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Session Zero University - Intramural One-Shots with Cameron Hoogendyk · Session Zero Heroes | TTRPG Actual Play Adventures & Improv Storytelling

• 0:15
  >> Skylar: Welcome students to Session Zero
• 0:18
  University. My name is Professor Rainier, one of the
• 0:21
  many teachers here at the university. But for right
• 0:24
  now, I am your orientation
• 0:27
  representative. Here at scu, you will
• 0:30
  find a variety of professors well versed in the realms
• 0:33
  of tabletop role playing games, offering you
• 0:35
  their insight on every facet of
• 0:38
  TTRPG's. Perhaps you'd like to
• 0:41
  take a homebrwing class with our Potions
• 0:43
  professor or join in on a role playinging
• 0:46
  class put on by our theater department. Be
• 0:49
  sure to take all your required general education
• 0:52
  classes like Character Creation 101,
• 0:55
  Intro to World Building, and NPC
• 0:58
  Voices for Beginners to help round out
• 1:00
  your education. There are also plenty of electives
• 1:03
  and intramural opportunities to add some fun and
• 1:06
  diversity into your everyday schedule. So get
• 1:09
  out there and learn. Whether you'hoping to
• 1:12
  graduate with a degree in DMing or playing, it
• 1:15
  matters not. There is always room to
• 1:17
  grow at Session Zero University.
• 1:24
  >> Cameron: Welcome students to the
• 1:26
  intramural One Shots class.
• 1:29
  My name is Dr. Roger
• 1:32
  James Beenbaka.
• 1:35
  If this class doesnt sound familiar, then
• 1:38
  you probably arent taking it. It should
• 1:41
  probably leave now.
• 1:50
  Ah, good. Theres still two of you left.
• 1:52
  Now for the ones who stayed. This class will
• 1:55
  be covering the purpose of One
• 1:58
  Shots. The who, what,
• 2:01
  when, where and why for
• 2:04
  one shots. Hopefully by the end
• 2:07
  of this quick class you'll have a better
• 2:10
  understanding of how you can run a one shot for for
• 2:13
  your regular RPG playing
• 2:16
  groups. Before I.
• 2:20
  I can't keep up with that ridiculous voice the whole time.
• 2:22
  >> Skylar: I was just going to double check and ask if you had said the
• 2:25
  who, what when wearing wives of
• 2:28
  TTRPG'Yeah.
• 2:29
  >> Cameron: No I not
• 2:32
  why? Why four one shots? Yeah. Oh that's
• 2:35
  why four. So before I dive
• 2:37
  into anything, I want to state the main difference to one
• 2:40
  shots and why I personally prefer them over a long
• 2:43
  term campaign. Also, feel free to ask
• 2:46
  questions at any time.
• 2:48
  >> Skylar: You got it.
• 2:49
  >> Cameron: Just insert. You can raise a hand, whatever. I don'taking care.
• 2:51
  so I personally prefer One shots
• 2:54
  over long term campaigns. To
• 2:57
  me a one shot is a small contained story
• 3:00
  where the beginning, middle and end are all within a short period of
• 3:03
  time. Well, the campaign is a long term
• 3:06
  where storylines and arc slowly build up and are
• 3:09
  slow brew but in a good way. to me
• 3:12
  I view a one shot as a movie and a long term campaign
• 3:15
  as a TV show. So let's focus on the one
• 3:17
  shot compared to a movie. I want to focus in on this idea
• 3:20
  like a movie. We need to get our Whole story across from beginning
• 3:24
  to end in one or two consecutive sessions. It's
• 3:26
  like mainly the idea of a movie is all condensed into one
• 3:29
  film. Sometimes a part one, part two. Like they're
• 3:32
  starting to do now. But I'm not a fan of it, but they're starting to
• 3:35
  do that now. like a movie, it is a short form
• 3:38
  of story that'done well, can create an interesting world and can
• 3:41
  engage the players for an amount of time until you hit the climax of
• 3:44
  the story. It is up to the players then to make their
• 3:47
  characters engaging and to have fun in the short term world
• 3:50
  and to make the most of it in a quick time they have to play.
• 3:53
  This means being able to create arcs for the characters that will show
• 3:56
  growth. Important to note here though that these characters
• 3:59
  don't need to complete lifelong goals or
• 4:01
  anything of that sort, but rather they need to show
• 4:04
  some form of growth, just like that of a movie character
• 4:07
  shows growth in their own way. Usually positive growth, but
• 4:10
  sometimes characters show negative growth,
• 4:13
  which is still interesting and can make for a fun story.
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  But the idea is that there is some growth and usually a
• 4:19
  one shot will force growth, whether'small
• 4:22
  or big. But it isn't like you come in
• 4:25
  with a big life changing goal that's probably
• 4:28
  not going to be achieved in a one shot. But you could have a
• 4:31
  big life changing goal and a one shot could make
• 4:34
  your character move steps towards that.
• 4:36
  >> Skylar: Right, right.
• 4:38
  >> Cameron: that's why I prefer, and personally I prefer movies
• 4:41
  over TV shows, but some people prefer TV shows versus movies.
• 4:44
  But the thing is, the idea is a
• 4:47
  one shot has a bigger story
• 4:50
  in a smaller timefraame and because that, it feels like a
• 4:53
  lot more happens. Yeah.
• 4:55
  >> Skylar: And I think it opens up the opportunity.
• 4:57
  >> Cameron: Right.
• 4:57
  >> Skylar: Like you can, you can sit down with players and say, hey, I mean
• 5:00
  as far as right now goes, we're gonna have a one shot
• 5:03
  and we're going to tell like a very specific
• 5:06
  shortened story. But that doesn't mean that you can't
• 5:09
  like take that character that achieved a little bit of growth
• 5:12
  within that short story and maybe go into a long term
• 5:15
  campaign or something.
• 5:16
  >> Cameron: Like I've seen people who've really enjoyed a one
• 5:19
  shot character so much that when a new campaign is
• 5:22
  starting up, they want to take that one shot character and grow them
• 5:25
  more into a long term campaign. And that's
• 5:27
  beautiful. You can even see that in modern media where they'll
• 5:30
  have a character that was so, good. Great
• 5:33
  example of this is recently with the
• 5:36
  James Gunn, Suicide Squad.
• 5:38
  >> Skylar: Right.
• 5:38
  >> Cameron: Peacemaker was a character that he loved so much and
• 5:41
  the audience loved so much that he then took that character
• 5:44
  basically from a one shot and made a whole
• 5:47
  show about that one character. Right. Giving his own
• 5:50
  cast of sidekicks and all that stuff. And that's
• 5:53
  the beauty of a one shot is you could take a really
• 5:55
  well fleshed out character again from just a small
• 5:58
  bit of time like a one shot and then give them that long term
• 6:01
  campaign to really grow out the character that was so
• 6:04
  interesting in that one shot to the long term.
• 6:07
  And that's the other thing about one shots. It's not going to be
• 6:10
  a complete character. But that's what makes it work is
• 6:13
  you don't need a complete character. One shot can do
• 6:16
  the building enough for the amount of time
• 6:19
  it takes, right? Yeah. Because I mean when you
• 6:22
  have a long term campaign, sure you want characters a little more
• 6:25
  depth to them because the campaign is going to have more
• 6:27
  depth to it. But we're going to be here
• 6:30
  for a while. The one shot doesn't need that depth. And that kind of
• 6:33
  makes the beauty of a new character
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  to be explored within the realm of a
• 6:40
  small story of a one show.
• 6:41
  >> Skylar: Absolutely. It opens up a lot of opportunity to experiment with
• 6:44
  different characters because it's only going to be here for a little while. It also
• 6:47
  opens up the opportunity of man, I played that
• 6:50
  character in the one shot. I kind of hated it and it just really
• 6:53
  didn't fit my style. But it's a learning experience that I
• 6:56
  gained that I wasn't stuck with for the next like
• 6:59
  two years while we do this long term.
• 7:01
  >> Cameron: It's true. And yeah, also that's the thing. A lot of D and
• 7:04
  D players are, RPG players in general have a bunch of
• 7:07
  ideas, especially if they're long time players. A lot of ideas on
• 7:10
  the back burner for like different idea joke characters,
• 7:12
  whatever.
• 7:13
  >> Skylar: Yeahah.
• 7:13
  >> Cameron: and a one shot is a good way for them to really just get that
• 7:16
  character out of the way. They're like, I know this character won't be really best
• 7:19
  for a long term campaign, but I really want to try it. One
• 7:22
  shot. Perfect. You can do it in one shot. Get that out
• 7:25
  of your system. You're like, okay, either I had a lot of fun plan, I want to
• 7:28
  do it again or that was I.
• 7:30
  >> Skylar: Got it system that got it out of my. Yeah, we did
• 7:33
  it. We got it done. So that's a lot from A really
• 7:36
  great overview from like the player standpoint when it comes to
• 7:39
  one shots. What about for like the DMs out trying
• 7:42
  to like build these.
• 7:43
  >> Cameron: Most of what I have is actually from a DMs point of view. Oh,
• 7:46
  okay. So it's actually great. We got the player stuff really out of the way.
• 7:48
  So first off, I wanted to give the purpose of a one shot.
• 7:51
  Why run a one shot? There's a lot of
• 7:54
  reasons. Actually it's more than just like a couple.
• 7:57
  First one could be you want to fill for your regular
• 8:00
  RPG sessions and some players could be missing.
• 8:04
  Another could be you also use one shots to be
• 8:06
  the filler in between campaigns. My other D and D
• 8:10
  Group 9 Session 0 hereoes. But I have another one. We like to do this where
• 8:12
  we have a long term campaign and then
• 8:15
  in between the next one we'll have a series of like 1 or
• 8:18
  231 shots ran by the
• 8:21
  other players to give the next DM time to
• 8:24
  finish their campaign. And that way it's also like a little
• 8:27
  breadth of fresh. It's like a little breath of fresh
• 8:30
  air. kind of like Adventure Zone. That's what
• 8:33
  was Adventure Zone does that exact thing and it works
• 8:36
  really well. My other group does that and it works
• 8:38
  beautifully. It does the job of allowing you to try
• 8:41
  those joke characters. Because we want to do joke characters
• 8:44
  but then we don't want to do full joke characters in our campaigns
• 8:47
  even though that group is very not serious. So we usually have somewhat joke
• 8:50
  characters for all of us. But we go all out in the one
• 8:53
  shot just so we can get out our system and then we can. It's
• 8:56
  basically like a whale, right? Where you come up for
• 8:59
  air but for most of the time you're under the water but you
• 9:02
  need to come up for that air. And that's the beauty. One
• 9:05
  shot. It's coming up for the air to allow that
• 9:07
  refreshing and then you go back into another deep
• 9:10
  campaign. Also I didn't put in parentheses for this
• 9:13
  particular one. Congrats on actually
• 9:16
  finishing a campaign. Not many groups can say they did
• 9:18
  that. So the fact you are considering doing a one
• 9:21
  Chevy team campaigns, you did something most groups
• 9:24
  can't say they have.
• 9:25
  >> Skylar: That's true.
• 9:26
  >> Cameron: Shout out to whatever peoplecing that.
• 9:29
  >> Skylar: Yeah, absolutely. That's a lot of work.
• 9:32
  A lot of commitment.
• 9:33
  >> Cameron: Third reason is to help with DM burnout.
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  I remember running the occasional one shot whenever I was
• 9:39
  noticing our usual dm. I like how I'm talking in third
• 9:42
  person here. It was you Sky. Yah. Because Skylar
• 9:45
  is our normal dm. As you probably have noticed very
• 9:48
  quickly on session zero Heroes, But I would notice
• 9:51
  before we start recording Session Zero Heroes that sometimes I could
• 9:54
  see the signs of burnout and the dm, because I
• 9:57
  am basically the second most D in our group. And so
• 10:00
  I could see it with Skylar. So I'd be like, hey, Skylar, take
• 10:03
  like a couple weeks off. I'll run run shots.
