Thoughts on Esoterrorists

[jeregenest]

Last night we played Esoterrorists for the first time. bluegargantua, bryant, foxtown, jeffwik and peaseblossom were there. Bryant, Jess and Jeff have already written about this on their livejournals so I won't go into the player's side.

For me it went pretty easily. There wasn't the stress of what should be exposed when and I never felt like I was drowning in exposition or pulling teeth. Which was nice.

Prep wise I'm worried this game would be hard to run long-term, I'm also worried that it lends itself more to serial play than I like and there would b some difficulty in having long-term NPCs an big plots, both of which are favorites of mine.

I think I very much underestimated the amount of stuff necessary for a story or a night. We ended just before the end of the first arch (I planned three thinking I'd need it). I actually think the one arch would have been fine and I should have paced things better. That said what we did do was very fun.

Still curious how the action mechanics will work, and especially stability. Next session will see more stability checks (I could have required a few for the research going on but didn't think of it until after I wrote the thing).

I think with practice I could get writing adventures down to 1:1 with gaming time. Which may be more prep work than I've done in a decade for a game.

And I'm with Bryant, next time I run this I'm bringing a tack board (I have a nice foldable one at work) and letting the players arrange clues all Wire style.

Speaking of next time, is there interest in continuing? Wednesdays work very nicely for me.

Comments

[simonjrogers.livejournal.com]

As I mentioned on Bryant's journal in the in-house playtest group, we've run Eso and other GUMSHOE games without much prep at all, so it is possible. For a two-session Mutant City Blues, I did about an hour of thinking (while doing stuff around the house) to get the crime clear in my head, and then twenty minutes per session write-up.

Robin Laws sent me a half-page summary of an adventure he ran. Having a copy of all the PCs abilities in table form helps, as do a few briefly-sketched optional conflict scenes. It shouldn't be any harder to improvise a GUMSHOE investigation than one in a game where you make rolls. (Personally, I find it a little easier). I'll be really interested to hear how the next session goes, and if you don't mind, seeing your prep at some stage.

[bluegargantua]

Wednesdays are ok for me too.

later
Tom

[foxtown.livejournal.com]

I think I am going to be taking a break from WoW, so Wednesday work for me as well.

It was really fun btw.

[jeffwik.livejournal.com]

I'm very interested in continuing.