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View Full Version : Suggest me good systems for One-Shots



Bling Cat
2013-11-06, 08:07 PM
As the title implies, I'm looking for good systems to run as one shots. I'm planning on running a series of one off games across several weeks, and I have a few systems already, but I'm interested in more, and as the playground is where I found out about a few of them, I'd figured I'd ask directly. The ones I'm already planning on running are:

Aces and Eights
Riddle of Steel
Savage Worlds
Mythender
and
Shadowrun

You may notice a total lack of links between these systems. This series of one shots is intended partly me running a whole bunch of systems I've always wanted to run, as well as to get a feel for the people I'm running for and what they like out a system, and will definitely influence which system(s) turn into ongoing campaigns. So as long as a system is interesting and fairly easy to introduce people to the ideas of in a one shot, I'm interested in it. So go on Playground, tell me about all the cool systems you know, so I can run them all!

Rhynn
2013-11-06, 08:40 PM
The following have a lot of adventures available in one form or another:

Call of Cthulhu
HârnMaster
RuneQuest (any)
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (1E or 2E)

Some others I like...

Conan d20
Cyberpunk 2020
Little Fears
Traveller

Complicated/involved systems are sort of bad for one-shots, but you didn't say anything about that, so...

Burning Wheel
Legend of Five Rings
Trail of Cthulhu
Twilight 2013

Also, any and all retroclones in my signature, especially ACKS.

TheThan
2013-11-06, 08:59 PM
Spirit of the century was designed for one shot adventures.
Although it might not fit your tastes, the game is meant for the pulp action/adventure (think Indiana Jones films) genre than fantasy though.

so you might want to look into it's bigger brother, Fate Core, which is supposed to be a universal system.

Grinner
2013-11-06, 09:13 PM
Since you're only doing one-shot games, try looking for quickstart versions of games.

By the way, how many players do you have? I have few games in mind, but some of the quickstart versions only have a couple premade characters each.

Ravens_cry
2013-11-06, 09:15 PM
Paranoia?
All Hail the Master Computer!

Grod_The_Giant
2013-11-06, 09:32 PM
Fiasco isn't really an RPG, as such-- more of a collaborative storytelling thing-- but it's a heck of a lot of fun with a good, creative group.

The Dark Fiddler
2013-11-07, 12:19 AM
so you might want to look into it's bigger brother, Fate Core, which is supposed to be a universal system.

Alternately, look into the little brother, Fate Accelerated Edition. Also universal, but a lot smaller of a book and its Approaches take on skills is interesting and handy for one-shots where you don't want to sit there and flesh out exactly how good your character is at what. It's about how you go about it, not what you're doing.

Draz74
2013-11-07, 12:47 AM
Old School Hack!

Dumbledore lives
2013-11-07, 12:52 AM
Don't Rest Your Head is my all time favorite system and it works well in one shots, though I find two sessions actually is the ideal amount of playtime.

FallenGeek
2013-11-07, 01:08 AM
QAGS is fun, especially if you get the kwik-start [sic] rules for character creation. The setting book "Imp" is the best of it I know for one-shots.

belboner55
2013-11-07, 01:32 AM
I enjoyed reading this post. I congratulate you for the terrific job you've made. Great stuff, just simply amazing!

Thrudd
2013-11-07, 01:45 AM
Paranoia already been mentioned, but bears mentioning again.

Feng Shui is another good one

DonEsteban
2013-11-07, 03:28 AM
Space 1889 (either the original version (http://www.heliograph.com/space1889/) (clunky), the Savage Worlds version (http://www.peginc.com/space-1889/) (pulpy), or the new, Ubiquity version (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/440453703/space-1889-sf-role-playing-in-a-more-civilized-tim) (kickstarty)) is a great setting with great material.

From the same authors (http://www.onesevendesign.com/) of Lady Blackbird there's also Danger Patrol and The Regiment: Colonial Marines (http://mightyatom.blogspot.de/2013/02/the-regiment-colonial-marines-25.html), which are all more sketches than real systems, but nonetheless great material.

