Let's Play A One-Shot - Running RPGs
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- Опубліковано 17 бер 2019
- Ever want to play a single-session game, test-run a new TTRPG, or just try your hand at being Game Master without committing yourself to a full campaign? Here's how I do one-shot games.
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Guest starring Mike, Todd, Dweebles, and Jack the NPC
Back in the 1990's, I decided to try this new game I had called Call of Cthulhu, so I created a one-shot to test with my crew.
My one-shot ran for 2 1/2 years. 😸😸😸
Yeah.... that's always a possibility, as well. I suppose I could have included the disclaimer "Use 1-shots at your own risk," but no need to scare people away from at least trying them out.
My one shots usually take place within the greater campaign. The players will show up and I will hand them characters. These will often be dead bodies that the other characters find later, or the surviving one might be the person that brings them the message about the campaign greater plot. Other times it will be just to add flavour and colour to the universe they’re walking around in, be it past or present.
Great idea! My players would get off on that. Stolen with respect!
I am doing this for my next group that is made of players that died in the area and will meet the survivors of my last one shot.
Have a game where everyone dies fighting an evil wizard with one shot characters. A few months later your players' characters hear rumors of a lich dungeon. As they start to think a few of the things in this game, feels, familiar . Have them find the centuries old dead bodies of the characters that already played this dungeon .
Let them keep the equipment if they can.
That's a really cool idea; using a one-shot as a cut-away to highlight other parts of the plot.
Damn that's a good idea, thanks!
I remember when I tried to make a one shot.
My players like it a lot, so now it's a full blown campaign.
Know that feeling. I made some of the most liked chars back for other PCs/NPCs and I also made references to old adventures in new oned (e.g. they found a UFO in one game, now a few adventures later they found the same UFO in a diffrent one shot, now beeing the clean up crew) I see it like a cinematic universe or whatever
Same thing happened to me. And now I’m about to do ANOTHER one-shot with them XD
That's a real plot twist :B
I start with a one-shot and if the players like it, I continue it. I usually keep an idea of where I want it to go afterward if they want to keep going
Like the girl who badgered Weezer into covering Africa, I am going to call for Seth to make a full-length feature film starring Seth and only Seth at every video he releases.
Two words “ALIENS’
Ok, it’s one word, geography was not my forte....
Sounds ideal for a Traveller one shot
“Pull no punches has a whole new dimension in a game like PARANOIA.
'You want to be the fry cook' my mind immediately went to a character built to be basically spongebob
After the reveal, I thought of Archer having amnesia, thinking he's Bob Belcher.
So today's session, instead of saying 'Roll for initiative', I going to use the phrase 'Are ya ready, kids?!'
@@Dorian_sapiens that would be so good!
The GM exists in the world, he's just trapped in a painting like in Luigi's Mansion.
the true power of rpg is that I always love it when todd behaves well
I’ve gotten very good at one-shots by running a longform D&D 5e campaign based on 1001 Arabian Nights where every session is a one-shot.
It’s going well, as I was finally able to reveal the entire campaign is a giant meta puzzle to figure out who Scheherazade and Shahryar truly are and how they are connected to the Lovecraftian cult whose goal is to end the story
This sounds awesome ! !
"The Fiendish Nazi Mummies of the Third Reich"? Uhm, please do a video on that! Get it published! I need to try this!
Go with half-fiend fiendish mummy. Fire immunity with higher strength score bonus atk/ dmg. per hit with Power Attacks.
Don't forget to play up the mummy Fear on sight effect.
Seth, I love your videos. I advise a RPG club at my university. I use your videos for DM training. Excellent as always!
Thank you very much. Glad they've been helpful (or at least entertaining) for you.
@@SSkorkowsky I'm always excited to see your new content!
Seth, really appreciate the time and effort you put into your vids. Great job as always.
Exactly
Well put.
I don’t know why Todd complained about the Veteran, sounds like he was just handed Old Man Henderson.
Ah, but Old Man Henderson said he fought in the Vietnam War.... but he was born *after* the Vietnam War.
i was thinking of rumsfeld from The Burbs lol... 'scope me'
@@utubebgay A soldier's way saves the day. Entrée.
"Hello everybody, Seth Skorkowsky here!" Hi Seth! 👋😁
Sup Seth!!!
Hey, Hey People, Seth here!
Hello Seth - Everybody here :D
The more I DM, the more I see the incredibly differentiated perspectives you provide and you've slowly and steadily worked your way to the top of my favourite DnD channels !! Awesome stuff as always!
I was in the kitchen, putting away clean dishes and watching your video in the background and had to go over and pause it, because the Vietnam War vet had me laughing so hard LOL!
