One thing I like to do whenever I am writing a one-shot is to limit myself to what I call "the rule of 3": 3 NPCs, 3 Events, 3 Places. That`s the template of my one-shots.
My best one shot experience ever was many many years ago in a dungeon and dragons game run by my friend Stuart, who essentially had us characters hold up in an inn beset by night of the living dead. It was incredible.
I did a 20th level 1 shot. 5th Ed. D&D. I suped up the gold dragon statblock, and had a dragon with tiger colouration. One player character was the barbarian that can't die until after combat. We montaged him fighting a thousand enemies, and as the last foe died, an ally threw him a greater healing potion, which, still raging, he ate bottle and all.
A great reason to run a one shot is when there will be an interruption in your regular gaming schedule. Maybe the DM can't make it one week, or several people will be away. A one shot is a great way to fill the gap for the remaining group. A neat way to use a one shot with a regular group is to "Rogue One" it. A deadly mission that will get something that the regular party will need as part of their campaign. The players won't lose their favourite characters, but get the thrill of the important mission, and a feeling of noble sacrifice.
I use one shots in two ways: Holiday themed one shots - like Christmas or Halloween. DCC makes a lot of cool holiday themed one shots. I also used it to slowly move my group from 5e to OSE Advanced. Took about 2 years.
Fantastic advice and a great list of things to do and keep in mind, delivered in a very timely and well-organized fashion (like a good one shot adventure would do!).
When I started D&D, we were all in college, and we didn't have time for full campaigns. We managed to get thru Ravenloft (I6) and made it a months long thing, and we had an ongoing Battletech game for a while, but other than that, extended play was a pipe dream. I wish I'd known about or thought of the one-shot concept. That would have been so much more productive, and maybe we wouldn't have played so much Risk that we got sick of it.
One shots are the best way I know to try a lot of new systems in a reasonable amount of time. They're also much easier to slot in as public games, it's hard to get folks to commit to a campaign at a game store or a con if you don't know they'll be consistent. I definitely agree with you that if you want to run a published one shot, don't be afraid to cut cut cut at the beginning and middle in order that the group makes it through the entire end. Nobody wants to play a game that's all build up no payoff, and it kills one shots to have to rush through the end.
I ran B/X one shots for about a year thru Meetup. Had players from 40-year veterans to people who had never rolled a die before. With a bunch of "unknown quantities" keep things fairly bone-standard and run games fast and loose. Don't worry about an individual rule or roll. The chaos that is a random party will sort itself out. Be aware of the players, and try to give everyone a moment to shine. I keep a list of questions for individual players to answer regarding their PC to help them think in character right off the bat, as well as a "Random headgear" table so they can envision a bit of their PC's appearance. "Unfortunately" I had enough repeat players that the one-shots became a campaign. So now I need to start up a whole new one-shot series...
Extra tips for one-shots: -3-4 scenes is my go to. -Revise your info dumps, and try to get as much of that info into the actual scene instead of in between scenes. -Most fun is to play around with the rules during char creation. I made a dnd 5e ranger that has Hunter's Mark always on so new players needn't track spells, I had a Rune Fighter that had runes they weren't yet powerful enough to have, giving bits from two subclasses is fun too. -Don't bar progress but have extra info grant battle advantages. -Give the new player a talking sword.
I'm glad I found your channel as I'm looking to make a one-shot or two to use for potential new players to start an officially published adventure path afterwards, just to have a feel if they're the right fit for something that'd take several sessions to conclude without any issues in regards to players getting along, same expectations, being on time, etc...
One good use of a one shot is as a “Session -1” intro to a new campaign before the character generation and general discussions of Session 0. Pregens who discover and possibly are killed by the big bad of the campaign possibly in “the past” of the main campaign. Think of it as the introductory scene before the titles of the movie. Give a chance to learn the rules - everyone should play a pregen in a new system before making their forever character - and see what people like/don’t like about the game, setting and themes.
Huge fan of oneshots here! (hell, I even wrote a game that writes them for you) There's a blog called Burn After Running that has a ton of great tips, theory and advice for running oneshots. I don't agree with everything Guy writes but I'll read every one of his posts
thanks! I've been wanting to start an open table and run one shots as a way to meet players without commiting to a campaign. I've found several published one shots but I would like to make my own.
Great tips! I'm getting ready to run some one shots for the RuneJammer online con in July. It was a lot of fun last year, but several of my games ran a little long. Im hoping I can use these tips to get my prep a little tighter, embrace that hard framing, and wrap things up on time!
