My friends and I have a weekly campaign, but sometimes our GM needs a break. We've taken to running one-shots with another player wearing the GM hat. When it was my turn, my "one-shot" ended up lasting four sessions! This was an original adventure I'd written, and I didn't expect it to take nearly as long to complete as it did.
As I prepare to don the GM hat once more, can anyone offer advice on designing an effective one-shot? How does one confine a story to a single session? What types of stories make for good one-shots? Are there any published one-shots I should read for inspiration? Under your tutelage, it is my wish to master...The Art of the One-Shot!
My friends and I have a weekly campaign, but sometimes our GM needs a break. We've taken to running one-shots with another player wearing the GM hat. When it was my turn, my "one-shot" ended up lasting four sessions! This was an original adventure I'd written, and I didn't expect it to take nearly as long to complete as it did.
As I prepare to don the GM hat once more, can anyone offer advice on designing an effective one-shot? How does one confine a story to a single session? What types of stories make for good one-shots? Are there any published one-shots I should read for inspiration? Under your tutelage, it is my wish to master...The Art of the One-Shot!
I can understand your wish to master this style, and you don't want to detract from the main campaign. However, I say don't worry about actually confining it to one session. If you aren't running it at a convention, and your table is having fun (particularly the regular GM), let it ride!
I know this is counter to the advice you asked for, I hope this doesn't offend. I just want to encourage people to relax, and have fun with it.
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Everything that follows is personal opinion and experience, of course, so make of it what you will. But in that experience.
I can understand your wish to master this style, and you don't want to detract from the main campaign. However, I say don't worry about actually confining it to one session. If you aren't running it at a convention, and your table is having fun (particularly the regular GM), let it ride!
I know this is counter to the advice you asked for, I hope this doesn't offend. I just want to encourage people to relax, and have fun with it.
Not offended in the least. It's great advice!
If the one-shot runs long and ends up lasting two sessions, fine. Not a problem. Thing is, I have another group (old high school friends) and we only get to play together once or twice a year. I'd like to run one-shots with them too, but if it runs long there's a chance we may never finish! Guess I should have mentioned that from the start.
I can understand your wish to master this style, and you don't want to detract from the main campaign. However, I say don't worry about actually confining it to one session. If you aren't running it at a convention, and your table is having fun (particularly the regular GM), let it ride!
I know this is counter to the advice you asked for, I hope this doesn't offend. I just want to encourage people to relax, and have fun with it.
Not offended in the least. It's great advice!
If the one-shot runs long and ends up lasting two sessions, fine. Not a problem. Thing is, I have another group (old high school friends) and we only get to play together once or twice a year. I'd like to run one-shots with them too, but if it runs long there's a chance we may never finish! Guess I should have mentioned that from the start.
Yeah, that is tough; I have had similar times in my gaming life. And it's good reason to master the One-Shot.
Re: advice: Sometimes good advice is identifying the problem, or determining that there really is none. However, most of the time on the forums, it is extremely annoying. Example, "hey guys, my group likes complex detailed rules systems, and increased verisimilitude. I was thinking of using house rule 'A', do you have any advice on how best to implement this. Thanks in advance." Response: "don't do that-that isn't broken don't fix it-the game doesn't need more complexity-play something else-(my personal favorite)realism doesn't belong in a game with fireballs and dragons"....ugh!
Anyway, good luck, and good gaming memories with those old friends.
Can anyone suggest some published one-shots I should read?
I'm trying to put together a quick one-shot (three hours) for this Thursday, so any advice would be appreciated.
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If you are looking for a fun dungeon crawl that takes about three hours, you can look at these. There is one for each level, up to an average party level of seven.
5 room dungeons by John Four is a good place to start. They're quick and fun but have a point.
Another thing to do is consider - how long does it take your players to get through a fight? If they're high enough level where it takes like an hour to get through a challenging fight then look for the one-shot to be RP-centric.
Plots in one-shots tend to be simple; obvious. This is by design. You want your players to pick up the thread and follow it to the villain right away so they can get through to the end. That being said if your players enjoy plot and you feel confident throw in a simple mystery. Remember the 3-clue rule: if you want your players to learn something throw three clues or more for them to learn it.
So here's a one-shot for first level:
The party hasn't met yet. They're all in the market coincedentally when suddenly dire rats attack. The PCs not only kill a few rats but they manage to save 2 little girls in the process. Once this fight is done they meet several NPCs - a barmaid (mom to the 2 girls); a captain of the guard; a shifty herbalist and a beligerent rat-catcher with his odd niece/apprentice.
