How do you run a Gameday adventure?

[Ao the Overkitty]

Okay. I was standing in our local gameshop talking with guedo79 and we came across the topic of gameday games.

Now, we've both GM'd for a while, but are used to weaving a story week in and week out. But, what exactly do you do different for running a 4 hour one shot slot?

I've got a plot, interesting pregens with their own little quirks, interesting bad guys, and a couple of maps. It occured to me that it's a good idea to plan for more then your group can possibly cover, but build in a couple of good stopping points, so you use up your full time and still have a point were it feels like an end.

Does any seasoned gameday veterans have some good advice for the rest of us?

 

[dougmander]

Does any seasoned gameday veterans have some good advice for the rest of us?

1. Use pregenerated characters, and write up a little one- or two- paragraph summary of their background, motivation, and relationships with the other PCs. This gives each player a hook to get into character quickly.

2. Start in the middle of things -- the PCs can be in a besieged fortress, a shipwreck, chained up in a dungeon, but probably not sitting in a cozy tavern far from danger. The thrust of the adventure should be clear from the outset.

Good luck!

 

[cdsaint]

Hi Overkitty.
I'll second what Dougmander said. Good advice that. Also, make sure your pre-gens are as equipped as you want/need them to be. If a player asks for something within reason, you can always give it to them, but buying equiptment always takes longer than you would think. 2 hours into the session is a bad time to have just gotten started.

Taking the plunge at an Engame day is the right place to do it. you will meet a consistantly higher quality of gamer there than most anywhere else.

Chris

 

[d20Dwarf]

This is all great advice. I find that adventures take longer than you think they are going to, so don't plan too much, especially if you have a big encounter or two. Starting in the middle of things helps with this, and it also helps them get right into the action. Character backgrounds are a plus, as players don't have to spend time getting into character. You can also throw in hints in the background that won't have to be divulged in game.

Also, focus on cool and memorable things rather than subtleties. NPCs should be larger than life, an encounter should either be cool as hell, scary as hell, or funny as hell. Keep the action fast and furious and the interactions fun for all. One-shot games like this can provide some of the greatest gaming moments you'll ever have.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Things that go *bump* in the night.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Things that go *bump* in the night.

This is the same as running a four-hour convention slot game. Start on time. Don't allow magic items in that aren't in the core books, even if PCs are totally hung up on it. Have a fairly clear, defined and simple objective. "Kill the dragon"; "retrieve the artifact"; or "rescue the kidnapped person".

The adventure should be equal to about four hours for your real-life gaming group. Site-based adventures work best. A 10-15 room dungeon is fine. Figure four combats to include the final confrontation, four RP moments and four puzzles and you're fine. Ask your own players what would work well for a convention adventure. (I did this and got good feedback. Some not what I expected, but they were right about what would work.)

As already said, starting in the middle is good. Have the PCs in or about to begin the action. I like to write up a briefing sheet on "why" they are there, no more than a single page, photocopy it, and hand out one to each player to read during the inevitable half hour of confusion to get started.

The tricky part is tweaking the action. You know you want to end on a big fight. So go over your outline and mark rooms/areas that you can eliminate when the clock is starting to tick down. (This is why complex plots involving searching for many clues and items are not good for this scenario.)

Good luck! You'll do fine.

 

[Piratecat]

A 10-15 room dungeon is fine. Figure four combats to include the final confrontation, four RP moments and four puzzles and you're fine.

Whoo! That strikes me as way too much stuff. If I'm making roleplaying-heavy PCs, I generally plan 5 or 6 scenes and still run over time. The best trick is to establish the core encounters, and then have a handful of "side encounters" you can add in if you're ahead of schedule. That's the best of both worlds.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Whoo! That strikes me as way too much stuff. If I'm making roleplaying-heavy PCs, I generally plan 5 or 6 scenes and still run over time. The best trick is to establish the core encounters, and then have a handful of "side encounters" you can add in if you're ahead of schedule. That's the best of both worlds.

Guess I should have specified that I didn't mean 10-15 encounters in that.

 

[Rel]

I'll give a piece of advice here that you won't see from me in any other thread on these boards: Railroad the crap out of them.

Design fun, exciting, scary, breath-taking encounters. Then make for damn sure the party gets to experience them. Shove them right into the action and make sure they follow a trail that will take them from the beginning to the middle and to the end. If you want the trail to branch some so they can take different routes from A to B to C, feel free. But I'd design it in such a way that they can't endlessly backtrack and eat up the little time you've got before they get to the exciting finish.

Also, I don't think there is such a thing as "too much humor" in a Game Day game. If you go the other direction and make things very serious, it might work out fine but remember that you're dealing with people who you've probably never played with before and probably haven't played with each other either. Nothing breaks the ice in a situation like that like uproarious laughter. And, unlike somebody mentioned above, don't be afraid to try out non-standard magic items, especially where it will contribute to the laughter thing.

For example, at the last NC Game Day, I ran an Orcz adventure where the party were all playing Orcs. I loaded them up with unusual magic items, the kind that I felt Orcs would really make in a D&D setting. The cleric had the Club of Healing that dealt 1d6 damage and healed 1d8+1 each time she smacked you with it ("Come 'ere and let's me heals ya'!" *WHAP, WHAP, WHAP*). The bad guy took refuge at the end of the adventure in his Daern's Instant Outhouse. The party barbarian wore The Stinking Hide of Grumsh that gave off a 10'R stench like a Troglodyte. That sort of stuff, combined with the awesome roleplaying of my players who totally got into the orc thing, made it a day full of laughter and fun.

That's what I shoot for.

 

[Piratecat]

Excellent advice. Other thoughts:

- Don't worry about micro-managing treasure, unless it is immediately useful. Either you have enough gold or you don't, but awarding loot after a combat isn't especially important.

- For the love of God, don't worry about XP. Yes, I know this seems obvious, but I've seen some people award it nevertheless.

- Don't stress about rules calls. You aren't setting any long term precedents for your campaign if you screw up, so just try to be consistent and run with it.

- Practice your speedy combat. Slow combat in a 4-hour slot is just a mood killer, so have index cards prepped and try to move things along quickly.

- Don't be afraid to kill off PCs if it's dramatic, especially near the end of a game. This happens all the time in CoC.