30-minute adventure?

[Ransom]

In about a week I intend to introduce several new players to GURPS. We will spend our first meeting building characters and learning the rules, but I want to be able to put dice in their hands and let them play a very hort adventure. Do any of you have experience or ideas in this area?

Parameters:

- Able to finish in 30 minutes.
- At least some combat.
- Emphasis on skill rolls and non-combat mechanics.
- Modern day setting preferred.

[Apollonian]

If it were me, and I had a campaign already in mind, I would run an intro adventurer with disposal pregen characters that hit the challenges I expected to present in the campaign. A dungeon fantasy game might prelude with a couple henchmen doing a three - room delve and fighting an equal number of orcs. Monster Hunters, some brave civilians pursue and dispatch (or are dispatched by) the kind of monsters featured in the first adventure. That kind thing. Basically, the jungle scene at the beginning of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, or the start of a Bond film.

[TGLS]

A few random options:
A) The heroes need to sneak/guile their way into a compound to secure some important intel that sets up the rest of the campaign; you can have them sneak past the guards (or lie to them, or seduce them, or knock them out), pick locks, play with security electronics and computers, search rooms, cause distractions for the guards, and probably get in a fight on the way out. If they manage to avoid getting caught on the way out, you could make up someone who followed them who also wants the information.

B) Someone has stolen something important from one of the heroes. They need to find the someone who stole it, and take it back.

C) Borrow the tests and tavern parts from Caravan to Ein Arris, modernizing it as needed.

[trooper6]

I think for 30 minutes, you can't do an "adventure"--you can do a scene..have one challenge.

Think of the solo adventure that was in GURPS 3e: All in a Night's Work. There was one small house. The challenge was to get in and steal something without waking the guard. It was one bit of a scene. You can't do anything really complicated in 30 minutes. Think: teaser!

[Warlockco]

Unless you know how to assembly line combat, combat alone is going to take more than 30 minutes, especially with new players.

[Anaraxes]

If they're new to roleplaying, as opposed to just the GURPS system, you're also somewhat obliged to have a little RP in there, not just a combat scene. So times goes to talking and decision-making by the party. Maybe 10-15 minutes maximum for the actual combat, so that will be very short indeed. I can't imagine that really showing off the whole tactical end of GURPS combat.

With new players, it will have to just a "tell me what you do" approach, which the GM turns into Maneuvers and options. For pedagogical purposes, it seems like you'd be obliged to at least tell the new players what you were doing, and also make some choices for them. ("So, that means an Attack Maneuver, which lets you take one step -- let's say here to his side hex -- and since your character is tricky, we'll say he's doing what's called a "Deceptive Attack", which is harder to pull off but also harder to defend against. Gimme a roll!") But that combat has to end in a couple of rounds; it's easy for a player to dither or ask questions for a minute. So with about five players, you'd be doing well to make it through one round every couple of minutes.

--
(Yes, I know "round" is not a term of GURPS mechanics. But it serves reasonably well in conversation with its usual "everyone has taken their turn" meaning.)

[ericthered]

I suspect the combat should be simple and easily resolved. My first thought was "Combat alone will take 30 minutes". Then I remembered my most recent combat, which consisted of a 500 point MH commando shooting iron bullets into 8 charging minor fae at a distance of 200 yards. He slaughtered them, and it was over very quickly, because the decisions to be made were simple. We got to see range penalties, dodging, luck, damage multipliers, aiming, and while we didn't do rate of fire, we could have.

So I'd recommend the first fight being very straightforward, keeping complicated decisions in the hands of the GM, and giving the players enough of an advantage that they don't feel decision paralysis.

[whswhs]

Thinking about this, when I started my new GURPS campaign, after character design was done, what I did was invite the two new-to-GURPS players to play out a scene of combat between their characters, so that they could get a taste of what combat was like, off the record, as it were. It seemed to work pretty well.

