Grab a sandwich and a Mountain Dew and join us for this episode's topic: lunch tie gaming

The typical role-playing game session lasts 4-5 hours and happens once a week. Sometimes they're more frequent, sometimes they're a little longer, but a four-hour Friday night hangout is pretty typical. With a lunchtime game, sessions may happen a couple of times a week but only last an hour We delve into what works and doesn't work when running time-crunched games based on Ken's 10+ years of lunchtime gaming.

We also talk about Horizon Forbidden West, Mutant Crawl Classics, Resident Alien, electric vehicles, and Dropout TV.

Arcade Level 22Ken's playing Horizon Forbidden West, the sequel to the most excellent Horizon Zero DawnTakes place 6 months after the original game, and sees Aloy travel to the west cost of a post-apocalyptic AmericaIt’s available for PS4 (with a possible upgrade to PS5).Just as beautiful as the first gameMutant Spawning GroundsKen’s in a gonzo mutant mood thanks to the new softcover Mutant Crawl Classics and Kenzer & Co’s Knights of the Dinner Table. The storyline from the 260s involves one of the characters, Sara, running a “Hackworld” game.Mutant Crawl Classics is nicely bonkers, with all kinds of special charts and funky dice.Theatre of Infinite StreamsA look at NBC's Peacock. Ken came for the Olympics. Stayed for Resident AlienElectric GarageAfter looking at several different electric and hybrid cars, the Teslas David looked at are in a comparable price range.Crystaline Memory ArchiveLetting old things goAfter SerenityThe Game Master ShowThe Tele-ChamberDiscovering some gaming shows on Dropout TV.Along the lines of Critical Role, they are entertaining and I would love to sit at their table, but I also know that your regular game isn’t produced to this extent. (Though some are just as or more fun.)Dimension 20: A Starstruck Odyssey

Main Topic: Lunchtime RPGs

Overview of the conceptKen started running a lunchtime game called “Gamer Working Group” in 2010. Inspired by Mike Mearls’s (WotC) tweets about his lunchtime D&D 5e game.The group meets once a week for 1 hour, over lunch.1 month of lunchtime gaming = one 4-hour sessionStarted in the real world, moved online with the pandemic.Games played:Savage WorldsNumeneraDragon AgeD&D 5eGURPs LiteCurrently running D&D & GURPSWhat works, what doesn’t.What works:Light-weight games that are easy to learn and fast to play.Simple, focused stories. We get one day a week to advance the story, and the story advances in small chunks.ACTION! You don’t have a lot of time for boxed text or exposition, so get people rolling dice as quickly as possible.What doesn’t work:Complicated stories.Combats that last for hours.Games that are hard to learn or play quicklyTips and tricks for running a lunchtime gameKen’s Nuketown columns:Real-world toolbox for a lunchtime gameLunch-time Gaming RevisitedThings you should do:GMs should always be ready to goDigital map ready, Tokens made, role-books handy.Bookmark your monsters (either physically with heDon’t waste precious time getting ready!Adjust your story beats to match the time you haveWith a regular 4-hour game, the game has a certain cadence (e.g. RP encounter, a combat encounter, a RP encounter, final combat)As a GM and a group, figure out the cadence of the game. Be aware of how much time you have left, so you can fit in role playing combat, BSing, etc.For our GURPS Lunchtime game, we’ve gotten surprisingly good at setting up cliff hangers.Consider using a pregen worldUsing a pre-existing world (e.g. Forgotten Realms) makes it easy to prep ahead of time and improvise on the fly.Do what you can outside of the gameNext session planningTreasure picksLeveling up

Feedback

Thanks for listening. If you have feedback, we love feedback. You can send it to us at [email protected] or via Twitter @lairofsecrets. We stream this live on Twitch if you want to get your fix of things early and unedited. We are lairofsecrets,