Theatre Style Live Roleplaying Events
Helpful Tips and Suggestions - Chapter V
 

V. Promotion and Arrangements

Pre-Announce

Pre-announcing serves two functions. First, it allows you to court prospective players, by making them feel they are getting privileged information. Second, it allows you to check your date, before you’ve printed materials.

I pre-announce in three phases. First I tell close friends about the upcoming event. This can be as much as two or three months in advance. This also helps my friends know what my schedule and availability for other projects is.

Second, I send an e-mail announcement on several private lists I’m a member of, mostly related to some ongoing Live-Action campaigns. I sometimes offer a discounted registration rate, good only until the official announcement. The idea is to let groups that you’re involved with know you’re cutting them a special deal

Finally, I pre-announce on the LARPA list. This is really almost the same as announcing, and I usually do it 48 hours before the formal announcement – say on the Wednesday before announcing at Friday night of an event. What this means is that if I’m about to print flyers for a conflicted date, I have 24 hours to fix them, and change my plans, or at least flounder ahead forearmed.

Put your event in the LARPA Calendar

Send the information on your event to the LARPA Calendar calendar@ilfinfo.org - just in case you don’t know what to send, here’s the format. The Calendar listing is free, and Metagame is now distributing about 1500 copies per issue. Calendars are handed out free at many major events.

Date – Give the full range of dates if it is a multi-day event

Event Name – The title

Genre – Use Theatre Style, or the name of a system/Genre like WOD, Star Wars, or VtM

Convention/Geographical Location/Site – If the event is at a convention, give the name – if not, give the city and state (or province or UK County) where the event is taking place. Usually you give the place if it is a hotel, but don’t list the full address if it is a private home – presumably you don’t want strange people walking in who you haven’t talked to in advance. Your listing might be "Days Hotel, Timonium, MD" - If you are listing a hotel, make sure to include the name of the town that the phone book lists the hotel as being in. That way people will get the right hotel, if they call late for reservations.

Price – Give your full rate scheme in this format: $65/60 LARPA 01/02/99, $75/70 LARPA, 01/05/99, $80/85 after $90/95 door. The first number is the regular price, the second is the LARPA discount price. If you extend the discount to other organizations, list them at the end (remember, this is for the LARPA’s Calendar – the readers want to know about their discount first. If you have any special price deal, list it at the end as well. The calendar will shorten and abbreviate for you if you are not terse enough, so think "classified ad" here. In June 1998, the LARPA extended its discount to members of: NERO, IFGS, ALRPA, XPI, and The Realms, and encourages its members to do the same. In all probability, the discount will include members of the Camarilla and OWBN. If you want to save space, you could say "all LARPA discounted groups."

Event Info: If you are running standalone, give the information under this heading. This would be your snail mail address – the calendar currently won’t list an event without a snail mail address.

Con Info: If your event is at a convention, give the information here. Note that you don’t need to do this for Intercon – the listing will appear automatically.

Con and Event Info: If the event and the convention have the same registration address, give the information here.

Phone: You don’t have to list a phone number, but if you’re desperate for last minute registrations, and you didn’t, don’t expect the phone to ring…A number also allows players who have last minute questions, or who sent a check which never got through to catch up with you.

E-mail: Have an e-mail address and check it. Many players don’t even want to bother with an event that has no e-mail.

News Flash!  E-mail ties the world together.  Not having e-mail today is a big liability.  And it doesn't cost any appreciable amount to get some sort of e-mail account.  You can get a computer that will run Pine and a 2400 baud modem for free from one of your friends – I have three 386’s rotting in the attic - and your local Freenet will give you mail for some ridiculously low price or free. Juno mail is also free. There really isn’t an excuse these days. If an event has no-one on it’s staff that can get e-mail, that raises real questions as to what the event is being printed on.

Web Site: if you have a web site, list it here.

When and where to announce

I generally make a formal announcement at some event or major social event that involves the community I expect to play. "Announce" is a little misleading, because often what this really means is setting out fliers. But I also start talking the event up, asking people if they’ve seen the fliers or have heard about it.
 

Here’s the deal – word of mouth still sells an event more than anything else. The object of advertising is to get your event’s name out there, so people talk about it a lot. People gossip at events more than at any other time. Imagine you announce your event over the Internet. At the next event, most of the players have heard about it. John happens to be really excited about the concept, so he goes up to George:

"Say have you heard about this new event Gordon’s running?"

"Oh yeah…that’s old news. I heard about it weeks ago."

