So, you want to run a megagame?
Written by Ed Silverstone, the designer of multiple megagames including By the Grace of God and Reading Megagames organiser extraordinaire. Ed describes what it takes to run a megagame for the first time.
You may also be interested in reading our ‘How to run a megagame’ series which hangs out over here.
So, you want to run a megagame?
Specifically, you want to run a megagame without writing one first.
This is a smart move! The time involved in creating a megagame from scratch is anywhere upwards of 250 hours, or six normal working weeks - and often much longer, especially if you haven’t done other games before, or you’re aiming at a larger player count. It also needs a particularly difficult kind of creative effort. This can be hard to do in a sustained way, and requires much more energy than just cutting out hundreds of components.
Conversely, running a megagame someone else has designed probably takes around 40 hours, or one working week - and is effort that can much more easily be spread around a group of people, as well. It’s also a good learning experience if you do want to write and run megagames in future - I’d actually recommend running someone else’s game before designing your own if possible. It will give you some great experience of the logistical and practical challenges involved without the extra burden of knowing this is the first run of something you’ve created.
This article attempts to
prepare you for the work involved
explain some good practices and techniques which should minimise the effort needed
help you understand some of the hurdles you may face
This page contains a list of megagames which are available in a format where you can run them with low or no design effort.
It’s a great feeling when all that effort finally pays off! Photo by: Jim Wallman
When to Adapt
Reading through another designer’s work, there are often sections which don’t immediately make sense. It might seem at first glance like they won’t work very well, or won’t give players a full and interesting game.
No game is perfect. But the things that stand out to you on your first and second read through the rules are rarely the biggest issues. I honestly don’t recommend changing a game at all the first time you run it (unless the designer explicitly recommends you to!). The mental model that sits behind a game design is very complex, and tinkering with it before you’ve seen it in action is rarely a good plan. However, things you're concerned about are definitely worth pursuing - if nothing else, they probably point to places where the designer’s vision hasn’t been communicated clearly enough.
If possible, get in contact with the designer - most megagame designers are more than happy to take time to answer questions about their game. Try not to ask questions that are secretly “I would have done this differently, did you think about that?” - instead, concentrate on understanding what problems the designer intends each player to grapple with, and what makes those problems interesting and complex.
If the designer isn’t available to ask, see if you can find other people who have run the game. Another good plan is to run a small-scale playtest of the game - with as many of your prospective facilitation team as possible. This will hopefully give you a good idea of how the game is supposed to fit together, as well as showing you which bits players may need support with.
Meet the Team
A good team of facilitators (or control, as they’re often called) is essential for running a megagame. Getting a team together for a game you haven’t designed can be much harder - or if you do it right, it can also save you a lot of effort.
Finding the right people is obviously key. In a perfect world, you’d have at least a third of your team be experienced facilitators, but obviously this isn’t a luxury we all have. Instead, there are some practical skills which can be helpful to look out for.
Any long-standing DM/GM of tabletop roleplaying games
That one person who’s always given the job of reading the rules and explaining them to everyone else at board game nights
If you’re lucky enough to know anyone who works in event management or a similar field, definitely snap them up as well
Megagame facilitation tends to fall into two broad skill sets - mechanical and narrative. For mechanics, you need someone who’s willing to read and re-read rules to the point where they deeply understand tham (and/or know where to look for the reference sheets etc), who’s patient and courteous with players who are slow but also firm and confident in their rulings. For narrative, you need someone with a ready imagination, who’s willing to learn about the setting well enough to make realistic judgements about what’s going on - but who’s also able to understand the game’s mechanics well enough to understand how to make freeform actions concrete in a way that’s rewarding without being game-breaking.
A good team can keep the game running smoothly…hopefully. Photo by Dave Sweeny
Most people learn by doing, so if possible, gather your team together to walk through a turn or two - at least a couple of weeks before the game, but ideally much earlier. It’s a good chance to check your own understanding of the game as well as to train your team up - and also get their perspectives on how different bits of the game can be facilitated. It’s also a smart way to trick them into reading the rules in advance - while everyone intends to do this, life is busy, and it’s an easy thing to put off. Hopefully it also gives you a chance to assess who will fit well into which role.
It’s easy to say and hard to do, but for everyone's sake (yours, your team's, and your players'), don’t give facilitator roles to people you don’t think can do them. It’s hard to say no to volunteers, especially when they’re friends, but ultimately everyone is better off if the game is run smoothly and consistently.
Time and Materials
Regardless of which game you go for, there are some things you need access to. This may require making an up-front investment:
A decent colour printer. It’s a good courtesy to provide printed copies of all necessary game materials (handbooks, briefings, etc), usually one set per player team, and a lot of your components will also need printing. A higher-end printer is definitely an investment that repays itself here.
An A3 laminator.
A corner punch. No, I didn’t know what one of these was either before I started running megagames.
A large collection of stationery of all kinds - pens, sharpies and dry-erase markers (check they wipe off components ahead of game day), blu-tac, notepads, etc.
A whole load of dice, and ideally some blank white cards.
Craft knives and a cutting board.
A guillotine (no, not that kind, unless it’s a French Revolution megagame).
The gorgeous map from Everybody Dies - game and map design BeckyBecky Campbell-Ladley, photo by Jim Wallman
There are also some decisions to make about quality vs cost vs time:
I strongly recommend getting any maps for your game printed on PVC banners; if you want to save money, you can print on paper and laminate, but the banners aren’t too expensive (£20-£50 depending on size) and they’re both much nicer looking and much more convenient (ed: several UK-based folks are currently using Pixart Printing, based in Italy, for their map printing)
You’ll almost inevitably have a bunch of cards in your game. You can print these and then either laminate them and punch the corners, or just cut them up and sleeve them - both of these options look OK, but are very time-consuming! You can also order them from one of any number of websites - custom cards tend to cost about 10p/15¢ per card if you’re ordering in decent bulk.
A staple of megagames is the foam board token. There’s a time-honoured technique for creating these:
Buy A4 full sheet label paper, and print the images on it.
Take two printed sheets, put them back-to-back, and laminate them.
Cut around the edges of the sheets to separate them.
Then, peel the labels off the backing, and stick them to the foam board (you can find foam board, usually A1, from most large stationers and craft suppliers).
Finally, cut out the individual tokens using a craft knife.
You can skip the laminating, but the tokens are very easy to scuff and damage without it - and laminated tokens can be written on with dry-erase markers which is often very helpful
Alternatively - you can just pay to have your game materials printed straight onto foam board. An A1 sheet of printed foam board costs around £20; about double the overall cost of the manual alternative, for a massive time saving - the results look about the same.
It’s very tempting to give a game an art makeover, especially if you have (or know someone with) graphic design skills. Really good art can massively help a game - but this is often a sizeable time investment, and not a decision to make lightly.
If in doubt, add more cards. From Mirrorshades - photo by Jim Wallman
A Few Final Words
Running a megagame is a daunting experience. There are a lot of moving parts, a lot of people to line up, and a lot of admin (Ed: see this post for free and cheap organisational tools to facilitate running a megagame). Putting on a game that’s already been playtested and run, with a degree of support from an experienced designer or the megagame community, is a great way to run a game with comparatively fewer stresses and complications. Whether you’re an aspiring designer, or a veteran looking for something fresh and interesting, I’d strongly recommend checking out the games available and giving one of them a go.
What do you think? Has Ed got it right and pre-designed megagames are always the way to go for new megagame organisers or have you struck out on your own and run a kick-ass game that you designed? Let us know on our Facebook group!
We’re always looking for new people to write a blog post for us. If you’re interested, let us know!