Tag / star wars

by guyeatsfood

In Praise of the Supplement

I’ve just picked up (from kickstarter) Rowan Rook and Deckard’s SIN – a fantastic supplement for the SPIRE RPG, where every page seems to have plot hooks and gameable material leaping off it. It got me thinking about what a really good RPG supplement looks like. For these purposes, I think a supplement should have a bit of everything – some player-facing stuff, maybe new rules, new setting material and background – but most importantly, tons of stuff that can be dropped into an ongoing campaign or inspire a 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!

SIN hits the jackpot on all of these – but I won’t be talking about it yet, in accordance with my review policy, because I haven’t actually used it in play yet. So instead, here are 4 supplements – I’ve tried to restrict myself to things nominally in print at least (although getting physical copies of one of these might be a challenge!) – that are top-drawer and have seen action at my table recently.

Strongholds of Resistance (for FFG’s Star Wars: Age of Rebellion)

This is the one you might struggle to find in print. It’s worth it though – a selection of planets, a selection of rebel bases (including, of course, Echo Base on Hoth), three new player species (including the squid-faced Quarren as featured in the Mandalorian) and some equipment and options. What makes this stand out are the planets and bases – they are all dripping with gameable content, and even include a “what if this base is discovered / falls” section. The bases all have maps which can be used here, or even transplanted to another setting or system.

This book entirely inspired Snowblind, a one-shot around Echo Base, which is linked here.

Book of Demons (for 13th Age)

This is absolute gold. It kicks off with the Demonologist class, which has three very different options (if you’re familiar with the 13th Age Druid, it’s similar to that in that the role in the party can be anything depending on what you pick). There’s a great section on gamemastering demons, and then “Six Hell Holes” – adventure locations at different levels of challenge full of demons. Explicitly designed to be dropped into the game anywhere, this would be useful for any kind of fantasy game. 13th Age products somehow manage to make even their fluff easily usable in other games, and this doesn’t disappoint.

I’ve thrown stuff from this into 13th Age one-shots (although not for a while – I haven’t run 13th Age for too long!), including adding a melee-focussed demonologist as a pregen. 

Beta Quadrant Sourcebook (for Star Trek Adventures)

For those with limited Star Trek knowledge, the Beta Quadrant is probably what you’re expecting if you think Trek – the baddies are Romulans and (depending on the era) Klingons, you’ve got Orions and (my favourite) Gorn rolling around – it’s a wild frontier region of space, ripe for exploration yet still bucking up against other civilisations in the form of the Romulan Neutral Zone. Apart from details of each of these civilisations and some new player species, there’s some extra starships, and some adventure locations. The Briar Patch and the Shackleton Expanse (although for the latter you might want to get the bigger – and more adventure-led – book of the same name) are full of danger and peril.

Overall it’s just a great starter region for Star Trek, where the core book is a bit limited by offering any era of play. If you’re running Original Series or Next Generation, this is your essential next purchase.

I used this a lot in the first season of my ongoing Star Trek Adventures campaign, where they tussled along the Neutral Zone with a recurring Romulan Captain.

Starter Set (for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th edition)

Is it cheating to put a starter set in here? Not in this case. Apart from the usual pregens, dice and an excellent adventure (Doing the Rounds), the 64-page Guide to Ubersreik is what sets this apart. Full details of the city, with adventure hooks in every location, both dripping in flavour and instantly gameable. Add to this that fully half of the Adventure Book is given over to single-page short adventures, this is the perfect primer for both what WFRP is all about, and how to make a city breathe and sing.

My WFRP one-shots have all been set in and around Ubersreik – there’s just enough material in here to expand one or more of them into a satisfying game.

So, what fantastic supplements can you recommend? Link them in the comments.

by guyeatsfood

Get A Village – Embedding Setting in One-Shots

It’s easy to ditch the setting if you’re prepping a one-shot; but part of the joy of a #TTRPG is exploring a fantastic world, isn’t it? As to what extent can you get this feeling in a one-shot, there are a few approaches. You could spend the first half-hour explaining the setting and context for your players, but that would be rubbish. How can you show setting through play, without sacrificing pace? Well, here’s one method.

