Righto, ran my first Sprawl session at a Con last saturday and it was a blast. (Got liquid chrome in my veins, been a fan of the genre for solid 23 years now).
So my question is this, generally how deep in prep do people go when creating missions to run when aiming for long term campaigns?
I ran mine fast and lose, no substance only style and bravado. It worked alright, but I feel like I might have done alot better.
Well, for a recurring cast, you wind up playing with their directives a lot, ideally. You want your prep-thoughts to be devoted to how their directives can be folded into a mission. For some (Violent), it involves almost zero thought. For others (prior affiliations causing trouble), you just need to plan out those factions’ dastardly deeds.
Also, I’d say the PC playbooks involved come up when thinking through prep. Having a Driver, a Hacker, a Pusher, a Killer, and an Infiltrator means you ought to come up with something relevant to some of these playbooks. Drivers and Hackers require a bit more prep (what kind of matrix systems exist, what kind of vehicles do people have), or a bit more specific thought. Same would probably go with Reporters. My Pusher is awesome in that I think I could throw him into anything, and he’d find a way to apply his crazy beliefs and sick his gang on some people in interesting ways, or just straight up control people with his charisma and will.
But with a Con you might not know any of this stuff in advance. That makes things harder to prep for.
Not a lot of prep, as such. I think the important part is simply knowing what the current state of the world is – what each Corp might be up to, any potential Threats that aren’t yet in play, but could become relevant. Basically, things to give you ideas when you need to make a Move.
About 1.5-2 hours. 20 minutes is mission layout, the rest is intrigue, fronts, directives, and flavor.