FG Con 16 - Friday April 16th to Sunday April 18th, 2021

[Trenloe]

I made a submission to run a game. About how long is it taking to approve them?

Thanks for submitting an event for FG Con 16. It was approved a couple of hours before this post. We usually get to events within 24 hours of submission, but we don't get any alert so we need to check manually and sometimes things take a little longer. Originally the event was saved as "Draft" for a couple of days, which we take as the GM still needs to do some editing before submission. It was only once it was submitted that we looked at it and approved it. Also note that once an event is approved, if t is edited again it will go into a pending state and will need re-approval.

[srbongo]

Is the use of the FG Discord server negotiable? I'm interested in running something but having just got an excellent set-up sorted for playing Syrinscape through Discord with no player effort involved, I'd quite like to use it for running games for the Con. That would mean using my Discord server instead. (Or I guess adding my Syrinscape bot to the FG server, or a general Syrinscape bot accessible by GM's, but those sound like security nightmares in the making).

Would it be acceptable to run the game on my own Discord server?

Simply curious, but do you have Syrinscape Online? I use it for my weekly players. Of course, for the convention it is more of a hassle for players to download the client and then to remove players from your Syrinscape "game" after the session, but if more GMs were using SO then it may put more worth into the download. I was thinking about using it, but didn't want to ask players to do so for a single session if they didn't already have it.

[HywelPhillips]

Hi,

Yes, I'm using Syrinscape online. I find the additional overhead of getting players to download it (making sure they get the correct player), linking their device, then having the player onscreen if they want to change volume is more overhead than it is worth even for some of my regular weekly players. It's not a problem for the people who have one computer set up permanently, but some people are swapping between laptop at a relative's house or main computer at home, running Discord on a phone etc. and then it is a bit of a pain.

Syrinscape online is also fairly demanding on resources, so low-powered laptops struggle with running it plus FGU plus Discord with video chat.

That's why I've switched to piping the Syrinscape Online output to a Discord bot using the recipe from Amerisun here:
https://forum.syrinscape.com/t/disco...eo-sound/11235
(I had to use a spare Windows laptop to do the bot as my python hackery wasn't up to getting one of the scripts going under Mac Os Catalina. But I had one lying around.)

It puts more of the load on the GM's machines, but I'm a film-maker so I have computing power sitting around, which not all my players do. It reduces screen clutter for players, means they don't have to install stuff, and allows them to control volume via Discord as they are used to doing to everyone's voices.

The sound quality isn't quite a good as using the Online player directly, but given that we mostly have it playing under us talking anyway we find it more than adequate using the bot solution. The alternative way sounds a bit ropy if you're using an "extra player" to pipe the sound to Discord instead of a bot, which is why I asked about using my own Discord channel, but it is still 80% of the effect for 20% of the work

And definitely as you say not getting people to install another program for one-shots is a good move!

Cheers, Hywel

[stephan_]

There is also the new RPG Sounds. It is still buggy but it enables you to send the players a link they can open in their browser (the base program is free).

[Trenloe]

Reminder to prospective FG Con 16 GMs - events open for player registration in less than one week (12pm GMT, Friday 19th March).

Whereas you can add events later (up to a few days before the convention starts) your best chance of filling your event is to have your event up sooner rather than later...

[Brian D]

I've attempted to register for an FG CON account at https://www.fg-con.com/ . The site states my email address / user name are both on file, yet it won't let me login or change my password to login. Any suggestions? Or am I blocked from pre-registering until 12:00 UTC the 19th?

[damned]

Sending you a PM

[Trenloe]

GM Guidelines – bookings and player communication.
For those GMs who have already registered their event, player bookings opened yesterday and you may be seeing people book onto your event.

When a player places a booking for your event you should receive an email entitled “FG-Con: Admin Email – New Booking” from [email protected]. Within this emails will be details of the booking – who it’s from, for which event, etc.. The email also includes two links: one to login to the bookings management page, and another to the FG Con GM Guidelines Handout PDF – which on the last page has further information regarding booking management and communication.

As a GM please keep these points in mind:

• It is up to you to accept/reject player bookings in a timely manner. Bookings should only be rejected if you have a definite reason not to allow that player in your game.
• The primary means of communication between the GM and registered players is via personal email. You will have been given the player’s email in the “New Booking” email, and the emails are also listed on the booking confirmation page on the FG Con site (linked in the “New Booking” email). Players are not given your email address by the FG Con booking system.
• Also keep an eye on the comments for your event on the FG Con site. Prospective players will sometimes ask questions there.
• Once you’ve accepted a booking it’s nice to email the player to introduce yourself and provide any further information.
• A week before the convention starts we will send you a list of player emails for your events. This is the same list which is available on the bookings page on the FG Con website.
• Seven days before the convention, with the player email addresses, we will also provide you with a suggested email template to send to each player, adjust as necessary for your game and previous communication – this will include details of how to connect to your game and FG Con Discord access. This should be the latest time when you first contact your players, except for any subsequent late bookings - ideally you will have previously contacted your players when they booked onto your event.
• Closer to your event make sure to check the comments section on your event page, sometimes last minute notes are left by players there.
• Players can cancel their booking at any time through their “My Bookings” page. However, some people don’t do this and email/leave a comment on the event page. So be aware of the possibility of last minute cancellations and communication from the players in different places.

[Trenloe]

We’re a little lower than usual on events at FG Con 16, if you would like to run a game please register your event as soon as you can. FG Con 16 will be in four weeks time! We hope to get more events registered over the next 2-3 weeks – so keep popping back to the events page to see which events are available.

[mac40k]

I'm running a game for the first time and I was wondering how the Discord channels for the event work. Are the channels assigned and designated ahead of time? IOW, there's nothing I need to do other than wait to be notified.