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. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here.

You Need A Village

The Classic D&D village

Set up a small, coherent, manageable place for your one-shot. A village is the right size for this – give it an obvious theme, and link it to the plot. Show how your inciting incident affects it – the terrible plots of the big bad should have affected the villagers, and let the PCs witness this.

Continue reading →
by guyeatsfood

Snowblind – A Star Wars Age of Rebellion One-Shot

After my post reviewing the Star Wars options, I dug out my old convention one-shot for Age of Rebellion, FFG’s rebels vs. Imperials game of strange-diced Star Wars. It’s balanced and designed for five starting AoR characters – the pregens that I used are here.

A note on how I’ve described NPCs here – a score of YYG, for example, means 2 yellow and 1 green dice – although often enemies will be instead adding red and purple dice to the PC’s rolls when they are opposed. This one-shot also predates my standard trad format for one-shots – I ran it several years ago at one of the first Go Play Leeds meet-ups.

It’s also here as a single .pdf – let me know if you run it, hack it, or just use it for inspiration. It was largely inspired by the fantastic Strongholds of the Resistance sourcebook, which has further details on Hoth – as well as other rebel locations and lots of adventure hooks. One of my pregens is a Pol Massan from that sourcebook, too. And note that this is an entirely planet-bound adventure; it avoids the ‘pilot’ being useless by making them a Tauntaun tamer and including a Tauntaun chase in the finale.

And let me know if you want more Star Wars content – I’ve got at least four or five one-shots sketched out, and only two of them involve Ewoks and Gungans.

Snowblind

An Age of Rebellion Adventure

Background

TaunTaun

Tauntaun – these might be important later

Three days ago, sensors on Echo Base picked up a signature of a shuttlecraft; it appeared to have breached Hoth’s limited orbital defences by accident, and crash-landed on in the hills to the North. A patrol, led by Lt. Nela Arseli, was quickly despatched to investigate and check that the base had not been discovered. Communication was lost with them – there are rumoured to be radioactive deposits in the hills which can interfere with comms, so this is not necessarily a problem, but the rebels are twitchy and cannot risk Echo Base being discovered this close to its completion.

The PCs are sent out in a snowspeeder to identify the lost patrol, and find out what happened to the shuttle. They have the shuttle’s coordinates, and some details of the signatures of their allies sensor packs.

The shuttle, the Emporium, is a brig, escorting Vander Krag, a notorious pirate and Hutt ally, through backwaters to be tried. Krag somehow seems to have hacked the shuttle’s navigation systems and landed it on Hoth, but has fallen foul of the planetary defences. He and his pirates escaped in the crash and took shelter in some caves nearby, hoping to find the resources needed to repair the shuttle.

It has been attacked by planetary defences triggered by Goran Zuck, a Bothan rebel and quartermaster who used to serve with Krag. Zuck, a one-eyed, bad-tempered rebel, plans to join up with Krag and reveal the rebel base’s location – he reckons that only someone as experienced in skulduggery as Krag could help him escape the rebels and the Empire.

The remaining Imperials are sheltering near the shuttle, having booby-trapped it for when Krag returns with a bomb.

Arseli’s patrol never got as far as the shuttle, being ambushed by Krag’s pirates as soon as they got near – but now both rebels and pirates are held in the caves by a tribe of Wampa. Krag is pretty sure that they’ll get rescued, but Arseli is worried that more rebels will reveal Echo Base’s location.

Synopsis

The PCs track the signal to the shuttle and approach it, and the booby-trap (set by Zuck) and subsequent Imperial Ambush damages their shuttle. They can track the escapees to the nearby caves through the Biting Snow, and navigate the caves, facing a Cave-In and hiding from wampa to eventually rescue the Arseli and Krag from them in the Wampa Caverns. At this point they encounter Zuck and his loyal rebels; Krag then takes flight upon learning of the base, equipped with the scavenged equipment from the rebels that he will need to repair the shuttle – and the PCs must give chase in a Tauntaun Pursuit to capture Krag and decide what they do with him.

