A Thought Exercise... Making a One-Shot/"Pickup" RPG

[Dannyalcatraz]

Were I designing one from the ground up, I'd include a bunch of customizable "archetypes" for the players to choose from- essentially pregens that you can muck about with.

 

[Ariosto]

If the idea is to allow for flexible continuity of characters from session to session with minimal effort, then I would drop the scheme of characters getting ever greater pluses to this and that.

Forget about everyone happening to have on hand characters of level N -- what if they aren't hauling around character records at all? If there's no need to remember a lot of game-mechanical stuff, then it could be easy to "reconstruct" a character with what's in the game set. The really important distinctions would be in the character of the character, which should be as memorable as it is distinctive.

Thus, one could have a very episodic game that nonetheless allows for recurring characters. Scenarios could include roles of general types, playable either with the individuals indicated or with some or all key ones replaced with players' continuing characters.

 

[Wik]

If the idea is to allow for flexible continuity of characters from session to session with minimal effort, then I would drop the scheme of characters getting ever greater pluses to this and that.

Forget about everyone happening to have on hand characters of level N -- what if they aren't hauling around character records at all? If there's no need to remember a lot of game-mechanical stuff, then it could be easy to "reconstruct" a character with what's in the game set. The really important distinctions would be in the character of the character, which should be as memorable as it is distinctive.

Thus, one could have a very episodic game that nonetheless allows for recurring characters. Scenarios could include roles of general types, playable either with the individuals indicated or with some or all key ones replaced with players' continuing characters.

Yyup. You can have one-shots that completely ignore the idea of PC "Progression", since at the end of the day, you throw away the character sheet. And why bother worrying about level in such a system? I would point to the original Gamma World as an obvious example of a game that wasn't really constructed to have much in the way of "progression".

My reasoning, though, was that most RPGs have an element of mechanical progression - obviously it's there for a reason. And I'm sure a lot of players find it fun (I sure do!). So, I was saying, instead of getting rid of the idea of PC Progression for a one-shot, why not make it a part of the game itself, as opposed to something that happens "off-screen". I remember playing Diablo, and loving it when I levelled up in the middle of a fight. That, to me, was a lot more fun than, say, Final Fantasy (where I level up at the end of a fight, without having any say in my character's "progress").

 

[Shades of Green]

Two examples of such RPGs I came across on the 'net are Silent Archea, a very rules-light and fast-play sci-fi game, and The Simple Game System which is even simpler. A lightweight variant of FUDGE might also work, especially with "subjective" character generation and a few wide skills, as stats and degrees of success are self-explanatory and all you need are two d6's per player.

 

[dystmesis]

Core Rules | Microlite20

A game that everyone knows how to play, and none of the rules you don't need

 

[Shades of Green]

I've just found a cool little one-page post-apocalyptic science-fantasy game someone has posted on Dragonsfoot.

 

[Tervin]

To me, the main thing with a good "one-off" game is not the crunch, it's the fluff. Yes, the system needs to be easy, but what really matters is that the game has a clear idea that is exciting for players to pick up and run with without long preparation.

The best one off I ever ran was of the sadly never published Exile game. (The one Mark Rein Hagen tried to offer open beta on, and then had the game die on him...) When we played, the real game rules weren't even spread yet. I had a copy of the game concept, the races, and some archetypes.

I told my players this: "You lived in Utopia. The best of all possible worlds. Really you did. For some reason, which it is your job to decide, you were thrown out. Congratulations, you have lost everything you always wanted, and it is probably all your own fault. When the game starts you will be on your exit-ship a long jump away from home. Pick race and archetype and make up a background. Game will start shortly."

This ended up being a session that has been talked about for years and years. (I only need to mention the spaceship "Small White Flower" to set certain people off...) Not because of my adventure. Not because of my GM skills and semi improvised rules. But because of the characters and how the players grabbed with a simple concept and ran with it.

 

[Shades of Green]

A few more one-page games I found on the net:

Searchers of the Unknown
Scavengers and Shipwrecks
CYBORG SAMURAI ARE GO!