The Horror on the Orient game I have been running online since January is awesome, but it seems to be running slower than I had expected or hoped, but why? We play every other Sunday and there have been some sessions that were either not scheduled or canceled for various reasons. That aside, I think the pacing is off.

Pacing in a huge campaign such as this one is problematic, to say the least. I want the investigators to have the time to search and inquire. For them to do what it is they would like to do, I need to give them that time. Unfortunately, it does to tend to throw the pacing off quite a bit. This became very evident when we were playing through the Gaslight optional scenario included in this massive campaign. Both my online campaign and my face-to-face group took a lot longer than I had expected. Though to be fair, the gaslight optional scenario was rather involved and complex.

This past Sunday the online group finished the Paris portion of the campaign in which it took them 3 full sessions, but I think the pacing was closer to what I was estimating for this section. One thing I did differently with Paris  was to push them a little harder by forcing them to make decisions after what I felt like was a reasonable amount of time to discuss options. They did not push back and the pacing was more realistic I feel.

As the story now moves on from Paris to other parts along the route of the Orient Express I plan to keep driving them forward. The hardest part will be finding the balance of driving the story forward and thus, keeping the pace brisk without impeding them in any way. I have to keep in mind that this is their investigation and I should not overly hinder their ability to investigate if at all possible.

I am curious if there are tips or tricks from seasoned CoC Keepers for getting the pacing just right? Share your advice and wisdom with us, please.

~ Modoc

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