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[Kandiman]

Ah, excellent. I think I understand and it means that what I thought was a story with too much depth probably isn't. I have the game world pretty well fleshed out, a lot of background information that I was planning to slowly reveal anyway but was expecting it to be too much. It's flexible enough however, that I could easily tell the bare bones of the story and reveal the rest on the fly as the players take their investigation forward.

[Dominic1978]

Hey Kandiman,
I can only speak from experience and that experience is limited to 1 game. Keep in mind that even a short game can turn out to become a longer game due to the marvelous insights that players will bless you with.
TSO was originally "planned" to run for a month. It launched early February and ended early May. This happened because along the game I got inspired by players (while sneakily reading the thread) and ended up adding more characters and storylines/subplots.

What I'm trying to say in short is that there is no guaranteed way of doing things and what works for some (for me a lot of improvisation worked out pretty well) might not work for others.

So the only true advice I can give you is: go for it soon as you think it is ready and see how it evolves from there.

Good luck,

Dominic

[Kandiman]

Thanks Dominic. I'm fully prepared for the game to expand, that's why I like having a 'Player needs to know this to complete the game' but a complete mythology behind my universe. Means I can dip in and pull out some depth to extend it with out it seeming forced.

[Yo-L]

Great topic!
Thanks to Imbri for the insights.
I've never read nor thought about the differences between long and short games like that before.

I don't have any experience to add. But I do think you can say that longer games do take up more PM time? Generally speaking. Since players are always eager for content. I understand by reading Imbri's post that simply stretching out the content of a short game, into a longer period of time won't work.
What I mean to say is: for a longer game, you need more content. That takes more developing time. Whether it comes from the PM, or is inspired by the players (like Dominics game).
I'm not talking about easy or difficult here. Just time.

[Daeld]

Mlitsonata is a newbie who started playing ARGs last week and has already designed, started AND finished a game as PM (including a post one the thread to explain)!

I think it is an interesting development on the "mini-ARG" or "trial-ARG" concept. Above all, I think she should be lauded for getting in there and just giving it a go! Well done.

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