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How To Create A One Shot (By Pickle)

This document provides a guide for creating a one-shot tabletop roleplaying game adventure. It discusses considering the target audience and players, establishing why the player characters are together and involved in the adventure. It also covers planning key story elements like the major threat, location, and plot twists. The guide then discusses fleshing out the adventure through storyboarding scenes, encounters, and maps. It concludes with suggestions for finishing touches like intro/outro text, balancing pacing, and preparing materials for running the game.

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126 views28 pages

How To Create A One Shot (By Pickle)

This document provides a guide for creating a one-shot tabletop roleplaying game adventure. It discusses considering the target audience and players, establishing why the player characters are together and involved in the adventure. It also covers planning key story elements like the major threat, location, and plot twists. The guide then discusses fleshing out the adventure through storyboarding scenes, encounters, and maps. It concludes with suggestions for finishing touches like intro/outro text, balancing pacing, and preparing materials for running the game.

Uploaded by

shimmy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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HOW TO CREATE A

ONE-SHOT
A guide based on advice collected from several influential people and
communities across the TTRPG realm.

Created by Pickle. (Discord: JPickle#4499; Reddit: u/J_Gherkin)


1. The Basics
• Things to consider.
• Overarching details.
2. Planning
Contents of this • Adding content to your adventure.
guide • Fleshing out details.
3. Finishing
• Adding in fluff and similar content.
• Giving it the final polish.
1. THE BASICS
Things to consider as you generate overarching details.
Who is your target audience?
• How many players will there be?
➢ Count on an average of 4 players.
➢ However, keep ways in mind to adjust for more or less players

• What types of adventures do these specific players enjoy?


o Serious
o Comedic
o RP-heavy
o Combat-heavy
o Balanced
Why are the PCs here together?
• Hooks
➢ Provide a few simple hooks for why the PCs are here with each other.
➢ Or allow them to create their own hook too!

• Examples of Hooks
o Team of individuals on a mission.
o Group of friends at event (e.g. festival, competition)
o Family members drawn together (e.g. dinner, funeral)
o Or other ideas!
Who or What is the major threat?
• Person
o BBEG
o Anti-Villain

• Place/Event
o Disaster (natural, supernatural, magical)
o Conflict

• Or anything else you can think of!


• Consider smaller scale ideas too!
➢ Localized threats can be more relatable, and easier to jump into at low level.
Why is this happening right now?
• Why is this a clear, active, and present danger?
➢ What is the villain doing at this very moment?
➢ What is going on to cause this natural disaster?
➢ Why is there an active conflict occurring?

• Don’t be subtle!
➢ Make it obvious to help pique the players’ interest!
➢ This also helps to set clear objectives for the players.
Why do the PCs care?
• Is it something personal?
o Friend was kidnapped.
o Heirloom was stolen.

• Is it an act of compassion?
o The goodness of their hearts.
o The neighborhood watch protecting their village’s people.

• Incorporate your hook if it’s fitting.


• Or anything else that gives the PCs a reason to embark can work!
Where is this happening?
• Flesh out 1 strong area of the world.
o A city, village, or other settlement.
o A specific, large area (e.g. a castle, a jail).
o A forest touched by the First World.
o Somewhere specific on a different plane.
o Etc.
2. PLANNING
Filling in the technical details to flesh out your adventure.
Progressing the story of your adventure
• Keep the story moving!
• Have your scenes and segues either add to the story or help move it along.
o Introduce NPCs to usher your players forward.
o Shed new light on old info.
o Touch back on previous scenes and events.
o Or other ways to make things relevant to the plot!
Create memorable scenes
• They don’t need to be connected yet – just create cool moments.
• Some common options for scenes:
o Fights
o Large social encounters
o Large Puzzles
o Complex chase scenes

• Assume that 1 key scene takes 1 hour of gameplay!


Storyboarding the adventure
• Use your key scenes to storyboard your adventure.
• Create segues between these to usher your players forward.
• Remember: Storyboarding doesn’t mean railroading!
➢ These are just points that the players will for sure come across.

• Add flavor to, and around, your segues.


o Exploration
o Mystery
o RP moments
Consider adding a plot-twist
• Ideas for twists…
o Changing the narrative halfway. (E.g. the evildoers are actually “good”.)
o Misinformation.
o Something unexpected behind an NPC’s façade.

