Session Zero University - Intramural One-Shots with Cameron Hoogendyk - Session Zero Heroes - A TTRPG Actual Play Podcast

Episode Transcript
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>> Skylar (00:15):
Welcome students to Session Zero
University. My name is Professor Rainier, one of the
many teachers here at the university. But for right
now, I am your orientation
representative. Here at scu, you will
find a variety of professors well versed in the realms
of tabletop role playing games, offering you

(00:35):
their insight on every facet of
TTRPG's. Perhaps you'd like to
take a homebrwing class with our Potions
professor or join in on a role playinging
class put on by our theater department. Be
sure to take all your required general education
classes like Character Creation 101,
Intro to World Building, and NPC

(00:58):
Voices for Beginners to help round out
your education. There are also plenty of electives
and intramural opportunities to add some fun and
diversity into your everyday schedule. So get
out there and learn. Whether you'hoping to
graduate with a degree in DMing or playing, it
matters not. There is always room to
grow at Session Zero University.

>> Cameron (01:24):
Welcome students to the
intramural One Shots class.
My name is Dr. Roger
James Beenbaka.
If this class doesnt sound familiar, then
you probably arent taking it. It should
probably leave now.

(01:50):
Ah, good. Theres still two of you left.
Now for the ones who stayed. This class will
be covering the purpose of One
Shots. The who, what,
when, where and why for
one shots. Hopefully by the end
of this quick class you'll have a better
understanding of how you can run a one shot for for

(02:13):
your regular RPG playing
groups. Before I.
I can't keep up with that ridiculous voice the whole time.

>> Skylar (02:22):
I was just going to double check and ask if you had said the
who, what when wearing wives of
TTRPG'Yeah.

>> Cameron (02:29):
No I not
why? Why four one shots? Yeah. Oh that's
why four. So before I dive
into anything, I want to state the main difference to one
shots and why I personally prefer them over a long
term campaign. Also, feel free to ask
questions at any time.

>> Skylar (02:48):
You got it.

>> Cameron (02:49):
Just insert. You can raise a hand, whatever. I don'taking care.
so I personally prefer One shots
over long term campaigns. To
me a one shot is a small contained story
where the beginning, middle and end are all within a short period of
time. Well, the campaign is a long term
where storylines and arc slowly build up and are

(03:09):
slow brew but in a good way. to me
I view a one shot as a movie and a long term campaign
as a TV show. So let's focus on the one
shot compared to a movie. I want to focus in on this idea
like a movie. We need to get our Whole story across from beginning
to end in one or two consecutive sessions. It's
like mainly the idea of a movie is all condensed into one

(03:29):
film. Sometimes a part one, part two. Like they're
starting to do now. But I'm not a fan of it, but they're starting to
do that now. like a movie, it is a short form
of story that'done well, can create an interesting world and can
engage the players for an amount of time until you hit the climax of
the story. It is up to the players then to make their
characters engaging and to have fun in the short term world

(03:50):
and to make the most of it in a quick time they have to play.
This means being able to create arcs for the characters that will show
growth. Important to note here though that these characters
don't need to complete lifelong goals or
anything of that sort, but rather they need to show
some form of growth, just like that of a movie character
shows growth in their own way. Usually positive growth, but

(04:10):
sometimes characters show negative growth,
which is still interesting and can make for a fun story.
But the idea is that there is some growth and usually a
one shot will force growth, whether'small
or big. But it isn't like you come in
with a big life changing goal that's probably
not going to be achieved in a one shot. But you could have a

(04:31):
big life changing goal and a one shot could make
your character move steps towards that.

>> Skylar (04:36):
Right, right.

>> Cameron (04:38):
that's why I prefer, and personally I prefer movies
over TV shows, but some people prefer TV shows versus movies.
But the thing is, the idea is a
one shot has a bigger story
in a smaller timefraame and because that, it feels like a
lot more happens. Yeah.

>> Skylar (04:55):
And I think it opens up the opportunity.

>> Cameron (04:57):
Right.

>> Skylar (04:57):
Like you can, you can sit down with players and say, hey, I mean
as far as right now goes, we're gonna have a one shot
and we're going to tell like a very specific
shortened story. But that doesn't mean that you can't
like take that character that achieved a little bit of growth
within that short story and maybe go into a long term
campaign or something.

>> Cameron (05:16):
Like I've seen people who've really enjoyed a one
shot character so much that when a new campaign is
starting up, they want to take that one shot character and grow them
more into a long term campaign. And that's
beautiful. You can even see that in modern media where they'll
have a character that was so, good. Great
example of this is recently with the

(05:36):
James Gunn, Suicide Squad.

>> Skylar (05:38):
Right.

>> Cameron (05:38):
Peacemaker was a character that he loved so much and
the audience loved so much that he then took that character
basically from a one shot and made a whole
show about that one character. Right. Giving his own
cast of sidekicks and all that stuff. And that's
the beauty of a one shot is you could take a really
well fleshed out character again from just a small

(05:58):
bit of time like a one shot and then give them that long term
campaign to really grow out the character that was so
interesting in that one shot to the long term.
And that's the other thing about one shots. It's not going to be
a complete character. But that's what makes it work is
you don't need a complete character. One shot can do
the building enough for the amount of time

(06:19):
it takes, right? Yeah. Because I mean when you
have a long term campaign, sure you want characters a little more
depth to them because the campaign is going to have more
depth to it. But we're going to be here
for a while. The one shot doesn't need that depth. And that kind of
makes the beauty of a new character
to be explored within the realm of a

(06:40):
small story of a one show.

>> Skylar (06:41):
Absolutely. It opens up a lot of opportunity to experiment with
different characters because it's only going to be here for a little while. It also
opens up the opportunity of man, I played that
character in the one shot. I kind of hated it and it just really
didn't fit my style. But it's a learning experience that I
gained that I wasn't stuck with for the next like
two years while we do this long term.

>> Cameron (07:01):
It's true. And yeah, also that's the thing. A lot of D and
D players are, RPG players in general have a bunch of
ideas, especially if they're long time players. A lot of ideas on
the back burner for like different idea joke characters,
whatever.

>> Skylar (07:13):
Yeahah.

>> Cameron (07:13):
and a one shot is a good way for them to really just get that
character out of the way. They're like, I know this character won't be really best
for a long term campaign, but I really want to try it. One
shot. Perfect. You can do it in one shot. Get that out
of your system. You're like, okay, either I had a lot of fun plan, I want to
do it again or that was I.

>> Skylar (07:30):
Got it system that got it out of my. Yeah, we did
it. We got it done. So that's a lot from A really
great overview from like the player standpoint when it comes to
one shots. What about for like the DMs out trying
to like build these.

>> Cameron (07:43):
Most of what I have is actually from a DMs point of view. Oh,
okay. So it's actually great. We got the player stuff really out of the way.
So first off, I wanted to give the purpose of a one shot.
Why run a one shot? There's a lot of
reasons. Actually it's more than just like a couple.
First one could be you want to fill for your regular
RPG sessions and some players could be missing.

(08:04):
Another could be you also use one shots to be
the filler in between campaigns. My other D and D
Group 9 Session 0 hereoes. But I have another one. We like to do this where
we have a long term campaign and then
in between the next one we'll have a series of like 1 or
231 shots ran by the
other players to give the next DM time to

(08:24):
finish their campaign. And that way it's also like a little
breadth of fresh. It's like a little breath of fresh
air. kind of like Adventure Zone. That's what
was Adventure Zone does that exact thing and it works
really well. My other group does that and it works
beautifully. It does the job of allowing you to try
those joke characters. Because we want to do joke characters

(08:44):
but then we don't want to do full joke characters in our campaigns
even though that group is very not serious. So we usually have somewhat joke
characters for all of us. But we go all out in the one
shot just so we can get out our system and then we can. It's
basically like a whale, right? Where you come up for
air but for most of the time you're under the water but you
need to come up for that air. And that's the beauty. One

(09:05):
shot. It's coming up for the air to allow that
refreshing and then you go back into another deep
campaign. Also I didn't put in parentheses for this
particular one. Congrats on actually
finishing a campaign. Not many groups can say they did
that. So the fact you are considering doing a one
Chevy team campaigns, you did something most groups
can't say they have.

>> Skylar (09:25):
That's true.

>> Cameron (09:26):
Shout out to whatever peoplecing that.

>> Skylar (09:29):
Yeah, absolutely. That's a lot of work.
A lot of commitment.

>> Cameron (09:33):
Third reason is to help with DM burnout.
I remember running the occasional one shot whenever I was
noticing our usual dm. I like how I'm talking in third
person here. It was you Sky. Yah. Because Skylar
is our normal dm. As you probably have noticed very
quickly on session zero Heroes, But I would notice
before we start recording Session Zero Heroes that sometimes I could

(09:54):
see the signs of burnout and the dm, because I
am basically the second most D in our group. And so
I could see it with Skylar. So I'd be like, hey, Skylar, take
like a couple weeks off. I'll run run shots.
So you can just de stress and
what you think about that?

