So I’m running a big(ish) group of players on a rotating schedule and we’ve come across a couple of tricky bits and pieces. One of the issues we’re having is people not being scheduled for sessions. At this point, at the start of each game I’m giving players 1 limited downtime activity for each session missed, or a player can forgo all of their accumulated downtime to get mini-lost and clear all harm and stress. This represents time spent at the lair, and one of the positive side effects is that players have a little extra stuff that they can do to mitigate the chaos that the “shift” before them cause.
Crew upgrades are being handled through Google forms, and players vote for the upgrades they want, and we have a pretty good vibe happening on the discord, with a lot of discussion about the rules, how we need to interpret them for our group and what shenanigans they’re going to get up to.
So far the game has been a really awesome, and I’ve been having a blast.
You’re running an amazing game owl! I know it must be tricky with so many of us, but you seem to have gathered a really positively minded community around you!
I ran a big(ish) group with a rotating cast a couple of months ago and got these “house rules”. They worked out okay:
REPORT
1 experience point for the character of a player who writes and post the last session’s synopsis on the Facebook group.
RESUMING PLAY AFTER MISSING A SESSION
Characters that return after a missed session are assumed to have become lost in overindulgence with a die roll of 6 before resuming play.
The trick, for me, is always ending the session either after payoff or before a score. It makes it easier for other players to catch up the reintroducing characters and you don’t have a missing PC right in the middle of an action-packed score.
Duamn Figueroa for my group I give them -2 stress for a write up in character on our discord.
The reason I didn’t want my players just to become Lost when they weren’t scheduled to play is that it didn’t make sense for the members of the crew to continuously go missing.
As for the payoff and ending a session, I honestly don’t mind if a player rolls getting Lost at that point. My players could choose to roll a new character, or I guess even choose to advance the timeline. I might use a fortune roll to see how long they disappear for. I’d just advance the various clocks that might be in play, depending on how long they’re gone, and what the narrative demands.
Thanks Jamie Collette
If you finish in Payoff you don’t do the full Downtime.
About making or not makings sense, I feel that Downtime being an abstract measure of time and the characters being lowlife scoundrels, I can totally see some of them loosing days on a drug den, or skipping meetings during a lucky streak in the local game house.
Duamn Figueroa can you elaborate on the first statement?
Sure! You know the procedure: Score -> Payoff -> Entanglements -> Downtime actions -> Planning -> Score.
I try to end the session either on Payoff (and sometimes on Entanglements) or end the session before planning the next Score. That way a player whose resuming will either have a full downtime or start off with a score.
If the character wasn’t present during last downtime, we assume he/she was lost in overindulgence and follow those rules retroactively when he/she does show up.
Duamn Figueroa oh, ok, thanks. I’m getting a little wary of the idea that if a player isn’t there their only option is to get Lost is all. I feel like the nature of a rotating schedule group necessitates a different approach that allows them to still be awesome even through they’re not scheduled to play. My group is discussing options for this right now.
John Harper, is Lost too powerful to be purposefully chosen for characters not participating in a session? It’s my opinion that the option to choose for their characters to become Lost because they would be absent assumes a standard group size where not being at a game was an exception rather than the rule. What would you propose for drop in/drop out rotating casts?
You’re a bit off the map here. I’d be tempted to just use Lost — it’s probably not ‘too good’ or anything. But I don’t know for sure. I’ve never run it the way you’re doing it.
Thanks John. Also, if someone voluntarily gets lost, do they heal all stress as well as all harm?
Yep.
You’re the best. <3 Looks like the Rollplay game was a real blast today btw.
Yeah, that group is super fun.