What's the fastest way to organise a session last minute? My players and I are all retarded and we often have one or two players cancel, leaving us to just do a oneshot instead. The responsibility usually falls to me to throw something together at the last minute, but I feel like I don't have the right framework for making quick adventures that are actually good.Wat do? >inb4 "just use a premade one" Don't like emBonus questions: >What's the fastest system to prep a dungeon/oneshot for?>What happened in your last oneshot?
>>98645338Pic related would be my choice if you really need something fast. Relies quite a bit on your improv skills, but I had great success with it even with people who hadn't played before. Part of the fun is fleshing out the details.Call of Cthulhu is another one I'd suggest, since it's got a 25 page quickstart guide, though given how that's more focused on mystery solving, that can take a bit more work to cook something up.
>>98645374>Call of Cthulhu is another one I'd suggest, since it's got a 25 page quickstart guideI've heard of people in Japan turning CoC into a vessel for all kinds of games, like how some people do it with dnd 5e here. Do you have to run a CoC that's about mystery solving, or could you just run some other form of game in the system. My mind goes back to Old Man Henderson...
>>98645454>My mind goes back to Old Man Henderson...Because you're a nogames worshipping nogames fanfiction
>>98645454>>98645374Is CoC a suitable game for running a pulpy men-in-black style game? Hunting cryptids, cultists, ESPers and the like?
>>98645454>Do you have to run a CoC that's about mystery solving, or could you just run some other form of game in the system.Not necessarily, but it does still tend to work better if it's something with horror elements. I can't say I recommend it if you're hoping for something overly action-packed though, since characters tend to be pretty fragile. >>98645478Delta Green is probably more your speed for that, where it's a bit more focused on the modern day conspiracies instead of the 1920s. I'm not as familiar with that though, so I can't say if it's as simple in terms of one-shot material.
>>98645478Look up Pulp Cthulhu for that
>>98645478I posted a full thread for the question: >>98645497>>98645527>Delta GreenI've heard the name before, but I don't know much about it at all tbdesu (I sorta assumed it was like a modern military game or something), I'll check it out, thanks for the rec
>>98645338So, assuming you have 4 hours to prep a 4 hour session:You need a system that's micro-light or everyone knows. If this happens often, I'd recommend teaching the group a lite generic that suits their tastes (Cortex Lite, GURPS lite, Mini Six, could be anything). Instant buy-in: you need a setting or premise your group will get instantly. Zombies, fantasy slop, Indiana Jones, maybe Alien at a push.Contained structure: a site-based adventure is best, cut down the wandering to a minimum. Players may chafe at railroading but I'd recommend honesty if they go too far off piste. "Good idea, but I didn't have time to prepare for that."Either pregen characters or assign players to make characters ahead of time or (daringly) have a stable cast of one-shot characters who reset every time. Dump your GM Idea bin out and put in anything that didn't fit your main game, even if it's very similar to the main game. Especially if! The resonance will land and your players may enjoy a second chance to get encounters "right."
>>98645691>Players may chafe at railroading but I'd recommend honesty if they go too far off piste.I always railroad the beginning of my oneshots. Right from the get go all the characters start out knowing exactly where they are, what their goals are, and where they're going. I hate the typical "you start in a tavern" beginnings, they're always reliant on the players actually taking the hooks put in front of them and usually cut at least 30 minutes of potential playtime from a session.I've done oneshots like: >You're dead, now escape the underworld>You've been hired to go to a neighbouring town and investigate disappearances, you just arrived>Your settlement had a caravan's worth of food stolen, get it back or else everyone will starve the winterI usually verbalise some optional objectives the players can choose to pursue, and of course I don't force any particular ending or resolution, but I never let my players loose from the beginning.
>>98645771I've had players go off the rails in the middle more than the start (because it sounds like I start a one shot like you do!) so that's what I was referring to. Trying to ally with the enemies du jour or suchlike.
>>98645338Barbarians of Lemuria. Simple rules. Simple to run. Works with as few as 2 players. Set up for short adventures and one shots by default.
>>98646265Do you have some examples of your players going off the rails? I personally wouldn't call something like allying with the enemies to be going too far off the rails, since the players are still playing within the boundaries of the adventure, they're just finding a novel way to interact with the content you've placed in front of them.
>>98646276>Barbarians of LemuriaNever heard of it before, what's the theming and what do you like about it? Google tells me it's sword and sorcery (like Conan I assume?), but doesn't provide much other info other than the fact that it is "fast".
