancing the plot” and not burning an hour trying to kill some poor shopkeeper who delivered some kind of imagined insult.
- Another focus killer is interpersonal relationship difficulties. Insist that players respect each other during the game, no matter what problems they have with each other outside of the game.
Finally, another great suggestion from a librarian in Texas: partner with a local game store to promote your event. Put up signs for their Free Comic Day (or whatever) at your library, and have them put up signs for your event at their store. (Make sure to state your audience explicitly – most libraries limit attendance at certain events by age or grade, so make sure that you’re specific.) Talk with the manager or owner – they’re very savvy about promoting games, running demonstrations, etc. You might get a free event or two, complete with presenter, out of your discussion. Do realize that their ultimate goal is to sell something, and make sure they realize that that’s not going to happen in the library (assuming that your library prohibits that).
If you still have questions, email me and I’ll be happy to attempt an answer. I might even turn your question into another post here, if I’ve missed something big. My email is the first word of the blog address at gmail dot com.
