Hey friends in the dark. I could use some help running a compelling one-shot. I’m running a single 4-hour session of Blades in the Dark at a con this weekend, and I need help thinking about how to tell a compelling story in only 2 scores without much focus on downtime, the crew sheet, or faction relationships. How can I pre-load some PC personal arcs players can choose that allow nice closure within a one-shot plot?
For context, I plan to use the gang rules by Andrew Shields, and in fact I’m running the game with a Shadowrun/cyberpunk skin by having attune cover either hacking or magic, swapping contacts and gear options, and making heritage metatypes like elf, troll, etc. Otherwise most supernatural stuff will instead simply be flavored either matrix/digital stuff or mage/shaman stuff almost one-for-one. Looks like the re-skin should work without too much trouble.
I suspect I should look to the format of great one-shots Sean Nittner and others have produced?
I would personally shy away from putting the focus on characters, and instead put the focus on the crew; it’s more reliable that the group would react to it, you are less vulnerable to how individual players react.
The best bet seems to damage the balance, and give them a chance to restore it (maybe with perks.) Some ideas:
* They are the top crew for a particular customer, but that customer is infatuated with a new shiny crew that’s throwing its weight around. Discredit or remove the new guys without directly attacking them–the goal is to regain your Johnson’s love.
* A disgruntled former target has put a hit out on your crew. Figure out who and get the contract removed while dodging piles of bounty hunters and/or contract workers.
* Oh, you’ve done it now. Annoyed the boss. You’re getting crap jobs in crumbling developing world locations; you need to either outperform anyone’s expectations to get back in the boss’s good graces, OR find a new boss, and neither will be easy in these backwater dumps. That’s when you heard rumors of a prize bounty/hidden tech lab/retired hiding shaman/McGuffin. Can you get it?
Awesome Andrew Shields. I always love your ideas.
You’re right that throwing the balance is the perfect idea for this. And yeah, focus on the crew is the wiser option. Do you think I could offer personal arc seeds that fit the crew’s situation to make it more interesting for those who want it?
For instance, say I offer the crew one of two starting scenarios: Either the crew did something cool and now the world’s reacting badly, or you got screwed by the world and now’s your chance to react badly.
WIthin whichever framework is chosen, players could choose from personal backgrounds that prime them to interact with these frameworks. Maybe Player A chooses to have a close intimate who’s involved with the antagonists. Player B chooses to just want to retire and wants this to be their very last score. Player C chooses to be an ex-employee of the antagonists, and Player D chooses to want to use the job as an opportunity to pursue a personal vendetta. Player E chooses to need to expunge criminal records, score a private stash of drugs or tech to settle a debt, or find her father’s real killer, etc.
That kind of thing, similar to the secret agendas players have in the board game Dead of Winter. The crew still has to work together, but each has their own twist on what they want out of it. I think this would give some teeth to devil’s bargains and offer easy inspiration for meaningful NPC and setting connections when the need for them arises.
Adam Minnie I think for your idea of secondary motive I personally would be less likely to put it on the character sheet, and more likely to perhaps make a hand of cards. Let everybody pick two motives and keep the one they like the best.
Rather than letting the group choose the starting framework, I would be inclined to build into the framework different paths and even different outcomes to pursue. They still have the element of choosing how to react.
In two of the above examples, they could choose to seek employment elsewhere instead of getting in good with the old boss; the game could immediately skew towards looking for a new boss, doing a job to get attention and a job as an audition perhaps. (And inevitably competing with the new hotness or rejecting the boss that tried to shame them.)
They can react by taking a hard path or a soft path, getting bloody or manipulating the situation. A good scenario frame (in my opinion) drives them out of their status quo position and offers them options for how to strike a new balance.
I don’t really think getting too specific with the characters is a good call here; You could easily do a quick bit of chargen and let people make their own characters to join the predetermined (You could even pregenerate the crew) crew, and leverage the crew’s background etc. for your plot. You don’t really need “character arcs” if you’re only going to be playing for a couple of hours, you just need some bangup setups.
So I’d devote a little more time than usual to setting up cool locations for things to go down – the crew’s options are going to be more limited than they would be in a longer term game, so it’s easier to bring those sorts of things into play.
Thanks for the inputs.
I mainly want to make sure the focus on action still gives satisfying closure to the session as far as that’s possible in a single ‘episode.’
