One-shot Design Workshop: Pulp Heroes

[kiznit]

So since we're wrapping up the Dark•Matter short campaign and we've got a few weeks before we're starting the 4e campaign, and with the coincidental timing of a certain fourth-in-a-series adventure movie coming out next month, I'm putting together a one-shot HEX (Hollow Earth Expeditions) adventure for my group. I've been brushing up on the rules and I'm interested in trying it out.

But I have absolutely no idea for an adventure scenario - just the Pulp Adventure tropes; 1936, nazis, mummies, Zeppelins, maps, angry natives, sky pirates, ruins, dinosaurs, traps, twists, and so on.

So I thought, okay, we'll start with creating the pre-generated characters, which will help me familiarize myself with the rules (none of my players know HEX), and then maybe something will occur to me as I'm visualizing them.

And then I thought, "Hey that's not a bad strategy for designing any sort of one-shot".

Step 1: Build intriguing characters with easy (even blatant) stereotypes that the players can work with right off the bat.
Step 2: Identify possible "Spotlight scenarios" where each character's skills and motivations will give them their moment to shine.
Step 3: Use the Spotlight scenarios to link together encounters and set pieces with the standard tropes of the adventure, (Maybe doing Step 1 and Step 2 for a villain character as well) which will help figure out the plot.
Step 4: Don't forget the token adventure Twist™!
Step 5: (Gaming) Profit!!​

HEX character design has a very nice character concept system - pick an Archetype (sort of a loose class), pick a Motivation (what drives them), and then pick a Flaw (what gets them style points for getting into trouble).

So I could use some help fleshing out the spotlight moments and scenarios for the handful of character types I've whipped up:

Quintana Smith, the Treasure Hunter - Archetype: Adventurer, Motivation: Truth
Partnered with curator. Flaw: Impulsive
spotlight moment: Jumping onto moving vehicles, shooting, being outnumbered and saving the day
Wang-Chung Ki, the Scrappy Kid - Archetype: Criminal, Motivation: Duty
Treasure Hunter's understudy. Flaw: Dwarf (just a kid)
spotlight moment: getting into tight places, crawling somewhere to solve a puzzle or rescue the group, pickpocketing or lockpicking something crucial
Miss Fiona Devereaux, the Forensic Scientist - Archetype: Doctor, Motivation: Fame
Dian Fossey meets Bones, has a pet monkey. Flaw: Shy
spotlight moment: Finds clues, heals party members, Villain probably falls for her
Umbutu the Fearless, the Native Shaman - Archetype: Occultist, Motivation: Faith
Clarice's first mate, bodyguard, interpreter. Flaw: Primitive
spotlight moment: Diplomatic with natives, fighting, able to tame beasts, able to understand/control a relic
Clarice Montagne, the "Black Swan", the Fearless Captain - Archetype: Explorer, Motivation: Greed
Hired by Professor, gone everywhere, faced everything. Flaw: Callous
spotlight moment: Knowing where to go, fighting, having the cool ship, pilots the narrow escape
Professor Samuel Cavendish, the Museum Curator - Archetype: Academic, Motivation: Survival
in over his head, but knows a lot. Flaw: Absent-minded
spotlight moment: Has to make a crucial decision, knows the Villain's weakness, understands the history

But above and beyond any help I'd gladly appreciate regarding coming up with a scenario for these guys, what do you think of this sort of One-shot design methodology? Think it works? Has it worked for you?

 

[kiznit]

This has been cross-posted from Circvs Maximvs in the hopes of reaping the most amount of suggestions, hope people don't mind.

So, I've got a decent take on Step 1 and Step 2 (Happy to still be taking suggestions though), so let's start Step 3.

Step 3a: Let's identify things I'd really like to have in this one-shot (which is where the one-shot starts to look like a three-or-four-shot, but that's brainstorming for you).

• A zeppelin/air ship
• Sky pirates
• Dinosaurs
• At least three different locales (Museum/Desert/Jungle?)
• Occult Nazis
• Natives worshiping something sinister
• Some sort of Puzzle

Step 3b: Now we look at our Spotlight Scenarios and try and flesh out a specific set piece that plays to each character's strengths.

