I think it would actually be a lot less prep if I was running it as a campaign (other than the standard amount of prep necessary for a megadungeon). In a campaign, I'll have a session 0 where I can teach the rules and walk players through chargen. One-shots don't have that luxury.
* Making sure I know the rules
* Figuring out how to quickly teach the rules
* Figuring out how much character creation I can/should do ahead of time
* Creating reference material for myself and players to facilitate learning and minimize page-flipping
Which is all compounded by the fact that I've never actually played the game before, and it's a very different game compared to a lot of other TTRPGs. Usually I could rely on a lot of standard conventions of how rolls and combat work, but the cool new mechanics require a lot of re-learning.
All that is to say: the game is clearly designed for long-term play and I think it's supported for that well, and trying to go against that grain is a challenge. I ran into the same issue with Lancer, which is designed around Missions which often take at least 3-4 sessions of play.
So, given all of this, why run this as a one-shot? Beyond that, you might need to narrow the scope to just what's needed in the one-shot and then only cover what's needed in the moment; not covering sub-systems until they come up in play, etc.
Because my main outlet to run the game at all is in a one-shot context at a local meetup, and I really want to give the game a shot before committing to a long-term campaign with anyone.
And yeah, the plan is to do a rolling teach, but reference material will still be needed.
Comments
* Making sure I know the rules
* Figuring out how to quickly teach the rules
* Figuring out how much character creation I can/should do ahead of time
* Creating reference material for myself and players to facilitate learning and minimize page-flipping
And yeah, the plan is to do a rolling teach, but reference material will still be needed.