>> Skylar (10:10):
Oh, yeah, no, it gives you more time to, like, collect your
thoughts. I think it's just one of those things of, like,
the constant ongoing. Like every week
I need to come up with where the storyline is going and
depending on what the players have successfully done.
And that's the thing too, is, like, if you've got players that really take
their time, it kind of goes both ways. If you got players that take
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
to have other ideas, but I can't even come up with new ideas until
you guys get past this stuff. Or there's the inverse
of they're speeding through everything. I come up with so fast
that I can't keep up with it and I need a break.

>> Cameron (10:46):
Yeah. And also another thing is
being stuck as that forever dm, you do kind of get
burned out just being stuck as that. So the one shot gives
that DM a chance to be that player, get out that. The
breath of fresh air. It's like the whale thing, but for the dm. The DM needs
that breath help. I've been underwater too long ago. Exactly.
a rather fun reason for doing A

(11:07):
rather fun reason for doing a one shot is a seasonal one shot,
which is, loads of fun. I know here at Session Zero Heroes,
we like to do a yearly one shot around Halloween. And this is
actually something we, as a group, we're doing even before Session
zero, where we always do one shot. A Halloween
themed one shot around Halloween. It's just a thing we've always
done and we just transferred it to Session Zero

(11:27):
Heroes. fun holiday themes, around a one
shot can just be a lot of fun. Halloween is the biggest one, of course,
because it's just RPGs and horror
or just go hand in hand.

>> Skylar (11:37):
Everybody wants to find that, like horror.

>> Cameron (11:39):
Also, like, for you, you also can do Christmas things. Our
big one. But I said you can even go creative. You can make a
F. St. Patty's Day one wherever they're trying to catch a
leprechaun or something. Or, I even said you could take
inspiration From Stranger Things, a popular TV show that had
a whole season based around fourth of July.
Like you can get creative with your seasons because there's a lot of
interesting seasons. There's also, it could be even fun

(12:02):
to explore a season if say your whole
group is American. Like we are. there are s so many
holidays that are foreign. Like foreign holidays that
we as Americans don't know much about. But if a DM
they a little digging, they could probably find an interesting
foreign holiday where the players not
only can explore this new holiday concept,

(12:22):
but they can explore it as characters fresh in a
story too. So it truly would be like
a new experience for a new holiday
and a new world. Andeah it could be really cool if you did
that.

>> Skylar (12:34):
It steps those players that have been playing and
probably have DM'at some point. Right? They're pretty
well versed in the monster manual and this, that and
then takes them out of like, oh, just another, you
know, D and D high fantasy. Whatever. We're gonna
run another one.

>> Cameron (12:50):
No, no.

>> Skylar (12:50):
This is something totally different. The world is gonna feel
different. The monsters are going to be totally different. You're not going to know what their
weaknesses are because do you guys know.

>> Cameron (12:59):
About the Yul Log celebration of Sweden? And they
go what? That's what we're running a session on
you. Okay.

>> Skylar (13:06):
They get an interesting.

>> Cameron (13:08):
You're like, so the Yul Log cat
gracefully sleeps. Also. This is all real. Just saying.
Anyways, Log what Cat Cates.

>> Skylar (13:16):
There's a cat?

>> Cameron (13:17):
Yes.

>> Skylar (13:17):
What is a Yule log?

>> Cameron (13:19):
it's a log. Anyways, a
personal favorite reason of mine for running a one shot
is to help get creative juices flowing. To help with the
creativity and practicing of improv for a
long term campaign. You could do this in
between campaigns. Like I said, you could even do this during campaigns.
To do this, I have my players show up expecting a one

(13:39):
shot. The catch is they won't know the setting
or their character. Beforehan I created a fun one
shot and then generated. I personally
do random generation, but you could generate sheets
however you want. But the idea is you are making them
as the dm, not the players. Then when the
players arrive, you give them randomly

(13:59):
hand out the character sheets. Kind of like in community when Abit
places on the papers and he was going to give them to them, but then they all
randomly took. That's exactly what's gonna happen with your players. They just
randomly take. I remember the last time I did this, I laid
five sheets down and I put a shape on the back of them. And
in the story I said there was five. They were basically
going to step into a like an

(14:20):
Avatar machine. Like from Avatar, the movie, James
Cameron movies O where they step into a machine, it's going to transfer them
into someone else. And so I said there was five machines with five
shapes on them and on the back of each character sheet I threw the shapes.
And so they said which shape they got into. And then when they
chose the shape I then gave them the character sheet and they flipped it over and
discovered their new character.

>> Skylar (14:39):
Did the shapes have some kind of correlation?

>> Cameron (14:40):
Absolutely not. I random it. But anyway,
it'easy visual for you. I also random the characters
generated as well. So it was pure random. But
anyways, the idea of doing that is it gets the
characters out of their comfort zone because it could force
your typical mage only player, to have to play a
fighter. And they have no choice. Right.

(15:00):
When you force people out of their comfort zone, it forces them to think
on the spot. And when you force people to think on the spot, it
creates. It makes them have to be more
creative. And that's not a bad
thing. No'not at all a great thing. It will help
them be a better player for
future games. Once you go back to that.

>> Skylar (15:20):
Campaign, it's kind of like what you end up getting.
And if anybody's ever had the opportunity, they probably
know what I'm. If everybody's ever done it, they know what I'm talking about. But if you have
the opportunity, I highly recommend. And it is like dming for
kids. And these kids have no preconceived
notions of anything. This is all so
new to them and the ability for them to come up with just

(15:40):
the craziest ideas during a session is
awesome. So yeah, I think that kind of goes along with that same idea
of and getting them out of their comfort zone and making them
experience everything new for the first.

>> Cameron (15:50):
And we even have we can speak from a spit
experience because we've done it a few times with our own group
outside recording. And we did one where Skyller was doing
a Halloween horror like Killer at a
camp thing. Oh ye. And we all had random characters and
it's still one of our favorite one shots we ever
ran.

>> Skylar (16:09):
Terrible in the was.

>> Cameron (16:11):
It was so bad. But it's created all four of
us made some iconic characters. But mind you,
these were four characters we crafted on the spot. When
we got the character sheets and flipped them over and looked at our
stats and our information'like okay, guess this is what
we're playing as on a spot. Created four unique characters
that were all hilarious and were somehow

(16:31):
very had a lot of depth to that they
did.

>> Skylar (16:35):
I think it was the beauty of it was just how people interpreted
the stats. I don't want to go too far
into it just because it was kind
of dark in a weird way. But yeah, just like looking at your
stats and seeing that your HP is ridiculously low in your
concentration.

>> Cameron (16:49):
You had one player who's h ###p
was their constitution was negative 3 and
they were a wizard. So they were level 3 and their
HP was 3 health because that's the minimum it
can be at level 3.

>> Skylar (17:03):
Needless to say, basically the character played
someone who was like sickly with a disease.

>> Cameron (17:09):
They were on deathbed and they were
sent to this camp as like their last. Like their.

>> Skylar (17:15):
They're like a make a wish.

>> Cameron (17:16):
Their a wish was to go to a camp before
D.

>> Skylar (17:21):
So terrible. But at the same time it was so
like intriguing of like this this kid who's like,
like it's not a character and normal pur.
It's not a character you would normally think of.

>> Cameron (17:32):
No.

>> Skylar (17:33):
You know, not to say that everybody's a min maxer but I mean
you try to play to the strengths of whatever class.

>> Cameron (17:38):
I would never have thought of playing a character that had
minimum HP Y.

>> Skylar (17:43):
VI that's like opposite of what they're going.

>> Cameron (17:44):
They're dying.

>> Skylar (17:45):
You're like, hey, my character could at least be
so am I healthy? But no, it was
pretty great. It was pretty great.

>> Cameron (17:52):
and my final reason for running a one shot is
to try a new RPG system. Say someone in the
group discovered a new RPG system and they really want to try it or they just
bought one. Skyar loves doing this.

>> Skylar (18:03):
I have a problem.

>> Cameron (18:04):
The thing is sometimes,
and it'the smart thing to do is you should
try out that system in a one shot before you
commit to a long term.

>> Skylar (18:14):
Campaign with like the sample rules that they post online.