• 10:05
  So you can just de stress and
• 10:09
  what you think about that?
• 10:10
  >> Skylar: Oh, yeah, no, it gives you more time to, like, collect your
• 10:13
  thoughts. I think it's just one of those things of, like,
• 10:15
  the constant ongoing. Like every week
• 10:18
  I need to come up with where the storyline is going and
• 10:21
  depending on what the players have successfully done.
• 10:24
  And that's the thing too, is, like, if you've got players that really take
• 10:27
  their time, it kind of goes both ways. If you got players that take
• 10:29
  their time and they slowly work through things, it can be a little
• 10:32
  frustrating as the dm because you're like, I would love
• 10:35
  to have other ideas, but I can't even come up with new ideas until
• 10:38
  you guys get past this stuff. Or there's the inverse
• 10:41
  of they're speeding through everything. I come up with so fast
• 10:44
  that I can't keep up with it and I need a break.
• 10:46
  >> Cameron: Yeah. And also another thing is
• 10:49
  being stuck as that forever dm, you do kind of get
• 10:52
  burned out just being stuck as that. So the one shot gives
• 10:55
  that DM a chance to be that player, get out that. The
• 10:58
  breath of fresh air. It's like the whale thing, but for the dm. The DM needs
• 11:01
  that breath help. I've been underwater too long ago. Exactly.
• 11:04
  a rather fun reason for doing A
• 11:07
  rather fun reason for doing a one shot is a seasonal one shot,
• 11:10
  which is, loads of fun. I know here at Session Zero Heroes,
• 11:13
  we like to do a yearly one shot around Halloween. And this is
• 11:16
  actually something we, as a group, we're doing even before Session
• 11:19
  zero, where we always do one shot. A Halloween
• 11:22
  themed one shot around Halloween. It's just a thing we've always
• 11:25
  done and we just transferred it to Session Zero
• 11:27
  Heroes. fun holiday themes, around a one
• 11:30
  shot can just be a lot of fun. Halloween is the biggest one, of course,
• 11:33
  because it's just RPGs and horror
• 11:36
  or just go hand in hand.
• 11:37
  >> Skylar: Everybody wants to find that, like horror.
• 11:39
  >> Cameron: Also, like, for you, you also can do Christmas things. Our
• 11:42
  big one. But I said you can even go creative. You can make a
• 11:45
  F. St. Patty's Day one wherever they're trying to catch a
• 11:48
  leprechaun or something. Or, I even said you could take
• 11:51
  inspiration From Stranger Things, a popular TV show that had
• 11:54
  a whole season based around fourth of July.
• 11:56
  >> Cameron: Like you can get creative with your seasons because there's a lot of
• 11:59
  interesting seasons. There's also, it could be even fun
• 12:02
  to explore a season if say your whole
• 12:05
  group is American. Like we are. there are s so many
• 12:07
  holidays that are foreign. Like foreign holidays that
• 12:10
  we as Americans don't know much about. But if a DM
• 12:13
  they a little digging, they could probably find an interesting
• 12:16
  foreign holiday where the players not
• 12:19
  only can explore this new holiday concept,
• 12:22
  but they can explore it as characters fresh in a
• 12:25
  story too. So it truly would be like
• 12:28
  a new experience for a new holiday
• 12:31
  and a new world. Andeah it could be really cool if you did
• 12:34
  that.
• 12:34
  >> Skylar: It steps those players that have been playing and
• 12:37
  probably have DM'at some point. Right? They're pretty
• 12:40
  well versed in the monster manual and this, that and
• 12:43
  then takes them out of like, oh, just another, you
• 12:46
  know, D and D high fantasy. Whatever. We're gonna
• 12:49
  run another one.
• 12:50
  >> Cameron: No, no.
• 12:50
  >> Skylar: This is something totally different. The world is gonna feel
• 12:53
  different. The monsters are going to be totally different. You're not going to know what their
• 12:56
  weaknesses are because do you guys know.
• 12:59
  >> Cameron: About the Yul Log celebration of Sweden? And they
• 13:02
  go what? That's what we're running a session on
• 13:05
  you. Okay.
• 13:06
  >> Skylar: They get an interesting.
• 13:08
  >> Cameron: You're like, so the Yul Log cat
• 13:10
  gracefully sleeps. Also. This is all real. Just saying.
• 13:13
  Anyways, Log what Cat Cates.
• 13:16
  >> Skylar: There's a cat?
• 13:17
  >> Cameron: Yes.
• 13:17
  >> Skylar: What is a Yule log?
• 13:19
  >> Cameron: it's a log. Anyways, a
• 13:21
  personal favorite reason of mine for running a one shot
• 13:24
  is to help get creative juices flowing. To help with the
• 13:27
  creativity and practicing of improv for a
• 13:30
  long term campaign. You could do this in
• 13:33
  between campaigns. Like I said, you could even do this during campaigns.
• 13:36
  To do this, I have my players show up expecting a one
• 13:39
  shot. The catch is they won't know the setting
• 13:42
  or their character. Beforehan I created a fun one
• 13:45
  shot and then generated. I personally
• 13:48
  do random generation, but you could generate sheets
• 13:51
  however you want. But the idea is you are making them
• 13:54
  as the dm, not the players. Then when the
• 13:56
  players arrive, you give them randomly
• 13:59
  hand out the character sheets. Kind of like in community when Abit
• 14:02
  places on the papers and he was going to give them to them, but then they all
• 14:05
  randomly took. That's exactly what's gonna happen with your players. They just
• 14:08
  randomly take. I remember the last time I did this, I laid
• 14:11
  five sheets down and I put a shape on the back of them. And
• 14:14
  in the story I said there was five. They were basically
• 14:17
  going to step into a like an
• 14:20
  Avatar machine. Like from Avatar, the movie, James
• 14:23
  Cameron movies O where they step into a machine, it's going to transfer them
• 14:25
  into someone else. And so I said there was five machines with five
• 14:28
  shapes on them and on the back of each character sheet I threw the shapes.
• 14:31
  And so they said which shape they got into. And then when they
• 14:34
  chose the shape I then gave them the character sheet and they flipped it over and
• 14:37
  discovered their new character.
• 14:39
  >> Skylar: Did the shapes have some kind of correlation?
• 14:40
  >> Cameron: Absolutely not. I random it. But anyway,
• 14:43
  it'easy visual for you. I also random the characters
• 14:46
  generated as well. So it was pure random. But
• 14:49
  anyways, the idea of doing that is it gets the
• 14:52
  characters out of their comfort zone because it could force
• 14:55
  your typical mage only player, to have to play a
• 14:58
  fighter. And they have no choice. Right.
• 15:00
  When you force people out of their comfort zone, it forces them to think
• 15:03
  on the spot. And when you force people to think on the spot, it
• 15:06
  creates. It makes them have to be more
• 15:09
  creative. And that's not a bad
• 15:12
  thing. No'not at all a great thing. It will help
• 15:15
  them be a better player for
• 15:18
  future games. Once you go back to that.
• 15:20
  >> Skylar: Campaign, it's kind of like what you end up getting.
• 15:23
  And if anybody's ever had the opportunity, they probably
• 15:26
  know what I'm. If everybody's ever done it, they know what I'm talking about. But if you have
• 15:29
  the opportunity, I highly recommend. And it is like dming for
• 15:32
  kids. And these kids have no preconceived
• 15:35
  notions of anything. This is all so
• 15:37
  new to them and the ability for them to come up with just
• 15:40
  the craziest ideas during a session is
• 15:43
  awesome. So yeah, I think that kind of goes along with that same idea
• 15:46
  of and getting them out of their comfort zone and making them
• 15:49
  experience everything new for the first.
• 15:50
  >> Cameron: And we even have we can speak from a spit
• 15:53
  experience because we've done it a few times with our own group
• 15:56
  outside recording. And we did one where Skyller was doing
• 15:59
  a Halloween horror like Killer at a
• 16:02
  camp thing. Oh ye. And we all had random characters and
• 16:05
  it's still one of our favorite one shots we ever
• 16:08
  ran.
• 16:09
  >> Skylar: Terrible in the was.
• 16:11
  >> Cameron: It was so bad. But it's created all four of
• 16:14
  us made some iconic characters. But mind you,
• 16:17
  these were four characters we crafted on the spot. When
• 16:20
  we got the character sheets and flipped them over and looked at our
• 16:23
  stats and our information'like okay, guess this is what
• 16:26
  we're playing as on a spot. Created four unique characters
• 16:29
  that were all hilarious and were somehow
• 16:31
  very had a lot of depth to that they
• 16:34
  did.
• 16:35
  >> Skylar: I think it was the beauty of it was just how people interpreted
• 16:38
  the stats. I don't want to go too far
• 16:41
  into it just because it was kind
• 16:43
  of dark in a weird way. But yeah, just like looking at your
• 16:46
  stats and seeing that your HP is ridiculously low in your
• 16:49
  concentration.
• 16:49
  >> Cameron: You had one player who's h ###p
• 16:52
  was their constitution was negative 3 and
• 16:55
  they were a wizard. So they were level 3 and their
• 16:58
  HP was 3 health because that's the minimum it
• 17:01
  can be at level 3.
• 17:03
  >> Skylar: Needless to say, basically the character played
• 17:06
  someone who was like sickly with a disease.
• 17:09
  >> Cameron: They were on deathbed and they were
• 17:12
  sent to this camp as like their last. Like their.
• 17:15
  >> Skylar: They're like a make a wish.
• 17:16
  >> Cameron: Their a wish was to go to a camp before
• 17:18
  D.
• 17:21
  >> Skylar: So terrible. But at the same time it was so
• 17:24
  like intriguing of like this this kid who's like,
• 17:27
  like it's not a character and normal pur.
• 17:30
  It's not a character you would normally think of.
• 17:32
  >> Cameron: No.
• 17:33
  >> Skylar: You know, not to say that everybody's a min maxer but I mean
• 17:36
  you try to play to the strengths of whatever class.
• 17:38
  >> Cameron: I would never have thought of playing a character that had
• 17:41
  minimum HP Y.
• 17:43
  >> Skylar: VI that's like opposite of what they're going.
• 17:44
  >> Cameron: They're dying.
• 17:45
  >> Skylar: You're like, hey, my character could at least be
• 17:48
  so am I healthy? But no, it was
• 17:51
  pretty great. It was pretty great.
• 17:52
  >> Cameron: and my final reason for running a one shot is
• 17:55
  to try a new RPG system. Say someone in the
• 17:58
  group discovered a new RPG system and they really want to try it or they just
• 18:01
  bought one. Skyar loves doing this.
• 18:03
  >> Skylar: I have a problem.
• 18:04
  >> Cameron: The thing is sometimes,
• 18:07
  and it'the smart thing to do is you should
• 18:09
  try out that system in a one shot before you
• 18:13
  commit to a long term.
• 18:14
  >> Skylar: Campaign with like the sample rules that they post online.
• 18:17
  >> Cameron: Exactly. Before you commit to a long term campaign.
• 18:20
  And after a couple sessions, everyone went in the groups like I hate this system. And
• 18:23
  you're like, well, shoot, I just spent all this time crafting a long term
• 18:26
  campaign and everyone hates the system. Yeah, one shot. Great
• 18:29
  way to just get a feel on the system. If everyone in the
• 18:31
  group'like heck ye, I love this system, then consider making a long
• 18:34
  term campaign. But if everyone's just personal,
• 18:37
  honestly, if everyone's just not feeling 10 out of
• 18:40
  10 on the system, you probably shouldn't commit to it.