Seth, I'm stealing the title "The Fiendish Nazi Mummies of the Third Reich."
I don't know when I'm going to use it, or what I'll use it for, but I'm stealing it. A title that good needs used.
This video actually inspired me to incorporate one-shots into my long-running campaign that will later add to the story, this is so goddamn good and relevant.
I can tell Seth must be a fun GM by that suppressed grin of glee @ 13:32. And this is just a skit!
What kills me is that I used to be good at oneshots and I just tried one and it was kinda stilted and goofy.
I really needed to hear this video, this is after TWENTY YEARS of experience of DMing; I've been doing continuous games for so long I literally forgot how to do one shots well. Pft.
Thanks Seth.
abortedlord my first one shot was based on the all star music video so starting out with a goofy one shot isn't weird
I had to pause this video frequently due to all those ideas popping into my head 😀
This video teaches me everything I wish I knew when I first tried my hand at DMing a one shot. A bunch of these I learned the hard way.
Very good advice even after 4 yrs. I use all of these but have changed it up a bit with my upcoming game. I only created one set of characters. If they die, they respawn like dark souls. This way I don't have to make several adds for them and its a one shot the dungeon is cruel and sadistic this way. Only one way out and that is through it. Also I give team winning conditions to my one shots. I set objectives and time limits, they get points for completing them. I also give individual winning conditions. Each time a player dies, they lose a certain amount of points [in this case gold pieces], as they accumulate treasure, it is all added up and then subtracted per death, [sat 500 points/gps], whoever has the most at the end wins. Team objectives have benchmarks so if you accumulate 1000 points its a pyrrhic victory, 2000 points a minor victory, and so on. This way players can win or lose in two ways as well as having fun playing the game. Cheers.
Tee shirt game is still is on point Seth!
As a player I really enjoy making characters for one shots. Since you know that it will be one time only it's a great opportunity to experiment and step out of your comfort zone.
Came back here for a refresher. My next few sessions are a related set of one shots.
Thanks for the English subtitles, it makes the video easier to watch by translating it into Spanish. (Google Translate) 🎉🎉🎉
Nice. The zombie stuff reminds me of the Halloween one shots I try and run every year. Thanks for the useful video, btw. Gearing up for a Shadowrun campaign for the first time in 18 years or so, and this video had me decide to run a one shot first before really getting into it.
Glad I’m not the only one who likes doing Halloween games.
By the by, how did the Shadowrun game go? Well, I hope.
@@jesternario Went of real well. I did a variant of Seth's recommendation on how to start out a new system as most of the group hadn't played Shadowrun since 3rd, and two were totally new. The first real session involved a lot of muddling our way through the 5th ed rules, but it went a lot smoother than anticipated and we're all looking forward to the first real adventure in the campaign next week.
@@meatguyf1375 Well that is just excellent. Hey, since you have the current edition, are they still trying to do that augmented reality matrix that everyone is tapped into thing?
@@jesternario They very much are, yes. I've actually butted heads a bit with a friend who has some credits on Shadowrun stuff about that aspect of it. We don't have a decker in the party, so the matrix isn't a big thing for them, and we largely ignore the AR stuff for now. I've also set the campaign in Miami, which got devastated by a hurricane recently, so the AR stuff isn't up to the same level as other large cities right now. My only two real gripes about 5th edition is the editing being very shoddy at times, and the odd AR stuff which I'm not real into.
When I was playing back in the 1e/2e days, one-shots weren't even a thing, although many modules were designed for tournament play, making them effectively one-shots. But I mostly played with guys who had already been thru all those modules, so I was on my own. I wish I had known how useful the format was, because I was stuck trying to make my own campaign world, with extended adventure settings, and never managed to play more than a session or two with any given group. One-shots would have made all the game time we wasted so much better. And we could have tried out all those other systems I was so interested in. Well, live and learn.
Great advice! I do a lot of one shots for convention demos/games and I have for many years. I still found some great ideas from your video to help me for my next convention. Thanks.
You posted video just in time mate! I am preparing my first one-two shot game for my friends as a GM. Your tips are very useful.
We finally know the full names of your players, and it seems Dweebles has accepted his name! Also congratulations on 30k subscribers!
I love your approach to oneshots. Thank you :)
Excellent as always.
I still have that Mechwarrior book you used in the sniper segment. Good game.
Your advice is amazing. Every damn time!
I’ll never know if I can live off of ice cream sandwiches unless I try first. Wish me luck!
Good luck and god speed. You're doing important work.
So selfless and so courageous. You will be a hero no matter how it turns out.
You can do it coffee man!
