Good one-shot material?

[Tanuki Tales]

So, this weekend I'm running a one-shot (though originally I was supposed to play, but things came up), but I have absolutely no clue what to do other than just hit something like donjon for a random dungeon. The group is going to be three to seven people (still not sure how many people are actually coming to my birthday festivities), with at least two of the prospective players having never played a tabletop game in their lives and they'll be rolling things up old school at the table (i.e. no prep-time or forethought).

Any suggestions are deeply appreciated, but please keep in mind that I don't have the budget to purchase new material at this time (unfortunately).

[Kudaku]

If it's a one-shot I'd suggest either asking people to make their characters ahead of time or bring pre-made characters. While seasoned players can create characters quickly, rookies will typically need at least an hour or so.

As for material... The We Be Goblins is an awesome free module and will typically last one-two sessions depending on how effective your party is. I'd add a link but the Paizo website seems to be down at the moment.

[Sir Chuckles]

Depends on what the party likes.
There are a lot of tables out there for things like "X happening because of Y", and can be followed by the "NPC motivations" chart in the DMGII.

Personally? I have an emergency quick game I have at the ready.
Goes like this:
"Everyone make a 10th level character. Any class, race, template, alignment, whatever. Wealth-by-level. 32 point buy."
"Good? Done?"
"You all wake up in a room, no windows, no doors. It is X by X feet. The only furniture is a table in the center of the room. On the table is a deck of cards."
The deck of cards it the deck of many things, and the goal is to escape.

Granted, my players LOVE the Deck of Many Things.

[Gildedragon]

Have characters premade, with spell cards printed out so things don't get bogged down with researching.
About 10-12 if you are gunning for 7 players
Look for a preprinted module, 3.5 will work well enough for PF characters
Tomb of horrors is a classic but might be too mean

[Tanuki Tales]

If it's a one-shot I'd suggest either asking people to make their characters ahead of time or bring pre-made characters. While seasoned players can create characters quickly, rookies will typically need at least an hour or so.

While I understand this, the game itself is kind of a gift from everyone to me and I want to capture that raw "play what you roll" feeling that I haven't done in years. And it saves on paper.


As for material... The We Be Goblins is an awesome free module and will typically last one-two sessions depending on how effective your party is. I'd add a link but the Paizo website seems to be down at the moment.

Is that the one where everyone plays goblins?


Depends on what the party likes.
There are a lot of tables out there for things like "X happening because of Y", and can be followed by the "NPC motivations" chart in the DMGII.

Could you give a more specific example?


Personally? I have an emergency quick game I have at the ready.
Goes like this:
"Everyone make a 10th level character. Any class, race, template, alignment, whatever. Wealth-by-level. 32 point buy."
"Good? Done?"
"You all wake up in a room, no windows, no doors. It is X by X feet. The only furniture is a table in the center of the room. On the table is a deck of cards."
The deck of cards it the deck of many things, and the goal is to escape.

Granted, my players LOVE the Deck of Many Things.

That sounds either like a lot of fun or a masochist's getaway. :smalltongue:


Have characters premade, with spell cards printed out so things don't get bogged down with researching.

I...don't even know what a spell card is.


About 10-12 if you are gunning for 7 players

It's 3 to 7, leaning more on the former than the latter to be honest. And paper is an issue.


Look for a preprinted module, 3.5 will work well enough for PF characters
Tomb of horrors is a classic but might be too mean

I kind of mentioned I don't have money to buy things. :smallconfused:

[Gildedragon]

Spell cards as in cards with spell info an effects printed on them.
Get 7 charsheets done then. A tight fit is everyone shows up, but give a variety of options to folks
And you can find a couple free modules online, none spring to mind right now but I've seen a couple pretty decent ones (I don't usually use modules)

[Kudaku]

While I understand this, the game itself is kind of a gift from everyone to me and I want to capture that raw "play what you roll" feeling that I haven't done in years. And it saves on paper.

I understand that, but unless you have an unusually long amount of time available for your one-shot (as in "we're playing all weekend non-stop"), odds are it's going to take the rookies at least a couple of hours to get their characters sorted. If you have a total of 4 hours to play, that's really gonna cut into your game time.


Is that the one where everyone plays goblins?

The very same. Paizo seems to have sorted out their servers, so I can even provide a clicky (http://paizo.com/products/btpy8j5w?Pathfinder-Module-We-Be-Goblins). I can speak from experience in that it's well written, hilarious, and a great introduction to Pathfinder's unique take on Goblins. It's my go-to advice for people who are new to or curious about roleplaying because it's so lighthearted and funny that it's very easy to get into the spirit of things.

