Dirty Secrets in a Con Setting

[jburneko]

Okay, so I play on running Dirty Secrets at a con here in February but I'm uncertain what to do.  The book says a Short Story should take 2 to 4 hours to play but our game was closer to 5 due to our inexperience with the game.  Now that I'm experienced I'm sure I could present the game in more organized layers saving on setup time. 

Con slots are 4 hours.  I'm sure I could get through a Short Story in that time but Novella is a better beginnings game and I doubt I'll have expert Dirty Secrets players showing up.  So I'm looking for advice:

1) Play the Short Story.

2) Play the Novella and just be upfront that you might not be able to finish it.

3) Bite the bullet and reserve a six hour slot and play a Novella hoping the extended time slot won't scare people off.

Josh suggested skipping the setup phase and just come with characters and basic situation prepped but I'm not sure that's such a good idea.

Thoughts?

Jesse

[GreatWolf]

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[jburneko]

Your thoughts are very much in line with my own.  I was already planning on claiming first Authority.  However, there's a trend starting at our con where people "running" an event don't actually play.  Instead they observe, rulebook in hand, explaining procedures and offering advice to those who are playing.  The buzz word around here for that is "facilitating."  I'm not very keen on this approach as sometimes the con is the only place I get to play certain games that I'm very passionate about that my friends and family are not.

If you were able to push a Short Story to wrap up in two hours, that makes me wonder if I could push a Novella to wrap up in four.

Something I forgot to mention was that at these local cons we have a 7pm slot and midnight slot.  I have observed that there are some who are still up for play past midnight but then kind of regret the three or four am result of playing a midnight game.  If I put a six hour Dirty Secrets game in the 7pm slot it might provide an attractive option for those who don't want to go home at eleven but don't want to be up until three either.

Just more to think about.

Jesse

[GreatWolf]

Well, I definitely think that you'll need someone in that facilitator role, especially because it's a GMless game.  (Well, sort of.  You know what I mean.)  But that doesn't mean that the facilitator couldn't play.

And maybe you could get a Novella to wrap in four hours.  This group took about 5 hours for their first run of Dirty Secrets, which was Novella-length, but Jocelyn mentions that he could have done it in four with more experience.

So, another data point.