We had a great session of Hamish Cameron’s The Sprawl last night.

We had a great session of Hamish Cameron’s The Sprawl last night.

We had a great session of Hamish Cameron’s The Sprawl last night. It was our first full session of play (last session was mostly character creation and world set-up), and I’m digging it!

I’ll have more to say on the podcast that goes up next Sunday, but for now I’ll just say it has some of the best elements of the mission-based play of Blades in the Dark, but done in a more traditional PbtA style. It is really, really working for me. Our characters are cool, the mission structure is fun, and the moves are leading to some really terrific fiction. It’s a winner.

Thanks to the players who joined me: Chris Wiegand Timothy Bennett Tim B and Aniket Schneider.

28 thoughts on “We had a great session of Hamish Cameron’s The Sprawl last night.”

  11. Yeah, my coverage on Gauntlet Podcast will be like it always is, more of a capsule review than anything. I might record next week’s session of the game. The only reason I didn’t record this week’s is because I felt a little uncomfortable running the game, but now that I’ve done a full session I feel better about it.

  12. Yeah, my coverage on Gauntlet Podcast will be like it always is, more of a capsule review than anything. I might record next week’s session of the game. The only reason I didn’t record this week’s is because I felt a little uncomfortable running the game, but now that I’ve done a full session I feel better about it.

  13. Jason Cordova Hard to say exactly, it’s mostly just a feeling that things could be better.

    Two major challenges I’m facing are:

    1. Making Legwork time not a boring series of rolls. It feels like little fun is being had during that time. We’re in a place where we’re rolling to see if we get intel or gear or not, and I feel more should be happening. The Action, Intrigue, and Complications all manifest or are more satisfying in the Action phase.

    2. Trying to allow any fiction to take place outside of missions (including the legwork phase). For the second issue, I’m wondering if that’s something this game isn’t really meant to explore.

  14. Jason Cordova Hard to say exactly, it’s mostly just a feeling that things could be better.

    Two major challenges I’m facing are:

    1. Making Legwork time not a boring series of rolls. It feels like little fun is being had during that time. We’re in a place where we’re rolling to see if we get intel or gear or not, and I feel more should be happening. The Action, Intrigue, and Complications all manifest or are more satisfying in the Action phase.

    2. Trying to allow any fiction to take place outside of missions (including the legwork phase). For the second issue, I’m wondering if that’s something this game isn’t really meant to explore.

  17. Blaze Azelski I don’t know if this makes any sense, but give yourself permission to step back from the mission framework a bit. I ran the Legwork phase like any other PbtA game with investigation elements (Monster of the Week comes to mind). Moves occasionally fired, and the outcomes of those moves sometimes moved the clocks forward. At a certain point we stopped and took stock of everything that had been happening to see if the group could come up with a plan for the Action phase. Once they were able to articulate the basic outlines of a plan to me, we moved into the Action phase.

  18. Blaze Azelski I don’t know if this makes any sense, but give yourself permission to step back from the mission framework a bit. I ran the Legwork phase like any other PbtA game with investigation elements (Monster of the Week comes to mind). Moves occasionally fired, and the outcomes of those moves sometimes moved the clocks forward. At a certain point we stopped and took stock of everything that had been happening to see if the group could come up with a plan for the Action phase. Once they were able to articulate the basic outlines of a plan to me, we moved into the Action phase.

  19. Jason Cordova I’ve not played Monster of the Week or any other PbtA game with investigative elements unfortunately (assuming Read A Sitch and Discern Realities don’t count). I don’t feel I have a problem ticking the clocks forward or transitioning into the action phase (the second mission directive is usually pretty helpful for that). I just don’t feel the legwork phase has enough bite right now in my game. The fact that the associated clock hasn’t been ticked past 2 segments in 3 missions may or may not be related. shrug

    Watching or reading about some other groups’ play will probably help, and that should be easier now that I’m part of the Sprawl community.

    EDIT: I think I’m now understanding what you meant by stepping back from the mission framework. That’s probably very salient advice! I’ll keep it in mind for the future.

  20. Jason Cordova I’ve not played Monster of the Week or any other PbtA game with investigative elements unfortunately (assuming Read A Sitch and Discern Realities don’t count). I don’t feel I have a problem ticking the clocks forward or transitioning into the action phase (the second mission directive is usually pretty helpful for that). I just don’t feel the legwork phase has enough bite right now in my game. The fact that the associated clock hasn’t been ticked past 2 segments in 3 missions may or may not be related. shrug

    Watching or reading about some other groups’ play will probably help, and that should be easier now that I’m part of the Sprawl community.

    EDIT: I think I’m now understanding what you meant by stepping back from the mission framework. That’s probably very salient advice! I’ll keep it in mind for the future.

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