If you die can I have your stereo?
If it doesn't work, what a way to go!
How did that work out for you?
Thanks for this, Seth! You sold me on taking the leap to GM the one shots I picked up last Free RPG day. You make it sound so fun that I’m going to put our current campaign on hold to try something new for once. 😎
Great video! I enjoyed your structured approach and very clear distinction between one-shots and campaigns 😮
Just wanted to say again that I have never played any of these games but I am very much enjoying your videos. This is cool and may even get me into trying a gaming session somewhere :)
Great, practical advice, and entertainingly presented, as ever - cheers.
saw this video on a refresh and could not be more happy
PARANOIA always seemed made for one shots to me. It is no -stop madcap insanity from start to finish and each character is likely to die multiple times in the course of the game.
I would love to try a game of Paranoia, even just a one-shot.
Thats an awesome one, i had so much fun watching 😎
Great video and great advice.
Awesome video! Right on point!
I've been wanting to do a one shot for a while now. Problem was I didn't know how. This video was definitely a great help. Thanks Seth.
This literally could not come at a better time Seth! I am running a 1-shot tomorrow cause one of my MoN group players can't make it. I'll run Dissociation which you've reviewed, with a twist. I love 1-shots cause you can go as crazy as you want!
As soon as I heard about slaughtering the unchosen characters in the intro and then saw the derelict cover I thought about making one which involves the titanic’s sinking derailing the plot from supposed plot location of New York into the real secret plot and I felt clever. Got working on that but came back to finish the video and I see your false plot suggestion. I’m still going to do it but feel less clever now lol. That being said thanks for the inspiration Edit: fixed some autocorrect
Love your videos Seth. Your breakdown of 7e, your reviews, advice and enthusiasm have helped get me pumped for trying Coc for the first time. Keep up the great work.
Thank you very much. Have fun with Call of Cthulhu.
PERFECT TIMING, and great video (as always!) I'm putting together a one-shot to test my new game system next week, and I've never run a one-shot before. Between this video and your Cyberpunk 2020 Open Highway Review (the player's mission will be based on that), I already feel much more comfortable with this.
Open Highway is a great example of an adventure that's just a journey between two points.
Man, I love your videos. I really like that you talk about great games such as Cyberpunk, Paranoia, and not only Dungeon Crawling, like other channels do... I love the reviews too (and I love that you talk abotu some oldies!!) Talking about one-shots, I´d like to know what do you think about games with more player input, and less preparation, like PbtA games. If you have tried those (Apocalypse World, Dungeon World, Action Movie World, etc). I find them very liberating as a GM, and I think some of them are great for one-shots (and for "short" campaigns).
Great video. Not a topic I'm very interested at the moment, but I enjoyed watching it nonetheless. Keep on creating this high quality content.
I am Bender please insert girder
As a player who's only had three sessions so far, I'm thinking of asking my game master if I can try it out in a few weeks. Great video.
The sniper section of this videos is just PURE gold, hahahaha ^^
I know it has been done in real life, but using an antimateriel rifle against personnel is just on another level of FU.
Really great suggestions as usual seth I used to play one shots of the old Fasa Star trek game they made for some great episode like adventures you've definitely provided some great ideas for some fun one shots thanks!
I love your T-Shirt. As a kid I collected Choose Your Own Adventure books.
As always, I learn a ton from your videos
Cool video, nice tips!
very cool seeing the Keith Parkinson print- cool insights thankyou
Our group plays a Halloween one-shot every year, my favourite was a "dream sequence" that took place with our regular toons, but was in an 8-bit NES-themed "Ninten-dungeon" that had achieved legendary status. The climactic final boss battle was against a corrupted dragon turtle based on the Bowser fights in the original Super Mario Bros game. So much fun.
I'm from the future. Its crazy that this is the exact way Alien RPG's Cinematic Scenarios work. Premade characters that are meant to die....and then new npcs they can take over when they die. This is a great idea and I will definitely be using this method for the future.
Great tips and hilarious reactions of the Players at the table when the sniper took out the Ramones dude. Question: Could you do a video like this but of a fictional game session played out, interspersed perhaps with tips, but primarily a mock gaming session? The only thing cooler would be an interactive video where you lead an actual game, which probably isn't in the cards anytime soon. I know you've got lots of great comedy sketches, but a whole video of a gaming session with you as GM and all the players would be awesome.
Haha, I just found the "Edge Lords" vid with The Gang presenting the ideas with a game session. More of these, please!
Love the skits lol.
There are other uses for one shots that do well, one major thing is to have a prequel or interlude adventure mixed into the campaign.