>> Cameron (18:17):
Exactly. Before you commit to a long term campaign.
And after a couple sessions, everyone went in the groups like I hate this system. And
you're like, well, shoot, I just spent all this time crafting a long term
campaign and everyone hates the system. Yeah, one shot. Great
way to just get a feel on the system. If everyone in the
group'like heck ye, I love this system, then consider making a long
term campaign. But if everyone's just personal,
honestly, if everyone's just not feeling 10 out of

(18:40):
10 on the system, you probably shouldn't commit to it.
8 nines maybe if that's the group majority. But if
everyone's like it was good. Like that's
probably not something 5, 6 or lower.

>> Skylar (18:51):
Probably like is it worth it?

>> Cameron (18:53):
Yeah. And if one person really loved it but everyone's like still mid on
it, it's still probably not going to work's. A
system and everyone gets out of it. Like Dagger Har for example,
me, you and Jackson recorded us making characters and Dave
record making characters and all of us left that character making go.
That was so much fun. Yeah. And that was just from character creation. Like
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
okay, that's a system you want. But if you like you dip your feet and you're like
it's alght then yeah, avoid that. That's fine
to 100. One shot. Maybe one shot it again if you're
fine with it. But not long term campaign. But that's the beauty
of one shots. Yeah, it's a good way to dip your feet into a system
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
and then hop out, get out.

>> Skylar (19:38):
I mean and the beauty of it too is that if you're playing with,
I mean obviously if you're playing with friends that makes things a lot easier. But if you're
playing with people that have played a little bit of TTRPGs
throughout, they know like maybe I just didn't make a good
character or now that I see how the mechanics work, I
might invest my stats or
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
things differently to like set myself up for a little bit more
fun.

>> Cameron (20:05):
But that is what a one shot can do. Exactly. Try things out.

>> Skylar (20:08):
Absolutely. Absolutely.

>> Cameron (20:10):
Okay, so that's the end of wire on A
one.

>> Skylar (20:13):
Right.

>> Cameron (20:13):
So now I'm going to do it next. You're probably wondering how
you design a one shot.

>> Skylar (20:18):
See that's my biggest struggle is because I can't
just. I have such a hard time not building out this
massive story and I want, I desperately want
to run one shots better came. So teach
me what I'm doing.

>> Cameron (20:30):
I made, I don't want to say simple.

>> Skylar (20:33):
It's not.

>> Cameron (20:33):
It's a four step system
I made to hopefully
make how I. This is how I make one shots and I
make a lot of one shots. So this is how my four step system, how
I make a one shot. First think of a
setting. O every story needs a setting
and themes of what you're going for. Are you going for
spooky feeling for Halloween? Are you going for a dream

(20:56):
like situation almost like Alice in Wonderland or wizard of
Oz? Maybe you feel like doing a school type
situation with kids breaking free from the status norm
kind of story. You honestly can think of any in all types
of situations and or settings but find one
you are excited about digging into. This is my
caveat. This is probably the most important thing of
running a one shy as a dm. Figure out a setting

(21:19):
you love, you want to dig deeper
into. If you as the DM aren't doing a setting or
hitting on a story you aren't passionate about, then you're
going to deliver a so so story. And when you deliver a
soso story, the players are going to give back a so so playing
style. When they give back that, you'll end up with a
lukewarm session. But if you as a

(21:39):
DM love the story and you are into it and
passionate about, you will be excited and engaged the entire
time. When you're excited and engaged, players feed off of
this and they will be excited and engaged in what you're
telling them.
This is how you get them to explore your world. That is how you
grow your world and that'how you get them engrossed into
a story. Right?

>> Skylar (21:58):
Right. Because they want it, they want to experience
it and they want and they're going to help you build it.

>> Cameron (22:04):
And that'that's the thing you can start.

>> Skylar (22:06):
You don't have to build it.

>> Cameron (22:07):
All very simplistic.

>> Skylar (22:08):
Yes.

>> Cameron (22:09):
And then the players, how they explore, they will
create that world but they won't always just create the world, but
rather that's again, if you're passionate about it,
say they do something that you didn't plan for. If you're
passionate about it, you'll be able to think of something on the spot. O yeah. And
you'll be excited about something you made on the spot. Right. And if it's something you
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
a big person who loves that world and the player
asks a question, you prepare for it but then you're like oh, I remember this
obscure thing from the books that Iot really enjoyed. You
can bring that obscure thing into this world on a dime,
and then the players might find it just as cool as you do. And if not, whatever.
Right.

>> Skylar (22:48):
That requires you to really kind of immerse yourself and be willing
to immerse yourself. One of my favorite things that players
do, and this is how you know that you've got them in gross,
is when somebody suggests an idea that you
hadn't thought of before, and you're just sitting there as the DM
and you're like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That is actually
correct. Wow. Well, well done. You get to play it off as if
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.
And you can just. Yeah, you can absorb their ideas because that
gives them something that they're like.

>> Cameron (23:18):
I figured things out. And then it makes you even more excited because then you
see your players engaged and excited about the world that
you're excited about. It's almost like when you show a friend a
movie or a TV show that you love and you were seeing how much
they're loving it and asking questions and engaged in it, because
that makes you feel better about and more engaged to
it. And so it feeds off each other.

>> Skylar (23:37):
It really does. It really does.

>> Cameron (23:38):
That's the big thing. Find a setting you lovees. That's the
idea. Right? And sometimes you can craft your own setting that show
up. Like, I know I was talking about the new campaign I was
building. It's inspired by Bioshock and One
Piece, Two things I very much love. So I'm
passionate about it because I combine two things I love into my
own project. But it's taken from things, from
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
know it'be good because it's two things I love. Yes.

>> Skylar (24:06):
There are elements of Criminals, of Violin Numis that are actually inspired
straight from Cyberpunk 2077, which I
absolutely loved playing through every second of.
So, yeah, I totally get that. Also, just
to throw this out there, I'm actually playing Bioshock with Emily
right now.

>> Cameron (24:21):
I remember that.

>> Skylar (24:22):
So, yeah, she's intriguued. And she's hooked too, because she
was just infinite. the first, we're starting with the beginning.

>> Cameron (24:27):
Okay.

>> Skylar (24:27):
I might skip the second one just.

>> Cameron (24:29):
Because it's basically the same as the first.

>> Skylar (24:31):
Yeah, it's just new story, new character Side story happening.
Yeah, yeah.

>> Cameron (24:34):
But BioShock infinites, the one, story. Think
infin it's the better storyline.

>> Skylar (24:39):
Yeah. So yeah, no, I'm right there with you. But
yeah, she's definitely immersed.

>> Cameron (24:43):
So now we've crafted our setting.

>> Skylar (24:45):
Yes.

>> Cameron (24:45):
Right. So that's the first thing. Second team, time to fill this setting with
a storyline. It is up to you how you want to fill it. Whether
you start from the beginning and craft up until you hit your
climax. But personally I prefer
starting with whatever is the objective of the story and going
from there. Because in a long term campaign
you need an objective. But that objective will eventually

(25:06):
come. And sometimes you can kind of start with a
very vague beginning. Right. Like a fetch
quest and whatever and then grow from there based on how your senior players
are. Yeah. One shot. You don't have that option. You need to have
that objective right from the get go. Right. Because
at the end of the day a one shot is basically if you're playing a video game,
a one shot is basically a side quest.

>> Skylar (25:25):
Right.

>> Cameron (25:26):
And a side quest isn't just like, oh, you need do
it. Ah, you need to do this. Then you need to do this. Then you need to
do this. They. You need to do this. It doesn't do that. It's not
like a chain of events. It's one main event.

>> Skylar (25:37):
Right.

>> Cameron (25:37):
Right. And so when you crap, you have your setting. So
now you need that one main event. This could be
a big bad evil guy. That's the best classic way to do a one
shot. or it's a social enemy with a fight against the power of
the system. But it's like it's.
It's a minor thing in the big
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
heist heist. One shots are pretty simple.
It very easy. because it's like here's your goal. How
do you do the goal? The players plan, then they try it out.

>> Skylar (26:09):
You're here to steal a thing. Go steal the thing.

>> Cameron (26:12):
One. The simplest. A one shot.

>> Skylar (26:14):
Absolutely.

>> Cameron (26:14):
###Utely if you're doing a horror themed
best one shot I could give you here an abandoned
house. Send the players to go explore it. And they're a bunch of like
Scooby Doo gang teenagers.

>> Skylar (26:24):
Yeah.

>> Cameron (26:24):
That's one of the best one.

>> Skylar (26:26):
Exactly what we did for our last one.

>> Cameron (26:27):
I've done three of them. So it's literally
one the best one shots for like Halloween it's so much
fun. but whatever you craft for the
object or antagonist, because sometimes it might not be a person, it might be a
thing like a haunted house. Right.

>> Skylar (26:41):
Or like a to erupt volcano or.

>> Cameron (26:43):
A graveyard or an Alison
Wonderion esque situation where it's not really the
objective isn't stop something,
it's rather how do I get out?