• 18:42
  8 nines maybe if that's the group majority. But if
• 18:45
  everyone's like it was good. Like that's
• 18:48
  probably not something 5, 6 or lower.
• 18:51
  >> Skylar: Probably like is it worth it?
• 18:53
  >> Cameron: Yeah. And if one person really loved it but everyone's like still mid on
• 18:55
  it, it's still probably not going to work's. A
• 18:58
  system and everyone gets out of it. Like Dagger Har for example,
• 19:01
  me, you and Jackson recorded us making characters and Dave
• 19:04
  record making characters and all of us left that character making go.
• 19:07
  That was so much fun. Yeah. And that was just from character creation. Like
• 19:10
  you want a system like that where you dip your feet
• 19:13
  in and if after just dipping your feet and you're like I want more, you're like
• 19:16
  okay, that's a system you want. But if you like you dip your feet and you're like
• 19:19
  it's alght then yeah, avoid that. That's fine
• 19:22
  to 100. One shot. Maybe one shot it again if you're
• 19:25
  fine with it. But not long term campaign. But that's the beauty
• 19:27
  of one shots. Yeah, it's a good way to dip your feet into a system
• 19:31
  and see if it's something you want to dive into it or if you
• 19:34
  just want to like walk around in for a little bit
• 19:37
  and then hop out, get out.
• 19:38
  >> Skylar: I mean and the beauty of it too is that if you're playing with,
• 19:41
  I mean obviously if you're playing with friends that makes things a lot easier. But if you're
• 19:44
  playing with people that have played a little bit of TTRPGs
• 19:47
  throughout, they know like maybe I just didn't make a good
• 19:50
  character or now that I see how the mechanics work, I
• 19:53
  might invest my stats or
• 19:56
  whatever else. The way I built my character would be different.
• 19:59
  Doesn't mean I don't like the system. Just I would do
• 20:02
  things differently to like set myself up for a little bit more
• 20:05
  fun.
• 20:05
  >> Cameron: But that is what a one shot can do. Exactly. Try things out.
• 20:08
  >> Skylar: Absolutely. Absolutely.
• 20:10
  >> Cameron: Okay, so that's the end of wire on A
• 20:12
  one.
• 20:13
  >> Skylar: Right.
• 20:13
  >> Cameron: So now I'm going to do it next. You're probably wondering how
• 20:16
  you design a one shot.
• 20:18
  >> Skylar: See that's my biggest struggle is because I can't
• 20:21
  just. I have such a hard time not building out this
• 20:23
  massive story and I want, I desperately want
• 20:26
  to run one shots better came. So teach
• 20:29
  me what I'm doing.
• 20:30
  >> Cameron: I made, I don't want to say simple.
• 20:33
  >> Skylar: It's not.
• 20:33
  >> Cameron: It's a four step system
• 20:37
  I made to hopefully
• 20:39
  make how I. This is how I make one shots and I
• 20:42
  make a lot of one shots. So this is how my four step system, how
• 20:45
  I make a one shot. First think of a
• 20:48
  setting. O every story needs a setting
• 20:51
  and themes of what you're going for. Are you going for
• 20:53
  spooky feeling for Halloween? Are you going for a dream
• 20:56
  like situation almost like Alice in Wonderland or wizard of
• 20:59
  Oz? Maybe you feel like doing a school type
• 21:02
  situation with kids breaking free from the status norm
• 21:04
  kind of story. You honestly can think of any in all types
• 21:07
  of situations and or settings but find one
• 21:10
  you are excited about digging into. This is my
• 21:13
  caveat. This is probably the most important thing of
• 21:16
  running a one shy as a dm. Figure out a setting
• 21:19
  you love, you want to dig deeper
• 21:22
  into. If you as the DM aren't doing a setting or
• 21:25
  hitting on a story you aren't passionate about, then you're
• 21:28
  going to deliver a so so story. And when you deliver a
• 21:31
  soso story, the players are going to give back a so so playing
• 21:34
  style. When they give back that, you'll end up with a
• 21:36
  lukewarm session. But if you as a
• 21:39
  DM love the story and you are into it and
• 21:42
  passionate about, you will be excited and engaged the entire
• 21:45
  time. When you're excited and engaged, players feed off of
• 21:48
  this and they will be excited and engaged in what you're
• 21:51
  telling them.
• 21:51
  >> Cameron: This is how you get them to explore your world. That is how you
• 21:54
  grow your world and that'how you get them engrossed into
• 21:57
  a story. Right?
• 21:58
  >> Skylar: Right. Because they want it, they want to experience
• 22:01
  it and they want and they're going to help you build it.
• 22:04
  >> Cameron: And that'that's the thing you can start.
• 22:06
  >> Skylar: You don't have to build it.
• 22:07
  >> Cameron: All very simplistic.
• 22:08
  >> Skylar: Yes.
• 22:09
  >> Cameron: And then the players, how they explore, they will
• 22:12
  create that world but they won't always just create the world, but
• 22:15
  rather that's again, if you're passionate about it,
• 22:18
  say they do something that you didn't plan for. If you're
• 22:21
  passionate about it, you'll be able to think of something on the spot. O yeah. And
• 22:24
  you'll be excited about something you made on the spot. Right. And if it's something you
• 22:27
  really care about, like I give the ex ###amp of Alison Wonder. Alison
• 22:30
  Wader has a very interesting book series and there's a few of them. If you're
• 22:33
  a big person who loves that world and the player
• 22:36
  asks a question, you prepare for it but then you're like oh, I remember this
• 22:38
  obscure thing from the books that Iot really enjoyed. You
• 22:41
  can bring that obscure thing into this world on a dime,
• 22:44
  and then the players might find it just as cool as you do. And if not, whatever.
• 22:47
  Right.
• 22:48
  >> Skylar: That requires you to really kind of immerse yourself and be willing
• 22:51
  to immerse yourself. One of my favorite things that players
• 22:53
  do, and this is how you know that you've got them in gross,
• 22:56
  is when somebody suggests an idea that you
• 22:59
  hadn't thought of before, and you're just sitting there as the DM
• 23:02
  and you're like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That is actually
• 23:05
  correct. Wow. Well, well done. You get to play it off as if
• 23:08
  you had already thought of it before. But, I mean, the beauty of it is, is that
• 23:10
  again, your players are going to help you build that world.
• 23:13
  And you can just. Yeah, you can absorb their ideas because that
• 23:16
  gives them something that they're like.
• 23:18
  >> Cameron: I figured things out. And then it makes you even more excited because then you
• 23:21
  see your players engaged and excited about the world that
• 23:24
  you're excited about. It's almost like when you show a friend a
• 23:27
  movie or a TV show that you love and you were seeing how much
• 23:30
  they're loving it and asking questions and engaged in it, because
• 23:33
  that makes you feel better about and more engaged to
• 23:35
  it. And so it feeds off each other.
• 23:37
  >> Skylar: It really does. It really does.
• 23:38
  >> Cameron: That's the big thing. Find a setting you lovees. That's the
• 23:41
  idea. Right? And sometimes you can craft your own setting that show
• 23:44
  up. Like, I know I was talking about the new campaign I was
• 23:47
  building. It's inspired by Bioshock and One
• 23:49
  Piece, Two things I very much love. So I'm
• 23:52
  passionate about it because I combine two things I love into my
• 23:55
  own project. But it's taken from things, from
• 23:58
  love. It's not like I took two concepts of things I'm like, so, so
• 24:01
  about. I think it will be good. Like, no, I love it. I
• 24:04
  know it'be good because it's two things I love. Yes.
• 24:06
  >> Skylar: There are elements of Criminals, of Violin Numis that are actually inspired
• 24:09
  straight from Cyberpunk 2077, which I
• 24:12
  absolutely loved playing through every second of.
• 24:15
  So, yeah, I totally get that. Also, just
• 24:17
  to throw this out there, I'm actually playing Bioshock with Emily
• 24:20
  right now.
• 24:21
  >> Cameron: I remember that.
• 24:22
  >> Skylar: So, yeah, she's intriguued. And she's hooked too, because she
• 24:25
  was just infinite. the first, we're starting with the beginning.
• 24:27
  >> Cameron: Okay.
• 24:27
  >> Skylar: I might skip the second one just.
• 24:29
  >> Cameron: Because it's basically the same as the first.
• 24:31
  >> Skylar: Yeah, it's just new story, new character Side story happening.
• 24:34
  Yeah, yeah.
• 24:34
  >> Cameron: But BioShock infinites, the one, story. Think
• 24:37
  infin it's the better storyline.
• 24:39
  >> Skylar: Yeah. So yeah, no, I'm right there with you. But
• 24:42
  yeah, she's definitely immersed.
• 24:43
  >> Cameron: So now we've crafted our setting.
• 24:45
  >> Skylar: Yes.
• 24:45
  >> Cameron: Right. So that's the first thing. Second team, time to fill this setting with
• 24:48
  a storyline. It is up to you how you want to fill it. Whether
• 24:51
  you start from the beginning and craft up until you hit your
• 24:54
  climax. But personally I prefer
• 24:57
  starting with whatever is the objective of the story and going
• 25:00
  from there. Because in a long term campaign
• 25:03
  you need an objective. But that objective will eventually
• 25:06
  come. And sometimes you can kind of start with a
• 25:08
  very vague beginning. Right. Like a fetch
• 25:11
  quest and whatever and then grow from there based on how your senior players
• 25:14
  are. Yeah. One shot. You don't have that option. You need to have
• 25:17
  that objective right from the get go. Right. Because
• 25:20
  at the end of the day a one shot is basically if you're playing a video game,
• 25:23
  a one shot is basically a side quest.
• 25:25
  >> Skylar: Right.
• 25:26
  >> Cameron: And a side quest isn't just like, oh, you need do
• 25:28
  it. Ah, you need to do this. Then you need to do this. Then you need to
• 25:31
  do this. They. You need to do this. It doesn't do that. It's not
• 25:34
  like a chain of events. It's one main event.
• 25:37
  >> Skylar: Right.
• 25:37
  >> Cameron: Right. And so when you crap, you have your setting. So
• 25:40
  now you need that one main event. This could be
• 25:43
  a big bad evil guy. That's the best classic way to do a one
• 25:46
  shot. or it's a social enemy with a fight against the power of
• 25:49
  the system. But it's like it's.
• 25:52
  It's a minor thing in the big
• 25:55
  world, but you don't care about the big world right now. It's just
• 25:57
  a minor thing. For the one shot simp. It could be a
• 26:00
  heist heist. One shots are pretty simple.
• 26:03
  It very easy. because it's like here's your goal. How
• 26:06
  do you do the goal? The players plan, then they try it out.
• 26:09
  >> Skylar: You're here to steal a thing. Go steal the thing.
• 26:12
  >> Cameron: One. The simplest. A one shot.
• 26:14
  >> Skylar: Absolutely.
• 26:14
  >> Cameron: ###Utely if you're doing a horror themed
• 26:17
  best one shot I could give you here an abandoned
• 26:20
  house. Send the players to go explore it. And they're a bunch of like
• 26:22
  Scooby Doo gang teenagers.
• 26:24
  >> Skylar: Yeah.
• 26:24
  >> Cameron: That's one of the best one.
• 26:26
  >> Skylar: Exactly what we did for our last one.
• 26:27
  >> Cameron: I've done three of them. So it's literally
• 26:30
  one the best one shots for like Halloween it's so much
• 26:33
  fun. but whatever you craft for the
• 26:36
  object or antagonist, because sometimes it might not be a person, it might be a
• 26:39
  thing like a haunted house. Right.
