Pacing Questions

[Skinnyghost]

Hi all.

Just ran through the "Find the Grain Peddler" with some friends and I have a question. The pacing of the game seemed really fast and I was wondering if we were doing it wrong. I mean, we went through three GM and three Player turns in about four hours. Is that unusual? We stopped when each "Mission" was resolved.

The first mission was "Find the Grain Peddler" which we resolved after three tests (Wilderness, Weather, Mouse) with a complication on Wilderness leading to a Weather twist. This meant we moved on to the PC's turn after about two hours. The grain peddler managed to get away in the last encounter, as it was a chase resulting from a failed Scout roll to sneak up on the Peddler un-seen. They managed to track him down.

The PC's had an Argument Conflict to see what to do next, with Kenzie and Saxon fighting over what to do. This led to establishing the next Mission as "Return to Lockhaven for new orders." This resolved in a Pathfinder obstacle and Journey conflict.

After a relatively uneventful player phase and some rules checking, we dove into a third Mission - "Find the source of the conspiracy" with a bunch of mousey-type conflicts.

Is that reasonably normal? I mean, I got the impression it was a one-GM-turn / one-player-turn per session kind of deal.

Anyone have any insights into the pacing? Everyone loved the game and the setting (aside from one player who thought the game was too "skill list" and "rules checking" heavy, but we've just come from Dogs in the Vineyard and he's sort of anti-crunch to begin with...) but I was concerned about "doing it right".

[luke]

Sounds like you did fine to me.

If you feel like the game is progressing too smoothly, perhaps more reading aloud of skill list entries will help slow things down for next time. ;)

-L

[Skinnyghost]

I'm glad I wasn't just hallucinating. The "turns" system is the biggest weirdness for me, rules-wise, and it's taking some getting used to. I am, however, really enjoying it. It's an odd alteration of the BW rules, which I am pretty used to and is definitely colouring my impressions of how I run that game, too.

All in all, a really fun session. We're making custom characters and heading off on some more missions next time.

It's really great how twists can mess with an expected plot. One player had read the book that Find the Grain Peddler was based on and expected a snake the whole time and kept being like "wait a second, how is this happening?!" whenever weird things came around as a result of a failed check.

[Aramis]

If you feel it's going too fast, the one question I'd ask you is, "Are you making them describe how they are helping"... that alone doubled the time with 3-4 players for me.

[Skinnyghost]

If you feel it's going too fast, the one question I'd ask you is, "Are you making them describe how they are helping"... that alone doubled the time with 3-4 players for me.
Good call - I wasn't really doing a lot of that. More "what skill are you using?" I'll follow up with "okay, how?" next time around.

[Aramis]

It's my own bane, as well, Leningrad.

[Sean Nittner]

I've noticed that conflicts can take quite a while, particularly because I usually script pretty maneuver heavy, which doesn't lower disposition if it succeeds but does act as a vs. against Attack and Defend.

In several cases a single failed obstacle, that twists into a conflict have been a lot of fun and filled up the session quite nicely. In one case a mouse was tossed in the river for knowing too much and had to be rescued. In the second two of the "Axe's" guards spotted the mice and they entered an argument conflict to prevent the Axe guards from sounding the alarm. Both of these came from the Grain Peddler adventure as well.

It sounds like you're doing great though. If everyone is having a good time and you're engaging all the mechanics in the game, it sounds like the game rocks.

Oh, and for player that find the game to "skill list" heavy it might be worth pointing out wises and traits. Those can be just about as open ended as "I shot a man before I became a Dog" or anything else he'd pull out of DitV.

[luke]

On Saturday, I played Mouse Guard three times:

Game 1: Two players -- one expert player, one complete newbie. We used the Kenzie and Saxon template characters. Played Find the Grain Peddler complete with GM and Players' Turn in an hour. This include a conflict in the GM's Turn. We didn't have time to do the Awards at the end, though.

Game 2: Three Players -- one who had played two or three times and two complete newbies. We used the Kenzie, Saxon, Sadie template characters. Played Find the Grain Peddler complete with GM and Players' Turn AND Awards in just over two hours. We had a bruising, three-exchange conflict against the Snake in this one.

Game 3: Four players -- one expert, one who played once before, two complete newbies. Made up characters and patrol. Played Trouble in Grasslake GM and Players' Turns and Awards. During the GM's Turn, in addition to many set up tests, we had a two-teams-on-one fight with the Snapping Turtle. This game took about three hours. From about 10 PM to 1 AM.

The game is designed to play quickly.
If your turns are turning over rapidly, do more turns! This is a good thing!

[Skinnyghost]

Oh, and for player that find the game to "skill list" heavy it might be worth pointing out wises and traits. Those can be just about as open ended as "I shot a man before I became a Dog" or anything else he'd pull out of DitV.

I think that the freedom of character generation will help him get more comfortable with the game. I know how he feels - I tend to shudder at the concept of pre-gen characters, but we just didn't have the time for character generation.

However, we will next time! I'll be sure to update about everything.

Also, I'm actually thinking the increased pacing is going to help. We tend to not have a ton of time to play, and the regular breaking-up of the narrative by GM/Player Turn action is going to help keep things feeling resolved when we wrap for the night.

[Gugudada]

Aren't mice kinda fast, too?:rolleyes:


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