Single session adventures?

I've been running a massive pathfinder campaign with some friends at home on my real table, and it's been going pretty well. That said, none of us had played pathfinder (and only 1 person in my group had done any RPGs) before we started, so I've been learning the rules and mechanics on the fly. Ironically, the one player who has played (quite a lot) in the past believes I'm the best GM he's ever had (because I play 'fair' and consistently). Anyway, I thought it would be fun to play a character a bit, and thought that would also accelerate the rule learning process so I wouldn't have to spend half the night in the books - hence my arrival here. The problem is that 1) it appears to be difficult to get into a game, and 2) the games all require quite a time commitment which I might not be able to meet. So I started thinking that since the main thing is to really get to know the rules/mechanics of the game for my GM time, I might just set up some games here - but I definitely can't GM a long game. As a result, I was wondering if people would sign up to play a game that only lasts for a session or (at most) two. I could easily arrange for that, and with careful planning even arrange for it to really efficiently get me to internalize everything. I just don't know if people would go through the trouble of creating characters for a couple hours of play? Any ideas or suggestions would be really appreciated. Thanks

Hi Craig. Welcome to roll20. I definitely think people would be interested in playing a short "one shot" game. I would suggest creating some pre-generated characters that the player's can use. Either let them decide who gets to play which character, assign them randomly, or just hand them out as the GM. Cheers

Hmm, I like that idea, I can even make the pre-gens race/class/ability combinations that I'm trying to focus on - of course, the players could also still roll their own if they prefer. I'm also thinking about grabbing some of the older modules and just running one of those at a time, they're mostly pretty short too.

Awesome Craig, I'm glad you're running one of these! ^.^ I'm a pretty experienced one-shotter myself, ran about 11 or so games the past few weeks. I just wanted to let ya know that one-shots are a phenomenal way to play due to very little commitment and the ability to teach and play with many players, as well as give ya a couple tips. 1. Post in the LFG. Pretty darn easy, just make a post here following the format, and you'll get FLOCKS of players within a couple hours, don't worry. You could also post in reddit's /lfg/ to spur some more attention. ^.^ 2. Have everyone introduce their characters before you begin! I often go down the line and ask every to state their name, class, and background before starting up. It gets them into the mood of roleplaying, as well as lets ya know who you're dealing with. 3. Be sure to establish strong character ties within your party. Don't railroad them together; allow them to bond and get to know each other first. Ideally it's best to make the bonding natural. Perhaps the party's escorting a wagon full of blankets and they take a short rest upon a snowy mountain vista. One of my best character bonding plots is that the rain has been pouring heavier and heavier, and that the adventurers all go to a local tavern to escape the rain before everyone else inside suddenly leaves later in the night. 4. Play it small. It's far better to spend 2 hours in a tavern chatting around, eating, and talking to the barmaid and the other locals of the tavern trying to uncover a mystery rather than run around a large continent fighting and cutting down an orc scourge. You can always extend a short plot; you CAN'T cut down a long one without disappointment. 5. End with an epic battle. Pretty self-explanatory, all one-shots pretty much have to end with some sort of combat sequence. Build up your entire one-shot to this battle, and make it hard! Don't be afraid to buff it up slightly above (or a LOT above) the party level; you can always "miss" more later in the fight. I wish ya the best of luck! If you need any more help or advice on one-shots, just ask! ^.^

I don't send out the join links until the day of the game as I use all pregen characters in one shots. I invite about 1.5 times the minimum characters and allow "first logged on" to pick and go from there. Make the starting path obvious, players can set off in the exact wrong direction more often than not. Making it obvious doesn't seem like a "railroad".

One shots can be limited in terms of 'player-campaign ownership', often having very directed plot-lines, understandably to keep things moving in the right direction towards an ultimate conclusion. My solution is smoke and mirrors style deception, give the players the feeling of choice then throw them into whatever situation you like anyway ;) ie. I had my players wandering through a primal forest last night, their druid could 'sense' the evil at the heart but couldn't pinpoint it... i gave them several forked path style choices, leading to the centre, looping to the north etc then threw them at the exact encounter they'd have had either way. The point being that they felt like they had a choice that could affect the outcome (and indeed it could have if i had several encounters available) and so were invested in the campaign rather than going through the motions... afterall, who knew what would have happened if they'd have gone left instead of right?!?

Hi Craig, I'm sure you'll get a lot of people for those one-shots. There are usually a couple organized every day, and even more on other groups like the reddit lfg that was mentioned before, or the one-shots group on facebook. And about the characters, it depends on every person. I LOVE making my own characters, and I always let people who join make their own as well. I've run a couple of 6-7th level one-shots and even then, that it takes a bit longer to create, normally people like doing so. Also make sure to follow the "Play it Small" point Benson mentioned. Most times, one-shots end before you reach, well, the end. It's nice to know you actually managed to finish, and as he said, you can always expand or add an extra battle, but it's difficult to do the opposite. Have fun!

Nick S. said: Hi Craig, I'm sure you'll get a lot of people for those one-shots. There are usually a couple organized every day, and even more on other groups like the reddit lfg that was mentioned before, or the one-shots group on facebook. And about the characters, it depends on every person. I LOVE making my own characters, and I always let people who join make their own as well. I've run a couple of 6-7th level one-shots and even then, that it takes a bit longer to create, normally people like doing so. Also make sure to follow the "Play it Small" point Benson mentioned. Most times, one-shots end before you reach, well, the end. It's nice to know you actually managed to finish, and as he said, you can always expand or add an extra battle, but it's difficult to do the opposite. Have fun! Thanks for the thumbs up Nick! xP I made sure to mention it because my one-shots often keep ending before the end of the combat sequence, and it keeps annoying the heck out of me. x.x I hate arranging for new sessions to finish because it's usually not that much to finish, as well as I hate time restraints, which is one major reason why I run one-shots in the first place, to avoid that.

The best way to keep one-shots short is to focus less on battles. Battles take a VERY long time with four or more players, and the more players you have, the more monsters you'll need. Of course, you should end with a battle, this being a tabletop :P Have easier puzzles instead, or a way to opt out of certain battles. Or even traps, since they're either disarmed or not.

DKitten said: The best way to keep one-shots short is to focus less on battles. Battles take a VERY long time with four or more players, and the more players you have, the more monsters you'll need. Of course, you should end with a battle, this being a tabletop :P Have easier puzzles instead, or a way to opt out of certain battles. Or even traps, since they're either disarmed or not. In many tabletop cases. 5E doesn't have that problem as much, although it does still take a good chunk of time. Maybe half an hour to 45 minutes for a decent sized fight and a quick GM. I get what you're saying though. xD I usually aim for only 1-2 battles in a oneshot, in most cases only one.