"Black Dougal gasps 'Poison!' and falls to the floor. He looks dead."
Showing posts with label One Shot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label One Shot. Show all posts

Monday, October 25, 2010

Red Box Calgary

I have been ridiculously busy with work the last while, however, I have recently been in contact with K-Slacker from Tempora Mutantur and Paladin from A Paladin in Citadel about scheduling an old school game. K-Slacker suggested that each of us run a one-shot for fun and then we can decide where to go to from there.

We are using the forums over at Red Box Calgary to discuss and schedule something and also to hopefully get some more interest.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Dark Sun / Castles & Crusades Part 2

The background for a second session of the now poorly named Dark Sun one shot:
With the Veiled Alliance still in hiding and part of Nicodemus' troops now under their orders, our unlikely heroes spent the last year wandering the desert, hunting and raiding villages like any other slave tribe. The tribe's scouts have brought word of an unlikely caravan traveling through the desert nearby - a supply caravan belonging to Sorcerer-King Kalak whose destination is unknown. The tribe has set up an ambush to take the caravan. Why is it out in the desert? What does it carry?

These are my goals/wish list for a second session of Castles & Crusades / Dark Sun:
1. Make use of the Slave army that now follows the party.
2. Have a mix of scene framing and dungeon exploration. But a bigger focus on dungeon exploration than in the last session.
3. More goofy minis!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Next One Shot

With the success of the Dark Sun one shot, I have sent an email out the the stable of players I know about another one shot. The email listed the following ideas:
Idea #1 - Under a Broken Moon
Lords of Light!
The year 1994: From out of space comes a runaway planet, hurtling between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction. Man's civilization is cast in ruin. Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn... A strange new world rises from the old: a world of savagery, super science, and sorcery. (Source: Thundarr the Barbarian)

Ruleset: Mutant Future or Savage Worlds

Idea #2 - The Gift
The Elven Prince of the Silverwood has taken a retinue to meet the Dwarven Prince at the ancient dwarfhome Barak Varr.
This one would be different as half of the players would be elves and half would be dwarves.
Based on a scenario originally for Burning Wheel.
Ruleset: RISUS

Idea #3 - Zombie Run
The world didn’t go to hell overnight. It took a whole two months.
Saturday, April 4, 2009. Sometime around midnight, Eastern time, the recently-dead started coming back to life. We woke up Sunday morning, turned on our radios and TVs, went outside and picked up our newspapers, and learned that rotting corpses were wandering the streets, forcing their way into homes, attacking and eating people. In Ottawa, the prime minister declared a national emergency. Local police and the RCMP joined forces with the Army, and for about a week, we held our own against the rising tide of the dead. But how do you defeat an enemy when your own casualties become his foot soldiers?

The players have fortified themselves in Bankers Hall in Downtown Calgary and must make a journey to find safety.
Based on a scenario for Savage Worlds
Ruleset: Savage Worlds

Idea #4 - The Isle of Doom
A classic comic book sword & sorcery game. Think "Savage Sword of Conan".
One of the scenarios at the back of the Barbarians of Lemuria rulebook.
Ruleset - Barbarians of Lemuria (this game has quickly won me over. I just have to play it at some point!) or Savage Worlds
Also, I am going to work on a sequel to the Dark Sun Game.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

C&C / Dark Sun One Shot Report

I ran the Dark Sun one shot last night. It was great fun! First some pictures and then a look at whether the game met my goals.

The opening scene was in the arena of course...













Later a fight in the desert...












The final battle...














My goals for this game were:
1. To use C&C to run a Dark Sun game that is not a 100% conversion of Dark Sun but instead a "thematic" conversion.
How did C&C do? Really well. I find C&C plays a lot like 2nd edition but faster and easier.

Some of the conversion mechanics included;
A. No psionics - this did not appear to be missed and it still felt like dark sun to everyone.
B. Using a variant of the Microlite20 magic system for wizards - this worked extremely well.
C. Custom Gladiator class based of C&C's Knight class worked well. The player really took to it during the arena combat. Also, the Fighter, Ranger and Gladiator all felt very different from each other.

The use of lots of props, art work and music really helped with the Dark Sun feel.

2. Run a high action, heroic game that still feels like Dark Sun
I am pretty lenient with the use of C&C's siege mechanic to do all sorts of crazy maneuvers and stunts so this lends itself to the characters feeling heroic. The grittiness of Dark Sun was communicated by stressing slavery, the tyrannical power of the sorcerer-kings and the harshness of the natural environment. Only one PC death as the wizard was blasted with a lightening bolt in the final encounter.

