(Sorry about this long post, but I’m sort of working through my thoughts, so thanks for bearing with me)
Finally had a chance to try out The Sprawl tonight and had an awesome time doing so. Huge thanks to Hamish Cameron for making such a great game. I loved it and my players loved it and we’re already talking about our next session.
One obstacle we did come across while playing tonight involved time management. We played for 3 hours, but we barely finished the Legwork Phase of the game. Very little time was wasted with fumbling over move rules or anything like that as I made damn sure I was familiar with the mechanics and the game manual to find anything we needed if questions came up (a few of which did). I’m familiar with PbTA games (well, mostly Dungeon World), but I’m comfortable enough with that aspect to not have it be an issue. I mention that so I can clarify that none of the time management issues we had were the byproduct of rules hunting. I had hoped we’d have the entire mission completed in that time span because I’ve now watched Adam Koebel do it and I’ve read here about how you guys have run one shots, so it didn’t feel like too much to expect.
My first instinct is to assume I spent too much time describing things, as it’s something I enjoy doing when I GM (sometimes to the detriment of the game). I feel like it’s possible, but in hindsight I kind of doubt it as I can think of plenty of things that only got the quickest once over. Then my mind goes to the possibility that the thing that took so much time was my willingness to frame and RP scenes for everyone’s individual legwork moments. Every player (of which I had five) had something interesting that they wanted to do and they all involved meeting with contacts to one degree or another for some information. In most games, this is just how it goes and I’m content in taking this time, and I actually cherish those moments so I don’t think anything of it. Those games are also not usually intended to be one offs and time isn’t really an issue.
I don’t have a ton of GM experience, but I feel I’ve played enough over the years to have a few tricks up my sleeve for staying on task and keeping the narrative moving forward, but the design of a game that is supposed to thrive as a one shot is foreign to me.
I realize it’s tough to give me specifics about where I went wrong, but do any of you have any tips on how to make sure you get an entire mission completed from start to finish without having it feel like I’m rushing over the good stuff?
In case anyone is interested, here is the mission I wrote/ran tonight.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qp5hOaTTAJ9D_CKwTNxADHaFn5wknDWjs-BH_uOlVTg/edit
In the short few months of sessions I managed to run I was doing online games that ran about 3 hours. Each mission was broke into 2 sessions…one legwork, and one mission. So I think your about on track. I think it somewhat depends on how much legwork your group really likes to do.
If you really want to limit it…then make the missions simple so their is very little legwork they need to do, and play more agressively with the legwork clock when they do fail.
Riley Crowder yeah, the more I’m thinking of it, the more I’m beginning to realize that I could’ve expedited the process by giving them clues in larger hunks. Would’ve taken fewer separate scenes that way.
Too many players is possibly the issue. I ran a F-t-F game last weekend for 4 players and did setup (they had only chosen playbooks prior to starting) and ran two scores in three hours. That was the second Sprawl game I’ve run and had to do a bit of looking things up to refresh my memory on the rules. But pacing the legwork phase is probably down to not dishing enough information in a single scene and having a fifth player to provide face time for.
I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong certainly! But the reasons I see for a longer than expected legwork phase are:
1) 5 players
2) all doing interesting legwork with contacts
3) a commendable desire to describe things well
4) maybe not giving information in large enough chunks.
Have you watched Adam’s second mission on Roll20? That was 4 players, all doing interesting legwork, the addition of a side mission, and a stated desire to dwell more on description, and that took two session of 3-4 hours each.
The basic choice is fast pacing vs dwelling on the characters. There’s no right answer there, only the answer that is right for your group.
Might be worth thinking about how you structure the Legwork phase. Does everyone have to do legwork or should it be mostly down to the Face/Fixer? Perhaps just a Gear thing for some characters rather than everyone seeking out people for information. Some characters will get their spotlight time during the Action phase (I’m thinking Killer, Driver, Soldier for example) rather than the Legwork phase.
Mind you if everyone is happy about the way things went (you do get feedback from your players after the session don’t you?) then keep doing what you are doing.
Hamish Cameron Thanks Hamish, that’s what I needed to hear. For some reason I’d had it in my head that I needed to have everything done in a single session. Between hearing that this is not mandatory to doing it “correctly”, and getting the advise from others on methods for tightening up the legwork phase, I think I’ll be feeling better about the next mission I run.