To Be Continued... (Picking up where you left off)

[Duraska]

First of all, I want to congratulate the Giant on this truly beautiful and fun game. I recently got mine and I'm floored by it. I cannot wait to introduce it to my friends - I think they'll really enjoy it. My only concern is the massive amount of time that playing this game will take. After reading some stories shared on this board, I've decided to start them out on a "short" game, however, even 2-4 hours is a timeframe they'll probably consider "too long." My only options are to fudge the rules a little in hopes of speeding the game up, or find a way to painlessly "save" a game in progress so that we can continue it later (spreading it out over 2-3 sessions). Since I don't feel like I have a total and unfaltering understanding of the rules, I've decided to look into option 2.

Here's my initial solution. Please, people with experience, let me know if you think this would work (and by all means, share some advice or opinions on the matter too!).

I don't have an open area that the game can just "exist" upon until we decide to resume play, so I think I'll try to write down the status of the game and "rebuild" it again for the next play-session. Here's my ideas so far:

Make a rough map of the dungeon layout. Basically by drawing boxes to represent the rooms, and lines between the boxes to represent their connectivity. In each box I'll write down the name of the room. For instance, there might be a box labeled "Air Dungeon" to represent the Air Dungeon room. The boxes will be drawn out as they appear in the game, so it will be easy to recognize the different floors and where the stairs go. Of course, this would be easier if the room cards had a number printed on them so that we could just write down the number instead of the room name (*hint* *hint*).

At the end of the session, each player would fill out a "character sheet" kind of like in D&D. Stuff on the sheet includes:

Character Name (Elan, Roy, etc...)
Game Name (so everyone's using the right characters in case of multiple games)
Date (date of last play)
Shticks (Any sticks the character has)
Equipped Loot (Any loot currently equipped on the character)
Loot Stash (A listing of the loot in the player's loot stash)
Current EXP[/b] (a number representing the character's current EXP from monsters)

Then you can pack up the game and put everything in the box. Now, when it comes time to play again, you do the following:

Look through the room cards and re-build the dungeon. Shuffle the rest of the cards and put them in the room stack, ready to be used.

Distribute the Shtick cards to each player and have them get all their proper shticks ready to go. Shuffle the rest and put in shtick piles.

Distribute the proper loot to each player. Note: Each player should do this on their own so as to not give away who has what loot. Shuffle the rest (along with the trap cards) and create the loot stack.

Play everything else as a normal game. All players start at the beginning of the dungeon with full wounds. Part of the map is revealed to them, so getting back to the lower levels shouldn't take as long as it did the first time. Obviously, all of the monsters have been reshuffled, and should just be added back in as the normal game dictates (any monsters that are still on the board when a game is ended get "erased," along with any loose loot on the ground). Continue play as normal until you either finish the game, or decide to stop again.

What do you guys think? Would this work? Obviously things change a little if you were facing off against Xykon when you decided to end the session; but frankly, if you're that far into the game, you might as well finish it up in that same session. Sure, the monsters get randomized each time you play, but I don't know if that really matters all that much. The map is the same as it was the last session, so you can quickly move 3 spaces at a time to get back to where you were. You could even houserule in that you can have 6-space-moves until you reach the lowest discovered level if you think that would help (personally, I don't really see this being an issue though).

I'm very eager for feedback. Is there a better way to record your progress? I'm trying to keep this as simple as possible, so that you don't end up spending 30 mins "restoring" your previous session each time you play.

Thanks!

[The Giant]

Personally, rather than write down things, I would invest in rubber bands. Just rubber band each characters shticks, Loot, and character card together. That way you don't have people swiping extra Loot when they dig through the Loot deck.

Other than that, I would say that any Traps that were revealed during the first session should remain out-of-play, possibly by rubber banding them together as well.

[WampaX]

Personally, rather than write down things, I would invest in rubber bands. Just rubber band each characters shticks, Loot, and character card together. That way you don't have people swiping extra Loot when they dig through the Loot deck.

Other than that, I would say that any Traps that were revealed during the first session should remain out-of-play, possibly by rubber banding them together as well.

Also, Ziplock bags FTW.

[Duraska]

Personally, rather than write down things, I would invest in rubber bands. Just rubber band each characters shticks, Loot, and character card together. That way you don't have people swiping extra Loot when they dig through the Loot deck.

Other than that, I would say that any Traps that were revealed during the first session should remain out-of-play, possibly by rubber banding them together as well.

Also, Ziplock bags FTW.

Hey, why didn't I think of that?! Saves me from getting carpel tunnel syndrome and allows me to convince my short-attention-span friends to play this game. It's win/win.

I guess I'd still need to plan out a way to keep the dungeon layout, but that's not too hard...

Thanks guys!

[Mazlynn]

"I guess I'd still need to plan out a way to keep the dungeon layout, but that's not too hard..."

And is even easier if you stack the dungeon cards in order and ziplock or rubber band them too - then you just have to worry about where the floor breaks and stairs are, but the cards you had were still set aside and easy to find.

[Duraska]

"I guess I'd still need to plan out a way to keep the dungeon layout, but that's not too hard..."

And is even easier if you stack the dungeon cards in order and ziplock or rubber band them too - then you just have to worry about where the floor breaks and stairs are, but the cards you had were still set aside and easy to find.

A good thought, but I think it might require a little more planning than that. Special cases like two sets of stairs (from a "Screw this" card) and thus, dungeon floors that split from each other might be a little more difficult to track.

Example:

 
        0
        | 
   00000000
   |      |
 0000    0000
    |
   00000000

Still, this doesn't happen that often, and quickly jotting down card names isnt that hard.

[Jack Mann]

In addition to Duraska's suggestion, rubber band each level separately, in left-to-right order, with stairs under whichever room they were revealed in.

[jonshai]

If you think numbering the dungeon cards would help, there's nothing to stop you from using a fine point sharpie and numbering them yourself...

Just make sure you own the game before you start writing on things.

[Duraska]

Write on the cards?! Blasphemy!!

[Raistlin1040]

Yeah just banding the stuff together can make the game a lot easier to pick up.

[EdgarVerona]

One of my players suggested taking a polaroid of the table... we haven't tried it, but I thought it was a creative idea. It would allow for a quicker cleanup than rubber bands if it works, though the setup time would be elongated by having to find all the cards in the picture again...

and then there's the problem of not being able to make out what card it is. Hmm... well, might not be practical, but I figured I'd throw the possibility out there. =)

[donkyhotay]

One of my players suggested taking a polaroid of the table... we haven't tried it, but I thought it was a creative idea. It would allow for a quicker cleanup than rubber bands if it works, though the setup time would be elongated by having to find all the cards in the picture again...

and then there's the problem of not being able to make out what card it is. Hmm... well, might not be practical, but I figured I'd throw the possibility out there. =)

I've done that with friends when playing axis and allies. We used a digital camera but taking pictures of games does work when it's long and you need to take a break.

[jwolfe]

My gaming group just finished a big combat that lasted three weeks (one session per week). We took digitial pictures at the end of each session, and it worked out fine.