At this point, depending on which NPC the players gravitate towards, you've got 4 different choices:
1. The Barmaid - her late husband was a woodcutter and his foreman had something to do with his death. Not only that but the man stole her husband's heirloom axe. She wants the party to bust in, get to the foreman (holed up in the guildhouse) and bring him to justice along with returning the axe. She can't pay them but guarantees the party 20% cost of living reduction with free drinks and food from the bar.
2. The Guard Captain - some locals on the edge of town have had an issue with giant spiders. The vermin have been unnaturally agressive. The captain wishes the party to track the creatures down, destroy their nest, and try to determine what's driving them (spoiler: it's mites)
3. The Herbalist - there is an ordinance in town that prevents the woman from growing Stinkroot; a foul root bulb that grows in muddy runoff patches outside the walls. It is also the chief ingredient in Brewed Reek and the lady has an order she needs to whip up a batch for. She'll pay the party 10GP/bulb, to a maximum of 10 to gather some for her. Notes: it's tough to find (skill check), tough to harvest (another skill check) and is a favored foodstuff of agressive, territorial goats known as Grinning Goats since their muzzle markings make them appear to be grinning (encounter)
4. The Ratcatcher - down in the sewers he's discovered an old tunnel once sealed that's been revealed by flooding. Upside - the side tunnel leads into an old abandoned wine cellar with some fancy vintages; downside after the initial find he went back to get the rest and there was a terrible monster in the muck (a reefclaw or other level 1 aquatic creature). He asks the party to help him get back in there and he'll split the reward for the recovered bottles. What he DOESN'T know is that the reefclaw moving in has motivated OTHER monsters into the cellar...
Now you just plug in the five-room formula and you're home free.
I've been experimenting on relatively short oneshots. I tend to minimize combat, encourage skill challenges & puzzle solving.
My own little "idea" for easy one shots was inspired by the adventure time episode "mystery dungeon". Basically, you have a "starting point", and an "ending point" that is fixed. Depending on the speed of your players, you can add more/less rooms in between to fill out your play time (though it is important to "stop them from going back"). It's creating an illusion of choice (they may meet a crossroad, but you decide where they end up) that allows you to better control the time.
Each time, you choose an appropriate beginning & end, and randomly roll which room they reach at each crossroad.
I havent experimented much with it, but the people I've tried it with seemed to enjoy. I might put up my own examples eventually.
My friends and I have a weekly campaign, but sometimes our GM needs a break. We've taken to running one-shots with another player wearing the GM hat. When it was my turn, my "one-shot" ended up lasting four sessions! This was an original adventure I'd written, and I didn't expect it to take nearly as long to complete as it did.
As I prepare to don the GM hat once more, can anyone offer advice on designing an effective one-shot? How does one confine a story to a single session? What types of stories make for good one-shots? Are there any published one-shots I should read for inspiration? Under your tutelage, it is my wish to master...The Art of the One-Shot!
Every group's play speed is different. Once you get used to how long your group takes to win certain battles, how much they RP, how much time they stop playing and get into random discussion figuring out how much content you need will get easier. The length of your sessions is also a factor.
the best one-shot idea ive ever heard was something our group gm told me about recently in which a gm had a group of guys build a group of Hound Archons. as the story went they were hanging out in heaven, you know, being archons, chilling, when one by one the just... poof, being summoned by a high level wizard. as the scenario developed they found that the wizard was incredibly lazy, and would summon them for anything from a mundane chore to fighting demons, and being summons they were compelled to help him. it was a very interesting twist on a one-shot campaign where every scenario they were helping this wizard do something different, and it makes for a fun, and comedic, break from a serious campaign.
These ideas are excellent and super helpful. Please, keep them coming!
I also have a group of friends that due to living in different states only get together about once a year for a weekend or so...we've been playing the same campaign for 6 years. It's a continuation of a campaign we started when we all lived in the same town and that none of us want to end. After each session I gather up the character sheets and other campaign stuff, write up a short 1 page summery of what transpired and put it all in a big 3-ring binder on the shelf until the next time.
But back on topic, Pinnacle Entertainment Group (peginc.com) has a bunch of one sheet adventures for their savage worlds line that can easily be adapted into pathfinder one shot adventures.
One shots are also a way to break out some old, perhaps less popular rpgs and have people try them out (paranoia, alternity, dangerous journeys, world of synnibar, amber diceless roleplaying, rifts, shadowrun, champions, rolemaster, ars magica, or whatever else you' ve got cluttering up your bookshelves). If you use this route, I highly recommend having pregen characters and rules cheat sheets already made up so you can hand them out and get started right away.