• 26:41
  >> Skylar: Or like a to erupt volcano or.
• 26:43
  >> Cameron: A graveyard or an Alison
• 26:46
  Wonderion esque situation where it's not really the
• 26:48
  objective isn't stop something,
• 26:51
  it's rather how do I get out?
• 26:53
  >> Skylar: Yeah. How do I get home? Yeah.
• 26:54
  >> Cameron: or like Wizard Oise. Right. so you have this,
• 26:57
  you've set this up. you prioritize this first because
• 27:00
  then you can set the stage for how the group can beat or escape
• 27:03
  or do whatever, achieve the objective.
• 27:05
  Then you need to design a way for the players to get through this story from
• 27:08
  where you start. The main characters, need
• 27:11
  to figure out the ending at
• 27:14
  the start.
• 27:15
  >> Skylar: Right, Right.
• 27:16
  >> Cameron: If the characters don't know the ending at the start,
• 27:19
  you're not going to have a one shot.
• 27:21
  >> Skylar: No.
• 27:21
  >> Cameron: It's going to be a long term.
• 27:23
  >> Skylar: You're about to go into a box.
• 27:25
  >> Cameron: That if you don't have the ending
• 27:27
  right in front of the character's eyes, it's not a one shot,
• 27:30
  simple as that.
• 27:31
  >> Skylar: They're going to go exploring.
• 27:32
  >> Cameron: It goes exploring and it creates a long time.
• 27:34
  >> Skylar: And I think that this step, this step two that you're talking about
• 27:37
  is honestly where the whole like division between a one
• 27:40
  shot and a full time or a long term campaign really kind.
• 27:43
  >> Cameron: Of comes into play. And that is why I'm establishing right
• 27:46
  now.
• 27:46
  >> Skylar: Yes.
• 27:47
  >> Cameron: Have a goal. Set it right in front of your characters.
• 27:50
  Say do this.
• 27:51
  >> Skylar: Yes.
• 27:52
  >> Cameron: It's railroading.
• 27:53
  >> Skylar: It is railroading, but not in a bad way.
• 27:55
  >> Cameron: But a one shot needs it.
• 27:56
  >> Skylar: Yes.
• 27:57
  >> Cameron: Because if you don't put a railroad in a one shot, they will
• 28:00
  wander and it will take multiple sessions.
• 28:02
  >> Skylar: Right.
• 28:02
  >> Cameron: Okay.
• 28:03
  >> Skylar: It's important to like, establish that railroading in and of
• 28:06
  itself isn't always a bad thing. Especially
• 28:09
  in one shots. Sometimes even in long term campaigns, it's not a
• 28:12
  bad thing. Like you got to get the players from point A to point B. Not
• 28:15
  everything is a sandbox campaign. Yeah, we need like,
• 28:17
  we're trying to make a story here. I'm not trying to force the story to
• 28:20
  go any particular way. I just need you guys to, to like move towards
• 28:23
  the story and not towards every little distraction.
• 28:26
  >> Cameron: Because then what I put after this, after I put this
• 28:29
  important thing and in.
• 28:30
  >> Skylar: Have an ending.
• 28:31
  >> Cameron: Show the ending. Show the ending. Yes, that's the big thing. Show the
• 28:34
  ending. Then after you have that, you have the
• 28:36
  ending. You have the start, which is showing the ending.
• 28:39
  Then after you get all those things, you fill
• 28:42
  in, you add inside characters. You
• 28:45
  add in, fill or fluff to important side details
• 28:48
  like buildings, places and things. and then
• 28:51
  these things will sometimes help guide
• 28:54
  players. They might be a minor distraction, but make sure that minor
• 28:56
  distraction is just that. It's just a look.
• 28:59
  Ah, back to the story.
• 29:01
  >> Skylar: Good to knoweah.
• 29:02
  >> Cameron: Exactly. Little things to add to the world.
• 29:05
  But doesn't lead. It's not. It'it's. It's a
• 29:08
  sign on the side of a road, like a billboard.
• 29:11
  But it's not a literal side road.
• 29:13
  >> Skylar: Yes.
• 29:14
  >> Cameron: That says come follow me down the side road.
• 29:17
  And then at the end of that side road is a billboard. Don't
• 29:19
  do that.
• 29:20
  >> Skylar: You got to tread super careful.
• 29:21
  >> Cameron: Don't do that. Just have it be on the side. If they're exploring
• 29:24
  a building, if they're exploring a side room. Cool. They explore a
• 29:27
  side room. Put maybe a one or thing, two things of
• 29:30
  interest. But then don't put like a staircase to another room.
• 29:33
  Right. And then that staircase to another room leads to another room. Unless
• 29:36
  if that's heading towards your ending. Cool. Do that. Y. But if it's not, then what
• 29:39
  are you doing? You're just creating more distraction.
• 29:41
  >> Skylar: More mini side quests.
• 29:43
  >> Cameron: More mini.
• 29:43
  >> Skylar: Yeah.
• 29:44
  >> Cameron: Because if you think of it like this, the group might break up, they
• 29:47
  might separate. And then if you have the side quests that
• 29:50
  are longer, like a path that's longer, then that means this
• 29:53
  character is wandering away from the main story.
• 29:56
  Well, the other characters are waiting for them at the main story.
• 29:59
  And one of those characters might get bored and wander away from the
• 30:02
  main story and. Yeah. No. Anything you can do to
• 30:05
  keep the players contained within the self. And I would strongly
• 30:08
  recommend, don't let people split up.
• 30:11
  And if they split up, make sure they're in groups.
• 30:13
  Because again, it's a one shot.
• 30:16
  >> Skylar: It's a really great, like, way to describe. This would be
• 30:19
  literally the Scooby Doo gang.
• 30:21
  >> Cameron: Right.
• 30:21
  >> Skylar: Velma sees or, says, oh wait, I saw a
• 30:24
  book about this in the library. She goes back to the library.
• 30:27
  Scooby and Shaggy, they're all, you know.
• 30:29
  >> Cameron: And Fredys off eating Daphne.
• 30:30
  >> Skylar: They're all waiting. And then Shaggy and Scooby say, we're hungry. We're
• 30:33
  going to go get food. So they head to the kitchen of the haunted house.
• 30:37
  >> Cameron: Whatever. Dm'running the Scooby Doo gang in
• 30:40
  that world is probably pulling their hair out. I don't
• 30:43
  know how he always gets it. Back to the end. But he always does.
• 30:46
  So you know, that's true. I once did run a one shot where
• 30:49
  all three characters. It was three characters.
• 30:52
  All three characters. This is probably one of my greatest achievements in
• 30:55
  the one sh O. I had all three characters
• 30:57
  start at three different spots
• 31:00
  and each one had three acts. And
• 31:03
  at the fourth act they all met up at the same location
• 31:06
  because they all were like detectives or had fallen their own
• 31:09
  mystery for their own reason. Yeah. And they each had three
• 31:12
  acts each. And their fourth. Their third act led them to
• 31:15
  the fourth act where they all met up at the same location
• 31:18
  at the same time to fight the big bad evil guy
• 31:20
  that all three of them are looking for in their own ways. Right. One
• 31:23
  of my greatest things I've ever acc. That's wild.
• 31:27
  It took a lot of work, a lot of planning.
• 31:30
  I don't know how I did it, but it was one of the greatest things.
• 31:33
  Dave or one of our local players, he played it with me. He probably
• 31:36
  could tell you how cool. They probably felt really cool when they saw it when
• 31:39
  I made it work like that.
• 31:41
  >> Skylar: and all of a sudden you're with other players and you're like, whoa.
• 31:44
  >> Cameron: And they probably. It's like they didn't see what I
• 31:47
  was doing until the third act because the first
• 31:50
  one gave them the end of the first act, gave
• 31:53
  the player A, got to the end of act
• 31:55
  three, got a location.
• 31:58
  >> Cameron: Player B got to the end of Act 3, got a
• 32:00
  location and realized, wait a second,
• 32:03
  it's the same location. Player A gu.
• 32:06
  And then player C gets to their third
• 32:08
  act and I give them like instead occasion. It's a
• 32:11
  name. And they're like, ooh, that's something different. But then they get to
• 32:14
  that name which led them to that location and they're like,
• 32:17
  oh, shoot, all three of us here at the same time.
• 32:20
  Boom. Fight the B.
• 32:21
  >> Skylar: Was this in person or.
• 32:23
  >> Cameron: Wow.
• 32:24
  >> Skylar: Wow. So even in person, they didn't see
• 32:27
  that they were all coming together to the same. Wow, that is
• 32:30
  crazy. That's cool.
• 32:32
  >> Cameron: and it was just a fun time. But important thing to note
• 32:35
  here. Do not fill your world with too much
• 32:38
  distraction.
• 32:38
  >> Skylar: Right.
• 32:39
  >> Cameron: One shot, make sure it's condensed and it
• 32:42
  follows that path. Right. It's fine
• 32:44
  having, like I said, the side billboards that they can look and
• 32:47
  got, but make sure that they're still
• 32:50
  walking down the street as they do.
• 32:52
  >> Skylar: Or just like minor opportunities to help them
• 32:55
  towards that end of goal.
• 32:56
  >> Cameron: And also, if your world has the
• 32:59
  chance that it could lead to distractions.
• 33:02
  Put in an NPC that's really good at guiding them back down the
• 33:05
  path. Right?
• 33:06
  >> Skylar: Sure.
• 33:06
  >> Cameron: That's always helpful. Especially if it's a fun NPC that's.
• 33:09
  >> Skylar: Not that hateable and that's its own
• 33:12
  episode in another Ye.
• 33:13
  >> Cameron: It's true. That's true.
• 33:14
  >> Skylar: And I do have that noted down. Like truly, we have an
• 33:17
  episode inevitably coming where we're going to talk about how to make
• 33:20
  NPCs likeable and how to make them dislikel
• 33:23
  unlikable.
• 33:24
  >> Cameron: The final thing and important thing to this second one
• 33:26
  of the goal.
• 33:28
  >> Skylar: Whatever.
• 33:29
  >> Cameron: Ye. Whatever the second one is called. It's the whole goal. Whatever. And I said
• 33:32
  the main goal. Main thing is make the goal achievable. Y this is my
• 33:35
  final piece of advice Fiz. Make the goal within an arms
• 33:38
  reach. That way the characters don't feel
• 33:40
  deterred and it will keep them moving at a pace towards
• 33:43
  it. If they can see it. Right.
• 33:46
  They'll go towards it.
• 33:47
  >> Skylar: Right.
• 33:47
  >> Cameron: It's like the light. It's like a tunnel, right?
• 33:50
  >> Skylar: Yeah.
• 33:50
  >> Cameron: It's like driving. Yeah. It, it's. It's just how we. It's
• 33:53
  as. How we as humans act. We go towards the things.
• 33:56
  If we have a goal and we can see it, then we'll go towards it.
• 33:59
  Right? Right. We can't see it, but we still have
• 34:02
  that goal. We'll get there. But we might get distract.
• 34:04
  >> Skylar: We're hesitant.
• 34:05
  >> Cameron: Weant. Whatever. Right. But if you can see
• 34:08
  it and that's what you want. Yeah. Like if you
• 34:11
  wanted a hamburger but you're like I have to drive to the
• 34:14
  store to get the hamburger. I have to do
• 34:16
  XYZ to get the hamburger're like ah, might not get the
• 34:19
  hamburger. Right.
• 34:20
  >> Skylar: But if you're at the store walking.
• 34:21
  >> Cameron: You'Re at the store or you're in the mall and you walk past
• 34:24
  the Burger King you like, there's a hamburger right
• 34:27
  there. I want a hamburger.
• 34:29
  >> Skylar: That's right.
