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I'll be attending GenCon this summer and plan to run a few Palladium events. I've already submitted a Rifts event, and will be submitting a HU event. But I also wanted to do something a bit outside my element, so I took a look at Nightbane. I have the books (thank you Christmas Grab Bag) and have been reading them- I really like the premise, so I figured I'd try running a Nightbane one-shot at GenCon.

So I did more reading. What I'm discovering, and perhaps others on here will have a different opinion, is that Nightbane isn't a very good game for one-shots. There seems to be an emphasis on building and developing your Nightbane character. I think that's one of the reason the game appeals to me, but that also works against it if you want to run a one-shot.

I have two questions:

1) I know no one has a crystal ball, but what kind of players can I expect to attend a Nightbane one-shot at a convention like GenCon? Will I get people who have played Nightbane and therefore have a certain expectation? Or am I more likely to get people who (perhaps) have heard of it but aren't too familiar with it? Or maybe a mix of the two?

2) If I'm worried about Nightbane character development in a one-shot, I could simply make a pre-generated party of PCs who are not Nightbane, but rather have to interact with them. Maybe they're part of the Spook Squad or something. But then players who haven't played before may not get the real "Nightbane" gaming experience. Or perhaps I'm missing the point. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I think this is a great game and I want to do it service at GenCon, not the opposite.

Thanks!

It's difficult granted, but if you lay out the background of the Nightbane characters clearly enough the gamers may be able to get a grip of what is going on rather quickly.

Another option is to have one or more of the characters undergo the Becoming, be rescued quickly by a Faction member, have an NSB agent witness the event and then hunt the character(s) down with Hound back up to deal with the new Nightbane. Could make it a bit of a cat and mouse game as the NSB try to hunt down the new threat.

That would be my solution for such a situation, but play it out however you like.

Not too difficult to pull off, though I've found that it takes more exposition than other games given the amount of unique elements. If you want a good example of a quick adventure you can take a look at "Wireless" in the back of the Survival Guide. Heck, you can even run that adventure right out of the book (though I've found it works best as a two-part adventure).

As far as what you can expect? It'll likely be a mix. I've never run a sanctioned GenCon game, but when I ran Nightbane a few years back I had one or two old hands and one or two that had never played it.

It would be great if you'd run a Nightbane game, though. I likely won't be able to make it this year to represent the line. :/

You might try a "survive Dark Day" one shot that could, potentially, theoretically, be the start of a campaigne. Even though it isn't...