Running a one-shot game at a convention

[ghoyle1]

I'm going to be running a one-shot Risus adventure at a local games day in Arlington, TX, later this month (if you're going, you may want to avoid this message).
I've been mainly a player for the last decade or so, and Imy experience with RPGs at gaming conventions is extremely limited (and mainly negative, due to some misleading info about one of the games I played).  So naturally I want to get prepared for the game as best I can. I can use some help on honing it to perfection (should such a thing be possible). I'll tell you a little bit about what I have, then throw the floor open for suggestions and critiques.

The system is Risus, and I plan for the tone of the game to be rather amusing. The setting is in the 1930s, in a town much like San Francisco.  The player characters will be members of a group called the Argonaut Society, made up of daredevils, big game hunters, two-fisted scientists, flying aces, and the like.

I've got a villain with a plot. The adventure is inspired quite a bit by "Big Trouble in Little China" in style, with some elements of "Kung Fu Hustle" and "God of Cookery".  The main villain, Dr. Wu Ming Tsu, is trying to obtain the final fragment of a recipe for the original General Chang's Chicken, which almost allowed General Chang to conquer China.

I have colorful lieutenants, the Iron Chefs, who are much like the Storms in BTiLC, except they use cooking-related gimmicks. I have a fighting tong loyal to Dr. Wu, which uses chopsticks as their main weapon.

I have allies for the PC. There's a rival tong that uses rolling pins as their weapons. There's a monk from the ancient order that stopped the original General Chang from conquering China.

I have some other menaces. Unknown to Dr. Wu, his preparations are disturbing the town's chi, causing earth tremors (that will eventually become a devastaating earthquake if he's not stopped) and a plague of supernatural manifestations (hopping vampires!).

I have a couple of crucial scenes figured out.
At the beginning, the characters are inducting a new member (the archaeologist with the missing fragment of the recipe) when they're attacked by the waiters (secretly the evil tong in disguise).
At the end, as Dr. Wu is performing the ceremony that will unleash the power of the deadly recipe, surrounded by the Iron Chefs, his tong, and innocents soon to become his invincible army by the power of the legendary chicken recipe.

Is this enough for a one-time adventure? Too little? Should I have something else prepared just in case? Am I missing something entirely?

Your assistance would be welcome.

Thanks,

Guy (Hoyle)

[Graham W]

Especially since it's a convention game, be prepared for the players taking the game in a completely unexpected direction. Whatever direction they take it in, be prepared to go with it.

For example, be ready for them to join Dr Wu's side.

(I'm sure other people on this board can say this much better than I can)

Graham

[ghoyle1]

Changing sides might actually be awesome.

Guy

[Mike Holmes]

What's best is to prepare a lot of information, too much information to get into the slot, but have it be such that you don't have to use all of it. That is, don't have much in the way of stuff that must happen, just lots of stuff that can happen.

What you have seems pretty good for the next step, which is to play the scenario. As many times as possible. If you want to "perfect" a scenario, this is the only way to do it. You won't really know how much you have in terms of how much time it all takes to resolve until you actually run it. No amount of speculation can substitute for testing the scenario. And, further, no amount of material preparation can substitute for practice in terms of how well you'll end up presenting the material. "Perfect" is knowing the material so cold that you can present it all without ever refering to notes at all, and being able to adjust any part of it on the fly to fit in the time frame.

That's not easy to get to. So shoot for just "really good." :-)

Once you've run it a couple of times, you'll have an idea if you have enough info, or need more just in case.

Mike

[Ruminator]

Since you really know Risus, I don't see it being too hard for you to run the one-shot.  About the only advice I can give from my own experience is to be prepared for the PCs to key in on something you say (in a description or something) that you thought was insignificant.  Just roll with it and have fun (that is the point of Risus).

[Madeline]

The chief thing I've found is to have several plausible ways at any point for the PCs to figure out what the plot is.  It's much better for their long-lost brother to come up to them with a tale of having their recipe-bit stolen by Dr. Tsu than it is for them to wander around killing vampires all slot until they happen to wander into the big confrontation at the end.  Far better, at a con, to have a walk in the park than a confused futile grind.  Games of deduction generally don't work in a con situation, where the players don't know each other or you.

If you mean for the waiters at the beginning to curse them as they're driven off, "Tsu will get that recipe and control the world soon enough, despite your feeble cadre!" that's fine, too.  Games of hunting down the bad guys from small to big are great.

In a slot of 5 hours with 4 or more players and a new system to explain, I'd be worried the hopping vampires would distract too much attention from the main plot, and you'd run out of time.  (This depends on how much dialog you tend to throw in as a GM, though.)  In a longer slot, vampires and earthquakes are probably fun and necessary.  Like Mike Holmes says, playtest it if you can.