One-Shot Gaming

[Zak Arntson]

I've been thinking about the way our (about to be rekindled) group plays games, and the intent is to play a single indie game for a weekend or two.

Thing is, with most games, there's no emphasis on getting a game in in one afternoon. And by "game" I mean, beginning middle and end. No cliffhangers, no "see you next week" in the middle of a battle.

So what methods or heck, what rpg systems have you all seen that promotes this idea of "One Shot Gaming?"

I think an aggressive Inspectres is perfect for this sort of thing, and nearly all Con games are supposed to last for a set time.

But are there any _systems_ that encourage this kind of play?  Are there any systems that address the length of the game at all?  The only thing I can think of are concepts like "Campaign" vs. "Adventure".

[unodiablo]

Hi Zak,

2 Page Action Movie RPG and Dead Meat both work great as one shots. Wrote both of them that way, as my group plays very irregularly... 2PAM is supposed to be 'one film per session', and we can play pretty involved games in three hours. Dead Meat is supposed to be even shorter, tho I no longer think the freeware rules are as fast as they should be.

Jared's Squeam is also great for this, and we've also used Clinton's Too Much Coffee rules for one shots as well. 'Toon is one of my all time favorite one shot games (tho not indie). Ron, Paul and I played out a fair amount of plot using The Pool at GenCon, and we only had @ 30 minutes of playing time.

I personally prefer rules-lite systems when trying to play a one session game... Large amounts of time are 'wasted' when 'normal' RPG's enter into 'combat mode'. Deadlands is my favorite example of this; I once played a plotline that took two sessions to resolve a single combat... Two LONG sessions. In 2PAM it would have taken ten minutes...

Hope this helps...
Sean
P.S. So why aren't you playing one of your games? :smile:



[ This Message was edited by: unodiablo on 2002-01-04 14:48 ]

[Mike Holmes]

Well, thre's the obvious choice, SOAP. SOAP has a time limit of half an hour for play. I usually try to ge the entire game, including rules explanations and chargen, done in under an hour. Only played three times, but I think we were at least close each time.

Systems that make this easy are ones that start with the idea of no set plot. Pre-plotted games always have the problem of having to get to everything. Which often takes longer than expected. Games in which there is little pre-plotting can have a caveat attached that the game will only go for X number of hours, or whatever. Then, as time begins to expire, the participants can try to bring the plots to a close. (this also has the benefit of eliminating at least one thing that takes prep time)

RPGs being the generally clunky things they are, however, the only problem with this is that you may not get in a lot of plot for the time spent. In short demos of Universalis that I've run, pretty much only one big conflict can be reasonably intoduced and resolved (Then again, that's all you really need for a plot). This is why a game structure like the one found in InSpectres can be useful. It helps with pacing and keeping the game moving towards a conclusion.

So to sum up: familiar structure, no-preplotting.

Mike

[Zak Arntson]

On 2002-01-04 14:46, unodiablo wrote:
2 Page Action Movie RPG and Dead Meat both work great as one shots. Wrote both of them that way, as my group plays very irregularly...

I haven't read Dead Meat, but have seen 2PAM.  It's perfect for what I'm thinking of!

Great laundry list of games.  And I know what you mean about combat-heavy games.

P.S. So why aren't you playing one of your games?

Hee ... to be honest, our indie gaming group only met a few times until the holidays kicked our asses. We played Red Box D&D, Inspectres, Elfs, Munchkin, Chez Geek, made PCs for Everway, um, maybe a few others.

And yeah, most of my games are afternoon-compliant. I hadn't considered that in the game design, though.

Mikes Holmes:
Games in which there is little pre-plotting can have a caveat attached that the game will only go for X number of hours, or whatever. Then, as time begins to expire, the participants can try to bring the plots to a close. (this also has the benefit of eliminating at least one thing that takes prep time)

This is good.  I think play-length needs to go into game design considerations. My Sitcom game does this, using matching dice to control the length of play.

What other methods can we come up with?

[Mike Holmes]

I posted a setting on the Thousand Setting Project at Mystic Ages that has some interesting (IMHO) rules associated with it that limit the duration of the game mechanically. Sorta like your Sitcom game does.

http://www.mysticages.com/thousand/TheInstitute/

(apollogies, but the formatting of the entry seems to be out of whack)

The rules are at the bottom in the Notes section. Is that more like what you were thinking? By giving each player more tokens (perhaps five?) you might be able to get the entire thing played in one day.

