The Ultimate Sin of GMing

[Easy e]

So, I watched a fun little horror TV episode, and was considering how to make the basic premise into a 1-shot Horror adventure for my group in a non-D&D rules-lite style horror game.

What are good tips for converting episodic TV into actual adventures? Obviously, one is very different than the other, so what are some techniques to bring over, and techniques from TV that do not apply well to an RPG?

Thanks for any advice before I get started writing it all out.

[LibraryOgre]

A space to explore, not a story to tell.

You can railroad them a bit... dump them at the depot, as it were... for a one-shot. "Y'all're here, for this reason. Now deal with it." And you should know what's causing the problem, and why it's causing the problem... but they shouldn't have to do everything in order, or come to the same conclusions and solutions as the TV people.

[Notafish]

A space to explore, not a story to tell.

You can railroad them a bit... dump them at the depot, as it were... for a one-shot. "Y'all're here, for this reason. Now deal with it." And you should know what's causing the problem, and why it's causing the problem... but they shouldn't have to do everything in order, or come to the same conclusions and solutions as the TV people.

Depending on the group and the rules, I actually think TV episodes can be a good framing format for a one-shot... provided that everyone knows going in that "tell a story with this structure" is a goal of the game. If there is a shared expectation that there will be some sort of procedural structure, then there can be more comfort with the sorts of railroad-y moves a GM might need to use to have a climax and conclusion before the end of the night. In a long-running traditional game, I might expect to do in-character dialogue about our theories about whatever incident we're investigating, or roleplay the process of getting from the crime scene back to the lab. If I know we're emulating primetime TV, the GM calling a scene change or an OOC discussion to describe a montage of the investigation process can feel much more "natural".

[Mastikator]

Different kinds of players prefer/need different kinds of adventures. Not just in terms of theme (horror, action, cloak and dagger, intrigue, etc) but also in terms of format (free sandbox, improv quests, multipath, linear adventure). Pick one that you like and that your players are compatible with.

I have some experience with running episodic one shots (one shots that follow each other and use the same PCs), this is my basic lesson: split up the quest into scenes where each scene is a micro improv quest, in other words you set up a basic premise with a hook for the players and then progress the micro-story logically according to the players actions. Depending on what they players do you can put them into the scene that makes the most sense, and modify the scenes according to what the players did. You should give them at least one choice with two logical outcomes, but be ready to improvise if they decide to do something you didn't think of (because they will).

Your biggest enemy when it comes to one-shots is time, in order for a one-shot to be successful the players need to win, and depending on what your players do they may go way off rails. To make sure you have stuff prepared it's easy to just ask the players what they want to do. Another thing you can do, if time is getting short, is to just skip a scene or two entirely. That's really why you would want scenes at all, to be able to shuffle and skip them depending on time and player choices.

If you're doing episodic one-shots then you can take elements/props/NPCs from previous one-shots, it will make the setting feel more integrated and improve immersion.

[stoutstien]

Episodic style game is valid with buyin. Heck there are games that use it as the primary form of pacing like star trek adventures

[animorte]

If there is a shared expectation that there will be some sort of procedural structure, then there can be more comfort with the sorts of railroad-y moves a GM might need to use to have a climax and conclusion before the end of the night.
That's pretty much what I was going to say. +1


Episodic style game is valid with buyin. Heck there are games that use it as the primary form of pacing like star trek adventures
I agree with this. My group does more one-shots than anything else, considering kids/work/alternative forms of RL. Depending on who is DM that night, it provides an opportunity to try out some character concepts or explore a specific (or multiple) character's motivations/history/what-have-you.

One of the things we did is set a "base of operations" in one town where lots of different things can happen. Sometimes there will be an underlying theme, but episodic adventures can be pretty fun. Much less pressure if half the group decides not to show up...

[stoutstien]

One of the things we did is set a "base of operations" in one town where lots of different things can happen. Sometimes there will be an underlying theme, but episodic adventures can be pretty fun. Much less pressure if half the group decides not to show up...

I have an on and off game of "the gods must be crazy" going for 7 odd years now. Every session the DM is chosen at random. It's used as a decompression value when needed or if the vibe is off. Very red dwarf in logic where inconsistencies in the plot are the plot.

[Pauly]

The TV episode/movies I’ve been successfully able to convert into RPG scenarios had one thing in common:- The NPCs had their own agency.
By that I mean their actions were based logically on their motivations. As such you can extrapolate what they would do if the plot didn’t occur in the order described in the original material.

This helps get around what I find to be the biggest problem in converting single author fiction to an RPG.
If the plot is dependent on certain characters doing certain things and certain times then it’s very difficult to make it work as an RPG.
A plot that runs ABCDE in the material, but can also work if A,B, C or D occur in any order, then E only happens after ABCD is a viable candidate. However a plot that needs everything to happen in the correct order is much less viable.

[Tanarii]

The ultimate sin of GMing is negating player agency. Which is not the same as reasonable (in-world or meta) boundaries to available choices before they are made, or asking for player buy-in.

The ultimate goal of GMing is for everyone to come out of the session feeling like they had a positive experience. Which isn't the same thing as "fun".

[DrMartin]

the Alien RPG has "cinematic mode" scenarios which are essentially the aliens movies as one shots. I played in one and it works great, for a lot of the reasons mentioned above: after the starting incident the scenarios are laid out like old school "sandbox" modules of old, as places to explore with contingencies that trigger events, and each player character has crystal clear individual goals (very often at odd with the goals of the other characters). The players are free to roam and do their thing, but there is still a progression of events they have to deal with.

An interesting RPG which explicitly engages with the concept of one shots is ARC: DOOM, to the point that the "stages" of the story are triggered by set spans of time passing in real time. It´s an interesting approach, that definitely requires player´s buy-in and some propension for the storygame side of the hobby. here´s a link - there´s a free quickstart of the rules and an SRD. https://arc-rpg.com/