A one shot is a single adventure that is supposed to be played and done. One-shot, in a sense, is antithetical to the concept of campaigns. If you use the term-one shot, people are (and did) going to think you mean a single adventure designed to be played over two or three sessions.
A one shot is a single adventure that is supposed to be played and done. One-shot, in a sense, is antithetical to the concept of campaigns. If you use the term-one shot, people are (and did) going to think you mean a single adventure designed to be played over two or three sessions.
This is just a campaign.
I thought it meant set in a setting not part of any established one that was only supposed to get one campaign in the setting.
A one shot is a single adventure that is supposed to be played and done. One-shot, in a sense, is antithetical to the concept of campaigns. If you use the term-one shot, people are (and did) going to think you mean a single adventure designed to be played over two or three sessions.
This is just a campaign.
I thought it meant set in a setting not part of any established one that was only supposed to get one campaign in the setting.
That's closer to the idea of a homebrew setting, one that you've created yourself.
A one-shot refers to a single session adventure that you pick up, play for a session, then forget about. Obviously at times it runs over, but the principle is there - it's not intended for extensive development or anything.
A campaign is an extended story that might be made up of several adventures and incorporates the whole story of a party.
I'd just describe yours as a homebrew campaign.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Life Quest, is the current prototype name for a one-shot homebrew campaign and setting of my own design. It's based heavily on modern day systemic issues, American History, and Native American mythology. While there is still much work to be done, I have laid out a route for the campaign, along with the backstory of how all this came to happen. And I'm looking for opinions on how much the players should be aware of at the start. Because the actual background is too long for a campaign introduction, and I'm really bad at summarizing. Just FYI, none of this is final. So I'm also open to suggestions.
For thousands of years, the beautiful continent of Patria was home to hundreds of diverse kingdoms of Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, Gnomes, Centaurs, Minotaurs, Dragonborn, Goblin, Orc, etc. While wars did break out, the large abundance of resources on the continent kept wars sporatic and minimal in damage. This caused the Kingdoms and races to respect eachother. But one day, this relative peace was toppled, leading to centuries of death, fear, and lies.
It began 530 years ago, when a mysterious and pervasive force came to Patria. No one knew where it came from or what it's origin was, but it ravaged the continent, mutating countless people into immortal vile creatures of pure evil, known as Manda's. The virus also altered the planet's climate, causing destructive storms, forests to burn, lakes and rivers to try up, blizzards to freeze entire settlements, and terrible floods. And lead by a Manda who's original names was lost to history and had crowned himself as their God-King, the Manda's waged a terrible genocidal war to seize Patria for themselves and mold it to their likeness. But the people of Patria refused to give in, and a great war began.\
The war lasted for 128 years and countless Kingdoms were destroyed and countless people died. Finally, as the Manda's neared final victory, a group of nature spirits took mortal form and lead the remaining defenders in their final stand. In the end, the Spirits sacrificed themselves to cast a powerful spell that sealed the Manda's, and their God-King inside a hell like dimension known as "The Death". Additionally, the Spirits channeled their power through magic stones, one for each of them. And these stones survived their masters sacrifice, and kept their power in tact. The war was won, but the cost was heavy. Many lands were ravaged and the Kingdoms were all shells of their former selves. Many also feared the return of the Manda's. And indeed, shortly after victory, the Kingdoms sages and priests fortold that one day the Manda's would return. But they also fortold that the Nature Spirits would become incarnate again, in the form of mortals, and either be Patria's salvation, or damnation. But Patria's troubles were far from over. For new visitors arrived... humans.
The humans were colonists and immigrants from a far away land that ruled a vast Empire, and they sought to bring Patria under their rule. Their first settlement, was built on the battlefield where the lock on The Death was sealed, and the Patrian Kingdoms, too weakened from their war, were powerless against the new invaders. Entire Kingdoms were wiped out and non-humans killed or enslaved as the humans built new settlements. But that was not the worst of it. The humans exploitation of Patria's land and resources caused the lock on The Death to weaken. As time went on though, the wealthiest of the human Patrians grew resentful of the taxes and limitations their Emperor imposed on them. They desired more wealth and power.
Soon, the human Patrian nobles delcared secession from the Empire, and after 145 years of bowing to an unseen Emperor, the nobles rebelled. But the revolution quickly turned against the rebels, and the Empire closed in for the kill. Sensing the nobles fears from his weakened prison, the Manda's God-King entered their dreams and offered to provide limited aid from his leaking cage... in exchange for the nobles to build a new Empire that would rule in the Manda's interests, mold the entire world into the Manda's likeness, and free them, even though it would still take centuries. Too greedy and desperate to say no, the nobles agreed. And armed with new dark magic, they drove the Empire out, and founded the Empire of Patria.
Over the next 238 years, the Empire of Patria conquered all the remaining nonhuman Kingdoms, and killed or enslaved their inhabitants. Soon, the prophecy of the Manda's and the Spirits return was lost to all but a few. Those few took the Spirit Stones, and hid them in a ruined temple where they believed they would never be found until their masters reincarnated. The humans build their settlements on the ruined ashes of the settlements of the old races. Ironically, most of the Empire was built on the backs of slaves. While slavery was eventually outlawed, systemic racism is still present. This injustice, lead to the birth of the Elder Wolves movement, who initially were a militant faction created for protecting the other Races from systemic oppression.
Hampered by Imperial propaganda, the Wolves soon became demonized as fanatics and terrorists trying seize power or special privileges, who pillage and burn civilian homes. And while in the past the Wolves have taken action, any pillaging or burning has mostly been done by greedy independent individuals seeking a little cheddar cheese. But though most humans distrust the Wolves… they key word is “some”. Over the years, a number of humans, for often different reasons, have supported the Wolves. Some do so because for all of Patria's talk of “freedom”, it does not walk the walk. The only people who seem to have true “freedom”, are the royalty, nobility, gentry, and some of the magic guilds. For their influence on the government keeps the needs of the common people second to the needs of the higher ups.
