I have been running events for the past five or so years and I have a steady following of players who try and get tickets every year to my events. Many times they can only get a few so they bring generics and I always let them into the game.

Knowing this I have dropped my number of participants from 8 to 6 figuring that I can run for as many as 10 players.

This is the first year that I noticed the "Invite Only" option while registering my games. I am wondering how it works when I select that option.

Am I allowed to send out a specific number of invites? Maybe as many as I have listed as maximum participants?

What if my normal crew of players cannot attend? Can I change to the open ticket format?

I am asking because my game is a continuation of previous year's games and I want the same crew to be able to play, but I hate the thought of not being able to add new players if needed.

Thanks in advance for any insight on this!

A couple notes:

1. Don't submit for fewer players than you actually want space to be provided for. If you submit for 6 players, you're going to be assigned a table for 6 players, not 10. You are likely to not have the space and there's a high chance some of the folks who did get tickets wouldn't have done so if they'd known a bunch more people were playing.

2. Invite-only is specifically for events that someone must have participated in a previous event to be a part of. This is mainly for tournaments where you can't get to the finals without beating the previous rounds, but can also be used for RPGs with a continuing storyline, or similar.

3. There isn't really any way to basically just reserve a table ahead of time for a pre-determined group to play, nor is there a way to reserve even a couple spots for specific people.
   

If you have a regular group of friends you want to game with and you're already in communication with them, just pick a time you want to play with them and run it. You don't need to submit an event and go through the system or get tickets or anything. You can play in a hotel room, lobby, stop by open gaming tables, or even just stop by any Event HQ and ask for a table.

We're happy to find space for you, we just won't reserve it ahead of time.

Submit your game as you intend to run it, and run it as it was submitted to the best of your ability.

-
Derek Guder
Senior Event & Program Manager
Gen Con LLC