[Nymdok]

30 minute is a tough time allotment, however for a sufficiently small party, you MIGHT be able to pull it off.

For a modern day setting, I would suggest the climax of a heist.

Set some device (bomb to be defused, computer to be hacked, lock to be picked) in a room that must be defended.

for 30 minutes of clock time in combat, your really only going to have about 6 rounds, and thats if DONT start the clock until everyone understands their character and roles.

So one person, maybe 2, works the difusion/hack/lockpick while anyone else must defend against N (where N is a suitable number for the party size) group of NPC enemies that for what ever reason would REALLY rather they didnt.

HUmans on Humans - The easiest GURPS example I think, as it requires the fewest tweaks, have them breaking into a safe while security guards attempt to stop them. I do NOT recommend gunplay at this point, so give them collapsable batons. The PCs if you wish, might have pistols, but due to previous adventuring are down to limitied, possibly NO ammo. This will show case melee combat rules, arguably the easiest to grasp of all GURPS combat.

Humans v Zombies - Because holy sweet baby divinity do I LOVE me some zombies! To highlight the intrinsic mortality involved in gunplay, set the scene in a defensible room in a hospital where with a portable battery, the PCS have fired up a computer that has the local security that will decrypt a file that allegedly contains a cure, or at least treatment. Pistols to the decrypters/hackers, BFGs for everyone else. Whatever kind of Automatic wapons you want but HUGE Amounts of ZOmbies to the extent that AMMO management becomes the real problem. Leaving other stuff in the room for creative problem soving is a bonus. (e.g. a Firextinguisher that you can throw down a hallway to shoot and detonate like a pipe bomb). You only have about 6 'rounds' of clock time, so try to have a zombie get through the line on about turn 4 and let the hackers clean him up if they can.


Now with either of these scenarios, the combat is easy to narrate and convey, what will be MORE difficult, is a second by second explanaition of what the Hackers/Lockpickers/Bomb diffusers are doing.

Ever see an action movie? Of course you have. Those skills come in handy here.

Rememebr each turn is a second long in GURPS, so try to imagine, in an Action Setting what happens in a second and convery that.

You place the stethoscope to the door of the safe, and spin (dice roll for skill check - success) you think you can hear the first tumbler fall into place for the first number that is 45.

You quickly key in ~/sec/decryption/DD214.sh and the bar scrolls across the screen slowly ...up to 50%. (roll for skill check - Fail) and Seg Faults gibberish. YOu realize that either its not DD214 Encryption or that it has dual layer encryption.

The bomb is a homemade job, but its homemade by a pro who knew what they were doing. Its a timed fuse connected to a cheap cellphone with a clock program counting down holding open a deadman's switch. To diffuse it, you'll need to cut the signal wire, the backup signal wire, and the tamper wire. Thres a pasta mess of wire in here. As you look you see the clock roll down from 6 seconds to 5. As you look (skill check roll - success) you realize that the initial signal wire is yello and connected straight to the phone in the headphone jack.


See what I mean? Pratice it! Make some notes! When that stuff happens be ready to describe in brow perspiring detail whats going on, not just for the guys in combat, but for the guys doing the fiddly.

For game balance, I recommend, 3 checks against a 14 skill (lock picking bomb diffusal, Comp Ops/Sec or what have you) which should give them about a 75% chance of success. Here is a table so you can make your own decisions as to how likely you wish for that outcome to be. Mind the variance.

Skill --- Odds of making 3 checks
16 --- 94 %
15 --- 87 %
14 --- 75%
13 --- 59%
12 --- 40%

Have Fun!
Nymdok

[Anders]

Originally Posted by ericthered

So I'd recommend the first fight being very straightforward, keeping complicated decisions in the hands of the GM, and giving the players enough of an advantage that they don't feel decision paralysis.

Have a kobold make an All-Out-Attack against one of the PCs. The character gets an Active Defense, and then a counter-attack which removes the kobold from the equation. Something like that?