I have been thinking about ways to increase the rate at which we get through missions.

I have been thinking about ways to increase the rate at which we get through missions. Since we only play once a month and only for about 3.5 hours each session, if we only get through one mission per session it is going to take us years of real time to do the whole campaign. My preference would be to do three missions per session; we are at Duty Station 3 now so at that rate we complete the war in another eight sessions. That seems a good pace but I do not want to have to railroad the players through set-piece scenarios to do that.

To that end, I experimented with a couple of things in our last session: 

Firstly, at the start of play I put a great big timer on the table, visible to all players, with a countdown of 45 minutes of real time until the first mission. The players were a little intimidated at first but they snapped into action pretty quickly, looking for ways to get that Mission Pool. They really had to throw themselves into trouble of their own accord and the story unfolded urgently but naturally – a great effort for a “cold start” type situation. They ended up getting 4 Mission Pool for the first mission and had lots of excellent rolls so it turned out to be a pretty easy run (they only used 1 Mission Pool).

Secondly, as soon as they landed from that first mission, I had that smug bastard Lt Gen Igor Miroshnichenko waiting for them at Debriefing and he sent them straight back out for another mission. I probably wouldn’t have done this if they had no Mission Pool left from the first mission (but then again maybe I would have…). The second mission was another success and gave the women opportunities for confronting the patriarchy and hierarchy for their callous disregard for the safety of the regiment. 

I did not use the countdown again in this session and there was a noticeable relaxing of the mood. The general pace of the fiction slowed but we still got a third mission in.

After the game, the players all commented on how much they liked the countdown gimmick and I think I will use it on a regular basis. I especially like the idea of varying the amount of time on the clock in different sessions. Imagine starting a game with only 15 minutes to go before the first mission. Watch the scramble for that Mission Pool!