GMs! For your fist session of Night Witches, did you use the “Airfields On The Borderlands” scenario from the hand-outs, or just follow the char-gen process and the Engels Aerodrome duty station in the rulebook?
How’d it go? Wish you’d done it the other way?
Thanks! Our game starts tonight! 🙂
With the two demos I run, I started as if it was a normal first session: character generation and Duty Station One: Engels Airdrome. It went very well both the times.
My decision to start as if it was a normal first game session it’s because I have always been a bit clumsy with pre-generated scenarios, since the time of Dungeon & Dragons adventures; instead, I’m a lot more comfortable “connecting the dots” and creating an explosive situation from the hints the players give me during a normal first session.
The main reason to use the advanced one-shot framework (whether you use the story hooks in the quick start or not) is to use a combat Duty Station and to give the PCs Advances and Marks, jump-starting the greater drama of a longer-running game.
The first Duty Station is great but it really starts everything slowly and may not get really interesting in the space of one session.
I used the one-shot scenario that starts at the third Duty Station. I pitched Night Witches to my gaming group as something suitable for either a one-shot or ongoing play depending on what everyone thought of it, so I wanted to drop us straight into the midst of the war in case we didn’t make a campaign of it.
Thanks all. I really like the atmosphere of the session-1 scenario, and i’d probably use it with a new group. But the group i’m running for tonight is a gregarious bunch, and I think a less structured approach will be more engaging for them. So I think i’ll go with that.
I’m stealing the foul-mouthed supply sergeant, tho!
John Willson, also note that in the handout material there are two scenarios and one of them is based on Duty Station One: Engels Airdrome. Therefore, you can just use it for your first demo/game. 😉
Daniele Di Rubbo Thanks. Yep, whatever I do the first night, it’s just duty stations after that. 🙂 No problem, this doesn’t look hard to run.
Regardless what you choose to do, keep an open eye for their answers, you could find something focused on them that isn’t in any given material!
(later) First session went great, thanks everyone!