Running a game tonight

So we'll be having a game this evening - likely I'll be the MC and it'll be Nightshade Prairie:  an Apocalypse World game that I've been working on.  Our Monday night game last week was a late-started Star Wars World (AW hack).  We were all pretty drunk and the game was pretty messy as a result.  The hope for this evening is that the game will be tightly framed with solid information regarding features of scenes, goals, etc.  Since it's looking like NP is gonna be what we play, I plan on hitting hard on those aspects.

My hope with Nightshade Prairie was to play this as a "by the book" Apocalypse World game.  For those unfamiliar, the first session is generally played (as the book instructs) as a "day in the life" of the player characters.  The idea is that as the game plays, the MC (master of ceremonies) begins to gain an understanding of the threats that will exist for the PCs in the subsequent games.  I'm nervous that if I start out exactly this way, that I'm going to fall short of having a tightly framed game with well-defined goals for the players.

I've started a page for NP on roll20 (www.roll20.net) where I've polled some of the players for inspiration.  Stuff like, "What do you guys use for trade/money?", "What brought you to NP?".  One question that I asked was "Someone's asked you to do something, but you're hesitant to follow through.  What have they asked you to do? What's the take?"  That one has generated some good ideas that I plan on putting into action tonight.  I don't want to assemble a true front for the game just yet, since the AW book says not to for the first session, but I know that's going to be the challenge for meeting the goals of tonight's game.

For those of you unfamiliar, a front is the driving force behind AW-style games.  An adventure front includes 2-4 threats each with its own motivation or impulse.  The concept is that you use a front to plan how the world will change if the threats are able to pursue their goals without intervention by PCs.  Since the PCs will always intervene if the threats are true threats, it gives you a great framework from which you can react to PCs and push the action forward.

I'll be giving some more thought as to how exactly to roll this out tonight.  I'm sure it'll be fun no matter what, but wish me luck.  I'll post up how it goes likely tomorrow.

Getting kicked off...

I have been participating in role playing games for roughly 15 years.  I have played in many games and provided the moderating role (GM, MC, DM, whatever) in some others as well.  On both sides of the table, I have had successes and failures.  My plan is to use this blog as a means of recording the lessons I learn while getting the opportunity for others to give me their thoughts as well.

That said, new posts to follow soon!