End of conversation. Not only will John not talk the event up to George, he may actively refrain from mentioning it – once burned twice shy. On the other hand, if the event is new, and just announced, even if George has already heard about it, he’s just heard about it. He’s more interested in hearing new news about it than in showing John up for being behind on his news.

This is where pre-announcement comes in. Ideally, you have a small circle of friends and other members of your writing group to talk the event up. You will only get the impetus of announcing your event once – don’t blow it, or you’ll have a much harder battle in filling the event.

Possibly the best time to announce an event is at Intercon, particularly the fall Intercon. As a general advisory, I’d say the Fall Intercon is a great time to announce an event for the next summer, and the February Intercon is absolutely the latest date to announce an event for the coming summer. It’s more or less your call – announcing early means people plan around you – announcing late means you plan around other events.

Intercon is also good because it is "plug friendly." While most theatre-style events allow "Shameless Plugs" for upcoming events at the end, not all are particularly friendly about it, or very well organized. Intercon has some regulations, but they help to make sure your plug isn’t overwhelmed, as well as making sure you don’t overwhelm others.

Announcing a one-day event isn’t quite so dramatic or important. For one thing, it is less of a financial and scheduling decision to make your players decide to play, so less marketing is needed. If you already have an organized group, your event may "sell itself" with little needed other than an initial announcement and available forms. On the other hand, if your event has a high price-tag, or a distant location, you may need to do almost as much marketing as you would to sell a full weekend event.

Interest Building

Interest building is like pre-announcing, only you do it after you announce. The idea is talking to people who might be interested, and chatting up the concept.

Be careful about this. It’s easier to say what to avoid than what to do. Here are a few killers:

Don’t tell people that they are going to play, and must play a particular character. This is a little subjective. Sometimes it works well to say "I have a character that would be perfect for you…" but some people resent being sent on the guilt trip of "you have to play my event, because I’m writing a character for you."

Don’t gush. If someone desperately wants to review your entire combat system, and you’re willing to let them, fine. Ditto on hearing their entire character sheet. But don’t go on at extreme length unless your audience is really interested. If you want to test interest, try this. Stop talking about your event. See if they change the subject. If they do, you’ve talked enough, and you’re in danger of building disinterest. Remember this is about selling the event you are going to run, not meeting your psychological need to be stroked about the work you are doing.

Pre-Sales

One good way to sell an event is to do "pre sales" where you give a discount to people who register before the event has announced (or announced a site). This will give you a small core of "dedicated" followers – often these folks do as much promotional work as you do. After all, they want someone to play with!

Politeness

Be polite. When you are trying to sell an event is not a good time to "set someone straight" about the flaws in their theories of gaming. Identifying yourself as a contentious bastard does not make people want to play your event. Likewise, be pleasant to everyone who asks about your event. Never brush someone off because you’ve never heard of them, or don’t like them.

In the rare circumstance of someone you actively want to discourage from playing, be polite anyway. You can change the subject, or even do the equivalent of "whoa look at the time…" but never insult them. Believe it or not, everyone has friends. You may feel you’ve finally told off that horrible buffoon who wrecks every event he or she is in. But even someone who doesn’t care much for them might feel you’ve only humiliated someone who was already pathetic. Be nice.

Being out advertising an event makes you a public persona to some small extent. Remember that your fellow GMs may be judged by your behavior. Always have something pleasant to say.

Also, never be rude about offers of help, even if you don’t want them. The person you snubbed ten months ago when they offered to GM for you may be the up and coming guy around when you desperately need a Wargame GM. The person you gave a rude brush off when she offered to help may be the person who turns out to own the $2000 prop you absolutely need. A lot of GMs make the mistake of being brusque about offers of help "well I don’t think we’ll need anything but we’ll call if we do." They may find no response. I try to always say something like "I’m sure I’ll need your help – I’m not quite that far along in my planning yet, but I promise I’ll stay in contact with you and tell you as soon as I know." If I end up needing help, then at least I won’t be fighting a negative first impression. I try to keep a list, and contact people who asked me early on before others. Even if they’re new or people I haven’t worked with before, it’s worth seeing how someone works out.

Pricebreaks

Offer the LARPA discount. As someone wise once said "look at it as getting an extra $5.00 from everyone who isn’t an LARPA member."

Most groups are more than happy to work with the LARPA – but they don’t really understand what the LARPA can do for them, and what they can do for the LARPA.

Offering the LARPA discount is a way to identify yourself with an organization that produces the only national magazine exclusively dedicated to all types of LRP. The organization which runs Intercon, and is building the most effective marketing mechanism around for LRP.