Oh, and of course All Flesh Must Be Eaten bears mentioning!

Bling Cat
2013-11-07, 07:29 AM
The following have a lot of adventures available in one form or another:

Call of Cthulhu
HârnMaster
RuneQuest (any)
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (1E or 2E)

Some others I like...

Conan d20
Cyberpunk 2020
Little Fears
Traveller

Complicated/involved systems are sort of bad for one-shots, but you didn't say anything about that, so...

Burning Wheel
Legend of Five Rings
Trail of Cthulhu
Twilight 2013

Also, any and all retroclones in my signature, especially ACKS.
I've heard of few of those, but hadn't really thought about them. Since at least two of the systems on the original list I found from reading your posts, I'll have to look into your suggestions.


Spirit of the century was designed for one shot adventures.
Although it might not fit your tastes, the game is meant for the pulp action/adventure (think Indiana Jones films) genre than fantasy though.

so you might want to look into it's bigger brother, Fate Core, which is supposed to be a universal system.
Spirit of the Century is a system that I've only had cursory contact with, but it looked interesting. I'll have to look into it, because from what I remember it would work pretty well for a one shot.


Since you're only doing one-shot games, try looking for quickstart versions of games.

By the way, how many players do you have? I have few games in mind, but some of the quickstart versions only have a couple premade characters each.
The number of players will be in flux, because it's drawing from a fairly large pool who might drop in and out on a per week basis, hence the large number of one shots for now. I think at most like 6 or 7 people, with a minimum of 4.


Paranoia?
All Hail the Master Computer!
Why did I not think of Paranoia? I have to add that to the list, thank you for reminding me.


Fiasco isn't really an RPG, as such-- more of a collaborative storytelling thing-- but it's a heck of a lot of fun with a good, creative group.
Hmm. I might not run it for a one shot, but I have heard of fiasco, and I might see if I can run it during the board games night we have, as it would fit quite well into that.


Don't Rest Your Head is my all time favorite system and it works well in one shots, though I find two sessions actually is the ideal amount of playtime.
I'm not opposed to running a system over two sessions, what kind of system is Don't Rest Your Head?


QAGS is fun, especially if you get the kwik-start [sic] rules for character creation. The setting book "Imp" is the best of it I know for one-shots.
I'm always interested in systems I can gen characters for at the beginning of the session, rather than in advance. Presumably QAGS is a universal system? What kind of setting is Imp?


Paranoia already been mentioned, but bears mentioning again.

Feng Shui is another good one
I think I can take a guess as to the general theme of Feng Shui, but what kind of system is it?


Space 1889 (either the original version (http://www.heliograph.com/space1889/) (clunky), the Savage Worlds version (http://www.peginc.com/space-1889/) (pulpy), or the new, Ubiquity version (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/440453703/space-1889-sf-role-playing-in-a-more-civilized-tim) (kickstarty)) is a great setting with great material.

From the same authors (http://www.onesevendesign.com/) of Lady Blackbird there's also Danger Patrol and The Regiment: Colonial Marines (http://mightyatom.blogspot.de/2013/02/the-regiment-colonial-marines-25.html), which are all more sketches than real systems, but nonetheless great material.

Oh, and of course All Flesh Must Be Eaten bears mentioning!
Hmm, I might look into Space 1889 for the Savage Worlds one shot. All Flesh Must Be Eaten is the zombie apocalypse system isn't it? What's it like in play?

Rhynn
2013-11-07, 07:41 AM
I've heard of few of those, but hadn't really thought about them. Since at least two of the systems on the original list I found from reading your posts, I'll have to look into your suggestions.

Aces & Eights and The Riddle of Steel? :smallbiggrin:


Hmm, I might look into Space 1889 for the Savage Worlds one shot. All Flesh Must Be Eaten is the zombie apocalypse system isn't it? What's it like in play?

