Convention games and pre-selected playbooks.

Convention games and pre-selected playbooks.

Convention games and pre-selected playbooks.

I’m thinking to taking to MotW to a couple of conventions here in the UK, one of which won’t be a gaming only event, so I’m likely to have a potential audience of non, or at least inexperienced, gamers.

Given that, what are peoples thoughts on pre-selecting playbooks in advance? Good or bad idea? With possibly four hours or less in which to get through everything, I’m thinking that reducing the choices and therefore the amount of explaining required, would be a good thing. Am I wrong?

Thoughts appreciated (as are mystery suggestions).

5 thoughts on “Convention games and pre-selected playbooks.”

  1. It’s definitely a good idea to limit the number available, just to save time and prevent too many choices being.

    I like to think about roles for the mystery and include a couple of choices for each role, based on the mystery I have in mind.

    One possible breakdown:

    – a leader (maybe wronged or professional)

    – a tough fighter (maybe summoned or hard case)

    – a magic type (maybe spooky or divine)

    – a good-with-people type (maybe mundane)

  2. Reducing the number of available playbooks is a good idea, as is keeping the “weirder” ones (meaning the ones not in the main book) off the table. As Michael Sands said, think of a couple playbooks that fit the roles in your mystery and lay those out as choices.

  3. One point one of my friends made is that the Chosen is not really a good playbook for a con scenario, if you have to cut one or two of them. It’s a very long-term playbook.

  4. Thanks everyone, that’s really useful. Now I have an idea of where to start from. I’m aiming for four players max and will be having to fit within the standard four hour slot, so the less decision making the players need to make before playing, the better.

    Going to use the XP on fail rule as well, again to keep things simple.

  5. A bit of advice I’ve heard is to have two more playbooks on hand than players you expect. For instance, for the con game I’m running this weekend, I’m estimating four players, so I have six playbooks. (The Flake, The Initiate, The Mundane, The Professional, The Spooky, The Wronged)

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