Tag / rpg

by guyeatsfood

Setting, Hillfolk, no-SR, and Adventures

I’ve been deep in game prep this week, ready for a double dose of Seven Hills and then Kraken over the Easter break. And so while I’m trying to get my head down and prep, I find myself getting pleasantly distracted by game stuff. Here’s what I’m thinking about at the moment.

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!

Continue reading →
by guyeatsfood

The Downtime Sandwich – a one-shot structure for Forged in the Dark games

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!

Continue reading →
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!

Continue reading →
by guyeatsfood

Supercharge your One-Shot, Part 1: Sidekicks

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.

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!

So here goes, with part 1 – 

Give the Party Sidekicks

A good sidekick is great roleplaying fodder, even if they’re a hapless Duck adventurer. Image of Crontas by John Ossoway
Continue reading →
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!

Continue reading →
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. 

Continue reading →
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.

Continue reading →
by guyeatsfood

“I hit it with my axe” – fostering better player narration in TTRPGs

Player narration lies at the heart of top-class game sessions. As the Bakers say in Apocalypse World, roleplaying is a conversation, and when only one side (or neither side) are contributing much, it can feel flat. Even in the most trad game, when players describe their characters actions, it lands better if they add some flavour to it. Compare:

  • I pick the lock to the door with the demon face #rollsd20
  • We see Cherbol pressed against the door, his face to the carved demon, as he carefully rotates the picks in his hands, elf-ears pricked up to hear the click #rollsd20

Deeper player narration, or even action description, leads to a more engaging and exciting table. So what techniques can we use to foster it?

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!

Start Simple

I’m going to try for some definitions here. I’ve written previously about giving players more narrative weight in games, and some of these techniques foster a different kind of player narration.

Action Narration is where a player describes what they’re doing – it can be as simple as the first example above, or developed further. 

  • I step towards the door and, mindful of the demon face, slip my greased lockpicks into the lock and begin to turn.

Scene Narration is where the player sets the scene as well. The second example above is a possibly over-flowery example of this.

Some players, tables, and GMs don’t like scene narration from players. That’s fine, to a point; although if you’re playing a game like Feng Shui or FATE some scene narration is embedded in the game mechanics so I’d strongly advise you to use it – but some people prefer a harder distinction between player and GM. Occasionally people talk about “Immersion” and say that scene narration is ruining gaming, and they take issue with other people using it – these people are idiots, so back away slowly and ignore them.

If your table doesn’t want to push towards scene narration, start them out with action narration – and use some of the techniques below to encourage it. If they’re brand new, and/or you’re happy with it, go straight for scene narration – even completely new players will often find it just as easy to work with

Techniques to Use

There’s no one fix for this, but there are a few you can try to encourage this. I’m not at all a fan of 

Ask For It – any time a player wants to half-ass some action description, you can always ask for a bit more from them. I use this particularly if they’ve given almost no description at all, or if they’ve stated a game action instead of fiction

  • Can I roll Acrobatics?
  • Of course you can! What are you doing when you roll it?

Ask for a Bit More – particularly in open-skill challenges or extended tasks, asking for more flavour is also allowed – particularly if there’s a stretch to it

  • I’ll try and find a cure for the virus
  • Great, it’s probaly Reason+Science – can you give me a bit of flavour about what we see your PC doing?

Describe Locations Loosely – make the setting of scenes you describe flexible and open to player input. This includes using theatre of the mind whenever you can – there are some GMs online who’ll put out gridded maps all the time, even for non-combat encounters, and it’s really hard to not take the details on those maps as immutable fact (hey, there’s three barrels to the north- what’s in them?)

  • You’re in the back of the warehouse. You can see the goons are about to unload. There’s teetering piles of boxes, shelves, an idle forklift truck, and a workbench with some tools on it. You look like you’ve got the drop on them – what do want to do?

Give Permissions Generously – if a players asks if they can do something, with any sort of narrative justification, default to YES unless you think it’ll grate with the rest of the table. Want to use Command to inspire the science team to help defeat the virus? Of course you can. Want to Force open the door instead of picking it? Yeah, that works – a skill roll’s a skill roll. 

If you’re worried this will lead to players using their best skills all the time, the fix for that is that unusual approaches usually only work once – and sometimes I’ll even (with players with particular penchants for stretching) say they can only do it once per session. I also have some hard limits on what can be done. When I’m running Star Trek Adventures, you can pretty much use whatever on an Extended Task if you can narrate it in – but when you fire a phaser in combat, it’ll always be Control+Security.

What To Avoid

There’s some other approaches I’ve found less successful, and in particular one very common one. Don’t give bonuses for extra description or exciting narration. Your mileage may vary, but my experience is that player rewards for “good roleplay/narration” just reinforce a GM-in-charge attitude that undermines the other approaches. It’s not a good-roleplaying doggy biscuit. Cool player narration should be the standard, not some unusual extra effort they’ve made so they get an extra dice.