Mike

[ This Message was edited by: Mike Holmes on 2002-01-04 15:22 ]

[Paul Czege]

Hey Zak,

What other methods can we come up with?

Consider what Scott did at the end of the last session of the Sorcerer scenario he ran earlier this year. He gave the players an opportunity to narrate an "epilogue" for their characters. We did the same thing at the end of our recent Mage scenario, and it had the effect of resolving loose ends and creating closure. The players actually clapped for each other's epilogues. I think you could comfortably run something using a light system, like Sean suggests, perhaps The Pool, or The World, the Flesh, and the Devil, if you decided on a specific time in advance when you'd go into "wrap-up mode" and call for player epilogues.

Paul

[Mike Holmes]

Hey, I didn't get an epilogue! Oh...wait..my character got offed, didn't he. Well that explains that.

There you go, though. Character death is a good way to cut things short. As long as the player is not excluded from the game. Lots of ways around that (see the recent thread). Backup characters, anyone?

Mike

[Paul Czege]

Hey, I didn't get an epilogue!

This was the Cronenberg-inspired scenario he ran last summer for our Monday night group, prior to GenCon. He didn't do the epilogue thing for the convention demos.

And anyway, you got your epilogue when you came back to the booth and told us all about your work with the forceps.

Paul

[Julian Kelsey]

This thread has sparked an idea that meta game systems could be divised to make the fixed length one of scenario a substancially different game.

I think that it's akin to game mechanics based in character motivations and (for want of a better word) character. Lots of people see this as unreasonable or unnaturally restricting, but it can equally be a guide and target for better roleplaying.

Better roleplaying? I've a notion of a meta game system that encourages focused dramatic play. The GM to plot stages of story tension over the time period, then reinforces these with available game systems (bonuses and penalties etc), keeping the players very aware of the current bonuses and penalites so they can work towards the character of the current scene.

If you fix one variable (time of play) you can pay more attention to others (dramatic motion). Dramatic motion is the changing expression of character through events in different stages of the story.

A stage might be "encounters with mentors" (think Lukes training on the Millennium Falcon), this is a character unfolding stage and one full of revelations: set up penalties to reduce combat effectiveness during this time (Luke does badly against the drone), and encourage bickering (rewarding the players of Chewbacca and the Droids with bonuses that can be used later).

The GM or scenario designer should decide how long each phase should take. And they can end abruptly (the Falcon drops out of hyperdrive). A bit of meta game given over to changing the meta game rules at this point, (combat is now effective, force is still obscured, bonuses for blah). Time can alloted for narrating consequences of the end of the previous stage, like an extra free a monologue of victory in The Pool conditions apply. These transitions could be twisted: scene fades, now, three years later...

For play that suits me I think a great deal of care to provide lots of paths and possible transformations, perhaps with conditions, if a player acts this way then respond with X if they act another way reward with Y.

I also think that carefully selecting a game system that has mechanics that suit the story being played is important. For an action story light on character interaction go with a simulation system. A story driven by relationships might be best played with "Hero Wars" or similar.

Don't think as bonuses and penalties in gamist sense, think of them as guides and goals for how the characters can be expressed at this point. This is perhaps where gamist ideas of balance and such will cross well with narrative play.

I've put up a first draft of these ideas at http://www.geocities.com/jbkelsey/FixedTime.html and a summary of Vogler for an idea of the sort of story structures that might work at http://www.geocities.com/jbkelsey/Vogler_TWJ.html

Feed back appreciated, cheers, Julian Kelsey.

[Garbanzo]

Julian-

So for "Training on Falcon," die pools are up for interpersonal conflict.  After I exploit this, I get some sort of benefit for the next scene.  How does this work?

I see this as a great way to promote character interaction and exploration - bring on the mechanics!

-Matt

[hardcoremoose]

Zak,

One shot games?

You already mentioned InSpectres.

Try Whispering Vault.  It delivers everything you need - quick character creation, a solid story structure to help the GM get things going, and the opportunity for some great, great content.  Every roleplayer should play this game at least once.

- Scott

[James V. West]

Great thread.

Not to go on a tangent, but I was wondering how a game with a fixed (short) duration would work in each of the three styles: gamist, sim, and narrative.

Obviously it would work for all three, but what would be the pitfalls to watch out for? Most gamist games are short by definition, but sim games tend to take on a long-term existance. We watch very dramatic movies in less time than a gaming session, so narration obviously works too.

Any thoughts?