Once a Month Sessions - HOW?

[Goblyns Hoard]

How long are your sessions?

I run a game where we meet every few months. 3 or 4 sessions a year. It's a pain, we'd all love it to be more regular but the combination of work, personal lives, travel required to get together and everything else that gets in the way means even monthly sessions would be nice to have.

Instead we game for 12-15 hours when we do get together. Start about 10-11 on the Saturday morning and go until someone is falling asleep or I just can't run the game anymore - that can be as late as 4 in the morning. I don't run any published stuff - adventures are tailored to the players and the PCs.

I would also advise really getting an intergame web chat going. I'm trying to promote this with my players and some have taken it up while others are very bad. But the aim would be to get as much of the fiddly little bits of RP over and done with on that format - all the shopping expeditions and the little side stories that people want to do. Anything that is pure RP (i.e. no-dice) works very well this way between games.

Next thing - ban any solo adventuring during game time. If people have side trips they want to do then they can schedule that separately - and have to make the effort to do so themselves. Group time is at a premium so that's for everybody to be part of.

Reduce the unnecessary encounters. If the party is going after the Goblin King, then have a guard post, a main horde and the throne room, not 3 guard posts and garbage pit ochre jelly as well. Don't get me wrong here's where you've got to balance it between "sufficiently varied" and "to the point", but keep the 'flavour' encounters to a minimum, and make each of the necessary encounters sufficiently interesting enough. So 3 well planned and interesting encounters rather than 6 sets of monsters.

And much as this seems contrary to what your asking about - don't rush the games. Game time is about the fun - not about getting through the dungeon. Yeah it's best if you can finish somewhere that provides a natural break in the game, but you don't want to turn into an ogre to get there. The reason we game (OK change that - one of the reasons I game) is to get together with mates and enjoy it. If it devolves into too many monty python quotes then trying to force everyone back into the game makes you the BBEG.

Hope it helps - ignore anything you don't like the sound of
GH

 

[Rechan]

How much time to you have for the monthly game?

I DM'd a group that met every six weeks or so for several years. When we met, we'd play for a whole weekend -- something like 12 hours or so.

I expect 4 hours or so. Everyone who's interested are in their 30s, and most seem to be academics. And the most convenient gaming space is the coffee shop of a Barnes and Nobles. So, simply little time, period.

How do you condense a PLOT into 4 hours? Ultimately it just becomes 'here's the hook - take it, now, we don't have time for you to wander afield. Here's some tightly focused encounters. Okay we're done." The game becomes a dungeoncrawl - tightly shackled rooms, where the rooms are not necessarily physically attached, but the entire session is so compartmentalized and linear there's no wiggle room.

 

[Jack7]

I just can't see how you can fit an entire ADVENTURE into such a little time frame. You have to handwave so much and be so disciplined with time management it would be like watching a movie in fast forward. Not to mention it would be very on rails, just so you can get to everything in the time alotted.

What I need is a concrete how-to. Because unless I can conceivably see how I can do it, I'm with Mercurius: a monthly game looks like it'd not really satisfy me.

Rech, I think you're worrying a little bit too much about the assumptions you're making, than what is likely to occur in actuality.

It will simply be a different type of game (this is the kind I run and several campaigns have gone on for very long times, and several adventures have been concluded in one session) than perhaps you are currently used to.

But if you are really interested in running once a month or so then you will find a way to adapt and to solve the problems (assuming there really are any, and not just different modes of operating), and if you're not really interested in doing it in that way then you will convince yourself that it can't be done based on your assumptions rather than any real evidence.

But experience is always the best teacher and you can't know until you experiment. And you can't learn how a thing really works until you put your assumptions aside and try it. And if you make a few mistakes, so what of it? That's living and the way you learn to make progress.

Yet either way I wouldn't worry. It's just a game and I'll bet dollars to doughnuts you're more than qualified to devise a good solution (assuming you want to) that'll work out just fine in the long run.

And if you do decide to try then I think many people here have already given good advice on technique, maybe just not in the way you want to hear it. The two things I would reiterate is good record-keeping and good organization. If everything is well laid out then you won't waste time fiddling around and looking up crap. A well organized leader spends his time leading, not trying to relocate his orders. Same thing for a DM.

 

[ggroy]

For minor encounters, I would be inclined to make most of the monsters as minions which can be killed on missed attacks (ie. powers which can cause half-damage, etc ...). Also maybe roll for a morale check on the minions.

Several minor encounters and role playing scenarios, could possibly be combined into a skill challenge.

To get to the end guy and/or finding an object of interest, I would make it such that there are several or many different ways to reach it. I always found it frustrating when the DM designed things such that there is only one single way to find something or reach a goal, where the players are doing a lot of mindless searching just to find nothing. The problem is compounded even further when the thief/rogue is dead or knocked unconscious.

