How do you run a one-shot con game?

I ran a couple one-shot games with pre-gen characters over the weekend and they didn't go very well.

I've been GMing for a long time, but it's all been in long, very-open ended campaigns, where characters are free to do whatever they want, and complex plots develop over time. I realized this weekend that I was bringing too much of that style to a game where everything had be discovered and resolved in four hours. I ran out of time and the pre-gen characters were burdened with skills and attributes that didn't fit the immediate needs.

So I'd like to hear how other GMs go about creating one-shot adventures, particularly with pre-gens. How do you ensure that the players have a chance to resolve the adventure in a set time without making it feel contrived? How do you create viable characters without being sure how the players are going to approach the situation? How much do you control how they approach the situation?

Carl

To a large extent, a game intended for a convention has to commit the great Cardinal Sin: it has to railroad players. Clues have to be unmissable, and motivations for the pregenerated characters (always use pregenerated characterss!) need to be strong.

Develop encounters for the time you have available. In a four-hour time slot, I try to fit in three combat encounters (only one of which will be major), two roleplaying encounters, and a problem-solving encounter. Obviously you can do more in a six- or eight-hour slot.

Generate characters who are interesting, but mechanically fairly simple. Make sure you know the rules those PCs use: if you build a ranger who uses a whip and a hand-axe, know the whip's special properties, the rules for tripping, and the rules for sundering weapons.

For each pregenerated character, I write down six "areas of expertise," and I build the adventure so that those areas of expertise come into play. It isn't necessary that every single skill and feat be used during the game, but if a PC has "Knowledge (architecture and engineering)" at an incredible level, the player will love the chance to use it in a vital situation (e.g., quickly shoring up a bridge -- or arranging for its collapse). It's okay if the areas of expertise overlap, even within the same character. Three or four of six of the fighter PC's areas of expertise might very well be listed as "kicking much butt."

Clearly designate one character the leader in the writeups, and make hooks between characters broad and unsubtle; you want to encourage roleplaying as much as possible. Don't build in serious conflicts between characters, unless that's intended as a major part of the game. Oh, and I make PCs genderless, with ambiguous or alternate names, so the 6'5" 300 pound guy doesn't get stuck playing the elven princess if he doesn't want to.

As much as possible, allow players to choose the character they want. (Sometimes it helps to have alternates: fighter or barbarian, cleric or favored soul, sorcerer or warlock). I've found this isn't as big a deal if players aren't forced to play a gender they don't want, however. It is important to clearly identify one character as the leader, and make sure (to the extent it's possible) that an active and assertive (but not overbearing or aggressive) player gets that character.

Keep the action moving. In my home campaign, I make my PCs tell me when they're ready to do whatever they wanna do. At a con game, where people are usually all strangers, the DM often needs to prod the group to keep things moving. Summarize often, presenting the obvious options clearly to the players, to minimize "decision paralysis."

GMing convention games can be a lot of fun. Look at the opportunity as a way to stretch GMing muscles that probably don't get much of a workout in your homegroup. I find that I go much more over the top in my portrayal of NPCs at cons, for example, which is fun for me, but sometimes difficult to do in the company of my friends back home.

Hey Carl, you might get some more responses in the General RPG forum. I don't think thread is OT at all.

But yeah, Jeff is correct, railroading is the order of the day. The adventure has to be formulaic. Kill the bad guys, find a business card in one of their pockets, go to address on card, etc.

I also like to start off with an action scene - something that gets everyone involved immediately. Some background is required but it should be simple enough so someone not familiar with the system or word can jump right in and not feel overwhelmed.

By the way, what did you run?

Move, Zog! I command thee!

Moved to General RPG forum.

Also, I agree with Jeff, and can't really add more.

I've done this a few times and I agree, timing is hard. I'd rather have fewer encounters planned and wing it if the players move too fast, than not get to the finale when the time runs out. Build into the adventure ways to speed it up or slow it down. Be ready to skip an encounter or have reinforcements arrive.

Another thing to think about is character complexity--make them simple. Don't use your typical character sheets--make them easier to read and find necessary information. For instance, the player doesn't need to have AC bonuses broken out for him, only the DM needs this information. Put his AC in large type in a box somewhere. Same thing for attacks. List common attack options including things like Improved Sunder or Power Attack. You might even want to prefigure stat changes due to Rage, Bull's Strength, Enlarge Person, Haste, etc.

You might also reduce the number of items PCs have. If a con-game PC has the same amount of equipment as an equivalent home-game PC, the player is going to take forever deciding what to use. This player has only just seen this character--its not like he's played it up from 1st level over the course of several sessions. For the same reasons, don't make players of high-level spellcasters prepare spells (do it for them ahead of time). If you want to give them some leeway, give them a list of spells that the PC usually prepares, with some open slots for the player to fill.

Don't give the player's more than a page of background info (even that might be too much). It'll take too long to get started and they won't remember it all anyway.

Tailor the PCs to the challenge. Its been said before, but every character should have a skill, spell, item, etc that lets them be the hero for a moment. Tailor your adventure to the PCs. Put in some cool things for them to do, like throwing dozens of minions at the guy with Great Cleave or the sorcerer with fireball. Make the rogue pick a lock in the middle of a battle. Let the cleric turn groups of low level undead.

Don't use riddles. Maybe this is just a pet peeve of mine. I played in a con-game once where we got stuck for an hour and a half because we could not solve a riddle. The DM stubbornly sat there, giving no hints. Time ran out and we never finished the adventure.

Finally, spend some time playtesting. You don't have to get your group together, just mock up some battles and roll the dice. See if your encounters are balanced. A quick way to do this is to figure average damage per round of PCs and monsters.

