first game night - run PCs through their schticks

[Rebar]

I'm running the first adventure tomorrow. Not everyone will be there, so I'm just running a throw-away to get the PCs familiar with their world and their group and their characters.

 

They are circus performers-adventurers - so far, a strongman, a magician and a curio-collector/knife-thrower, as well as a half dozen NPCs. Their homebase is a steamer ship, currently docked at Battery Park, where they've attracted a host of vendors, confectioners and other fairlike purveyors.

 

I'll have the strongman (he has a steel jaw) bite through some nails, and pull a truck with his teeth.

I'll have the magician ... um, I guess do a magic show, and disappear in his signature smoke bomb.

I'll have the knife-thrower throw some knives. Maybe she'll throw them at the magician, who is mysteriously not there when they arrive...

 

The players don't really know their characters yet, so I may have to hand-hold them through their own circus-acts.

 

I'm trying to think of ways to make this more interesting, both in terms of what acts they do and in terms of how I mechanic it. Do I just take them one-by-one, tell em what they're doing with some colourful description, see if I can get them to do some roleplaying, and then have them make a skill roll or two? Is there any way of fleshing these out into a little vignette without putting a strain on my new players too much?

 

(If I emphasize the skill rolls too much, what if they blow their roll? "Heh. Only a flesh wound. He's got a spare. All part of the show ladies & gents.")

 

The second half do the evening will be easier. It will be an ambush that triggers the storyline - a bunch of straight10's normals try to beat them up to steal The Maltese MacGuffin.

[csyphrett]

Do the ambush first and dont worry about showing their skills in the show. it's a pulp story. Do the pulp. the character bits could be done during the battle. Then you can get into your campaign by building on how much the villains whaled on them

CES

[Rebar]

Naw I wanted the players to know a little about who they were playing and get the flavor of the campaign. I'm trying to encourage them to think more about roleplaying. It has always been far too easy for them to slip into combat mode. Need a little foreplay...

 

I had BearTrap put a yoke over his shoulders while our Magician/MC took volunteers out of the audience ("And now, ladies and gentlemen, we require your ABSOLUTE silence! This is a very dangerous stunt!") The volunteers grabbed straps on the yoke, and BearTrap benchpressed the lot of them.

 

I had him do a STR roll at +4, minus -1 for every 100lbs of audience he was lifting. (I rolled to determine their weights). He topped out with 4 children, 2 grown men, 2 young, giggling ladies, and a Hue G. McGiant, on a chair across his shoulders, for a total of 1050lbs.

 

Much fun was had by all. Until the ship's mate got suckered with a blackjack to the skull. Then all hell broke loose.

[ldorn]

As far as roles go you might consider:

 

Great White Hunter: Lion/tiger tamer

Athlete: Trapeze artist/wire walker

Cowboy: Trick rider/lasso stunts

Psychic Detective: Side show fortune teller (possibly instead of the magician)

Aviator: Barnstormer (Shadow of the Egale serial)

Sailor: Ship Crew

[Rebar]

As far as roles go you might consider:

 

Great White Hunter: Lion/tiger tamer

Athlete: Trapeze artist/wire walker

Cowboy: Trick rider/lasso stunts

Psychic Detective: Side show fortune teller (possibly instead of the magician)

Aviator: Barnstormer (Shadow of the Egale serial)

Sailor: Ship Crew

Oh, I've got a whole page of Pulp archetypes.