I favor 'movie length games'-- complete scenarios taking under two hours. Old-school RPGing is akin to opera-- grand and evocative yet demanding of time and attention. But I don't have time to go to the opera. Take me to the movies instead.

With movie-length games, RPGing shifts from being a scheduled, dedicated effort to a more amiable "let's just game, okay?" Got friends together? Turn of the TV and run the RPG. Quickly, for fun, no big overhead, no long prep time. We've had 30 years of RPGing, we can certainly go 0 to 60 quickly now. Trim out the padding and focus on the core of RPGing:

• problem solving and puzzles
• playing in character
• neat tactical challenges
• cool, unpredictable scenes
• a story that hangs together just long enough to get to the end

And as a bonus, you can pop in a movie on the TV downstairs for any non-gamers or kids. If you can fit your full RPG session, from intro to debrief, in the same time it takes a film director to interpret a novel-length story, you can compete with computer and console gaming. And you can fit more gaming into your life.

That said, a movie-length game (to me) isn't just 90 minutes of an RPG session. It has to be structured differently, more akin to a Convention game then the pizza-and-beer sessions of yore. Here's a setup and sample, with a quick thanks to the Kids-RPG@yahoogroups.com group for feedback on my first cut at this. You can use your existing game system, because a movie-length game isn't about system or mechancis. It's about how you structure and run the game.

It's also about getting the players to buy into the idea of acting before thinking. That kind of behavior may be what you blame for your current games taking too long, but good roleplaying means quick in-character decisions instead of deep tactical debates. Make your movie-length game reward success more than it penalizes failure and you can motivate players to take risks. Taking risks opens up the game and helps plots get going.

A lot of RPGs are played like owning your first car. You want to get it from point A to point B in one piece, with a full tank of gas, no dents, no speeding tickets, and all the luggage still in the trunk. I suggest players should aim to arrive at the end skidding on two wheels with the engine on fire and the driver ready to bail out with anything they can grab. So again, the game should reward momentum, moving forward. Players should be willing to burn in-game resources, take damage, and leap to conclusions in order to face the final scene.

The fun is the journey, the payoff is the endgame. So the endgame-- the big bad, the World Ending, the Finding the Lost Thingee, the Sudden Discovery That An Ally is the Enemy, whichever end the game has, for goodness sakes get there. How well you played the journey will determine how hearty and prepared you are to face this final challenge, but just getting there should count for a lot.

Imagine you're a superhero. The villain is going to rob an unknown location at midnight. If you take your time and think it through... it'll be 9am the next morning and you've failed. You may be in great shape, but the game is lost. If you keep a sense of momentum, though, you'll definitely be in the thick of things. Do good, you'll find clues that lead you to the right location before the villain is prepared. Stumble a bit and you'll still meet the foe just as the clock ticks twelve. Guess wrong and hey, you'll catch a police bulletin on the villain's ultimatum and be able to rush there just a little late, leaving you with a slight disadvantage but still able to act. The only sin is spending so much time thinking of the "the best plan" that the clock runs out.

So running a movie-length game-- obviously pre-gens, or characters created beforehand. A 'group contract' beforehand so everyone agrees to the premise-- with kids, I usually use "you are heroes, you always volunteer to do good deeds that require difficult issues, and you are used to danger" as a starting point.

Next comes the synopsis, sort of like (again) what you'd read in a Con book: "The Faery Queen is dead and everyone is looking for her long-lost daughter. Dozens of teams are questing for her, everywhere. The Owl Wizard told his apprentices (you) that he thinks she's across the rainbow in human lands, and suggests this is your chance to 'graduate' from his teachings. So you magically popped across the rainbow to begin your search".

With that, you can start right in the action. Stealing from an RPGnetter's concept, I like to start right in a minor combat scene, just to get things movie. e.g. "In front of you are the five angry rats, each the size of a lion to you, and disoriented by the magic trip, you can only use your swords."

And of course I have the scenario schematic ready. The next bit after they defeat the rats is, of course, the Arrival of the Cat. Will they fight or ally with it? etc... there are set checkpoints/scenes, but how they get through and with what resources/depletion is up to them.

Ultimately they _will_ get to the end, that's how the scenario is designed. But whether they get to the end with full knowledge and full power, ready to wrap it up, or barely skidding in slightly late to the game, etc is what the game is about.

It's not linear per se, it's more like a chase scene. Good or clever play gets there quicker and in better shape, having trouble means they may be in bad shape near the end, but the climax is reached within 90 minutes. Final details can be handwaved, i.e. after finding/rescuing the princess, you don't have to play the return to the kingdom, just roleplay a denounement where they get accolades and rewards (or a harsh dress-down from the Owl if they really botched things).

And, for the next movie-length game, they get a new mission that may or may not be connected to the previous. For the above example, the next session could be being hired by the Princess, or being tasked to find out why the Queen died, or it could be a totally new gig unrelated to that job but based on the fact that they have accumulated reputation-- in accordance with the group contract-- as do-ers of good deeds.

No point in being an RPGer if you never have time to game. We can't create raw time itself, but we can restructure our gaming expectations to reward gameplay, kill dead time, and increase the fun. Gaming in ninety minutes-- give it a try.

Roll credits,
Sandy
sandy@rpg.net