[CUP] pre-spice pseudo-Arrakis

I got a chance to play-test CUP last Saturday, a thing I haven�t done for 2 years. CUP is a mix of Pool (Mike Holmes anti-pool flavor), a Universalis inspired story coin system, and a few more things. My design goals include: little to no prep for the Guide, a framework for narrations to provide both limitations and support, and player investment in the story. New for 2006 I have added the goal of being able to make a satisfying story with a conclusion in around 4 hours of game play (more on that later).

The participants
Michele [early 40s], my girlfriend of 4 years, has been role-playing for 4 years, but wasn�t really an enthusiast until a TSOY game at Dreamation'06.
Rich [50] and Tish [late 40s], married [25 years?] friends of ours, used to role-play, but gave it up 15-20[?] years ago, because of the time pressures of raising a family.
I [43 years old] have been role-playing since 1977 (original D&D through AD&D1e, then homebrews till Dreamation'05).

In lieu of a recap of the fictional events, here are some player highlights
Things that went both right and wrong
I had intended to use Adam Dray's Verge story map thingy that he showed us at the last DC Meet-up. The story map gives mechanical support for different ideas to be negotiated into a setting, like the tenet phase in Universalis. I undercut that entirely by having an informal talk about what kind of genre/setting we wanted in the game. When I took out the sheets for things, people, rules, and definitions; there was no need for negotiation. We just passed the papers around the table adding elements.

There wasn�t much acting/immersion after Tish�s first scene. It was all 3rd person narration. I think my need to finish the game quickly sent a vibe to the players. Now that I am more comfortable with the timing, I hope to encourage the players to choose their comfort level of narration.

I did a mediocre job of explaining the rules. But, on the good side I have a better idea of the points I need to hit.

My friends and I are old. We don�t have time to commit to a weekly role-playing group. The best we can hope for is a couple of get togethers in a month (and you can forget about December). This is why Tish and Rich got out of role-playing. This is why I want my game to have a complete session (with a conclusion) in around 4 hours. 3 hours and 20 minutes after we started, we finished the game. I went around the table having each player do an epilogue for their characters and the other elements that they controlled, which gave a nice sense of closure.

Most con scenarios are made to work within 4 hours. I know Inspectors can do this in spades. Although PTA can do a session in that time, I always want to continue the series, which is good for PTA, but bad for my goal.

I guess my question is what game mechanisms are out there that can �force� a game to its conclusion in a single session? I know that MLwM has one, but I am looking for something more generic.

*Pool dice are wooden d6 with a red O on one side, a black X on the opposite side, and the 4 remaining sides are blank.