I would also skip a lot of the minutiae such as multiple encounters happening when sleeping, traveling, etc ... From many years ago, one DM I knew would spend hours at a time dealing with what happened when the players were sleeping or traveling to a destination. Frequently some of the players ended up nodding off or falling asleep, while the DM was totally oblivious to it.

 

[Rechan]

And if you do decide to try then I think many people here have already given good advice on technique, maybe just not in the way you want to hear it. The two things I would reiterate is good record-keeping and good organization. If everything is well laid out then you won't waste time fiddling around and looking up crap. A well organized leader spends his time leading, not trying to relocate his orders. Same thing for a DM.

See that's the thing. I'm not worried about my organization. I'm worried about getting to the stuff I want and fitting everything I want into the amounted time. I play in two bi-weekly games and I gnash my teeth! Even if I'm a well oiled machine, this means little when it hits the table; unless the players are well oiled, then I must be a slave driver.

But if you are really interested in running once a month or so then you will find a way to adapt and to solve the problems (assuming there really are any, and not just different modes of operating), and if you're not really interested in doing it in that way then you will convince yourself that it can't be done based on your assumptions rather than any real evidence.

I don't think I'm interested. It's not something I Want, but what I have to work with. The game I WANT to run, with lots of PC-goal oriented adventures, and exploration, and intrigue/politics, just can't be condensed into such a small venue. And as this thread continues, I'm more convinced that once a month, 4 hours a session will not make me happy.

The only way I could for-see it working would be a multitude of one-shot games, each with a radically different premises (You're all in jail; break out! You're all in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, survive the night!). This does not lend itself to having the same characters for every one, and thus would require character gen, which in itself is a butt. Too much effort, little return.

 

[Piratecat]

I agree that using email to give everyone a plot summary of last time -- what they learned, who they fought and what they were doing - helps tremendously. I'll also suggest that you all agree to minimize tabletalk once you start playing. Set a hard time that the game starts, and don't have non-game conversation (other than breaks) until you're done. that really speeds things up during a limited play-time.

 

[kitsune9]

I'm trying to get a game together. But I'm finding that, of anyone who has shown interest, a weekly game - and even a bi-weekly game - is pretty impossible. Their scheduling just doesn't allow it.

Which leaves me befuddled. I don't know how to pace a once-a-month game. The amount of time any session takes (not to mention the time spent BSing and doing casual RP and shopping and such), I cannot conceptualize compressing all of that into a monthly session. It'd take three to four months to complete an adventure!

So how on earth do you run a monthly game without it being the Slowest Progression in the World?

My response is any of the following:

1. Published modules need to be reduced in terms of encounters. Speed up play to resolve "unimportant" battles in which the outcome can be decided in a round or two. You would probably have to houserule in order to facilitate play this manner.

2. Play short modules. If you play an 8 hour day, play a mod that can be finished in that time. RPGA and Pathfinder Society (depending of what you're going for) puts out short mods.

3. Make the most of your precious time. In one campaign, I didn't allow shopping or updating character sheets. This needs to be done offgame on the palyer's own time. You can put your players on a timer for them to make their decisions quicker.

4. Simplify your story so your players know what to do. Super-detailed story campaigns with multiple story arcs won't work. You'll spend a lot of time just hashing that stuff out to the players and if they don't take notes or pay attention, it's all a wasted effort. Usually, an NPC comes in, tells the characters to get off their butts and quit drinking ale, here's some gold, and go do X, type of story will work better for the players so that they're focused. Sure, it's railroading, but you only got once a month game.

5. One level one month plan. If you want to run a campaign from 1-30 levels for 4e, you'll realize that to get to 30th level is 30 game sessions and 30 months, nearly three years. Plan your campaign that way if that's cool with you or if you want, skip levels. If you play Pathfinder or 3.5, it would be 20 months for a 1-20 campaign. If you're a lower level DM, say you don't like to run anything higher than 12th level, then set how long you want the campaign to last and arbitrarily award experience and levels when certain physical time passes or some system in there.

Happy Gaming!

 

[maddman75]

I appreciate all the responses, but I need more help and advice than general info.

For instance, saying 'ONe session adventures" doesn't help me because, as I said in the OP, I simply have no clue how you would condense an adventure to a session.

Because players are going to:
BS and chat about things unrelated to the game.
Want to chat and RP amongst themselves and NPCs.
Having multiple Combats (regardless of system) is going to take up 2/3rds of the session.

I just can't see how you can fit an entire ADVENTURE into such a little time frame. You have to handwave so much and be so disciplined with time management it would be like watching a movie in fast forward. Not to mention it would be very on rails, just so you can get to everything in the time alotted.

What I need is a concrete how-to. Because unless I can conceivably see how I can do it, I'm with Mercurius: a monthly game looks like it'd not really satisfy me.

I'm going to tell you how you can do this. I run every game like this, even weekly games, because I find it to be a lot of fun. It will likely be very different from how you normally run things, but it is certainly doable.