• 34:29
  >> Cameron: I just turn and I get it. Right.
• 34:32
  >> Skylar: It's Burger King, not a sponsor.
• 34:33
  >> Cameron: Yeah, but thats the
• 34:36
  idea. You have a story. Make sure they can always see
• 34:39
  that End goal. Example. Good
• 34:42
  example. Say its a big bad evil guy. Have
• 34:45
  posters up as you see where theres a poster of
• 34:47
  the big bad evil guy reminding them this is what youre after
• 34:50
  or say Theyre walking by and they see a destroyed
• 34:53
  house with a family crying in front of it and the player asks
• 34:56
  who destroyed the house? Big bad evil guy.
• 34:59
  Little reminders that say hey, this is what you're
• 35:02
  Doing right, do this. Stop.
• 35:05
  >> Skylar: So it's not so much literal, like they're not literally seeing big bad
• 35:07
  evil guy just down the block. No, it's more kind
• 35:10
  of like the.
• 35:11
  >> Cameron: Concept reminder reminders that
• 35:14
  says hey it'and also like it's also not that far obtainable.
• 35:17
  Like at the very start you're like, hey, this is your goal. It's at
• 35:20
  the end of town. It. Okay, it's at the end of town. That's where I need to go,
• 35:23
  right? Yep. And it's like I'm into town. It's at the end. It's something
• 35:26
  that's within attainable distance. Right.
• 35:28
  >> Skylar: Not like a 10 day journey that they're gonna have to.
• 35:31
  Yeah.
• 35:52
  >> Cameron: Okay. So that's step one and step two.
• 35:55
  So step one is theme
• 35:57
  and and everything setting. Step two is
• 36:00
  make an attainable goal.
• 36:01
  >> Skylar: Right.
• 36:02
  >> Cameron: Step three, after you have the setting story, you need to
• 36:05
  find the system. I know some people have trouble crafting
• 36:07
  a story because they first start with the system and then
• 36:10
  try to fit a story into that
• 36:13
  system. But that limits your creativity. Sure. And when you
• 36:16
  world building from the start. I have found that if
• 36:19
  you're trying to cram a story into a system,
• 36:22
  it can lead the writer'block and getting stuck in a train of
• 36:25
  thought to fix this. I save the choosing of an
• 36:27
  RPG system after I have the story in place and I have
• 36:30
  the goals created. Once I do that, I can go and
• 36:33
  find a system that fits the story
• 36:36
  setting and the goals.
• 36:38
  Also when I say this, there are
• 36:42
  a ton of RPG systems
• 36:45
  O why? And there's so many
• 36:47
  different kinds and there's so many different kinds within different
• 36:50
  kinds. Right. So you have planning to choose from. So
• 36:53
  don't worry about making the super outlandish
• 36:56
  system because trust me when I say this, you can probably
• 36:59
  find a system that someone has
• 37:02
  made or created that's at least similar to your. And guess
• 37:05
  what? There's even systems out there that are
• 37:08
  designed for people to make a
• 37:11
  setting for and then they just use this blanket
• 37:13
  system to just fit for the story. A great one is the
• 37:16
  cipher system which is designed that
• 37:19
  you can take any setting, use their
• 37:22
  basic cipher system guide, combine the
• 37:25
  two to make your own system for
• 37:28
  your own setting.
• 37:29
  >> Skylar: Gotcha System. setting
• 37:32
  Agnostic TTRPG Basically yeah.
• 37:35
  >> Cameron: So it's great. So don't worry about that. But once you do
• 37:38
  that, you'll find a system. Blah blah, blah.
• 37:40
  >> Skylar: And one thing that ill ll say too, the episode that we have
• 37:43
  coming out in February, I actually do an interview with
• 37:46
  Hartley Yosa and for session zero,
• 37:48
  Heroes. Who's going to talk about the whole concept of
• 37:51
  getting out of D and D and using other systems for
• 37:54
  stuff exactly like this.
• 37:56
  >> Cameron: Again, like I said earlier, one shots are a great way to get out of
• 37:59
  that system. System. Get out that stuck
• 38:02
  system system lock.
• 38:03
  >> Skylar: Or whatever you want to call it.
• 38:04
  >> Cameron: Yeah. Okay, so now we've got setting
• 38:07
  Y, we've got goals and main story Y.
• 38:10
  And then we have a system you've picked. Final step is
• 38:13
  to fill the story with your characters. This is done
• 38:16
  via the session zero. Yes, session zero.
• 38:18
  >> Skylar: Heroeseah.
• 38:19
  >> Skylar: That'us.
• 38:19
  >> Cameron: this should be a quick story crafting session that takes less than half
• 38:22
  an hour. You as the dm, give a quick world
• 38:25
  theme overview. And it helps to if the world is something
• 38:28
  that players are familiar. We're in Alice in Wonderland world.
• 38:31
  >> Skylar: Were in Oz, Avatar, the last airbe or when we did
• 38:33
  benders and BRWs.
• 38:34
  >> Cameron: Exactly. The world theyre familiar. And if theyre not, give them a quick
• 38:37
  like five minute run through. Like this is the
• 38:40
  setting. Were in 1890s
• 38:43
  France, whatever.
• 38:44
  >> Skylar: Because sometimes you get stuck in a situation where one of your players
• 38:47
  didnt watch Avatar last Airbender and they keep talking about how they
• 38:49
  didnt watch it.
• 38:50
  >> Cameron: The they only watched the movie.
• 38:51
  >> Skylar: They only watched the movie. Like who does thatir?
• 38:54
  >> Cameron: anyways, you give that quick, overview and then you help your players
• 38:57
  create a quick character that fits into the world.
• 39:00
  If it is more complicated system, then I recommend you
• 39:03
  make pre make characters and let your characters focus more on
• 39:06
  the system and learning to play than both
• 39:09
  character creation and learning to play. Because that will take up more
• 39:12
  time and they'eat your one shot time frame.
• 39:15
  >> Skylar: And you can always talk to them and be like, hey, you know, here's a general
• 39:18
  concept. Is there anything that you can give me
• 39:21
  that I can work on? If you like playing more of the
• 39:24
  magic based characters, I can do something with that. If
• 39:27
  you prefer to play a fighter based, you know, melee character, I can
• 39:30
  do that. Like just give me a general concept and I'll make you a character based
• 39:33
  on that.
• 39:34
  >> Cameron: Exactly. Or you could do what I recommended which is do
• 39:36
  random characters or random characters.
• 39:38
  >> Skylar: Absolutely.
• 39:39
  >> Cameron: I do recommend though, if you do random characters, do it with
• 39:42
  an easier system.
• 39:43
  >> Skylar: Okay.
• 39:44
  >> Cameron: Though I have thrown people and random characters into D and D and
• 39:47
  they never played before. But D and D can kind of be
• 39:50
  a simple system in its own way.
• 39:53
  but anyways, I recommend also that in one
• 39:56
  shot to have all the Players know each other in some
• 39:59
  way. This helps a ton when characters want to rolepl play
• 40:02
  because if the characters know each other in some way, then they
• 40:05
  will have a reference to bounce off of each other. If
• 40:07
  no one knows each other, it can lead to a lot of awkward
• 40:10
  movements. But if you have some characters who are say,
• 40:13
  partners, friends or family members, even
• 40:15
  enemies, it can lead to a lot of fun moments and also
• 40:18
  will create reasons for characters to want to interact with other
• 40:21
  characters. Think of it like this. You
• 40:24
  will have fun if you go on vacation by yourself with
• 40:27
  total strangers, but you will have an absolute
• 40:30
  blast if you go on vacation with friends or family or
• 40:33
  people you're close to.
• 40:34
  >> Skylar: Right.
• 40:35
  >> Cameron: Make the characters craft those connections in the one
• 40:38
  shot Session zero. And I promise this will do
• 40:41
  most of the heavy lifting for character interactions as
• 40:44
  the story goes along. I can think of so
• 40:47
  many one shots I personally played in or I've
• 40:50
  DM'where I at
• 40:52
  I in session zero.
• 40:55
  I had them in some way. And Monst of the week does a great
• 40:58
  job. O mon y it has power Powered.
• 41:00
  >> Skylar: By the apocalypse stuff in general.
• 41:01
  >> Cameron: They have like 15 options for like, I know this
• 41:04
  character this way. I know this character this way. And there are
• 41:07
  so many variety of reasons, but just giving those,
• 41:10
  those connections to each of the characters, it makes
• 41:13
  you have a reason to work with them.
• 41:16
  Be, avoidance of them. But you still are like you're
• 41:19
  watching them like everything and
• 41:21
  one shots. This is an
• 41:24
  own personal thing of mine, but
• 41:27
  make two of the players related
• 41:30
  somehow. Every time I've done
• 41:33
  it, it's made the session so much fun
• 41:36
  or so much better. It adds so much more depth to
• 41:38
  it because just that fact of throwing bloodah into
• 41:41
  the mix of two. I've known this distance
• 41:44
  cousins. Like I once played a campaign where I
• 41:47
  and I played a character and my other character was my
• 41:50
  long lost brother. One of the best one shots I've ever
• 41:53
  played. Because we were just like catching up
• 41:56
  the whole time but willing to die for each other, even though we
• 41:59
  hadn't seen each other in like 100 years.
• 42:01
  Like doing that your re.
• 42:03
  >> Skylar: monster.
• 42:03
  >> Cameron: The week. The week. Music mayhem.
• 42:05
  >> Skylar: Dave and I were like. He was like my uncle, my character's
• 42:08
  uncle. And it was just the most ridiculous, hilarious
• 42:11
  thing ever.
• 42:12
  >> Cameron: Going to the next Monster of the week run by, Nate. Nate.
• 42:15
  >> Skylar: Yep.
• 42:15
  >> Cameron: Me and Connor were cousins.
• 42:17
  >> Skylar: Yes.
• 42:17
  >> Cameron: And we. That dynamic was so good as it was
• 42:20
  so good. It could be any
• 42:23
  type of blood relation. You could even be step siblings. You could be
• 42:26
  stepfather, step son. Could Be hilarious in its own
• 42:29
  way, but make
• 42:32
  some group. Heck if it's a whole family, that could be even better. You
• 42:35
  know, like disord. Hold on a second here.
• 42:37
  >> Skylar: That's an interesting.
• 42:38
  >> Cameron: Think of it like o, you're going on a trip or something and everyone's all
• 42:41
  crammed into a van. Something like that.
• 42:43
  >> Skylar: Where have I heard that book? I feel like somebody's done that before. But all
• 42:46
  things considered, that'd be a great monster of the week. Like you're a family
• 42:49
  on like some kind of vacation and then the
• 42:52
  monster.
• 42:52
  >> Cameron: Shows up or something. That would make.
• 42:55
  >> Skylar: But again that'd be hilarious.
• 42:56
  >> Cameron: And like. And that's the thing too. It's like you can say
• 43:00
  weirder stuff with your friends and family. Right. But
• 43:03
  if your character doesn't know on our character they're going to be distance
• 43:05
  because that's how some people are with strangers.
• 43:08
  >> Skylar: Oh, absolutely.
• 43:08
  >> Cameron: But if you know that player, then you could probably say some
• 43:11
  more stuff. You can pounce things off of them because they're your
• 43:14
  relative and whatever. They know you and stuff.
• 43:16
  >> Skylar: Honestly, I feel like every TTRPG system
• 43:19
  should add that element into it.
• 43:21
  >> Cameron: Like you a way to know each other from the somehow. The thing
• 43:24
  is though, here's the thing. Long term
• 43:27
  campaigns, you can get away without it
• 43:30
  because the idea is that they shouldn't know each other
• 43:33
  before and because the way they grow together is via
• 43:36
  the long term campaign. That's true. Right. But in
• 43:39
  one shot you don't have that time to grow together.
