Monster Hunters [MH] for a Convention Game?

[DAT]

What are folk thoughts on running a Monster Hunters game at a convention?

Are 400 pt characters with exotic advantages and lots of skills too much for players that may be new to GURPS or even new to RPGs?

Is it even worst for a 1930's "The Mummy" setting?

How about a 1890's Steam Punk setting?
-Dan

[PK]

I've done it. The key is to make a "summary sheet" that explains, in a list of plain-English bullet points, what cool stuff the PC can do. That way, the player can just look down and choose a bulleted item from that list.

I haven't tried doing a non-modern game, but I imagine the only additional challenge there is making sure the players understand and can visualize the game world.

[nick_coffin]

Originally Posted by PK

I've done it. The key is to make a "summary sheet" that explains, in a list of plain-English bullet points, what cool stuff the PC can do. That way, the player can just look down and choose a bulleted item from that list.

I haven't tried doing a non-modern game, but I imagine the only additional challenge there is making sure the players understand and can visualize the game world.

I ran a Monster Hunters game at GenCon 2013 with 400 pt characters, and I think it went well. I did what PK suggests above - I had a character summary sheet with their background, concept, and advantages/disadvantages most likely to be encountered in play explained in plain English.

[DAT]

A 'Summary of Cool Stuff' sheet, I like it. Thanks!

A follow on question, how did Ritual Path Magic work? i.e., With the ability of a Mage to create dozens and dosens of effects, did you list just list a few main ones, give category descriptions, or what?

Were any of the character who played the Mages complete newbies? Or did you suggest the RPM using characters be played by someone with GURPS experience?
-Dan

[Captain Joy]

Originally Posted by DAT

Is it even worst for a 1930's "The Mummy" setting?

How about a 1890's Steam Punk setting?

I'd recommend a black-power weapon setting. I like the idea of just one or two loud and smokey attacks, then the melee weapons come out. Also, you're probably not going to have to worry about rate of fire rules.

And (I hope I'm not just stating obvious) wildcard skills.

[Pahn]

I would avoid RPM, as it's rather advanced for n00bs. Also no fun in combat. You can have charms though. Those are simple.

[dcarson]

Charms also give the players a set of options that you can plan for. They'll still surprise you but not as totally. A player with a character with RPM either doesn't know how to use it and you have stuck them with a weak character or does and will often take the game in unexpected directions. For a convention game this can be bad.

[Xplo]

A summary sheet of Cool Stuff You Can Do is a great idea. But beyond that, it would help to design characters that have really strong themes/roles/skillsets that are also common cliches. If a player can take one brief look at a character sheet and say to himself, "oh, this is the doctor/supernatural private eye/occult scholar/Catholic priest/mercenary/whatever", they're already more than halfway to understanding their character and knowing how to play them.

[Peter Knutsen]

With 400 CP characters, a summary sheet is absolutely necessary.

As for RPM, I know that the RPM PDF itself allows some kind of Ritual Specialization Perk, i.e. pre-defined spells. I don't know if that's in the MH series itself, but it could perhaps be a very good idea to help a convention noob get an idea of what his Paths can do, e.g. if he has 3-4 such Perk Spells per Path. Or even 6-8 for each of the 2-4 Paths that he has.

That would make it a lot easier to see what his character can actually do, both in terms of what each of his character's Paths is, and the power level of magic that he can achieve (thus reducing the risk of assumption clash).

[thulben]

Originally Posted by Captain Joy

I'd recommend a black-power weapon setting.

Black powder?