Scene One – Briefing

The PCs are briefed of the previous situation – there is their team and another in the room, Goran Zuck, a one-eyed Bothan who works on shuttlecraft, keeping them in good repair. Zuck and his crew of 3 rebels are to scour the wider area looking for the shuttle and the escapees, while the PC team is to search on the ground. Upon launch they find Zuck is inspecting both his own shuttle and their snowspeeder.

Scene Two – Imperial Ambush

The coordinates of the shuttle crash lead to a narrow valley ringed by crags. The shuttle lies half-buried in the snow, its nose deep in the drifts. As they approach they trigger the booby- trap; the speeder will crash into the snow, but the Pilot can make a Hard Piloting (Planetary) check to try and crash ‘safely’ – unless they succeed each PC takes 3 Strain as they are jolted about. They can see shapes moving around in the site, and are ambushed by the remaining Imperials – there is a Tie Ace leader, the pilot, 4 Tie Pilots and 4 Troopers. The troopers attack in pairs as minions, but the pilots are alone. This is a combat that uses Vigilance for initiative.

Vindo Palass, captain: Initiative GG, Soak 2, WT: 12
Attack – Lt Blaster Pistol GGGG, Dam 5, Crit 4, Stun setting

Crewmembers: Initiative GG, Soak 2, WT: 5       5      5       5
Attack – Lt Blaster Pistol GGG, Dam 5, Crit 4, Stun setting

Pairs of Troopers: Initiative YGG, Soak 4, WT: 10        10
Attack – Lt Blaster Pistol YGG, Dam 5, Crit 4, Stun setting
Frag grenade (1 each) YGG, Dam 8, Crit 4, Rng Short, Blast 6

The PCs can then explore the shuttle – they find it is an Imperial brig and there are signs of around 15 crewmembers and 6 prisoners. A thorough search reveals that many of the systems are damaged, but the shuttle could be repaired if supplies could be scavenged. A Survival check also reveals tracks leading further North towards the hills, and that there are caves there they should be able to shelter in. Their snowspeeder, similarly, is damaged from the blast and will need repairs – and, unsurprisingly, their comms are dead.

If questioned, Palass will reveal (after a Coercion or similar test opposed by his Willpower of 3) that they were overtaken by Krag and that they are a brig – in the blast Krag escaped, but they heard signs of a firefight yesterday – they thought they were going to be rescued, but it never happened. He will reveal that all of the armaments in the shuttle were taken by Krag’s band, so they are possibly heavily armed.

If they inspect their own snowspeeder they find the computer systems fried and almost beyond repair without additional supplies; an opposed Mechanic or Computer check (opposed by Zuck’s skill of RRP) will show them that it has been sabotaged sometime in the last 24 hours.

Scene Three – Biting Snow

The PCs must make their way to find shelter and track the escapees through the snow. They walk past Tauntaun fields on their way to the hills, and everyone must make a Medium Survival check, with one black dice – anyone failing to get Successes suffers 3 Strain from the exertion and cold.

Trigger a montage with each player in turn describing their exploration towards the caves – they could hear Wampa cries, or their comms suddenly flare into life, or anything else the PCs come up with. They should emerge at the cave systems – they can see bootprints leading into the caves, and there are fresh bloodstains visible on the way in. They can follow the tracks deeper into the cave.

Any Imperials with them will refuse to go any further and must be calmed by appropriate social skills.

They will get occasional communications from Zuck and his team as they explore to the north – he can confirm that there are caves and shelter to the north, but as the snowstorm comes in he loses contact and hangs back higher up.

Scene Four – Cave-In

As they explore the caves, there are a number of challenges:

The PCs come to a cliff with the remains of climbing tack attached to it – they must carefully proceed down, requiring a Medium Athletics check from the lead climber and Easy ones from the rest of the party; failure results in a fall, requiring an Average Athletics or Coordination check to reduce the 6 damage and 6 strain suffered.

At the foot of the cliff, there is a narrow, icy bridge across a ravine. Signs indicate the escapees came this way – but the way is significantly slippery. There are pitons and rods of steel placed across the walkway, and Mechanics can be used to repair it sufficiently to make it safe again.

