Considering doing two missions simultaneously. Give me your thoughts.
A lot of noir stories have a detective who encounters two mysteries that turn out to be linked or somehow solving one allows them to solve the other. I’d like to try that in The Sprawl some time.
A few things that seem obvious, but I thought I’d ask the group:
– Normally I set 5xp worth of Directives for a mission. These missions should have 3 each. 6 total. That way I can force myself to focus on the interaction between the missions being the complication, rather than two missions with normal levels of complexity.
– Normally you get heat if you wager 3 Cred on a mission. I wouldn’t modify it. So they can wager 2 cred on each mission safely and potentially make 12 back (total) if they get both Paid Well and Paid in Full. That’s more potential profit, but it’s also twice the potential consequences.
– I would make it clear to them OOC that they CAN take two missions if they want (system wise) and that these two opportunities were intentional.
I think the best way to do this would be a few more directives, that lead 2 different sets of clues..and depending on which set of directives they chase it may cut off some other directives. Them realizing in dealing with both of them that its really hard to succeed both missions at the same time but they can try to buy into both of them.
It would be interesting to have the second mission come up during the legwork of the first mission.
I would build 2 different legwork/action clocks, and actually have the clocks influence each other as well. So moving one clock forward can affect the other, and visa versa.
You could also give half of the group one mission and the other half the other mission.
I also considered giving NPCs they like one mission, and just assume they’d eventually butt in like PCs always seem to do.
I did the 2 missions recently. An unforeseen consequence is that the players found a way to link the two mission by having the objective of one serve the other. Great game.
The one thing to lookout for, is that a mission is designed to run over three hours. To have two, you should put an increased time pressure. Usually by staying the investigation clock at 15:00. So that the players take less time to prepare and really get going.
Lastly, I suggest you have a 10 minutes talk about failing a mission, because the time pressure increase the likelihood of getting the action clock at 00:00!
In my have, both mission got to 23:00! It was intense.
Are you talking about doing two missions in one 3 hour session, Marc-Alexandre?
If so, did you use the Downtown Dataheist? (pay what you want on DriveThruRPG: drivethrurpg.com – DriveThruRPG.com) That has a bunch of modifications I use to run the game in 2-hour convention slots.
Report: I had an NPC doing one mission while the PCs did the other, and it brought them a lot closer with the NPC. That was a great outcome IMHO.
Hamish Cameron yes, that is what I did. We almost finished the second mission. But we lacked the time for the finale of the second mission.
I did not know if the Downtown Dataheist. I’ll look it up for sure.
At one point of the mission, every roll of the dice was a chance to fall the mission (in a spectacular way). I loved it! It kept everyone at the edge of their seat.
Another point to consider, because of the time pressure, bring hurt enough would also cause a mission failure. Because the was no time for healing big wounds.
And to make up for the pressure, the players used a lot of their credits (and put only 2 cred for each mission). They’ll recover most of it if they succeed, but any failure would have hurt them in a really bad way. Which is why I let the xp go as normal. From the missions alone, they could get 10 xp (5 xp each mission).