An exception to the above is where games come with some sort of ‘fan mail’ mechanic where the whole table has a resource they can use to reward – this can really work, and gets everyone engaged in the process.

Similarly, where possible default to the same difficulty and approach as if they’d made the roll normally. If they want to get past the guards by causing a distraction by spooking the horses with Animal Friendship, cool – it’s the same difficulty as the Stealth check they’d make to sneak past, or the Deception check to lie to them. You’ve got to apply a reasonableness test at times, of course, but if you’re defaulting to yes and being generous, your players will realise this is only a one-off ruling and it won’t put them off being more inventive in future.

So, some ideas for encouraging player narration. What do you do at your table? Let me know any that I’ve missed.

by guyeatsfood

Prep Techniques: Dilemmas

Credit for this technique goes to the game in which it is most explicitly modelled, John Harper and Sean Nittner’s Agon – a game of Greek heroes travelling home by way of a series of perilous islands – and each island begins something like this:

  • Will you command Meletia to use the island’s gold to restore the ruined temple of Hera and receive divine protections? Arts & Oration vs. Meletia.
  • Or will you command Ionestes to cease speaking false promises of divine aid and instead support the construction of practical defenses? Arts & Oration vs. Ionestes

(Agon, Isle of Kryos)

Each choice offers a chance at resolving the conflict introduced, and taking sides in an ongoing dispute – the following scenes will differ depending on which approach they take (and whether or not they are successful). These happen right at the start of the adventure, as the players arrive in the isle, and thrust them directly into the action. But there’s no reason we shouldn’t use these with other games, and they’re a really effective way of launching a session.

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!

Why They Work

They give players clear options and genuine choices and let them engage with the adventure immediately. Particularly for one-shots, it can be easy to start with a fight that is just thrust upon the players, and they can feel like they’re just setting off on a railroad – this gives them a choice right at the start. There’s also no need for them to be limited to the options you’ve suggested – they can come up with their own approach, but you’ve given examples to help them make that decision.

By choosing one option, they also cut off the other, and there will be NPCs on each side that will want to engage with them to resolve the choice. Ultimately, either choice might lead in similar directions, but how that direction appears will be coloured by their choice – and whether or not they are successful.

How To Prep Them

Begin with your initial scene and think of a couple of ways they can be resolved. This doesn’t have to be amazingly original – your players may come up with other choices, too, when you’ve shown them two, and that’s fine. Have an immediate call to action inherent – either a threat to something the PCs care about, an ongoing mission that will take them directly into this conflict, or a personal link to the issue.

Then, give some thought to how each option could be resolved. Try to make them equally exciting – you might balance a combat with a skill challenge of some sort, or a series of skill rolls with accompanying risk. They don’t have to be equally difficult, of course – but try to avoid offering an obvious answer to the dilemma.

Examples

Let’s say you’re prepping the most vanilla D&D plot ever, of a village in danger because of raiding goblins in the forest. You’ve, correctly, thought to start with an encounter with bandits on the way to the village – who are desperate because of the goblin displacement and could even be useful to find the goblin camp later – and had originally planned for them to leap out and attack the caravan they are guarding.

Instead, let’s have the PCs come across a robbery in progress. Around the corner, they see a merchant being turned over, with crossbow-wielding bandits in the trees above trained on them as they try to bargain with them. The merchant in front is clearly having none of it, and it looks like it could turn nasty – he hasn’t seen the robbers in the trees.

Do you charge in and intercede on his behalf, and try to cow the bandits with your force of arms and courage?

Or do you sneak around and dispose of the bandits in the trees to even the odds?

Or perhaps try and tackle the leader by surprise before his archers have a chance to react?

We’ve got a trilemma there, and although most of them probably lead to combat, it’s a much more vibrant and interesting initial scene. We’re assuming that heading into the forest to avoid the bandits isn’t an option – if it is, there’s always goblins to tackle them.

In cases where the PCs have a clear mission, your dilemmas can be more like options for them to pursue. For instance, if your PCs have arrived at a party to steal a crown from the host, we should add a bit more action. So begin with them seeing a drunken guest causing trouble, about to challenge another noble to a duel.

Do you attempt to sneak behind the scenes straight away, looking for a route upstairs while the guards are distracted?

Or do you intercede on either nobleman’s behalf, trying to create more chaos and maybe win some allies here who might know about the crown?

It’s an interesting challenge to try and add this to a session you’ve already prepped – particularly in the initial scene, where it will have the most impact. As I said, for more examples, look at Agon or the Paragon family of games, who all model this excellently. Have you used dilemmas in your games during the starting situation? Let me know in the comments.