Time Constraints

We've been ending the sessions later and later recently, and this is a problem for Bob and his early-morning commute.   I want to work on moving some things along.

The problem is that the nature of the campaign makes it so that there is always a "Travel" segment takes a certain amount of time, and then the "Dungeon" segment takes another certain amount of time, and then there's the "Trip Home" segment.

One thing that helps a bit is the Truck, which cuts down travel time.   We also need to try to the "avoid encounter" rolls more often in the travel segment.

One possible solution is for me to decide whether the session is a "Travel and Search" session or a "Dungeon" session. If it's a "Dungeon" session I should do something to reduce the Travel encounters.    That worked in the Bat Cave session, since the cave was so close to home.   It would really pain me as a GM to hand wave the Travel entirely, since the Mutants and Muskets game world has an established, objective structure to it and it would seem a violation to ignore it.

On the Gnome Stew site, they suggest giving the party a "End this Scene Successfully Card".   If the players agree, at any point in the game (except a "Boss Fight" or other super key encounter) the players can collectively play this card and end the scene.   So, for example, you guys could have played it to "Find the Boat" or "Snatch the Gunsmith" or "Walk Back to the Boat Shed" during the last game, to speed things up.   I wouldn't have let you use it to kill King Zoidberg or to avoid the "Storm Wrecks the Boat" scene.   Here's the full article:

Gnome Stew: Get out of Scene Free Card

It seems like a good idea to me.