>> Skylar (26:53):
Yeah. How do I get home? Yeah.

>> Cameron (26:54):
or like Wizard Oise. Right. so you have this,
you've set this up. you prioritize this first because
then you can set the stage for how the group can beat or escape
or do whatever, achieve the objective.
Then you need to design a way for the players to get through this story from
where you start. The main characters, need
to figure out the ending at

(27:14):
the start.

>> Skylar (27:15):
Right, Right.

>> Cameron (27:16):
If the characters don't know the ending at the start,
you're not going to have a one shot.

>> Skylar (27:21):
No.

>> Cameron (27:21):
It's going to be a long term.

>> Skylar (27:23):
You're about to go into a box.

>> Cameron (27:25):
That if you don't have the ending
right in front of the character's eyes, it's not a one shot,
simple as that.

>> Skylar (27:31):
They're going to go exploring.

>> Cameron (27:32):
It goes exploring and it creates a long time.

>> Skylar (27:34):
And I think that this step, this step two that you're talking about
is honestly where the whole like division between a one
shot and a full time or a long term campaign really kind.

>> Cameron (27:43):
Of comes into play. And that is why I'm establishing right
now.

>> Skylar (27:46):
Yes.

>> Cameron (27:47):
Have a goal. Set it right in front of your characters.
Say do this.

>> Skylar (27:51):
Yes.

>> Cameron (27:52):
It's railroading.

>> Skylar (27:53):
It is railroading, but not in a bad way.

>> Cameron (27:55):
But a one shot needs it.

>> Skylar (27:56):
Yes.

>> Cameron (27:57):
Because if you don't put a railroad in a one shot, they will
wander and it will take multiple sessions.

>> Skylar (28:02):
Right.

>> Cameron (28:02):
Okay.

>> Skylar (28:03):
It's important to like, establish that railroading in and of
itself isn't always a bad thing. Especially
in one shots. Sometimes even in long term campaigns, it's not a
bad thing. Like you got to get the players from point A to point B. Not
everything is a sandbox campaign. Yeah, we need like,
we're trying to make a story here. I'm not trying to force the story to
go any particular way. I just need you guys to, to like move towards

(28:23):
the story and not towards every little distraction.

>> Cameron (28:26):
Because then what I put after this, after I put this
important thing and in.

>> Skylar (28:30):
Have an ending.

>> Cameron (28:31):
Show the ending. Show the ending. Yes, that's the big thing. Show the
ending. Then after you have that, you have the
ending. You have the start, which is showing the ending.
Then after you get all those things, you fill
in, you add inside characters. You
add in, fill or fluff to important side details
like buildings, places and things. and then

(28:51):
these things will sometimes help guide
players. They might be a minor distraction, but make sure that minor
distraction is just that. It's just a look.
Ah, back to the story.

>> Skylar (29:01):
Good to knoweah.

>> Cameron (29:02):
Exactly. Little things to add to the world.
But doesn't lead. It's not. It'it's. It's a
sign on the side of a road, like a billboard.
But it's not a literal side road.

>> Skylar (29:13):
Yes.

>> Cameron (29:14):
That says come follow me down the side road.
And then at the end of that side road is a billboard. Don't
do that.

>> Skylar (29:20):
You got to tread super careful.

>> Cameron (29:21):
Don't do that. Just have it be on the side. If they're exploring
a building, if they're exploring a side room. Cool. They explore a
side room. Put maybe a one or thing, two things of
interest. But then don't put like a staircase to another room.
Right. And then that staircase to another room leads to another room. Unless
if that's heading towards your ending. Cool. Do that. Y. But if it's not, then what
are you doing? You're just creating more distraction.

>> Skylar (29:41):
More mini side quests.

>> Cameron (29:43):
More mini.

>> Skylar (29:43):
Yeah.

>> Cameron (29:44):
Because if you think of it like this, the group might break up, they
might separate. And then if you have the side quests that
are longer, like a path that's longer, then that means this
character is wandering away from the main story.
Well, the other characters are waiting for them at the main story.
And one of those characters might get bored and wander away from the
main story and. Yeah. No. Anything you can do to

(30:05):
keep the players contained within the self. And I would strongly
recommend, don't let people split up.
And if they split up, make sure they're in groups.
Because again, it's a one shot.

>> Skylar (30:16):
It's a really great, like, way to describe. This would be
literally the Scooby Doo gang.

>> Cameron (30:21):
Right.

>> Skylar (30:21):
Velma sees or, says, oh wait, I saw a
book about this in the library. She goes back to the library.
Scooby and Shaggy, they're all, you know.

>> Cameron (30:29):
And Fredys off eating Daphne.

>> Skylar (30:30):
They're all waiting. And then Shaggy and Scooby say, we're hungry. We're
going to go get food. So they head to the kitchen of the haunted house.

>> Cameron (30:37):
Whatever. Dm'running the Scooby Doo gang in
that world is probably pulling their hair out. I don't
know how he always gets it. Back to the end. But he always does.
So you know, that's true. I once did run a one shot where
all three characters. It was three characters.
All three characters. This is probably one of my greatest achievements in
the one sh O. I had all three characters

(30:57):
start at three different spots
and each one had three acts. And
at the fourth act they all met up at the same location
because they all were like detectives or had fallen their own
mystery for their own reason. Yeah. And they each had three
acts each. And their fourth. Their third act led them to
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
that all three of them are looking for in their own ways. Right. One
of my greatest things I've ever acc. That's wild.
It took a lot of work, a lot of planning.
I don't know how I did it, but it was one of the greatest things.
Dave or one of our local players, he played it with me. He probably
could tell you how cool. They probably felt really cool when they saw it when

(31:39):
I made it work like that.

>> Skylar (31:41):
and all of a sudden you're with other players and you're like, whoa.

>> Cameron (31:44):
And they probably. It's like they didn't see what I
was doing until the third act because the first
one gave them the end of the first act, gave
the player A, got to the end of act
three, got a location.
Player B got to the end of Act 3, got a
location and realized, wait a second,
it's the same location. Player A gu.

(32:06):
And then player C gets to their third
act and I give them like instead occasion. It's a
name. And they're like, ooh, that's something different. But then they get to
that name which led them to that location and they're like,
oh, shoot, all three of us here at the same time.
Boom. Fight the B.

>> Skylar (32:21):
Was this in person or.

>> Cameron (32:23):
Wow.

>> Skylar (32:24):
Wow. So even in person, they didn't see
that they were all coming together to the same. Wow, that is
crazy. That's cool.

>> Cameron (32:32):
and it was just a fun time. But important thing to note
here. Do not fill your world with too much
distraction.

>> Skylar (32:38):
Right.

>> Cameron (32:39):
One shot, make sure it's condensed and it
follows that path. Right. It's fine
having, like I said, the side billboards that they can look and
got, but make sure that they're still
walking down the street as they do.

>> Skylar (32:52):
Or just like minor opportunities to help them
towards that end of goal.

>> Cameron (32:56):
And also, if your world has the
chance that it could lead to distractions.
Put in an NPC that's really good at guiding them back down the
path. Right?

>> Skylar (33:06):
Sure.

>> Cameron (33:06):
That's always helpful. Especially if it's a fun NPC that's.

>> Skylar (33:09):
Not that hateable and that's its own
episode in another Ye.

>> Cameron (33:13):
It's true. That's true.

>> Skylar (33:14):
And I do have that noted down. Like truly, we have an
episode inevitably coming where we're going to talk about how to make
NPCs likeable and how to make them dislikel
unlikable.

>> Cameron (33:24):
The final thing and important thing to this second one
of the goal.

>> Skylar (33:28):
Whatever.

>> Cameron (33:29):
Ye. Whatever the second one is called. It's the whole goal. Whatever. And I said
the main goal. Main thing is make the goal achievable. Y this is my
final piece of advice Fiz. Make the goal within an arms
reach. That way the characters don't feel
deterred and it will keep them moving at a pace towards
it. If they can see it. Right.
They'll go towards it.

>> Skylar (33:47):
Right.

>> Cameron (33:47):
It's like the light. It's like a tunnel, right?

>> Skylar (33:50):
Yeah.

>> Cameron (33:50):
It's like driving. Yeah. It, it's. It's just how we. It's
as. How we as humans act. We go towards the things.
If we have a goal and we can see it, then we'll go towards it.
Right? Right. We can't see it, but we still have
that goal. We'll get there. But we might get distract.

>> Skylar (34:04):
We're hesitant.

>> Cameron (34:05):
Weant. Whatever. Right. But if you can see
it and that's what you want. Yeah. Like if you
wanted a hamburger but you're like I have to drive to the
store to get the hamburger. I have to do
XYZ to get the hamburger're like ah, might not get the
hamburger. Right.

>> Skylar (34:20):
But if you're at the store walking.

