High-Action RPG System for One-Shot Games

[Nikolai]

Hi All,

I'm new here but I've been reading extensively on the old Forge archive and here because I am working on an RPG specifically designed for tactical, modern one-shot adventures. The game is tentatively named "Omega Force" and focuses first on Gamism, then on Simulationism. The primary focus is on Players vs. Situation and the secondary focus is on Exploration of Situation. Ultimately, the situation is the core element of Omega Force, everything revolves around it.

Omega Force is about highly skilled Modern or Sci-Fi characters in high-tension environments attempting to resolve a single issue which should take no more than 2-4 IRL game sessions. This system is NOT for traditional campaign style play like D&D with emphasis on character continuity and advancement.

The game uses familiar d20 task resolution mechanics, but discards much of the d20 "system".

Levels, classes, and gold/money are no more: These are useful for campaign play, but not for one-shot play. They take player attention off of what is happening now and place it on character development which is not the focus of this game. The focus is "what can your character do right now?".

Attributes, Skills, and Feats are in. Characters are built by assigning values to the 18 skills (which cover everything from Marksmanship to Engineering) via simple point buy and then purchasing a fixed number of feats which grant special abilities and usually have specific skills or attributes as prerequisites. There are 4 attributes: Fitness, Focus, Intelligence, and Spirit. Each attribute adds a flat bonus to the skills it is related to.

I'm sure all of the above has been done before, but that's not the point. The biggest change comes with making Omega Force specifically for one-shot adventures. Here is an example:

Traditional d20 thought example: Counter-Terrorism

The players create a group of soldiers (or police) who start by busting small terror cells around the USA. As they level up they gain more resources for better equipment. The GM slowly progresses the difficulty of the encounters with the party level to ensure that there is some challenge and risk. When the characters are sufficiently high level, they go and kill Osama Bin-Laden, the big bad evil guy.
I personally find this idea dull and dreary. Some ideas for "campaigns" just are not interesting enough to BE campaigns, but plenty interesting for one-shots. However, the priorities of many systems (accumulation of exp, gold, and other resources) don't make it easy to run these. Omega Force is an attempt to take the Step On Up that D&D players like, and make it one-shot friendly.

Omega Force thought example: Counter-Terrorism

The GM introduces the story hook: "You've all been brought here because you're the best-of-the-best. You are experts in counter-terrorism and you have been assigned to the most important national security mission since the Cold War. You will have access to the most advanced technology that the US military has to offer including air and naval support, but you'll be going into this mission covertly, with no ground support. You are here to assassinate Osama Bin-Laden. If you are successful, you will each be awarded a bounty of ten million untaxed American dollars."

The players now generate the characters who have already been called into action for the mission and simply explain why this particular character was selected for the mission (directed, but free-form backstory).

"Lieutenant Jackson is an ex-Army Ranger sniper who has over 120 confirmed kills on his record from the Iraq war. He is an expert in marksmanship, stealth, and athletics. It was no surprise that Jackson was summoned here from his home in North Dakota: several of his closest friends in the Rangers were taken hostage by insurgents 2 years ago. He has been waiting for an opportunity for revenge and a chance, however small, to rescue his friends for those long 2 years, and this is his chance."

Next, the characters choose their equipment from an extensive list, really limited only by what they can carry, the current level of technology, and what the employer can supply.

Finally, here's the gamist kicker. So we've established that there is a win condition: killing Osama Bin-Laden. Simple enough, but here is where it gets interesting. Each character has the option to write up a "Plot Twist" or be randomly assigned a pre-generated "Plot Twist" for this mission. For example, "Grudge Against Bin-Laden" might be a twist for one person: That character's real goal is to kill Bin-Laden in an up-close and personal manner, not with a grenade or an artillery strike. Their win condition is slightly different. Another character's Twist might be "Best Friend is a Hostage" meaning that this player's true win condition is getting their friend out alive. This allows players to tell the GM what they want this story to be about much like Aspects in Fate help the GM determine what the story is about, however they also set win conditions in a Gamist sense and don't drag out character creation process because you only need one and you already know the scenario.

Again, this isn't meant to be a narrative game or even a simulationist game. It's about getting players into an action packed scenario ASAP, having them make some tough tactical decisions and decisions based upon their character motivations, and then succeed or fail at the mission (and their personal mission). The end result should be much like a Hollywood movie with a brief exposition that introduces the conflict and characters followed by rapidly rising action and a final climax. Then it's over! I guess the end result is action movie with tactical scenarios (similar to D&D).

