What if I said I was going to be somewhere, a cafe or whatever and that I was going to run a game? What if I didn't try to find people to commit to come along and play, just let people know there is a drop-in game then I just turned up, got a coffee and waited?
I mean, there's a fair chance that no-one would turn up, right? Is that a problem? It would be frustrating if I'm all set with RPG goodness to brighten people's day, but otherwise? I could end up with a few hours of productive something in a nice venue, for example.
Someone turns up (yay!). Let's start a game, they probably don't have a character, so let's roll one up. I want a system that's ridiculously easy to generate characters for, quick and obvious. Why? Well, when then next person turns up, I'd like to be able to get them to generate their own character in a couple of minutes without having to ask a ton of questions and clarifications. Maybe I need to have the how-to instructions on the sheet and any tables and so on on a laminated sheet that can get passed to new players?
Anyway, back to the first person, let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'm going to run a system with lots of tables to generate locations, situations, NPCs and so on. That way, we can create the game together with a few dice rolls and maybe a bit of choice and get started. If no-one turns up then I haven't wasted hours of prep. Hopefully they're having fun so far and we can start playing with a bit of an idea of where we are, what's going on and a vague plan for what they want to do.
Maybe half an hour passes and then that second person comes in. They get a coffee too, sit down and create a character (here's a blank character sheet, here's the laminated tables you need). Maybe they want to watch for a few minutes or ask a couple of questions so they know what sort of game we're playing in case that affects their choices in the character they make.
Five minutes later and they're ready to go, so we find a way to plop them into the game - hey there, Mr Woodman, lucky we came across you, I need some help to find whatever it is I'm looking for, can you help? Sure, why not, I need a break from logging. And off we go...
We play for a while, generating things as we go and then the first player needs to go, they have a bus to catch, perhaps. We figure out a way that they can exit the game - they have promised to return by nightfall or maybe they're hungry and want to find some food. Off they go(1) and the game continues the the other players (I mentioned a third player turned up at some point, right?).
Eventually, we reach the end of the session and pack away until the next time (2).
Then, the next week, or in a fortnight, or then next time I'm in town, another session might take place and those players or other players might come along and have a go.
None of this is rocket science, and I'm sure someone else will already be running games like this, but I was thinking about it this morning and I wanted to get something down that I can come back to later.
It would also work online, wouldn't it? I think I could run this on a Discord server, maybe have a maximum number of people in a voice channel (haha, to be in the position of too many players).
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(1) It would be nice to know what their character is going to do between now and when they'll eventually return to the story - maybe they want to learn to climb or improve their balance? On the other hand they might have a barn to build and no time to go learning new skills.
(2) As with the other players who had to leave, it would be good to know what these fine characters are planning to get up to until we meet them again.
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