Gentlemen's Agreement is a longer Spycraft campaign from their first edition (1.0 Silver books) where in the middle of it, you have what is essentially a one shot adventure mixed into it where it's events that happen in the 1960's and you don't use your normal characters, but it still effects the campaign as it continues.
I did the same kind of thing in a Star Wars game where I started a campaign near the normal end of the Clone Wars, letting the players see what was about to happen in order to change the fate of the Galaxy...by being a Separatist cell that Dooku had inserted to Coruscant with a goal of retaliating if he is killed by Palpatine...that story ended with the Senate building going up in flames following the last members of the party plowing a bomb loaded speeder directly into the chancillor's office, the last thing they saw before the end was Mace holding Palpatine at saber point...
They didn't expect me to pull that on them with an intended alternate one.
I've also run a few one shots for more event situations, the big one is an adventure I keep working out the specifics of and have run different versions at different times. Basically a pseudo-historical setting in Colonial America that involves a small village being threatened by a werewolf with several interesting character options for the players.
Great tips thanks! :D
I do the same thing with one shots, a description of the character not the actual sheet because that leads to a bunch of questions and contention for 'the best' character.
Thanks for this great and helpful video! 🙂 I’m planning to run a One-Shot with a couple of friends of mine soon, namely The end of the world: Zombie Apocalypse where they get to play as themselves. I’ll incorporate a few of your tips for sure!
Nice timing this video came out right after I got the COC quickstarter based on your recommendation.
Have fun with it.
Also, one-shots are nice tie-in adventures into a larger campaigns ... just with different characters. Think butterfly effect happening in some other place. O-S characters may reappear as NPCs or not at all.
Seth, huge fan of your channel! Your videos gave me the courage to run Dead Lights for my gaming group. It went so well! I’d love to see some info directed towards new keepers, and maybe a review of the scenarios in the 7th Ed. Keepers Guide. Thank you so much for your excellent content. I know how much work it takes, and your effort is deeply appreciated!!!
I've never run the scenarios in the 7e Keeper Guide. But some of my favorite new-Keeper-friendly Call of Cthulhu scenarios are The Haunting, Edge of Darkness, Darkness Beneath the Hill, Crack'd and Crook'd Manse, and Blackwater Creek
@@SSkorkowsky thanks so much for the reply! I'll check those modules out. Dead Lights went so well, everyone wants to play tonight so...I'll let you know how "Amidst the Ancient Trees" goes. Thanks for your superb content. I wouldn't have tried to run a game without your outstanding videos.
loved the video, thanks to you i'm ging to play Edge of darknes. hope they survive peaking the attic.
and do you have any tips for pc to actually care for their investigators in the long run?
I like to keep a one shot scenario with premade characters ready to go. I keep it in my gaming bag for when the critical characters/players don't show up for a regular game. Saves me from having to play board games. COC is great for this.
My group used to do a compromise between one shot and full campaign in a game world we built together for the purpose of a backup to whoever was running a regular campaign. Our group was big enough that we could be down 3 players one week meaning it would be bad to play the regular campaign so whoever had a one night session written up (which a few of us usually did) we would pull out the "one shot" characters and play an "episode". This also worked for if the current DM was sick or needed a break or we were between regular adventures. We kept it going for several years some of us using the same character for 9 to 10 levels (in 3.5 D&D) others trying different character ideas over the years.
I have always wanted to do one shots like episodes, so the end of each game can be the end, but you can always do another episode at a later date, think TOS Star Trek, me and my players right now and probably for life scattered all over the western USA and one back east, so if were rly lucky we can get together once a year, so I have felt that this format could work really well for how scattered we are.
Great advice on DM made PCs for the one shot.
Also, I recognized that picture from the ol' FASA Mechwarrior book. Man, I haven't seen that in almost 30 years. Good times.
How fortuitous, I'm planning on doing a one shot with my friends to try out Fate Core within the next couple of weeks. Got some good ideas from here!
You deserve SO MANY likes on this vid for calling iut the trope of snipers and laser sights.
Oooo, this gave me the idea of doing some sort of infiltration one shot where the stolen map is give false direction...
I never thought of having a handful of extras. I like that idea. I try to incorporate one shots / side trax into my campaigns to spice things up and present a different direction than what was written 35 or so years ago. As much as I really love a classic TSR module, some of the adventures published in Dungeon Magazine were better.