Additionally, women are often seen as less than men. And are often subjected to systemic sexism of the worst kind… and pleas for help are usually ignored or dismissed as hysteria, or as defamation. And even if a woman actually DOES do something bad, it’s often used as an excuse as to why women should not be trusted. The LGBT of the Empire need no explanation.
And even outside its boarders, the Empire makes its presence known. It has waged wars of economic interests, or assassinated leaders of other nations who opposed their interests, and installed puppet rulers who would serve the Empire’s interest. Many lands and nations have been pillaged and exploited by the Empire in the worst ways imaginable. This forces refugees to travel to the Empire seeking asylum, but all the real world nightmares that real world refugees face, happen in this world. Few are let in, often out of fear of tipping the scales, like how humans did when they invaded the continent.
But while the rich and wealthy keep their power, they distract people by playing them against each other. Indeed, the Empire is divided by many things. Race, religion, political belief, competition for jobs… as long as this division continues, the rich will stay in power... and appease their dark overlords.
By the time of the campaigns start, The Death is on the verge of breaking, and the entire world is on the verge of being turned into a mordor like planet where only the Manda's and their pawns can live. But last week, a group of individuals all had the same nightmare multiple nights in a row. The world being flooded or on fire. Monstrous creatures slaughtering without remorse, and an image of a farm with a golden rooster on the farm door and harvest area, and chicken area, in the Western farmlands, and of the other heroes They’ve all decided that these are too consistent to be simple dreams, these are omens or warnings. So, they’ve decided to make their journey’s to this place. Unbeknownst to them, they are the reincarnations of the Spirits who gave their lives to save the world so long ago. And the farm they have seen... the owners have dug up something, possibly a map or a piece of the prophecy.
But the Empire has also learned of the prophecy from the farmer's discovery, and they fear the heroes will jeopardize their plan. They have sent their servants to hunt them down and kill them. There is not a moment to waste. These heroes must find out what these nightmares mean, who they are the reincarnations of, recover their stones to recover their lost powers, topple the Empire, ensure the Manda's stay banished forever, and save the world. Phew!
I have long learnt that very rarely do players actually take in loads of background information, I have learnt the storyteller adage of show don't tell really does count for TTRPG's players are far more likely to absorb information if they learn it through the course of an adventure (not via exposition dumps but by interacting with other characters and NPC's) then they ever do being given a raft of information to read.
I will let players know things they would know as they become pertinent, describing a scene and telling a player, you would know that this is the king of this nation, his father was renown for being wise and fair but his son is rumoured to be more selfish closing down the borders and tearing up old trade deals.
Now that is information I could have given in a large raft of documents but until that moment it wasn't important. There is another key reason I never give away too much early on, until I tell or show the players a thing I can tweak and change it, the number of times I thought an idea was amazing and then in the middle of a campaign found out it doesn't work the way I intended, by only letting players know the stuff they need to know, or answering player questions (I have one player who between sessions will ping me questions about the world, asking what he would know, what he might mis understand and what he wouldn't know). Then you can change that thing you had written out and they will never know.
For this same reason I am the kind of DM who does very little organised longterm prep, I run session to session and my arcs are bullet point planned with no real detail because it becomes easier to react to the players then try and rail road them that way.
For a one shot though by definition you need to railroad them more to be sure the story resolves by the end of the session. But I would watch doing too much prep, leave yourself and your players loads of room to improvise and do there own thing.
I mean, that's not a thing.
A one shot is a single adventure that is supposed to be played and done. One-shot, in a sense, is antithetical to the concept of campaigns. If you use the term-one shot, people are (and did) going to think you mean a single adventure designed to be played over two or three sessions.
This is just a campaign.
I thought it meant set in a setting not part of any established one that was only supposed to get one campaign in the setting.
That's closer to the idea of a homebrew setting, one that you've created yourself.
A one-shot refers to a single session adventure that you pick up, play for a session, then forget about. Obviously at times it runs over, but the principle is there - it's not intended for extensive development or anything.
A campaign is an extended story that might be made up of several adventures and incorporates the whole story of a party.
I'd just describe yours as a homebrew campaign.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I have long learnt that very rarely do players actually take in loads of background information, I have learnt the storyteller adage of show don't tell really does count for TTRPG's players are far more likely to absorb information if they learn it through the course of an adventure (not via exposition dumps but by interacting with other characters and NPC's) then they ever do being given a raft of information to read.
I will let players know things they would know as they become pertinent, describing a scene and telling a player, you would know that this is the king of this nation, his father was renown for being wise and fair but his son is rumoured to be more selfish closing down the borders and tearing up old trade deals.
Now that is information I could have given in a large raft of documents but until that moment it wasn't important. There is another key reason I never give away too much early on, until I tell or show the players a thing I can tweak and change it, the number of times I thought an idea was amazing and then in the middle of a campaign found out it doesn't work the way I intended, by only letting players know the stuff they need to know, or answering player questions (I have one player who between sessions will ping me questions about the world, asking what he would know, what he might mis understand and what he wouldn't know). Then you can change that thing you had written out and they will never know.
For this same reason I am the kind of DM who does very little organised longterm prep, I run session to session and my arcs are bullet point planned with no real detail because it becomes easier to react to the players then try and rail road them that way.
For a one shot though by definition you need to railroad them more to be sure the story resolves by the end of the session. But I would watch doing too much prep, leave yourself and your players loads of room to improvise and do there own thing.
Thanks.