• Quintana Smith: Has to retrieve something from a dangerous place through some sort of death-defying feat; i.e. fighting on top of a zeppelin, jumping onto a moving truck/tank/plane, navigating a perilous chasm, etc.
• Wang-Chung: Group is trapped and he's the only one that can fit into the crawl-space, or the mine-cart, or reach into the alcove, etc. Maybe relic gets dropped somewhere and he scrambles to get it. Maybe he has to gamble with natives.
• Fiona Devereaux: Besides healing injured party members, investigates museum bodies and other criminal evidence. Secretly in love with Quintana? Villain in love with her?
• Umbuntu the Fearless: Is able to spiritually intimidate the natives - maybe single-combat with their leader? Motivates them to usurp against the nazis using them for slave labor? Has some sort of prophetic vision about the relic?
• The Black Swan: Pilots ship against the air pirates. Connected somehow with the nazis, maybe knows a secret way into their base. Tempted somehow during the adventure to betray her teammates.
• Professor Cavendish: Is attacked by the nazis in the museum for something he knows/has discovered. Is forced along the adventure against his better wishes for some reason, obviously holds some sort of crucial key to the relic.

So just brainstorming this stuff we can already see that there's going to be some sort of relic, the nazis are probably enslaving local natives to help them dig/unearth something sinister (that the natives might worship), that the adventure will probably start in the museum somehow... and so on. So far this is a pretty effective adventure design method, if I do say so myself.

 

[kiznit]

A good approach to engaging one-shot adventures seems to be to put together 3 to 5 encounters and have them follow a tight-to-loose-back-to-tight format in terms of railroaded linearity. You start with a solid well-defined starting set-piece - action-packed, we assume, since we're in the pulp genre here - that leaves the PCs with a clear goal to achieve but a little more vaguely-defined variety of options as to how to achieve it, just enough rope to give the players room to look at their character resources and decide how to go about it.

Then one or two encounters that are either optional or have a reasonably open way to approach, which reveals something that is specific enough to lead the party towards its specific goal, which would close the adventure with a once-again tightly-defined end encounter, hopefully with an exciting twist or two, and resolution.

Following this line of reasoning, it makes sense to map out the first and last encounters before filling in the middle stuff, since the middle stuff is going to be the most optional.

So, Step 3c:

First Encounter - Nazi agents invade the museum! Let's say our treasure hunter has recently returned from Shanghai with a maguffin (scrappy child sidekick in tow as well) and has contributed it to the Museum, and our curator makes a connection to some older mystery, some sinister force waiting to be unearthed in some distant part of the world, which might explain why he brings in the Swan and the Shaman in as well-traveled consultants.

That's when the agents, clearly already well on the way to unearthing that very sinister force and needing the maguffin for some purpose to help with that, swoop in in force and steal it. Somehow the stealing needs to take place outside of the hero's control, but allow the heroes room to fend them off, maybe protect the professor (the agents may try to steal him first or kill him since he may know enough to follow/take the place of the maguffin). This provides the goal - Stop the agents from using the maguffin to unleash horrible power.

Last Encounter - Deep in a lost valley, on the very verge of the Hollow Earth itself, Ancient African ruins give way to some sinister secrets from Atlantis itself. Baron von Horbringer is looking to activate the colossus/unearth the scion/open the cardinal gate/whichever, and needs the maguffin to do it.

Hmm, already this is sounding a little too cliched and obvious, but at least we're getting stuff down on paper. What if we flip things on their head, and figure out a way to reverse what's going on, or change the set pieces around. What if things start at the Chinese dig site, among the ruins, with all the action that swinging from vines and climbing great stone walls can bring, and somehow ends up at the very museum of the curator (with a trip through the Lost Valley and/or air piracy somewhere along the way) or in the mausoleum and subcaverns thereof? What if instead of some small maguffin being the key to the great heavy half-buried Object of Doom, the maguffin is something massive and overwhelming and is the missing link to some incredibly dangerous but totally innocuous tiny object of Power?

There may be much more potential for plot twists and PC revelations if we go that kind of route.

This bears more brainstorming.

 

[cr0m]

The flaw for Fiona Devereaux should be Reckless. The plucky heroine always specializes in getting herself in trouble!

Also, since it's a one-shot, I suggest a traitor. At the beginning of the game, randomly select one player to be the secret traitor. At a moment of their choosing, they signal betraying the party by clapping their hands and saying "Bravo, Dr Smith. But I'm afraid the MacGuffin has a date with the Fuhrer!" and Nazi mooks run out of nearby trees/fruit baskets/covered trucks/an idling zeppelin/a dead t. rex/a company of gypsies/a flock of penguins and cover the party with submachine guns.

 

[Doug Sundseth]

If you can find it, I highly recommend Aaron Allston's Lands of Mystery (written for Hero Games long ago) as inspiration for Pulp games. It's intended primarily as a guide for running Lost Worlds games, but the sections of advice are very well done. The book is a first resource for me whenever I run anything approaching pulp.