Your best "one shot" experience.

[Marius Delphus]

Atlas Games' "Burning Shaolin." Excised the section that introduces the PCs to the "broader world" of Feng Shui and ran it totally over the top: hammered home a number of references to stereotypical kung fu flicks and kept the pressure on to move move move! Doubled the number of opponents because of the number of players; still finished in under 4 hours.

The players also got a kick out of the pregen PCs, created using a swirling mix of Four Color to Fantasy, hong's Martial Artist rules, and PHB classes. Let's see if I can remember them all: the Armadillo, Porcelain Doll, Bamboo Cane, Yellow Dragon, Shadow Creeper, Flying Monkey, and Fa Fool (whose fu is so strange that no one can predict what he'll do next). Extra PCs the players didn't select: Doctor Wong, Tong Shout, and Thunder Foot. I *think* that's right....

Features of a good one-shot (IMHO): (1) All the players get a chance to do something cool. (2) Self-contained plot, including definitive finale (whether or not it's a TPK). (3) "Flick" style DMing (horror flick, kung fu flick, pulp fantasy flick, pick your flick). (4) Character hooks (the players need to instantly "click" with the characters).

Fa Fool's line "Feel My Fu!" looks like it'll reach Legend status very soon. One must also remember the Armadillo's favorite weapon (the outhouse), Porcelain Doll's "Instant Attitude Adjustment," Flying Monkey's ability to go *anywhere* on the map, and Bamboo Cane's "Mook Mower Moves," among other golden moments.

I'd *like* to run a sequel, but I fear the experience won't live up to the original.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

I'm also running a one shot tonight (AU Demo Adventure Between Life and Death), so I'd also like to hear about one-offs, in particular, what (beyond running a good adventure) makes a one nighter good?

While I didn't get to use any of these ideas last night, I'd like to say that I found this post in particular very helpful. I'm about to start an AU campaign that I will be alternating between Midnight sessions.

I had forgotten about this little gem and it looks like this module will be perfect to use to get us started.

So how did your session go, Macbeth?

 

[Wikidogre]

umm, mine is for d20 modern, but one nighter, SWAT characters, hostage situation involving the City Center mall here in downtown Columbus, very very fun they had.

 

[Macbeth]

While I didn't get to use any of these ideas last night, I'd like to say that I found this post in particular very helpful. I'm about to start an AU campaign that I will be alternating between Midnight sessions.

I had forgotten about this little gem and it looks like this module will be perfect to use to get us started.

So how did your session go, Macbeth?

Actually it went amazingly well. My play style dosen't have too mcuh in common with most of the other players here, so it ended up being a compromise between my deep roleplaying and their hevy combat, and it turned out well. In my opinion it could have used more roleplaying, but when all of the players end the session by asking if we can run a long term campaign using the same rules ( a few even wanted the same pre-generated characters!). One of the newer players (this guy started showing up to the club meetings without any RPG experience) did some great roleplaying (at least compared to the rest) as the Giant Champion of life. The spryte turned into this anoying little pest that continually circled around the party, which seemed slightly out of character for a Magister, but she got a kick out of the spell system, so it turned out alright.
Spoiler:

Spoiler

The party managed to lower the black ooze's Dex to 0, and they proceded to chop at for several rounds... with bladed weapons

So yeah, I'd say it was a good adventure. Well written, good pre-gen characters, awesome ruleset. When all of the players think its so good they want to play a campaign based on it, i think it can be called a succes. Of course it wasn't good in the one-shot type of good (no TPK, no crazy characters, nothing unusual), but a good game none the less.

 

[Tewligan]

Mine would be the Spycraft game run by Piratecat at GenCon this year. It opened up in the thick of things, with a shooting car chase on a treacherous mountain road in, I believe, Majorca. Shortly thereafter, we found ourselves negotiating with a lone survivor, who was threatening us with a live grenade and standing at the edge of the cliff. Negotiations were going nowhere, so there was obviously no other option but to bullrush the guy over the edge (I don't play a very good faceman, I'm afraid.) Later, there were Nazis, rampaging animals, exploding munitions dumps, and brain transplants. A damn good time - I wish I had the chance to play in more non-campaign one shots.

 

[Vymair]

I had a young minister at my church who ran an adventure for the teens in the church who were into D&D and then ran our parents through the exact same adventure so they could get some familiarity with the game and reduce any concerns they had about our gaming.

The story was very cool. It was set in first century Jerusalem right before Christ's birth and after the Wise Men visit Herod he imprisons them instead of letting them go in search of Jesus. The party's job was to find the Wise Men and free them.

Unfortunately for me, both my characters died before we completed the adventure so I can't tell you if we pulled it off.