>> Cameron (34:21):
You'Re at the store or you're in the mall and you walk past
the Burger King you like, there's a hamburger right
there. I want a hamburger.

>> Skylar (34:29):
That's right.

>> Cameron (34:29):
I just turn and I get it. Right.

>> Skylar (34:32):
It's Burger King, not a sponsor.

>> Cameron (34:33):
Yeah, but thats the
idea. You have a story. Make sure they can always see
that End goal. Example. Good
example. Say its a big bad evil guy. Have
posters up as you see where theres a poster of
the big bad evil guy reminding them this is what youre after
or say Theyre walking by and they see a destroyed
house with a family crying in front of it and the player asks

(34:56):
who destroyed the house? Big bad evil guy.
Little reminders that say hey, this is what you're
Doing right, do this. Stop.

>> Skylar (35:05):
So it's not so much literal, like they're not literally seeing big bad
evil guy just down the block. No, it's more kind
of like the.

>> Cameron (35:11):
Concept reminder reminders that
says hey it'and also like it's also not that far obtainable.
Like at the very start you're like, hey, this is your goal. It's at
the end of town. It. Okay, it's at the end of town. That's where I need to go,
right? Yep. And it's like I'm into town. It's at the end. It's something
that's within attainable distance. Right.

>> Skylar (35:28):
Not like a 10 day journey that they're gonna have to.
Yeah.

>> Cameron (35:52):
Okay. So that's step one and step two.
So step one is theme
and and everything setting. Step two is
make an attainable goal.

>> Skylar (36:01):
Right.

>> Cameron (36:02):
Step three, after you have the setting story, you need to
find the system. I know some people have trouble crafting
a story because they first start with the system and then
try to fit a story into that
system. But that limits your creativity. Sure. And when you
world building from the start. I have found that if
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
thought to fix this. I save the choosing of an
RPG system after I have the story in place and I have
the goals created. Once I do that, I can go and
find a system that fits the story
setting and the goals.
Also when I say this, there are
a ton of RPG systems

(36:45):
O why? And there's so many
different kinds and there's so many different kinds within different
kinds. Right. So you have planning to choose from. So
don't worry about making the super outlandish
system because trust me when I say this, you can probably
find a system that someone has
made or created that's at least similar to your. And guess

(37:05):
what? There's even systems out there that are
designed for people to make a
setting for and then they just use this blanket
system to just fit for the story. A great one is the
cipher system which is designed that
you can take any setting, use their
basic cipher system guide, combine the

(37:25):
two to make your own system for
your own setting.

>> Skylar (37:29):
Gotcha System. setting
Agnostic TTRPG Basically yeah.

>> Cameron (37:35):
So it's great. So don't worry about that. But once you do
that, you'll find a system. Blah blah, blah.

>> Skylar (37:40):
And one thing that ill ll say too, the episode that we have
coming out in February, I actually do an interview with
Hartley Yosa and for session zero,
Heroes. Who's going to talk about the whole concept of
getting out of D and D and using other systems for
stuff exactly like this.

>> Cameron (37:56):
Again, like I said earlier, one shots are a great way to get out of
that system. System. Get out that stuck
system system lock.

>> Skylar (38:03):
Or whatever you want to call it.

>> Cameron (38:04):
Yeah. Okay, so now we've got setting
Y, we've got goals and main story Y.
And then we have a system you've picked. Final step is
to fill the story with your characters. This is done
via the session zero. Yes, session zero.

>> Skylar (38:18):
Heroeseah.
That'us.

>> Cameron (38:19):
this should be a quick story crafting session that takes less than half
an hour. You as the dm, give a quick world
theme overview. And it helps to if the world is something
that players are familiar. We're in Alice in Wonderland world.

>> Skylar (38:31):
Were in Oz, Avatar, the last airbe or when we did
benders and BRWs.

>> Cameron (38:34):
Exactly. The world theyre familiar. And if theyre not, give them a quick
like five minute run through. Like this is the
setting. Were in 1890s
France, whatever.

>> Skylar (38:44):
Because sometimes you get stuck in a situation where one of your players
didnt watch Avatar last Airbender and they keep talking about how they
didnt watch it.

>> Cameron (38:50):
The they only watched the movie.

>> Skylar (38:51):
They only watched the movie. Like who does thatir?

>> Cameron (38:54):
anyways, you give that quick, overview and then you help your players
create a quick character that fits into the world.
If it is more complicated system, then I recommend you
make pre make characters and let your characters focus more on
the system and learning to play than both
character creation and learning to play. Because that will take up more
time and they'eat your one shot time frame.

>> Skylar (39:15):
And you can always talk to them and be like, hey, you know, here's a general
concept. Is there anything that you can give me
that I can work on? If you like playing more of the
magic based characters, I can do something with that. If
you prefer to play a fighter based, you know, melee character, I can
do that. Like just give me a general concept and I'll make you a character based
on that.

>> Cameron (39:34):
Exactly. Or you could do what I recommended which is do
random characters or random characters.

>> Skylar (39:38):
Absolutely.

>> Cameron (39:39):
I do recommend though, if you do random characters, do it with
an easier system.

>> Skylar (39:43):
Okay.

>> Cameron (39:44):
Though I have thrown people and random characters into D and D and
they never played before. But D and D can kind of be
a simple system in its own way.
but anyways, I recommend also that in one
shot to have all the Players know each other in some
way. This helps a ton when characters want to rolepl play
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
no one knows each other, it can lead to a lot of awkward
movements. But if you have some characters who are say,
partners, friends or family members, even
enemies, it can lead to a lot of fun moments and also
will create reasons for characters to want to interact with other
characters. Think of it like this. You
will have fun if you go on vacation by yourself with

(40:27):
total strangers, but you will have an absolute
blast if you go on vacation with friends or family or
people you're close to.

>> Skylar (40:34):
Right.

>> Cameron (40:35):
Make the characters craft those connections in the one
shot Session zero. And I promise this will do
most of the heavy lifting for character interactions as
the story goes along. I can think of so
many one shots I personally played in or I've
DM'where I at
I in session zero.
I had them in some way. And Monst of the week does a great

(40:58):
job. O mon y it has power Powered.

>> Skylar (41:00):
By the apocalypse stuff in general.

>> Cameron (41:01):
They have like 15 options for like, I know this
character this way. I know this character this way. And there are
so many variety of reasons, but just giving those,
those connections to each of the characters, it makes
you have a reason to work with them.
Be, avoidance of them. But you still are like you're
watching them like everything and
one shots. This is an

(41:24):
own personal thing of mine, but
make two of the players related
somehow. Every time I've done
it, it's made the session so much fun
or so much better. It adds so much more depth to
it because just that fact of throwing bloodah into
the mix of two. I've known this distance
cousins. Like I once played a campaign where I

(41:47):
and I played a character and my other character was my
long lost brother. One of the best one shots I've ever
played. Because we were just like catching up
the whole time but willing to die for each other, even though we
hadn't seen each other in like 100 years.
Like doing that your re.

>> Skylar (42:03):
monster.

>> Cameron (42:03):
The week. The week. Music mayhem.

>> Skylar (42:05):
Dave and I were like. He was like my uncle, my character's
uncle. And it was just the most ridiculous, hilarious
thing ever.

>> Cameron (42:12):
Going to the next Monster of the week run by, Nate. Nate.

>> Skylar (42:15):
Yep.

>> Cameron (42:15):
Me and Connor were cousins.

>> Skylar (42:17):
Yes.

>> Cameron (42:17):
And we. That dynamic was so good as it was
so good. It could be any
type of blood relation. You could even be step siblings. You could be
stepfather, step son. Could Be hilarious in its own
way, but make
some group. Heck if it's a whole family, that could be even better. You
know, like disord. Hold on a second here.

>> Skylar (42:37):
That's an interesting.

>> Cameron (42:38):
Think of it like o, you're going on a trip or something and everyone's all
crammed into a van. Something like that.

>> Skylar (42:43):
Where have I heard that book? I feel like somebody's done that before. But all
things considered, that'd be a great monster of the week. Like you're a family
on like some kind of vacation and then the
monster.

>> Cameron (42:52):
Shows up or something. That would make.

>> Skylar (42:55):
But again that'd be hilarious.

>> Cameron (42:56):
And like. And that's the thing too. It's like you can say
weirder stuff with your friends and family. Right. But
if your character doesn't know on our character they're going to be distance
because that's how some people are with strangers.

>> Skylar (43:08):
Oh, absolutely.

>> Cameron (43:08):
But if you know that player, then you could probably say some
more stuff. You can pounce things off of them because they're your
relative and whatever. They know you and stuff.

>> Skylar (43:16):
Honestly, I feel like every TTRPG system
should add that element into it.

