Time frame: 3 sessions of 3 hours each
Ingredients: Committee - Ancient - Glass
The Committee for the Exploration of Mysteries and the Enlightenment of Mankind is the foremost institution of learning and research in the world of the 1930s. Its crack team of scholars and savants travel the globe unearthing ancient artifacts and discovering the remnants of lost civilizations. Along the way they encounter hazardous landscapes, hostile natives, and cunning death traps, but the members of the Committee have always returned with tales of daring and the rich reward of unearthed knowledge. Yes, it's a pulp adventure game, my pulp adventure heartbreaker perhaps since I've never seen one that quite does what I want it to.
The first session is taken up with character creation and "research," in which the players and GM cooperatively create the place they'll be exploring and route they'll be taking to get there. During this first session everyone is required to hoist a glass of a festive beverage to evoke the leisure of the Committee as they plan their next expedition into the unknown. The session ends with a toast to their upcoming great adventure.
The use of "glass" changes in the second and third sessions--now players must use an hourglass (like the 3-minute hourglass in a Boggle game) to time their conflict resolution, thereby enforcing the rapid-fire pace of the pulps. The second session focuses on the journey to the exploration site and the beginning stages of that exploration. The players are armed with their "research," the planning they did in the initial session. But the mechanics determine how accurate this "research" actually is and what unknown dangers await the intrepid explorers. The second session must end in a cliffhanger.
The final session resumes by resolving the cliffhanger and completes the exploration of the ancient site. Then, the Committee can return to the world and regale the press with news of their latest discoveries and end the expedition the way they began it--with a hearty toast to learning, travel, and adventure!
I'm thinking part of the mechanics will entail players deliberately creating complications for their characters in order to gain glory, acclaim, or something similar. This currency can then be spent in later conflicts to improve their chances.
A question: the time requirement entails all aspects of play, right? So I have to include the GM prep necessary before the second and third sessions as part of the 3 hours of each?
Maybe I can avoid GM prep (and even the GM role entirely) by having the players compete for glory and introduce adversity for each other--a Committee that doesn't actually cooperate because they're a bunch of gloryhounds perhaps? Hmm, we'll see as this develops.