Hi all,
are there any tips around for playing a one-shot? We probably have 6h of time but its very unlikely that we will continue in the same constellation.
Just playing the first session as is in my usual PbtA-Experience fun enough, but I wonder if there are ways to crank it up.
Especially with Urban Shadows specific mechanisms like Corruption.
So any ideas or pointers to posts would be nice.
As the person in the world who has probably run the most one-shots of US, I have two pieces of advice. Give them all a free Corruption Advance, and give them all a free Corruption Advance. For serious, it will make them sooo happy and they’ll rock that move like you wouldn’t believe.
Other than that, come into it with a vague idea of what you’ll run. Maybe do some hard hitting opening scenes like “Cole, you’re standing over a body in a murder scene and it has two bite marks on it’s neck, you know this is Marta’s (the Vamp PC) territory. What do you do?” Bam! Instant drama for the PC’s to deal with that involves them directly.
Thanks, I can work with that 😀
For AW, I’m always fond of:
“Ok, who’s in charge?”
(Hardholder/Hocus/Chopper)
“Who wishes they were in charge?”
(Brainer, Skinner, Battlebabe)
“Who backs the first person up?”
(Faceless, Gunlugger, Savvyhead)
“Sorry, 4th person, you’re trapped in the middle…” (remaining playbooks)
I’m not sure if there would be an equivalent for Urban Shadows.
Oh I like that very much. One Corruption move right out of the gate, nice.
I can speak first hand for Mark DiPasquale’s tactic in AW, worked out really well when he raw for me.
For any game that uses sprawly and complex relationships to drive the action, the best one-shot format I’ve found is to set an event that’s designed to happen 90% of the way through the game and tell the players before they pick their playbooks that their characters wil all want to control, influence, or profit from it somehow. Maybe it’s an alignment of the stars or a faction making a big political push, you can switch it up to taste, but this sets out a clear end point for everyone to reach for in their plotting and scenes.
Hmm, interesting concept. I never tried that.
I’d say I wish I’d known this before running US at AnonyCon, but the folks who signed up never made it to the convention, so I can still apply it the first time I run a one shot. Thanks!