>> Cameron (43:21):
Like you a way to know each other from the somehow. The thing
is though, here's the thing. Long term
campaigns, you can get away without it
because the idea is that they shouldn't know each other
before and because the way they grow together is via
the long term campaign. That's true. Right. But in
one shot you don't have that time to grow together.

(43:41):
So re establishing that time to grow
together.

>> Skylar (43:45):
Right.

>> Cameron (43:46):
Is great. And also doesn't mean they can't grow together. It's
just, it's easier for them to get into role
play. Just start growing from that starting point.

>> Skylar (43:54):
Absolutely, absolutely.

>> Cameron (43:56):
So those are my four ways. Four big ones,
four big Ws too. so they were.

>> Skylar (44:01):
Create your setting, your theme, whatever.
get your main goal, your big bad,
your primary storyline that you're going to kind of accomplish
within the span of the one shot. And then number
three we're going to
is we're going to pick a system that fits the setting and
fits what we're trying to do. And then

(44:21):
four is we're gonna, we're.

>> Cameron (44:23):
Gonna have our players, we're gonna do our
session zero. I almost says heroes. I know. We're so used to it.
We rena have a session zero and then make the characters connected
in some way. Don't have them be strangers.

>> Skylar (44:34):
No.

>> Cameron (44:35):
Unless if it's specific for your one shot for them
to be strangers. But I highly suggest don't let them be
strangers. It just makes role playing s so much.

>> Skylar (44:43):
Yeah, it takes a lot long.

>> Cameron (44:44):
I mean, frin we. One of our best games we've ever were played
was when we pretended to be the. We were the three orcs who
were all related and we had our
gnome father who adopted all of us. And we were basically
the teenage. We were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but we
were Teenage Mutant Ninja Orcs.

>> Skylar (45:00):
It was just a ran up like. So there was a guy at the local
convention that we have here in town, the gaming convention.
And he had made his own system and so he
wanted like. We were like, oh yeah, we love, you know, trying new systems. And he
said it's really easy to teach. So he sat down and yeah, that
was just. It was the funniest thing in the world.

>> Cameron (45:17):
It also started like we were just trying to figure out what we were gonna play.
And then the three of us sit next to
each other. We like, hey, what are you playing? He said, I'm playing an orc.
And then Skyler like, oh, I picked orc too. And I went,
I picked orc too. We're like,
wait, are we all brothers then? And they just kind of.

>> Skylar (45:35):
And then the one other guy was like, and I picked a gnome.

>> Cameron (45:37):
We're like, yo, this we could just be the ninja turtles
and ``s it was so good.

>> Skylar (45:42):
And the beauty of it too was that one guy, Cody,
had never played, never played any RPG
ever before. And so yeah, that was his entire
immersion was. And he was so funny too. Y
He kind of led that to some extent. It was great.

>> Cameron (45:57):
It some of the best bits in it.

>> Skylar (45:58):
We got to get him on the show.

>> Cameron (46:00):
I really want to do a full long term campaign with him. I think
he'd be hilarious.

>> Skylar (46:03):
He's very ohay.

>> Cameron (46:05):
So now that I've covered everything that I feel is
important to make a good one shot, I want to break down the who
what when were White House basically.

>> Skylar (46:12):
Sure.

>> Cameron (46:12):
So first off, who this is for
the players of your normal RPG group.
You can even use one shots as a good way to introduce new players
to your regular group. Or to be a fun side quest and say a
friend is visiting from out of state and you want to include them in your
normal RPG nots. Yeah,
that's the who for this is for sure
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
enjoy the story in the setting and it's something you're passionate
about, then the excitement will carry over into the story you have made
for the players. I did put this note here. I forgot
to mention it in my other thing, but it's a very important note. make
sure that your story setting is something that the
group will care about. Right? If no one in your
group cares about historical financial situations,

(46:58):
then don't run a historical finance based
story, even if it's something you really
enjoy. Because if they don't care about it and
the slightest, they won't care about the story in the
slightest.

>> Skylar (47:09):
And now that was the only thing that I could think of that
I was going to ask you about. As far as like when you were talking
about you as the dm, choosing a setting and a theme and
everything that you love. Like, that's a one like minor
caveat to it that if your players are going to hate it, there's
just.

>> Cameron (47:25):
There is a great example of this in our group.
Skyar already knows what I'm talking about.
Skylar tries to force Pokemon
into all of his campaigns.
I, Cameron.

>> Skylar (47:41):
Say, you can be honest, have.

>> Cameron (47:43):
No, I don't hate it. I have zero
interest in Pokemon. Absolutely
none. The most Ive ve done for Pokemon was Pokemon
Go. And that's because it just felt like something that wasn't truly
Pokemon, but just something and like a collection game, I
guess. I don't know. But I wasn't even really that into. I
only played it because my friends played it. It was something to do while they
played.

>> Skylar (48:04):
But the funny thing is that, this is a little bit
of a spoiler for coin, but there is
an element inside Criminals of Isa numis
that you guys have not discovered yet that may or
may not have elements of Pokemon
attached to it. And it'not necessary.
It'not necessary for you guys to. But I put

(48:24):
it in there just in case somebody
had a slight interest and you're now the only.
Actually no, you and technically Quinn would be the only ones that
know anything about it because he has his whole.

>> Cameron (48:36):
I'm justnna tell you, I'm not really.

>> Skylar (48:37):
Oh yeah, no, I kind of figured it.

>> Cameron (48:39):
I'm just saying there's a great example.
If Skylar has a table full of camerans who
hate don't hate Pokem. They have zero interest in Pokemon. And
Skyller says, hey, I brought a Pokemon camp.
One shot to play sound like this, they'd be like
hooray. And then none of them would care.

>> Skylar (48:57):
Just, you know, the funny thing is, is that when I first discovered
Dungeons like just TTRPGs s in general for the most part. In
college that was the like original thing that
I tried playing. All we did
was session zero. We made our characters.
He showed us how Pokemon worked. It was
excessively complicated. Like even today
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
Pokemon. And I'm looking at it and I'm like, I just don't
care. Make it simple. Have a monster. If you ever
watch, and not a sponsor, not affiliated with us
or anything. If you ever watch Node Andod
de again, pretty popular YouTube channel, they did
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.
And it's stupid simple. They literally
just caught D and D monsters for the most part. There was a little
bit of Pokemon that were mixed in. Like one guy references
Charmander. I don't know if he ever actually catches a Charmander. It's
irrelevant. Anyway, they catch D and D monsters and then
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
the world are we not doing this? This is all completely irrelevant. I
just want to establish ironically
Pokemon D and D is kind of what got me into D and
D and I've just never been able to get people into it.

>> Cameron (50:14):
This is also irrelevant, but I'm
doing a long term
text based RPG
system with some friends online and Skyar's one of them. Oh,
Skyar's character is forcing me to run a
D Pomon. He's
me run a Pokemon themed
campaign for him. It is not a Pokemon

(50:36):
themed campaign. And he's make east turning it
into.

>> Skylar (50:39):
Against my will captured a creature
and I'm planning on capturing more and
having them battle for me. And now you're trapped. You have
to do this the way I want it.

>> Cameron (50:51):
Y. I'll just kill your character off
and Jo. I'm joking. okay.
So that was the caveat. The
what? The what?

>> Skylar (51:00):
Yes, the what.

>> Cameron (51:00):
It was make a good one shot of something you care about and also
make sure that the the group will care about it. As for the most
part doing over the top generic things with
regular settings and stuff that will work. It'just when you go
into something very sniche, then you might have to watch
out.

>> Skylar (51:16):
It's the classic. and I meant to say this actually at the beginning when
you introduce the first concept which was coming up with your
theme in your setting. And I know every DM out there will always say
steal, steal, steal, steal, steal. Go find
content you enjoy and then just use it. I mean,
unless it's copyright and you're trying to make a podcast, kind of like
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
desist letter and slap it down on
your.

>> Cameron (51:42):
Yeah, and that's. Yeah,
exactly. Take inspiration from things.

>> Skylar (51:47):
Take inspiration from things you love and your players love.

>> Cameron (51:50):
when as I near the start of the
class then win is whenever your
group feels like. This includes a lot
of reasons. But honestly, if you ask me, anytime can be
a good time for a one shot. That's my
personal do have a bit of a bias.

>> Skylar (52:05):
You did say you love one shots at the beginning. Like
but I do agree.

>> Cameron (52:09):
But like it's like I said to
reiterate, like I said in my first start. Like
these were all the different reasons of when you could do a
one shot take. All those if any of them
apply run.

>> Skylar (52:22):
They pretty much apply to any time.

>> Cameron (52:23):
Really. They do. Ye. That's the beauty of a one shot.

>> Skylar (52:25):
And like we said before, sometimes a one shot can just lead right
into the long term session. There's nothing wrong with that.

