For Folks Who Would Like To Play Every Once In A While

I like to Run Small Games for a Normal Party of 4 to 8 (6 being Ideal). I use the Pathfinder Game System. I encourage Role Playing. My Goal is to provide a good game for people who would like to Play but can't really commit to a Regular Campaign. I would like to see kind of an RPGA or Pathfinder Society type enthusiasm, where you get to Play the Same Character in Several Different Events. Example: Joe plays his First session in DMWaldo's One Session Adventure, maybe he levels up, now I (DMAjax) run a Session and he plays in that. It may be possible that he is the only level 2 party member or maybe there are 4 other players all different levels (although there should be a restriction on the level difference, say 1st level to 5th level). Does anyone have any thoughts on something like this? I think the scheduling of Events could easily be accomplished right here.

Sounds like a plan. I'd be enthusiastic about something like this.

Jeff, some DMs build a world and allow whatever players show up to explore that world and immediately return at the end of a session. That way the next week, an entirely new set of characters can go out again. As a significant amount of work is done preparing the materials on roll20, I would say you just let new players run existing characters that are unclaimed. Preference to run a character goes to the last person to have used that character. If you take a week off, someone else may pick him up for a while. A new DM may 'take over' if you get tired and run something for a while.

Jeff, some DMs build a world and allow whatever players show up to explore that world and immediately return at the end of a session. That way the next week, an entirely new set of characters can go out again. Greg, this is a brilliant idea. You get X amount of Devs together to build a consistent world coordinating through something like Obsidian Portal or a Page setup through Google+. Players could be pulled together to play through them. Definitely take some coordination and teamwork, but excellent idea.

This could be fun. :)

I think a few of you are missing the point of the post. The Adventures being run are One Time Events that a player gets to run his own character thru. It is not an attempt to put a huge world together that requires a lot of cooperative and coordinated work by several different people. My idea is simple, the only constant is the Game System you use. I write and/or prepare an Adventure that can be run by a small group with in a certain time frame, usually about 3 1/2 to 4 hours. At the end of the Session players get XP and divide up loot and move on. Then when another Event is Posted they can take that character and play him in that Session. As long as players were not playing the Adventure/Scenario one GM could run the same adventure multiple times. This way GMs need only prepare One Shot Adventures with out having persistent ties to anything. It is a Simple Form of something Like the RPGA or Pathfinder Society. GMs can always have a few PreGenerated characters for a player who just wants to play a session to see how he likes it, without having to commit to anything. Or if Joe Avid Gamer's wife/girlfriend wants to play one time but doesn't want to have to make a character. One More Thing and I'm done: As an Adventure/Campaign creator you'll find that you can create truly great One Shot Scenrios with much more detail than you would trying to create a Long Range Campaign. Also there are 100's of Convention Modules to run for every game system, these are designed to be run as One Session Events, most of these are available online.

I don't think we are missing your point, we got it clearly. I just happened to like Greg's expansion on that idea.

I have nothing but admiration for Greg's idea, but it involves a lot more work than I am advocating. All I was trying provide was a simple yet effective way players could enjoy an occasional game without a definite commitment.

What kind of coordination would you like to see? Just looking for a few DM's to throw their names in the hat? Have some kind of "clan" sign ( [Gametag] ) to show that players can all attend these particular games? Slightly standardized XP gifting? How will characters be controlled or monitored? Or is it even worth monitoring?

Hi Jeff, I'm interested in joining as a player, and I would prefer making my own character if you don't mind. If you have need of a certain role, please let me know, and I will send my character/stats over to you before the weekend is over. -Brett

I think that a certain amount of Trust of the Players would hopefully be enough for the monitoring end. If the Character Sheets are all fairly uniform the Player will be able to have a copy of his character, and can just Paste it in to the Character Bio when he joins. This is an example of a PreGen provided by Pathfinder Society, this is simply a text file Pasted from Notepad, which makes it totally editable by the Player. Half-elf Sorcerer (Abyssal Bloodline) 1 Medium humanoid (elf, human) Init +2; Senses low-light vision; Perception +5 DEFENSE AC 12, touch 12, flat-footed 10 (Dex +2) hp 8 (1d6+2) Fort +1, Ref +2, Will +2 (+4 vs enchantments) Immune sleep OFFENSE Spd 30 ft. Melee longspear +1 (1d8+1, 20/x3) or 2 claws +1 (1d6+1, 20/x2) Ranged light crossbow +2 (1d8, 19-20/x2) Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (10 ft. with longspear) Special Attacks claws 6 rounds/day Spells Known (CL 1st, touch +1, ranged touch +2, concentration +4): 1st (4/day) – mage armor, summon monster I 0 – acid splash, daze (DC 13), detect magic, read magic STATISTICS Str 13 (+1), Dex 14 (+2), Con 12 (+1), Int 14 (+2), Wis 10 (+0), Cha 16 (+3) Base Atk +0; CMB +1; CMD 13 Feats Eschew Materials, Skill Focus (Perception), Spell Focus (conjuration) Skills Intimidate +7, Knowledge (arcana) +6, Knowledge (planes) +6, Spellcraft +6 Languages Common, Elf, plus 2 more SQ abyssal bloodline, bloodline arcana Combat Gear sunrod (2); Other Gear longspear, light crossbow and 10 bolts, backpack, belt pouch, bedroll, flint and steel, silk rope (50 ft.), rations (10), waterskin, 87 gp, 9 sp As Far as DMs go Creating Single Session Games which should have a defined time frame, usually 4 hours. They should involve some kind of Goal for the session and should be able to be run for a level span of x to x+a level, i.e. Level 1 to Level 5 PCs I don't think there should be a level difference greater than four. Even if the DM wants to create Single session Adventures that are hooked together that's fine as long as they can be run for essentially Random Groups, although I'm sure there will be players that will be eager to continue an Adventure series, if you will. Whew! I'm done

I would be completely up for something like this. Started playing a few games of pathfinder at my uni but that stopped. Wouldn't mind doing something like this if there are other people who would be into it.

@ Tommy, the idea of XP gifting is good, but I must at least suggest using the Pathfinder Society suggestion. At the end of a session you get 1 XP point, you level up at 3 XP points, in other words you play 3 Single Adventures you get a Level, that keeps the Leveling Pace on an even keel without the Player levels getting too far out of whack. The emphasis here is to encourage Role Playing and Having a Good Time, not to see how fast I can make my character an Immortal. There are plenty of video games for that. I also think that some DEAD CHARACTER rules should be universal for these single session games, in other words how DEAD is DEAD. I'm open for input on this?