Berandor
01-24-2008, 01:59 PM
I just got the BW books and I'm currently reading through them. My goal is to GM a session at a con in the beginning of May, and I'll likely have a test session somewhere in between.
Now, for the test session, I'll probably use "The Sword", and I'm thinking of "The Gift" for the con. However, I am still pondering whether to burn characters with the players so they have a better sense of the BITs. It's a 3-day con and I'd be able to have a short burning session say, saturday morning, and the game on sunday in case a direct burn-to-play isn't advisable.
The second question I have is if I use the scenarios, how much should I talk about the system beforehand? I'll obviously talk about the basic mechanic, but should I talk about advancement or leave that out altogether? Should I talk about DoW or just wait until it comes up?
Finally, I have a question regarding time and failure. In the revised book, it says on p. 38, "Even when the character fails, he doesn't always know. If he missed by a lot then he can give up right away and not lose too much time." In the brief recap on p. 41, it says, "Marginal failure indicates the character realizes his error right away and may quit. Total failure indicates the character is stuck banging his head against the wall for the total time of the test."
So which is it? I could see either way: totally screwing up means you know you'll never make it, whereas a close failure makes you stick to the task and work on it – but on the other hand, that might punish a player for not rolling bad enough to fail miserably.
Now, for the test session, I'll probably use "The Sword", and I'm thinking of "The Gift" for the con. However, I am still pondering whether to burn characters with the players so they have a better sense of the BITs. It's a 3-day con and I'd be able to have a short burning session say, saturday morning, and the game on sunday in case a direct burn-to-play isn't advisable.
The second question I have is if I use the scenarios, how much should I talk about the system beforehand? I'll obviously talk about the basic mechanic, but should I talk about advancement or leave that out altogether? Should I talk about DoW or just wait until it comes up?
Finally, I have a question regarding time and failure. In the revised book, it says on p. 38, "Even when the character fails, he doesn't always know. If he missed by a lot then he can give up right away and not lose too much time." In the brief recap on p. 41, it says, "Marginal failure indicates the character realizes his error right away and may quit. Total failure indicates the character is stuck banging his head against the wall for the total time of the test."
So which is it? I could see either way: totally screwing up means you know you'll never make it, whereas a close failure makes you stick to the task and work on it – but on the other hand, that might punish a player for not rolling bad enough to fail miserably.