So, I'm planning on running Final Sanction at Hammercon in a couple of weeks. I am prepping for it, and having read the adventure there is a LOT of potential combat and encounters.

quick question. has anyone run it, if so, do you think it can be played within a 4 hour "convention" timeslot and still manage to make it to the big bad at the end?

any tips or hints from past players or GM's would also be helpful.

cheers,

J.

jman5000 said:

I ran it in 12 hours and had to jump almost all of it. We played the arrival at the chapel, the siege at the army base, the ambush on the governor, then I told them where the lair was after they visited the astropath, they travelled there by boat, then a few teasing genestealers in the factory and the boss fight.

It can be further rushed but 4 hours is not much. You'll likely have to run it linearly: chapel - governor - astropath (skip the fight there) - broodlord.

Alex

I had a similar experience to Alex- my group took over 10 hours and we did the Chapel, PDF Base, half the spaceport, Govenor's House, Astropath, Broodlord. I cut most of the combat out of the govenor's house and the astropath and turned it into a straight rp encounter as well.

You *might* make it with the cuts Alex suggests, but you'll need to keep an eye on the clock and be ready to give the team some support and direction on where and how to get to the goal. Use the Inquisition Agent if need be to feed them directions and urge their course of action.

uggg. that's what I thought.

OK. major rework going to happen tonight. here's my initial thoughts

part a) landing and hoard encounter as is. maybe throw in 1 of the optional extra encounters, and get right into meeting the assassin. She'll totally railroad the adventure saying something to the tune of

"the Inquisitor managed to find the lair of the broodlord at location x, and she went off on her own to deal with the matter herself, however its currently impossible to reach that area due to rebel blockades etc... must get the support of the generals, lords and governor from location y so the PDF can provide support and engage the rebel forces"

part b) the palace. have a couple running battles with magnitude 5 or 6 hoards (though they fight as if they were magnitude 20-30) because I want it to appear chaotic, I don't want to bog the game down overmuch with these "random" encounters. having their "fight" at normal levels but magnitude very low the chances of a single round of combat before they break and run might be much higher. Kill-team makes it to the palace, some role-playing ensues, and possibly have the genestealer encounter (time permitting).

part c) breach the bridge with the support of the PDF forces, go to the factory and fight the broodlord.

based on the time, and how fast the game is going, throw in an additional encounter in parts a or b. but figure each part to last an hour and a bit...

a total railroad, I know, but perhaps a way to pare back this adventure and still make it through in a 4 hour game slot?

oh, and a note to FFG and all game designers in general. why is not the very first adventure released designed around a "single evening of play", in that in my experience most games start as a one-shot to see if the group likes it (or in this case, running it at a con), and making it to the end is IMO an important accomplishment...

Cheers,

J.

sorry to throw a spanner in the works here but I wouldn't run Final Sanction at a Con at all. Its far to common. A pretty large percentage of people who have played DW played Final Sanction as a first game. If you need to run a pre-genned module I'd try the one from the GMs pack. Its less well known and shorter.

**spoilers below**

well, I ran through this on the weekend as a trial run with 4 players.

talk about a time crunch!

here's what I ended up doing:

a) landing, fighting off the initial hoard and had them deal with a single "gun nest". spoke with the assassin, who told the crew basically everything. need to send a message, use the astropath attached to the manor. need to cross the bridge, and the only way to do that is via support of the garrisoned PDF/IG forces at the manor, where the governor has holed everyone up. must cross the bridge into the Refining district and the Inquisitors last known location was at the promethium refinery. Did this for a couple of reasons. had to modify the objectives, and had to railroad the group a bit more in order to get the story moving and provide them clear direction where they can go.

there was much debate if the manor was even important. need to make this part more apparent.

b) on to the manor. before reaching the manor, the marines were ambushed by a series of gun emplacements. this was a tough battle for them. 2 of them almost dropped. felt there was a lull, and randomly added this encounter to spice things up. narriated a number of different "running battles" that the marines witnessed through their street by street walking towards the manor. for the convention, I'll change this encounter into one against the Genestealers to better tie the Xenos threat in with the adventure.

c) manor. some roleplaying dealing with the captain of the guards to let them in, and to go get the Governor. after waiting and seeing he was not going to come, the marines make way into the manor house to see all the generals, the governor, their wives and other high level functionaries having a wonderful dance/ball. stopping the dance with a well aimed shot at the music player they proceeded to ask pointed questions to the governor and the generals until the group received the response they wanted. Also done here was marshaled the PDF/IG forces guarding the manor to meet with the other loyal troops to be ready to assault the bridge leading to the refining district. this was 95% role playing

d) crossing the bridge. big "narrated" battle to gain control of the banks of the canal. a hugely cinimatic "blow up the refinery tanks" on the opposite side to clear out the gun nests. highly enjoyed. by this point, we had less than 1 hour left to play, so by necessity I had to speed everything up. rolling was done to determine success of their plan to gain the opposite bank, but otherwise, I just had my players describing utterly cool things they were doing to "win" the war.

e) the promethium works. we were flat out of time. total narration getting to the refinery, moving through the pipeworks, having the genestealers ambush the marines from time to time. while no damage was given out, it did paint a picture of a dangerous maze. Final encounter with the big bad went well, but was easy due to not a lot of options buffing it up via additional genestealers.

we ended up going 15 minutes over time. the gun nest ambush and the big bad both was able to hurt the party, though nobody dropped (good thing since nobody picked the Medicae to play). it was fun, everyone had fun. this would be a very exciting module to play if complete.

there is a small number of changes I'd make to improve it for a con, but otherwise, after ripping out 80% of the adventure it went really well.

Cheers,

J