• 43:41
  So re establishing that time to grow
• 43:44
  together.
• 43:45
  >> Skylar: Right.
• 43:46
  >> Cameron: Is great. And also doesn't mean they can't grow together. It's
• 43:49
  just, it's easier for them to get into role
• 43:52
  play. Just start growing from that starting point.
• 43:54
  >> Skylar: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 43:56
  >> Cameron: So those are my four ways. Four big ones,
• 43:59
  four big Ws too. so they were.
• 44:01
  >> Skylar: Create your setting, your theme, whatever.
• 44:04
  get your main goal, your big bad,
• 44:07
  your primary storyline that you're going to kind of accomplish
• 44:10
  within the span of the one shot. And then number
• 44:13
  three we're going to
• 44:16
  is we're going to pick a system that fits the setting and
• 44:19
  fits what we're trying to do. And then
• 44:21
  four is we're gonna, we're.
• 44:23
  >> Cameron: Gonna have our players, we're gonna do our
• 44:26
  session zero. I almost says heroes. I know. We're so used to it.
• 44:29
  We rena have a session zero and then make the characters connected
• 44:32
  in some way. Don't have them be strangers.
• 44:34
  >> Skylar: No.
• 44:35
  >> Cameron: Unless if it's specific for your one shot for them
• 44:38
  to be strangers. But I highly suggest don't let them be
• 44:40
  strangers. It just makes role playing s so much.
• 44:43
  >> Skylar: Yeah, it takes a lot long.
• 44:44
  >> Cameron: I mean, frin we. One of our best games we've ever were played
• 44:47
  was when we pretended to be the. We were the three orcs who
• 44:50
  were all related and we had our
• 44:52
  gnome father who adopted all of us. And we were basically
• 44:55
  the teenage. We were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but we
• 44:58
  were Teenage Mutant Ninja Orcs.
• 45:00
  >> Skylar: It was just a ran up like. So there was a guy at the local
• 45:03
  convention that we have here in town, the gaming convention.
• 45:06
  And he had made his own system and so he
• 45:09
  wanted like. We were like, oh yeah, we love, you know, trying new systems. And he
• 45:12
  said it's really easy to teach. So he sat down and yeah, that
• 45:15
  was just. It was the funniest thing in the world.
• 45:17
  >> Cameron: It also started like we were just trying to figure out what we were gonna play.
• 45:20
  And then the three of us sit next to
• 45:23
  each other. We like, hey, what are you playing? He said, I'm playing an orc.
• 45:26
  And then Skyler like, oh, I picked orc too. And I went,
• 45:29
  I picked orc too. We're like,
• 45:32
  wait, are we all brothers then? And they just kind of.
• 45:35
  >> Skylar: And then the one other guy was like, and I picked a gnome.
• 45:37
  >> Cameron: We're like, yo, this we could just be the ninja turtles
• 45:40
  and ``s it was so good.
• 45:42
  >> Skylar: And the beauty of it too was that one guy, Cody,
• 45:45
  had never played, never played any RPG
• 45:48
  ever before. And so yeah, that was his entire
• 45:51
  immersion was. And he was so funny too. Y
• 45:54
  He kind of led that to some extent. It was great.
• 45:57
  >> Cameron: It some of the best bits in it.
• 45:58
  >> Skylar: We got to get him on the show.
• 46:00
  >> Cameron: I really want to do a full long term campaign with him. I think
• 46:03
  he'd be hilarious.
• 46:03
  >> Skylar: He's very ohay.
• 46:05
  >> Cameron: So now that I've covered everything that I feel is
• 46:07
  important to make a good one shot, I want to break down the who
• 46:10
  what when were White House basically.
• 46:12
  >> Skylar: Sure.
• 46:12
  >> Cameron: So first off, who this is for
• 46:15
  the players of your normal RPG group.
• 46:18
  You can even use one shots as a good way to introduce new players
• 46:21
  to your regular group. Or to be a fun side quest and say a
• 46:24
  friend is visiting from out of state and you want to include them in your
• 46:27
  normal RPG nots. Yeah,
• 46:29
  that's the who for this is for sure
• 46:32
  what a good one shot is. Whatever you as a DM
• 46:35
  make it, you will have to do some leg work up front. But if you
• 46:38
  enjoy the story in the setting and it's something you're passionate
• 46:41
  about, then the excitement will carry over into the story you have made
• 46:43
  for the players. I did put this note here. I forgot
• 46:46
  to mention it in my other thing, but it's a very important note. make
• 46:49
  sure that your story setting is something that the
• 46:52
  group will care about. Right? If no one in your
• 46:55
  group cares about historical financial situations,
• 46:58
  then don't run a historical finance based
• 47:00
  story, even if it's something you really
• 47:03
  enjoy. Because if they don't care about it and
• 47:06
  the slightest, they won't care about the story in the
• 47:09
  slightest.
• 47:09
  >> Skylar: And now that was the only thing that I could think of that
• 47:12
  I was going to ask you about. As far as like when you were talking
• 47:15
  about you as the dm, choosing a setting and a theme and
• 47:18
  everything that you love. Like, that's a one like minor
• 47:21
  caveat to it that if your players are going to hate it, there's
• 47:24
  just.
• 47:25
  >> Cameron: There is a great example of this in our group.
• 47:28
  Skyar already knows what I'm talking about.
• 47:31
  Skylar tries to force Pokemon
• 47:34
  into all of his campaigns.
• 47:37
  I, Cameron.
• 47:41
  >> Skylar: Say, you can be honest, have.
• 47:43
  >> Cameron: No, I don't hate it. I have zero
• 47:46
  interest in Pokemon. Absolutely
• 47:49
  none. The most Ive ve done for Pokemon was Pokemon
• 47:52
  Go. And that's because it just felt like something that wasn't truly
• 47:55
  Pokemon, but just something and like a collection game, I
• 47:57
  guess. I don't know. But I wasn't even really that into. I
• 48:00
  only played it because my friends played it. It was something to do while they
• 48:03
  played.
• 48:04
  >> Skylar: But the funny thing is that, this is a little bit
• 48:07
  of a spoiler for coin, but there is
• 48:10
  an element inside Criminals of Isa numis
• 48:13
  that you guys have not discovered yet that may or
• 48:16
  may not have elements of Pokemon
• 48:18
  attached to it. And it'not necessary.
• 48:21
  It'not necessary for you guys to. But I put
• 48:24
  it in there just in case somebody
• 48:27
  had a slight interest and you're now the only.
• 48:30
  Actually no, you and technically Quinn would be the only ones that
• 48:33
  know anything about it because he has his whole.
• 48:36
  >> Cameron: I'm justnna tell you, I'm not really.
• 48:37
  >> Skylar: Oh yeah, no, I kind of figured it.
• 48:39
  >> Cameron: I'm just saying there's a great example.
• 48:42
  If Skylar has a table full of camerans who
• 48:45
  hate don't hate Pokem. They have zero interest in Pokemon. And
• 48:48
  Skyller says, hey, I brought a Pokemon camp.
• 48:51
  One shot to play sound like this, they'd be like
• 48:55
  hooray. And then none of them would care.
• 48:57
  >> Skylar: Just, you know, the funny thing is, is that when I first discovered
• 49:00
  Dungeons like just TTRPGs s in general for the most part. In
• 49:03
  college that was the like original thing that
• 49:05
  I tried playing. All we did
• 49:08
  was session zero. We made our characters.
• 49:11
  He showed us how Pokemon worked. It was
• 49:14
  excessively complicated. Like even today
• 49:16
  I'm like, how did that even work? I think I found like whatever system
• 49:19
  he was using that like added to D and D5E for
• 49:22
  Pokemon. And I'm looking at it and I'm like, I just don't
• 49:25
  care. Make it simple. Have a monster. If you ever
• 49:28
  watch, and not a sponsor, not affiliated with us
• 49:31
  or anything. If you ever watch Node Andod
• 49:34
  de again, pretty popular YouTube channel, they did
• 49:37
  a Pokemon campaign and it is the funniest thing I've ever watched
• 49:40
  in my life. I've probably watched through it like five times.
• 49:43
  And it's stupid simple. They literally
• 49:46
  just caught D and D monsters for the most part. There was a little
• 49:49
  bit of Pokemon that were mixed in. Like one guy references
• 49:52
  Charmander. I don't know if he ever actually catches a Charmander. It's
• 49:55
  irrelevant. Anyway, they catch D and D monsters and then
• 49:58
  they just battle D and you throw it into the ring and then you take turns like you
• 50:00
  normally would and you use their stat block. It's the easiest thing in the world. I'm like, why in
• 50:03
  the world are we not doing this? This is all completely irrelevant. I
• 50:06
  just want to establish ironically
• 50:09
  Pokemon D and D is kind of what got me into D and
• 50:11
  D and I've just never been able to get people into it.
• 50:14
  >> Cameron: This is also irrelevant, but I'm
• 50:17
  doing a long term
• 50:19
  text based RPG
• 50:22
  system with some friends online and Skyar's one of them. Oh,
• 50:25
  Skyar's character is forcing me to run a
• 50:28
  D Pomon. He's
• 50:30
  me run a Pokemon themed
• 50:33
  campaign for him. It is not a Pokemon
• 50:36
  themed campaign. And he's make east turning it
• 50:39
  into.
• 50:39
  >> Skylar: Against my will captured a creature
• 50:42
  and I'm planning on capturing more and
• 50:45
  having them battle for me. And now you're trapped. You have
• 50:48
  to do this the way I want it.
• 50:51
  >> Cameron: Y. I'll just kill your character off
• 50:53
  and Jo. I'm joking. okay.
• 50:56
  So that was the caveat. The
• 50:59
  what? The what?
• 51:00
  >> Skylar: Yes, the what.
• 51:00
  >> Cameron: It was make a good one shot of something you care about and also
• 51:03
  make sure that the the group will care about it. As for the most
• 51:06
  part doing over the top generic things with
• 51:09
  regular settings and stuff that will work. It'just when you go
• 51:12
  into something very sniche, then you might have to watch
• 51:15
  out.
• 51:16
  >> Skylar: It's the classic. and I meant to say this actually at the beginning when
• 51:18
  you introduce the first concept which was coming up with your
• 51:21
  theme in your setting. And I know every DM out there will always say
• 51:24
  steal, steal, steal, steal, steal. Go find
• 51:27
  content you enjoy and then just use it. I mean,
• 51:30
  unless it's copyright and you're trying to make a podcast, kind of like
• 51:33
  what we do or whatever the case, like you can do what
• 51:36
  you want. Disney'not going to call you up with a cease and
• 51:39
  desist letter and slap it down on
• 51:42
  your.
• 51:42
  >> Cameron: Yeah, and that's. Yeah,
• 51:45
  exactly. Take inspiration from things.
• 51:47
  >> Skylar: Take inspiration from things you love and your players love.
• 51:50
  >> Cameron: when as I near the start of the
• 51:52
  class then win is whenever your
• 51:55
  group feels like. This includes a lot
• 51:58
  of reasons. But honestly, if you ask me, anytime can be
• 52:01
  a good time for a one shot. That's my
• 52:04
  personal do have a bit of a bias.
• 52:05
  >> Skylar: You did say you love one shots at the beginning. Like
• 52:08
  but I do agree.
• 52:09
  >> Cameron: But like it's like I said to
• 52:12
  reiterate, like I said in my first start. Like
• 52:15
  these were all the different reasons of when you could do a
• 52:18
  one shot take. All those if any of them
• 52:20
  apply run.
• 52:22
  >> Skylar: They pretty much apply to any time.
