I haven't any experience with Primetime Adventures, but I did run two 6-hour games of Pendragon at the Student Nationals last year (one Saturday, one Sunday). I split each 6-hour game into two parts, the first slightly longer than the second with a break in between for food (where we didn't talk about the game -- we all went our separate ways to get fed).

I found that worked for me, so I'd suggest splitting it into manageable chunks with a defined food break about 60% of the way in to the session. For me it was a good pause before the punchy climax at the end.

Hi Neil.

Now that sounds like a bundle of goodly fun!

We're 1 session away from finishing up our first PtA season.

As you'll know, PtA is solid. The Producer's Budget pool is a tight system for pacing the session, and it tells you when the episode ends.

We do an episode in a 2 to 3ish hour timeslot, so that should be a fair indicator of what you're looking at.

Provided you kick off with a big (ie: 4-5) budget spend, there'll be fanmail to fly around, and it'll get the game ticking.

What I have learnt is to not be afraid to wrap a session when it is done. I allow fanmail and budget to carry over between sessions, which I'm not sure is in the RAW, but works well.

With the timeframe you're looking at, I'd suggest shooting for 2 episodes or 3 if you're going to push hard.

I tend to start each session with a brief recap of "what's happened", but, more importantly, what's going to happen in terms of roles and what we're looking to push.

ie: It's George's spotlight, so we need to push him hard on his issue. Remember that Burney's spotlight is next episode, so we need to see the build towards that. Ed's on Screen Presence 1, so he's in more of a support role this time.

Also, with regards to stake-setting, you can have a huge influence, even with very low screen presence with how you phrase the stakes.

You can set a stake of "We are being followed", but if you fail, nothing happens. It's far more interesting and powerful to set a stake of "do we notice that we are being followed". Suddenly, it's a given that you're being followed, and you've had a strong impact of what's happening.

Make sure that you get everyone's "Next Week On" at the end of the episode. Then, stop. Take a (commercial) break and let everyone get away from the table for a few minutes. You'll need that break to get your head together, and give people time to ruminate on what's to come.

Being that creative for 6 hours straight can be quite a challenge!

Oh, and the usual things about snackage. I tend to prefer a mix of nuts & chocolate if it's just snacks. Chocolate (or something sugary) to get the needed energy spike and then nuts (or similar slow-release energy) to keep you powered through, and to avoid the sugar-crash!

Cheers.

Mark

Working on:
"Swash!", the game of passionate swashbucklers
"Rome", quick-play intrigue and manipulation in ancient rome

On the backburner:
"Bloodlines", GM-less generational noble families (Swiss family Robinson on a kingdom scale)

The only real advice I'd have is to keep the communication flowing between episodes. Make sure that all your players have their own comfortable space for feeding back what they did or didn't enjoy - some will want raucous debate, some quiet.

And consider starting with the _second_ episode, so you don't have awkward introductions. Have everyone assume they know each other, and know the genre. Play powerfully. Then play episode one if it needs to be played.

And you *are* mental. =)

Joe.

It helps focus the players, make them aware of common ground and potential differences, and build buy-in.

-Matt

Realms Publishing

I've run a couple of PtA series that have started out with a prepared pitch from me, but I've limited myself to giving the players a very brief description of the premise, and what kind of tone I'd prefer (e.g. "It's a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the Mooks recruitment agency, purveyors of quality henchmen to the world's leading mad scientists, evil overlords and supervillains. I'm looking for anarchic black comedy with a touch of pathos"). This has worked very well both times, leading to games which, while very different from what I originally had in mind, ended up being energetic and loads of fun.

I've also had some experience of running multiple episodes over an extended session (I think one was eight hours and three episodes). Again, this worked fine. I was concerned that our energy would dip towards the end, but taking short breaks between them worked fine.

As a player, one of things I'm thinking of doing, once all the characters are created and their issues are on the 'table' is map them out in a relationship map with the focus being on how everyone's issues and circumstances relate to mine and ideas on how I can push and prosecute those to futher their issues and mine.

Obviously this will change over the episodes, and all will be done within the context of other scenes, screen presence and whatever else, but I'm thinking that might be a good tool. Still ruminating. Way of note taking if nothing else.

It's what I'm using to document and map out my Spirit of the Century game, and it's how I do it anyway in my head when I play – going to take it up a notch. We shall see once the cast is available (though I know a core of them already as they are being transferred).

Ian O'Rourke
http://www.fandomlife.net
Pop Culture Phenomena and Fandom

Can someone describe how the flow of budget and fan mail actually dictates the pacing and the episode length?

I have an idea how it might work in theory but not having actually played the game if someone could try and give an explanation 'closer to ground zero' I'd be interesting in hearing that.

Ian O'Rourke
http://www.fandomlife.net - Pop Culture Phenomena and Fandom