The Session Template: The Basic Concept

This is the second post on how I use my template to generate my adventure one shots. To read the first, click here.

In some ways, deciding to run a one-shot is the easy part. It will be fun, right? You get to introduce people to a new system. You'll exercise your creative muscles to unleash horror on an unsuspecting party!

Insert evil laugh here.

But here's the first and biggest hurdle: coming up with an idea.

It can't be any idea. It had to be one that's exciting and stimulating. It should capture your imagination. And it should be interesting enough to attract random convention goers to your table. After all, they have a whole cornucopia of games to choose from.

The good news is that originality isn't far away. We can find ideas almost anywhere. I have a few places I like looking for ideas.

The first is the news headlines. There are always a few odd news stories out there. As an example, here are a few headlines, complete with story seeds:

• Italian Bank Robbers Wear Trump Masks During Heists
• A group of highway robbers use an enchantment to disguise themselves with the face of the mayor.
• Honeybee Festival buzzes with pollinator proponents
• At a bee festival, a mead maker poisons his brew to seek revenge.
• Trove of Nazi Memorabilia Discovered in Secret Room in Argentina
• An old man dies, leaving behind a mysterious treasure trove bearing the mark of a lost people.
• Stolen brain of St. John Bosco found in kettle 
• Thieves steal  the reliquary holding brain samples of a powerful magi. They want  to brew a magical elixir.
• A Strange Type of Anthrax Is Killing Chimpanzees
• In a rain forest kingdom, a mysterious plague is affecting the sacred avatars of the Chimp God.

As you can see, these ideas aren't complete. Nor are they meant to be. This exercise shows how much inspiration you can get with minimal effort.

Another resource I love is books. Whenever I travel, I look for books on local culture and history. Also, local mythology books are great.

Don't forget to check out your area’s local mythology, either. Often, There's a lot of story you didn't even know about not far away. I love the Weird States book for this kind of lore. It's great, because you can drive to local areas and get photos, and other details that you'd have to make up later.

Bargain bins are a great book resource, too. Sometimes, the Barnes and Nobles

discount shelves will have interesting books. The Secret Signs and Symbols book in the photo was one I picked up for less than $10. Most conspiracy theory books are not trustworthy for accurate information. They make great gaming resources, though.

One final tool is… other games! Several RPGs have tables that will help to generate adventure ideas. Games designed to be low-prep, off-the-cuff experiences can  have this as a feature. Lasers and Feelings, along with it’s many hacks, is a great example. It has a chart that you roll against to come up with a sci-fi adventure idea at the session’s beginning. Inspectres has a similar chart, as well. Fiasco is ideal, too. The playsets provide locations and objects that can then inspire an adventure seed.

Tracy and Curtis Hickman’s X-Treme Dungeon Mastery has been very handy. Much of the book is advice, mixed with humor, but it does have a “complete” gaming system. The part I’ve found most useful, though, is the Random Story Generator. It’s a collection of single-sentence mad-libs. You fill them out by selecting things, people, magic items, and locations from six tables.

Next article, we’ll use the Random Story Generator to work on creating the story that will anchor our adventure.