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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gorgon Zee" data-source="post: 8027851" data-attributes="member: 75787">I’ve run a lot of one-shots at conventions, and two things I have found universally helpful, across several systems:First, pre-created characters that are 80% ready. This reduces set-up time but still allows players to make significant changes and make the character their own. Eg.:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">13th Age: players choose backgrounds and one unique thing</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Call of Cthulhu: players have 70 percentage pints to allocate freely</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">GUMSHOE: players get one investigative and 20 points of general skills to allocate</li> </ul>anything that is mechanically tricky or takes some math should be pre-calculated, and things needing look-up like spells should be fixed, but even a little customization helps players feel agency and ownership of their character.Second, rather than define the reason why a character is in the adventure, I often ask people to explain to me why this is the case. I don’t do this universally, as sometimes I need the reasons baked in, but if you have a fairly generic set-up, i’d suggest asking the players to explain why as part of their introduction. Again, it adds player agency and gives the players buy-in into the premise of the game.so if I was running a one-shot where players were, say, off to fight a dragon, I’d make characters who have enough defined stuff that they can feel useful in the game’s premise, but let them add extra details or improve skills they’d like to have. Then I’d say: “you are meeting in the town hall to answer a plea from the mayor to rid the town of the dragon troubling it. Let’s go round the table and introduce your characters. Give your name, a brief description and tell us why you answered the call and why destroying this dragon is so important to you”</blockquote>

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