One Shot at convention

Hi all!

I'm planning to try AW in a three hours slot in a Convention. It would be the first try for most of my player and probably the first try also for me.
What you suggest? Should I use Hatchet City (or some other ready scenario), or can I try also with the "1st session" of a new campaign?

thanks for any suggestion

Man, three hours? That's not enough time unless you're an experienced MC. You could try Hatchet City, but really you need four or more hours and a strong command of the game.

I mean you could play it, sure, but don't promise a game, promise an exploratory demo.

Another suggestion is to limit your players to two.

don't promise a game, promise an exploratory demo

don't worry, that would be the premise. That's why I wonder if shouldn't be better doing only the 1st session. Enough to see how the rules work, even if not so deeply in the game.


I'v read that the hatchet demo can be done in three hour. It's too tight?

I don't usually play any RPG for more than three hours at a time, so I think you'll be fine. We got a lot done in last night's game, and that was with a self-proclaimed rusty GM and two people completely unfamiliar with the game.

I think your challenge will be to get things moving so that too much of the time isn't setup. That's the danger.

Thing is, there's no goal to reach in play, really. You can just play a while and give the players a chance to live their lives and set off pain wave projectors. When time's up and they're all OMG I want more! then your game was a success!

Nathan, by contradicting you I have probably offended your honor, which is awesome. We should duel.

thanks Matt

How's the play with only two player? can be done as well? I thought at least 3 player should be better

I wouldn't use Hatchet City. I had great luck at GameStorm with an operator & crew, so maybe I'd just say "let's do an operator and crew. Who wants to be the operator?" and go from there.

-Vincent

It wasn't two players. It was MC + 3, and two people in total had never played it before.

My experience so far with "Blind Blue and Hatchet City" for 4 first-time players has typically been 2 hours setup, 3+ hours running, for a total of 5-6 hours.  I've done "Operator+Crew" twice, and it seems a lot more feasible to fit into 3-4 hours. A Hardholder would be expected to know the dozens of people working for him, an Operator can learn about people as they're encountered, so it's much more manageable in a one-shot.

I encourage the Operator's player to discuss openly what gigs she's thinking of taking, since that influences what sort of people the other PCs are (and vice versa).  A crew built for delivery, infiltration, and spying is likely quite different than one built for murders and raiding. I also like to keep the NPC members of the crew small, a couple seem good, a dozen not so much.  For a first-timer one-shot I take Hardholder, Chopper, Hocus, and Gunlugger out of the mix. Someone takes Operator, and the other 3 players choose from Angel, Battlebabe, Brainer, Driver, Savvyhead, Skinner.  Others mileage may vary.

I have a starting situation in mind, but can discard that and improvise if the Operator's Moonlighting roll leads in a different direction.

Cal's advice is good.

But please don't take 2 hours to set up. 15-30 minutes is plenty.

I explain the character types (one sentence each), then I say: "For this demo, let's do like a Chopper and her gang, or an Operator and his crew, or a Hocus and her cult, or something like that, okay?" Everyone nods. "Anyone want to be the leader type?" and we sort it out from there in about 5 minutes.

Hi all

I've made my first (three) sessions at the Con

It has been three different "1st Session" with different players. In each session 1 hour to explain and make the PGs, 2 hours of play. I let them free to choose whatever characther they like. Also not all of them was good at reading english.

the first was with 5 PG (maybe too much to give a good spotlight for all of them)
Hardholder, gunlugger, brainer, battlebabe, skinner. It was around an undergroud community, qith a communist heavy metal dictatorship. There has been a revolt, put down with blood by the Hardholder and gunlugger and their hyenas (the hardholdergang). The brainer discovered that the revolt went up because people was afraid of people vanishing in the more distant tunnels.
The session closed when the PG discovered that the vanished people simply went outside. What there is in the outside is up to the next session (if there will be). The Hardholder already planned to bring his people in a exodus as a savior.
There has been also sex time, with intimacy started between the Hardholder and the Skinner, then extended to the Battlebabe and the Gunlugger. (BTW, how works the Battlebabe special move with a four-way?)

It has been a good game, the only downside was that I fear battlebabe and skinner doesn't play so much. I fear 5 people was too much and I wasn't able to give some good hook to all of them.

the other session was with 4 players, an Hocus, an Angel, a Gunlugger and a Savyhead.
The followers of the Hocus (messanger of the Great Ozzy) were in "want:hunger". They had to find some food. The Angel (a real bastard, he liked to cure only to be paid) suggested to assault a camp and eat the people. So it went (well not so straight). The session closed with the cannibal cultists hidden in some mountain caverns, while the PGs got rid of the remain of the gang they ate.
[it was a game, nothing real ;)] Oh, and the Gunlugger just shot the Angel in the legs while he was opening his mind to the maelstrom.

the third session had 4 players, a Skinner, a Battlebabe, a Gunlugger and a Brainer (child). It was in a urban/jungle enviroment, and the crew live on the show of the skinner, that perform travelling to different warchief. The last job was quite smooth, until the little brainer messed up. The war chief (Enough-to-eat) didn't like him e didn't want him at the show. He wanted to go, and failed some moves. The results was the warchief dead (by a granade) and the crew escaping, with the skinner accidently shot by the little brainer himself.

the last two session went smooth, and everyone has a good spotlight, I guess. One or two of them get enough experience to have an improvement. It seemed to me a bit too fast, but I go with that.

Very smart game!

So I just ran two one shots at GenCon. These were basically pick up games where I made people I never met before play the game in the Hyatt lobby, because that's how I roll.

Both times I just took the start of a session I've ran before and put the new players loosely in those holes and asked questions to help make it theirs.

Worked great and one group said that they would go find Vincent in the morning and buy it from him, but who knows.

Cal's advice is good.

But please don't take 2 hours to set up. 15-30 minutes is plenty.

yeah, it's hard for me to understand how it could take 2 hours. Unless you're, like, playing Universalis before as world creation.