It's a pretty simple system, quick to use (and there's options for increased quickness, removing e.g. damage dice rolls, and IIRC completely diceless options). Highly recommended, and pretty much the best zombie survival RPG. The ruleset, Unisystem also bends to a lot of other stuff, and makes a great D&D-substitute if you're willing to put in some work up front. Unisystem games include the free Witchcraft - modern fantasy - as well as Buffy and Army of Darkness...

Space 1889 is very cool, incidentally (even if, yes, the original system is super clunky). Victorian characters flying liftwood ships through the ether to Mars, Venus, etc. ...

banthesun
2013-11-07, 09:11 AM
I'm not opposed to running a system over two sessions, what kind of system is Don't Rest Your Head?

Since I'm gonna second this recommendation, I'll try to explain. DRYH is about insomniacs who discover a surreal parallel world inhabited by Nightmares. It's a storytelling system foremost, and is fairly rules light, but what rules it has make excellent use of pacing and theme. The characters are gain (somewhat) supernatural powers from their insomnia, so they get more powerful as the get more tired and stressed. This is mainly handled by dice pools, which I find pretty elegant. The result is that the characters push themselves closer and closer to defeat until you reach a climax.

The game is also rather character driven, with the main part of character creation being coming up with events and themes that define the characters and their stories. The system seems to expect some pretty impressive improvisation skill to deal with this, which might be a turn off for some. Also, I'm not actually sure how well it scales above 2-3 people, which might also be a concern.

CarpeGuitarrem
2013-11-07, 10:12 AM
I think that Fate Accelerated is better-suited to a one-shot than Spirit of the Century, personally; there's some rules I found in the latter that somewhat bog things down (mainly, too many Aspects and too many Stress boxes). The "Approach" system is also really cool if applied well, as in--you use the approaches to figure out what sort of solution you're taking to a problem.

Monster of the Week (http://genericgames.co.nz/) makes for a great one-shot.

If your players are okay with it, Monsterhearts (http://www.buriedwithoutceremony.com/portfolio/monsterhearts/) is a phenomenal game of character drama. (This is coming from somebody who has antipathy for that general genre.)

Hollowpoint (http://www.vsca.ca/Hollowpoint/) is a blast as a one-shot: you play hypercompetent agents on a mission, authorized to use lethal force.

Grod_The_Giant
2013-11-07, 11:17 AM
Hollowpoint (http://www.vsca.ca/Hollowpoint/) is a blast as a one-shot: you play hypercompetent agents on a mission, authorized to use lethal force.
On a similar note, if you can't get your players interested in BADASS (http://www.stargazergames.eu/games/badass/) (a game made to emulate goofy b-rated action movies), I'm not sure they're still breathing.

Knaight
2013-11-07, 11:32 AM
I'm going to add Dread to the list. It's a horror game, built for one session, where the core mechanic is a Jenga tower. Every meaningful decision involves pulling from the Jenga tower for something your characters want, or leaving the Jenga tower alone and losing that something, and if the tower falls, your character dies. Alternately, you can push the tower over, and your character still dies, but in a blaze of glory done your way.

It's not a hard system to learn, the character creation consists of a bunch of loaded questions to be answered that flesh out the characters, and the Jenga tower mechanic is absolutely beautiful when it comes to creating and releasing tension.

FallenGeek
2013-11-07, 09:57 PM
I'm always interested in systems I can gen characters for at the beginning of the session, rather than in advance. Presumably QAGS is a universal system? What kind of setting is Imp?


The basic QAGS (Quick Butt Game System) book is the universal rules, yeah. The rules are good, but there is some biphobia in the example play, though. (It may be sarcasm - very hard to convey tone)

IMP is a game where you play an invading alien trying to take over the Earth. I didn't play that particular game at the convention (I played Hobomancer, while my sig. other played Imp), but it sounded incredibly fun to play some earth-conquering aliens (who in that particular game were attacking Disneyworld).