If you are looking for a fun dungeon crawl that takes about three hours, you can look at these. There is one for each level, up to an average party level of seven.
Looks good. Has anyone perhaps run these on Maptools and shared the campaign file?
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If you are looking for a fun dungeon crawl that takes about three hours, you can look at these. There is one for each level, up to an average party level of seven.Looks good. Has anyone perhaps run these on Maptools and shared the campaign file?
I'm sorry, what do you mean by that?
[ . . . ]How does one confine a story to a single session? What types of stories make for good one-shots? Are there any published one-shots I should read for inspiration?[ . . . ]
Remember that your story needs to be brief. If you avoid combat you can streamline a lot of things. Imply enemies, imply possible battles, but mostly focus on exploration. Implied threat and danger is more satisfying than actual combat.
Tips:
Use illusions a lot.
Build encounters with a maximum of 1/3 of that level's experience. This translates to only a hand-full of combat encounters, but remember that combat takes a long time to complete.
Send lots of weak enemies and populate encounters with dangerous lower CR monsters.
Use at least as many monsters as there are PCs.
Have monsters take 10 on initiative. If there are multiples of a certain enemy use the rolls of 10, 12, 8, 14, 6, 16, 4, 18, 2, 20, 1, if you have more enemies then repeat from 10.
Don't waste everyone's time with making super hidden progression events, such as "Find the hidden door to progress. Oh, no one made their perception checks. Well that sucks, I guess they'll just wander around until they decide to just take 20 on searching walls." Don't expect PCs to actually look for anything.
Riddles are your bread and butter, but don't worry if no one gets them. Just have the answer hidden in plain sight, and someone else having found the answer but trapped by something else.
Remember:
[K]eep
[I]t
[S]imple,
[S]tupid
The meaning of the above is that people have a tendency to bite off FAR more than they can handle, and then not be able to manage it. If you have a story that you want to tell then write it out, tear it apart,find its most basic elements, and then rebuild it into a story with only those simple elements and the scenario built around them to the fullest.
Examples:
You want to tell an escape story. Most escape stories revolve around an extremely dangerous monster chasing the heroes who will kill them if it catches them. The danger should not be specified, if anything its lackys are the ones who manage to attack the PCs. In the end the PCs escape the beast, or they are defeated by its minions and dragged out to where it can get to them--and eat/kill/enslave them.
Remember these:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheSevenBasicPlots
Also remember that a 1-shot is usually only 4 - 6 hours long, if not shorter.
Combat can take between 30 minutes ans 2 hours, make sure that you understand this and don't think that 4 combats will take place in 4 hours when people are getting plot and exploring.
I'm sorry, what do you mean by that?If you are looking for a fun dungeon crawl that takes about three hours, you can look at these. There is one for each level, up to an average party level of seven.Looks good. Has anyone perhaps run these on Maptools and shared the campaign file?
I'm not sure what doesn't make sense, so I'll explain everything:
Maptools is one of the more popular virtual tabletops out there, and the DM saves his maps (along with everything on them such as creatures) as a campaign.
I'm interested in running the 7th level of the tower, so I'm sketching it up on Maptools now though personally I am not a guru (it's a pretty nice program, you can do fog of war and character line of sight reveals if you know what you're doing, set up macros for monster attacks and traps).
So I was wondering if you (or perhaps a fan) had already created Maptools campaign files of these one-shots (which would eliminate prep work entirely)
I'm working on one right now, though it won't be too pretty.
This thread is not what I thought it was about /wink
This thread is not what I thought it was about /wink
That's what SHE SAID!
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I'm sorry, what do you mean by that?If you are looking for a fun dungeon crawl that takes about three hours, you can look at these. There is one for each level, up to an average party level of seven.Looks good. Has anyone perhaps run these on Maptools and shared the campaign file?I'm not sure what doesn't make sense, so I'll explain everything:
Maptools is one of the more popular virtual tabletops out there, and the DM saves his maps (along with everything on them such as creatures) as a campaign.
I'm interested in running the 7th level of the tower, so I'm sketching it up on Maptools now though personally I am not a guru (it's a pretty nice program, you can do fog of war and character line of sight reveals if you know what you're doing, set up macros for monster attacks and traps).
So I was wondering if you (or perhaps a fan) had already created Maptools campaign files of these one-shots (which would eliminate prep work entirely)
I'm working on one right now, though it won't be too pretty.
Gotcha. I've never heard of Maptools, but that's makes sense now! No, nobody I know has done Maptools for this. If you don't mind, I'll send you a PM with my e-mail address. I'd love to see the file when you are done with it.