• Include foreshadowing!
➢ Even little clues can help add to this.
➢ Sprinkle it throughout the adventure.
Consider your pacing
• Constant challenges can be boring or exhausting for players.
• Include “ups” and “downs” in your adventure.
✓ Moments of excitement
✓ Moments of ease

• Adventuring within 1 day helps maintain the threat-level.


Create encounters
• Keep a consistent theme across the board… but mix things up within that
theme.
• Create moments for characters to shine!
• Develop creative combats! Utilize things like…
✓ The environment.
✓ Unique hazards or mechanics.
✓ Interesting tactics.
✓ Multiple paths to success.

• Incorporate a 2-stage boss fight. Halfway through…


o Something changes.
o Something gets added.
Balance your combats
• Pace your combats throughout the adventure.
➢ Let the players feel powerful early on.
➢ Make the final fight be the important, difficult one.

• Include ways to adjust your combat for more or less players.


• Loot is best-served hot!
➢ Loot at the end of an adventure mostly doesn’t matter.*
➢ Introduce loot or abilities in the beginning/middle of the story instead!

*A final piece of loot could be used by the players to alter the story’s ending though.
(E.g. A single-use magic wand that could change the ending.)
Create maps
• Create multiple paths through your maps!
• Have an area-map.
➢ Overarching map of the region, a town, or other large area.
➢ Doesn’t need to be detailed. (You can even just make a flowchart.)

• Create your battle-/dungeon-maps.


✓ Specific to an area the PCs explore or fight in (and gridded).
✓ Much more detailed than the area map.
✓ Should be fleshed out and visual.
3. FINISHING
Putting the final polish on your adventure.
Checking the flow of your outline
• Check your outline, and account for areas where players could easily deviate
from the adventure.
• Check and account for unintended ways for your players to easily “cheese”
their way out of scenarios. (e.g. The use of flying/transport spells.)
Ways to modify pacing
• Is your adventure multiple days? Allow for a rest in the middle!
• Is it too long or too short? Trim or add adventuring content.
• Highlight ways to trim or lengthen the encounters mid-session.
➢ Focus especially on the middle of the adventure to avoid rushing the ending!

• Think of ways to have PCs “fail forward” to keep things moving.


➢ “Success with a twist.”
➢ Helps prevent awkward roadblocks due to failed checks.
Intro and Hook
• Create your “box-text” to bring in the adventure.
• Add general, descriptive fluff.
• Make it interesting to really grab your players’ attention!
✓ Make it exciting.
✓ Make use of the 5 senses.
✓ Introduce some action.
The bulk of the adventure
• Prepare the beginning and end of each key scene.
✓ What do the characters see, hear, etc.?
✓ How do the characters get involved?
✓ Are there different ways for the PCs to approach?
✓ What small interactions occur that lead into / out of scenes?
✓ Ways to quickly connect the scenes to the segues.

• Include ways to improv with your PCs in the middle of scenes.


✓ NPC attitudes towards the party.
✓ NPC lines / topics they can use with the party.
Final encounter and/or Villain
• Create your “box-text” to describe the final scene(s).
• Add general, descriptive fluff, and remember the 5 senses!
• Prep for multiple endings, if included.
Create a trail to future adventures
• Add breadcrumbs to the end.
• Utilize a small cliffhanger for a near-future adventure.
• Suggest there could be more beyond this one-shot.
• Potentially include a small twist here as well.
GM’ing gear to bring along
• Don’t forget to consider what you’ll need to run your adventure!
✓ Maps
✓ Minis
✓ Statblocks
✓ Rulebooks
✓ Cheat-sheets
✓ Etc.
Extra time? Add quality!
• Put in little touches to help it feel less “slapped together.”
• Create handouts for your players.
• Bring props.
• Themed snacks are always fun!
Thank you!
Best of luck with your game!
Resources used in the creation of this guide:
• YouTube videos featuring:
❖ Jason Bulmahn
❖ Matthew Mercer
❖ Runesmith

• Podcasts’ Discord-communities:
❖ MnMaxed
❖ Southern Tomfoolery
❖ The Dice Crisis
❖ Hideous Laughter Productions

Check them all out!

Created by Pickle. (Discord: JPickle#4499; Reddit: u/J_Gherkin)

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