Dumbledore lives
2013-11-08, 01:23 AM
Since I'm gonna second this recommendation, I'll try to explain. DRYH is about insomniacs who discover a surreal parallel world inhabited by Nightmares. It's a storytelling system foremost, and is fairly rules light, but what rules it has make excellent use of pacing and theme. The characters are gain (somewhat) supernatural powers from their insomnia, so they get more powerful as the get more tired and stressed. This is mainly handled by dice pools, which I find pretty elegant. The result is that the characters push themselves closer and closer to defeat until you reach a climax.

The game is also rather character driven, with the main part of character creation being coming up with events and themes that define the characters and their stories. The system seems to expect some pretty impressive improvisation skill to deal with this, which might be a turn off for some. Also, I'm not actually sure how well it scales above 2-3 people, which might also be a concern.

This is all pretty much right. For more than 3 people having a few of them with interlocking stories, or making the stories interlock yourself is pretty much necessary. For me it has been surprisingly easy to do and the best thing about the system is it encourages roleplay, and draws it out even from players who would normally abstain from it.

Bling Cat
2013-11-08, 07:58 AM
Aces & Eights and The Riddle of Steel? :smallbiggrin:
Yes. I cannot tell you how much I love Riddle of Steel.


Since I'm gonna second this recommendation, I'll try to explain. DRYH is about insomniacs who discover a surreal parallel world inhabited by Nightmares. It's a storytelling system foremost, and is fairly rules light, but what rules it has make excellent use of pacing and theme. The characters are gain (somewhat) supernatural powers from their insomnia, so they get more powerful as the get more tired and stressed. This is mainly handled by dice pools, which I find pretty elegant. The result is that the characters push themselves closer and closer to defeat until you reach a climax.

The game is also rather character driven, with the main part of character creation being coming up with events and themes that define the characters and their stories. The system seems to expect some pretty impressive improvisation skill to deal with this, which might be a turn off for some. Also, I'm not actually sure how well it scales above 2-3 people, which might also be a concern.
Hmm, the scaling issues might be a problem, but the basic premise sounds like great fun, so I might take Dumbledore Live's suggestions and try and interconnect some of the characters.


I think that Fate Accelerated is better-suited to a one-shot than Spirit of the Century, personally; there's some rules I found in the latter that somewhat bog things down (mainly, too many Aspects and too many Stress boxes). The "Approach" system is also really cool if applied well, as in--you use the approaches to figure out what sort of solution you're taking to a problem.

Monster of the Week (http://genericgames.co.nz/) makes for a great one-shot.

If your players are okay with it, Monsterhearts (http://www.buriedwithoutceremony.com/portfolio/monsterhearts/) is a phenomenal game of character drama. (This is coming from somebody who has antipathy for that general genre.)

Hollowpoint (http://www.vsca.ca/Hollowpoint/) is a blast as a one-shot: you play hypercompetent agents on a mission, authorized to use lethal force.
All of those look intriguing, I'll have to look into them.


On a similar note, if you can't get your players interested in BADASS (http://www.stargazergames.eu/games/badass/) (a game made to emulate goofy b-rated action movies), I'm not sure they're still breathing.
Having now read the Badass rules, I can definitely say that this is being added to my list.


I'm going to add Dread to the list. It's a horror game, built for one session, where the core mechanic is a Jenga tower. Every meaningful decision involves pulling from the Jenga tower for something your characters want, or leaving the Jenga tower alone and losing that something, and if the tower falls, your character dies. Alternately, you can push the tower over, and your character still dies, but in a blaze of glory done your way.

It's not a hard system to learn, the character creation consists of a bunch of loaded questions to be answered that flesh out the characters, and the Jenga tower mechanic is absolutely beautiful when it comes to creating and releasing tension.
That sounds fantastic. I love games with interesting and weird mechanics, and the Jenga tower concept sounds delicious.


The basic QAGS (Quick Butt Game System) book is the universal rules, yeah. The rules are good, but there is some biphobia in the example play, though. (It may be sarcasm - very hard to convey tone)

IMP is a game where you play an invading alien trying to take over the Earth. I didn't play that particular game at the convention (I played Hobomancer, while my sig. other played Imp), but it sounded incredibly fun to play some earth-conquering aliens (who in that particular game were attacking Disneyworld).
You guys are actually too good. I think I might have too many systems to fit within the time frame now, and I might have to make some difficult decisions. All the suggestions are greatly appreciated.

