The Score

The Score

The Score

I’m creating a quickstart playset for #TheHood  with pregenerated characters, a scenario and a reduced ruleset, with the intent for people to use it for one-off sessions at meet-ups and conventions.

I want the players to get a real taste of the game, so I want Heat and Experience to really count, therefore I’m thinking of reducing the amount of Heat it takes to get burned and the amount of experience it takes to earn an advance. 

Question 1: Should I reduce the amount from 5 to 4? Or to 3? How quickly should characters advance in a taster session like this? How many advances would you expect/like to get?

Question 2: Should I reduce Heat & Experience requirements by the same amount? Or does it put too much pressure on the players to lose Heat if they get burned when they’ve only got 3 Heat (or even 4 Heat)?

7 thoughts on “The Score”

  2. You could keep the numbers the same but have part of the scenario setup generate Heat for certain characters. Some might start at 2, one of them might start at 4. 

    Then maybe give as many XP as they have heat?

    (Keep in mind, I’ve not played nor really grocked this game yet. So maybe this is a dumb idea.)

  3. I like Jeremy Strandberg’s idea. Additionally, if it’s a one-off or a con game, you want to give the players a fast and furious experience. At least one player should get burned.  You could have a roll-off for ‘starting situation’. One or more starting situation could start a character with a plot/goal that has already been started.  Up their heat and/or experience appropriate to the activities already completed.

    Just as an example…

    Roll:

    2-6: Blank Slate. You start the game with no experience or heat. You are new in town.

    7-9: The Game is On:  Tell the other players what you’ve got cooking.  You’ve made an enemy.  Heat +3

    10-12: Target on your Back: You’ve made a name for yourself. Choose an ally and an enemy.  Heat +2, Experience +1

  4. Maybe starting everyone with 2 or 3 experience will be enough; that way, they can all safely earn their first advance without getting burned, but then they’ll have to spend time losing heat before their next advance: that  could create a nice see-saw effect that would help to pace the game.

  5. I did the same with Monsterhearts one shots that could be played in 2 hours (with 30 minutes explaination). My aim was to demonstrate what a MH game should be  at session 3 or sthg like that

    Went with:

    -4 xp to get an advancement (most players got one advancement, hyper active ones got two),

    -reducing the choice in advancement to 2 moves apropriated for a short game or the established fiction’s context and increase in stats

    -slightly increased the starting amount of strings, enhancing the relationship between PCs

    -putting NPCs as much as possible in the background or limiting their impact on the story

    Starting with 2 xps in The ‘hood seems great, and can be counterbalanced with a mix of increased debt  and  needed NPC already in payback list at start

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