Now, why did I post this? I'm pretty sure about my mechanics (I want to stick with d20 task resolution because my group is comfortable with it), but I'm looking for GM advice on how to get everyone excited and keep them that way using gamist and storytelling techniques. I'm trying to write up a GM's section for the game for myself (and others if I release a PDF) which outlines how to accomplish this consistently and also develop mechanics (such as feats) which assist in this process.

In summary: What can I do with a system like this in terms of GM prep/playstyle and system design to avoid excess railroading and illusionism while creating a Hollywood-esque vibe of constant tension and action going?

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Nikolai, and welcome. When you get the chance, please post a link to any reference point for the game - a blog or whatever, or even just a PDF with some of the rules formalized. It helps a lot in keeping discussions on track.

Alessandro ("Hasimir") designed something you might find interesting, discussed in [Tactical Ops] Actual Play #01 - Just Like in CSI. You may be going a different way, but his way works too, so it's worth checking out for comparison.

I suggest that all the GNS talk can be set aside, too. We can get into that later. Right now, I think I'm puzzled by your stated purpose at the end of your post:

I'm looking for GM advice on how to get everyone excited and keep them that way

My own long-held view on questions like this is that they're futile. You can't excite other people. They have be excited about the imagined material and opportunities for play on their own. Your job is to be coherent in design and vivid in execution, and that's it - once those are demonstrably in place, then people who find that sort of thing exciting will be right there with you, and those who don't won't, no matter what you do.

I think the main way to address your concern is to say, what happened the last time you played the game? In the fiction, what did the characters do and how did it turn out? What was the experience like for the real people?

Best, Ron

[Nikolai]

Hi Ron and thanks for being so welcoming!
I have been working a lot on this RPG recently (and work full time) so I haven't had much time to put together much of a post or prep a formalized rules doc. I do plan on posting one as soon as possible here on the forums, but I've been somewhat stuck when it comes to working out some core components of the game.
Also, thank you for introducing me to Tactical Ops. I really enjoyed reading it and some of the Intel Phase storytelling mechanics are very inspiring for my own game.
I'd like to tell you a little about myself and some of the challenges I've had just to put everything in context.
I have been with a regular gaming group of 6 people for about 2 years now where we play D&D 3.5. Since there is no one D&D, I'll describe our play-style. We use every official WotC D&D 3.5 book for character options to build optimized characters. We don't consider this powergaming because we all work together to help each other optimize our characters, so the whole party is on the same page in terms of power. The GM is usually expected to make challenging encounters that meet the power of our 'optimized' characters. You could say that it's not about power, but about having mechanically interesting characters. We religiously use a grid battlemat and use miniatures in our combat encounters. We engage in very gamist play with a lot of metagame rules discussion during encounters where several of us discuss and debate the optimal choice in any given tactical situation.
The main problem with this is that we have 2 players who are relatively uninterested in combat and much more interested in storytelling. Since our D&D combats can easily go for 4+ hours, this leads to a certain level of disconnect. I personally love the tactical combat, but I also like the storytelling.
Out of combat encounters are where things get murky. Every single person at the table has different expectations when it comes to how to handle out-of-combat storytelling/role-playing. We have one player who will always roleplay minimally to reach the next combat encounter ASAP. We have another who will go with whatever the group consensus is, the path of least resistance. We have another who loves storytelling and worldbuilding, but really doesn't have the confidence, and understanding of social contract, and rules to GM. We have another who likes characterization, silly situations, and has great fun with emergent scenarios driven by character history and actions instead of the GM (this person sometimes GMs). Next, we have a firm believer in the rules who loves character optimization/combat and also understands storytelling, but expects that players will follow along with prepared content (this person sometimes GMs).
I personally like tactical combat, but also want narrative gameplay where the story is really centered on the players and their decisions. When I GM, I prepare no more than really a paragraph of "plot/situation", maybe a page or two of setting, then turn the characters loose.
We all get along very well and have a tight-knit group where most of us are friends outside of RPGs. Our social contract is clear and we really have no issues outside of the RPG gameplay itself.

