Moldeboa
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Joined: Tue 12 Jun 2018, 08:02

Length of campaign

Tue 10 Jul 2018, 16:38

OK, so I'm seriously considering starting a side campaign focusing on Genlab Alpha (in addition to my MYZ sandbox). It'll be more of a limited campaign, maybe 1-2 sessions a month with a defined ending (escaping Paradise Valley). 

For those of you who have played through it, how many sessions did it take? Mechatron and Elysium (I have read the Swedish version) seem to have a good indication on how long the campaign would take, but Genlab Alpha does not and seems to me to have more mileage. 
 
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Fenhorn
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Re: Length of campaign

Tue 10 Jul 2018, 17:44

When we played Genlab Alpha it took 10 sessions. I should mention that we play every other Sunday between 1 PM and 9 PM. 1 hour gossiping and talking politics and ½ hour of dining in the middle (and the sessions usually ended closer to 10 PM than 9 PM). So around 6 hour of gaming during each sessions.

We played Mechatron for 8 sessions (I shortened it a bit) and Elysium for 8 sessions (not finished yet, probably around 3 sessions left). 

The first session we make characters and go through the setting so the players have at least some basic knowledge of it.
“Thanks for noticin' me.” - Eeyore
 
Moldeboa
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Re: Length of campaign

Tue 10 Jul 2018, 19:44

So about 60 hours then. That's doable within a year (my preferred time frame). Did they perform side quests as well, or was it just the Key Events? 
 
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Fenhorn
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Re: Length of campaign

Tue 10 Jul 2018, 20:10

They did do things on their own. In the Swedish version of MGA we didn't have that metagame strategic game. That was added to the English version.
We in our group (loosely) did that in our campaign. The players did their own little quests to aid the resistance and to help their main objectives and I as the GM, planned the sessions ahead with my guys. I did that to get some structure on the watchers. I was positively surprised when we (Swedish backers) got the English campaign and saw that FL had added a system to get some structure on the "tactical/strategic" parts of the campaign. This strategic phase of the campaign can help players in what to do if the players have trouble coming up with their own ideas.

All campaigns that FL writes can easily be shortened if the GM feels that is needed (if the players starts to loose interests). And players that have a good time usually have no problem to come up with things that lengthen a campaign.
“Thanks for noticin' me.” - Eeyore
 
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Re: Length of campaign

Wed 11 Jul 2018, 19:34

In our Genlab campaign, we averaged about 6 hours (2 sessions for us) per strategic turn. We cut down on side quests and detailed travel because of interruptions to our gaming schedule and just focussed on whatever mission the PCs had chosen to take on each game month. Speaking as the GM, that approach felt like a bit of a waste of the setting but the animal mutants didn't prove as popular as the zone mutants for our group.

I suggest considering playing animals all from a single tribe (or going easy on the suspicion from NPCs for being a mixed group), for a more Ark-like feel. And be open to tweaking the Feral Table if it gets in the way - for a while we had a rabbit warrior who could rarely talk and a weasel seer that kept forgetting how to use her animal powers.

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