Their path then winds down into deeper caves, and they begin to hear a roiling above them – they are about to be in the middle of a cave-in. They can choose which skills in turn to roll to try and get out – they need 5 successes in total between them to escape unharmed, and could use Survival, Athletics, Coordination, or even a relevant Knowledge skill to get out of the way.

After the escape and flee the cave-in, they find themselves in a huge cavern, with a group of humanoids tied up above them. As they can attempt to free them (Stealth check to get one free before a Wampa notices them), they hear a the call of two Wampa – a mating pair – leap from the ceiling to engage them – and they must fight.

Wampa x2: Init GGG, Soak 6, WT: 20      20
Attack: Claws YYYGG Dam 8, Crit 3, Pierce 3, Vicious 2
Stunning Blow – may inflict damage as Strain instead – they start doing this until wounded when they will change to lethal combat.

When the wampa are driven off (if one is defeated the other may stop to cradle its mate while the PCs can escape) – they can flee to the caves above and emerge into the Tauntaun fields; where the snowstorm has cleared. They can then rescue Arseli and Krag, who are pleased to be rescued and Krag tells them his pirates now have the wherewithal to escape the planet. Suddenly, he turns on Arseli, holding a blaster against her, and mounts a Tauntaun and tries to flee.

Scene Five – Tauntaun Pursuit

The party emerges in a narrow canyon full of grazing Tauntaun – difficult, if not impossible, to be seen from the air.

At this point is also where Zuck’s patrol begins to track the PCs – they have 3 rounds while the his speeder lands and attempts to rescue Krag. Zuck needs Krag to be in the clear, at which point his speeder will land and ‘rescue’ Krag, either taking him with them or killing the PCs.

Krag’s six pirates will stay and fight the rest of the PCs while Krag makes his getaway – each round he moves one range band away, starting at Short.

To give chase, a PC must first calm and mount a Tauntaun – an Average Survival check – and he can then give chase.

Krag: Init YYG, Def 1, Soak 5, WT 20,                      ST 12
Attack: Hvy blaster rifle   YYYG  Dam 10, Crit 3, Auto-Fire
Vibro-ax YYYY Dam 9, Crit 2, Pierce 2, Sunder, Vicious

Pirates x6 (in pairs: Init Y, Soak 4, WT 10     10      10       )
Attack: Hvy blaster pistol YGG Dam 7, Crit 3, Stun setting

Goran Zuck Init GY, Def 0, Soak 1, WT 12
Attack: Hvy blaster rifle YY Dam 10 Crit 3, Auto-Fire
Adversary 1 (add 1 to difficulty when attacking)

Rebels x4 (in pairs: Init Y, Soak 4, Wt 10      10        )
Attack: Hvy blaster pistol YGG Dam 7, Crit 3, Stun setting

Zuck’s rebels can of course be reasoned with by a successful social skill against their Willpowers of 2 – they are: Jerej Crane, a human male; Zin Taske, a Bothan female; Penta Kyal, a human male, and Adi Roeder, a Mon Calamari male.

Once they have captured Krag, they have to decide what to do with him. He almost certainly knows there is a rebel base on Hoth now, and will attempt to escape and sell this information to the Hutt as soon as he can. Encourage the players to make the judgement themselves rather than just taking him back to Echo Base – and allow for the possibility of a really good social check resulting in him joining the rebellion.

The speeder can be repaired with a Hard Mechanics check to return to Echo Base and debriefing.

by guyeatsfood

Star Wars One-Shots: The “Way” is Strong in These Ones

star wars rpgsTo celebrate Star Wars day, here’s a review of the options you currently have if you want to run a one-shot in the worlds of Ewoks and Gungans. Why would you want to do that, apart from the aforementioned furry/aquatic aliens? Well, firstly, Star Wars has really clear tropes and expectations of its heroes – redemption, fighting the good fight, and starting from humble beginnings – which make it easy to motivate a group of adventurers to carry out a specific mission. It’s also got an unknowably huge canon, with cartoons, comics, and fiction alongside the films – and lots of sources of inspiration. And finally, there’s  lots of space opera tropes in it – human-like but diverse aliens, survivable and fun space combat, big beasts and monsters… it could already be a D&D campaign, just with blasters and laser swords.

