Wednesday 16 September 2015

Short campaigns and drop-in RPGs

There’s a plan to encourage short games in amongst the big campaigns at my local games society this year. I’m happy to run short games, though I also want to carry on my ongoing Vampire: The Masquerade chronicle. With two Sunday sessions and a Wednesday one available, hopefully I can do both.

Back in the dim and distant past I wrote an article about working to the strengths of a short runtime. I think it’s still pretty good although I’ll note it came before I ran TWH for six years...

In this case there’s a specific intent to let players drop in and out, at the end of the short blocks and possibly also from session to session. So I wouldn’t try something very character-centric. (Which is fine, the Vampire game is very character-centric.)

First thought, Buffy. Well, obviously. A fairly basic premise like college kids fight monsters, so people can come and go.

Second thought, planet-of-the-week SF. Star Trek perhaps, or planet-hopping Trinity, or a hack for Destiny.

Third thought, something World Of Darkness ish for short runs which tend to end with everything on fire and lots of dead PCs and NPCs. Could be fun...

Fourth thought, something fairly light in tone like Leverage. Maybe using a Mission: Impossible style intro with someone selecting a crew from a pool of available people week in, week out. Mostly this is wanting to get use out of all those Leverage books I just got.

Fifth thought, I dunno, superheroes or something.

Final thought, our intro day had nobody running class and level fantasy. The closest we got was Dungeon World. However, I ain’t volunteering for that job.

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