I ran The Dare, thanks to you. And my players all survived and loved it. So I had to make new adventures, based on CoC rules, because they wanted to keep playing as their 1980s tween characters. Ended up almost stealing "It" in its entirety, as my players had to venture into the sewers to defeat an Outside creature that killed their friend. Was pretty fun, but since there isnt much game mechanics for Kid-Cthulhu, I had to make it up as I went. I ended up having them grow up, and been running modern CoC scenarios since, which I didnt like, because I wanted to play 1920s CoC, but its what they wanted. After this campaign ends, I'm running Intimate Encounters. Thanks for the wonderful insight, my players really have fun playing these games, and I'm having fun trying to find new ways to scar these fucks for life.
Hi Seth, firstly I want to mention that I love your videos and they've helped me out a lot. Are there any one shot adventures that you've written, and if so are they out there for downloading?
Thank you very much. At the moment, I have no published scenarios. Though my first will be released in The New Tales From The Miskatonic Valley collection by Stygian Fox sometime soon.
Really one shots for me I prefer in the same universe unless I am looking for significantly different settings or styles that way it is easy to create a world despite players not spending too long in it and it allows longer adventures to spring up when the players are interested and want to keep playing.
Powered by the apolopse games work really well for one shots
Love your videos! Thanks to your help, tommorow we begin ladybug ladybug fly away home with my sweet new call of cthulhu v7 books! A brand new start in a new system for us!
Glad to help. Have fun with Call of Cthulhu.
Ωραίος ;)
Heya Seth, thanks for the good tips!
As part of preparing the pre-made player characters, how do you feel about giving them pre-existing relationships and intrigues? I'm preparing a one-shot using randomized character generation where a few of the characters fit well together (such as a goblin and a pixie, in a setting where goblins are known to kidnap pixies to for use as spell components; in this case, they would both be captives in the same dungeon). I think doing this will give the players something to work off of from the get-go and avoid some of that "first episode" awkwardness.
Cheers,
Nick
Thanks, Seth - this video was awesome! I really want to give DM'ing a try and this video has convinced me to start with a One Shot. Does anyone have any good suggestions for a One Shot module for beginner DM's and/or players for D&D 5E?
I wrote a one-shot that I want to use to try out my new character creation rules: the players don't get pre-gens, nor do they make characters before the game starts. Besides name and race, all other aspects of character building occur while the game is in progress.
I love one shots!
You didn't mention them specifically, but you did talk about some of the (many) tropes of which they are made. Films noir make great one-shot games.
I want to see Dweebles play Lady Blackbird!
For me one-shots are great in two or three types of situations:
1. Teaching/learning a new game, including players with no prior experience in RPGs. The players learn the basic rules, what skills are useful and so on.
2. When there's limited time, typically as an event in game Conventions when several groups have 3-4 hours to play the same scenario over a weekend.
3. To test a new group of players before committing to a full blown campaign. Will this group do well together? Are all players willing to meet repeatedly to play this game for a year or so?
I can't live off of ice cream sundaes huh? Imma take that as a challenge!
I made a 4 hour one-shot out of a bunch of vampire kids (fledgelings, 9 to 17 years old physically) going to a new city, finding somewhere to sleep, going bowling and taking someone's parrot to the vet to pay for their lodgings.
The players now all want to join my campaign x)
I've done a series of loosely tied together one shots prior to my current campaign, all taking place in the same small isolated forest village at different points in time, essentially letting my players play out "the past" of the village.
For example; There might be a adventure where the players needed to say, confront the druids in the forest, who are getting angry at the expansion of the village at the expense of the surrounding woodland area. The result of the one shot, might result in druids being considered friends of the village, the villagers turning to the local church for aid, meaning that the next (or perhaps several) one shot might exclude the druid as a playable class, with focus on the priest class instead, because the druids are now feared akin to how witches were feared in the dark ages.
The good thing here is that even one shots that ends in failure can serve as wonderful future plot hooks further down the chronological timeframe; Failing to kill the werewolf might lead to several townspeople becoming infected with lycantrophy, or the villagers taking up the habit of always wearing silver adorned necklages around their necks for good luck, or even deciding to build their houses in the trees like elves do.
This can also serves as a great future hook for keeping the players in that same village, instead of just leaving it after lvl. 4 and never coming back once they've reached bigger more prosperous cities, because someone's great-grandfather Uthgar defeated the vampire in single combat on the village bridge, and now it bears the name Uthgarsbridge (essentially making the village feel more like a proper home)
I had a one shot where I went 4 hours and only had one fight at the end... best dnd one shot I've ever played in both story and combat fun
Surprised u haven't done a video about character deaths and players reactions
Be me running a one shot today, be Seth help a fella with tips just on time.
But the question remains, will Scott Brown still show up?
You never know if Scott Brown will show up, but you'll always know when they do. (and when they do, you should run)
Atta boy, Dweebles!