That is definitely something I’ve been concerned about when running one-shots. That’s why the gang structure is what it is. “How do you want to operate? What kind of mission do you want to do?” It gives me a quick way to ask the players what they’re looking for out of the one-shot, but with a game mechanism. =)
I tend to match that with whatever’s on my mind. “The Crows are having trouble with the Wax Masks lashing out at them, so whatever we do it will be dealing with that somehow” is generally as elaborate as I’ve gotten with the prep for one-shots. I can be that loose because I’ve got the whole structure of Duskwall in easy reach, so I can toss in Spirit Wardens or bluecoats or hostile whispers or stinky taverns or ghost neighborhoods etc. without needing a lot of forethought.
If you wanted sub plots to matter in a one-shot, you could grant a rating point in an action if they completed it (if it was in range) or an experience point every time they acted towards it (for a bigger or more distant goal.) That way they could have a tangible reward. Other tangible rewards might also be possible.
Upon reflection, there was a great little subsystem in the old d6 “Men in Black” game.
You could have a bunch of cards, they were handed out to players, and they were “if/then” cards. If you do this thing, or say this thing, or make this thing happen, then you get this reward.
More difficult or embarrassing tasks had greater rewards, and the reward could be tied to the behavior (like if you say “If I had a dollar for every slime coated alien I had to kiss, I’d be a rich man” in some appropriate context, then you get a bonus on your next social roll.)
A more serious version could apply here. You could possibly come up with some behaviors you wanted to encourage, and every time they worked that behavior into the game in a believable way, they would bank a mechanical favor or get some immediate benefit.
Like, “War Stories. Every time you can get someone to listen to you reminisce about how this situation reminds you of a situation in the war, gain +1d on a related task.”
Or, “Dependent. Every time you get more than one other person to spend stress to help you at once, regain 1 stress.”
The harder the task, and the more rare the opportunity, the better the reward.
“Disgraced. If you regain your former prestige, immediately gain 1 special ability.”
If these are precisely aimed at behavior in service of a greater motive, then you can give the player motivation mechanically that lines up with the character’s motivation fictionally.
Very cool Andrew Shields. I’m all for offering relatively faster advancement in a one-shot, since, heck why not. I’d probably use this idea if i had mroe time to prepare, or for a more long-term game, but I will likely instead go with your similar earlier suggestion (still with the if/then theme) of xp for playing toward a private drive, and a rating advance for bringing final closure to your arc/drive one way or another, almost like a key.
Here’s a baker’s dozen ideas for some drive cards that act like keys for thematic behavior. When you trigger the 3rd item, flip the card; it has no more effect on you. I couldn’t come up with much I liked for another four ideas: Lovestruck, Double Agent, Big Fish, Conspiracy Theorist.
What do you think?
Veteran
1. Gain +1d on social interactions with military or paramilitary personnel.
2. Gain xp when you get someone to listen to your tales of events or people from the war, when you recall people, things, or innocence you have lost, or when those memories, nightmares, guilt, or actions cause trouble for your job.
3. Gain an advance when you find a way to erase your haunting memories or be ultimately broken by them.
Junkie
1. Gain +1d on social interactions with street rats, druggies, or dealers.
2. Gain xp when you secure a new supply of addictive substances, when you get someone else hooked with you, or when your addiction causes trouble for your job.
3. Gain an advance when you find a way to quit the habit or be ultimately broken by it (score an
Jaded
1. Gain +1d on social interactions with runners, gangers, and criminals.
2. Gain xp when you get someone listen to the worst that could happen or why they shouldn’t get too invested in anything or anyone, or when your pessimism causes trouble for your job.
3. Gain an advance when you find a way to hope, desire, laugh, and bond again or ultimately become hollowed of your last fragments of desire and humanity
Superfan
1. Gain +1d on social interactions with celebrities, fanboys, fangirls, and the press.
2. Gain xp when you get someone to listen to you effuse about how cool some fad, fashion, brand, hobby, or celebrity is, when you get them to indulge your fandom with you, or when your enthusiastic fandom causes trouble for your job.
3. Gain an advance when you recognize the target of your fandom is supremely disappointing, or when you gain a fan following of your own.
Vendetta
1. Gain +1d on social interactions with those who wronged you and anyone related to them (relations, employees, bosses).
2. Gain xp when you explain how badly a person or group harmed you, when you harm those responsible for your suffering, or when your undying vendetta causes trouble for your job.
3. Gain an advance when you kill all who are responsible for your suffering, or when you choose to offer atonement to those responsible and find freedom from your vendetta.
Vigilante
1. Gain +1d on social interactions with crime bosses, corrupt leaders, and law enforcement officers
2. Gain xp when you condemn a group, leader, or type of crime that hurts or corrupts your city, when you defy laws, corporation policies, or political power to protect innocents, or when your war on corruption or compassion for the innocent causes trouble for your job.
