JaszczurXP
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CoTG in one 5 hours session - possible?

Sun 05 Jan 2020, 23:57

Hi. Is it even possible? Any ideas how it could be accomplished? I'm a beginner GM, so I'm not sure if I could fit this scenario in form of just one 5 h session, assuming that players won't die early.
 
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aramis
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Re: CoTG in one 5 hours session - possible?

Mon 06 Jan 2020, 03:17

It's going to be highly variable, base your estimate on how fast your players and you tend to play. My group took almost 9 hours, but that was three sessions, noisy environment, distractible players. If they go through season 2/3/4 D&DAL modues in the listed times, yes, this may fly in under 5...
If I were to run it FTF for my old D&D AL group?  Either 4-5 hours or 10-20, depending upon which mode they take. (It took them 3 hours just to buy cargo and get loaded. Fighting the stowaways? a 3 hour comedy of errors on both sides.
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decanox
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Re: CoTG in one 5 hours session - possible?

Mon 06 Jan 2020, 18:20

Hi...

I have played CoTG in two occasions and I can tell that it's really difficult to play all the scenario into a 5 hours session.

For example, the last time, we spent more or less 5 hours and we left the game near the end of the second act, and it was fast paced. The first time we needed three sessions to finish.

Obviously, it will depend on each game group but keep in mind that players have to explore the entire ship, they will have to combat some neomorphs, fix the ship, fulfill their (opposed) agendas, fight the Cronus crew (mutated into neomorphs or not), etc. I think 5 hours is a bit short for those questions. Although it's not necessary not too much additional time: the last time I played CoTG, I made a fast estimation and maybe with 2-3 more hours the scenario could be finished, so with a sum of 7-8 hours CoTG could finish.
 
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Gebohq
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Re: CoTG in one 5 hours session - possible?

Mon 06 Jan 2020, 19:54

I feel the intent is for it to be played in a single session, and while the length of a session can be variable, I'd think 4-6 hours would be reasonable length of time considered for a game night. With that said, both times I've experienced this game (once as a player, and once as a GM), the third act was severely shortened/practically omitted, though it came about mostly natural since people were dropping like flies by that point. Optional agendas didn't come into play either, so it was fairly bare-bones.

Intent aside, I think to get the most out of the scenario, a 4-6 hour timeframe might be too tight, and for groups that don't have a day to dedicate to a game, it's probably better to play over 2 or 3 sessions. Then again, if I were to run it again, I feel I'd be much more comfortable pacing certain things as a GM, so maybe it's only tight if ran for the first time?
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Fumarole
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Re: CoTG in one 5 hours session - possible?

Tue 21 Jan 2020, 18:56

My group has played for thirteen hours so far and they're just barely into act III. I think our next (third) session will be the final one, but I said that last time. They sure do love to roleplay.
 
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Diego
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Re: CoTG in one 5 hours session - possible?

Wed 22 Jan 2020, 13:34

My group has played for thirteen hours so far and they're just barely into act III. I think our next (third) session will be the final one, but I said that last time. They sure do love to roleplay.
Yeah same. Mine took a total of about 9 hours and we could have made it longer.
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Johnny
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Re: CoTG in one 5 hours session - possible?

Thu 23 Jan 2020, 17:30

All the times I have run it the players managed to complete the scenario in about 5-6 hours. In all cases -for different reasons- I had to almost omit the third act because the players took things in a way that made it difficult to enter the third act and, when they did, things came to a close much faster. Depending on what they do it may be that the session could be much longer or much shorter, but so far in my experience 5 hours is doable.
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Diego
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Re: CoTG in one 5 hours session - possible?

Thu 23 Jan 2020, 22:28

All the times I have run it the players managed to complete the scenario in about 5-6 hours. In all cases -for different reasons- I had to almost omit the third act because the players took things in a way that made it difficult to enter the third act and, when they did, things came to a close much faster. Depending on what they do it may be that the session could be much longer or much shorter, but so far in my experience 5 hours is doable.
Any chance to get it down to that did you cut anything out?

I will admit that like you I had to think up how to do the 3rd act. As by the end I couldn't do it as written.
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Johnny
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Re: CoTG in one 5 hours session - possible?

Thu 23 Jan 2020, 22:42

All the times I have run it the players managed to complete the scenario in about 5-6 hours. In all cases -for different reasons- I had to almost omit the third act because the players took things in a way that made it difficult to enter the third act and, when they did, things came to a close much faster. Depending on what they do it may be that the session could be much longer or much shorter, but so far in my experience 5 hours is doable.
Any chance to get it down to that did you cut anything out?

I will admit that like you I had to think up how to do the 3rd act. As by the end I couldn't do it as written.
I followed the script as much as possible, but my players actions forced me to adapt and change things a bit: on my first game they refused to leave the Montero and only explored the Cronus in groups of two -and they were VERY lucky with the dice-. Things were moving slowly and then they managed to get some black goo into the Montero. At that point, I decided that Mother would trigger the self-destruct of the Cronus, instead of the montero, as the mission critical item was already on the Montero. It worked well, they panicked, they were separated in different groups in different places and they struggled to get back to the Montero, get everything running and get out, but then the android revealed itself and all went south. Great fun. The Sotillo wasn't even needed.

In another game the players divided themselves in different opposed groups in Act II (with the NPCs mixed with them, slowly turning violent). They played a game of rat and mouse with one another and the neomorphs. By the time when we got into the third act almost everyone was dead and when the Sotillo arrived with the new characters, all hell broke loose, everyone tried to seize the opportunity to save their lives and things moved very fast. 

Another game I ran was pretty much the same, it went slow at the beginning but then everything started to go badly very fast in act II, I just let it play out because everyone was having fun; so I didn't introduce the Sotillo, as I didn't feel it was needed.

I'd like to run it again with a group that takes more time and really thinks things through (a lot of my players were very impulsive), but as long as everyone is having fun, just adapt to what you see fit.
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Diego
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Re: CoTG in one 5 hours session - possible?

Fri 24 Jan 2020, 01:15

Some of those sounded like a lot of fun. Lucky for me I have very controlled players. They loved exploring the ship and soaking in the atmosphere and an early death to the abomination set the stakes. We had a wonderful dual scene where one group tried to talk to mother while the other group was outside trying to patch up the antenna. Like in so many of your runs we didn't need the sotilla. I guess it all comes down to pacing, I don't know how I'd have done that scenario any faster.
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