Author / guyeatsfood

by guyeatsfood

Prep Matters – how much I do, and why zero-prep is wrong

There’s been a bit of chatter on the #TTRPG internet again about zero-prep games, and whether this is a misnomer, a false claim, or even harmful to the hobby. So, in an attempt to clarify what some people are saying, I’d like to talk you through an example of prep for a convention game that I’ve got coming up.

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!

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by guyeatsfood

First Look: D&D 2024 Player’s Handbook

Look, it says on the top it’s “The World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game,” which is patently false (it’s not Mouse Guard). And it’s attracted it’s fair share of deserved ire with the OGL fiasco. But, it’s still the biggest game in the world in terms of market share, and what goes on in here will cause ripples through the rest of the hobby. So I got hold of it. I’ve not played, I’ve only skimmed, I know, I hate unboxing videos too. This isn’t a review.

But I’m neither in the “Never D&D!” or the “No other games exist” camps, and so I thought I’d share my impressions of the 2024 Player’ Handbook. Here goes…

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!

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by guyeatsfood

Showcase Prep – Showing Off A Game

I’m prepping some games for Unconventional GMs at the moment, and I usually prefer to run my own stuff. Why? Well, we need it to work in the 2hr format, which not only reduces the scope of what I can run, but also means I need to be able to confidently busk a resolution – all easier if I’ve rolled my own stuff to start with. The method I’m using for these is something I’m calling Showcase Prep – and I think it’s great to use for lots of one-shots, whether these are for conventions, streaming, or just to play with you friends.

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!

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by guyeatsfood

Dungeoneering Done Differently

I’m prepping some location-based adventures for Unconventional GMs at the moment, including a game of the excellent His Majesty The Worm, and one of the many interesting bits of game design it has in it is a different approach to exploring dungeons.

It made me think of other interesting ways games structure exploring locations, and how we can rig together similar systems for other games. 

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!

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by guyeatsfood

Beware of the Cat! – Review: No Small Crimes in Lankhmar, for Dungeon Crawl Classics

A slightly different review post today, being a review of a short adventure published by Goodman Games for their Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar setting. As with all my reviews, this is play-informed; I ran the adventure last week at Kraken, with a total of six players. Curious patrons can find my pregens attached to this post – I wasn’t able to source a Lankhmar PC generator in the many excellent DCC websites, so you’re welcome to these!

In short, No Small Crimes is excellent, and offers many things that we can steal and adapt for a location-based one-shot.

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!

Patrons have also got the eight pregens and one-sheet of rules that I used to run this adventure below – if you’d like to try running it yourself, be sure to check it out!

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by guyeatsfood

The Kowloon Knife-Kut Knoodle Katastrophe – a Feng Shui 2 One-Shot

As I write this, I’m knee deep in prep for Summer Kraken, a baroque gaming retreat in the German wilderness. As usual, I’m bringing a new Feng Shui one-shot, and so I thought I’d release this – from last summer’s convention. As usual, it’s written up in a playable-for-me sense – your mileage may vary!

If you want to get hold of Feng Shui 2, the best place to start is Atlas Games. If you’re curious to see how it plays in action, you can watch me run it for (among other gaming luminaries) Robin Laws, the game’s designer, on Unconventional GMs – a tight hour and a half of a different one-shot, to feature soon! Check out the other Feng Shui 2 one-shots I’ve posted here, too.

If you want this one-shot in .pdf form, you can get it from my Patreon feed – of which:

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!

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by guyeatsfood

Supercharge your One-Shot, Part 5: Big Starts

In this series, I’m going to be showcasing some techniques you can drop into almost any one-shot TTRPG session to improve it – even if the adventure you’re running is already published, these will make it better. Each one is minimum-prep, and guaranteed to be well worth it at the table. Check out the previous posts here (adding sidekicks), here (hexcrawl plots), here (deadlining fights), and here (montages)

Start Big

The beginning of your session is the most important part of the session – it’ll be the first thing your players experience, and if you’re going to keep pace ticking along, you need to start with this. Structurally, this also means you should completely avoid one of the classic one-shot openers; the mission briefing. These are invariably dull as ditchwater – and slow the pace right down as the most cautious player asks question after question to try and wrangle more information out of the briefer. 

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!

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by guyeatsfood

Supercharge your One-Shot, Part 4: Montages

In this series, I’m going to be showcasing some techniques you can drop into almost any one-shot TTRPG session to improve it – even if the adventure you’re running is already published, these will make it better. Each one is minimum-prep, and guaranteed to be well worth it at the table. Check out the previous posts here (adding sidekicks), here (hexcrawl plots), and here (deadlining fights).

Use a Montage Scene

A montage is a scene where you zoom out of the action for a bit while the PCs travel somewhere, and let the players narrate some scenery and action. They’ll take on some of the GMing duties, to describe what’s happening. It’s a good interstitial scene between more traditionally-played scenes, and allows your players to stretch their creative muscles while giving the one-shot a sense of scale and verisimilitude.

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!

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by guyeatsfood

Review: DIE RPG – Play the Player, Play the Game

DIE RPG is a bit of an odd beast – this TTRPG from Rowan Rook & Decard, written and developed from Kieron Gillen’s comics, is quite unlike anything else I’ve played on recently. It’s laser-focussed on a very specific play experience, and it’s all the better for it.

Like all my reviews, this is play-informed; I ran a one-shot of DIE for a group, and this is based on the play experience, not on reading the book. If you want a read-through, Iain McAllister from The Giant Brain, one of my players for the one-shot, has done one – so you can check that out here. Indeed, I’m going to try and not repeat stuff here – so if you want an overview of the system, or indeed the contents of the book, read that first!

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!

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by guyeatsfood

Supercharge your One-Shot, Part 3: Deadline Fights

In this series, I’m going to be showcasing some techniques you can drop into almost any one-shot TTRPG session to improve it – even if the adventure you’re running is already published, these will make it better. Each one is minimum-prep, and guaranteed to be well worth it at the table.

In Part 1, we looked at hirelings and sidekicks. In Part 2, we looked at a hexcrawl structure. Today, we’re looking at improving set-piece fights by DEADLINING THEM.

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!

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