Over all, make it shorter. I'm always astounded at how little can be accomplished in 4 hours.

Frex, I'm running Shadows of the Last War. It's a short, straight forward prepublished adventure. We're a 3rd of the way thru it on our 4th session.

If you want folks to finish the adventure, you've got to get from one scene to the next in a hurry. There's no time for deadends and missed chances.

Like those above have said, railroad, keep it short, and don't grant PCs skills and abilities without writing encounters tied right to them. And don't be subtle about it.

PS

IF you are in need of Mod's fof A con Style Event I would suggest joining the RPGA. The RPGA has a large number of modules that you can download for free. In there Classics Section there are Modules with Pre-Made Characters designed for the module. In the Living Campaings Sections you have a choice of settings to chose from and there are rules that allow your players to create personal characters that can be advanced and played from module to module.

I agree that this style of play is not for everyone. But the RPGA is a great resource for this type of event.

When I've run a one-shot game it's always been a bit of railroad, but only out of having to stay within a time constraint. Not that I ever make those time constaints largely. Last time I ended about on time, but the time before (and the plot which I'll be running at GenCon) I had to axe chunks of material and fastforward a bit to actually reach the climax of it all.

smilinggm said:

IF you are in need of Mod's fof A con Style Event I would suggest joining the RPGA. The RPGA has a large number of modules that you can download for free. In there Classics Section there are Modules with Pre-Made Characters designed for the module. In the Living Campaings Sections you have a choice of settings to chose from and there are rules that allow your players to create personal characters that can be advanced and played from module to module.

Click to expand...

Although, be forwarned:
1) When you order an RPGA module, you're agreeing to run it by the RPGA's rules, and, after you've run it, report back to the RPGA that it's been played (including the RPGA numbers of the DM and the players).
2) If you're looking to run something at a con that's already running RPGA events, you really should co-ordinate something like this with whoever's co-ordinating the RPGA events for that con.

I run a ton of one-shot games for events and just because it is sometimes easier to schedule. Mostly they fall under the four or five hour timeframe. I try to be sure that encounters have many solutions and that pre-gens are well-rounded. Specialist characters tend to be less fun to play as pre-gens than generalists. Don't underestimate how many other ways the players can come up with for using skills or gear. Don't try to lock each PC into having a specific item or ability that makes them essential to specific encounters.

Otherwise, I approach it much in the same way I would when a new group gets together for a campaign game. If we're starting off at low levels I use a more traditional setting for the beginning of the game but no matter the level I try to jump right into the action. Sure, I'll give the players a little bit of time to look over their character sheets but unless they are completely new to the game we jump right in.

I try to keep the first encounter easy to overcome but somewhat resilient. This gives the players time to get their sea legs without too much threat of major losses. Like throwing a heavily armored, AC buffed fighter at them, armed only with a stick with a nail through it. Somehow this first encounter should also set the stage for the adventure, it is either the hook or leads to the hook. It should also include a clue to the second encounter.

The second encounter should include enough information to lead to the second-to-last potential encounter/surrogate final enounter.

Now I'll be going out of order but it will make sense later...

I make sure that the potential climax/final encounter is very tough to outright win and more likely to be won by driving off the enemy (always leave them wanting more, i.e. "We won but perhaps only for today..."). So-called "falling action" can usually be best handled during clean up, so I really like the game to end as the final encounter ends, for good or ill. As the books and the minis are being stowed you can recount how they searched and found this treasure or that final piece of the puzzle. You can let them know that they carried the important thing back just in time to help the king and save the kingdom. Hang the medals of honor on Han, Luke and Chewy as your cleaning off the battlemat. It's all good narative and saves table time for the things where the players are more involved.

The potential second-to-last encounter I try to set up as a surrogate final encounter, just in case that's all the further the group gets in the allotted time (A way out that doesn't leave things too unsatisfying for me or the players).

I usually plan for about six or seven potential encounters for such a timeframe. The potential third encounter is one that I set up as optional. It lies in the path between the second and the second-to-last only if I haven't passed the midway point on the clock. It fits in the theme and there is something available as treasure that will help the party with the final encounter that I can transfer to the treasure of the second-to-last enouter if I drop the potential third encounter entirely.

That's five planned encounters and you'll note that one, two and the second-to-last are set up as a full-enough adventure should the players devote the full amount of given time to them or should they wish to devote a large amount of time to interaction and roleplaying between encounters (which isn't to say that the actual planned encounters cannot be roleplaying encounters as opposed to combat encounters). Nothing wrong with that and you're prepared. The third you can drop on the fly and the potential finale is always there should you have extra time at the end or if they are keeping a brisk pace through the scenario.

But just in case...

Two additional encounters should be prepared that are completely unneeded but thematically tied in. If everything else takes place in Orc territory, one encounter might be with a random group of Orc hunters (perhaps out of their league and now being hunted themselves) and the other might be some sort of random creature that likely subsists on Orc meat (a lone but alpha pedator) These should be designed in such a way that you can toss them in any time after the third. Note that one allows you to interact and give more information to the players while the other is set up as purely a muscle flexer.

Also, I keep a whole pile of PCs available. I encourage players to choose the more mainstream ones at the start of the game but if someone dies early I allow them to pick another from the pile and "catch up to the group from behind" as if they are just late to the party. Unless it is some sort of tournament with advancing rounds, it hurts noone and is easier to design since all of your encounters take a full party into consideration.

Anyway, that's a quick version of a design process for a one-shot that I find works very well. (YMMV) Hope it helps!