>>98646290BoL is a 2d6 system on the upper end of a rules light. It's for playing stuff like Conan, Barsoom, or you know, Lemuria. It's a system that focuses on PCs being powerful and competent out of the gate, leaning on the pulp tradition of epic feats by grim heroes. Magic is evil and difficult. It's also very flexible (the caster makes up their spells, the GM sets difficulty based on relative power) without being spammable.The central stats are very simple. 4 core stats, 4 combat stats, 4 careers (which work like skill packs, not classes). I like the career system in particular for helping a player 'write' their hero while also serving a direct mechanical purpose.If you want something with more crunch, it has a sister system: Honor+Intrigue, with more sophisticated magic and melee combat, which is for pulp swashbuckling by default but can easily be used for fantasy or pulp sci-fi with its Tome of Intriguing Options. Since you want an easy one shot now, though, I'd recommend base BoL.
>>98646278"We don't want to save the town, we want to ally with the villains" was a big one. It wasn't so much the morality but that with the PC's help the antagonists stomped the town flat in about twenty minutes and then there wasn't anything left to do. I also had a "we just peace out" in a heist scenario I had to own up to and say "I don't really have the rest of the setting prepared."
>>98645338Just throw some context at an AI and let it produce a couple ideas. Go from there.
>>98646549>I also had a "we just peace out" in a heist scenarioWTF leads players to doing ts? What were they expecting other than a couple loosely improvised encounters or just nothing at all (which like you said, is what they got)?
>>98646577So, this is not a brag, but they just liked the pre-gens. I made a set of Payday-inspired character sheets (The Mastermind, The Enforcer, etc.) and a cool hideout for them to start out in and they just wanted to kick around the city and do GTA shit. The heist seemed a bit daunting and I hadn't locked in a "or you'll die" reason for doing it (i thought a vault of gold bars was reason enough). I don't think they had a plan for what would happen except "be cool, do crimes."
>>98645338>Don't like emJust use a premade one you've made yourself for such an occasion.
For me it's Savage Worlds (not a perfect system by any means, but it's generic and can be explained to a retard in mere minutes)And then the classic "Five room dungeon" can pretty much be imagined off the cuff should I need to improvise a story. But I rarely improvise entirely, it's much nicer to plan ahead even if you only have a couple hours runway.
>>98647045it feels so obvious now that you mention it...
>>98645338>wants oneshot dungeons >doesn't want modules That's literally what they're for silly. Many are not good but there are some that work quite well. Into the Odd is a fast pickup dungeon crawler, has a dungeon in it, try that next time and see how it works for you. Most osr material is easy to adapt to it.Failing that look at Dungeon World or Freebooters on the Frontier with Lampblack & Brimstone dungeon starters. Its not that good but its not that difficult to get going and have fun for a bit. Printout playbooks helps a lot. >frameworkYou're basically looking for something that can wrap around a couple procedural tables and inspiration. It can be alright but gets stale fairly quickly if you're just riffing of your own ideas constantly, they tend to get repetitive. There's a lot of fast games that don't require much setup. Kill Vice Mercyless is a decent Hotline Miami game. 3:16 Carnage for space marine violence. Which ever Grant Howet short catches your eye. >>98645374>ghost echo That's a name I haven't heard in a long time.
>>98645338>What's the fastest way to organise a session last minute?Hand out premade sheets and start the party at the dungeon entrance
Playing zero-prep games.
>>98645338More of a long-term suggestion, but imagine just coming up with one-shot scenarios as a past time every now and then, fleshing some of them out and writing them down so you have some at hand when you need them. I've started doing that in last 2 years and it actually serves as a nice break from mostly working on campaign material. Also I've lately did a catalogue of sorts of all the various scenarios I've wrote and/or ran over my ~15 years of GMing that were one-shots of could work as one and it turned out there were much more than I expected. It's a helpful list to have when I need something ready
>>98645338You could look into look into 'party games'-style ttrpgs that are almost made for oneshots (Microscope, Fiasco, Paranoia, Brindlewood Bay, Maid).
>>98645338Shadowdark Quickstart. Heck. Quickstarts in general. Here's a lil booklet, here's index card sized character sheets. You meet in a tavern and go some place dark and terrible.
>>98645547Yeah DG is basically call of cthulhu except you're some form or another of glowie, doing glowie shit
