itch.io

Thanks for writing in! First off, to preface this response: two hours for a foundation and another hour for a full round definitely runs on the longer end in my personal experience, but that’s by no means a wrong way to play. Having a fun time at your table is more important than playing ‘properly’! This said, a few thoughts:

Talking through tone and genre is the most open-ended part of the game, so it can really grow if you don’t watch the clock. It’s easy to go deep listing all sorts of touchstones or inspiration, but don’t get bogged down in comparisons; just use it to make sure folks are on the same page.

When it comes to playing the very first card, the facilitator can do a LOT to model a short foundation pass. When I'm facilitating and I play the very first neighborhood to the table, I always come in with three goals:

— Don’t preplan the first card (show other players it’s okay to fumble, start vague, and make something up from scratch; I try to build off an idea that another player introduced during the tone discussion)
— Keep it short (I try to keep to two minutes tops, writing on the card as I go; as with all cards, I don’t write everything down, only the most key details)
— Leave blank space (give permission to yourself and to the rest of the table to ask questions and say “I don’t know, we’ll flesh this part out later”)

In general, I find it really helpful to try and keep turns during the foundation round as short as possible. As an incoming player, coming up with your very first neighborhood or landmark might feel daunting, but it’s worth reminding folks that these are just sketches! If you’re playing with a group that likes to build off each other, it can be helpful to be a bit judicious with the clock, and remind people that they’ll have  an opportunity to go deep during rounds proper—but that varies from group to group, and it’s definitely not a hard science.

(I’m also curious how many players you tend to running with? Size definitely impacts round length: the difference between a four person table and a five person table might seem small, but it adds up, especially if you’re playing with a group who likes to yes-and each other’s ideas.)