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. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here.

But what system to run it with? I’m going to attempt a quick tour of them …. although I think I’ll probably only scratch the surface of the options…

Edge of the Empire / Age of Rebellion / Force and Destiny 

Fantasy Flight’s big RPG offering with the license, these are high-production value RPGs (and they are three separate games, although sharing almost exactly the same system) with a pile of supplements and adventures to go with them. Personally, I’d skip the player-facing sourcebooks that focus on specific character classes, leave the adventures alone (apart from the starter sets) and look at their ‘proper’ sourcebooks, where there are some absolutely brilliant sources of hooks and adventures – Strongholds of Resistance, for example, details rebel bases and is full of mini-adventures – I ran a really fun one-shot on Hoth based on the details in this. Lords of Nal Hutta does a similar job with criminal enterprises – you could plot about a dozen great one-shot games from each of these books.

It can be a bit of a rabbit-hole to fall down, particularly as, yes, it uses weird funky dice, and no, you can’t use regular polyhedrals. The dice are, for me, just about worth it – they give a range of successes and complications that add depth to task resolution. This means that, although the game is still towards the trad end of the trindie continuum, there’s always exciting consequences of actions. Decent and quickish space combat, and although it’s been criticised as a money-grab, I actually like how the 3 separate core books can focus on different kinds of games. When I want to run Star Wars, I need a solid reason to stray from using this system. Sooner or later I’ll write up my Hoth one-shot and put it on here.

West End Games’ D6 Star Wars

One of the original RPGs that gamers of a certain age wax lyrical about, there’s no doubt that the original Star Wars game has aged better than most of its contemporaries – a straightforward d6 dice pool system and a neat archetype character creation system – which you could almost complete at the table, if you really wanted to – yes the PCs aren’t always balanced, and yes the Force rules are awkwardly funky to the point of being broken, but the core mechanic is great fun, and works well enough to still be inspiring games.

There’s now an anniversary edition out from FFG, but there’s also the entire original game line available from Womp Rat Press here – really useful if, say, you wanted to run one of the classic Star Wars adventures with a different system. Some of the old adventures even start with a ‘script’ for the players to read out – playing the roles of NPCs before the start of the game – which is a weird and funky way to start a one-shot today, let alone in the 1980s when these modules were written.

Star Wars d20 / SAGA Edition

Remember the d20 bubble? In the explosion of mediocrity that it brought to RPG publishing (including, to be fair, the odd gem) – Wizards of the Coast brought out a whole line of d20 Star Wars built around the 3rd Edition D&D system. This early-2000s line produced loads of supplements, and to be fair if you are a big fan of d20 and it’s associated quirks it’s an obvious choice. SAGA edition saw lots of rule changes that for me improved the game a lot.

With both of these game lines, though, if you’ve got them you’ll run them, and if you haven’t they’re really tricky to get hold of, and probably not your best choice unless you’ve been invited to run for a group of D&D gamers from 2001 and want to meet their sensibilities. Wizards lost the license in 2010, so the link above is to the wikipedia page – be prepared for a longer search of ebay etc if you want to get hold of the game, since it also dates from when Wizards didn’t do .pdfs.

Scum & Villainy

The first of the big Forged in the Dark games based on the Blades in the Dark engine (for more about Blades, see here) is space opera that is very Star Wars. For Blades-style play it works really well – ideally for a double slot, or a tightly-run training mission like this one – in play it feels so Star Wars that it’s easy to forget. I played a Mystic once and really struggled calling my powers “the Way” and not the Force. Great fun for a lower-prep player-driven one-shot, and the “heist” system works well for smugglers and low-lifes if you want the Han Solo end of the genre.

