been experimenting with different levels of prep to get some MH one-shots ready. I reckon there’s a few options…
1. Do the first session exactly as in the book and see where it takes you – full choice of Skins, group setting/home room creation, then just play to see what happens. I’ve done this before and it took a while to really sing while some of the Skins circled around each other – but once it hit the ground it worked really well – not sure if I’d be comfortable doing this at a con though because you might not get to the ‘good bits’ in 3/4 hours.
2. Restrict Skin choice and do normal character generation (especially Strings) and have the broad brush strokes of a setting and a Menace or two ready to roll. I’ve done this before at a con and it worked pretty well.
3. Is having pre-picked and developed skins, a tight setting and set-up, and enough material to push a few buttons and see what happens. THIS is what I’ve experimented with, and I think it’s got legs to jump to the juicy stuff sooner – but I’m aware that this kind of thing has been actively discouraged with regards to AW in the past! I’ve done my prep and will playtest this soon.
What do folks think? There’s pros and cons to each, I guess, but will (3) work in play? I can go into more detail on my method of prepping it, too – but that’s probably for another post.
I think I will start with a classroom filled with students and their names. Leave enough empty places for PCs to sit+1. Have the given names be really evocative. Not Maria but Chantal, Bee or Nahami. Not Mike but
BigJ, Konstantin or Willow. Something that inspires a face.
I like that, Tim Franzke … You could also do it with stock photo portraits, I guess
That’s the idea yeah
2 is best for regular one shots, definitely, if only because some skins just aren’t built to sing in a short time period.
3 is ideal for convention play, where time is at a premium. It’s what I would do, though I’d likely allow exceptions from players if they could show they already know their stuff.
But for a group of new people at a con I’d definitely use pregens, with a short explanation of character generation and how they got the stats and moves they have. The players would still get to pick from an assortment, so no harm done. Then have some stuff ready to push their buttons that you can use regardless of the final spread.
Also stock photos are awesome.
Have you considered using Joe’s “The Blood of Misty Harbour? http://buriedwithoutceremony.com/misty-harbour/
Also there is Paul T’s Fiasco playset “It all ends in Tears” used for setting up. https://www.dropbox.com/s/gb76mj8lnw8avdr/It%20All%20Ends%20in%20Tears.pdf
Trevis Martin it was Blood of Misty Harbour that made me think about putting in more prep than I’d normally do actually – it was much tighter than I expected when I read it. I haven’t seen Paul T’s playset before, thanks!
And, yeah. Derek Cardwell , I guess you can always let experienced players roll their own – although I’m a bit wary of the “who’s played this before?” thing at cons – you can end up giving the experienced players more cool stuff, which isn’t really fair on the newbies. But I get what you mean.
For 2, which skins would you allow/disallow?
when I’ve done 2 before I’ve picked the Skins but not done any chargen with them – so we were playing with the Mortal, Werewolf, Infernal, and Hollow, and my sketched-out Menace had some ideas how each of those Skins could be linked to it.
In retrospect I was lucky in having a really experienced player for the Hollow, because it can be a tricky one to get into the action… but the others worked well. Having a Mortal makes sure that you’ll get lots of PvP victimhood and such and highlights bits of the game that only MH can reach, IMHO.
Yeah. Putting the hollow away is a good choice but its a special edition skin anyway.
Strongly encouraging someone to play the mortal is a good idea too!
I haven’t had any issues with the Hollow personally, but it would depend on how they explain their hollow-ness and of course how they actually play the character. I’m pretty lucky in that I mostly play with people with a good bit of experience, so I haven’t seen anyone get tripped up by the Hollow yet, even in one-shots.
I don’t like the Serpentine in one-shots. I’m sure some people don’t have this problem, but as the MC I just can’t do justice to the “messed up family” angle in the space of a one-shot. I consider the family stuff to be more of a “slow burn” shtick that gets more intrusive and difficult to reconcile with a normal human life as the season(s) progresses. 3 to 4 hours just isn’t enough for me.
I also don’t like Angel in one-shots. I’m not sure if it’s because I find the F/T track to be more of a “slow burn” thing, or if it’s because I just don’t get the Angel. I’ve read over it, I’ve seen it in play a few times, and I really just don’t get what it’s about. It’s trying to be too many things — versatile in a way that’s different from the way other skins are versatile. With others, no matter what in-skin moves you take you pretty much end up with a coherent whole. With the Angel, you can end up a disjointed mess(and I don’t mean in the way that all MH characters tend to be messes).
But as i said, Hollow, Seprentine and Angel and Selkie are not the “Core” Skins so i wouldn’t bring them to a convention anyway.
I feel like the selkie is pretty solid. Hollow is tricky. I wouldn’t do th serpentine or the angel either.
I use a very tight set-up for the con games I ran last year; five or six skins – always a Mortal and set genders; only one male character at the table. At the end of each character’s initial questions I drop the bomb.
So, who’s going to be Prom Queen?
And suddenly everything goes all Brethren Court in PotC and that’s the game! Three-four hours later, the question is resolved!
Does the guy ever get to be th prom queen? And do you isolate the guy to a particular skin?
Let me think… in one game, the female Angel became the Prom Queen after defeating the Infernal and her Mortal pawn at the prom. At another, no-one became Prom Queen after the Queen and her Werewolf ally and their male Mortal sex object saw off the Vampire. And at another, everyone died before the prom in an orgy of Witch driven bisexual jealousy … everyone except the Vampire.
So no, the guy hasn’t made it to be Prom Queen yet, although the sample of ‘Games That Made It to the Prom’ is small. And no, the guy doesn’t have to be a particular skin but, as it happens, in all of the games it has been the Mortal.
I realise the set-up is exceptionally restrictive but the creation of a crucible to play the drama out in works for me exceptionally well. Every game is about as different as they can be from the same start
No, the restriction is inspired! Ideal for a con scenario. I’m going to remember it for my own con games.