CarpeGuitarrem
2013-11-08, 09:50 AM
I'm reminded that I really, really need to play Dread. The Jenga tower feels like the most perfect appropriation of a non-dice mechanic for the source material.

prufock
2013-11-08, 12:21 PM
D6 Basic (the Ghostbusters system). I think the entire system is like 14 pages or something.

Tegannie
2013-11-08, 01:52 PM
Tephra (http://crackedmonocle.com/home/), which is a steampunk RPG, is really good for one-shots, in my opinion. It's easy to learn and character creation can be pretty quick.

Glimbur
2013-11-08, 06:48 PM
RISUS (http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm)is very simple to teach, which is nice for a one shot.

Wuthering Heights (http://www.unseelie.org/rpg/wh/index.html) is an interesting change of pace. I might change the problem table, but the central interesting thing is that the PCs are well off and do not generally have an overarching goal. This leaves a lot of room for everyone to choose their own objectives. Often when I run this game multiple PC's die, and more than once the one-shot has ended with a trial.

Thrudd
2013-11-08, 11:12 PM
I think I can take a guess as to the general theme of Feng Shui, but what kind of system is it?

We were talking about it on another thread a little bit back. http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=306712

It is an action movie roleplaying game, specifically inspired by Hong Kong action cinema but appropriate for almost any type of action movie. Play is fittingly cinematic and narrative, with light rules. It runs on 2d6, one positive and one negative, with open ended rolls on 6's which is added or subtracted from a static action value and compared to a difficulty number (usually the opponent's action value). DM's are encouraged to come up with interesting sets/environments for action scenes and players are encouraged to come up with all manner of stunts using said environment to take out the bad guys. Especially suited to 80's style Hollywood action movies, old school Kung Fu flix (ala Shaw Bros.), Wuxia movies, John Woo style shoot 'em ups, even some sci-fi action. Easy for one shots because there is very little required for character building. Pick an archetype, assign a couple numbers to stats and pick a few schticks and maybe a weapon or two from a list. And come up with a good dramatic movie hook (thugs killed my parents and i'm out for revenge against crime...rival kung fu master killed my teacher and now I'm out for revenge...wandering the earth looking for good deeds to do...someone stole my truck, I want my truck back!). The movie format lends itself to a self-contained story. Of course, once your players get into it they may demand a sequel or two or three. but it is completely doable as a one shot. If you want, you could even decide the character archetypes and dramatic hooks you need for your movie ahead of time, let the players decide who will be what and make the ability choices before they start.

kabraxis
2013-11-09, 02:28 AM
There's a brazilian RPG system called 3D&T. I'm not sure how it is today (as in, newer versions and etc.; I've stopped following RPGs in general years ago), but it's base idea is to be a fast and fun RPG with simple rules and few tables, adaptable to any setting.

I'm not sure if it is available in english but I think it's worth checking it out. It's originally made thinking on Animeish settings, but it can work with pretty much anything. It works (even has official suplements) with anything, ranging from Aliens vs Predator to Pokemon to Mortal Kombat to futuristic with aliens and high tech to traditional medieval fantasy to world of darkness'ish and such.

And rules are VERY simple and easy to grasp (or were... I've heard it started to get a bit more complex, but nothing close to D&D levels of complexity). Adding the ease to the adaptability of the system makes it ideal, IMO, for one shot adventures

ZenoForce88
2013-11-09, 08:57 PM
For a one-shot, I'd look at:
Toon! The Cartoon Roleplaying game
Faery's Tale Delux
or Monster Island

All three are fairly rules light, easy to learn, and characters can be made in under 10 minutes.(Unless you have a player like one of mine, who takes a freaking week just to get the fluff of a character done. While being unable to do the crunch unless they have a solid character concept. >,>)