3. Gain an advance when you commit the very acts you condemn, realizing you have become what you hate, or when you topple a figurehead or system perpetuating your condemned crime.
Over Your Head
1. Gain +1d on social interactions with regular Joe’s, civilians, victims, wageslaves, and bullies
2. Gain xp when you are targeted, captured, or harmed by powerful people you inadvertently angered, when you explain how out of your element you are, saying “all I was trying to do was” finish some boring, mundane goal and get back to your boring, mundane life, or when your ignorance or naiveté causes trouble for your job.
3. Gain an advance when you finally embrace your destiny as a badass, a hero, or a villain, or when you finally manage to get back to your boring, mundane life/job/pet/mom/significant other.
Disgraced
1. Gain +1d on social interactions with aristocrats, corporate officials, and members of your former social circle
2. Gain xp when you get someone to listen to the causes or influences of your fall from grace, when you explicitly act with honor or influence you’re believed to not have, or when your disgrace or shame causes trouble for your job.
3. Gain an advance when you regain your lost dignity, or when you embrace your disgrace and choose to prioritize the needs of another over your own reputation.
Collector
1. Gain +1d on social interactions with other collectors, enthusiasts, and manufacturers and dealers of your collected item.
2. Gain xp when you get someone to listen to your pet details for individual items in your collection, when you secure a new addition to your collection, or when adding to your collection causes trouble for your job.
3. Gain an advance when you destroy or otherwise permanently lose your collection, or when you find someone worthy and hand off your collection.
Retirement
1. Gain +1d on social interactions with newbies, retirees, and “mature adults.”
2. Gain xp when you get someone to listen to your stories about “back in my day” or what you look forward to in retirement “after this one last job,” or when your commitment to getting out of the game causes trouble for your job.
3. Gain an advance when you actually retire in comfort and style, die trying, or when you realize you never can nor want to retire.
Glory hound
1. Gain +1d on social interactions with the press, champions, and celebrities
2. Gain xp when others give you credit for a news- or rumor-worthy event, when you set a record, go viral, or when your thirst for fame causes trouble for your job.
3. Gain an advance when you make it into the history books, or when your reputation is decimated beyond repair or buried into obscurity.
Membership
1. Gain +1d on social interactions with other members and leadership of your affiliation
2. Gain xp when you get someone to listen to the benefits of membership, when you induct others into membership, or when your membership causes trouble for your job.
3. Gain an advance when you put the duties and priorities of your affiliation over those of the crew, or when you permanently sever your affiliation for the sake of the crew.
Code
1. Gain +1d on social interactions with samurai, secret societies, or others who have bound themselves to oaths of conduct.
2. Gain xp when you explain how the tenets of your code influence your decisions, when you get someone to adopt or abide by your code, or when your strict adherence to your code causes trouble for your job.
3. Gain an advance when you recognize the inadequacies of your code and break it, or when you demonstrate the ultimate long-term superiority of your code.
Is gaining an advance picking up a special ability?
Looks good, motivating players to play out the role for both mechanical and fictional advantage. Good luck! =)
I am thinking of an advance as either an immediate Special ability or an attribute rating. Basically its just like +8XP or so. I’m curious if there would be time or appropriate pacing to take a new card when you play through one. Probably not, and I like the player control over hitting the final trigger not too soon or they cut off the xp and +1d social benefits.
I was wondering about the advance because I think a special ability is 8 xp where a rating bump is 4 xp, so they aren’t equivalent; if they can gain xp while the card is active, it seems useful to add a special ability for completing the motive.
Also, it seems that for a one-shot, it is sensible to only include 1 special ability per character (rather than a selection.) Reading and choosing takes time, and you won’t get a second except through completing your goal; you could then put a playbook neutral special ability on the back of the card, so when you flip it over you’ve got your new ability.
Just a thought.
Hmm. I think in v3f attributes are 6xp while special abilities are 8xp.
True about choosing taking time though. The move on the card back is neat. I’m laying out some of my hack ideas in a separate thread, hoping to keep it minimal. I tend to spread to offering choice since while it takes time to read and pick, you can also pick while playing or just pick based on the names and go from there. Even a little choice feels like ownership. (not that I have lots of experience running one-shots of this of course)
I’m curious if anyone has ideas for a better reward than a special ability for completing a mini-arc card. Or what sort of powers are cool after your character has passed their personal climax? Advancing stats seems a little useless since you’ll get it toward the end of the game when you won’t be using it anymore soon. Something narrative seems better but harder to pre-plan.