I’m not generally a purist about TTRPG terms. It’s still a convention if it’s just you and 4 friends playing a few games at an AirBnB.  You can play Glorantha using any number of systems (Runequest doesn’t even make my top 5, if I’m honest). You can have a campaign of any number of sessions, really, even if for me it’s between 4 and 12. You don’t need to have served Napoleon at Waterloo to be a Grognard.

But I draw the line somewhere. And it’s with one-shots.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

One-Shots are Completed in One Session

There, I’ve said it. You need a convincing sequence of activities for your players to do, which run in one continuous period of gaming. That gaming period could be one hour, or it could be six hours. But you don’t stop and rearrange another session to finish it. I don’t care if you’ve not finished. You should have.

When I shared this view on BlueSky I got a few responses which puzzled me. I’ll try and address them here. I wasn’t sure if I was purist about this until I asked, and disagreement has steeled my resolve – one-shots are completed in one session, or they aren’t one-shots.

But Sometimes Players Take Too Long!

Pace is within your control. If the players are dawdling, there are multiple ways to deal with this – from in-game (while you talk about whether to pick the lock, the stirges attack!) to out-of-game (using actual human mouth-words to say “come on, folks, we’ve only got an hour left!). Cut content out if you need to (it helps if you have a collapsible dungeon structure that will let you do this), but stick to time – better to finish an hour early than 10 minutes late!

This is, I should say, harder to do with location-based adventures. If you’re exploring a dungeon, you actually will need to literally cut rooms out if you find yourself running low. Scene-based adventures, when you have some idea of what events could happen, are a bit easier to fold up to time.

But We Were Having Too Much Fun!

Were you though? Oh, by all means, re-arrange a follow-up session to continue with the characters and game – just finish the one-shot first! A wise man on the internet (and in real life) – the doyen of UK Superhero roleplaying, Simon Burley no less – commented that if you run over and rearrange, the second half won’t be as good as the first – so don’t let it happen!

Look, come back for a sequel session by all means – we’re revisiting our Daggerheart wild west one-shot on Unconventional GMs, because we had so much fun last time – just finish the one-shot first!

Four Hours at a Convention Isn’t Enough!

It is. In fact, it’s probably one hour too much. It’s a three hour slot with an hour’s contingency time, and space for a couple of breaks during the session too. If you’re worried you’ve got too much content for the one-shot, you need to cut some of that content – decide if you can cut it in advance, or just on the day, and take it out to give your players time to be a bit more leisurely. If you want to see satisfying one-shots in two hours or less, check out Unconventional GMs – we’re pretty laser-focussed on play, but that amount of content would definitely fit in a 3-hour con slot with the associated faffing that entails.

You can – and should – run anything as a one-shot, too! I’ve played in a satisfying Ars Magica one-shot, ably run by Owlbear-wrangler Matthew Broome, and I’ve run Burning Wheel, Mouse Guard, and multiple games of Forged in the Dark where we did two missions and a downtime in that time – you can do it! Keep an eye on the clock, and stick to the single session!