Planning a one-shot game

[Buttercup]

I want to have a game to run at GenCon for any EN World folks who might be interested. But I've never designed one before.

How do you recommend I go about it? I assume it should not be as open ended as the game sessions I usually create. I know I should create characters for people to choose from. What else should I think about? Where am I likely to go horribly wrong, if you don't warn me?

I'd like to do a standard 3.5 game. However, if people think it would be easier, I would consider a D20 Modern game.

 

[Guillaume]

Hi Buttercup,

I've never done it myself, so take it for what its worth. I'm just throwing ideas around.

Things you might want to think about : limit the number of encounters. If you want a one shot and people will have to go through the whole story arc in one session, you can't have a multitude of encounters.

Depending on your style, you might want to limit the scope of things. I know that personally, I have a tendancy to get bogged down in the introduction part of the story. The end result is that often the rest of the story feels rushed. IOW, I start the game too slow. From the adventures presented by the RPGA that I have read, most use a very short introduction. Get the characters into action ASAP, seems to be their moto. I might be wrong, I didn't read that many.

The more complicated your encounters, the less, numberwise, you will be able to play. IOW, you might be able to squeeze ten small and simple encounter in a time period, but only one large and complicated one.

The way I see it, running an adventure in a Con setting requires everything to be tighter. You can't plan on getting everyone back for another round to finish the story. Therefore, I feel that thing should be kept relatively short and simple.

Just a thought.

Good luck.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Excellent idea! Have fun with it!

My 2 cents:

I have played/run quite a few one offs. But I've only played in a small number of con games, so may not have a good grip on this. But that's never stopped me commenting before.

IMO the simpler the better - Far easier to get a feel for a lower level character than a higher level one. Also a simpler plot has more room for customising on the fly and is less likely to confuse the players! Generally found them to work best.

I liked getting a paragraph or two of simple intro for a character. Just a bit of where I come from, how I know the other party members and a vague 'what I do'. Basically short, to the point and with some big RP hooks that can be grabbed if the player wants/needs to!

FWIW, don't think the system matters, as long as it's either easy or familiar -I'd go with 3.5...

Edit: 'Plug-ins'! I like to have a few 'plot loops' that can slow things up a bit if the game is running too fast, or can be left out entirely if the players are dithering. Pretty much fleshed out random encounters. Tend to do a few roleplaying and a few combat so I can choose depending on how things are going. Don't want a 4 hour game to finish in 2 just because the players actually pay attention and do things properly!

 

[Telperion]

I would suggest using boxed stuff for your first game. There are a plethora of short games that you can basically grap from your neighborhood RPG store, read trough and start running with the minimum of prep work.

You don't have to do so much prep work, and most of the stats and everything else has been custom made for the adventure at hand by others. Sure, you probably want to go over all the details, and most likely change things a bit to better suit your DM'ing style, but that's not so bad.

The main reason why I would suggest doing this, instead of running a home brew, is because as a general rule DM's tend to create lenghty and indepth games. In my case if I ran a "short story" that I had created myself it would probably last about 2 - 3 session, and each of those sessions would average 7 - 8 hours. Not to mention that most newbies would be totally cluelessly lost with a significant portion of the intriguing plot hooks that I had spent hours writing into the script and sinking in the story to be discovered there.

So, to give my players a better session I usually read some short story, make small changes to better suit my style and then just go and run a "light" session of RPG. It isn't half as time consuming and can be very fun all the same, because everyone can easily get into the game, grasp what they need to do and get over the technical bits with the minimum of fuss.

And to top it all off: those boxed short stories will most likely actually last something like 6 - 8 hours instead of multiple times that.

About the characters: you don't want to go over 6th level. Things get exponentially difficult for both GM and Players. I have found that 6th level characters are manageable, if they are not full-casters that have to prepare their spell lists at the start of every day. Spontaneous casters are your friends in this as well, because their known spell lists are considerably shorter than divine caster spell lists or the spell book of even a half-decent wizard.

Other core classes are still fairly straigh-forward at 6th level, although I would suggest staying away from the fighter core class. The plethora of feats can seem very intimidating to a new player. Also: write short descriptions and explanations on all class abilities and feats that individual characters have and include these at the back of any and all character sheets. A player with the capacity to read will thank you many times and even the dimmer one's usually spot the helpful notes at the back sooner or later.

I would also suggest that you have at least one extra copy of the PHB with you. This is essential if you recruiting/introducing new players: having a book there simply to be looked at and briefly paged trough is a very good idea.

 

[~Johnny~]

The fact that you're offering pre-generated characters gives you a lot of control that DMs don't usually have. For example, you can have a spellcaster "preloaded" with an essential spell or scroll. You can make sure the characters already know each other, so long introductions are unnecessary.

Some ideas:

1. Come up with a logical reason for the heroes to be together (other than just "band of adventurers"). Perhaps they can be family, envoys at a council of different races, slaves, or elected champions.

2. Start en media res, with the assumption that the characters already know each other. While jumping straight into combat doesn't give players much time to roleplay, a "chase" sequence makes for a good mix of action and characterization. Consider having them be on the run or in pursuit of someone, forced to run/hide/search through an interesting environment.

3. Make goals clear and limit yourself to one twist.

4. Keep it low-level, between 3rd and 5th, so the characters have interesting features but aren't bogged down with complicated class features. When the PCs get a magic item, it should be special.