3. Develop a fast and furious non-railroaded one-shot
I had 5 encounters roughly sketched out. A lot of pre-planning went into making sure there would be at least one opportunity for each character to come to the forefront but, as they typically do, the players surprised me at every turn. The only encounter that went as I expected it to was the initial battle in the arena - tough for that one to get off the rails. From the second encounter on the players tried things that I did not expect.

What worked really well?
A. All the time and effort I put into making props, visuals and the soundtrack really enhanced the game.

B. The encounter design. Each of the 5 encounters was designed with a specific goal, a list of obstacles that needed to be overcome to reach the goal, and the "push" - the element that kept the players moving. Each of the 5 goals formed the backbone of the "story". However, the method to accomplish the goal was left entirely up the the players and there was enough wiggle room for how players accomplished prior goals to affect how later goals may be reached. The push for the overall story was a time limit on finding Mr. McGuffin. Each encounter also had a specific push. For example, an encounter in the desert was pushed by the need to find water.

What's next?
Maybe a Thundarr-type one shot using Mutant Future, one of the scenarios out of Barbarians of Lemuria, the Burning Wheel scenario "The Gift" using Risus, or maybe a sequel Dark Sun game.

EDIT:
What didn't work?
- Mainly that in a format such as a one-shot, I need to do a better job moving the action along and framing the next scene. In my Northern Marches game this isn't a requirement as it is an exploration based sandbox game. the methodical exploration of every hex, passageway, nook and cranny is part of that game but in a more "story"-based one-shot it is more important to cut to the next scene to keep the tension and action ramped up. There was a brief part in the middle of the game where I started so see things flag a bit and had to really make a conscious effort to bring the intensity back up.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Getting Ready

My Castles & Crusades / Dark Sun one shot is in a couple of days so I am going to spend some of my free time putting the finishing touches on my prep.

The encounters are pretty much sketched out - the players are agents for the Veiled Alliance and they have to find Mr. McGuffin. The opening scene is in the arena of course.

I am using pregen characters and they are pretty much done.

I am using a bunch of props and I am going to make this a minis-heavy (actually figure flats) game so I have built props for the arena and possible subsequent encounters but there are still a couple of things I have to finish.

The soundtrack is also ready - a heavy dose of Gladiator and 300.

I will post some comments here after it is done.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Dark Sun One-Shot is Proceeding

A handful of players I know have indicated that they want to participate in the Dark Sun one-shot I am working on. I ultimately decided to use Castles & Crusades as the rule system. I decided this for ease of conversion. I have told my players that I am not going for a 100% accurate mechanical conversion but instead a "thematic" conversion. It will follow a lot of the thoughts I have mentioned here - no psionics, no defiler/preserver classes, etc.

I am keeping a bunch of the races and classes that I would eliminate if it were a B/X game but, once again, not straight conversions.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Some More Thoughts on One-Shot Adventures

Since my post a few weeks ago about Episodic vs Campaign games, I have continued to think about one-shot games or micro-campaigns in general and a Dark Sun one-shot specifically. While the Northern Marches continues to be my main focus, I am enjoying having something else to think about. I like the idea of running some short games as it gives me the chance to pursue other gaming ideas but allowing the Northern Marches to remain the campaign focus.

I have been thinking about how to make a one-shot adventure effective. By "effective", I mean making the session as fun as possible while sticking to a finite time period. Some considerations are:

1. Structure - an appropriately sized location based adventure vs. a plot based adventure with a beginning and end.
2. Giving the players a goal to get the ball rolling - recover the artifact, find the traitor, save the princess, etc.
3. Combining the Goal and the Structure in a way so that the adventure in not a railroad - getting them started but allow them the freedom to do their own thing.
4. Character Mortality - The players won't be as attached to their character so hopefully they will try some wacky stuff but this is balanced against the time constraints and having to roll up new characters.
5. Pushing the players - having a mechanism to keep the pressure on the players to act - recover the artifact before the pillar of fire falls from the sky, find the traitor before he does X, save the princess before she is sacrificed to the dark gods.

I have been considering two possible scenarios for a Dark Sun one-shot. Either the typical "you are a slave in one of the city-states" knowing that the characters will try to escape or a find the mcguffin adventure with a twist.

The Escape Slavery scenario would be a location based adventure focused on the slave pits and escaping the city into the desert.

The find the mcguffin scenario would be more of a plot-based game but to keep it from being a railroad, it would be more about giving the players' the goal and having an idea of how the mcguffin could be recovered. The middle part would be a few vague ideas but more reacting to the players actions while keeping the pressure on them to recover the mcguffin before X happens.

Does anyone have any other thoughts/tips about structuring and/or running a one-shot adventure?