On Saturday, I ran the second of my one-shot games for the year. It is my hope to fit five of these in this year, being the 'normal' four I try for plus the Firefly game I ran a couple of months ago (which had been intended for last month).
In truth, Saturday wasn't quite the ideal time to run the game. I had had a truly manic week, what with work, LC's birthday to bake for, a night out at the theatre, and our regular game night on the Tuesday. Additionally, I had a nephew's birhtday event in the morning, which meant that the event was pushed back from a 1:30 start time to 3pm, with a corresponding slip in the end time.
As it happened, though, that didn't matter too much. The players were okay with the change to the start time, I was able to get through all the prep that was needed, and I was back in plenty of time for the first arrivals. It all worked out in the end.
The game was attended by four players, one short of the number of spots I had allocated. That actually worked well, because it allowed me to withdraw one of the characters that I wasn't entirely happy with.
The adventure was split into three acts: an investigative first act in which the PCs gather and piece together clues, a quest-like second act where they entered an abandoned underwater facility and fall into a trap, and an action-packed third act in which they race back to confront the enemy.
What Went Well
- Good group dynamic. Always important, this worked well here. We had two veteran players, one somewhat experienced player, and one completely new player. The mix of personalities was good, and the new player was able to receive any help he required with the rules. (Naturally, there was no real help needed with the setting, it being Star Wars.)
- The investigation. The Three Clue Rule was hugely useful here, with the PCs gathering all the clues they needed to solve just about all the mysteries in the game. The only thing they didn't work out was the identity of one of the traitors, and that was only because they chose not to follow up on some leads - they had everything they needed to finish the job.
- The action. Once we reached the second act, the game really clicked into high gear, and didn't stop until the end. In the last hour and a half of play, the party faced three tough combats, engaged in a chase, and wrapped up most of the key mysteries. Good stuff.
- The chase scene. After the last one-shot, I had noted a little dissatisfaction with my handling of the vehicle rules and of a chase scene. I was therefore determined to include such a scene here. I had made sure to give the matter a lot of thought for this session, with the end result that it actually worked very well - especially when one player rolled an extremely well-timed '20'. So I was happy with that.
- Dynamic Replanning. The third act was supposed to feature a big showdown at the spaceport. However, the players put together the clues they had rather differently, concluding that the hospital was the bad guys' next target. This was actually a much better, and much more logical, solution. And so, I shifted it. I felt that that was particularly good, both in that the players effectively fixed my biggest mistake (see below) and that they actually made the game even better than expected. (And, were I not so modest, I might note something about how I handled the revised ending...)
What Didn't Work so Well
- As I noted in the introduction, I was able to withdraw one of the characters that I wasn't too happy with. Star Wars Saga Edition has five classes (Jedi, Noble, Scoundrel, Scout, and Soldier), and since there were five spots for players I had created one of each. Four of the characters had really solid concepts, interesting mechanics, and a really good power level. The fifth, the Noble, I never felt quite clicked in the same way. And yet, looking at the character I didn't really see any way to improve him - he was just that bit less good than the rest. So I was quite glad to be able to remove him from play.
- Two rules mistakes. I made two fairly huge rules mistakes (actually, one mistake twice) - in SWSE a character gets either his level added to his Reflex Defense or an armour bonus. Only some Soldiers are able to add both. When statting up both the Varn Razorback and Obit Fyaar, I made the mistake of adding both, leading to a situation where the Razorback was virtually unhittable and Fyaar was just too tough. Luckily, I spotted the first problem soon enough to fix it, while in the second case the PCs had plenty of Force Points to spend to compensate. Still, a mistake.
- A pacing issue. The first act took about three hours out of six hours of play. This was rather too much, so I feel that perhaps I should have pushed things on a bit, to make some more room for the latter two acts. Fortunately, we didn't have an absolutely fixed end time, so it worked out okay, but if doing it again, I think I would have done that a little differently.
- One Big Mistake. There was one big mistake, in that in Act Two the PCs were supposed to get some absolutely vital information. But with us running late, and with me being quite keen to get to an action scene, I completely forgot until it was too late. Fortunately, we were able to work around it, with the players actually coming up with a far better solution than I had planned, so that was fine, but it could have been much worse!
Overall
I was absolutely delighted at how this game worked out. In fact, it was definitely the best game I have run since my "Ultraviolet: Code-500" game that I ran two years ago, and the second best game that I have run for a good many years. Everybody seemed to have a great deal of fun, all the planning came together very well... yeah, it was a good time.
In addition, in amongst just trying to have a good game, I was using this one-shot as something of a "proof of concept" for a campaign later in the year. I'm very happy with how it worked, so I think that that campaign is now a GO!
One final thought: after the game, I gathered up the character sheets, my printed notes, and any other papers that were generated in the course of the game, and dumped them into recycling - everything important is stored on my PC and safely backed up, so I don't need to keep the hard-copy. That's fine, but I do note that it was around 30 sheets of paper, mostly printed on both sides. I'm really starting to wonder - is it time to invest in an iPad (or similar), and try to go paperless?
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