• 52:23
  >> Cameron: Really. They do. Ye. That's the beauty of a one shot.
• 52:25
  >> Skylar: And like we said before, sometimes a one shot can just lead right
• 52:28
  into the long term session. There's nothing wrong with that.
• 52:31
  >> Cameron: Also, there's like hundreds of one shots online that
• 52:33
  you can find. Most of them kind of are behind paywalls, but they
• 52:36
  like cost like one bucar two bucks. So like if you aren't a person
• 52:39
  that like wants to make your own, there's plenty out there
• 52:42
  that you.
• 52:43
  >> Skylar: Plenty out there. Absolutely.
• 52:44
  >> Cameron: where this goes for the setting of your story, the where
• 52:47
  is the first and foremost thing. I recommend you figure out the
• 52:50
  setting. This will help you craft the story around the setting you want to
• 52:53
  dive into.
• 52:54
  >> Skylar: Sure.
• 52:54
  >> Cameron: The why. Why Not. That's my reason. Why not.
• 52:57
  >> Skylar: Nice.
• 52:58
  >> Cameron: The how. Hopefully the short class helped
• 53:01
  answer all of the how.
• 53:03
  >> Skylar: Wow.
• 53:04
  >> Cameron: Any questions?
• 53:06
  >> Skylar: did you know that you said why not? Ah,
• 53:08
  did. Did you know that why not is a Pokemon
• 53:12
  suspend?
• 53:16
  No. I mean honestly, I think that was a solid
• 53:19
  covering of just all the reasons why you should. All
• 53:22
  the reason or in an explanation of how. How to
• 53:24
  enact that one shot campaign. Which
• 53:27
  again, all the reason or. Yeah, all the reasons are
• 53:30
  for every reason. Do it. Try it.
• 53:33
  There's. There's plenty of reasons why. And then how is is
• 53:36
  exactly what.
• 53:37
  >> Cameron: We'Ve gone through here is also another
• 53:40
  pro since I've just been namely mostly pros.
• 53:42
  a one shot world is a lot smaller than a
• 53:45
  long term campaign world. So if you don't have
• 53:48
  the time but you want to dm, you don't have the time
• 53:51
  to DM a long term campaign. Like the time to create
• 53:54
  it. I mean like free time. But you
• 53:57
  can. But it's something you want to do.
• 53:59
  It'easier to find the time to
• 54:02
  make a one shot world because it does not take that long. And it'also
• 54:05
  like I said, theres a lot of resources online to help with with one shot. So
• 54:08
  that'll help make it faster than a long term world.
• 54:11
  Because long term world has a lot more to it. That's just the nature
• 54:14
  of it. Right. But short term it's a lot less to it,
• 54:17
  honestly.
• 54:17
  >> Skylar: And I'll go back to what I said before with like, your players will
• 54:20
  help you build it. And honestly, sometimes a one shot
• 54:23
  can work really well as that introduction into long term
• 54:26
  because you don't have to come up with all the world
• 54:29
  that's out there. Your players during the one shot will.
• 54:32
  >> Cameron: Give you prompts, especially some really creative players. Some
• 54:35
  really creative players will on a dime, name
• 54:38
  drop people, characters, people, places
• 54:41
  and things. They will name drop nouns like proper nouns,
• 54:44
  like big things that could be used in a long
• 54:47
  term campaign. And they'll just drop it on a dime. And if you weren't
• 54:50
  taking notes, you're like, oh shoot, that is could be something you very
• 54:52
  useful.
• 54:53
  >> Skylar: I want to go down to steamy mountains. The steamy
• 54:56
  mountains. That's where. That's where my character comes from.
• 54:58
  And's okay, you're like steamy mountains.
• 55:00
  >> Cameron: All right, I'll put it in Spring Mountain. The family
• 55:03
  runs a low qu.
• 55:04
  >> Skylar: Spring absolute like it. Now you're okay. So now there's
• 55:07
  a family. Okay, who's this family? Let's talk about that. You know, it's just
• 55:10
  giving you proms and that's why you should absolutely take good notes.
• 55:13
  >> Cameron: Y take notes. Yeah.
• 55:14
  >> Skylar: I'm very guilty of not doing.
• 55:16
  >> Cameron: I've started doing it. Yes. Because I found that it.
• 55:19
  If you don't for one shots, I don't typically take notes.
• 55:22
  >> Skylar: Right.
• 55:22
  >> Cameron: Unless if the one shot is designed in a world that's like part of.
• 55:25
  And that's another thing I't even mention here. But you could do one shots
• 55:28
  inside of your world. It's basically like a side
• 55:30
  quest in your long term campaigns world. It's another way, it's
• 55:33
  like. I don't want to say it, but
• 55:36
  it's like the beach episode anime,
• 55:39
  right? Like those. It's the side quest. one shot
• 55:42
  is the beach episode of your D and D campaign. But
• 55:45
  sometimes it's good. It's a way to character build
• 55:48
  in a different way. Because taking
• 55:51
  characters from this long term thing and putting them into a short
• 55:54
  term situation, it can be fun. It can create funny
• 55:57
  situations and stuff. And for the most part I think one
• 56:00
  shot should be more fun than serious. Y because long term
• 56:03
  is designed to be this more. They can have both fun in serious
• 56:06
  tones. But a one shot, if you go serious, then it could
• 56:09
  just become too drab and dark and stuff. So keep it fun.
• 56:12
  Like that's the idea. Keep it fun.
• 56:14
  >> Skylar: Even in our horror stuff that we've done in the past, we
• 56:17
  usually end.
• 56:17
  >> Cameron: Up laughing more than anything. Ye.
• 56:19
  >> Skylar: And I think your players are just going to grab a teacher. I don't know, maybe it's just
• 56:22
  us.
• 56:22
  >> Cameron: It could be our group. But some groups are a little more serious and
• 56:25
  that's fine for one shot and stuff. But like,
• 56:28
  I personally do think one shot should be a little more fun.
• 56:31
  Think of it too. Like a video game. Right? Like
• 56:34
  the side quests usually aren't as serious, but there are some
• 56:37
  side quests in video games that are pretty serious,
• 56:40
  a little dark and it's like, okay, well this is a harsh
• 56:43
  part of the world, but sometimes you need those
• 56:46
  moments. For the most part, I don't see.
• 56:48
  >> Skylar: Any like small like sit down and play it in an
• 56:51
  hour type game like video games that
• 56:54
  are overly serious or
• 56:57
  you don't have enough time to build up that tension.
• 56:59
  >> Cameron: No, I was meaning more like either. I was talking more like in
• 57:02
  a long term campaign. If you're doing a side
• 57:04
  quest, a one shot in a long term campaign, and the
• 57:07
  one shot is a serious tone. Yeah,
• 57:10
  that's because it's a one shot in the long term campaign. And you could
• 57:13
  be using that serious tone to kind of fuel the world
• 57:16
  of the long term. Oh, absolly. That's pretty cool. But if you're doing
• 57:19
  strictly a one shot with it contained within itself, then I
• 57:22
  recommend don't do serious because that'll be weird. It'll be just like,
• 57:25
  what a tone are we going for here? Like.
• 57:26
  >> Skylar: Right, right.
• 57:27
  >> Cameron: If it's a one shot in its own world, have fun.
• 57:29
  >> Skylar: Keep it fun. Yeah, keep it fun. Awesome. All right,
• 57:32
  with all of that being said first, of all, Cameron, thank you so much
• 57:35
  for sharing all Your incredible expertise on one shots and
• 57:38
  everything, all this research, all this, like the class notes
• 57:41
  and everything that you've done to help us all
• 57:44
  understand better how we can make one
• 57:47
  shots, how we should be running one shots, how we should
• 57:50
  be building those for our players, but also for
• 57:53
  ourselves to have a good time. So I think that's
• 57:56
  super beneficial information from
• 57:58
  Session Zero University. With that being
• 58:01
  said, before we end the episode, we do want to jump.
• 58:04
  >> Cameron: Into our O Y. I forgot about this.
• 58:06
  >> Skylar: You did.
• 58:07
  >> Cameron: I forgot about this.
• 58:08
  >> Skylar: Oh man.
• 58:25
  All right, so hello, Hello. Yes,
• 58:28
  welcome back. We are. so at the end of
• 58:31
  every Session Zero University episode, we're going to be doing what is called
• 58:34
  an intramural, which is sort of a game that, just a
• 58:37
  short, quick little fun game that we're going to do to kind
• 58:40
  of, a, entertain you, of course, the listener, and
• 58:42
  also B, to give you guys, maybe some ideas
• 58:45
  or maybe create something that will help
• 58:48
  to sort of help you create in a sense. and
• 58:51
  the one that we had planned for this, I thought was fitting, was called our
• 58:54
  Public Domain One Shot. And so the idea behind this is
• 58:57
  that, ah, I have here a massive
• 59:00
  list of various different things that have
• 59:03
  entered the public domain. I said that this was perfect one
• 59:05
  because it's all about one shots. We're going to be crafting a
• 59:08
  one shot using some of these characters and places and things.
• 59:12
  M and then the other side of it too is that every
• 59:14
  January in the United States, among other countries, it's just
• 59:17
  different, like number of years, something gets released
• 59:20
  or several things get released, usually multiple things,
• 59:23
  into the public domain. And this year I
• 59:26
  know we're celebrating Popeyes, Popeye. The big
• 59:29
  one is the big one who's going into the public domain. There's plenty
• 59:32
  of other stuff, some interesting music, some other film
• 59:35
  and such that's going in. But that's kind of one of the big ones. A lot of
• 59:38
  people are just waiting for cartoon characters. Ever since Winnie the
• 59:41
  Pooh, it's just been like what characters are going in
• 59:44
  because we want to use them for stuff. Mostly horror
• 59:47
  movies for some reason. with that being said,
• 59:50
  I've got this massive list of characters. So each
• 59:53
  of us are going to both, come up with our own one shot. So,
• 59:56
  ironically, this is modeled pretty well after what you came up
• 59:58
  with. So first one is characters. this
• 1:00:01
  one's mostly just because again, characters are kind of the
• 1:00:04
  interesting thing about the public domain. That's the
• 1:00:07
  thing everybody's kind of waiting for. For a lot of of people,
• 1:00:10
  the second element is places.
• 1:00:12
  So this is going to be the,
• 1:00:15
  sort of the locations that are inside of some of these
• 1:00:18
  pieces of media. And I went kind of broad with them.
• 1:00:20
  >> Cameron: Right.
• 1:00:21
  >> Skylar: It's just more of a concept. and then there
• 1:00:23
  is a threat or plot. This is the
• 1:00:26
  goal, like you talked about. this is
• 1:00:29
  just sort of something that happens inside of the story from
• 1:00:32
  these public domain pieces of media, in a broad
• 1:00:35
  sense, to use as kind of the big
• 1:00:38
  overarching goal.
• 1:00:39
  >> Cameron: It'the hook.
• 1:00:40
  >> Skylar: It's the hook. Yep, exactly. So, Cameron, I'll have
• 1:00:43
  you roll first for characters. there are
• 1:00:45
  39 different characters that I kind of summarize.
• 1:00:48
  There's a lot of characters out, but these are just kind of the key ones.
• 1:00:51
  so if you want to roll two D20s
• 1:00:54
  and if you roll. If you roll
• 1:00:57
  220.
• 1:00:59
  28.
• 1:01:01
  28. So you got. Oh,
• 1:01:04
  interesting. man, that one's almost too easy. King
• 1:01:06
  Arthur and Merlin and just anything
• 1:01:09
  from kind of King Arthurian legend,
• 1:01:13
  you can use. And that doesn't mean you have to use all of them. Like just, you can
• 1:01:16
  have aer that you want. Okay. Okay, perfect. All right, so for
• 1:01:19
  places.