For characters that the players won't be coming back to, the lure of treasure is not what is usually is. A character-oriented reason to keep the PCs involved can really help: a child to rescue, a wedding to prevent, a loved one to protect... all of these make good hooks.

 

[Shallown]

Here is my suggestion which has worked for me on several occasions.

Create a set of 5-6th level thieves guild members. Use some multiclassing as well so they aren't all pure theives but should have at least a level or two.

The goal : Plan a heist. Its simple direct and lets the characters approach the problem from lots of angles.

The heist can be a jeweler, a money changer,a noble etc.

A list of possible pregen characters could be
A Box Man - specializes in disable device, lock pick, search
A con man - has sense motive, bluff, diplomacy, gather info
Second story man - Climb, jump, use rope, balance
Thug - Fighter/rogue with intimidate and other combat skills
Dagger man - small light weapons with bluff, tumble etc
Healer - rogue/cleric with heal, etc
Apprentice - Wizard/rogue with magical detection sleep spells etc.

The idea is to perform the robbery with out killing anyone becuase its bad for business. You assume everyone knows the town so you don't actuall have to design a city just tell them "yeah you know a local blacksmith" Where he lives his name etc is not overly important. So you can creat it as you go. Just have a short list of local names.

Plot is easy. You have none. You only write up the security measures and routines for guards etc and you leave the rest in the players hands.

It makes for a fun kind of puzzle to solve with roleplaying and tense moments as the guard walks by do you go unnoticed. Did you forget to plan the get away and a back up plan etc...

It is fairly easy and staright forward while being a challange. I have run it like 3 times at local tournaments and have never had players approach it the same way. Its even better when you design say 2-3 more characters than needed and hand them out at random, sort of makes them adapt their skills to the challenge.

The reason I say 5-6 level is that makes them skilled without being to skilled. so most locks/traps are still a challenge. they also lack access to items that let them get through too much automatically. (fly for example)

Just an idea I know I have had success with.

later

 

[Thanee]

Well, pregenerated characters of low to lower-mid levels.
A small story arch, which can be run in the limited time frame, with key encounters that you absolutely need.
Some extra encounters you could throw in at various times, if you notice, that the game was planned a bit too small actually.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Piratecat]

I've done a couple dozen of these. My guidelines:

When you pregen characters make sure you describe their personality, not their history. In addition, add a section where you say what the character thinks of the other PCs at the table.

Don't be afraid to introduce conflict; so-and-so likes so-and-so, and is in love with so-and-so, but so-and-so is jealous of this. Do this right, and you won't even need an adventure because the roleplaying will take on a life of its own. I usually start with the characters' personalities before I worry about stats and plot.

As for the adventure, limit it to 2 or 3 encounters plus roleplaying -- but have an optional encounter set aside in case they move really fast. No one ever moves really fast. Shoot for a strong beginning and end, and leave the middle a little less linear. Don't be afraid to kill characters in the last encounter if it would make sense.

Expect a four hour game: half an hour to read PCs, three hours to game, half an hour for breaks or chatting.

Encounter Example: in the Spycraft game you almost joined last year at GenCon, my layout looked like this. It was consistently 45 minutes too long, and should have been planned an hour shorter than it is:

1. Briefing. Like prelude, info & questions only. (roleplaying encounter)
2. Drop the PCs in the middle of a car chase on a mountain road. (combat encounter)
3. PCs interrogate survivors. (roleplaying encounter)
4. PCs follow clues, which lead to suspect's apartment. Investigate, probably set off traps. Find clue to where suspect fled. (puzzle & investigation/roleplaying encounter)
5. Fly to Amazon Jungle. Get past drug lord security. (trap/puzzle encounter)
6. Take out two guards. (optional -- combat or stealth encounter)
7. Infiltrate base. (combat or stealth encounter)
8. Kill doctors, blow stuff up and resolve original plot. (combat & roleplaying encounter)

If I was to run this again, I'd make the 2nd encounter (the chase) shorter by eliminating a car of bad guys, and I wouldn't allow the group to dither and stall between encounters 4 and 5. Otherwise, it seemed to be well paced.

 

[Afrodyte]

As much as I prefer, as a player, to have more autonomy in character generation, I have to vouch for pregens with one-shots. I tried doing a one-shot last week, and I feel like I failed miserably for 3 reasons: The guy who I had hoped would get information to the group didn't do so (probably forgot), I had 2 players show up that I didn't know were showing (bad judgment call to let them play because neither were familiar with 3.5), and I allowed everyone to make their own characters. What happened was that a game that was supposed to start at about 7:30 or 8:00 PM started at around 9:00. We never got to touch the main plot-line. True, we may revisit the setting, but with another guy DMing in a Judges Guild campaign and another guy DMing a campaign with a similar concept (frontier fantasy), by the time I get back to it, both I and the other players will be tired of it.

 

[Ed Cha]

Just don't be too ambitious. I've never been able to get as far as I'd like in any convention games I've ran. There just isn't enough time. Most people can only play for four to six hours before they have to go to another event or need to meet up with their friends. So keeping a track of time is essential. Be sure to schedule a short break (10 minutes) in the middle of the session so everyone can go to the restroom at the same time or take their smoke break then, instead of interrupting the pace of the game.

Again Piratecat has some great advice here. Definitely include a couple of combat scenes, one early in the session to get things going. There's got to be action! I also agree with the pre-gens. That is a must for any con game. You also want to make sure people know the basic rules as Afrodyte has pointed out. In this case, I don't think it will be a problem since you're running a game for EN World people.

Good luck!