Long time GM but first time running at GenCon and I have a few questions (because of my anxiety brain) about how things go from the independent GM perspective. All of my games are sold out except one that has 2 slots left. I am a little anxious that I will have players cancel or late. I am also worried that I won't have full games. What do I do about finding stand-by players or walk-up players? Is there a RPG desk where people can sign up or do I make a sign "does anyone want to be a backup?". Also, I have a 4 hour time limit that is VERY hard to keep. Late players will disrupt this pretty bad. Is it reasonable for me to wait 5 minutes after start time before taking a stand-by player instead?
Here's what is in the official event host policy:
"A player with a registered ticket for your event is guaranteed a spot in your event as long as they show up on time. This is true even if your event is $0. If they have a ticket to the event, they are guaranteed a spot. Events should begin at their scheduled start time, but you may choose to wait up to 15 minutes for any late players to arrive. If your event schedule is extremely tight and must start on time to finish on time, you can count ticketed players as no-shows at your event start time and accept stand-by players at that point."
There isn't a central desk or in-person gathering point for potential players - honestly, the convention is just too large for something like that to be feasible anymore.
There is always the risk that you won't have players show up and some of your events won't happen, but as long as you were at the right table when your event was scheduled to begin, we won't hold that against you. Sometimes a group of friends might buy a bunch of tickets to an event and then all flake out. It's a convention, it happens sometimes.
If only some players show up, you can talk with them about what they want to do. Some might still want to play, if possible, others may just want to chat a bit about the game (or something else) and then go find something else to do. A lot depends on the nature of the event, the game, and what they were looking at with it.
If you do have seats available for your game, whether due to no-shows or just unsold tickets, you are welcome to accept folks with generic tickets. We ask that you give ticketed players 15 minutes to be a bit late if that is feasible for your specific event - sometimes you have to start on time, and we understand that, too. You can use our official Discord to advertise an open seat, but considering timelines, that's not usually feasible unless you think to look before your event begins to post about available tickets.
- Derek Guder Director of Events Gen Con LLC