I personally have several things that I dislike about D&D:
1.   Character Advancement
While I like tactical combat, I do not like the zero-to-hero experience mechanics of D&D. For example, I'd rather play a group of level 10 assassins in the first session who are hired to go take out the BBEG in 1-2 real game sessions than a party of level 1 characters who are slowly introduced to the conflict and, once they have gained enough experience, fight the BBEG 20 sessions later.
2.   Character Independent of Story
If I'm asked to create a character for a campaign, without clearly knowing what exactly the campaign is about and why my character is involved, there will be problems which ultimately lead to "Why is my character even here?" If that cannot be answered clearly and easily, I grow disconnected with the story and just focus on the combat.
Back to the RPG I'm developing and your question Ron:
"I'm looking for GM advice on how to get everyone excited and keep them that way"
Based on the group I play with (and my own preferences), combat needs to be an important element. There are 2 people in my group who show up largely for tactical combat and I enjoy it myself. I really can't see this going away and wouldn't want it to.
Based on my GM prep style, the bulk of the story must be character driven because I don't write novels for GM prep and I try my best to avoid railroading. Also, because of this, my GM style lends itself to one-shot games, not campaigns.
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I need a crunchy gamist system, with mechanics that encourage emergent conflict and character development, all in a tight one-shot (not campaign) oriented package. What paths can I explore to achieve this?
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I don't know of any game which would really fit our group. WoD doesn't have enough crunch. Savage Worlds doesn't have enough character options (but is the closest to the right fit that I've seen). FATE isn't gamist enough to make everyone happy. Thus I began work on Omega Force.
I've run one mini-campaign with Omega Force, known as "The Island". I can sum up the whole situation in a paragraph.
The players are survivors of a shipwrecked cruise liner in the Pacific Ocean after being capsized by a freak storm that appeared out of nowhere. They are washed up on a remote jungle island with an active volcano and a perpetual storm circling around the island, as if the island were the eye of the storm. This island is the Fountain of Youth that has been the focus of mythology from the Epic of Gilgamesh to Renaissance Spain. The island contains the relics of civilizations long dead, all related to stories of immortality, and also contains many mythological beasts such as dragons. The characters are free to do as they wish, either searching the island for a way off or seeking to uncover the mystery of the Fountain of Youth. The entire island is mapped out on a grid which is available to the players immediately and on which they are encouraged to make note of resources, monster lairs, hazards, and whatever else they encounter there (this is an exploration meta-game).
The players created an interesting group of characters including a hippie naturalist, a big game hunter, a mentally unstable detective, a Chinese martial arts instructor, and a pro basketball player. We established at the beginning that they had either known each other prior to the cruise or had gotten to know each other during the cruise.
The resulting story was pretty awesome and I believe most of the players enjoyed it.
The combat focused player (the martial arts instructor) uncovered aspects of his ancient Chinese heritage from an ancient shipwreck including armor and weapons inhabited by the spirit of an ancient Chinese warlord.
The big game hunter had many opportunities to take down some nasty mythological creatures such as Gorgons (the lizard-bull type), dire eagles (Rocs), and Ogres.
The naturalist had lots of opportunities to create herbal concoctions such as bug repellent (was a winner when facing giant centipedes and spiders) and paralytic toxin as well as convince a baby dragon to join the party (animal companion). This character's story was about the conflict between her pacifistic, contemplative life before the shipwreck contrasted with the real threats which often needed to be met with force.
The bball player wasn't at many of the sessions, but he had big plans to recruit the small indigenous intelligent lizards (see kobolds) of the island to become our allies (and make a bball team out of them). The player of this character really liked the exploration meta-game and was very proactive in exploring the island.
The detective had some great roleplay moments where he started off as a neurotic, paranoid fool, but eventually became the de-facto leader of the other survivors and regained his confidence in himself as a character after taking responsibility of a group of NPC survivors. His character development was awesome and you could really see how this lost police officer really regained faith in his original reason for joining the force (protect and serve, etc) when faced with the care of the NPCs. (This was the player who likes storytelling and worldbuilding).
At this stage, Omega Force was basically a stripped-down version of d20 with the experience mechanics and advancement mechanics vastly simplified. I felt that our group really got behind the story and the adventures in this scenario, but I made a key mistake during this mini-campaign: I let it drag on too long. Our most gamist player got bored and wanted to do something else after several months of play, so we went back to D&D.
What I am trying to do with Omega Force now is really optimize it to provide this kind of experience again, but compressed into 2-6 sessions instead of dragged out across months. As I mentioned before, I really like the d20 task resolution mechanics and so does my group (even the more story oriented players), but I'm trying to set up a system with certain basic assumptions which will allow this sort of play to become emergent.

Again, what I'm looking for:
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I need a crunchy gamist system, with mechanics that encourage emergent conflict and character development, all in a tight one-shot (not campaign) oriented package. What paths can I explore to achieve this?
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Hopefully this clears up some of my earlier GNS confusion.

Cheers, Nikolai