After posting about the FITD one-shot structure, I thought i’d give an example of it in practice – with this one-shot for the Slugblaster RPG. Slugblaster is a lot of fun – and firmly in my bag of convention one-shot games. So let me know if you want more ready-to-play prep notes – I’ve got another (from our Unconventional GMs recording) ready to post!
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!
There’s a number of games, we’re often told, that really don’t do one-shots well. Often this is because of complexity, or a detailed (and unnecessary) background setting, all things that a skilled one-shot GM can work around. But with Blades in the Dark and other Forged in the Dark (FITD) games, where there’s a structure of play that involves player-led downtime that’s essential to the system – well, you might have a point.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I’ve run plenty of FITD one-shots, usually just ignoring the downtime rules – and they’ve worked perfectly fine. I’ve even hacked downtime to try and do two full-length scores in a single session. It’s tight – and it comes from a time when convention sessions were a little longer. I’ve been left with the nagging feeling that I’m not offering a proper showcase of what the game is about.
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!
Scope used to be a big deal in TTRPGs. The Generic Universal Roleplay system (GURPS) proudly boasts “with GURPS, you can be anything you want,” and there’s still plenty of energy for 5e-based products trying to ride high on mastery of a known system. But I’m much more interested these days in the opposite. Games where the scope is so tight that the game provides a clear consistent experience. Games where everyone is likely to play the same kind of character, and do the same sort of thing.
It’s a tidy looking book, with neat layout and design
Even D&D has gone this way – big hardback campaigns like Curse of Strahd and Rime of the Frostmaiden provide cultural reference points among groups – how did you defeat Strahd? What did you do in Bryn Shander? Did you help the gnome mind flayers in their spelljamming vessel? (Possible spoilers there, I guess). And smaller, indie games have also tended to be successful when they’ve limited their scope to one approach, and hew closely to it.
Rosewood Abbey, from Kalum from the Rolistes podcast, is very tight in scope, and very good. You can’t be anything you want. You can be a friar, at a specific abbey, at the foot of the Alps between the 12th and 13th centuries. You can explore the abbey, you can go into the village nearby – you won’t be going any further. You’ll investigate mysteries that, despite their potential for supernatural origins – and other NPCs being sure that they are – have mundane solutions.
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!
I’ve blogged before about the 5-Room Dungeon here, and why its structure needs a bit of help sometimes to make it really shine in one-shots. I’ve been thinking about it more lately – inspired by this post which talks about 5RDs being scene sequences instead of locations. That post was talking about location-based design… but I’m interested in scene-based design as well. So what can we do to hack 5RDs a bit more flexible and epic? We started by introducing Multiples – but now, we’re going to talk Twisters.
Not like this…
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!
Following David Lynch’s passing, I’ve started rewatching the first season of Twin Peaks. It’s excellent, and I’d recommend it to everyone (I mean, watch the first ep – it’s possible you’ll hate it, in which case don’t watch any more). And, as you’d expect from something that casts such a long shadow in media, there’s a lot of stuff in there that made me think about gaming, and lessons we can learn from it. If you like this, I’ve done this before with the 1931 Todd Browning Dracula film – check that out as well.
Kyle MacLachlan as Dale Cooper – solving the murder isn’t actually what it’s about
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!
It’s a hobby, really, not a craft. But sometimes it helps to think of it like one. I remember reading a book about writing years ago – when I was just starting writing fiction – quoting darts player Jocky Wilson, “If the team you’re in isn’t getting promoted every year, you might need to find a new team.” It was talking about writing groups. It could have been talking about gaming groups. While we’re all in this for fun, ultimately, it’s also fun to get better at things; to stretch yourself and do difficult things, and get to that top of the trajectory and surpass it.
Darts legend Jocky Wilson
Or, to put it another way, sometimes it pays to be reflective and serious about your fun. For the last few years, I’ve tracked my RPG gaming on a spreadsheet for each year – it’s the source of posts like this, where I look back on what I’ve played, and also helps to seal in some great memories of what I’ve played and when.
And, as of the time of writing, it’s blank. 20 days into 2025 and I haven’t played a single session of any TTRPG.
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!
I’ve blogged before about the 5-Room Dungeon here, and why its structure needs a bit of help sometimes to make it really shine in one-shots. I’ve been thinking about it more lately – inspired by this post which talks about 5RDs being scene sequences instead of locations. That post was talking about location-based design… but I’m interested in scene-based design as well. So what can we do to hack 5RDs a bit more flexible and epic?
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!
If there’s one TTRPG maxim I’d like to shout from the rooftops, it’s that we should play as many games as we possibly can. There’s no point half-assing this hobby – to paraphrase Ron Swanson, you have to whole-ass it. And one of the ways to take a solid look at your own game consumption is to keep a record. So, I’ve checked my 2024 games spreadsheet, and the stats are in – 89 game sessions played in 2024!
The Final numbers are in – some surprises here, not least how many different games I’ve played!
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!
Readers, 2024 has been a good year for the blog – both in terms of me keeping to a (fairly) consistent posting schedule of weekly-ish, and in terms of raw stats. When I started this I was sure I wouldn’t look at visitor stats, but you quickly begin to pay them some mind – and 2024 already has a +54% increase on Views so far. And the help of numerous Patreon supporters, of course, helps pay hosting fees and keep me churning out content!
What’s this from? Well, see previous comment about posting more regularly; and also, as Unconventional GMs has developed, there’s been a useful synergy in producing two kinds of content. There’s more to be done there, I’m sure, but it’s helped me keep my gaming mojo warm throughout the year, even through holiday seasons when it can be hard to get a group together. I’m hopeful that the gaming community’s adoption of BlueSky will make it easier to promote things like this, as well.
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!
We can play TTRPG games better now. We don’t need to take a player aside into another room to share some secret knowledge with them. We don’t need to roll in secret behind a screen. Our players can happily separate player and character knowledge, without taking advantage – and enjoy both sides of the curtain.
We don’t need to pass notes at the table any more.
So, given that player and character knowledge is often useful to know at the same time (and we’re comfortable with author and actor stance being occupied simultaneously) – why not break down some more barriers? Here are some ideas that I’ve gathered and tried
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!
Burn After Running: RPG One-Shots 