Hour-long campaign games

So this is an odd one. I recently started a new job, and there's some guys here interested in doing a lunchtime game. One of them is a D&D player, the other two are video gamers, but all three are unanimous that they want to play something that unfolds over repeat sessions, like a role-playing campaign.

Plenty of games work like this of course, but the kicker is this is for an office lunchtime so it's got to have a small footprint and reliable setup, play and pack away inside and hour.

I'd really like to try Betrayal Legacy, personally, but I think it's going to run too long? Pandemic Legacy also sprung to mind but I think even that is going to be pushing the time limit. The only other possibility I could think of is the AH Card Game which, personally, I didn't enjoy all that much but I'd be willing to repurchase if it means I can enjoy some office gaming.

Any experience of squeezing any of those three into an hour? Any other possible ideas?

Part of the problem is that regardless of what you pick, what you are really looking at is a 30-45 minute session game after setup and assuming a modicum of administration.

The other problem is that nothing you do in that amount of time is going to create the kind of engagement and investment you want to see in a board game.

Personally, I think you’d be better served running a CCG or WH Underworlds bracket or doing a “light” RPG campaign using one-shot, low prep adventures like what you can find on DMsguild.

Rereading your post, what these people want is an RPG campaign. Don’t give them a surrogate that requires more work, more components, more setup. You need to run an RPG for them. Shoot, just roll up a random dungeon or use something like Four Against Darkness.

Given your constraints, either Silver Tower, Hammerhal, or Blackstone Fortress. Even if you don't have enough time to complete a scenario during the hour, you can use your phone to take a picture of each character and the board layout and then pick up where you left off the next day. Silver Tower and Blackstone Fortress are ideal for 4-player co-op, but Hammerhal needs a DM.

EDIT: given your need for a small footprint on the table, Blackstone Fortress won't work. Some of those maps take up a lot of real estate. But either Silver Tower or Hammerhal could work as long as you pick up and put away each room as the party leaves it.

Matt Thrower wrote: So this is an odd one. I recently started a new job, and there's some guys here interested in doing a lunchtime game. One of them is a D&D player, the other two are video gamers, but all three are unanimous that they want to play something that unfolds over repeat sessions, like a role-playing campaign.

Plenty of games work like this of course, but the kicker is this is for an office lunchtime so it's got to have a small footprint and reliable setup, play and pack away inside and hour.

I'd really like to try Betrayal Legacy, personally, but I think it's going to run too long? Pandemic Legacy also sprung to mind but I think even that is going to be pushing the time limit. The only other possibility I could think of is the AH Card Game which, personally, I didn't enjoy all that much but I'd be willing to repurchase if it means I can enjoy some office gaming.

Any experience of squeezing any of those three into an hour? Any other possible ideas?

You're right about Pandemic Legacy - you're not going to reliably get that played in under an hour. Four of us have done just what you're wanting to do at lunchtime, and it tended to run over. Sooner or later you'll get a session that turns into 90 minutes or more.

Michael Barnes wrote: Rereading your post, what these people want is an RPG campaign. Don’t give them a surrogate that requires more work, more components, more setup. You need to run an RPG for them. Shoot, just roll up a random dungeon or use something like Four Against Darkness.

Yep.

An rpg might work for this situation, but I'm skeptical. I've run a lot of rpgs over the years, and outside of one-shot games in official convention time slots, it's rare to get players settled and focused on the game within less than a half hour.

This is where Four Against Darkness might really work. It’s straight up hack and slash, no setup other than a little 1/4 page character sheet. Everything is randomly generated, including the dungeon. But you can run little mini-campaigns with it- there are a few available. No session would be over an hour I think.

You might also try straight D&D. There's a phenomenal thread from a few years ago over at RPG.net:

forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/b-x-misa...ted-dungeons.676099/

... that is straight up old school and illustrates the strength of bare-bones D&D. It's really a great read. The DM uses online dungeon generators so there is no prep. Combat is fast and deadly, and because they play with all the rules (including encumbrance) it turns the dials way up on the resource management/push your luck style of old school play. Get in, get as far as you feel you can, then pull the plug and abort mission.

The delves are necessarily short (because you can only carry so many rations and healing potions, and can only prepare so many spells). His group would typically do several delves in one session, but you could easily do one in a lunch hour.

“Classic”, bare bones D&D is pretty fun...we did a “let’s go back and try first edition” thing back in the early 2000s with the whole RAW thing. It was crusty and deadly as hell. It was almost laughable to even try to spend time to build character and story, we we wanted straight hack and slash, dungeon crawling.

Oh, it didn’t help that it was...Tomb of Horrors.

4AD captures some of that but it is much lighter in terms of rules.

D100 Dungeons is also a fun option if you wanted to do just a straight up crawl.

B/X is definitely the way to go if you want D&D. It's the most streamlined version. I recommend grabbing Basic Fantasy for a slightly tweaked version of B/X D&D. (The main tweaks are that higher Armor Class is now better and elves, dwarves, and halflings can also take a class.) The reason I recommend it is because it's streamlined, the PDF is free, and the books are on Amazon for only $5 (which includes all the rules - player and DM - plus monsters).