PBTA: Star Wars World / Streets of Mos Eisley

I’ll highlight two Powered By The Apocalypse (PBTA) options for your Star Wars one-shot – Star Wars World, by Andrew Medeiros (I’m not entirely sure the link above is to the latest version – I got it via another blog – please correct me if I have it wrong), is a full-blooded hack of Apocalypse World with a moves and playbooks. I haven’t played it but from a read through it looks great and Andrew really knows his PBTA stuff (having co-designed the brilliant Urban Shadows).

Streets of Mos Eisley is a simpler game, a hack of World of Dungeons which is a hack of Dungeon World, on of the first PBTA games (are you keeping up?) – it’s a tighter playset, with a much looser system. I think if I was running, I would favour Star Wars World, but for a more relaxed, system-lite game, SoME looks great.

Cypher System

This final entry is probably a little leftfield, but Star Wars has influenced a lot of RPGs, and hidden in the Worlds Numberless and Strange sourcebook for The Strange, are details for playing in the Rebel Galaxy recursion – which is, like Scum and Villany above, very Star Wars. Because Cypher is so easy to adapt (or even to busk), it would be easy to run a game using this, either with The Strange of the core Cypher rules, and it gives a significantly different playstyle to any of the games above.

At it’s heart Cypher is, like Gumshoe, a game that’s led by resource management to affect probabilities, and so I’m not convinced it fits the kind of action heroics I want in a Star Wars game, but if I was running a murder mystery, or a one-shot focused more on exploration than conflict, I would certainly be looking at Rebel Galaxy. Cypher is also a really good system for newcomers to RPGs, in my experience, so it might be a good starting place for them.

So there are your options. As I’ve said, for me it’s FFG (Age of Rebellion is my go-to style of play for one-shots) all the way – with an exception for D6 Star Wars and maybe for PBTA if I want that sort of game. It’s far from an exhaustive list, either – I’m sure there are people out there running Star Wars games with D100 (shout out to River of Heaven, D101 games science fiction game, which is pretty straightforward to hack into Star Wars), Traveller, or even The Code of the Space Lanes. I’m sure I’ve missed some, and it’s not like Star Wars to divide opinions – what are your go-to Star Wars games for one-shot play?

by guyeatsfood

Railroading in One-Shots

Over on twitter, Mike Mearls posted a great thread talking about railroading – and the bad reputation it has ended up with. I’ll let you read the whole thread for yourself, but it made me think about one-shot prep; if we want a satisfying experience in 4 hours or less, is railroading unavoidable?

In short, yes, it pretty much is. It’s less of a problem than in ongoing campaigns, because there’s usually player buy-in that they’ll have to engage with the problem given (and the GM’s prep) – but it’s hard to avoid some level of structure  to ensure it works out in the time available. Our challenge is trying to make it not be a problem in the game, so the players still have agency to approach the problem how they want to.

I’ll outline three techniques that I use to make railroading less of an issue in my one-shots. All are usable in any “trad” game – for games with more player agency, see my posts on PBTA games and GMless games, for starters. For the sake of examples, I’m going to describe how I’d use them in a one-shot for FFG’s Force And Destiny Star Wars game. Our basic one-sentence pitch is that the PCs, all Jedi Knights and their allies, have to recover a holocron that has recently been discovered before the Empire can find and destroy it.

Technique: Tight Horizons

Holocron2_CVD(1)

Jedi Holocron – image from Wookieepedia

If you are going to offer players a taste of a sandbox to play in during your one-shot, you need to keep the boundaries of the sandbox tight. I’ve posted before about the perils of too many NPCs in a one-shot game, and usually go with a rule of thumb that you very rarely need more NPCs than you have PCs at the table who have any sort of meaningful interaction. You might have may more ‘background characters’, and in a political / social game you might want to have more named NPCs, it’s still good pratice try to keep the numbers that will be interacted with properly as low as you can.

In our Star Wars game, let’s establish some parameters – let’s say that the holocron is found on Ossus, a planet detailed in the Nexus of Power sourcebook, a barren wastleland ravaged by lightning storms and hidden from the rest of the Galaxy by astronomical phenomena. In order to keep our play tight, let’s restrict our horizons to a particular patch of wastleland leading up to a cave system in the mountains, and the space around Ossus’ orbit. The PCs have no reason to go to another planet, and their scope for exploring Ossus is limited to the regions described. In terms of factions – and hence NPCs, let’s say there are the native Ysanna, who will try to prevent the PCs from taking the holocron, and the Imperial forces; and let’s keep an independent treasure hunter in as well, who could work either for or against the PCs.