>> Cameron (52:31):
Also, there's like hundreds of one shots online that
you can find. Most of them kind of are behind paywalls, but they
like cost like one bucar two bucks. So like if you aren't a person
that like wants to make your own, there's plenty out there
that you.

>> Skylar (52:43):
Plenty out there. Absolutely.

>> Cameron (52:44):
where this goes for the setting of your story, the where
is the first and foremost thing. I recommend you figure out the
setting. This will help you craft the story around the setting you want to
dive into.

>> Skylar (52:54):
Sure.

>> Cameron (52:54):
The why. Why Not. That's my reason. Why not.

>> Skylar (52:57):
Nice.

>> Cameron (52:58):
The how. Hopefully the short class helped
answer all of the how.

>> Skylar (53:03):
Wow.

>> Cameron (53:04):
Any questions?

>> Skylar (53:06):
did you know that you said why not? Ah,
did. Did you know that why not is a Pokemon
suspend?
No. I mean honestly, I think that was a solid
covering of just all the reasons why you should. All
the reason or in an explanation of how. How to
enact that one shot campaign. Which

(53:27):
again, all the reason or. Yeah, all the reasons are
for every reason. Do it. Try it.
There's. There's plenty of reasons why. And then how is is
exactly what.

>> Cameron (53:37):
We'Ve gone through here is also another
pro since I've just been namely mostly pros.
a one shot world is a lot smaller than a
long term campaign world. So if you don't have
the time but you want to dm, you don't have the time
to DM a long term campaign. Like the time to create
it. I mean like free time. But you

(53:57):
can. But it's something you want to do.
It'easier to find the time to
make a one shot world because it does not take that long. And it'also
like I said, theres a lot of resources online to help with with one shot. So
that'll help make it faster than a long term world.
Because long term world has a lot more to it. That's just the nature
of it. Right. But short term it's a lot less to it,
honestly.

>> Skylar (54:17):
And I'll go back to what I said before with like, your players will
help you build it. And honestly, sometimes a one shot
can work really well as that introduction into long term
because you don't have to come up with all the world
that's out there. Your players during the one shot will.

>> Cameron (54:32):
Give you prompts, especially some really creative players. Some
really creative players will on a dime, name
drop people, characters, people, places
and things. They will name drop nouns like proper nouns,
like big things that could be used in a long
term campaign. And they'll just drop it on a dime. And if you weren't
taking notes, you're like, oh shoot, that is could be something you very

(54:52):
useful.

>> Skylar (54:53):
I want to go down to steamy mountains. The steamy
mountains. That's where. That's where my character comes from.
And's okay, you're like steamy mountains.

>> Cameron (55:00):
All right, I'll put it in Spring Mountain. The family
runs a low qu.

>> Skylar (55:04):
Spring absolute like it. Now you're okay. So now there's
a family. Okay, who's this family? Let's talk about that. You know, it's just
giving you proms and that's why you should absolutely take good notes.

>> Cameron (55:13):
Y take notes. Yeah.

>> Skylar (55:14):
I'm very guilty of not doing.

>> Cameron (55:16):
I've started doing it. Yes. Because I found that it.
If you don't for one shots, I don't typically take notes.

>> Skylar (55:22):
Right.

>> Cameron (55:22):
Unless if the one shot is designed in a world that's like part of.
And that's another thing I't even mention here. But you could do one shots
inside of your world. It's basically like a side
quest in your long term campaigns world. It's another way, it's
like. I don't want to say it, but
it's like the beach episode anime,
right? Like those. It's the side quest. one shot

(55:42):
is the beach episode of your D and D campaign. But
sometimes it's good. It's a way to character build
in a different way. Because taking
characters from this long term thing and putting them into a short
term situation, it can be fun. It can create funny
situations and stuff. And for the most part I think one
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
tones. But a one shot, if you go serious, then it could
just become too drab and dark and stuff. So keep it fun.
Like that's the idea. Keep it fun.

>> Skylar (56:14):
Even in our horror stuff that we've done in the past, we
usually end.

>> Cameron (56:17):
Up laughing more than anything. Ye.

>> Skylar (56:19):
And I think your players are just going to grab a teacher. I don't know, maybe it's just
us.

>> Cameron (56:22):
It could be our group. But some groups are a little more serious and
that's fine for one shot and stuff. But like,
I personally do think one shot should be a little more fun.
Think of it too. Like a video game. Right? Like
the side quests usually aren't as serious, but there are some
side quests in video games that are pretty serious,
a little dark and it's like, okay, well this is a harsh

(56:43):
part of the world, but sometimes you need those
moments. For the most part, I don't see.

>> Skylar (56:48):
Any like small like sit down and play it in an
hour type game like video games that
are overly serious or
you don't have enough time to build up that tension.

>> Cameron (56:59):
No, I was meaning more like either. I was talking more like in
a long term campaign. If you're doing a side
quest, a one shot in a long term campaign, and the
one shot is a serious tone. Yeah,
that's because it's a one shot in the long term campaign. And you could
be using that serious tone to kind of fuel the world
of the long term. Oh, absolly. That's pretty cool. But if you're doing
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,
what a tone are we going for here? Like.

>> Skylar (57:26):
Right, right.

>> Cameron (57:27):
If it's a one shot in its own world, have fun.

>> Skylar (57:29):
Keep it fun. Yeah, keep it fun. Awesome. All right,
with all of that being said first, of all, Cameron, thank you so much
for sharing all Your incredible expertise on one shots and
everything, all this research, all this, like the class notes
and everything that you've done to help us all
understand better how we can make one
shots, how we should be running one shots, how we should

(57:50):
be building those for our players, but also for
ourselves to have a good time. So I think that's
super beneficial information from
Session Zero University. With that being
said, before we end the episode, we do want to jump.

>> Cameron (58:04):
Into our O Y. I forgot about this.

>> Skylar (58:06):
You did.

>> Cameron (58:07):
I forgot about this.

>> Skylar (58:08):
Oh man.
All right, so hello, Hello. Yes,
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
an intramural, which is sort of a game that, just a
short, quick little fun game that we're going to do to kind
of, a, entertain you, of course, the listener, and
also B, to give you guys, maybe some ideas
or maybe create something that will help
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
Public Domain One Shot. And so the idea behind this is
that, ah, I have here a massive
list of various different things that have
entered the public domain. I said that this was perfect one
because it's all about one shots. We're going to be crafting a
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
January in the United States, among other countries, it's just
different, like number of years, something gets released
or several things get released, usually multiple things,
into the public domain. And this year I
know we're celebrating Popeyes, Popeye. The big
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
and such that's going in. But that's kind of one of the big ones. A lot of
people are just waiting for cartoon characters. Ever since Winnie the
Pooh, it's just been like what characters are going in
because we want to use them for stuff. Mostly horror
movies for some reason. with that being said,
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,
ironically, this is modeled pretty well after what you came up
with. So first one is characters. this
one's mostly just because again, characters are kind of the
interesting thing about the public domain. That's the
thing everybody's kind of waiting for. For a lot of of people,
the second element is places.
So this is going to be the,

(01:00:15):
sort of the locations that are inside of some of these
pieces of media. And I went kind of broad with them.

>> Cameron (01:00:20):
Right.

>> Skylar (01:00:21):
It's just more of a concept. and then there
is a threat or plot. This is the
goal, like you talked about. this is
just sort of something that happens inside of the story from
these public domain pieces of media, in a broad
sense, to use as kind of the big
overarching goal.

>> Cameron (01:00:39):
It'the hook.

>> Skylar (01:00:40):
It's the hook. Yep, exactly. So, Cameron, I'll have
you roll first for characters. there are
39 different characters that I kind of summarize.
There's a lot of characters out, but these are just kind of the key ones.
so if you want to roll two D20s
and if you roll. If you roll
220.
28.

(01:01:01):
28. So you got. Oh,
interesting. man, that one's almost too easy. King
Arthur and Merlin and just anything
from kind of King Arthurian legend,
you can use. And that doesn't mean you have to use all of them. Like just, you can
have aer that you want. Okay. Okay, perfect. All right, so for
places.

>> Cameron (01:01:19):
Need a quick Google actually.

>> Skylar (01:01:21):
Yeah, that's totally fine. for places you'll roll another
D20, you're looking for 14 or lower. Just
because I was only able to kind of summarize about 14 different locations.

>> Cameron (01:01:30):
14.

>> Skylar (01:01:30):
Yeah.

>> Cameron (01:01:31):
11.

>> Skylar (01:01:32):
11. So you're go going toa go. A desert
island where an alleged treasure resigns.
What a smile. Okay, okay.

>> Cameron (01:01:42):
Ah, that works perfectly with ideas.

