Good one-off RPGs

[Evenglare]

This is a no brainer. You want dungeon world, it fits exactly what you want. I mean... why are you finishing reading post instead of getting dungeon world! The only other game that kind of comes close is savage worlds. But im being super sereal... dungeon world.

 

[exile]

I would echo calls for Dread and Dungeon Crawl Classics. I have bought, but have not yet had the chance to play Dungeon World; though I would love to give it a try sometime.

 

[sydbar]

Paranoia is great. I also like Teenagers From Outer Space, for a fun not so serious game.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

One thing I've wonder about Dread is how much of an advantage/disadvantage would you have based on your skill with Jenga? Heck, I've never played it, and I'd hate to be terrible at a game simply because I metaphorically don't know how to roll the dice.

 

[Nytmare]

The tower in Dread is much more visceral than just a pile of Jenga blocks, and in my experience skill has very little to do with it. There comes a point in the story where you KNOW that the tower is about to fall. It's one, maybe two pulls away from going down and somebody is going to be taken away. When the game hits that point is when the game lives up to its name. Nobody wants to pull, not the "good" players, not the bad ones, but somebody is going to have to.

If it were competitive, and maybe over a hundred games, then yes you might notice some people lasting longer than others. In one game, in one afternoon, all you're going to know is that you don't want to pull a block.

 

[Svern]

Dread is also great. You've never seen players so invested in the outcome of a situation before. The tower becomes The Tower, and people treat it like a slumbering god. You'll hear cries of "Don't bump the table!" and "Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

 

[vdal]

Monster of the Week works really well as a one shot. I've run it when we couldn't get everyone to the table to play our regular game.
Atomic Robo worked well as a one shot too.