It’s true that you don’t have to offer the discount to be listed in the LARPA Calendar. But consider this – the LARPA lists your event as a courtesy. Offering the discount is the clearest way to return the courtesy. And a calendar listing .

The LARPA exists to help you sell your event. Take shameless advantage of the LARPA mailer, and LARPA contacts. Return the favor by offering the discount. It’s a win-win relationship. Fundamentally, the only goal of the LARPA is to get more warm bodies willing to play your events, and to make more resources available to you, so you can spend more time on the fun parts of your event, and less time on logistics and arrangements.

There are still a few people around who are hostile to the LARPA, mostly because they were personally involved in the admittedly thankless task of trying to steer the organization through the rough waters of the early 1990’s. Usually they’re the folks who got the short end of the stick, or at least firmly believe they were. Respect them for their age and what they’ve been through, but realize their sight is fogged.

Targeting the market

A very basic lesson in marketing is selecting a target market. You probably already know who is likely to play your event. Decide how to reach them. If you expect 90% of your players to be people from some campaign group you are in, then you don’t need to spend much money on advertising or fliers. If you expect to appeal to a broader segment, you’ll need to advertise accordingly. If you want to reach the East Coast theatre-style community, you can do plugs at Intercon, use the LARPA mailer, and advertise in the Calendar and Metagame. If you want to reach the West Coast community, you’ll need to advertise in the Calendar and Metagame, but you can’t stop there. There isn’t a cohesive community, so you’ll need to scatter your advertising wide in order to net a few people here and there. Look for gaming stores with notice boards, and existing Vampire or Live Combat groups. Take out an ad in the local IFGS newsletter, or some local fanzines. Go to gaming and sci-fi/fantasy conventions, and put fliers out on the flier table. In short, look for people who might already be interested. Become an LARPA Producer, and have the LARPA send you the mailing list of people in your state or region – a sure way to reach people who are already interested in LRP.

Keep the list of people who played your last event. This is your lifeblood; your mailing list. Keep it and cherish it. I don’t personally hold with selling mailing lists, but I think it’s fair to trade your list to other small groups with similar interests. You might ask your players in advance if they’d like to learn about other LRP events.

What to put in ads

In a basic ad, include all the LARPA Calendar information. Another good reason to list in the Calendar – if you have a complete calendar listing, you have a complete set of information for your event.

What to put on the flyer

Transportation information – if the site is close to Amtrak, or served by public transportation, give the name of the stop. "Near Amtrak’s Back Bay station, connects to MTA" Public transportation can be important even to local travellers. If you expect long distance travelers, give the name of the nearest airport.  For example you could say "Hotel operates a shuttle to Logan International."  If you have a deal with an airline or rental car company (the LARPA has agreements with Avis and United, and can add you to its contract – contact outreach@ilfinfo.org ) include the information here. Travelers from out of town will be more grateful than you may realize for this elementary information.

What to put on your Web Site

It’s a good idea to have a website. With services like Tripod or Geocities out there, there’s really no excuse not to. Tripod now offers 10Mb of free web space. You aren’t supposed to sell things, but in fact, you can get away with quietly mentioning the prices for your event – thousands of sites do. Just make sure it’s mostly content about the event. For some examples of event pages, tap my site http://www.vialarp.org - while we’re on the topic, if you can afford a very tiny trickle of cash, consider putting your site up on rpg.net. There’s also talk that the LARPA will be offering web space and e-mail services to events soon.

All the information from your flyer

Registration – your registration form, preferably as a Web form, also optionally as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file. If you make a PDF available, always link to the "Get Acrobat" Adobe Page. You might want to link to my Adobe Acrobat Help page as well - http://www.vialarp.org/special/acrobat.htm . You may need to specify strongly (but politely!) that you will only process registrations once you’ve received a check. But accept their e-mail just the same.

Venue Page – link to the hotel’s web page. If the hotel page gives the hotel’s 1-800 number, and they have to call the local hotel number to get your discount rate, mention it here.

Also link to local transportation information here:

Links Pagelink to other pages that might be useful to your players. I keep all the sites I visit in researching the event, and post the best ones. Remember to include some costuming resources. Anything you think might help your players be ready.

Event Informationmore and more, instead of a flier, players want detailed information on the Web about an event. I’d go so far as to include pictures and even references from previous runs for a re-run. Give a background, and other "teaser" information. After casting, post a list of players and their e-mail addresses.