That said, it's very silly at times and not really the traditional "rp" experience since you're not exactly big darn heroes.
It also has a (free) follow-up, We Be Goblins Too! (http://paizo.com/products/btpy8xc3?Pathfinder-Module-We-Be-Goblins-Too), but I haven't had a chance to run that.


I...don't even know what a spell card is.

No big deal, spell cards are index cards with information on them - typically about a specific spell, feat, monster or class feature. They look a bit like this (http://www.rpgbooster.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/PF-Spell-Card-v1-Flare1.jpg). They're handy for people who haven't really had the chance to get comfortable with their character options yet. Instead of giving the bard a spell list where he has to look spells up all the time, hand him 5-6 spell cards representing his Spells Known.


It's 3 to 7, leaning more on the former than the latter to be honest. And paper is an issue.

How, exactly, is paper an issue...? You could always stat them up PDF character sheets ahead of time and ask someone to print them for you.

[Tanuki Tales]

I understand that, but unless you have an unusually long amount of time available for your one-shot (as in "we're playing all weekend non-stop"), odds are it's going to take the rookies at least a couple of hours to get their characters sorted. If you have a total of 4 hours to play, that's really gonna cut into your game time.

We do in fact have all weekend, but I'll probably find a way to shave off some time.




The very same. Paizo seems to have sorted out their servers, so I can even provide a clicky (http://paizo.com/products/btpy8j5w?Pathfinder-Module-We-Be-Goblins). I can speak from experience in that it's well written, hilarious, and a great introduction to Pathfinder's unique take on Goblins. It's my go-to advice for people who are new to or curious about roleplaying because it's so lighthearted and funny that it's very easy to get into the spirit of things.

That said, it's very silly at times and not really the traditional "rp" experience since you're not exactly big darn heroes.
It also has a (free) follow-up, We Be Goblins Too! (http://paizo.com/products/btpy8xc3?Pathfinder-Module-We-Be-Goblins-Too), but I haven't had a chance to run that.

Thanks for the link. Know of any other ftp modules (fan made ones are fine too)?




No big deal, spell cards are index cards with information on them - typically about a specific spell, feat, monster or class feature. They look a bit like this (http://www.rpgbooster.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/PF-Spell-Card-v1-Flare1.jpg). They're handy for people who haven't really had the chance to get comfortable with their character options yet. Instead of giving the bard a spell list where he has to look spells up all the time, hand him 5-6 spell cards representing his Spells Known.

So they are a merchandise thing, like minis?




How, exactly, is paper an issue...? You could always stat them up PDF character sheets ahead of time and ask someone to print them for you.

I don't own "my" printer and just used up 30 something pages for the notes for one of my finals a few days ago.

[Gildedragon]

Thanks for the link. Know of any other ftp modules (fan made ones are fine too)?

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?95929-Premade-adventures-(3-5)
some of the links there are broken, and I got no idea how good they are the modules, but check them out you might find something good.



So they are a merchandise thing, like minis?

Not that I know of but there's prolly 'official ones' (after all there are official ones on the wotc site for martial maneuvers). you can just scribble them.



I don't own "my" printer and just used up 30 something pages for the notes for one of my finals a few days ago.
PDFs are your best bet then.
print them to PDFs and people can check them out on their phone and keep track of their HP elsewhere maybe.

[Tanuki Tales]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?95929-Premade-adventures-(3-5)
some of the links there are broken, and I got no idea how good they are the modules, but check them out you might find something good.

Thanks, I'll check them out.



Not that I know of but there's prolly 'official ones' (after all there are official ones on the wotc site for martial maneuvers). you can just scribble them.

Ah.



PDFs are your best bet then.
print them to PDFs and people can check them out on their phone and keep track of their HP elsewhere maybe.

Only two of the group has smart phones. Can Nooks support them? We have two Nooks we barely use.

[Gildedragon]

PDFs yeah nooks support them

[Tanuki Tales]

And the Nook doesn't support the type of pdf the character sheet is. :smallsigh:

[Gildedragon]

editable PDFs
Maybe not but if you got the sheets premade on PC just print them to PDF?

[Tanuki Tales]

editable PDFs
Maybe not but if you got the sheets premade on PC just print them to PDF?

You can save and upload Mythweaver sheets, right?

[Gildedragon]

You can save and upload Mythweaver sheets, right?

as PDFs yeah. Not the tidiest looking, at least from how I do it, but there might be better ways.

[Tanuki Tales]

I think I'll run them through this module I just found: The Werewolves of Hárgaldor (http://old.enworld.org/CrookedStaffProductions/werewolves_of_hargaldor.pdf)