Due to a bunch of bullshit I don't want to go into (and you don't want to hear) my regular group can only do one-shots or GMless systems, and I volunteered to look into one-shot games (hopefully ones that don't require a lot of prep.)
Picrel, obviously, but we've played L&F so many times before the bullshit even happened so the group is understandably a little burned out on it. We've also tried The Quiet Year a couple times (really interesting, but not exactly a barrel of laughs) and Fiasco (again, kind of a downer tone-wise, and the last time we tried playing it we had to end it early because one player is reliant on buses that only run once an hour)
One-shots we tried once include Himbo Treasure Hunt, Nice Marines and Honey Heist, but again I don't want us getting too reliant on specific games, as that might result in the joke wearing thin - law of diminishing returns, and all that.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Rob bot is cool
This seems a bit... unfinished. As in, it literally stops halfway through explaining how to GM a session.
>This seems a bit... unfinished. As in, it literally stops halfway through explaining how to GM a session.
Seems like it was originally made for a 24-hour RPG challenge so that's not surprising.
I made a game loosely based on LNF that is sort of a Seven Samurai simulator:
>https://factorypreset.itch.io/ronin
I'm biased but I also really like the Neon Genesis Evangelion-like one page game my brother made:
https://umbralaeronaut.itch.io/cold-fusion
Samegay, I can't talk about one shot games without mentioning 2400:
>https://jasontocci.itch.io/2400
Great rules system, very deep for its limited word count, and there's a million variations from fantasy to sci-fi.
Dude, that looks awesome. Saved.
Thanks!
Hell yeah, tell me how it goes (if the thread's still up). Fair warning, I think the duel system's shit. Never could get it to feel strategic in that small space.
Sure, I'll start a new thread on this topic as it'll likely be a couple months.
Looks incredibly well made. Good job, anon.
Will run this with my buddies sometime, looks great.
This looks very fun.
Barbarians of Lemuria
Engine Heart
I don't give a frick about your group being socially moronic if you're not going to even lay it out for us as a storytime so we can laugh at them, and you.
https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/206207/Kagegami-High
https://rollforshoes.com/
https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/268429/Moxie-A-Cartoon-RPG
https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/170294/Risus-The-Anything-RPG
https://www.risusiverse.com/
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https://www.fudgerpg.com/about/about-fudge/fudge-overview.html
https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/199567/high-fantasy-magic-a-simple-magic-system-for-fate-core-condensed-accelerated
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Lol nobody's watching all that shit here's some one-pagers from my collection
/tg/'s old game creator Viral made a lot of small lite games good for oneshots. Engine Heart is his opus, but also things like Joints + Jivers, a matrix-modempunk game I forget the name of, Rob Liefeld's Bloodpouch, and more. I'll see if I can dig some of it up for you.
Man I miss Viral.
while I try to find those, here's a game I literally banged out for /tg/ years ago on a whim.
The gist of it is you give each number on the face of a die a vague theme and a set of words to go with it. You have a bunch of character traits, under as many or as few categories as the game calls for. Everything that can help is a positive die, everything that can hinder is a negative die, roll them all, pick 2+ from the good dice and 1+ from the bad dice and use those words to narrate what happens. Or just pick 2 and 1, perhaps.
I wrote this about drunk bums, but I actually changed it up and ran a successful two session "one-shot" game of transformers
The results table for that version I actually ran was
1: Risk, Haste, Passion, Sacrifice, Wrath
2: Deceptive, Difficult, Unexpected, Doubt, Fear
3: Speed, Thoughtful, Escape, Backup, Alarm
4: Reliable, Solid, Measured, Protected, Brave
5: Power, Torque, Mechanism, Stamina, Grit
6: Awe, Devastation, Triumph, Cataclysm, Hope
Edit and use how the frick you want. Use bigger dice to make it less predictable, give people more or less categories to list things under, change the words. I've run it for 9 hours total in 2017 or 2018 and not since, so I honestly cannot speak to how good it is, but the oneshot I ran was well received. your sacrifice will be remembered, Moonblade.
https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/54983303/#q54984199
Joints & Jivers was a /tg/ original? No shit.
/tg/ did, in fact, used to get shit done.