Casting

Casting is a golden promotional opportunity. Often casting is the "final push" that takes an event from three quarters full to full. Shortly before casting, send out a notice saying that casting is coming up, and this is the last chance to register. This will produce a few registrations, and possibly a few more "promises" which you’ll need to use your discretion about. I’ve been badly burned by longtime players who swore they would show up to play a part they hadn’t paid for, then ditched at the last moment. On the other hand, some folks, I trust implicitly. But you’re the best judge of who you can trust. When in doubt, follow the advice of Fox Mulder and "Trust no-one."

Casting should generate some additional interest as well. Again, the deal with sales is "word of mouth." People like to talk about their casting and costuming plans. This means people talk about your event, which leads to people registering for your event.

Pre-mailing

Whether and how much material to pre-mail is highly subjective. Pre-mailing nowadays usually means "e-mailing." Try to accommodate players that have no e-mail as best you can, but this is the communications age, and the Devil will take the hindmost. Still, putting 32 cents on an envelope and mailing information to one or two players is no great burden.
 

The Web page can relieve the need to e-mail most background material. Most players have web access, or can get a friend to print documents from the web more easily than you could mail them. Again, stand ready to e-mail text files to a few players who don’t have any web access. I usually make the offer, and seldom get taken up on it.

The real question is whether or not to mail full character sheets. Many events are revising character sheets in the last days before the event, and simply can’t. Others find it is best to send a synopsis, but not a full character. I don’t think it’s a smart idea to send full characters months in advance, unless there is some special reason to do so. Most players want a solid hint, that tells them enough to know who they are playing.

These days, it’s considered a bad sign if an event doesn’t pre-mail anything. The fact is, it’s an indicator that production is running late, and it undermines player confidence. One hates to do something "just to keep up with the Joneses," but not keeping up with the Joneses can mean you have a harder time selling your event at the event.

Desperation Sales

The time will come when you have to make desperation sales of your event. You are not full, and you need players. I’m reluctant to go too much into detail for two reasons. First I don’t like to give up tricks I may use myself. Second, many of these tactics would prove extremely enervating if everyone did them.

I can make a few suggestions though:

First, never whine. An event fills based on player confidence. We’d all like to think that our friends are swell folks, who, hearing that we are in a pinch will rush to fill the gap and join our event. However the fact is that these people are probably the folks you already have registered. Most players, on the other hand, will flee in terror from an event that seems likely to be a flop, or an underegistered mediocre success. Whining virtually ensures that this will be the perception of your event. You may pick up one or two sympathy players, but you could be losing half a dozen indecisive players who were waiting til the last minute to sign up. Don’t whine and don’t beg.

Saying that the event "still has roles left" is a way of saying "we aren’t full – sign up now" without coming across as too pathetic. Saying "a few roles left" implies you are at least better than half full – remember lying could make you look bad later – be somewhat honest. You could also focus on one need "need a female player, and still have a few male roles" when in reality you have five female roles – just quietly take all comers. "Need a player" tends to indicate an event is nearly full, and also indicates an important role might have come open due to a drop.

Express confidence that the event will run with the number of players you are likely to get. Then see to it that it will. If you can’t run a decent event, cancel. It is less of a shame to cancel than to run a disaster. All GMs who have run a long time have had to cancel once or twice, and few will think less of you for doing the smart thing. If you can’t afford to cancel (nonrefundable deposit, already spent most of the event money on props) see if you could postpone. Even the most hard-assed site will generally work some kind of deal. If you postpone, some of the players will roll their money forward to the new date, and you can try and refund the ones that don’t.

Consider throwing some PC roles to cast, and then advertising free cast roles. It gives you better control, and some impoverished players may sign up who wouldn’t have otherwise.

Talk to your friends, and ask them to help you. Quietly. Even in person, don’t whine or beg. People can smell fear and it drives them away.
 

Ask your friends who are playing to talk up their costuming.

Ask your friends who are playing to organize a "pre event" event: an outing to some movie, or restaurant, or activity that is appropriate to your event. This is another "topper" event that can help fill an event that is wavering at the 2/3 mark, but won’t quite fill up.

Summary

Selling a event is as much convincing the people who are already signed up that they are going to have a good time as it is getting new people to play. New tools, especially the Web, make this easier. How excited and certain of having a good time the players are has a lot to do with how the event will go.

Copyright 1998 , Gordon Olmstead-Dean.  You may reprint or cite, providing the source is attributed.
Some of this material has appeared previously in identical or substantially similar form in the LARPA Periodical
Metagame
 


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