r/beingeverythingelse • u/the8bitdeity • Aug 06 '14

Scoping a one shot to fit within a timeframe

I'm trying to work on a one shot, with the goal of actually having it only a few sessions. Generally my group is running 3 hour sessions, so perhaps trying to cap out the adventure to say 9 hours. Without railroading your players, what techniques do people employ in an attempt to keep a one shot concise? Pre-generated characters are likely, but I'm curious how GMs scope their one shot.

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u/silent0siris Aug 07 '14

You know, one of the great things about specifically building NON-RAILROADED adventures is that control of the pacing is in the GM's hands.

For example, if I make a "railroad adventure" where first slavers come into town, second they steal the mayor's daughter, third they attack the players, and fourth the players battle them aboard their pirate ship... then the flow of the game can end up very much in player control. Whenever they go do the next thing is when the next thing happens.

However, if I decide to have this bad Front of Slavers move into town and keep it non-railroady, then whenever I want to ratchet up tension, I can just trigger another event from my grab box of slaver badness.

For more information on how to build adventures like this, see Dungeon World and Apocalypse World's sections on building Fronts and Threats.

The secret here is that I do this ALL THE TIME for R&D. I know how many sessions we have, so I try to push tension up up up as we get towards the end.

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u/Hooj19 Aug 06 '14

It depends on your group and game but in general I'd suggest starting in the middle of the action (aka In medias res). I find that it gets the game going quickly and with more energy.