Running Out of Steam

Magical Resolution is intense and demanding, and as a result it can tire a group quite rapidly. Unless and until your group is very comfortable with and quick at running Magical Resolutions, you should really try to limit it to two or three instances per game session, roughly speaking.

One early playtest group started out the first session with a Host-Initiated Resolution, then ended up following up with four more Magical Resolutions, one for each PC. By the time they got to the fourth and last Resolution, many players were passing on most occasions, apparently because they just ran out of steam.

There are lots of ways to avoid this, of course, but the main point is just to be aware that too much Magical Resolution is going to tax the group excessively. If everyone is exhausted and there’s a Magical Resolution sort of “hanging fire,” you may want to ask the player if it would be okay to put it off until the first Scene of next session, when everyone is fired up and ready. The player will get a better Resolution that way, and that will kick off the whole session, so it should be preferable to an exhausted and desultory Resolution in the name of equal time.

-- ChrisLehrich^? - 05 Jan 2005