First is your game. 4e or 3e are right out, fights take too long. And D&D is probably a bad choice as well. Exploration is too heavy a theme, and you don't have time for that. You need a game where the action is right around the same place, so you can just re-use the same set pieces over and over. The players will feel ownership of the place. Good games would be Mutants & Masterminds, Call of Cthulhu, Buffy, most World of Darkness stuff. You could use any game really, but the idea is that rather than exploring new strange place of the week, you are dealing with the threat of the week (or month, such as the case may be).

For argument's sake, let's say its Mutants & Masterminds, as that seems to be popular with the kids these days. M&M is about as complicated as I'd want to go with this style, but it will work. I'll explain why in a bit.

So you get a collection of superheroes and design their city, or use one from a book. Put some detail into it. Places the PCs work, meet, likely fight locations, and so on. You can use these every month both to save you work and to give your players a sense of the world. With only once a month, you don't need to be throwing new stuff at them every week.

Now for the actual game. Keep it fairly simple, and be ready to run off the cuff. Use recurring villains, or a recurring villainous organizations. This week, Doctor Evil has built a giant robot! Doctor Evil's henchmen have kidnapped some scientists! Whatever works.

Now I know you said you like character development too. Me too. So make sure you throw those scenes in as well. Have Captain Awesome's mother get sick, Aero Boy's girlfriend is flirting with Ned Evil, the Doctor's son! Just throw it out there and see what happens.

For the actual structure of the game, you'll need to keep the pacing tight. The trick to getting a game like this to work is conflict. Either with the PC's ongoing subplots, the villain, or between PCs. If a scene isn't introducing, exploring, or resolving a conflict you're wasting time. You ever watch Law & Order? They don't spend time worrying about where the detectives get their coffee, or how they get from point A to point B. They cut. They get a phone call, someone got shot last night. There's a witness who works at a diner. DOINK DOINK The detectives are at the diner, questioning the witness. She says that the victim was fighting with her boyfriend beforehand, and give the name. DOINK DOINK They're knocking on the boyfriend's door, saying they want to ask him a few questions. They don't worry about finding the address of the diner or the boyfriend. They don't spend time watching them choose betweek latte and mocha. They get to the point.

Now, you might be saying 'yeah that's great but it sounds like a railroad.' Doesn't have to be. You will have to be able to think on your feet. Don't plot out a series of scenes, present them with a problem. Let them pursue it however they like. Talk with your players and let them know you're going to be cutting scenes, but they are free to add ones they like. If you go to cut from the diner to the boyfriend's apartment and someone says "Wait I want to ask the busboy too!", be sure to let them.

This is why I said that M&M is about as complicated as I want to go. This doesn't work statting up all your bad guys beforehand, because the PCs could do any freakin thing. You need a setting and system that adapts itself to this kind of play. You have to be prepared to run a fight completely unscripted.

So you introduce a problem, throw in a scene each for the PCs personal growth, and cut to the point as much as possible. Now you have to wrap it up. Doing it exploration-style, where you simply stop when you're out of time and pick it up when you play again will not work. You need an emotionally satisfying climax to the night's game. Wrap up the conflict, have the threat of the week show up and have a big smack down. Change things as needed. You have to be prepared to throw out any plans you might have. Don't care if the bad guy isn't "really" in this warehouse. Is time running out? Would it make a good conclusion to have a big fight here? Then he's in the warehouse instead of the cabin in the woods.

That's basically how I run most games in a nutshell. I don't even have time pressures, I just think its a lot of fun. I'm not saying this is the best way to game, I'm saying it is what would work given your time constraints.

 

[Piratecat]

This doesn't work statting up all your bad guys beforehand, because the PCs could do any freakin thing. You need a setting and system that adapts itself to this kind of play. You have to be prepared to run a fight completely unscripted.

This is why I love MnM. I can say "ninja 5", which means that my PL 5 ninja has +5 to hit, has a 15 defense, has +5 on all his saves, and does +5 damage -- and anything else, like feats or power special effects, I can fake on the fly. It's tremendously flexible. When running MnM I almost never look at a single sheet of paper.

 

[dangerous jack]

It seems like there's a lot more groups out there that are limited like my group than I thought.

My group meets once / month for a 2.5 hour session. So that usually means 2-3 encounters in 4e. Like others have said, Dungeon Delve is a useful tool. Other things I do that seem to work:

The PCs level up every 3 months (usually 6-8 encounters total, but enough for them to use their new powers at least once)

There's no world map past the immediate surroundings, and there's no campaign plan... it evolves as places & plots are needed, and I'm assuming that over the 7.5 years it'll take if we go to level 30, I'll change my mind several times. So my prep time is focused on making every encounter as interesting as possible.

Longer adventures are possible, but they get broken up into acts/locations that take no more than 2 nights of gaming. For example, the adventure they're just finishing had 20 encounters spread over 5 acts.