My group meets once a month and very often can’t make it to every session We have a rotating castr about 12 players, some who haven’t been here for years and pop back up all of a sudden others who never miss a game Designing potent, well written one shots, ensures that everyone gets a fresh start with the showing up last month or last year We once were a chronicle group, but as lice responsibilities, Kickin, we had chronicle hooks that want it off into nothingness What started out as necessity eventually turned into a perfect fit We had plot lines that nobody remembered by the time they made it to the end having gone on multiple Side quests
I wanted to run a secret agenda one-shot for a while. Each player would get a character with an agenda and some information only known to them. And then they'd be put in like a heist situation, or a royal ball situation and would have to achieve their personal goal. They might work with others or might try to secretly foil other's plans. I'd asked on forums before but no one seems to have ran anything like that
What could be called the Origin or role playing a game called “Braunstein” by David Wesley has most of not all of those elements (the time frame is different of course) - look into that for inspiration.
Our group has a specific need to run one shots as we can’t always get everyone together at the moment. I wanted to run a series of one shots that are connected in some way by a theme…like a series of heists or frontier men out patrolling the wilds. Would appreciate the hive minds input to a series of one shots - want something with the flavour of our favourite Saturday afternoon shows as kids…A Team, McGuiver etc
Hey Daniel, love your channel. i've got a couple ideas for you as far as new videos, if you're looking for them. I know you've went over it in separate videos, but a single, comprehensive video about the differences between "point crawl" and "hex crawl" and then, i guess, the third version (story crawl??) then another video idea would be your thoughts on class as race, vs."some races can be some classes" vs. "any race can be any class". i think i know where you stand on this one, but i think it's a cool video topic. thanks, big guy, love you.
This is why I now run only open-world games. A players misses a session? No big deal! No "plot" or "storyline" to worry about having to have them there. A new player joins in? No problem! It's open, they can join anywhere without have to makeup some silly story reason why they magically appeared in the middle of a campaign. It's simple to add or replace players because they can act like hirelings at the start. Extra people that can be picked up anywhere along the way and there's no fear of "messing up the story." Hard framing is very good too. I use that style for all of my games in general. Here you are, at this place, here's this person offering a job or you're already on a job. This is so much better than, "You're in a tavern, what do you do?" No, get them started on a quest asap. Even the group that I started this past weekend started as, "You're in X tavern, in X city, the city is setup like this, you came here for your own reasons, a wealthy man with a guard walks in offering a job."
@@BanditsKeep it is almost what I do. The quests are themed to an area but commonly unconnected to each other. Singular adventures that can be dropped anywhere in the world. At this point I never have any more than three or four adventures that strong together into a bigger "story." Some others might connect to others in a minor way. Like adjusting the adventure to state that they knew this other group or traded with them, etc, but it is in itself its own thing.
Not having to fit into a campaign is huge. You can kick them off with a world-changing event. The PCs don't have to be adventurers. They can just be the people the adventure happens to. And you can risk them all dying, or getting so rich they retire, or the big-bad destroying the entire universe. Campaigns are like TV series. A one-shot can be more like a movie.
Something I like with pregen characters is you can give the characters conflicting goals. Those have usually been the ones I've had most fun playing in, so I try to include it in the ones I run as well. The other thing I like doing is starting the game asking the players for rumours they heard. One game I've run a few times has the players starting in New Mexico, Autumn of 1935, having just been hired to help with the harvest in an isolated community, so I ask what they've heard around from other drifters about the community, why it still has a harvest when the surrounds are in drought, how the community are weird, what strange thing happened one night 40 years ago; I've everything had from wicker men, meteor aliens, and weird science as a result. I've found that it increases buy in and keeps things fresh for you. The prep is a little different, I usually prep several generic enemies I can reskin, as well as some common things like guard dogs, angry villagers, and zombified villagers. You do have to be confident in your improv, and pick an obscure setting so you can make things up - Depression era US works well here in NZ, but I imaging I'd have a harder time running it in America where people might have read John Steinbeck at school
Get all the players onboard - give their characters good and connected backgrounds - run it in Boot Hill 2e. I find westerns to be some of the most fun for one shots.
@@edwardbacchetta9092 ah! Ok, I misread the first comment- looking at google now, you are correct! Seems the source I pulled it from is wrong - I shall update. Thanks!
One shots, problem of RPG core rule books and side materials of novels, comics, and movies. Star Wars, Jedi students padawans build their first lightsabers at 13years old. To build a lightsaber requires the user to have all four Force feats, which brings them up to being a 4th-level Jedi. This is with WotC 3e and 3.5e rules. So when 3e rolled it, we started all n/PC at 4th to 6th level characters. Players gate keeping or whiners the .. well .. whatever. We just tell them to shut up cause no one of a given age is starting at First Level. You just got done with your 6 year enlisted imperial service at 24years old and you have 6 character class levels fitting your military career. 2.) One shot, everyone are 1st-level rogues for the most starting skill points. You as a group are packing salted pork. Hungry rive dock rats "large rats " swam the PC trying to get to the salted pork. It is Clubbing time. After work they get beat up by the village riff raff and some milia training. By 3rd-level then they are going on road patrol looking for washouts, road repair, and other village neighbors trying to rustle livestock. b.) Start the PCs in the mid of action, after the first intense face off, the players are told they were doing a training drill in the castle.
