I'm about to start running a new CoS campaign using the new Apocalypse rules that Keith has been posting on the wiki.

We'll be running a 5-6 session episodic campaign, taking advantage of the advice given for a "Cat & Mouse" campaign. Since we have a finite number of sessions, we'll have to figure out how to make sure to hit all the milestones, probably with a lower number of destiny points per milestone.

The new rules provide more structure about developing the campaign. They give the GM more tools to create a Conspiracy that plays off of the players triggers.

My questions are about the order we should go about setting up the campaign:

With the Cat & Mouse set up, is it true that we start with Cell Creation, then Characters, then Conspiracy (by the GM based on player cues) in that order?

Close.  Characters, then Cell ending with the Group Kicker, Milestones, then Conspiracy cause at that point you will have all the Markers/Cues you could possibly need.  You also have all you need to bust out the relationship web (which is the new stuff posted to the wiki).

To speed shit up you could also change the ratio of Doom to Steps instead of taking away steps.  So instead of:

1Doom:2Steps

go with

Doom Rank = Number of Steps (ie Doom 3 = 3 Steps)

One thing I would point out from our playtesting is that be careful with who you push as the GM.  You can easily push someone into a sixth Doom way early if you push one person too hard.

Silent K

Keith wrote:
Close.  Characters, then Cell ending with the Group Kicker, Milestones, then Conspiracy cause at that point you will have all the Markers/Cues you could possibly need.  You also have all you need to bust out the relationship web (which is the new stuff posted to the wiki).

Keith wrote:
To speed shit up you could also change the ratio of Doom to Steps instead of taking away steps.  So instead of:

1Doom:2Steps

go with

Doom Rank = Number of Steps (ie Doom 3 = 3 Steps)

Keith wrote:
One thing I would point out from our playtesting is that be careful with who you push as the GM.  You can easily push someone into a sixth Doom way early if you push one person too hard.

Mayuran wrote:
Thanks, Keith. Any thoughts about how to focus the pre-character creation part of the session, where we talk about situation, so that the players don't end up creating characters with completely different ideas of what the cell/conspiracy is supposed to be? What conversations can we have to structure the creation session before we make the characters?

Mayuran wrote: I'll have four players (total doom of 24). We'll be doing five episodes. Taking your suggestion, if I pace the five milestones at 4,4,5,5,5 (with destiny points = 1 step), do you think we'll hit one per session, or am I encouraging the players to play too suicidally (or waste their destiny points)?

Mayuran wrote: Interesting. Why do you say that? What would be the problem if a player hits their doom early? I think it would be awesome for someone to go down (by their own choice) in the first few sessions, especially if they are the primary character for that episode. The character is out of the game, but they can create a new one, right?