>> Skylar (01:01:45):
Sounds good. And then threat or plotline?
Kind of either. Or roll a D8 for me.
This one, I've got eight. One, one.
Oh, that's also what I got. Oh, man, I might have to
reroll. I could rerol if you need me. Yeah, go ahead, Go ahead.

>> Cameron (01:02:00):
Four.

>> Skylar (01:02:00):
Four. the players are transported to a strange
new world, but promised a way home if they can accomplish
a special task. Did it just write
itself?

>> Cameron (01:02:10):
Yep.

>> Skylar (01:02:10):
Oh, okay. What do you got?

>> Cameron (01:02:12):
So when you said King Arth Thepy anything from
that world, immediately my brain think I'm
not going to go obvious. So I went,
Vivian, or
Num is her other name. The lady of the
Lakealibur.

>> Skylar (01:02:28):
Oay.

>> Cameron (01:02:28):
That was my thought. And so then when you said it's a
desert island with an artifact or a relic on it.
It'salibur.

>> Skylar (01:02:35):
Oay.

>> Cameron (01:02:35):
The characters are looking for excscout and they're looking
for the lady of the Lake. Somewhere on this desert
island is a
oasis. And in the center of the oasis
is Vivon with the scalibur
oay. But the catch is to get there, they have
to combat Monst, a monster or two that
might be in the way. Maybe, escape

(01:02:57):
some quicksand or something. It might be inside
a temple, you know, something. But. But
the duty of this is condensed on an island. You really don't need
to put that much into it because they're kind of trapped there and stuff. But
the instant they can get a scalibur, they're
teleported back.

>> Skylar (01:03:13):
Okay, okay.

>> Cameron (01:03:14):
Quick little camp. Little one shot right there. But I could
see a lot of fun things in it. And if you want to get
even more creative, you could, teleport in other
famous creatures and monsters from King
Arthur's times. Maybe even have a dragt. Yeah,
A pseudo dragon, right?

>> Skylar (01:03:30):
Or someone throw like a full ancient dragon.

>> Cameron (01:03:33):
But you have that like guarding the temple or something.

>> Skylar (01:03:35):
Okay, nice. Classic.

>> Cameron (01:03:37):
Very good, very good.

>> Skylar (01:03:37):
I like it. I got the Wonderful wizard
of Oz for my characters that can be Dorothy,
the Tin man, the coward.

>> Cameron (01:03:44):
I was thinking about that today, mind you, when we
were talking about. Because we were texting today before
we're doing this one shot, right? And I was just thinking, like,
what's a fun world setting that you
do one shots in or even a long term campaign? I was like, the
wizard of Oz. Like, you know how many books,
dude.

>> Skylar (01:04:02):
I just recently found out?

>> Cameron (01:04:03):
It's insane.

>> Skylar (01:04:05):
Like, there was one someone was referencing and they're like, oh, yeah, it's number
23 in the series. And I'm like, excuse me,
23, are you kidding me?

>> Cameron (01:04:12):
The world is crazy. It's so huge. I was
like, you could run a long term campaign in that world
and just have so much stuff you could
just drop on people. It's insane.

>> Skylar (01:04:24):
Yeah, man. And then they've made a second
movie because people talk about it a lot because there were like a
weird group of people with rollerblades that are
really creepy. And I've seen the clip a couple of times. I
can't remember what they're called. and so, yeah, there's. There would
be something there too if you wanted to do some
research and you don't like reading as much. Read some summaries

(01:04:44):
and then watch that. So, yeah, I got a, wonderful
wizard of Oz for my characters. the places
I'm getting is a mystical desert land with a
city of 10th. So kind of like Aladdin Yah. and then
my threat or plot is an ancient manuscript is
discovered that would lead someone to an unexplored
place. Journey, to the center of the Earth is kind of where that kind of came

(01:05:04):
from. I'm imagining you've got a traveling merchant
and he's kind of like a weird dude. He's like a collector of things.

>> Cameron (01:05:10):
Right.

>> Skylar (01:05:10):
And so he's collected. I would imagine
he's probably one of the players. And then you have the three
other players are the Tin man, the cowardly. Like
he travels around the world. Right. He's not just
limited to this sort of Arabic space
country, whatever. But that's where he's at.

>> Cameron (01:05:27):
He's wandered into Oz.

>> Skylar (01:05:28):
Yes. Or, or he'snder he's wandered
into like sort of an Aladdin style desert area.
He finds a tablet like it's an
ancient stone, like Egyptian hieroglyphic
tablet. and he followed. He and the others kind
of follow that to.
It could be like a pyramid.

>> Cameron (01:05:47):
It could be.

>> Skylar (01:05:47):
Maybe that's a little too typical. It could be a sphinx.

>> Cameron (01:05:50):
Actually.

>> Skylar (01:05:51):
Sphinx would be really interesting. There's a. There's an opportunity there for
like a.

>> Cameron (01:05:54):
Riddle and then to fig
character based on their.

>> Skylar (01:05:59):
Yeah.

>> Cameron (01:06:00):
Courage, heart, brain. You know.

>> Skylar (01:06:03):
Now you're just the odd. That's just odds.

>> Cameron (01:06:05):
Yeah, that's.

>> Skylar (01:06:05):
Well, no, yeah, but you said Tin.

>> Cameron (01:06:07):
Man, lion, ye char.

>> Skylar (01:06:08):
I'm like that's their growth experience, the opportunity
there. and then yeah, they get inside of this sort of like
ancient thing again. With any one shot, I think it's gonna
be prevalent that there's gonna be like a couple of encounters, maybe some
smaller encounters along the way. They're gonna run into like some scarab be
beetle, swarms, they might end up against
some sort of got a bunch of jackals, you know, things like that. But yeah, at

(01:06:28):
the end of it all, probably a mummy.
Mummies are classic to this y.
Which also the mummy, the original like
book of the mummy is also in the. Yeah, so that works too.

>> Cameron (01:06:40):
All the.

>> Skylar (01:06:41):
Yeah. Like OG Monsters. Yeah.
Frankenstein'monster and everything like that. So yeah. So
anyway, yeah. that's public domain. M. One shot. So if you're
looking for kind of an obscure source of inspiration.

>> Cameron (01:06:53):
Boom. We just gave you two. Yeah. We just gave you a bunch of. Yeah.

>> Skylar (01:06:56):
Or just the fact of like go check out what's in the public domain.
Because you would be surprised
at what's in the public domain. and there's a lot of good stuff in there that you
can use.

>> Cameron (01:07:05):
To be fair, you don't need to do public domain if you're not recording.

>> Skylar (01:07:08):
That's also true.

>> Cameron (01:07:09):
You could just straight up do like a, Stranger Things
inspired up. That's true. Straight up. Hunger
Games inspired. One shot.

>> Skylar (01:07:16):
Like, nothing stopping you. Absolutely.

>> Cameron (01:07:18):
If you're recording it and trying to.

>> Skylar (01:07:20):
Make a profit, then you might want to go
or, you know, again or make your own. If you're looking for, like,
the O. Yeah, that's obviously. Yep. Absolutely.
Yeah. And if you're looking for, like, visuals and stuff that you can use,
public domain is definitely. Yeah. So, awesome. So
thank you all and especially thank you, Professor
Roger James Bittenboacher. Roger

(01:07:40):
James Bittenbacher. Not to be confused with Orville
Redenbacher.

>> Cameron (01:07:44):
Nope.

>> Skylar (01:07:44):
No relation.

>> Cameron (01:07:45):
No.

>> Skylar (01:07:46):
thank you for your expertise on one shots. I hope that those
listening and of course myself, got a lot out
of, this class. So once
again, this has been Session Zero Heroes, and we'll see you guys next
time.
Thank you so much for joining us for today's class.
We hope you gained some new knowledge and ideas from our
incredibly knowledgeable professors, which you can take with

(01:08:07):
you to your table and implement into your games
and sessions. If you enjoy what were developing here
at Session Zero University, then be sure to check out our
lessons in practice by checking out various
actual play episodes. We have tested and
recorded a variety of games, systems,
stories and themes for your enjoyment, from

(01:08:27):
Dungeons and Dragons to Powered by the Apocalypse to
Kids on Bikes and more. Be sure to follow and
subscribe to the Session Zero Heroes podcast so you
don't miss out on any of our future TTRPG
content. Our show is available everywhere. Podcasts can
be found from Spotify to Apple podcast to
YouTube, so there are plenty of places that you can follow and
listen from. We encourage you to check us out on social media

(01:08:50):
as well. Whether you're prevalent on Facebook,
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(01:09:12):
next class at Session Zero University,
run by the Session Zero Heroes Podcast.

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Session Zero University - Intramural One-Shots with Cameron Hoogendyk

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Session Zero University - Intramural One-Shots with Cameron Hoogendyk