Technique: The Swell

the swell

The diagram to the left shows the plot structure I use in most of my ‘trad’ convention games; it begins with a tightly structure opener, which throws the PCs into the action straight away, and incites action towards the main event. After this, it opens out a little – they have multiple options to follow in whatever order they want, some of which are dictated by choices they make, some of which I choose based on how the pace of the story is going (if the PCs are vacillating and taking too long, or trying to avoid trouble, the trouble is likely to come to them – never underestimate the effectiveness of a bad guy with a gun/blaster to wake up a flagging game). These then push towards a confrontation which I’ve structured as tightly as I can to make it memorable.

In our Jedi game, let’s begin with our PCs attempting to land on Ossus (their mission can be delivered in flashback, or just introduced as background) only to be struck by one of the lightning storms that ravage the planet. They need to crash land safely, and then fight off some native beasts that have been attracted by the disturbance. In a one-shot this kind of start not only makes sure that the players are involved right from the start but serves as a useful rules tutorial. Of course, the ship will now need parts to leave the planet, making sure they need to proceed towards their goal.

As they set off towards the caves in the hills, we’ll have a range of options for them for the middle part of the one-shot. Do they attempt to find shelter in the nearby settlements, aware that the Ysanna might not trust them? Will they follow the tracks of other treasure hunters? There’s an Imperial patrol waiting to ambush them – or be ambushed – as they get to the foothills. Another ruined ship from many years ago will hold resources that might make entering the caves easier – if they can bypass it’s still-functioning defences. Will they be contacted by the treasure hunters or make contact with them as they discover their existence? When prepping this section, I try not to have these building blocks joined together – I’ll have notes and stats for the Imperials, the treasure hunters, and the natives, and locations for the wreck, the native settlement, and the outer cave systems – and depending on the player’s decisions which faction is encountered where. If I’m particularly organised each of these blocks is written on an index card so I can pull it out when I need (I’ve not gone into FFG’s swanky-looking NPC cards yet, but these could easily save me some time)

All of this of course leads to a confrontation to get the holocron – in this adventure I might well let the players recover it, and the missing parts, relatively easily, in time for a race to leave the system that has been blockaded by the Imperials – because space combat is as good a finale as anything, and there’s probably been quite a lot of planetside action for a science fiction game.

Technique: Hard Scene Framing

When the players make a decision about what their action is, cut straight to it. Travelling between destinations (unless your game system makes this an exciting part of play, like The One Ring or Mouse Guard) can be quickly handwaved to allow as much time as possible interacting with the nodes presented. If it’s a dangerous area, I’ll either resolve it with one skill roll, or frame a montage (a great idea from 13th Age that is portable into any system or setting).

Either way, I like to cut to it. By all means allow a moment to establish the setting and offer verisimilitude (or even immersion) but don’t be afraid to cut quickly into action.

For our Ossus Holocron-chase, the long and perilous journey across the wilderness is going to just require a straightforward Survival role to navigate (and maybe a Piloting – Planetary if they manage to secure speeders or Kirruk Riding Beasts from the crashed ship or the Ysanna). In my notes I’ll have a list of bullet points of flavour that I’ll drop into my descriptions as they do it, but – lightning strike inciting incident aside – I don’t intend to spend time faffing around with the weather as a major player when there are more exciting blocks like the NPCs and factions to interact with.

Disclaimer

Of course, I’m sure some of the above techniques could be derided as illusionism – or even railroading by those who consider it a bad thing. But in the balancing act of prepping a time-limited one-shot, I’ll prioritise action – and making sure that aimless wanderings don’t happen – over loftier goals. I’m interested in other techniques readers may have – let me know in the comments or on social media what those are. I’m going to properly prep this Force and Destiny game now – FFG (and WEG) Star Wars are always a big draw at Go Play Leeds, and there’s one coming up this Sunday!