Tag / one-shot

by guyeatsfood

Ice Station Zeta Alex – a One-Shot for Stoneburner

I’ve started doing this more – sharing prep notes for one-shots. This time it’s for Fari RPGs game of space mining dwarves, Stoneburner – a rules-light solo-friendly game you’ll be seeing on Unconventional GMs soon! 

As always, it’s up to you how complete this prep is for you to run the game yourself; a combination of this and watching the Actual Play on youtube should give you a head-start though, and it might be useful for what prep could look like for your game. I started by using Stoneburner’s great random tables, and then filled them out as best I could. The scribbly map and notes are below – an essential first step in any one-shot prep!

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

The Empress’s New Clothes – a Feng Shui 2 One-Shot

I’m just about ready for Spring Kraken, one of the highlights of the TTRPG gaming calendar, and so I thought I’d share my prep for one of the games I’m running there. This scenario was the very first one I ran for Feng Shui, way back in (I think) Continuum 2018, and sad to say my original notes are lost in the mists of time and changes of laptops / cloud storage. So I’ve reconstructed it!

For this scenario, you’ll want all the PCs to pick archetypes that are native to the Ancient juncture – they start there, and then transition for the finale to cheesy 1999 Hong Kong, for out-of-time comedy effect! I used the Secrets and Clues approach from Sly Flourish to prep and give some revelations to the scenario – let me know how you think they’ve worked out!

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

The Forlorn Hope – A Cyberpunk Project

Tales from the Forlorn Hope is a classic old-school not-D&D adventure book, of the kind we used to see all the time back in 1992, the year of its publication. Written for Cyberpunk 2020, it has eight adventures, centred around the titular Forlorn Hope bar, where cyberpunks and solos can hang out and get work. I’m very fond of these old adventure books – I think it was Dungeon magazine that got me hooked on TTRPGs before I ever played them – and I’m looking for a gaming project. And it just so happens to be Seven Hills soon, with a theme of PUNK. So, here goes:

I’m going to run all eight adventures, using eight different cyberpunk systems.

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

Step-by-Step Prep: Ghost Mountain (Index Card RPG), Part Two

Just like in Part One, I’m continuing to share my prep for an upcoming one-shot for a system I’ve not run before – the Weird West setting Ghost Mountain, for Index Card RPG. In part one, I did my pregens and randomly generated a plot that I modified and started to flesh out. The next step is to write it up – a full write up is below.

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

We’ll Always Have Paris – a one-shot for TORG: Eternity

It’s time for another ready-to-run (ish) one-shot, this time for Ulysses Spiel’s remaster of frankly bonkers 90s multigenre pulp action TTRPG, TORG Eternity. Those of you unfamiliar with the utter gonzo-ness of this setting could do well to start with it’s wikipedia page, but in brief – invaders another dimensions take over the world, and change reality to reflect their own worlds. America become prehistory, Britain becomes D&D-ish fantasy, much of Asia becomes post-apocalyptic Tharkhold, etc etc. 

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by guyeatsfood

The Clockwork Citadel – a one-shot for Fabula Ultima

I’ve been grooving on Fabula Ultima, a JRPG-style system with simple, flexible rules, since it released. As well as a nifty set of rules, it also has hands down the best quickstart I’ve ever seen, which takes players and GM through the rules, setting, and play culture of the game hand in hand and step by step.

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by guyeatsfood

Guiding the Ironlands – how to run Ironsworn as a One-Shot

Ironsworn, Shawn Tomkin’s RPG of dark fantasy with solo, guided, and GMless modes, is one of the most exciting releases to the hobby in recent years. With its sci fi sequel, Starforged, now established it’s beginning to get some decent play on the convention circuit – and it plays really well with a GM (in ‘guided’ mode) as well. So here are some tips if you want to get it to the table.

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by guyeatsfood

The Fire In Men’s Hearts – a mystery for Vaesen

Vaesen: Spirits and Monsters of Mythic Ukraine is a fantastic, pay what you want, supplement for Vaesen that brings a wide range of Vaesen from Ukraine to the game. Illustrated by a selection of artists, it’s a good old fashioned bestiary. Each Vaesen has several plot hooks and ideas, and there’s a real range here. 

After meeting Tasha and Oleg from Idea Roll over at The Kraken, at Unconventional GMs we recorded a mystery based on one of the Vaesen from the book, and here’s my (largely unedited) prep notes to run the mystery. The recording is over on the channel here – it comes in at just over 2 hours of play, although it could easily be a 3-4 hour game with a bit less pushing and pace. Over on the channel we’re trying to demonstrate how much you can pack into 2 hours – at your own table you may want to luxuriate a bit.

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by guyeatsfood

Chang’an Critter Carnival – a Ready-to-Run Feng Shui 2 One-Shot

Apologies for the slight delay in posts – in short, I got covid just as I started a new job. But normal service resumes! Here, a one-shot set in the Ancient juncture for Feng Shui 2 that was originally prepped to run for Robin Laws himself! (Sadly, his attendance at Kraken was prevented)

As before, I’ve presented this pretty much as-prepped – feedback earlier was that this sort of rough-and-ready style wasn’t a problem, and gave some insight into what prep notes could actually look like – so enjoy and let me know if you’d like more ‘official’ stuff instead.

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