[AG&G] Long chapters?

[Johan Granberg]

Hey, got a question concerning chapter length in "the game formerly known as AG&G": I sort of get the feeling that chapters shouldn't run any longer than one session, since then you're not really using the system to its full strength. So I'm looking for suggestions on what to do when we, as a group, feel that we can't really tie up all the loose threads in the time we have left. Just ending it and starting a new chapter from the same situation we had feels kind of strange, since all the player characters might not be on the we owe-list and therefore not in the next chapter. But perhaps that problem can be worked around somehow? The reason I'm asking is that we had this problem in our first playtest, and let the chapter run over two sessions which didn't really sit right with me. I'm not into playing too many sessions in a row of the same game, and therefore I want to play three chapters in three sessions to get a chance to really explore the system with the additional rules that appear after the first chapter.

Suggestions?

[lumpley]

No suggestions. An honest to goodness rule.

The rule is, if you end a chapter in the middle, a) write down the outstanding threads and add them to the oracle, and b) play the next session a new chapter as normal. It doesn't have to follow directly from the unfinished chapter; it can be before it, after it, concurrent - no explanation required.

But now the outstanding threads are available for the player whose character tops the owe list to choose.

If nobody every chooses them, you never return to them.

Oh - this is already the rule, but I should mention it here for remider's sake.

There are three circumstances when your character can appear in a chapter. 1) When she's at the top of the owe list. 2) When you buy her into the chapter by crossing her name off the owe list. 3) When some element already in the chapter might be her, and you want it to be her. This last means that if someone chooses the loose thread, everyone's characters can be in.

For example:
In our game, we ended a chapter in the middle, and we wrote "Morphinia and Jarvis wake up in chains" into the oracle. Now at the end of every chapter, whoever's at the top of the list, they get to choose an element to include, right? Any of them can choose "Morphinia and Jarvis wake up in chains" if they want to and bam, we're back, Morphinia and Jarvis wake up in chains.

-Vincent

[Johan Granberg]

Awesome! I just remembered that you said that in another thread, so I guess I should pay more attention. Tanks.

By the way I think it's a great rule, one cool feature being that the player who is owed can more or less choose to make the chapter about something completely different if he doesn't include that circumstance. That is powerful authorship, as a reward for getting into dramatic conflicts. Cool!