"But what do you do in those 30 minutes, or three hours? Just concentrate on a few key points? Or cover the whole period, but at much higher level? Or what?"
Depends on the players and characters. What I try and do is cover all the key events in a fair amount of detail and give an overview of what's happening the rest of the time.
So, as an example if the one-off you played had carried on, sea-season would have been wrapped up fairly quickly after the clan moot with everyone going home and life continuing much as it did before, with the caveat that the players can suggest interesting things they want to do when they get a free moment.
"AFAIR, we did about 2 days of action. How can that take most of sea season? Characters don't just stop mid-adventure and say "sorry, got to go and do a week's ploughing, I'm sure the Evil Villain will wait till I get back." Do they? Two days action lasts two days. Leaving all the rest of the season unaccounted for."
The sequence of events of sea-season is something like:
As an example from the low occupancy game I ran recently one character, a hunter, spent a lot of his time out hunting, trying to seduce the clan's high priestess (and managed it by the end of Dark Season) and trying to fit up an NPC he thought was a traitor.
The seduction was an ongoing extended contest that got one round played out at the end of each season 'til the poor woman succumbed to his character's teenage wiles. The spying was simply me telling him that such and such a character had visited Moonstead while he lurked in the bushes. The hunting was never discussed, just what he did when not doing anything else.
None of it took a lot of time, roleplaying or rollplaying, maybe 10 minutes a session, even though he'd always come up with a fresh angle on the seduction each week. ("I'll play a practical joke on the Axe maiden in a naive attempt to prove I can look after her better than her bodyguard" or "I'll get my Alynx to go on a vermin extermination campaign in the granary to try and prove I'm mature.")
Dunno if that's explained anything.
Cheers,
Ash
>
> --- ASHLEY MUNDAY <aescleal_at_...> wrote:
> >
> > The way I'd have narrated that would have taken
> far
> > less than 2 hours (10 minutes tops) mainly 'cause
> > I've
> > generally got at least two other players baying
> for
> > something to do.
>
> Which is why we took it off-line, and if this had
> been
> a F2F campaign, we'd have run it as a single-player
> session.
>
> > Over IRC (or the like) communication is a lot
> slower
> > than face to face, so even doing what you
> described
> > wouldn't have taken that long.
>
> I type about as fast as I talk, but yes, I know what
> you mean. Say an hour. And there was a lot of time
> spent trying to understand the spirit magic rules,
> as
> they're new to both of us.
>
>
> > and the sacred time was about 30
> > minutes
> > wrap up at the end and fire and sea season took
> > about 3 hours each.
>
> But what do you do in those 30 minutes, or three
> hours? Just concentrate on a few key points? Or
> cover
> the whole period, but at much higher level? Or what?
>
> > As to the quality, you'll have to ask the poor
> > mugs^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h players.
>
> I've had you as a GM. I'll assume it's good.
>
> > As a counterpoint, in another game I GM I often
> > leave
> > the players alone for hours at a time, becoming
> > nothing more than a glorified barman / cup of tea
> > maker as they spend hours plotting in character.*
>
> That's what I'd regard as more normal.
>
> > *This sort of conversation can be done offline
> > fairly
> > well, but it's good having it happen in front of
> me
> > as
> > I can nick all the ideas they have for future
> > events.
>
> Or of course do it by email and then you've even got
> notes made for you!
>
> > PS: The one-off I ran at continuum that you and
> Rob
> > played in would have taken most of sea season in
> my
> > campaign.
>
> I don't understand what you're saying here. AFAIR,
> we
> did about 2 days of action. How can that take most
> of
> sea season? Characters don't just stop mid-adventure
> and say "sorry, got to go and do a week's ploughing,
> I'm sure the Evil Villain will wait till I get
> back."
> Do they? Two days action lasts two days. Leaving all
> the rest of the season unaccounted for.
>
>
>
> =====
> Jane Williams
>
>
>
>
>
>
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