Just stumbled across the advice for running a one-shot game and I’m curious about how it seems to suggest that a one-shot should include time for character creation but skip crew creation.
I’d love to hear from anyone who has tried that, as well as anyone who tried the reverse (supply pregen characters but go through crew creation to start the session).
I’m not an advocate for either method, just curious about the implications of putting the crew at the centre of a one-shot rather than the individual members.
Sean Nittner did a lot of Blades one shots. If I remember correctly from the one at GoPlay, he chose the crew book, but had us make characters and crew. I would guess, he did that so that he’d know the type of mission to prep. He then asked what we were stealing and a couple of other questions.
I’ve run lots of games where people made characters but no crew. The crew implies a level of connection and commitment to each other that one-shot characters seldom act out.
Individuals play characters. A group plays a crew. Individuals are playing in a one-shot, and they may or may not form much of a group by the time the session is over. So yes, I focus on letting them make decisions about their individual characters over the group.
Also if they come back to play again, they’re bringing characters. But if you have characters from two sessions and you focused on the crew, then do you merge the crew? Pick one of the two? Crews aren’t as portable as characters.
You’re also making decisions about what your character can do, instead of making decisions about how your group fits into the bigger picture. For a one shot, the bigger picture isn’t going to get as much play, so assigning faction relationships takes time that may or may not pay off (unlike decisions about characters that will likely have direct impact on play choices.)
For one shots, I generally use the idea that the characters are GANG members for the Crows instead of an independent crew; I can give them crew-like advantages and find out what kind of mission they want, but get them stuck in instead of wallowing around in crew generation.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QtJxtygvG33wWTfUt14Z10RxHUIkVbAICznRwwHwt3Y/edit#heading=h.tu53iaq4wdud
My 2 cents. =)
Andrew Shields yeah, that makes sense. I guess I was thinking about some of John’s comments regarding the crew as a central character, but in a one-shot that’s a lot less applicable.
I think so. If you get to play again, you’ve got a good chance of using the same character, but a much smaller chance of getting to play that one-shot crew ever again.
Hi Jared Hunt, here’s the one shots that I’ve run at cons. These have worked really well for me in the past: seannittner.com – Blades in the Dark
Thanks, Sean! Those look great.
I’ve generally just followed the others advice above with the addition of Andrew Shields’ excellent heist deck. Once the gang solidifies and they choose a score it usually seems apparent what kind of crew they are. I will casually make narrative mention of that implied notion – but don’t mechanically enforce it in any way.
If the group get together for another game, the players can always retroactively build their crew playbook.