Good one-off RPGs

[Brodie]

So, I've been with my gaming group for about twelve or thirteen years now. We're dedicated and almost always get together every Sunday. I think one of the things that keeps things interesting is that every week we vote on who's going to run, and usually get two sessions in. (We've diversified over the past few years and done things other than RPGs, adding in board and card games.) One of the stipulations of being in the group is that you have to run something. Occasionally one of us will decide to switch the game they're running to something else. What we've played includes a lot of different systems: White Wolf's old World of Darkness, Star Wars (D20 and current FFG version), D&D 3rd/3.5/D20 Modern, WWE Know Your Role, Dresden Files, TORG, Savage Worlds, Deadlands (original), and L5R (2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions). And that's just what I can name off the top of my head.

Last year, I put my WW2-set Dresden Files game on hiatus when one of players left the group and started working on a d20 modern-based game based on shows like Firefly, Dark Matter, and Killjoys. I got all the SRD stuff I could find (including Pathfinder stuff), pieced everything together, and even made a hardcover using Lulu so the group had a hard copy to reference/make notes in.

But the thing is... I've kind of stalled creatively. I don't know if it's the holiday blues or just not being as into it as I thought I was, but I just haven't had any ideas lately. I'm loathe to start a new game so soon after working on the space game and running a handful of sessions but I also don't want to force myself to run something I'm just not feeling into. I don't think that's fair to the rest of my group much less fair to me.

What I'm looking for is suggestions for games I could test out with one-off sessions. Anything that's easy come up with ideas for or random craziness, seat-of-the-pants gaming. I'm open to any system that's relatively easy to pick up and I'm especially open to games I can easily find adventures for online. Right now, I have Shadow of the Demon Lord (I funded it on Kickstarter and have TONS adventures available to me from stretch goals, and I've been devouring the book learning the system), I have an idea for Fate Core game revolving around a rock group the has adventures in a heavy metal fantasy world just before their concerts (inspired by Brutal Legend), and I have the Dragon Age hardcover. I'm a huge fan of DA, being familiar enough with the setting that I wouldn't need to constantly look up info. But I'd really like some more lighthearted stuff to play with; SotDL and Dragon Age aren't the most lighthearted games out of there.

I'm open to suggestions.

 

[ccs]

Paranoia?

I've always found that game works best in small one-off doses. (Maybe a few sessions long)
I really can't envision playing it continuously for the 9-18 months we usually invest in other campaigns....

 

[Jhaelen]

+1 for Paranoia.

Call of Cthulhu should also work very well. There's some adventures that seem to be made to be played as one-offs. E.g. 'In Media Res', originally published in 'The Unspeakable Oath' issue #10 is utterly awesome. See here.

 

[Nytmare]

If you're willing to take a swing at some RPGs that are maybe a little bit outside what your group is used to, I'd suggest almost anything that Bully Pulpit has put out, especially Fiasco, Durance, and Juggernaut.

Fiasco is a group scene building game patterned (but not limited to) a heist movie.

Durance is a group storytelling and world building game where you create a prison planet full of absolutely everything going wrong.

Juggernaut is...hard to define. It's pretty much a straight conversation live action role playing game. You play the part of a group of cold war era scientists and government officials trying to verify the authenticity of a cryptography machine that's so good at breaking codes, that it can break them before they've been written.

For slightly more typical oneshot RPGs, I'd push for Savage World, Mouseguard, Dread, and Dogs in the Vineyard.

Savage World isn't so much a setting as it is a system. It pushes for pulpy, action packed story telling.

Mouseguard is a Burning Wheel lite character driven RPG based off the Mouseguard comic books. Lots of people hear the premise and mistakenly assume that it's a Disney-esque game about anthropomorphic animals running around being cute and singing songs, but that couldn't be further from the truth. It's deep and gritty game about a bunch of mouse soldiers trying to patrol and protect their empire.

Dread is a horror RPG based off of a very simple mechanic. In the middle of the table is a Jenga tower. Whenever a character wants to do something important, they pull a piece out of the tower. When the tower falls, the character that pulled the piece dies. Freaking spectacular.

Dogs in the Vineyard. Gunslinger paladins. Nuff said.

 

[Shades of Vengeance]

Paranoia is great for a one-off - and easy to learn, since the players don't get to know the rules!

Era: Lyres, one of our creations, is also pretty good for a one-off, very low entry barrier, and anyone who has heard of D&D can understand the concept!

I've had a lot of success with both for first-time players.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Paranoia, yes!

I think one-off games need to be either really simple to understand, or match a rules set everyone already knows.

For my part, I'd vote for Kobolds Ate My Baby. It's ridiculous fun.

 

[Morrus]

Dread. I wouldn't want to run a campaign with it, but for one-shots it's almost perfect.

One thing that's fun for one-shots is revisiting old 80s games. I have things like Ghostbusters RPG, Judge Dredd, FASA Trek, etc., which I probably wouldn't run for a campaign these days, but would love to revisit for single adventures just for fun. I did think spending a couple of months playing a different one of those each week would be fun.

[Edit - revisiting, not resisting. The number of times autocorrect has changed words to the exact opposite recently is getting silly. I recently told an artist his work was "awful" instead of "awesome"; now I'm apparently "resisting" rather than "revisiting" old games!]

 

[Nytmare]

One thing that's fun for one-shots is resisting old 80s games.

Yeah I hadn't even been thinking in this direction till Shades mentioned Paranoia. Now I have an itch to drag Tales of the Floating Vagabond, Dream Park, and whatever else I have living on that shelf of "things I haven't looked at in 20 years"


[EDIT] Oooo! Everway, Hol, and Feng Shui too!

 

[Svern]

Have you tried Dungeon Crawl Classic RPG? I've run that as a one-shot like seven or eight times now and it's always fun as hell. I always run the character funnel, which has everybody roll up completely random 0-level characters that get a profession, a tool to use as a weapon, and a trade good. Nobody's going to have more than 5 hp, so it's pretty deadly, and also pretty funny. Put 'em through an adventure and see who survives. People have grown oddly attached to their little peasants each time I've run it, and it's fun to get to play multiple characters.

 

[delericho]

The Firefly RPG is really good fun, and ideally suited to episodic play.

If you want to just test the waters, I'd recommend picking up the adventure "Bucking the Tiger" (which includes the rules needed to play the game) and also "Serenity Crew" (since you'll need some characters). That should give you a good feel of what it's about.