• 1:01:19
  >> Cameron: Need a quick Google actually.
• 1:01:21
  >> Skylar: Yeah, that's totally fine. for places you'll roll another
• 1:01:24
  D20, you're looking for 14 or lower. Just
• 1:01:27
  because I was only able to kind of summarize about 14 different locations.
• 1:01:30
  >> Cameron: 14.
• 1:01:30
  >> Skylar: Yeah.
• 1:01:31
  >> Cameron: 11.
• 1:01:32
  >> Skylar: 11. So you're go going toa go. A desert
• 1:01:35
  island where an alleged treasure resigns.
• 1:01:39
  What a smile. Okay, okay.
• 1:01:42
  >> Cameron: Ah, that works perfectly with ideas.
• 1:01:45
  >> Skylar: Sounds good. And then threat or plotline?
• 1:01:48
  Kind of either. Or roll a D8 for me.
• 1:01:51
  This one, I've got eight. One, one.
• 1:01:53
  Oh, that's also what I got. Oh, man, I might have to
• 1:01:56
  reroll. I could rerol if you need me. Yeah, go ahead, Go ahead.
• 1:02:00
  >> Cameron: Four.
• 1:02:00
  >> Skylar: Four. the players are transported to a strange
• 1:02:03
  new world, but promised a way home if they can accomplish
• 1:02:06
  a special task. Did it just write
• 1:02:09
  itself?
• 1:02:10
  >> Cameron: Yep.
• 1:02:10
  >> Skylar: Oh, okay. What do you got?
• 1:02:12
  >> Cameron: So when you said King Arth Thepy anything from
• 1:02:15
  that world, immediately my brain think I'm
• 1:02:17
  not going to go obvious. So I went,
• 1:02:21
  Vivian, or
• 1:02:23
  Num is her other name. The lady of the
• 1:02:26
  Lakealibur.
• 1:02:28
  >> Skylar: Oay.
• 1:02:28
  >> Cameron: That was my thought. And so then when you said it's a
• 1:02:31
  desert island with an artifact or a relic on it.
• 1:02:34
  It'salibur.
• 1:02:35
  >> Skylar: Oay.
• 1:02:35
  >> Cameron: The characters are looking for excscout and they're looking
• 1:02:38
  for the lady of the Lake. Somewhere on this desert
• 1:02:41
  island is a
• 1:02:43
  oasis. And in the center of the oasis
• 1:02:46
  is Vivon with the scalibur
• 1:02:49
  oay. But the catch is to get there, they have
• 1:02:51
  to combat Monst, a monster or two that
• 1:02:54
  might be in the way. Maybe, escape
• 1:02:57
  some quicksand or something. It might be inside
• 1:03:00
  a temple, you know, something. But. But
• 1:03:03
  the duty of this is condensed on an island. You really don't need
• 1:03:06
  to put that much into it because they're kind of trapped there and stuff. But
• 1:03:09
  the instant they can get a scalibur, they're
• 1:03:12
  teleported back.
• 1:03:13
  >> Skylar: Okay, okay.
• 1:03:14
  >> Cameron: Quick little camp. Little one shot right there. But I could
• 1:03:17
  see a lot of fun things in it. And if you want to get
• 1:03:20
  even more creative, you could, teleport in other
• 1:03:23
  famous creatures and monsters from King
• 1:03:26
  Arthur's times. Maybe even have a dragt. Yeah,
• 1:03:29
  A pseudo dragon, right?
• 1:03:30
  >> Skylar: Or someone throw like a full ancient dragon.
• 1:03:33
  >> Cameron: But you have that like guarding the temple or something.
• 1:03:35
  >> Skylar: Okay, nice. Classic.
• 1:03:37
  >> Cameron: Very good, very good.
• 1:03:37
  >> Skylar: I like it. I got the Wonderful wizard
• 1:03:40
  of Oz for my characters that can be Dorothy,
• 1:03:43
  the Tin man, the coward.
• 1:03:44
  >> Cameron: I was thinking about that today, mind you, when we
• 1:03:47
  were talking about. Because we were texting today before
• 1:03:50
  we're doing this one shot, right? And I was just thinking, like,
• 1:03:53
  what's a fun world setting that you
• 1:03:56
  do one shots in or even a long term campaign? I was like, the
• 1:03:59
  wizard of Oz. Like, you know how many books,
• 1:04:02
  dude.
• 1:04:02
  >> Skylar: I just recently found out?
• 1:04:03
  >> Cameron: It's insane.
• 1:04:05
  >> Skylar: Like, there was one someone was referencing and they're like, oh, yeah, it's number
• 1:04:08
  23 in the series. And I'm like, excuse me,
• 1:04:10
  23, are you kidding me?
• 1:04:12
  >> Cameron: The world is crazy. It's so huge. I was
• 1:04:15
  like, you could run a long term campaign in that world
• 1:04:18
  and just have so much stuff you could
• 1:04:21
  just drop on people. It's insane.
• 1:04:24
  >> Skylar: Yeah, man. And then they've made a second
• 1:04:27
  movie because people talk about it a lot because there were like a
• 1:04:29
  weird group of people with rollerblades that are
• 1:04:32
  really creepy. And I've seen the clip a couple of times. I
• 1:04:35
  can't remember what they're called. and so, yeah, there's. There would
• 1:04:38
  be something there too if you wanted to do some
• 1:04:41
  research and you don't like reading as much. Read some summaries
• 1:04:44
  and then watch that. So, yeah, I got a, wonderful
• 1:04:47
  wizard of Oz for my characters. the places
• 1:04:50
  I'm getting is a mystical desert land with a
• 1:04:53
  city of 10th. So kind of like Aladdin Yah. and then
• 1:04:56
  my threat or plot is an ancient manuscript is
• 1:04:59
  discovered that would lead someone to an unexplored
• 1:05:01
  place. Journey, to the center of the Earth is kind of where that kind of came
• 1:05:04
  from. I'm imagining you've got a traveling merchant
• 1:05:07
  and he's kind of like a weird dude. He's like a collector of things.
• 1:05:10
  >> Cameron: Right.
• 1:05:10
  >> Skylar: And so he's collected. I would imagine
• 1:05:13
  he's probably one of the players. And then you have the three
• 1:05:16
  other players are the Tin man, the cowardly. Like
• 1:05:19
  he travels around the world. Right. He's not just
• 1:05:22
  limited to this sort of Arabic space
• 1:05:25
  country, whatever. But that's where he's at.
• 1:05:27
  >> Cameron: He's wandered into Oz.
• 1:05:28
  >> Skylar: Yes. Or, or he'snder he's wandered
• 1:05:31
  into like sort of an Aladdin style desert area.
• 1:05:34
  He finds a tablet like it's an
• 1:05:36
  ancient stone, like Egyptian hieroglyphic
• 1:05:39
  tablet. and he followed. He and the others kind
• 1:05:42
  of follow that to.
• 1:05:45
  It could be like a pyramid.
• 1:05:47
  >> Cameron: It could be.
• 1:05:47
  >> Skylar: Maybe that's a little too typical. It could be a sphinx.
• 1:05:50
  >> Cameron: Actually.
• 1:05:51
  >> Skylar: Sphinx would be really interesting. There's a. There's an opportunity there for
• 1:05:54
  like a.
• 1:05:54
  >> Cameron: Riddle and then to fig
• 1:05:57
  character based on their.
• 1:05:59
  >> Skylar: Yeah.
• 1:06:00
  >> Cameron: Courage, heart, brain. You know.
• 1:06:03
  >> Skylar: Now you're just the odd. That's just odds.
• 1:06:05
  >> Cameron: Yeah, that's.
• 1:06:05
  >> Skylar: Well, no, yeah, but you said Tin.
• 1:06:07
  >> Cameron: Man, lion, ye char.
• 1:06:08
  >> Skylar: I'm like that's their growth experience, the opportunity
• 1:06:11
  there. and then yeah, they get inside of this sort of like
• 1:06:14
  ancient thing again. With any one shot, I think it's gonna
• 1:06:17
  be prevalent that there's gonna be like a couple of encounters, maybe some
• 1:06:19
  smaller encounters along the way. They're gonna run into like some scarab be
• 1:06:22
  beetle, swarms, they might end up against
• 1:06:25
  some sort of got a bunch of jackals, you know, things like that. But yeah, at
• 1:06:28
  the end of it all, probably a mummy.
• 1:06:32
  Mummies are classic to this y.
• 1:06:35
  Which also the mummy, the original like
• 1:06:38
  book of the mummy is also in the. Yeah, so that works too.
• 1:06:40
  >> Cameron: All the.
• 1:06:41
  >> Skylar: Yeah. Like OG Monsters. Yeah.
• 1:06:44
  Frankenstein'monster and everything like that. So yeah. So
• 1:06:47
  anyway, yeah. that's public domain. M. One shot. So if you're
• 1:06:50
  looking for kind of an obscure source of inspiration.
• 1:06:53
  >> Cameron: Boom. We just gave you two. Yeah. We just gave you a bunch of. Yeah.
• 1:06:56
  >> Skylar: Or just the fact of like go check out what's in the public domain.
• 1:06:59
  Because you would be surprised
• 1:07:01
  at what's in the public domain. and there's a lot of good stuff in there that you
• 1:07:04
  can use.
• 1:07:05
  >> Cameron: To be fair, you don't need to do public domain if you're not recording.
• 1:07:08
  >> Skylar: That's also true.
• 1:07:09
  >> Cameron: You could just straight up do like a, Stranger Things
• 1:07:12
  inspired up. That's true. Straight up. Hunger
• 1:07:14
  Games inspired. One shot.
• 1:07:16
  >> Skylar: Like, nothing stopping you. Absolutely.
• 1:07:18
  >> Cameron: If you're recording it and trying to.
• 1:07:20
  >> Skylar: Make a profit, then you might want to go
• 1:07:23
  or, you know, again or make your own. If you're looking for, like,
• 1:07:25
  the O. Yeah, that's obviously. Yep. Absolutely.
• 1:07:28
  Yeah. And if you're looking for, like, visuals and stuff that you can use,
• 1:07:31
  public domain is definitely. Yeah. So, awesome. So
• 1:07:34
  thank you all and especially thank you, Professor
• 1:07:37
  Roger James Bittenboacher. Roger
• 1:07:40
  James Bittenbacher. Not to be confused with Orville
• 1:07:43
  Redenbacher.
• 1:07:44
  >> Cameron: Nope.
• 1:07:44
  >> Skylar: No relation.
• 1:07:45
  >> Cameron: No.
• 1:07:46
  >> Skylar: thank you for your expertise on one shots. I hope that those
• 1:07:49
  listening and of course myself, got a lot out
• 1:07:51
  of, this class. So once
• 1:07:54
  again, this has been Session Zero Heroes, and we'll see you guys next
• 1:07:57
  time.
• 1:07:58
  >> Skylar: Thank you so much for joining us for today's class.
• 1:08:01
  We hope you gained some new knowledge and ideas from our
• 1:08:04
  incredibly knowledgeable professors, which you can take with
• 1:08:07
  you to your table and implement into your games
• 1:08:10
  and sessions. If you enjoy what were developing here
• 1:08:12
  at Session Zero University, then be sure to check out our
• 1:08:15
  lessons in practice by checking out various
• 1:08:18
  actual play episodes. We have tested and
• 1:08:21
  recorded a variety of games, systems,
• 1:08:24
  stories and themes for your enjoyment, from
• 1:08:27
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• 1:08:30
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• 1:08:38
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• 1:09:01
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• 1:09:12
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• 1:09:14
  run by the Session Zero Heroes Podcast.