Weird that they're all copyright free versions of other guns.

They had me at Penguin in a hot air balloon.

News! Christopher Franke has just released a ton of Babylon 5 soundtracks on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Pandora and others: six large volumes and smaller, six episodic soundtracks. Available yea unto this very moment.

Over 3 hours?

Aye. I was thinking of running it at Owlbear. I think the slots are 3-4 hours.

I'm just glad that my GM-itis seems to be taking a back seat for a bit.

I have this sneaking suspicion that I should give it up as a bad job but I've wanted to run this scenario for decades and so maybe I just need to get it out of my system.

That is my fear. Having to abandon it mid encounter is worse, I think, than woefully under running.

Yeah, I covered that one in my read through. It's a fun scenario but would work better as a miniature skirmish game.

My plan is to have the PCs make up the rescue team that, in the original were lost. So we start on approach to Jetsom. I've simplified Jetsom a bit as well. No Sapes, for a start. What are they even for? Silly. Also a couple fewer murders in part 2 as they felt entirely unnecessary.

Alright. That gives me some idea of scale. Thanks for that.

Yeah. It took me a long time to buy that. It felt like the writer didn't quite understand what a computer virus was.
In my head canon it's a form of extremely primitive energy life form that feeds on electrical impulses.

So you did manage to squeeze the Moneyspider section in too, then?

Out of interest, do you remember roughly how long the session was when you ran it?

My primary concern with it is it's a bit repetitive. Ooh. Another haywire cleaning robot. Yay! 🙄

Aye. I appreciate I'm asking how long is a piece of string? I guess the best way to figure it out is to playtest it and see how it goes.

I planned to just run the Jetsom section simply because the setting is incredible. It's a little bland as an adventure, though and I'm not sure it'll stretch to 3 hours. Adding on the Moneyspider section will probably make it too long, though. Did you run it as a one shot? What did you remove?

So, you're looking for a scene to last about an hour of game time, more or less? How would you define a scene? What sort of content makes up a scene for you?

We still finished quite early, though but not horribly so. Maybe 40-50 minutes left.

I remember John Large of the Red Dice Diaries recommending two encounters per hour plus an optional third if the players rip through the first two. Seemed like a pretty reasonable rule of thumb, really. I tried it with my Savage Space 1889 game a few years back at Owlbear and it worked fairly well.

I think what I've got is editable on the fly. Essentially I've got the second scenario divided into modular bits that I can jettison depending on how much time is left after the first scenario. I'm just wondering how much activity you would normally fit into a game hour to try and judge the pace.

It's Bugs in the System I'm looking at. It is divided into two fairly distinct scenarios. I'm not sure that either is enough for a full session. However, both together, I think, is too much. I've been breaking them down and listing essential events and trying to edit out the chaff.

I'm thinking of condensing down a classic Star Frontiers module to run as a con one-shot. @burnafterrunning.bsky.social articles on this have been a help but I'm still trying to judge if what I've reduced it to is too much or too little. Anyone got any tips or links on timing/pacing in RPGs?

I've been thinking about this a lot over the last few days. I think it's the kick in the arse that I needed to get me back in the GM's chair.

Every time 😂

Also, whilst I agree that 'Dungeon Master' is a bit goofy when you actually look at it, 'Master of Ceremonies' is pretentious as fuck. Death first.
'Referee' is a more apt job description. I'm fine with GM, though. Not Games Master, just GM.

Local Hero or The Grand Budapest Hotel.

But... we have such wonderful sheep.

Tidy.

Embrace mediocrity. I find comfort in mine. And in that embrace, see that your writing need not be some world changing truth, but instead an outlet where you can write something from your unique point of view.

No matter what you do, none of your art will live up to your hopes.

Write anyway.