@@BanditsKeep First ones are yes and no. Grade school like 8yo and I ask the teenagers to show me how to quick play D&D 3d6 roll under. First they used a Star Wars comic as a story board for actions. Then they did Batman. Now days with internet. Disney Clone Wars cartoon that had an episode on teenage Jedi students going to an ice world who caves hold lightsaber crystals. That cartoon is a One Shot on character development. Which later can turn into longer campaign arcs. Look at classic Westerns, every single character in the movie are not 1st-level characters but people that has been around. b.) Junior high school bunch of 12 to 14year olds, move review while playing Basic Box D&D and WEG west end games. Count the combat action beats of Conan the Destroyer along with character interactions as charisma checks.. Grandpa had just about every John Wayne movie. Then came out AD&D 2e, and we went to refigure out to run it that way. c.) At my first gaming shop 1998, I was 21years old and ran an AD&D game for a 26year, it was " Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." He never seen the movie or remember hearing anyone talk about it when he was growing up. It was fun and all new to him. After the game, the shop owner put the VHS tape on the shops tv and everyone watched it or listen to it as they played cards or roll dice along with the movie. It those fun social group moments that make life fun. Like sports bars.
One shots. a.) player group with WotC 3e multi classing rules, .. PC are rogue1/fighter1 and it is their turn as teenagers to crawl under the mill and kill large spiders that took up nesting there. Everyone in the shop laughing as that four part group deal with spider bites for a week. My rogue1/wizard1 edge lord walks into village and the DM npc a gossip old woman asking about my eye patch. Then the rest of the players start N/pc old gossip women making fun of my edge lord clothing, reason I said my granny and her friends made my outfit. After that game, everyone rolled up 12th-level multiclass druid/wizards with a bunch of minor magic items. Then we spent 3hours acting like old gossiping women out fishing. The fish stories really got out of hand and overboard. Player, " I catch a fish This BIG, but a dragon came out of the water and ate it. But since the dragon now had fishing line in his mouth, he used that line to floss his teeth. " ( .. as a teenager I didn't want over the top silly games, but when I reach my late twenties and having talkative preschool children in the gaming shop. Silly over the top games just seem more natural. ) Halfling standing on a bar foot stool boxing with an orc who is down on their knees and have their arms tied back by the elbows to reduce reach. Teaching 4 to 7year olds how to larp is fun.
@@BanditsKeep Its complicated. New player wanted an edge lord style PC, so the DM had me play a lawful evil 1st-level edge lord with eye patch and dark clothing, those are the main details so work a backstory during play. DM, " How does your PC come into the village ?" Me, edge lord comes in out of the nearest wood line into the village and politely offer some live rabbits to old women for local news and if they have a stable to rent a horse from." I roll Diplomacy/ Gather information and Preform( humor/ dry jokes ) DM npc an old gossipy woman with humor in her voice, " How did you get the eye patch ?" Me, or my character, " I walked into a tree branch, is the black eye bad ?" With me trying to sound worry and nervous, roll charisma for humor. Other players jump in as old women asking a bunch of nosy question, and rolling on how well made my granny and her sewing circle crafted my gambeson. Rolled well enough the old women started to call my PC " young lord." ---- surprise surprise the DM/players end up rolling I had Masterwork crafted padded armor which I didn't have to pay extra for. b.) When my PC went to the merchant wagon train road boss who was being PC by another player, Appraise roll my PC cloths it came up to he though my PC was a minor noble than acted offended to ruffle my PC teenage emotion temperament for dressing like a noble. My PC reply, " This is what the old women of my hamlet though Proper social clothing looks like. You can walk two days that way if you want to disagree with them. " I roll Diplomacy with intimidation to sound firm in standing my social ground. The other player role plays acts, and rolls charisma Acting/ Bluff to look scared, real scared, " There IS No Way I will argue with a group of old women on what is Proper or not." Problem was the teamster player rolled way high on the joke, and everyone that was watching our table performance rolled low on wisdom and just lost it to total laughter. We were trying our best to strait face deadpan the on going joke. But we just lost it. Movies, classic " Excaliber " from the early 1980's, the knights were nearly always making jokes or insulting each other. " Adventures of Robinhood & Merrymen." Let the making fun of insults roll. Monty Python, where the French tell the English, " You had enough today, come back tomorrow and we will insult your mothers some more." Or when a player running an orc listening to a woman talk accidently walks blindside into a door post and play reacts, " Excuse me ma'am." Looking up at the door frame only to find out he was talking to a dwarf. With multiple npc witness in game. Roll for Slap Stick. c.) Teenage boys playing Harry Potter with rubber band wands of Gnomes vs Goblins, let the trash talking begin. So at the gaming shop of eight players running MtG of four players vs four player teams.