Engine Heart. Bought a copy of this from lulu print on demand years ago, ran it once when the GM was too hungover to run a session of call of cthulhu. Put off our deaths at the hands of nephren-ka by a whole week.
Wall-E the ttrpg
Doesn't that need a dice you had to get custom-made from a specific online store?
Nope. Just regular d10s. Everything Viral made was a low budget, simple sort of game, and he worked in the late 00s/early 10s before 3D printing made wacky ass dice more common.
You must be thinking of something else.
Well, you didn't HAVE to get the custom GameScience dice, but it was available at the $75 tier and above on the KickStarter campaign, and once you factored in shipping (especially for overseas) then things got pretty pricey. I assume you can just get a blank d10 and a permanent marker with a very fine nib.
Joints & Jivers / Modempunk double feature. Trying to rack my brains for other simple games I remember on /tg/... see if I can find Excellent Adventure next.
Ah, it's "MOST excellent adventure".
I like games like this where the resolution mechanic is dumb but fun for a short time. The kind of thing that inspires you to consider weird shit for more serious games too.
Have you considered giving TTRPG a rest, especially considering the group you have to work with? Seriously, you don't have to admit to us what the "bullshit" is, and I can already tell your group is a group of mentally broken nerds. You might even want to find a new group.
The pains of posting from a tablet.
I was aiming more for games you can quickly learn and quickly play. Sent speed was the name of the game. I felt that it was prudent to take more of a Japanese table top RPG approach.
Not only in recommendation, But games with similar designs.
https://microlite20.org/
https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/333444/d20-go-quick-start-adventure
I unironically enjoy Risus. GURPS stripped down to target number checks and the defaulting rules actually makes for great one-shots, especially with all the free character generators out there on the web. You've named most of my other favorites, but Everyone Is John is a solid party-game type title, and Paranoia XP requires that the players know nothing about how the system works and encourages the GM to make shit up if it's funnier.
Risus is by and large a /tg/ classic.
I made a system for one-shots. I also ran a 2-year campaign in it, so it "works"(tm). One thing to note though is that its a generic system, so youll have to make anything setting-related or genre-specific yourself. My general notes are that a standard PC like described works best as an average human, or a level 1 to 5 character in DnD terms. Goon enemies and background npcs given stats on the fly should have a pool of 5 traits and items instead of 10, major npcs and enemies should be on par with the players, and boss enemies should essentially have 5-10 focus per pc.
OP here - I decided to run Dr Magnethands tonight and it went down a treat. I discussed some of the other games listed here and everyone was enthusiastic for the other suggestions from this thread - Tactical Waifu raised a few eyebrows, but I think their curiosity was piqued. Sadly, the one that's off the table is All Outta Bubblegum, as we're part of a weekly club that meets in a pub that serves food, so bringing in sticks of gum might run afoul of the "no outside food" rule that we all have to abide by (some buttholes brought actual meals and drinks in with them one week, and the people running the pub were fricking PISSED off.) We could do it with shots, but I don't want to be responsible for my group getting hammered so quickly.
As to the reasons why my group can only do one-shots these days, the answer is much less juicy than some of you seem to think it might be; it's literally just scheduling conflicts and nobody having the spoons to run a full campaign, or even a mini-campaign. No drama, just real life getting in the way.
>meets in a pub that serves food, so bringing in sticks of gum might run afoul of the "no outside food" rule
100% sure the staff won't care about gum, just like they wouldn't care about breath mints.
I think it is perfectly within the spirit of the game to use beer nuts in place of bubblegum
Dawn of Worlds is really neat. It's group world building. The PDF is free if you look. Everyone takes turns adding to a map, mountains rivers, civilizations, cities, all sorts of stuff. My group ended up with a fairly gonzo world by the end of it.
My group had some fun with this game when we had to use Discord during lockdown
Big Mother Frickin Crab Truckers
Probably the most fun I had in a one shot.
Starting with a classic
4e on a page
Hit Dice, the game
OSR with narrative rules
Dread is pretty fun and basically tailor-made for one-shots. A Jenga tower is the roll system. Any time anyone does something that'd be challenging they move a number of blocks on the tower determined by the GM. If the tower falls, you fail (and probably die). You can collapse the tower intentionally to pull a heroic sacrifice, ensuring some result you want at the cost of your life.
Even comes with its own starter adventure