"1-shot" Games

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

Tom I feel compelled to inform you that the image of the book in your .sig leaves me conflicted. It certainly grabs my attention but it leaves me thinking of things other than gaming.

Just sayin.

LOL! Yeah, I know what you mean. Volume two hits next week so there will be a new image there to give you yet another thing to think about besides gaming!

 

[Rel]

LOL! Yeah, I know what you mean. Volume two hits next week so there will be a new image there to give you yet another thing to think about besides gaming!

I may need to save that image then. Unless you can arrange for the model to send me a photo of her posing.

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

I may need to save that image then. Unless you can arrange for the model to send me a photo of her posing.

You could always buy the PDF and have a nice full res copy of it...

 

[DamionW]

There were two one-shot gaming experiences I've had which I truly enjoyed:

1) The orc/goblinoid raiding party adventure. The usual complaint against generating an evil character/party is that you can't motivate them to stay together long enough. Well unless your players are just immature, you can play an evil party for 4-6 hours with no problems. Playing a hobgoblin, coming up on a village's herd of sheep and setting them on fire to run through the village screaming as a means of inspiring terror is VERY fun. I think there should be many many more opportunities to explore evil/monstrous characters and 1-shots are perfect for that.

2) Role-playing from a hat. At my best friend's bachelor party all of us put one character concept, three items in their inventory, a goal in life, a dark secret in separate hats and you had to pick them out to get your character. I personally played an Elvis impersonating priest who was out to destroy all of the faeries with 16 liters of gin, some lo mein and a prayer while I was trying to hide the fact I was gay. Other people drew lava monsters, rocks, and other crazy character ideas from the hat and we had to run in the adventure the dm ad-libbed. That happened to be a D-Day style assault on the "Beach of Inordinate Muttonification" followed by a castle raid to overthrow a BBEG. It was awesome and I'd do it again any time.

Just some ideas.

 

[sniffles]

Agreed. This is what I'm using at the next NC Game Day for my Misfit Superheroes game (think Mystery Men).

My group has been doing a humorous superheroes campaign based on Mystery Men for several years. We started it in Champions but switched to Risus a couple of years ago. It's perfect for that type of campaign.

I've also played one-shots using GURPS Goblins, GURPS Discworld, BESM tri-stat, and my favorite: Kobolds Ate My Baby.

 

[Rel]

My group has been doing a humorous superheroes campaign based on Mystery Men for several years. We started it in Champions but switched to Risus a couple of years ago. It's perfect for that type of campaign.

You guys don't happen to have a website do you? A friend of mine pointed me to a Risus Mystery Men website that was great.

 

[Michael Tree]

I'm currently getting quite interested in Mutants & Masterminds 2e (haven't ever played it or 1e either) and am looking forward to a one-off adventure that Michael Tree has promised our group.

Since I'll be running a M&M one-off shortly, I guess my choice to run is M&M. Actually, that would probably also be my choice of one to play, though anything creative and high-concept appeals to me as well.

The superhero genre is especially good for one-offs, because the source material is all episodic anyway. Just create a simple two or three act story with fun villains to fight, in an interesting locations, with twists for the middle of the story and a nice firm resolution, and you have a game.

Even when I run a superhero campaign, it tends to be just a series of one-offs with some continuity between, and the occasional two-episode story, rather than having an overarching storyline.

A one-shot I played in at a con and loved, was just a group of people role-playing through a mythological creation. Each person was a god who had certain types of powers (we each picked what we had control over during the inital character creation), and most of the game was focused in on creating the world and the things living in it. Kinda esoteric, but super creative and original. I'd love to try running it sometime, but I'm lacking in players.

Sounds like fun. Was it at an Ambercon, perchance? I ask because you're in Michigan, and there tend to be lots of fun conceptual games run there.